Most drastic reduction of Catholic parishes ever seen in Minnesota is underway

Growing up on a farm in Pearl Lake, John Wicker went to Holy Cross Catholic Church every Sunday.

He attended the church’s parochial school, played softball on the parish’s ballfield and still raises money for the annual fall fish fry. 

And he’s already purchased his plot in the parish cemetery.

But now that church — built by his ancestors and their neighbors 130 years ago — is one of nearly three dozen in central Minnesota that is slated to close as part of the most drastic reduction of Catholic parishes ever seen in Minnesota: merging 131 parishes down to 48.

“It’s going to split up the community,” said Wicker, a trustee at the church about 20 miles southwest of St. Cloud. “What’s going to hurt the most is losing those connections over time.”

The St. Cloud Diocese, which stretches across 16 counties in central Minnesota, is planning the closures in response to steady declines in both the number of priests and parishioners, as well as trends of people becoming less religious, though there has been an uptick in devotion among young men in recent years.

The mergers will affect most of the 110,000 worshippers in the diocese stretching from the South Dakota border to Elk River, even some whose churches won’t be shuttered.

“Right now, all of our 131 parishes have Mass every weekend,” said Brenda Kresky, director of pastoral planning for the St. Cloud Diocese. “We’re reducing that by [about] a third and saying, even if you remain open, you won’t have Mass on the weekend.”

Bishop Patrick Neary plans to begin issuing merger decrees in the next few weeks. 

Though the order is coming from the diocese, the plans are based on proposals submitted within the last year by more than two dozen regional committees made up of priests and parishioners. 

That doesn’t mean everyone is happy.

“This is just devastating for us,” said Carly Serbus, a member of St. Anne’s in Kimball, another church that’s likely on the chopping block. “It’s ripping the heart out of our community.”

Smaller families, fewer religious

Stearns County has the most Catholic churches per capita in the state with 47, outnumbering townships by 13.

“Many of our churches are four miles apart, five miles apart,” Kresky said, noting a common local expression is that you can throw a rock and hit a church.

Many Catholic churches in central Minnesota were built over a century ago by immigrants, often German or Polish, to bolster their new communities.

But as generations passed, families have gotten smaller and people have moved away for opportunities in larger cities. 

In Minnesota, about 28% of adults identified as Catholic in 2007. Only 18% did in 2024, according to the Pew Research Center. 

Meanwhile, the percentage of people not affiliated with a religion more than doubled from 13% to 29% in that period.

Dioceses around the state and region have downsized over the past 15 years. 

Beginning in 2010, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis started merging parishes, going from 213 to 192. 

Around the same time, the Duluth Diocese winnowed about 92 parishes down to 70. 

And within the last decade, the New Ulm Diocese either merged or closed a handful of parishes.

After the mergers, Duluth and New Ulm have about one priest for every two parishes. In St. Cloud, there’s one priest for every three parishes.

“Everybody’s done something — and we didn’t," Kresky said. “What we are looking at now is how do we best serve our people right now with the resources that we have?”

Kresky attributes the delay in downsizing to a bishop who was ill for the last part of his tenure and another bishop whose priorities were guiding the diocese through the sex abuse scandal and bankruptcy.

She said the discrepancy between priests and parishes is taking its toll on priests, who are tasked with leading services at three or four parishes each weekend, while churches are often less than half full at each Mass.

Fewer priests

The steep decline in priests is being seen across the globe, where the number of seminarians fell by about 12% between 2011 and 2023.

The paradox is that it comes at a time when more American men, particularly young Republicans, are becoming religious. 

A Gallup poll released this month shows 42% of men in the U.S. ages 18-29 said religion is very important to them, up from just 28% three years ago.

Jacob Hornecker, who teaches theology at the University of St. Thomas, attributes the decline in priests to cultural changes around the importance of faith and the growing demands on priests as they take on more parishes.

Hornecker, who grew up in Minnesota, spent two years in Rome training to become a priest but left after seeing the increasing demands on priests, which include holding marriage classes, overseeing church finances and being on call for emergencies in the parish — in addition to the weekend Mass schedule. 

Hornecker, 29, thinks his personal experience is similar to many considering the priesthood.

“I love the mission. I wanted to stick with it,” he said. “And, it turns out, in education, I get to talk about God just as much, if not more, than a priest.”

While some attribute the increase in people identifying as religious to the rise in Trump-era politics and Christian Nationalism, Hornecker said he hasn’t seen evidence of that in real life, only on social media. 

But he has seen people returning to religion because they are seeking community, seeking answers or seeking the ritual of a traditional Mass.

“People miss having something tangible in their relationship with God,” he said. “It’s a way to touch grass in spiritual life, for a lack of a better way to put it.”

Fighting to be spared

The mergers in Central Minnesota parishes don’t necessarily mean churches will be sold or torn down. 

Those decisions will come after plans are finalized in the coming months.

For many parishioners, the uncertainty is unsettling. Holdingford resident Diane Welle, 70, spent four decades going to Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Opole, about 20 miles northwest of St. Cloud.

Welle said she worries the church will be razed. 

But even if the building is repurposed, she’s concerned about what will happen to the stained glass and artifacts.

“I don’t know what they’re going to do and it just kills me,” she said.

Wicker is now helping set up a preservation commission to buy the baseball diamonds that are currently owned by the diocese and raise enough money to keep the Pearl Lake church open as a sacred space for special occasions, even if Mass isn’t held there weekly.

“We do understand the reality of the priest shortage,” Wicker said. “But the nucleus of a lot of these small towns is the Catholic church. It’s been that way for generations.”

Some members of nearby St. Anne’s have said they plan to petition the bishop if their church is on the closure list. 

The bishop would then have about a month to consider the petition and make a determination, and if the parishioners are still unhappy, they can take the fight to Rome. 

Though rare, a Duluth church reopened in 2021 after being shuttered for two years after a successful Vatican appeal.

“I’m not going to go down without a fight,” Serbus said. “Whatever the decision is that is made, at least I will know that I gave it everything I had to fight to keep it open for my future generations.”

Kresky said she and the bishop acknowledge the angst and sorrow caused by closing churches. But she thinks, after the mergers, people will find the larger congregations will lead to a stronger sense of community.

“We are resurrection people,” Kresky said. “You have to go through Good Friday to get to the resurrection. You don’t get to skip Good Friday.”

Catholic Church to sell historic Edinburgh headquarters

The Catholic Church's Edinburgh headquarters is to be put up for sale after more than three decades of use. 

Archbishop Leo Cushley said that the Gillis Centre complex would be placed on the market later this year amid rising costs.

The multi-building complex is located at 100 Strathearn Road in the south of the Scottish capital,

The Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh said: “This decision comes after a long process of review and discernment. We are responding carefully and responsibly regarding the stewardship of our Archdiocese and how best to support the mission entrusted to us. 

“The Trustees and I are required to ensure that resources are used in support of the Archdiocese’s charitable purposes, and our review concluded that continued investment in the current site would not represent the most effective use of those resources.”

The Gillis Centre served as the Archdiocese of St Andrews & Edinburgh’s headquarters for more than thirty years, after a theological college at the site closed in 1993.

The history of the A-listed property goes back to the 15th century, and previously served as a convent and lodging house.

Archbishop Cushley added: “The Gillis Centre holds historical, spiritual and personal significance for many clergy and people across the Archdiocese and beyond as a place of formation, prayer, administration, education and encounter, so

"I ask for your prayers as we undertake this next chapter together.”

Events will continue to be held at the complex until the sale process is complete.

Fr Jeremy Milne, Vicar General and Moderator of the Curia, added: “The Gillis Centre holds a special place in our history and people can be assured that the transition is dealt with sensitively.

“We will now work to support the sale process and will relocate to suitable alternative premises in Edinburgh in due course. Clergy and parishioners will be updated throughout this process.”

Pope Leo XIV: The End of the Pragmatic Approach

The press conference on the plane returning from Africa provided the first sign of Leo XIV’s notable break with Pope Francis’ pontificate.

When asked specifically about the decision of Cardinal Reinhard Marx, archbishop of Munich and Freising, to formally bless same-sex couples, Leo XIV said the Holy See had already informed the German bishops that it did not agree with “the formal blessing of couples — in this case, same-sex couples as requested — or of couples in irregular situations, beyond what Pope Francis has specifically permitted, saying that all persons should receive the blessing.”

Leo went further.

“When a priest gives the blessing at the end of Mass,” he said, “when the Pope gives the blessing at the end of a great celebration like the one we had today, there are blessings for all people.”

He also noticed how “Francis’ famous expression, ‘everyone, everyone, everyone’ (todos, todos, todos) expresses the Church’s conviction that everyone is welcomed, everyone is invited, everyone is invited to follow Jesus, and everyone is invited to seek conversion in their own lives.”

“To go beyond this today,” Leo said, “could cause more disunity than unity,” adding “that we should seek to build our unity on Jesus Christ and on what Jesus Christ teaches.”

At the beginning of his response to reporters, Leo XIV also emphasized that the Church’s moral teaching concerns not only sexual matters, but also justice, equality and peace. It’s not the first time he’s said this, and it’s not surprising.

In this regard, it is worth mentioning how the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church itself encompasses a variety of topics and organizes them around a central theme: the Eucharist.

This is why the Eucharist has weight, and so does the liturgy, and every time this weight is relativized, the Church’s social doctrine is relativized as well.

The way Leo XIV addressed the blessing issue marked a necessary discontinuity with his predecessor.

The blessing of irregular couples was outlined in Fiducia Supplicans, one of the few Vatican documents that prompted entire episcopal conferences to distance themselves.

Subsequently, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith published an implementing note, which only created greater disunity, an issue that Pope Leo highlighted in last week’s presser. 

It even went so far as to define how long the blessing should be and how it should be performed, an extreme exercise in casuistry and pragmatism that also ran counter to Pope Francis’ call to avoid casuistry.

It was essentially an unnecessary document because it intervened in a practice that was already in place. 

No priest had ever refused a simple blessing (i.e., a Sign of the Cross on the forehead) when asked.

Fiducia Supplicans also generated another downside. 

Armed with the document, pastors involved in LGBTQ ministry called upon same-sex couples and had their portraits photographed while they blessed them privately, in a gesture that was not a marriage but which nevertheless symbolically seemed to approve a union that was not a marriage.

The politics of mercy thus became fodder for ideological controversy, especially at a time when the Church in Germany was shaken by these progressive tendencies, which sought precisely to undermine its structure.

The German “Synodal Way” is a structural crisis rooted in the notion that the crisis of the Church in Germany, confirmed by the crisis of abuse and cover-up, is rooted in antiquated systems that must be dismantled, even if it means jettisoning centuries-old practices such as celibacy or, indeed, the very notion of family.

The principle of adapting the world to keep pace with the times was at the core of a broad discussion at the latest Synod on Synodality. 

The final document of the synod did not showcase the term “universal Church”; it was replaced by “the whole Church.” 

It was a precise choice. Father Giacomo Costa, special rapporteur of the synod, explained in the final press conference that the synod’s fathers wanted to avoid the idea that “the universal Church is at the top of a system of local Churches. The Church is the whole Church, in the ensemble of the Churches.”

The problem is that concepts shouldn’t change because they’re misunderstood, but rather, they need to be explained so they can be better understood. 

Ultimately, a world that adapts is a world that gives up teaching.

But if there’s no one to teach, there’s no unity either. And this is where Leo XIV hits the nail on the head. 

All the anxiety to create a new, practical, alternative path, in step with the times, even beyond Church doctrine, has created disunity. 

This disunity is evident in every field.

Look, for example, at the traditionalist camp: We know that the Priestly Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), the so-called Lefebvrians, has decided to ordain new bishops on July 2. 

Although the ordinations would be valid, since they would be performed by legitimately ordained bishops, they would not be licit because they lack papal approval. 

For these reasons, it would result in excommunication and, therefore, a small schism.

The Holy See obviously tried to avert this eventuality, and the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith invited the SSPX to a dialogue at the former Holy Office. 

This dialogue came to nothing. Interestingly, however, the SSPX reversed the arguments and asked that the same mercy it had claimed to apply to other situations be applied to them. 

It asked, in effect, for a suspension of the law in the name of pastoral care, which perhaps in this case should be defined more precisely as pastoralist care.

Leo XIV has never explicitly distanced himself from Pope Francis’ pontificate. He recognizes his missionary zeal and wants to highlight his good faith and his desire to evangelize. 

But with his words on the plane, Leo XIV also highlighted how there are ways to go about it and ways not to go about it.

Ways that create or exacerbate division are not the way.

There’s no telling whether this is the end of the synodal journey of the German Church. 

Pope Francis repeatedly addressed the issue, emphasizing that there was already an Evangelical Church in Germany and highlighting a process of Protestantization within the German Church that could not be accepted. 

However, the late pontiff also left room for the German Church to intervene, through his pastoral actions and decisions, which, in seeking to open up to all, created opportunities for discussion.

Leo XIV, instead, established a clear principle, placing doctrine back at the center.

If the German Church had been able to “play” with Pope Francis, this seems more difficult with Leo XIV. It’s a different approach that doesn’t deny the need to reach everyone but doesn’t want this need to become a reason for the faith’s destruction.

It’s not a new approach, but it’s different from what we’ve become accustomed to over the past 12 years, and it remains to be seen whether it will trigger a rejection.

How priestly formation is changing in Germany

The German bishops released this week a new national framework for priestly formation that introduces significant changes to the selection and formation of candidates for the priesthood.

The 203-page document, known as the Ratio Nationalis Institutionis Sacerdotalis, replaces guidelines issued in 2003.

The new Ratio Nationalis, issued April 28, is based on the Vatican document Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis Sacerdotalis, approved by Pope Francis in 2016.

Each of the world’s bishops’ conferences is expected to adapt the universal Church norms to their local context. 

The German update was prepared over several years by members of the bishops’ Commission for Vocations and Church Ministries.

The new text incorporates changes to priestly formation introduced in the Ratio Fundamentalis, most notably the introduction of a mandatory propaedeutic (preliminary) stage of formation before the formal study program begins.

The Vatican’s Dicastery for the Clergy approved the German Ratio Nationalis March 11. 

The document, which sets binding standards for priestly formation in Germany’s 27 dioceses, will come into effect Oct. 1.

What’s the background to the new document? And what’s changing?

What’s the context?

Like most European countries, Germany has seen a sharp drop in priestly ordinations in the 21st century.

The decline has been particularly acute in Europe’s most populous nation. In 2015, 58 men were ordained priests for Germany’s 27 dioceses. 

In 2025, the number fell to 25, the lowest on record.

German priests frequently serve alongside full-time male and female pastoral workers, who assist with catechesis, youth work, and administrative tasks, and even preside at funerals. 

The number of lay pastoral workers increased from roughly 5,200 in 1990 to 7,516 in 2021, but has since declined.

Germany has a long tradition of lay activism that has evolved into a dense network of lay groups, under the auspices of the Central Committee of German Catholics, known by its German initials, ZdK.

The ZdK and the German bishops jointly sponsored the “synodal way,” the 2019-2023 initiative that sought to introduce sweeping changes to Catholic teaching and practice in the wake of a devastating abuse crisis.

While priests did participate in the synodal way, the main protagonists were arguably lay people and bishops. 

At the event’s second plenary assembly in 2021, a motion asking whether the Church still needed the sacramental priesthood was approved for debate.

Ultimately, the synodal way did not declare the priesthood redundant. In 2022, participants approved the document “Priestly existence today,” which appealed instead for a shake-up of priestly training in the wake of the abuse scandal.

In 2023, they also endorsed the text “The celibacy of priests – strengthening and opening,” which challenged the mandatory celibacy requirement for Latin Rite priests.

But a 2024 study suggested young German priests had limited interest in the synodal way’s priorities. 

They showed little enthusiasm for the abolition of priestly celibacy, greater democratization of the Church, or giving lay people more power. 

Most believed instead that reform could best be achieved by a stronger focus on communicating the content of the Catholic faith and “more offerings with spiritual depth.”

The synodal way’s approach to the priesthood upset aspiring priests, according to Fr. Dirk Gärtner, the head of Germany’s seminary rector association.

“They felt challenged and, at times, mis-understood,” he said.

The team preparing the new Ratio Nationalis did not work in isolation. It sought feedback on a draft text from seminarians, seminary rectors, and theologians. It also consulted the Advisory Board of Abuse Victims, founded by the German bishops in 2020.

Bishop Michael Gerber, head of the Commission for Vocations and Church Ministries, stressed that the document was also developed in conjunction with the Vatican.

“We engaged in constructive dialogue with the relevant Roman authorities, particularly regarding specific issues relevant to the German context — such as the significance of state-run faculties for priestly formation [theological faculties at state universities],” he said.

“I am very grateful that we can now present a document that responds to the challenges of our time with insights from the human sciences, but also with spiritual and theological depth.”

What’s new?

Germany’s 2003 Ratio Nationalis was a 111-page text that sought to overhaul priestly formation for the 21st century. 

Building on norms last updated in 1988, it broke the process down into three stages: initial training, preparation for ordination, and ongoing formation.

The new Ratio Nationalis is significantly longer and more systematically organized. 

Its seven chapters cover the current context in Germany, the foundations of priestly training, its goals, the people and places involved in formation, the basic and ongoing formation phases, the organization of studies, and special norms.

One of the most obvious novelties is the focus on synodality, a concept popularized more than a decade after the 2003 text’s publication. 

The new document wants to prepare priests to operate in a synodal context, where decisions are discerned through a prayerful dialogue between clergy, lay people, and bishops.

Bishop Gerber argued that the new text aligns closely with the final report of the synod on synodality’s study group on “The revision of the Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis Sacerdotalis in a missionary synodal perspective.”

He said that “both documents clearly show that a synodal approach should be embedded in priestly formation, but also, conversely, that the formation of those in the clergy at all levels is fundamental to building a synodal culture in the Church.”

Another distinctive element is that the new document mentions the word “abuse” 29 times, compared to zero in the 2003 text. 

After all, it wasn’t until 2010 that the German Church began a systematic reckoning with abuse.

The text says that abuse prevention should be a core element of priestly formation. This refers not only to sexual abuse, but also to the abuse of power and spiritual abuse. 

This is the first time that Germany’s priestly formation guidelines have referred explicitly to spiritual abuse, the subject of a groundbreaking document by the German bishops in 2023.

The document says candidates should be subject to psychological screening and evaluation, and receive ongoing training on respecting boundaries and cultivating healthy relationships.

Unlike the 2003 text, the new Ratio Nationalis offers an extended reflection on sexuality and celibacy.

“The challenge of integrating one’s own sexuality into a chaste, celibate life is a lifelong task,” it says.

It adds: “For final admission to priestly ministry, a sufficiently mature handling of one’s own sexuality, as well as respect for the sexuality of others, is therefore required.”

The document does not dwell on the much-discussed topic of homosexuality, referring only in a footnote to the 2005 Vatican Instruction on the admission to seminaries of “persons with homosexual tendencies.”

The new text mentions the word “women” twice as many times as the 2003 Ratio Nationalis. It calls for women to have an expanded role in the formation process.

“For many years, the cooperation of women as mentors and lecturers has proven successful,” it says. “To connect complementary perspectives of men and women, the reciprocal, cooperative intertwining of educational responsibilities could be a valuable measure in the future.”

“This could occur, for example, when a female director of pastoral services is included in the seminary faculty, and conversely, the rector is integrated into the faculty of pastoral services.”

Summing up the underlying shift in the new document, Bishop Gerber said: “The development of a dialogical existence is essential for a priest. That is why formation should not focus solely on the acquisition of individual skills, but above all on personal development.”

“This means that the prospective priest gains as realistic a picture of himself as possible and finds a way to integrate new experiences throughout his life into a process of ongoing personal maturation.”

Critics have argued that by stressing psychology, process, and synodality, the document downplays the importance of doctrinal and spiritual formation. 

They contend that what the German Church really needs is not more accomplished facilitators of dialogue, but leaders with a solid doctrinal grounding.

There is also the question of whether the document’s “dialogical” vision of the priesthood will appeal to the pool of would-be seminarians who — if the 2024 study of Germany’s younger priests is any indication — may prefer a focus on doctrinal clarity, spiritual development, and being equipped for evangelization.

The new document will likely guide priestly training for the next 20 years or so. Observers will be looking to see if it has a discernible impact on the number of priestly ordinations in Germany. 

Yet it may be hard to establish cause and effect even years after the new text’s introduction.

Why Leo won’t meet the SSPX

As the Society of St. Pius X continues preparations to consecrate several bishops without a papal mandate, leaders within the group have begun preparing the ground for the seemingly inevitable canonical consequences.

For months, the society’s leadership have insisted they will go ahead with the consecrations, currently scheduled for July. 

In February, Rev. Davide Pagliarani, the superior general of the SSPX, said the decision to consecrate new bishops was made after he requested an audience with Pope Leo XIV in August 2025 which remains ungranted, and after he recently received a letter from the Vatican “which does not in any way respond to our requests.”

Pagliarani has stated that consecrating new bishops is essential to securing the society’s future, ensuring that it has the sacramental means to ordain priests. 

He has also stated that the work of the society is itself essential because, according to him, “in an ordinary parish, the faithful no longer find the means necessary to ensure their eternal salvation.”

At the same time, the SSPX have insisted that any dialogue with the Vatican must include matters of doctrine and ecclesiology over which the society “disagrees” with the Church, “particularly regarding the fundamental orientations adopted since the Second Vatican Council” — something the Holy See has said it will simply not accept.

Through all of this, the society’s leadership has appeared to strike a tone of aggrieved seekers of compromise, while insisting their illicit consecrations will go ahead without papal mandate.

Last Sunday, the society’s Bishop Bernard Fellay appeared to warn supporters of the group that “there is an enormous probability that all of you, we included, may be excommunicated, declared schismatic” by the Vatican if the consecrations proceed as expected.

Although Fellay claimed “there is a very high probability” that everyone — bishops, priests, and laity — affiliated with the SSPX would be canonically excommunicated “because they [the Vatican] already said it in public,” the Vatican has made no such statement, and the assertion is not supported by the relevant canon law on the subject.

However, the bishop’s statement appears in line with an SSPX communications strategy, to portray itself as a the victim of a vindictive and unreasonable Vatican, unwilling to meet its supposedly modest requests.

Key among these “requests” has long been an audience for its superior with Pope Leo XIV. 

And, as the scheduled consecrations draw closer, those around the SSPX and sympathetic to it have increasingly highlighted Leo’s refusal to meet with Pagliarani as evidence that Rome isn’t interested in reconciliation — and is even goading the SSPX into a fuller and more formal breach.

But while that portrayal might serve a convenient narrative, the reality is Leo’s refusal to meet with the SSPX leadership is more likely to be an act of charity towards the society’s leaders, and a desire to keep a moment of ultimate crisis at bay for as long as possible.

Throughout the months since the SSPX announced their intentions to consecrate several bishops without a papal mandate, the society has pushed the public message that it will do so as a kind of reluctant last resort, a regrettable necessity forced upon it by the Vatican.

According to the SSPX narrative, Leo has declined all good-faith requests to sit down, hear them out, and understand their concerns. If only he would, the suggestion is, the society could be properly recognized by the Vatican and integrated back into the Catholic Church.

The problem with this framing — indeed with the SSPX’s conception of dialogue — is that it tries to pitch the society as both a true expression and member of the Catholic communion under the authority of the pope and, at the same time, when necessary, autonomous, and a kind of legitimate interpreter of doctrine apart from the Holy See.

Following meetings with Cardinal Fernandez at the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith in February — talks the Holy See said it hoped might persuade the SSPX to pause their plans for illicit consecrations — the society’s leadership essentially closed off any future for the negotiations.

According to a statement from Pagliarani, serious disputes of doctrine related to the Second Vatican Council remain between the society and the Church, but no real substantive progress is possible because, essentially, only the Church can pronounce on these matters authoritatively, but also the Church is wrong.

“In the shared recognition that we cannot find agreement on doctrine,” Pagliarani, “it seems to me that the only point on which we can agree is that of charity toward souls and toward the Church.”

In other words, the SSPX will not ascribe to the Church’s authoritative teaching on the council, and instead proposes that the Vatican simply allow it to get on with its own self-ascribed pastoral ministry free from further sanction.

Pagliarani has attempted to strike a similar “agree to disagree” posture with the pope personally over the matter of SSPX episcopal consecrations, claiming that “this was not a decision that we could take without concretely manifesting our recognition of the authority of the Holy Father.” 

Of course, Pagliarani has “manifested this recognition of the pope’s authority” by publicly setting out to defy it.

Through all of this, the Vatican has refused to be drawn into a war of words with SSPX leaders, limiting itself to expressions of acute concern and hope that that leaders will reconsider their plans before it is too late.

In that situation, Leo’s refusal to meet with Pagliarani has come under repeated fire. Surely — the argument has been made by supporters of the society — if the pope had a real concern for avoiding a canonical act of schism by the SSPX leadership, he would want to press his plea for restraint in person?

But a different assessment of the situation might conclude that, in fact, Leo’s refusal to meet with Pagliarani is an act of mercy — and an ultimate expression of the pope’s hope that reconciliation might still be possible.

If that sounds counterintuitive, consider what exactly constitutes the canonical act of schism, and how any meeting between Leo and Pagliarani would inevitably play out.

It is worth remembering that the threatened illicit consecrations would themselves be specific canonical crimes, with set penalties for all involved.

At the same time, on the previous occasion when the society has proceeded to consecrate bishops on its own authority, Pope St. John Paul II issued a declaration of schism, with the penalty of excommunication.

Schism is defined in canon law as “the refusal of submission to the Supreme Pontiff or refusal of communion with members of the Church subject to him.” 

Communion, in turn, is constituted in three parts: sacraments, hierarchy of governance, and doctrine.

As regards the previous SSPX consecrations, “the root of this schismatic act can be discerned in an incomplete and contradictory notion of Tradition,” wrote John Paul.

“Especially contradictory is a notion of Tradition which opposes the universal Magisterium of the Church possessed by the Bishop of Rome and the Body of Bishops. It is impossible to remain faithful to the Tradition while breaking the ecclesial bond with him to whom, in the person of the Apostle Peter, Christ himself entrusted the ministry of unity in his Church.”

According to John Paul, “this act was one of disobedience to the Roman Pontiff in a very grave matter and of supreme importance for the unity of the Church, such as is the ordination of bishops whereby the apostolic succession is sacramentally perpetuated. 

Hence such disobedience - which implies in practice the rejection of the Roman primacy - constitutes a schismatic act.”

As to the idea of a meeting between Pope Leo and Pagliarani, the priest has already made it clear, in writing to Cardinal Fernandez, the SSPX cannot and will not accept that the Vatican’s position that “the texts of the Council cannot be corrected, nor can the legitimacy of the liturgical reform be challenged,” and thus “we cannot find agreement on doctrine.”

In fact, the division is so acute that Pagliarani has affirmed in a recent interview that he believes it is a “fact that, in an ordinary parish, the faithful no longer find the means necessary to ensure their eternal salvation.”

These are not abstruse quibbles of theology. Given that they are instead explicit renunciations of the Church’s authority, and ministry, the pope would be obliged to challenge Pagliarani on them, and correct him.

Similarly, Pagliarani has made much of the society’s recognition of the authority of the pope in the matter of episcopal consecrations, even while setting out to defy it.

Since the proximate substance of any meeting with Leo would be the cancellation of the scheduled consecrations in July, Leo would have to repeat his withholding of a mandate for the consecrations to go ahead, with Pagliarani either accepting or rejecting this.

Simply put, it is not possible for the pope to meet with the superior of the SSPX and ignore his numerous public statements on Church teaching and papal authority. 

Crucially, being warned personally by the pope would mean Pagliarani would have no choice but to respond — either accepting or rejecting the correction.

If he did not accept the correction, instead reaffirming the SSPX’s doctrinal disagreements with the Church over Vatican II or holding out the possibility of continuing ahead with the illicit consecrations, the superior would have placed what most canonists would consider an act of schism — refusing the authority of the pope to his face.

If this were how any meeting between Leo and Pagliarani were to play out, far from being a moment of conciliation, it would instead accelerate the very scenario Rome is hoping to forestall: an explicitly schismatic act from the SSPX leaders.

Given the tone and content of Pagliarani’s public statements in recent months, it is unlikely he would reconsider his most assertive statements. 

In fact, they are the very basis on which the SSPX justifies the supposed necessity of its continued existence and extreme actions.

It is because, according to Pagliarani, the means of salvation are not available in normal parishes that the SSPX must continue. 

And the SSPX cannot continue its self-ascribed ministry unless it has priests, which it cannot continue to ordain unless it has bishops to ordain them.

QED, because the Church’s ordinary ministry is salvifically ineffective, the society is justified in whatever means it chooses to continue its work. 

To concede ground on any of the points would be to undermine the entire rationale of the SSPX’s current self-articulation.

This being the case, it is hard to conceive of a meeting between Pagliarani and Pope Leo which didn’t end in an explicit formal statement of rupture by the SSPX superior with the pope.

In which case, Leo’s continued refusal to arrange a meeting is perhaps better seen as an act of pastoral concern for Pagliarani’s best interests, rather than high-handedness.

Leo likely hopes — or at least prays — that between now and July, the SSPX leaders might reconsider their planned actions, and appreciate the consequences. 

Meeting with them would seem most likely only to cut that time short.

Benedictine abbot warns of Holy Land becoming ‘Christian Disneyland’

In the Holy Land, the Christian population that has borne the brunt of war and economic hardship is slowly diminishing, warned Benedictine Father Nikodemus Schnabel.

Father Schnabel, abbot of Dormition Abbey on Mount Zion in the heart of Jerusalem and of Tabgha, the community’s priory on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee, told national directors and representatives of Aid to the Church in Need his fear is that “Holy Land could become a kind of ‘Christian Disneyland'” where holy places, monks and priests remain while there “may be no Christian families, no young Christians, no ordinary Christian life.”

“If you think this is an Eldorado of Christianity, the reality is different. All Christians together are less than 2%,” he said. “For us, dreaming of reaching 5% or 6% would already be a lot. If you think of the most secularized regions in Europe — like the Czech Republic or the former East Germany — even there, Christians are many times more numerous than here,” he told ACN April 24.

In his address, the Benedictine abbot noted that while there are 13 historic Churches, both Catholic and non-Catholic, the diversity presents a paradox, in that the places “where the most important events of our faith occurred risk losing its indigenous population.”

Palestinian Christians in the Latin-rite Church, he noted, face significant hurdles. 

Those in Jerusalem have full citizenship but without political rights, while in the West Bank, Christian residents face movement restrictions. 

In Gaza, the small community of Catholics is “particularly vulnerable, living under a ‘double occupation’: the external pressure of war and blockade, and the internal oppression of the Hamas regime.”

He also said that the number of Hebrew-speaking Christians, while small, is growing. However, the largest group of Latin-rite Christians is comprised of migrants who hail from Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe and Latin America.

“They are, in many ways, the most vulnerable,” he said, adding that many live in “a form of modern slavery” and often have their passports confiscated, and “have very limited freedom.” At times, women who become pregnant or choose not to have an abortion — are penalized.

“In the eyes of the system, the most ‘criminal’ act can be to say yes to life,” Father Schnabel said.

As the continued conflicts caused a sharp decline in tourism, many Christians who depend on it have no choice but to flee the country in search of employment.

“People leave because they don’t see a future,” the abbott said, adding that even with a concrete future on the horizon, “they often have the feeling that it doesn’t matter whether they are there or not.”

“Pray that there is a future for Christians here,” the abbot told ACN representatives.

Father Schnabel also denounced increasing hostility against Christians from extremist Jewish groups. According to a 2023 report by the U.S. State Department, Christian clergy and pilgrims face increasing harassment, including incidents of spitting and verbal assault by ultra-Orthodox extremists.

The abbot said the attacks, which have also included vandalism, arson, desecrations and hate graffiti, “can no longer be considered marginal,” and noted that ultranationalist figures in the Israeli government have legitimized or encouraged anti-Christian actions.

He also echoed concerns expressed in January by the Patriarchs and Heads of Churches of the Holy Land regarding the harm caused by Christian Zionism — a theological and political movement, primarily within Protestant evangelicalism — that asserts the return of the Jewish people to the Holy Land and the establishment of the state of Israel as the fulfillment of biblical prophecy.

Christian Zionism is “incompatible with the Gospel when it is used to justify violence, ignore the suffering of Palestinians, or remain silent about attacks against Christian communities,” he said.

SSPX is now on a clear and direct collision course with Rome

The Superior General of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), Fr. Davide Pagliarani, has recently given a lengthy interview in which he lays out his case for why the Society is justified in defying Rome by ordaining new bishops this July without a papal mandate.

The interview is revealing insofar as Fr. Pagliarani reaffirms all the major arguments that have already been made with no indication of nuancing his views on any of the salient points.

Disregard for Pope Leo

Why revisit this tired and sad situation yet again? 

With the focus of late on the war with Iran and the alleged feud between Pope Leo and President Trump, the looming schism of the SSPX has faded from the news. 

But the SSPX issue is not going to go away, and it is clear in light of this interview that the Society has deliberately steered itself into a clear and direct collision course with Rome.

This latter point is the quiet part that the Society refuses to say out loud; to wit, that this is a confrontation of choice, of their own making, and that there was still time to avoid the conflict with the new pope. Instead, they have deliberately chosen the path of confrontation. 

After all, the Vatican under Leo had made no new aggressive moves toward the Society or made any negative public comments. 

Furthermore, Pope Leo had only been in office about ten months when the Society made its announcement about ordaining new bishops. 

Therefore, it is more than suspicious that the Society apparently decided it was pointless to wait and see what the new pope thought of the Society.

But why did they think it was pointless? Perhaps it is better to say that the Society decided that the views of the new pope were not pointless, but irrelevant. 

The Society discerned that Leo, no matter his views on the Society, was not going to be the strong-armed papal ruler they deem so necessary in order to restore “true Catholicism” and so decided to pull the Band-Aid off the scab and to make their full intentions clear. 

Pagliarani, in his interview, makes it clear that what is needed is another pope cut out of the mold of Pius X. 

Apparently, even Pius XII is a bit too squishy for him, which gives you some indication of the thoroughgoing dissociative mental state the Society is in.

Pagliarani is saying in effect that the Society does not care what the new pope thinks of it because Leo, in the Society’s estimation, is just one more iteration of the error-laced, heretical “Vatican II, Novus Ordo Church”. 

Thus, there is now no need to wait around for Rome to toss the SSPX some crumbs of tolerance since the Society views itself as more than an “alternative subculture” within the Church. 

Rather, it views itself as the true “Holy Remnant” of “true Catholicism” whose task has been given by “Providence” to save the Church from itself.

Pagliarani repeatedly refers to this “Providence” as a justification for the fractious ecclesial stance he is taking. 

There is not the slightest hint in the interview of ecclesial humility or, perhaps more importantly, of charity. 

The interview drips with victim status posturing, never hints at the possibility that they might be wrong, never squares the circle of how it is in any way a part of Catholic “tradition” to accuse an ecumenical council and several popes of teaching serious doctrinal error, and never addresses the sedevacantist elephant in the living room, which all of that implies.

A crisis too great for the Church?

Pagliarani justifies all of this by appealing to the same tired narrative that the Church of today - ever since Vatican II - is in a crisis so deep that average souls are in real danger of going to Hell because the Church has fallen into error.

But he never provides a coherent set of criteria for determining when an ecclesial crisis is so deep that it requires the creation of a parallel episcopacy in defiance of Rome and devoted to a restorationist agenda, the contours of which are defined by the Society itself.

What we see is that the Society, based on its own private theological opinions about what constitutes true Catholicism - in order to imbue those opinions with the patina of Providence and to justify its rupture with the tradition’s affirmation of papal authority - has invented the scenario of a Church in the crisis of an apostasy so deep that there can be no fixing it short of rebellion. 

No mention is made of why God has apparently and rather suddenly abandoned the pope and the episcopacy. 

And no mention is made either of why, exactly, we are to assume that the mantle of Providence has now fallen on the shoulders of the SSPX rather than on some other disgruntled faction of hyper restorationist land of super Catholics.

Yes, the Church does indeed have major problems today. I have written much about those problems and can in no way be accused of soft-pedaling the crisis at hand, which is, in my view, a crisis of a de facto atheism in the Church’s culture. 

Nevertheless, true Catholics understand that charity demands the realization that the answer is not to run away from the mainstream Church as a lost cause and into a Qumran-like compound of defiant apocalypticism, thus abandoning the very souls they claim so ardently to want to save.

Pagliarani repeats ad nauseam that the concerns of the SSPX are purely and simply for the salvation of souls. 

But it is not hard to see the purely rhetorical nature of such claims when the SSPX is advocating that those same souls accompany them into schism. 

The Society claims, of course, that it is not going into schism but that it is Rome that has already gone into schism, echoing the polemic of the most anti-Roman Orthodox firebrands one can imagine; “We did not break away!! 

Rome did first, and we are just where we always were!”

The fact remains that the Society’s claim to be concerned about saving souls rings hollow when, instead of staying within the canonical and doctrinal boundaries of the Church, it abandons that Church and the souls within it in the name of some kind of “purity” - a purity that would be tainted and diluted should they stay. 

That is not charity. 

It is rather an ideologically driven elimination of cognitive dissonance, as in the dissonance between their view of the tradition and the modern Church’s view of the same. 

This is done by dissolving one pole of the dissonance and creating an alternative society that, instead of active evangelization in ordinary parishes, will act as a flame that will, allegedly, attract those lost sheep stranded out in the cold pastures of Novus Ordo land.

The Society further asserts that its interpretation of the Tradition is the only correct one, in a manner all too reminiscent of every schismatic and heretical group in the history of the Church. 

By whose authority does the Society do this? 

By God’s authority? 

That is their claim. 

But that means God has apparently radically shifted directions, and the Holy Spirit, apparently absent from the Church since at least 1962, has instead landed like a dove on the heads of the SSPX. 

For reasons known only to God, the “rock” that is Peter is now instead a sponge that soaks up only what is in its cultural environment. 

The SSPX now claims, in a tacit manner that is logically within its theological assertions, that it is now the rock.

Insincerity and misplaced confidence

They say otherwise in their official pronouncements, of course, and even in Pagliarani’s interview, there are all kinds of unctuous formalisms at the beginning wherein he expresses his love and admiration for Rome. 

However, everything that follows these words of praise betrays the insincerity of such affirmations. Pagliarani comes across instead as a kind of Eddie Haskell with a cassock on, hiding his true feelings and motives underneath faux words of praise.

The truth is that the SSPX does indeed view itself as being on a “mission from God” as they seek to put the Baroque Catholic band back together again. 

And the further truth is that in claiming, repeatedly, the “Providential” nature of this mission, the Society is claiming it is now the rock upon which the salvation of the Church depends.

Pagliarani, of course, never mentions that there are former SSPX priests and bishops who have splintered off the Society because they view it as still too compromised by its putative desire for reconciliation with Rome. 

He dares not mention this because, being an intelligent man, he understands that this is the standard path taken by all schismatic movements, which are devoid of grounding beyond their own solipsistic claims to superior insights. 

Inevitably, others will arise who believe that the muse who imparts such privileged divine secrets has inspired them with even better divine secrets, and that the mother ship of the schism has floundered and needs to be abandoned for purer and safer waters.

Nevertheless, this does not trouble Fr. Pagliarani, who remains supremely confident that the SSPX movement is a genuine movement of the Holy Spirit and that it is therefore blessed by Providence with manifest success. 

As corroboration for this view, he alludes to statements made by Archbishop Lefebvre:

On another occasion, Archbishop Lefebvre declared, serenely and in a profoundly supernatural manner, that if the Society of Saint Pius X were not the work of God, it would not continue and would not survive him. 

It is not for us to provide an answer to this question. 

But history has already begun to pronounce itself.

But this “success as a sign of divine approval” argument is completely incoherent and is little more than a rhetorical fig leaf used to cover over the raw theological nakedness of the Society’s inflated claims for itself. 

It is an incoherent argument because its sole criterion of divine approval is perdurance over time with a requisite number of followers to sustain it.

But that proves too much because it could also be applied to the Old Catholics, Protestants, every Catholic schismatic movement in history that still exists today, and (irony of ironies!) to the “Vatican II Novus Ordo Church” whose death spiral has been greatly exaggerated. 

Indeed, the latest statistics say that there are 1.4 billion Catholics in the world, and that the number of SSPX adherents worldwide is around 800,000. 

It would seem that even by the logic of the SSPX, the greater Providential blessing still resides with the mainstream Church.

The fact is that many evil movements have arisen within the Church over 2000 years and have survived and even thrived for a time. 

There are many deceivers who have ravaged the flock of Christ (1 Jn 4:1-3), which is why every saint, every true mystic, every Doctor of the Church, every Church father, and every medieval scholastic theologian has warned against false teachers and the allure of schism. 

They have all warned us to stay close to Peter. They have stated that legitimate and respectful criticism of a pope is sometimes needed. 

But they all agree that the schismatic impulse is of Satan.

And there is no schismatic impulse more dangerous than among those who appeal to the need to “preserve tradition” by breaking away from the ecclesial leaders of the day. 

It is a seduction that appeals to the most devoted Catholics. 

As such, it is a deception of the devout.

Manipulation and confusion

And, as such, it represents a horrible manipulation of the confusion of many truly devout Catholics whose long-suffering perdurance through the malaise of milquetoast Catholicism is real and understandable. 

These are the rank-and-file Catholics who still believe, go to Mass, volunteer at their parish as needed, put money in the envelopes, and instill the faith in their children. 

Ecclesial sexual scandals, financial mismanagement, and LGBTQ+everything have eroded the peace of these good Catholics, who therefore are easily swayed by claims of an apostasy so great that one needs to go into schism to save the Church.

Should the Pope excommunicate the leadership of the SSPX, it should not be viewed as the persecution of the poor little “victim” that is the Society, but instead viewed as the imparting of the proper clarity needed to safeguard the little ones of the flock. It is not punitive but remedial.

And we have not even touched upon the horrible denigration of the many thousands of priests who are active in ministry today who are doing the Lord’s work in the vineyard, who are not heretics or apostates, but who work hard to administer the sacraments with due devotion, who are in hospital rooms at 2:00 a.m. administering the sacrament of the sick to dying Catholicd, who teach and preach with vigor, and who have given their whole lives to the Kingdom of God. 

And the number of such priests is not negligible.

But according to the SSPX, these priests are unwitting participants in the spiritually toxic ethos of the entire modern Church. 

They might be sincere, but they are dupes of the system and, at the end of the day, part of the problem. That is why the Society claims the need for new bishops of its own, not appointed by Rome. 

This is to maintain the independence necessary from Rome, in order to be able to ordain priests who are not tainted by Novus Ordo, the Vatican II heresy. 

Therefore, this denigration of the mainstream priesthood is part of the broader narrative of apostasy and crisis that requires the grave necessity of disobedience.

Pope Leo has remained thus far silent on the matter, content to allow Cardinal Fernandez to do all the heavy lifting. 

And this silence has been noticed by Fr. Pagliarani, who laments the fact that Pope Leo has shown no inclination to meet personally with the leaders of the Society to “dialogue” with them.

If I were Pope Leo, I would not “dialogue” with them either. And I don’t think he will. 

Therefore, the SSPX is going to get the confrontation they have manufactured and desired. That will be a sad day, as all schisms are sad. 

But, as Pagliarani has himself noted in the Society’s defense, their actions represent a “cruel necessity”.

Perhaps it is now time for Pope Leo to have recourse, however reluctantly, to the “cruel necessity” of excommunication in July. 

At this point, it seems inevitable.

Miami Catholic Charities to lay off more than 80 employees after government cut millions in funding

Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Miami (CCADM) said it will cut more than 80 jobs after the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services declined to renew an $11 million federal contract.

“HHS not renewing funding to Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Miami will result in 85 staff members being laid off as of May 31, 2026,” Peter Routsis-Arroyo, the organization’s CEO, said in a statement to EWTN News.

He said another 20 employees will be let go on June 30.

For decades, CCADM partnered with the federal government to serve vulnerable children and families. The termination of the contract ended a more than 65-year relationship that began with Operation Pedro Pan, which resettled about 14,000 Cuban children who were fleeing the Castro regime in the U.S.

The layoffs follow the announcement that CCADM "had to make the difficult decision to close the Msgr. Bryan Walsh Children’s Village,” Devika Austin, chief administrative officer of CCADM, wrote in an April 24 letter.

The Msgr. Bryan O. Walsh Children’s Village, formerly known as Boys Town, is a CCADM program sheltering unaccompanied, undocumented immigrant children with the ability to house up to 81 children.

It is baffling that the U.S. government would shut down a program that would be hard-pressed to replicate at the level of competence and excellence that Catholic Charities has achieved, if and when future waves of unaccompanied minors reach our shores.”

“This week all affected employees received notice," she wrote. "We are working with our employees to assist them during this difficult transition."

Due to the unforeseen circumstances, CCADM reported in the letter it was “unable to provide 60 days’ notice” to employees and noted that the “layoffs are permanent.”

More than half of the staff laid off was made up of youth care workers in the program, along with numerous others including clinicians, case managers, and medical coordinators.

During a press conference on April 15 following the funding cuts, Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami urged the government to reinstate the funds noting that services for unaccompanied minors would “be forced to shut down within three months.”

“It is baffling that the U.S. government would shut down a program that would be hard-pressed to replicate at the level of competence and excellence that Catholic Charities has achieved, if and when future waves of unaccompanied minors reach our shores,” he said.

Pope Leo XIII’s legacy reaches space with asteroid named in his honor

The Vatican Observatory has named four asteroids after key figures in its history. 

Among them is Pope Leo XIII, who refounded the institution in 1891.

The newly named asteroids were discovered by the telescope the Vatican operates in Arizona.

The asteroid “Gioacchinopecci” honors Pope Leo XIII, born Gioacchino Vincenzo Raffaele Luigi Pecci, whose legacy is closely tied to the pontificate of Pope Leo XIV.

According to the observatory, Leo XIII reestablished the Vatican Observatory after the loss of the Papal States and of important astronomical facilities, particularly the observatory of Father Angelo Secchi located above the Church of St. Ignatius in Rome.

Photographs of the Vatican from the early 20th century show the domes of the observatory’s telescopes above the Vatican walls and the Tower of the Winds.

In the 1930s, because electric lighting made Rome’s night sky brighter, the telescopes were moved to the Apostolic Palace of Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome, whose domes can still be seen today from miles away.

The later increase in light pollution from Rome led to the construction of the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope, or VATT, on Mount Graham in Arizona in the 1990s.

Through the 1891 motu proprio Ut Mysticam, Leo XIII established the Vatican Observatory, stating that it would help show the world that the Church’s present and historic attitude toward “true and solid science” was to “embrace it, encourage it, and promote it with the greatest possible dedication,” contrary to what its critics claimed.

In particular, he emphasized that the observatory would help promote “a most noble science that, more than any other human discipline, raises the spirit of mortals to the contemplation of heavenly events.”

Leo XIII is the third pope to have an asteroid named after him. Gregory XIII has one in recognition of his role in the reform of the calendar, as does Benedict XVI, to whom “(8661) Ratzinger” is dedicated.

In addition to Pope Leo XIII, another asteroid has been named “Lais” in honor of Giuseppe Lais, an Italian priest and astronomer who served as deputy director of the Vatican Observatory for 30 years. 

Asteroids were also named for Pietro Maffi, an Italian cardinal, archbishop of Pisa, and astronomer, and André Bertiau, a Belgian Jesuit priest, astronomer, and former director of the Vatican Observatory.

Asteroids receive a provisional designation at the time of discovery based on the date of observation and managed by the Working Group for Small Body Nomenclature of the International Astronomical Union.

When an asteroid’s orbit is determined with sufficient precision and its future path can be reliably predicted, it is assigned a permanent number. 

Currently, about 850,000 of the roughly 1.3 million known asteroids have received a permanent number.

Only after receiving this number, the observatory noted, can discoverers propose a definitive name to replace the provisional designation.

The proposed name is then examined by the working group and must comply with specific guidelines. 

Once approved, the asteroid is known by its official name, written as “(number) Name.”

More adults quit Catholic Church than enter it in most countries Pew surveyed

A Pew Research Center study found that more adults leave the Catholic Church than enter it in most countries, but Catholics still make up the majority of the population in a number of countries analyzed.

The research released April 23 found that Christianity has experienced some of the largest losses of followers due to religious switching, when people identify with a different religion in adulthood than they were raised in as a child, compared with other faith groups around the world.

The U.S. data in the report, “Catholicism Has Lost People to Religious Switching in Many Countries, While Protestantism Has Gained in Some,” comes from the Center’s 2023-24 U.S. Religious Landscape Study (RLS). The international data comes from surveys conducted by Pew in spring 2024.

The global data that analyzed 24 countries was from Pew’s international surveys conducted via telephone or face-to-face interviews. 

Pew has conducted more than 800,000 interviews in over 110 countries. The margin of sampling error is based on individual countries’ research.

Religious switching impact on Catholicism

Religious switching has affected Catholicism and Protestantism, two of the largest Christian subgroups, in differing ways. 

Catholicism has lost more people than it has gained in almost all the countries surveyed, whereas Protestantism has seen a net gain from religious switching.

Despite losses from religious switching, Catholics still make up the majority of the population in eight of the 24 nations Pew surveyed, including Poland (92%), the Philippines (80%), Italy (69%), Mexico (67%), Peru (67%), Hungary (63%), Colombia (60%), and Argentina (58%).

In 12 of the 24 surveyed countries, most of the population was raised Catholic and many adults still identify with the faith today. 

For example, 96% of Polish adults were raised Catholics. Of the group, 92% still identify with the religion, with 4% reporting they have left Catholicism.

Hungary also experienced a slight loss with 57% of the population identifying as lifelong Catholics and only 2% reporting that they left the Church.

But overall, more people left Catholicism than joined it in 21 of the countries. People who leave Catholicism tend to join Protestantism or disaffiliate from religion altogether, the report said.

Disaffiliation was found to be especially common in parts of Europe and Latin America, including Chile, where 19% of all adults who are former Catholics identify as atheist, agnostic, or “nothing in particular.”

In comparison, in Kenya, Brazil, Ghana, Nigeria, and the Philippines, former Catholics are more likely to have joined Protestantism than to have become religious “nones,” the report said.

Other adults have left the Church, with former Catholics making up 10% or more of the total population in 15 countries.

In Italy, 22% of adults said they were raised Catholic but no longer identify as such, and an additional 1% were not raised Catholic but entered the Church. 

The nationʼs Catholic population experienced a net loss of 21% due to religious switching.

In the United States, 30% of adults surveyed reported they were raised Catholic and only 17% remain Catholic. 

An additional 2% who were not raised Catholic reported they entered the Church, for a total of 19% of U.S. adults who are Catholic.

Impact on other religions

Similar to Catholics, former Protestants also make up a large share of the population in many countries. 

In nine of the 24 countries analyzed, the group was found to make up 10% or more of the population.

In several countries, more people have joined Protestantism than have left it, with the religion having a net gain from switching in almost as many places as it has seen a net loss. 

Adults who leave Protestantism tend to become religiously unaffiliated, the report said.

Most of the countries where Protestantism has had net gains are in Latin America, including in Brazil where 15% have joined Protestantism and 6% have left. 

Most Brazilians who reported switching into Protestantism were former Catholics.

Pope Leo XIV Rejects Homosexual Unions, Yet Liberalism Continues to Guide the Holy See

Pope Leo XIV rejected the blessing of homosexual unions last Thursday, and for this the Church ought to be grateful. 

It surely isn’t easy to contradict the consensus opinion of Western society and to open oneself up to the vicious criticisms of the modern media, especially for a public figure exposed to such global scrutiny as the pope. 

Unfortunately, however, upon review of his response in its totality, the continued influence of liberalism on the Holy See is apparent and leaves one wondering when, or if, such influence will be broken.

Before explicitly rejecting the blessing of homosexual unions, the pope provided a rather unnecessary preamble, noticeably apologetic in tone. 

He remarked: We tend to think that when the Church is talking about morality, that the only issue of morality is sexual. 

And in reality, I believe there are much greater, more important issues, such as justice, equality, freedom of men and women, freedom of religion, that would all take priority before that particular issue.

There is no need to be embarrassed of the Church’s teachings on sexuality. 

The Church’s morality has been and always will be motivated by love and a desire to protect authentic human love. 

To delay an answer to the question at the outset of one’s response is to communicate a lack of confidence in the Church’s fundamental correctness. 

Many may not agree that the Church is in fact correct on this front, but that is why courage is necessary for proclaiming the Gospel. 

When you have the truth supporting you, there is nothing to be afraid of. Certainly, Pope Leo has courage. I pray that God increases his store of courage to overflowing.

With regard to sexual matters, contrary to the pope’s analysis of the situation, nothing could be more important in facing today’s great evils. Disobedience to the commandments of God and nature regarding sexuality are at the root of the moral decay of Western civilization, the civilization the Catholic Church has had the greatest hand in constructing. 

Abortion, divorce, fornication, homosexuality, gender dysphoria, pornography - not to mention other evils that can be very nearly linked to these, including religious indifferentism and scandalous hypocrisy leading people away from the Church - are all caused directly or indirectly by a neglect of God’s commandments regarding sexuality. 

There is a reason Our Lady of Fatima reminded us that sins of the flesh carry the most people into Hell.

The pope also seems here to be making a mistake, albeit unconsciously, that liberals have been making for centuries. 

Through his words, he is making the false assumption that the material poverty of migrants and the third world is greater than the spiritual poverty of the West. 

Of course, we are required by Christian charity to give as much material aid to the those in need as we are able. In Matthew 25, Jesus is very clear that the criterion for salvation is charity to the weak and poor.

However, the pope must, as a spiritual father looking with the eyes of the spirit, realize that the poor and those who “thirst” are not only those that thirst for physical water but also those who thirst for the “living water” offered by Christ (John 4:10). St. Paul reminds us that the sexually perverse will not inherit the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). 

A heart filled with love for sinners would weep on account of all the millions who are actively choosing to forsake eternal life. 

A father weeps for all his impoverished children; but he weeps especially for the spiritually impoverished and those who, often unlike the materially poor, do not have so great a store of heavenly treasures.

Analyzing the rest of this preamble, however, is to see clearly the primary doctrines of Liberalism, the same Liberalism condemned by all the great popes of the 19th and 20th centuries. 

The first listed, and the most idolized by liberals, is equality. Equality has never been a fundamental value of the Church, and only in recent decades has it been regarded by the Magisterium as something positive or desirable. 

Every human is indeed created in the image and likeness of God and, as such, must be treated with the respect demanded by natural and divine law. However, not all men are equal, in ability or in station, nor should they be.

The great Pope Leo XIII, Pope Leo’s namesake, reminded his flock that Christian democracy “must safeguard the various distinctions and degrees which are indispensable in every well-ordered commonwealth” and not seek to “reduce all ranks to the same level, abolishing all distinction of classes.” 

In fact, the very constitution of the Church and, beyond that, the hierarchy of the universe, hinges on an inequality of station, ability, and power.

In the Church’s hierarchy, the common layman cannot and ought not occupy an equal position with the pope, just as the creature, likewise, cannot seek to place himself in equality with God. 

Nor ought the subject to displace the king, nor the citizen to displace the lawful magistrates placed over him. 

Indeed, the first sin, both of man and devil, was to seek equality with God, to ignore his place in the hierarchy of creation, and to bring himself to level with that which by nature must maintain precedence.

The second, and most beloved, of the liberal values to which Leo attaches eminent importance is freedom. 

The Latin word liber, meaning free, is, after all, the etymological root of Liberalism. Freedom is that which both sides of the political spectrum claim to defend with intense avidity. 

However, freedom is not an end but rather a means to an end. Edmund Burke famously said that “the effect of liberty is that individuals may do what they please: We ought to see what it will please them to do before we risk congratulations.”

If men freely choose to follow God’s commandments, then they ought to be commended. 

But if they choose evil, they have abandoned their true good, and their freedom has turned to slavery. “He who commits sin is a slave to sin” (John 8:34). True freedom is found in virtue, in acting according to our nature, and in following the will of God.

However, that is not the liberal view of freedom. Freedom for the liberal consists in doing whatever I want. 

Advocating a blind pursuit of freedom when the modern world’s conception of freedom is a shameless, unbridled license is dangerous and misleading.

The last, and perhaps today the least contested, of the liberal values on which Pope Leo affixes his attention, is freedom of religion. 

Before Dignitatis Humanae, religious freedom had never been a foundational tenet of Catholicism. 

In fact, Pope Leo’s very namesake, Leo XIII, condemned unrestricted freedom of religion in no uncertain terms.

Civil society must acknowledge God as its founder and parent and must obey and reverence his power and authority. 

Justice therefore forbids the state to adopt a line of action which would end in godlessness - namely to treat the various religions alike, and to bestow upon them promiscuously equal rights and privileges. 

Since then the profession of one religion is necessary in the state, that religion must be professed which alone is true.

Lest Leo XIII be seen as breaking continuity with past pontiffs (something he would never do), it may be helpful to see the opinions of other holy men who have occupied the Chair of Peter. Blessed Pope Pius IX, author of the famous Syllabus of Errors, remarks of his own time:

At this time men are found who dare to teach that “the best constitution of public society requires that human society be conducted without any distinction being made between the true religion and false ones.” 

And against the doctrine of Scripture and the Church and the Holy Fathers, they do not hesitate to assert “that is the best condition of civil society in which no duty is recognized, as attached to the civil power, of restraining by enacted penalties, offenders against the Catholic religion.” 

From which totally false idea of social government they do not fear to foster that erroneous opinion, most fatal in its effects on the Catholic Church and the salvation of souls, called by Our Predecessor, Gregory XVI, an insanity…But, while they rashly affirm this, they do not think and consider that they are preaching liberty of perdition.

That same Gregory XVI, the last monk to be elected pope, is, if possible, even less equivocal:

The shameful font of indifferentism gives rise to that absurd and erroneous proposition which claims that liberty of conscience must be maintained for everyone. It spreads ruin in sacred and civil affairs, though some repeat over and over again with the greatest impudence that some advantage accrues to religion from it. 

“But the death of the soul is worse than freedom of error,” as Augustine was wont to say. When all restraints are removed by which men are kept on the narrow path of truth, their nature, which is already inclined to evil, propels them to ruin… Experience shows, even from earliest times, that cities renowned for wealth, dominion and glory perished as a result of this single evil, namely, immoderate freedom of opinion and desire for novelty.

Pope Leo XIV has a sincere desire for justice and unity, and for that he must be commended. But the justice we must pursue must be God’s justice; and the unity we must pursue must be unity with Christ. 

Justice does not call for us to reward the wrongdoer at the expense of the innocent any more than unity requires we unify ourselves with a fallen, sinful world at the expense of our relationship with God. 

If we truly want God’s justice, if we truly want unity with God both for ourselves and others, we must follow His commandments and, in all charity, admonish the sinner to do likewise.

Discrimination against Catholic children ‘baked into’ £20m scheme for tackling educational underachievement, court told

Discrimination against Catholic children was “baked into” a £20m scheme for tackling educational underachievement in Northern Ireland, the Court of Appeal heard today.

Senior judges were told selection methodology in the RAISE programme involves fundamental flaws which are unfair to pupils from Belfast and Derry.

Introduced by Education Minister Paul Givan in 2024 and partially financed by the Irish Government, the initiative is aimed at reducing underachievement and disadvantage.

More than 400 schools in 15 areas across Northern Ireland were identified as potentially eligible for funding.

In December last year the High Court dismissed a challenge to how the Department of Education operated the RAISE programme.

At that stage a judge ruled that scheme does not directly discriminate against Catholics.

Lawyers for a number of children are now seeking to overturn the verdict, insisting geography and religion were allowed to trump objective need.

Karen Quinlivan KC argued the Department had deliberately prioritised balancing out the perceived political backgrounds.

It was also claimed that the two city areas were wrongly ranked lower, despite knowing it would have a greater impact on Catholic pupils.

“The Northern Ireland approach, which meant downgrading Belfast and Derry, coupled with the approach of achieving a balance, meant discrimination was baked into the scheme,” the barrister submitted.

Legal challenges are being mounted by one pupil at a primary school in Belfast and another attending a secondary school in Derry over how the Department identified Specific Output Areas (SOAs) to allocate resources.

A third child at an Irish language primary school in Belfast has also brought a case based on the downgrading of the Free School Meals Entitlement as an indicator of need.

Methodology for allocating funding under the scheme was irrational, discriminatory and in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights, according to their lawyers.

Appeal judges heard the Department and the Minister had allowed irrelevant metrics to outweigh indicators of socio-economically disadvantaged families and communities.

Describing the approach as fundamentally flawed, Ms Quinlivan claimed it was both ethically and legally objectionable.

“A scheme which discriminates on the grounds of religion, gender or race is so inimical to justice and contrary to the rule of law as to be irrational,” the barrister said.

She claimed the situation was further aggravated by amending the scheme to elevate GCSE attainment above other criteria.

Departmental officials also took it upon themselves to add output areas in north Belfast which apparently did not meet the requirements.

“What happened brings us truly into Alice in Wonderland territory,” Ms Quinlivan added.

“The outworking of the entire methodology was demonstrably unfair on north Belfast.”

The appeal continues.

Peter McVerry Trust to Close Dublin Hostel over Fire Safety Concerns

One of Dublin’s largest homeless hostels is set to close following fire safety concerns, placing additional strain on already stretched emergency accommodation services in the capital.

The 125-bed men’s hostel, located near St Stephen’s Green, is being vacated in phases. 

The facility is currently housing 48 residents, all of whom are expected to be relocated by the end of the month.

A spokesperson for the Peter McVerry Trust confirmed that a fire safety notice had been issued in relation to the short-term accommodation service, where residents can typically stay for up to six months. 

“We are actively engaging with Dublin Fire Brigade and all relevant parties to address the issues raised, and we have made significant progress in recent months toward resolving them,” she said.

“The matters involved are complex, and we have followed all guidance provided throughout this process. We have also taken steps to reduce occupancy in recent months as a precaution,” she added.

The spokesperson emphasised that safety had not been compromised. 

“At no point has any service user or staff member been placed at risk. We are committed to resolving this matter and have lodged an appeal to ensure the continued operation of this vital service.”

She said it was not yet clear when the hostel might reopen.

All affected residents are being moved either to alternative accommodation within the charity’s network or to placements arranged by the Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DRHE).

Dublin City Council confirmed that efforts are underway to minimise disruption. 

“The DRHE is arranging alternative placements for the remaining residents. This is being managed with the least disruption possible to service users,” a council spokesperson said.

The closure represents a significant loss of capacity, accounting for nearly one-fifth of the trust’s 676 emergency beds for single adults. 

It comes at a time of mounting pressure on homelessness services across Dublin.

In correspondence with the Department of Housing late last year, DRHE director Mary Hayes warned of severe challenges in meeting demand. 

“The picture is stark for family homelessness,” she wrote, adding that emergency accommodation was “overstretched” and expressing concern about the possibility of families facing homelessness on the streets in 2026.

Latest figures from the Department show that 12,317 people were living in emergency accommodation in Dublin during a week in February, including more than 4,000 children.

Founded in the 1980s by Peter McVerry, the Peter McVerry Trust is one of Ireland’s most prominent housing charities, supporting thousands of individuals and families.

However, the organisation has faced significant scrutiny in recent years. 

Financial difficulties prompted a €15 million government bailout two years ago, while subsequent reports from regulators and the Comptroller and Auditor General highlighted concerns around governance and financial oversight.

Lake Charles judge steps down from clergy abuse case over undisclosed church ties

A Lake Charles judge has been removed from a clergy sexual abuse lawsuit after it was revealed he failed to fully disclose his financial ties to the church at the center of the case.

Judge Kendrick Guidry of the 14th Judicial District Court has recused himself from a lawsuit in which a woman, identified only as Jane Doe, accuses Father James Burke of sexually abusing her dozens of times during confession at Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Lake Charles. 

The alleged abuse occurred when she was between 5 and 9 years old, from approximately 1985 to 1989.

What Happened at the March 31st. Hearing

At a March 31 hearing, Guidry disclosed that he was a member of Immaculate Heart of Mary — the defendant church. 

Both sides agreed that church membership alone was not disqualifying, and the hearing proceeded.

Guidry then sided with the Diocese of Lake Charles, ruling that Louisiana’s so-called “lookback law” — which allows childhood sexual abuse survivors to file claims that had previously expired — was an unconstitutional “taking” of the church’s property rights.

That ruling made Guidry the only Louisiana judge to rule against the lookback window after the Louisiana Supreme Court upheld its constitutionality in June 2024. 

Attorney General Liz Murrill had filed a legal brief in the case defending the law’s constitutionality.

The Hidden Tie: Finance Committee Membership

What Guidry did not disclose at the March 31 hearing was that he had recently joined Immaculate Heart of Mary’s Finance Committee, giving him a direct financial interest in the outcome of the case.

Attorneys for Jane Doe filed a motion for recusal on April 15, after learning of Guidry’s committee role. 

In an email obtained by WWL-TV and The Guardian, Guidry acknowledged the omission, writing that his Finance Committee appointment was “still new to me and it slipped my mind at the recent hearing.”

Guidry updated his biography on the 14th Judicial District Court’s website on April 15 — the same day the recusal motion was filed — to reflect his Finance Committee membership.

Case Reassigned

The case has been reassigned to Judge Michael Canaday, also of the 14th Judicial District Court. 

Notably, Canaday previously ruled against the same constitutional arguments the Diocese used before Guidry, in a separate clergy abuse case involving a Lake Charles diocese church.

7News reached out to Judge Guidry for comment. He declined to respond.

Ealing Abbey to unveil plaque for child sex abuse survivors

Ealing Abbey in west London will on Saturday 2 May unveil a plaque in the abbey church, marking its commitment to supporting survivors of child sexual abuse. 

Abbot Dominic Taylor will bless the plaque at a Mass of Hope and Healing for survivors on Saturday 2 May at 11.15am. 

It has been installed in the Mary Mother of All chapel which has a relief that depicts Our Lady drawing children to her. 

The plaque reads: “Mindful of all victims of child sexual abuse by clergy and people in authority, we acknowledge the terrible wrong done and grieve the deep suffering caused. Ever vigilant let us work and pray for healing, justice and peace. The Abbot and Community.” 

The text was written by the group, HOPE, which had the idea for a Mass not just for survivors of abuse but for all parishioners and those distressed and concerned about it. 

The Heart of London Threshold Choir will sing at the Mass. HOPE meets online monthly and has built on the work of the late Fr James Leachman, a member of the Benedictine community who led outreach to survivors. 

Two monks and two lay teachers were convicted of multiple offences involving the sexual abuse of more than 20 children at St Benedict’s School between the 1970s and 2008. 

Until its formal separation in 2012, the school was governed by the monks.