Serbian cardinal pleads against country’s exclusion after Ratko Mladic’s burial with honors

Cardinal Ladislav Nemet of Belgrade is urging Western governments not to let recent controversy over the funeral of convicted Bosnian Serb wartime leader Ratko Mladic derail Serbia’s ties with Europe.

Mladic, dubbed “Butcher of Bosnia,” received a funeral attended by state officials in the capital.

“I’m always rather surprised when the so-called international community reacts this way to stories of real life,” said Cardinal Nemet.

“And I was particularly surprised by calls for a delay in Serbia’s Western integration — since this incident didn’t really involve Serbia. It involved a relatively very small group of people — and it wasn’t the greatest event of the year, nor even of that particular week,” he said.

The cardinal, a Divine Word Missionary, spoke in the wake of the lavish public funeral of former Bosnian Serb leader General Ratko Mladic, who died Aug. 27 in a United Nations prison hospital in The Hague, Netherlands, five years after being given a life sentence by the International Criminal Court for genocide and crimes against humanity.

About 12,500 attended Mladic funeral

In an OSV News interview, Cardinal Nemet said around 12,500 people had turned out for the Sept. 7 Orthodox funeral in Belgrade, a city of 1.7 million, adding that he regretted the incident had been used by international media to portray Serbia “as a place where bad things happen.”

“Everyone has a right to a decent funeral — and if you’re styled by some as a national hero, it’s hardly going to be left to some simple parish priest,” said the cardinal, vice president of the Council of European Bishops’ Conference, or CCEE.

“We can criticize how the event was handled,” he said. “But although I live in Serbia and was born there, I’ve never personally experienced any nationalist feelings. Like many others, I have a different worldview and scale of values.”

Mladic, a former Yugoslav People’s Army general, led Serb forces during a 1992-1995 war that left 100,000 dead across Bosnia-Herzegovina.

His troops were responsible for the forced ethnic cleansing of non-Serbs and indiscriminate siege of Sarajevo, as well as a 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslim male detainees at Srebrenica, Europe’s worst atrocity since World War II.

EU official condemns public honor for wartime leader

Condemning the public honoring of Mladic, whose flag-draped coffin was flown to Belgrade aboard a government plane, the European Union’s Commission president, Ursula Von Der Leyen, described the TV footage as “shocking” and expressed condolences for those affected by his crimes.

“The elements of official support and the presence of some senior Serbian officials at the funeral are deeply regrettable,” the statement noted.

“They demonstrate a failure to confront a dark chapter in Europe’s recent history and contradict the values underpinning Serbia’s path towards the European Union.”

Zdravka Gvozdjar, mother of a 9-year-old boy killed by Mladic-led forces during the siege of Sarajevo, told Reuters that Mladic “deserved to be erased from memory for good, not to be … promoted as a hero.”

“He should be remembered only as a butcher,” she said.

Mladic’s wished to be laid to rest alongside his daughter

Cardinal Nemet said Mladic’s burial had been conducted in line with his wish to rest alongside his daughter, who committed suicide over his actions in 1994 at age 23, rather than in “some great mausoleum” in his native Bosnia.

“While people know about his crimes, they seem less aware of tragic events in his personal life,” the cardinal told OSV News.

“It’s important to recognize that the state-like funeral ceremonials actually played a lesser role than this — his simple last wish.”

The Belgrade funeral for Mladic was led by Serbian Orthodox Patriarch Porfirije, who said the general’s name would remain “deeply etched in the memory and prayers of the majority of our Serbian Orthodox people, who feel and nurture a deep sense of gratitude towards him.”

Cardinal Nemet said relations with Serbia’s predominant Orthodox Church had improved significantly since the 2021 election of Patriarch Porfirije, who was 25 years younger than his predecessor and had a “very different perception of the world.”  

The cardinal was attending an international symposium in Austria on “Shaping Synodality in Europe,” organized by the Catholic University of Linz under the CCEE’s patronage, which included calls for closer ecumenical ties with non-Catholic denominations.

Why the FBI investigated Archbishop Sheen during World War II

In 1943, at the height of the Second World War, an anonymous source alerted the Federal Bureau of Investigation of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen’s strong criticism of the Soviet Union and its leader, Joseph Stalin.

These were topics the priest — then with the title “monsignor” — had been speaking about for many years, in fact, along with his intellectual criticism of Marxism. 

Recall that the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. were allies against Nazi Germany, and some believed that any criticism of the U.S.’s allies could hurt the overall war effort. 

This led the bureau to open a file on Archbishop Sheen and launch an investigation.

Ice cream love, speeding ticket avoidance

Since winning the war was of paramount importance, the FBI followed this and many other pointless leads. Eventually, the agents assigned to tail him came up with mostly worthless facts about Archbishop Sheen such as that he liked chocolate ice cream, kept up a rigorous and somewhat ascetic schedule (including most notably his daily Holy Hour each morning), and once talked a police officer out of giving him a speeding ticket.

All of these small but now comedic details about his life soon led the FBI to give up all suspicions.

By the early 1950s, both the bureau and its long-serving director, J. Edgar Hoover, had done a complete about-face on now-Bishop Sheen and invited him to speak at a graduation ceremony of newly inducted agents. 

Archbishop Sheen’s file on the FBI was now officially closed, and he went from being someone who might be a threat to national security to an American legend.

Evangelism legacy

The 2023 documentary “Follow that Bishop,” produced by Rome Reports and co-directed by Antonio Olivie and Sean Patrick Lovett, uses this previously relatively unknown moment in Sheen’s life as a fascinating vehicle to expand on the much larger and more important roles he played as a writer, evangelist, bishop and promoter of the missions.

The 28-minute documentary goes on to briefly tell his story as both a churchman and national figure who garnered interest and attention beyond just the Catholic community thanks to his national syndicated radio show and television show, which at its height had a viewership of over 30 million and won him an Emmy Award in 1953. 

Meanwhile, he served as national director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in the United States (1950-1966).

2010 miracle

The documentary concludes by discussing the miracle in 2010 in Illinois of the sudden recovery of a stillborn infant attributed to Sheen’s intercession, which was pivotal to his beatification. 

The documentary shows footage of this now healthy teenager playing with his brothers and sisters, as well as an interview with his mother regarding the details of his miraculous return to life after going 61 minutes without a heartbeat or respiration after birth.

As part of Sheen’s canonization process, which began officially in 2002, he was declared a “Servant of God,” and six years later, as the process continued, Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed him “Venerable Servant of God Fulton J. Sheen.” He will be beatified in St. Louis Sept. 24.

Episcopal appointments in Mexico; Patron Wong to the Archdiocese of Puebla; the Diocese of Querétaro receives the Guanajuato native Aguilar Ledesma

On the morning of this Monday, September 21, 2026, the Mexican Episcopal Conference announced two appointments that are reshaping the episcopal map of central Mexico. 

Leo XIV accepted the resignation of Víctor Sánchez Espinosa from the pastoral governance of the Archdiocese of Puebla de los Ángeles and appointed as his successor Jorge Carlos Patrón Wong, until now Archbishop of Xalapa, who will be the IX Archbishop of that see. 

Likewise, the resignation of Fidencio López Plaza from the head of the Diocese of Querétaro was accepted, and Víctor Alejandro Aguilar Ledesma, until now Bishop of Celaya, was named its XI Bishop.

Both resignations close important episcopal chapters. Sánchez Espinosa was born on May 21, 1950 and López Plaza on April 28, 1950; both had already reached the age of 75, the age at which diocesan bishops must submit their resignation to the Pope. 

The first governed Puebla from his appointment on February 5, 2009, for nearly seventeen years. The second had been in Querétaro since 2020. 

According to the Archdiocese of Puebla itself, Sánchez Espinosa will remain as Apostolic Administrator until the installation of Patrón Wong, scheduled for Thursday, November 19, 2026.

The new Archbishop of Puebla, Jorge Carlos Patrón Wong, was born on January 3, 1958, in Mérida, Yucatán. 

He was ordained a priest on January 12, 1988 by Manuel Castro Ruiz for the Yucatecan clergy. He studied Philosophy and Theology at the Conciliar Seminary of Yucatán and, between 1988 and 1993, earned a licentiate in Spiritual Theology and Psychology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. 

In 2022, the Marist University of Mérida awarded him an honoris causa doctorate. After a brief service as vicar in Ticul and Tizimín, he established himself as a formator; between 1994 and 2000 he served as prefect of the minor seminary and of the theological stage, coordinator of human formation, and professor of Psychology, Philosophical Anthropology, and Spiritual Direction. 

He was chaplain to religious sisters, advisor to the university group Omega and to the School for Parents, lecturer and chaplain at Marist institutions, spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Yucatán, and coordinator of its media commission. From 2000 to 2009 he was rector of the Conciliar Major Seminary of Yucatán. 

During those years he presided over the Organization of Mexican Seminaries (2003-2008) and the Organization of Latin American Seminaries (2004-2009). That formative vocation foreshadowed the role that would later take him to Rome.

Benedict XVI appointed him Coadjutor Bishop of Papantla on October 15, 2009; he received episcopal ordination on December 15 of that year, and on May 2, 2012 he became ordinary of the diocese. Within CELAM he served on the Department of Vocations and Ministries, and within the CEM he chaired the Episcopal Commission for Vocations and Ministries for the 2012-2015 triennium. 

The decisive turn came on September 21, 2013, when Pope Francis raised him to the dignity of archbishop and appointed him Secretary for Seminaries of the Congregation for the Clergy, a responsibility he exercised until February 2022. For nearly nine years he was one of the Mexicans with the greatest influence on priestly formation on a universal scale. 

At the same time, Francis made him a member of the Congregation for Catholic Education, a consultor of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, and a counselor of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. In 2020 the Government of Mexico awarded him the Ohtli recognition for his work with compatriots abroad.

On December 8, 2021, Francis appointed him V Archbishop of Xalapa. He took possession on February 8, 2022; from the Roman dicastery he moved, in one leap, to the metropolitan see of Veracruz. 

In Xalapa he did not sever his ties with Rome or with Latin America. In 2022 he was named a member of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments; in 2023, coordinator of the CEBITEPAL of CELAM and episcopal advisor to the Serra Apostolate in Mexico and Central America. In the 2024-2027 triennium he again chaired the CEM Commission for Vocations and Ministries. 

Already under Leo XIV he was appointed consultor of the Dicastery for Evangelization in June 2025, and again counselor of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America in January 2026. 

The same pontiff now sends him to Puebla. The itinerary is notable: formator in Yucatán, bishop in Papantla, Vatican secretary for seminaries under Francis, Archbishop of Xalapa, and, four and a half years later, holder of one of the oldest sees in the country, of greater pastoral and spiritual influence and relevance to public powers, in one of the regions of the country with the deepest roots and history of the Church in Mexico.

On January 24, 1519, in one of history’s coincidences, Leo X erected with the bull Sacri apostolatus ministerio the germ of the Diocese of Puebla, the Carolensis diocese, first conceived for Yucatán and recognized as the first episcopal circumscription established for the territory that would become New Spain. 

The Dominican Julián Garcés was its first bishop. 

The see was fixed in Tlaxcala and, between the late 1530s and the royal decree of 1543, it was transferred to the city of Puebla de los Ángeles, better endowed with a church and a strategic position. For centuries it retained the title of Tlaxcala. On August 9, 1903, Pius X elevated it to a metropolitan archdiocese. 

Its episcopal roster includes the blessed Juan de Palafox y Mendoza, Manuel Fernández de Santa Cruz, and, in the twentieth century, Ramón Ibarra y González, who managed the elevation; Octaviano Márquez y Toriz; and Rosendo Huesca Pacheco, whose governance exceeded 31 years. 

On January 28, 1979, John Paul II inaugurated the III General Conference of the Latin American Episcopate at the Palafoxian Seminary, forever linking the name of Puebla to the history of the Church on the continent.

Today the Angelopolitana Province has as its suffragans Huajuapan de León, Tehuacán, and Tlaxcala. Its own territory covers nearly 21,000 square kilometers. The Annuario Pontificio, with data from the end of 2021, records 5 million 660 thousand baptized Catholics out of a population of 7.18 million, that is, nearly 79 percent. 

The archdiocese is organized into six pastoral zones and 31 deaneries, with more than 300 parishes—316 according to that same pontifical statistic—and a landscape of churches, shrines, and hermitages exceeding two thousand five hundred buildings. 

It is an ancient, dense, and complex local Church, baroque in its heritage, contemporary in its demography. It receives an archbishop whose hallmark is not that of a pastor of a single long diocese, but that of a formator of seminarians who knew the Curia from within and later governed a metropolitan see, with relative distance from public power, since Patrón has also been, in a moderate way, critical of the powers in office.

The second move operates on a different scale and geography. The new Bishop of Querétaro, Víctor Alejandro Aguilar Ledesma, was born on April 5, 1965 in San Guillermo, municipality of Valle de Santiago, Guanajuato. He entered the Minor Seminary of Morelia in 1977, studied Philosophy and Theology at the Major Seminary between 1982 and 1989, and was ordained on December 10, 1989 in the cathedral of Morelia by Estanislao Alcaraz Figueroa. 

Between 1997 and 1999 he obtained in Rome a licentiate in Theology of Marriage and the Family at the John Paul II Institute of the Pontifical Lateran University. 

That family imprint runs through his ministry: vicar in Salamanca and Pátzcuaro, parochial administrator in El Caracol, head of the diocesan secretariat for evangelization and catechesis, rector of churches, seminary professor, head of Family Ministry of the Archdiocese of Morelia from 2003 to 2010, pastor of the Señor de la Clemencia in Moroleón, and episcopal vicar of a zone.

Francis appointed him Auxiliary Bishop of Morelia on December 1, 2015, with the titular see of Cástulo; he received ordination on February 25, 2016. On June 12, 2021 he was sent to Celaya, of which he took possession on July 12 as its V bishop. 

Within the CEM he was responsible for the Episcopal Dimension for the Laity in the triennia 2018-2021 and 2021-2024, and for 2024-2027 he chairs the Episcopal Commission for the Family, Youth, Adolescence, the Laity, and Life. 

The transfer to Querétaro does not take him out of the Bajío; he was born in Guanajuato, formed in Morelia, pastored Celaya, and now assumes a diocese that comprises the entire state of Querétaro and seven municipalities of Guanajuato—Atarjea, Doctor Mora, San José Iturbide, Santa Catarina, Tierra Blanca, Victoria, and Xichú. 

He is a bishop of the region who remains in the region, in a see of strong urban growth, industrial corridor, and dense popular religiosity.

Querétaro does not have the antiquity of Puebla, but its history is deeply religious and linked to the history of Mexico. Pius IX erected it on January 26, 1863 with the bull Deo optimo maximo, detaching it mainly from the Archdiocese of Mexico, in the same movement that created other dioceses and elevated Morelia and Guadalajara. 

The bull was executed on February 7, 1864. The first bishop, Bernardo Gárate López de Arizmendi, arrived on January 29, 1865, erected the chapter and seminary, and died the following year. 

The diocese was born amid the Reform, the French Intervention, and the Siege of Querétaro. Its cathedral passed from the parish of Santiago to the church of San Francisco and, from 1921, to San Felipe Neri. In the list of prelates—ten up to López Plaza—the years of persecution and the Cristero War weigh heavily, as do the episcopate of Francisco Banegas Galván and the reconstruction of the twentieth century. Since November 25, 2006 it has been a suffragan of the Archdiocese of León, in the ecclesiastical province of the Bajío.

The most recent figures from the Annuario Pontificio place the diocese at around 2.66 million Catholics out of a population close to 2.97 million, with about 120 parishes, more than 360 priests, and 15,326 square kilometers. 

Local spokespersons have spoken of extreme contrasts: urban parishes of tens of thousands of inhabitants and mountain communities of only a few thousand. That demographic and economic vitality, and not only the number of churches, explains the pastoral weight of the see that Aguilar Ledesma receives.

Read together, the new appointments touch two of the most relevant ecclesiastical entities with a projection that surpassed several forecasts. Puebla, a Church of half a millennium and of more than five and a half million baptized, is placed in the hands of an archbishop who formed priests from Yucatán, Papantla, and the Vatican. 

Querétaro, a diocese of 1863 and engine of the Bajío, is placed in the hands of a Guanajuato bishop, specialist in family and laity, who does not leave the region. 

A see dating from the beginnings of the evangelization of Mexico and another from the nineteenth century receive on the same day distinct pastors, yet both with institutional expertise and the concrete charge of translating that history into living communities with the influence their predecessors exercised.

Syriac patriarchate denounces ‘lies’ after bishops move to remove patriarch

The Syriac Catholic Patriarchate of Antioch said in a statement Thursday that a gathering of the Eastern Church’s synod had already been called by the Church’s patriarch, before bishops called for a special session to vote on removing the patriarch.

The statement followed speculation that Patriarch Ignace Youssif III Younan had moved to convene the synod of the Eastern Church in response to a move by Syriac bishops to remove him, the first use of a new law issued last month by Leo XIV to create a mechanism for removing an Eastern patriarch.

The September 17 statement, released in multiple languages via the patriarchate’s website, said it was necessary to “refute all past and potential future writings, rumors, claims, fabrications, and lies that mislead public opinion and distort facts that are as clear as day.”

The patriarchate’s statement did not indicate what “fabrications and lies” it was aiming to refute, but indicated the prospect of future legal action, presumably against media outlets and social media posts covering the escalating tension within the Eastern Catholic Syriac Church.

The statement explained that the patriarch “currently refrains from responding to these claims, fabrications, lies, and vulgar verbal attacks,” while at the same time “it reserves full rights to respond and take legal actions at the appropriate time against those who market and circulate them.”

But the statement did address the allegation, first made by bishops of the Syria Church, that Youssif has not convened a meeting of the Church’s full synod for a number of years.

That charge is believed to be one of the central allegations circulated among the Eastern Church’s bishops which contributed to a Sept. 4 decision to attempt removing Youssif, which came just days after Pope Leo XIV issued the motu proprio Mutua concordia, allowing for the prospect of Eastern Catholic bishops moving to remove their patriarchs.

“Regarding the claim that His Beatitude [ the patriarch] did not convene for a Synod meeting over the past three years, this claim is entirely unfounded,” the statement said.

“His Beatitude had convened for a Synod to be held in November 2024, which was subsequently postponed by mutual agreement with the Fathers of the Synod until July 2025 due to the war in Lebanon at that time, when the ‘so-called Synod’ was convened in Rome.”

The “so-called Synod” referred to in the statement was a gathering on the bishops of the ordinary synod of the Syriac Church which was received in private audience with Pope Francis and discussed, according to reports at the time, governance issues in the Eastern Church as well as the ongoing practical challenges facing the Church, the ancient territory of which includes the modern states of Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq.

The statement added that the patriarch and the Church permanent synod — a kind of standing executive body among the bishops — had already decided at a July meeting to convoke a full synodal meeting of the Church’s bishops.

“Prior to the issuance of the Apostolic motu proprio by His Holiness the Pope Leo XIX [sic] on August 29, the Fathers agreed to convene an Ordinary General Synod in the second half of November. 

Consequently, His Beatitude issued a formal invitation to the synod’s fathers on September 2 to hold the Synod meeting from November 17 to November 20, 2026.”

The date of September 2 is significant because on Sept. 4, senior bishops of the Syriac Church’s synod formally triggered the legal mechanism for a vote to remove the patriarch, according to the norms of Mutua concordia. 

However, the patriarch’s call for a November meeting of the synod was only made public following the Sept. 4 decision.

That the patriarch’s call was only made public after the announcement of the effort to remove him led to speculation that Youssif had only called the synodal meeting in November in direct response to the attempt to remove him.

“Therefore, this clarification was necessary,” the statement said.

The papal motu proprio, formally issued on Aug. 28, amended the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, the body of canon law which applies to all the 23 Eastern Churches in communion with Rome, in addition to their individual governing laws.

The reform created a mechanism by which the bishops of an Eastern Church’s synod can convene a meeting to vote for the removal of the patriarch or major archbishop of an Eastern Church if they were found to have caused “irreparable damage” to the communion of Church.

According to Leo’s new law on the subject, a synodal meeting to remove an Eastern Catholic patriarch should be called by the senior bishop of the synod who is in favor of removal. 

A two-thirds majority of the voting members of the synod, usually the diocesan bishops of the Eastern Catholic Church, is required to effect the removal, and the pope must confirm a removal decision.

While the law does not define legal criteria for defining or establishing the alleged irreparable damage to internal communion, it does require that the patriarch be allowed to defend himself before the synod.

In the Syriac Catholic Church, the bishops are expected to convene in late September or early October for a meeting that could conclude with the deposing of the patriarch, although Youssif’s own announced gathering of the synod would see them instead meet in November.

Patriarch Youssif, 81, has led the Syriac Catholic Church since 2009, his formal title is Patriarch of Antioch and All the East of the Syrians.

Dissatisfaction among Syriac bishops has reportedly centered around Youssif’s refusal to convene governing synodal meetings for the Eastern Catholic Church, despite repeated requests from bishops over the past three years. 

Sources close to the Syriac Church have told The Pillar that a patriarchal call for a synod this year is likely to be seen as “too late,” among broad episcopal frustration with Youssif.

There are some 160,000 members of the Syriac Catholic Church, with the majority living in Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon. Roughly 16,000 Syriac Catholics live in the United States, worshipping in the 11 parishes of the Eparchy of Our Lady of Deliverance.

Bishop of St Albans installed at historic service

The Right Reverend Andrew Rumsey has been formally installed as the 11th Bishop of St Albans.

More than 1,500 people, including local dignitaries, attended the ceremony at St Albans Cathedral on Saturday, with a further 4,000 viewers joining the service via a livestream.

It followed news of his appointment in March, having previously been the Suffragan Bishop of Ramsbury in the Diocese of Salisbury.

Speaking on the personal significance of the occasion, the bishop, who grew up locally, said it was "a poignant and powerful day for me, marking both a return home and a new beginning".

He added: "The faith, hope and love I found as a child in the Diocese of St Albans are very much alive today - and needed more than ever in our country and communities."

The incoming bishop carried out the traditional ceremonial knocking on the West End doors of St Albans Cathedral, asking for permission to enter

The service represented the first major public symbol of the bishop's ministry across Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Barnet.

It was overseen by the Archdeacon of Canterbury, representing the Archbishop of Canterbury.

He was handed the crozier - a staff shaped like a shepherd's crook, symbolising his role as shepherd to the diocese - by the Dean of St Albans, the Very Reverend Jo Kelly-Moore.

During his installation sermon, Dr Rumsey described the present day as "stony and thin-soiled times", reflecting the recent dry summer as a metaphor for modern challenges.

He called on the congregation to "imagine your bit of the world differently" and build a future grounded in "fresh planting and tenacious old roots".

Kelly-Moore said: "Our history here began in Roman times with a simple act of welcome and shelter, when Alban, a local citizen, gave refuge to the fleeing priest Amphibalus.

"Holding to that same tradition of welcome, we are so glad to welcome Bishop Andrew as he comes to lead and minister with us."

Following the service, celebrations continued in the cathedral grounds, where 1,000 cupcakes were distributed to well-wishers.

Sexual abuse lawsuit filed against Archdiocese of Louisville, parish

A woman filed a lawsuit Sept. 17 against the Archdiocese of Louisville and a St. Matthews parish alleging she was “routinely harassed, assaulted, raped and sodomized” as an employee.

In addition to the Archdiocese, the lawsuit names Our Lady of Lourdes Parish and School, Cesar Barahona and the Rev. David G. Sanchez as defendants, and includes several allegations, including gross negligence, violation of the Kentucky Civil Rights Act and assault.

She also brought claims for negligent hiring/retention and breach of contract against the Archdiocese, Our Lady of Lourdes and Sanchez, as well as battery and false imprisonment against Barahona.

“The Archdiocese of Louisville has perverted ‘precious and sacred trust’ into a mechanism of silencing its victims,” the lawsuit reads. “[The woman] was not the first person to be irrevocably traumatized by the negligence of the Archdiocese of Louisville, and, unless something is done, she will not be the last.”

According to the lawsuit, the woman accepted a position as a janitor at Our Lady of Lourdes around April 2025. Shortly after, Barahona, who was the facilities manager and her direct supervisor, reportedly “started making sexual advances,” beginning with “flirting and winking” before escalating in severity over the next several months.

The lawsuit alleges Barahona regularly forced the woman into the boiler and maintenance room where he sexually assaulted her and forced her to perform oral sex on him on several occasions. 

Barahona reportedly threatened the woman by saying she would be fired if she reported the abuse.

In June 2025, the woman told Sanchez, who was the priest at the parish, about the abuse, according to the lawsuit.

“Father Sánchez told [the woman] that he was very good friends with Cesar Barahona and that [she] was lying about her claims,” the lawsuit reads. “Father Sánchez further told [the woman] her family would be threatened should she further report the matter and/or pursue any legal action.”

The last assault allegedly occurred before Barahona left the parish for a “medical procedure.” After Barahona’s departure, the new facilities manager, who had learned of the abuse and encouraged the woman to file a claim with human resources, reported the abuse around October 2025.

In a meeting with human resources, Sanchez reportedly accused the woman of lying but later told her to write down the allegations. 

Human resources also suggested the woman make a police report with the St. Matthews Police Department, which was filed Oct. 21, 2025, according to court documents.

The woman was also granted an intrapersonal protective order against Barahona on Nov. 13, 2025, which was later converted to a three-year domestic violence order on Dec. 11, 2025. 

Following the hearing, Barahona allegedly offered the woman money in exchanged for dropping the claims against him.

According to the lawsuit, the woman has “furthered suffered obvious retaliation” in connection with speaking out, including allegedly not being compensated for cleaning the entire facility and having her working hours “significantly reduced.”

Our Lady of Lourdes recently announced another priest would fill in “for an indefinite period of time,” the document reads.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Louisville said the organization does not comment on pending litigation.

Public meeting to be held as four Leitrim parishes could become one

An important public information meeting is to be held at St. Clare's Hall in Manorhamilton on Wednesday regarding the re-organisation of four parishes in North Leitrim.

Regarding the information meeting, a statement in all recent Cloonclare/Killasnett newsletters on Sunday stated, “there is going to be an information evening for our cluster of parishes on Wednesday 16th September at 8pm in St Clare’s Hall (Future Cast), Carrick Road, Manorhamilton.

“This involves four parishes – Cloonclare/Killasnett, Kinlough, Glenfarne and Ballaghameehan – in which there are 13 Church areas and at present five priests. We need to think about the future and plan ahead.

“The life and mission of each parish belong to the whole faith community and each person has gifts that can help our parish grow and thrive into the future. This very important information evening will explore the renewal of parish life, the role of the Pastoral Council and other ways in which parishioners can become involved.

“We are in a time of rapid change. Priests are getting fewer. Some Parishes will have no resident Priest. How can our Parish continue to grow, become more welcoming and respond to new needs? How can we build a more vibrant and active faith community?” the Cloonclare/Killasnett newsletter statement asked in conclusion.

Longford parishes invited to train for new funeral ministry

Parishes across Longford are being invited to develop a Funeral Ministry team to support families through the loss of a loved one.

The Diocesan Parish Pastoral Council is offering three nights of training for parishes interested in establishing a team, with a minimum of four people to be trained in each parish.

The initiative aims to equip parish volunteers with the skills and preparation needed to provide practical and pastoral support to families at a difficult time.

Members would be trained in how to support families throughout the bereavement and funeral process, which would include meeting with the bereaved family, preparing the liturgy for the Funeral Mass or service, leading prayers in the presence of the deceased in the family home, funeral home or church, and accompanying the family during the Funeral Mass.

Training will take place at The Family Centre, 43 St Mel's Rd, Townparks, Longford, at 7pm on Wednesday, September 30, Wednesday, October 7 and Wednesday, October 14.

For full course information, registration and booking details, visit www.ardaghdiocese.org/training

Cardinal Arborelius Not Complying with Vatican Decree on Priest He Suspended, Letter Shows

New evidence suggests that Cardinal Anders Arborelius is not complying with key provisions of a Vatican decree that declared “invalid” his 2024 suspension of Father Tobias Unnerstål, a Swedish priest once considered by many as most likely to succeed the Cardinal as Bishop of Stockholm.

A letter signed by the Cardinal also undercuts the Chancery’s stated reason for not publicly informing clergy and faithful that Fr. Unnerstål’s suspension was ruled invalid, and that he may administer certain sacraments.

As previously reported, this case began when Fr. Unnerstål was interrogated by the Vicar General, Fr. Pascal-René Lung, OP, in April 2021 over a single complaint — not sexual in nature — filed by Joseph Rizk, then a seminarian who is now a priest of the diocese. Fr. Unnerstål was never shown the complaint. 

A former parish assistant, Birgitta Gelotte, later wrote that she had spent years shaping Rizk’s view of the relationship, and that she also felt she had to stop a project Fr. Unnerstål was establishing. 

He was removed without warning as parish priest of Christ the King Church in January 2022 and suspended by Cardinal Arborelius in November 2024.

Fr. Unnerstål contested the suspension, both in a Swedish civil court — where the diocese conceded his claims rather than contest them at trial — and before the Vatican’s Dicastery for Clergy, to which he formally lodged a recourse in September 2025. 

The Dicastery’s review concluded on May 5, 2026, with a decree declaring that the 2024 suspension had been imposed without correct procedure and was therefore “invalid.”

That decree, however, did not fully restore Fr. Unnerstål to priestly ministry. It imposed separate restrictions for three years, based on undisclosed “documentation at hand” — including concerns raised by Cardinal Arborelius, a member of the Dicastery, about the priest’s “behavior with men.” 

To date, neither the Dicastery nor the diocese has provided Fr. Unnerstål with this documentation. 

The new restrictions thus rest on material Fr. Unnerstål has never seen and therefore cannot challenge — a fact that strikes sources familiar with the Dicastery for Clergy as the most fundamental violation of the equitable process the Church’s own law requires.

On the basis of the undisclosed “documentation at hand,” the Dicastery restricted Fr. Unnerstål to offering Mass publicly only when concelebrating with his local Ordinary, i.e. the Cardinal, and revoked his faculties to hear confessions and preach. It specifically permitted him, however, to continue to administer the sacraments of baptism, matrimony, and the anointing of the sick.

The May 5 decree also required that the diocese provide for Fr. Unnerstål’s livelihood from the date the diocese had ceased paying him — July 3, 2025 — and specified that the damages awarded by the civil court, equivalent to 32 months’ salary, did not satisfy that obligation.

This journalist has obtained a letter, dated Aug. 30, 2026, and signed by Cardinal Arborelius regarding the diocese’s implementation of the decree.

The Cardinal’s Letter

Dated Aug. 30, the letter came in reply to one Fr. Unnerstål had sent on Aug. 3 thanking the Cardinal for a May 30 meeting at which the two had discussed the Dicastery’s decree. 

In his letter, Fr. Unnerstål also informed the Cardinal that he had filed a recourse to the Apostolic Signatura against the restrictions that the Dicastery had imposed on him.

Noting that nearly three months had passed since the decree was issued, and that no action had taken place with regard to the measures Rome required of the diocese, Fr. Unnerstål asked that his salary be paid retroactively from July 2025, and that the notice about his suspended status be removed from the diocesan website, with a corresponding notice in the diocesan bulletin. 

If the Cardinal still considered it necessary to issue a public notice about the measures the Dicastery had taken in place of his own, Fr. Unnerstål asked that it state the suspension had been declared invalid; that he remained a priest of the Diocese of Stockholm with the right to housing and basic livelihood; that he was authorized to baptize, officiate at weddings, and administer the anointing of the sick; that he could give blessings and bless people, places and things; that he could be present at other priests’ Masses, i.e. sit in choir; and that he had appealed the three-year restrictions imposed on him by the Dicastery.

On Aug. 30, Cardinal Arborelius replied:

Dear confrere!

Thank you for your letter of the 3rd of August, I regret that it has taken so long before I was able to answer. In addition, I cannot yet answer all the questions, since we both must await the reply from the Apostolic Signatura on your appeal on the restrictions that the Dicastery has imposed on you.

But I would like to communicate what we can already now establish:

that you remain a priest in the Diocese of Stockholm and until further notice can keep your residence in […]

that the diocese is responsible for your livelihood, first by having paid out three annual salaries and thereafter in dialogue between you and the Vicar General

* that you can give blessings and bless individual people, places and things

* that you still have the possibility to undergo rehabilitation if you so wish

If you have further questions, please feel free to contact the Vicar General.

With my intercession and blessing

+Anders Cardinal Arborelius ocd

Measuring the Cardinal’s Letter Against the Dicastery’s Decree

The Cardinal’s letter confirms that Fr. Unnerstål remains a priest of the Diocese of Stockholm, but the confirmations are selective.

Introducing his four points as “what we can already now establish,” the Cardinal affirms that Fr. Unnerstål can give blessings but says nothing of the sacraments the decree specifically permits him to administer — baptism, matrimony, and the anointing of the sick — or of his permission to concelebrate Mass publicly with the Cardinal. The implication is that the Cardinal does not regard these as settled. 

He says he cannot yet answer every question because both men must await the Apostolic Signatura’s reply, but by his own description the appeal concerns “the restrictions,” and an appeal against restrictions is no reason to withhold recognition of what the decree already permits.

On his residence: the May 5 decree established Fr. Unnerstål’s right to housing. The Cardinal’s letter states that he can keep his residence “until further notice.”

On provision for his livelihood: the decree, which by its own terms took effect May 5, required the diocese to resume financial support from the day it ceased paying Fr. Unnerstål’s salary — July 3, 2025. 

According to the decree, the Cardinal maintained that the civil court case resulted in the cleric receiving the equivalent of 32 month’s salary in damages, but the Dicastery specified that this does not satisfy the obligation to provide for his livelihood from July 2025.

The Cardinal’s letter acknowledges that the diocese is responsible for Fr. Unnerstål’s livelihood, “first by having paid out three annual salaries” — the equivalent of 36 months, four more than the figure mentioned in the decree. 

(Fr. Unnerstål made clear in his Aug. 3, 2026 letter to the Cardinal that he had not received any retroactive payment; therefore, it is unclear whether the reference to “three annual salaries” (36 months) is a typo or an oversight.) 

The Cardinal’s letter cites no salary payment — apart from the court ordered damages payment — made since the decree; it says further support will be worked out “in dialogue” with the Vicar General. 

As of Aug. 30, nearly four months after the decree, the letter’s conditioning of further support upon a future “dialogue” indicates that the diocese had not yet complied with this provision.

On his public standing: the decree declared the 2024 suspension invalid. 

The Cardinal’s letter does not acknowledge the Dicastery’s finding and is silent on Fr. Unnerstål’s request that the diocese remove the notice about his suspended status from its website and publish a corresponding notice in the diocesan bulletin.

Finally, the letter says Fr. Unnerstål “still” has the possibility of undergoing rehabilitation, if he so wishes. 

The word “rehabilitation” does not appear in the Dicastery’s May 5 decree, but the idea is not new: the Cardinal’s November 2024 suspension decree, which the Dicastery has since ruled invalid, cited a “Rehabilitation Plan” drawn up in January 2023 that had, in his words, “not been able to be completed as I wished.” 

The letter does not say what such rehabilitation would address, and neither the Dicastery nor the Diocese has supplied Fr. Unnerstål with the “documentation” that, according to the decree, formed the basis of the new restrictions.

Contradicting the Chancery

The Cardinal wrote to Fr. Unnerstål at exactly the same time his own Chancery was under active questioning about the very case his letter addressed.

The questions, part of an exchange with this journalist that took place Aug. 27–Sept. 2, were sent to diocesan communications officer Kristina Hellner. 

They were copied to two officials with direct knowledge of the case: the Vicar General, Fr. Pascal-René Lung, OP, who interrogated Fr. Unnerstål in 2021 and took part in subsequent meetings on his status, and the Episcopal Vicar for Judicial Affairs, Msgr. Jorge de Salas, who confirmed the substance of the Dicastery’s decree to this journalist by phone in June.

On Aug. 29, Hellner told this journalist that the diocese does not consider it “appropriate” to inform the clergy and faithful that Fr. Unnerstål is not suspended and that he may administer certain sacraments, because “we do not know which parts of the decree are or are not the subject of the appeal.” 

However, one day later, the Cardinal acknowledged in his letter to Fr. Unnerstål that “the restrictions” imposed on him by the Dicastery were the subject of the appeal.

Pressed on whether it is also the diocese’s position that it is not obliged, or that it is not “appropriate, ”to act on the May 5 decree regarding financial support until the canonical process has concluded, Hellner replied on Aug. 30 — the date of the Cardinal’s letter: “our policy is not to comment on financial support to individual priests, including when such matters are addressed in decrees.” Fr. Lung and Msgr. de Salas were copied on her reply.

Hellner’s final email in the exchange came on Sept. 2., when she confirmed that the Diocese itself “has not filed an appeal or recourse against the decree, either to the Apostolic Signatura or to the Dicastery for the Clergy.” 

She added: “We respect the decree of the Dicastery for the Clergy. We have, however, not seen the appeal submitted by the priest to the Apostolic Signatura and therefore do not know which parts of the decree are the subject of the appeal.”

By then, the Cardinal’s own letter naming “the restrictions” as the subject of the appeal was dated three days earlier.

The Role of the Vicar General

The Cardinal’s letter closes by directing Fr. Unnerstål elsewhere for anything further. 

“If you have further questions, please feel free to contact the Vicar General,” the Cardinal writes — the same Vicar General with whom, the Cardinal also writes, any further support is to be discussed.

The Vicar General, Fr. Pascal-René Lung, was also copied on Hellner’s emails.

Fr. Lung has been a central figure at nearly every stage of this case. In April 2021 he summoned Fr. Unnerstål to Stockholm and, meeting with him one-on-one, with the Cardinal absent, read him the charges without ever showing him the complaint. 

It was also Fr. Lung who, according to an account Birgitta Gelotte gave to Maxim Jaruta, reportedly telephoned her later in 2021 to warn her that Fr. Unnerstål had learned of her letter — after telling Fr. Unnerstål himself, on reading it, that something would need to be done to correct her. 

In January 2022, Fr. Lung conveyed the details of Fr. Unnerstål’s reassignment to him without mentioning that his removal from Christ the King Church would take effect that same day. And it was Fr. Lung who publicly announced the 2024 suspension.

As reported in June, Swedish Catholics calling for an apostolic visitation of the Diocese of Stockholm describe a “power vacuum” at the top of its administration, created, they say, by Cardinal Arborelius’s own lack of leadership, and filled by an “axis of power” within the Chancery. Fr. Lung has been named as a key part of that axis — an identification several independent diocesan sources have since confirmed to this journalist.

The Vicar General is also among those who some diocesan sources expect would likely be on the list of candidates to succeed Cardinal Arborelius, or at least temporarily govern the diocese, once the Cardinal retires, perhaps as early as the end of this month.

More than four months after Rome ruled his suspension invalid, Fr. Unnerstål has been directed by Cardinal Arborelius to speak to the man who announced the suspension — the same Vicar General copied on the diocese’s statement that it would be “inappropriate” to make public that his suspension was invalid or that he may administer certain sacraments.

Mother and baby home group to disband after taking its cause 'as far as it can go'

The Coalition of Mother and Baby Home Survivors (CMABS) is to disband after 13 years of campaigning for survivors of Ireland’s institutions, saying it has taken its work “as far as it can go”.

The CMABS brought together groups including Castlepollard, St Patrick’s Mother and Baby Home, Beyond Adoption Ireland, Adoption Rights Now and the Magdalene Laundries.

For almost a decade, retired solicitor Dudley Potter worked with the organisation, carrying out much of its correspondence and lobbying work with Government departments, ministers, TDs and other organisations.

Mr Potter said the coalition’s purpose was to lobby for a better legislative and redress deal for survivors. 

He said he received “virtually” no responses to many of his letters and eventually brought some matters to the Ombudsman where he had some successes.

Mr Potter said the coalition also campaigned for survivors to have a greater role in the oversight of the State’s response, including the centre established on Sean MacDermott Street.

He said the group — which was set up by mother and baby home survivors Clodagh Malone and Paul Redmond — had also sought survivor representation on the steering committee, but that their calls were not accepted.

The coalition also brought survivors’ concerns to Europe, petitioning the European Parliament’s Committee on Petitions.

Mr Potter said the response was that what had happened did not offend EU law, noting that the European legislation being considered dated from 1956.

“We don’t think we can get any further,” he said. “The decision has been made now to disband."

However, he said there are still court cases pending which could have implications for survivors, including challenges relating to the six-month time limit for bringing certain claims.

The Mother and Baby home redress scheme has excluded people who were boarded or fostered out of homes — despite being in State care at the time, while children in a home under six months have also been excluded.

Mr Potter, who was involved with the coalition for nine years, also criticised the way he believes the Government dealt with survivors and the Commission of Investigation.

He questioned aspects of the report and said “judicial review proceedings resulted in the Government agreeing to quash sections of it”.

He also recalled his involvement in a safeguarding conference organised by the Catholic Church last September, where four survivors spoke about their experiences.

He said the room was silent as they gave their accounts. “But overall the government let survivors down”.

‘Borgo Dialogues’ bring global leaders together in New York

The "Borgo Dialogues" is a global leadership platform that convenes leaders from business, finance, academia, faith, healthcare, sport, civil society and international institutions in New York this week for its first gathering in the United States.

The meeting, taking place from 20 to 23 September on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly, follows the inaugural "Borgo Dialogues" held in June at Borgo Laudato si’ in Castel Gandolfo.

According to a press release, the initiative is rooted in Catholic social teaching and focuses on the role of leadership in serving the common good. Organisers say the discussions seek to address challenges that cross national and institutional boundaries, including developments in artificial intelligence, changes in the world of work, healthcare, sustainable development and questions concerning human dignity.

At the centre of the discussions is a question posed to participants: “What are we building, for whom, and who will inherit it?” The question is intended to encourage reflection on how decisions about technology, investment, healthcare, governance, and leadership may affect present and future generations.

A space for dialogue

Cardinal Fabio Baggio, Director General of the Laudato si’ Centre for Higher Education and founder of the initiative, said: “The Borgo Dialogues represent an invitation to courageous leadership rooted in listening, encounter and shared responsibility.”

“At a moment when many institutions face growing fragmentation and distrust,” he continued, “we need spaces where leaders can engage difficult questions honestly, build trust across differences and commit themselves to actions that uphold human dignity and advance the common good.”

The programme in New York includes leadership roundtables, private meetings and strategic discussions. Topics include artificial intelligence and workforce transformation, healthcare and human dignity, sustainable development, systems-level change across industries and the responsibilities of leaders in an increasingly interconnected world.

From Castel Gandolfo to New York

More than 80 global leaders participated in the first Borgo Dialogues, held from 17 to 19 June at Borgo Laudato si’ in Castel Gandolfo. Discussions focused on artificial intelligence and humanity, ageing and dignity, sports and diplomacy, and leadership.

The June meeting concluded with a private audience with Pope Leo XIV, who described the Dialogues as “a first step in the process” of renewing and reimagining moral leadership in a fragmented world.

Rev. Daniel G. Groody, C.S.C., Vice President and Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education at the University of Notre Dame and a member of the General Council of the Laudato si’ Centre for Higher Education, said the initiative seeks to connect intellectual reflection with practical action.

“The world’s most urgent challenges require relationships that rise above institutions and ideologies,” he said.

Organisers say the Dialogues seek to promote technologies, institutions, and systems that recognise the dignity of every person, with particular attention to those who are most vulnerable. Proposals emerging from the discussions are expected to be presented at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Pope Leo XIV visits Dicastery for Culture and Education

Pope Leo XIV highlighted the important work of the Dicastery for Culture and Education during a one-hour visit to the Dicastery’s offices on Monday.

During his visit, the Holy Father “noted how culture—through sport and art—has created numerous opportunities for encounter, fostering dialogue via a universal language capable of conveying the values of humanism to all,” according to a statement published by the Dicastery following the visit.

He also expressed his gratitude to employees and staff who work in the Dicastery, while encouraging them in their daily commitment and service to the Church and to the world.

In Praedicate Evangelium, Pope Leo’s predecessor, Francis, described the mission of the Dicastery for Culture and Education as working “for the development of people’s human values in the context of Christian anthropology, contributing to the full realization of Christian discipleship,” and during his visit, Pope Leo emphasized that the Roman Curia is a “precious instrument” for transmitting the Faith, the Church’s “fundamental message.”

At the conclusion of his visit, Pope Leo blessed all those present along with their families.  

Pope Leo XIV: AI must serve human dignity and strengthen peace

In a world marked by conflict and division, the development of artificial intelligence must be guided by wisdom and charity so that technological progress may serve the dignity of every person and strengthen the bonds that unite the human family.

This is the message at the heart of Pope Leo XIV’s words to participants in the first edition of AI4Peace, an international symposium dedicated to the opportunities and challenges posed by artificial intelligence in the prevention and resolution of conflicts, the protection of human rights and global governance.

“His Holiness Pope Leo XIV sends cordial good wishes to all gathered for the AI4Peace, Global Biennial Symposium & International Conference,” the message states, expressing the Pope’s hope that the discussions will contribute “to a renewed and widespread commitment to placing technological innovation at the service of the common good.”

The message was read by Fr Andrea Ciucci, Chancellor of the Pontifical Academy for Life, during the symposium at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome.

AI and the dignity of every person

Pope Leo situates the discussion on artificial intelligence within a world experiencing conflict and division. In such a context, he says, technological development requires not only technical expertise but also a vision “inspired by wisdom and charity”.

The aim, he stresses, should be to ensure that technological progress “may serve the dignity of every person and strengthen the bonds that unite the human family.”

The Pope then refers to his Encyclical Magnifica humanitas, recalling that God’s “plan of mercy continues to unfold throughout history today” and “becomes a compass in the digital era for living our lives according to the Gospel” (No. 230).

Artificial intelligence as an instrument of peace

Pope Leo encourages the participants to examine ways in which artificial intelligence can contribute to peace when its development and use are guided by concern for the good of others.

He invites them in particular to explore how AI can “foster dialogue, reconciliation and solidarity among peoples”, helping to transform the fruits of technological innovation into “instruments of peace”.

An international symposium

The first edition of AI4Peace – Global Biennial Symposium & International Conference opened on Monday at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome.

The meeting brings together experts and researchers to examine the role of artificial intelligence in relation to peacebuilding, conflict prevention and resolution, human rights and governance.

The Pope concludes his message entrusting the participants’ work to the hope that it will produce lasting results, “With the assurance of his prayers that their efforts will bear lasting fruit.”

Vatican releases itinerary for Pope's upcoming journey to Latin America

The Holy See Press Office has released the programme for Pope Leo XIV’s upcoming Apostolic Journey to South America in November, which will see him visit Uruguay, Argentina and Peru and travel to ten cities over twelve days.

Alongside the programme, the logos and mottos for each of the three stages have also been unveiled.

The Holy See had already announced the dates of the journey, and the cities to be visited, on 5 August, but the programme released today reveals further details, including times, venues and activities.

6-8 November: Uruguay

The Pope will arrive in Uruguay, where he will remain from 6 to 8 November, visiting Montevideo, Paysandú and Florida.

It will be the first papal visit to the country since St John Paul II’s journey in 1988. The motto for this stage of the visit will be “I bring you news of great joy”, taken from the angel’s announcement to the shepherds in Bethlehem (Lk 2:10. 

The logo, on the other hand, shows Christ crucified and risen, flanked by Pope Leo and Our Lady of the Thirty-Three, patroness of Uruguay. Above them is the sun, inspired by the “Sun of May”, a symbol of Uruguay’s national identity, while the colour blue evokes the national flag.

8–11 November: Argentina

On 8 November, Pope Leo will head to Argentina, where he will remain until 11 November. The programme includes visits to Buenos Aires, Córdoba and Luján.

The visit will be particularly significant as Argentina is the home country of Pope Francis. The Pope will arrive in the country almost four decades after the last papal visit: St John Paul II travelled there in 1987.

The motto for this stage will be “Welcome everyone. Go and proclaim”. The logo depicts a group of people with a cross at the centre. The arrangement of the figures suggests a shared journey, in which each person participates with a sense of co-responsibility: from encounter to proclamation, as missionary disciples on the way.

11-17 November: Peru

On 11 November, the Pope will travel to Peru, where he will remain until 17 November. This will be the longest stage of the journey and include stops in Lima, Chiclayo, Cuzco and Pucallpa. 

The visit will have particular significance for a Pope who spent years carrying out missionary and pastoral work in the country.

The motto for this stage of the trip is “Let us open our hearts”. The logo is framed by a heart symbolising openness to God, to others and to the future. Inside is a map of Peru, over which the Holy Spirit is depicted in the form of a dove. 

At the centre is the Pope, surrounded by the Peruvian saints St Rose of Lima, St Turibius of Mogrovejo, St Martin de Porres, St Francis Solano and St John Macías.

Catholic Church's culture problem is closer to home than Pope Leo thinks (Opinion)

Nearly a year after Pope Leo XIV told a Rome meeting of synod team leaders that the problem of including women in Catholic Church management and ministry was essentially a cultural issue, there has been little movement on the issue in dioceses around the world. 

To complicate matters, women are treated as second-rate in many secular societies, and the church, while countercultural in so many ways, supports such stumbling blocks for women.

Significantly, as the Curia has added women to significant managerial positions, the altar rail remains a barrier to women in liturgical ministry.

As for management, this month at the Vatican, Salesian Sr. Alessandra Smerilli became the new prefect of a major curial office, the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. For five years, she was the dicastery's secretary, or No. 2 official, under Canadian Cardinal Michael Czerny. 

Now she leads some 80 dicastery members in an office dedicated to the church's central mission: acting on the precepts of the Gospel throughout the world.

Two other women have been announced to lead Curia offices: Consolata Missionary Sr. Simona Brambilla has led the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, responsible for men and women religious (sisters, brothers and priests), since 2025; and Maria Montserrat Alvarado will lead the Dicastery for Communication, overseeing Vatican media, radio, the press office and publishing, beginning in November.

These are not minor positions, and the women filling them are accomplished managers dedicated to Catholicism.

Catholic social teaching supports women in the workforce. The current pope's namesake, Pope Leo XIII, complained about the exploitation of women as factory workers in his encyclical Rerum Novarum (1891). Since then, however, Vatican statements mentioning women often praise, or even prefer, women as wives and mothers. Leo XIII even wrote that women are naturally suited to domestic work and that they must protect their modesty.

It fits into a worldwide cultural and religious problem that oppresses women. In Afghanistan, under the Taliban, girls are banned from school after sixth grade; some meet in hidden classrooms. Like all women there, young and old, they are covered head to toe. Today, some 2.5 million girls in Afghanistan are sentenced to marriage and modesty, mostly hidden from the rest of society.

Catholic teaching is not so extreme, but the church exists in some very culturally closed societies.

As for women in ministry, while many expand the term "ministry" to include all manner of office work, teaching, social service and the like, technically it refers to the spiritual work of ordained clergy. In fact, the dictionary definition of "the ministry" is "clergy."

And even as the church moves women into increasingly important management positions — Sr. Raffaella Petrini of the Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist has headed the Governorate of Vatican City State, and as such is its major administrator, since March 2025 — the Catholic Church still bans women from ordained ministry.

The ban is more than a speed bump along the way to having women fully recognized as persons inside and outside of Catholic circles. There are significant theological objections to women priests and, consequently, to women bishops.

But those objections do not extend to women deacons.

Despite the historical, theological and anthropological affirmations regarding women deacons, even the slightest attempts at including women in liturgy — ordained or not — come against the cultural brick walls around the world, to which Leo XIV alluded.

In 2021, his predecessor, Pope Francis, changed canon law to allow women and men not headed toward ordination to be formally installed as lectors (readers) and acolytes (altar servers), but only a scattering of dioceses have done so. Are ancient blood taboos stopping progress?

For those who say banning women from the sanctuary has been abandoned, perhaps the church's 1967 instruction on sacred music will give them pause: "Whenever the choir also includes women, it should be placed outside the sanctuary (presbyterium)." The document is still in force.

The church changes century by century, if at all. Look carefully at the next televised Mass from St. Peter's Basilica and see where the women are. The cultural problem may be closer than Leo thinks.

Peter's Pence Balanced in 2025

In 2025, donations from the faithful to Peter's Pence continued to increase slightly for the fourth consecutive year, with an increase of €0.2 million. Expenses were more controlled, with losses of only €2.2 million.

The Obolus fund, which administers donations from the faithful for the Pope's charitable works, was slightly less funded – with 57.6 million euros in revenue in 2025, compared to 58 million euros in 2024, the Secretariat for the Economy announced in its annual report published on June 30, 2026. Mainly due to lower financial revenue (-0.6 million euros).

The year 2025 confirms the desire to reduce spending, with a deficit of only 2.2 million euros which the Holy See attributes mainly to unfavorable fluctuations in foreign exchange rates.

The Holy See has primarily sought to reduce the share of Peter's Pence used to finance the activities of the Roman Curia, following the economic reform launched under the pontificate of Francis.

However, the Pope's assistance projects – building churches, funding studies for priests in poor dioceses, humanitarian aid – were not affected, stabilizing at around 13 million euros since 2023.

The share of these one-off grants, which had been around 15% of contributions in recent years, increased in 2025, reaching 24%. The Holy See thus financed 252 projects in 74 countries, including payments of 103,000 euros for Gaza, 89,000 euros to build a school in South Sudan, 76,000 euros to renovate a seminary in Zambia and 112,000 euros to build a convent in Sri Lanka.

On the revenue side, 2025 saw an increase in the share of donations from dioceses, with €34.7 million paid, representing 64% of donations, compared to €31.8 million and 59% in 2024. The share of dioceses in 2025 is, however, close to that of 2023 and 2022, the most important variable being that of private donors, who represented 4% of donations in 2023 compared to 16% in 2024. In 2025, they represented €5.4 million, or 10%.

In 2025, Americans were once again the largest contributors to Peter's Pence: $13.7 million, representing 26% of donations. France ranked sixth with $1.3 million in donations in 2025, behind Italy ($3.1 million), Brazil ($2.1 million), South Korea ($1.5 million), and Germany ($1.4 million).

Belgium: The Jesuits leave Liège, 450 years after their arrival

The Jesuit community of Liège left the city in June 2026, after more than four centuries of presence. 

The small number and advanced age of its members made the decision inevitable, a dramatic consequence of the dying out of vocations.

Father André Moreau SJ, the last superior of the Liège community, recalled that the Jesuits founded two colleges in Liège as early as the 16th. century : the Collège en Isle (or Collège des Jésuites Wallons) and the Collège des Anglais. 

In 1828, after the restoration of the Society of Jesus, the Collège Saint-Servais was founded clandestinely by a diocesan priest.

Having become a Jesuit, this priest entrusted Saint-Servais to the Society of Jesus. Similarly, the Collège Saint-Louis (named after Saint Louis de Gonzague) was founded by the Jesuits on the other bank of the Meuse at the end of the 19th century, before being entrusted to the diocese of Liège in 1949. 

And in the premises of Saint-Louis, the Jesuits opened, at the beginning of the 20th century , the Institut Gramme, a school of industrial engineers, now integrated into HELMo (Haute École Libre Mosane).

On June 13, 2026, during the thanksgiving mass, Father Thierry Dobbelstein SJ, Provincial Superior of the Jesuits of the French-speaking Western European Province (EOF), spoke about vocations in his homily. "It is not enough to pray (...) vocations do not fall from the sky, but they grow from below."

For Father André Moreau, SJ, it is now up to "young people to invent new forms of vocations . " The Jesuit educational tradition will nevertheless continue with the Saint-Benoît-Saint-Servais school group, which educates more than 2,000 students, the Jesuits' statement specifies.

The priests moved gradually between the end of June and mid-July 2026. Fr. André Moreau, SJ, and Fr. Marc Chodoire, SJ, joined Maison Saint-Claude La Colombière in Brussels. Frs. Etienne Triaille, SJ, and Etienne de Ghellinck, SJ, settled in the Lille Station and Lille Marché communities, respectively. Brother François-Xavier Evrard is at La Diglette.

Pope to pray rosary for peace with more than 700 children at the Vatican

Between 700 and 1,000 children will pray a rosary for peace with Pope Leo XIV on Oct. 1 at the Lourdes Grotto in the Vatican Gardens, part of a prayer initiative promoted by Aid to the Church in Need.

Coming from schools and parishes throughout Rome, the children will join the pontiff in the “One Million Children Praying the Rosary” campaign organized by the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).

They will also be spiritually united with children, families, schools, and Christian communities around the world in an event marking the beginning of the global week during which the prayer initiative is observed.

During that week, any diocese, parish, religious community, school, or family anywhere in the world can participate. The week concludes on Oct. 7, the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.

Inspired by the message of Fátima

The 2026 campaign is inspired by the message received by the children at Fátima: “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.”

Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of ACN International and prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, said in particular that “the Immaculate Heart of Mary represents a life completely open to the Holy Spirit and presents Mary as a model of faith, love, and prayer.”

According to ACN, “the initiative takes on special significance at a time when millions of people are facing war, violence, persecution, poverty, and uncertainty.” For this reason, the prayer campaign “seeks to be a simple yet universal sign of trust and hope: children of different languages, cultures, and countries united in the same prayer for peace.”

The origins: Padre Pio and Venezuela 20 years ago

The “One Million Children Praying the Rosary” initiative began in Venezuela in 2005. Today it has become a worldwide prayer movement involving children, families, parishes, schools, and Church groups on every continent, inspired by the words of St. Pio of Pietrelcina, who said that “when 1 million children pray the rosary, the world will change.”

ACN said the invitation is not limited to children and that praying an entire rosary is not required: “Even a single decade prayed with faith can become part of this global chain of prayer.”

The pontifical foundation also provides prayer materials in several languages and asks participants to register so that the network of children joining the prayer in different countries can be displayed on a map.

The initiative is organized in collaboration with the Shrine of Fátima, the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, and the World Apostolate of Fátima. This year, World Rosary Day is also joining the campaign for the first time.

Bolivia, Sudan, Zimbabwe, and Paraguay

The prayers of Pope Leo XIV and the children of Rome will be joined by prayer gatherings planned in locations around the world, “from the Bolivian Amazon to parishes in Sudan, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, and many other places affected by war, poverty, or instability,” ACN said.

In war-torn Sudan, Father Franck Mandozi of the Kosti Pastoral Region confirmed that children from several parishes and schools will take part. From the Tsimané Indigenous community in the Bolivian Amazon, Sister Patricia Alejandra Botello López said they will pray in both their local language and Spanish.

Children from St. Christopher Parish in the Archdiocese of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, will gather on Sunday, Oct. 4, to pray with their pastor, Father Charles Mafurutu, who in the following weeks will travel to other communities.

In Paraguay, Radio Pa’i Puku plans to promote the initiative through its broadcasts and will carry a live transmission of the rosary prayed by children at St. Eugene de Mazenod Parish.

Oxford’s Dominican friars have picked up a Good Habit

There are plenty of good reasons to develop a coffee habit, but the Dominican friars in Oxford, England, may just have provided another.

A new café has opened beside Blackfriars on St Giles, offering coffee, pastries, breakfast, brunch and lunch seven days a week, according to Oxford Mail. Its name? Good Habit.

And while the friars won't actually be steaming the milk themselves -- the café is independently run -- there is considerably more behind the project than keeping Oxford supplied with flat whites.

Good Habit has been created by Blackfriars, the Dominican academic community within the University of Oxford, to solve a rather practical problem. The Hall needed somewhere for students and academics to eat together, while a commercial space in its adjoining building was sitting unused. Put the two together, add a coffee bar and fully equipped kitchen, and a very good habit was born.

Coffee, conversation, and community

During the day, Good Habit is open to anyone wandering along St Giles in search of coffee or lunch. At other times, the flexible space will host student meals and events, giving the Blackfriars community something it has previously lacked: a place to gather regularly around a table.

And for an order with an 800-year tradition of preaching, teaching, and exchanging ideas, creating a space built around conversation couldn't be more apt.

However, it also gives Blackfriars something else: a window onto the street, quite literally. The main priory can be easy to pass without knowing much about the life taking place inside. Good Habit, by contrast, has large picture windows opening onto one of Oxford's busiest streets.

Richard Brown, development director at Blackfriars Hall, hopes people will spot friars enjoying a coffee there and that curiosity might lead naturally to conversations about who they are and what they do. No elaborate introduction required. Sometimes a coffee will do.

A good habit that does some good

The café also has a practical benefit for Blackfriars. It operates on a profit-sharing basis, so if Good Habit thrives, some of that success will help support the Hall's educational work at Oxford.

But perhaps the loveliest part of the project is its simplicity. Opening a café isn't an obvious form of evangelization, and the person popping in for a cappuccino may have no particular interest in meeting a Dominican friar.

Then again, Christianity has always placed considerable importance on hospitality, shared meals and making room for conversation. So if a cup of coffee brings a few more people through the door -- and perhaps occasionally into a conversation they weren't expecting -- Good Habit may turn out to be a very good habit indeed.