Inaugural meeting of German Synodal Conference postponed indefinitely

The first meeting of the German Synodal Conference, originally planned for November, has been postponed indefinitely, because the Vatican has yet to approve the statutes establishing the new body.

The conference was to be the next step in the controversial German Synodal Way. It was to be composed of 27 bishops, 27 representatives of the Central Committee of German Catholics (known as ZdK in German) and 27 other Catholics with equal voting standing to oversee the Catholic Church in Germany.

The president of the German bishops’ conference, Bishop Heiner Wilmer, said in an interview last week that he was confident that they “would make progress” but added, “I know from those [in Rome] that it will take some more time.”

Thomas Arnold, a ZdK member, told katholisch.de that he believed that Rome wanted to harmonize the German synodal conference with the 2027-2028 Vatican-led synodal ecclesial assembly.

“I would have preferred a swift start to the Synodal Conference. If Rome now intends to synchronize the processes, the Vatican should also clarify as quickly and definitively as possible what can be decided synodally at the local level in the future,” Arnold said.

Regarding the decision to postpone the meeting more than two months in advance, Britta Baas, ZdK spokeswoman, said that “For such a large meeting, you have to plan the venue and hotel rooms well in advance – at some point, you have to take action regarding the amount of cancellations if you don’t want to throw away significant sums of money.”

The first meeting was supposed to take place in Stuttgart on Nov. 6-7, with a second meeting scheduled in Würzburg in March 2027. It is unclear when the first meeting is now expected to take place and if the second meeting will also be postponed.

Wilmer had already hinted at the possibility of a delay as early as May. During a press conference at a Catholic congress in Würzburg, he said, “I personally do not expect us to meet as early as November.”

Dom Radio reported that participants had not received a formal invitation to the conference but had not received a cancellation either, speculating that “it seems that everyone involved is currently benefiting from keeping the issue low-profile.”

“Both in Germany and in Rome, the personnel constellations have fundamentally changed since the six plenary assemblies of the Synodal Way,” the article said, referring to the new pope, new president of the German bishops’ conference, and new nuncio to Germany since the Synodal Way concluded three years ago.

The German Synodal Way came to an end in 2023 after six heated plenary assemblies and many smaller committee meetings, generating 150 pages of resolutions on everything from women deacons to lay preaching at Masses to priestly celibacy.

The most salient resolution called for the creation of a new permanent national body composed of bishops and lay people, known as the “synodal conference.” If the Vatican approves the body’s creation, it would mark the start of a second phase of the Synodal Way — one that could potentially last for decades.

The synodal conference is intended to replace an institution called the “joint conference,” which has brought together bishops and lay people from the Central Committee of German Catholics, or ZdK, twice a year since 1976.

The statutes for the synodal conference were approved unanimously in a November 2025 meeting of the interim synodal committee established by the Synodal Way in 2023 in an attempt to allay Vatican concerns that the new body would undermine the authority of the country’s bishops’ conference and diocesan bishops.

The finalized text of the statutes said the synodal conference “respects the constitutional order of the Church and preserves the rights of diocesan bishops and the German bishops’ conference, as well as diocesan procedures and bodies.”

The new body was intended to consist of all 27 diocesan bishops and 27 representatives of the lay Central Committee of German Catholics, known by its German initials, ZdK, as well as an additional 27 elected members. All members would have equal voting rights, according to the statutes.

But it is uncertain whether all diocesan bishops would join the new body, as four bishops previously boycotted the interim synodal committee, arguing it was at odds with the global synodal path established by Pope Francis.

Now that they have been finalized by the synodal committee, the statutes must be endorsed at plenary assemblies of the German bishops’ conference and the ZdK. They would then be submitted to the Vatican for recognitio ad experimentum, or provisional approval for trial implementation.

Tension between the Vatican and Church leaders in Germany has been ongoing for years.

When the German Synodal Way in September 2022 first called for the establishment of a permanent “advisory and decision-making body” composed of bishops and lay people, to “take fundamental decisions of supradiocesan significance,” the Vatican responded by telling the German bishops that neither they nor synodal way participants had the authority to establish the body.

The Vatican argued that it would represent “a new governance structure of the Church in Germany which … would place itself above the authority of the German bishops’ conference and would in fact appear to replace it,” undermining episcopal authority as outlined in the documents of Vatican Council II.

When the Synodal Way ended in March 2023, the new interim institution known as the synodal committee was established with the task of setting up the permanent new body “by March 2026 at the latest,” despite the Vatican veto.

German bishops flew to Rome in March 2024 for discussions with senior curial officials, building on talks over the Synodal Way that began during their 2022 ad limina visit.

At a follow-up meeting in June 2024, the German bishops and the Vatican issued a joint statement, saying that a commission created by the synodal committee would “deal with questions of synodality and the structure of a synod body.”

German media said that one point of contention was over draft statutes’ definition of the synodal conference as a body that “deliberates and decides” on important Church matters that transcend diocesan boundaries.

Following discussions, this was amended to “deliberates and decides in accordance with ‘synodal decision-making processes’ on important issues of Church life of supra-diocesan significance.” The phrase “synodal decision-making processes” is drawn from the synod on synodality’s final document.

Another point of dispute was the statutes’ description of the new permanent body’s relationship to the Association of the Dioceses of Germany, a legal entity of the bishops’ conference. 

The association, known by its German initials VDD, is the central financial and administrative coordinating body of the country’s 27 dioceses.

A synodal committee member proposed that the statutes say that the synodal conference’s finance committee would assume the responsibilities of the VDD’s association council in budgetary matters.

The association council, a body with both advisory and decision-making powers, consists of 18 voting members, including seven diocesan bishops, six vicars general, three diocesan finance directors, and two people nominated by the ZdK.

Bishop Franz Jung of Würzburg and Archbishop Udo Markus Bentz of Paderborn reportedly spoke out against the proposal, while welcoming the general principle of increased lay input in financial decisions.

A declaration approved by synodal committee members said the body “would like to see the basic principle of synodality implemented here too through a reform of the structures and procedures of the VDD.”

ZdK president Irme Stetter-Karp insisted after the November 2025 vote that the synodal conference would not be a “paper tiger.”

She said: “Bishops and lay people unanimously adopted the statutes for the synodal conference. With the formula that has always been important to us as lay people: that we deliberate and decide together.”

But other German Catholics argued the synodal conference’s statutes could provoke future conflicts within the Church in Germany.

A November 2025 op-ed for the Catholic daily newspaper Die Tagespost suggested that lay people involved in diocesan church tax and finance councils would resent interventions from the national synodal conference.

In a November 2025 analysis for the website of the German edition of the journal Communio, journalist Benjamin Leven wrote: “Despite their formal character, the statutes are clearly designed as an intermediate step. The text sets out guidelines, but deliberately leaves room for further increases in the power of lay representatives.”

John Paul I: The relevance of his missionary magisterium in the six “we want” commitments of his pontificate

On August 26, 1978, Albino Luciani was elected Pope, taking the name John Paul I. His pontificate lasted only 34 days, but already in his “Urbi et Orbi” Radio Message of August 27, delivered the day after his election, the new Pontiff clearly outlined the guiding principles of his pontificate.

One of his priorities was evangelization as a central dimension of the Church’s mission. “We wish to remind the whole Church that her first duty remains that of evangelization,” the Pope said, explicitly referring to Paul VI’s Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii nuntiandi. 

The Church, he added, “animated by faith, nourished by the Word of God, and sustained by the heavenly nourishment of the Eucharist,” must “study every path, seek every means, 'opportune importune,' to sow the Word, to proclaim the message, to announce salvation.”

In his Radio Message, John Paul I expressed his determination to continue the legacy of the Second Vatican Council and that of his predecessors, structuring his program around six “we want”: implementing the Council; safeguarding the Church’s “great discipline”; placing evangelization first; pursuing the ecumenical commitment; fostering serene and constructive dialogue; and promoting whatever could “protect and advance peace in our troubled world.” 

In the Radio Message, the Pope, alongside the other “we want,” pointed to a Church called to “unceasingly pursue the legacy of the Second Vatican Council.”

This was a reflection deeply rooted in the Church’s Tradition and, precisely for that reason, highly relevant today.

“He had already assimilated during his priestly formation that vision, dear to the Fathers of the first millennium of the Church, expressed in the mysterium lunae: a Church that does not shine with its own light, but with reflected light; a Church that is not the property of Churchmen, but Christi lumine. ‘Fulget Ecclesia non suo sed Christi lumine’ (the Church shines not with its own light, but with that of Christ),” writes Stefania Falasca, a scholar of John Paul I, postulator of the cause and vice president of the John Paul Vatican Foundation, in an article published in L’Osservatore Romano on August 25. Stefania Falasca notes that, like Paul VI, Luciani had taken this image from St. Ambrose.

It was “an image of the nature of the Church and of the action appropriate to it” that had permeated the documents of the Second Vatican Council and become decisive and fruitful in Albino Luciani’s pastoral ministry, long before he was elected to the See of Peter.

The central importance he gave to the Church’s missionary vocation had already marked his ministry as Bishop of Vittorio Veneto and Patriarch of Venice, as highlighted in a 2009 essay by Professor Roberto Morozzo della Rocca entitled L’orizzonte missionario di Albino Luciani (“Albino Luciani’s Missionary Horizon”).

For the Pope, proclamation was not entrusted solely to specialists or ecclesial structures. John Paul I spoke of “all the sons and daughters of the Church,” called to be “tireless missionaries of the Gospel,” so that “a new flowering of holiness and renewal” might emerge in a world “thirsty for love and truth.”

The Pope urged the faithful not to conform “to the customs of the world,” nor to “the allurements of easy applause,” but to be ready to give an account of the hope that is within them.

The Church, he continued, is called to offer the world that “surplus of soul” of which it stands in need, at a time when technological progress risks reducing “the earth to a desert, the human person to an automaton, and fraternal coexistence to a planned collectivization.”

Addressing missionaries, he greeted “the whole missionary Church” and the men and women working “on the frontiers of evangelization.”

A month later, on September 28, 1978, in an address to a group of Filipino bishops making their ad limina visit, he further clarifies his thoughts. “Among the rights of the faithful, one of the most important is the right to receive the Word of God in all its integrity and purity, with all its demands and its power,” he said. The baptized, he insisted, must be offered the Word of God “in all its integrity and purity.” 

The Pope stressed that “one of the great challenges of our day is the full evangelization of all those who have been baptized.”

Evangelization, he continued, entails explicit teaching about “the name of Jesus, his identity, his teaching, his Kingdom and his promises.” Among these, “his principal promise is eternal life.”

He also recognized “the great vocation of the Philippines” to be “the light of Christ in the Far East,” called to proclaim “his truth, his love, his justice and salvation in word and example” to the peoples of Asia.

As early as his 1966 journey to Burundi, Luciani had demonstrated a concrete understanding of the encounter between the Gospel and cultures. He recognized the decisive role of local clergy, called to guide Churches rooted in the language, history and mentality of their peoples, and he urged missionaries to serve them with humility.

At the same time, he rejected ideological oppositions between “foreign” missionaries and indigenous Churches: “There is work for everyone,” he wrote, invoking the Pauline principle: Dummodo Christus annuntietur — “as long as Christ is proclaimed.”

Before the Filipino bishops, he also described Radio Veritas as a “privileged instrument” for proclaiming, together with the whole Church, “that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Savior of the world.”

Pope John Paul I was deeply attentive to the development of the means of communication. In his address to representatives of the international press on September 1, 1978, he pledged “frank, honest and effective” cooperation with the instruments of social communication, while acknowledging the risks of “massification and leveling” for the inner life of the human person and his or her capacity for judgment.

He first asked journalists to present the Church “with a love of truth and respect for human dignity,” and then to “comment, at times, on our humble ministry,” again “with a love of truth and respect for human dignity, because such is the purpose of all social communication.” The Church, however, remained his first concern.

On September 4, 1978, addressing the Special Missions present for the beginning of his pontificate, he explained: “We shall endeavor to carry out this service using language that is simple, clear and confident.”

The Church, he reminded the Filipino bishops, was irrevocably committed to alleviating poverty and material needs; but her pastoral charity would remain incomplete if she failed also to point to humanity’s “higher needs.”

The biography Io sono la polvere. Biografia ex documentis (“I Am Dust: A Biography from the Documents”) further shows how, as Patriarch of Venice, John Paul I had already addressed the relationship between evangelization and human promotion, defending the primacy of Christian proclamation without separating it from responsibility for people’s concrete needs.

In L’Osservatore Romano, Stefania Falasca recalls that John Paul I emphasized that the Pope and the Holy See did not possess “miraculous solutions to the great problems of the world,” but could “nevertheless give something very precious: a spirit that helps to resolve these problems and places them within their essential dimension, that of openness to the values of universal charity.”

For Luciani, support for building a possible peace, inseparable from the Church’s proper mission, was the guiding principle of his entire, brief pontificate.

“Examining Pope Luciani’s pontificate as a decisive passage in the exercise of the Petrine ministry, with enormous repercussions for the life of the Church, helps not only to reconstruct John Paul I’s profile in its entirety, but also to understand the challenges with which the Church was and is called to engage,” Falasca emphasizes, indicating the perspective from which to re-read the legacy of the Venetian Pope.

The re-reading of the six “we want” and their relevance today will be at the heart of the international academic conference “John Paul I: Iustitia et Pax. Protecting and advancing peace in this troubled world,” scheduled for October 13, 2026, at the Pontifical Gregorian University.

The Foundation, established to preserve and promote Luciani’s documentary heritage, now serves as an international reference point for research and scholarship based on the sources relating to his magisterium and ecclesial journey.

The archival sources acquired and made available today — the result of the omnino plena research supported for more than a decade by the Cause for the Canonization of Albino Luciani–John Paul I and collected since 2020 by the John Paul I Vatican Foundation — “have opened a new chapter in historiography,” Stefania Falasca writes in L’Osservatore Romano.

These sources, she adds, make it possible to shed light on “the genesis of a project for the governance of the pontificate” and to present the teachings and memory of John Paul I with greater precision.

“Through the Study Days promoted by the Foundation in collaboration with the Pontifical Gregorian University and dedicated to the sources of John Paul I’s Magisterium, the Foundation has continued its scientific research, focusing precisely on the six volumus of Pope Luciani’s program for his pontificate. Each of them will be the subject, over the years, of a dedicated academic conference,” explains the Foundation’s vice president.

The conference is promoted by the John Paul I Vatican Foundation in collaboration with the Pontifical Gregorian University and the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences, and will be attended by Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, President of the Foundation.

“Examining Pope Luciani’s pontificate as a decisive passage in the exercise of the Petrine ministry,” Falasca says, “with enormous repercussions for the life of the Church, helps not only to reconstruct John Paul I’s profile in its entirety, but also to understand the challenges with which the Church was and is called to engage.”

Bessborough survivors seek judicial review of planning permission for apartments on site

THE GROUP REPRESENTING survivors and relatives of people who once resided at the mother and baby home in Bessborough, Co Cork, has filed for a judicial review of plans to build apartments on the site.

The Bessborough Mother and Baby Home Support Group submitted the filing to the High Court this week. 

In July, An Coimisiún Pleanála granted permission to private developer Estuary View Enterprises to build 106 apartments on the site at Bessborough, a decision made following an appeal. 

The home was run by the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and operated between 1922 and 1998.

The Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes’ report found almost 20,000 women and children were admitted during that time.

Only 64 have known graves, meaning the burial places of 859 children are unknown.

Some 31 women died in the mother and baby home, but the commission only found death registration records for 29 of the women.

The fate of the site, where survivors and their relatives believe the bodies of the deceased may be buried, has been fiercely debated in the Dáil this year.

Opposition parties have repeatedly raised the issue and pushed the government to intervene in the planning process, while calling for the site to be excavated. 

Chinese Chris­tian Detained After Listen­ing to the Bible in His Car

A Christian living in northwestern China was reportedly arrested after listening to the Bible with a USB device in his car.

The unnamed believer -referred to as Brother AK in an Aug. 13 report from Premier Christian News -- was stopped at a checkpoint while driving with his family through a Muslim-majority part of China to visit other Christians. 

He reportedly told officials that “because I believe in Jesus, I was listening to the Bible through the USB." 

Brother AK was detained for questions, and his wife and children -- including their baby - were separated from him. 

Several days passed without - news of his whereabouts as the family stayed with nearby Christians.

Then the host family received a call from authorities inquiring into their relationship with Brother AK's family.

“At present, AK’s situation remains unclear, and we do not yet know what consequences he may face," Jason, a local partner with the ministry Open Doors, told Premier Christian News.

"We were recently informed that AK will be detained for 15 days. However, no specific charge or official basis for his detention has been disclosed by the authorities. We urgently need to pray.”

Brother AK lives in a town with close surveillance where other Christians have received similar harassment.

One believer found listening to the Bible through earphones was previously detained for 15 days.

Chinese officials later detained other Christians from his church for one or two days. “Incidents like these are becoming more common in China, as the authorities tighten their grip on any religious activity deemed a threat to the regime’s ideological control," Open Doors said of Brother AK's persecution.

"That even extends to the Christian media that believers consume in private, which many rely on for discipleship and fellowship."

The ministry added that Brother AK is one of many Christians across the communist nation "who are under intense pressure because of the increasing surveillance of the authorities alongside ever-tightening religious laws."

"It’s forcing believers further underground and deeper into the shadows. Despite this, they are looking to stand firm, but to do so, your prayers and support are critical," the ministry added.

Catholic baptisms down 30% in Diocese of Cloyne

The number of Catholic baptisms in the Diocese of Cloyne fell by 30% between 2015 and 2025, according to new figures published by the Iona Institute.

The report, based on data obtained from Catholic dioceses, also found a 23.1% decline in baptisms in the Diocese of Cork and Ross over the same period.

Nationally, the number of Catholic baptisms on the island of Ireland fell by 30% during the decade.

The report found the decline was driven by a combination of falling birth rates (60%) and increasing secularisation.

Dublin saw a 39.9% reduction in baptisms over the 10-year period, with the number of baptisms in Meath over the same period dropping by 40.8%.

The Diocese of Kerry saw a 22.3% reduction in baptisms, while the Diocese of Down & Connor, which contains the city of Belfast,  saw a reduction of 37.9%.

The Diocese of Elphin, which covers parts of the counties of Roscommon, Sligo, Galway and Westmeath, was the only Catholic diocese on the island where there was an increase in baptisms between 2015 and 2025, at 0.9%.

The Iona Institute pointed to CSO figures which showed that in 2016, 78.3% of children aged 0-4 were recorded in the census as Catholic, with 9.2% recorded as having no religion.

By 2022, these figures had changed to 65.4% and 15.6% respectively.

Figures not a surprise

Institute chairman Tom Finegan said the figures are not a surprise “given the rapidly falling number of births and growing secularisation.

“Given that births have fallen by almost a fifth in the last 10 years and more people are ticking the ‘No Religion’ box in the census, we could expect nothing but a big drop in baptism figures.

However, the figures also show that ‘cultural Catholicism’ remains strong on the island.

“We see that as at Census 2022, 67.9% of mothers with children aged 0-4 still identified as catholic, even though a big majority of these would not be regular mass goers.” 

Mr Finegan also noted that, according to the Vatican yearbook, more than 42,000 Catholic children were baptised in Britain in 2023, “even though levels of mass attendance in Britain are low".

“The fall in baptisms must be seen not simply as the result of secularisation, but even more as a result of falling births.

"Ireland’s fertility rate is now just 1.5, well below the replacement level of 2.1.

“This should be of concern to everyone regardless of religious belief.”

Czech Archdiocese Cancels LGBTQ+ Pilgrimage Citing Safety Concerns

The Catholic Archdiocese of Olomouc in the Czech Republic has called off a pilgrimage for LGBTQ+ believers and their families that had been scheduled for September, citing an inability to guarantee participants’ safety after the event drew intense online backlash.

The gathering, known as “Pouť na půli cesty” (Halfway Pilgrimage), would have been the second of its kind. 

It was organized jointly by pastoral teams from the dioceses of Olomouc, Brno and Ostrava-Opava, and was designed as a space for LGBTQ+ Catholics, along with relatives and friends, to pray and discuss questions of faith together.

Archdiocese spokesman Jiří Gračka told the Czech outlet Deník N that organizers faced a flood of negative and, in some cases, hateful reactions on social media once the event became public. 

According to the German Catholic news site katholisch.de, the archdiocese described the atmosphere surrounding the pilgrimage as tense, pointing to hostile comments online as the deciding factor.

Gračka stressed that the cancellation was not a capitulation to pressure but a precaution. 

“The reason is a highly tense atmosphere and a wave of negative, even hateful, reactions online, which made it impossible to guarantee the safety of the participants,” the pilgrimage organizers said in an official statement.

Hyacint Pavel Kuchta, a member of the archdiocese’s pastoral team for LGBTQ+ Catholics, echoed that same reasoning, saying the scale of the backlash made it impossible to promise participants’ security. 

Despite calling off the large public pilgrimage, the archdiocese said it intends to continue smaller, private pastoral meetings with LGBTQ+ believers and their families.

According to AroundPrague.cz, the recent attack at Berlin’s Pride Festival heightened the safety concern. 

This is not the first time LGBTQ+-related events in the region have drawn threats. A rainbow-themed fair held in central Olomouc in May was likewise targeted with hostile messages, including reported death threats, prompting several criminal complaints. 

Similar pilgrimages had taken place in previous years under the sponsorship of Archbishop Josef Nuzík, who also serves as president of the Czech Bishops’ Conference. 

Nuzík has previously said that pastoral outreach to LGBTQ+ individuals does not require any change in Church doctrine, but reflects the Gospel’s call to welcome everyone without exception.

Never let injustice, evil in the world corrupt your heart, pope tells faithful

Whatever the injustice or injury, do not revert to hatred or violence, Pope Leo XIV told the faithful, because only love, hope, forgiveness and respect will protect and promote human dignity.

“We are in such need of life, hope, serenity and peace — within ourselves, in our cities and among people and nations. For this reason, whatever the wound, whatever the offense, let us not allow evil to disfigure our humanity or corrupt our hearts!” he said in his homily at a Mass Aug. 29, marking the feast of Our Lady of the Lake in the town of Castel Gandolfo.

“Let us not conform to the mindset of this world” and not get discouraged, he said. “Let us continue to love, to give and to forgive, offering ourselves ‘as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God,’ so that we may preserve and nurture — in ourselves and in others — the infinite dignity of the divine image we bear in our souls.”

Pope Leo was the third pope after Sts. Paul VI and John Paul II to mark the Aug. 29 feast day in Castel Gandolfo, which overlooks Lake Albano, and take part in the Mariano procession from the Church of Maria Santissima del Lago, where the Mass was celebrated, to the volcanic lake.

Surrounded by yellow and white flowers on a small platform, a statue of Our Lady of the Lake was carried through the streets to the lake where more than a dozen boats — including kayaks and jet skis — awaited.

Pope Leo, however, was the first pope to get on the main boat for a ride along the lake, symbolizing the Barque of Peter and highlighting the Gospel call to go out into the deep and hold fast to Christ under Mary’s maternal gaze, especially while navigating troubled or uncertain waters.

The boat, adorned with flowers, the Marian statue and the Vatican flag, slowly made its way in the setting sun and flickering lights to another beach where Pope Leo blessed the small crowd and those whose livelihoods depend on the lake.

When the early disciples were frightened by the terrible storm on the Sea of Galilee, Jesus assured them to “have faith and pray, so that they might find peace again and, together with him, continue sailing toward their desired destination,” the pope had said earlier in his homily at Mass.

Jesus reveals “that only love saves. The love that God showed us by becoming man, dying and rising again for us,” Pope Leo had said.

Those who wish to follow Christ must also respond with love, he said, and “humbly offer ourselves to Him and to our brothers and sisters: in the faithful constancy of daily charity as well as in the most extraordinary acts, even to the point of martyrdom at times — as, unfortunately, still happens today to many Christians in various parts of the world.”

“With God’s help, we want to sow the seeds of his infinite charity everywhere in the world, tirelessly and without limit, so that today and always someone may rejoice in reaping their fruits,” the pope said.

Unfortunately, he said, not everyone understands the beauty, goodness and practicality of this dream of the Creator; in fact, many think it is a utopia.”

The naysayers insist that “turning the other cheek is for losers; giving in the face of rejection is for the naive; forgiving without limits is for the weak,” he said.

“Let us not delude ourselves. Hatred and violence bring nothing good, but only destruction and death, always, even when they are a response to injustices suffered,” Pope Leo said. “Only the way of love is the way of life.”

“Let us, then, draw close this evening to Jesus and Mary, to the Son and the Mother, so that, united, not only on the lake but on every night throughout the world, we may be a soothing reflection of God’s presence and an irresistible echo of his love that invites us to love,” he said in his homily.

Pope Leo meets Europe’s richest man, who donated millions to rebuild Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris

Ahead of the upcoming papal trip to France, Pope Leo XIV met with Bernard Arnault, the head of Louis Vuitton and Europe’s richest man who contributed 200 million euros (over $233 million) toward the reconstruction of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.

The pope welcomed the French entrepreneur and his family to the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo Aug. 25. 

The multi-billionaire, who is the chairman and CEO of the Paris-based luxury goods conglomerate LVMH, posted photos of the meeting with the pope on social media on Aug. 26.

The private papal audience with the head of the fashion and luxury goods giant LVMH took place on the same day that Pope Leo was named one of the world’s best-dressed people by Vanity Fair, the second such accolade for the American-born pope, who made Vogue magazine’s list of the “55 Best Dressed People of 2025.”

On X, Arnault said he was “blessed to be received by His Holiness Pope Leo XIV at Castel Gandolfo, ahead of his visit to France.” 

Pope Leo will visit Arnault’s home country Sept. 25-28, where the pope is scheduled to pray at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, the first papal visit since the cathedral was damaged by a fire in April 2019.

The French luxury conglomerate LVMH, which Arnault, 77, heads, was formed nearly 40 years ago through the merger of Louis Vuitton and Moët Hennessy. 

Today, the group includes, among others, the fashion and perfume brands Christian Dior, Fendi, and Guerlain, as well as the champagne brand Dom Pérignon and Tiffany & Co.

Kraków Archdiocese to review past, current cases of possible abuse of vulnerable adults

The Archdiocese of Kraków has created a commission to review past and current cases involving adults who say they were harmed in situations of vulnerability or dependency within the Church.

It is among the first diocesan initiatives in Poland and the Catholic world focused specifically on adults harmed in Church settings, rather than on cases involving minors.

The “Listening and Clarification Commission” will examine historical cases dating back to 1945 while also providing a place where adults can come forward and report abuse that may never have been formally addressed. 

“It is a historical commission, not an investigative one,” Jesuit Father Jacek Prusak, a psychologist, psychotherapist and member of the commission, told OSV News. “On the one hand, it will examine archival records for information about this kind of harm. On the other hand, it is meant to remain open to people who wish to come forward, identify victims and perpetrators, and offer support to those who seek it.”

Many cases involving adults have fallen into gap

For decades, the Catholic Church’s abuse-response systems have focused mainly on protecting children and addressing abuse of minors. But adults also can be harmed by priests or other Church figures, especially when there is a relationship of authority, trust or dependence. Until now, many such cases have fallen into a gap because Church procedures were designed primarily for minors. 

According to Father Prusak, one of the immediate reasons for establishing the commission was the case involving the late Auxiliary Bishop Jan Szkodon of Kraków. 

In 2020, after the Polish newspaper’s “Gazeta Wyborcza” report of alleged abuse, the Vatican started an investigation and in 2021, ruled that Bishop Szkodon’s guilt had not been proven, but imposed a penance on him for “imprudent behavior towards a minor.” “Some interpreted this ruling as exonerating the prelate,” Polish journalist Tomasz Krzyzak commented in the Polish Catholic media outlet Deon.

After additional women came forward following the bishop’s death in 2025, the archdiocese faced questions about how to respond when the alleged perpetrator could no longer face canonical proceedings and those reporting harm had been adults at the time. 

Cardinal Grzegorz Rys, who is leading the archdiocese, decided to move forward looking for accountability, the Jesuit said.

‘Needed legal and systemic tools’

“Cardinal Rys needed legal and systemic tools, not only an individual pastoral response,” Father Prusak said.

At the same time, he said, the commission reflects a broader realization.

“There is a whole group of people harmed in the Church who simply do not fit into the category of people abused as minors,” Father Prusak told OSV News. “That does not mean their harm does not exist or that it is somehow smaller.”

Canon law does recognize the category of a “vulnerable adult,” but its legal definition is relatively narrow. 

Aleksandra Brzemia-Bonarek, a canon lawyer and member of the commission, explained to OSV News that under the 2023 norms “Vos Estis Lux Mundi,” a vulnerable adult is defined as someone whose illness, physical or mental impairment, or deprivation of personal liberty limits the person’s ability to understand, choose freely or resist an offense. 

Narrow legal definition ‘doesn’t mean Church ignores’ adults

“The legal concept is narrower than the one used in contemporary psychology,” she said. That does not mean, however, that the Church ignores adults who do not meet that legal definition, Brzemia-Bonarek, who is also a member of Vatican’s Dicastery for the Laity, the Family and Life and professor of Pontifical University of John Paul II in Kraków, said.

Because canon law applies universally across cultures and legal systems, Brzemia-Bonarek said, it necessarily uses a definition that can be applied worldwide. 

“The Church’s legal definition may seem too narrow or even too strict by today’s standards,” she said. “But for now it is the only one capable of encompassing the entire world.” The distinction between a legal definition and the broader reality of adults who become vulnerable through unequal relationships is one of the central ideas behind the Kraków commission, she emphasized to OSV News.

In practice, she said, the Kraków commission expects many of the people seeking help to be adults who may not fit the canonical definition of a vulnerable adult but who nevertheless became susceptible to abuse because of difficult personal circumstances and relationships of dependency. 

Approach combining legal, psychological, pastoral expertise

Brzemia-Bonarek said many of the people the commission expects to encounter would be better described as “fragile” rather than legally “vulnerable.” Such cases often require an interdisciplinary approach, combining legal, psychological and pastoral expertise, she said. That distinction is central to the commission’s work.

From her legal experience, Brzemia-Bonarek expects that many reports will concern women who experienced sexual abuse, pastoral abuse or abuse of authority by clergy while in emotionally or spiritually vulnerable situations. She also noted an increase in reports involving spiritual abuse, abuse of conscience and psychologically harmful forms of spiritual direction affecting both women and men.

For Father Prusak, the heart of the issue is not legal terminology but the dynamics of trust.

Relationship of trust and spiritual authority

“What we are talking about are situations in which, because of a relationship of trust and spiritual authority, boundaries were crossed and another person was consciously exploited,” he told OSV News.

He added that abuse often begins in what appears to be an ordinary pastoral relationship.

“A priest gets to know a person’s weaknesses, difficulties and secrets because that person comes seeking spiritual help,” Father Prusak said. “That person opens up, trusting that what they share will be used for their good, not against them.”

Problems begin, he said, when the relationship gradually stops serving the person’s spiritual well-being and instead begins serving the priest’s own needs. “He may begin satisfying his own needs while hiding behind God and his pastoral role,” Father Prusak said. 

One warning sign, he said, is when a pastoral relationship gradually shifts away from its original purpose. “The priest stops asking about God and starts asking more and more about private matters,” he said. “He begins controlling different areas of that person’s life, saying this is what God wants, isolating the person from others and gradually building dependence.”

Manipulation ‘is built step by step’

Such manipulation rarely happens suddenly. “It is built step by step,” Father Prusak said. “First trust is strengthened, and then human weakness is exploited.”

The commission will therefore examine not only allegations of sexual abuse but also the broader patterns of spiritual abuse and abuse of authority that may accompany them. “We are speaking about abuse of spiritual authority and the broad range of harm that can result from it,” Father Prusak said.

The commission’s members, who also include renowned historian Marek Lasota and investigative journalist Piotr Litka, also hope their work will encourage people who have remained silent for years.

“That is Cardinal Rys’s intention,” Father Prusak said. “He knows there are people who have experienced this kind of harm. The commission gives them a formal place where they can come with their story.” Its purpose, he added, goes beyond reviewing archives.

‘Chance to speak’ in ‘a safe way’

“It is also about giving people who are still alive a chance to speak about what happened to them in a safe way, so that the Church can respond,” he told OSV News.

Father Prusak believes the initiative also sends a broader message about accountability within the Church. “It shows that this issue has to be addressed structurally,” he said. He expressed hope that other dioceses may eventually develop similar initiatives adapted to local circumstances.

“There is a whole group of harmed people” whose stories have too often remained outside the conversation, the Jesuit priest outlined. “Their harm exists,” Father Prusak said. “And it is no less real.”

Church of Ireland rejects claims against Cork bishop-elect

The Church of Ireland has rejected renewed claims concerning parish finances during the Ven. Andrew Orr’s incumbency in west Dublin almost 20 years ago, stating that the matter was fully investigated at the time and resolved. 

The church says an external accountant found no evidence that Orr had misappropriated parish funds for personal gain, the Irish Times reports.

Orr, Archdeacon of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, was elected on 19 June as successor to the Rt Revd Dr Paul Colton, who retired in April after more than 27 years as bishop.

The allegations relate to Orr’s tenure as rector of Castleknock and Mulhuddart with Clonsilla, a west Dublin parish he served from 2000 to 2009. 

The Church of Ireland states that Orr experienced a breakdown in 2006–07, during which parish administration was adversely affected.

The Diocese of Dublin and Glendalough commissioned an external accountant to assist in examining and regularising the parish finances. 

The church said the investigation established that Orr had not used parish funds for personal benefit.

A Church of Ireland spokesman said Orr cooperated fully with the inquiry, including offering access to his personal accounts. The financial position was rectified, with additional supervision exercised by the Archdeacon of Dublin, the Ven. David Pierpoint.

The issues have resurfaced through anonymous correspondence sent to media organisations and circulated within the Church of Ireland. 

Similar allegations were circulated in 2022 following Orr’s appointment as Archdeacon of Cork, Cloyne and Ross.

The Church of Ireland described the renewed circulation of the allegations as disappointing, noting that they concern a matter investigated and resolved two decades ago. 

The Irish Times reported that Orr declined to comment on its enquiries.

The Electoral College for Cork, Cloyne and Ross elected Orr at its meeting in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin. He will succeed Dr Colton following the canonical processes leading to his consecration.

The Church of Ireland says due diligence has been conducted at each stage of Orr’s subsequent appointments. 

It further states that he recovered from his illness and has undertaken almost 20 years of ministry in two dioceses since the Castleknock inquiry.

The allegations were independently examined and remedied, and that no finding of personal financial wrongdoing was made against the bishop-elect.

Maronite Bishop of Batroun: "For years Lebanon has been paying for other people's wars"

The Maronite bishop of Batroun, Mons. Mounir Khairallah, has warned that Lebanon has become the stage where various powers settle their confrontations and has defended the country’s multi-religious identity against a reading of its situation reduced to the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

“For years Lebanon has been paying for other people’s wars: Israel is waging its war in Lebanon, the United States is waging its war in Lebanon, Iran is waging its war in Lebanon. 

The settling of scores from all over the Middle East takes place in Lebanon,” the eparch stated in an interview given to La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana during the Meeting of Rimini, held in Emilia-Romagna (Italy).

Khairallah took part in the event, which this year dedicated to the land of the cedars the exhibition Lebanon. The beauty, the wounds, the hope. The prelate insisted on presenting the country not only through its wars and divisions, but through a singular coexistence among religious communities that he considers an essential part of its identity and mission.

Lebanon as a “message-country”

The bishop recalled Saint John Paul II’s definition of Lebanon as a “message-country,” an expression the Pontiff used to highlight the value of coexistence among its different religious communities.

“Saint John Paul II already spoke in 1989 of Lebanon as a message-country, recalling the importance of what it represents, that is, coexistence, the ‘conviviality’ of eighteen different confessions,” Khairallah explained.

In his view, it is also a “mission-country” that can show the rest of the world that “living together is possible.”

The prelate recalled that John Paul II formulated this vision when Lebanon was still going through the 1975-1990 war. Khairallah questioned, however, the very characterization of that conflict as a purely civil or confessional war and maintained that foreign forces and interests played a decisive role.

A harsh accusation against Israel

Khairallah was especially critical of Israel and maintained that the Israeli state and the Lebanese model respond to opposing conceptions.

According to the bishop, while Lebanon is structured around an “open, multi-confessional, multicultural and multi-religious” system, Israel would have opted for a model based on a Jewish national identity that, in his view, hinders such coexistence.

The eparch went so far as to claim that “the so-called civil war was carried out by Israel to destroy” the Lebanese model and stated that “the war against this model” has still not ended.

This is the interpretation expressed by Khairallah regarding a conflict in which numerous Lebanese and foreign actors intervened for fifteen years and which included, among other episodes, the Israeli military interventions of 1978 and 1982 and the Syrian presence on Lebanese territory.

The bishop linked his criticism to the approval in 2018 of the Israeli Basic Law on the Nation-State, which defines Israel as the “nation-state of the Jewish people” and reserves the right to national self-determination in the State to the Jewish people.

“The State of Israel does not want peace”

Khairallah went further in analyzing Israeli policy and stated that “the State of Israel does not want peace.”

In his view, fear plays a central role in Israeli society and is used politically by its leaders. The bishop contrasted the current Israeli leadership with the figure of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, assassinated in 1995 by the Jewish extremist Yigal Amir after having promoted the Oslo Accords with the Palestinians.

“Rabin was the only Israeli leader who sincerely desired peace,” Khairallah stated.

In another interview given during the Meeting to the Italian magazine Tempi, the prelate expressly distinguished between the Jewish people and Zionism, just as he rejected identifying Muslims with extremists.

“Free yourselves from hatred, free yourselves from resentment, free yourselves from the desire for revenge. In the name of God, let us build peace together,” he then urged Jews and Muslims.

Israel, the United States and Iran

The bishop placed Lebanon’s current situation within a much broader regional confrontation.

“Israel is waging its war in Lebanon, the United States is waging its war in Lebanon, Iran is waging its war in Lebanon,” he stated.

The country is currently going through a delicate political and military situation marked by negotiations for the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory and by the demand to disarm Hezbollah, a Shiite organization backed by Iran that for decades has maintained a military structure parallel to the Lebanese Armed Forces.

The Lebanese government maintains that weapons must remain exclusively under state control, while Hezbollah resists disarmament and conditions any progress on the Israeli withdrawal. The dispute has once again awakened within the country the fear of new internal confrontations.

Khairallah, however, rejected the idea that the present and future of the country can be explained exclusively through the confrontation between Israel and Hezbollah.

“Hezbollah is only an episode in its history”

“Portraying Lebanon according to the logic of the current conflicts between Israel and Hezbollah is reductionist,” he asserted.

The bishop recalled the historical depth of the country in contrast to the relatively recent appearance of the Shiite militia: “Lebanon is five thousand years old; Hezbollah, a militia born in 1982, is only an episode in its history: just as it was born, tomorrow it will disappear. Lebanon, on the other hand, will not disappear.”

Khairallah therefore called for not presenting the country solely through the wars and violence that have marked its recent history.

“Voice must also be given to the beauty, the richness, the greatness of the country,” he stated. “The Lebanese people are a beautiful, hospitable, generous people, driven by the desire to live with dignity to continue fighting.”

Jesuit describes Benedict XVI's historic Regensburg speech as an "objective error"

Nearly twenty years after the historic speech delivered by Benedict XVI at the University of Regensburg, German Jesuit and Islamologist Felix Körner has described that intervention as an “objective mistake” and maintains that the Pope presented Christianity at the time as a religion of rationality in contrast to an Islam portrayed as a form of irrational faith.

“It was an objective mistake. But afterwards it produced good things,” Körner stated in remarks to the German Catholic news agency KNA. 

The Jesuit, professor of Theology of Religions at Humboldt University in Berlin, believes the crisis sparked by the speech ultimately fostered dialogue between Christians and Muslims.

Körner’s critique of Regensburg

Benedict XVI delivered his magisterial lecture on 12 September 2006 during a meeting with academic representatives at the University of Regensburg in Germany. Entitled Faith, Reason and the University: Memories and Reflections, the Pontiff addressed the relationship between Christian faith, reason and Western culture.

Körner now argues that Benedict presented Catholicism as the religion of rationality and contrasted this conception, among others, with an Islamic form of faith characterized as irrational.

In the Jesuit’s view, it would have been more appropriate to explain Christianity’s particular relationship with reason without establishing that contrast. He also believes Benedict XVI underestimated the impact his words would have among Muslims worldwide and the possibility that they would be received as a provocation.

The controversy arose from a quotation the Pope used in his argument. Benedict recalled a late-fourteenth-century dialogue between the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Palaeologus and an educated Persian on Christianity and Islam.

The emperor addressed his interlocutor with particularly harsh words about Muhammad and the spread of faith through violence. The quotation provoked protests in numerous majority-Muslim countries.

Benedict XVI: “It does not express my personal conviction”

Körner’s interpretation of the speech must be read alongside the explanations Benedict XVI himself later offered about the meaning of those words.

The Pope explained in the general audience of 20 September 2006 that he had not intended to make the accusation voiced by Manuel II Palaeologus his own.

Benedict noted that the negative words spoken by the medieval emperor did not express his “personal conviction” and explained that his intention had been to start from Manuel II’s subsequent reflection on the rationality that must accompany the transmission of faith.

The then-Pontiff summarized the purpose of his intervention by stating that “not religion and violence, but religion and reason go together”.

He also clarified the object of his lecture: “The theme of my lecture—responding to the mission of the University—was, therefore, the relationship between faith and reason.”

The Regensburg text itself concluded with a call to recover the breadth of reason against its positivist reduction. For Benedict XVI, that recovery was precisely a necessary condition for establishing genuine dialogue between cultures and religions.

Körner believes the crisis ultimately favored dialogue

Although he considers the speech an “objective mistake,” Körner maintains that the subsequent crisis ended up having positive consequences.

After Regensburg, a group of 38 Muslim authorities and scholars addressed an open letter to Benedict XVI. In 2007 came the initiative “A Common Word Between Us and You”, initially signed by 138 Muslim intellectuals, clerics and scholars and directed to various Christian leaders.

The initiative sought to establish common ground between Christians and Muslims on the basis of the commandments to love God and neighbor and contributed to the development of new channels of dialogue between the two religions.

Among its consequences was the establishment of the Catholic-Muslim Forum, whose first seminar took place in Rome in November 2008.

Körner also rejects the notion that Islamic theology can be described as essentially irrational. In his view, it is “extremely rational,” works rigorously with concepts and has historically hosted a plurality of schools and positions.

“Imprudent” for Catholics to recognize Muhammad as a prophet

The Jesuit nevertheless acknowledges clear doctrinal limits to rapprochement between Christianity and Islam.

Körner maintains that Catholics and Muslims have reached a fundamental understanding regarding their reference to the same God as Creator and consummator of the world, but he considers the figure of Muhammad to remain an insurmountable difference.

Specifically, he describes it as “imprudent” for a Catholic to recognize Muhammad as a prophet.

According to his reasoning, accepting Muhammad as a prophet would require also recognizing his preaching as the word of God. If that were the case, Körner argues, Jesus Christ would cease to be “the decisive turning point of all history”.

Looking ahead to the pontificate of Leo XIV, the Jesuit hopes for greater impetus in Catholic studies of Islam. Körner has highlighted the work of the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies (PISAI) and the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and has pointed to the need to provide them with the necessary financial resources to carry out that work.

Nigerian priest warns of a "subtle and structural" persecution against Christians

Nigerian priest Atta Barkindo, executive director of the Kukah Centre, has denounced that the persecution of Christians in Nigeria is not limited to killings and attacks carried out by jihadist groups, but also includes «structural discrimination» that particularly affects the faithful in the north of the country.

Barkindo, who has just joined the team of experts tasked with drafting Nigeria’s new National Peace Framework, maintains that there are areas where Christians face obstacles to building churches, accessing public employment, or exercising certain rights on equal terms with Muslims.

«For me, the second level—the subtle and structural discrimination—is where the real persecution of Christians lies,» he stated in an interview with Catholic World Report.

Two levels of persecution

The priest distinguishes between two forms of persecution.

The first is physical violence carried out by terrorist organizations that defend extremist interpretations of Sunni Islam and attack both Christians and Muslims who reject their ideology.

The second, according to Barkindo, is less visible but deeply rooted in certain social and administrative structures in northern Nigeria.

«There are places where building a church is not allowed,» he states. The priest specifically cites the states of Katsina and Sokoto, in the north of the country, and claims there are restrictions on the use of land acquired to build Christian temples.

Barkindo also denounces that Christians suffer discrimination in access to public administration, that forced conversions occur, and that in certain places a Christian cannot access certain traditional leadership positions.

«There is no equality of citizenship; your rights are determined entirely by your religion,» he maintains.

The priest also states that even in some federally funded universities, Christians face difficulties in obtaining land for the construction of churches.

«This is where the real discrimination lies»

Barkindo links this situation to Nigeria’s historical structure and the system implemented during British colonial rule.

Before independence in 1960, he recalls, the north was organized around Islamic institutions such as the Sokoto Caliphate and the Kanem-Bornu Empire. The British colonial authorities governed that area through an indirect system that preserved some Islamic political, educational, and legal structures.

After independence, some of those elements remained within the new state.

Barkindo believes this historical legacy contributed to generating inequality that still affects relations between Christians and Muslims.

Among the examples he mentions is also marriage. According to him, in certain northern states a Muslim man can marry a Christian woman, while a Christian who wants to marry a Muslim woman faces the requirement of converting to Islam.

«These things are happening as we speak,» he assures.

Criticism of the use of public funds for Islamic activities

The priest also criticizes that some state governments directly fund Muslim religious activities despite Nigeria’s constitutionally secular character.

Barkindo cites as an example the funding of collective Muslim weddings by the Kano state government and the use of large amounts of public money to finance pilgrimages to Mecca.

In his view, those resources should be allocated to public services such as hospitals, roads, and schools.

«They are being used to promote religious activities in a country that, according to its Constitution, should be secular,» he laments.

The new National Peace Framework

Barkindo’s statements come after his incorporation into the Expert Review Team tasked with drafting the National Peace Framework promoted by Nigeria’s Office of the National Security Adviser.

The priest directs the Kukah Centre, an institute founded by Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, Bishop of Sokoto, dedicated to research and projects on peace, democracy, and interreligious dialogue.

The expert team was constituted at the beginning of August with the objective of reviewing existing peace initiatives and developing a common framework capable of addressing both traditional threats and new factors of instability.

Barkindo believes that for years the Nigerian government has concentrated its resources on military responses while peace-building initiatives have remained mainly in the hands of civil organizations and local communities.

«The government has realized that it doesn’t even have a peace policy,» he stated.

The new framework aims to coordinate conflict prevention, reconciliation, and coexistence initiatives and establish mechanisms to oversee public institutions responsible for these policies.

«We die as Christians and Muslims, not as Nigerians»

Barkindo believes that religious and ethnic fragmentation constitutes an even greater threat than some forms of armed violence.

«In Nigeria, we do not see ourselves primarily as citizens of this country. We see ourselves through a tribal, political, or religious lens,» he points out.

The priest summarizes this fracture with an expression that, he says, circulates commonly in the country: «We die in Nigeria as Christians and Muslims, not as Nigerians.»

In his view, building a common national identity is essential to confront violence, especially ahead of the presidential elections scheduled for 2027.

Barkindo warns that Nigerian politics remains deeply divided along ethnic, religious, and regional lines and believes that no exclusively military strategy can solve the problem.

Education against extremism

The priest also identifies the lack of schooling as one of the main factors fueling extremist recruitment in the north.

Barkindo particularly points to the situation of the almajiris, minors who receive traditional Islamic education and who in many cases remain outside the formal education system and survive by begging.

«For decades, the generation that rejected education has now become cannon fodder for terrorism,» he warns.

His proposal for the National Peace Framework includes making modern education mandatory throughout the country, for both boys and girls, without presenting it as incompatible with religious training.

Barkindo also speaks from his own experience. Born in Adamawa state, he explains that his parents were Muslims and converted to Catholicism so he could attend school.

«If I hadn’t gone to school, up to the University of London, I probably could have become a terrorist myself. Who knows?» he states.

For the priest, Nigeria will not be able to overcome insecurity through military operations alone. 

The solution lies in simultaneously addressing religious discrimination, institutional corruption, lack of education, and a national identity still subordinated, in too many cases, to religion and tribal affiliation.