Bishop Mariann Budde to resign, will remain in post during lengthy replacement process

The Rt. Rev. Mariann Budde, who shot to fame after urging President Donald Trump to have mercy on immigrants and others, announced on Thursday (Oct 1) that she plans to resign as head of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington. 

The move sets in motion a nearly two-year process to find her replacement as she finishes out her lengthy tenure as one of the country’s most visible religious leaders.

Budde will remain the Episcopal bishop of Washington until June 2028, when her replacement will be consecrated.

In an exclusive interview with Religion News Service on Wednesday (Sept. 30), Budde said that when her term is over, she plans to return to Minnesota, her home state.

“I’m going to do all that I can to both lead well in this period, and to ensure that there’s as much wind in the sails of the future leader and the diocese going forward as is humanly possible,” Budde said via a video call.

Budde said her departure is officially designated as a resignation, not a retirement, because prelates in the Episcopal Church typically retain the title of bishop even after they leave posts. 

But she will remain bishop throughout the process, which will involve creating a search committee, choosing a slate of candidates and electing a new bishop in January 2028.

“It’s kind of awkward in that way, because I have to announce it — or we have to announce it — and then life goes back as usual for two years,” she said.

Budde herself will be largely divorced from the selection process. But the bishop said she has been studying “eldership” — reading up on biblical models of older leaders, such as Moses — and is focused on “leaving well” so her successor and the diocese “can thrive” after she is gone.

“They deserve another long, fruitful tenure, and I’d like to do everything in my power to make that happen,” she said.

While leading the Episcopal Diocese of Washington is considered to be an influential position within the Episcopal Church, Budde’s term has been long (she will have led the diocese for 17 years when she leaves) and unusually prominent. 

She made headlines from the start: When she was elected to the position in 2012, she became the first woman to hold the position, inspiring women throughout the Anglican Communion — some of whom trekked to Washington to learn from her.

Budde is even more widely known for her role in U.S. politics, which has garnered an atypical level of national attention for an Episcopal bishop. 

Like many Washington-based faith leaders, Budde has participated in activism, such a joining a protest outside Kentucky Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell’s office in 2019 to call for legislation to prevent gun violence. She also offered a prayer at the 2020 Democratic National Convention.

But it’s Budde’s confrontations with President Donald Trump that have made her a nationally known figure. 

The bishop initially struck a conciliatory tone when Trump was elected in 2016, agreeing to host the national prayer service at the National Cathedral for the incoming president despite calls to cancel the long-running event. 

But Budde was involved in protests against the president during his first term, and when federal police directed by the Trump administration forcibly removed racial justice demonstrators from Lafayette Square in June 2020 — which included expelling an Episcopal priest and a seminarian from the patio of St. John’s Church, an Episcopal congregation — Budde voiced outrage in national news outlets, condemning the police action as well as the president’s photo-op in front of the church immediately after.

The back-and-forth between the two culminated with a dramatic moment on the first day of Trump’s second term, when the president sat in the pews of the Washington National Cathedral as Budde delivered a sermon urging him to “have mercy” on immigrants and LGBTQ children. 

The sermon, which spurred a fierce rebuke from Trump and his allies, transformed Budde into an international figure overnight: Supporters created “Bishop Budde Fan Club” T-shirts, and Budde’s book, “How We Learn to Be Brave: Decisive Moments in Life and Faith,” suddenly became a hit.

But when asked about highlights from her time as bishop, Budde demurred, saying she is “not ready to do that whole retrospective thing” because she remains focused on the next two years of her term.

If anything, she said, the fraught nature of U.S. politics has kept the bishop in her post longer than she originally planned to be. It was not because of the fame she attracted, although she said she is “mindful” that her role has “shifted dramatically” since she delivered the sermon to Trump. 

Instead, Budde cited the “impact that the dramatic realignment of the federal government had on our diocese” as pushing her to “stay longer.”

The winnowing of government agencies under the Trump administration, she said, had a “huge seismic impact” on congregations she serves — a trend that affected religious communities throughout Washington, D.C. As a result, Budde’s original plans for resignation were delayed, as it was “not the time,” she said.

But she continued to talk to friends, colleagues and family members about potentially resigning and to pray about “core questions of identity and faithfulness” such as, “Where am I, Lord, in the arc of things?” Eventually, Budde made the decision to begin the resignation process.

As the changeover begins, she says she understands that “there will be sadness” from many of her supporters, such as those who have chanted words of thanks to her at various protests. Budde also joked that some of her critics may react differently to the news.

“I think there may be a few people who are like, ‘Oh — OK then,’” she said, laughing.

Even so, Budde stressed that while she may accept fewer speaking invitations over the next two years, she doesn’t intend to stop participating in religious advocacy.

“That won’t slow down until I leave,” she said.

In the meantime, Budde said, she is looking forward to moving with her husband to Minnesota, where she also recently joined religious activists protesting the Trump administration’s mass deportation effort in and around Minneapolis earlier this year. 

She’s not sure what happens after that, she said, but after years of living the strictly managed life of a diocesan bishop, Budde seemed almost excited about the prospect of a less structured existence — even if it’s nearly two years away.

“I don’t have clarity about that,” she said. “All I know is that we’re going back to Minnesota, and I’m going to be close to my grandchildren, which I miss dearly.”

Budde then grinned, adding: “And then we’ll see.”

New approach proposed as Clogher faces clergy shortage

Clogher is facing a shortage of clergy, according to the Bishop, Right Revd Dr. Ian Ellis, who said the main issue facing the Church of Ireland in Fermanagh is “not so much a shortage of finance but a shortage of ordained clergy.”

He said the diocese had been discussing how to sustain ministry in vacant parishes, as fewer people are coming forward for ministry, with only eight ordinations across the Church of Ireland this year.

“We have been developing this as we have held discussions in various vacant parishes about ways of sustaining ministry going into the future,” he said.

“We have begun to take seriously the presenting challenges of the context of our times; that is not so much a shortage of finance but a shortage of ordained clergy.”

The Bishop said the diocese was looking at “creative” ways of addressing the shortage, including expanding the role of lay people in ministry.

Two parish readers have begun training for Ordained Local Ministry (OLM), while nine people are currently training to become parish readers.

OLM allows lay people to train for ordained ministry within their local diocese.

There are three OLMs currently serving in the diocese, with Bishop Ellis describing their contribution as “invaluable”.

He also said the diocese was considering bringing groups of parishes together to create larger ministry teams, potentially including an incumbent, OLM, diocesan reader, parish reader and other roles.

“We are at the early days of this, but our hope is that in a short while one new group might be able to advertise for an incumbent to be the team leader of a suitably resourced team,” he said.

Bishop Ellis said the approach would allow a wider range of skills to be used in ministry, while potentially freeing clergy from administrative work.

“One advantage is that a wide variety of skills are available, it’s not just one man or woman,” he said.

He added that the model could also allow money to be used to employ a group administrator, helping to reduce the administrative burden on clergy and allow them to focus more on pastoral work.

The comments come as the diocese prepares for two clergy retirements at the end of September.

Archdeacon Paul Thompson, Rector of Derryvullen North and Castle Archdale, and Rev Alan Capper, Rector of Lisnaskea, are both due to retire.

Bishop Ellis paid tribute to both men, highlighting Archdeacon Thompson’s “diligent and effective service” to the diocese and saying Rev Capper had “contributed much” to the diocese and the parishes he had served since becoming Rector of Lisnaskea in 2009.

Canon William Jeffrey has been named as Archdeacon Thompson’s successor.

The Bishop also paid tribute to several people who had served the Diocese in many ways, Una Bourke and Robert Fyffe who had died in recent times.

Right Revd Andrew Orr Consecrated as Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross

The Right Revd Andrew Orr was consecrated as Bishop of the United Dioceses of Cork, Cloyne and Ross on Wednesday, 30 September 2026, at a service in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin.

Bishop Andrew was consecrated by the Archbishop of Dublin, the Most Revd Dr Michael Jackson, with the Right Revd Adrian Wilkinson, Bishop of Cashel, Ferns and Ossory, and the Right Revd David McClay, Bishop of Down and Dromore as co–consecrators. 

The bishops of the Church of Ireland and the wider Anglican Communion were joined by Revd Dr Janet Unsworth and the Revd Laurence Graham, representing the Methodist Church, in the laying on of hands during the act of consecration. 

The President of Ireland, Catherine Connolly, was represented at the service by Captain Niamh FitzGerald, Aide–de–Camp to the President. Senator Jerry Buttimer was also among those attending.

Bishop Andrew was joined on the day by his wife, the Revd Susan Green, their adult children Rachel, Ciara and Patrick, and members of their wider family. 

There was also a large attendance from Cork, Cloyne and Ross, including clergy, diocesan lay readers and parishioners from across the United Dioceses, who travelled to Dublin to share in the service and support their new Bishop as he begins his episcopal ministry.

The lessons were read by Jim Farrell, Chair of Eco–Congregation Ireland, and Hilda Connolly, Diocesan Youth Officer for Cork, Cloyne and Ross.

The preacher at the service was the Right Revd Michael Burrows, Bishop of Tuam, Limerick and Killaloe, who took as his text the words of Jesus from St Luke 12:32: “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”

The same text was used at the consecration of George Otto Simms as Bishop of Cork in 1952 and Bishop Burrows looked back at sermons preached at the consecrations of successive Bishops of Cork in 1952, 1978, 1988 and 1999, drawing from them a message for the new Bishop and the Diocese today. 

He encouraged Bishop Andrew to approach his ministry with faith, bringing together different traditions and perspectives, remaining grounded in prayer and compassion, caring for communities large and small, and having the courage to dream boldly for the Church’s future. 

Above all, he encouraged him to bring joy to his episcopal ministry, trusting that the future of the Church ultimately rests with God.

Bishop Andrew succeeds the Right Revd Dr Paul Colton. He was elected by the Episcopal Electoral College in June, and his election was subsequently confirmed by the House of Bishops.

Ordained deacon in 1992 and priest in 1993, Bishop Andrew has served in a variety of ministries across the Church of Ireland. 

His parish appointments have included incumbencies in Castlecomer, Castleknock and Tullow, and he previously served as Archdeacon of Ossory and Leighlin. 

Since coming to Cork, Cloyne and Ross, he has served as Archdeacon of the Diocese since 2023, and as Chaplain to Midleton College and Priest–in–Charge of Youghal Union since 2018. 

Alongside his parish and diocesan ministry, Bishop Andrew has had a longstanding involvement in environmental and creation care work. 

He formerly chaired Eco–Congregation Ireland and has represented the Church of Ireland in international environmental networks.

Bishop Andrew will be enthroned in each of the three cathedrals of the Diocese in October.

Jesuit priest at Drumcree church: ‘They even called me up to say a prayer’

There are many places you might expect to see a Jesuit priest around the Garvaghy Road this week, but praying in Drumcree’s Church of Ireland church is not one of them.

That’s where Fr Brendan McPartlin, one of two Jesuits in the order’s Iona Centre in Church Hill Park, off the Garvaghy Road, was to be found on Tuesday night, alongside local rector Rev Gary Galway.

“They even called me up to say a prayer,” says McPartlin.

The Drumcree prayer service had no connection with the small number of Orangemen and their supporters still on Drumcree hill, determined to march down the Garvaghy Road.

It shows how not everyone on the Protestant side in Portadown is enthused about the return of a 30-year-old parade problem.

Galway’s invite came after clergy members of all faiths in the Portadown area met to resurrect a long-dormant clergy group.

“I didn’t go to Drumcree with my priestly collar, and I confess I was a little bit nervous. I hadn’t been inside the church before, but it was lovely,” says Dublin-born McPartlin.

A resident here since 2009, the 82-year-old priest partly jokes he was sent here because he expressed “horror” to his superiors at talk of closing the Iona Centre.

“So they told me to come here to keep it going,” he says.

In 1997, the late Ian Paisley accused the Jesuits of being in league with Sinn Féin, especially after priests said Mass on the road when locals were blocked from getting to St John the Baptist church.

Today, there are just two Jesuits left here, McPartlin and Fr Frank Brady, who worked for years in Ballymun in Dublin. Most of their work now is with Portadown’s large immigrant community.

McPartlin set up the Migrant Support Service in the community-owned Mayfair Business Centre in 2009. The centre is where local residents’ leader Breandán MacCoinnaith is the office manager.

For 30 years, McPartlin worked in the College of Industrial Relations. He says he still thinks “like a trade unionist”, believing in people negotiating on their differences.

Today, he sees little sign of compromise from either side in the standoff over the parade.

“Breandán MacCoinnaith has the leadership, but he’s just so immovable. People like him for that; that’s the way they feel he should go,” says the priest, sitting in his small livingroom.

“But I really don’t think you can make things work without negotiation. I am a trade unionist, aren’t I? You’ve got to make some compromises.

“Breandán will make none. Locals just follow him, and he’s no compromise, and they’re happy with no compromise,” says McPartlin, who says other opinions exist, but they are rarely heard.

The Terenure-born priest had not expected Drumcree to erupt again, but now thinks there were signs last year that this year would be different.

Every Sunday for 28 years, Orangemen “did their little march” from Drumcree and “presented their little protest”, but McPartlin picked up signals from his contacts last year suggesting Garvaghy residents were “very closed in there and that if only they would open up a little bit, there’d be more money projects”.

“I couldn’t find the source of it, but I do think it was coming from the other side. Now, looking back, I thought what they were really thinking is that they want to do that march,” he says.

McPartlin says he knew Garvaghy was “a divided place” when he first moved here but adds: “Until now, I had no sense how deep it goes.

“I have no problem saying that you’re in a ghetto here,” he says – “surrounded by roads and bridges and the river, and the other side; that’s not accidental” – but he adds it is a “nice” and “very liveable ghetto”.

He worries about the future.

“Lots of families were and are very protective of their children. Many grew up on both sides knowing very little, experiencing very little and only learning about it later. Now they will,” he says.

Portadown is a very different place from how it was in the 1990s. More than a quarter of its 22,000 population were not born in Northern Ireland, according to the last census, in 2021.

That year, 16 per cent were from EU states, mostly Eastern European ones, while nearly 7 per cent came from elsewhere. In 2026, these numbers are significantly out of date.

Many immigrants live in the Garvaghy Road area, attracted by cheap rents but these have “really shot up”, says McPartlin.

Many immigrants – Timorese, Bissau-Guineans, Portuguese, Eastern Europeans – have struggled to understand the history behind the parades issue over recent weeks.

The priest, a Jesuit since 1962, says he has been “impressed” by the number of immigrants who have said what has happened on the road is “unfair”.

“Before that, their general approach was to say nothing. They don’t really understand what this Catholic/Protestant thing is,” he says.

“When asked to fill out forms, and quite often they are, they leave sections blank.”

In long-divided Portadown, even immigrants have adopted Northern Ireland’s Troubles dictum of “whatever you say, say nothing”.

Pope Leo XIV calls for recovering "common roots" with Lutherans ahead of 2030

Pope Leo XIV has proposed recovering, ahead of the year 2030, the “pre-confessional ecumenical potential” of the Augsburg Confession, one of the foundational texts of Lutheranism, during an audience granted this Thursday to representatives of the Lutheran World Federation.

According to the address published by the Holy See Press Office, the Pontiff highlighted the progress made in recent decades in relations between Catholics and Lutherans and pointed to the fifth centenary of the Confessio Augustana, to be celebrated in 2030, as an opportunity to advance the path toward “full and visible unity.”

Leo XIV specified that the goal of the ecumenical journey is to achieve a “renewed communion in the apostolic faith, in the sacraments and in the ministries,” and recalled as one of its principal milestones the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification.

The Augsburg Confession on the eve of its fifth centenary

A large part of the address was devoted to the Augsburg Confession, presented on 25 June 1530 before Emperor Charles V and later becoming one of the principal confessional documents of Lutheranism.

Leo XIV stated that, when the text was presented, “the unity of the Western Church was threatened, but had not yet been broken.” 

To explain the context of its composition, he recalled words spoken by Saint John Paul II in 1980, on the occasion of the 450th anniversary of the Confession, according to which its authors intended to bear witness to their faith “in the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.”

The Pope maintained that the Augsburg Confession “originally intended to be a document of reconciliation within the Church” and that “only later did it come to be understood as a text of divisive confessionalization.”

On the basis of this interpretation, he set out the horizon for 2030: “It would be good if we could once again affirm together the pre-confessional ecumenical potential of the Confessio Augustana.”

A line the Vatican has been preparing for 2030

The proposal now made by Leo XIV is not appearing for the first time in the ecumenical debate of recent months.

Last January, the Secretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, Msgr. Flavio Pace, also referred to the Augsburg Confession as a text on which to work in view of 2030.

Pace then noted that, after the crisis provoked by Martin Luther, an attempt had been made to find “a meeting point, a shared profession of faith,” and he defended the importance of commemorating the Confessio Augustana in order to “rediscover a common foundation.”

This interpretation also has an immediate papal precedent. Francis, during an audience with the Lutheran World Federation in June 2021, had already presented the Augsburg Confession as an attempt to prevent the rupture of Western Christendom and had expressed his desire that joint reflection on the document in view of 2030 would favor the ecumenical path.

Leo XIV now continues that line and expressly calls for recovering the “ecumenical potential” of the document.

A text that also contains the doctrinal differences of the Reformation

Considering the Augsburg Confession as a possible point of encounter does not, however, eliminate the confessional character the document acquired nor the doctrinal controversies it aroused.

Drafted principally by Philip Melanchthon, the Confessio Augustana set before Charles V the positions of Luther’s followers and addressed issues that ultimately stood at the center of the religious rupture of the sixteenth century.

Among them were differences concerning the Mass, penance and confession, ecclesiastical ministry, clerical celibacy and other matters of doctrine and discipline.

The Catholic response came that same year in the Confutatio Augustana, prepared by Catholic theologians to reply to the articles of the Confession. 

The doctrinal controversies opened by the Reformation would later be addressed more fully by the Council of Trent.

This background allows us to situate the scope of the proposal the Vatican has been preparing for 2030: it is not a historically neutral document, but one of the texts that ultimately defined Lutheran confessional identity vis-à-vis the Catholic Church.

Leo XIV calls for a return to the primitive Church and the Fathers

In his address this Thursday, Leo XIV linked his proposal to a return to the common sources prior to the divisions of the sixteenth century.

“Let us return, with deep devotion, to our common roots, to the faith of the primitive Church and of the Fathers of the Church,” the Pontiff urged, calling for the rediscovery of “the apostolic and pre-confessional heritage” that unites Catholics and Lutherans.

The Pope addressed this invitation particularly to theologians, asking them to focus their attention on Christ and the Gospel.

He also recalled the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification as “a milestone on the ecumenical journey” and mentioned the documents produced over decades of dialogue on the Eucharist, ministry in the Church and paths toward communion.

Looking toward 2030, Leo XIV expressed his desire that the fifth centenary of the Augsburg Confession become “a profound ecumenical experience” capable of giving new impetus to the path toward full visible unity.

“Christ must not become a ‘foreign word’ in our world,” the Pope affirmed before concluding the meeting by inviting the representatives of the Lutheran World Federation to pray the Our Father together.

ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE LEO XIV TO THE DELEGATION OF THE LUTHERAN WORLD FEDERATION

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you (2 Cor 13:13).

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

I extend a warm welcome to you, representatives of the Lutheran World Federation. I offer a special greeting to the President of the Lutheran World Federation. Thank you for your kind words and for this symbolic and beautiful gift. I also greet the General Secretary, the Reverend Burghardt, who is present here. I renew my gratitude for your presence at my inauguration last year.

I am pleased that Lutheran-Catholic relations have matured both spiritually and theologically over the decades. The international dialogue, now in its sixth phase, has yielded important fruits. A milestone on the ecumenical journey was, without doubt, the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification. However, the texts jointly produced in previous years also deserve to be remembered and received ever more deeply, especially The Eucharist, Ministry in the Church and Paths to Communion.

Five years ago, in his address to the Lutheran World Federation during a private audience, my predecessor, Pope Francis, beautifully described the meaning of ecumenism: “Ecumenism is not an exercise in ecclesiastical diplomacy, but a journey of grace. It does not depend on human negotiations and agreements, but on the grace of God, who purifies memories and hearts, overcomes attitudes of rigidity and leads toward a renewed communion” (Address to the delegation of the Lutheran World Federation, 25 June 2021).

Renewed communion in the apostolic faith, in the sacraments and in the ministries is the goal of our ecumenical journey of grace, which we walk together guided by the Gospel. On our common path from conflict to communion there are special moments. As you have mentioned, the year 2030, marking the 500th anniversary of the Augsburg Confession, can become one of those shared moments: a profound ecumenical experience that can give new energy and joy to the steps we will take toward full and visible unity.

When the Confessio Augustana was read in Augsburg on 25 June 1530, the unity of the Western Church was threatened, but had not yet been broken. The authors of the Augsburg Confession—as my predecessor Saint John Paul II affirmed—had the “intention of bearing witness to their faith in the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church” (Address on the occasion of the 450th anniversary of the Confessio Augustana, 25 June 1980). The Augsburg Confession originally intended to be a document of reconciliation within the Church. Only later did it come to be understood as a text of divisive confessionalization.

In view of 2030, it would be good if we could once again affirm together the pre-confessional ecumenical potential of the Confessio Augustana. I make an earnest appeal to all believers, and especially to theologians, to fix their gaze on Christ and his Gospel. Let us return, with deep devotion, to our common roots, to the faith of the primitive Church and of the Fathers of the Church, in order to rediscover the apostolic and pre-confessional heritage that truly unites us as brothers and sisters, brothers and sisters in Christ.

Christ must not become a “foreign word” in our world. Our world needs ecumenical witnesses of Christ who make him known through their lives and actions, because only Christ is the living source capable of fulfilling humanity’s deepest longings.

Dear brothers and sisters, united in this common ecumenical and missionary task, I would like to thank you once again for your visit. Let us renew our commitment to unity by praying together now as the Lord taught us.

Our Father (prayed together).

Holy See merges two foundations to manage the missionary colleges of the Dicastery for Evangelization

The Holy See published this Thursday the Rescriptum ex Audientia Sanctissimi by which Leo XIV approves the Statutes of Donum Missionis, a new foundation linked to the Dicastery for Evangelization that will assume the material management of several colleges primarily intended for seminarians, priests, religious men and women coming from mission territories.

According to Vatican News, the new entity is born from the merger of the foundations Domus Missionalis and Domus Urbaniana, which in recent years have provided accommodation to priests, religious sisters and seminarians from Africa, Asia, America and Oceania sent to Rome to complete or expand their formation at the pontifical universities.

The decision responds to the need to harmonize the canonical status of both foundations with the current legal framework of the Roman Curia and with the reforms introduced following the apostolic constitution Praedicate Evangelium.

The new regime will enter into force on 1 November 2026.

A single foundation for the missionary colleges

Domus Missionalis and Domus Urbaniana were established by Benedict XVI through a rescript of 20 May 2005 as instrumental juridical entities of the then Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.

The new Statute recalls that Leo XIV had already approved on 13 June 2025 the constitution of a single institution called Donum Missionis, the result of the integration of the two previous foundations.

The rescript now published formally approves its Statutes and replaces the provisions that until now governed Domus Missionalis and Domus Urbaniana.

The new Foundation will be an instrumental juridical entity of the Section for First Evangelization and New Particular Churches of the Dicastery for Evangelization.

Six centers under its responsibility

Donum Missionis will be entrusted with the conservation and ordinary and extraordinary maintenance of six institutions historically linked to Propaganda Fide.

These are the Pontifical Urban College of Propaganda Fide, the International Missionary College of St. Peter the Apostle, the Pontifical International Missionary College of St. Paul the Apostle, the International Missionary College of St. Joseph, the International Missionary College Mater Ecclesiae and the International Center for Missionary Animation (CIAM).

The colleges are intended to offer hospitality to candidates for the priesthood, clerics, religious men and women sent to Rome from mission territories to undertake periods of initial or ongoing formation and to pursue university or specialization studies.

Academic and spiritual formation will continue under the responsibility of the professors, rectors and superiors of each institution. 

The new Foundation will be mainly responsible for administrative, technical and patrimonial aspects.

The CIAM, for its part, will continue to be dedicated to the ongoing missionary formation of the Pontifical Mission Societies and may also welcome pilgrims, groups for spirituality and prayer, and lay faithful.

An initial endowment of one million euros

The initial endowment of Donum Missionis is set at one million euros.

Its sources of funding include primarily the annual contribution requested from the Pontifical Mission Societies, contributions from the Dicastery for Evangelization, income from the assets managed by this body, and revenues derived from the accommodation activities of the CIAM.

The Foundation will have its legal seat in Vatican City and will also have an operational seat in the Palazzo di Propaganda Fide.

The pro-prefect of the Section for First Evangelization and New Particular Churches will, by virtue of his office, be the legal representative of the entity.

The governance structure

The organs of Donum Missionis will be the president, the vice-president, the Board of Directors, the director and the Board of Auditors.

The president will be the secretary of the Section for First Evangelization and New Particular Churches, while the assistant secretary for Administration will serve as vice-president.

The Board of Directors will be composed mainly of superiors of the Dicastery for Evangelization and officials of the Pontifical Mission Societies. 

Its functions include the approval of budgets and accounts, management strategies and acts of extraordinary administration.

The Statute also establishes a system of financial control involving the Secretariat for the Economy and the Council for the Economy.

The Board of Auditors will consist of three members. Two will be appointed by the pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization and its president will be designated directly by the prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy.

The auditors will be responsible for controlling the administration of the Foundation, verifying the regularity of the accounting and supervising compliance with the Statute and Vatican legislation.

The new structure thus concentrates in a single entity the material management of several of the main colleges linked to the Dicastery for Evangelization and intended for the formation of seminarians, priests and religious coming from mission territories.

Carmen Ramírez: The EC appoints the first woman to head its Information Office

The Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE) has appointed Mª Carmen Ramírez Moreno as the new director of its Information Office. 

The journalist, who has served as deputy director since 2023, becomes the first woman to assume leadership of this department.

According to information released this Thursday by the Spanish Episcopal Conference following the meeting of its Permanent Commission, held on September 29 and 30 in Madrid, the appointment was approved at the proposal of the CEE’s secretary general.

Ramírez, a laywoman from the Archdiocese of Madrid, replaces Father José Gabriel Vera Beorlegui, from the Archdiocese of Pamplona and Tudela, who had held the position since January 2015 and is now returning to his diocese.

Three decades linked to the Information Office

The new director has a long professional career within the Episcopal Conference. She has worked at the institution for around three decades, always connected to the Information Office.

In 2023 she was appointed deputy director of the department, a responsibility she held until her designation as director.

The appointment was presented this Thursday by Msgr. César García Magán, auxiliary bishop of Toledo and secretary general and spokesperson of the CEE, during the press conference following the Permanent Commission meeting.

García Magán highlighted Ramírez’s professionalism and noted that her selection had the unanimous support of the bishops who make up the Permanent Commission.

Succession of José Gabriel Vera

Ramírez succeeds Father José Gabriel Vera Beorlegui, who has remained at the head of the Spanish Episcopal Conference’s Information Office for more than eleven years.

Vera assumed the directorship in January 2015 and is now leaving the CEE headquarters to return to the Archdiocese of Pamplona and Tudela.

The succession places at the head of the Information Office a professional who was already part of its structure and who, since 2023, had served as deputy director.

Fernández lectures in Madrid on Magnifica Humanitas before an audience with numerous empty seats

Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefecto of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, participated this Wednesday in Madrid in an academic day dedicated to Magnifica humanitas, the first encyclical of Leo XIV, held in the Aula Magna of the Pontifical University Comillas.

The meeting, organized under the title “The Lessons of the Encyclical Letter Magnifica humanitas. An AI Centered on Persons,” also counted on the presence of Cardinal José Cobo, Archbishop of Madrid; of the Apostolic Nuncio in Spain, Monsignor Piero Pioppo, and of the Rector of the Pontifical University Comillas, Antonio Allende.

Before them, Fernández presented the encyclical as “a dialogue of the Church with society and culture” and placed the development of artificial intelligence within a broader question. 

In his view, behind the technological questions of our time lies an essentially human problem: “The underlying question is the care of humanity.”

“Prudence, rigorous controls and even slowdown”

From that premise, the prefect of the Doctrine of the Faith addressed the limits that should accompany technological development. Without denying the possibilities offered by artificial intelligence—particularly in fields such as medicine—he defended the need to establish clear responsibilities and control mechanisms that prevent turning technical progress into an end independent of its consequences for man.

Hence he called for “prudence, rigorous controls and even slowdown” in the face of certain developments in artificial intelligence. 

Slowing down, he clarified, does not mean opposing technology, but preventing its advance from imposing itself on its own, apart from any ethical consideration.

The reflection led Fernández to transhumanism and the currents that aspire to overcome the limits proper to the human condition. 

Against that conception, he maintained that “there is a fruitfulness in the limit” and that “humanity prospers through the limit.”

The prefect turned to love and suffering to explain that relationship. The attempt to eliminate any painful experience from existence, he pointed out, would end up affecting also that which allows one to love: “To suppress pain one would have to extinguish love and it is not a good deal.”

“From gestation to the last second of his life”

From that defense of the human condition, Fernández moved on to the question of dignity, which he linked to the protection of every person “from gestation to the last second of his life.”

That dignity, he affirmed, does not depend on social condition, origin or the particular circumstances of each individual. 

“It does not matter if he was born here or there, if he is Black, if he is in prison, it does not matter if he is gay or disabled,” he noted, also recovering the expression “infinite dignity” used during the pontificate of Francis.

The argument allowed him to dwell especially on those who may be left behind by economic and technological transformations. 

Fernández warned that the risks derived from those processes fall more easily on the poor, precisely because many times “they count for nothing,” and asked Catholics to remain “particularly attentive as humble sentinels to the consequences of the new developments of society for the life of the last.”

In that framework he also placed one of the purposes he attributed to Magnifica humanitas: “to reactivate the Social Doctrine of the Church.” 

Fernández also wanted to underline that this intervention of the Church in contemporary debates does not seek to hide its religious foundation. 

“The encyclical is a believing Christian text that drinks from Jesus Christ and his Gospel and does not seek to conceal it,” he assured.

From artificial intelligence to the “just war”

Fernández’s tour then broadened toward matters that exceeded the strictly technological debate. One of them was war. 

According to the prefect, Magnifica humanitas “invites us to overcome the theory of just war,” an affirmation he immediately qualified to distinguish it from legitimate defense understood in the strict sense.

His criticism, he explained, is directed mainly at the extension of that doctrine to justify “preventive wars full of collateral damage.” 

It was not the first time Fernández had raised the question in those terms: he had already defended a particularly restrictive interpretation of the conditions under which recourse to arms can be considered morally legitimate. Catholic doctrine recognizes the right to legitimate defense, although it subjects it to rigorous conditions.

Israel’s response, an “unbearable and unjustified massacre”

From the general reflection on war, Fernández moved to the conflict in the Holy Land. After recalling the terrorist attack of October 7, he described Israel’s subsequent response in Gaza as an “unbearable and unjustified massacre.”

Faced with the different manifestations of violence, the cardinal wanted to highlight what he considers historical expressions of that “magnificent humanity” to which the title of the encyclical alludes. 

He mentioned, among them, the abolition of slavery, the recognition of human rights, women’s suffrage and the suppression of the death penalty in various countries.

The same idea led him to cite such different figures as Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King and Marie Curie, along with cultural expressions such as Picasso’s Guernica, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony or Schindler’s List.

But Fernández finally wanted to transfer that “magnificent humanity” from the great figures of history to ordinary life. 

He then spoke of the “martyrs of the everyday”: fathers and mothers of families, doctors and people dedicated to the care of the elderly, prisoners and the excluded. “Why not give them all a strong round of applause? That is the magnifica humanitas,” he affirmed.

Numerous empty seats in the Aula Magna

The expectation generated by the conference, however, was not up to the rank of the speaker nor of the ecclesiastical authorities who accompanied him. 

The presence of the prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, together with the Archbishop of Madrid and the Apostolic Nuncio, was not enough to fill the Aula Magna of Comillas, where during the intervention numerous empty seats could be observed.

The contrast is especially striking if one looks at the recent history of the dicastery that Fernández now heads. Joseph Ratzinger turned, during his years as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, his academic interventions into intellectual events capable of arousing considerable interest inside and outside strictly ecclesiastical circles. 

His lectures and meetings with the university world drew attention to theological, philosophical and cultural questions long before his election as Benedict XVI.

Nor is it solely a phenomenon linked to the figure of Ratzinger. In our days, Cardinal Robert Sarah, who has also headed a dicastery of the Roman Curia, continues to arouse notable expectation in his lectures and visits to universities, with aula magnas that bring together numerous students, professors and faithful interested in hearing his interventions.

Parolin defends before the UN life "from conception to natural death"

Cardinal Pietro Parolin defended the sanctity of life “from conception to natural death” before the United Nations General Assembly, denounced the persecution of Christians, and warned against technology that could ultimately displace human responsibility.

The Secretary of State spoke on 26 September during the general debate of the 81st session of the General Assembly, heading the Holy See’s delegation. 

His address coincided with Pope Leo XIV’s trip to France, where the dignity of the person was one of the central themes of the Pontiff’s interventions, including his speech at UNESCO.

Addressing the representatives of States, Parolin spoke about life, religious freedom, the persecution of Christians, artificial intelligence, rearmament and ongoing wars. He also made specific references to Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba.

“From conception to natural death”

Parolin began with the dignity of the person. In a world that risks reducing the human being to a “consumer, data point or instrument,” he recalled that the human person must remain the measure of progress.

Human dignity, he affirmed, is not granted by the State nor does it depend on economic productivity or technological capabilities. It belongs to every human being because each one has been “willed and loved by God.”

“From this derives the sanctity of life, from conception to natural death,” the Secretary of State stated, recalling the duty of every society that aspires to be considered civilized to protect it.

Parolin returned to this issue when addressing fundamental rights. Among those requiring special protection, he expressly mentioned the unborn, along with the elderly, persons with disabilities, the sick, refugees, migrants, the unemployed, the marginalized, and those suffering extreme poverty, violence or war.

“The first of human rights”

The Secretary of State also devoted a significant portion of his intervention to religious freedom. Citing Benedict XVI, he recalled that it is “the first of human rights,” because it concerns a constitutive dimension of the human person: the relationship with the Creator.

“Without the possibility of seeking and adhering to the truth about God according to the dictates of conscience, the other freedoms remain incomplete,” he noted.

Parolin then spoke of persecuted Christians. He recalled that in many parts of the world they continue to suffer discrimination and violence because of their faith, with churches attacked, communities displaced, and the faithful killed or imprisoned.

The Holy See, he explained, is not thereby claiming a privilege for Christians, but considers that defending the freedom of one community also strengthens the freedom of others.

“Silence in the face of such suffering would be a betrayal of the Church’s mission,” he warned.

Artificial intelligence cannot decide who dies

Artificial intelligence occupied another extensive section of the address. Parolin focused especially on lethal autonomous weapons and the risk that responsibility for a death could ultimately be diluted behind an algorithm.

The Holy See insists that it must always be possible to determine who designed, authorized and used a system and who is accountable for the decisions taken.

“The decision to use lethal force cannot be delegated to opaque or automated processes,” Parolin recalled, citing Magnifica Humanitas.

Speed and efficiency cannot become the decisive criteria when a life is at stake. The use of lethal force, he maintained, must remain under “effective, conscious and responsible” human control.

The “illusion” that force confers power

Parolin was especially critical of the deterioration of international relations. He denounced the loss of trust among States and a politics increasingly based on mutual threats and on “the illusion that force generates power.”

In response to this dynamic, he called for the recovery of three principles: “peace, justice and truth.”

The Secretary of State also defended the view that disarmament cannot be considered a secondary ideal. He acknowledged the legitimate right of peoples to defend themselves, but warned that this cannot degenerate “into a race toward massive rearmament.”

He also questioned a conception of security based primarily on deterrence and military superiority. A stability sustained permanently by the threat of destruction, he indicated, can hardly be confused with genuine peace.

Ukraine: “The weapons must fall silent”

Regarding Ukraine, Parolin recalled that after more than four years of war the death toll continues to rise and called for an end to hostilities to make way for diplomacy.

“Peace cannot be postponed; the weapons must fall silent and the bombings must cease,” he stated.

The Holy See supported initiatives aimed at achieving an “immediate, complete and effective” ceasefire.

The cardinal also insisted on the protection of civilians and recalled that international humanitarian law cannot be applied or ignored according to military convenience. 

The destruction of hospitals, homes, energy infrastructure and other facilities essential to the population constitutes a grave violation of its norms.

Gaza, the West Bank and Christians in the Middle East

The Holy See reiterated its condemnation of violence against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank. Parolin specifically mentioned the escalation of hostilities, home demolitions and movement restrictions that are causing the displacement of communities.

On Gaza, he spoke of a grave humanitarian crisis marked by widespread destruction, mass displacement and persistent shortages. The Vatican called on the international community to work toward a two-state solution that would achieve a just and lasting peace.

There was also a specific reference to Christians in the Middle East. Speaking about Lebanon, Parolin called for their presence to be protected not merely as the vestige of a historical community, but because Christians are called to continue being “an active force for peace, spirituality and culture” in the region where Christianity was born.

Venezuela: “Full restoration of democratic order”

Parolin was particularly clear in his remarks on Venezuela. The Holy See encouraged efforts directed toward the “full restoration of democratic order” through peaceful and inclusive means that respect the country’s sovereignty.

He also called for a process of national reconciliation based on dialogue, the pursuit of the common good and “full respect for human rights and civil liberties.”

The Vatican likewise expressed concern over the situation of detainees and the suffering of their families. Parolin also mentioned the need for a rapid economic recovery for the benefit of a population that continues to endure “extremely difficult” living conditions.

Nicaragua and Cuba

The situation in Nicaragua received brief mention in the address. The Holy See, Parolin said, continues to follow it “with particular concern” and maintains its call for “respectful and constructive” dialogue with the authorities “for the good of the people and of the Church in Nicaragua.”

Regarding Cuba, the Vatican urged the United States and the Cuban authorities to engage in “sincere and effective” dialogue that avoids decisions capable of increasing the people’s suffering.

The Secretary of State also reviewed the crises in Sudan, South Sudan, Haiti, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Mozambique. He also warned of the advance of jihadist groups from the Sahel toward the countries of the Gulf of Guinea and cautioned that the response cannot be limited to the military sphere.

“When language is emptied of content”

In the final part of his intervention, Parolin openly acknowledged that “multilateralism is in crisis” and advocated for a reform of the United Nations, but warned that the problem cannot be solved merely by changing structures and procedures. There is also a crisis of convictions and values that makes it difficult to reach agreements on the common good.

“When language is emptied of content or deliberately distorted, dialogue becomes impossible,” he stated.

Parolin called for a UN less conditioned by ideological divisions and recalled that no State, however powerful, can address on its own problems such as wars, the proliferation of weapons, poverty or technological challenges.

The Secretary of State concluded by urging the parties involved in ongoing conflicts to enter into “sincere negotiations” to end the wars. “War only brings death and destruction, while peace brings development and prosperity,” he concluded.

Parish priest of Taybeh warns of the Christian exodus: "What is the use of preserving a church if families have to leave?"

Father Bashar Fawadleh, parish priest of Taybeh, the last entirely Christian village in the West Bank, has warned that protecting the Christian presence in the Holy Land cannot be reduced to preserving its churches and historic sites if the families who keep them alive are ultimately forced to leave the region.

“Protecting the Christians of the Holy Land does not mean only safeguarding churches, monasteries, and stones. The protection of the Christian presence begins by protecting people and their right to remain in their own land,” the priest writes in a reflection published by the SIR Agency.

“How can we preserve the Christian presence if even staying becomes a cause for concern?”

Fawadleh begins with the recent meeting between Leo XIV and a French religious sister who had been assaulted in Jerusalem. In his view, the Pontiff’s gesture was not merely a show of closeness to an injured person, but once again raises a decisive question for the future of the Holy Land: how to protect the dignity and security of individuals and ensure they can remain in their places of origin.

The priest avoids interpreting the assault in terms of a general confrontation between religions. “The assault on a religious sister in Jerusalem cannot be reduced to a conflict between Christians and Jews,” he clarifies. 

Responsibility, he notes, lies with the perpetrator, and “every form of violence must be condemned without ambiguity.”

The episode, however, occurs within “a broader climate of tension, violence, and fear” that affects many people, and in particular the Palestinian population of the West Bank.

The pressure on Taybeh

Fawadleh mentions “attacks on land and property, fires, acts of vandalism, movements of armed settlers near homes and cultivated fields,” as well as growing restrictions on freedom of movement and work.

The situation has been deteriorating for months. In August, the parish priest himself warned that the roughly 1,200 Christians remaining in Taybeh felt “forgotten” and “alone” in the face of violent incursions and the growing fear of families for their future. 

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, later described the West Bank as a “lawless land” and denounced the “continuous aggression” by settlers against the Palestinian population.

Fawadleh insists that what is happening in Taybeh should not be interpreted exclusively as an attack on Christians because of their faith. Its inhabitants face many of the same difficulties affecting the rest of the Palestinian communities in the West Bank.

The particularity of Taybeh, however, lies in the consequences that the exodus of its inhabitants may have: “The prolongation of fear, pressure, and emigration threatens a Christian presence rooted in this land for centuries.”

“What value does preserving a historic church have?”

For the parish priest, the survival of the Christian presence cannot be separated from the concrete conditions that allow families to continue living in the Holy Land.

“What value does preserving a historic church have if the families who frequent it are forced to leave? What sense does it make to speak of the importance of the Christian presence if young people cannot find work, farmers are afraid to reach their fields, and families consider emigrating in search of security?” he asks.

The Latin Patriarchate has similarly warned that Christians in the Holy Land do not want to be preserved as “a historical curiosity”, but rather to have the necessary conditions to work, form a family, educate their children, and practice their faith in the land where their communities have been settled for centuries.

“Taybeh is not asking for privileges or protections at the expense of others,” Fawadleh concludes. What it demands is “security, the rule of law, protection of the land and of people, and the possibility of building a future for their children.”

Jewish man filmed apparently trying to urinate on Jerusalem monastery frequently targeted by spitters

A Jewish man was filmed on Monday apparently trying to urinate on the outer wall of the St. James Monastery in the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City.

Security camera footage shows a security guard at the monastery rushing to stop the man and directing him to leave the area.

The monastery has been frequently targeted by Jewish extremists who spit in its direction as they walk by.

Hours before the incident at St. James, an Orthodox Jewish man was filmed spitting on the ground as he walked by Christian pilgrims at the nearby Armenian Catholic Church of Our Lady of Sorrows.

Law enforcement in Israel has been struggling to stop harassment and attacks against Christian clergy and church property in the Old City, including frequent incidents of people, mostly young Orthodox Jews, spitting on the ground in front of clergy and other Christians — an act that may be prosecuted in Israel as a hate crime.

Jerusalem Patriarchate continues to reform the affairs of St. Gerasimos Monastery

The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem reaffirmed its ongoing commitment to protecting its church properties across the Holy Land, including the Deir Hajla (St. Gerasimos) Monastery in the Jordan Valley. 

The Patriarchate stated that its properties and endowments face continuous targeting attempts.

It clarified that Deir Hajla was established in 455 AD, and that its late superior, Archimandrite Chrysostomos, spent over 55 years in service to the Church. 

Following his passing, the Patriarchate initiated administrative and financial procedures to reorganize and normalize the monastery’s affairs.

The Patriarchate noted that following the late Archimandrite’s death, certain parties have sought to fabricate and circulate rumors across social media platforms in an attempt to pressure the Patriarchate into rolling back its administrative and financial reforms at the monastery.

Furthermore, it emphasized that managing monastic affairs and transfers, as well as enforcing administrative and financial controls across its institutions and monasteries, falls strictly under the Patriarchate’s sole authority, and outside interference will not be tolerated. 

It confirmed that the monks who departed Deir Hajla did so voluntarily and at their own request.

The Patriarchate called upon members of the community to support its reform efforts, ensuring that Deir Hajla continues its spiritual mission and service to all segments of society.

Nearly 600 Medieval Manuscripts from German Monasteries Now Online

Nearly 600 medieval manuscripts from two German monasteries are now available to explore online, following the completion of a six-year digitisation project. 

The collections preserve texts ranging from theology and philosophy to law, medicine, history and classical literature.

The University Library of Erlangen-Nürnberg has completed a major project to digitise the surviving medieval manuscripts from the former monasteries of Heilsbronn and Sankt Jobst in Germany.

Supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG), the six-year project concluded at the end of March 2026. It has made 531 medieval manuscripts from Heilsbronn available digitally, along with all 57 medieval manuscripts from Sankt Jobst, for a total of 588 manuscripts.

The two collections are particularly valuable because the libraries of Heilsbronn and Sankt Jobst are the only monastery libraries from the former Franconian margraviates of Brandenburg-Ansbach and Brandenburg-Bayreuth to have survived in almost complete form.

The medieval library of Heilsbronn

Founded in 1132, Heilsbronn was a Cistercian monastery in Franconia that developed into an important religious and intellectual centre. Its surviving manuscript collection reflects centuries of reading, writing and scholarship within the monastery.

The library contains biblical commentaries and liturgical works alongside writings by the Church Fathers, sermons and numerous texts associated with Bernard of Clairvaux. 

Other manuscripts deal with philosophy and Scholasticism, Aristotle, canon and secular law, grammar and rhetoric, history, saints’ lives, medicine and the natural sciences. Classical authors are also represented.

Sankt Jobst, a Franciscan monastery near Bayreuth, had a much smaller library. Its surviving medieval collection consists of 57 manuscripts, mostly written on paper. 

Their origins reveal connections extending beyond Franconia into Thuringia, Bohemia, Silesia and the wider Saxon Franciscan province.

The digitisation project was completed in three stages, with the final phase beginning in 2023 and concentrating primarily on paper manuscripts. 

Alongside producing high-resolution digital images, researchers updated catalogue descriptions and recorded information about the provenance of individual volumes.

The manuscripts can now be explored online through the University Library of Erlangen-Nürnberg’s digital collections, opening these two surviving medieval monastic libraries to researchers and the wider public.

White Sox receive letter from Pope Leo before winning playoff opener

The Chicago White Sox received a letter from Pope Leo XIV on the same day of their playoff opener against the Houston Astros.

The Sept. 9 letter was addressed to White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, and the team said it arrived at Chicago's Rate Field on Tuesday ahead of Game 1 of its AL Wild Card Series against the Astros.

The White Sox won Game 1 of the best-of-three series 6-3.

Leo is a White Sox fan dating to his days growing up in Chicago. He was known as Robert Prevost or Father Bob when he went to the World Series opener 21 years ago, a 5-3 White Sox victory over the Astros.

"The Pope having our back and supporting us means a lot," White Sox manager Will Venable said.

The pontiff began his note by thanking Reinsdorf for the letter he sent after the team paid tribute to Leo during an Aug. 11 game against Cincinnati.

"It is my hope that the White Sox will continue to foster bonds of friendship and solidarity among people, and thus bear hopeful witness to the possibility of living and working together in peace," Leo wrote.

"With these sentiments, I willingly invoke the Almighty's abundant blessings upon you and your loved ones."

The White Sox earned an AL wild card this year by finishing with an 84-78 record. They lost at least 101 games in each of the previous three seasons.

Asked recently if he had a hand in the team's surprising turnaround, the smiling pontiff responded "No comment."

New Settlement Deal Floated for Archdiocese Sex Abuse Victims

In a bid to salvage its out-of-court global settlement, the Archdiocese of New York and the law firm representing 1,300 survivors of sex abuse from clergy are exploring a new deal with a carveout for a tiny number of victims who are not willing to sign onto the original proposal.

But if there are any more defections from the original class by Sept. 30, the Archdiocese will declare bankruptcy, which the law firm representing the class warned could tie up the settlement for years, according to a 37-page document viewed by this publication.

In a letter to members of the class, the law firm Jefferson Anderson & Associates wrote, “The good news is that since you agreed to the proposed settlement agreement, there is another $38.75 million that will be available for survivors going through the allocation process. The ADNY is also paying the holdout survivors as well so that issue will be resolved. The ADNY is likely making these payments with money expected from a resolution with one of its excess insurance companies, Great American.”

In a background note to members of the class action suit, the law firm said, “Over the last months, great efforts have been made towards getting the settlement done for you and other survivors without further delay. 

As we advised you previously, the sticking point was two groups of survivors: 1) survivors that died, could not be located, or were representing themselves and 2) a handful of survivors that did not agree to the proposal, the holdouts. “

The new agreement is being floated this week because the original $800 million agreement required every member in a class action to agree to the settlement by July 29. 

That did not happen, but the two sides continued to negotiate and now have a new tentative agreement awaiting final approval with a carve out for less than 30 people.

The new agreement obtained exclusively by this publication will now propose a $22.5 million set aside while the Archdiocese and the law firm seek to come to agreement with the estate of 18 claimants who passed away and six holdout claimants of the original class who balked at accepting the universal settlement. 

There are also four people the law firm described as “incremental claimants.”

That means there are apparently about 28 claimants in total who are not part of the global settlement deal the vast majority of the 1,300 claimants indicated they would accept.

Neither the Archdiocese nor Jefferson Anderson & Associates returned emails seeking comment.

The Clock is Ticking

But the clock is ticking. Aside from the tiny number of claimants covered by the carve out, all other members still in the class must agree to the settlement by Sept. 30.

The class action lawsuit would cover credible abuse claims filed against virtually every one of the parishes in the archdiocese, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, numerous high schools and elementary schools including some that have closed and some that are still operating today. 

Also party to the settlement would be organizations that were sued including the Catholic Youth Organization and Catholic Charities. In total, 540 different defendants would be covered by the proposed settlement.

Not included in the settlements are claims against religious orders which do not report into the Archdiocese but often worked in the schools and other organizations within the archdiocese.

The law firm warned, “The ADNY has said that if there are any survivors that change their decision, it will file bankruptcy. The bankruptcy process would take years and may not result in more money. On the other hand, if everyone who previously agreed maintains that decision, survivors will receive their settlement much sooner, likely years sooner.”

If none of the remaining members of the class pull out by September 30, the new settlement takes effect on Oct. 9.

Where’s the Money Coming from?

Still to be resolved is how the Archdiocese plans to raise the money to pay off the claimants in the $800 million out-of-court settlement that is being overseen by retired Los Angeles-based Judge Daniel Buckley. 

In December 2025, he was appointed to negotiate a global out-of-court settlement. 

In October 2024, he had overseen an $800 million settlement between the Los Angeles Archdiocese and about 1,300 claimants there who said they had been sexually abused by priests and lay personnel.

In its public statements, the Archdiocese said it had only $300 million in the sex abuse fund, which appears to leaves it $500 million short.

Shortly after Judge Buckley was appointed as mediator in early December, Cardinal Timothy Dolan announced he was stepping down as the top cleric of the nation’s third largest diocese overseeing 2.2 million Catholics since he had reached the mandatory retirement age for cardinals. 

Over the past several years he had been accelerating the sell-off of shut down schools and churches.

Dolan had overseen the sale of the former 20-story Archdiocese headquarters on First Avenue for $103 million which a developer plans to convert to a mixed use residential/commercial tower. 

Dolan also supervised the sale of the land the Archdiocese owned underneath the Lotte New York Palace Hotel for $490 million. He also sold off smaller school and church parcels.

It will fall to newly installed Archbishop Ronald Hicks to finish the sell off and close the looming $500 million funding gap.

As reported exclusively here in May, the Archdiocese had summoned pastors of every parish in the Archdiocese that includes Manhattan, the Bronx, Staten Island, as well as Westchester, Rockland, Putnam and Orange Counties to a meeting at Dunwoodie Seminary in Yonkers to outline the dire financial straits the Archdiocese is in. 

At that meeting in late April overseen by financial officials of the Archdiocese, all pastors were told that all schools and churches, would have to dip into their own reserve funds to help close the funding gap. 

The Archdiocese warned that without funds from the parishes, it would be forced to declared bankruptcy. One pastor at the time called bankruptcy “the nuclear option.”

More recently, the Archdiocese told Straus News it is trying to use six properties to secure a loan to raise money for the fund.

“The Archdiocese of New York intends to petition the New York State Supreme Court for approval to secure a loan collateralized by six Archdiocese properties,” said spokesman Joseph Zwilling. “The Archdiocese remains committed to securing just compensation for victim-survivors, and this financing is part of that continued effort.”

The Archdiocese so far declined to say which schools or churches or other properties would be included in the collateral package.

Mayor says icon missing from Florida church for 103 years is in Greece

A religious painting missing from a Florida church for 103 years has been found hanging in a church in Greece, according to the mayor of Tarpon Springs.

Mayor John Koulianos said he met the mayor of Aegina, the Greek island, during a trip in July. 

The Aegina mayor called a local priest, who knew where the painting was. Koulianos found it hanging on the back wall of Panagitsa Church.

In a Facebook post, Koulianos said immigrants from Aegina gave the icon of St Nicholas to the original St Nicholas Greek Church in Tarpon Springs in 1910. 

It was damaged in a fire and sent back to Greece in 1923 for restoration, but was never returned.

Koulianos said the July trip was also meant to complete a twinning ceremony between Tarpon Springs and Aegina, as well as to try to locate the icon.

Officials have not confirmed whether Greek Orthodox bishops in both countries will authorise its return.

Final report of Synod's canon law commission published

The final report of the synod's Canon Law commission has been published by the General Secretariat of the Synod. 

Established to serve the Synod, in agreement with the Dicastery for Legislative Texts, the commission worked on the basis of the results of the 2021–24 synodal process. 

The document explains that the commission sought to identify how the theological and ecclesiological insights emerging from the synodal process could be translated into canonical norms, distinguishing three time horizons.

In the short term, it proposes amendments to the current legislation that could immediately support ecclesial life as it unfolds in concrete circumstances. These proposals constitute the subject of the present report. 

In the medium term, it identifies several areas that, arising from the needs highlighted by the synodal process, could be addressed in a cross-cutting manner and together with the competent Dicasteries, through new Instructions or revisions of those already in force. 

Finally, in the long term, it envisages a comprehensive revision of the two Codes of Canon Law—the Latin and the Eastern Codes—so that they may incorporate the theological and ecclesiological insights that have emerged.

Proposals

The report published today, and available on the website www.synod.va, concerns only the Latin Code, since a separate commission has been established for the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches. It presents the legislative proposals to be implemented in the short term.

Specifically, these concern: amendments to the canons governing the capacity of lay people, both men and women, to exercise offices, responsibilities, and ministries in the Church for which they are qualified and competent, including within the sphere of ecclesial governance; a revision, from a synodal perspective, of certain canons concerning particular councils and Episcopal Conferences, which are the ecclesial bodies responsible for cooperation among local Churches; and amendments to participatory bodies in order to strengthen their participatory dimension and missionary orientation.

Equal Dignity

Beginning with the two General Assemblies of the Synod of Bishops (October 2023 and October 2024), and following the work carried out and analyzing and studying the documents produced, up to and including the Final Document (FD) approved by the 2024 Assembly, the Canon Law Commission examined paragraphs 60, 71, 76, and 77 of the Final Document of the October 2024 General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. 

These paragraphs refer to the equal dignity of the faithful in the People of God and to the consequences that this equality, in a juridical sense, has for the capacity of lay people, both men and women, to exercise offices, responsibilities, and ministries in the Church for which they are qualified and competent, including in the area of ecclesial governance.

For this reason, the Commission considered revising Canons 145, 204, 208, 212, 228, 230, 275, 476, 483, 749, 1112, 1421, and 1425, with a view to updating the Church's law so that it may be consistent with the teaching of the recent Synod of Bishops.

The Commission found that, in most cases, the Church's current legal system already possesses adequate instruments for greater recognition and appointment of lay people, alongside Pastors, to roles and functions involving ecclesial co-responsibility. However, these instruments are often not implemented and are sometimes also in need of stronger normative affirmation in order to make them more accessible and effective.

The proposals seek to bring certain aspects of canon law into conformity with the Synod's decisions concerning some current forms and methods of lay cooperation in the Church's mission. Of particular interest is the dimension of synodal discernment and commitment between Pastors and other members of the faithful, with regard to assessing pastoral needs and providing for ecclesial offices, in accordance with the attention given by the current universal Magisterium to synodality as something intrinsic to the nature of the Church.

In celebrating the Synod on Synodality, the Church involved all the faithful in a process of discernment aimed at deepening and receiving the teaching of the Second Vatican Council. 

By welcoming the counsel of all the faithful in the interpretation and application of the law, it is necessary to assess the existing norms; this may also lead to the necessary modification of certain legislative provisions in light of new insights and changed circumstances.

Councils and Episcopal Conferences

With regard to the canons concerning particular councils and Episcopal Conferences that are to be revised from a synodal perspective, the possibility for all members of the People of God to participate in a particular council, in a proportion equal to that of the ex officio members, and the removal of the limitation “only” from the consultative vote granted to them, are innovations conceived in light of the synodality desired for the whole Church.

The new provision for councils to be held every ten years should help revitalize them. Greater authority is granted to Episcopal Conferences by eliminating the Holy See's involvement in delegating a lay person to assist at marriages and by introducing a presumption of validity for the acts of a council if the Holy See does not respond within one year.

Finally, some new examples seek to clarify the nature and role of auxiliary bishops, while, in order to enhance the contribution of emeritus bishops, their appointment to committees of Episcopal Conferences is envisaged.

Participatory Bodies and “Missionary Transformation”

The third and final part of the Report highlights how the Final Document emphasizes the urgency of renewing participatory bodies in order to initiate paths of “missionary transformation.” 

These are bodies that support the proclamation of the Gospel and the coherence of the life of the People of God with it, and whose function is missionary, not merely organizational.

The “widest possible” participation of the baptized requires institutional forms of mediation, especially within the local Church, as provided for by canon law. 

These bodies are primary spaces of participation, according to the canonical status, charisms, ministries, and competencies of the faithful involved.

Differentiated co-responsibility values the gifts of individuals for shared decision-making. 

The synodal process does not remove the decision-making competence of the bishop, the College of Bishops, or the Pope; rather, it incorporates the contribution of the People of God, giving the synodal act a genuinely communal character.

Amendments have been made to Canons 127, 399, 461, 463, 466, 473, 493, 495, 500, 511, 512, 514, 536, and 537. 

A new norm has also been introduced concerning what is specified in paragraph 10 of the Final Document, with reference to the principle of accountability.

Pope appeals for dialogue in Tigray region

Pope Leo is following “with deep concern” the situation in Tigray, a region of Ethiopia, and in the neighboring areas of Afar and Amhara, “where hostilities have once again broken out.” 

In English, at the end of the General Audience, before greeting the Italian faithful, he delivered this appeal to the parties involved in the conflict:

“I extend my heartfelt plea to all parties to choose the path of dialogue. Armed conflict never solves problems but only worsens them, leaving in its wake a trail of death, destruction, and resentment. Only honest engagement can lay the foundations for lasting peace.”

The Pope’s “fervent hope” is that the international community “will offer its generous and timely contribution, to ensuring that all humanitarian aid be provided to those in need.”

The situation in Tigray today

The situation in Tigray has become increasingly tense. In recent hours, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the region’s main political force, which fought against the federal government during the 2020–2022 Tigray War, and the Tigray Defence Forces (TDF), the Tigrayan military forces that fought the Ethiopian army during that same war, have intensified conflict with Ethiopian military forces.

Numerous clashes have been reported along the Tekeze River, west of Tigray, in the Wolkayt area, on the border with the Afar region, and in various parts of Amhara.

Expansion of the fighting

The death toll has yet to be independently verified. According to the Ethiopian army, 700 Tigrayan fighters were reportedly killed over two days.

Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) reported that between September 22 and 25, more than 400 wounded people arrived at hospitals in Korem and Alamata, while another 300 were admitted to hospitals in Suhul and Shire, in northwestern Tigray.

In the areas hardest hit by the conflict, the delivery of humanitarian aid also remains difficult: many roads have been cut off, while in the north, internet and telephone connections have been completely disrupted, making it impossible for aid workers to coordinate their efforts.

Politically, the Ethiopian government accuses neighboring Eritrea of supporting the TPLF and other opposition forces, while the Eritrean government strongly denies any involvement in the escalation of violence.

Meanwhile, the European Union has once again described the situation as rapidly deteriorating, both politically and militarily, announcing immediate diplomatic and humanitarian measures in an attempt to halt the resumption of the conflict, which risks setting the entire region ablaze.

Vatican Upholds Conviction Against Father Buela, Founder of Incarnate Word Institute

The Vatican has clarified that Argentine priest Carlos Miguel Buela, who founded the Institute of the Incarnate Word and the Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matará, committed an offense against the Sixth Commandment. It involved violence and five victims.

Buela died in April 2023, after he had been convicted and appealed the ruling. 

Just days before his death, on March 30, an appeals court confirmed the finding. 

But Buela died before the court could draft and publish its decision.

The criminal proceedings ended with his death, since there was no longer a defendant to prosecute. 

Still, the Vatican chose to make the unpublished ruling known to members of the Institutes. 

It said it has “moral certainty about Father Buela’s responsibility” and wants to restore the truth as an act of justice for the victims, while making sure members of the Institutes are informed.

Buela founded the Institute of the Incarnate Word in Mendoza, Argentina, in 1984. 

It is now present in 45 countries, including several where Christians are a small minority, such as Uzbekistan, the Solomon Islands and Tunisia.

The first allegations against the founder emerged in the 1990s. Rome took over the investigations and removed Buela from leadership in 2010. The first conviction came in 2021.

In 2025, the Vatican acknowledged “the Institute’s strong missionary drive and the commendable personal commitment of many of its members,” while also finding irregularities in other areas. 

Two measures followed: the appointment of two papal delegates and a three-year ban on admitting new candidates while the formation process is reviewed.

The Institute and its members are now entering a period of review, tasked with distinguishing the gift of the Spirit from the limitations of its founder.

Nigerian Bishop Warns: ‘Total Elimination of Christians Is Underway’

Bishop Wilfred Anagbe has told the U.S. Congress four times that Christians face genocide in Nigeria. New data shows one killed every 86 minutes.

For Reverend Anagbe, Catholic Bishop of Makurdi, the ongoing bloodshed across his diocese reinforces a persistent pattern of displacement aimed at erasing indigenous Christian farming communities.

“The total elimination of the Christian population is underway,” Bishop Anagbe told TruthNigeria. 

“The attackers follow a recurring pattern: killing civilians, destroying churches, burning farmland, and driving entire communities from their villages before occupying the abandoned land. This is a calculated strategy of Islamization.”

Anagbe has carried that warning beyond Nigeria, appearing before the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee in July 2023, February 2024, March 2025, and again in November 2025. 

His argument has remained consistent: The violence is not simply a series of isolated attacks but a pattern that has driven Christian families from communities where they farmed, worshiped and raised their children.

Anagbe’s warning comes as new field research directly refutes claims by officials in Abuja that security conditions are improving.

Statistical Evidence Refutes Federal Defense

The Nigerian federal government continues to reject characterizations of targeted religious violence. Government spokespersons attribute the crisis to multi-causal clashes between herders and farmers, citing military deployments as evidence of progress.

“The national crisis is a complex mosaic comprising resource-based herder clashes over grazing land,” presidential deputy spokesperson Philip Agbese claimed in statements defending the administration.

However, field tracking data compiled by Equipping The Persecuted (ETP) reveals that 4,216 Christians were killed in Nigeria between January 1 and September 8, 2026. 

That rate equals an average of 16.8 deaths per day, or one Christian killed every 86 minutes. 

At this rate, the annual death rate of Christians  will be over 6,000 by year’s end.

“When attacks are framed only as farmer-herder clashes, the actions of generalized rural violence or mass persecution may be misinterpreted as merely a development problem or a policing failure,” ETP noted in its report, Crisis in the Middle Belt: Religious Persecution and Security Failure in Nigeria. 

Independent scholars confirm that while central Nigeria faces multiple security threats, targeted anti-Christian aggression remains a primary driver of the crisis.

“Do I believe that Christian communities in Nigeria’s Middle Belt and North are being systematically targeted? Yes, I do,” Dr. Christopher Wadibia, an independent scholar and expert on Nigerian religious movements, told TruthNigeria. 

“Nigeria consistently ranks as a global epicenter of targeted anti-Christian violence. The data consistently supports this.”

Arms Pipelines and Communication Blackouts

Security analysts contend that military deployments will continue to falter unless authorities dismantle illicit weapons pipelines and fix severe rural communications gaps.

“Interceptions alone are not enough; there should be deeper investigations into those behind shipments of illegal arms, as well as arrests and prosecutions,” security analyst Dennis Amachree told TruthNigeria, citing recent customs seizures along major transit corridors. 

“Smaller-scale smuggling remains a problem, with weapons concealed in vehicle imports. But bulk shipments deserve urgent government-to-government scrutiny.”

Amachree also highlighted how infrastructural failures prevent vulnerable agricultural communities from calling for help when attacks begin.

“How do residents say something when they see something?” Amachree said, noting that spotty mobile network coverage regularly delays security responses during multi-hour village sieges. 

The Policy of Permanent Displacement

The violence has produced one of Africa’s largest internal displacement crises. Senior analysts from the ACLED Exploration Portal note that the second quarter of 2026 stood out as the most violent single quarter recorded in Nigeria since the database began tracking the country in 1997. Targeted attacks on civilians surged by 30 percent.

Data from the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) places Nigeria’s internally displaced population at over 3.71 million, with more than 2 million concentrated in Benue State alone.

Despite ongoing violence, official initiatives to close internally displaced persons (IDP) camps and relocate victims away from their ancestral lands have drawn sharp criticism from Church officials. 

Human-rights advocates warn that permanently resettling victims outside their original villages effectively legitimizes land seizures by armed militias.

“We must move beyond the ‘camp culture’ and restore the dignity of the people in order to restore the entire social and economic fabric,” Fr. Remigius Ihyula of the Makurdi Diocese told TruthNigeria. 

“The objective is simple: to help our people become self-reliant on the lands of their ancestors, where they have their roots and which they have cultivated for centuries.”

Ihyula emphasized that prolonged displacement severely degrades social structures, noting that school dropout rates in IDP camps exceed 90 percent while basic healthcare and trauma support remain non-existent.

International Scrutiny Increases

International religious freedom monitors point out that successful recovery requires restoring victims to their original homelands under state protection rather than institutionalizing camp life.

“In Iraq, ACN and its Church partners made history when more than 50 percent of internally displaced people returned to nine villages that ISIS had destroyed,” Mark von Riedemann, ACN Director of Public Affairs, noted in an international report.

“The same success could be achieved in Nigeria if the government worked closely with local Church structures and received international support.”