Vatican offers free eye exams and glasses to children in need

World Sight Day is observed every second Thursday of October. It is a global initiative that aims to spread awareness about preventable blindness and visual impairment.

This year’s theme is ‘Love Your Eyes’, and it’s a reminder to put eye health at the forefront of our personal and collective well-being.

On World Sight Day, the Santa Marta Pediatric Dispensary in the Vatican offered free eye exams and prescription glasses to about 50 poor children.

The Dispensary, which operates inside the Vatican, near Casa Santa Marta, assists hundreds of low-income local and international families.

The eye-care initiative is made possible thanks also to a partnership with the OneSight EssilorLuxottica Foundation and the Dicastery for the Service of Charity.

Present on Thursday morning at the dispensary was the Prefect of that Dicastery, Archbishop Luis Marin de San Martin. He greeted the children queuing for their visit and described the initiative as a concrete testimony of the Church’s charitable action.

“It is charity,” he added, “that adapts, with creativity, to changing needs.” Here, he reiterated, " Our doors are open to everyone because charity has no borders.”

He went on to say he is so happy to have been appointed as the papal almoner, a role that has allowed him "to come into contact with a wonderful reality that many are not aware of."

The Pope’s charity, the archbishop continued, reaches so many people thanks to “the saints next door,” volunteers who give generously of their skills and of their time for the poor.

“For me”, Archbishop de San Martin concluded, “these have been months of great personal, spiritual and pastoral enrichment.”

Among the volunteer doctors at the dispensary on Thursday, ophthalmologist Dr Valeria Pendino, of the Bietti Foundation, explained that the foundation is very sensitive to the needs of disadvantaged families.

She said it was through its work with socially oriented organisations that this opportunity came about. “I am happy that I found the time to be here today,” she added, “For me, it has been a very powerful experience because in our field, prevention is essential.”

“Today I saw older children, but also young adults who, if they had been diagnosed and treated during childhood, would have had a different course,” and she explained that some of the children examined had never undergone their scheduled eye checks and thus had visual impairments that have hindered the development of one or both eyes.

“Now,” she concluded, “there is a course of treatment and follow-up ahead.”

Men ‘flocking’ to Catholic groups as new Irish Forge launches

A Catholic men’s group in the west of Ireland has seen its memberships double in a little over a year, as organisers say growing numbers of men are seeking faith, fraternity and formation.

Fr Mark Quinn, curate in Tuam, claims that the Men of St Joseph began in Tuam with around 40 men at its first meeting in September 2025, while now around 105 have signed up with 65 attending its most recent gathering.

Fr Quinn said the group was started after he noticed increasing numbers of young men returning to confession. Those coming range from 18 to retirement age and include married, single and engaged men, as well as men returning to or entering the faith.

“When you put something on for men alone, they’ll flock to it,” he said, contrasting the turnout with other parish and catechetical events where men often make up only a minority.

“You could encompass it and say that they’re looking for meaning and they’re looking for that kind of support,” Fr Quinn said. “A lot are looking for formation as well.”

The growth has helped inspire the Irish Forge, a new men’s formation initiative involving Fr Quinn, Dr Robert McNamara, Declan Ganley and Michael Madden.

Dr McNamara, head of philosophy at St Patrick’s Pontifical University, said that since returning to Ireland he had gained the “distinct impression” that the practice of the Catholic faith among men, particularly younger men, was growing “both in numbers and vigour”.

“There’s a great need of men to understand what manhood is and to take responsibility for being a man,” he said, adding that many had not received the formation needed to meet those responsibilities.

Fr Quinn said there had been little understanding of “Christian masculinity” in recent decades, leaving a gap which could be filled by more extreme ideas encountered online.

He said the groups also gave men space to speak openly with one another. “There’s a great freedom in sitting down to be able to talk to other men about faith and about life and struggles,” he said.

The Irish Forge will hold two formation days focused on faith, virtue, responsibility and fraternity at Moyne Park, Abbeyknockmoy, Tuam, Co. Galway, on October 24 and November 21.

Places are limited, with further information and booking available through the Irish Forge website.

Pro-LGBT influencer priest goes viral dancing in cassock before altar

A Catholic priest who has publicly advocated the acceptance of same-sex “rainbow families” has gone viral on social media over videos showing him dancing in his cassock before an altar and making other irreverent gestures.

Father Roberto Fiscer, a priest of the Archdiocese of Genoa, Italy, attracted widespread attention online after several videos circulated showing him and servers dancing in front of an altar, distributing Communion using a prop crown, and appearing in women’s makeup while giving instructions on attending Church celebrations.

In one video, Fiscer is seen dancing while wearing a cap backwards and dressed in a cassock, with the caption: “How bro feels after telling me, ‘I think you became a priest because you don’t like women’ (I was dating his mother in high school, but he doesn’t know that).”

Fiscer, who has more than 800,000 followers on TikTok and nearly 300,000 on Instagram, was appointed in May 2026 by Genoa Archbishop Marco Tasca to a diocesan role dedicated to communication and evangelization through social media and other new media.

Fiscer is also known for having made statements concerning homosexuality and religious pluralism contrary to the doctrine of the Church. In a podcast published on July 31, 2026, he was asked about same-sex “rainbow families.” He described the topic as an “obviously delicate subject” and said it involved questions that “the Church is now examining closely.”

The priest stated that “Pope Francis and Pope Leo [XIV] respect people’s feelings, whatever people may feel.” For these reasons, moral questions should begin from the “respect for each person’s freedom.” While acknowledging that a father and mother are “fundamental figures in a child’s development,” he also said, “there are exceptions, love is love,” and that “the love of a rainbow family is not second-class.”

Responding to accusations from those who claim that he is effectively reducing doctrine to “scrap paper,” Fiscer said that, just as in the time of Jesus, a distinction must still be made today: “Tradition is one thing; Revelation is another,” and the two can even contradict each other. Catholic doctrine, however, holds that Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture are the two sources of Divine Revelation, which can be properly interpreted only through the Magisterium of the Church.

The priest also expressed his views concerning Islam, religious diversity, and an decreasing feeling of safety in Europe. Asked whether he perceived a gradual Islamization of Europe, Fiscer said that the concern was only apparent, because his parish “included families from Iran and Iraq.”

“Different religions can certainly coexist, but not extremism,” Fiscer continued. “There is a Catholic extremism, although it is mostly keyboard-based. In certain European countries, unfortunately, these extremists have also taken to the streets, engaging in reckless actions.”

Fiscer was referring to Christian-inspired patriotic groups that have protested widespread impunity for crimes committed by migrants, and the resulting deterioration of public order in several European cities.

He also said that Christians should “have balance, which does not mean professing a watered-down religion.… I pray to and follow my God; they pray to and follow their God, for there is only one God.… That is the golden rule…. All the great religions should act in this way, instead of arguing about which one is the [true] religion.”

In the same podcast, when asked if he believes in miracles, Fiscer expressed caution. “If you are talking about physical miracles, certainly there are important healings, but I always approach them cautiously.… There is always a family that did not receive a miracle: what did that family lack?”

Fiscer had previously spoken critically about Traditional Catholic piety. In a podcast recorded on May 20, 2025, marking his 20th anniversary as a priest, he referred to messages from “ultra-traditionalists,” saying: “I’m now starting to receive messages from numerous haters, sent by ultra-traditionalists. They really are a world unto themselves. If you look at their social media profiles, it’s quite scary: they are denialists, they are conspiracy theorists.”

“Religion compresses, right? It’s like a zipped file, so to speak…. Religiosity isn’t appealing.… A certain religiosity looks like a high schooler from behind, but a museum piece from the front,” he added.

Fiscer’s public profile was also closely associated with Pope Francis. During a 2014 interview on Italian Catholic television network TV2000, he described personal encounters with Francis, including an audience and a concelebration at Santa Marta. 

“The Pope in some way gives me the necessary confirmation to move forward … our Pope, Pope Francis, is like this for me: every time I see him, it is as if he were telling me to go ahead,” Fiscer said. He also called Francis “a prophet” and “a prophecy for our time,” adding, “he is a magnet, people go there because the Holy Spirit is speaking.”

Abuse suspect almost appointed bishop

An abuse suspect has almost become bishop despite allegations within the Catholic Church in Croatia. 

At times, he is said to have even been considered as a candidate for the episcopate, reports the news portal "Dnevnik.hr" on Tuesday. 

Accordingly, leading Croatian bishops supported the clergy for years and entrusted him with important tasks within the Episcopal Conference.

The allegations concern the alleged sexual abuse of a then 16-year-old seminarian in Zagreb in the early 2000s. 

The chairman of the Croatian Bishops’ Conference (HBK), Archbishop Dražen Kutleša, had already been informed of the allegations of abuse in June 2022, according to the portal. 

Nevertheless, in early 2023, under his chairmanship, the Bishops’ Conference extended the mandate of the accused priest in the Commission for Catholic Schools for another five years.

Possible bishop candidate

Despite the allegations of abuse, the then bishop of Požega, Antun Škvorčević, also appointed the accused priest as cathedral chaplain – although he is said to have learned of the allegations years earlier. 

In addition, the clergyman is said to have been acted as a possible candidate for the episcopate. 

Already in 2018, the former Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, warned the then Vatican Congregation for the Bishops of a possible appointment. 

Schönborn had personally learned of the allegations, according to the report, through the alleged abuse sufferer.

A Vatican investigation launched in February 2023 eventually classified the allegations of abuse as credible. 

The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith then ordered a church procedure. A decision is pending so far. 

According to the Croatian Bishops' Conference, the proceedings were suspended at the express request of the police in order not to jeopardize the state investigation. 

Despite the ongoing Vatican investigation, the incumbent Bishop of Požega, Ivo Martinović, appointed the accused clergyman as a pastor in August 2025. It was only a year later that he was relieved of this task after the case caused a stir in public.

Last interim report: New results on abuse in the diocese of Trier

The historical research project on sexual abuse in the diocese of Trier is nearing completion. 

The scientists at the University of Trier published their last interim report on Thursday. 

In it, they examine the period from 1946 to 1966. 

In the post-war years to 1951, according to the report, unusually many girls were affected by sexual assault. In addition, the researchers drew a comparison to the Nazi period, in terms of the handling of the diocese lines with accused clergy.

The researchers accounted for a total of 335 people affected from 1946 to 1966, mainly children and adolescents. They also identified 123 accused.

About half girls

The Diocese of Trier was headed by Bishop Franz Rudolf Bornewasser from 1922. In the now examined partial term from 1946 to 1951, those affected by the sexual assaults were about 50 percent female. This is unusual, the researchers wrote.

Under Bornewasser’s successor, Bishop Matthias Wehr (1951–1966), the victims were two-thirds of boys – just as in the following period. The study authors explained the number with a sexual brutalization in the first post-war years as a result of World War II.

The research team also looked at how the diocese leaders dealt with accused clergy. According to the interim report, the decision-making power was usually with the vicars general Heinrich von Meurers and Peter Weins. The administrative chiefs had dealt "conspicuously mildly" with accused. "Consequences were completely absent or consisted of transfers, in exceptional cases abroad, where they were deprived of German prosecution," according to the university.

According to the authors, a comparison between the Nazi period and the early Federal Republic shows that more consistent action would have been possible. For fear that anti-church Nazi propaganda could exploit such cases, Bishop Bornewasser ordered, for example, in 1939, the immediate accommodation of an intensive care offender in a church health and care center. "After 1945, Bornewasser relaxed the measure and the priest immediately relapsed."

The Bishop of Trier, Stephan Ackermann, explained what consequences to be drawn from the investigation in the present: "The report warns me and those who are responsible today and in the future in the diocese to establish resilient, transparent and reliable structures in the field of prevention, intervention and reappraisal, which are not dependent and influenceable on social fluctuations in dealing with these topics."

"Wrongly understood collegiality"

The Independent Commission for the Investigation of Sexual Abuse in the area of responsibility of the Diocese of Trier initiated the report. She commented: "Time and again it is clear in the study that the then diocese managers in Trier have taken too little care of those affected by sexual abuse. Their main focus was particularly on the good reputation of the Church and the preservation of general morality according to the conceptions of the time. Often perpetrators were encountered with great and also oversized clemency."

The study made it clear that the measures for prevention, which have now been introduced, must be continued consistently. "Examples of the attention of colleagues who have self-initiatively drawn the attention of the diocese leadership to sexual abuse point to the continuing importance of circumspection, courage and mindfulness, especially in the church communities. Misunderstood collegiality and excessive patience with perpetrators increases the risk of abuse and exacerbates the consequences."

Final report to be available soon

For the fourth analysis, the historians evaluated 1,574 files and held conversations with those affected as well as with contemporary witnesses. In 2022, they started the research project, which extends into 2021. The fourth interim report was the last building block. In the entire investigation period from 1946 to 2021, the researchers now count 252 accused and 782 affected persons.

A final report is due to be available at the end of November. Partial studies on the terms of the bishops Bernhard Stein (1967–1981), Hermann Josef Spital (1981–2001) and Reinhard Marx (2001–2008) and Stephan Ackermann (since 2009) have already been published.

New papal nuncio likely to continue radical downsizing of Catholic dioceses in Ireland

A new papal nuncio to Ireland has been appointed by the Vatican from Poland. 

Archbishop Jan Romeo Pawlowski (65) is currently papal nuncio in Greece.

He was born in 1960 in Biskupiec, northern Poland, and was ordained in 1985 before studying for a doctorate in canon law at the Gregorian University in Rome.

Pawlowski then entered the Vatican’s diplomatic service and was made archbishop in 2009 when appointed papal nuncio to the Republic of the Congo and Gabon.

In 2015 he returned to the Vatican, serving as its secretariat of state becoming head of its section for diplomatic staff in 2017. In 2022 he was appointed papal nuncio to Greece.

He speaks Italian, French, Russian, English, German and Portuguese.

A papal nuncio is effectively the Vatican’s ambassador to Ireland. He will also automatically become dean of the diplomatic corps in the State.

In church terms his primary role is in the appointment of bishops, making recommendations to Rome. More recently in Ireland the nuncio has also played a key role in the reduction of Irish Catholic dioceses.

The new nuncio succeeds Archbishop Luis Mariano Montemayor (70), who served in Ireland from February 2023 until July this year, when he retired.

In his three years, Archbishop Montemayor, originally from Argentina and another Vatican career diplomat, oversaw some of the most radical changes in the structure of the Irish Catholic Church in 900 years, with a significant reduction in the number of dioceses.

In 1111, at the Synod of Ráth Breasail, Ireland’s current diocesan structure was set up.

Some “downsizing” had taken place before Archbishop Montemayor’s arrival in 2023. In 2021 Clonfert was joined with Galway. But on his watch this process was sped up, with Achonry joining Elphin in 2025 and, earlier this year, Killala with Tuam. It meant six west of Ireland Catholic dioceses were reduced to three.

Last July, Ossory diocese – mainly Kilkenny – was similarly joined under one bishop, with Ferns diocese, mainly Wexford.

When it came to the appointment and transfer of bishops, Archbishop Montemayor was similarly active. He appointed Fr Paul Connell Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise in 2023 and Fr Donal Roche as auxiliary bishop of Dublin in 2024.

In 2024 he oversaw the transfer of then Bishop of Raphoe (Donegal) Alan McGuckian SJ to Down and Connor diocese, mainly Belfast and Antrim. Also that year, then bishop of Achonry Paul Dempsey became an auxiliary bishop of Dublin.

In 2025 Bishop of Elphin Kevin Doran was named also Bishop of Achonry, while last February, Archbishop of Tuam Francis Duffy was named Bishop of Killala.

Last year too Bishop of Ossory Niall Coll was transferred to Raphoe diocese. Last February, Archbishop of Tuam Francis Duffy was also named Bishop of Killala while last July Auxiliary Bishop of Armagh Michael Router, was appointed Bishop of Derry and Bishop of Ferns Ger Nash was also named Bishop of Ossory.

It is likely such downsizing will continue under Archbishop Pawlowski.

More immediately, both Bishop of Clogher (mainly Monaghan) Larry Duffy and Bishop of Cloyne (mainly east Cork) William Crean are due to retire later this year, and there has been speculation for some time that Clogher may be joined with its neighbour Kilmore (mainly Cavan) and Cloyne with Cork and Ross diocese.

Further, since 2018 the Catholic Primate and Archbishop of Armagh Eamon Martin has been administrator of the small Co Down diocese of Dromore. It followed the resignation of then Bishop of Dromore John McAreavey in a controversy over his handling of child abuse allegations against the late Fr Malachy Finnegan. That arrangement is expected to be formalised.

Bishop moves diagonally across Australia – Bendigo’s Matt Brain elected in Bunbury

Anglican Bishop Matt Brain of Bendigo has been elected Bishop of Bunbury in Western Australia. 

In a letter sent today to the Bendigo faithful, he says he has been praying for some time about where he should serve.

Last year Brain polled strongly in the election to become Primate (head) of the Anglican Church of Australia, being the favoured candidate in the House of Bishops, while fellow evangelical Mark Short of Canberra-Goulburn had the votes of the Houses of Laity and Clergy.

It was notable that the Primatial election had two strong evangelical candidates in the lead.

Brain’s doctoral thesis, Treasures in Jars of Clay: Towards a new Pauline Pastoral Theology of Mission to Generation Y in Australia, was awarded by Mark’s Theological College / Charles Sturt University where he also lectured. He is the author of God is Enough (2021), Wise – Transforming Pastoral Ministry (2019), and Engage! How the church can reconnect with young people (2011).

Bishop Matt Brain was born in Sydney, grew up in Perth, and was ordained in the Diocese of North-West Australia in 2003. He moved to the Diocese of Canberra-Goulburn in 2010 and was consecrated a bishop in 2015 in that diocese before becoming Bishop of Bendigo in 2018.

Bishop Matt Brain’s move to Bunbury means that both the Anglican Diocese of Bendigo and its neighbour diocese, Ballarat to the west, are vacant, with the retirement of Ballarat’s Bishop Garry Weatherill also this month

Bishop Matt Brain’s letter

Dear Friends,

On Sunday I was elected the next Bishop of the Diocese of Bunbury.

Rachael and I have been spending significant time in prayerful discernment over the past year pondering where God would have us serve. It is with this in mind that I allowed my name to go forward as a candidate to the synod of the Diocese of Bunbury as they prepared to elect a new bishop. As much as I would love to stay with you, I cannot attend to two calls!

It has been a great privilege to be your bishop. We have seen our family grow up in the nine years we have shared with you. Thank you for welcoming and loving us all. It will be a wrench to leave you, the spiritual family we have here in Victoria. The Diocese of Bendigo is a beautiful place, and you make it all the more so. We have been able to share the greatest adventure, as we have worked together in God’s mission.

There is always much to do as we seek to act faithfully as people drawn into God’s mission. The challenging parts of this work can loom large and cause anxiety. Yet we follow a loving God who has proved faithful in the lives of those who entrust themselves into God’s care. God has been very kind to the Diocese of Bendigo in the team who share leadership. Please be active in praying for Sarah Crutch our Registrar, Dean George Hemmings who as Vicar General will act as Administrator when I conclude, and your Archdeacons, Tracey Wolsley, Steve Weickhardt and Peter Blundell who will help you hold space in the things which must wait and go ahead in the matters which must progress. Please also pray for the Bishopric Electoral Board as they prepare to convene and do the work of electing your new bishop.

As timings and other matters regarding our departure and the beginning of the Electoral Board’s work are settled, we will be sure to let you know.

Rachael, our children and I will all value your prayers as we prepare for all the changes which will come in following God’s new call.

Your servant in Christ,

+Matt

Baltimore Archdiocese reports largest priest numbers in 50 years after abuse settlements, bankruptcy

The Archdiocese of Baltimore, one of several Catholic dioceses that downsized parishes after filing for bankruptcy amid sex abuse claims, plans to ordain its largest number of priests in 50 years.

The Catholic Review, the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s official news outlet, reported that Baltimore will ordain 12 men as priests next year, up from five this year and the most since the 1970s.

The number of Baltimore seminarians has grown from 28 in 2007 to 52 in 2020 to 66 this year.

The surge follows years of pain for the archdiocese, which serves more than 500,000 Catholics spread over most of Central and Western Maryland. It also reflects a national trend of increasing enrollment in Catholic seminaries.

In 2024, the Archdiocese of Baltimore consolidated 61 parishes into 23, reducing its overall total from 137 to 108. The archdiocese is negotiating in U.S. Bankruptcy Court a settlement with more than 1,000 abuse victims that is expected to run into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

The archdiocese reported in 2023, before the consolidations, that 405 priests served 137 parishes.

The Rev. Steven Roth, vocations director for the Archdiocese of Baltimore, said those experiences paradoxically encouraged more men to seek the priesthood to help heal their communities.

“We’re not just taking men who want to be priests, but men who are capable of living the life,” Father Roth said in a phone interview. “They’re not dissuaded by the stories of past sins, but feel stirred to help those who have been hurt.”

He said an increase in young men converting to Catholicism on college campuses has contributed to the trend. The archdiocese reported receiving nearly 2,000 converts during the latest Easter season, up from 778 people last year.

Nationwide, the same demographic has driven a surge in conversions to Catholicism, but seminary numbers have been more inconsistent.

Hallow, a Catholic prayer and meditation app with more than 15 million registered users, found in a representative survey of 59 universities that converts seeking baptism and confirmation through campus ministries jumped by 87.6% from the 2023-2024 term to the 2024-2025 term.

The app reported in March that 140 of the nation’s 175 dioceses expected a 38% annual surge in people converting through the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults program during this year’s Easter season.

“It’s encouraging to see this revival extending into religious life vocations too,” said Alex Jones, CEO and co-founder of Hallow. “We’ve had two men, even just on our team, leave to enter seminary in the last year.”

The Official Catholic Directory, which surveys the nation’s Roman Catholic dioceses, found the number of men studying for the priesthood in undergraduate and graduate programs increased from 2,980 in 2024 to 3,035 in early 2025, a nearly 2% increase.

Some individual dioceses have reported substantial gains.

The Diocese of Davenport, Iowa, filed for bankruptcy in 2006 and emerged from it in 2012 after finalizing a $37 million settlement distributed among more than 150 abuse survivors. The number of seminarians has increased by nearly 80%, from nine last year to 16 this year.

The St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity in Minnesota reported that 106 seminarians from 17 dioceses and religious orders studied for the priesthood during the 2025-2026 academic year. That was the highest enrollment in more than a decade and the largest since 1979.

However, it is unclear whether the recent increases indicate a broader trend, as seminary numbers have lagged behind conversions.

“Trends in the number of men entering seminaries can be difficult to track,” said Michael New, a professor of social research at the Catholic University of America.

He noted that some seminarians drop out after completing philosophy credits and four-year collegiate programs, leaving them short of the graduate theology degree they require for ordination.

Rebuilding trust

Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate reported that graduate-level seminarians alone fell by 8% in fall 2025, dropping to 2,686 from 2,920 in 2024.

The Rev. Thomas Gaunt, a Jesuit priest who leads the center, said seminary numbers “can vary up or down” depending on the year.

He also said it is too early to tell whether Pope Leo XIV, who became the first American pontiff last year, has had any effect on seminary recruitment.

“Any impact from having an American pope will take years to be seen,” Father Gaunt said.

Tricia Bruce, a Catholic sociologist affiliated with multiple institutions, noted that Father Gaunt’s center reported that U.S. dioceses ordained 428 men as priests this year. That was a 6% increase from last year but remained 27% lower than the number ordained in 2017.

“It will take a steady and even more substantial rise to put a dent in the priest shortage the U.S. is experiencing nationwide,” Ms. Bruce said. “But even small increases enable bishops to assign a priest to parishes or ministries that have gone without for years.”

She noted that interviews she conducted with priests for the National Study of the Priesthood, a project of the Catholic University of America’s Catholic Project, found that many men joined because they wanted to “bring back a trustworthy voice and leadership for the church” after years of scandal.

“It’s possible, then, that even public scandal can act as a motivator for Catholic men to enter the priesthood, often as a way to live out faith as an authentic and trustworthy exemplar of how to lead and serve the church,” Ms. Bruce said.

Bill Hambleton, whose allegations of abuse starting at age 16 were acknowledged by the Diocese of Salt Lake City, was ordained a deacon in 2000 but stopped short of the priesthood. He said he still rejoices in the increased vocations that dioceses such as Baltimore are seeing.

“This is a generation that gives us hope for reform,” said Mr. Hambleton, chair of religious studies at Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy in La Canada Flintridge, California. “I think they’ve learned good and bad lessons from how their bishops have handled transparency and accountability, and they want to help.”

Pope Leo XIV calls for accompanying fragility without renouncing the truth about marriage

Pope Leo XIV has asked pastors to accompany with closeness, patience, and mercy the families who are going through situations of fragility, while also reminding them of their responsibility to “proclaim the beauty of God’s plan for marriage and the family” and to announce “the fullness of the Gospel’s teaching on the family.”

The Pope spoke these words on October 7, during the meeting with the heads of the Eastern Churches and the presidents of the Episcopal Conferences convened in the Paul VI Hall on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of Amoris laetitia.

In his address, Pope Leo XIV noted that “in many contexts” there is “an ever-greater distance between the ways in which sex and intimacy are lived, and the Christian vision of marriage.” He also warned that many young people continue to seek “love, fidelity, and a sense of belonging,” although they find it difficult to accept that “a lifelong commitment” is the necessary condition for attaining what they desire.

The Pontiff called for facing these issues “with courage” and paying special attention to those marked by “limitations, wounds, and apparent failure.” At the same time, he posed a question to the participants that he placed at the center of pastoral reflection: “How can we announce to them the fullness of the Gospel’s teaching on the family?”

Ten years after Amoris laetitia:
Proclaiming the Gospel to today’s families

OPENING ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE LEO XIV

My dear brothers in the episcopate,
dear families,
dear brothers and sisters:

I wanted to convene this meeting ten years after the publication of Amoris laetitia, and I thank you for having organized your commitments so that we could spend these days together. I wholeheartedly thank the married couples and all those who have come to share testimonies of their lives in Christ and who will take part in our conversations, as well as the experts and moderators.

Allow me to begin by recalling the long and fruitful synodal and missionary journey that the Church has undertaken in relation to marriage and the family, a journey we are called to continue.

The family has always held an important place in the pastoral concern of the Successor of Peter and of the bishops who assist him through their participation in the Synod of Bishops. The 1980 Synod took up a desire already expressed by Pope John Paul I during his brief pontificate, which ultimately led to the apostolic exhortation Familiaris consortio of Saint John Paul II.

At the beginning of his pontificate, Pope Francis once again placed the family at the center of a synodal process, recognizing the need to continue the Church’s discernment in the face of the profound changes affecting an area so closely linked to its mission in today’s world. That journey led, ten years ago, to the apostolic exhortation Amoris laetitia.

In this sense, the Church has followed the path indicated by the Second Vatican Council. When the Council Fathers placed the dignity of marriage and the family at the beginning of the second part of Gaudium et spes, they recognized that family life offers a privileged point of access to the great cultural, economic, social, and political questions of our time, including the work of promoting peace among peoples. The interdependence of these questions has become even more evident today, always in the light of the Word of God: “But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife” (Mk 10:6-7). The family remains key to an approach that holds together the local and the global, guided by the search for a universal fraternity in Christ that the Gospel calls us to build with all. This trajectory of more than half a century gives our meeting a special responsibility as pastors, as the synodal vocation of the whole Church continues to unfold.

Within this history, Amoris laetitia marked an important stage, and the ten years since its publication have become part of the life of our particular Churches. During this time, the Apostolic Exhortation has been received in different cultures and pastoral contexts, has accompanied the concrete life of families, and has inspired initiatives and processes.

These are the ten years that have passed, and we present them before the Lord Jesus. With the guidance of the Holy Spirit, observing attentively what has happened can help us recognize more deeply what Christ has been teaching his Church throughout these years.

The Acts of the Apostles offer us a beautiful image of what we are about to do. At the end of their missionary journey, Paul and Barnabas gathered the Church and “related all that God had done with them” (Acts 14:27). Later, as they traveled to Jerusalem, they passed through Phoenicia and Samaria, recounting what had happened on the mission, and their account filled the brothers and sisters with great joy. Upon arriving in Jerusalem, they were received by the Church, the apostles, and the presbyters, and once again “they recounted all that God had done with them” (15:4).

There is something of this movement in our own gathering. As I have already said, the Church has dedicated these ten years to welcoming Amoris laetitia and to accompanying families in very diverse circumstances.

We also bring stories of what God has done among us. They are stories gathered along the path of mission: stories of conversion, of unexpected fruits, and of the relationships God has woven within families while our communities have striven to accompany them, together with the difficulties we have faced, the questions that have arisen, and what we have learned along the way. They give us confidence as we begin our work together. Let us present them before the Lord and share them with one another, seeking to recognize what God has been stirring among us and where his Spirit is guiding the Church today.

In my message of March 19, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of Amoris laetitia, I recalled that “in fact, there are places and circumstances in which the Church ‘can only become the salt of the earth’ through the lay faithful and, in particular, through families.” Indeed, Amoris laetitia invites us to take this vocation and responsibility seriously. Families themselves participate in the Church’s mission in the day-to-day of their lives, through love and fidelity, care and forgiveness, the education of children, their efforts to hand on the faith, attention to the elderly and the most vulnerable, and the many ways they serve their communities and society. Through all these ways, families bear witness to the Gospel and contribute to the life and mission of the Church.

As pastors, we have received the responsibility, in season and out of season, to proclaim the beauty of God’s plan for marriage and the family, as well as his call to love and tenderness. This challenges us to accompany people in their effort to live their vocation in the concrete circumstances of their lives.

This ministry also places us in a school of listening. The wisdom of the People of God reaches us through our common faith, which enlightens all families, including situations marked by difficulties, loneliness, and at times even apparent failure. The Lord himself teaches us with patience when we take the time to listen, and surely we have much to learn from families.

Their lives also raise questions that deserve to be faced with courage. In many contexts, an ever-greater distance has emerged between the ways in which sex and intimacy are lived, and the Christian vision of marriage. Young people continue to long for love, fidelity, and a sense of belonging; however, many find it difficult to accept how that vision of love can take shape in their own lives or to believe that a lifelong commitment is the necessary condition for attaining what they desire. Economic insecurity, migration, violence, loneliness, and other forms of emotional fragility also influence the decisions people make and the possibilities they can imagine for their future.

These realities raise a series of questions that we must face with courage. What are people really seeking behind these cultural changes? What do their joys and hopes, their sorrows and anxieties reveal to us? In what aspects do our pastoral language and practices succeed in opening a path, and in which do they fail to reach the hearts of people or support their efforts to do good? What does the lived experience of families teach us, an experience from which we have not yet fully learned? What can we offer as formation for a healthy and holy family life? In particular, what can we learn from parents who seek to accompany their children and young people in these contexts?

Fragility deserves special attention, since it can profoundly influence the way people see themselves, their future, and even their relationship with God and the Church. The experience of fragility leads us to ask whether we are able to remain united when life no longer corresponds to what we had expected, and whether we can recognize the work of grace even in situations marked by limitations, wounds, and apparent failure.

In this sense as well, the experience of families has something to teach us all, since fragility is part of our common human condition and, therefore, also of the life of the Church. We all know the gap that exists between the good we desire and what we are capable of living. We need grace, forgiveness, and new beginnings to fulfill God’s will, and we learn that fidelity is itself a grace to be received and a path to be renewed little by little, often through trials. Recognizing this shared challenge should mark the way we accompany one another in the Church. What kind of Church, then, do people find precisely when they feel most fragile? Do our communities help them discover that they still have a place, a responsibility, and gifts to offer? Can the truth we proclaim be manifested through the patience, closeness, and mercy of our pastoral presence? How can we announce to them the fullness of the Gospel’s teaching on the family?

During these days, I invite you to give these questions all the importance they deserve. The Holy Spirit often speaks through the very situations that challenge us, and enlightens us so that we may discover how God’s mercy and the saving grace of Christ can reach our families today, especially in their weakness and resilience, in their hopes and disappointments, in their longing for communion and in their search for meaning. Our task, therefore, is not only to interpret these realities, but to let them question us and motivate our pastoral responsibility, so that the Church may find renewed ways of proclaiming the Gospel, offering sacramental grace, accompanying families, and making visible the tenderness with which Christ continues to walk among his people.

May the dialogue among us be marked by the evangelical freedom we see in the Acts of the Apostles. We can share what has filled us with joy in our Churches, the challenges we have faced, and the questions that have arisen with greater clarity through experience. Moreover, the diversity of the situations from which we come can become a gift for the discernment of the whole Church.

The Thematic Framework prepared for this meeting is intended to keep before us the breadth of Amoris laetitia and to establish a dialogue between the Apostolic Exhortation and what our Churches have lived during these last ten years. Let us be inspired by the richness of Christ’s word and the tradition of the Church. The program has been made public so that the People of God may accompany our work through prayer and synodal reflection.

For our part, listening to one another, letting what we hear resonate within us, and remaining attentive to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit can awaken the pastoral creativity we need in the face of new questions.

That is why our retreat together this afternoon and the prayer with which we begin each day constitute the heart of our work. I ask the Lord to help us gather the fruits that Amoris laetitia has produced in our local Churches, so that they may nourish the whole Church.

I hope that, through the many stories you bring from your Churches and from the different cultural contexts, a shared narrative of these ten years may gradually take shape, marked by joy and hope, and that it may allow us to face with honesty the trials and difficulties that still lie ahead. This will nourish the pastoral discernment of the episcopal conferences and of the hierarchical structures of the Eastern Churches. It will also help the local Churches to recognize new paths and to involve more deeply all the baptized in the Church’s synodal journey. I also ask that we all maintain the discretion and confidentiality required by this time of listening and discernment.

May the Lord grant us the freedom to listen to one another, the wisdom to recognize his work among his people, and the courage to follow him wherever he leads us, so that, each day, the Gospel may become ever more fully good news for families throughout the world. Thank you.

Mutsaerts calls for seeking a reverent Mass rather than remaining in a parish where the liturgy puts faith at risk

Auxiliary Bishop of ’s-Hertogenbosch, Robert Mutsaerts, has advised Catholics attending parishes where the liturgy is celebrated irreverently to seek another community where their faith can be nourished, including a church where the traditional Mass is celebrated, rather than remaining in a place that may ultimately weaken it.

In an interview given to LifeSiteNews during the Catholic Identity Conference held in Pittsburgh, the Dutch prelate explained that for years he had believed the faithful should remain attached to their own parish and try to support it. 

Now, however, he considers that there are situations in which such permanence can be detrimental to spiritual life.

“If there is a bad Novus Ordo Mass, I’m afraid you can’t change those priests. So go somewhere else,” Mutsaerts stated. “I used to think: ‘Support your own parish.’ I no longer say that, because there you can lose the faith.”

The bishop recommended seeking a community where the liturgy, doctrine, and parish life effectively help preserve the faith. “Go somewhere where you think: ‘This is right, this is authentic, this is true,’” he noted.

Seek a liturgy where the sacred is present

Mutsaerts placed particular emphasis on families with children and young Catholics. In his view, the choice of parish should not depend solely on geographical proximity, but also on the real possibility of finding a community where faith can grow and where the liturgical celebration retains its sacred character.

The prelate clarified that young people can find such an environment both in communities linked to the Vetus Ordo and in parishes where the Novus Ordo is celebrated worthily. His criterion, therefore, is not limited to the liturgical form, but to the reverence with which it is celebrated and the solidity of the community.

“Young people find one another in the Vetus Ordo, in the Novus Ordo, but in places where they find the sacred, where the liturgy is in order,” he explained.

Mutsaerts added that for a young believer it is also important to share the faith with other Catholics of their age. “If you have children or young people, go where they can meet other young people. That encourages them,” he stated. In his opinion, it is difficult for an 18-year-old Catholic to find such support if they are completely isolated in an aging community with little youth presence.

His words enter directly into a recurring debate among Catholics who suffer from deficient liturgical celebrations: whether to remain in the territorial parish to try to improve it from within or to travel to another church where they can find a more reverent liturgy and a more solid Catholic life.

Mutsaerts believes that when one’s own perseverance in the faith is at stake, the priority must be clear.

“Do the Catholic things of always”

During the same interview, the Dutch bishop addressed the general situation of the Church and once again expressed his reservations about the synodality process.

Asked how to preserve the faith in the current ecclesial context, Mutsaerts recommended maintaining the ordinary practices of Catholic life: attending a good Mass, praying the Rosary, seeking the truth, and setting a good example.

“Do the Catholic things of always. Go to a Mass where there is a proper liturgy, pray the Rosary, set a good example,” he stated.

The bishop was also very critical of the results of the synodal process. “If synodality means nothing to you, don’t go; it’s a waste of time. We’ve been at this for eight years. Can you see the fruits? I don’t,” he declared.

This is not the first time Mutsaerts has publicly expressed this position. In August he addressed an open letter to Leo XIV in which he questioned the fruits of synodality and asked the Pope to once again place the salvation of souls at the center of the Church’s life.

“Let us not try to adapt to the secular world”

Mutsaerts also warned against the temptation to accommodate Catholic identity to the dominant criteria of secular society.

“We are trying to be too accommodating to the secular world. No! What is our identity? We must remain faithful to the identity: Jesus Christ,” he maintained.

For the prelate, the Church’s point of reference cannot be the world’s acceptance, but Christ and the truth He has revealed. Hence he insisted on the need to persevere in prayer and in a consistently Catholic life even in times of ecclesial crisis.

Addressing young people specifically, he again insisted on the same pillars: the Mass, the Rosary, sound formation, and a life in accordance with the faith.

“Go to Mass, even if it may not mean much to you or the sermon is a bit boring, or totally boring. Go to Mass and try to find a parish where the Mass is done well,” he advised.

He also recommended reading good books and the Church Fathers, listening to solid Catholic content, and not allowing oneself to be carried away by relativism, secularism, or subjectivism.

“There is a truth that applies to everyone,” Mutsaerts concluded. “If you do not live according to it, some things begin to go wrong.”

Salesians of Vigo rent out their theater to a medium for a spiritism session

The Cine Teatro Salesianos de Vigo, owned by the congregation founded by Saint John Bosco and located a few meters from the María Auxiliadora school run by the religious order on Venezuela Street, will host the show Mediumnidad by Argentine medium Noelia Pace next Saturday, October 17 at 8:00 p.m. 

Tickets, at 52.80 euros, are still available on the salesian theater’s own website.

A spiritism session with a Salesian seal

The Cine Teatro Salesianos website does not disguise the content of the event. It describes the evening as «a unique proposal that combines spirituality, reflection and healing», in which the audience «feels and vibrates with the souls» and learns «to coexist with the souls» and to «identify the signs of the beyond». 

Pace presents herself as a medium, tarot reader, seer and astrologer; in Argentina she has made her fortune on television programs and podcasts, where she transmits messages from deceased relatives to emotional presenters and boasts of having predicted the outcome of the World Cup final.

Her Spanish tour, from October 12 to 27, passes through Bilbao, Santander, La Coruña, Santiago de Compostela, Vigo, Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Palma de Mallorca, Alicante and Murcia. In all those cities she performs in commercial venues. Only in Vigo does she do so under a Catholic roof.

What the Church says

The Catechism of the Catholic Church is categorical: all forms of divination and «the evocation of the dead» must be rejected, because they conceal «a desire for power over time, history and men» and contradict the honor due to God alone (n. 2116). 

Spiritism, adds number 2117, often involves a divinatory or magical practice, and the Church warns the faithful to guard against it.

There is, therefore, little room for ambiguity. What is announced in the theater of the Salesians of Vigo is, at best, a cold reading show that trades on the pain of those who have lost a loved one; at worst, exactly what the Church forbids its children because of the spiritual danger it entails. 

In neither case is it understandable that a congregation dedicated to the Christian education of young people should lend its stage, and even less so a few meters from the classrooms where the Catechism is taught every morning.

Silence of the congregation

To date, neither the Salesian community of Vigo nor the inspectorate have offered any explanation of the criteria by which the theater is ceded, nor have they announced the cancellation of the event. 

Don Bosco, who founded his work to take the boys of Turin off the streets and bring them closer to the sacraments, would hardly have imagined that his house in Vigo would end up selling tickets to talk to the dead.

Bagnasco calls on the confraternities to awaken a Europe “lethargic” from faith and tradition

Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco has called on European confraternities to become protagonists of evangelization and help awaken a Europe that, in his view, is living in a deep “lethargy.” 

The former president of the Italian Episcopal Conference also claimed the value of Christian traditions as a vehicle for transmitting a truth that does not age: “Christ’s love for us.”

Bagnasco spoke in Enna, Sicily, during the VII Pan-European Forum of Confraternities, held from October 2 to 7 and bringing together representatives from various European countries. According to data presented at the meeting, there are around 26,500 confraternities in Europe, grouping some six million faithful.

“Today I ask you to be the seed of the new spring that the Church is experiencing,” the cardinal told the participants. Bagnasco also recalled the mark these associations of the faithful have left on his own life: “The confraternities have left a mark on my life and on my vocation.”

Faced with a society where Christianity may seem to be losing ground, the prelate rejected a purely pessimistic reading of the situation. “Everything seems to say the opposite, but there are all the signs that good is today infinitely stronger than evil,” he assured.

“Be a healthy attraction for young people”

Likewise, Bagnasco asked the confraternities not to limit themselves to safeguarding inherited devotions as an element of the past, but to turn them into a concrete form of evangelization.

“Be a healthy attraction for young people, actors of evangelization in this Europe that must awaken from its lethargy,” he stated.

It is precisely in the continuity between tradition and evangelization that he placed one of the main responsibilities of the confraternities. Their religious heritage, he explained, should not be understood as a collection of ancient customs without impact on the present, but as a visible expression of a faith that continues to have something to say to contemporary man.

“Be contagious with your ancient traditions, which tell a truth that is always current: Christ’s love for us,” he noted.

The cardinal also referred to the situation of many young Europeans, marked, he said, by “fears, confusion and uncertainty.” He warned that this context can end up making them “strategically weak, easily manipulable” people, so he called for spaces capable of transmitting certainties, belonging and a Christian vision of existence.

A Europe that cannot be built only on the economy

The situation of the European continent was also part of Bagnasco’s intervention. The cardinal lamented that previous calls by the bishops in favor of a recovery of Europe’s spiritual roots have found little echo.

“The cry launched some years ago by the bishops to Europe seems, unfortunately, to have fallen on deaf ears,” he noted.

Bagnasco maintained that European unity cannot rest exclusively on material interests. The economy, finance or common defense may have their importance, he explained, but none of these dimensions is enough to create a true community among peoples.

“None of this is capable of creating unity of life and destiny,” he stated.

Faced with a Europe built solely on political or economic structures, the cardinal claimed the need to recover a reason open to transcendence: “Reason enlightened by faith must prevail.”

Defense of life and the family

In this context, Bagnasco also addressed two issues he considers fundamental for the future of Europe: the defense of human life and the family founded on the union between man and woman.

The prelate placed both principles within a Christian conception of the person that, far from being reduced to a private matter, has direct consequences on culture and on the way a society understands its own future.

The day also included the panel “Woman, life, feminine charisms,” moderated by Marcella Reni and with the participation of actress Claudia Koll and Laura Frattari. In the morning, around 200 students had participated at Kore University in the meeting “Confraternities, guardians of the Faith and the Environment.”

The VII Pan-European Forum thus concluded several days of celebrations, meetings and public events in a city deeply linked to the confraternal tradition. 

For Bagnasco, precisely this capacity to preserve a received heritage and transmit it from generation to generation can turn the confraternities into one of the instruments to once again publicly propose the Christian faith in an increasingly secularized Europe.