Sacred Heart Catholic Church

Father Richard Thomas, SJ, ministered in the U.S.-Mexico border region. / Credit: Courtesy of Our Lady's Youth Center

Baltimore, Maryland, Nov 12, 2025 / 15:24 pm (CNA).

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) voted in favor of advancing the beatification and canonization cause of the late Jesuit Father Richard Thomas. 

Bishop Peter Baldacchino, who has served as bishop of Las Cruces in New Mexico since 2019, initiated the request for the Jesuit priest’s beatification. Baldacchino spoke about Thomas and his ministry to the poor at the bishops’ Fall Plenary Assembly in Baltimore.

“Jesus said, ‘When you hold a lunch or dinner, do not invite your brothers or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors, rather … invite the poor. Blessed indeed will you be, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous,’” Baldacchino said during his Nov. 11 presentation. 

Thomas “gave witness to those words of the Lord through a life dedicated to serve persons in need, primarily in the Diocese of El Paso but also in the Diocese of Las Cruces and along the southern border of the United States,” Baldacchino said. 

Thomas was born in Seffner, Florida, in 1928 and entered the Jesuit order in 1945 after attending Jesuit High School in Tampa, Florida. He was ordained to the priesthood in San Francisco in 1958.

From 1964 until his death, Thomas served as the executive director of Our Lady’s Youth Center in El Paso, Texas. The center grew to include ministries to the poor around Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, including food banks, medical and dental clinics, prison and mental hospital ministries, and schools. 

In 1975 Thomas started The Lord’s Ranch east of Vado, New Mexico. The ranch has provided recreation and rehabilitation to youth in need and created multiple food banks. 

The priest “lived a very simple, austere lifestyle because he wanted to live in solidarity with the poor,” Baldacchino said. “He slept in a small room with very few furnishings that included a desk, a chair, and an army bed. There was no carpeting, no air conditioning, and no heating.”

“Father Thomas had a foundational vision based on the 25th chapter of Matthew’s Gospel in which Jesus said, ‘When you minister to the poor, you minister to me.’ Father Thomas believed that in serving the poor, we encounter the presence of Jesus in a special way, and we are enriched by the experience.”

The priest “recognized that each human being is made in the image of God,” Baldacchino said. This includes the unborn and the immigrant.”

Thomas was “a pioneer in the pro-life movement” and “recognized the need to be supportive of women who are in difficult circumstances because of pregnancy,” Baldacchino said. “There is currently a very vibrant pro-life community in the El Paso-Las Cruces area, and many of its leaders are people who have been mentored by Father Thomas.”

Thomas died on May 8, 2006, at The Lord’s Ranch at age 78.

A ‘miraculous meal’

Baldacchino told a story of a potential miracle by Thomas at a garbage dump in Juárez, Mexico, on Christmas Day in 1972. Thomas and some lay Catholics came across the words of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke, where Jesus tells his followers to invite the poor.

“Father Thomas and his companions decided to obey the words of Jesus, and they organized a Christmas Day meal for people who were scavengers at the garbage dump in Juárez,” Baldacchino said. 

The priest and the group prepared enough food for about 150 people, but when they arrived at the dump nearly twice the number of guests were present.

“Nevertheless, they decided to share what they had,” Baldacchino said. “Much to their surprise, everyone had more than enough to eat, and in fact, when the meal was over, they donated leftovers to two orphanages.”

“Now, 53 years later, the ministries that began with that Christmas Day meal are continuing. There is a food bank, a medical clinic, a Montessori school, and four different sites, [and] catechism is taught to children using the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd method,” Baldacchino said. 

Agreement among bishops 

Following Baldacchino’s address, a number of bishops spoke up to share their agreement with his testimony.

Bishop Andrew Cozzens of Crookston, Minnesota, said he has personal friends who spent time at the ranch and said they “testify to having witnessed both his generosity, heroic life, but also the miracle of the multiplication of food.”

Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso, Texas, also said he is in favor of the cause. He said: “I think all of us in our work, we [have] moments where we heard of something or experienced something [and] we said: ‘That was a miracle.’ But someone like Father Thomas — it was miracles almost every day. His trust in God was so incredible.”

Auxiliary Bishop Peter Smith of Portland, Oregon, also detailed Thomas’ involvement in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal and added that he was “a wonderful presence.”

“As was mentioned, miracles were regular in his ministry,” Smith said. Thomas “was always very joyful. Faith just radiated from him. You could just feel the presence of Christ in him.”

Ezequiel Ponce is among teens chosen to ask Pope Leo XIV questions at the National Catholic Youth Conference Nov. 21, 2025. / Credit: Courtesy of National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 12, 2025 / 14:24 pm (CNA).

A group of teens will speak with the Holy Father during a digital encounter at the upcoming National Catholic Youth Conference (NCYC) in Indianapolis.

Pope Leo XIV will hold a 45-minute digital encounter with young people from across the United States during the Nov. 20–22 NCYC, hosted by the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry (NFCYM). The pope will speak at 10:15 a.m. ET on Nov. 21 and enter into dialogue with a group of high school students. 

This marks the first time that a pope will directly engage with U.S. youth in a live digital encounter at NCYC. More than 40 teens have participated in the dialogue planning processs, and five of them will get the chance to speak directly with the Holy Father, organizers said.

Mia Smothers, Elise Wing, Christopher Pantelakis, Micah Alcisto, and Ezequiel Ponce will ask Pope Leo questions next week as thousands of teens gather in Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

Mia Smothers 

Mia Smothers, a high school freshman from Joppa, Maryland, is the youngest teen selected to speak with the pontiff. Growing up in a large family has taught her patience and teamwork, she said. Her parents have encouraged her to stay grounded in faith and to serve others.

Smothers is the second of 10 children and said she hopes her faith and NCYC experience will set a good example for her younger siblings. She wants to show them how wonderful it is to know and love God.

As a parishioner at St. Francis De Sales, Smothers serves as an altar server and helps with Vacation Bible School and youth group. She also participates in cheer, choir, and Helping Hands Club at her school and enjoys reading, dancing, singing, and doodling. 

Elise Wing

Elise Wing is a high school senior from Waterloo, Iowa, who says she enjoys nature and coffee. 

Wing is usually busy with speech, theater, competitive swimming, and serving her parish community at St. Edward’s. She said she loves to have bonfires and game nights with friends and go on road trips with her family. 

Her Catholic faith is the lens through which she sees the world, she said. She said she is inspired daily by St. Thérèse of Lisieux — her confirmation saint. Wing said she is looking forward to going on a pilgrimage to Rome, Florence, and Assisi in Italy this spring and is excited to represent faithful teens at NCYC next week.

Christopher Pantelakis

Christopher Pantelakis, or Chris, is a high school junior who was born and raised in Mesquite, Nevada. Pantelakis said he gets his inspiration from young people who go out in the world to make it a better place.

For fun, Chris said he loves watching sports and participating in any athletic activity. Recently his soccer team at Virgin Valley High School qualified for state. His favorite soccer team is Chelsea in England, which he hopes to watch play in person someday.

Micah Alcisto

Born and raised in Honolulu, Micah Alciso said he enjoys playing baseball, working out, fishing, and going to the beach. The high school senior is a leader in his community serving as a member of Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, LIFE team, and Catholic Honors Society.

Seeing how God continues to work in his life and in the lives of others inspires Alciso, he said. Even in hard times, he said experiences with God remind him he is not alone.

Keeping his faith strong and at the center of his life is important to Chris as he said he believes it will guide his career, relationships, education, and family.

Ezequiel Ponce

Ezequiel Ponce is a high school senior from Downey, California. He has a brother and sister who introduced him to St. Dominic Savio Parish, where he serves as a summer camp counselor and helps lead youth group.

Ponce said he sees his parish as his home and loves participating in the community and growing in his faith. He shares the same birthday as his favorite saint — St. John Bosco on Aug. 16.

Doing community work with kids led him to find a passion for teaching, he said. Ponce teaches at a middle school for one period of his school schedule every day. 

Ponce, who will ask the pope a question, said in an Nov.11 interview with NFCYM that it is “an honor and a great privilege to … talk to the Holy Father.” He added: “It makes me feel like my voice is heard and … that the youth of America’s voice is heard.”

“It is very reassuring that the Holy Father wants to indulge in dialogue with the youth,” Ponce said.

Katie McGrady, Catholic author, speaker, and radio host who will serve as the NCYC event moderator, said: “As we’ve prepared these teens to ask a question of the Holy Father, I’ve been struck by how excited they are to get to represent their peers in this moment. Their openness to dialogue, with each other and with adults who have helped prepare this moment, has inspired me to remember that the young Church is the Church of now, not tomorrow.”

null / Credit: joshimerbin/Shutterstock

Baltimore, Maryland, Nov 12, 2025 / 13:15 pm (CNA).

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) approved a new translation of the Bible, which will be used for personal Bibles, the lectionary at Mass, and the text in the Liturgy of the Hours.

Bishop Steven Lopes, chair of the Committee on Divine Worship, announced the translation will be called the “Catholic American Bible.” The translation for personal Bibles and the Liturgy of the Hours will be available on Ash Wednesday in 2027.

The bishops have not announced when the revised lectionaries will be available.

The USCCB also approved a Spanish-language translation of the New Testament, the Biblia de la Iglesia en América, which will be available on Ash Wednesday in 2026.

Lopes made the announcement during the USCCB’s Fall Plenary Assembly in Baltimore on Nov. 11.

According to Ascension Press, one of the publishers of the translation, the Catholic American Bible has a modified translation of the Old Testament from the New American Bible Revised Edition. It will replace the current translation of the Book of Psalms with The Abbey Psalms and Canticles, which was translated by monks at Conception Abbey in Missouri.

The new translation will also include a revised New Testament.

U.S. bishops also approved a new edition of the Roman Pontifical, which is the liturgical book for pontifical Masses, which can only be celebrated by bishops. It is expected to be ready in 2027. The bishops are still awaiting Vatican approval for two of the five pontifical rites, but approval is anticipated in December. 

Carmelite Father Craig Morrison speaks on a panel about Jewish-Catholic relations at The Catholic University of America on Nov. 11, 2025. / Credit: Madalaine Elhabbal/CNA

Washington, D.C., Nov 12, 2025 / 12:45 pm (CNA).

Nostra Aetate, the Church’s declaration on building relationships with non-Christian religions,  “planted a seed” that must continue to be nourished, according to panelists reflecting on the document’s legacy at The Catholic University of America on Nov. 11.

At the event, titled “The Church and the Jewish Community in Our Age,” Bishop Étienne Vetö, ICN, auxiliary bishop of Reims, France, and Rabbi Noam Marans, director of interreligious affairs for the American Jewish Committee, discussed the state of Catholic-Jewish relations as well as shared practices and difference. 

“Even though Nostra Aetate is one of the shortest, if not the shortest document of Vatican II, it has had a powerful impact,” Vetö said. “A Jew or a Christian from the first half [of] the 20th century who traveled in time to 2025 would find unbelievable the quality of dialogue, understanding, and trust that is now growing between the two communities.”

Rebecca Cohen, program and research specialist for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, agreed, saying Nostra Aetate produced a “seismic shift in Christian understanding” of Judaism that was revolutionary for its time in 1965. 

Nostra Aetate contains a paragraph on Judaism that centers on the biblical roots and shared history with Christianity rather than the Judaism of today. It sowed the beginnings of something that needs nurturing, Cohen said. 

Carmelite Father Craig Morrison, director of the Center for Carmelite Studies and professor of biblical studies, said Nostra Aetate “launched new possibilities for a relationship between Catholics and Jews.”

“No longer was this relationship to be triumphal, Catholics telling Jews who they are, what they believe, and how they kill God, Jesus,” he said, adding: “Western Christianity kept the Jews mostly silent for centuries.”

Today, he continued, “our present task on the Catholic side is not so much as dialogue but rather to listen to the Jews for the first time in our shared history.”

“Our Gospels are a part of Jewish documents and cannot be properly understood apart from the Judaism of the late Second Temple period,” he said.

Ultimately, Craig said, “we know that a better understanding of the concerns of first-century Jews will illuminate the Gospels and significantly reduce the risk of anti-Jewish preaching. Then we will hear Jesus speaking within the first-century Jewish world in which he was incarnated.” 

Marans reflected on the legacy of Nostra Aetate for Jewish people, saying that prior to the document’s publication, the Jewish people viewed Christianity “as a threat.” Conversely, he said, Nostra Aetate was a “gift for Christians” because it meant “Christianity no longer needed to self-define in opposition to the other.” 

At the end of the day, Marans said, “Nostra Aetate was not perfect, but it was good [and] has been perfected over time.” 

First responders provide aid after a bus carrying a group of mostly teenagers from Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Santa Ana, California, on its way home from a three-day retreat at Camp Nawakwa in the San Bernardino Mountains crashed on a two-lane highway near Running Springs on Nov. 9, 2025. / Credit: Photo courtesy of the San Bernardino County Fire Protection District

CNA Staff, Nov 11, 2025 / 18:16 pm (CNA).

As a group of mostly teenagers made its way home from a Catholic youth retreat in the mountains of Southern California this past weekend, the bus rolled over at a winding turn, injuring 26. 

Nearly 40 parishioners of Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Santa Ana were on their way home from a three-day retreat at Camp Nawakwa in the San Bernardino Mountains on the evening of Nov. 9 when their bus crashed on a two-lane highway near Running Springs. 

When emergency responders arrived, passengers were still escaping from the bus, with many exiting through the roof hatch. Twenty-six passengers were treated for their injuries, including 20 who were later hospitalized, according to the San Bernardino County Fire Department. Three passengers had major injuries.

Jarryd Gonzales, a spokesman for the Diocese of Orange, told CNA that the Diocese of Orange “offers heartfelt prayers and support to the youth, families, and staff of Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Santa Ana who were involved in a serious bus accident.”

“We extend our deepest gratitude to the first-responder agencies for their prompt and professional response in safely evacuating passengers and ensuring they received proper medical attention,” Gonzales said.

Gonzales said about 125 people participated in the retreat, which started Friday and ended Sunday. Most left the retreat in vans, except for the one group that took the bus.

Gonzales said the diocese will continue to “provide further updates as information becomes available.”

“Until then, our entire Diocese of Orange community will keep all those affected in prayer, and we thank all for their continued support,” he said.

Bishop Mark Seitz, chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ migration committee, speaks during a press conference on Nov. 11, 2025, at the USCCB’s fall plenary assembly in Baltimore. / Credit: Hakim Shammo/EWTN News

Baltimore, Maryland, Nov 11, 2025 / 17:46 pm (CNA).

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is launching an initiative called “You Are Not Alone” to focus on providing accompaniment to migrants who are at risk of being deported.

Bishop Mark Seitz, chair of the USCCB Committee on Migration, announced the nationwide initiative during the conference’s Fall Plenary Assembly in Baltimore on Nov. 11.

The initiative, which was inspired by similar efforts in Catholic dioceses throughout the country, will focus on four key areas: emergency and family support, accompaniment and pastoral care, communication of Church teaching, and solidarity through prayer and public witness. 

Seitz said the Catholic Church has been “accompanying newcomers to this land since before our country’s founding.” He said — in addition to spiritual and corporal works of mercy — the Church “cannot abandon our long-standing advocacy for just and meaningful reform to our immigration system.”

He said clergy will continue “proclaiming the God-given dignity of every person from the moment of conception through every stage of life until natural death,” which includes the dignity of those who migrated to the United States. 

The bishop said many dioceses have launched migrant accompaniment initiatives already.

For example, the Diocese of San Diego launched its Faithful Accompaniment in Trust & Hope (FAITH) initiative on Aug. 4. The diocese works with interfaith partners to provide spiritual accompaniment to migrants during court proceedings and throughout the court process.

Seitz reiterates opposition to ‘mass deportations’

In his address to his fellow bishops, Seitz criticized President Donald Trump’s administration for carrying out its “campaign promise of mass deportations,” which he said is “intimidating and dehumanizing the immigrants in our midst regardless of how they came to be there.”

He said the accompaniment initiative was launched because Trump’s immigration policy has created “a situation unlike anything we’ve seen previously.” He specifically referenced efforts to revoke Temporary Protected Status designations for migrants in several countries, including Venezuela and Nicaragua, and restrictions on certain visas.

“Those who lack legal status are far from the only ones impacted by this approach,” Seitz said.

He said most deportees “have no criminal convictions,” and the administration has pressured immigration enforcement “to increase the number of arrests.”

“Our immigrant brothers and sisters … are living in a deep state of fear,” Seitz said. “Many are too afraid to work, send their children to school, or avail themselves to the sacraments.”

Seitz, earlier in the day, noted that bishops are primarily pastors, and “because we’re pastors … we care about our people, and we care particularly for those who are most vulnerable and those who are most in need.”

Pope Leo XIV has encouraged the American bishops to be vocal on the dignity of migrants. In October, the pontiff met with American bishops, including Seitz, and other supporters of migrants. 

According to one person present, Dylan Corbett, the founding executive director of Hope Border Institute, Leo told the group: “The Church cannot stay silent before injustice. You stand with me, and I stand with you.”

The Sacred Heart of Jesus. / Credit: Unidentified painter, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Baltimore, Maryland, Nov 11, 2025 / 17:16 pm (CNA).

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) approved the consecration of the nation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 2026 to accompany the country’s 250th anniversary.

At the USCCB Fall Plenary Assembly in Baltimore, bishops voted “to entrust our nation to the love and care of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.” Devoting the nation is an opportunity “to remind everyone of our task to serve our nation by perfecting the temporal order with the spirit of the Gospel as taught by the Second Vatican Council,” Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, said.

“One hundred years ago, in 1925, in his encyclical instituting the feast of Christ the King, Pope Pius XI, drawing on the teaching of Pope Leo XIII, referred to the pious custom of consecrating oneself, families, and even nations to the Sacred Heart of Jesus as a way to recognize the kinship of Christ,” said Rhoades, who serves on an advisory board for President Donald Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission.

To help Catholics prepare for the consecration, Rhoades said the bishops will develop prayer resources, including a novena. He said they are already putting together other resources for use by dioceses, parishes, and other groups to engage Catholics.

“In his fourth and last encyclical, Dilexit Nos, Pope Francis brought devotion to the Sacred Heart to the forefront of Catholic life as the ultimate symbol of both human and divine love, calling it a wellspring of peace and unity,” said Rhoades, who has served as chair of the USCCB Committee on Religious Liberty. 

Francis “wrote of how the Sacred Heart teaches us to build up in this world God’s kingdom of love and justice. Then in his first apostolic exhortation, Dilexi Te, Pope Leo XIV, following upon Pope Francis’ teaching, invites us to contemplate Christ’s love, the love that moves us to mission in our suffering world today,” Rhoades said.

Before bishops voted to consecrate the U.S. to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Archbishop Paul Etienne of Seattle asked if the bishops will include catechetical materials to guide Catholics, as the devotion “is ultimately inviting people into a deeper relationship with the very person of Jesus himself.”

Etienne said the “devotion to the Sacred Heart is such a rich devotion and almost complex.” 

Rhoades responded they “do intend to have catechetical materials,” because “there is such an abundance of beautiful teaching.” 

At the request of Bishop Arturo Cepeda of San Antonio, Rhoades said the bishops can provide the materials in various languages “to have as many of our people involved as possible.” He said the resources will also allow individuals and families to make their own consecration, as the  consecration simultaneously happens across the nation.

Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski proposed a celebration during the bishops’ spring meeting in Orlando, Florida, in June at the solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and suggested inviting Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and other officials to attend.

History of the devotion

The story behind the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus dates back to 1673. At a monastery belonging to the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary in eastern France, Sister Margaret Mary Alacoque began experiencing visions of the Sacred Heart that continued for 18 months.

Sister Margaret Mary learned ways to venerate the Sacred Heart of Christ during her visions. These devotions included a Holy Hour on Thursdays, the creation of the feast of the Sacred Heart after Corpus Christi, and the reception of the Eucharist on the first Friday of every month.

On June 16, 1675, Jesus told Sister Margaret Mary to promote a feast that honored his Sacred Heart. He also gave Sister Margaret Mary 12 promises to all who venerated and promoted the devotion of the Sacred Heart.

The Vatican was first hesitant to declare a feast of the Sacred Heart. But as the devotion spread throughout France, the Vatican granted the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to France in 1765. In 1856, Blessed Pius IX designated the Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi as the feast of the Sacred Heart for the universal Church.

Maura Moser (far left), director of the Catholic Communications Campaign, moderates a discussion on immigration with (left to right) Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops; Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades, chair of the USCCB’s religious liberty committee, and Bishop Mark Seitz, chairman of the USCCB’s migration committee, on Nov. 11, 2025, during a press conference at the conference’s Fall Plenary Assembly in Baltimore. / Credit: Shannon Mullen/National Catholic Register

Baltimore, Maryland, Nov 11, 2025 / 16:04 pm (CNA).

U.S. bishops said immigration enforcement in the United States is a “crisis situation” affecting human dignity and religious liberty in the nation.

At a press conference during the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Fall Plenary Assembly in Baltimore, USCCB President Archbishop Timothy Broglio; Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso, Texas; and Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, discussed migrants and the “uncertainty” they feel amid immigration enforcement in the nation. 

In the Nov. 11 press conference, Broglio said immigration enforcement is “preventing people from bringing their children to church, to school, or … to the emergency room.”

He added: “We, as pastors, would like to alleviate that fear and assure ... people that we are with them.”

“I think there’s a remarkable unity among all the bishops. This is an issue of human dignity,” Broglio said. “The Gospel teaches us especially to be compassionate, reach out to the immigrants, and just [have] concern about their well-being.”

“For us, this issue is not an abstract one,” Seitz said. “It’s a personal one because we’re pastors … We care about our people, and we care particularly for those who are most vulnerable and those who are most in need.”

“Bishops across the board” are seeing “people in our dioceses being swept up in this effort to go after people who are immigrants,” Seitz said. “I say that in a very broad sense, because although what the government has been saying, ‘We’re after criminals,’ it’s extended much more broadly than that.”

“While we certainly agree that people who are some threat to our community ought to be taken off of our streets once they’re convicted, the sweep has taken up so many others and has the risk of setting aside any due process.”

Seitz said the right to due process is “a fundamental part of our nation’s basic approach that everyone has certain rights. Those rights ought to be respected with a process that allows us to ascertain whether they indeed did commit some act that was a violation of our law.”

A matter of religious liberty 

Denying Communion to detainees is “an issue of religious liberty,” the bishops said, adding that the USCCB Committee on Religious Liberty is “very concerned” about it.

The committee met on Nov. 10 to discuss how to ensure people in detention facilities receive “pastoral spiritual care and especially the grace of the sacraments,” Rhoades said. “One doesn’t lose that right when one is detained. Whether one is documented or undocumented — this is a fundamental right of the person.”

“It’s heartbreaking when you think of the suffering. Especially those who’ve been detained, separated from families, those who haven’t committed crimes,” Rhoades said. “They need spiritual support in this, and they need the sacraments.”

The bishops were asked by reporters if they plan to speak to the Trump administration about its immigration policies, which are affecting parishes across the United States. 

Seitz said the bishops are working on a statement at their fall meeting. “As bishops, we want to speak from who we are, and certainly, we address issues of principle, such as religious liberty … [and] human dignity,” he said.

“We’ll try to stick to our foundations … in any statement that we make,” he continued. “But we also want it to be something that’s very clear and that is rooted in the Gospel. … It will also, I believe, speak to immigrants, not simply to our government.”

“It will be a message of solidarity with our brothers and sisters who find themselves in difficulty or who find themselves in fear to let them know that they’re not alone, that their pastors are going on with them,” Seitz said.

Rhoades added that the goal of the message is also “to cross the aisle,” as the Church is “not partisan.” 

“We’re talking about human lives in the United States and really important principles of our country — including just human dignity [and] religious liberty,” Rhoades said. “I’m just hopeful that we can move beyond the impasse.”

Later in the day, Seitz announced that the USCCB is launching the “You Are Not Alone” initiative for migrants, which will focus on “emergency and family support, accompaniment and pastoral care, communications and Church teaching … and solidarity through prayer and public witness.”

Cardinal Christophe Pierre speaks to EWTN News President and COO Montse Alvarado in Rome on Friday, April 25, 2025. / Credit: EWTN News

Baltimore, Maryland, Nov 11, 2025 / 14:26 pm (CNA).

Apostolic Nuncio Cardinal Christophe Pierre told bishops at the 2025 United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Fall Plenary Assembly that the Second Vatican Council is “the key to understanding what Church we are called to be today and the reference point for discerning where we are headed.”

The French-born prelate has served as the Vatican’s nuncio, or chief diplomat, to the U.S. since 2016. He spoke Nov. 11 at the bishops’ fall assembly in Baltimore highlighting the message of Vatican II and its mission of evangelization, education, and unity. 

In his address Pierre asked the bishops a two-part question: “Where have we been and where are we going?” Pope Leo XIV, in his new apostolic letter on education, asks the same question as he “urges education and communities to ‘raise your eyes’ and ‘know how to ask yourselves where you are going, and why,’” Pierre said. 

“This act of questioning, of examining the direction of our journey, is an essential part of Christian discernment,” Pierre said. “It’s something that every bishop must do when thinking about the Church and trusting in his care, and it’s something that we must do in our shared journey as shepherds of the Catholic Church in the United States.”

Two days after his election, Pope Leo told the cardinals: “I would like us to renew together today our complete commitment to the path that the universal Church has now followed for decades in the wake of the Second Vatican Council.” 

Pierre detailed multiple aspects that the Second Vatican Council offers to the bishops and the world today. It serves as “the self-description of the Church for our age.” In the words of popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, it was “the great grace bestowed on the Church in the 20th century.”

“The council offered us not a new faith but a new way of describing and living the one faith in the modern world,” Pierre said. “The vision of the council was a vision for the future — a prophetic orientation toward a world that was only beginning to take shape.”

“When the council fathers issued those texts, the churches were still full; the effects of secularization had not yet become deeply visible. Many of the realities that the council intuited had not yet manifested themselves in the life of the world or of the Church.

“For this reason, the council’s documents were not fully understood in their time. They were not a description of where the Church stood but a map drawn for the territory into which she was being sent.”

“Today, that territory is our daily experience,” Pierre said. “We now inhabit the world that the council foresaw — a world marked by profound cultural shifts, technological change, and a secularized mindset that challenges faith at its roots. Now is the time to unfold the council’s map and walk its path — to rediscover in those texts the light and courage needed to navigate this moment with fidelity and creativity.”

Pierre: Vatican II continues its path from Francis to Leo XIV

“When asked about a Third Vatican Council, Pope Francis replied that the time is not ripe, because we are still laboring to fully implement the second. His pontificate was marked not by innovation for its own sake but by a call to live more fully the vision of the council.”

“In his first apostolic exhortation Dilexi Te, which Francis had begun, the Holy Father’s reference point continues to be Vatican II, this time as it addresses our mission among the poor. Recalling Pope Paul VI, who said that ‘the ancient parable of the good Samaritan served as the model for the council’s spirituality,’ Leo writes: ‘I am convinced that the preferential choice for the poor is a source of extraordinary renewal both for the Church and for society.’”

“He says that ‘the Second Vatican Council represented a milestone in the Church’s understanding of the poor in God’s saving plan.’”

Catholic education and evangelization 

The nuncio detailed Catholic education and ecclesial renewal. Vatican II’s “teaching on worship, the mystery of the Church, the Word of God, and dialogue with the world converge in one vision: a Church rooted in faith, animated by hope, and engaged with humanity through love.”

Gravissimum Educationis remains “a sure guide,” Pierre said. “It affirmed the right of every person to an education ordered to truth and dignity, the role of parents as first educators, and the inseparable bond between faith and reason in forming the whole person.”

“Pope Leo now develops that heritage, urging educational communities to be builders of bridges, not walls — allowing reconciliation and peacemaking to become ‘the method and content of learning.’”

Leo urges “educational communities not just to impart skills but to heal relationships, form consciences, and choose not what is convenient but what is just,” Pierre said.

Catholic education remains one of the great “success stories” and “enduring strengths” of the Church in the United States, Pierre said. “Vatican II did not create this educational mission, but it gave it a new horizon: calling Catholic education to look outward, to engage a rapidly changing world, and to form disciples ready to bring the Gospel into new cultural and social contexts.”

Catholic education “continues to be a radiant witness of evangelizing hope; where it is neglected or narrowed, the light grows dim,” Pierre said. It “offers a window into the wider story of how the council’s teaching has been received across the Church in this country.”

Mission of the bishops 

“If we embrace this full inheritance of Vatican II — the educational, pastoral, and social dimensions alike — the Church in the United States can continue to be what she has so often been: a leaven within this nation, a sign of hope that transcends division, and a servant of the common good grounded in the dignity of every human being.”

Bishops have “a call to represent the Church of the council,” Pierre said. “In our priesthood and episcopal vocation, we are called to be men of communion — pastors who walk with the people of God rather than standing apart.”

Bishops have a mission in evangelization and ecumenism, and in their engagement with public life, he said. Bishops “are not chaplains to parties or distant commentators but shepherds who bring the breadth of Catholic social teaching into civic discourse in a way that transcends partisanship.”

Pierre once again asked the bishops: “Where have we been, and where are we going?”

“The council is not behind us; it stands before us, the map for our journey,” Pierre said. “We are a Church rooted in the grace of the Second Vatican Council; a Church still receiving and embodying its vision; a Church sent forth in unity, as disciples and shepherds, bringing hope, joy, and mercy to a world in need.”

“The council’s documents continue to form us and guide our discernment of this moment,” Pierre said. “Pope Leo XIV now carries that same vision forward, interpreting it anew for the world of today.”

“If we walk faithfully with him, we will be the Church the council envisioned: a pilgrim people, a sacrament of communion, a beacon of hope, and a servant of the poor — drawing, even now, new maps of hope for the generations to come,” the nuncio concluded.

null / Credit: felipe caparros/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Nov 11, 2025 / 13:44 pm (CNA).

Tennessee’s Catholic bishops issued a plea for mercy, calling for an immediate halt to the death penalty and its eventual abolition as the state prepares to execute Harold Wayne Nichols on Dec. 1.

Tennessee’s three bishops, Bishop J. Mark Spalding of Nashville, Bishop David P. Talley of Memphis, and Bishop Mark Beckman of Knoxville, as well as the Tennessee Catholic Conference issued a joint statement on Nov. 10 calling for an end to the death penalty in the state.

“The Catholic Church upholds the sacredness of every human life, even the life of one who is guilty of serious crimes,” the bishops wrote. “To take a life in punishment denies the image of God in which every person is made. The Gospel calls not for vengeance but for mercy.”

The bishops acknowledged that the Church has historically recognized the state’s right and duty to protect its citizens by sometimes employing the death penalty. However, the bishops wrote, “even in allowing for that possibility, Church teaching reflected the understanding that execution is permissible only when it is the sole practicable means to prevent further harm.”

“That understanding includes the recognition that even the most serious criminals retain an inherent dignity that must be respected, prompting the Church to limit the use of the death penalty as much as possible,” the statement says.

Nichols was convicted in 1990 of raping and murdering 21-year-old Karen Pulley, a student at Chattanooga State University, in 1988. During his trial, he expressed remorse and admitted to her rape and murder, and he said he would have continued his violent behavior had he not been arrested, according to the Associated Press.

In the joint statement, the Tennessee bishops invoked Pope Leo XIV’s recent rebuke: “Someone who says ‘I’m against abortion’ but says ‘I am in favor of the death penalty’ is not really pro-life.”

“The death penalty extinguishes the chance for repentance and redemption,” they continued. “It closes the door that mercy would open. True justice protects life, even as it punishes wrongdoing. A culture of life cannot coexist with the machinery of death.”

“We pray for Karen and her family and friends,” they wrote in the statement.

Tennessee has scheduled four more executions for 2026. 

The statement comes amid growing scrutiny of Tennessee’s execution protocol. According to the AP, an independent review of Tennessee’s lethal injection process found that improper testing of the drugs led to prolonged suffering during executions.

“To oppose the death penalty is to affirm hope — that no one, even a person who has committed a grave crime, is beyond the reach of grace,” the statement concluded. “God’s judgment, not our retribution, has the final word.”