Holy Name of Jesus

Reading 1 Habakkuk 1:2-3; 2:2-4

Responsorial Psalm Psalm 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9

Reading 2 2 Timothy 1:6-8, 13-14

Alleluia 1 Peter 1:25

Gospel Luke 17:5-10

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Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States, second typical edition, Copyright © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine; Psalm refrain © 1968, 1981, 1997, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved. Neither this work nor any part of it may be reproduced, distributed, performed or displayed in any medium, including electronic or digital, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

CNA Staff, Oct 4, 2025 / 14:39 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Oct. 4 signed the first apostolic exhortation of his pontificate, the text of which is expected to be released next week.

The Vatican said in a press release that Leo signed the exhortation Dilexi Te (“I Have Loved You”) in the library of the Apostolic Palace. The Holy See did not reveal the text of the document, which it said will be presented on Oct. 9 by the Holy See Press Office.

The focus of the document was also not officially announced, though it is reportedly expected to focus on the poor. It was signed on the feast of St. Francis of Assisi.

The signing of the document took place in the presence of Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, substitute for general affairs of the Secretariat of State, the Vatican said.

CNA Staff, Oct 4, 2025 / 13:05 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Saturday attended the swearing-in of the Swiss Guard at the Vatican, the first time a pope has attended the pomp-filled ceremony since the pontificate of Pope Paul VI in 1968.

The event took place in the Vatican’s San Damaso Courtyard. The Holy Father was joined by a crowd of spectators watching as the 27 new members were sworn in to the ranks of the papal guard.

The swearing-in ceremony, when the new guards promise to protect the pope, if necessary with their lives, was postponed from the traditional date of May 6 due to the conclave that saw Leo elected.

The pope met the recruits and their families at the Apostolic Palace on Oct. 3, ahead of the swearing-in ceremony.

“From the first steps of my pontificate, dear Swiss Guards, I have been able to count on your faithful service,” the pope said on Oct. 3.

“The successor of Peter can fulfill his mission in service to the Church and the world in the certainty that you are watching over his safety,” he added.

He encouraged the new guards to draw inspiration from the stories of the first Christian martyrs in Rome to deepen their relationships with Jesus and to cultivate their interior lives “amid the frenzy of our society.”

Manila, Philippines, Oct 4, 2025 / 11:15 am (CNA).

Catholic aid agencies in coordination with local dioceses and authorities are spearheading efforts to assist people affected by a major 6.9-magnitude earthquake that struck Cebu, central Philippines, this week.

Caritas Philippines, the humanitarian, development, and advocacy arm of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, is at the forefront of relief efforts in the affected areas.

“In the spirit of mercy, solidarity, and fraternal cooperation among Caritas Philippines’ network, we stand with the people of Cebu,” Jeanie Curiano, the humanitarian head of Caritas Philippines, told CNA on Oct. 3.

“We are committed to supporting them, putting the affected communities at the center of our work — in rebuilding lives with dignity and hope,” she added.

On Sept. 30 a strong earthquake with a magnitude of 6.9 hit Cebu and surrounding provinces. Its epicenter was located about 12 miles northeast, offshore of Bogo City. 

More than 300 recorded aftershocks were felt. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology subsequently issued a tsunami alert.

The Office of Civil Defense confirmed as many as 68 deaths following the earthquake. 

The earthquake has reportedly impacted more than 80,595 families and around 366,360 people, with aftershocks forcing many to sleep outside in unsafe conditions. Homes, schools, and parish buildings in Cebu have suffered severe damage, with electricity, water supply, and telecoms still unavailable.

There were reportedly 1,795 individuals staying in eight evacuation centers, while 75,227 others were temporarily staying outside of their homes due to fear of aftershocks.

Caritas Philippines has begun relief efforts, sending rice, drinking water, and shelter repair kits while rapid assessment teams coordinate next steps.

According to the volcano institute, the earthquake in Bogo City is the strongest ever recorded in northern Cebu. It has affected 47,221 families and displaced 20,000 individuals there, Philippine officials said.

The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, meanwhile, reported the discovery of sinkholes in several locations. 

Churches damaged or collapsed

The earthquake partially collapsed or damaged at least five churches in Cebu.

Parts of the centuries-old Archdiocesan Shrine of Santa Rosa de Lima in Daanbantayan fell during the earthquake. Notably, the retablo picture of Santa Rosa de Lima, the city’s patron saint, was completely unharmed.

The Parroquia de San Pedro Apostol Church on Bantayan Island urged people to stay away from its property after debris fell in front of the church.

Some of the walls and ceilings in St. Martin de Porres Parish at Tabogon fell, while the earthquake broke an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary and made cracks appear in the bell tower of San Sebastian Martyr Parish in Borbon.

The San Juan Nepomuceno Parish in San Remegio reported that several holy images have fallen, and there is clear damage inside the church.

Archbishop Alberto Sy Uy of Cebu instructed his staff to inspect the structures of churches and rectories. He also instructed parishes in northern Cebu to refrain from holding Mass in the churches until they are considered safe.

In the aftermath of the earthquake, Caritas Philippines in Manila, the country’s capital, quickly activated the Emergency Operations Center at the national level and has been monitoring the ongoing situation in Cebu and nearby dioceses. Caritas Cebu deployed an assessment team to the most affected areas, awaiting initial findings and data.

Immediate needs

Immediate needs include emergency shelter, food and clean water, medical aid and trauma support, restoration of electricity and communication, debris clearing, and road access.

On Oct. 1, Uy visited the affected communities to provide pastoral support and check damage to parish structures. A local appeal was issued for emergency support through the Adopt-a-Parish strategy. Other dioceses also launched local appeals to support response operations.

Caritas Philippines is preparing to launch a local emergency appeal through the Alay Kapwa Solidarity Fund, a flagship program of Caritas Philippines, to support the immediate needs of the most affected communities in Cebu.

Laity’s involvement

Besides Caritas Philippines’ involvement with relief, the Commission on the Laity of the Archdiocese of Cebu has begun providing immediate help such as food, water, and hygiene kits, among others.

Fe Mantuhac Barino, who chairs the Commission on the Laity for the Archdiocese of Cebu, told CNA: “People’s donations have been delivered to the earthquake-affected families in the north of Cebu, bringing not just material support but also the comforting presence of our faith community.”

She thanked all supporters for living out the Gospel through their generosity.

Appeal for donations

The Archdiocese of Cebu, in partnership with LH Foundation Inc., launched “Hatag Paglaum” (“Give Hope”) to provide humanitarian aid.

“The Hatag Paglaum invites us to become living instruments of Christ’s love,” Uy said. “After the earthquake, many brothers and sisters have lost homes, churches, and livelihoods. What they need most is hope.”

“When we give help, we do not just share food, clothing, or money; we share Christ himself, for he is our true hope,” he added. “Every gift we extend becomes a sign of his presence, reminding the needy that they are not forgotten and that God walks with them.”

On Oct. 2, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. visited some affected areas of Cebu and held discussions with government agencies. 

Pope prays for Cebu quake victims

Also on Oct. 2, Uy said Pope Leo XIV prayed and offered his condolences to the victims.

Leo also assured his spiritual closeness to people as they grieve over the loss of lives and move on to recovery.

Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines Archbishop Charles John Brown informed Uy that the pope expressed his “sympathies for all the survivors of the earthquake and his prayers for the eternal repose of the victims.”

Meanwhile, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines has announced a “National Day of Prayer and Public Repentance” to be observed nationwide on Oct. 7.

ACI Prensa Staff, Oct 4, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV this week received the report “Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church” by researcher Martha Patricia Molina, which details the prohibition of more than 16,500 processions and acts of piety as well as more than 1,000 attacks against the Catholic Church by the dictatorship of President Daniel Ortega and his wife and vice president, Rosario Murillo.

Activist Muriel Sáenz, a Nicaraguan by birth who fled the dictatorship in the 1980s and now works to help immigrants in the United States, presented Molina’s report to Pope Leo on Oct. 2 during the Holy Father’s audience with participants in a Vatican conference on migrants and refugees.

“I am happy to know that my friend Muriel Sáenz has personally delivered to Pope Leo XIV the study ‘Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church,’ which is an expression of the Catholic Church and the Nicaraguan people that reflects the persecution of bishops, priests, and laypeople by the Sandinista dictatorship,” Molina told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner.

“The repression continues daily, and it is important that the Holy See knows that everything is being documented,” she stated.

Molina said she also sent Leo XIV a letter stating that the Catholic Church in Nicaragua is “in total communion with the pope and united in prayer despite the adversity and repression.”

Sáenz, founder of Nicaraguans in the World Texas, Inc., an organization that helps people present their asylum cases before immigration courts in the U.S., told ACI Prensa that she also presented Leo with letters from victims of the dictatorship, including priests, and gave him Nicaraguan coffee.

“I hope the pope continues his support in the global denunciation [of the dictatorship], since remaining silent only allows criminals to continue causing more and more harm. My intention is also for the world to learn about what is happening in Nicaragua, where the criminals who make people call them president and co-president have an entire country — which has no weapons to defend itself — in their hands,” Sáenz said.

“If one does not obey their absurd demands, one is shamelessly imprisoned in inhumane conditions, enduring degrading treatment and torture. Priests and laypeople are not exempt from such treatment. I am sure that if we manage to force [the regime] to leave, the more than 1 million Nicaraguans scattered around the world would return tomorrow,” she added.

On Aug. 23, Pope Leo XIV received three bishops in an audience at the Vatican: Bishop Silvio Báez, who was confirmed by the Holy Father in his position as auxiliary bishop of Managua, although he has been in exile since 2019; Bishop Isidoro Mora of Siuna; and Bishop Carlos Herrera, president of the Nicaraguan Episcopate, who is in exile in Guatemala.

“He encouraged me to continue my episcopal ministry and confirmed me as auxiliary bishop of Managua. I sincerely thank him for his fraternal welcome and his encouraging words,” said Báez, who currently resides in the United States, regarding his meeting with the pope.

The seventh edition of the report “Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church” was released on Aug. 27.

Molina explained that the ban on processions has been intensified since 2022 and that the dictatorship imposed this measure annually throughout the country, but the report does not consider all parish churches or chapels, which number 400 in Managua alone.

“So the figure presented in the study could be at least three or four times higher than what is being recorded,” she pointed out.

In an interview with the Spanish-language edition of EWTN News, Molina explained that so far in this year alone, 32 attacks against the Church by the dictatorship have been recorded, a figure that could be much higher, considering the increasing control of the Ortega-Murillo government.

“There is constant surveillance of priests and bishops. Some of them are even followed 24 hours a day,” Molina said, adding: “The clergy meetings held by bishops with priests continue to be constantly monitored by the police, who take photographs and videos of the religious who attend.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

CNA Staff, Oct 4, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

Kevin Matthews was at the top of his game as one of the most famous on-air radio personalities in Chicago in the 1980s and ’90s. He was partying with professional athletes and celebrities and posting 10 million listeners a week at the peak of his popularity. 

All of that changed when he received a life-altering medical diagnosis. Yet the biggest change in his life happened when he found a broken Virgin Mary statue in the trash. 

“Broken Mary: The Kevin Matthews Story” is a new documentary recounting Matthews’ true story of fame, brokenness, and finding redemption in Jesus Christ thanks to his devotion to the Blessed Mother. The documentary will be in theaters for one night only on Oct. 7, the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.

Matthews was born and raised in Pontiac, Michigan, in a Catholic household. As a child he struggled to read and write, though it wasn’t until he was an adult that he discovered he was dyslexic.

In order to prevent himself from getting beaten up by both kids in his neighborhood and his physically abusive father, he used comedy and making others laugh as a shield he could hide behind.

In college Matthews was first introduced to radio through his roommate’s hosting of a show at the student station. In 1987, he began his career with “The Loop” AM 1000 in Chicago. It was here that he rose to fame and became known for his edgy humor, sharp wit, and comedic characters — the most popular being “Jim Shorts.”

Yet after years of mega-success, his life began to unravel when he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) in 2008. It became more difficult to be on-air and new radio personalities were on the rise. But it wasn’t until 2011 that he had a life-changing experience.

Matthews told CNA in an interview that while driving on his way home from just having been fired from his job, he “heard the Holy Spirit say, ‘Go and get your wife some flowers.’” He pulled into a flower shop he happened to be passing at the time. 

“I got out of my car and I’m starting to walk towards the door and over by the dumpster, I see a statue of the Virgin Mary,” he recalled. “I walked over to it and there she is on the ground broken in half. She’s looking up at me. Her hands are broken. She’s sunk in the mud, so she’s been there for a while, she’s got garbage on her.” 

“And I’m a zombie Catholic at that point, I’m not religious,” he said, “but I knew at that moment, no one treats our Blessed Mother like that.”

“I just was appalled, but then I heard the voice of Christ say to me, ‘Will you deny me? Will you deny my mother?’ And I was like, ‘What do I do?’”

Matthews entered the store and told the store clerk that he wanted to buy the broken Mary statue out by the dumpster. Though the store clerk said it was not for sale, he recognized Matthews’ voice from the radio and allowed him to take the statue. 

The statue weighed 73 pounds and due to his MS and a recent snowstorm, it took Matthews nearly an hour to get the broken Mary statue from out of the ground and into the back of his car. 

“I remember I turned the heat up and I said, ‘Mary, I will take care of you for the rest of my life,’” Matthews shared.

He called a priest friend and told him about the broken statue. The priest told him about a sculptor who could fix her. Matthews took the broken Mary and was told that she could be completely restored.

“That was the first time I really cried in front of a total stranger and said, ‘Don’t you dare touch her.’ I said, ‘That is me.’ And I said, ‘She’s broken like me. Just keep her broken. Just put her together, keep her hands broken, don’t paint her — she’s broken Mary,” he said.

From then on, Matthews began to go back to Mass, he learned how to pray the rosary, and he completely left his life of luxury to instead take his broken statue of Mary to parishes across the country to share how his life was radically changed by the Blessed Mother. 

Matthews said he hopes the film will show “that we’re all broken, but we’re loved by God and just go to him … I’ve never been happier in my life.”

• Readings for the Memorial of Saint Francis of Assisi, Religious

Reading 1 Baruch 4:5-12, 27-29

Responsorial Psalm Psalm 69:33-35, 36-37

Alleluia See Matthew 11:25

Gospel Luke 10:17-24

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Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States, second typical edition, Copyright © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine; Psalm refrain © 1968, 1981, 1997, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved. Neither this work nor any part of it may be reproduced, distributed, performed or displayed in any medium, including electronic or digital, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Reading 1 Baruch 1:15-22

Responsorial Psalm Psalm 79:1b-2, 3-5, 8, 9

Alleluia Psalm 95:8

Gospel Luke 10:13-16

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Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States, second typical edition, Copyright © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine; Psalm refrain © 1968, 1981, 1997, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved. Neither this work nor any part of it may be reproduced, distributed, performed or displayed in any medium, including electronic or digital, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

• Readings for the Memorial of the Guardian Angels

Reading 1 Nehemiah 8:1-4a, 5-6, 7b-12

Responsorial Psalm Psalm 19:8, 9, 10, 11

Alleluia Psalm 103:21

Gospel Matthew 18:1-5, 10

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Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States, second typical edition, Copyright © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine; Psalm refrain © 1968, 1981, 1997, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved. Neither this work nor any part of it may be reproduced, distributed, performed or displayed in any medium, including electronic or digital, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

• Readings for the Memorial of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church

Reading 1 Nehemiah 2:1-8

Responsorial Psalm Psalm 137:1-2, 3, 4-5, 6

Alleluia Philippians 3:8-9

Gospel Luke 9:57-62

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Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States, second typical edition, Copyright © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine; Psalm refrain © 1968, 1981, 1997, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved. Neither this work nor any part of it may be reproduced, distributed, performed or displayed in any medium, including electronic or digital, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.