Holy Name of Jesus

Vatican City, Jun 12, 2025 / 15:47 pm (CNA).

A leader of the Catholic charismatic renewal said he believes that charismatics will enjoy harmonious relations with Pope Leo XIV following a mixed experience with Pope Francis, whose efforts to centralize the grassroots movement at the Vatican raised concerns among some members.

“I truly believe Pope Leo will be very supportive of the renewal and of other lay movements,” said Shayne Bennett, the director of mission and faith formation at the Holy Spirit Seminary in Brisbane, Australia. “What we do know about him was that he was supportive of the charismatic renewal in his own diocese back in Peru.”

Bennett spoke in Rome following a June 9–12 meeting of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal International Service (CHARIS), a Rome-based umbrella group established by Francis for charismatic movements worldwide. Bennett serves as CHARIS coordinator of the commission of communities.

Pope Francis was not initially supportive of charismatic movements in his native Argentina. In a 2024 private audience with the president and members of the National Council of Renewal in the Holy Spirit, the late pontiff said he had once likened the group to “samba school and not an ecclesial movement.”

During the meeting, Francis promoted the role of CHARIS as a coordinating organization to support smaller charismatic groups around the world and encouraged the movement to “take to heart the indications I have left you” and “journey on this road of communion” with other movements in accord with the Vatican body. 

Not all charismatics welcomed the policy, Bennett said.

“I think there’s always a reaction when leaders are decisive,” the CHARIS leader told CNA. “The fact that Pope Francis gave us three goals, if you like, some people would see that as controlling.”

Francis charged the “spiritists” with three “forms of witness” when he inaugurated CHARIS in 2019: baptism in the Holy Spirit, unity and communion, and service to the poor.      

Bennett stressed that Francis encouraged the charismatic renewal, along with other lay movements, like Pope Benedict XVI and John Paul II before him. The Australian met multiple times with all three popes.

The first pope to formally back the Catholic charismatic renewal was Paul VI when he appointed Cardinal Léon Joseph Suenens as the first cardinal delegate and episcopal adviser for the movement in 1974.

In his apostolic exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi, which was released in 1975 on the 10th anniversary of the close of the Second Vatican Council, Paul VI described smaller charismatic groups as “hope for the universal Church.”

According to Bennett, who conducted programs in East and West Africa with CHARIS, supportive bishops in the region view the charismatic renewal as a realization of John Paul II’s dream for a “new evangelization” and Benedict XVI’s desire for all baptized Catholics to take “responsibility for their participation” in Jesus’ mission in the life of the Church and the world. 

“There’s been an incredible continuity of support and encouragement, which I expect will continue,” Bennett told CNA.

CNA Staff, Jun 12, 2025 / 15:17 pm (CNA).

As U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) increases its raids and deportations in Puerto Rico, several of the island’s bishops have expressed alarm and reminded Catholics of their duty to welcome and protect those in need.

During a June 11 press conference at the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico, Bishop Ángel Luis Ríos Matos of Mayagüez said he issued orders to parishes in his diocese not to provide information to federal agents “unless supported by a court order.”

However, he added, “even with a court order, when it comes to justice for the poor, a higher justice prevails.”

“If consequences must be paid, they will be. I don’t call this civil disobedience but rather obedience to the doctrine of justice and charity. We must obey God before men,” the bishop said. 

The bishop’s statement was met with applause by those present, including Archbishop Roberto González Nieves of San Juan and Bishop Rubén Antonio González Medina of Ponce.

Since taking office, U.S. President Donald Trump has ramped up efforts to deport unauthorized immigrants in the country. In Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, many undocumented migrants hail from the Dominican Republic.

The governor of Puerto Rico, Jenniffer González-Colón, a Republican who supported Trump in the elections, said her government would not oppose the deportations, including those conducted in churches and hospitals, because the island “cannot afford” to violate it and risk losing access to federal funds.

As reported by the Spanish newspaper El País, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has detained 445 people in Puerto Rico since raids began on Jan. 26. While the majority are Dominicans, DHS said a number of undocumented migrants were from Haiti, Venezuela, and Mexico.

Sandra Colón, a DHS office spokesperson, told El País that “81 people have been removed to their country through voluntary departure or expedited removal.”

The deportations on the island prompted a statement from Bishop Eusebio Ramos Morales of Caguas, who said the deportations “while presented as legal, are unjust and immoral when executed without mercy or respect for human dignity.”

“From our island of Puerto Rico, many of us were led to believe that these practices would not affect us directly. However, we have witnessed how immigration agents raid impoverished and vulnerable communities, especially those of our Dominican brothers and sisters, whose contribution to the economic, social, and cultural development of Puerto Rico is invaluable,” Ramos wrote.

The bishop said increased raids by ICE have caused families to live in fear, children to be absent from school, the sick to be without access to medical care, and “many without the ability to earn a living with dignity.”

“This situation cries out to heaven,” he added.

At the June 11 press conference, Ríos also said that should agents “come to request information or detain people inside the church, the right of sanctuary — which is recognized worldwide and in America — prevails and protects the rights of the immigrant.”

However, in January, the Trump administration rescinded the designation that categorized places of worship as “protected areas” safe from immigration enforcement.

CNA reached out to Ríos on June 12 to inquire whether federal authorities have attempted to detain people in diocesan churches. However, he was unavailable for comment.

Under the Trump administration directive, churches, mosques, synagogues, and other religious institutions no longer hold special protection, thus granting federal agents increased discretion to conduct raids and arrests.

The policy was challenged in court by 27 Christian and Jewish groups, who argued the directive violated religious freedom rights protected by the Constitution. However, in April, U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich ruled that the groups’ concerns did not have a legal standing. 

The government’s directive on protected areas, especially places of worship, represented only “a modest change in the internal guidance that DHS is providing its immigration officers and does not mandate conducting enforcement activities during worship services or while social service ministries are being provided,” the ruling stated.

Meanwhile, in a local television interview, ICE Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in Charge for Puerto Rico, Rebecca González-Ramos, assured that federal agents would “not enter churches, hospitals or schools” to search for undocumented migrants.

“We will not enter and we do not separate family units, either,” she said in a June 10 Telemundo interview.

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 12, 2025 / 14:47 pm (CNA).

The United States’ first Center for Sainthood Studies has opened at St. Patrick’s Seminary and University in Menlo Park, California.

The center announced that its goal is to “provide a roadmap for advancing candidates for canonization and increasing the chances of American candidates achieving sainthood” and aims to “make sainthood causes less intimidating and encourage more people to initiate causes,” according to the center’s website.

San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone specifically commissioned the center to foster “a deeper understanding of the processes involved in recognizing the holiness of individuals and their potential for sainthood.”

The resources offered by the center include expert consultation, a digitization service, networking opportunities, promotion of popular piety around a cause, assistance with grant writing, and a certification program that consists of a six-day course that guides participants through the sainthood application process and canonical procedures.

The center’s first certification course, to be held Feb. 16–21, 2026, at the Vallombrosa Retreat Center in Menlo Park, will be taught by two postulators and canon law experts from Rome: Emanuele Spedicato and Waldery Hilgeman. The program is open to clergy, religious, and laity. 

Michael McDevitt, a spokesperson for the center, told CNA that while canon law provides a framework for the process leading up to sainthood, it lacks practical guidance for the laity. “Canon law has a clear set of rules to follow, but it’s not a how-to guide. It doesn’t take [people] step by step,” McDevitt said.

McDevitt himself has worked particularly closely with the cause for Servant of God Cora Evans, a former Mormon and American housewife.

“There’s so many stories out there that could be told, and if we can help people with that process, more stories will come to light,” McDevitt said. “We all know that only God can make us saints, but it does take people to move this forward.”

CNA Staff, Jun 12, 2025 / 13:43 pm (CNA).

Pro-life advocates are warning of the need to protect vulnerable patients, including the elderly and terminally ill, as New York prepares to legalize assisted suicide.

New York will become the 12th state in the country, along with the District of Columbia, to allow doctors to prescribe lethal doses of medication to terminally ill patients in order to allow them to kill themselves. The measure passed the state Legislature this week and is expected to be signed by Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul.

New York’s law defines a “terminal illness or condition” as “an incurable and irreversible illness or condition that has been medically confirmed” and will “within reasonable medical judgment” result in death within six months.

Catholics, pro-life allies speak out against the bill

A chorus of pro-life advocates has spoken out against New York’s passage of the bill, calling on Hochul to veto it. 

The New York State Catholic Conference warned that the measure would bring about an “assisted suicide nightmare,” with the bishops urging the governor this week to recognize that the law “would be catastrophic for medically underserved communities, including communities of color, as well as for people with disabilities and other vulnerable populations.”

Brooklyn Bishop Robert Brennan said the bill’s passage “while not completely unexpected, is truly disappointing.” 

“We turn to the governor urging her to act boldly, consistent with her efforts to combat the suicide crisis in our state, and veto this bill,” the bishop said. 

The New York Alliance Against Assisted Suicide, meanwhile, called the measure “a grave mistake for New York.”

“It brings our state dangerously close to a public policy that many in the medical, disability, and mental health communities consider deeply flawed and unjust,” the group said, adding that the law “contains no requirement that a person seeking a lethal prescription receive a mental health evaluation.”

Kathryn Jean Lopez, currently the chair of New York archbishop Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s pro-life commission, told CNA that those opposed to euthanasia and assisted suicide in the state should be prepared for a tough road ahead, saying it is virtually certain that Hochul will sign the legislation. 

“She’s so enthusiastic about abortion, it would seemingly take a miracle to say no to her caucus on this,” said Lopez, who is also the religion editor at National Review. 

Lopez expressed doubt that the law, if signed, will generate much sustained pushback. “There’s not going to be a march on the street to reverse assisted suicide,” she lamented. 

She said that raising awareness of assisted suicide is nevertheless key, stressing the need for family and friends to defend the most vulnerable, such as the terminally ill and the elderly. 

“Being advocates, that’s the most important thing at this point,” she said. “Because this is the reality we’re living in.”

Increases in suicides, reported abuses worldwide

Critics of euthanasia and assisted suicide have pointed to countries that have already legalized the procedure and which have seen both huge increases in suicides and reported abuses. 

Eve Slater, a physician and former assistant secretary for health and human services under President George W. Bush, told CNA that in every case where euthanasia has been legalized, suicide numbers have soared.

She pointed out that suicide currently accounts for 5% of Canadian deaths, a number that rises to the double digits in some provinces. She also cited rapid rises of suicide in some European countries after the practice has been legalized.

The Canadian government in 2016 legalized “medical aid in dying.” Less than a decade later suicide accounts for roughly 1 in 20 deaths there. In some cases the suicide program has been expanded to include those who cannot consent to the procedure at the time, while hundreds of violations of the law are allegedly going unreported. 

In the Netherlands last year, meanwhile, the government permitted the assisted suicide of a physically healthy 29-year-old woman with mental health issues. Other countries, such as France and England, are also actively considering allowing euthanasia. 

In an op-ed last month in National Review, Slater wrote that huge increases in euthanasia are “enabled by wording that includes ambiguous eligibility criteria and then by gradual liberalization of interpretation.”

“[I]n each state where [euthanasia] has been legalized, amendments to widen eligibility either have been granted or are under discussion,” Slater wrote. “The amendments include provisions for tourism, the possibility of self-injection, a shortening of the reflection period, reduction of informed-consent safeguards, and the ability of certain nonphysicians to prescribe.”

Legal suicide ‘irrational’

Slater told CNA that New York’s willingness to embrace suicide conflicts directly with state laws requiring doctors to prevent suicide itself. 

“If a patient comes in to see me, and even hints of thoughts of suicide, I am obligated — we teach this, it’s standard practice — to recommend they see a psychiatrist immediately. And if they are hesitant, we have to call security,” she said. “Now what do I do?”

Lopez also pointed out the inconsistency in how, even as assisted suicide becomes more accepted, there are still official efforts to discourage suicide in general. 

“If you or I Google ‘assisted suicide’ because we’re looking for the latest news stories, we’ll get the number for a suicide hotline in response,” she said. “Someone’s still concerned you want to kill yourself and they want to talk you out of it.” 

“That’s good,” she pointed out, “but it’s also irrational,” given the increasing mainstream acceptance of euthanasia.

Slater said this is “different from normal pro-life politics.” 

New York residents “have to be aware of the gravity and the damage to human dignity that these laws do,” she said.

Speaking of doctors, Slater stressed that even if the doctors themselves are not explicitly pro-life, they in particular should know that the laws are “a total violation of our oath as physicians to take care of patients to the very end.”

“Doctors have to be aware that it’s effectively state-sanctioned suicide and that it sends the message that suicides under certain conditions are legitimate,” she said.

Bangalore, India, Jun 12, 2025 / 11:31 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on June 12 joined the Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI) in expressing condolences and prayers following the crash of the Air India Boeing Dreamliner to London that killed nearly 250 passengers shortly after takeoff at Ahmedabad, the commercial capital of western Gujarat state.

Stating he was “deeply saddened by the tragedy,” Leo in a message offered “heartfelt condolences to the families and friends of those who have lost their lives” while “commending the souls of the deceased to the mercy of the Almighty.”

The CBCI, meanwhile, said the “heartbreaking incident … has left the nation in shock and mourning.”

“We extend our heartfelt condolences to the families and loved ones of all those who lost their lives in this devastating accident,” the bishops said.

“We humbly urge all our Catholic faithful and all people of goodwill across the country to join us in prayer for the victims of this tragedy — for the eternal rest of those who have died [and] for comfort to the bereaved,” the prelates added.

“We stand in solidarity with the victims and their families and with all the rescue personnel working tirelessly at the crash site.”

Officials have confirmed 241 on board dead as the wide-bodied aircraft, reportedly filled with fuel for over 7,000 miles, exploded after crashing just seconds after takeoff without gaining height near the Ahmedabad International Airport. 

Reports of a sole survivor of the crash could not be confirmed as of press time.

There are “no words to describe this tragedy,” Archbishop Thomas Macwan of Gandhinagar, who heads the Catholic Church in Gujarat, told CNA. 

“I went through the list of passengers and could identify the names of at least four or five Christians. There could be more as surnames are common to different religions and only first names will reveal the identity,” the archbishop said.

“The visuals of charred buildings at the crash site adds to fears of more deaths,” he added.

Media reports say at least five medical students may have died and many more were injured in the flight crash when it hit the compound of the BJ Medical College, run by the government.

Several multistory buildings in the vicinity were reportedly shattered and burnt in the crash of the Dreamliner. The airliner was reportedly carrying 181 Indians, including 12 crew, besides 61 foreign nationals.

Among the passengers was reportedly Vijay Rupani, the former chief minister of Gujarat.

CNA Staff, Jun 12, 2025 / 10:59 am (CNA).

Catholic families in Pennsylvania won a victory at federal court this week when a local school district agreed to allow students of parochial schools to participate in district sporting events and other activities.

The Thomas More Society, a public interest law firm based in Chicago, said in a press release that multiple Catholic families had won the “major victory” in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania after bringing the suit in July 2023.

The State College Area School District had originally said that parochial school students were not allowed to participate in district extracurricular activities, though it allowed home-schooled and charter school students to take part in those events.

The Catholic school families had sued the district arguing that the policy violated their constitutional rights to freedom of religion and equal protection.

In December 2023, U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann allowed the challenge to proceed, agreeing that the rule appeared to violate the defendants’ constitutional rights.

In a filing on June 10, the Catholic families and the school district agreed to a consent order stipulating that the Catholic students “are generally entitled to the same generally available benefits as those provided to home-schooled and charter school students” in the district.

The district said it agreed to “make available to parochial school students … the same extracurricular and co-curricular activities (including athletics) and educational programs offered to home-schooled students and charter school students.”

Thomas Breth, special counsel for the Thomas More Society, said in the press release that school districts in Pennsylvania “cannot discriminate against students and exclude them from activities simply because they choose to attend a religious-based school.”

“Religious discrimination has no place in our society, but especially in our public schools,” Breth said.

He argued that the order “strengthens the ability of parents to prioritize their family’s religious beliefs when making educational decisions without being forced to sacrifice educational and athletic opportunities that are offered to other students and paid for with their tax dollars.”

In an interview with CNA, the lawyer said that though the consent order does not apply statewide, it will likely help to ensure that other districts do not exclude parochial students from district activities.

“I fully expect that many, many school districts are going to fall in line and decide not to litigate the issue,” he said.

The district ended up paying $150,000 in legal fees to the plaintiffs, Breth noted. He urged parents of Catholic school students to consider pressing their districts to allow their children access to extracurricular activities.

“I’ve already been in contact with parents in other school districts,” he added. “They’re in similar situations. We’re going to push hard in other districts if they don’t recognize they have a constitutional obligation to let parochial school students participate in the same manner as charter and home-schooled students.”

“Hopefully, it’s not going to take litigation. Hopefully, it will take letters,” he said. “Hopefully, the district will do what’s right for the kids, because ultimately that’s what this is about.”

Vatican City, Jun 12, 2025 / 09:22 am (CNA).

The priests of Rome met for the first time on Thursday with their new bishop, Pope Leo XIV, to whom they are looking for greater leadership and fatherly care after several years of administrative disruption.

“We are very hopeful; you perceive a lot of enthusiasm, anyway, whether from brother priests or from the people of God,” the 32-year-old newly ordained Father Simone Troilo told CNA this month. “The fact that he even set this meeting [with priests] as a priority a little more than a month after his election … is a very important sign as well.”

The pope is not only the head of the universal Catholic Church, but he is also the bishop of the Diocese of Rome, though he does not manage the diocese like a typical diocesan bishop. A cardinal vicar general, vice regent (deputy), and auxiliary bishops are responsible for the ordinary running of the diocese.

Just over a month since Leo’s election, priests of the diocese told CNA there is a lot of excitement for the new pope and interest in how he will lead the Church in Rome as it confronts shifts in religious and ethnic demographics amid an overall loss of religious practice in the diverse and sprawling diocese.

Leo asked priests in the meeting June 12 “to pay attention to the pastoral journey of this Church, which is local but, because of who guides it, is also universal.” He promised to walk alongside them as they seek communion, fraternity, and serenity.

Several hundred priests attended the audience, the first with their new bishop, in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall.

According to Cardinal Baldassare Reina, the vicar general of Rome, there are 8,020 priests and deacons currently in the diocese, of which 809 are permanent Rome diocesan priests, and most of the remaining are part of religious communities or doing advanced studies.

Jesuit Father Anthony Lusvardi, a sacramental theologian in Rome, told CNA that “the Diocese of Rome is meant to be an example for the rest of the world” and “setting the right tone here will have an effect elsewhere.”

Leo’s speech underlined the importance of a strong communion and fraternity among the diocesan community and hinted at the challenge of “certain ‘internal’ obstacles,” along with interpersonal relationships and the weariness of feeling misunderstood or not heard.

Administrative upheaval

Multiple priests who spoke to CNA expressed a strong desire to have a clear point of reference in the diocese, underlining that two of the diocese’s four sectors have not had auxiliary bishops for months.

Pope Francis’ publication of a new constitution for the diocese in January 2023, the first major change in 25 years, launched a series of organizational shifts for the ecclesiastical territory, many involving personnel. It also downgraded the role of the vicar general, giving final decision power on some issues to the pope.

Over 10 months starting in April 2024, five of seven auxiliary bishops were transferred to new positions outside of the Diocese of Rome. A few were replaced in the meantime, but two sectors — north and east — remain without auxiliary bishops.

At that time, Pope Francis also moved the diocese’s vicar general of nearly seven years, Cardinal Angelo De Donatis. The two had clashed over issues for several years, going back to 2020, when the vicar general publicly called out the pope’s inconsistency over whether to shutter churches during the initial outbreak of COVID-19 in Italy.

Francis officially replaced De Donatis half a year later with Reina, a relative newcomer to Rome and former auxiliary bishop of the diocese who has also kept his responsibilities over the western zone of the city in addition to the heavy workload of a vicar general.

“It was very difficult the last two, three years” when the leadership kept changing, Father Esron Antony Samy, a member of the Order of the Mother of God, told CNA.

The administrator of a large parish in the troubled Torre Maura neighborhood on Rome’s eastern outskirts, Samy said he and his assistant have found the changes and instability in the diocesan curia over the last few years challenging. “We couldn’t follow one guide for the spiritual and pastoral activities,” he said.

Following the June 12 meeting with Leo, Samy said he was flooded with motivation and excitement from the pope’s encouragement to face challenges with faith and hope, and that he felt a fatherly presence in the hall.

Father Simone Caleffi, a theology teacher at a private Rome university and an editor for the Vatican’s L’Osservatore Romano newspaper, said he hopes Pope Leo will complete the implementation of the legislative changes Francis introduced, including the appointment of the missing auxiliary bishops for the north and east zones of the city.

“I am somewhat interpreting the feelings I have heard, even in some meetings, that it is hoped that these figures, who are essential guides for us, may return, if that is the will of the Holy Father,” Father Maurizio Modugno, ordained in 2005, said.

Attention for the diocese

Troilo was one of 11 men ordained to the priesthood by Pope Leo in St. Peter’s Basilica on May 31 after the original ordination date of May 10 was postponed by Francis’ death and the “sede vacante.”

The young priest, who has been assigned to a parish in the southwestern periphery of Rome, said that for him it was another sign of Leo’s solicitude and deep care for the diocese that he did not want to further delay their ordinations or delegate another bishop to celebrate it.

According to Father John D’Orazio, Pope John Paul II was the first to ordain priests of the diocese himself, a practice that grew the connection between pontiff and diocese, and was continued by each of his successors. 

D’Orazio, who is from New Hampshire but has spent the 22 years of his priestly ministry in Rome, noted that John Paul II would also visit Rome’s major seminary every year for the feast of Our Lady of Trust.

Pope Francis did not observe that tradition during his pontificate. “My hope is that Pope Leo will again give time and value to having some contact with the Roman seminary,” D’Orazio said. 

John Paul II also tried to spend as much time as possible with the people of Rome; he managed to visit 317 of 333 parishes throughout his long pontificate. During his final years, when he was too ill to travel to them, he invited the remaining 16 parishes to come to the Vatican.

Pope Francis in his 12 years as pope made 20-some pastoral visits to parishes in Rome, mostly concentrated in the city’s outskirts, part of his great attention to the peripheries, which was also reflected in his visits to many of the city’s prisons and charitable entities.

‘The shepherd we are waiting for’

Father Samy, from India but in Rome since 2011 to study and since 2013 as a priest, said his parish celebrates large numbers of the sacraments of initiation — baptism, first holy Communion, and confirmation — but many parents are unmarried and do not understand the importance of the sacrament of matrimony.

Father Claudio Occhipinti, who has spent many of his 30 years in priestly ministry helping families in crisis, also identified a need for a renewal of belief in the value of the sacramental union of husband and wife and the problem of the growing number of what he called “baptized nonbelievers.”

“The greatest challenge I see is to help the faithful to rediscover the power, the greatness, the fundamental importance of their baptism,” he said. “I will pray that this Pope Leo XIV will … no longer take for granted that the baptized are believers and to focus attention on this reality of a ‘Christian secularism.’”

The religious priest from India said the population in his area of Rome is growing, in part due to the city’s construction of additional public housing. The Muslim population is also rising and they are trying to welcome even non-Catholic families to their parish festivals and parish community center — for many, the “only place [in the struggling neighborhood] where they can stay with security and freedom.”

Samy said he is looking for guidance and “a fatherly figure” from Pope Leo. “We also understand the difficulties the Church is facing now, but we hope our new pope will help us [and] will give us support to do something better for the Diocese of Rome,” he said.

Modugno, whose parish is much closer to the city center, said he also hopes Leo “can truly be the shepherd we are waiting for.”

All of the priests described Rome as unique, especially for its size and diversity, including among the priests, many of whom are foreign or from other parts of Italy. 

Caleffi, who is originally from the Italian city of Parma, said it’s obvious the priests of Rome “won’t all think the same way,” but what they would all like is “as direct a relationship with [the pope] as possible, even if this can be difficult.”

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 12, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) issued a report that surveyed reproductive-age adults and recommended “reproductive autonomy” as a solution to global fertility rate decline, a solution that received pushback from pro-family experts.

The UNFPA, along with YouGov, surveyed more than 14,000 adults in 14 countries: the United States, India, Germany, Hungary, Sweden, Italy, Mexico, Brazil, Thailand, South Korea, Indonesia, Nigeria, Morocco, and South Africa.

The report, “The Real Fertility Crisis: The Pursuit of Reproductive Agency in a Changing World,” found that about 39% of people in the survey who want children said financial limitations affected their family size, with many citing a lack of job security, housing limitations, and child care options as reasons. About 19% of respondents said fears about the future contribute to their expectation of having fewer children. Almost one-third reported they or their partner had an unexpected pregnancy.

About 45% of respondents were not sure whether they would have their desired number of children or did not answer the question. Only 37% responded that they expect to have the amount of children they want.

Nearly one-fourth of respondents said they were unable to fulfill the desire of having a child at a time they desired. 

The dissatisfaction and uncertainty reported by many adults about the number of children they will have comes as “global fertility rates are declining,” the report acknowledged. Fertility has drastically declined in the United States and other parts of the Western world for more than half of a century and has also trended downward in other parts of the world in recent decades.

“One in 4 people currently live in a country where the population size is estimated to have already peaked,” it explained. “The result will be societies as we have never seen them before: communities with larger proportions of older persons, smaller shares of young people, and, possibly, smaller workforces.”

UNFPA blames lack of ‘reproductive autonomy,’ prompting pushback

Although the UNFPA recognized concerns about an aging population caused by the lack of children, the report concluded “the real crisis” the findings uncovered is a lack of “reproductive autonomy,” noting that people “are unable to realize their fertility aspirations,” with some having more children than desired and others having fewer.

“We find that when we ask the right questions, we can see both the problem and solution clearly,” the report stated. “The answer lies in reproductive agency, a person’s ability to make free and informed choices about sex, contraception, and starting a family — if, when, and with whom they want.”

To increase “reproductive agency,” the UNFPA report endorsed more sex education in schools, stronger access to contraceptives and abortion, adoptions by homosexual couples, access to assisted reproductive technology, and the dismantling of traditional gender norms.

“There are real risks to treating fertility rates as a faucet to be turned on or off,” the report stated.

The report also criticized campaigns that encourage people to start families. It claimed that tax credits for parents “can offer critical help” but can also stigmatize people who get the benefits and that incentives for larger or smaller families can “lead to constraints on reproductive choice by increasing men’s and women’s vulnerability to coercion from partners, families, or in-laws.”

“What is the alternative to policies seeking to influence fertility rates? Policies that expressly — in letter and spirit — affirm the rights of individual women and men to make their own choices,” the report claimed.

The U.N.’s purported solutions to the fertility crisis have faced pushback. 

Rebecca Oas, the director of research for the Center for Family and Human Rights (C-Fam), told CNA that “low fertility is an important and timely topic to address” but said the report is, “like all of [the UNFPA] reports, packaged as a way to promote UNFPA’s typical priorities and values.”

Oas, whose organization promotes pro-life and pro-family values at the global scale, said that UNFPA’s “north star” is “sexual and reproductive health and rights,” including abortion. She said the report ignored the main argument against abortion: opposition to “the taking of innocent human life.”

According to Oas, the report’s arguments were mostly “presented with a presumptive antipathy toward anything that might point toward traditional values, gender norms, and understandings about the family.”

“UNFPA’s definition of what constitutes human flourishing involves the redefinition of the family, the micromanagement of care within the home by the state, and legal, government-subsidized access to contraception and abortion, and for this reason, it falls well short of the ideal,” she said.

Catherine Pakaluk, an economics professor at The Catholic University of America and author of the book “Hannah’s Children: Women Quietly Defying the Birth Dearth,” bluntly called UNFPA’s conclusions “laughably pathetic.”

“I don’t think they really have a clue why people aren’t choosing children,” Pakaluk told CNA regarding the UNFPA. “... The difficulty is not controlling your fertility — we know how to do that.”

She criticized the report for besmirching traditional family and gender norms, noting that many parts of Europe have done that and “we just don’t see that there’s a rebound in birth rates.” 

She said communities that tend to have high birth rates are ones based on “traditional and biblical religion — people who are incredibly religious.”

“People who believe that God loves children … and wants to bless you with children … seem to have a lot more kids,” Pakaluk added.

Although Pakaluk said some people may delay children for financial reasons, she said this also cannot explain lower fertility rates because “as countries have gotten wealthier, people have had fewer children.” She argued it is more about “lifestyle affordability, not cash flow affordability.”

“They are not able to prioritize children in that basket of things they are pursuing,” Pakaluk said.

“I think we can make a difference,” she added. “... The place to make a difference is to work on helping people see the value of children.”

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 12, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

While locals are joining in on parts of the 2025 National Eucharisitc Pilgrimage as it winds its way across the country, eight young Catholics have dedicated the last three weeks to traveling the entire route with the Eucharist as “Perpetual Pilgrims” — and accompanying them are seven chaplains who take turns to serve as their spiritual guides.

Maria Benes, director of pilgrims for the National Eucharistic Congress, told CNA that there are five priests and two religious brothers who have been rotating through the pilgrimage. Three started with the pilgrims and four are expected to end the trek in Los Angeles on June 22. 

The priest chaplains are Capuchin Franciscan Fathers Christopher Iwancio and Michael Herlihey, and Franciscan Friars of the Renewal Fathers Malachy Joseph Napier, Justin Jesúsmarie Alarcón, and Lawrence Joshua Johnson. The religious brothers are Brothers Jan Cyril Vanek and Damiano Mary Pio, both of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal.

“As a lot of them have told me, the nature of pilgrimage is very Franciscan with the flexibility and adaptability of the adventure with Jesus,” Benes said.

The chaplains were chosen based on a number of criteria. Some reached out directly because they “felt called” and some were were asked if they wished to join based on organizers’ judgment that they would be “a good fit.” From there, pilgrimage staff, the chaplains, and their superiors organized the schedule.

The chaplains are “all stationed in different places” but have traveled to be a part of the experience, Benes said. “In fact, a few are stationed in other countries.”

As they travel, the chaplains take on a number of jobs. “The first part is the pastoral care of the team,” Benes said, adding that some helped lead a February retreat in preparation and a “day of recollection” before the pilgrimage started in Indianapolis.

On the road, the chaplains hear confessions, give homilies, provide reflections, and evangelize. They also help with music during many of the processions, leading worship in both English and Spanish. 

“Then the day-to-day of praying with the team, spiritual protection prayers for the team, and any pastoral concerns that come up. Then the second part of their role is to help bring the Eucharist to the public,” Benes said. 

CNA spoke to the two Franciscan Capuchins priests — Iwancio and Herlihey — about their experiences so far and their time with the pilgrims.  

Father Christopher Iwancio, OFM Cap

Iwancio helped the pilgrims through the retreat prior to their departure. To help calm their nerves he told them that “even the disciples had the same nervousness.” 

“They had uncertainty. Even when Jesus ascended to heaven, there was still a little uncertainty for the disciples. There’s something to be ruptured into that encounter experience, but there’s also the practicality, because you have to balance both the spiritual with the practical,” Iwancio told CNA.

Iwancio, who is based in Los Angeles, said the retreat was a time of “getting spiritually prepared,” going over “logistics,” and preparing for “situations that they’ve never seen.”

Logistical matters consisted of “getting the van prepared and reorganizing the trailer.” The pilgrims make four to five stops a day and travel with a van that Iwancio said is “kind of a portable chapel, too.”

“There’s a tabernacle attached to the van and it serves as a compartment where the Blessed Sacrament can be reserved and that can be opened up and the monstrance fits on top. There’s prayer cards for along the way.” The group organized “the shelves with all the liturgical items.” 

“The trailer is almost like a sacristy,” Iwancio said. 

Iwancio also helped the pilgrims with the spiritual direction they needed prior to leaving by encouraging them to go to confession and to take time away when they need a break while on the journey. “They need to take care of themselves,” he said.

Iwancio said it is important to balance “being present with Jesus” and the operational matters. “It’s kind of balancing that Martha and Mary approach for the experience,” he said. 

“They’re a nice great group of young people and they have a great variety of skill sets because each brings a different gift to the experience … It’s a nice mix of gifts and talents,” Iwancio said.

Iwancio will join the group toward the end of the pilgrimage. “I’m really looking forward to this idea of … bringing hope during the jubilee year. It’s going to be a really awesome experience,” he said.

Father Michael Herlihey, OFM Cap

Father Michael Herlihey, the vocation director of Capuchin Franciscans at the Province of St. Augustine, told CNA that “it was important” for him “to spend time with Jesus in the Eucharist as a first-year priest.”

“I was just inspired by ... [the] eight young adults. They were willing to step away from their lives, their jobs, their families, friends, cities for a period of five weeks to be Eucharistic evangelizers, if you will,” Herlihey said.

Herlihey also led the initial retreat for the pilgrims and then spent the first 10 days of the pilgrimage with them. He reflected on the week and half of traveling saying that “the intentionality that comes to the pilgrims forming a family … was very powerful. In fact, I think it was one of the strongest parts.”

During his time on the pilgrimage, Herlihey witnessed the Eucharist travel in a boat, a helicopter, and a van. “It’s kind of cool to think of a helicopter being a temporary tabernacle” or a boat “being a temporary vessel carrying Jesus.”

Herlihey shared some of his favorite and most memorable moments. 

“I literally got to cross the Mississippi River in a fishing boat with Jesus and see the crowds waiting on the shore for him to arrive. I was pinching myself going, ‘This will be in my homily for decades,’” he joked.

“I understand now, Jesus getting into the boat, going away from the crowds, out into the silence of the water to pray.”

Herlihey also shared some challenges the pilgrims have faced on the journey. They have run into anti-Catholic protestors that started out in small numbers but now travel in groups of around 50 people.

Before the pilgrimage began, Herlihey held a Mass for the pilgrims. He reflected that “in praying over the homily, the Holy Spirit asked … ‘to embrace the cross.’” Herlihey said “to be honest, I didn’t want that to be the homily.” He said he wanted to give an “exciting talk,” but “the Holy Spirit did not budge” — he said he felt the Holy Spirit saying, “You’re going to talk about embracing the cross and the importance of that.”

After the Mass, Herlihey was pleasantly surprised when multiple pilgrims shared that “embracing the cross and embracing death” had been topics they were praying about. 

“Now, hindsight is 20-20,” Herlihey said. “Here we are … weeks later, and they’re experiencing crosses. They’re carrying their cross amidst a white martyrdom right now with all the counter-protesters. It’s just like … ‘Holy Spirit, you knew what you were doing.’”

Another difficult part that Herlihey said “pained” him was that they “couldn’t go to more places” with the Eucharist. “I would love to go to every one of the parishioners’ houses, their workplaces, their schools, everywhere. And then I had a thought,” Herlihey said.

“We receive Jesus into our bodies in the Mass, and so we all become tabernacles. And those tabernacles carry Jesus as the helicopter does, as the boat does, as the van does, as the monstrance does. Our bodies.”

Herlihey said the Lord is saying, “I want to give my body and blood to people because I want my body and blood to travel to every office, school, and household. I’m going to do it by making people my tabernacles.”

One thing Herlihey said he hopes people know is that the priests and pilgrims are “not bringing one sacrament,” they are “bringing two.” Herlihey shared he heard confessions for three hours in the procession line as he walked through Iowa. 

The chaplains will continue to bring the sacraments to people across Texas, New Mexico, and California as the pilgrimage comes to a conclusion over the next two weeks. 

Reading 1 2 Corinthians 3:15 - 4:1, 3-6

Responsorial Psalm Psalm 85:9ab and 10, 11-12, 13-14

Alleluia John 13:34

Gospel Matthew 5:20-26

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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.