St. John's Catholic Church

null / Credit: Noska Photo/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Oct 22, 2024 / 16:20 pm (CNA).

Federal agents are assisting in the investigation of a fire that severely damaged a Catholic church in the Diocese of Tucson last week. 

St. Anthony of Padua Church in Casa Grande, Arizona, reported on Facebook on Friday that an early-morning fire on Oct. 18 had damaged the church building. 

No injuries were reported and firefighters quickly put out the fire, the Facebook post said. The church will be using its community center for Masses as a result of the blaze.

Casa Grande Fire Marshal Frank Ricci told local NBC affiliate KVOA that the fire likely started in a shed on the property. Ricci told the network that the majority of the building had been severely damaged by the blaze. 

“Based on the damage that’s occurred inside the structure, I’m saying this is probably about 65%-70% loss of the structure,” Ricci said. 

A spokesman for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) told CNA on Tuesday that the agency is investigating the case. “We are assisting the Casa Grande fire department with their investigation,” the spokesman said. 

Asked if officials were investigating the fire as a possible incidence of arson, the ATF directed CNA to the Casa Grande Fire Department. The fire department did not immediately respond to a query on Tuesday about the investigation.

The New Outlook, the Tucson diocese’s news website, reported on Tuesday that Casa Grande Fire Chief Dave Kean said officials have “no reason to believe that foul play was involved,” though federal agents were assisting “due to the high dollar loss and the fact that it is a place of worship.”

In a statement posted to Facebook on Sunday, Tucson Bishop Edward Weisenburger said he was “deeply grieved by the damage and destruction” to the parish. 

“A characteristic true to Catholicism is that our houses of worship are not simply places where we pray,” the bishop said. “Rather, they are imbued with holiness by the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, the waters of baptism, consecrated vessels for worship, and the grace that flows from the celebration of the sacraments.”

The prelate urged the parishioners to “allow the grace of God to heal us, to make us strong, and to unite us in fulfilling his will,” noting that the parish “was not built on a foundation of concrete, steel, and bricks” but rather one of “faith, hope, and love.”

Several other parishes in the U.S. and elsewhere have gone up in flames in recent weeks. A Catholic church in Florida has suffered multiple fires in the span of just 16 months, with officials confirming last week that the most recent fire is currently being investigated as arson.

A rampant wildfire in September, meanwhile, destroyed the Holy Spirit Catholic Mission in Washoe Valley, Nevada, which held the only Latin Mass in northern Nevada.

In Arizona, meanwhile, Father Ariel Lustan told the Tucson newspaper that Masses will continue at the Casa Grande parish as it looks to rebuild after the fire.

“It’s a brick structure with steel frames,” the priest said. “Someone told me that if they can rebuild the cathedral of Notre Dame then we can rebuild this church, and I think it’s a noble goal.”

Belén Perales is now host of the YouTube channel “El Rosario de las 11” (“The Rosary at 11 p.m.”), where she streams praying the Holy Rosary every night and shares conversion stories. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Belén Perales

ACI Prensa Staff, Oct 22, 2024 / 16:15 pm (CNA).

Belén Perales, a 60-year-old Spanish woman, lived for 35 years as an atheist, turning away from the Catholic faith in her teens after a series of traumatic experiences.

However, her life changed dramatically on a visit to the tomb of St. John Paul II in the Vatican, where, according to her, she had a profound revelation that brought her back home.

A life marked by pain and rebellion

Perales was born into a Catholic family, the eldest of four siblings, but from a young age she felt a baseless but deep sense of abandonment. “I always had a feeling that nobody loved me,” she confessed in an interview with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner.

Constant moving from one city to another due to her father’s work fueled her insecurities, creating a deep emotional wound. “I developed a kind of wound of [feeling] abandoned,” she recalled, and although moving around made her more adaptable, it also fueled her resentment.

Her faith began to falter in her teens after being abused during a stay at a boarding school. This episode marked a breaking point in her relationship with God and her mother. “I left school very angry at the world ... that summer I stopped believing in God,” Perales recounted. From that moment on, she began to distance herself from the Church and the faith she had known as a child.

Tumultuous trajectory

For the next 35 years, Perales lived in the midst of confusion, searching for peace in failed relationships and professional success that she could never find. She married several times and suffered deception and abuse in her relationships.

“My first husband scammed me... when I went to get a divorce, it turned out that I wasn’t even married; he was a professional scammer who had deceived me,” she recalled with resignation.

“After what happened with that man, my first husband, I went from bad to worse. I met the father of my oldest daughter; in short, it was a very tortuous relationship. It was seven very hard years. I had a terrible time. I managed to get out of that house with my daughter and we started from scratch again. I was ruined again,” she recalled.

In 1996, when the internet was just taking off, she bought a kit and decided to set up her own online business. She began selling through that platform and, to her surprise, the project was a huge success. From that moment on, she began to generate significant income thanks to her entrepreneurial initiative in the digital world. 

Despite having a successful career in business, her personal life was still a mess. “I went on to other boyfriends... I got married again, but it went wrong just the same.”

“I went to live with another person who had addictions that I didn’t know about; he was a psychiatrist and a drug addict. Then I got married again, in the Church this time. And it went wrong just the same because that person had problems, and so did I. I had two daughters, my two little daughters with that person. So I was left alone with my daughters, the two little ones,” she said.

During these years, her life was marked by hopelessness and she lived completely far from faith. “I was an atheist; I didn’t believe in God, nothing, zero,” she stated categorically.

Sudden, unexpected reencounter with God

Everything changed in the summer of 2012 during a trip to Rome with her daughters. Although her initial intention was to visit the Roman Colosseum, her daughter Gabriela insisted on visiting the Vatican.

“I wanted to go to the Colosseum, but my daughter wanted to go to the Vatican. In the end, I gave in,” she said. What happened inside St. Peter’s Basilica changed her life forever.

“When we entered the Vatican, I was angry. I thought: ‘What are we doing here? How horrible!’” While taking photos of her daughters, Perales began to feel something inexplicable: “Suddenly, I began to feel something physical, not spiritual. Something that suddenly entered... and I automatically realized that God exists, and that if I died, I would go to hell.”

The impact was so great that she began to cry uncontrollably. “My eyes were pouring out tears as if they were two open faucets,” she recalled.

In front of the tomb of St. John Paul II, she felt that she was outside the Church, separated from her “mother,” as she calls the Catholic Church, and that she had rejected God for all those years. “I felt the pain of being outside the Church, realizing that God existed and that I had rejected him.”

“I felt ... that he wasn’t a lie, and that I had rejected him. My soul was dirty, full of sins. My sins were running through my mind,” she said.

When she saw the tomb of St. John Paul II, she suddenly said: “Girls, let’s pray.” Then she knelt on the third pew on the left as her tears continued to fall. “My youngest daughter took out tissues and wiped my face. I wanted to pray, but I couldn’t even remember the Lord’s Prayer, because I hadn’t prayed for 35 years. I was 48 years old and hadn’t prayed since I was 13,” she explained to ACI Prensa.

When she left the place, Perales thought to herself: “I’ve gone crazy. This is the result of being alone with my daughters and tired.”

Return home

After that experience, she returned to Madrid, but the process of returning to the faith was not easy. She still felt estranged from the Church and thought she could not be accepted again.

“I was still stubborn, thinking that I couldn’t return to the Church, that I was excommunicated,” she related. For a year, she attended Mass on Sundays, but she didn’t dare go to confession. “I thought: ‘I better not go to confession, because they’re going to throw me out of here.’”

Finally, one day, she felt an inner call. “I heard God telling me from within: ‘What are you waiting for?’” That was the sign she needed to take the step. “I went down to the parish, left my daughters in a pew, and went into the first confessional I saw.”

There she found a young priest who welcomed her with joy. “I told him: ‘Look, my name is Belén, I have done everything except steal and kill.’ And he answered me: ‘Hallelujah, today there is a celebration in heaven.’”

The priest had with him a picture of the prodigal son and explained to her: “Right now God is embracing you.”

That confession was the beginning of her reconciliation with God and with the Catholic Church. “I didn’t know the mercy of God. When I returned to the Church, it was like an embrace that I had never felt before,” she shared.

A life of evangelization

Since then, Perales has dedicated her life to evangelizing and sharing her story with those around her. “I told Jesus: ‘From now on, I am your marketing department. Wherever I go, I will take you with me.’”

And so she has. Over the years, she has taken several friends to the confessional and handed out rosaries to those she meets along the way.

“My wounds have been healed by adoration and sacraments. I am a fan of confession,” she said with a smile.

In addition, Perales founded the channel “El Rosario de las 11” (“The Rosary at 11 p.m.”) on YouTube, with which she streams praying the holy rosary every night and shares conversion stories, like hers. As she told ACI Prensa, “the channel has borne many fruits, from endless conversions to [guys] who have decided to go to seminary to become priests, vocations... in short, a bit of everything."

What surprises her most, although she realizes that it shouldn’t, is the number of miracles and conversions that have occurred thanks to the channel. Reflecting on this fact, she quoted Jesus: “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” For Perales, these events are proof that Jesus is still alive today.

Expressing her full commitment to the project, she said she has promised the Virgin and Jesus that she will be running the channel “until the last day of her life, or until my strength fails me.”

“I want to please my mother, the Virgin, who asks us to pray the rosary. I am obeying. Also, many people on the internet don’t know God, but if they did, they would fall in love with Jesus as I have,” she commented.

“YouTube allows people, even without looking for God, to meet him in an unexpected way. I am excited to know that my videos can reach those who are far away, those who most need this message of hope and love that Jesus gives us,” she said.

Today, Perales lives a life full of faith, grateful for having found God again after so many years of darkness. “Jesus rescued me when I least expected it, and now I want everyone to know that he is there, waiting for us,” she concluded.

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

Burkinabé soldiers patrol in Ouagadougou after the January 2022 coup. / Credit: VOA News (public domain)

CNA Staff, Oct 22, 2024 / 15:45 pm (CNA).

The persecution of Christians worldwide has only gotten worse, with militant Islam, oppressive regimes, and criminal gangs and extremists ramping up attacks during 2022–2024, according to a papal charity that supports persecuted Christians. 

An Oct. 22 report from Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) details the extent of violence and oppression faced by Christian communities in 18 countries of “key concern.” The report, which covers August 2022 to June 2024, states that human rights violations against Christians have increased since the 2020–2022 report in more than 60% of the countries surveyed. 

The new report found that the six African nations examined saw an increase in Islamist violence, leading ACN to conclude that the epicenter of militant Islamist violence has “shifted from the Middle East to Africa.” 

In parts of the African nations of Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Mozambique, and elsewhere, Christians have continued to be terrorized by extremist violence, ACN said.

CNA has reported for years on violence against Christians in Nigeria, which has in recent years seen thousands of Christians terrorized, displaced, and killed, often by bandits operating with impunity under a largely Muslim-controlled federal government. 

Ethnic and religious violence in Nigeria has claimed the lives of nearly 56,000 people in the West African country over four recent years, and the victims have been disproportionately Christian.

Just this month, a devastating Islamic terrorist attack in Burkina Faso, in the eastern town of Manni, left at least 150 people dead. For several months, Islamic insurgents have increased their brutality and their determination to spread terror, which has allowed them to control about half of the territory, ACN previously reported.

According to ACN, Burkina Faso has the highest level of extremist violence in the entire Sahel region as reflected in attacks such as those in Manni and Barsalogho at the end of August, where it is estimated that at least 400 people were killed by these armed Islamic groups.

Turning to other parts of the world, ACN said it has observed an “intensified targeting” of Christians as enemies of the state or of the local community by authoritarian regimes. 

These include the governments of such countries as China, Eritrea, India, and Iran, all of which have “ramped up repressive measures.” India in particular saw 720 attacks or other incidents of persecution against Christians reported in 2023, up from 599 the previous year. 

Further, ACN said, state and nonstate actors increasingly weaponized existing and new legislation, criminalizing acts deemed disrespectful to the state religion as a means of oppressing Christians and other minority religious groups. 

“Blasphemy laws,” which exist in dozens of countries worldwide, have been particularly devastating in Pakistan, while in Saudi Arabia converting from Islam to Christianity is strictly prohibited and converts can face the prospect of “honor killings.”

Finally, the group highlighted increased threats to Christian children, especially girls, who suffered abduction, sexual violence, forced marriage, and forced conversion.

The report included numerous additional facts about the struggles Christians face in various countries around the world. For example, the Christian population in Syria, devastated by the ongoing civil war, has dropped from 1.5 million to as few as 250,000 today — a similar drop has been recorded in Iraq amid the brutality of the so-called Islamic State. 

The full report can be obtained at ACN’s website.

Congolese Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, Archbishop Andrew Nkea Fuanya of Cameroon, and Bishop Edouard Sinayobye of Rwanda talk with journalists at Synod on Synodality press briefings in October 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA

Vatican City, Oct 22, 2024 / 15:15 pm (CNA).

As the Vatican draws closer to the end of the global four-year discernment phase of the Synod on Synodality, high-ranking African delegates participating in this year’s meetings shared their perspectives on the journey of “walking together as the people of God” and its impact on the life of the Church in Africa.

Congolese Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, president of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) told journalists on Tuesday of his satisfaction with this year’s global synodal talks taking place in the Vatican.

“I must say that I am happy with the synod, which had been convened to develop a new way of being Church and not to solve specific issues which exist in the Church,” Ambongo said during the Oct. 22 press briefing.

But how has the Synod on Synodality actually impacted the Catholic Church in Africa? And, in turn, how has the Church in Africa impacted the global synodal process, when proportionately few Africans are participating in the Oct. 2–27 session at the Vatican?

Small Christian communities: a grassroots Church 

Archbishop Andrew Nkea Fuanya from Cameroon told journalists at the press briefing that synodality is an “eschatological sign” in the Church today and stressed the importance of small Christian communities as “a very big treasure for Africa.”

“We are going through a moment of a boom of Catholicism in Africa,” the Cameroonian prelate said. “Synodality comes very alive in the small Christian communities because you don’t live in anonymity as a Catholic.”

Father Don Bosco Onyalla, editor-in-chief of ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, told CNA in an interview that the theological concept of synodality “where people come together” is a reality and tradition that is already lived among Catholics across the continent.

“In Africa, the Church has been conceived as a group of families — the small Christian communities,” Onyalla explained. “The structure of the Church in Africa is from grassroots families coming together.”

Onyalla added that “the institution of the family” — which extends beyond the Western concept of the nuclear family — could “be a source of inspiration for other parts of the world.”

Communion, unity, and reconciliation  

According to Bishop Edouard Sinayobye of Rwanda, the synodal process launched by Pope Francis for the universal Church in 2021 provides the “biblical and theological foundations” for growing in communion and reconciliation with God and others.

Rwanda is on a journey of healing following the genocide 30 years ago that killed approximately 800,000 people belonging to the minority Tutsi ethnic group.

“For us in Rwanda to talk about fraternity and unity is truly a message which is very well received by people — it helps people walk together and journey together — because after everything that’s happened we are learning to be brothers and sisters,” the bishop told journalists at the Oct. 14 Vatican press briefing. 

“We must accompany the victims and the perpetrators — this is something that we do in all parishes and this synod has helped us considerably,” he added. “It was a space in which we were truly capable of deepening the way in which we can address reconciliation.” 

Care for the poor and vulnerable

Cardinal Stephen Ameyu Martin Mulla from South Sudan shared his plea for the Catholic Church worldwide to live in solidarity with the world’s poor and vulnerable living in different countries.

Mulla hopes the Synod on Synodality will promote active dialogue and collaboration among Catholics and help promote the social doctrine of the Catholic Church, including the principles of solidarity, the promotion of peace, and the preferential option for the poor. 

“Synodality — going together — should be the way for us to resolve our own problems. And I hope that all of us together can resolve these problems,” the cardinal told journalists at an Oct. 18 Vatican press briefing. 

“The problems that affect Sudan, or South Sudan, or Colombia, or other parts of Mediterranean countries are our problems,” he added. “We are related — interrelated — and dialogue has to happen. We must feel [compassion] about these situations.” 

Aid to the Church in Need International reported that Africa is the priority region for its projects. In 2023, 31.4% of its activities were dedicated to supporting priests and local communities suffering persecution or persistent poverty throughout the continent.

Congolese Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, Archbishop Andrew Nkea Fuanya of Cameroon, and Bishop Edouard Sinayobye of Rwanda talk with journalists at Synod on Synodality press briefings in October 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA

Vatican City, Oct 22, 2024 / 15:15 pm (CNA).

As the Vatican draws closer to the end of the global four-year discernment phase of the Synod on Synodality, high-ranking African delegates participating in this year’s meetings shared their perspectives on the journey of “walking together as the people of God” and its impact on the life of the Church in Africa.

Congolese Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, president of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) told journalists on Tuesday of his satisfaction with this year’s global synodal talks taking place in the Vatican.

“I must say that I am happy with the synod, which had been convened to develop a new way of being Church and not to solve specific issues which exist in the Church,” Ambongo said during the Oct. 22 press briefing.

But how has the Synod on Synodality actually impacted the Catholic Church in Africa? And, in turn, how has the Church in Africa impacted the global synodal process, when proportionately few Africans are participating in the Oct. 2–27 session at the Vatican?

Small Christian communities: a grassroots Church 

Archbishop Andrew Nkea Fuanya from Cameroon told journalists at the press briefing that synodality is an “eschatological sign” in the Church today and stressed the importance of small Christian communities as “a very big treasure for Africa.”

“We are going through a moment of a boom of Catholicism in Africa,” the Cameroonian prelate said. “Synodality comes very alive in the small Christian communities because you don’t live in anonymity as a Catholic.”

Father Don Bosco Onyalla, editor-in-chief of ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, told CNA in an interview that the theological concept of synodality “where people come together” is a reality and tradition that is already lived among Catholics across the continent.

“In Africa, the Church has been conceived as a group of families — the small Christian communities,” Onyalla explained. “The structure of the Church in Africa is from grassroots families coming together.”

Onyalla added that “the institution of the family” — which extends beyond the Western concept of the nuclear family — could “be a source of inspiration for other parts of the world.”

Communion, unity, and reconciliation  

According to Bishop Edouard Sinayobye of Rwanda, the synodal process launched by Pope Francis for the universal Church in 2021 provides the “biblical and theological foundations” for growing in communion and reconciliation with God and others.

Rwanda is on a journey of healing following the genocide 30 years ago that killed approximately 800,000 people belonging to the minority Tutsi ethnic group.

“For us in Rwanda to talk about fraternity and unity is truly a message which is very well received by people — it helps people walk together and journey together — because after everything that’s happened we are learning to be brothers and sisters,” the bishop told journalists at the Oct. 14 Vatican press briefing. 

“We must accompany the victims and the perpetrators — this is something that we do in all parishes and this synod has helped us considerably,” he added. “It was a space in which we were truly capable of deepening the way in which we can address reconciliation.” 

Care for the poor and vulnerable

Cardinal Stephen Ameyu Martin Mulla from South Sudan shared his plea for the Catholic Church worldwide to live in solidarity with the world’s poor and vulnerable living in different countries.

Mulla hopes the Synod on Synodality will promote active dialogue and collaboration among Catholics and help promote the social doctrine of the Catholic Church, including the principles of solidarity, the promotion of peace, and the preferential option for the poor. 

“Synodality — going together — should be the way for us to resolve our own problems. And I hope that all of us together can resolve these problems,” the cardinal told journalists at an Oct. 18 Vatican press briefing. 

“The problems that affect Sudan, or South Sudan, or Colombia, or other parts of Mediterranean countries are our problems,” he added. “We are related — interrelated — and dialogue has to happen. We must feel [compassion] about these situations.” 

Aid to the Church in Need International reported that Africa is the priority region for its projects. In 2023, 31.4% of its activities were dedicated to supporting priests and local communities suffering persecution or persistent poverty throughout the continent.

Children participate in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ annual Missionary Childhood Association Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels on Oct. 16, 2024. / Credit: Archdiocese of Los Angeles

CNA Staff, Oct 22, 2024 / 12:25 pm (CNA).

A special Mass in Los Angeles last week celebrated the “missionary spirit” of children in the U.S., with hundreds of youth gathering to mark the efforts of the Missionary Childhood Association (MCA) and its work in turning children into champions of the faith. 

The Los Angeles Missionary Childhood Association held its annual Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels on Oct. 16 “to honor the contributions of local youth in supporting underserved children worldwide,” the Archdiocese of Los Angeles said in a press release.

The MCA, also known as the Pontifical Society of the Holy Childhood, is tasked with “developing a spirit and a missionary leadership” among children, one that “drives them to share the faith and material benefits, especially with children who are most in need.”

It is one of the four Pontifical Mission Societies, an umbrella group of Catholic missionary groups under the pope’s authority.

The MCA encourages children to “pray every day for the other children and for the spread of the Gospel message.” It also works to help children become evangelists and spread the Catholic faith.

Financial contributions, meanwhile, are collected by local and national chapters and sent to a universal fund at the Vatican “to be redistributed to millions of needy children in every corner of the world.”

Alixandra Holden, the director of the Missionary Childhood Association in the United States, told CNA the organization’s motto is “Children helping children.”

The MCA works with diocesan mission offices, she said, to promote “parish education, material and prayerful support for the missions,” and other evangelization efforts. Every U.S. diocese has a mission office — though they may be called different names — and many promote the MCA’s work and help raise funds for its efforts. 

“We’re tasked at the end of each Mass to go out and tell all nations,” Holden said. “We want to bring the stories of the Church to the children in our schools.” 

The MCA’s primary task, she said, is “education” of the Catholic faith and of the need to help and serve disadvantaged children around the world.

“We want to show kids they still have the ability to help around the world, through their prayers and sacrifices,” she said.

The Los Angeles Archdiocese said this month that fundraisers over the past year raised $85,855.19 for the cause.

That money will go in part toward funding the Diocesan Center for Children Development and the Next Generation Home in Ghana, “where hundreds of children living in the streets are provided meals and education, and whenever possible, reintegration with their families,” the archdiocese said.

On its website, meanwhile, the Pontifical Mission Societies points to MCA projects that include the repainting of a parish school in Chad, a poultry farming project in Zambia, and child faith formation efforts in Bangladesh, among others.

The roots of the association, Holden said, go back to the 19th century, when French Bishop Charles de Forbin-Janson consulted with Pauline Jaricot, the foundress of the Pontifical Society for the Propagation of the Faith, on how to inspire missionary zeal in children. 

“For the last 200 years this has been growing into what it is today, which is really lived through the children of the U.S. and European countries,” Holden said. 

At the center of the work is an effort to ensure children are both catechized in the faith and ready to follow the Christian mandate of service to others.

On the Vatican’s website, the organization says it promotes “children praying for children, children evangelizing children, children helping children worldwide.”

“We need to educate them on what their capabilities are,” Holden said, “and who is out there, and who our brothers and sisters are that we need to show love for.”

A worshiper waves the flag of China as Pope Francis leaves following the weekly general audience on June 12, 2019, at St. Peter's Square at the Vatican. / Credit: FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP via Getty Images

Vatican City, Oct 22, 2024 / 08:53 am (CNA).

The Vatican announced Tuesday that it has renewed its agreement with China on the appointment of Catholic bishops for an additional four years.

The renewal comes days after a report from the Hudson Institute detailed how seven Catholic bishops in China have been detained without due process, while other bishops have experienced intense pressure, surveillance, and police investigations since the Sino-Vatican agreement was initially signed six years ago.

With the extension, the Sino-Vatican agreement will now remain in effect until Oct. 22, 2028.

The English translation of the official statement from the Holy See said that “the Vatican party remains dedicated to furthering the respectful and constructive dialogue with the Chinese party, in view of the further development of bilateral relations for the benefit of the Catholic Church in China and the Chinese people as a whole.”

The statement added that both sides agreed to extend the provisional agreement after “appropriate consultation and assessment.”

China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian also confirmed the extension, saying that the two sides would maintain “contact and dialogue following a constructive spirit,” according to the Associated Press.

Originally signed in September 2018, the provisional agreement was previously renewed for a two-year period in 2020 and again in October 2022. 

The terms of the agreement have not been made public, though Pope Francis has said it includes a joint commission between the Chinese government and the Vatican on the appointment of Catholic bishops, overseen by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

The Vatican’s dialogue with China has not always been smooth. The Holy See has acknowledged that China violated the terms of the agreement by unilaterally appointing Catholic bishops in Shanghai and the “diocese of Jiangxi,” a large diocese created by the Chinese government that is not recognized by the Vatican.

Pope Francis expressed satisfaction with the ongoing dialogue with China during a press conference in September. However, the Vatican’s foreign minister, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, has been more cautious, calling the agreement “not the best deal possible” and noting ongoing efforts to improve its implementation.

Since 2018, “about 10 bishops” have been appointed and consecrated under the terms of the Sino-Vatican agreement, according to Vatican News. 

A new coadjutor bishop of Beijing is expected to be installed this Friday in agreement with the Vatican, according to Asia News. The coadjutor bishop would be just five years younger than Beijing’s current Archbishop Joseph Li Shan, who is still more than a decade away from the typical retirement age for Catholic bishops.

In August, the Chinese government officially recognized 95-year-old Bishop Melchior Shi Hongzhen, a former underground bishop. The Vatican called this recognition a “positive fruit of the dialogue” with Beijing.

Human rights advocates have criticized the Vatican’s silence on China’s religious freedom violations during its negotiations, including the internment of Uyghur Muslims and the imprisonment of democracy advocates like Catholic Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong.

Chinese officials have reportedly ordered the removal of crosses from churches and have replaced images of Christ and the Virgin Mary with images of President Xi Jinping, according to a recent report from the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). 

USCIRF also reports that the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “sinicization of religion” campaign has led to censored religious texts, forced clergy to preach CCP ideology, and required the display of CCP slogans in churches.

“While some Catholics choose to worship legally within the state-controlled Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, they are certainly not free as they must comply with the CCP’s harsh mechanisms of control and interference,” USCIRF Commissioner Asif Mahmood told CNA earlier this month.

“Ultimately, the Chinese government is solely interested in instilling unwavering obedience and devotion to the CCP, its political agenda, and its vision for religion, not protecting the religious freedom rights of Catholics,” he said.

A pro-life sign is seen on a roadside in Agnew, Nebraska, on May 14, 2024. / Credit: CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images

CNA Staff, Oct 22, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

In an election year in which a record number of states with pro-abortion measures are on the ballot, Nebraska is the only state to have a pro-abortion ballot measure competing with a pro-life measure. 

Chelsey Youman, with Human Coalition Action, a national pro-life group based in Texas, on “EWTN News In Depth” recently said that amid a “disinformation” campaign, Nebraska is “fighting back.”

“Nebraska is taking a unique approach to this issue and fighting back, saying that we’re not going to accept the pro-abortion industry’s rampant push of extreme constitutional measures to allow abortion on demand without limits throughout the entire pregnancy, all three trimesters,” Youman told “EWTN News In Depth” host Catherine Hadro on Oct. 18.

Nebraska’s ballot measure 439 would create a constitutional right to abortion, while measure 434 would establish constitutional protections for unborn children in later stages of pregnancy. 

Tom Venzor, executive director of the Nebraska Catholic Conference, called the pro-abortion measure “worse than Roe v. Wade.”

“Initiative 439 is a very extreme proposal that allows abortions throughout the entire pregnancy,” Venzor continued. “Alternatively, you have Initiative 434, which provides some protection in the second and third trimester for the unborn child but then allows us to continue regulating against unsafe and coercive abortion practices.”

Dr. Catherine Brooks, a neonatologist and pediatrician in Lincoln, Nebraska, noted that fetal viability does not have a set definition in the medical community.

“When they talk about it on the political front, it’s often assumed that there’s a definition of viability, and there just isn’t,” Brooks told “EWTN News In Depth” reporter Mark Irons.

Measure 439 creates a right to abortion up until fetal viability, which it defines as whenever the patient’s health practitioner determines that “there is a significant likelihood of the fetus’ sustained survival outside the uterus without the application of extraordinary medical measures.”

Tremendous progress has been made in recent years, increasing the likelihood of survival for the tiniest premature babies. For instance, Curtis Zy-Keith Means was born at 21 weeks’ gestation and weighed less than a pound. He holds the Guinness World Record for the youngest premature baby to survive and turned 4 this summer. 

But viability is often defined to be between 24 and 26 weeks. 

Brooks works in the neonatal intensive care unit, caring for premature babies who need additional support before they leave the hospital. She said she noticed “their personalities are all so unique.”

Venzor’s daughter Therese was born three months premature. She lived for only two weeks. 

“My personal experience is those two weeks were beautiful,” Venzor said. “They were wonderful.”

“We never knew if we were going to get one second with her,” he recalled. “We didn’t know if when she was delivered, she was going to make it. To have any amount of time with her was precious, not only in the womb but outside of the womb, and to look at her, to see her face. It taught us how to love more deeply. She taught us how to love.”

Nebraska’s pro-abortion measure also creates a right to abortion after the baby is viable outside the womb “when needed to protect the life or health of the pregnant patient, without interference from the state or its political subdivisions,” according to the text of the ballot measure.

“I think 439 is vague intentionally, and that’s so that people don’t understand what it’s saying,” Brooks said. “But from a medical perspective and a legal perspective, it’s allowing abortion at any gestation for any reason.”

Youman noted that Nebrasa’s pro-life measure is a unique opportunity for voters in the U.S. this year. 

“They’re giving voters another option, an option to say: We’re going to vote to protect children past the 12-week mark but also, importantly, allow the legislator there in Nebraska to continue to protect children in the womb before 12 weeks,” Youman said of the measure.

“The pro-life vote is alive and well,” Youman said, even though there is “a massive campaign of misleading disinformation” and “fear-mongering” around abortion ballot measures. 

“It took the pro-abortionists seven months to get the requisite amount of 200,000 signatures. It took the pro-lifers only three months to get the same amount of signatures,” Youman said. “So don’t always believe the polling. Don’t always believe what mass media is telling you. The pro-life vote is alive and well and active like it never had been. Now is that time for us to lean in more than ever.”

Youman noted that there is misinformation about medical emergencies and abortion. 

For instance, in September, Vice President Kamala Harris amplified claims by several news outlets that a woman died as the result of pro-life laws, while a group of doctors responded that the Georgia woman, Amber Thurman, died because of the abortion pill and medical malpractice. 

“The truth is, in pro-life states, all 50 states protect women from medical emergencies,” Youman said. “That’s not only a Supreme Court requirement but at the state level of statutory requirements.” 

Youman said that having conversations about these issues is essential and that voting “on these issues in these states will be the loudest thing we can do to send that message to protect the unborn.”

“The longer that we have these conversations at the grassroots, at the church level, at the local level, with our families and communities, the more people realize the value of innocent human life, and the more people realize how extreme these measures are,” Youman said.

“This election, more than ever, as pro-life voters, we need to show up and tell them we will not stand for a country that aborts innocent children in the womb,” Youman said. “We will vote for pro-life measures, and we want to hold our candidates accountable to protecting innocent life in the womb.”

In 1984, Pope John Paul II met in Rome with 300,000 young people from all over the world in a meeting that laid the foundations for today’s World Youth Day. / Credit: Gregorini Demetrio, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Vatican City, Oct 22, 2024 / 05:00 am (CNA).

You probably know that St. John Paul II was the second-longest-serving pope in modern history with 27 years of pontificate, and he was the first non-Italian pontiff since the Dutch Pope Adrian VI in 1523.

But did you know that he also changed the Catholic Church forever during those 27 years? Here are five ways he did that:

1. He helped bring about the 1989 fall of communism in Eastern Europe.

The pope’s official biographer, George Weigel, who for decades chronicled the pope’s engagement with civic leaders, noted that the way Pope John Paul II influenced the political landscape was enormous. His political influence is seen best in the way his engagement with world leaders assisted the downfall of the U.S.S.R.

Just days before President Ronald Reagan called on Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down” the Berlin Wall, he met with the pope. According to historian and author Paul Kengor, Reagan went so far as to call Pope John Paul II his “best friend,” opining that no one knew his soul better than the Polish pontiff who had also suffered an assassination attempt and carried the burden of world leadership.

In the course of 38 official visits and 738 audiences and meetings held with heads of state, John Paul II influenced civic leaders around the world in this epic battle with a regime that would ultimately be responsible for the deaths of more than 30 million people. 

“He thought of himself as the universal pastor of the Catholic Church, dealing with sovereign political actors who were as subject to the universal moral law as anybody else,” Weigel said. 

“He was willing to be a risk-taker, but he also appreciated that prudence is the greatest of political virtues. And I think he was quite respected by world political leaders because of his transparent integrity. His essential attitude toward these men and women was: How can I help you? What can I do to help?”

More than anything, John Paul II understood his role primarily as a spiritual leader.

According to Weigel, the pope’s primary impact on the world of affairs was his central role in creating the revolution of conscience that began in Poland and swept across Eastern Europe. This revolution of conscience inspired the nonviolent revolution of 1989 and the collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe, an astounding political achievement. 

2. He beatified and canonized more saints than any predecessor, making holiness more accessible to ordinary people.

One of John Paul II’s most enduring legacies is the huge number of saints he recognized. He celebrated 147 beatification ceremonies, during which he proclaimed 1,338 blesseds, and celebrated 51 canonizations for a total of 482 saints. That is more than the combined tally of his predecessors over the five centuries before.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta is perhaps the best-known contemporary of John Paul II who is now officially a saint, but the first saint of the new millennium and one especially dear to John Paul II was St. Faustina Kowalska, the fellow Polish native who received the message of divine mercy. 

“Sister Faustina’s canonization has a particular eloquence: By this act I intend today to pass this message on to the new millennium,” he said in the homily of her canonization. “I pass it on to all people, so that they will learn to know ever better the true face of God and the true face of their brethren.”

Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, whom Pope John Paul II beatified in 1990 and nicknamed the “man of the beatitudes,” is another popular saint elevated by the Polish pope who loved to recognize the holiness of simple persons living the call to holiness with extraordinary fidelity. At the time of his death, the 24-year-old Italian was simply a student with no extraordinary accomplishments. But his love for Christ in the Eucharist and in the poor was elevated by John Paul II as heroic and worthy of imitation.

It bears noting that Pope Francis would later surpass John Paul II when he proclaimed 800 Italian martyrs saints in a single day.

3. He transformed the papal travel schedule.

John Paul II visited some 129 countries during his pontificate — more countries than any other pope had visited up to that point.

He also created World Youth Days in 1985 and presided over 19 of them as pope.

Weigel said John Paul II understood that the pope must be present to the people of the Church, wherever they are.

“He chose to do it by these extensive travels, which he insisted were not travels, they were pilgrimages,” Weigel said.

“This was the successor of Peter, on pilgrimage to various parts of the world, of the Church. And that’s why these pilgrimages were always built around liturgical events, prayer, adoration of the holy Eucharist, ecumenical and interreligious gatherings — all of this was part of a pilgrimage experience.”

In the latter half of the 20th century — a time of enormous social change and upheaval— John Paul II’s extensive travels and proclamation of the Gospel to the ends of the earth were just what the world needed, Weigel said.

4. He made extraordinary contributions to Church teaching.

John Paul II was a scholar who promulgated the Catechism of the Catholic Church in 1992, reformed the Eastern and Western Codes of Canon Law during his pontificate, and authored 14 encyclicals, 15 apostolic exhortations, 11 apostolic constitutions, and 45 apostolic letters.

This is why Weigel said the Church has only begun to unpack what he calls the “magisterium” of John Paul II, in the form of his writings and his intellectual influence.

For example, John Paul’s theology of the body remains enormously influential in the United States and throughout the world, though Weigel said even this has yet to be unpacked.

5. He gave new life to the Catholic Church in Africa.

John Paul II’s legendary evangelical fervor took fire in Africa. 

He had a particular friendship with Beninese Cardinal Bernadin Gantin and visited Africa many times. His visits would inspire a generation of JPII Catholics in Africa as well as other parts of the globe.

“John Paul II was fascinated by Africa; he saw African Christianity as living, a kind of New Testament experience of the freshness of the Gospel, and he was very eager to support that, and lift it up,” Gantin said.

“It was very interesting that during the two synods on marriage and the family in 2014 and 2015, some of the strongest defenses of the Church’s classic understanding of marriage and family came from African bishops. Some of whom are first-, second-generation Christians, deeply formed in the image of John Paul II, whom they regard as a model bishop,” Gantin said.

“I think wherever you look around the world Church, the living parts of the Church are those that have accepted the magisterium ... as the authentic interpretation of Vatican II. And the dying parts of the Church, the moribund parts of the Church are those parts that have ignored that magisterium.”

John Paul II’s influence in Africa and around the globe transformed the world. It also forever transformed the Church.

This story was first published on Oct. 22, 2021, and has been updated.

In 1984, Pope John Paul II met in Rome with 300,000 young people from all over the world in a meeting that laid the foundations for today’s World Youth Day. / Credit: Gregorini Demetrio, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Vatican City, Oct 22, 2024 / 05:00 am (CNA).

You probably know that St. John Paul II was the second-longest-serving pope in modern history with 27 years of pontificate, and he was the first non-Italian pontiff since the Dutch Pope Adrian VI in 1523.

But did you know that he also changed the Catholic Church forever during those 27 years? Here are five ways he did that:

1. He helped bring about the 1989 fall of communism in Eastern Europe.

The pope’s official biographer, George Weigel, who for decades chronicled the pope’s engagement with civic leaders, noted that the way Pope John Paul II influenced the political landscape was enormous. His political influence is seen best in the way his engagement with world leaders assisted the downfall of the U.S.S.R.

Just days before President Ronald Reagan called on Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down” the Berlin Wall, he met with the pope. According to historian and author Paul Kengor, Reagan went so far as to call Pope John Paul II his “best friend,” opining that no one knew his soul better than the Polish pontiff who had also suffered an assassination attempt and carried the burden of world leadership.

In the course of 38 official visits and 738 audiences and meetings held with heads of state, John Paul II influenced civic leaders around the world in this epic battle with a regime that would ultimately be responsible for the deaths of more than 30 million people. 

“He thought of himself as the universal pastor of the Catholic Church, dealing with sovereign political actors who were as subject to the universal moral law as anybody else,” Weigel said. 

“He was willing to be a risk-taker, but he also appreciated that prudence is the greatest of political virtues. And I think he was quite respected by world political leaders because of his transparent integrity. His essential attitude toward these men and women was: How can I help you? What can I do to help?”

More than anything, John Paul II understood his role primarily as a spiritual leader.

According to Weigel, the pope’s primary impact on the world of affairs was his central role in creating the revolution of conscience that began in Poland and swept across Eastern Europe. This revolution of conscience inspired the nonviolent revolution of 1989 and the collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe, an astounding political achievement. 

2. He beatified and canonized more saints than any predecessor, making holiness more accessible to ordinary people.

One of John Paul II’s most enduring legacies is the huge number of saints he recognized. He celebrated 147 beatification ceremonies, during which he proclaimed 1,338 blesseds, and celebrated 51 canonizations for a total of 482 saints. That is more than the combined tally of his predecessors over the five centuries before.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta is perhaps the best-known contemporary of John Paul II who is now officially a saint, but the first saint of the new millennium and one especially dear to John Paul II was St. Faustina Kowalska, the fellow Polish native who received the message of divine mercy. 

“Sister Faustina’s canonization has a particular eloquence: By this act I intend today to pass this message on to the new millennium,” he said in the homily of her canonization. “I pass it on to all people, so that they will learn to know ever better the true face of God and the true face of their brethren.”

Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, whom Pope John Paul II beatified in 1990 and nicknamed the “man of the beatitudes,” is another popular saint elevated by the Polish pope who loved to recognize the holiness of simple persons living the call to holiness with extraordinary fidelity. At the time of his death, the 24-year-old Italian was simply a student with no extraordinary accomplishments. But his love for Christ in the Eucharist and in the poor was elevated by John Paul II as heroic and worthy of imitation.

It bears noting that Pope Francis would later surpass John Paul II when he proclaimed 800 Italian martyrs saints in a single day.

3. He transformed the papal travel schedule.

John Paul II visited some 129 countries during his pontificate — more countries than any other pope had visited up to that point.

He also created World Youth Days in 1985 and presided over 19 of them as pope.

Weigel said John Paul II understood that the pope must be present to the people of the Church, wherever they are.

“He chose to do it by these extensive travels, which he insisted were not travels, they were pilgrimages,” Weigel said.

“This was the successor of Peter, on pilgrimage to various parts of the world, of the Church. And that’s why these pilgrimages were always built around liturgical events, prayer, adoration of the holy Eucharist, ecumenical and interreligious gatherings — all of this was part of a pilgrimage experience.”

In the latter half of the 20th century — a time of enormous social change and upheaval— John Paul II’s extensive travels and proclamation of the Gospel to the ends of the earth were just what the world needed, Weigel said.

4. He made extraordinary contributions to Church teaching.

John Paul II was a scholar who promulgated the Catechism of the Catholic Church in 1992, reformed the Eastern and Western Codes of Canon Law during his pontificate, and authored 14 encyclicals, 15 apostolic exhortations, 11 apostolic constitutions, and 45 apostolic letters.

This is why Weigel said the Church has only begun to unpack what he calls the “magisterium” of John Paul II, in the form of his writings and his intellectual influence.

For example, John Paul’s theology of the body remains enormously influential in the United States and throughout the world, though Weigel said even this has yet to be unpacked.

5. He gave new life to the Catholic Church in Africa.

John Paul II’s legendary evangelical fervor took fire in Africa. 

He had a particular friendship with Beninese Cardinal Bernadin Gantin and visited Africa many times. His visits would inspire a generation of JPII Catholics in Africa as well as other parts of the globe.

“John Paul II was fascinated by Africa; he saw African Christianity as living, a kind of New Testament experience of the freshness of the Gospel, and he was very eager to support that, and lift it up,” Gantin said.

“It was very interesting that during the two synods on marriage and the family in 2014 and 2015, some of the strongest defenses of the Church’s classic understanding of marriage and family came from African bishops. Some of whom are first-, second-generation Christians, deeply formed in the image of John Paul II, whom they regard as a model bishop,” Gantin said.

“I think wherever you look around the world Church, the living parts of the Church are those that have accepted the magisterium ... as the authentic interpretation of Vatican II. And the dying parts of the Church, the moribund parts of the Church are those parts that have ignored that magisterium.”

John Paul II’s influence in Africa and around the globe transformed the world. It also forever transformed the Church.

This story was first published on Oct. 22, 2021, and has been updated.