Knights of Columbus Council 13341

A performer during the Catholic Music Awards in Rome on July 27, 2025. / Credit: Screenshot “EWTN News Nightly”

CNA Staff, Jul 29, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Musicians from around the world came together for the first-ever Catholic Music Awards on July 27 at the Auditorium Conciliazione in Rome. Nicknamed the “Grammys of Catholic Music,” the international event aims to promote, encourage, and recognize the talent of Catholic singers by not only celebrating the Catholic faith but also honoring artists who evangelize through music.

Finalists were evaluated based on content, artistic value, and technical professionalism, with the final decision made by an international jury of more than 60 experts. Winners were chosen across 19 categories in four languages: Spanish, English, Italian, and Portuguese.

Among the winners was Nathali Paredes Lozano, singer-songwriter and anchor for “EWTN Noticias,” the Spanish-language broadcast edition of EWTN News, who won Best Praise-Worship Song in the Spanish category.

Lozano won for her song titled “Te Pertenezco,” which translates to “I Belong to You.”

She explained at the event that the song was “composed to the heart of Jesus, to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which is my greatest devotion. It is that heart that reaches out to take our hearts,” according to ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. 

“It is a song of Eucharistic worship, he who is present in the Eucharist, so I am very happy about it too. It’s a song that I love very much and that, I tell you and confess, every time I sing it I also break down,“ she added.

When speaking about the award show she said: “This is the first event of its kind held at a global level, and it’s so important because it values, rewards, and above all highlights the music of so many, many Catholic musicians around the world who offer their voices, who offer the gifts the Lord has given us to praise him, to praise God, our beloved Jesus. What could be better than valuing and supporting this kind of music, which is sometimes lacking?“

Opera singer Luciano Lamonarca, founder and CEO of the Saint Pio Foundation, won for Best Male Singer in the English category. He won for the song “The Song of Saint Pio,” which was written in honor of St. Pio of Pietrelcina (Padre Pio) as a gesture of gratitude for the saint’s intercession for the birth of Lamonarca’s son Sebastián.

In 2010, Lamonarca and his wife, Valentina, were expecting their first child — a daughter whom they named Alma. Suddenly, their whole life changed when Alma was delivered stillborn and Valentina had to undergo additional surgeries due to complications from the delivery. Due to those surgeries, it was unlikely that Valentina would ever be able to conceive again.

In their despair, the couple spent their first wedding anniversary in San Giovanni Rotondo, the hometown of Padre Pio. It was here that they were blessed with an opportunity to pray with a first-class relic — a handkerchief with blood stains from Padre Pio. The couple grew closer to the beloved saint and turned to him for his intercession.

Despite suffering multiple more miscarriages, they continued praying and on Dec. 25, 2014, Valentina discovered she was pregnant. Their son Sebastian was born in September 2015.

“When you sing, expressing faith, the emotions you give is much more than anything else. You don’t do this because you have been paid. You don’t do this because you have been rewarded by some things. You do this because you feel a connection with God, with those who love, you feel the faith expand,” Lamonarca said.  “So this is the best music that everybody will ever experience.”

Francesco Lorenzi, lead singer of the Italian band The Sun, accepted the award won by his group for Best Italian Catholic Band.

“Never would I have thought 20 years ago that today we would be here near St. Peter’s, awarded as the best Italian Catholic band. And this is something extraordinary: how the Lord can truly guide our lives, heal them, and lead us to where we are called to be, because each of us has a mission,” the Italian singer told the crowd. 

Lorenzi is known for his powerful conversion story and was awarded the Pontificated Medal in 2016 by Pope Francis “for the contribution given to Christian humanism in the world.”

null / Credit: Andy - Rock News/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Jul 28, 2025 / 18:34 pm (CNA).

The Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication reiterated its long-standing call for recognition of Palestine statehood amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict after France announced last week it would recognize the region’s statehood.

The editorial manager for the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication, Andrea Tornielli, called for a “two-state solution” and recognition of Palestine as a state in a July 27 editorial. 

In the editorial, Tornielli cited France’s recent movement toward recognition. Last week, French President Emmanuel Macron announced in a post on X that France would recognize Palestine as a state — a plan that was quickly rejected by various Western countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, and Australia. 

In addition to affirming Palestine as a state, Macron called for the demilitarization of the terrorist group Hamas that runs the government of Gaza. He demanded the release of the hostages, called for humanitarian aid for Gaza, and said that Palestine must accept demilitarization and fully recognize Israel.

In 2015, the Vatican signed its first treaty with the “State of Palestine.” Tornielli recalled the “comprehensive agreement” between the two parties, noting that the treaty affirmed the right of the Palestinian people to an “independent, sovereign, democratic, and viable” state.

While Pope Francis was the first of the popes to use the term “State of Palestine” upon his 2014 visit to the Holy land, Tornielli pointed out that Pope Benedict XVI affirmed both that “the State of Israel has the right to exist and enjoy peace and security” and that “the Palestinian people have the right to an independent and sovereign homeland.”

Before Benedict, in the early 1990s, Pope John Paul II established relationships with both the State of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, according to Tornielli. 

“It is to be hoped that the High-Level International Conference for the Peaceful Resolution of the Palestinian Question and the implementation of the two-state solution, grasping the urgency of a common response to the Palestinian drama, will decisively pursue a solution to finally guarantee this people a state with secure, respected, and recognized borders,” Tornielli wrote in the editorial.

Notably, the Vatican’s support of the “two-state solution” runs counter to the stances of many Western countries. The United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, and Australia rejected Macron’s Palestine statehood plan outright, while President Donald Trump dismissed Macron, telling reporters at the White House: “What he says doesn’t matter. It’s not going to change anything.” 

Macron said in his post that he plans to announce the recognition at the United Nations General Assembly in September. 

While U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer rejected the plan, he explained in a statement he supported the “two-state solution” but said it must ensure “lasting security for Palestinians and Israelis.”

On a local level, the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France called the decision a moral failure and said it risks security for Jews worldwide, while top American Jewish groups declined to attend a meeting with the French government after his statement. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “strongly” condemned Macron’s decision, saying the move “rewards terror and risks creating another Iranian proxy, just as Gaza became.” 

“A Palestinian state in these conditions would be a launch pad to annihilate Israel — not to live in peace beside it,” Netanyahu said. “Let’s be clear: The Palestinians do not seek a state alongside Israel. They seek a state instead of Israel.”

The central loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica. / Credit: Jeffrey Bruno/CNA

Vatican City, Jul 28, 2025 / 17:33 pm (CNA).

The Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA) — the body responsible for managing the properties and investments of the small city state — presented on July 28 its financial statement for the 2024 fiscal year, with net profits of 62.2 million euros ($72.1 million), one of the highest figures recorded since these reports began being published.

In addition, it contributed 46.1 million euros ($53.4 million) to cover the Holy See’s deficit, 8 million euros ($9.27 million) more than in 2023.

“This is one of the best financial statements in recent years,” emphasized the president of APSA, Archbishop Giordano Piccinotti, in a statement to Vatican media. He explained that these results not only reflect effective management but also a growing commitment to the Church’s mission, a strategic vision of patrimony, and a working model based on transparency, collaboration, and the common good.

An ecclesial vision of patrimony

“APSA is not limited to offering operational services,” Piccinotti explained in the report’s introduction, “but is configured as an organization at the service of the mission of the Catholic Church.”

The report reflects the fruits of a strategy focused on three guiding principles. The first is an ecclesial vision of patrimony: understanding that the assets managed are not ends in themselves but rather instruments to serve ecclesial communion and promote a sense of belonging to the Church. The second principle is collaboration and transparency: investments have been made in inter-institutional relations, in strengthening internal competencies, and in clear and traceable processes with defined responsibilities. The third is the common good as a guiding criterion: Management has been oriented toward decisions that respond to ethical and pastoral criteria, seeking to build synergies with other entities of the Holy See.

Record profitability: Ethics and strategy

The 2024 result represents a surplus of 16 million euros ($18.5 million) higher than that of 2023, when the profit was 45.9 million euros ($53.2 million).

Part of the profit was allocated to the Vatican budget (known as “fabbisogno”) of the Roman Curia, which totaled 170.4 million euros ($197.5 million). APSA’s contribution was divided between a fixed portion of 30 million euros ($34.7 million) and a variable portion equivalent to 50% of the residual net profit, thus reaching 46.1 million euros ($53.4 million).

Piccinotti explained that the increase is due to better management and valuation of assets. “We are doing our duty: We provide significant coverage for the Curia’s financial deficit. It’s not just about renting out empty properties. We have restructured property management, allowing rentals at market prices, which generates additional resources.”

Regarding financial investments, in 2024 the APSA adopted the guidelines of the Holy See’s Investment Committee, using separate management accounts (SMAs) similar to private investment funds. This allowed for sales at high points and strategic reinvestment, achieving a return of 8.51%, representing 10 million euros ($11.6 million) more than in 2023.

Stability in real estate management

Real estate management — which represents a fundamental part of the Holy See’s assets—generated stable revenues of 35.1 million euros ($40.7 million). This result was possible thanks to a “combined effect”: an increase in rental income (+3.2 million euros [$3.7 million] in Italy and +0.8 million euros abroad [$.92 million]) and an increase in expenses, especially in maintenance (-3.9 million [-$4.5 million], of which 3.8 million euros [$4.4 million] was allocated to upkeep).

APSA currently manages 4,234 real estate units in Italy, of which 2,866 are its own. It also owns assets abroad through affiliated companies in England, France, Switzerland, and Italy.

Transparency and service to third parties

The 2024 financial report is the fifth to be published publicly since this transparency practice began in 2020, following the economic reforms promoted by Pope Francis. APSA was created by Pope Paul VI in 1967.

In 2024, the organization paid 6 million euros ($6.9 million) in municipal property tax (IMU) and 3.19 million euros ($3.69 million) in corporate income tax (IRES), thus refuting rumors of widespread tax exemptions.

Furthermore, nearly 40% of APSA’s staff work in services provided to other Vatican entities, such as accounting or maintenance of apostolic nunciatures. “We not only contribute profits but also essential services for the mission of the Church,” Piccinotti explained.

Renewable energy and future prospects

Among the notable projects is Fratello Sole (Brother Sun, an allusion to St. Francis of Assisi’s “Canticle of the Sun”), an initiative to install an agrovoltaic plant in the Santa Maria di Galeria area, geared toward the Vatican’s energy transition. The site was visited by Pope Leo XIV on June 19 as a sign of his support for integral ecology.

“The goal is to continue improving deficit coverage in 2025 as well,” Piccinotti said, summing up with a phrase inherited from his grandfather: “You can’t get more than 15 kilos [33 pounds] of cherries from a cherry tree. We are close to the limit, but there is still room for improvement. Management is already good, but we are not standing still,” he concluded.

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

Actor Jonathan Roumie, who portrays Jesus in “The Chosen.” / Credit: Screenshot EWTN News/Colm Flynn

CNA Staff, Jul 28, 2025 / 15:20 pm (CNA).

Catholic actor Jonathan Roumie, known for his portrayal of Jesus in the hit series “The Chosen,” sent a video message on Monday to those gathered in Rome for the Jubilee of Digital Missionaries and Catholic Influencers in which he called their work “incredibly important.”

The Jubilee of Digital Missionaries, which is taking place July 28–29, seeks to unite the Church’s efforts “to celebrate, train, and inspire those called to evangelize on digital platforms.” The two days will consist of prayer services, workshops, and talks from Church leaders. The event, with the participation of over a thousand popular Catholic social media users from around the world, will culminate in a music festival. Pope Leo XIV is also expected to make an appearance.

“As someone who’s been blessed to portray Jesus in ‘The Chosen,’ I’ve seen firsthand how a story shared online can touch a heart, soften a soul, even change a life. You’re doing the same,” Roumie said. “Whether it’s through a post, a reel, a comment thread, or a livestream, you’re showing up in these digital spaces with the heart of Christ — not to preach at people but to meet them, to listen, to engage, to start conversations that actually matter.”

He urged the attendees to not “grow weary” and to never “underestimate the power of what you’re doing … your presence online — authentic, prayerful, joyful — that’s part of God’s plan to keep us talking about Jesus.”

The actor explained that this work in digital media is what “evangelization looks like today — it’s not just pulpits and church walls — it’s Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, blogs, all of it. And you’re stepping into that world with love, creativity, and authenticity.”

“What you’re doing is mission. Period. You’re reaching people wherever they are, no matter what they believe or don’t believe, no matter how much they understand or don’t understand. And that openness, that willingness to connect without judgment creates space for real dialogue, for moments of grace, for Christ to move in surprising ways,” he said. 

Roumie encouraged the participants to “keep going. Keep showing up. Keep being that light in the feed.”

“You never know who’s watching or listening or scrolling, and whose life might be changed just because you shared a little hope,” he added. “God bless you. I’m praying for you all. I love you and seriously, thank you for being out there.”

The popular Catholic actor also takes to social media to share inspiring messages about the faith with those who follow him. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Roumie frequently prayed the Divine Mercy Chaplet with his followers via livestreams. On Instagram alone, he has over 2.5 million followers. 

Pope Leo XIV is also an active social media user. He started a Twitter (now X) account back in August 2011, over a year before Benedict XVI earned the moniker of the “tweeting pope” with the launch of the official papal account @Pontifex on Dec. 3, 2012. 

Before becoming pope, then-Father Robert Prevost also frequently discussed social media’s potential for evangelization.

In a 2012 interview with Catholic News Service in Rome, Prevost said: “I think the Church needs to be sophisticated, if you will, also in terms of the use of the social networks that are available to us.”

Cardinal Pietro Parolin speaks at an EWTN dinner in Frascati, Italy, Oct. 19, 2022. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

Vatican City, Jul 28, 2025 / 14:10 pm (CNA).

Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin on Monday expressed his concern over the July 27 attack on a Catholic church in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which killed at least 31 members of the Eucharistic Crusade, a prayer movement and an apostolate for children and young people focused on devotion to the Eucharist and personal sanctification.

“This is a dangerous sign,” Parolin declared, pointing to the growing threat from forces identified as the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF).

For the Italian prelate, this group is a force “that in practice represents Islamic jihad and that imposes itself through force and violence.”

The attack has once again raised the alarm about the insecurity of Christians in the region: “This represents an additional problem in a region that already suffers from many conflicts of an ethnic, cultural, and sociopolitical nature. The addition of a religious aspect now further aggravates the situation,” Parolin told the media during a break at an event with Catholic influencers at the Via della Conciliazione auditorium a short distance from the Vatican.

According to initial reports, the terrorists stormed a Catholic church in northwestern DRC while they were participating in a prayer vigil.

According to the BBC, members of the ADF stormed a church in the town of Komanda, where they shot dead Catholic worshippers and then looted and burned nearby businesses.

Komanda is in the Ituri province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, a mineral-rich area contested by several armed groups.

The Vatican cardinal was also asked about the attack earlier this month on Holy Family Catholic Church, the only Catholic church in Gaza, which left three people dead, including two refugee women, and said that it is up to Israel to prevent such attacks.

“It’s up to Israel to find a way to ensure that these mistakes are not repeated. I believe that, if they want to, they can find a way,” he stated. 

Asked about the war between Israel and Hamas, he stated that “the solution lies in direct dialogue between the two parties, with a view to establishing two autonomous states.” 

The Holy See’s secretary of state acknowledged that “this is becoming increasingly difficult, also because of the situation that has been created and is being created in the West Bank.”

In his analysis, Parolin emphasized that “even in these months, Israeli settlements do not, from a practical point of view, favor the creation of the State of Palestine.”

The cardinal also referred to an upcoming attempt to revive the peace process: “Now it appears there will be a conference in New York — I don’t know if this week or exactly when — sponsored by France and Saudi Arabia to find the practical terms for the implementation of the State [of Palestine].” He added cautiously: “We hope it will bring something positive.”

Regarding communication between the Holy See and the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, Parolin said: “Of course, we are in constant contact. He [the patriarch] informs us of all the steps being taken; he also seeks our advice, and therefore there is very strong collaboration.”

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

Pope Leo XIV waves to pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for his Angelus address on July 6, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Jul 28, 2025 / 13:09 pm (CNA).

The Vatican welcomes more than a thousand social media influencers to Rome this week for an event intended to shape a new generation of Catholic missionaries — those sharing Christ on the internet. An active social media user, Pope Leo XIV is ready to help the Church navigate the fraught world of internet evangelization.

Before becoming pope, then-Father Robert Prevost identified social media’s potential for evangelization, but he warned about the anti-Christian messages dominating Western media and the tendency to exalt exhibition over the mystical.

“I think the Church needs to be sophisticated, if you will, also in terms of the use of the social networks that are available to us,” Prevost said in a 2012 interview with Catholic News Service (CNS) in Rome.

The Jubilee of Digital Missionaries and Catholic Influencers July 28–29 is two days of prayer services, workshops, and talks from Church leaders. The event, with the participation of over a thousand popular Catholic social media users from around the world, will culminate in a music festival. Pope Leo is also expected to make an appearance.

Father Lucio Ruiz, No. 2 at the Vatican’s communication department, told EWTN News that since 2018, the Vatican has recognized the activity of what they now brand “digital missionaries … people who loved Jesus and the Church and who dedicated themselves to seeking out suffering and spreading the Word [online].”

“They were alone, they had no training. The Church didn’t know or recognize them. And everywhere they asked for the Church’s accompaniment,” he said.

So the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication started organizing online prayer meetings with thousands of these so-called digital missionaries, Catholics with large social media followings, called “The Church Listens to You.”

And now, they are meeting in person for the Jubilee of Digital Missionaries and Catholic Influencers for spiritual and academic preparation — what the Church calls formation — something Leo identified as an important need for the new evangelization.

From spectacle to mystery

In the 2012 interview with CNS, Prevost said he did not think “turning away from the media would be the answer.”

“I think our real challenge is in formation. Our challenge is in preparing people to become critical thinkers,” he said following the Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelization, a gathering in which hundreds of Catholic bishops and others gathered to discuss how to share the good news of Jesus Christ in the modern era.

Prevost, who took part in the synod as the then-prior general of the Augustinian order, told CNS thinking about how the Church should evangelize in a media-saturated environment “is a complex question with a more complex answer.”

“Most people in the Church recognize today the need for the media,” he said. “So this isn’t meant as sort of a blanket elimination of the media in terms of the usefulness that the instruments of modern communication can have for the Church and for announcing the message. But one thing that was repeated numerous times in the synod was that the whole concept of the new evangelization needs to begin with a personal encounter with Jesus Christ.”

In his own short address to bishops at the synod, Prevost called out “mass media-produced distortions of religious and ethical reality,” including the normalization of “beliefs and practices at odds with the Gospel, for example: abortion, the homosexual lifestyle, euthanasia.” 

If the Catholic Church is going to successfully counter these messages, he said in the Vatican’s New Synod Hall, “pastors, preachers, teachers, and catechists are going to have to become far more informed about the context of evangelizing in a world dominated by mass media.”

“Evangelization in the modern world,” he concluded, “must find the appropriate means for redirecting public attention away from spectacle and into mystery.”

‘Digital missionaries’

Almost 13 years later, the popularity of social media has skyrocketed — giving almost anyone a public platform — and priests, religious, and laypeople talking about Catholicism on the digital stage are wrestling with some of the same issues identified by the future Pope Leo.

Father Heriberto García Arias, a young priest from Mexico with 2 million followers on TikTok, told EWTN News that social media is self-referential, because “that’s how social media works. If you want your message to get across, you have to do the same.”

But he said he tries to keep Jesus the focus of his content, even if it is a temptation to do otherwise: “It’s not something you overcome all the time,” he acknowledged. “It’s a struggle.”

García pointed out another potential stumbling block for online influencers, faith-focused or otherwise: the algorithm.

“If you say no, I’m not going to do this, I’m just going to do it differently, without filters, without music, without that, it won’t get through” to reach viewers, he said.

Ruiz, who has become the Vatican’s point person for digital evangelization, acknowledged social media’s limitations too: “The timing, the speed, the simplicity of the language.”

That’s why, the Argentinian priest said, it’s only a “first proclamation” — what St. Paul VI called “pre-evangelization,” or evangelization “at its initial and still incomplete stage.”

In the 1975 apostolic exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi, Paul VI already identified that the 20th century was “characterized by the mass media or means of social communication, and the first proclamation, catechesis, or the further deepening of faith cannot do without these means.”

The Church’s use of modern means of social communication is not new; it has embraced novel technologies from the printing press to the radio.

Likewise, Ruiz insisted that online evangelization is just the traditional missionary activity of the Church, only now, on the digital continent.

He cited a 2023 report from the Synod on Synodality that said: “It is up to us to reach today’s culture in all spaces where people seek meaning and love, including the spaces they enter through their cellphones and tablets.”

Human experience

In the 2012 CNS interview, Prevost pointed to St. Augustine, one of his sources of spiritual inspiration for advice on spreading the good news. “One of the reasons the ‘Confessions’ [of St. Augustine] continues to be one of the widest-read books in the history of the world is precisely because of Augustine’s insight into human experience,” he said.

“Human experience, [Augustine] says, is precisely where you can find God. And the humanity of Augustine is not something which leads into a kind of personalized, egoistic, it’s-all-about-me-and-only-me world, but quite the opposite.”

Sharing bits of humanity on the internet is what another digital influencer coming to the jubilee event said she tries to do in her work. 

Author, speaker, and radio host Katie Prejean McGrady shares snippets of her life as a wife and mom with over 40,000 followers on Instagram.

Catholic influencers get to be like the great missionaries of the Church “in the places and spaces where people are often trying to just dull their senses and be distracted,” she said in an interview with EWTN News.

In an email ahead of the Jubilee of Digital Missionaries and Catholic Influencers, McGrady told CNA she hopes “Pope Leo, who isn’t unaware of the digital landscape, strikes an encouraging and hopeful tone in talking about how we go ‘on mission’ into these digital spaces.”

“A pope who is aware of how well (or poorly) these spaces can be used is one, I think, that will be encouraging to those missionaries who are willing to go onto the digital continent and share the Gospel there,” she added.

Pope Leo and Twitter

Leo has plenty of personal experience with social media. He opened a Twitter (now X) account in August 2011, over a year before Benedict XVI earned the moniker of the “tweeting pope” with the launch of the official papal account @Pontifex on Dec. 3, 2012.

Leo XIV’s account, with the handle @drprevost, was deleted within a week of his election to the papacy, but not before other X users had noted and screenshotted a number of the new pope’s replies and reposts, including a criticism of an interpretation of St. Augustine by U.S. Vice President JD Vance.

As a prior general, and later bishop and cardinal, Leo’s over 400 tweets and posts (saved on a webpage) included many reshares of articles from Catholic news accounts, especially with pro-immigrant and pro-life content, information from the Peruvian bishops’ conference, and posts from the Augustinian order.

In fact, the now-pope seemed to have identified social media’s potential early on: One of his first tweets after opening the account was a reply to another user that “the news can be communicated very well here!”

Digital or real?

“In this culture where new generations come with a different way of thinking, where the digital world is real for them… these new places require testimony, witnesses, digital missionaries who are witnesses to the Gospel,” García said.

The priest underlined that the youngest generations are all on social media, so future priests, cardinals — even a future pope — are likely logging on to those platforms too. 

That is why, he added, it is important for Pope Leo to be informed: so he can guide the Church in this new challenge.

“I mean, a pope doesn’t come from Mars, and I’ve said it before … the next pope is watching TikTok right now.”

Paola Flynn, Vatican correspondent for EWTN News’ Spanish-language news program, “EWTN Noticias,” and Casey Mann, a summer 2025 intern for EWTN News in Rome, contributed to this report.

St. John Paul II in the popemobile amid the enthusiasm of 2 million young people at World Youth Day in 2000. / Credit: Vatican Media/Osservatore Romano

Vatican City, Jul 28, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

Twenty-five years have gone by since St. John Paul II transformed the Tor Vergata esplanade in the south of Rome into the beating heart of the young Church for the World Youth Day celebration in 2000. Now, that same area, over 200 acres and best known for being the site of one of Italy’s leading public universities, is preparing to welcome a new generation.

A vigil and Mass with Pope Leo XIV will take place there Aug. 2–3. These two events will be the epicenter of the Jubilee of Youth, over which the pope will preside from July 28 to Aug. 3 and during which thousands of young people are expected to spend the night in tents at the site.

The celebration inevitably recalls the moment a quarter of a century ago when 2 million hopeful young people, unconcerned with the heat and the discomfort of sleeping outdoors, flooded the outskirts of Rome with their radiant faith. As the Polish pope said at the time: “They made a noise in Rome that will never be forgotten.”

An open-air sanctuary

On those days in August 2000, St. John Paul II was physically weak, but he created a lasting bond with the young people, visible in every gesture he made and every word he spoke. Tor Vergata became an open-air sanctuary, where the pain of the wars of the 20th century and the hope of the third millennium came together.

During the vigil and Mass, the pontiff spoke words that still resonate strongly: “If you are what you should be, you will set the whole world ablaze!”

But the most powerful aspect was not the content of the pope’s message but the source: Christ himself.

“It is Jesus in fact that you seek when you dream of happiness,” proclaimed St. John Paul II, outlining a spiritual journey that transformed World Youth Day into much more than an event. It became a vocational, communal, and missionary journey that has been etched in the memories of many young people who have since directed their lives toward God.

Leo XIV now carries the torch

The pope is calling on young people to return to Tor Vergata with renewed vigor. The imposing 15,000-square-foot stage for Leo XIV will stand in the same location as it did in 2000 as a symbol of continuity. 

As then, a massive number of pilgrims is expected — 1 million, by the organizers’ estimates — many on foot, others by bus, but all with one shared desire: to experience a moment with the successor of Peter that will transform their lives forever.

Organizing the event has been a monumental logistical and technological effort: There are 355 giant tents, 179 audio and video towers, 2,000 speakers, nearly 26,000 square feet of giant screens, 110 generators, and 122 surveillance cameras. There will be a 4,300-square-foot control room and guaranteed internet access thanks to 12 miles of fiber optic cable and nine miles of electrical wiring.

“We want to guarantee not only security but also a spiritual and community experience of the highest level,” explained Agostino Miozzo, head of logistics for the city of Rome, at a press conference.

A different world, but the same message

Although the world has changed profoundly since 2000, the core of the message remains. At that time, St. John Paul II denounced the 20th century as an era of hatred and fratricidal wars. Today, Leo XIV inherits a much more fractured world with new social divides: digital loneliness, forgotten wars, climate crises, economic injustices, and growing distrust of institutions, including of the Catholic Church.

Faced with this landscape, the Jubilee of Youth will not be a simple festive gathering but a renewed “missionary mandate” in continuity with the one that occurred 25 years ago. Young people today, just as those back then, are called to go against the flow, to not resign themselves or anesthetize their desire for God. 

As John Paul II said: “It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to make something great of your lives.”

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

Pope Leo XIV urges “full respect for humanitarian law” amid a food crisis in Gaza
 in his address following the Angelus prayer on July 27, 2025, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media screenshot

Vatican City, Jul 27, 2025 / 08:30 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV called for peace negotiations and respect for humanitarian law in Gaza, 10 days after an Israeli strike caused the death of three people at the only Catholic church in the enclave.

“I renew my heartfelt appeal for a ceasefire, for the release of hostages, and for the full respect for humanitarian law,” the pope said, speaking of the nearly two-year-old war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Speaking as is customary at midday on Sunday from a window of the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace, Leo emphasized “the very grave humanitarian situation in Gaza, where the civilian population is crushed by hunger and remains exposed to violence and death.”

Leo called on the parties in all conflicts around the world to recognize the God-given dignity of every person and “put an end to all actions contrary to it.”

The pope specifically voiced his concern over the escalation of violence in southern Syria and over the situation on the border between Cambodia and Thailand, where violent clashes have broken out in a territorial dispute.

He made his remarks after leading a crowd in St. Peter’s Square in a recitation of the Angelus. Before the prayer, he offered a short catechesis on the Our Father.

“We cannot pray to God as ‘Father’ and then be harsh and insensitive towards others. Instead, it is important to let ourselves be transformed by his goodness, his patience, his mercy, so that his face may be reflected in ours as in a mirror,” he said.

The pope reflected on the day’s Gospel in which Jesus teaches his disciples the Our Father and explained that this passage “invites us, through prayer and charity, to feel loved and to love as God loves us: with openness, discretion, mutual concern, and without deceit.”

Leo also said that this part of the Gospel shows “the characteristics of God’s fatherhood” through evocative images such as “that of a man who gets up in the middle of the night to assist a friend in welcoming an unexpected visitor”; and also “that of a parent who is concerned about giving good things to his children.”

The pope explained that these images remind us that God “never turns his back on us when we come to him, even if we arrive late to knock at his door, perhaps after mistakes, missed opportunities, or failures.”

In the great family of the Church, “the Father does not hesitate to make us all participants in each of his loving gestures,” Leo said.

He added: “The Lord always listens to us when we pray to him. If he sometimes responds in ways or at times that are difficult to understand, it is because he acts with wisdom and providence, which are beyond our understanding.”

Following the prayer, the pope greeted, among other groups, participants in the EWTN Summer Academy, an intensive training program in Catholic communication organized by EWTN News and aimed at young people between 21 and 35 years old with prior experience in digital content creation.

Leo also recalled that this Sunday marks the fifth World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly under the theme “Blessed Are Those Who Have Not Lost Hope.”

“Let us look to grandparents and the elderly as witnesses of hope, capable of illuminating the path of new generations. Let us not leave them alone but join them in an alliance of love and prayer,” he said.

Finally, the pope spoke in Spanish to greet the thousands of young people who will participate in the Jubilee of Youth from July 28 to Aug. 3, one of the biggest events of the current holy year.

“I hope it will be for everyone an occasion to encounter Christ and to be strengthened in faith and in the commitment to follow him with consistency,” the pope said.

Pope Leo XIV addresses the crowd at the Angelus on July 13, 2025, at the papal estate of Castel Gandolfo. / Credit: Stefano Costantino/EWTN News

Vatican City, Jul 25, 2025 / 16:23 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV in a message released Friday pointed out that Catholic migrants and refugees “can become missionaries of hope today in the countries that welcome them.”

“With their spiritual enthusiasm and vitality, they can help revitalize ecclesial communities that have become rigid and weighed down, where spiritual desertification is advancing at an alarming rate,” the pope noted July 25 in his message for the 111th World Day of Migrants and Refugees, which will be celebrated Oct. 4–5, coinciding with the Jubilee of Migrants and the Jubilee of the Missions.

The pontiff focused his reflection on the link between Christian hope and migration and praised the faith with which immigrants “defy death on the various contemporary migration routes.”

“Many migrants, refugees, and displaced persons are privileged witnesses of hope. Indeed, they demonstrate this daily through their resilience and trust in God, as they face adversity while seeking a future in which they glimpse that integral human development,” the pope noted in the statement.

He emphasized that their presence “should be recognized and appreciated as a true divine blessing, an opportunity to open oneself to the grace of God, who gives new energy and hope to his Church.”

The Holy Father pointed out that “in a world darkened by war and injustice, even when all seems lost, migrants and refugees stand as messengers of hope. Their courage and tenacity bear heroic testimony to a faith that sees beyond what our eyes can see and gives them the strength to defy death on the various contemporary migration routes.”

“Migrants and refugees remind the Church of her pilgrim dimension, perpetually journeying toward her final homeland, sustained by a hope that is a theological virtue,” he added.

Thus, the pope called for hope for “a future of peace and of respect for the dignity of all” despite the “frightening scenarios” of “wars, violence, injustice, and extreme weather events.” 

Arms trade and current climate crisis

“The prospect of a renewed arms race and the development of new armaments, including nuclear weapons, the lack of consideration for the harmful effects of the ongoing climate crisis, and the impact of profound economic inequalities make the challenges of the present and the future increasingly demanding,” the pontiff noted in the message.

Pope Leo warned the Catholic Church against the temptation of “sedentarization” and, therefore, of ceasing to be a “civitas peregrine,” since as St. Augustine points out in “The City of God,” the people of God are “journeying toward the heavenly homeland,” because otherwise she ceases to be “in the world” and becomes “of the world.”

“This temptation was already present in the early Christian communities, so much so that the Apostle Paul had to remind the Church of Philippi that ‘our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself’ (Phil 3:20-21),” Leo XIV emphasized.

He also called for a move beyond individualism, which he defined as a “serious threat” to the “sharing of responsibilities, multilateral cooperation,” and “the pursuit of the common good.”

In this regard, he criticized the “widespread tendency to look after the interests of limited communities” and pointed out that there is “a clear analogy” between immigrants and “the experience of the people of Israel wandering in the desert, who faced every danger while trusting in the Lord’s protection.”

Finally, Pope Leo expressed his desire to entrust every migrant, and those who accompany them with generosity and compassion, “to the maternal protection of the Virgin Mary, comfort of migrants.”

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

Pope Leo XIV on July 25, 2025, addresses priests belonging to the Society of St. Xavier and participants of a monthlong seminary formators course at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Jul 25, 2025 / 14:53 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV offered three brief suggestions to two groups of priests he met at the Vatican on Friday morning, saying a “solid and integral formation” is essential for all Catholic faithful but especially for those who give Christian formation.

In his July 25 address to priests belonging to the Society of St. Xavier and participants of a monthlong seminary formators course at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum, the Holy Father said the main purpose of formation is to have “the same mind” as Jesus Christ and “reflect the Gospel.”

“Indeed, it is necessary that the ‘house’ of our life and vocational journey, whether priestly or lay, be founded on ‘rock,’” the pope said Friday.

The formation of priests, laypeople, and consecrated men and women, Leo said, is not “limited to specialized knowledge” but involves “a continuous journey of conversion.” 

The Holy Father’s first suggestion to build a rock-solid formation was to cultivate a “friendship with Jesus.”

“This is the foundation of the house, which must lie at the heart of every vocation and apostolic mission,” he said. “We need personally to experience the closeness of the Master; to know that we have been seen, loved, and chosen by the Lord by pure grace and without merit on our part.”

The Augustinian pope’s second suggestion for Catholic formators was to live an “effective and affective fraternity” with others.

“It is necessary to learn to live as brothers within the presbyterate as well as in religious communities and with our bishops and superiors,” he said.

“We must work hard on ourselves in order to overcome individualism and the desire to overtake others, which makes us competitors, so that we learn gradually to build human and spiritual relationships that are both healthy and fraternal,” he continued.

Before concluding his Friday meeting with the group of priests, the Holy Father gave his third and final suggestion: “to share the mission with all the baptized.”     

The pope said priests should not view themselves as “lone leaders” or live their ordained ministry with a “sense of superiority” but to be pastors who are “immersed in the reality of the people of God.”

“During the first centuries of the Church, it was usual for all the faithful to be like missionary disciples and to commit themselves personally to evangelization,” Leo explained. “The ordained ministry was at the service of this mission shared by all.” 

“Today, we feel strongly that we must return to this participation of all the baptized in witnessing to and proclaiming the Gospel,” he said.