null / Credit: Mark Van Scyoc/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 6, 2025 / 17:27 pm (CNA).

The U.S. Department of State (DOS) plans to destroy a reserve of artificial contraceptives that was previously set aside for distribution in developing countries through foreign aid programs.

The stockpile, including birth control pills, condoms, and long-term implantable contraceptives, is worth more than $12 million.

A senior State Department official confirmed to CNA that officials had concerns that some of the nongovernmental organizations previously contracted to distribute contraceptives may have participated in programs that performed coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization.

According to the official, the DOS is destroying the products to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order to reinstate the Mexico City Policy, which bans taxpayer funding of organizations that promote abortion and forced sterilization abroad.

Destroying the products will cost DOS about $167,000, but rebranding the products to resell them would have cost taxpayers several million dollars, according to the official.

“There is no reason that U.S. taxpayers should be footing the bill for contraception domestically or abroad,” the official added.

Rebecca Oas, the director of research for the Center for Family and Human Rights (C-Fam) told CNA that funding of “the international family planning movement” has been “inextricably tied to the abortion lobby” ever since the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) formed the Office of Population in 1969.

“There are a lot of reasons why we should want to support global maternal health separately from family planning in order to ensure a pro-life foreign policy,” said Oas, whose organization lobbies for pro-life policies in the United States’ international relations.

Oas said the movement has also had a “coercion” problem for the last half-century even though current advocates of international contraception funding “insist that contraceptive use must be voluntary.”

“Their metrics unfortunately lay the groundwork for potential coercion by regarding contraceptive uptake and continuation as an unfettered good by falsely conflating a purported ‘need’ for contraceptives with lack of access, and by regarding things like concern about side effects, openness to having more children, and religious and moral objections as ‘barriers’ to increased contraceptive use,” Oas added. “Family planning groups will admit that their problem is not a lack of supply but a lack of demand.”

In one recent example of coercion, Oas noted that several Rohingya Muslim women who are refugees in Bangladesh reported they were forced to get long-term contraceptive implantations if they wanted to receive food rations for their newborn children. These accounts were reported by The New Humanitarian last month, which also cited sources complaining that such coercion against refugees is widespread throughout the country.

Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk, a senior ethicist at the National Catholic Bioethics Center, referred to the prior U.S.-backed international family planning programs as “pro-abortion and anti-family imperialism.”

“If those countries want to obtain contraceptives, let their own governments set up contracts directly with the manufacturers of these morally-problematic items and drugs, and pay for them on their own,” he told CNA. “The U.S., and U.S. aid agencies, should not be serving as middle men, underwriters, or imperialist brokers for any of this.”

The moral problems of contraception

Although the Trump administration is preventing tax money from funding contraceptives abroad, it has not taken any actions to discourage or restrict contraceptive use. The administration, along with an overwhelming majority of Americans across the ideological spectrum, support access to contraception.

The Catholic Church, however, opposes artificial contraception when used to prevent pregnancy as intrinsically immoral. Pacholczyk said contraceptives do not “heal or restore any broken system of the human body” but rather break the reproductive system “often by means of disrupting the delicate balance of hormonal cycles regulating a woman’s reproductive well-being and fecundity.”

“Unspoken ideological agendas which propagate permissiveness and various other false notions regarding our human sexuality should not be allowed to undermine the duty to exercise moral responsibility and to develop the discipline needed to live in a state of sexual restraint and order,” Pacholczyk added.

In the 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae, St. Paul VI notes that “each and every marital act must of necessity retain its intrinsic relationship to the procreation of human life,” adding that one cannot take “any action which either before, at the moment of, or after sexual intercourse is specifically intended to prevent procreation.”

“The fundamental nature of the marriage act, while uniting husband and wife in the closest intimacy, also renders them capable of generating new life — and this as a result of laws written into the actual nature of man and of woman,” the Holy Father wrote. “And if each of these essential qualities, the unitive and the procreative, is preserved, the use of marriage fully retains its sense of true mutual love and its ordination to the supreme responsibility of parenthood to which man is called.”

The Church permits natural family planning (NFP), which uses the body’s natural cycle to know when the wife will be fertile and when she will not be fertile, which can assist a married couple in family planning.

Cardinal Robert McElroy gives his first homily as the shepherd of the Archdiocese of Washington at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on March 11, 2025. / Credit: Patrick Ruddy/CNA

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 6, 2025 / 16:30 pm (CNA).

The Archdiocese of Washington has announced plans to “cut spending, reduce its workforce, and restructure departments” to combat “crippling economic challenges.”

In a June 5 letter sent to archdiocesan staff members, Cardinal Robert McElroy indicated that the archdiocese has had an annual operating deficit of $10 million for the past five years, leading the archdiocese “to draw from financial reserves to cover shortfalls.”

The cardinal archbishop of Washington said “our situation has only been exacerbated by the present economic uncertainty that is impacting so many, both locally and globally.” 

“I have come to the painful realization that the only way forward is to take drastic measures to achieve a balanced budget by July 1 of this year,” McElroy wrote. “This means that the archdiocese will need to cut spending, reduce its workforce, and restructure departments to accommodate a more streamlined pastoral center.”

McElroy explained that “the financial impacts of the pandemic and the fallout of the [former cardinal and leader of the archdiocese Theodore] McCarrick scandal, coupled with an extended period of inflation and volatile financial markets” are among the causes of the “crippling economic challenges” facing the archdiocese.

“The most difficult decision that I have had to make in order to achieve a balanced budget was to authorize a reduction in force to eliminate approximately 30 positions of pastoral center staff. Several vacant positions will be left unfilled, and a number of dedicated, hardworking employees will lose their jobs,” McElroy wrote. 

“I apologize profoundly to those who will be losing their jobs,” McElroy wrote. “This process is not a reflection on the quality or importance of your work.” 

The majority of layoffs will be from the archdiocese’ pastoral center in Hyattsville, Maryland. Prior to the layoffs approximately 120 people worked in the building, but the restructuring plans will reduce the staff by about one-fourth.

“I am sensitive to the reality that there are many people and families who will be impacted by this process — whether it be a devoted employee who loses his or her job, a remaining co-worker who must take on additional responsibilities, or the ripple effect on the many who are served by an important ministry that can no longer be funded at past levels.”

McElroy said the archdiocese will be “offering severance, extended benefits, and outplacement services” to the eliminated employees. 

“I pray the Lord will accompany all of you in these days, understanding that it is God’s service that unites all of us who work for the archdiocese, and your commitment to God’s service that makes our current situation all the more difficult,” McElroy said.

Pope Leo XIV meets with delegates to the annual meeting of moderators of associations of the faithful, ecclesial movements, and new communities on June 6, 2025, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 6, 2025 / 16:00 pm (CNA).

Christians must not attempt to live out the promises of Christ alone, Pope Leo XIV told a delegation of 250 people in Rome for the Jubilee of Ecclesial Movements, Associations, and New Communities.

Organized by the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family, and Life, the annual meeting of moderators of associations of the faithful, ecclesial movements, and new communities comes as more than 70,000 pilgrims are expected to arrive in Rome for the jubilee this weekend, June 7–8.

“The Christian life is not lived in isolation,” the Holy Father said in his Friday address to the delegation, representatives of several lay associations and ecclesial movements. “It is lived with others, in a group and in community, because the risen Christ is present wherever disciples gather in his name.”

Confirmed movements and associations set to attend this weekend are the Neocatechumenal Way, Catholic Action, Communion and Liberation, the Shalom Community, Charis International, Sant’Egidio, Focolare, Rinnovamento nello Spirito Santo, Opera di Maria, and the Parish Cells of Evangelization, according to the Dicastery for Evangelization.

Pope Leo received Neocatechumenal Way founder Kiko Argüello in a private audience on Thursday.

In his Friday address, the Holy Father noted the presence of institutional groups “founded to carry out a common apostolic, charitable, or liturgical project, or to support Christian witness in specific social settings,” and of those born out of “charismatic inspiration.” 

“All are important to the Church,” Pope Leo said, citing a passage from the Second Vatican Council, which stated that with ecclesial movements, “a much richer harvest can be hoped for from them than if each member were to act on his or her own.” 

Pope Leo said such groups should be understood in reference to grace. “Without charisms, there is a risk that Christ’s grace, offered in abundance, may not find good soil to receive it,” he continued. “That is the reason why God raises up charisms: to awaken in hearts a desire to encounter Christ and a thirst for the divine life that he offers us.” 

‘Leaven of unity’

Unity and mission are essential to the life of the Church and of the Petrine ministry, the pope emphasized to the delegation, urging them to be “a leaven of unity” and to always keep “missionary zeal” alive among themselves.

“​​We have one Head, one grace that fills us, we live on one Bread, we walk on one path and we live in the same house... We are one, in both the spirit and the body of the Lord. If we separate ourselves from that One, we become nothing,” Pope Leo said, quoting a letter from St. Paulinus of Nola to St. Augustine. 

Recalling his own experience as a missionary priest in Peru, Leo noted that the Church’s mission has “shaped my spiritual life.” He further urged those gathered to place their talents in service of the Church “in order to reach those who, albeit distant, are often waiting, without being aware of it, to hear God’s word of life.”

In his concluding remarks, the pope encouraged the delegation to “always keep the Lord Jesus at the center!” 

This, he said, is the essential purpose of charisms. 

“All of us are called to imitate Christ, who emptied himself to enrich us,” he said, concluding: “Those who join with others in pursuing an apostolic goal and those who enjoy a charism are called alike to enrich others through the emptying of self. It is a source of freedom and great joy.”

Pope Leo XIV speaks with prisoners who attended his general audience on June 4, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Jun 6, 2025 / 14:45 pm (CNA).

Two prisoners currently serving sentences in Rome’s Rebibbia prison obtained special permission to participate in Pope Leo XIV’s general audience this past Wednesday.

“We received an official invitation from the Vatican to participate in the audience, and the inmates asked the magistrate for special permission, which was granted,” Father Marco Fibbi, the prison’s chaplain, told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. Fibbi accompanied them to St. Peter’s Square with the prison’s director, Teresa Mascolo.

“It was a great gift for the inmates to be able to exchange a few words with the pope,” the Italian priest said.

“We were all very moved because it was Pope Leo XIV’s third general audience. We had the privilege of being among the first to meet him in person. We were impressed by his accessibility, attention, and closeness with which he listened to what the inmates had to say,” Fibbi commented.

The words the pope spoke during the catechesis seemed especially fitting for those who are imprisoned: “He said that we can all be called by the Lord at some point in life; even in the worst moments when we feel most inadequate, the Lord always comes to meet us.”

The inmates at Rebibbia have committed crimes — some very serious — but they have the right to start over, Fibbi said. “All prisons are places of separation, of expiation of punishment, and therefore of much suffering and pain. But very often I have had experiences that show that all is never lost and that one can be reborn,” said Fibbi, who has been doing prison ministry at the facility for the last six years.

He added: “We are called, as prison chaplains, to nurture this hope, fostering the deep motivation to return to society in a different way or to use their time in prison as a positive moment.”

As soon as they learned they would be able to greet the pope in person, the inmates got busy making him a gift. Thanks to one of the penitentiary’s craft workshops, they handcrafted a small silver cross that reproduces the Cross of Hope, embossed with the anchor logo and the Christogram.

The prison has various spaces where inmates can develop their creativity. For example, in the workshop called Metamorphosis, they transform the battered barges that transport migrants from the Mediterranean to Europe into various objects, such as rosaries, which are then delivered to the Vatican.

Pope Francis had a special place in his heart for prisoners

“One of the first things he [Francis] did as pope was to wash the feet of those detained in the Casal del Marmo prison, a gesture he performed almost every Holy Thursday during the 12 years of his pontificate. Until shortly before his death, he wanted to visit Regina Caeli prison, although he couldn’t celebrate Mass with them because he had just left the hospital,” Fibbi recalled.

He even decided to make an exception during the 2025 Jubilee, dedicated to hope, and open a holy door in the Roman prison as well.

“In the bull announcing the Ordinary Jubilee of 2025, Spes non Confundit, he named the prison as the first place to bring hope,” the priest explained.

Fibbi shared that the prison’s detainees experienced the April 21 death of Pope Francis with great sadness and wanted to be in the front row at his funeral.

“I clearly saw them participate with great emotion in Pope Francis’ funeral. They loved him very much,” the priest noted.

Pope Leo XIV’s gesture of wanting to receive the two detainees in the audience appears to continue Francis’ legacy.

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 addresses pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for his general audience on Wednesday, June 4, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Jun 6, 2025 / 09:35 am (CNA).

A group of European bishops have turned to Pope Leo XIV and the Holy See for help as the Court of Justice of the European Union reviews a Belgian court case about the cancellation of names from baptismal records.

In a May 23 audience at the Vatican, Pope Leo XIV “told us that he considers the issue very important. He mentioned it right from the start. He said, ‘I really want to hear your opinion,’” Alessandro Calcagno, a lawyer and assistant general secretary of the European Union bishops’ conference (COMECE), told ACI Stampa, CNA’s Italian-language news partner.

The Court of Justice of the European Union is currently hearing a case brought by the Brussels Court of Appeal, which asked for clarification about whether the Catholic Church’s refusal to erase names from baptismal records when requested is in violation of Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation.

That rule has regulated the processing of personal data within the European Union since May 2018. The ruling of the European court is expected at the end of 2026 or in 2027.

Calcagno told ACI Stampa that when a baptized Catholic would ask to be removed from a register, usually a note was written in the margin of the document stating “formal apostasy from the faith.” The record that baptism had taken place would remain as a historical fact. 

But at the end of 2023, in the Diocese of Ghent in Belgium, someone asked for all of their data to be completely removed from the register, which was opposed by the diocese.

There were already some similar cases in Europe in 1995, Calcagno said, but all with national court rulings favorable to the Church.

Now, he said, is “the first time that there have been small attempts to undermine this positive tendency. Because until now, case law stated that the judgment was [to add a] notation, but suddenly the idea of the cancellation [of data] has arrived.”

The question of how this can be resolved is open and the subject of a legal tug-of-war between authorities and the Church. 

“In both Belgium and the Netherlands, there is an attempt by secular civil courts to interpret canon law to argue in favor of cancellation,” Calcagno noted. “This is a great danger because if you start to enter into a law that is not your own, you start to manipulate [that law].”

COMECE is working with the Holy See to defend the Church’s position on the issue of baptismal records.

The role of COMECE has been to “bring together reflections and legal arguments when certain cases arise at the European Union level,” Calcagno said, and to hold meetings with various jurists from the national bishops’ conferences.

“We gathered many arguments that were then used,” he said. “Several member states intervened in the procedure, and there was also work done by the churches at the local level. In addition, there was strong collaboration with the Holy See, and a note was published on April 17, 2025, specifically on cancellations from baptismal registers, and we worked very intensively with the Holy See on this.”

The note from the Dicastery for Legislative Texts affirmed that “canon law does not allow the modification or cancellation of registrations made in the baptismal register, except to correct possible transcription errors. The purpose of this register is to provide certainty regarding certain acts, making it possible to verify their actual existence.”

The issue has been monitored for years, and solutions that the European Court will accept are being sought. But it should be clarified, according to Calcagno, that “the court is merely drafting a response to questions it has received from a national court. It is not an initiative against the Church by the European Union. It is a response to clarifications requested at the national level.”

The answer will take a few years, he explained, because “there has to be a public hearing, then there is an advocate general who gives guidance, called conclusions, and then the ruling comes.” 

According to a 2023 annual report, 1,270 Catholics in Belgium requested their names be removed from the baptismal register, due largely to profound fallout and public outrage over the handling of sexual abuse scandals.

Stained glass window of Blessed Carlo Acutis at St. Aldhelm’s in Malmesbury, England. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Father Thomas Kulandaisamy/Catholic Herald

Vatican City, Jun 6, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

When will Carlo Acutis be canonized? That is the question Catholics are asking after the ceremony scheduled for April 27 was postponed due to the death of Pope Francis.

The young millennial, who suffered from leukemia and whose astonishing life and love for the Catholic Church sparked worldwide interest, died on Oct. 12, 2006, and was buried in Assisi, according to his wishes, due to his admiration for St. Francis.

Acutis was declared venerable in 2018 and blessed on Oct. 10, 2020. On May 23, 2024, Pope Francis paved the way for the youth to be elevated to sainthood after approving a second miracle attributed to his intercession.

The scientifically inexplicable event that allegedly occurred with Acutis’ intervention concerned a 21-year-old Costa Rican woman, Valeria Valverde, who miraculously survived a serious bicycle accident that left her on the verge of death with a severe head injury.

Last July, Pope Francis convened an ordinary public consistory to confirm several causes for canonization. This ceremony determined the final step of the canonization process through a vote. In addition to Acutis, the canonizations of Blesseds Giuseppe Allamano, Marie-Léonie Paradis, and Elena Guerra were also approved.

However, although the consistory approved Acutis’ canonization, the pontiff did not determine the exact date on which he would be proclaimed a saint.

The long-awaited announcement came a few months later, last November, when Pope Francis indicated at the end of a general audience that the young man known as “God’s influencer“ would be elevated to the altars on April 27, 2025, coinciding with the Jubilee of Teenagers.

The news was received with great enthusiasm by the faithful — and especially by teenagers from around the world, tens of thousands of whom made plans to travel to Rome to be part of this historic event. However, the ceremony had to be postponed following Pope Francis’ death on April 21.

Now, following the path forged by Francis, Pope Leo XIV has convened his first consistory for June 13 to confirm the canonization of eight blesseds whose processes were initiated by his predecessor. However, Acutis’ name is not included on the official list of blesseds.

The date is not voted on: The pope announces it

Asked about the reasons why Acutis is not among these names, Monsignor Alberto Royo, promoter of the faith at the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, explained to ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, that “his canonization was approved in the last consistory [on July 1, 2024], so he is no longer included in this one.”

In this regard, he clarified that the canonization date “is not something that is approved in the consistory, but rather the pope normally announces it on that occasion, although not necessarily,” he added.

“In the case of Carlo Acutis, the pope did not announce the date at the consistory, and it was announced later by the Secretariat of State,” he continued.

Therefore, Royo pointed out that at the next consistory on June 13, “it could happen that the pope takes the opportunity to announce the new date of the canonization, but it could also happen that he doesn’t announce it and that it will be the Secretariat of State that does.”

Regarding Pier Giorgio Frassati, the young “mountaineer” whose canonization will be celebrated on Aug. 3, Royo recalled that Pope Francis “directly announced his canonization before the consistory had even been held,” which is why his name appears on the June 13 list.

The Vatican official referred to this gesture as one of Pope Francis’ “spontaneous actions” that “preempted the consistory process, as also happened with José Gregorio Hernández,” the first Venezuelan saint. “After all, he had the authority to do it,” he emphasized.

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 greets members of the Vatican Secretariat of State on June 5, 2025, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Jun 5, 2025 / 14:51 pm (CNA).

In his audience with members of the Vatican Secretariat of State on Thursday, Pope Leo XIV thanked them for their support in the first month of his pontificate.

Among those present was Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, who introduced the meeting with a brief address. Also participating was Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, substitute for general affairs of the Secretariat of State.

Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, secretary of relations with states within the Secretariat of State, did not participate in the audience because he is in Cuba for the 90th anniversary of relations between that Caribbean country and the Holy See.

At the outset of his speech, Pope Leo thanked the Secretariat of State for assisting him in the “first steps” of his pontificate and for “carrying forward the mission” entrusted to him.

“It comforts me to know that I am not alone and that I can share the responsibility of my universal ministry with you,” he said.

Then, extemporaneously, he said that “it is evident that the pope cannot continue alone and that it is very necessary to be able to count on the collaboration of many in the Holy See” and especially with the Secretariat of State.

He also recalled the beginnings of this institution, which date back to the end of the 15th century, and its evolution over the years, highlighting that currently almost half of the Secretariat of State is made up of laypeople and more than 50 women.

For the pope, this development reflects “the face of the Church: We share together the questions, difficulties, challenges, and hopes of the people of God present throughout the world,” always expressing “two essential dimensions: incarnation and catholicity.”

“We are incarnated in time and history, because if God has chosen the path of humanity and the languages ​​of humanity, the Church is also called to follow this path, so that the joy of the Gospel may reach all and be mediated in today’s cultures and languages,” he emphasized.

He also reflected on the “Catholic” and universal perspective, which allows for the appreciation of different cultures and sensibilities, serving as “a driving force committed to forging communion between the Church of Rome and the local Churches” as well as with the international community.

For the Holy Father, these two dimensions “have become increasingly constitutive of the Curia’s work,” marking a path that has guided the reform of the Roman Curia carried out by St. Paul VI.

The pope also explained that incarnation “refers to the concreteness of reality and to the specific and particular themes addressed by the various bodies of the Curia.”

On the other hand, he emphasized the Church’s universal character, recalling that “the mystery of the Church’s multiform unity demands a work of synthesis that can assist the pope’s action.” This bond of unity, he explained, is carried out by the Secretariat of State.

Pope Leo XIV cited Praedicate Evangelium, Pope Francis’ apostolic constitution on the Roman Curia and its service to the Church in the world.

“I know that these tasks are very demanding and, at times, may not be fully understood. Therefore, I wish to express my closeness to you and, above all, my deep gratitude,” he said.

The pope also expressed his gratitude for their “hidden work” in the service of the Church and for “the evangelical spirit that inspires it” while asking them that this place “not be contaminated by ambitions or antagonisms.”

“Be, instead, a true community of faith and charity, of brothers and sisters and sons and daughters of the pope,” who give their all generously for the good of the Church, the pope urged.

After entrusting them to the intercession of the Virgin Mary, he thanked them for their prayers for their ministry and imparted his blessing.

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

Eighteen thousand pilgrims make their way to Chartres through the French fields at sunrise during the 2024 Paris to Chartres pilgrimage. / Credit: Notre-Dame de Chrétienté

Vatican City, Jun 5, 2025 / 11:15 am (CNA).

Organized by the French Notre-Dame de Chrétienté association, the three-day walking journey is set to take place this year from June 7–9.

The Council of Nicaea in 325 as depicted in a fresco in Salone Sistino at the Vatican. / Credit: Giovanni Guerra (1544-1618), Cesare Nebbia (1534-1614) e aiuti, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 5, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

In the summer of A.D. 325, more than 300 bishops gathered in Nicaea — located in modern-day northern Turkey — to promulgate a common Christian creed, settle Christological disputes that arose from the Arian heresy, and promote unity in the Church.

The first ecumenical council, known as the Council of Nicaea, is still accepted as authoritative by the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and many Protestant denominations. The common beliefs still offer a strong element of unity in an otherwise fractured Christianity 1,700 years later.

During the council, the bishops established the initial formulation of the Nicene Creed, which is the profession of faith still recited at the Catholic Mass, Orthodox liturgies, and some Protestant services. It also rejected heretical Arian claims that Christ was a created being who lacked an eternal divine nature and rather confirmed that the Son is eternally begotten of the Father.

The council was called by Emperor Constantine — a convert to Christianity — less than 15 years after the empire halted the persecution of Christians and granted them the freedom to worship. It came just 20 years after the reign of Emperor Diocletian, who brutally persecuted Christians for their rejection of paganism.

“That council represents a fundamental stage in the development of the creed shared by all the Churches and ecclesial communities,” Pope Leo XIV said two weeks ago, acknowledging the 1,700th anniversary.

“While we are on the path towards the reestablishment of full communion among all Christians, we recognize that this unity can only be unity in faith,” the pontiff said.

The Arian heresy

The primary purpose of the council was to settle a major question about Christ’s divine nature and address Arianism, which was a heresy promoted by the priest Arius asserting that Jesus Christ was a created being and not eternal.

“Arius began to preach something that was scandalous to many Christian believers and [which] seemed incompatible to the Christian faith as witnessed to in Scripture and transmitted through the tradition of the Church,” Dominican Father Dominic Legge, the director of the Thomistic Institute and professor of theology, told CNA.

Arius wrote in “Thalia” that he believed the Father “made the Son” and “produced him as a son for himself by begetting him.” He wrote that “the Son was not always [in existence], for he was not [in existence] before his generation.” He asserted that Christ was not eternal but “came into existence by the Father’s will.” Arius contested that Christ “is not true God” but was rather “made God by participation.”

Legge said that Arius understood that “there’s an infinite gap between God and creatures,” but where he was mistaken was that “he thought that the Son was on the ‘creature’ side of that gap” and “not equal in divinity to God.”

“Therefore, he considered him to be the highest creature,” Legge added. “The first creature, but nonetheless a creature.”

Legge said that at Nicaea there was “a consensus of bishops with very different approaches to the mystery of God and they could see that Arius had to be wrong and so they condemned him and they affirmed that the Son is ‘God from God, true God from true God.’”

The language adopted at Nicaea expressly contradicted Arius, affirming Christ is “true God from true God, begotten not made, of one substance with the Father.” It condemned Arius’ view as heresy. The vote was nearly unanimous with more than 300 bishops voting in favor of this text and only two siding with Arius.

St. Athanasius, one of the most outspoken opponents of Arianism at the council and in its aftermath, wrote in his First Discourse Against the Arians in the mid-fourth century that “the Scriptures declare the Son’s eternity.”

Athanasius notes, for example, the Gospel of St. John states that “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” He also cites Chapter 8 of the same Gospel in which Christ declares “before Abraham was, I am,” invoking the divine name used by God to indicate his eternity when appearing to Moses as the burning bush.

“The Lord himself says, ‘I am the Truth,’ not ‘I became the Truth,’ but always, ‘I am — I am the Shepherd — I am the Light‘ — and again, ‘Call me not, Lord and Master? And you call me well, for so I am,‘” Athanasius wrote. “Who, hearing such language from God, and the Wisdom, and Word of the Father, speaking of himself, will any longer hesitate about the truth, and not immediately believe that in the phrase ‘I am,‘ is signified that the Son is eternal and without beginning?”

Legge noted that Athanasius also warned that Arius’ position “threatened the central truth of Christianity that God became man for our salvation.”

Unifying the Church in the fourth century

Prior to the Council of Nicaea, bishops in the Church held many synods and councils to settle disputes that arose within Christianity.

This includes the Council of Jerusalem, which was an apostolic council detailed in Acts 15, and many local councils that did not represent the entire Church. Regional councils “have a kind of binding authority — but they’re not global,” according to Thomas Clemmons, a professor of Church history at The Catholic University of America.

When the Roman Empire halted its Christian persecution and Emperor Constantine converted to the faith, this allowed “the opportunity to have a more broad, ecumenical council,” Clemmons told CNA. Constantine embraced Christianity more than a decade before the council, though he was not actually baptized until moments before his death in A.D. 337.

Constantine saw a need for “a certain sense of unity,” he said, at a time with theological disputes, debates about the date of Easter, conflicts about episcopal jurisdictions, and canon law questions.

“His role was to unify and to have [those] other issues worked out,” Clemmons said.

The pursuit of unity helped produce the Nicene Creed, which Clemmons said “helps to clarify what more familiar scriptural language doesn’t.”

Neither the council nor the creed was universally adopted immediately. Clemmons noted that it was more quickly adopted in the East but took longer in the West. There were several attempts to overturn the council, but Clemmons said “it’s later tradition that will affirm it.”

“I don’t know if the significance of it was understood [at the time],” he said.

The dispute between Arians and defenders of Nicaea were tense for the next half century, with some emperors backing the creed and others backing Arianism. Ultimately, Clemmons said, the creed “convinces people over many decades but without the imperial enforcement you would expect.”

It was not until 380 when Emperor Theodosius declared that Nicene Christianity was the official religion of the Roman Empire. One year later, at the First Council of Constantinople, the Church reaffirmed the Council of Nicaea and updated the Nicene Creed by adding text about the Holy Spirit and the Church.

Common misconceptions

There are some prominent misconceptions about the Council of Nicaea that are prevalent in modern society.

Clemmons said the assertion that the Council of Nicaea established the biblical canon “is probably the most obvious” misconception. This subject was not debated at Nicaea and the council did not promulgate any teachings on this matter.

Another misconception, he noted, is the notion that the council established the Church and the papacy. Episcopal offices, including that of the pope (the bishop of Rome), were already in place and operating long before Nicaea, although the council did resolve some jurisdictional disputes.

Other misconceptions, according to Clemmons, is an asserted “novelty” of the process and the teachings. He noted that bishops often gathered in local councils and that the teachings defined at Nicaea were simply “the confirmation of the faith of the early Church.”

Easter Vigil in Dublin, Ireland. / Credit: Archdiocese of Dublin

Dublin, Ireland, Jun 5, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Church leaders in Dublin say Ireland’s increase in adult baptisms is a journey of accompaniment and catechesis.