“Leo XIV: Portrait of the First American Pope,” written by Matthew Bunson, vice president and editorial director at EWTN News. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

CNA Staff, May 23, 2025 / 17:14 pm (CNA).

EWTN officially launched the first authoritative biography of Pope Leo XIV, which is available for purchase now, during an event at the Vatican on May 22.

“Leo XIV: Portrait of the First American Pope,” written by Matthew Bunson, vice president and editorial director at EWTN News, tells the story of Chicago-born Cardinal Robert Prevost, who was elected the new Holy Father on May 8.

Bunson, a Church expert and longtime Vatican journalist who has written over 50 books, said at the book launch at the Campo Santo Teutonico in Rome that Leo’s diverse experience as a pastor, prior general, missionary and bishop in Peru, and as a cardinal have given him a profound understanding of the global Church.

Pope Leo XIV, in his first weeks as pope, has also proven to be a unifying figure who has brought with him an “uncompromising emphasis on the divine person of Jesus Christ,” Bunson continued. 

“He is a universal person. He is someone in the world, but not of the world. He is somebody who, by his call to the priesthood and to the life of the Augustinians, embarked on an absolutely stunning journey,” Bunson said May 22. 

“And what is so remarkable about it is that as time progressed leading up to the conclave, more and more cardinals came to appreciate exactly who he is and why he was, at this moment in time, the person that they felt they could trust with the keys of Peter.”

The biography paints a picture of Pope Leo XIV as a Christ-centered, Augustinian-influenced, and competent leader who is expected to prioritize unity, clarity, and the application of Catholic social teaching, particularly concerning the dignity of the human person in an era of rapid technological change.

Bunson has previously said that he hopes the book will help inform readers about the importance of Pope Leo’s membership in the venerable Order of St. Augustine, and the fact that he is both a mathematician and canon lawyer will help him address the Vatican’s financial woes.

Additionally, Bunson’s book touches on some of the moral and theological issues currently being debated in the Church and public arena, and also discusses the significance of the choice of the name “Leo” and what that says about the pope’s vision for his pontificate.

Michael Warsaw, EWTN’s CEO and chairman of the board, told CNA that he is “excited that EWTN Publishing is releasing this biography of Pope Leo XIV so soon after his election.”

“As the leading Catholic media platform, our aim is to share the Holy Father’s story with the world, starting with his early life, to help people connect with the man now serving as the vicar of Christ,” Warsaw said.

“EWTN is uniquely positioned to publish this biography of the first pope born in the United States and the second pope from the Americas. Like Pope Leo, the EWTN family is global, but our roots are American.”

The book about Leo’s life is available to order on EWTN Religious Catalogue.

Alasdair MacIntyre in March 2009. / Credit: Sean O’Connor/Flickr via Wikimedia (CC BY 2.0)

CNA Staff, May 23, 2025 / 16:30 pm (CNA).

Alasdair MacIntyre, a towering figure in moral philosophy and a Catholic convert credited with reviving the discipline of virtue ethics, died on May 21 at age 96. His seminal 1981 work “After Virtue” reshaped contemporary moral and political philosophy, emphasizing virtue over utilitarian or deontological frameworks. 

Known by many as “the most important” modern Catholic philosopher, MacIntyre’s intellectual and spiritual journey spanned atheism, Marxism, Anglicanism, and ultimately Roman Catholicism. 

MacIntyre’s striking intellect, razor-sharp wit, and exacting teaching profoundly influenced generations of students and academics.

“A great light has gone out,” wrote Patrick Deneen, a political philosophy professor at the University of Notre Dame, in response to the news of MacIntyre’s death.

“I have never met, nor do I ever expect to meet, a philosopher as fascinating as the author of ‘After Virtue,’” said Christopher Kaczor, one of MacIntyre’s former students and a visiting fellow at the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture at the University of Notre Dame, where MacIntyre was a permanent senior distinguished research fellow until his death. 

Born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1929 to Eneas and Greta (Chalmers) MacIntyre, he earned master of arts degrees from the University of Manchester and Oxford. His academic career began in 1951 at Manchester, followed by posts at Leeds, Essex, and Oxford. 

In 1969, he moved to the United States, becoming an “intellectual nomad” with appointments as professor of history of ideas at Brandeis University, dean at Boston University, Henry Luce professor at Wellesley, W. Alton Jones professor at Vanderbilt, and McMahon-Hank professor at Notre Dame.

Though he never earned a doctorate, he received 10 honorary doctorates and appointments during his life, quipping at one point: “I won’t go so far as to say that you have a deformed mind if you have a Ph.D., but you will have to work extra hard to remain educated.”

MacIntyre’s wit shone in his claim to have “broken up the Beatles” by lending his upstairs neighbor, Yoko Ono, a ladder in 1966, leading to her meeting John Lennon.

He also taught at Duke, Yale, and Princeton, and is the former president of the American Philosophical Association. His many accolades include the 2010 Aquinas Medal and memberships in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1985), British Academy (1994), Royal Irish Academy (1999), and American Philosophical Society (2005).

MacIntyre’s “After Virtue,” deemed a 20th-century philosophical classic, critiqued modern moral fragmentation, advocating a return to Aristotelian ethics. His other works, including “Marxism and Christianity,” “Whose Justice? Which Rationality?,” and “Three Rival Versions of Moral Enquiry,” explored moral traditions and rationality. 

His spiritual journey was as dynamic as his intellectual one. Initially considering becoming a Presbyterian minister in the 1940s, he became Anglican in the 1950s, then an atheist in the 1960s, famously calling himself a “Roman Catholic atheist” because the Catholic God was “worth denying.” 

In 1983, at age 55, he embraced Roman Catholicism and Thomism, inspired by his favorite 20th-century theologian, Joseph Ratzinger (the late Pope Benedict XVI), and finally convinced by the Thomist arguments he first encountered as an undergraduate, “not in the form of moral philosophy, but in that of a critique of English culture developed by members of the Dominican order.”

“Widely regarded as the most important philosopher in modern virtue ethics,” Jennifer Newsome Martin, director of the University of Notre Dame’s de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture (dCEC), said in a statement to CNA, “Alasdair MacIntyre demonstrated scholarly rigor and an alpine clarity of thought. He was also a generous friend of the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture as our permanent senior distinguished research fellow in residence; what an honor it was that he chose the dCEC to be the locus of his scholarly work after retiring from the philosophy department at Notre Dame. We are all bereft at his passing. His tremendous legacy, however, will continue to reverberate in the life of the center.”

Robert P. George, Princeton’s University’s McCormick professor of jurisprudence and director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions, remembered MacIntyre’s “pugnacious wit” and recalled that “a striking thing about Professor MacIntyre was that he was impossible to classify ideologically. Was he a progressive? Not really. Was he a conservative? No. A centrist? Not that either. He was ‘sui generis.’ Requiescat in pace.”

He is survived by his daughters Jean and Toni from his first marriage and his wife, Lynn Joy.

null / Credit: sergign/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 23, 2025 / 15:51 pm (CNA).

A federal court in New York has ordered the state to halt its enforcement of a law against a Christian photographer and blogger that would force her to express ideas on human sexuality that conflict with her religious faith.

U.S. District Judge Frank Geraci wrote in his Thursday decision that a New York law guaranteeing “equal access to publicly available goods and services” in the marketplace regardless of a person’s sexuality cannot be used to force a business to provide services that convey ideas about human sexuality with which the provider disagrees.

Emilee Carpenter, who operates Emilee Carpenter Photography, sued the state over the law, arguing that it would force her to produce photographs and blogs for same-sex civil weddings and polyamorous engagements despite her religious belief that marriage is between one man and one woman.

Violations of the law could land Carpenter up to one year in jail, with fines of up to $100,000, and a revocation of her business license. 

The judge wrote in his decision that Carpenter provides “a customized, tailored photography service that is guided by her own artistic and moral judgment.” He added that her services “are expressive activity protected by the First Amendment.”

Geraci stated in his ruling that Carpenter “believes that opposite-sex marriage is a gift from God, and she uses her wedding photography business to celebrate such marriages.” He emphasized that the law seeks to compel “an expressive activity” and that “such expressive activity is ‘her own.’”

His ruling is narrow and only prevents the state from enforcing the law against Carpenter for now while the litigation against the law continues.

The May 22 ruling is a reversal of Geraci’s own previous ruling from Dec. 31, 2021, on the same question. He explained in the new ruling that he is reversing his own decision based on the precedent set by the U.S. Supreme Court in 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, which addressed identical concerns about a Colorado law.

In that 2023 ruling, the Supreme Court decided 6-3 that Colorado could not force a web designer to create websites that promote same-sex marriage, which was in conflict with her religious beliefs.

Geraci wrote that, contrary to his previous ruling, the Supreme Court “held that the free speech clause of the First Amendment bars states from applying their public accommodations laws to ‘expressive activity to compel speech.’”

Bryan Neihart, who works as senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), praised the decision. ADF and Raymond Dague of Dague Law represent Carpenter in her lawsuit. ADF also represented 303 Creative in the precedent-setting Supreme Court case.

“Free speech is for everyone, and more courts are ruling consistent with that message,” Neihart said in a statement. “As the Supreme Court reaffirmed in 303 Creative, the government can’t force Americans to say things they don’t believe.”

“The U.S. Constitution protects Emilee’s freedom to express her own views as she continues to serve clients of all backgrounds and beliefs,” he added. “The district court rightly upheld this freedom and followed Supreme Court precedent. Emilee can now enjoy the freedom to create and express herself, a freedom that protects all Americans regardless of their views.”

New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office is representing the state in court. Her office did not respond to a request for comment.

Irish high cross at the Rock of Cashel in County Tipperary, Ireland. / Credit: Marie-Lise Van Wassenhove via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0)

CNA Staff, May 23, 2025 / 15:03 pm (CNA).

The Dublin-based Iona Institute for Religion and Society has released a comprehensive report that highlights significant shifts in religious attitudes and practices in Ireland.

The damaged front of the American Reproductive Centers fertility clinic stands following a bomb blast on May 17, 2025, in Palm Springs, California. / Credit: David McNew/Getty Images

CNA Staff, May 23, 2025 / 14:33 pm (CNA).

Here is a roundup of recent pro-life and abortion-related news:

Fertility clinic bomber linked to anti-natalist ideology

Authorities say the man who detonated a car bomb outside a California fertility clinic last Saturday appears to have been motivated by anti-natalist ideology — the belief that no one should have children. 

The attack destroyed the office spaces of the American Reproductive Center in Palm Springs, an in vitro fertilization (IVF) clinic, but the bombing did not destroy the stored embryos. 

IVF is a fertility treatment opposed by the Catholic Church in which doctors fuse sperm and eggs to create human embryos and implant them in the mother’s womb. To maximize efficiency, doctors create excess human embryos and routinely destroy undesired embryos.

The suspect, Guy Edward Bartkus, likely detonated the bomb in what law enforcement is calling an act of domestic terrorism. Bartkus was killed by the detonation, but no one else was killed as the center was empty during the time of the explosion. 

The FBI reportedly found possible links between the suspect and an online forum post in which he contemplated suicide via an explosive device, as well as a YouTube account with a history of videos of homemade explosives. Authorities say they are investigating the suspect’s “manifesto,” which reportedly contained the anti-natalist ideology known as “Efilism.” 

Abortions continue to rise after Dobbs, report confirms 

More than 1.1 million abortions took place from July 2023 to June 2024, according to a recent Charlotte Lozier Institute report compiling available abortion data. 

In a first-of-its-kind report, the analysis compiles abortion totals from various abortionists and other data. Because there is no federal abortion reporting requirement, abortion totals are not definitive, the report noted. The report also found that “thousands upon thousands” of self-managed chemical abortions occur outside the health care system. 

The report found that there are more than 770 abortion centers as well as mail-order abortion drugs being made available through 142 U.S.-based organizations and eight websites operating outside the U.S. health care system. Most abortions happen inside a woman’s home, though out-of-state abortions are on the rise, increasing by 126% from 2020 to 2023, according to the report. 

Hundreds of pro-life Oregonians gather for March for Life

Hundreds of Oregonians gathered outside the state Capitol in Salem, Oregon, on May 17 for the annual Oregon March for Life. 

This year’s theme — “Support Her. Protect Them” — is designed to “emphasize the pro-life movement’s care for both mothers and their babies,” according to organizers. On display at the event was an animated counter depicting the impact of abortion: 63 million lives lost. 

Archbishop Alexander Sample of Portland, who was one of several pro-life voices speaking at the event, said: “It never ceases to have a deep impact on me when we see, visually, the real impact that the tragedy of abortion has had in our country.” 

Other pro-life leaders and legislators spoke at the event, including Oregon Right to Life President Melody Durrett, Western Seminary theology professor Gerry Breshears, and Oregon Republican Rep. Vikki Breese-Iverson. 

Oregon Right to Life executive director Lois Anderson called the gathering “deeply inspiring and encouraging,” noting that the March for Life “always renews my sense of optimism for ending abortion and building a culture of life in our state.”

The event is held in May to mark the month that Oregon legalized abortion statewide in 1969. Abortions are legal during all nine months of pregnancy in Oregon, and taxpayer funding contributes to more than half of abortions performed in the state, according to Oregon Right to Life.

Judge strikes down regulation requiring employers to accommodate abortions 

A Louisiana federal judge struck down a Biden-era regulation on Wednesday that required employers to accommodate employees’ abortions. 

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) regulation in question included abortion under pregnancy-related conditions that employers are required to accommodate under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. U.S. District Judge David Joseph of the Western District of Louisiana ruled that in its enforcement of that law, the EEOC had overstepped its bounds by including abortion in the category of pregnancy-related conditions.

The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act requires most employers to accommodate workers’ limitations due to pregnancy and childbirth. In 2024, the EEOC determined that these protections included abortion. In response, the states of Louisiana and Mississippi and four Catholic organizations challenged the rule. 

U.S. House moves to repeal FACE Act 

The U.S. House of Representatives is taking steps to repeal the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, a law allegedly weaponized against pro-life activists under the Biden administration. 

The House Judiciary Committee held a markup of a series of bills, including the FACE Act Repeal Act of 2025, on Wednesday.

The FACE Act, which has been federal law for 30 years, imposes harsher prison sentences for people who obstruct access to abortion clinics or pro-life pregnancy resource centers. However, under President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice, the law was almost exclusively used to convict pro-life demonstrators. Using the FACE Act, dozens of pro-life activists were imprisoned for blocking clinic entrances during protests and other forms of protest. 

Texas Congressman Chip Roy, who has previously worked to repeal the FACE Act, introduced the FACE Act Repeal Act of 2025 in January. The FACE Act has also been used against pro-abortion activists who defaced life-affirming clinics.

Florida court strikes down law promoting abortion access for minors 

A Florida appeals court on Wednesday ruled that a law that lets minors get abortions without their parents’ consent was unconstitutional. The court found that the state’s judicial waiver law violated the 14th Amendment right to due process for parents. The ruling by a three-judge panel of the 5th District Court of Appeal cited parental rights laws as well as a recent ruling by the Florida Supreme Court and the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson U.S. Supreme Court ruling. 

A young woman is baptized at the 2024 Easter vigil at St. Mary’s Catholic Center at Texas A&M. / Credit: Courtesy of St. Mary’s Catholic Center, Texas A&M

CNA Staff, May 23, 2025 / 13:35 pm (CNA).

The election of Pope Leo XIV earlier this month has — at least according to Google search data — led to a renewed interest in people searching for information on how to “become Catholic.”

This follows several years of anecdotal reports of a surge of people joining the Catholic Church, especially among young people, across many dioceses in numerous countries. 

The Catholic Church’s requirements to join may seem, at first, to be complicated. The process involves some important rites of initiation as well as spiritual preparation, fellowship with other Catholics and prospective Catholics, and instruction in the teachings of the faith. 

Here’s a guide to becoming Catholic in 2025. 

1) Are you baptized?

There are three sacraments in particular, known as the “sacraments of Christian initiation,” that a person must receive in order to come fully into communion with the Church that Christ founded, and baptism is always the first. (A sacrament is a visible sign of God’s grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to his Church; the Church has seven of them total.) 

The other two sacraments of initiation are the receiving of Christ’s body and blood via the Eucharist, also called holy Communion, and confirmation — whereby the Holy Spirit “confirms and strengthens baptismal grace” within a baptized Catholic. 

A simple baptisimal formula, drawn from Jesus’ words in Matthew 28:19, is necessary for baptism: “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” The celebrant pours water on the head of the baptized, or immerses him or her in water.

In the vast majority of cases, Catholic clergy — deacons, priests, or bishops — are responsible for baptisms. But technically anybody, even non-Christians, can baptize in an emergency — such as in cases where a prospective Christian, even an infant, is in imminent danger of death — as long as the correct formula and water are used. 

If you know for a fact that you’ve never been baptized before, go ahead and skip to item No. 2 below.

If you’ve been validly baptized as a Catholic at some point in your life, even as an infant, then technically you’re already Catholic. If you were baptized a long time ago at a Catholic church, that church likely still has a record of your baptism and can provide it to you if you ask. 

That said, if you’ve been baptized, confirmed, and made your first Communion but have drifted away from your Catholic faith, you can always return to full communion with the Church by going to the sacrament of confession, also called reconciliation or penance. And if you were baptized a long time ago but never received your first holy Communion or confirmation, you can do so after participation in a period of formation; talk to a priest to learn more if that’s your situation. 

If you’ve been baptized a Christian — but not a Catholic — that baptism is likely valid as long as it was done using the formula described above. But there’s more you must do before you’re fully in communion with the Catholic Church. 

2) Talk to a priest.

Contact a local Catholic parish — if you have Catholic friends, they can likely help you with this. The priest or parish leader of Christian initiation may want to meet with you to discuss your desire to become Catholic and help to guide you through the next steps of the process. 

3) Join OCIA.

The next step is to officially join OCIA, the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults. (This process was previously, for a long time, called RCIA, the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, until a name change in 2021.) OCIA is the Church’s official process for initiating prospective Catholics into the Church who have attained the age of reason, generally around the age of 7. 

(Some individuals choose to arrange to have private instruction in the Catholic faith before formally entering the Church; however, the normative way to receive formation is through OCIA.)

The first step — if you are unbaptized — is entering the catechumenate; becoming known, thereafter, as a “catechumen.” Depending on where you are at in your faith journey, this stage can last for a period of several years, but usually less than one. You will ask someone who is a fully initiated Catholic who is 16 years old or older (among other requirements) to be your “sponsor” to help to guide you through the journey. 

It’s a unique time of learning and questioning that will involve taking classes, likely at your local parish, to learn more about the faith and reflect on how joining the Catholic Church will affect your life. Once you feel ready, the priest and parish team who are working with you may give you approval to make a request for baptism. 

If you are already a baptized Christian, however, this first step looks a little bit different. There’s a recognition that you’ve already given your life to Christ as a baptized Christian and may have been active in other Christian communities. You’ll become, instead of a catechumen, a “candidate.” 

You will likely go through a similar formation program to the catechumens, helping you understand and experience the teachings and practices of the Catholic Church. (It’s worth noting here that while anyone can attend Mass and it’s definitely encouraged that you do so during this time, only Catholics in communion with the Church can receive the Eucharist, or holy Communion.)

The next stage before baptism, regardless of whether you’re a catechumen or a candidate, is called the “Rite of Election,” in which the catechumens and candidates gather with their sponsors and families, usually on the first Sunday of Lent. Lent is the Church’s special 40-day period of penance and preparation leading up to the joyful celebration of Christ’s resurrection at Easter. 

During the Rite of Election ceremony, you will share your desire to be baptized with the local bishop. Your name is written in a book and as a committed catechumen or candidate, you and your compatriots become known as “the elect.” The days of Lent are, for the elect, known as the “Period of Purification and Enlightenment.” Catholics are encouraged to pray for the catechumens and candidates as they near the end of their journey. By this time you will have chosen who you would like to be your godparent or godparents.

At the Easter Vigil Mass, which takes place the Saturday evening before Easter Sunday, catechumens will receive the sacraments of baptism, confirmation, and the Eucharist, thereby coming into full communion with the Catholic Church. 

Candidates, having already been baptized, will make a profession of faith in the Catholic Church when they are ready to do so and will preferably be received into the Church on a Sunday during the year.

Before that, however, candidates will be required to go to the sacrament of confession and are encouraged to do so frequently during their formation. (Baptism wipes away all sins committed prior, so catechumens do not need to do this.)

After being received into the Church, newly initiated Catholics continue to be formed in their faith during what the Church calls the “Period of Mystagogy.” This lasts until Pentecost, the feast 50 days after Easter in which we celebrate the birth of the Church, when the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples.

Welcome home to the Catholic Church!

Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA

Vatican City, May 23, 2025 / 12:55 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV’s emphasis on faith in the risen Christ is fundamental for the Church, particularly in Europe, Italian Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco said.  

In an interview with ACI Stampa, CNA’s Italian-language news partner, the archbishop emeritus of Genoa and former president of the Italian Episcopal Conference said Pope Leo’s first public address after his May 8 election was an invitation for Catholics to deepen their faith in the centrality of Jesus Christ.

“The pope began [his pontificate] with ‘peace be with you’ and immediately continued ‘it is the peace of the risen Christ,’” Bagnasco told ACI Stampa’s Marco Mancini. “The two things must not be separated because the message of the Holy Father would be distorted.”  

“Peace comes from the risen Christ to the extent that we allow ourselves to be embraced by him,” he continued. “If we forget this centrality, we forget the foundation of all foundations, that is, Jesus.”

According to Bagnasco, the inclusion of Church Fathers’ writings in several of Leo XIV’s homilies and public addresses so far should not go unnoticed, including “one of the most significant expressions of St. Augustine: ‘We were made for you and our heart is restless until it rests in you.’”

Lamenting the rise of secularization eroding the faith of individuals and societies, the 82-year-old Italian cardinal said Europe is in great need of heeding Pope Leo’s message to rediscover its identity and faith in “the face of God who is Christ.”

“Unfortunately, it is a reality not of today but of decades, as we know,” Bagnasco told Mancini. “It seems that the European continent is forgetting its origins and this fact is not positive for Europe because it means forgetting its own face.”

“It is forgetting that the meeting between Jerusalem, Athens, and Rome took place here in Europe,” he said.

Though Bagnasco was unable to participate in the May 7–8 conclave that elected Leo XIV due to his age, he participated in the 12 general congregation meetings to discuss the state of the Church and discern the qualities the pope would need to lead Catholics worldwide. 

“What we always expect from the pope and what the entire Catholic world — but not only — expects is to be the point of reference, the confirmation of faith,” he said in the interview. “The mission that Christ gave to Peter is to announce on the rooftops a strong, clear, explicit faith and the evangelical charity that derives from it.”

On the continuity of the history of the Church and the popes, Bagnasco said Pope Leo XIV succeeds pontiffs who, with their own vision and qualities, have sought to lead the Church and confirm the faith of Catholics in a world troubled by various challenges.

“John Paul II with the disruptive force of his personality [led the Church] and before him Paul VI with the great event of the [Second Vatican] Council,” he told Mancini. “Benedict XVI was the great master in the face of modernity that is forgetting God and with God forgetting man.”

He continued: “And then Francis was attentive to the challenges of the time with the ongoing wars and other problems such as the relationship with nature and the people who move from one continent to another in search of a better life,” he said.

The flag of the European Union. / Credit: U. J. Alexander/Shutterstock

Vatican City, May 23, 2025 / 12:25 pm (CNA).

The leadership of the European bishops’ conference said Pope Leo XIV did not speak as much as he was “welcoming, available, and ready to listen” to their concerns during a meeting at the Vatican on Friday morning. 

The Russia-Ukraine war and the need to avoid rearmament in Europe was one of the central topics of the private meeting, according to Bishop Mariano Crociata, president of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union (COMECE), who spoke during a press conference after the audience, as was reported by SIR news agency. 

“The pope interacted with a certain immediacy, showing great concern that rearmament could have repercussions in terms of reducing social commitments for the weaker sections of society and shifting capital to arms,” the Italian bishop said.

COMECE Vice President Bishop Antoine Hérouard said their discussions emphasized ”the importance of working for a just peace, finding the right balance between peace and justice,” and the social and economic consequences if European countries give more funding to arms.

Other topics raised during what Crociata described as a “cordial and serene” meeting between the EU bishops and Pope Leo were the presence of populist movements in conflict with the values of the European Union and Europe’s demographic decline, which reinforces the continent’s need for migrants. 

The European bishops said they also raised concerns about the phenomenon of people asking to have their personal information removed from Church baptismal records. They stressed the need for European data protection legislation to respect religious freedom and the right and duty of parents to raise and educate their children. 

Cardinal William Goh, the archbishop of Singapore. / Credit: Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 4.0

CNA Deutsch, May 23, 2025 / 11:55 am (CNA).

In an interview with the Daily Compass portal on Thursday, Cardinal William Goh, the archbishop of Singapore, said he hopes for greater doctrinal clarity from Pope Leo XIV. 

“If we are not clear about what the Church teaches, it is very difficult to work together in unity. Although both the so-called ‘left’ and ‘right’ of the Church are interested in promoting the mission of evangelization, there has been an internal division on certain issues such as marriage, LGBTQ+ rights, and transgender rights. These issues have divided the Church because, at a certain point, it became unclear what is right.”

The cardinal said that as an Augustinian, Pope Leo has “a solid foundation in the tradition and spirituality of St. Augustine.”

“At the same time,” Goh, who was made a cardinal by Pope Francis in 2022, said that Pope Leo “has worked in Peru and is familiar with situations of poverty and suffering. He also spent several years in Rome and is therefore familiar with the challenges facing the Curia. Having been prior general of his order, he has already demonstrated his leadership qualities. In his first public appearances, he was sober and cautious in what he said and did.”

He continued: “He seems to me to be a man who is aware that a pope’s statements are taken seriously, which is why he is cautious and prudent. This is to be welcomed because it means people won’t be confused. I believe he will be able to clarify doctrine and prevent the ‘left’ and the ‘right’ from fighting each other. He will not be ambiguous and will not leave the interpretation of his words open to individual interpretation.”

According to the website, Goh said about Pope Francis: “I believe that the least pleasant aspect of his pontificate was that his teachings appeared ambiguous in his attempt to reach everyone in terms of doctrine and morality.”  

Goh also addressed the issue of the traditional liturgy. 

“I personally believe there is no reason to discourage people who prefer the Tridentine Mass,” the cardinal said. “They are not doing anything wrong or sinful. Of course, the unity of the Church must be preserved, but we already have different rites, such as the Syro-Malabar rite. We can accept different forms of celebrating the Eucharist, so we should not suppress those who prefer the Tridentine rite.”

Ultimately, he said, “it is not the rite or the form of celebration that matters” but rather “whether one encounters God deeply.”

Goh said he does not celebrate in the traditional form, “but I’m not against those who celebrate it. In my country, there’s a small group of about 300 people, mostly young professionals. Sometimes I ask them, ‘Why do you prefer this celebration?’ They reply that they find it more thoughtful and contemplative and that it brings them closer to God. Why should I discourage them?”

He continued: “If they reject the teachings of the Second Vatican Council, that would of course be a completely different matter, and they should be disciplined. But they don’t, and therefore I don’t think we should discriminate against them. After all, this is the Mass that has been celebrated for hundreds of years, isn’t it?”

This story was first published by CNA Deutsch, CNA's German-langauage news partner, and has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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