Pope Leo XIV greets the crowd at the Jubilee of Youth on Aug. 3, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Aug 5, 2025 / 14:16 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV made a surprise visit to Ignacio Gonzálvez, a 15-year-old Spanish boy who had been urgently admitted to Bambino Gesù Hospital in Rome after collapsing during the Jubilee of Youth.

Upon learning of Ignacio’s situation, Pope Leo XIV asked the thousands of young people gathered for the Aug. 2 vigil at Tor Vergata to join in prayer for him.

“I would like to ask for your prayers for another friend, a young Spaniard, Ignacio Gonzálvez, who has been admitted to the Bambino Gesù Hospital. Let us pray for him, for his health,” the visibly moved pontiff said.

Ignacio’s parents, Pedro Pablo and Carmen Gloria, along with his siblings Pedro Pablo Jr. and Adela, traveled to Rome immediately upon receiving the news.

On the afternoon of Monday, Aug. 4, according to the Holy See, Pope Leo XIV personally visited Ignacio in his room in the intensive care unit. The young pilgrim has been diagnosed with lymphoma affecting his respiratory tract.

As reported by Vatican News, the Holy Father entered silently as the young man’s family prayed at the foot of his bed and simply joined them in prayer. The family had their eyes closed at the time, and a priest accompanying them had to nudge them when he saw the pontiff cross the threshold unannounced.

The youth’s sister, Adela, 17, described Pope Leo XIV as “a simple man” and said the Holy Father was with them for about half an hour before visiting other patients in the hospital’s oncology ward. “I was crying and praying when he entered Ignacio’s room. I went in crying and came out laughing,” she said.

During the time spent with Ignacio’s family, Pope Leo XIV reminded them that “we are made for heaven.” Pedro Pablo, the young man’s father, said they all found solace after the pontiff’s visit.

“He told us that the important thing is to do God’s will, that our true place is eternal life in heaven. This comforted us, because we are people who try to live our faith and know that’s the truth. And in times of so much suffering, hearing the pope come and give you such a word is ... the best thing that could have happened to us,” he told Vatican News.

His mother, Carmen Gloria, shared that Pope Leo told her: “If Ignatius had come to Rome [from Spain], that he could come to the hospital to see him. They were simple words, but full of affection.”

“The pope told us that this is a mystery and that, despite many things we don’t understand, we know that God is there and wants the best for everyone. As a mother, I saw that Jesus Christ drew close to me and said, ‘You’re not alone.’ That’s what the pope’s presence in the hospital meant to me, the confirmation that God has not abandoned us,” she added with emotion.

Ignacio’s family said they find comfort and hope despite their pain and are grateful for the gestures of closeness. “It’s the work of the Holy Spirit. We are nothing, a family like many others... And to see so many people praying, so many people concerned, and that the pope himself should come, is a great consolation. We know that God is with us,” Carmen Gloria said.

Ignacio’s brother, Pedro Pablo Jr., emphasized that the pope had helped them accept God’s will: “He listened to us at all times, he was truly concerned, he gave me the feeling of someone who truly understood the situation and the pain we are experiencing. [He has] great empathy.”

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 the crowd at the Jubilee of Youth on Aug. 3, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Aug 5, 2025 / 14:16 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV made a surprise visit to Ignacio Gonzálvez, a 15-year-old Spanish boy who had been urgently admitted to Bambino Gesù Hospital in Rome after collapsing during the Jubilee of Youth.

Upon learning of Ignacio’s situation, Pope Leo XIV asked the thousands of young people gathered for the Aug. 2 vigil at Tor Vergata to join in prayer for him.

“I would like to ask for your prayers for another friend, a young Spaniard, Ignacio Gonzálvez, who has been admitted to the Bambino Gesù Hospital. Let us pray for him, for his health,” the visibly moved pontiff said.

Ignacio’s parents, Pedro Pablo and Carmen Gloria, along with his siblings Pedro Pablo Jr. and Adela, traveled to Rome immediately upon receiving the news.

On the afternoon of Monday, Aug. 4, according to the Holy See, Pope Leo XIV personally visited Ignacio in his room in the intensive care unit. The young pilgrim has been diagnosed with lymphoma affecting his respiratory tract.

As reported by Vatican News, the Holy Father entered silently as the young man’s family prayed at the foot of his bed and simply joined them in prayer. The family had their eyes closed at the time, and a priest accompanying them had to nudge them when he saw the pontiff cross the threshold unannounced.

The youth’s sister, Adela, 17, described Pope Leo XIV as “a simple man” and said the Holy Father was with them for about half an hour before visiting other patients in the hospital’s oncology ward. “I was crying and praying when he entered Ignacio’s room. I went in crying and came out laughing,” she said.

During the time spent with Ignacio’s family, Pope Leo XIV reminded them that “we are made for heaven.” Pedro Pablo, the young man’s father, said they all found solace after the pontiff’s visit.

“He told us that the important thing is to do God’s will, that our true place is eternal life in heaven. This comforted us, because we are people who try to live our faith and know that’s the truth. And in times of so much suffering, hearing the pope come and give you such a word is ... the best thing that could have happened to us,” he told Vatican News.

His mother, Carmen Gloria, shared that Pope Leo told her: “If Ignatius had come to Rome [from Spain], that he could come to the hospital to see him. They were simple words, but full of affection.”

“The pope told us that this is a mystery and that, despite many things we don’t understand, we know that God is there and wants the best for everyone. As a mother, I saw that Jesus Christ drew close to me and said, ‘You’re not alone.’ That’s what the pope’s presence in the hospital meant to me, the confirmation that God has not abandoned us,” she added with emotion.

Ignacio’s family said they find comfort and hope despite their pain and are grateful for the gestures of closeness. “It’s the work of the Holy Spirit. We are nothing, a family like many others... And to see so many people praying, so many people concerned, and that the pope himself should come, is a great consolation. We know that God is with us,” Carmen Gloria said.

Ignacio’s brother, Pedro Pablo Jr., emphasized that the pope had helped them accept God’s will: “He listened to us at all times, he was truly concerned, he gave me the feeling of someone who truly understood the situation and the pain we are experiencing. [He has] great empathy.”

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

Father Andreas Frick (left) and a CRS official during the SECAM plenary assembly in Rwanda held July 30 to Aug. 4, 2025. / Credit: ACI Africa

ACI Africa, Aug 5, 2025 / 13:11 pm (CNA).

Overseas development agencies, including Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and Misereor — the development agency of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Germany — have pledged their continued support for the Church and civil organizations in Africa amid foreign fund cuts as perpetrated by their native countries.

In solidarity messages with Catholic bishops in Africa during the 20th plenary assembly of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), the leadership of CRS and Misereor urged the bishops to support Church-based fundraising initiatives to fund development projects.

In his message during the July 30–Aug. 4 assembly held in Kigali, Rwanda, the director general of Misereor, Father Andreas Frick, regretted that the agency’s financial means are currently decreasing.

“Our work is funded by private donations as well as Church and public funds,” Frick said. “Since 2023, the German government has been cutting down the funds from tax revenues that are made available to the Churches for development cooperation purposes.”

Frick, of Germany’s Diocese of Aachen, added that the donations from German parishes have also been decreasing. With the decrease of funds in parishes and government cuts in taxes, he said, “we have to reduce Misereor’s financial commitments.”

For this reason, Frick told SECAM members: “It is thus all the more important that you support fundraising efforts in your local Churches. Misereor is already proactively raising this topic in our dialogue with partners.”

“At the same time, we want to reassure you that even with reduced financial means, Misereor will continue to cooperate with the Church and civil society in Africa, Asia, and Latin America,” he said at the five-day assembly.

Frick said that even if the organization is crippled financially, it will still offer support, explaining: “Cooperation is not merely of a financial nature; we will continue to cooperate well and in a future-oriented way.”

“Together, we should stand by the poor — independent of their ethnicity, gender, or religion — and work towards a better life for all with justice, peace, and integrity of creation,” he said. “Cooperating with the Church and civil society in Africa, Asia, and Latin America will continue to be at the core of Misereor’s mandate.”

Even amid increasing challenges, Frick said, “it is all the more important to firmly hold on to the Gospel for all people and to trust in the message of Jesus of peace for all people.”

“The least we as Church and civil society actors can do is to remain at the side of the poor and marginalized, to jointly decry injustices, and to create room for dialogues to strengthen justice and peace, however difficult the situation,” he said.

SECAM’s 20th plenary assembly, under the theme “Christ: Source of Hope, Reconciliation, and Peace,” dedicated its efforts to building on what the 19th plenary assembly — held in July 2022 — mandated Africa’s Catholic bishops to accomplish.

In a separate Aug. 1 solidarity message to the Catholic bishops in Africa, the leadership of CRS, the humanitarian arm of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, thanked SECAM for the continued fraternal relationship, especially during the abrupt funding cut by the Donald Trump-led U.S. government.

The CRS leadership said the “new orientation brought about by the suspension of donations has significantly impacted organizations like ours that benefited from state subsidies.”

Acknowledging with appreciation the spiritual and financial support of partners, U.S. Catholics, and people of goodwill, the leadership of CRS said: “Our organization will continue to fulfill its part in accomplishing our joint mission of fostering the integral development of our peoples, contributing to a more just and more united world.”

Even amid financial constraints, CRS reaffirmed its “unconditional attachment to the values of Catholic social teaching” and pledged commitment to “always deliver quality service to all our brothers and sisters in humanity.”

“The African continent is, and will remain, one of our priorities. We assure you that we will continue, within the limits of available means, to support the Church of the continent through SECAM and its regional and national ramifications, with which we have developed very good collaboration,” CRS said.

This story was first published by ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, and has been adapted by CNA.

From the Irish College building in Salamanca, the Colegio Arzobispo Fonseca. / Credit: Patrick J. Passmore

Dublin, Ireland, Aug 5, 2025 / 12:28 pm (CNA).

On Aug. 4, 1936, the last seminarians at the Irish College in Salamanca, Spain, were put on a British Navy destroyer from the Irish College’s summer coastal retreat in Pendueles in Asturias, northern Spain. The Spanish Civil War had escalated, and for their safety, the students were evacuated, never to return.

The evacuation began a sequence that led to the eventual closure of the Irish College in 1951, ending a rich tradition of Irish clerical training and formation in Spain stretching back to the late 1500s.

The Real Colegio de San Patricio de Nobles Irlandeses in Salamanca was the foremost Irish College on the Iberian peninsula and the last to close. It boasted an impressive roll of honor. 

In 1595, the first seminarians registered at the Irish College in Salamanca, which was founded by Jesuit Father Thomas White. The documents establishing the college included direct intervention by King Philip of Spain and a papal bull from Pope Clementine, demonstrating the value they placed upon Ireland and its Catholic people.

“Sometimes the brighter men were chosen to go abroad to study,” Jesuit historian Father Fergus O’Donoghue told CNA. “There was also that important thing of doing some of your priestly formation in a country that spoke another language.”

The eventual closure in 1951, brokered by General Francisco Franco and agreed upon by the Irish bishops and the Spanish Church, meant the Irish College property returned to Spanish ownership. Funds from lands sold went to the Irish College in Rome, and valuable college archives dating from 1595 were transferred to St. Patrick’s Maynooth in Ireland. The elegant building that housed the Irish students, the Colegio del Arzobispo Fonseca, is now part of the University of Salamanca.

Art Hughes, professor of Irish at Ulster University, told CNA: “In Ireland, in the late 16th century, there was a political upheaval and a religious upheaval. Although the Spanish tried to help the Irish, the defeat at Kinsale and the flight of the Earls to Europe was the beginning of the end and a very turbulent decade for Gaelic Ireland.”

“The English did not allow priests to be ordained in Ireland. So we had this network of more than 30 Irish Colleges in Europe at one time — one of the main ones was in Salamanca, very near the Spanish court. These colleges formed a massive nexus of scholarship; for example, one significant outcome was the printing of the first Irish-language book in 1610, a catechism.” 

For 20th-century Salamanca seminarians, O’Donoghue explained, the brand of teaching and formation was different from Maynooth.

“So you studied theology out of a manual; you’d have a manual for moral theology, a manual for fundamental theology, and so on. And then Scripture was studied in what we would consider a very old-fashioned way,” he explained.

O’Donoghue said he believes that despite the Spanish turmoil, Irish bishops would have supported the Irish College on historical grounds. “Then with so many seminaries founded in Ireland, the idea of sending people to Salamanca or Paris became less practical or necessary,” he said.

Father Alexander McCabe, a Cavan, Ireland-born priest who studied at the college, was college rector from 1936 until its closure. During that time, he worked assiduously to keep the college buildings intact, preserve its function as a place of learning, and placate a range of temporary residents from Franco’s officials to Nazi diplomats to SS propagandists. 

McCabe’s “Salamanca Diaries” are the subject of an insightful biography by Irish author Tim Fanning.

“Undoubtedly, McCabe was the right person to steer the Irish College through the turmoil of the Spanish Civil War and the difficult postwar years that followed. He was deliberate, unemotional, and was a shrewd judge of character,” Fanning said.

“He was able to ward off various different institutions which hoped to lay their hands on the college in the 1930s and 1940s. However, the Irish bishops were not committed to retaining the link with Salamanca, and he was unable to reopen it to students. His tragedy was that he spent nearly the whole of his rectorship in the college without students.”

“I would have thought that those priests who studied at Salamanca would have had a broader view of the world than Maynooth would have given them,” Fanning added. “In his diaries, McCabe ruminates often on the differences between the Irish and Spanish Churches. McCabe valued the historical connection between Ireland and the Irish Colleges in Spain. But back home in Ireland, there were many who were suspicious of the idea of training Irish priests abroad when there was a national seminary.”

“Given his erudition and natural diplomatic skills, it is a pity that the hierarchy could not have a more suitable position for him, perhaps in the United States or one of the colleges in Ireland,” Fanning noted.

“Neither did certain figures in the Department of Foreign Affairs make good use of the intelligence he was able to provide on the situation in Spain in the years leading up to, during, and after the Spanish Civil War.”

For O’Donoghue, McCabe’s skills were at odds with the postwar Irish hierarchy. “The typical attitude was that in the Irish Church in general was that people who were very adventurous were not encouraged,” he said.

Despite McCabe’s optimism and efforts, the closure of the college in 1951 terminated a rich 350-year Spanish connection that had survived the French Revolution, the Peninsular War, the Spanish Civil War, and World War II. 

On his return to Ireland he experienced health and personal difficulties to which his bishop appeared indifferent. He recovered his well-being in his latter years, dying in 1988, having left an invaluable insight into Irish-Iberian relations. He was always repelled by the repression and bloodshed he witnessed. 

In 1986, McCabe was invited to deliver an address of welcome to King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia of Spain during their visit to St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth. It was a belated and fitting recognition of a remarkable man and a fascinating postscript to an enduring relationship between two Catholic countries.

From the Irish College building in Salamanca, the Colegio Arzobispo Fonseca. / Credit: Patrick J. Passmore

Dublin, Ireland, Aug 5, 2025 / 12:28 pm (CNA).

The evacuation of Salamanca seminarians in 1936 marked the beginning of the end of a unique 350-year-old Irish-Spanish relationship.

Shroud of Turin featuring positive (left) and negative (right) digital filters. / Credit: Dianelos Georgoudis via Wikimedia Commons

CNA Staff, Aug 5, 2025 / 11:54 am (CNA).

The guardians of the famed Shroud of Turin are disputing the results of a recent study that purports to disprove the cloth’s origins as the burial shroud of Jesus Christ.

Shroud of Turin featuring positive (left) and negative (right) digital filters. / Credit: Dianelos Georgoudis via Wikimedia Commons

CNA Staff, Aug 5, 2025 / 11:54 am (CNA).

The guardians of the famed Shroud of Turin are disputing the results of a recent study that purports to disprove the cloth’s origins as the burial shroud of Jesus Christ.

Cicero Moraes, a Brazilian 3D artist, claimed in the scholarly journal Archaeometry last month that the depiction of Christ’s body on the shroud was likely made by a “low-relief model” such as a statue rather than a human body.

The imagery on the shroud is “more consistent with an artistic low-relief representation than with the direct imprint of a real human body, supporting hypotheses of its origin as a medieval work of art,” the study alleges.

‘No novelty in this conclusion’

In an Aug. 4 press release, the International Center of Sindonology — the Turin-based organization that leads studies of the Shroud of Turin and promotes its status as a venerated object of Christian devotion — said the nominally new findings of the study were actually considered and disputed more than a century ago. 

Moraes’ research “confirms a result known since the early studies [in 1902], whereby the image on the shroud is configured as an orthogonal projection,” the center said. “There is nothing new in this conclusion of the article.”

Investigations by the Shroud of Turin Research Project beginning in the 1970s, meanwhile, ruled out “the formation of the image by means of painting, [rubbing] with bas-relief, or contact with a heated statue/bas-relief.”

The center argued that researchers have known for more than 100 years of the so-called “Agamemnon Mask effect,” a phenomenon in which an imprinted image is distorted when wrapped around a 3D subject.

The researchers argued that the digital modeling software used to create Moraes’ projection of the shroud “is not specifically designed for scientific purposes.” The model’s simulated physics and lack of a support plane, they said, “does not correspond to a real physical context.”

Turin archbishop Cardinal Roberto Repole, who serves as the pontifical custodian of the shroud, said his office has “no reason to comment on hypotheses freely formulated by scientists of varying degrees of credibility.”

The prelate pointed to “concern about the superficiality of certain conclusions” regarding the shroud, “which often do not stand up to closer examination of the work presented.”

In its press release, meanwhile, the center quoted famed theoretical physicist Richard Feynman, who in the early 1970s urged researchers: “If you’re doing an experiment, you should report everything that you think might make it invalid — not only what you think is right about it.”

“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself — and you are the easiest person to fool,” the center said in quoting the scientist.

A gentle cascade of white rose petals falls from the ceiling of the Basilica of St. Mary Major on Aug. 5, 2025, the feast of the dedication of the basilica, evoking “the miracle of the snow” said to have taken place nearly 17 centuries ago. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA

Vatican City, Aug 5, 2025 / 11:23 am (CNA).

White rose petals drifted from the gilded ceiling of St. Mary Major Basilica on Tuesday as Romans celebrated the 1,667th anniversary of a fourth-century Marian miracle that inspired the construction of the oldest Marian sanctuary in the West.

According to tradition, the miracle involved a miraculous snowfall in Rome on Aug. 5 in the year 358. The Virgin Mary appeared to both a wealthy Roman nobleman named John and to Pope Liberius (352–366) in a dream foretelling the August snow and asking for a church to be built in her honor on the site of the snowfall.

The basilica was rebuilt by Pope Sixtus III (432–440) after the Council of Ephesus in 431 declared Mary to be the mother of God.

Lithuanian Cardinal Rolandas Makrickas, 53, archpriest of the Basilica of St. Mary Major, celebrated the Mass on Aug. 5 to mark the anniversary of the dedication of the Marian basilica.

Appointed to reorganize the basilica’s administration in 2023 as a coadjutor archpriest, Makrickas officially succeeded Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko, 80, last month.

As the choir sang the “Gloria” during the liturgy, a gentle cascade of white rose petals fell from the basilica’s ceiling, evoking “the miracle of the snow” said to have taken place nearly 17 centuries ago.

In his homily, the cardinal noted that the snowfall “can be understood as a symbol of grace.”

“It can only be received as a gift,” he said. “Grace also arouses admiration and amazement.” 

Makrickas noted that Pope Francis participated in last year’s commemoration on Aug. 5. “Pope Francis, who rests in this basilica to be watched over, inspired, and comforted [by] our heavenly mother, Salus Populi Romani, deeply experienced this maternal guidance of Mary,” he said, referring to the revered Marian icon housed in the basilica.

“Like him, thousands of pilgrims, in this jubilee year, walk through the Holy Door of this Marian sanctuary to ask for God’s grace to be able, with renewed faith and a burning heart like the snow, to be witnesses of the great works of God in the world,” he added. 

Among the four major papal basilicas in Rome, St. Mary Major is the only one that maintained its original structure. Mosaics dating back to the fifth century can be seen in the central nave of the basilica, which also houses the relic of the Holy Crib from the birth of Christ.

“Dear brothers and sisters, crossing the Holy Door of this basilica means entrusting one’s journey of life and faith to the maternal protection of Mary,” Makrickas said. “And to be inspired by hope is to open oneself to this hope that does not disappoint.” 

Blessed are those . . . who have set their hearts on pilgrimage. • Psalm 84:5 (NIV) Late one spring, writes Geoffrey Chaucer in The Canterbury Tales, 29 pilgrims set out from London to Canterbury, a holy site. These “sundry folk”—the elite and the working class, holy folk and scoundrels, wealthy and poor, men and women—are […]

The post How pilgrimage has changed to meet the modern world appeared first on U.S. Catholic.

Listen on: Apple | Spotify As Medicaid faces severe cuts in the federal budget that will take health care away from millions of people, Laura Peralta-Schulte, head of NETWORK’s government relations team, discusses the life-saving importance of the program for its 60th anniversary. The program, which emerged as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s efforts to help people in […]

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