Edith Stein was born in 1891, the youngest of eleven children, at a time when the continent of Europe was on the cusp of entering two world wars. Many of us know her story: raised in the Jewish faith, Edith later converted to Catholicism after reading the autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila. She discerned […]

This Sunday, Jesus gives His followers instructions about vigilance in their obedience to Him.  The message: expect the unexpected. Gospel (Read Lk. 12:32-48) The Gospel follows Jesus’ earlier exhortation to His disciples about anxiety:  “Don’t be anxious about your life, what you shall eat . . . or what you shall put on . . . Instead, […]

St. Dominic, born in 1170 in Caleruega, Spain, was a passionate and devout individual from a young age. Raised in a deeply religious family, he pursued his education in Palencia, focusing on theology and the arts. His early years were marked by a profound commitment to prayer and study. In 1191, during a severe famine, […]

ENCOUNTERING THE WORD — YOUR DAILY BIBLE VERSES “Fear not, for I am with you, be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.” – Isaiah 41:10 Please help spread the Gospel. Share this verse with family and friends […]

The post Your Daily Bible Verses — Isaiah 41:10 appeared first on Integrated Catholic Life™.

CNA Staff, Aug 7, 2025 / 16:19 pm (CNA).

There’s a category of Catholics in the United States who are often underserved, and one Catholic ministry is trying to remedy that.

Catholics with disabilities experience unique and varied needs that go beyond wheelchair ramps or braille signs. A Catholic with autism might need sensory-friendly liturgies; a Catholic with a developmental disability might need special guidance for catechesis.

But many parishes might not know how to meet their needs or what those needs even are.

By offering a variety of resources — including a conference this weekend — the National Catholic Partnership on Disability (NCPD) is teaching parishes how to fully integrate people with disabilities into parish life.

“From the rise in mental health concerns to the growing number of families navigating autism, parishes across the country are searching for guidance, training, and connection,” NCPD Executive Director Charleen Katra told CNA.

Ignorance can be damaging. Katra said she frequently receives calls from Catholics with disabilities who are denied sacraments — a move that goes against the Church’s teaching.

The U.S. Catholic bishops in recent years have reaffirmed the Church’s teaching that “all forms of the liturgy be completely accessible to persons with disabilities.” The bishops explained that accessibility extends far beyond “physical alterations to parish buildings.”

“Persons with disabilities have the same baptismal rights to be educated in the faith, to celebrate sacraments, and to respond to God’s call,” Katra explained.

The good news: Catholics from across the United States want to get better at serving people with disabilities. Almost 200 Catholic ministers, leaders, and laypeople are gathering in Salt Lake City for the National Catholic Disability Ministry Conference from Aug. 7–9.

Designed to help parishes and ministries fully integrate people with disabilities into  parish life, the conference centers on the 2025 Jubilee theme, “Pilgrims of Hope.”

The goal? Every parish should feel like home.

Inclusion and belonging are “crucial,” but they are just the beginning, Katra explained.

“They open the door for something greater and more important — advancing the full participation of persons with disabilities and striving toward communion — a kinship we experience because we are loved by God and saved by his son, Jesus Christ,” she explained. 

A highlight of the conference will be a panel of people with disabilities who will discuss what Katra called a “powerful message” by the late Pope Francis. 

In 2021, on the U.N.’s International Day of Persons with Disabilities, Pope Francis told people with disabilities: “The Church is truly your home.”

“Persons with disabilities are not simply on the outskirts of the Church seeking to be invited in,” Katra said. “Rather, the Church is already their home, and their presence and participation are integral to the Church community.”

Designed to “equip Catholics to value the gifts and respond to the needs of persons with disabilities,” conference sessions will address “mental health, autism, sacramental preparation, inclusive Catholic education, sensory-friendly liturgies, public policy, and more,” Katra said. On the last day of the conference, participants will gather for a sensory-friendly Mass.

Keynote speakers include Bishop Brendan Cahill of Victoria, Texas; Mary O’Meara, executive director of the Archdiocese of Washington’s Office of Deaf and Disabilities Ministry; and National Eucharistic Congress President Jason Shanks, who will share a personal testimony of raising a child with a rare genetic condition.

From clergy to catechists to people with disabilities, 180 attendees are gathering for the conference at Hilton Salt Lake City Center. This year, those who can’t attend in person may attend virtually in English or Spanish.

The ministry is not an annual event, but Katra has high hopes for the future.

“This is not currently a recurring event, but we hope it will become one,” she said.

Katra said she hopes the conference will give people a network, fresh perspectives, and “a deeper understanding of disability from a Catholic perspective,” as well as the latest resources and best practices for disability ministry.

“We are all pilgrims of hope — called to walk together in faith and love,” Katra said. “This includes persons with disabilities, whose presence and participation enrich the life of the Church.”

CNA Staff, Aug 7, 2025 / 16:19 pm (CNA).

There’s a category of Catholics in the United States who are often underserved, and one Catholic ministry is trying to remedy that.

Catholics with disabilities experience unique and varied needs that go beyond wheelchair ramps or braille signs. A Catholic with autism might need sensory-friendly liturgies; a Catholic with a developmental disability might need special guidance for catechesis.

But many parishes might not know how to meet their needs or what those needs even are.

By offering a variety of resources — including a conference this weekend — the National Catholic Partnership on Disability (NCPD) is teaching parishes how to fully integrate people with disabilities into parish life.

“From the rise in mental health concerns to the growing number of families navigating autism, parishes across the country are searching for guidance, training, and connection,” NCPD Executive Director Charleen Katra told CNA.

Ignorance can be damaging. Katra said she frequently receives calls from Catholics with disabilities who are denied sacraments — a move that goes against the Church’s teaching.

The U.S. Catholic bishops in recent years have reaffirmed the Church’s teaching that “all forms of the liturgy be completely accessible to persons with disabilities.” The bishops explained that accessibility extends far beyond “physical alterations to parish buildings.”

“Persons with disabilities have the same baptismal rights to be educated in the faith, to celebrate sacraments, and to respond to God’s call,” Katra explained.

The good news: Catholics from across the United States want to get better at serving people with disabilities. Almost 200 Catholic ministers, leaders, and laypeople are gathering in Salt Lake City for the National Catholic Disability Ministry Conference from Aug. 7–9.

Designed to help parishes and ministries fully integrate people with disabilities into  parish life, the conference centers on the 2025 Jubilee theme, “Pilgrims of Hope.”

The goal? Every parish should feel like home.

Inclusion and belonging are “crucial,” but they are just the beginning, Katra explained.

“They open the door for something greater and more important — advancing the full participation of persons with disabilities and striving toward communion — a kinship we experience because we are loved by God and saved by his son, Jesus Christ,” she explained. 

A highlight of the conference will be a panel of people with disabilities who will discuss what Katra called a “powerful message” by the late Pope Francis. 

In 2021, on the U.N.’s International Day of Persons with Disabilities, Pope Francis told people with disabilities: “The Church is truly your home.”

“Persons with disabilities are not simply on the outskirts of the Church seeking to be invited in,” Katra said. “Rather, the Church is already their home, and their presence and participation are integral to the Church community.”

Designed to “equip Catholics to value the gifts and respond to the needs of persons with disabilities,” conference sessions will address “mental health, autism, sacramental preparation, inclusive Catholic education, sensory-friendly liturgies, public policy, and more,” Katra said. On the last day of the conference, participants will gather for a sensory-friendly Mass.

Keynote speakers include Bishop Brendan Cahill of Victoria, Texas; Mary O’Meara, executive director of the Archdiocese of Washington’s Office of Deaf and Disabilities Ministry; and National Eucharistic Congress President Jason Shanks, who will share a personal testimony of raising a child with a rare genetic condition.

From clergy to catechists to people with disabilities, 180 attendees are gathering for the conference at Hilton Salt Lake City Center. This year, those who can’t attend in person may attend virtually in English or Spanish.

The ministry is not an annual event, but Katra has high hopes for the future.

“This is not currently a recurring event, but we hope it will become one,” she said.

Katra said she hopes the conference will give people a network, fresh perspectives, and “a deeper understanding of disability from a Catholic perspective,” as well as the latest resources and best practices for disability ministry.

“We are all pilgrims of hope — called to walk together in faith and love,” Katra said. “This includes persons with disabilities, whose presence and participation enrich the life of the Church.”

ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 7, 2025 / 15:36 pm (CNA).

On Aug. 6, the day El Salvador celebrates the solemnity of the Divine Savior (Salvador) of the World and this year the 500th anniversary of the founding of the city of San Salvador, the Catholic Church strongly criticized a recent constitutional reform that allows current President Nayib Bukele and his successors unlimited presidential terms.

The archbishop of San Salvador, José Luis Escobar Alas, celebrated Mass in the cathedral of the country’s capital. The bishops of the Salvadoran Bishops’ Conference concelebrated, with priests, nuns, and laypeople from all of El Salvador’s dioceses in attendance.

In his homily, Escobar addressed a message directly to the Salvadoran legislators, urging them to “reconsider the constitutional reforms recently approved by this legislative plenary session without consultation.”

“For a constitutional reform to be legitimate, the people must be consulted,” he declared. The prelate said his appeal is made “with no interest other than the good of our people.”

On July 31, El Salvador’s Legislative Assembly approved and ratified a series of changes to five articles of the constitution. These amendments will now allow for unlimited presidential reelection, extend the presidential term from five to six years, eliminate the runoff election, and shorten the current term of Bukele so that all elections for public office nationwide take place on the same date. 

The legislative body is composed of 60 representatives, 54 of whom belong to the ruling Nuevas Ideas (New Ideas) party. Two seats are held by the National Concertation Party and one by the Christian Democratic Party, both allies of the current government. The remaining three seats belong to opposition parties.

Advocates for environment, migrants

In front of thousands of people, Escobar also demanded that legislators “fulfill the debt they owe to this people” and reinstate “the law they repealed, the one that protects the environment, the life and health of people, animals, and plants,” referring to the ban on metal mining, recently revoked by the Legislative Assembly.

The archbishop also called on U.S. authorities to stop going after unauthorized Salvadoran migrants while demanding respect for their human rights.

The prelate called for “not criminalizing their status simply because they are undocumented. They are noble, good, hardworking people who have done much for that country and who deserve decent treatment.”

Finally, Escobar denounced “the scourge of poverty” that drives thousands of Salvadorans to emigrate, stating that it is the product of “economic policies that, to date, have not resolved the most urgent needs of the vast majority of impoverished people.”

He concluded his homily with a call to the faithful to ask the Divine Savior of the World to be able to “transfigure us and transfigure El Salvador, so that we may all live according to his sacred will, as true children of God.”

Massive procession for the Divine Savior of the World

The celebrations for the solemnity of the Divine Savior of the World began on Aug. 5 with thousands of faithful participating in the solemn procession with the image of the Divine Savior of the World in San Salvador. The procession departed from Sacred Heart of Jesus Basilica and passed through the main streets of the capital until reaching the Metropolitan Cathedral of San Salvador.

In the plaza in front of the cathedral, a moving reenactment of the Transfiguration of the Lord was presented in which the image of Christ, dressed as a Nazarene, was elevated and symbolically transformed into the glorious Christ amid music and fireworks.

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

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 7, 2025 / 14:33 pm (CNA).

As officials carry out mass deportations across the United States, Bishop Mark Brennan of Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia, is criticizing the Trump administration’s policy of deporting “as many immigrants as possible” without “distinguishing between true criminals and law-abiding persons.”

In a recent statement addressing Catholics in his diocese, Brennan said “some of you have told me that you were happy to support a presidential candidate who would install order at the southern border and keep out drug traffickers, terrorists, and violent criminals but that you didn’t expect this wholesale assault on the majority of immigrants, who work hard, are raising their families, and live peacefully in our communities.”

The bishop urged the government to prioritize deporting violent criminals rather than upstanding people, highlighting that entering the U.S. “without official government permission is a misdemeanor, a crime but a lesser one, on the level with loitering, public intoxication, and shoplifting.”

Brennan’s critique of mass deportations aligns with a number of other Catholic leaders including Los Angeles Archbishop José Gómez, who recently said: “A great nation can take the time and care to make distinctions and judge each case on its merits.”

“On our journey to eternity, the Lord expects us to help one another,” Brennan said. “Why else would he command us: Love your neighbor as yourself and do unto others as you would have them do unto you?”

“In the light of these Christian principles, we the people must act,” Brennan declared. For example, Catholics can call for “less cruel” enforcement and can speak up “when we hear grossly inaccurate talk about undocumented immigrants being uniformly criminal, when only a few commit violent crimes.”

“As people of faith, we should pray intensely for God to touch the minds and hearts of our political leaders and move them to be more reasonable and humane in their policies; and for those who implement those policies to do so with respect for their fellow human beings.”

Brennan encouraged those enforcing immigration policies “to consider whether a specific action is morally justified,” because ultimately, “the final judge of our actions is God.”

Speaking of law enforcement officers, he said: “I recognize that they have sworn to uphold the law. Yet the manner in which a law is enforced matters. Those acting on the government’s behalf cannot escape personal responsibility for an unjust action with the excuse that it was ordered by their superiors.”

“That defense was not allowed during the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals at the end of World War II,” Brennan explained. “The judges held that a soldier, guard, or official who authorized or engaged in gross violations of human rights was personally responsible for his acts.”

With that said, Brennan clarified: “What has been reported about excesses in immigration enforcement does not approach the horror of Nazi treatment of prisoners, but the principle of personal responsibility for one’s actions remains the same.”

“Our Church would have no martyrs if the highest good was to preserve one’s life. Some things are worth taking a principled stand for,” Brennan said. In tandem with bishops across the nation, Brennan called on Catholics “to affirm the humanity of all immigrants, regardless of legal status.”

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 7, 2025 / 14:33 pm (CNA).

As officials carry out mass deportations across the United States, Bishop Mark Brennan of Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia, is criticizing the Trump administration’s policy of deporting “as many immigrants as possible” without “distinguishing between true criminals and law-abiding persons.”

In a recent statement addressing Catholics in his diocese, Brennan said “some of you have told me that you were happy to support a presidential candidate who would install order at the southern border and keep out drug traffickers, terrorists, and violent criminals but that you didn’t expect this wholesale assault on the majority of immigrants, who work hard, are raising their families, and live peacefully in our communities.”

The bishop urged the government to prioritize deporting violent criminals rather than upstanding people, highlighting that entering the U.S. “without official government permission is a misdemeanor, a crime but a lesser one, on the level with loitering, public intoxication, and shoplifting.”

Brennan’s critique of mass deportations aligns with a number of other Catholic leaders including Los Angeles Archbishop José Gómez, who recently said: “A great nation can take the time and care to make distinctions and judge each case on its merits.”

“On our journey to eternity, the Lord expects us to help one another,” Brennan said. “Why else would he command us: Love your neighbor as yourself and do unto others as you would have them do unto you?”

“In the light of these Christian principles, we the people must act,” Brennan declared. For example, Catholics can call for “less cruel” enforcement and can speak up “when we hear grossly inaccurate talk about undocumented immigrants being uniformly criminal, when only a few commit violent crimes.”

“As people of faith, we should pray intensely for God to touch the minds and hearts of our political leaders and move them to be more reasonable and humane in their policies; and for those who implement those policies to do so with respect for their fellow human beings.”

Brennan encouraged those enforcing immigration policies “to consider whether a specific action is morally justified,” because ultimately, “the final judge of our actions is God.”

Speaking of law enforcement officers, he said: “I recognize that they have sworn to uphold the law. Yet the manner in which a law is enforced matters. Those acting on the government’s behalf cannot escape personal responsibility for an unjust action with the excuse that it was ordered by their superiors.”

“That defense was not allowed during the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals at the end of World War II,” Brennan explained. “The judges held that a soldier, guard, or official who authorized or engaged in gross violations of human rights was personally responsible for his acts.”

With that said, Brennan clarified: “What has been reported about excesses in immigration enforcement does not approach the horror of Nazi treatment of prisoners, but the principle of personal responsibility for one’s actions remains the same.”

“Our Church would have no martyrs if the highest good was to preserve one’s life. Some things are worth taking a principled stand for,” Brennan said. In tandem with bishops across the nation, Brennan called on Catholics “to affirm the humanity of all immigrants, regardless of legal status.”

Vatican City, Aug 7, 2025 / 13:54 pm (CNA).

In a video message to the participants of the third congress of the Pan-African Catholic Network for Theology and Pastoral Care, Pope Leo XIV recalled the fundamental role of the family, “the first place where we receive the love and support we need.”

The event, titled “Walking Together in Hope as the Church-Family of God in Africa,” is taking place Aug. 5–10 at the Catholic University of West Africa in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.

The main objective of the meeting is to promote communication within the global south by bringing together theologians, pastoral, lay, and religious leaders to reflect, share experiences, and develop pastoral ministry from an African perspective.

At the beginning of his message, released Aug. 6, the Holy Father particularly expressed his gratitude for the work of the meeting’s organizers and assured them of his prayers for the participants, who during these days are reflecting on the future of the Church in Africa.

In the context of the Jubilee of Hope, Pope Leo XIV emphasized the vital role that hope plays in our earthly pilgrimage. “Faith and theology provide the basis for knowing God, while charity is the life of love we enjoy with him,” he noted.

However, he explained that “it is by the virtue of hope that we desire to attain the fullness of this happiness in heaven. Thus, it inspires and sustains us to grow closer to God even when confronted by the hardships of life,” he added.

The Holy Father urged the Church to be “a beacon of hope for the nations” facing various difficulties in Africa, while calling for fraternity and appealing to the responsibility to “look after each other.”

“A family is usually the first place where we receive the love and support we need to move forward and overcome the trials we face in life,” he pointed out.

In this context, he encouraged the continued building of “the family of the local Churches” in African countries “so that there are networks of support available to all our brothers and sisters in Christ, and also to the wider society, especially those on the peripheries.”

At the end of his message, Pope Leo XIV emphasized the importance of “recognizing the unity between theology and pastoral work.”

He pointed out that “we have to live what we believe. Christ told us that he came not simply to give us life but to give it to the full. Hence, it is your task to work together to implement pastoral programs that demonstrate how the teachings of the Church help to open people’s hearts and minds to the truth and love of God.”

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