Posted on 06/5/2025 15:15 PM (Catholic News Agency)
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.
Posted on 06/5/2025 15:15 PM (CNA Daily News)
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).
Over 19,000 young Catholics will walk from Paris to Chartres this weekend in what has become France’s largest traditional pilgrimage — but this year’s journey unfolds under unprecedented Vatican scrutiny.
Organized by the French Notre-Dame de Chrétienté association, the three-day walking journey — set to take place this year from June 7–9 from the French capital to the ancient cathedral — attracts thousands of pilgrims every year, many of them drawn by the Latin Mass.
While the pilgrimage saw a record turnout of around 18,000 participants in 2024 (up from 16,000 in 2023), this year’s registration filled up in just five days, with over 19,000 pilgrims signing up, a “record level of participation,” according to organizers.
The average age of pilgrims this year is 20 years old, according to the latest numbers.
“The enthusiasm sparked by all the pilgrimage opportunities in France — especially those for young people — is a joy for the Church and a sign of its vitality,” the Bishops’ Conference of France (CEF) told Aleteia earlier this month.
Summoning those drawn by tradition, the pilgrimage helps pilgrims “to grow in faith and hope” by “bringing them back to basic fundamentals: prayer, the Eucharist, and penance” and to “encourage them to live out Christianity in their daily lives,” Notre-Dame de Chrétienté told the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, last year.
The surge of young pilgrims and the rapid closure of registrations signal for many a vibrant faith among youth drawn to the Traditional Latin Mass, which is celebrated along the pilgrimage.
At the same time, the pilgrimage has been under heightened scrutiny since the publication of Pope Francis’ 2021 motu proprio Traditiones Custodes that restricts and regulates the use of the Traditional Latin Mass, placing its celebration under the strict oversight of local bishops and the Holy See.
In December 2024, the French Catholic daily La Croix first reported that the pilgrimage was under Vatican review, as the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments believed that it was not adhering to current regulations for celebrating Mass as set out in the papal decree.
At the beginning of last month, Bishop Philippe Christory of Chartres asked that the organizers of the pilgrimage allow priests who wish to do so to celebrate Mass in the current rite within his diocese, even though the pilgrimage has traditionally maintained exclusive use of the old Mass.
In addition, “all priests have to celebrate the sacrament of penance according to the ritual reformed by the council,” according to a decree issued in the name of the Bishops’ Conference of France in consultation with the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.
“It is not up to the Notre-Dame de Chrétienté association to limit the form of the rite within the territory of a diocese,” the bishop of Chartres told the French Press, citing Pope Benedict XVI in his letter to bishops accompanying the publication of Summorum Pontificum.
“[I]n order to experience full communion, the priests of the communities adhering to the former usage cannot, as a matter of principle, exclude celebrating according to the new books. The total exclusion of the new rite would not in fact be consistent with the recognition of its value and holiness,” the late pope wrote at the time.
While it has not seen any further major modifications, the Notre-Dame de Chrétienté pilgrimage would not be the first “traditionalist” pilgrimage to face restrictions imposed by Rome.
Since 2023, the annual Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage in Rome was denied permission to celebrate Holy Mass in the Tridentine rite in St. Peter’s Basilica.
In July 2024, the Vatican prohibited the celebration of the Latin Mass at the Shrine of Our Lady of Covadonga, which customarily takes place at the conclusion of the annual Nuestra Señora de la Cristiandad pilgrimage — a Spanish reproduction of the Paris-Chartres Pilgrimage.
Despite rumors that the Vatican might prohibit the closing Mass, as happened in Spain, the final Mass in Chartres, which will mark the cathedral’s millennium jubilee, remains confirmed.
This year, the solemn high Mass will be celebrated by the general chaplain of Notre-Dame de Chrétienté, Abbé Jean de Massia, FSSP. Christory will deliver the homily.
At the beginning of the closing Mass, Notre-Dame de Chrétienté will consecrate itself to the Sacred Heart of Jesus on the occasion of the 350th anniversary of Christ’s apparitions to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in Paray-le-Monial. The pilgrims will be able to pass through the Holy Doors of the cathedral opened for its celebration and venerate the relic of the Virgin Mary’s veil.
In addition, Bishop Athanasius Schneider will celebrate the solemn high Mass on Pentecost Sunday along the road to Chartres. Further, 327 Latin masses are scheduled to take place in tents and fields throughout the pilgrimage.
Looking ahead, Christory has emphasized that any final decision rests with Rome, with the prelate stating that “if anyone is to decide anything, it is the pope.”
With the Diocese of Charlotte, North Carolina, recently drawing attention for its proposed norms regarding the Latin liturgy, many eyes have turned to Rome, awaiting a clearer sense of where Pope Leo XIV stands on the future of the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM).
Many have taken note of Leo XIV’s constant calls for unity and the sense of openness to tradition and liturgical pluralism — at least toward other Catholic rites — that he conveys.
“It would be a lie to say that we don’t have expectations for this new pontificate,” Philippe Darantière, president of the Notre-Dame de Chrétienté association, said at the press conference presenting the 2025 edition of the Chartres pilgrimage on May 12.
Posted on 06/5/2025 14:43 PM (CNA Daily News)
Pope Leo XIV meets with Vatican Secretariat of State personnel on June 5, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media
CNA Newsroom, Jun 5, 2025 / 10:43 am (CNA).
Follow our live coverage of the pontificate of Pope Leo XIV, first U.S.-born pope in history.
Posted on 06/5/2025 14:43 PM (CNA Daily News - Vatican)
Pope Leo XIV meets with Vatican Secretariat of State personnel on June 5, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media
CNA Newsroom, Jun 5, 2025 / 10:43 am (CNA).
Follow our live coverage of the pontificate of Pope Leo XIV, first U.S.-born pope in history.
Posted on 06/5/2025 14:00 PM (CNA Daily News)
South loop area of Chicago. / Credit: Sea Cow, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 5, 2025 / 10:00 am (CNA).
Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago is using a lobbying firm that supports pro-abortion political candidates and lobbies for abortion providers, raising concerns that the relationship could amount to cooperation with evil by the charitable entity.
Since 2022, Catholic Charities of Chicago has contracted with Cozen O’Connor Public Strategies to lobby on its behalf before the State of Illinois. Cozen O’Connor is a national lobbying firm with offices in major cities across the country, including New York; Washington, D.C.; and Chicago.
According to the Illinois State Board of Elections, Cozen O’Connor donated $3,500 in 2024 to Personal PAC, a political action committee in Illinois that supports pro-choice candidates at the state and local levels. The firm donated $3,000 in 2023 and $3,500 in 2024, while an individual employee of the firm donated $1,000 in 2024 and an additional $1,000 in 2025 to the pro-abortion organization.
Cozen O’Connor also gave $1,500 to Preckwinkle for President, the campaign fund for Cook County Board of Commissioners president and vocal abortion supporter Toni Preckwinkle. The firm also lobbies the state government on behalf of Rush University Medical Center, which performs abortions, according to a May 12 report by the Chicago Sun Times.
Catholic Charities of Chicago, the Archdiocese of Chicago, and Cozen O’Connor all declined to comment about the arrangement.
According to Cozen O’Connor’s website, the firm’s lobbyist assigned to the Catholic Charities of Chicago account is Patrick G. Martin, who is also a member of the Catholic Charities of Chicago Mercy Society and on its government advisory committee. According to public records, Martin himself does not appear to do any pro-abortion lobbying work.
Prior to hiring Cozen O’Connor, from 2016 to 2022, Catholic Charities of Chicago had employed Illinois lobbyist Nancy Kimme of Advantage Government Strategies. In 2019, Kimme, a pro-life Republican, brought on former Illinois Rep. Lou Lang, a Democrat, as a partner in the firm. While serving in the state Legislature, in 2017 Lang co-sponsored a bill that, among other things, removed language from state law describing an unborn child as a human being and allowed abortion to be covered by the state’s Medicaid program.
According to public records over the past five years, Lang also made multiple donations to Personal PAC.
Catholic Charities of Chicago is the official charitable arm of the Catholic Church in the third-largest city in the U.S., which is home to more than 2 million Catholics and is the birthplace of Pope Leo XIV. It operates with a budget of $180 million, according to its website, and has more than 1,200 employees, providing critical services that support children, families, and immigrants.
Catholic moral theology and the Church’s definitive teaching that human life is sacred from conception to natural death raise the question about whether it is considered cooperation with evil, and subsequently ethically problematic, for Catholic Charities to contract with a lobbying firm that supports abortion.
Catholic moral theology distinguishes between formal and material cooperation with evil. Formal cooperation is when someone who participates in an immoral act intends the same evil as the main person carrying it out. Material cooperation, however, is when a person participates in an evil act without intending the evil. The Church teaches that formal cooperation is always wrong, while some forms of material cooperation may be considered permissible.
The Church further distinguishes between immediate and mediate material cooperation. Immediate cooperation is when a person is involved in the essence of the act, even though he or she does not intend it, and is not permissible. Mediate cooperation is when a person’s actions are not necessary to the sinful act and which can be either remote or proximate to the act. The Church teaches that some forms of mediate cooperation can be permissible if the intended good outweighs the evil.
“The first thing you have to ask is whether it is the intention of Catholic Charities to promote abortion,” Benedictine College moral theology professor John Rziha told CNA.
“If the intention is to promote abortion, it is formal cooperation and evil, and it’s always wrong,” he continued. “I don’t think that’s the case here.”
The partnership between Catholic Charities and Cozen O’Connor, according to Rziha, is remote mediate material cooperation because Catholic Charities does not directly give its money to support abortion. In the context of the arrangement, Catholic Charities is significantly removed from the act of abortion itself.
“But that’s not the end of the diagnosis,” he said.
According to Rziha, in this case the level of cooperation with evil is “pretty low,” and therefore “it wouldn’t take a huge good to outweigh it, even though it is a bad action.”
However, he continued, “it’s a legitimate question whether Catholic Charities is actually undermining what they’re doing by contributing to a culture which goes against what the Church teaches.”
The Catholic University of America moral theology professor John Grabowski told CNA that some cases of material cooperation can be morally permissible “if there is a proportionally grave reason to tolerate the cooperation with evil.”
One factor Grabowski said could be “morally relevant” in terms of Catholic Charities of Chicago’s decision to engage Cozen O’Connor is that the Illinois state government is Democrat-controlled.
“They might make a prudential judgment and say, ‘This firm has a much better chance of being effective in its lobbying because they have definite connections to the people who are in positions of power in state government,’” he explained.
Because Catholic Charities provides many health-care-related services, Rziha pointed to the USCCB’s Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, in which U.S. bishops call on Catholic health care providers to consider whether particular collaborative arrangements with non-Catholic institutions entail material collaboration with evil that would give rise to scandal or undermine the Church’s witness.
“The bishops, and I think they’re right about this, would say … Catholic Charities should come out and attempt to explain what’s going on if this is becoming scandalous,” he said. “Because if they’re not witnessing to the faith and transforming culture as Catholic Charities, then they’re actually not doing nearly as much good as they think they are.”
Considering the issue, Rziha distinguished between direct scandal, when a person’s actions directly lead somebody else to do evil, and indirect scandal, when a person’s actions “contribute to a culture which is anti-Catholic or anti-Christian by its nature.”
Ultimately, Catholic Charities engaging a pro-abortion firm can be justified, according to Rziha, so long as the organization can overcome the issue of scandal and ensure that it is not undermining its pro-life witness. “I could understand,” he said, echoing Grabowski, that “this is a liberal state government: If [Catholic Charities] trusts this particular lobby firm, this may be the most effective way for it to lobby.”
However, he added, “I think that to address the issue of scandal, Catholic Charities should explain why they are choosing this firm and say that they are equivocally against abortion: ‘We work against it, and we’re trying to transform our culture by helping women to be empowered within the confines of Church teachings.’”
As Illinois Right to Life President Mary Kate Zander sees it, however, Catholic Charities of Chicago has “a responsibility to due diligence” in selecting a lobbying firm that is aligned with the pro-life cause.
Zander told CNA that Catholic Charities of Chicago CEO Sally Blount had personally assured her of her commitment to life issues when they met several years ago. “If I had the chance, I would encourage her to consider what that commitment looks like in action,” she added.
“Catholic Charities serves pregnant women in need every day,” Zander said, adding: “We are failing them if we are contributing to the proliferation of abortion in our state in any capacity.”
Posted on 06/5/2025 14:00 PM (CNA Daily News - US)
South loop area of Chicago. / Credit: Sea Cow, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 5, 2025 / 10:00 am (CNA).
Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago is using a lobbying firm that supports pro-abortion political candidates and lobbies for abortion providers, raising concerns that the relationship could amount to cooperation with evil by the charitable entity.
Since 2022, Catholic Charities of Chicago has contracted with Cozen O’Connor Public Strategies to lobby on its behalf before the State of Illinois. Cozen O’Connor is a national lobbying firm with offices in major cities across the country, including New York; Washington, D.C.; and Chicago.
According to the Illinois State Board of Elections, Cozen O’Connor donated $3,500 in 2024 to Personal PAC, a political action committee in Illinois that supports pro-choice candidates at the state and local levels. The firm donated $3,000 in 2023 and $3,500 in 2024, while an individual employee of the firm donated $1,000 in 2024 and an additional $1,000 in 2025 to the pro-abortion organization.
Cozen O’Connor also gave $1,500 to Preckwinkle for President, the campaign fund for Cook County Board of Commissioners president and vocal abortion supporter Toni Preckwinkle. The firm also lobbies the state government on behalf of Rush University Medical Center, which performs abortions, according to a May 12 report by the Chicago Sun Times.
Catholic Charities of Chicago, the Archdiocese of Chicago, and Cozen O’Connor all declined to comment about the arrangement.
According to Cozen O’Connor’s website, the firm’s lobbyist assigned to the Catholic Charities of Chicago account is Patrick G. Martin, who is also a member of the Catholic Charities of Chicago Mercy Society and on its government advisory committee. According to public records, Martin himself does not appear to do any pro-abortion lobbying work.
Prior to hiring Cozen O’Connor, from 2016 to 2022, Catholic Charities of Chicago had employed Illinois lobbyist Nancy Kimme of Advantage Government Strategies. In 2019, Kimme, a pro-life Republican, brought on former Illinois Rep. Lou Lang, a Democrat, as a partner in the firm. While serving in the state Legislature, in 2017 Lang co-sponsored a bill that, among other things, removed language from state law describing an unborn child as a human being and allowed abortion to be covered by the state’s Medicaid program.
According to public records over the past five years, Lang also made multiple donations to Personal PAC.
Catholic Charities of Chicago is the official charitable arm of the Catholic Church in the third-largest city in the U.S., which is home to more than 2 million Catholics and is the birthplace of Pope Leo XIV. It operates with a budget of $180 million, according to its website, and has more than 1,200 employees, providing critical services that support children, families, and immigrants.
Catholic moral theology and the Church’s definitive teaching that human life is sacred from conception to natural death raise the question about whether it is considered cooperation with evil, and subsequently ethically problematic, for Catholic Charities to contract with a lobbying firm that supports abortion.
Catholic moral theology distinguishes between formal and material cooperation with evil. Formal cooperation is when someone who participates in an immoral act intends the same evil as the main person carrying it out. Material cooperation, however, is when a person participates in an evil act without intending the evil. The Church teaches that formal cooperation is always wrong, while some forms of material cooperation may be considered permissible.
The Church further distinguishes between immediate and mediate material cooperation. Immediate cooperation is when a person is involved in the essence of the act, even though he or she does not intend it, and is not permissible. Mediate cooperation is when a person’s actions are not necessary to the sinful act and which can be either remote or proximate to the act. The Church teaches that some forms of mediate cooperation can be permissible if the intended good outweighs the evil.
“The first thing you have to ask is whether it is the intention of Catholic Charities to promote abortion,” Benedictine College moral theology professor John Rziha told CNA.
“If the intention is to promote abortion, it is formal cooperation and evil, and it’s always wrong,” he continued. “I don’t think that’s the case here.”
The partnership between Catholic Charities and Cozen O’Connor, according to Rziha, is remote mediate material cooperation because Catholic Charities does not directly give its money to support abortion. In the context of the arrangement, Catholic Charities is significantly removed from the act of abortion itself.
“But that’s not the end of the diagnosis,” he said.
According to Rziha, in this case the level of cooperation with evil is “pretty low,” and therefore “it wouldn’t take a huge good to outweigh it, even though it is a bad action.”
However, he continued, “it’s a legitimate question whether Catholic Charities is actually undermining what they’re doing by contributing to a culture which goes against what the Church teaches.”
The Catholic University of America moral theology professor John Grabowski told CNA that some cases of material cooperation can be morally permissible “if there is a proportionally grave reason to tolerate the cooperation with evil.”
One factor Grabowski said could be “morally relevant” in terms of Catholic Charities of Chicago’s decision to engage Cozen O’Connor is that the Illinois state government is Democrat-controlled.
“They might make a prudential judgment and say, ‘This firm has a much better chance of being effective in its lobbying because they have definite connections to the people who are in positions of power in state government,’” he explained.
Because Catholic Charities provides many health-care-related services, Rziha pointed to the USCCB’s Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, in which U.S. bishops call on Catholic health care providers to consider whether particular collaborative arrangements with non-Catholic institutions entail material collaboration with evil that would give rise to scandal or undermine the Church’s witness.
“The bishops, and I think they’re right about this, would say … Catholic Charities should come out and attempt to explain what’s going on if this is becoming scandalous,” he said. “Because if they’re not witnessing to the faith and transforming culture as Catholic Charities, then they’re actually not doing nearly as much good as they think they are.”
Considering the issue, Rziha distinguished between direct scandal, when a person’s actions directly lead somebody else to do evil, and indirect scandal, when a person’s actions “contribute to a culture which is anti-Catholic or anti-Christian by its nature.”
Ultimately, Catholic Charities engaging a pro-abortion firm can be justified, according to Rziha, so long as the organization can overcome the issue of scandal and ensure that it is not undermining its pro-life witness. “I could understand,” he said, echoing Grabowski, that “this is a liberal state government: If [Catholic Charities] trusts this particular lobby firm, this may be the most effective way for it to lobby.”
However, he added, “I think that to address the issue of scandal, Catholic Charities should explain why they are choosing this firm and say that they are equivocally against abortion: ‘We work against it, and we’re trying to transform our culture by helping women to be empowered within the confines of Church teachings.’”
As Illinois Right to Life President Mary Kate Zander sees it, however, Catholic Charities of Chicago has “a responsibility to due diligence” in selecting a lobbying firm that is aligned with the pro-life cause.
Zander told CNA that Catholic Charities of Chicago CEO Sally Blount had personally assured her of her commitment to life issues when they met several years ago. “If I had the chance, I would encourage her to consider what that commitment looks like in action,” she added.
“Catholic Charities serves pregnant women in need every day,” Zander said, adding: “We are failing them if we are contributing to the proliferation of abortion in our state in any capacity.”
Posted on 06/5/2025 12:54 PM (CNA Daily News)
Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux Bishop-elect Simon Peter Engurait. / Credit: Courtesy of the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux
Vatican City, Jun 5, 2025 / 08:54 am (CNA).
Pope Leo XIV on Thursday named Uganda-born Father Simon Peter Engurait, a former business analyst who became a priest at age 41, to lead the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux in southeastern Louisiana.
The 53-year-old priest, ordained for the diocese in 2013, has acted as diocesan administrator since the death of Bishop Mario Dorsonville in January 2024.
“While I am still shocked by the news that the Lord has asked me to be a bishop, I must admit that knowing the people of this diocese brings me great comfort in saying yes,” the bishop-elect said in a statement published to the Houma-Thibodaux Diocese’s website on June 5.
“South Louisiana is home, and I love the people here. It is a privilege to say yes to you as much as I am saying yes to God. I love you, and I consider it a great honor to serve you as your bishop,” he added.
Engurait, who was also the diocesan vicar general and served as pastor of St. Bridget Parish since 2017, was ordained a priest on May 25, 2013, after entering seminary in the diocese in 2007 at the age of 36.
The Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux in southeastern Louisiana has an estimated 90,000 Catholics, around 38% of the total population of the territory.
The diocese has many foreign-born priests. The diocese’s most recent bishop, the late Dorsonville, was also born outside of the U.S., in Bogotá, Colombia.
Bishop-elect Engurait was born in Ngora in the eastern region of Uganda on Aug. 28, 1971. He is the seventh of 14 children, one of whom is a female religious in the Franciscan order and another a diocesan priest.
He was raised Catholic and attended both junior high and high school minor seminaries. He started major seminary before dropping out midway to pursue a bachelor’s degree in political science and public administration at Makerere University in Kampala.
After graduation, Engurait worked for 11 years for the government of Uganda in the department for the reform and divestiture of public enterprises. He later pursued a graduate degree in business administration in the Netherlands and went on to work in human resources, procurement, and business analysis, holding positions from entry level to management.
While in major seminary as a young man in Uganda, he had a life-changing encounter with the Catholic charismatic renewal, leading him to get involved and hold leadership positions in the movement.
Through the charismatic renewal, he met Bishop Sam Jacobs, then the bishop of Houma-Thibodaux (bishop emeritus since 2013), in 2003. After years of prayer and discernment, Engurait was accepted into seminary in the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux by Jacobs in 2007.
Since his ordination in 2013, he has served as associate pastor in several parishes, including St. Bridget since 2017.
His various diocesan roles have included moderator of the curia and coordinator of Christian formation, vicar general for administration, and vicar general and moderator of the curia. He has also been a board member for Catholic Charities.
After the sudden death of Dorsonville on Jan. 19, 2024, Engurait was elected to administer the diocese until the appointment of a bishop. Bishop-elect Engurait will succeed Dorsonville as the diocese’s sixth bishop.
Posted on 06/5/2025 12:54 PM (CNA Daily News - US)
Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux Bishop-elect Simon Peter Engurait. / Credit: Courtesy of the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux
Vatican City, Jun 5, 2025 / 08:54 am (CNA).
Pope Leo XIV on Thursday named Uganda-born Father Simon Peter Engurait, a former business analyst who became a priest at age 41, to lead the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux in southeastern Louisiana.
The 53-year-old priest, ordained for the diocese in 2013, has acted as diocesan administrator since the death of Bishop Mario Dorsonville in January 2024.
“While I am still shocked by the news that the Lord has asked me to be a bishop, I must admit that knowing the people of this diocese brings me great comfort in saying yes,” the bishop-elect said in a statement published to the Houma-Thibodaux Diocese’s website on June 5.
“South Louisiana is home, and I love the people here. It is a privilege to say yes to you as much as I am saying yes to God. I love you, and I consider it a great honor to serve you as your bishop,” he added.
Engurait, who was also the diocesan vicar general and served as pastor of St. Bridget Parish since 2017, was ordained a priest on May 25, 2013, after entering seminary in the diocese in 2007 at the age of 36.
The Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux in southeastern Louisiana has an estimated 90,000 Catholics, around 38% of the total population of the territory.
The diocese has many foreign-born priests. The diocese’s most recent bishop, the late Dorsonville, was also born outside of the U.S., in Bogotá, Colombia.
Bishop-elect Engurait was born in Ngora in the eastern region of Uganda on Aug. 28, 1971. He is the seventh of 14 children, one of whom is a female religious in the Franciscan order and another a diocesan priest.
He was raised Catholic and attended both junior high and high school minor seminaries. He started major seminary before dropping out midway to pursue a bachelor’s degree in political science and public administration at Makerere University in Kampala.
After graduation, Engurait worked for 11 years for the government of Uganda in the department for the reform and divestiture of public enterprises. He later pursued a graduate degree in business administration in the Netherlands and went on to work in human resources, procurement, and business analysis, holding positions from entry level to management.
While in major seminary as a young man in Uganda, he had a life-changing encounter with the Catholic charismatic renewal, leading him to get involved and hold leadership positions in the movement.
Through the charismatic renewal, he met Bishop Sam Jacobs, then the bishop of Houma-Thibodaux (bishop emeritus since 2013), in 2003. After years of prayer and discernment, Engurait was accepted into seminary in the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux by Jacobs in 2007.
Since his ordination in 2013, he has served as associate pastor in several parishes, including St. Bridget since 2017.
His various diocesan roles have included moderator of the curia and coordinator of Christian formation, vicar general for administration, and vicar general and moderator of the curia. He has also been a board member for Catholic Charities.
After the sudden death of Dorsonville on Jan. 19, 2024, Engurait was elected to administer the diocese until the appointment of a bishop. Bishop-elect Engurait will succeed Dorsonville as the diocese’s sixth bishop.
Posted on 06/5/2025 12:00 PM (CNA Daily News)
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 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.”
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.
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.”
Posted on 06/5/2025 12:00 PM (CNA Daily News - Vatican)
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 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.”
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.
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.”