WASHINGTON - “We must renew our efforts to work for the conversion of heart required for a global commitment to lasting peace, and thus the elimination of nuclear weapons,” said Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, in a message marking the 80th anniversary of the use of atomic weapons on the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 

In his message, Archbishop Broglio underscored the importance of prayer and renewed efforts toward universal nuclear disarmament and lasting peace: 

“Certainly, the atrocities of war continue to be evident even in our ‘developed world,’ where human life is victimized in the womb, near death, on the streets of our modern cities, and in the various war zones of the contemporary world. We are slow to learn. Longing for peace, we pray for a change in mentality and an ever-deeper respect for every human person. We advocate that dollars be spent in favor of development rather than for arms. We pray that the attitudes and absence of dialogue that led to the use of atomic arms eighty years ago might give way to mutual understanding, peace building, and international cooperation. 

“As we mark this doleful anniversary, we recognize the ongoing threat of nuclear weapons and their proliferation. We must renew our efforts to work for the conversion of heart required for a global commitment to lasting peace, and thus the elimination of nuclear weapons. This week, let us prayerfully remember the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and urge the United States and the international community to work diligently for nuclear disarmament around the world. Following Pope Leo XIV’s recent appeal, we exhort all nations to ‘shape their future by works of peace, not through violence and bloody conflict!’” 

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CNA Newsroom, Aug 4, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).

A century after the patron saint of priests, St. John Vianney, died on Aug. 4, 1859, Pope John XXIII reflected on the life of the saint and what it means to be a holy priest.

In contemplating his life, one immediately thinks of a priest who lived out great penance and whose “only motives were the love of God and the desire for the salvation of the souls of his neighbors,” John XXIII said.

The saintly pope reflected on the life of Vianney in an encyclical titled Sacerdotii Nostri Primordia. The encyclical was written in 1959 for the 100th anniversary of Vianney’s death.

After struggling with his studies, John Vianney was ordained a priest in 1815. Shortly afterward, he was assigned to Ars, France, near his hometown of Dardilly. There, he spent the majority of his priesthood.

The devoted pastor was known for his dedication to the poor, his counseling to those in need, and for founding La Providence, an orphanage for girls.

He was also well known for his dedication to the sacrament of penance. He would make himself available for confession for up to 16 hours daily.

In his encyclical, Pope John XXIII called St. John Vianney a model of priestly holiness.

“[The priest] is no longer supposed to live for himself … He must be aflame with charity toward everyone. Not even his thoughts, his will, his feelings belong to him, for they are rather those of Jesus Christ who is his life,” he wrote, quoting a sermon from Pope Pius XII.

“St. John Mary Vianney is a person who attracts and practically pushes all of us to these heights of the priestly life,” John XXIII further added.

The pope highlighted the three evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience, which he said Vianney exemplified.

“His example in the various works of priestly asceticism still points out the safest path to follow, and in the midst of this example, his poverty, chastity, and obedience stand forth in a brilliant light,” the pope said of Vianney.

“What great benefits are conferred on human society by men like this who are free of the cares of the world and totally dedicated to the divine ministry so that they can employ their lives, thoughts, powers in the interest of their brethren!”

Pope John XXIII said Vianney, who was a member of the Third Order of St. Francis, clearly lived a life of poverty. He noted the saint’s heavy mortifications — restraining himself from food, sleep, and other personal belongings. 

“This detachment from external goods enabled him to offer the most devoted and touching care to the poor,” the pope said.

“He passed a life that was almost completely detached from the changeable, perishable goods of this world, and his spirit was free and unencumbered by impediments of this kind, so that it could always lie open to those who suffered from any kind of misery.”

Similarly, Pope John XXIII wrote, the preservation of chastity breaks the restraints of self-interest and grants a person greater dedication to those in need.

“St. John Mary Vianney has this pertinent comment to make in this regard: ‘A soul adorned with the virtue of chastity cannot help loving others; for it has discovered the source and font of love — God.’”

The pope also pointed to Vianney’s dedication to the virtue of obedience. The saint, he said, had desired a contemplative life rather than the heavy burden of pastoral duties, but he still remained obedient to his bishops.

“All his life he longed to lead a quiet and retired life in the background, and he regarded pastoral duties as a very heavy burden laid on his shoulders, and more than once he tried to free himself of it,” the pope said.

While God never allowed him to achieve this goal, it was certainly God’s way of forming the saint in the virtue of obedience, he said.

He also highlighted Vianney’s prayer life and devotion to the Eucharist, as well as his commitment to the sacrament of confession.

Pope John XXIII said Vianney “habitually restrained his own will” to further dedicate himself to the Church. He expressed hope that this fire for the Church that consumed Vianney may also consume all priests.

“It is said that St. John M. Vianney lived in the Church in such a way that he worked for it alone, and burned himself up like a piece of straw being consumed on fiery coals. May that flame which comes from the Holy Spirit reach those of us who have been raised to the priesthood of Jesus Christ and consume us too.”

This story was first published on Aug. 3, 2018, and has been updated.

CNA Newsroom, Aug 4, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).

The patron saint of priests, St. John Vianney, died Aug. 4, 1859. A century later, Pope John XXIII reflected on the life of the saint.

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Rome Newsroom, Aug 3, 2025 / 07:35 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Sunday announced that the dates of the next World Youth Day, to be held in Seoul, South Korea, will be Aug. 3–8, 2027.

“After this jubilee, the ‘pilgrimage of hope’ of young people continues and will take us to Asia,” the pontiff said in a message before praying the Angelus at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, 10 miles east of Rome, where he had just celebrated Mass for 1 million participants from 146 countries.

“I renew the invitation that Pope Francis extended in Lisbon two years ago,” he added, referring to World Youth Day in Portugal in 2023.

This new edition of World Youth Day, he said, will mark an important stage in the faith journey of the new generations. The theme will be: “Take courage, I have overcome the world.”

Leo XIV concluded his Angelus address with a powerful missionary call: “You, young pilgrims of hope, will be witnesses of this to the ends of the earth! I look forward to seeing you in Seoul: Let us continue to dream together and to hope together.”

The 2027 World Youth Day will be the first to be held in South Korea and the second in Asia, following the historic gathering of young people in Manila, Philippines, in 1995.

The pontiff defined the Jubilee of Youth, held in Rome from July 28 to Aug. 3, as “an outpouring of grace for the Church and for the whole world!” He also thanked the 1 million pilgrims who attended for their witness and enthusiasm.

In English, the pope recalled the teens and young adults who suffer in “every land bloodied by war” and mentioned in particular the young people of Gaza and Ukraine, whose lives are marked by the violence and uncertainty of war.

Leo XIV also spoke in Spanish, telling those present they are “the sign that a different world is possible.” He concluded in Italian with the affirmation that with Christ, faith is possible: “with his love, with his forgiveness, and with the power of his Spirit.”

Mass at Tor Vergata

The pope could not contain his emotion at his second and final grand meeting with young people on the 237-acre grounds of Tor Vergata, where more than 1 million young pilgrims had spent the night following a prayer vigil and Eucharistic adoration led by Leo on Aug. 2.

A burst of joy swept through the area upon seeing the pontiff descend from the helicopter on the morning of Aug. 3. After an intense night of vigil, marked by a moving moment of silent Eucharistic adoration, Leo XIV told the young people that they are not made for a life that is “taken for granted and static, but for an existence that is constantly renewed through gift of self in love.”

The Jubilee of Youth, part of the Catholic Church’s yearlong Jubilee of Hope in 2025, has served as a bridge between the American pope and young people, with whom he has been able to strengthen a relationship thanks to his ability to speak three languages.

In his homily, Pope Leo invited the pilgrims to open their hearts to God and venture with him “towards eternity.”

Most of the pontiff’s homily was delivered in Italian, with short paragraphs in English and Spanish.

The pope focused on the human desire for fulfillment and asked the young people not to satisfy the thirst of their hearts with “cheap imitations.”

“There is a burning question in our hearts, a need for truth that we cannot ignore, which leads us to ask ourselves: What is true happiness? What is the true meaning of life? What can free us from being trapped in meaninglessness, boredom, and mediocrity?” he said.

Thus, he invited everyone to turn their desire for more into “a step stool, like children who stand on tiptoe, in order to peer through the window of encounter with God. We will then find ourselves before him, who is waiting for us, knocking gently on the window of our soul.”

During the Mass, the pope also addressed the experience of the limits and finiteness of things that happen, saying that these topics should not be taboo or topics “to be avoided.”

“The fragility they speak of is, in fact, part of the marvel of creation,” he emphasized, after quoting from the reading from Ecclesiastes. 

“Think of the image of grass: Is not a field of flowers beautiful? Of course, it is delicate, made up of small, vulnerable stems, prone to drying out, to being bent and broken. Yet at the same time these flowers are immediately replaced by others that sprout up after them, generously nourished and fertilized by the first ones as they decay on the ground,” he said.

He emphasized: “We too, dear friends, are made this way, we are made for this.”

Reflecting on the readings at Mass, the Holy Father made it clear that “buying, hoarding, and consuming are not enough.”

And he added: “We need to lift our eyes, to look upwards, to the ‘things that are above’ (Col 3:2), to realize that everything in the world has meaning only insofar as it serves to unite us to God and to our brothers and sisters in charity, helping us to grow in ‘compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience’ (Col 3:12).”

Evoking St. John Paul II, the founder of World Youth Days, he proclaimed: “Jesus is our hope.”

“It is he, as St. John Paul II said, ‘who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives ... to commit … to improving yourselves and society, making the world more human and more fraternal,’” Leo said.

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

Rome Newsroom, Aug 3, 2025 / 07:35 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Sunday announced that the dates of the next World Youth Day, to be held in Seoul, South Korea, will be Aug. 3–8, 2027.

“After this jubilee, the ‘pilgrimage of hope’ of young people continues and will take us to Asia,” the pontiff said in a message before praying the Angelus at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, 10 miles east of Rome, where he had just celebrated Mass for 1 million participants from 146 countries.

“I renew the invitation that Pope Francis extended in Lisbon two years ago,” he added, referring to World Youth Day in Portugal in 2023.

This new edition of World Youth Day, he said, will mark an important stage in the faith journey of the new generations. The theme will be: “Take courage, I have overcome the world.”

Leo XIV concluded his Angelus address with a powerful missionary call: “You, young pilgrims of hope, will be witnesses of this to the ends of the earth! I look forward to seeing you in Seoul: Let us continue to dream together and to hope together.”

The 2027 World Youth Day will be the first to be held in South Korea and the second in Asia, following the historic gathering of young people in Manila, Philippines, in 1995.

The pontiff defined the Jubilee of Youth, held in Rome from July 28 to Aug. 3, as “an outpouring of grace for the Church and for the whole world!” He also thanked the 1 million pilgrims who attended for their witness and enthusiasm.

In English, the pope recalled the teens and young adults who suffer in “every land bloodied by war” and mentioned in particular the young people of Gaza and Ukraine, whose lives are marked by the violence and uncertainty of war.

Leo XIV also spoke in Spanish, telling those present they are “the sign that a different world is possible.” He concluded in Italian with the affirmation that with Christ, faith is possible: “with his love, with his forgiveness, and with the power of his Spirit.”

Mass at Tor Vergata

The pope could not contain his emotion at his second and final grand meeting with young people on the 237-acre grounds of Tor Vergata, where more than 1 million young pilgrims had spent the night following a prayer vigil and Eucharistic adoration led by Leo on Aug. 2.

A burst of joy swept through the area upon seeing the pontiff descend from the helicopter on the morning of Aug. 3. After an intense night of vigil, marked by a moving moment of silent Eucharistic adoration, Leo XIV told the young people that they are not made for a life that is “taken for granted and static, but for an existence that is constantly renewed through gift of self in love.”

The Jubilee of Youth, part of the Catholic Church’s yearlong Jubilee of Hope in 2025, has served as a bridge between the American pope and young people, with whom he has been able to strengthen a relationship thanks to his ability to speak three languages.

In his homily, Pope Leo invited the pilgrims to open their hearts to God and venture with him “towards eternity.”

Most of the pontiff’s homily was delivered in Italian, with short paragraphs in English and Spanish.

The pope focused on the human desire for fulfillment and asked the young people not to satisfy the thirst of their hearts with “cheap imitations.”

“There is a burning question in our hearts, a need for truth that we cannot ignore, which leads us to ask ourselves: What is true happiness? What is the true meaning of life? What can free us from being trapped in meaninglessness, boredom, and mediocrity?” he said.

Thus, he invited everyone to turn their desire for more into “a step stool, like children who stand on tiptoe, in order to peer through the window of encounter with God. We will then find ourselves before him, who is waiting for us, knocking gently on the window of our soul.”

During the Mass, the pope also addressed the experience of the limits and finiteness of things that happen, saying that these topics should not be taboo or topics “to be avoided.”

“The fragility they speak of is, in fact, part of the marvel of creation,” he emphasized, after quoting from the reading from Ecclesiastes. 

“Think of the image of grass: Is not a field of flowers beautiful? Of course, it is delicate, made up of small, vulnerable stems, prone to drying out, to being bent and broken. Yet at the same time these flowers are immediately replaced by others that sprout up after them, generously nourished and fertilized by the first ones as they decay on the ground,” he said.

He emphasized: “We too, dear friends, are made this way, we are made for this.”

Reflecting on the readings at Mass, the Holy Father made it clear that “buying, hoarding, and consuming are not enough.”

And he added: “We need to lift our eyes, to look upwards, to the ‘things that are above’ (Col 3:2), to realize that everything in the world has meaning only insofar as it serves to unite us to God and to our brothers and sisters in charity, helping us to grow in ‘compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience’ (Col 3:12).”

Evoking St. John Paul II, the founder of World Youth Days, he proclaimed: “Jesus is our hope.”

“It is he, as St. John Paul II said, ‘who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives ... to commit … to improving yourselves and society, making the world more human and more fraternal,’” Leo said.

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

ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 3, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

What if with a click you could find when the next Mass closest to your location will be?

That’s what Argentine computer science graduate Pablo Licheri envisioned. Eleven years ago, he made it possible for the faithful to participate in the Eucharist even when traveling and far from home by creating Catholic Mass Times, an app available in nine languages that instantly shows you the nearest Catholic churches with Mass, confession, and adoration times.

“If we are 1.3 billion Catholics, imagine what we can do if we also use our cellphones to get closer to God!” Licheri told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. He made the app using his own computer, programming it on weekends.

From zero to viral, without marketing or sponsorship

There is no company or major investors behind the technology. Not even advertising. “For almost 10 years, my wife and I financed everything,” Licheri said. To get the app up and running, “we worked really hard and used our own money, with time stolen from rest,” he explained.

Called Horarios de Misa in Spanish, the app surpassed 2 million downloads last week and has become the largest Catholic database in the world, with information on 125,000 churches.

There have been many challenges in compiling the information. Of the 3,000 dioceses worldwide, 70% don’t have a website. “I tried to contact the dioceses and parishes, but they often didn’t respond. Especially in the poorest countries. This reality is very different from what we see in countries like the United States, where dioceses operate almost like large companies,” he explained.

Consequently, he made a key decision to collect the data. He designed the app so that users can send information directly from it. “I personally uploaded all the churches in Buenos Aires, which were more than 200. Then people started traveling and sending information ... and that’s how it grew.”

The app has an internal team that updates the information. Through corrections provided by users, diocesan websites, or Google Maps, the Catholic Mass Times team fine-tunes any information that may have changed.

In fact, when you enter the app and select a Mass time, you can see the latest verification date.

The app also includes exotic destinations like the Maldives, where the public practice of any religion other than Islam is prohibited.

“I thought there wouldn’t be any churches there. But I found out that at the Italian consulate, if you’re a foreigner and ask for permission, you can attend Mass. So, there’s the only Mass there is in that country, and it’s on the app,” Licheri explained.

Available on Android and IOS, the app’s simple and intuitive interface makes it an indispensable tool, especially for those traveling for work, vacation, or moving to a new city.

In addition to its primary function, the app has a pastoral and educational dimension: For the past three years, a weekly newsletter on faith, devotions, and Eucharistic reflections has been sent every Saturday, reaching more than 52,000 subscribers.

“It’s a concrete tool for getting closer to God,” Licheri said.

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

CNA Staff, Aug 3, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Most people don’t go to graduate school for the rich liturgical life. But that’s exactly what Adelyn Phillips has found at “Teachers for Christ,” a nascent Catholic master’s program in St. Louis, where she is one of 12 students this summer. 

Phillips said she has found a vibrant community, structured daily prayer, and solid theological formation. “My time in this program has already been incomparably rich,” she said of the program. 

“Never before have I experienced such a beautiful integration of my faith, studies, and friendships,” she said. “I have been encouraged and called higher by the good example of my peers and have been greatly nourished by the liturgical life on campus.” 

After nearly two months into the budding Catholic education graduate program, housed just north of St. Louis along the Missouri River, Phillips is not the only student to have found herself in a formative spiritual oasis.

“When I discovered the Teachers for Christ program, it was like a dream come true,” said Dylan Bufkin, another student of the program, which is run by two leading Catholic education organizations: Augustine Institute and Institute for Catholic Liberal Education (ICLE).

After a year of teaching, Bufkin knew that he “had a deep love for teaching and Catholic education.” But he felt a tension between “the modern vision of education” and “a more humanistic approach to curriculum.”

So, he came to St. Louis. There, he found that the “campus’ spirituality underlies and drives a rich community that is fundamentally about holy and intellectual friendship.”

“Here was a place that was partnering with master teachers through the Institute of Catholic Liberal Education to provide expert counsel and wisdom to its students and was dedicated to forming teachers in the educational tradition of the Church,” Bufkin said. “It only helped that my intellectual heroes, like St. John Henry Newman and St. Thomas Aquinas, were front and center in the program’s self-understanding.”

The two-year program centers on spiritual formation alongside theological studies and practical application.

Teachers for Christ, Phillips said, “places tremendous emphasis on our spiritual and human formation.”

“Our curriculum beautifully incorporates faith and reason, and our common life as students on campus is full of shared work and play,” Phillips said. “Everything is ordered toward bringing us closer to God, so that we can in turn bring others closer to him.”

For Bufkin, there’s one word for it: “blessed.”

“We are so blessed to have consistent opportunity for devotion and liturgical prayer that constantly feeds us with the grace needed to pursue holiness as a student, whether that means going back to the books after dinner or serving our classmates’ needs before our own,” Bufkin said.

“The rigor, the friendships, the grace are so life-giving, and I would be hard-pressed to find a better campus to be the background of all this wonderful growth,” Bufkin added.

Educational renewal 

Like a monastery, there is no rent or tuition. For the first 14 months of the program, graduate students live, study, and pray on scholarship as part of the debt-free program.

During the program’s second year, students have a practical year at one of ICLE’s member schools where the schools provide housing and financial support.

After graduation, the program offers placement assistance as well as a yearlong mentorship with ICLE staff and master teachers.

The debt-free, scholarship-based program is designed to give students “a firm theological foundation” while forming them as educators, according to Jeffrey Lehman, the Augustine Institute philosophy and theology professor who directs Teachers for Christ.

During the program, students receive what Lehman calls “whole person formation.” In addition to their studies, students live in community, attend daily Mass, and pray morning and evening prayer together. 

Theology classes, which make up a third of the program’s coursework, ground students in “the Church’s ongoing efforts to evangelize and to bear witness to the truth of the Gospel,” Lehman said.

Funded by donors with a passion for Catholic education, the program is part of an ongoing effort to revive classical teaching. Through the program, students receive accreditation from ICLE, which provides a national alternative to the state teacher licensure. 

Students also receive practical training, with classroom apprenticeship opportunities at Catholic schools in the surrounding area. For the second year of the program, students are placed at one of the more than 200 ICLE member schools in the U.S. 

Across the nation and the world, a “great renewal of Catholic education” is underway, Lehman said.

“In recent decades, a grassroots educational renewal, long referred to as ‘classical education,’ has been growing and maturing throughout the United States,” Lehman explained.

The revival of classical education stretches across denominations and religious affiliations. It can be found everywhere from Catholic parish schools to the Chesterton Academies to publicly-funded charter schools like Great Hearts Academies or even the Jewish prep school Emet Classical Academy in New York.

But classical education, Lehman said, is returning to its source — Catholic education.

“As the renewal grows and matures, it returns more and more to the theory and practice of Catholic education that stretches back from the present to the earliest encounter between Christianity and the pedagogical traditions of Greece and Rome,” Lehman said.

Classical Catholic K-8’s are growing in popularity across the U.S., with success stories from Massachusetts to Colorado. But while Catholic liberal arts education may be trending, it’s nothing new.

“From very early in her own history, the Catholic Church has been the greatest definer, defender, and provider of a truly liberal education,” Lehman said.

This classical Catholic emphasis makes the program unique among graduate programs.

“In a way that is unparalleled among other master’s in education programs, ours is grounded in a solid philosophy and anthropology,” Phillips said.

“We recognize that we cannot teach well without an understanding of the truth about the world around us, ourselves, and our Creator,” she added.