Posted on 07/16/2025 19:45 PM (Catholic News Agency)
View of the mass grave at the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in the town of Tuam, County Galway. / Credit: AugusteBlanqui, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Rome Newsroom, Jul 16, 2025 / 15:45 pm (CNA).
A team of archaeologists, anthropologists, and forensic scientists have begun excavating an old septic tank this week at the former St. Mary's Mother and Baby Home run by the Bon Secours Sisters
Posted on 07/16/2025 19:30 PM (CNA Daily News)
Mosaic of Mary, Virgin Immaculate, in the Chapel of the Choir in St. Peter's Basilica, Rome. / Daniel Ibañez/CNA
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 16, 2025 / 15:30 pm (CNA).
A new study has found that “reciting the rosary privately” is the most popular Marian devotion among those discerning a religious vocation.
The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University published its June 2025 report: “Impact of Mary, Mother of the Church, on Ecclesial Vocations,” which includes results from six surveys with 1,091 respondents, 65% of whom were diocesan personnel in the U.S. — including bishops (9%), diocesan priests (40%), permanent deacons (10%), and deacon directors (7%).
U.S. religious men and women accounted for the other 35% of respondents including religious priests (6%), major superiors of men (8%), and major superiors of women (21%). The majority of respondents are Latin Rite Catholic (95%), and 5% are Eastern Rite Catholic.
The surveys were conducted by CARA in collaboration with the Diocese of Saginaw from March to May 2025.
The study found that 59% of respondents reported that their devotion to Mary has had either “a meaningful impact” or “a great impact” on their “original sense of a vocation to serve Christ and the Church.” Religious priests (71%) were most likely to report so, while responding deacon directors (49%) were least likely.
The survey found that the most popular Marian devotion when discerning a vocation was “reciting the rosary privately.” Seven in 10 respondents reported that it “positively impacted them during their discernment period,” specifically among bishops, with 80% reporting that it did.
When discerning a vocation to a particular religious community or diocese, 35% of respondents reported that a Marian dimension of that community was “significant" or "very significant.”
Responding priests were found to be the most likely to report that the Marian dimension held some form of significance (47%) and deacon directors were the least likely (30%).
Of all survey respondents, 44% reported that they visited at least one apparition site before deciding on their current ecclesial vocation. Nearly three in 10 made pilgrimages to Guadalupe (29%) and Lourdes (28%), which were the two most common sites mentioned.
Marian devotions related to Fátima, Lourdes, and Guadalupe were the most likely to have impacted a respondent’s “original sense of ecclesial vocation.” Of respondents, 44% reported Marian devotions related to Fatima had “a meaningful impact” or “a great impact” on their original sense of an ecclesial vocation, 43% to Lourdes, and 31% to Guadalupe.
When asked about their current devotion to Mary in a religious order, nearly all respondents (89%) reported they have a "strong devotion” (58%) or “some devotion” (31%).
An average of 75% of respondents reported that their devotion to Mary has either “strengthened” (34%) or “very much strengthened” (41%) them while living out their ecclesial vocation. A combined 80% reported that they turn to Mary for spiritual assistance “often” (36%) or “very often” (44%).
The study found that 80% of respondents indicated that their devotion to Mary has had either a “meaningful impact” (58%) or a “great impact” (22%) on their devotion to the Eucharist.
Reciting the rosary alone (72%) was the most frequent Marian devotion that respondents reported doing “weekly” or “daily,” specifically among responding bishops with 87% answering that they do. Other popular Marian devotions included meditative or contemplative prayer with Our Lady (46%), reciting the rosary with others (37%), and reading spiritual writings on Mary (28%).
Of respondents, 77% said at least one Marian site and its related devotions have strengthened them while living out their ecclesial vocation. Guadalupe (63%), Lourdes (59%), and Fátima (53%) were the most frequently mentioned. Responding bishops were most likely to report that Guadalupe (77%) and Lourdes (72%) have strengthened them.
Out of 710 respondents who specified how they view Mary in their lives, 167 expressed experiencing Mary’s presence in their life as a “companion, friend, guide and comforter.” One respondent said: “Mary stands by me each day as I celebrate holy Mass, just as she stood by Christ at the foot of the Cross,” while another said Mary "is my comfort whenever I am afraid.”
A total of 129 respondents expressed that Mary plays the role of “intercessor” in their lives. One specified: “I wouldn't be who I am today, or where I am today, if it were not for Mary's intercessory role in my life.”
A total of 121 respondents answered that Mary plays the role of a “mother” in their ecclesial vocation. A respondent wrote that Mary as a mother “has always been there and continues to be there. I love her even more as I grow in my awareness of her love for me.”
The majority of respondents (74%) said the Catholic Church places the “right amount of emphasis” on devotion to Mary. Among the others, 5% reported that there is “too much emphasis” and 21% said there is “not enough emphasis.”
Posted on 07/16/2025 19:30 PM (CNA Daily News - US)
Mosaic of Mary, Virgin Immaculate, in the Chapel of the Choir in St. Peter's Basilica, Rome. / Daniel Ibañez/CNA
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 16, 2025 / 15:30 pm (CNA).
A new study has found that “reciting the rosary privately” is the most popular Marian devotion among those discerning a religious vocation.
The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University published its June 2025 report: “Impact of Mary, Mother of the Church, on Ecclesial Vocations,” which includes results from six surveys with 1,091 respondents, 65% of whom were diocesan personnel in the U.S. — including bishops (9%), diocesan priests (40%), permanent deacons (10%), and deacon directors (7%).
U.S. religious men and women accounted for the other 35% of respondents including religious priests (6%), major superiors of men (8%), and major superiors of women (21%). The majority of respondents are Latin Rite Catholic (95%), and 5% are Eastern Rite Catholic.
The surveys were conducted by CARA in collaboration with the Diocese of Saginaw from March to May 2025.
The study found that 59% of respondents reported that their devotion to Mary has had either “a meaningful impact” or “a great impact” on their “original sense of a vocation to serve Christ and the Church.” Religious priests (71%) were most likely to report so, while responding deacon directors (49%) were least likely.
The survey found that the most popular Marian devotion when discerning a vocation was “reciting the rosary privately.” Seven in 10 respondents reported that it “positively impacted them during their discernment period,” specifically among bishops, with 80% reporting that it did.
When discerning a vocation to a particular religious community or diocese, 35% of respondents reported that a Marian dimension of that community was “significant" or "very significant.”
Responding priests were found to be the most likely to report that the Marian dimension held some form of significance (47%) and deacon directors were the least likely (30%).
Of all survey respondents, 44% reported that they visited at least one apparition site before deciding on their current ecclesial vocation. Nearly three in 10 made pilgrimages to Guadalupe (29%) and Lourdes (28%), which were the two most common sites mentioned.
Marian devotions related to Fátima, Lourdes, and Guadalupe were the most likely to have impacted a respondent’s “original sense of ecclesial vocation.” Of respondents, 44% reported Marian devotions related to Fatima had “a meaningful impact” or “a great impact” on their original sense of an ecclesial vocation, 43% to Lourdes, and 31% to Guadalupe.
When asked about their current devotion to Mary in a religious order, nearly all respondents (89%) reported they have a "strong devotion” (58%) or “some devotion” (31%).
An average of 75% of respondents reported that their devotion to Mary has either “strengthened” (34%) or “very much strengthened” (41%) them while living out their ecclesial vocation. A combined 80% reported that they turn to Mary for spiritual assistance “often” (36%) or “very often” (44%).
The study found that 80% of respondents indicated that their devotion to Mary has had either a “meaningful impact” (58%) or a “great impact” (22%) on their devotion to the Eucharist.
Reciting the rosary alone (72%) was the most frequent Marian devotion that respondents reported doing “weekly” or “daily,” specifically among responding bishops with 87% answering that they do. Other popular Marian devotions included meditative or contemplative prayer with Our Lady (46%), reciting the rosary with others (37%), and reading spiritual writings on Mary (28%).
Of respondents, 77% said at least one Marian site and its related devotions have strengthened them while living out their ecclesial vocation. Guadalupe (63%), Lourdes (59%), and Fátima (53%) were the most frequently mentioned. Responding bishops were most likely to report that Guadalupe (77%) and Lourdes (72%) have strengthened them.
Out of 710 respondents who specified how they view Mary in their lives, 167 expressed experiencing Mary’s presence in their life as a “companion, friend, guide and comforter.” One respondent said: “Mary stands by me each day as I celebrate holy Mass, just as she stood by Christ at the foot of the Cross,” while another said Mary "is my comfort whenever I am afraid.”
A total of 129 respondents expressed that Mary plays the role of “intercessor” in their lives. One specified: “I wouldn't be who I am today, or where I am today, if it were not for Mary's intercessory role in my life.”
A total of 121 respondents answered that Mary plays the role of a “mother” in their ecclesial vocation. A respondent wrote that Mary as a mother “has always been there and continues to be there. I love her even more as I grow in my awareness of her love for me.”
The majority of respondents (74%) said the Catholic Church places the “right amount of emphasis” on devotion to Mary. Among the others, 5% reported that there is “too much emphasis” and 21% said there is “not enough emphasis.”
Posted on 07/16/2025 16:05 PM (CNA Daily News)
The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference is urging lawmakers to prohibit surrogacy in all cases in a letter submitted on July 9, 2025. / Credit: Shutterstock
CNA Newsroom, Jul 16, 2025 / 12:05 pm (CNA).
The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference has urged the Australian Law Reform Commission to ban all forms of surrogacy, including “altruistic” arrangements, in a nine-page letter highlighting the “profound harms” of the practice.
“The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference calls on the Law Reform Commission to recommend the prohibition of all forms of surrogacy in Australia,” the bishops write in the letter, which was shared with CNA.
“A woman is not a machine for reproduction,” the bishops argue in the letter, “she is a person made in the image of God, called to bear life with love, freedom, and dignity.”
“Surrogacy reduces this sacred role [of motherhood] to a service contract—an arrangement that denies the women’s full humanity,” the letter says. “Surrogacy attempts to divide a woman's body from her identity, as though she could be a vessel without being a mother.”
Submitted to the commission on July 9 by Sydney Auxiliary Bishop Tony Percy — the conference’s delegate for life issues — the letter asserts that current laws fail to protect women and children from exploitation and trauma, emphasizing that children "have no voice" in surrogacy arrangements and deserve to be "received in love, not produced as part of a contractual arrangement."
“While the pain of infertility is real and deserving of compassion, not all responses to suffering are just. Surrogacy introduces new and profound harms,” the bishops say in the letter, noting the practice places both women and children at heightened risk for medical and emotional trauma.
“For children,” the letter continues, “it breaches core human rights, including identity, parentage, and protection from commodification, which are rights affirmed by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.”
Commercial surrogacy, where surrogate mothers are paid to carry the child, is illegal in Australia. Only “altruistic” surrogacy, where the mother’s pregnancy expenses are covered but she makes no profit, is considered lawful.
Because commercial surrogacy is illegal, Australian state and territory courts will generally not recognize those who engage in a commercial surrogacy arrangement as the legal parents of the child born through it.
Some states, however, including New South Wales, have passed laws that allow the granting of legal parentage in certain circumstances after a commercial arrangement. The pathways, however, “often require admitting criminal conduct to the court,” according to the Review of Surrogacy Laws being considered by the law commission.
“It is concerning that although commercial surrogacy is banned in Australia, including overseas arrangements in several jurisdictions, these laws are rarely enforced,” the bishops point out in their letter.
“As a result, Australians are continuing to commission children through international commercial surrogacy with little scrutiny or consequence, undermining the intent of the legal prohibitions which are to protect children.”
The bishops’ letter includes testimony from former surrogate mothers who experienced “deep emotional, physical, and spiritual harm” when participating in the practice.
One mother, identified as Cathy, stated: "The pain never goes away. I am still an emotional basket case and struggle every day with this… When I signed the paper, I thought I could do it. I did not realize it would break my heart. The pain and emptiness I feel have been unbearable.”
Another woman, called Sherrie, said: “I can’t describe the depth of sadness I felt when I came home without the child I loved, carried within me, and gave birth to. It was as if I had a child die.”
She continued: “I just couldn’t help but love this child like my own, because it was my own… As I watched their car driving away that day on the gravel road, I felt like the dust left behind to scatter in the corn fields.”
Ultimately, the bishops in the letter express deep concern for the terms of the review conducted by the commission, which they say “appear[s] to prioritize easier access to surrogacy,” rather than promoting the “fundamental rights and dignity of women and children.”
“We reject the idea that expanding surrogacy serves the best interests of children or respects human dignity,” they write. “Any legal reform must begin with a clear commitment to protect children from commodification, women from exploitation, and society from the normalization of contract-based human reproduction.”
Posted on 07/16/2025 16:05 PM (CNA Daily News - US)
The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference is urging lawmakers to prohibit surrogacy in all cases in a letter submitted on July 9, 2025. / Credit: Shutterstock
CNA Newsroom, Jul 16, 2025 / 12:05 pm (CNA).
The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference has urged the Australian Law Reform Commission to ban all forms of surrogacy, including “altruistic” arrangements, in a nine-page letter highlighting the “profound harms” of the practice.
“The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference calls on the Law Reform Commission to recommend the prohibition of all forms of surrogacy in Australia,” the bishops write in the letter, which was shared with CNA.
“A woman is not a machine for reproduction,” the bishops argue in the letter, “she is a person made in the image of God, called to bear life with love, freedom, and dignity.”
“Surrogacy reduces this sacred role [of motherhood] to a service contract—an arrangement that denies the women’s full humanity,” the letter says. “Surrogacy attempts to divide a woman's body from her identity, as though she could be a vessel without being a mother.”
Submitted to the commission on July 9 by Sydney Auxiliary Bishop Tony Percy — the conference’s delegate for life issues — the letter asserts that current laws fail to protect women and children from exploitation and trauma, emphasizing that children "have no voice" in surrogacy arrangements and deserve to be "received in love, not produced as part of a contractual arrangement."
“While the pain of infertility is real and deserving of compassion, not all responses to suffering are just. Surrogacy introduces new and profound harms,” the bishops say in the letter, noting the practice places both women and children at heightened risk for medical and emotional trauma.
“For children,” the letter continues, “it breaches core human rights, including identity, parentage, and protection from commodification, which are rights affirmed by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.”
Commercial surrogacy, where surrogate mothers are paid to carry the child, is illegal in Australia. Only “altruistic” surrogacy, where the mother’s pregnancy expenses are covered but she makes no profit, is considered lawful.
Because commercial surrogacy is illegal, Australian state and territory courts will generally not recognize those who engage in a commercial surrogacy arrangement as the legal parents of the child born through it.
Some states, however, including New South Wales, have passed laws that allow the granting of legal parentage in certain circumstances after a commercial arrangement. The pathways, however, “often require admitting criminal conduct to the court,” according to the Review of Surrogacy Laws being considered by the law commission.
“It is concerning that although commercial surrogacy is banned in Australia, including overseas arrangements in several jurisdictions, these laws are rarely enforced,” the bishops point out in their letter.
“As a result, Australians are continuing to commission children through international commercial surrogacy with little scrutiny or consequence, undermining the intent of the legal prohibitions which are to protect children.”
The bishops’ letter includes testimony from former surrogate mothers who experienced “deep emotional, physical, and spiritual harm” when participating in the practice.
One mother, identified as Cathy, stated: "The pain never goes away. I am still an emotional basket case and struggle every day with this… When I signed the paper, I thought I could do it. I did not realize it would break my heart. The pain and emptiness I feel have been unbearable.”
Another woman, called Sherrie, said: “I can’t describe the depth of sadness I felt when I came home without the child I loved, carried within me, and gave birth to. It was as if I had a child die.”
She continued: “I just couldn’t help but love this child like my own, because it was my own… As I watched their car driving away that day on the gravel road, I felt like the dust left behind to scatter in the corn fields.”
Ultimately, the bishops in the letter express deep concern for the terms of the review conducted by the commission, which they say “appear[s] to prioritize easier access to surrogacy,” rather than promoting the “fundamental rights and dignity of women and children.”
“We reject the idea that expanding surrogacy serves the best interests of children or respects human dignity,” they write. “Any legal reform must begin with a clear commitment to protect children from commodification, women from exploitation, and society from the normalization of contract-based human reproduction.”
Posted on 07/16/2025 14:30 PM (CNA Daily News - Vatican)
Leonardo Donno and Moreno il Biondo in action during the Charity Soccer Match "Partita del Cuore" on July 15, 2025 in L'Aquila, Italy. / Credit: Antonio Masiello/Getty Images
Vatican City, Jul 16, 2025 / 10:30 am (CNA).
Pope Leo XIV has encouraged encounter and unity in a message to the players and spectators of a soccer game to support sick and injured children from war zones.
“It is still possible — it is always possible — to encounter one another, even in a time of divisions, bombs, and wars,” the pope said in a video played at the July 15 match in L’Aquila, a city in the Italian region of Abruzzo.
A team of music artists beat out a bipartisan group of Italian politicians 8-6 in the friendly “Partita del Cuore” (“Game of the Heart”).
The 34th edition of the event raised funds for significantly ill or injured children from poor and war-torn countries to receive free treatment at one of Europe’s top children’s hospitals, the Vatican-owned Bambino Gesù. The project is also supported by the Catholic charity Caritas Italia.
In his message, played before a sold-out Gran Sasso d’Italia Stadium and two million television viewers, Leo underlined the importance of challenging divisions by coming together to contribute to a good cause.
“Sport — when experienced well by those who practice it and those who cheer them on — has this great thing about it, that it transforms confrontation into encounter, division into inclusion, loneliness into community,” he said.
Tiziano Onesti, the president of the Bambino Gesù Pediatric Hospital, told CNA the hospital is “always on the front lines” of supporting children in need.
“We take in many children who come from all over the world,” he said, especially those with complex illnesses, like leukemia, or serious injuries and mutilation from bombings.
While the children — some of whom come from Ukraine and Gaza — are hospitalized, their families “are welcomed in these reception centers where they don’t spend a penny, they don’t pay anything. The hospital covers all the expenses,” Onesti explained.
In his message, Pope Leo said the charity match recalled for him another famous soccer game, played during the Christmas truce of December 1914 between French, British, and German soldiers, near Ypres, Belgium.
The pontiff also pointed to the politicians participating in the game, saying it shows that “politics can unite rather than divide, if it does not settle for propaganda that feeds on the creation of enemies, but engages in the difficult and necessary art of dialogue, which seeks the common good.”
“In this case, match means encounter. An encounter where even opponents find a cause that unites them,” the pope said.
Players on the winning “singers” team included some of Italy’s most popular artists across the genres of rap, hip-hop, pop, and rock.
Matteo Renzi, a senator and former prime minister of Italy, played on the politicians team alongside other national politicians. Three members of the government also took part: the Italian ministers of economy and finance, of agriculture, and of culture.
“The atmosphere was obviously first and foremost festive, fun, a moment of encounter between opponents, politicians and singers,” Onesti said. “But also within the political sphere, there were people from all sides; it was very bipartisan, both right and left.”
The Bambino Gesù, founded by a wealthy family in Rome in 1869, was Italy’s first pediatric hospital. It became the property of the Holy See in 1924. Today, the “pope’s hospital” is a world-renowned research center and hospital specializing in pediatric medicine.
Posted on 07/16/2025 14:30 PM (CNA Daily News)
Leonardo Donno and Moreno il Biondo in action during the Charity Soccer Match "Partita del Cuore" on July 15, 2025 in L'Aquila, Italy. / Credit: Antonio Masiello/Getty Images
Vatican City, Jul 16, 2025 / 10:30 am (CNA).
Pope Leo XIV has encouraged encounter and unity in a message to the players and spectators of a soccer game to support sick and injured children from war zones.
“It is still possible — it is always possible — to encounter one another, even in a time of divisions, bombs, and wars,” the pope said in a video played at the July 15 match in L’Aquila, a city in the Italian region of Abruzzo.
A team of music artists beat out a bipartisan group of Italian politicians 8-6 in the friendly “Partita del Cuore” (“Game of the Heart”).
The 34th edition of the event raised funds for significantly ill or injured children from poor and war-torn countries to receive free treatment at one of Europe’s top children’s hospitals, the Vatican-owned Bambino Gesù. The project is also supported by the Catholic charity Caritas Italia.
In his message, played before a sold-out Gran Sasso d’Italia Stadium and two million television viewers, Leo underlined the importance of challenging divisions by coming together to contribute to a good cause.
“Sport — when experienced well by those who practice it and those who cheer them on — has this great thing about it, that it transforms confrontation into encounter, division into inclusion, loneliness into community,” he said.
Tiziano Onesti, the president of the Bambino Gesù Pediatric Hospital, told CNA the hospital is “always on the front lines” of supporting children in need.
“We take in many children who come from all over the world,” he said, especially those with complex illnesses, like leukemia, or serious injuries and mutilation from bombings.
While the children — some of whom come from Ukraine and Gaza — are hospitalized, their families “are welcomed in these reception centers where they don’t spend a penny, they don’t pay anything. The hospital covers all the expenses,” Onesti explained.
In his message, Pope Leo said the charity match recalled for him another famous soccer game, played during the Christmas truce of December 1914 between French, British, and German soldiers, near Ypres, Belgium.
The pontiff also pointed to the politicians participating in the game, saying it shows that “politics can unite rather than divide, if it does not settle for propaganda that feeds on the creation of enemies, but engages in the difficult and necessary art of dialogue, which seeks the common good.”
“In this case, match means encounter. An encounter where even opponents find a cause that unites them,” the pope said.
Players on the winning “singers” team included some of Italy’s most popular artists across the genres of rap, hip-hop, pop, and rock.
Matteo Renzi, a senator and former prime minister of Italy, played on the politicians team alongside other national politicians. Three members of the government also took part: the Italian ministers of economy and finance, of agriculture, and of culture.
“The atmosphere was obviously first and foremost festive, fun, a moment of encounter between opponents, politicians and singers,” Onesti said. “But also within the political sphere, there were people from all sides; it was very bipartisan, both right and left.”
The Bambino Gesù, founded by a wealthy family in Rome in 1869, was Italy’s first pediatric hospital. It became the property of the Holy See in 1924. Today, the “pope’s hospital” is a world-renowned research center and hospital specializing in pediatric medicine.
Posted on 07/16/2025 14:00 PM (U.S. Catholic)
I often think that Catholics have a parenting problem. Sure, we’re very good at idealizing parenthood: the beauty of family life, the miracle of new life, the vocation of motherhood. Just think of Mary in her blue robes, eyes demurely cast down at her idyllically sleeping baby Jesus. Or the societal image of the “perfect” […]
The post Pope Francis (and Chappell Roan?) was right about parenting appeared first on U.S. Catholic.
Posted on 07/16/2025 12:45 PM (CNA Daily News)
Photos of Pier Giorgio Frassati climbing in the Alps. The right photo shows him rappelling Rocca Sella on March 30, 1925. / Credit: Associazione Pier Giorgio Frassati Torino
Turin, Italy, Jul 16, 2025 / 08:45 am (CNA).
When alpine climber Edoardo Ricci clips into a harness or prepares for a steep ascent in the Alps, he says a silent prayer to Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati.
“I think that I was saved by him,” Ricci said, recalling the moment an avalanche struck during a ski tour. “I was the victim of an avalanche … and I survived without any injury.”
Ricci and others who love to hike, climb and ski in the mountains will soon have a patron saint for their high-altitude pursuits.
As the Catholic Church prepares to canonize Frassati — a 24-year-old Italian from Turin who died of polio in 1925 — a new generation is rediscovering his passion for the peaks and his profound spirituality, captured in his now-famous phrase, “Verso l’alto” — to the heights.
“Mountain alpinism is a way to, you know, touch the untouchable,” Ricci said. “When you are alone or just with a couple of friends, you can see and you can feel the silence. You can feel … very close to God.”
Ricci is currently mapping Frassati’s alpine itineraries, many of which are difficult climbs requiring advanced skill.
“He was for sure a really good climber at that period,” Ricci said, noting that Frassati was a member of the Italian Alpine Club.
While popes have encouraged young people to follow Frassati toward the summit of sanctity, Ricci advises modern climbers to consult a certified alpine guide before literally attempting to follow in his footsteps.
Among the most challenging climbs Frassati completed was Mount Grivola, a 13,000-foot peak in the Alps in Gran Paradiso National Park.
“It is a difficult [ascent] — not because of the technique, but because the rock is not so solid,” Ricci explained.
After his successful two-day climb, Frassati triumphantly wrote “Grivola victa est” — Grivola has been conquered — in Latin on a photograph taken from the summit.
“Every day I fall in love with the mountains more and more, and if my studies would allow me to do it, I would spend entire days on the mountains contemplating in that pure air the Greatness of the Creator,” Frassati wrote in a 1923 letter to a friend.
Another demanding climb was Grand Tournalin, an 11,086-foot peak in Italy’s Aosta Valley. Frassati made the two-day ascent with a guide, pausing at mountain shelters along the way to rest before reaching the summit, which offers sweeping views of the Matterhorn and Monte Rosa.
“It was a quite complex ascent, but the panorama was wonderful,” Ricci said.
Though Frassati dreamed of climbing the Matterhorn, his father forbade it, considering it too dangerous. “He also asked his father … to climb the Monte Bianco, the highest peak in Europe, but his father never granted permission,” Ricci said.
Frassati did manage to climb Château des Dames, which stands at 11,443 feet in the Valtournenche region. “There are some parts of the itinerary that are quite difficult to ascend,” Ricci said, adding that Frassati earned praise from his alpine guide for completing the climb.
Closer to home, Frassati often climbed Mount Mucrone, which was visible from his bedroom window in Pollone, the town where his grandparents lived.
“Mountains, mountains, mountains, I love you,” he once scribbled on a note taped to his bedroom door.
In 1920, Frassati recounted in a letter how he attended Mass atop Mount Mucrone at the end of one of his climbs.
Frassati was also an avid skier. He frequented the Susa Valley, now home to ski resorts such as Sestriere and Cesana.
“Typically at the time there were no roadways … so the idea was to go up with the skis … and then go down the slopes,” Ricci said. “His passion was the mountain in every shape.”
Just weeks before his death, Frassati climbed again in the Valli di Lanzo, a challenging route he completed with friends. A photograph taken during that climb shows him mid-ascent. On the back, he wrote his enduring motto: “Verso l’alto.”
Not all of Frassati’s mountain outings involved ropes and ice axes. Some were pilgrimages. Each time he visited his grandparents’ home in Pollone, he made the steep six-mile hike to the Sanctuary of Oropa, home of the Black Madonna of Oropa — a darkened wooden statue of the Virgin Mary venerated for centuries.
“Tomorrow, as is my custom every time I leave Pollone, I’ll go up to Oropa to pray in the Holy Shrine. I’ll remember you at the feet of the brown Madonna,” Frassati wrote in a 1925 letter.
Christine Wohar, president of Frassati USA, a Nashville-based nonprofit apostolate dedicated to spreading awareness of his life, shared one of the future saint’s more creative routines for making the early morning hike.
“He had to get up and out of the house very early, so he devised his own ‘alarm clock’ — a rope tied to his wrist or his nightstand and dangled from the window so that the gardener could come and tug on it and be sure he was awake without disturbing the rest of the house,” she said.
Hiking to and around the Oropa shrine is one of the most popular trails for pilgrims seeking to hike the “Frassati trails” today. Those looking for a more strenuous challenge can continue on to the peak of Mount Mucrone, which towers above the sanctuary.
Before Frassati’s beatification, St. John Paul II visited Oropa in 1989 and encouraged young people to follow Frassati’s example.
“Crossing the mountains, pilgrims have come here for centuries to venerate the Virgin and to seek in this sanctuary a place of peace and meditation,” the pope said. “Dear young people listening to me, may you also discover, like Pier Giorgio, the way to the shrine, embarking on a spiritual journey that, under the guidance of Mary, will bring you ever closer to Christ.”
Yet summiting peaks was not the only challenge Frassati faced.
Father Luca Bertarelli, the parish priest of Pollone, said Frassati’s path to heaven included many crosses.
The first, Bertarelli said, was with his family, who did not understand Frassati's piety and simple lifestyle.
“He was very different from them,” Bertarelli said. “Pier Giorgio felt this misunderstanding, and it was a great difficulty.”
Frassati also faced challenges in his academic pursuits as he studied for a degree in mining engineering at the Royal Polytechnic University of Turin.
“He was very intelligent, but he chose a faculty in the university that was very difficult for him,” Bertarelli said.
Even prayer was hard-won. “He was a man of great prayer, but in some letters he wrote that prayer was very difficult for him,” Bertarelli said. “And this is the sign of great interiority, the spiritual [battle].”
For Bertarelli, Frassati’s motto “Verso l’alto” means striving not only for mountain summits but for the heights of holiness.
“God is the heights that you want to reach,” he said.
Posted on 07/16/2025 12:45 PM (Catholic News Agency)
Photos of Pier Giorgio Frassati climbing in the Alps. The right photo shows him rappelling Rocca Sella on March 30, 1925. / Credit: Associazione Pier Giorgio Frassati Torino
Turin, Italy, Jul 16, 2025 / 08:45 am (CNA).
The Catholic Church is preparing to canonize Pier Giorgio Frassati — a 24-year-old Italian from Turin, Italy, who was a skilled mountain climber and skier in the Alps.