Posted on 08/15/2025 19:59 PM (CNA Daily News - Vatican)
Thousands fill St. Peter’s Square for the Jubilee of Youth welcome Mass on July 29, 2025, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media
CNA Staff, Aug 15, 2025 / 15:59 pm (CNA).
The Vatican has included a pilgrimage by the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) on its official calendar for the 2025 Jubilee Year, despite the traditionalist Catholic group’s historically fraught relationship with the Holy See.
The SSPX, founded in 1970 by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in Ecône, Switzerland, to preserve traditional Catholic practices amid the reforms of the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965), will hold a solemn high Mass and a procession to the Basilica of St. John Lateran on Aug. 20.
In preparation for the pilgrimage to Rome, the SSPX began a novena to the Immaculate Conception from Aug. 11–19.
The SSPX, led by Superior General Father Davide Pagliarani, views the pilgrimage as an act of fidelity to “Eternal Rome,” emphasizing its commitment to traditional liturgy, as stated in a 2024 letter by U.S. District Superior Father John Fullerton.
“Our main focus is the priesthood and its greatest treasure: the holy sacrifice of the Mass,” the SSPX website states.
The group’s inclusion during a jubilee year of celebration and forgiveness held every 25 years reflects efforts of the Church over the years to reconcile with the group amid the SSPX’s canonically irregular status.
The SSPX’s troubled history with the Vatican began with Lefebvre’s dissent from Vatican II’s changes, particularly in ecumenism and collegiality, “which insisted that the Church be ruled primarily by the democratic process and bishops’ conferences, limiting the power of the pope as sole head of the universal Church as well as each individual bishop’s autonomy within his own diocese,” according to the group’s website.
Lefebvre’s 1988 consecration of four bishops without papal approval led to his excommunication and that of the bishops, deemed a “schismatic act” by Pope John Paul II, rendering the SSPX canonically illegitimate.
Although Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunications in 2009, the group remains outside full communion with the Church.
However, recent Vatican concessions signal openness to dialogue. Pope Francis granted SSPX priests the faculty to hear confessions validly in 2015 (extended indefinitely post-2016) and authorized diocesan oversight for valid SSPX marriages in 2017.
The inclusion of the SSPX’s pilgrimage in the jubilee calendar stops short of full regularization. However, Jimmy Akin of Catholic Answers told CNA in 2024 that the lifting of excommunications implies the SSPX is not in formal schism.
But the priests of the society are “celebrating Mass without the proper permissions, creating a canonically irregular situation,” Akin said.
Monsignor Camille Perl of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei noted in 1998 that Catholics should avoid SSPX Masses unless no alternatives exist due to the group’s “schismatic mentality.”
Akin pointed out, however, that the Code of Canon Law stipulates that Catholics “can participate in the Eucharistic sacrifice and receive holy Communion in any Catholic rite.” Since SSPX is using the approved 1962 rite of the Mass, “the faithful can attend it and receive holy Communion.”
“The fact it is being celebrated in a canonically irregular situation does not change this,” Akin said.
He pointed out that “every time a priest commits a liturgical abuse, it creates a canonically irregular situation” but that the Church “does not want the laity to have to judge which canonically irregular situations involve ‘too much’ of a departure from the law.”
Thus the faithful’s “right to attend and receive holy Communion in any Catholic rite is protected.”
The SSPX claims it now numbers 720 priests and close to half a million faithful spread throughout the world. It hosts a number of growing ministries, including retreats and summer camps for children.
Posted on 08/15/2025 18:33 PM (CNA Daily News - US)
null / Credit: melissamn|Shutterstock
CNA Staff, Aug 15, 2025 / 14:33 pm (CNA).
Here is a roundup of recent pro-life and abortion-related news.
Costco won’t dispense the abortion pill mifepristone in its pharmacies following pressure from investors to refuse selling the drug in its stores.
With more than 500 pharmacy locations, the retailer says the company hasn’t seen consumer demand for the pill, according to Bloomberg News.
A coalition including the legal group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) and the Idaho-based Inspire Investing last year publicly urged the company to not stock the drugs. Costco in the statement did not comment on whether the coalition played a role in its decision not to stock the drug.
Chemical abortions account for about half of the abortions in the United States every year.
ADF attorney Michael Ross called Costco’s decision “a very significant win” and said the group hopes “to build on” this win over the coming year.
A wrongful death lawsuit was recently filed against a major online abortion drug provider after a Texas man allegedly poisoned his wife and unborn child with drugs he obtained from the company.
According to the lawsuit, the man spiked the drink of the mother of his unborn child with abortion pills, killing the unborn child and sending the mother to the emergency room.
The lawsuit claims that Christopher Cooprider killed his own unborn child with abortion drugs from Aid Access, a group that ships abortion drugs into states like Texas, where abortion is generally banned.
The lawsuit names Aid Access Founder Rebecca Gomperts and Cooprider as defendants.
The filing contains a series of texts where Cooprider appears to attempt to pressure the mother of his child into abortion.
“You’ve told me 1,000 times you are trying to stress me out so that I lose the baby,” the mother wrote. “I can’t wait to hold that gorgeous baby though, if it’s alive.”
Though the mother had “no intention of aborting,” Cooprider slipped the abortion pills into her hot chocolate on April 5, the lawsuit said, leading to the death of the baby.
Two pro-family Montana groups are continuing to oppose the abortion rights provision in the state’s constitution in a district court.
The Montana Life Defense Fund and Montana Family Foundation filed a lawsuit in Yellowstone District Court earlier this week.
The groups asked Judge Thomas Pardy to declare the constitutional initiative invalid because the full text was not printed on the ballot.
The Montana Constitution guarantees a right to abortion up to the point of fetal viability (around the 22nd week of gestation).
Advocates challenged the measure’s passage under a two-year statute of limitations. The groups were initially ruled against by the Montana Supreme Court but resolved to continue opposing the measure.
The Indiana Court of Appeals this week upheld an Indiana pro-life law that protects unborn children throughout pregnancy with some exceptions.
In the 31-page ruling, a panel of judges ruled to uphold the law requiring abortions to be performed only in hospitals and surgery centers and to protect unborn life except in cases of a serious health or life risk to the mother, a lethal fetal anomaly, or cases of rape or incest.
Planned Parenthood Great Northwest opposed the law in the suit, arguing that if a pregnancy risked the mother’s health, providers might be afraid to abort the unborn child because of fears of legal repercussions.
In addition, the plaintiffs opposed that the law required abortions to be performed in hospitals or surgical centers, not freestanding clinics.
The appeals court ruled to uphold the law, maintaining that the circumstances brought before them “do not necessitate an abortion to treat those risks.” The panel of judges added that because abortions are only allowed in “an extreme medical scenario,” the hospital rule “is not a material burden” on the state’s constitutional right ot abortion.
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita called the ruling a “resounding victory for life” and said he is committed to “protecting the most vulnerable and upholding our state’s values.”
Posted on 08/15/2025 18:33 PM (CNA Daily News)
null / Credit: melissamn|Shutterstock
CNA Staff, Aug 15, 2025 / 14:33 pm (CNA).
Here is a roundup of recent pro-life and abortion-related news.
Costco won’t dispense the abortion pill mifepristone in its pharmacies following pressure from investors to refuse selling the drug in its stores.
With more than 500 pharmacy locations, the retailer says the company hasn’t seen consumer demand for the pill, according to Bloomberg News.
A coalition including the legal group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) and the Idaho-based Inspire Investing last year publicly urged the company to not stock the drugs. Costco in the statement did not comment on whether the coalition played a role in its decision not to stock the drug.
Chemical abortions account for about half of the abortions in the United States every year.
ADF attorney Michael Ross called Costco’s decision “a very significant win” and said the group hopes “to build on” this win over the coming year.
A wrongful death lawsuit was recently filed against a major online abortion drug provider after a Texas man allegedly poisoned his wife and unborn child with drugs he obtained from the company.
According to the lawsuit, the man spiked the drink of the mother of his unborn child with abortion pills, killing the unborn child and sending the mother to the emergency room.
The lawsuit claims that Christopher Cooprider killed his own unborn child with abortion drugs from Aid Access, a group that ships abortion drugs into states like Texas, where abortion is generally banned.
The lawsuit names Aid Access Founder Rebecca Gomperts and Cooprider as defendants.
The filing contains a series of texts where Cooprider appears to attempt to pressure the mother of his child into abortion.
“You’ve told me 1,000 times you are trying to stress me out so that I lose the baby,” the mother wrote. “I can’t wait to hold that gorgeous baby though, if it’s alive.”
Though the mother had “no intention of aborting,” Cooprider slipped the abortion pills into her hot chocolate on April 5, the lawsuit said, leading to the death of the baby.
Two pro-family Montana groups are continuing to oppose the abortion rights provision in the state’s constitution in a district court.
The Montana Life Defense Fund and Montana Family Foundation filed a lawsuit in Yellowstone District Court earlier this week.
The groups asked Judge Thomas Pardy to declare the constitutional initiative invalid because the full text was not printed on the ballot.
The Montana Constitution guarantees a right to abortion up to the point of fetal viability (around the 22nd week of gestation).
Advocates challenged the measure’s passage under a two-year statute of limitations. The groups were initially ruled against by the Montana Supreme Court but resolved to continue opposing the measure.
The Indiana Court of Appeals this week upheld an Indiana pro-life law that protects unborn children throughout pregnancy with some exceptions.
In the 31-page ruling, a panel of judges ruled to uphold the law requiring abortions to be performed only in hospitals and surgery centers and to protect unborn life except in cases of a serious health or life risk to the mother, a lethal fetal anomaly, or cases of rape or incest.
Planned Parenthood Great Northwest opposed the law in the suit, arguing that if a pregnancy risked the mother’s health, providers might be afraid to abort the unborn child because of fears of legal repercussions.
In addition, the plaintiffs opposed that the law required abortions to be performed in hospitals or surgical centers, not freestanding clinics.
The appeals court ruled to uphold the law, maintaining that the circumstances brought before them “do not necessitate an abortion to treat those risks.” The panel of judges added that because abortions are only allowed in “an extreme medical scenario,” the hospital rule “is not a material burden” on the state’s constitutional right ot abortion.
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita called the ruling a “resounding victory for life” and said he is committed to “protecting the most vulnerable and upholding our state’s values.”
Posted on 08/15/2025 18:03 PM (CNA Daily News)
Rosario Murillo is “co-president” of Nicaragua. / Credit: Nicaraguan Council for Communication and Citizenship (CC0 1.0)
ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 15, 2025 / 14:03 pm (CNA).
The dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and his wife and “co-president” Rosario Murillo in Nicaragua on Aug. 12 confiscated the iconic San José Catholic School in Jinotepe, accusing the school of having been a place where “coup-plotters tortured and murdered.”
In a statement released by a media outlet aligned with the dictatorship, Murillo said that “we have a new education center. This is an achievement of the peace we are experiencing, that we safeguard, that we deserve. In Jinotepe, a school where the coup-plotters tortured and murdered comrades during the criminal occupation, and where did these crimes occur? Unfortunately, at San José School.”
“That school has been transferred to the state because it is emblematic of barbarism, but at the same time of the dignified and victorious struggle, in this case we in the Jinotepe family [community] who defeated the coup attempt,” she added.
“It will bear the name, now in the hands of the Nicaraguan state, of the hero, the martyr comrade Bismarck Martínez,” whose “murder shocked the entire country” in 2018.
Martínez was a Sandinista sympathizer who disappeared on the night of June 29, 2018, when he drove near the San José School in Jinotepe. He was allegedly “kidnapped, tortured, and disappeared.” The regime has turned Martínez into a martyr to “reinforce its narrative” about the alleged “coup d’état,” the newspaper Confidencial said.
Jinotepe was one of the towns most affected by the Nicaraguan dictatorship’s “Operation Cleanup” against the civilian population who had taken to the streets to protest against the regime. On the night of July 8, 2018, hundreds of police and paramilitary forces invaded the town. According to the newspaper Article 66, at least 32 people were killed.
Martha Patricia Molina, researcher and author of the report “Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church,” which in its latest edition lists nearly 1,000 attacks by the dictatorship against the Catholic Church since 2018, told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, that Aug. 12 is a “date that will be marked as a day of infamy for religious freedom in Nicaragua.”
“The dictatorship has once again dealt a severe blow to the Catholic Church by confiscating the San José School, run by the Josephine nuns,” which has provided a good education to many Nicaraguans since the 1980s.
“The confiscation will have a negative impact on the children and young people who received a quality education and will now be indoctrinated by the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship. In addition to confiscating the nuns’ property, co-dictator Rosario Murillo calls them murderers and torturers,” Molina lamented.
However, the researcher clarified, “we all know that the Josephine sisters, since they first established themselves in Nicaragua in February 1915, have educated boys and girls in Christian and humanist values based on love for one’s neighbor and the practice of charity.”
Parents, who will have a different school in the way it is run starting Monday, Aug. 18, with a new principal aligned with the dictatorship, expressed their concern for their children’s future.
A mother, identified as Cecilia, told the newspaper Confidencial that “this brazen theft of the school where generations of professionals studied is deplorable, and they are accusing it of fabricated crimes, where the only thing the nuns did was treat the wounded and shelter the population from the bullets and the terrible repression in 2018.”
Regarding what will happen to her daughter, the woman was clear: “I don’t want her to end up in a school where the only thing that will take place is indoctrination by a dictatorship.”
Another parent, identified only as Santiago, said he was “sick and sad” but “deeply angry because they are ruining what little remains of quality private education.”
The U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs denounced the expropriation on X, calling it “further proof that the Murillo-Ortega dictatorship’s cruelty knows no bounds.”
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Posted on 08/15/2025 17:11 PM (CNA Daily News - US)
null / Credit: Andy via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0)
CNA Staff, Aug 15, 2025 / 13:11 pm (CNA).
A Pennsylvania priest has been placed on administrative leave after he confessed to local prosecutors last month to falsifying the results of a high-level fundraising raffle at his parish.
Father Ross Miceli allegedly “admitted to publicly falsifying the results of the grand prize winner” of a raffle for either a Corvette or a $50,000 cash prize at St. Jude the Apostle Parish in Erie.
In an Aug. 14 statement, the Diocese of Erie told CNA that Miceli will be placed on administrative leave as part of the ongoing investigation into the priest’s actions. Erie Bishop Lawrence Persico has also recommended that St. Jude Parish hire “an independent forensic auditor to review all finances.”
The priest announced his resignation from the parish on the weekend of July 20, though he did not give a reason at the time. The Erie Diocese said last month that Miceli would be heading to St. Timothy Parish in Curwensville starting on Aug. 12, where he would be a “sacramental assistant.”
The diocese also said in its Aug. 14 statement St. Jude’s will “sell the car from the fundraiser back to the dealer, and the parish will attempt to refund all raffle ticket purchases.”
The Catholic parish hosted the “Winavette” raffle in 2024, allowing buyers to purchase $50 tickets for the chance to win a Stingray 1LT Corvette. The grand-prize winner of the event could take either the car or $50,000 in cash. The raffle was open to players nationwide.
On Dec. 25, 2024, the church announced that “Martin Anderson” of Detroit had won the grand prize. The reported winner “chose the cash option,” the church said.
Yet an employee of the parish allegedly “raised concerns” about the raffle to Persico, according to the warrants, leading the diocese to investigate the contest and eventually contact the county prosecutor’s office.
The priest reportedly “admitted [to the employee] that he fabricated the grand-prize winner’s name,” the Times-News reported, citing the documents. The priest allegedly committed the falsification after “a problem with the raffle system” left the grand prize without a winner.
The priest said the prize money was “still in an account” after the fabrication. Miceli allegedly told the employee that he “needed to keep this secret,” according to prosecutors. Miceli also allegedly fabricated several other winners in the raffle.
Miceli’s confession was reportedly detailed in warrants from the Erie County District Attorney’s Office, according to an Aug. 7 report in the Erie Times-News.
Detectives seized Miceli’s iPad and iPhone as well as financial records for both the parish and the raffle, the Erie paper reported.
Law enforcement handling the case did not respond to a query from CNA on Aug. 7.
But the diocese told the Times-News that it was aware of the investigation and was “cooperating fully with the appropriate authorities.”
On Facebook the church posted that 2024 was the “last year” the raffle would be held, though they noted that Father John Detisch was operatinga similar raffle at Dubois Central Catholic School in Dubois.
Posted on 08/15/2025 17:11 PM (CNA Daily News)
null / Credit: Andy via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0)
CNA Staff, Aug 15, 2025 / 13:11 pm (CNA).
A Pennsylvania priest has been placed on administrative leave after he confessed to local prosecutors last month to falsifying the results of a high-level fundraising raffle at his parish.
Father Ross Miceli allegedly “admitted to publicly falsifying the results of the grand prize winner” of a raffle for either a Corvette or a $50,000 cash prize at St. Jude the Apostle Parish in Erie.
In an Aug. 14 statement, the Diocese of Erie told CNA that Miceli will be placed on administrative leave as part of the ongoing investigation into the priest’s actions. Erie Bishop Lawrence Persico has also recommended that St. Jude Parish hire “an independent forensic auditor to review all finances.”
The priest announced his resignation from the parish on the weekend of July 20, though he did not give a reason at the time. The Erie Diocese said last month that Miceli would be heading to St. Timothy Parish in Curwensville starting on Aug. 12, where he would be a “sacramental assistant.”
The diocese also said in its Aug. 14 statement St. Jude’s will “sell the car from the fundraiser back to the dealer, and the parish will attempt to refund all raffle ticket purchases.”
The Catholic parish hosted the “Winavette” raffle in 2024, allowing buyers to purchase $50 tickets for the chance to win a Stingray 1LT Corvette. The grand-prize winner of the event could take either the car or $50,000 in cash. The raffle was open to players nationwide.
On Dec. 25, 2024, the church announced that “Martin Anderson” of Detroit had won the grand prize. The reported winner “chose the cash option,” the church said.
Yet an employee of the parish allegedly “raised concerns” about the raffle to Persico, according to the warrants, leading the diocese to investigate the contest and eventually contact the county prosecutor’s office.
The priest reportedly “admitted [to the employee] that he fabricated the grand-prize winner’s name,” the Times-News reported, citing the documents. The priest allegedly committed the falsification after “a problem with the raffle system” left the grand prize without a winner.
The priest said the prize money was “still in an account” after the fabrication. Miceli allegedly told the employee that he “needed to keep this secret,” according to prosecutors. Miceli also allegedly fabricated several other winners in the raffle.
Miceli’s confession was reportedly detailed in warrants from the Erie County District Attorney’s Office, according to an Aug. 7 report in the Erie Times-News.
Detectives seized Miceli’s iPad and iPhone as well as financial records for both the parish and the raffle, the Erie paper reported.
Law enforcement handling the case did not respond to a query from CNA on Aug. 7.
But the diocese told the Times-News that it was aware of the investigation and was “cooperating fully with the appropriate authorities.”
On Facebook the church posted that 2024 was the “last year” the raffle would be held, though they noted that Father John Detisch was operatinga similar raffle at Dubois Central Catholic School in Dubois.
Posted on 08/15/2025 16:41 PM (CNA Daily News - US)
General view of the Council Fathers in St. Peter’s Basilica on Dec. 8, 1962, at the Vatican, at the end of the first session of the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, or Vatican II. / Credit: AFP via Getty Images
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 15, 2025 / 12:41 pm (CNA).
An economics paper published last month on religious service attendance trends in 66 countries concluded that the implementation of reforms associated with the Second Vatican Council likely contributed to subsequent Mass attendance declines.
The working paper, “Looking Backward: Long-term Religious Service Attendance in 66 Countries,” was published by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) on July 21.
NBER economists delved into historical trends for religious service attendance in historically Catholic and historically Protestant countries based on 1,900 religious affiliation statistics.
According to the researchers, attendance rates declined significantly faster in historically Catholic countries than in Protestant ones in the years after Vatican II. The trend began immediately after Vatican II and was not ongoing when the council began in the early 1960s.
Beginning in 1965 and through the 2010s, monthly attendance in Catholic nations decreased by an average of 4 percentage points more than Protestant countries in every decade.
Dismissing the claim that attendance rates only went down due to broader secularizing trends globally, the report asserted: “The decline in attendance is specific to Catholicism, to which Vatican II would directly apply.”
NBER researchers claim that Vatican II and subsequent reforms “profoundly affected Catholic faith and practice” and concluded the council’s implementation “triggered a decline in worldwide Catholic attendance relative to that in other denominations.”
“Compared to other countries, Catholic countries experienced a steady decline in the monthly adult religious service attendance rate starting immediately after Vatican II,” the report found. “The effect is statistically significant.”
Harvard economics professor Robert Barro, one author of the study, told CNA the findings show “a substantial reduction in attendance” in Catholic countries relative to Protestant countries.
He noted the Catholic decline culminates to “as much as 20 percentage points” worse than the Protestant decline over about four decades.
Barro said “before Vatican II, the Catholic and non-Catholic places behaved in a similar manner.”
He said “there’s nothing before the event” but also noted the study “cannot exclude the possibility that something else that you’re not looking at happened at the same time.”
The NBER report incorporates retrospective questions from the International Social Survey Program (ISSP). These surveys from 1991, 1998, 2008, and 2018 gather data about the past by asking respondents about religious service attendance from their childhoods. These surveys, according to the report, fill in data for years in which there was not polling.
“Nobody before had the long-term data,” Barro said.
Although the report is primarily an economics paper, the researchers cite sociologists who have analyzed the implementation of Vatican II. It contends the findings are consistent with the view that the implementation “shattered the perception of an immovable, truth-holding Church.”
The report cites the late sociologist Father Andrew Greeley’s book “The Catholic Revolution,” which attributed five major changes to the post-Vatican II Church: Mass in the local language, broader ecumenism, looser rules, internal debates on birth control, and more priests seeking laicization.
Harvard economist Rachel McCleary, who is Barro’s wife and has also conducted research on the Church, told CNA she believes the implementation of the council had “a secularizing effect on the Catholic Church, which means that you’re losing your brand.”
“They want something that’s different, that addresses their spiritual needs,” she said, arguing that the implementation of the council “did the reverse; it secularized the religion.”
McCleary argued that the implementation led to some internal strife with some Catholics believing the effects “went too far” and others thinking they “didn’t go far enough.”
Father Paul Sullins, a senior research associate at the Ruth Institute, told CNA there is a distinction between Vatican II itself and the subsequent “social effects of its implementation and reception” of the council.
He warned not to confuse the implementation with “the content or documents of the council proper.”
Sullins said some Church leaders “acted in what they perceived to be ‘the spirit of Vatican II,’ which was often not envisioned or even justified by the council itself.”
Yet disproportionate attendance decline, he noted, is “undeniable and widely documented.” He added: “The Catholic decline is pretty secular (gradual, long-term), so it’s probably responsive to many other cultural factors [as well],” such as disputes about the Church’s ban on contraception.
“But [the implementation of] Vatican II clearly worked to accommodate the Church to the world, and so contributed to the decline — the differential decline — among Catholics,” Sullins said.
For example, the council itself allowed greater use of the vernacular language but also called for preserving the use of Latin and Gregorian chant in the Mass. The council did not require priests to face the people during Mass as opposed to the traditional “ad orientem” posturing in which the priest faces away from the people. It also did not discourage kneeling while receiving Communion.
Tom Nash, a staff apologist for Catholic Answers, contended the report failed to make a clear distinction between the council itself and “the infamous ‘spirit of Vatican II’” when it comes to certain subjects, such as ecumenism.
“The issue is whether the actual teachings of the council triggered this decline or whether there are other factors involved,” he told CNA.
Although Vatican II avoids using the word “heretic” for Protestants and opts to use “separated brethren,” Nash said “the Church didn’t, in fact, promote religious indifference at the council in its teachings.” He said the term “is painfully but accurately used multiple times … regarding fellow Christians … who are validly baptized.”
Non-Christians, Nash said, “are our brothers and sisters in the sense that we are all made in the image and likeness of God, but we painfully are not yet one Christ.”
Nash cited the council’s dogmatic constitution Lumen Gentium to note Vatican II “reaffirmed the Church’s definitive teaching on papal primacy in governing and teaching, which Our Lord Jesus Christ instituted in founding the Church on the rock of St. Peter.”
“Vatican II also reaffirmed and elaborated further on the Church’s divinely given power to teach infallibly on faith and morals,” he added.
Nash noted several ways the Church could improve Mass attendance, including an increase in Eucharistic reverence, such as more options for adoration, “promoting kneeling for the reception of holy Communion,” and using patens to “heighten Eucharistic awareness and reverence.”
He also encouraged parishes to offer confession for five to 10 hours every week.
“When we make sacramental encounters more available with Our Lord Jesus Christ, an increase in Sunday Mass participation will follow accordingly,” Nash said.
Posted on 08/15/2025 16:41 PM (CNA Daily News)
General view of the Council Fathers in St. Peter’s Basilica on Dec. 8, 1962, at the Vatican, at the end of the first session of the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, or Vatican II. / Credit: AFP via Getty Images
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 15, 2025 / 12:41 pm (CNA).
An economics paper published last month on religious service attendance trends in 66 countries concluded that the implementation of reforms associated with the Second Vatican Council likely contributed to subsequent Mass attendance declines.
The working paper, “Looking Backward: Long-term Religious Service Attendance in 66 Countries,” was published by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) on July 21.
NBER economists delved into historical trends for religious service attendance in historically Catholic and historically Protestant countries based on 1,900 religious affiliation statistics.
According to the researchers, attendance rates declined significantly faster in historically Catholic countries than in Protestant ones in the years after Vatican II. The trend began immediately after Vatican II and was not ongoing when the council began in the early 1960s.
Beginning in 1965 and through the 2010s, monthly attendance in Catholic nations decreased by an average of 4 percentage points more than Protestant countries in every decade.
Dismissing the claim that attendance rates only went down due to broader secularizing trends globally, the report asserted: “The decline in attendance is specific to Catholicism, to which Vatican II would directly apply.”
NBER researchers claim that Vatican II and subsequent reforms “profoundly affected Catholic faith and practice” and concluded the council’s implementation “triggered a decline in worldwide Catholic attendance relative to that in other denominations.”
“Compared to other countries, Catholic countries experienced a steady decline in the monthly adult religious service attendance rate starting immediately after Vatican II,” the report found. “The effect is statistically significant.”
Harvard economics professor Robert Barro, one author of the study, told CNA the findings show “a substantial reduction in attendance” in Catholic countries relative to Protestant countries.
He noted the Catholic decline culminates to “as much as 20 percentage points” worse than the Protestant decline over about four decades.
Barro said “before Vatican II, the Catholic and non-Catholic places behaved in a similar manner.”
He said “there’s nothing before the event” but also noted the study “cannot exclude the possibility that something else that you’re not looking at happened at the same time.”
The NBER report incorporates retrospective questions from the International Social Survey Program (ISSP). These surveys from 1991, 1998, 2008, and 2018 gather data about the past by asking respondents about religious service attendance from their childhoods. These surveys, according to the report, fill in data for years in which there was not polling.
“Nobody before had the long-term data,” Barro said.
Although the report is primarily an economics paper, the researchers cite sociologists who have analyzed the implementation of Vatican II. It contends the findings are consistent with the view that the implementation “shattered the perception of an immovable, truth-holding Church.”
The report cites the late sociologist Father Andrew Greeley’s book “The Catholic Revolution,” which attributed five major changes to the post-Vatican II Church: Mass in the local language, broader ecumenism, looser rules, internal debates on birth control, and more priests seeking laicization.
Harvard economist Rachel McCleary, who is Barro’s wife and has also conducted research on the Church, told CNA she believes the implementation of the council had “a secularizing effect on the Catholic Church, which means that you’re losing your brand.”
“They want something that’s different, that addresses their spiritual needs,” she said, arguing that the implementation of the council “did the reverse; it secularized the religion.”
McCleary argued that the implementation led to some internal strife with some Catholics believing the effects “went too far” and others thinking they “didn’t go far enough.”
Father Paul Sullins, a senior research associate at the Ruth Institute, told CNA there is a distinction between Vatican II itself and the subsequent “social effects of its implementation and reception” of the council.
He warned not to confuse the implementation with “the content or documents of the council proper.”
Sullins said some Church leaders “acted in what they perceived to be ‘the spirit of Vatican II,’ which was often not envisioned or even justified by the council itself.”
Yet disproportionate attendance decline, he noted, is “undeniable and widely documented.” He added: “The Catholic decline is pretty secular (gradual, long-term), so it’s probably responsive to many other cultural factors [as well],” such as disputes about the Church’s ban on contraception.
“But [the implementation of] Vatican II clearly worked to accommodate the Church to the world, and so contributed to the decline — the differential decline — among Catholics,” Sullins said.
For example, the council itself allowed greater use of the vernacular language but also called for preserving the use of Latin and Gregorian chant in the Mass. The council did not require priests to face the people during Mass as opposed to the traditional “ad orientem” posturing in which the priest faces away from the people. It also did not discourage kneeling while receiving Communion.
Tom Nash, a staff apologist for Catholic Answers, contended the report failed to make a clear distinction between the council itself and “the infamous ‘spirit of Vatican II’” when it comes to certain subjects, such as ecumenism.
“The issue is whether the actual teachings of the council triggered this decline or whether there are other factors involved,” he told CNA.
Although Vatican II avoids using the word “heretic” for Protestants and opts to use “separated brethren,” Nash said “the Church didn’t, in fact, promote religious indifference at the council in its teachings.” He said the term “is painfully but accurately used multiple times … regarding fellow Christians … who are validly baptized.”
Non-Christians, Nash said, “are our brothers and sisters in the sense that we are all made in the image and likeness of God, but we painfully are not yet one Christ.”
Nash cited the council’s dogmatic constitution Lumen Gentium to note Vatican II “reaffirmed the Church’s definitive teaching on papal primacy in governing and teaching, which Our Lord Jesus Christ instituted in founding the Church on the rock of St. Peter.”
“Vatican II also reaffirmed and elaborated further on the Church’s divinely given power to teach infallibly on faith and morals,” he added.
Nash noted several ways the Church could improve Mass attendance, including an increase in Eucharistic reverence, such as more options for adoration, “promoting kneeling for the reception of holy Communion,” and using patens to “heighten Eucharistic awareness and reverence.”
He also encouraged parishes to offer confession for five to 10 hours every week.
“When we make sacramental encounters more available with Our Lord Jesus Christ, an increase in Sunday Mass participation will follow accordingly,” Nash said.
Posted on 08/15/2025 15:13 PM (CNA Daily News - US)
Clergy accompany migrants at a courthouse in San Diego. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Father Scott Santarosa
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 15, 2025 / 11:13 am (CNA).
A new initiative launched by the Catholic Diocese of San Diego and its interfaith partners is offering accompaniment and a spiritual presence for migrants and asylum seekers at their immigration hearings in Southern California.
The program — Faithful Accompaniment in Trust & Hope (FAITH) — was launched on Aug. 4 amid the increasing number of deportations within California and nationwide amid President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
“They’re walking into a whole building and system that’s against them,” Jesuit Father Scott Santarosa, who is leading the FAITH program, told CNA.
FAITH is primarily led by three partners: the diocese, which sits right along the southern border; Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Parish in Barrio Logan, which is 15 miles from the border and of which Santarosa is the pastor; and the multifaith San Diego Organizing Project (SDOP).
The program enlists volunteers of several faiths to accompany people before, during, and after immigration court appearances. As of Aug. 14, about 100 people have signed up to volunteer from seven faith groups: Catholics, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Unitarian Universalists, Muslims, members of the United Church of Christ, and members of the Church of the Nazarene.
Santarosa said the main priority is to “be present accompanying migrants to court” and to “be a prayerful presence with them and for them.”
A person who is scheduled to appear at an immigration hearing can sign up to have a volunteer accompany him or her within the courtroom and, if he or she chooses, meet with a volunteer before or after the hearing to pray with or simply speak with the volunteer.
Santarosa said only 10-20 people awaiting hearings have signed up to meet up with volunteers over the last two weeks but added: “I think that number will go up — I hope it does.” He noted that if the volunteer is requested ahead of time, that volunteer will “have a little more standing in the eyes of the court … [and the judge] may allow us to sit in on a migrant’s case.”
At this stage of the program, most of the volunteers are attending in groups and then breaking apart to offer a presence at hearings that are open to the public. Some remain in the hallways, Santarosa noted, because Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is sometimes “waiting to arrest people whose cases have been dismissed.”
“Even when we don’t know the person … we’ve had people really express a lot of gratitude that we’ve been there,” Santarosa said.
Bishop Michael Pham and the diocesan auxiliary bishops are among the volunteers who have provided accompaniment at the courthouse.
Santarosa said a lot of volunteers speak Spanish and the program also has one volunteer who speaks Vietnamese and another, an imam, who speaks Arabic. He said he also hopes to find volunteers who speak Haitian Creole and others who speak Mandarin Chinese.
He noted that many people appreciate the ability to converse in their native language, noting that on the first day one person awaiting a hearing “didn’t have a lawyer and the imam stood up to talk with him … in one of his native languages and that was a comfort to him.”
Prior to launching the program, the diocese celebrated a Mass on June 20 for International Refugee Day, after which the bishop, some priests, and others went to the courthouse to offer accompaniment to people awaiting immigration hearings.
The diocese had a sign-up sheet for anyone who would like to volunteer to accompany migrants at the courthouse, which yielded about 100 signatures and ultimately led to the FAITH program.
When asked about the motivation for the initiative, Santarosa said it’s “not enough to just have thoughts and prayers” and that “Jesus expects us to actually take care of [people’s] physical needs.”
“I think there’s a … mandate in that Gospel that we need to put our faith into action,” he added.
Santarosa referenced Matthew 25: “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me,” which Jesus says to his disciples when speaking about those who will inherit the kingdom of heaven.
“Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me,” Jesus Christ says in the Gospel passage.
Santarosa also spoke about specific diocesan needs, noting that two parishioners have been deported within the past six months. He also personally accompanied one of his parishioners to two immigration hearings at her request and helped her get a lawyer to assist with filling out her asylum request paperwork.
Since the San Diego Diocese launched the program, Santarosa said other dioceses have reached out to ask for details about how to implement the program. He encouraged other dioceses to start similar programs, saying: “It’s really not that complicated” and “people of goodwill and the faithful” will volunteer.
“I think it’s a great thing for clerics, for [Church] leaders, and for laypeople to do,” Santarosa said.
Posted on 08/15/2025 15:13 PM (CNA Daily News)
Clergy accompany migrants at a courthouse in San Diego. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Father Scott Santarosa
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 15, 2025 / 11:13 am (CNA).
A new initiative launched by the Catholic Diocese of San Diego and its interfaith partners is offering accompaniment and a spiritual presence for migrants and asylum seekers at their immigration hearings in Southern California.
The program — Faithful Accompaniment in Trust & Hope (FAITH) — was launched on Aug. 4 amid the increasing number of deportations within California and nationwide amid President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
“They’re walking into a whole building and system that’s against them,” Jesuit Father Scott Santarosa, who is leading the FAITH program, told CNA.
FAITH is primarily led by three partners: the diocese, which sits right along the southern border; Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Parish in Barrio Logan, which is 15 miles from the border and of which Santarosa is the pastor; and the multifaith San Diego Organizing Project (SDOP).
The program enlists volunteers of several faiths to accompany people before, during, and after immigration court appearances. As of Aug. 14, about 100 people have signed up to volunteer from seven faith groups: Catholics, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Unitarian Universalists, Muslims, members of the United Church of Christ, and members of the Church of the Nazarene.
Santarosa said the main priority is to “be present accompanying migrants to court” and to “be a prayerful presence with them and for them.”
A person who is scheduled to appear at an immigration hearing can sign up to have a volunteer accompany him or her within the courtroom and, if he or she chooses, meet with a volunteer before or after the hearing to pray with or simply speak with the volunteer.
Santarosa said only 10-20 people awaiting hearings have signed up to meet up with volunteers over the last two weeks but added: “I think that number will go up — I hope it does.” He noted that if the volunteer is requested ahead of time, that volunteer will “have a little more standing in the eyes of the court … [and the judge] may allow us to sit in on a migrant’s case.”
At this stage of the program, most of the volunteers are attending in groups and then breaking apart to offer a presence at hearings that are open to the public. Some remain in the hallways, Santarosa noted, because Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is sometimes “waiting to arrest people whose cases have been dismissed.”
“Even when we don’t know the person … we’ve had people really express a lot of gratitude that we’ve been there,” Santarosa said.
Bishop Michael Pham and the diocesan auxiliary bishops are among the volunteers who have provided accompaniment at the courthouse.
Santarosa said a lot of volunteers speak Spanish and the program also has one volunteer who speaks Vietnamese and another, an imam, who speaks Arabic. He said he also hopes to find volunteers who speak Haitian Creole and others who speak Mandarin Chinese.
He noted that many people appreciate the ability to converse in their native language, noting that on the first day one person awaiting a hearing “didn’t have a lawyer and the imam stood up to talk with him … in one of his native languages and that was a comfort to him.”
Prior to launching the program, the diocese celebrated a Mass on June 20 for International Refugee Day, after which the bishop, some priests, and others went to the courthouse to offer accompaniment to people awaiting immigration hearings.
The diocese had a sign-up sheet for anyone who would like to volunteer to accompany migrants at the courthouse, which yielded about 100 signatures and ultimately led to the FAITH program.
When asked about the motivation for the initiative, Santarosa said it’s “not enough to just have thoughts and prayers” and that “Jesus expects us to actually take care of [people’s] physical needs.”
“I think there’s a … mandate in that Gospel that we need to put our faith into action,” he added.
Santarosa referenced Matthew 25: “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me,” which Jesus says to his disciples when speaking about those who will inherit the kingdom of heaven.
“Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me,” Jesus Christ says in the Gospel passage.
Santarosa also spoke about specific diocesan needs, noting that two parishioners have been deported within the past six months. He also personally accompanied one of his parishioners to two immigration hearings at her request and helped her get a lawyer to assist with filling out her asylum request paperwork.
Since the San Diego Diocese launched the program, Santarosa said other dioceses have reached out to ask for details about how to implement the program. He encouraged other dioceses to start similar programs, saying: “It’s really not that complicated” and “people of goodwill and the faithful” will volunteer.
“I think it’s a great thing for clerics, for [Church] leaders, and for laypeople to do,” Santarosa said.