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CNA Staff, Nov 19, 2025 / 12:23 pm (CNA).

The Maine State Supreme Court is considering whether to give a mother the right to take her daughter to church amid a dispute between the mother and her daughter’s father. 

Liberty Counsel, an Orlando, Florida-based legal group, said in a press release that the Portland District Court ruled it was “psychologically unsafe” for Emily Bickford to take her 12-year-old daughter to a Christian church called Calvary Chapel in the Portland area.

The girl’s father, Matthew Bradeen, had objected to his daughter’s being taken to the institution; in a broad order, the state district court had awarded him “the right to make final decisions regarding [the daughter’s] participation in other churches and religious organizations” as well.  

The ruling “completely stripped” Bickford of the right to make decisions over her daughter’s religious upbringing, Liberty Counsel said in a filing with the state Supreme Court. 

Bradeen is “demonstrably and openly hostile” to his daughter receiving instruction about the Bible, the filing said, and has evinced “wholesale objections to the Old Testament and the New Testament.” 

Precedent elsewhere, the filing said, holds that the “religious beliefs of one parent cannot be the basis for preferring one parent over the other” in custody disputes. 

News Center Maine reported that Bradeen was reportedly moved to seek the custody order when his daughter “started having severe panic attacks and [exhibiting] alarming psychological signs” after she began attending the church, including allegedly “leaving notes around the house that said ‘the rapture is coming.’”

Attorney Michelle King argued that precedent says courts “don’t have to wait for it to be so severe that a child suffers irreparable emotional harm” before issuing a custody order in such disputes.

Liberty Counsel, meanwhile, asked the state Supreme Court to reverse the lower court’s order.

The district court decision is “a direct infringement on [Bickford’s] right to direct the religious upbringing of her child,” the group said.

Mat Staver, the founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, said the court order violates the First Amendment.

“The breadth of this court order is breathtaking because it even prohibits contact with the Bible, religious literature, or religious philosophy,” he alleged in the group’s press release. “The custody order cannot prohibit Bickford from taking her daughter to church. The implications of this order pose a serious threat to religious freedom.”

Bickford, meanwhile, told reporters after the state Supreme Court ruling that the dispute “affects not only our family but the families of all Christian children.”

Michelangelo’s Pietà in St. Peter’s Basilica. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA

Vatican City, Nov 19, 2025 / 11:15 am (CNA).

Following the reaction to the new Vatican document Mater Populi Fidelis (“Mother of the Faithful People”), Father Maurizio Gronchi, a Christology expert and consultant to the Vatican Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, warned that considering the Virgin Mary as “Co-Redemptrix” or “Mediatrix” distorts the Christian faith and leads to a superstitious view.

“It is superstition to think that the Virgin Mary has the role of holding back God’s wrath. Whoever thinks this way is not in accordance with the Gospel,” Gronchi told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner.

The expert spoke about the new document this week alongside Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.

In the text, the Vatican urges the faithful against using the titles “Co-Redemptrix” and “Mediatrix” to refer to the Virgin Mary.

“To think that Mary has to mediate and convince God to be merciful undermines the Trinity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,” he explained.

The document has raised questions in some sectors of the Church, although it is not the first time the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has ruled out proclaiming this as dogma.

According to the Vatican doctrinal note also signed by Pope Leo XIV, St. John Paul II asked the then-prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, in 1996 to study whether it could be considered a truth of faith that the Virgin Mary is “co-redemptrix” and “mediatrix.”

“He asked Ratzinger for clarification on the matter. He had used this term from a spiritual and devotional perspective,” Gronchi explained.

But as soon as “Ratzinger said it was inappropriate, John Paul II never used it again,” Gronchi added. John Paul II did not use it in his 1987 encyclical Redemptoris Mater (“Mother of the Redeemer”), which deals precisely with the Virgin Mary and her role in the life of the Church and in the history of salvation.

Neither Pius XII, St. John XXIII, nor St. Paul VI ever used that expression, nor did the Second Vatican Council, said Gronchi, who noted that currently “it does not seem that new truths [about Mary] ought to be affirmed.”

According to the priest and academic, the Catholic Church has already dedicated all possible attention to the figure of the Virgin and the latest proclaimed dogmas are about her: the dogma of the Divine Motherhood, which affirms that Mary is the Mother of God (Theotokos) in 431; the dogma of the Perpetual Virginity in 649; the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in 1854; and the dogma of the Assumption of Mary in 1950.

Lack of support from Mariologists?

The drafting of the new document had a striking feature, according to Gronchi, who explained that the work of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has historically been “collegial.” For each topic studied, this Vatican department draws on the input of internal consultants and external experts, among other sources.

However, in the case of this doctrinal note on certain Marian titles, “no collaborating Mariologists could be found,” according to Gronchi.

The priest pointed out that neither those who teach at the Marianum Theological Faculty nor the members of the Pontifical International Marian Academy (PAMI by its Italian acronym) participated in the presentation of the document at the Jesuit Curia (administrative center), which in his opinion can be interpreted as a “silence” that “can be understood as dissent.”

The Christology expert said PAMI has a history of active participation in discussions regarding potential dogmatic definitions. He cited as an example the XII International Mariological Congress in Czestochowa in 1996, which emphasized that it was inappropriate to proceed with defining Mary as “mediatrix,” “co-redemptrix,” or “advocate.”

ACI Prensa reached out to PAMI, but it declined to comment.

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

Pierre Louvrier (center) speaks during the “Schuman Plan 2.0 — Europe’s Role in a Fragmented World” debate at the European Parliament, Nov. 11, 2025. / Credit: Maria Grazia Ricciardi

EWTN News, Nov 19, 2025 / 09:45 am (CNA).

A peace plan inspired by Venerable Robert Schuman was proposed at the European Parliament, envisioning cooperation across the Northern Hemisphere.

A Bible verse that lodged itself in my adolescent mind was Romans 9:13, a passage in which Paul references the book of Malachi: “As it is written, ‘I [God] have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau.’ ” Although I was a cradle Catholic, Calvinist ideas such as predestination seeped into my understanding of Christianity. […]

The post Heed the parable of the talents and embrace your identity appeared first on U.S. Catholic.

Archbishop Thibault Verny. / Credit: Florian Pépellin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Vatican City, Nov 19, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).

The challenge of addressing abuse within consecrated life — in all its dimensions: sexual, power, conscience, and also economic — was the focus of an international meeting organized by the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors held at the Maffei Marescotti Palace in Rome.

Under the theme “Building Communities that Safeguard Dignity,” representatives of religious institutes from some 20 countries are gathering Nov. 17–19 to share experiences, examine structural shortcomings, and work on the preparation of the third annual report, which will involve 40 communities.

The commission’s president, Archbishop Thibault Verny, thanked the nearly 60 participants from various countries for their presence and emphasized that preventing abuse “is not a local task but a universal commitment of the Church.”

The third report on abuse, the archbishop clarified, “is not intended to add a burden” but rather to be “an opportunity” to promote “attention to the most vulnerable members” and strengthen “the quality of formation.” This journey “cannot be traveled alone,” Verny pointed out.

‘I believe you, you are not alone’

One of the most significant moments was the intervention of Sister Véronique Margron, president of the Conference of Religious Men and Women of France, who clearly outlined the initial steps for supporting a consecrated woman who reports abuse. 

Her first recommendation was direct and unequivocal: “The first words must be: I believe you, you are not alone, I will help you and do everything necessary,” she stated, according to Vatican News.

“We must speak honestly; otherwise, it’s impossible to build dialogue and trust,” she added.

For the religious, reparations are a broad process that cannot be reduced to a mere procedure: They demand justice, support, and the genuine involvement of those who suffered violence. She therefore pointed out that the second step is “to work toward all forms of justice,” involving the victims at every stage, without “minimizing” the cases or diminishing responsibilities.

Structures, failures, and silence

The meeting addressed head-on the panorama of abuse within religious life, including its less visible forms. In convents and monasteries, there have been not only cases of a sexual nature but also abuses of power and conscience, practices that can give rise to “conflicts, asymmetries in power, marginalization, and unbalanced relationships,” as Verny noted in his address.

Providing an analysis, Claretian Father Krzysztof Gierat, head of the office of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life, emphasized that “every measure taken for protection comes with a face, with a story that demands listening, truth, and care,” clarifying that “protection cannot be treated as an added technical element; it’s not a protocol appended to consecrated life.”

Gierat listed structural factors that foster abuse even in communities with seemingly exemplary regulations, such as the absence of a “healthy system” of relationships. A community, he noted, may have “impeccable protocols” but then ambiguous authorities, “informal” hierarchies based on geographic origin, aggressivity, unhealthy relationships, missed warning signs, and ignored conflicts emerge. “Even without malicious intent, all of this becomes fertile ground for abuse,” he warned.

“Protection begins with the quality of the environment we breathe,” the priest emphasized.

Impact of the digital world

Gierat also addressed a particularly sensitive topic: the impact of the digital world. Consecrated life, he reminded everyone, can no longer be considered exempt from social media, chat rooms, or online exposure. The risks are numerous: public image, privacy, and digital grooming. “Protection isn’t just a matter of convent corridors but also of virtual spaces,” he pointed out.

And he pointed to a key aspect: the need for “comprehensive, spiritual, and psychological formation” for religious superiors. “A transparent, evangelical, and service-oriented authority is the first line of defense,” he said.

“Many abuses stem from authorities left to themselves and not adequately trained. And all abuse stems from a lack of communal discernment,” he added.

The meeting made it clear that the issue of abuse is not confined to church walls. For Stefano Mattei, policy director of Tutela Minorum (“Protection of Minors”), the goal is also to “drive change” in society: “It’s about putting the weight of the Church at the service of cultural change to protect children and the vulnerable,” he explained.

This commitment, he said, is possible thanks to the Church’s widespread presence, wealth of charisms, and its integration into very diverse contexts.

The discussions were complemented by international experiences. From Germany, Franciscan Andreas Murk, provincial of the order, presented particularly revealing figures: According to a 2019 survey, 1,412 people contacted the Conference of Superiors to declare: “I have been abused.”

Murk also detailed the work of the Independent Commission for Recognition, which manages compensation for victims of clerical abuse, with compensation of up to 20,000 euros ($23,160).

When asked about the risk of false accusations, he responded emphatically: “For decades, victims were ignored; now we must focus on them.”

In his province, he explained, “one or two accusations turned out to be unfounded; 40 others were not, and of those, only five asked for money. Not everyone comes for money; they just want recognition.”

However, he warned, even today “some communities refuse to confront the issue of abuse; they still lack the necessary sensitivity. Our duty is to be active in this area, even if it makes [people] uncomfortable.”

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

Ruth Pakaluk with her husband and five of their children. / Credit: Photo courtesy of the Pakaluk family

National Catholic Register, Nov 19, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

To kids in the neighborhood east of Interstate 290 in Worcester, Massachusetts, Ruth Pakaluk was the mom who baked brownies and blondies for everyone after school and whose home was the starting point for games and fun.

“She was like the ‘block mom,’” her husband, Michael Pakaluk, an author and professor at the Busch School of Business at The Catholic University of America, told the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner.

To the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, Ruth Pakaluk’s life merits further investigation to see whether someday the Church should declare her a saint.

The pro-life activist, Catholic convert, mother of seven, and Harvard graduate died of breast cancer in 1998 at 41. Now, the Diocese of Worcester, where she was living at the time of her death, has the approval of the Vatican’s saints’ dicastery to undertake a formal inquiry into her life, the next step along the path to a possible canonization.

Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the dicastery, referred to Pakaluk as a “servant of God” in a letter to the diocese dated Sept. 29 authorizing the inquiry.

The dicastery’s “nihil obstat” (“nothing stands in the way”) means that supporters of her cause have established her “reputation for sanctity” and “the importance of the cause for the Church,” as set forth in the 1983 Vatican document Normae Servandae In Inquisitionibus Ab Episcopis Faciendis In Causis Sanctorum.

Canonization, in which the Church solemnly declares that a person is in heaven, is likely a long way off, if it happens, and would eventually require two miracles attributed to her intercession. The next step is for the U.S. bishops to vote on her cause. If they approve it, the formal diocesan inquiry can begin.

From atheist to Catholic

Ruth Van Kooy was born on March 19, 1957, in northern New Jersey and grew up there, mostly in Norwood, near the New York state line. Half Dutch, half Scottish, she attended a Presbyterian church as a child.

She went to Northern Valley Regional High School in Old Tappan, where she was, according to a website about her life, a straight-A student who played the oboe, violin, and bass drum. She also played field hockey, sang in regional choirs, and “and produced, directed, and acted in numerous plays and musicals,” the website says. She graduated in 1975.

She was an atheist (“or near to it,” her husband writes) and an enthusiastic supporter of legal abortion when she met Michael Pakaluk, a fellow sophomore at Harvard College, during the fall of 1976. He had been raised in a nominally Catholic home but also considered himself a nonbeliever.

Even so, both were committed to pursuing the truth, which led them eventually to Christianity.

They married the summer after their junior year, at a Presbyterian church. But by their last semester at Harvard, they had begun attending Mass at a Catholic church. Ruth entered the Church on Christmas Eve in 1980, while Michael went to confession and took up life as a Catholic again. A few years later, both became supernumeraries of Opus Dei.

In 1982, while Michael was studying for a doctorate in philosophy at Harvard, Ruth — by then a young mom with a baby boy — helped start a pro-life group at Harvard. She joined the board of directors of Massachusetts Citizens for Life in 1984, and she eventually served as its president from 1987 to 1991.

Admirers remember her as an effective debater on college campuses, giving what Boston College philosophy professor and Catholic apologist Peter Kreeft called, in his introduction to a 2011 book of her letters that her husband edited called “The Appalling Strangeness of the Mercy of God,” “the most persuasive, irresistible, and winsome pro-life talks I have ever heard.” 

During the early 1990s, Ruth organized opposition to a Planned Parenthood sex-education curriculum proposed for Worcester public schools, which helped persuade the Worcester School Committee, the locally elected board that oversees the school district, to reject the curriculum. In 1993, a year after the committee vote, she also recruited a like-minded mom to run for a school committee and managed her successful campaign.

Dwight Duncan, a friend of the family who is the postulator of her cause, responsible for conducting what the Vatican calls “thorough investigations” into her life, said Ruth rarely put herself forward.

“One of the things about Ruth that strikes me in retrospect is that she was kind of low-key. She wasn’t assertive in personal dealings. She wasn’t showy or aggressive. She wasn’t flashy,” Duncan said. “But if she was front and center, like a debate or a speech or something, she was a strong, powerful woman.”

40-year-old carpets

In 1988, the couple and their then-four children moved from Cambridge to Worcester, about 45 miles to the west, where Michael had gotten a job teaching at Clark University. They lived “in a poor neighborhood in a home with 40-year-old carpets and no hot running water,” as Michael describes it in an online timeline of Ruth’s life.

Max Pakaluk, her second child, now 42, told the Register that his family’s house was a magnet for children in the neighborhood, many of them living in single-mother homes, who were drawn by the baked goods Ruth made and liberally distributed.

Michael Pakaluk said Ruth was disturbed by the learning gap she saw developing between her own children, who read often, and the neighborhood children, who didn’t, so she required kids who visited the home to read a book before they could go outside.

In summertime, she’d cram 10 or so kids into an Oldsmobile station wagon for the less-than-a-mile trip to Bell Pond in Worcester, where the kids would play, Max recalled.

Grace Cheffers, a friend who met Ruth at a pro-life parish event during the early 1990s, said Ruth was approachable and friendly but also creative in figuring out ways young moms and their families could meet.

Ruth organized gatherings of mothers and children at Notre Dame Cemetery in Worcester, where the families would say the rosary and the kids would run around while the moms went on walks and talked.

Cheffers recalled that the prevailing culture at the time suggested that women should be out working and having a career rather than just being a stay-at-home mom, but Ruth dismissed such ideas.

“Even though she was very well-educated and highly intelligent, she found joy in staying at home and taking care of her kids. And she was very unapologetic about it,” Cheffers said.

Cheffers, who has 11 children, said she learned parenting tips from Ruth.

“She was never scandalized by anything her children did. She was clear-eyed about the human condition,” Cheffers said. “Kids can do all sorts of things, and it doesn’t help to act shocked and upset. That just makes it worse for them.”

Cheffers said she also learned from Ruth how to articulate better why she did what she did.

“She was a deep thinker. She chose her words carefully. She was a natural teacher. She had great formation, and she really knew her faith,” Cheffers said.

One example: When Cheffers once asked Ruth why she went to daily Mass, Ruth immediately offered two reasons: one personal, related to the crib death of her infant son Thomas in November 1989, and one universal.

“She told me that going to Mass and receiving daily Communion was the closest she could be to Thomas while she was still on this earth,” Cheffers said.

The second reason: “She said that the two most important events in human history — the Incarnation and redemption — occur at every Mass. Why would you want to be anywhere else?”

Ruth often went to the 12:10 p.m. daily Mass at the Cathedral of St. Paul, after which she would stay up to an hour praying, said Bishop Richard Reidy, who now leads the Diocese of Norwich, Connecticut, but at the time was rector of the Worcester cathedral and the Pakaluk family’s pastor.

Ruth served as director of religious education for the cathedral parish. While Catholic religious education at the time was notoriously light on substance, Ruth made sure the kids learned doctrine, and she made it fun. She developed what she called “Quiz Game,” a parish-wide competition for kids in the program that eventually drew students from outside the parish.

“She ran a dynamic program, emphasizing the substance of the faith and the joy of living it,” Reidy said.

She led parish trips on the cheap for up to 30 kids to New York City and New Hampshire, among other places, combining culture, hiking, and religion.

Max Pakaluk described his mother as “someone who wanted to do things.”

“She didn’t have a lot of tolerance for laziness. I don’t think she understood laziness. We’re all here for so much time. There’s so many good things you could be doing. Why would you be wasting time?” Max said. “She was always trying to get people to do things.”

No complaints

Admirers of Ruth say that while many of her pursuits might seem ordinary — wife, mother, volunteer — she lived them in an extraordinary way.

Saints not killed for the faith as martyrs are those who “give outstanding testimony to the kingdom of heaven … by the heroic practice of virtues,” according to St. John Paul II’s apostolic constitution Divinus Perfectionis Magister.

So what were Ruth Pakaluk’s virtues?

Friends and family describe, among other things, an intense prayer life, trust in God through difficulties, interest in the welfare of others, gratitude, and a refusal to complain about her troubles.

In October 1991, Ruth was diagnosed with breast cancer, which eventually spread to other parts of her body. She lived with it about seven more years.

But her son Max said he doesn’t remember life changing much until his mother became bedridden not long before she died.

“Mostly I think she tried not to make a big deal about it. She just tried to act like there was nothing wrong,” Max said.

Along with her kids, she climbed Mount Washington, the steep, 6,000-foot-plus highest peak in New England notorious for its sudden weather changes, with a metal rod in her leg.

“But almost as remarkable as that, about two months before she died, she climbed down Mount Washington,” Michael Pakaluk said by text. “She took the shuttle up, but she climbed down via the Lion Head Trail. This is a very rugged, difficult trail. When I climbed it two years ago, I was scratching my head and wondering how she ever did it.”

She continued making trips with the family to the March for Life in Washington, D.C., in January, including one in 1998, the year she died, not long after a round of chemotherapy.

Fran Hogan, now 79, a commercial real estate lawyer and former president of Massachusetts Citizens for Life, walked with Ruth during the march that year. Hogan, who was carrying a heavy pocketbook, didn’t know about Ruth’s debilitating treatment.

“It was over my left shoulder. And I complained bitterly about how heavy that pocketbook was,” Hogan said. “Ruth just laughed. She never complained. Never said a word.”

“And we got to the Supreme Court building and she collapsed.”

Ruth was hospitalized.

People who knew her say Ruth accepted her suffering without questioning it.

“When she knew she had terminal cancer, it’s amazing how calmly they took all of that, and I guess that’s the faith behind it,” said her mother-in-law, Valerie Pakaluk, 92, who is planning to serve as secretary-treasurer of the nonprofit foundation that will direct Ruth’s cause of canonization.

“I think there’s no question that the way she handled her illness was extremely heroic,” her son Max said.

Her attitude, Max said, can be summed up this way: “I am not going to give any indications that I’m sick. I am not going to be the center of attention here. I am not going to be causing difficulties here. Most of all, I am not going to be the reason my kids don’t have a normal life.”

She was unsentimental about her status, realizing that with six children, the youngest of whom was 5 years old, her husband would soon need help.

About a month before she died — on Sept. 23, 1998 — Ruth encouraged her husband Michael to remarry after she departed, and she even focused on a likely candidate — “calmly suggesting,” as The Catholic Free Press of the Diocese of Worcester put it in May 2019, that Harvard graduate student Catherine Hardy, whose parents were family friends — and whose middle name is Ruth — “might be the one to raise her children.”

Here’s how Michael describes it: “She took a deep breath and said, ‘I have for a long time thought that Catherine Hardy would make a good wife for you, and now I see that she has moved to Cambridge.’”

Catherine Pakaluk, as she is now known, married Michael in August 1999. She is an economist and associate professor at The Catholic University of America, where Michael, 67, is a full professor of political economy. Catherine and Michael, an occasional contributor to the Register, now have eight children of their own.

Michael and Ruth currently have 32 grandchildren.

A saint?

So was Ruth Pakaluk a saint?

Supporters of her cause who spoke to the Register were careful to say that they don’t want to declare her one before the Church decides through its formal process.

But they drop hints.

At her wake, her husband took a box of funeral prayer cards for Ruth and touched them to her body — which, in the event she is canonized, would make the prayer cards third-class relics.

“I always had this conviction — it’s strange — that she would be a canonized saint,” Michael Pakaluk, who said he is cooperating with Ruth’s cause but purposely not directing it, told the Register. “Obviously you can’t presume the judgment of the Church.”

Reidy also stopped short of calling her a saint without denying that she might be.

“I’m very delighted at the recent steps that have gone on, and we trust in Holy Mother Church,” Reidy said. “But she’s a great example, somebody to be held up.”

“If Ruth Pakaluk isn’t in heaven,” he said, “I am a little discouraged for the prospects of the likes of me.”

Twenty-seven years after Ruth’s funeral Mass, which Reidy celebrated before about 1,000 people, he recited from memory during a recent interview with the Register his description of her during his sermon: “To give life and to defend it. To have faith and to spread it. To be gifted, and to freely give of those gifts.”

This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, and has been adapted by CNA.

Mia Smothers is among the teens chosen to ask Pope Leo XIV questions at the National Catholic Youth Conference Nov. 21, 2025. / Credit: Photo courtesy of National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 19, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Mia Smothers said she is looking forward to the “opportunity of a lifetime” as she prepares to speak with Pope Leo XIV during a digital encounter at the upcoming National Catholic Youth Conference (NCYC).

The Holy Father will hold a 45-minute digital encounter with young people from across the United States during the Nov. 20–22 conference hosted by the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry (NFCYM) in Indianapolis.

More than 40 teens have participated in the dialogue planning process, and five of them will get the chance to speak directly with the Holy Father. Smothers, a high school freshman from Joppa, Maryland, is the youngest teen selected to speak with the pontiff. 

“I’m feeling excited,” Smothers said in a Nov. 18 interview with “EWTN News Nightly.” She added: “This is a very good opportunity for me to learn more about my faith and others around me.” 

This year marks the first time Smothers will attend NCYC. She said she is looking forward to the opportunity for adoration at the conference, because she heard it “is a very powerful experience.”

Smothers said she thinks the young attendees of NCYC want to get a better understanding of how the Church wants them to act in the faith, how they can be more helpful, and how they can be more hands-on in the Church.

The NCYC team and the students who will speak with the Holy Father have been preparing and practicing in anticipation for the encounter to get a better idea of how they can establish themselves in the Church.

“We have been meeting up on Zoom and doing follow-up questions — practicing what the pope might tell us and to figure out how we could answer and how we could switch the conversation to something that we want to ask,” Smothers said.

As a teenager in the Church, Smothers is concerned about how people are supposed to find their vocations in life. She said: “I really want to ask him how he found out he wanted to become a priest and then how he felt about becoming pope.”

“This is an opportunity of a lifetime and something that you’ve never heard of and never … seen before,” Smothers said. “I plan to tell all of my siblings, all of my friends, and everyone at my school … to be involved and see what the pope wants for us.”

The Vatican choosing to set up this dialogue with the youth at the conference is “making a difference,” Smothers said. She said the Vatican and the pope are starting something that will be passed on to the following generations.

It is impactful that the pope himself is going to be “talking with young kids and trying to make a difference in their lives,” Smothers said.

A family grieves their lost baby at a funeral at the crypt at St. Patrick’s Cemetery in New Orleans. Many friends, relatives, and families attended the funeral that day. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Compassionate Burials for Indigent Babies

CNA Staff, Nov 19, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Sandy Schaetz still mourns the baby she never met. 

“It was terrifying and traumatic,” she said of her miscarriage. “I was consoled after by the prayers of a deacon, but never named the baby or knew if it was a boy or girl.” 

“It was not something I understood at the time and I only wish I had known more of what was happening,” she told CNA. 

Now, Schaetz volunteers with Compassionate Burials for Indigent Babies (CBIB), an organization that buries babies who died, whether stillborn, miscarried, or aborted.

The group organizes everything for the funerals, which are held at a crypt at St. Patrick’s Cemetery in New Orleans.

A shoebox-sized casket lined with donated white fabric, usually from wedding dresses, is processed through the cemetery, with Knights of Columbus present as the honor guard. A volunteer musician plays at every funeral; a Catholic deacon presides at almost every burial.

When Schaetz attended her first burial service as a volunteer, it hit her to the core.  

“I find it difficult to put into words how it affected me,” Schaetz said. “All God needed me to do that day was to be present, to pray, to honor the life he had created.” 

“It opened my eyes to how each life is such a gift, and when that life ends how important it is to show respect and pray for the soul and bury the dead with love,” Schaetz said. 

Death and resurrection 

Women who lose children through miscarriage often suffer silently, according to Lise Naccari, the founder of CBIB. 

“Losing a child is hard. Often women suffer in silence the pain of infant loss and ride that sad emotional roller coaster ride alone,” Naccari told CNA. 

One in four pregnancies ends in miscarriage — a devastating statistic for many couples. 

Naccari herself experienced a miscarriage as well as several challenging pregnancies. 

“I feel a special connection with poor mothers who have lost a child. My heart goes out to them,” Naccari said.

Naccari buries the babies who were wanted and loved, but also the babies who were thrown out or mistreated.

“CBIB has buried babies as big as a blueberry and up to 2 years old,” Naccari said. “We buried babies stillborn, miscarried, abandoned, unclaimed, aborted, murdered, and thrown away in the trash — and every situation possible.”

“Many babies were mistreated, abused, and tossed out … these are heartbreaking funerals to go to,” Naccari said.

“Babies are left sometimes because some families can not afford funerals for them but would like one,” Naccari said. “Also, many parents are young, and the grief can be overwhelming and they cannot navigate through funeral arrangements.” 

Her life’s work is to bury the dead — and she looks to the Resurrection. 

“I consider what I do holy,” Naccari said. “I feel like this is my vocation and I know God orchestrated all of this. I give all honor and glory to him, our loving Father.” 

“What I do is not about sorrow and death,” Naccari continued. “What I do is really about joy and life — eternal life.” 

It’s not an easy job, and Naccari looks to God for strength.

“Lord, I don’t want to do this anymore. It hurts my heart too much,” Naccari remembered praying as she prepared one baby for burial — a baby girl who had been abandoned and tossed out after she was born.

“I felt a still small voice within me say, ‘Lise, don’t think about their bodies, focus on the Resurrection,’” Naccari recalled.

“The sunlight from the stained-glass windows was shining down a warm yellow color on my face, as I looked up in it and I thought, yes, this is what I needed to hear to keep going — focus on the Resurrection,” she continued.

A resource for women in need

Sheena Lewis was in jail when her son, still a baby, passed away. She couldn’t attend the funeral, but Naccari organized the burial for her.

Lewis, now sober and out of jail, visits her son’s crypt often.

“I have solace in the fact he was laid to rest in a beautiful manner when I couldn’t be there for him or myself at the time,” Lewis told CNA.

Many young mothers CBIB helps are often “steeped in poverty” and have no support system. They are often “low income, uneducated, coming from sometimes addiction or problem homes,” Naccari said.

“Often I find at these funerals that the young mothers are alone or they may come with children or other women — but there are no men to help support them,” Naccari said.

“My heart is broken for them, for they are not only battling their poverty, they also have to deal with losing a child,” she said.

A moment to mourn 

Funerals help families process their grief — a grief that’s often hidden away due to the nature of miscarriages. 

Deacon Ricky Suprean preaches at almost every graveside burial — but after a couple years of volunteering, he realized God had called him to this so he could find healing. 

Suprean and his wife, Lynn, experienced two miscarriages.

Suprean struggled to process it at the time, but through his volunteering, he’s found some healing. He still remembers the first CBIB funeral he presided at. 

“I felt the power of life that day,” he told CNA. “It was cold. I had no idea I would kneel in front of each little coffin and pray for each child and each family with my hand touching each coffin.”

Volunteers hugged each family member, he recalled.

“God has allowed me to give a proper burial to my own two lost children through CBIB time and time again,” Suprean said.

“God created these children in my wife’s womb, and they will be waiting for us in heaven,” Suprean continued.

Struggling to process grief is common with loss of children, according to Naccari.

“Too often people are hurting so much and don’t want to face a funeral,” Naccari said. “They feel vulnerable and so it is easier to turn away and do nothing.”

“But on the contrary, I have observed that these funerals provide consolation, comfort, solace, and even a healthy way of healing after the loss of a baby,” Naccari said.

“It’s a good grief,” Naccari continued. “Funerals are about love and holding onto friends and family at a time of need. It can be life-changing.”

Some funerals have had as many as 100 people in attendance.

Many volunteers are “faithfully committed” to being present at every funeral.

“It could be freezing cold or blistering hot in the summer, but they just show up and either help set up, greet the parents, or stand tall next to a casket to show the love of Jesus to our families,” Naccari said.

These funerals “allow parents that special moment to mourn their loss and to remember their little one and ponder the person that little one could have been,” Naccari said.

“CBIB celebrates each life, and we believe that God somehow rights all the wrongs and makes all things new,” Naccari said. “And then we move to the next funeral.”

A man seeking asylum from Colombia is detained by federal agents as he attends his court hearing in immigration court at the Jacob K. Javitz Federal Building on Oct. 27, 2025, in New York City. / Credit: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 19, 2025 / 05:00 am (CNA).

Trump administration officials are vigorously defending the U.S. government’s immigration enforcement efforts, including citing St. Augustine’s “City of God” to justify enforcement actions.

The “blameless poor” are different from lawbreakers when considering how to interpret Scripture to show charity toward immigrants, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told CNA in response to concerns raised by U.S. Catholic bishops about immigration policy.

U.S. bishops said in the Nov. 12 special message: “We oppose the indiscriminate mass deportation of people” and cited Matthew 25, where Jesus Christ told his disciples: “Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.”

Nathaniel Madden, principal deputy assistant secretary for communications at DHS, told CNA that when considering that verse, one should recognize “a key distinction” in how to demonstrate charity “when you’re talking about people who have knowingly broken laws to get somewhere” as opposed to “a much different situation than dealing with the blameless poor who are citizens of the same country.”

He referenced writings by St. Augustine in “City of God” on the compatibility of both justice and mercy, saying the two are not contradictory. Madden, who is Catholic, said, in some cases, DHS has to deal with “severe criminals,” and in all cases, “illegal immigration is itself illegal.”

“We have to take into account that laws were broken,” Madden said. He said authorities do ensure the “human dignity” of migrants is protected.

 “We are upholding federal law that’s been in place for 60 years,” he said. “We are upholding federal laws that were justly and duly passed by the United States Congress, by the American people … and none of those laws are unjust.”

The message by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) voiced concerns with deportations, the revocation of some migrants’ temporary protected legal status, and conditions they believe threaten the “God-given human dignity” of migrants.

“Catholic teaching exhorts nations to recognize the fundamental dignity of all persons, including immigrants,” it reads. “We bishops advocate for a meaningful reform of our nation’s immigration laws and procedures. Human dignity and national security are not in conflict.”

The message passed during the USCCB’s Fall Plenary Assembly in Baltimore, with 216 bishops voting in favor of the language, five voting against it, and three abstaining. The last time bishops approved a special message was in 2013 in opposition to a federal contraception mandate.

DHS: ‘Your dignity is going to be respected’

Madden said detainees “are going to be treated like a person, and your dignity is going to be respected,” and through the entirety of the proceedings, officials “will respect your human dignity the entire time.”

When asked whether DHS agrees with the bishops that “human dignity and national security are not in conflict,” Madden responded: “Oh, 100% — they’re absolutely compatible.”

“They’re completely in line with what we believe about the human person, what we believe about human liberty, what we believe about human freedom and dignity and rights,” he said. “And that’s exactly what we’re doing. And it’s what we’ve been doing this entire time.”

A specific concern the bishops expressed was “the conditions in detention centers and the lack of access to pastoral care.” Over the past month, a point of contention was the conditions of the facility in Broadview, Illinois, and the inability for clergy to provide Communion to the Catholic detainees.

“People shouldn’t be sleeping next to overflowing toilets,” U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman said and noted he had not yet taken up the issue of the lights being kept on all the time in the facility.

An ongoing lawsuit alleges unsanitary conditions, inadequate food and water, a lack of personal hygiene products, and no access to pastoral services in violation of the Constitution. While DHS says detainees are only meant to be there for up to 12 hours for processing, detainees testified about remaining there for several days.

Madden said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) could not accommodate the clergy’s requests for services at Broadview because of safety concerns but that pastoral resources are available at all detention facilities where migrants are held over 72 hours. He rejected the claims of poor conditions, calling them false.

When detainees are transferred to more long-term detention centers, Madden said they have access to pastoral care, doctors, lawyers, medical treatments, and nutritionists.

“The entire time that everyone is in ICE custody, they are having their immediate needs [met], whether that’s health, lawyers, medical, food,” he said. “Everything is being met.”

Self-deportation policy defended as merciful, 'incredibly humane'

U.S. bishops objected to the large-scale deportation efforts, which Madden said is simply an enforcement of federal laws. 

Madden noted that President Donald Trump has offered an opportunity to self-deport, which will allow a person to leave the country without going through the deportation proceedings, provide them with a stipend, and allow them to seek a legal pathway back into the United States if they wish.

He said that policy is “incredibly humane” and grants mercy to people who are in the country illegally. 

“This administration cares deeply about the intrinsic human dignity of everybody it comes in contact with,” Madden said. “Whether you are a citizen, whether you are somebody in our custody who is being removed from the country, you have that dignity … [and] that worth just simply by being made in the image of God and this administration respects and upholds that.”

Pope Leo XIV has also spoken about deportations and immigration enforcement in the United States.

On Nov. 18, the pontiff urged Americans to listen to the message from the bishops, and said many migrants who lack legal status “are living good lives, and many of them for 10, 15, 20 years” and the government should not “treat them in a way that is extremely disrespectful.”

In his October papal exhortation Dilexi Te, the pope reminded that the Church Fathers recalled “that the Gospel is proclaimed correctly only when it impels us to touch the flesh of the least among us, and warning that doctrinal rigor without mercy is empty talk.”

WASHINGTON – Catholics across the country are encouraged to observe a nationwide prayer vigil from Thursday, January 22 to Friday, January 23, 2026, to pray for an end to abortion and a greater respect for all human life in post-Roe America. “Together, we must pray to change hearts and build a culture of life as we advocate for the most vulnerable. I look forward to opening our Vigil with Holy Mass together with many other bishops, hundreds of priests, consecrated religious, seminarians, and many thousands of pilgrims,” said Bishop Daniel E. Thomas of Toledo, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on Pro-Life Activities.

The National Prayer Vigil for Life is hosted each January by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Pro-Life Secretariat, the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., and The Catholic University of America’s Office of Campus Ministry. This year, the opening of the National Prayer Vigil for Life will take place on January 22, the anniversary date of the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide in 1973.

In 2022, the Supreme Court of the United States issued its decision Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade. Since the Dobbs decision, abortion policy is now determined at the state and federal levels. Some states have increased access to abortion and others are working to ensure stronger policies to protect preborn children and their mothers.

The Opening Mass of the National Prayer Vigil for Life will take place at 5:00 p.m. in the Great Upper Church of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, January 22. Bishop Thomas will be the principal celebrant and homilist for the Opening Mass. At 7:00 p.m., following the Opening Mass, a National Holy Hour for Life will take place in the Crypt Church (lower level) of the Basilica, which will include Recitation of the Rosary and Benediction. The nationwide vigil concludes on Friday, January 23 in the Great Upper Church with the 8:00 AM Closing Mass celebrated by Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley, OFM, Cap., archbishop emeritus of Boston.

Pre-registration is required for clergy and seminarians. For more information about on-site attendance at the Basilica for the National Prayer Vigil for Life, please visit the event page at https://www.nationalshrine.org/event/2026-national-prayer-vigil-for-life/.

The live television broadcasts on January 22 for the 5:00 pm Opening Mass and the January 23 Closing Mass at 8:00 a.m. will be provided by the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) and will be available via livestream on the Basilica’s website at www.nationalshrine.org/mass. 

For those who cannot come to Washington, Catholics across the country are invited to unite in prayer during the nationwide vigil through local diocesan prayer efforts such as special Masses and holy hours taking place during January 22-23. Additionally, thousands of Catholics are signing up for the national pro-life novena, 9 Days for Life, which will take place from January 16-24, 2026.

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