Schoolchildren attend a ceremonial welcome and tree planting at Aras an Uachtarain, the official residence of the president of Ireland, during a state visit by His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco and his fiancee, Charlene Wittstock, on April 4, 2011, in Dublin. / Credit: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images

Dublin, Ireland, Dec 17, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

A U.K. Supreme Court ruling has found that Christian religious education taught in schools in Northern Ireland is unlawful, but it does not apply to Catholic schools.

The European Parliament building in Brussels, Belgium. / Credit: Ala z via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 3.0)

EWTN News, Dec 17, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).

The EU-Western Balkans summit on Dec. 17 in Brussels brings together European Union leaders and their counterparts from six Western Balkan nations.

Pope Leo XIV presides at the jubilee Mass for prisoners on Dec. 14, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

ACI Prensa Staff, Dec 16, 2025 / 15:11 pm (CNA).

The last major event of the Jubilee of Hope was dedicated to prisoners around the world, some of whom during the past weekend were able to experience freedom and fulfill a dream: to go see Pope Leo XIV.

Víctor Aguado, director of prison ministry in Valencia, Spain, accompanied a group of prisoners to the Eternal City, many of whom had spent more than 12 years behind bars. Thanks to special permission, they were able to travel and become living witnesses that “hope breaks down walls and that dignity cannot be taken away.”

In a conversation with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, Aguado recounted the details of the “intense, emotional, and spiritual” trip that will forever mark the lives of the men and women who have been incarcerated. 

The group was composed of a total of 13 people from Valencia, including prisoners, volunteers, and the chaplain. Six of them were inmates in the second and third degree of the prison system — regimens that combine incarceration with controlled outings — so they had to obtain a series of permits from the Treatment Board, the General Secretariat, and the Oversight Institutions. “It was a long bureaucratic process, but we didn’t have any problems,” Aguado explained.

He explained that they selected the prisoners they have known for a long time. Those in the third degree of the prison system enjoy a semi-release regimen and live in halfway houses, while those in the second degree usually go to workshops and cooperate with everything the prison ministry proposes. “They are people of faith who attend Mass, and we knew that, given their situation and attitude, they needed this and wouldn’t turn it down,” he commented.

“They wanted to be very well prepared, free of burdens, and participate in Sunday Mass completely cleansed and at peace with themselves,” said Aguado, who also highlighted their passing through the Holy Door as one of the most emotional moments of the jubilee. “With the pilgrimage, the prisoners assumed a new responsibility and a new path, a new life, and the feeling that now they have to do things right.”

He also highlighted their excitement at seeing the pope, since for them “he is the representation of the Lord on earth.” The Sunday Mass with the Holy Father, Aguado explained, was “very simple, and although it was in Italian, it was perfectly understandable.”

“Hope goes beyond, it breaks down walls wherever it may be, and the dignity of people cannot be taken away, and that is what they conveyed during the three days we were in Rome. These were very intensely personal experiences, and we could feel their joy; everyone had a look of peace,” he noted.

For Aguado — who has been working with prisoners for 14 years — the fact that this event closed the Jubilee of Hope is no mere coincidence. “The world of prisons is not visible, and in some way we must begin to consider that people who have been judged eventually get out and have to reintegrate into normal life, and that depends on society.”

“We know that the Lord forgives everything, so who are we to not forgive these people and keep on stigmatizing them? They are called ex-convicts, but they are nothing more than persons, with all their dignity and freedom,” he affirmed.

Although he assured that the Lord “is always with them and walks with them,” he emphasized the urgency of recognizing the prisoners as living members of the Church and appealed to the responsibility of every Christian: “Sometimes we take the works of mercy for granted, but we don’t always put them into practice. The Lord challenges us: ‘I was in prison,’ and the question remains the same: ‘Did you come to see me?’”

There are many lives that need to be rescued

The Italian priest Father Raffaele Grimaldi, who left his chaplaincy at the Secondigliano prison in Naples — where he served the inmates for 23 years — to coordinate the 230 priests who minister to the nearly 62,000 detainees throughout Italy, also participated in this historic jubilee.

Speaking to ACI Prensa, he noted that the event “is a strong reminder that the Church wants to bring God’s love and mercy to prisons, who goes in search of those who are lost.”

According to Grimaldi, this jubilee “has brought to light the most difficult situations we are experiencing in our prisons and the plight of the prisoners” including overcrowding, lack of resources, suicides, neglect, and “above all, the lack of acceptance from society.”

The priest brought some prisoners from different Italian prisons before Pope Leo XIV, especially young people and one man sentenced to life in prison. “It was a moment of great joy for them,” he commented.

“Every prisoner needs to constantly hear a word of mercy: from people who do not judge, who do not point fingers, who do not condemn, but who embrace,” he stated.

He also emphasized that this jubilee has not been an isolated event, since throughout the year there has been spiritual preparation in the correctional facilities, where “proclaiming hope is a powerful message that resonates deeply in the hearts of all.”

Grimaldi admitted that these individuals have “made mistakes” and are serving a sentence for them; however, he urged people to “reach out to them so that they can take up their lives again and change,” with justice accompanied by mercy, “so that justice itself does not become vengeance.”

During his years of service in the prisons, he said he has encountered many people who have traveled on a beautiful spiritual journey, “like a young Albanian man who received the sacrament of baptism on Dec. 12.”

“This makes us understand that in our prisons there are many lives that need to be rescued and helped, because if these opportunities don’t exist, the prisoner dies inside, and we also kill the hope that is in their heart.”

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

The Wisconsin Supreme Court building in Madison, Wisconsin. / Credit: Richard Hurd/Wikimedia Commons

CNA Staff, Dec 16, 2025 / 13:00 pm (CNA).

The Wisconsin state government lost decisively a second time in what has become a convoluted effort to block a Catholic charity from receiving a long-running state tax exemption.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Dec. 15 blocked state Attorney General Josh Kaul’s attempt to fully eliminate an unemployment tax exemption after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Diocese of Superior’s Catholic Charities Bureau was entitled to the tax break.

The U.S. Supreme Court in June had ruled that Wisconsin violated the First Amendment when it denied the tax exemption to the Catholic group on the grounds that the group’s charitable undertakings were not “primarily” religious.

The state responded in October by moving to eliminate the exemption entirely, arguing that the tax break is “discriminatory” and that ending the policy would “avoid collateral damage to Wisconsin workers.”

In a brief order on Dec. 15, the state’s high court affirmed that the U.S. Supreme Court ruling allows the Catholic charity to access the tax break. The court directed the state Labor and Industry Review Commission to declare the charity eligible for the exemption. 

The religious liberty law group Becket, which has represented the Catholic charity in the legal fight, said in a press release that the Wisconsin Supreme Court had ended the state government’s “crusade” against the Catholic charity. 

“You’d think Wisconsin would take a 9-0 Supreme Court loss as a hint to stop digging,” Becket Vice President Eric Rassbach said. “But apparently Attorney General Kaul and his staff are gluttons for punishment.” 

“Thankfully, the Wisconsin Supreme Court put an end to the state’s tomfoolery and confirmed that Catholic Charities is entitled to the exemption it already won,” Rassbach said. 

The ruling “protects not just Catholic Charities, but every faith-based organization that relies on this exemption to serve the public,” he added. 

In its June ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court said the First Amendment “mandates government neutrality between religions” and that Wisconsin had failed to adhere to this principle in refusing to issue the tax exemption to Catholic Charities. 

“It is fundamental to our constitutional order that the government maintain ‘neutrality between religion and religion,’” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in the decision. “There may be hard calls to make in policing that rule, but this is not one.”

Justice Clarence Thomas, meanwhile, said that governments “may not use [entities such as a Catholic charity] as a means of regulating the internal governance of religious institutions.”

Following the ruling this week, David Earleywine — the associate director for education and religious liberty at the Wisconsin Catholic Conference — said the Catholic charity has been fighting for the exemption for “decades.”

“[T]rue Catholic charity is inherently religious and cannot be reduced to another secular social service,” he said.

St. Januarius (left) and the relic of the blood of St. Januarius. / Credit: Chapel of St. Januarius

ACI Prensa Staff, Dec 16, 2025 / 12:58 pm (CNA).

The miracle of the liquefaction of the blood of St. Januarius, patron saint of the Italian city of Naples, occurred again on Tuesday, Dec. 16.

The Michigan government released another report on diocesan abuse in December 2025, detailing dozens of allegations against more than 50 priests in the Diocese of Grand Rapids. / Credit: Snehit Photo/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Dec 16, 2025 / 12:15 pm (CNA).

The Michigan government this week released its fifth report on diocesan abuse in the state, detailing dozens of allegations against more than 50 priests in the Diocese of Grand Rapids. 

The report from the attorney general’s office, released on Dec. 15, comes after four other reports detailing abuse allegations in the dioceses of Lansing, Kalamazoo, Gaylord, and Marquette.  

As with the other reports, the allegations detailed in the Grand Rapids investigation go back decades. The Dec. 15 report encompasses abuse allegations against “priests or deacons who are current or former clergy for the Diocese of Grand Rapids, that occurred in the diocese from Jan. 1, 1950, to the present,” the review says. 

The alleged abuse reports were pulled from a variety of sources, including a government tip line, police investigations, and abuse reports disclosed by the diocese itself. 

The majority of the priests identified in the report — 37 out of 51 — are “known or presumed to be dead,” the report says, while none of the remaining 14 are in active ministry in the Grand Rapids Diocese. 

Nearly all of the potential criminal violations in the report occurred “before 2002,” it says. 

Most of the alleged abuse was reported to have occurred against “either boys or girls under the age of 16,” though the state said some alleged abuse occurred against adults. 

In a video message after the release of the report, Grand Rapids Bishop David Walkowiak offered his “deepest and most sincere apologies” to the victims of clergy abuse there. 

The prelate commended “the courage that victim-survivors have to tell their stories,” calling it a “testament to their strength and resilience.” 

“Priests are ordained to serve in the person of Christ himself, which makes the sexual abuse of minors incomprehensible and particularly harmful,” he acknowledged.

The bishop said the report partly inflates the number of victims by detailing “consensual relationships between priests and adults,” which he pointed out are “immoral [but] not in violation of Michigan law.”

Walkowiak said the diocese has “cooperated fully” with the attorney general’s office during the investigation. He noted that the diocese has implemented “numerous safeguards” to protect children — including zero-tolerance protocols — and has “diligently upheld these practices for more than 20 years.” 

State Attorney General Dana Nessel, meanwhile, said in a press statement on Dec. 15 that abuse survivors “deserve to be heard.”

“[B]y releasing these reports, we hope to honor the courage of victims and ensure their experiences are no longer hidden,” she said. 

Reports on the Archdiocese of Detroit and the Diocese of Saginaw are still forthcoming from the state and are expected to be released at a later date. 

The Berlaymont building in Brussels, seat of the European Commission. / Credit: EmDee/Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

EWTN News, Dec 16, 2025 / 11:30 am (CNA).

A drastic cut in EU funding has plunged the Federation of Catholic Family Associations in Europe (FAFCE) into financial crisis, according to the association.

Catholic actor and director David Henrie speaks with EWTN News after the first episode of his new travel show, “Seeking Beauty,” premiered at the Vatican’s movie theater on Dec. 15, 2025. / Credit: Daniel Ibanez/CNA

Vatican City, Dec 16, 2025 / 10:45 am (CNA).

The first episode of a new travel show, hosted by Catholic actor and director David Henrie, premiered at the Vatican’s movie theater on Monday evening.

“Seeking Beauty,” which will debut on EWTN’s free streaming platform EWTN+ on Jan. 19, 2026, is a series documenting Henrie’s exploration of the beauty of art and culture in six Italian cities.

Henrie and executive producer Edmundo Reyes, with other crew members, were present for the airing of Episode 1 inside Vatican City on Dec. 15. The premiere was followed by a Q-and-A with Henrie, Reyes, and Peter Gagnon, president of EWTN Studios, moderated by Andreas Thonhauser, chief global officer of EWTN.

“It’s a blessing to be able to play the show at the Vatican, which is where we [filmed] our first episode,” Henrie told EWTN News. “You can’t help but feel grateful, and feel like [it’s] a full-circle moment.”

In the first episode, Henrie speaks to a range of experts — including art historian Elizabeth Lev and artist Kelly Medford — to learn more about the Vatican Gardens, the Swiss Guard, St. Peter’s Basilica, and St. Peter’s Square.

Reyes called it “such a special moment” to show the first episode of “Seeking Beauty” at the Vatican.

“We can’t wait for people to see it,” he told EWTN News at the event. “I think it’s going to be a great, great evangelization tool.”

Reyes, who had the original idea for the show, recalled visiting Spain with his family four years ago and how it was there he realized how many stories about art and faith have not been shared with a wider audience.

“God put in my heart this desire … Let’s create a travel show that will be more than a travel show, that would help people encounter God through beauty,” he said.

“What David has done is very special, because it’s not about going to places but retraining us or inviting us to contemplate and to look at beauty differently,” Reyes said during the Q-and-A. It’s about “God speaking to us through beauty, and not so much about, ‘Hey, here’s a cool place to visit and to put on your bucket list.’”

The series is produced by EWTN Studios in partnership with Digital Continent and in association with Novo Inspire and Sacred Arthouse.

“Each episode is very unique … There’s so much there that can touch people in different ways,” Gagnon said.

In Season 1, Henrie will also visit Rome, Milan, Venice, Florence, and Subiaco, a place connected to St. Benedict. Season 2 of “Seeking Beauty” recently wrapped filming in Spain.

“I’m not an expert. You’re just seeing it through my eyes,” Henrie told EWTN News. 

“The thing that will make this accessible is that you’re not sitting down for a history lesson; it’s a travel show,” he said. “When my wife and I watch travel shows, we have a glass of wine, we hang out, we relax, we watch something. It’s easy consumption, but there’s some medicine under all the sugar.”

Paola Flynn, Vatican correspondent for EWTN Noticias, contributed to this report.

Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, archbishop of Luxembourg, presided over the beatification Mass of the 50 martyrs of the Catholic apostolate, held Dec. 13, 2025, at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/EWTN News

ACI Prensa Staff, Dec 16, 2025 / 10:00 am (CNA).

Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich celebrated in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris the Mass of beatification for 50 Catholic martyrs murdered by the Nazis.

Italian Bishop Antonio Staglianò celebrates a Mass for the Jubilee of Tourism at Rome’s Church of San Salvatore in Lauro on Dec. 15, 2025. / Credit: Kristina Millare/EWTN

Rome, Italy, Dec 16, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).

About 400 people participated in a Jubilee of Tourism pilgrimage in Rome on Monday evening.