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A dire wolf puppy bred by Colossal Biosciences. / Credit: Colossal Biosciences

CNA Staff, Apr 25, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).

A Texas-based bioengineering company sparked headlines across the world earlier this month when it announced it had done the seemingly impossible: brought a long-extinct species, the dire wolf, back from the dead. 

Here’s what Catholics should know about the dire wolves and what the Church might have to say about “resurrecting” extinct species of animals. 

A Colossal claim

Colossal Biosciences, a private company based in Dallas, announced April 7 the births of three genetically-modified puppies they say are not merely wolves but dire wolves — a species that roamed the Americas as a top predator for tens of thousands of years but which went extinct naturally around 12,500 years ago. 

The company was cofounded by the famed Harvard geneticist George Church, who has been active in the field of species “de-extinction” for decades. (Its investors include George R. R. Martin, author of the “Game of Thrones” fantasy series; dire wolves feature prominently in those stories.)

To create the puppies, scientists extracted and sequenced ancient DNA from two dire wolf fossils, compared the ancient genomes to those of several living relatives including present-day wolves, and identified gene variants specific to dire wolves. They then edited a donor genome from a gray wolf and cloned those cells into dog eggs before finally transferring the embryo into a surrogate dog.

Colossal says the puppies were born in October 2024 and are currently “thriving” on a vast, secure ecological preserve in an undisclosed location. (Comparisons to “Jurassic Park” were swift and inevitable.) 

Long term, Colossal says it plans to restore the species “in secure and expansive ecological preserves, potentially on Indigenous land.”

Scientists, journalists, and critics were quick to scrutinize Colossal’s claims that the creature they had created was truly a dire wolf — i.e. the first truly “de-extincted” species. National Geographic said the puppies are “better understood as slightly-modified gray wolves rather than true dire wolves.”

Nevertheless, some scientists have hailed the announcement as a major breakthrough and have expressed hope that the technology Colossal is perfecting could be used to help existing endangered species come back from the brink.

The Church’s response to gene editing

“Gene editing” is not in itself a new technology, and the Church has addressed its use several times in recent decades, noting that the practice holds promise for curing and preventing diseases, alleviating suffering, and promoting the common good, even among human beings. 

Recent technological advances, such as CRISPR, have made gene editing simpler, cheaper, and more effective — but also has brought with it serious new ethical concerns. 

In 2018, for example, a Chinese scientist announced the birth of CRISPR-modified babies whose genes had been edited while they were still embryos. The announcement was widely criticized in the scientific community as unethical and the scientist, He Jiankui, later faced punitive measures from the Chinese government for violating regulations surrounding gene editing. 

From a Catholic perspective, the technology is addressed chiefly in the Church’s 2008 instruction Dignitas Personae. 

In a section on gene therapy, Dignitas Personae notes that gene editing procedures used on somatic (body) cells “for strictly therapeutic purposes are in principle morally licit,” while at the same time firmly rejecting the editing of human “germ line” cells such as sperm and eggs, since such alterations could be heritable and harm the resulting babies. The instruction also warned against a “eugenic mentality” that aims to improve the human gene pool. 

So the Church has said that the use of gene editing in humans can be beneficial within certain ethical parameters, but what about a Catholic view of its use in animals?

Taking a broad view, the Church teaches that mankind was granted dominion over the “mineral, vegetable, and animal resources of the universe” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2456) but that this dominion is “not absolute” and comes with important moral obligations, particularly a view to “the quality of life of [one’s] neighbor, including generations to come,” as well as “a religious respect for the integrity of creation” (CCC, 2415). 

Pope Francis in his expansive 2015 encyclical Laudato Si’ further addresses a Catholic view of ecology as it relates to the natural world. In his encyclical, Francis notes that humans are called to respect creation and its inherent laws, recognizing that God founded the earth “by wisdom” (Prv 3:19). Creatures are not to be “completely subordinated to the good of human beings, as if they have no worth in themselves” (Laudato Si’, 69). 

Father Tad Pacholczyk, a senior ethicist at the National Catholic Bioethics Center, commented to CNA that while Colossal’s claims are, from a biotechnology standpoint, very impressive, he has “lingering questions about the basic motivation behind the endeavor.”

“Biodiversity is a feature of the planet that has waxed and waned over eons. During the history of the earth we have had, by some estimates, 5 billion different species. The majority of these species have been wiped out by a range of forces, whether volcanic eruptions, habitat destruction, disease, asteroid impacts, etc. Why presume we have a duty to bring any of them back?” Pacholczyk said in emailed comments to CNA. 

Other scientists have pointed out that breeding an animal with many of the same traits as an extinct animal — in the dire wolf’s case, chiefly a white coat and large size — is not the same as “bringing back” a long-gone species. Scientists could breed elephants with hairy brown coats, for example, but those would still be elephants, not wooly mammoths. 

“To bring back the real dire wolf would require synthesizing and manipulating billions of DNA base pairs and arranging them into chromosomes, which current technology is unable to do,” Pacholczyk said. 

Moreover, Pacholczyk opined that Colossal’s decisions to focus their efforts heavily on animals with broad cultural appeal, such as dire wolves and wooly mammoths, may be driven by the need to attract investors, because “the expenses involved in de-extinction efforts are staggering.”

“Ethically speaking, one wonders if such enormous expenditures can really be justified, when far lower financial commitments could safeguard habitats and bio-niches of currently threatened species,” Pacholczyk said. 

(Back) home on the range

OK, so what about Colossal’s plans to someday reintroduce the wolves into the natural environment? After all, there have been success stories when it comes to human-led reintroduction of species previously dislodged from an ecosystem — including, perhaps most famously, the reintroduction of gray wolves in Yellowstone National Park in 1995.

Practically speaking, if Colossal’s reintegration does happen, the dire wolves will find themselves in an ecosystem that is dramatically different from the one in which they previously lived — not least because of the fact that almost the entirety of human society has arisen in the time since it went extinct. Also, as the New York Times notes, they would encounter an environment where they would potentially have to compete with existing gray wolves.

The upshot is that despite many advances in recent years, scientists’ grasp of the “intricacies of ecosystems on the planet is quite limited, because these systems involve a plethora of complex variables, and to suppose we can really forecast which ecosystems would benefit from the reintroduction of certain de-extincted animals is highly doubtful,” Pacholczyk said. 

“There also remains the perennially important ‘law of unintended consequences,’ where we could end up reintroducing a de-extincted species only to be caught off guard when it suddenly expanded out of control, ravaged specific habitats and wiped out other species.”

Echoing Pacholczyk, Laura Altfeld, an associate professor of biology and ecology and chair of the Department of Natural Sciences at St. Leo University, a Catholic college in Florida, told CNA in written comments that there could be potential downsides to reintroducing extinct species to existing ecosystems, both for the introduced animals and for the rest of the ecosystem. 

This is because, in part, most ecosystems as they exist today are highly modified and degraded as a result of human activities, which could pose challenges for reintroduced species if they lack the necessary adaptations that modern species have developed to deal with a world dominated by humans.

If done right, however, there is potential that reintroduced species could aid in “restoring ecosystem functions and boosting biodiversity in some of our ecosystems,” Altfeld continued, especially in high latitudes, such as the Arctic, where climate change continues to rapidly alter ecological conditions.

Whatever happens next in terms of a potential reintroduction, a program as ambitious as Colossal’s should be driven by “ecological expert consensus” and not commercialism, she cautioned. 

“This technology is incredibly powerful and should absolutely be used with caution, and with serious forethought into animal welfare considerations and clear connection to purpose (conservation, for example).”

Altfeld did go on to add, however, that Colossal’s technology could be helpful as a means of saving existing species at risk of or on the verge of extinction. 

Among some endangered species which have very small remaining populations, a lack of genetic diversity caused by inbreeding can be a big problem. Scientists are already using a technique called genetic rescue, which involves introducing genetic material from a similar species, through outbreeding, in order to try to save an endangered one. 

“There are endangered animal species whose wild and captive populations are so significantly genetically bottlenecked that they will most certainly go extinct without intervention. Any technology that can be used to reintroduce genetic diversity has the potential to be of extreme benefit,” she wrote.

The potential use of Colossal’s technological advances to aid in the genetic diversity of endangered populations “is the most valuable, in my opinion. And the fact that they are willing to work with conservation researchers globally to aid in species conservation is impressive,” Altfeld said. 

Altfeld said she plans to continue to engage her zoology students in conversations about the ethics of gene editing, with the dire wolf announcement just the latest in a continuing line of “rapid advancement” in the field that she expects will continue. 

“Our students will be moving into careers that may directly engage with the technologies that are being developed by Colossal, so engaging them in conversations about the ethical and scientific issues surrounding genetic engineering are essential for us as educators,” she concluded.  

“I encourage everyone to do the same, whether they are Catholic or not. There is never a downside to becoming knowledgeable and conversant with one another, even about the most challenging and controversial of topics.”

This article was updated on April 25, 2025, at 12:42 p.m. ET to note that the modified wolf genome was cloned into dog eggs and implanted into a surrogate dog, not wolf eggs and a surrogate wolf as originally written.

Catholic Charities USA sign at its headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. / Credit: DCStockPhotography/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 24, 2025 / 16:45 pm (CNA).

Catholic Charities USA (CCUSA) will launch a national storytelling exhibit in 2026 detailing the organization’s acts of service around the country, the charity group said this week.

The exhibit, titled “People of Hope: Faith-Filled Stories of Neighbors Helping Neighbors,” will tour the U.S. for two and a half years, according to a press release from the organization on Wednesday. 

“The exhibit, housed in a retrofitted tractor trailer, will share professionally produced, first-person accounts from staff and volunteers of Catholic Charities agencies across the country about meaningful and memorable encounters with families and individuals in need,” the release stated.

The project will be funded by a nearly $5 million from the Lilly Endowment. “We are incredibly grateful to Lilly Endowment for offering us the opportunity to shine a light on the transcendent power that springs from the simple but profound act of helping another human being in need,” CCUSA President and CEO Kerry Alys Robinson said.

“Through this exhibit, we hope to inspire more people of hope all around the United States to seek out opportunities to love and serve our neighbors, to be Christ-like in response to human suffering, deprivation, or injustice,” she added. 

Apart from Catholic Charities USA, the Lilly Endowment awarded grants to 11 other organizations “as a part of an invitational round of its National Storytelling Initiative on Christian Faith and Life.” 

“For many years, leaders of Christian communities have shared with the endowment powerful stories about how faith animates the lives of individuals with meaning and hope, giving them a deep sense of God’s love for themselves and others,” the endowment’s Vice President for Religion Christopher Coble stated in a press release announcing the approval of the grants.

“These leaders have also shared their concerns that these powerful stories are often overshadowed by accounts of the closing of churches and the weakening of religious life,” he continued. “We hope this initiative will help make known the vibrant ways that Christians practice their faith through acts of love and compassion in their everyday lives.”

Catholic Charities USA will begin professionally recording selected stories of service from its staff this summer at its office in Alexandria, Virginia, while the exhibit is scheduled to kick off its journey in the spring of 2026.

null / Credit: Sora Shimazaki/Pexels

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 24, 2025 / 16:15 pm (CNA).

The University of Louisville has agreed to pay a former professor nearly $1.6 million after the university demoted him and refused to renew his contract following off-campus expert testimony in which he spoke about the dangers of performing transgender operations on children.

Allan Josephson, a psychologist who had led the university’s division of child and adolescent psychiatry and psychology, received pushback from the university’s LGBT Center immediately after he voiced his concerns on a panel at the conservative Heritage Foundation.

“I’m glad to finally receive vindication for voicing what I know is true,” Josephson said in a statement provided by his attorneys at Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) after the settlement.

“Children deserve better than life-altering procedures that mutilate their bodies and destroy their ability to lead fulfilling lives,” Josephson added. 

“In spite of the circumstances I suffered through with my university, I’m overwhelmed to see that my case helped lead the way for other medical practitioners to see the universal truth that altering biological sex is impossibly dangerous while acceptance of one’s sex leads to flourishing.”

According to the lawsuit Josephson filed against the school in early 2019, the professor said during the Heritage panel discussion that gender dysphoria is a sociocultural and psychological issue that cannot be fully addressed through transgender drugs or surgeries. 

He also argued that transgender medical interventions neglect the developmental needs of children and fail to address the root cause of the child’s gender dysphoria.

The lawsuit noted that he had previously given expert testimony on these matters, saying that children are not equipped psychologically to make important life decisions and that gender transitions result in permanent social, medical, and psychiatric consequences. 

He has said that therapy for children should focus on resolving conflicts they feel with their biological sex rather than being immediately “affirmed” as transgender.

According to the lawsuit, Josephson was demoted at the behest of the university’s LGBT Center and several faculty members. It asserted that some faculty members created a hostile environment and leaked information about his demotion to discredit him as an expert witness. It stated that the university refused to renew his contract without citing any performance concerns.

The lawsuit accused the public university of violating Josephson’s First Amendment right to free speech and his 14th Amendment right to due process by demoting and ultimately firing him.

ADF Senior Counsel Travis Barham hailed the settlement as a major victory for “free speech and common sense” on college campuses. He said public universities will hopefully learn from this settlement that “if they violate the First Amendment, they can be held accountable, and it can be very expensive.”

“[Josephson] risked his livelihood and reputation to speak the truth boldly, and the university punished him for expressing his opinion — ultimately by dismissing him,” he said. “But public universities have no business punishing professors simply because they hold different views. Dr. Josephson’s case illustrates why — because the latest and best science confirms what he stated all along.”

The university did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday. 

Pope Pius XII. / Credit: Vatican Media

Ann Arbor, Michigan, Apr 24, 2025 / 12:00 pm (CNA).

“There has been a shift of late regarding Pius XII,” historian William Doino told CNA. The wartime pontiff has often been vilified, Doino said, adding: “He will soon get due recognition” for efforts to rescue Jews and others persecuted by Nazis and fascists more than 80 years ago. 

This year, Yom HaShoah, also known as Holocaust Remembrance Day, is marked on April 24 in the United States and Israel, according to the lunar calendar of Jewish observance. Elsewhere,  International Holocaust Remembrance Day is observed on Jan. 27.

Doino has spent decades researching the legacy of Pope Pius XII and the wartime pontiff’s efforts to rescue Jews, Allied military personnel, and others pursued by Nazi occupiers. He has interviewed clergy and diplomats who knew Pius XII personally and who could give firsthand testimony. Unlike other researchers, Doino recorded these interviews, which inform his reports on the pontiff.

He is also co-author of “The Pius War: Responses to the Critics of Pius XII.” The editor of the book is Rabbi David G. Dalin, who noted that prominent Jews, including Albert Einstein, Golda Meir, and Chief Rabbi Yitgzhak HaLevi Herzog, lauded Pius XII for saving thousands of Jews.

Doino said “a mountain of evidence” provided by modern research and newly revealed documents offer new insights into Pope Pius XII (the former Eugenio Pacelli), and his efforts have been missed by his critics. However, Doino also said in an interview that the Church must confront the “increasing evils of anti-Judaism and antisemitism, which pose a grave threat to the Jewish community across the globe.” 

Leading Catholic figures, such as Pius XII, responded by fighting “these dangerous sins” and defending Jews. “The God-given dignity and fundamental human rights of every human being needs to be respected at all times — our Catholic faith demands nothing less,” he said. 

Pius XII, like his predecessors, sought to be neutral and work for peace. “He was not just a mild-mannered diplomat. He was willing to think outside the box and take risks,” Doino said. He was under tremendous pressure, and rescuers were under threat of death. Many efforts by the pope and the Church were too dangerous to record on paper, Doino affirmed, presenting a challenge to historians. Doino said Vatican clergy took oral instructions from the pope to rescue Jews.

Multiple authors, including Catholic journalist John Cornwell, have linked Pope Pius XII to the destruction of European Jews. Cornwell argued that before and during World War II, Pius XII legitimized Adolf Hitler’s extermination regime. Cornwell accused him of antisemitism and seeking to aggrandize the papacy. But extensive information exists that challenges the narrative of papal indifference, or even complicity, in the crimes.

Doino said Pius XII used diplomatic and covert means to chastise Nazis for their eugenics and racism and to avert war. But the fascists and Nazis would not listen, Doino said, “for as we know, psychopaths and murderers do not listen to honorable people.” He also pointed out that Pius XI, Pius XII’s predecessor, issued in 1937 Mit Brennender Sorge, an encyclical denouncing antisemitism and fascism, which Pius XII affirmed. 

Sweeping generalizations about the Church and the papacy, Doino said, should be discarded even though there were specific instances of antisemitic European clergy and laity who supported the Axis. Doino also confirmed that the pope actively assisted anti-Nazi resisters and sought to overthrow Adolf Hitler.

Doino said researchers must look beyond Vatican files to document Pius XII’s efforts. He said that in “Myron Taylor, the Man Nobody Knew,” author C. Evan Stewart revealed in 2023 that Taylor — the official U.S. representative to the Holy See — learned that the pope, at a famous 1940 meeting with Nazi diplomat Joachim von Ribbentrop, demanded that two Vatican representatives be given permission to visit Poland to document Nazi atrocities when he learned that Jews were being targeted. The German admitted that Jews were being exterminated and then refused the papal request. “This proves that Pius XII defended the Jews,” Doino said, and gives the lie to claims otherwise.

Pius XII’s critics have a hard time proving that he was antisemitic or indifferent to the plight of European Jews. “What they do is try to link him to other officials who were, sadly, antisemitic or anti-Jewish. But even in those instances, God worked on them. Some who were antisemitic, when faced with the Nazi horrors, changed or allowed their human sympathies to transcend their bigotries so that they could rescue Jews,” he said. 

Archbishop Angelo Roncalli, the future Pope John XXIII, is known to have rescued thousands of Jews while serving as a papal diplomat in Turkey and Greece during World War II. Archbishop Clemens August Graf von Galen of Münster, Germany, protested Nazi euthanasia in 1941.

“This would not have happened if Pope Pius had not authorized them. It was done under his orders and inspiration,” Doino said. “To separate the actions of Roncalli from those of the pope is incorrect.”

Doino said that critics considering the horrors of the Holocaust should “be humble and open to the truth and follow the facts wherever they lead.” He noted that historian Father Hubert Wolf, an acute critic of Pius XII, has since called for a reassessment of the pope’s legacy on the basis of new documentation.

Vatican documents revealed by papal archivist Johan Ickx revealed in “Le Bureau — Les Juifs de Pie XII” (“The Office — The Jews of Pius XII”), published in 2020 and based on a decade of research, that the pope consistently sought peace and set up an office to save endangered people.

Ickx said: “I think there are 2,800 cases, there’s a list equivalent to Schindler’s list, a ‘Pacelli’s list’; I wonder how it is that the Holy See never publicized it.” During the German occupation of Italy, 81% of the 39,000 Jews in Italy were saved.

Suzanne Brown-Fleming of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum told an October 2023 conference in Rome, for instance, that before the Second Vatican Council, many Catholics thought of Jews and Judaism as “something dangerous, something different.” But many battled these prejudices and saved Jews “sometimes at the cost of their lives.” 

Among the rescuers, she said, were those who inspired the Second Vatican Council, such as Pope John XXIII, who inaugurated it. She said laity, parishes, seminaries, religious orders, and papal institutions harbored Jews, producing false identities and smuggling Jews into Switzerland under the threat of death.

The Holy Tunic of Christ on display in Argenteuil, France, in 2016. / Credit: Simon de l'Ouest, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Paris, France, Apr 24, 2025 / 11:00 am (CNA).

Open to the public from April 18 to May 11, the exhibit is galvanizing Catholic faithful across Europe.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks on the U.S. opioid crisis at the Rx and Illicit Drug Summit in Nashville, Tennessee, on April 23, 2025. / Credit: SETH HERALD/AFP via Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 23, 2025 / 17:26 pm (CNA).

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) hosted the inaugural meeting this week of a new task force to counter anti-Christian bias in federal government policies, regulations, and practices.

“Protecting Christians from bias is not favoritism,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said ahead of the meeting. “It’s upholding the rule of law and fulfilling the constitutional promise [in the First Amendment].”

The task force’s first meeting on Tuesday was closed to the public and the media but included the heads of multiple federal departments and agencies along with witnesses who provided testimony on anti-Christian bias within the federal government.

President Donald Trump formally established the Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias on Feb. 6 by executive order. His order commissioned a comprehensive review of federal departments and agencies, particularly to reverse certain actions of the previous administration.

Specific concerns of anti-Christian bias

A news release following the meeting detailed some of the concerns and policies administration officials are reviewing.

One Catholic-specific concern discussed in the meeting was the since-retracted January 2023 memo from the Richmond Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which detailed an investigation into supposed ties between “radical traditionalist” Catholics and “the far-right white nationalist movement.”

The document called for “trip wire or source development” within Catholic parishes that offer the Traditional Latin Mass and within online Catholic communities. Later revelations from the House Judiciary Committee found that the Richmond FBI used at least one undercover agent to obtain information on traditionalist Catholics and coordinated with other FBI field offices on the matter.

According to an April 22 news release after the task force meeting, Trump’s FBI director, Kash Patel, discussed “the impact of the anti-Catholic memo” during the gathering and “reiterated the FBI’s commitment to rooting out any anti-Christian bias that could be directing decisions or investigations.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the news release notes, brought up concerns about bias against a Christian Foreign Service Officer who “was threatened with an investigation for child abuse” for insisting on home-schooling his child.

According to the news release, Rubio also expressed disapproval of the Department of State stigmatizing workers who opposed the COVID-19 vaccine mandate on religious grounds and retaliation against employees for “opposing DEI/LGBT ideology.” 

For her part, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon discussed concerns about gender ideology in education policies and school districts socially transitioning children without their parents’ knowledge. 

Deputy Treasury Secretary Michael Faulkender voiced concerns about the Biden administration removing certain tax classifications from Christian and pro-life organizations and objections to debanking.

Michael Farris, an attorney and founder of Patrick Henry College, was one of the witnesses. Farris called attention to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) investigating and charging Pastor Gary Hamrick of Cornerstone Chapel for alleged Johnson Amendment violations.

Phil Mendes, a U.S. Navy Seal, spoke about how he was relieved of his duty under the Biden administration for refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine.

CNA reached out to the DOJ and FBI for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

“As shown by our victims’ stories today, Biden’s Department of Justice abused and targeted peaceful Christians while ignoring violent, anti-Christian offenses,” Bondi said in a statement after the meeting. “Thanks to President Trump, we have ended those abuses, and we will continue to work closely with every member of this task force to protect every American’s right to speak and worship freely.”

U.S. Vice-President JD Vance meets Pope Francis on Easter Sunday, April 20, 2025, at the Vatican / Credit: Vatican Media/Screenshot

CNA Staff, Apr 23, 2025 / 16:21 pm (CNA).

U.S. Vice President JD Vance said this week that he is refusing to politicize Pope Francis’ death, hailing the late pontiff as a “broad” figure and a “great” leader of the Catholic Church. 

“A lot of people, especially in the American press, want to make the Holy Father — his entire legacy and even his death — about American politics,” Vance told reporters in Agra, India, while on a four-day visit with his wife, Usha, the first Hindu-American second lady. 

“He was obviously a much broader figure than the United States of America. He represents over a billion Catholics worldwide,” Vance said. 

The two leaders publicly disagreed on politics earlier in the year. In February, Pope Francis sent a pastoral letter to the U.S. bishops encouraging officials to recognize the dignity of immigrants after Vance, a Catholic convert, publicly advocated applying “ordo amoris,” or “rightly-ordered love,” to the immigration debate. 

“[A]s an American leader, but also just as an American citizen, your compassion belongs first to your fellow citizens,” Vance said at the time, while acknowledging that the principle “doesn’t mean you hate people from outside of your own borders.”

In the letter, Francis tacitly rebuked Vance’s remarks, arguing in part that “the act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution, or serious deterioration of the environment damages the dignity of many men and women.”

When asked about his response to these “disagreements,” Vance said he was “aware” of them but noted that the pope “also had a lot of agreements with some of the policies of our administration.”

“I’m not going to soil the man’s legacy by talking about politics,” Vance said. “I think he was a great Christian pastor, and that’s how I choose to remember the Holy Father.”

When asked what type of pope he would prefer to be elected next, Vance said he would pray for the cardinals who will cast the votes in the upcoming conclave. 

“I won’t pretend to give guidance to the cardinals on who they should select as the next pope,” he said. “We’ve got plenty of issues to focus on in the United States.”

“I’ll just say a prayer for wisdom because I obviously want them to pick the right person, I want them to pick somebody who will be good for the world’s Catholics, but I’ll let them make that decision and obviously they’re entitled to do so,” Vance continued. 

JD Vance was among the last officials to meet with the late Pope Francis before he died on Monday. 

When asked about their providential meeting on Easter Sunday morning, Vance said he had “thought a lot about that.” 

“I think it was a great blessing,” Vance shared. 

In their meeting, Pope Francis gave the vice president three chocolate Easter eggs for his three young children as well as a Vatican tie and rosaries.

“It’s pretty crazy actually, and obviously when I saw him I didn’t know he had less than 24 hours still on this earth,” Vance said.

“He saw a lot of people, he affected a lot of lives,” Vance continued. “I try to just remember that I was lucky I got to shake his hand and tell him that I pray for him every day because I did and I do.”

Vance offered condolences to Catholics around the world in light of Pope Francis’ death.

“We’re very saddened by it,” he said. “Our condolences to Catholics all over the world, but especially [those] back home who love and honor the Holy Father.”

Stephanie Gabaud receives a blessing from Pope Francis at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City on Sept. 24, 2015. / Credit: EWTN/screenshot

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 23, 2025 / 15:51 pm (CNA).

Among the people throughout the world remembering Pope Francis in a special way this week are three Americans who shared extraordinarily personal moments with him during his apostolic visit to the United States in September 2015.

Father Keith Burney, pastor of St. Michael’s Catholic Church in historic St. Mary’s County, Maryland, will never forget the “surreal nature” of serving at the pope’s Mass when he was a transitional deacon finishing his seminary studies at The Catholic University of America.

When Pope Francis celebrated Mass for more than 25,000 people at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Burney served as the deacon of the Eucharist, preparing the chalice with the wine and water for the Holy Father.

Burney raised the chalice of the blood of Christ as Pope Francis raised the body of Christ.

“I would have never dreamed of it,” Burney told CNA.

He recalled that the Holy Father was “not feeling well” during his visit to campus. “But,” Burney said, “when it came to celebrate the liturgy and to preach, he kind of came alive in a way.”

“It takes a lot of energy, these big papal liturgies, and he was an elderly man, and I remember noticing him just kind of pouring himself out.” 

Keating family

When Chuck Keating, director of a Catholic high school marching band from Philadelphia, heard that his group of students was selected to play for Pope Francis in the City of Brotherly Love on Sept. 26, 2015, he was ecstatic — but conflicted about one thing. 

He wasn’t sure if he should bring his then-10-year-old son Michael, who has cerebral palsy and is confined to a wheelchair.

“We weren’t going to bring Michael because it wasn’t easy to bring him,” said Keating, who serves as head of the fine arts department at Bishop Shanahan High School.

However, thanks to the encouragement of Father Michael Fitzpatrick, the family’s pastor, Keating and his wife, Kristin, decided to go ahead and bring Michael.

“Father Michael just said, ‘Listen, this is one-lifetime opportunity. You just have to have him down there and have him be a part of that moment,’” Keating said. 

When Pope Francis stepped off the plane at Philadelphia International Airport on Sept. 26, 2015, Fitzpatrick’s words proved truer than the Keating family ever could have imagined.

The Holy Father was being driven around the airport but stopped the vehicle and approached the Keating family on the tarmac. The loud environment with cheers and music suddenly went silent.

Pope Francis embraced Michael, giving him a blessing and a kiss on the head. Kristin and Chuck both shook hands with Pope Francis as well.

Keating also called the moment “surreal” and added that every year the family still celebrates the anniversary of the day Pope Francis blessed Michael, who is now 20 years old. 

“It was just a great experience,” Keating told CNA. He added that Michael is doing “fantastic.”

‘I went into a trance’

When then-17-year-old Stephanie Gabaud met Pope Francis, he gave her a blessing that she says healed her.

Gabaud, who has had spina bifida since birth, was recovering from back surgery prior to Pope Francis’ visit on Sept. 24, 2015, and didn’t know if she would be able to attend his vespers service at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. 

But to her excitement, she was cleared to attend the event by her surgeon the day before the pope’s visit.

At the time of the service, Gabaud was still experiencing discomfort from the surgery, which took a rod out of her back that was causing an infection. The plan was for the rod to later be replaced because her doctor said Gabaud would not survive without it.

“It was a very difficult time in my life,” Gabaud told CNA.

But after she encountered the Holy Father, something changed.

As Pope Francis processed into the cathedral toward the altar, Gabaud said he saw her and headed toward her. “So I put my arms up and gave him a hug.”

The Holy Father made the sign of the cross on her forehead and embraced her.

“He told me to pray for him, which I am still doing.” In return, Gabaud, calling Pope Francis by his Spanish name, saying to him: “Papa Francesco, pray for me.”

Following the blessing, Gabaud asked Pat Tursi, CEO of Elizabeth Seton Children’s Center — where Gabaud is a full-time resident, serving as international spokesperson and a volunteer for the center — if she could sit in Tursi’s lap.

“And then all of a sudden, I immediately closed my eyes and just went into a trance,” Gabaud said.

“It was something of the Holy Spirit. I don’t know how you describe it, but it was something that I’ve never seen her do in all my years,” said Tursi, who has known Gabaud since she was 2 years old.

In a follow-up appointment with Gabaud’s doctor, he made the decision not to replace any rods in her back.

“He said there was a 100% chance that I would not survive without the rods. But look at me today,” she said.

In March 2023, Gabaud was able to travel to the Vatican and met again with Pope Francis. 

(The video of Gabaud’s 2015 blessing is below and can be seen at the 33:37 mark.)

German bishops gather in Rome on Nov. 17, 2022. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

CNA Staff, Apr 23, 2025 / 12:00 pm (CNA).

The German Catholic bishops have published a handout that offers guidance to pastors on blessings for couples in “irregular” situations such as same-sex relationships.

Assets sold to help pay a massive clergy sex abuse settlement in the Diocese of Buffalo, New York, include the diocese’s former headquarters, pictured here, in downtown Buffalo. / Credit: Warren LeMay/Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0

CNA Staff, Apr 23, 2025 / 11:00 am (CNA).

The Diocese of Buffalo, New York, will pay out a massive $150 million sum as part of a settlement with victims of clergy sexual abuse there. 

The diocese said in a press release that the diocese itself, along with parishes and affiliates, would provide the payment “to survivors of sexual abuse for acts perpetrated against them by clergy, religious, lay employees, and volunteers.” 

The settlement amount was still set to be voted on by abuse victims and approved by U.S. bankruptcy court, but the proposal has been accepted by the committee of abuse survivors in the suit, the diocese said. 

The settlement “represents an essential milestone on this protracted and arduous journey, and importantly, enables us to finally provide a measure of financial restitution to victim-survivors, which has been our primary objective all along,” Bishop Michael Fisher said on Tuesday. 

“While indeed a steep sum, no amount of money can undo the tremendous harm and suffering the victim survivors have endured, or eliminate the lingering mental, emotional, and spiritual pain they have been forced to carry throughout their lives,” the prelate said. 

The diocese said it was still in talks with insurers “to determine amounts to be added to the final settlement fund from prevailing coverages.”

In a press release provided to CNA, New York law firm Jeff Anderson & Associates, which has represented abuse victims in the suit, said the amount was “the second-largest contribution by a bankrupt Roman Catholic institution and its affiliates in any Roman Catholic bankruptcy case to date.”

The settlement is “a major step forward to reaching a long-awaited resolution for the hundreds of strong, heroic survivors who came forward in the Diocese of Buffalo,” attorney Stacey Benson said in the release. 

The parties in the suit “continue to negotiate nonmonetary terms of the settlement, including strengthening child protection measures and the release of diocesan documents pertaining to the accused perpetrators,” the law firm noted. 

The payout comes several months after the largest diocesan-level bankruptcy settlement in U.S. history, when the Diocese of Rockville Centre — also in New York — agreed to pay $323 million to abuse victims. 

The largest Church abuse payout total in U.S. history thus far has been at the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, which last year agreed to a near-$1 billion payment to abuse victims.