The logo for a new high school that Catholics in Houston’s Bay Area are fundraisingor for, projected to open in 2027 with a mission to be “unapologetically Catholic” and “academically excellent.” / Courtesy of Carlo Acutis Catholic High School, Houston

Rome Newsroom, Sep 1, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

As Pope Leo XIV prepares to proclaim Blessed Carlo Acutis a saint in Rome on Sept. 7, thousands of miles away at the foot of Michiru Mountain in Malawi, students at a Catholic high school bearing his name are preparing a celebration of their own.

“Our students look up to him as a model in their faith,” Grace Matumba, a leader in campus ministry at Carlo Acutis Catholic High School in Blantyre, Malawi, told CNA. “He was a young man who gave his life for Christ.”

The high school, which opened in 2022 with just 90 students, has since grown to accommodate 300, with boarding facilities for girls and a dedicated computer lab. It forms part of a Catholic education complex that includes a nursery, primary, and college — each under the patronage of modern Catholic figures such as Mother Teresa, John Paul II, and now Acutis, who will soon be the Church’s first millennial saint.

From African cities to American suburbs and from Australia to Wales, schools named after the Italian teenager known for his Eucharistic devotion and computer savvy are multiplying rapidly. More than a dozen schools already bear his name, many of which will soon be undergoing a name change from “Blessed” to “St. Carlo Acutis.”

Virtual schools embrace digital saint 

In the Diocese of Madison, Wisconsin, Blessed Carlo Acutis Academy is a virtual Catholic school that serves students in grades 5–12 across 11 largely rural counties, where Catholic high schools are scarce. 

Assistant Superintendent Therese Milbrath said the online structure has been a blessing for diverse families. “We have home-school families who reach out and say … ‘Math has gotten to the point where I can’t teach it to my child anymore,’” she said. Others include students with autism who find it easier to focus outside a classroom, military families on the move, and even an ambitious young hockey player looking for more ice time.

“It’s interesting because we’re just seeing a lot of different needs pop up,” Milbrath said. “The bulk of our students are in the Diocese of Madison, but we do take students from outside of the diocese.” 

While virtual, the school named for the Church’s first computer-coding saint remains distinctly Catholic: Live sessions begin with prayer, religion is required every semester for full-time students, and Catholicism is infused throughout the curriculum. 

The Archdiocese of Miami has gone a step further with the Carlo Acutis Virtual Academy, or CAVA, the country’s first archdiocese-sanctioned online Catholic school that is Cognia-accredited, meaning it meets rigorous, internationally-recognized standards of education. Offering K–12 education, CAVA was inspired by the life and legacy of Acutis and his use of technology in “recognizing its potential to spread the message of faith to the digital generation.” 

“We bring students closer to one another and closer to Jesus,” the virtual academy states in its mission. 

Australia looks to Assisi

On the other side of the globe, Carlo Acutis Catholic Primary School in Melbourne, Australia, opened in 2025 — just months before Acutis’ canonization. Founding Principal Damian Howard traveled 10,000 miles to Italy to meet Acutis’ mother in Assisi while planning the school.

“That took me on a journey of a lot of discovery in terms of finding out about Carlo, coming up with the colors of the school … navy and red, which were his favorite colors, and also just happens to be the colors of the town flag of Assisi,” Howard said.

The school’s design echoes the brickwork of the Assisi church where Acutis is buried, St. Mary Major. Howard said the school’s values — faith, service, generosity, and courage — were chosen to mirror the life of the young Italian who once stood up to bullies and cared for the homeless.

“We’re indelibly entwined with Assisi and with Carlo’s story, our little school all the way out here in Australia,” Howard said.

The new school already has 110 students, with an 80-person waiting list, and plans to expand to 550 students in coming years. Acutis’ family even gave the school a first-class relic of their son for the school chapel.

School openings coincide with canonization 

In the United States, the Chesterton Academy of Blessed Carlo Acutis in Grand Junction, Colorado, is scheduled to open this fall as part of the Chesterton Schools Network. Inspired by Acutis’ joy-filled embrace of faith and technology, local Catholic families said they had long dreamed of a high school but only found the way forward after the pandemic.

In Alberta, Canada, Blessed Carlo Acutis Catholic High School in Camrose opens its doors Sept. 2. The Elk Island Catholic Schools district says the name will soon change to “St. Carlo Acutis” once the canonization is official.

Acutis has also become a unifying figure as Catholic schools consolidate under his patronage. Bishop Louis Tylka of Peoria, Illinois, announced that three Catholic schools will merge this fall as the Academy of Carlo Acutis, following a process that allowed students themselves to propose and vote on potential names.

In Santiago, Chile, four schools serving 4,500 students are uniting under the new Carlo Acutis Educational Network, while in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, a Catholic school created from the merger of several campuses has already made a pilgrimage from the United Kingdom to Rome in the hope of attending his canonization in April before it was rescheduled due to the death of Pope Francis.  

Elsewhere, Catholic schools in Argentina, Mexico, Italy, and even a joint Catholic-Anglican academy in England have adopted his name. In Cheshire, England, the Blessed Carlo Acutis Catholic and Church of England Academy became the first joint-faith school to take on his patronage. In the Philippines, St. Peter the Apostle School has recently launched the Blessed Carlo Acutis Artificial Intelligence Immersive Learning Center.

Coming soon 

Looking ahead, Edmonton Catholic Schools in Edmonton, Canada, is building a $51 million Carlo Acutis Catholic High School for 1,300 students, due to open in fall 2026.

Catholics in Houston’s Bay Area are fundraising $50 million for a new Catholic high school projected to welcome its first freshman class in 2027 with a mission to be “unapologetically Catholic” and “academically excellent.”

“Our auxiliary bishop, Bishop Italo Del’Oro, introduced us to Blessed Carlo after he read our mission statement where we emphasize being a school ‘centered on the Eucharist,’” Maria Jose Valladares, the vice president of the Houston school’s board of directors, told CNA.

As the canonization approaches, schools across the globe are preparing for a simple but significant update — changing their names. Uniforms, letterheads, and signage will all soon bear witness to the Church’s first computer-coding saint.

“There’s a lot of changes that will have to be made, but how exciting that we can call it St. Carlo Acutis Catholic Primary School,” Howard said.

At Carlo Acutis Catholic High School in Malawi, celebrations of Acutis’ canonization will kick off with a special Mass and culminate in the performance of a school play about the life of their patron saint. “Carlo Acutis is an inspiration to many people, especially the youth,” Matumba said.

“We are extremely excited for the upcoming canonization,” Valladares in Houston said. “We consider ourselves privileged to have a patron that our students will be able to directly relate to and emulate — from his love for his friends to his temperance with video games to his devotion to the Blessed Sacrament.”

St. Francis made peace with a wolf and befriended other animals, according to legend. / Credit: Purplexsu/Shutterstock

ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 31, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).

Here are a few saints who have been remembered not only for their dedication to God and others but also for the special relationship they had with animals.

Pope Leo XIV speaks from a window of the Apostolic Palace overlooking St. Peter’s Square during the Sunday Angelus on Aug. 24, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Aug 31, 2025 / 07:10 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Sunday prayed for the victims of a shooting at a Catholic church in Minneapolis and deplored a worldwide “pandemic of arms” that has left many children dead or injured.

“Our prayers for the victims of the tragic shooting during a school Mass in the American state of Minnesota,” the pontiff said in English on Aug. 31 after leading the weekly Angelus prayer from a window overlooking St. Peter’s Square.

“We include in our prayers,” he added, “the countless children killed and injured every day around the world. Let us plead to God to stop the pandemic of arms, large and small, which infects our world.”

An Aug. 27 shooting at a school Mass at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis left two children dead and 17 others wounded.

Leo turned to Mary, the Queen of Peace, to ask for her intercession “to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah: ‘They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.’”

In his other appeals after the Angelus, delivered in Italian, Pope Leo repeated his calls for an immediate ceasefire and “a serious commitment to dialogue” in the Middle East, and for prayer and concrete gestures for the victims of the ongoing war in Ukraine.

“The voice of arms must be silenced, while the voice of brotherhood and justice must be raised,” he said.

The pope said his heart is also wounded for those who have died or are missing after a boat carrying migrants from Africa to the Canary Islands capsized off the coast of Mauritania. According to the BBC, at least 69 people have died and many others are missing.

“This mortal tragedy repeats every day everywhere in the world,” Leo said. “Let us pray that the Lord teaches us, as individuals and as a society, to put fully into practice his word: ‘I was a stranger and you welcomed me.’”

“We entrust all our missing, injured, and dead everywhere to our Savior’s loving embrace,” the pontiff said both in English and in Italian.

In his spiritual message before the Angelus prayer, Pope Leo spoke about encounter, which requires openness of heart and humility.

“Humility is really freedom from ourselves,” he emphasized. “It is born when the kingdom of God and its righteousness become our real concern and we allow ourselves to lift up our eyes and look ahead: not down at our feet, but at what lies ahead!”

Leo said people who put themselves before others tend to think they are more interesting than anything else, “yet deep down, they are quite insecure.”

“Whereas,” he continued, “those who know that they are precious in God’s eyes, who know they are God’s children, have greater things to be worried about; they possess a sublime dignity all their own.”

The pope reflected on Jesus’ example of how to be a good guest, as described in the day’s Gospel reading; Jesus “acts with respect and sincerity, avoiding merely polite formalities that preclude authentic encounter,” Leo explained.

To extend an invitation to another person also shows “a sign of openness of heart,” he added.

The pontiff encouraged everyone to invite Jesus to be their guest at Mass so that he can tell them how it is he sees them.

“It is very important that we see ourselves through his eyes: to see how frequently we reduce life to a competition, how anxious we become to obtain some sort of recognition, and how pointlessly we compare ourselves to others,” he said.

We experience the freedom Jesus wants for us, he added, when we stop to reflect and let ourselves “be taken aback by a word that challenges our hearts’ priorities.”

Bishop Erik Varden. / Credit: Pål Johannes Nes

CNA Newsroom, Aug 30, 2025 / 10:00 am (CNA).

Bishop Erik Varden of Trondheim and Bishop Fredrik Hansen of Oslo also voiced concern about growing political support for euthanasia.

The Council of Nicaea in 325 as depicted in a fresco in Salone Sistino at the Vatican. / Credit: Giovanni Guerra (1544-1618), Cesare Nebbia (1534-1614) e aiuti, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

ACI Stampa, Aug 29, 2025 / 16:28 pm (CNA).

Cardinal Kurt Koch and Bartholomew, Eastern Orthodox ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople marked the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea. 

Pope Leo XIV on Aug. 29, 2025, appointed Father Andres Ligot as auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of San Jose, California. / Credit: Photo courtesy of the Diocese of San Jose

Vatican City, Aug 29, 2025 / 14:06 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Friday appointed Father Andres Ligot as auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of San Jose, California.

The bishop-elect is currently parish priest of St. Elizabeth of Portugal and vicar general of the San Jose Diocese.

Prior to his 2021 appointment to St. Elizabeth of Portugal, Ligot, 59, served as judicial vicar of the diocese from 2008 to 2021. 

Bishop Oscar Cantú expressed his gratitude for Ligot’s elevation to bishop in an Aug. 29 statement published on the diocesan website.

“His priestly heart, pastoral experience, and steady leadership will bless our parishes, schools, and ministries,” Cantú said. “I invite the faithful to keep him in prayer as he prepares for episcopal ordination.”

Ligot said he was “humbled” by the trust and support he has received from Pope Leo and Cantú and asked people to pray that he will continue to be a “faithful servant” within the diocese. 

“I renew my promise to serve Christ and his people with joy — especially those most in need,” he said in a statement published by his diocese. 

Ordained a priest in 1992 by Pope John Paul II in the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome for the Diocese of Laoag City, Philippines, Ligot was incardinated into the Diocese of San Jose on March 30, 2004.

Before his incardination to the California diocese, Ligot served as parish vicar for St. John Vianney Parish, San Jose, from 2003 to 2005. He was also a chaplain at the Veterans Medical Center in San Francisco and a visiting priest at the Church of the Nativity in Menlo Park.

From 2005 to 2009, the bishop-elect was parish priest of St. Lawrence the Martyr Catholic Parish in Santa Clara.

Ligot attended San Pablo College Seminary in Baguio City, Philippines, and later continued his priestly studies at the Bidasoa International Seminary in Navarra, Spain, where he obtained a master’s degree in theology. He later obtained a doctorate in canon law from the University of Navarra in Spain.

Ligot, who is fluent in English, Spanish, Tagalog, and Ilocano, will become the second auxiliary bishop appointed to the Diocese of San Jose and the sixth U.S. prelate from the Philippines.

Pharrell Williams (left) and Andrea Bocelli. / Credit: Paras Griffin/Getty Images; Jakub Janecki, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Vatican City, Aug 29, 2025 / 11:51 am (CNA).

Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli and American songwriter Pharrell Williams will direct a concert featuring musicians John Legend, Teddy Swims, Jelly Roll, Karol G, BamBam, and Angélique Kidjo in St. Peter’s Square next month.

The Sept. 13 concert, which is free and open to the public, will also include a drone light show and talks on themes including peace, justice, food, freedom, and humanity.

Called “Grace for the World,” the show will close the third edition of the World Meeting on Human Fraternity, organized by the Fratelli Tutti Foundation and St. Peter’s Basilica, and will be preceded by roundtables on social issues in Rome and Vatican City on Sept. 12–13.

Pope Francis established the Fratelli Tutti Foundation at the end of 2021. It is named after his 2020 encyclical on fraternity and social friendship, which expanded on themes in the “Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together,” signed with Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, grand imam of Al-Azhar, in Abu Dhabi in 2019.

The final event of the World Meeting on Human Fraternity 2025 is intended “to communicate to the whole world, with a symbolic embrace, the joy of fraternal love,” Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, president of the Fratelli Tutti Foundation and archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica, said at an Aug. 29 press conference at the Vatican.

Gambetti said organizers tried to “broaden our international scope” with the choice of music artists.

In the press conference, the cardinal said Karol G — a Grammy-winning Colombian reggaeton and urban pop artist — was asked to take part because she is Latin American and “because she is involved in important social work” with women and children. “It seemed relevant to the theme we are trying to address,” Gambetti said.

Prominent U.S. artists will also take the stage in front of the Vatican basilica: rapper Jelly Roll and singer-songwriters John Legend, Teddy Swims, and Pharrell Williams.

Thai rapper BamBam, who is also a member of the South Korean boy band Got7, will perform, as well as Angélique Kidjo, a Beninese-French singer, actress, and activist. The concert will also feature the choir of the Diocese of Rome and the Voices of Fire Gospel choir.

Andrea Bocelli, who has performed in St. Peter’s Square on previous occasions, shared in a video message Aug. 29 that his participation in the concert is “a great honor.”

“I sincerely hope that it will truly succeed in spreading, in everyone’s hearts, a sense of brotherhood and great humanity, which is so badly needed,” the world-famous singer added.

The World Meeting on Human Fraternity 2025 will start with a meeting with Pope Leo XIV on Sept. 12. The program will then focus on roundtables on topics including artificial intelligence, education, economics, literature, children, health, and the environment. 

Sept. 13 will include an assembly on the topic of “What It Means to Be a Human Today” and a visit to St. Peter’s Basilica and the Holy Door of the Jubilee of Hope.

“While the world suffers from wars, loneliness, even new poverty, we have decided to stop and ask ourselves what it means to be human today,” Father Francesco Occhetta, SJ, Fratelli Tutti Foundation secretary-general, said Aug. 29.

“It is not an easy question, it even seems a little naive, but it is the only one that can save us if we ask it together,” he added.

Pope Leo XIV accepts the Medal of St. Augustine from Father Robert P. Hagan, OSA, prior provincial of the Augustinian Province of St. Thomas of Villanova (right) and Father Joseph Farrell, OSA, vicar general of the Order of St. Augustine (left) in a video released on Aug. 28, 2025. / Credit: Screenshot from the YouTube page of the Augustinian Province of St. Thomas of Villanova

ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 29, 2025 / 05:10 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV expressed his gratitude to receive the Medal of St. Augustine, awarded by the United States Augustinian Province of St. Thomas of Villanova, and affirmed that the spirituality of the doctor of the Church has marked his life and ministry.

“To be recognized as an Augustinian, it’s an honor held dearly. So much of who I am I owe to the spirit and the teachings of St. Augustine,” he said in a video message shared on St. Augustine’s feast day, Aug. 28.

The Augustinian Province said on Facebook that the Medal of St. Augustine is the highest honor the province can bestow, “given to those who embody the spirit and teachings of St. Augustine, living with deep commitment to truth, unity, and charity.”

The province added: “From his early years in formation to his decades of service in Peru, leadership as prior general, and now as the first Augustinian pope, Pope Leo XIV has witnessed to a life of generosity, faith, and service. In him, we see a true son of Augustine — dedicated to building unity in the Church, teaching with wisdom, and shepherding with a heart rooted in love. We are honored to bestow upon him this award.”

In his video message, recorded from Castel Gandolfo, where he spent a few days of prayer and rest in mid-August, the pope recalled that the life of St. Augustine still inspires the faithful today.

“His life was full of much trial and error, like our own lives. But through God’s grace, through the prayers of his mother, Monica, and the community of good people around him, Augustine was able to find the way to peace for his restless heart,” he said.

Leo emphasized that the example of St. Augustine invites us to put our talents at the service of others: “The life of St. Augustine and his call to servant leadership reminds us that we all have God-given gifts and talents, and our purpose, fulfillment, and joy comes from offering them back in loving service to God and to our neighbor.”

He assured the members of the Augustinian province that they are called to continue the legacy of the first Augustinians in the United States — such as Father Matthew Carr and Father John Rosseter — whose missionary spirit led them to proclaim the Gospel to immigrants in Philadelphia: “Jesus reminds us in the Gospel to love our neighbor, and this challenges us now more than ever to remember to see our neighbors today with the eyes of Christ: that all of us are created in the image and likeness of God through friendship, relationship, dialogue, and respect for one another.”

He also encouraged the U.S. Augustinians to become instruments of reconciliation. “As a community of believers and inspired by the charism of the Augustinians, we are called to go forth to be peacemakers in our families and neighborhoods and truly recognize God’s presence in one another.”

The pope emphasized the importance of listening, following the advice of St. Augustine: “It is within our hearts where God speaks to us.” He added: “The world is full of noise, and our heads and hearts can be flooded with many different kinds of messages. These messages can fuel our restlessness and steal our joy. As a community of faith … may we strive to filter the noise, the divisive voices in our heads and hearts, and open ourselves up to the daily invitations to get to know God and God’s love better.”

The pontiff expressed his confidence that, like Augustine, every believer can find in God the strength to overcome anxiety, darkness, and doubt, and “through God’s grace, we can discover that God’s love is truly healing. Let us strive to build a community where that love is made visible.”

Leo XIV concluded his message by asking for the intercession of the Virgin Mary, Mother of Good Counsel, and by offering a prayer for the Church: “May God bless you all and bring peace to your restless hearts, and help you continue to build a community of love, one in mind and heart, intent upon on God.”

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

Pope Leo XIV speaks to pilgrims at the general audience in the Paul VI Audience Hall, Vatican City, Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 28, 2025 / 15:02 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV recalled what the “life and witness” of St. Augustine means for Christians on the day the Catholic Church celebrates his feast day, Aug. 28.

The statue of Our Lady, sculpted in 1430 by Nicolò da Venezia, in the sanctuary of the Basilica of St. Mary of Mount Berico. / Credit: Kristina Millare/CNA

Rome Newsroom, Aug 25, 2025 / 13:36 pm (CNA).

Since 1435, the Servants of Mary — also known as the Servites — have been the official custodians of the Sanctuary of St. Mary of Mount Berico in Italy.