Ss. Joseph and Cabrini Parish

Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore on Jan. 28, 2024. / Credit: Patrick Smith/Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 29, 2025 / 18:52 pm (CNA).

News this week of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s engagement sparked positive commentary from a wide cross-section of Catholics on social media, who anticipate a positive cultural shift from the marriage between the beloved pop star and Kansas City Chiefs tight end. 

“Expect a spike in marriage,” wrote marriage and family expert Brad Wilcox in a social media post. “Taylor and Travis put a ring on it.” 

“The Life of a Showgirl” singer announced her engagement to Kelce in an Aug. 26 Instagram post, captioned: “Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married.”

Wilcox, the author of “Why Americans Must Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families, and Save Civilization,” noted in another post the engagement came on the same day as a new study highlighting the value of marriage for women today.

The study, “In Pursuit: Marriage, Motherhood, and Women’s Well-Being,” found married women with children make up the majority of women ages 25 to 55 who describe themselves as “very happy.”

Swift’s engagement “as a sort of left-leaning pop celebrity could create a space where it’s OK again for center-left Americans, both elite and ordinary Americans, to publicly embrace marriage,” Wilcox also told the Wall Street Journal.

“Marriage is a beautiful thing,” Students for Life President Kristan Hawkins chimed in, reacting to the news on social media. 

She added: “I hope Taylor Swift’s engagement inspires young women to see the joy and purpose in getting married, starting a family, and committing to one person for the rest of their lives.” In another post, Hawkins expressed confidence that “America is heading into its ‘get married and have babies era.’”

Defending the singer against negative reactions on social media to the news of her engagement, CEO and founder of the Classical Learning Test Jeremy Wayne Tate wrote in a post on X: “I’m disappointed with some conservatives today … Boy proposed to girl to enter into the most traditional relationship in human history … marriage.”

“That’s a beautiful thing,” he added. “Just say congratulations.”

LiveAction President Lila Rose also congratulated the happy couple on social media and praised their decision to get married. 

“Marriage is the best and tons of women look up to Taylor,” Rose said. “So happy to see her embracing it.”

null / Credit: Deemerwha studio/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 29, 2025 / 18:13 pm (CNA).

After a man fired over a hundred bullets into a Minneapolis Catholic Church killing two children and injuring 17 others, thousands of mourners packed into an archdiocesan vigil to pray for the victims and their families with Archbishop Bernard Hebda and other clergy members.

“We know that there are a lot of other things that need to be done [and] we need to be able to address these issues in civic society, but what we do together tonight is to pray,” Hebda told grieving Catholics at the Academy of Holy Angels, just two miles from Annunciation Church, where the tragedy occurred.

“And we look for the words that are able to express inexpressible grief,” he said. “We look for those symbols that might bring some hope. … We come together in our trials and we trust that God will answer us, that he will hear our pain, that he will hear our prayers.”

Catholics across the country held their own vigils or offered prayers for the victims, as did many Protestants and people of other faiths.

Yet as communities sought comfort and a connection with God amid the tragedy, some figures in the media and even politicians went in the opposite direction. On social media and in public statements, those individuals derided prayer and dismissed its role in addressing suffering and societal ills.

“I’m tired of being told this is normal — and you should be too,” Rep. Brittany Pettersen, D-Colorado, said in a post on X. “Thoughts and prayers aren’t going to do anything to fix this.”

Rep. Maxwell Frost, co-chair of the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee, echoed that sentiment, stating on X that “these children were probably praying when they were shot to death at Catholic school.”

“Don’t give us your [expletive] thoughts and prayers,” Frost added.

Jen Psaki, an MSNBC host who served in the administrations of former presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama, wrote on X that “prayer is not freaking enough.”

“Prayers [do] not end school shootings,” she added. “Prayers do not make parents feel safe sending their kids to school. Prayer does not bring these kids back. Enough with the thoughts and prayers.”

Why Catholics turn to God in times of need

Over the past few days, Catholics and other Christians have pushed back on the negative view of prayer promoted by some lawmakers and members of the media.

In response to Psaki’s comments, Franciscan University explained through its X account that “prayer is not an escape from reality” but is rather “the very place we meet Christ, who himself was unjustly slain.”

“We will continue to pray, not because we are passive, but because we know only God can bring true justice, healing, and peace,” the university added. “Evil wants us to stop praying and to despair. We will not. We cling to Christ, who has conquered death.”

Franciscan University held a prayer vigil Thursday night for the victims, which about 500 students attended.

University President Father Dave Pivonka, TOR, told CNA: “It makes sense that Catholics would come together and pray given that [the shooting] took place at a Catholic church.” He added: “One of the things that Catholics do is we pray.”

The insinuation of anti-prayer rhetoric, Pivonka said, is that “prayer isn’t doing something.” He rejected that notion, saying “prayer has a great impact.” In the midst of tragedy, he noted that many people are looking to help and offering prayers for “the Lord’s peace to be with them [and] the Lord’s presence to be with them” is a “beautiful way to do that.”

Pivonka said he also prays for public officials, “that God would give them courage, that God would give them wisdom” to address political issues. He said Catholics should also engage society, the culture, and the political world.

He noted that Minnesota’s Catholic bishops had been asking state lawmakers to provide funds for security, which was ultimately not given. He said: “That’s a very active thing that they were trying to do.”

“Yes, we’re praying, but yes we’re doing actions to try to bring about this change,” Pivonka said.

Bishop Michael Burbidge of the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, wrote in an op-ed for the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, that his diocese established a Mental Health Council to provide “guidance, responses, and resources to support those experiencing mental health issues as well as to their family members.”

He noted that Catholics can do “certainly, more than one thing,” such as security, mental health resources, engagement with public officials, and acts of charity and compassion.

“Above all, we can and must pray with daily fervency, calling out to the Lord, striving to remain close to him, and asking him to grant us all the peace only he can give,” Burbidge wrote.

Bishop Robert Barron of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, told Fox News Digital that “prayer is the raising of the mind and heart to God, which strikes me as altogether appropriate precisely at times of great pain.”

“Prayer by no means stands in contrast to decisive moral action,” he said. “... This is not an either/or proposition.”

Vice President JD Vance, who is Catholic, also joined the conversation, posting on X in response to Psaki that any criticism of prayer is “bizarre.”

“We pray because our hearts are broken,” he wrote. “We pray because we know God listens. We pray because we know that God works in mysterious ways and can inspire us to further action. Why do you feel the need to attack other people for praying when kids were just killed praying?”

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 Patriarch Bartholomew I, Eastern Orthodox ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople, addressed the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea being celebrated in 2025 during the Rimini Meeting held Aug. 22–27.

In his presentation, Koch, the prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, highlighted the importance of the doctrinal issues addressed by the council.

“With it, the Fathers professed their faith in ‘one God, the Father almighty, creator of all things visible and invisible’ ... And in the letter of the Synod to the Egyptians, the Fathers announced that the first real object of study was the fact that Arius and his followers were enemies of the faith and opposed to the law, and therefore affirmed that they had ‘unanimously decided to condemn with anathema his doctrine contrary to the faith, his blasphemous statements and descriptions, with which he insulted the Son of God,’” he noted.

“These statements,” he added, “delineate the context of the creed formulated by the council, which professes faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, ‘consubstantial with the Father.’ The historical context is that of a violent dispute that erupted in Christianity at the time, especially in the eastern part of the Roman Empire; it follows that, by the beginning of the fourth century, the Christological question had become the crucial issue of Christian monotheism.”

The Council of Nicaea placed Jesus’ prayer to the Father at the center of the profession, Koch said, adding: “The Christological creed of the council has become the basis of the common Christian faith. The council is of great importance, especially because it took place at a time when Christianity was not yet torn apart by the numerous divisions that would later arise. The Nicene Creed is common not only to the Oriental Churches, the Orthodox Churches, and the Catholic Church, but also to the ecclesial communities born of the Reformation; therefore, its ecumenical importance must not be underestimated.”

Only in this way is unity in the Church possible, he continued: “In fact, to restore the unity of the Church, there must be agreement on the essential contents of the faith, not only among the Churches and ecclesial communities of today but also with the Church of the past and, in particular, with its apostolic origin. The unity of the Church is founded on the apostolic faith, which in baptism is transmitted and entrusted to each new member of the body of Christ.”

He continued: “Since unity can be found only in the common faith, the Christological confession of the Council of Nicaea is revealed to be the foundation of spiritual ecumenism.”

“The ecumenical movement,” the cardinal noted, “has been a movement of prayer from its origins. It was prayer for Christian unity that paved the way for it. The centrality of prayer highlights that ecumenical commitment is, above all, a spiritual task, undertaken with the conviction that the Holy Spirit will complete the work he has begun and show us the way.”

Ecumenism can only progress “if Christians return together to the source of faith, which is found only in Jesus Christ, as the Council Fathers of Nicaea professed... Christian ecumenism can be nothing other than the adherence of all Christians to the Lord’s priestly prayer, and it materializes when Christians deeply embrace the firm desire for unity,” Koch said.

The importance of the Council of Nicaea was also underscored by Patriarch Bartholomew, who emphasized: “It is evident that this council played and continues to play a primary role in strict adherence to holy Scripture, and the Orthodox Church remains firmly anchored in it; a cornerstone for proclamation in the 17 centuries that followed.”

The patriarch of Constantinople addressed current issues such as synodality and a common date for the celebration of Easter.

“To be credible as Christians,” he noted, “we must celebrate the Savior’s resurrection on the same day. Together with Pope Francis, we have appointed a commission to study the issue. However, there are differing sensitivities among the Churches, and we must avoid new divisions, not fuel more divisions.”

The Orthodox leader said this requires a joint effort: “The effort to find a common date for Easter is an important pastoral objective, especially for couples and families of different faiths, and given the great mobility of people, especially during the holidays.”

“With a common Easter date,” Bartholomew continued, ”the profound conviction of the Christian faith could be expressed even more credibly: that Easter is not only the oldest but also the most important feast of Christianity, and that the Christian faith stands or falls with the Paschal Mystery, as the early Church summed up this fundamental conviction with the phrase: ‘Take away the Resurrection, and you instantly destroy Christianity.’ The fundamental importance of Easter would be highlighted by a common date, which would also give new impetus to the ecumenical journey toward restoring the unity of the Church in East and West in faith and love.” 

“Indeed, ecumenism also advances on the path toward recomposing the unity of the Church only if it is carried out jointly and, therefore, synodally. The fundamental importance of synodality for ecumenical commitment is clearly demonstrated by two important documents, such as the study ‘The Church Toward a Common Vision,’ which aspires to a multilateral and ecumenical vision of the nature, purpose, and mission of the Church,” the patriarch stated.

Bartholomew concluded by affirming the importance of the joint study: “This vision is also shared by the International Theological Commission in its programmatic document ‘Synodality in the Life and Mission of the Church,’ which notes that ecumenical dialogue has progressed to the point of recognizing synodality as a ‘revelatory dimension of the nature of the Church.’”

“This historical overview helps us understand that the development of synodality in the life of the Church and of ecumenism must be implemented with theological accuracy and pastoral prudence. This lesson can also be learned by studying the Council of Nicaea,” the Orthodox patriarch concluded.

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

The Shrine of John the Baptist at the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, Syria, believed to house the head of the saint. / Creidt: Photo courtesy of ACI MENA

ACI MENA, Aug 29, 2025 / 14:36 pm (CNA).

Each year on Aug. 29, the Church commemorates the beheading of John the Baptist, as recounted in the first three Gospels. The actual resting place of the saint remains uncertain, particularly the fate of his head, which became a focal point of devotion in the Middle Ages, with several sites claiming to possess it.

Today, four places are most often associated with the relic: the Residenz Museum in Munich; San Silvestro in Capite in Rome (upper part of the skull); Amiens Cathedral in France (the front portion of the head, from the forehead to the upper jaw, excluding the teeth); and finally, the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, Syria, according to both Muslim and Christian tradition. However, there is no conclusive evidence that the head rests in any of these locations.

The Umayyad Mosque’s history predates Christianity. About 3,000 years ago, it was a temple dedicated to Hadad, the fertility god of the Arameans and other civilizations of the Fertile Crescent. When the Romans took control of Syria, they erected a vast temple to Jupiter on the site in the first century A.D. Later, under Emperor Theodosius I, Christianity was firmly established, and by the late fourth century, part of the pagan complex was converted to a church.

Scholars debate whether the church was built in the southwestern section of the Roman temple or directly within the Cella (Holy of Holies). While it is uncertain if the church was originally dedicated to John the Baptist, sources suggest that by the time the Arabs entered Damascus in 635, the church was indeed named after him and was believed to house his head. The relic may have been preserved inside or near the main altar.

Muslims left the church standing for about 70 years before the Umayyad Caliph, al-Walid I, ordered its demolition in 705 to build a grand mosque worthy of Damascus — then the capital of the Caliphate. Despite Christian opposition, the project went forward, and construction lasted about a decade.

According to the 12th-century historian Ibn Asakir, during construction workers discovered the relic of Yahya ibn Zakariya (John the Baptist in Islamic tradition) in a cave beneath one of the mosque’s planned pillars. Al-Walid ordered the relic to be reburied in its place, marking the column above it distinctly. A shrine for John the Baptist was later incorporated into the mosque, a detail also confirmed by the Andalusian traveler Ibn Jubayr.

Muslims honor John the Baptist as a prophet mentioned in the Qur’an, revered for his piety and truthfulness.

Christian traces remain visible in the mosque complex. These include a baptismal font thought to date from the church period, a partially destroyed stone relief on the outer wall believed by some to depict Christ, and the two Roman towers (southeastern and southwestern), which may have once served as bell towers before becoming the Minaret of Jesus and the Qaytbay Minaret. 

Particularly notable are Greek Christian inscriptions on the lintel of the southern gate of the Byzantine church complex, one quoting Psalm 145:13: “Your kingdom (O Christ) is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations.”

In modern times, the memory of John the Baptist at the Umayyad Mosque continues to bridge faith traditions. During his visit to Syria in 2001, Pope John Paul II entered the mosque and prayed at the shrine of the saint, highlighting its shared significance for Christians and Muslims alike.

This story was first published by ACI MENA, CNA’s Arabic-language news partner, and has been translated for and adapted by CNA.

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.

Over $1 million has been raised through a GoFundMe campaign for victims of the shooting at the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis on Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2025. / Credit: Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

CNA Staff, Aug 29, 2025 / 12:21 pm (CNA).

Numerous online fundraising campaigns have raised well over $1 million to help support victims of the Minneapolis Catholic school shooting that claimed the lives of two children and injured approximately 20 people. 

Verified GoFundMe fundraisers showed over $1.2 million raised as of the morning of Aug. 29, with the funds supporting those injured in the shooting as well as the family of one of the deceased children. 

The mass shooting took place on Aug. 27 when a gunman opened fire on the parochial school Mass at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis. The killer subsequently took his own life. 

The GoFundMe campaigns created in response to the tragedy include one in support of the Moyski-Flavin family, whose 10-year-old daughter, Harper, was one of the two children killed in the shooting. The other victim has been identified as 8-year-old Fletcher Merkel. 

The GoFundMe for Harper’s family says the funds will “be utilized by the family in honor of Harper’s memory with a portion donated in Harper’s honor to a nonprofit to be identified at a later date.” As of Friday morning it had raised about $80,000 of its $100,000 goal.

The largest campaign had raised roughly $530,000 of a $620,000 goal as of Friday morning to help support 12-year-old Sophia Forchas, who the fund said was “in critical condition in the ICU” after being shot during the attack.

The funds for that campaign will contribute to Sophia’s medical care, trauma counseling for her and her brother, family support services, and lost wages.

Other campaigns include fundraisers for 9-year-old Vivian St. Clair, 11-year-old Genevieve Bisek, and 13-year-old Endre Gunter.

‘Give your kids an extra hug’

In the hours after the shooting, family members of Harper Moyski and Fletcher Merkel identified them as the two children killed in the incident, which the FBI is investigating as a possible hate crime against Catholics.

“Because of [the shooter’s] actions, we will never be allowed to hold [Fletcher], talk to him, play with him, and watch him grow into the wonderful young man he was on the path to becoming,” the Merkel family said after the shooting.

“Please remember Fletcher for the person he was and not the act that ended his life,” the statement said. “Give your kids an extra hug and kiss today. We love you. Fletcher, you’ll always be with us.”

The Moyski-Flavin family, meanwhile, said they were “shattered, and words cannot capture the depth of our pain.” 

“No family should ever have to endure this kind of pain,” they said. “We urge our leaders and communities to take meaningful steps to address gun violence and the mental health crisis in this country.”

The other victims of the shooting are expected to survive, authorities have said, though several remain in serious condition.

Prior to carrying out the murders, the killer, identified as 23-year-old Robin Westman, a man who struggled with his sexual identity, indicated anti-Christian motivation for the murders and an affinity for mass shooters, Satanism, antisemitism, and racism.

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.

Nicaraguan dictator Daniel Ortega (whose image is regularly displayed in public places) has perpetrated more than 1,000 attacks on the Catholic Church and banned more than 16,500 religious processions, according to a report released Aug. 27, 2025. / Credit: Barna Tanco/Shutterstock

ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 29, 2025 / 10:24 am (CNA).

The dictatorship of President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, in Nicaragua has banned more than 16,500 religious processions and activities in recent years and has perpetrated 1,010 attacks against the Catholic Church.

The statistics are recorded in the seventh installment of the Spanish-language report “Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church” by exiled lawyer and researcher Martha Patricia Molina, released on Aug. 27. 

Regarding the ban on processions, Molina explained that it has worsened since 2022 and that the dictatorship has imposed it throughout the country since then. However, the report does not cover all parish churches or chapels, of which there are 400 in Managua alone.

“So the figure presented in the study could be at least three or four times higher than what is being recorded,” she emphasized.

In an interview with the Spanish-language edition of EWTN News, Molina explained that so far this year, only 32 attacks by the dictatorship against the Church have been recorded, a figure that could be much higher.

Reporting attacks against the Catholic Church in Nicaragua

The researcher explained that there are a series of factors that prevent these types of incidents from being reported: “Laypeople are terrified that members of the Citizen Power Council and the paramilitaries, which are organizations affiliated with the dictatorship, will harm them if they decide to report.”

Furthermore, Catholic priests “are prohibited from making any complaints, and if by chance any attack is reported in the media, [the dictatorship] simply denies it.”

“Another negative aspect we find, and which makes it possible for these attacks to continue to go unreported, is that there is no independent media presence in the country,” the expert stated.

An example of this, she said, was the recent confiscation of St. Joseph School run by the Josephine Sisters in Jinotepe: “When people reported it [to the outside free press] several authorities, including Catholic ones, said it was false. But two days later when dictator Rosario Murillo announced the confiscation, it was already known that what was being reported was actually true.”

The researcher also noted that her study “has documented the arbitrary closure of 13 universities and educational or training centers” and added that “what the dictatorship is doing is first prohibiting the students who remained at the confiscated school from withdrawing their enrollment,” since if they do so, “they will face some kind of retaliation.”

Molina also told EWTN News that these schools or educational centers are then used to “indoctrinate young people, children, so they see Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo as the saviors of Nicaragua.”

So far in 2025, she continued, “24 media outlets and 75 nonprofit organizations have been arbitrarily closed simultaneously,” and the dictatorship has confiscated 36 properties, despite the fact that Nicaragua’s Political Constitution, “even the one recently reformed in 2025, prohibits this type of action.”

“Priests and bishops are constantly under surveillance. Some of them are even followed 24 hours a day,” she continued.

“The clergy meetings held by bishops and priests are constantly monitored by the police [who] come to take photographs and videos of the religious who attend, and [the Ortega regime’s security forces] must be fully informed of everything discussed at these meetings.”

Nicaragua and the Vatican

After noting that the dictatorship has not returned the bank accounts confiscated from the Catholic Church and that “heavy fines and high fees are being imposed on religious buildings,” the lawyer addressed the relationship with the Holy See.

The latest constitutional reform, she said, “is creating a rift between the Nicaraguan Catholic Church and the Vatican because the dictatorship included in this reform that no interference in these religious activities is permitted. So what this means is that the [Nicaraguan] Catholic Church should not have any contact with the Vatican.”

“The relationship between the Vatican City State and the Sandinista dictatorship is nonexistent. It is known that there is no dialogue of any kind, at least not openly,” she commented.

Pope Leo XIV’s meeting with Nicaraguan bishops

Regarding the meeting that Pope Leo XIV held on Aug. 23 with three exiled bishops from Nicaragua, Molina expressed her joy and emphasized: “Who better than these bishops, who have been exiled and stripped of their citizenship, to attest to the persecution that is unfolding in Nicaragua?”

The Holy Father received at the Vatican Bishop Silvio Báez, whom he confirmed as auxiliary bishop of Managua; Bishop Isidoro Mora of Siuna; and Bishop Carlos Enrique Herrera, bishop of Jinotega and president of the Nicaraguan Bishops’ Conference.

Báez wrote on X on Aug. 26: “The Holy Father, Leo XIV, received me in a private audience on Saturday, Aug. 23, together with Bishop Herrera and Bishop Mora. We spoke at length about Nicaragua and the situation of the Church in particular. He encouraged me to continue my episcopal ministry … I am sincerely grateful for his fraternal welcome and his encouraging words.”

“The pope needs true, objective information,” Molina pointed out, “and I believe that these three bishops who attended this private audience with Pope Leo were very intent on reporting on what is being suffered in Nicaragua and also what we, the migrant community, whether Catholic or not, are going through in other countries as a result of the damage the Sandinista dictatorship is causing in the country.”

‘There are attacks that cannot be published’

Molina told EWTN News that she also keeps a separate record of “attacks that cannot be published in the media or in studies because of the fear felt by the people who leaked the information.”

She said she does send these reports to “the authorities of some countries that monitor freedom, attacks on religious freedom, and also to human rights organizations at the Organization of American States and the U.N., so that they can truly hear from the victims what is happening."

Molina also reported that recently “the seminary that was confiscated from the Diocese of Matagalpa [in January of this year] is being destroyed, dismantled, a place where future priests who would serve the Diocese of Matagalpa were being formed.” 

She called on the international community to closely monitor events in Nicaragua so that the people can finally “be free from this criminal dictatorship, because I don’t see how the people in Nicaragua can mount any kind of protest because the dictatorship only prescribes jail, exile, or the cemetery for people who demand human rights.”

The report can be accessed here.

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

Time Magazine named Pope Leo XIV (pictured in the Paul VI Audience Hall) one of its Top 100 most influential thinkers concerning AI on Aug. 28, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 29, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).

Time Magazine included Pope Leo XIV in its 2025 list of the “World’s Most Influential People in Artificial Intelligence” on Thursday, Aug. 28, praising the pontiff’s focus on the ethical concerns related to the emerging technology.

The magazine listed the top 100 influential people in artificial intelligence (AI) in four categories: Leaders, Innovators, Shapers, and Thinkers. Leo XIV is among the 25 most influential thinkers in the field, according to Time.

In a profile included in the magazine, Time technology correspondent Andrew Chow noted that Leo XIV chose his papal name, in part, based on the need for the Church to address ethical matters related to AI and wrote that the Holy Father is “already making good on his vow.”

When the pontiff met with the College of Cardinals two days after he assumed the papacy, he said he took the name in honor of Pope Leo XIII, who had “addressed the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution.”

Leo XIII, who was pope from 1878 until 1903, published the encyclical Rerum Novarum, which discussed the needs of the working class amid the industrial revolution. The text eschewed both socialism and unrestrained market power, opting for cooperation between competing interests that is centered on the dignity of the human person.

The current pope, Leo XIV, said he took the name because of the “developments in the field of artificial intelligence,” which he noted pose “new challenges for the defense of human dignity, justice, and labor.”

Time’s profile noted that the Vatican hosted the Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, and Corporate Governance in June, and stated: “Leo XIV’s keynote speech underlined AI’s potential as a force for good, particularly in health care and scientific discovery.”

“But AI ‘raises troubling questions on its possible repercussions on humanity’s openness to truth and beauty, on our distinctive ability to grasp and process reality,’ he added,” the profile stated, quoting the Holy Father. “And he warned that the technology could be misused for ‘selfish gain at the expense of others, or worse, to foment conflict and aggression.’”

Other figures on Time’s list include xAI founder Elon Musk, Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Sen. Marsha Blackburn, and Sen. Chris Murphy.

This is the third annual list published by Time focusing on the most influential people in AI.

“We launched this list in 2023, in the wake of OpenAI’s release of ChatGPT, the moment many became aware of AI’s potential to compete with and exceed the capabilities of humans,” Time Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs wrote regarding the publication of the list.

“Our aim was to show how the direction AI travels will be determined not by machines but by people — innovators, advocates, artists, and everyone with a stake in the future of this technology,” he added. “... This year’s list further confirms our focus on people.”

Police cruisers near Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis on Aug. 27, 2025, following a mass shooting that killed two children and injured 17 others, 14 of them children. / Credit: Chad Davis, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 29, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

The shooter who killed two children and injured 17 others at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis on Aug. 27 voiced some regret over his 'gender transition' efforts when he was a minor, according to handwritten notes he displayed in a YouTube video before the attack.

Robin Westman, who was named “Robert” at birth, legally changed his name when he was 17 years old to reflect his self-identified status as a transgender girl. Court documents show that his mother signed off on the name change.

Westman published videos to YouTube shortly before the attack, which contained written notes, some of which were in English and others using the Cyrillic alphabet. Several Slavic languages use the Cyrillic script, but Westman was not writing in any of them. Rather, he tried to match the sounds of the Cyrillic letters to form English-language words when read aloud.

According to a partial translation published by the New York Post, Westman wrote: “I regret being trans,” and added: “I wish I was a girl. I just know I cannot achieve that body with the technology we have today. I also can’t afford that.”

The Post’s translation states that Westman also wrote he wished “I never brainwashed myself,” but kept his long hair “because it is pretty much my last shred of being trans.”

“I can’t cut my hair now as it would be an embarrassing defeat, and it might be a concerning change of character that could get me reported,” he wrote. “It just always gets in my way. I will probably chop it on the day of the attack.”

According to the translation, Westman also wrote: “I know I am not a woman but I definitely don’t feel like a man.”

Jason Evert: Westman did not get ‘mental health care he needed’

Chastity Project Founder Jason Evert, who authored “Male, Female, Other? A Catholic Guide to Understanding Gender,” told EWTN News that he believes Westman “was not receiving … the mental health care that he needed.”

Evert noted that many people who struggle with gender dysphoria often suffer from other mental health conditions, such as major depressive disorder or borderline personality disorder, or have experienced bullying, isolation, and social distress.

“If they’re being told, ‘Well, hey, you need to change your outfit or change your name, and you’ll feel at home in your own body,’ … it’s depriving the young people to have opportunities to live in their bodies and get the clinical intervention that they actually need to receive,” he said. 

Catholic teaching

In 2024, the Vatican issued the declaration Dignitas Infinita, which teaches that “the soul and the body both participate in [human] dignity” and the body “is endowed with personal meanings, particularly in its sexed condition.” It adds that “sex-change intervention … risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception.”

In contrast, Evert noted that doctors in the United States primarily follow the “Dutch protocol,” which is to “affirm” a person’s self-asserted transgender identity and then provide minors with puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and eventually transgender surgeries. However, recent studies have shown that most children outgrow transgender inclinations and that surgeries do not solve their mental health issues.

“It’s not working,” he added. “We’re actually contributing to a mental illness instead of actually treating it. We’re depriving these young people of opportunities and strategies to learn how to live in their bodies. And instead of that, we’re giving them hormones and telling them that they can hurt their body in order to be their authentic selves.”

Yet, Evert urged caution against suggesting that Westman’s gender dysphoria was the reason for the attack, emphasizing that “most people who do experience gender dysphoria would never commit an atrocity like this and most people who have committed school shootings do not identify as trans.”

“I think it’s careful that we at least explain that, so as to not stir up animosity amongst young people who might be struggling with their sense of sexual identity,” Evert said.

What we know about the shooter’s motive

Police have not identified a clear motive up to this point, but FBI Director Kash Patel announced that the agency is investigating the tragedy as “an act of domestic terrorism and hate crime targeting Catholics.”

Videos Westman recorded before the shooting demonstrate some anti-Catholic motivation.

The videos show that Westman had attached an image of Jesus Christ wearing the crown of thorns to the head of a human-shaped shooting target. He also wrote anti-Christian messages on his guns and loaded magazines, which included “Where’s your God?” and a comment that mocked the words of Christ by writing “take this all of you and eat” on a rifle.

Some of the drawings also appeared Satanic, including an inverted pentagram and an inverted cross.

Other messages showed hatred toward Jewish people, Black people, Hispanic people, Indian people, and Arab people. The messages also included threats against President Donald Trump.

Some of Westman’s writings highlight a struggle with depression and suicidal thoughts. He also apologized to his family for the trouble his attack would cause them but made clear he was not sorry to the children he wanted to murder. He showed a strong affinity for mass murderers.