St. Callistus Roman Catholic Church

Reem Alsalem is the United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls. / Credit: ADF International

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 16, 2025 / 16:44 pm (CNA).

The United Nations (U.N.) Expert on Violence Against Women and Girls Reem Alsalem was joined by detransitioner and activist Chloe Cole last week in urging governments to support parents in protecting their children from “gender transition” medical interventions.

“Parents and legal guardians must be part of these processes from the very beginning,” Alsalem said during a Sept. 8 panel coordinated by the Alliance Defending Freedom International at the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva.

“Yet, in many countries, parents who do not want to endorse a ‘gender-affirmative’ approach to their children’s distress have too often been left unsupported at best, or vilified, ostracized, or even separated from their children,” said Alsalem, who opposes the “dangerous narrative” that children can make fully-informed adult-level decisions about their health.

The panel was part of a wider event titled “Empowering Parents to Protect Children’s Health and Well-Being,” which was co-hosted by the Permanent Mission of Hungary to the U.N. in Geneva and ADF International. Sponsors for the event included the permanent missions of The Gambia, Algeria, Argentina, Qatar, Vanuatu, and Uzbekistan, along with nongovernmental organizations such as Juristes pour l’Enfance, Asociación la Familia Importa, Latter-day Saints Charities, the Center for Fundamental Rights, and the Heritage Foundation.

Cole, who detransitioned after having undergone gender transitioning procedures as a teenager, echoed Alsalem, stating: “I appeal to you: We must ensure these failures are never again repeated and that childhood is truly protected as the fragile and yet beautiful part of life that it is.” 

“My mom and dad have always advocated fiercely for my safety and health but were not empowered to fulfill their irreplaceable role as guardians of my well-being,” Cole told the U.N. representatives gathered in Geneva.

“On the contrary, their protective instincts were undermined by systems and professionals who claimed expertise but withheld the truth,” she said. “They stood no chance when doctors gave them the false ultimatum of choosing between losing a daughter to suicide or having a living ‘son.’”

Director of U.N. Advocacy at ADF International Giorgio Mazzoli also joined the panel, stating: “The family must not be viewed as a competitor to the state, nor parents as obstacles to children’s rights. They are the children’s first and best guardians — entrusted by nature and recognized by law.”

Mazzoli further called on governments to establish policies that protect parents’ rights regarding education, health care, and other identity-related decisions.

Flowers are seen on Sept. 3, 2025, outside the Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis, where a shooter killed two children and injured 21 other people on Aug. 27, 2025. / Credit: Alex Wroblewski/Getty

CNA Staff, Sep 16, 2025 / 16:14 pm (CNA).

Less than three weeks after the Annunciation Catholic School shooting in Minnesota that killed two children and injured 21 during Mass, the parents of a 12-year-old girl who was shot in the head say her progress has been “miraculous.”

When Sophia Forchas arrived at the hospital with a critical gunshot wound in her head, the doctors warned her parents that her life was in the balance.

“Doctors warned us she was on the brink of death,” Forchas’ parents, Tom and Amy Forchas, said in a statement. “In that darkest hour, the world responded with faithful devotion and fervent prayer.” 

As news of the shooting spread, people around the world offered prayers for the victims and the community in prayer services, online, and in the quiet of their own homes.

In the early days after the shooting, Forchas’ condition “was changing minute to minute,” according to a Sept. 5 update from her parents. 

A GoFundMe page organized by Michelle Erickson on the Forchas’ behalf has raised more than $1 million for Sophia’s recovery and to support her family with counseling services. 

Sophia’s younger brother was also inside the school during the shooting, according to Erickson. Sophia’s mother, a pediatric critical care nurse, “arrived at work to help during the tragedy, before knowing it was her children’s school that was attacked and that her daughter was critically injured,” according to the GoFundMe page.

Sophia’s parents asked the world for prayers — and the world responded. The Forchases say they have heard from people from Athens to Minneapolis who are praying for their daughter. 

In the wake of the tragedy, the Forchas family said that “rays of hope emerged” last week. 

Sophia’s doctor said she “was showing signs of resilience,” the family said. “Her progress to this point is being called miraculous. We are calling it a miracle.”  

“We thank you for all the prayers, love, and unwavering support from across the globe,” the Forchas family said. “The road ahead for Sophia is steep, but she is climbing it with fierce determination.” 

“She is fighting not just for herself, but for every soul who stood by her in prayer,” they continued. “Please continue to keep Sophia in your hearts and prayers. She is a warrior! And she is winning!!”

‘Shattered and heartbroken, but not lost’

This week, hundreds gathered to support the family of 10-year-old Harper Moyski, one of the two children killed in the shooting. Fletcher Merkel, 8, also died in the attack. Twenty-one other people, mostly children, were also injured.

Mike Moyski and Jackie Flavin, Harper’s parents, called her a “light” in their remarks at a celebration of life on Sept. 14 at Lake Harriet Bandshell in Minneapolis. 

“She taught us something profound, that light doesn’t always mean being strong on your own,” Flavin said, according to a report by CBS News. “Sometimes it really means being soft enough to let love in.”

“Harper didn’t do anything halfway. She was extra in the very best way,” Flavin said. “She just packed so much joy and imagination into her short 10 years, and thank God. Thank God she made it all count.” 

Harper’s mother said the last few weeks “have felt like being dropped at the bottom of the ocean, where it is pitch dark, and the pressure is crushing and no human is really meant to survive it.” 

But in the midst of their suffering, Harper’s parents said they feel grateful for the support. 

“There’s just so much love and support lighting our path that we haven’t felt lost,” Flavin said. “Shattered and heartbroken, but not lost.”

“You’ve lifted us up during the hardest days of our lives, and we are so grateful,” Moyski said.

Aftermath of a tragedy 

Annunciation Catholic School students are returning to school with a modified schedule this week, according to an announcement by the school’s leaders. The school will have supportive activities as well as extra security and support staff. 

The church where the shooting took place will have to be reconsecrated, according to the archdiocese. 

Reconsecration is a Catholic ritual used to purify a sacred space after it has been desecrated. 

Father Matthew Crane, a canon lawyer in Minnesota, explained that as part of the rite, “the sanctuary is stripped in a manner consistent with Good Friday.” 

“After the procession, much like the rite for initially dedicating a church, the celebrant, usually a diocesan bishop, blesses holy water and then sprinkles the people and walls with it,” Crane said. “Penitential prayers are offered, and the altar is only dressed with cloth and candles after these rituals have concluded.” 

Crane said the “spiritual effects” include “purification and reparation.” 

Crane, who has attended a reconsecration in the past, said he “was surprised at how, by virtue of participating in that ritual, I felt connected to and comfortable in the building and place.” 

“I would hope that in Annunciation, or any Catholic community, the ritual of reconsecration would grant the community a profound sense of being once again at home in a house of God,” he said.

Silvia Toma before participating in the vigil with Pope Leo XIV on Sept. 15, 2025. / Credit: Victoria Cardiel/EWTN News

Vatican City, Sep 16, 2025 / 15:50 pm (CNA).

Silvia Toma has a scar on her soul: Four years ago she buried her 34-year-old only son, who had two little daughters. “It was sudden leukemia. He was admitted on May 25, 2021, and died on June 3,” she said, still choked up by the pain.

At that time, the COVID-19 pandemic regulations allowed no visitors. Safety measures prevented her from caressing his hand in his slow agony.

“They never let us visit him. He was hospitalized in the coronary care unit completely alone,” she recalled. They could only communicate minimally through WhatsApp messages.

Praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet at his side

The day before he died, they let her in to see him. “His wife spent 15 minutes with him and I for another 15. I took the opportunity to pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet with him.” The doctors then asked them to leave the room and a few hours later asked them to return to the clinic.

“When we arrived, they told us he had suffered three cardiac arrests. He had survived two, and he hadn’t survived the third,” Toma explained, her eyes welling with tears but with a big, maternal smile that communicated she would be all right. 

Holding on to faith is the only thing that kept her going in the most difficult moments. “We are not prepared to lose a son, but I am extremely grateful for the faith,” said Toma, who, the day after her son was hospitalized, knelt before the tabernacle in her parish church, St. John the Baptist, in the Diocese of Avellaneda Lanús, Buenos Aires province.

Once before the Blessed Sacrament, “I told him that he already knew what was in my heart, but that his will be done. And his will was for my son to be with him.”

Toma still doesn’t understand God’s reasons, but she’s not seeking answers either. On Sept. 15, she participated in the Jubilee of Consolation in Rome and testified that death doesn’t have the last word.

“I often break down and cry, but, thank God, never once did I utter a word of reproach. I believe he must know why, and one day I will understand,” she added.

She said that going through this soul-searing pain, for which there isn’t even a word to define it in the dictionary, “has been like sharing a little bit in what the Virgin Mary felt at the foot of the cross.”

“I ask her to always hold him close and kiss him for me,” she said.

Pope Francis prayed for her

Toma is divorced but maintains a good relationship with her ex-husband, who is a Jehovah’s Witness. Her son had received all the sacraments — baptism, Communion, confirmation — but in his adolescence, “he turned to Jehovah’s Witnesses,” she said.

“He even signed the document expressing his refusal to receive a blood transfusion, as required by that religious denomination,” she explained.

In 2019, she was able to share the suffering her son’s actions caused her with Pope Francis, whom she greeted after a general audience. “When he finished listening to me, he told me he would pray for Gabriel’s return to the Catholic Church,” she related.

And little by little, this began to take shape. For Toma, there is no doubt that it was a small gift the Argentine pontiff gave her.

“I believe God worked in him,” she said. “Before he died, he spoke with the priest from our parish, something he hadn’t done in a long time. They texted each other on WhatsApp, they chatted. I believe his heart was opening again,” she added.

The situation became critical when he was admitted. “On the last day, the doctor told us that if they didn’t give him the transfusion, he would die. He was conscious. His wife, a Jehovah’s Witness, said, ‘I can’t sign.’ Then they asked me. I entered the room, looked him in the eyes, and asked him if he really wanted the transfusion, because I couldn’t override his personal decision either. He said yes.”

At that moment, mother and son signed the consent form together: “As I was signing, he touched his head and said to the doctor, ‘The thing is, my mother is a catechist.’”

For this mother, that decision, although it didn’t save her son's life, signified an inner reconciliation. “I believe God gave him the opportunity to return to him at the most important moment,” Toma said. For her, this final gesture was also a true consolation.

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

Pallbearers from The Royal Dragoon Guards carry Katharine, Duchess of Kent’s coffin, draped in the Royal Standard, into Westminster Cathedral for a Vigil for the Deceased with Rite of Reception and Vespers for the Dead ahead of her funeral on Sept. 15, 2025, in London. / Credit: Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 16, 2025 / 15:07 pm (CNA).

The British Royal family held its first Catholic funeral in modern history on Tuesday for the duchess of Kent, the first senior British royal to be received into the Church since the 17th century. 

The duchess died on Sept. 4 at the age of 92 and asked that her funeral be held at Westminster Cathedral in London. She was raised Anglican but joined the Catholic Church in 1994. She described her conversion as a “long-pondered personal decision” but said she was attracted to the solace and clarity of the faith. 

Born Katharine Lucy Mary Worsley, the duchess married Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, a first cousin of Queen Elizabeth II. Her family said she should be remembered for her “lifelong devotion to all the organizations with which she was associated, her passion for music, and her empathy for young people.”

On Tuesday afternoon, hundreds gathered to honor the duchess’ life at the cathedral alongside the duke and their three children. King Charles III, Prince William, and Princess Kate Middleton were all in attendance; Queen Camilla was not present reportedly due to illness. 

King Charles’ presence marked the first time a reigning British monarch has attended a Catholic funeral in a formal capacity on U.K. grounds since the Reformation.

The Requiem Mass was celebrated by the archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Vincent Nichols. The dean of Windsor joined the cathedral clergy during the Mass and presided over the burial of the duchess with the auxiliary bishop of Westminster. 

In a Sept. 16 telegram to King Charles, Pope Leo XIV said he “was saddened to learn of the death of Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent.” The message was read by Archbishop Miguel Maury Buendia, apostolic nuncio to Great Britain, at the funeral Mass.

“I send heartfelt condolences, together with the assurance of my prayerful closeness, to your majesty, the members of the royal family, and especially to her husband, the Duke of Kent, and their children and grandchildren at this time of sorrow,” Pope Leo wrote. 

“Entrusting her noble soul to the mercy of our heavenly Father, I readily associate myself with all those offering thanksgiving to almighty God for the duchess’ legacy of Christian goodness, seen in her many years of dedication to official duties, patronage of charities, and devoted care for vulnerable people in society.”

“To all who mourn her loss, in the sure hope of the Resurrection, I willingly impart my apostolic blessing as a pledge of consolation and peace in the risen Lord,” the pope said.

null / Credit: Prostock-studio/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 16, 2025 / 14:07 pm (CNA).

Ahead of World Mental Health Day on Oct. 10, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has announced an addition to its ongoing National Catholic Mental Health Campaign to amplify local engagement on mental health. 

The title for the initiative, “Healing and Hope,” was taken from the National Catholic Mental Health Campaign’s introductory statement, written by Archbishop Borys Gudziak of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia and Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, Bishop Robert Barron.

“As pastors, we want to emphasize this point to anyone who is suffering from mental illness or facing mental health challenges: Nobody and nothing can alter or diminish your God-given dignity. You are a beloved child of God, a God of healing and hope,” the U.S. bishops said this week. 

The initiative “builds upon the goal of promoting healing and hope for all who struggle with mental illness and is inclusive of the people who accompany them,” the USCCB said in a Sept. 15 statement. 

“Healing and Hope” is intended to combat the present mental health crisis affecting people across the nation, especially younger generations. Pew Research found that as of April, 55% of parents report being extremely or very concerned about the mental health of teens. 

The U.S. bishops have added three new elements to the mental health campaign to strengthen Catholic engagement ahead of World Mental Health Day, including a revitalized digital campaign with reflections by bishops meant to “invite all people into deeper conversation on the realities and stigmas of mental health.”

The initiative will also launch state conferences on mental health beginning in early 2026 with a meeting in New Jersey. 

At the conferences, “bishops, clergy, religious, and laypeople in dioceses/eparchies and local groups will have an opportunity to gather for dialogue on local mental health realities.” 

Healing and Hope will also prompt parishes to host “Mental Health Sunday” on the weekend of Oct. 11–12. Parishes are encouraged to share at Mass about the national campaign and its mission, integrate petitions around mental health issues, offer a special blessing for caretakers, and consider launching a Catholic mental health initiative in the parish community.

All the faithful in the U.S. are encouraged to participate by praying the Novena for Mental Health from Oct. 10, World Mental Health Day, to Oct. 18, the feast of St. Luke, the patron saint of health care.

Pope Leo XIV meets with Catholicos Karekin II, the patriarch of the Armenian Apostolic Church, at Villa Barberini, the papal residence overlooking Lake Albano in Castel Gandolfo, Italy on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Sep 16, 2025 / 13:06 pm (CNA).

The head of the Armenian Apostolic Church during a meeting Tuesday at the papal residence in Castel Gandolfo invited Pope Leo XIV to visit Armenia.

Catholicos Karekin II, the patriarch of the Armenian Apostolic Church, met Pope Leo for the first time at Villa Barberini, the papal summer residence overlooking Lake Albano. Leo has recently begun spending Tuesdays, the pope’s traditional day off, in Castel Gandolfo while the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City undergoes renovations.

The two discussed the need for a peace based on justice, according to Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, the Armenian Church’s representative to the Holy See, in comments to the Armenian-language edition of Vatican Media.

The invitation would mark a continuation of ecumenical dialogue and papal outreach to Armenia, the first state to adopt Christianity as its state religion in A.D. 301. Karekin II has previously traveled to the Vatican for meetings with John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Francis.

John Paul II became the first pope to set foot on Armenian soil in 2001, visiting for celebrations of the 1,700th anniversary of the country’s Christian heritage. Pope Francis followed with a three-day trip to Armenia in 2016.

The Armenian Apostolic Church, sometimes known as the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church, is the national church of Armenia and part of the family of Oriental Orthodox Churches.

It is distinct from the much smaller Armenian Catholic Church, which is in full communion with Rome. The Armenian Church formally broke with Rome after the Council of Chalcedon in 451, though relations have deepened in recent decades. In 1996, John Paul II and then-Patriarch Karekin I signed a declaration affirming their shared Christian origins.

In addition to his audience with the pope, Karekin II met in Rome with Cardinal Kurt Koch, prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, and Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education. He also prayed at the Basilica of St. Mary Major before the tomb of Pope Francis and the Marian icon of Salus Populi Romani.

Karekin II’s first visit to Rome dates back to November 2000, when, newly elected, he was received by John Paul II during celebrations for the jubilee of 2000. On that occasion, John Paul presented him with relics of St. Gregory the Illuminator, the patron saint credited with converting Armenia’s king to Christianity in the fourth century.

Armenians worldwide maintain strong ties to their church, shaped in part by the 1915 genocide, known in Armenia as the Medz Yeghern (“Great Evil Crime”). Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks around the time of World War I, according to the Associated Press. Pope Francis in 2015 called it the “first genocide of the 20th century,” drawing a strong protest from Turkey.

The Vatican has yet to announce any international trips for the new pope, although many expect his first journey abroad will be ecumenical in nature, a trip to Turkey to mark the 1,700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I. / Credit: President.gov.ua/Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

CNA Staff, Sep 16, 2025 / 12:24 pm (CNA).

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople met with President Donald Trump this week during a visit to the United States, with the leaders discussing world affairs including ongoing strife in the Middle East and Ukraine.

A press release on the patriarch’s website said Bartholomew, considered the first among equals in the Orthodox Church, met with Trump in a “very cordial atmosphere” and congratulated the U.S. leader “on his initiatives and overall efforts to promote peace in the world, and particularly in Ukraine.”

The leaders “also discussed the situation of Christians in the Middle East.”

Also present at the meeting were numerous other Orthodox leaders as well as U.S. Vice President JD Vance. Bartholomew’s office said the patriarch also “offered his condolences to [Trump] for the murder of his friend and colleague Charlie Kirk.”

Kirk, a prominent conservative activist, was shot and killed by an assassin on Sept. 10. Trump has publicly mourned Kirk’s death.

In his first visit to the U.S. in about four years, the patriarch will stay for nearly two weeks.  

Bartholomew’s tenure, which began in 1991, has been marked by overtures of reconciliation between the Eastern church and Rome on several centuries-old disputes. 

In March of this year the patriarch offered a hopeful historical assessment of the traditional 1054 date for the “Great Schism” between Rome and Constantinople, suggesting that those tensions developed gradually over time and “are not insurmountable.”

During a meeting with Orthodox leaders in June, Pope Leo XIV stated his intention to “persevere in the effort to reestablish full visible communion between [the] churches.” 

The Holy Father said that goal can only be achieved “with God’s help, through a continued commitment to respectful listening and fraternal dialogue.”

Amid numerous visits scheduled for his trip in the U.S. this month, Bartholomew is scheduled to receive the Templeton Prize on Sept. 24. 

The John Templeton Foundation said in April that the patriarch was being awarded the prestigious recognition “for his pioneering efforts to bridge scientific and spiritual understandings of humanity’s relationship with the natural world, bringing together people of different faiths to heed a call for stewardship of creation.”

Bartholomew has been hailed as the “Green Patriarch” for his promotion of environmental values and causes. The leader has called for the faithful to “protect life on earth from the worst consequences of human recklessness.”

A display promotes the cause for canonization for the founder of the Knights of Columbus, Blessed Michael McGivney, on Sept. 14, 2025. / Credit: Tessa Gervasini/CNA

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 16, 2025 / 11:54 am (CNA).

The canonization of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in 1975 not only marked the establishment of the first American-born saint but also opened the door for other American Catholics to be honored for embodying the universal call to holiness.

“What made her canonization remarkable was that after 200 years of history in the country, it was the first time that a native-born American was declared a saint of the universal Church,” Rob Judge, executive director of the National Shrine of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton in Emmitsburg, Maryland, told CNA. “It was this validation, that you can come from these lands and obtain holiness.”

Today there are 87 American Catholics on their way to sainthood. To recognize these men and women, the shrine put together the “Saints on Their Way Village” to help share the stories of Americans deemed blessed, venerable, and servants of God. 

The “Saints on Their Way Village” was displayed on Sept. 14 — the 50-year anniversary of Seton’s canonization — and was made up of ​​nearly two dozen guilds, each dedicated to advancing the cause of an American on the path to sainthood. They gathered on the shrine’s grounds, where Mother Seton lived and worshipped, to host tables with information and to sign petitions to help advance their causes.

“St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and those on the path to joining her all share one thing in common: They each lived lives of love and service that embody the universal call to holiness,” Judge said. 

Dorothy Day

In 2000, Dorothy Day became a servant of God after her cause for sainthood was officially opened by the Church. Members of the Dorothy Day Guild attended the event to highlight her “steadfastness” and “relatability.”

Day worked as an activist and journalist, focused on social justice and aiding the poor. She influenced 20th-century American Catholicism by demonstrating the “preferential option for the poor,” which integrated faith and action.

“What I find hopeful is that she stayed the course her whole lifetime,” guild member Carolyn Zablotny told CNA. “There were times where I’m sure she had her doubts and she wrote so openly about her struggles. She’s not a cookie-cutter kind of person, she failed at times, but she persevered.”

Day is a “sign of hope,” Zablotny said. “She’s a radical alternative to militarism, racism, and the selfishness that we’re all suffering from. I think she’s a real model for a different kind of holiness.”

Blessed Solanus Casey

Members of the Father Solanus Guild shared the message of Blessed Solanus Casey and provided a prayer for the Capuchin’s canonization. Fellow friar and guild member Brother Daniel, who did not wish to share his full name, told CNA that Casey’s “main goal” was to “thank God ahead of time” as a way to recognize what he is already doing in our lives. 

Casey grew up on a farm in Wisconsin and was known as a “simple man” who dedicated his ministry to the sick and troubled. While the Catholic Church has only officially attributed one miracle to Casey, many people have shared stories of unexplained healing after asking for his intercession. 

“One of our brothers in the order, his family is connected with Father Solanus,” Brother Daniel said. “He got in an accident and the doctor wanted to amputate his legs. So his mother and father came to Solanus and told him ‘the doctors are going to amputate the leg of my son.’ Solanus said: ‘Nothing is going to happen. Don’t worry.’ The doctors, the next morning, said they could do [another] treatment and not amputate his legs.”

“When people come to [Solanus], he may not get rid of all the problems,” Brother Daniel said. “But when they go from him, they feel peace. They feel that someone is there to comfort them.” 

Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos 

Francis Xavier Seelos was born in Germany in 1819 but moved to the United States and lived much of his life in New Orleans. Now the city houses the National Shrine of Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos, where people come daily “to ask for the blessing of Blessed Francis,” Father Steve, a priest advocating for his canonization who did not wish to give his full name, told CNA.

Seelos was known “as a wonderful man,” he said. “He was totally self-giving — the type of person that makes a saint. When people were sick, he didn’t think about himself at all. He went to bless them and ended up getting sick himself, which is how he died.”

Blessed Francis served as a priest during a time where judgment was often passed, but he “was very kind and gentle in confession,” Father Steve said. “His confession line was always longer than anybody else’s because he was willing to listen and give absolution without making people feel bad.”

Mother Mary Lange

Mother Mary Lange was an American religious sister who founded the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the first African American religious congregation in the United States. In 1829, she founded the order despite the trials she knew she would endure. She believed that “if you put your faith in God, it’ll be OK,” Phyllis Johnson, a member of the Mother Mary Lange Guild, told CNA.

The guild is advocating for her canonization because “she loved all people,” Johnson said. “Even the people who treated her shabbily, she still cared for them. She’s a saint for everyone. She took care of everyone. She didn’t discriminate … So if anybody should be a saint, it’s the person who says ‘all people are God’s people.’”

Blessed Michael J. McGivney 

Several employees of the Knights of Columbus, the world’s largest Catholic fraternal service organization, talked with attendees to share the cause for canonization of the organization’s founder, Father Michael J. McGivney. 

“He’s a powerful intercessor,” Alicia Mucha, manager of events at the Knights of Columbus, told CNA. “He loves to answer prayers for unemployment, family conflict, and any substance abuse.”

In 1882, McGivney founded the Knights of Columbus “to give men a better community, something that was rooted in their faith that would keep them away from drinking,” Mucha said. The organization started in Connecticut “to provide benefits for women and children, in case anything happened to the men. He would ensure that women and orphans were taken care of.”

In 2020, McGivney was beatified after the Vatican recognized a miracle attributed to his intercession.

Judge said that McGivney and the other potential American saints show “us that we, too, can draw closer to God and achieve great things.”

Vice President JD Vance hosts a podcast episode of “The Charlie Kirk Show” on Sept. 15, 2025, in Washington, D.C., following the assassination of the show’s namesake on Sept. 10. / Credit: Doug Mills-Pool/Getty Images

National Catholic Register, Sep 16, 2025 / 10:21 am (CNA).

While serving as the guest host of Charlie Kirk’s podcast Monday, Vice President JD Vance vowed that the Trump administration will seek to “dismantle” left-wing organizations that he said promoted the violence that led to the conservative activist’s assassination last week.

“Charlie was gunned down in broad daylight, and well-funded institutions of the Left lied about what he said so as to justify his murder. This is soulless and evil,” Vance said.

The two-hour broadcast of “The Charlie Kirk Show,” produced by the organization Kirk founded, Turning Point USA, was livestreamed from Vance’s ceremonial office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. It featured appearances from White House aides and administration officials as well as friends of Kirk. 

Vance specifically cited an article in The Nation magazine that he said falsely stated that Kirk had made racist statements. The author, he said, had also expressed “glee over a young husband and young father’s death.”

“Did you know that the George Soros Open Society Foundation and the Ford Foundation — the groups who funded that disgusting article justifying Charlie’s death — do you know they benefit from generous tax treatment?” Vance said.

“They are literally subsidized by you and me, the American taxpayer, and how do they reward us? By setting fire to the house built by the American family over 250 years,” he said.

The Trump administration, Vance said, will be working in the coming months to shut down organizations that facilitate politically motivated violence.

“We’re not always going to get it right. We will sometimes move more slowly than you would like. We will sometimes move more slowly than I want us to. But I promise you that we will explore every option to bring real unity to our country and stop those who would kill their fellow Americans because they don’t like what they say,” Vance said.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, a guest on the program, told Vance that Kirk was a “treasured friend” of 10 years. He also vowed to go after those who may have aided and abetted Kirk’s killer, calling it “a vast domestic terror movement.”

Miller described a coordinated movement to incite violence in the United States.

“The organized doxing campaigns, the organized riots, the organized street violence, the organized campaigns of dehumanization, vilification, posting people’s addresses, combining that with messaging that’s designed to trigger inside violence and the actual organized cells that carry out and facilitate the violence,” he said.

“With God as my witness, we are going to use every resource we have at the Department of Justice, Homeland Security, and throughout this government to identify, disrupt, dismantle, and destroy these networks and make America safe again for the American people. It will happen, and we will do it in Charlie’s name,” Miller said.

Vance, during the program, said that polling has shown that liberals are more likely than conservatives to “be happy about the death of a political opponent” and to say that political violence is sometimes justified.

“The data is clear. People on the left are much likelier to defend and celebrate political violence,” Vance said.

“That problem has terrible consequences. The leader of our party, Donald J. Trump, escaped an assassin’s bullet by less than an inch. Our House majority leader, Steven Scalise, came within seconds of death by an assassin himself. Now, the most influential conservative activist in generations, our friend Charlie, has been murdered,” he said.

Tributes for Kirk

The vice president, in paying tribute to Kirk, remembered his friend as a faithful Christian and political visionary. He recalled Kirk as a man of great faith who inspired others to be bold in sharing their views.

“On a podcast a couple of months back, Charlie was asked about how he’d want to be remembered if he died. His answer: ‘I want to be remembered for courage, for my faith,’” Vance said.

“In this dark moment for our country, I think that’s the greatest lesson any of us can take from Charlie, to have faith, to have faith in the Lord and to be bold in how we glorify him, to be bold in our pursuits as Charlie was in his,” he said.

When asked by Vance to share something about Kirk, conservative podcast host Tucker Carlson spoke of the role that faith played in Kirk’s life. 

“His Christianity was sincere, and his commitment to Jesus was totally sincere. It sometimes isn’t, especially in public figures who throw out Bible verses they don’t understand and stuff like that,” Carlson said.

“But in his case … it informed every single part of his life, from his marriage, to the way he treated his children, to the way he treated his staff, to the way he approached disagreement, to the way he thought of other people, which was always primarily as people first,” he said.

Vance, in his concluding remarks, said Kirk was a man “who told the truth in every place, in every environment.”

“The most important truth Charlie told is this: that long ago, a man begotten, not made, came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit, was incarnate of the Virgin Mary and became man. For our sake, he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and suffered death, and was buried, and rose again on the third day,” Vance said.

“Charlie believed, as I do, that all the truth he told flowed from that fundamental principle, he said. “I really do believe that we can come together in this country. I believe we must. But unity, real unity, can be found only after climbing the mountain of truth,” he said.

Vance said that after speaking with Kirk’s widow, Erika, and the rest of the Kirk family, he was struck by the example his friend set, as a husband who “was never cross or mean-spirited” to his wife.

“Maybe the best way that I can contribute and the best way that I could honor my dear friend is to be the best husband that I can be, to be the husband to my wife that he was to his,” Vance said.

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

A group of students at Chesterton Academy of the Holy Family in Lisle, Illinois, in 2024. The Chesterton School Network is a network of “joyfully Catholic classical high schools where students grow in faith, virtue, and friendship.” / Credit: Photo courtesy of Chesterton Academy of the Holy Family, Lisle, Illinois

CNA Staff, Sep 16, 2025 / 09:20 am (CNA).

In a suburb of Minneapolis in 2008, a small school named after the Catholic author G.K. Chesterton opened its doors.

Seventeen years later, the school has grown into the wide-reaching Chesterton Schools Network, with schools sprinkled across the United States. And this school year, the network is going international.

The president of the Chesterton Schools Network said there is no other word for it but “miraculous.”

“The growth has been simply astounding,” said Dale Ahlquist, who is also president of the Society of Gilbert Keith Chesterton, which operates the network.

But why are the schools a hit? Ahlquist credits the Holy Spirit.

“The real driver of this movement has been the Holy Spirit working to enliven the Church, beginning with the domestic Church,” he told CNA. 

At Chesterton schools, “faith in Christ is at the center, with daily Mass and a vigorous moral and spiritual formation program,” he said. 

“The Chesterton model is both faithfully Catholic and fully classical, presenting the true, the good, and the beautiful as united transcendental aspects of all learning,” Ahlquist added. 

In the U.S., Chesterton schools operate in 31 states and 76 dioceses. 

Parents love it and students thrive in it, according to Ahlquist.  

“The Chesterton model has a proven track record of success now, and people are taking notice,” he said. 

“People saw what we were doing here in the U.S., saw the curriculum, witnessed the fruits of the great formation Chesterton Academies provide, and they said, ‘We want that, too.’” 

Growing around the world 

Starting new schools across the world has been “challenging, but exciting,” Ahlquist said. 

“Every country presents its own unique regulatory and cultural complexities,” he said. “But the love parents have for their kids and the desire they have to fulfill their vocations as their children’s primary educators and catechists — that’s the same everywhere.”

With seven new schools in the U.S. and another three around the world opened this Fall, Ahlquist said “we only expect demand to grow worldwide.”

Ahlquist said both internationally and in the U.S., the Chesterton schools all follow the same pattern.

“It sprang up organically, from the grassroots,” Ahlquist said of the international launch.

Student life 

“The hallmark of our model is an integrated curriculum that unites the truths learned in disparate subjects and shows their interconnectedness and interdependency, all united around one great truth: the Incarnation,” Ahlquist said.

“Christ is at the center, the ultimate end not just of our spiritual formation but of character and intellectual formation as well,” Ahlquist said.

“Ultimately, the Catholic faith isn’t something extra, something tacked on arbitrarily to what they’re learning in all the various classes. It’s the undergirding principle, the ‘why’ behind all the other pursuits,” Ahlquist said.

Chesterton schools use the Socratic method, which Ahlquist said “encourages students to take ownership of their learning, to probe with questions, and start seeing the connections that are everywhere.”

“They learn the humanities, including philosophy and theology, and are formed in how to think about God and the universe,” Ahlquist said. “In math and science, they see the handiwork of a creator and an active providence over the natural world. In music, visual arts, and theater, they appreciate the incarnational and sacramental way that beauty attests to the truth and goodness of a God who loves them.”

“From the science lab to the sports field to the chapel, students are oriented toward Christ as their friend, model, and ultimate goal. And they get it. This is what parents notice most, and why the network keeps growing,” he said.

Chesterton’s impact continues into adult life, according to Ahlquist.

After graduation, Chesterton alumni “discern vocations in priestly ministry and consecrated life” and marry earlier in life “than their secular peers,” Ahlquist noted.

“Students really enter into this approach and make it their own,” he said. “Others can see the transformation that takes place in these kids’ lives as they grow into faithful, ethical, confident young adults, ready to live out and share their faith while also excelling in their vocational and career pursuits.”