Church of the Madalene

“EWTN News Nightly” welcomed its new anchor, Veronica Dudo, on Sept. 8, 2025. / Credit: EWTN News

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

“EWTN News Nightly” welcomed its new anchor, Veronica Dudo, on Sept. 8 to a role in which the veteran journalist said she hopes “to spread the word about what’s happening in the world through a Catholic lens.”

In an interview with “EWTN News In Depth,” Dudo told President and COO of EWTN News Montse Alvarado that she wanted to be a journalist “to give a voice to those who would otherwise go unheard.”

“I have always been a very curious person about others and the world around me,” Dudo said. “So I knew very early I enjoyed storytelling. Being a journalist was a great way to be able to do that.” 

“‘EWTN News Nightly’ is the network’s flagship news show and the most-watched program on broadcast and across our digital platforms. We’re excited to see how Veronica will add to this award-winning team,” Alvarado told CNA. 

Dudo is an Emmy Award-nominated journalist and anchor with decades of experience in the field. As she assumes her new role for a global network, she brings skills from past work as a global communications expert and an international relations consultant. 

EWTN’s “unwavering mission to serve the faithful and also to be a voice of truth” is what drew Dudo to be a part of the network. The anchor position “seemed like an amazing opportunity … to tell stories through a Catholic lens, while also giving [people] information about what’s happening in the world around them,” Dudo said, adding that she is no stranger to EWTN. 

“I was of a generation that grew up watching EWTN. I remember being young and my grandparents and great aunts and uncles always had the network on. They had such a love for Mother Angelica.”

EWTN has “grown like a tree with so many branches, and it really has helped people. It’s not just the headlines. It does go beyond that,” Dudo said. “Each network has a unique mission and audience, but with EWTN, truth is always at the forefront.” 

She added: “Being able to help people understand what’s happening, in addition with their spiritual lives, is something that really sounds like a dream to be a part of. Right now, there is an outpouring of people who are very interested in faith-based programming. So I think the timing is really perfect.”

With the Catholic faith at the forefront of her work, Dudo detailed her love for praying the rosary and her affection for Eucharistic adoration, which she said helps her find “a quiet stillness.” She added: “It is an inspiration for me. It’s a regrouping of where I can stop and recalibrate, understand, especially when things are so busy in the world and chaotic.”

Dudo made her on-screen debut for “EWTN News Nightly” on Monday, Sept. 8. Now serving as the voice and anchor of the show, Dudo said she is looking forward to highlighting the “morals and the teachings” of the Church. “It’s amazing to be with EWTN that informs and inspires but also evangelizes.” 

“It’s a great joy to walk into a network where you can really be who you are,” Dudo said. She shared what sets the network apart: “You don’t have to apologize for your faith.”

“Veronica knows EWTN as a viewer and now gets to be a part of the team that brings news from a Catholic perspective to every soul we reach. She’s always been part of the EWTN family, only now she’s in the anchor chair weekdays at 6 and 9 p.m. Eastern,” Alvarado said.

null / Credit: maxuser/Shutterstock

Rome, Italy, Sep 29, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Many influential figures hope that developments in brain-computer interfaces, artificial general intelligence (AGI), and genetic engineering will usher in a new transhumanist era. But what exactly is transhumanism and how does the Church approach it?

The Transhumanist FAQ 3.0 describes transhumanism as “the intellectual and cultural movement that affirms the possibility and desirability of fundamentally improving the human condition through applied reason, especially by developing and making widely available technologies to eliminate aging and to greatly enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities.”

Although the number of members in official transhumanist organizations remains small, the movement’s mindset is widespread among prominent tech developers and influences key decisions about beginning-of-life and end-of-life decisions made daily.

Media sensation and technology investor Bryan Johnson embodies transhumanist ideals through his strict lifestyle regimen aimed at reversing his aging and buying him and his followers more time to avoid death through eventual scientific breakthroughs.

After optimizing his sleep, diet, and exercise routines, Johnson has turned to over 100 health supplement pills, light exposure therapies, and other experimental enhancements. For example, he uses rapamycin (an immunosuppressant drug given to organ transplant patients), receives blood transfusions from his fit college-aged son, and has traveled to the Caribbean island Roatán for follistatin (a muscle-building protein used to treat degenerative conditions like muscle dystrophy) gene therapy injections not approved by the FDA. 

The fallen-away Mormon has started his “Don’t Die” movement, which he is not afraid to call a new religion. 

Without claiming to start a new religion, other major tech figures are committed to technological solutions to aging and death. For instance, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has invested billions in Altos Labs to investigate slowing and reversing aging, and Google co-founder Larry Page started the radical life extension project Calico Labs.

Supporting human dignity

While it does not promote a biological solution to death, the Church is dedicated to using technological innovations to help patients live healthier and longer lives through its extensive health care system. The Church supports the adoption of promising CRISPR gene therapies for beta-thalassemia, sickle cell anemia, and personalized treatments for rare metabolic conditions. 

However, in her commitment to intrinsic human dignity, the Church refuses to support techno-pronatalist projects that use IVF to create embryos and then screen them for desirable traits. Many in the transhumanism movement are especially eager to select for intelligence so that children will be equipped to innovate and correctly guide AI developments to avoid existential risks and foster a more prosperous society.

These projects are presented as “responsible parenthood,” giving children genetic advantages for their future pursuits. However, behind this benign rhetoric, dark shadows of neo-eugenics lurk. 

Numerous embryos created through IVF are deemed unworthy of life due to their genetic profile and are discarded or kept in perpetual suspension. These transhumanist projects tragically aim to create a superior future humanity at the expense of present humans. 

Moreover, while planning for future generations is a moral responsibility, focusing too much on long-term projects like space colonization can distract from urgent short-term efforts to address present societal injustices, such as poor access to basic health care and unchecked environmental damage.

Along with genetically engineering the next generation, many transhumanist thinkers are interested in bodily modifications that enhance capabilities through brain-computer interfaces. Elon Musk’s Neuralink company’s mission of restoring autonomy in patients who have suffered spinal cord injury or ALS is admirable. Hearing Noland Arbaugh talk about how easily he can connect with loved ones and study neuroscience using a thought-controlled computer is heartening. 

Yet the effort to boost mental capacity with millions of healthy implant users raises serious concerns about mental privacy, manipulating thoughts, and the mental health impacts of such rapid connectivity.

The boldest transhumanist projects aim for a posthuman, post-biological existence maintained through digital immortality. 

Ray Kurzweil, a longtime director of engineering at Google, predicts a singularity event marked by rapid technological growth, self-improving AI systems, and a merging of humans and machines that will bring unimaginable enhancements to human existence. Some hope that advances in AI will enable the preservation and transfer of human consciousness. 

However, these efforts can, at best, provide a copy of data about the deceased. They fail to preserve the embodied human person. Moreover, the misguided hope for digital immortality can discourage individuals from gracefully embracing their earthly finitude while setting their ultimate hope in the resurrection of the body.

Efforts to abandon the fragile, vulnerable body can also negatively affect how people facing illness or disability are treated. Furthermore, if one becomes convinced that the value of life mainly depends on physical and psychological fitness, the temptation to end life through assisted suicide and euthanasia during times of decline and distress becomes more tempting. 

Caring for bodily well-being is a Christian duty, but true dignity is not based on physical strength or mental sharpness. The vulnerable body is not just a problem to tolerate but is the reality through which virtues like care, patience, service, empathy, and courage are exercised. Safe and effective improvements in cognition, physical health, and emotional well-being through pharmaceuticals, genetics, or other biotechnologies can contribute to a good life if used wisely, but they cannot ensure moral or spiritual growth. 

‘Catholic transhumanism’

Catholics should dialogue with transhumanists who genuinely seek to improve the human condition via technological tools. Non-Christian authors recognize that the Catholic Church was once the Silicon Valley of its day. It was a well-networked, well-funded hub of innovation in astronomy, architecture, agriculture, engineering, health care, social welfare, and many other fields. Catholic clergy spearheaded Big Bang cosmology, genetics, geology, and internet hyperlinks. Together, they can work to improve health care while guiding biotechnological interventions in ways that uphold the fundamental human dignity of vulnerable patients.

Religious expressions of transhumanism include the Mormon Transhumanist Association and the Christian Transhumanist Association. These groups see emerging technologies as crucial tools for achieving traditional Christian goals of spiritual transformation. Nonetheless, many leading transhumanists consider their movement as a rational and scientific alternative to, and an improvement on, traditional religions.

For instance, Extropy Institute (a forerunner of the World Transhumanist Association) co-founder Max More claims that “apart from the sheer falsity and irrationality of religion it has had the unfortunate consequence (identified by Ludwig Feuerbach) of debasing humanity.” He proposes transhumanism as a liberating force for human ingenuity and ongoing progress. Yet the largely secular contemporary transhumanist movement has surprising Catholic roots. 

Centuries before secular authors like Julian Huxley wrote about transhumanism as the human-driven technological evolution of the human species, Dante insisted that the transhumanizing experience of heavenly transfiguration is so sublime that even his poetic genius cannot capture it fully in words. In “Paradiso” Canto I, 70-71, he writes: “Trasumanar significar per verba, non si poria” (“Passing beyond the human cannot be expressed in words”).

Catholic transhumanism is rooted in the gift of grace and free collaboration with God. Transhumanizing theosis is concerned chiefly with growth in virtue and docility to the Holy Spirit. Catholic divinization is an elevation open to all people of all conditions and circumstances, not only the most physically fit and cognitively acute.

Archbishop of Philadelphia Nelson J. Perez speaks to members of his congregation at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Peter and St. Paul following a special Mass for Pope Francis on April 21, 2025, in Philadelphia. / Credit: Matthew Hatcher/Getty Images

CNA Staff, Sep 29, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Philadelphia Archbishop Nelson Pérez on Sept. 29 announced the designation of multiple “missionary hubs” throughout the Philadelphia Archdiocese, part of a broad effort to help bring lapsed Catholics back into the Church while highlighting the “deeply positive impact” the Church has had on the region.

The rollout comes after Pérez earlier this year revealed the 10-year plan meant to bring Catholics back to the pews. The archdiocese said in January that the effort would be “phased in” across the region.

A “standout feature” of the campaign, the archdiocese said on Monday, is the creation of five “missionary hubs” at parishes in the region’s four major counties of Delaware, Bucks, Montgomery, and Chester as well as Philadelphia County itself.

Those parishes will serve as “a new method of evangelization that will be instrumental in reaching out to Catholics who no longer attend Mass regularly and others seeking a spiritual connection in their lives and an outlet to serve those in need.”

“Following the example of Jesus Christ, we are moving to encounter all of our brothers and sisters where they are,” Pérez said in a press release. “I want everyone to know that they are not alone and that they will always have a home in the Catholic Church.”

The hubs will feature trained individuals under the leadership of the parish’s pastor, with teams working to “address the distinct needs and priorities of the people living within the neighborhoods of that parish and beyond.” The designation of the hubs came after “dozens of meetings” with hundreds of Catholics throughout the year.

The parishes will use pastoral, educational, and charitable ministries to “reach people who feel far from the Church,” according to the archdiocese.

‘Catholic. Every day’

In addition to the hub effort, the archdiocese will also be rolling out a marketing campaign, dubbed “Catholic. Every Day,” that will broadcast on local TV and radio stations. It will also be featured on displays such as billboards and bus shelters.

The archdiocese described the effort as an “extensive and privately funded marketing and advertising campaign covering Philadelphia and its suburbs.”

The donor-sponsored ads will feature “the many faces of Catholicism in the region” and will run in several phases through July 2026, coinciding with multiple major events in the region, including the FIFA World Cup and events marking the 250th anniversary of the founding of the U.S.

“This campaign will remind Catholics of their rich heritage of service to others in Philadelphia while introducing our message to new audiences in fresh and compelling ways,” Pérez said.

The archbishop said in the Monday press release that the Philadelphia Church “has 1.5 million Catholics, directly helps hundreds of thousands of people through our schools and charitable ministries, and has an economic impact of more than $1 billion a year.”

Organizers wanted to “highlight the broad scope of compassionate and dignified service we provide to people of faith traditions and diverse walks of life,” he said.

Archdiocesan spokesman Kenneth Gavin told CNA earlier this year that the entire effort will be funded primarily by “private philanthropic funding secured over time and hopefully endowed for long-term sustainability.”

“The archbishop recognizes the urgency of reaching out to the 83% of baptized Catholics not regularly practicing their faith while continuing to serve more effectively and efficiently the 17% who do attend Mass,” he said.

A stained-glass window in St. Sulpice Church in Fougeres, France, depicts (from left to right) the archangels Michael, Raphael, and Gabriel. / Credit: Tiberiu Stan/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Sep 29, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).

Many Catholics can, at the drop of a hat, recite the prayer to St. Michael the Archangel — the famous petition to that venerable saint to “defend us in battle” and “cast into hell Satan.”

In the culture of the Church, Michael is often accompanied by his two fellow archangels — Sts. Gabriel and Raphael — with the three forming a phalanx of protection, healing, and petition for those who ask for their intercession. The Church celebrates the three archangels with a joint feast day on Sept. 29.

St. Michael the Archangel

St. Michael the Archangel is hailed in the Book of Daniel as “the great prince who has charge of [God’s] people.”

Michael Aquilina, the executive vice president and trustee of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology in Steubenville, Ohio, described Michael among angels as “the one most often named — and most often invoked — and most often seen in history-changing apparitions.”

Devotion to Michael, Aquilina told CNA, “has been with the Church from the beginning. And Michael has been with God’s people since before the beginning of the Church.”

Michael’s history in the Bible is depicted through Daniel, in Jude (in which he battles Satan for possession of Moses’ body), and in Revelation as he “wag[es] war with the dragon” alongside his fellow angels. 

Michael, Aquilina said, was “a supremely important character who was there from the beginning of the story.” Rabbinic tradition holds that Michael was at the center of many of the great biblical dramas even if not explicitly mentioned. 

He was an early subject of veneration in the Church, though Aquilina noted that the Reformation led to a steep decline in devotion to the angels — until the end of the 19th century, when Michael began an “amazing comeback journey” in the life of the Church. 

Following a vision of Satan “running riot” on the planet, “Pope Leo composed three prayers to St. Michael, ranging from short to long,” Aquilina said. “The brief one, he commanded, should be prayed at the end of every Mass.” 

This was a regular feature of the Mass until the Vatican II era, after which it came to an end — though Pope John Paul II in 1994 urged Catholics to make the prayer a regular part of their lives.

“St. Michael is there for us in the day of battle, which is every day,” Aquilina said.

The St. Michael Prayer: St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil / May God rebuke him, we humbly pray / And do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the divine power of God, cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

St. Gabriel the Archangel

Gabriel appears regularly in Scripture as a messenger of God’s word, both in the Old and New Testaments. Daniel identifies Gabriel as a “man” who came “to give [him] insight and understanding,” relaying prophetic answers to Daniel’s entreaties to God. 

In the New Testament, Luke relays Gabriel’s appearances to both Zechariah and the Virgin Mary. At the former, he informs the priest that his wife, Elizabeth, will soon conceive a child; at the latter he informs Mary herself that she will do the same. The two children in question, of course, were respectively John the Baptist and Jesus Christ. 

Christian tradition further associates Gabriel with the apostle Paul’s reference in his First Letter to the Thessalonians to the “archangel’s call” and “the sound of the trumpet of God.”

“Judgment will begin with the archangel’s call and the sound of the horn,” Aquilina told CNA. “Thus we hear often of Gabriel’s trumpet.”

Media workers in particular have “good professional reasons to go to Gabriel,” Aquilina said.

“Since he is the Bible’s great communicator — the great teller of good news — he is the natural patron of broadcasters and all those who work in electronic media,” he said. 

“For the same reason, he’s the patron saint of preachers ... but also of postal workers, diplomats, and messengers.”

The St. Gabriel Prayer: O Blessed Archangel Gabriel, we beseech thee, do thou intercede for us at the throne of divine mercy in our present necessities, that as thou didst announce to Mary the mystery of the Incarnation, so through thy prayers and patronage in heaven we may obtain the benefits of the same, and sing the praise of God forever in the land of the living. Amen.

St. Raphael the Archangel

Lesser-known among the three great archangels, Raphael’s mission from God “is not obvious to the casual reader” of the Bible, Aquilina said. Yet his story, depicted in the Book of Tobit, is “something unique in the whole Bible.” In other depictions of angels, they come to Earth only briefly, to deliver a message or to help God’s favored people in some way. 

“Raphael is different,” Aquilina said. “He stays around for the whole story, and by the end he’s become something more than an angel ... he’s become a friend.”

In Tobit, Raphael accompanies Tobias, the son of the book’s namesake, as he travels to retrieve money left by his father in another town, helping him along the way and arranging for his marriage to Sarah. 

The biblical account “has in every generation provided insight and consolation to the devout,” Aquilina said. 

Notably, Raphael deftly uses the natural world to work God’s miracles: “What we would ordinarily call catastrophes — blindness, multiple widowhood, destitution, estrangement — all these become providential channels of grace by the time the threads of the story are all wound up in the end.”

“Raphael is patron of many kinds of people,” Aquilina said. “Of course, he’s the patron of singles in search of a mate — and those in search of a friend. He is the patron of pharmacists because he provided the salve of healing. He is a patron for anyone in search of a cure.” 

He is also the patron saint of blind people, travelers, sick people, and youth. 

“Raphael’s story,” Aquilina said, “remains a model for those who would enjoy the friendship of the angels.”

Prayer to St. Raphael: St. Raphael, of the glorious seven who stand before the throne of him who lives and reigns, angel of health, the Lord has filled your hand with balm from heaven to soothe or cure our pains. Heal or cure the victim of disease. And guide our steps when doubtful of our ways. Amen.

This story was first published on Sept. 29, 2023, and has been updated.

Pope Leo XIV hands a crucifix to a newly instituted catechist during Mass in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican on Sept. 28, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Sep 28, 2025 / 07:15 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Sunday entrusted the ministry of catechist to 39 men and women in St. Peter’s Square, personally handing each one a crucifix as a sign of their mission during the Jubilee of Catechists.

The candidates, representing several countries, were called by name and responded “Here I am” before receiving the crucifix. The rite took place during a Mass that highlighted both the vocation of teaching the faith and the Church’s universal call to hand it on.

Among those commissioned was Catherine Miles-Flynn, an American mother of eight who has lived in the United Arab Emirates since 1995. For two decades she has served as director of Christian formation in the Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Arabia. “There is a lot of joy in my work because I get to talk about Jesus all day,” she told reporters ahead of the jubilee, noting that Catholic churches in Abu Dhabi are “packed all the time.”

The Jubilee of Catechists is one of several thematic celebrations taking place during the Holy Year 2025, which has as its central theme hope. More than 20,000 pilgrims from 115 countries traveled to Rome for the weekend gathering, which included a prayer vigil in St. Peter’s Basilica and pilgrimages to the Holy Door before Sunday’s Mass.

Preaching in his homily on the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the pope said that “the words of Jesus convey to us how God sees the world, at every moment and in every place.” He warned that the passage remains “very relevant today” as “at the doorstep of today’s opulence stands the misery of entire peoples, ravaged by war and exploitation.”

The pope reminded the catechists that their ministry is rooted in witness: “The name of your ministry comes from the Greek verb ‘katēchein,’ which means ‘to teach aloud, to make resound.’ This means that the catechist is a person of the word — a word that he or she pronounces with his or her own life. Just as we learned our mother tongue, so too the proclamation of the faith cannot be delegated to someone else; it happens where we live, above all in our homes, around the family table.”

Leo also described the catechism as a “travel guidebook” that protects believers from “individualism and discord” because it expresses the faith of the entire Church. He urged Christians not to fall into greed and indifference, saying the “many ‘Lazaruses’ of today remind us of Jesus’ words” and serve as a catechesis of conversion, forgiveness, and hope.

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

St. Thomas Mission service at Mar Qardakh International School. / Credit: Alex McKenna

ACI MENA, Sep 28, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Every day people from around the world visit Iraq — some to explore an ancient civilization, others as tourists drawn to its natural beauty, and still others seeking work opportunities. But for one group of young Americans, experiencing Iraq has been especially unique, “filled with lessons, encounters, and blessings.”

After joining St. Thomas Mission, an initiative run in partnership with the Chaldean Catholic Archdiocese of Erbil in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Alex McKenna, along with fellow students from Ohio’s Franciscan University of Steubenville, arrived in Iraq to teach in the archdiocese’s schools and experience life and faith there.

At Mar Qardakh International School, the young adult missionaries engage in a wide variety of activities: teaching subjects like history and science, assisting in administration, and leading classes in English and religion.

“I didn’t know much about the Christians of Iraq or their lives beyond what the media reported about their suffering — especially during the ISIS invasion, when so many were forced from their homes to preserve their faith,” McKenna told ACI MENA, CNA’s Arabic-language news partner.

“In this mission, we work hard to strengthen Catholic education in a land that first received the Gospel in the first century, where Christians are still striving to hold on to their faith and identity despite many challenges. We pray that the light of Christ continues to shine in this holy land,” he said.

The St. Thomas Mission’s service emphasizes strengthening students’ faith first. Through their personal witness as committed Catholics, the missionaries hope their lives become a model of faith for the young people of Iraq.

“Some of my peers found the early days of teaching very difficult; it was a completely new experience for them, as it was for me. But over the years, I’ve learned from the children, from the teachers, and from the priests and bishop of the archdiocese how to draw closer to God,” McKenna said.

The missionaries’ service extends also to the Catholic University in Erbil, which McKenna called “a beacon of hope,” an institution fostering coexistence among religions and ethnicities in an environment of pluralism and dialogue, deeply rooted in Catholic values.

Living in Iraq has also brought unexpected joys. “We spent our holidays in what I would call educational trips more than tourism, where we experienced the generosity and hospitality of the Iraqi people,” McKenna said.

In Ankawa, the Christian neighborhood of Erbil, “the ringing of church bells calling people to prayer and Mass fills us with joy. Here, you truly sense the love, faith, and deep attachment to the Church.”

Although the Chaldean Church is in full communion with Rome, its liturgy is distinct from the Latin rite. For McKenna, attending Chaldean liturgies has been an unforgettable experience. 

“It was extraordinary to pray in the very language spoken by Christ and to witness a liturgy that traces back to the earliest centuries of Christianity,” he explained.

Now in its fourth year, the St. Thomas Mission continues to serve the schools of the Erbil Archdiocese. For McKenna, the past three years of service have been a treasure, an experience he now carries with him as he begins graduate studies in law at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. He said he hopes to return to Iraq one day. 

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

St. John Henry Newman near the end of his life, in 1887. / Credit: Babouba, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Vatican City, Sep 28, 2025 / 06:25 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV announced on Sunday that he will proclaim St. John Henry Newman a doctor of the Church on Nov. 1, the solemnity of All Saints.

“I will confer the title of doctor of the Church on St. John Henry Newman, who gave a decisive contribution to the renewal of theology and to understanding Christian doctrine in its development, in the context of the Jubilee of the World of Education,” the pope said after celebrating Mass for the Jubilee of Catechists in St. Peter’s Square.

With the proclamation, Newman will become the 38th doctor of the Church, joining a select group of saints recognized for their enduring contribution to Catholic theology and spirituality. He is especially noted for his insights on the development of doctrine and the role of conscience.

A 19th-century English theologian, Newman was first a renowned Anglican priest before entering the Catholic Church in 1845 under the guidance of Blessed Dominic Barberi. Ordained a Catholic priest two years later, he founded the Oratory of St. Philip Neri in England and was created a cardinal by Pope Leo XIII in 1879.

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

“Now people need not go as far away as Spain to see this beautiful thing,” said Christendom College President Emeritus Timothy O’Donnell of the school chapel’s monumental thurible. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Christendom College

Ann Arbor, Michigan, Sep 28, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

A tradition dating from the 11th century has been brought to Christendom College in Front Royal, Virginia, extending an enduring symbol of faith and pilgrimage. A jumbo-sized thurible, commissioned by the college and made in Spain, now embellishes the college’s Christ the King chapel.

The connections between Christendom College and the Catholic culture of Spain date back to even before the college’s founding in 1977. Its first president and co-founder, Warren Carroll, took students to Spain on several visits to learn Spain’s history and experience life at El Escorial monastery near Madrid.

Among other works, Carroll, a historian, authored “Isabel of Spain: The Catholic Queen” and “The Last Crusade: Spain 1936” with an interest in defending Catholic faith and culture, said Timothy O’Donnell, the college’s president emeritus, in an interview with CNA.

Believed to be one of the largest thuribles or censers in the world, the famed Botafumeiro is a giant thurible used at the Santiago de Compostela Cathedral in northern Spain, which has been a pilgrimage destination for centuries, rivaled only by Rome and Jerusalem.

According to tradition, it is the burial place of St. James the Greater, who evangelized the Iberian Peninsula. In a centuries-old tradition, the massive censer, which weighs hundreds of pounds, is swung from ropes when pulled by a team of eight men at the transept of the historic church on feast days. It weighs more than 176 pounds and is over 6 feet tall.

O’Donnell recalled that St. John Paul II said in a homily in 1982, as the first pilgrim pope to Santiago: “This place, so dear to Galicians and Spaniards alike, has in the past been a point of attraction and convergence for Europe and all of Christendom.”

According to O’Donnell: “I was so moved by that because that is the name of our college. So, on certain anniversaries, we would take pilgrimages to Santiago.”

Seeing the giant thurible there ultimately gave him the idea to reproduce such a symbol of faith. “I thought it would be awesome to have something like this in the new chapel.” He turned to Heritage Liturgical, which designed and realized the project.

“Now people need not go as far away as Spain to see this beautiful thing and incense going up to heaven like the prayers of the faithful and angels going to God on high,” he said. In a tradition dating back to the Old Testament, costly incense was a sacrifice; after the coming of Christ, it joins our prayers with his perfect prayer and sacrifice.

Instead of producing an exact reproduction of the Botafumeiro in Spain, Heritage Liturgical executed a censer that echoes the design of the chapel. Enzo Selvaggi, principal and creative director of Heritage Liturgical, told CNA that Christendom’s monumental thurible was “designed in a cogent and well-defined Gothic Revival mode to fit the architecture of the college’s Chapel of Christ the King.”

Emilio León, a silversmith of Córdoba, Spain, was selected for the project and helped restore the original Botafumeiro. Starting in 2021, León sculpted and chiseled for a year and a half to complete the work, which is silver-plated brass.

In an email to CNA, León wrote: “I incorporated my spiritual and religious values, just as I do in all my work, giving my best effort, knowing that it is for the glory of God.” León belongs to a royal fraternity that preserves Catholic traditions such as Holy Week processions and the dignity of sacred spaces.

León is also working on other projects for Heritage Liturgical to be installed in the U.S. For Catholics in Spain, he continued, the Botafumeiro represents “the grandeur of Christ the King and the apostle James.”

Christendom’s thurible is normally displayed near the image of the Virgin Mary in the chapel. On feast days of the Church, it is brought near the central altar where it is hoisted on chains and swung by senior students, much in the tradition of Spain. The next feast day for swinging the grand censer will be the solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, on Nov. 23.

Selvaggi told CNA that in works produced by Heritage Liturgical, the Catholic principle of sacramentality applies at their conception so that designers and artists use matter, as do theologians, to “make a spiritual reality encounterable in the world.”

Both Selvaggi and León are working on other projects destined for the U.S., including helping to restore churches in Nebraska and Georgia, and designing mosaics for churches in Wisconsin. The message from the company affirmed that the new thurible at Christendom College is “captivating not only because of its size and beauty, but more importantly, because it reveals something that already exists: the love of God that causes us to send our prayers rising up to God.”

null / Credit: Sora Shimazaki/Pexels

CNA Staff, Sep 27, 2025 / 15:15 pm (CNA).

The New York Supreme Court has tossed out a lawsuit against the Diocese of Buffalo challenging a diocesan plan requiring payments to help settle the diocese’s abuse settlement.

Parishioners suing the diocese had won a reprieve in July when the state Supreme Court instituted a temporary halt on the payments.

The parishioners had argued that the diocese should await the Vatican’s ruling on a diocesan merger plan before requiring the parishes to pay the highest-level payment rate into the settlement.

But Judge John Delmonte, who had issued the injunction in July, said in his Sept. 26 ruling that the issue turned on whether the Supreme Court “has any measure of jurisdiction” to adjudicate the dispute.

“It has been repeatedly and consistently stated that the courts of this state ‘adhere to the long-recognized and sensible prohibition against court involvement in the governance and administration of a hierarchal church,’” he wrote.

The Buffalo Diocese told media in a statement that it was “pleased” with Delmonte’s ruling that the diocese “maintains the authority for decisions that clearly involve matters specific to the operations of parishes” in the diocese itself.

The advocacy group Save Our Buffalo Churches said in a statement that the plaintiffs in the suit “will be meeting with their attorneys” in the wake of the ruling.

The group said the lawsuit could move to an appellate court.

The Diocese of Buffalo, which filed for bankruptcy in 2020 amid a large number of abuse claims, announced earlier this year that its parishes would be required to pay up to 80% of their “unrestricted cash” to help fund the settlement for abuse victims.

Closing or merging parishes are required to pay the top-tier 80% rate, the diocese said. Bishop Michael Fisher called the required contributions “necessary to bring to a close this painful chapter of our diocese and achieve a level of restitution that is owed” to victims of sexual abuse.

Father Marco Billeri with Pope Leo XIV. / Credit: Diocese of San Miniato

Vatican City, Sep 27, 2025 / 13:30 pm (CNA).

Bishop Giovanni Paccosi of San Miniato announced Sept. 27 that Pope Leo XIV has named Father Marco Billeri, a priest of the Italian diocese, as his second personal secretary.

Billeri, ordained in 2016, continued his studies in Rome where he earned a doctorate in canon law. He has served as a judge at the Ecclesiastical Tribunal of Tuscany, defender of the bond at the diocesan tribunals of San Miniato and Volterra, episcopal master of ceremonies, and secretary of the presbyteral council. Until now he has been associate pastor of the Parish of Sts. Stephen and Martin in San Miniato Basso.

In a statement, Paccosi called the appointment “a great gift” for the diocese. He recalled receiving a personal phone call from the pope the previous week asking his consent to release Billeri for this new mission.

“I felt both joy and a sense of vertigo, thinking that Father Marco will now be at the heart of the Church of Christ,” the bishop said. He invited the faithful to pray for Billeri and for the diocese, noting that closer ties with the pope and the universal Church should strengthen awareness of their own mission.

Billeri will work alongside the pope’s first personal secretary, Peruvian Father Edgard Iván Rimaycuna Inga.

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