Posted on 09/3/2025 09:15 AM (CNA Daily News)
St. Mary's Cathedral in Valencia, Spain. / Credit: Pere López, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Madrid, Spain, Sep 3, 2025 / 05:15 am (CNA).
The Observatory for Religious Freedom and Conscience (OLRC by its Spanish acronym) in Spain decried that it was "a black August" with seven cases of vandalism and desecration against Catholic churches reported in recent weeks.
On Aug. 11, black paint was spilled on a set of steps at St. Catherine parish in the town of Rute in Cordoba province, just days before the patron saint's feast day.
The following day, the perpetual adoration chapel at St. Martin parish in Valencia was desecrated when a person who identifies as "trans" burst in the chapel shouting in front of the altar and then "broke the monstrance, while insulting the faithful," according to the OLRC.
On Aug 13, Our Lady of Mount Carmel parish in Palma de Mallorca was desecrated with offensive graffiti accusing the Catholic Church of corruption.
A day later, a sacristan and several parishioners were attacked in the Valencia cathedral by an apparently intoxicated man during the celebration of the Eucharist.
On Aug. 17, a man broke into St. James the Apostle parish in Albuñol in Granada province, where he attacked several statues before starting a fire that took firefighters two hours to extinguish.
On Aug. 24, the Assumption of Our Lady in Yeles in Toledo province was vandalized by a woman apparently suffering from psychiatric problems who attacked several statues such as the Child of Remedies and the Virgin of Solitude, causing extensive damage.
Last Sunday, Aug. 31, two activists from the environmental group Futuro Vegetal (Plant Future) threw dye at the façade of the Sagrada Familia Basilica in Barcelona in an attempt to protest the large number of forest fires in Spain in recent weeks that the group blamed on ranching activities.
For the OLRC, these events "confirm the rise of Christianophobia and the vulnerability of religious freedom in our country" and warned against such events becoming normalized.
The organization’s president, María García, demanded "a firm response” from the authorities “and resources for the protection of the religious heritage" of the country.
"August has been a dark month for religious freedom in our country. The succession of attacks on churches and places of worship demonstrates that violence and hatred against Christians are far from isolated cases," García pointed out in a statement, emphasizing that "according to data from the Reports on Attacks on Religious Freedom in Spain, Christians are always the most attacked religion."
The OLRC warned that many parish priests are reporting that they are "having to install cameras or close churches due to the increase in vandalism and anti-Christian hatred" and called on the authorities "for greater protection for churches."
"These events represent a worrying trend of religious intolerance. We demand that agencies of the central government and municipalities develop specific prevention plans against attacks on churches and rigorous application of the penal code against hate crimes and crimes that deride religious sentiments," García emphasized.
The Observatory for Religious Freedom urged civil society and institutions not to look the other way and to report any act of religious hatred. "Only by bringing these attacks out in the open and reacting firmly can we guarantee coexistence and respect for the freedom of all," García emphasized.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Posted on 09/3/2025 08:30 AM (CNA Daily News)
Blessed Carlo Acutis. / Credit: Diocese of Assisi
CNA Staff, Sep 3, 2025 / 04:30 am (CNA).
It’s official! On Sept. 7, Pope Leo XIV will canonize Blessed Carlo Acutis together with Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati as the first new saints of his pontificate. A gamer and computer coder who loved the Eucharist, Carlo Acutis will be the first millennial Catholic saint.
He was born in London in 1991
Carlo Acutis was born May 3, 1991, in London, where his father was working. Just a few months later, he moved with his parents, Andrea Acutis and Antonia Salzano, to Milan, Italy.
He was diagnosed with leukemia
Carlo was diagnosed with leukemia as a teenager. Before his death in 2006, he offered his sufferings for Pope Benedict XVI and for the Church, saying: “I offer all of my suffering to the Lord for the pope and for the Church in order not to go to purgatory but to go straight to heaven.”
Carlo loved God and the Eucharist from a young age
From a young age, Carlo had a special love for God, even though his parents weren’t especially devout. Antonia Salzano, his mom, said that before Carlo, she went to Mass only for her First Communion, her confirmation, and her wedding.
As a young child, Carlo loved to pray the rosary. After he made his First Communion, he went to Mass as often as possible at the parish across from his elementary school. Carlo’s love for the Eucharist also inspired a deep conversion for his mother. According to the postulator promoting his cause for sainthood, he “managed to drag his relatives, his parents to Mass every day. It was not the other way around; it was not his parents bringing the little boy to Mass, but it was he who managed to get himself to Mass and to convince others to receive Communion daily.”
Salzano spoke to “EWTN News Nightly” in October 2023 about her son’s devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. She said: “He used to say, ‘There are queues in front of a concert, in front of a football match, but I don’t see these queues in front of the Blessed Sacrament’ ... So, for him the Eucharist was the center of his life.”
His witness of faith led to conversions
Carlo’s witness of faith as a child led adults to convert and be baptized. Rajesh Mohur, who worked for the Acutis family as an au pair when Carlo was young, converted from Hinduism to Catholicism because of Carlo’s witness. Carlo taught Mohur how to pray the rosary and told him about the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Mohur said that one of the things that most impressed him as a non-Christian was the witness of Carlo’s love and concern for the poor — how he interacted with the homeless man who would sit at the entrance of the church and would bring Tupperware dishes filled with food out to people living on the streets.
He defended Church teaching
Carlo was not afraid to defend Church teaching, even in situations when his classmates disagreed with him. Many of Carlo’s high school classmates remember Carlo giving a passionate defense for the protection of life from the moment of conception when there was a classroom debate about abortion.
He stood up for the vulnerable
Carlo was a faithful friend. He was known for standing up for kids at school who got bullied, especially kids with disabilities. When a friend’s parents were getting a divorce, Carlo made a special effort to include his friend in the Acutis’ family life. With his friends, he spoke about the importance of going to Mass and confession, human dignity, and chastity.
Carlo was a computer whiz
Carlo was fascinated with computer coding and taught himself some of the basic coding languages, including C and C++. He used his computer skills and internet savvy to help his family put together an exhibition on Eucharistic miracles that has gone on to be displayed at thousands of parishes on five continents. His spiritual director has attested that Carlo was personally convinced that the scientific evidence from Eucharistic miracles would help people to realize that Jesus is really present in the Eucharist and come back to Mass.
He balanced fun with faith
Carlo loved playing video games. His mother recalls that he liked the Nintendo Game Boy and GameCube as well as PlayStation and Xbox. He had conversations with his gaming buddies about the importance of going to Mass and confession and limited his video game playing to no more than two hours per week. Carlo also liked Spider-Man and Pokémon.
Carlo died in 2006 and was beatified in 2020
Carlo died on Oct. 12, 2006, and was buried in Assisi. Initially, there were reports that Carlo’s body was found to be incorrupt, but the bishop of Assisi clarified before his beatification that his body was not incorrupt. His body lies in repose in a glass tomb in Assisi where he can be seen in jeans and a pair of Nike sneakers. Thousands came to pray at his tomb at the time of his beatification in October 2020.
📹VIDEO | Highlights of the Beatification Mass of Carlo Acutis celebrated in Assisi, Italy. His parents and siblings attended the ceremony. His heart was presented as a relic. Blessed #CarloAcutis, pray for us! pic.twitter.com/GcZog96vyZ
— EWTN News (@EWTNews) October 10, 2020
The miracles attributed to Carlo's intercession
Pope Francis recognized a second miracle attributed to Carlo’s intercession in a decree on May 23, 2024. The miracle involved the healing of a 21-year-old girl from Costa Rica named Valeria Valverde, who was near death after seriously injuring her head in a bicycle accident while studying in Florence in 2022. The first miracle that led to his beatification involved the healing of a three-year-old boy in Brazil in 2013 who had been diagnosed with a malformation of his pancreas since birth.
His tomb has become a pilgrimage site
Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from around the world have visited Carlo's tomb since his canonization was announced. His remains rest in the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore at the Sanctuary of Spogliazione (or of the Stripping) in Assisi, the home of St. Francis and St. Clare.
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How to watch his canonization
The canonization of Carlo Acutis, along with Pier Giorgio Frassati, will air live on EWTN at 3 a.m. ET on Sunday, Sept. 7 and the encore presentation will be at 3 p.m. ET on the same day. Pope Leo XIV will preside over the Mass and canonizations of the two young Blesseds from St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
This article was originally published Oct. 20, 2020, and was updated Sept. 2, 2025.
Posted on 09/3/2025 08:05 AM (CNA Daily News)
The play, “Highway to Heaven,” was performed Oct. 12, 2024, the feast day of Blessed Carlo Acutis. Written and directed by Anna Harrison of Sydney Catholic Youth, it featured children ages 7 to 15 dramatizing the life of the Italian teenager known for his love of the Eucharist and his computer skills. / Credit: Courtesy of St. Joachim parish, Sydney, Australia
Rome Newsroom, Sep 3, 2025 / 04:05 am (CNA).
Children from a Catholic parish in Sydney, Australia, put together an original play about the life of Blessed Carlo Acutis that has inspired Eucharistic devotion among the kids and families in the community.
Father Epeli Qimaqima, parish priest of St. Joachim Parish, told CNA that the play sparked lasting spiritual transformation and “brought the parish together in more ways than one.”
“It was not writing a play for the sake of having a play,” Qimaqima said. “But I had been pondering as parish priest how we can catechize the family in this day and age.”
The play, “Highway to Heaven,” was performed Oct. 12, 2024, the feast day of Blessed Carlo Acutis. Written and directed by Anna Harrison of Sydney Catholic Youth, it featured children ages 7 to 15 dramatizing the life of the Italian teenager known for his love of the Eucharist and his computer skills.
“My initial idea was to have the play of the story of Fatima,” Qimaqima said. “But the children … in the parish kept on asking me about Carlo Acutis. … They felt so familiar with him because of his age, and they knew everything about him.”
The children said they connected with Acutis because he was “so like them in every way,” enjoying soccer, swimming, and video games. But what struck them most was his devotion to the Eucharist.
“Because of our Adoration Chapel, I think they could see a link,” Qimaqima said.
The production engaged children in every aspect — from acting and set changes to managing props. And the impact went far beyond the performance.
In the months following the play, Qimaqima noticed children and their parents spending time in the parish’s perpetual adoration chapel.
“They’ve grown together learning about Carlo Acutis and his life,” he said.
One young participant now stops to pray in the chapel on his way home from school. Parents also began attending weekday Masses and meeting each other outside of church.
“I hear that they are meeting outside of the parish to have coffee, talk about what they’re going through,” Qimaqima said. “I think some of the parents grew to really discover new things about their own children during the rehearsals. Because many of them told me, ‘I never knew my child could do this.’”
Qimaqima, a former primary school teacher from Fiji, said the initiative was born from his desire to reach families.
“I went back to the Gospels and I rediscovered that our Lord’s way of teaching was through storytelling, the parables,” he said. “And so I thought maybe we could use theater as a way of storytelling to catechize the family, and children and their parents, through the dramatization of the lives of the saints.”
The day of the play included a parish-wide celebration, Mass, and a barbecue.
“We had a big day here for the children finishing with Mass at the end of the day and then a barbecue and ice cream, lots of ice cream,” Qimaqima said. “It was a lot of fun for the adults to see children so happy.”
Fourteen children and their parents later joined Qimaqima and other parishioners on a pilgrimage to Italy for Acutis’ canonization Mass, originally scheduled for April.
The group had just set foot in St. Peter’s Square when they learned Pope Francis had died and the canonization was postponed.
“We didn’t believe it,” said 13-year-old Christopher La Rosa, who portrayed Acutis in the play. “We had to wait until the death bell had rung and then we believed it.”
Instead of a canonization, the group attended the pope’s funeral.
“I’ve never been to that many funerals before, but to go to a pope’s funeral, it was very, very crowded but it was crazy because I actually got to see the pope and his body. It was very, very cool,” 9-year-old Francesca Manu told CNA in Rome.
Thirteen-year-old Sophie Tawadros added, “I’m really grateful that we got the opportunity to go to the pope’s funeral and really say goodbye because he has been the pope for as long as I have been alive, I think, and he is the only pope that I have ever known.”
The change of plans made our pilgrimage experience a much deeper encounter with God,” Qimaqima said.
The group also visited Assisi to pray at Acutis’ tomb.
“I always wanted to see his body because he is one of our family’s favorite saints,” 11-year-old Antonia Mallet said.
“He has taught us that [the Eucharist] is actually Jesus’ body, not just a piece of plain bread, that it actually does turn into Jesus’ body,” she added.
Acutis “really inspires me how to offer up suffering for the pope’s intentions and for all of the holy souls in purgatory,” Mallet said.
La Rosa said that at Acutis’ tomb, he asked the young Blessed to intercede “to bring me closer to God and to protect me from all worldly distractions and to focus on heavenly ones.”
“He has inspired me to share the Gospel with more people,” he added.
Now back in Australia, the parish plans to tune into a livestream of the canonization on Sunday, Sept. 7, and has invited the wider community to join the celebration.
Last week, St. Joachim’s hosted 780 children from 11 Catholic schools for a special jubilee celebration in honor of Acutis. The students walked nearly 30 minutes in pilgrimage from a nearby park to the church, where they joined a concert.
The cast is now rehearsing “Highway to Heaven “again for two October performances, marking Acutis’ first feast day as a canonized saint.
Qimaqima said the ripple effects are visible throughout the community. “They’re telling their friends in school about what they’re doing at church. … so they bring their friends from school. They bring their parents along with them to come to church,” he said.
Lasting friendships have also formed among the children, many of whom attend different schools.
“They leave the phone aside … They’re sitting in a circle, laughing, telling stories,” Qimaqima said. “It’s marvelous to see what the Lord is doing in the lives of the people that I’m called to serve in this parish.”
Posted on 09/3/2025 08:00 AM (CNA - Saint of the Day)
Saint Gregory the Great
Feast date: Sep 03
St. Gregory the Great, a central figure of the medieval western Church and one of the most admired Popes in history, is commemorated in the Ordinary Form of the Roman Catholic liturgy today, September 3.
Born near the middle of the sixth century into a noble Roman family, Gregory received a classical education in liberal arts and the law. He also had strong religious formation from his devout family, particularly from his mother, Silvia, also a canonized saint. By around age 30, Gregory had
advanced to high political office in Rome, during what was nevertheless a period of marked decline for the city.
Some time after becoming the prefect of the former imperial capital, Gregory chose to leave the civil administration to become a monk during the rise of the Benedictine order. In reality, however, the new monk's great career in public life was yet to come.
After three years of strict monastic life, he was called personally by the Pope to assume the office of a deacon in Rome. From Rome, he was dispatched to Constantinople, to seek aid from the emperor for Rome's civic troubles, and to aid in resolving the Eastern church's theological controversies. He returned to Rome in 586, after six years of service as the Papal representative to the eastern Church and empire.
Rome faced a series of disasters caused by flooding in 589, followed by the death of Pope Pelagius II the next year. Gregory, then serving as abbot in a monastery, reluctantly accepted his election to replace him as the Bishop of Rome.
Despite this initial reluctance, however, Pope Gregory began working tirelessly to reform and solidify the Roman liturgy, the disciplines of the Church, the military and economic security of Rome, and the Church's spreading influence in western Europe.
As Pope, Gregory brought his political experience at Rome and Constantinople to bear, in the task of preventing the Catholic Church from becoming subservient to any of the various groups struggling for control of the former imperial capital. As the former abbot of a monastery, he strongly supported the Benedictine movement as a bedrock of the western Church. He sent missionaries to England, and is given much of the credit for the nation's conversion.
In undertaking these works, Pope Gregory saw himself as the “servant of the servants of God.” He was the first of the Bishops of Rome to popularize the now-traditional Papal title, which referred to Christ's command that those in the highest position of leadership should be “the last of all and the servant of all.”
Even as he undertook to consolidate Papal power and shore up the crumbling Roman west, St. Gregory the Great maintained a humble sense of his mission as a servant and pastor of souls, from the time of his election until his death in 604.
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Posted on 09/3/2025 03:04 AM ()
Pope Leo XIV launches an appeal to the international community to provide humanitarian aid for the suffering people in war-ravaged Sudan, and asks for prayers for those affected by devastating mudslides in the country’s Darfur region.
Posted on 09/3/2025 02:25 AM ()
At the weekly General Audience, Pope Leo XIV reflects on Jesus’ final words on the Cross, and recalls that human fragility “is a bridge towards heaven.”
