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ACI MENA, Jun 24, 2025 / 14:17 pm (CNA).

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, in an exclusive interview with ACI MENA, CNA’s Arabic-language news partner, emphasized that the Catholic Church in the Holy Land is “more active than people might think,” noting that many of its initiatives and efforts take place away from the spotlight “so that we can be more effective.”

His remarks came in response to the recent escalation of violence between Iran and Israel.

The cardinal also stressed the importance of openness. “The Church must remain open and accessible to all. This is absolutely essential,” he said. “Everyone must be able to reach us; we must be a point of connection for everyone.”

Commenting on the region’s complex political landscape, the cardinal sent a clear message to political leaders: “The path forward does not lie in military action but in dreaming of the future and building hope for it,” he said. “Force, violence, and war do not build anything. They destroy people, land, relationships, and wipe out hope in the future.”

As regional tensions escalate, the cardinal warned that the suffering in the Holy Land, especially in Gaza and the West Bank, risks being forgotten amid the noise of larger global crises. “We’ve been speaking out. Even yesterday, the pope said this war is making us forget about Gaza’s tragedy and that of the West Bank.”

“We must keep speaking, writing, and maintaining ties with churches around the world to remind them that the situation here is extremely complex and that we cannot forget the weakest and the poorest,” he said.

Addressing the daily challenges in the Holy Land, Pizzaballa highlighted the growing obstacles Christian families face in reaching their churches due to military checkpoints and repeated closures, which make pastoral activities nearly impossible.

“The first obstacle, above all else, is the state of emergency. Transportation has become a serious issue — no one knows when roads will be open or closed,” he said. With a sense of sadness, he added: “We invested so much effort and money to send our youth to Rome for the jubilee, and now everything has been frozen, suspended, and canceled.”

Despite these challenges, the cardinal affirmed the Church’s ongoing humanitarian work in both the West Bank and Gaza. “We’ve created hundreds of job opportunities, and we’re distributing food vouchers and aid. We’re present in a strong way, even in Gaza; we try to get in the essentials, despite how difficult it is,” he said.

When asked how, as patriarch of Jerusalem, he personally continues to cope with the crisis, Pizzaballa replied: “Most of the time lately, I feel helpless. I want to do so much, to write, to visit, to be present, but not everything is possible.” 

He continued: “Our primary concern is our community in Gaza: to support them, to be present for them, to not abandon them. This is of utmost importance.” 

Pizzaballa said the Christians in Gaza “have become a symbol of our Christian community.” 

“So too is the unity of the Church,” he said. “These geographic divisions, the separation, the barriers, they isolate us. So how can we preserve connection and unity? Because without unity, there is no true sense of belonging.”

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

Vatican City, Jun 24, 2025 / 13:47 pm (CNA).

More than 2,500 seminarians from 57 countries converged on Rome this week to pray at the tomb of St. Peter, receive a blessing from Pope Leo XIV, and celebrate their vocations in the Jubilee of Seminarians. 

“Thank you for courageously accepting the Lord’s invitation to follow him, to be disciples, to enter the seminary. You have to be courageous and not be afraid,” Pope Leo XIV told the young men gathered in St. Peter’s Basilica on June 24. 

“As Christ loved with the heart of man, you are called to love with the heart of Christ!” the pope said in his catechesis to the seminarians, urging them to “love with the heart of Jesus.” 

Over two days, the jubilee pilgrims prayed the rosary together at the tomb of St. Paul, passed through the Holy Doors of the basilicas in Rome, and knelt before the Eucharist in adoration. Among them were seminarians from Albania to Argentina, India to Italy, and the United States to Ukraine — each carrying his own story of how God called him to the priesthood. 

Here are nine seminarians who shared how they heard the call to the priesthood: 

Thomas Hammen, 28, Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee, Florida 

“I think a key message is that we’re made to give ourselves away in love, while the culture says to only live for yourself… In my college years specifically, I experienced having everything the world told me that would make me happy and like Pope Leo has been saying over and over again, quoting St. Augustine, ‘my heart was restless.’

“Thankfully at Florida State University, I had an awesome friend who invited me on a retreat, and it was on that retreat where there was Eucharistic adoration that I heard the truth that my heart is made for God and when I live for him I come fully alive and I’m able to step into the mission that he has for me. 

“I’d say my vocation is a result of God showing me mercy … and from knowing that I’m loved, that comes a great conviction that I’m chosen for something great and that’s really the source of my entire vocation to be a priest.” 

Hammen hopes to be ordained in 2030. 

Joseph Mlawa, Archdiocese of Agrigento, Italy 

“I’m from Tanzania and now I’m a seminarian in Sicily.” 

“Since I was little, I wanted to become a priest. However, it was a bit difficult because my parents died in 2006. But in 2015, there were missionaries who came to my parish and they helped me to come here to Italy to fulfill the calling of my vocation … They helped to pay my tuition for the nine years.” 

Thomas Stanczak, 35, Archdiocese of Milwaukee

A recent convert from Protestantism, Stanczak said he “read” his way into the Church.  

“I think, as St. John Henry Newman says, ‘to be deep in history is to cease to be Protestant,’” he said. 

“I really felt a very strong call from the Lord during Mass … and when the Lord says for you to do something, it’s hard to say no.” 

In Rome, he has had a “wonderful experience” going to the churches from “the different ancient martyrs and saints that we pray in the Roman canon, seeing Cosmos and Damien’s church, John and Paul, Agnes and Lucy.” 

“All these different wonderful saints have really helped me connect in a special way to the universal Church.”  

He hopes to be ordained in 2030. 

Pietro, 24, Diocese of Locri-Gerace, Calabria, Italy 

“I have to say that like St. Peter, I gave the Lord a lot of resistance. Finally, he somehow ‘pulled me by the ears,’ as we say… Slowly, with his strength, [the Lord] showed me day by day what is the meaning of my vocation, not only my vocation to the priesthood, but also to follow him with all my heart, as far as he will lead me, even to the point of giving my life.”

“There are so many challenges, as there always have been, and so I think if the Church continues to trust and rely on the Holy Spirit, then she will overcome them all.”

Carlos Bárcenas, 26, Archdiocese of Panama

“The restlessness was already within me from my mother’s womb,” Bárcenas joked. 

While studying mechanical engineering, he “realized that [God] was asking me for something more.

“I want to be above all credible, acceptable, and consistent with Christian life,” he said. 

Pepe Zinkewich, 26, Archdiocese of Los Angeles 

“I’m No. 9 of 10 kids. I grew up in a very heavily Catholic family … but I didn’t really feel called to the priesthood until I went away for college. It was there that I got in contact with a very holy priest who loved the Eucharist and would die for it. And that really inspired me to follow Christ and devote myself to his Church.”

“Through prayer and spiritual direction, I found my vocation to the diocesan seminary, and I’ve loved every minute of it. Ever since I entered, I thought the priesthood was going to be quiet and simple, but it has turned out to be the adventure of a lifetime!”

Zinkewich hopes to be ordained in 2029.

José Ylef Felicidad, 22, Diocese of Arecibo, Puerto Rico 

“I felt the call when I was 20 years old. It was through a priest friend of mine. Literally, the Lord was transfigured in him and he told me a phrase that moved me: ‘He needs you.’ His face changed to that of Jesus, but without ceasing to be him. It was extraordinary.” 

Felicidad’s greatest aspiration is to leave behind “everything for the Lord and for the holy people of God.”

William Iván Sánchez Velázquez, Diocese of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico 

“I have been in the seminary for seven years now,” he said. “I met with the bishop and, as soon as I finished school, I went straight to the seminary.”

His hope is to become a priest who resembles “the Good Shepherd” and to be “dedicated to serving my sheep.”

“The Lord himself said: ‘Pray to the Lord of the harvest.’ The Lord provides. I firmly believe that the Lord answers the people who kneel to pray. We should not stop praying for vocations. That’s the only thing to do: pray, pray, pray.”

The Rome Experience 

The American seminarians taking part in the jubilee are in Italy this summer for the “Rome Experience,” a six-week program to study, pray, and walk in the footsteps of the saints. These seminarians are taking classes on Church history and Christian art and architecture while also making pilgrimages to churches and holy sites throughout Rome.

“While I’ve been here, it’s been so amazing to encounter the saints — to visit where they are buried, to hear their stories,” Hammen said. “My hope is to return to the United States and share what I’ve experienced here.” 

The Jubilee of Seminarians is just one of many spiritual celebrations taking place in Rome during the holy year. Beginning Wednesday, the Vatican will also host a Jubilee of Bishops and a Jubilee of Priests.

Vatican City, Jun 24, 2025 / 13:12 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV in a message to the Order of Malta underlined the order’s religious character, stressing that without evangelization, the knights’ service to the poor is merely philanthropy.

“Do not limit yourself to helping the needs of the poor, but announce to them the love of God with words and testimony. If this were to be lacking, the order would lose its religious character and would be reduced to being an organization with philanthropic purposes,” Leo wrote in a message to the order on the feast of its patron saint, St. John the Baptist.

The pope also met for the first time with the order’s grand master, Fra’ John Dunlap, at the Vatican on June 23.

In his June 24 message, Leo pointed multiple times to the order’s important dual purpose of “tuitio fidei and obsequium pauperum.” (Latin for “protection of faith” and “service to the poor.”)

The Sovereign Military Order of Malta is both a lay religious order of the Catholic Church and a sovereign state subject to international law.

The order adopted a new constitution in 2022, after a long reform process, initiated by Pope Francis in 2017 and fraught by concerns of threat to the group’s sovereignty.

Pope Leo addressed the Order of Malta’s “path of renewal,” stressing that it “cannot be simply institutional, normative: It must first of all be interior, spiritual, because this gives meaning to changes in the rules.”

He supported changes to the order’s constitutional charter and law as “necessary, as several things needed to be clarified, especially the nature of the religious order.”

The Holy Father’s message also talked about the means — economic and personnel that the order relies on in order to carry out its charitable work — and the importance of these aligning with the group’s mission.

“To achieve a good goal the means must be good; but in this field temptation can easily present itself under the guise of good, as an illusion of being able to achieve the good goals that one sets out with means that could later prove not to be in accordance with the will of God,” he said.

The order’s international importance and position as a sovereign body, Leo continued, must never be a pretext for succumbing to temptations to worldliness.

The Order of Malta’s overhaul was also marked by years of changing leadership, beginning with the dismissal of Grand Chancellor Albrecht Freiherr von Boeselager in December 2017.

The grand chancellor’s dismissal followed revelations that the order’s charitable branch, under Boeselager’s leadership, had been involved in distributing condoms in Burma to prevent HIV. The order said the reasons for Boeselager’s dismissal was “much more complex than just the point on contraception,” and one factor was the concealment of “severe problems” within the order during his tenure.

The grand chancellor is one of four high offices — grand commander, grand chancellor, grand hospitaller, and receiver of the common treasure. These positions, which hold five-year terms, make up part of the government of the order, together with councilors of the Sovereign Council, and the grand master, who is elected for 10 years.

Much of the leadership was renewed during elections held in an extraordinary chapter general convened by Pope Francis in January 2023.

Dunlap, a Canadian lawyer who was elected prince and 81st grand master of the Order of Malta in May 2023, had led the order as lieutenant grand master since the year prior when he was appointed by Pope Francis following the sudden death of his predecessor, Fra’ Marco Luzzago.

The Order of Malta had not had a grand master since the death in 2020 of Fra’ Giacomo dalla Torre del Tempio di Sanguinetto.

CNA Staff, Jun 24, 2025 / 12:37 pm (CNA).

The Supreme Court this week said it will decide whether prisoners can sue individual prison workers — rather than merely the government itself — over violations of a key U.S. religious liberty law.

The high court on Monday granted certiorari in the case Landor v. Louisiana Department of Corrections and Public Safety. Oral arguments for the case are expected to take place this fall. 

The case concerns Damon Landor, a Rastafarian who as part of his religious belief took the “Nazarite Vow” to let his hair grow out. While incarcerated at the Raymond Laborde Correctional Center in Cottonport, Louisiana, a guard shaved Landor’s head, cutting off nearly two decades’ worth of hair. 

Landor sued the state government under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, a law that the U.S. Department of Justice says requires states to “not place arbitrary or unnecessary restrictions on religious practice.” 

Notably, Landor also sued the facility’s warden, Marcus Myers, in the latter’s individual capacity as well as Louisiana Department of Corrections Secretary James LeBlanc.

Both a district court and the U.S Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit dismissed the personal lawsuits, citing precedent barring such actions. Individuals “cannot seek money damages from officials in their individual capacities,” the appeals court ruled.

The Supreme Court’s ruling could either affirm the lower court rulings or explicitly expand the religious freedom law to allow individual lawsuits.

In May, the federal government filed an amicus brief in support of Landor, citing earlier Supreme Court decisions that suggested the law allows for individual lawsuits. 

The issue is “undeniably important,” the government said in its filing, arguing that the religious liberty law was meant to be “broadly interpreted to protect religious exercise to the fullest extent allowed.”

In addition to its protections for prisoners, the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act — passed in 2000 — protects “individuals, houses of worship, and other religious institutions from discrimination in zoning and landmarking laws,” according to the Department of Justice. 

The measure “prohibits zoning and landmarking laws” that “substantially burden the religious exercise of churches or other religious assemblies or institutions.”

Any burdens in zoning laws should be accomplished with “the least restrictive means of furthering a compelling governmental interest,” the government said.

Rome Newsroom, Jun 24, 2025 / 11:13 am (CNA).

St. John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, is one of only three people in history — after Jesus and Mary — whose birthday is celebrated in the Church’s liturgy.

In fact, the Nativity of St. John the Baptist on June 24 is a solemnity, meaning it is the highest form of Catholic feast day. And because it falls exactly six months before the solemnity of the Nativity of Our Lord, it is sometimes known as “summer Christmas.”

“The Church observes the birth of John as in some way sacred; and you will not find any other of the great men of old whose birth we celebrate officially. We celebrate John’s, as we celebrate Christ’s,” St. Augustine of Hippo said in his sermon 293. 

In the Mass for the solemnity, the priest prays to God in the preface that in Christ’s precursor, “St. John the Baptist, we praise your great glory, for you consecrated him for a singular honor among those born of women.”

“His birth brought great rejoicing; even in the womb he leapt for joy at the coming of human salvation. He alone of all the prophets pointed out the Lamb of redemption,” the prayer continues. “And to make holy the flowing waters, he baptized the very author of baptism and was privileged to bear him supreme witness by the shedding of his blood.”

St. Augustine explained that “John, it seems, has been inserted as a kind of boundary between the two Testaments, the Old and the New. That he is somehow or other a boundary is something that the Lord himself indicates when he says, ‘The Law and the prophets were until John.’ So he represents the old and heralds the new. Because he represents the old, he is born of an elderly couple; because he represents the new, he is revealed as a prophet in his mother’s womb.”

John’s connection to Christ

Father Mauro Gagliardi, a theologian and liturgist who teaches in Rome, wrote in a 2009 article on Zenit that it is important to emphasize John the Baptist’s role as “indicator.” John is “a prophet who refers back to Christ.”

The liturgy, Gagliardi said, does the same thing, and thus the June 24 solemnity “reminds us of this: The Christian liturgy is a powerful indicator of Christ to the peoples, like [John] the Baptist.”

John the Baptist’s feast day also has cosmic connections, the theologian pointed out. The fact that June 24 is close to the summer solstice demonstrates the fulfillment of the prophecy in John 3:30 that “he must increase; I must decrease,” since after John’s birthday the days get shorter, or “decrease,” while after Jesus’ birthday on Dec. 25, the days get longer, or “increase.”

“This interweaving between a figure from the history of salvation — John — and the cosmic rhythms (both guided by the same God) has found a fruitful development in the devotion and liturgy of the Church,” Gagliardi said.

Popular customs of ‘summer Christmas’

The Church’s liturgical commemoration of St. John the Baptist dates back to the fourth century.

Acknowledgement of the saint’s importance can also be noted in his shared patronage, together with St. John the Apostle, of Rome’s Archbasilica of St. John Lateran, which is also the seat of the bishop of Rome — that is, the pope.

The night of June 23 is known in some countries, including Italy, as “St. John’s Eve.” Due to the solemnity’s timing, shortly after the summer solstice, some of the practices connected to the feast have a pagan character, including that some refer to it as “the Night of the Witches.”

Modern-day secular festivities may include concerts and theatrical performances, while Catholics usually celebrate Mass and hold religious processions.

One of the most typical customs related to St. John’s Eve, both secular and religious, is the bonfire, called in some countries “St. John’s Fires,” which are lit in honor of the saint who “was not the light, but came to testify to the light (Jn 1:8).” Fireworks or candle-lit processions can also take the place of bonfires.

In an Angelus message on June 25, 2006, Pope Benedict XVI said the feast of St. John the Baptist “reminds us that our life is entirely and always ‘relative’ to Christ and is fulfilled by accepting him, the Word, the Light, and the Bridegroom, whose voices, lamps, and friends we are.”

“‘He must increase, but I must decrease’ (Jn 3:30): The Baptist’s words are a program for every Christian,” Benedict said.

This story was first published on June 24, 2024, and has been updated.

CNA Deutsch, Jun 24, 2025 / 10:31 am (CNA).

The Archdiocese of Hamburg in Germany has drawn sharp criticism from former Catholic school students and others following the unveiling of a controversial 33-page sexuality education framework that critics say breaks with Catholic teaching on gender and sexual orientation.

The document, titled “Male, Female, Diverse: Framework for Sexual Education at Catholic Schools in the Archdiocese of Hamburg,” is scheduled for implementation across all 15 Catholic school locations in Hamburg beginning with the 2026-2027 school year.

Document demands acceptance

Vicar General Father Sascha-Philipp Geißler, SAC, said during the presentation that the document would not introduce new theology but advocate for “a relationship-ethically based view of love, partnership, marriage, family, and sexuality” while promoting “acceptance of diversity regarding sexual orientations and gender identity.”

The new framework explicitly states that “recognition of different identities and sexual orientations will be actively promoted.”

Under “gender diversity,” the concept encompasses not only traditional male and female identities but also “trans identity, intersexuality, or nonbinary identity.”

Students in upper secondary school will learn about “legal regulations regarding the personal status ‘diverse’ as well as transition.”

As to why these changes are being pushed, Christopher Haep, head of the archdiocese’s education department, said that “perspectives and value systems have changed in recent decades — and therefore we must also be able to provide contemporary answers to children and young people’s questions.”

The controversial German Synodal Way has also promoted gender theory: Delegates in 2023 overwhelmingly voted for a change in Church practices based on transgender ideology.

Alumni articulate ardent opposition

Former students of the Catholic Sophie-Barat-Schule mounted immediate resistance to the proposal, addressing an open letter to responsible officials shortly after the framework’s announcement. The alumni argued that the concept stands “in considerable contradiction to the binding sexual teaching of the Catholic Church.”

Their criticism particularly targets the framework’s demand for “acceptance — not just tolerance — of all sexual orientations and family constellations,” which they argue fundamentally contradicts the Church’s teaching that marriage between a man and a woman represents the only legitimate form of lived sexuality.

The critics also expressed concern about passages describing early childhood sexual experiences, calling such characterizations “highly offensive.”

The Hamburg document contrasts with recent Vatican pronouncements on the topic. Pope Francis repeatedly condemned gender ideology, calling it “the ugliest danger” of our time in March 2024.

Gender ideology, which seeks to blur differences between men and women through movements such as transgenderism, “makes everything the same,” the pontiff said.

In April 2024, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith issued Dignitas Infinita, which condemned gender theory and emphasized that attempts to “obscure reference to the ineliminable sexual difference between man and woman are to be rejected.”

The document stressed that human life, in all its aspects, is a gift from God and should be accepted with gratitude.

In February, the Vatican’s doctrine chief delivered a pointed critique of gender ideology at a theological conference in Germany.

This story was based on a report published by CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner.

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