Posted on 06/26/2025 20:32 PM (CNA Daily News)
Pope Leo XIV addresses participants in a meeting of priests promoted by the Dicastery for the Clergy as part of the Jubilee of Seminarians, Bishops, and Priests on June 26, 2025, in the Auditorium Conciliazione in Rome. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA
Vatican City, Jun 26, 2025 / 16:32 pm (CNA).
As part of the Jubilee of Seminarians, Bishops, and Priests, Pope Leo XIV met June 26 in the Auditorium Conciliazione in Rome with the “joyful priests” responsible for vocations ministry and seminary formation.
The event was organized by the Vatican Dicastery for the Clergy with the theme taken from St. John’s Gospel: “I have called you friends.” Also present was Cardinal Lazzaro You Heung-sik, prefect of the dicastery, whom the pontiff thanked for his “extensive and beautiful” work, which is often carried out “in silence and discretion.”
At the beginning of his address, the Holy Father encouraged the priests to cultivate “creativity, co-responsibility, and communion in the Church, so that what is sown with dedication and generosity in so many communities may become light and encouragement for all.”
Referring to Jesus’ words “I have called you friends” (Jn 15:15), the pope explained that this is “an authentic key to understanding the priestly ministry.”
“The priest, in fact, is a friend of the Lord, called to live with him a personal and trusting relationship, nourished by the Word, the celebration of the sacraments, and daily prayer.”
For Pope Leo XIV, this friendship with Christ “is the spiritual foundation of the ordained ministry, the meaning of our celibacy, and the energy of the ecclesial service to which we dedicate our lives.” This friendship, he emphasized, “sustains us in times of trial and allows us to renew each day the ‘yes’ pronounced at the beginning of our vocation.”
The pontiff then clarified that becoming a friend of Christ “means being formed in relationships, not just in abilities.” He therefore emphasized that “priestly formation cannot be reduced to the acquisition of concepts but is a journey of familiarity with the Lord that engages the whole person — heart, intelligence, freedom — and transforms him into the image of the Good Shepherd.”
“Only those who live in friendship with Christ and are imbued with his Spirit can proclaim with authenticity, console with compassion, and guide with wisdom. This requires attentive listening, meditation, and a rich and orderly interior life,” he added.
The pope also emphasized that fraternity is “an essential aspect of priestly life,” since becoming a friend of Christ “involves living as brothers among priests and among bishops, not as competitors or isolated individuals.”
He thus urged forging strong bonds among priests “as an expression of a synodal Church, in which we grow together by sharing the joys and the painful moments of the ministry.”
For Leo XIV, forming priests who are friends of Christ means “forming men capable of loving, listening, praying, and serving as a community.” He thus reiterated that “it is necessary to pay great attention to the preparation of the formators, since the effectiveness of their work depends above all on the example of life and the communion among them.”
“The very existence of seminaries reminds us that the formation of future ordained ministers cannot happen in isolation,” he emphasized.
Referring to vocations, the pontiff noted that, despite the signs of crisis affecting the life and mission of priests, “God continues to call and remains faithful to his promises,” and Leo therefore called for the creation of appropriate conditions “to hear his voice.”
In this regard, he expressed the importance of creating “environments and forms of youth ministry imbued with the Gospel, where vocations to the total gift of self can emerge and mature. Have the courage to offer powerful and liberating proposals!” he exclaimed.
He also pointed to the challenges of our time: “Many seem to have strayed from the faith, yet deep within many people, especially young people, there is a thirst for the infinite and for salvation. Many feel an absence of God, even though every human being is made for him, and the Father’s plan is to make Christ the heart of the world.”
Given this longing, he encouraged priests to rediscover together “the missionary impetus” to be credible witnesses of the vocation they have received. “When one believes, it shows: The happiness of the minister reflects his encounter with Christ, sustaining him in mission and service.”
He also thanked the priests for their daily dedication, especially in formation centers, on the existential peripheries, and in difficult, sometimes dangerous, places.
“Remembering the priests who have given their lives, even shedding their blood, we renew today our readiness to live, without reservations, an apostolate of compassion and joy,” he said.
“Thank you for what you are. Because you remind us all that being a priest is beautiful, and that every call from the Lord is, above all, a call to his joy. We are not perfect, but we are friends of Christ, brothers and sisters among ourselves, and children of his tender mother, Mary, and that is enough for us,” the Holy Father added.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Posted on 06/26/2025 19:29 PM (CNA Daily News)
Pope Leo XIV addresses members of the Reunion of Aid Agencies for the Oriental Churches (ROACO by its Italian acronym) — the operational arm of the Holy See that provides assistance to the Eastern Churches — on June 26, 2025, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media
Vatican City, Jun 26, 2025 / 15:29 pm (CNA).
Pope Leo XIV on Thursday denounced violations of international and humanitarian law in Gaza and Ukraine, lamenting the “diabolical intensity” of the violent conflicts and criticizing rearmament policies.
In a June 26 address to the Reunion of Aid Agencies for the Oriental Churches (ROACO by its Italian acronym) — the operational arm of the Holy See that provides assistance to the Eastern Churches — the pope lamented the imposition “of the principle of ‘might makes right’” in these territories “all for the sake of legitimizing the pursuit of self-interest.”
“It is troubling to see that the force of international law and humanitarian law seems no longer to be binding, replaced by the alleged right to coerce others. This is unworthy of our humanity, shameful for all mankind and for the leaders of nations,” the pontiff emphasized.
Pope Leo called on the international community to examine the causes of these conflicts. Specifically, he urged them to “identify those that are real and to attempt to resolve them. But also to reject those that are false, the result of emotional manipulation and rhetoric, and to make every effort to bring them to light.”
“People must not die from fake news,” he insisted, without elaborating on what type of information he was referring to.
He then asked: “How can we continue to betray the desire of the world’s peoples for peace with propaganda about weapons buildup, as if military supremacy will resolve problems instead of fueling even greater hatred and desire for revenge?”
Two days after the 32 member states of NATO committed to increase defense spending to 5% of their gross domestic product (GDP) over 10 years, the pope insisted that spending on defense weapons is not the solution to curbing conflicts.
“People are beginning to realize the amount of money that ends up in the pockets of merchants of death; money that could be used to build new hospitals and schools is instead being used to destroy those that already exist!” he exclaimed.
Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, prefect of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches and president of ROACO, as well as representatives of the Catholic agencies that are part of ROACO, participated in the Vatican audience, which followed the aid organization’s 98th assembly held June 24–25. At their assembly they analyzed the situation in the Holy Land (especially in Gaza), Armenia, Syria, Ethiopia, Ukraine, and other areas where the Holy See’s diplomatic action is focused.
In this regard, Leo XIV lamented “the physical absence of those who were to have come from the Holy Land but proved unable to make the journey” because of flight restrictions due to the conflict.
He thanked all of them for the work of hope that ROACO does in these countries, which are “are devastated by wars, plundered by special interests, and covered by a cloud of hatred that renders the air unbreathable and toxic.” The Holy Father criticized the violence of war that is raging “with a diabolical intensity previously unknown.”
He noted that the history of the Eastern Catholic Churches has also been marked by “oppression and misunderstanding within the Catholic community itself, which at times failed to acknowledge and appreciate the value of traditions other than those of the West.”
Leo XIV noted that — in addition to being peacemakers and promoting dialogue — Christians “first and foremost really need to pray” and bear witness.
“It is up to us to make every tragic news story, every newsreel that we see, a cry of intercession before God,” he exhorted.
He also asked Christians to remain faithful to Jesus “without allowing ourselves to end up in the clutches of power.”
The pontiff praised the beauty of Eastern traditions but lamented that in the Catholic Church they are “still largely unknown.”
“Their sense of the sacred, their deep faith, confirmed by suffering, and their spirituality, redolent of the divine mysteries, can benefit the thirst for God, latent yet present in the West,” he added.
The pope therefore said it is necessary to “organize basic courses on the Eastern Churches in seminaries, theological faculties, and Catholic universities.”
“Eastern Catholics today are no longer our distant cousins who celebrate unfamiliar rites but our brothers and sisters who, due to forced migration, are our next-door neighbors,” he said.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Posted on 06/26/2025 18:59 PM (CNA Daily News)
U.S. Supreme Court. / Credit: PT Hamilton/Shutterstock
Boston, Mass., Jun 26, 2025 / 14:59 pm (CNA).
Local Planned Parenthood facilities can’t force state governments to give them Medicaid funds through lawsuits because Congress didn’t create an individual right to the benefits, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Thursday.
The 6-3 decision enables states to cut off public funds to abortion providers — including Medicaid funds that come mostly from the federal government.
The court’s decision in Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic resolves a dispute that began in 2018 after South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, a Republican, issued an executive order cutting off funds to the two facilities Planned Parenthood South Atlantic operates in the state, in Charleston and Columbia. The organization sued and won in U.S. District Court level and at the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.
The high court’s ruling Thursday overturned those lower-court decisions, pleasing pro-life advocates, including Toledo, Ohio, Bishop Daniel Thomas, chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
“South Carolina was right to deny Planned Parenthood taxpayer dollars. A group dedicated to ending children’s lives deserves no public support,” Thomas said in a written statement.
“Abortion is not health care, and lives will be saved because South Carolina has chosen to not fund clinics that pretend it is,” he said. “Publicly funded programs like Medicaid should only support authentic, life-affirming options for mothers and children in need.”
The court’s conservatives and swing votes formed the majority — Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, and Chief Justice John Roberts.
Writing for the majority, Gorsuch said that private parties seeking federal health benefits through a state government can sue for them only when Congress explicitly allows it in legislation by declaring access to the benefits to be a right, which it didn’t do with respect to Medicaid funds. He said the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services can cut off Medicaid funding to a state that the secretary determines isn’t complying with federal rules but that a private party can’t ask a court to force the state to give it federal funds.
“Congress knows how to give a grantee clear and unambiguous notice that, if it accepts federal funds, it may face private suits asserting an individual right to choose a medical provider,” Gorsuch wrote.
He added that Congress has done so in legislation pertaining to nursing homes but not with respect to Medicaid, a federal program administered by the states that provides a mix of federal and state funds to provide health care to poor people.
The three liberal justices — Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, dissented.
Writing for the minority, Jackson said South Carolina is participating in what she called “the project of stymying one of the country’s great civil rights laws” and that the court majority’s decision allows the state to “evade liability for violating the rights of its Medicaid recipients to choose their own doctors.”
Abortion supporters decried the court’s decision.
“The Supreme Court overrode what the Medicaid law requires and every patient wants: the ability to choose their trusted health care provider,” said Nancy Northup, president and chief executive officer of the Center for Reproductive Rights, which supports abortion, in a written statement.
“Right now, Congress is seeking to replicate South Carolina’s ban nationwide, putting politics above patients in making health care decisions,” she said.
Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives have sought to cut off federal funds for Planned Parenthood in a spending measure known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” It passed the House by one vote, 215-214, on May 22. But its chances in the U.S. Senate are unclear — particularly after the nonpartisan Senate parliamentarian ruled Thursday that portions of the bill violate Senate rules.
Erik Baptist, senior counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative legal advocacy organization that opposes abortion, said during an online press conference Thursday that “17 states in the country have taken action to defund Planned Parenthood.”
He said he hopes more states do so and that Congress follows suit.
“What the Medina case today did from the U.S. Supreme Court was liberate the states and allow them to take action to defund Planned Parenthood. So one shoe dropped today. We hope Congress takes the other action with regards to federal funding,” Baptist said.
Posted on 06/26/2025 18:37 PM (Detroit Catholic)
Posted on 06/26/2025 18:35 PM (Detroit Catholic)
Posted on 06/26/2025 17:25 PM (CNA Daily News)
The Texas capitol. / Credit: Ricardo Garza/Shutterstock
CNA Staff, Jun 26, 2025 / 13:25 pm (CNA).
Here’s a roundup of recent pro-life and abortion-related news:
A chorus of pro-life voices is urging the governor of Texas to call legislators to a special session to pass a bill that will help combat abortion pills flowing into the state.
In a letter cosigned by almost 100 Texas politicians and pro-life leaders — including state Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick — Texas Right to Life President John Seago urged Gov. Greg Abbott to “convene a special session” of the Legislature for lawmakers to pass the state Woman and Child Protection Act.
That measure would allow Texans to sue traffickers and distributors of abortion pills and allow women and their families to bring lawsuits in the event that a woman is injured or killed by those pills. It would also authorize “state-led prosecution for abortion pill trafficking.”
The letter states that nearly 20,000 abortion pills are mailed into the state each year. The bill “targets those who promote, manufacture, and distribute these deadly drugs.”
Activists will rally in Washington, D.C., this weekend in support of defunding Planned Parenthood.
Figures including Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkins and activist Riley Gaines will be present at Capitol Hill on June 28 for a combined “diaper drive and rally” in support of defunding the abortion giant of taxpayer funds.
Students for Life said on its website that activists will distribute at least 392,715 diapers to pregnancy help centers and local residents; that number represents all the unborn children killed by Planned Parenthood last year, the group said.
The rally is part of the larger National Celebrate Life Conference taking place in Washington over the weekend.
Large numbers of abortion providers in states that passed abortion bans fled those states in the wake of those laws, new data shows.
A study published this month in JAMA Network Open investigated whether “state-level abortion restrictions” in the wake of Roe v. Wade’s repeal “could lead clinicians to leave states that ban abortion.”
The survey found that 42% of surveyed abortion providers in states that enacted bans “relocate[d] primary practice” after such bans.
Nearly half of all states ban abortion after 22 weeks of pregnancy, while a dozen ban the procedure outright. Just nine states and the District of Columbia allow for abortion at any time for any reason.
Posted on 06/26/2025 16:55 PM (CNA Daily News)
Pope Leo XIV meets with the synod’s 16th ordinary council near the Vatican on Thursday, June 26, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media
Vatican City, Jun 26, 2025 / 12:55 pm (CNA).
Pope Francis’ biggest legacy regarding synodality is “as a style, an attitude that helps us to be Church,” Pope Leo XIV said Thursday in a meeting with synod leaders.
The pope addressed the synod’s 16th ordinary council at its offices just outside the Vatican, where members are meeting June 26–27.
While time did not permit Leo to stay for the entire afternoon session, he briefly addressed the bishop and three non-bishop participants before making himself available to answer questions.
“Pope Francis has given a new impetus to the Synod of Bishops, referring, as he has repeatedly stated, to St. Paul VI,” the current pontiff said. “And the legacy he has left us seems to me to be above all this: that synodality is a style, an attitude that helps us to be Church, promoting authentic experiences of participation and communion.”
Leo added that Francis promoted this concept in the various synodal assemblies that took place during his pontificate, “especially those on the family, and then he has made it flow into the latest path, dedicated precisely to synodality.”
The 2014 and 2015 synods on the family were marked by controversy over proposals to allow divorced Catholics who remarry without an annulment to receive Communion. Pope Francis later made it possible for some people in such irregular unions to receive Communion after a process of discernment with a priest.
In his speech on Thursday, Leo encouraged the Synod of Bishops, which he said “naturally retains its institutional physiognomy,” to gather the fruits that have matured during Francis’ pontificate “and to make a forward-looking reflection.”
The ordinary council of the General Secretariat of the Synod is “responsible for the preparation and realization of the Ordinary General Assembly” of the Synod of Bishops.
The members of the 16th ordinary council are all bishops, except for two women, who were appointed by Pope Francis in December 2024: consecrated woman María Lía Zervino, former president of the World Union of Catholic Women’s Organizations, and Sister Simona Brambilla, MC, prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.
Pope Francis’ other appointees to the council are Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, SJ, the archbishop of Luxembourg and relator general of the Synod on Synodality, and Cardinal Roberto Repole, archbishop of Turin, Italy.
The rest of the 17 members were elected to the council last October, including Bishop Daniel E. Flores of Brownsville, Texas. The pope is considered the council’s chairman.
Council meetings are also attended by the synod secretariat’s permanent leaders, secretary general Cardinal Mario Grech and undersecretaries Bishop Luis Marín de San Martín, OSA, and Sister Nathalie Becquart, XMCJ.
Introducing the gathering June 26, Grech said: “I am convinced that it is the task of the General Secretariat of the Synod to accompany the synodal process with initiatives that, without overlapping with the protagonism of the local Churches and their groupings, help to develop the synodal and missionary dimension of the Church.”
“Let us invoke the Holy Spirit to guide us and enlighten us in discerning the paths that he suggests to the Church, in fidelity to the risen Lord,” the cardinal said. “We have all participated in the synodal process. Indeed, you are here because the assembly has recognized you as credible interpreters of synodality.”
Posted on 06/26/2025 14:30 PM (CNA Daily News)
English Archbishop John Sherrington of Liverpool speaks with EWTN News via video call about the recent passage of a bill to legalize assisted suicide in England and Wales, calling it a turning point in the country’s devaluation of the dignity of life. / Credit: EWTN News
Rome Newsroom, Jun 26, 2025 / 10:30 am (CNA).
Archbishop John Sherrington of Liverpool, who oversees life issues for the bishops of England and Wales, has called the recent passage of a bill to legalize assisted suicide a turning point in the country’s devaluation of the dignity of life.
“I think we’ve crossed a watershed, that fundamental line in the sand that a life is always to be protected and that one cannot assist another person’s suicide… there’s an erosion of the value of the dignity of life,” the archbishop told EWTN News in an interview via video call from Liverpool this week.
Sherrington added that the bishops are concerned particularly for those who are already very vulnerable, such as the disabled, who may now find themselves in an even more vulnerable situation.
The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, which would allow terminally ill adults to end their own lives with the help of a physician, passed the House of Commons by a narrow margin — 315 to 291 — on June 20.
The bill will now go to the House of Lords, where the nonelected upper chamber can choose to pass the legislation or amend it. Predictions appear divided over whether the Lords will pass the bill as is or attempt to amend, delay, or even scuttle it.
Sherrington noted the bill’s passage by “a very narrow vote” and said he thinks it is a reflection of “the division in the country and the concern of many professional bodies, as well as pro-life groups and GPs [general practitioners], that this law is unsatisfactory and is going to put those who are vulnerable in a worse position.”
The archbishop also said the End of Life Bill is a threat to health care workers’ freedom of conscience if it becomes law without the proper protections.
“We are told that there will be freedom of conscience for doctors, but my concern is also all the health care workers, all the social workers who are involved in the care of people who are terminally ill,” he said.
Because of their position in the health care system, nondoctor medical workers “may not have the same freedom” to say “no” to participating in assisted suicide, he added.
According to the BBC, the passage of the End of Life Bill marks “a colossal social change” in the country, made possible by the arrival of hundreds of new Labor members of Parliament and by significant public support for the law.
A YouGov poll last week suggested that more than 7 out of 10 Britons supported the assisted suicide proposals — referred to by supporters as assisted dying — even though the House of Commons had rejected changing the law as recently as 2015.
Both Sherrington and Cardinal Vincent Nichols, archbishop of Westminster, also drew attention to the risk that an assisted suicide law would force Catholic hospices and care homes to shutter.
In addition to writing their members of Parliament expressing opposition to legalizing assisted suicide, Sherrington said Catholics need to help people “understand in their heart and their mind the dignity of the end of life” and the assistance palliative care can provide to ease pain.
“Suffering is part of life, but we can reduce it in various ways,” he said. But often, he said, what helps the most is solidarity and care, and — for those who are Catholic — the sacraments, prayer, and liturgy.
Those things “actually are a source of great consolation,” Sherrington said. “We need to witness to how we best care for people who are suffering, who are in pain, and we have excellent examples of that through the hospices.”
As currently written, the proposed assisted suicide legislation would require patients to be over the age of 18, have received a terminal illness diagnosis with no more than six months to live, and to self-administer the lethal drug.
The decision would need to be approved by two doctors and a panel made up of a social worker, a senior legal figure such as a former judge, and a psychiatrist.
While likely to take longer to roll out than originally predicted, the BBC reported that the government’s impact assessment suggests hundreds will seek assisted suicide in the first years, but after a decade, the rate could rise to an estimated 4,000 people a year seeking assisted suicide.
Zofia Czubak contributed to this report.
Posted on 06/26/2025 14:00 PM (CNA Daily News)
null / Credit: roibu/Shutterstock
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 26, 2025 / 10:00 am (CNA).
A new Pew Research Center report reveals that about 22% of those who voted in the 2024 election and cast their ballot for President Donald Trump were Catholic.
The new edition of its validated voter study “Behind Trump’s 2024 Victory,” released on June 26, looks at how Americans — new voters and voters who turned out in previous elections — voted in the 2024 presidential election. It reveals that Trump had support from the majority of voting Catholics, with 55% casting their vote for him.
Pew surveyed 8,942 U.S. citizens ages 18 and older who are members of American Trends Panel (ATP) and verified their turnout in the five general elections from 2016 to 2024 using commercial voter files.
In order to validate 2024 election turnout, Pew “attempted to match adult citizens who are part of the ATP to a turnout record in at least one of three commercial voter files: one that serves conservative and Republican organizations and campaigns, one that serves progressive and Democratic organizations and campaigns, and one that is nonpartisan.”
The research found that in 2024, Trump gained voters among multiple religious groups including Catholics, Protestants, and those who reported that they attend religious services on at least a monthly basis.
Trump had a 12-point advantage of Catholic voters over Kamala Harris, who won 43% of the group’s vote. In 2020, the Catholic vote was split almost evenly with 50% voting for Joe Biden and 49% for Trump.
The report noted that Trump benefited from 7% of Catholic voters switching their political party from 2020 to 2024. Only 4% of Catholics who favored Trump in the 2020 election shifted to Harris in the most recent election.
Trump received the majority of the Christian vote in 2024 — about 80% of his voters identified as Christian, compared with only about half of Harris voters.
Of Protestant voters specifically, 62% favored Trump in 2024. This was an increase from 56% in 2016 and 59% in 2020. There was a particularly large shift in Black Protestant voters with 15% voting for Trump in 2024, which was 6 percentage points higher than 2020.
The study also found that voters who attend some kind of religious service favored Trump more in 2024 than in 2020. In the most recent election, 64% voted for him, which increased from 59%. In 2024, only about a third of this group (34%) supported Harris.
In all three elections, Trump received more votes from people who reported that they attend a religious service “monthly or more often” than voters who said they attend “a few times a year or less.” For each election, the Democratic candidate received more votes from those who attend less frequently than those who attend more often.
Another notable find from the report was Trump’s steady progress with Hispanic voters over the course of the 2016, 2020, and 2024 elections.
In 2016, 28% of validated Hispanic voters reported they voted for Trump, 36% did in 2020, and 48% did in 2024. While the Hispanic vote for the Republican candidate increased each election, the Hispanic vote for the Democratic candidate decreased each year.
The research found that from 2020 to 2024, Trump made gains among citizens who were born outside the U.S. In 2020, 59% of naturalized citizens who voted cast their ballot for Biden, and in 2024 51% voted for Harris.
While the Democratic Party received fewer votes from this group, Trump received more in 2024. In 2020, 38% of naturalized citizens voted for Trump, but in 2024 47% did.
Overall, research found that 85% of Trump’s 2020 voters cast their ballot for him again in 2024. Of the other voters, 3% switched and supported Harris, 1% switched and supported another candidate, and 11% declined to vote again in the 2024 election.
Posted on 06/26/2025 13:23 PM (CNA Daily News)
Pope Leo XIV speaks to an anti-drug advocate at the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City, Thursday, June 26, 2025 / Credit: Vatican Media
Vatican City, Jun 26, 2025 / 09:23 am (CNA).
Pope Leo XIV on Thursday called on governments and law enforcement agencies to focus their efforts on dismantling criminal organizations that profit from drug trafficking rather than punishing addicts.
Speaking to anti-drug campaigners in a courtyard of the Apostolic Palace on the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking on June 26, the pope issued a sharp rebuke of drug policy that targets the poor while powerful traffickers go unpunished.
“There are enormous concentrations of interest and ramified criminal organizations that states have the duty to dismantle,” Pope Leo XIV said. “It is easier to fight their victims. Too often, in the name of security, war has been waged and is waged against the poor, filling the prisons with those who are only the last link in a chain of death. Those who hold the chain in their hands, on the other hand, manage to have influence and impunity.”
The pope’s remarks came as the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime released its 2025 World Drug Report, which revealed sharp increases in cocaine production worldwide as well as the deadly toll of synthetic opioids like fentanyl.
According to the report, fentanyl was responsible for an estimated 48,422 deaths in the United States in 2024. Although overdose deaths in the U.S. have started to decline, fentanyl continues to dominate the North American opioid crisis. Global fentanyl seizures reached 19.5 tons in 2023 with 99% occurring in North America.
“Today, brothers and sisters, we are engaged in a struggle that cannot be abandoned as long as, around us, someone is still imprisoned in the various forms of addiction,” Pope Leo XIV said.
“Our fight is against those who make drugs and any other addiction — think of alcohol or gambling — their immense business.”
The U.N. report also flagged record levels of methamphetamine seizures and highlighted how the synthetic drug market, dominated by amphetamine-type stimulants, is expanding globally. Cocaine, meanwhile, has become the world’s fastest-growing illicit drug market, with production rising by nearly 34% in 2023, primarily due to increased coca bush cultivation in Colombia.
Violence tied to cocaine trafficking has also surged, particularly in the Americas. In Ecuador, the homicide rate soared from 7.8 per 100,000 people in 2020 to 45.7 in 2023. The report noted that similar patterns of violence, once confined to Latin America, are now spreading to Western Europe and other regions as criminal groups fight for control of lucrative new markets.
“Drugs and addictions are an invisible prison that you, in different ways, have known and fought, but we are all called to freedom,” the pope said. “Meeting you, I think of the abyss of my heart and of every human heart. It is a psalm, that is, the Bible, that calls the mystery that dwells within us an ‘abyss’ (see Psalm 63:7).”
“St. Augustine confessed that only in Christ did the restlessness of his heart find peace,” he added. “We seek peace and joy, we thirst for them. And many deceptions can disappoint us and even imprison us in this search.”
The theme of this year’s international day — “Break the cycle. #StopOrganizedCrime” — calls for long-term solutions to break the cycle of organized drug crime, including investment in education, prevention, and social services. Pope Leo XIV echoed those goals, emphasizing the need to uplift the dignity of each person and build communities of hope.
“Dear young people, you are not spectators of the renewal that our Earth needs so much … The Church needs you. Humanity needs you,” Leo said. “Together, over every degrading dependence, we will make the infinite dignity imprinted in each one of us prevail.”
“Unfortunately, this dignity sometimes shines only when it is almost completely lost. Then a jolt comes and it becomes clear that getting up is a matter of life or death,” he added. “Well, today all of society needs that jolt, it needs your testimony and the great work you are doing. We all have, in fact, the vocation to be freer and to be human, the vocation to peace.”
“Let us move forward together, then, multiplying the places of healing, of encounter, and of education: pastoral paths and social policies that begin on the street and never give anyone up for lost.”
