We Are Our Mother of Perpetual Help Parish

CNA Staff, Jun 11, 2025 / 15:16 pm (CNA).

Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles has called for a day of prayer amid growing violence during protests against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) following arrests of unauthorized immigrants living in the city.

The archbishop has instructed parishes across the archdiocese to hold special Masses for peace and unity, encouraging both Catholics and non-Catholics to pray for peace amid the rioting. 

Father Juan Ochoa, who runs the archdiocesan worship office, in a message to parishioners encouraged people to look to Christ.

“In this time of unrest and uncertainty, we turn our hearts to God, the source of all peace,” Ochoa said in the June 10 message.

The priest encouraged parishes to offer special intentions and suggested people partake in prayerful observances such as Liturgy of the Hours, Eucharistic adoration, and the Divine Mercy Chaplet. The message also encouraged people to pray the rosary as a family, fast, read sacred Scripture, and pray the Sacred Heart novena. 

“As followers of Jesus and members of his Church, we are called to be instruments of reconciliation, healing, and hope,” he said. 

The archbishop was scheduled to celebrate Mass at noon on Wednesday at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels “to unite our communities in prayer during this time of unrest,” according to the archdiocese.

The prelate “invites all Catholics and people of goodwill to pray for our nation, and especially for our immigrant and local community during this tumultuous time,” Ochoa said. 

The archdiocese is also encouraging Catholics to participate in a candlelight prayer vigil. 

Michael Donaldson, senior director for the archdiocesan Office of Life, Justice, and Peace, invited residents of the city to light a candle at 6 p.m. on June 10 “so that through prayer, wherever we may be, we are united for peace in our communities.”

Neighbors gathered in Grand Park for a peaceful interfaith prayer vigil in the evening, according to a social media post by the archdiocese.

An interfaith prayer vigil had previously been scheduled for Sunday evening at Los Angeles City Hall but was postponed amid escalating violence.

“With so many in fear, we are hoping to share a message of peace and hope, uniting our prayers with others throughout Southern California to end the violence, bring healing, and for a path toward reform of our broken immigration system,” Donaldson said.

As tensions escalated over the weekend, Gomez in a statement called for “restraint and calm,” also calling on Congress to fix the nation’s “broken” immigration system.

After ICE raids at multiple work sites, unrest began on June 6 and escalated as conflicts between protesters and law enforcement intensified over the weekend. 

On Saturday night, President Donald Trump deployed the National Guard despite California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s opposition. 

The president has since deployed hundreds of Marines to the state to join National Guard troops in protecting federal property and personnel and providing security to ICE agents. 

Meanwhile, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass enacted a curfew in parts of the downtown area.

Vatican City, Jun 11, 2025 / 13:57 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday received U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres in an audience held in the study of the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican.

Guterres subsequently met with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, secretary of state of the Holy See, and Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, secretary for relations with states and international organizations.

Although the Vatican did not provide details about the private meeting with the pontiff, it indicated that during the conversation with the Secretariat of State the Holy See’s support for the United Nations’ commitment to world peace was expressed.

Some ongoing processes and upcoming summits organized by the United Nations were also discussed as well as the difficulties the organization faces in addressing current crises around the world.

During the course of the conversation, specific situations of conflict and instability were also discussed.

The United Nations was established in 1945 with the aim of fostering international peace and security. Currently 193 countries are members of the organization, which has its headquarters in New York.

Various initiatives promoted by the U.N. clash head-on with Christian values, such as the demand for the decriminalization of abortion under the euphemism of “sexual and reproductive health,” its explicit support for gender ideology, and the promotion of the 2030 Agenda, which clashes in essential aspects with the doctrine of the Catholic Church.

Since 1964, the Vatican has held the position of permanent observer to the U.N., which means the Holy See is not a full member of the organization but rather an observer state.

The current permanent observer, Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, participates in its debates by contributing ideas but does not have the right to vote.

Guterres, 76, is the ninth secretary-general of the United Nations, a position he assumed on Jan. 1, 2017. He was born in Lisbon, Portugal, in 1949. In addition to being a politician and businessman, he is also an electrical engineer and professor.

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

CNA Deutsch, Jun 11, 2025 / 13:01 pm (CNA).

The bishop of Graz-Seckau in Austria, Wilhelm Krautwaschl, expressed being “stunned and shaken” following a deadly shooting at a school in Graz that claimed 10 lives. 

On Tuesday, a 21-year-old former student of the Bundes-Oberstufenrealgymnasium Dreischützengasse killed nine students and a teacher before taking his own life.

“This horrific act at a school in Graz leaves us stunned and shaken,” said Krautwaschl, speaking on behalf of himself and Auxiliary Bishop Johannes Freitag.

“Our deepest sympathy goes out to the students, the teaching staff, and the families. We accompany all of them with our prayers and are here to support everyone affected to the best of our ability. At the same time, we thank all those who are offering help.”

Austrian broadcaster ORF (Austrian Broadcasting Corporation) reported: “According to the authorities, nine young people between the ages of 15 and 17 and one teacher are among the dead. Eleven injured people are being treated in hospitals.”

During his general audience on Wednesday, Pope Leo XIV prayed for the victims of the mass shooting. 

“I want to assure you of my prayers for the victims of the tragedy at the school in Graz,” the pope said. “I am close to the families, the teachers, and the classmates. May the Lord welcome these children into his peace.”

The motive of the attacker — who had left the school without graduating — remains unknown. 

Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, retired archbishop of Vienna, said on X: “Beyond all the shock, grief, and anxiety, there is one big question: ‘Why?’” adding that “we will probably never find a satisfactory answer.”

Regarding the police operation, ORF reported that “special units were alerted immediately after the first emergency calls came in around 10 a.m. The building was subsequently evacuated. Students were guided, together with teaching staff, to a secure meeting point.”

Bishop Georg Bätzing, chairman of the German Bishops’ Conference, expressed his “sincere condolences” and “deep sympathy” in a statement on X. 

“There are no adequate words for such a senseless and cruel act. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families, with all who had to witness this act of violence, and with the chaplains and emergency responders on the ground.”

“May God’s support bring strength, comfort, and hope to all those affected,” Bätzing continued. “We include in our prayers all those impacted by this act of violence.”

This story was based on a report published by CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner. Last update on June 11 with more details and the final number of victims.

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 11, 2025 / 12:16 pm (CNA).

Florida has emerged as a national leader in Catholic school enrollment as a product of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ education policy, the leader of a national school choice group says.

Step Up For Students, a Florida program that administers state-funded K–12 scholarships to expand school choice, reports that Catholic school enrollment in the state has recently increased by 12.1%, a contrast to the 13.2% decline seen nationwide.

Tommy Schultz, CEO of the national school choice group American Federation for Children, discussed the implications of these figures in an interview with “EWTN News Nightly,” crediting the accessibility of Florida’s school choice credit for the increase in enrollment. 

“Gov. DeSantis signed into law the big expansion that made every single family eligible for school choice funding in the state. And guess what? Florida is up 12%,” Schultz told anchor Mark Irons.

“In Florida, [families are] eligible for about $8,000 per kid per year with state funding, essentially. Rather than all of your taxpayer funds just going into the public system, now all parents fully control their funding for education in Florida,” Schultz said. 

In 2023, DeSantis signed a bill to expand opportunities for school choice. According to the Florida state government there are currently “1.4 million students utilizing a school choice option in Florida.”

Schultz emphasized the broader national impact of the Step Up For Students findings, particularly in the federal context.

“It couldn’t come at a better time,” he said. “Congress is currently negotiating a comprehensive legislative package, and there’s momentum to include school choice provisions that would extend similar opportunities to families in all 50 states.”

He contrasted Florida’s growth with steep declines in other states. “In New York, Catholic school enrollment has dropped by 31%, Pennsylvania is down 23%, and Illinois by 20%. These declines are driven by a combination of government regulation and financial challenges.”

The success in Florida, Schultz suggested, could serve as an example for national reform, including potentially even solving poverty.

“Now, where every family could theoretically be able to control their child’s education funding, like we see in Florida, like we see in Arizona and other places, that is just a total game changer for families, and it could bring a lot of children out of poverty,” he said.

Earlier this year, CNA reported on the National Catholic Educational Association’s latest annual report of Catholic school data, which found that “8% of students use school choice programs, which is up by nearly 5% from last year.”

Vatican City, Jun 11, 2025 / 11:32 am (CNA).

“Rome ’25-the Way of St. James ’27-Jerusalem ’33” is the name of an initiative led by young people who, through pilgrimages, evangelization, and healing, aim to “restore the soul of Europe.”

The initiative encourages young Christians from across the continent to open up a pathway to faith and hope for a new European generation in preparation for the Jubilee of Redemption, which will be celebrated in 2033.

“It’s not just about making the pilgrimage but about rediscovering God and our Christian identity, walking the pilgrim paths of Europe with a new, courageous, and joyful perspective,” the young people stated in a press release issued by the Spanish Bishops’ Conference, one of the promoters of the initiative.

Young Christians in Europe ‘raising their voices’

In this way, young Christians in Europe “are raising their voices” to tell the world that another Europe is possible and to reconnect it “with the beauty, truth, and love of Christ,” especially in a time of distractions, uprootedness, and “hidden wounds.”

Fernando Moscardó, a 22-year-old medical student, has been the architect of this “revolution of the youthful spirit” on the old continent. Speaking with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, he explained that the idea arose from seeing the pessimistic figures of an increasingly secularized Europe.

“Recent surveys tell us that more than 70% of young Europeans declare themselves nonreligious, an unprecedented figure. Furthermore, young people feel lonelier than ever, and we see that 42% of Europeans say they feel their lives lack meaning,” he noted.

“Fer,” as his friends know him, was clear that the answer to healing these wounds must be a spiritual one. He also pointed out that Bishop Mikel Garciandía, head of the Spanish bishops’ conference’s committee on pilgrimages and also in charge of the project, refers to this “lack of meaning” as “a spiritual orphanhood.”

Manifesto of the young Christians of Europe

They consequently decided to embark on this journey of renewal in preparation for the Jubilee of Redemption in 2033, the 2,000th anniversary of Christ’s redemption.

“We couldn’t wait until 2033 to get started, so we outlined a project consisting of three stages: The first is in Rome, with this year’s Jubilee of Hope, with which we kick off the event.” It will then take place in Santiago de Compostela (the Way of St. James pilgrimage route) in 2027 and, finally, in Jerusalem in 2033.

During this month of June, local pilgrimages are taking place throughout Europe, culminating on Aug. 1 with the proclamation of a manifesto of the Young Christians of Europe in St. Mary’s Basilica in Trastevere, Rome.

“On that day, together we will tell the world what we believe, what we dream, and what we are ready to live out. Every step we take is for those who no longer believe they have hope. This revolution of the spirit aims to make the invisible visible and give a voice to those who unknowingly seek God,” he said.

So that this declaration, drawn up on the basis of pilgrimages, truly serves as the voice of a generation, it will be published digitally during the month of July so that young people around the world can read and sign it.

“We want this to be the most widely supported youth declaration in the history of Europe, and only then will the words we speak on Aug. 1 have the weight of a multitude that believes, dreams, and journeys together.”

Furthermore, the project is also organized around a large network of Christian pilgrimage routes, including the historic Michaelmas Axis, which links shrines of St. Michael the Archangel from Ireland to Jerusalem.

This “spiritual sword” symbolizes a Europe that is once again turning heavenward. Monasteries, cathedrals, and parishes will become points of light, welcoming those who go through life in search of meaning.

Three pillars of the project

Moscardó also explained that the initiative is based on three pillars: pilgrimage, healing, and evangelization. “These are the three pillars we are taking as turning points to bring about change in this lost Europe,” he emphasized.

The young man reiterated that this is “a project of young people and for young people” and said that it has had “a very beautiful start,” with work teams throughout Europe supported by the bishops’ conferences.

“We thought that people today were going on pilgrimage for tourism, for social interaction, and we were forgetting that the most important thing when going on pilgrimage is to be aware that we do not walk alone, that we walk with Christ, and that we can pave the way for that personal relationship with him,” he explained.

He also noted that more than 600 people participated in the first pilgrimage, which was to Mont Saint-Michel in France. “We’re having a very beautiful and quite large response.”

On June 11, the project’s promoters are scheduled to be received by Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican. He also explained that they are already working on a website to provide all the necessary information about the activities as well as on their social media channels, which will be called J2R2033 (Journey to Redemption 2033).

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

Rome, Italy, Jun 11, 2025 / 10:46 am (CNA).

The head of a sex abuse survivors’ group in Italy expressed his doubts that a recent report on safeguarding efforts published by the Italian bishops’ conference presents a complete picture of the scale of the abuse crisis in the local Church.

Francesco Zanardi, a survivor and founder of Rete L’Abuso, told CNA that the conference (known by the Italian acronym CEI) has only published “partial reports every year or every two years” since 2020, which makes it hard to make an accurate assessment.

“It’s difficult to make a comparison because we don’t know which cases they are talking about or which geographical area in Italy they are talking about when they give these numbers,” he said. “It’s a bit like if there’s a hole in the middle of the road and instead of repairing the hole, you’re just there counting how many people fall into that hole, but you don’t fix it.”

“Let’s just say this report says nothing,” he added.

Titled “Protect, Prevent, Train: Third Survey on the Territorial Network for the Protection of Minors and Vulnerable Adults,” the nearly 100-page report, published May 28, highlighted current and developing safeguarding practices within the Italian Church between 2023 and 2024.

Among them is the establishment of listening centers for clerical abuse victims in the country. According to the report, there are currently 103 centers serving 130 Italian dioceses.

In a statement released the same day, Archbishop Giuseppe Baturi of Cagliari, secretary-general of the CEI, said the report was part of a path of transparency meant “to overcome the cultural and operational resistances still present.”

“We are called to do our part, with full awareness and responsibility,” especially in promoting “institutional hubs at the local level, as well as a deeper cultural awareness, in particular within universities.”

While the report noted “significant progress in training and awareness,” it noted an increase in abuse cases, the majority of which were committed within a “parish setting.” An estimated 115 (64 male and 51 female) past and current victims reported their abuse between 2023 and 2024. Comparatively, in 2022, 54 victims reported abuse, while 89 victims reported being abused in 2020.

The abuses were committed by “67 alleged perpetrators,” including “44 clergy members, 15 religious, and eight laypersons,” the report stated.

Chiara Griffini, president of the CEI’s Office for the Protection of Minors, said the increase in cases was “concerning because, as we have always said, even a single case, for what the Church is and represents, will always be too many.”

“There are 69 reported cases, 37 of which are current — which tells us that there is clearly an ongoing phenomenon — and 32 are from the past,” she said in an interview with CNA on June 11. “So, looking at these 32 from the past, I think that the prevention work we have put in place is, in some way, sowing some seeds.”

Griffini added that making those reported abuses public was a sign that the bishops’ conference is aiming for transparency and that “the path we have undertaken is certainly an important one and there is no turning back.”

“Child protection must be an integral part of the Church’s mission,” she said.

However, Zanardi told CNA that although the report states the number of victims who have come forward in the past year, it doesn’t state what the Church has done to assist them.

“It says there are 115 victims. Fine. Have you compensated them? Have you given them psychological assistance? Nothing is known about this,” he said.

Griffini told CNA that while the task of the listening centers is to collect reported abuses and to inform ecclesiastical authorities about those cases, compensation to victims “concerns a procedural phase and therefore does not fall within the scope” of the centers.

She also noted that the report highlights the various means of support offered to victims and their families by the listening centers, including “psychotherapeutic support, spiritual support, and other forms that have not been detailed but which represent a form of support and closeness that the listening center offers to victims.”

Among the other concerns Zanardi expressed were that Cardinal Matteo Zuppi of Milan, president of the CEI, did not keep his word that the reports would examine cases from 2000 onward.

At a 2022 press conference, Zuppi announced the publishing of the annual reports and said it would only analyze cases dating back to 2000 and no further because “judging something from 80 years ago by today’s criteria, something that was was judged by other criteria at the time, creates difficulties of evaluation.” 

However, the first report released in November 2022 only published information on cases from 2020. 

On its website, Rete L’Abuso compiled its own list of abuse cases in Italy dating back to 2000. Zanardi said that based on the data and files they have collected from victims, “we count 1,035 pedophile priests who have abused 4,267 victims. That is a real figure.” 

During the press conference two years ago, Zuppi publicly offered to meet with Zanardi and told him: “If you have a case, tell us.” 

The head of Rete L’Abuso told CNA that he met with Zuppi on several occasions and had brought the cases his network had collected.  

“I brought them, but then he never wanted to take them,” he said. “Now, they [the Italian bishops’ conference] have declared that they will not take data from associations or anyone else but only data that arrives at their help desks.”

For this reason, he added, the current report most likely contains incomplete data since not all victims, especially those “who no longer believe in the Church,” would report their abuse to a diocesan listening center.

However, Griffini clarified that the annual survey is meant as a “monitoring and accountability tool” for the safeguarding policies adopted by the CEI in 2019.

“Therefore, the surveys start from 2020 precisely because their purpose is to monitor whether the system that was created, both to generate safe ecclesial environments and to intercept alleged abuses, is working,” she said.

Griffini also told CNA that a “pilot study” dealing with “verified cases of abuse against minors in the 20-year period between 2001 and 2021” is still in progress and expected to be published “in the first months of 2026.”

She added that the study is being compiled by “two third-party and completely independent bodies”: the Center for Victimology and Security at the University of Bologna and the Istituto degli Innocenti (Institute of the Innocents) based in Florence.

“Researchers will deliver the data to a commission appointed by the bishops’ conference, which will carry out interpretations at the ecclesial level, and the study will be published in its entirety, just as they have reported it,” she explained.

Zanardi expressed doubts that the Italian Church could be trusted to monitor itself and said he had filed a request with Italian prosecutors to conduct an independent investigation, like those conducted in Spain and France. However, he noted, it was doubtful such an inquiry would happen because of the relationship between church and state.

“Let’s say that Italy is a very distinct country, where in fact they are letting the Church do everything, but the state doesn’t interfere,” he said. “It doesn’t meddle, as they say, like the Mafia.”

Griffini argued that the pilot study “is an independent investigation because the two bodies are clearly not of an ecclesial nature; they are academic bodies that have received a mandate, just as other independent commissions had mandates, and they will respond according to scientific criteria.”

Once completed, she said, the 2026 study will develop further research “that can truly shed more light on this phenomenon to help us, in the present day, to make non-repetition possible and, at the same time, find what may be the best practices for justice and reparation.”

Washington D.C., Jun 11, 2025 / 09:54 am (CNA).

Members of the grassroots movement promoting the month of June as “Fidelity Month” at a gathering on Capitol Hill on Monday called for a renewal of the “common bonds” that unite Americans.

Fidelity Month bills itself as “a positive, grassroots movement to heal division and restore unity in our nation. It celebrates June as a season of recommitment to God, our spouses and families, our communities, and country,” according to the Fidelity Month website. 

Princeton professor Robert George founded the movement in 2023 after reading a Wall Street Journal article citing survey data that showed significant declines in Americans’ belief in the importance of religion, family, and patriotism.

It was these principles, George said at the event in the Longworth House Office Building on June 9, that inspired him to declare “by the power invested in me by absolutely no one” the month of June to be Fidelity Month. 

The “exceptional” thing about America, George observed, is that the source of the country’s unity cannot be found in race, ethnicity, or a particular religious tradition. 

Rather, national unity of the United States is found in the “shared commitment to the principles of republican government” and the “shared belief in the importance of fidelity to God, fidelity to spouses and families, fidelity to our country and communities.” 

George said the movement has grown from a few thousand initial followers to tens of thousands in 2024. “This year, we’re moving into the hundreds of thousands,” he said, adding: “I hope we’ll be moving into the millions of people recognizing June as Fidelity Month, where we rededicate ourselves and pledge ourselves to these important principles.” 

George also discussed the Fidelity Month movement during a June 4 interview on “EWTN Pro-Life Weekly,” telling anchor Abigail Galván he hoped it would serve as a rallying point for Americans to reclaim the enduring values that have long been the bedrock of national unity. 

Sources of America’s unity and strength

At Monday’s event, titled “What Are the Sources of America’s Unity and Strength?”, George was joined by several conservative leaders including Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri; the Heritage Foundation’s Jay Richards; and Kristen Waggoner, CEO of Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).

Echoing George in her speech, Waggoner reflected that “unlike most countries, [America] was founded on a direct appeal to divine reality.”

Waggoner continued: “When the founders declared independence, they didn’t appeal to a king or to an army or even to a written constitution. They appealed to heaven, to a God who endows each person with an alienable right, no matter what they believe.”

In his remarks, Hawley extolled marriage as “the true test of virtue for men and women” but especially for young men.

Citing President Theodore Roosevelt’s four-volume work “The Winning of the West,” Hawley noted Roosevelt’s view that of all the dangers faced by frontiersmen in the West, “the greatest challenge they faced” was their character and that fidelity to marriage was the ultimate test of manhood and the foundation of civilization.

“Whereas in Roosevelt’s day, the challenge of the frontier was the challenge of bringing culture and civilization to a vast wide-open space to what was in many respects a wilderness, our challenge today is to preserve our civilization from becoming a wilderness,” Hawley said.

“Today, the wilderness threatens to come to us,” he continued. “We see this nowhere more starkly than the breakdown of marriage and the family.” 

Hawley called on members of the movement to embrace their responsibility to “craft an economy and a society where marriage is rewarded.”

“I think Roosevelt was right all those years ago,” he said, concluding: “This must be the great call that we give to our countrymen again, to embrace the call to fidelity, to be faithful to what we believe in, to be faithful to what makes us who we are, to be faithful in our marriage commitments, in our family life, to our country.”

In his speech, Richards, director of Heritage’s DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family, cited the changing tide on the gender ideology debate in the U.S., where half of the states have passed laws protecting children from “gender-affirming care.” 

Just three years ago, he pointed out, “it was difficult to get Republican staffers and members in Congress to even talk about this issue.” 

Now, he said, “something like 70 or 80% of the American public doesn’t believe that we should be conducting experimental medicine on kids who are uncomfortable with their bodies. [And] they don’t believe that males should be in female prisons.” 

“We now have a moment in which the vast majority of our country is opposed to the idea that separates children’s identities from their bodies and is focused like a laser beam on the health of children,” he said, concluding: “That’s concrete. That’s the moment for those of us to continue to commit ourselves to fidelity to God, to country, to marriage, and to family, to make the case for that good again.” 

Other speakers included former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, and American Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow Ian Rowe.

Vatican City, Jun 11, 2025 / 09:12 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV has appointed Bishop Joseph Lin Yuntuan as auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Fuzhou in China, the Holy See announced on Wednesday.

The Vatican credited the Sino-Vatican deal, signed in September 2019 and renewed for a third time in October 2024, for Lin Yuntuan’s June 5 appointment.

The Vatican announced “the recognition of the civil effects and the taking of possession of the office of Monsignor Joseph Lin Yuntuan.” The announcement said the Holy Father made the appointment “in the framework of the dialogue regarding the application of the provisional agreement between the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China.”

Lin Yuntuan, 73, was ordained a priest for the Fuzhou Archdiocese, located in China’s Fujian Province, in 1984 after completing four years of studies in the local seminary. He was clandestinely consecrated a bishop in 2017. 

From 1984 to 1994 and 1996 to 2002, Lin Yuntuan was appointed parish priest for several parishes spread across the Fuzhou Archdiocese.

Other roles he held include a teaching role at the Fuzhou seminary in 1985, two terms as deputy director of the diocesan economic commission from 1994 to 1996 and 2000 to 2003, and as diocesan administrator from 2003 and 2007.

Prior to his clandestine consecration as bishop in 2017, Lin Yuntuan served as apostolic administrator of Fuzhou from 2013 to 2016.

Archbishop Joseph Cai Bing-rui currently leads the metropolitan Archdiocese of Fuzhou, which was erected in 1946. 

Globally, 84 new bishops have been elected in 2025. To date, Pope Leo XIV has appointed 15 new bishops in Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, and the U.S. 

London, England, Jun 11, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

A new Catholic festival in England hopes to bring many different expressions of the Church together under one banner from July 25–28. The breadth of the festival, called WeBelieve, is unique in a country where conferences are often focused on a particular movement or expression of Catholicism.

“There was a sense that we needed an annual festival that we could run on a regular basis, that could create momentum to bring the Church together,” said Monsignor John Armitage, the master of the Guild of Our Lady of Ransom, a group that supports evangelization in England and the driver of the new initiative. 

Speakers for the event include Archbishop John Wilson of Southwark; Dr. Gianna Emanuela Molla, daughter of St. Gianna Beretta Molla; Lord Maurice Glasman, who will discuss Catholic social teaching; Dominican Father Toby Lees; Bishop Habila Daboh of the Diocese of Zaria in Nigeria; and convert from Anglicanism Monsignor Michael Nazir-Ali. They will join overnight campers and visitors in Birmingham in the center of England at the historic site of St. Mary’s College, Oscott. 

Liturgies during the festival will be enhanced by different musical styles, from modern worship to the Renaissance polyphony and Gregorian chant of the Southwell Consort, the Latin Mass Society’s mixed-voice choir in London. The Roman rites represented will include the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM), Ukrainian, and Syro-Malabar.

“A festival of Catholic life that would show to the Church and to those who are enquiring, ‘This is the Catholic Church, this is what we do, this is who we are,’” Armitage said. “One very wise person said that the thing about festivals is that they shape cultures. We are looking to help the Church understand itself, not doctrinally, because that is settled, but in terms of the culture we are living in.”

Among young adults there is a strong interest in traditional expressions of the Catholic faith such as the TLM but also more “charismatic” movements such as Youth 2000, which meets at Ampleforth each year and typically has a modern worship music style. 

All will have a place at the new festival. Central to WeBelieve, Armitage said, is to celebrate and include all. 

“Catholic — that’s what it means,” he said. “We’re not traditional, we’re not conservative, we’re not liberal. They’re political terms. We’re Catholic, which means it’s universal. It’s based on the doctrine of the Church; it’s Catholic.

“We’re having a festival, a celebration of the Catholic faith in all its different expressions, of how we live it out. We wanted it to be Catholic so that everyone could come and be part of it and feel there was something here that could speak to them. They may also find other aspects of the Church they’ve never seen before.” 

The festival has already sold 600 tickets but has the capacity for up to 3,000 people, including day visitors, Armitage said.

More than 100 Catholic organizations have signed up to participate already. The hope is that this will be the first of an annual gathering that will move to different regions.

“If possible we want to make this part of the Catholic story of this country,” Armitage said.

The organizers of the festival see deep significance in this being the first year, as it is one of celebration. Not only is it a year of jubilee in the Catholic Church but it’s also the 1,700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed and the 175th anniversary of the restoration of the Catholic hierarchy in England and Wales.

What wasn’t known two years ago when the idea for the festival was first discussed was the extraordinary increase in conversions and interest in Catholicism, especially in young adults, seen in England, France, and elsewhere this year.

The previously dominant Christian tradition, the Church of England, has numerous festivals and ministries aimed at young people but recently published research by the Bible Society that reports that among young adults or Generation Z — which is now second to the elderly as the second most likely age group to attend church — that twice as many attend Catholic churches as Anglican.

This is perhaps the opposite of what might be expected as the Church of England over the past century has moved to approve contraception, stay quiet on the legalization of abortion, lower restrictions on those who are divorced, install female vicars and then bishops, and offer blessings to homosexual couples.

While these changes may be viewed by some as more palatable to younger people, the resurgence of faith in young adults seems to be toward more traditional expressions of Christianity.

“You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free,” Armitage said. “If a Christian community doesn’t live the truth in its fullness… many churches that go down that path are struggling. The [Catholic] Church teaches the truth, and that’s why so many people feel that they can find true freedom.”

He continued: “That’s why it’s important that we talk about not the identity — not ‘this group or that group’ or ‘this program or that program’ — it’s about Jesus Christ, full stop. If we stick to that, everything is going to be fine.”

Pope Leo XIV expressed his gratitude for the King and Queen’s presence at his Mass at the beginning of his pontificate, and the Prime Minister renewed his invitation to visit Spain.

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