"The man pulled over. Got out of the car. And saved his life...Prayer works. Pray the rosary. The world needs it."

"Christ is worth life! When you feel that freedom within you, that ‘yes, this is the moment, I feel this in my heart,’ do it. Go for it."

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Catholic Church needs the theological study and model of Mary, Pope Leo XIV said, calling for a great promotion of Mariology in parishes, religious life and educational centers.

Mary, the mother of Jesus, "never ceases to open doors, build bridges, break down walls and help humanity to live in peace and in the harmony of diversity," he said Sept. 6 during an audience with some 600 scholars attending a conference on Mariology.

The Pontifical International Marian Academy organized the 26th International Mariological Marian Congress in Rome Sept. 3-6, discussing the theme, "Jubilee and Synodality: A Church with a Marian Face and Practice." Participants included Orthodox, Protestant and Muslim scholars.

In his address, Pope Leo underlined the pontifical academy's importance as being "a forum for thought, spirituality and dialogue, tasked with coordinating the studies and scholars of Mariology, in the service of a genuine and fruitful" Marian piety.

"The Virgin Mary, mother of the church, teaches us to be the holy people of God," he said.

"Mary is always ready to respond by first listening to the Word," he said. 

He highlighted St. Augustine's warning against praying to Mary to hear what one wants by quoting the saint: "All consult you about what they want, but they do not always hear the answer they want. Your most faithful servant is the one who does not seek to hear from you what he wants, but rather to want what he hears from you."

Mary is a "synodal" woman, he said, because she is "fully and maternally engaged in the action of the Holy Spirit, who summons those who previously believed they had reasons to remain divided due to mutual distrust and even enmity as brothers and sisters."

"A church with a Marian heart always better preserves and understands the hierarchy of truths of faith, integrating mind and heart, body and soul, universal and local, person and community, humanity and cosmos," Pope Leo said.

"It is a church that does not shy away from asking herself, others and God uncomfortable questions -- 'How shall this be?' -- and to walk the demanding paths of faith and love," he said. 

"A Marian piety and practice oriented toward the service of hope and consolation frees us from fatalism, superficiality and fundamentalism; it takes all human realities seriously, starting with the least and the discarded; it contributes to giving voice and dignity to those who are sacrificed on the altars of ancient and new idols," he said. 

"Since the vocation of the mother of the Lord is understood as the vocation of the church," he said, "Marian theology has the task of cultivating in all the people of God, first of all, a willingness to 'start afresh' with God, his Word and the needs of our neighbor, with humility and courage."

"It must also cultivate the desire to walk toward the unity that flows from the Trinity, in order to bear witness to the world, to the beauty of faith, the fruitfulness of love and the prophecy of hope that does not disappoint," he added.

"Contemplating the mystery of God and history of Mary's inner gaze protects us from the distortions of propaganda, ideology and unhealthy information, which can never speak a disarmed and disarming word, and opens us to divine gratuitousness, which alone makes it possible for people, populations and cultures to walk together in peace," the pope said.

"This is why the church needs Mariology," he said. "It should be considered and promoted in academic centers, shrines and parish communities, associations and movements, institutes of consecrated life, as well as in places where contemporary cultures are forged, valuing the limitless inspiration offered by art, music and literature."

 

WASHINGTON - Pope Leo XIV has accepted the resignation of the Most Reverend Michael J. Boulette, 75, from the Office of Auxiliary Bishop of San Antonio.

The resignation was publicized in Washington, D.C. on September 9, 2025, by Cardinal Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

The Archdiocese of San Antonio is comprised of 23,180 square miles in the State of Texas and has a total population of 2,925,226, of which 1,148,253, are Catholic.

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Today the Church celebrates the Memorial of St. Peter Claver (1581-1654), who was born of a distinguished family in Catalonia, Spain. He became a Jesuit in 1604, and left for Colombia in 1610, dedicating himself to the service of black slaves. For thirty-three years he ministered to slaves, caring for the sick and dying, and instructing the slaves through catechists. Through his efforts three hundred thousand souls entered the Church. He is the Patron of the African Missions, proclaimed in 1896 by Pope Leo XIII.

It's official: Saint Carlo Acutis is canonized! Here's how you can visit his tomb and submit your intentions...all online!

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- In a Jubilee year dedicated to hope, Pope Leo XIV and Christian leaders will commemorate "new martyrs and witnesses of the faith" -- people whose lives were signs of hope to the people around them and who died firm in the hope of being welcomed into God's presence, said the secretary of the Vatican Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.

Archbishop Fabio Fabene, dicastery secretary, told reporters Sept. 8, "Pope Leo hopes the blood of these martyrs will be seeds of peace, reconciliation, fraternity and love."

Like St. John Paul II did during the Holy Year 2000, Pope Leo will preside over an ecumenical prayer service for the Jubilee 2025 commemorating Catholics, Orthodox, Anglicans and Protestants who died for their faith between 2000 and 2025.

Pope Francis had established a commission in 2023 to compile "a catalogue of all those whose blood was shed to confess Christ and witness to his Gospel" in the 25 years since the last Holy Year. 

Those martyrs -- Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and Protestant -- will be remembered Sept. 14, the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, during a prayer service at Rome's Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, a frequent site for ecumenical prayer.

At a news conference Sept. 8, Andrea Riccardi, a historian and vice president of the commission, said the catalogue includes 1,624 Christians whose names were submitted by bishops' conferences, religious orders and nunciatures from all over the world.

Riccardi, who also is founder of the lay Community of Sant'Egidio, also gave a continental break down of those slain: 643 people in Africa; 357 in Asia and Oceania; 304 in North and South America; 277 in the Middle East and North Africa; and 43 in Europe, although 110 of the total killed on other continents were missionaries from Europe. 

Archbishop Fabene said the Vatican still was studying how, when and if to publish the names in the catalogue, taking into consideration the possibility that doing so could endanger other Christians living and ministering in the same geographical areas.

"They set the anchor of their hope in God, not in the world," the archbishop said; "they hoped in the Lord and their reward will be eternal life."

In addition, said Msgr. Marco Gnavi, secretary of the commission, "The hope that was the motif of their lives before their deaths brought hope" in contexts where their brothers and sisters often were the victims of ethnic conflict, religious persecution, organized crime or the deadly denial of their rights.

For example, the commission members said, the list includes Sister Dorothy Stang, a U.S. member of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, who was shot and killed in the Brazilian Amazon in 2005 for defending the land rights of the Indigenous and poor farmers.

Father Angelo Romano, a member of the commission and official at the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, told Catholic News Service the catalogue is not part of the official Catholic process for recognizing the martyrdom of a potential saint, however, some of the people included already have a sainthood cause underway, and other causes could begin in the future. 

The ecumenical commemoration St. John Paul presided over in 2000 was held at Rome's Colosseum, a symbol of Christian persecution and martyrdom. Father Romano said the Vatican "would have loved" to do the 2025 prayer service there, but the city of Rome has new archaeological digs just outside the Colosseum, which severely limits the space available for participants.

Knowing that, as Pope Francis often said, the number of Christians martyred today is more than in the first centuries of Christianity should not lead Catholics to feel under attack but should motivate solidarity, Father Romano said.

"A society that may even be aggressive toward the Christian faith is one thing; being persecuted is another," he said. "Persecution means that going to Mass is a risk, that praying is a risk, that being a Christian is a risk, that practicing charity in the name of faith is a serious risk." 

"Another mistake that I think we must avoid when talking about martyrdom -- a mistake in the strictly theological sense -- is trying to understand martyrdom only in quantitative terms: how many there are," the priest said.

The numbers help people understand the scale of the phenomenon, he said, "but theologically we must be careful not to focus too much on quantity, because even one martyr is immense, enormous -- a reason for reflection for the whole church."

"In a world where there is so much to worry about, including increased violence at all levels, the martyr witnesses to nonviolent hope," Father Romano said. "A martyr chooses not to respond to evil with evil, not to respond to hatred with hatred, but with love."

Several of the groups of new martyrs mentioned at the news conference were Christians killed in church during terrorist attacks.

Archbishop Fabene was asked if Fletcher Merkel, 8, and Harper Moyski, 10, who were shot and killed during a school Mass at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis Aug. 27 could be considered martyrs.

"If a diocese or other local ecclesial realties present these figures to us as witnesses of the faith, we will examine them and will see if they can be included in the list," he said. 

 

Today the Church celebrates the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Roman Martyrology states Mary was "of the lineage of Abraham, born of the tribe of Judah and of the progeny of King David, from whom the Son of God was born, made man by the work of the Holy Spirit, to free humanity from the ancient bondage of sin."

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The greatest risk in life is to waste it by not seeking to follow God's plan, Pope Leo XIV said, proclaiming two new saints -- two young laymen of the 20th and 21st centuries.

"Sts. Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis are an invitation to all of us, especially young people, not to squander our lives, but to direct them upward and make them masterpieces," the pope said Sept. 7.

"The simple but winning formula of their holiness," he said, is accessible to everyone at any time. "They encourage us with their words: 'Not I, but God,' as Carlo used to say. And Pier Giorgio: 'If you have God at the center of all your actions, then you will reach the end.'" 

Before canonizing the first saints of his pontificate, Pope Leo greeted the more than 80,000 faithful who had gathered early in St. Peter's Square because he wanted to share his joy with them before the start of the solemn ceremony.

"Brothers and sisters, today is a wonderful celebration for all of Italy, for the whole church, for the whole world," he said before the Mass.

"While the celebration is very solemn, it is also a day of great joy, and I wanted to greet especially the many young people who have come for this holy Mass," he said, also greeting the families of the soon-to-be saints and the associations and communities to which the young men had belonged.

Pope Leo asked that everyone "feel in our hearts the same thing that Pier Giorgio and Carlo experienced: this love for Jesus Christ, especially in the Eucharist, but also in the poor, in our brothers and sisters." 

"All of you, all of us, are also called to be saints," he said, before leaving to prepare for Mass and paying homage to a statue of Mary with baby Jesus and the reliquaries containing the relics of the two young men.

In his homily, the pope underlined Jesus' call in the day's Gospel reading "to abandon ourselves without hesitation to the adventure that he offers us, with the intelligence and strength that comes from his Spirit, that we can receive to the extent that we empty ourselves of the things and ideas to which we are attached, in order to listen to his word."

That is what the two new saints did and what every disciple of Christ is called to do, he said.

Many people, especially when they are young, he said, face a kind of "crossroads" in life when they reflect on what to do with their life.

The saints of the church are often portrayed as "great figures, forgetting that for them it all began when, while still young, they said 'yes' to God and gave themselves to him completely, keeping nothing for themselves," the pope said.

"Today we look to St. Pier Giorgio Frassati and St. Carlo Acutis: a young man from the early 20th century and a teenager from our own day, both in love with Jesus and ready to give everything for him," he said.

Pope Leo then dedicated a large portion of his homily to sharing quotes from the two and details of their lives, which is something Pope Francis had shifted away from, preferring to focus more on the day's readings.

"Pier Giorgio's life is a beacon for lay spirituality," Pope Leo said.

"For him, faith was not a private devotion, but it was driven by the power of the Gospel and his membership in ecclesial associations," he said. "He was also generously committed to society, contributed to political life and devoted himself ardently to the service of the poor." 

"Carlo, for his part, encountered Jesus in his family, thanks to his parents, Andrea and Antonia -- who are here today with his two siblings, Francesca and Michele," he said, as the crowd applauded, and Antonia smiled shyly at the camera.

St. Acutis also encountered Jesus at the Jesuit-run school he attended and "above all in the sacraments celebrated in the parish community," he said. "He grew up naturally integrating prayer, sport, study and charity into his days as a child and young man."

The pope said the new saints "cultivated their love for God and for their brothers and sisters through simple acts, available to everyone: daily Mass, prayer and especially Eucharistic adoration."

St. Frassati was born April 6, 1901, in Turin and died there July 4, 1925, of polio at the age of 24. St. Acutis was born to Italian parents May 3, 1991, in London and died in Monza, Italy, Oct. 12, 2006, of leukemia at the age of 15.

The pope said that "even when illness struck them and cut short their young lives, not even this stopped them nor prevented them from loving, offering themselves to God, blessing him and praying to him for themselves and for everyone."

Several family members and people closely associated with the new saints attended the Mass, along with dignitaries, such as Italian President Sergio Mattarella. 

St. Acutis' parents, Andrea and Antonia, and his twin siblings, Michele and Francesca, who were born four years after their brother died, were present and together brought the pope the offertory gifts. Michele also did the first reading at the Mass in English.

Valeria Valverde, who read the first prayer of the faithful, is a young Costa Rican woman who suffered a severe head injury while living in Italy. It was her unexplained healing that provided the second miracle needed for St. Acutis' canonization.

St. Frassati was active with Catholic Action, the St. Vincent de Paul Society, the Italian Catholic University Federation and the Dominican Third Order. Lorenzo Zardi, vice president of the youth group of Italy's Catholic Action read the second reading at the Mass and Michele Tridente, the secretary general of the lay movement, also presented the pope with offertory gifts.

Before praying the Angelus, the pope once again thanked everyone for coming to celebrate the church's two new saints.

However, he also called for people's "incessant prayer for peace, especially in the Holy Land, and in Ukraine and in every other land bloodied by war."

"To governing leaders, I repeat, listen to the voice of conscience," he said.

"The apparent victories won with weapons, sowing death and destruction, are really defeats and will never bring peace and security," he said.

"God does not want war. God wants peace!" he exclaimed to applause. God gives strength to those who work toward leaving behind the cycle of hatred and pursue the path of dialogue.

Gospel Excerpt, Luke 14:25-33: Jesus turned and addressed them, "If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.