St. Columba Catholic Church

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Washington, D.C., Nov 12, 2025 / 13:15 pm (CNA).

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) approved a new translation of the Bible, which will be used for personal Bibles, the lectionary at Mass, and the text in the Liturgy of the Hours.

Bishop Steven Lopes, chair of the Committee on Divine Worship, announced the translation will be called the “Catholic American Bible.” The translation for personal Bibles and the Liturgy of the Hours will be available on Ash Wednesday in 2027.

The bishops have not announced when the revised lectionaries will be available.

The USCCB also approved a Spanish-language translation of the New Testament, the Biblia de la Iglesia en América, which will be available on Ash Wednesday in 2026.

Lopes made the announcement during the USCCB’s Fall Plenary Assembly in Baltimore on Nov. 11.

According to Ascension Press, one of the publishers of the translation, the Catholic American Bible has a modified translation of the Old Testament from the New American Bible Revised Edition. It will replace the current translation of the Book of Psalms with The Abbey Psalms and Canticles, which was translated by monks at Conception Abbey in Missouri.

The new translation will also include a revised New Testament.

U.S. bishops also approved a new edition of the Roman Pontifical, which is the liturgical book for pontifical Masses, which can only be celebrated by bishops. It is expected to be ready in 2027. The bishops are still awaiting Vatican approval for two of the five pontifical rites, but approval is anticipated in December. 

Carmelite Father Craig Morrison speaks on a panel about Jewish-Catholic relations at The Catholic University of America on Nov. 11, 2025. / Credit: Madalaine Elhabbal/CNA

Washington, D.C., Nov 12, 2025 / 12:45 pm (CNA).

Nostra Aetate, the Church’s declaration on building relationships with non-Christian religions,  “planted a seed” that must continue to be nourished, according to panelists reflecting on the document’s legacy at The Catholic University of America on Nov. 11.

At the event, titled “The Church and the Jewish Community in Our Age,” Bishop Étienne Vetö, ICN, auxiliary bishop of Reims, France, and Rabbi Noam Marans, director of interreligious affairs for the American Jewish Committee, discussed the state of Catholic-Jewish relations as well as shared practices and difference. 

“Even though Nostra Aetate is one of the shortest, if not the shortest document of Vatican II, it has had a powerful impact,” Vetö said. “A Jew or a Christian from the first half [of] the 20th century who traveled in time to 2025 would find unbelievable the quality of dialogue, understanding, and trust that is now growing between the two communities.”

Rebecca Cohen, program and research specialist for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, agreed, saying Nostra Aetate produced a “seismic shift in Christian understanding” of Judaism that was revolutionary for its time in 1965. 

Nostra Aetate contains a paragraph on Judaism that centers on the biblical roots and shared history with Christianity rather than the Judaism of today. It sowed the beginnings of something that needs nurturing, Cohen said. 

Carmelite Father Craig Morrison, director of the Center for Carmelite Studies and professor of biblical studies, said Nostra Aetate “launched new possibilities for a relationship between Catholics and Jews.”

“No longer was this relationship to be triumphal, Catholics telling Jews who they are, what they believe, and how they kill God, Jesus,” he said, adding: “Western Christianity kept the Jews mostly silent for centuries.”

Today, he continued, “our present task on the Catholic side is not so much as dialogue but rather to listen to the Jews for the first time in our shared history.”

“Our Gospels are a part of Jewish documents and cannot be properly understood apart from the Judaism of the late Second Temple period,” he said.

Ultimately, Craig said, “we know that a better understanding of the concerns of first-century Jews will illuminate the Gospels and significantly reduce the risk of anti-Jewish preaching. Then we will hear Jesus speaking within the first-century Jewish world in which he was incarnated.” 

Marans reflected on the legacy of Nostra Aetate for Jewish people, saying that prior to the document’s publication, the Jewish people viewed Christianity “as a threat.” Conversely, he said, Nostra Aetate was a “gift for Christians” because it meant “Christianity no longer needed to self-define in opposition to the other.” 

At the end of the day, Marans said, “Nostra Aetate was not perfect, but it was good [and] has been perfected over time.” 

St. Nicholas Church in Prague, capital of the Czech Republic. / Credit: Kirill Neiezhmakov/Shutterstock

ACI Prensa Staff, Nov 12, 2025 / 12:15 pm (CNA).

The Czech Republic, known for its historical heritage, fairytale castles, and medieval architecture, is considered the most atheist country in Europe.

Evangelization in this land — which still bears the scars of a past marked by communism and division — is a constant challenge but not an impossible goal. Czech missionaries say they perceive “miraculous touches of God’s presence” in a society increasingly thirsting for love and truth. 

Approximately 80% of the Czech Republic’s more than 10.5 million inhabitants claim to have no religious affiliation. Although about a third of the population say they believe in God — in many cases without being linked to a specific denomination — only 9.4% identify as Catholic.

Nearly a quarter of Czechs declare themselves atheist, according to the 2017 Pew Survey on European Values, making the country one of the most secularized on the continent. Comparing census results since 1991 reveals a clear decline in church membership and an increase in personal belief in God without institutional affiliation.

‘Miraculous touches of God’s presence’

Brother Šimon Růžička, OFM, who is in charge of the Franciscan urban missions in the country, explained to ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, that the missionaries experience “miraculous touches of God’s presence,” reflected in a “deep thirst for love and, therefore, for God.”

“We also perceive how God touches people’s hearts, sometimes even long before they meet one of our missionaries,” he added.

For Father Daniel Vícha, vicar for pastoral care of the Diocese of Ostrava-Opava, evangelizing those who “know nothing about the faith” is not “so difficult” since, he noted, matters of faith “are usually a surprise” to them.

“The majority of the population declares themselves atheist, but at the same time, 70% say they believe in ‘something,’ and that is precisely where we must begin,” he said.

The priest told ACI Prensa that he encounters greater difficulties evangelizing those who have some notion of Christianity, for example, “because of history classes or reports about abuse” and that they “are usually more unreceptive.” 

Růžička agreed with this statement and emphasized that it is more difficult “to be a prophet in your own home” and in the daily mission, in parishes, and among friends or family.

Atheism, a consequence of deep historical roots

The low number of Catholics in the country is due to several reasons. At the beginning of the 15th century, Protestant reformer Jan Hus — and the subsequent repression of his followers, the Hussites, by the Austro-Hungarian Empire — the Catholic Church has been associated in the collective memory with foreign power and imposition. 

Furthermore, the aftermath of 40 years of communist persecution following World War II left “deep wounds in the local Church” that have not yet fully healed, according to the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).

After the fall of communism, there was a brief religious resurgence, though more as a political reaction than a genuine conversion. Since then, religious affiliation has continued to decline, and faith in the Czech Republic today is characterized by individual spirituality without strong institutional ties.

Vícha explained that communism has played a significant role but “simply completed something” that was already deeply ingrained in Czech society. 

“Four centuries of the nation being part of the Catholic Austrian monarchy fostered a negative predisposition toward faith,” he said.

Because of its strong sense of national identity, the priest explained, the Czech nation distanced itself from Catholicism, which was represented by the Austrian government.

“With such a varied history, it’s not surprising that Catholics make up less than 10% of the population. However, I see it as a miracle that the Church of Christ is a truly living organism, independent of worldly powers and human errors and failures, often including our own,” Růžička added.

The faith of the Czech people

Vicha emphasized that Czechs “are skeptical by nature” and that “before accepting something as their own, they need to reflect for themselves.” 

This, according to the priest, is due to their location in central Europe, where “various schools of thought have alternated and the nation has had to think for itself about what is truly right. If a Czech person accepts a faith, it very often needs to be rationally justified,” he said.

The vicar for pastoral care underscored that believers “are no longer burdened by fear, as was the case during the communist era. If their faith is authentic, they are not ashamed of it and can talk about it with their peers.” 

Conversely, if it is merely “a dead tradition” — as often happens in more religious areas — they prefer to abandon their faith “because it offers them nothing. They are very sensitive to any form of clericalism, superiority, or dogmatism,” Vícha said.

Růžička pointed out that young people receive the faith from their elders “with openness and new creativity,” and although they are sometimes “immersed in a sea of ​​confusion and uncertainty,” he assured that “they are not satisfied with mere words, but seek and yearn for a true relationship with God.”

Challenges in the face of atheism

Vícha noted that although the Catholic Church is a minority in the country, it represents the strongest community in the religious sphere. “Due to historical experience, people do not seek faith within Christianity. For this reason, it is necessary for the Church to strive, above all, to be credible.”

For his part, Růžička identified the Church’s image in the world, which sometimes shows “a divided Church, worn down by material concerns,” as one of the main challenges.

Consequently, he said that a “living and spiritual Church” is necessary, one that loves the sinner but does not tolerate sin. A Church that does not judge but encourages and shows the way through its life and works. “That Church exists in our country, and I eagerly hope that it will grow and bear fruit.”

Increase in baptisms

Some 300,000 people regularly attend Sunday Mass, which is equivalent to a third of those who identify as Catholic. Last year, nearly 15,000 baptisms were administered (more than 12% of births), and adult baptisms reached 7%, the highest percentage since 1993.

Vícha confirmed that the Church is witnessing “an increase in the number of adults requesting baptism. But more and more believers are also dying due to old age. Therefore, the total number continues to decline, even though the number of catechumens is growing.”

Růžička noted with hope that in recent years “the number of people for whom this world without God has lost its meaning and who yearn for God has indeed increased. It depends on us if we know how to respond to that desire.” 

For this reason, he “sincerely believes that in the future it will not be a matter of quantity but of quality.”

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

Pope Leo XIV gives his apostolic blessing at the end of the general audience in St. Peter’s Square on Nov. 12, 2025. / Credit: Daniel Ibanez/CNA

Vatican City, Nov 12, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV reflected Wednesday on the world’s need for fraternity — a gift from Christ that frees us from selfishness and division.

Fraternity “is without doubt one of the great challenges for contemporary humanity, as Pope Francis saw clearly,” the pope said during his general audience in St. Peter’s Square on Nov. 12.

“The fraternity given by Christ, who died and rose again, frees us from the negative logic of selfishness, division, and arrogance,” he added.

Continuing his meditations on Christ’s death and resurrection, Leo said “to believe in the death and resurrection of Christ and to live paschal spirituality imbues life with hope and encourages us to invest in goodness.”

He observed that fraternity “cannot be taken for granted, it is not immediate. Many conflicts, many wars all over the world, social tensions and feelings of hatred would seem to prove the opposite.”

Fraternity “is not a beautiful but impossible dream; it is not the desire of a deluded few,” he emphasized, inviting the faithful “to go to the source, and above all to draw light and strength from him who alone frees us from the poison of enmity.”

The importance of relationships

The pope reflected that “fraternity stems from something deeply human. We are capable of relationship and, if we want, we are able to build authentic bonds between us. Without relationships, which support and enrich us from the very beginning of our life, we would not be able to survive, grow, or learn. They are manifold, varied in form and depth. But it is certain that our humanity is best fulfilled when we exist and live together, when we succeed in experiencing authentic, not formal, bonds with the people around us.”

He warned that “if we turn in on ourselves, we risk falling ill with loneliness, and even a narcissism that is concerned with others only out of self-interest. The other is then reduced to someone from whom we can take, without ever being truly willing to give, to offer ourselves.”

Recalling that “disagreement, division, and sometimes hatred can devastate even relationships between relatives, not only between strangers,” the pope cited St. Francis of Assisi’s greeting of “omnes fratres,” (“all brothers”) — “the inclusive way in which the saint placed all human beings on the same level, precisely because he recognized them in their common destiny of dignity, dialogue, welcome, and salvation.”

Leo noted that Pope Francis had reproposed this approach in his encyclical Fratelli Tutti, emphasizing that the word “tutti” — Italian for “everyone” — “expresses an essential feature of Christianity, which ever since the beginning has been the proclamation of the good news destined for the salvation of all, never in an exclusive or private form.”

He explained that “this fraternity is based on Jesus’ commandment, which is new insofar as he accomplished it himself, the superabundant fulfillment of the will of the Father: Thanks to him, who loved us and gave himself for us, we can in turn love one another and give our lives for others, as children of the one Father and true brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ.”

They weep and rejoice together

“Brothers and sisters support each other in hardship, they do not turn their back on those who are in need, and they weep and rejoice together in the active pursuit of unity, trust, and mutual reliance,” the pope said. “The dynamic is that which Jesus himself gives to us: ‘Love one another as I have loved you’ (cf. John 15:12).”

He concluded his general audience by reminding the faithful that “the fraternity given by Christ, who died and rose again, frees us from the negative logic of selfishness, division, and arrogance, and restores to us our original vocation, in the name of a love and a hope that are renewed every day. The Risen One has shown us the way to journey with him, to feel and to be ‘brothers and sisters all.’”

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

Pope Leo XIV celebrates Mass at Sant’Anselmo Church in Rome on Nov. 11, 2025, for the 125th anniversary of the church’s consecration. Sant’Anselmo Church is part of a residential college and offices of the Benedictine Confederation, the governing body of the Order of St. Benedict. / Credit: Vatican Media

ACI Prensa Staff, Nov 12, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday celebrated Mass at a Benedictine monastery in Rome, where he urged the monks to confront modern challenges with prayer, study, and personal holiness.

Sant’Anselmo Church, located on the Aventine Hill, was consecrated on Nov. 11, 1900. It is part of a residential college and offices of the Benedictine Confederation, the governing body of the Order of St. Benedict. St. Anselm was a Benedictine monk and doctor of the Church.

Upon his arrival at Sant’Anselmo Church, Leo was welcomed by the abbot primate of the Benedictines, Jeremias Schröder, who symbolically handed over the keys of the church to the pope.

The Holy Father recalled that the church was erected at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, when Pope Leo XIII “was convinced that your ancient order could be of great help to the good of all God’s people at a time full of challenges.”

“The monastery,” he continued, “has increasingly come to be seen as a place of growth, peace, hospitality, and unity, even during the darkest periods of history.”

Turning to the present day, Leo reflected on the challenges of the modern world, which “provoke and question us, raising issues never before encountered.”

He addressed the Benedictine monks directly, inviting them to respond to the demands of their vocation by “placing Christ at the center of our existence and our mission — beginning from that act of faith that leads us to recognize in him the Savior, and translating it into prayer, study, and the commitment of a holy life.”

He urged the monks of the Aventine to become “a beating heart within the great body of the Benedictine world — with the church at its center, according to the teachings of St. Benedict.”

“In the industrious hive of Sant’Anselmo,” he added, “may this be the place from which everything begins and to which everything returns to be verified, confirmed, and deepened before God.”

The pope also reflected on the deeper meaning of the anniversary, saying that “the dedication marks the solemn moment in the history of a sacred building when it is consecrated to be a place of encounter between space and time, between the finite and the infinite, between man and God: an open door toward eternity, where the soul finds an answer to ‘the tension between the circumstances of the moment and the light of time, of the larger horizon … which opens us to the future as a final cause that attracts.’”

He went on to recall the teaching of the Second Vatican Council in Sacrosanctum Concilium, a constitution on the sacred liturgy, which “describes all this in one of its most beautiful pages, when it defines the Church as ‘human and divine, visible yet endowed with invisible realities, zealous in action and dedicated to contemplation, present in the world and yet a pilgrim; … in such a way, however, that what is human in her is ordered and subordinated to the divine, the visible to the invisible, action to contemplation, the present reality to the future city toward which we are journeying.’”

“This,” the pope said, “is the experience of our lives and of the lives of all men and women of this world — searching for that ultimate and fundamental answer that ‘neither flesh nor blood’ can reveal, but only the Father who is in heaven; ultimately, a need for Jesus, ‘the Christ, the Son of the living God.’”

At the end of his homily, the Holy Father recalled that Jesus “is the one we are called to seek, and to him we are called to bring all those we meet — grateful for the gifts he has bestowed upon us, and above all for the love with which he has gone before us.”

“Then this temple,” Leo XIV concluded, “will increasingly become a place of joy, where we experience the beauty of sharing with others what we have freely received.”

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

null / Credit: LookerStudio/Shutterstock

ACI Prensa Staff, Nov 12, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Ana Lazcano, director of the University Institute of Artificial Intelligence (AI) at Francisco de Vitoria University in Spain, warned that AI is not an all-powerful deity and it is necessary to “lay the foundations of critical thinking” about the technology.

In a conversation with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, Lazcano explained that the recently created institute she directs seeks to provide a unified vision of AI: “It is a discipline that has arrived like a tsunami, an interdisciplinary science that is sweeping us all away in every area, and we need a unified approach; we need to build strength together.”

For Lazcano, who also directs the university’s master’s programs in business analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning, and generative AI for business, this unified vision is “very necessary, because many ethical questions are also involved. How are we using AI? What is the objective? To replace us, to complement us? The more aligned the vision is with the university’s mission, the greater the benefit we will be able to obtain.”

The new University Institute of Artificial Intelligence is integrated into the university both organizationally and through the multidisciplinary nature of its collaborators: philosophers, anthropologists, educators, engineers, psychologists, and others.

“There are representatives from all faculties and departments of the university, allowing each to have their perspective from their field, share it, and find those common points,” Lazcano explained.

The proposed approach to AI from a specifically Catholic perspective, she affirmed, is the one of Pope Leo XIV: “Not to be afraid of it, to understand it, to approach it with great caution.”

This caution refers to the fact that “we cannot attribute qualities and properties to it that it does not possess: Artificial intelligence is not all-powerful. If we put this technology in its proper place — and what we are doing is prioritizing human knowledge, human wisdom, and above all, what makes us different from it — that is when we can make the most of it.”

“The moment we treat artificial intelligence as a deity, we are mistaken; it is far from that, it is a complement,” she emphasized.

Contribution to the common good

The new institute aims to base its activities on four pillars: training, research, technology transfer and application, and dissemination in order to contribute to the common good.

Lazcano shared that the institute hopes to provide society with “well-trained and prepared students,” not only in technical aspects, but above all, “for the ethical challenges posed by” AI as well as the knowledge generated through research and its practical application.

Regarding dissemination, Lazcano pointed out that “it is necessary to lay the foundations for critical thinking. There is a lot of talk about artificial intelligence, and unfortunately, because there are a lot of voices, there is a lot of noise. We want what we generate to truly contribute; to be quality content that is useful to people.”

Impact on the university world

Artificial intelligence has also impacted the university sphere, Lazcano said, posing a significant challenge to “how we teach, learn, and assess.” 

She said the university should provide technology training and services to professors, students, and researchers because “when you know the tools at your disposal, you are able to apply them more effectively.”

However, “there is resistance to change,” she acknowledged, so the school hopes to implement “a technological support model in which we explain that this is a small but significant revolution; that we have to ride the wave and, above all, take advantage of its capabilities, rather than fearing it or having a negative view.”

One of the biggest challenges is that AI “is opening a spectacular technological gap between teachers and students” in which students are more advanced. “Written work no longer makes much sense. I can no longer tell if a student has done a piece of work or not,” pointed out the expert, who, nevertheless, has a hopeful outlook on the matter.

“I like to think that this is bringing us back to an original concept of university, to debate, to conversation; to putting the student at the center and supporting him in that learning process,” she said. “It’s going to completely change the rules of education, but I think for the better. Once we’ve stabilized a bit, we’ll be able to return to those fundamental subjects and make critical thinking fashionable again, rather than artificial intelligence.”

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

First responders provide aid after a bus carrying a group of mostly teenagers from Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Santa Ana, California, on its way home from a three-day retreat at Camp Nawakwa in the San Bernardino Mountains crashed on a two-lane highway near Running Springs on Nov. 9, 2025. / Credit: Photo courtesy of the San Bernardino County Fire Protection District

CNA Staff, Nov 11, 2025 / 18:16 pm (CNA).

As a group of mostly teenagers made its way home from a Catholic youth retreat in the mountains of Southern California this past weekend, the bus rolled over at a winding turn, injuring 26. 

Nearly 40 parishioners of Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Santa Ana were on their way home from a three-day retreat at Camp Nawakwa in the San Bernardino Mountains on the evening of Nov. 9 when their bus crashed on a two-lane highway near Running Springs. 

When emergency responders arrived, passengers were still escaping from the bus, with many exiting through the roof hatch. Twenty-six passengers were treated for their injuries, including 20 who were later hospitalized, according to the San Bernardino County Fire Department. Three passengers had major injuries.

Jarryd Gonzales, a spokesman for the Diocese of Orange, told CNA that the Diocese of Orange “offers heartfelt prayers and support to the youth, families, and staff of Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Santa Ana who were involved in a serious bus accident.”

“We extend our deepest gratitude to the first-responder agencies for their prompt and professional response in safely evacuating passengers and ensuring they received proper medical attention,” Gonzales said.

Gonzales said about 125 people participated in the retreat, which started Friday and ended Sunday. Most left the retreat in vans, except for the one group that took the bus.

Gonzales said the diocese will continue to “provide further updates as information becomes available.”

“Until then, our entire Diocese of Orange community will keep all those affected in prayer, and we thank all for their continued support,” he said.

Bishop Mark Seitz, chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ migration committee, speaks during a press conference on Nov. 11, 2025, at the USCCB’s fall plenary assembly in Baltimore. / Credit: Hakim Shammo/EWTN News

Baltimore, Maryland, Nov 11, 2025 / 17:46 pm (CNA).

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is launching an initiative called “You Are Not Alone” to focus on providing accompaniment to migrants who are at risk of being deported.

Bishop Mark Seitz, chair of the USCCB Committee on Migration, announced the nationwide initiative during the conference’s Fall Plenary Assembly in Baltimore on Nov. 11.

The initiative, which was inspired by similar efforts in Catholic dioceses throughout the country, will focus on four key areas: emergency and family support, accompaniment and pastoral care, communication of Church teaching, and solidarity through prayer and public witness. 

Seitz said the Catholic Church has been “accompanying newcomers to this land since before our country’s founding.” He said — in addition to spiritual and corporal works of mercy — the Church “cannot abandon our long-standing advocacy for just and meaningful reform to our immigration system.”

He said clergy will continue “proclaiming the God-given dignity of every person from the moment of conception through every stage of life until natural death,” which includes the dignity of those who migrated to the United States. 

The bishop said many dioceses have launched migrant accompaniment initiatives already.

For example, the Diocese of San Diego launched its Faithful Accompaniment in Trust & Hope (FAITH) initiative on Aug. 4. The diocese works with interfaith partners to provide spiritual accompaniment to migrants during court proceedings and throughout the court process.

Seitz reiterates opposition to ‘mass deportations’

In his address to his fellow bishops, Seitz criticized President Donald Trump’s administration for carrying out its “campaign promise of mass deportations,” which he said is “intimidating and dehumanizing the immigrants in our midst regardless of how they came to be there.”

He said the accompaniment initiative was launched because Trump’s immigration policy has created “a situation unlike anything we’ve seen previously.” He specifically referenced efforts to revoke Temporary Protected Status designations for migrants in several countries, including Venezuela and Nicaragua, and restrictions on certain visas.

“Those who lack legal status are far from the only ones impacted by this approach,” Seitz said.

He said most deportees “have no criminal convictions,” and the administration has pressured immigration enforcement “to increase the number of arrests.”

“Our immigrant brothers and sisters … are living in a deep state of fear,” Seitz said. “Many are too afraid to work, send their children to school, or avail themselves to the sacraments.”

Seitz, earlier in the day, noted that bishops are primarily pastors, and “because we’re pastors … we care about our people, and we care particularly for those who are most vulnerable and those who are most in need.”

Pope Leo XIV has encouraged the American bishops to be vocal on the dignity of migrants. In October, the pontiff met with American bishops, including Seitz, and other supporters of migrants. 

According to one person present, Dylan Corbett, the founding executive director of Hope Border Institute, Leo told the group: “The Church cannot stay silent before injustice. You stand with me, and I stand with you.”

The Sacred Heart of Jesus. / Credit: Unidentified painter, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Baltimore, Maryland, Nov 11, 2025 / 17:16 pm (CNA).

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) approved the consecration of the nation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 2026 to accompany the country’s 250th anniversary.

At the USCCB Fall Plenary Assembly in Baltimore, bishops voted “to entrust our nation to the love and care of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.” Devoting the nation is an opportunity “to remind everyone of our task to serve our nation by perfecting the temporal order with the spirit of the Gospel as taught by the Second Vatican Council,” Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, said.

“One hundred years ago, in 1925, in his encyclical instituting the feast of Christ the King, Pope Pius XI, drawing on the teaching of Pope Leo XIII, referred to the pious custom of consecrating oneself, families, and even nations to the Sacred Heart of Jesus as a way to recognize the kinship of Christ,” said Rhoades, who serves on an advisory board for President Donald Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission.

To help Catholics prepare for the consecration, Rhoades said the bishops will develop prayer resources, including a novena. He said they are already putting together other resources for use by dioceses, parishes, and other groups to engage Catholics.

“In his fourth and last encyclical, Dilexit Nos, Pope Francis brought devotion to the Sacred Heart to the forefront of Catholic life as the ultimate symbol of both human and divine love, calling it a wellspring of peace and unity,” said Rhoades, who has served as chair of the USCCB Committee on Religious Liberty. 

Francis “wrote of how the Sacred Heart teaches us to build up in this world God’s kingdom of love and justice. Then in his first apostolic exhortation, Dilexi Te, Pope Leo XIV, following upon Pope Francis’ teaching, invites us to contemplate Christ’s love, the love that moves us to mission in our suffering world today,” Rhoades said.

Before bishops voted to consecrate the U.S. to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Archbishop Paul Etienne of Seattle asked if the bishops will include catechetical materials to guide Catholics, as the devotion “is ultimately inviting people into a deeper relationship with the very person of Jesus himself.”

Etienne said the “devotion to the Sacred Heart is such a rich devotion and almost complex.” 

Rhoades responded they “do intend to have catechetical materials,” because “there is such an abundance of beautiful teaching.” 

At the request of Bishop Arturo Cepeda of San Antonio, Rhoades said the bishops can provide the materials in various languages “to have as many of our people involved as possible.” He said the resources will also allow individuals and families to make their own consecration, as the  consecration simultaneously happens across the nation.

Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski proposed a celebration during the bishops’ spring meeting in Orlando, Florida, in June at the solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and suggested inviting Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and other officials to attend.

History of the devotion

The story behind the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus dates back to 1673. At a monastery belonging to the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary in eastern France, Sister Margaret Mary Alacoque began experiencing visions of the Sacred Heart that continued for 18 months.

Sister Margaret Mary learned ways to venerate the Sacred Heart of Christ during her visions. These devotions included a Holy Hour on Thursdays, the creation of the feast of the Sacred Heart after Corpus Christi, and the reception of the Eucharist on the first Friday of every month.

On June 16, 1675, Jesus told Sister Margaret Mary to promote a feast that honored his Sacred Heart. He also gave Sister Margaret Mary 12 promises to all who venerated and promoted the devotion of the Sacred Heart.

The Vatican was first hesitant to declare a feast of the Sacred Heart. But as the devotion spread throughout France, the Vatican granted the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to France in 1765. In 1856, Blessed Pius IX designated the Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi as the feast of the Sacred Heart for the universal Church.

Maura Moser (far left), director of the Catholic Communications Campaign, moderates a discussion on immigration with (left to right) Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops; Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades, chair of the USCCB’s religious liberty committee, and Bishop Mark Seitz, chairman of the USCCB’s migration committee, on Nov. 11, 2025, during a press conference at the conference’s Fall Plenary Assembly in Baltimore. / Credit: Shannon Mullen/National Catholic Register

Baltimore, Maryland, Nov 11, 2025 / 16:04 pm (CNA).

U.S. bishops said immigration enforcement in the United States is a “crisis situation” affecting human dignity and religious liberty in the nation.

At a press conference during the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Fall Plenary Assembly in Baltimore, USCCB President Archbishop Timothy Broglio; Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso, Texas; and Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, discussed migrants and the “uncertainty” they feel amid immigration enforcement in the nation. 

In the Nov. 11 press conference, Broglio said immigration enforcement is “preventing people from bringing their children to church, to school, or … to the emergency room.”

He added: “We, as pastors, would like to alleviate that fear and assure ... people that we are with them.”

“I think there’s a remarkable unity among all the bishops. This is an issue of human dignity,” Broglio said. “The Gospel teaches us especially to be compassionate, reach out to the immigrants, and just [have] concern about their well-being.”

“For us, this issue is not an abstract one,” Seitz said. “It’s a personal one because we’re pastors … We care about our people, and we care particularly for those who are most vulnerable and those who are most in need.”

“Bishops across the board” are seeing “people in our dioceses being swept up in this effort to go after people who are immigrants,” Seitz said. “I say that in a very broad sense, because although what the government has been saying, ‘We’re after criminals,’ it’s extended much more broadly than that.”

“While we certainly agree that people who are some threat to our community ought to be taken off of our streets once they’re convicted, the sweep has taken up so many others and has the risk of setting aside any due process.”

Seitz said the right to due process is “a fundamental part of our nation’s basic approach that everyone has certain rights. Those rights ought to be respected with a process that allows us to ascertain whether they indeed did commit some act that was a violation of our law.”

A matter of religious liberty 

Denying Communion to detainees is “an issue of religious liberty,” the bishops said, adding that the USCCB Committee on Religious Liberty is “very concerned” about it.

The committee met on Nov. 10 to discuss how to ensure people in detention facilities receive “pastoral spiritual care and especially the grace of the sacraments,” Rhoades said. “One doesn’t lose that right when one is detained. Whether one is documented or undocumented — this is a fundamental right of the person.”

“It’s heartbreaking when you think of the suffering. Especially those who’ve been detained, separated from families, those who haven’t committed crimes,” Rhoades said. “They need spiritual support in this, and they need the sacraments.”

The bishops were asked by reporters if they plan to speak to the Trump administration about its immigration policies, which are affecting parishes across the United States. 

Seitz said the bishops are working on a statement at their fall meeting. “As bishops, we want to speak from who we are, and certainly, we address issues of principle, such as religious liberty … [and] human dignity,” he said.

“We’ll try to stick to our foundations … in any statement that we make,” he continued. “But we also want it to be something that’s very clear and that is rooted in the Gospel. … It will also, I believe, speak to immigrants, not simply to our government.”

“It will be a message of solidarity with our brothers and sisters who find themselves in difficulty or who find themselves in fear to let them know that they’re not alone, that their pastors are going on with them,” Seitz said.

Rhoades added that the goal of the message is also “to cross the aisle,” as the Church is “not partisan.” 

“We’re talking about human lives in the United States and really important principles of our country — including just human dignity [and] religious liberty,” Rhoades said. “I’m just hopeful that we can move beyond the impasse.”

Later in the day, Seitz announced that the USCCB is launching the “You Are Not Alone” initiative for migrants, which will focus on “emergency and family support, accompaniment and pastoral care, communications and Church teaching … and solidarity through prayer and public witness.”