Browsing News Entries
Francis, the comic strip: Executive order
Posted on 02/11/2025 08:00 AM (National Catholic Reporter)
From Catholic to catholicity: Higher education in an age of emergence
Posted on 02/11/2025 08:00 AM (National Catholic Reporter)
5 fascinating facts about the apparitions of Our Lady of Lourdes
Posted on 02/11/2025 08:00 AM (CNA Daily News)

CNA Staff, Feb 11, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).
On Feb. 11, the Catholic Church celebrates the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. In Lourdes, France, in 1858, 13-year-old Bernadette Soubirous was collecting pieces of wood as part of her daily chores when she noticed a startling wind and rustling sound. The noise came from a nearby grotto. When Bernadette looked toward it, she saw it filled with a golden light and a beautiful lady.
It was at this grotto that the Blessed Mother appeared to Bernadette 18 times and where millions of Catholic pilgrims visit the healing waters at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes.
Records have been kept from the exchanges between Bernadette and our Blessed Mother. Here are five of the most fascinating facts about the apparitions that took place at the grotto:
1. Paralysis
When Bernadette first saw the beautiful lady in the grotto during the first apparition, on Feb. 11, 1858, it is said that she immediately smiled at Bernadette and signaled to her to come closer, in the same way a mother motions to her child. Bernadette took out her rosary and knelt before the Lady, who also had a rosary on her right arm. When Bernadette tried to begin saying the rosary by making the sign of the cross, her arm was paralyzed. It was only after the Lady made the sign of the cross herself that Bernadette was able to do the same. The Lady remained silent as Bernadette prayed the rosary, but the beads of her rosary passed between her fingers.
2. The secret prayer
During the fifth apparition, which took place on Feb. 20, 1858, the Lady taught Bernadette a prayer, which she recited every day for the rest of her life. She never revealed the prayer to anyone, but she did say she was told to always bring a blessed candle with her. This is why candles perpetually burn at the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes.
3. The Lady shares her name
At the 16th apparition, on March 25, 1858, the feast of the Annunciation, the Lady revealed her identity to Bernadette, calling herself the “Immaculate Conception.”
4. The burn of fire
Bernadette never forgot to bring a lighted candle to the grotto since she was told to do so by the Lady. During the 17th apparition, on April 7, 1858, Bernadette unconsciously placed one of her hands over the burning flame. Witnesses saw the flame burning through her fingers, and yet she was able to pray for 15 minutes with the flame burning her hand. As she emerged from her prayer, she was unscathed and didn’t even notice cries of horror from the people in the crowd. Dr. Pierre Romaine Dozous, a well-known physician from Lourdes, took another lit candle and, without warning, placed the flame to her hand. Bernadette immediately cried out in pain.
5. The miracle of Bernadette’s body
After the apparitions ended, Bernadette went on to become a Sister of Charity. She died at age 34 on April 16, 1879. She was buried on the convent grounds in Nevers, France. Thirty years later, on Sept. 22, 1909, her body was exhumed and found completely intact. A second exhumation took place on April 3, 1919. The body was found in the exact same state as it had been 10 years earlier. Bernadette was canonized a saint on Dec. 8, 1933, by Pope Pius XI.
This story was first published on Feb. 11, 2022, and has been updated.
Mass attendance ticks back up nationally after pandemic falter, data suggests
Posted on 02/10/2025 21:40 PM (CNA Daily News)

CNA Staff, Feb 10, 2025 / 17:40 pm (CNA).
After years of uncertainty over whether in-person Mass attendance numbers would ever rebound after plummeting during the COVID-era lockdowns, new data suggests that Mass attendance levels have quietly returned to 2019 levels nearly six years later.
Despite the apparent uptick, however, a return to 2019 levels still means only a quarter of U.S. Catholics attend Mass weekly — despite weekly attendance being an obligatory part of Catholic life.
The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University, a premier Catholic research organization, recently used national surveys it conducted combined with Google Trends search volumes for Mass attendance-related terms to estimate weekly attendance across the United States.
In a Feb. 5 blog post, CARA explained that prior to the pandemic in 2019, weekly Mass attendance in the U.S. averaged 24.4%. Between May 2023 and the first week of 2025, meanwhile, attendance has averaged 24%, CARA estimated, representing an overall return to pre-pandemic levels.
In addition, CARA said Mass attendance numbers for Easter and Ash Wednesday — the latter being one of the best-attended Mass days of the year, despite not being a holy day of obligation — actually returned to pre-pandemic levels in 2023.
Christmas attendance numbers, meanwhile, finally rebounded to pre-pandemic levels in 2024.
“We have hypothesized that the heightened awareness and warnings about COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases during January were keeping some from returning to Mass at that time of year. We will keep tracking Mass attendance through 2025 and let you know how Ash Wednesday and Easter measure up,” the blog post reads.
From the start of the COVID pandemic lockdowns in the U.S. beginning in March 2020 to the declared end of the pandemic in May 2023, Mass attendance averaged just 15% as many bishops dispensed their flocks from the obligation to attend in person. Some bishops lifted the dispensations as early as late 2020, while a few held out until 2022 before lifting the dispensation and inviting Catholics back to Mass in person.
As to whether Catholics would in fact return to Mass, the data collected as the pandemic wound down was not promising, in part because post-pandemic church attendance rates declined more sharply among Catholics than it did among Protestants.
A March 2023 Pew Research Center showed that 24% of Catholics said they attend in-person religious services less often than they did before the pandemic, 38% “about as often,” and only 9% more often.
And a survey released in January 2023 by the American Enterprise Institute concluded that the percentage of Americans overall who attend religious services dipped about 8% following the COVID-19 pandemic.
King Charles and Queen Camilla to visit Pope Francis at the Vatican
Posted on 02/10/2025 21:20 PM (CNA Daily News)

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Feb 10, 2025 / 17:20 pm (CNA).
Buckingham Palace announced in a Feb. 7 statement that King Charles and Queen Camilla of England will travel to the Vatican to meet with Pope Francis in April.
The statement said the pair “will undertake state visits to the Holy See and the Republic of Italy in early April 2025.”
“During their majesties’ state visit to the Holy See, the king and queen will join His Holiness Pope Francis in celebrating the 2025 Jubilee Year. Traditionally held once every 25 years, the jubilee is a special year for the Catholic Church, a year of walking together as ‘Pilgrims of Hope,’” the statement reads.
The visit will continue a tradition of British royal involvement in the celebration, following Queen Elizabeth II’s travels to the Vatican during the 2000 Jubilee Year. The queen attended a private meeting with Pope John Paul II, one of five popes she encountered through her years of royalty.
The anticipated visit will be King Charles’ first time in Italy as monarch but his third time meeting with Pope Francis. The then-prince met with the pope in 2017 when Pope Francis told him to be a “man of peace,” to which Charles replied: “I’ll do my best.” The two met again in 2019 on a trip Charles took with Camilla.
According to Buckingham Palace, “during their majesties’ state visit to the Republic of Italy, the king and queen will undertake engagements in Rome and Ravenna, celebrating the strong bilateral relationship between Italy and the United Kingdom.”
Nicaragua lashes out at Vatican after EWTN interview with Bishop Rolando Álvarez
Posted on 02/10/2025 21:00 PM (CNA Daily News)

ACI Prensa Staff, Feb 10, 2025 / 17:00 pm (CNA).
The Nicaraguan government has lashed out at the Vatican following an interview that Bishop Rolando Álvarez gave last week to the Spanish-language edition of EWTN News in Rome.
“We are speaking out against statements made on behalf of the Vatican state from websites and platforms that are their own, statements that constitute an insult to the sovereignty and dignity of the Nicaraguan state,” the Nicaraguan Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated in a letter published in Spanish and English on Feb. 8.
“The statements cited are irresponsible and disrespectful and violate the supreme laws and legislation that govern the independent life of our blessed Nicaragua. Furthermore, without any supranational political authority, the Vatican state seeks to assign positions and powers that it purports to grant in Nicaragua to persons who ceased to be Nicaraguans, due to improper and intolerable conduct,” the letter from the Nicaraguan government stated.
Although the text does not specify which statements it refers to, the reaction of the regime of President Daniel Ortega and his wife and co-president, Rosario Murillo, took place shortly after the EWTN interview with Álvarez, the bishop Matagalpa and apostolic administrator of Estelí, which was published Feb. 6 in ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. CNA translated and adapted the article here.
In the interview, Álvarez, who spoke in a personal capacity and not as a representative of the Vatican, said that when he arrived in Rome he intended to submit his resignation to Pope Francis. “But I found the goodness of God and the Holy Father who want me to continue being the ordinary of Matagalpa and the apostolic administrator of Estelí, even though I am in the diaspora,” the prelate told EWTN.
“I love my people very much, I love my town and I want to tell them that I am a bishop for the universal Church. That is, I was ordained bishop for Matagalpa. I am the visible head of Matagalpa and the apostolic administrator of Estelí and I will continue being so as long as God wants,” he noted in the interview.
Álvarez was sentenced to 26 years and four months in prison on Feb. 10, 2023, accused of “treason” for denouncing the excesses of the dictatorship and was stripped of his Nicaraguan citizenship, as has happened to numerous political prisoners, including other members of the Catholic Church. In January 2024, he was deported to the Vatican.
Neither ACI Prensa nor EWTN, its parent company, are websites or platforms of the Vatican, but rather independent, lay-run media outlets that report on the Catholic Church.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Super Bowl commercials: Rocket Mortgage, Google’s dream job were top life-affirming ads
Posted on 02/10/2025 20:30 PM (CNA Daily News)

National Catholic Register, Feb 10, 2025 / 16:30 pm (CNA).
The internet is aflutter every year when Super Bowl Sunday comes along.
This year, some people were posting family gametime photos, sharing mouth-watering images of how their signature chili turned out, or reacting in real time to the blowout game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles.
But, of course, many came strictly for the commercials, and Super Bowl LIX did not disappoint. Here are the top pro-life commercials from Super Bowl 2025.
1. Rocket Mortgage invested in a 60-second spot, and the message was, indeed, a winner.
The commercial opened with a view into a high-rise building, showing a silhouette of a pregnant mother rubbing her belly and saying, “Let’s get you home.” The video montage then moved to winding roads in West Virginia, focusing on a home with a child playing in the sprinkler, beautiful babies being cleaned in the tub, and a doting dad washing his baby in the sink. Next came couples coming into their new home, smiling as they spent their first night sleeping on the floor — sprinkled with shots of servicemen and women singing John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” all aboard a military aircraft. The commercial honed in on the American dream, as a father goes outside to glimpse up at his house, with a tear running down his cheek. Families and babies for the win!
2. He Gets Us ran another ad this year set to the Johnny Cash song “Personal Jesus,” showcasing several scenes of Americans helping one another.
From neighbors pushing cars out of snow piles to a woman helping another woman out of an overturned car after an accident, the message resonated with viewers, especially given the events of the last year: devastating wildfires, flooding, mass shootings, and other tragedies. One scene shows an elderly man on the floor next to his ailing wife, who is in a fragile state resting on the couch. In another scene, the commercial pans to what appears to be a “pride march,” with two men hugging, as one, presumably a Christian, wears a hat emblazoned with John 3:16. At the end of the video, text is shown across the screen: “Jesus showed us what greatness really is.”
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Unaffiliated with any one religion, He Gets Us first came on to the scene in 2021. In recent years, the Servant Foundation, an organization that has been a strong donor to Alliance Defending Freedom, was helping to create the ads. The website of He Gets Us shares this message: “No matter who you are, YOU are invited to explore the story of Jesus and consider what it means for your life.”
3. Jeep spent $32 million for a two-minute ad featuring actor Harrison Ford with a patriotic message that also highlighted the dangers of pride (while mentioning humility).
“Freedom is for everybody. But it isn’t free. It’s earned," Ford says amid interspliced archival shots of Jeeps shown carrying servicemen during past wars.
“There are real heroes in the world, but not the ones in the movies. Real heroes are humble, and they’re not driven by pride.”
A father is shown hugging his daughter before he departs on a military mission.
Adds the actor: “The most sacred thing in life isn’t the path. It’s the freedom to choose it.”
4. Rapper Snoop Dogg and NFL legend-turned-sports broadcaster Tom Brady team up for an ad highlighting the rise of antisemitism across the country.
Focusing on the word “hate,” the celebrity duo battle back and forth, throwing insults at each other to highlight the scourge of hatred:
“I hate you because we are from different neighborhoods.”
“I hate you because you look different.”
“I hate you because you pray different.”
“I hate you because I don’t understand you.”
“I hate you because people I know I hate you.”
“I hate you because I think you hate me.”
The organization No Reason to Hate, owned by New England Patriots’ owner Robert Kraft, produced the ad. The foundation’s main aim is to fight antisemitism, an issue the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has picked up recently, partnering with the American Jewish League to publish “Translate Hate: The Catholic Edition.” As the USCCB document states: “Stopping antisemitism starts with understanding it.” Catholic actress Patricia Heaton has also been working to raise awareness of the rise of antisemitism; she recently announced her own pilgrimage to the Holy Land, set for the springtime.
The ad ends with the onscreen sentence: “Reasons for hate are as stupid as they sound.”
5. The NFL stepped in this year with a beautiful ad highlighting the great work the football organization does within the host city of New Orleans to inspire young kids and teens.
Posting the video to YouTube, the NFL explained the idea behind the images of football players talking with different groups of children: “Demario Davis, Arik Armstead, and Adam Thielen partner with kids across New Orleans to help shine a light on the NFL’s ongoing dedication to supporting programs that positively impact the lives of kids everywhere.”
The commercial starts with a player saying: “Repeat after me ... ‘I am … Somebody.’”
Later is another favorite: “I may be small, but I am Somebody ....”
The ad stresses how kids are different in appearance or ability, but “I must be respected… I must be protected” while the screen shows young Special Olympics athletes huddling together; included in the group is an athlete with Down syndrome.
It is an inspiring ad showcasing the fragility and beauty of all life — with a message at the end for all of us to be that somebody who knows each child’s value: “Every kid can be somebody if they have somebody to show them the way.”
Yes! Thank you #NFL for this beautiful message for #everychild! #belonging #truepotential #IamSomebody
— REJECT documentary (@RejectFilm) February 10, 2025
Somebody | It Takes All of Us SB LIX https://t.co/JsYnZvZsTq via @YouTube
6. “The Dream Job” ad about Google Gemini’s artificial intelligence also stole the show last night, showing a man’s best job ever: fatherhood.
Opening with a man talking as he peers into a fridge decorated with images of him and his daughter hugging.
“When you’re ready, tell me about the job that taught you the most,” an AI assistant prompts the pajama-wearing dad.
“It was a role where I worked long hours with a small team,” the father answers, as images flood the screen of a baby crying at night, before showing the mother coming to take her turn caring for the infant.
“I did a lot of multitasking and negotiating,” he says as he’s shown juggling the baby while he’s on a call and trying to stir something on the stove.
“One more book,” he then says to a little toddler, who answers back: “Two more ...”
The AI voice mentions how much collaborating is part of this job, and the dad agrees, saying: “I don’t always have all the answers, but I get the job done, no matter how long it takes” as he is shown teaching his teen daughter how to drive.
“Last question,” the AI assistant asks. “What motivates you?”
“I guess knowing that people can depend on me. And knowing that I can depend on them too,” the now-aging father says as his daughter returns back to the car for one last hug at college drop-off — and the father reminisces, still hugging that tiny child, about the early days of his dream job.
Although the commercial is highlighting the Google Pixel phone and this new era of artificial intelligence being used in almost every facet of business, now including job counseling and even interview preparation, Google showcased the truly wonderful gift of parenting.
This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, and has been adapted by CNA.
Minnesota bishops call for ‘generous but also prudent’ welcome of refugees
Posted on 02/10/2025 20:00 PM (CNA Daily News)

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Feb 10, 2025 / 16:00 pm (CNA).
Minnesota’s Catholic bishops released a statement Feb. 7 advocating for “comprehensive immigration reform to fix our broken system” while urging the Trump administration to refrain from deporting migrants without criminal records.
“Sadly, our nation’s immigration system is broken. For too long, our laws on paper said ‘stop, no entry’ while in fact, for economic and political reasons, undocumented migrants were allowed inside, sometimes with the encouragement of business interests and even our government,” the statement from the eight bishops reads.
“As Pope Francis has said, migrants have been too often treated as ‘pawns on the chessboard of humanity,’” the bishops said. “Elected officials in both major political parties have failed to rise above political calculation and collaborate on a solution rooted in respect for migrants and the common good of the nation.”
“The Biden administration’s migration policies exacerbated these problems, and as a response, President Trump has resolved to instigate measures focused primarily on enforcement and deportations,” the statement reads.
The bishops called on citizens “to appeal to Congress and the president for comprehensive reform of our broken system that includes resources for improved border security, a generous but also prudent welcome of refugees and those seeking asylum that does not overly burden local communities, and pathways to legal status for long-term undocumented residents.”
The bishops in the statement took issue with a Jan. 21 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) directive rescinding Biden-era guidelines that previously required Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to seek their superior’s approval before arresting people at or near “sensitive locations” such as churches, hospitals, or schools.
“We appeal to the administration for a revised order that would establish that, absent exigent circumstances, no immigration enforcement action may take place on Catholic church or school property without a properly executed warrant,” the statement reads.
The statement aligns with others from bishops across the nation in urging the administration to prioritize deporting “those with criminal records” rather than migrants without criminal records, many of whom have lived in the United States for years.
“We oppose any campaign of indiscriminate immigration enforcement that threatens to unnecessarily or unjustly separate the families of those we have come to know as our brothers and sisters in Christ,” the bishops said.
The statement also acknowledges the need for securing borders but calls for human dignity to be upheld while doing so.
“The fact that we advocate for comprehensive immigration reform and the just enforcement of laws against those already residing here is not simple-minded advocacy for ‘open borders.’ We recognize that public officials have the responsibility of protecting their citizens and both promoting public safety and putting the needs of their people first.”
What is a Jubilee year in the Catholic Church?
Posted on 02/10/2025 19:59 PM (National Catholic Reporter)
How Trump's USAID shutdown threatens the world's climate goals
Posted on 02/10/2025 19:02 PM (National Catholic Reporter)