Organizers of Pope Leo XIV’s upcoming digital dialogue with young people Nov. 21 at the National Catholic Youth Conference in Indianapolis speak to the media at the site of the United States Catholic Bishops’ Conference Fall Plenary Assembly in Baltimore on Nov. 12, 2025. Left to right: Cardinal Christophe Pierre, papal nuncio to the United States; Montse Alvarado, president and COO of EWTN News; Archbishop Nelson J. Pérez, Archdiocese of Philadelphia; Christina Lamas, executive director of National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry; and Archbishop Charles Thompson, Archdiocese of Indianapolis. / Credit: Shannon Mullen/National Catholic Register

Baltimore, Maryland, Nov 17, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Bishops discussed young Catholics’ place in the Church ahead of the National Catholic Youth Conference.

At the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Fall Plenary Assembly in Baltimore, bishops spoke about the young generation as many prepare to attend NCYC. The conference will take place Nov. 20–22 in Indianapolis for prayer, community, evangelization, and service among Catholic teenagers.

During NCYC, Pope Leo XIV will hold a digital dialogue with teens from across the nation. “When the pope speaks, he speaks to the world, and this will be a wonderful, wonderful moment. This encounter will engage young people in real time,” said Archbishop Nelson Pérez of Philadelphia. 

At a Nov. 12 press conference at the USCCB fall plenary, Pérez said “there is a deep significance to this encounter.” He added: “It reflects the Holy Father’s desire to connect with young people, with our youth, whom his predecessor … Pope Francis, called ‘the now of God.’”

Pérez said during his time as a priest and bishop, he has noticed teenagers “want a place in the Church.” He said: “They want to be seen, heard, and valued, which is so beautiful ... They want to be loved by the Church.”

“Even in today’s interconnected world, the Church can seem far away from young people. The Holy Father’s choice to encounter the American youth ... is an expression of his closeness to the youth of the world.”

“This moment will mark a powerful opportunity for young people to witness the beauty of the universal Church with our Holy Father and to express their concerns, voices, experience, [and] what’s in their hearts,” Pérez said.

Bishop Joseph Espaillat, auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of New York, has attended NCYC more than a dozen times. He told CNA “the energy and the vibrancy of the young people” is why he returns each year.

“It’s not just the local parish or the local diocese, but it’s the national Church and there’s something powerful when we come together,” Espaillat said.

​This year’s event is “the first time ever the Holy Father has a live online interview like this,” at NCYC, Espaillat said. “What I love about it is that the Church in the United States is leading right now. The young people being the focus with our Holy Father is going to be great, and it’s going to produce a lot of positive energy in our Church.”

Espaillat encouraged attendees “to be open and allow yourself to be surprised by the Holy Spirit.” He added: “Don’t go in with a preconceived notion. It is a great event in which there are many, many fruits. I’ve seen young people just come to life at the event.”

Youth draw closer to the Church

As thousands of teenagers plan to gather at the national conference, U.S. bishops further explained why so many young Catholics are looking to the Church. A number of bishops highlighted the Catholic presence on social media is helping to draw them in.

Bishop William Byrne of Springfield, Massachusetts, told CNA the exponential growth of young Catholics coming to the Church is “amazing and exciting.” Byrne, who served as chair for the USCCB’s committee on communications, detailed how much its online presence has grown its outreach to the young generation and wider population. 

“Beginning with the illness of our beloved Pope Francis, through the funeral, and then the transition to Pope Leo, we’ve actually had a 226% growth in our social media on the four platforms we use — TikTok, Instagram, X, and YouTube,” he said.

“The amazing thing is, it’s still growing. It means that people are seeing it, sharing it,” Byrne said. He specifically noted it’s the “young people” spreading the message online. 

“So we see that we are reaching people,” Byrne said. “But our goal is not to get people locked on their phones. Our goal is to get people locked on Jesus Christ and have the impression be Jesus Christ and his bride, the Church.”

“This is an exciting time. It’s not without its challenges, but it’s also a wonderful opportunity,” Byrne said. “We’re reaching young people who are curious and hungry. It’s so exciting to see the Church continue to speak to the world, because the Church has never lost her relevance.”

The start of the Catholic online presence followed the movement of the new atheists, Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, said. He told CNA the movement was made up of “people who were really shaping the culture, saying: ‘There’s no purpose of life. We come from nowhere. We go nowhere. There’s no objective moral value.’”

“A lot of people, myself included, began to get on social media with a religious voice,” Barron said. “People who had not heard a religious voice or who were disaffiliated … could find people like me and many others who were actually talking about God and about religion.”

“But I think as a whole generation came of age, they realized what a desperately sad and empty message that is,” Barron said. “There’s this hunger in the heart for God, and so that just reasserts itself. I think a lot of younger people who were raised on this very vapid philosophy began to look to religion.”

As more young Catholics get involved in youth formation whether in their parishes or at larger gatherings like NCYC, Barron said he encourages them to use the opportunities to “build community and build a sense of family with other believers.”

Barron, who is the founder of the Catholic media organization Word on Fire, has gained nearly 3 million YouTube subscribers and millions of other followers across social media platforms. But, he said, “one drawback of social media is that it’s a little private world. It can be a lot of people accessing it, but privately.”

“Maybe through social media an individual finds a path to religion, but then to look around a room and see thousands of other people that are on a similar path — that’s a great thing,” Barron said.

null / Credit: Daniel Jedzura/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Nov 17, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Slightly over 10 years after it redefined marriage to include same-sex couples, the U.S. Supreme Court on Nov. 10 declined to revisit that controversial decision, upholding at least for now its ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges that made “gay marriage” the law of the land.

A decade after that ruling, nearly a million same-sex couples in the U.S. are participating in what the law now defines as marriage. Yet the Catholic Church has continued to affirm the definition of marriage as being exclusively a union between a man and a woman. 

That has been the prevailing definition of marriage around the world for at least about 5,000 years of human history, though many societies have allowed polygamy, or multiple spouses, in various forms. The same-sex variant of marriage, meanwhile, only became accepted in recent decades. 

The Church has held since its beginning that marriage is strictly between one man and one woman. The Catechism of the Catholic Church directs that marriage occurs when “a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life.” It is “by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring.”

Church Fathers and theologians from the earliest days of Catholicism have consistently upheld that marriage is meant to be a lifelong, permanent union between one man and one woman, with St. Augustine explicitly naming “offspring” as one of the blessings of marriage, along with “fidelity” and “the sacramental bond.”

Gay marriage a ‘misnomer’ by Church teaching

John Grabowski, a professor of moral theology at The Catholic University of America, told CNA that marriage in the Catholic Church’s teaching is based on “unity, indissolubility, and [is ordered] toward life,” or the begetting of children.

“Those criteria can only be met in a union between a man and a woman,” he said. “They cannot be met in a union between two men and two women. ‘Gay marriage’ is thus a misnomer in the Church’s understanding.”

The Supreme Court’s redefinition of marriage, Grabowski argued, was an act of “judicial fiat” rather than a recognition of what marriage actually is. He said the high court was functioning more as a “cultural barometer” reflecting an erroneous shift in perception on what marriage is.

“It would be similar to if the court passed a rule saying we could call a square a circle,” he said. “It’s just not based on the reality of the natural world.”

The Obergefell ruling came after years of LGBT activist efforts to redefine marriage both within individual states and at the federal level. Advocates had argued that there was no meaningful reason to restrict marriage to opposite-sex couples and that to do so constituted discrimination. 

Many critics have claimed that the Church’s broader teaching on marriage actually left the door open for same-sex couples to marry — for instance, they argued, by allowing opposite-sex couples to marry even if one or both of the spouses are infertile, the Church implicitly divorces biological childbearing from marriage itself. 

Grabowski acknowledged that the Church does allow infertile couples to get married (and to stay married if infertility occurs at a later date). But he pointed out that the Church does in fact prohibit marriage for those who are impotent, or constitutionally incapable of intercourse. 

The key point for the Church, he said, is what St. John Paul II called the “spousal meaning of the body.” The late pope argued that men and women “exist in the relationship of the reciprocal gift of self,” ordered to the communion of “one flesh” of which the Bible speaks in Genesis. 

The Church’s teaching, Grabowski said, “is based on the natural law. It tells us that the way God designed us is for the good of our flourishing, both as individuals and as the good of society.”

Though marriage advocates have continued to criticize the Supreme Court’s decision over the past decade, others have at times suggested a pivot away from directly challenging it at the legal level. 

In 2017, for instance, Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, Bishop Robert Barron affirmed his opposition to gay marriage but questioned “the prudence and wisdom” of attempting to legislatively outlaw it at that time. The bishop suggested instead that “personal witness and education” were better tools for the current political climate.

Grabowski acknowledged that one “could say, realistically, the ship has sailed and the political question is dead.”

“But that’s a political judgment,” he said. Catholics should not lose sight of the goal to reestablish correct laws on marriage, he argued.

“In terms of something to hope for, pray for, and to the degree that we’re able to, work for it — that’s something Catholics should aspire to.”

The University of Notre Dame. / Credit: Matt B. via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 16, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Here’s a roundup of the latest Catholic education news in the United States:

Notre Dame drops ‘acceptance and support for Catholic mission’ from staff values 

The University of Notre Dame has dropped acceptance and support for its Catholic mission from the list of staff values it has held for the past 20 years. 

The university’s leadership announced new updates to its staff values at its Fall 2025 Staff Town Halls on Oct. 29 and 30, according to a press release. Human Resources President Heather Christophersen said the new values were “an expression of how we seek to advance Notre Dame’s mission as a global, Catholic research university.”

Prior to the change, Notre Dame’s staff values were as follows: 

— Accountability: Takes responsibility and ownership for decisions, actions, and results. Accountable for both how and what is accomplished

— Teamwork: Works cooperatively as a member of a team and is committed to the overall team objectives rather than own interests

— Integrity: Demonstrates honest and ethical behavior that displays a high moral standard. Widely trusted, respectful, and honorable

— Leadership in Excellence: Demonstrates energy and commitment to improving results, takes initiatives often involving calculated risks while considering the common good

— Leadership in Mission: Understands, accepts, and supports the Catholic mission of the university and fosters values consistent with that mission

The new and pared down values and their descriptions are: 

— Community: Treat every person with dignity and respect.

— Collaboration: Work together with honesty, kindness, and humility.

— Excellence: Pursue the highest standards with a commitment to truth and service.

— Innovation: Embrace opportunities with creativity and dedication.

According to the Notre Dame Observer, Christophersen said in an email to staff that the former Notre Dame values “had only one value that pointed into mission” and that the decision to remove the “Leadership in Mission” value was motivated by a desire to reframe the school’s Catholic mission as all-encompassing. She said the old values had caused confusion in staff evaluation processes during annual performance reviews and that the school does not monitor religious affiliation for staff in the same way as faculty and students. 

Notre Dame did not return multiple requests for comment.

University of St. Francis and Belleville Diocese announce student admission partnership

The University of St. Francis (USF) and the Diocese of Belleville, Illinois, have announced a new partnership guaranteeing admission for diocesan high school graduates. 

Students from Althoff Catholic High School, Mater Dei Catholic High School, and Gibault Catholic High School will have guaranteed admission at the university as well as the opportunity to earn scholarships of up to $3,000. 

“We are so pleased with this partnership and look forward to welcoming students from the Catholic high schools within the Belleville Diocese,” University of St. Francis President Ryan C. Hendrickson said in a press release announcing the partnership. 

“In addition to the guaranteed admission, USF plans to host workshops and information sessions for diocese-based school counselors, teachers, parents, and prospective students. USF will also offer campus visitation days, facilitating exploration and engagement with the diocese schools,” the release stated.

Archdiocese of Hartford to open 2 new Catholic schools amid Mass attendance boom 

The Archdiocese of Hartford, Connecticut, will open two new Catholic schools next year as Mass attendance and renewed interest in the faith continues to rise. 

“A lot of the decisions that are being made in the public-school systems are not decisions that a lot of people find easy to hold, and they’re looking for places where they could just find a little bit less politics,” Archbishop Christopher Coyne said, emphasizing the important role of Catholic schools in this environment, according to a local report. Coyne said elsewhere that the new school openings come amid “a great reversal of the downward trends we experienced before and during COVID.”

One of the schools, Chesterton Academy of St. Francis of Assisi, will accept ninth and 10th grade students in fall 2026. The other school, the Catholic Academy of Hartford, will accept pre-K through second graders starting in the fall, adding a grade each year until it reaches the eighth grade. The school will operate on an income-based tuition model. 

St. Anselm College announces reception of $40 million gift 

St. Anselm College, a Benedictine liberal arts school in New Hampshire, announced a $40 million gift, the largest donation in the school’s 136-year history. 

The gift was from Robert and Beverly Grappone, whose son, Greg, graduated from the college in 2004 and passed away from cancer at the age of 35. “While many colleges and universities are struggling in a challenging higher education environment, St. Anselm is fortunate to have a different story,” the college said in a press release announcing the historic gift. “The college has seen enrollment growth over the last four years, increasing each year since the post-COVID class. This year’s incoming freshmen class set a record with 647 students. The college has a retention rate of 90%.”

The gift includes $11 million designated for the school of business, which will be named the Robert J. Grappone School of Business and Innovation, a $5 million endowment to the Grappone Humanities Institute, and “multimillion dollar renovations” to the school’s residence halls, support for the athletic complex, an endowment for the school’s nursing program, scholarships, and further campus improvements.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Before joining hundreds of people for lunch, Pope Leo XIV celebrated Mass for the Jubilee of the Poor and prayed that all Christians would share "the love of God, which welcomes, binds up wounds, forgives, consoles and heals."

With thousands of migrants, refugees, unhoused people, the unemployed and members of the trans community present in St. Peter's Basilica or watching from St. Peter's Square, Pope Leo assured them, "In the midst of persecution, suffering, struggles and oppression in our personal lives and in society, God does not abandon us."

Rather, "he reveals himself as the one who takes our side," the pope said in his homily Nov. 16, the church's celebration of the World Day of the Poor. 

Volunteers with Vatican, diocesan and Rome-based Catholic charities joined the people they assist for the Mass. The French charity Fratello organized an international pilgrimage, bringing hundreds of people to Rome for the Mass, visits to the major basilicas of Rome and prayer services.

The Vatican said 6,000 people were at Mass in the basilica and another 20,000 people watched on screens from St. Peter's Square. By the time Pope Leo led the recitation of the Angelus prayer, some 40,000 people were in the square.

After the Angelus, as part of the celebration of the 400th anniversary of their foundation, the Vincentian Fathers sponsored and served lunch for the pope and his guests. Members of the Daughters of Charity and volunteers from Vincentian organizations helped serve the meal and handed out 1,500 backpacks filled with food and hygiene products.

The luncheon featured a first course of vegetable lasagna, followed by chicken cutlets and vegetables and ending with baba, a small Neapolitan cake soaked in syrup. Rolls, fruit, water and soft drinks also were on offer. 

Before the Mass, Father Tomaž Mavrič, superior general of the Vincentians, symbolically gave Pope Leo house keys from the Vincentians' "13 Houses Campaign." The name of the project, which has constructed homes for the poor around the world, is an homage to St. Vincent de Paul and his decision in 1643 to use an endowment from French King Louis XIII to build 13 small houses near the Vincentian headquarters in Paris to care for abandoned children.

In his homily at the Mass, Pope Leo noted how the Bible is "woven with this golden thread that recounts the story of God, who is always on the side of the little ones, orphans, strangers and widows."

In Jesus' life, death and resurrection, "God's closeness reaches the summit of love," he said. "For this reason, the presence and word of Christ become gladness and jubilee for the poorest, since he came to proclaim the good news to the poor and to preach the year of the Lord's favor."

While the pope thanked Catholics who assist the poor, he said he wanted the poor themselves to hear "the irrevocable words of the Lord Jesus himself: 'Dilexi te,' I have loved you." 

"Yes, before our smallness and poverty, God looks at us like no one else and loves us with eternal love," the pope said, "And his church, even today, perhaps especially in our time, still wounded by old and new forms of poverty, hopes to be 'mother of the poor, a place of welcome and justice,'" he said, quoting his exhortation on love for the poor.

While there are many forms of poverty -- material, moral and spiritual -- the thing that cuts across all of them and particularly impacts young people is loneliness, he said. 

"It challenges us to look at poverty in an integral way, because while it is certainly necessary at times to respond to urgent needs, we also must develop a culture of attention, precisely in order to break down the walls of loneliness," the pope said. "Let us, then, be attentive to others, to each person, wherever we are, wherever we live."

Poverty is a challenge not only for those who believe in God, he said, calling on "heads of state and the leaders of nations to listen to the cry of the poorest."

"There can be no peace without justice," Pope Leo said, "and the poor remind us of this in many ways: through migration as well as through their cries, which are often stifled by the myth of well-being and progress that does not take everyone into account, and indeed forgets many individuals, leaving them to their fate."
 

Pope Leo celebrates Jubilee of the Poor

Pope Leo celebrated the Jubilee of the Poor with a Mass in St. Peter's Basilica Nov. 16.

null / Credit: Wolfgang Schaller|Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Nov 15, 2025 / 11:00 am (CNA).

The Archdiocese of Denver and a coalition of Catholic preschools are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to allow them to access a Colorado universal preschool program.

The petition to the high court comes after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit ruled in September that Colorado may continue to exclude Catholic preschools from its Universal Preschool Program because of their religious beliefs.

Catholic preschools in Denver ask teachers and families to sign a pledge promising to uphold their religious mission, including teachings on sexuality and gender identity. The Colorado preschool program’s nondiscrimination clause, however, requires schools to uphold provisions on sexual orientation and “gender identity.”

Two Catholic parish preschools and the Denver Archdiocese first filed suit in August 2023 against the requirement.

In a Nov. 14 press release, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty — which has represented the schools and the archdiocese in the lawsuit — said the Catholic schools “are asking the Supreme Court to ensure that Colorado makes good on its promise of universal preschool.”

“Colorado is picking winners and losers based on the content of their religious beliefs,” Nick Reaves, a senior lawyer at Becket, said in the release. 

“That sort of religious discrimination flies in the face of our nation’s traditions and decades of Supreme Court rulings,” he said. “We’re asking the court to step in and make sure ‘universal’ preschool really is universal.” 

Scott Elmer, who serves as chief mission officer for the Denver Archdiocese, said the schools are seeking “the ability to offer families who choose a Catholic education the same access to free preschool services that’s available at thousands of other preschools across Colorado.”

Becket in its press release said the Colorado rules have had a “predictable effect” in which “enrollment at Catholic preschools has swiftly declined, while two Catholic preschools have shuttered their doors.”

The law group said the lower court rulings go against recent Supreme Court decisions on religious freedom, including Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, which held that the Montana Constitution’s bar on public funding of religious institutions violated the First Amendment.

In May the Supreme Court declined to rule in a contentious case involving what was proposed to be the nation’s first religious charter school, leaving untouched a lower court ruling that forbade the Oklahoma Catholic institution from accessing state funds.

President Donald Trump signs an executive order related to foster care and foster parents on Nov. 13, 2025. / Credit: Alliance Defending Freedom

CNA Staff, Nov 15, 2025 / 10:00 am (CNA).

U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday that aims to improve the nation’s foster care system, including the modernization of the current child welfare system, the development of partnerships with private sector organizations, and prioritizing the participation of those with sincerely held religious beliefs.

The executive order issued Nov. 13 states that the Trump administration is “dedicated to empowering mothers and fathers to raise their children in safe and loving homes.”

The order says current problems with the foster care system include overworked caseworkers, antiquated information systems, and policies that “prohibit qualified families from serving children in need as foster and adoptive parents because of their sincerely-held religious beliefs or adherence to basic biological truths.”

The legal group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) has represented Christian families who were barred from serving as foster parents because of their faith, suing on behalf of Brian and Katy Wuoti and Bryan and Rebecca Gantt after the Vermont Department for Children and Families informed the two families that their belief that persons cannot change biological sex and that marriage is only between a man and a woman precluded them from serving as foster parents in the state.

Despite describing the Wuotis and the Gantts as “amazing,” “wonderful,” and “welcoming,” state officials revoked the couples’ foster care licenses after they expressed those beliefs. The state said these beliefs made them “unqualified” to parent any child, regardless of the child’s age, beliefs, or identity. 

ADF Senior Counsel Johannes Widmalm-Delphonse, who represents the Wuotis, Gantts, and other Christian families who are prohibited from fostering in lawsuits in Massachusetts, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington, told CNA that he hopes the executive order will lead to the states “prioritizing the best interests of children rather than ideological agendas.”

In the face of shortages of foster families, he said the states should be “pursuing a big tent, welcoming as many loving families as possible. But they’re doing the opposite while children who need foster care are sleeping in unlicensed  group homes, police stations, and hospitals.” 

Trump’s executive order directs the department of Health and Human Services, the White House Faith Office, and the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs to “take appropriate action to address state and local policies and practices that inappropriately prohibit participation in federally-funded child-welfare programs by qualified individuals or organizations based upon their sincerely-held religious beliefs or moral convictions.” 

It also directs those agencies to “increase partnerships between agencies and faith-based organizations and houses of worship to serve families” involved with the foster care system. 

Widmalm-Delphonse told CNA it is “difficult to say how the states will respond” to the executive order, indicating that he hopes either the order or the pending lawsuits will lead to changes in their “discriminatory” policies against families of faith.  

“The path the states should take is obvious: It’s a win-win when you open up foster care to people of faith and put the interests of children first,” he said.

Bishop Michael F. Burbidge leads the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Diocese of Arlington

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 15, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

Bishop Michael Burbidge of Arlington, Virginia, said the country can simultaneously protect its borders and treat immigrants with respect.

In a Nov. 14 interview with “EWTN News Nightly,” Burbidge said the U.S. bishops’ special message on immigration in the United States is a call for respect of the human dignity that belongs to every person as a child of God.

The bishops voted to approve the statement on Nov. 12 at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ 2025 Fall Plenary Assembly in Baltimore. The message said bishops oppose “the indiscriminate mass deportation of people.” It is rooted in Jesus’ teachings, Burbidge said.

The bishops have called for a meaningful immigration law “that will provide safe pathways” to citizenship, Burbidge said. “There’s not an easy solution, but there has to be a solution.”

“The bishops understand that a country, of course, has a right to protect its borders for the sake of the common good, but at all times must treat persons with respect,” Burbidge said. He also said the country must do everything possible so people don’t live in distress.

‘Fear and anxiety’

Pastors in the bishops’ dioceses have said the execution of immigration laws is “causing a lot of fear and anxiety,” Burbidge said. The bishops are continuing to minister to immigrants who are “contributing to the good of the Church” and “the good of our communities,” he said.

“We’re representing those who seek no harm to our country, who only want to do good, and we want them to be treated with the respect that is necessary,” Burbidge said. “Again, we also say this does not have to be in conflict with a country protecting itself.” 

“We express gratitude to our elected officials for the dialogue that we have had in the past and hopefully that we will continue to have. We love our country. We love the immigrants who have contributed to our country, and we would like our country to be freed from this violence, from rhetoric, from fear,” Burbidge said. 

“There has to be a way that we can live together in harmony, and we want to work together,” Burbidge said.

St. John Paul II. / Credit: Adrian Tusar/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Nov 15, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

A new Vatican-set thriller based on a true story is currently in the works, according to Variety.

“Santo Subito!” will follow Father Joseph Murolo, an American priest asked by the Vatican to serve as the “devil’s advocate” in the investigation of Pope John Paul II’s life and his path to sainthood.

The film will take place after the pontiff’s death and follows Murolo, who “must make sure that nothing undermines the sanctification of Karol Wojtyla, the first non-Italian pope in 450 years,” the synopsis reads, as he interviews candidates and witnesses. The description goes on to say that the priest will navigate a “moral labyrinth” that will “put his own faith to the test.”

Murolo will be played by actor Mark Ruffalo, known for his role as Bruce Banner, or the Hulk, in “The Avengers” movies.

Filming is expected to begin on March 9, 2026, on location in Italy and Poland.

“The film offers a genuine behind-the-scenes investigation of the Vatican world, while also taking us into the deeper realm of faith and values,” a co-producer of the film, Nicolas Brigaud-Robert, said. “The script itself is a page-turner, and I can’t imagine any audience remaining indifferent to Father Murolo’s journey.” 

In the canonization process of the Catholic Church, the “advocatus diaboli,” or the devil’s advocate, was established to ensure rigorous scrutiny of a candidate’s life, virtues, and reported miracles. The role’s purpose was to consider all possible doubts and inconsistencies, and to present evidence that might challenge claims of holiness, so that only those truly worthy would be declared saints.

However, in 1983, Pope John Paul II reformed the process through the apostolic constitution Divinus Perfectionis Magister, changing the role of the devil’s advocate, also known as the “promoter of faith.” The emphasis shifted from an adversarial model to one more focused on collecting and verifying evidence, with the Congregation for the Causes of Saints overseeing the process.

null / Credit: Jonathan Weiss/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Nov 15, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Here is a roundup of recent pro-life- and abortion-related news:

Nearly 70 Planned Parenthood centers have closed nationwide in 2025

Nearly 70 Planned Parenthood centers have closed this year due to Medicaid and Title X funding cuts, according to a recent Planned Parenthood report.  

Planned Parenthood has closed 20 facilities since federal defunding earlier this year following a round of nearly 50 other closures. 

President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act prevented federal taxpayer dollars from being used to subsidize abortion providers for one year, meaning abortion providers don’t currently qualify for federal Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements.

Rather than giving up abortion offerings, abortion providers like Planned Parenthood are closing clinics across the country. 

Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, called the defunding “cruel.” 

“They are intentionally dismantling health care for patients most in need and pushing Planned Parenthood health centers further to the financial brink,” Johnson said in a Nov. 12 statement.

Community health centers, meanwhile, vastly outnumbered Planned Parenthood locations in the U.S., according to a report by the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute.

There are “more than 8,800 community health centers that provide comprehensive care to vulnerable populations and offer women’s health services, in comparison to just 579 Planned Parenthood centers as of spring 2025,” a Charlotte Lozier Institute report reads.

Group to fund ultrasound machines in states where abortion is legal 

A leading Christian group is launching a program to place ultrasound machines in states where abortion is legal.

The Across State Lines program, launched by the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), is meant to be “lifesaving” and “missional,” according to organizers.  

Across State Lines will work with Baptist state conventions to place the machines. 

Gary Hollingsworth, ERLC interim president, said Southern Baptists “stand firmly on the truth that God has created all people, from the moment of conception, in his image and endowed them with the right to life.”  

He said he hopes the ultrasounds will help mothers “see this truth.”

The Psalm 139 Project will fund the cost of ultrasound machines and training. 

Rachel Wiles, who directs the Psalm 139 Project, said the project is about “serving vulnerable women” with a “missional” attitude. 

“Southern Baptists are strongly pro-life and are missional people — whether ministering to others across an ocean or across the street,” Wiles said. 

“In the same way, we are asking those who live in more conservative states with pro-life laws to consider reaching across state lines with a missional mindset, ultimately saving preborn lives and supporting mothers who face unplanned pregnancies,” Wiles said.

Pro-life group to invest $80 million in midterms 

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America (SBA) is investing $80 million in the 2026 midterm elections to preserve a pro-life majority in the U.S. House and Senate in battleground states.

SBA, along with Women Speak Out PAC, plans to reach 10.5 million voters through canvassing, advertising, mail, and early vote campaigns, prioritizing pro-life voters who do not vote consistently in midterm elections.

According to an SBA press release, campaigners will make 4.5 million home visits to voters in battleground states such as Iowa, Georgia, Michigan, and North Carolina. 

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of SBA, said pro-life voters “are the heart and soul of the Republican Party,” referring to a CNN poll that found that President Donald Trump would not have won the election if 1% to 2% of pro-life voters had stayed home.

“The party that once claimed the position of ‘safe, legal, and rare’ is now the party of abortion anytime, anywhere, paid for by the taxpayer,” Dannenfelser said in a statement. 

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Leo XIV fulfilled a promise made by the late Pope Francis to return to Canada's Indigenous communities artifacts -- including an Inuit kayak, masks, moccasins and etchings -- that have been held by the Vatican for more than 100 years.

The pope gave 62 artifacts to the leaders of the Canadian bishops' conference Nov. 15, the Vatican and the bishops' conference said in a joint statement.

The bishops "will proceed, as soon as possible, to transfer these artifacts to the National Indigenous Organizations," which will ensure they are "reunited with their communities of origin," said a separate statement from the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. 

Pope Leo "desires that this gift represent a concrete sign of dialogue, respect and fraternity," the joint statement said. "This is an act of ecclesial sharing, with which the Successor of Peter entrusts to the Church in Canada these artifacts, which bear witness to the history of the encounter between faith and the cultures of the indigenous peoples."

The artifacts, which came from different First Nation, Métis and Inuit communities, "are part of the patrimony received on the occasion of the Vatican Missionary Exhibition of 1925, encouraged by Pope Pius XI during the Holy Year, to bear witness to the faith and cultural richness of peoples," the joint statement said.

"Sent to Rome by Catholic missionaries between 1923 and 1925," it said, "these artifacts were subsequently combined with those of the Lateran Ethnologic Missionary Museum, which then became the 'Anima Mundi' Ethnological Museum of the Vatican Museums." 

Members of Canada's Indigenous communities have been asking for years that the items be returned. In the spring of 2022, when community representatives visited the Vatican for meetings with Pope Francis before his trip to Canada, they visited the Vatican Museums and were given a private tour of the collection.

Pope Leo's decision to give the artifacts to the Canadian bishops instead of to the government or to an Indigenous organization "is a tangible sign of his desire to help Canada's Bishops walk alongside Indigenous Peoples in a spirit of reconciliation during the Jubilee Year of Hope and beyond,” said Bishop Pierre Goudreault, president of the Canadian bishops' conference.

In 2023, the Vatican did something similar, giving the Orthodox Church of Greece three marble fragments from the Parthenon in Athens; the church then gave the marbles to the government.

Speaking to reporters in April 2023, Pope Francis had said the Canadian artifacts would be returned.

"This is the Seventh Commandment: if you have stolen something, you must give it back," he said. What can be returned to its rightful owners should be, he added.

The return of the artifacts "is an important and a right step," Joyce Napier, the Canadian ambassador to the Holy See, told Catholic News Service.

The artifacts will go first to Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Quebec, she said. There, the Indigenous communities, their experts and elders will try to identify them and their provenance and determine where they should be kept.