VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Baptizing one's children is as essential as providing them with food and clothing, Pope Leo XIV told parents.

"Just as they received life from you, their parents, now they receive the meaning to live it: faith," he said, referring to the 20 infants about to receive the sacrament of baptism in the Sistine Chapel Jan. 11, the feast of the Baptism of the Lord.

"When we know that something is essential, we immediately seek it for those we love," he said in his brief homily. "Who among us, in fact, would leave newborns without clothes or food, waiting for them to choose how to dress, and what to eat when they grow up?"

"If food and clothing are necessary for life, faith is more than necessary, because with God, life finds salvation," he said in Italian. 

Pope Leo led the baptismal prayers and poured the water over the heads of the infants of Vatican employees. He assisted some parents by cupping his hand under an infant's head to provide support, and he tenderly offered his hand to babies whose arms flailed for something to grasp. He also gently wiped away some rivulets running down a few heads.

All of the gestures during the rite "are beautiful testimonies" of God's limitless love, he said. "The water of the font is the washing in the Spirit, which purifies us from all sin; the white garment is the new robe that God the Father gives us for the eternal feast of his Kingdom; the candle lit from the Paschal candle is the light of the risen Christ, which illuminates our path."

"May baptism, which unites us in the one family of the Church, sanctify all your families at all times, giving strength and constancy to the affection that unites you," he said. 

Afterward, Pope Leo again spoke about the importance and meaning of baptism before he led the recitation of the Angelus prayer with visitors gathered in St. Peter's Square.

By baptizing the newborns, he said, they "have become our new brothers and sisters in the faith. How beautiful it is to celebrate the love of God -- who calls us by name and frees us from evil -- as one family!"

Baptism "accompanies us forever," he said. "In moments of darkness, baptism is light; in life’s conflicts, it is reconciliation; at the hour of death, it is the gateway to heaven."

Pope Leo baptizes 20 infants in the Sistine Chapel

Pope Leo XIV baptized 20 infants in the Sistine Chapel Jan. 11, 2026. (CNS video/Robert Duncan)

Archbishop Georg Gänswein speaks at an event hosted by the Catholic magazine Kelionė at the Lithuanian National Library in Vilnius, Lithuania, on Jan. 7, 2026. | Credit: L. Macevicienes/Zurnalaskelione.lt

, Jan 11, 2026 / 10:32 am (CNA).

The apostolic nuncio to the Baltic states offered personal reflections on his new diplomatic mission, Christmas in Lithuania, and his decades-long collaboration with Joseph Ratzinger.

Pope Leo XIV speaks to bishops gathered for the Jubilee of Bishops on June 25, 2025, in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican. | Credit: Vatican Media

Jan 11, 2026 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Soon after the election of Pope Leo XIV, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle shared in a press conference that moments before then-Cardinal Robert Prevost was chosen to be pontiff, Tagle noticed the emotion by the soon-to-be-pope as it was becoming more clear he would be elected, so he reached into his pocket and offered Prevost a piece of candy.

It was this simple moment that inspired Lauren Winter, founder of the Catholic company Brick House in the City, to start the Adopt a Bishop initiative.

“It really reminded me that these are all human beings who made the choice one day to accept a very serious ‘yes,’” Winter told CNA in an interview.

The Adopt a Bishop initiative, which has been launched in collaboration with The Dorothea Project, invites the faithful to adopt a bishop for the year and pray for that bishop throughout the year.

“I think our bishops carry an enormous and often invisible spiritual weight,” she said. “They carry a responsibility that most of us never see — it’s pastoral and spiritual and it’s deeply personal and they’re holding entire dioceses in their prayer. And I think that kind of weight requires spiritual support.”

This is the first year of the initiative and over 1,000 people have already signed up to adopt a bishop in prayer. When an individual signs up on the website that person is randomly assigned a bishop from anywhere in the world.

Winter explained that she decided to use a random generator in order to “remove preference.”

“I didn’t want anyone to choose a bishop that they already knew and admired and I wanted to leave that room for the Holy Spirit,” she said. “And it may be a bishop you are already familiar with. It may be a bishop that is someone that you have disagreed with. But the call to prayer is still there and I think receiving a bishop instead of choosing one, that felt more like a posture of reception, which I feel like it’s more aligned with how grace works in the Church — just leaving the room there for the Spirit to work.”

The Catholic business owner highlighted the importance spiritual adoption plays in the Church in that it reminds us that “we are also being prayed for, it strengthens the bonds within the Church, and then I feel like it helps us to live more intentionally as one body of Christ.”

Winter said she hopes that through this initiative “people feel more connected to their bishop, to the Church, to the quiet work of prayer, and how a small faithful commitment can really shape our faith.”

“I imagine many people when they meet a bishop, they ask the good bishop to pray for them and I think it’s really beautiful that we can return that — the reciprocity of prayer. I think they need our prayers too.”

University of Notre Dame professor Kathleen Sprows Cummings. Credit: Ken Oliver-Méndez/CNA

Jan 10, 2026 / 10:12 am (CNA).

Assessing the impact of the Catholic Church's first American pope was front and center at the 106th annual meeting of the American Catholic Historical Association (ACHA), which met in Pope Leo XIV's hometown of Chicago from Jan. 8-11.

During a panel on the subject, Catholic scholars noted some of the historic caricatures of what an American papacy would be like and compared that to the first eight months of Leo's actual papacy.

At the outset of the panel, University of Notre Dame history professor Kathleen Sprows Cummings referenced the 1894 Puck magazine cartoon titled “ The American Pope,” which depicts the first apostolic delegate to the United States, Cardinal Francesco Satolli, sitting atop a church labeled the “American headquarters” and casting a shadow of then Pope Leo XIII over the entire country.

Sprows Cummings noted the cartoon illustrates “fears about papal intervention in the United States” at a time when the country was receiving waves of Catholic immigrants from countries such as Ireland and Italy.

As Catholics became more settled in American society in the subsequent decades, she said some of those prejudices began to lessen and pointed to the 1918 election of Catholic Democrat Al Smith as New York’s governor. By this point, Catholics had become “much more confident about their place in American culture.”

During the same early 20th century period, the United States also began to rise as a superpower. Sprows Cummings noted that predominant concerns about an American pope shifted to Vatican concerns over the “Americanization of the Catholic Church.”

America magazine's Vatican correspondent, Colleen Dulle, said some of those concerns were evidently mitigated in the person of then Cardinal Robert Prevost, whose service to the Church included many years as a missionary and bishop in Peru as well as in Rome as the head of a global religious order, the Augustinians.

Sprows Cummings said the College of Cardinals clearly saw in Cardinal Prevost the "pastoral presence, administrative savvy and global vision" that the Church needed at this time and that he was “not elected in some flex of American power.”

Miguel Diaz, the John Courtney Murray, S.J. Chair in Public Service at Loyola University Chicago, noted that some of Leo’s actions have actually amounted to the opposite of flexing American power, such as his focus on the dignity of migrants, which he contrasted to the policies of the Trump administration.

Diaz, who served as U.S. ambassador to the Holy See under former President Barack Obama, said Leo is “a different symbol, from America first to America cares.”

He emphasized that having an American pope is significant amid the country’s political debates because “he can say things and he will be listened to.”

The panelists also discussed what Leo’s papacy may look like moving forward, with Dulle noting that only this year are there clear signs of him charting his own programmatic course, as the events and itinerary of the 2025 Jubilee were primarily developed for Pope Francis.

Up until now, she said, he has been mostly “continuing the Francis initiatives in a different style.”

She noted Pope Leo's management of this week's consistory — a meeting between the pope and the College of Cardinals — where the pontiff gave them four topics to choose from, which were all in line with Francis’s priorities: synodality, evangelization, reform of the curia, and the liturgy. The cardinals chose synodality and evangelization.

Dulle said Leo is seen as "a consensus builder” who aims to build consensus around the Church's priorities. She noted Pope Leo's announcement this week of a regular schedule of consistories, with the next one set for this June. This approach is emerging as a "hallmark of how he governs the Church" Dulle said.

Brian Flanagan, the John Cardinal Cody Chair of Catholic Theology at Loyola University Chicago, also emphasized Leo’s strong appeal to the cardinals and bishops in efforts to reach consensus, in keeping with the Pope's role as a preserver of unity.

Flanagan said he sees Leo exercising the papacy as not so much "at the top of the pyramid, but as at the center of conversation.” He said this is likely influenced by Leo's past as leader of a religious order — the Order of Saint Augustine — rather than a diocese because the orders are “global, diverse, and somewhat fractious.”

“You can’t govern a global religious community without getting people on board,” he said.

Northampton Episcopal Vicar for Mission Canon Simon Penhalagan alongside members of the new community at the St. Elena House of Mission and Prayer. | Credit: Maria Heath

, Jan 10, 2026 / 09:00 am (CNA).

Northampton, England, welcomes St. Elena House, a new community focused on prayer and mission inspired by the call to a new evangelization.

St. Joseph Cathedral, Buffalo. | Credit: CiEll/Shutterstock

Jan 10, 2026 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Catholics in the U.S. were witness to a rare Church decision in 2023 when Pope Francis elevated the Diocese of Las Vegas to a metropolitan archdiocese. Las Vegas had previously been a suffragan diocese of San Francisco, having been created by Pope John Paul II in 1995.

A suffragan diocese operates within an ecclesiastical province subordinate to a larger archdiocese and is led by a suffragan bishop who has the authority to lead his own diocese but works under the metropolitan archbishop.

In September 2025, Pope Leo XIV created a new Catholic diocese in northern China; though it goes by the same name as one established decades ago by Beijing without Vatican approval — a product of ongoing tensions between China and the Holy See — the move demonstrated the Holy See’s authority in creating local Church jurisdictions.

Outside of one’s own parish, a diocese or archdiocese is arguably the average Catholic’s most common point of interaction with the Church. These jurisdictions manage local Church life and administration, with bishops and archbishops offering both spiritual and temporal guidance and authority to Catholics under their care.

But how does the Catholic Church decide what becomes a diocese or an archdiocese? What are the roots of this ancient practice, and how does it function today?

Exclusively a papal right

Monsignor William King, JCD, KCHS, an assistant professor at the school of canon law at The Catholic University of America, told CNA that the right to erect (or suppress) a diocese “belongs exclusively to the successor of Peter, the bishop of Rome,” that is, the pope.

“Historically, secular rulers have intruded into the process and the autonomy of the Church in this action has been hard-won,” he said, pointing out that “even today in certain parts of the world, secular or civil rulers wish to have input into matters such as this.”

The pope never makes decisions regarding dioceses and archdioceses “without considerable study and consultation,” King said.

The history of diocesan administration stretches back to the earliest years of the Church, he said. In those days a diocese consisted of “a city larger than the surrounding cities and towns,” often a place of commerce or a center of government.

Throughout the centuries, including after the imperial legalization of the Church by Constantine, Church leaders refined the diocesan structure of “pastoral ministry and governance” in order to facilitate “communication and decision-making” throughout Christendom.

“This became increasingly important as the Church grew and encountered different systems of law, philosophy, and religious practice,” King said. Roman models of government structure proved useful and sufficient for Church governance; King noted that the Church structure even today more closely resembles a government than a corporation.

The process by determining which jurisdictions counted as archdioceses likely arose in earlier centuries organically, King said, with Church leaders identifying major centers of “culture, education, commerce, government, and transportation” as particularly significant jurisdictions.

The procedure for elevating a diocese to an archdiocese, meanwhile — as Pope Francis did to Las Vegas in 2023 — requires “significant study, discussion, and decision-making,” King said.

The Holy See conducts such reviews in part through a diocese’s “quinquennial report,” a detailed rundown of the diocese’s activities and administration. Such a report may indicate to the Holy See that a particular region is growing and could benefit from elevation to an archdiocese.

Local suffragan bishops will participate in discussions to that effect, King said, and the Roman Curia will work with bishops’ conferences as well as the local apostolic nuncio.

“The ultimate decision is that of the Roman pontiff, the bishop of Rome,” King said, “but is always done with his awareness of the conversations and consultations already conducted at every level.”

The priest pointed out that not every local jurisdiction of the Church is a diocese or archdiocese. At times, he said, the pope may establish a less common ecclesiastical administration “for a variety of reasons that relate to culture, legal acceptance or opposition, small numbers, and the like.”

Such jurisdictions include apostolic prefectures, apostolic vicariates, ordinariates, and other designations. Such areas may be governed by a bishop or a priest named by the pope, King said.

Pope Leo XIV with the Spanish flag in the foreground on Dec. 8, 2025. | Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/EWTN News

, Jan 9, 2026 / 17:06 pm (CNA).

Madrid, Barcelona, ​​and the Canary Islands are likely destinations in 2026 for Pope Leo XIV to visit.

Archbishop Luis Argüello, president of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference; Félix Bolaños, minister of the Presidency, Justice, and Relations with the Parliament; and Father Jesús Díaz Sariego, OP, president of CONFER. | Credit: Ministry of the Presidency

, Jan 9, 2026 / 16:28 pm (CNA).

The Church and the Spanish government have signed an agreement to provide a channel for compensating victims of sexual abuse.

Church employee Francisco Paredes, 46, was handcuffed by ICE Dec. 4, 2025. | Credit: Photo courtesy of Francisco Paredes

Jan 9, 2026 / 15:01 pm (CNA).

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents surveilled St. Gabriel the Archangel Catholic Church in Hopkins, Minnesota, on Epiphany after deporting the parish’s beloved maintenance worker to Mexico five weeks earlier.

The Trump administration last year eliminated a federal policy that generally prohibited immigration enforcement in “sensitive locations” such as schools, churches, and hospitals. Attendance at St. Gabriel’s Spanish Mass has dropped by half since the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, and parishioners have expressed fear of churchgoing about eight miles from where an ICE agent shot and killed U.S. citizen Renee Good on Jan. 7.

Father Paul Haverstock, pastor of St. Gabriel’s, said he had vested for the 1 p.m. Spanish Mass Jan. 4 when a parishioner told him about men wearing ski masks in a car outside the church. He said he was disturbed to receive the report, went to the sacristy to get his cellphone, and placed it next to his chair in the sanctuary.

“If there is an incident of agents coming in, I want to make sure that it’s recorded, and I want a clear recording of me letting the agents know that we’re in the middle of a religious service,” Haverstock said. 

It didn’t come to that, but ICE’s presence outside has impeded parishioners’ free exercise of religion, Haverstock said. ICE agents camped outside the church felt like “a violation,” he said.

“Who wouldn’t feel intimidated by that?” he said.

“It felt like a violation of our constitutional rights, felt like a violation of civilization and good manners. It felt like we were not living in the United States of America but in some third world, violent place, somewhere else,” Haverstock said. “Yeah, it feels like we’re in a war zone here.”

In a statement to CNA, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said ICE "does not raid churches," calling such allegations "smears."

"The facts are criminals are no longer able to hide in places of worship to avoid arrest. The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement and instead trusts them to use common sense," the statement said.

"If a dangerous illegal alien felon were to flee into a church, or a child sex offender was working as an employee, there may be a situation where an arrest is made to protect public safety.”

Arrest of church employee

Church employee Francisco Paredes, 46, who had lived in the U.S. for 25 years with one conviction for driving under the influence, was handcuffed by ICE Dec. 4, 2025. Eight federal vehicles pulled into a large parking lot adjacent to St. Gabriel’s on 13th Avenue South after Paredes picked up coffee on his way to work, Paredes said, and he was driven to a processing facility.

About 2,000 immigration enforcement agents have come to Minnesota, according to government officials. On Jan. 4, “they were definitely out in front of the church, waiting in front of the church,” Hopkins Mayor Patrick Hanlon said in an interview.

Hanlon said he wants ICE to obey the laws of Hopkins, a community of about 19,000 people known for its lively "Mainstreet" and arts scene, and summertime Raspberry Festival.

Hanlon made an Instagram reel following the  shooting of Good urging ICE to obey Hopkins’ traffic rules and other laws.

Archbishop Bernard Hebda  in his statement after Good’s death pleaded for “all people of goodwill to join me in prayer for the person who was killed, for their loved ones, and for our community.”

‘Surveilling us’

After observing ICE monitoring the church during Sunday Mass, Haverstock called Hebda and the mayor.

Haverstock told them: “They had out-of-state license plates, and they were just sitting outside our doors for a while.” He added: “They came to our church, and even though they didn’t enter, they were apparently surveilling us.”

Until Paredes’ arrest and before ICE parked outside St. Gabriel’s, more than 400 people had usually attended the Spanish Mass, Haverstock said. Haverstock said he is considering offering a temporary Sunday Mass dispensation in his parish for those who are afraid.

“I think if I don’t give them a dispensation, hardly any of them will be here anyway because of the fear factor. So out of consideration for their circumstances and their souls, I think it’s likely I will give a dispensation for this coming Sunday, but I feel torn because we need God in this situation,” Haverstock said.

‘We’ve united to help our immigrant brothers and sisters’

ICE’s presence has been “a real interference with our parishioners’ right to worship and come to Mass,” Haverstock said.

“They’re also terrorizing anybody of goodwill just by their presence, masks, and idling outside of a church. It’s frightening. I was frightened when I heard that they were there. I was frightened for the safety of the people in the church, including myself, and I was especially frightened for my immigrants,” he said. 

Haverstock said he was “really blessed to see that our parish has not split on political lines in this situation, but we’ve united to help our immigrant brothers and sisters.”

Fear is palpable, Haverstock said, with “people being detained, even after showing IDs, and people being harassed, even if they’re here legally.”

When maintenance employee Paredes was deported, “it really got my attention,” Haverstock said.

Paredes, who sang in the church choir, said he spent about a month incarcerated in the ICE detention system before being sent to Mexico. He said he had asked to make a phone call when he was arrested and was denied for several days so his U.S.-citizen daughter didn’t know his whereabouts. Paredes spent Christmas imprisoned and said he had no access to any religious services.

In the Bloomington, Minnesota, immigration office, Paredes, who lacked legal permission to live in the U.S., said he was in a cell with 40 people. There was only one bathroom for the men to share, and “anyone can see when you go to the bathroom,” Paredes said.

After about seven hours later, Paredes said he was transferred to the Crow Wing County Jail in Brainerd, Minnesota. Paredes said a government-financed plane later took him to Laredo, Texas, where he was imprisoned in the Webb County Detention Center. 

“They treat people like an animal,” Paredes said. “I was there!”

Paredes said no hot meals were provided, only a sandwich, an orange, crackers, and water. In a large warehouse-like building, “we sleep on the floor. No blanket. They treat you like an animal,” Paredes said.

The Homeland Security spokesperson, meanwhile, told CNA that "any claim there are subprime conditions at ICE detention centers" is "false."

"All detainees are provided with proper meals, medical treatment, showers, blankets, and have opportunities to communicate with their family members and attorneys," the statement said. "The truth is most ICE facilities have higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens. Ensuring the safety, security, and well-being of individuals in our custody is a top priority.”

When President Donald Trump talks about deporting “the worst of the worst,” Paredes said, “he doesn’t have any idea. All the people I met in the prison, they are hardworking people.”

Haverstock said he misses Paredes, who was a “wonderful worker and one of those rare, fully bilingual people, so that was a huge help to have him around.”

“We should be firmly resolved to do our part to obtain justice, not just for ourselves but for our brothers and sisters, and not even just those in the Church, but anyone’s who’s being persecuted, who happens to be our neighbor,” Haverstock said. “Families should not be separated except for extremely grave reasons. And I can say from my personal experience, from what I’ve seen, and from what I’ve heard, that these deportations and this massive push by ICE is not just targeting drug cartels and violent criminals and repeat offenders of major crimes, but it’s targeting moms and dads and families who have committed, in some cases, no crime except entering our country illegally, and separating a family because of that is unjust.” 

At the end of Mass, Haverstock invites parishioners to learn how to “help immigrants in the parish who have been negatively impacted by recent events” and join an ad hoc team “to serve our brothers and sisters through works of mercy.” 

Haverstock said the parish has used the same petition in the Prayer of the Faithful for several weeks: “For immigrants living in fear, for families that have been separated, and for wise immigration reform in our land, let us pray to the Lord.”

Update: This report was updated on Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, at 11 a.m. to correct grammar in the statement provided by the Department of Homeland Security at the department's request.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Leo XIV warned diplomats of rising global volatility, fractured communication and a growing disregard for human life in his annual speech to representatives to the Holy See.

Speaking to representatives of the 184 countries that have full diplomatic relations with the Vatican, the pope expressed concern over a "weak" global approach and action among countries on certain issues, saying that "war is back in vogue and a zeal for war is spreading."

Peace is being sought through weapons, threatening the rule of law and therefore the foundation of all peaceful civil coexistence, he said in the Jan. 9 speech at the Hall of Benedictions at the Vatican.

He expressed concern about religious freedom being curtailed around the world. Aid to the Church in Need, an international Catholic aid organization, released its "Religious Freedom in the World Report" last year, concluding that 64.7% of the world's population lives in countries with "serious or very serious violations of religious freedom." 

He cited deadly attacks on Christian communities in Africa and the Middle East, while also warning of less visible discrimination in Europe and the Americas.

He briefly spoke about the importance of treating migrants with human dignity, an issue he has been vocal about for months, before focusing his final thoughts on the value of family and the unborn.

The pope said the Church strongly rejects "any practice that denies or exploits the origin of life and its development."

The pope reiterated the Church's stance on abortion, including a deep concern about projects aimed at financing cross-border mobility for the purpose of accessing the so-called "right to safe abortion."

"It also considers it deplorable that public resources are allocated to suppress life, rather than being invested to support mothers and families," he said.

He also spoke out against surrogacy.

"By transforming gestation into a negotiable service, this violates the dignity both of the child, who is reduced to a 'product,' and of the mother, exploiting her body and the generative process, and distorting the original relational calling of the family," he said.

In this speech and throughout the year, the pope has spoken out on ongoing international strife, including the war in Ukraine, the Israel-Gaza conflict and the U.S. military operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. 

When looking at today's conflicts, he said, "we cannot ignore that the destruction of hospitals, energy infrastructure, homes and places essential to daily life constitutes a serious violation of international humanitarian law."

He pointed to the United Nations as a counterbalance to this trend, saying that it is the center of international cooperation that defends humanitarian rights and mediates conflict.

But, he said, one of the greatest current challenges to dialogue as a way to address conflicts is the loss of a shared understanding of language.

"Today, the meaning of words is ever more fluid and the concepts they represent are increasingly ambiguous," he said. "Language is no longer the preferred means by which human beings come to know and encounter one another."

He said that the "contortions of semantic ambiguity" are becoming "more and more a weapon with which to deceive or to strike and offend opponents." He suggested clearer, more direct language be used throughout the home, politics and the media to address these misunderstandings and to avoid conflict on a greater scale.

He went on to say that efforts to loosen or blur the meaning of words are often defended as protecting free expression, but in fact undermine it.  

"It is painful to see how, especially in the West, the space for genuine freedom of expression is rapidly shrinking," he said. "At the same time, a new Orwellian-style language is developing which, in an attempt to be increasingly inclusive, ends up excluding those who do not conform to the ideologies that are fueling it."

When moral or linguistic boundaries are weakened, he said, it doesn't stop at speech, but rather it spills over into limits on basic human rights and an individual's ability to act according to their moral and religious beliefs.

"This may be the refusal of military service in the name of non-violence or the refusal on the part of doctors and health care professionals to engage in practices such as abortion or euthanasia," he said.

The pope said if a society forces moral uniformity, it risks sliding toward authoritarianism.

Pope Leo closed by saying that despite conflict found around the world, there is no shortage of signs for courage and pointed to St. Francis of Assisi.

"His life shines brightly, for it was inspired by the courage to live in truth," he said, "and the knowledge that a peaceful world is built starting with humble hearts turned toward the heavenly city."

Pope Leo decries decline of free speech

Speaking to diplomats accredited to the Holy See Jan. 9, 2026, Pope Leo XIV said that language has become increasingly ambiguous and weaponized, undermining clear realities, authentic dialogue, and diplomacy’s role in preventing conflict. (CNS video...