null / Credit: RasyidArt, Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Nov 4, 2025 / 06:30 am (CNA).

Catholic schools are faring much better in dioceses in which state-funded voucher programs are available for parents to use to pay school tuition, one researcher has found, though enrollment is still declining in most places.

John F. Quinn, a historian at Salve Regina University in Rhode Island, examined six Catholic dioceses over the last 16 years — three in states with voucher programs and three in states without them — and found that parochial schools are benefiting from vouchers.

He presented his research at the Society of Catholic Social Scientists’ annual conference at Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, in October.

Quinn found that since 2009, the dioceses of Providence, Rhode Island; Fall River, Massachusetts; and Rockford, Illinois — none of which are located in states with voucher programs — have seen school closures and drops, some very large, in their parochial school enrollment.

Providence schools have seen a two-thirds drop, from 16,000 students in 2009 to about 10,000 in 2025, according to the historian. 

The Diocese of Fall River, meanwhile, saw a 36% drop in enrollment, going from 7,800 students in 2009 to 5,000 in 2025. Rockford’s diocese saw a precipitous 52% drop, with 15,500 students in 2009 and 7,400 today. All three dioceses also saw multiple parochial school closures.

The numbers are very different in the dioceses in states that have voucher programs.

According to Quinn, the Archdiocese of Indianapolis only saw its enrollment numbers drop 3% since 2009. Nearly 23,000 were enrolled in its parochial schools in 2009, and the number stands at 22,300 today. The overall population of the archdiocese has also dropped 5% over the same time period, he noted.  

Indiana’s Choice Scholarship Program was launched in 2011 and expanded to nearly all residents in 2025.

Two other dioceses, Orlando and Venice, are both in Florida, a state that approved its voucher program in 1999 and expanded it significantly in 2023.

The Diocese of Orlando has seen a 13% drop, going from 14,500 students in 2009 to 12,750 in 2025.

The Diocese of Venice, a relatively new one established in 1984, has seen a 52% increase in parish school enrollment since 2009 and growth in its number of parochial schools. In 2009, 4,400 students attended three high schools and 10 elementary schools, and today there are four high schools and 12 elementary schools with an enrollment of 6,800.

Quinn acknowledged that Florida has a growing population but said even taking that into account, the voucher programs have indisputably aided the Catholic schools there.

“We are full up with nearly every school at capacity,” Father John Belmonte, SJ, Diocese of Venice Superintendent of Catholic Education, said in September.

History of parochial schooling

“America’s Catholic leaders have long seen parochial schools as critical to the well-being of the Church in America,” Quinn noted. 

He recalled the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore in 1884, at which the bishops “called for every parish to have a school and for all Catholic parents to send their children” to them.

Quinn noted that pastors would sometimes build a parish school first before completing the church building.

In 1965, the high point of parochial school enrollment, 52% of American Catholic children, or 5.2 million students, were enrolled at 13,000 Catholic grammar and high schools. 

Quinn cited the National Catholic Educational Association’s annual report, released in the spring, that showed just under 1.7 million students are currently enrolled in the nation’s current 8,500 parochial schools.

In 1965, nearly 70% of all parochial school teachers, or 115,607, were religious sisters, priests, or brothers, according to the Cardinal Newman Society. 

By 1990, only 2.5% of parochial school faculty were priests or religious, and that number remains the same today.

Quinn said costs started rising as more lay teachers replaced religious and priests in the classroom.

WASHINGTON - As world leaders gather for the 30th annual United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30), the bishop chairmen who lead committees of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) that address climate policy were joined by the president and CEO of Catholic Relief Services (CRS) to call for urgent, courageous action to protect God’s creation and people. 

Archbishop Borys Gudziak, Bishop A. Elias Zaidan, and Mr. Sean Callahan’s statement follows: 

“This year’s COP30 convenes while the Catholic Church celebrates the Jubilee Year of Hope.   Pope Leo XIV called for the participants of COP30 to ‘listen to the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor, families, indigenous peoples, involuntary migrants and believers throughout the world.’ This jubilee year is a sacred opportunity to restore relationships and renew creation at a time when the gift of life is under grave threat. Climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation are devastating communities already burdened by poverty and exclusion. Farming and fishing families confront threats to their livelihoods; Indigenous Peoples face destruction of their ancestral lands; children’s health, safety, and futures are at risk. Failing to steward God’s creation, ignores our responsibility as one human family.

“A decade ago, in Laudato si’, Pope Francis reminded us that the climate is a common good, belonging to all and meant for all, and that intergenerational solidarity is not optional.  We call on world leaders to act urgently and courageously for an ambitious Paris Agreement implementation that protects God’s creation and people. As all of us are impacted, so must we all be responsible for addressing this global challenge. 

“At COP30, countries, along with civil society organizations and corporations, should recommit to implementation that: invests in adaptation efforts to create resilience and foster economic opportunities; commits to bold mitigation efforts that reduce climate warming emissions; pledges loss and damage financing that guarantees priority and direct access to vulnerable affected communities; ensures a just transition to a sustainable economy centered on workers, communities and creation; and makes financing for climate solutions, including debt relief, timely and transparent while at the same time upholding human dignity. Together, these actions can work towards integral ecology and ‘give priority to the poor and marginalized in the process.’

“We offer our prayers of support and solidarity and pledge to work collaboratively to safeguard the future of our common home.” 

Archbishop Borys Gudziak is chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, and Bishop A. Elias Zaidan is chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace. As president and CEO of CRS, Mr. Callahan leads the international humanitarian agency of the Catholic Church in the United States.

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November 4, 2025

WASHINGTON - Since 2016, the Catholic Church has observed the World Day of the Poor on the 33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time as way for Catholics to reflect more deeply on our call to love the poor as our brothers and sisters. On November 15-16, parishes in many Catholic dioceses throughout the United States are able to observe this year’s World Day of the Poor by taking a collection for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), the domestic anti-poverty initiative of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

“Jesus reminds us that faith, even as small as a mustard seed, holds within it the power to transform the world. From something seemingly insignificant can grow a tree that offers shelter, hope, and new life. In many ways, that is the story of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, founded by the bishops of the United States in 1969. Through CCHD, the Church lives out the Gospel call to solidarity, fostering the capacity of people experiencing poverty to work together to confront the roots of injustice and build stronger, more just communities,” said Bishop Timothy Senior of Harrisburg, chairman of the bishops’ Subcommittee on the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. “This same spirit of faith takes root in our own communities, where twenty-five percent of every CCHD collection stays within the diocese. These funds support local efforts that uplift our neighbors, strengthen families, and help build a future of hope.” 

CCHD provides crucial support to both growing and longstanding organizations that promote justice, neighborhood improvement, and job creation for marginalized groups in both urban and rural communities across the United States. 

Bishop Senior cited four organizations as examples that illustrate the wholistic efforts of CCHD to help communities improve nutrition, reduce violence, prepare for natural disasters, and combat environmental pollution. One counters violence and pollution on Chicago’s South Side, two support small farmers and ranchers in contrasting climates, and one saves lives in hurricane zones:

• Together New Orleans was able to partner with local government officials and improve hurricane response with a CCHD grant that allowed installation of commercial-grade solar arrays on strategically-located churches and other community buildings that serve as emergency shelters. The pilot project of 15 “Community Lighthouses” is now so successful that Louisiana has allocated $200 million to build 345 statewide.
• In Minnesota’s Twin Cities, the Sustainable Farming Association offers workshops and mentoring to help small farmers and ranchers build thriving, environmentally-sound businesses. A CCHD grant has increased events that address issues such as soil improvement, financial management, and mental health.
• In New Mexico, La Cosecha Community-Supported Agriculture -- a cooperative farming network – used a CCHD grant to help run a food coop for the poor, market locally-grown organic vegetables to institutional buyers, and provide food education to local students.
• On Chicago’s South Side, a CCHD grant underwrote the Alliance of the Southeast as it trained teenagers in community leadership. Those teens have had key roles successfully opposing plans for a nearby toxic waste dump, launching violence-prevention initiatives in schools, and instigating the renovation of moldy, rat-infested public housing.

While CCHD grant recipients include nonsectarian, ecumenical, and interreligious organizations, all must abide by Catholic moral teaching, including respect for human life from conception until natural death and prioritizing the concerns of the poor. 

In 2024, the bishops awarded $2.24 million in grants.

“World Day of the Poor is an invitation for us to pray and to act, to build a world that truly recognizes the God-given dignity of our brothers and sisters who are most vulnerable,” Bishop Senior said. “One concrete way to respond to this call is by participating in the collection for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. I invite you to remember the Lord’s words about the mustard seed: even the smallest act of faith can, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, grow into something that transforms lives and renews communities, both across our nation and within your own diocese.”

Some dioceses take the collection on a date other than November 15-16. If you are unable to give to the collection at your parish but wish to support CCHD’s national antipoverty efforts, the online giving platform iGiveCatholic accepts funds for CCHD.

More information is at www.usccb.org/cchd. 

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The Intercession of Charles Borromeo supported by the Virgin Mary dome fresco by Johann Michael Rottmayr in St. Charles’s Church, Austria. / Credit: godongphoto/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Nov 4, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).

St. Charles Borromeo, whose feast day the Catholic Church celebrates Nov. 4, was a cardinal and a prominent teacher of the Catholic faith. He generously donated much of his considerable wealth to charity and sacrificed his own health to help plague victims at a time when many other authorities fled.

And, despite what you might have heard, he probably wasn’t obese.

Why does that matter? Well, because Charles is popularly invoked as a patron saint of stomach ailments and also of obesity and dieting. These patronages — and whether or not he was himself obese — are not mentioned in hagiographies of St. Charles, so it’s unclear how this particular association began. Charles was known for helping the poor in times of famine and for practicing self-mortification, and he was certainly not known to indulge in food to excess.

Whether or not his invocation by dieters is appropriate, what is clear is that St. Charles Borromeo had a massive influence on the Church.

Charles was born in 1538 near Milan. He was born wealthy — in fact, he was part of the famously rich and influential Medici family — but sought to use his wealth to benefit the Church rather than himself.

Owing in part to his well-connected family, Charles soon assumed staggering responsibilities, serving as a papal diplomat and supervisor of major religious orders.

Charles was a central figure in the Council of Trent (1545–1563), which among other things served as the Church’s official answer to the Protestant Reformation. Its twofold mission was to clarify Catholic doctrine against Protestant objections and reform the Church internally against many long-standing problems. As a papal representative, Charles participated in the council’s conclusion in 1563, when he was only 25, and was ordained a priest during the council. He also played a leading role in assembling its comprehensive summary, the Catechism of the Council of Trent.

Charles’ uncle, Pope Pius IV, appointed him archbishop of Milan in 1563, and soon after he became a cardinal. He found his diocese in a state of disintegration, after two generations of virtually no local administration or leadership. Charles got straight to work establishing schools, seminaries, and centers for religious life. He constantly directed the work of restoration of ecclesiastical discipline and the education of the young, even down to minute details. He tried as much as possible to live a simple life and give to the poor whenever possible, and he practiced self-mortification.

The clergy during this time were in many cases lax and careless, living scandalous lives, such that the people had grown to be equally negligent and sinful. While bishop of Milan, St. Charles oversaw many dramatic and effective reforms of the clergy, the liturgy, and of religious education. He encountered much opposition to those reforms, so much so that a group of disgruntled monks attempted to kill him, but he was miraculously unharmed when an assassin fired a gun straight at him while kneeling in prayer at an altar.

He was very active in preaching and ministry and was famous for bringing back many lapsed Catholics to the Church. As a result, today he is honored as the patron saint of catechists and catechumens, people who teach and learn the faith. In fact, he was the founder of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, which systematically instructed children in the faith — the forerunner of the modern “Sunday school.”

In 1571, the region where Charles was working suffered a severe famine, during which he worked tirelessly to help the starving, supporting at his own expense as many as 3,000 people daily for three months. At the same time, Charles himself suffered various ailments, including a low fever.

A few years later, a plague struck Milan. Charles was convinced that the plague was sent as a chastisement for sin and sought to give himself all the more to prayer and to service to his people. He paid personal visits to plague-stricken houses to comfort those suffering, and as a spiritual penance, he walked in procession, barefoot, with a rope around his neck and a relic in his hand.

At the end of 1584 Charles suffered a skin infection in one of his legs but still continued to travel to take care of his diocese. He died young at the age of 46 on Nov. 3, 1584, and was canonized 26 years later, in 1610.

This story was first published on Nov. 4, 2022, and has been updated.

President Donald Trump holds a press briefing with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in August 2025. / Credit: Joey Sussman/ Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 3, 2025 / 18:30 pm (CNA).

U.S. President Donald Trump threatened military action against Nigeria if it fails to end Christian persecution.

“If the Nigerian government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the U.S.A. will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria and may very well go into that now-disgraced country, ‘guns-a-blazing,’ to completely wipe out the Islamic terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities,” Trump said in a social media post Nov. 1.

The commander-in-chief further revealed he has instructed the Pentagon to “prepare for possible action.”

“If we attack, it will be fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians!” he added: “WARNING: THE NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT BETTER MOVE FAST!”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth responded to the post on Saturday, writing: “The killing of innocent Christians in Nigeria — and anywhere — must end immediately. The Department of War is preparing for action. Either the Nigerian government protects Christians, or we will kill the Islamic terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities.”

The post alluding to possible military action comes after Trump announced he would designate Nigeria as a country of particular concern (CPC) on Oct. 31.

Under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, the U.S president must designate countries that engage in or tolerate “particularly severe violations of religious freedom” as CPCs. Violations include torture, prolonged detention without charges, and forced disappearence, according to the State Department.

“Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter. I am hereby making Nigeria a ‘COUNTRY OF PARTICULAR CONCERN,’” Trump said Oct. 31.

Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts during a September 2025 interview with CNA. / Credit: Jack Haskins/EWTN News

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 3, 2025 / 17:52 pm (CNA).

The Heritage Foundation is receiving backlash after Kevin Roberts, its president, defended Tucker Carlson’s recent controversial interview with Nick Fuentes. 

Roberts said in a video message on social media Oct. 30 that “the venomous coalition attacking [Carlson] are sowing division” and that “their attempt to cancel him will fail.” While the Heritage Foundation president said he disagreed with and abhorred Fuentes’ views, he said “canceling him is not the answer.” 

“When we disagree with a person’s thoughts and opinions, we challenge those ideas and debate,” Roberts said. “And we have seen success in this approach as we continue to dismantle the vile ideas of the left.” 

During the interview, Fuentes, who said he is Catholic, at one point said he admired Joseph Stalin and lamented against “organized Jewry in America.” For his part, Carlson at another point said he disliked Christian Zionists “more than anybody” and referred to Christian Zionism as a “brain virus” and a “Christian heresy.” 

Reports also surfaced that the Heritage Foundation had spent roughly $1.2 million sponsoring Carlson’s show, for about $75,000 per episode for a 12-month period beginning in June 2024. 

Fallout ensued after Roberts’ video, with Heritage Foundation staffers posting a meme with the caption “Nazis are bad” in reference to Fuentes’ antisemetic views and self-professed admiration of Hitler. 

The Hill initially reported further dissatisfaction among staffers and that Ryan Neuhaus, Roberts’ chief of staff, had been relocated Friday to another position within the organization. This came after Neuhaus reposted multiple statements in defense of Roberts’ video. Neuhaus has since resigned. 

Legal scholar and moral philosopher Robert P. George weighed in on the debate surrounding Carlson’s interview Nov. 1, writing: “Engaging and forcefully arguing against people who deny the inherent and equal dignity of all is one thing, welcoming them into the movement or treating their ideas and ideologies as representing legitimate forms of conservatism is something entirely different.”

He said American conservatism faces a challenge from those like Fuentes “seeking acceptance in the conservative movement and its institutions” with the ultimate goal of subverting “our commitment to inherent and equal human dignity.” 

“It is incumbent upon those of us who maintain the ‘ancient faith’ (to borrow a phrase from Lincoln) to make clear to friend and foe alike that we will not permit the integrity of our movement and its institutions to be compromised,” George concluded. 

The outside of the reconstructed Basilica of St. Benedict in Norcia, Italy, is lit up with lights in celebration of its reopening on Oct. 30, 2025. / Credit: Archdiocese of Spoleto-Norcia

Rome Newsroom, Nov 3, 2025 / 10:00 am (CNA).

Archbishop Renato Boccardo of Spoleto-Norcia dedicated the newly repaired basilica, which marks the birthplace of St. Benedict, on Oct. 31.

An Irish soldier holds the a copy of the 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic outside the General Post Office, the scene of the 1916 Easter Rising, in Dublin on March 27, 2016 as part of a program of commemorative events to mark the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising. / Credit: Charles McQuillan/Getty Images

Dublin, Ireland, Nov 1, 2025 / 06:08 am (CNA).

The election of Ireland’s leftist president highlights a secular shift, contrasting with the deep Catholic faith of the 1916 Easter Rising's martyred leaders.

Tourists take photos as they visit the Sagrada Familia basilica in Barcelona on Aug. 2, 2025. / Credit: Manaure QUINTERO/AFP

ACI Prensa Staff, Oct 31, 2025 / 17:57 pm (CNA).

The Sagrada Familia (Holy Family) minor basilica in Barcelona is now the tallest church in the world.

null / Credit: Shower of Roses

ACI Prensa Staff, Oct 31, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).

The celebration of “Holywins” is an initiative that originated in Paris in 2002 with the aim of celebrating the eve of All Saints on Oct. 31 in a Christian way.