Pope Leo XIV will travel to France from Sept. 25 to 28. Sept. 27 is given entirely to Lourdes, with a torchlight procession at the Grotto of Massabielle and an open-air Mass. Bishop Jean-Marc Micas said he is waiting to hear what the pope will say about euthanasia, legalized there two months ago.
Francis Xavier Duan Yongkun was ordained coadjutor bishop of Bameng, in Inner Mongolia, on July 29, a week after the ordination of the bishop of Chifeng. Pope Leo XIV approved both candidacies on June 15 under the Holy See's agreement with China, which gives the pope the final say on appointments.
The Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue will hold a colloquium on Christianity and Confucianism at Sogang University in Seoul from Aug. 4 to 5, organized with the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Korea. Cardinal George Jacob Koovakad, the dicastery's prefect, is expected to attend. About 8.75 million Confucianists live worldwide, most of them in South Korea.
Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Bishop Daniel Thomas of Toledo set Aug. 18 as the launch date for a call to prayer and action running to the end of October. They cited wider access to abortion pills. The Guttmacher Institute estimates 1.12 million abortions took place in 2025, 21% more than in 2020.
Bishop Manuel de Jesús Rodríguez of Palm Beach spoke July 24 at a diocesan event titled "Let's Talk About Listening to Victims," where he presented his book on due process for abuse victims in canon law. He credited then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger with promulgating the first canonical law on the sexual abuse of minors in 2001. Proceeds go to diocesan safe environment programs.
Bishops born between 1965 and 1980 lead one in four U.S. dioceses and eparchies, and make up 28% of the episcopate once auxiliaries are counted. Of the 27 U.S. bishops Pope Leo XIV has appointed since his election in May 2025, 20 belong to that generation. Three of the four American archbishops he has named do as well.
President Donald Trump issued a message July 28 on the 45th anniversary of the death of Blessed Stanley Rother, an Oklahoma priest killed by three gunmen at his parish rectory in Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala, in 1981. He was the first American-born martyr beatified by the Catholic Church. Pope Francis recognized his martyrdom in 2016.
Nigeria — President Bola Tinubu received 19 leaders of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Nigeria, led by Archbishop Matthew Ndagoso of Kaduna, at the State House in Abuja on Tuesday. Tinubu said restructuring security institutions will defeat terrorism, banditry and kidnapping, and that he had approved an expansion of the armed forces. He asked the bishops to condemn attacks in sermons.
The End Assisted Suicide coalition, made up of patient advocacy groups, filed suit June 11 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, arguing the Medical Aid in Dying Act lets providers prescribe drugs to cause a patient's death. Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Catholic, signed the act Feb. 6, citing her mother's death from ALS. New York becomes the 13th state to authorize the practice.
India — Parliament is considering a bill, introduced in the Lok Sabha on March 25, that would let a government-appointed authority take control of, transfer or sell the assets of organizations losing their foreign-funding registration. Christian groups say church-run schools, clinics and orphanages are at risk. More than 22,000 organizations of all kinds have lost that registration since 2010.
Venerable Fulton J. Sheen will be beatified Sept. 24 in St. Louis, and groups from across the United States are organizing pilgrimages. Among them is a group from St. Agnes Parish in New York City, where Archbishop Sheen preached in his retirement years and where the parish still keeps his chair. His program "Life Is Worth Living" drew about 30 million viewers.
Raymond Martin Sr., who served in Okinawa and the Philippines and spent 27 years as a police officer in Illinois, received baptism and confirmation July 16 at the assisted living home where he lives, in the Diocese of Tucson. Father Edson Elizarraras used the short form of the rite, written for those in danger of death, after Martin survived a stroke in May. His late wife, Ann Marie, was Catholic.
A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit from the Interfaith Alliance and Hindu, Muslim and Sikh groups challenging the makeup of President Trump's Religious Liberty Commission, ruling that the law requiring a balance of viewpoints does not say how it must be achieved. The Associated Press via Scripps News
Paul Vaughn of Centerville, Tennessee, one of 23 pro-life activists pardoned by President Trump in 2025, reached a seven-figure settlement with the federal government over his prosecution under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act and a predawn FBI raid on his home. OSV News
The Chhattisgarh Freedom of Religion Act came into force across the Indian state on July 10, banning conversion by force, fraud or allurement in a region where disputes over conversion and burial rights have divided villages. The law is expected to face judicial scrutiny. The New Indian Express
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Paweł Szczabel
Editor, CatholicNews
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