“Take courage! I have overcome the world”

Leo to young people: “Take courage! I have overcome the world”

In his message for World Youth Day, Leo tells young people that Christian courage “does not arise primarily from our own strength; it comes from his presence.” Released today for the Nov. 22 diocesan celebration and the August 2027 gathering in Seoul, the message speaks to young people anxious about the future and pressured “to succeed and appear perfect,” noting that “technology cannot replace authentic human closeness but can only imitate empathy.” He invites them to follow Christ’s “gentle courage”: “the courage to show love when harshness seems easier,” to seek peace, and “to hold fast to hope when cynicism seems more convincing.” — Full text (vatican.va) · Holy See Press Office [IT] · Vatican News [IT]

On Election Day, Catholics work for peace at the polls

As Americans vote in the midterms, some 375 Franciscan Action Network poll chaplains in several dozen states will offer “a peaceful presence to the polls — a deescalating presence,” Robert Christian told OSV News. In Dallas, parish-based organizers reject the “sleeping giant” label for Latino voters: “Our community is awake,” Amanda Benavidez tells America’s J.D. Long García. And OSV’s Kate Scanlon reports that theologian Meghan J. Clark sees Leo’s historic mail-in ballot as “modeling faithful citizenship.” — National Catholic Reporter (Gina Christian, OSV News) · America (J.D. Long García) · OSV News (Kate Scanlon, Washington Letter)

Vatican briefs press on Leo’s trip as Peru mourns two bishops

Press office director Matteo Bruni presents the program of the Nov. 6–17 journey to Uruguay, Argentina, and Peru at a briefing today. Archbishop Richard Alarcón of Cusco, which Leo visits Nov. 15, died Oct. 30, and Bishop Jorge Pedro Carrión Pavlich of Puno died Oct. 31. Former Uruguayan ambassador Guzmán Carriquiry says the trip is no coincidence in starting in Uruguay, where Catholic tradition is rooted in the origins of the nation, and OSV’s Junno Arocho Esteves writes that for Peruvians it is “the return of a missionary, a neighbor, a shepherd.” — Holy See Press Office [IT] (briefing notice) · Vatican News (Guzmán Carriquiry) · OSV News (David Agren) · OSV News (Junno Arocho Esteves) · Where Peter Is (Claudio Iván Remeseira, “Leo in the Land of Francis”)

Supreme Court hears Catholic preschool case today

The justices hear oral arguments today in St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy, a potential landmark case on religious freedom and nondiscrimination laws. Two Catholic parishes, parents, and the Archdiocese of Denver argue that Colorado’s universal preschool program, which requires participating schools to enroll children regardless of their parents’ sexual orientation or gender identity, discriminates against them for their religious beliefs; Colorado says it will fund religious preschools that do not discriminate on those grounds. — National Catholic Reporter (Brian Fraga)

Pope and Holy See

• At Verano, Leo prays that mourners’ tears move those with “the power to silence the weapons.” At All Souls’ Day Mass in Rome’s largest cemetery Monday, he called the Beatitudes “the path to a full and fulfilled life—both now and in eternity” and prayed especially for those who have lost loved ones to “the senseless violence of war.” — Vatican News (Christopher Wells) · National Catholic Reporter (Courtney Mares, OSV News)
• [IT] Also from the Holy See Press Office. Leo will celebrate Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Nov. 18 for the 400th anniversary of its dedication, and the fifth annual report of the Laudato Si’ Action Platform will be presented Wednesday with Sr. Alessandra Smerilli and UISG executive secretary Sr. Roxanne Schares. — Liturgical celebrations notice [IT] · Press conference notice [IT]

United States

• Cardinal Tobin’s kidney surgery “went as planned.” The Archdiocese of Newark says the Oct. 29 procedure to remove a mass from his kidney had no complications; he returned home Friday and will refrain from public appearances for several weeks. — Archdiocese of Newark
• Archbishop Broglio warns U.S. soldiers are at growing risk of “moral injury.” The military archbishop tells America’s Kevin Clarke he stands by his view that Catholic service members are “obliged” not to take part in the execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan, and raises concern about combat increasingly conducted at a distance. — America (Kevin Clarke)
• Pew: Religion “stable” in the U.S., with “mixed signals” from young adults. After “a prolonged decline,” steady percentages of U.S. adults say they identify with and practice religion, and 18- to 22-year-olds report relatively high rates of attendance. — America (Gina Christian, OSV News)
• The Baltimore priest taking guns off the streets. Fr. Mike Murphy, pastor of Our Lady of Victory Parish, has run a gun buyback with the Baltimore police since 2023, the only such diocesan effort in the country. — America (John W. Miller)
• Idaho voters weigh in on abortion after an appeals court lets the state’s ban stand. A 2–1 Ninth Circuit panel ruled Oct. 30 that the ban may continue to be fully enforced as voters decide the question directly today. — OSV News (Kate Scanlon)
• Interfaith migration summit seeks common ground on welcoming the stranger. At an Oct. 29–30 summit hosted by the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish leaders compared notes on serving immigrants. “We have much to learn from one another,” said CLINIC executive director Anna Gallagher. — OSV News (Kate Scanlon)
• Georgetown dialogue to take up slavery and human dignity in “Magnifica Humanitas.” On Nov. 9, Bishop Robert Boxie III, Sr. Mūmbi Kīgūtha, Adam Rothman, and Rachel Swarns will explore how the Church can respond with “discernment and responsibility,” as Leo wrote in the encyclical that apologized for the Church’s historic complicity in slavery. — Georgetown Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life

Around the World

• Nigeria’s bishops appeal for free and peaceful elections. Three days of prayer and fasting are under way ahead of the vote. “The Bishops’ main concern is that Nigerians should be able to freely choose their leaders,” said Fr. Michael Banjo of the Catholic Secretariat. — Vatican News
• Poland’s bishops plead for reconciliation as a constitutional crisis spills into the streets. The bishops’ conference leadership warned Oct. 31 that the dispute over the Constitutional Tribunal “is leading to a profound crisis of the state.” — National Catholic Reporter (Katarzyna Szalajko, OSV News)
• Sisters and friars in El Salvador stand with a village near the CECOT mega-prison. Religious orders are supporting a rural community fighting water contamination and a landfill near the prison, which can hold up to 40,000 inmates. — Global Sisters Report (Rhina Guidos)

Video and Podcasts

• Cardinal Czerny on the spirituality of social justice: “Keep it simple and keep it close.” On “The Spiritual Life,” he tells Fr. James Martin that “what makes situations depressing is the feeling of helplessness in front of them,” and that the answer is to face problems, especially by helping those most in need. — America (Maggi Van Dorn)
• Why are young Latinos leaving the Church, and what does it mean for politics? Georgetown’s Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life has posted video of its Oct. 28 Latino Leader Gathering with Juan Miguel Alvarez, Jasmin Chavez Cruz, Aleja Hertzler-McCain, and Joe Rubio, moderated by Christian Soenen. — YouTube (Georgetown Initiative) · Event page

Commentary

• Opinion: From midterm elections onward, let us give up the word “hate.” With angry ads in Michigan’s Senate race “blaming and shaming a Muslim candidate,” Sr. Nancy Sylvester asks whether the hate will end with the campaign and urges letting go of the word itself. — Global Sisters Report (Sr. Nancy Sylvester)
• Opinion: The Catholic case against institutionalizing people with disabilities. Michael M. Waddell, father of two daughters with disabilities, urges Catholics to raise their voices so coerced institutionalization does not become the future for people with disabilities. — America (Michael M. Waddell)

Also today

• Parental rights, on ballots in several states, trace to anti-Catholic era — Tom Deignan, Global Sisters Report
• Opinion: Who do you see? How will you vote? — Sr. Emily TeKolste, Global Sisters Report
• Fate of South Africa’s democracy on the line in Nov. 4 elections — America
• [IT] Uruguay: the pope’s visit to a secularized society — Vatican News. A sociologist of religion on belief outside the institutions.
• AI doesn’t die — and that makes all the difference — Louis J. Cameli, National Catholic Reporter
• Q&A with Sr. Antoinette Assaf, supporting vulnerable women and children in Lebanon — Sr. Joyce Meyer, Global Sisters Report

‘our bond with the faithful departed has not been broken’

PHOTOS: Savannah gives thanks for newly beatified Georgia Martyrs

A standing-room-only congregation filled the Cathedral Basilica of St. John the Baptist on All Saints’ Day as Bishop Stephen D. Parkes proposed ways to carry the friars’ witness.

Leo XIV: Faith assures us that ‘our bond with the faithful departed has not been broken’

Continuing a tradition begun by St. John Paul II in the late 1970s, Pope Leo XIV visited Rome’s Verano Cemetery on Nov. 2.

Pope Leo XIV to return to Chiclayo in Peru and the places that shaped his ministry

Pope Leo XIV will return to Chiclayo, Peru, where he once served as bishop, and will visit key sites from his pastoral ministry, including the cathedral, the Shrine of Our Lady of Peace, and Zaña.

State-level Catholic conferences prepare the faithful for ballot initiatives

In some states, bishops’ conferences have taken a clear position on initiatives, urging Catholics to either support or oppose the measures.

There is no such thing as a holy war

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All Souls Homily — Companions at the Table

 

Two disciples walk away from Jerusalem at the end of the worst week of their lives. Everything they had hoped for has been laid in a tomb. They are not walking toward anything; they are walking away, and they are talking, as grieving people do, about what they have lost. And then, Saint Luke tells us, “Jesus himself drew near and walked with them.”

They do not recognize him. Grief does that. It narrows the eyes. But they are not alone, even when they do not know it, and that is the first word the Church speaks to us on this day: we are not alone, and neither are those we have lost.

Today we remember our beloved dead of all ages. The parents and grandparents who taught us to pray. The spouse whose chair is still empty at the table. The child, or the infant who barely drew breath, whose loss rearranged a family’s whole life. The friend taken too young. The priest who baptized us. And those whose names no one living still remembers, but whom God has never forgotten. The Book of Wisdom says it with a confidence that is not sentimental but theological: “The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them.”

Life is changed, not ended

In a few minutes we will pray the Preface for the Dead, with words many of us know by heart: “Indeed for your faithful, Lord, life is changed not ended.” Changed, not ended. That is the hinge of this day. Death is real. The Church does not ask us to pretend otherwise, and the tears we bring here are an honest prayer. But death is not the last word, because it was not the last word for Christ. Saint Paul tells the Romans that we were “baptized into his death,” and he draws the conclusion with the logic of faith: “If, then, we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him.”

And if life is changed and not ended, then neither are the bonds of love. The Second Vatican Council taught in Lumen Gentium that the union between us who are still on pilgrimage and those who have fallen asleep in the peace of Christ is in no way broken. On the contrary, the Council says it is strengthened by the sharing of spiritual goods. The love we bore them in this life did not die with them. It has simply taken a new form. We call that form prayer.

This is why the Church has prayed for the dead from her earliest days. It is not a superstition, and it is not a transaction. It is the ordinary work of love, which does not stop caring for someone just because they have passed beyond our sight. We accompany them still. We walk with them, as Christ walked with the two on the Emmaus road, toward the fullness of the light.

Known in the breaking of the bread

Notice where the Emmaus story reaches its climax. Not on the road, but at table. “Stay with us,” they plead, “for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.” And then: “while he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him.”

Our English word companion comes from the Latin cum panis: the one with whom we share bread. A companion is someone who sits at table with us. And so it is here, at the Holy Table, that our companionship with the dead is most fully realized. When we celebrate the Eucharist we do not gather only with those we can see. Every Eucharistic Prayer reaches beyond the walls of this church to remember “our brothers and sisters who have fallen asleep in the hope of the resurrection.” The altar is where heaven and earth, the living and the dead, the pilgrim Church and the Church at rest, share one bread and one cup. Here the circle is not broken. Here, in Christ, we are still at table together.

That is the deepest meaning of participatio actuosa on a day like this. We do not come merely to watch a rite for the dead. We come to take our place at the table where they too are remembered, and to offer Christ’s own sacrifice for them, joining our love to his.

Hearts burning within us

When the two disciples realized who had been with them, they said to one another, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way?” Some of you know that burning. It comes when a hymn at a funeral catches you off guard, or when a familiar scent or a turn of phrase brings someone back to you for an instant. That is not only memory. It is a reminder that love is stronger than death, and that the Lord who walks beside us walks beside them too.

So bring them with you to this altar today. Speak their names in your heart when the priest prays for the dead. Write them in the Book of Remembrance. Pray for them through this month of November. And trust that the God who holds the souls of the just in his hand holds them, and holds you, and will one day gather us all at the table of the Kingdom, where every tear will be wiped away and no one will be missing.

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen.

Villanova had the pope’s support, but Notre Dame swept the college hoops openers in Rome

On All Souls’ Day, Leo prays at Verano for “those whom no one remembers”

Leo celebrates Mass this afternoon at Rome’s Verano Cemetery for the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed. At Sunday’s Angelus he invited Catholics to feel united “in the communion of saints” with those who have gone before us, and to “pray for the dead, especially for those whom no one remembers.” In NCR, Joseph Orso describes how his rural Wisconsin family washed, waked, and buried his father themselves, and makes the case for the Christian call to tend our dead. — Vatican News · National Catholic Reporter (Joseph Orso) · America (Fr. Terrance Klein, All Souls homily)

Four days out, Leo’s Latin America trip is a high-stakes homecoming

Less than a month after lung surgery, Leo leaves Friday on an 11-day, dozen-flight journey to Uruguay, Argentina, and Peru, where he spent more than two decades as a missionary and bishop. “I am looking forward to returning to the continent where I’ve experienced so many moments of my life,” the pope said in a Vatican statement, NCR’s Justin McLellan reports. In Uruguay, where the Catholic share of the population has fallen to 33 percent, Bishop Milton Tróccoli hopes the visit will be “a kind of springtime for the Church,” and Cusco’s new archbishop, Lizardo Estrada Herrera, says Latin Americans see Leo as “one of them.” The Vatican briefs reporters on the program Tuesday. — National Catholic Reporter (Justin McLellan) · Crux (Eduardo Campos Lima) · Vatican News (Tiziana Campisi) · Where Peter Is (Claudio Iván Remeseira, “Leo in the Land of Francis”)

Pope and Holy See

• Montse Alvarado takes office as the first laywoman to lead the Dicastery for Communication. Alvarado began her term as prefect Sunday, succeeding Paolo Ruffini. America’s Colleen Dulle looks at the reform of Vatican communications she inherits, which began under Francis and brought the press office, newspaper, radio, publishing house, and film archive under one roof. — America (Colleen Dulle)
• [IT] Saints and blesseds: more young people among candidates for the altars. Fr. Bogusław Turek, undersecretary of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, says more laypeople, young people, married couples, and even whole families are among sainthood candidates, a sign of growing awareness of the universal call to holiness, with rising interest in causes in Africa and Latin America. — Vatican News [IT] (Dorota Abdelmoula-Viet)

United States

• Knoxville’s bishop issues an instruction on the SSPX. Bishop Mark Beckman’s Oct. 22 seven-page instruction, which drew criticism from some traditionalist outlets, is a useful primer on the SSPX’s canonical status after the DDF’s July 2 declaration. He writes that attending an unauthorized SSPX-affiliated mission in the diocese does not automatically incur excommunication but is “gravely imprudent” and a “near occasion of schism,” and he invites those involved to reconciliation. — Diocese of Knoxville (Bishop Mark Beckman) · Diocese of Knoxville (Oct. 2 notice)
• Dolores Huerta, dead at 96, is remembered for her faith and defense of human dignity. The United Farm Workers co-founder died Oct. 28. Archbishop José Gomez called her “a courageous and heroic defender of human dignity, and a woman of faith who inspired generations of young Hispanic leaders, especially women.” — America (OSV News)
• Villanova had the pope’s support, but Notre Dame swept the college hoops openers in Rome. The Notre Dame men came back late to win 74–72, and the women beat Villanova 99–75 in Sunday’s “Eternal City Tip-Off.” Leo, who received all four teams Saturday, did not attend. — Crux (Andrew Dampf, AP)

Around the World

• Maronite archeparchy of Haifa condemns attack on a prayer hall in northern Israel. Statues were broken and images vandalized at the Sts. Peter and Paul prayer hall in Nahariya on All Saints’ Day. Archbishop Moussa El-Hage said “such acts can neither be justified nor tolerated” and asked authorities to investigate. — Vatican News
• [IT] Russian strikes black out 650 towns in Ukraine as Zelenskyy floats U.S.-Russia talks. The overnight attacks hit the power grid around Zhytomyr and Kyiv. It comes days after the Oleshky humanitarian ceasefire, which Leo hailed Sunday as a “necessary gesture of humanity” that he hopes will lead to “new concrete initiatives for peace.” — Vatican News [IT] (Cecilia Seppia) · Vatican News (Angelus appeal)
• Mexico comes alive for the Day of the Dead. Marigolds, candles, and catrina face paint fill the streets as families gather at cemeteries on the night of Nov. 1 to reconnect with their dead. — Crux (AP) · Crux (Philippines, All Saints’ Day)

Video and Podcasts

• Pope Leo is calling us to peace, says Ken Butigan. On “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast,” Fr. John Dear talks with the DePaul professor, who has gathered Leo’s many speeches on peace and nonviolence. “Pope Leo has been calling us over and over and over again to be unarmed and disarming,” Butigan says. — National Catholic Reporter (John Dear)

Commentary

• Opinion: US bishops are at a crossroads as they head into their fall assembly. Michael Sean Winters says the “old culture warrior model” of Church leadership is giving way to one “more pastoral and less worldly,” and that the 12 bishops’ White House visit showed the features of that turning point. — National Catholic Reporter (Michael Sean Winters)
• Opinion: This November, pray for the migrants who have died because of ICE. Terence Sweeney names migrants who died in custody or were shot during enforcement, and asks Catholics to remember them in the month of the dead. — America (Terence Sweeney)

Also today

• [FR] Fraternize rather than convert? Bishop Barron and Cardinal Vesco debate the Church’s mission from afar — La Croix · Also: Where Peter Is
• Ukrainian families reunited as Pope welcomes Oleshky humanitarian ceasefire — Stefan J. Bos, Vatican News
• A parish in Uruguay struggling with violence prepares for Pope Leo XIV’s visit — Crux
• Macau’s 450-year missionary legacy meets digital age — Vatican News
• Passing time with the saints: Who would you spend your day with? — Global Sisters Report

Leo XIV: A Pope Who Votes in Elections

Leo XIV: A Pope Who Votes in Elections. Vatican Confirms the Pope’s Vote in the U.S. Midterm Elections

ZENIT Staff

The ballot was submitted ahead of the November 3 midterm elections, in which Americans will elect members of Congress and decide a range of state and local contests. In Illinois, voters will also choose a governor, judges and county officials

Argentines’ expectations regarding the Pope’s visit, as reflected in an interesting study with surprising revelations

Enrique Villegas

The study, conducted by the Barometer of Religions and Beliefs in Argentina, part of the University of Buenos Aires’ Observatory of Beliefs in Argentina, found that 43.2% of those surveyed want Leo XIV to make the fight against poverty the central theme of his visit

New Zealand: Mass attendance is on the rise. Here are the figures released by the bishops

ZENIT Staff

Statistical variances can often be attributed to a number of factors. That said, these numbers seem to suggest that the ancient message of the Gospel, presented through the lens of our contemporary Catholic thought, is resonating with people

Pope Leo XIV’s appointment as Papal Confrater of St George’s Chapel, Windsor is “symbol of hope”, says Archbishop of Westminster

ZENIT Staff

The appointment, which was made with the approval of King Charles III, was announced by the Dean and Canons of Windsor announced on Friday, 23 October, on the first anniversary of the historic State Visit to the Holy See, during which the King was welcomed as Royal Confrater of the Papal Basilica and Abbey of St. Paul’s Outside the Walls, in Rome

Pope Leo XIV reorganizes the laws governing disciplinary actions against Vatican employees: here are the new rules

Valentina di Giorgio

Leo XIV Strengthens Legal Protections for Vatican Employees in Disciplinary Proceedings

Following the murder of 60 Christians in Ethiopia, calls are being made for action in the wake of the massacre

Maria Lozano

The massacres prompted an unprecedented intervention by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church’s Holy Synod, which demanded stronger government action to defend worshippers and provide “essential security until the problem is resolved”.

Leo XIV Appoints New Leadership to Guide the Synodal Process into Its Next Phase

Valentina di Giorgio

Announced on October 30, the appointments fill the positions previously held by Bishop Luis Marín and Sister Nathalie Becquart. Marín has moved to the leadership of the Apostolic Almoner’s Office and the Dicastery for the Service of Charity, while Becquart, appointed in February 2021, concludes a period in which she became one of the most recognizable figures of the synodal process

Vatican Court Reopens Abuse Case Against a Former Pre-Seminary Student

ZENIT Staff

The judgment was signed by Cardinals Kevin Farrell, Augusto Paolo Lojudice and Ángel Fernández Artime, together with judges Patrizia Piccialli and Chiara Minelli. Its consequences are nevertheless substantial: the conviction handed down in January 2024 can no longer stand in its existing form, and the legal assessment of the events must be revisited.

Questions about liturgy: Proclaiming the Gospel Outside of Mass

Fr. Edward McNamara

Answered by Legionary of Christ Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy and sacramental theology at the Pontifical Regina Apostolorum university.