St. Mary's Church

El Arzobispado de Lima anunció la inauguración del Año Jubilar por los 300 años de la canonización de Santo Toribio de Mogrovejo, Patrono del Episcopado Latinoamericano, este domingo 14 de diciembre, en el tercer Domingo de Adviento, llamado también Domingo de Gaudete o de la alegría.

Mons. Rafael Leónidas Felipe Nuñez, Obispo Emérito de Barahona (República Dominicana), falleció este miércoles 10 de diciembre. Para Mons. Andrés Napoléon Romero, actual obispo de esa diócesis, el fallecido prelado fue “un pastor según el corazón de Dios”.

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 11, 2025 / 13:00 pm (CNA).

A majority of Catholic voters in the United States support the death penalty for convicted murderers in spite of the Catechism of the Catholic Church calling capital punishment “inadmissible,” according to a poll published by EWTN News and RealClear Opinion Research.

The survey of 1,000 Catholic voters between Nov. 9 and Nov. 11 found that 55% support the death penalty “for a person convicted of murder.” Only 20% said they oppose the death penalty in such situations, and another 25% are unsure.

Based on the poll, Catholics who attend Mass regularly are much more likely to say they oppose the death penalty than Catholics whose attendance is less frequent.

Among Catholics who attend Mass at least once per week, 52% say they support the death penalty for convicted murderers, 26% say they oppose it, and 22% are unsure. For Catholics who attend less than once per week, 57% say they support the death penalty, just 16% oppose it, and 27% are unsure.

Although many Catholics still support the death penalty, a 2024 analysis of The Association of Religion Data Archives’ General Social Survey shows a decline in Catholic support for the death penalty in recent decades, especially among those who attend weekly Mass.

The Catechism, per the 2018 revision, states: “The Church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that ‘the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person,’ and she works with determination for its abolition worldwide.”

Prior to the Francis pontificate revising the language, the text stated that the Church “does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor."

Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ, who serves on the advisory board for the U.S. Campaign to End the Death Penalty, told CNA that many Catholics remain “pro-life for innocent life,” such as the lives taken through abortion, but when a person is guilty of a serious crime, “people readily say ‘yeah, they should die.’”

The revision to the Catechism, she said, recognizes that taking life “is against human dignity” and “the Gospel of Jesus calls us to give that dignity — not just to innocent people — but even to the guilty.”

Prejean said when people are asked whether they support the death penalty for serious crimes, “most of the time, people say yes.” Yet, she said when polls give an alternative for life in prison, the support drops significantly. She noted that juries have been less likely to impose the death penalty recently because “most people really want to have a chance to give people life.”

With one in four Catholics saying that they are “unsure” whether they would support the death penalty in certain situations, Prejean said “that’s where the seed can grow.”

“There’s a part of their soul that hasn’t said ‘yes’ to this and they’re thinking about it,” she said.

Prejean, whose vocation was depicted in the 1995 movie “Dead Man Walking,” said she became active in opposition to the death penalty after communicating with a person who was on death row and attending his execution. Prior to that experience, she said she often did not think about the subject, but “we grow in moral issues by experiences of the faithful.”

“Once you have a personal connection with somebody, they’re not a category anymore,” she said. “They’re a person.”

Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, the executive director of the Catholic Mobilizing Network, told CNA that "defending the sacred dignity of life, while core to our beliefs, is not always easy.”

“But even when it's hard to understand, our Church gives us good guidance and has definitively said that capital punishment has no place in our society,” said Murphy, whose organization works closely with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) to oppose the death penalty.

“Given its firm commitment to human dignity and the sacred value of life, it is clear that the Catholic Church is not backing down from its pro-life position on the death penalty,” she added. “More formation and catechesis are needed to increase awareness and deepen understanding of the Church’s teaching on capital punishment so it can be applied in a meaningful way in the lives of Catholics.”

Murphy noted that Pope St. John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI, and now Pope Leo XIV all hold a pro-life view on capital punishment. American Church leadership, including the newly elected USCCB president, Archbishop Paul Coakley, have called for the abolition of the death penalty. 

“Any disconnect between Church doctrine and polling is a reminder that more education and formation on the life issue of ending the death penalty remains worthy,” she said. “After all, human lives hang in the balance."

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 11, 2025 / 12:30 pm (CNA).

A majority of Catholic voters in the United States have a favorable opinion of President Donald Trump and support the broad scale deportation of immigrants who are in the country illegally, according to a poll published by EWTN News and RealClear Opinion Research on Dec. 11.

The poll surveyed 1,000 self-identified Catholics from Nov. 9 through Nov. 11, nearly 10 months after Trump assumed office. Trump won the Catholic vote in the 2024 election last year, and one of his campaign promises was mass deportations — a policy strongly opposed by the country’s Catholic bishops.

With Trump administration deportation efforts underway, the poll revealed some tension between the public stance of the country's Catholic bishops and the views held by the faithful. Among Catholics, support for large-scale deportations is even higher than their overall support for Trump.

About 54% of Catholic voters said they support “the detention and deportation of unauthorized immigrants on a broad scale.” Only 30% said they oppose this policy, and 17% neither support nor oppose it.

Among white Catholics, 60% support broad-scale deportations and only 26% oppose it. Among Latino Catholics, 41% support it and 39% oppose it.

For Catholics who attend Mass at least weekly, 58% support broad-scale deportations, and only 23% are against it. For those who attend Mass less frequently, 50% support the deportations and 36% oppose it.

Catholics who attend Mass regularly were more likely to have a favorable opinion of Trump and more likely to support deportations. White Catholics were also more likely than Latino Catholics to support Trump and the deportations.

According to the poll, about 52% of Catholic voters say they have a favorable opinion of Trump, compared to 37% who say they have an unfavorable opinion and 11% who say they are neutral.

Among white Catholics, 58% have a favorable opinion of Trump and 34.5% have an unfavorable view of him. Latino Catholics were nearly evenly split, with 41% holding a favorable opinion and 40% holding an unfavorable opinion.

More than 60% of Catholics who attend Mass at least once per week said they have a favorable opinion of the president, compared to 30% who had an unfavorable opinion. 

Among Catholics who attend Mass less frequently, about 45% have a favorable view of Trump and 42% have an unfavorable view.

Reacting to the results, White House Assistant Press Secretary Taylor Rogers told CNA that Trump “won in a landslide victory with historic support from patriotic Catholics across the country because he promised to fight for people of faith, and he has delivered in record time.”

“President Trump launched a task force to eliminate anti-Christian bias, pardoned Christian and pro-life activists, enforced the Hyde Amendment, defunded Planned Parenthood, stopped the chemical mutilation of our nation’s children, and stopped men from competing in women’s sports and invading their private spaces,” she said.

Other administration officials had positive favorability numbers. About 50% of Catholic voters have a favorable view of Vice President JD Vance, compared to 31% who have an unfavorable view. About 42% of Catholic voters have a favorable view of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, compared to 25% who have an unfavorable view.

Support for deportations at odds with bishops

Just last month, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) issued a unified message to oppose “the indiscriminate mass deportation of people.” It received approval from more than 95% of the voting bishops. The following week, Pope Leo XIV encouraged “all people in the United States to listen to [the bishops]” on the matter.

The USCCB did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNA.

Chad Pecknold, a theology professor at the Catholic University of America who teaches theological politics and other subjects, told CNA the numbers “track with the general public support for deportation.”

“The bishops have operated on very well-worked-out presuppositions of liberalism, and Popperian ideas about an ‘Open Society,’ that are now badly outdated,” he said. “They would be wise to reexamine their priors on prudential matters as they are losing credibility through imprudent statements on prudential matters pertaining to national security and the common good.”

Julia Young, a historian and professor at the Catholic University of America, sees the issue differently, telling CNA that U.S. Catholic bishops have historically supported immigrants and that the Church has grown from European immigration in the mid-late 19th century and from Latin American immigration in the 20th century.

“The growth of the Catholic Church over the last several decades has been largely due to immigration,” she said. “So it does make sense that the Catholic bishops are concerned about immigrants and the immigrant population because that is their laity.”

Young said much of American Catholic history has been an “immigrant group coming in and being the target of nativism.” She noted that the historical “anti-Catholic nativism” faced by those immigrant groups was the notion that Catholics were “not going to be able to become proper loyal American citizens because their loyalty was going to be to the pope.”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that prosperous nations have an obligation, “to the extent they are able, to welcome the foreigner.” The immigrant has an obligation “to respect with gratitude the material and spiritual heritage of the country that receives them, to obey its laws and to assist in carrying civic burdens.”

“Political authorities, for the sake of the common good for which they are responsible, may make the exercise of the right to immigrate subject to various juridical conditions,” it adds.

La tradicional fiesta en honor a la Virgen de Guadalupe en Sucre (Bolivia), una de las manifestaciones de fe más convocantes de la región, fue declarada patrimonio inmaterial de la humanidad por la Unesco. 

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 11, 2025 / 12:00 pm (CNA).

More than two-thirds of American Catholic voters have a favorable opinion of Pope Leo XIV during the first year of his pontificate, and only a tiny percentage view him in an unfavorable light, according to a poll conducted by RealClear Opinion Research and EWTN News.

A survey of 1,000 Catholic voters released by both organizations on Dec. 11 found that 70% of people said they have a somewhat or very favorable opinion of the pontiff. Just 4% reported an unfavorable view of Leo, and the remaining 26% said they were neutral.

The survey was conducted between Nov. 9 and Nov. 11, which is about six months after his papacy began. Leo, who was born in Chicago, is the 267th pope and the first born in the United States.

It found that 43.6% of respondents said their view of Leo is very favorable and 26.7% said it was somewhat favorable. Only 1.1% of American Catholic voters said their view is very unfavorable and just 3.1% said it was somewhat unfavorable.

Those who attend Mass regularly were more likely than infrequent Mass attenders to say they hold a favorable view of the pontiff. Those who attend infrequently were more likely than regular Mass attendees to hold a neutral view.

Among those who attend Mass at least once per week, about 75% hold a favorable view, less than 4% have an unfavorable view, and nearly 21% are neutral. For those who attend less than once per week, nearly 66% hold a favorable view, less than 5% have a negative view, and just over 29% said they were neutral.

Leo’s favorability was slightly higher among registered Democrats than it was among registered Republicans and Independents, and all three groups overwhelmingly hold a favorable view of the Holy Father.

Among Democrats, over 74% view Leo favorably, less than 5% view him unfavorably, and just over 21% are neutral. For Republicans, over 70% view him favorably, less than 5% said they had an unfavorable view, and more than 25% were neutral. Among independents, just under 63% had a favorable opinion, less than 4% held an unfavorable view, and nearly 34% said they were neutral.

In the past month, Leo has weighed in on U.S. politics a few times, but many comments were made after the poll was taken. The pontiff encouraged Americans to listen to a message by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) that opposes “the indiscriminate mass deportation of people” and more recently said President Donald Trump’s peace plan for Ukraine would weaken the U.S. alliance with Europe.

According to Gallup polls, Pope Francis’s favorability rating stayed above 75% for most of his pontificate among Catholics. His lowest favorability number was 71% in July 2015. The number of Catholics with an unfavorable view remained relatively low throughout the pontificate, but inched up to 17% by December 2023.

El Pontífice recibió en el Vaticano a los miembros del Pontificio Instituto de Arqueología Cristiana.

El Opus Dei reconoce que un sacerdote de la Prelatura en España fue apartado de su ministerio por abusos cometidos en los años 90 pero niega haber encubierto el caso como publicó el diario El País. 

Eduardo Moreno, misionero laico en el hogar Niño Dios de Belén, explica cómo para ellos es esencial renovar el patio de juegos: Se celebra todo, porque muchos niños no llegan a adultos. 

CNA Staff, Dec 11, 2025 / 11:05 am (CNA).

The White House’s Religious Liberty Commission held its fourth hearing on Dec. 10, focusing on reports of the suppression of the right to religious freedom in the U.S. military.

The commission — on which sit the Reverend Franklin Graham, son of renowned evangelist Billy Graham; Ryan Anderson, head of the Ethics and Public Policy Center; and Bishop Robert Barron of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, among others — heard testimony from expert witnesses who served in the various branches of the military, many as chaplains. 

The commission, which met in Dallas, Texas, will present its findings from these hearings to President Donald Trump. 

Retired Army chaplain and Major General Doug Carver spoke to the commission about the importance of the chaplaincy in the U.S. military. He recalled that in 1775, George Washington asked Congress for a religious leader to serve the needs of the military because the president recognized the crucial role religious faith played in the founding of the new nation, and especially to men who were giving their lives to protect it.

Historian and activist David Barton gave a brief timeline of the history of religious freedom in the U.S. military, emphasizing that along with Washington, many presidents have considered it invaluable since the country’s founding. 

He argued that hostility against religious freedom started in earnest in 2009 under the Obama administration and continued under the Biden administration. There was no widespread suppression of religion in the military until this time, he said. 

In 2010, troops were directed to “scratch off and paint over” Bible verses that had been inscribed for decades on scopes and gun sights, he said. The Air Force in California stopped a decades-old practice of teaching just war theory to members in 2011, he said, because it was taught by chaplains and based on biblical principles and the teachings of St. Augustine.

In 2012, the Air Force required the removal of the word “God” from the patch of the Rapid Capabilities office.

Both Democratic administrations tried to outsource military chaplains so they would no longer be embedded with the servicemembers, Barton said. In addition, military chaplains were pushed out of their teaching positions and troops began to be educated in “an ardently secular manor with no tolerance for any religious expression.” 

“Fear and timidity” among the chaplains has become the norm as a result of the hostility against religion, according to Barton, who called for educational reform for servicemembers that emphasizes the constitutionality of religious freedom and the important role religion has played since the nation’s founding.

Carver, who served as a chaplain for more than three decades, criticized the state of faith in the military and in the culture at large. When he entered the army in 1973, he said, chaplains taught character guidance classes and even gave soldiers “a duty day with God,” where one day a month they could spend a day in spiritual reflection. 

Those practices have long since ended, he said. Now, chaplains are called spiritual readiness coaches, values facilitators, and morale officers, Carver said.

“There is nothing wrong with chaplains taking on other duties,” he said, noting they are trained in handling crisis and trauma situations and serve as support for those struggling in family life. “But their primary role is as religious leaders, first and foremost.” 

“The role of chaplain has been diminished,” he said. 

“We are losing ground in the area of religious liberty. There’s a degradation of the Supreme Being having any input into our lives,” he said. “I am not sure how we can change direction without serious repentance.”

Marine veteran Mike Berry, now the executive director of external affairs and senior counsel at First Liberty Institute, a religious freedom law firm, also testified at the hearing.

Berry, like thousands of others, refused a mandatory COVID-19 vaccine on religious freedom grounds. He was placed on inactive status without being informed by his superiors, he said, and only found out when his family was told they were no longer eligible for Tricare, the military’s health insurance program.

He said during the hearing that religious liberty “isn’t merely an esoteric concept or a punchline. It’s a matter of national security.”

Since the military made the vaccine mandatory, more than 19,000 troops have either resigned or were pushed out, Berry said.  

“Religious conviction is the source of America’s moral strength," he said. “Highly religious young Americans are way more likely to join the military than nonreligious people.”

He warned that if religious freedom is not respected, young Americans will not enlist and the military “will become soft and weak.”

Berry made three recommendations that he hopes the commission will present to the president.

First, echoing Barton, Berry said that education and training must improve. Berry told the commission he received only one hour of training on the constitutional foundations of religious liberty as a new Marine. He also called for the elimination of “misguided” educational materials. 

“America is not evil, racist, imperialist, or fascist. Anything implying that, and any content hostile to religious liberty” should be removed, he said. 

Finally, Berry said religious liberty should be reaffirmed in national security strategy. Such liberty is a “first freedom” and should be a strategic priority.

Kelly Shackelford, First Liberty Institute CEO and chief counsel, who also sits on the commission, said in a press release after the hearing:  “The testimonies at today’s meeting highlight the importance of ensuring that the religious liberty of our servicemembers, chaplains, and veterans are upheld both now and into the future.”

“These men and women are risking their very lives for our freedoms. To stand for theirs is the very least we can do.” 

Trump established the Religious Liberty Commission, which is housed under the Department of Justice, through executive order on May 1, and appointed Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick as chairman and Dr. Ben Carson, former secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, as vice chair.

San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone serves on the commission's advisory board, along with Bishop Thomas Paprocki, Bishop Kevin Rhoades, and Father Thomas Ferguson.