St. Mary's Church

El sábado la Basílica de María Auxiliadora en Lima (Perú) se llenó de fieles que acompañaron con profunda alegría y esperanza la ordenación de dos nuevos sacerdotes salesianos, en el marco de los 150 años del primer envío misionero de Don Bosco, su fundador, el 11 de noviembre de 1875.

Un obispo dominicano recordó que la familia está formada por “papá, mamá y los hijos”, en rueda de prensa para anunciar la tradicional caminata “Un paso por mi familia”, que se realizará en toda la República Dominicana el próximo domingo 23 de noviembre.

CNA Staff, Nov 11, 2025 / 18:16 pm (CNA).

As a group of mostly teenagers made its way home from a Catholic youth retreat in the mountains of Southern California this past weekend, the bus rolled over at a winding turn, injuring 26. 

Nearly 40 parishioners of Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Santa Ana were on their way home from a three-day retreat at Camp Nawakwa in the San Bernardino Mountains on the evening of Nov. 9 when their bus crashed on a two-lane highway near Running Springs. 

When emergency responders arrived, passengers were still escaping from the bus, with many exiting through the roof hatch. Twenty-six passengers were treated for their injuries, including 20 who were later hospitalized, according to the San Bernardino County Fire Department. Three passengers had major injuries.

Jarryd Gonzales, a spokesman for the Diocese of Orange, told CNA that the Diocese of Orange “offers heartfelt prayers and support to the youth, families, and staff of Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Santa Ana who were involved in a serious bus accident.”

“We extend our deepest gratitude to the first-responder agencies for their prompt and professional response in safely evacuating passengers and ensuring they received proper medical attention,” Gonzales said.

Gonzales said about 125 people participated in the retreat, which started Friday and ended Sunday. Most left the retreat in vans, except for the one group that took the bus.

Gonzales said the diocese will continue to “provide further updates as information becomes available.”

“Until then, our entire Diocese of Orange community will keep all those affected in prayer, and we thank all for their continued support,” he said.

La Conferencia de Obispos Católicos de Estados Unidos (USCCB, por sus siglas en inglés) aprobó la consagración de la nación al Sagrado Corazón de Jesús en 2026 para acompañar el 250º aniversario del país.

Se presentó en la Asamblea Nacional de Panamá un proyecto de ley que busca involucrar al gobierno en la conservación y promoción de la tradicional Semana Santa Viviente de Pesé, una de las celebraciones religiosas más concurridas del interior de Panamá.  

Baltimore, Maryland, Nov 11, 2025 / 17:46 pm (CNA).

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is launching an initiative called “You Are Not Alone” to focus on providing accompaniment to migrants who are at risk of being deported.

Bishop Mark Seitz, chair of the USCCB Committee on Migration, announced the nationwide initiative during the conference’s Fall Plenary Assembly in Baltimore on Nov. 11.

The initiative, which was inspired by similar efforts in Catholic dioceses throughout the country, will focus on four key areas: emergency and family support, accompaniment and pastoral care, communication of Church teaching, and solidarity through prayer and public witness. 

Seitz said the Catholic Church has been “accompanying newcomers to this land since before our country’s founding.” He said — in addition to spiritual and corporal works of mercy — the Church “cannot abandon our long-standing advocacy for just and meaningful reform to our immigration system.”

He said clergy will continue “proclaiming the God-given dignity of every person from the moment of conception through every stage of life until natural death,” which includes the dignity of those who migrated to the United States. 

The bishop said many dioceses have launched migrant accompaniment initiatives already.

For example, the Diocese of San Diego launched its Faithful Accompaniment in Trust & Hope (FAITH) initiative on Aug. 4. The diocese works with interfaith partners to provide spiritual accompaniment to migrants during court proceedings and throughout the court process.

Seitz reiterates opposition to ‘mass deportations’

In his address to his fellow bishops, Seitz criticized President Donald Trump’s administration for carrying out its “campaign promise of mass deportations,” which he said is “intimidating and dehumanizing the immigrants in our midst regardless of how they came to be there.”

He said the accompaniment initiative was launched because Trump’s immigration policy has created “a situation unlike anything we’ve seen previously.” He specifically referenced efforts to revoke Temporary Protected Status designations for migrants in several countries, including Venezuela and Nicaragua, and restrictions on certain visas.

“Those who lack legal status are far from the only ones impacted by this approach,” Seitz said.

He said most deportees “have no criminal convictions,” and the administration has pressured immigration enforcement “to increase the number of arrests.”

“Our immigrant brothers and sisters … are living in a deep state of fear,” Seitz said. “Many are too afraid to work, send their children to school, or avail themselves to the sacraments.”

Seitz, earlier in the day, noted that bishops are primarily pastors, and “because we’re pastors … we care about our people, and we care particularly for those who are most vulnerable and those who are most in need.”

Pope Leo XIV has encouraged the American bishops to be vocal on the dignity of migrants. In October, the pontiff met with American bishops, including Seitz, and other supporters of migrants. 

According to one person present, Dylan Corbett, the founding executive director of Hope Border Institute, Leo told the group: “The Church cannot stay silent before injustice. You stand with me, and I stand with you.”

La legislación que brindaría protección a las personas sin estatus migratorio legal en Estados Unidos ha recibido el respaldo del Obispo de El Paso, Texas, Mons. Mark J. Seitz. 

Baltimore, Maryland, Nov 11, 2025 / 17:16 pm (CNA).

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) approved the consecration of the nation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 2026 to accompany the country’s 250th anniversary.

At the USCCB Fall Plenary Assembly in Baltimore, bishops voted “to entrust our nation to the love and care of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.” Devoting the nation is an opportunity “to remind everyone of our task to serve our nation by perfecting the temporal order with the spirit of the Gospel as taught by the Second Vatican Council,” Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, said.

“One hundred years ago, in 1925, in his encyclical instituting the feast of Christ the King, Pope Pius XI, drawing on the teaching of Pope Leo XIII, referred to the pious custom of consecrating oneself, families, and even nations to the Sacred Heart of Jesus as a way to recognize the kinship of Christ,” said Rhoades, who serves on an advisory board for President Donald Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission.

To help Catholics prepare for the consecration, Rhoades said the bishops will develop prayer resources, including a novena. He said they are already putting together other resources for use by dioceses, parishes, and other groups to engage Catholics.

“In his fourth and last encyclical, Dilexit Nos, Pope Francis brought devotion to the Sacred Heart to the forefront of Catholic life as the ultimate symbol of both human and divine love, calling it a wellspring of peace and unity,” said Rhoades, who has served as chair of the USCCB Committee on Religious Liberty. 

Francis “wrote of how the Sacred Heart teaches us to build up in this world God’s kingdom of love and justice. Then in his first apostolic exhortation, Dilexi Te, Pope Leo XIV, following upon Pope Francis’ teaching, invites us to contemplate Christ’s love, the love that moves us to mission in our suffering world today,” Rhoades said.

Before bishops voted to consecrate the U.S. to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Archbishop Paul Etienne of Seattle asked if the bishops will include catechetical materials to guide Catholics, as the devotion “is ultimately inviting people into a deeper relationship with the very person of Jesus himself.”

Etienne said the “devotion to the Sacred Heart is such a rich devotion and almost complex.” 

Rhoades responded they “do intend to have catechetical materials,” because “there is such an abundance of beautiful teaching.” 

At the request of Bishop Arturo Cepeda of San Antonio, Rhoades said the bishops can provide the materials in various languages “to have as many of our people involved as possible.” He said the resources will also allow individuals and families to make their own consecration, as the  consecration simultaneously happens across the nation.

Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski proposed a celebration during the bishops’ spring meeting in Orlando, Florida, in June at the solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and suggested inviting Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and other officials to attend.

History of the devotion

The story behind the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus dates back to 1673. At a monastery belonging to the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary in eastern France, Sister Margaret Mary Alacoque began experiencing visions of the Sacred Heart that continued for 18 months.

Sister Margaret Mary learned ways to venerate the Sacred Heart of Christ during her visions. These devotions included a Holy Hour on Thursdays, the creation of the feast of the Sacred Heart after Corpus Christi, and the reception of the Eucharist on the first Friday of every month.

On June 16, 1675, Jesus told Sister Margaret Mary to promote a feast that honored his Sacred Heart. He also gave Sister Margaret Mary 12 promises to all who venerated and promoted the devotion of the Sacred Heart.

The Vatican was first hesitant to declare a feast of the Sacred Heart. But as the devotion spread throughout France, the Vatican granted the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to France in 1765. In 1856, Blessed Pius IX designated the Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi as the feast of the Sacred Heart for the universal Church.

“Yo siempre digo que nosotros, los hermanos y padres paulinos la hicimos a Ella venezolana. Por eso la imagen que nosotros veneramos aquí es una adaptación a la realidad venezolana”, explicó el P. Torres

El Nuncio Apostólico en México, Mons. Joseph Spiteri, hizo un llamado a los obispos mexicanos: “no podemos dejar pasar ciertas actitudes, ciertas tomas de posición, ciertas acusaciones que nos llegan de parte de los fieles en contra de nuestros colaboradores”.