St. Mary's Church

CNA Staff, Dec 18, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

The newly announced leader of the Catholic Church in New York expressed “heartfelt gratitude” on Dec. 18 for having been appointed to the post by Pope Leo XIV.

Archbishop-elect Ronald Hicks, who will head the Archdiocese of New York after leading the Diocese of Joliet, Illinois, said at a Thursday press conference that he accepted the Holy Father’s appointment “with great humility” and “an open heart.” 

Hicks addressed media at St. Patrick’s Cathedral alongside outgoing Cardinal Archbishop Timothy Dolan, who turned 75 earlier this year, the customary age at which a prelate submits his resignation to the Holy See. 

The new archbishop-designate reflected on his formation under past Church leaders in his hometown of Chicago, including Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, Cardinal Francis George, and Chicago’s current archbishop, Cardinal Blase Cupich. “For all of them, I’m deeply grateful,” he said. 

Makes first ‘controversial statement’

At the press conference Hicks jokingly announced what he anticipated would be his “first controversial statement” by admitting his unending devotion to his hometown Chicago Cubs baseball team and his love of the Windy City’s iconic deep dish pizza. 

“I want you to know that I am going to remain a loyal Cubs fan,” he said. “However, I am going to start rooting for the New York sports teams. And I already love your pizza. I love it a lot.”

The prelate admitted he would miss the Joliet Diocese, at which he has served for the last five years. “I have felt happy, grateful, and blessed to be their bishop,” he said. “Together, we have worked with some missionary zeal to catechize, to evangelize, and to put our faith into action as disciples who make disciples.”

Describing New York City as “rich in energy, languages, cultures, and people,” he said he was excited to get to know the city, though he acknowledged that the archdiocese is facing “complex and challenging days” including issues of life, faith, and “healing.” 

Hicks specifically said he was committed to learning about the archdiocese’s efforts to compensate survivors of sexual abuse. The archdiocese is currently pursuing a settlement for victims that is expected to top $300 million.

“As a Church, we can never rest in our efforts to prevent abuse, to protect children, and to care for survivors,” he said. 

The prelate said he looks forward to “working closely and collaboratively with the priests, the deacons, the religious, the lay leaders of [the] archdiocese” as well as working with the “great variety and diversity of faith leaders and civic leaders” that populate New York City. 

Addressing the archdiocese’s Spanish-speaking faithful, the archbishop-designate spoke in Spanish of his past ministry in Mexico and Central America, including five years in El Salvador. 

Saying he has “an enormous heart for Latino culture and Hispanic people,” he mentioned he has two Colombian nephews, Puerto Rican godparents, many Dominican friends, and that he intends “to walk with all of you, together, as brothers and sisters.”

Responding to speculation in the media and on the internet as to who he is as a bishop, Hicks said: “If you want to know the core of who I am and what I stand for, you should know this: I love Jesus with my mind, heart, and soul, and I strive to love my neighbor as myself.”

“My desire is to be obedient to the Holy Spirit and to do the will of God, serving with a shepherd’s heart,” he emphasized.

This story was updated at 11:57 a.m. on Dec. 18, 2025.

Los formadores de los seminarios menores en España tendrán una jornada de formación en enero de 2026 que pondrá el foco en el acompañamiento afectivo-sexual. 

“La paz de Jesús resucitado es desarmada, porque desarmada fue su lucha, dentro de circunstancias históricas, políticas y sociales precisas”, escribe el Pontífice

Aquí puedes leer el texto completo del mensaje del Papa León XIV por la 59ª Jornada Mundial de la Paz, que se celebrará el próximo 1 de enero.

Cada 18 de diciembre la Iglesia celebra a la Madre de Dios bajo la advocación de la “Virgen de la Esperanza”, conocida popularmente como la “Virgen de la O”.

En medio de un clima de creciente tensión política en Honduras, la Iglesia Católica hizo un llamado a “escuchar la voz del pueblo soberano y respetarla”.

CNA Staff, Dec 17, 2025 / 20:05 pm (CNA).

U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced that he has issued a directive aimed at reforming the military’s Chaplain Corps, beginning with the elimination of the U.S. Army’s current Spiritual Fitness Guide.

In a video post, Hegseth described a “real problem” facing the nation’s military forces: “the weakening of our Chaplain Corps,” which has “been going on for far too long.”

“In an atmosphere of political correctness and secular humanism, chaplains have been minimized, viewed by many as therapists instead of ministers,” he said. “Faith and virtue were traded for self help and self care.”

Hegseth said that “chaplains are intended to be the spiritual and moral backbone of our nation’s forces,” recalling that at the outset of the American Revolution, Gen. George Washington, in one of his first acts as commander of the Continental Army, established the Chaplain Corps because he saw the need for “the blessing and protection of heaven … especially in times of public distress and danger.”

“For about 200 years, the Chaplain Corps continued its role as the spiritual leader of our service members, serving our men and women in times of hardship and ministering to their souls,” he said.

In what he described as an “ongoing war on warriors” in recent years, Hegseth said the role of chaplains “has been degraded.”

He cited the current Army Spiritual Fitness Guide, which he said mentions God only once and has “zero” references to virtue, relying instead “on New Age notions, saying that the soldier’s spirit consists of consciousness, creativity, and connection.”

According to the guide, Hegseth said, about “82% of the military are religious, yet, ironically, [the guide] alienates our war fighters of faith by pushing secular humanism. In short, it’s unacceptable and unserious. So we’re tossing it.”

“Our chaplains are chaplains, not emotional support officers,” he said.

According to Hegseth, the reforms will be “a top-down cultural shift, putting spiritual well-being on the same footing as mental and physical health.”

He said initial reforms will result in the removal of training materials that “have no place in the War Department” as well as the streamlining of religious affiliation coding practices, with more changes in the coming weeks and months.

“We’re going to restore the esteemed position of chaplains as moral anchors for our fighting force,” Hegseth said.

Quoting the 1956 army chaplain’s manual, Hegseth said: “‘The chaplain is the pastor and the shepherd of the souls entrusted to his care.’”

“This is a high and sacred calling,” he continued, “but this only works if our shepherds are actually given the freedom to boldly guide and care for their flock.”

El 2025 fue un año especialmente prolífico para la música católica, con lanzamientos que renovaron la fe de miles de fieles y consolidaron el trabajo de reconocidos artistas y ministerios.

Los recientes intentos de sabotaje contra iglesias católicas, las amenazas a instituciones educativas católicas y el actual contexto político del país hacen que la próxima Navidad sea un tiempo de preocupación para los católicos en Bangladesh, país de mayoría musulmana.

CNA Staff, Dec 17, 2025 / 17:00 pm (CNA).

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul will sign into law an assisted suicide bill that Catholic leaders have ardently opposed, making New York the 13th state to allow the practice. 

Hochul, who called it an “incredibly difficult decision,” said she will sign the bill after lawmakers add some “guardrails.” The bill allows doctors to give terminally ill patients drugs to end their lives. Hochul’s additions to the law include requiring a waiting period, a recorded oral request for death, and a health evaluation. The law will go into effect six months after signing.    

Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York and other New York bishops have been outspoken against the legislation, issuing several statements opposing it. In a brief meeting with Hochul over the summer, Dolan urged her not to sign the measure. 

Earlier this month, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed into law similar assisted suicide legislation. Other jurisdictions that permit assisted suicide include: California, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, and the District of Columbia.

Hochul, who is a Catholic University of America alumna, said in a Dec. 17 statement that the bill will enable people “to suffer less — to shorten not their lives, but their deaths.”

“New York has long been a beacon of freedom, and now it is time we extend that freedom to terminally ill New Yorkers who want the right to die comfortably and on their own terms,” Hochul said. 

“My mother died of ALS, and I am all too familiar with the pain of seeing someone you love suffer and being powerless to stop it,” she continued. 

In a joint statement, Dolan and the bishops of New York state said they were “extraordinarily troubled” by Hochul’s announcement. 

The bishops say the law endangers the vulnerable, calling assisted suicide “a grave moral evil” that “is in direct conflict with Catholic teaching on the sacredness and dignity of all human life.” 

“This new law signals our government’s abandonment of its most vulnerable citizens, telling people who are sick or disabled that suicide in their case is not only acceptable but is encouraged by our elected leaders,” the Dec. 17 statement said. 

The Patients’ Rights Action Fund, a nonpartisan group that opposes assisted suicide on the grounds that it is inherentaly discriminatory, said that “safeguards” in bills like the one Hochul said she would sign “are falling short” where they exist.

“The amendments added that try to address the serious dangers that come with legalizing assisted suicide do nothing to protect people who deserve care and support from the state and their medical teams,” Matt Vallière, who heads the group, said in a Dec. 17 statement shared with CNA. 

Citing the tragic case of Eileen Mihich, a woman struggling with mental illness who died under the assisted suicide law in Washington state, Vallière said that “it is impossible to prevent abuse of the law in which people not on the verge of dying can utilize assisted suicide.”

“There is no true accountability to protect patients from potential harm, abuse, or coercion,” Vallière continued.

The New York bishops also raised concerns about mental health, saying the law “will seriously undermine” anti-suicide and mental health care efforts made by Hochul. 

“How can any society have credibility to tell young people or people with depression that suicide is never the answer, while at the same time telling elderly and sick people that it is a compassionate choice to be celebrated?” the bishops stated. 

The bishops urged the state to instead invest in palliative care, which is medicine focused on relieving suffering and improving quality of life for people with serious illnesses. 

“We call on Catholics and all New Yorkers to reject physician-assisted suicide for themselves, their loved ones, and those in their care,” the bishops said. “And we pray that our state turns away from its promotion of a culture of death and invest instead in life-affirming, compassionate hospice and palliative care, which is seriously underutilized.”

Vallière also called for better access to palliative care. 

“Gov. Hochul’s statements undermine the importance of hospice and palliative care, which provides the compassionate end-of-life experience for which so many are advocating but is drastically underutilized in New York,” Vallière said. “We need more access to this care, not a fast track to death in the absence of it.”