Jan 8, 2026 / 14:17 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV’s prayer intention for the month of January is for the faithful to pray with the word of God.

In a video released Jan. 7 on X, the Holy Father said that he is praying “that we may learn, practice, and love praying with the word of God.”

“The gift of Scripture is God’s love letter to humankind,” he said. “Let’s pray that we all draw from this gift and get to know Our Lord.”

‘Pray with the Pope’ initiative

The Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network and the Dicastery for Communication announced Jan. 7 the “Pray with the Pope” project. According to a press release, this is a new initiative in which the pope will share his monthly prayer intentions through both video and audio, “inviting the universal Church and all people of goodwill to unite spiritually, using the same prayer that will now be led by the pope himself.”

“This initiative aims to increase the visibility of the pope’s prayer intentions, using a language suitable for prayer, in new formats, so as to better reach the faithful throughout the world, especially in today’s world of digital communication,” the press release stated.

In the full video shared on the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network website, Pope Leo recites an original prayer written specifically for this month’s prayer intention.

Here is the pope’s full prayer:

Lord Jesus, living Word of the Father,

in you we find the light that guides our steps.

We know that the human heart lives restless, hungry for meaning,

and only your Gospel can give it peace and fullness.

Teach us to listen to you each day in the Scriptures,

to let ourselves be challenged by your voice,

and to discern our decisions

from the closeness to your heart.

May your word be nourishment in weariness,

hope in darkness,

and strength in our communities.

Lord, may your word never be absent from our lips or from our hearts —

the word that makes us sons and daughters, brothers and sisters,

disciples and missionaries of your kingdom.

Make us a Church that prays with the word,

that is built upon it and shares it with joy,

so that in every person the hope of a new world may be born again.

May our faith grow in the encounter with you through your word,

moving us from the heart

to reach out to others,

to serve the most vulnerable,

to forgive, build bridges, and proclaim life.

Amen.

“Pray with the Pope” is accessible on the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network website and its digital platforms.

Jan 8, 2026 / 13:47 pm (CNA).

Next month Catholics from across the globe will gather for the 18th annual New York Encounter dedicated to education, dialogue, and friendship.

The cultural conference is organized annually by members of Communion and Liberation, an ecclesiastical movement founded by the Italian priest Father Luigi Giussani. The event will take place Feb. 13–15 at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood. Several of the presentations will be livestreamed, but for those who wish to attend in person, the event is free and open to all.

The 2026 theme is “Where Everything Is Waiting for You” to address “the reemerging human desire for authentic belonging amid global isolation, emphasizing how freedom, truth, forgiveness, and dignity foster certainty and openness in true community,” Communion and Liberation reported.

The event is set to feature a number of exhibits, panels, and discussion from a wide range of speakers. Dialogue and reflection will focus on urgent questions shaping common life, the event’s website reported. The Encounter plans to bring together leading voices from culture, academia, faith, and the arts to explore how human flourishing is possible in today’s world.

Speakers and events

The Encounter will host events on “pressing social issues” to encourage “reflection that goes beyond superficial or popular judgments,” Communion and Liberation reported. Among the topics, speakers will discuss the crisis of globalization, trade wars, and immigration.

The 2026 conference will welcome dozens of well-known Catholic leaders. The event will kick off the evening of Feb. 13 with a talk by author Colum McCann followed by a reflection led by Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem.

Feb. 14 will feature a number of panels including a discussion, “A Home in the Storm,” by Bishop Pavlo Honcharuk of Kharkiv and Father Wojciech Stasiewicz, the director of Caritas-Spes in Kharkiv. The conversation will address the faith that sustains the Church in Ukraine and be moderated by Bishop Earl K. Fernandes of Columbus, Ohio.

Another panel will tackle artificial intelligence (AI). Louis Kim, former vice president of personal systems and AI at Hewlett Packard, and Paul Scherz, professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame, will discuss how Catholic social doctrine is addressing the challenges of the technology.

Attendees can also start to check out the exhibits including “You Can’t Die for a Dollar” about the Catholic founder of Bank of America, Peter Giannini, or “The Matter of Time” about the meaning of time in science, history, and life.

Feb. 15 will begin in prayer with a Mass honoring the 21st anniversary of Giussani’s death, which will be celebrated by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop emeritus of New York. Following Mass, discussions and exhibits will resume.

Bishop Evelio Menjivar-Ayala, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., will speak alongside legal expert Ashley Feasley and executive director at the Center for Migration Studies Mario Russell to offer a Catholic view on the status of immigration in the country.

In light of the 250th anniversary of America, the Encounter will hold a panel addressing the relevance and future prospects of America’s founding ideals with Mary Ann Glendon, professor of law at Harvard, and Meir Soloveichik, an Orthodox rabbi and author.

The weekend will feature a number of other speakers and exhibits to address cultural matters and to continue to tackle the 2026 theme of “Where Everything Is Waiting for You.”

Jan 8, 2026 / 11:22 am (CNA).

The Catholic Church in India has launched a systematic campaign to address growing mental illness in groups including families and religious communities.

“We decided to take up mental health as a major concern and set up the structure in response to increased family conflicts, death by suicide among young adults, and even among religious,” said Archbishop Thomas Tharayil, the chairman of the Mental Health Ministry of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India.

“Mental health issues are on the increase both in personal lives and in families and service fields. The Church has to reach out to those in trouble at different levels from diocese to parishes,” Tharayil told CNA from Changanacherry in southern Kerala state.

After informal consultations and discussions, the ministry emerged at the national convention jointly organized by the India chapter of the International Association of Catholic Mental Health Ministers and the Indian bishops’ health care commission in April 2024 in Bangalore.

The two-day conference, which was attended by half a dozen bishops besides more than 250 religious, clergy, experts, and professionals, examined “the role of the Church as a healing community and the difference between mental health and spiritual well-being.”

The conference called for “spiritually accompanying individuals suffering from mental illness at the grassroots level — the diocese, parish, and community level.”

“The setting up of the Mental Health Ministry is the fruit of this conference,” Medical Mission Sister Joan Chunkapura told CNA.

“Depression and anxiety and other personality disorders are also on the increase due to stress and uncertainty and work pressure. Increasing numbers of suicides challenge us to set up more systems to serve those in mental crisis,” said the nun, who serves as the ministry secretary and who has done psychological counseling for four decades.

Dozens of priests and nuns have died by suicide in the past two decades due to depression, other mental health issues, or sexual exploitation, she said.

Conferences and seminars are being held in different parts of the country, Chunkapura said.

“We have been looking at setting up a national framework to address mental health effectively amid increasing challenges,” Carmelite Father Shinto Thomas told CNA. The priest, based in Bangalore, has been appointed president of the mental health ministry.

Thomas has worked with the U.S.-based Deacon Ed Shoener in setting up the ministry. The deacon had addressed the national conference in 2024.

Shoener, who was ordained a permanent deacon in 2004 at St. Peter’s Cathedral in the Diocese of Scranton, Pennsylvania, is the founding president of the International Association of Catholic Mental Health Ministers. He was drawn to that mission following the death by suicide of his daughter Kathleen in 2016.

“The Indian Bishops’ Conference is setting an example to inspire other countries,” Shoener told CNA.

“Though our Mental Health network is associated and working in 75 countries, India is one of the countries where [the bishops have] taken it up seriously and set up a program for it,” the deacon said.

“I have met representatives from the CBCI in my trips to India in 2024 and then again in 2025. They have embraced mental health ministry and have taken important steps to develop the ministry for the Indian context,” he added.

“Mental health remains a serious problem in families, among the youth ,and at work place and religious life with nuns and priests facing mental problems and depression,” Father Santhosh Dias, the secretary of the Indian bishops’ health care commission, told CNA.

“Unless the Church is fully involved in this mission, there will be apprehension about the work of such centers. So the health care commission is fully with the mental health ministry and we are preparing guidelines for the whole Church in India,” he said.

Dias said the final guidelines for the mental health ministry will be presented at the Indian bishops’ national assembly in February.

Jan 8, 2026 / 10:52 am (CNA).

ROME — Some cardinals and faithful who have a devotion to the traditional Roman rite have expressed concern that the liturgy appears to be sidelined in the extraordinary consistory currently underway at the Vatican after the cardinals voted to give priority to other issues on the agenda.

In his opening address to the consistory yesterday, Pope Leo XIV reaffirmed to the cardinal participants that they will have the opportunity to “engage in a communal reflection” on four themes already preannounced to be on the meeting’s agenda.

Those topics, he said, were Pope Francis’ 2013 apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, “that is, the mission of the Church in today’s world”; Praedicate Evangelium, the late pope’s apostolic constitution reforming the Roman Curia; the Synod and synodality “as both an instrument and a style of cooperation”; and the liturgy, “the source and summit of the Christian life.”

But Leo added that “due to time constraints, and in order to encourage a genuinely in-depth analysis, only two of them will be discussed specifically.”

The cardinals were then asked to make clear which two of the four they would want to be specifically debated and, according to Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni, “a large majority” decided the topics would be “evangelization and the Church’s missionary activity drawn from rereading Evangelii Gaudium,” and “the Synod and synodality.”

Bruni told reporters at a press briefing Wednesday evening that the 170 cardinals taking part were divided into 20 groups, which were then divided into two blocks. Eleven groups consisted of cardinals in Rome including curial cardinals and those who have concluded their service and are no longer electors. The remaining nine groups were cardinal electors of local Churches (archbishops and bishops of dioceses), cardinal electors who are nuncios and cardinal electors who have concluded their service but remain electors due to being under the age of 80.

Bruni said that “for reasons of time,” the cardinal secretaries of the second block had the job of reporting back the decision of the cardinals. “They had three minutes to explain the work done within the groups and the reasons that led to the choice of the two themes.”

The Holy Father had made clear in his opening address that it was his preference to hear back from the second block as he does not usually receive advice from those cardinals. “It is naturally easier for me to seek counsel from those who work in the Curia and live in Rome,” he said.

But the decision not to make the liturgy a key theme was disappointing to some cardinals and traditional faithful.

The liturgy has long been a particularly sensitive issue, and especially to traditional-minded Catholics following recent sweeping restrictions on the older form of the Latin rite during Pope Francis’ pontificate. These faithful experienced the restrictions not as a mere disciplinary change but as a judgment on their fidelity, spirituality, and ecclesial belonging, which many have described as deeply wounding and divisive.

The popular Italian traditional website “Messa in Latino“  wrote Jan. 7 that it had contacted some anonymous but important cardinals who all said they were “discouraged and disappointed” about the relegation of the liturgy as a discussion topic.

In comments to the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, on Jan. 8, the website’s editor Luigi Casalini asked: “To whom did the pope delegate this choice, and according to what criteria were these cardinals of the nine local Churches selected in order to remove — in effect — two topics?” He also wondered “why cardinals sensitive to the issue” appear to have “made no attempt to lobby” for the liturgy to be included as a core topic of discussion, “even before the consistory.”

The consistory, he added, “appears to be in perfect continuity with the synods and the thought of Francis” — a reference to how recent synods were silent on the traditional liturgy.

Speaking to journalists Wednesday, Bruni tried to offer some reassurance. “The other two themes will still be addressed in some way, because mission does not exclude the liturgy,” he said. “On the contrary, in many ways it does not mean exclusion. It means that they will still be addressed within the others or in some other way.”

He added: “As the pope said and as he noted in both his opening and closing speeches [on Wednesday], the themes cannot be separated from each other, because in mission and evangelization there is liturgy.”

Casalini said he was looking ahead to the two free discussions today to see “whether the topic of the liturgy will be taken up again.”

This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, CNA's sister news partner, and has been adapted by CNA.

At the end of the second day of the Extraordinary Consistory, Pope Leo XIV expressed his desire to continue along this path, “in continuity” with what was requested in the pre-Conclave general congregations, and confirmed the Ecclesial Assembly of October 2028. Cardinal Brislin of South Africa, Cardinal David of the Philippines, and Cardinal Rueda Aparicio of Colombia describe the morning and afternoon proceedings, noting there was a sense of unity, even if not uniformity.

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Jan 8, 2026 / 07:00 am (CNA).

The Catholic Church in Austria has launched a new formation program to promote late vocations, aimed at men between 45 and 60 years old who are currently employed and can complete the process without having to leave their jobs.

The initiative, promoted by the Conference of Rectors of Austrian Seminaries, breaks with the traditional model of formation and preparation for priestly ordination and opts for a more flexible model as a response to the shortage of vocations.

Under the name “ Zweiten Weg für Spätberufene” (“Second Path for Late Vocations”), the program is specifically aimed at men with professional experience and offers the possibility of pursuing theological studies remotely, without requiring community life in the seminary or exclusively in-person formation, adapting to the professional demands of each candidate.

This new program also allows them to continue practicing their profession after being ordained priests — with the exception of political positions — albeit in a limited capacity, with the express authorization of their diocese and provided that their profession is compatible with the priestly ethos.

With this new proposal, the Church in Austria is committed to integrating the path to the priesthood with the daily lives of the candidates, who must be single or widowed and commit to a life of celibacy.

The fundamental pillar of the initiative is the document Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis Sacerdotalis, from the Dicastery for the Clergy, on the gift of the priestly vocation and the importance of formation.

According to the latest data provided by the Austrian Bishops’ Conference for the year 2024, there are currently 3,269 priests in the country, a number that has experienced a slight but steady decline in recent years.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Jan 8, 2026 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Communists in former Czechoslovakia wanted to turn Neratovice into the first church-free city. Now, in democratic Czech Republic, which banned the promotion of communism starting this January 2026, the city may become home to the world’s largest 3D-printed church.

The tower will be constructed using 3D printing technology, but whether the entire church will be printed is to be decided soon based on calculations and estimation of the building’s vault.

“The decision to 3D-print the entire above-the-ground part of the building should be made in the near future, that is at the beginning of 2026,” Marek Matocha, member of the board of directors of the Neratovice Community Center Foundation, confirmed to CNA. The foundation, which facilitates the construction, was created by the Archdiocese of Prague since Neratovice is in its territory.

Architectural innovation

In December, the Czech version of Forbes hailed the future “exceptional church, which has an ambition to change the foundations of construction.” It can “put Czechia back on the architectural map of the world after a long time,” the business magazine wrote.

The founding stone of the Church of the Holy Trinity and of Cardinal Josef Beran Community Centre was blessed by Archbishop of Prague Jan Graubner in 2024. The future church is modeled on Noah’s Ark by award-winning architect Zdeněk Fránek, who has constructed religious buildings previously.

Both buildings will be energy efficient, covered by green roofs irrigated by means of rainwater retention tanks. A park with a pond and a children’s playground nearby are planned, too.

Financial considerations

Local parish administrator Father Peter Kováč said that 3D printing could bring savings and a unique solution — possibly the largest 3D-printed church in the world.

“It is important that the project is sustainable and meaningful financially,” he told a local Catholic weekly. Various donors have already contributed several millions and the whole project is estimated to cost 204 million Czech crowns (more than $8 million).

For the time being, the parishioners go to Mass in a chapel.

The church design consists of an ark-like structure made up of 520 3D-printed blocks, assembled like a puzzle. These blocks are generatively designed and are characterized by a wavelike structure that has an acoustic function.

Historical significance

Among the patrons of the project is Member of the European Parliament Tomáš Zdechovský. The Czech Christian Democrat sees the construction as “absolutely great news” because the church “will be a unique building that will be visited by people from all over the country.”

The town of Neratovice, an industrial community with a population of about 16,000, was founded by the communist regime in 1957 and has never had a church. The creation of the 3D-printed structure is thus significant for local Roman Catholics, who have been trying to have a church built for decades.

Cardinal Josef Beran (1888–1969) was an archbishop of Prague who suffered in the Nazi concentration camp at Dachau before World War II. When the communists took over Czechoslovakia, he refused to pledge loyalty to the atheist regime. He was interned for 14 years in several locations, including complete isolation from the outside world.

When he was created a cardinal by Pope Paul VI in 1965, he was allowed to travel to Rome but was unable to return. The prelate spent the rest of his life in exile, visiting compatriots in Europe and the U.S. His beatification process is currently underway.

WASHINGTON - On the weekend of January 24-25 many Catholic dioceses in the United States will take the annual Collection for the Church in Latin America, which supports ministries among the poor in Mexico, Central and South America and the Caribbean.

“This annual collection exemplifies the spiritual journey of Pope Leo XIV, who was born in Chicago but spent most of his ministry serving the poor in Peru,” said Bishop Edgar M. da Cunha, SDV, of the Diocese of Fall River, and chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Subcommittee on the Church in Latin America, which oversees this annual collection and the grants it funds.

During the decade that then-Bishop Robert Prevost was Bishop of Chiclayo, his diocese received several grants from the Collection for the Church in Latin America. With this support, the diocese improved youth ministry in impoverished parishes, promoted care for the environment and educated thousands of parents, teachers and catechists in the prevention of child abuse.

“The Second Vatican Council, which ended a dozen years before Robert Prevost entered the Augustinian order, encouraged Catholics to reach out in love across all national borders, especially those between the wealthy global north and the developing global south,” said Bishop da Cunha, a Brazilian whose diocese includes Portuguese and Spanish-speaking Catholics. “Pope Leo XIV’s faith journey embodies the spirit of why the bishops of the United States created the Church in Latin America program six decades ago to make an impact in Latin America.”

The online giving platform iGiveCatholic also accepts funds to support this work.

In 2024, gifts to the Collection for the Church in Latin America provided more than $8 million for 344 projects. Some sample projects are:

• Evangelization, faith formation and pastoral care of teenagers in the Archdiocese of Caracas, Venezuela, whose parents have migrated to work in other countries.
• Prison ministry in the notorious Litoral Penitentiary in Guayaquil, Ecuador, with 10,000 severely overcrowded inmates and frequent lethal violence.
• Forming hundreds of Haitian lay leaders in marriage ministry so they can promote strong families in a society that is disintegrating from poverty and gang violence.
• A conference for 1,500 Colombians to seek peace in a six-decade civil war through evangelization that emphasizes Jesus’s command to love our enemies.
• Preparing lay leaders in the Archdiocese of Havana, Cuba, to become evangelists in their communities, despite communist repression of the Catholic faith.
• An international gathering of 130 faith leaders in Mexico City to explore the continuing importance of the Vatican II document on Scripture, Dei Verbum.

“All of these projects represent the types of initiatives that inspired Father Prevost to go to Peru as a missionary,” Bishop da Cunha said. “In supporting the Collection for the Church in Latin America, we are able to honor Pope Leo XIV and, above all, serve the Lord who calls us to love our neighbors.”

More information is at www.usccb.org/latin-america.

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