CNA Staff, Dec 4, 2025 / 12:07 pm (CNA).

U.S. Military Services Archbishop Timothy Broglio is urging the country’s leaders to refrain from killing noncombatants while neutralizing violent drug cartels across the world.

The Trump administration throughout late 2025 has been launching aggressive strikes against suspected drug cartel operators in the Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean. The White House has come under fire for what critics have claimed are indiscriminate and possibly extralegal airstrikes against alleged narco boats.

Human rights advocates have particularly criticized a Sept. 2 strike on an alleged drug smuggling boat in which the military fired a second strike against two individuals who survived the initial strike.

In a Dec. 3 statement, Broglio acknowledged that “dismantling the powerful criminal networks responsible for the flow of illegal substances into our nation is a necessary and laudable task.”

Yet “questions have been raised about the use of military force in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean and, as a nation, we must ensure that the use of military force is ethical and legal,” the prelate said. 

Broglio noted that methods to eradicate drugs and drug smugglers from the U.S. must be “moral” and in line with “just war theory,” which includes respect for “the dignity of each human person.” 

“No one can ever be ordered to commit an immoral act, and even those suspected of committing a crime are entitled to due process under the law,” he said. 

The intentional killing of noncombatants is forbidden in a just war, he said, and it would be “an illegal and immoral order to [deliberately] kill survivors on a vessel who pose no immediate lethal threat to our armed forces.”

Military forces possess a legitimate means of ensuring that noncombatants are not killed, Broglio pointed out: Vessels can be intercepted, boarded, and members of the Coast Guard can arrest suspected drug runners, after which they would be subject to due process in a court. 

“True justice is achieved through transparent legal procedures, accountability, and respect for life — not through violence outside the law,” the archbishop said. 

Broglio — who previously served as president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and has led the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, since 2008 — pointed out that the U.S. has “a long tradition of responding to injustice, liberating the oppressed, and leading the free world.” 

Leaders “cannot tarnish that reputation with questionable actions that fail to respect the dignity of the human person and the rule of law,” he said. 

Broglio urged leaders to refrain from asking soldiers to “engage in immoral actions.” He further noted that, as a military chaplain, his own investment in the matter stems from a tradition as old as the the country itself. 

“[F]rom the beginning,” he said, “George Washington wanted chaplains with his troops to tell him the truth.”

ACI Prensa Staff, Dec 4, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

The Iberian Province of the Discalced Carmelites is preparing to celebrate the jubilee year of St. John of the Cross, marking the 300th anniversary of his canonization and the 100th anniversary of his proclamation as a doctor of the Church.

The jubilee year dedicated to St. John of the Cross was approved by the Apostolic Penitentiary at the request of the Order of Discalced Carmelites and the dioceses of Ávila, Jaén, and Segovia in Spain, which are particularly linked to the life and work of the mystic and reformer of the Carmelite order, along with St. Teresa of Ávila.

The superior of the Iberian Province of the Discalced Carmelites, Friar Francisco Sánchez Oreja, stated in a message commemorating the jubilee that “the centenaries serve to confirm that St. John of the Cross, whom we are celebrating, is still alive and has a word he continues to speak” to today’s world.

“The message he has left us is one of seeking the divine, calling us to immerse ourselves in God in a lived experience of theological life. The message of an eminent witness of the living God who speaks of him and the things of God. A message to forge and form believers in mature faith, in a greater intimacy with God,” the priest noted.

For Sánchez, this jubilee “should be a time to deepen our knowledge and study of St. John of the Cross,” who is “a living image of the authentic Carmelite” not only because of his doctrine or as the founder of the Discalced Carmelites but also “because with his concrete existence, with the events of his life, he has manifested the Carmelite vocation and shows us the image of the Carmelite religious.”

Sánchez described the patron saint of Spanish poets as a discreet and virtuous man who “did not seek to act for reward but as an act of gratitude to God.”

St. John of the Cross is also portrayed as an ascetic man who rejected society’s honors, a spiritual person “who lived in an atmosphere of prayer,” a witness of God with a “great capacity for interiority and contemplation” who seeks the truth “that lies beyond what we perceive at first glance.”

Poor ever since he was a child, he embraced ‘evangelical’ poverty

The superior of the Carmelites also emphasized in his biographical sketch that the founder of the Discalced Carmelites knew poverty from childhood, to the point that “he saw his father and his brother die of hunger.”

This reality was a school of life that led him to move from place to place, beg in the streets, and perform the most menial jobs: “All of this helped him to be a humble and simple person,” even when he held positions of authority in the order.

The friar also emphasized that the saint “voluntarily took up evangelical poverty, embracing the poor Christ, which translates into a life based on work, sobriety, and detachment from riches.”

Fundamental attitudes of St. John of the Cross

Among these, he highlighted “faith in the living and true God found in the person of Jesus Christ,” hope “that helps us understand that not everything ends here and now, but that we are called to communion of life with him,” and charity, which “gives life and value to the works of faith and hope.”

“His example is an ideal for life, his writings, a treasure to share with all those who seek the face of God today, and his doctrine is also a word for us today,” Sánchez emphasized.

The St. John of the Cross Jubilee Year will be inaugurated on Dec. 13 with the opening of the holy door at the Church of the Sepulchre of St. John of the Cross in Segovia and will extend until Dec. 26, 2026, when the closing ceremony will take place in Úbeda, the town in the province of Jaén where he died.

The jubilee churches that can be visited on pilgrimage during these months are: St. Cyprian Parish in Fontiveros, the saint’s birthplace; St. Teresa of Jesus Basilica in Ávila; and the conventual church of the Discalced Carmelite nuns in Duruelo in the Diocese of Ávila.

In the Diocese of Jaén, the jubilee church will be the church-oratory of the Discalced Carmelite convent in Úbeda and in the Diocese of Segovia, the church of the Discalced Carmelites in Segovia, where the tomb of St. John of the Cross is located.

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

Pope Leo XIV views excerpts of Roberto Benigni’s upcoming monologue “Peter: A Man in the Wind,” produced in collaboration with Vatican Media and airing on Italian state TV.

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ACI Prensa Staff, Dec 4, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Chileans are preparing to go to the polls once again to elect their president. Following the general elections, two candidates will be vying to replace the current president, Gabriel Boric: Jeannette Jara, a former government official, and the opposition candidate José Antonio Kast of the Republican Party.

In a climate marked by insecurity, rising crime rates, and the migration crisis, citizens are closely watching the proposals of both candidates to address these problems.

The archbishop of Concepción, Sergio Pérez de Arce, addressed the debate over the situation of immigrants without legal status in the country in a column titled “It’s Either ‘You Leave or We Expel You’?” in which he maintains that migration policy cannot be reduced to these two options.

The question that titles his column refers to the warning that candidate José Antonio Kast gave to immigrants who are residing illegally in Chile, whom he assured that they have “100 days” to each make “the appropriate decision and leave our country” before being expelled, a measure he will implement if he takes office as president on March 11, 2026.

Jara, the Communist Party candidate, adopted the idea of ​​the liberal Franco Parisi — a candidate in the first round of elections for president — to address the problem of illegal immigration by means of a proposal “very focused on technological control of the border” and proposes “creating a digital wall” with tools such as biometric control.

Regarding Kast’s countdown for immigrants to leave the country, she considers it “a campaign stunt.”

In recent weeks, Peru, which lies on Chile’s northern border, has strengthened border control there by deploying military forces, resulting in nearly a hundred migrants being stranded in northern Chile. 

In response, the archbishop of Concepción stated that “the response to migrants in an irregular situation [not legally present] in the country cannot be simply ‘you leave now, voluntarily, or we will expel you with nothing but the clothes on your back’ in 100 days.”

“There are foreigners who have been in Chile for years, who work and contribute to the country, who have family and emotional ties here, and who even have children born in Chile (who are therefore Chilean citizens). Many of them have wanted to regularize their situation, but they have been given almost no alternatives,” he lamented.

“On the other hand, leaving Chile today means exposing oneself only to uncertainty, since neighboring countries are closing their borders, Venezuela is still in a political and social crisis, and is also in conflict with the United States. It means exposing people and families to new, painful, and unsafe displacement,” he warned.

“Can Chilean society offer as the only solution: ‘Either you leave or we’ll kick you out’? Can politics be reduced solely to threats and a punitive response to human realities [in such precarious situations]?” he asked.

“It’s not humane, it’s not rational, it is not in keeping with the Gospel. It’s not the best policy. There are other paths to explore that are more in line with human dignity. That is what is expected of governments and presidential candidates,” he asserted.

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

At the OSCE Ministerial Council in Vienna, Archbishop Paul Gallagher call fosr renewed efforts in conflict prevention, especially regarding Ukraine. He also highlights rising religious intolerance, migration challenges, and the need for stronger action against human trafficking.

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The Vatican Bank publishes its first Sustainability Report on its commitment to environmental, social and governance principles and towards sustainable finance.

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Houston, Texas, Dec 4, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

The bishop of Helsinki in Finland, Raimo Goyarrola, the only Catholic bishop in the Nordic country that shares a 1,000-mile border with Russia, has been traveling in the U.S. to raise funds to support the small Catholic population there, which has seen explosive growth in the last five years. 

Goyarrola, originally from Bilbao, Spain — along with Father Jean Claude Kabeza, a genocide survivor from Rwanda and the vicar general and pastor of St. Henry’s Cathedral in Helsinki — spoke with CNA in Houston recently as the two made their way through Texas seeking to raise funds for the Finnish Church.

“It’s a growing Church, but it’s very poor, and filled with immigrants and refugees,” Goyarrola told CNA. “There are 125 different nationalities, and many different rites … Maronites, Chaldeans … It’s a richness, but also a pastoral challenge.”

There are currently more than 300 unbaptized adults preparing to enter the Catholic Church in Finland, according to Kabeza. With Catholics making up about 0.2% of the country’s 5.6 million people, he called the growth “booming.” 

Goyarrola explained that the Catholic Church in the country is “a mission Church.” There are no Catholic schools in the country, so he is seeking to build one in the capital city of Helsinki, along with a pastoral center from which to coordinate catechetical and charitable works. 

Currently, there are eight parishes in the entire country, which is about the size of Montana, and four of those parishes cannot meet expenses. While Masses are being said in 33 cities, Goyarrola said some families still must travel 200 miles to attend Mass because there are not enough churches or priests, which he refers to as a “blessed problem.”

The diocese rents space from 20 Lutheran churches and five Orthodox churches in 25 of the 33 cities.

In Helsinki, the Catholic Church pays 12,000 euros ($14,000) a month to rent a larger and empty Lutheran church in order to say Masses and for other church activities. 

St. Henry’s Cathedral is “too small,” its pastor, Kabeza, said. “We were saying eight Masses a day, and people were still standing outside.”

In a country with frigid winters, Kabeza said that “as their pastor and father, I hated to see my children outside in the cold when they came to Mass.”

Although 65% of the population is nominally Lutheran, the country is very secular, according to the two men. About 0.3% of the population are Orthodox. These two denominations, along with Catholicism at 0.2% of the population, are the largest religious groups in the country.

A ‘paradise of ecumenism’

Because the different churches rely on one another, Goyarrola called the country a “paradise of ecumenism.” 

“We are very close,” the bishop said of his Lutheran and Orthodox compatriots. Last year, almost 400 Orthodox, Catholics, and Lutherans attended a Marian procession in Helsinki on the feast of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary.

“The Orthodox brought their icons and we brought our statues,” the bishop said. “Two choirs, one Orthodox and one Catholic, and both bishops along with several Lutheran pastors participated in the procession.”

Both men joked that when just 50 people attend an outdoor event in Finland, it makes the news. Hundreds of Christians walking through the streets honoring the Virgin Mary did not, however. 

The bishop said a 160-page joint declaration on Church ministry and the Eucharist signed in 2017 between the Catholic and Lutheran churches was met with amazement by the Vatican. 

The growing ecumenism there “is amazing. It is a new page in the history of the Church,” he said.

A ‘free hand’ during COVID led to growth

Goyarrola, who joined Opus Dei at 18 and eventually became a priest and a trained surgeon, first arrived in Finland in 2006 and was made a bishop in 2023. 

He said the Church began to grow quickly during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The government gave “a free hand to the churches during that time,” the bishop said. “The Catholic Church opened its doors while the rest of the churches kept theirs closed. We continued to say Masses, and our buildings were always physically open and people were coming in to pray.”

According to Kabeza, “the people were looking for something because they were afraid.” 

The vicar general said many young men who are interested in the faith are talking to him about their desire for the sacraments and the importance of tradition.

“The young men want to have something that is very strong, something which is stable,” he said.

The Catholic Church is ‘a family’

Kabeza’s father was shot to death in front of Kabeza’s mother and sisters after the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Kabeza, along with his mother and five of his siblings, lived in a refugee camp for six years before moving to Finland through a United Nations program for genocide survivors. 

“Faith, forgiveness, and family are the basis of life, which cannot be lived without those three things,” he said. “After the genocide, if you still had a mother and so many siblings, you have to give thanks because others lost everybody.” 

Goyarrola said he hopes his fundraising trips to the U.S., made possible through friendships with other bishops and cardinals, will be fruitful. He referred to something he heard Pope Leo XIV say recently: “Christians are brothers and sisters who need to support each other.”

“We are children of the same Father and the same Mother, the Church,” the bishop said.

He said he hopes “our Catholic family around the world” will help him as he works to take care of “his children” in one of the world’s most secular and expensive countries.

“It’s a spiritual tsunami,” he said of the growing Finnish Church. 

“We have a lot of faith, happiness, and joy. We have a lot of dreams, but we have no money,” he said, laughing. 

Pope Leo XIV welcomes the President of the Slovak Republic Peter Pellegrini at the Vatican Apostolic Palace. With the Secretary of State, talks included mutual appreciation for the strong bilateral relations and the international context, with a focus on the war in Ukraine and its repercussions for European security.

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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A commission set up by Pope Francis to study women deacons has voted against the possibility of ordaining women deacons while also supporting more study on the issue.

It also expressed hope that women's access to other ministries would be expanded.

Pope Francis established the "Study Commission on the Female Diaconate" in 2020 as a follow-up to a previous group that studied the history of women deacons in the New Testament and the early Christian communities.

Cardinal Giuseppe Petrocchi of Aquila, Italy, was chosen as president of the commission and Msgr. Denis Dupont-Fauville served as secretary. Pope Francis had named 10 other members of the commission -- five women and five men, including two permanent deacons from the United States and three priests.

The seven-page report published Dec. 4 was a synthesis of the commission's work, which concluded in February, and was addressed to Pope Leo XIV. According to Vatican News, the pope requested the synthesis -- which was dated Sept 18 -- be made public.

The Vatican published the synthesis, including the results of votes the commission members took on eight different statements or "theses."

One proposition that showed members split exactly down the middle was: "The masculinity of Christ, and therefore the masculinity of those who receive Holy Orders, is not accidental but is an integral part of sacramental identity, preserving the divine order of salvation in Christ. To alter this reality would not be a simple adjustment of ministry but a rupture of the nuptial meaning of salvation."

When this statement was put to a vote among 10 members in February, it received five votes in favor, confirming its current form, while the other five members voted to remove it.

A statement that received six votes against, two for and two abstaining was: "The undersigned is in favor of the institution in the church of the female diaconate as understood as the third degree of holy orders."

In fact, during the commission's second session in July 2022, members agreed seven to one on the following statement: "The 'status quaestionis' of historical research and theological investigation, as well as their mutual implications, rules out the possibility of moving in the direction of admitting women to the diaconate understood as a degree of the sacrament of Holy Orders. In light of sacred Scripture, tradition and the church's magisterium, this assessment is strongly maintained, although it does not at present allow for a definitive judgment to be formulated, as is the case with priestly ordination." 

The commission unanimously expressed support in 2021 for the establishment of new ministries that "could contribute to synergy between men and women. Their implementation would require the development of appropriate means of formation -- theological, practical, mystagogical -- and support." Pope Francis had announced several months before, in January 2021, that the ministries of lector and acolyte would be open to women.

During its last working session in February, the commission also reviewed materials it received after the Synod of Bishops had allowed anyone to contribute to the commission's deliberations.

"Although many interventions were submitted, the persons or groups who sent their writings numbered only 22 and represented few countries," the report said. "Consequently, although the material is abundant and in some cases skillfully argued, it cannot be considered the voice of the Synod, much less of the People of God as a whole."

The report noted the subject of a female diaconate is of "significant complexity" and lacks "sufficient consensus," as could also be seen in the discussion reports compiled during the October 2024 Synod on Synodality.

However, the report noted some of the arguments being made in favor of women's ordination to the diaconate, citing how proponents have said excluding women from this ministry seems to contradict the biblical foundation of the equal status and dignity of "male" and "female" as images of God.

Because of that, some believe women should not only be allowed access to ordination as deacons, but also to the other degrees of Holy Orders: the priesthood and episcopate, the report said.

"The argument based on the masculinity of Jesus Christ is seen as a sexist and narrow view, leading to discrimination against women," it noted. "According to these views, the 'repraesentatio Christi' should no longer be linked to gender categories but should focus on the ministerial mediation of salvation through men and women."

Given the different arguments, the commission developed during its third and final session the thesis which saw the members split down the middle about the masculinity of Christ and those who receive Holy Orders as not being accidental but is "an integral part of sacramental identity" and "the nuptial meaning of salvation."

The commission then voted nine in favor and one against on a "preamble" that encouraged broadening "women's access to ministries established for the service of the community."

"It is now up to the discernment of pastors to evaluate what further ministries can be introduced for the concrete needs of the church of our time, thus ensuring adequate ecclesial recognition of the diakonia (service) of the baptized, particularly of women. Such recognition will be a prophetic sign, especially where women still suffer situations of gender discrimination," the preamble said. 

Cardinal Petrocchi then added his own personal comment in the report's conclusion, noting the "intense theoretical and existential dialectic" between two theological standpoints.

The first maintains that the ordination of a deacon is for ministry and not for priesthood, which "would open the way toward the ordination of women deacons," he wrote.

The opposing stance, he wrote, insists "on the unity of the sacrament of Holy Orders, together with the nuptial meaning of the three degrees that constitute it, and rejects the hypothesis of a female diaconate; it also notes that if the admission of women to the first degree of Holy Orders were approved, exclusion from the others would become inexplicable."

For this reason, the cardinal wrote, continued study should focus on critically examining "the diaconate in itself -- that is, on its sacramental identity and its ecclesial mission -- clarifying certain structural and pastoral aspects that are currently not fully defined."

"The commission insisted on the urgency of valuing 'baptismal diakonia' as the foundation of any ecclesial ministry," he wrote.

In fact, he wrote, there are whole regions where the diaconal ministry is "almost nonexistent" and others where it is active with functions often "coinciding with roles proper to lay ministries or to altar servers in the liturgy."

"It should also be emphasized that the various commissions were unanimous in pointing out the need to expand 'communal spaces' so that women can participate adequately and share responsibility in the church's decision-making bodies, including through the creation of new lay ministries," the cardinal wrote.

While the report did not name the commission members taking part in the deliberations in 2021, 2022 and 2025, Pope Francis had named the following in 2020: U.S. Deacon Dominic Cerrato, director of deacon formation for the Diocese of Joliet, Illinois; U.S. Deacon James Keating, a former director of theological formation at the Institute for Priestly Formation at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. The other three men were priests: Father Santiago del Cura Elena, a priest of the Archdiocese of Burgos, Spain, and a professor and theologian who has studied and written extensively about priestly ordination; Father Manfred Hauke, a German-born professor at the Theological Faculty of Lugano, Switzerland, and author of a book examining the church's teaching on ordaining only men as priests; and Msgr. Angelo Lameri, a professor of liturgy and the sacraments at Rome's Pontifical Lateran University.

The five women chosen had been: Catherine Brown Tkacz, a U.S.-born professor at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, who focuses on women in the Bible and in Christian tradition; Caroline Farey, a theologian and catechist educator who serves as "Diocesan Mission Catechist" for the Diocese of Shrewsbury, England; Barbara Hallensleben, a professor of theology at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, and former member of the International Theological Commission; Rosalba Manes, a consecrated virgin and biblical scholar, who teaches at Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University; and Anne-Marie Pelletier, a French biblical scholar.

The Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations continues its efforts, including through Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, for the return of Ukrainian children taken to Russia.

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