Jan 10, 2026 / 09:00 am (CNA).

A new and unique house of mission and prayer inspired by the call to a new evangelization has opened in the U.K., hoping to enable Catholics to “catch the fire” of God’s love.

The St. Elena House of Mission and Prayer, which opened in December in Northampton, England, has been established to help the Church become more mission-oriented.

Speaking to CNA, Maria Heath, director of mission in the Diocese of Northampton, called the new House of Mission and Prayer “a prophetic sign in our times.”

“The Church needs to embrace its call to mission, and I believe this house and others like it will enable and inspire the Church to explore new ways to reach out to people with the Gospel,” she said. 

The new St. Elena House is comprised of a small community of young women — Beth, Kacey, and Marielle — who are between 20 and 40 years old. As members committed to a life of prayer and mission, they either work or study full or part time while seeking out ways to evangelize.

“The people living there are working or studying but want to serve the Church in a radical way,” Heath explained. “The witness value of community in our times is so important. People are yearning for connection and purpose, and a community centered on prayer and mission is like a light on the hilltop.”

Speaking of the impact of the new evangelization on the formation of the new house, Heath quoted one of its main proponents, St. John Paul II.

“Evangelization needs to be new in its method, ardor, and expression. I believe that raising up communities like this is one of the new expressions that speaks to the world at this time,” she said.

The St. Elena House came about after Heath and her team were exploring how new communities and religious orders could move into the Diocese of Northampton. There was also an idea that a homegrown community could be established.

“Sometimes you push doors and they close, other times the doors keep opening, and this is what happened as we began looking into this possibility,” Heath said. “The idea became a reality and, 18 months on from that initial conversation, the St. Elena House of Mission and Prayer was born.”

Heath explained that she was inspired by the book “Heart Fire,“ by German Catholic evangelist Johannes Hartl, in which a strong connection was presented between 24/7 prayer and mission.

Establishing 24/7 prayer will be one of the priorities in the new house, including perpetual adoration. “While this is a new expression, there is nothing new about the fundamentals: It is communion and mission, which we see down the ages of the Church,” she said.

Explaining the vision for the house, Heath underlined the importance of providing a place to encounter Christ.

“The vision for the St. Elena House of Mission and Prayer is simple: to be a place of encounter, an encounter with Jesus as we pray for the world through 24/7 prayer, and a place where others can come and encounter Jesus.”

Heath also spoke of the impact of the Second Vatican Council.

“The Church needs both the hierarchical and charismatic dimensions of the Church (Lumen Gentium, 4) and if dioceses are to respond to the Church’s call to become mission-oriented, such communities and movements, which are expressions of this charismatic dimension, offer an energy and focus on mission that can support this important work,” she said.

A member of the new community, Beth, also underlined the importance of encounter in the new house, sharing her hopes that people will have “a real deep encounter with (Christ).”

“The hope is that this will be a place where community can be formed, where people can feel welcomed and really catch the fire of God’s love for them,” she told CNA.

Beth said living in the house as a community will enable single people to grow together in faith, highlighting the importance of “being together, inviting other people, and welcoming people.” She added: “As single people, we can feel that sense of isolation in our faith. So it’s about letting people know you’re not on your own.”

The community is intentionally named after St. Elena Guerra, the “apostle of the Holy Spirit” who was canonized in October 2024. Writing at the end of the 19th century, St. Elena urged Pope Leo XIII to encourage Catholics to be open to the power of the Holy Spirit. This prompted Pope Leo to write an encyclical on the Holy Spirit, to create a novena to the Holy Spirit, and to consecrate the 20th century to the Holy Spirit.

“Prayer and mission go hand in hand, and this is what St. Elena longed to see for the Church,” Heath said.

The new initiative has been welcomed in the Diocese of Northampton, with diocesan trustees, friends, and supporters joining members of Mission Northampton for a Mass on Dec. 13 to mark the opening of the new house. The Mass was celebrated by Episcopal Vicar for Mission Canon Simon Penhalagan, with Vicar General Canon Michael Harrison and Father Jithu James concelebrating. 

Looking forward, Heath shared her hopes for the new house to “be the first of many houses across our diocese — and beyond.”

“We need to cooperate with the grace of the Holy Spirit and find new ways to reach out to all people,” she said. “This, in its simplest form, is the mission of the Church: to let each person know the joy of being known and loved by God, and the joy of a relationship with him that satisfies our deepest needs and desires.”

Jan 10, 2026 / 08:00 am (CNA).

Here is a roundup of Catholic world news from the past week that you might have missed:

‘Come back to the Holy Land’: Custos calls pilgrims to visit land of Jesus

Speaking to a group of pilgrims from Rome at the Franciscan headquarters in the Old City of Jerusalem on Jan. 7, Franciscan Father Francesco Ielpo, custos of the Holy Land, called pilgrims back to the Holy Land, saying that the best way to help the Holy Land and the people there is to visit.

“Fear is not overcome with words; it is overcome with witness. Seeing Christians from all over the world come to the Holy Land to visit the holy places generates hope and strengthens the reason for coming here — not to see a museum but to encounter a living Church,” Ielpo said.

Religious pilgrimages and tourism are some of the main sources of economic support for the local Christian community in the Holy Land. Around 50,000 remain there — 6,000 of whom live in Jerusalem, according to Vatican News.

Tasmania priest appointed bishop of Ballarat, Australia

Pope Leo XIV has appointed Tasmania priest Father Mark William Freeman as the new bishop of Ballarat, Australia. He will succeed Bishop Paul Bird, CSsR, who has led the Ballarat Diocese since 2012.

Freeman, 66, is currently a parish priest in Bellerive-Lindisfarne in the Archdiocese of Hobart, Tasmania.

The Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference president, Archbishop Timothy Costelloe, SDB, said the announcement will be met with great joy in Ballarat. “His wide experience and many gifts, his deep faith and his pastoral sensitivity will also be greatly valued by his brother bishops as he joins them in their pastoral oversight of the Catholic Church in Australia,” he said.

UN secretary calls on Israel to reverse ban on aid organizations helping in Gaza

As the new year began, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on Israel to end a ban on humanitarian agencies that provide aid in Gaza. The government recently announced it was suspending 37 foreign humanitarian organizations from accessing the Gaza Strip after they refused to share lists of their Palestinian employees with government officials, Agence France-Presse reported. The list includes Catholic aid agencies Caritas Internationalis and Caritas Jerusalem and goes into effect March 1.

Caritas Internationalis is the Church’s confederation of relief and development agencies.

Guterres, through spokesman Stéphane Dujarric, called the work of international nongovernmental organizations “indispensable to lifesaving humanitarian work” and said that the suspension “risks undermining the fragile progress made during the ceasefire.”

Swiss bishop offers Mass for victims of tragic New Year’s Eve fire

Bishop Jean-Marie Lovey of Sion, Switzerland, presided at a Requiem Mass on the evening of Jan. 1 for the victims of the fire that broke out in a ski resort bar on New Year’s Eve, according to Vatican News. The Mass was prayed in the Saint-Christophe chapel in Crans and broadcast on television, after which mourners processed to the site of the disaster with flowers.

The following day, Jan. 2, church bells were rung throughout the Diocese of Sion “as a sign of solidarity and prayer,” according to the Tablet, which also reported that churches in Switzerland and other countries have offered condolences to victims’ families.

Aleppo under fire as Christians face displacement once again

Aleppo has been gripped by fear and uncertainty following the return of heavy fighting to residential neighborhoods, with gunfire and shelling prompting sudden curfews and large-scale civilian displacement, ACI MENA, CNA’ s Arabic-language news partner, has reported. Syrian government forces imposed restrictions on the districts of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh after violent clashes with Kurdish-led Asayish forces.

The escalation coincided with Epiphany and Christmas celebrations for some Eastern Christian communities, leading to canceled services and subdued worship, as clergy once again appealed for dialogue and an end to violence.

Thousands of families have fled the affected areas, while others remain despite the risks. Nearby government-controlled neighborhoods, some with a strong Christian presence, have also experienced waves of displacement as the violence spread, marking one of the most intense escalations in the city in several years. Churches across Aleppo have responded by opening their doors as temporary shelters.

Catholics in India appeal to government to address violence against Christians

As attacks against Christians increase across India, the All India Catholic Union (AICU), has appealed to India’s government to “urgently address the issue of targeted violence against Christians, which peaked during the Christmas season,” according to a report by persecution.org.

The AICU, which represents about 16 million Catholics in 120 dioceses across India, said in a press release that “token gestures by national leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, such as attending Christian worship services etc., are inadequate without firm action, accountability, and legal reform.”

“The violence and hate experienced by Christians in India throughout 2025, especially during the Christmas season, represent not only attacks on individuals but also on the pluralistic fabric of Indian society,” the statement said.

Cardinal Souraphiel appeals for solidarity as Ethiopia begins Christmas season

As the Christmas season began on Jan. 7 in Ethiopia, Cardinal Berhaneyesus Demerew Souraphiel expressed his spiritual closeness with Ethiopians, appealing for solidarity “with those displaced and exiled by war amid conflicts in some regions of the country, according to ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa.

In his Christmas message, which ACI Africa obtained, the cardinal also called for spiritual closeness with those suffering in various ways, including those on the streets, the sick, and the lonely.

Reflecting on what various Church fathers have written on the mystery of the Incarnation, the cardinal said that the “mystery of Christianity is truly astonishing, not only that God became human, but that he became bread fit to be eaten by humanity.”

Jan 10, 2026 / 07:00 am (CNA).

A financial crisis has halted the Catholic Church’s efforts to reclaim the site of Bangladesh’s first church, leaving the 426-year-old foundation in Satkhira occupied and unpreserved.

Two Portuguese Jesuit priests — Father Francesco Fernandes and Father Domingo de Sousa — built the country’s first church at Iswaripur in the Sundarbans Forest area in the present-day southern Satkhira district. They dedicated it on Jan. 1, 1600, as the Church of the Holy Name of Jesus.

The priests built the church with the permission and funding of the then-Raja (King) Pratapaditya. At the time, many Portuguese soldiers worked under Pratapaditya and worshipped at the church.

The church no longer exists, and a Muslim family has since settled on the land. However, the district’s official website still preserves its history online.

According to the Bangladesh government’s website, many Portuguese soldiers serving in Pratapaditya’s army contributed funds for the church’s construction. Additionally, Pratapaditya assisted in building the place of worship for Christians in his capital, with construction completed in December 1599.

“The bishop took the initiative to take over the site on behalf of the Catholic Church and offered to pay for it, but those living there did not agree. The then-bishop did not pursue it further for some reason,” said Father Philip Mondal, who oversees the Khulna Diocese’s land in the area.

The late Bishop Michael D’Rozario, who led the Khulna Diocese from 1970 to 2005, was the first to attempt to save the church site. Mondal noted he is unsure if the bishop sought administrative assistance at that time.

“But now, to take over this place, we need the support of the administration and a lot of money, which the Khulna Diocese cannot provide,” Mondal told CNA.

However, the priest believes that with government backing and external financial support, the Church in Bangladesh could reclaim this historically unique site.

Christians make up less than 1% of Bangladesh’s 170 million people, a tiny minority in the predominantly Muslim country. The Catholic community, with approximately 400,000 members, is the single-largest Christian group.

Members of the Muslim and Hindu majority often regard Christians highly for their significant contributions to education, health, and social development. Christian missionaries also contributed historically to the Bengali language, promoting its colloquial and simplified form.

Lay Catholics are urging the Church to establish at least a small chapel on the site to preserve its history.

“We have only read in books that the first church in Bangladesh was in Iswaripur, but now when we go there, we do not find any trace of it. It cannot be that the history of a religion has been erased,” Praveen Mondal, 34, a Catholic, told CNA.

He believes that Christianity and its first church are inextricably linked, making the preservation of this memory a major responsibility for the Church.

CNA spoke to Rashed Hossain, a top government land officer in the area, about the site.

“It is true that the first church was established here, but now that church does not exist. However, we need to see how the people who live there now came to own the land,” Hossain told CNA.

He added that if the Church makes a formal request to the government, officials will “look into the matter seriously.”

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Jan 10, 2026 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Catholics in the U.S. were witness to a rare Church decision in 2023 when Pope Francis elevated the Diocese of Las Vegas to a metropolitan archdiocese. Las Vegas had previously been a suffragan diocese of San Francisco, having been created by Pope John Paul II in 1995.

A suffragan diocese operates within an ecclesiastical province subordinate to a larger archdiocese and is led by a suffragan bishop who has the authority to lead his own diocese but works under the metropolitan archbishop.

In September 2025, Pope Leo XIV created a new Catholic diocese in northern China; though it goes by the same name as one established decades ago by Beijing without Vatican approval — a product of ongoing tensions between China and the Holy See — the move demonstrated the Holy See’s authority in creating local Church jurisdictions.

Outside of one’s own parish, a diocese or archdiocese is arguably the average Catholic’s most common point of interaction with the Church. These jurisdictions manage local Church life and administration, with bishops and archbishops offering both spiritual and temporal guidance and authority to Catholics under their care.

But how does the Catholic Church decide what becomes a diocese or an archdiocese? What are the roots of this ancient practice, and how does it function today?

Exclusively a papal right

Monsignor William King, JCD, KCHS, an assistant professor at the school of canon law at The Catholic University of America, told CNA that the right to erect (or suppress) a diocese “belongs exclusively to the successor of Peter, the bishop of Rome,” that is, the pope.

“Historically, secular rulers have intruded into the process and the autonomy of the Church in this action has been hard-won,” he said, pointing out that “even today in certain parts of the world, secular or civil rulers wish to have input into matters such as this.”

The pope never makes decisions regarding dioceses and archdioceses “without considerable study and consultation,” King said.

The history of diocesan administration stretches back to the earliest years of the Church, he said. In those days a diocese consisted of “a city larger than the surrounding cities and towns,” often a place of commerce or a center of government.

Throughout the centuries, including after the imperial legalization of the Church by Constantine, Church leaders refined the diocesan structure of “pastoral ministry and governance” in order to facilitate “communication and decision-making” throughout Christendom.

“This became increasingly important as the Church grew and encountered different systems of law, philosophy, and religious practice,” King said. Roman models of government structure proved useful and sufficient for Church governance; King noted that the Church structure even today more closely resembles a government than a corporation.

The process by determining which jurisdictions counted as archdioceses likely arose in earlier centuries organically, King said, with Church leaders identifying major centers of “culture, education, commerce, government, and transportation” as particularly significant jurisdictions.

The procedure for elevating a diocese to an archdiocese, meanwhile — as Pope Francis did to Las Vegas in 2023 — requires “significant study, discussion, and decision-making,” King said.

The Holy See conducts such reviews in part through a diocese’s “quinquennial report,” a detailed rundown of the diocese’s activities and administration. Such a report may indicate to the Holy See that a particular region is growing and could benefit from elevation to an archdiocese.

Local suffragan bishops will participate in discussions to that effect, King said, and the Roman Curia will work with bishops’ conferences as well as the local apostolic nuncio.

“The ultimate decision is that of the Roman pontiff, the bishop of Rome,” King said, “but is always done with his awareness of the conversations and consultations already conducted at every level.”

The priest pointed out that not every local jurisdiction of the Church is a diocese or archdiocese. At times, he said, the pope may establish a less common ecclesiastical administration “for a variety of reasons that relate to culture, legal acceptance or opposition, small numbers, and the like.”

Such jurisdictions include apostolic prefectures, apostolic vicariates, ordinariates, and other designations. Such areas may be governed by a bishop or a priest named by the pope, King said.

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