Jan 16, 2026 / 13:30 pm (CNA).

Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin arrived in Kuwait on Thursday for a visit of both ecclesial and diplomatic significance and on Friday presided over a ceremony formally proclaiming the Church of Our Lady of Arabia in Ahmadi a minor basilica.

Granting this title to the church underscores closer ties between Kuwait and the Holy See.

The basilica is called to serve as a model of prayer, liturgical life, and ecclesial communion, and to become a pilgrimage destination for Catholics throughout the Gulf region as well as a symbol of dialogue and mutual respect. On designated days, the faithful may also receive a plenary indulgence in the basilica under the conditions established by the Church.

During his stay, Parolin, the Holy See’s chief diplomat, is holding bilateral meetings with Kuwaiti officials aimed at strengthening relations of friendship and cooperation between the Vatican and the Arab country.

Kuwait was the first Gulf state to establish diplomatic relations with the Holy See, in 1968, and it hosts an apostolic nunciature on its territory. Over the years, the country has earned Vatican appreciation for its respect for religious diversity and peaceful coexistence.

‘Mother Church’ of Catholics in the country

In the heart of the Arabian Peninsula, the elevation of this church to the rank of minor basilica marks a new chapter in the history of the Catholic Church.

The decision was announced in a statement issued in June 2025 by the Vatican’s Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. This is the first time such a title has been granted to a church in the Arabian Peninsula, highlighting the historical, spiritual, and pastoral importance of Our Lady of Arabia and giving it broader symbolic significance for the faithful of the region.

The church traces its origins to the mid-20th century, when it began on a small plot of land dedicated to foreign workers in the country. Over time, it became a central reference point for the Catholic community in Kuwait.

While construction of the first small church dates back to 1948, the current building was completed in 1957 as a donation from the Kuwait Oil Company.

Since then, the church has welcomed generations of believers from many nationalities, firmly establishing its role as the “mother church” of Catholics in the country.

This story was first published by ACI MENA, EWTN News’ Arabic-language news partner, and has been translated and adapted by EWTN News.

Jan 16, 2026 / 11:54 am (CNA).

Annual research by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty found that Catholics in America today feel more accepted as people of faith in society than in past years.

The annual Religious Freedom Index (RFI) by the Becket Fund was released on Jan. 16 and explores American attitudes on the First Amendment, specifically religious freedom and tolerance.

An online poll surveyed 1,002 U.S. adults. The survey screened a sample that is representative by gender, age, ethnicity, race, and region matching U.S. Census figures, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1%, researchers said.

In 2024, about 54% of Catholics reported they felt accepted as people of faith, specifically 19% said they feel “completely” accepted and 35% said they felt “a good amount” accepted. Becket found that in 2025, these numbers increased, with 22% feeling “completely” accepted and 37% said “a good amount.”

“It’s heartening to see a growing number of Catholics report feeling fully accepted by their fellow Americans,” said Mark Rienzi, president and CEO of Becket. “Our nation is strongest when believers can participate in public life without fear of being bullied for their faith.”

Seal of confession

The report examined American attitudes about religious liberty and specific cases on religious freedom in the nation.

The percentage of Americans who believe the First Amendment right to the freedom to exercise religion should “definitely” or “somewhat” protect priests from breaking the seal of confession, even if someone confesses something indicating child abuse or neglect, is 61%. This was compared with 39% (20% somewhat not or 19% definitely not) who said the First Amendment does not protect the seal of confession in such instances.

The research noted that 77% of Americans reported they either “completely” or “mostly” accept school choice for religious schools.

In regard to specific U.S. Supreme Court cases regarding education, most Americans surveyed agreed with the rulings. The research found there was a four-point rise from 69% in 2024 to 73% in 2025 in those who support parents’ decision to opt their children out of content they believe is inappropriate.

When asked specifically about the case of Mahmoud v. Taylor, in which parents sued a Maryland public school district for not allowing them to opt their elementary-aged children out of LGBTQ-themed storybooks that conflicted with their religious beliefs, 62% of Americans said they support the Supreme Court’s decision.

The report found a five-point increase from 2020 to 2025 in Americans who agree that religious freedom is inherently public and that Americans should be free to share their faith in public spaces, such as at school, work, or on social media, with an increase from 52% to 55%.

The report found that the younger generations especially reported an increased “vision of religious liberty” in the public square. Gen Z scored the highest in areas including “religious sharing” and “religion in action.” Of the group, 60% accepted and supported the freedom to express or share religious beliefs with others, compared with 52% of all Americans.

Jan 16, 2026 / 11:00 am (CNA).

French Catholic bishops have issued a public statement urging lawmakers to reject a proposed law that would legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide in France. The warning comes days before the French Senate is scheduled to debate the “end of life” bill between Jan. 20 and Jan. 26.

The bill, which was already passed by the National Assembly in May 2025, would establish a new “right to die” for gravely ill adults, but France’s bishops argue it would threaten the most fragile and undermine the respect due to every human life.

The pro-euthanasia legislation was adopted by France’ s lower house on May 27, 2025, with 305 votes in favor and 199 against.

It would allow any French resident over 18 suffering from a serious and incurable condition that is life-threatening, advanced, or terminal to seek medical help to end his or her life. Eligible patients must be experiencing constant, unbearable physical or psychological suffering that cannot be relieved, though psychological suffering alone would not qualify.

A particularly contentious provision in the euthanasia law is a new offense of “obstructing aid-in-dying.” Lawmakers amended the bill to mirror France’s existing penalties for blocking access to abortion. Anyone who prevents or dissuades a patient from exercising the right to euthanasia could face up to two years in prison and a 30,000-euro (approximately $35,000) fine.

This clause has alarmed Catholic institutions, which fear it targets hospitals or care homes that refuse to participate in intentional life-ending procedures.

Bishops cite ethical risks and gaps in end-of-life care

French bishops reaffirmed their “profound respect” for those facing end-of-life suffering along with the pain, fear of dependence, and loneliness they face, while stressing that “these fears are real.”

They called for human, fraternal, medical, and social responses, not legislation that permits intentional killing. They warned that integrating euthanasia into medical care would alter the “nature of our social contract” by blurring ethical boundaries and presenting assisted death as a form of treatment.

The bishops also pointed to persistent gaps in France’s palliative care system, noting that nearly a quarter of palliative care needs remain unmet, leaving many patients without adequate pain relief, accompaniment, or human presence. They argued that claims that “people die badly in France” stem not from the absence of assisted dying but from unequal access to care and insufficient enforcement of existing end-of-life laws.

According to the bishops, medical advances now allow most severe pain to be effectively managed, yet access to such care varies widely by region. Rather than offering death as a legal option, they insisted, France must first ensure equitable, effective access to palliative care, support, and solidarity for all those approaching the end of life.

Threat to Catholic hospitals and conscience rights

In an op-ed published by various French Catholic leaders and religious figures, concern is expressed over the bill’s lack of protection for institutional conscience rights. The proposed law stipulates that “the head of the facility or service is required to permit” the practice of euthanasia and assisted suicide. This means a Catholic hospital could be legally compelled to let an outside physician come in to administer a lethal injection to a patient, even though it directly contradicts the institution’s mission to heal and comfort.

Catholic health care congregations have decried this obligation as an assault on religious freedom. Their arguments rest on their congregations’ historical commitment to caring for people until their natural death — they cannot participate in euthanasia without betraying their core Catholic beliefs.

Across Europe, even countries with legal euthanasia, such as the Netherlands, maintain at least some protections for conscience. No European law currently in force goes as far as the French proposal in punishing institutions that uphold a pro-life stance. This comparative context bolsters various arguments that the bill before the French Senate is among the most permissive in the world and would set a troubling precedent.

As the French Senate analyzes the euthanasia bill on Jan. 20, French Catholics are being encouraged to pray, to contact their legislators, and to “not remain silent” in defense of life. The French Bishops’ Conference has even provided letter templates and posters with the slogan “DISONS NON,” “Let’s say NO,” with regard to euthanasia and assisted suicide.

Jan 16, 2026 / 10:11 am (CNA).

More Christians were killed in Nigeria last year than anywhere else in the world combined, a new report has found, placing the country at the center of a growing global persecution crisis.

Of the 4,849 Christians killed for their faith worldwide, 3,490 were in Nigeria, according to Open Doors’ World Watch List 2026.

Open Doors is a Netherlands-based international Christian mission that tracks global persecution and supports persecuted Christians worldwide. The organization’s annual World Watch List ranks 50 countries by the severity of persecution faced by active Christians.

The new report also shows a global increase of 8 million Christians facing high levels of persecution and discrimination between October 2024 and September 2025, bringing the total to 388 million.

Speaking at the report’s launch, Henrietta Blyth, CEO at Open Doors UK & Ireland, said: “Nigeria is in sub-Saharan Africa, a region that represents a deathtrap for Christians,” while expressing relief that people are finally talking about what’s going on in the country.

In recent months the situation in Nigeria has been back in the spotlight after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to go “guns a-blazing” into the country and subsequently launched strikes on militants linked to the Islamic State group in the northwest of the country.

While both the U.S. and Nigerian governments cooperated on the strikes, Trump has accused the Nigerian government of failing to protect Christians from jihadist attacks, with some allies and campaign figures describing the situation as a “ genocide.”

The Nigerian government is reluctant to address the religious aspect for fear of being designated a “country of particular concern,” which could “enable the Trump administration and other international governments to take measures including an embargo,” according to John Samuel, an expert on sub-Saharan Africa for Open Doors.

Asked how the U.K. government should respond to the situation, the U.K.’s special envoy for freedom of religion or belief, David Smith, told EWTN News: “We need to be critical friends. We need to be able to speak to our Nigerian counterparts, encouraging and enable them to speak truth. It’s a multilayered conflict in central Nigeria, with many causes, including religious persecution.”

Speaking at Portcullis House, London, he told the room of 110 members of Parliament: “We have to be that voice that speaks on these horrendous stories. No one should live in fear because of their faith or belief. The minimum we can do is speak up, and I urge you to that.”

Pope Leo XIV addressed the Nigeria crisis in November 2025, acknowledging that “Christians and Muslims have been slaughtered” in the country. He told journalists at Castel Gandolfo that “many Christians have died” and called on the government to “promote authentic religious freedom.” The pope’s comments came after Trump designated Nigeria a country of particular concern for religious freedom violations.

The reasons for persecution in Nigeria are multifaceted and vary between regions. Ethnic Fulani herders have moved from the north to Nigeria’s middle belt, where they “are causing a massive problem,” according to John Samuel.

“They are moving to the area where they can find more resources for their cattle, like grazing land, and that naturally could cause a conflict between the predominantly Christian farming community and the herders who are predominantly ethnic Fulanis and Muslims.”

However, he warned “the least reported and the wrongly reported violence, but causing a massive problem, is the violence in the Middle Belt or north central of Nigeria by Fulani militants. That is the oversimplified one always,” he said, adding that “now there is an emergence of an Islamic militant Fulani.”

Christians are 2.7 times more likely to be targeted and killed in attacks from the Fulani than Muslims, according to the Netherlands-based Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa. Some have suggested this is because Christian faith leaders can fetch higher ransoms if they are kidnapped.

There are also groups like Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), who “have openly stated their ideology” and “want to establish an Islamic caliphate based on a radical Islamic ideology… They have a YouTube channel these days and they brag about killing infidels.”

Blyth told EWTN News: “The U.K. government still has a lot of influence. They’re involved in security talks, trade talks, aid talks, diplomacy talks. All of these provide an opportunity to talk about freedom of religion or belief.”

“People should keep talking about the Christians in sub-Saharan Africa, because every day we are attacked,” shared Pastor Barnabas from Nigeria in a video that was shown. “We want people to spread this news to everybody, that they should keep talking about it, so that we will be saved.”

Jan 16, 2026 / 09:26 am (CNA).

The Diocese of Assisi in Italy will award 50,000 euros ($58,000) to the winner of the 2026 edition of the “Francis of Assisi and Carlo Acutis for an Economy of Fraternity” award.

Inspired by Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical letter Laudato Si’, the former archbishop of Assisi, Domenico Sorrentino, instituted the award in 2020 on the day of St. Carlo Acutis’ Oct. 10 beatification.

In addition to the 50,000-euro ($58,000) prize money, award winners also receive an icon with the images of Sts. Francis and Carlo Acutis and are symbolically vested with the “cloak of Francis” by the bishop of Assisi during a ceremony to be held in May at the Sanctuary of the Renunciation.

Monsignor Anthony J. Figueiredo, director of international affairs and relics custodian for the Diocese of Assisi, said the prize is not simply a “payout” but a way of recognizing grassroots projects that support a just and “generative” economic model that restores dignity to the poor and vulnerable.

“The whole point of this award is really to encourage new initiatives from the bottom up so people, who are often discarded on the margins of society, can become the protagonists,” he told EWTN News.

“With the help of those in business, those in the Church, those in the municipality, they then are able to produce something where they earn,” he continued. “It’s a wonderful initiative that was born in the heart of Pope Francis and his emphasis on an economy of fraternity."

More than 160 projects from across Africa, Asia, the Americas, Europe, and Oceania have been submitted to the Diocese of Assisi since the award’s establishment nearly six years ago.

“Initially, a lot of the projects were coming from Europe but, with time, they have come from quite obscure and poor places,” Figueiredo said.

Last year, “Project Hope,” an initiative led by Caritas Goa in India, won the diocesan prize for its work in supporting disadvantaged women and youth gain financial independence. Caritas Goa provided services including specialized crafts training as well as partnerships with local businesses.

Previous awardees have come from Brazil, Chad, the Philippines, and Italy.

“In a world today that is full of bad news of war, violence, and division, this award points to the goodness from the bottom up, and that gives us joy and hope in going forward in this world,” Figueiredo said.

Individuals and organizations from around the world have until Feb. 28 to submit an online application for the sixth edition of the award.

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Jan 16, 2026 / 06:00 am (CNA).

The primatial archbishop of Mexico, Cardinal Carlos Aguiar Retes, has invited Pope Leo XIV to visit the country. The cardinal extended the invitation during their Jan. 14 meeting at the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican, shortly before the Wednesday general audience.

According to a statement released later by the Archdiocese of Mexico, during the audience Aguiar renewed the invitation he had first extended to the pope a few days after the conclave for him to travel to the country.

“In response, the Holy Father expressed his gratitude and his desire and interest in visiting our country soon to entrust his pontificate to Our Lady of Guadalupe,” the press release indicated.

In addition, Aguiar shared with Pope Leo XIV the progress and development of the synodal process underway in the Mexican diocese.

In this context, the pontiff expressed his gratitude for the work of the religious communities, pastoral workers, and laypeople, and encouraged them to continue strengthening this path of listening, discernment, and pastoral co-responsibility.

During the meeting, the Holy Father expressed his joy at the pilgrimage that the archdiocese will make Saturday, Jan. 17, to the Guadalupe Basilica at the beginning of the pilgrimage season to the sacred shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe at Tepeyac.

The cardinal was accompanied by Francisco Javier Acero Pérez, OAR, auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese. The communications office of the primatial archdiocese of Mexico invited all the faithful to join in prayer for the Holy Father and for the fruits of the synodal journey that the Mexican Church continues to undertake.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by the EWTN News English Service.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Leo XIV, who plays the daily online puzzle Wordle, is not the only papal puzzle lover.

His predecessor and namesake, Pope Leo XIII, was also passionate about wordplay, anonymously publishing riddles in Latin.

Going by the pseudonym "X," the Italian-born Pope Leo used to craft poetic puzzles for a Roman periodical at the turn of the 19th century.

The modern-day Pope Leo from Chicago, however, is a fan of the New York Times' popular online word game in which players get six chances to guess a five-letter word. 

During a live link-up with thousands of young people taking part in the National Catholic Youth Conference in Indianapolis and millions more online Nov. 21, Pope Leo was asked about and shared his gaming strategy.

"I use a different word for Wordle every day. So there is no set starting word in case you're wondering," he said, laughing. His older brother, John Prevost, has said the two of them also play the multiplayer game, Words with Friends, online regularly and compare scores.

So while Pope Leo XIV likes to play word games, his 19th-century predecessor liked to create them.

Pope Leo XIII, who died in 1903, created lengthy riddles, known as "charades," in Latin in which readers had to guess a rebus-like answer from two or more words that together formed the syllables of a new word.

Eight of his puzzles were published anonymously in "Vox Urbis," a Rome newspaper that was printed entirely in Latin between 1898 and 1913. The Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, published an article about this historical detail in 2014.

According to the article, any "Vox Urbis" reader who submitted the correct answer to the riddle received a book of Latin poetry written by either Pope Leo or another noted Catholic figure.  

The identity of the mysterious riddle-maker, however, was eventually revealed by a French reporter covering the Vatican for the daily newspaper Le Figaro.

Felix Ziegler published his scoop Jan. 9, 1899, a year after the puzzles started appearing, revealing that "Mr. X" was, in fact, the reigning pope, the Vatican newspaper said. 

In the pope's hometown, Carpineto Romano, which is about 35 miles southeast of Rome, students at the middle school named for him published 26 of the pope's Latin puzzles in a book titled, "Aenigmata: The Charades of Pope Leo XIII." It includes puzzles that teachers and pupils found, but which had never been published before.

One example of the pope's Latin riddles talked of a "little boat nimbly dancing," which sprang a leak as it "welcomed the shore so near advancing."

"The whole your eyes have known, your pallid cheeks have shown; for oh! the swelling tide no bravest heart could hide, when your dear mother died," continues the translation of part of the riddle-poem.

The answer, "lacrima," ("teardrop") merges clues elsewhere in the poem for "lac" ("milk") and "rima" ("leak" or "fissure").

Pope Leo XIII, who headed the universal church from 1878 to 1903, was a trained Vatican diplomat and a man of culture.

He was even a member of an exclusive society of learning founded in Rome in 1690 called the Academy of Arcadia, whose purpose was to "wage war on the bad taste" engulfing baroque Italy. Pope Leo, whose club name was "Neandro Ecateo," was the last pope to be a member of the circle of poets, artists, musicians and highly cultured aristocrats and religious. 

The pope was also passionate about hunting and viniculture. Unable to leave the confines of the Vatican after Italy was unified and the papal states brought to an end in 1870, he pursued his hobbies in the Vatican Gardens.

He had a wooden blind set up to hide in while trapping birds, which he then would set free immediately.

He also had his own small vineyard, which, according to one historical account, he tended himself, hoeing out the weeds, and visiting often for moments of prayer and writing poetry.

Apparently, one day, gunfire was heard from the pope's vineyard, triggering fears of a papal assassination attempt.

Instead, it turned out the pope had ordered a papal guard to send a salvo of bullets into the air to scare off the sparrows who were threatening his grape harvest.

Pope Leo XIII has the fourth-longest pontificate in history -- at 25 years -- after being nudged out of third place by St. John Paul II, who was pope for more than 26 years. St. Peter is considered the longest-reigning pontiff at 34 years. 

Pope Leo XIII wrote 86 encyclicals, including the church's groundbreaking "Rerum Novarum," which ushered in the era of Catholic social teaching.

Known for his openness to historical sciences, Pope Leo ordered in 1881 that the Vatican Secret Archives be open to researchers, and he formally established the Vatican Observatory in 1891 as a visible sign of the church's centuries-old support for science.