DAY 8 INTERCESSION May our nation end its use of the death penalty, bearing witness to the dignity of every human life. PRAYERS Our Father,  3 Hail Marys,  Glo ry Be REFLECTION As Catholics, we believe and put our hope in a...

Houston, Texas, Oct 29, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Texas voters will head to the polls next week to consider Proposition 15, the Parental Rights Amendment, a constitutional amendment aimed at enshrining parents’ rights in the state constitution.

The measure, if approved, would add language to the Texas Constitution affirming that parents have the right “to exercise care, custody, and control of the parent’s child, including the right to make decisions concerning the child’s upbringing” and the responsibility “to nurture and protect the parent’s child.” 

Texas already ranks among 26 states with a Parents’ Bill of Rights enshrined in state law. That existing statute grants parents a right to “full information” concerning their child at school as well as access to their child’s student records, copies of state assessments, and teaching materials, among other provisions.

The Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops told CNA it supports the “proposed amendment to recognize the natural right of parents to direct their children’s upbringing.”

Other supporters include the Baptist General Convention of Texas Christian Life Commission, Family Freedom Project, Texans for Vaccine Choice, Texas Eagle Forum, Texas Home School Coalition, Texas Public Policy Foundation, and Texas Right to Life PAC.

Marcella Burke, a Houston attorney, told CNA that “it’s good to live in a state where an amendment like this is on the table. Parents matter, their kids matter, and families should be protected against government interference. That’s exactly what this amendment seeks to do: keep governments from interfering with beneficial family growth and child development.”

“While these rights to nurture and protect children are currently safeguarded thanks to existing Supreme Court case law, there is no federal constitutional amendment protecting these rights,” Burke continued.

Opposition to the proposition has come from both Democratic as well as conservative advocacy groups.

According to the True Texas Project, a conservative group of former Tea Party supporters, the language of the amendment is too vague. In addition, the group argues that “Prop 15 would simply declare that parents have the inherent right to make decisions for their children. We should not have to put this into the state constitution! God has already ordained that parents are to be responsible for their children, and government has no place in family decisions, except in the case of child abuse and neglect.”

The group says that including the proposed language in the state constitution “equates to acknowledgement that the state has conferred this right. And we know that what the state can give, the state can take away.”

Burke said, however, that “an amendment like this will make governments think twice and carefully consider any actions affecting child-rearing. Keep in mind that no rights are absolute, so in this context, parents don’t have the right to abuse their kids — and that’s the sort of exception the amendment reads in.”

Katy Faust, founder of children’s advocacy group Them Before Us, told CNA parental rights are the “flipside of genuine child rights.”

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 29, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

A Boston exhibit is inviting guests to explore Pope Leo XIV’s family tree in depth, spanning 14 generations of history tracing the pontiff’s connections to noblemen, freedom fighters, enslaved men and women, and even modern-day pop culture stars.

American Ancestors, a national center for family history, heritage, and culture, created the “The Ancestry of Pope Leo XIV: An American Story” exhibit for people to discover the first American pontiff’s lineage by reading stories, searching records, and exploring his family tree.

The exhibit presents information compiled by expert genealogists to highlight the pope’s history, because “the diversity of his ancestry is as layered as the history of America itself,” Ryan Woods, CEO of American Ancestors, told CNA. 

Tracing 14 generations 

Shortly after the first American pontiff was announced, historian and genealogist Jari Honora publicly noted that the pope surprisingly had Black and Louisiana Creole ancestry. The finding inspired a number of other researchers to dig into the pope’s family tree.

Following the announcement, American Ancestors wanted “to research the full ancestry of Pope Leo XIV,” Woods explained. Henry Louis Gates Jr., host of the ancestry television show “Finding Your Roots” on PBS, helped lead the charge alongside other genealogists from American Ancestors and the Cuban Genealogical Club of Miami. 

“Over just a few days, we were able to bring his lineage back 14 generations,” Woods said. Once the research was complete, The New York Times published it in June as an interactive report. 

Archivists from the Archdiocese of New Orleans had created a Lousiana family tree after discovering that Pope Leo’s mother had ties to New Orleans. Following the publication of Gates’ findings they realized the research did not include Catholic records from New Orleans, which had left out some additional stories.

The archdiocese found archives dating to the early 1720s with the help of “sacramental records of baptisms, marriages, funerals, and burials,” Sarah Waits, research archivist for the archdiocese, told CNA.

“The Catholic aspect of his family and … the records that [the archdiocese] has in the archives are absolutely fundamental for any genealogy research,” said Waits, who worked directly on the New Orleans family tree. “We realized that we had a treasure trove right in our own archive related to his family.”

The archdiocese shared its family tree to add to Gates’ research and expand the family tree with the additional records. Gates later presented the completed research to Pope Leo at a private audience at the Vatican in July. 

American Ancestors decided to open the experience to the public through the new exhibit that opened Oct. 4. It has already drawn a number of “curious and interested” people. 

“To have a world leader show the relative complexity and richness of American families and its history was something we thought was really important, both for the study of genealogy [and] history itself,” Woods said. 

Surprising finds 

The in-depth research revealed a number of surprising connections that the exhibit details. 

Through one ancestor named Louis Boucher de Grandpre, the pope is related to numerous Canadian-derived distant cousins including former Canadian prime ministers Pierre Trudeau and Justin Trudeau, Hillary Clinton, actress Angelina Jolie, and singers Justin Bieber and Madonna.

A number of Louis’ other descendants ended up settling in New Orleans. Through this connection, “the family in New Orleans was identified within the Black Creole community,” Waits said. 

Then going back a few more generations there were “records of enslaved ancestors, even into the 1820s and 1830s,” Waits said. “So … not that many generations ago, the Holy Father had enslaved ancestors.”

The researchers identified four white ancestors who owned slaves in the U.S. They suspect there were probably others in Cuba, which was a slaveholding society. They also discovered that eight of Pope Leo’s Black ancestors are known to have enslaved at least 40 other people of color.

The farthest back the overall research spanned was to Spain in the 1500s on Pope Leo’s mother’s side. Four of his 11th-great-grandfathers are listed as “hidalgos,” or minor untitled nobility. One of their grandchildren was even a captain of land and sea in the Royal Armada who spent years fighting Dutch privateers trying to take over Portugal’s colonial holdings in America.

The research even revealed how the pope got his surname, Prevost. At least five generations of his father’s ancestors were born in Sicily, including the pope’s grandfather, Salvatore Giovanni Gaetano Riggitano Alito, who is believed to have immigrated to the U.S. in 1905. Salvatore was on his way to becoming a priest but was unable to take his vows and chose to marry instead.

The family tree showed that two of Salvatore’s children were not his wife’s sons but rather the children of a French woman named Suzanne Louise Marie Fontaine. Salvatore and Suzanne had two sons — Jean, the pope’s uncle, and Louis, the pope’s father. They were given their grandmother’s maiden name, Prévost, which led to the pontiff’s French last name.

An exhibit with a mission

Pope Leo’s history is diverse, with “stories of enslavers and enslaved people, immigrants from France, Spain, and Haiti,” Woods said. He explained the hope is that sharing Pope Leo’s rich history will inspire people to look into their own lineage. 

“Recent surveying in the United States has shown that more than 70% of Americans believe knowing your family history is important, but only about 10% have actually actively researched their family history,” Woods said. “So people can see this global human story and begin to see the possibility of what they can find in their own family history.”

At least 100 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip from late Tuesday to Wednesday. ​

Read all

 

From 27 to 31 October, SACRU will participate in the Jubilee of the World of Education through the Autumn School study days, titled “The Freedom of Scientific Research”. During this period, the Alliance will be presented to diplomatic representatives to the Holy See and the delegation will attend the general audience of Pope Leo XIV.

Read all

 

Hurricane Melissa has ravaged Jamaica and is now gradually weakening, after making landfall in Cuba. It`s been one of the most powerful Atlantic Storms on record.

Read all

 

Vatican City, Oct 29, 2025 / 05:00 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV joined faith leaders on Tuesday to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Nostra Aetate, the Church’s declaration on building relationships with non-Christian religions. 

Approximately 300 representatives of world religions and cultures joined the Holy Father for an evening ecumenical prayer service for peace organized by the Community of Sant’Egidio and held at the Colosseum in Rome.

“Peace is a constant journey of reconciliation,” the Holy Father said at the Oct. 28 event. 

Thanking religious leaders for coming together in Rome, he said their interfaith meeting expressed their shared “conviction that prayer is a powerful force for reconciliation.”

“This is our witness: offering the immense treasures of ancient spiritualities to contemporary humanity,” he said.

“We need a true and sound era of reconciliation that puts an end to the abuse of power, displays of force, and indifference to the rule of law,” he added. “Enough of war, with all the pain it causes through death, destruction, and exile!”  

In his remarks, the pope urged people not to be indifferent to the “cry of the poor and the cry of the earth” in their pursuits for peace in countries scarred by ongoing conflict and injustice.

“In the power of prayer, with hands raised to heaven and open to others, we must ensure that this period of history, marked by war and the arrogance of power, soon comes to an end, giving rise to a new era,” he said.

“We cannot allow this period to continue. It shapes the minds of people who grow accustomed to war as a normal part of human history,” he continued.

Several people waved small blue banners with the word “peace” in different languages while Pope Leo and the other religious leaders lit candles to symbolize their shared prayer and renewed commitment to engage in interfaith dialogue.

After the prayer gathering at Rome’s iconic landmark, the Holy Father returned to the Vatican to join colorful celebrations jointly organized by the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue and the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity. 

To mark the 60th anniversary of Nostra Aetate, several multicultural music and dance performances were held inside the Vatican’s Paul VI Audience Hall as well as a presentation highlighting papal initiatives to promote the Church’s dialogue with other religions since the pontificate of Pope Paul VI.     

Pope Leo’s appearance and special address toward the end of the two-hour gathering highlighted the Church’s reverence for all people and its desire to collaborate with others for the common good. 

“We belong to one human family, one in origin, and one also in our final goal,” he said. “Religions everywhere try to respond to the restlessness of the human heart.” 

“Each in its own way offers teachings, ways of life, and sacred rites that help guide their followers to peace and meaning,” he said. 

Emphasizing the common mission shared among people of different religions to “reawaken” the sense of the sacred in the world today, the Holy Father encouraged people to “keep love alive.”

“We have come together in this place bearing the great responsibility as religious leaders to bring hope to a humanity that is often tempted by despair,” Leo said.

“Let us remember that prayer has the power to transform our hearts, our words, our actions, and our world,” he said.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- At a time when so many people and the planet are suffering, the world's religions need to come together to promote truth, compassion, reconciliation, justice and peace, Pope Leo XIV said.

"Today we are called upon to rekindle that hope in our world, devastated by war and our degraded natural environment," the pope said Oct. 29 during his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square.

"Let us collaborate, because if we are united, everything is possible. Let us ensure that nothing divides us," he said, addressing the many representatives of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, Buddhism and other religions that were present at the audience.

Many of the leaders had been in Rome for a meeting of religions for peace sponsored by the Community of Sant'Egidio and a series of events, including a nighttime celebration Oct. 28, marking the 60th anniversary of "Nostra Aetate," the Second Vatican Council's declaration on relations with Judaism, Islam and other world religions. 

In fact, Pope Leo set aside his ongoing series of audience talks on the Jubilee theme, "Jesus Christ our Hope," to dedicate the Oct. 29 audience to "Nostra Aetate," which was promulgated 60 years ago: Oct. 28, 1965.

The first focus of the landmark document "was toward the Jewish world," the pope said. "For the first time in the history of the church, a doctrinal treatise on the Jewish roots of Christianity was to take shape, which on a biblical and theological level would represent a point of no return."

While much has been achieved in Jewish-Catholic dialogue over the past six decades, he said, "we cannot deny that there have been misunderstandings, difficulties and conflicts in this period, but these have never prevented the dialogue from continuing."

"Even today, we must not allow political circumstances and the injustices of some to divert us from friendship, especially since we have achieved so much so far," he said.

Quoting "Nostra Aetate," the Catholic Church, "mindful of the patrimony she shares with the Jews and moved not by political reasons but by the Gospel's spiritual love, decries hatred, persecutions, displays of antisemitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone," he said to applause.

"Since then, all my predecessors have condemned antisemitism with clear words," Pope Leo said. "And so I too confirm that the church does not tolerate antisemitism and fights against it, on the basis of the Gospel itself," which was also followed by applause.

"The spirit of 'Nostra Aetate' continues to illuminate the path of the church," which recognizes that all religions can reflect "a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men," he said, citing the document.

Today, more than ever, he said, all of the world's religions need to act together. "Our world needs our unity, our friendship and our collaboration."

"Each one of our religions can contribute to alleviating human suffering and taking care of our common home, our planet Earth," he said. "Our respective traditions teach truth, compassion, reconciliation, justice and peace. We must reaffirm service to humanity at all times." 

In addition to remaining "vigilant against the abuse of the name of God, of religion and of dialogue itself, as well as against the dangers posed by religious fundamentalism and extremism," he said, "we must also face the responsible development of artificial intelligence."

If AI is intended to be "an alternative to humans, it can gravely violate their infinite dignity and neutralize their fundamental responsibilities," the pope said. "Our traditions have an immense contribution to make to the humanization of technology and therefore to inspire its regulation, to protect fundamental human rights."

"The declaration invites all Catholics -- bishops, clergy, consecrated persons and lay faithful -- to involve themselves sincerely in dialogue and in collaboration with the followers of other religions, recognizing and promoting all that is good, true and holy in their traditions," Pope Leo said.

"'Nostra Aetate' reminds us that true dialogue is rooted in love, the only foundation of peace, justice and reconciliation, whereas it firmly rejects every form of discrimination or persecution, affirming the equal dignity of every human being," he said.

"We must restore hope to our personal lives, our families, our neighborhoods, our schools, our villages, our countries and our world," he said. "This hope is based on our religious convictions, on the conviction that a new world is possible."

Concluding his remarks, Pope Leo then led a moment of silent prayer since "prayer has the power to transform our attitudes, our thoughts, our words and our actions."

WASHINGTON – As Hurricane Melissa continues its devastating course through the Caribbean, Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, urged Catholics to pray for and support the people and communities impacted by the Category 5 hurricane.

“Hurricane Melissa, one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes in history, has made landfall in Jamaica, had an impact in Haiti, and prompted the evacuation of hundreds of thousands in Cuba. As Hurricane Melissa affects the Caribbean region, families face severe risk of flooding, landslides, displacement, and infrastructure damage with little resources to respond. Our brothers and sisters in small island nations like Jamaica, Cuba, and Haiti are the most vulnerable to the impact of such strong storms, often intensified by a warming climate. The Church accompanies, through prayer and action, all people who are suffering. I urge Catholics and all people of good will to join me in praying for the safety and protection of everyone, especially first responders, in these devastated areas. Let us stand in solidarity by supporting the efforts of organizations already on the ground such as Caritas Haiti, Caritas Cuba, and Caritas Antilles, as well as Catholic Relief Services, who are supplying essential, direct services and accompaniment to those in need.”

Catholics and all people of good will can support the urgent and ongoing relief efforts, and long-term recovery work of Catholic Relief Services, the official international aid organization of the Catholic Church in the United States.

### 

Archbishop Timothy Broglio issues a plea to end the government shutdown as it puts the burden “heavily on the poor and vulnerable of our nation, who are the least able to move forward.”

Read all