Meeting with the representative council of Caritas Internationalis, Pope Leo XIV praises the Church's social outreach agency for accompanying displaced families, defending the rights of the poor, and offering a listening heart to the forgotten.

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Oumayma Farah, Director of Development and Communications of the Order of Malta Lebanon, speaks to Vatican News about the dire humanitarian situation in the country and how the Pope’s upcoming Apostolic Journey will bring a renewed sense of hope in the future.

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Speaking on the sidelines of COP30 in Brazil, Cardinal Filipe Neri Ferrão, President of the Federation of Asian Catholic Bishops reiterates the duty that the Global North has towards the Global South, and invites people to stop finding distractions and do what needs to be done to save the planet.

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As the death toll from flooding in central Vietnam rises to 41, the Caritas outreach arm of the Diocese of Da Nang brings food and supplies to flood-hit communities.

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Catholic ministry leaders join people directly impacted by crime and incarceration for the 2025 National Catholic Conference on Restorative Justice, a Jubilee-inspired event dedicated to promoting healing approaches to transforming the US justice system.

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Antonio Korkuvi from Ghana urges the world to honour the moral call of Laudato si’ and support the communities already living the consequences of a crisis they did not create, as the last few hours of negotiations unfold at COP30.

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On the sidelines of COP30, Archbishop Giambattista Diquattro, Apostolic Nuncio to Brazil and Deputy Head of the Holy See’s Delegation to COP30, recounts the work of the delegation present in Belém.

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Today we send off students and chaperones from the Diocese of Covington to the National Catholic Youth Conference! Join us in praying for their safe travels! This is your reminder that Giving Tuesday is just around the corner!...

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 20, 2025 / 17:30 pm (CNA).

The Chinese Communist Party’s “ongoing assault against religious freedom” has national security implications for the U.S., according to co-chairs of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC).

Former Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kansas, who served as ambassador at large for international religious freedom in the first Trump administration, told the commission Nov. 20 that the United States needs to treat China’s religious freedom violations as a national security threat. 

Brownback cited a report listing 10 Catholic bishops detained by the Chinese government. “Ten Catholic bishops,” he said with emphasis, adding: “Do people even know they’re in prison?” Brownback called for China to be sanctioned by the Trump administration, pointing out the regime “has not paid a dime” for its religious freedom violations despite having been designated a country of particular concern (CPC).

Bob Fu, ChinaAid founder and president, told the panel about his experience advocating for religious freedom in China since immigrating to the U.S, revealing that in 2020 his home in Texas was surrounded by Chinese Communist Party agents who threatened his family and children, threatening him to stop his ministry with ChinaAid.

Grace Jin Drexel, the daughter of Pastor Ezra Jin, who was arrested at an underground church last month, recalled her father’s detention, expressing concern for her father’s health and calling on the Chinese government to release him and fellow detainees immediately and unconditionally. 

Since 2018, Drexel’s father has been under an exit ban from China, separated from family in the U.S. for more than seven years, she said, noting his church grew to the largest it has ever been, reaching tens of thousands of people per year who are under persecution prior to his arrest. 

A bipartisan group of senators, including Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon, are urging the Trump administration to act on behalf of Pastor Jin.

Adherents to underground churches in China are not trying to subvert the state, Drexel said, but rather are “merely asking to be free from the Communist Party” in the context of worship, where God is at the center. 

Drexel also recalled her own experience of transnational harassment for her advocacy on behalf of her father, saying she received a threatening phone call from someone pretending to be a U.S. federal agent and has been followed and harassed by the CCP throughout Washington, D.C. 

Visibly emotional, she said: “Do not signal defeat of this trampling of human rights with your silence.”

Testifying before the commission led by Rep. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, and Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, other witnesses included Ismail “Ma Ju” Juma, a Hui Muslim human rights advocate, and Bhuchung Tsering, who leads the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) Research and Monitoring Unit.

Protecting U.S. religious freedom

Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Massachusetts, a member of the commission, emphasized the constitutional importance of religious freedom and the need for the U.S. to protect it. McGovern, who is Catholic, said the U.S. needs to protect religious freedom at home first for its position to carry real weight. 

He cited the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts and its effect on the migrant community in the U.S. Catholic Church. He further cited the bishop of San Bernardino, who this past summer granted a Sunday Mass dispensation to migrants in his diocese who feared deportation. “

“Our voice would have more effect,” he said, “if the U.S. protected the religious freedom of people living in the U.S.”

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 20, 2025 / 17:00 pm (CNA).

The European Parliament and the United Nations have officially condemned the practice of surrogacy following reports of human rights violations against women and babies. 

Experts gathered on Nov. 19 for a meeting at the European Parliament that included U.N. Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls Reem Alsalem and Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International’s Carmen Correas, who discussed the harms of surrogacy on women and children, according to an ADF press release.

The event, “Surrogacy: An Ethical and Political Challenge for Europe,” followed the release of a landmark report by Alsalem that highlighted widespread human rights violations globally as a result of surrogacy. The event also came after a resolution that stated the EU “condemns the practice of surrogacy … [and] calls on the [EU] Commission to take measures to support ending this phenomenon.”

Italian European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) Party Member of the EU Parliament Paolo Inselvini said at the event it has become clear that “a determined European front exists, committed to stopping reproductive exploitation across the globe.” He further emphasized the EU’s commitment to “abandon all ambiguity” and designate surrogacy as “a universal crime.” 

“Surrogacy treats women and children as commodities,” Correas said. “The European Union has taken an important step in acknowledging its inherent harms. We urge policymakers to move swiftly toward a clear, coordinated legal prohibition that protects the dignity and rights of all involved.”

Alsalem’s report was based on nearly 120 submissions in addition to video consultations with 78 people including commissioning parents, surrogacy agencies, and surrogate mothers. Alsalem called for member states to establish a universal ban on surrogacy, criminalizing the practice in all its forms.

Through her consultative process, the U.N. expert found surrogate mothers, who are most often from low-income and vulnerable backgrounds, and their children increasingly endure physical, emotional, and financial exploitation as well as violence and human trafficking.

The report further highlighted the experience of surrogate mothers being pressured into abortions by commissioning parents, including beyond 12 weeks of gestation, “through coercive tactics such as financial incentives, threats of legal action, or the withdrawal of support to both the mother and baby.” This often occurs when the child is found to have a disability, the report said.

In cases where the surrogate becomes pregnant with multiple children at once, commissioning parents may “also enforce a selective reduction,” or the killing of one or more of the undesired babies in utero.