CNA Staff, Nov 13, 2025 / 13:20 pm (CNA).

Catholic hospitals in the United States are explicitly forbidden from carrying out transgender-related surgeries on individuals who believe themselves to be the opposite sex, the U.S. bishops said this week.

The prelates, gathered at the plenary of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) in Baltimore, voted on Nov. 12 to direct hospitals to “preserve the integrity of the human body” when treating individuals with gender dysphoria.

Such individuals often seek surgery to make their bodies conform to that of the opposite sex. But in updated guidance, the bishops said that while Catholic health care providers must employ “all appropriate resources” to mitigate the suffering of such patients, they can use “only those means that respect the fundamental order of the human body.”

The new rule makes into explicit USCCB policy what the bishops expressed in a doctrinal note in 2023 when they said Catholic providers must not take part in procedures that “aim to transform the sexual characteristics of a human body into those of the opposite sex.”

The revised directives were hailed by the Catholic Health Association, which in a Nov. 12 statement said that the rules “reaffirm the Church’s teaching on the dignity of all persons and their right to life from conception to natural death.”

The revisions “clarify and affirm current clinical practices” and “are consistent with Catholic health care practice that does not allow for medical interventions that alter sexual characteristics absent an underlying condition,” the group said. 

The organization said Catholic health care providers would continue to treat those who identify as transgender “with dignity and respect.”

In their guidelines the bishops noted that it can be “morally permissible” to “remove or to suppress the function of one part of the body for the sake of the body as a whole,” though only in very limited circumstances, such as when a body part is diseased. 

In forbidding medical practices that “aim to transform sexual characteristics of a human body into those of the opposite sex,” the bishops cited the Vatican’s 2024 document Dignitas Infinita, which in part disallows “all attempts to obscure reference to the ineliminable sexual difference between man and woman.”

The USCCB’s guidance comes several months after the Trump administration moved to prohibit transgender procedures performed on children at U.S. hospitals. 

Multiple U.S. hospitals earlier this year ended their child transgender programs under pressure from the Trump administration. One watchdog group determined that doctors in the U.S. performed around 14,000 “gender transitions” on underage children between 2019 and 2023. 

In January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to prohibit hospitals that receive Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements from performing transgender operations or providing transgender drugs to anyone under the age of 19.

An EWTN News analysis in 2024, meanwhile, showed that nearly 150 Catholic hospitals across the United States provided children with transgender drugs or performed gender-transition surgeries on them between 2019 and 2023.

As their weeklong Plenary concludes, the Bishops of Sudan and South Sudan express being overwhelmed by the escalating violence and the appalling human conditions resulting from ongoing conflicts in both countries.

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Vatican City, Nov 13, 2025 / 11:00 am (CNA).

The Vatican bank has rehired a married couple fired last year for breaking the financial institution’s internal regulations forbidding workplace marriages.

The Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR) — which manages financial assets entrusted to it by the Holy See, the Vatican City State, and Catholic institutions globally — rehired the couple in a negotiated settlement following the couple’s filing of a wrongful termination lawsuit in January, a union for Vatican lay employees announced Wednesday.

Silvia Carlucci and Domenico Fabiani married on Aug. 31, 2024. The IOR fired the couple a month later, on Oct. 2, citing a rule introduced by the financial institution in September 2024 that explicitly forbids the employment of spouses or other close family members.

The Association of Lay Employees of the Vatican (ADLV) celebrated the outcome of the case — the couple was dubbed by the Italian media as the “Romeo and Juliet of the Vatican” for defying a rule they considered unjust and outdated — as a victory for justice and good sense.

“In the end, justice prevailed, guided by reason: Silvia and Domenico, dismissed from the IOR after marrying, will be reinstated in the Vatican,” the ADLV stated in a press release. 

According to the Associated Press, before firing the couple, the Vatican bank had suggested one of the two quit, but the couple said they were not in a financial position to do so due to obligations to former spouses, children, and a new mortgage.

The lay employees’ union expressed its gratitude to those who helped reach the settlement: “We thank all those who made this agreement possible … It has been a victory for common sense, discernment, and the wise will to protect a family.”

The group also stressed that the case highlights the need for “stronger foundations for the application of labor law in the Vatican” and raised questions about the current IOR regulations, which “would clearly be unconstitutional in Italy.”

“In the Vatican there are no social safety nets,” the statement added, calling it “problematic when facing crises of various kinds.”

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

Vatican City, Nov 13, 2025 / 10:00 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV honored the late Argentine businessman Enrique Shaw as one whose life demonstrates that “one can be both an entrepreneur and a saint” and that “economic efficiency and fidelity to the Gospel are not mutually exclusive.”

In a message to participants of the 31st Industrial Conference of Argentina, taking place Thursday in Buenos Aires, Leo emphasized the harmony between Shaw’s Christian faith and his business practices, which he said showed that Catholic social teaching “is not an abstract theory or an unworkable utopia but a possible path that transforms the lives of individuals and institutions by placing Christ at the center of all human activity.”

Support for just wages, worker formation

Shaw was born in 1921 at the Ritz Hotel in Paris into an elite Argentine family. Despite the comfort his upbringing could have afforded him, he chose a path of generosity, service, and deep humanity. He died at age 41 and was declared venerable by Pope Francis in 2021. His cause for beatification is now at an advanced stage in the Vatican.

During his short life, Shaw promoted fair wages, expanded formation programs, cared for workers’ health, and supported their families in concrete ways.

The pope noted that Shaw “did not conceive profitability as an absolute but as an important aspect to sustain a human, just, and solidarity-based company.”

Recalling that Pope Leo XIII’s 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum was the “foundational act” of modern Catholic social teaching, he said it is evident that Shaw’s writings and decisions were shaped by that text. In Rerum Novarum, he explained, the Church denounced unjust labor conditions and affirmed strongly that “neither justice nor humanity can tolerate the requirement of such labor that the spirit is dulled by excessive work and the body overwhelmed by fatigue.”

‘The dignity of the worker continues to be violated’

The pope stressed that the encyclical’s insights — born in a time of major industrial transformation — retain “striking relevance in the globalized world we inhabit, where the dignity of the worker continues all too often to be violated.”

He also recalled that Shaw “knew the misunderstanding and persecution foretold by Christ for those who work for justice,” noting that he was imprisoned under the government of Juan Domingo Perón in May 1955.

“Later he faced illness, but he never stopped working or encouraging those around him. He offered his suffering to God as an act of love and, even amid pain, remained close to his workers,” the pope said.

For this reason, he proposed Shaw as a “model for our time” for all who work in the economic and labor sectors, insisting that holiness “must flourish precisely where decisions are made that affect the lives of thousands of families.”

“The world urgently needs entrepreneurs and leaders who, out of love for God and neighbor, work for an economy at the service of the common good,” he concluded.

A pioneer of Catholic social teaching in business

Shaw was a pioneer in applying Catholic social teaching in the corporate world, anticipating what is now known as corporate social responsibility. He held leadership positions in major companies, but his greatest legacy was the founding in 1952 of the Christian Association of Business Leaders (ACDE), which sought to promote an ethical business culture rooted in Christian values.

He maintained a respectful and close relationship with his employees, whom he regarded not as resources but as collaborators.

In 1957, Shaw was diagnosed with an aggressive and incurable cancer. He faced the illness with unshakable faith and serenity, continuing his work and apostolic commitments until his death on Aug. 27, 1962.

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

EWTN News, Nov 13, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).

Representatives of the Roman Curia and the German bishops’ conference met on Wednesday to continue discussions on the proposed statute of a “synodal conference” for the Church in Germany, marking the fourth such dialogue since talks began in 2022.

The meeting, held in Rome on Nov. 12, took place in what a joint press statement described as an “honest, open, and constructive atmosphere,” with both sides discussing various aspects of the planned synodal body’s character, composition, and competencies.

No further details of the encounter were shared. 

The proposed conference concept represents the latest iteration of plans to establish a permanent body in Germany in the wake of the controversial Synodal Way, following repeated interventions by Pope Francis and the Vatican.

The now-proposed German “synodal conference” was previously touted as a permanent synodal council, but both the name and statutes were changed last year following discussions in Rome that led to assurances both sides wanted to “change the name and various aspects of the previous draft” for the body. 

Both sides also announced last year that the synodal council would not be “above or equal to the bishops’ conference.”

The meeting on Wednesday continued the series of encounters that previously took place in July 2023, March 2024, and June 2024.

Bavarian bishop as ‘guest’

Vatican representatives on Wednesday included Cardinal Pietro Parolin, secretary of state; Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith; Cardinal Kurt Koch, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity; and Cardinal Arthur Roche, prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

The German delegation was led by Bishop Georg Bätzing of Limburg, president of the German bishops’ conference, along with Bishop Helmut Dieser of Aachen, Auxiliary Bishop Ansgar Puff of Cologne, and Bishop Stefan Oster of Passau, who participated as a guest. 

Oster’s presence as “guest” is particularly noteworthy, as the Bavarian prelate has been an outspoken critic of the German Synodal Way and has distanced himself from the controversial plans.

CNA Staff, Nov 13, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

According to a new survey, engagement among U.S. adults who identify as Catholic is strong, especially among the youngest adults, and there is growing trust in the Church after the fallout of the clergy sexual abuse crisis of the early 2000s.

In July, Leadership Roundtable commissioned a polling firm to conduct a national survey of Catholics in the U.S. in order to inform Church leaders of problems as well as strengths within the Catholic Church since the sexual abuse crisis came to national attention in 2002 and the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People was composed to address it.

Researchers composed a 72-question survey and divided respondents into three groups: the Faithful (1,541 respondents), the Occasional (472 respondents), and the Disengaged (1,020). The Faithful said they attend Mass at least monthly, the Occasional said they go a few times a year, and the Disengaged said they go “seldom” or “never.”

Although the Catholic Church in the U.S. has shrunk from 65 million to 50 million people in the more than two decades since the sexual abuse crisis and engagement is “at an all-time low,” the survey’s findings are cause for hope, the authors say.

In a reversal from the organization’s 2003 survey, adults between the ages of 18–29 are now the most likely group (84%) to attend Mass regularly and to be active in their parishes in addition to Mass (attending Eucharistic adoration, social events, and confession), the survey found. 

The group’s 2003 survey of 1,004 Catholics found that Mass attendance increased with age. The 2025 survey found the opposite to be true: Two-thirds of young adults (65%) said they attend Mass at least monthly now, compared with 43% of adults aged 45–64 and 42% of those over 65 years old. In 2003, 83% of adults 45–64 and 85% of those over 65 attended monthly. 

Trust in the Church

The survey found that Catholics trust their pastor and other parish staff more than they trust the Church as an institution. 

Nearly 80% of respondents said they trust parish staff and volunteers to protect children, and 77% said they trust their pastor and other clergy. 

“Building a transparent and accountable leadership culture” was one of the highest priorities across all age groups, according to the survey. For 77% of respondents, it was among their top two priorities, with 45% giving it the highest possible rating of “extremely important.”

In 2003, 70% of respondents said they had high confidence in their bishops as doctrinal authorities but low confidence in them (44%) as listeners of the opinions of laity or parish priests.

That low confidence has not changed much in two decades. In the recent survey, just 49% said they think their bishops involve the laity in solving Church issues. Fewer, 47%, believe bishops “lead with financial transparency,” and 45% worry that their donations will go to paying legal fees and abuse settlements.

Catholics who donate regularly to their parishes (61%) say they would give more if they thought the Church was more transparent about financial matters. Nearly three-quarters of them (72%) said they would give less if there was a scandal in their parish or diocese. 

Of Catholics who go to Mass sometimes, 58% donate financially to their parish at least once a year. Of the 42% who never give, 39% cited a lack of financial transparency as their reason.

Regarding education, of U.S. Catholics whose parishes have a parish school, only 53% said they think the school is thriving. This was the lowest rating of all youth formation activities surveyed.  

According to its website, Leadership Roundtable, founded in 2003 in the aftermath of the clergy sexual abuse crisis, is a nonprofit organization composed of clergy, laity, and religious “working together to promote best practices and accountability in the management, finances, communications, and human resource development of the Catholic Church in the U.S., including greater incorporation of the expertise of the laity.”

In this week’s news from the Eastern Churches, produced in collaboration with L'Œuvre d'Orient: Romanian Greek Catholics get a new Major Archbishop, a Turkish Christian village regains its Aramaic name, and Christians return to al-Ghassaniyah, Syria.

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Vatican City, Nov 13, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

The Pontifical Lateran University, the historic institution founded in 1773 by Pope Clement XIV, will inaugurate the academic year on Nov. 14.

The ceremony — the traditional “Dies Academicus” (“Academic Day”) in university parlance — is held every autumn as the official opening of university activities, but this year it will have a very special guest: Pope Leo XIV.

The rector of the Lateran University, Archbishop Alfonso Amarante — the only rector of all the pontifical universities directly appointed by the pope — emphasized that the Holy Father’s visit not only evokes the long tradition of the bond between the popes and the university but also highlights his “pastoral care for the formation of the future of the Church and society.”

“The pope is very clear that formation is the future of the Church. His visit will be a very important moment for the entire university community and also a sign of the pontiff’s commitment to education as a path to peace and hope,” Amarante told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner.

The rector said Pope Leo’s presence at the Pontifical Lateran University, which boasts over two and a half centuries of intellectual work, “is as if he were visiting all the pontifical universities.”

“Certainly, he will also visit others in the future, but starting from here means recalling this special bond with his university and, at the same time, sending a message of hope to the world of education, as he did during the Jubilee of the World of Education,” the rector noted.

‘This is his home’

“This is his home, according to the statutes,” the Italian archbishop pointed out, noting that the Pontifical Lateran University is the only university with a special title indicating that it is the pope’s university.

It was founded after the closure of the historic Roman College, where priests were initially formed. “The aim was to ensure continuity to the formation of the Roman clergy,” he explained. “At first, it was spread out across various parts of Rome, but since the beginning of the 20th century, it has been located here.”

The bond between this pontifical university and the Apostolic See of the Vatican was strengthened above all by Pope Pius XI. On Nov. 3, 1937, he inaugurated the new headquarters for the Athenaeum, which had been built under his papacy. Furthermore, “he wanted this to be the first university to implement the new norms for the reform of Catholic universities,” he noted. 

“With John XXIII, this relationship intensified even further,” he pointed out. The rector also recalled that before being elected successor of Peter, Pope Paul VI taught here. “It has always been the place of formation for the Petrine magisterium,” he emphasized.

A living papal tradition

The rector remarked that all the popes of the modern era have visited the Lateran University, but Leo XIV’s presence at the opening of the academic year is a first. 

“All the popes I can recall have come to the university. But the pontiff’s presence at the opening of the academic year is a gesture full of meaning. It makes us understand how important the formation is to him, not only for future priests but also for the laity. Because this university has a dual soul: Here philosophy, theology, and canon law are studied but also civil law and a new discipline called peace studies, a kind of degree in politics with a focus on the subject of peace,” he explained.

Enthusiasm and hope in the academic community

In the days leading up to the pope’s visit, anticipation and joy fill the Lateran University. “There is a great deal of enthusiasm here,” Amarante noted.

“There is joy and hope. We trust that we will hear his words at the beginning of the academic year, not only to be encouraged in our work but also to receive guidance on where he wants us to make progress, on what we should focus on more,” he emphasized.

Currently, the Pontifical Lateran University has around 1,100 students, of whom more than 40% are laypeople, according to the rector. This diversity, he noted, reflects the current mission of the pontifical university: a place for formation at the service of the universal Church and society.

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

With a new chirograph, Pope Leo decrees that the Apostleship of the Sea will be responsible for promoting the pastoral care of the “people of the sea".

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BALTIMORE – At the plenary assembly in Baltimore on Wednesday, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) elected Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend as Conference Secretary. They also elected chairmen of six standing Conference committees. Bishop Rhoades will assume the office of secretary immediately upon conclusion of the plenary today, as he is filling the vacancy that results from Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, who had been serving as USCCB secretary, being elected as USCCB president.

Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of Fort Wayne South Bend was elected as USCCB secretary and chairman of the Committee on Priorities and Plans in a 126-95 vote over Archbishop James F. Checchio, coadjutor of New Orleans. Bishop Rhoades fills the vacancy created with the election of Archbishop Coakley as Conference president. Bishop Rhoades assumed his new position at the conclusion of this year’s plenary assembly and will serve as secretary through November 2027, at which time he will be eligible for re-election.

Archbishop Jeffrey S. Grob of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, as chairman-elect of the Committee on Canonical Affairs and Church Governance in a 113-108 vote over Bishop Edward M. Lohse of the Diocese of Kalamazoo.

Bishop Peter L. Smith, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon, as chairman-elect of the Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs in a 139-83 vote over Bishop Daniel J. Felton of the Diocese of Duluth.

Bishop William A. Wack, CSC, of the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee, as chairman-elect of the Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis in a 116-106 vote over Bishop Earl K. Fernandes of the Diocese of Columbus.

Archbishop Borys Gudziak of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia, as chairman-elect of the Committee on International Justice and Peace in a 154-68 vote over Archbishop Edward J. Weisenburger of the Archdiocese of Detroit.

Bishop Mark O’Connell, bishop-designate of the Diocese of Albany, as chairman-elect of the Committee on the Protection of Children and Young People in a 116-106 vote over Bishop John P. Dolan of the Diocese of Phoenix.

Archbishop Alexander K. Sample of the Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon and Bishop Michael J. Sis of the Diocese of San Angelo tied for a vote with 111-111 for chairman of the Committee for Religious Liberty. Bishop Sis withdrew his name and Archbishop Sample was named the chairman. Bishop Rhoades had been serving as chairman of the religious liberty committee, but was elected as Conference secretary, creating a vacancy in the committee chairmanship. Therefore, Archbishop Sample assumes the chairmanship on Thursday, and his term runs through November 2029. 

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