Day Two If you or someone you know is suffering from participation in abortion, confidential, compassionate help is available. Visit  hopeaftera bortion.org . Intercession:   May each person suffering from participation in...

Jan 17, 2026 / 07:00 am (CNA).

The president of the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences (CCEE) issued an appeal to Christians across Europe to pray for peace during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, observed Jan. 18–25.

In a letter addressed to Catholic bishops across the continent, Archbishop Gintaras Grušas of Vilnius linked this call to prayer with the recent updating of the Charta Oecumenica, the key ecumenical charter for cooperation and unity among Christian churches in Europe, formally signed in Rome on Nov. 5, 2025.

The Lithuanian prelate said that “this unity among the baptized in Christ is a powerful instrument of peace throughout the world,” especially in a “war-torn world.”

What is the Charta Oecumenica?

The Charta Oecumenica was first adopted in 2001 as a roadmap for deeper cooperation among Christian communities in Europe. The 2025 revision, concluded after a three-year process led by a joint working group of the CCEE and the Conference of European Churches (CEC), reflects modern European realities concerning migration and secularization to rising societal prejudices.

The CEC is a fellowship of Orthodox, Protestant, and Anglican churches from the nations of Europe.

The revised document encourages churches to broaden mutual understanding and to witness together the Gospel in a continent shaped by cultural diversity, secular pressures, and geopolitical tensions.

Grušas’ appeal touches upon recent remarks by Pope Leo XIV during his audience with Christian leaders following the Charta’s signing. The pope observed that Christians today “often feel increasingly like a minority” in some contexts and urged greater fraternity and openness “amid the clamor of violence and war, whose echoes resound throughout the continent.” His message highlighted the urgency of ecumenical cooperation not as an abstract ideal but as a witness to peace and reconciliation.

For Grušas, the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is not only about cohesion among churches but also about fostering peace “among all parties in conflict with one another.”

He invited the faithful to entrust this shared intention to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, mother of Europe, and the patron saints of Europe, highlighting prayer as the foundation for spiritual and societal transformation.

Mercy as a practical response to conflict

The archbishop’s announcement comes at a significant moment for the Church in Europe. His archdiocese is preparing to host the sixth World Apostolic Congress on Mercy (WACOM 6) from June 7–12, an international Catholic gathering focused on the theme “Building a City of Mercy.”

The congress, drawing thousands of faithful, clergy, and laypeople from around the globe, aims to deepen understanding of divine mercy and its role in addressing the spiritual and humanitarian needs of the modern world. It encourages Catholics to become “builders of a culture of mercy” in their families, communities, and societies.

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Jan 17, 2026 / 06:00 am (CNA).

An artificial intelligence (AI) marketplace launched by a business professor at The Catholic University of America seeks to offer products and services in a venue consistent with the social teachings of the Catholic Church — it is called Almma AI.

Lucas Wall, who teaches finance at the university and has led several entrepreneurial ventures, began building Almma AI in mid-2023. The marketplace facilitates transactions for AI-related products, allowing people to upload their creations to be purchased or, in some cases, used for no charge.

The types of products that can be offered on the marketplace include Large Language Models (LLMs) — similar to ChatGPT and Grok — along with AI prompts, personas, assistants, agents, and plugins.

Although other marketplaces exist, Wall told EWTN News that Almma AI is designed to ensure the average person can “benefit from this new revolution that is coming” by selling or purchasing products in the marketplace.

“With most technological revolutions and changes, there are only a handful of people who make fortunes,” Wall said.

Almma’s mission statement is “AI profits for all,” and Wall said it is meant to “help people monetize their knowledge.” He said the marketplace can “build bridges across cultures” because people anywhere can access it, and “allows people to make solutions for their neighbors or for their parishes.”

Almma does not exclusively offer Catholic-related products, but it does block the sale of anything that is immoral or could provoke sin, which Wall said was another major contrast with other AI marketplaces.

“I want to be part of the group of people who help innovation meet morality,” he said.

Among the examples of problems within larger AI companies, he noted, are the development of artificial romantic chatbots and the creation of erotica and artificial pornographic images and videos. He also expressed concern about AI consultation in end-of-life care.

“I refuse to believe we don’t have enough imagination as a Catholic community and the courage to build something better,” Wall said.

AI and Catholic social teaching

Wall said the development of Almma AI was “responding to the call of Pope Francis that he very clearly outlined in [the 2025 doctrinal note] Antiqua et Nova” and also took inspiration from Pope Leo XIII’s 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum.

In Antiqua et Nova, the Vatican holds that the development of AI should spur us to “a renewed appreciation of all that is human.” It teaches that AI should be used to serve the common good, promote human development, and not simply be used for individual or corporate gain.

That note builds on the framework provided in Rerum Novarum, which expressed Catholic social teaching in the wake of the industrial revolution. At the time, Pope Leo XIII emphasized a need to seek the common good and safeguard the dignity of work when many laborers faced poor working conditions.

“Wages ought not to be insufficient to support a frugal and well-behaved wage-earner,” Leo XIII writes. “... If a workman’s wages be sufficient to enable him comfortably to support himself, his wife, and his children, he will find it easy, if he be a sensible man, to practice thrift, and he will not fail, by cutting down expenses, to put by some little savings and thus secure a modest source of income.”

Wall said Almma AI follows those guidelines by “trying to help people earn a decent living and keeping their dignity.” He added: “If you want to monetize a skill, we have the tools for you.”

When the current pontiff Leo XIV chose the name “Leo,” he said he did so to honor Leo XIII, who “addressed the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution.” He chose the name, in part, because AI developments pose “new challenges for the defense of human dignity, justice, and labor,” Leo XIV explained.

Leo XIV has spoken at length about AI. This includes warnings about anti-human ideologies, the threat to human connections and interactions, and concern about the displacement of workers. However, he has also highlighted the potential benefits of AI if used to advance humanity and uphold the dignity of the human person.

Wall welcomed continued guidance from the Vatican, saying the Church has “moral foundations … beyond what anyone in secular society can point at.” He expressed hope that Leo XIV will author a document similar to Rerum Novarum that addresses the changes AI is bringing about to the global economy

“I pray daily for it,” Wall said.

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