Vatican City, Nov 25, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV will present the 2025 Ratzinger Prize to the renowned Italian conductor Riccardo Muti, one of the most influential and respected figures in international music, during a concert in the pope’s honor on Dec. 12.

The Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation announced that the prize will be awarded to Muti at a Christmas concert directed by the Italian conductor in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican, in the presence of the pope.

Recognized for the expressive depth with which he interprets musical scores, Muti was also admired by Benedict XVI, who, beyond his profound theological erudition, was a great lover and connoisseur of classical music. The German pontiff was an ardent admirer of Muti’s talent, to which he attributed exceptional spiritual and cultural value.

The maestro reciprocated this esteem with repeated expressions of affection, even after Benedict XVI resigned from the papacy in February 2013, when he moved to the “Mater Ecclesiae” Monastery for a life of prayer and seclusion.

Upon learning of the award, Muti expressed his emotion with these words: “I have always followed and deeply admired Pope Benedict XVI, whose thoughts, reflections, and meditations have been and will continue to be a source of [spiritual] nourishment for men and women of goodwill.”

The presentation of the 2025 Ratzinger Prize will not only celebrate the maestro’s artistic achievements but will also be a tribute to the relationship of mutual admiration and profound respect he had for Benedict.

The concert will include the “Mass for the Coronation of Charles X,“ composed by Luigi Cherubini in 1885, performed by the Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra and the Guidi Chigi Saracini Choir of the Cathedral of Siena.

Muti, born in 1941 in Naples, began his musical career as a pianist and choirmaster, eventually becoming one of the world’s most renowned conductors.

He has conducted some of the foremost orchestras, such as the New York Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, and the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, where he has left an indelible mark thanks to his commitment to the faithful interpretation of classical music. Throughout his career, he has received numerous international awards, solidifying his reputation as a master of the symphonic and operatic repertoire.

The Ratzinger Prize, established in 2011, is awarded annually upon the recommendation of the foundation’s scientific committee and with the approval of the pope, recognizing outstanding figures in Christian-inspired culture and art. Previous recipients include theologians, biblical scholars, philosophers, jurists, and artists from various continents and religious denominations.

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

ACI Prensa Staff, Nov 25, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Former Nicaraguan political prisoner Félix Maradiaga was recently elected president of the World Liberty Congress (WLC). In an interview with “EWTN Noticias,” the Spanish-language broadcast edition of EWTN News, he analyzed the “silence” of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which is under persecution by the dictatorship of President Daniel Ortega.

Maradiaga, who is also president of the Foundation for the Freedom of Nicaragua and holds a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard University, now leads a global organization — the WLC — that promotes democracy, human rights, and freedom, especially in the more than 60 countries under authoritarian regimes, seeking to coordinate opposition movements and defending religious freedom as an essential part of its agenda.

In Nicaragua, he warned, “there is silence because the dictatorship is very good at achieving censorship. There is transnational repression, which is the perverse methodology of dictatorships to not only censor, silence, and murder within their borders, but to do so outside their borders as well.”

“We saw, for example, the recent assassination of retired Nicaraguan Army Major Roberto Samcam in Costa Rica, the threats against priests who are in exile, that if they speak out, if they express their opinions, then there will be consequences for their brothers in the faith inside Nicaragua. And that has generated a climate of censorship where those in exile cannot speak because they put their own families at risk,” Maradiaga charged.

Martha Patricia Molina, author of the report “Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church,” which in its latest edition from August of this year denounced the prohibition of more than 16,500 processions in the country, said something similar to EWTN News at the time.

Catholic priests “are prohibited from making any complaints, and if by chance any aggression is exposed in the media, then the [dictatorship] simply denies it,” the author explained.

Furthermore, “the laypeople are terrified that members of the Citizens’ Power Council and the paramilitaries, which are organizations affiliated with the dictatorship, will harm them if they decide to speak out,” which is compounded by the fact that there are no independent media outlets in Nicaragua.

Duty of the laity and ‘dilemma’ of the Church in Nicaragua

“And now I speak as a Catholic: The responsibility of committed laypeople is to speak for our brother priests who cannot speak. What has happened in Nicaragua is a terrible censorship,” Maradiaga lamented in the interview with EWTN News.

“And finally, the Church faces a dilemma. It has to continue exercising its pastoral role within Nicaragua, a pastoral role that involves preaching the Gospel of Christ to all people. And that is what puts the Catholic Church in a dilemma,” he added.

However, Maradiaga highlighted as signs of hope that Pope Leo XIV recently met with Bishop Rolando Álvarez, who is in exile in Rome. “We believe that with the new papacy of His Holiness, Nicaraguan Catholics, the persecuted Nicaraguan Church will receive attention,” he emphasized.

Before being deported by the regime, Álvarez was detained for 17 months, first under house arrest and then in prison, charged with treason. 

How does the Ortega dictatorship remain in power?

According to Maradiaga, “Daniel Ortega’s dictatorial regime has taken advantage of a world that is completely distracted and overwhelmed by a series of crises. I always say that these crises unfortunately allow dictatorships to advance more quickly.”

“Ortega has turned Nicaragua into a giant prison, he has established a system of extrajudicial killings, he continues to haul off people to prison, he has practically closed all the independent universities in the country, he doesn’t allow freedom of the press, he has forced more than 15% of the population into exile, but he does this because he has Iran, China, and Russia behind him, and therefore the democratic change in Nicaragua must be part of an international agenda for the restoration of democracy,” he explained.

“I firmly believe that striking a blow against Nicolás Maduro’s dictatorship in Venezuela, getting rid of Nicolás Maduro’s dictatorship in Venezuela, will have a direct impact on Ortega’s dictatorship,” added Maradiaga, referring to the increasingly tougher measures the Trump administration has been taking against the Maduro regime.

U.S. cracking down on illegal migration through Nicaragua

On Nov. 17, U.S. State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said the United States government had decided to “revoke visas for individuals in Nicaragua identified as knowingly facilitating illegal immigration,” such as “owners, executives, and senior officials of transportation companies, travel agencies, and tour operators.”

“In recent years, Ortega opened a gateway for migrants. Initially for migrants from Cuba and Venezuela, but at a certain point, Ortega opened a gateway for migration from countries in Africa and Asia,” Arturo McFields, Nicaragua’s former ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS), told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner.

“Conviasa flights began departing from Havana: Venezuela provided the Conviasa airline, Cuba provided the migrants, and Ortega provided the springboard to begin the migratory route to the United States,” he stated.

“And in these cases, all those migrants received tickets to go to Managua. And from Managua, they began a journey to the United States. This was something that enriched the regime,” McFields charged from exile.

He thus concluded: “Many migrants saw arriving in Nicaragua as a door of hope, when in reality they were subjected to all kinds of abuses and a brutal business that Ortega was running with an iron fist and with an entire structure in which he offered transportation from the airport, lodging, and a series of logistical arrangements until taking the person to the border with Honduras: It was a complete human trafficking industry.”

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 25, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

A new Vatican document defends marriage as a monogamous relationship amid the growing popularity of polyamory and addresses the pastoral challenges caused by conversion to Catholicism of people in polygamous situations.

“One Flesh: In Praise of Monogamy” was published in Italian by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith on Nov. 25.

“Polygamy, adultery, or polyamory are based on the illusion that the intensity of the relationship can be found in the succession of partners,” the Vatican says.

To illustrate this metaphorically, the text cites the myth of Don Juan, an unbridled seducer whose womanizing leads him to hell, which demonstrates that “multiplying partners in a supposed total union means fragmenting the meaning of marital love.”

The text also draws on the writing of poets Walt Whitman, Pablo Neruda, Rabindranath Tagore, and Emily Dickinson, as well as philosophers such as the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard.

The document, signed by Pope Leo XIV, does not address the indissolubility of marriage or the purpose of procreation but focuses on the unitive aspect of marriage: “A communion of love and life shared by both spouses, a communion that is not oriented solely toward procreation but also toward the integral good of both.”

The text originated from a request made during the Synod on Synodality for African bishops to prepare a statement on polygamy. African bishops themselves asked the Holy See for guidance on the issue, the doctrine dicastery said earlier this month.

In the Nov. 25 document, the dicastery says it also wanted to provide a deeper reflection on monogamy in the face of growing “public forms of nonmonogamous unions — sometimes called ‘polyamory’” — in the West.

The Vatican’s doctrinal note emphasizes that “properly understood, monogamy is not simply the opposite of polygamy.”

Drawing from the teachings of St. John Paul II, the Vatican affirms that “only monogamy guarantees that sexuality develops within a framework of recognizing the other as a subject with whom one shares one’s life entirely, a subject who is an end in himself and never a means to one’s own needs. Sexual union, which involves the whole person, can treat the other as a person, that is, as a co-subject of love and not an object of use, only if it develops within the framework of a unique and exclusive belonging.”

“Those who give themselves fully and completely to the other can only be two,” the text states, after noting that in nonmonogamous relationships everyone “would be treated as means and not as persons.”

Sexuality: Total and open to life

The text makes it clear that placing sexuality within the framework of a love that “unites spouses in a single friendship” does not imply a “devaluation of sexual pleasure.” Rather, “by orienting it toward self-giving, it is not only enriched but also enhanced.”

Thus, “sexuality is no longer the release of an immediate need but a personal choice that expresses the totality of the person.”

The Vatican criticizes contemporary culture that reduces sexuality to consumption: “Various problems have arisen from an excessive and uncontrolled pursuit of sex, or from the simple denial of its procreative purpose.”

Therefore, the Vatican defends openness to life in sexual union as a form of expression of “conjugal charity” without requiring that every act explicitly have that purpose.

On an anthropological level, the document insists that “the defense of monogamy is also a defense of the dignity of women,” since “the unity of marriage implies, therefore, a free choice on the part of the woman, who has the right to demand exclusive reciprocity.”

The document also addresses sexual violence, which it says proliferates on social media, and invites Catholics to provide education on “faithful and monogamous love.”

“Education in monogamy is not a moral restriction but rather an initiation into the grandeur of a love that transcends immediacy,” it says.

Theological foundations and spiritual tradition

The text offers a broad overview of the Christian tradition that has upheld and reflected upon marital unity. It quotes popes and Church fathers, including St. John Chrysostom, who saw in marital unity an antidote to “unbridled sexual abandon, without love or fidelity.”

Citing the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the text also considers the challenges for those who, desiring to convert to the Catholic faith, must navigate complex family situations. In addition to Africa, the document cites Asia, specifically India, where “monogamy has generally been the norm and has been considered an ideal in married life,” but polygamous relationships have also been present.

Africa’s Catholic bishops issued a document earlier this year with six pastoral guidelines for how to welcome people in polygamous situations into the Church, both while upholding Church teaching on marriage and not leaving women and children vulnerable to abandonment and poverty.

At the Aug. 4 assembly of the Symposium of Episcopal Conference of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) in Kigali, Rwanda, Archbishop Andrew Nkea Fuanya of Cameroon’s Bamenda Catholic Archdiocese clarified that during the deliberations at the Synod on Synodality, “polygamy was not brought up as an African concept to be approved. It was brought up as a challenge to Christian marriage in Africa.”

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

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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The foundation of sacramental marriage is the unity of the spouses, a bond so intense and grace-filled that it is exclusive and indissoluble, said a document from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The document, "'Una Caro' (One Flesh): In Praise of Monogamy. Doctrinal Note on the Value of Marriage as an Exclusive Union and Mutual Belonging," was released only in Italian by the Vatican Nov. 25. Pope Leo XIV approved its contents Nov. 21 and authorized its publication.

"Although each marital union is a unique reality, embodied within human limitations, every authentic marriage is a unity composed of two individuals, requiring a relationship so intimate and all-encompassing that it cannot be shared with others," the document said. 

Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the doctrinal dicastery, wrote in the document's introduction that the dicastery wanted to draw from Scripture, theology, philosophy and "even poetry" to explain why it is best to choose "a unique and exclusive union of love, a reciprocal belonging that is rich and all-embracing."

The poets quoted included Walt Whitman, Pablo Neruda, Emily Dickinson and Rabindranath Tagore.

The dicastery said it issued the note in response to requests from the bishops of Africa where polygamy is still practiced as well as because "various public forms of non-monogamous unions -- sometimes called 'polyamory' -- are growing in the West."

"Polygamy, adultery or polyamory are based on the illusion that the intensity of a relationship can be found in the succession of faces," the document said. But "as the myth of Don Juan illustrates, numbers dissolve the names; they disperse the unity of the loving impulse."

While the church, its theologians, pastors and canon lawyers have written much about the indissolubility of the marriage bond, the note said, there has been less official reflection "on the unity of marriage -- meaning marriage understood as a unique and exclusive union between one man and one woman." 

The doctrinal dicastery insisted that sacramental marriage is forever and that openness to procreation is an essential part of marriage, but it also said the purpose of the doctrinal note was to focus primarily on the unitive aspect of marriage.

While there are examples of polygamy in the Old Testament, many other passages celebrate the love found in an exclusive, monogamous relationship, it said. And the Song of Songs uses the language of a lover and beloved allegorically to refer to the relationship of God with his people -- a relationship that is unique and exclusive.

In the Gospels, it said, Jesus exalts faithful, lifelong monogamy, pointing back to God's "original plan" that a man and a woman would become "one flesh."

The document has a long section on what popes and Christian theologians -- from the early church to modern times -- have said and written about marriage.

Unlike other early theologians, it said, St. John Chrysostom did not emphasize procreation as a primary purpose for marriage but wrote that "the unity of marriage, through the choice of a single person to whom one is joined, serves to free people from an unrestrained sexual outlet devoid of love or fidelity, and properly directs sexuality."

Until Pope Leo XIII wrote an encyclical on marriage in 1880, the popes did not write much about matrimony, the document said. 

In that encyclical, it said, the pope's defense of monogamy was in part "a defense of the dignity of women, which cannot be denied or dishonored even for the sake of procreation. The unity of marriage therefore implies a free choice on the part of the woman, who has the right to demand exclusive reciprocity."

Because marriage is a union between a man and a woman "who possess exactly the same dignity and the same rights," the document said, "it demands that exclusivity which prevents the other from being relativized in their unique value or being used merely as a means among others to satisfy needs."

In the Latin-rite sacrament of matrimony, it noted, "consent is expressed by saying: 'I take you as my wife,' and 'I take you as my husband.' In this regard, following the teaching of the Second Vatican Council, it must be said that consent is a 'human act by which the spouses mutually give and receive one another.'"

"This act, 'which binds the spouses to each other,' is a giving and a receiving: it is the dynamism that gives rise to mutual belonging, called to deepen, to mature and to become ever more solid," the doctrinal note said. 

How that belonging to one another in an exclusive way is lived out may change over time, "when physical attraction and the possibility of sexual relations weaken," the document said, but it does not end.

"Naturally, various intimate expressions of affection will not be lacking, and these are also considered exclusive," it said. "Precisely because the experience of reciprocal and exclusive belonging has deepened and strengthened over time, there are expressions that are reserved only for that person with whom one has chosen to share one's heart in a unique way."

"The mutual belonging proper to exclusive, reciprocal love implies a delicate care, a holy fear of profaning the freedom of the other, who has the same dignity and therefore the same rights," the note said.

The unique friendship of spouses, it said, is "full of mutual knowledge, appreciation of the other, complicity, intimacy, understanding and patience, concern for the good of the other and sensitive gestures."

That friendship " transcends sexuality," but "at the same time embraces it and gives it its most beautiful, profound, unifying and fruitful meaning," the document said.
 

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ACI Prensa Staff, Nov 24, 2025 / 17:41 pm (CNA).

The Catholic Church is facing a new wave of violence in Africa: In Nigeria, 265 students from a Catholic school remain captive after being kidnapped last week while an archbishop in Cameroon is threatening to close parishes if a kidnapped priest is not released.

In Nigeria, Bishop Bulus Dauwa Yohanna of Kontagora told Fides: “The kidnappers are almost certainly criminals seeking illicit gain by demanding a ransom.”

An official statement from the diocese, published on Nov. 23, reported that 50 minors managed to escape and reunite with their families after fleeing between Friday and Saturday following the attack. These developments were confirmed through visits and phone calls with their relatives, the statement said.

However, of the 315 people initially captured, “265 remain in the hands of the kidnappers, of whom 239 are children, 14 are high school students, and 12 are members of the school staff,” the diocesan statement specified.

The institution serves 430 primary school students (377 boarders and 53 day students) and 199 secondary school students, figures that, according to the diocese, “are important in helping the public understand the scale of the incident and the extensive efforts underway to account for every missing child and staff member.”

Cameroon archbishop demands release of kidnapped priest

The archbishop of Bamenda, Andrew Nkea Fuanya, announced that “if Father John is not released before Nov. 26, the churches in the deanery will be closed” as a measure to pressure for the release of parish priest John Berinyuy Tatah, who was kidnapped on Nov. 15 by armed men in northeastern Cameroon along with his vicar.

The faithful were informed of the possible closures in an official message read on Sunday, Nov. 23, in all parishes, the Vatican news agency Fides reported.

Nkea explained that if the priest remains in the hands of his captors by that date, the parishes, schools, and Catholic institutions of the Ndop deanery will be closed. “Priests will be evacuated for their safety, and the Blessed Sacrament will be removed from the churches.”

Furthermore, he warned that if the priest continues to be held captive on Nov. 28, the archbishop, the clergy, and lay faithful will march to the village of Baba I, where he is believed to be held, “and will either bring him back home or remain there until he is released,” Fides reported.

The prelate denounced the frequent kidnappings of priests and pastoral workers, stating that the perpetrators “have put us against the wall, and all of this must end immediately,” noting that many laypeople have also suffered torture, violence, and extortion.

According to Fides, the kidnapping was carried out by armed separatists who have proclaimed the so-called “Republic of Ambazonia” in the English-speaking northeast and southeast regions of the country. The rest of Cameroon is French-speaking.

Bishop Barron: ‘The persecution is real and we must react’

The situation in Nigeria has caused international outrage. The bishop of Winona-Rochester in Minnesota, Robert Barron, recently referred to the wave of attacks against Catholic communities, noting that what has happened is part of “an ongoing and long-standing persecution.”

“Over the last 10 years, I think 100,000 Christians have been murdered, tens of thousands of churches burned, [and there has been a] huge displacement of the Christian population,” he said on X.

After explaining that in the middle parts of the country the attacks on Christians may be motivated by a mixture of religious, tribal, or economic reasons, Barron said he did not want the appeal to mixed motives as an excuse for inaction.

“Are the motives of the persecutors mixed? Sure, I’ll grant you that. There are economic or tribal elements, of course. But my overall point is: Who cares? What matters here is that our brother and sister Christians are being brutally mistreated.”

Barron also appealed to the international Christian community: “Our connections in Christ to one another are deeper than our national identity.” Christians must pray, speak out, raise awareness, and ask our representatives to act, he said.

The bishop also emphasized that Nigeria today is “a flourishing Church” in vocations and vitality. “Am I surprised that that Church especially is undergoing a very vicious persecution? No. The more successful a Church becomes, the more on fire with Christ it becomes, the more it attracts the attention of the enemy.”

Call for calm and prayer

The Diocese of Kontagora assured that it is “fully committed to the safe rescue of those still in captivity” and reported that it continues to work with the police, authorities, and families.

It also asked the faithful to remain calm, continue praying, and support the ongoing efforts.

Meanwhile, in Cameroon, Nkea once again called on the authorities to stop the abuses against the population and demanded that the priest and all kidnapping victims be returned home as soon as possible.

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