Category: Diocese of Scranton News

MADRID (OSV News) – Spain has been, and hopefully will continue to be, a very missionary nation.”

Pope Leo XIV spoke these words during a brief encounter with Father José María Calderón, national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Spain. For Father Calderón, they reflected something more than a passing compliment from a pontiff preparing to visit the country June 6-12.

“They touched my heart,” Father Calderón told OSV News. “They strengthened my desire to continue promoting missionary awareness.”

As the first pope in modern history to have spent much of his priestly ministry as a missionary, Pope Leo arrives in Spain June 6 with a unique familiarity not only with the country itself — which he has visited almost 50 times — but also with the missionary tradition that helped shape Catholicism across much of the world.

His itinerary will take him to Madrid, Barcelona, Gran Canaria and Tenerife, where he is expected to address Spain’s parliament, inaugurate one of the towers of Barcelona’s iconic Sagrada Familia basilica and meet migrants arriving in the Canary Islands.

Yet beneath the official schedule lies a deeper connection.

From his years as an Augustinian missionary and bishop in Peru to his service as prior general of the Augustinian order, Pope Leo repeatedly encountered Spanish missionaries and witnessed firsthand the legacy of a Church that for centuries sent priests, religious and lay missionaries across Latin America, Africa, Asia and beyond.

“He has a lived experience that allows him to speak not about concepts, but about realities he has personally known,” Father Calderón said.

Father Calderón believes Pope Leo’s appreciation for Spain’s missionary history is not rooted in nostalgia.

In a February message to the priests of Madrid, the pope acknowledged the challenges posed by secularization and cultural change, but insisted that many people — especially young people — continue to search for deeper meaning and purpose.

“This is not a time for withdrawal or resignation, but for faithful presence and generous availability,” Pope Leo wrote, encouraging priests to trust that Christ is already at work in people’s lives.

The theme will likely resonate throughout his visit. In Madrid, Pope Leo is expected to preside over a Corpus Christi procession that will incorporate some of Spain’s most beloved expressions of popular piety, including traditional Holy Week pasos. Among them will be images of Our Lady of Almudena, patroness of Madrid, and Christ of Medinaceli, which will also make a pilgrimage to Santiago Bernabéu Stadium for the pope’s gathering with the faithful of the Archdiocese of Madrid.

The emphasis reflects what Father Calderón believes will be one of the pope’s central messages to Spanish Catholics.

“I am convinced he wants Spanish Catholics to regain missionary enthusiasm,” Father Calderón said.

For Pope Leo, the answer to secularization appears not to be retreat, but renewed evangelization — a theme that echoes both his own missionary experience and the centuries-old tradition that first brought the Gospel from Spain to much of the world.

Juan Vicente Boo, a veteran Vatican journalist and author of the Spanish-language biography “León XIV: El Papa de la nueva era” (“Leo XIV: The Pope of a New Era”), said the pope knows Spain better than many realize.

“After studying his biography in depth, I discovered with astonishment that he knew Spain more thoroughly than many Spaniards,” Boo told OSV News.

Pope Leo first visited Spain in July 1982 as a young Augustinian making a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. During the monthlong journey, he and fellow friars traveled across the country in a van, sleeping in tents and visiting 11 cities, including Madrid and Ávila, the hometown of St. Teresa of Ávila.

He would return frequently over the following decades.

“As prior general of the Augustinians, he eventually visited more than 30 Spanish cities over roughly 50 trips,” Boo said. “It is the country he has visited most after Italy.”

His ties to Spain, however, extend beyond travel.

Father Alejandro Moral Antón, the Spanish Augustinian who succeeded Leo as prior general in 2013, said the future pope came to know generations of Spanish missionaries during his years in Rome, Peru and throughout the global Augustinian network.

“Certainly, the pope is very familiar with Spanish missionaries and with the centuries-long history of Spain sending missionaries to Latin America and the rest of the world,” Father Moral Antón told OSV News.

The two men first met in Rome in the 1980s, when many Spanish Augustinians were studying there.

“He came to know our mentality, our way of thinking, and we constantly spoke about our missions in Latin America,” Father Moral Antón said.

That familiarity deepened during Pope Leo’s years in Peru, where he frequently encountered Spanish missionaries serving throughout the country.

Later, as prior general, he visited every Augustinian jurisdiction in the world, including missions established by Spanish provinces in Peru, Colombia, Central America, India and Tanzania.

“He was able to see up close the love we had for these missions,” Father Moral Antón said, describing a commitment rooted in the Augustinian values of communion, community and interiority.

For historians, Pope Leo’s familiarity with Spanish missionary work reflects a much broader historical reality.

“The visit of the missionary pope to the country of missions offers a magnificent opportunity to revisit Spain’s missionary work throughout history,” historian Luis Antequera told OSV News.

According to Antequera, the story began in earnest with Spain’s overseas expansion following 1492 and the arrival of missionaries in the Americas during Columbus’ second voyage in 1493.

“From the very beginning, evangelization was part of the project,” he said.

Over the centuries that followed, Augustinians, Dominicans, Franciscans, Jesuits and other religious orders established missions throughout the Americas, Africa and Asia, often becoming not only evangelizers but also educators, scholars, linguists and defenders of Indigenous peoples.

Antequera points to figures such as Dominican friar Antonio de Montesinos, whose 1511 sermon denouncing abuses against Indigenous peoples remains one of the most famous sermons in Christian history, and Bartolomé de las Casas, whose advocacy helped shape debates over the treatment of native populations.

The Augustinians also played a significant role.

“The first Augustinian arrived in the Americas in 1527,” Antequera noted, linking the order’s missionary history to the pope’s own religious family.

Spanish missionaries would eventually establish enduring Catholic communities throughout Latin America, the Philippines and other parts of the world, helping shape what is now the global center of Catholicism.

Father Calderón believes that history remains alive in the Spanish church today, and that the visit will be less about celebrating Spain’s missionary past than encouraging its missionary future: “I am convinced he wants Spanish Catholics to regain missionary enthusiasm,” he said.

Although the number of missionaries has declined significantly in recent decades, Spain remains the country with most missionaries abroad and remains the second most generous financial supporter of missionary activity, preceded only by the United States.

Whether speaking to priests in Madrid, migrants in the Canary Islands or the faithful gathered at Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, Pope Leo’s message is expected to be consistent: Spain’s missionary story is not merely a chapter of history.

(OSV News) – An annual report from the nation’s Catholic bishops shows that more than 1,000 allegations of child sexual abuse were reported in U.S. dioceses during the 2025 fiscal year, with just over 2% involving individuals who were minors in that period.

In addition, on-site auditors found weaknesses in several dioceses’ review boards and records management, as well as burnout and turnover among safe environment and victim assistance staff.

Based on costs included in the report, U.S. Catholic dioceses have, according to OSV News’ calculations, paid some $5 billion in abuse settlements and related costs from 2004 to June 2025 – a total that to date likely exceeds $6 billion when factoring in more recent settlements, such as one for $800 million reached by the Archdiocese of New York.

On May 27, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat of Child and Youth Protection and its National Review Board released the “2025 Annual Report — Findings and Recommendations on the Implementation of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.”

The report — which covered the period July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025, with 194 of the nation’s 196 dioceses and eparchies participating — is the 23rd since the charter was established by the U.S. Catholic bishops in 2002 as a number of clergy abuse scandals emerged. Commonly called the Dallas Charter, the document lays out a comprehensive set of procedures for addressing allegations of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy, and includes guidelines for reconciliation, healing, accountability and prevention of abuse.

Data for the report came from audits conducted by StoneBridge Business Partners, a Rochester, New York-based consulting firm that provides forensic and compliance services to a range of organizations. In addition, the report includes a survey by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) on allegations and costs related to the abuse of minors.

In his preface, USCCB president Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City noted that by the end of 2025, “100% of the 196 dioceses and eparchies” in the U.S. “had participated in at least one on-site audit.”

The “historic milestone” marked “the first time since the Charter’s inception that full participation has been achieved,” he said.

At the same time, said Archbishop Coakley, “continued vigilance is essential as sexual abuse often occurs within trusted relationships, and consistent monitoring is vital to prevent harm.”

The report noted that the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux, Louisiana, was found to be non-compliant during the report period with the charter’s requirement to hold regular meetings of its diocesan review board.

Such boards, comprised of mostly lay members not employed by a given diocese, serve as confidential consultative bodies to bishops for handling abuse allegations, and are required under the Dallas Charter.

In recent years, the diocesan review board issue has emerged as a pain point, with James F. Bognar, chair of the USCCB’s advisory National Review Board, noting in his report letter to Archbishop Coakley that the secretariat has launched quarterly meetings for local review board members “to address questions and clarify the full scope” of their duties.

Deficiencies in diocesan review boards were — along with records management and “burnout, turnover and compassion fatigue” among safeguarding and victim assistance workers — among the “three areas of concern” Stonebridge identified in more than 10% of the sites it had audited during the report period.

The Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux later held its review board meeting to comply with the charter requirement. According to the report, two other dioceses did not participate in either the on-site audit or the data collection process: the Ohio-based Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Parma, and the Michigan-based Syriac Catholic Eparchy of Our Lady of Deliverance.

Stonebridge said that during the report period, a total of 1,070 allegations had been reported by 973 survivors of childhood sexual abuse by clergy throughout the 194 dioceses and eparchies for which data was available. The number of allegations for the 2025 report marked an increase of 168 from last year’s data.

Of the 1,070 total allegations, 24 involved individuals who were minor children during the reporting period, most (17) were girls, with 6 boys and 1 child whose sex was not identified. Four of the allegations were substantiated, with 13 still under investigation and seven ruled unsubstantiated.

A total of 837 clerics were accused of sexually abusing a minor over the past reporting year, with well over half (552, or about 66%) of them diocesan priests, with the remainder members of a religious order (120), elsewhere incardinated (32), deacons (14) or “unknown” (119). Among identified clerics, close to half (45%) had also been accused in previous audit periods, the report said.

Over half (456, or 54%) of the 837 accused were deceased as of June 30, 2025. Another 17% (143) were listed as having “unknown” status, 8% (67) had been permanently removed from ministry, 5% (46) had been removed from the clerical state, and 4% (34) were in active ministry. Another 3% (29) had been temporarily removed from ministry, with 2% (17) resigning.

Safe environment training rates have remained above 99% for clergy, ordination candidates and educators, and above 98% for staff and volunteers, with rate for background checks equally high.

However, safe environment training rates have declined among children down to 89.1% in 2025 from 93% in 2018.

The CARA survey included in the USCCB’s 2025 report showed that during the audit period, responding dioceses and eparchies reported a total of 117 credible allegations of child sexual abuse by 89 diocesan or eparchial priests.

Of those, “three allegations may have involved children under the age of 18,” meaning that “the abuse occurred in the past 18 years,” said CARA. “All of the other allegations were made by adults who are alleging abuse when they were minors.”

CARA said 97% of the nation’s dioceses and eparchies participated in the survey, while 61% of the religious communities for which CARA had contact information responded.

As it has since 2004, CARA also tallied the costs of both resolving abuse claims and safe environment protocols.

For dioceses and eparchies during the reporting period, settlements totaled over $276 million, not including almost $6.3 million in additional payments to victims. Attorney fees added up to almost $89 million, with $11.4 million in “other costs” and nearly $7.4 million in support for alleged offenders.

In all, the fiscal year 2025 abuse costs for dioceses totaled $389,961,007, said CARA, which noted a 61% jump over the 2024 total of $242,799,401.

“That increase is mostly tied to the increase in the settlement amounts paid during the year 2025, which increased by 69 percent,” CARA said in the report. “This may, in large part, (be) due to the removal of the civil statute of limitations for child sex abuse allegations.”

When adding in the data from religious communities that participated in its survey, the total allegations-related costs for the Church in the U.S. within the past fiscal year rose to $483,534,316, said CARA.

CARA also noted that “dioceses, eparchies, and religious communities paid $36,853,017 for child protection efforts between July 1, 2024 and June 30, 2025,” which represented “a 1 percent increase from the amount spent on such child protection efforts in the previous reporting year ($36,558,695).”

“I hope and pray that, through collective efforts, we remain vigilant and committed to the work needed to prevent the evil of child sexual abuse — not only in the Church, but in society,” said Archbishop Coakley in the report.

PARIS (OSV News) – The relics of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, the French Visitation sister who experienced visions of Jesus revealing his Sacred Heart, will be present with the U.S. bishops in Orlando, Florida, when they consecrate the United States to Jesus’ Sacred Heart June 11.

The relics were flown from Paris to New York June 2 and will remain in the U.S. until September. As part of their plenary assembly in Orlando June 10-12, the U.S. bishops will concelebrate Mass and pray the act of consecration. The bishops also will hear reflections on the Sacred Heart ahead of the Mass.

Arnaud Bouthéon, the lay leader of the Knights of Columbus in France, will be in charge of the unusual transatlantic trip with the reliquary.

“I will personally go to the Shrine (of the Sacred Heart) of Paray-le-Monial to retrieve the reliquary and bring it to the United States,” he told OSV News.

Bouthéon will first take the reliquary to the international headquarters of the Knights of Columbus in New Haven, where the relics will be venerated during the first week of June. Then they will be taken to Orlando, Florida, for the consecration.

Meanwhile, “the arrival of the relics of Margaret Mary in the United States is an invitation to consecrate families and individuals to the Sacred Heart,” Bouthéon said.

St. Margaret Mary received visions of Jesus between 1673 and 1675 at the Monastery of the Visitation in Parais-le-Monial. Christ showed her his Sacred Heart and invited her to experience his love, mercy and tenderness. Devotion to the Sacred Heart subsequently spread thanks to St. Claude La Colombière, her Jesuit confessor, and then with the help of the entire Society of Jesus.

St. Margaret Mary was canonized in 1920, and today her relics are venerated in the Chapel of the Apparitions of her convent, where a large reliquary contains a wax effigy of her body, as well as most of her bones.

Four portable reliquaries allow St. Margaret Mary’s relics to be sent to dioceses and parishes in France and abroad. “They traveled extensively during the year of the 350th anniversary of the apparitions, between December 2023 and June 2025,” Bouthéon noted.

The reliquary that is heading to the United States is the largest of them all. Standing 1.3 feet tall, 2.3 feet long and 1.2 feet wide, it weighs nearly 150 pounds with its protective case. It contains the saint’s clavicles, two of her ribs and a small piece of her brain. It can be carried in procession using two poles and two to four bearers.

“It will have to go in the cargo hold of the plane,” Bouthéon confirmed to OSV News. “I won’t be able to keep it in the cabin.”

After the consecration of the U.S. to Jesus’ Sacred Heart, the relics will be in Denver Aug. 1-6 for the Knights of Columbus’ annual convention and then travel back to New Haven for veneration Sept. 25-27. The shrine in Parais-le-Monial hopes that dioceses will also take advantage of the relics’ pilgrimage to the U.S. and invite the relics to their churches.

This won’t be the first time Bouthéon has traveled to the United States with relics.

“In 2019, the Knights of Columbus organized a nine-month pilgrimage of a relic of the Curé d’Ars through American dioceses,” he recalled, using the French name for “the parish priest of Ars,” St. John Vianney. “It was (St. John Vianney’s) heart which I had brought with me from France. For the trip, it was officially classified as ‘organic matter.’ It fit into a small box that I carried in a backpack, which I kept with me the entire journey. It was very moving.”

“Many very positive testimonies followed this pilgrimage of the relic of the Curé d’Ars,” Bouthéon said. “That is what prompted us to organize the exhibition of the relics of St. Margaret Mary, with the approval of the rector of the shrine of Paray-le-Monial.”

The Church highly regulates the transport of relics, Bouthéon clarified.

“Such a journey requires a great deal of official authorizations, starting with that of the bishop of Autun, to whom the shrine of Paray-le-Monial is subject, and that of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome,” he said. “Everything is closely supervised.”

The relics’ American pilgrimage coincides with the U.S. release of a French documentary on the Sacred Heart. Released in France in October 2025, the film depicts the apparitions of Christ and the revelations received by St. Margaret Mary.

The documentary highlights the “extraordinary, even disconcerting, nature,” of the apparitions, Bouthéon explained. “But it also features priests, religious and other witnesses who explain, in contemporary language, how the spirituality of the Sacred Heart is relevant to Christians today.”

In the documentary, “we also see many … of today’s witnesses who recount their own experience of God’s love, which they have perceived through the spirituality of the Sacred Heart,” Bouthéon added. “They explain how they came to understand that Christ awaits them in prayer for a personal relationship full of tenderness. These testimonies deeply moved people.”

The film was a phenomenal success in France – “something no one could have predicted,” Bouthéon recalled. “It quickly surpassed 500,000 admissions, which was a record.”

He added: “Many people have drawn closer to the faith after seeing it, and have wanted to visit Paray-le-Monial. It is also very successful abroad. It is a French docudrama, but it clearly shows that devotion to the Sacred Heart has a universal dimension.”

Bouthéon himself appears in the film, among those interviewed. “My family has a special devotion to the Sacred Heart,” he said. “My grandmother, my mother and my daughter are named Margaret Mary. But it was thanks to the Knights of Columbus that I rediscovered the spirituality of the Sacred Heart. Their founder, Father Michael McGivney, was devoted to it. He wore a Scapular of the Sacred Heart.”

“The veneration of a relic must be presented in an educational manner,” he stressed. “It helps us to become tangibly aware, as popular devotions do, of the mystery of the Incarnation — that God, in Jesus, came to dwell among us.”

“To personally consecrate oneself to the Sacred Heart on this occasion is to accept the reminder that Jesus has a gentle and humble heart, and that he wishes to share his tenderness with us,” Bouthéon concluded. “It is drawing closer to that burning love that is his. And it also means asking ourselves: Do I love others as Christ loves me, with gentleness and humility?”

The Diocese of Scranton is once again participating in NEPA Gives 2026. The 24-hour online giving extravaganza – held on the first Thursday of June – allows donors to make secure donations to their favorite nonprofit organization.

Donations can be enhanced with bonus funds provided by NEPA Gives sponsors – making donor dollars stretch even further! Nonprofits, like the Diocese of Scranton, will also be eligible for cash prizes.

NEPA Gives 2026 will take place from 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, June 4, 2026, to 7:00 p.m. on Friday, June 5, 2026.

We are excited to invite all of our supporters – especially our Catholic school families – to participate in the Diocese of Scranton’s official kickoff of NEPA Gives 2026 at the Soccer and Saints: The Carlo Cup Games!

This fun-filled community event will celebrate faith, school spirit, and generosity as the Diocese of Scranton Catholic Schools launch the 24-hour NEPA Gives fundraising campaign.

Event Details
📅 Thursday, June 4, 2026
⏰ 5:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
📍 St. Ann’s Monastery & Shrine Basilica
1233 St. Ann Street, Scranton

Families are encouraged to:
• Bring blankets and/or lawn chairs
• Pack a picnic basket
• Create and bring school spirit signs to cheer on our school
• Wear your school colors and show your pride!

The evening will feature:
⚽ Friendly soccer-themed competitions and activities
🎵 Special guest performances, including Fr. Jim Paisley
🏆 Prizes for the best theme-friendly picnic display
🎉 Opportunities to support our school during the NEPA Gives campaign

This year’s campaign is inspired by Blessed Carlo Acutis, whose faith and passion for sharing the Gospel continue to inspire young people around the world.

We hope you will join us as we kick off NEPA Gives, celebrate our Catholic school community, and cheer on our school as part of Team DoS!

 

 

VATICAN CITY (OSV News) – Pope Leo XIV will preside over a worldwide rosary for peace May 30, uniting Marian shrines across continents in simultaneous prayer to close the Catholic Church’s month of devotion to the Virgin Mary.

The pope will lead the prayer from the Lourdes grotto in the Vatican Gardens at 7 p.m. local time on Saturday, with participating shrines joining via livestream. In the United States, the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington will take part at 1 p.m. Eastern time.

The livestream will be available at vaticannews.va and via the Washington basilica at nationalshrine.org/mass, where those gathered in person will pray from the Great Upper Church.

Coordinated by the Vatican Dicastery for Evangelization, the rosary initiative brings together some of the most visited Marian pilgrimage sites in the world, including the Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary in Fatima, Portugal, the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes in France and the Sanctuary of Our Lady Queen of Peace in Medjugorje, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In war-torn Ukraine, the Sanctuary of the Mother of God in Zarvanytsia will take part, as will the Shrine of St. Charbel Annaya in Byblos, Lebanon.

Other participating sites include the International Shrine of Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage in Antipolo, Philippines, and the Pontifical Shrine of the Holy House in Loreto, Italy.

Pope Leo will pray the joyful mysteries, with each of the five decades dedicated to those suffering the effects of war and violence, and entrusted to the intercession of Mary, Queen of Peace.

The first decade is offered for victims of war, with particular attention to the most vulnerable. The second is for those who bring words of hope and the comfort of faith to populations living under conflict. The third decade honors medical personnel, paramedics and volunteers providing humanitarian aid in war zones.

The fourth mystery is dedicated to prisoners, those enduring violence and all who suffer humiliations that violate human dignity. The fifth and final joyful mystery is for an end to war and the establishment of lasting peace throughout the world.

All people and all shrines around the world are invited to join the pope in praying the rosary for peace. Parishes who participate are asked to inform the Vatican’s Dicastery of Evangelization after the event via an online form.

Limited free tickets are also available to join the pope in prayer in the Vatican Gardens. People are also welcome to participate from St. Peter’s Square, where large screens will broadcast the pope’s rosary.

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – A French blockbuster is coming to theatres in the U.S. just in time for the consecration of the nation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and premieres for U.S. audiences in June.

Released in France on Oct. 1, 2025, the docudrama “Sacré Coeur,” subtitled “His Reign Will Have No End” focuses on the apparitions of Jesus Christ to a French Visitation religious sister, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, showing his heart to her between 1673 and 1675, in Paray-le-Monial, in the French region of Burgundy.

“Sacré Coeur” will be shown in theaters June 9-11 and June 14 via KREA Film-Makers, Saje Distribution and Fathom Entertainment. Tickets and theater information is at sacredheartfilm.us.

The showings coincide with the U.S. bishops’ June 11 consecration of the United States to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Produced to mark the 350th anniversary of the apparitions, the docudrama combines historical reenactments, testimonials and expert analysis. It gives ample space to accounts of personal encounters with Jesus Christ, often during adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.

The witnesses and speakers are very diverse, ranging from Father Matthieu Raffray, a French traditionalist priest known for his strong views on social media, to prisoners, members of parliament and a former drug dealer from Bondy, a town in the northern suburbs of Paris known for its high crime rate.

The film’s directors, Steven and Sabrina Gunnell, were inspired to produce the film after their visit to the Burgundy shrine. Steven Gunnell is a former member of the French 1990s boy band Alliage. He converted to Catholicism and now works with his wife Sabrina to produce films related to their deep Christian faith.

The film places great importance on the shrine of Paray-le-Monial. Entrusted to the Emmanuel Community since 1985, the shrine welcomes tens of thousands of pilgrims each year. It was the site of a highly successful jubilee celebration for the 350th anniversary of the apparitions from December 2023 to June 2025.

The jubilee was closely linked to the late Pope Francis’ last encyclical, “Dilexit Nos,” subtitled “On the Human and Divine Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ,” published in October 2024.

(OSV News) – Catholic bishops are welcoming Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, dedicated to safeguarding human dignity by invoking Catholic social teaching as a framework for anchoring artificial intelligence.

The document is a “powerful reminder that no technology can replace a child of God, and all technology should be placed at the service of helping humanity thrive,” said Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The archbishop shared his thoughts in a May 25 statement issued minutes after the official release of the pope’s highly anticipated encyclical on AI “Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence.”

Pope Leo joined senior Vatican officials, theologians and Christopher Olah, one of the founders of the AI research and safety firm Anthropic, for a press conference at the Vatican at which the encyclical was publicly presented.

“Magnifica Humanitas” invokes the wisdom of the Church’s social teaching — which articulates the means of building a just society and living out holiness in modern life — as a framework for shaping AI amid rapid technological advances, a fractured global order and accelerating threats to human dignity.

“The Holy Father’s teaching on safeguarding human dignity in the age of artificial intelligence speaks to a critical need and brings clarity to a confusing landscape,” said Archbishop Nelson J. Pérez of Philadelphia said in a May 25 statement posted to CatholicPhilly.com, the digital news outlet of that archdiocese.

“Pope Leo emphasizes with crystal clarity that the sanctity of human life must remain paramount as artificial intelligence systems continue to develop and become more closely integrated into nearly every aspect of our lives,” said Archbishop Pérez.

AI’s benefits to healthcare, education and evangelization are accompanied by the technology’s “significant moral and ethical pitfalls that must be navigated and reflected upon,” he said. He encouraged “all people to read it with care and reflect on its vital message.”

Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of Arlington, Virginia, also exhorted the faithful to read the document, which is available online at the Vatican website.

In his May 25 statement, posted to Arlington Diocese’s website, Bishop Burbidge said he was “grateful” for Pope Leo’s attention to “issues of profound concern to the human person, most especially our innate desire for God and everlasting happiness.”

He said the encyclical is “especially welcome in this time of tremendous social and technological change, especially concerning artificial intelligence and the right use of such tools.”

Bishop Michael T. Martin of Charlotte, North Carolina, said Pope Leo’s text was “so helpful at this historic time in our world.”

In a May 25 statement emailed to OSV News, Bishop Martin, a Conventual Franciscan, observed that like the Industrial Revolution — which Pope Leo XIII addressed in his 1891 encyclical “Rerum Novarum” — AI is “revolutionizing the world as we know it.”

The Church “then and now stands ready to offer safeguards that value human dignity above all else,” said Bishop Martin.

He clarified that Pope Leo’s new encyclical “isn’t the Catholic Church lamenting progress,” but it is “our pontiff calling humanity to live into its best expression for the common good while never disregarding the importance of the person.”

In a May 25 post in Spanish on the X social media platform, Mexico’s Catholic bishops said the encyclical “offers a profound and enlightening perspective on our times, demonstrating that emerging technologies can become allies of human dignity when oriented toward the common good.”

“The text combines lucidity with hope: it analyzes real risks, but, above all, points to concrete paths for safeguarding the human element in the age of Artificial Intelligence (AI),” said the Mexican bishops. “Its strength lies in its capacity to integrate doctrine, discernment, and social responsibility.”

“It is too early to say how the AI revolution will pan out,” Ukrainian Catholic Metropolitan Archbishop Borys A. Gudziak of Philadelphia told OSV News, “but the optimism and embrace for human discovery that Pope Leo combines with deep anthropological, cultural, social, moral and spiritual reflection is something that is welcomed — because it is deeply needed.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – At a time when digital technologies are developing at a rapid and unpredictable pace, every single person must decide if she or he will be: a passive bystander; an unhelpful commentator; an avaricious architect of a new “Tower of Babel”; or a patient, hope-filled builder of a “civilization of love,” Pope Leo XIV said in his first encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas.”

In the 82-page document, released May 25, the day after Pentecost, the pope also asked forgiveness for the Church’s long tolerance of slavery, and he declared that its “just war theory” was now outdated.

“Today, more than ever, without prejudice to the right to self-defense in the strictest sense, it is important to reaffirm that the ‘just war’ theory, which has all too often been used to justify any kind of war, is now outdated,” he wrote.

“Humanity possesses far more effective and capable tools for promoting human life and resolving conflicts, such as dialogue, diplomacy and forgiveness. The use of force, violence and weapons reflects a relational poverty that always has disastrous consequences for civilian populations,” the pope’s new document said.

The document, signed May 15, marked the 135th anniversary of his namesake’s landmark social encyclical, “Rerum Novarum,” which reflected on society, the economy and politics, and ushered in what is now known as the “Social Doctrine of the Church.”

“When some objected that the Church should not waste energy on worldly matters, but instead focus on communicating the message of eternal life, Leo XIII responded with realism and wisdom, saying that the proclamation of the Gospel cannot overlook the concrete lives of people,” Pope Leo XIV wrote.

While his turn-of-the-last-century predecessor focused on the industrial revolution’s impact on the human being and society, Pope Leo looked at the consequences of the digital revolution in the 21st-century and how best to safeguard “the human person in the time of artificial intelligence.”

Pope Leo used nearly the first half of the document to outline the role and development of the church’s social teaching, and why and how it continues to be needed in a world facing both old and new challenges.

“Today, the Social Doctrine of the Church is a legacy of wisdom, where we find principles for thought, criteria for discernment and judgment, and concrete guidelines for action” to “clearly interpret the challenges of the present and identify appropriate ways for living out a clear Christian witness, with joy and in service to the world,” he wrote.

“It is not an inert set of concepts, but a living corpus of truth that safeguards and interprets humanity’s vocation to a full and just life. I therefore wish to add my own voice to this living tradition,” he added.

Listening to and engaging with the wider world, especially those active in the fields of science, technology, academia and politics, he wrote, is crucial to a process of “shared discernment” to identify and heal the spiritual and cultural roots of present-day problems rather than issuing reactive pronouncements or “risk letting the succession of emergencies dictate the direction of our path.”

While the Church is concerned with theological, “anthropological” and social questions, it is also “necessary to establish adequate regulatory tools capable of upholding justice and curbing the distorting effects of technological power,” the pope wrote.

“Nevertheless, the issue is not limited to regulation. As Pope Francis warned, we must realistically ask ourselves who holds this power today and how they use it,” he added.

“Humanity, created by God in all its grandeur, is today facing a pivotal choice: either to construct a new Tower of Babel or to build the city in which God and humanity dwell together,” he wrote. Every generation has the same duty of “guiding history to become a place where the dignity of every person is safeguarded, justice is promoted and fraternity is made possible.”

While the document was embedded “in a time of artificial intelligence,” it also included a wide gamut of ongoing, lingering ills such as: the exploitation of people and nature; war; the arms race; disrespect for human life; threats to democracy and the common good; discrimination against the poor and women; and new forms of slavery.

“Human trafficking must be recognized as a contemporary form of slavery and a grave violation of human dignity. Failing to respond firmly, or tolerating these practices in any way, is in some way to become complicit in today’s sins, which are akin to those of the past when slavery was being concealed and justified,” Pope Leo wrote.

While the Catholic Church constantly affirmed the dignity of every human being, he wrote, “neither can we deny or diminish the delay with which both society and the Church came to denounce the scourge of slavery,” noting it wasn’t until the 19th century “that a formal, absolute and universal condemnation of slavery was clearly articulated, notably under Pope Leo XIII.”

“This development offers a clear example of the Church’s growth in understanding the perennial truths of Revelation that she safeguards,” he wrote, “even if it took eighteen centuries for its full incompatibility with slavery to be explicitly recognized.”

“This constitutes a wound in Christian memory, one from which we cannot consider ourselves detached,” he wrote, and “for this, in the name of the Church, I sincerely ask for pardon.”

It is “a shared responsibility,” he wrote, of all members of the human family to come together and discern “Where are we going? Toward what goal do we wish to orient ourselves? What direction should we choose as a people and as a human community?”

“The search for the truth in public life, education in the digital environment, the transformation of work, the fragility of families and new forms of slavery are not isolated phenomena,” he wrote. “Rather, they reflect a common underlying issue, namely that if technology becomes the ultimate criterion, the human person risks being reduced to data, a cog in a machine or a commodity.”

“If, however, technology is integrated with a wise perspective, it can become an instrument of growth, justice and fraternity,” he added.

Innovation can genuinely serve integral human development and integral ecology, Pope Leo wrote, “rather than becoming a source of exclusion and dominance.”

Referring often to St. Augustine’s teachings, Pope Leo clearly defined the two “cities” people today must choose to contribute to: either a worldly, selfish land dedicated to building a “Tower of Babel” or a Christian “civilization of love in the digital age.”

He decried today’s “culture of power” that was “normalizing” war, ballooning military arsenals, and fomenting fear and polarization; he reinforced the Vatican’s long-standing opposition to leaving the decision to use lethal force to AI or “to opaque or automated processes.”

The pope also condemned today’s “false realism,” calling it “truly irresponsible” to stoke resignation by pretending war is inevitable and peace and dialogue are “utopian or irrational positions that ignore the risks at stake.”

“In fact, peace is neither a naïve hope nor merely the absence of war; instead, it is always possible as the fruit of justice and charity,” he wrote.

Pope Leo underlined the need for everyone to take responsibility in building a better world by quoting the wizard Gandalf in J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings. The Return of the King.” “It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till.”

Pope Leo then proposed five paths toward daily and public responsibility: “the need to disarm words; building peace through justice; adopting the perspective of victims; cultivating a healthy realism; and reviving dialogue and multilateralism.”

Fundamentally, he added, what is needed is the Christian view of humanity and understanding of God’s plan for his creation.

“As a believer among believers, I invite everyone to contemplate, in the face of the Son of God, the grandeur of humanity that shines a light also on the era of AI,” he wrote. “In Christ, we are called to cooperate in the work of creation, rather than be disinterested observers of technological processes that limit our freedom and responsibility.”

“The dignity inscribed in each of us by the Holy Spirit can also be seen in our capacity to reflect critically, choose and love freely, and form authentic relationships,” Pope Leo wrote.

“No computational system, however sophisticated, can create a heart that gives itself, or a conscience that discerns good from evil,” he wrote. “Even when machines excel in efficiency, a human face that asks to be gazed upon remains the center of our history.”

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. (OSV News) – A softening of hearts toward the Eucharist, a greater sense of unity in the Church, and a “fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit” — these were the intentions held in the hearts of perpetual pilgrims as they set out on the third National Eucharistic Pilgrimage from St. Augustine May 24.

Under the bright Florida sun, on the grounds of the Mission Nombre de Dios and the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche, Bishop Erik T. Pohlmeier of St. Augustine celebrated Mass to kick off the 2026 pilgrimage on the feast of Pentecost — nearly 500 years after the first Mass of Thanksgiving there in 1565 in what is now “the oldest site of continuous Catholic presence in the United States.”

In attendance were the nine “perpetual pilgrims” of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage who will be traveling with the Eucharist — which Catholics believe to be Jesus Christ truly present in his body, blood, soul and divinity — for six weeks on the “St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Route” up the East Coast, ending in Philadelphia over the July 4 holiday. Also present were officials connected to the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage and the Diocese of St. Augustine, and as many as 1,500 pilgrims gathered for the first leg of the 2026 pilgrimage.

“Today, on the feast of Pentecost, I’ve really just been praying for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit: that we would be really filled with his gifts, and would experience peace and joy and freedom, and that that comes by living in an authentic relationship with Jesus,” said Mary Carmen Zakrajsek, a perpetual pilgrim from the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, at a press event at the start of the day. “And so that is my intention today, is that all of us here will allow Jesus to breathe new life into us through the Holy Spirit, and draw us into an even deeper relationship with him.”

Zakrajsek, 26, told OSV News that being at Mass at the Mission Nombre de Dios is a “very surreal moment.”

“To be in the place where the first Catholic Mass was celebrated centuries ago in this country is really historic and unique,” she said. “And I think we as pilgrims are on this pilgrimage, we as a country are also on a pilgrimage, right? And it’s a beautiful full-circle moment to see where we started, and where we are now, and where the Lord wants to take us in the future.”

During Mass, umbrellas blocked the sun in chairs near the altar, while worshippers — seated on beach and lawn chairs, or crowded on blankets — sought out any available shade under surrounding trees or tents. A steady breeze blew in from the nearby Matanzas River and, beyond that, the Atlantic Ocean. Participants ranged from families to the elderly, from Knights of Columbus to women religious.

Sister Mary Faithful Virgin, a member of the Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matara, a missionary order founded in Argentina, told OSV News she traveled from central Florida, where she is based, with 40 parishioners.

“It is a beautiful opportunity to be part of this moment of history and to pray for our country and our nation, that we can live truly ‘One Nation under God,'” she said, referring to the 2026 pilgrimage’s theme.

Buddy Odom and his wife, Gina, traveled from Ocean Springs, Mississippi, to St. Augustine for the launch of the pilgrimage. “We wanted to be part of the beginning of it,” Buddy told OSV News. “It’s really a wonderful thing to be a part of: to see everybody coming together for Christ and to demonstrate that to others.”

Maria Basilice attended the Mass with her husband and nine children. The family had participated in the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage when it went through Springfield, Illinois, in 2024.

“It’s a beautiful thing,” Basilice told OSV News about Jesus Christ being brought to the streets of the U.S. through the Eucharist. “Other people who may not ever encounter Jesus will get to.”

In his homily, Bishop Pohlmeier focused on two effects of Pentecost: the “missionary impulse because of the coming of the Holy Spirit” and “the divine power of the Church’s work because of the coming of the Holy Spirit.”

“From the beginning, we see that the Church is able to carry out the mission entrusted by God himself — able to carry it out because God provides,” he said. “And what God asks is that we faithfully receive the gifts that He gives. That in receiving those gifts, we step out in faith, allowing God to work in us.”

Following Mass, Bishop Pohlmeier processed throughout the grounds of the shrine with the Eucharist to the “Rustic Altar,” a memorial of where Father Francisco López de Mendoza Grajales celebrated St. Augustine’s first Mass Sept. 8, 1565. From there, Bishop Pohlmeier carried the Blessed Sacrament to the altar in the historic chapel of Our Lady of La Leche, where he placed Jesus at the foot of the iconic image of Our Lady holding the Child Jesus to her breast.

Jason Shanks, president of the National Eucharistic Congress organization, which operates the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, said they wanted to begin the 2026 leg in St. Augustine to “highlight the Catholic contribution to this American experiment before there was even a Declaration of Independence” as the U.S. prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary July 4.

“The Catholic contribution for us started with Mass,” he told OSV News. “I think with these times of polarization and ideology … it’s really important for us to go back to the roots. And for us as Catholics, it’s going back to the roots of Mass and the Eucharist.”

Shanks also wanted to “lean into the cultural diversity” of the Church. He said, “We felt it’s important to tell that the Catholic story in America has always been culturally diverse.

“It’s missionary — it started with missions there in Florida — and it’s bigger than any sort of region or ethnic group,” he added. “Through the Eucharist, there is unity in diversity in how our faith is expressed.”

Pilgrim Zach Dotson, who drove the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage van outfitted with a monstrance from its resting place in Zionsville, Indiana, to St. Augustine earlier this week, told OSV News that it’s fitting the pilgrimage should begin in a place named for the saint who himself described the Church as being a people on pilgrimage.

Just like a pilgrimage, he said, with our earthly lives “we’re heading towards that end goal, which is hopefully to heaven, to full communion with God, to join the community of saints.”

Dotson told OSV News he hopes the witness of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage will inspire all people, whether they are Catholics, other fellow Christians, those fallen-away from the faith or those with no faith.

“You don’t celebrate, for nearly 500 years, the Mass for a symbol,” he said, referring to how long Catholics have celebrated the Eucharist in what is now the U.S. “You don’t follow behind in procession a symbol or a piece of bread. People don’t fall on their knees or lie prostrate for a symbol; but we do for our Lord and Savior, for the King of Kings. We follow after him. We lie prostrate for him. … So I hope that is the true witness: people seeing us live our faith authentically in our worship and in our adoration of our Lord, especially in the Blessed Sacrament.”

Following a period of Eucharistic adoration at the shrine, the pilgrimage continued with a one-mile procession down San Marco Avenue to the Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine where Jesus Christ in the Eucharist would be adored by those keeping watch with him overnight.