St. Patrick Catholic Church

ROME (CNS) -- Religious freedom is not only a fundamental and essential human right, "it is also a pathway to truth and deeper communion with God and neighbor," said Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state.

However, religious freedom is severely restricted in 62 of the world's 196 countries, affecting around 5.4 billion people; "in other words, almost two-thirds of the world's population lives in countries where serious violations of religious freedom take place," the cardinal said.

Cardinal Parolin was citing information contained in the 2025 Religious Freedom Report compiled by the papal foundation Aid to the Church in Need and released Oct. 21 during a conference at Rome's Augustinianum Patristic Institute.

The fact that the 2025 report runs 1,248 pages, the largest in its 25-year history, "indicates that violations of religious freedom are increasing year on year," the cardinal said.

The report, covering the period of Jan. 1, 2023, to Dec. 31, 2024, found that "grave and systemic violations, including violence, arrest and repression, affect more than 4.1 billion people in nations such as China, India, Nigeria and North Korea." 

Speaking to reporters after the event, Cardinal Parolin cautioned against considering all attacks on Christians in Nigeria as signs of religious persecution.

Citing local church sources, the cardinal said much of the violence in Nigeria "is not a religious conflict, it is more of a social conflict, for example between herders and farmers."

And where Muslim extremists are attacking Christians, he said, they also attack Muslims who disagree with them. "These are extremist groups that make no distinctions in pursuing their goals. They use violence against anyone they consider an opponent." 

Aid to the Church in Need listed another 38 countries -- including Egypt, Ethiopia, Mexico, Turkey and Vietnam -- as nations where "religious discrimination" is common. The foundation said that in those countries "religious groups face systematic restrictions on worship, expression and legal equality. While not subject to violent repression, discrimination often results in marginalization and legal inequality."

In Mexico, as well as in Haiti, the report said, "organized crime is a key driver of persecution or discrimination" with priests and other church workers being kidnapped or murdered and house of worship and sacred objects being desecrated in "an atmosphere of blatant impunity" as the government fails to stop the drug cartels and criminal gangs.

Speaking at the presentation of the report, Cardinal Parolin focused on the Catholic Church's support for the religious freedom of all people, no matter their faith, and on the upcoming 60th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council's Declaration on Religious Freedom.

The council's support for religious liberty was "a call to action based on the council's belief that God himself has made known to mankind the way in which men are to serve him and thus be saved in Christ," the cardinal said.

And while all people have a "moral obligation" to seek the truth, Cardinal Parolin said, no one can be compelled to do so. 

"One must and can only respond in one way: freely, that is to say, out of love, with love, not by force, because Christianity is love," the cardinal said. 

On a personal level, he said, religious freedom "protects the inner sanctuary of the conscience, the God-given compass that guides ethical and spiritual choices."

And, he said, on a collective level "it fosters vibrant communities where people of different faiths can live together, contribute to society and engage in constructive dialogue without fear of persecution."

The 2025 Religious Freedom report found that "religious nationalism is on the increase, fueling exclusion and repression of minorities. National identity is increasingly shaped by ethno-religious nationalism, eroding minority rights."

"In India and Myanmar," for example, it said, religious nationalism "drives persecution; in Palestine, Israel, Sri Lanka and Nepal, it fuels discrimination."

The report also found that "religious persecution increasingly fuels forced migration and displacement," with victims around the world fleeing "violence, discrimination and the absence of state protection."

Aid to the Church in Need credited the Vatican's 2018 provisional agreement with China's communist government for "signs of improvement" for the country's Christians but noted that improvement applied only to Christians belonging to government-recognized Christian organizations.

Catholic priests and bishops continued to be arrested or detained for not joining the Catholic Patriotic Association, and in many parts of China anyone under the age of 18 is prevented from attending church or a church-sponsored event, the report said.

With the arrest and exile of bishops and priests, the confiscation of church property and the banning of religious processions and other public celebrations, the situation in Nicaragua also is highlighted in the book.

"During the period under review, hostility toward churches intensified, severely violating the fundamental right to religious freedom," it said.

Aid to the Church in Need also called attention in the report: to "a sharp rise in antisemitic and anti-Muslim hate crimes," including in Europe and North America; arson attacks on churches in Canada; and vandalism or desecration of churches in the United States.
 

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Leo XIV met with a coalition of survivors of abuse and victims' advocates for the first time at the Vatican Oct. 20.

Members of the board of Ending Clergy Abuse met with the pope for about an hour in a closed-door meeting that was later confirmed by the Vatican.

"This was a deeply meaningful conversation," Gemma Hickey, ECA board president and survivor of clergy abuse in Canada, said in a press release. "It reflects a shared commitment to justice, healing and real change."

"Survivors have long sought a seat at the table, and today we felt heard," Hickey said in the statement.

"Pope Leo is very warm, he listened," Hickey said at a news conference, according to Reuters. "We told him that we come as bridge-builders, ready to walk together toward truth, justice and healing."

While the group of six people representing ECA met with the pope, video clips from the Vatican also showed a separate meeting between Pope Leo and Pedro Salinas, a Peruvian journalist and abuse survivor. 

Salinas, a former member of Sodalitium Christianae Vitae who suffered physical and psychological abuse by the movement's founder, Luis Fernando Figari, is seen in the footage giving the pope a copy of his new book, "The Truth Sets Us Free," in Spanish.

The book recounts his attempts to bring to light the truth about the movement, which was eventually suppressed.

The international coalition of survivors and human rights advocates works to end clergy abuse, enforce accountability and promote justice and truth, according to its website, ecaglobal.org.

The group's major initiative is a "zero tolerance" policy that would mandate: church personnel to report abuse to civil authorities; immediatly remove accused clergy pending investigations and provide victims with access to information and files related to their cases.

ECA members shared the Zero Tolerance Initiative with the pope during the meeting, "emphasizing the importance of consistent global standards, survivor-centered policies," the press release said.

Tim Law, ECA co-founder and a board member from the United States, said during a news conference after the meeting that Pope Leo acknowledged "there was great resistance" to the idea of a universal zero-tolerance law, according to The Associated Press. 

However, Law said he told the pope the coalition wanted to work with him and the Vatican to help the idea gain traction, the AP reported.

"Our goal is not confrontation, but accountability, transparency, and a willingness to walk together toward solutions," Law said in the press release. "The Church has a moral responsibility to support survivors and prevent future harm."

Janet Aguti, ECA board vice president, said in a statement, "We came not only to raise our concerns, but also to explore how we might work together to ensure the protection of children and vulnerable adults around the world," adding that collaboration is possible "and necessary."

"I left the meeting with hope," Aguti, a Ugandan survivor, said at the news conference, according to Reuters. "It is a big step for us."

Matthias Katsch, a co-founder and board member from Germany, said at the news conference that the pope seems to still be "in a phase where he is trying to find out how to best address these issues," Reuters reported. "The times where a pope is saying one sentence and everything is settled is over."

The meeting came after the ECA sent a letter to Pope Leo after his election in early May. "In a gesture of openness, Pope Leo XIV responded positively, welcoming the opportunity for a direct and respectful conversation about the path forward," the group said in its press release.

The six board members attending the meeting also noted "the emotional significance of the dialogue," the statement said.

"The board concluded the meeting by emphasizing the urgent need for continued dialogue, compassion, and collaborative action to build a future where safety, accountability, and dignity are not only upheld but where the voices of survivors lead the way," it said.

When he served as bishop of Chiclayo in Peru, Pope Leo, who is a canon lawyer, had set up a commission to deal with abuse cases in his diocese.

He had told the Peruvian newspaper, La República, in 2019 that, "We reject cover-ups and secrecy" because they "cause a lot of harm."

"We have to help people who have suffered due to wrongdoing," he had told the paper.

Pope Francis and Pope Benedict XVI had also met with abuse victims during their pontificates.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Sacramental marriage and traditional family life increase joy in the good times, give strength during hard times and are a path to true holiness, Pope Leo XIV said.

Marking the 10th anniversary of the canonization of Sts. Louis and Zélie Martin, the parents of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Pope Leo said the couple "bears witness to the ineffable happiness and profound joy that God grants, both here on earth and for eternity, to those who commit themselves to this path of fidelity and fruitfulness."

The pope's comments came in a message to Bishop Bruno Feillet of Séez, France, the home diocese of the Martin family. The message was released at the Vatican Oct. 18, the date of the anniversary of the Martins becoming "the first couple to be canonized as such," the pope said. 

At a time when much of the media and popular culture seem to present lifelong marriage and a commitment to family life as "outdated and dull," the pope said, "Louis and Zélie Martin testify that this is not the case: they were happy -- deeply happy! -- giving life, radiating and transmitting the faith, seeing their daughters grow and flourish under the gaze of the Lord."

Sts. Louis and Zélie Martin's lives highlight "marriage as a path to holiness," the pope wrote. "Among the vocations to which men and women are called by God, marriage is one of the most noble and exalted."

Anyone with "a sincere desire to lead a beautiful and good life under the gaze of the Lord, in joy as in trial," should look to the Martins for inspiration, he said.

They are "the model of a couple that the holy church presents to young people who wish –- perhaps hesitantly –- to embark on such a beautiful adventure," Pope Leo said. They are "a model of fidelity and attention to one another, a model of fervor and perseverance in the faith, of Christian education of children, of generosity in the exercise of charity and social justice; a model also of trust in times of trial."
 

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Canonizing seven new saints on World Mission Sunday, Pope Leo XIV said God is present wherever the innocent suffer, and his form of justice is forgiveness.

"God grants justice to all, giving his life for all," he said in his homily during a canonization Mass in St. Peter's Square Oct. 19 -- the second-to-last Sunday of October, when the church prays for missionaries and their efforts in evangelization, education, health care and other ministries.

"Indeed, it is this faith that sustains our commitment to justice, precisely because we believe that God saves the world out of love, freeing us from fatalism," he said. "When we hear the cries of those in difficulty, let us ask ourselves, are we witnesses to the Father's love, as Christ was to all?"

Jesus "is the humble one who calls the arrogant to conversion, the just one who makes us just," he said.

During the second canonization ceremony of his pontificate, Pope Leo declared the sainthood of seven men and women from the 19th to the 21st centuries, including Venezuela's first saints: St. Maria Rendiles Martínez and St. José Gregorio Hernández Cisneros.

St. Rendiles was the Venezuelan founder of the Congregation of the Servants of Jesus, who was born in Caracas in 1903 and died in 1977. St. Hernández was born in 1864 and became a Third Order Franciscan. A Venezuelan doctor, he became known as "the doctor of the poor," and he was killed in an accident in 1919 on his way to helping a patient. 

The pope also canonized:

-- St. Ignatius Maloyan, the martyred Armenian Catholic archbishop of Mardin, which is in present-day Turkey; born in 1869, he was arrested, tortured and executed in Turkey in 1915.

-- St. Peter To Rot, a martyred lay catechist, husband and father from Papua New Guinea. Born in 1912, he was arrested in 1945 during the Japanese occupation in World War II and was killed by lethal injection while in prison.

-- St. Vincenza Maria Poloni, founder of the Sisters of Mercy of Verona, Italy; she lived from 1802-1855.

-- St. Maria Troncatti, a Salesian sister born in Italy in 1883 who became a missionary in Ecuador in 1922. She died in a plane crash in 1969.

-- St. Bartolo Longo, an Italian lawyer born in 1841. He had been a militant opponent of the church and involved in the occult, but converted, dedicating himself to charity and to building the Pontifical Shrine of the Blessed Virgin of the Rosary of Pompei. He died in 1926. 

The pope called the new saints "faithful friends of Christ" who are "not heroes or champions of some ideal, but authentic men and women," who were martyrs for their faith, evangelizers, missionaries, charismatic founders and "benefactors of humanity."

Having faith on earth is what "sustains the hope for heaven," the pope said in his homily.

In fact, Christ tells his disciples "to pray always" without becoming weary, he said. "Just as breathing sustains the life of the body, so prayer sustains the life of the soul: faith, in fact, is expressed in prayer, and authentic prayer lives on faith."

In his parable of the persistent widow in the day's Gospel reading (Lk. 18:1-8), Jesus asks his disciples if they believe God is a just judge toward everyone, and "if we believe that the Father always wants our good and the salvation of every person."

It is important to ask because two temptations test this belief, the pope said. The first temptation "draws strength from the scandal of evil, leading us to think that God does not hear the cries of the oppressed and has no pity for the innocent who suffer."

"The second temptation is the claim that God must act as we want him to: prayer then gives way to a command to God, to teach him how to be just and effective," he said. 

But Jesus "frees us from both temptations," especially with his words during his passion, "Father, your will be done," Pope Leo said.

"The cross of Christ reveals God's justice, and God's justice is forgiveness. He sees evil and redeems it by taking it upon himself," he said. "When we are 'crucified' by pain and violence, by hatred and war, Christ is already there, on the cross for us and with us."

"There is no cry that God does not console; there is no tear that is far from his heart," he said. "The Lord listens to us, embraces us as we are, and transforms us as he is."

"Those who reject God's mercy, however, remain incapable of mercy toward their neighbor. Those who do not welcome peace as a gift will not know how to give peace," he said.

Jesus invites the faithful "to hope and action," and he asks, "When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith in God's providence?" the pope said.

After the Mass and before praying the Angelus, Pope Leo thanked the leaders and dignitaries from different countries who attended the canonization Mass, including Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Lebanese President Joseph Khalil Aoun.

He told some 70,000 people present that "today is World Mission Day."

While the entire church is missionary, "today we pray especially for those men and women who have left everything behind to bring the Gospel to those who do not know it," he said. "They are missionaries of hope among all peoples."

Pope canonizes 7 “authentic” people of faith

On October 19, 2025, in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Leo XIV canonised seven new saints, saying they represent authentic men and women of faith. (CNS video/Robert Duncan)

WASHINGTON – “Though we are grateful that aspects of the Administration’s policies announced Thursday intend to include comprehensive and holistic restorative reproductive medicine, which can help ethically to address infertility and its underlying causes, we strongly reject the promotion of procedures like IVF that instead freeze or destroy precious human beings and treat them like property,” said Bishop Robert E. Barron, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth; Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades, chairman of the Committee for Religious Liberty; and Bishop Daniel E. Thomas, chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities.

Responding to the White House’s announcement of new actions to expand access to in vitro fertilization (IVF) and fertility treatments, the bishops continued, “Every human life, born and preborn, is sacred and loved by God. Without diminishing the dignity of people born through IVF, we must recognize that children have a right to be born of a natural and exclusive act of married love, rather than a business’s technological intervention. And harmful government action to expand access to IVF must not also push people of faith to be complicit in its evils.

“We will continue to review these new policies, and look forward to engaging further with the Administration and Congress, always proclaiming the sanctity of life and of marriage.”

The policies announced Thursday were pursuant to an executive order issued in February. A statement of Bishops Barron and Thomas responding to that order may be read here.

For more on assisted reproductive technology, including in vitro fertilization, please see: https://www.usccb.org/prolife/reproductive-technology. For more information on infertility, ethical restorative reproductive medicine, and research to address its root causes, please see: https://www.usccb.org/topics/natural-family-planning/infertility.

###

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Leo XIV traveled 23 miles by car to board the "Bel Espoir" sailboat and speak to the crew about peacemaking.

The boat, whose name means "beautiful hope," had spent the previous eight months sailing to 30 Mediterranean ports where rotating crews of 25 young adults met their peers and talked about their faith and the challenges to peace.

Meeting the last crew Oct. 17 at the marina in Ostia, outside of Rome, Pope Leo told them the world needs "signs, witness, impressions that give hope." 

The name of the boat and, even more, the efforts of the young people "are indeed a sign of hope for the Mediterranean and the world," he told them.

Living and working together on the boat, the pope said, has taught them the importance of dialogue.

"How important it is to learn to talk to one another, to sit down, to learn to listen, to express your own ideas and your own values with respect for one another" so that others also feel they were heard, he said.

Eight groups of 25 young adults from different Mediterranean countries and different religions each spent a month as part of the crew and held roundtable discussions on different themes with young adults in the 30 ports of call.

The experience, the pope said, should have reinforced for them the importance of "building bridges," not literally, "but a bridge among all of us, peoples from many different nations."

Pope Leo said he had asked each member of the crew where they were from, which made it obvious that despite big differences in language, faith and culture, the young adults still made life aboard work. 

Living on a relatively small boat with a large group of people, he said, "you have to learn how to live with one another and how to respect one another, and how to work out the difficulties, and that too is a great experience for all of you as young people, but (also) something that you can teach all of us."

Noting that the crew included several Palestinians, Pope Leo told the group that it is especially important to learn "to be promoters of peace in a world that more and more tends to go toward violence and hatred and separation and distance and polarization."

The young people can show the world that "we can come together, even though we are from different countries, we have different languages, different cultures, different religions, and yet we are all human beings." 

"We all sons and daughters of the one God," he said. "We are all living together on this world, and we all have a shared responsibility to together care for creation and care for one another and to promote peace throughout the world."

Pope Leo also told the crew that he had been to Ostia many times as an Augustinian friar because of the port town's close connection to the story of St. Augustine and, especially, his mother, St. Monica.

In fact, St. Monica died in Ostia in 387 while waiting for St. Augustine to join her for the return journey to North Africa. She was buried there, but her remains were moved to Rome in the 15th century.

WASHINGTON – The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has announced Carol Glatz as Editor in Chief of Catholic News Service in Rome. USCCB General Secretary, Father Michael J.K. Fuller, made the appointment, which takes effect on January 1, 2026. 

The news follows the announcement of the retirement of Cindy Wooden who has led the Rome office of Catholic News Service since 2015, first as Bureau Chief and, since 2023, as Editor in Chief. As a veteran journalist covering the Catholic Church, Ms. Wooden’s career has spanned the pontificates of Saint John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Francis, and Pope Leo XIV. 

Ms. Glatz has spent nearly three decades in Catholic journalism, covering the Vatican and the global Church since 1998 for Vatican Radio, and since 2004 for Catholic News Service.

“On behalf of the bishops, I would like to thank Cindy for her long-time service to the Church. Her distinguished career as a Catholic journalist has taken her from a state-side reporter for a diocesan newspaper, to the D.C. newsroom of Catholic News Service, and then to Rome to cover the Holy Father and the Vatican. She will be missed, and we wish her well in retirement,” said Father Fuller. “I’m equally thankful to have Carol continue the good work that Cindy has led in a continuation of Catholic News Service’s mission to invite Catholics in the United States closer to the ministry of the Pope,” he continued. 

“I’m grateful for this opportunity to build upon the long-time presence and trusted relationships that Cindy and my colleagues at Catholic News Service have built over the years,” said Ms. Glatz. “I look forward to leading the news team here in Rome as we tackle the challenges posed by changes in the way people get their news. Together, we will report through digital media and creative story packages to keep the Catholic faithful informed and engaged with news about Pope Leo and the Holy See.” 

###

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- To improve the church's safeguarding approaches and measures, the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors said it relied on extensive input and feedback from victims/survivors in its second annual report.

As a consequence, the report featured a chapter listing more than 20 major concerns drawn up by its victim/survivor focus group, which included: an ongoing lack of accountability for church leaders and resistance to safeguarding reforms; the risk of retaliation and rejection for whistleblowers; the continued ministry of known perpetrators; the need to vet all church personnel properly; and the need for a "mature approach" to reparation.

"The primary need from victims/survivors is not financial compensation but rather recognition of harm, genuine apologies, and meaningful action to prevent future abuses," said the 103-page report, which was released Oct. 16 at the Vatican.

"In many cases, however, victims/survivors report that the Church has responded with empty settlements, performative gestures, and a persistent refusal to engage with victims/survivors in good faith," it said.

"Figures of authority within the Church who perpetrate or enable abuse have perhaps viewed themselves as too essential and important to be held accountable," it said.

"The Church believes herself to be central to God's plan for humanity," it said, "but God's promises to the Church are not a 'too essential to fail' free pass of impunity: to the contrary, the Church needs to remember that judgment begins within the household of God." 

The papal commission's Annual Report on Church Policies and Procedures for Safeguarding is meant to serve "as both compass and chronicle in the Church's global pilgrimage toward accountability," Archbishop Thibault Verny of Chambéry, France, president of the papal commission, wrote in the document's introduction.

Using data from multiple sources for the 2024 calendar year, including observations from apostolic nuncios and the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child's reporting mechanism, the report analyzed several church entities, offering an overview of their current safeguarding measures, ongoing challenges and recommendations from the commission members.

Each year, the report focuses on a different set of bishops' conferences, religious institutes and offices of the Roman Curia, and this year's report also included a lay association: the Focolare movement.

In addition to providing precise details regarding individual church entities, the report also offers a global analysis of its main findings and observations.

It said there are six areas "that the church must further address in order to fulfil its fundamental obligations to victims/survivors": safe spaces for listening and care; better communication, such as with public and private apologies; better spiritual and psychotherapeutic support; financial support that is tailored to each victim's specific needs; meaningful sanctions and institutional reforms; and more safeguarding initiatives throughout the church community. 

The commission will further develop the six areas into "more detailed procedures to be offered as guidance to episcopal conferences and religious orders, tailored to their different cultural and social contexts," the report said. 

One major focus of the report was on the need for proper and concrete "reparation" to victims by the entire church community.

"One cannot harm one of Christ's precious 'little ones' without betraying, harming, and, indeed, angering Christ," it said. Therefore, "in facing the tragedy of abuse, the Church must acknowledge her debt of reparation to God" as well as to victims/survivors and to the larger community.

"We must re-emphasize that the Church's decades-long pattern of mishandling reports, including abandoning, ignoring, shaming, blaming, and stigmatizing victims/survivors, perpetuates the trauma as an ongoing harm," it said.

"The first objective of repair is to stop the spiritual and emotional bleeding precipitated by the combination of abuse, enablement of abuse, and mishandling of reports of abuse. This is why both new and old cases matter," it added.

The report listed multiple harms caused by abuse and the mishandling, silencing and cover-up of cases.

Not only are whole families, innocent priests and religious harmed, it said, a toxic environment marked by fear and distrust of priests, bishops, religious, teachers and other church staff, can undermine a child's "relationship to the Church and separate them from spiritually nurturing experiences."

In addition, priests, religious and church personnel can be unwilling to "nurture and mentor children and adolescents, based on fears of being unjustly accused or because of over-restrictive safeguarding protocols," it said. 

Anywhere there is an environment of fear and suspicion, it said, "the necessary boundaries of safeguarding can become barriers and children can be viewed as too dangerous for interactions," which is "gravely harmful to the development and spiritual formation of children and adolescents."

The report also called for greater transparency by specifying when the resignation and/or removal of church leaders or personnel was made because of abuse or negligence.

While such communication would need to respect principles related to privacy and the presumption of innocence, those principles cannot be used "at the cost of victims," Benyam Dawit Mezmur, a commission member, said at a Vatican news conference Oct. 16.

"Reparations definitely -- particularly apologies, rehabilitation, even financial compensation -- require that level of transparency, of course, without undermining the right to privacy and presumption of innocence," said the lawyer, who also had served on the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child.

The report said it was "not merely an account of the Church's progress and continued areas for improvement. Rather, it seeks to be a living instrument of shared conversion -- a means of communicating the wisdom and knowledge learned through the witness of victims/survivors, and the commitment of countless women and men of goodwill who have sought to respond to the question: what did you do, once you knew?"

By gathering and sharing on-the-ground, lived experiences and perspectives, it said, the report sought to represent a "shared journey" to help the church restore trust and credibility.

WASHINGTON – The Catholic Church in the United States will commemorate National Vocation Awareness Week, November 2-8. Each year, national Catholic organizations, dioceses, schools, and local parish communities sponsor events and provide different resources to raise awareness for vocations, and help those who are discerning a vocation, particularly one to ordained ministry or consecrated life.

“In this Jubilee Year of Hope, let us celebrate all who have responded to God’s call whether to serve as husbands, wives, parents, priests and others as ordained ministers, or consecrated persons,” said Bishop Earl A. Boyea, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations. 

“In a meditation during the Jubilee of Seminarians, Pope Leo XIV said, ‘If you cultivate your heart through daily periods of silence, meditation, and prayer, you will learn the art of discernment. This, too, is important: learning discernment. When we are young, we overflow with desires, dreams and ambitions. Our hearts can often be overwhelmed and bewildered. On the other hand, if we follow the example of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we will surely learn to keep all those things in our heart and meditate on them.’ 

“With fervor, then, let us pray and renew our commitment to journey with and encourage young people as they discover the hope God has placed in their hearts through discerning how He has called them to be witnesses of the love ‘poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.’” (Romans 5:5)

Resources for National Vocation Awareness Week are available on the USCCB’s website in both English and Spanish.

###