Saint Michael Parish

Nuns with the Sisterhood of Saint Mary. | Credit: Photo courtesy of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty

Jan 21, 2026 / 13:33 pm (CNA).

A coalition of religious groups that includes an order of Protestant nuns and two Catholic dioceses scored a major victory after the state of New York backed off trying to force the groups to cover abortion in their health insurance plans.

The state government in a Jan. 16 agreement agreed to drop its efforts to force abortion coverage onto the dioceses of Ogdensburg and Albany, along with two Catholic Charities groups and numerous other religious plaintiffs.

The concession came months after the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the state court of appeals to review the long-running case in light of a major religious liberty victory at the high court in June 2025.

That victory, Catholic Charities Bureau v. Wisconsin Labor and Industry Review, saw the Supreme Court unanimously affirm that the U.S. Constitution “ mandates government neutrality between religions” and that states may not impose unlawful “denominational preferences” between religious organizations.

In the Wisconsin case, the state had attempted to argue that a Catholic charity’s undertakings were not “primarily” religious and that the group thus did not qualify for a tax exemption. The New York government had adopted a similar argument, exempting religious groups from the abortion mandate only if they primarily employ members of their own faith.

In a press release celebrating the New York victory, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty — which represented the religious groups in their fight against the mandate — described the state’s effort as a “disgraceful campaign.”

“This victory confirms that the government cannot punish religious ministries for living out their faith by serving everyone,” attorney Lori Windham said.

In addition to the Protestant nuns and the Catholic groups, the plaintiffs included a Lutheran church, a Baptist church, and a Teresian nursing home.

The nuns, a contemplative order called the Sisters of St. Mary, are known for raising Cashmere goats at their cloister in Greenwich, New York.

Their sponsorship of a 4-H club and their leasing of the goats to local youth led the state to deny them the exemption to the abortion mandate, according to Becket. The religious exemption, Becket had argued, was “so narrow” that “Jesus himself would not qualify for it.”

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state. | Credit: Vatican Media

Jan 21, 2026 / 13:03 pm (CNA).

The Vatican has received an invitation from U.S. President Donald Trump to participate in a proposed “Board of Peace” focused on Gaza and is currently evaluating how to respond, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin said Wednesday.

“We too have received the invitation to the Board of Peace for Gaza. The pope has received it and we are seeing what to do; we are looking into it in depth,” Parolin told reporters on Jan. 21, according to the official Vatican News outlet. “I think it is an issue that requires a bit of time to give an answer.”

The cardinal said Trump is “requesting the participation of various countries” and noted that, based on what he had read in the press, “Italy is also reflecting on whether to join or not.”

According to the report, the initiative aims to establish a Board of Peace to address global conflicts, with particular attention to the war in Gaza, as an entity independent of the United Nations. Participating countries would be asked to make a financial contribution that would grant them a permanent seat.

Several states have publicly announced their participation, including Belarus, the United Arab Emirates, Hungary, Egypt, and Israel, the report said.

Parolin ruled out a Vatican financial contribution and said the Holy See would be in a different position than other states.

“We are not even in a position to do that,” he said. “However, evidently we find ourselves in a different situation with respect to other countries, so it will be a different consideration, but I think the request will not be to participate financially.”

Asked about tensions between the United States and Europe, Parolin said “tensions are not healthy” and “create a climate that worsens the international situation, which is already serious.”

“I think what is important would be to eliminate tensions, discuss the points that are controversial, but without entering into polemics or generating tensions,” he said.

Parolin also underscored the importance of “respecting international law” when asked about remarks made by Trump at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where the U.S. president expressed a strong desire to acquire Greenland, according to the report.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Participants gather in Płock, Poland, on Jan. 15, 2026, to mark the 29th Day of Judaism in the Catholic Church in Poland. | Credit: Karol Darmoros/Heschel Center KUL

Jan 21, 2026 / 12:30 pm (CNA).

A prominent Polish cardinal and the country’s chief rabbi warned against silence in the face of hatred and called for peace at the central celebration of the 29th Day of Judaism in the Catholic Church in Poland on Jan. 15.

“Too much pain, too much tragedy, too much death. We pray for peace,” Chief Rabbi of Poland Michael Schudrich said during the event in Płock, a city in central Poland where most of its prewar Jewish population of 9,000 was murdered or deported during the Nazi occupation.

Schudrich recalled the words of Holocaust survivor Marian Turski that “Auschwitz did not fall from the sky,” noting that the Shoah would not have happened without the silence of good people. He underlined the need to combat antisemitism and all forms of racism and hatred.

Cardinal Grzegorz Ryś, the archbishop of Kraków and chairman of the Polish Bishops’ Conference’s Council for Religious Dialogue, called for Catholics and Jews to “listen to each other, because the other perspective is important for each side.”

“It is not the case” that the loss of Płock’s Jewish community “changes nothing in the community of citizens who lived together,” Ryś said, noting that the Day of Judaism — observed this year under the theme “Your people will be my people and your God my God” (Ruth 1:16) — serves to remember them.

The cardinal added that “all Church documents since the Second Vatican Council” have demonstrated the connections between Christianity and “living Judaism.”

“The whole history of salvation boils down to this: God gathers people, and the evil one scatters them,” Ryś observed. “You will never be happy if you want to be happy alone.”

Israel’s ambassador to Poland, Yaakov Finkelstein; local Bishop Szymon Stułkowski; and Płock Mayor Andrzej Nowakowski also attended the Jan. 15 celebrations.

Events took place at multiple locations, including the Płock Cathedral, the Benedictine Abbey, and the Museum of Mazovian Jews, which is housed in a former synagogue. The day included joint prayers, a commemorative walk through sites linked to Płock’s Jewish history, and exhibitions including one titled “Some Were Neighbors: Choice, Human Behavior, and the Holocaust,” produced by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Sister Katarzyna Kowalska, co-chair of the Polish Council of Christians and Jews and vice president of the International Council of Christians and Jews, said the Church today calls the faithful to “sit down at one table” and explore important issues.

“We discussed memory, hope, and the promises made to the chosen people, in which we are also included and which we share in,” Kowalska said.

The Day of Judaism is traditionally observed on Jan. 17 in Poland’s liturgical calendar, coinciding with the eve of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Similar days of Jewish-Catholic remembrance and dialogue are celebrated by the Catholic Church in a number of European countries.

Bishop Sebastian Tudu of Dinajpur celebrates Mass at the Shrine of Mary the Protector on Jan. 16, 2026. | Credit: Stephan Uttom Rozario

Jan 21, 2026 / 12:00 pm (CNA).

Thousands of pilgrims gathered at a Marian shrine in northern Bangladesh on Jan. 16 to express gratitude to Mary for protecting villagers during the country’s 1971 War of Independence.

The annual pilgrimage at Nabai Battala village in the Rajshahi Diocese concluded a nine-day novena with a Mass celebrated by Bishop Sebastian Tudu of Dinajpur. The pilgrimage commemorates an incident during Bangladesh’s war for independence from Pakistan when Pakistani soldiers surrounded the village church but left without harming anyone inside.

“It is not like this that Mother Mary does not listen to anyone’s prayers,” Tudu said in his homily. “The people of Nabai Battala have already received the grace of Mother Mary. During the War of Independence in 1971, they trusted Mother Mary to save their lives. And Mother Mary has indeed protected the devotees in the arms of her love.”

Prayer amid danger

During the Bangladesh War of Independence in 1971, Pakistani troops, aided by local Razakars — Bangladeshis who opposed independence — came to Nabai Battala village to capture freedom fighters. Villagers had agreed that if such an attack occurred, they would gather in the church when the bell rang and pray to Mary.

When more than 100 Pakistani soldiers arrived, villagers — both Christians and Hindus — took refuge in the church. The troops surrounded them and ordered some to pray, but the Hindus could not comply with the order. The soldiers then aimed their guns at the villagers.

No one fled. They continued praying, and for reasons unknown, the Pakistani troops departed without firing a shot. Since then, villagers have expressed their gratitude to Mary through annual prayers at the site.

Many of the Hindu villagers later converted to Christianity.

Official recognition

On Jan. 16, 2004, the then-bishop of Rajshahi, Paulinus Costa, declared Nabai Battala — an Indigenous-dominated area about 186 miles north of Dhaka — a pilgrimage site. The location has been celebrated annually with increasing solemnity since.

In 2019, new meditation scenes and statues were installed at 14 stations along the Way of the Cross and at the grotto of Mary, and a new pilgrimage altar was constructed.

Bishop Gervas Rozario formally designated Nabai Battala as a pilgrimage center of the Rajshahi Diocese in 2023.

Living faith

“Pilgrimage is essentially an expression of a Christian’s living faith — where the deep devotion, hope, and desire of the heart combine to create a yearning for the closeness and intimacy of God,” Tudu said. “From this yearning comes the celebration of communion, joy, and gratitude.”

He added that “the pilgrimage site of the protector Mother Mary of Nabai Battala is also a place of unique blessing. In this holy land, God continues to shower mercy on his devotees through the intercession of the protector Mother Mary.”

Costantina Hansda, a community leader and social activist from Nabai Battala, said the annual pilgrimage has been celebrated since 1971. “On that day, all our villagers were saved from the hands of the Pakistani army by praying to her intercession. Therefore, we perform this pilgrimage every year to thank and express our gratitude to Mother Mary.”

Answered prayers

A couple who traveled about 124 miles to the shrine told EWTN News they came to thank Mary for answering their prayers. Their 3-year-old son had cried inexplicably at night for an extended period, and doctors were unable to help.

“Last year we prayed to Mother Mary, and since then our son has not cried at night like previous years. He is fine now. That is why we came to thank Mother Mary,” the couple said.

They added: “Mother Mary is truly a mother who listens to her children and fulfills their prayers.”

On the night of Jan. 15, pilgrims from surrounding villages carried candles in procession to the shrine, participated in Eucharistic adoration, and went to confession in preparation for the feast day.

On the morning of Jan. 16, pilgrims gathered at the Way of the Cross before the Mass, which was attended by thousands of Marian devotees, priests, religious brothers, and sisters.

Aerial view of St. Peter’s Square, filled with thousands of mourners including clergy and dignitaries gathered for Pope Francis’ funeral Mass under a clear blue sky, in Vatican City, April 26, 2025. | Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/EWTN News

Jan 21, 2026 / 11:30 am (CNA).

A survey of Vatican employees conducted by the Vatican Lay Employees Association (ADLV) found broad dissatisfaction with career advancement, widespread distrust of leadership, and significant reports of workplace mistreatment among respondents.

The poll — carried out between Dec. 15, 2025, and Jan. 7 and published on the ADLV website — is being described by the association as the first representative survey of staff working across Vatican offices and entities. The ADLV functions as an internal employee association, though it does not have formal union recognition in the Vatican’s legal system, where strikes are not permitted.

According to the ADLV, 250 people responded to the questionnaire, about 80% of whom are members of the association. The Holy See employs roughly 4,200 workers, though most are not affiliated with the ADLV — a limitation the group acknowledged while describing the sample as “limited, but significant.”

Among the most striking findings: 73.9% of respondents said they perceive a clear distance between Vatican leadership — typically office heads and superiors, many of them cardinals or bishops — and employees. Just 12.8% said they were satisfied on that point.

More than 71% of participants said superiors are not selected through transparent criteria or a clearly defined professional path, while 26% said it is not possible to maintain a free and sincere dialogue with direct managers.

Respondents also reported a strong sense of professional under-appreciation. About 75.9% said human resources are not appropriately placed, valued, or motivated, and 75.8% said the workplace does not reward initiative, merit, or experience gained through seniority.

More than half report mistreatment

The ADLV said more than 56% of respondents reported having experienced injustices or humiliating behavior from superiors — concerns the association argued merit urgent attention even though Vatican law does not formally define “mobbing,” or workplace bullying, as a specific offense.

In a related finding, 73.4% of respondents said they perceive favoritism, unequal treatment, and insecurity about the protection of their rights, including concerns connected to the pension system.

The survey also indicated major frustration with career progression: 73% reported a perceived “block” in professional advancement and pointed to the continued suspension of a biennial wage step that had previously been added to base salary and factored into pensions and end-of-service benefits (TFR). The ADLV noted that Pope Francis eliminated the benefit in 2021 as a cost-saving measure amid Holy See budget deficits.

Assessments of labor reforms over the past decade were largely negative in the survey: 68% said reforms have not produced concrete benefits but instead increased restrictions, and more than 79% said insufficient investment is being made in staff formation and training.

Calls for recognized representation and stable dialogue

The survey points to strong demand for officially recognized representative bodies with greater capacity to intervene in labor disputes. More than 71% of respondents said they would turn to the ADLV in the event of a workplace conflict, compared with about 10% who said they would go to the Vatican labor tribunal (ULSA).

Nearly 75% said direct dialogue between the ADLV and dicastery leadership is the most effective way to resolve problems.

Respondents also offered suggestions addressed to Pope Leo XIV, frequently urging that workers be given greater dignity, voice, and real protection through representation, transparency, dialogue, and respect for personal rights. The ADLV said Pope Leo’s election has raised expectations for change, pointing to what it called early positive signs — including prompt action involving the labor tribunal, authorization of a bonus linked to the conclave that had previously been removed, and indications of openness to a shared path of dialogue.

The ADLV said it contacted the Secretariat for the Economy, which oversees the Holy See’s Human Resources Office, but had not received a response by the time of publication.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Credit: Antonio Salaverry/Shutterstock

Jan 21, 2026 / 11:00 am (CNA).

During a time “marked by aggression, fragmentation, and polarization,” Argentine priest Father Gregorio Nadal has released a Spanish-language book, “How to Be Christians on Social Media: Human Relationships and Ethical Presence in the Digital World,” which offers perspective not only for believers but also for “anyone who wonders how to safeguard their own dignity and that of others” in an environment of screens, messages, and reactions.

Written from a Christian perspective, his work begins with a spiritual question: “How can we be Christians on social media?” and from there seeks to open a dialogue that is not limited to “within the Church” but is directed to a broader audience, Nadal explained to ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News English.

To this end, Nadal offers “an invitation to examine what happens within us when we are connected, how the content we consume affects us, and what kind of people we are becoming as we browse social media, comment, read, or react.”

The inspiration for his work comes from two Church documents: the encyclical Fratelli Tutti by Pope Francis and a 2023 document from the Dicastery for Communication, “Towards Full Presence: A Pastoral Reflection on Engagement with Social Media.”

3 challenges of social media

Analyzing the current landscape of social media, Nadal identifies three significant challenges: The first is normalized aggression. “Fratelli Tutti pointed this out, stating that there is a verbal violence that has become commonplace” and that “it’s not just about what we write but also about what we read, share, and allow into our hearts.”

“This aggression ends up shaping our perspective, our patience, and our way of making connections with others, even when we don’t actively participate in it,” he warned.

The second major challenge, he explained, is the fragmentation of the heart. In this case, citing the dicastery’s document, the priest pointed out that “technology is not neutral: It shapes our inner lives. The pace of hyper-connectivity fragments attention, weakens silence (essential for listening to God), and hinders genuine, face-to-face interaction.”

“It’s not just about how much time we spend in front of a screen but about what this way of being connected does to us internally: What it agitates in us, what it empties us of, what it unsettles in us, and what it builds up in us,” he explained, because, ultimately, “what is at stake is inner unity.”

And as a third challenge, Nadal mentioned the immediate reaction: “Social media drives us to respond quickly, often from a place of hurt. The document expresses this clearly: The human style — and also the Christian style — cannot be reactive but reflective.”

This means that “when we react without discernment, our words become weapons, even when we ‘are right’ or ‘are defending our Christian values.’” Therefore, he said he considers it crucial to “recover the inner space between the stimulus and the response” in order to not lose our freedom.

Advice for young people

In this context, Nadal encouraged young people to ask themselves questions that will help them become freer, for example: “How do I enter social media and how do I leave afterward? What happens inside me when I read certain comments? What content makes me feel more agitated, sad, or angry? Am I the one making the choices, or am I often being swept along?”

He also advised them to protect “something very valuable today: their attention,” because “where your attention goes, there your life goes,” as the Gospel says: “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Specifically, he encouraged them to “reclaim small screen-free spaces — true silence, uninterrupted conversations, walking, reading, being with others without being ‘half-present’” — clarifying that it’s not about “rejecting digital technology” but rather “protecting our inner selves, safeguarding our hearts so they don’t become scattered by a thousand stimuli and can inhabit life with greater presence and freedom.”

He also suggested “before writing or responding, pause for a moment”; because “that brief second, when anger or wounded pride flares up, is a crucial moment. That’s where we decide who we are going to be.”

“Freedom isn’t about saying everything but about being able to choose from where and why we speak,” he summarized.

‘Added value’ of being Christians on social media

The priest said the contribution that Catholics are called to make in the digital world is to humanize it, “not with speeches, but with their presence.”

“In an environment where hurt, sarcasm, and denigration are rampant, we Christians are called not to add to the noise or the mob mentality but to foster encounter, care, and respect,” he noted.

The “added value” of Catholics on social media, Nadal explained, “is not having more arguments but being good neighbors.” This will sometimes involve “respectfully defending someone who is being attacked or a truth of our Catholic faith”; at other times, “writing a private message of comfort”; and at other times, “not sharing something that is humiliating” or “choosing silence so as not to fuel a destructive dynamic.”

Digital evangelization should not be reduced to a mere strategy

Regarding digital evangelization, Nadal said he considers it a real and necessary possibility, provided that “it is not reduced to a strategy” because, as the dicastery document indicates, communication is, above all, presence, and “presence is neither improvised nor calculated: It is lived.”

Therefore, “evangelizing in the digital world is not about occupying spaces or increasing visibility but about learning to be present in a human and Christian way where much of life unfolds today.”

“Social media is currently one of the places where wounded people abound: individuals who are exposed, humiliated, attacked, or simply tired and lonely. Faced with this, the challenge is not to pass by indifferently, nor to observe from the sidelines with judgment or just as an onlooker, but to pause for a moment,” he proposed.

“In this sense, digital evangelization means choosing to be neighbors to one another, even on our screens: looking with compassion, carefully choosing our words, not reducing others to a single mistake or opinion, and asking ourselves who needs to be cared for in that specific interaction,” he explained.

“In an environment saturated with voices, perhaps the most eloquent thing is not a brilliant message but a genuine presence, capable of pausing in the face of suffering and opening spaces for encounter, even through a screen,” he noted.

Who is Father Gregorio Nadal?

Gregorio Agustín Nadal Zalazar was born on May 26, 1982, in Concepción del Uruguay, Argentina. He entered the Mary Mother of the Church diocesan seminary in 2002 and was ordained a priest on Sept. 24, 2009, in St. Joseph Cathedral in Gualeguaychú. He holds a diploma in vocational ministry from the Theological-Pastoral Institute in Colombia and completed a bachelor’s degree in theology with a specialization in pastoral studies at Argentine Catholic University.

He served as a formator at the diocesan seminary Mary Mother of the Church, completed the Seminary Formators course in Quito, Ecuador, offered by the Latin American and Caribbean Bishops’ Council, and the spiritual psychology course at the Catholic University of Córdoba, Argentina.

He is currently the pastor at the Immaculate Conception Basilica in Concepción del Uruguay, general secretary of the presbyteral council, a member of the diocesan team for the ongoing formation of the clergy, and recently appointed episcopal delegate for evangelization.

His Spanish-language publications include: “Remember Me: In Memory of Father Alcides,” “Dilexi Te, a Spiritual and Reading Guide to Pope Leo XIV’s Document,” “How to Be Christians on Social Media,” “The Grieving Soul: A Christian and Human Path Through Loss,” and coming soon: “The Soul in Search of Happiness” and “One Heartbeat on the Path of Love: A Journey to Easter.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Pope Leo XIV meets a pair of lambs blessed for the feast of the Roman virgin and martyr St. Agnes in the Urban VIII Chapel in the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace on Jan. 21, 2026. | Credit: Vatican Media

Jan 21, 2026 / 10:30 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday received a pair of lambs to be blessed for the feast day of the Roman virgin and martyr St. Agnes — the first time a pope has welcomed lambs at the Vatican, part of a centuries-old tradition, since 2017.

The presentation took place in the 17th-century Urban VIII Chapel in the Apostolic Palace, where the lambs’ bleats punctuated the brief ceremony Jan. 21. The wool of the blessed lambs will be used to make pallia — narrow white vestments worn by metropolitan archbishops.

It was a tradition for the pope to bless the lambs every year on the feast of St. Agnes until Pope Francis discontinued the practice after 2017.

St. Agnes, who was killed in Rome in A.D. 304 at the age of 12 or 13 for being a Christian, is associated with the lamb as a symbol of her purity and because her name means “lamb” in Latin.

The lambs — carried in baskets dressed in white with red roses for St. Agnes’ virginity and martyrdom — were later blessed in the Mausoleum of Constantina, an ancient church close to the Minor Basilica of St. Agnes Outside the Walls, which is temporarily closed.

The Benedictine nuns of the Basilica of St. Cecilia will take over care of the lambs, shearing them during Holy Week, then weaving their wool into pallia, which the pope will bestow on new metropolitan archbishops on June 29, the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul.

The pallium is a narrow, circular band of white wool with pendants hanging down the front and the back. It is adorned with six small black crosses and three pins (called spinulae), which resemble both thorns and the nails used to crucify Jesus.

It is bestowed on the Latin-rite patriarch of Jerusalem and metropolitan archbishops — the diocesan archbishops of the primary city of an ecclesiastical province or region — as a symbol of communion, authority, and unity with the pope and his pastoral mission to be a shepherd for the people of God. The pope also wears the pallium over his chasuble when he is celebrating Mass.

Before the vestments are bestowed on the metropolitan archbishops, they are placed for a time in a spot near the tomb of St. Peter, under the main altar of St. Peter’s Basilica, to reinforce the bishop’s connection to Peter through apostolic succession.

The traditional procession of Holy Week takes place annually in Ayacucho, Peru. | Credit: Milton Rodriguez/Shutterstock

Jan 21, 2026 / 10:00 am (CNA).

A Pew Research Center report found Catholics remain the largest religious group across Latin America despite increases in other religious identities.

The report, “Catholicism Has Declined in Latin America Over the Past Decade,” draws on a nationally representative face-to-face survey of 6,234 adults conducted from Jan. 22 to April 27, 2024, in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru.

The analysis was produced by Pew Research Center as part of the Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures project, which analyzes religious change and its impact on societies around the world.

The research released Jan. 21 found that Latin American adults are more religious than adults in many other countries Pew has also surveyed in recent years, especially in Europe where many adults have left Christianity since childhood.

Pew analyzed the changes in religion among adults in Latin America from 2013 to 2024. It found Latin Americans are about as likely to believe in God as they were a decade ago. Even among those who identify as religiously unaffiliated, most said they believe in God.

Of those surveyed, 97% of adults in Peru said they believe in God, 98% in Brazil, 94% in Mexico, 97% in Colombia, 90% in Argentina, and 89% in Chile.

Most adults are active in their faith, poll showed

Catholicism remains the largest religion in Latin America. In 2024, roughly half of Brazilians (46%) and Chileans (46%) identified as Catholic, and the majority of all adults in Peru (67%), Mexico (67%), Colombia (60%), and Argentina (58%) identified as such.

In those countries, most adults are active in their faith. In 2024, the majority of adults in Brazil (76%), Colombia (71%), and Peru (58%) said they pray “daily or more often.”

Since 2013–2014, the Catholic population in all six countries surveyed decreased. Colombia experienced the largest decline in Catholics, with a drop of 19 percentage points. Peru had the lowest drop with a 9-point decrease.

Former Catholics in Latin America tend to identify as either religiously unaffiliated or Protestant, while former Protestants tend to have become “nones.” As of 2024, there were more religiously unaffiliated adults than Protestants in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico.

The report noted a reason for the decline of Catholicism and growth of religiously unaffiliated populations in Latin America is religious switching by adults who were raised Catholic but no longer identify with the religion. Across the six Latin American countries surveyed, around 20% or more adults said they were raised Catholic but have since left the religion.

The research found that Brazil is the only country surveyed where former Catholics are more likely to have become Protestant (13%) than to be religiously unaffiliated (7%). It also found that in Peru there is a roughly equal number of former Catholics who have become Protestants (9%) and “nones” (7%).

Pew also found that about half or more of adults surveyed in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru said religion is very important in their lives. Prayer is fairly common, as majorities of Brazilian, Colombian, and Peruvian adults said they pray at least once a day.

Hispanic Catholics in the U.S.

Similar to the religious changes in Latin America, fewer Hispanics in the United States identify as Catholic in 2024 (42%) than they did a decade ago (58%), according to Pew Research Center’s 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study.

The number of Hispanics who are religiously unaffiliated has also increased in the U.S. since 2014, with about a quarter now describing their religious identity as atheist, agnostic, or “nothing in particular.”

Of Hispanic adults in the U.S., 40% said religion is very important in their life, and 47% said they pray at least daily. A large majority (83%) also said they believe in God, according to a 2023 Pew Center survey.

Pope Leo XIV greets pilgrims at his weekly general audience at the Vatican on January 21, 2026.

Jan 21, 2026 / 08:05 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV said Wednesday that the grandeur of the Incarnation cannot be reduced to viewing Jesus as a mere messenger of “intellectual truths,” but must be received as God’s full embrace of the human condition — including Christ’s “true and integral humanity.”

Speaking at his general audience on Jan. 21 in the Paul VI Hall, the pope said that divine revelation is not primarily a set of abstract ideas but a living encounter in which God gives himself to humanity and invites a relationship of communion.

“We have seen that God reveals himself in a dialogue of covenant,” the pope said, “a relational knowledge, which not only communicates ideas, but shares a history and calls for communion in reciprocity.”

Continuing a catechesis cycle on Dei Verbum, the Second Vatican Council's Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, Leo XIV emphasized that believers come to know God by entering into Jesus’ own relationship with the Father through the action of the Holy Spirit.

Wednesday's talk was part of a longer series on the documents of Vatican II which the pope began earlier this month.

“Jesus reveals the Father to us by involving us in his own relationship with Him,” he said.

The pontiff highlighted that in Christ, God not only discloses who he is, but also reveals who we are. “In Christ, God has communicated himself to us,” he said, and “he has manifested to us our true identity as his children.”

Leo XIV underlined that the integrity of Christ’s humanity is essential to understanding revelation: “God’s truth is not fully revealed where it takes something away from the human,” he said, adding that “the integrity of Jesus’ humanity does not diminish the fullness of the divine gift.”

The pope also stressed that salvation is not limited to the paschal mystery understood in isolation, but is bound up with Christ’s whole person and presence: the Lord “who becomes incarnate, is born, heals, teaches, suffers, dies, rises again and remains among us.”

Pointing to the believer’s confidence grounded in Christ, Leo XIV said that following Jesus “to the very end” leads to the certainty that nothing can separate humanity from God’s love, echoing St. Paul’s assurance: “If God is for us, who is against us?”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Pope Leo XIV baptizes a child in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican on the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, Jan. 11, 2026. | Credit: Vatican Media

Jan 21, 2026 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Former president of Ireland Mary McAleese, a lawyer and canon lawyer, recently said in an op-ed in the Irish Times that infant baptism denies children their human rights and is an act of control on the part of the Church.

Catholic clergy and laity in Ireland have pushed back on her claims, viewing it as an opportunity to share what baptism is really about.

Bishop Alphonsus Cullinan, bishop of Waterford and Lismore, explained to EWTN News that infant baptism is commonplace in most Christian denominations and has been practiced in the Church since the first century.

“Jesus gives us a command to go and baptize. So the Church baptizes in obedience to an express command that is supported by the Bible. So to baptize infants into the body of Christ is something very good,” he said.

“If we were to say we will wait until a child is an adult to make such a decision, well, then, what other decisions would we deny taking for our children? Would we, for example, not give them good food? Will we show them the beauty of exercise and would we not give them good medical care? Would we wait until they could make their own decisions?”

Cullinan added: “One of the first things that the Catholic parent does to their child is to take his little hand or her little hand and make the sign of the cross. What a beautiful thing. Why do parents do it? Because they want their child to have a relationship with a living God throughout their life and lead them into eternal life.”

Father Owen Gorman, a parish priest in the Clogher Diocese, said the Church “encourages infant baptism out of love for souls, and so that the babies of Catholic parents would receive the best start in life, that they would be plunged into the mystery of Christ and that they would be filled with God’s life.”

He continued: “And that is a great good, and it is a great good that should not be postponed. The Church wants children to experience that immersion in Christ to be part of his body, so that they may have life and have it to the full.”

In her article, McAleese stated that baptismal promises made and renewed at confirmation are “fictitious” and that infant baptism ignores children’s later rights to freely decide for themselves their religious identity, to accept and embrace Church membership, or to change religion if that is their choice.

Mahon McCann is a doctoral student in ethics who was baptized into the Catholic faith on Easter Saturday 2025. He was raised as an atheist by parents who were baptized Catholic. He told EWTN News that it should be the choice of parents whether to baptize their children and continue the tradition they inherited.

“Infant baptism does not require an ‘opt-out’ unless you truly believe you were opted into something real in the first place,” he said. “To want some kind of formal procedure to ‘opt out’ is to implicitly accept the Church’s moral authority in the first place.”

Rather than doing this as an act of power and control as McAleese asserts, Gorman said the Church does it “as an act of love.”

“As a mother, she is loving her children, and she is wise in directing parents to bring the children to the grace of God and the saving waters of baptism from a young age. It is about providing that which is best for them, so it enables them to have the best life possible, as part of the body of Christ, the Church. So the Church desires it not out of a sense of wanting to control people or exert power over them but to give as a wise and provident mother,” he said.

McCann agreed and pointed to his own experience. “My parents simply ‘canceled their subscription to the Resurrection’ in their own minds and stopped going to Mass, etc., like many Catholics today. The Church can do nothing to legally compel you to pursue holiness.”

In her article, McAleese wrote that baptism “restricts children’s rights as set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948 and United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in 1989, to which both Ireland and the Holy See — which governs the Catholic Church and is effectively the author of canon law — are state parties.”

McCann told EWTN News that rather than evaluating infant baptism through the lens of “rights,” we should ask: “Are human rights the proper ethical standard [by which] to evaluate Catholic moral theology?”

“The answer would be no,” he said. “Catholic moral theology is teleological, aims at the holiness of the person, and therefore whatever brings one to holiness is ‘good’ and whatever takes one away from holiness is ‘bad.’ Human rights ethics are not concerned with achieving holiness and therefore are not the right ethical framework to evaluate Catholic sacraments or practices.”

McCann explained that he didn’t fully understand infant baptism before becoming a Catholic but disagrees with the idea that it is like a legal contract between two parties.

“That is a very superficial modern understanding of the rite of baptism and really of tradition as such, he said.

“A tradition, by definition, is intergenerational — a tradition that isn’t passed on from one generation to another isn’t a tradition,” McCann said. “Infant baptism is primarily a decision of the parents, who are gifting their offspring membership into the life of the Church and the traditional Catholic way of life that leads to their salvation,” he said.

“The idea that babies and children should ‘consent’ to be part of a particular tradition is as ridiculous as saying that they should choose what language they are going to speak,” McCann said.