Pilgrims walk through St. Peter’s Square in September 2024. / Credit: Dorisb.83/Shutterstock

Vatican City, Apr 4, 2025 / 11:23 am (CNA).

Pope Francis on Friday shared a message with Slovak pilgrims, including Slovakia’s President Peter Pellegrini, in Rome for the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope.

In a written message released by the Vatican, the Holy Father welcomed approximately 4,300 Slovak pilgrims who began their jubilee pilgrimage this week with the celebration of Mass at the Basilica of St. John Lateran.

“I would very much have liked to be present with you to share this moment of faith and communion, but I am still in convalescence and so I will join you through prayer and with all my affection,” the pope’s message read.

Pellegrini on Thursday posted on X that he “promised” the Holy Father that he would join his country’s national pilgrimage to Rome when he visited the Vatican in December of last year.

Archbishop Bernard Bober of Košice, chair of the Conference of Slovak Bishops, is also among the group of pilgrims made up of hundreds of lay faithful, consecrated men and women, priests, and bishops who plan to pass through the jubilee Holy Doors and visit the tombs of apostles and martyrs in Rome over the next few days.

In his message, the Holy Father encouraged participants to continue their country’s “rich Christian tradition” as witnesses of hope and joy, following in the footsteps of countless saints — including patron Sts. Cyril and Methodius — “who have irrigated [Slovakia] with the Gospel of Christ for more than a thousand years.”

“Your pilgrimage is a concrete sign of the desire to renew faith, to strengthen the bond with the successor of Peter, and to bear witness joyfully to the hope that does not disappoint (cf. Romans 5:5), because it is born of the love that sprang from the pierced heart of Christ and poured into us by the Holy Spirit,” the pope said.

Describing faith as “a treasure to be shared with joy,” the Holy Father said welcoming God’s “plan” does not mean having all the answers but rather trusting that “wherever he leads us, he precedes us also with his grace.”

“Every time brings with it challenges and hardships, but also opportunities to grow in confidence and in abandonment to God,” he said, adding: “Our ‘yes,’ simple and sincere, can become a tool in the hands of God to achieve something great.”

Entrusting the Slovak group to their patroness Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows to guide and protect them on their journey, the pope concluded his message with a special blessing for their families and country.

“Sisters and brothers, continue to walk together, pastors and faithful, keeping your eyes on Jesus, our salvation … Do not forget to pray for me,” he said.

A group of 16 high schoolers and their three chaperones from Melbourne, Australia, take part in the feet-washing rite as part of a jubilee pilgrimage to Rome, Tuesday, March 24, 2025. / Credit: Hannah Brockhaus/CNA

Vatican City, Apr 4, 2025 / 10:39 am (CNA).

Latin sung over nervous giggles and the intermittent sound of trickling water filled the small room attached to the 16th-century Church of the Most Holy Trinity of the Pilgrims on a mild March evening in Rome.

Here members of a centuries-old Catholic fraternity welcomed a group of Australian teens, in Rome for a jubilee pilgrimage, with the same gesture once performed by the great saint of charity, St. Philip Neri, and his collaborators nearly 500 years ago: washing their feet.

The practice, with its deep spiritual symbolism, is one of several ways Catholics in Rome — drawing inspiration from the medieval history of the city — are welcoming the many pilgrims taking part in the Jubilee of Hope in 2025.

Washing pilgrims’ feet 

Shortly after St. Philip Neri’s charitable lay group, the Confraternity of the Most Holy Trinity of Pilgrims and Convalescents, was officially recognized, the Catholic Church celebrated the Jubilee Year of 1550. 

Neri, called the “Third Apostle of Rome” for his evangelization of the Eternal City, saw the throngs of pilgrims arriving for the jubilee year and wanted to do something. 

“In Rome at that time, pilgrims arrived on foot or on horseback, so … many of them were arriving in desolate conditions,” Fabrizio Azzola, a guardian of Neri’s archconfraternity, which today has both laymen and laywomen members, told CNA. 

St. Philip Neri “thought of directing confreres to help pilgrims,” Azzola said. “On the one hand, [there was] the practical necessity of washing them, housing them, feeding them, and so on, but there was also the symbolic need: that is, to welcome the pilgrim and repeat the gesture of Jesus with the apostles.” 

In the saint’s time, the confraternity (now archconfraternity) had many members and access to hundreds of buildings in Rome to host pilgrims, but today, at just a little over 100 members, the group is still trying to do all it can, including leaning on its pillars of prayer and feeding the poor. 

“Today, we cannot do anymore all of the things the old confraternity did — it was very powerful and had buildings in all of Rome where it could welcome hundreds of thousands of pilgrims,” Azzola explained. “However, this symbolic act [of washing the feet of pilgrims] we can do, and so, bit by bit we are reintroducing the customs of the archconfraternity.” 

Open to any individual jubilee pilgrim or pilgrims’ groups who request it, the foot washing follows the same Latin rite used by Neri in the 1500s. The short and simple ritual, which follows a brief explanation of its history and significance, includes a reading from the Gospel of John: the account of when Jesus washed the feet of his disciples. At the end, everyone prays the Our Father together. 

An aspect particularly significant to the archconfraternity members who volunteer to wash pilgrims’ feet is that they use the same white aprons used during St. Philip Neri’s time. 

Azzola said hundreds of people, hailing from different parts of the world, have participated in the rite thus far, including the group of 16 high schoolers from Melbourne, Australia, who entered a small room off the sacristy of the Church of the Most Holy Trinity of Pilgrims on the Roman spring evening of March 24. 

Duly warned not to lean against a massive painting awaiting restoration on one side of the room, the teens and their chaperones sat down to have their feet washed: first the boys by two male confraternity members, then the girls by two female confraternity members.  

Heaven-like chants mixed with the human sounds of uncomfortable murmurs that evening, as the high schoolers took off their shoes, preparing to let strangers wash a vulnerable part of their bodies. 

Father Vilmar Pavesi, of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter and an assistant priest at the parish, led the prayers and sang the Latin chants, as Minnie, the dog of one of the archconfraternity members, looked on.

The feet washing, which symbolizes the spiritual cleansing of a jubilee pilgrimage, is recommended as one of the first stops on a pilgrimage itinerary and can be booked by sending an email to the archconfraternity. 

History of welcoming pilgrims 

The Church of the Most Holy Trinity of the Pilgrims is one of many churches and areas in Rome’s historic center with a tradition of welcoming pilgrims. 

Less than a quarter-mile down the street, the Venerable English College — now a seminary for future priests of England — offered lodging to English pilgrims for almost two centuries beginning around the mid-1300s. 

Buildings connected with the Santo Spirito Hospital, conveniently located on the same side of the Tiber River as the Vatican, was also originally a place to welcome and house Anglophone pilgrims, while Portuguese-speaking pilgrims were once welcomed near Piazza Navona in Via dei Portogesi (Portuguese Street). 

Tapping into the city’s long history of sheltering Catholic pilgrims, the Diocese of Rome will also be opening its parishes and homes to travelers during the Jubilee of Hope — especially during two events expected to draw the biggest crowds of the year. 

During the Jubilee of Teenagers, which will be the last weekend of April and culminate in the canonization of the Italian teenager Blessed Carlo Acutis on April 27, “the Diocese of Rome is really experimenting with the ministry of welcoming,” Father Alfredo Tedesco, the head of the diocesan youth office, told CNA. 

Some parishes and religious congregations, he said, will be offering sleeping arrangements for teenage pilgrims in parish halls and convents. Families, too, are opening their homes.

“The parish communities are getting themselves organized, both through accommodation facilities, but also through the people, the communities, who are organizing volunteer services to welcome teenagers in our communities,” Tedesco said. 

“Through showing hospitality, we remember what holy Scripture says: We have ‘entertained angels,’” the priest said, “and we hope that these youth will truly become witnesses of this encounter.” 

null / Credit: Photo Spirit/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 4, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

According to data from the 2024 Cooperative Election Study (CES), the number of Americans who do not identify with any religion has largely stopped rising and has even slightly decreased among certain generations.

The Harvard-run CES is conducted before and after U.S. presidential and midterm elections and is then uploaded for analysis to Harvard’s “Dataverse” online repository. The study includes 60,000 American adults interviewed to survey how they vote.

Ryan Burge, the research director for the religious outreach initiative Faith Counts, said on X on Wednesday that the 2024 data reveals a plateau in the country’s population of “nonreligious” or “nones.”

The data indicated that baby boomers experienced the greatest decrease in the number of “nones” from 2023 to 2024, falling from 28% to 24%. 

The 28% figure represented the highest number of nonreligious boomers since the survey began. This is the first year that the percentage of nonreligious boomers has decreased. 

The data similarly found that 31% of Generation X participants said they have no religious affiliation, a drop of 3 percentage points from 2023 and the lowest it has been since 2012. 

The Silent Generation — consisting of those born between 1928 and 1945 — has always had the lowest number of “nones” compared with the other cohorts. In 2024, the number of nonreligious people in this group dropped by 2 points to 19% overall.

The number of millennial nones has not changed from 2023. A full 42% of American millennials do not identify with a religion.

Generation Z, born between 1997 and 2012, was the only generation that was found to have increased in its number of nonreligious individuals. In 2023, 42% of Gen Z Americans considered themselves nones. This number has increased to 46%.

Overall findings

The data also examines the specific way these individuals identify — whether as atheist, agnostic, or nothing in particular.

As of 2024, 21% of Americans have no particular nonreligious identification — down from 24% in 2023— while 6% are agnostics and 7% are atheists.

In 2019, 36% of Americans overall were nonreligious, and as of 2024 the total dropped to 34%.

Statue of St. Peter on St. Peter's Square at the Vatican. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

CNA Newsroom, Apr 4, 2025 / 06:22 am (CNA).

Pope Francis continues to show “slight improvement” in his respiratory condition as he receives ongoing medical care at the Vatican, according to the latest update from the Holy See Press Office on Friday.

According to the Vatican, the pope’s mood remains positive as his pharmaceutical, motor, and respiratory therapies continue. The Holy See also noted Sunday’s Angelus might be conducted differently compared with recent weeks, with more details expected on Saturday.

The 88-year-old pontiff has improved his respiratory function, mobility, and voice, while recent blood tests indicate a mild improvement in infection markers, Vatican officials said.

Although the pope still requires supplemental oxygen, his need for it has slightly decreased. During the day, he receives standard oxygen therapy, while high-flow oxygen is administered through nasal cannulas at night as needed.

Despite his health challenges, the Holy Father has maintained his working schedule, reported ACI Stampa, CNA’s Italian-language news partner.

On Wednesday, he participated remotely in the Mass by Cardinal Pietro Parolin commemorating the 20th anniversary of St. John Paul II’s death.

Vatican officials indicated it remains premature to discuss the pope’s participation in upcoming Holy Week celebrations.

The next official press briefing on the pope’s condition is scheduled for Tuesday, April 8.

The Vatican has released the planned Holy Week schedule, which begins with Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square on April 13 at 10 a.m. local time.

Father Isaac Agabi, a parish priest in Nigeria’s Diocese of Auchi, was abducted and tortured in 2020 and still suffers physical and psyschoigcal effects of his ordeal. / Credit: Courtesy of the Diocese of Auchi

ACI Africa, Apr 4, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

A priest in Nigeria’s Diocese of Auchi who was abducted alongside a seminarian on Trinity Sunday 2020 recently spoke about his harrowing experience as an abductee, attributing his successful escape to Our Lady of Perpetual Help.

In an interview with ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, on March 29 following three days of peaceful protest against kidnappings and killings in the Auchi Diocese, Father Isaac Agabi, 46, a parish priest, recounted his ordeal and recommended that major seminaries in Nigeria consider teaching seminarians survival tactics as well as crisis management.

Agabi said he and a seminarian with whom he was traveling, Justice Chidi Mbonu (who is now a priest), were abducted on June 7, 2020, when they were ambushed by Fulani herdsmen while traveling along a road in Edo state.

“I saw a group of boys running towards my car. At first, I didn’t realize they were armed, but when I noticed the guns, I knew we were in trouble,” Agabi said. 

“They forced the car open, dragged me out, and immediately started beating me. They raised me up and threw me to the ground. They used wood to hit me repeatedly. Within a minute, they had turned me into rubbish.” 

As the kidnappers assaulted him, Agabi pleaded with them, asking what he had done to deserve such treatment.

“They told me I was their enemy. They accused me and others of killing their people. They said they would kill me,” Agabi recalled.

Both he and Mbonu were led into the forest, where their captors continued to brutalize them.

Agabi recalled being stripped of his alb, stole, and everything else he had on him except his rosary. In captivity, the kidnappers demanded a ransom of 100 million naira (approximately $65,000).

“They asked who I would call, and I told them I could contact the bishop. The kidnappers spoke to him, but the bishop told them the Church had no money to pay,” the priest recalled, adding that Bishop Gabriel Ghiakhomo Dunia “angered the kidnappers, who intensified their assaults.”

Agabi realized that their survival depended on giving the abductors some hope that ransom negotiations were ongoing.

“I begged the bishop and other priests whom I contacted to at least pretend to negotiate with them. I knew they were capable of killing us at any time, and we needed to buy time,” Agabi told ACI Africa.

As days passed, the captors’ brutality continued. “They would tie us up, cover our faces, and threaten to kill us. They took us to a deep pit, saying they would dump our bodies there after killing us.”

Then Agabi recalled an unexpected turn of events that he said gave them a chance to escape. One night, two of the abductors went out to buy food, but they never returned. This created confusion among the other kidnappers.

“I am a devotee of Our Mother of Perpetual Help; I made a [prayer] to Mother of Perpetual Help… all through my case with those kidnappers, I was always invoking the salvation of Mother of Perpetual Help,” he said.

“That Sunday was Trinity Sunday,” Agabi recalled, referring to the day they were abducted and further recalling his surrender to the will of God, either execution or surviving to tell the story. He said he remembers praying, “God, if it’s your will that I survive, make it happen, but if not, let your will be done; I surrender my life into your hands, Lord.”

“At around midnight, some of the [herdsmen] started falling asleep. That was our opportunity. The seminarian and I ran into the bush and kept running. We ran for hours in total darkness, not knowing where we were going,” Agabi recalled.

The escape was successful and on June 9, 2020, both Agabi and Mbonu finally regained their freedom.

The priest described the escape as a miracle, adding that the experience was traumatic, leaving him with scars. Almost five years since his captivity, Agabi continues to struggle with the psychological effects of the ordeal.

“Ever since then, I have not been the same. If I see a Fulani man or if I drive on a lonely road, fear grips me. I don’t think anyone who has experienced this can be normal again,” he said.

While the experience of fear is real, the abduction experience has strengthened his resolve. “I’m no longer scared of anything; I’m not afraid of death,” Agabi said.

“Even though you say you want to kill me now and you point a gun at me, I will not follow you; I will not go,” he said, adding that if he had known he would be subjected to the torture he experienced, “it’s better you die than you experience that.”

Agabi lamented the lack of psychospiritual support, saying: “Nobody has ever called me to ask how I am coping or if I need help. I am just trying to live with the trauma.”

In his view, the Church and security agencies must do more to protect priests, who are increasingly becoming targets. “The kidnappings are not stopping. A priest was even taken from his own apartment. This means we are not safe anywhere,” he said.

He went on to call for better education and training on security awareness, saying: “We need to be taught how to respond when faced with these situations. What should we do when attackers storm our homes? How do we escape? How do we protect ourselves?”

Agabi, who has been a priest for 15 years, has proposed organizing spiritual retreats where the clergy are trained in crisis management, self-defense, and survival tactics.

“We don’t pray for bad things to happen, but if they do, we must know what to do to defend ourselves as priests,” he said.

Agabi urged other priests facing similar threats not to lose faith. 

“Do not give up. Look up to God, the same God who saved me. If we are alive after such experiences, it means God still has a purpose for us,” he said.

“Those men had every opportunity to kill me, but God did not allow it. That means my mission is not yet completed here on earth, and this is a second chance for me to serve God even better than I had done before I was kidnapped,” Agabi said. 

This story was first published by ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, and has been adapted by CNA.

null / Credit: Wirestock Creators/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 3, 2025 / 18:32 pm (CNA).

Nearly 20% of adults in the United States — approximately 50 million people — call themselves Catholic, but the American Catholic population is diverse in its beliefs, its adherence to Church teaching, and its religious practices as well as its social and political views.

Much of this data was revealed in the 2023-2024 Religious Landscape Study conducted by Pew Research Center, which was published earlier this year.

The analysis by Pew finds that the proportion of the Catholic population in the United States has fallen over the past decade and a half, as about 24% of the country’s population identified as Catholic in 2007. The religiosity of those who identify as Catholic has also decreased in that time frame.

Immigrants currently make up about 29% of the American Catholic population and children of immigrants make up an additional 14%, accounting for 43% of the total number. Hispanic Catholics account for most of the immigrant or first generation Catholic segment and have also become a larger percentage of the country’s overall Catholic population, growing by 7 points since 2007 and now making up 36% of American Catholics.

Gregory Smith, a senior associate director of research at Pew, told CNA this is mostly caused by Hispanics “growing as a share of the total population” of the United States. The percentage of Hispanics who identify as Catholic, however, has declined.

“Those two things can be happening at once,” said Smith, who delivered a presentation of the broader findings of the Religious Landscape Study at the 2025 annual conference of the Religion News Association in Arlington, Virginia, on April 3.

A large percentage of Catholics, about 78%, have a favorable view of Pope Francis. The Holy Father’s favorability rating among American Catholics has fluctuated between a high of 90% in February 2015 to a low of 72% in September 2018.

Most Catholics pray, but fewer attend Mass

The survey found that about 51% of Catholics pray every day and another 31% pray at least weekly or monthly, with only 18% answering that they rarely or never pray. About 22% attend prayer groups at least several times per year, with 8% doing so weekly and 5% doing so once or twice per month.

Weekly Mass attendance for Catholics, however, was only about 29%, but another 11% go to Mass once or twice per month and 27% attend a few times every year. About 32% seldom or never go to Mass. 

All of the above indicators are lower than in 2007, based on Pew’s numbers. About 58% of Catholics prayed daily that year and 13% of Catholics seldom or never prayed. Weekly Mass attendance in 2007 was at 41%, which means that number has fallen by 12 points. In that year, only 19% of Catholics seldom or never attended Mass, and that number is now 13 points higher.

About 66% of Catholics who were surveyed said they had attended Mass weekly when they were children. About 57% said that religion was very important to their families while growing up and 32% said it was somewhat important.

Many other Christian traditions have also suffered from a decline in religiosity.

“In general, I’d say the trends in Catholics look pretty similar [to other denominations],” Smith told CNA.

A smaller percentage of Catholics are regularly reading the Bible as well. About 14% read the Bible at least once per week compared with 21% in 2007. About 67% of Catholics seldom or never read the Bible, compared with 57% in 2007. 

Strong belief in God, weaker on specific teachings

Nearly two-thirds of Catholics say they are certain that God exists and slightly over one-third say they believe in God but are not absolutely certain. About 86% say they believe in heaven, but just 69% believe in hell.

In 2007, about 72% of Catholics had said they were certain of God’s existence, which means this trended downward by about 10 points. In contrast, belief in heaven and hell have both gone up. In 2007, only 82% believed in heaven and only 60% believed in hell, which means there was a 4-point increase in belief in heaven and a 9-point increase in the belief in hell in that time frame.

About 21% of Catholics currently consider themselves very religious and another 55% say they are somewhat religious. Only 24% say they are not too religious or not religious at all. A larger percentage, 29%, consider themselves very spiritual and 52% consider themselves somewhat spiritual. Only 19% say they are not spiritual at all. 

Pew also found that many Catholics deviate from the Church’s teachings on social and cultural issues that intersect with politics.

About 59% of Catholics believe that abortion should be legal in all or most cases, even though the Church teaches that human life begins at conception and abortion is always immoral. The data shows that only 39% of Catholics believe abortion should be illegal in all or most cases. 

This has shifted substantially since 2007 even though a plurality of Catholics, 48%, said they supported legal abortion in all or most cases in that year. At that time, 45% said it should be illegal in all or most cases. 

About 70% of Catholics support homosexual marriages, even though the Church teaches that marriage is reserved for only heterosexual couples. This is much higher than the 57% of Catholics who said they supported homosexual marriage in 2007.

However, the frequency of Mass attendance is correlated with a higher likelihood of adhering to Church teachings on many issues, such as abortion and homosexual marriage. About 61% of Catholics who attend Mass believe abortion should be illegal in all or most circumstances and only 36% believe it should be legal. 

Smith told CNA that this correlation holds true for many other issues, such as sexuality, birth control, the ordination of women, and a married priesthood.

“On each of those questions, there are big differences by Mass attendance,” Smith said.

Catholics are divided on politics, with about 49% saying they lean Republican and 44% saying they lean Democrat. This is also a major shift from 2007, when only 33% leaned Republican, 48% leaned Democrat, and 19% had no leaning.

Some of those political shifts were reflected in the 2024 election. Polls showed that President Donald Trump won the Catholic vote by a double-digit margin, which was mostly caused by an ongoing trend of Hispanic Catholics becoming less likely to support the Democratic Party in elections.

St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City. / Credit: Mistervlad/Shutterstock

Vatican City, Apr 3, 2025 / 15:45 pm (CNA).

More than 20,000 pilgrims from 90 countries — including patients, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists, and other health care professionals — will participate in the Jubilee of the Sick and Health Care Workers at the Vatican this weekend.

The April 5-6 jubilee is one of the major celebrations of the 2025 Jubilee Year. It will feature times for prayer and reflection as well as a group pilgrimage along Via della Conziliazione to the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica.

According to a statement from the Dicastery for Evangelization, Italy will be the most-represented country, but delegations are also expected from the United States, Spain, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, France, Mexico, Germany, Croatia, the Philippines, Peru, Australia, Chile, Ethiopia, Canada, and Cameroon, among others.

Likewise, numerous Italian and international health care associations and entities will participate in the organization of activities, highlighting the work of Fratres, a Catholic association that promotes blood donation; ANED, which strives for a better life for all people suffering from kidney disease through home hemodialysis systems; the Italian Catholic Physicians Association; the Bambino Gesù (Baby Jesus) Pediatric Hospital; and the Pharmaceutical Bank Foundation.

The activities planned for the event will begin on Saturday, April 5, when pilgrims will be able to make the pilgrimage to the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica, a moment of special recollection and spiritual renewal that can be part of gaining a plenary indulgence.

The faithful who make pilgrimages to any sacred place, such as the major papal basilicas in Rome or venerated sites in the Holy Land, can benefit from this jubilee grace — whether visiting individually or in a group — while devoting time to Eucharistic adoration and meditation.

In the afternoon, Rome will host numerous meetings and conferences as part of the “Dialogues with the City,” a series of events organized in various squares in the historic center of the Eternal City.

One of the most important events will take place in Piazza di Spagna (the Spanish Square), where the event “The Value of Gift and Solidarity” will begin at 4 p.m. with the participation of the pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, Archbishop Rino Fisichella; Italian Minister of Health Orazio Schillaci; Mayor of Rome Roberto Gualtieri; and Lazio regional president Francesco Rocca.

At the same time, the international conference “Hospice = Hope” will be held at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., addressing the importance of comprehensive care for chronically ill or end-of-life patients.

The American Heart Association will offer at the same time a cardiopulmonary resuscitation course, available in several languages, while the Fratres organization will promote a special blood donation campaign, with a collection from 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Health awareness and moments of prayer

Throughout the day, various awareness-raising activities will take place in different areas of the city. Health education sessions will be held from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., while from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. events focused on addiction prevention and treatment will be organized by the Vicariate of the Diocese of Rome.

In the spiritual realm, St. Monica Church in Piazza Sant’Uffizio will host a conference on the life of Blessed Benedetta Bianchi Porro, a medical student who died of a rare illness.

The event will feature the participation of her sister, Emanuela Bianchi Porro, and Father Andrea Vena, postulator of Benedetta’s cause for canonization.

In addition, prayer and catechetical sessions have been scheduled in various churches in the capital, led by religious congregations dedicated to caring for the sick.

In the Church of Santa Maria del Suffragio, participants will be able to participate in the reflection titled “In the Footsteps of Blessed Luigi Novarese: Finding Blessing When Life Is Fraught with Fragility,” while in the Church of Santa Maria Maddalena, the presentation “In the Footsteps of St. Camillo de Lellis: The Heart Unifies a Fragmented Life” will take place.

Meanwhile, at the Church of San Gregorio VII, the Pharmaceutical Bank Foundation will hold the colloquium “Caring and Being Cared For: Where Does Our Hope Lie?” with the participation of Monsignor Andrea Manto, episcopal vicar for health care ministry in Rome; Sergio Daniotti, president of the Pharmaceutical Bank; and Giorgio Bordin, president of Medicine and Person.

Finally, at the Pontifical Lateran University, a conference sponsored by the Italian Bishops’ Conference and the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart will be held. The conference will address the role of patient associations in building a more humane and participatory national health system in Italy.

On Sunday, April 6, the Jubilee for the Sick will continue with Mass in St. Peter’s Square at 10:30 a.m., celebrated by Fisichella. 

On this occasion, a homily written by Pope Francis, who continues his convalescence at the Casa Santa Marta residence at the Vatican following his hospitalization, will be read. It is expected the pope will send a message of hope and commitment to the sick and health care workers.

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

Human-rights lawyer Jared Genser is advocating on behalf of all Armenian prisoners of war and refugees of Nagorno-Karabakh and for true peace and stability between Armenia and Azerbaijan. / Credit: Free Armenian Prisoners campaign

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 3, 2025 / 15:00 pm (CNA).

A renowned international human rights lawyer is urging the Trump administration to fulfill its campaign promise and intervene on behalf of Armenian Christians as a recently negotiated peace agreement with Azerbaijan threatens to leave prisoners stranded.

“Our request up front to the administration has been quite clear: [A] deal for the release of Armenian Christian POWs must be a precondition to [a peace deal] moving forward, which has been the position of the administration,” Washington, D.C.-based international human rights lawyer Jared Genser told CNA.

Earlier this month, Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to the text of a peace agreement that would end nearly four decades of conflict between the embattled countries. Neither country has signed the compact, though Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on social media has expressed eagerness to do so, despite widespread disagreement over several of its reported stipulations.

Once dubbed “the Extractor” by the New York Times, Genser is known for his successful work in freeing wrongfully imprisoned people around the world. He is currently working to free Ruben Vardanyan, the former state minister of the Nagorno-Karabakh region’s ethnic Armenian separatist government.

At the end of Azerbaijan’s nine-month blockade of the territory, Vardanyan was arrested while attempting to flee with his wife and has been detained in Baku ever since. 

Genser said that Vardanyan, a Christian belonging to the Armenian Apostolic Church, has been denied access to a Bible, which he said “has only reinforced that the persecution of him and other leaders from Nagorno-Karabakh is not exclusively because they were an alleged ‘breakaway republic’ but relates to the fact that he’s a Christian.”

“We’ve also seen since the ethnic cleansing as well the burning to the ground of Armenian churches and other Armenian heritage sites,” Genser added.

Vardanyan faces 42 separate charges and awaits trial before a military tribune, despite never having served in the military. Since being imprisoned, he has undergone two hunger strikes, according to Genser, with the latest strike lasting 23 days, during which he lost about 14 pounds.

Freedom for Armenian Christian POWs must come before any peace deal

Part of his work in freeing Vardanyan, Genser said, is advocating on behalf of all Armenian prisoners of war and refugees of Nagorno-Karabakh and for true peace and stability between the two countries. 

“When you represent a high-profile political prisoner,” Genser said, “your instructions are not to exclusively lobby for them because that really doesn’t even work, even if you wanted to do that. Really, it’s to look at the broader set of issues that are implicated and to work hard at addressing them.”

Genser pointed out that President Donald Trump had campaigned on standing up for persecuted Armenian Christians, condemning what took place in Nagorno-Karabakh as “ethnic cleansing” while on the campaign trail in October 2024.

Now, Genser said release of the prisoners is “a top priority for the new administration.”

“We have been told that their freedom needs to be a precondition for President Trump to ultimately bless a peace deal,” Genser revealed.

“I think that’s a really important development because our biggest fear all along has been that if a peace deal were to proceed, and there was no resolution of Nagorno-Karabakh or of the Armenian Christian POWs, then unfortunately, it could lead to a sacrificing of those prisoners as a part of the peace deal.”

Neither of these critical issues are contained in the current peace deal, nor are they on the bilateral agenda, according to Genser. However, he said there are many things the Trump administration can do to push for these ends.

Genser declined to say what specific methods should be employed to apply pressure on Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev for the POWs, though he encouraged the Trump administration to “shock” Azerbaijan’s president, whom he described as a dictator. 

“At the end of the day,” Genser said, “dictators only release political prisoners when they have to. They never do it because they want to or because they’re magnanimous or humanitarian by orientation.” 

“The only way that happens is when the dictator sees the cost of detaining the political prisoner or political prisoners as being dramatically higher than the benefits of detaining them.” 

Beyond the situation faced by Armenian POWs in Azerbaijan, Genser said there are “many issues outstanding in terms of the conditions of the peace deal as well that are worrying.”

Chief among them are Aliyev’s demands that Armenia cede the Lachin Corridor, giving him a pathway to lay a pipeline from Azerbaijan to Turkey via Armenia, and that Armenia remove a preamble in its constitution that lays a territorial claim on Nagorno-Karabakh. 

“The problem with that is that one has never seen any peace deal in the world where a country gives up their sovereign land and cuts off part of their own population from the main part of the country, which is what this would do,” Genser said.

As the Jamestown Foundation pointed out in its analysis of the peace deal, the Armenian government’s messaging on this front has been mixed, with Pashinyan having in the past stated Azerbaijan’s constitution contains territorial claims rather than the other way around, while also advocating as recently as March 13 for constitutional amendments that would have “inherently regional significance.”

“Unless Azerbaijan withdraws its long-standing demand that the Armenian Constitution be changed, it is unlikely to be signed before mid-2026 or even 2027,” the article noted.

Amid the dispute, Azerbaijan has accused Armenia of violating its ceasefire agreement — which Armenia denies — augmenting further tension between the countries as the fate of political prisoners hangs in the balance.

When asked about the plight of Armenian Christian POWs, the State Department told CNA: “We continue to monitor the situation closely through our embassies in the region. All those detained should have their human rights respected and, if criminally charged, have all fair trial guarantees afforded to them.”

Genser said peace will not be possible until “all relevant issues and all relevant potential provocations have been identified, negotiated, and fully addressed as part of a peace deal itself.”

“A peace deal that leaves unresolved what the future is going to look like for the people of Nagorno-Karabakh and the release of the Armenian Christian POWs is a recipe for future flare-ups, disagreements, and even potential war,” he said.

Tiananmen Square - Entrance to Forbidden City, Beijing, China. / Credit: 4H4Photography/Shutterstock

Rome Newsroom, Apr 3, 2025 / 13:30 pm (CNA).

New restrictions from China’s United Front ban foreign clergy from presiding over religious activities for Chinese people without the invitation of the Chinese government, severely limiting foreign missionary activity in the country.

According to the regulations, which will go into effect on May 1, “collective religious activities organized by foreigners in China are restricted to foreign participants only” with few exceptions.

The restrictions apply to believers of any religion, strictly prohibiting non-Chinese citizens residing in the country from establishing religious organizations, preaching without authorization, founding religious schools, producing or selling religious books, accepting religious donations, or recruiting Chinese citizens as religious followers.

Published on April 1 by the National Religious Affairs Administration, a branch of the United Front Work Department, the rules consist of 38 articles placing restrictions on foreign nationals’ ability to organize religious activities in the country.

Titled “Rules for the Implementation of the Provisions on the Administration of Religious Activities of Foreigners in the People’s Republic of China,” the regulations further stipulate that only Chinese clergy should preside over religious activities for foreigners at government-approved churches and temples.

It states that foreign religious clergy who enter China with a religious status may only preach if they are invited by one of the Chinese state-run national religious organizations and approved by the United Front’s religious affairs administration. Those accepted must also receive approval that the content of their preaching “does not interfere with China’s religious affairs.”

Beijing has long sought to maintain tight control over religious affairs, allowing only state-sanctioned religious institutions to operate legally.

The new regulations come after the National Joint Meeting of Religious Groups conference last month instructed these state-approved religious groups, including the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, to integrate Chinese Communist Party principles into their sermons.

The Council of Nicaea in 325 as depicted in a fresco in Salone Sistino at the Vatican. / Credit: Giovanni Guerra (1544-1618), Cesare Nebbia (1534-1614) e aiuti, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Vatican City, Apr 3, 2025 / 13:00 pm (CNA).

The Vatican on Thursday released a historical document to recognize the opening of the Council of Nicaea, convened during the pontificate of Pope Sylvester I in 325. 

The International Theological Commission (ITC) published the in-depth document “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior: The 1,700th Anniversary of the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea” to highlight the significance of the Church’s first ecumenical council, which defended the divinity of Jesus Christ as a profession of faith amid the spread of the Arian heresy.

“This anniversary occurs within the jubilee year, centered on the theme ‘Christ Our Hope,’ and it coincides with a shared celebration of Easter for Christians in both the East and the West,” the ITC press release stated.

The commission said on Thursday that the Nicene Creed “stands at the heart of the Church’s faith.”

“It is a source of living water to draw upon even today to enter into Jesus’ gaze and, in him, into the gaze that God, Abba, has toward all his children and toward the whole of creation.”

Emphasizing that the document is not just a historical record or a “text of academic theology,” the Vatican’s theological commission said the publication responds to Pope Francis’ desire to promote fraternity among Christians and inspire greater participation of Catholic faithful within local Churches.   

“It was in Nicaea that the Church’s unity and mission were first expressed emblematically at a universal level (and from here, it draws its designation as an ecumenical council) through the synodal form of that ‘walking together’ which is proper to the Church,” the ITC shared on Thursday.

“Nicaea stands as an authoritative reference point and inspiration in the synodal process in which the Catholic Church is involved today, in its commitment to live a conversion and reform marked by the principle of relationship and reciprocity for mission,” the press release stated.

Answering Pope Francis’ call to proclaim faith in Jesus Christ in a world scourged by the “tragedy of war along with countless anxieties and uncertainties,” the theological commission said the Nicaea Council publication can be used as a dynamic resource for Christian evangelization.

“The document highlights the relevance of these resources for a responsible and shared way of addressing the epochal change that is having a global impact on culture and society,” the press release stated. “The faith professed at Nicaea opens our eyes to the explosive and enduring newness of the coming of the Son of God among us.”

A special “study day” on the document will take place on May 20 at the Pontifical Urbaniana University in Rome.