Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, speaks with “EWTN News Nightly” on March 4, 2025. / Credit: “EWTN News Nightly”/Screenshot

ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 21, 2025 / 14:15 pm (CNA).

Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester in Minnesota and founder of the Catholic ministry Word on Fire recently warned about the proliferation of fake videos created with artificial intelligence (AI) circulating on social media impersonating him.

“The presence online of these videos generated by artificial intelligence that purport to be from me and that are not from me” is a problem that is becoming “increasingly difficult,” the prelate warned in a message posted Aug. 20 on his official social media.

Barron recounted that a few months ago, a woman told him that she felt so bad about an altercation he supposedly got into in a restaurant in Chicago, which was actually a fake video.

“I said I’ve not been in a restaurant in Chicago for about five years. Well, it was one of these AI-generated silly videos,” he explained.

He also recalled another case in which he was supposedly summoned to Rome by Pope Leo XIV for “high-level discussions.” The bishop clarified: “I’ve met Pope Leo once — it happened a couple of weeks ago in Rome; we put it up on our social media. I shook his hand and he smiled at me. That’s my one contact with him. I’m not being summoned to Rome for high-level discussions.”

A video even circulated in which he supposedly gave recommendations on how to “remove demons from your toilet.”

“My point,” Barron said, is “this is all ridiculous. And I think if you spend just a moment, you can tell the difference between an authentic video from me and one of these fakes.”

The bishop warned that this phenomenon is not harmless: “These are fraudsters. What they’re doing is making money off these things because they monetize them through ads … So it’s not just harmless fun people are having. It’s doing damage to my reputation, but it’s also doing damage to people who are being defrauded.”

In response, he urged the faithful not to be fooled: “Don’t take these silly things seriously. Don’t watch them. And what you look for is something on my YouTube channel, something on the official Word on Fire channel, and there’s a blue check you can see next to my name, the profile name. Look for that: That’s the sign that it’s a video from me.”

Finally, he called for common sense: “When you see these goofy images that are obviously generated by a computer and you hear me talking about some wild thing, I hope you have the sense to know ‘Look, that’s not really Bishop Barron speaking.’”

“It’s becoming increasingly a problem and I want you to know about it and do what you can to battle it. And God bless you,” he concluded.

Leo XIV’s concern for the ethical use of AI

Since the beginning of his pontificate, Pope Leo XIV has expressed particular concern about the ethical use of AI. On June 7, the pontiff underscored the “urgent need” for “serious reflection and ongoing discussion on the inherently ethical dimension of AI as well as its responsible governance.”

A month later, in his message to participants at the AI ​​for Good 2025 summit held in Geneva, Switzerland, he recalled that “although responsibility for the ethical use of AI systems begins with those who develop, manage, and oversee them, those who use them also share in this responsibility.”

In his letter, the pope urged the promotion of “regulatory frameworks centered on the human person” and “proper ethical management” of AI technologies at both the local and global levels.

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

Flowers stand before Knock Shrine in Knock, Ireland, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025 / Credit: Courtney Mares/CNA

Knock, Ireland, Aug 21, 2025 / 13:20 pm (CNA).

At Ireland’s Knock Shrine, the confessionals are “the engine room,” its rector says, powering this rural Marian apparition site as a place of hope and healing during the jubilee year.

“We have a very, very big outreach here in terms of confessions,” Father Richard Gibbons, who has led the shrine for more than a decade, told CNA on the eve of the 146th anniversary of the only documented apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary together with St. Joseph and St. John.

In a country where Mass attendance has sharply declined in recent decades, Irish Catholic leaders point to Knock as a place of welcome for those who have fallen away from practicing the faith.  

“Sometimes people who are in difficulty with their faith feel, ‘I’m not a good enough Catholic to go to Knock or to Lourdes or to Fátima,’ which is not the case,” Gibbons said. “It’s specifically because you might be struggling that you come to places like this and find hope.”

The shrine has 16 full-time chaplains who hear confessions daily from morning to evening, welcoming thousands, including those who come hesitantly after years away from the sacrament. 

“People come and they might have no intention of going to confession,” Gibbons said. “They see people going … they take a chance … and it’s completely transformative for them.”

“They open up and then you let the grace of God work.”

Pilgrimage season peaks each August with the National Novena to Our Lady of Knock, nine days of daily Mass, Eucharistic processions, and candlelit rosaries ending on the anniversary of the apparition on Aug. 21. Gibbons estimates that about 150,000 pilgrims visited the shrine during the novena this year.

The most ‘unique apparition in all the world’ 

On the rain-soaked evening of Aug. 21, 1879, 15 witnesses in the small village of Knock in County Mayo in western Ireland saw something extraordinary outside of their parish church of St. John the Evangelist: the Blessed Virgin Mary dressed in white robes and a crown with her hands and eyes turned toward heaven in prayer.

To her right was St. Joseph, who had gray hair and a beard, and to her left was St. John vested as a bishop with an open book in his hand. Beside them was a lamb standing on an altar in front of a cross surrounded by angels.

For two hours, despite the downpour, the apparition remained. Fifteen witnesses — men, women and children, the youngest just 5 years old — prayed the rosary before the silent figures. Remarkably, the ground around the church wall stayed dry.

“It’s the most unusual apparition. It’s unique in all the world,” Gibbons said. “At the heart and center is the Eucharist — the altar and the lamb.”

Unlike most Marian apparitions, Mary said nothing at Knock. Some historians suggest the silence reflected the cultural upheaval of 19th-century Ireland, when older generations still spoke Irish while the young were taught only English under colonial rule. What was clear, Gibbons said, is that the vision came at a time of suffering.

“There was just an awful lot of suffering and pain and violence at the time,” he said. “There was a land war going on with tenants being evicted … and many famines.”

The Great Famine of 1845–1849 devastated Ireland, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 1 million people, with 1 million more emigrating from the country by 1951.

Recurring famines plagued Ireland in the decades that followed, particularly in the northwest County Mayo where the apparition occurred. The year 1879 was itself “a famine year” for the Irish people.

“Our Lady appeared when people needed hope and that connection with heaven,” Gibbons said.

Miracles and healings

Stories of cures have been linked to Knock since the first days after the apparition. Grace Mulqueen, curator of the Knock Museum, tells visitors about the shrine’s earliest miracle: a deaf girl named Delia Gordon who, just 10 days after the apparition, was healed when her mother scraped stone dust from the church’s gable wall and placed it in her ears.

“Her daughter was instantly cured,” Mulqueen said. “And once people began to hear of that cure … then people started to come with their walking sticks and crutches and hundreds of people reported that they were healed or cured.”

By 1880, the local parish priest had documented more than 600 claims of miraculous cures.

The most recent officially recognized miracle was the healing of Marion Carroll, who had long suffered from multiple sclerosis and was brought to Knock on a stretcher in 1989. After being blessed by a monstrance during Eucharistic adoration at Knock, she stood up, healed. The cure was formally recognized in 2019 after 30 years of medical investigation.

Jubilee pilgrim passport  

For the 2025 Jubilee Year, the Irish bishops launched a “Pilgrim Passport” encouraging visits to Knock, Croagh Patrick, and Lough Derg. Pilgrims collect stamps at each pilgrimage site they visit.

Lough Derg is the site of the Basilica of St. Patrick and the famed medieval “St. Patrick’s Purgatory” pilgrimage. Croagh Patrick is Ireland’s holiest mountain and where St. Patrick spent 40 days fasting, located one hour away from the Knock Shrine.

“It’s unbelievable the amount of people who come because they had just decided to visit Croagh Patrick because they were touring Mayo and then they picked up the passport,” Nicola Mitchell, director of pastoral planning at the shrine, told CNA.

She added that she has encountered people coming to get their passport stamped who “never would have dreamt of visiting Knock” otherwise.  

“And we’re inviting people who would never dream of coming to a place like Knock Shrine, inviting them and saying: There’s a warm welcome for you.” 

“And I think that you can’t enter the gate of Knock Shrine without feeling that peace that exists here,” Michell said.

Looking ahead to 2029 

Knock has twice drawn papal visits. St. John Paul II made it the focal point of his 1979 trip to Ireland, telling the crowd of 400,000 that visiting Knock was “the goal” of his pilgrimage. Pope Francis came in 2018 and later elevated Knock to the status of International Eucharistic and Marian Shrine. 

As the 150th anniversary of the apparition in 2029 approaches, organizers are already preparing. Gibbons hopes Pope Leo XIV might mark the occasion with a visit to Knock, as John Paul did for the 100th anniversary.  

“2029 will be a very, very special year,” Gibbons said. “We would love Pope Leo XIV to come, even just to celebrate the anniversary.” 

Pope Leo XIV prays during his Wednesday general audience on Aug. 13, 2025, in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media

ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 21, 2025 / 12:42 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV has called for a day of fasting and prayer for peace on Friday, Aug. 22, coinciding with the liturgical feast of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The Holy Father made the announcement Aug. 20 during his greeting to Italian-speaking pilgrims at the conclusion of the catechesis for the general audience, recalling that Our Lady, in addition to being queen, is “also invoked as Queen of Peace.”

“While our earth continues to be wounded by wars in the Holy Land, in Ukraine, and in many other regions of the world, I invite all the faithful to devote the day of Aug. 22 to fasting and prayer, imploring the Lord to grant us peace and justice and to dry the tears of those who suffer as a result of the ongoing armed conflicts,” the pontiff said.

“Mary, Queen of Peace, intercede so that peoples may find the path to peace,” he prayed.

On Tuesday evening at Castel Gandolfo, Leo XIV expressed his hope for a solution to the crisis of the war in Ukraine but emphasized the need to continue to “work hard, pray hard” for peace. 

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

The Ten Commandments outside the Texas Capitol. / Credit: BLundin via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

CNA Staff, Aug 21, 2025 / 12:12 pm (CNA).

A federal judge has partially blocked the state of Texas from enforcing its law ordering the display of the Ten Commandments in public schools. 

In a colorful ruling replete with off-the-cuff observances on topics ranging from Greta Garbo to the speed of Earth’s orbit, District Judge Fred Biery said the Texas law — signed by Gov. Greg Abbott earlier this year — could pressure children into “religious observance” in violation of the U.S. Constitution. 

The state government did not establish a “compelling interest” in imposing such a burden on students, Biery said, and further it failed to make the law “narrowly tailored” enough to pass constitutional muster. 

“There are ways in which students could be taught any relevant history of the Ten Commandments without the state selecting an official version of Scripture, approving it in state law, and then displaying it in every classroom on a permanent basis,” he wrote. 

The judge suggested that the state Legislature could alternately require schools to display moral lessons not directly connected to religious practice, such as quotes from Unitarian minister Robert Fulghum’s book “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.” 

The ruling applies to nearly a dozen school districts, including the independent school districts of Houston and Fort Bend. The suit had been brought by a coalition of parents on behalf of their children. 

State Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement to media that his office will “absolutely be appealing this flawed decision.” 

“The Ten Commandments are a cornerstone of our moral and legal heritage, and their presence in classrooms serves as a reminder of the values that guide responsible citizenship,” he said. 

This is not the first setback over the past year for advocates of displaying the Ten Commandments in schools. 

In November 2024 a federal judge in Louisiana blocked that state’s Ten Commandments law, calling it “coercive” and “unconstitutional.” 

Elsewhere, in June 2024 the state of Oklahoma directed school districts to incorporate the Bible into middle school and high school curricula, with the state superintendent citing its historical and cultural significance in helping “contextualize” the present-day United States. 

One poll in June showed that a majority of U.S. adults support allowing Christian prayer in schools, though other polling showed a larger number believing the practice shouldn’t be mandatory, with more than half opposing teachers being allowed to lead classes in prayer.

View of the Greek island of Syros. / Credit: Hans Peter Schaefer/Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 3.0)

CNA Newsroom, Aug 21, 2025 / 10:51 am (CNA).

Prosecutors on the Greek island of Syros have filed felony charges against two Catholic clerics and six civilians in connection with the alleged embezzlement and money laundering of more than 3 million euros ($3.3 million) in diocesan funds.

The indictments this month follow an investigation that began in late 2024 when Greece’s Anti-Money Laundering Authority uncovered suspicious financial transfers from the Catholic Diocese of Syros to accounts linked to nightclub operations, Greek newspaper Kathimerini reported.

The probe discovered that church funds had allegedly been diverted to businesses involved in prostitution, drugs, and protection schemes over eight years, according to ProtoThema.

Prosecutors have charged two Catholic priests along with six civilians in connection with embezzlement exceeding 120,000 euros, complicity in embezzlement, and money laundering.

Central to the case is a 53-year-old nightclub owner from Patra. According to investigators, the businessman allegedly used church funds to sublet nightclub operations, serving as what prosecutors consider the “mastermind” of the scheme.

The financial misconduct prompted swift action from the Vatican.

Pope Francis accepted Bishop Petros Stefanou’s resignation in April and appointed Archbishop Sevastianos Rossolatos, emeritus of Athens, as apostolic administrator of the diocese pending a permanent replacement.

The scandal affects one of the smallest Catholic communities in predominantly Eastern Orthodox Greece, where Catholics represent only about 50,000 of Greece’s 10.7 million people.

Located in the Cyclades island chain in the Aegean Sea, about 78 nautical miles southeast of Athens, Syros serves as the administrative center for the Catholic Diocese of Syros with Milos and Santorini.

The Anti-Money Laundering Authority’s investigation resulted in the freezing of bank accounts belonging to the accused civilians. Notably, the Catholic Church foundations’ accounts themselves were not frozen during the probe, ProtoThema reported.

The scandal has drawn particular attention due to its apparent connection to organized crime elements and the significant duration of the alleged financial misconduct.

Greek authorities traced suspicious transactions back eight years, with the most recent transfer of 50,000 euros occurring shortly before the investigation became public in late 2024, according to Euronews.

Following the Anti-Money Laundering Authority’s findings, Aegean Appellate Prosecutor Odysseas Tsormpatzoglou ordered a preliminary criminal investigation and summoned all accused parties to provide testimony before investigating judges on Syros, ProtoThema reported.

The Catholic Church in Greece initially stated it was unaware of the priests’ alleged actions when the scandal first emerged, Euronews reported.

Some of the damage caused to Christian homes by Muslim extremists in 2023. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Aid to the Church in Need

ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 21, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

Two years after “the worst episode of violence against Christians” in Pakistan’s history, according to the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), the bishop of Faisalabad said the community of the faithful is outraged by the apparent failure of justice.

Beginning Aug. 16, 2023, and in the days following, Muslims in the village of Jaranwala in the Diocese of Faisalabad looted and burned more than 25 churches and at least 80 Christian homes.

According to ACN, two months ago, local courts “acquitted 10 people accused of setting fire to one of the churches.” Another 5,213 people were accused of participating in the violence, of whom more than 380 were arrested. However, many were released on bail. To date, no convictions have been handed down.

Bishop Indrias Rehmat spoke to the pontifical foundation about the case, denouncing the lack of justice and explaining the feelings of local Christians.

“Justice has not been done,” he said. “The police have not done their duty. Nobody has been punished and nobody has been dealt with properly. At this stage, we do not see any hope of any culprit being punished.”

The Christians, Rehmat said, have received physical threats and harassment from local extremists for “daring to call for justice but had now become so enraged that they are determined to speak out.”

“What’s changed over the last two years since the attacks is that people have now become ready to fight for their rights. They say we should shout and scream,” he added.

The bishop explained that the Christian community’s discontent is exacerbated by the fact that Christians were the only ones convicted on charges related to the 2023 attacks. Brothers Rocky and Raja Masih were accused of blasphemy against the Quran — which sparked the persecution that year — but were later acquitted.

Pakistan is home to about 4 million Christians. This represents only 1.6% of the country’s total population, estimated at 241 million and predominantly Muslim. From 1987 to early 2021, more than 1,800 people were charged with blasphemy against Islam.

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

Participants gather at the Aug. 18, 2025, launch event for a new digital app that will bring together 66 Catholic radio stations in east Africa. Father Don Bosco, editor-in-chief of ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, is pictured in the center. / Credit: ACI Africa

ACI Africa, Aug 21, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

The Department of Social Communications of the Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa (AMECEA) recently celebrated the launch of a new digital app for Catholic radio stations. The new platform will bring together 66 radio stations in the region.

The app — the first of its kind in the Church in eastern Africa — will serve Catholics in Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. It will also target AMECEA’s affiliate members of Djibouti and Somalia.

The goal of the app is to boost evangelization efforts, AMECEA’s Department of Social Communications coordinator told ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, at the launch on Monday, Aug. 18.

“With this app, Catholics in any of the AMECEA countries will be able to follow holy Mass or access whichever kind of Church information they want even when they are away from their home countries,” Father Andrew Kaufa said at the event, which was held at the Consolata Shrine in Kenya’s Archdiocese of Nairobi.

“There will be holy Masses, all sorts of prayers, and even news about the Catholic Church in the region,” he said.

AMECEA’s secretary-general, Father Anthony Makunde, echoed Kaufa’s comments, noting that the digital radio app, just like the 10-year communication policy also unveiled on Aug. 18, is an attempt by AMECEA to “harmonize” evangelization efforts across the region.

“This innovative tool brings together all Catholic communication media channels in our region into one platform accessible on mobile phones, tablets, and computers,” he said of the app that is accessible on Android devices.

Of the 66 radio stations that will be accessible through the app, 19 are in Kenya, 12 in Uganda, 13 in Tanzania, and four in Malawi. Zambia has nine while both Sudan and South Sudan have six.

Makunde said these media channels will now be gathered in one place “thanks to the creativity and dedication of the AMECEA communications team.”

Apart from holy Masses, prayers, news, and other programs, the app will also allow for fundraising by individual radio stations, Kaufa said, noting that contributors will not be limited by geographical location.

“Radio stations can fundraise on the app for different causes,” he said. “If there is a radio station in Zambia fundraising on the app, anyone with the app can contribute, not just Zambians.” 

The SECAM official said the development of the app was inspired by the need for Catholic communicators to be on par with others in the industry, especially with the current advancements in technology.

Additionally, SECAM started receiving requests from Catholic TV and radio stations to come up with a platform that unites all the agencies in the region, Kaufa said.

“The app was inspired by the very fact that almost every media house is now developing an app. We had been receiving this question, ‘Do we have an app for our Catholic radios, our Catholic TVs?’” he said.

“The bishops’ conference of Uganda approached us first, saying that they had a Catholic TV station and wanted to be linked with other [stations] in the region. Later on, somebody asked us about the radio. That is how we saw the gap.”

He added: “I also attended a digital summit and I could see that everyone there was saying that they have an app. I thought as Catholics, we should not be left behind in this movement.”

The journey toward the realization of the digital app began in 2022. The challenge was getting as many radio stations as possible on board.

“Developing this app has been slow,” he said. “Being regional, there was so much to be done and the different radios had to first get permission from their bishops. Eventually, everyone came on board.”

He also said the app will be easy to run and may require no finances to sustain.

“Initially, we thought that the app would need many resources to sustain. However, eventually, we come to realize that running the app is almost free of charge,” Kaufa said.

Speaking about the evolution of the radio and its growing significance in evangelization, Kaufa said: “The radio has been removed from the sitting room. People are listening more from their phones than from the big radio.”

“I always agree with those who say that a bishop without a radio is more or less like a bishop without a voice,” he said. “Radio is still very important, more than all other media, especially in terms of evangelization. More people in many parts of Africa can afford radio. If you want to reach your people very easily, you must embrace the radio.”

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

A child who lost his left hand in the June 2025 Yelewata massacre is treated at Nigeria’s Benue State University Teaching Hospital. / Credit: Courtesy of Ekani Olikita/Truth Nigeria

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 21, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Nigeria is the deadliest country in the world for Christians, according to the new chair of the U.S. Commission on International Freedom (USCIRF).

Vicky Hartzler, a Republican who represented Missouri in the U.S. House of Representatives for 12 years, became chair of the commission in June. In an interview with CNA, she said of her new mission: “We want to make a difference. We want to save lives.”

Hartzler’s top priority is Nigeria. Citing statistics from Open Doors, an international organization dedicated to helping persecuted Christians, Hartzler said 69% of Christians killed worldwide in 2023 died in Nigeria, with more than 50,000 killed since 2009. The violence includes mass killings of worshippers, such as the June attack on a Catholic mission where more than 200 people were slaughtered.

Hartzler is calling on the U.S. State Department to designate Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) and pressure its government to better protect citizens and prosecute those committing crimes against religion.

Iran and China remain major focuses. In Iran, Hartzler said more than 900 executions took place in 2024, and 96 Christians received sentences totaling more than 260 years in prison.

China, meanwhile, continues its so-called sinicization campaign, especially against Uyghur Muslims in the Xinjiang region, requiring mosques and churches to display portraits of leader Xi Jinping and replace traditional worship with Chinese Communist Party propaganda. Hartzler said these examples not only represent repression but also are systematic attempts to erase authentic religious practice.

Stephen Schneck, who served as chair of the USCIRF under President Joe Biden and is a former director of the Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies at The Catholic University of America, equates USCIRF’s work within a Catholic tradition of defending religious liberty, tracing back to the Second Vatican Council’s declaration of religious freedom Dignitatis Humanae.

He warned of “a historic uptick in the persecution of religion around the world” and highlighted two genocides in Asia: against Uyghur Muslims in China and the Rohingya in Myanmar. For Schneck, it is vital not only to document these atrocities but also ensure they remain in international focus.

Fellow Commissioner Maureen Ferguson, a former senior fellow at The Catholic Association and EWTN radio host, wants to draw attention to Nicaragua, where President Daniel Ortega’s regime has targeted the Catholic Church by arresting priests, expelling nuns, and even monitoring homilies.

“When they kick out the nuns, what are the nuns doing?” Ferguson asked. “They take care of the street girls, the elderly poor who are dying. Who’s taking care of them now? The government is certainly not taking care of these people.”

Ferguson also pointed to Cuba’s ongoing repression of churches and independent religious voices as another regional priority for USCIRF. 

She framed international religious freedom as part of a broader defense of human dignity. “The right to practice your faith is one of the most fundamental human rights,” Ferguson said, linking it with conscience rights and the sanctity of life. 

Schneck said USCIRF’s bipartisan structure adds weight to its recommendations. But he cautioned that designations such as CPC or the Special Watch List are not enough without enforcement.

“Too often these designations come with no sanctions, or sanctions are waived,” he said.

Hartzler and her fellow commissioners also highlighted USCIRF’s Victims List, which features individuals imprisoned or tortured for their beliefs. By publicizing their names and stories, the commission seeks to pressure governments into releasing them and to remind the world that religious persecution is not abstract but lived by real people.

The commissioners all agree that Americans have a role to play. Hartzler urged people not just to pray but also to act: calling elected officials, pressing the White House and State Department, and demanding that religious freedom be a core element of U.S. foreign policy.

Ferguson called for the confirmation of President Donald Trump’s nominee for ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, former Congressman Mark Walker, to strengthen U.S. diplomatic efforts.

The U.S. State Department is expected to release the annual International Religious Freedom report soon.

USCIRF is an independent, bipartisan legislative branch agency created by the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act, as amended. The commission monitors the universal right to freedom of religion or belief abroad; makes policy recommendations to the president, secretary of state, and Congress; and tracks the implementation of these recommendations.

Judge Frank Caprio served for decades as chief municipal judge in Providence, Rhode Island. / Credit: StephanieRPereira, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

CNA Staff, Aug 20, 2025 / 19:14 pm (CNA).

Frank Caprio, who served as a Providence, Rhode Island, municipal court judge for nearly 40 years and came to be known as “America’s nicest judge,” passed away on Aug. 20 from pancreatic cancer.

“Beloved for his compassion, humility, and unwavering belief in the goodness of people, Judge Caprio touched the lives of millions through his work in the courtroom and beyond. His warmth, humor, and kindness left an indelible mark on all who knew him,” read a statement posted on his official Facebook page.

Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee ordered flags in the state to be flown at half staff at all state agencies and buildings until the day of Caprio’s internment, and he also asked Rhode Island residents to lower their flags out of respect.

Caprio gained worldwide fame for a lenient judicial style that blended justice, extreme empathy, and mercy when his courtroom was televised in a program called “Caught in Providence.” The program began in 1999 and went viral in 2017, achieving hundreds of millions of views since then. The show was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award in 2021 and has a YouTube channel with nearly 3 million subscribers.

When handing down judgments for low-level offenses like parking and speeding tickets, Caprio told EWTN News correspondent Colm Flynn on “EWTN News In Depth” in February that he always kept in mind something his father, a hardworking Italian immigrant with a fifth-grade education, had impressed upon him: “What might seem like a small fine to some was something that many couldn’t afford.”

“That’s why I would always inquire: ‘Tell me a little bit about what’s going on in your life,’” Caprio said.

“Your case is dismissed” became Caprio’s signature phrase.

When other judges asked him why he would be so lenient, he said: “I would just place myself in the shoes of the person before me.” 

Caprio dismissed the case of a 96-year-old man, Victor, who had an outstanding unpaid speeding ticket, the first one in his life, which he received while taking his disabled son to a doctor’s appointment. Four years later, Caprio celebrated the man’s 100th birthday with him.

“Watching my father, I learned how to treat people with respect and dignity,” Caprio said.

Early life and education

Caprio was born in 1936 in Providence, Rhode Island, the second of three sons of Italian immigrants Antonio Caprio and Filomena Caprio, who emigrated from Naples. 

Caprio attended Providence public schools, winning a state title in wrestling when he attended Central High School, and later graduating from Providence College in 1958. While teaching American government at Hope High School, he pursued a law degree at Suffolk University School of Law, attending night classes and passing the bar in 1965. He became a judge in 1985 and served until his retirement in 2023.

Caprio said that his father, a fruit peddler and milkman, used to wake him and his brothers at 4 a.m. to accompany him on his milk delivery rounds. 

“I had the most privileged childhood you could imagine,” Caprio told Flynn. “I had the privilege of being brought up poor.”

He described living in a “cold water flat,” an apartment that had no hot water. 

Caprio’s father told his sons if they “didn’t want to stay on this milk cart for the rest of your life, you better stay in school.” 

One day when he was around 12 years old, Caprio said, his father put his hand on his shoulder and said: “You’re going to be a lawyer someday, and you can’t charge poor people like us.”

The elder Caprio showed his sons how to be compassionate even as a poor milkman, refusing to stop milk deliveries when customers could not pay.

Caprio’s father continued to be a powerful presence in his life even after he became a judge. On his first day on the bench, Caprio required a belligerent, rude woman with multiple parking tickets to pay the full amount she owed and impounded her car. At the end of the day, he asked his father, who had been watching: “How’d I do?” 

His father told him he was too harsh with the woman, even if she did have a bad attitude. He told him she had three kids and might not be able to feed them that night.

“Because you’re in a position of power doesn’t mean you have to use it against people who don’t have power,” Caprio’s father said to him.

It was a lesson he would never forget.

“I was just trying to be decent with everyone. I never sat on the bench and thought I was better than anyone else or that I was superior to them in any way,” Caprio told Flynn.

Cancer diagnosis

Caprio was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2023. 

A devout Catholic, Caprio’s faith sustained him during a pilgrimage to Lourdes, France, in 2024, where he sang “Ave Maria” at the grotto, describing it as a profound spiritual moment.

He told Flynn he hoped his fans would pray for him after his cancer diagnosis because “I have a deep and abiding faith in the Catholic Church, in Jesus, in the power of prayer.” He said his faith in God and the prayer from all his fans kept him going.

He asked for prayers again on Aug. 19, posting a video on Facebook. He passed away the next day.

Career, legacy, and honors

Caprio, a Democrat, served on the Providence City Council for six years, from 1962 to 1968, and lost the general election for Rhode Island attorney general in 1970. He served as a delegate for five Democratic National Conventions. Caprio also served in the Rhode Island Army National Guard.

He was actively involved in several community organizations, including the Boys Town of Italy and the Rhode Island Food Bank. He co-chaired the Rhode Island Statue of Liberty Foundation, raising funds for the restoration of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Additionally, he served on the Rhode Island Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education. Caprio was also a member of the President’s Council at Providence College.

At Suffolk University School of Law, Caprio established the Antonio “Tup” Caprio Scholarship Fund, named after his father, to support Rhode Island students dedicated to enhancing access to legal services in the state’s poor, urban neighborhoods. Caprio also created scholarships at Providence College, Suffolk Law School, and for Central High School graduates, all honoring his father’s legacy.

Caprio received two honorary doctorates and a Producer’s Circle Award at the Rhode Island International Film Festival along with the Daytime Emmy nomination. His former municipal courtroom was renamed “The Chief Judge Frank Caprio Courtroom” in 2023. 

An avid Boston Red Sox fan, Caprio threw the ceremonial first pitch at Fenway Park in 2019.

In 2025 he published his memoir, “Compassion in the Court: Life-Changing Stories from America’s Nicest Judge.”

Caprio is survived by his wife of 60 years, Joyce, with whom he had five children: Frank T. Caprio, David Caprio, Marissa Pesce, John Caprio, and Paul Caprio. The couple had seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

A view of a marijuana plant on Aug. 11, 2025, in San Anselmo, California. Cannabis company stocks surged by up to 10% on reports that the Trump administration is considering rescheduling marijuana on the federal level, from a Schedule I to a Schedule III drug. The move would step toward the decriminalization of the drug nationwide. / Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 20, 2025 / 16:58 pm (CNA).

President Donald Trump announced he might loosen the federal restrictions on marijuana, but moral and legal scholars who spoke with CNA this week expressed concern about the drug and its impact on American society.

The federal government considers marijuana — also referred to as cannabis, the name of the plant that contains psychoactive compounds called cannabinoids — a Schedule I substance. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), this is reserved for drugs with “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.”

Trump said in a news conference Aug. 11 that he is considering rescheduling it to Schedule III, which is a drug “with a moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence” and has abuse potential “less than Schedule I,” according to the DEA.

“We’re looking at reclassification and we’ll make a determination over the next … few weeks and that determination will hopefully be the right one,” the president said.

Trump called it a “very complicated subject” and said he hears good things about medical cannabis and bad things “with just about everything else.”

Federal law prohibits the sale of marijuana for recreational and medical use, but 40 states have medical cannabis programs and 24 states legalized recreational use. Both violate federal law, but the government has generally allowed states to regulate it as they see fit rather than enforce the prohibition.

Rescheduling marijuana would not lift the ban, but it could reduce criminal penalties, open the door for more medical research, and potentially be a step toward further deregulation.

Charles Nemeth, the director of the Center for Criminal Justice, Law, and Ethics at Franciscan University, told CNA that Schedule III is “generally for more minor things” and “the seriousness and the impact is supposed to be reflected in these schedules.”

“The [federal] ban would not exist in the same way [if Trump reschedules marijuana],” Nemeth said. “Right now, the drug is an illicit drug and it can be a felony, depending on how much you have or how much you’re selling.”

“It [would] have an enormous impact on the policymaking of law enforcement, decision-making, [and] what they concentrate on,” he added. “They [would] not look at the drug as much as they used to.”

Concerns about recreational use

The Catechism of the Catholic Church does not directly mention marijuana but broadly teaches “the use of drugs inflicts very grave damage on human health and life.” It calls drug use a “grave offense” with the exception of drugs used on “strictly therapeutic grounds,” such as treatment for a condition.

Nemeth said “marijuana’s destructive impact” is clear in studies about mental acuity and brain development, calling it “destructive to intellectual formation.” He also pointed to concerns that it may harm fertility.

On top of this, Nemeth noted the immediate impact of the high, saying: “It shuts your mind down; it makes you less intellectually curious than you normally would be.”

“It’s so contrary to human flourishing,” Nemeth said. “There is nothing that comes from the perpetual smoking of marijuna that has a positive impact on the human person.”

Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk, a senior ethicist at the National Catholic Bioethics Center, also has concerns about rescheduling marijuana, telling CNA that labeling it a Schedule I drug has “sent a much-needed message to Americans and drawn a kind of moral line for many years.”

“Adults who smoke[d] marijuana regularly during adolescence have decreased neural connectivity (abnormal brain development and fewer fibers) in specific brain regions,” he said. “These notable effects of marijuana on brain development may help to explain the association between frequent marijuana use among adolescents and significant declines in IQ, as well as poor academic performance and an increased risk of dropping out of school.”

He said drug users “seek to escape or otherwise suppress their lived conscious experience and instead pursue chemically-altered states of mind, or drug-induced pseudo-experiences.”

“Any time we act in such a manner that we treat something objectively good as if it were an evil by acting directly against it, we act in an immoral and disordered fashion and make a poor and harmful choice,” Pacholczyk said.

Catholic Answers’ senior apologist Jimmy Akin echoed those concerns, noting that “all mind-altering substances — including both marijuana and alcohol — have the potential to be misused in sinful ways.”

“The classic Catholic moral analysis distinguishes imperfect intoxication, which does not rob one of the gift of reason, from perfect intoxication, which does and disposes one to commit grave sins,” he told CNA. “To deliberately engage in perfect intoxication is itself gravely sinful.”

Jared Staudt, a Catholic theologian who serves as director of content for Exodus 90, told CNA “a federal reclassification would only further the damage” of recreational marijuana.

“It’s time to acknowledge that legalization has proven to be a failed experiment,” he said.

What about medical cannabis?

Trump’s primary motivation for the potential rescheduling is his interest in research for medicinal uses of cannabis.

According to Akin, “Catholics may have different opinions on the best legal policy regarding marijuana.” He said learning about medicinal uses could have benefits but that Catholics should make informed decisions.

“Catholics contemplating using medical marijuana should consider whether the science actually supports its use as the best treatment for a condition or whether the science has been ‘cooked’ to make marijuana more available,” he said. “If marijuana really is the best treatment for a condition, it is licit to use it for that purpose. If there is a better treatment, then that should be used instead.”

Nemeth expressed concern about most purported uses of medical cannabis. He said there are almost always alternatives to marijuana, which is a “mind-altering … product.” For mental health conditions such as anxiety or depression, he said it may mask symptoms “just because you’re high” but does not provide a cure and could exacerbate issues long-term.

“Most people who need to be high all the time are either anxious people or unhappy people or people in distress,” he said.

Alternatively, some Catholic hospitals have engaged in research about the use of medical cannabis as an alternative to opioids for pain management.