WASHINGTON - “As tens of thousands of pilgrims gathered for the annual March for Life this week, we were grateful to see the U.S. House of Representatives pass the Pregnant Students’ Rights Act and the Supporting Pregnant and Parenting Women and Families Act,” announced bishop-chairmen of three committees of the U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on Friday. 

“Building a culture of life requires helping mothers to be able to welcome their new children,” they continued. “Too often, however, expectant and vulnerable women are essentially told that they have to choose either their child or their future. No one should have to make this ultimately false choice. The Pregnant Students’ Rights Act is needed legislation that would simply ensure that colleges and universities at least provide information about the resources, services, rights, and accommodations available for pregnant and parenting students. The Supporting Pregnant and Parenting Women and Families Act would help ensure that key public resources are available to pregnancy help centers, which compassionately accompany women in need with baby supplies, childcare assistance, health and parenting information, career services, and more. Amid great uncertainty and difficulty, such support can make a life-saving difference.”

The three bishops spoke as chairmen of their respective committees: Archbishop Shelton J. Fabre, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, Bishop David M. O’Connell, CM, chairman of the Committee on Catholic Education, and Bishop Daniel E. Thomas, chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities. Bishops O’Connell and Thomas had also sent a letter to Congress on Thursday in support of the Pregnant Students’ Rights Act. The U.S. Senate is expected to vote on its own version of that bill next week.

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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Advocating for unborn children is fulfilling the Lord's command to serve him in the most vulnerable, Pope Leo XIV told those taking part in the March for Life.

"I would encourage you, especially the young people, to continue striving to ensure that life is respected in all of its stages through appropriate efforts at every level of society, including dialogue with civil and political leaders," he said in a written message released by the Vatican Jan. 22.  

"May Jesus, who promised to be with us always, accompany you today as you courageously and peacefully march on behalf of unborn children," he wrote. "By advocating for them, please know that you are fulfilling the Lord’s command to serve him in the least of our brothers and sisters." 

The March for Life is held every year in January in Washington, D.C., to march on Capitol Hill to remember the anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade ruling, which legalized abortion nationwide in 1973. While the Supreme Court overturned Roe in 2022, abortion policy is now determined at the state and federal levels.

Addressing his message to all people taking part in the Jan. 23 March for Life, Pope Leo sent his "warm greetings" and expressed his "heartfelt appreciation."

He assured them "of my spiritual closeness as you gather for this eloquent public witness to affirm that 'the protection of the right to life constitutes the indispensable foundation of every other human right,'" quoting from his Jan. 9 address to members of the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See. 

"Indeed, 'a society is healthy and truly progresses only when it safeguards the sanctity of human life and works actively to promote it,'" he wrote.

"With these sentiments, I entrust all of you, as well as those who support you with their prayers and sacrifices, to the intercession of Mary Immaculate, patroness of the United States of  America, and I gladly impart my apostolic blessing as a pledge of abundant heavenly graces," his message concluded.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Leo XIV blessed two lambs in the Urban VIII Chapel at the Vatican Jan. 21, the feast of St. Agnes, a Roman martyr who is often depicted with a lamb. Agnes also is a derivative of the Latin word for lamb, "agnus."

The lambs are raised by Trappist monks outside Rome, and they are bound and placed in baskets to prevent them from running away during the blessing. They are decorated with red and white flowers and blessed in a formal ceremony at the Basilica of St. Agnes and by the pope at the Vatican. 

Benedictine nuns at the Monastery of St. Cecilia in Rome will use wool from the lambs to make the pallium worn by archbishops; the pallium is a symbol of the archbishop's authority and unity with the papacy.

In fact, the woolen bands, which are worn around the neck, have long strips hanging down the front and the back, and are tipped with black silk to recall the dark hoof of the sheep the archbishop is symbolically carrying over his shoulders. Lamb's wool is also used to symbolize Christ, the Lamb of God and the Good Shepherd.

The woolen palliums are kept by St. Peter's tomb right before the pope blesses and distributes them to new archbishops during a special liturgy in Rome on June 29, the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. 

By personally placing the palliums on the archbishops, the pope underlines their bond of unity and communion with the successor of Peter.

Members of the cloistered Benedictine community at Rome's Basilica of St. Cecilia have been entrusted for more than a century with preparing the palliums.

The nuns once produced the palliums from scratch, hand-weaving pure-white lambs' wool into bands that they would then sew together and decorate. But then, the nuns started commissioning a textile company outside of Rome to supply the unfinished wool strips.

The June 29 Vatican Mass is the only time archbishops wear the palliums together. Once bestowed, liturgical rules require that the pallium be worn only in the metropolitan's own see, and then only during important liturgical occasions like ordinations. 

Because of the cloth's territorial character, an archbishop who is transferred to another metropolitan see receives a second pallium.

Under current church practice, if a newly named archbishop cannot travel to the Vatican to receive his pallium from the pope, it is given to him by a papal representative in his country.
 

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- People of faith and goodwill need to take time to acknowledge the needs and suffering of those around them and be moved by love and compassion to offer others concrete help, Pope Leo XIV said.

To love one's neighbor -- whom Jesus identifies as anyone who has need of us -- is within everyone's reach, he said in his message for the 34th World Day of the Sick, observed by the church Feb. 11, the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes.

"The pain that moves us to compassion is not the pain of a stranger; it is the pain of a member of our own body, to whom Christ, our head, commands us attend, for the good of all," the pope wrote in the message released Jan. 20. 

The theme chosen for the 2026 observance is inspired by the parable of the good Samaritan and Pope Francis' encyclical on human fraternity, "Fratelli Tutti."

Titled, "The compassion of the Samaritan: Loving by bearing the pain of the other," the message focuses on the importance of: encountering and listening to others; being moved by compassion; and loving God through concrete action in solidarity with others.

While traditionally addressed to Catholic health care and pastoral workers, this year's message is offered to everyone, Cardinal Michael Czerny, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, said at a Vatican news conference to present the message Jan. 20.

The message is offered to everyone because "we're one body, one humanity of brothers and sisters, and when someone's sick and suffering, all the other categories -- which tend to divide -- fade away into insignificance," the cardinal said.

Asked to comment about how people in the United States should best respond when witnessing violence toward immigrants, Cardinal Czerny said, "I don't know what to say about the larger picture," but he said it would be helpful to focus on "the underview" or what should or is happening on the ground.

"There are many situations in which the individual Christian, the individual citizen, can extend their hand or lend their support. And that's extremely important," he said. "I suppose we could all hope that those many gestures, many Samaritan gestures, can also translate into better politics." 

The Catholic "struggle for justice," he told Catholic News Service, gets "its real depth and its real meaning" from daily lived experience helping real people.

Advocacy work, for example, should "evolve out of real experience," he said. "When, let's say, your visits to the sick reveal, for example, the injustice of inaccessibility to health care, well then you take it up as an issue, but on the basis of your lived -- and indeed pastoral and Christian -- experience."

The good Samaritan shows that "we are all in a position to respond" to anyone in need, he said. "And the mystery, which you can discover whether you are a Christian or not, is that by responding, in a sense, your own suffering is also addressed."

"Since the major suffering for so many today, young and not so young, is loneliness and hopelessness, by worrying about it less and reaching out to someone who needs you, you will discover that there's more life than you imagined," he added.

In his message, Pope Leo said, "To serve one’s neighbor is to love God through deeds." 

In fact, the "true meaning of loving ourselves," he wrote, involves "setting aside any attempt to base our self-esteem or sense of dignity on worldly stereotypes -- such as success, career, status or family background -- and recovering our proper place before God and neighbor."

"I genuinely hope that our Christian lifestyle will always reflect this fraternal, 'Samaritan' spirit -- one that is welcoming, courageous, committed and supportive, rooted in our union with God and our faith in Jesus Christ," Pope Leo wrote.

"Enkindled by this divine love, we will surely be able to give of ourselves for the good of all who suffer, especially our brothers and sisters who are sick, elderly or afflicted," he wrote.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Leo XIV, who plays the daily online puzzle Wordle, is not the only papal puzzle lover.

His predecessor and namesake, Pope Leo XIII, was also passionate about wordplay, anonymously publishing riddles in Latin.

Going by the pseudonym "X," the Italian-born Pope Leo used to craft poetic puzzles for a Roman periodical at the turn of the 19th century.

The modern-day Pope Leo from Chicago, however, is a fan of the New York Times' popular online word game in which players get six chances to guess a five-letter word. 

During a live link-up with thousands of young people taking part in the National Catholic Youth Conference in Indianapolis and millions more online Nov. 21, Pope Leo was asked about and shared his gaming strategy.

"I use a different word for Wordle every day. So there is no set starting word in case you're wondering," he said, laughing. His older brother, John Prevost, has said the two of them also play the multiplayer game, Words with Friends, online regularly and compare scores.

So while Pope Leo XIV likes to play word games, his 19th-century predecessor liked to create them.

Pope Leo XIII, who died in 1903, created lengthy riddles, known as "charades," in Latin in which readers had to guess a rebus-like answer from two or more words that together formed the syllables of a new word.

Eight of his puzzles were published anonymously in "Vox Urbis," a Rome newspaper that was printed entirely in Latin between 1898 and 1913. The Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, published an article about this historical detail in 2014.

According to the article, any "Vox Urbis" reader who submitted the correct answer to the riddle received a book of Latin poetry written by either Pope Leo or another noted Catholic figure.  

The identity of the mysterious riddle-maker, however, was eventually revealed by a French reporter covering the Vatican for the daily newspaper Le Figaro.

Felix Ziegler published his scoop Jan. 9, 1899, a year after the puzzles started appearing, revealing that "Mr. X" was, in fact, the reigning pope, the Vatican newspaper said. 

In the pope's hometown, Carpineto Romano, which is about 35 miles southeast of Rome, students at the middle school named for him published 26 of the pope's Latin puzzles in a book titled, "Aenigmata: The Charades of Pope Leo XIII." It includes puzzles that teachers and pupils found, but which had never been published before.

One example of the pope's Latin riddles talked of a "little boat nimbly dancing," which sprang a leak as it "welcomed the shore so near advancing."

"The whole your eyes have known, your pallid cheeks have shown; for oh! the swelling tide no bravest heart could hide, when your dear mother died," continues the translation of part of the riddle-poem.

The answer, "lacrima," ("teardrop") merges clues elsewhere in the poem for "lac" ("milk") and "rima" ("leak" or "fissure").

Pope Leo XIII, who headed the universal church from 1878 to 1903, was a trained Vatican diplomat and a man of culture.

He was even a member of an exclusive society of learning founded in Rome in 1690 called the Academy of Arcadia, whose purpose was to "wage war on the bad taste" engulfing baroque Italy. Pope Leo, whose club name was "Neandro Ecateo," was the last pope to be a member of the circle of poets, artists, musicians and highly cultured aristocrats and religious. 

The pope was also passionate about hunting and viniculture. Unable to leave the confines of the Vatican after Italy was unified and the papal states brought to an end in 1870, he pursued his hobbies in the Vatican Gardens.

He had a wooden blind set up to hide in while trapping birds, which he then would set free immediately.

He also had his own small vineyard, which, according to one historical account, he tended himself, hoeing out the weeds, and visiting often for moments of prayer and writing poetry.

Apparently, one day, gunfire was heard from the pope's vineyard, triggering fears of a papal assassination attempt.

Instead, it turned out the pope had ordered a papal guard to send a salvo of bullets into the air to scare off the sparrows who were threatening his grape harvest.

Pope Leo XIII has the fourth-longest pontificate in history -- at 25 years -- after being nudged out of third place by St. John Paul II, who was pope for more than 26 years. St. Peter is considered the longest-reigning pontiff at 34 years. 

Pope Leo XIII wrote 86 encyclicals, including the church's groundbreaking "Rerum Novarum," which ushered in the era of Catholic social teaching.

Known for his openness to historical sciences, Pope Leo ordered in 1881 that the Vatican Secret Archives be open to researchers, and he formally established the Vatican Observatory in 1891 as a visible sign of the church's centuries-old support for science.

WASHINGTON - “We are tremendously grateful for the Administration’s work to address certain challenges facing foreign-born religious workers, their employers, and the American communities they serve,” said Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), and Bishop Brendan J. Cahill, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Migration. 

Today, the Trump Administration issued an Interim Final Rule that will soon be published in the Federal Register, which will impact foreign-born religious workers seeking to continue their ministries in the United States. Catholic priests, religious, and others who hold religious worker (R-1) visas are generally required to depart the United States upon reaching the maximum period of stay for that visa (five years) and then can possibly return to the country on a subsequent R-1 visa. Previously, they were required to spend at least one full year outside of the United States between R-1 visas. The rule announced today amends federal regulations to require no minimum time outside of the country before religious workers can return on a subsequent R-1 visa, provided they meet all other requirements. 

This modification gives relief to religious workers and the communities they serve while the religious workers await legal permanent residency (commonly referred to as a “green card”). The wait time for a green card for religious workers has grown to several decades long. For multiple years, the USCCB has been alerting policymakers to the hardship this situation creates for religious organizations and people of faith, especially in more isolated or rural parts of the country. Together with interfaith partners, the bishops have been advocating since 2023 for the specific regulatory change published today. 

Archbishop Coakley and Bishop Cahill’s full statement follows: 

“We are tremendously grateful for the Administration’s work to address certain challenges facing foreign-born religious workers, their employers, and the American communities they serve. The value of the Religious Worker Visa Program and our appreciation for the efforts undertaken to support it cannot be overstated. This targeted change is a truly significant step that will help facilitate essential religious services for Catholics and other people of faith throughout the United States by minimizing disruptions to cherished ministries. 

“In order to provide the full extent of the relief needed and truly promote the free exercise of religion in our country, we continue to urge Congress to enact the bipartisan Religious Workforce Protection Act.” 

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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- If Christians are to speak about God, then they must dedicate time each day and week to listening to God's word in prayer and the liturgy, Pope Leo XIV said.

"We are called to live and cultivate friendship with the Lord" through prayer, he said Jan. 14 during his weekly general audience.

"This is achieved first of all in liturgical and community prayer, in which we do not decide what to hear from the Word of God, but it is he himself who speaks to us through the Church," he said. "It is then achieved in personal prayer, which takes place in the interiority of the heart and mind."

"Time dedicated to prayer, meditation and reflection cannot be lacking in the Christian's day and week," he said. "Only when we speak with God can we also speak about him." 

Speaking to visitors gathered in the Paul VI Audience Hall for the general audience, the pope continued a new series of talks dedicated to the Second Vatican Council, which "rediscovered the face of God as the Father who, in Christ, calls us to be his children," Pope Leo said in his first talk introducing the series Jan. 7.

He dedicated his Jan. 14 catechesis to the Vatican II Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, "Dei Verbum," calling it "one of the most beautiful and important" documents of the council.

The document, published in 1965, affirms "a fundamental point of Christian faith," that "Jesus Christ radically transforms man's relationship with God," who is no longer invisible or distant, but has been made flesh, he said.

Out of the abundance of his love, the Lord "speaks to men as friends and lives among them, so that he may invite and take them into fellowship with himself," he said. "The only condition of the New Covenant is love." 

While the Covenant is eternal, and "nothing can separate us from his love," the revelation of God has "the dialogical nature of friendship," which "does not tolerate silence, but is nurtured by the exchange of true words," he said.

Just as human friendships can end with "a dramatic gesture of rupture or because of a series of daily acts of neglect that erode the relationship until it is lost," one's friendship with Jesus must be cultivated and cared for daily, Pope Leo said.

Therefore, the first step is to cultivate an "attitude of listening, so that the divine Word may penetrate our minds and our hearts," he said. "At the same time, we are required to speak with God, not to communicate to him what he already knows, but to reveal ourselves to ourselves."

"If Jesus calls us to be friends, let us not leave this call unheeded," he said.

"Let us take care of this relationship, and we will discover that friendship with God is our salvation," he said.

Pope Leo: Accept God's invitation of friendship!

A look at Pope Leo's general audience Jan. 14, 2026. (CNS video/Robert Duncan)

WASHINGTON – “Dr. King encouraged people to be leaders in the priorities that Christ gave us in the Gospel,” said Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in a reflection commemorating the late civil rights leader’s life and legacy. Archbishop Coakley focused his reflection for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on a portion of Dr. King’s sermon, Drum Major Instinct:

“Let us take a moment to honor the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose prophetic voice was a ‘drum major for justice.’ His inspiring words continue to speak to our hearts today: 

‘Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter.’

“What does it mean to be ‘a drum major’ in our own communities? Dr. King’s sermon encouraged people to be leaders in the priorities that Christ gave us: to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, care for the sick, and visit those in prison. Through the social service and charitable ministries of the Catholic Church, we strive to embody the Gospel mandate at the local and community levels. But just as important is the challenge to help the faithful to authentically live out this call. Our special message on immigration and our commitment to continue addressing the sin of racism are two recent examples that serve as efforts to be drum majors of love in our communities.

“In our pastoral letter against racism, we bishops affirm Dr. King’s leadership in bringing together people of faith in the work of racial justice, noting ‘that spirit is integral to the fight today.’ As we remember Dr. King and commemorate his legacy, let us continue this work as drum majors and engage in actions of compassion and mercy. 

“I encourage you to take time to reflect on how the Holy Spirit may be inviting you to join with others in addressing challenges within our families, neighborhoods, or communities. May we lead the way in building a society rooted in justice, peace, righteousness, and the dignity of every human person.”

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WASHINGTON – “We must continue to support pregnant and parenting mothers in need and offer spiritual and emotional help to all who have participated in abortion,” said Bishop Daniel E. Thomas, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, marking the 53rd anniversary of the decision by the Supreme Court of the United States in Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion nationwide. Noting there have been several pro-life victories since Roe was overturned in 2022, he cautioned that human life is still gravely threatened by legalized abortion as it continues to be aggressively promoted at the state and federal level.

Bishop Thomas’ full statement follows:

“January 22 marks the anniversary of the tragic U.S. Supreme Court decision, Roe v. Wade, that legalized abortion nationwide and led to the loss of over 65 million children and immeasurable harm to their parents and family members. This solemn day is commemorated each year with the observance of the Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children for prayer, penance, and our personal recommitment to the cause of life.

“We continue to give thanks to God for the opportunity to defend human life in law through the overturn of Roe in 2022. Since that time, we have seen several pro-life victories. Most recently, at the national level, Congress acted heroically last year in largely defunding Planned Parenthood of federal taxpayer dollars. Meanwhile the Administration has reversed several of its predecessor’s pro-abortion policies.

“Despite these successes, human life is still gravely threatened by legalized abortion as it continues to be aggressively promoted at the state and federal level. Many challenges remain, including pro-abortion ballot initiatives, the increased use and availability of abortion pills, and the need to protect the Hyde Amendment to keep taxpayer funded abortion out of national health care bills. We must continue to support pregnant and parenting mothers in need and offer spiritual and emotional help to all who have participated in abortion. Our united prayers, sacrifices, and efforts to protect human life and heal the wounds inflicted by abortion remain as important as ever. 

“As our Holy Father Pope Leo XIV has said, ‘God's mercy calls us to protect every life, especially those society overlooks—the child yet to be born and the elderly nearing their journey's end—because each bears Christ's face.’

“May we see the face of Christ in every single person, in every pregnant mother, and every child in the womb. Let us remain steadfast in our commitment to ensure that every human life may be protected in law and welcomed in love, and that abortion may be unthinkable.”

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WASHINGTON – Catholics across the country are encouraged to observe a nationwide prayer vigil from Thursday, January 22 to Friday, January 23, 2026, to pray for an end to abortion and a greater respect for all human life.

The National Prayer Vigil for Life is hosted each January by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities, the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, and The Catholic University of America’s Office of Campus Ministry. The vigil has always taken place on the eve of the March for Life, which marks the date of the historic 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.

The Opening Mass will take place in the Great Upper Church at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. at 5:00 PM on Thursday, January 22. The principal celebrant and homilist for the Opening Mass will be Bishop Daniel E. Thomas, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Pro-Life Activities. 

Following the Opening Mass, a 7:00 PM National Holy Hour for Life will take place in the Crypt Church (lower level) of the Basilica, which will include Recitation of the Rosary and Benediction. Bishop James T. Ruggieri of the Diocese of Portland, will be the presider for the holy hour. The vigil concludes at 8:00 AM on Friday, January 23 with the Closing Mass celebrated by Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley, OFM, Cap., archbishop emeritus of Boston. The full event schedule and additional details may be found on the Basilica’s event page at https://www.nationalshrine.org/event/2026-national-prayer-vigil-for-life/. 

The live television broadcasts on January 22 for the 5:00 PM Opening Mass and the January 23 Closing Mass at 8:00 AM will be provided by the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN)
and will be available via live-stream on the Basilica’s website at www.nationalshrine.org/mass.  For more information about on-site attendance at the Basilica for the National Prayer Vigil for Life, please visit the information page on the Basilica’s website.

Overnight seminarian-led holy hours will also be taking place from January 22-23 from 9:00 PM – 8:00 AM. For more information about the overnight holy hours and the accompanying livestream, please visit the USCCB’s website. 

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