October 7, 2025 // National

News Briefs: October 12, 2025

OSV NEWS

Cardinal Cupich: Senator Durbin ‘Has Decided Not to Receive’ Controversial Lifetime Achievement Award

CHICAGO (OSV News) – Senator Dick Durbin, D-Ill., has decided not to receive a “Lifetime Achievement Award,” scheduled to be presented in November at the archdiocese’s “Keep Hope Alive” celebration, according to a statement by Chicago Cardinal Blase J. Cupich on Tuesday, September 30. The award, scheduled to be given to Durbin for his work on immigration issues, had been met with significant opposition from several Catholic bishops due to the Catholic senator’s longstanding public position in favor of abortion. “While I am saddened by this news, I respect his decision,” Cardinal Cupich said in his statement. “But I want to make clear that the decision to present him an award was specifically in recognition of his singular contribution to immigration reform and his unwavering support of immigrants, which is so needed in our day.” The decision came only hours after Pope Leo XIV commented on Cardinal Cupich’s decision to give Durbin the award, saying he was “not terribly familiar with the particular case” but asking for Catholics to have respect for one another when they “look closely at all of these ethical issues,” adding “The church teaching on each one of those issues is very clear.” In comments posted on Wednesday, October 1, to his Facebook page, Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki of Springfield, in whose diocese Durbin resides, said he was “grateful Senator Durbin has declined this Lifetime Achievement Award. As we begin Respect Life Month, I ask that all Catholics continue to pray for our Church, our country, and for the human dignity of all people to be respected in all stages of life including the unborn and immigrants.”

Key Church Anniversary Sparks Reparation Calls from English Catholics

OXFORD, England (OSV News) – As England marks 175 years since the Catholic hierarchy was restored under Pope Pius IX’s “Universalis Ecclesiae,” calls are growing for a national reckoning with centuries of anti-Catholic persecution. Timothy Guile of the Catholic History Association said there’s never been an apology for brutal laws that once banned Catholic worship, barred Catholics from owning land or holding office, and led to imprisonment or death for priests. “These enormous historic injustices have simply never been addressed and have left Catholics visibly poor and marginalised alongside their Anglican neighbours,” a Church of England administrator who preferred to remain anonymous told OSV News. While Cardinal Vincent Nichols praised past Catholic resilience in a pastoral letter read across England, some Anglican voices now say it’s time to acknowledge their Church’s role. The senior Anglican administrator said atonement is a “moral duty,” similar to how the Church of England recently pledged reparations for its role in slavery. Guile for his part hopes for a clear expression of regret, adding that healing history begins not with politics, but with truth, humility and justice.

New Jersey Catholic School Teacher Placed on Leave Due to Surrogate Pregnancy

VINELAND, New Jersey (OSV News) – A Catholic school educator in New Jersey has been pulled from her classroom, after she advised a school official her pregnancy was a surrogacy – a practice gravely contrary to Church teaching – while the church engages her in a pastoral conversation about the matter. Jadira Bonilla, a Catholic who teaches kindergarten at St. Mary Catholic School in Vineland, New Jersey, is “currently on paid administrative leave,” said Principal Steven P. Hogan, in a statement provided to OSV News on Wednesday, October 1, by the Diocese of Camden, of which the school is a part. In an interview with Philadelphia television station 6ABC aired on Friday, September 26, the 35-year-old Bonilla said about two weeks prior, she had revealed to a school administrator she was carrying a baby for a couple. The married teacher noted it was her second surrogacy and expressed surprise as her previous surrogate pregnancy took place while she was employed at a different Catholic school. The Catholic Church opposes surrogacy based on its holistic understanding of human sexuality, the goods of marriage, and the flourishing of family life, as well as the rights of the child to “be conceived, carried in the womb, brought into the world and brought up by his own parents.” A spokesperson for the Diocese of Camden confirmed to OSV News by email that “a pastoral conversation on the Catholic perspective took place” on Saturday, September 27, and that as of October 1, “there has been no change to her employment status.”

March for Life Reveals 2026 Theme for the Pro-Life Cause

WASHINGTON, D.C. (OSV News) – The 2026 National March for Life theme is “Life is a Gift,” officials with The March for Life Education and Defense Fund announced on Tuesday, September 30. Jennie Bradley Lichter, who became president of the March for Life earlier this year, noted the group chooses a theme each year for the annual pro-life march in Washington, D.C. as “an opportunity to focus our attention on a key message or a timely element of the pro-life mission.” At a launch event, Lichter told reporters, “We’re now at a critical moment in our country where the March for Life and what we stand for is more important than ever. This year, with this theme, we really want to speak to the heart.” The 53rd annual National March for Life is scheduled for Friday, January 23. A pre-rally concert will feature the Christian band Sanctus Real, Lichter said, and the Friends of Club 21 Choir, comprised of individuals with Down syndrome, will lead the national anthem at the event. Georgetown University Right to Life will carry the banner to lead the March. Lichter said the group is also launching a “Marchers’ Stories Project” where they will seek video submissions from participants to document the group’s history.

Why St. Thérèse Continues to Inspire Believers Today – Especially Those Who Suffer

LISIEUX, France (OSV News) – More than 125 years after her death, St. Thérèse of Lisieux is once again capturing hearts as her relics begin a U.S. tour. Known as “The Little Flower,” the French Carmelite nun died at just 24, but her “little way” of trust and love has made her one of the most beloved saints in modern Catholicism. Carmelite Father Jan Maria Malicki told OSV News that St. Thérèse wasn’t a “saint of sugary devotion,” but a mystic who embraced spiritual darkness and suffering with radical faith. Her path to holiness wasn’t through grand gestures, but through quiet fidelity – patience, prayer, and love in the hidden moments of daily convent life. Declared a Doctor of the Church in 1997, St. Thérèse’s message remains deeply relevant: true faith matures in darkness and does not depend on feelings. “It is a demanding path, not spectacular, but radically evangelical,” Father Malicki said. Her life reminds us that holiness is possible in the ordinary, and that love, even in secret, changes the world. “Parents, workers, students, the sick, the elderly – everyone can follow her path,” he said. “Her genius was showing that everyday life is the place of sanctity, and that faith grows strongest not in ease, but in quiet fidelity.”

Migrants, Refugees are Often Models of Hope and Faith, Pope Says

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Migrants and refugees often are “privileged witnesses of hope through their resilience and trust in God,” Pope Leo XIV said. “Often they maintain their strength while seeking a better future, in spite of the obstacles that they encounter,” he said on Thursday, October 2, during a meeting with participants in the conference “Refugees and Migrants in Our Common Home,” organized by the Augustinian-run Villanova University in suburban Philadelphia.

OSV News photo/Eloisa Lopez, Reuters
Jesiel Malinao, 34, who survived the recent magnitude 6.9 earthquake, sits between the coffins of her two children during their wake in Bogo, Cebu, Philippines, on Thursday, October 2. Officials say the powerful offshore earthquake collapsed walls of houses and buildings late Tuesday, September 30, in a central Philippine province, killing dozens, injuring many others, and sending residents scrambling out of homes into darkness as the intense shaking cut off power.