October 25, 2025 // National

News Briefs – October 26, 2025

OSV NEWS

Pope Leo XIV speaks to young adults aboard the “Bel Espoir” sailboat in the Ostia marina outside Rome Oct. 17, 2025. In rotating crews of 25, young adults have been sailing around the Mediterranean to speak about peace with their peers. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

Bishop Rhoades Among 10 Candidates for USCCB President, Vice President

WASHINGTON, D.C. (OSV News) – The U.S. bishops will elect the next president and vice president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops during their November 10-13 plenary assembly. The president and vice president are elected to a three-year term from a slate of 10 candidates nominated by their fellow bishops, officials with the USCCB said on Tuesday, October 14. Bishop Rhoades, who currently serves as chairman of the USCCB’s Committee for Religious Liberty, is among the candidates. The others (in alphabetical order) are: Bishop Robert E. Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota; Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City; Bishop Daniel E. Flores of Brownsville, Texas; Archbishop Richard G. Henning of Boston; Bishop David J. Malloy of Rockford, Illinois; Archbishop Nelson J. Pérez of Philadelphia; Archbishop Alexander K. Sample of Portland, Oregon; Archbishop Charles C. Thompson of Indianapolis; and Archbishop Edward J. Weisenburger of Detroit. The first election is of the president by simple majority vote of members present and voting. The vice president is then elected from the remaining nine candidates. The newly elected president and vice president begin their three-year terms at the conclusion of the plenary assembly. They will succeed the current USCCB president and vice president, Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services and Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore.

Archbishop: Army’s Cancellation of Religious Support Contracts Harms Catholics

WASHINGTON, D.C. (OSV News) – Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services said on Friday, October 17, that the U.S. Army has cancelled all religious support contracts for Army chapels, “including those for religious educators, administrators, and musicians,” which he argued placed “an insurmountable restriction on the free exercise of religion.” In a letter addressed to members of the military archdiocese, which he said will also be sent to all members of Congress, Archbishop Broglio said, “For those who attend Mass, visit chapel offices, or participate in faith formation on a U.S. Army installation, you likely noticed that beginning on Sunday, October 5, 2025, contract services and contractor offices were dark and music was absent during Mass.” The changes are not due to the government shutdown, he explained. A memorandum issued in March by the U.S. Army Installation Management Command “directed the cancellation of all chapel contracts” for coordinators of religious education, Catholic pastoral life coordinators, and musician contracts “across the U.S. Army.”

Marriage Is a ‘Noble, Exalted’ Vocation, Path to Holiness, Pope Says

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Sacramental marriage and traditional family life increase joy in the good times, give strength during hard times, and are a path to true holiness, Pope Leo XIV said. Marking the 10th anniversary of the canonization of Sts. Louis and Zélie Martin, the parents of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Pope Leo said the couple “bears witness to the ineffable happiness and profound joy that God grants, both here on earth and for eternity, to those who commit themselves to this path of fidelity and fruitfulness.” The pope’s comments came in a message to Bishop Bruno Feillet of Séez, France, the home diocese of the Martin family. The message was released on Saturday, October 18, the date of the anniversary of the Martins becoming “the first couple to be canonized as such,” the pope said.

Pope Leo Meets with Coalition of Survivors of Clergy Abuse

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Leo XIV met with a coalition of survivors of abuse and victims’ advocates for the first time at the Vatican on Monday, October 20. Members of the board of Ending Clergy Abuse met with the pope for about an hour in a closed-door meeting that was later confirmed by Vatican officials. “This was a deeply meaningful conversation,” Gemma Hickey, ECA board president and survivor of clergy abuse in Canada, said in a news release. “It reflects a shared commitment to justice, healing, and real change.” In the statement, Hickey said that “survivors have long sought a seat at the table, and today we felt heard.” At a news conference, according to Reuters, Hickey said: “Pope Leo is very warm; he listened. … We told him that we come as bridge-builders, ready to walk together toward truth, justice, and healing.” While the group of six people representing ECA met with the pope, video clips from the Vatican also showed a separate meeting between Pope Leo and Pedro Salinas, a Peruvian journalist and abuse survivor. Salinas, a former member of Sodalitium Christianae Vitae who suffered physical and psychological abuse by the movement’s founder, Luis Fernando Figari, is seen in the footage giving the pope a copy of his new book, “The Truth Sets Us Free,” in Spanish.

World Hunger Is ‘Collective Failure,’ Pope Says on World Food Day

ROME (CNS) – “Allowing millions of human beings to live – and die – as victims of hunger is a collective failure, an ethical aberration, a historical fault,” Pope Leo XIV said on World Food Day. The pope drove across Rome on Thursday, October 16, to address world leaders and government representatives at the headquarters of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. In addition to marking World Food Day, the delegates were celebrating the 80th anniversary of FAO’s establishment. In his speech, Pope Leo decried the fact that while humanity has made huge advances in technology, medicine, agriculture, and transportation, 673 million people go to bed hungry each night, and 2.3 billion people cannot afford a healthy diet. The FAO statistics are not just numbers, he said; “behind each of these numbers is a broken life, a vulnerable community.” The pope said that “current conflict scenarios have brought back the use of food as a weapon of war.” The “cruel strategy” of using food as a weapon of war, the pope said, “condemns men, women and children to hunger by denying them the most basic right: the right to life.”

Report Claims Attacks on Religious Liberty Throughout the World Are Increasing

ROME (CNS) – Religious freedom is not only a fundamental and essential human right, “it is also a pathway to truth and deeper communion with God and neighbor,” said Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state. However, religious freedom is severely restricted in 62 of the world’s 196 countries, affecting approximately 5.4 billion people; “in other words, almost two-thirds of the world’s population lives in countries where serious violations of religious freedom take place,” the cardinal said. Cardinal Parolin was citing information contained in the 2025 Religious Freedom Report compiled by the papal foundation Aid to the Church in Need and released on Tuesday, October 21, during a conference at Rome’s Augustinianum Patristic Institute. The fact that the 2025 report runs 1,248 pages, the largest in its 25-year history, “indicates that violations of religious freedom are increasing year on year,” the cardinal said.