September 9, 2025 // National

News Briefs: September 14, 2025

OSV NEWS

Jubilee Event to Honor Modern Martyrs as Symbols of Hope

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – In a Jubilee Year dedicated to hope, Pope Leo XIV and other Christian leaders will commemorate “new martyrs and witnesses of the faith” – people whose lives were signs of hope to the people around them and who died firm in the hope of being welcomed into God’s presence, said the secretary of the Vatican Dicastery for the Causes of Saints. Archbishop Fabio Fabene, dicastery secretary, told reporters on Monday, September 8, “Pope Leo hopes the blood of these martyrs will be seeds of peace, reconciliation, fraternity, and love.” Like Pope St. John Paul II did during the Holy Year 2000, Pope Leo will preside over an ecumenical prayer service on Sunday, September 14, for the Jubilee 2025 commemorating Catholics, Orthodox, Anglicans, and Protestants who died for their faith between 2000 and 2025. The ceremony will recognize 1,624 Christians whose names were submitted by bishops’ conferences, religious orders, and nunciatures from throughout the world.

Bishop Blesses 12-Year-Old Annunciation Shooting Victim

MINNEAPOLIS (OSV News) – Blessing her forehead and both hands with holy water from Lourdes, France, as she lay unconscious in a hospital bed in Minneapolis, Auxiliary Bishop Michael J. Izen of St. Paul and Minneapolis prayed for 12-year-old Sophia Forchas, left in critical condition with head injuries when bullets tore through Annunciation’s church in Minneapolis one week before. “Just ask people to pray. We’re going to win this,” Forchas’ father told Bishop Izen on Tuesday, September 2, at Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis. Seventeen other students at Annunciation’s elementary school were wounded when a person wielding three guns began shooting through stained-glass windows into the church, which is next door to the school. Forchas’ brother was in the church, too, but he was not injured in the August 27 shooting. Three adults were wounded in the shooting.

Holy See Official Tells Nations to End Threat of Nuclear Weapons

NEW YORK (OSV News) – Amid a global arms race, ending the threat of nuclear war – and even the testing of nuclear weapons – is imperative, said the Holy See’s leading diplomat to the United Nations. Archbishop Gabriele G. Caccia, the Holy See’s U.N. permanent observer, shared his thoughts in a statement he delivered on Thursday, September 4, at the U.N.’s headquarters in New York during the General Assembly High-Level Plenary Meeting to Commemorate and Promote the International Day Against Nuclear Tests, which was observed that same day. “The pursuit of a world free of nuclear weapons is not only a matter of strategic and vital necessity but also a profound moral responsibility,” Archbishop Caccia said in his remarks. He criticized post-World War II logic of nuclear deterrence following the U.S. atomic bombings on Japan, “a notion that continues to challenge moral reasoning and the international conscience.” Lamenting the soaring levels of conflict and militarization throughout the world, he said, “It is imperative that we move beyond a spirit of fear and resignation.” He quoted the exhortation of Pope Leo XIV in his June 18 general audience, saying: “We must never become accustomed to war. Indeed, the temptation to place our trust in powerful and sophisticated weapons must be firmly rejected.”

Pew Study Reveals Nonreligious Adults’ Nuanced Beliefs

WASHINGTON, D.C. (OSV News) – Those who are religiously unaffiliated are less likely to hold spiritual beliefs or engage in religious practices – but in a number of countries, many such “nones” have nuanced beliefs, and still hold there’s an unseen spiritual reality and life after death, despite their negative views of religion’s impact on society, according to officials who have conducted a new survey. On Thursday, September 4, officials with the Pew Research Center released the organization’s latest findings on “nones” – self-identified atheists, agnostics, and those who cite their religion as “nothing in particular” – based on nationally representative surveys covering 22 nations around the globe, including the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Throughout these nations, Pew found, “about a fifth or more of ‘nones’ believe in life after death.” At the same time, those segments can vary widely among nations. Pew researchers also found that “large shares of ‘nones’ in some countries say, ‘there is something spiritual beyond the natural world, even if we cannot see it.’” The Pew officials said that in “nearly all” of the 22 countries it focused on, the largest group of “nones” are those who list their religious affiliation as “nothing in particular,” rather than identifying as atheists or agnostics. Pew’s data also found “many ‘nones’ express negative views about religion’s influence on society,” with respondents in 12 of the 22 countries more likely to say religion encourages intolerance. Among the countries Pew studied, it found “adults ages 18 to 39 are much more likely than older adults to identify as ‘nones.’”

Pope Meets Israeli President, Discusses ‘Tragic’ Situation in Gaza

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – As Israeli military operations in Gaza continued, Pope Leo XIV met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog at the Vatican on Thursday, September 4. The meeting came just a week after Pope Leo appealed again for Israel and Hamas to stop the violence and for Hamas to release the hostages it has held since attacking Israel in October of 2023. With the pope and with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, Herzog discussed “the political and social situation in the Middle East … where numerous conflicts persist, with particular attention to the tragic situation in Gaza,” Vatican officials said in a statement. “A prompt resumption of negotiations was hoped for so that, with openness and courageous decisions, as well as with the support of the international community, it would be possible to secure the release of all hostages, urgently achieve a permanent ceasefire, facilitate the safe entry of humanitarian aid into the most affected areas, and ensure full respect for humanitarian law, as well as for the legitimate aspirations of both peoples,” the Vatican officials said.

Pope Inaugurates Center Dedicated to Zero-Waste, Inclusive Economy

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Surrounded by formal Italian gardens, ancient Roman ruins, and long avenues of lush trees, Pope Leo XIV inaugurated a new “zero-environmental impact” complex devoted to promoting Pope Francis’ teachings on caring for creation at the papal gardens in Castel Gandolfo. A newly built circular greenhouse, reminiscent of Bernini’s curved colonnade in St. Peter’s Square, and two new buildings, all topped with solar panels, make up the heart of Borgo Laudato Si’ – a project dedicated to promoting integral ecology, sustainability, and a circular and generative economy. Caring for creation “represents a true vocation for every human being, a commitment to be carried out within creation itself, without ever forgetting that we are creatures among creatures and not creators,” Pope Leo said in his homily during a prayer service in the greenhouse on Friday, September 5. “Borgo Laudato Si’, which we are inaugurating today, is one of the Church’s initiatives aimed at fulfilling this vocation to be protectors of God’s handiwork: a demanding but beautiful and fascinating task, which represents a major aspect of the Christian experience,” he said. The initiative, which seeks to make concrete the Church’s teaching about integral ecology, “is a seed of hope that Pope Francis has left us as his legacy,” he said, and it represents “a synthesis of extraordinary beauty, where spirituality, nature, history, art, work, and technology coexist in harmony.”

Pope Leo XIV sits on a modified BMW R18 motorcycle presented to him by members of the Jesus Bikers, a motorcycle club from Germany, and representatives of Missio Austria, the pontifical mission societies in Austria, in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican Sept. 3, 2025. The bike will be auctioned by Sotheby’s and Missio Austria will use the money to help build a school for children who work in the mica mines in Madagascar. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)