Fernando Moscardó (center) and his friend Patricia (far left) meet with Pope Leo XIV and Bishop Mikel Garciandía of Palencia (right) after the Holy Father’s general audience on Wednesday, June 11, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Jun 14, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Following the June 11 general audience, Pope Leo XIV spoke with young people who have embarked on a “spiritual revolution” to restore Europe’s soul.

Fernando Moscardó, 22, coordinates the initiative, titled “Rome ‘25-the Way of St. James ‘27-Jerusalem ‘33,” which aims to tell the world that “another Europe is possible” through pilgrimages, evangelization, and healing.

Shortly after meeting with the Holy Father in St. Peter’s Square, the young Spanish medical student told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, that the meeting “was awesome.”

“It was an overwhelming experience, filled with great joy, both for him and for us at that moment. To give [information on] this project to the vicar of Christ on earth, well, imagine, it’s something spectacular,” he emphasized.

Moscardó, along with his classmate Patricia and the bishop of Palencia, Mikel Garciandía, were able to explain the initiative to the Holy Father, which aims to open up a pathway to faith and hope for a new European generation in view of the Jubilee of the Redemption, which will be celebrated in 2033.

During the month of June, local pilgrimages are being held throughout Europe, culminating on Aug. 1 with the proclamation of a “Manifesto of the Young Christians of Europe” in St. Mary’s Basilica in Trastevere, Rome.

According to Moscardó, Pope Leo XIV assured them that he “would follow it closely.” They also invited him to participate in the signing of the manifesto.

“Just as we invite all young people and all those who empathize with and are close to young people and who truly dream of this new generation,” Moscardó said.

He also stated that, when the meeting with the pontiff ended, “it was hard for us to realize what we had just experienced, it was hard for us to bring our feet back to earth, we couldn’t believe it.”

“We know this is just another step along the way, that this doesn’t mean everything is done; on the contrary, everything remains to be done, especially knowing that we now have the Holy Father’s watchful eye,” Moscardó indicated.

“We are under even more pressure, if possible,” the young man continued, “to ensure everything goes perfectly and for this manifesto to truly be the united voice of young Christians who seek with the thirst of Christ this new generation.”

The organizers are working on a website to provide all the necessary information about the activities as well as on their social media channels, which will be called J2R2033 (Journey to Redemption 2033). 

After the audience with Pope Leo XIV, they met with the organizers of the Jubilee of Hope in preparation for Aug. 1, when the manifesto will be signed.

“In the afternoon, we had another meeting at St. Mary’s in Trastevere to begin finalizing details for this great celebration in which we wish to proclaim this united voice of Europe, calling for a new generation with soul and centered anew in Christ,” he concluded.

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

Mother Carmen Rendiles and Dr. José Gregorio Hernández are scheduled to be proclaimed Venezuela’s first saints on Oct. 19, 2025. / Credit: Courtesy of Mother Carmen of Venezuela/public domain

Vatican City, Jun 13, 2025 / 17:39 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV will canonize seven blesseds on Oct. 19, including two Venezuelans: José Gregorio Hernández Cisneros, considered the “doctor of the poor,” and María del Carmen Rendiles Martínez, a nun and founder of the Sister Slaves of Jesus.

The canonizations were confirmed by the Holy See Press Office on June 13 following the decision by the pope during the first consistory of his pontificate.

In addition to Hernández and Rendiles, who are highly venerated in Latin America, the blesseds who will be proclaimed saints in October are: Ignazio Choukrallah Maloyan, an Armenian bishop and martyr killed in 1915 during the Ottoman genocide; Peter To Rot, a lay catechist from Papua New Guinea, martyred during the Japanese occupation in World War II; Vincenza Maria Poloni, founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy of Verona; Maria Troncatti, an Italian Salesian missionary known for her work among the Shuar Indigenous people of Ecuador; and Bartolo Longo, an Italian lawyer, former Satanic priest converted to Catholicism, promoter of the recitation of the rosary, and founder of the Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii.

This consistory, held in the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace, was originally convened by Pope Francis at the end of February while he was hospitalized, although no specific date was set at the time.

At that meeting with cardinals, Leo XIV also decreed that Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati would also be canonized along with Blessed Carlo Acutis on Sept. 7. This will be the first canonization ceremony presided over by the new pontiff.

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

Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, who died at the age of 24 in 1925, is beloved by many Catholic young people today for his enthusiastic witness to holiness that reaches “to the heights.” / Credit: Public domain

Vatican City, Jun 13, 2025 / 17:09 pm (CNA).

The Vatican has recognized two miracles attributed to Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati’s intercession that make possible his canonization on Sept. 7. The most recent miracle involved the healing of an American seminarian.

Frassati, who died at the age of 24 in 1925, is beloved by many Catholic young people today for his enthusiastic witness to holiness that reaches “to the heights.”

The young man from the northern Italian city of Turin was an avid mountaineer and Third Order Dominican known for his charitable outreach.

Pope Leo XIV will canonize Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati together with Blessed Carlo Acutis on Sept. 7 as the first new saints declared in his pontificate.

The miracle

Pope Francis recognized the miraculous healing in a decree on Nov. 25, 2024, of a seminarian of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles who was ordained a priest in June 2023.

Father Juan Gutierrez, 38, then a seminarian at St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo, California, tore his Achilles tendon while playing basketball with other seminarians in 2017. 

Concerned about the long and painful recovery and expenses, Gutierrez headed for the seminary chapel the day after getting an MRI “with a heavy heart.” 

As he prayed, Gutierrez felt inspired to make a novena to Frassati. A few days into the novena, Gutierrez went into the chapel to pray when nobody was there. As he prayed, he recalled feeling an unusual sensation around his injured foot.

“I was praying, and I started to feel a sensation of heat around the area of my injury. And I honestly thought that maybe something was catching on fire, underneath the pews,” Gutierrez recalled at a press conference on Dec. 16, 2024, at St. John the Baptist Parish in Los Angeles County, where he now serves as an associate pastor. 

The seminarian remembered from his experiences with the charismatic renewal movement that heat can be associated with healing from God. He found himself gazing at the tabernacle, weeping. 

“That event touched me deeply,” Gutierrez said.

He was not only touched spiritually, but he was also healed physically. Incredibly, he was able to walk normally again and no longer needed a brace.

Monsignor Robert Sarno, a former official of the Vatican Dicastery for the Causes of Saints who served as the archiepiscopal delegate in the diocesan process in Los Angeles that examined the healing, told CNA that when Gutierrez went to the orthopedic surgeon a week later, “the orthopedic surgeon, after seeing the MRI and conducting physical investigations, said to him, ‘You must have someone in heaven who likes you.’”

Gutierrez was able to immediately resume playing the sports that he loved without any difficulties. The healing was verified by a diocesan inquiry and the examination of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints’ medical board, theologians, and the cardinals and bishops.

Sarno noted that it is fitting that a young man playing basketball received the healing given that Frassati was known for his love of sport and outdoor activities.

‘To the heights’ of holiness

Born on Holy Saturday, April 6, 1901, Frassati was the son of the founder and director of the Italian newspaper La Stampa.

At the age of 17, he joined the St. Vincent de Paul Society and dedicated much of his spare time to taking care of the poor, the homeless, and the sick as well as demobilized servicemen returning from World War I.

Frassati was also involved in the Apostleship of Prayer and Catholic Action. He obtained permission to receive daily Communion.

On a photograph of what would be his last climb, Frassati wrote the phrase, “Verso L’Alto,” which means “to the heights.” This phrase has become a motto for Catholics inspired by Frassati to strive for the summit of eternal life with Christ.

Frassati died of polio on July 4, 1925. His doctors later speculated that the young man had caught polio while serving the sick.

Pope John Paul II, who beatified Frassati in 1990, called him a “man of the Eight Beatitudes,” describing him as “entirely immersed in the mystery of God and totally dedicated to the constant service of his neighbor.”

For Gutierrez, his healing is a reminder “that prayer works.” 

“The saints can help us to pray for our needs and that there is somebody listening to our prayers,” he said. “God is always listening to our prayers.”

A version of this story was originally published on Nov. 24, 2024, and was updated on June 13, 2025.

Pope Leo XIV presides over the first ordinary public consistory of cardinals of his pontificate on June 13, 2025, at the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Jun 13, 2025 / 16:39 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV stated that “the gravest poverty is not to know God” and that having him accompany us on the journey of life puts material wealth into perspective, because “we discover the real treasure that we need.”

“Wealth often disappoints and can lead to tragic situations of poverty — above all the poverty born of the failure to recognize our need for God and of the attempt to live without him,” the pontiff noted.

The Holy Father made these observations in his message, released June 13 by the Vatican press office, for the ninth World Day of the Poor, which will be held on Sunday, Nov. 16.

As Pope Francis did when he decried the globalization of indifference, Pope Leo warned of the risk of “becoming hardened and resigned” in the face of new forms of impoverishment.

He thus framed the social responsibility of promoting the common good, which characterizes the Catholic Church, as grounded in “God’s creative act, which gives everyone a share in the goods of the earth,” and like these goods, “the fruits of human labor should be equally accessible to all.” 

The pontiff quoted St. Augustine on the subject: “You give bread to a hungry person; but it would be better if none were hungry, so that you would have no need to give it away. You clothe the naked, but would that all were clothed and that there be no need for supply this lack.”

The Holy Father made it clear that helping the poor is “a matter of justice before it is a question of charity.” He also noted how when we encounter poor or impoverished people, sometimes “we too may have less than before and are losing what once seemed secure: a home, sufficient food for each day, access to health care and a good education, information, religious freedom, and freedom of expression.”

For the pontiff, the World Day of the Poor seeks to remind the Church that the poor are “at the heart of all our pastoral activity,” not only of its ”charitable work but also of the message that she celebrates and proclaims.”

“God took on their poverty in order to enrich us through their voices, their stories, and their faces,” he noted in the message he signed June 13, the feast of St. Anthony of Padua, the patron saint of the poor.

In fact, in the text he made it clear that the poor “are not a distraction for the Church but our beloved brothers and sisters.” In this sense, he emphasized that “by their lives, their words, and their wisdom, they put us in contact with the truth of the Gospel.”

The Holy Father emphasized in his message that the poor are not mere “recipients” of the Church’s pastoral care but rather defined them as “creative subjects” who challenge us “to find novel ways of living out the Gospel today.”

In this way, he pointed out that every form of poverty is a call “to experience the Gospel concretely and to offer effective signs of hope.”

The pope noted how people without resources can become witnesses of a “a strong and steadfast hope, precisely because they embody it in the midst of uncertainty, poverty, instability, and marginalization.”

“They cannot rely on the security of power and possessions; on the contrary, they are at their mercy and often victims of them. Their hope must necessarily be sought elsewhere,” he added.

Thus, he indicated that when God is placed at the center as “our first and only hope,” it is precisely when “we too pass from fleeting hopes to a lasting hope.”

Worst discrimination suffered by poor is ‘lack of spiritual care’

The pontiff cited the encyclical Evangelii Gaudium of his predecessor, Pope Francis, who stated that the worst discrimination suffered by the poor is “the lack of spiritual care.”

“This is a rule of faith and the secret of hope: All this earth’s goods, material realities, worldly pleasures, economic prosperity, however important, cannot bring happiness to our hearts,” he emphasized.

The Holy Father also reflected on the “circular relationship” that exists between the three theological virtues: faith, hope, and charity. “Hope is born of faith, which nourishes and sustains it on the foundation of charity, the mother of all virtues. All of us need charity, here and now,” he said.

Pope Leo therefore affirmed that charity is a reality that “engages us and guides our decisions toward the common good” and pointed out that “those who lack charity not only lack faith and hope; they also rob their neighbors of hope.”

Referring specifically to the Christian hope that the Word of God proclaims, he noted that it is a “certainty at every step of life’s journey” because it does not depend on human strength “but on the promise of God, who is always faithful.”

For this reason, he said that Christians, from the beginning, have sought to identify hope with the symbol of the anchor, which provides stability and security. “Amid life’s trials, our hope is inspired by the firm and reassuring certainty of God’s love, poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. That hope does not disappoint,” he reiterated.

Charity is the greatest social commandment of the Church

Therefore, Leo emphasized that the biblical summons to hope entails “the duty to shoulder our responsibilities in history, without hesitation,” noting that “charity, in fact, is the greatest social commandment,” as stated in No. 1889 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

The pontiff explained that “poverty has structural causes that must be addressed and eliminated. In the meantime, each of us is called to offer new signs of hope that will bear witness to Christian charity, just as many saints have done over the centuries.”

For the pope, hospitals and schools are institutions created to reach out to the most vulnerable and marginalized, and they “should be part of every country’s public policy.” However, he lamented that “wars and inequalities often prevent this from happening.”

He also highlighted as concrete examples of hope “group homes, communities for minors, centers for listening and acceptance, soup kitchens, homeless shelters, and schools for low-income students.” 

And, he added: “How many of these quiet signs of hope often go unnoticed and yet are so important for setting aside our indifference and inspiring others to become involved in various forms of volunteer work!”

Finally, he called for promoting the development of policies to combat “forms of poverty both old and new, as well as implementing new initiatives to support and assist the poorest of the poor.”

“Labor, education, housing, and health are the foundations of a security that will never be attained by the use of arms. I express my appreciation for those initiatives that already exist, and for the efforts demonstrated daily on the international level by great numbers of men and women of goodwill,” he said.

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

Blessed Carlo Acutis. / Credit: Diocese of Assisi

Vatican City, Jun 13, 2025 / 15:09 pm (CNA).

It’s official! Pope Leo XIV will canonize Blessed Carlo Acutis on Sept. 7 together with Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati as the first new saints of his pontificate. A gamer and computer coder who loved the Eucharist, Carlo Acutis will be the first millennial Catholic saint.

So who is Blessed Carlo? Here’s what you need to know:

1. Carlo Acutis was born May 3, 1991, in London, where his father was working. Just a few months later, he moved with his parents, Andrea Acutis and Antonia Salzano, to Milan, Italy, where he grew up.

2. Carlo was diagnosed with leukemia as a teenager. Before his death in 2006, he offered his sufferings for Pope Benedict XVI and for the Church, saying: “I offer all of my suffering to the Lord for the pope and for the Church in order not to go to purgatory but to go straight to heaven.”

3. From a young age, Carlo had a special love for God, even though his parents weren’t especially devout. Antonia Salzano, his mom, said that before Carlo, she went to Mass only for her first Communion, her confirmation, and her wedding. But as a young child, Carlo loved to pray the rosary. After he made his first Communion, he went to Mass as often as possible at the parish across from his elementary school. Carlo’s love for the Eucharist also inspired a deep conversion for his mother. According to the postulator promoting his cause for sainthood, he “managed to drag his relatives, his parents to Mass every day. It was not the other way around; it was not his parents bringing the little boy to Mass, but it was he who managed to get himself to Mass and to convince others to receive Communion daily.” Salzano spoke to “EWTN News Nightly” in October 2023 about her son’s devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. She said: “He used to say, ‘There are queues in front of a concert, in front of a football match, but I don’t see these queues in front of the Blessed Sacrament’ ... So, for him the Eucharist was the center of his life.”

4. Carlo’s witness of faith as a child led adults to convert and be baptized. Rajesh Mohur, who worked for the Acutis family as an au pair when Carlo was young, converted from Hinduism to Catholicism because of Carlo’s witness. Carlo taught Mohur how to pray the rosary and told him about the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Mohur said that one of the things that most impressed him as a non-Christian was the witness of Carlo’s love and concern for the poor — how he interacted with the homeless man who would sit at the entrance of the church and would bring tupperware dishes filled with food out to people living on the streets.

5. Carlo wasn’t afraid to defend Church teaching, even in situations when his classmates disagreed with him. Many of Carlo’s high school classmates remember Carlo giving a passionate defense for the protection of life from the moment of conception when there was a classroom discussion about abortion. 

6. Carlo was a faithful friend. He was known for standing up for kids at school who got bullied, particularly a classmate with special needs. When a friend’s parents were getting a divorce, Carlo made a special effort to include his friend in the Acutis’ family life. With his friends, he spoke about the importance of going to Mass and confession, human dignity, and chastity.

7. Carlo was fascinated with computer coding and taught himself some of the basic coding languages, including C and C++. He used his computer skills and internet savvy to help his family put together an exhibition on Eucharistic miracles that has gone on to be displayed at thousands of parishes on five continents. His spiritual director has attested that Carlo was personally convinced that the scientific evidence from Eucharistic miracles would help people to realize that Jesus is really present in the Eucharist and come back to Mass.

8. Carlo loved playing video games. His mother recalls that he liked Nintendo Game Boy and GameCube as well as PlayStation and Xbox. He had conversations with his gaming buddies about the importance of going to Mass and confession and limited his video game playing to no more than two hours per week. Carlo also liked Spider-Man and Pokémon.

9. Carlo died on Oct. 12, 2006, and was buried in Assisi. Initially, there were reports that Carlo’s body was found to be incorrupt, but the bishop of Assisi clarified before his beatification that his body was not incorrupt. His body lies in repose in a glass tomb in Assisi where he can be seen in jeans and a pair of Nike sneakers. Thousands came to pray at his tomb at the time of his beatification in October 2020.

   📹VIDEO | Highlights of the Beatification Mass of Carlo Acutis celebrated in Assisi, Italy. His parents and siblings attended the ceremony. His heart was presented as a relic. Blessed #CarloAcutis, pray for us! pic.twitter.com/GcZog96vyZ

   — EWTN News (@EWTNews) October 10, 2020

10. Pope Francis recognized a second miracle attributed to Carlo’s intercession in a decree on May 23, 2024. The miracle involved the healing of a 21-year-old girl from Costa Rica named Valeria Valverde who was near death after seriously injuring her head in a bicycle accident while studying in Florence in 2022. The first miracle that led to his beatification involved the healing of a 3-year-old boy in Brazil in 2013 who had been diagnosed with a malformation of his pancreas since birth.

This article was originally published Oct. 20, 2020, and was updated June 13, 2025.

Blessed Carlo Acutis (left) and Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati. / Credit: Diocese of Assisi/Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

Vatican City, Jun 13, 2025 / 04:42 am (CNA).

The Vatican announced Friday that Blessed Carlo Acutis and Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, two young Catholics beloved for their vibrant faith and witness to holiness, will be canonized together on Sept. 7.

The date was set during the first ordinary public consistory of cardinals of Pope Leo XIV’s pontificate, held June 13 at the Apostolic Palace. Acutis, who died of leukemia in 2006 at age 15, will become the first millennial to be declared a saint by the Catholic Church.

Acutis’ canonization had originally been scheduled for April 27 during the Vatican’s Jubilee of Teenagers. That ceremony was postponed following the death of Pope Francis on April 21. Despite the change, thousands of young pilgrims from around the world who had traveled to Rome for Acutis’ canonization attended the late pope’s funeral and the jubilee Mass, which drew an estimated 200,000 people.

In an unexpected move, the consistory also decided to move the date for Frassati’s canonization, which had been set for Aug. 3 during the Jubilee of Youth.

Carlo Acutis: The first millennial saint

Acutis, an Italian computer-coding teenager who died of cancer in 2006, is known for his great devotion to the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.

He became the first millennial to be beatified by the Catholic Church in 2020 and is widely popular among Catholics, particularly youth. Known for his deep faith and digital savvy, he used his computer-coding skills to draw attention to Eucharistic miracles around the world. His miracles’ exhibit, featuring more than 100 documented miracles involving the Eucharist throughout history, has since traveled to thousands of parishes across five continents.

The Vatican formally recognized a second miracle attributed to Acutis’ intercession on May 23, 2024. The case involved the healing of 21-year-old Valeria Valverde of Costa Rica, who sustained a serious brain injury in a bicycle accident while studying in Florence in 2022. She was not expected to survive but recovered after her mother prayed for Acutis’ intercession at his tomb in Assisi.

Born in London in 1991 and raised in Milan, Acutis attended daily Mass from a young age and was passionate about the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. Shortly after his first Communion at the age of 7, Carlo told his mother: “To always be united to Jesus: This is my life plan.”

Carlo called the Eucharist “my highway to heaven,” and he did all in his power to make the Real Presence known. His witness inspired his parents to return to practicing the Catholic faith and his Hindu au pair to convert and be baptized.

Many of Carlo’s classmates, friends, and family members testified to the Vatican how he brought them closer to God. He is remembered for saying: “People who place themselves before the sun get a tan; people who place themselves before the Eucharist become saints.”

Shortly before his death, Acutis offered his suffering from cancer “for the pope and for the Church” and expressed a desire to go “straight to heaven.”

Known as a cheerful and kind child with a love for animals, video games, and technology, Acutis’ life has inspired documentaries, digital evangelization projects, and the founding of schools in his name. His legacy continues to resonate strongly with a new generation of Catholics.

Pier Giorgio Frassati: ‘To the heights’ of holiness

Frassati, who died at the age of 24 in 1925, is also beloved by many today for his enthusiastic witness to holiness that reaches “to the heights.”

The young man from the northern Italian city of Turin was an avid mountaineer and Third Order Dominican known for his charitable outreach.

Born on Holy Saturday, April 6, 1901, Frassati was the son of the founder and director of the Italian newspaper La Stampa.

At the age of 17, he joined the St. Vincent de Paul Society and dedicated much of his spare time to taking care of the poor, the homeless, and the sick as well as demobilized servicemen returning from World War I.

Frassati was also involved in the Apostleship of Prayer and Catholic Action. He obtained permission to receive daily Communion.

On a photograph of what would be his last climb, Frassati wrote the phrase “Verso L’Alto,” which means “to the heights.” This phrase has become a motto for Catholics inspired by Frassati to strive for the summit of eternal life with Christ.

Frassati died of polio on July 4, 1925. His doctors later speculated that the young man had caught polio while serving the sick.

Pope John Paul II, who beatified Frassati in 1990, called him a “man of the Eight Beatitudes,” describing him as “entirely immersed in the mystery of God and totally dedicated to the constant service of his neighbor.”

The canonization Mass for Acutis and Frassati is expected to take place in St. Peter’s Square.

During Friday’s consistory, the College of Cardinals approved the upcoming canonizations of seven other blesseds, including Bartolo Longo, José Gregorio Hernández, Peter To Rot, Vincenza Maria Poloni, Ignazio Choukrallah Maloyan, María del Monte Carmelo Rendiles Martínez, and Maria Troncatti, who will be canonized together on Oct. 19.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Leo XIV will canonize Blesseds Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati together on Oct. 7, the Vatican announced.

Meeting with cardinals living in and visiting Rome for an ordinary public consistory June 13, the pope approved the new canonization date for the two young blesseds and set Oct. 19 as the date for the canonization of seven others.

The canonization of Blessed Acutis, a teenager known for his devotion to the Eucharist and creating an online exhibition of Eucharistic miracles, had originally been scheduled for April 27 during the Jubilee of Teenagers. It was postponed following the death of Pope Francis April 21. Born in 1991 and raised in Milan, Blessed Acutis used his tech skills to evangelize and was noted for his joyful faith and compassion for others before dying of leukemia in 2006 at age 15.

Blessed Frassati, born in 1901 into a prominent family in Turin, Italy, was admired for his deep spirituality, love for the poor and enthusiasm for life. A member of the Dominican Third Order, he served the sick through the St. Vincent de Paul Society. He died at age 24 after contracting polio, possibly from one of the people he assisted.

The two Italian laymen will be the first saints proclaimed by the new pope, who was elected May 8.

Although the Vatican had never officially set a date for Blessed Frassati's canonization, Pope Francis said last November that he intended to proclaim him a saint during the Jubilee of Youth July 28-Aug. 3. The official website of Blessed Frassati's canonization cause said the canonization would take place Aug. 3, when the pope is scheduled to celebrate Mass with thousands of young people on the outskirts of Rome. 

Wanda Gawronska, Blessed Frassati's niece and a longtime promoter of his sainthood cause, told Catholic News Service that "thousands and thousands of people have tickets to come to Rome for the canonization in August."

During the same consistory, Pope Leo also confirmed that seven other blesseds will be canonized Oct. 19. The group includes men and women from five countries, among them martyrs, founders of religious congregations, and laypeople recognized for their heroic virtue and service.

They are: 

-- Blessed Ignatius Maloyan, the martyred Armenian Catholic archbishop of Mardin, which is in present-day Turkey; born in 1869, he was arrested, tortured and executed in Turkey in 1915.

-- Blessed Peter To Rot, a martyred lay catechist, husband and father from Papua New Guinea. Born in 1912, he was arrested in 1945 during the Japanese occupation in World War II and was killed by lethal injection while in prison.

-- Blessed Vincenza Maria Poloni, founder of the Sisters of Mercy of Verona, Italy; she lived from 1802-1855.

-- Blessed Maria Rendiles Martínez, the Venezuelan founder of the Congregation of the Servants of Jesus. Born in Caracas in 1903, she died in 1977. She will be Venezuela's first female saint.

-- Blessed Maria Troncatti, a Salesian sister born in Italy in 1883 who became a missionary in Ecuador in 1922. She died in a plane crash in 1969.

-- Blessed José Gregorio Hernández Cisneros, a Venezuelan doctor born in 1864. He was a Third Order Franciscan and became known as "the doctor of the poor." He was killed in an accident in 1919 on his way to helping a patient.

-- Blessed Bartolo Longo, an Italian lawyer born in 1841. He had been a militant opponent of the church and involved in the occult, but converted, dedicating himself to charity and to building the Pontifical Shrine of the Blessed Virgin of the Rosary of Pompei. He died in 1926.

Pope sets date for canonization of Acutis, Frassati

Pope Leo XIV will canonize Blesseds Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati together Sept. 7, the Vatican announced.

Pope Leo XIV waves from the popemobile at the crowds gathered in St. Peter's Square for Mass on Pentecost Sunday on June 8, 2025. / Credit: Daniel Ibanez/CNA

Vatican City, Jun 12, 2025 / 15:47 pm (CNA).

A leader of the Catholic charismatic renewal said he believes that charismatics will enjoy harmonious relations with Pope Leo XIV following a mixed experience with Pope Francis, whose efforts to centralize the grassroots movement at the Vatican raised concerns among some members.

“I truly believe Pope Leo will be very supportive of the renewal and of other lay movements,” said Shayne Bennett, the director of mission and faith formation at the Holy Spirit Seminary in Brisbane, Australia. “What we do know about him was that he was supportive of the charismatic renewal in his own diocese back in Peru.”

Bennett spoke in Rome following a June 9–12 meeting of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal International Service (CHARIS), a Rome-based umbrella group established by Francis for charismatic movements worldwide. Bennett serves as CHARIS coordinator of the commission of communities.

Pope Francis was not initially supportive of charismatic movements in his native Argentina. In a 2024 private audience with the president and members of the National Council of Renewal in the Holy Spirit, the late pontiff said he had once likened the group to “samba school and not an ecclesial movement.”

During the meeting, Francis promoted the role of CHARIS as a coordinating organization to support smaller charismatic groups around the world and encouraged the movement to “take to heart the indications I have left you” and “journey on this road of communion” with other movements in accord with the Vatican body. 

Not all charismatics welcomed the policy, Bennett said.

“I think there’s always a reaction when leaders are decisive,” the CHARIS leader told CNA. “The fact that Pope Francis gave us three goals, if you like, some people would see that as controlling.”

Francis charged the “spiritists” with three “forms of witness” when he inaugurated CHARIS in 2019: baptism in the Holy Spirit, unity and communion, and service to the poor.      

Bennett stressed that Francis encouraged the charismatic renewal, along with other lay movements, like Pope Benedict XVI and John Paul II before him. The Australian met multiple times with all three popes.

The first pope to formally back the Catholic charismatic renewal was Paul VI when he appointed Cardinal Léon Joseph Suenens as the first cardinal delegate and episcopal adviser for the movement in 1974.

In his apostolic exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi, which was released in 1975 on the 10th anniversary of the close of the Second Vatican Council, Paul VI described smaller charismatic groups as “hope for the universal Church.”

According to Bennett, who conducted programs in East and West Africa with CHARIS, supportive bishops in the region view the charismatic renewal as a realization of John Paul II’s dream for a “new evangelization” and Benedict XVI’s desire for all baptized Catholics to take “responsibility for their participation” in Jesus’ mission in the life of the Church and the world. 

“There’s been an incredible continuity of support and encouragement, which I expect will continue,” Bennett told CNA.

Pope Leo XIV meets with priests of Rome in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall on Thursday, June 12, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Jun 12, 2025 / 09:22 am (CNA).

The priests of Rome met for the first time on Thursday with their new bishop, Pope Leo XIV, to whom they are looking for greater leadership and fatherly care after several years of administrative disruption.

“We are very hopeful; you perceive a lot of enthusiasm, anyway, whether from brother priests or from the people of God,” the 32-year-old newly ordained Father Simone Troilo told CNA this month. “The fact that he even set this meeting [with priests] as a priority a little more than a month after his election … is a very important sign as well.”

The pope is not only the head of the universal Catholic Church, but he is also the bishop of the Diocese of Rome, though he does not manage the diocese like a typical diocesan bishop. A cardinal vicar general, vice regent (deputy), and auxiliary bishops are responsible for the ordinary running of the diocese.

Just over a month since Leo’s election, priests of the diocese told CNA there is a lot of excitement for the new pope and interest in how he will lead the Church in Rome as it confronts shifts in religious and ethnic demographics amid an overall loss of religious practice in the diverse and sprawling diocese.

Leo asked priests in the meeting June 12 “to pay attention to the pastoral journey of this Church, which is local but, because of who guides it, is also universal.” He promised to walk alongside them as they seek communion, fraternity, and serenity.

Several hundred priests attended the audience, the first with their new bishop, in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall.

According to Cardinal Baldassare Reina, the vicar general of Rome, there are 8,020 priests and deacons currently in the diocese, of which 809 are permanent Rome diocesan priests, and most of the remaining are part of religious communities or doing advanced studies.

Jesuit Father Anthony Lusvardi, a sacramental theologian in Rome, told CNA that “the Diocese of Rome is meant to be an example for the rest of the world” and “setting the right tone here will have an effect elsewhere.”

Leo’s speech underlined the importance of a strong communion and fraternity among the diocesan community and hinted at the challenge of “certain ‘internal’ obstacles,” along with interpersonal relationships and the weariness of feeling misunderstood or not heard.

Administrative upheaval

Multiple priests who spoke to CNA expressed a strong desire to have a clear point of reference in the diocese, underlining that two of the diocese’s four sectors have not had auxiliary bishops for months.

Pope Francis’ publication of a new constitution for the diocese in January 2023, the first major change in 25 years, launched a series of organizational shifts for the ecclesiastical territory, many involving personnel. It also downgraded the role of the vicar general, giving final decision power on some issues to the pope.

Over 10 months starting in April 2024, five of seven auxiliary bishops were transferred to new positions outside of the Diocese of Rome. A few were replaced in the meantime, but two sectors — north and east — remain without auxiliary bishops.

At that time, Pope Francis also moved the diocese’s vicar general of nearly seven years, Cardinal Angelo De Donatis. The two had clashed over issues for several years, going back to 2020, when the vicar general publicly called out the pope’s inconsistency over whether to shutter churches during the initial outbreak of COVID-19 in Italy.

Francis officially replaced De Donatis half a year later with Reina, a relative newcomer to Rome and former auxiliary bishop of the diocese who has also kept his responsibilities over the western zone of the city in addition to the heavy workload of a vicar general.

“It was very difficult the last two, three years” when the leadership kept changing, Father Esron Antony Samy, a member of the Order of the Mother of God, told CNA.

The administrator of a large parish in the troubled Torre Maura neighborhood on Rome’s eastern outskirts, Samy said he and his assistant have found the changes and instability in the diocesan curia over the last few years challenging. “We couldn’t follow one guide for the spiritual and pastoral activities,” he said.

Following the June 12 meeting with Leo, Samy said he was flooded with motivation and excitement from the pope’s encouragement to face challenges with faith and hope, and that he felt a fatherly presence in the hall.

Father Simone Caleffi, a theology teacher at a private Rome university and an editor for the Vatican’s L’Osservatore Romano newspaper, said he hopes Pope Leo will complete the implementation of the legislative changes Francis introduced, including the appointment of the missing auxiliary bishops for the north and east zones of the city.

“I am somewhat interpreting the feelings I have heard, even in some meetings, that it is hoped that these figures, who are essential guides for us, may return, if that is the will of the Holy Father,” Father Maurizio Modugno, ordained in 2005, said.

Attention for the diocese

Troilo was one of 11 men ordained to the priesthood by Pope Leo in St. Peter’s Basilica on May 31 after the original ordination date of May 10 was postponed by Francis’ death and the “sede vacante.”

The young priest, who has been assigned to a parish in the southwestern periphery of Rome, said that for him it was another sign of Leo’s solicitude and deep care for the diocese that he did not want to further delay their ordinations or delegate another bishop to celebrate it.

According to Father John D’Orazio, Pope John Paul II was the first to ordain priests of the diocese himself, a practice that grew the connection between pontiff and diocese, and was continued by each of his successors. 

D’Orazio, who is from New Hampshire but has spent the 22 years of his priestly ministry in Rome, noted that John Paul II would also visit Rome’s major seminary every year for the feast of Our Lady of Trust.

Pope Francis did not observe that tradition during his pontificate. “My hope is that Pope Leo will again give time and value to having some contact with the Roman seminary,” D’Orazio said. 

John Paul II also tried to spend as much time as possible with the people of Rome; he managed to visit 317 of 333 parishes throughout his long pontificate. During his final years, when he was too ill to travel to them, he invited the remaining 16 parishes to come to the Vatican.

Pope Francis in his 12 years as pope made 20-some pastoral visits to parishes in Rome, mostly concentrated in the city’s outskirts, part of his great attention to the peripheries, which was also reflected in his visits to many of the city’s prisons and charitable entities.

‘The shepherd we are waiting for’

Father Samy, from India but in Rome since 2011 to study and since 2013 as a priest, said his parish celebrates large numbers of the sacraments of initiation — baptism, first holy Communion, and confirmation — but many parents are unmarried and do not understand the importance of the sacrament of matrimony.

Father Claudio Occhipinti, who has spent many of his 30 years in priestly ministry helping families in crisis, also identified a need for a renewal of belief in the value of the sacramental union of husband and wife and the problem of the growing number of what he called “baptized nonbelievers.”

“The greatest challenge I see is to help the faithful to rediscover the power, the greatness, the fundamental importance of their baptism,” he said. “I will pray that this Pope Leo XIV will … no longer take for granted that the baptized are believers and to focus attention on this reality of a ‘Christian secularism.’”

The religious priest from India said the population in his area of Rome is growing, in part due to the city’s construction of additional public housing. The Muslim population is also rising and they are trying to welcome even non-Catholic families to their parish festivals and parish community center — for many, the “only place [in the struggling neighborhood] where they can stay with security and freedom.”

Samy said he is looking for guidance and “a fatherly figure” from Pope Leo. “We also understand the difficulties the Church is facing now, but we hope our new pope will help us [and] will give us support to do something better for the Diocese of Rome,” he said.

Modugno, whose parish is much closer to the city center, said he also hopes Leo “can truly be the shepherd we are waiting for.”

All of the priests described Rome as unique, especially for its size and diversity, including among the priests, many of whom are foreign or from other parts of Italy. 

Caleffi, who is originally from the Italian city of Parma, said it’s obvious the priests of Rome “won’t all think the same way,” but what they would all like is “as direct a relationship with [the pope] as possible, even if this can be difficult.”

WASHINGTON – “Deacons serve an invaluable role in bringing the hope of the Gospel to all members of society,” said Bishop Earl Boyea of Lansing. “By their witness in the local Church, within their families, at the workplace, and while serving the poor, the life of a deacon displays the servant heart of Christ in their faithful, and often hidden, acts of charity.” 

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations has released its annual survey, A Portrait of the Permanent Diaconate in 2025: A Study for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Since 2005, the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University has conducted this survey which provides important statistics and forecasting trends on the state of the permanent diaconate in the Church in the United States.  

“With the release of this survey, I ask for continued prayers for deacons and for an increase in vocations to the permanent diaconate within the United States,” said Bishop Boyea, who serves as chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations.  

The survey utilized contact information from the National Association of Diaconate Directors (NADD) and was sent to the Office of the Permanent Diaconate in the Latin and Eastern Rite (arch)dioceses and eparchies. In total, CARA received responses from 140 of the 185 (arch)dioceses/eparchies whose bishops are members of the USCCB and have an active Office of Deacons, for a 76% response rate.  

The full survey conducted by CARA may be accessed here. 

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