Holy Cross Catholic Church

Cassandra Baker, now a coordinator for the Catholic Montessori Institute, presents a math lesson introducing the decimal system to a 4-year-old student in spring 2023 at the Christ the King Catholic Montessori Grade School in Mandan, North Dakota. / Credit: Mike McCleary/University of Mary

CNA Staff, Jun 24, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

The University of Mary has launched the world’s first Catholic Montessori Institute (CMI), making the institute the go-to place for certification in Catholic Montessori education.

Montessori has grown popular in both secular and religious spaces since its founding by Dr. Maria Montessori (1870–1952), a practicing Catholic who developed a way of teaching young children about God according to their own needs.

University of Mary, a small liberal arts college in North Dakota, will serve as the home for the new institute, which organizers hope will become the center of Catholic Montessori education.

JoAnn Schulzetenberg, the executive director and visionary for the program, said she plans for the institute to become a center for networking, mentorship, and connection.

“I envision a worldwide network where individuals — whether establishing new environments, enhancing existing ones, or simply seeking guidance — can come together to connect, find mentorship, and inspire future generations to continue the Montessori tradition,” she told CNA.

Schulzetenberg, who has spent more than 20 years as a Montessori practitioner, said she hopes the program will bring new life to Catholic education.

Montessori education prioritizes holistic development, emotional and cognitive growth, intrinsic motivation, community engagement, and global citizenship, according to Schulzetenberg. 

“Dr. Montessori’s method emphasizes respect for each child’s unique development, encouraging autonomy, exploration, and intellectual, social, and emotional growth,” Schulzetenberg said. 

“She specifically designed materials and an environment to influence mainstream education and special education,” Schulzetenberg said. “This was incredibly important as her method could be utilized in every culture across the globe.”

An estimated 22,000 Montessori education programs exist across 110 countries — but the institute is the first of its kind.

“It is my prayer that this movement will revive and strengthen Catholic schools at risk of closure, breathing new life into Catholic education on a global scale,” she said.

All students and educators seeking CMI certification will begin their training at University of Mary followed by both in-person and online courses over a year. The training program will be run by the Association Montessori Internationale, the organization Montessori co-founded “to safeguard the method’s integrity, ensuring faithful transmission across generations to come,” according to Schulzetenberg. In addition, UMary already offers a fully online master of education degree in Catholic Montessori.

Schulzetenberg said she hopes the institute will “cultivate a global community of Montessori educators who are committed to integrating Dr. Maria Montessori’s authentic pedagogy with their Catholic faith.”

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CNA Staff, Jun 24, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

The Catholic Church’s enduring commitment to support human rights — anchored in a fundamental understanding of what it means to be human — has taken on renewed urgency amid recent global conflicts such as the Russia-Ukraine war, the war in Gaza, and humanitarian crises like the political fight over migration in the United States.

In his first weeks as pontiff, the newly elected Pope Leo XIV, who chose his name in honor of his predecessor Pope Leo XIII, has emphasized Christ’s call for peace and the respect for the dignity of all people. Papal biographer George Weigel said Leo XIV has the opportunity to continue Leo XIII’s vision of the Church as a “great institutional promoter and defender of basic human rights” in society.

CNA spoke with V. Bradley Lewis, dean of the School of Philosophy at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., about what the Church teaches on human rights and how those teachings have developed over the past few centuries.

Historical roots

Lewis told CNA that contrary to a common misconception, the concept of human rights within Catholic teaching is not a recent addition but rather has roots extending back to the Church’s constant teaching on human dignity, and later in the development of canon law and the thought of theologians such as St. Thomas Aquinas — even if the specific terminology of “human rights” developed relatively recently.

“There’s an important sense in which it was not a new thing in modern times, and in which it’s always been a part of the Catholic tradition,” Lewis said. 

The Catholic Church has always affirmed the inherent dignity of every human person as a creation in God’s image (see the Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 1700). All people have an inherent worth as composites of a mortal body and an immortal soul, and all people are called to have a relationship with God, their creator. 

“Every human person, created in the image of God, has the natural right to be recognized as a free and responsible being. All owe to each other this duty of respect. The right to the exercise of freedom, especially in moral and religious matters, is an inalienable requirement of the dignity of the human person. This right must be recognized and protected by civil authority within the limits of the common good and public order” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 1738). 

Natural law

All rights, from a Catholic perspective, are grounded in natural law, which Lewis said provides the essential context for properly understanding and defending human rights from a Catholic perspective. 

There is a right to life because, according to the natural moral law, life is a good that must be protected, Lewis wrote in a 2019 article for the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner. True human rights, then, are derived from natural law and contribute to human flourishing and reasonable ways of living together, he explained.

A problematic way to view rights, he continued, is as purely individual possessions or forms of “individual sovereignty” asserted against others; in contrast, the Catholic way of understanding rights sees them as a framework for understanding and regulating relationships between people within a community.

Various kinds of rights

“There clearly are certain human rights that are absolutely necessary: like the right to life, not to be intentionally killed as an innocent person; rights to religious freedom; rights to family life; things like this. And then there’s lots of other rights that we have that are just legal rights, that can be limited in various ways,” Lewis said.

“And then there are some ‘rights’ that are just totally made up, and that means they could be unmade depending on what we want,” he continued, specifically mentioning in his article societal claims to the existence of “abortion rights, the so-called right to die, homosexual and transgender rights.”

Pope Leo XIII — Leo XIV’s literal and spiritual predecessor — emphasized the rights of workers and the right to private property in his writings as pope from 1878 to 1903. Rerum Novarum, Leo XIII’s foundational document in Catholic social teaching that addressed the challenges of the industrial revolution, emphasizes a need for reforms to protect the dignity of the working class while maintaining a relationship with capital and the existence of private property.

Recent developments

In 1948, in the wake of World War II, the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), influenced in part by the thought of Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain, whose work emphasizing the importance of human rights as part of human dignity indirectly influenced the discourse around the declaration, although he wasn’t directly involved in its drafting.

The Church’s teaching developed further throughout the 20th century; St. John XXIII’s 1963 encyclical letter Pacem in Terris includes an extensive catalogue of human rights, including the right to life, the right to respect and to a good name, and the right to education as well as the right to “bodily integrity and to the means necessary for the proper development of life, particularly food, clothing, shelter, medical care, rest, and, finally, the necessary social services.”

“In human society one man’s natural right gives rise to a corresponding duty in other men; the duty, that is, of recognizing and respecting that right. Every basic human right draws its authoritative force from the natural law, which confers it and attaches to it its respective duty. Hence, to claim one’s rights and ignore one’s duties, or only half fulfill them, is like building a house with one hand and tearing it down with the other,” St. John XXIII wrote in Pacem in Terris. 

The Second Vatican Council’s 1965 Dignitatis Humanae further affirmed the importance of religious freedom, saying this right “has its foundation in the very dignity of the human person as this dignity is known through the revealed word of God and by reason itself.”

The relative lateness of these latter writings might lead some people to believe that the Catholic Church “discovered” human rights in the mid-20th century, which is not correct, Lewis said. Rather, the underlying concepts of what we now call human rights have been present among Catholic thinkers for centuries, even if not explicitly named or discussed in the same focal way; for example, within medieval canon law — which became a highly developed legal system — discussions of rights can be found. 

“Rights really come into our tradition, really the Western tradition, through law. I think wherever you have a very highly developed legal system and system of legal reasoning, you find an attention to rights. There was more of it there in the legal tradition than there was, for example, among theologians,” Lewis continued.

Lewis said the development of the idea of human rights was in part a response to the rise of modern states and governments.

He noted that the modern state possesses an unprecedented ability to exercise concentrated power, due in large part to technology. This power can enable both incredible good and terrible oppression, and given this modern power, human rights are essential protections against potential state overreach and oppression.

“I don’t know anybody who’d want to live in a modern state without the protection afforded [by] human rights. We don’t live in medieval villages or ancient Greek city states anymore. We live in these incredibly powerful modern states. [Government power] has to be limited,” Lewis said.

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CNA Staff, Jun 23, 2025 / 18:43 pm (CNA).

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is investigating a Michigan health care provider for allegedly firing a medical professional who refused to participate in sex reassignment surgeries.

According to the June 20 announcement, HHS is investigating the unnamed health care group for allegedly firing a medical professional after she requested religious accommodations in order not to assist in sex trait modification procedures or use pronouns that do not align with biology — practices she said she opposes due to her religious beliefs.

The department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR), which handles enforcement of health care conscience protections, initiated the investigation under conscience protection laws known as the “Church Amendments,” according to the press release.

The Church Amendments are a series of laws that protect people from discrimination in health care by the government or groups that receive government funding based on their exercise of religious beliefs or moral convictions.

Though the group under investigation remained unnamed by the HHS, the release described it as an “an organizational health care provider” within a “major health system” in Michigan.

The investigation comes amid renewed efforts by the current administration to enforce conscience protections.

HHS secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., during his confirmation hearing, said he would investigate conscience rights, and last month the department began a review of a hospital following reports that the hospital had denied ultrasound technicians exemptions from participating in abortions. This month’s investigation is the third in a series of HHS conscience freedom investigations.

OCR Director Paula M. Stannard said the office “is committed to enforcing federal conscience laws in health care.”

“Health care workers should be able to practice both their professions and their faith,” Stannard said in a statement.

In addition to renewed federal interest in conscience protections, the state of Idaho recently passed legislation to bolster religious freedom protections for doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals when they object to performing certain procedures or providing certain services.

Bishop Robert Barron responded on June 22, 2025, to criticism of a talk he gave at the first meeting of President Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission in Washington, D.C. / Credit: “EWTN News in Depth”/Screenshot

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 23, 2025 / 18:13 pm (CNA).

Bishop Robert Barron responded to backlash against his participation in the President Donald Trump-initiated Religious Liberty Commission, which held its first hearing in Washington, D.C., last week.

In a social media post on June 22, Barron responded to claims made in a recent article by Minneapolis Star-Tribune columnist Karen Tolkkinen that he “advocates erasing the boundaries between church and state.”

Barron called the piece “a rather silly article” and “a gross mischaracterization of my position.”

During the Religion Liberty Commission hearing in Washington, D.C., last week, Barron echoed Pope Benedict XVI’s warning against the “dictatorship of relativism” encroaching on American society and encouraged religious people to become more involved in the public square.

Barron encouraged people of faith to enter the public sphere, telling those gathered at the hearing: “Congress will make no laws preventing it, so let’s invade that space.”

Tolkkinen took issue with this, describing Barron’s encouragement as “unnecessarily militant” and religion’s “comeback in American civic life” as “difficult to understand” at a time “where Americans increasingly don’t practice religion.”

“If the bishop gets his way and religion once again permeates civic life in America, let’s hope that everyone’s rights are robustly protected,” she wrote.

In his response to Tolkkinen, Barron pointed out that while the First Amendment to the Constitution prevents Congress from establishing a national religion — a position Barron agrees with — the second clause in the amendment bars Congress from interfering with the free exercise of religion.

“The First Amendment to the Constitution does indeed say that Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, and I completely support this,” the bishop said. “Though there can never be an official American religion, there can indeed be expressions of religion in the public space and in civic life.”

Barron concluded his post by saying: “What [Tolkkinen] and her colleagues fear the most are confident and assertive religious people who refuse to stay sequestered in private. So I say: Fight hard against any formal establishment of religion, but fight just as hard for the right to exercise religion in the public space.”

West Virginia Rep. Riley Moore responded to Barron’s post on X, writing: “Bishop Barron is spot on. Forcing faith out of the public square has been disastrous for the West.” A practicing Catholic, Moore had invited Barron to attend Trump’s State of the Union Address in March.

“Christianity is first and foremost an encounter with Jesus, but it also has moral, ethical, cultural, and — yes — political implications that built Western civilization,” the House member added.

The Texas capitol building, where Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill into law on June 21, 2025, that requires public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments. / Credit: BLundin via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 23, 2025 / 17:43 pm (CNA).

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has signed a law requiring public schools to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom at the start of the 2025-2026 school year.

The legislation requires that a “durable poster or framed copy of the Ten Commandments” be hung in each Texas public elementary or secondary school classroom.

Under the law, which Abbott signed on June 21, the display of the commandments cannot include “any additional content.” Each copy must be at least 16 inches wide and 20 inches tall, must be in a “conspicuous” location in the classroom, and must have a “typeface that is legible to a person with average vision from anywhere in the classroom.”

The law notes that schools are not required to purchase the copies using district funds but stipulates that schools “must accept any offer of a privately donated poster or framed copy” that meets the specific requirements.

The bill, sponsored by Texas Sen. Phil King, passed in the Senate on March 19 with a 20-11 vote. It was then brought to the House of Representatives by state Rep. Candy Noble and passed on May 25 with a 82-46 vote.

“The focus of this bill is to look at what is historically important to our nation educationally and judicially,” Noble said upon its passage in the House.

The Senate gave final approval on May 28 with a 21-10 vote.

The Texas law comes after similar legislation was passed in Louisiana and Arkansas. The Louisiana law was blocked, however, when a federal appeals court ruled that it was unconstitutional, and the Arkansas law is being challenged in federal court.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) announced it will sue Texas over the new law and will be joined by the ACLU of Texas, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

The groups contend the law is “blatantly unconstitutional” and their aim is “to stop this violation of students’ and parents’ First Amendment rights.”

Some Christian and Jewish faith leaders sent a letter to lawmakers in March opposing the legislation. They stated that “government oversteps its authority when it dictates an official state-approved version of any religious text.”

The Texas law includes legal protections for schools to combat lawsuits and backlash. According to the law, the attorney general will defend any school facing legal action over compliance with the law and the state will cover any “expenses, costs, judgments, or settlements.”

The law provides specific wording of the Ten Commandments that all schools must use, starting with the words “I AM the LORD thy God.” 

The commandments given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai are used as an ethical foundation by many faiths including Catholicism and other forms of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. 

The law will officially go into effect in Texas on Sept. 1 as the new school year begins.

The bill 10 is one of more than 600 signed by Abbott during the 89th regular legislative session. He also signed another bill that “allows schools to adopt a policy allowing students and employees to participate in daily, voluntary period of prayer and reading of religious texts.”

Purple stole and confessional. / Credit: Roman023_photography/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Jun 23, 2025 / 17:13 pm (CNA).

The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the state of Washington over its recent law mandating that priests must violate the seal of confession if child abuse is learned about during the sacrament of reconciliation.

The DOJ in a press release announcing the lawsuit filed on June 23 said the Washington law “violates the free exercise of religion for all Catholics.”

“The seal of confidentiality is ... the lifeblood of confession. Without it, the free exercise of the Catholic religion, i.e., the apostolic duties performed by the Catholic priest to the benefit of Catholic parishioners, cannot take place,” the DOJ wrote in the brief.

On May 3, Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson signed into law Senate Bill 5375, which goes into effect July 27 and requires priests to disclose child abuse they learn about in confession. However, it exempts other professionals such as nurses and therapists from mandatory disclosure.

Priests who fail to report abuse learned in confession could face up to 364 days in jail and a $5,000 fine. Ferguson, a Catholic, defended the measure in May, saying he is “very familiar” with confession but deemed the law “important legislation” to protect children.

In a May 5 letter to Ferguson, the assistant attorney general of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, Harmeet Dhillon, informed him that the DOJ would be investigating the newly passed law and required the state to preserve all records and communications related to the bill. 

Dhillon characterized the new law as a “legislative attack on the Catholic Church and its sacrament of confession, a religious practice ordained by the Catholic Church dating back to the Church’s origins.”

The bishops of the Archdiocese of Seattle and the dioceses of Spokane and Yakima filed a lawsuit May 29 challenging the law, arguing that it violates the free exercise of religion protected by the First Amendment by infringing on the sacred seal of confession. The suit also claims the law violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment as well as the Washington Constitution.

In the bishops’ lawsuit, filed in federal district court, they emphasized the Catholic Church’s commitment to child protection while defending the inviolability of the confessional seal. 

“Consistent with the Roman Catholic Church’s efforts to eradicate the societal scourge of child abuse, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle and the dioceses of Yakima and Spokane have each adopted and implemented within their respective dioceses policies that go further in the protection of children than the current requirements of Washington law on reporting child abuse and neglect,” their lawsuit stated. 

It noted that these policies mandate reporting suspected abuse by Church personnel, including clergy, except when information is learned solely in confession, which is protected by “more than 2,000 years of Church doctrine.”

Spokane Bishop Thomas Daly in a statement in May vowed that clergy would not break the seal of confession, even if it meant jail time. “I want to assure you that your shepherds, bishops, and priests are committed to keeping the seal of confession — even to the point of going to jail,” Daly said in his message to the faithful. “The sacrament of penance is sacred and will remain that way in the Diocese of Spokane.”

Seattle Archbishop Paul D. Etienne echoed this stance, citing canon law, which forbids priests from betraying a penitent’s confession under penalty of excommunication. Etienne referenced St. Peter’s words in Acts 5:29 — “We must obey God rather than men.”

Leaders of various Orthodox churches joined Washington’s Catholic bishops in their own lawsuit against the state, saying in the lawsuit filed June 16 that Orthodox priests, like Catholic ones, “have a strict religious duty to maintain the absolute confidentiality” of information disclosed in confession. 

Their suit continued: “Violating this mandatory religious obligation is a canonical crime and a grave sin, with severe consequences for the offending priest, including removal from the priesthood.” 

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 23, 2025 / 16:43 pm (CNA).

More than 6,000 seminarians, bishops, and priests from five continents are in Rome this week to celebrate their jubilee as part of the Holy Year 2025.

According to the Dicastery for Evangelization, the program, which runs June 23–27, includes prayer, catechesis, concerts, jubilee pilgrimages, Masses, and various meetings with Pope Leo XIV.

A welcome event for the seminarians took place Monday at St. Paul Outside the Walls Basilica at 5 p.m. local time. A community rosary and a concert by Rome’s diocesan choir and the “Fideles et Amati” orchestra, conducted by Monsignor Marco Frisina, were also held.

On Tuesday, the seminarians are scheduled to make the pilgrimage to the Holy Door of St. Peter’s at 8 a.m. local time. In addition, at 11 a.m., they will hear a catechesis by Pope Leo XIV in what will be his first official meeting with seminarians from around the world. The day will conclude with Masses in a number of languages at 6 p.m. in 10 churches in central Rome offered by various bishops.

Bishops’ day: Communion and faith

June 25 marks the Jubilee of Bishops. The prelates have come, according to data from the Dicastery for Evangelization, from nearly 50 countries, including Italy, Spain, Poland, Portugal, Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, the United States, and the Philippines.

At 10:30 a.m., the bishops will concelebrate Mass at the Altar of the Chair in St. Peter’s Basilica with Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect emeritus of the Dicastery for Bishops, as the main celebrant. Pope Leo XIV will then offer a special catechesis to the prelates, concluding with a joint profession of faith above the tomb of the Apostle Peter.

That same afternoon, the Jubilee of Priests will begin with several catecheses organized by language groups, given by bishops in 12 churches in central Rome.

On June 26, priests will participate in a jubilee Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica celebrated by Cardinal Lazzaro You Heung-sik, prefect of the Dicastery for the Clergy. From 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. the priests are scheduled to make pilgrimages to the Holy Doors of the four major basilicas. The day will culminate with a prayer vigil at 7 p.m. in St. Peter’s Basilica presided over by Archbishop Rino Fisichella, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, with testimonies from a seminarian, a bishop, and a priest.

Priestly ordinations at jubilee closing

The week will culminate on June 27, the solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, with a Mass to be celebrated by Pope Leo XIV in St. Peter’s Basilica.

During the Mass, the pope will ordain 31 new priests from around the world from Italy, India, Sri Lanka, Romania, the Central African Republic, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Cameroon, Angola, Vietnam, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Ghana, Nigeria, South Korea, Mexico, Uganda, Australia, Brazil, Croatia, Slovakia, and Ukraine.

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

Thousands took to the streets in Cork, Ireland, on Sunday June 22, 2025, to participate in the city’s 99th consecutive annual Eucharistic procession in Ireland’s second-largest city. / Credit: Brian Lougheed

Dublin, Ireland, Jun 23, 2025 / 16:12 pm (CNA).

Thousands of the faithful took to the streets of Cork, Ireland, on Sunday to participate in the city’s 99th consecutive annual Eucharistic procession in Ireland’s second-largest city.

The procession was led by the Butter Exchange Band and Bishop Fintan Gavin, bishop of Cork and Ross, beginning from the Cathedral of St. Mary and St. Anne, with the final prayer and Benediction taking place at the National Monument on Grand Parade on a specially constructed platform.

“What a blessing it is to gather here at the heart of our city in faith, in prayer, and in hope, in the presence of one another. This procession was born from a longing for unity after division, for peace after civil conflict. It was a public act of faith,” Gavin said to all those gathered. 

“As we stand here on the threshold of the 100th year, let us be the generation that not only keeps the tradition but rekindles the fire of faith in our time. The procession we’ve just made through the streets is a living testimony to something the world needs to know more than ever: That God has not abandoned us. That in the Eucharist, we are not alone.”

Explaining the background to the procession, Father Marius O’Reilly, one of the priests of the Cork Cathedral Family of Parishes, told CNA: “The idea of taking the procession through the streets of Cork emerged in the years after the War of Independence and the Civil War in a bid to heal division. That first procession in the Cork city streets took place on June 6, 1926, where tens of thousands of people participated.”

The Irish Civil War raged between June 1922 and May 1923, following Ireland’s War of Independence from Britain. It was marked by savage brutality against both pro and anti-treaty factions, as families, parishes, and entire communities became bitterly divided by wounds that lingered for decades. 

Individuals and groups from across the city and county were part of the celebration including Catholic Girl Guides, The Guides and Scouts Europe, Youth 2000, Parish Eucharistic groups throughout the diocese, children preparing to make their first holy Communion, and the Indian Syro-Malabar, Syro-Malankara, Brazilian, African, Polish, Croatian, Ukrainian, and Brazilian communities.

Gavin thanked the people of Cork who turned out in the thousands. 

“We are most grateful for such a huge turnout. I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has worked in the background to make today what it was. A busy year ahead as we now prepare for the centenary next year!”

Among the attendees was Dr. Jim Clair from Cork, who told CNA: “I have been going to the Cork Eucharistic procession over the last 40 years. I find it an incredibly moving and uplifting experience. It is great to see it starting to grow over the last few years.”

Helen Gillen, also from the city, said: “It reminds me of that line from the hymn ‘Faith of Our Fathers’ LIVING still… Corpus Christi is the body and blood of Jesus still living, still breathing, still supporting and sustaining us. Our faith has been passed down through generations. We carry our faith and share it on to future generations. We unite in walking with our Savior through our streets of Cork city in his honor.”

The most notable innovation in this year’s procession was the decision to move the final prayer and Benediction back out onto the streets to a specially constructed platform at the National Monument on Grand Parade to accommodate the large numbers that couldn’t be accommodated in the cathedral.

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Vatican City, Jun 23, 2025 / 15:15 pm (CNA).

The Vatican has endorsed a report calling for reforms to alleviate the global debt crisis affecting billions of people in developing countries.

The document, titled “The Jubilee Report: A Blueprint for Tackling the Debt and Development Crises and Creating the Financial Foundations for a Sustainable People-Centered Global Economy,” was presented at the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences on June 20 as one of the main initiatives of the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope.

Supported by Pope Leo XIV, the publication is the work of the Jubilee Commission created by Pope Francis in June 2024 in order to find a way to carry out sovereign debt restructuring based on ethical principles. Thirty international economic experts were on the commission, including Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz and former Argentine Economy Minister Martín Guzmán.

$97 trillion in global public debt

According to data maintained by the U.N., global public debt reached $97 trillion in 2023, an increase of $5.6 trillion compared with 2022.

The document reports that more than 50 developing countries already allocate more than 10% of their tax revenues to interest payments, a dynamic that diverts financial resources from vital sectors such as health, education, and climate resilience (the capacity to respond to climate change or extreme weather events.)

“The debt crisis that is suffocating the global financial system is also fueling a development crisis,” the report states.

It proposes a series of measures and recommendations to transform the international financial system into an instrument of justice and sustainability. These include the creation of an international bankruptcy mechanism for sovereign countries similar to those that exist for private companies; an end to government bailouts for private investors; and the provision of bridge loans and short-term financial support for countries in crisis.

Foreign debt forgiveness, St. John Paul II’s legacy

The initiative is part of the spirit of the jubilee year, traditionally associated with mercy and debt forgiveness. In fact, in the 2024 papal bull Spes Non Confundit, Pope Francis expressly asked governments to show clemency by extraordinary measures, such as forgiving the external (foreign) debt of poor countries.

The June 20 report recaptures the spirit of the Jubilee of the Year 2000, when in 1997, St. John Paul II initiated a truly global movement based on the Church’s social teaching that called for debt relief for the poorest countries. That call gave rise to the “Jubilee 2000” campaign, which collected millions of signatures around the world and mobilized religious communities of all traditions. Thanks to this movement, more than $100 billion in debt was canceled.

“Global finance must serve people and the planet — not punish the poorest to protect profits,” the report concludes.

Presentation at the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences

The report was presented June 20 at the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences during a day dedicated to discussions about how reforms to international financial systems could move toward a truly people-centered system.

Nobel Prize-winning economist Stiglitz, professor at Columbia University and honorary fellow of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, issued a forceful call to “curb the abuses of large private creditors.”

“Normally, we talk about shared responsibility between creditors and debtors, but I would say there is greater responsibility on the part of creditors. These are voluntary transactions. No one has forced creditors to lend money, and they are supposed to be the experts in risk analysis,” he stated in his remarks.

Reducing interest rates with multilateral development banks

The economist was particularly critical of BlackRock and other large funds, which, he said, encourage a type of high-risk lending that ends in crises.

He therefore advocated strengthening the role of multilateral development banks, which can provide loans at lower rates, something that “would help reduce interest rates and make debt sustainable.”

Within the framework of the international meeting on debt, social justice, and development held at the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences headquarters, Caritas International representative Alfonso Apicella urged that the technical debate on debt never lose sight of the people most affected.

“We’re here to talk about sustainable growth, but the real question is: sustainable growth for whom? That’s the question we’re asked time and again by communities when we launch campaigns like ‘Turn Debt Into Hope,’” he explained.

Speaking on behalf of the global network of 162 organizations that make up Caritas, Apicella emphasized that the discourse on “sustainability” runs the risk of becoming an empty slogan if its inclusive focus isn’t made explicit: “We have to talk about sustainable growth for all, not just a few. And we must always remember this, especially when we speak from a technical perspective, because behind every figure there are people who experience these realities firsthand.”

A change in the narrative on debt

Apicella also focused on the need to change the narrative on debt: “We must frame this fight for debt justice as a win-win situation. If we work for the poor, policymakers must understand that they will also benefit.”

Professor Kevin Gallagher, director of the Global Development Policy Center at Boston University, pointed to international organizations such as the International Monetary Fund that have forced poor countries to “prematurely open their capital accounts.”

However, he also acknowledged the internal responsibility of many developing countries that, as the report notes, “have borrowed too much and invested too little.”

In any case, he made it clear that while “debt relief is essential,” it is also necessary to propose viable implementation measures within the current international environment that transform the financial system.

“We have already learned from the last jubilee debt forgiveness in 2009 that debt relief without reforms to the international financial architecture will only lead us to repeat this whole process. It’s a shame that we are in this situation again. Let us not repeat the same mistakes,” Gallagher said.

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

Director Dallas Jenkins (left) and Jonathan Roumie, who plays Jesus in the wildly successful TV series “The Chosen,” speak with journalists during a press conference on June 23, 2025, at the Vatican. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA

Vatican City, Jun 23, 2025 / 13:41 pm (CNA).

“The Chosen” actor Jonathan Roumie said Monday coming to the Vatican is a “humbling honor” and a confirmation for him of the TV show’s continued mission of bringing Jesus Christ to the world.

Roumie, other “The Chosen” castmates, and series creator and director Dallas Jenkins are at the Vatican this week after having just wrapped up three weeks of filming in southern Italy for the Crucifixion scenes of Season 6, out next year.

“The fact we’re here now, sitting at the Vatican… is a testament to, I think, how God wants to continue to further this mission to bring more people to Jesus and to bring Jesus to them,” Roumie, who plays Jesus in the wildly successful TV series on the Gospels, said during a press conference at the Vatican on June 23.

Season 5, Episode 4, “The Same Coin,” will be streamed at the Vatican’s Filmoteca theater on the afternoon of June 23 in anticipation of the entire season being available for streaming in Italy in July.

Roumie will also present Pope Leo XIV with a gift from “The Chosen” during the Wednesday general audience on June 25, a meeting he said would be “extraordinary for so many reasons.”

“When [Pope Leo XIV] was elected, I wept, because I never thought I’d see an American pope in my lifetime,” the Catholic actor said. To get “to communicate to him in our native language this week is just something I never thought I would see in my life.”

Series director Jenkins, an evangelical Protestant, said it was “a tremendous honor” to be at the Vatican. He added that being surrounded by the beautiful art of Rome and the Vatican reminded him how much he wants the show to make the events and people depicted in religious artwork feel real to viewers.

“Jesus is more than a painting, and the church is more than just a building,” he said. “Jesus and the apostles were not just stained-glass windows, but Jesus became man … and these men and women actually lived and actually had a relationship with Jesus … something we can have today.”

Roumie and Jenkins were joined at the Vatican press conference by Elizabeth Tabish (Mary Magdalene), George Xanthis (John the Apostle), and Vanessa Benavente (Mother Mary).

They all talked about the emotional impact of getting to portray their characters, in their humanity and their growth, across five seasons so far.

Roumie said that “in the process of making this show, we didn’t know we would ever go beyond four episodes of the first season.”

“And then to fast forward seven years, and thousands of stories later about how this show has been used by God to change people’s lives — and in some unique, distinct cases, to save people’s lives — humbling doesn’t even come close to describing the understanding of that, the feeling of that: It’s profound,” he added.

The cast and crew on June 22 finished filming Jesus’ crucifixion in Matera in the Italian region of Basilicata, the same location used for Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ.”

Jenkins called the three weeks “the most challenging and difficult we had in filming,” requiring him to surrender everything to Christ.

Roumie noted that since starting the show, many people have asked him if he was looking forward to getting to the Crucifixion scenes, but he would answer, “I can’t think about that, I can’t think about the cross, because we’re not there yet.”

He preferred to stay in the present, concentrating on Jesus’ active, public ministry, and the intimacy between Jesus and his followers. “And if there was anyone in the whole history of the world who was present at all times, it was Jesus Christ,” the actor said.

Talking about Season 5, which is focused on the events of Holy Week, is a welcome break from the intensity of the past three weeks of filming, Jenkins told journalists.

The show’s latest season features some of the most well-known scenes in Scripture, he said, including Judas’ betrayal, when Jesus flips tables in the Temple, the triumphal entrance into Jerusalem, and, most importantly, the Last Supper and the institution of the Eucharist.

The director said he hopes the season will provide an “opportunity for many new viewers to come to the show because they recognize these famous moments.”