The Church of St. Luke

The Catholic University of America has announced that Taylor Black, director of artificial intelligence at Microsoft, will lead a new institute on emerging technologies and AI at the Washington, D.C.-based university. / Credit: The Catholic University of America

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 15, 2025 / 15:36 pm (CNA).

The Catholic University of America (CUA) announced that Taylor Black, director of artificial intelligence (AI) at Microsoft, will lead a new institute on emerging technologies and AI at the Washington, D.C.-based university. 

At the technology conglomerate, Black serves as the director of AI and venture ecosystems in the Office of the Chief Technology Officer. In the role, he designs and leads cross-company initiatives that integrate innovation, product development, and community engagement to foster the next generation of technologies. He will remain in the position but plans to travel regularly to CUA’s campus.

“Taylor’s background in innovation, AI, and entrepreneurship; studies in philosophy and law; and his formation as a deacon candidate make him the ideal person for this new venture,” H. Joseph Yost, senior vice provost of research for CUA, said in a statement. “From our first conversation, we knew he was the person we wanted to lead Catholic University’s expansion of AI programs and innovation.” 

Black received an undergraduate degree in philosophy and classics from Gonzaga University and a master’s degree in philosophy and a law degree from Boston College. His career took off after he created a successful web development business while still in school. He went on to hold consulting, business development, and venture positions before joining Microsoft in 2021. 

While working in the technology field, Black said he has noticed an increase in questions related to human dignity from his secular colleagues. The new institute will work to tackle some of the concerns by pursuing innovation in AI and engaging in dialogue about human issues central to the Catholic Church.

“The Church has been trying to get people to ask the question ‘What does it mean to be human?’ for a very long time. Now a bunch of people are asking it unprompted,” Black said in an interview with CUA. “This lends itself to addressing the gaping hole in understanding what people should know about what it means to be human in a deeper way.”

“Universities are for the formation of human persons. If you’re well-formed, you generally do a better job in the workplace,” Black said. He is interested in “how we reinvigorate the heart of what the university is — its human formation roots — while still providing the tools and training necessary from an entrepreneurial perspective to take this new economic paradigm in stride.”

The new AI initiative will bring faculty together from multiple departments including engineering, business, science, art, philosophy, and theology to engage collaboration within as well as outside the university.

The new institute follows a number of other advances at CUA. Earlier this year, the university achieved R1 status, which placed it among the top 5% of universities nationwide in terms of research funding and doctorates.

Front view of Westminster Cathedral, London. / Credit: Adrian Pingstone on Wikimedia Commons

ACI Prensa Staff, Sep 15, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

The first Catholic funeral of a member of the British royal family since the Anglican Reformation will take place at Westminster Cathedral on Sept. 16.

WASHINGTON – World Mental Health Day is observed on October 10, and the Catholic Church marks the Jubilee of Consolation on September 15. In recognition of the continuing mental health crisis, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has announced a new component within the ongoing National Catholic Mental Health Campaign focused on amplifying local engagement on mental health.

“Healing and Hope” is taken from the National Catholic Mental Health Campaign’s introductory statement authored by Archbishop Borys Gudziak and Bishop Robert Barron, who wrote: “As pastors, we want to emphasize this point to anyone who is suffering from mental illness or facing mental health challenges: nobody and nothing can alter or diminish your God-given dignity. You are a beloved child of God, a God of healing and hope.” 

This aspect of the mental health campaign builds upon the goal of promoting healing and hope for all who struggle with mental illness and is inclusive of the people who accompany them. Three new elements will amplify Catholic engagement on mental health:

• Revitalized digital campaign: Reflections by bishops on the USCCB’s social media platforms will invite all people into deeper conversation on the realities and stigmas of mental health.
• State conferences on mental health: Bishops, clergy, religious, and lay people in dioceses/eparchies and local groups will have an opportunity to gather for dialogue on local mental health realities. The first conference is scheduled for early 2026 in New Jersey.
• Mental Health Sunday: Parishes are encouraged to raise awareness on mental health, specifically by praying for those who struggle with this issue during Masses on the weekend of October 11-12, following World Mental Health Day (October 10). Resources are available for parishes to participate in Mental Health Sunday. 

The faithful are encouraged to pray the Novena for Mental Health in solidarity with Catholics across the United States from Friday, October 10, to Saturday, October 18. For more information on the National Catholic Mental Health Campaign, please visit: https://www.usccb.org/mental-health. 

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ROME (CNS) -- In situations where "hatred seemed to have permeated every aspect of life," modern Christian martyrs showed that love is stronger than death, Pope Leo XIV said at an ecumenical prayer service.

The prayer service Sept. 14, the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, commemorated 1,624 Catholics, Orthodox, Anglicans and Protestants who died for their faith between 2000 and 2025. During the Holy Year 2000, St. John Paul II had led a similar commemoration of Christians killed in the 20th century, mainly by communist and fascist regimes.

Pope Leo was joined by 28 representatives of other Christian churches and communities for the prayer service at Rome's Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.

Anglican Bishop Anthony Ball, the archbishop of Canterbury's representative to the Holy See, and Orthodox Archbishop Elia of Helsinki and All Finland, representing the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, stood on either side of the pope. Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, chair of the Moscow Patriarchate's external relations department, also attended. 

The Vatican did not release the names of the 1,624 new martyrs whose stories were submitted over the past two years by Catholic bishops' conferences, religious orders and nunciatures from all over the world.

But Pope Leo mentioned some of them in his homily, including Sister Dorothy Stang, a U.S. member of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, who was shot and killed in the Brazilian Amazon in 2005 for defending the land rights of the Indigenous and poor farmers.

"When those who were about to kill her asked her for a weapon, she showed them her Bible and replied, 'This is my only weapon,'" Pope Leo said.

He also spoke about Chaldean Father Ragheed Ganni from Mosul, Iraq, "who refused to fight in order to bear witness to how a true Christian behaves." He and three subdeacons were shot and killed in front of their church in 2007.

The pope also mentioned "Brother Francis Tofi, an Anglican and member of the Melanesian Brotherhood, who gave his life for peace in the Solomon Islands." Tofi and six other members of the religious order were killed by militia members on Guadalcanal in 2003. 

"Unfortunately, despite the end of the great dictatorships of the 20th century, to this day the persecution of Christians has not ended," the pope said. "On the contrary, in some parts of the world it has increased."

"We cannot and do not want to forget," the pope said. And "we want to keep this memory alive alongside our brothers and sisters of other churches and Christian communities. I therefore wish to reaffirm the commitment of the Catholic Church to safeguard the memory of the witnesses of the faith from all Christian traditions."

The new martyrs and witnesses of the faith were not killed because of the denomination they belonged to but because they were Christian, he said, and lived the Gospel of loving service to their brothers and sisters.

"As we recognized during the recent synod, the ecumenism of blood unites 'Christians of different backgrounds who together give their lives for faith in Jesus Christ. The witness of their martyrdom is more eloquent than any word: unity comes from the Cross of the Lord,'" he said, quoting the synod's final document. 

"Their martyrdom continues to spread the Gospel in a world marked by hatred, violence and war," Pope Leo said. "It is a hope filled with immortality because, even though they have been killed in body, no one can silence their voice or erase the love they have shown."

"Their witness lives on as a prophecy of the victory of good over evil," the pope said. "Yes, theirs is an unarmed hope. They bore witness to their faith without ever using the weapons of force and violence, but rather by embracing the hidden and meek power of the Gospel."

Pope Leo prayed, "May the blood of so many witnesses hasten the arrival of the blessed day when we will drink from the same cup of salvation!"

The Gospel reading at the service was St. Matthew's version of the Eight Beatitudes, which then provided the framework for specific prayers for Christians who were persecuted or kidnapped or jailed and ultimately killed for living their faith, defending the poor, caring for creation or defending religious freedom.

During the service, the people prayed that Christian communities today would "learn from these peaceful witnesses, persecuted for the Gospel, to imitate the Lord Jesus, the Master, meek and humble of heart."

The new martyrs and witnesses of the faith named in the prayers included: Blessed Leonella Sgorbati, a Consolata Missionary sister who was killed in Mogadishu, Somalia, in 2006; six Evangelicals killed at Silgadji Mission in Burkina Faso in 2019; and the 21 Coptic Orthodox martyrs beheaded by Islamic State members in Libya in 2015.
 

Pope Leo: New martyrs are signs of hope

Pope Leo XIV presided over an ecumenical prayer service at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls on Sept. 14, commemorating the “new martyrs and witnesses of the faith” who have died in the past 25 years.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pain must never give rise to violence, and every Catholic needs to learn to safeguard with tenderness those who are vulnerable, Pope Leo XIV said during a prayer vigil dedicated to people experiencing pain and affliction due to illness, bereavement, violence or abuse.

Recognizing that some members of the church "have unfortunately hurt you," the pope said, the church "kneels with you today before our Mother (Mary). May we all learn from her to protect the most vulnerable with tenderness!"

"May we learn to listen to your wounds and walk together," he said in his homily Sept. 15, the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows. "May we receive from Our Lady of Sorrows the strength to recognize that life is not defined only by the evil we suffer, but by the love of God, who never abandons us and guides the whole church."

The pope led the prayer vigil in St. Peter's Basilica Sept. 15 as part of the Jubilee of Consolation, which is "dedicated to all those who are experiencing or have experienced moments of particular difficulty, grief, suffering or hardship in their lives," according to the section of the Dicastery for Evangelization in charge of organizing the Holy Year.

During the vigil, two women offered their reflections and experience of losing a loved one to senseless violence and finding consolation, reconciliation and new life through their faith.

Lucia Di Mauro, spoke about forgiving and supporting the young man who was an accomplice in the 2009 murder of her husband, Gaetano Montanino, in Naples, Italy, and Diane Foley spoke about her son, James W. Foley, a U.S. journalist who worked in conflict zones and was kidnapped, once in Libya, then in Syria, where he was ultimately beheaded by members of ISIS in 2014. 

Telling the story of his Catholic faith and passion for "giving voice to the voiceless," Foley also spoke of the pain and anguish of finding out "my innocent, good-hearted son was taken at gunpoint, sold and held captive for the 'crime' of being a journalist -- just as our beloved innocent Jesus was condemned to death for our sins," she said, her voice catching with emotion.

"Anger surged within me -- anger at ISIS, at our U.S. government, at those who refused to help. Bitterness threatened to consume me," she said. She found comfort in the Stations of the Cross, and "Jesus and Mary became my constant companions, along with countless earthly angels whose compassion lifted me up."

The unexpected happened, Foley said, when Alexanda Kotey, one of the jihadists who had kidnapped and tortured her son, offered to meet with the family after he pleaded guilty to all eight counts of kidnapping, torture and murder.

"The three days of meeting with Alexanda became moments of grace," she said, as "God gave me the grace to see him as a fellow sinner in need of mercy, like me," and she turned evil into good by establishing the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation, which advocates for the safe return of Americans taken hostage and educates student journalists about safety practices in places of danger.

In his homily, Pope Leo said, "the testimonies we have heard speak of a truth: that pain must not give rise to violence, and that violence never has the final say, for it is conquered by a love that knows how to forgive." 

"The violence suffered cannot be erased, but forgiveness granted to those who offend us is a foretaste of the kingdom of God on earth," he said.

"Where there is evil, we must seek the comfort and consolation that can overcome it and give it no respite," he said. "In the church, this means never being alone."

"Finding someone who cries with you and gives you strength is a medicine that we cannot do without, because it is a sign of love. Where pain is deep, the hope that comes from communion must be even stronger," he added.

The pope highlighted the collective anguish of entire peoples "crushed by the weight of violence, hunger and war."

"The true consolation we must offer to those around us is showing that peace is possible," he said, appealing to the leaders of nations to listen to "the cries of so many innocent children and ensure them a future that protects and consoles them."

"Even in the midst of so much arrogance, we are certain that God will inspire hearts and hands to provide help and consolation: peacemakers who can comfort those who are in pain and sadness," he said.

Among the many prayer intentions read aloud were pleas for those who are: persecuted for their faith; victims of violence and terrorism; children who are abused and neglected; victims of human trafficking and their captors; abandoned by others; suffering from addiction; and mourning the death of a loved one or child.

At the prayer service, people were given a gift of the "Agnus Dei," a wax medallion depicting the Paschal lamb, a symbol of resurrection and a sign of hope. On the other side was a representation of Rome's Marian icon, the "Salus Populi Romani," ("Salvation of the Roman People"). The medallions were blessed by the pope.

Juan Dabdoub, founder of the Mexican Family Council. / Credit: David Ramos/EWTN News

ACI Prensa Staff, Sep 14, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Juan Dabdoub Giacoman, a legendary and tireless defender of life and family in Mexico, passed away at the age of 71 on Sept. 11 in Mexico City after a long battle with cancer.

Pope Leo XIV is pictured here during a past birthday celebration when he served as bishop of the Diocese of Chiclayo, Peru. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Diocese of Chiclayo

Lima Newsroom, Sep 13, 2025 / 17:00 pm (CNA).

Before becoming Pope Leo XIV, Bishop Robert Prevost celebrated various birthdays in Chiclayo, Peru, with gestures marked by simplicity, closeness, and community.

Vice President JD Vance (right), second lady Usha Vance (center), and Erika Kirk deplane Air Force Two while escorting the body of Charlie Kirk on Sept. 11, 2025, in Phoenix. / Credit: Kirk, Eric Thayer/Getty Images

CNA Newsroom, Sep 13, 2025 / 10:05 am (CNA).

Erika Kirk, the widow of slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk, vowed to continue her husband’s work Friday night during an impassioned and deeply personal televised address that focused on the importance of faith and family life.

Appearing on Fox News just two days after her husband was shot and killed by an assassin’s bullet, fired from a rooftop on the campus of Utah Valley University where he was holding an outdoor event, she spoke for more than 16 minutes, maintaining her composure as she stood at a podium in her husband’s podcast studio, beside his empty chair.

“I will never, ever have the words to describe the loss that I feel in my heart,” said Erika Kirk, the mother of two young children, ages 1 and 3.

“I honestly have no idea what any of this means,” she said. “I know that God does, but I don’t. But Charlie, baby, I know you do, too. So does Our Lord.”

“The evildoers responsible for my husband’s assassination have no idea what they have done,” she said.

“They killed Charlie because he preached a message of patriotism, faith, and of God’s merciful love.”

Here are other highlights from her remarks:

She revealed that she had not yet told the couple’s 3-year-old daughter of her father’s death.

“When I got home last night, Gigi, our daughter, just ran into my arms. And I talked to her, and she said, ‘Mommy, I missed you.’ I said, ‘I missed you too, baby.’

“She goes, ‘Where’s daddy?’ She’s 3. I said, ‘Baby, daddy loves you so much. He’s on a work trip with Jesus, so he can afford your blueberry budget.’”

She talked about why her husband advocated so passionately for marriage and family life.

“Charlie always believed that God’s design for marriage in the family was absolutely amazing. And it is. It is. And it was the greatest joy of his life. And over and over, he would tell all these young people to come and find their future spouse, become wives and husbands and parents. And the reason why is because he wanted you all to experience what he had, and still has,” she said.

“He wanted everyone to bring heaven into this earth through love and joy that comes from raising a family. It’s beautiful. Charlie always said that if he ever ran for office — I know a lot of you asked if he ever was going to — but privately, he told me if he ever did run for office, that his top priority would be to revive the American family. That was his priority.

“One of Charlie’s favorite Bible verses was Ephesians 5 verse 25: ‘Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.’

“My husband laid down his life for me, for our nation, for our children. He showed the ultimate and true covenantal love,” she said.

Erika, who is a baptized Catholic, witnessed to the Christian faith she and her husband shared.

“Charlie always said that when he was gone, he, he wanted to be remembered for his courage and for his faith,” she said.

“And one of the final conversations that he had on this earth, my husband witnessed for his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now and for all eternity, he will stand at his Savior’s side, wearing the glorious crown of a martyr.”

During the broadcast, Erika Kirk urged others to make faith central to their lives, as her husband had done.

“But most important of all, if you aren’t a member of a church, I beg you to join one, a Bible-believing church,” she said.

“Our battle is not simply a political one above all. It is spiritual. It is spiritual. The spiritual warfare is palpable. Charlie loved his Savior with all of his heart, and he wanted every one of you to know him, too. He wanted everyone to know that if they confess, if they confess the Lord Jesus Christ who rose from the dead, then they will be saved.

“Hear me when I say this. Nobody is ever too young to know the Gospel. Nobody. Nobody is ever too young to get involved with saving this beautiful country, this country my husband loved and still loves. And nobody is ever too old, either.”

She vowed to continue Charlie’s work with Turning Point USA, the conservativve advocacy organization he founded, and said the campus speaking tour he had just embarked on would go on.

“If you thought that my husband’s mission was powerful before, you have no idea. You have no idea what you just have unleashed across this entire country and this world. You have no idea,” she said.

“You have no idea the fire that you have ignited within this wife. The cries of this widow will echo around the world like a battle cry.

“To everyone listening tonight across America, the movement my husband built will not die,” she said. “It won’t. I refuse to let that happen. It will not die.”

Kendrick Castillo, who died in a school shooting in 2019 and whose cause for canonization has been opened in the Diocese of Colorado Springs. / Credit: Photo courtesy of John and Maria Castillo

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 13, 2025 / 10:00 am (CNA).

The Diocese of Colorado Springs announced it received a petition to open a cause for canonization for Kendrick Castillo, the lone fatal casualty after a shooting at a Colorado school in 2019, when the 18-year-old died after jumping into the line of fire to stop one of the shooters. 

“Knowing Kendrick, we knew that that was something that he would do,” said his parents, Maria and John Castillo, in an interview with “EWTN News In Depth” this week.

“We’re so humbled and grateful,” John said about the opening of Kendrick’s cause for canonization. “It’s one of the greatest gifts that can ever be bestowed upon anybody. It’s just the sheer mention of sainthood. We always have felt … that since Kendrick was born, he’s been our saint. He’s worthy, and we believe that. But to hear it coming from our Catholic brothers and sisters and our families, it’s different and it’s more powerful.”

The priests in the diocese advocating for Kendrick’s cause believe that he qualifies for beatification in a new category called “Offering of Life.” 

In a 2017 motu proprio, Pope Francis established a new category of Christian life eligible for beatification, recognizing individuals who died prematurely as a sacrificial offering of their life out of love for God and neighbor.

Since his death, there have been “numerous things that have taken place to honor Kendrick, and they’ve all been spectacular,” John said. “But this is on a level that is indescribable. It really is an honor, it’s humbling.”

Reflected on the kind of man his son was, John said: “Kendrick was joyful all the time. I don’t think there’s a picture [of him] that we have that doesn’t have a smile on it. He was just happy all the time. He loved life.” 

“He made friends everywhere he went,” John continued, remembering a particular time when Kendrick was in preschool. “A child was being dropped off and was afraid to leave his mom for the day. Kendrick, as a little kid, went over and hugged him and said it would be OK and comforted him. That was just in his nature.”

At the public school Kendrick attended, “he took his Catholic faith and did what we’re asked to do as Catholics,” John said. He showed the “agape love that we should have for our savior. That’s what Kendrick did every day. I just wish people got to know his personality and see that.”

His son had a “willingness to live out his faith and help his community at church,” the elder Castillo said, recalling his service as an usher and altar server at Mass and funerals.

On the day of the shooting, Kendrick “risked his life to save others,” John said. “That was in Kendrick’s nature. We wish that he didn’t have to do that, of course. But in that moment, it wasn’t surprising to us that he would not run the other way [and] that he would defend the sanctity of life.”

Maria said she wants her son to be remembered for “his love.” She said: “He loved his friends, his parents, but most importantly, he loved God.”

Following recent shootings at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minnesota and Evergreen High School in Colorado, John offered consolation and wisdom to parents who have lost a child in such a tragedy. “My words to them would be: ‘Hold each other close.’” 

“Remember what we’re called to do in faith and surrender to trust in the Lord,” John said. “God did not make this happen. Evil is real, and we can’t let evil divide us. We must comfort one another. We must try to seek viable solutions that are going to create safety for our families and our community … Reach out to one another and don’t let evil win and pull you away from anything that’s positive and God’s grace in our lives.”

Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkins. / Credit: “EWTN News in Depth”/Screenshot

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 13, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).

In the wake of the assassination of Charlie Kirk on Sept. 10 at a Utah college campus, Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America and Students for Life Action and a close friend of Kirk’s, said: “His death will be a turning point.”

In an interview with “EWTN News In Depth,” Hawkins called Kirk “a joyful warrior.” She pointed out: “He was a man of God and just moments before he was assassinated, he had proclaimed that Jesus Christ is his Lord and Savior. And he never shirked away from that, just like he never shirked away from any of the other political debates … I believe with my whole heart, he died a martyr.”

Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA and campus activist, “truly enjoyed having conversations with those who disagreed with him and having the opportunity to change their minds,” Hawkins said. “He was a huge learning advocate … He was always wanting to find out the best ways to save our country and to advance our faith.”

“We work symbiotically on campuses to spread the good news of the Gospel, but then also spread the voice of reason, which Pope Benedict was very clear [about]. He wrote about how reason is God’s gift and when reason is abandoned, violence becomes the only remaining path … When people stop talking, when they disagree with each other, it only leads to violence.”

Hawkins highlighted Kirk’s mission to protect human life. Students for Life honored him in January at the National Pro-Life Summit with the Defender of Life Award “for his advocacy for life on college campuses.” 

Turning Point, Students for Life, and similar organizations that work to defend life “have become increasingly effective [in] winning back students,” Hawkins said, especially because of Kirk’s “ability to reach young men.” 

While the pro-life organizations have been “effective and things have started to shift in our country, it hasn’t shifted enough,” Hawkins said. “We still have a culture of death.” 

Manifestation of the ‘culture of death’

The day of Kirk’s death, Hawkins was speaking to students at the University of Montana. “I was on campus for two hours before Charlie was shot and every argument from the 150 pro-choice students who surrounded me … was: ‘Maybe it is a baby, maybe it is human, but I can still kill it because I want to. That’s a culture of death.”

“When I announced to them that my friend had been shot and we were trying to find updates on Charlie’s condition … they laughed.” 

“This is what a culture of death breeds. When you say it’s OK to kill innocent babies and that there should be no recourse [for] killing innocent, helpless babies who are the most innocent among us, this is what it leads to. This is why we say it’s a culture of death that must be defeated and this is why we can’t abandon the campuses right now,” Hawkins said. “Do we abandon violence or accept reason?”

Despite this tragedy, Hawkins said: “We have to stay on campuses, because we have to teach this generation, Gen Z, that violence isn’t acceptable.” She shared that her organizations will be going to “160 campuses this semester talking about [their] fall theme, which is ‘every human life matters.’ Charlie Kirk’s life matters.”

“We have to go now harder and louder than ever before because God’s gift of reason must prevail. That is the only way our mission survives this.”

Hawkins also asked people to pray for Kirk’s wife, Erika, and their young children. “I can’t even imagine the pain that Erika is going through,” Hawkins said. “To lose the love of her life, the father of her children, her rock, one that she loves so dearly, and Erika loves so fiercely. But she also loves the Lord.” 

“And so my prayer for her right now is that her faith prevails, and her faith carries her through this moment, and God grants her strength. She is strong enough to endure this. I would ask folks every morning when you wake up, pray for Erika. Pray for those two young children.”