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Bishop Conley on Catholic Schools Week: educating the whole person
Posted on 01/31/2025 14:50 PM (EWTN News - US Catholic News)

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 31, 2025 / 12:50 pm (CNA).
Having spent the past week paying visits to Catholic schools across the Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska, for Catholic Schools Week, Bishop James Conley has issued a reflection on the value of faith-based education for students and their families.
“In the secular world of education, we often hear words like ‘excellence’ and ‘success,’” Conley wrote. “These are great words, but what do they really mean? The ultimate measure of excellence and success in Catholic education is how well we educate the whole person, body, mind, and soul, by instilling virtue, knowledge, and wisdom.”
“In other words,” he continued, “excellence and success in Catholic education is measured by how well we cultivate faith, goodness, and sanctity in our students.”
Conley is a prominent advocate for Catholic education and has written extensively on the topic. In September 2024, the bishop published a pastoral letter, “The Joy and Wonder of Catholic Education: Developing Authentically Catholic Schools,” describing Catholic education as “the formation of human hearts, minds, and wills for the glory of their Creator,” which received widespread accolades.
Referencing another of his recently published pastoral letters, Conley highlighted five elements needed for a school to be authentically Catholic: “1) inspired by a supernatural vision, 2) founded on a Christian anthropology, 3) animated by communion and community, 4) imbued with a Catholic worldview throughout its curriculum, and 5) sustained by Gospel witness.”
The bishop shared that he had visited five of the diocese’s six high schools, as well as several of its elementary schools, offering Mass, leading Eucharistic processions, and spending time with students, faculty, and staff.
“It’s an exhausting week of travel but I love every minute of it, because it provides me with an opportunity to see our schools in action, in all their beauty and splendor,” he stated.
Conley also pointed out the special meaning behind the timing of the annual calendar celebration, writing: “It’s all about the saints!”
Situated at the end of January, Catholic Schools Week kicked off on the feast of St. Angela Merici, foundress of the Ursuline order that started the first Catholic school for girls. Tuesday marked the feast of the Angelic Doctor and patron of learning, St. Thomas Aquinas, while Friday is the feast of St. John Bosco, “father and teacher of the youth.”
Conley paid special tribute, however, to St. John Henry Newman, whom he quoted at the end of his letter as saying: “We attain to heaven by using this world well, though it is to pass away; we perfect our nature, not by undoing it, but by adding to it what is more than nature, and directing it towards aims higher than its own.”
Catholic priest at crash site of deadly midair collision: ‘It was my duty’ to be there
Posted on 01/31/2025 07:00 AM (EWTN News - US Catholic News)

CNA Staff, Jan 31, 2025 / 05:00 am (CNA).
After the tragic plane crash in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday night, a local priest made his way to the scene “to be present” with the grieving families.
Father Frederick Edlefsen, pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes in Arlington, Virginia, shared about how he was able to be present to the families that night in an interview with Colm Flynn on “EWTN News Nightly.”
Edlefsen was heading to bed after a long day when he checked his phone and saw the news — a passenger plane had collided with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter near Reagan National Airport and sunk into the Potomac River.
With the airport a mile away from his parish, it was close to home for Edlefsen.
“I felt it was really my duty. I felt an impulse — call it the gifts of the Holy Spirit or guardian angel,” he recalled. “But the airport is within the boundaries of my parish; we have a lot of travelers from Reagan Airport, airline personnel come to our Masses, and so on. So I felt: I need to be there.”
Edlefsen coordinated with a parishioner and Knight of Columbus who had a background in law enforcement. The parishioner escorted the priest to the airport and the Admirals Lounge of American Airlines.
“We were able to be present, not only to the grieving families but also to the personnel who, when they went to work this morning, they didn’t know this was going to hit them,” Edlefsen said.
Edlefsen remained with the families, listening to them and praying with them as they awaited news about their loved ones in the crash. It wasn’t until past 1 in the morning that the families learned there were no survivors.
“At around 1 or 1:30 more or less — that’s when some law enforcement from Washington, D.C., came in and told the families that no, there are no survivors,” Edlefsen recalled. “Going from search and rescue to recovery and it can take some time also to identify the bodies and the remains of the deceased. So that was a hard hit for those families.”
The crash was the first major U.S. commercial air crash in almost 16 years.
Edlefsen emphasized how important it is to respect the privacy of families who are grieving and “who are still trying to grasp what happened.”
“A tragedy like this not only provokes grief, but it’s a very intimate grief,” he reflected. “It was probably one of the most intense grief moments and situations I’ve ever seen in my own almost 24 years of priesthood.”
The tragedy is especially devastating because of its magnitude. The plane had been carrying 60 passengers and four crew, while the helicopter had three soldiers aboard. The effects reverberated across the nation as those aboard the passenger plane were from all across the U.S., including Wichita, Kansas; Boston; and Washington, D.C.
“Because usually these happen within families, or one or two at a time,” Edlefson said. “But this was multiple families. Several people have lost several loved ones. Everybody is in total shock. They don’t know what to say or how to react. And they’re waiting for the best news.”
When asked how he responded as a minister, Edlefsen said he focused on simply being present.
“The backstop here and the presumption is you don’t say anything,” he said. “You’re just present. You listen.”
Amid the grief, it’s essential to be present and listening, Edlefsen explained.
“It’s hard to explain, but it’s more often than not OK to say ‘Can we pray together?’ And it has to be simple and short,” he said. “But right now the best thing is to say nothing. Presence is what’s important and reassurance of your presence. But also at the same time, maybe, a willingness to pray, maybe give someone a blessing if they ask for it. But to have the Church visibly present is absolutely key.”
Edlefsen is set to offer a vigil Mass at 5:30 this Saturday for the victims of the crash and their families as well as others involved — American Airlines personnel, Reagan Airport personnel, first responders, and all the people working in the background.
The little-known story of when the Masons tried to kill Don Bosco
Posted on 01/31/2025 06:00 AM (EWTN News - World Catholic News)

ACI Prensa Staff, Jan 31, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).
History notes how much the Freemasons hated St. John Bosco — whose feast the Church celebrates Jan. 31 — but less is known about their attempts to kill him.
Trump administration rejoins pro-life Geneva Consensus Declaration
Posted on 01/30/2025 20:05 PM (EWTN News - US Catholic News)

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 30, 2025 / 18:05 pm (CNA).
During its first week in office, the administration of President Donald Trump announced that the United States has rejoined the Geneva Consensus Declaration, a coalition of nations united in support of pro-life and pro-women policies.
The U.S. was a founding member of the Geneva Consensus Declaration (GCD), which was established in 2020 during Trump’s first term. Along with the U.S., Brazil, Egypt, Hungary, Indonesia, and Uganda were among the original signatories.
According to the Institute for Women’s Health (IWH), a key supporter of the GCD, the alliance was forged to “protect the health and thriving of women throughout every stage of life, assert that there is no international right to abortion, defend the family as foundational to every healthy society, and protect the sovereign right of nations to support these core values through national policy and legislation.”
Today, 40 member nations are signatories of the declaration.
Valerie Huber, president of IWH and the architect of the GCD, said: “We knew that countries were standing for these values prior to the GCD, but when countries stand together, that multiplies the impact.”
“Now 40 countries have declared that when we are talking about human rights, abortion is not one of them,” Huber continued.

In 2021, nine days after his inauguration, former President Joe Biden withdrew the United States from the GCD.
“The GCD, of course, poses a threat to progressive global hegemony because it’s both politically effective and entirely voluntary,” Huber said.
But in his second term as president, within the first 100 hours of his presidency, Trump recommitted the U.S. to the GCD, becoming the 40th nation to join the alliance.
Huber, who served in the first Trump administration as the first special representative for global women’s health, initiated the GCD to make a pro-family and pro-women political declaration and nation-to-nation partnership.
In an IWH press release, Huber said: “By rejoining, President Trump sends a bold message that the United States stands with sovereign nations to defend the real health needs of women against coercive tactics by global power players.”
“The Biden administration’s withdrawal from the GCD misrepresented and undermined the coalition’s commitment to advance health and thriving for women at every stage of life. Despite relentless efforts by critics to dismantle and discredit it, IWH celebrates that the GCD has not only survived but thrived over the past four years — expanding its membership and influence,” she said.
Huber said that after the news broke of America’s reentry, she received communications from multiple countries excited to be in the same coalition as the United States and eager to connect with the nation.
“I hope that we have the opportunity to show more countries and more people that the good of America is back, and it never really left because so many Americans share the same altruistic, compassionate, and good heart,” Huber concluded.
‘Night of terror’ in Nicaragua: Dictatorship forces cloistered nuns to leave monasteries
Posted on 01/30/2025 19:35 PM (EWTN News - Americas Catholic News)

Lima Newsroom, Jan 30, 2025 / 17:35 pm (CNA).
The dictatorship’s order reportedly was carried out on the night of Jan. 28, forcing some 30 cloistered nuns belonging to the Order of St. Clare to leave their monasteries.
German bishops distance themselves from migration statement ahead of key Parliament vote
Posted on 01/30/2025 10:45 AM (EWTN News - World Catholic News)

CNA Newsroom, Jan 30, 2025 / 08:45 am (CNA).
The controversy has highlighted divisions within German Catholicism regarding migration policy.
Visionary laywoman who was friend of Padre Pio declared venerable
Posted on 01/29/2025 09:00 AM (EWTN News - World Catholic News)

ACI Prensa Staff, Jan 29, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).
The Vatican has issued a decree recognizing the heroic virtues of Servant of God Luigina Sinapi, declaring her “venerable.”
Orthodox Archbishop Anastasios of Albania dies at 95 following illness
Posted on 01/28/2025 16:25 PM (EWTN News - World Catholic News)

Rome Newsroom, Jan 28, 2025 / 14:25 pm (CNA).
Under Archbishop Anastasios Yannoulatos’ leadership, after the fall of communism, more than 400 parishes were reopened and several new churches were built.
What would Thomas Aquinas make of AI?
Posted on 01/28/2025 07:00 AM (EWTN News - World Catholic News)

CNA Newsroom, Jan 28, 2025 / 05:00 am (CNA).
According to one German theologian, the Catholic saint and doctor of the Church can contribute to contemporary discussions about AI’s risks and role in society.
80 years later: Remembering the Catholic martyrs killed in Auschwitz during World War II
Posted on 01/27/2025 19:40 PM (EWTN News - World Catholic News)

Rome Newsroom, Jan 27, 2025 / 17:40 pm (CNA).
The Auschwitz martyrs’ legacy of holiness continues to be a source of inspiration for Catholics worldwide.