ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST, SLATERSVILLE RI

Participants in a pro-life rally hold signs in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., on June 24, 2023, at a rally marking the first anniversary of the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. | Credit: Joseph Portolano/EWTN News

Jan 20, 2026 / 14:37 pm (CNA).

Members of the pro-life movement have mixed thoughts on the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, noting many wins early into his presidency but a number of shortfalls as time has gone by.

Some wins include defunding Planned Parenthood, walking back some of President Joe Biden’s initiatives, and removing foreign aid funding for organizations that promote abortion. However, a lack of action on chemical abortions and weakened rhetoric surrounding taxpayer-funded abortions are causing concern.

A notable pro-life win was included in the tax overhaul bill signed by Trump in July, which cut off all Medicaid reimbursements for organizations that provide a large number of abortions, such as Planned Parenthood.

Amid funding cuts, nearly 70 Planned Parenthood affiliates shut down. The administration also initially cut off Title X family planning grants from the abortion giant, but those have resumed.

The president pardoned pro-life protesters convicted of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act and blocked foreign aid from supporting organizations that promote abortion. He rescinded several policies from the Biden administration, including one that paid Pentagon workers to travel for abortions. He also established strong conscience protections for pro-life doctors.

“Right out the gate, we saw some progress on the pro-life issue,” Kelsey Pritchard, a spokesperson for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America (SBA), told EWTN.

Yet, she cautioned: “We have also not seen progress in the one area that matters the most — and that’s on abortion drugs.”

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. launched a study into the safety of the abortion pill mifepristone in September 2025, but so far no action has been taken to curtail the drug. Rather, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) went in the opposite direction, approving a generic version of mifepristone later that same month.

Pritchard said that move was “the opposite of what they should have done,” and referred to the generic mifepristone as “a new kill pill to increase the number of abortions that are done in this country.”

She said Kennedy’s promised study has “absolutely been moving too slow” and added that there is no confirmation it even began or is taking place. SBA called for FDA Commissioner Marty Makary to be fired following allegations he was “slow-walking the report for political reasons,” she said.

Trump has said abortion should be regulated by the states, but Pritchard warned “those [pro-life] laws can’t be in effect at all, really, when mail-order abortion happens with the abortion drugs.”

“They’re allowing [California Gov.] Gavin Newsom and [New York Gov.] Kathy Hochul and their blue state friends to completely nullify the pro-life laws in states like Texas and Florida,” she said.

Joseph Meaney, a senior ethicist at the National Catholic Bioethics Center, similarly said “the delay in the promised review of the rushed process in which mifepristone was approved as an abortion drug by the FDA has frustrated pro-lifers.”

“When the FDA approved a second generic version of mifepristone, … it highlighted the lack of progress in fighting the leading means of doing abortions in the [United States],” he said.

Trump also began to waver on taxpayer-funded abortions early in 2026, asking Republicans to be “flexible” on the Hyde Amendment amid negotiations on extending health care subsidies for the Affordable Care Act. Trump later unveiled “The Great Healthcare Plan” and said the White House intends to negotiate with Congress to ensure pro-life protections.

Pritchard called taxpayer-funded abortion “a very basic red line” and said it’s “concerning to see Republicans back away from something so basic.”

She warned Republicans to not take pro-life voters for granted in the upcoming midterms, saying “you’ll lose the elections and we won’t have the majority of Congress” without pro-life voters.

“You must remain the pro-life party or you will lose the midterms if you decide to bow to the pro-death Democrat agenda,” Pritchard said.

Meaney said there is “a widespread feeling that the second Trump administration has seemed to deprioritize issues important to the pro-life community,” adding he has “seen calls for pro-life groups to ‘flex their muscles’ and show that they cannot be taken for granted.”

However, he said the shortfalls “should not obscure the fact that the Trump administration has rolled back the Biden-era pro-abortion measures internationally and domestically.”

“It even achieved a temporary defunding of Planned Parenthood domestically in legislation,” he said. “The federal government no longer funds research on fetal tissues and defends the conscience rights of health care professionals and others robustly.”

Trump also signed an executive order that directed departments and agencies to boost access to and reduce the cost of in vitro fertilization (IVF). The Catholic Church opposes IVF, which results in the destruction of human embryos, ending human lives.

Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio leads the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA. | Credit: “EWTN News In Depth”/Screenshot

Jan 20, 2026 / 14:07 pm (CNA).

Military Archbishop Timothy Broglio says the United States’ threat to use the military to annex Greenland “tarnishes” the reputation of the United States around the world.

The archbishop made the comments during a Jan. 18 interview with the BBC, speaking to broadcaster Edward Stourton. As the archbishop of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, Broglio oversees clergy and sacraments for the U.S. armed forces.

Asked about the Trump administration’s apparent willingness to use military force to take Greenland if diplomacy fails, Broglio said he “cannot see any circumstance” where doing so would, as Stourton put it, “fulfill the criteria of a just law.”

“Greenland is a territory of Denmark,” the prelate said. “Denmark is an ally. It’s part of NATO. It does not seem really reasonable that the United States would attack and occupy a friendly nation.”

“It’d be one thing if the people of Greenland wanted to be annexed,” the archbishop pointed out. “But taking it by force when we already have treaties there that allow for a military installation in Greenland — it doesn’t seem acceptable to invade a friendly nation.”

Military force in such a scenario would “tarnish” the image of the U.S., Broglio said, because “traditionally, we’ve responded to situations of oppression” instead of engaging in proactive invasion.

The archbishop acknowledged that soldiers who are “put in a situation where they’re being ordered to do something that is morally questionable” are within their rights of conscience to disobey such a directive.

“But that’s perhaps putting that individual in an untenable situation, and that’s my concern,” he said.

A sparsely populated landmass with little Church presence, most of the Catholic population in Greenland is concentrated in a single parish, Christ the King Church in Nuuk. That parish falls under the administration of the Diocese of Copenhagen, located approximately 2,000 miles east of Nuuk.

U.S. plans to annex the landmass have drawn international backlash and rebuke from leaders in Europe and elsewhere. Catholics in the region have reportedly expressed opposition to Greenland falling under American control.

Asked if he believes he can “make a real difference” in the international dispute by “laying down red lines,” Broglio acknowledged that it’s unknown “whether the powers that be will listen to those admonitions.”

But “I think it is my duty to speak appropriately as I’m able,” he said.

Credit: Photo courtesy of March for Life

Jan 20, 2026 / 13:37 pm (CNA).

Thousands will gather for the 53rd National March for Life in the nation’s capital on Friday, Jan. 23.

Every January, tens of thousands of people march on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., for “the largest annual human rights demonstration in the world,” according to the March for Life website. The event’s 2026 theme is “Life Is a Gift,” which invites “all people to rediscover the beauty, goodness, and joy of life itself.”

The theme emphasizes “what lies at the heart of the pro-life movement — an unshakeable conviction that life is very good and worthy of protection, no matter the circumstances,” according to the event’s website. “‘Life Is a Gift’ invites everyone to embrace life as something to be cherished and celebrated from the very beginning.”

The first March for Life was on Jan. 22, 1974, in Washington, D.C. It took place one year after the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision legalized abortion nationwide. While the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision returned the matter to the states in 2022, the organization continues its mission to protect life at the state and federal levels.

“The March for Life is not just a protest … It is a celebration of each and every life, from the moment of conception,” organizers of the event reported. “We envision a world where every life is celebrated, valued, and protected. We envision a world where these moments are celebrated, valued, and protected by everybody — both in the private sector and in the public sphere.”

Schedule

The day is more than just the walk on Capitol Hill; it offers numerous other opportunities to celebrate life.

The festivities will kick off with a pre-rally concert at 11 a.m. on the National Mall by Sanctus Real, a Grammy-nominated and Dove Award-winning Christian band.

Then the rally will kick off at noon and will feature a number of special guests including a national anthem performance by Friends of Club 21 Choir, a chorus of young adults with Down syndrome, and a lineup of speakers.

The crowd will depart from the National Mall at 1 p.m. for the march and will make its way to the ending point at the Supreme Court building.

Speakers

The leaders set to speak at the rally include a number of pro-life advocates who will share testimonials and encouragement ahead of the march.

JD Vance will speak for the second time at the annual event as vice president of the United States. He will be joined by other U.S. leaders including Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey.

Jennie Bradley Lichter, March for Life president, will address the crowd at her first march as president. Lichter has served as deputy general counsel at The Catholic University of America and in the White House during the first Trump administration.

Sarah Hurm will share her testimony about how the experience of starting a chemical abortion and reversing it changed her perspective and led her to pro-life advocacy.

Elizabeth Pillsbury Oliver, president of Georgetown University Right to Life and a Catholic convert, will offer a pro-life student’s perspective and about how her faith gives her courage to defend life.

Other pro-life leaders and ministry workers from across the nation will also take the stage at the National Mall ahead of the march.

Additional events

The March for Life is just one of the ways pro-lifers can celebrate life the weekend of Jan. 23.

The National Prayer Vigil for Life:

The weekend will start with The National Prayer Vigil for Life, which is hosted annually by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. The vigil takes place on the eve of the March for Life, marking the date of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.

The National Prayer Vigil for Life will begin on Jan. 22 with an opening Mass at 5 p.m. in the Great Upper Church of the basilica. Following Mass, the National Holy Hour for Life will be at 7 p.m. in the Crypt Church. The National Prayer Vigil will conclude with a closing Mass celebrated by Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley, OFM Cap, archbishop emeritus of Boston, at 8 a.m. on Jan. 23 in the Great Upper Church.

Overnight seminarian-led Holy Hours will also take place from 9 p.m. on Jan. 22 until 8 a.m. on Jan. 23.

Life Fest

The Knights of Columbus and Sisters of Life will host Life Fest at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in Oxon Hill, Maryland. Doors open at 6 a.m. on the morning of Friday, Jan. 23, before the march. Life Fest will kick off with live music from the Sisters of Life’s band All the Living, with Father Isaiah, CFR, Damascus Worship, followed by a Eucharistic procession and Mass.

The event will also include opportunities for confession, first-class relic veneration, and powerful witnesses, including pro-life advocate and founder of Live Action Lila Rose.

Cardinal O’Connor Conference:

Named in honor of Cardinal John O’Connor, who committed himself to advocate for the unborn, the annual Cardinal O’Connor Conference on Life works to promote intellectual “discourse on the sanctity of human life as well as build a culture of life both within and beyond the Georgetown community,” the conference’s website reported.

Started by Georgetown students in 2000, the conference has become the largest student-run, pro-life conference in the U.S. The Jan. 24 conference will feature a Holy Hour, a number of speakers, breakout sessions, a panel discussion, and a Mass for life.

Cardinals meet with Pope Leo XIV in the third session of the consistory on Jan. 8, 2025, at the Vatican. | Credit: Vatican Media

Jan 20, 2026 / 13:07 pm (CNA).

Three U.S.-based cardinals issued a statement this week renouncing war as “an instrument for narrow national interests” and calling for the U.S. to engage in military action “as a last resort in extreme situations, not a normal instrument of national policy.”

Chicago archbishop Cardinal Blase Cupich; Washington, D.C., archbishop Cardinal Robert McElroy; and Newark, New Jersey, archbishop Cardinal Joseph Tobin, CSsR, issued a joint statement discussing U.S. foreign policy in comparison to the principles set forth by Pope Leo XIV in his Jan. 9 address to members of the diplomatic corps.

Following the capture of Venezuela’s leader Nicolas Maduro and signaling from President Donald Trump that he wants to annex Greenland in some form, the cardinals said the country’s “moral role in confronting evil around the world, sustaining the right to life and human dignity, and supporting religious liberty are all under examination.”

In the Jan. 19 statement they urged a U.S. foreign policy that “respects and advances the right to human life, religious liberty, and the enhancement of human dignity throughout the world, especially through economic assistance.”

“The sovereign rights of nations to self-determination appear all too fragile in a world of ever greater conflagrations,” the cardinals said. “The balancing of national interest with the common good is being framed within starkly polarized terms.”

“In 2026, the United States has entered into the most profound and searing debate about the moral foundation for America’s actions in the world since the end of the Cold War,” the cardinals wrote. “The events in Venezuela, Ukraine, and Greenland have raised basic questions about the use of military force and the meaning of peace.”

They added: “The building of just and sustainable peace, so crucial to humanity’s well-being now and in the future, is being reduced to partisan categories that encourage polarization and destructive policies.”

Pope Leo’s word as a ‘compass’ for foreign policy

Pope Leo’s Jan. 9 comments on foreign policy have “provided us an enduring ethical compass for establishing the pathway for American foreign policy in the coming years,” the cardinals said.

“In our time, the weakness of multilateralism is a particular cause for concern at the international level,” the pope said to members of the diplomatic corps. “War is back in vogue and a zeal for war is spreading.”

“Peace is no longer sought as a gift and desirable good in itself, or in pursuit of ‘the establishment of the ordered universe willed by God with a more perfect form of justice among men and women.’ Instead, peace is sought through weapons as a condition for asserting one’s own dominion,” the Holy Father said.

The cardinals stressed Pope Leo’s reiteration of Catholic teaching that “the protection of the right to life constitutes the indispensable foundation for every other human right.”

The pope “points to the need for international aid to safeguard the most central elements of human dignity, which are under assault because of the movement by wealthy nations to reduce or eliminate their contributions to humanitarian foreign assistance programs.”

The Holy Father “points to the increasing violations of conscience and religious freedom in the name of an ideological or religious purity that crushes freedom itself,” the cardinals said.

“As pastors and citizens, we embrace this vision for the establishment of a genuinely moral foreign policy for our nation. We seek to build a truly just and lasting peace, that peace which Jesus proclaimed in the Gospel.”

“Pope Leo has given us the prism through which to raise it to a much higher level. We will preach, teach, and advocate in the coming months to make that higher level possible,” they said.

With Speaker of the House Mike Johnson by his side, President Donald Trump speaks to the press following a House Republican meeting at the U.S. Capitol on May 20, 2025, in Washington, D.C. | Credit: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

Jan 20, 2026 / 12:21 pm (CNA).

Catholics are offering mixed reactions to the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, which included domestic policy actions that align with U.S. bishops on gender-related issues, and also tensions over immigration, expansion of the death penalty, and reduced funding for organizations that provide food and basic support to people in need.

Trump secured his electoral victory in 2024 with the help of Catholics, who supported him by a double-digit margin, according to exit polls. A Pew Research Center report found that nearly a quarter of Trump’s voters in 2024 were Catholic.

Throughout his first year, Trump — who calls himself a nondenominational Christian — has invoked Christianity and created a White House Faith Office. He created a Religious Liberty Commission by executive order in May 2025 and became the first president to issue a proclamation honoring the Catholic feast of the Immaculate Conception in December.

Last year, the president also launched the “America Prays” initiative, which encouraged people to dedicate one hour of prayer for the United States and its people in preparation for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 2026.

Immigration, poverty, and NGOs

John White, professor of politics at The Catholic University of America, said the first year of Trump’s second term “challenged Catholics on many levels.”

“The brutality of ICE has caused the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to issue an extraordinary statement at the prompting of Pope Leo XIV,” White said, referring to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) issued a special message in November opposing indiscriminate mass deportations, calling for humane treatment, urging meaningful reform, and affirming the compatibility of national security with human dignity.

The Trump administration, with JD Vance, the second Catholic vice president in U.S. history, cut billions of dollars in funding to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), which financially damaged several Catholic nonprofits that had received funding. Trump also signed into law historic cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

“The cuts to NGO funding, SNAP, and Medicaid benefits, alongside the huge increases in health care costs, have hurt the poor and middle class at home and around the world,” he said. “Instead of being the good Samaritan, Trump has challenged our Catholic values and narrowed our vision of who we are and what we believe. JD Vance’s interpretation of ‘Ordo Amoris’ of a hierarchy to those whom we love rather than a universal love is a case in point and has been repudiated by Pope Francis and Pope Leo XIV,” he said.

The cuts aligned federal policy with the administration’s agenda, which included strict immigration enforcement, mass deportations of immigrants who are in the country illegally, and less foreign aid support.

Catholic Charities USA was previously receiving more than $100 million annually for migrant services, and the Trump administration cut off those funds. In response, the organization scaled back its services.

Since Trump took office, the administration said it has deported more than 600,000 people.

Karen Sullivan, director of advocacy for the Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC), which provides legal services to migrants, said she is “very concerned about the way that immigration enforcement has been carried out,” adding her organization is “very concerned that human dignity of all persons [needs to] be respected.”

Sullivan said the administration is “enabling their officers to use excessive force as they are taking people into custody” and “denying access to oversight at their detention centers.” She also expressed concern about the administration increasing fees for asylum applications and giving agents more leeway to conduct immigration enforcement at sensitive locations, such as churches, schools, and hospitals.

She said the large number of deportations and the increase in expedited removals has “been a strain” on organizations that seek to provide legal help to migrants.

CLINIC affiliates receive inquiries from people who are facing deportation and also those who fear they may be deported. She said: “The worry and the fear among those people [who may face deportation] makes them seek out assistance and advice even more often.”

“The pace of the changes that have been happening in the past year have been very difficult to manage,” she said. “We are having to respond very quickly to changes."

Executive actions on gender

Susan Hanssen, a history professor at the University of Dallas (a Catholic institution), viewed the first year of Trump’s second term in mostly successful terms.

“As Catholics we know that the law educates, and during Trump’s first year in office we witnessed an actual shift in public opinion on the LGBT/transgender ideology due to his asserting the scientific and natural common sense that there are only male and female,” Hanssen said.

Trump took executive action to prohibit what he called the “chemical and surgical mutilation” of children, such as hormone therapy and surgical transition. He signed a policy restricting participation of transgender athletes in women’s sports. He legally recognized only two genders, determined by biology: male and female.

“His strong executive action on this essential point — domestically in making the executive branch remove its trans-affirming language, the executive department of education stop subverting parental rights over their children, and women’s rights in sports, and (importantly) putting an end to USAID’s [U.S. Agency for International Development] pushing this gender agenda on the countries who need our economic assistance,” she said.

“This has led to a genuine public shift, with fewer independent corporations choosing to enforce June as LGBT Pride month on their customer base, fewer DEI programs pushing the gender agenda on hiring, and a shift (especially among young men) towards disapproval of gender transitioning children and even towards disapproval of the legalization of so-called same sex ‘marriage,’” she added. “We will need to see how these executive branch victories will affect judicial and legislative action moving forward.”

Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk, senior ethicist at the National Catholic Bioethics Center, had a similar view of some of the social changes.

“The current administration has focused significant energy on the important task of ‘putting folks on notice,’ so it’s hard to deny, for example, that the misguided medico-pharmaceutical industry that has profited handsomely from exploiting vulnerable youth and other gender dysphoric individuals can no longer miss the loud indicators that these practices will not be able to continue unabated,” he said.

Death penalty

Trump signaled a renewed and more aggressive federal capital-punishment policy in 2025, in opposition to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which teaches that the death penalty is “inadmissible.”

Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office directing the Justice Department to actively pursue the federal death penalty for serious crimes. He also directed federal prosecutors to seek death sentences in Washington, D.C., homicide cases. His administration lifted a moratorium on executions, reversing a pause in federal executions and following President Joe Biden’s commutations of federal death sentences.

Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, then-president of the USCCB, in a Jan. 22, 2025, statement called Trump’s support for expanding the federal death penalty “deeply troubling.” Newly elected USCCB president Archbishop Paul Coakley likewise called for the abolition of the death penalty.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated CLINIC receives inquiries from people facing deportation.It has been corrected to say that CLINIC affiliates receive the inquiries. (Published 10:10 a.m. Jan. 21, 2026).

Pope Leo XIV sits in the cathedral of Rome, the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran, a symbol of his authority as bishop of Rome, May 25, 2025. I Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/EWTN News/Vatican Pool

Jan 20, 2026 / 11:34 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV will celebrate the Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s Supper at the Basilica of St. John Lateran on April 2, restoring a long-standing Roman tradition that Pope Francis set aside throughout his 12-year pontificate.

The announcement appeared last week in the calendar of papal liturgies published by the Prefecture of the Pontifical Household.

In his first Holy Thursday as pope on March 28, 2013, Pope Francis chose to celebrate the Mass in Coena Domini in the chapel of the Casal del Marmo juvenile detention center on the northern outskirts of Rome. As he had often done as archbishop of Buenos Aires, he carefully washed the feet of 12 inmates, including an Italian Catholic woman and a Muslim woman from Serbia.

From that point on, and for the next 12 years, Francis left aside the Holy Thursday celebration at St. John Lateran — the cathedral of the bishop of Rome — in a pastoral approach that broke with the customary practice of his predecessors.

For Monsignor Giovanni Falbo — a canon of the Lateran, camerlengo of the cathedral chapter, and provost of the basilica — that decision should be understood as an interlude.

In his view, Pope Leo XIV’s decision to recover the tradition on April 2 shows that the Francis years were an “exception.”

“The years of Pope Francis’ pontificate,” Falbo explained, “as happened with many other celebrations and initiatives, constitute an exception, motivated by the desire to offer the world a clear sign of predilection for the poor and the last, bringing the attention of the bishop of Rome to places of suffering.”

Falbo told ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, that the approach was “a praiseworthy intention” that nevertheless resulted in “a certain privatization of the celebration of the Last Supper,” since limited space in such locations made it impossible for priests of the Diocese of Rome to take part.

With his decision, Falbo said, Leo XIV resumes the tradition of the Church in Rome in line with the uninterrupted practice of the last century, without diminishing attention to the poor.

“There are countless occasions throughout the year,” Falbo said, “to underscore the predilection of the Lord and of the Church for the last.”

In that sense, he said, the return to St. John Lateran is another sign of the new pope’s desire “not only to be, but to behave as bishop of Rome.”

Falbo also pointed to the bond between Leo XIV and the Lateran basilica that became visible on May 25, when the pope took possession of the chair of the bishop of Rome — the pope’s episcopal seat — in what is considered the first Christian basilica built after the peace of Constantine in the fourth century.

That ceremony marked a fundamental step at the beginning of Leo’s pontificate, since the pope is not only successor of St. Peter and pastor of the universal Church but also bishop of the Diocese of Rome.

Historical roots of the foot-washing rite

Falbo recalled that the rite of washing feet “naturally has its roots in the gesture carried out by Jesus in the upper room, when he washed the feet of his apostles before the institution of the Eucharist.”

He noted that the Gospel of John is the only one to transmit the episode, accompanied by a catechesis that makes it a symbol of fraternal love and of the “new commandment,” concretizing love in reciprocal service.

For that reason, he said, “already in the early Church, the washing of the feet was considered a relevant sign for recognizing the authentic disciples of the Lord.”

Falbo added that the rite has varied over the centuries. The Council of Toledo in 694 regarded the washing of feet performed by a bishop for his collaborators as a semi-liturgical and obligatory rite. The Ordo Romanus XII even describes a second mandatum in which, after offering lunch to 13 poor people in a hall of the papal palace, the pope washed, dried, and kissed their feet.

In the 15th century, the chronicles of Giovanni Burcardo — papal master of ceremonies from Innocent VIII to Julius II, including under Alexander VI — systematically mention the pope washing the feet of 13 poor people in one of the halls of the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican.

Falbo also recalled that before the definitive move to the Vatican after the return from Avignon in 1378, popes lived for nearly 1,000 years near the Lateran cathedral, from the pontificate of St. Miltiades (d. 314) to Clement V (1305–1314).

Although the washing of feet is a rite proper to Holy Thursday, Falbo noted that at least since the pontificate of Innocent I in 416, three separate Masses were celebrated that day: a morning Mass for the reconciliation of penitents; another for the blessing of the holy oils, especially the chrism; and a third evening Mass as a memorial of the Lord’s Supper.

For that reason, he said, the foot-washing was not originally joined to the Holy Thursday Mass, even though the Gospel proclaimed at the Eucharist in Coena Domini refers precisely to Jesus’ gesture.

Falbo also pointed to the profound reform of the Sacred Triduum carried out by Pope Pius XII in 1955, which took effect the following year, with the goal of restoring greater historical fidelity in the celebrations.

Since then, he said, the practice of the bishop of Rome — conditioned by no longer residing near his cathedral — has been to divide the Triduum liturgies between St. John Lateran and St. Peter’s, reserving to the lateran the evening Holy Thursday celebration with the foot-washing rite, after the chrism Mass celebrated in the morning at the Vatican basilica.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

A statue of Pope Leo XIV in Chiclayo, Peru, is surrounded by some of the people who attended its inauguration and blessing. The World Day of the Sick will be held in Chiclayo from Feb. 9–11, 2026. | Credit: Photo courtesy of the Provincial Municipality of Chiclayo

Jan 20, 2026 / 10:52 am (CNA).

Cardinal Michael Czerny explained the reasons for choosing the Shrine of Our Lady of Peace in Chiclayo, Peru, as the international site for the solemn celebration of the 34th World Day of the Sick, which will take place there Feb. 9–11.

“The choice of Chiclayo is not due primarily to the pope, but to a practical reason,” Czerny told reporters at the Vatican during the presentation of the pope’s message for the day.

“We needed a place where, given the climate in February, it would be less likely that the celebration would be affected by bad weather,” the cardinal said, calling the decision a “happy coincidence.”

Chiclayo, on Peru’s northern coast, is located in a typically warm region. In February, during the Southern Hemisphere summer, temperatures can range from about 19 to 30 degrees Celsius (66 to 86 degrees Fahrenheit).

Czerny also highlighted Pope Leo XIV’s reaction, saying the pope was “very happy with the choice” the Vatican made in November 2025. In that context, he said, the pontiff wanted to share in his message his pastoral experience in the region.

Leo XIV was a missionary in Peru beginning in 1985, first in Chulucanas, and he returned to the country in 1988 to carry out pastoral work in Trujillo, where he served for more than a decade. In 2015, he was named bishop of Chiclayo.

Later, in 2023, Pope Francis placed him at the head of the Dicastery for Bishops at the Vatican. He also holds Peruvian citizenship.

“It moved me to hear how he himself has been touched by the way the people of his diocese respond to suffering — not only the professionals, but everyone,” Czerny said.

The Vatican prefect added that during the celebration in Chiclayo — which he said he will attend as the pope’s envoy — it will be possible to perceive “the importance of the theme of compassion and care for the sick, combined with the joy that the pope comes from this region.”

The cardinal concluded by saying he hopes the World Day of the Sick observance will reflect both the spiritual dimension of care for the ill and the active participation of the entire local community.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Pope Leo XIV blesses a child at the De La Croix Hospital for the mentally disabled in Jal el Dib, north of Beirut, Lebanon, on Dec. 2, 2025. | Credit: Vatican Media

Jan 20, 2026 / 10:22 am (CNA).

In his message for the 34th World Day of the Sick, to be celebrated Feb. 11, Pope Leo XIV calls on Catholics to rediscover “the beauty of charity and the social dimension of compassion,” insisting that authentic Christian love is concrete, personal, and directed toward those who suffer.

“Love is not passive; it goes out to meet the other,” the pope writes, reflecting on the Gospel parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:25–37). “Being a neighbor is not determined by physical or social proximity but by the decision to love.”

This year’s principal observance is set to take place in Chiclayo, Peru, where Leo previously served as bishop. In the message — titled “ The Compassion of the Samaritan: Loving by Bearing Another’s Pain“ — he presents the good Samaritan as a model for Christians living in a society marked by haste and indifference.

“We live immersed in a culture of speed, immediacy, and haste — a culture of ‘discard’ and indifference that prevents us from pausing along the way and drawing near to acknowledge the needs and suffering that surround us,” he writes.

Drawing on Pope Francis’ encyclical Fratelli Tutti, Leo emphasizes that compassion and mercy cannot be reduced to a private virtue. At the heart of the message is a summons to become the kind of neighbor Christ calls for: “Jesus does not merely teach us who our neighbor is but rather how to become a neighbor; in other words, how we can draw close to others.”

Compassion that moves to action

The pope stresses that compassion is not an idea or a mood but a force that leads to real service.

“Compassion, in this sense, implies a profound emotion that compels us to act,” he writes. “In this parable, compassion is the defining characteristic of active love; it is neither theoretical nor merely sentimental but manifests itself through concrete gestures.”

Leo highlights the Samaritan’s practical care — approaching the wounded man, tending his wounds, and providing for his needs — while underscoring that the Samaritan also seeks help from an innkeeper, a detail he uses to stress communal responsibility: “The Samaritan discovered an innkeeper who would care for the man; we too are called to unite as a family that is stronger than the sum of small individual members.”

Reflecting on his pastoral experience in Peru, the pope points to families, neighbors, health care professionals, and those engaged in pastoral care who draw near to accompany the sick and suffering, giving compassion a genuine social dimension.

Love of God expressed in service

Leo ties the call to compassion to the primacy of love for God, insisting that care for the suffering is not peripheral to Christian life but a test of its authenticity.

“The primacy of divine love implies that human action is carried out not for self-interest or reward but as a manifestation of a love that transcends ritual norms and find expression in authentic worship. To serve one’s neighbor is to love God through deeds,” he writes.

He closes with an appeal for a Christian way of life shaped by fraternity and courage: “I genuinely hope that our Christian lifestyle will always reflect this fraternal, ‘Samaritan’ spirit — one that is welcoming, courageous, committed and supportive, rooted in our union with God and our faith in Jesus Christ.”

He also entrusts the sick and all who care for them to the intercession of the Virgin Mary under her title Health of the Sick, and he imparts his apostolic blessing to the sick, their families, and health care and pastoral workers.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

An image of Santo Niño is carried in procession in Cebu, central Philippines, on Jan. 18, 2026. | Credit: Archdiocese of Cebu

Jan 20, 2026 / 09:25 am (CNA).

More than 5.2 million devotees joined the feast of Santo Niño (Infant Jesus) in Cebu, central Philippines, on Jan. 18 in what religious leaders emphasize is a centuries-old act of devotion rather than folklore or tourism. The attendance figure was provided by the Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office.

A spiritual celebration

“The feast of Sto. Niño in Cebu is not a tourist event but a spiritual and religious celebration,” Sister Aileenette Pangilinan Mirasol, a member of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, told EWTN News.

Born and raised in Cebu, Sister Aileenette recalled that even before the Sinulog Festival — an annual Filipino religious event held on the third Sunday of January in Cebu that draws millions as a major cultural and tourist festival — “we have been celebrating the feast of the Santo Niño as a spiritual and religious event.”

“So, as a Cebuana, I would say that the feast is rooted in the deep Catholic faith of the Cebuano people and less of a tourist event,” Sister Aileenette said.

“While visitors may come, enjoy, and participate, the heart of the feast is not tourism but worship, devotion, and gratitude to the Santo Niño, reflecting centuries-old religious tradition and belief,” she said.

Sister Jennibeth Sabay, a member of the Sisters of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception of Castres, told EWTN News that “the feast of Santo Niño de Cebu is a celebration of love and thanksgiving to God.”

“It may be a tourist event for others. But for Catholics and devotees of Santo Niño, it is a celebration of thanksgiving and honoring the Holy Child Jesus, the ‘Batobalani sa Gugma,’ or ‘magnet of love,’” she explained.

Pope Leo XIV sent greetings to the faithful celebrating the fiesta at the Basilica Minore del Santo Niño in Cebu. Through Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, the pope stressed that it is an opportunity to reflect on the unity and grace received in baptism.

In his letter, dated Jan. 5, the pope said the annual feast, guided by the theme “In Santo Niño We Are One,” would inspire the faithful to live out their baptismal commitment through a grace-filled life in Christ, marked by service, charity, and solidarity, particularly toward those on the margins of society.

“It is, therefore, his hope that you will be inspired by a greater desire to embrace the baptismal call to live a grace-filled life in Christ and in service to your brothers and sisters, especially those on the margins of society, so that you will bear greater witness to Christ’s call to unity and reflect the life of charity of the Most Holy Trinity,” the pope said.

The celebration was marked by religious fervor and festivity, with the theme “United in Faith and Love” highlighting its significance as a celebration of faith, history, and culture.

Archbishop Alberto Sy Uy of Cebu officiated the pontifical Mass at Basilica Minore del Sto. Niño de Cebu, which houses the original statue.

In his homily, he urged all to strengthen their relationship with God and care for each other.

“When we are connected with God, every moment is filled with love, and we serve others with compassion,” he said.

“In the Señor Santo Niño, we are one, meaning we are united with Christ not because of our human efforts but because of his redeeming love,” Uy said.

“As we conclude this year’s festivities, may the fire of faith continue to burn in our hearts. We carry the blessings of the Holy Child as we return to our daily lives, strengthened by him,” he added.

Prayer formed a central part of the festival, with tens of thousands of people attending the nine-day novena before the feast at the Basilica del Santo Niño.

Historical roots

On Jan. 17, a galleon carried the image of Santo Niño during the fluvial procession across the Mactan Channel, reenacting its arrival in Cebu in 1521, when Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan arrived in Cebu and introduced Christianity to the island.

Queen Juana of Cebu, wife of Rajah Humabon, was baptized on April 14, 1521, and received the Christian name Doña Juana along with a Santo Niño image as a baptismal gift. This marked the beginning of Christianity and devotion to the Holy Child Jesus in the Philippines, an archipelago of 116 million people.

Today, the Santo Niño of Cebu is the oldest Christian icon in the country, holding a central place in the Catholic faith and devotion of the Filipino people.

The Señor Sto. Niño is one who answered prayers, who granted healing, who gave strength, enlightenment, protection, and guidance, and who bestowed blessings to families, Sister Jennibeth said. He provided consolation and strength during troubled times. He is a refuge for people during times of challenges and difficulties.

“We shout, ‘Pit Senyor.’ ‘Sangpit sa Senyor’ means to ‘call upon’ and to entrust to God whatever concerns we have,” said Sister Jennibeth, a native of Cebu.

Despite the many challenges people of Cebu have faced — typhoons, earthquakes, and disasters — people remain hopeful, resilient, and strong with the grace and blessings of Sto. Niño, protector of Cebu and the Philippines.

Czech President Petr Pavel and his wife, Eva Pavlová, pose for a photo at the Vatican on Monday, Jan. 20, 2026. | Credit: Tomáš Fongus/The Czech Presidential Office

Jan 20, 2026 / 08:44 am (CNA).

Amid international tensions, Pope Leo XIV received Czech President Petr Pavel in an audience on Monday, with both leaders agreeing that “democratic countries are and should be natural partners,” the president said during a brief press conference for Czech media following the meeting.

The two leaders discussed “dynamic changes in the contemporary world,” Pavel said. He warned of a possible split in the European Union if some member states “will prefer the principles of force” instead of adherence to “the values and principles on which the EU was founded.”

“Not all the options available to resolve” current tensions between the United States and Europe have been used, Pavel stressed.

Pavel thanked Pope Leo XIV for the Vatican’s efforts to help secure the release of Czech citizen Jan Darmovzal from Venezuela. Darmovzal was detained in September 2024 by Venezuelan authorities and released this month following the U.S. capture of President Nicolás Maduro.

“The Church has an extraordinary diplomatic reach, and Pope Leo XIV is trying very actively to moderate disputes and help resolve conflicts,” Pavel acknowledged.

A Vatican press release appreciated “good bilateral relations” between the Holy See and the Czech Republic and expressed “the desire to further strengthen them.” Pavel said relations were at a high level, adding that Pope Leo XIV was invited to visit the Czech Republic.