St. James the Apostle Roman Catholic Church

Arthur Brooks gives a keynote address at SEEK 2026 on Jan. 4, 2026, in Columbus, Ohio. | Credit: Madalaine Elhabbal/CNA

Jan 6, 2026 / 12:29 pm (CNA).

New York Times bestselling author and Harvard professor Arthur Brooks encouraged attendees at SEEK 2026 to resist the temptation as missionaries to “fight fire with fire.”

In his Jan. 4 keynote speech in Columbus, Ohio, Brooks said the world “is not just a cold world” but “a world that attacks you.” In this context, he said, it can be challenging not to fight back.

However, he said, “your job isn’t to win arguments, it’s to win a soul.”

Brooks teaches at the Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School and has written multiple books on finding happiness and meaning in life, including “From Strength to Strength” and “Build the Life You Want,” which he coauthored with Oprah Winfrey. He also writes a column for The Free Press.

Some 26,000 attendees have gathered through Jan. 5 in Columbus, Denver, and Fort Worth, Texas, for the SEEK 2026 conference organized by FOCUS.

“The spirit of the missionary will take you into the heart of a culture war,” Brooks said. “And in that culture war, you won’t win with violence … as you can win with love.” Brooks recounted his experience giving a talk in Manchester, New Hampshire, in 2014 for an audience he said was “a very ideologically oriented group.”

According to Brooks, he was the only speaker out of the 15 present who was not a presidential candidate. He said that during his address, he told his audience: “You’ve been hearing from political candidates who want your vote. And what they’re telling you is that you’re right and the people who disagree with you are stupid people and hate America, but I want you to remember something. Those people, they’re your neighbors, and they’re your family … It’s not that they hate America, it’s that they disagree with you.”

When acting as a missionary, he said, the goal is to persuade people. “If you want to persuade them, you can’t do that with hatred, because nobody has ever been insulted into agreement,” Brooks said.

‘Entering mission territory’

Brooks concluded by telling about a retreat center that he and his wife, Ester, visit when they give marriage preparation. Inside the chapel of the retreat center, he said, there is a sign over the door to exit the chapel that reads: “You are now entering mission territory.”

“So as you leave this beautiful, beautiful gathering tomorrow, the signs on the door of your hotel or this conference facility, any place that you find yourself as you leave this city, and effectively for the last time tomorrow, is that you’re entering mission territory,” Brooks said. “Let’s set the world on fire together.”

Katie Tangeman, a sophomore at Northwest Missouri State University, said she came away from Brooks’ talk motivated to “just take a step back whenever I’m feeling frustrated or annoyed with somebody, or if they’re attacking me, to just see them as a beloved son or daughter of God and approach them with love instead of the contempt and hate that [Brooks] was talking about.”

“Because that’s not being a good Christian,” she added.

“I want to say the biggest thing I took away from Arthur Brooks’ talk tonight, his keynote speech, [is] that you can change the trajectory of how a conversation goes by battling it with kindness in a way,” said Andrew Stuart, an agricultural business major, also at Northwest Missouri State.

Pope Leo XIV celebrates Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican on Jan. 6, 2026. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/EWTN News

Vatican City, Jan 6, 2026 / 08:45 am (CNA).

Celebrating the solemnity of the Epiphany in St. Peter’s Basilica on Tuesday, Pope Leo XIV said God’s saving presence is revealed not “in a prestigious location” but “in a humble place” and urged Catholics to protect what is holy and newly born — “small, vulnerable, fragile” — in a world that often seeks to profit from everything.

“The child whom the Magi adore is a priceless and immeasurable good. It is the Epiphany of a gift. It does not occur in a prestigious location but in a humble place,” the pope said in his homily, delivered during a Mass that also included the closing of the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica, the last Holy Door to be shut at the end of the jubilee year.

Reflecting on the Gospel account of the Magi’s journey (Matthew 2:1-12), Leo contrasted the joy of those who seek Christ with the fear of Herod, who “tries to take advantage of the wishes of the Magi by manipulating their quest.”

“Fear does indeed blind us,” he said. “Conversely, the joy of the Gospel liberates us. It makes us prudent, yes, but also bold, attentive, and creative; it beckons us along ways that are different to those already traveled.”

In one of the final major liturgies of his first Christmas season as pope, Leo also warned against the spiritual dangers of a distorted economy that turns even humanity’s deepest longings into a commodity.

“Loving and seeking peace means protecting what is holy and, consequently, that which is newly born like a small, vulnerable, fragile baby. Around us, a distorted economy tries to profit from everything. We see how the marketplace can turn human yearnings of seeking, traveling, and beginning again into a mere business,” he said.

The pope pointed to the “stream of innumerable men and women, pilgrims of hope” who crossed the Holy Door during the jubilee and asked what the Church offered them — and what she must offer going forward.

“Millions of them crossed the threshold of the Church. What did they find?” he asked, adding that “the spiritual searching of our contemporaries, much richer than perhaps we can comprehend, invites us to earnest reflection.”

After the jubilee year, he continued, Catholics should examine whether they have learned to recognize God’s presence in those they encounter: “After this year, will we be better able to recognize a pilgrim in the visitor, a seeker in the stranger, a neighbor in the foreigner, and fellow travelers in those who are different?”

Leo also urged Catholics not to reduce churches to museums but to ensure they are places where faith is alive and hope is born anew.

“If we do not reduce our churches to monuments, if our communities are homes, if we stand united and resist the flattery and seduction of those in power, then we will be the generation of a new dawn,” he said.

Angelus: Replace the industry of war with the craft of peace

Following the Mass, Pope Leo XIV appeared at the central loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica to pray the Angelus and again linked the Epiphany to the end of the jubilee year, emphasizing that Christian hope must be lived concretely in the world.

“Dear friends, the hope that we proclaim must be grounded in reality, for Jesus came down from heaven in order to create a new story here below,” he said.

In a pointed appeal for peace, he prayed: “May strangers and enemies become brothers and sisters. In the place of inequality, may there be fairness, and may the industry of war be replaced by the craft of peace. As weavers of hope, let us journey together towards the future by another road.”

After the Marian prayer, the pope greeted children and young people around the world on Missionary Childhood Day and thanked them for praying for missionaries and helping those in need. He also offered good wishes for serenity and peace to Eastern Christian communities preparing to celebrate Christmas according to the Julian calendar.

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

Pope Leo XIV closes the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica, concluding the Jubilee of Hope, on Jan. 6, 2026. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Jan 6, 2026 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday closed the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica, bringing the ordinary holy year to an end — a time of grace that invited Catholics to conversion, reconciliation, and hope.

The pontiff processed toward the Holy Door as the antiphon “O clavis David” was sung. Reaching the threshold, he knelt before the door and remained for a few minutes in silent prayer. He then rose and, at 9:41 a.m., pushed shut the two large bronze doors — a gesture that visibly marked the end of the jubilee season.

“With thankful hearts we now prepare to close this Holy Door, crossed by a multitude of faithful, certain that the Good Shepherd always keeps the door of his heart open to welcome us whenever we feel weary and oppressed,” Leo XIV said in an address before the concluding gesture that ended the ecclesial event, ordinarily held every 25 years to offer the faithful the possibility of obtaining a plenary indulgence.

With these words, Leo XIV emphasized that even though the jubilee has ended, God’s mercy remains ever open to believers.

Before closing the doors, the Holy Father pronounced in Latin the formula prescribed by the rite, following a practice established in 1975 and later simplified by St. John Paul II during the Jubilee of the Year 2000.

In keeping with the simplified celebration, the public rite did not include the portion involving the construction of a brick wall and was limited to the closing of the bronze doors. The masonry work itself will be carried out later, privately, about 10 days after this public rite.

The act will be overseen by the Office of Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff. The so-called “sampietrini” — personnel of the Fabric of St. Peter, including carpenters, cabinetmakers, and electricians who normally handle basilica maintenance — will build the brick wall inside the basilica to definitively seal the Holy Door.

During this private rite — without cameras or journalists — the traditional metal capsule (“capsis”) will be inserted into the wall. It will contain the official act of closure, coins minted during the jubilee year, and the keys of the Holy Door as a material and symbolic testimony of the holy year that, as the pope noted, has ended on the calendar but not in the spiritual life of the Church.

Leo XIV then recited the prayer of thanksgiving for the ordinary holy year, proclaiming: “This Holy Door is closed, but the door of your mercy is not closed.”

The formula concluded with an invocation that the “treasures” of divine grace would remain open “so that, at the end of our earthly pilgrimage, we may confidently knock at the door of your house and enjoy the fruits of the tree of life.”

The Jubilee of Hope was instituted on Dec. 24, 2024, by Pope Francis but, after his death in April 2025, was concluded by his successor, Leo XIV — a situation not seen since the year 1700. The last ordinary jubilee (celebrated every 25 years) took place in 2000.

Jubilees may also be celebrated at “extraordinary” moments, such as the Jubilee of Mercy celebrated by Francis in 2015 or the one to be convoked in 2033 to commemorate the two millennia of the death and resurrection of Jesus.

After closing the Holy Door, Leo XIV presided over Mass for the solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord inside St. Peter’s Basilica, bringing the day’s liturgical celebration to its conclusion.

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

John Bishop, founder of Forge, speaks to hundreds of young men at the SEEK 2026 conference in the Diocese of Fort Worth, Texas, on Jan. 2, 2026. | Credit: Amira Abuzeid/CNA

Jan 6, 2026 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Hundreds of young men at the SEEK 2026 conference in the Fort Worth, Texas, Diocese this weekend filled a cavernous room to learn about what it means to be a man formed by “Jesus Christ and his Church.”

John Bishop, founder and executive director of Forge, an organization that supports the family with an emphasis on masculinity, told the young men that “you are much more than your animalistic desires. Live something higher for someone higher.”

In his talk titled “God Made Men,” Bishop spoke about how when Adam, the first man, “opened his eyes, he had never seen a woman before. She was completely naked.”

“It was a great day for Adam,” Bishop said to waves of laughter. “Adam was the Elon Musk of the garden.”

Taking a more serious tone, Bishop asked: “How would Adam see Eve? In his theology of the body, Pope John Paul II said Eve’s body was a manifestation of her soul. Eve had a perfect body, but when Adam saw her naked body, he didn’t lust over her.”

“He realized who she was and who he was: made to make a gift of himself to her,” he said.

Bishop then turned to what happened next: “What did Adam do as the snake came into the garden?” he asked.

“Nothing! The most common, toxic, nauseating sin that runs rampant throughout men in the world is that we don’t do a damn thing.”

“When we see our brothers walking into sin, we twiddle our thumbs. When we see our daughters walking out wearing next to nothing, we say nothing. When we’re grandfathers seeing the culture going in a bad way, we watch football,” he said.

‘The image of God lives in a man fully alive’

“You’re called to act!” Bishop admonished the group. “You might be filled with doubt … but it might be time for you to take the first step.”

“The image of God lives in a man fully alive … Study after study shows that when a good man acts and doesn’t hold anything back, when he follows Christ with all [he is], … when he gives himself over [to Christ], the effect of that one man’s life multiplies beyond anything that we can understand,” he said.

Patricio Parra, a sophomore at Texas A&M University, told CNA that he enjoyed Bishop’s talk because he and his friends have noticed how “society says it’s toxic to be masculine.”

Parra said a New York Times journalist asked him and his friends after the talk why his generation of men was so invested in the faith.

“There’s a striving for men to want to be men again,” he told her. “As a society, we see male role models on YouTube, but they are deformed. Recently, there aren’t a lot of good masculine models to follow.”

Parra said what stood out to him the most after Bishop’s talk was the idea that Adam saw Eve’s physical beauty as the same as her internal beauty and recognized her dignity.

“We have to strive to be as masculine as that,” Parra said.

He said he took to heart three pieces of advice Bishop gave the men in the audience.

First: “There’s no glory without the cross, no sainthood without suffering; so suffer a little bit. Make your body go through hard things,” Parra recalled. “Everything we suffer now will bring fruit for others, including our children someday, who will want to emulate us.”

Next, Parra said Bishop advised that young men invest in solid, masculine friendships where they encourage one another toward sainthood.

Last, Bishop told his listeners to be like St. Joseph, who, after Adam, was “one of the most manly men in Scripture.”

“Joseph never said a word. We just know what he did,” Parra said. “We should do the same: just be quiet and act.”

Parra demonstrated a hand motion he and his other friends from Texas A&M invented to go with the words “Zip it and act!” He made a zipper motion across his mouth and then the letter “A” with his fingers.

“Don’t just talk about asking a girl out; do it!” he said enthusiastically. “Don’t just think about seminary; go do it!”

The Edicule of the Holy Sepulcher, which contains the venerated tomb, inside the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. | Credit: Marinella Bandini

Jan 6, 2026 / 06:00 am (CNA).

As Pope Leo XIV closes the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica on Jan. 6, the feast of the Epiphany, and the 2025 Jubilee Year comes to an end, the Catholic Church begins to anticipate another jubilee — one that will mark 2,000 years since Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection.

Although traditionally a jubilee only happens every 25 years, the Holy Door is slated to reopen for a special 2033 Jubilee when the Church will celebrate the Holy Year of the Redemption. To mark the occasion, Pope Leo has called on people to travel to the Holy Land, where Jesus once lived and died.

The pope spoke about the special celebration at a meeting with Christian leaders in Istanbul on Nov. 29 during his visit to Turkey. His address, marking the anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, discussed the importance of the historic council as well as evangelization and a call for prayers for future meetings, according to the Holy See Press Office.

The Holy Father concluded his talk by inviting listeners “to travel together on the spiritual journey that leads to the Jubilee of the Redemption in 2033, with the prospect of a return to Jerusalem,” the press office said.

Pope Leo said it is in the Holy Land where the faithful can celebrate “in the Cenacle, place of the Last Supper of Jesus with his disciples, where he washed their feet, and the place of Pentecost.” He called for a journey that leads to full unity, quoting his episcopal motto: “In illo uno unum.”

The 2025 Jubilee officially began on Dec. 24, 2024, with the Rite of Opening of the Holy Door of the Papal Basilica of St. Peter by Pope Francis, and centered on the theme “Pilgrims of Hope.”

Rome welcomed nearly 30 million pilgrims from across the globe to celebrate. Many traveled to the Eternal City for packed events including the Jubilee of the Sick; the Jubilee of Consolation; the Jubilee of Families, Children, Grandparents, and the Elderly; and the Jubilee of Youth.

Lauri Hauser stands in front of her IC2KG booth at the SEEK 2026 conference in Denver on Jan. 2, 2026. | Credit: Francesca Fenton/EWTN News

Jan 5, 2026 / 18:52 pm (CNA).

Twenty years ago, Lauri Hauser, a Catholic mom of two and high school math teacher from Madison, Wisconsin, started a chant with her children — something simple and fun that would keep God and their faith at the forefront of their minds.

“I would chant ‘IC’ and they would respond, ‘2KG,’” Hauser told CNA in an interview.

“IC2KG,” which stands for “I choose to know God,” would be chanted around the Hauser household as chores would be done, while the kids played, and after flag football games in the backyard.

Fast forward 20 years and the family chant is now being shared with children in Catholic schools and, most recently, at the SEEK 2026 conference in Denver, which took place Jan. 1–5.

Hauser explained that it was her youngest son, Joe, who inspired his mother to start her IC2KG ministry. While in college, Joe was a part of an Athletes in Action group and asked his mom if she could make IC2KG shirts for the young men in the group.

“I said, ‘No. We don’t do T-shirts and this is just kind of a family thing and I’m kind of private with my faith,’” she recalled.

After breaking his arm before his senior year of college, Joe took it upon himself to create a T-shirt design with the “IC2KG” phrase printed on the front. One hundred shirts were made and they were a huge hit among the athletes. It was after this that Hauser thought this could become a ministry.

Despite attending a Catholic grade school and college, Hauser never felt completely comfortable sharing her faith publicly. After the success of the T-shirts, she began to think that “maybe these are the words, or the saying, that somebody needs to be bold and be brave and stand up and be strong and be courageous to share our faith.”

“I thought maybe this could be something that kids could catch on to or kids could keep in their heart — I choose to know God. We need to make that choice every day that we get up,” she added.

Using her background in education, Hauser created a program that she now takes to Catholic schools in Wisconsin and neighboring states, as well as through Zoom, in order to speak with schools that are further away.

The program aims to teach kids how to know, love, serve, and share God with others. Some of the elements of the program include testimonies from older kids to young children, teaching kids the IC2KG chant, pairing younger kids with an older IC2KG buddy, and playing games such as IC2KG bingo. Many elements of the program vary from school to school.

The program also includes a powerful demonstration where a child is asked to stand on a ball. The other kids observe and then share what they see, such as the child on the ball is wobbly, unsure of himself, or is shaky. That child then goes and stands on a prop Bible.

“Then the kids will observe and say, ‘Oh yeah, when you’re standing on the Bible, you are steadfast, you’re strong, you’re solid. This is the foundation,’” Hauser said.

Hauser has also designed more apparel with the IC2KG message. Her website includes T-shirts, hats, stickers, and wristbands with the hope that people will join her movement to inspire the faithful everywhere to know, love, serve, and share God with others.

During the SEEK 2026 conference, Hauser greeted college students from all over the country at the IC2KG booth. She called her first experience at SEEK “beautiful” and that her heart was “booming.”

“The response has been amazing. They’re all excited,” she added. “I’ve had conversations with kids and they’re like, ‘Yeah, I'm not really great at sharing.’ I said, ‘You know, neither am I, but it’s kind of time to take the duct tape off the word share — just take it off like a Band-Aid and let’s just do it because now is the time ... It’s just going to be a more beautiful world if we all share our faith.’”

She said that as she folds each piece of clothing, she recites a prayer over it: “Bless the person who wears this shirt and help them spread your message.”

Hauser said she hopes her ministry will “help people to just take that little step forward” and act as a “little life raft to help us go to the public square and share our faith.”

The Saint Louis Cathedral and Jackson Square are seen at sunset near the French Quarter in downtown New Orleans on April 10, 2010. | Credit: Graythen/Getty Images

Jan 5, 2026 / 18:32 pm (CNA).

The Archdiocese of New Orleans released a letter written to child sexual abuse claimants apologizing for the “inexcusable harm” they suffered.

“On behalf of the clergy, religious, and laity of the Archdiocese of New Orleans,” Archbishop Gregory Aymond of New Orleans expressed in the Dec. 26, 2025, letter his “profound regret over the tragic and inexcusable harm” child abuse survivors suffered.

The letter was made public on Jan. 4 and emphasized that the Archdiocese of New Orleans “takes responsibility for the abuse.” Aymond said the archdiocese “pledges to keep children and all vulnerable people safe in our ministry.”

“I sincerely apologize to you for the trauma caused to you and to those close to you as a survivor of sexual abuse perpetrated by a member of the clergy, a religious sister or brother, or a lay employee or volunteer working within the Catholic Church,” Aymond said.

“I am ashamed that you or anyone should have been sexually abused by someone working within the Catholic Church. Sexual abuse is an inexcusable evil, and I am ashamed that you or anyone should have been sexually abused by someone working within the Catholic Church.”

“Please know that you are not to blame for the abuse perpetrated on you,” Aymond said. “You were and are completely innocent and did nothing to deserve the pain you have suffered because of the hideous crime of sexual abuse of a minor.”

‘Recognition’ provisions

The public release of the letter is a part of an “extensive media outreach” to express the Archdiocese of New Orleans’ “commitment to the nonmonetary provisions laid out in its Chapter 11 settlement plan,” according to the Clarion Herald, the official newspaper of the archdiocese.

The letter follows the October 2025 approval for a $230 million bankruptcy settlement to pay out over 650 victims after five years of litigation.

The Chapter 11 case filed in 2020 highlights a number of procedures in its nonmonetary provisions “to foster child protection and prevent child sexual abuse.” Within its “recognition” section, the document calls for individual apology letters and a public apology letter.

“It is my fervent hope that as we bring these Chapter 11 proceedings to a close, you will achieve some sense of peace, justice, and healing,” Aymond wrote in the letter. “I hold you and all survivors of abuse in prayer daily and encourage all to join me in prayer for you.”

The letter will be shared through multiple media outlets over the upcoming days and weeks.

Cardinal José Francisco Robles Ortega. | Credit: Archdiocese of Guadalajara

Jan 5, 2026 / 18:02 pm (CNA).

Cardinal José Francisco Robles Ortega, archbishop of Guadalajara, Mexico, said that authorities have a “mandate to protect us” from violence and therefore encouraged the population to “demand” that they fulfill their duty.

“Bringing to justice those who commit violence, those who commit homicides or injustices, that is the responsibility of the authorities,” he said at a Jan. 1 press conference, according to the Archdiocese of Guadalajara’s press office.

The cardinal also denounced the fact that small-business owners are being extorted, pointing out that they “now don’t earn” enough “even to pay the protection money” demanded by criminals, which is why “many are closing their small businesses.”

Furthermore, to confront the violence, the cardinal reminded everyone that “peace is born and nurtured in the heart of each and every person,” since all forms of violence have the same point of origin, “from those who commit violence with an offensive word to those who commit violence by firing a weapon at a brother.”

In this way, each citizen’s contribution to ending violence begins with “being at peace in our own hearts, in harmony with God and his loving and merciful plan.”

It is also important “that families pay attention to what their children are doing, who they are associating with, and what opportunities they are being offered,” said the archbishop, who considered it “distressing that organized crime is recruiting teenagers who often do not find acceptance, support, or protection within their families.”

Despite a significant decrease in homicides in 2025, reaching the lowest figure in a decade, Mexico remains a country heavily affected by violence, especially from organized crime.

Impunity is one of the most serious factors in the fight against crime in Mexico. According to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI), in 2024, “93.2% of the 33.5 million crimes that occurred were not reported, or the authorities did not open an investigation file. This underreporting is known as the dark figure of crime.”

In the list of the 50 most violent cities in the world in 2024, 20 cities were in Mexico.

Cristero centennial

Robles also spoke about the activities planned to commemorate on July 31 the 100th anniversary of the entry into force of the so-called “Calles Law,” the legislation that severely restricted Catholic worship in Mexico and triggered the spontaneous armed uprising of believers in various parts of the country, known as the Cristero War.

Jalisco was one of the regions where Catholics offered the most resistance to the violence and anticlerical measures of the Mexican federal government.

The centennial was noted by the Mexican Bishops’ Conference in its Nov. 13, 2025, message to the people of God titled “The Church in Mexico: Memory and Prophecy — Pilgrims of Hope Towards the Centenary of Our Martyrs.”

On that occasion, the conference expressed its desire to honor “the memory of the more than 200,000 martyrs who gave their lives defending their faith: children, young people, and the elderly; farmers, laborers, and professionals; priests, religious, and laypeople.”

The archbishop of Guadalajara recalled that failing to respect the “fundamental right” to religious freedom “was the cause of the uprising of the Cristero War.”

Referring again to organized crime, the cardinal pointed out that “violence does not solve anything, violence makes things worse, violence opens wounds that do not heal even with the passage of time.”

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

Democratic Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani speaks to members of the media during a press conference after voting on Nov. 4, 2025. | Credit: Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images

Jan 5, 2026 / 17:32 pm (CNA).

Bishop Robert Barron, founder of the Word on Fire ministry, criticized New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani for promising constituents “the warmth of collectivism” in his Jan. 1 inaugural address.

Mamdani, who defeated two candidates with nearly 51% of the vote in the November election, won on a democratic socialist platform. His plans include free buses, city-owned grocery stores, no-cost child care, raising the minimum wage to $30 per hour, and freezing the rent for people in rent-stabilized apartments.

“We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism,” Mamdani said in his inaugural address.

“If our campaign demonstrated that the people of New York yearn for solidarity, then let this government foster it,” he said. “Because no matter what you eat, what language you speak, how you pray, or where you come from — the words that most define us are the two we all share: New Yorkers.”

Barron, bishop of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, said in a post on X that this line “took my breath away.”

“Collectivism in its various forms is responsible for the deaths of at least 100 million people in the last century,” Barron said.

“Socialist and communist forms of government around the world today — Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea, etc. — are disastrous,” he added. “Catholic social teaching has consistently condemned socialism and has embraced the market economy, which people like Mayor Mamdani caricature as ‘rugged individualism.’ In fact, it is the economic system that is based upon the rights, freedom, and dignity of the human person.”

“For God’s sake, spare me the ‘warmth of collectivism,’” Barron concluded.

Catholic teaching on socialism

Both socialism and communism have been condemned by many popes, first by Pope Pius IX in his 1849 encyclical Nostis et Nobiscum, just one year after Karl Marx published “ The Communist Manifesto.”

The foundation of Catholic social teaching rests on Pope Leo XIII’s 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum.

In the encyclical, Leo denounced socialism and communism, and also condemned poor labor conditions for the working class and employers “who use human beings as mere instruments for moneymaking.”

“Each needs the other: Capital cannot do without labor, nor labor without capital,” the 19th century pontiff wrote. “Mutual agreement results in the beauty of good order, while perpetual conflict necessarily produces confusion and savage barbarity.”

Pope Pius XI, in his 1931 encyclical Quadragesimo Anno, wrote of the importance of private property, that man must be able to “fully cultivate and develop all his faculties unto the praise and glory of his Creator; and that by faithfully fulfilling the duties of his craft or other calling he may obtain for himself temporal and at the same time eternal happiness.”

Socialism, he said, is “wholly ignoring and indifferent to this sublime end of both man and society, affirms that human association has been instituted for the sake of material advantage alone.”

“Religious socialism, Christian socialism, are contradictory terms; no one can be at the same time a good Catholic and a true socialist,” Pius XI wrote.

Pope Benedict XVI differentiated socialism and democratic socialism. In 2006, he wrote: “In many respects, democratic socialism was and is close to Catholic social doctrine and has in any case made a remarkable contribution to the formation of a social consciousness.”

Though, in his 2005 encyclical Deus Caritas Est, Benedict XVI wrote that government should not control everything but that society needs a state that, “in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, generously acknowledges and supports initiatives arising from the different social forces and combines spontaneity with closeness to those in need.”

Pope Francis has criticized Marxist ideology but also “radical individualism,” which he said in his 2020 encyclical Fratelli Tutti “makes us believe that everything consists in giving free rein to our own ambitions, as if by pursuing ever greater ambitions and creating safety nets we would somehow be serving the common good.”

In 2024, Francis encouraged cooperation and dialogue between Marxists and Christians.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches: “The Church has rejected the totalitarian and atheistic ideologies associated in modem times with ‘communism’ or ‘socialism.’ She has likewise refused to accept, in the practice of ‘capitalism,’ individualism and the absolute primacy of the law of the marketplace over human labor.”

Adele Brice. | Credit: National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion

Jan 5, 2026 / 17:02 pm (CNA).

Bishop David L. Ricken of Green Bay, Wisconsin, has issued an edict formally announcing a diocesan inquiry into the life of Servant of God Adele Brice, the 19th-century Belgian immigrant who received the only Church-approved Marian apparitions in the United States.

The edict, made on Dec. 28, 2025, during Mass on the feast of the Holy Family at St. Francis Xavier Cathedral in Green Bay, Wisconsin, invites the faithful to submit testimonies that could support her cause for beatification and canonization, including personal experiences, documents, or accounts of intercessions attributed to Brice.

The edict stems from a formal petition, or Supplex libellus, submitted on May 24, 2024, by Valentina Culurgioni, the appointed postulator for the cause, on behalf of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion, the actor of the cause.

The apparitions of Our Lady

Adele Brice, born in Belgium in 1831, immigrated to Wisconsin with her family in 1855 and reported three apparitions of a lady dressed in white in 1859 near what is now Champion, Wisconsin.

Brice spoke about the apparitions to her parish priest, who instructed her to ask the lady if she saw her again: “In God’s name, who are you and what do you want of me?”

Brice fell on her knees and asked the lady the question the third time she appeared, and the lady identified herself as the “Queen of Heaven who prays for the conversion of sinners” and told Brice to do the same.

The lady, who wore a flowing white garment with a yellow sash and whose head was surrounded with stars, told the young Belgian immigrant to “make a general confession and offer Communion for the conversion of sinners. If they do not convert and do penance, my Son will be obliged to punish them.”

She also instructed Brice to “gather the children in this wild country and teach them what they should know for salvation.”

In response to Brice’s question: “But how shall I teach them who know so little myself?” the lady responded: “Teach them their catechism, how to sign themselves with the sign of the cross, and how to approach the sacraments; that is what I wish you to do. Go and fear nothing, I will help you.”

Brice went on to dedicate her life to the mission, gathering other women to help her and establishing a schoolhouse and convent. The women endured hardship, traveling great distances in all types of weather and often facing uncertainty about how they would afford the food for their next meal.

Brice’s father built a chapel at the site of the apparitions, which eventually became a shrine to Our Lady of Good Help. The name was taken from the words the Blessed Mother said to Brice: “I will help you.”

In Oct. 8, 1871, the day before the 12-year anniversary of Our Lady’s final appearance to Brice on Oct. 9, 1859, the Great Peshtigo Fire, known as the most devastating fire in U.S. history, killed between 1,200 and 2,400 people and burned 1.2 million acres.

Brice and people from the countryside took shelter in the chapel, where they lifted a statue of Mary and processed through the sanctuary. In the morning, the area surrounding the shrine was devastated, yet the shrine’s grounds remained untouched.

Thousands of people still celebrate this miracle today on Oct. 8, where they participate in an all-night prayer through Oct. 9, the day of Our Lady’s final appearance to Brice.

In 2022, the Vatican gave its formal stamp of approval to the apparitions Brice witnessed, recognizing the newly named National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion in Champion, Wisconsin, as an approved apparition site.

The cause for Brice’s canonization gained momentum in June 2024 when the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops unanimously voted to advance it at the diocesan level during its spring assembly in Louisville, Kentucky.

Ricken, who has long championed the shrine, which attracts over 200,000 pilgrims annually, told CNA in 2024 that “the Blessed Mother is calling people to come to the shrine to experience the peace there, the simplicity; the basics of the Gospel, the catechism are exposed there.”

“She’s really current for now because we’re facing the same problems — people not knowing the faith, people having fallen away from the Church. She’s a model for us of what it means to be an evangelizing catechist. She’s very pertinent for today as well,” Ricken said in June 2024.

Testimonies must be either handwritten or digitally composed and printed, include a declaration of truthfulness, and bear a signature. The diocese stresses that unsigned or typed-only submissions will not be accepted as formal evidence.

This inquiry marks the first phase of the canonization process, potentially leading to Brice being declared “venerable” if her heroic virtues are confirmed.

Candidates for beatification and canonization normally require two miracles attributed to their intercession as well as evidence that they were holy and virtuous.

In 2024, Ricken told CNA about two possible miracles being investigated: a woman named Sharon said that while hospitalized for depression, she saw a vision of a woman she believed to be Brice, who gave her the will to live a joyful life of faith.

The second person to testify, a man named John, was diagnosed in 2018 with colorectal cancer, which had metastasized to his lungs. He received what he believes to be a miraculous cure after he prayed for Brice’s intercession.

“As of January 2022, I was declared with no evidence of disease, and I have been without cancer detected through my last scans all the way through April 2024,” Ricken quoted the man’s testimony.

Our Lady of Champion was the patroness of the Northern Marian Route of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage. The pilgrimage stopped at the shrine on June 16, 2024, on its way to the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis.

Zelda Caldwell and Zoe Romanowsky contributed to this report.