VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- At a time when people feel powerless to help migrants and refugees, Christians must continue to insist that "there is no justice without compassion, no legitimacy without listening to the pain of others," Pope Leo XIV said.

In a video message Sept. 12, the pope gave his full support to a bid by the people of the Italian island of Lampedusa to win UNESCO recognition for their "gestures of hospitality" to migrants as an example of an "intangible cultural heritage" that should be protected.

For decades the small island, which lies between Sicily and the northern African nations of Tunisia and Libya, has been a major arrival point for migrants from Africa, the Middle East and Asia seeking a new life in Europe. However, many migrants make the journey in unsafe vessels or without needed provisions. Shipwrecked boats and dead bodies have washed up on the island's shores.

Pope Leo paid tribute to "the volunteers, the mayors and local administrations that have succeeded one another over the years," to "the priests, doctors, security forces, and to all those who, often invisibly, have shown and continue to show the smile and attention of a human face to those who have survived their desperate journey of hope."

But the pope also noted the political divisions and backlash that have accompanied the continued arrival of migrants and refugees on Lampedusa's shores and to other nations.

"It is true that over the years fatigue can set in. Like in a race, we can run out of breath," he said. "Hardships tend to cast doubt on what has been done and, at times, even divide us. We must respond together, staying united and opening ourselves once again to the breath of God."

"All the good you have done may seem like drops in the sea," Pope Leo told the island's people. "But it's not so -- it is much more than that!"

Many of the migrants, including mothers and children, never made it to shore and from the depths of the sea "cry out not only to heaven, but to our hearts," he said. Others died and are buried on Lampedusa "like seeds from which a new world longs to sprout."

But, he said, "thank God, there are thousands of faces and names of people who today are living a better life and will never forget your charity. Many of them have themselves become workers for justice and peace, because goodness is contagious."

Pope Leo said his thanks is the thanks "of the whole church for your witness," and is meant to renew the thanks of the late Pope Francis, who made a trip to Lampedusa the first official trip of his papacy. He said he hoped he, too, would be able to visit the island soon.

The islanders' hospitality and welcome, he said, are "a bulwark of humanity, which loud arguments, ancient fears and unjust policies try to erode."

"The 'globalization of indifference,' which Pope Francis denounced beginning from Lampedusa, today seems to have turned into a globalization of powerlessness," Pope Leo said.

Thanks to the media, people are more aware of "injustice and innocent suffering," he said, but increasingly "we risk standing still, silent and saddened, overcome by the feeling that nothing can be done."

People ask themselves, "What can I do in the face of such great evils?" he said.

"The globalization of powerlessness is the child of a lie: that history has always been this way, that history is written by the victors, which makes it seem that we can do nothing," the pope said. "But that is not true: history is ravaged by the powerful, but it is saved by the humble, the just, the martyrs, in whom goodness shines and true humanity endures and is renewed."

The antidote, Pope Leo said, is to work to create "a culture of reconciliation."

"Reconciliation is a special kind of encounter. Today we must meet one another, healing our wounds, forgiving each other for the wrong we have done -- and even for the wrong we have not done but which we still bear the consequences of," the pope said. "So much fear, so many prejudices, so many walls -- even invisible ones -- exist between us and between our peoples, as consequences of a wounded history."

While fear and evil can be passed from one generation to the next, he said, so can goodness.

"We must repair what has been broken, delicately treat bleeding memories, draw close to one another with patience, put ourselves in the place of others' stories and suffering, and recognize that we share the same dreams and the same hopes," Pope Leo said. "There are no enemies -- only brothers and sisters. This is the culture of reconciliation."

(OSV News) -- Catholics in the U.S. "like what they've seen so far" in Pope Leo XIV, with 8 in 10 viewing the new pope favorably -- and significant numbers of non-Catholics agreeing, according to a new study from Pew Research Center.

On Sept. 12, Pew released results from a survey conducted July 8 to Aug. 3 in both English and Spanish among a nationally representative panel of U.S. adults selected at random. The 9,916 participants included 1,849 Catholics.

Pew found that on balance, 84% of the nation's Catholics hold a favorable view of Pope Leo, with 4% disapproving and 11% stating they have never heard of him.

Among U.S. Catholics who attend Mass weekly, that approval rating is even higher, with 95% viewing the pope favorably. U.S. Catholics who are in the pews on a monthly or yearly basis largely approve of him (84%), and even most self-identified Catholics who seldom or never attend Mass give the pope a thumbs-up (77%).

Of the survey respondents who are Catholic, 67% said they know "a little" about the new pope, with 25% admitting they "know nothing at all" about him, said Pew. Only 7% claimed to know "a lot" about the worldwide Catholic Church's leader.

Although respondents are still learning who he is, Pope Leo enjoys popularity on both sides of the political aisle, with Pew noting, "Vast majorities of both Catholic Democrats (89%) and Republicans (84%) view Leo favorably."

Non-Catholics "are even less familiar with Leo than Catholics are," according to Pew. It found 31% saying they "have never heard of him," but a majority (56%) reported viewing the American-born pontiff favorably.

More than half (52%) of U.S. Catholics are either uncertain as to how Pope Leo's leadership will compare with that of his predecessor, Pope Francis, or "say they don’t know anything about the new pope to begin with," Pew said.

One third (33%) expect Pope Leo's leadership to be "pretty similar" to Pope Francis' style, while 13% believe the new pope will be "pretty different" from his predecessor.

(OSV News) -- President Donald Trump and law enforcement officials said Sept. 12 they had a suspect in custody in connection to the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk Sept. 10 during an event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.

A staunch ally of Trump, Kirk was the founder of the Republican-aligned Turning Point USA. He was being hosted by that organization's chapter at the university for his "American Comeback Tour" when he was killed. Kirk was reportedly in the midst of discussing mass shootings in the U.S. with an individual attendee when a single shot rang out, striking Kirk and scattering the crowd.

Law enforcement officials carried out a manhunt for the alleged shooter until he was turned in, Trump said in a live interview on Fox News.

"With a high degree of certainty, we have him," Trump said.

"Somebody close to him," Trump said, "essentially went to the father, went to (a) U.S. Marshal who is fantastic--and the person was involved with law enforcement but was a person of faith, a minister--and brought him to a U.S. Marshal, who is fantastic and the father convinced the son, this is it."

Law enforcement officials named Tyler Robinson, 22, of Utah, as the suspect.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, said at a press conference, "We got him."

Cox said the shooting was a political assassination, but he did not shed light on what authorities believe the alleged shooter's motive may have been.

Trump said if the suspect is found guilty, "I hope he gets the death penalty. Charlie Kirk was the finest person, he didn't deserve this, he worked so hard and so well. Everybody liked him."

The Catholic Church's official magisterium opposes the use of the death penalty as inconsistent with the inherent sanctity of human life, and advocates for the practice's abolition worldwide. Pope Francis revised the Catechism of the Catholic Church in 2018 to clarify the church's teaching that capital punishment is morally "inadmissible" in the modern world. In his 2020 encyclical "Fratelli Tutti," the late pope cited St. John Paul II, writing that his predecessor "stated clearly and firmly that the death penalty is inadequate from a moral standpoint and no longer necessary from that of penal justice."

When asked by Fox and Friends' co-host Ainsley Earhardt, "How do we fix this country? How do we come back together?" and about "radicals on the right and left," Trump replied, "I tell you something that is going to get me in trouble, I couldn't care less. Radicals on the right are radical because they don't want to see crime."

Trump proceeded to claim "radicals on the left are the problem," and called illegal immigration the "worst thing." He repeated his previous unsubstantiated claim that 25 million people were let in from countries that emptied "their prisons into our country," claiming the same about mental institutions and insane asylums.

"They empty out insane asylums into our country by the millions, it is the hardest thing," he said.

Utah's Republican governor, however, emphasized that it was important for Americans to address political violence before it spreads like cancer, and to build a new society capable of having hard conversations.

"Political violence is different than any other type of violence, for lots of different reasons," he said, explaining that it "makes it more difficult for people to feel like they can share their ideas, that they can speak freely."

"We will never be able to solve all the other problems, including the violence problems that people are worried about, if we can't have a clash of ideas safely and securely ... especially those ideas with which you disagree," he said.

"That's the problem with political violence, is it metastasizes, because we can always point the finger at the other side; and at some point, we have to find an off-ramp, or it's going to get much, much worse," he added.

In comments directed to young people, Cox urged them to take the "opportunity to build a culture that is very different than what we are suffering through right now, not by pretending differences don't matter, but by embracing our differences and having those hard conversations."

Catholic bishops and other officials called for prayer in the wake of Kirk's shooting, with some also expressing concern about other recent instances of violence, including a shooting at Colorado's Evergreen High School the same day, and the Aug. 27 mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis that killed two schoolchildren and injured 21 others.

"What we see unfolding in our nation is a vicious pattern of hatreds rooted in the rejection of God, of the dignity of the human person, and the sanctity of the family," Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of Arlington, Virginia, said in a statement in the aftermath of Kirk's assassination. "We can eradicate these ills only through a firm reliance on God, through a deeper devotion to Christ and the Gospel, through a sincere love for persons reflected in law, and through a renewed commitment to justice and public order."

He added, "We are living through a perilous moment. Our challenge is not only one of partisan disagreement, law, and policy, but in a deeper way our challenge is to uphold the central goods of American political life: of faith, of families, and of a national commitment to live together in harmony as brothers and sisters."

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Great spiritual traditions and mature critical thinking enable humanity to go beyond ethnicities, clans and cliques, which recognize only those who are similar and reject those who are different, Pope Leo XIV said.

"We need an extensive 'covenant of humanity,' founded not on power but on care; not on profit but on gift; not on suspicion but on trust," he told participants in a conference on human fraternity.

"Care, gift and trust are not virtues to be practiced only in one's spare time: they are pillars of an economy that does not kill, but deepens and broadens participation in life," he said Sept. 12.

Organized by the Vatican's Fratelli Tutti Foundation, St. Peter's Basilica and others, the Sept. 12-13 conference brought entrepreneurs, economists, activists, scholars, social workers, students, athletes and religious leaders to Rome and the Vatican for a series of roundtable discussions aimed at strengthening solidarity and peace with concrete proposals.

The event was to close with a drone light show and a free concert in St. Peter's Square featuring Andrea Bocelli, Pharrell Williams, John Legend, Jennifer Hudson, Karol G and others.

Alternating speaking Italian and English, the pope said the fact that the first fraternal relationship, the one between Cain and Abel, became conflictual "should not lead us to conclude that it has always been this way."

"No matter how ancient or widespread, Cain's violence cannot be tolerated as 'normal,'" he said.

On the contrary, the pope said, God does not take revenge on Cain for Abel, and he reveals the norm with his question to the guilty party, "Where is your brother?"

"It is in this question that we find our vocation, the rule and measure of justice," he said, and "today more than ever, we must make this question our own as a principle of reconciliation."

This question must be "internalized" by everyone, he said, so that individuals ask themselves things like, "Where are you in the 'business' of wars that: shatter the lives of young people forced to take up arms; target defenseless civilians, children, women and elderly people; devastate cities, the countryside and entire ecosystems, leaving only rubble and pain in their wake?"

"Brother, sister, where are you among the migrants who are despised, imprisoned and rejected, among those who seek salvation and hope but find walls and indifference?" he asked.

Where do people stand when it comes to the poor being "blamed for their poverty, forgotten and discarded, in a world that values profit more than people?" and "where are you in a hyper-connected life where loneliness corrodes social bonds and makes us strangers even to ourselves?" he asked.

"The answer cannot be silence," Pope Leo said. "You are the answer, with your presence, your commitment and your courage."

The answer to each question of injustice is to choose "a different direction of life, growth and development" that recognizes the other as a brother or sister and frees one from "the logic of forming relationships only out of self-interest."

The best guides for forming fraternal relationships can be found in "great spiritual traditions and the maturation of critical thinking," he said, which "enable us to go beyond blood or ethnic ties, beyond those kinships that recognize only those who are similar and reject those who are different."

In fact, "it is interesting that in the Bible, as revealed by scientific exegesis, it is the most recent and mature texts that narrate a fraternity that transcends the ethnic boundaries of God's people and is founded on a common humanity," he said.

"The stories of creation and the genealogies bear witness that all peoples, even enemies, have the same origin, and the Earth, with its goods, is for everyone, not just for some," he said.

Fraternity is about "closeness," he said, and for those who believe in God, it means recognizing "the very image of God in the face of the poor, the refugee and even the adversary."

The pope urged his audience to "identify local and international ways of developing new forms of social charity, alliances between different areas of knowledge and solidarity between generations."

Initiatives, he said, "should be community-based approaches that also include the poor, not as recipients of aid, but as subjects of discernment and discourse."

"Continue to nurture the spirituality of fraternity through culture, working relationships and diplomatic action," he added, and remember Jesus' commandment to love one another.

Pope Leo thanked the participants for their efforts, especially the Nobel Prize winners present at the audience, "for drafting the Declaration on Human Fraternity of 10 June 2023, and for the witness they give in international forums."

8-year-old Isaac Roznowski received words of encouragement from saint’s mother, Antonia Salzano, whose son battled cancer

ERIE — It’s not every day a person receives a voicemail from a saint’s mom.

But in late August, 8-year-old Isaac Roznowski of St. Joseph Parish in Erie received words of encouragement from Antonia Salzano, whom the world better knows as the mother of St. Carlo Acutis, who was canonized Sept. 6.

Young Isaac was diagnosed with leukemia on July 18, his mother, Beth Roznowski, explained to Detroit Catholic. After the devastating diagnosis, the family asked friends to include Isaac on their prayer lists; as it turns out, a friend of a friend knew Salzano, and asked the newly minted saint's mother for her prayers.

“When we sent out prayer requests, I got a message from a friend texting me saying, ‘Hey, a friend of mine is a friend of Blessed Carlo’s mother, and if you listen carefully, this was a message she sent to your son.”

In the voicemail, Salzano encouraged Isaac to stay strong in his fight with leukemia, the same illness that took her son’s life in 2006 at age 15.

The voicemail said: Isaac, I pray for you. Leukemia today is an illness that most of the time is cured completely. The kind that Carlo had in 2006, called M3, was a sentence of death at that time. But now they discovered the cure. So, most of the people are healed completely. So I’m sure that you will be able to defeat and do your battle, offered to the Immaculate Heart of Mary for the conversion of sinners, for your sanctification. And you pray the rosary, go to Mass, not only on Sunday, if you can. And Jesus will help you, and I’m sure that I’m so optimistic, so God bless you, and I pray for you.

The message came as quite a surprise to Roznowski, knowing her son, Isaac, was in the thoughts and prayers of the mother of the Church’s newest saint.

“I cried,” Roznowski said. “We are at a particularly hard point in his journey. Our first month has been rough with rare side effects he’s been battling through. And in that moment (listening to the voicemail), I think we just recognized how widespread our Church is, how widespread my family is, not just our immediate family, but the family of people all over the world in every continent, praying for us.”

It was December of last year when the entire Roznowski family came down with a respiratory illness, but for some reason, Isaac had a hard time recovering.

Over the next few months, Isaac had been diagnosed with an ear infection and strep throat, but never seemed to fully recover. He constantly had a fever.

“My mom brain told me to keep digging, and we ended up seeing multiple doctors and specialists around the country,” Roznowski said.” It took until specialist No. 6 to get an actual diagnosis, and this was obviously not one anyone wanted to hear: ‘Your son has cancer.’”

Beth and her husband, Steven, then discerned what to do next in terms of Isaac’s care.

Wanting to stay as close to home as possible, Isaac began receiving care at ProMedica Russell J. Ebeid Children’s Hospital in Toledo, after receiving his initial bone marrow biopsy in Cleveland.

The couple had to break the news to Isaac’s siblings that things were going to be different, but that they were in this fight together with their faith.

“We talked about how as a family we’re on a mission, and our mission is to defeat cancer, and we do it one mile at a time, and each month is about one mile in terms of treatment,” Roznowski said. “It’s something we are working on every day — how to carry the cross and how to help him heal and help him fight. We are growing in our trust and faith as a family as we’re doing this together, because it’s not something that anyone can do without God.”

Isaac has finished his first month of chemotherapy and is in a stage called “remission” — meaning doctors don’t detect any cancer cells, but with leukemia, cancer cells tend to avoid detection and then return. Isaac goes to the hospital twice a week for chemotherapy, in addition to daily chemo treatment at home.

“He is a very active kid, so it’s definitely frustrating when one of the first things they told us was he’s not supposed to be around dirt and animals, which is not really conducive to our lifestyle,” Roznowski said. “We’re taking what they say under advisement, but we also have to make sure we keep him as happy as we can. He got cleared to ride his bike with a helmet, so he rides his bike three miles a day.”

Isaac has suffered from seizures and a stroke, “but as God would have it, he has zero neurological ill effects from it,” Roznowski said.

“He does have a clot in his brain that we have nicknamed ‘Clemmy,’ and hopefully, Clemmy is disappearing over the next couple of months,” Roznowski added.

Roznowski said her family has an ever-evolving schedule based on Isaac’s health and the routine of medication, rest and doctor’s visits, but the family is taking it all in stride, knowing they are receiving a little extra intercessory help from people in heaven and on earth.

Roznowski said initial reports from Isaac’s bloodwork have been positive, something she attests to the hundreds who have been praying for Isaac, including St. Carlo Acutis and the saint’s mother.

“I can’t explain how it feels as a mom to hear the mother of Carlo Acutis, a saint, and know that she is praying for your son,” Roznowski said. “He had something very similar happen, and she saw him in anguish and suffering, so she knows part of my heart and what I’m going through.”

On Sept. 7, the family watched St. Carlo's canonization together — it was also the 11th birthday of Isaac's older sister, Gianna, Roznowski added.

“Right after we got the message, Isaac asked me, ‘Mom, does this mean I’m famous?’ and I’m like, ‘Yes, I’m going to say you’re famous,’” Roznowski said. “It felt really important to him that she took the time to do that for him, and that her message was really for him as much as it was for me. Because he knows how much I love him, and he knows how much she loved her son. And she took the time to show my son how much he is like her son, who we so admire.”

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – St. Pier Giorgio Frassati, canonized by Pope Leo XIV Sept. 7, now has a special connection to Washington.

A parish in the nation's capital that has become a haven for young adult Catholics now has a chapel named for the young adult Italian Catholic who died a century ago and was known for his devotion to the Eucharist and his service to those in need.

The ornate, intimate St. Pier Giorgio Frassati Chapel at Immaculate Conception Parish is believed to be one of the first adoration chapels in the Americas named for the new saint.

It is next to the parish offices in a suite in an apartment building down the street from the church and rectory. The chapel is open many hours every day for private prayer, and for select hours of Eucharistic exposition during the week.

"Our new Frassati Chapel provides many hours each week of Eucharistic adoration in a safe, secure and sacred space for Catholics in the city. This chapel will transform our parish. It is already happening," Fr. Charles Gallagher, the pastor, told the Catholic Standard, the news outlet of the Washington Archdiocese.

The chapel includes a striking portrait of the new saint provided by a priest friend of Fr. Gallager, Fr. David Nerbun, the pastor of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati Parish in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, which in 2023 became the first parish in the United States named for him.

A second-class relic of St. Pier Giorgio – a piece of leather from his clothing – is in the chapel for public veneration.

On Aug. 9, Washington Auxiliary Bishop Juan Esposito blessed the new parish offices and the chapel.

"Through our adoration of your Son present in the Eucharist, lead us to a closer union with the mystery of redemption," the bishop said as he blessed the chapel.

At the blessing, Fr. Gallagher noted that St. John Paul II – who beatified Blessed Pier Giorgio in 1990 and named him as a special patron of World Youth Day – called him the "Man of the Beatitudes" because he "showed us what it means to live out the full spectrum of the Gospel. All Christians in the capital city can look to him as a friend and intercessor."

After his blessing, Bishop Esposito commended Father Gallagher for the parish's outreach to Catholic young adults in the city. "I have no doubt that the beautiful Frassati Chapel has already begun to bear fruit," he said.

Erin Donn, a former parish missionary at Immaculate Conception who now serves in campus ministry at Elizabeth Seton High School in Bladensburg, Maryland, told the Catholic Standard, "I think for young adults, he's just a really good model for balancing a life of charity and service in the midst of your ordinary, everyday life."

She noted how special it is now to have an adoration chapel in the city, "to just be able to come and walk over, it's just really a good gift to the neighborhood."

Melissa Coughlin, an Immaculate Conception parishioner for nearly 20 years, echoed that point.

"Walking past the church every day was the pull I needed to come back to the faith," said Coughlin, a physician-scientist who has been involved in the parish's young adult outreach.

"Being able to come here and pray at any time will be a massive asset both to Immaculate Conception Parish and to the Catholic community in D.C," Coughlin said. The chapel, in the spirit of St. Pier Giorgio, "truly allows people to take their faith to the heights," she added, referencing one of the saint's mottos, "Verso l'alto" ("To the heights").

Fr. Gallagher went to Rome to attend St. Pier Giorgio Frassati's canonization and joined other priests in concelebrating that Mass, and he visited sites in Italy associated with St. Pier Giorgio's life.

The priest is convinced that Immaculate Conception's chapel named for the new saint will transform his parish, that neighborhood and the city.

"Whenever a parish has real devotion to Eucharistic adoration and has an adoration chapel, God blesses that parish with special graces," he said, noting that young adults are already praying in that chapel throughout the day and at night. "You feel there's a real grace now, in that God is using this to set hearts on fire and to help people to really pray better and pray more."

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Leo XIV told 192 new bishops from around the world that they must respond promptly to allegations of inappropriate or abusive behavior by priests.

"These cannot be put in a drawer – they must be addressed with a sense of mercy and true justice toward both the victims and the accused," the pope told the bishops Sept. 11, according to the Vatican press office.

The pope had spent the entire morning with the prelates, including 13 from the United States, who were in Rome for the Vatican's annual formation courses for new bishops. The courses included sessions on handling abuse allegations.

Pope Leo read a prepared speech to the group, which was broadcast in the Vatican press office and published on the Vatican website. But, the press office said, he continued sharing his concerns and advice with the bishops before opening the floor to their questions.

The press office published a summary of the closed-door session Sept. 12.

Also Sept. 12 Pope Leo had his first official meeting with French Archbishop Thibault Verny of Chambéry, France, whom the pope had named president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors in July.

In his meeting with the new bishops the day before, the pope asked them to be "be persevering disciples, not afraid when faced with the first difficulty, pastors close to the people and to their priests, merciful yet firm – even when it comes to making judgments – capable of listening and dialogue, not merely preaching," the Vatican summary said.

"Be builders of bridges," he told the bishops, including by embracing synodality, "which he described not as a pastoral method, but as 'a style of church, of listening and of shared search for the mission to which we are called.'"

As he had done in his formal text, Pope Leo also told the bishops they must be creative in sharing the Gospel and ministering with their people, which can happen only if they are engaged and involved in the world and understand the questions people are asking today.

"Ready-made answers learned 25 years ago in seminary are not enough," the pope told them.

The bishops must value the "pastoral and human experiences" that they have had in their local churches and allow them to "grow into a new ministry that brings bishops into contact with the universality of the church," the summary said.

Pope Leo spoke to the bishops about the "fears, a sense of unworthiness, the various expectations each had for their lives" before being named a bishop, the summary said, and he "emphasized the necessity of staying close to the Lord, preserving time for prayer, and continuing to live with unconditional trust in the Holy Spirit, the source of their calling."

Responding to a question about the challenge of beginning a new ministry, "the pope spoke personally about what it means for him," the press office said.

"He urged trust in God's grace and the grace of office, to recognize one's gifts and limitations, including the need for help from others – perhaps relying on the valuable experience of a good emeritus bishop who can offer support or guidance," it said. "He warned against the temptation to form one's own group and isolate oneself."

The bishops spoke about how some 1 million people attended the early August celebration of the Jubilee of Young People and their thirst for an authentic spiritual life, the summary said.

Pope Leo noted that young people have not found a response to that thirst in the virtual world nor "in the typical experiences of our parishes."

Responding to a question, the pope urged bishops to be prudent in the use of social media, where "everyone feels entitled to say whatever they want, even false things."

"There are times when reaching the truth is painful," but necessary, he said, adding that bishops should "rely on communication professionals, trained individuals."

He summarized his recommended approach to media by saying, "Calm, a good head, and the help of a professional."

The Vatican said the pope and bishops also spoke about the importance of peacemaking, interreligious dialogue and safeguarding the environment.

WASHINGTON (OSV News) -- President Donald Trump marked the 24th anniversary of the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, at the Pentagon, prior to his scheduled trip to New York for a similar event, and in the shadow of the nation's first high profile political assassination in decades.

Trump announced at the event that he would posthumously award conservative activist Charlie Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, after he was fatally shot by a sniper Sept. 10 during an event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. As of the following afternoon, authorities were still searching for a person of interest in the shooting, the FBI's Salt Lake City office said on X.

Vice President JD Vance, who said in a social media post that he was a close friend of Kirk, cancelled his attendance at the New York ceremony to visit with Kirk's family and escort his body back to Phoenix.

On Sept. 11, 2001, 19 militants associated with the Islamic terror group al-Qaida hijacked airplanes for suicide attacks that left nearly 3,000 people dead in New York City, at the Pentagon just outside Washington, and in a field in rural Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where passengers thwarted the terrorists' intention to strike another target in Washington, likely the U.S. Capitol.

"On that fateful day, savage monsters attacked the very symbols of our civilization. Yet here in Virginia and in New York and in the skies over Pennsylvania, Americans did not hesitate," Trump said during the event. "They stood on their feet, and they showed the world that we will never yield. We will never bend. We will never give up. And our great American flag will never, ever fail."

In New York City, al-Qaida hijackers rammed two commercial jetliners into the twin towers of the World Trade Center. At 8:46 a.m, American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into floors 93 through 99 of the North Tower. At 9:03 a.m. United Airlines Flight 175 struck the South Tower. Within two hours, both towers collapsed, killing 2,753 people in New York alone that day.

"In the quarter of a century since those acts of mass murder, 9/11 family members have felt the weight of missed birthdays and empty bedrooms, journals left unfinished, and dreams left unfulfilled," Trump said. "To every member that still feels a void in every day of your lives, the first lady and I unite with you in sorrow -- and today, as one nation, we renew our sacred vow that we will never forget Sept. 11, 2001."

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., marked the occasion by laying a wreath together at the 9/11 Memorial in the U.S. Capitol. In a statement, Johnson also honored "the many thousands of those heroes who have lost their lives due to the illnesses they contracted from exposure to toxic dust at Ground Zero."

"America saw the face of evil; yet in our grief and anger, we revealed the best in ourselves. On this solemn anniversary, we take heart in knowing that even in that dark hour, the American people answered with all that is good, decent, and enduring in the human spirit," he said.

Jeffries shared a photo of the pair on social media, adding, "We will never forget the lives lost during the terrorist attack on September 11th. And will always honor the heroism of our brave first responders."

In a social media post, the U.S. bishops' conference marked the anniversary by sharing a prayer the late Pope Benedict XVI said during a 2008 visit to Ground Zero.

WASHINGTON (OSV News) ─ The U.S. Supreme Court Sept. 9 paused a judge's order requiring President Donald Trump's administration to spend billions in previously approved foreign aid the president has sought to rescind.

Chief Justice John Roberts issued an administrative stay, a legal mechanism that gives the justices time to review the case and a lower court's order that the Trump administration could not unilaterally cancel the funds.

Donald Kerwin, Jesuit Refugee Service/USA's vice president for advocacy, research and partnerships, told OSV News, "However the case is ultimately resolved, it combines two troubling issues: first, the administration's attempt to usurp Congress' constitutional authority to appropriate funds for particular purposes, and second, its opposition to international humanitarian assistance, which saves lives, affirms human dignity and has been one of America's greatest contributions to building a world in which more people are free to determine their own futures."

"The administration's continued attacks on foreign aid have already led to easily preventable deaths," Kerwin said. "These deaths and the immense damage worked by these cuts to the prospects of millions of people will persist absent greater public understanding of this ongoing tragedy, and without pressure on the administration and Congress to reverse course."

The Trump administration has broadly sought to scale back foreign assistance. In a rare procedural move called a "pocket rescission," Trump in August told House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., he would cancel $5 billion in foreign aid and nongovernmental organization funding previously approved by Congress just before the end of the fiscal year.

Groups including the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition sued in response.

When the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to intervene on a lower court's order blocking the cuts, Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued, "The president can hardly speak with one voice in foreign affairs or in dealings with Congress when the district court is forcing the executive branch to advocate against its own objectives."

Some of those funds were for the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, which the Trump administration shuttered while moving some of its remaining functions under the State Department.

Catholic Relief Services, the overseas relief and development agency of the Catholic Church in the U.S., was among the Catholic entities that previously had partnered with USAID.

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Kate Scanlon is a national reporter for OSV News covering Washington. Follow her on X @kgscanlon.

BALTIMORE (OSV News) ─ Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore and leaders of the Knights of Columbus and Catholic Near East Welfare Association visited Jerusalem, the Palestinian West Bank and other parts of the Holy Lands Sept. 2-6, connecting with ministries serving those in the conflict area.

"What you see is that even in a time of great darkness and suffering, the light and the goodness and the glory of Christ shine through in these ministries," Archbishop Lori said upon his return to Baltimore.

"We came as pilgrims of hope. Certainly, we wanted to be a witness of hope to folks who are having a really hard time, but they also strengthen our hope. It was what the synod calls an exchange of gifts," he told the Catholic Review, Baltimore's archdiocesan news outlet.

The pastoral visit was organized by CNEWA-Pontifical Mission, based in New York City, that supports the diverse humanitarian and pastoral works of the Eastern churches throughout the Middle East, Northeast Africa, India and Eastern Europe.

Msgr. Peter I. Vaccari, president of CNEWA, was accompanied by Archbishop Lori as supreme chaplain of the Knights of Columbus; Supreme Knight Patrick E. Kelly; and John A. Marrella, the Knights' supreme secretary.

In addition to his role as archbishop of Baltimore -- his "first love and first responsibility" -- Archbishop Lori wore several hats on the trip: as supreme chaplain for the Knights; as vice president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops; and as prior of the Middle Atlantic Lieutenancy of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre, which also supports the Christian communities in the Holy Land.

The Knights of Columbus have supported efforts of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem for a long time, under the auspices of the organization's Pacem in Terris Fund, named for St. John XXIII's 1963 encyclical on truth, justice, charity and liberty.

However, the archbishop said, "given the disaster that is unfolding in Gaza, given the ongoing challenges of the center in the West Bank, we wanted to learn from CNEWA, which has been there for a long time, and from the patriarch and from the custos and from various ministries on the ground what it's like, and what we can do."

He referred to Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch, and Franciscan Brother Francesco Ielpo, custos of the Holy Land for the Order of Friars Minor. On the visiting group's first day in Jerusalem, they met with Brother Francesco to discuss his concerns and later met with Cardinal Pizzaballa.

Archbishop Lori said the Knights' leadership will discuss in the coming days how the order can provide assistance, but that one opportunity came up immediately.

During a visit in Bethlehem to the Crèche, a Daughters of Charity ministry caring for abandoned babies and children, they learned the facility needed a new industrial washing machine, to which the Knights committed on the spot. The machine will be purchased through CNEWA and its local sources.

"That's just an example of things we might do," the archbishop said. "But I think that of great importance there is (the need for) humanitarian aid right now on the ground, especially for the people who are suffering so terribly in the Gaza Strip, but more long-term support for the schools in the Holy Land that are run by the by the church; economic opportunity for the Palestinians, many of whom are emigrating; and then also health care."

He acknowledged that no single organization can do it all, but the question is how the Knights could be helpful in those more long-term endeavors as well.

Michael J.L. La Civita, director of communications and marketing for CNEWA, told the Catholic Review that the visit by the group was appreciated by those they encountered. "We are demonstrating our care, our concern for them as the mother church, the church of Jerusalem."

He noted that the group visited people from the whole cycle of life: from unborn children to abandoned babies, from children in schools such as the K-12 school run by the Salesian Sisters to young adult students at Bethlehem University, from families and parishioners to those at the St. Nicholas Home for the Elderly in Beit Jala.

La Civita said Kelly and Archbishop Lori went to "learn and listen" to understand how the church is responding to "the situation of war and oppression or war and occupation impacting the community, on both sides in Israel and in the Palestinian areas."

He said one of the problems is that unemployment is 70% in some areas, especially in the West Bank, and 100% -- no employment -- in Gaza.

"The church worldwide is there to support them, to stand with them, that they are not forgotten," La Civita said, adding that the people they encountered consistently said how much they appreciated the visit of people from the U.S. demonstrating their solicitude.

La Civita said the church's provision of aid has been "hamstrung at times by bureaucracies and by war and other negative factors. Nevertheless, the church is there and committed to reaching out and doing something to make a difference."

Archbishop Lori said many organizations, including the Latin Patriarchate, the custos and CNEWA are working to address the humanitarian crisis and famine in Gaza.

"We're all trying, but one of the things we can do in our country is to advocate for the people in Gaza, just as Pope Leo XIV has been doing relentlessly and correctly," he said. "The other thing is that, of course, they haven't had many visitors in the Holy Land lately, and simply (for the group) to show up and just to say, ‘You're not forgotten,' that's also an important facet of our visit."

The archbishop said he felt safe during the trip, even though while they were there, two rockets were fired, but didn't get anywhere close to landing. This was not his first visit to a conflict area, as he has visited Ukraine twice since Russia's full-scale invasion of the country in 2022.

Archbishop Lori celebrated Masses for the group at sites of great significance for the faith, including the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, where it is believed that the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary; the place in Bethlehem where St. Jerome spent 30 years translating the Bible into Latin, known as the Vulgate Bible; and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

At the Mass in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher's edicule, the place where it is believed that Jesus' body was laid to rest after the crucifixion, he cited Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, prominent leaders who were secret disciples of Christ: "Even if our discipleship is no secret, we are no strangers to fear and hesitancy because of the resistance and persecution that the name of Christ still generates after more than 2,000 years."

Those who participated in the Mass came to be renewed in hope.

"We are here in these days to plead for those in desperate straits, innocent civilians killed, injured, taken hostage, innocent people dying of starvation and disease, those who have lost their homes and livelihood to the chaos of war, those who are pawns in a high-stakes bid for dominance," the archbishop said in his homily.

"Into this desperate situation in which all appears to be lost, we come as pilgrims of hope who trust that somehow the glory of the Lord will shine through."

The pastoral visit follows the Aug. 12 call of the president of the USCCB, Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, for a special collection to be taken up in parishes across the United States "to provide humanitarian relief and pastoral support for our affected brothers and sisters in Gaza and surrounding areas in the Middle East and send donated funds to CNEWA and CRS (Baltimore-based Catholic Relief Services)."

Between Oct. 9, 2023, days after Hamas attacked Israel and Israel retaliated, and now, CNEWA has provided more than $1.6 million in aid from numerous funding partners in Europe and North America for humanitarian purposes in Gaza, of which more than $1.5 million were rushed for food, medical care and psychosocial counseling, helping more than 36,400 people.

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Christopher Gunty is associate publisher and editor of Catholic Review Media, publishing arm of the Archdiocese of Baltimore. This story was originally published by Catholic Review and distributed through a partnership with OSV News.