The Basilica of the Holy Trinity at the Shrine of Our Lady of Fátima in Portugal. / Credit: Vitor Oliveira from Torres Vedras, PORTUGAL, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Rome Newsroom, Apr 2, 2025 / 10:52 am (CNA).

While a Catholic shrine in Lourdes, France, announced on Monday it is covering mosaics by alleged abuser Father Marko Rupnik on the doors to one of its basilicas, another of the world’s most popular sites of Marian devotion said it is not considering removing its own Rupnik artwork.

A spokesperson for the Fátima shrine in Portugal told the Portuguese news outlet 7Margens via email this week that the international shrine is not taking down the mosaic installation but has stopped using its image in any distributed materials.

The Shrine of Our Lady of Fátima, which receives over 6 million visitors a year, is located on the site of the Virgin Mary’s apparitions to three shepherd children in 1917.

The back wall of the shrine’s largest and most modern worship space, the Basilica of the Holy Trinity, is covered in an enormous, floor-to-ceiling work by Rupnik and several of his artist collaborators.

The approximately 33-by-164-foot gold mosaic was installed in 2007 and features the paschal lamb at the center flanked by saints and angels.

“We are not considering removing it. However, since we became aware of the accusations against Father [Marko Ivan] Rupnik, we have suspended the use of the image, the entire work, and its details in our dissemination of materials,” the shrine’s communications department told 7Margens.

Echoing a similar statement made to OSV News in July 2024, the shrine said it “strongly repudiates the acts committed by Father [Marko Ivan] Rupnik,” and it “has already expressed its solidarity with the victims.”

Rupnik, a native of Slovenia, was expelled from the Jesuits in June 2023 for disobedience following the public revelation that he was accused of the sexual and psychological abuse of dozens of women under his spiritual care in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The priest is currently under canonical investigation by the Vatican.

The abuse accusations sparked an enormous debate about whether to remove the hundreds of religious artworks created by Rupnik and his collaborators through his Rome-based art and theology center, the Centro Aletti.

At least 230 religious sites around the world feature Rupnik’s distinctive mosaics, from some of the biggest international shrines to smaller chapels and churches, including the Redemptoris Mater chapel in the Vatican.

Victims of sexual abuse and organizations that support them have called for the works to be removed or covered, especially since some of the accusations against Rupnik allege he committed abuse in the context of the creation of his art.

In July 2024, the bishop who oversees the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in France said he had received opposition to the idea of removing the Rupnik mosaics on the facade of the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary but that, as a first step, they would no longer be lit up at night.

On March 31, Bishop Jean-Marc Micas of Tarbes and Lourdes announced a further step — the covering of the main entrances to the basilica, which also feature mosaics by Rupnik.

In the United States, the Knights of Columbus announced July 10, 2024, that it would cover the Rupnik mosaics located in the two chapels of the National Shrine of St. John Paul II in Washington, D.C., and in the chapel in the Knights’ headquarters in New Haven, Connecticut.

The documentation of Mary’s case was submitted to the Solanus Casey Center. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Diocese of Lansing

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 2, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Many Catholics credit prayers of intercession to Blessed Solanus Casey for curing and helping people who suffer from illnesses. Mary Bartold of DeWitt, Michigan, is now among the many who do so after her two tumors vanished with no medical intervention but after continuous prayers to Casey, whose ministry was built upon healing and compassion.

Mary’s unexpected health issues began almost a year ago in late April 2024, the Detroit Free Press reported. Mary was a sophomore at Lansing Catholic High School in Michigan when she began to experience severe abdominal pain while at school. Mary and her family could not pinpoint what the problem was.

Mary’s parents, Susan and Rick Bartold, took her for a CT scan and ultrasound of her abdomen. The images revealed two masses on each of her ovaries: one was 7.3 centimeters large and the other was 1.5 centimeters. At just 16 years old, Mary began to worry about losing the potential to have children and all the implications the tumors could have on her health.

The Bartolds subsequently took their daughter to University of Michigan Health to work with Catholic physicians and determine a course of treatment. Susan said they chose Catholic practitioners specifically to ensure that they “understood what was happening” and “were making moral decisions that weren’t led by secular belief.”

The doctors determined the masses were tumors, both teratomas that needed to be surgically removed. The doctors scheduled the surgery for Aug. 2.

As the date approached, Susan and Rick decided to go on a pilgrimage to Blessed Solanus Casey’s tomb in Detroit to pray for their daughter. Susan even put together a novena, a nine-day period of prayers, in Blessed Solanus Casey’s name that her family, friends, and church community participated in.

Susan said she had longed prayed to Casey. She felt a sense of familiarity with him since he also resided in Michigan, where he became a Capuchin friar and worked as a porter at St. Bonaventure Monastery in Detroit.

He also helped start the Capuchin Soup Kitchen in Detroit to help those in need. Susan and Rick shared that they often wonder if Casey ever directly helped their own fathers who lived just down the street from the kitchen during a time they were both facing poverty. 

Susan told the Diocese of Lansing that Casey’s life “is an inspiration” to her, which led her to also ask others to pray to him for her daughter’s healing. 

After weeks of prayer and anticipation, Mary went to the doctor on July 30 for a pre-surgery MRI scan to get updated images. The date coincidentally happened to be Casey’s feast day. 

On the drive there, Susan prayed: “Solanus, this is your feast day. I am doing this for you. I know you have big news.”

The day after the scan, Mary and her parents received a call from her doctors that the surgery could be canceled. It was determined there was no sign of the tumors after multiple radiologists and doctors looked over the images. They were completely gone.

Mary said her first thought was that “it was a mistake,” but six months later, follow-up scans continued to reveal no evidence of any masses or tumors. 

“We forget about the power of prayer,” Susan said, “and this is just a testimony to the power of prayer.”

On the day Mary’s surgery was supposed to take place, she and her parents traveled back to Casey’s tomb, this time to give thanks for their answered prayers. 

While the family was there, they submitted documentation of Mary’s case to the Solanus Casey Center so it can be considered as a miracle to help further Casey’s path to sainthood.

Pope Francis acknowledged a previous miracle by Casey in 2017. A woman with a genetic skin condition prayed at Casey’s tomb in Detroit and was miraculously healed. If another miracle is recognized by the Vatican, it would further propel Casey to canonization. 

Mary’s family strongly advocates that he receives that standing. Mary told the Diocese of Lansing that she would be “honored” if her story was what led Casey to become a saint. “He deserves to be canonized,” she said.

In 1984, Pope John Paul II met in Rome with 300,000 young people from all over the world in a meeting that laid the foundations for today’s World Youth Day. / Credit: Gregorini Demetrio, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Vatican City, Apr 2, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).

Now 20 years since Pope John Paul II’s death on April 2, 2005, one of his closest collaborators says the Polish pontiff lives on in the hearts and memories of the many people who still feel connected to him today.

Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz, John Paul II’s personal secretary for nearly four decades, told EWTN News during an interview in Krakow that visitors to the saint’s tomb in St. Peter’s Basilica “don’t go to the dead pope, they go to the living pope. He lives in hearts, he lives in memories.”

“There is still this dialogue between the pope and the people and the people with him. This is how I feel,” the 85-year-old cardinal and former archbishop of Krakow said. “He departed but at the same time remained with us. … People cling to him, study him again.”

Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami, who has Polish parents, said John Paul II changed Poland and the world.

“The world that we live in today is in the shape it’s in, at least in some aspects, because of John Paul’s witness,” Wenski told EWTN News in Miami, “especially when he went to Poland in 1979 and inspired the people by saying ‘Be not afraid’ and asking the Holy Spirit … to change the face of this land, this Polish land.”

Dziwisz echoed this sentiment, noting that “many things changed in the Church and in the world under the influence of John Paul II and his activities. … In Rome itself and in the Church, there was a belief that the future belonged to Marxism. And the pope said that the future belongs to human rights, to the human person, to human freedom, and not to the enslavement that Marx gave.”

‘We want to be with him’

“I also remember his departure wasn’t a departure to history, to the archives,” Dziwisz said. “He works and you can see it. People run to God thanks to him and receive different graces.”

The cardinal remembered how emotional everyone was when they said goodbye to the Polish pope in the days leading to his final breath on Saturday, April 2, 2005: “How they approached the pope, crying, to kiss his hand and say goodbye.”

“It was only in the afternoon, on Saturday, the day of his departure and death, that the pope asked to have the holy Scripture read to him,” Dziwisz said, recalling that a priest there in his room “read the Gospel of St. John, nine chapters. And [the pope] followed, he didn’t say anything, he just followed and listened to the Gospel. He prepared [for death] simply, by reading the holy Scripture, consciously knowing he’s leaving.”

Then a priest, Dziwisz had been at John Paul II’s side as his personal secretary since 1966, when the future pope was the new archbishop of Krakow. He said he and others “opened the window discretely” of John Paul II’s apartment where he lay dying so he could hear the voices of the thousands keeping vigil in St. Peter’s Square outside.

“So that he could have the satisfaction [of knowing] that there are people with him,” Dziwisz explained. “There was this big, quite large youth group who had been camping for the second day [in St. Peter’s Square]. I said to them: ‘You are going home.’ They said: ‘He was with us, so now we want to be with him.’ And indeed, they were. The youth did not abandon him to the end.”

Umberto Civitarese, a longtime employee of Vatican Radio (now Vatican News) who covered up close John Paul II’s papacy, including many of his international trips, said the pope “never gave up, he didn’t give up, he managed everything until the end and he was trying in every way to be present.”

Civitarese told EWTN News he remembered an Angelus one Sunday in which John Paul went to the window but he couldn’t speak, but “that was enough” for his flock waiting below. People “didn’t expect anything else, it was enough just to see him,” he added.

Even when he was sick, he was active, Dziwisz said. “He had perfect awareness until the end, until the last day and hour.”

The retired Polish cardinal emphasized that even in suffering, John Paul II never complained: “What I know is what he said, that suffering has meaning. That’s how he approached it.”

‘A man united with God in prayer’

“Very early on, we, not only me, had the impression that we were dealing with a saint,” Civitarese said about his and his colleagues’ experience with the pontiff. “Because the example he set on a daily basis, in my opinion, remained inimitable.”

“So many times one asks but what does one have to do to become a saint? And I know, I understood — seeing him, yes, from following the example that he set … the commitment he put into his role, putting the meaning of being pope first,” he noted.

Dziwisz said John Paul II’s “holiness was because he was a man united with God in prayer.”

Civitarese saw this commitment to prayer in action on the pope’s many international trips, when, after a very long day, the first thing he would do is go to the chapel of the nunciature he was staying at to pray.

“While the others [traveling with him] maybe were refreshing, there were those who were eating, those who were phoning, those who were resting, he instead put prayer first,” the radio technician said, adding that these are the memories that have stuck with him and left a lasting impression.

“The thing I remember most strongly about him was this magnetism that he had,” he said. “When you are in contact with a personality like that I think it changes your life a little bit.”

Livia Tossici-Bolt is awaiting a verdict in her case in which she was charged with violating a “buffer zone” that restricts pro-life speech near abortion clinics. / Credit: Photo courtesy of ADF International

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 1, 2025 / 17:56 pm (CNA).

A bureau of the United States Department of State announced it is “monitoring” an arrest of a pro-life advocate in the United Kingdom who was charged with violating a “buffer zone” that restricts pro-life speech near abortion clinics.

In a post on X, the State Department Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor confirmed that Senior Adviser Sam Samson met with Livia Tossici-Bolt, a pro-life advocate charged with breaching a buffer zone by standing near an abortion clinic and holding a sign that read, “Here to talk, if you want.”

The verdict for Tossici-Bolt, who was charged with breaching a public spaces protection order, is expected to be handed down on Friday by District Judge Orla Austin — the same judge who delivered a guilty verdict to pro-life advocate Adam Smith-Connor for silently praying outside an abortion clinic in October 2024.

“We are monitoring her case,” the bureau’s post on X read. “It is important that the U.K. respect and protect freedom of expression.”

The post referenced comments made by U.S. Vice President JD Vance in Munich earlier this year in which he chastised the deterioration of free speech and religious freedom within Europe. Vance specifically criticized the British enforcement of “buffer zone” laws and the conviction of Smith-Connor.

“U.S.-U.K. relations share a mutual respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms,” the post read. “However, as Vice President Vance has said, we are concerned about freedom of expression in the United Kingdom.”

Tossici-Bolt said in a statement that she is “grateful” the State Department is interested in her case, adding that “Great Britain is supposed to be a free country, yet I’ve been dragged through court merely for offering consensual conversation.”

Her statement was sent out by Alliance Defending Freedom International, which is representing her in court.

“Peaceful expression is a fundamental right — no one should be criminalized for harmless offers to converse,” she added. “It is tragic to see that the increase of censorship in this country has made the U.S. feel it has to remind us of our shared values and basic civil liberties.”

Tossici-Bolt expressed gratitude to President Donald Trump’s administration “for prioritizing the preservation and promotion of freedom of expression and for engaging in robust diplomacy to that end.”

“It deeply saddens me that the U.K. is seen as an international embarrassment when it comes to free speech,” she continued. “My case, involving only a mere invitation to speak, is but one example of the extreme and undeniable state of censorship in Great Britain today. It is important that the government actually does respect freedom of expression, as it claims to.”

“Today we run the risk that our organizations, so dependent on the welfare state ... could be easily confused with a very bureaucratic NGO [nongovernmental organization],” said Archbishop Luis Argüello, president of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference. / Credit: Spanish Bishops’ Conference

Madrid, Spain, Apr 1, 2025 / 17:24 pm (CNA).

The president of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference (CEE, by its Spanish acronym), Archbishop Luis Argüello, opened the conference’s 127th plenary assembly this week with a deep analysis of Spain’s growing secularization, noting that the time has ended when one could say “I am Catholic because I was born in Spain.”

“The time has passed, settled for centuries, when we said: I’m Catholic because I was born in Spain,” Argüello said, noting that the Church can no longer take for granted that people are converted or initiated in the Catholic faith in today’s society.

During his talk, the archbishop of Valladolid noted the worrying situation that while there are 23,000 baptismal fonts distributed over the country’s 22,921 parishes, many of them “have no water” due to lack of Christian community that can “help the Holy Spirit engender new Christians” and in more populated areas there is “a very weak awareness of the responsibility entailed in having a baptismal font.”

This panorama represents a “large, quantitative and qualitative challenge” that requires discernment, especially considering that in numerous rural parishes it is no longer possible to celebrate the Sunday Eucharist, while in large cities there is a remarkable contrast of schedules and celebrations according to the neighborhoods.

The difficulty of ‘transforming emotion into virtue’

Given the situation, the archbishop of Valladolid added that “it has never been possible to be a Christian alone” and therefore the task of promoting communities “where living the integral formation of the heart” becomes especially important.

In this regard, he emphasized the role of various retreat movements and apostolates such as Emmaus, Ephphatha, Bartimaeus, the Conjugal Love Project, Life in the Spirit, Hakuna, etc. that “make an impact along with the invitation to continue” in the Christian life but that are faced with the difficulty of “transforming an emotional experience into virtue, of finding specific ways to grow that go beyond recreating the the initial impact.” 

Regarding the social and charitable work of Catholic organizations, Argüello warned that “today we run the risk that our organizations, so dependent on the welfare state, its rules, and subsidies for the third sector [nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and nonprofits], might offer in a weak way the novelty of Christian love and could be easily confused with a very bureaucratic NGO.”

“The same thing could happen to us in our educational or communications endeavors,” he added.

A farewell to the apostolic nuncio

At the beginning of his address, Argüello offered words of recognition to Archbishop Bernardito Auza, the outgoing nuncio, thanking him for “the work he has done during these five years in Spain,” emphasizing that “many of us here have received, through his mediation, the episcopal commission that the Holy Father has bestowed upon us.”

These words, along with the expression of best wishes in his new role as nuncio to the European Union, drew the only applause during Argüello’s talk.

Auza expressed his gratitude for the farewell remarks and said during his address that he has shared “the joys and sorrows of Spanish society and the Church” and that, over the course of five and a half years, “with the desire to always know and serve you, in the name of the Holy Father, I have strived to do my best wherever I have been called.” 

Regarding his time in the various Spanish dioceses, “from Covadonga to Granada,” he emphasized that the brotherhoods and confraternities remind him “how Andalusian the Church in the Philippines is, especially during Holy Week.”

Protest over the resignification of the Valley of the Fallen

During Monday’s assembly, a group of about 50 people gathered outside CEE headquarters in Madrid, protesting that the conference is collaborating with plans to “resignify” the Valley of the Fallen, a monumental war memorial built as a final resting place for combatants from both sides of the Spanish Civil War.

The memorial was commissioned by Francisco Franco, Spain’s longtime head of state and leader of the winning Nationalist side in the bloody conflict with leftist Republican forces.

The leftist governing coalition in Spain considers the memorial a monument to Franco and his dictatorship.

The controversy over the monument is colored by the fact that Franco supported the Catholic Church, which was caught in the middle and was severely persecuted by elements of the Republican side.

Some of those present outside CEE headquarters carried banners with the slogan “Cobo Judas,” referring to the archbishop of Madrid, Cardinal José Cobo, who is involved in the resignification process.

Near CEE headquarters, a wall was tagged with graffiti with slogans such as “CEE traitors,” “The valley is not to be touched,” “Bishops, you sell Christ for 30 [pieces of silver],” and “Betrayal of the martyrs.”

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

U.S. Vice President JD Vance waves to the crowd at the 2025 National Catholic Prayer Breakfast. / Credit: EWTN News/Screenshot

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 1, 2025 / 16:49 pm (CNA).

U.S. Vice President JD Vance intends to visit Rome during Easter weekend, although the planned trip has not yet been finalized, according to Bloomberg News.

Bloomberg reported Tuesday that the vice president plans to arrive in Rome on Good Friday, April 18, and depart from the city on Easter Sunday, April 20. The news outlet stated that it had viewed correspondence confirming the intended visit but that an official informed them the plans could change.

According to the article, diplomats for the United States sought to coordinate a meeting between Vance and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, but no meeting had been scheduled by the time of publication.

It’s unclear whether the potential visit is intended to correspond with Easter weekend or whether that is coincidental. It’s also not known whether Vance, who is a convert to Catholicism, plans to visit the Holy See or other holy sites in the area if the three-day trip takes place.

Vance last traveled to Europe in mid-February to address the Munich Security Conference in Germany. 

During his previous visit to the region, the vice president chastised leaders of the continent’s countries for policies that permit mass migration waves as well as laws that restrict free speech and religious freedom.

Vance was critical of arrests in the United Kingdom for silent prayer near abortion clinics and the Scottish “safe access zones” law that bans religious preaching within 200 meters (about 650 feet) of an abortion clinic.

The vice president subsequently faced public criticism from numerous European politicians but received a more favorable response from Meloni, who last week told the Financial Times that the criticism was directed at Europe’s “ruling class” and not its people.

“I have to say I agree [with Vance],” Meloni said, according to the article. “I’ve been saying this for years ... Europe has a bit lost itself.”

Vance’s prospective visit to Europe would come shortly after President Donald Trump’s new tariffs will go into effect against the European Union, of which Italy is a member. Trump imposed tariffs on products from Europe and other parts of the world in March, but more tariffs are set to go into effect on April 2.

President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said this week that she has a “strong plan to retaliate” against the U.S. tariffs if it becomes necessary.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt speaks to attendees at the 2022 Student Action Summit at the Tampa Convention Center in Tampa, Florida. / Credit: Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

CNA Staff, Apr 1, 2025 / 15:34 pm (CNA).

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt this week signed an executive order instructing state officials to ensure Oklahoma’s laws are “the most robust” in the nation at protecting religious freedom, with the governor also criticizing the state attorney general for attempting to block a proposed Catholic charter school there.

The order, announced on Monday, initiates a review of various state laws and policies to ensure they comply with religious freedom protections enshrined in both the U.S. Constitution and the Oklahoma Constitution.

The directive explicitly targets several state laws, including one requiring charter schools to be “nonsectarian” in their operations.

The order comes just weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court began considering a proposed Oklahoma school that could be the nation’s first publicly-funded religious charter school. 

Oklahoma’s St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School was approved by the state charter school board to open in 2023, but state Attorney General Gentner Drummond filed a lawsuit against the charter school board, arguing the charter school’s existence would constitute state support of a religion.

The ongoing litigation has since reached the U.S. Supreme Court, where the landmark decision could reshape school choice and religious freedom in the U.S.

Drummond criticized the governor’s religious freedom order this week, citing concerns that taxpayers could be forced to support other religious institutions. 

“Gov. Stitt has been clear that he supports our tax dollars funding radical Muslim schools teaching sharia law, and I couldn’t disagree with him more,” Drummond said in a March 31 statement. 

“If a taxpayer-funded religious charter school is allowed to open in Oklahoma, it will only be a matter of time before taxpayers are funding schools dedicated to sharia law, Wicca indoctrination, scientology instruction — even the Church of Satan,” he alleged. 

“As a devoted Christian and a strong supporter of religious liberty, I can tell you that the only way to protect religious liberty is for the state not to sponsor any religion at all — just like our Founding Fathers intended,” Drummond continued.

Stitt in his executive order explicitly criticized what he calls Drummond’s “apparent hostility to religious liberty.”

“By filing lawsuits seeking to prevent the nation’s first religious charter school [from] opening its doors, Oklahoma’s attorney general has fought against Oklahomans’ religious liberty with a zeal and aggressiveness that suggests animosity towards religion and religious liberty,” Stitt wrote.

Stitt’s executive order further requires that state officials not restrict access to public programs on the basis of a person’s or entity’s religious nature.

The executive order instructs “that no individual or entity shall be excluded from participation in, or denied access to, any public benefit, program, or funding solely on the basis of their religious character or affiliation or intended religious use of such benefits.”

“Religious freedom is foundational to our way of life in Oklahoma,” Stitt said this week. “It’s not a privilege handed out by the government — it’s a God-given right that the government must protect.”

“We will not stand by while faith-based organizations — including faith-based schools — are pushed to the sidelines by activist bureaucrats or hostile politicians,” he said.

An EF2 tornado in the early hours of March 31, 2025, in Grand Prairie, Louisiana, tore off the roof of the St. Peter Parish catechism building. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Debbie LaFleur

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 1, 2025 / 15:01 pm (CNA).

A Louisiana parish suffered major damage to its property after a tornado passed through during the early hours of Monday morning.

Debbie LaFleur, secretary of St. Peter Catholic Church in Grand Prairie, Louisiana, told CNA the roof of the parish catechism building was torn off and that several fallen tree limbs fell onto the rectory, causing the above-ground structure to shift on its pillars. The rectory and catechism building were built in 1950 and 1970, respectively. 

The catwalk between the rectory and the church, a carport, and the awning over a handicap ramp will all need to be replaced, LaFleur said. She also noted that several of the parish’s “very old” oak trees had been damaged or fallen down and that several headstones in its cemetery had been knocked down as well.

The only building that did not suffer any damage on account of the category EF2 tornado was the church itself. 

“The church was not touched,” LaFleur stated. “Father Jude [Halphen] says that our saints, our relics, helped protect us.” 

St. Peter’s church houses numerous relics, including those of Blessed Carlos Acutis, St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. Acutis is set to be canonized at the end of this month. 

Originally built in 1950, the church was renovated last year. Among repairs, the parish brought in a new altar from Belgium. The parish is also currently working to put up altar rails, which LaFleur said came from a now-shuttered church in Harlem. 

“Pray for us that we can rebuild and get through this with little stress,” LaFleur said.

“Our parishioners are great parishioners,” she added. “They came out and they cleaned up the mess, so that by 4 o’clock [Monday] afternoon, it was clean.” 

The parish is currently waiting on structural engineers to assess the full damage to the property and the potential cost for needed repairs.

The “Caravaggio 2025” exhibition revives the legend of the baroque genius in Rome. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/ EWTN News

Vatican City, Apr 1, 2025 / 13:12 pm (CNA).

The adventures of Michelangelo Merisi (1571–1610), known as Caravaggio, were linked to the religious context in Rome from his earliest days as a painter.

The Ordinary Jubilee of 1600, under the papacy of Clement VIII, was a brilliant boost to his career.

That year, he received his first public commission for the Contarelli Chapel in the church of San Luigi dei Francesi (St. Louis of the French in Rome), where he painted the famous series on St. Matthew: “The Calling of St. Matthew,” “St. Matthew and the Angel,” and “The Martyrdom of St. Matthew.”

“It was a pivotal moment for Caravaggio. From that commission onward, his success grew exponentially, and his style began to influence an entire generation of artists,” Thomas Clement Salomon told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner.

Clement Salomon is one of the three curators of the Caravaggio 2025 exhibition, organized by the Palazzo Barberini, of which he is director, and the National Galleries of Classical Art.

The extraordinary retrospective exhibit, which runs until July 6, will feature 24 of Caravaggio’s works, including two previously unseen paintings, “Portrait of Maffeo Barberini” and “Ecce Homo” — which was exhibited at the Prado Museum in Madrid and discovered only a few years ago — and is in a sense a kind of homage to the holy year.

“The jubilee is a special moment for Rome, and Caravaggio is an artist who has a very strong connection with the city,” Clement Salomon explained.

In fact, the exhibition also represents a symbolic return for the artist to the city that shaped his destiny. “Although he was born in Milan, Rome was his true home. Here he achieved success, here he had his most important patrons, and here he left an indelible mark,” the director emphasized.

The exhibition is divided into four sections covering Caravaggio’s entire artistic life, spanning approximately 15 years, from his arrival in Rome around 1595, through Naples, Sicily, and Malta, until his return to Rome and death in Porto Ercole in 1610.

Conceived as part of the cultural events of the Jubilee of Hope, the exhibition is also a unique opportunity to appreciate Caravaggio’s predilection for reality, which made him one of the Catholic Church’s favorites for depicting biblical events.

“He was the first painter to paint things as they are, not beauty. He rejected Renaissance idealism and chose to paint real models: friends, lovers, common people,” the curator explained.

This extreme realism, however, was not without controversy. On several occasions, his works were rejected by patrons or the Catholic Church itself for their crudeness. “When he painted ‘The Death of the Virgin’ for Santa Maria della Scala church, they refused to accept it because, it was said, he had used a deceased prostitute as a model,” the director related.

In any case, the religious genre takes on a special intensity in his work. A stroll through the Church of San Luigi dei Francesi (St. Louis of the French in Rome) and a pause in front of the three canvases of St. Matthew painted by the artist is enough to understand the mystery of the Christian faith.

“He is an artist who, through his painting, allows us to enter the scene he depicts. He is a bridge between sacred history and the viewer. His way of illuminating Gospel episodes allows us to experience them intensely,” the expert noted. An example of this is the work “St. Francis in Ecstasy,” the first example of the artist’s religious work in Rome.

The works created specifically for this church and those of Santa Maria del Popolo church are not part of the exhibition. “We haven’t asked for loans from the churches because that would distort their purpose,” explained Clement Salomon, who added that, in any case, there is a guide within the exhibition that shows pilgrims the ideal itinerary to discover the profound spirituality of Caravaggio’s works.

Caravaggio’s turbulent personal life has contributed to his image as a tormented artist. Impulsive in nature, he was involved in numerous disputes, the most serious of which was the murder of Ranuccio Tomassoni in 1606, which forced him to flee Rome. “After that episode, his painting changed. It became darker, more introspective, as if his own personal torment were reflected in his works,” Clement Salomon explained.

An example is “The Capture of Christ,” on loan for the Caravaggio 2025 exhibition from the National Gallery in Dublin. “It’s a stunning painting. You feel as if you’re inside the scene, watching Judas betray Jesus. Caravaggio even paints a self-portrait in the work, depicting himself illuminating the scene with a lantern. It’s a testament to his narrative genius,” Clement Salomon commented.

Although Caravaggio spent most of his life in Rome, his works are now scattered all over the world, from New York to London. Thus getting galleries to loan paintings for the current exhibition has been a challenge.

“Getting a Caravaggio is like getting someone extradited,” Clement Salomon joked. “Each painting is worth hundreds of millions of euros, and they are the jewels of the collections that house them. Museums don’t want to part with them, even temporarily.”

Despite these difficulties, the exhibition features works from important institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Detroit Museum, the Kansas City Museum, and private collections that rarely allow access to their works.

“It’s a unique opportunity to see these paintings together and make unprecedented comparisons,” the curator noted.

New discoveries and scientific debate

Another objective of Caravaggio 2025 is to update knowledge about the artist.

“The dating of his paintings remains a matter of debate,” Clement Salomon explained. “For example, ‘Ecce Homo,’ which was believed to have been painted in Rome, could have been done during his Neapolitan period. The exhibition will allow us to analyze his style and technique in detail.”

The painting, discovered in Madrid, was actually painted in Naples (1606–1609), and in the exhibition it has been placed alongside one of Caravaggio’s masterpieces, “The Scourging.”

Another recent discovery is the “Portrait of Maffeo Barberini,” the future Pope Urban VIII, which is being exhibited to the public for the first time.

“It’s an indisputable masterpiece, but we’ve also included another portrait attributed to Caravaggio that continues to generate controversy among experts. We want the exhibition to serve as a forum for scientific discussion,” the expert said.

In addition, Caravaggio 2025 features other exceptional works such as “The Conversion of Saint Paul,”an earlier version of the famous Santa Maria del Popolo painting, which comes from the Odescalchi collection.

“It’s a unique opportunity to see this masterpiece, which is not normally accessible to the public,” Clement Salomon said.

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

Pope Francis prays during his Wednesday general audience on Feb. 5, 2025, in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media

CNA Staff, Apr 1, 2025 / 12:12 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis’ prayer intention for the month of April is for the use of new technologies. 

“How I would like for us to look less at screens and look each other in the eyes more,” the pope said in a prerecorded video released April 1. “Something’s wrong if we spend more time on our cellphones than with people. The screen makes us forget that there are real people behind it who breathe, laugh, and cry.”

He added: “It’s true, technology is the fruit of the intelligence God gave us. But we need to use it well. It can’t benefit only a few while excluding others.”

Pope Francis encouraged the faithful to “use technology to unite, not to divide. To help the poor. To improve the lives of the sick and persons with different abilities. Use technology to care for our common home. To connect as brothers and sisters.”

“It’s when we look at each other in the eyes that we discover what really matters: that we are brothers, sisters, children of the same Father,” he said.

He concluded with a prayer: “Let us pray that the use of the new technologies will not replace human relationships, will respect the dignity of the person, and will help us face the crises of our times.”

Pope Francis’ prayer video is promoted by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, which raises awareness of monthly papal prayer intentions.