World Religions News

(RNS) — As she prepared to meet with a woman whose husband had been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Minneapolis, Rhonda Miska, a communications director at the Church of St. Timothy in Blaine, Minnesota, portrayed it as a public safety intervention in the crisis ICE agents have brought to her city.

“I feel like I get to be like part of the SWAT team that’s just on the ground, available,” said Miska, who as spent more than two decades in Hispanic ministry.

She described a community afraid to leave their homes, go to work and attend school. “There is a lot of fear, there’s a lot of sadness,” said Miska. Besides the risk of being arrested, she said, the immigrants she ministers to despair at being depicted as criminals or rapists. “If people just tell you over and over that you’re terrible and treat you like you’re terrible, it kind of starts to mess with your mind,” she said.

Miska is one of many Minnesota Catholic women who are leading resistance efforts in the Twin Cities area as federal immigration agents have engaged in a large-scale operation that has left the community frightened and indignant after the fatal shootings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti in January.

Catholic leaders in Minnesota and nationally have issued statements calling for prayer, peace and respect for human dignity, with the Minnesota Catholic Conference of bishops saying that immigrants have been “treated as political pawns,” and even Bishop Robert Barron, a Minnesota bishop who serves on President Trump’s Religious Freedom Task Force, calling on the administration to focus on “serious” criminals.

But for many lay Catholics, those responses have felt distant from the reality they are seeing in their neighborhoods. They have begun to stand up for immigrant rights in demonstrations and direct support for the families of those detained.

“I honestly think it’s easier for those of us on the ground as lay people to be prophetic,” Miska said, adding that laypeople are free to take more risks unbound by the responsibility of managing an institution. “There’s a level of flexibility and availability that I have,” she said.

When local Catholics gathered on Jan. 26 at the Basilica of St. Mary, just west of downtown Minneapolis, to organize their response to immigration enforcement operations, several in the crowd lamented what they described as a lack of public opposition by the church’s hierarchy. “The sheep are leading the shepherds,” said Patty Santos, a Spanish-language translator deeply embedded in the Latino communities, at the meeting.

Anne Attea, a pastoral associate for 16 years at majority-Latino Church of the Ascension, in the North Minneapolis neighborhood, said it has been “disappointing” for her to see priests keep quiet about the situation in their parishes. “Our Catholic priests are not out here, and they’re not preaching the reality from the pulpit,” she said.

Since federal immigration officers started Operation Metro Surge, attendance at Ascension dropped precipitously, and only 80 people showed up for the Dec. 12 Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a key celebration for Latino Catholics, down from the usual 400. Only a few dozen gather for the Spanish Mass at the church that is normally so packed that many have to stand.

To help people in the community, Attea and her parish have organized food distribution for families that can’t get out to shop for groceries or can’t afford them due to lost work. The program has helped nearly 300 immigrant families in only three weeks. “One of the biggest things that folks will say is they would love visits, because there’s no interaction with the outside world,” she said, adding that some have not left their home since December.

If the people could not come to church, Attea decided she would bring the church to them. On Feb. 2, the feast of Candlemas, Attea joined 100 others in singing and praying the rosary outside an apartment complex where immigrants had been detained and deported and many more were barricaded inside in fear.

Attea said that as the singing began, most of the windows were closed, with curtains drawn tight. As it continued, people came to their windows, some holding candles. “I have found the singing resistance to be very, very powerful, because it’s about focus. This is what we’re doing. We’re praying and we’re singing,” she said.

Attea witnessed the power of prayer in the experience of a woman who had been detained in Minneapolis and sent to a detention center in Iowa. Attea said the woman, whose name she declined to share, responded to her situation by organizing prayer groups, teaching the rosary and sustaining others. “She said, ‘I feel like that’s what God did, took me to a place where people really needed me,’” said Attea, who had brought the woman back to Minneapolis after her release.

Finding peaceful, non-violent ways to protest the operations of immigration officers has been a goal for Jane Leyden Cavanaugh, a parishioner at St. Joan of Arc Church in Uptown Minneapolis. Cavanaugh has attended numerous protests against ICE enforcement since November, including a Jan. 30 rally in front of the Whipple Federal Building, where ICE’s local offices are housed.

Cavanaugh pointed to the numbers of Catholic women involved, despite women’s traditional lack of formal leadership roles in the church. “In my world, I see women as the agents. I see them as the protagonists. They are essential to this movement,” she said.

Cavanaugh, Attea and Miska are all members of Discerning Deacons, a Catholic network of women who believe they are called to the diaconate and their supporters. The Catholic Church only permits men to be ordained as deacons, who are allowed to preach during Mass, lead funeral services and perform baptisms, but can’t say Mass, hear confessions or anoint the sick.

Last October Discerning Deacons brought almost 100 Latino immigrants to the Vatican to meet Pope Leo XIV and make an appeal for migrant rights. “I think we’re doing good diaconal work without paperwork,” Cavanaugh said.

Pope Francis created two commissions to study the question of the female diaconate, which was also among the main issues raised in his worldwide consultation of Catholics called “Synod on Synodality.” The second commission voted against ordaining female deacons in December, while calling for more study and discernment.

“Catholic women are stepping up as leaders,” said Lisa Amman, a founding staff member of Discerning Deacons and an active parishioner in St. Thomas More Church, in St. Paul.

“We cannot wait to be ordained to respond to the diaconal call on our hearts.”

ROME (AP) — The Vatican has given the green light, again, to beatify Archbishop Fulton Sheen, the popular U.S. radio and TV preacher whose path to sainthood was derailed first by a lengthy court battle over his remains and then by concerns about how he handled clergy sexual misconduct cases.

After a rare six-year delay to investigate the concerns, Sheen’s beatification can now take place in Peoria, Ill., as originally planned, the Peoria diocese announced Monday.

No new date for the ceremony, the last major step before possible sainthood, was immediately announced. But the Vatican’s approval now sets the stage for the Illinois-born Sheen to be beatified during the pontificate of the Illinois-born Pope Leo XIV.

“The Holy See has informed me that the cause for the Venerable Servant of God Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen can proceed to beatification,” Peoria Bishop Louis Tylka said in a written and video statement on the websites of the diocese and the Sheen foundation. “We are working with the Dicastery of the Causes of Saints at the Vatican to determine the details for the upcoming beatification.”

Sheen was an enormously effective evangelizer in the 20th century U.S. church, who in some ways pioneered televangelism with his 1950s television series, “Life is Worth Living.” According to Catholic University of America, where he studied and taught before he was made a bishop, Sheen won an Emmy Award, was featured on the cover of Time Magazine “and became one of the most influential Catholics of the 20th century.”

Pope Francis had confirmed a miracle attributed to Sheen’s intercession on July 6, 2019 and had set his beatification for Dec. 21 that year in Peoria. But with less than three weeks’ notice, the Vatican postponed the ceremony indefinitely.

It acted after the diocese of Rochester, N.Y., where Sheen served as bishop from 1966-1969, asked for further investigation into Sheen’s tenure and “his role in priests’ assignments.”

The concerns focused on Sheen’s handling of two cases of priests accused of sexual misconduct. Sheen was never accused of abuse himself. A top canonical affairs official from Peoria, Monsignor James Kruse, said in 2019 that an investigation had cleared Sheen of any wrongdoing. Kruse later complained that the Rochester diocese was “sabotaging” the cause, writing a lengthy essay that had been posted on the official Sheen beatification site but later taken down.

Peoria Bishop Tylka’s statement made no reference to the concerns that prompted the delay in 2019.

The 2019 investigation was the latest obstacle to hinder Sheen’s cause, coming after an expensive, years-long legal battle between Sheen’s relatives in Peoria and the New York City archdiocese over his final resting place.

Sheen, who died in 1979, was interred under the altar of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York. His remains were returned to Peoria in 2019 after a court ruled Sheen’s niece could bury him there.

Among those celebrating the Vatican’s new green light to beatify Sheen was The Pontifical Missions Societies in the U.S., the Vatican’s main missionary fundraising office in the U.S., which Sheen headed from 1950-1966. Sheen left most of his patrimony, including writings and audio recordings, to the organization, which raises money for the Catholic Church in Africa, Asia, Latin America and other mission areas.

“It is profoundly moving that, in God’s providence, the first U.S.–born pope is able to advance the cause of his fellow Illinois native, the most iconic evangelizer ever produced by the American Church,” Monsignor Roger Landry, national director of the office, said in a statement.

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

MILAN (AP) — Tourists to Milan during the Winter Olympics hoping to see Leonardo da Vinci’s “ The Last Supper” were in for an unwelcome surprise: Access to the masterpiece is closed to the public for 3 1/2 days.

The painting, created between 1494 and 1498 by the Italian Renaissance artist, is located on a wall inside the refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie, a church and Dominican convent still used by friars. It is a major attraction for appreciators of art and devout Catholics alike.

Tourists stuck at the police cordon down the street leading to Santa Maria delle Grazie were disappointed. Antonio Rodríguez, who traveled from Spain with friends, said they would have no other chance to see the painting nor the adjacent church since they only traveled for the weekend.

“We didn’t know we would face this,” said Rodríguez, adding he had no plans to attend events related to the Games. “We would have gone somewhere else in the city.”

A sign on the wall outside Il Cenacolo Vinciano stated that access to the landmark would be closed all day on Feb. 5, 6 and 7, and the morning of Feb. 8, without giving any reason. Staff there told a reporter from The Associated Press they were not authorized to provide any information.

VIPs still allowed in on Saturday

Unbeknownst to frustrated visitors, multiple groups of VIPs were exempt from the restrictions on Saturday.

Among them were U.S. Vice President JD Vance and his family, according to a statement from the vice president’s office. They visited the morning after he met Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and attended the Games’ opening ceremony.

Vance converted to Catholicism in 2019, which he has said brought him a sense of spiritual fulfillment. He visited Rome and Vatican City during Holy Week last year, and was among the last world leaders to meet Pope Francis before his passing. They sat down together on Easter Sunday after a long-distance tangle over the Trump administration’s migrant deportation plans.

In addition to Vance, many foreign delegations have visited The Last Supper and the Brera Art Gallery in recent days, including those of China, Poland, Hungary and Bulgaria, Angelo Crespi, the director of Grande Brera that oversees both institutions, said in a statement.

“We interpret our role responsibly, not only in terms of tourism but also in terms of international relations,” he said.

Traffic in the area surrounding the religious site on Saturday was diverted. People walking along nearby streets said public transportation was disrupted, as well.

“The trams were changed without any notice,” said Fedeli Gioia. “This whole area is blocked because someone is going to see Il Cenacolo? And where does that leave us citizens?”

A painting that — with care and luck — has survived for centuries

The Last Supper — described by renowned writer Giorgio Vasari as “a beautiful and marvelous thing” in his writings — is preserved under strict conservation conditions.

Instead of creating a fresco that would have allowed the paint to be absorbed by plaster, Leonardo used a dry technique that made it much more vulnerable to deterioration. Environmental damage and repeated restoration attempts altered its appearance and prompted ongoing conservation efforts.

Nowadays, visits last about 15 minutes for a maximum number of 40 people at a time and temperature and humidity are strictly controlled.

Leonardo’s painting depicts the moment after Jesus tells his apostles: “One of you will betray me.” The scene’s composition has had other interpretations by previous artists, but Leonardo reinterpreted it, placing Jesus at the center and arranging the apostles in four groups of three figures.

Aside from conservation issues derived from the dry technique used by Leonardo, the mural suffered deterioration when the refectory housing it was used as a stable in the late 1700s during the French occupation of Milan by Napoleon’s troops. Later, it was severely damaged when Allied bombing struck the Santa Maria delle Grazie complex in 1943 during World War II.

It made a controversial appearance, of sorts, in the Paris Olympics in 2024. A scene in the opening ceremony evoked the painting, and included DJ Barbara Butch — an LGBTQ+ icon — wearing a silver headdress resembling a halo while flanked by drag artists and dancers.

France’s Catholic bishops said it mocked Christian symbolism, and the Vatican said it “deplored the offense” caused to Christians by the scene.

Tourists watch from afar

A group of Japanese tourists was among the would-be visitors behind the police cordon on Saturday. They photographed the church from a distance and listened to a guide’s explanation in the middle of the street.

Luisa Castro, a Filipina who has lived in Milan for 20 years, was hoping to visit Santa Maria delle Grazie with friends.

“We are Catholics from the Philippines and we seldom have time to visit a church like this,” she said. “Unfortunately, the vice president of America came to see the Last Supper and we could not enter.”

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Associated Press writers Colleen Barry and Michelle Price in Milan contributed to this report.

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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

A district attorney has turned over to a special prosecutor the criminal cases accusing members of a secretive North Carolina religious group of holding down and beating a one-time member 13 years ago.

The victim asked a judge to kick District Attorney Ted Bell off the case just days before a retrial — that had been delayed for more than eight years — was about to start in December. Matthew Fenner said Bell sided with the Word of Faith Fellowship. Dozens of former congregants have said the church abused them.

But Superior Court Judge William T. Stetzer sided with an independent investigator who concluded the delays were a combination of a backlog of cases that grew when COVID-19 shut down the courts and attorneys from both sides quitting or having health problems.

Initial case ended in mistrial in 2017

A leader of Word of Faith, Brooke Covington, was first tried in 2017 on second-degree kidnapping and simple assault charges. That case ended in a mistrial after the jury foreman brought his own research into deliberations. Covington has maintained she is innocent.

Fenner joined Word of Faith as a teenager in 2010 with his mother. He was at a service on the church’s compound in Spindale, North Carolina, when members including Covington started what the church called a “blasting” session on him, according to Fenner. Members held him down and choked and beat him for two hours while others prayed to expel “homosexual demons,” Fenner said.

Word of Faith is a nondenominational Protestant church that was founded in 1979 by Sam and Jane Whaley in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains between Charlotte and Asheville. Members consider Jane Whaley a prophet.

In 2017, The Associated Press published a series of stories about Word of Faith that detailed former church members’ allegations of abuse. The AP spoke to dozens of former congregants around the world, listened to hours of secretly recorded conversations with church leaders, and reviewed hundreds of pages of law enforcement, court and child welfare documents.

Independent investigator found no special treatment

The independent investigator said he could find no proof of special treatment between Bell and the church. Bell provided a text message in which Whaley asked to talk to the Republican district attorney about Covington’s case and he refused. Bell also said he immediately ended a meeting with a church leader and Republican Party leader about what he was told would be a “personal matter” when he realized it was about the Covington case.

“I am grateful that the truth has triumphed over false statements and innuendo, and that this frivolous petition has been thrown out,” Bell said in a statement.

Bell said Fenner is one of only two victims to whom he has ever given his personal cellphone number.

Covington’s trial was delayed for the investigation and there is no indication of when it may be rescheduled. On Jan. 22, the district attorney requested a special prosecutor to take over the case because of Fenner’s efforts to kick him off the case, saying any prosecutor seeking to try Covington would need to consider whether to tell the defense about potential discrepancies in Fenner’s statements about what happened.

Victim said prosecutor seemed less interested in case as trial approached

Fenner said Bell suddenly appeared less interested in the case as the 2025 trial date approached, not investigating potential new evidence or witnesses.

Bell offered Covington a plea deal to a misdemeanor charge that would drop the felony kidnapping charge, Court records indicate Fenner initially supported the decision, but Bell had to withdraw the offer after Fenner sent him an email saying that was not the desired outcome and that the investigation was tainted.

Fenner wanted Bell and other witnesses to testify in a public hearing that could have revealed more problems with the district attorney’s handling of the case, lawyer Andrew LaBreche said.

It isn’t clear when the case can move forward.

“Matthew Fenner respects the rule of law, accepts the Court’s ruling, and remains committed to the principle that victims deserve not only process, but prompt and meaningful justice,” LaBreche said in a statement.

Associated Press covered Word of Faith extensively

Word of Faith had about 700 members in North Carolina a decade ago, but a sworn statement from a former church leader said membership now had dwindled to about 300 to 400 people.

The AP reported that the church controlled almost every aspect of their members’ lives including who they married, what subjects they studied in school and whether they could go to college. Members were regularly slapped, choked and thrown to the floor during high-decibel group prayer.

The AP investigation also found that the church and its hundreds of followers controlled law enforcement and social services, preventing fair investigations.

Whaley has denied that she or other church leaders ever abused Word of Faith members. She has also said that any discipline would be protected by the Constitution’s freedom of religion tenet.

The church said the allegations made to the AP were false and made by “certain former members” out to target the church and that it does not condone abuse.