World Religions News

Cardinal William Goh speaks to EWTN News Vice President Matthew Bunson in Rome on Monday, April 19, 2025. / Credit: EWTN News

Vatican City, May 20, 2025 / 11:20 am (CNA).

Singapore’s Cardinal William Goh believes Pope Leo XIV will build a greater unity within the Church, particularly for Catholic faithful often divided on matters of Church doctrine and morality.

Calling the new pontiff a “gift of God” in an interview with EWTN News Vice President Matthew Bunson, Goh said the Holy Father is the “right person” to lead the Church toward synodality and explain the balance between “orthodoxy and being progressive.”

“Being traditional is not wrong [and] going back to the orthodoxy of the Church is not wrong,” he said. “But, at the same time, we are not just asking our Church to be too legalistic about our moral doctrines in terms of practice.”

Describing the new pontiff as an active listener who is “very attentive to the concerns and sharings of the cardinals,” Goh said the Holy Father’s desire for unity is evident in both his words and actions since his May 8 election.

“I believe that, so far, based on his speeches, he is putting into practice the call to synodality,” he said. “In his meeting with the cardinals, he spoke to us in a very personal way.”

“I believe that there will be greater collaboration and greater dialogue so that we can truly bring about a greater unity in the Church,” he added.

Reflecting on issues that were “dividing the Church” during Pope Francis’ pontificate such as “ambiguity” in some teachings outlined in Amoris Laetitia and the synodal process, the Asian cardinal said he hopes Pope Leo XIV will bring clarity, and less confusion, to discussions on Catholic teaching. 

“I keep on emphasizing that we cannot talk about synodality without unity in doctrines, without unity in faith,” he told Bunson. 

“Unity that is built on superficial love can never be real unity,” he continued. “Unity must be founded on truth that is expressed in charity.”

With the continual growth of the Church in both Asia and Africa, Goh said many Catholic faithful are converts who do not want to compromise their newfound religion.    

“We are people who have strong faith in the Lord and we want to walk in the way of the Gospel,” Singapore’s first and so far only cardinal said in the interview. “In fact, we gave up the old faith in order to exchange it for the true faith.”

“We want to walk the way of the truth and follow the Gospel and what the Church taught us,” he stressed. “That is what is guiding us and our people in Asia.”

In addition to the Holy Father’s ability to be a good listener, Goh noted the pope’s ability to speak several languages has been an advantage for those wanting to discuss with him the pastoral challenges the Church faces in different parts of the world before and after the recent conclave.

“The good thing about Pope Leo is that he speaks English because very often many of the Asian cardinals don’t speak Italian so well,” he said. “So we want to communicate and to share our views with the Holy Father but it’s a bit difficult because of the language.”   

“I think once you know English, Spanish, and Italian, you can cover at least two-thirds of the globe, right?” he said.

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Pope Leo XIV and St. Nicholas of Tolentine. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/EWTN News; Province of Our Mother of Good Counsel of the Augustinian Order

Lima Newsroom, May 20, 2025 / 09:21 am (CNA).

Perhaps many Catholics wonder who Pope Leo XIV’s favorite saint is. A Peruvian missionary priest who is a close friend and confidant of the pontiff said he knows the answer in this little-known devotion of the Holy Father, who used to pray to this saint on his knees in a small chapel near Chiclayo in northern Peru.

“St. Nicholas of Tolentine is, without a doubt, his favorite saint. He is the protector of his perpetual vows, his great devotion within Augustinian spirituality,” said Peruvian priest Father David Farfán Guerrero, whom the Holy Father met in 1985 in Chulucanas in the Piura district of the country.

Farfán, who has served as pastor of St. Turibius of Mogrovejo Parish for about 10 years, welcomed ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, to San Nicolás, a small settlement located outside of Chiclayo, specifically to the humble chapel dedicated to St. Nicholas of Tolentine, considered the first saint of the Order of St. Augustine and who lived in the 13th century.

“This place is very special in the life of His Holiness because this is where, as I often say, ‘he put his knees to the test.’ He had hardly arrived when he would go in and pray to the patron saint of his perpetual profession,” said the priest, a former missionary in Canada and the Philippines.

The then-Friar Robert Prevost — now Pope Leo XIV — professed his solemn (or perpetual) vows with the Augustinians on Aug. 29, 1981, taking this Italian mystic as his patron saint. Years later, his brothers in the order appointed Prevost prior general during the 2001 ordinary general chapter and renewed their trust in him for a second term in 2007.

Adopting a saint when making vows — also called “patron” or “intercessor” — is a common custom in some religious orders. It consists of choosing a saint whose life serves as an example and spiritual aid to better live one’s devotion to God and fulfill one’s commitments.

According to Farfán, the then-Bishop Prevost, who served as bishop of the Diocese of Chiclayo from 2015 to 2023, “never imagined that, in Chiclayo, within the diocese, he would find a chapel and a village dedicated precisely to this saint.”

“When he arrived as bishop, he discovered its existence and then adopted the custom of asking for the key to the chapel, entering alone, and praying there before the image of the saint. Right here,” he recounted with emotion.

The connection with this chapel was further strengthened when Prevost was put in charge of the formation of the Augustinians in Trujillo.

“He used to have the novices make the pilgrimage on foot from the Guadalupe district to here [more than 30 miles], and then continue on to Pomalca and Tumán [about 25 miles], where there was also an Augustinian presence,” the priest said.

The image of St. Nicholas in the village of San Nicolás (a little over 1.25 miles from the town of Zaña) not only bears witness to centuries of faith but also represents a visible symbol of the devotion that has accompanied Pope Leo XIV since his beginnings as a friar.

History of the image

Discussing the image of St. Nicholas of Tolentine inside the chapel, Farfán explained that it is the oldest in the Zaña area. According to a restorer who worked on it, the priest explained, it is more than 450 years old, which directly links it to the arrival of the Augustinians in this region.

The history of the Augustinian presence in Zaña dates back to the 16th century, when St. Augustine Convent, one of the most important centers of devotion to St. Nicholas of Tolentine in northern Peru, was founded.

“This indicates that the Augustinians who arrived [to establish] St. Augustine Convent in Zaña brought it from Europe; the image already existed there; it was simply transferred. We don’t know who made it or the exact year it arrived, but since we know the date the convent was founded, we assume it came with the first friars who settled there,” he explained.

According to the chronicler Friar Antonio de la Calancha, through the intercession of St. Nicholas of Tolentine, represented by the statue in the chapel, numerous miracles were performed in the town of Zaña, attracting great popular devotion and generous alms for the Augustinian order.

Both an approachable and austere saint

St. Nicholas of Tolentine was a humble Augustinian friar who dedicated his life to comforting the sick, preaching by example, and praying for the souls in purgatory.

The Italian saint is considered the first saint of the Augustinian order. He was born around 1245 in Sant’Angelo in Pontano, Italy, but his name was forever linked to Tolentine, where he lived and served for 30 years. At a young age, he joined the Augustinian community in his town, where he began his journey as a novice and student. He was ordained a priest around 1273 and shortly afterward sent to Tolentine, a city that would become the center of his intense pastoral work.

According to the Order of St. Augustine, Nicholas was not known for his erudition or for writing great works but for something much more important: his closeness to the people, his profound life of prayer, and his total dedication to those most in need.

He traveled through the poor neighborhoods, comforted the sick and dying, heard confessions tirelessly, and always sought to alleviate suffering, both physical and spiritual. He lived austerely, but with a contagious joy. Shortly before his death, when asked why he seemed so happy, he calmly replied: “Because my God and Lord Jesus Christ, accompanied by His Holy Mother and my Holy Father Augustine, is saying to me: Come! Good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord.”

Throughout his life — and even after his death in 1305 — he was credited with numerous miracles. He is the patron saint of the souls in purgatory and protector against the plague, fires, and stuttering. His canonization was celebrated by Pope Eugene IV in 1446, on the solemnity of Pentecost, and for many, he remains a model of silent devotion, constant prayer, and boundless charity.

Pope Leo XIV’s profound devotion to St. Nicholas of Tolentine not only reveals his Augustinian roots but also the soul of a pastor who, like the 13th-century saint, consoles, prays, and walks humbly alongside his people.

Here is a prayer to St. Nicholas of Tolentine:

O glorious wonderworker and protector of the souls in purgatory, St. Nicholas of Tolentine! With all the affection of my soul, I beseech you to intervene with your powerful intercession on behalf of these blessed souls, obtaining from divine clemency the remission of all their crimes and punishments, so that, upon emerging from that dark prison of suffering, they may go to enjoy the beatific vision of God in heaven. And for me, your devoted servant, obtain, O great saint, the most lively compassion and the most ardent charity toward these beloved souls. Amen.

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

New book pulls no punches as it reveals the true victims of the sexual and cultural revolutions

SAN FRANCISCO — Was Christianity always the answer to the horrors brought about by the sexual revolution: millions of abortions, broken marriages, children without a mother and father? Nathanael Blake argues for the return of authentic love to our culture to heal the vast wounds of the sexual revolution in his new book, VICTIMS OF THE REVOLUTION: HOW SEXUAL LIBERATION HURTS US ALL (Ignatius Press).

Blake is a Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. He is a regular columnist for The Federalist, WORLD Opinions, and other popular publications. He received his doctorate from the Catholic University of America. He lives in Virginia with his wife and children.

The sexual revolution offered happiness and great sex — but Americans are increasingly lonely and unhappy, and they even report having less, and less satisfying, sex. Rather than providing fulfilling pleasure, sexual liberation has created a relational wasteland in which men and women are alienated from each other. But there is an answer, reveals Blake in VICTIMS OF THE REVOLUTION, and it lies in traditional Christian morals and values.

Ryan T. Anderson writes in the foreword to VICTIMS OF THE REVOLUTION that Blake has written a truly radical book, one that is fearless in confronting how deeply the pains of the sexual revolution go into the culture but also delivering sound solutions and answers: living out the Christian teachings on sexuality.

“Blake offers a compelling ‘apocalypse’ — that is, unveiling — of the sexual revolution’s false promises,” said Christopher West, Th.D., president of the Theology of the Body Institute. “But that so-called freedom has come at the price of having lost the only freedom that truly matters: the freedom to love. He demonstrates that true sexual freedom is not the liberty to indulge one’s compulsions but liberation from the compulsion to indulge. Only such a person is free to put his or her sexual powers at the service of self-giving love.”

For more information, to request a review copy, or to schedule an interview with Nathanael Blake, please contact Kevin Wandra (404-788-1276 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) of Carmel Communications.     

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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RNS or Religion News Foundation.

At their peak, religion and psychotherapy become one. – Marianne Williamson When we were both in graduate school, I asked a friend of mine to tell me about his religion....

The post Psychology or Religion—Which One Works for You? appeared first on BahaiTeachings.org.

As prior of the Augustinians (below, in a white shirt), in 2003 Leo XIV visited the Valley of the Fallen with a group of young people. / Credit: Courtesy of Israel @profedeprimari on X

Madrid, Spain, May 20, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV carries on his pectoral cross, among others, a relic of an Augustinian martyr bishop, Anselmo Polanco, who was executed during the 1936–1939 Spanish Civil War. 

In addition to bearing bone fragments of St. Augustine and his mother, St. Monica, the pontiff’s cross includes two relics of Spanish Augustinian bishops: St. Thomas of Villanova, archbishop of Valencia and a reformer of the Church in the 15th and 16th centuries, and Polanco, the martyred Spanish bishop of Teruel.

Polanco was born in 1881 in a small town in Palencia, northern Spain, and educated at the Royal Seminary College of Valladolid. At the age of 15, he received the Augustinian habit, one of the mendicant orders along with the Trinitarians, Franciscans, Dominicans, Carmelites, Mercedarians, and Servites.

After receiving his formation in Germany, he was appointed prior of the Augustinian Province of the Philippines. In 1935, he was appointed bishop of Teruel and apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Albarracín.

When the Spanish Civil War broke out in July 1936, after months of persecution against Catholics by the government of the Second Republic and despite having the option of leaving the diocese, he decided to remain.

The Battle of Teruel took place from December 1937 to February 1938 within his ecclesiastical jurisdiction, in which nearly 40,000 soldiers from both sides died.

On Jan. 1, 1938, Polanco celebrated his last Mass at the Teruel seminary and was arrested eight days later, remaining a prisoner of the Republican forces for 13 months.

On Feb. 7, 1939, with less than two months left until the end of the war, he was bound and taken in a truck with other prisoners to the Can Tretze ravine, where he was shot dead.

Polanco thus became the 13th Spanish prelate executed during those years of religious persecution. He was beatified on Oct. 1, 1995, by Pope John Paul II, and his remains rest in the Teruel cathedral alongside those of his vicar general, also a martyr, Father Felipe Ripoll.

A visit with young people to the Valley of the Fallen

In 2003, the International Meeting of Augustinian Youth took place at the Friar Luis de León Convention Center in Guadarrama, a town in the mountains northwest of Madrid and very close to the Valley of the Fallen. The theme was “Making These Times Better Together,” and the order’s prior general, Father Robert Prevost, now Leo XIV, participated in the event.

The youth gathering is highlighted as part of the history of the Spanish Augustinian Federation on its website. During those summer days, one of the activities was a visit to the Valley of the Fallen, the monumental complex built after the Spanish Civil War to pray for peace and reconciliation among Spaniards.

The future Pope Leo XIV attended with several dozen young Augustinians and a photo was taken with him and the group on the steps leading to the basilica’s entrance. In the picture he can be seen wearing a white shirt in the front row, surrounded by young people wearing blue T-shirts.

The fact that the priest, now the pope, visited the Valley of the Fallen has been perceived by some as opening a door to hope for the future of the monumental complex, especially given that the Spanish government has launched a controversial process of “resignifying” its nature.

Thousands of combatants from both sides, including numerous martyrs, are buried in the rock-hewn papal basilica, atop which stands the world’s largest cross.

An agreement, with Cardinal José Cobo acting as interlocutor, between the Spanish government and the Holy See to implement alterations to the complex has sparked opposition from a portion of the Spanish faithful.

When the specifications for taking bids on the project, which would include modifications to the Blessed Sacrament Chapel, were announced, the prelates emphasized that “the terms of the agreement between the government and the Holy See are general and the details or specifics were never gone into.”

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

I was around five the first time I remember getting in trouble. It was nearing Christmas, and I wasn’t buying into the whole Santa story anymore. A magic man spends all year making toys, then drops down chimneys and delivers them all in one night? Nope. I may have only been five, but I was insulted that people expected me to buy that ridiculous story.

Feeling rather proud of myself for figuring it out, I demanded that my mom tell me the truth. And when she finally admitted Santa wasn’t real, I felt vindicated. But that wasn’t enough. I needed …