Vatican secretary of state: Minneapolis situation is ‘unacceptable’

Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin addressed the violence that has erupted during U.S. immigration enforcement operations.

By Walter Sánchez Silva

The Vatican’s secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, said on Jan. 28 that the violence that has erupted in Minneapolis during U.S. immigration enforcement operations in that city is “unacceptable” and called for solving the problems “another way.”

“The position of the Holy See is always to avoid any type of violence, obviously, and therefore we cannot accept episodes of this type. Simply this, which you already know,” said the Italian cardinal in response to queries from journalists, according to Vatican News.

“The difficulties, problems, and contradictions are resolved in a different way,” the secretary of state said, adding that he was in agreement with the American bishops and called the current situation “unacceptable.”

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) launched Operation Metro Surge in December 2025 in Minnesota to arrest and deport individuals for immigration violations, which has resulted in the arrest of more than 3,000 people. During the operation, there have been three shootings involving ICE agents, two of which resulted in the deaths of Renée Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.

Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), said in a Jan. 25 statement that e was praying for “calm, restraint, and respect for human life in Minneapolis,” while the archbishop of Newark, New Jersey, Cardinal Joseph Tobin, called for the complete defunding of ICE.

For his part, the archbishop of Seattle, Paul Etienne, stated in a pastoral letter that “authentic respect for life also extends to refugees and migrants.”

Journalists also asked Parolin about the possibility of ICE agents arriving in Italy for the Winter Olympics, which are scheduled to begin on Feb. 6 in Milan. “Yes, I have read the news, but I know there is also controversy surrounding it. Let’s not get into controversies,” the secretary of state said.

Parolin answered these and other questions in the context of an “Ethics and Economics” meeting, organized by the GEPLI Department — an Italian acronym for Law, Economics, Politics, and Modern Languages — of LUMSA University in Rome in collaboration with the Movement of Schools of Ethics and Economics in the world.

The cardinal said the Holy See is still considering its response to the invitation from U.S. President Donald Trump to participate in the recently constituted Board of Peace for the reconstruction of Gaza and that he hopes a good agreement will be reached regarding the situation in Greenland, following his recent visit to Denmark.

“Without going into details, I believe progress is being made toward a solution, an agreement. I don’t know the exact terms at the moment, but it seemed to me that even the [Danish] foreign minister was quite positive after the discussions that have taken place. We hope that this will be the case,” the Vatican secretary of state emphasized.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Ash Wednesday Collection for the Church in Central and Eastern Europe Continues 35 Year History of Restoration and Healing

WASHINGTON - On Ash Wednesday, February 18, Catholics in dioceses across the United States are invited to give to the annual Collection for the Church in Central and Eastern Europe, sponsored by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

This collection, which is in its 35th year, continues its mission of helping churches in nearly 30 countries recover from militantly atheist communist rule, including ministry and relief efforts related to the war against Ukraine.

Bishop Gerald L. Vincke of the Diocese of Salina, chairman of the USCCB’s Subcommittee on Aid to the Church in Central and Eastern Europe, witnessed the collection’s work in Ukraine last March. “I visited a shelter for families whose homes were destroyed and an orphanage for children whose parents were killed. Veterans I met with expressed their gratitude for therapy they have been able to receive for their post-traumatic stress,” he said.

“An elderly man who had survived a Siberian gulag told me, ‘What gives me hope is that, in the end, evil does not win.’ He is right – but that requires all of us to follow Christ’s call to build the kingdom of God. Pope John Paul II knew that in 1990 when he urged Catholics in the United States to join the great rebuilding effort in lands newly liberated from communist oppression – lands from which many of our families had immigrated,” continued Bishop Vincke.

The Collection for the Church in Central and Eastern Europe was the U.S. bishops’ response to that call. Many dioceses take up this annual collection on Ash Wednesday, though some dioceses have different dates. The online giving site iGiveCatholic also accepts funds for the program.

In 2024, gifts to the collection funded 547 grants totaling more than $9.5 million. Examples of how donations are used include:

• In Kokshetau, Kazakhstan, sisters of the Community of the Beatitudes expanded their mission of evangelization by establishing a day center for preschool children with Down syndrome and their families.

• In the Slovak Republic, a multi-faceted outreach to vulnerable pregnant women provides material assistance, counseling, training in prevention of abuse, and “Evenings of Mercy” a gathering featuring Mass, confessions, and healing prayers.

• One of the many projects in Ukraine trains lay leaders in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Exarchate of Lutsk to develop new skills in pastoral and social ministry so they can help bring hope and comfort to people who have lost everything.

• A thousand-year-old Benedictine monastery in Hungary is helping clergy and laity discover the teachings of Vatican II on topics ranging from liturgy to interfaith relations.

• In Bulgaria, a village church has been able to engage in digital media evangelization and now offers a post-abortion healing ministry. They were also able to send young pilgrims to the Jubilee in Rome and financed English-immersion studies for a priest in order to reach non-Bulgarians.

“For 35 years, your contributions to the Collection for the Church in Central and Eastern Europe have made a profound difference. You have rebuilt cathedrals, renewed hope, healed the suffering and brought joy where there had been despair,” Bishop Vincke said. “As these churches continue to heal from old wounds and suffer new ones, it is my hope that you give generously and become part of our ongoing and loving response.”

Additional information on grants and impact is at www.usccb.org/ccee.

Bishops invite faithful to pray novena for the unborn

by Tessa Gervasini

The United States bishops have invited Catholics to pray an annual Respect Life novena for the protection of the unborn.

The Committee on Pro-Life Activities of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is sponsoring the “9 Days for Life” prayer that will begin on Friday, Jan. 16, and end on Jan. 24. The novena is to be prayed in observance of the annual Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children on Jan. 22.

The 2026 “9 Days for Life” marks the 14th time the novena has taken place. Since it began, the prayer has reached hundreds of thousands of people in over 100 countries spanning six continents, according to the USCCB.

The overarching intention of the novena is to end abortion, and it also offers prayers for mothers and fathers, those suffering from participation in abortions, civic leaders, and pro-life activists.

Those who sign up to participate can access a resource kit with information in both English and Spanish. Participants will be offered daily prayer intentions accompanied by short reflections and suggested actions to help build a culture of life.

There are also resources available to help leaders guide the novena at parishes, schools, and ministries.

The USCCB first began sponsoring the novena in 2013 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision on Jan. 22, 1973. Following the legalization of abortion, “millions of children have lost their lives, and millions of women and families have been wounded by abortion,” the USCCB said.

While the Supreme Court overturned Roe. v Wade in 2022, continuing efforts are still “needed to protect children and their mothers from the tragedy of abortion,” the bishops said.

The General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM), designated Jan. 22 as “a particular day of prayer and penance.” In all the dioceses of the U.S., the day “shall be observed as a particular day of prayer for the full restoration of the legal guarantee of the right to life and of penance for violations to the dignity of the human person committed through acts of abortion,” according to the GIRM.

On the Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children, the bishops suggest the faithful observe the day by attending Mass, abstaining from meat, praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet, fasting, praying a decade of the rosary, or offering a prayer for life to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.

U.S. bishops award over $7 million in grants to home missions, thanks to nation’s Catholics

By Gina Christian
OSV News

Dozens of “home mission dioceses” across the nation have received much-needed financial support, provided by the generosity of U.S. Catholics through an annual collection.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops announced Dec. 1 that 69 mission dioceses and Eastern Catholic eparchies had been awarded a collective total of more than $7.8 million in grants.

The allocations — which ranged from $10,000 to approximately $145,000 — were determined by the USCCB’s Subcommittee on Catholic Home Missions, which met earlier in the fall to review the 2025-2026 grant applications.

The awarded funds were made possible through the USCCB’s annual Catholic Home Missions appeal. The collection, taken up in many dioceses and parishes on the last weekend in April, was established in 1998 to strengthen U.S.-based mission dioceses.

Donations to the appeal can also be made through the iGiveCatholic.org platform.

Mission dioceses rely on sustained aid, including funds from the annual collection, in order to provide basic pastoral services to the faithful.

In its announcement, the USCCB noted that the mission dioceses and Eastern Catholic eparchies receiving the grants “are found across the United States and its territories,” with many located “in regions with small Catholic populations in rural areas affected by economic hardship.”

The USCCB said the grants “support parish and diocesan operations, as well as ministries of evangelization, catechesis, and healing that grow and strengthen the Church.”

Bishop Chad W. Zielinski of New Ulm, Minnesota, who chairs the USCCB home missions subcommittee, said in a statement that parishioners contributing to the annual appeal “bring faith, hope and love where it is most needed,” regardless of the amount of their gift.

The donations “have a profound, positive impact on Catholics who face poverty or the isolation of being a small, minority faith,” he said.

(Continue reading online at https://catholicreview.org/u-s-bishops-award-over-7-million-in-grants-to-home-missions-thanks-to-nations-catholics/ )