U.S.
Cuts to CRS food aid projects could impact hundreds of thousands of children, group says
WASHINGTON — Catholic Relief Services said May 21 that most of its projects under a federal international food aid program were terminated, leaving hundreds of thousands of children more vulnerable to hunger. More than 780,000 children across 11 countries will be left without their school meal, in many cases their only meal of the day, as a result of the termination of 11 out of CRS’ 13 projects under the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program, CRS said. The program purchases agricultural commodities grown in the U.S. to support school food programs and maternal and early childhood nutrition programs in countries around the world, with the stated purpose of reducing hunger and promoting literacy, preventing children from trying to learn with empty stomachs. A spokesperson for the Agriculture Department said in a statement that the terminated programs did not align “with the foreign assistance objectives of the Trump Administration.” On its website, CRS urged its supporters to “ask the administration to reverse the terminations … and continue providing lifesaving and life-affirming food aid.” (OSV News)
Cardinal Dolan honored for devotion to protecting religious freedom
NEW YORK — Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York has received the 2025 Canterbury Medal, the highest honor for religious liberty, awarded by Becket, a leading law firm defending faith freedoms. The medal recognizes Cardinal Dolan’s lifelong commitment to protecting religious freedom in the U.S. and abroad. “I hardly deserve this high award,” the cardinal said in accepting it, but added, “I am intensely devoted to the protection of our first and most cherished liberty — religious freedom.” The honor was presented May 22 at Becket’s annual gala in Manhattan. In his remarks, Cardinal Dolan highlighted the role of faith in shaping America’s greatest movements — from independence and civil rights to pro-life advocacy. Becket, based in Washington, is known for its courtroom victories and public advocacy for the free expression of all faiths. The firm’s work spans legal, media and educational fronts. (OSV News)
Bishops call for prayer after deadly attack outside DC’s Capital Jewish Museum
WASHINGTON — Catholic bishops have called for prayers after two Israeli Embassy staff members were slain late May 21 outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington. Sarah Lynn Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky were leaving an event at the museum when they were shot at close range. Washington Cardinal Robert W. McElroy decried the killing as “an act of antisemitic hatred and murder” in a May 22 statement. He said the Catholic community of Washington and the state of Maryland “stands in prayer, shock and solidarity” with the slain victims and their families, and with the people of Israel and the entire Jewish community. The young couple were set to become engaged in Jerusalem next week, with Lischinsky purchasing the ring only days ago, according to Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the U.S. Suspect Elias Rodriguez, a 31-year-old Chicago resident, was filmed chanting, “Free, free Palestine,” following the attack, and detained shortly thereafter. (OSV News)
WORLD
Russia rejects Vatican offer to host peace talks on Ukraine
MOSCOW — Russia has rejected the Vatican’s offer to host talks for ending the war in Ukraine, despite international support for the idea. Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin had offered to “eventually make the Vatican … available for a direct meeting” between Ukraine and Russia, as May 16 talks between those nations in Istanbul ended after just two hours, with little result except for a mutual prisoner exchange. The move was endorsed by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and U.S. President Donald Trump, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying he was “ready for direct negotiations with Russia in any format that brings results,” whether in “Türkiye, the Vatican, Switzerland.” But Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov nixed the prospect, saying May 23 at a Moscow conference his nation has “no plans” for when or where the next meeting between the two nations will take place. He described efforts to coordinate talks at the Vatican as “unrealistic.” Lavrov cited religion as one obstacle, saying a meeting between Russia and Ukraine, “two Orthodox countries,” at a “Catholic platform” would be “somewhat uncomfortable” for the Vatican. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is also the subject of one of six arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court for war crimes by Russian officials in Ukraine, and would in principle risk arrest entering Italy, an ICC signatory. (OSV News)
Pope appoints religious sister secretary of dicastery for religious
VATICAN CITY — In his first appointment of a top-level official of the Roman Curia, Pope Leo XIV named Sister Tiziana Merletti, a canon lawyer, to be secretary of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. Sister Merletti, a member of the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor, succeeds Consolata Missionary Sister Simona Brambilla, whom Pope Francis appointed prefect of the dicastery in January. Sister Brambilla was the first woman to head a Vatican dicastery. The dicastery, according to the apostolic constitution on the Roman Curia, is called “to promote, encourage and regulate the practice of the evangelical counsels, how they are lived out in the approved forms of consecrated life and all matters concerning the life and activity of Societies of Apostolic Life throughout the Latin Church.” According to Vatican statistics, there are close to 600,000 professed women religious in the Catholic Church. The number of religious-order priests is about 128,500 and the number of religious brothers is close to 50,000. (CNS)
Pope advances sainthood cause of missionaries killed trying to save Indigenous
VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo XIV has advanced the sainthood causes of two missionaries whose murders in the Amazon jungle in Ecuador in 1987 led to the protection of remote Indigenous peoples from encroaching extractive industries. Among a series of decrees published by the Vatican May 22, Pope Leo recognized the sacrifice of Spanish Bishop Alejandro Labaka Ugarte of the Apostolic Vicariate of Aguarico, Ecuador, and Colombian Sister Inés Arango Velásquez, a member of the Capuchin Tertiary Sisters of the Holy Family, as an “offering of life,” a category distinct from martyrdom that Pope Francis established in 2017. The category and its requirements for sainthood are explained in the apostolic letter, “Maiorem hac Dilectionem,” which established a category of heroically offering one’s life out of loving service to others. The recognition brings the two missionaries closer to beatification, pending verification of a miracle attributed to each one’s intercession. During Pope Leo’s meeting May 22 with Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, the pope also signed a decree advancing the sainthood causes of Bishop Matthew Makil, the first native apostolic vicar of Kottayam of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church in India. Born March 27, 1851, he promoted the catechism, education in Catholic schools and the establishment of religious congregations and pious associations. He died Jan. 26, 1914. (CNS)
