I’m Luke Coppen and I seek to guide you each weekday morning to the most interesting Catholic news and comment.

Read more

In our first reading, Jeremiah cries out to God in the midst of rejection and mockery. Then, St. Paul urges Christians in Rome to become ‘living sacrifices.’ In the Gospel, Peter takes up his new role as prime minister of God’s kingdom.

Subscribe now

This episode is brought to you by the University of Mary, a Newman Guide–recommended Catholic university in Bismarck, North Dakota, offering affordable online graduate programs designed specifically for the working Catholic professional.

Pillar subscribers are eligible for up to $10,000 in scholarships toward select programs.

Learn more at pillar.umary.edu

Share

Already read the readings? Skip ahead to 6:00.

Reading 1 - Jeremiah 20: 7-9

Psalm 63: 2-6, 8-9

Reading 2 - Romans 12: 1-2

Gospel - Matthew 16: 21-27

It seems clear the Church belongs in that conversation. So The Pillar spoke with Aimee Gutowski, a licensed clinical social worker and therapist at Denver Catholic Counseling, who specializes in prenatal and postpartum mental health.

Gutowski discussed the ways in which postpartum women are particularly vulnerable, and what the Church at different levels can do to support new moms.

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Subscribe now

From a mental health perspective, what do women need after having a baby, and how can the Church help meet those needs?

The postpartum season is really one of the most profound transitions a woman can experience: body, mind, heart, and soul all at once. Women oftentimes experience extraordinary joy, fulfillment and peace, but alongside exhaustion, anxiety, isolation, the need for physical healing, and sometimes a really deep fog or emptiness. And all of this is really valid.

A postpartum woman is uniquely vulnerable. Physically, she’s still healing. Emotionally, she is raw. And a lot of times she’s more dependent on others than she has been in years, but that dependence can make her feel really exposed.

Bringing forth life is costly work. It is through pain and suffering, with Jesus dying on the cross, that God brings forth new life. Mothers really, truly participate in that.

One big way the Catholic community can support new mothers is through everyday presence and listening, creating a safe space for women to share their experiences, both the joys and the struggles.

When we can, through the Church culture, hold two truths together -- that motherhood is a sacred vocation and it is also a season of real vulnerability, physical change, and sometimes clinical need -- we’re allowing for that experience to be okay, to be welcomed. We cultivate a culture where it’s normal to need help and acceptable to admit that the season of new motherhood is harrowing as well as holy.

A mother who no longer has to wonder whether her struggles are unwelcome, or if her struggles are an indication of failure, or if her struggles seem ungrateful towards the gift she has of being a mother, when she can see past that, and see that she is valid for joy and struggle simultaneously, that gives her room to speak. And that is the first step in being able to access support when it’s needed.

Share

What can priests do to support new moms?

I think priests can begin with intentional and humble accompaniment. This could look like an unhurried conversation after Mass, or a home visit that goes beyond ‘congratulations’ and ‘what a beautiful baby’ – actually asking how the mother is doing and then listening without trying to fix it or spiritualize.

The reason for that is when someone is willing to be present in her reality, it can kind of lower the sense of her being a burden or a problem. I also think about homilies that acknowledge the real mix of joy and struggle in family life, and help mothers feel seen – recognizing that those things can coexist naturally: the good, the bad and the ugly.

Also, connecting with her in confession, providing spiritual direction, and very importantly, having a resource arsenal for professional support when needed.

In addition, really appreciating her vocation, treating her as a whole person and appreciating that vocation as an extraordinary seat of constant sacrifice and ultimate joy. Listening to her without surprise or being scandalized if she is talking about some of the harder, darker pieces of her postpartum period. Creating a safe space for her to share. Knowing that a woman, when she’s able to know that rawness will be met with reverence instead of judgment, that that gives her almost the permission to be able to speak freely.

Leave a comment

You mention the need to avoid spiritualizing postpartum struggles. Sometimes Catholic women talking about challenges postpartum get the advice to ‘offer it up.’ Can you talk a little more about that?

I’m not saying that we should never spiritualize things, but we should be careful not to spiritualize as a way of minimizing.

Sometimes we just need to validate and recognize, through empathy, the struggle that somebody is having -- listening in order to understand versus to fix it and find the solution immediately.

It’s similar to when someone tells a tired mother to just “sleep when the baby sleeps.” That can feel so minimizing when the reality is I’m so tired and it takes so much for me to get the baby to go to sleep. And then when the baby does go to sleep, I have a litany of other things, other competing demands that get in the way. Or maybe it’s that I can’t fall asleep as soon as the baby sleeps. I’m not in a place where I can just shut my eyes. And so when we rush in with solutions, sometimes we’re really invalidating the experience.

Sometimes we just need to allow things to be hard for a minute, to sit in that understanding, to sit with that empathy before we’re trying to jump to fix it, or before we’re trying to jump to rationalize it or to make it make sense.

This really goes toward a mother feeling heard, a mother feeling like she can express that this is really hard, and that it being hard is not necessarily a problem that needs to automatically be fixed, but that there’s fairness and validity in her experience as it is.

Give a gift subscription

What can parishes do, at the community level, to support new moms?

I think it’s important to create dedicated and practical structures for mothers. That can look different ways. Meeting immediate practical needs can be incredibly helpful: organized meal trains, a list of volunteer mother’s helpers or babysitters, resource navigation to meet immediate needs like lactation consultants, sleep training, or even therapists, medical professionals, pelvic floor therapists, etc.

I also think about having a well-run moms’ group. One that includes that really honest peer conversation -- women who have been there, having a chance to walk with women who are in it now. And setting that up as a dedicated confidential space, that definitely matters.

Moms can really benefit from that camaraderie and empathy, that knowledge and wisdom that comes with that new chapter of being a new mom and meeting those needs. Coffee and donuts after Mass is rarely the right setting for that level of vulnerability. What we want to do is create a space where isolation loses power, where it’s normal to be able to express that mix of joy, exhaustion and everything in between.

Share The Pillar

You mention the mix of emotions. Sometimes it seems like there’s pressure in the Catholic world to put on a happy face, in order to be an ambassador of family life to the broader culture – particularly if you have a large family. Do you think it’s important to talk about the difficult parts of parenthood too?

I understand the sentiment and the intention of saying that we don’t want to amplify the struggle to the point where it discourages people to have families.

But when the only image that we’re portraying is one of smiling children, tidy homes, mothers who appear kind of unfazed, then I think it can become disingenuous. There’s nothing that says that having a genuinely beautiful family life can only look good in that sense. A lot of things that are truly beautiful include struggle. And if we are portraying family life as effortless, always joyful, having it all together, then we might be signaling that postpartum struggles can look like personal failures.

There can be a kind of romanticizing the isolation and the struggle that often comes with motherhood. If we’re celebrating those who can push through without complaint, we’re really sending a message that struggle is unwelcome. And that’s not what the Church itself says. So I would say that it’s kind of contrary to the culture that we want to create. Church community should be a place where we have connectivity, where we’re joined together, where we share our struggles. As Catholics, we are called to join people who are suffering.

What I would say is that large families can be honest. I work with a lot of women in my practice as a Catholic counselor who have very large families. Adding more children can definitely change the game as far as how demanding the role of parents becomes. And when we can be really honest and normalize the genuine struggles and true joys that go into having a family, we strike balance.

And I don’t believe that discourages people from having big families or from pursuing children, because there is beauty in the struggle. There is also realness and rawness. It kind of goes along with that sentiment that nothing in life worth having comes without having to work really hard for it, comes without that vulnerability. All of that encompasses the beauty of being a parent.

Leave a comment

Do Catholic employers have a role to play in supporting mothers and families as they craft their health care and paternal leave policies?

Absolutely. If my husband got into a horrible car accident, he’d go on disability and get paid time off etc. We should consider that the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual aftermath of birth requires time and space for recovery for the woman, bonding with the baby, etc. And so I think that propping up parental leave as a priority and as a way for a Catholic employer to support new mothers is absolutely essential.
When it comes to healthcare plans, making sure that healthcare plans have accessible means to medical and professional services -- really being able to look intricately at that to say, what are the things that we provide access to, in order to give her the options towards what she might need in her recovery?

Share

How about the average Catholic in the pew? What can they do to support new moms?

I think that it’s a really wide question, because it’s definitely person-to-person. What does each individual have to offer? Are they a mom themselves? Do they have the ability to kind of elicit friendship, even if it’s just a text, “Hey, can I drop something off? Or can I come over and just hang out with you?” Do they have some kind of professional background where maybe they’re a lactation consultant where they can offer services? Are they maybe somebody who could cook a meal? Are they somebody who could watch an older sibling or offer to come over and help with some cleaning? It’s really, I think, dependent on what resources, skills, or abilities that particular person has.

But if they can reflect within themselves and say, “What do I have to offer? Meeting practical needs? Emotional support? Professional resources?” Then that person can show up to support women after birth using their own skills and capacities.

Subscribe now

Andrew Showers at the time of his initial arrest in 2025.

A statement from the Madison diocese, released Friday, called “the allegations of attempted grooming of a child for sexual activity and bail jumping[...] incredibly disturbing.”

“Similar to the charges filed in Waupaca County in August of 2025, the new criminal complaint is connected to an online undercover investigation conducted by a police officer posing as a 15-year-old girl,” said the statement. “A warrant was issued for Showers’ arrest, and, after turning himself in, he was taken into police custody earlier today.”

The diocese also stated that Showers was dispensed from the clerical state by Pope Leo XIV in June of this year. He had been barred by the diocese from public ministry since his initial arrest last summer.

“We are appalled and deeply distressed by these additional charges and continue to pray for anyone affected by this profoundly troubling situation,” said the diocese.

Andrew Showers, 38, was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Madison in 2017 and served in a variety of assignments in the diocese, including at a local Catholic school, and as diocesan director of liturgy. On August 27 last year, Showers was charged with attempted child enticement, attempted second-degree sexual assault of a child, and attempted use of a computer to facilitate a sex crime against a child. Prosecutors charge that the priest sent lewd pictures of himself and sexually explicit messages to an individual on Reddit whom he believed to be a 14-year-old girl, but who was actually an undercover police officer.

He was arrested August 25 last year, when he attempted to meet up with the teen for a sexual encounter, according to the criminal complaint. Showers faces up to 50 years in prison if he is found guilty. Immediately following his arrest, Madison’s Bishop Donald Hying announced that Showers was “completely restricted from all exercise of public ministry while the investigation is ongoing.”

Subscribe now

In June 2026, Bishop Hying released an update on Showers’ canonical status, saying that the priest had voluntarily petitioned Pope Leo for dispensation from the clerical state and that although the civil and legal proceedings had not yet concluded, “Showers petitioned the Vatican for a dispensation from the obligations associated with the clerical state, and that petition was granted by Pope Leo XIV.”

A petition to the pope personally for dispensation from the rights and obligations of the clerical state is distinct from dismissal, although they have the same effects. A dismissal is the result of a canonical process initiated by a competent authority in either a judicial or administrative process. A dispensation made by the pope at the cleric’s petition is, legally speaking, a favor, and is often sought by clerics otherwise facing laicization via a canonical process.

Following Showers’ arrest in 2025, a young woman and her father accused the diocese of failing to act previously on an allegation against Showers.

But the diocese said that while a complaint was made the previous year, the person who contacted the diocese had declined to share essential details about the alleged assault, including the priest’s identity, making it impossible for the diocese to assess or respond to the allegations.

After Showers’ initial arrest, BIshop Hying said that “There have been no previous allegations of misconduct connected to Fr. Showers.” Two days later, however, the bishop said that “continued review of diocesan files, email messages, and phone records” showed that there had been a complaint made about Showers in 2021, but it was determined that Showers had not committed misconduct in that case.

The diocese elaborated on the 2021 incident in a September 5 statement. It said the complaint was made by the parent of a middle school boy who said Showers had asked him about sexual sins during confession, making him uncomfortable. Diocesan officials determined that the Showers was attempting to guide the teen’s confession by asking questions about sins that may be common to a specific age group, the diocese stated.

A report was filed at the time with the Lodi police, who determined that the incident was not a criminal act, the diocese said. It cited excerpts from the police report, which noted that the teen said Showers had also asked him about whether he had committed theft, and had not touched him or made any other sexually suggestive comments.

Subscribe now

I’m Luke Coppen and I aim to guide you each weekday morning to the most interesting Catholic news and comment.

Read more

Share

Are you a paying subscriber?

1. Visit pillarcatholic.com/listen on your phone

2. Check the top right corner of the webpage to ensure you are logged into your Substack account.

3. Tap ‘set up podcast’ next to The Pillar Podcast

Having issues? Email our producer Kate at kolivera@pillarcatholic.com

Read more

Subscribe now

This episode is brought to you by the University of Mary, one of the nation’s most affordable and serious Catholic universities, offering flexible online graduate programs built for working adults.

Learn more at pillar.umary.edu

Subscribe now

Catholic Schools NSW said Aug. 21 that its board had “unanimously determined” that CEO Dallas McInerney no longer enjoyed the confidence required to lead the body into the future.

Catholic Schools NSW added that the board had terminated its employment agreement with McInerney, who had served as chief executive since 2017, with immediate effect.

The move came after McInerney’s appearance before an inquiry by the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption known as Operation Rosny.

The commission is investigating allegations that McInerney channeled political donations via Catholic Schools NSW to the Reformers, a Christian conservative faction of the New South Wales division of the Liberal Party of Australia, without properly disclosing the transfers and potentially in breach of donation limits.

The inquiry is particularly sensitive because Catholic Schools NSW — an organization whose members are the 11 diocesan bishops of New South Wales — is responsible for distributing more than A$3 billion (about US$2.15 billion) of public funding each year to the state’s Catholic schools.

Public financial support for schools with a religious ethos is a controversial issue in the state, which has a population of 8.6 million and covers part of Australia’s eastern coast, including Sydney, the country’s most populous city.

McInerney, who stood aside as CEO in July after being named in the inquiry, insisted during a three-day appearance before the commission that the payments amounting to around A$265,900 (US$188,000) over four years were for legitimate consulting work.

McInerney also told the inquiry that he had performed a factory reset on his work phone and iPad at the weekend after giving evidence to the commission on Aug. 13 and 14.

McInerney, who appeared again before the inquiry Aug. 19, explained that he had reset the phone after his bank informed him that his account had been compromised via his Apple ID and Apple Pay. He said he had reset the iPad ahead of returning it to Catholic Schools NSW, “in the realization I’m not likely returning to the company.”

He denied the suggestion that he had sought to wipe evidence of critical importance to the commission, noting that he had known about the inquiry for weeks before resetting the devices.

“Had I wanted to do any malfeasance of that nature, I would have had quite a runway to do that,” he said.

In its July 27 opening statement, the counsel assisting the commission said the inquiry was focused on possible unlawful political donations by individuals and entities made through companies for the benefit of the Reformers.

It said the Reformers sought to recruit or renew the memberships of Christian conservative members in branches of the NSW Liberal Party, a practice known as branch stacking, which is not considered corrupt conduct in itself.

The opening statement said the evidence would show that McInerney was “an influential factional heavyweight and powerbroker within the NSW Liberal Party” who was “aligned with the party’s Right faction, and shared the values and political objectives of key Reformers he had come to know.”

Share

Catholic Schools NSW, known by its acronym CSNSW, said Aug. 21 that it did not intend to make any statement “regarding the inquiry or key witnesses” until the initial examination had been completed. But it expressed support for an independent review of its own operations.

The body noted that in its opening statement the counsel assisting the commission said there was no suggestion that Catholic Schools NSW was responsible for the alleged conduct under investigation, nor that any board members or members of the executive were aware of McInerney’s purported actions.

“The matters that are the subject of the inquiry are, though, of deep concern to CSNSW and to its key stakeholders,” the organization said.

“The board will work constructively with them to ensure there is an externally conducted review of CSNSW’s operations.”

Interim chief executive Peter Yates will continue to lead CSNSW — which oversees 594 Catholic schools, comprising around 274,000 students — until a permanent replacement for McInerney is found.

McInerney was a risk and compliance officer with the regulator Australian Securities and Investments Commission from 1999 to 2001, when he became a senior adviser on economic and regulatory affairs at the Insurance Australia Group.

From 2005 to 2009, he was a manager responsible for regulatory affairs at the MLC, an Australian financial services and wealth management company.

He served as general manager of government and public policy at National Australia Bank from 2009 to 2017, when he was appointed chief executive of CSNSW.

Subscribe now

Share

Are you a paying subscriber?

1. Visit pillarcatholic.com/listen on your phone

2. Check the top right corner of the webpage to ensure you are logged into your Substack account.

3. Tap ‘set up podcast’ next to The Pillar TL;DR

Having issues? Email our producer Kate at kolivera@pillarcatholic.com

Show notes:

Why is the …

Read more

Chow Hang-tung and Lee Cheuk-yan were convicted of incitement to subversion for their roles in organizing a prayer vigil in 2021 to mark the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

The activists have been in prison since September of 2021 and, along with a co-defendant who pled guilty in January, are the latest individuals to be convicted under the sweeping National Security Law brought into force in Hong Kong in 2019 by the mainland government.

The convictions highlight the extent to which the Special Administrative Region is taking an increasingly hard line on the exercise of once-tolerated basic civil liberties, with clerics in the region reporting heightened tensions and harassment of Church officials, mirroring similar circumstances on the mainland.

Chow and Lee were key leaders of the now defunct Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, founded in the wake of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Their arrest in 2021 followed a candlelit prayer vigil held in Victoria Park on the June anniversary of the massacre, an annual event in Hong Kong previously tolerated by authorities but effectively criminalized following the introduction of the National Security Law in 2019.

The three judge tribunal ruled that the defendants may not have advocated for or participated in violence, or even had “any specific method or timetable on carrying out the goal of ‘end one party dictatorship’” in Hong Kong, but posed a threat to the state none the less.

Chow and Lee “were put on trial not because of their political views or beliefs. Neither did the charge involve any issue relating to democracy, the June 4^th Incident or criticisms against the Central Government, etc.” claimed the judges, but instead “advocated [to] ‘end one-party dictatorship’ through various activities, and carried out the acts of incitement in question by making use of issues such as the June 4^th Incident and democratic movements in China as a pretext with intent to provoke sentiments such as hatred and disgust among the people towards the State power.”

Next week will be a hearing for the defendants to plead mitigation before being sentenced, and they face up to ten years in prison, in addition to the five years they have spent behind bars since their arrest.

Subscribe now

Their case illustrates the extent to which previously acceptable civil demonstrations have become crimes against the state in Hong Kong, which has included increased pressure on civil rights advocates and Catholic leaders.

Hong Kong’s Cardinal Stephen Chow, SJ, has previously said he attended the annual prayer vigils in Victoria Park, prior to being named bishop of the diocese in 2021. Ahead of the 35th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre in 2024, the cardinal wrote that the event had left “a deep wound in parts of our psyche,” but called for “the different parties [to] move beyond finger pointing and the painful ‘I will never forgive’ mindset.”

Despite Hong Kong’s status as independent of the Vatican’s diplomatic agreement with the mainland government, the cardinal has emerged as a key defender of the arrangement and go-between for Rome and Beijing, working in public to foster closer relations between the diocese and the Church on the mainland and privately expressing concern about Catholics seen as destabilizing to the relationship with local and national authorities.

Senior Church officials told The Pillar that during the ad limina visit of the bishops of Hong Kong and Macau in June of this year, Cardinal Chow specifically raised concerns about Cardinal Joseph Zen, emeritus Bishop of Hong Kong, and Archbishop Savio Hon Tai-Fai, a Hong Kong native and former seminary professor who went on to serve as secretary of the Dicastery for the Evangelization of Peoples. Hon was demoted from that position in 2017 and made papal nuncio to Greece, then Malta, and finally Libya before retiring in February of this year. Senior curial officials have for years said that Hon’s 2017 demotion was a direct consequence of his opposition to the Vatican’s closer relations with the Chinese government which culminated in the 2018 Vatican-China deal.

According to senior sources with knowledge of the ad limina visit, Cardinal Chow told Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin that Zen and Hon were “seeking to undermine him [Chow] and the Sino-Vatican protocol.”

Cardinal Zen, 94, has largely retired from public life. In May of 2022, the cardinal was arrested on national security charges before being convicted of failing to properly register a charity of which he was a patron.

According to senior clerical sources close to the Hong Kong diocese, other Church officials have become the subject of routine harassment from authorities.

Subscribe now

On Wednesday, Aug. 18, Hong Kong auxiliary Bishop Joseph Ha Chi-shing was detained by immigration authorities on his way from Hong Kong to neighboring Macao for a priests’ day of reflection. He was later allowed entry into Macao.

The Pillar understands that similar stops and brief detentions have been common for diocesan priests considered by state authorities to be favorable to causes like the once-annual Victoria Park vigil, and the former diocesan vicar general Fr. Dominic Chan has been subject to similar stops since 2019, but clerical sources close to the chancery told The Pillar, Ha’s being detained this week is the first occasion of the bishop being stopped on his way to Macao.

Sources close to the Hong Kong diocese told The Pillar that while Cardinal Chow remains convinced he can manage Church-state relations in the evolving climate, his auxiliary bishops and priests are increasingly pessimistic about the fate of the territory.

“Chow is convinced he can navigate his way through it all, the auxiliaries think ‘we’re doomed’,” said one senior cleric. “Zen thinks they need to show some backbone. The brightest and best Catholic laity have left or intend to do so.”

Prominent Catholic laity in the diocese have come under their own pressures from the government in recent years.

Jimmy Lai, the newspaper publisher convicted last year of “sedition” has spent years in solitary confinement despite global calls for his release.

In 2023, Bobo Yip, former chairwoman of the Diocese of Hong Kong’s Justice and Peace Commission, was also arrested on national security grounds, and many pro-democracy politicians and journalists, including several prominent Catholics, have been jailed for various “crimes” related to free speech.

Asked if the apparent escalation of attention being paid to Church officials was intended to effect a particular outcome or send a message, the senior cleric said that generally escalating pressure was seen by the government as necessary.

“These people are Marxists but more importantly Maoist,” the cleric said. “The strategy is to ensure no organised institutional opposition anywhere in China. They understand that tactical consistency is itself strategic.”

Subscribe now

The case involves a 69-year-old priest accused of stealing nearly $750,000 over five years, from various Church entities and his own elderly mother. The alleged crime was discovered during a narcotics investigation which uncovered drug-related messages and photos on the priest’s phone, the Pennsylvania attorney general said.

“This case is a cross between ‘Breaking Bad’ and the ‘Bells of St. Mary,’” said retired IRS criminal investigator Robert Warren, an associate professor of accounting at Radford University.

Warren stressed that there were years of warnings were missed in the case – and said that if they had been heeded, the alleged theft could have been stopped much sooner.

Subscribe now

Father Gregory Madeya, 69, was arrested last Friday at his residence in Florida. He faces 10 charges related to theft and exploitation of an elderly adult.

“Father Madeya allegedly stole from his parishes, the Knights of Columbus, and his own elderly and infirm mother. He used the funds to procure illegal narcotics such as heroin and cocaine, finance an illicit relationship, and to purchase luxury items such as a Mustang sports car for cash and numerous cruises, taken with a former religious brother who was previously convicted of stealing $220,000 from his parish,” Warren explained.

Madeya, a Ukrainian Greek Catholic priest, had served at St. John the Baptist Church in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania until 2024. He previously served at St. Demetrius Church and Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church, both located in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania.

His arrest came after years of investigations.

In February 2023, the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office and local police forces began “a narcotics investigation involving money laundering and/or misuse of funds, specifically from religious organizations, into Father Gregory Madeya,” according to the criminal complaint.

In September 2023, investigators examined the trash at the home where Madeya lived with another man named Marc Mowod. According to court documents obtained by The Pillar, police found drug paraphernalia including broken pipes, nearly two dozen used hypodermic needles, and 114 stamp bags with “suspected heroin residue” in them. Later searches found drugs including heroin, marijuana, and cocaine residue inside the residence.

Mowod later told investigators that Madeya paid him in cash and illegal drugs for sexual acts, and that the priest had bought him a $35,000 Ford Mustang in 2021, according to court documents. The two were living together, and Mowod said he had access to church bank accounts. A review of Mowod’s phone found references to Madeya taking money from the church collection to pay Mowod.

Madeya was suspended from priestly ministry in February 2024.

Subsequent investigations led to allegations that the priest had stolen money from various church fundraisers and collections, sold a chalice belonging to the parish for personal gain, and used gift cards from the local Knights of Columbus which had been intended to help those in need.

He is accused of taking money from St. John the Baptist, St. Demetrius, and Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary churches.

Additionally, investigators said, the priest stole more than $230,000 from his elderly mother’s retirement accounts, over which he had power of attorney. His mother was evicted from several different nursing homes due to lack of payment, court documents said.

Share

Warren told The Pillar that the length and breadth of the alleged theft make it perhaps the worst out of some 130 cases of religious financial misconduct he has reviewed.

He said there were a number of red flags that were missed for years, which could have stopped the alleged theft long before it was eventually discovered.

“All of this was preventable with a little effort,” Warren said.

Court documents said there had been complaints of financial discrepancies surrounding Madeya as far back as 2012.

However, Warren said, “it appears that all [parishioners] did was complain to him. There is no evidence that they contacted their bishop, who failed to provide sufficient oversight over Madeya.”

Additionally, Warren said, while the parish secretary knew money was missing from collection envelopes, she apparently did not contact police, who only discovered the financial concerns during a narcotics investigation.

Warren has long advocated for preventative measures to avoid theft in parishes.

Key among his recommendations are regular financial audits, a robust financial council, and policies to require that multiple people be involved in monitoring donations and financial transactions.

He added that clergy members should be required to disclose where they are living, and with whom. And, he said, they should not be permitted to reside with non-clergy members unless they have permission from their bishop.

While those practices are widely common in the Latin Catholic Church for priests in active ministry, they are not always well-regulated in Eastern Catholic Churches, or — in the Latin Catholic Church — among priests who are retired or otherwise without an assignment.

In addition, Warren suggested random house searches and drug tests for clerics, and recommended that dioceses create a hotline for suspected fraud or theft.

And parishioners who have concerns should make sure to speak up, he continued. He said that Madeya was known for going on cruises, and led a lifestyle significantly beyond his roughly $33,000 annual income.

“Parishioners have to trust their own instincts and report suspicions up the chain of command until their concerns are addressed,” Warren said. “Sometimes parishioners may have to go so far as to hire their own private investigator, such as in the case of the recently indicted Chaldean bishop.”

The charges against Madeya are the latest in a string of parish theft cases in recent years. Parishes in Florida, Missouri, New York, Alabama, Massachusetts and Iowa are among those which have been victims of recent financial crimes.

Subscribe now

Happy Friday friends,

And a very happy feast of St. Pius X to all who celebrate. Well, to all of you who celebrate who aren’t in schism — those of you who are should repent and submit to the pope.

It is interesting that the Society of St. Pius X has adopted that particular sainted pope as its putative patron. To be sure, he was a clear-eyed critic of the modernist movement and the heresies thereof. But reducing Pius to a one-dimensional and one-issue pope is to miss the man in full. He was in some respects a bit of a radical progressive, lowering the age for the reception of Communion from 12 to 7, and doing away with a lot of papal ceremony and monarchical trappings. Coming from peasant stock himself, he came under criticism for not making his sisters papal countesses and elevating them to a socially aristocratic level. He basically thought the whole idea was a bunch of bunkum.

For canonists, Pius is remembered chiefly as the great legislative reformer, the inaugurator of the process which led to the first Code of Canon Law, promulgated by his successor in 1917, three years after Pius’ death. As a legislator, Pius was, in some sense, the first truly modern pope, in that he was the one who saw that the Church had become, by dint of the increase in communication and travel, a truly unified and global whole and needed to be governed as such.

Prior to the code, law in the Church was in very large part a disparate and local, or at least regional affair, with issues and cases — sometimes of serious import — being treated in different, sometimes contradictory ways by centuries of overlapping and confused decrees, customs, and even loopholes.

Perhaps the most obvious example of this was the Church’s law on marriage. What we call canonical form – the legal requirements that Catholics marry in a church, with the consent received by a cleric before two witnesses – was brought in with theoretically universal effect by the Council of Trent centuries earlier. However, the law only bound Catholics in territories where it was promulgated by the local hierarchy and, while take up was instant in the Old World, it was far from universal.

The United States was actually a real laggard in this respect, with one of the chief reasons being that, as the country expanded west, ecclesiastical structures and clergy were often rather slow to follow. As such, the bishops didn’t want to impose an ecclesiastical law restricting a natural law right when there was no means for Catholics out on the plains or in the west to abide by it. Effectively banning marriage for pioneer Catholics would have been unjust.

Anyway, by the time Pius came to the papal throne, the world had moved on and we’d become much more of a universal Church, in terms of territorial coverage, and it was time to close the loophole, which he did with the decree Ne temere in 1907, issued by what we’d today call the Dicastery for Clergy. Interestingly, the country where this was most acutely felt was Ireland, which was then still under British rule. Canonical form had not been enforced in the British Isles either, and the sudden complication of marriages between Catholics and Protestants was the source of some friction.

Interestingly, like so many Latin incipits, Ne temere can in isolation be read incorrectly, in the same way Rerum novarum is often (incorrectly) translated as “On the new things” by those unaware of its idiomatic usage to mean “On the revolutions.” The Latin of the Pius-era marriage law is often mistaken as “do not fear,” when in fact it is better read as “lest rashly,” or perhaps “don’t be hasty.”

It is, I think, a nice double meaning for a document calling the global Church to a new, universal and somewhat more rigorous observance to ecclesiastical law and papal authority. Given the society which claims Pius’ name is today outside the legal society of the Church and unable to validly witness the marriages of Catholics, I think it’s a good day to think about it.

Subscribe now

Here’s the news.

The News

Pope Leo is in the microstate of San Marino today, one of the oldest sovereign states in the world, which has not received a pope since 2011, when Pope Benedict XVI made the last papal pastoral visit.

San Marino enjoys a privileged relationship with the Holy See, fully surrounded by the Papal States for centuries, and having been under papal protection for much of its history, but preserving its independence all the while.

But why is the pope traveling to San Marino? Why is San Marino even a country? We have an explainer for you right here.

—

Meanwhile, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, often described as the Vatican’s “foreign minister,” is scheduled to travel to Russia next week, in what is likely to be a much trickier trip.

It will be the English archbishop’s first to Russia since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and he is likely to find a country much changed since his last visit in November 2021.

Apart from everything else, the war has pitted two majority Eastern Orthodox nations against each other, and cemented a major realignment within the Orthodox world, further separating the Russian Orthodox Church from the Churches close to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. The conflict has also created severe turbulence in relations between the Vatican and the Moscow Patriarchate.

So, what do we know about Gallagher’s scheduled trip? And why might it be happening now? Luke Coppen reports.

—

A German diocesan bishop stepped down Wednesday at the age of 66, citing the “psychological strain” of office. He is the latest in a string of German prelates to offer their resignations well ahead of the customary age, suggesting the burdens of episcopal office are taking an increased toll in the country.

Pope Leo XIV accepted the resignation of Bishop Karl-Heinz Wiesemann of Speyer, southwestern Germany, with the bishop saying he has struggled for years with depression and felt unable to continue serving at “half strength.”

Wiesemann’s early resignation comes a year after Bishop Gregor Maria Hanke stepped down as the Bishop of Eichstätt in Bavaria, southern Germany, at the age of 70. Hanke said in June 2025 that he had asked to retire five years before the customary resignation age of 75 because of “inner fatigue” caused by “the many challenges, scandals, and unresolved conflicts” that marked his term in office. Several other bishops have tendered their resignations early, or tried to.

Read all about the trend right here.

—

The pontifical delegate to the beleaguered Institute of the Incarnate Word has announced a new general council for the institute, as part of Vatican efforts to reform the congregation.

The delegate also had to order a new website for the group, largely because Vatican-appointed officials had been unable to determine who was actually running the group’s official site. The moves come after a recent decision to revise the group’s formation programs, amid a three-year moratorium on the admission of new members.

The institute has been accused of maintaining a cult of personality around its late founder, who was found canonically guilty before his death of abusing seminarians, and of covering up sexual and psychological abuse by some of its priests. And the Vatican-appointed commissioner of the group accused members last year of failing to recognize the harm caused by its founder, and of resisting reform efforts.

Read the whole story here.

—

A significant clash between Church and state is underway in Nigeria, after a relatively cordial July 28 meeting between a delegation of bishops and President Bola Tinubu at the State House in the capital, Abuja.

The controversy ignited shortly before a gubernatorial election that was seen as a test of Tinubu’s political strength in the country’s South West zone, ahead of the Jan., 2027, presidential election, in which he will seek a second term.

How exactly did the Church-state clash unfold? And will it have any bearing on next year’s election? Read all about it here.

—

And finally, Pillar columnist Dan Lipinski wrote this week about a recent trip to Wrigley Field to watch the Cubs sweep the Dodgers.

While the game was a win for Chicago (and let’s be honest, for all of baseball), Dan laments the loss of silence in big league ballparks. In doing so, he argues, fans are being deprived of experiencing the game of baseball as an education about living our life.

Read the whole thing here.

Subscribe now

You are called to grow in your Faith and to evangelize. Deepen your understanding of the biblical roots of Catholicism and confidently share your Faith with others by becoming a St. Paul Center Member. Encounter Christ. Share Christ. Visit https://stpaulcenter.com/memberships to get started for free.

Works of art

The artwork of the disgraced priest and former Jesuit Marko Rupnik is back in the news this week. Bishop Jean-Marc Micas of Tarbes and Lourdes told a local newspaper that, while the Rupnik mosaics decorating the Marian basilica’s main doors have been covered since 2025, the artist/alleged serial sexual abuser of religious sisters’ remaining works on the shine’s facade would be covered, too, ahead of Pope Leo’s visit next month.

The bishop said that he was taking the decision to cover all the remaining Rupnik art out of respect for victims of abuse and, though I am sure the desire to avoid them forming the backdrop of papal pictures to Lourdes was some kind of factor, they will remain covered henceforth.

That strikes me as a reasonable decision taken for reasonable motives. But I think we should start to think a few steps ahead of this story, because there are some questions that I think are becoming timely.

Read more

I’m Luke Coppen and I seek to guide you each weekday morning to the most interesting Catholic news and comment.

Read more

But that’s San Marino — a tiny nation, with an unusually significant role in the history of the Church.

And on Saturday, Pope Leo will head to the micronation, one of the oldest sovereign states in the world, which has not received a pope since 2011, when Pope Benedict XVI made a similar pastoral visit.

San Marino enjoys a privileged relationship with the Holy See, fully surrounded by the Papal States for centuries, and having been under papal protection for much of its history, but preserving its independence all the while.

But why is the pope traveling to San Marino? Why is San Marino even a country?

The Pillar explains.

Subscribe now

What is the pope doing in San Marino?

The pope will meet with the country’s authorities, including the Captains Regent – the country’s “co-presidents” – and will then greet those present and impart his apostolic blessing from San Marino’s Palazzo Publico.

He will later travel to the Basilica of San Marino and will lead a holy hour, along with the veneration of the relics of Saint Marinus – the founder of the country – and will greet Catholics before leaving around noon. He will then visit a community of Augustinian nuns in Pennabilli, a nearby town.

The pope is then expected to attend the Italian city of Rimini, for the famous — in some circles — “Rimini Meeting,” which

The Rimini gathering is organized annually by Communion and Liberation each year and has become one of the biggest encounters of political, religious, cultural, and artistic personalities in Italy.

Saint John Paul II was the first – and only – pope to attend the meeting in 1982. While Pope Benedict XVI visited Rimini and San Marino in 2011, his visit did not occur during the meeting, which he had attended previously as a cardinal in 1990.

Pope Leo is also set to meet with the poor, the sick and the elderly in Rimini’s cathedral, and to celebrate Mass in a city square before returning to Rome.

Share

How did San Marino come to be?

San Marino’s history is deeply connected to the Catholic Church — and also its continued existence.

In 301, Saint Marinus, then a stonemason, arrived in Monte Titano from Rab, in Dalmatia, present-day Croatia and founded a small community of Christians. Some stories say he was fleeing Diocletian’s persecution – the last great persecution of Christians in ancient Rome – and was ordained a deacon in Rimini. Later, according to the story, he fled Rimini after a mad woman claimed she was her estranged husband and founded the community at Monte Titano.

Another version says that Marinus heard the nearby town of Rimini was being rebuilt, and travelled there looking for work. However, he noticed that many of the workmen were Christians of noble origin or from rich families, who had been sentenced to forced labor for refusing to present sacrifices to the gods. Therefore, he sought to comfort and accompany them and, later, in his old age founded the community in Monte Titano.

As his reputation for holiness grew, so did the community. Eventually, a noblewoman from Rimini, who owned Monte Titano, decided to give the whole mountain to Marinus as a gift.

Saint Marinus died in 366 and, according to the legend, his last words were prophetic for most of the Sanmarinese: Relinquo vos liberos ab utroque homine (”I leave you free from both men”). The Sanmarinese have usually interpreted them as Marinus freeing them from the Empire and later the pope, through the papal states.

While San Marino’s founding story is thought to be a mix of fact and legend, the 755 Liber Pontificalis mentions a Castellum Sancta Marini that many believe refers to San Marino, while the oldest document to speak of the existence of a Monastic community in Monte Titano dates back to 885.

The community eventually evolved into a town years later and in 1234 the first two consuls – now called Captains Regent – were appointed as heads of state that rotated each six months, which is still the case today.

The first documentary mention of San Marino’s statutes dates to 1253, while the oldest surviving copy of the statutes date back to 1295. However, its current constitutional framework is based mainly on the Statutes of 1600, considered the oldest written constitution still in force in the world.

Leave a comment

Why isn’t San Marino just part of Italy?

San Marino was surrounded by the Papal States for centuries, but enjoyed papal support for most of its history.

In 1463, the pope awarded the towns of Fiorentino, Montegiardino, and Serravalle to San Marino, while the town of Faetano decided to join San Marino a year later, defining its current borders. Pope Urban VIII placed it under papal protection and recognized its sovereignty in 1631.

San Marino was never formally annexed by another nation but it has been occupied three times — twice with the involvement of the Church.

Cesare Borgia – the illegitimate son of Pope Alexander VI – occupied San Marino for six months in 1503 but upon his father’s death, the 26-day papacy of Pius III, and the election of Julius II, he was forced to leave San Marino.

Cardinal Giulio Alberoni also occupied the country between 1739 and 1740 on Pope Clement XII’s behalf, but after much local, curial, and international opposition, was forced to restore San Marino’s independence.

Napoleon respected San Marino’s sovereignty during the invasion of Italy, even offering to expand its territory, something that Sanmarinese authorities refused at the time. The Congress of Vienna in 1815 recognized San Marino as an independent country after the Napoleonic Wars.

San Marino gave refuge to Giuseppe Garibaldi and 2,000 of his soldiers during Italy’s unification war in 1849, and, in turn, once Garibaldi and his forces won the war, recognized San Marino’s independence.

San Marino also gave asylum to some 100,000 Italians from nearby cities during World War II, at a time when the country had only about 15,000 inhabitants. It was briefly — and for the last time — occupied in September 1944 by German forces, who were defeated by the Allies later that month.

Give a gift subscription

Is Leo the first pope to visit San Marino?

No. In modern times, both Saint John Paul II and Benedict XVI went to San Marino. Like Leo, Saint John Paul II went both to San Marino and the Rimini meeting. He celebrated Mass at the Seravalle stadium in San Marino, then addressed the participants of the Rimini meeting, and celebrated Mass at Rimini’s port in the evening.

Benedict XVI made a visit to the Diocese of San Marino-Montefeltro – which includes some towns in the Italian regions of Emilia-Romagna, Marche, and Tuscany, and all of San Marino – on June 19, 2011, celebrating Mass at the Serravalle stadium and met with Sanmarinesse authorities. He later also met with young Catholics at Pennabilli.

But Benedict XVI and John Paul II weren’t the first popes to go to San Marino.

Gregory XII fled Rome to Rimini during the Western Schism in 1408. Gregory XII was later deposed by the council of cardinals in 1409 as schismatic and heretical and faced rival claims from Avignon and Pisa. Gregory eventually resigned the papacy in 1415 to end the schism.

While some Sanmarinese claim he’s the first pope to have visited their country and there are historical records indicating that he was only a few miles from Monte Titano, it is actually unclear whether he ever set foot in San Marino itself.

However, Pope Julius II – nicknamed “The Warrior Pope” – did definitely go to San Marino in 1506. As he passed Macerata Feltria in one of his campaigns to restore papal rule in the north of Italy, he was surprised by seeing snow in Monte Titano on September 29, so he decided to climb the mounting and stay at a lodging in San Marino — just a day after Niccolo Machiavelli had also arrived in San Marino.

He also allegedly paid a second visit to San Marino in 1510, although there are no contemporary records of such a visit.

Share The Pillar

How is the Church in San Marino organized?

85% of San Marino’s 35,000 inhabitants are Catholic and are served by 19 priests across 12 parishes. San Marino is one of the two majority-Catholic countries in the world without its own cathedral, alongside Andorra.

San Marino doesn’t have its own diocese, but it’s part of the Diocese of Montefeltro-San Marino, led by Bishop Domenico Beneventi since 2024. The Diocese of Montefeltro-San Marino is one of the few dioceses in the world with territory in two different countries – much like Andorra, which is part of the Diocese of Urgell, which covers parts of Catalonia in Spain.

In fact, San Marino’s parishes were divided between the Diocese of Montefeltro and the Diocese of Rimini until a territorial reorganization in 1977.

Leave a comment

Who is the most prominent Sanmarinese citizen?

Locals would perhaps reply that it’s Massimo Bonini, a Sanmarinese football player for Italian club Juventus F.C. in the 1980s or Manuel Poggiali, two-times motorcycle Grand Prix world champion.

Some may say that it’s Alessandra Perilli, a sports shooter who became the first Sanmarinese to win an olympic medal in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics or Antonio Onofri, considered the Father of San Marino and the architect of the republic’s preservation of independence during the Napoleonic wars.

But, in fact, one plausible response is Abraham Lincoln.

Lincoln became an honorary citizen of San Marino in 1861, shortly after becoming U.S. president.

Lincoln responded to the honor with a letter, still in San Marino’s state archives, thanking the country’s Captain Regents for the honor and saying that “Although your dominion is small, your State is nevertheless one of the most honored, in all history. It has by its experience demonstrated the truth, so full of encouragement to the friends of Humanity, that Government founded on Republican principles is capable of being so administered as to be secure and enduring.”

“Wishing that your interesting State may endure and flourish forever, and that you may live long and enjoy the confidence and secure the gratitude of your fellow citizens, I pray God to have you in his holy keeping,” he concluded.

As of today, there is a bust of Lincoln in San Marino’s Palazzo Publico.

Subscribe now

More young people are participating in OCIA programs at on-campus Newman Centers, according to new data. An Irish think tan…

Read more

“Baseball is like church; many attend, few understand.” Most often this quote is attributed to Leo Durocher, a long-time major league player and manager. The suggestion is that most people who go to a ball game do not really know much about the rules or strategy, just as few comprehend much theology.

However, what struck me when I recently attended a Major League Baseball game is that in an effort to “save” the national pastime, understanding the essence of baseball is being made even more difficult. It’s not the intricacies that are being obscured by this “modernization,” it is the beauty and lessons of the game. I’m not talking about recent rule changes – some of which are abominable (extra inning ghost runners?) – but the raucous stimulation between half innings which is meant to provide the crowd with non-stop entertainment.

This came to mind after I attended a game at Wrigley Field, the most revered cathedral of the “Church of Baseball.” It is the place where “Leo the Lip” Durocher infamously prowled the dugout 55 years ago as the Chicago Cubs manager.

The Cubs were hosting the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Dodgers had the best record in baseball, but the Cubs had won the first two games of the series and were going for the sweep. Many believe this to be a preview of the National League Championship Series (sorry, Brewers fans), the winner of which will be a heavy favorite to win the World Series.

When a friend texted me 24 hours before the game that someone had given him two tickets, I could not pass up the opportunity because I love the Cubs and I knew the atmosphere at Wrigley would be electric, with or without the forecast thunderstorms.

As we walked up the tunnel from the concourse, I was immediately struck by the music blasting loudly over the public address system. While I have the same complaint when I attend any major sports venue, at a baseball game the effort to continuously stimulate the crowd is particularly troubling because it strikes at the heart of the game. Countless writers have waxed poetically about the feel of baseball. It is played on a field of perfectly-mowed grass that makes you dream of picnicking during the lazy summertime.

The game is slow-moving yet punctuated with sudden bursts of action that explode like an unexpected firework. Baseball usually builds to a crescendo over two hours and more. Serious baseball fans have a sense of when it is most important to pay attention and when it is probably okay to chat with friends or make new ones. Comedian George Carlin had a hilarious bit explaining the sharp differences between the “19^th century pastoral game” that is baseball and the “20^th century technological struggle” that is football.

In many ways, the Cubs-Dodgers game was what I was expecting in terms of action on the field and the feel in the stands. Shohei Ohtani led off the game with a home run for the Dodgers and Pete Crow-Armstrong belted one for the Cubs to begin the bottom half of the first to tie the game. The Cubs took the lead a few innings later and gradually added to it, though they did not capitalize on opportunities to put the game away. Up 7-1 in the top of the eighth, Cub relievers did what they too often have done this season and all of a sudden it was a one-run game heading into the ninth inning. The crowd stood and cheered through the top of the ninth until the final out was recorded and “Go Cubs, Go” played while the team celebrated on the field and the fans in the stands.

In many ways the game lived up to the hype, though it dragged at times early on. But that’s baseball. My experience, however, did not match what I had just witnessed. I was happy they won, it was a good game, the sold-out crowd was rockin’, but it just wasn’t right. On the “el” ride home, I put my finger on it.

The rhythm of the game for the spectators had been constantly interrupted between every half-inning by the incitement of the crowd with music and games. The noise level and commotion in the stadium with every run scored and with the build-up to the final out in the ninth inning had been closely matched by these contrivances. What roused the crowd the most, the PCA home run on the first pitch or the Wendella boat race cartoon on the scoreboard? It was all mixed together. There is no question the average volume was louder between innings than it was during the playing of the game.

I never really had time to simply enjoy the serenity of the greatest ballpark in the world with the alluring green grass of the field and red-brick walls covered in thick ivy. I was dissatisfied.

I understand sports teams think it is necessary to keep fans, especially younger ones, aroused and entertained throughout so they enjoy the experience. Maybe they are correct, in one sense. Perhaps there are some who would not come to games if they had to face their fear of talking to people or sitting in silence, though most of them would have their best friend – the phone – to keep them company. (Yes, I looked at my phone occasionally during the game.) They may then go home and think that it was a waste of time and money to attend because they were not constantly “entertained.”

But attendees of games at Major League ballparks are being deprived of experiencing the game of baseball as an education about living our life. In baseball and in life, we want more positive stimulation and wait in anticipation of it. Sometimes good things happen, sometimes we are disappointed. If you have been a Cubs fan for 60 years, like me, you are almost always crushed. Hopefully we learn to enjoy the process by appreciating the beauty of the action, the environment, the time for contemplation, and the opportunity to connect with others. And by coming to understand that we should never give up hope.

These are the lessons baseball used to teach us, before we were relieved of the “burden” of peace.

Subscribe now

Daniel Lipinski was a Member of Congress from 2005-2021, and is Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and Pope Leo XIII Fellow on Social Thought, University of Dallas.

Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, often described as the Vatican’s “foreign minister,” is scheduled to travel to Russia Aug. 24-28, according to Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

The planned trip is the English archbishop’s first to Russia since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. He is likely to find a country much changed since his last visit in November 2021.

Russia today is reeling from long-range Ukrainian drone strikes on its military infrastructure, energy facilities, and logistics hubs. The nation has suffered an estimated 1.4 million military casualties in Ukraine, an unprecedented array of sanctions, gas shortages, surging food costs, and a dramatic deterioration of commercial and diplomatic ties with much of the Western world.

The Trump administration’s initiatives to end the war continue, but there is no end in sight to the death and destruction. Many observers fear that Europe’s bloodiest conflict since the Second World War could rage for years to come.

The war, which pits two majority Eastern Orthodox nations against each other, has cemented a major realignment within the Orthodox world, further separating the Russian Orthodox Church from the churches close to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. The conflict has also created severe turbulence in relations between the Vatican and the Moscow Patriarchate.

What do we know about Gallagher’s scheduled trip? And why might it be happening now?

What do we know?

Archbishop Gallagher’s intention to make a new trip to Russia first emerged in early August. The Russian state-owned news agency TASS reported Aug. 6 that a Vatican source had said the visit would take place at the end of the month.

The report noted that Gallagher had visited Ukraine July 17-20, as Pope Leo XIV’s representative to a celebration of the 35th anniversary of the restoration of the Latin Catholic Church’s structures in the country.

Gallagher’s visit was preceded by a July 13-16 trip to Ukraine by Vatican peace envoy Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, which included a meeting with Russian prisoners of war held at a facility in the Lviv region.

The TASS report said that Zuppi, the Archbishop of Bologna, Italy, was preparing for a new trip to Moscow in September. Although TASS did not spell it out, it clearly established a link between Gallagher and Zuppi’s visits to Ukraine and Russia.

Gallagher and Zuppi arguably represent the two complementary faces of the Vatican’s mission to end or ameliorate the Ukraine war. Gallagher embodies the Holy See’s diplomatic and institutional approach, while Zuppi stands for its more informal, humanitarian-focused outreach.

On Aug. 19, TASS quoted the Catholic Church in Russia as saying that Gallagher’s visit would take place in the week of Aug. 24. It recalled that during his previous trip the archbishop had met with Russia’s Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. It also noted that Gallagher and Lavrov had discussed the Ukraine war in an April 2025 phone call.

Also on Aug. 19, TASS reported on positive comments about Gallagher’s upcoming trip by Grigory Karasin, the chairman of Russia’s Federation Council Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Karasin said that Russian officials awaited “specific, interesting proposals” from Gallagher, or pertinent “assessments of the current situation.”

“We hope that the visit will lead to positive shifts or, at the very least, create a backdrop for common sense to make further progress,” he said.

On Aug. 20, TASS shared a crucial new detail: Gallagher is scheduled to hold talks Aug. 25 with Lavrov, the country’s foreign minister since 2004.

It quoted Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying that the meeting would “include an exchange of views on the current state and prospects of bilateral cooperation between Russia and the Vatican, as well as interaction at multilateral forums.” The parties would also address “international issues of mutual interest,” likely to include Ukraine and possibly Iran.

Finally, TASS noted that President Vladimir Putin currently had no plans to meet with Gallagher.

The Vatican has not yet confirmed Gallagher’s trip, but that is not unusual. The Vatican Secretariat of State often only formally announces diplomatic trips, via social media, once they have already begun.

Why now?

Ivan Soltanovsky, the Russian ambassador to the Holy See, offered a possible insight into the timing of Gallagher’s visit in a recent interview with EWTN News.

Soltanovsky said: “We see the future visit of Paul Gallagher as the opportunity to deliver directly on the part of our higher officials the position on many issues.”

In other words, officials see face-to-face meetings in Moscow as a good format for conveying to the Holy See the Russian state’s point of view on major international issues.

Subscribe now

Another reason why Russian officials might be open to the Vatican at this particular time might be their appreciation for Pope Leo XIV’s outspoken advocacy for peace. They likely approved specifically of his firm stance against the war on Iran, a close ally of Russia.

Soltanovsky underlined the country’s respect for Leo XIV in the interview.

“He has a big outlook, a great outlook. He has vision and an understanding of today’s problems,” Soltanovsky said.

The Iran war may have convinced Russian officials that the world’s first U.S.-born pope will not simply follow Washington on foreign policy, while at the same time serving as a potentially important channel to Western powers.

One open question is which other senior figures Gallagher will meet besides Lavrov. Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin seems a likely candidate, given he met with the archbishop in 2021. Any encounter with Putin or the president’s close adviser Yuri Ushakov would be noteworthy, but nothing currently suggests such meetings will take place.

If the Russian authorities regard Gallagher’s visit as a success, it will bode well for Cardinal Zuppi’s next visit to the country, which still seems to be at the planning stage, though it could happen as early as September.

There is hope in Ukraine that Zuppi will be able to visit Ukrainian prisoners of war held in Russia, following his meeting with Russian prisoners in Ukraine. But it will no doubt be tricky to secure approval, given widespread allegations that Ukrainian POWs are subject to systematic torture and ill-treatment. Perhaps this will be one of the items that Gallagher raises during his visit.

Russian officials would likely prefer that Zuppi follows the format of his last visit to Moscow in 2024, when he met with Foreign Minister Lavrov, children’s rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova, and Russian Orthodox leader Patriarch Kirill.

Ultimately, the Russian authorities must have calculated that it is in their interests to welcome the Vatican’s Secretary for Relations with State to Moscow now. They have not invited Gallagher to hear the Holy See’s case for ending the war. Instead, they want to make their own case to a soft power that they believe carries some influence with their adversaries.

Subscribe now

I’m Luke Coppen and I aim to guide you each weekday morning to the most interesting Catholic news and comment.

Read more

I enjoy the tidbits of information about history, culture, industry and fashion she shares along with photos of her finds; but even more, I enjoy her delight in finding things. …

Read more

The Holy See press office announced Aug. 19 that Pope Leo XIV had accepted the resignation of Bishop Karl-Heinz Wiesemann of Speyer, southwestern Germany.

The Vatican gave no reason for the pope’s decision to accept the resignation nine years before Wiesemann turned 75, the standard retirement age for diocesan bishops. German Catholic media described the move as a surprise.

But in a candid letter to Catholics in Speyer — one of Germany’s oldest dioceses — Wiesemann recalled that he had struggled for years with depression and said he felt unable to continue serving at “half strength.”

Wiesemann, who has led the Speyer diocese for more than 18 years, explained in the Aug. 19 letter that he recognized as early as 2019 that he needed professional help. He began psychotherapy, a practice that he continues to this day.

In February 2021, the bishop entered a clinic for treatment for what doctors diagnosed as a “recurrent depressive disorder.” He took a seven-month break from active ministry that included two months at the clinic.

“The immediate trigger at that time was the situation surrounding the investigation and handling of sexual abuse in our diocese. But the deeper background goes back to the very beginning of my time as your bishop,” he wrote.

“From the outset, I experienced the great responsibility that comes with this office amid a rapidly changing world and Church — particularly against the backdrop of the many cases of abuse in our Church that came to light not long after I took office — as an enormous and, at times, overwhelming burden.”

He said the treatment enabled him to return to office, but doctors warned him that stress would continue to impair his ability to carry out his responsibilities. He noted that he was unable to work at the same capacity as before.

Wiesemann said he did his best to establish a “new pastoral and structural direction” for the diocese, an allusion to his strong support for the priorities of the German synodal way and a plan to reduce the number of parishes in Speyer from 70 to nine amid a decline in practicing Catholics.

“But I also know that I no longer have the strength to walk the entire road with you through to the complete implementation of the reform,” he wrote.

“What is needed now is someone who can once again look at the whole picture with fresh visionary eyes and — as is the task of a bishop — seek and shape these paths together with you, with wholehearted passion and trust in the Lord of the Church.”

“Today’s global crisis situation no longer permits a bishop to exercise his office at only half strength.”

Wiesemann said he wanted to step aside before the Speyer diocese entered a three-year preparation period for the 1,000th anniversary celebration in 2030 of the laying of the foundation stone of Speyer Cathedral, the world’s largest surviving Romanesque church and a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Subscribe now

Wiesemann’s early resignation comes a year after Bishop Gregor Maria Hanke stepped down as the Bishop of Eichstätt in Bavaria, southern Germany, at the age of 70.

Hanke said in June 2025 that he had asked to retire five years before the customary resignation age of 75 because of “inner fatigue” caused by “the many challenges, scandals, and unresolved conflicts” that marked his term in office.

Hanke, a critic of the synodal way, said that one of the factors in his resignation was doubt that the initiative would lead to a genuine renewal of the Catholic faith in Germany.

Other German diocesan bishops have sought to retire early in recent years, but were asked to remain in office.

Archbishop Stefan Heße tendered his resignation as Archbishop of Hamburg in March 2021, after an independent report accused him of mishandling abuse cases. But Pope Francis requested that the 54-year-old continue in the role.

Cardinal Reinhard Marx submitted his resignation as Archbishop of Munich and Freising in May 2021, at the age of 67. But Pope Francis declined the offer a month later.

Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki offered his resignation as Archbishop of Cologne in March 2022, at the age of 65, amid criticism of his handling of abuse cases. He also remains in office today.

Wiesemann is one of a handful of European bishops in recent years who have retired early while pointing to the grueling nature of episcopal ministry.

Bishop Valerio Lazzeri stepped down as the Bishop of Lugano, Switzerland, in 2022, at the age of 59, saying he suffered from “inner fatigue.”

“Over the years, the public aspects of representation, institutional governance, and financial and administrative management, which have always been far removed from anything that natural inclinations and ministry had previously led me to cultivate, have become untenable for me, despite the presence of good and competent collaborators, to whom all my gratitude goes as of now,” he said.

Also in 2022, Msgr. Ivan Brient initially accepted his nomination as an auxiliary bishop of Rennes, northwestern France, but withdrew before his episcopal ordination due to “burnout.”

Wiesemann has spoken openly before about his mental health struggles, most notably in a 120-minute podcast, recorded before a live audience at the Catholic Day event in Würzburg in May 2026.

In his letter to Speyer’s Catholics, he wrote: “I know that there is rarely an ideal time for a resignation. But in view of the challenges ahead, I have felt it my responsibility to clear the way now for a new appointment to the episcopal see of Speyer.”

“This weighs heavily on my heart, because I was a bishop in our diocese with pleasure and joy.”

With Wiesemann’s resignation, two of Germany’s 27 dioceses are now vacant. The Diocese of Hildesheim also requires a new bishop after Pope Leo XIV named Bishop Heiner Wilmer as Bishop of Münster.

Subscribe now