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Young Christians, Muslims, Jews at the Vatican: ‘It’s possible to live together in peace’
Posted on 02/10/2025 12:00 PM (CNA Daily News)

Vatican City, Feb 10, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).
In 2023, the conflict between Israel and Hamas dragged universities around the world into a war of ideas with protests, proclamations, and accusations ramping up the tension.
The initial, almost unanimous support for Israel and the condemnation of the 1,200 murders and 252 hostages that Hamas took on Oct. 7, 2023, quickly turned into protests, some very violent, due to the overwhelming Israeli response.
“What happened in the academic world is that it became a place where people can no longer speak freely. Everyone takes sides and silences the other by saying: ‘We’re right, the others are wrong,’” Professor Elitzur Bar-Asher Siegal of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner.
“When I see my students go to a demonstration, I don’t tell them not to do it because I think it represents the issue that matters to them. The problem is when they repeat rhetoric that means nothing or arguments based on fake news; that’s when I feel that the university has failed in its purpose,” the professor commented.
The pro-Palestinian demonstrations held across more than 60 university campuses in the United States were replicated by students in Europe, Australia, and Latin America, who in turn organized hundreds of sit-ins in which they even demanded that each of their universities break academic ties with Israeli institutions.
All of this was forged in the heat of a torrent of social media posts orchestrated to manipulate public opinion, with images and videos that promoted two opposing and partial narratives.
In this context of polarization, the “Middle Meets” project emerged with the aim of creating a space for listening and understanding between Muslim, Jewish, and Christian students.

“We felt that universities around the world were becoming very divided and very extremist. And we wanted to create a platform for Palestinian, Hebrew, and American students to have an in-depth conversation, without superficial slogans and without going to extremes; just listening to each other in an open dialogue,” university student Tomy Stockman explained.
Two months after the Hamas attacks in Israel, this student from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem planted the seed that gave birth to Middle Meets, which is currently run by Bar-Asher Siegal. So far, 33 young people from Israel, Palestine, and the United States have participated.
The first meeting was held remotely in November 2024, but last week they met in person in Rome in an interreligious meeting promoted by the Vatican, thanks to the Pontifical Foundation Scholas Occurrentes.
“More than just meeting, they have lived together and forged bonds of friendship. It hasn’t been easy because they have spoken of painful situations, of war, of confrontation, but it has been a process of sharing pain and suffering,” Bar-Asher Siegal explained.

He also noted the significance of the Vatican lending its facilities for the occasion.
“When we visited Rome’s Campo de Fiori square, we were told that the Vatican banned the Talmud in the 16th century. But here we are now, five centuries later, invited by the Vatican. Things can change,” he said during one of the meetings held Feb. 4 at Palazzo San Calixto, headquarters of the Pontifical Foundation Scholas Occurrentes, located in the central Roman neighborhood of Trastevere.
Ignoring the other: the main cause of polarization
Jewish student Stockman, who attends classes at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem with other Muslim students, said the lack of understanding between Jews and Palestinian Arabs is a constant factor.
“We ignore each other. Before this meeting promoted by Middle Meets, I didn’t have any Palestinian friends,” she revealed, adding that “Society is so divided that it’s almost impossible to start a conversation with someone from another ethnic group.”
In this regard, Stockman hopes the creation of a space for dialogue like this will succeed in forging fruitful bridges of friendship that overcome the divisions present in the social fabric of the Holy Land.

“At this moment there is an Israeli narrative and a Palestinian narrative about the conflict, and we are trying to create a third narrative based on the possibility of coexisting in peace within the societies of the country,” Stockman explained.
Shadan Khatib is one of the young women who participated in the Middle Meets project. She is Muslim and studies at a university in Tel Aviv. When she received the invitation to participate in the meeting, she was initially somewhat skeptical.
“It was very difficult to see your people, innocent civilians, die, and at first I thought that these types of organizations that bring Jews and Muslims together never get anywhere,” she said.
However, a friend who also participated in the project made her change her mind. After two days of living with other young Christians and Jews, she judged the experience to be “very positive.”
Thus, she said she is going back to Tel Aviv with the conviction that the mission of the young people is to “start a new chapter.”
“Peace is very far away now, but I have hope. I think there will be forgiveness if we find a solution that is equal for both parties,” she commented.
“At the end of the day we are all human, we all want to live in peace and happiness,” she emphasized.

One of the most anticipated moments of the program was a meeting with Pope Francis, which occurred at the conclusion of his Feb. 5 general audience. There, the young people had the opportunity to present the conclusions they had worked on, along with a letter expressing their desire for peace in the region.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Does the death penalty deter crime?
Posted on 02/10/2025 11:00 AM (CNA Daily News)

CNA Staff, Feb 10, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).
On his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order promoting the death penalty as an “essential tool for deterring and punishing those who would commit the most heinous crimes and acts of lethal violence against American citizens.”
Following through on copious rhetoric from Trump on the campaign trail, the Jan. 20 order aims to overturn Supreme Court precedents limiting capital punishment, increase its use in federal cases, and ensure states have sufficient lethal injection drugs.
The question of whether the use of the death penalty actually deters and lowers rates of crime — as Trump presumes in his order — is a long-simmering one, with both proponents and opponents of the death penalty variously claiming evidence in their favor.
Here’s a look at the issue.
What does the evidence say?
From a social science perspective, the evidence for whether the death penalty actually deters crime is highly disputed.
Robin Maher, executive director of the Washington D.C.-based nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), told CNA that studies they have reviewed “consistently fail” to demonstrate a link between capital punishment and reduced crime.
She pointed to a resource page from the DPIC that summarizes a number of studies on the death penalty’s deterrent effect. Chief among them is a 2012 study from the congressionally-chartered National Research Council (NRC), which concluded that the existing research was “not informative about whether capital punishment decreases, increases, or has no effect on homicide rates,” while cautioning that “lack of evidence is not evidence for or against the hypothesis.”
A more recent study from 2023, controlling for a number of variables, found that states that placed a moratorium on the death penalty in recent years actually saw a very slight decrease in homicide rates, suggesting the presence of the death penalty had a very small or even nonexistent deterrent effect.
Meanwhile, some studies purporting to demonstrate a strong deterrent effect of the death penalty — some even going so far as to hypothesize how many innocent lives an execution can reasonably be expected to save — have been criticized for apparent shortcomings in accounting for other factors that influence homicide rates.
For her part, Maher said the idea that the death penalty is an especially effective deterrent of crime ignores the fact that a significant number of offenders suffer from severe mental illness or trauma. The actions of such people are less likely to be driven by rational cost-benefit analyses than a healthy person’s actions, she said.
“For someone who doesn’t have these impediments to deal with, who can think about the consequences of committing a crime very rationally and logically, those folks might make a different decision if there’s a death sentence as a possible consequence. But the reality is most murders are committed by people who have serious impairments, physical or mental,” she explained.
While it may be true that the death penalty has some deterrent effect, the DPIC’s resource page notes that other punishments, such as life in prison without parole, might provide equal deterrence at far less cost, and without the attendant risk of executing an innocent person.
Additionally, the aforementioned 2023 study opines that “increased certainty of sanctions” — in other words, offenders’ perception of how likely the threat of punishment is if they break the law — may be a more effective deterrent than “a policy permitting a more severe punishment.”
“All punishment has a specific deterrent effect of some kind already. The fact that you are putting someone in a prison environment, often for the rest of their natural life, is also a very significant punishment that should, in theory, deter future crime,” Maher said.
What should Catholics make of this?
The question of whether or not the death penalty deters crime has not been central to the teachings of recent popes on the death penalty. The writings of St. John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Francis have instead emphasized the inherent dignity of all human beings, even those who have committed crimes.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church, reflecting a 2018 update promulgated by Pope Francis, describes the death penalty as “inadmissible” and an “attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person” (No. 2267). Because of this teaching, the Church “works with determination for its abolition worldwide,” the catechism continues.
Most recently, Pope Francis underlined his strong opposition to capital punishment in a book preface, saying that “the death penalty is in no way a solution to the violence that can strike innocent people.”
“Capital executions, far from bringing justice, fuel a sense of revenge that becomes a dangerous poison for the body of our civil societies,” the pope said.
That said, Catholics in the U.S. public sphere, including the U.S. bishops, have occasionally made reference to the “deterrence” argument for the death penalty in recent decades.
In a 1980 statement on the death penalty, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) noted that “while it is certain that capital punishment prevents the individual from committing further crimes, it is far from certain that it actually prevents others from doing so.”
“There are strong reasons to doubt that many crimes of violence are undertaken in a spirit of rational calculation which would be influenced by a remote threat of death. The small number of death sentences in relation to the number of murders also makes it seem highly unlikely that the threat will be carried out and so undercuts the effectiveness of the deterrent,” the bishops wrote.
Further, the bishops noted the practical reality that lengthy delays in carrying out executions “diminishes the effectiveness of capital punishment as a deterrent, for it makes the death penalty uncertain and remote. Death row can be the scene of conversion and spiritual growth, but it also produces aimlessness, fear, and despair.”
Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, executive director of the anti-death penalty group Catholic Mobilizing Network (CMN), directly criticized the deterrence argument contained in Trump’s Jan. 20 order.
“What we know about the death penalty is that it does not deter crime or make communities safer. It’s immoral, flawed, and risky; arbitrary and unfair; cruel and dehumanizing. Both the state and federal death penalty systems are broken beyond repair and emblematic of a throwaway culture,” Vaillancourt Murphy said in a statement to CNA at the time.
Taking a different view, Edward Feser, a Catholic philosopher who coauthored a 2017 book defending the use of the death penalty, told CNA that while not the main focus of its argument, he believes social science favors the idea that the death penalty does deter crime.
In the book “By Man Shall His Blood Be Shed,” Feser and his coauthor Joseph Bessette cite nine peer-reviewed studies that purport to demonstrate a deterrent effect while also tipping a hat to the aforementioned NRC study that equivocated on the question.
The “inconclusiveness” of the statistical evidence, they assert — echoing the U.S. bishops’ 1980 statement — “can plausibly be attributed to such factors as protracted appeals processes and other obstacles to carrying out executions, which dilute the deterrent effects of the death penalty,” adding “for which opponents of capital punishment are themselves largely responsible.”
While concluding in the book that “from the perspective of quantitative social science, the deterrent effect of the death penalty is very much an open question,” Feser argued to CNA that it is “silly to suppose in the first place that this is the sort of thing one really needs social scientific studies to establish.”
“Nobody thinks that any sort of punishment will always deter everyone everywhere. But nobody doubts that punishments will at least deter many people much of the time, and that harsher punishments will, all things being equal, have a greater deterrence effect. It quite obviously follows that the death penalty is bound to have deterrence value,” he said.
In the book, Feser and Bessette argue that the Catholic Church has historically affirmed the legitimacy of capital punishment as a just practice. They acknowledge that there have always been different views within the Church on the application of the death penalty but maintain that the Church’s teaching that capital punishment is legitimate in principle has been consistent.
Addressing concerns raised by others that the death penalty has been applied fallibly and in a biased manner in the United States, Feser said the solution ought “not be to get rid of it but rather to reform it so that it is applied in a fair way.”
“[G]iven that the death penalty deters, mercy toward the innocent would require making use of it. But there is also a kind of mercy to the guilty person himself, if we are looking at things from a theological point of view and not just from a worldly point of view. For this life is, of course, not what is most important. What is most important is the destiny of one’s soul in the next life,” he said.
“St. Thomas Aquinas pointed out that the prospect of execution can actually prod an offender to repent of his evildoing while he still has time to get himself right with God. And as the catechism teaches, when an offender accepts a deserved punishment in a penitential spirit, it has expiatory value. It contributes to the salvation of his soul.”
'AI will bring upheavals on scale comparable to the Industrial Revolution'
Posted on 02/10/2025 06:17 AM ()
One of the authors of the Holy See's groundbreaking document on artificial intelligence 'Antiqua et Nova,' Archbishop Carlo Maria Polvani, Secretary of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, shares key insights from the document, and suggesting that AI will have ramifications akin to those of the Industrial Revolution.
Pope: Indigenous peoples have right to preserve cultural identity
Posted on 02/10/2025 05:28 AM ()
Pope Francis sends a message to participants in a UN meeting on Indigenous Peoples, and stresses their right to preserve their cultural identity and the natural resources to which they are closely linked.
Church bombed in Myanmar, Cardinal Bo prays for peace and faith
Posted on 02/10/2025 02:14 AM ()
Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, Archbishop of Yangon, has prayed for peace in Myanmar at an interfaith prayer event, as the military junta bombs a Catholic church.
Ukrainian military chaplain: Bringing God into darkness of war
Posted on 02/10/2025 01:08 AM ()
During a visit to Rome for the Jubilee of the Armed Forces, Jesuit Father Andriy Zelinskyy, from the Patriarchal Curia of the Greek Catholic Church, speaks to Vatican News about the need to care for the wounds caused by constant attacks against truth, justice, and beauty.
PHOTOS: Military, police gather with Pope Francis for Armed Forces jubilee Mass
Posted on 02/9/2025 14:00 PM (CNA Daily News)

Rome Newsroom, Feb 9, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).
Pope Francis presided over the Jubilee Mass for Armed Forces, Police and Security Personnel on Sunday, with Archbishop Diego Ravelli reading his prepared homily as the pontiff recovers from bronchitis.
Over the Feb. 8-9 weekend, approximately 30,000 men and women from more than 100 countries participated in various jubilee festivities in Rome, including a pilgrimage to the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica.

During the outdoor Mass in St. Peter’s Square, Archbishop Ravelli, reading the pope’s prepared homily, thanked those who have dedicated their lives to a “lofty mission that embraces numerous aspects of social and political life.”

“You are present in penitentiaries and at the forefront of the fight against crime and the various forms of violence that threaten to disrupt the life of society,” Ravelli read from the pope’s text.

The prepared homily continued: “I think too of all those engaged in relief work in the wake of natural disasters, the safeguarding of the environment, rescue efforts at sea, the protection of the vulnerable and the promotion of peace.”

Praising their vigilance amid “the opposing forces of evil,” the homily noted that security personnel who protect the defenseless and uphold law and order in cities and neighborhoods can “teach us that goodness can prevail over everything.”

The papal text also acknowledged the chaplains who provide moral and spiritual support to military and security personnel, describing them as “the presence of Christ, who desires to walk at your side, to offer you a listening and sympathetic ear, to encourage you to set out ever anew and to support you in your daily service.”

The homily concluded with a call for those gathered to have the courage to be peacemakers who never lose sight of their purpose to save and protect lives, warning: “Be vigilant not to be taken in by the illusion of power and the roar of arms... Be vigilant lest you be poisoned by propaganda that instils hatred, divides the world into friends to be defended and foes to fight.”

Speaking in his own voice during the Angelus prayer that followed the Mass, Pope Francis invoked the intercession of the Virgin Mary, Queen of Peace, for those who are the “servants of the security and freedom of their peoples.”
“This armed service should be exercised only in legitimate defense, never to impose domination over other nations, always observing the international conventions,” the pope said, referencing Gaudium et Spes.

“Brothers and sisters, let us pray for peace in the tormented Ukraine, in Palestine, in Israel and throughout the Middle East, in Myanmar, in Kivu, in Sudan,” he urged.
“May the weapons be silent everywhere and the cry of the peoples, who ask for peace, be heard!”

Cardinal Koch rejects extreme traditionalist, progressive positions on Vatican II
Posted on 02/9/2025 12:00 PM (CNA Daily News)

Madrid, Spain, Feb 9, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).
In his acceptance speech for the honorary doctorate awarded him by the Catholic University of Valencia, Cardinal Kurt Koch rejected the extreme positions of progressives and traditionalists regarding the Second Vatican Council.
The prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity reflected in his address on the tension between the two essential parts of the Second Vatican Council: fidelity to the sources and fidelity to the signs of the times.
For the cardinal, “the relationship between these two dimensions has always characterized the Church, but the tension has become more acute in a new way after Vatican II.”
Faced with this dichotomy, Koch argued that “beyond secularist conformism and separatist fundamentalism, it is necessary to seek a third path in the Catholic faith, which has already been shown to us by the council.”
According to the prefect, both the so-called progressives and the traditionalists “conceive of Vatican II as a rupture, although in opposite ways.” For the former, the rupture occurred after the council, while the latter understand that it occurred during it.
In light of this, the cardinal considered that “the two extreme positions are so close, precisely because they do not interpret Vatican II within the general tradition of the Church.”
In his address, Koch recalled, with regard to the traditionalist view that focuses solely on the sources, that Pope Benedict XVI stated that “the magisterial authority of the Church cannot be frozen in 1962.”
The risk of worldliness in the Church
On the other hand, “if the emphasis is placed solely on ‘aggiornamento’ [updating], there is a danger that the opening of the Church to the world, desired and achieved by the council, will become a hasty adaptation of the foundations of faith to the spirit of the modern age,” the cardinal noted.
“Many currents in the postconciliar period were so oriented toward the world that they did not notice the tentacles of the modern spirit or underestimated its impact,” the cardinal observed, “so that the so-called conversion to the world did not cause the leaven of the Gospel to permeate modern society more but rather led to a broad conformism of the Church with the world.”
Koch’s proposal in the face of both positions, which he considers equally disruptive, is “the restoration of a healthy balance in the relationship between the faith and the Church on the one hand and the world on the other.”
In his view, if the Church cannot be confused with the world, “the original identity of faith and the Church must not be defined in such a way that it separates itself from the world in a fundamentalist way.”
In this sense, he added that the dialogue between the Church and the contemporary world “must not make faith and the Church adapt to the world in a secularist way, dangerously renouncing her identity.”
What does the reform of the Church mean?
For the prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, the reform of the Church cannot imply “a change of essence” but consists in “the elimination of what is inauthentic” through a process of purification of the Church “based on its origins,” so that “the form of the one Church willed by Christ can become visible again.”
“For the council, fidelity to its origins and conformity to the times were not opposed to each other. Rather, the council wanted to proclaim the Catholic faith in a way that was both faithful to its origins and appropriate to the times, in order to be able to transmit the truth and beauty of the faith to the people of today, so that they can understand it and accept it as an aid to their lives,” he emphasized.
For the cardinal, “the council did not create a new Church in rupture with tradition, nor did it conceive a different faith, but rather it aimed at a renewal of faith and a Church renewed on the basis of the spirit of the Christian message that has been revealed once and for all and transmitted in the living tradition of the Church.”
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Nebraska man describes meeting Christ in new autobiography
Posted on 02/9/2025 11:00 AM (CNA Daily News)

Lincoln, Neb., Feb 9, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).
It was a hard hit on the football field, but 12-year-old Derek Ruth of Lincoln, Nebraska, was able to answer all his coach’s questions correctly, so it looked like he was okay.
Suddenly, he ripped off his helmet, screamed, “My head!” and collapsed into his coach’s arms.
As he was life-flighted for emergency surgery, Ruth had a remarkable meeting with Jesus, the first of many tangible encounters he would have as he battled back from the traumatic brain injury. Now, 16 years later, he has written a book about his experiences to help people and to bring them to Christ: “The Eight-Minute Flight.”
“After my first initial encounter with Jesus in heaven, I kept quiet about that experience and only told a few select people, such as my parents and brothers,” Ruth recalled. “I decided to write a book about my life because Jesus kept appearing to me on somewhat of a regular basis when I was in my late teenage years, early 20s.”
His memory remains clear of standing before Jesus in heaven while emergency medical technicians were fighting to save his life.
“I had no real sense of leaving my physical body,” Ruth said. “I could feel all my extremities when I was standing in front of Jesus. It was like I still had my earthly body, but everything was purified and glorified. The quality of the air in heaven made my body feel amazing, especially my hands and feet…. I just felt perfect.”
Overwhelmed with a sense of peace, Ruth’s eyes were focused on Jesus Christ, who stood before the boy, emanating pure love.
“The only way I can describe it is to say that the physical presence of Jesus is awesome!” Ruth revealed. “His face was perfect. It had a beautiful glow that was completely white — the whitest white I have ever seen. The heart of Jesus was bursting with unconditional light.”
During this moment, the Lord gave Ruth a choice. And so his battle to recover from a traumatic brain injury began.
After his first surgery, Ruth was comatose and resting on a tilt table that elevated his head, a proven method of increasing successful recovery. Doctors also employed induced hypothermia, cooling his body to further protect his brain. A second surgery ensued when his brain continued to swell.
When he finally awoke, he was unable to do anything for himself. The once-healthy athlete only had the use of his left hand.
“Words cannot even come close to giving a comparison to that feeling,” Ruth remembered. “It was just flat out brutal, and at that point I was scared to death.”
Day by day, he fought to regain everything he had lost in the head injury. His family — including his mother and grandfather, who are both physical therapists — remained at his side to help, and countless people prayed for his recovery.
When things got tough, Ruth, a member of North American Martyrs Parish in Lincoln, turned to prayer.
“My faith has gotten me through every trial and tribulation I was faced with,” he stated. “My faith has only grown stronger, along with my personal prayer life.”
While still an inpatient at Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital, he finally told his mother about meeting Jesus in heaven.
“My mom was not surprised or shocked when I told her about being in heaven with Jesus, because Mom knew the person I was and understood how important my Catholic faith is to me,” he said. “Mom also knew about my devotion to the most holy rosary.”
As his recovery progressed, he would occasionally be in prayer when Jesus or the Blessed Mother would appear to him. After learning about Mother Teresa from Father Raymond Jansen, a priest in the Diocese of Lincoln, he began praying for her assistance, and she, too, appeared to him.
“Every appearance I have had up to this point came as an unexpected surprise, and it is scary,” he admitted, “… praying to Jesus and Mary and just having them appear to me unexpectedly!”

Now a University of Nebraska-Lincoln graduate with a sociology degree, Derek lives independently despite some lingering effects from the brain injury. He is limited in his gait and fine motor movements, and he uses a text-to-speech device for verbal communication.
“The visible marks such as my numerous scars are a constant reminder of what I have been through,” he said.
Overall, Ruth emerged with stronger faith and gratitude.
“This experience has changed me by [teaching me to] not take anything for granted, even the little things, because I have learned the hard way how life can change just like that.”
Through the years, Ruth has journaled about his recovery, faith, and encounters with Christ. During college, he determined to put it all into a book so that he could share it with a wider audience.
Now he finds himself in high demand from various retail outlets and organizations who want to book him for speaking engagements.
“I would love to continue telling my story in hopes that it will inspire others,” he said.
“The Eight-Minute Flight” is now available for purchase locally and online. Ruth’s website is theeightminuteflight.com and contains more details, photos, and testimonials from people who have read advanced copies of his book.
One person who shared a testimonial is Bishop James Conley, who met Derek in 2013 shortly after he was installed as bishop of Lincoln.
“Getting to know Derek as a friend and hearing his remarkable story of faith, courage, trust, resilience, and acceptance has profoundly moved me as a bishop,” Conley said.
“Derek’s deep Catholic faith, nurtured by devout parents, continues to inform his life, providing him with a firm foundation for his hope, purpose, and motivation to move forward in life day after day. Through hard work, discipline, and perseverance, and with the heart of a true athlete, Derek continues to provide true hope for all of us, particularly as he describes in vivid language the long and enduring road of rehabilitation.”
This story was first published by Southern Nebraska Register on Jan. 10, 2025, and has been reprinted here with permission.
Kosovo votes amid ethnic tensions
Posted on 02/9/2025 09:06 AM ()
The people of Kosovo began voting Sunday in an election that analysts say could mark another milestone in the young country’s history as it may determine its future territorial integrity in an increasingly volatile region.