St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church and Divine Infant of Prague Mission

St. Michael the Archangel. / Credit: Flickr/thederek412 (CC BY 2.0)

CNA Staff, Mar 7, 2025 / 16:20 pm (CNA).

Amid reports that a Kansas “Satanist” group is planning to hold a so-called “black mass” at the Kansas Capitol later this month, the Catholic bishops of the state are urging prayer and exploring their legal options.

In a direct mockery of the Catholic Mass, groups that have staged so-called “black masses” in recent years have on at least one occasion boasted of possessing a stolen consecrated host with an intent to desecrate the Eucharist in an unspecified but profane ritual. 

The Catholic bishops of Kansas said Thursday that they are “aware of a sacrilegious event scheduled to take place later this month inside the state Capitol,” adding that “spiritual and legal responses are being explored” to counter the planned event. 

“If true, this explicit demonstration of anti-Catholic bigotry will be an insult to not only Catholics but all people of goodwill. Spiritual and legal responses are being explored,” the bishops said in a joint statement shared with CNA on March 6.

“The Catholic bishops of Kansas ask that first and foremost, we pray for the conversion of those taking part in this event, as well as each person’s own conversion of heart during this sacred season of Lent. The Kansas Catholic Conference will continue to update the faithful as the situation unfolds.”

The Satanic Grotto, the group purportedly organizing the March 28 “black mass,” says the event is intended to “dedicate the grounds and our legislature to the glory of Satan.” The group will be “performing rites” and “indulging in sacrilegious blaspheme [sic].” 

The Satanic Grotto has engaged in anti-Catholic political protests in the past, including recently at the Kansas March for Life. 

A traditionalist Catholic group called the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property (TFP) has launched a petition asking Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly to shut down the event at the Capitol. 

Last October, Catholics in Atlanta were outraged and called to prayer when a “black mass” event was announced by the Satanic Temple, a provocative Salem, Massachusetts-based political organization that denies belief in the supernatural and is known for protesting religious symbolism in public spaces.

After legal action by the Atlanta Archdiocese, the Satanic Temple admitted it did not have a consecrated host and did not intend to use one in its “mass.”

In 2014, a planned “black mass” at Harvard University sparked considerable outcry from Catholics, as did another one later that year in Oklahoma City. The latter led to a successful lawsuit from the Oklahoma City Archdiocese against an occult group that claimed to have obtained a consecrated host, leading to the host’s return. 

null / Credit: tglegend/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Mar 7, 2025 / 15:45 pm (CNA).

A New Jersey diocese this week faced a significant setback in its ongoing court battle related to a clergy abuse investigation as the state Supreme Court announced it would consider whether decades of abuse allegations can be presented to a grand jury.

The high court said it would hear from both the state attorney general and the Diocese of Camden in the years-old controversy. Oral arguments are scheduled for April 28-29. 

After a Pennsylvania grand jury report in 2018 found allegations of decades of clergy sexual abuse in that state, former New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal convened a “Clergy Abuse Task Force” to investigate allegations of abuse. 

Heavily redacted documents released by the state Supreme Court and obtained by CNA show that the government sought to impanel a grand jury to consider the findings of the task force, which was charged with “investigating allegations of sexual abuse by clergy and efforts to conceal such abuse in New Jersey.”

In separate filings, the Diocese of Camden argued that grand juries in New Jersey “cannot convene a grand jury to return a presentment unless it addresses public affairs or conditions, censures public officials, or calls attention to imminent conditions.”

Instances of “clergy sexual abuse that is alleged to have taken place decades ago” do not fall under that purview, the diocese argued. 

A state Superior Court ruled in the diocese’s favor in 2023, with an appeals court upholding that ruling last year. The legal documents from both the state and the Camden Diocese were sealed during those proceedings. 

In its ruling this week, the state Supreme Court said it would consider oral arguments regarding the grand jury question, with the high court also granting New Jersey’s request to unseal redacted versions of the court filings from both the state and Camden in the ongoing disagreement. 

In a statement this week, First Assistant Attorney General Lyndsay Ruotolo said the state for years has “been seeking to convene a grand jury to present evidence collected by prosecutors across the state regarding decades of sexual abuse, the conditions that made that abuse possible, and the systematic failures to prevent it.”

“[W]e are grateful that the New Jersey Supreme Court agreed to hear this case,” Ruotolo said. “Now that this case has been made public for the first time in this yearslong dispute, victims and survivors will have an opportunity to make their voices heard — and to speak to the real harms that we have never lost sight of.”

The Camden Diocese did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday morning regarding the state Supreme Court’s decision. 

The lethal injection chamber at the Oklahoma State Penintentiary, May 7, 2010. / Credit: Josh Rushing via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 7, 2025 / 14:20 pm (CNA).

A South Carolina death row inmate is scheduled to die by firing squad on Friday and executions are set to resume in Tennessee with a newly approved lethal injection drug, with both executions coming as states move away from a long-used three-drug lethal injection combination.

At 6 p.m. on Friday, March 7, a firing squad will kill 67-year-old Brad Keith Sigmon, a man convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend’s parents in 2001. He chose the firing squad method because he was worried about possible complications with other methods.

Beginning in the 1980s, execution by lethal injection has become the primary method for executions in most states that have the death penalty. 

Lethal injections have historically been carried out in three steps: one drug to make the victim unconscious, a second to paralyze the body, and a third to stop the heart, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

But amid public pressure from opponents of the death penalty and moral qualms about taking human lives, many drug manufacturers stopped providing the medicine needed to carry out the lethal injections. In recent years many states have begun facing a shortage of drugs and an inability to obtain them.

Without access to those drugs, the states in which the death penalty is still practiced are moving to other forms of execution.

For example, in January of last year, Alabama became the first state to execute a man by forcing him to inhale nitrogen until he died. In a news conference, the spiritual adviser for Kenneth Eugene Smith — the convicted murderer who was executed — said Smith visibly struggled for his life for several minutes before dying and called the execution “torturous.” 

“We saw minutes of someone heaving back and forth, we saw spit, we saw all sorts of stuff from his mouth develop on the mask, we saw this mask tied to the gurney and him ripping his head forward over and over and over again,” Rev. Jeff Hood said. 

Alabama has executed three additional prisoners using nitrogen gas. Louisiana, which has only executed one person since 2002, is set to become the second state to use this method. Jessie Hoffman, a convicted murderer and rapist, is scheduled to die by inhaling nitrogen gas later this month.

South Carolina, meanwhile, has reintroduced the more antiquated execution methods of the electric chair and firing squads. Amid drug shortages for lethal injection and legal challenges against the new methods, executions were paused for about 13 years but resumed in 2024. 

Tennessee, which has not executed any inmates for five years, will now begin executions with a single-drug injection. The first execution is scheduled for May.

Firing squad execution set for Friday

South Carolina on Friday will perform the first execution by firing squad in the United States since 2010, when Utah executed convicted murderer Ronnie Lee Gardner with this method. At the time, this method of execution was rare. It has only been used three times in the country since 1977 but is still permitted in five states.

Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, the executive director of Catholic Mobilizing Network, expressed concern about South Carolina executing people with firing squads, issuing a statement asking: “How did we get here?”

“How does our society think this inhumanity is somehow acceptable?” Murphy said. “The reality is, those are the questions we should ask ourselves each time there is an execution, because the death penalty is contrary to human dignity and an affront to the sanctity of life.”

“The outrage we feel toward these execution methods is a reminder that over time, the system of capital punishment has become all the more deceptive to make executions appear more palatable, sterile, and ‘humane,’” she added. “But executions are never any of these things.”

Executions by firing squad could become more commonplace in Idaho as well. Although the method is legal under state law, it is not the primary form of execution. Lawmakers passed a bill to change that, making firing squads the primary method of execution. The legislation awaits action by the governor. 

Executions resume in Tennessee

Tennessee paused all executions from 1960 through 2000, though it executed just over a dozen people between 2000 and 2020.

The state paused executions during the COVID-19 pandemic and then extended that pause until 2025 to review execution methods. That will end on May 22, when convicted murderer Oscar Smith is scheduled to be executed. Three additional inmates will be executed later this year. 

Rick Musacchio, the executive director of the Tennessee Catholic Conference — which represents the bishops of the three dioceses in the state — told CNA that the state’s bishops have expressed their concerns about the death penalty with Gov. Bill Lee. The conference and the bishops met with the governor last week.

“We addressed life issues with the understanding that the pause on the death penalty for the review of protocols might be ending,” he said. “We reminded him that although the review of protocols had been completed there are still questions about the appropriateness of the state’s plans for carrying out executions. He said that he expected that legal challenges to executions would likely continue.”

Musacchio told CNA that “just as we recognize the human dignity that the unborn have as children of God, we also recognize that even those convicted of committing terrible crimes [are] also his children.”

“The death penalty is simply not necessary to protect the people of Tennessee,” he said.

Murphy, meanwhile, told CNA that the return of the death penalty to Tennessee is “disheartening.”

“For years, national trends of public opinion have been steadily moving away from capital punishment,” she said. “Now we need state leadership to follow suit. We need bold leadership toward a vision of justice that prioritizes the dignity of every person, no matter the harm one has caused or suffered.”

Murphy referenced Pope Francis’ opposition to the death penalty and cited the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which holds that the death penalty “is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person” (No. 2267).

A Muslim chaplain prays during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. / Credit: DVIDSHUB via Flickr, CC BY 20

Vatican City, Mar 7, 2025 / 12:15 pm (CNA).

The Vatican has expressed its solidarity with Muslims participating in the Ramadan fast, noting that Catholics also fast and do penance during the season of Lent and inviting greater dialogue and friendship between people of the two religions.

“Our world is thirsting for fraternity and genuine dialogue,” a March 7 message from the Vatican’s Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue said. “Together, Muslims and Christians can bear witness to this hope in the conviction that friendship is possible despite the burden of history and ideologies that promote exclusion.”

“Hope,” it continued, “is no mere optimism: It is a virtue rooted in faith in God, the Merciful, our Creator.”

In 2025, Ramadan runs from approximately Feb. 28 to March 29. It concludes with the three-day celebration of Eid al-Fitr.

The Christian season of Lent began on March 5 and will end on April 17 with the three days known as the Triduum — Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday — followed by Easter Sunday.

“This year, Ramadan largely coincides with Lent, which for Christians is a period of fasting, supplication, and conversion to Christ,” the dicastery said. “This proximity in the spiritual calendar offers us a unique opportunity to walk side by side, Christians and Muslims, in a common process of purification, prayer, and charity.”

The Vatican’s annual message for Ramadan was signed by the dicastery’s new prefect, Cardinal George Jacob Koovakad, and its secretary, Father Indunil Janakaratne Kodithuwakku Kankanamalage.

Pope Francis appointed Koovakad prefect of the dicastery at the end of January, filling the vacancy left by Cardinal Miguel Ángel Ayuso Guixot, who died in late 2024.

An Indian from the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, Koovakad was previously responsible for the organization of papal trips.

In its message, the interreligious dicastery noted similarities between the Muslim observance of Ramadan and the Catholic observance of Lent.

“By abstaining from food and drink, Muslims learn to control their desires and turn to what is essential. This time of spiritual discipline is an invitation to cultivate piety, the virtue that brings one closer to God and opens the heart to others,” it said. 

“In the Christian tradition, the holy season of Lent invites us to follow a similar path: Through fasting, prayer, and almsgiving we seek to purify our hearts and refocus on the One who guides and directs our lives,” it went on. “These spiritual practices, though expressed differently, remind us that faith is not merely about outward expressions but a path of inner conversion.”

The dicastery said it wanted to reflect on how Christians and Muslims can become “genuine brothers and sisters, bearing common witness to God’s friendship with all humanity.”

“Our trust in God,” Koovakad’s message underlined, “is a treasure that unites us, far beyond our differences. It reminds us that we are all spiritual, incarnate, beloved creatures, called to live in dignity and mutual respect.”

“What is more, we desire to become guardians of this sacred dignity by rejecting all forms of violence, discrimination, and exclusion,” the dicastery continued. “This year, as our two spiritual traditions converge in celebrating Ramadan and Lent, we have a unique opportunity to show the world that faith transforms people and societies and that it is a force for unity and reconciliation.”

The ecumenical World Day of Pray was held on the island of Roratonga in the Cook Islands on March 7, 2025. / Credit: Svetype26|Shutterstock

Rome Newsroom, Mar 7, 2025 / 11:35 am (CNA).

The Cook Islands, a nation in the Pacific Ocean, hosted this year’s ecumenical World Day of Prayer on March 7, bringing together hundreds of people from the country’s six Christian churches.

The World Day of Prayer International Community (WDPIC), formally established in 1968 and led by Christian women, has held prayer services in various countries — including the U.S., Hong Kong, and Brazil — since 1927. Since 1969, the World Day of Prayer has taken place on the first Friday of March.

The purpose of the WDPIC is to bring people together in prayer while addressing various spiritual and material needs of women and girls. To date, women from more than 180 countries are part of the network.

“Our first guiding principle in the World Day of Prayer articulates that our starting point is Christian women,” the WDPIC website states. “This has been an essential conviction of our movement over the last century.”

This year’s World Day of Prayer held in the Cook Islands reflected on the theme “I Made You Wonderful,” based on Psalm 139:14 — “I praise you for, for I am wondrously made. Wonderful are your works! You know me right well.” 

The March 7 event included storytelling, songs, and dances of praise, prayerful reflections, and testimonies of faith.

“I knew people who had died from COVID,” a 15-year-old girl shared at the service. “I was terrified and scared but I knew that prayer would help me to feel calm.”

“I stopped crying and the pressure lifted from my heart,” she continued. “And then I realized that God knows every detail of my life.”

“Knowing that God knows and cares about me helps me to feel calm when I am afraid,” she said. “God knows me, and God knows you, and God knows everything that we are going through.”   

More than 200 women, men, and children — belonging to the Cook Islands Christian Church, Assemblies of God Church, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Seventh-day Adventist Church, Apostolic Church, and the Roman Catholic Church — gathered inside the country’s National Auditorium in Rarotonga for the prayer service.

In preparation for the March 7 service, Bishop Reynaldo Getalado, MSP, of Rarotonga celebrated a special Feb. 9 Mass dedicated to the Catholic women and their families involved in the international World Day of Prayer.

Last month, women of different Christian faiths gathered in the Diocese of Rarotonga’s St. Joseph’s Cathedral to practice the World Day of Prayer theme song, “Wonderfully Made,” composed by Cook Islands woman Ruru Maeva.

“Nothing stood in the way because God was in the lead,” the Diocese of Rarotonga posted on Facebook. “Thank you to all our women who came together tonight and sang from their hearts our song of praise to our God.”

Several Christian groups in the Cook Islands and abroad watched the World Day of Prayer event livestreamed on Facebook, while other Christian groups hosted their own events in conjunction with the WDPIC event.

Maria Zuber, an American planetary scientist involved in multiple NASA missions (left), and Meng Anming, a Chinese developmental biologist specializing in embryonic research, are among five new members whom Pope Francis has appointed to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, the Vatican announced March 7, 2025. / Credit: The White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons; WMShen, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Vatican City, Mar 7, 2025 / 09:50 am (CNA).

Pope Francis has appointed a NASA geophysicist, a Harvard genetics professor, and a Chinese embryonic development researcher among five new members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, the Vatican announced Friday. 

The new appointees include Maria Zuber, an American planetary scientist involved in multiple NASA missions; Olivier Pourquié, a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School; and Meng Anming, a Chinese developmental biologist specializing in embryonic research.  

Also joining the academy are Chilean molecular geneticist Luis Fernando Larrondo Castro and Mexican environmental scientist Cecilia Tortajada. 

The Pontifical Academy of Sciences brings together leading international experts to promote scientific progress and interdisciplinary research. Members participate in study groups and Vatican-hosted meetings to examine key scientific and ethical issues. 

Meet the new members: 

Maria Zuber 

A geophysicist from Norristown, Pennsylvania, Zuber is the E.A. Griswold professor of geophysics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a trustee of Brown University. She has contributed to more than half a dozen NASA planetary missions studying the moon, Mars, Mercury, and asteroids. In 2021, she was appointed co-chair of President Joe Biden’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology. 

Meng Anming

A professor of developmental biology at Tsinghua University in Beijing, Meng specializes in embryonic development, using zebra fish as a model for studying early growth processes. He is a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Olivier Pourquié

A French-born geneticist, Pourquié is a professor at Harvard Medical School and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He previously directed the Institute for Genetics and Molecular and Cellular Biology in France. In 2024, he co-authored a study on standardizing stem-cell-based embryo models.

Luis Fernando Larrondo Castro 

A professor of molecular genetics and microbiology at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, Larrondo has served as director of the Millennium Institute for Integrative Biology (iBio). His research focuses on fungal biological clocks and their role in physiology and host-pathogen interactions.

Cecilia Tortajada

An environmental scientist from Mexico, Tortajada specializes in water, environment, and natural resource management. She is a professor at the University of Glasgow’s School of Social and Environmental Sustainability and an adjunct senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore. She has advised global organizations, including the World Bank and the United Nations.

Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, speaks with “EWTN News Nightly” on March 4, 2025. / Credit: “EWTN News Nightly”/Screenshot

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 7, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Bishop Robert Barron during his visit to the nation’s capital this week to attend President Donald Trump’s joint address to Congress called on Catholic politicians to bring their faith into the public square.

“EWTN News Nightly” Capitol Hill correspondent Erik Rosales sat down with Barron for an interview before the bishop celebrated Mass in the Capitol for lawmakers on March 4 ahead of the address. 

Barron, the founder of the nonprofit global media apostolate Word on Fire, shared with EWTN his message to Catholics serving in Congress: “Don’t leave your faith at the door.”

“We don’t impose the faith. [Pope] John Paul [II] always said, ‘We don’t impose, we propose.’ But they should bring their faith into the public square,” Barron continued.

“It’s not the case that we’re to sequester faith simply into the privacy of our conscience. No, it’s a public reality, and it should inform the decisions that they make here,” he said.

Barron is one of the most well-known American bishops with more than 1.8 million followers on his YouTube channel, where he discusses faith and culture, often touching on politics.

The bishop from the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, who serves as chair of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth, was invited to the joint session of Congress by Rep. Riley Moore of West Virginia. 

During the interview, Barron said he hoped to “just take in the beauty of the event.” 

“I was graciously invited here by Rep. Moore from West Virginia. I’m a student of American history, and I’ve been watching these addresses for many years,” he said.

“Just the chance to be in the chamber and to hear the president, see the whole government assemble. All that was attractive to me, so I accepted the invitation,” Barron added.

Earlier this year, the media apostolate announced plans to establish a new order of Word on Fire priests. During the “EWTN News Nightly” interview, Rosales asked Barron what he hopes this order will bring to the Church. 

“I just think the needful thing today in the Church is this outreach to the unaffiliated,” Barron responded. “I think it’s the central problem we have, is the number, especially of young people, who are disaffiliating from the Church.”

“A lot of my ministry has been focused on that — to appeal through truth and beauty, to bring the great tradition forward, and to try to draw people back to the Church,” he said.

“What I didn’t want was this ministry simply to end with me. I thought, I want it to go on after I’m gone. Could there be an order, I wondered, that would carry on this charism of using the media in an intelligent way, in a beautiful way, reaching out to the unaffiliated?” he said.

The interview wrapped up with a brief discussion of Pope Francis and the bishop’s thoughts on the Holy Father’s health battle.

“We’ve been praying for him for the last now almost three weeks he’s been in the hospital. So it’s been a pretty dicey time, and we’ve been following the news and accompanying him with our prayers,” he said.

“Just praying for him and hoping that he can recover and get back to his mission,” Barron concluded. 

Sts. Perpetua and Felicity. / Credit: National Catholic Register files

National Catholic Register, Mar 7, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).

Many have heard of Sts. Perpetua and Felicity, early saints mentioned in Eucharistic Prayer I (the Roman Canon). But most don’t know much more than that, which is a pity. The two have a dramatic story — which St. Perpetua recorded herself in the days before her death. She also recorded the visions she received during that time.

As the Church celebrates the feast of Sts. Perpetua and Felicity on March 7, here are 10 things to know about these early martyrs.

1. Who was St. Perpetua?

Perpetua was a young Christian woman and martyr who died just after the year 200 in North Africa. When she was still a catechumen, she and several acquaintances were taken into custody.

According to the “Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicity”:

“And among them also was Vivia Perpetua, respectably born, liberally educated, a married matron, having a father and mother and two brothers, one of whom, like herself, was a catechumen, and a son an infant at the breast. She herself was about 22 years of age.”

No mention is made of her husband, who may have already been dead.

After being baptized, Perpetua received several visions and was eventually martyred. We also learn about her companions and other members of her family, including her father and her younger brother, who had died previously of cancer.

2. What is the ‘Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicity’?

It is a document describing what happened to Perpetua and her companions. It is also called “The Passion of the Holy Martyrs Perpetua and Felicity.”

The document is composed of a preface followed by six chapters.

What is particularly special is that about half of the document was written by the martyr herself:

• Chapters 1–3 were penned by St. Perpetua while she was awaiting execution. 

• Chapter 4 was written by one of her companions and fellow martyrs, Saturus.

• Chapter 5–6 (and the preface) were written by the anonymous editor, who was apparently an eyewitness of the martyrdoms.

3. What does Perpetua’s writing reveal about her father?

Perpetua’s father was a most remarkable and persistent man.

Apparently, he was the only member of her family who did not share the Christian faith. He made repeated attempts to get her to renounce the faith, and he suffered greatly at the thought his daughter would be killed by the authorities. Perpetua was deeply moved to see how much he was suffering because of his love for her.

He comes to her repeatedly throughout the text, trying to find a way to save her life. He doesn’t realize what it would mean for her to abandon the faith, but you can’t help feeling for his persistence, inventiveness, and raw desperation in trying to find a way to save his daughter’s life.

On one occasion, this happened:

“And then my father came to me from the city, worn out with anxiety. He came up to me, that he might cast me down [from my profession of faith], saying,

“‘Have pity my daughter, on my gray hairs. Have pity on your father, if I am worthy to be called a father by you. If with these hands I have brought you up to this flower of your age, if I have preferred you to all your brothers, do not deliver me up to the scorn of men. Have regard to your brothers, have regard to your mother and your aunt, have regard to your son, who will not be able to live after you. ...’

“These things said my father in his affection, kissing my hands, and throwing himself at my feet; and with tears he called me not Daughter, but Lady.

“And I grieved over the gray hairs of my father, that he alone of all my family would not rejoice over my passion.

“And I comforted him, saying, ‘On that scaffold whatever God wills shall happen. For know that we are not placed in our own power, but in that of God.’ And he departed from me in sorrow.”

On another occasion, he tried to get her to renounce the faith using an appeal to her infant son:

“Another day, while we were at dinner, we were suddenly taken away to be heard [by the judicial authorities], and we arrived at the town hall.

“At once the rumor spread through the neighborhood of the public place, and an immense number of people were gathered together. We mount the platform. The rest were interrogated, and confessed [the Christian faith].

“Then they came to me, and my father immediately appeared with my boy, and withdrew me from the step, and said in a supplicating tone, ‘Have pity on your babe.’”

The pagan authorities even beat Perpetua’s father with rods in front of her to try to get her to abandon the faith, but she wouldn't.

Ultimately, though, her father’s efforts fail. She stays true to what she told him at the beginning of his efforts:

“‘Father,’ said I, ‘do you see, let us say, this vessel lying here to be a little pitcher, or something else?’

“And he said, ‘I see it to be so.’

“And I replied to him, ‘Can it be called by any other name than what it is?’

“And he said, ‘No.’

“‘Neither can I call myself anything else than what I am, a Christian.’”

4. What visions does Perpetua receive?

Several visions are narrated in the text:

• The first is a vision of a ladder, and it concerns Perpetua’s martyrdom and arrival in heaven.

• She also has a pair of visions concerning her deceased brother, Dinocrates, who is trying to drink from a fountain.

• In another vision, she fights the devil in the form of an Egyptian gladiator.

5. What happens in the vision of the ladder?

One vision concerns the fact that she will be martyred:

“Then my brother said to me, ‘My dear sister, you are already in a position of great dignity, and are such that you may ask for a vision, and that it may be made known to you whether this is to result in a passion [a martyrdom] or an escape.’”

She then receives the following vision:

“I saw a golden ladder of marvellous height, reaching up even to heaven, and very narrow, so that persons could only ascend it one by one; and on the sides of the ladder was fixed every kind of iron weapon. There were there swords, lances, hooks, daggers; so that if any one went up carelessly, or not looking upwards, he would be torn to pieces and his flesh would cleave to the iron weapons. And under the ladder itself was crouching a dragon of wonderful size, who lay in wait for those who ascended, and frightened them from the ascent.

“And [my companion] Saturus went up first, who had subsequently delivered himself up freely on our account, not having been present at the time that we were taken prisoners. And he attained the top of the ladder, and turned toward me, and said to me, ‘Perpetua, I am waiting for you; but be careful that the dragon does not bite you.’

“And I said, ‘In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, he shall not hurt me.’ And from under the ladder itself, as if in fear of me, he slowly lifted up his head; and as I trod upon the first step, I trod upon his head.

“And I went up, and I saw an immense extent of garden, and in the midst of the garden a white-haired man sitting in the dress of a shepherd, of a large stature, milking sheep; and standing around were many thousand white-robed ones.

“And he raised his head, and looked upon me, and said to me, ‘You are welcome, daughter.’

“And he called me, and from the cheese as he was milking he gave me as it were a little cake, and I received it with folded hands; and I ate it, and all who stood around said ‘Amen.’

“And at the sound of their voices I was awakened, still tasting a sweetness which I cannot describe. And I immediately related this to my brother, and we understood that it was to be a passion, and we ceased henceforth to have any hope in this world.”

6. What happens in the visions of her little brother?

Perpetua relates the first as follows:

“I saw Dinocrates going out from a gloomy place, where also there were several others, and he was parched and very thirsty, with a filthy countenance and pallid color, and the wound on his face which he had when he died.

“This Dinocrates had been my brother after the flesh, seven years of age who died miserably with disease — his face being so eaten out with cancer, that his death caused repugnance to all men.

“For him I had made my prayer, and between him and me there was a large interval, so that neither of us could approach to the other.

“And moreover, in the same place where Dinocrates was, there was a pool full of water, having its brink higher than was the stature of the boy; and Dinocrates raised himself up as if to drink. And I was grieved that, although that pool held water, still, on account of the height to its brink, he could not drink. And I was aroused, and knew that my brother was in suffering.”

Perpetua then begins to pray daily for him to ease his suffering, and she eventually receives the following vision:

“I saw that that place which I had formerly observed to be in gloom was now bright; and Dinocrates, with a clean body well clad, was finding refreshment. 

“And where there had been a wound, I saw a scar; and that pool which I had before seen, I saw now with its margin lowered even to the boy’s navel. 

“And one drew water from the pool incessantly, and upon its brink was a goblet filled with water; and Dinocrates drew near and began to drink from it, and the goblet did not fail. 

“And when he was satisfied, he went away from the water to play joyously, after the manner of children, and I awoke.

“Then I understood that he was translated from the place of punishment.”

This pair of visions testify to the belief in the early Christian community of the value of praying for the departed and to what we would now refer to as purgatory.

7. Who was Felicity?

Perpetua is often mentioned together with one of her companions — Felicity — as is the case in Eucharistic Prayer I.

Felicity was another woman who was arrested at a time when she was eight months pregnant. She was eager to go to heaven, however, and did not want to be delayed by being martyred after her friends.

The fact that she was pregnant, however, might have interfered with this, since it was not lawful to put a pregnant woman to death.

She and her companions therefore prayed and, though she was not yet full term, she delivered her baby — a girl — who was given to a “sister” (a fellow Christian woman) to raise as her own daughter.

Felicity thus was able to be martyred with her friends.

8. How did Perpetua and Felicity die?

Perpetua and her companions were martyred by being subjected to wild beasts.

The men were subjected to a leopard, a bear, and a boar.

Perpetua and Felicity were subjected to a fierce cow (or ox).

The account of their martyrdom includes interesting details, such as the fact that when Perpetua’s garment was torn, she drew it over herself to protect her modesty and, when her hair was disheveled, she did it up again, lest she be thought to be mourning in the moment of her glory.

It is also reported that she and her companions experienced the pains of martyrdom in a kind of ecstasy, as if someone else were suffering them.

As they died, they exhorted others to find salvation in the Lord.

At the end, they were dispatched by a gladiator, with Perpetua guiding the gladiator’s sword to her own throat.

The anonymous editor comments:

“Possibly such a woman could not have been slain unless she herself had willed it, because she was feared by the impure spirit [the devil].”

9. Are Perpetua’s visions approved private revelations?

The Church did not have the modern system of approving private revelations in place in her day, nor has it gone back over Church history and applied it to ones in early Church history.

Perpetua is a saint, however, and her visions do not contain anything contrary to the faith. They seem (to me) entirely wholesome, and I see no reason to doubt that they were prompted by motions of God’s grace.

10. Where can we read the full story of Perpetua and her companions?

They can be read here.

This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, and has been adapted and updated by CNA.

null / Credit: FabrikaSimf/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 6, 2025 / 16:50 pm (CNA).

The U.S. Catholic bishops reiterated their support on Thursday for a bill to protect women’s sports after the measure failed to pass the Senate in a procedural vote this week.

In a statement released by the bishops’ conference, Bishop Robert Barron and Bishop David O’Connell called the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act “commonsense legislation that would ensure fairness for female athletes.”

The proposed legislation, which passed the House in January, would have prevented federally funded sports programs under Title IX from allowing male students to compete or participate in women’s and girls’ athletic programs.

Although a majority of senators backed the legislation on a 51-45 vote, the proposal received no support from Democrats and failed to reach the necessary three-fifths supermajority.

In a joint statement, the bishops said: “The teaching of the Catholic Church calls us to advocate for the equal dignity of men and women, recognizing that God created us male and female. This legislation would ensure a level playing field for women and girls to compete in fairness and safety with other females.”

“An ideological promotion of personal identity, detached from biological reality, undermines human dignity and the role sports play in true educational formation.”

Barron and O’Connell, who chair the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth, and Committee on Catholic Education, respectively, stated their full support of the legislation in a January letter sent to Senators urging them to vote for the bill.

After the failed vote the bishops said: “We reiterate our long-standing support for this act and encourage female student athletes nationwide to continue to strive to uphold fairness and equality in athletic competitions.”

The exterior of the new Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine in Oklahoma City. / Credit: Joe Holdren/EWTN News

CNA Staff, Mar 6, 2025 / 16:20 pm (CNA).

A Catholic charter school is appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court to approve the nation’s first publicly funded religious charter school in a case that could reshape school choice and religious freedom in the U.S.

In an opening brief filed on Wednesday, St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School — a Catholic charter school managed by the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa and Eastern Oklahoma — maintained that it is religious discrimination for the state to withhold generally available funding solely because the school is religious.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court previously ordered Oklahoma’s charter school board to rescind the contract with St. Isidore in June, citing the First Amendment’s prohibition of laws that would establish a state religion.

Shortly after, both St. Isidore and the Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board filed separate petitions to the U.S. Supreme Court in October 2024.

In the opening briefs, St. Isidore and the school board maintained that if the state is going to offer general funding for private charter organizations, it cannot deny that funding to a charter school on the basis of religion. 

“The First Amendment protects St. Isidore from discriminatory state laws that would bar it from participating in that program or receiving funding solely because the school it has designed is religious,” read the brief filed by the Notre Dame Law School’s Lindsay and Matt Moroun Religious Liberty Clinic, a teaching law practice that trains Notre Dame law students.

The attorneys pointed out that Oklahoma designed the program “to foster educational diversity through privately designed and operated charter schools … but Oklahoma denies that opportunity to religious entities solely because they are religious.” 

In a similar vein, the charter school board argued on Wednesday that the Oklahoma Supreme Court decision was a “distortion of the First Amendment” that “would have devastating effects on religious organizations,” according to the opening brief filed by Alliance Defending Freedom, a nonprofit that defends First Amendment rights. 

“Faith-based groups often provide vital public services in which they partner with the government or are subject to government regulation,” the brief read. “Yet under the decision below, many of these organizations would be deemed state actors disqualified from providing broad-ranging social services — including foster care, adoption services, medical care, homeless shelters, and other aid to disadvantaged communities.”

Isidore was initially approved to be a charter school by the state board in 2023, but Oklahoma’s Republican Attorney General Gentner Drummond filed a lawsuit against the board, arguing the establishment violated the state’s religious liberty protections.

Drummond opposed the charter school’s petitions to the Supreme Court last year, maintaining that having a Catholic charter school is a “clear-cut First Amendment violation,” according to a Dec. 9 press release.

Nicole Stelle Garnett, John P. Murphy Foundation professor of law at Notre Dame, said St. Isidore is asking the Supreme Court to uphold its “basic right against religious discrimination.”

“States routinely partner with faith-based organizations to serve the public — whether by providing education, shelter, food, health care, you name it,” Garnett said. “The Supreme Court has repeatedly made clear that the government may not offer support to private groups like these and then deny that opportunity to organizations based on their religion.”

Oklahoma ranked 49th in education in the U.S. in 2024, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation, with 84% of its eighth graders testing “not proficient” in math and 76% of its fourth graders “not proficient” in reading.

Michael Scaperlanda, chancellor of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and chairman of St. Isidore's Board, noted that the archdiocese wanted to improve educational access for Oklahomans. 

“Too many children in Oklahoma — particularly in remote and rural communities — don’t have robust learning opportunities or access to schools that may serve their children’s individual needs,” Scaperlanda said in a March 6 statement. “We want to help fill that gap by offering an excellent, Catholic education to all interested families across the state, regardless of their zip code, their income, or any other circumstance.” 

“All children deserve to thrive in an environment that fits them, and we hope to help make that a reality,” Scaperlanda added. 

There are more than 30 privately operated charter schools in Oklahoma. John Meiser, director of Notre Dame Law School’s Religious Liberty Clinic, lauded Oklahoma’s endeavor to “foster educational pluralism” and “create a diversity of learning options for all children” but noted that this must be open to all.  

“That is a great endeavor. But bedrock constitutional law is clear: Oklahoma cannot invite any and all educators to participate in it except those who happen to be religious,” Meiser said. 

The Supreme Court will hear arguments on April 30, with a decision expected this summer.