In an era where the digital world has become the new public square, Bishop Robert Barron is taking a bold step to ensure the Catholic Church not only has a voice in the conversation but leads it. On January 15, Word on Fire, Barron’s influential media apostolate, announced an ambitious new initiative: the founding of a religious order dedicated entirely to evangelizing through digital platforms.
This development is not just another expansion of Word on Fire–it represents a new model of priestly life, one that places digital mission work at its core. The move signals a recognition that the internet is not simply a tool for spreading the Gospel but a mission field in itself, one that demands a dedicated response from the Church.
Barron’s journey as a digital priest began modestly in the late 1990s with a series of Sunday Gospel reflections aired on a Chicago radio station at an inconvenient early morning hour. Realizing the limitations of radio, a friend suggested he post his homilies online. What began as a simple website soon evolved into Word on Fire, an international multimedia ministry that has reached millions.

The Pope has taken conser-vative bishops and cardinals to task for the way they dress, suggesting their adherence to ostentatious styles reveals a “rigidity” of mind that in some cases may even reach a level of “mental instability” and “emotional deviation.”
The Pope made his criticism of the sartorial preferences of traditional-leaning prelates in his autobiography titled Hope, which was published on 14 January. Their “rigidity”, he writes, “is often accompanied by elegant and costly tailoring, lace, fancy trimmings, rochets”, which he described as amounting to “clerical ostentation.” The Pope then adds: “These ways of dressing up sometimes conceal mental imbalance, emotional deviation, behavioural difficulties, a personal problem that may be exploited.”
In his autobiography, Francis stresses how he avoided the tri-mmings and finery of papal tra-dition once he was elected in 2013. “They offered me a beautiful golden cross and I said: ‘I have this nickel silver one from my episcopal ordination, I’ve been carrying it for 20 years,’” he writes. He also notably turned down the papal red shoes favoured by his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI. “The red shoes? No, I have orthopaedic shoes. I’m rather flat footed,” he said at the time, he recalls in his book. “Likewise, I didn’t want the velvet mozzetta, nor the linen rochet…They were not for me. Two days later they told me I would have to change my trousers, wear white ones. They made me laugh. ‘I don’t want to be an ice-cream seller,’ I said. And I kept my own,” he writes.

“Communication means stepping outside ourselves a bit to give something of myself to another,” Pope Francis told hundreds of communications professionals on Jan. 25, speaking spontaneously after setting aside his prepared remarks at the Vatican’s Jubilee of the World of Communications.
“In my hands, I have a nine-page speech,” the pope said with a smile to participants gathered in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall. He announced to an applauding audience that he would have this document distributed but only speak briefly, given the hour and the fact that everyone was hungry.
“To know how to communicate is a great wisdom, and I am happy that this jubilee of communicators is taking place. Your work is one that builds. It builds society and it builds the Church,” the pope said, provided journa-lists are truthful and “real” in their interior life.
The Jan. 25 encounter with communicators was one of several Saturday jubilee audiences of 2025, following a first meeting with pilgrims. The event began with a dialogue featuring Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa and author Colum McCann, moderated by veteran Italian journalist Mario Calabresi.
The pope’s prepared message, later shared with participants, addressed several pressing concerns facing modern communications. The text called attention to journalists who died covering conflicts in the past year, noting that more than 120 media professionals lost their lives in 2024. The written remarks also warned against what the pope termed “brain rot” caused by constant social media scrolling, calling for greater media literacy and critical thinking, especially among young people. “We need courageous entrepreneurs, courageous information engineers, so that the beauty of communication is not corrupted,” the prepared text stated.

Catholic advocacy groups, southern border dioceses and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bi-shops are expressing deep concern after President Donald Trump signed a series of executive orders targeting immigration on his first week in the Oval Office.
Particularly troubling to these groups are his actions tied to the declaration of a national emer-gency at the southern border and his attempt to end birth right citizenship, a right long upheld under the 14th Amendment of the Constitution to anyone born on American soil, regardless of their parents’ immigration status.
Federal immigration autho-rities also will now be allowed to conduct enforcement actions in traditionally protected areas, including churches and schools, marking a sharp departure from previous policies, according to a Jan. 21 statement by the Depart-ment of Homeland Security, which said the move empowers agents to make arrests without restrictions tied to “so-called ‘sensitive’ areas.”
“Some provisions contained in the Executive Orders, such as those focused on the treatment of immigrants and refugees, foreign aid, expansion of the death penalty, and the environment, are deeply troubling and will have negative consequences, many of which will harm the most vulnerable among us,” said Abp Timothy Broglio, president of the U.S. bishops’ conference.

The Catholic Church in Mexi-co reiterated its commitment to supporting migrants in the country after U.S. President Donald Trump signed executive orders declaring a national emergency at the U.S. southern border and tightening immigration policies.
Among the measures announced are the reactivation of the “Remain in Mexico” policy, mass deportations, and an order seeking to eliminate U.S. citizen-ship by birth right. In this context, the bishops of Mexico, through a statement signed by Bishop Eugenio Lira Rugarcía, head of migration ministry, and Bishop Héctor Mario Pérez Villarreal, secretary-general of the Mexican Bishops’ Conference (CEM), expressed “solidarity, our pra-yers, and our determination to continue serving migrants.”
“In the midst of a harsh winter, many people and families on the move are experiencing moments of anguish, pain, fear, and uncertainty in the face of the provisions of the United States federal government related to migration,” the bishops lamented.
However, they assured that they will continue to strive “so that in our homes, shelters, and reception centers [migrants] find shelter and food; support in caring for their physical, emotional, and spiritual health; assistance in contacting their families and obtaining the documentation they need; [and] legal advice and support for the procedures they need to carry out.”
“We are convinced that, united, we can offer hope to every-one,” the bishops said, empha-sizing their willingness to colla-borate with authorities and civil organizations in the effort to “welcome, protect, promote, and integrate our migrant and deported brothers and sisters.” The bishops also called on society to support the works of the Catholic Church and migrants and deportees.

A pioneering probe into clerical abuse in northern Italy’s Bolzano-Bressanone Diocese has uncovered 67 cases involving 59 victims over a nearly 60-year period, according to a study released on Jan. 20.
The 635-page report examined cases from 1964 to 2023 in the northern Italian region of Alto Adige-Südtirol and identified 41 clergy members as alleged per-petrators. However, researchers could definitively confirm alle-gations against only 29 of the accused, while claims against the remaining 12 clergy could not be verified with sufficient certainty.
In what researchers called a “surprising” finding, more than 51% of the victims were female, while only 18% were definitively identified as male. This pattern marks a significant departure from similar studies in Germany, where male victims predomina-ted, reported CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner.
The study, conducted by Munich-based law firm Westpfahl Spilker Wastl, noted that the diocese’s handling of abuse cases has improved since 2010. Resear-chers particularly praised former Bishop Karl Golser (2008–2011) for establishing the diocese’s list-ening centre – described as “an absolute novelty in Italy” – though they noted that before 2010, diocesan leadership had “mostly reacted inadequately or inappro-priately.”
The report acknowledged sincere efforts by current leader-ship – Bishop Ivo Muser since 2011 and Vicar General Eugen Runggaldier since 2018 – to improve the diocese’s approach to abuse cases and support for victims.

Nigeria was the country with the most Christians killed and kidnapped in 2024, according to the latest report from advocacy group Open Doors.
The World Watch List, re-leased Jan. 15, found that 3,100 Christians were killed and 2,830 Christians were kidnapped in Nigeria in 2024, far more than other countries in the same year. The report also said the country with the most Christians arrested in 2024 was India, at 2,176, and Rwanda experienced the most attacks on Christian churches or buildings with 4,000.
The Open Doors watch list confirmed that Christian persecution continued to grow “in absolute terms” among the about 100 countries the group monitored in 2024, with 13 countries classified at “extreme levels” of Christian persecution. The group estimates over 380 million Christians worldwide experienced at least a “high level” of persecution and discrimination because of their faith.
North Korea, Somalia, Yemen, Libya, and Sudan are the report’s top five countries for Christian persecution in 2024. Nigeria ranks No. 7 on the watch list. Eritrea, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, India, Saudi Arabia, and Myanmar round out the top 13 countries, all classified as having “extreme” levels of anti-Christian persecution.

The Cuban government announced the release of 553 prisoners through the mediation of Pope Francis “in the spirit of the Ordinary Jubilee of 2025. “President [Miguel] Díaz-Canel sent a letter to the supreme pontiff in which, in the spirit of the Ordinary Jubilee of 2025 declared by His Holiness and which has just begun, he communicated the decision to benefit by granting freedom to 553 people sanctioned in due process for various crimes established by law … [These people] will receive their respective benefits gradually,” the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement dated Jan. 14.
Cuba’s statement refers to Pope Francis’ call to release prisoners during the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope, which began on Dec. 24, 2024, at the Vatican. In the bull Spes Non Confundit, with which he convoked the jubilee year, the pope proposed that “governments undertake initiatives aimed at restoring hope, forms of amnesty or pardon meant to help individuals regain confidence in themselves and in society.”

Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, OP, concluded his term as arch-bishop of Vienna, Austria, on Jan. 22, his 80th birthday, when Pope Francis accepted his resignation.
Schönborn, a theologian who led Austria’s most populous archdiocese for three decades, helped write the Catechism of the Catholic Church and chaired the Austrian bishops’ conference for 22 years. He is currently chair-man of Pope Francis’ Council of Cardinals.
The Vatican announced Jan. 22 that Pope Francis had accepted Schönborn’s resignation and appointed an apostolic admini-strator, Father Josef Grünwidl, to oversee the Vienna Archdio-cese until the appointment of Schönborn’s successor.
“The fact that Rome has created an interim solution shows us that Pope Francis has appare-ntly not yet made a decision on who should be the next archbishop of Vienna. Since the process is already well advanced, we hope for a decision in the coming weeks,” archdiocesan spokesman Michael Prüller said in a state-ment on Jan. 22.
Schönborn remains a member of the College of Cardinals, to which he was elevated in 1998, but at 80 years of age, he is no longer eligible to vote in a con-clave.
In a video message to Vienna’s Catholics, Schönborn said: “Above all, I have to thank God and I have to thank you all. The decisive experience in my almost 30 years in office has been: Church only works together, society only works together.”

President Donald Trump attended the inaugural prayer ser-vice at the Washington National Cathedral Tuesday morning (Jan. 21), finishing off the festivities marking the beginning of his second term with an interfaith service filled with prayers and hymns – and a sermon that offered a religious challenge to his administration’s stated goals.
About halfway through the service, Trump, seated in the front row, heard a sermon that fun-ctioned as one of the first public criticisms of his second admini-stration. After beginning her homily by exploring the difficulty of forging a “kind of unity that fosters community across diver-sity and division, a unity that ser-ves the common good,” the Rt. Rev. Mariann Budde, the Epis-copal bishop of Washington, singled out three foundational principles for the task: honouring the inherent dignity of every hu-man being, honesty and humility.
Near the end of her sermon, Budde directed her remarks to Trump himself, noting the declaration in his inaugural address that he believes he was “saved by God” from an assassination attempt last year. She then expressed concern for LGBTQ people who may feel targeted by his administration.” “Millions have put their trust in you. As you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now,” Budde said in her sermon. “There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in both Democratic, Republican and independent families who fear for their lives.”
Budde also made a plea for immigrants, a group under fire from Trump’s incoming admi-nistration, saying they include people who “pick our crops” and “work the night shift in hospitals,” among other vital roles.