Wednesday, September 23, 2026

Popular podcasting nun discerning establishing a new religious community

Popular Catholic podcaster and religious sister announces discernment of new community

Sister Miriam James Heidland, SOLT, a well-known speaker, podcast host, and author, said she is discerning the establishment of a new religious community called Friends of the Bridegroom.

Sister Miriam James Heidland, SOLT. | Credit: X @onegroovynun

By Francesca Pollio Fenton

Popular Catholic speaker, podcast host, and author Sister Miriam James Heidland, SOLT, announced on Sept. 21 that she is publicly discerning the establishment of a new religious community called Friends of the Bridegroom.

“After several years of private discernment, I would like to announce to you with great reverence and care that, with the blessing of my religious community the Sisters of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity (SOLT) and the Archbishop of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, his Excellency Jeffrey S. Grob, I am officially entering into a time of public discernment of the foundation of a new religious community, Friends of the Bridegroom,” Heidland wrote in a post on X.

The religious sister explained that her many years working in healing ministry and working with other religious sisters, priests, and bishops has allowed her “to see and experience the need and ache for the ongoing healing and renewal of our clergy and religious sisters.”

Heidland has served as the executive director of Friends of the Bridegroom alongside Father John Burns of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. According to its website, it is an apostolate that seeks to renew the Church through the healing, renewal, and expansion of consecrated life and the priesthood.

She called her time working with the apostolate “a profoundly blessed time” and added that “the Lord has continually stirred a desire in all of us in the apostolate to discern the foundation of a new community of priests, religious sisters, and laity who would work toward this important renewal.”

“During this time of public discernment, the Friends of the Bridegroom ministry and my public activities connected with this discernment will remain under the pastoral care and oversight of Archbishop Jeffrey Grob, Archbishop of Milwaukee,” she explained. “I am deeply grateful for his willingness to accompany and guide this discernment during this important time.”

Heidland will remain a sister in good standing with SOLT and will continue to wear the order’s habit.

“I am truly grateful for the support of so many people over the years and I continue to count on your prayers and support as we discern this very important step … Once again, I extend my tremendous gratitude to Sister Mary Aloysius of Jesus, SOLT General Sister Servant, her General Council, and Archbishop Jeffrey Grob,” she wrote.

Heidland was placed for adoption by her 17-year-old unmarried biological parents. After spending some time in foster care, she was adopted by a Catholic couple and raised in Woodland, Washington.

It was her adoptive parents who gave her a foundation in the faith. However, at age 11 she was sexually assaulted and at 13 she was raped. She has never publicly named her abuser.

During her teenage years, Heidland focused her time on sports. When she was a senior in high school she was offered a full scholarship to play volleyball at the University of Nevada, Reno. While she remained an important part of the team, she was an alcoholic by the age of 21 and embraced the partying lifestyle.

Completely estranged from her faith and feeling broken, a priest entered into her life and made a lasting impact. Heidland’s mother also began to pray and fast for her daughter, asking the Lord to guider her becoming a nun.

In 1998, Heidland entered the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity after she felt Jesus calling her to become his bride. Today, she speaks openly about the healing, and restoration Jesus has done in her life and shares her powerful testimony with others around the world.

Pope Leo XIV issues urgent appeal ahead of 112th World Day of Migrants & Refugees

ICE arrests more than 12,000 people following tips from unaccompanied child program

Pope

Pope appeals for care and protection of migrant children

Pope Leo XIV appeals for the protection of migrant and refugee children, and for everyone to take responsibility for minors on the move. His appeal comes ahead of the World Day of Migrants and Refugees.

Vatican News

Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday issued an urgent appeal to everyone to take responsibility for young migrants and refugees exposed to violence, exploitation and traumatic conditions along migration routes.

His appeal comes four days before the 112th World Day of Migrants and Refugees, to which the Pope has issued a message on the theme “Even just one of these children.”

“Sunday, September 27, marks the World Day of Migrants and Refugees,” he said at the conclusion of his General Audience in St Peter’s Square, noting that his “thoughts go out to migrants and refugees, especially minors forced to leave their homelands.”

“Children and adolescents are the most vulnerable,” he continued, noting that they “often endure unspeakable suffering—violence, torture, exploitation, and traumatic conditions—and not infrequently lose their lives along migration routes.”

The Pope then made a direct appeal: “I appeal to everyone’s sense of responsibility. Let everyone feel personally involved in the lives of these young people, who must always be protected and cared for.”

Pope Leo’s appeal came as the Church prepares to celebrate the World Day of Migrants and Refugees on 27 September.

‘Even just one of these children’

In his message for the World Day, published in August, the Pope recalls that minors are among the most vulnerable people involved in migration and forced displacement.

In it he notes that millions of children and adolescents “are forced to leave their homeland because of war, poverty, violence, environmental disasters and other tragedies. Sadly, their number continues to grow. “

Pope Leo also points to “deaths along migration routes, trafficking and exploitation, the recruitment of minors for use in armed conflicts, sexual violence, forced marriages, and the atrocities they have suffered or witnessed during their travels. Their dignity is trampled upon in countless ways.”

Yet the Pope insists that the response cannot be reduced to statistics.

“Before this tragic reality,” he writes, “my thoughts turn to the words of Jesus that profoundly challenge our consciences: ‘Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me’”.

Human faces behind the numbers

According to UNHCR’s Global Trends 2025, published in June 2026, 117.8 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced at the end of 2025 as a result of persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations and the climate crisis.

The figure included 41.6 million refugees, 9 million asylum-seekers and 68.7 million people displaced within their own countries by conflict or violence.

Children make up a particularly large share of displaced populations. UNHCR estimates that 45 million children under the age of 18 were among the 117.8 million forcibly displaced people at the end of 2025. Among refugees, people in refugee-like situations and other people in need of international protection, 39 per cent were children.

Wednesday General Audience with Pope Leo XIV 09.23.2026

Pope

Pope: Progress is truly human if it makes the world better for everyone

Pope Leo XIV continues his catechesis on ‘Gaudium et spes,’ focusing on the chapter dedicated to the meaning of human activity in the universe. ‘Gaudium et spes,” he says, invites us to share “the bread of knowledge and know-how,” so that humanity can develop its potential and, with the help of God, work together to build “a better future.”

By Christopher Wells

Vatican II’s Pastoral Constitution on the Church, Gaudium et spes—the subject of Pope Leo XIV’s current cycle of catecheses at the General Audiences—addresses the “fundamental” question, “What is the value of human activity in the world, and therefore of technical, social, and scientific progress?”

In his remarks on Wednesday, the Holy Father clearly affirms, “the human being is the agent of progress” advancing society through freedom and intelligence.

Pope Leo lamented the modern prejudice that sees scientific and technical progress as weakening the relationship with God. “In post-Christian humanist thought,” he explained, “human beings and God are erroneously presented as rivals: in order to assert his knowledge, his freedom, and his progress, man is thought to have to emancipate himself from God.”

Such a denial, however, results in losing “the possibility of affirming the transcendent value of the human person.”

Human beings cooperate in God's plan

Instead, Gaudium et spes states clearly that Christians “can justly consider that by their labour they are unfolding the Creator’s work, consulting the advantages of their brother men, and contributing by their personal industry to the realization in history of the divine plan.”

In essence, Pope Leo said, “God has placed in the hands of men and women a creation that is still in statu viae—that is, on a journey, in the process of growth—so that they may bring it to fulfilment through their wise activity.”

Tying this idea to “the mystery of the Incarnation,” the Pope said, “humanity… is not absorbed or nullified by the encounter with God, but rather taken up in its entirety, continuing to be, in Christ, free and active.”

“From this perspective,” he continued, “an important truth emerges: to encounter God, the human being must not abandon his earthly vocations, but can live his vocation fully carrying out his daily work and sanctifying it.”

Like all human beings, Christians work to build up “the city of man,” which must be distinguished from the development of “the Kingdom of God.” However, the Pope noted the Council’s affirmation that progress in building up human society “is of vital concern to the kingdom of God.”

Progress must be inspired by charity

Finally, Pope Leo insisted that “in order to be authentic human progress… technical and scientific progress must be inspired by charity. Only in this way can it always be placed in the service of human dignity and promote the living conditions of all, especially the most disadvantaged.”

The Second Vatican Council, he concluded, “invites us to share the bread of knowledge and know-how, so that every person and every people may develop their potential, and together, with God’s help, we may build a better future.”

Tuesday, September 22, 2026

Saint of the Day for Wednesday

St. Padre Pio

Feastday: September 23
Patron: of Civil defense volunteers, Adolescents, Pietrelcina, Stress relief, & January blues
Birth: 1887
Death: 1968
Canonized: Pope John Paul II

St. Padre Pio was an Italian priest who was known for his piety and charity, as well as the gift of the stigmata, which has never been explained.

St. Padre Pio was born Francesco Forgione, on May 25, 1887, in Pietrelcina, Italy. His parents were peasant farmers. He had an older brother and three younger sisters, as well as two other siblings who died in infancy. As a child, he was very religious and by the age of five he reportedly made the decision to dedicate his life to God.

Fortunately, his parents were also very religious and they supported his Catholic development. His family attended daily Mass. Francisco served as an altar boy at his local parish. Francisco was known for taking on penances and his mother once scolded him for sleeping on a stone floor.

Francisco's community was also supportive. Saint's days were popular celebrations and commonly celebrated in his town.

From his tender age, Francisco had a peculiar ability. He could see guardian angels, spoke with Jesus and the Virgin Mary. This was not something taught to him, but occurred so naturally that he assumed other people could see them too.

Although Francisco and his family was very religious, they were also very poor, which required that he work. He spent many years as a child tending to a small flock of sheep owned by his family. Unfortunately, the work meant he was unable to attend school regularly, so he quickly fell behind other kids his age.

Francisco was sickly as a child. He suffered an attack of gastroenteritis at age six and when he was ten, he had typhoid fever.

In 1897, after three years of schooling, Francisco expressed to his parents that he wanted to become a friar. His parents traveled to a nearby community of monks and asked if Francesco could join them. He was evaluated, despite his young age, and was told that he needed more education before he could join.

To prepare Francesco, his parents decided to hire a private tutor. To pay the cost of the tutor, Francesco's father traveled to America to find work, and sent the money home.

At the age of 15, Francisco was finally ready and he entered the novitiate of the Capuchin friars at Morcone. He took the name of "Pio" in honor of Pope Pius I, whose relic he often saw at his local chapel.

At the age of 17, Brother Pio became extremely ill and could only digest milk and cheese. He was sent to the mountain for better air, and when this did not work, he was sent home to his family. Amid all this, he continued to study for the priesthood.

On one occasion during prayer, a fellow monk astonishingly reported he saw Pio levitate during an episode of ecstasy.

Brother Pio became a priest in 1910, but was permitted to remain at home because of his poor health.

In 1915, with World War I afflicting the world, Padre Pio was summoned for military service. He was compelled to leave a tiny community of monks, with whom he was then housed, and drafted into medical service. However, he was so sickly that he was often sent home, only to then be recalled for service. In March 1916, he was finally dismissed because of his poor health.

On September 20, Padre Pio was hearing confessions when he felt pain in his hands and feet. He noticed the stigmata, the wounds of Christ, appearing on his hands and feet. The experience was painful. Bleeding occurred. The wounds smelled of roses, and although they continued to weep, they never became infected. Doctors who later examined the stigmata were amazed at their perfectly round shape.

By 1919, word began to spread about Padre Pio's stigmata and people came from far away to examine him.

Padre Pio became popular with the people he encountered and soon began to attribute supernatural occurrences to him. For example, he was said to levitate, and able to perform miracles.

His popularity became a source of concern for the Church, and the Vatican began to restrict his activities to minimize public interaction. Padre Pio himself was uncomfortable with his newfound popularity and the attention he received because of his stigmata. A Church investigation into his stigmata concluded that his condition was not faked.

By 1934, the Vatican began to change its attitude towards Padre Pio and he was again allowed to perform public duties. He could preach, despite never being officially licensed by the Church to do so. Pope Pius XI encouraged people to visit him.

In 1947, Fr. Karol Wojtyla visited Padre Pio who prophetically told him he would rise to the highest post in the Church." Fr. Karol Wojtyla became Pope John Paul II in 1978.

Padre Pio used his newfound popularity to open a hospital in San Giovanni Rotondo. The facility opened in 1956.

Pope Paul VI reviewed the controversies surrounding Padre Pio and dismissed any concerns over his conduct and the authenticity of his stigmata.

Padre Pio became internationally famous. He was known for his piety, charity and the quality of his preaching. He famously advised, "Pray, hope and don't worry."

He had other illnesses, as well, including cancer which was miraculously healed after just two treatments. Other problems, such as arthritis, which plagued him in his later years, never went away.

Padre Pio died on September 23, 1968. His funeral was attended by over 100,000 people.

Pope John Paul II recognized Padre Pio as a saint on June 16, 2002. His feast day is September 23. He is the patron of civil defense volunteers, adolescents, and the village of Pietrelcina.

It's a universal Church - An unacceptable hunger crisis gripping the children of Haiti

Children return to school as the 2026-2027 academic year begins in Port-au-Prince

World

Haiti: Over 250,000 children trapped in the grip of hunger

The latest alert issued jointly by United Nations agencies—including UNICEF, the FAO, and the World Food Program—paints a terrifying picture: in Haiti, an estimated 254,000 children aged 6 to 59 months are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition. The international community is witnessing this agony with an inertia that agencies on the ground decry as “unacceptable.”

By Francesco Citterich

Haiti is plunging into an abyss of violence and deprivation that threatens to wipe out an entire generation. The latest alert issued jointly by United Nations agencies—including UNICEF, the FAO, and the World Food Program—paints a terrifying picture: an estimated 254,000 children aged 6 to 59 months are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition. Among them, approximately 94,000 are already afflicted by the most severe and lethal form of the condition (severe acute malnutrition)—a state that wastes away the bodies of the youngest and shuts down vital functions without immediate therapeutic intervention.

This biological catastrophe is not the result of an unpredictable natural disaster, but the direct and inhumane outcome of an all-out war waged in the streets by criminal gangs; these groups are holding the exhausted population hostage and strangling supply lines to the capital, Port-au-Prince, and the surrounding provinces.

An unprecedented collapse

This tragedy is unfolding against the backdrop of an unprecedented institutional and social collapse. Repeated violence by criminal gangs has turned daily life in the Caribbean nation into a hell of shootings, kidnappings, and extortion, driving the number of internally displaced persons to a record high of nearly 1.5 million—about half of whom are children.

Entire families have been forced to flee their homes repeatedly, abandoning their meagre means of survival to seek refuge in makeshift centers that are overcrowded and lack basic sanitation. In neighborhoods emblematic of decay and neglect, such as Cité Soleil and the nearby municipality of Cabaret, the situation has deteriorated to a "critical" level (Level 4 out of 5 on the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification scale for acute malnutrition). This means that in the hardest-hit areas, nearly one in 13 children has been reduced to skin and bones due to severe wasting, in a region where even finding a piece of bread or a glass of clean water has become an unaffordable luxury.

Rampant insecurity

The mechanism by which organized crime creates famine is surgical and ruthless. By controlling key roadways, armed groups block food-laden trucks, loot markets, and prevent the arrival of international humanitarian aid. Mothers cannot reach health centers to have their children treated because traveling even a few hundred meters means exposing themselves to sniper fire or the risk of systematic rape—a tactic used by gangs to subjugate communities.

Due to rampant insecurity, even long-standing humanitarian organizations like Doctors Without Borders have been forced to suspend operations at crucial facilities—such as the maternity ward at the Cité Soleil hospital—leaving thousands of pregnant women and newborns without any form of basic medical care. The few hospitals that remain open operate under a state of constant siege, perpetually short on generator fuel and lacking the therapeutic milk rations needed to save the most critical patients. Food shortages have caused the prices of basic necessities to skyrocket to levels unaffordable for a population where more than half of the citizens live below the extreme poverty line.

Exacerbating this already dire situation is a resurgence of cholera; the disease finds fertile ground in bodies weakened by hunger and in the total absence of clean water networks, turning a readily treatable illness into a swift death sentence for thousands of children.

A cry for help to the world

The international community is witnessing this agony with an inertia that agencies on the ground describe as “unacceptable.” The cry for help rising from Haiti is not merely a request for financial resources, but a desperate appeal for the restoration of the rule of law and the creation of safe humanitarian corridors to allow for food distribution before it is too late. Behind the coldness of statistics and projections for the coming months lies the face of a million children trapped in neighborhoods of concrete and corrugated iron, deprived of the right to play, to education, and to life itself.

Along with rest of the world, the Vatican has eyes on the 81st General Assembly of the United nations

World

United Nations: 81st General Assembly opens in New York

The world’s major powers gather at the United Nations headquarters in New York. At the heart of the agenda are major global issues, including the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, alongside the challenges facing the global economy and the issue of artificial intelligence.

By Paola Simonetti

The atmosphere is one of “an era of profound uncertainty,” in the words of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, as the 81st United Nations General Assembly opens its debate on Tuesday, September 22. Heads of state and government from around the world are taking part, addressing international challenges ranging from security and geopolitical tensions to economic issues and artificial intelligence.

Following the Secretary-General’s opening report on the state of the world, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will, as is tradition, be the first speaker, followed by US President Donald Trump. Other world leaders will then take the floor, including Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is expected to meet with Trump today.

The ongoing conflicts

The high-level debate will continue through September 26. The war in Ukraine, now in its fifth year, Israel’s military operations in Gaza, and the hostilities between the United States and Iran will be among the most prominent issues. The latter conflict has a significant impact on oil prices and disrupts shipping through the Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait in the Red Sea. The conflict in Sudan is also on the agenda.

Regarding the confrontation between Washington and Tehran, France has announced that it is working on a new UN Security Council resolution aimed at reopening the Strait of Hormuz and ensuring freedom of navigation.

Expectations are generally realistic, with few anticipating any major breakthroughs. There is, however, considerable attention on what will happen away from the spotlight of the General Assembly chamber—namely, the bilateral meetings focused on the ongoing conflicts. A meeting between UN Secretary-General Guterres and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is already scheduled for September 24.

The crucial issue of AI

For the first time in its history, the General Assembly has also placed artificial intelligence at the top of its agenda—seeking a global agreement to establish limits on its development and use. Guterres has included AI among the “three existential threats” of our time, alongside the climate crisis and growing inequality.

Who will not attend

The list of absentees is also notable. Russian President Vladimir Putin, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not attend. Chinese President Xi Jinping has sent a delegate, although he is nevertheless expected to hold a direct meeting with Trump in Washington.

Monday, September 21, 2026

Saint of the Day for Tuesday

St. Thomas of Villanueva

Augustinian bishop. Born at Fuentellana, Castile, Spain, he was the son of a miller. He studied at the University of Alcala, earned a licentiate in theology, and became a professor there at the age of twenty-six. He declined the chair of philosophy at the University of Salamanca and instead entered the Order of St Augustine at Salamanca in 1516. Ordained in 1520, he served as prior of several houses in Salamanca, Burgos, and Valladolid, as provincial of Andalusia and Castile, and then court chaplain to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (r. 1519-1556). During his time as provincial of Castile, he dispatched the first Augustinian missionaries to the New World. They subsequently helped evangelize the area of modern Mexico. He was offered but declined the see of Granada, but accepted appointment as archbishop of Valencia in 1544. As the see had been vacant for nearly a century, Thomas devoted much effort to restoring the spiritual and material life of the archdiocese. He was also deeply committed to the needs of the poor. He held the post of grand almoner of the poor, founded colleges for the children of new converts and the poor, organized priests for service among the Moors, and was renowned for his personal saintliness and austerities. While he did not attend the sessions of the Council of Trent, he was an ardent promoter of the Tridentine reforms throughout Spain.

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