Pope Leo XIV: Pilgrimages are ‘vital’ for a Christian’s life of faith

CNA Staff, May 4, 2020 / 12:01 pm (CNA).- The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has ordered 15 psychiatric hospitals in Belgium which belong to the Brothers of Charity to cease identifying as Catholic institutions after they allowed the euthanization of patients in 2017.

The hospitals are managed by a civil non-profit corporation with the same name as the Brothers of Charity religious congregation which owns them.

The CDF decision was communicated in a letter dated March 30, stating that “with deep sadness” the “psychiatric hospitals managed by the Provincialate of the Brothers of Charity association in Belgium will no longer be able to consider themselves Catholic institutions.”

In a statement responding to the CDF’s decision, the superior general of the Brothers of Charity, Br. René Stockman, said that “with a heavy heart” the religious congregation “must let go of its psychiatric centers in Belgium.”

Br. Stockman pointed out that it is “painful” that the psychiatric centers of the Brothers of Charity in Belgium have lost their Catholic status, considering also that the brothers “were among the pioneers in the field of mental health care in Belgium.”

At the same time, Stockman said he recognizes that “the congregation [the Brothers of Charity] has no choice but to remain faithful to the charism of charity, which cannot be reconciled with the practice of euthanasia on psychiatric patients.”

The decision by the Vatican’s doctrinal office ends three years of disputes between the Brothers of Charity and the corporation which manages their hospitals in Belgium.

In 2017, the board decided to allow euthanasia to be carried out in its hospitals in Belgium, where the euthanasia law is among the most broad.

At the time of the decision, the board of the corporation was composed of 15 members, with only three of them religious brothers of the congregation. The chairman is former Belgian prime minister Hermann van Rompuy.

Two of the three religious brothers among the board members, Luc Lemmens, 61, and Veron Raes, 57, supported the euthanasia decision. Their terms on the board ended at the end of September 2018 and were not renewed.

The religious congregation, especially Stockman, protested the decision, reiterating the Brothers of Charity’s rejection of euthanasia in their hospitals.

The brothers appealed to the Vatican, which asked the psychiatric hospitals to change their protocol allowing euthanasia as “a medical act” under certain conditions.

The hospital management responded with a long statement in September 2017, in which it contested a lack of dialogue and maintained the hospital was “perfectly consistent” with Christian doctrine.

The CDF’s direction that the hospitals must no longer identify as Catholic was communicated in a letter signed by CDF prefect Cardinal Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer and secretary Archbishop Giacomo Morandi.

The letter retraced the developments of the story, recalling that the document allowing euthanasia in the brothers’ hospitals “refers neither to God, nor to Holy Scripture, nor to the Christian vision of Man.”

According to the letter, the CDF had spoken with the Brothers of Charity and had also informed Pope Francis of the gravity of the situation.

Other audiences had also taken place beginning June 2017, including with the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, the Secretariat of State, the representatives of the Brothers of Charity and the managing corporation, as well as representatives of the Belgian bishops’ conference.

The Holy See also sent Bishop Jan Hendriks, auxiliary of Amsterdam, as an apostolic visitor, but he did not register any steps forward nor a desire to find “a viable solution that avoids any form of responsibility of the institution for euthanasia.”

The request of the CDF to the Brothers of Charity and to the managing corporation was clear: “affirm in writing and in an unequivocal way their adherence to the principles of the sacredness of human life and the unacceptability of euthanasia, and, as a consequence, the absolute refusal to carry it out in the institutions they depend on.”

The corporation “did not give assurance on these points.”

The CDF therefore reiterated that “euthanasia remains an inadmissible act, even in extreme cases,” and strengthened the statement by citing St. John Paul II’s 1995 encyclical Evangelium vitae, and a Jan. 30 speech by Pope Francis to the CDF.

The CDF stressed that “Catholic teaching affirms the sacred value of human life,” the “importance of caring for and accompanying the sick and disabled,” as well as “the Christian value of suffering, the moral unacceptability of euthanasia” and “the impossibility of introducing this practice in Catholic hospitals, not even in extreme cases, as well as of collaborating in this regard with civil institutions.”

The Brothers of Charity is a religious congregation of lay brothers founded in 1807 in Belgium, whose specialization is care for the sick and those with psychiatric diseases.

At the congregation’s July 2018 general chapter the group stressed that the Brothers of Charity “believes in sacredness and absolute respect for every human life, from conception to natural death. The general chapter requires that each brother, associate member and others associated with the mission of the congregation adhere to the doctrine of the Catholic Church on ethical issues.”

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Cardinals follow the ceremony during the ordinary public consistory for the creation of new cardinals at St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City, Dec. 7, 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

Vatican City, Apr 28, 2025 / 11:09 am (CNA).

At the upcoming papal conclave, set to begin May 7, the College of Cardinals will include several notably young members who have traveled to Rome from across the world, from Mongolia to Australia. 

Among the 135 cardinals who are eligible to vote in a conclave, 15 of them are under the age of 60. 

Historically, the age of cardinals participating in papal conclaves has varied. One of the youngest was Cardinal Alfonso Gesualdo di Conza, who attended the 1565–1566 conclave at the age of 25.

In more recent times, during the 2013 conclave, Cardinal Baselios Cleemis Thottunkal, major archbishop of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, was the youngest cardinal elector at 53. In the upcoming conclave, there are six cardinals the same age or younger. 

The five youngest cardinals lead sees in Australia, Mongolia, Portugal, and Canada as well as a dicastery of the Roman Curia. Two of them are Eastern-rite Catholics. Three were made cardinals in the last consistory before the conclave. 

Here are the five youngest cardinals who will help select the next pope:  

Cardinal Mykola Bychok, 45 

Born on Feb. 13, 1980, in Ternopil, Ukraine, Bychok felt the call to the priesthood at the age of 15. He joined the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (the Redemptorists) in 1997, inspired by their missionary zeal. His service has been extensive, including roles as a missionary in Russia, parish priest, and provincial bursar in Ukraine as well as vicar of the Ukrainian Catholic Parish of St. John the Baptist in Newark, New Jersey.

In January 2020, Pope Francis appointed him as the eparchial bishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Sts. Peter and Paul in Melbourne, Australia. His episcopal consecration took place on June 7, 2020. Bychok has worked to foster community among the Ukrainian diaspora in Australia and to increase youth engagement within the Church.

On Dec. 7, 2024, Pope Francis elevated him to the College of Cardinals, making him the current world’s youngest cardinal.

Cardinal Giorgio Marengo, 50 

Cardinal Giorgio Marengo, born on June 7, 1974, in Cuneo, Italy, has been a Consolata missionary in Mongolia since 2003. He was ordained a priest in 2001 and appointed apostolic prefect of Ulaanbaatar in 2020.

Pope Francis created him a cardinal on Aug. 27, 2022, making him the youngest member of the College of Cardinals at the time at age 48. He welcomed Pope Francis to Mongolia in 2023 as the first pope to ever visit the country. Marengo is fluent in Mongolian, Italian, and English. 

Cardinal Américo Manuel Aguiar Alves, 51 

Cardinal Américo Manuel Aguiar Alves, born on Dec. 12, 1973, is the bishop of Setúbal, Portugal. Before entering the priesthood, Aguiar had a brief political career, serving as a town councilor under the Socialist Party. He was ordained a priest at the age of 27 in 2001 and went on to serve in roles such as vicar general and communication director for the Diocese of Porto. He became the auxiliary bishop of Lisbon in 2019 and gained recognition for his leadership in organizing the 2023 World Youth Day in Lisbon, which drew over 1.5 million attendees.

Pope Francis made him a cardinal in late 2023. 

Cardinal George Jacob Koovakad, 51 

Cardinal George Jacob Koovakad, born on Aug. 11, 1973, in Kerala, India, is a Vatican diplomat and Syro-Malabar archbishop. His diplomatic career included assignments in various countries, including Algeria, South Korea, Iran, Costa Rica, and Venezuela. In July 2020, Koovakad returned to Rome to work as an official in the Secretariat of State. He was responsible for organizing Pope Francis’ international travels from 2021 to 2024.

The pope elevated Koovakad to cardinal on Dec. 7, 2024, and appointed him as prefect of the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue in January. 

Cardinal Francis Leo, 53 

Cardinal Francis “Frank” Leo, born on June 30, 1971, in Montreal to Italian immigrant parents, is the current archbishop of Toronto. He was ordained as a priest for the Archdiocese of Montreal in 1996. Leo holds a doctorate in systematic theology with a specialization in Mariology from the University of Dayton. He served as the general secretary of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops from 2015 to 2021 and was appointed archbishop of Toronto in 2023, an archdiocese with a population of about 2 million Catholics.

Pope Francis made Leo a cardinal in December 2024. 

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A hearing in the Vatican finance trial on May 31, 2022. / Vatican Media.

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