White House Prayer Campaign, Pope Leo Warns on Middle East, St. Francis Canticle Turns 800, and More

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Peter Jesserer Smith, national news editor of OSV News, catches you up on the Catholic news of the day for Sept. 9, 2025, the feast of St. Peter Claver. Tune in and visit us online at osvnews.com.

In this episode:

• The White House has launched an initiative calling upon people to pray for the nation as part of the upcoming celebration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.
  
  
• St. Petersburg Bishop Gregory L. Parkes announced that his "1,000,000 Acts of Mercy Challenge" had exceeded its goal within the diocese and through acts of kindness sometimes extending far beyond its boundaries. 
  
  
• Auxiliary Bishop Pedro Bismarck Chau has made history in Newark, New Jersey,  as the first Nicaraguan-born bishop in the United States.
   
• The "whole situation" in the Middle East "is very serious," Pope Leo XIV told reporters after Israel launched an attack on Hamas leaders in Qatar.
  
  
• St. Francis of Assisi composed a poem that turns 800 in 2025 and remains familiar today, inspiring hymns, art and the titles of two of Pope Francis' documents on integral ecology.