Religious quotes and news – June 28, 2026
Snippets of religious statements and highlights of events from around the world
Migration concerns human beings
The Commission of European Bishops’ Conferences (COMECE) has reservations on the EU’s new regulation affecting persons illegally staying in the EU.
“While recognising the legitimate responsibility of public authorities to manage migration, ensure the integrity of borders and combat human trafficking, COMECE remains deeply concerned about aspects of the new framework that risk weakening the effective protection of fundamental rights and the dignity of vulnerable persons.
“In particular, the expansion of detention, the limitations on effective remedies and appeals and the increasing externalisation of responsibilities to third countries raise serious ethical and humanitarian questions.
“Migration is not merely a matter of procedures, statistics or border management. It concerns human beings: women, men and children, each possessing an inviolable dignity that must remain at the centre of every policy decision.”
Seek common good
Addressing people in Pavia, on June 20, Pope Leo said: “A society must be well ordered in its relations and laws. Being social means being in solidarity: motivated by the common good, not partisan interests.
“Since the people are responsible for the public space, in the face of current challenges, let us ask ourselves what strengthens and what erodes our homes: let us ask ourselves what makes our society stable and what wounds us. Otherwise, what belongs to everyone risks becoming nobody’s: when indifference seems to disintegrate our community, it is necessary to renew everyone’s active participation in city life.”
Vatican recognises Spanish martyrdom
The Dicastery for the Causes of Saints published a decree on June 18 confirming “the martyrdom of the Servants of God Juan Torres Torres and 19 companions, diocesan priests, killed in hatred of the faith between August and September 1936, in the territory of the diocese of Ibiza, Spain”. At the time, their deaths represented nearly half the clergy in Ibiza.
(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)