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Hello, I'm Gina Christian, and you're listening to our OSV newscast for Friday, September 18th, 2026. Let's take a look at some of the Catholic news of the day. Here we go. Yesterday, more than a dozen U.S. Catholic bishops met with members of Congress calling for effective safety guardrails on artificial intelligence and for the passage of a bill aimed at protecting kids online. The meetings came the same day the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops announced a new task force on AI over concerns about the technology that followed a meeting they had with tech leaders and other experts. Amid the bishop's visit to the Hill, Archbishop Alexander Sample of Portland, Oregon, who chairs the Bishop's Religious Liberty Committee, told OSV News the bishops were looking to visit with some of the senators and the representatives about the pressing issues that are on the minds and the hearts of the bishops. After multiple tech leaders called for a slowdown in AI development to establish safety controls, debate on Capitol Hill has emerged about how to respond. Archbishop Sample also said the bishops advocated on the Hill for Congress to pass the Kids Online Safety Act. The House passed a version of the legislation earlier this year, but the Senate's version includes a duty of care provision that wasn't included in the House bill. Archbishop Sample said placing the burden of duty of care on developers would ensure they have the responsibility to provide protection for children. The Archbishop shared his thoughts during the Global Conference on Promoting Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue and Tolerance in Countering Hate Speech. The September 17th gathering took place at the UN's New York headquarters, and it was sponsored by the UN's Alliance of Civilizations, which was created in 2005 to address social and cultural polarization. The Archbishop's address came one day after three Vatican Dicasteries released a new note on the importance of interreligious and ecumenical dialogue. Archbishop El Cassis said, hate speech violates God-given human dignity. He also reiterated Pope Leo XIV's call to disarm words, adding that the patient effort of dialogue, mutual understanding, and the rejection of stereotypes are central to ending hate speech. Archbishop Alcasis added, in this spirit, the Holy See promotes interreligious and intercultural dialogue as an essential path toward overcoming prejudice and building a better world for all. September 16th marked the 24th anniversary of the death of Cardinal Francois Xavier Nguyen Bontoan. The Vietnamese cardinal, who was declared venerable by Pope Francis in 2017, endured 13 years of imprisonment under Vietnam's communist government, including nine years in solitary confinement. He secretly celebrated Mass in prison, and he wrote Spiritual Reflections, later published as The Road of Hope. He died in Rome in 2002. In an interview with OSV News in Rome earlier this year, his younger sister, Elizabeth Nguinti Tuhong, recalled her favorite memories of her brother. Those included a moment that forever changed the way she approaches the sacrament of confession. Shortly after Vantuan's priestly ordination in Vietnam in 1953, Elizabeth said she unknowingly entered a confessional where her brother was hearing confessions. Recognizing his voice, she asked whether he would tell their parents what she had said. He replied, When I'm behind this with my stole, I am Jesus, so you can tell Jesus all the things you want. Elizabeth's biography of her brother was presented in Rome in March. The Cardinal's canonization postulator said his witness continues to speak to the church and the world more than two decades after his death, and they also highlighted Pope Leo XIV's citation of the Cardinal in his first encyclical, Magnifica Umanitas. A leader in Hispanic Catholic youth ministry credits his faith formation to the sense of community he found growing up in war-torn El Salvador during the 1980s. Walter Mayna is the Associate Director of Hispanic Youth and Young Adult Ministry Leadership at Boston College's Clough School of Theology and Ministry. He told OSV News Catholic education, youth ministry, sports, and community life provided stability during the country's civil war and taught him the value of belonging and collaboration. Another formative influence? His personal encounters with St. Oscar Romero, the martyred Archbishop of San Salvador, whose witness on behalf of the poor and vulnerable helped shape Mena's understanding of what it means to live as a disciple of Jesus Christ. Mena said that Romero helped me understand that faith cannot be separated from the lives of real people. Mena is now serving Hispanic young adults and immigrant communities in the U.S., and he said he views pastoral ministry as accompaniment rooted in listening, relationship building, and in helping people recognize God's presence in their lives. Along with his role at Boston College, Mena recently became Hispanic Outreach Program Manager for Catholic Climate Covenant. There, he's working to cultivate a vision that creates spaces where Hispanic Catholics can raise their voices, discern, and take concrete action, whether large or small, to care for humanity's common home. And finally, just in time for the Jubilee year of St. Francis, there's a new pilgrimage route in honor of the beloved saint. And you don't have to fly to Italy to walk it. The Camino de San Francisco stretches from Mission San Rafael Arcangel to Mission Dolores in San Francisco, California. The route spans more than 24 miles of streets, paths, and trails, and it's broken into four segments. The Camino was inspired by the historic mission trails of California, and it allows pilgrims to follow spiritually in the saints' footsteps. Father Christopher Iwancio, a Cappuccino Franciscan friar and executive director of Modern Catholic Pilgrim, had the idea for the Camino after visiting San Antonio. As he walked the Camino de San Antonio missions, he learned of its partnership with Spain's famous Camino de Santiago de Compostela. Pilgrims who walk the San Antonio route and obtain a stab from each mission in their passport, paired with a distance certificate, can be awarded 30 kilometers credit towards the Camino de Santiago de Compostela's English route, the Camino Inglés. And due to Father Iguancio's persistence, Camino de San Francisco pilgrims can also receive the Camino de Santiago de Compostela credit as well. And that's your OSV Newscast for today. I'm Gina Christian. Check out the show notes for a link to our website. That's where you can find the stories in this episode and a whole lot more. And as always, please make sure to subscribe to this podcast. Give us a follow on social media and bookmark osvnews.com. A shout out to our listeners around the world. We do love seeing you check in. Do drop us a line, let us know what you think. We'll be back on Monday, and stay tuned for our coverage of the Beatification of Archbishop Fulton Sheen next week. Thanks so much for listening and God bless.

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