A ninth-grade student shot and killed a classmate in the grade above him on the morning of Aug. 18 at the junior high school campus of Ateneo de Zamboanga University in the southern Philippines before taking his own life, police said.

Authorities have identified the attacker only as a minor. Officials said he livestreamed the attack on Facebook.

The junior high school is part of Ateneo de Zamboanga University, founded by the Society of Jesus in 1912. The institution educates students from grade school through postgraduate level.

Father Guillrey Anthony Andal, SJ, the university president, canceled classes at all levels and declared a day of mourning and prayer across the universityʼs campuses. “We do not want any of these things to happen,” he said, adding the safety of students was the universityʼs first priority.

The university urged the public in a statement not to share unverified information, photographs, or videos of the incident, saying these could harm those affected and hinder the investigation.

The Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines, which represents the countryʼs Catholic schools, colleges, and universities, cautioned against speculation, saying in a statement that behind every report and social media post were students, families, and teachers in “profound grief and shock.” Ateneo de Manila and Ateneo de Davao universities issued statements of solidarity, local media reported.

The attack was the second at a Philippine school in two months. Three students were killed in June when two schoolmates opened fire at a public high school in Tacloban City in the central Philippines, local media reported.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered an investigation and directed agencies to work with schools on safety measures. Schools “must also be among the safest places in our country,” he said in a statement. Education Secretary Sonny Angara traveled to Zamboanga City on Wednesday to meet the university president, city officials, and police.

A senior Bureau of Customs official told local media one of the weapons used had been issued by the agency to the attackerʼs father, a customs enforcement officer at the Port of Zamboanga, who has been placed under preventive suspension.

Yet behind these figures lie the stories of people who don’t know what they will eat the next day, the sick who can’t get their medications, and families surviving thanks to aid received from abroad.

Osvaldo Gallardo, a writer and Catholic layman originally from Camagüey, emigrated to the United States but maintains frequent contact with family and friends who remain on the island. From abroad, as a religious freedom activist, he closely follows a situation he says has become increasingly unbearable.

“What strikes me most is the infinite sadness, the absolute hopelessness, the listlessness, the desperation, and the anguish with which my relatives and everyone I know in Cuba live their daily lives,” Gallardo stated in an interview with ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News.

“It’s immeasurable; it’s a total lack of meaning in life, a loss of any sense of where we are headed or what our goals are,” he added.

The study, based on 1,318 interviews conducted across the country’s 15 provinces and the special district of Isla de la Juventud, reveals a severe deterioration in such fundamental areas as food, healthcare, housing, and public services.

Sixty-eight percent of the households surveyed report monthly incomes of less than 20,000 Cuban pesos, approximately $30. Furthermore, 80% state that they have skipped breakfast, lunch, or dinner due to a lack of money or food shortages.

Power outages are the primary issue cited by respondents (70%), followed by the food crisis (52%), the cost of living (45%), and the state of public health, including access to medicine and medical care (34%).

For Gallardo, these figures reflect a reality that can be confirmed simply by speaking with those who remain on the island.

“Hardships on the island have always been immense, but right now, the outlook is bleaker than at any other time in the history of Cuba’s nearly 70-year dictatorship,” he stated.

8 out of 10 Cubans go without a meal

One of the most concerning findings of the study relates to food. Eighty percent of Cubans report having gone without a meal during the day, compared with 70% the previous year.

Gallardo said this reality comes up constantly in conversations with his relatives and on social media.

“I couldnʼt tell you what people do to survive. I donʼt know how. There are people who manage to survive. And I donʼt think Iʼm wrong to say that there are people who arenʼt surviving. There are people who are starving to death,” he stated.

He said he personally makes an effort to periodically send food, medicines, and hygiene products to his relatives. However, he acknowledged that there are limits to the help he can give.

“Given my financial situation, I can’t provide everything they need,” he lamented.

The study indicates that 63% of respondents struggle to acquire even the most essential goods, while another 30% have incomes that barely cover basic needs. All told, nine out of 10 Cuban households are in a state of economic survival.

“I imagine that 90% of Cubans right now wake up without knowing what they’re going to have for lunch, without knowing what they’re going to eat, without knowing what they’re going to have for breakfast,” Gallardo said.

In his view, there is no need to wait for an investigation to confirm this reality.

“That is a reality one can sense the moment one looks at social media. You don’t need to conduct a study; you need do nothing more than check social media in the morning to see for yourself that the 94% poverty rate cited in the report is an undeniable fact,” he pointed out.

‘It’s a country that’s dying every day’

Food shortages are not the only problem. The crisis is also hitting hard those in need of medical care.

The study identifies public health and the lack of medicines as top concerns for Cubans. Gallardo warned that the situation is particularly difficult for the chronically ill and the elderly.

“People are dying. The chronically ill are dying. People are dying of hunger. There are photos of elderly people in truly pitiful conditions. There are reports. People are dying. It’s a country that’s dying every day,” he lamented.

“Young people are also dying due to health issues. People who see no future and commit suicide,” he added.

Precarious conditions are also evident in housing. According to the study, 47% of homes need repairs, 25% require urgent repairs, and 7% are at risk of collapse. Another 4% of respondents report living in shelters or makeshift camps, while 2% live on the street.

Public services have not escaped this deterioration either. Ninety-five percent rate the condition of the electrical grid as poor, while garbage collection receives a negative rating from 87% of respondents. Dissatisfaction is at 86% regarding internet and telephone services; 84% for water and sewage systems; and 82% for hospitals and healthcare centers.

The Church is trying to respond to the crisis

Amid the situation, the Catholic Church appears to many people as one of the few places where they can find help.

Gallardo highlighted the charitable work carried out by the Catholic Church and other Christian communities in Cuba, especially through the distribution of aid sent from the United States.

“There are many people for whom, if they had a substantial meal once a week, or a pill or medication once a week to relieve pain, it was thanks to the Church,” he noted.

However, he also warned that the needs are too great for the Church to meet on its own.

“It’s not enough, because the Church in Cuba itself needs help and has often survived on aid from abroad,” he stated.

For Gallardo, the Church offers something that goes beyond material aid.

“People in Cuba can find solace in the Church; they can find a helping hand, a listening ear, and sometimes material aid, though that will never be enough,” he noted.

The writer also pointed out the limitations the Church faces in expanding its social work.

“The Church doesnʼt have the autonomy to run a soup kitchen. The Church doesn’t have the autonomy to run a nursing home; it does operate them, but under very tight state control, and this cannot expand because the Church doesn’t have the financial capabilities,” he explained.

95% disapproval rating

Economic deterioration is accompanied by strong disapproval of the way the government is running things.

The study indicates that 95% of respondents view the governmentʼs economic and social management negatively, while only 3% rate the performance of President Miguel Díaz-Canel and Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz positively.

Furthermore, 84% have no confidence in the latest economic measures announced by the authorities and don’t believe they will contribute to improving the countryʼs situation.

For Yaxys Cires, director of strategy at the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights, these results reflect “the Cuban regime has completely exhausted its political and economic capabilities.”

“Their administration is widely rejected by the public, and their measures fail to inspire confidence. Yet, it is the people who bear the burden of this decline, especially the elderly and the chronically ill,” Cires pointed out.

A desire for change also clearly emerges from the respondents' answers. Seventy-six percent want both political and economic transformations. Only 7% believe that lifting the U.S. embargo should be the primary change, and virtually no one favors maintaining the status quo.

‘The Cuban people are alone’

Gallardo said he believes Cuban discontent is nothing new. For decades, he said, successive generations have sought ways to express their rejection of the political system.

In this context, the protests of July 11, 2021, marked in his view a turning point.

“For a long time, the Cuban people have been told that they haven’t done enough. That’s not true. When you look at history, there have been many forms of rebellion among the Cuban people and in the diaspora since the Cuban dictatorship was imposed in 1959,” he pointed out.

“But if there was one thing that changed the game, it was July 11, 2021. Since then, protests in Cuba have not stopped,” he noted.

The study shows that there is still an expectation that things could change. Half of the respondents believe that a significant and favorable change for the Cuban people could occur within the next six months.

Gallardo, however, warned of the vulnerable situation facing the population.

“It is an unarmed people, a hungry people, a repressed people. And Cuba’s rulers — the dictatorship — will not yield,” he stated.

For this reason, he believes that international pressure could be decisive.

“People are waiting for something to happen, and without outside help, without significant international pressure on the Cuban dictatorship, it’s unlikely that anything will, because the people could rise up only to be ruthlessly suppressed in the streets,” he explained.

“But the reality is that the Cuban people are dying, and while the Cuban people are dying, people are looking the other way,” he added.

Christian hope

Despite everything he observes and hears from his relatives and compatriots, Gallardo said he still holds onto hope.

He places that hope, at least for now, not in immediate political change but in his faith.

“If you ask me today whether I have hope, I believe I have the Christian hope that God, the Lord of history, will look upon us with mercy,” he said.

“But that is my hope. My hope does not lie in any human event right now, at least not in the medium term. I hope and trust in the Lord,” he affirmed.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

“For this reason, the composer of sacred music is called to know and preserve the musical heritage of the Church, allowing it to inspire new compositions at the service of the liturgy, while respecting contemporary sensibilities and the different cultural traditions,” Leo said.

In his address during his general audience at the Vatican on Aug. 19, the pontiff continued his catechesis on the Second Vatican Council’s constitution on the liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium.

The general audience was his third of the month to be held inside St. Peter’s Basilica due to Rome’s high summer temperatures.

Sacred music — an integral part of the liturgy

Leo discussed the Second Vatican Councilʼs emphasis on the role of sacred music in the liturgy.

“The document states that ‘The musical tradition of the universal Church is a treasure of inestimable value, greater even than that of any other art,’” Leo explained.

He also explained that sacred music fosters both prayer and communion among the faithful.

“Music, indeed, is part of the liturgical action and is not merely a decorative part of the celebration,” Leo said. “In particular, music expresses the affective dimension of prayer, as St. Augustine says: ‘Cantare amantis est,‘ that is, ‘singing belongs to those who love.’”

“Singing also fosters communion. It contributes to the unity of hearts, overcoming differences between people and bringing everyone together in praise of God through the symphony of voices,” he added.

Tradition, inculturation, and active participation

The pope went on to explain that, because sacred music is so important, the liturgy should be celebrated with dignity, with music that is both noble and simple. He also highlighted the role of Gregorian chant and the pipe organ in fostering devotion during the liturgy.

“The Council then attributes great value to Gregorian chant, without excluding other genres of sacred music from the celebration. Particular attention is also given to the pipe organ, while the use of other instruments is permitted ‘on condition that the instruments are suitable, or can be made suitable, for sacred use, accord with the dignity of the temple, and truly contribute to the edification of the faithful,’” Leo said.

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Leo also discussed inculturation in Church music to incorporate diverse cultures.

“A theme close to the Council’s reform is that of inculturation, including in the field of sacred music. In particular, with regard to the musical traditions of different cultures, the Council emphasizes the importance of taking them seriously into consideration, as they form part of people’s religious and social life.”

The pope also encouraged the faithful to participate in singing parts of the Mass to reflect the sacred mysteries being celebrated.

“Sacrosanctum Concilium devotes considerable attention to the theme of the active participation of the faithful,” Leo said. “As for the concrete way in which this can be achieved through the specific role of sacred music, the Constitution offers a clear answer: ‘the people should be encouraged to take part by means of acclamations, responses, psalmody, antiphons, and songs’ and ‘reverent silence’ should be fostered.”

The case was announced by ADF International, an organization that advocates for religious freedom.

According to the organization, Iraq’s Court of Cassation issued a final ruling allowing the woman’s religious classification in the government database to be changed back to “Christian,” reflecting the faith she practices after experiencing the consequences of the law.

Several Iraqi laws concerning religious identity have raised questions in light of Article 2 of the Iraqi constitution, which guarantees religious rights and freedom of belief and religious practice for all individuals, including Christians, Yazidis, and Mandaeans.

Earlier laws, including the Population Registration Laws No. 59 of 1955 and No. 54 of 1927, allowed individuals to change their religion. Later legislation took a different approach. The Civil Status Laws No. 189 of 1964 and No. 65 of 1972 allowed only non-Muslims to change their religion, an approach that continued in later laws. The legislation also states that minor children are registered as Muslim if one of their parents converts to Islam.

To better understand the issue, its legal and social consequences, and possible ways to address it, ACI MENA, the Arabic-language sister service of EWTN News, spoke with Kaldo Ramzi Oghanna, a member of the Iraqi Parliament and head of the Christian Suyana Parliamentary Bloc.

Oghanna explained that the case recently reported in the media began with a lawsuit filed before the Personal Status Court in the Hamdaniya district. The ruling was later reviewed by higher courts before a final decision was reached.

The history of the ‘right to return’

Oghanna spoke about the difficulties faced by children who were registered as Muslim after one of their parents converted to Islam.

He explained that from the adoption of Civil Status Law No. 65 of 1972 until the 1990s, Iraqi courts allowed a child whose official religion had been changed because of a parent’s conversion to return to his or her original religion after reaching legal adulthood.

He cited Presidential Office Letter No. T/9/33963, dated Sept. 25, 1988, which explicitly recognized the right to return to one’s original religion within one year of reaching legal adulthood.

Oghanna said the situation changed during the 1990s, during what became known as the “Faith Campaign.”

“At that time, a judge sent a letter to former President Saddam Hussein arguing that the right to return amounted to ‘apostasy from Islam,’” Oghanna said. “A directive was subsequently issued prohibiting it.”

He added that the rights continued to be applied in similar cases in the Kurdistan Region from 1992 until 2003.

The legal situation after 2003

After 2003, when Iraq’s judicial system was reunified, people seeking to return to their original religion faced further difficulties because courts did not always take the same approach to such cases, Oghanna explained.

The situation remained complicated until 2020, when Judge Ahmed Jassab al Saadi called for these cases to be reconsidered without applying Islamic law provisions to them.

He based his position on Iraq’s commitments under international agreements, particularly the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which protects freedom of thought, conscience, and religion.

“This created a more positive approach in the courts, allowing a person who reaches the age of 18 to return to his or her original religion within one year,” Oghanna said.

What challenges remain?

Oghanna warned that the one-year deadline remains a major challenge for people who want to restore their original religious identity.

He said the period may be too short for someone to understand the legal process and file a case to correct his or her official records — therefore he called for a longer period and for the law to be applied consistently in such cases.

Oghanna said his parliamentary bloc is working with the government and the judiciary on several key issues. These include addressing the registration of children as Muslim when one parent converts to Islam and guaranteeing their right to return to their original religion after reaching adulthood without a specific time limit.

The bloc is also seeking to amend Article 26, Section 2, of Iraq’s National Identity Card Law, which states that minor children follow the religion of a parent who converts to Islam.

Establishing legal precedents

Oghanna stressed that changing the law should be accompanied by efforts within the judicial system to protect the right of individuals to return to their original religion and to safeguard freedom of religion and belief, in accordance with Iraq’s constitution and international commitments.

He also emphasized the importance of documenting previous court decisions that supported this right so they can be used as legal precedents in future cases.

This story was first published by ACI MENA, the Arabic-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated for and adapted by EWTN News English.

TPS is an immigration status granted to eligible foreign nationals from designated countries that are deemed unsafe to return to due to ongoing conflict, environmental disasters, or other extraordinary conditions.

Multiple nations will lose their designations in coming months. TPS for El Salvadoran nationals will expire Sept. 9. Designations for Sudan and Ukraine are set to expire Oct. 19, while Lebanon’s will end Nov. 27. TPS for Haiti ended July 27.

Bishop Brendan Cahill of Victoria, Texas, chair of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) Committee on Migration, said bishops are focused on Haitian nationals “because thatʼs the community most affected right now, and now lives in a fear because they could be deported any time.”

The situation there “is pretty dire,” he told EWTN News. “The government is ending the temporary protected status and wants to return people to Haiti,” but “in our judgment it’s not safe, and thereʼs a moral question of returning people to Haiti right now.”

“The bishops themselves from Haiti have … said ‘itʼs just not safe,’” he said.

In April, the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation, H.R. 1689, that would extend TPS for Haitians for three more years. No legislative efforts have gained traction in the Senate.

“Weʼre hoping, politically right now, for the Senate to agree to a resolution the House has already passed,” Cahill said.

In January, Cahill called on the administration to extend TPS for Haitians. In June, Cahill followed up after the Supreme Court allowed TPS designations for Haiti and Syria to end, calling for other options including “deferred enforced departure.”

“If we have, in good faith, offered temporary protected status, we should not return people until we deemed it safe to go back,” Cahill said in an interview. “And whatʼs the criteria? And thatʼs the question for politicians to work out: ‘Whatʼs the criteria for determining when it is safe that a person can return to their country?’”

“Justice is about human dignity and how we treat other human beings,” Cahill said. It’s an “injustice” to somebody who has been here legally, “to all of a sudden say, ‘Weʼre going to take it away and send you back,’” he said.

“Itʼs about justice and right reason,” he added.

Temporary protected status across U.S.

As of March 31, 2025, the U.S. provided TPS protections to about 1.3 million individuals from 17 countries including Venezuela, Haiti, El Salvador, Ukraine, Honduras, Afghanistan, Nepal, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Syria, Burma, Nicaragua, Sudan, Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan, and Lebanon.

Since the program’s inception, nearly 30 countries have received TPS designations, some more than once. TPS designations can be, and usually have been, extended.

TPS holders reside all over the United States. As of 2025, the largest populations of TPS holders live in Florida (403,965), Texas (147,080), New York (98,250), California (79,320), and Georgia (50,110), according to the National Immigration Forum.

The Trump administration has ended, or moved to end, TPS for 13 of the 17 nations. The programs for Venezuela, Afghanistan, Cameroon, Nepal, Honduras, and Nicaragua ended throughout 2025.

In 2026, TPS for South Sudan, Burma, Haiti, Somalia, Yemen, Haiti, and Syria were terminated or expired. In February, a district court blocked the terminations for Haitian and Syrian nationals, but in June the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the administration to officially terminate the designations.

Self-deportation

Once TPS protection ends, a TPS holder will revert back to his or her previous immigration status, and those who no longer hold status in the U.S. will potentially be subject to removal proceedings.

While the TPS designations end, DHS is encouraging people without status to self-deport rather than be deported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

“Once non-criminal illegal aliens submit their intent to depart through the CBP Home Mobile App and pass vetting, they will be temporarily deprioritized by ICE for detention or enforcement action before their scheduled departure,” DHS reported on its website.

Those who do self-deport will receive “cost-free travel, a $2,600 exit bonus, and forgiveness of any failure to depart fines,” according to DHS.

According to the department, those who self-deport can potentially return to the United States legally. It is unclear what would allow or block potential reentry, and returning is not guaranteed. Those who are deported by ICE are unable to return with legal status.

“Temporary Protected Status is exactly that — temporary,” DHS said in a statement shared with EWTN News. “For too long, TPS has been allowed to function as a de facto amnesty program despite Congress never intending it to be permanent.”

Catholic Relief Services (CRS) will receive the funding through the State Department’s Faith and Community Initiative (FCI) announced Aug. 6, alongside other international aid groups, including World Vision, Compassion International, and Samaritan’s Purse.

“CRS is so proud to be among the recipients of the new Faith and Community Initiative! We received $50 million in first-year funding to lead programming in Cameroon, Liberia, and Nigeria, working as part of a group of faith-based organizations,” CRS spokesperson Brittany Wichtendahl said in a statement to EWTN News.

“The funding will help improve hospitals, clinics, and the health networks in rural parts of the countries — where a lot of families have limited access to quality healthcare,” she said. “This investment reflects a core strength of CRS’ approach: working alongside trusted local Church, Caritas, and faith-based partners that are deeply rooted in the communities they serve.”

CRS’ financial statements show that U.S. government grants routinely constituted 40% to 50% of total revenue in fiscal 2023 to fiscal 2025, and the 2026 federal grants to the U.S.-based international humanitarian nonprofit organization are only a fraction of the government funding CRS previously received. CRS’ fiscal 2023 budget totaled $1.3 billion, rising to $1.4 billion in fiscal 2024 before dipping to $1.2 billion in fiscal 2025.

The aid CRS is set to receive is part of $850 million the State Department earmarked for distribution among faith-based groups over the course of five years.

The State Department also said an additional $570 million will be provided directly to faith-based hospitals and clinics under memorandums of understanding with country governments.

The State Department said leveraging faith-based and community-run hospitals and clinics ensures that “at least 80% of resources go toward frontline health services that reach patients and clients while streamlining overhead and management costs, a significant increase from the 35% to 40% of resources that went to frontline health services in historical awards from the State Department.”

The latest aid package comes after CRS received $235 million in food aid from the State Department for programs in Sudan and Ethiopia in July.

Archbishop Joseph Spiteri, apostolic nuncio to Mexico and representative of Pope Leo XIV in the country, presided over the celebration that concluded the centenary jubilee year.

The Archdiocese of Durango shared images of the crowd gathered at the site where Sts. Luis Bátis Sáinz, Manuel Morales, Salvador Lara Puente, and David Roldán Lara were killed.

The four martyrs were shot to death on Aug. 15, 1926, at Puerto de Santa Teresa, a town located in the state of Zacatecas and under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Archdiocese of Durango.

‘God does not die’

“God does not die,” Spiteri said at the beginning of his homily, echoing the words spoken by St. Manuel Morales before his execution.

The nuncio recalled that the four martyrs “offered their lives while freely and peacefully professing their faith in God.”

“Their crime was wanting to profess publicly, freely, and peacefully their faith in the God of life and in the Church founded by Our Lord Jesus Christ,” he stated.

Spiteri noted that the four saints were victims of “an ideology that did not admit freedom of thought and conscience,” which some sought to “impose with violence.”

In the face of this violence, he continued, the martyrs bore witness to the value “of peaceful resistance.” He emphasized that authentic freedom “is not wanting to do whatever we feel like, but being able to choose freely, consciously; choosing good and not evil.”

He said that “choosing to respond to bad actions, violence, and injustice” by doing good and extending forgiveness “is true freedom.”

The Vatican diplomat also encouraged Catholics to work “to build a more just society grounded in solidarity.”

He emphasized that the Church relies not on “the force of power” but on “the power of service,” and he encouraged the faithful to renew their commitment to offering a witness “of dialogue, understanding, and listening to the most vulnerable and those on the margins, in order to build the kingdom of God.”

Who were the 4 martyrs?

St. Luis Bátis Sáinz was a priest in San Pedro Parish in Chalchihuites and was particularly noted for his work with young people, according to the Vatican website. He was arrested just 15 days after the suspension of public worship in Mexico, amid the intensification of religious persecution under the government of Plutarco Elías Calles.

St. Manuel Morales, a husband and father of three, was a member of the Mexican Catholic Youth Action and president of the National League for the Defense of Religious Liberty, an organization that sought the repeal of the federal governmentʼs anticlerical provisions.

When Bátis asked the soldiers to spare Morales’ life because he had a wife and children, Morales replied: “Father, I am dying, but God does not die. He will look after my wife and my children.”

St. Salvador Lara Puente, who had just turned 21, worked for a mining company and was an active member of Catholic Action. When soldiers arrived looking for him, he replied: “Here I am.”

St. David Roldán Lara, 24, also worked for a mining company and was actively involved in the parish apostolate. He and Lara were cousins.

Bátis and Morales were the first to be shot to death. A few feet away, soldiers subsequently executed Salvador Lara and David Roldán.

The four were beatified by St. John Paul II on Nov. 22, 1992, and canonized by the same pontiff on May 21, 2000, alongside St. Cristóbal Magallanes and other Mexican martyrs.

The Archdiocese of Durango also counts among its martyrs St. Mateo Correa Magallanes, a priest murdered on Feb. 6, 1927, in the city of Durango.

Religious freedom and freedom of conscience

On Friday, Aug. 14, during a press conference held upon his arrival in Durango, the nuncio said his message for the local Church was one “of peace and communion, as the Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, also asks of us.”

Spiteri highlighted the martyrs of Durango as examples of freedom of conscience.

“Whenever the respect for freedom of conscience has been lacking … the results have always been very sad and tragic,” he warned.

The pope’s representative clarified that religious freedom protects not only Catholics or those who profess a particular faith but also an individualʼs right not to adhere to any religion.

“When this freedom of thought is restricted … it is always a step in the wrong direction; we are moving backward, not forward,” he stated.

During his visit, Spiteri had the opportunity to visit the Museum of the Holy Martyrs and attend the opening of the photographic exhibition "Centenary of the Beginning of the Cristero Movement in Mexico and Durango."

A shrine dedicated to the martyrs is currently being built at the Holy Places of Chalchihuites.

The celebration was preceded by an eight-day archdiocesan pilgrimage that traveled the road to the Holy Places.

At its conclusion on Aug. 14, the archbishop of Durango, Faustino Armendáriz Jiménez, stated: “Blessed are those who have traveled this path, because those of us who live this experience have experienced God.”

The archdiocese also shared images of the pilgrims after completing the pilgrimage, “tired, but happy,” and with their “hearts full of gratitude and joy.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

In an Aug. 13 statement, the Mexican Bishops’ Conference (CEM, by its Spanish acronym) warned that the proposal could make freedom of expression contingent upon the government’s criteria of “truth” and also compromise religious freedom and the editorial independence of the media.

The public consultation, open from July 27 to Aug. 21 and conducted by the country’s Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, addresses a regulation that, according to the bishops, “will touch the daily lives of millions of Mexicans: what we hear on the radio, what we watch on television, and the spaces where information, culture, faith, opinion, and constructive criticism find a voice.”

The CEM acknowledged positive aspects of the proposal, such as the explicit prohibition of prior censorship, nondiscrimination based on religion, and the protection of vulnerable groups against manipulation, misleading advertising, and content that degrades human dignity.

“That these rights have clear mechanisms to be enforced is a good thing for everyone,” the conference highlighted.

However, the bishops warned that, although the purpose of protecting the rights of audiences is legitimate, the way in which the goal is attempted to be achieved also matters.

The CEM statement joins others made by the Catholic Church in Mexico. On Aug. 1, the Primatial Archdiocese of Mexico stated that “there can be no prior censorship” and that no administrative authority should determine the veracity or acceptability of opinions.

A week later, an editorial in Semanario, a publication of the Archdiocese of Guadalajara, questioned who would have “the authority to decide when information is true, false, or presented out of context,” and highlighted the importance of balancing state regulation with media independence.

No authority can act as an ‘arbiter of truth’

The bishops emphasized that “freedom of expression is a fundamental pillar of the democratic order” and noted that “no administrative authority can set itself up as an arbiter of truth, particularly regarding ideas, opinions, convictions, and beliefs, whether religious or otherwise.”

The CEM drew a distinction between the veracity required of journalistic information and personal convictions, which cannot be subjected to administrative verification.

“The truthfulness legitimately required of journalistic information is a duty of due diligence: to cross-check, verify, distinguish fact from opinion, and rectify errors,” the CEM explained.

Something different, the conference noted, is “the truth of convictions, which admits of neither administrative verification nor sanction, and whose assessment by the state would be, in itself, incompatible with freedom of conscience and freedom of expression.”

The episcopate expressed particular concern regarding the possibility that a governmental authority might classify and potentially sanction the dissemination of information deemed “false” or “taken out of context,” given that the bill does not clearly define the boundaries of these concepts.

In the bishops' view, such a mechanism could “make freedom of expression contingent upon the government’s criteria for truthfulness” — something “incompatible” with the Mexican constitution, international treaties, and “various judicial precedents.”

Religious freedom and editorial independence

The CEM pointed out that by Mexican law “religious associations may not own or manage radio and television licenses.” Consequently, it called for the pluralism envisioned by the guidelines to “also include the pluralism of religious convictions and beliefs.”

This protection, they added, must benefit all faiths as well as those who profess no religion, to prevent them from being subjected to “administrative judgments regarding truthfulness” or “compulsory labels.”

The bishops also expressed reservations regarding the powers the bill would grant the governmental authority “to review and validate media codes of ethics,” review the decisions of audience ombudsmen, and order the rectification or modification of content.

“Ethical self-regulation is a good that flourishes in freedom; when permanently subject to governmental validation, it ceases to be self-regulation,” they pointed out.

Participation in consultation encouraged

The CEM deemed it “essential” for the public to participate in the consultation before Aug. 21.

“Citizen participation is not merely a procedural step in the regulatory process, but an exercise of co-responsibility for the common good; a democracy is strengthened when citizens participate, not when they remain silent,” it stated.

The bishops also expressed their “willingness to engage in frank and constructive dialogue” with authorities and license holders, and offered their educational and pastoral network “to collaborate on media education and literacy programs, the development of audiences that exercise critical thinking, and the dissemination of mechanisms for defending rights.”

The CEM also noted that no regulation can replace the responsibility to discern information, verify it before sharing, and avoid spreading content that harms others or creates confusion.

“The primary defense of the truth is not a regulation; it is a well-formed conscience,” they emphasized.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Moth, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, called on Catholics and people of goodwill to sign a petition urging world leaders to ensure countries fulfill the religious freedom requirements in Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

“Religious freedom is a right not a privilege,” Moth said in the Aug. 18 statement.

The article, created and adopted in 1948, “affirms the right to freedom of religion or belief,” he said. “It was ratified by the United Nations and quickly became recognised around the world.”

“The Second Vatican Council affirmed this right, teaching that ‘this freedom means that all people are to be immune from coercion… in such a way that no one is to be forced to act in a manner contrary to his or her own beliefs,’” he said.

The petition is part of a campaign organized by the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). It is intended to advocate for Article 18 ahead of the 10-year anniversary of Red Wednesday, an annual global campaign by ACN to raise awareness about religious persecution.

It is “a critical moment to act,” as “more than 5 billion people live in countries where persecution, oppression, and discrimination restrict religious freedom, including more than 200 million Christians,” ACN reported.

Despite Article 18’s recognition, “all too often Article 18 is ignored,” Moth said.

The bishop said: “Men and women are imprisoned, others are driven from their homes, or even killed, simply because of their peacefully held beliefs.”

“In some countries women and girls are kidnapped, forced to renounce their faith and marry their abductors; children are denied the right to learn about their faith; many people — young and old alike — are the victims of religious hatred; they suffer abuse and discrimination in the streets, at school and at work.”

“We need to stand up for our brothers and sisters in Christ and stand in support of all those who suffer for their beliefs, recognising religious freedom as a universal human right,” Moth said.

Answering Pope Leo’s call

The bishop echoed Pope Leo XIV’s call to not abandon persecuted believers.

“As Pope Leo has said, ‘Religious freedom is not merely a legal right or a privilege granted to us by governments. It is a foundational condition that makes authentic reconciliation possible,’” Moth said.

“In the words of the Holy Father, there can be … ’no peace without freedom of religion, freedom of thought, freedom of expression, and respect for the views of others,’” he concluded.

The case Kian v. Florida, which the Supreme Court agreed to hear in June, was brought after Florida chiropractor Hamed Kian was convicted of five felony counts for practicing without a license.

Kian was found guilty by a six-person jury; the state of Florida only requires 12-person juries in capital cases. Several other states have similar rules.

Kian sued the state arguing that the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees a right to a 12-person jury. He lost his appeal at the Fourth District Court of Appeal of Florida and subsequently appealed directly to the Supreme Court, which will hold arguments in the case in its upcoming term.

In their amicus filing, the U.S. bishops argued that the term “jury” in the U.S. has historically referenced a body of 12 jurors; the bishops pointed to “Founding-era dictionaries” as well as “common-law history.”

The bishops said they have a “strong interest” in the case, insofar as the Catholic Church over the centuries has played a “central role in shaping the legal culture from which the common-law jury emerged.”

Among the historical examples of 12-person juries the bishops cited include the General Fundamentals of Plymouth, “the earliest codified legal system by English colonists in North America,” which guaranteed that “all trials” would be “tried by a jury of twelve good and lawful men.”

The prelates disputed the Supreme Court’s 1970 ruling in the case Williams v. Florida, which held that the Sixth Amendment does not require 12 jurors in court cases.

That ruling in part “discard[ed] the robust common-law history of the jury right,” while the high court in that decision “set far too high a bar for historical relevance,” they said.

The bishops further cited the biblical commandment to “love your neighbor justly.” They pointed to the Catholic catechism’s mandate for public authorities to “dispense justice humanely by respecting the rights of everyone.”

They urged the Supreme Court to “return to its previously long-held understanding that the Constitution entitles criminal defendants to a jury of twelve of their peers.”

Numerous advocacy groups have also filed amicus briefs advocating the 12-juror standard, including the American Civil Liberties Union, the Innocence Project, several dozen current and former prosecutors, and the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

The archdiocese said in a press release that the agreement was ratified on Aug. 12 by Quebec Superior Court Judge Danye Daigle. The law firm Dufresne Wee, which had originally brought the lawsuit in 2020, also confirmed the settlement on its own website.

An Aug. 12 filing in the superior court said the agreement would consist of $31.5 million “to compensate the class members covered by [the] class action.”

The agreement also stipulated that a “letter of apology” would be delivered to abuse victims.

In its press release the archdiocese said its leaders “welcome this news.” The archdiocese said Church officials were “aware that [the settlement] can help members continue on their path to peace and healing.”

Announcing the settlement, Auxiliary Bishop Jean Tailleur told victims: "Faced with the suffering you are carrying, there is little that my words can relieve or heal.”

“However, something must be said,” the prelate continued. “On behalf of the Catholic Church of Quebec, I would like to offer you our most sincere apologies.”

The archdiocese said alleged abuse victims would have a final chance to join the class action settlement prior to the distribution of the funds.

The payout signals the looming end of a process that has taken place over more than half a decade, starting in August 2020 when the first filing in the class action suit was made in the superior court.

Filings in the lengthy lawsuit had accused two major Church leaders in Quebec of committing abuse. In January 2024, Archbishop Cardinal Gerald Lacroix was accused of abusing a 17-year-old teenager decades before. Lacroix was ultimately cleared by the Vatican after an investigation.

In 2022 the Vatican also said it would not pursue a trial against Cardinal Marc Ouellet, who had been accused of abuse in a 2022 filing in the class action suit that was settled this month.

The Vatican said it found “no elements to initiate a trial” against the cardinal regarding the allegations.

The tragedy prompted immediate reactions from public figures, including condolences from Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar and his Polish counterpart, Donald Tusk. The Polish prime minister sent a special aircraft to Hungary carrying representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and medical services to assist those affected. Polish President Karol Nawrocki said he was praying for “the families and loved ones of the victims.”

The heads of both the Polish and the Hungarian bishops' conferences also responded to the accident.

Archbishop Tadeusz Wojda of Gdańsk, president of the Polish Bishops' Conference, received the news “with great sadness” and prayed “for eternal life for the tragically deceased victims of the accident and for the recovery of the injured.”

Wojda extended prayers “to the families of those who died and those injured,” asking “God to grant them relief from their pain, as well as the strength and hope that will help them survive these extremely difficult times.”

Bishop János Székely of Szombathely, president of the Hungarian Catholic Bishops' Conference, expressed solidarity with the Polish victims who died while passing through his country.

“I was deeply moved to learn of the tragic bus accident,” he said, and prayed “for the eternal salvation of those who lost their lives.”

Székely asked “the Almighty to grant comfort to the families of the deceased in these difficult hours and to help the injured recover as quickly as possible.”

On behalf of the entire Catholic community in Hungary, the bishop assured “our Polish brothers of compassion and solidarity.”

The bus carrying the Polish pilgrims overturned in the early hours of Sunday and went off the road into a ditch on the M3 motorway in eastern Hungary. Some media have reported that the driver may have fallen asleep and that he has been taken into custody.

The Australian reported that in a letter to the ABC ombudsman, Fiona Cameron, he claimed the national broadcaster had breached its own guidelines on impartiality.

He asked the ombudsman whether its platforms “operated to amplify one side of a contentious policy debate."

VAD is legal throughout Australia apart from the Northern Territory, which is expected to pass enabling legislation soon.

However, a federal law banning advice about committing suicide over the phone or internet also bans telehealth consultations for VAD.

VAD advocate Andrew Denton — a former ABC television host, comedian, and founder of Go Gentle Australia — has campaigned to have the ban overturned.

Fisher cited four occasions in nine days in July when Denton promoted his views on ABC platforms. Three of them appeared before the Australian Labor Partyʼs national conference in July, which supported an end to the federal ban on telehealth consultations.

In his letter, Fisher set out what he said was documentation of a failure by the ABC to present the contentious issue impartially.

He wrote: "Over a period of nine days the ABC repeatedly provided the founder of an organization established to advocate for euthanasia and assisted suicide law reform with opportunities across television, radio, online, and social media to make the case for amending a federal prohibition on the use of telehealth for euthanasia and assisted suicide.”

"The principal arguments for retaining the prohibition were not put forward by those who hold them; rather, they were largely summarized or characterized by Denton,” he said.

The imbalance is particularly significant, the bishop continued, “because three of the relevant items, as well as two associated social media posts, were published or broadcast in the four days immediately preceding an Australian Labor Party National Conference vote on the issue being advocated.”

A subsequent ABC current affairs program interview occurred in the context of a foreshadowed parliamentary attempt to amend the law, Fisher added.

He stressed: "In those circumstances, providing an alternate perspective at some indefinite later time could not remedy the absence of diversity during the period in which the issue was the subject of an active and imminent political decision.”

Given the “significance of the issue, the imminence of the political decisions to which the coverage related, and the ABCʼs particular obligation to maintain public confidence in its impartiality,” Fisher asked that these matters be carefully investigated and addressed.

The archbishop also said Denton had misrepresented remarks he made in 2011 on “redemptive suffering.”

“Denton omitted [my] immediately preceding response, which clearly states that the goal of the Catholic Church is to reduce suffering,” he wrote in his letter to the ombudsman.

Responding to questions from The Australian, an ABC spokesman said a complaint had been received by the ombudsmanʼs office.

This story was first published by The Catholic Weekly, the news outlet of the Archdiocese of Sydney, and is edited and republished by EWTN News with permission.

Pope Francis established the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development in 2016. It promotes the Church’s efforts in the areas of peace, migration, health, and ecology. Consultors are called on to periodically meet with dicastery members to provide expert advice.

Pope Leo XIV renewed the leadership of the dicastery at the end of June with the appointment of Italian economist Sister Alessandra Smerilli, FMA, to succeed Cardinal Michael Czerny, SJ, as prefect.

He also appointed Italian Cardinal Fabio Baggio, CS, who has been the dicastery’s undersecretary since 2022, to serve as pro-prefect alongside Smerilli. Father Jozef Barlaš was promoted from the dicastery’s undersecretary to secretary. They begin their roles on Sept. 1.

2 Notre Dame professors appointed

Among the new consultors are Father Emmanuel Katongole, a priest from the Archdiocese of Kampala in Uganda and a professor of theology and peace studies at Notre Dame.

Before joining Notre Dame’s faculty, as stated in his biography, Katongole served as associate professor of theology and world Christianity at Duke University and as a founding co-director of the Duke Center for Reconciliation. He is also the founder and president of Bethany Land Institute, an education center in Rwanda inspired by Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’.

Clemens Sedmak is the other Notre Dame faculty member among the newly appointed consultors. Sedmak is a professor of social ethics and director of the Nanovic Institute for European Studies.

A native of Austria, Sedmak previously served as the FD Maurice Professor for Moral Theology and Social Theology at King’s College in London. He has also served on the faculty of the University of Salzburg and holds degrees in philosophy, theology, and social theory.

Other appointees

The other new consultors to the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development are:

• Kathryn A. Koch, president and chief executive officer of Trust Company of the West in Los Angeles
• Monsignor Peter Klasvogt, rector of the Pontifical Teutonic College of Santa Maria in Camposanto in Rome
• Father Francesco Coluccia, director of the Office of Healthcare Ministry of the Archdiocese of Otranto, Italy
• Father Joseph Jeyaraj Swaminathan, SDB, associate professor at the Faculty of Educational Sciences of the Pontifical Salesian University in Rome
• Omer S. Combary, professor in the Department of Economics at Thomas Sankara University in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
• Lucy Afandi Esipila, regional executive secretary of Caritas Africa
• Paolo Foglizzo, editor of Aggiornamenti Sociali — San Fedele Cultural Foundation in Milan, Italy
• Peter G. Kirchschläger, director of the Institute of Social Ethics at the University of Lucerne, Switzerland
• Jacqueline Remond, adjunct lecturer at the School of Theology of Australian Catholic University in Sydney
• Caren Rodrigues, associate professor at St. Joseph’s Institute of Management in Bangalore, India

In a telegram dated Aug. 18 and signed by Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the pope expressed sadness upon learning that a ferry had sunk in Lake Kariba. According to an Aug. 12 BBC news report, at least 44 people died in the incident.

“His Holiness Pope Leo XIV was deeply saddened to learn of the fatal ferry accident on Lake Kariba. Entrusting the souls of the deceased to the loving mercy of Almighty God, he sends heartfelt condolences to those who mourn their loss,” the telegram said.

The pope also offered prayers for civil authorities and first responders in their ongoing rescue efforts following the tragedy.

According to the BBC, the ferry had a capacity of 90 people on board, but it was reported that 120 boarded, including 12 children.

The vessel capsized and sank after being struck by strong waves. Rescue efforts continue to intensify, with 77 people rescued at the time of the BBC report.

Leo’s recent telegram is the third sent in August to express condolences after disasters. In an Aug. 11 telegram, he expressed closeness to the victims of a 7.4-magnitude earthquake that struck western Colombia on Aug. 10, which killed at least 281 people and injured 3,971, according to Colombia’s President Abelardo de la Espriella on Aug. 13.

In an Aug. 17 message, he offered condolences to the victims of a 7.7-magnitude earthquake that struck Indonesia on Aug. 15, which, according to an Aug. 17 BBC news report, killed at least 53 people and left over 5,000 displaced.

The relics will depart Lourdes, France, and travel to the U.S. in September. The opening celebration will be held Sept. 18–20 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.

Following the opening, the relics will continue on a yearlong pilgrimage. Housed in a 132-pound reliquary, the relics will visit about 140 locations and stop at cathedrals, basilicas, shrines, seminaries, Catholic universities, hospitals, and parishes.

“The message of Lourdes remains as relevant today as it was in 1858,” said Father Jim Phalan, the English-speaking chaplain for the sanctuary.

“Saint Bernadetteʼs humility, faith, and trust in God continue to inspire people throughout the world. We are honored to bring her relics once again to the United States and invite countless individuals to experience the grace, healing, and hope associated with Lourdes,” he said in a press release.

The original acts of St. Bernadette, official Latin‑language canonical records documenting the extraction and authentication of her relics preserved in the archives of Nevers, indicate that taken for the relics were fragments of two ribs, kneecaps, a sample of muscle from the external part of the right femur, hair, and various fragments that came from muscles and skin.

The tour builds upon the positive response to the first U.S. pilgrimage of the relics in 2022, which welcomed hundreds of thousands of faithful at churches and shrines across the country.

Tour participants will have opportunities for veneration of the relics, Eucharistic celebrations, Marian devotions, catechetical presentations, and prayers for the sick.

According to the sanctuary, the long-term goal of the tour is to deepen the relationship between American Catholics and the sanctuary while encouraging future pilgrimages to Lourdes.

The tour’s detailed schedule, participating dioceses, pilgrimage resources, and other opportunities to support the tour will be announced in the coming months.

St. Bernadette

Bernadette Soubirous was born in 1844 in Lourdes, France, into a poor family. In 1858, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared 18 times to Bernadette in Lourdes, France. Since then, Lourdes has become one of the worldʼs most popular pilgrimage destinations.

The apparitions led to the discovery of a water spring, which is associated with physical and spiritual healing. The spring welcomes millions of pilgrims to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes to drink and bathe in the water.

Bernadette spent the rest of her life in prayer and service to others. She joined the Sisters of Charity of Nevers and lived a humble life despite becoming famous for the apparitions. She suffered from poor health for much of her life and died in 1879 at the age of 35.

On June 14, 1925, Pope Pius XI proclaimed Bernadette “blessed.” Her body was then transferred to the shrine in Nevers, France, on July 18, 1925. On Dec. 8, 1933, Pope Pius XI canonized St. Bernadette, and her feast day is celebrated on April 16 in the U.S.

In previous years — specifically from 2010 to 2025 — this percentage ranged between 8% to 16%.

In 1976, Franciscan University of Steubenville held its first youth conference on its campus in Steubenville, Ohio. Celebrating 50 years this summer, the youth conferences have helped over 1 million young people encounter Jesus Christ through dynamic talks, the Mass, Eucharistic adoration, confession, prayer, and fellowship.

So, what is it about the Steubenville Youth Conference that is having such an impact on young people and specifically vocations?

EWTN News spoke to a priest and a transitional deacon — both of whom credit their experience at a Steubenville Youth Conference with impacting their vocations — about their journeys to the priesthood and why they believe this conference is igniting a fire for the faith in the hearts of young people.

Seeing joyful priests changed everything

Father Rufino Corona is a Third Order Regular Franciscan in Steubenville who was ordained in 2020. Originally from Puebla, Mexico, Corona came to the United States with his parents at the age of 8 and grew up in San Diego.

As a teenager he was active in his youth group, and it was his youth minister who frequently told Corona that he could see him becoming a priest.

“It was something that he would say to me and I would kind of write it off,” Corona recalled. “Itʼs one of those things that as I look back now, I think part of the reason why was — for one thing, I was a teenager and really in that world, but also another thing, I feel like I had priests around me who were not bad priests but Iʼd seen people very passionate for the Gospel, be very passionate for evangelization, but that was not something that Iʼd ever really seen in a priest.”

He continued: “So all of a sudden I go to these youth conferences and, it wasnʼt necessarily one in particular, but it was these men were so on fire for the Lord, so on fire for the youth hearing the Gospel. That was really my first time seeing a priest just be passionate about the Lord, and be passionate about their faith, and be passionate for souls.”

Another impactful moment for Corona was the vocations call that takes place at the end of the weekend. On the last day of the conference, anyone who may be considering religious life is asked to stand up so they can receive a blessing.

“I joke about it now that that used to be my least favorite part of the weekend, because, especially, I went to four conferences, and especially in my third and fourth conference, I started to feel the Lord moving that way but I never got up,” he shared.

However, those moments also served as a “powerful witness” for him because Corona saw so many other men his age stand up and say that they were considering it, which was “part of what really started to open up my heart to it.”

A couple of years went by and Corona was put into a leadership position where he was ministering more to his peers and felt a great desire toward the sacrament of reconciliation as he was working with these individuals. Eventually he spoke to his spiritual director — a layman who worked at Franciscan University — who told him he could continue to pray about it or he could take a step. Corona decided to take a step.

He emailed the vocations director in San Diego but never heard back. However, after speaking more with his spiritual director he was encouraged to look into becoming a friar.

“He just knew how big brotherhood was for me and literally 24 hours into the Come and See [with the Franciscan friars], I knew thatʼs where I was supposed to be,” he recalled.

From the back bleachers to the altar

Deacon Arthur Bodenschatz is a transitional deacon in the Diocese of Youngstown, Ohio, who was ordained on June 6. He grew up in a very devout Catholic household. His parents met as NET missionaries — a youth ministry program — and instilled a love for evangelization in their four children.

In the second grade, Bodenschatz began to dress in all black to attend Mass — pretending that he was the priest. However, it wasn’t until he was 14 when he had a powerful encounter with God at a Steubenville Youth Conference that he knew he was meant to be a priest.

“The moment was during Saturday night adoration … and I was sitting on the back bleachers, in one of the uncomfortable spots, when the Eucharistic procession was going by and I just had a moment of locking eyes with the Lord in the Eucharist and just had a moment of realization, of grace, where I just knew that that was Jesus in the Eucharist. I knew that he loved me. I knew that I loved him. And I knew I was going to be a priest. And it was just a joyful moment filled with a lot of joyful tears,” he recalled.

After that experience, Bodenschatz went back home and became very involved with his youth group, began to attend daily Mass, and found a spiritual director.

After he graduated from high school, Bodenschatz went straight into Borromeo Seminary in Cleveland and will be ordained a priest in 2027.

“Iʼm looking forward to the completion of a nine-year journey. So much preparation leading up to it,” he shared. “And just the idea of celebrating that first Mass — it brings a smile to my face. Knowing that what I feel God has been calling me to for so long, that he wants to use me to turn bread and wine to his body and blood for the people of God … I just canʼt wait to be his instrument.”

The power of encountering a joyful Church

So, what is it about the Steubenville Youth Conferences that is inspiring so many vocations in young people?

For Bodenschatz, it was hearing the Gospel “in such a way that was personal to me.”

“Hearing the insistence and the repeated message that Jesus loves me and that the Holy Spirit is alive in me and wants to work in me was something that maybe Iʼd heard before but I was actually starting to experience it there,” he recalled. “So I think that was just a really powerful message that is embodied by the people who are up there speaking and embodied by the people up there leading worship and the whole community, the whole environment. Itʼs just so joyful.”

He added: “Whereas in my normal experience of parish life, I didnʼt see as much joy and I didnʼt see as many people my age or as many priests and sisters running around who were just so happy to be there. So I think something about that unique experience of just the universal Church so full of life really opened me up to what the Holy Spirit was doing in me.”

Corona echoed a similar sentiment in that it is powerful for young people to see the joy their peers are also carrying for the Lord and their faith.

“There is something about coming to a conference and seeing a thousand other kids there for the same reason,” he said. “It makes your faith seem like ‘OK, this is more than just my high school. OK, this is more than just my area. This is something real. This is something that Iʼm seeing other teens honoring God and so maybe thereʼs something here.’”

“I think that there is so much to the witness of the other groups that I think goes just a really, really long way because all of a sudden the faith becomes something so much more than my familyʼs thing or something so much more than, ‘Well I go to this youth group because thatʼs where my friends go.’”

Corona added: “Itʼs like, ‘Oh my gosh, I am surrounded by anywhere from 1,000 to 4,000 to 4,500 teens who all believe that this is real’ or at least who are trying to and are wanting to see this as something real.”

The monument stands 55.6 meters (182 feet) tall from ground level to its highest point. It was built in the town of Konotopie and funded by married couple Grażyna and Roman Karkosik, for whom it represents a “personal vow of thanksgiving for the recovery of their health and lives,” according to Euronews.

Its height exceeds that of the famous Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, which measures 38 meters (125 feet) from its base; it is also taller than the Christ the King of the Universe statue in Świebodzin, Poland, which stands 52.5 meters (172 feet) tall when measured from the mound upon which it rises.

According to Vatican News, the statue depicts Our Lady of Mercy and is located near a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows, which serves as a pilgrimage site. The bishop of Włocławek highlighted this during the blessing ceremony, noting that the site where the new monument stands "is no ordinary place; it is a place sanctified by the prayers of pilgrims.”

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Construction followed the design of sculptor Adam Jakub Matejkowski. The pedestal is surrounded by eight pillars in the form of a crown. Additionally, pilgrims can go up to a terrace at a height of 15.3 meters (50 feet), from where the image of Mary itself rises.

In his homily, the prelate emphasized the importance of lifting oneʼs gaze toward heaven, especially in these times when many people “keep their eyes fixed solely on the earth and focus exclusively on themselves.”

Regarding the name of the new sculpture, Wętkowski noted that St. Faustina Kowalska, to whom Christ revealed his divine mercy, was born in Świnice Warckie, also within the Diocese of Włocławek, where she was baptized and received her first Communion.

“Here in Konotopie, Mary, in the image we see, welcomes us all; she leans toward us and opens her arms to invite us to lift our gaze upward, toward God and heaven,” Wętkowski noted.

The ceremony began with the recitation of the rosary and concluded with a shower of red rose petals dropped from two helicopters hovering over the monument.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

The quake severely damaged Our Lady of the Rosary chapel, which dates back to the 17th century. Inside the chapel’s tabernacle was the ciborium containing the consecrated hosts left over from the Mass celebrated the previous Saturday by Father Germán Andrés Clavijo, the pastor of St. Sebastian Parish, the parish to which the chapel belongs.

Immediately after the quake, which struck at 7:34 a.m. local time, the priest entered the chapel with Sister Marcela, a member of the Community of the Blessed Sacrament. They went straight to the wall where the tabernacle had been located. Falling debris had knocked the tabernacle down from its place.

“I said to her, ‘Help me look, because the consecrated hosts are there,’” the priest recounted to ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. “We found the ciborium, but it was completely smashed,” Clavijo said, adding that “some of the hosts were badly broken,” so they began gathering them up with great care.

As they picked them up by hand, both recited the “litanies to the Blessed Sacrament, to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament,” and placed them into a smaller ciborium. Afterward, they sprinkled water over the debris and the areas where particles of the hosts that could no longer be gathered up might have remained.

Regarding the hosts that were mixed in with dirt and debris, Clavijo said: “I told her they must be placed in a container of water so that they would dissolve” and the water could later be poured by a tree or into a potted plant.

No. 1377 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that “the Eucharistic presence of Christ begins at the moment of the consecration and endures as long as the Eucharistic species subsist” in the physical appearance of bread and wine.

The priest from Roldanillo said it was “very sad” to see the hosts scattered on the ground, for the Eucharist “is the life of the priest; that is the life of the Church; it is our center.”

However, he said he had to be “very strong, because I had to find a solution,” adding: “It wasn’t the time for lamenting; after all, the earthquake had just happened, and we were in a very unsafe spot, fearing that an aftershock or something else might cause debris to come crashing down on us.”

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The quake’s effects in Roldanillo

Roldanillo was one of the areas hardest hit areas by the earthquake. Located about 90 miles from Cali and founded in 1576, many of its buildings date back to the colonial era and the early days of the republic.

The day after the natural disaster, the Valle del Cauca governorʼs office reported that two people had died and 112 were injured. In addition, nearly 1,300 homes were affected, “some of which have completely collapsed,” and “60% of the hospital sustained structural damage.”

Regarding the parish church, the priest said that it is has closed due to the effects of the earthquake, so Masses are being celebrated in the town square. The chapel cannot be used either, and its restoration will depend on the Colombian government as it is classified as a national heritage building.

In the video he shared on the day of the earthquake, Clavijo expressed his solidarity with the residents of Roldanillo: “Amid the rubble left behind, I also wish to offer a prayer of hope and encouragement for those who have lost everything, especially those who have lost a loved one.”

The priest affirmed that, although it is not easy, “with hope and God’s hand, all of us united, will overcome this storm. As the Gospel said yesterday [Sunday, Aug. 9], sometimes we walk amid strong winds and turbulent waves, and our boat seems to be sinking, but God reaches out his hand to us. Like Peter, we all cry out: ‘Lord, save us.’”

“And that is what we pray for today. To all of you, I offer my blessing and words of encouragement and hope during these times. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” he said, blessing the viewers.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

The dispute began with what Wenski described as Uthmeierʼs “veiled threat” in a July 31 letter to the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops. In it, the attorney general urged the bishops to bring Catholic schools into compliance with Florida law requiring religious exemptions for school vaccine mandates, on pain of the loss of state funding through its school choice scholarship program.

Florida has one of the most expansive school choice programs in the United States, whereby families can use state-funded scholarship money for a variety of education-related expenses, including private school tuition.

Uthmeier argued in his letter that “at least one diocese” in Florida appears to have adopted a policy based on what he characterized as the bishops' erroneous interpretation of guidance given to Wenski in 2011 by the National Catholic Bioethics Center.

The bioethics center’s then-president, John Haas, said Catholic institutions could not grant exemptions to vaccines on religious grounds because the Church has determined that utilizing vaccines derived from aborted fetal cell lines was “not intrinsically evil” because of the remoteness of the original, evil act of abortion.

At the same time, Haas made a distinction between religious and conscience objections, stating Catholic institutions should grant the latter “as liberally as possible for the sake of the delicate consciences” of Catholic parents. He also noted that the consciences of those making school policies must be respected.

Wenski told “EWTN News in Depth” host Catherine Hadro in an Aug. 14 interview: “If a Catholic has conscience objections to the vaccines you canʼt say that your objections come from your understanding of the Catholic faith because the vaccinations available and developed are not contrary to Church teachings.”

Religious exemptions or conscience exemptions?

The distinction between the two types of exemptions is important, making the Florida case complicated, Andrea Picciotti-Bayer, an attorney and the founder of The Conscience Project, told EWTN News.

While most states offer some combination of medical, religious, and conscience exemptions to vaccine mandates, Florida law does not explicitly protect conscience objections, only medical and religious ones.

Uthmeier argues that conscience objections fall under the protection of religious liberty, particularly for Catholics, for whom the formation of conscience is a central aspect of the faith.

“The teachings of the Catholic Church do not require Catholic schools to compel students to take vaccines derived from the tissue of aborted children against the sincerely held religious objections of their parents,” Uthmeier wrote.

The attorney general also noted that some Catholic families object to certain vaccines not only because of their connection to aborted fetal cell lines, but also because of concerns about the safety of vaccine ingredients and methods of production, including the use of mRNA technology, which he said brings a “heightened risk of health defects, including miscarriages.”

The National Catholic Bioethics Center declined to comment to EWTN News. However, the organization maintains resources on its website stating the Church’s position that although vaccines developed through morally problematic means may be used for grave reasons, vaccination is not a moral obligation for Catholics and, in order to protect human dignity and the free exercise of conscience, should be voluntary.

The organization also states that “public health measures and policies should be built upon sound science and ethical principles.”

Uthmeier: Parents' rights are being violated

Uthmeier told EWTN News he is concerned about the "religious freedoms and rights of parents.” He pointed out that many Catholic families have come to him noting the irony that their conscience rights are protected in public schools in Florida but not in Catholic ones.

Uthmeier also said families are confused because Catholic schools in several dioceses across the country do grant vaccine conscience and religious exemptions.

Because Catholic schools receive state scholarship funds, he argued, the state has an interest in ensuring that religious freedoms are protected.

“Where First Amendment rights [and] the religious beliefs of parents are being violated, we as a state have a duty to investigate and see what legal tools we may have to protect our parents in Florida,” he said.

While acknowledging that the state cannot dictate religious beliefs, he said he remains unconvinced that the bishops have identified an authentically religious reason for denying exemptions.

A Catholic himself, Uthmeier further pointed to what he said were long-standing Catholic teachings regarding parental authority and conscience rights.

“Respecting the right of conscience is deeply embedded in our catechism,” he said. “How these rights can be violated, and how Catholic Church officials can disagree on citing religious teaching across the country, perplexes me.”

Wenski: Catholic schools must protect the common good

Wenski likewise framed the controversy as a religious freedom issue, from the perspective of the Churchʼs right to determine and apply its own teachings.

He described Uthmeierʼs position as “an unfair and ill-advised interpretation of separation of Church and state” and argued that lawmakers never intended school-choice scholarships to impose a religious test on participating schools.

“The Church has a right to determine our own teachings,” he said.

Wenski told EWTN News that the bishops “certainly respect the rights of conscience of every person.” At the same time, he said Catholic social teaching also obligates schools to promote the common good and protect children through immunization.

“Weʼve witnessed in recent months an upsurge of cases of measles, and we know that that presents certain dangers for pregnant women,” Wenski said.

The archbishop noted that Catholic schools already grant medical exemptions when a physician certifies that a child should not be vaccinated.

But he maintained that parents who object to vaccination are free to choose another school.

"Nobody is forced to go to a Catholic school,” he said.

The bishops sent Uthmeier a formal response, Wenski said, outlining what they view as the religious freedom issues implicated by the attorney generalʼs intervention.

Wenski said the bishops are “prepared to protect our students, to defend our rights, and to preserve religious freedom” while remaining open to continued dialogue with the state.

Critics of Florida bishops’ policy disagree

While Wenski suggested the issue is largely settled within Catholic teaching, critics of the Florida bishops' policy disagree.

Yvonne Bontkowski, director of Children of God for Life, said the controversy reflects a deeper disagreement over how Catholics should respond to vaccines connected to abortion-derived cell lines.

“This is the first time I have ever seen where the state isnʼt asking the Church to violate its teaching, itʼs asking the Church to honor it,” she told EWTN News.

The organization argues that although the Church has determined it can be morally permissible to receive such vaccines under certain circumstances, Church teaching says Catholics still have a moral duty to advocate for ethical alternatives and resist what it sees as the continued exploitation of aborted fetal tissue in biomedical research.

Bontkowski cited a 2005 document from the Pontifical Academy for Life, which established the moral permissibility of the use of vaccines developed from aborted fetal cell lines in order to protect health but also affirmed that Catholics may exercise conscientious objection regarding such vaccines.

“Our conscience is directed to what is morally good,” she said. “The Vatican never said these vaccines are morally good. It said weʼre not sinning if we take them for grave reasons and on a temporary basis while we demand ethical alternatives.”

She argued that families exercising that duty should not be excluded from Catholic education, which, unlike immunization, is a moral obligation.

Canon law states that parents have both a right and a “most grave obligation” to provide a Catholic education for their children, while Canon 217 affirms that the faithful have the right to a Christian education “by which they are to be instructed properly to strive for the maturity of the human person and at the same time to know and live the mystery of salvation.”

Other critics contend that the debate ultimately turns on differing understandings of public health and the common good.

Barbara Loe Fisher, co-founder and director of the National Vaccine Information Center, told EWTN News that Catholic school officials generally formulate vaccine and other public health policies based on the judgments of public health authorities.

But, she argued, the COVID-19 pandemic exposed public distrust in scientific and governmental institutions, especially regarding data about who is at greatest biological risk for vaccines “that could hurt or even kill people.”

“Unfortunately the entire notion of the common good rests upon the science,” Fisher said. “If the scientists and the government havenʼt done due diligence in doing the best science, or havenʼt told the full truth, that is a moral dilemma the Church is going to have to eventually grapple with.”

“This has been a long time coming,” Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City told EWTN News on the red carpet July 28.

Born in Okarche, Oklahoma, Rother was a farmer before he attended Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland, and was ordained a priest in 1963. After serving as an associate pastor at a parish in Oklahoma for five years, Rother received permission to join the staff at the Oklahoma diocese’s mission in Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala.

He served the Tz’utujil people, who are descendants of the Mayans, in Guatemala, learning their native Tz’utujil language as well as Spanish. As their pastor, Rother celebrated Mass and helped translate the New Testament into the Tz’utujil language. He quickly gained the trust and love of the local people, ministering to them in their homes, sharing meals, helping them in the fields, and visiting the sick.

While Rother was in Guatemala, a civil war broke out and the Catholic Church was caught in its crosshairs. The priest’s name was placed on a death list. On July 28, 1981, three men entered the rectory at night and killed the beloved priest.

Rother’s cause for canonization opened in 2007 by the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, and in 2016 Pope Francis recognized Rother as a martyr for the faith. He became the first American-born priest to be recognized as a martyr by the Catholic Church.

“We’ve been very intentionally promoting the cause of Blessed Stanley Rother for many years,” Coakley said. “He’s been beatified and now we’re working toward his canonization, and in order for that ever to happen we need more and more people seeking the intercession of Blessed Stanley Rother and seeking his divine favor so that miracles may be performed through his intercession. So that’s why we undertook this production, to introduce him to more and more people.”

The archbishop added that the film is “a beautiful depiction of the life of an ordinary Catholic who responded generously and faithfully to Godʼs grace and mercy and allowed the Lord to transform him and form him into the saint ultimately that we hope he will finally be named.”

Michael Scaperlanda, chancellor at the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, said: “This is an exciting moment for the archdiocese to have a nationwide release … of this wonderful documentary narrated by Martin Sheen.”

He highlighted the importance of sharing Rother’s story to a wider audience because it serves as a reminder that “even ordinary people can become saints.”

For Felipe Coche Pablo, the documentary is particularly personal. Pablo is a native of Santiago Atitlan and was baptized by Rother when he was 6 months old. He was 2 years old when Rother was killed.

When Rother’s cause was opened, Pablo was appointed to serve as the official church notary for Rother’s parish in Santiago Atitlán. It was then that he learned about the potential saint’s life and legacy.

Pablo said learning about Rother deeply impacted his life and taught him “to keep fighting in life. There are always stumbles, but you have to pick yourself back up, like he [Rother] did.”

Today, Pablo is the administrator at Colegio Católico Padre Aplaʼs — also known as the Blessed Stanley Rother Catholic School — in Santiago Atitlán. This school is part of the parish in which Rother served, Santiago Apóstol, or St. James the Apostle Church.

“We have 435 students and the education is trilingual — Tz’utujil, Spanish, and English,” he explained. “Our first language is the Mayan language, Tz’utujil. And he [Rother] was a priest that was very loved by the people because he learned the Mayan language Tz’utujil, like us, like what I speak.”

Pablo said he hopes viewers of the film will be inspired by Rother’s “service to others” and to “carry peace, love, evangelize, and what is most needed in life — look for God.”

Coakley added that he hopes viewers will leave the theater reminded that “all of us are called to holiness.”

“Stanley Rother would not have been the one in high school in the yearbook that said most likely to become a saint … And yet all of us are called, it’s our vocation if you’re baptized, you’re called to be a saint. All of us are called to be saints. And Stanley Rother gives us a hope that for each one of us that is a possibility that is real.”

“American Martyr” can be seen in theaters across the U.S. on Aug. 25 and 26 in English and in Spanish on Aug. 27.

In a statement shared with ACI Africa, the sister service of EWTN News in Africa, on Aug. 16, the chancellor of the diocese, Father Joseph Aboyi Itodo, said Kelvin Ochai “managed to escape from his abductors and made his way to Aliade in Gwer East Local Government Area, where he was found and later safely taken home.”

According to the chancellor, Bishop Michael Ekwoyi Apochi, who leads the diocese, expressed gratitude to the people of God “for their show of solidarity and earnest prayers which led to the speedy and safe return of our brother.”

Apochi also thanked the priest and parishioners of Sts. Peter and Paul Aliade Parish, who received Ochai as a seminarian following his escape and provided him with accommodation for the night.

Itodo also expressed the diocese’s appreciation to the Nigeria police for attending to the seminarian after he escaped.

While giving thanks for Ochai’s safe return, the chancellor appealed for continued prayers for the many people being held by criminal groups in different parts of Nigeria, asking God to bring them safely out of captivity.

He also called for prayers for an end to insecurity and the restoration of peace and stability in the West African nation.

“May the good Lord reward you all beyond measure,” Itodo said, appealing for continued prayers that God would protect the people from violence and “restore sanity to our country Nigeria.”

The West African nation has continued to experience attacks by armed groups involved in killings and kidnappings for ransom.

The Boko Haram insurgency has posed a major security challenge in the country since 2009. The group reportedly seeks to turn Africa’s most populous nation into an Islamic state.

Insecurity in other parts of Nigeria has also been linked to attacks involving predominantly Muslim Fulani herders, sometimes referred to as the Fulani militia.

This story was first published by ACI Africa, the sister service of EWTN News in Africa, and has been adapted by EWTN News.

“It‘s like a dwelling place around the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. A space filled with the immensity of God, God’s children living together, seeing God’s wonderful, creative power in the cosmos,” the centenarian priest shared in an interview with the Archdiocese of Santiago de Compostela, where he has served for more than seven decades.

Is it worth being a priest?

Reflecting on the most memorable moments of his long life, Bello highlighted “the day of my ordination as a deacon and the day of my first Mass. My diaconal ordination was conferred by the cardinal, Don Fernando Quiroga. There were about 33 of us, and at one point someone had to speak and offer thanks; that role fell to me, as I was the oldest.”

“At my first Mass, I felt unworthy and inadequate. It was a deeply moving experience. It took place in 1955 at the parish in Cances, a time of great celebration and high hopes,” he continued.

Regarding the crosses he has borne in his life, the priest remarked that there have been “many, which I strove to carry well.”

When asked whether he felt it was worth being ordained a priest, he replied: “For me, yes, and I believe also for some of the faithful whom I supported and who later thanked me for it.”

On Wednesday, Aug. 12, the archbishop of Santiago de Compostela, Francisco José Prieto Fernández, visited the priest, who now devotes himself to prayer, spiritual accompaniment, and writing.

Bello’s life

Bello was born on Aug. 1, 1926, in the village of Cances into a large Catholic family. His childhood was marked by the aftermath of the 1936–1939 Spanish Civil War, the loss of his older brother, and the need to assume adult responsibilities, according to the archdiocese.

After the war, he was sent to the Salesian school in Madrid. He entered the seminary in 1943 and celebrated his first Mass in 1955. Shortly thereafter he was assigned to a parish where a group of university students assisted him in his ministry.

“I tried to go to the Americas, but Father Benito Espiño wouldnʼt let me; instead, he sent me to Ozón, near Muxía. The Holy Spirit took hold of me there and never let me go,” the priest recalled, noting that he had also once hoped to reach what is known as the Continent of Hope (Latin America).

He served in various parishes, where he ministered to many people and helped restore a monastery. He also led short courses, spiritual exercises, and gave talks.

In 1999, he was appointed chaplain of the Padre Rubinos Residence and also of the Sisters of Charity, where he ministered to the elderly, the poor, and many other members of the faithful.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

This year marked the 260th annual thanksgiving pilgrimage to the shrine, according to the diocese. Participation was restricted and at times banned under the communist regime, and the pilgrimages have been held freely again since 1990.

The ceremony in Nitra — one of the oldest Slavic dioceses — drew several thousand faithful. Those taking part included Bishop František Rábek, the retired military ordinary of Slovakia; Bishop Jozef Haľko, auxiliary bishop of Bratislava; and Bishop Viliam Judák of Nitra. Each celebrated a Mass and heard confessions during the two days, which featured several Masses and confessions in Slovak but also in Hungarian, as well as adoration and an organ concert.

Haľko, who celebrated a Mass in Hungarian, told EWTN News that during the pilgrimage he reflected “on how we are very Marian in the Eucharist as we say yes to God, amen, which is our small preaching as we give ourselves to him and vice versa.”

Bishops preach on Mary’s example

For his part, Rábek, who was a priest in the local parish of Nitra-Calvary and now lives on the site of the pilgrimage, invited parents “to search for a healthy balance in your kids to develop their talents, but also the word of God.”

Mary was a simple, ordinary woman, yet she was ready to embrace God’s word and became a role model, he said. “Show me a woman who is as famous, glorified, and respected as Mary,” he emphasized.

The pilgrimage culminated in a Mass on Sunday, which the mayor of Nitra and other local politicians attended. In his homily, Judák cited Carl Jung, the psychologist and son of a Protestant pastor, who called the Catholic Church’s 1950 dogma of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary “the most important religious event since the Reformation.”

The bishop of Nitra asked the Virgin Mary to help all present proceed on the path to the goal of life, which is self-giving love.

“If we strive to live according to our conscience, that is, to fulfill God’s will just like she did, our life and the events of our life, everything we do well, will not perish even upon death,” he stressed.

The prelate encouraged everyone to look, “just as we and many millions of people looked up” on Aug. 12 “to see the cosmic phenomenon of the solar eclipse,” but now “with a spiritual sight to where the Virgin Mary leads us.”

May this moment at the feet of the Virgin Mary of the Assumption help us, Judák continued, “so that tomorrow, in a week, in a month, in a year, at least until the end of our lives, we will never lose sight of the noble goal of our life, and that we strive for it with God’s help.”

He likewise encouraged the faithful to fulfill their Christian duty and to act and profess Christian values in the local elections coming this autumn.

50 pilgrims on foot in the heat

The pilgrimage was organized by the parish of Nitra-Calvary, run by the Divine Word Missionaries (the Society of the Divine Word), whose Slovak province has its seat on the Calvary hill.

The parish priest, Father Ján Štefanec, SVD, told EWTN News that he “is happy this place is alive for the feast, though I would like to see so many people show up more often” in the parish.

He said he finds it interesting that every year many pilgrims come from the region to pray to the Mother of God, that former parishioners return for the feast, and that cyclists at times make part of their pilgrimage on two wheels. Although people nowadays come by car or bus, this time a group of 50 pilgrims walked 20 kilometers (12 miles) in temperatures of 36 degrees Celsius (97 degrees Fahrenheit), the Divine Word missionary said.

“We are happy and relieved as our people have been released after being imprisoned for over 100 days on false charges,” Bishop Devprasad John Ganawa of Udaipur, a Divine Word missionary, told EWTN News on Aug. 17.

Hindu activists barged into the church and disrupted the Mass at Communion time on the evening of May 1 in the remote village of Kalinjara, in Banswara district in southern Rajasthan, shouting accusations of “conversion.” Catholics confronted the intruders and chased them out.

Instead of registering a criminal case against the intruders, police in the state, which is governed by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), charged the Catholics with “conversion and attempt to murder” and arrested members of Bandaria Parish on the nights of May 1 and May 3. Ten were held in judicial custody.

Father Arvind Amliyar, the parish priest, told EWTN News in May that the group entered during Communion and began filming and that one of the men drew a knife before parishioners took it from him and forced the group out.

Members of a Hindu Sena group said they had acted on information about alleged cow slaughter and conversion activity, according to Catholic Connect, a news platform of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India. The Banswara district superintendent of police said days after the incident that the situation was under control and that an investigation was underway, with evidence collected from the scene, the outlet reported. Police did not confirm the parish’s allegation that officers had refused to register its complaint.

“Our people are victims of the anti-conversion law. Our legal team pursued the case after bail was denied by the district court. We thank God that they are now out of jail,” Ganawa said.

Under the Rajasthan Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, which took effect in 2025, the burden of proof rests on those accused of causing a conversion, who must show that it was not unlawful. As in several other BJP-ruled states, that reversal has made bail difficult to obtain in the lower courts.

The act is under challenge in India’s Supreme Court, which in November 2025 issued notice to the Rajasthan government on petitions contesting its constitutionality, including one brought by the Jaipur Catholic Welfare Society.

‘A day of great joy’

“It was certainly a day of great joy for us,” said Amliyar, who was celebrating Mass when the May 1 incident occurred. He was at the Kushalgarh jail to receive the men after the Aug. 12 bail order from the Rajasthan High Court reached the jail the following day.

“Our people were thrilled to receive them at the church,” said Amliyar, who had been traveling back and forth to the legal team on behalf of his distant parishioners.

“We thank the Lord for our bail after 104 days,” one of the released Catholics told EWTN News on Aug. 17. His identity is being withheld because of legal restrictions.

“All of us spent days in jail praying. But since we were kept in different cells, we could not pray together. But the Lord took care of us. None of us had any sickness in the jail,” he said.

“The days we spent in jail did not frustrate us. It has only strengthened us in faith,” he added, while thanking all those who prayed for their release and those who worked for it.

A pattern of arrests

Human rights defenders point out that anti-conversion laws are misused against Christian and Muslim minorities, with hundreds arrested under the laws but hardly any convictions.

In a similar case, Father Babu Francis, director of the Diocesan Development and Welfare Society of Allahabad Diocese in Uttar Pradesh state, was detained by police on Oct. 1, 2023, when he went to find out why his driver had been taken from his house by police.

Police were looking for the driver’s brother, a pastor, against whom a Hindu activist had filed a case of “conversion” for conducting prayers in a house. Unable to find the pastor, they took the driver from a nearby house to the police station. The eldest of the three brothers rushed to the station and was also detained, and the driver’s son-in-law was arrested when he went to question the detentions.

The driver’s wife slipped away from the police station during the argument and called Father Francis, who rushed there. Three hours later, the priest was also arrested, and all of them were charged with conversion and even “attempt to murder.”

The Allahabad High Court released the priest on bail 82 days later, just before Christmas 2023.

In a telegram dated Aug. 17 and signed by Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the pope expressed his sadness on learning of the earthquake, which, according to an Aug. 17 BBC news report, has killed at least 53 people and left over 5,000 displaced.

According to the same report, the earthquake has also caused severe structural damage to hundreds of buildings, particularly on Indonesia’s Flores Island and in North Sumatra. Authorities continue to assess the number of injuries.

“His Holiness Pope Leo XIV was deeply saddened to learn of the devastation caused by the earthquake in the region of East Nusa Tenggara, and he offers the assurance of his spiritual solidarity and closeness to those suffering the continuing effects of this disaster, particularly for the many displaced and injured,” the telegram said.

In the message, addressed to the archbishop of Ende, Archbishop Paulus Budi Kleden, SVD, the pope also encouraged authorities to continue their humanitarian efforts and commended “the dead to the loving mercy of Almighty God.”

Leo’s recent telegram follows that of Aug. 11, in which he expressed closeness to the victims of a 7.4-magnitude earthquake that struck western Colombia on Aug. 10, which killed at least 281 people and injured 3,971, according to Colombia’s President Abelardo de la Espriella on Aug. 13.

During his visit, the pope will meet with authorities, lead Eucharistic adoration, and meet the faithful gathered before traveling to the nearby city of Rimini, Italy, for the “Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples.”

Here are 10 things to know about San Marino’s ancient history and deep Catholic heritage.

1. San Marino was founded at a time of Christian persecution.

San Marino is said to have been founded in A.D. 301, roughly 270 years after the death and resurrection of Christ. It was also founded at a time when early Christians in Rome still faced widespread persecution, producing martyrs such as St. Agnes, St. Pancras, and St. Lucy. The Great Persecution under Emperor Diocletian occurred soon after the country’s founding and lasted nearly a decade (A.D. 303-311).

2. San Marino is among the world’s oldest and smallest republics.

The country’s founding in A.D. 301 also makes it the world’s oldest continuing republic. Like Vatican City, it is completely surrounded by Italy and is one of the world’s smallest states by both land area and population.

The land area measures 23.63 square miles, which is 20 times smaller than New York City by land area. Its population is approximately 34,000, about the same as Ithaca, New York.

3. The name San Marino comes from a hermit saint.

St. Marinus, after whom the country is named, was a third-century deacon who fled the Great Persecution under Diocletian. According to tradition, he settled on Monte Titano, where San Marino now stands, and founded a monastery there.

His reputation for holiness began to spread in his old age, leading many to join his monastery. The owner of Monte Titano also offered him the mountain as a gift. It has remained the highest point of the sovereign state ever since.

4. San Marino has been protected by popes and has never been annexed.

Though landlocked by Italy today and occupied several times throughout its more than 1,000-year history, San Marino has never been annexed by another nation.

By the 17th century, it was even surrounded by the Papal States, the region of Italy ruled by the popes until the Kingdom of Italy permanently absorbed it in 1870. Pope Urban VIII placed San Marino under papal protection through the 1631 treaty while recognizing its full sovereignty.

5. San Marino is governed by two captains who serve for only six months.

San Marino has two heads of state, the captains regent, who are currently Alice Mina and Vladimiro Selva. For nearly 800 years, they have been elected by the country’s 60-member parliament, the Grand and General Council.

The captains regent serve only six-month terms, among the shortest constitutional terms for any political office in the world. They cannot serve a second consecutive term but can return to office after three years.

6. Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI have been there.

Despite being in Italy, San Marino has only been visited by two popes.

St. John Paul II visited the country on Aug. 29, 1982. During his visit, he met with the only communist head of state in Western Europe, Captain Regent Giuseppe Maiani.

Benedict XVI visited on June 19, 2011, as part of his pastoral visit to the nearby Diocese of San Marino-Montefeltro.

During their visits, both popes venerated the relics of St. Marinus, the country’s patron, at the Basilica of San Marino.

7. The official language of San Marino is Italian.

Italian has remained San Marino’s only official language since the Middle Ages, reflecting its shared history with the Italian peninsula.

The country also has a regional dialect called Sammarinese, a local variant of Romagnol spoken in the nearby Romagna region of Italy.

8. San Marino’s most famous cake represents its three towers.

The country’s cuisine has been heavily influenced by Italy. But one can visit there to try its most famous dessert: the Torta Tre Monti (“the cake of the three mountains”).

The cake is made up of three layers of wafer and chocolate-hazelnut cream, representing the three towers that make up San Marino: the Guaita, the Cesta, and the Montale.

9. Abraham Lincoln was made an honorary citizen of San Marino.

Shortly after becoming U.S. president in 1861, Abraham Lincoln received a letter from the captains regent of San Marino granting him honorary citizenship as the U.S. prepared for the Civil War. Lincoln replied later that year, accepting the honor.

The original letter from the captains regent can still be viewed at the U.S. National Archives in Washington, D.C.

10. San Marino hosts an annual event, which Leo XIV will attend. 

On Aug. 22, Pope Leo XIV will become only the third pope in history to visit San Marino. He is scheduled to meet with civil and religious leaders during his visit and to greet the faithful who will gather in the country’s main squares.

At 12:45 p.m. that day, he will travel to the nearby city of Rimini for the “Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples,” an annual international Catholic cultural festival organized by the lay movement Communion and Liberation.

He will then meet the sick and elderly at Rimini Cathedral and celebrate Mass before returning to Rome at 8 p.m.

Lebanon

Despite the ongoing war and the country’s difficult economic situation, streets across Lebanon on Saturday were filled with processions honoring the Virgin Mary, with each village marking the feast through its own customs.

In the southern town of Jezzine in Lebanon, a long procession culminated with a rosary made of balloons being released into the sky. A statue of the Virgin Mary was then lifted above the crowd by a crane, symbolizing her assumption into heaven, as flower petals rained down on those gathered below.

In Bhamdoun, Mount Lebanon, villagers continued their tradition of preparing “hreeseh” together for the feast. Residents took turns stirring the traditional wheat-and-meat dish in large cauldrons as it cooked for hours.

Syria

Despite earlier announcements by some churches canceling public festivities amid a rise in the kidnapping of Christians, several celebrations and religious observances still took place in Syria.

One example was the Marmarita Carnival. First held in 1975, the event returned this year, filling the streets with music and joy. Participants dressed in colorful costumes and paraded through the town, reviving a tradition that has long brought residents and members of the Syrian diaspora together for the feast.

Tunisia

In Tunisia, celebrations centered on La Goulette, the port town near Tunis where the traditional procession of Our Lady of Trapani takes place each year. Following Mass at the Church of St. Augustine and St. Fidelis, the statue of the Virgin Mary was carried through the streets as worshippers gathered to mark the Assumption.

The tradition originated among Sicilian fishermen who settled in La Goulette during the 19th century. They would carry the statue toward the sea, asking the Virgin Mary to bless the waters, protect fishermen, and grant them an abundant catch. Over time, the procession became part of the town’s shared heritage, attracting Christians, Muslims, and people from different cultural backgrounds.

The celebration disappeared in the 1960s as much of La Goulette’s European Christian community left Tunisia, but it was revived in 2017.

These celebrations offer only a glimpse of the many ways Christians across the Middle East and North Africa marked the solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Across the region, communities gathered in churches, streets, and homes, blending their shared devotion to the Virgin Mary with local traditions passed down through generations. Amid uncertainty and change, the feast remained a moment of faith, continuity, and collective joy.

This story was first published by ACI MENA, the Arabic-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated for and adapted by EWTN News.

Yet though Christ in the Eucharist occupies a place of centrality in the Church, many Catholics may not ever stop to reflect on the bread that in the Mass becomes Christ — namely, how is this unique substance produced before it is brought to the altar?

The question is not merely academic; in rare instances the local Church can run out of Communion hosts, as occurred in Cuba in June. All of Cuba’s hosts are produced by Discalced Carmelites at the Monastery of Santa Teresa and San José, but the lack of a reliable power supply there hindered production over the summer.

Sister Ruth Starman, the head of altar bread production for the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in Clyde, Missouri, told EWTN News that the requirements for Catholic altar bread are dictated by the Code of Canon Law of the Church, specifically canon 924.

The sisters’ abbey in Missouri has been producing altar bread for years and was the first U.S. producer of altar breads approved by the Vatican to make low-gluten hosts.

Standard hosts, she said, “can be made of wheat and water only.”

“Yeast is not allowed because that would make it leavened bread and Jesus used unleavened bread at the Last Supper,” she said. "Any other additives such as salt, honey, etc. would be forbidden.”

In addition to the strict water-and-wheat requirements, Church law dictates that the bread must be “recently made so that there is no danger of spoiling.”

Manufacturers, meanwhile, use special machines on which to bake the bread to ensure it is produced in the familiar uniform and thin style.

“The baking machines have plates that may have designs on them or not,” Starman said. “The plates will produce a thin wafer sheet that will then need to be moistened in a dampener before being cut into the round hosts.” Breads that are not moistened “will shatter when cut,” she said.

Special cutters, meanwhile, allow bakers to divide the bread into differently sized hosts including the smaller rounds intended for lay communicants and the larger portions for priests and bishops.

As to why the bread is so thin and flat, Starman told EWTN News: “I donʼt have the answer for that but just conjecture. Because it is unleavened, the bread will be ‘flat’ anyway. However, I suppose with the invention of specialized baking equipment, where two baker plates close upon the batter, that probably started the more wafer-thin hosts."

Starman said there have been “no major changes” to the process in recent years.

“The Vatican does periodically have to remind priests and the Church at large that anything other than a wheat bread cannot be used,” she said. “Hosts made from rice, corn, or potato starch, for example, are considered invalid matter.”

The low-gluten hosts at the abbey, she said, are made from two different wheat starches that have had most of the gluten removed. “The Church does not say how much wheat percentage a host must have, but only that it needs to have some amount to make it valid matter,” she said.

Elsewhere the Church has stressed the need for hosts to be treated with reverence at every stage of the process. The instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum, promulgated in March 2004 by what was then the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, states that the bread “should obviously be made by those who are not only distinguished by their integrity, but also skilled in making them and furnished with suitable tools.”

In response to the shortage of Communion hosts in Cuba earlier this year,  Church leaders in Panama sent 35,000 hosts to the island nation, while another 300,000 were sent from Puerto Rico.

Archbishop José Domingo Ulloa Mendieta of Panama said at the time that the emergency shipment arose “in response to the difficulties several Cuban dioceses are facing in ensuring a supply of hosts.”

The prelate called the hosts “an essential element for the celebration of the sacrament that constitutes the source and summit of the Christian life.”

In its May 26 ruling, the court described the actions taken against the woman, identified by the pseudonym “Sarah,” as a “flagrant violation” of her fundamental rights to human dignity and freedom of religion, according to Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International.

The court also ordered that she receive financial compensation, ADF said in an Aug. 11 report announcing the ruling.

Sarah, a resident of Kano state, reportedly fled her family home in 2025 after suffering abuse from her elder siblings, who were allegedly attempting to force her into marriage.

Her parents had died years earlier, and her siblings subsequently enlisted local Hisbah officials to have her arrested, according to ADF.

Sarah was reportedly detained for four days. She alleged that she was beaten and pressured to accept the marriage from which she had fled.

She later found refuge with a Christian family, the Abaras, and voluntarily converted to Christianity while staying with them, ADF reported.

Amid fears of further threats, the family helped her relocate to Jos in January. Her siblings subsequently accused the Abaras of kidnapping her.

On Feb. 24, Sarah filed a fundamental-rights enforcement action challenging the measures taken against her. Two days later, the Abaras were arraigned in Kano without legal representation.

The Federal High Court of Nigeria subsequently prohibited Kano state authorities and Hisbah officials from pursuing Sarah’s arrest because of her conversion or her refusal to enter the proposed marriage.

“The court’s ruling in Sarah’s case affirms that the Hisbah police have no jurisdiction over Christians or other non-Muslims,” ADF Senior Counsel for Global Religious Freedom Sean Nelson said.

He added: “Sarah’s choice to convert and reject a forced marriage is her right under law.”

Sarah welcomed the judgment and expressed gratitude to the Christian family that had sheltered her.

“The Abara family kept me safe in a time when I had nowhere else to go. I am grateful to them especially for introducing me to the Gospel. It is not against the law for me to choose my faith in Jesus,” she said.

She also expressed gratitude that the court had recognized her freedom to become a Christian and protected her from the religious police.

The criminal proceedings against the Abaras remain pending in Kano, with ADF providing legal assistance.

Previous cases involving Christian converts

Sarah’s case follows other reported incidents involving people who converted, or were suspected of converting, from Islam to Christianity in northern Nigeria.

In January 2018, the reported conversion of Nabila Umar Sanda, then a 19-year-old student at Bingham University in Abuja, attracted national attention after security officials intervened.

Media reports indicated that Nigeria’s Department of State Services arrested Sanda and some of her Christian associates after Islamic leaders learned of her conversion. Christian leaders Jeremiah Datim and Simput Dafup were also reportedly drawn into the case, which unfolded in Jos, Plateau state.

Hisbah organizations operate in several northern Nigerian states to enforce Islamic moral codes. They have faced allegations of interfering with Christians and other people who are not subject to Islamic religious obligations.

In November 2023, International Christian Concern reported that Hisbah officials in Kano stopped five Christian girls who were traveling to church. The girls were allegedly instructed to dress according to Islamic standards and prevented from attending church until the service had ended.

In another case, Pastor Yohanna Shuaibu was killed by a mob in Kano state in 2021 following allegations that he had helped convert a Muslim man to Christianity.

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom reported that Shuaibu was attacked after being accused of involvement in the man’s conversion.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) reported that the man had left Islam but was attending neither a church nor a mosque. Members of the local Muslim community nevertheless reportedly assumed that he had become a Christian and blamed Shuaibu.

According to the organization, Shuaibu had returned to Massu village in Kano state’s Sumaila Local Government Area to evacuate children from a Christian school when the mob attacked him. He later died from injuries sustained in the attack.

This story was first published by ACI Africa, the sister service of EWTN News in Africa. It has been adapted by EWTN News.

“I renew my appeal for an end to the ongoing violence against the Palestinian civilian population in the West Bank, and I urgently call on the international community to work toward advancing the two-state solution, for a just and lasting peace,“ Leo said in his address.

The pope delivered his Angelus address once more from the Apostolic Palace of Castel Gandolfo after traveling there from the Vatican to celebrate the feast of the Assumption on Aug. 15, for which he also delivered an Angelus address. He will remain there from Aug. 12–18.

The Vatican’s longtime support for a 2-state solution

The pope and the Holy See have consistently called for a two-state solution to the conflict in the Holy Land.

In 2025, Leo met separately with the Israeli and Palestinian presidents and discussed the solution with both heads of state.

During a Sept. 23 press briefing with reporters at Castel Gandolfo, the pope highlighted the Vatican’s long-standing support for the two-state solution.

“The Holy See has supported the two-state solution for many years,” the pope recalled, pointing out that the Vatican formally recognized Palestine in 2015 with the signing of the Comprehensive Agreement. “The Holy See recognized the two-state solution some time ago. That is clear: We must seek a path that respects all peoples.”

Despite challenges, each person has own place with the Father

During his Angelus, Leo also preached on the Gospel of the day, recounting Jesus healing the daughter of a Canaanite woman. The pope noted the woman’s persistence and faith in seeking a miracle, despite Jesus and his disciples initially refusing her.

“The disciples see her as a nuisance, and Jesus himself resists her pleas,” the pope said. “Reflecting upon this, we can understand Jesus’ obedience in fulfilling his mission by allowing himself to be moved by what he sees and hears. Finally, he says to her: ‘Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.’”

From her persistence, Leo explained, the faithful can learn “humility and determination” and that “each person has his or her own place with the Father.”

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Father John Eckert’s response: “Yes.”

Eckert, the vocations director for the Diocese of Charlotte, North Carolina, chuckled a little when describing the myriad paths that a young man may take when finding his way to holy orders. But, he said, “it’s always the Holy Spirit at work. It’s always cooperating with the grace of God.”

The Charlotte Diocese is among those in the U.S. seeing high numbers of seminarians and priestly ordinations. The diocese in western North Carolina saw a record 10 young men ordained to the priesthood earlier in 2026; that followed six ordinations in 2025 and seven in 2024.

“We’re blessed in the Diocese of Charlotte,” Eckert said. “It’s a beautiful moment.”

The priest just wrapped up his first full year as vocations director there. He said one of the strengths of the diocese is in its vibrant faith life, which he attributed partly to the “evangelical Bible-belt roots” of the region.

“This is Billy Graham territory,” he joked.

The diocese itself bears out that witness, he said. “The Church is growing like crazy down here,” he said. “We have wonderful families. We have faithful, hardworking priests. We’ve had five bishops who keep on striving to bear the Gospel message and bring that to every corner of the diocese.”

The growing ranks of the priesthood is proof of that high spirit, though Eckert said it can be tricky to tease out just what contributes to years of high ordinations. One of the diocese’s strengths, he said, is its own “in-house college seminary.”

“It’s so wonderful that if we have a young man interested in the priesthood, we can actually just bring him to this place and show him where the initial years of formation will take place,” he said.

The school offers prospective seminarians a chance to see “a group of men living this out, being very intentional about their prayer life, striving to grow in love of Our Lord.”

Charlotte Bishop Michael Martin, OFM Conv, told EWTN News that when seeing such high levels of devotion to the priesthood, “we often have to just marvel at God’s work.”

Priests in the diocese, he said, excel at offering candidates to the priesthood “the opportunity to see a healthy, holy, good person that they can see themselves becoming.”

Families, meanwhile, have become “far more open” to communicating to their sons that they would be “honored to see [them] consider the priesthood.”

“That dynamic has come about because the presbyterate gives a good example,” the bishop said. “It makes families, and parents in particular, more willing to be able to create that environment in their own families.”

Both Martin and Eckert said that at a certain point Church leaders simply have to acknowledge the work of the Holy Spirit. “To fully try to understand it is important,” Martin said, “but in some ways it’s best just to appreciate and enjoy it and be grateful for it.”

Eckert, meanwhile, cited as an example 1 Corinthians 3:6, in which Paul tells the Church at Corinth about its faith: “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.”

The priest spoke joyfully about his work in the diocesan vocations office, though he downplayed his own role in bringing men to holy orders. He recounted with a laugh what a speaker told a group of vocations directors at a recent conference: “Gentlemen, get over yourselves. Nobody ever entered seminary because of their vocations director.”

Priestly vocation ‘seen as a natural, fulfilling life’

Father Garett Burns, the director of vocations promotion in the Diocese of Wichita, Kansas, admitted that the Midwestern diocese is “blessed with a strong culture of vocations.”

“For example, this past May six men were ordained to the priesthood,” he said. “We’ve been blessed to generally have a steady number of ordinations each year. There have been 22 priestly ordinations since 2020 and 44 priestly ordinations in the last 10 years. We will begin this academic year with 50 seminarians in formation.”

He said that it is “difficult to capture succinctly” why a diocese might have such abundant vocations, describing every Catholic’s vocation as a “mystery of grace.” But he said promoting vocations throughout every aspect of Church life — including in families, schools, and parishes — has borne steady fruit.

The diocese has an abundance of Eucharistic adoration, he said, including perpetual adoration. Such chapels present opportunities for young people to spend time in silence before Christ, he said, and “these moments are where vocations grow and flourish.”

Priests and bishops in the diocese, meanwhile, are “deeply committed to the Lord.”

“When priests love their priesthood and enjoy each other, that is attractive to young men,” he said. A local seminary program has also borne fruit, he said, allowing young men to form a close, core connection with the Church “at home.”

The priest said he hesitates to offer advice to other dioceses, admitting that there is “no universal solution” given the unique histories, gifts, and challenges of each diocese. But expanding opportunities for Eucharistic adoration, he said, offers “one viable option that promises to deepen the culture of vocations.”

Father Noah Morey, the vocations director in the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, echoed the assessment of his fellow vocations directors: “It’s not just one thing, it’s everything,” he told EWTN News.

The Arlington Diocese saw seven new priests ordained in 2026; it recorded 12 ordinations in 2025. Morey noted that when it comes to ordinations, “it’s not about numbers, it’s about quality.” But he said the Arlington Diocese has a “strong culture of vocations” that has helped produce exemplary priests over the years.

The diocese has promoted vocations since its founding in 1974. Its first leader, Bishop Thomas Welsh, “really fostered that culture” in part by bringing a Poor Clares monastery to the diocese.

“Our bishops have all taken a hands-on approach of fostering vocations in young men from a young age,” Morey said. Bishops in Arlington regularly attend seminary events and meet personally with aspiring priests, he said.

Eucharistic adoration is prolific throughout the diocese, meanwhile; several years ago, Morey said, current Bishop Michael Burbidge asked every pastor in the diocese to institute 40 hours of Eucharistic adoration annually.

The diocese also holds St. Andrew dinners several times a year, which allows young men to speak to both the bishop and diocesan priests about their potential discernment.

“I tell the young men, it’s a very low-commitment event — you’re not signing your life away!” he said. “You just show up for a free dinner with the bishop.”

A yearly “Quo Vadis?” summer camp offers another opportunity for young men to have face-to-face discernment with Church leaders.

An active, vibrant priesthood in the diocese also helps foster vocational discernment, he said. “If a young man sees a priest who’s in love with the Lord, that’s really attractive to the priesthood,” he said.

And faith-filled and encouraging families are equally to credit for fostering vocations in young men, Morey continued.

He offered a baseball analogy to describe the process by which young men find their way to the priesthood. “The families are the starting pitchers,” he said. “The priests are the middle relievers. And the vocations director is the closer.”

Globally the Church has continued to see lower vocations; the most recent data shows a continued drop in priests, with significant declines in Europe and the Americas, though Africa and Asia saw notable increases.

In the first 15 months of his pontificate Pope Leo XIV has continued to emphasize the importance of vocations. In June 2025 he told vocations ministers at the Vatican that their job consisted of “forming men capable of loving, listening, praying, and serving as a community.”

The pope said God “continues to call and remains faithful to his promises.” He urged leaders to help bring about the creation of appropriate conditions “to hear [God’s] voice.”

In Charlotte, Bishop Martin said the best response to an increase in vocations is to be both joyful for the gift and determined to help it flourish.

“There’s something in God’s design that’s beyond even what I can say,” he said. “I can provide some insights, but at the end of the day, this is the work of the Holy Spirit.”

Eckert, meanwhile, said an increase in vocations is a blessing no matter where it develops.

“The job that I think we all have is being intentional in our discipleship of Jesus Christ,” he said. “I pray for myself and all my brother vocations directors out there. Whether it happens in Peoria or it happens in Charlotte, it’s good for all of us.”

With $200 and 12 nuns with no television experience, Mother Angelica turned the monastery garage into a television studio. EWTN received its Federal Communications Commission license on Jan. 27, 1981, making it the first Catholic satellite television station in the United States.

Just a few months later, on Aug. 15, 1981, EWTN began broadcasting four hours a day to 60,000 homes.

The anniversary, Aug. 15, also marks the feast of the Assumption, a solemnity commemorating the end of the Virgin Mary’s earthly life and her assumption, body and soul, into heaven.

As EWTN commemorates 45 years of spreading the Eternal Word, here’s a look back at the work and progress of the organization that all started with the mission of one cloistered nun.

EWTN starts growing rapidly

In 1983, the network launched its flagship talk show, “Mother Angelica Live.” Despite innumerable challenges and millions in debt, the network grew, supported only by viewer contributions.

Around the same time, cable channels began to pick up EWTN. Within a short period, the network went from tens of thousands of homes to hundreds of thousands.

It quickly expanded from the original four hours of broadcasting to all-day content. In 1987, programming expanded to a 24-hour daily schedule, reaching 10 million American subscribers.

EWTN branched out of television by launching a worldwide shortwave radio service in 1992. Its worldwide AM/FM radio services began just four years later.

Soon the network started establishing a global presence. In 1995, EWTN launched its first international television service for Latin America. That same year, the network provided live coverage of Pope John Paul II’s visit to the U.S., in both English and Spanish, on television and radio.

By 1996 EWTN programming was also reaching Europe and the Pacific Rim, including Australia, New Zealand, China, Japan, and the Philippines. A big year for the network, 1996 also marked when EWTN.com went live.

In 1998, EWTN launched satellite television service to Africa. By 2009, the network was reaching the extraordinary number of 150 million television homes.

The vast expansion marked an important transition from an American Catholic television network to an international Catholic media network, which would continue to grow in the years to come.

Expansion to print and digital media

Mother Angelicaʼs early series of small pamphlets and books eventually grew into electronic and print news services. In 2011, the network acquired The National Catholic Register, one of the countryʼs oldest Catholic newspapers.

The acquisition was part of a broader effort to expand EWTNʼs presence in Catholic journalism.

EWTN continued this effort when it launched “EWTN News Nightly” in 2013, a daily television news program from Washington, D.C. This was significant because it moved EWTN further into daily news production rather than religious programming and coverage of Church events.

In 2014, EWTN acquired Catholic News Agency as well as its Spanish-language sister agency, ACI Prensa. Today, EWTN News includes agencies covering global Catholic news in Spanish, Italian, German, Portuguese, French, English, and Arabic.

In 2026, EWTN News announced a rebrand and is currently in the process of bringing most of its news entities — print, digital, and broadcast — under the global brand of EWTN News.

EWTN moves forward

Forty-five years later, EWTN is now reaching more than 435 million television households across more than 160 countries and territories. The recently established EWTN Studios continues the EWTN legacy of developing the most impactful content in the Catholic space, and EWTN Digital is building the platforms to distribute EWTN Studios content to new generations.

EWTN Radio reaches a global audience through more than 500 domestic and international AM and FM radio affiliates, satellite radio, and digital streaming platforms.

EWTN Publishing publishes books in both print and electronic form to a worldwide audience and has now released around 100 books by renowned Catholic authors who have profoundly influenced the faithful.

Through live coverage, documentaries, and more, EWTN has covered four pontificates and numerous historic Church events and has shared the lives and faith of Catholics across the globe. It also reaches millions of online users through its social media including its presence on X, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.

EWTN’s story began with a television network and continues to be guided by Mother Angelicaʼs vision of using modern technology to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ and truths of the Catholic faith with millions around the world.

The process is being overseen by the United States government, with the primary objectives of restoring the countryʼs institutions, reinstating civil and political liberties, and eventually calling for elections to enable a democratic transition in the aftermath of the capture and extradition to the U.S. of former President Nicolás Maduro on Jan. 3.

On Wednesday, Aug. 12, the leaders of both factions — Dinorah Figuera, representing the 2015 National Assembly, and Jorge Rodríguez, representing the ruling socialist government — addressed the nation to announce the outcome of the five working sessions that were held beginning Aug. 6.

Rodríguez said both sides had committed to working toward the recovery of Venezuelan gold held by the Bank of England, assets that had been frozen due to sanctions imposed during the Maduro regime.

Additionally, the negotiating team agreed to work on addressing the needs of those affected by the double earthquake that struck the country on June 24.

Figuera announced that the initial agreements also include a sweeping reform of the Venezuelan judicial system, initiating a new nomination process to replace the judges of the Supreme Court of Justice.

According to the parties involved, these resolutions will be implemented immediately, operating under a “continuous working mechanism to ensure strict compliance with every commitment.”

Throughout the more than 20 years of Chavez’s socialist regime, Venezuelaʼs state institutions, particularly the judiciary and the electoral authority, were completely controlled by the ruling party, giving rise to numerous abuses denounced by domestic and international activists and organizations over the years.

The start of the talks has elicited mixed reactions within Venezuelan society. María Corina Machado, an opposition leader who currently commands the greatest share of popular support, was excluded from the negotiations.

The delegations are scheduled to meet again in September to advance the three-phase plan outlined by the Trump administration in January: stabilization, economic recovery, and transition to democracy.

Earlier this week, two cardinals and a bishop emeritus said they viewed the start of the talks “with approval,” although they pointed to deficiencies in the process.

In a joint statement, they offered to serve as guarantors of the process from a “religious and moral standpoint” and pledged to monitor the work of the commissions, which, they emphasized, must ultimately aim to benefit the entire Venezuelan people.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

In the video, whose recording date is unknown, the 80-year-old prelate, who celebrates his golden jubilee of priesthood on Aug. 15, is seen conversing with a journalist and pro-government lawmaker Adolfo Pastrán.

Among other things, Pastrán remarks that the bishop looks “full of vitality,” to which the bishop briefly replies that “prayer helps a great deal” and that he is doing well.

‘I’m in my element here, living a monastic life’

Throughout the nine minutes of footage, the two are seen discussing personal anecdotes, Mata’s fondness for tending to his crops and plants, and his reading habits at the estate where he lives in Tisma, Masaya district, the location where the dictatorship says the bishop has been since July 4 following his detention in late June.

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Regarding whether he receives visitors, the bishop mentions that “a brother and a niece” have come to see him and that he enjoys “silence, study, and prayer. I am in my element, leading a monastic life; that is what I am doing — prayer and intellectual work.”

‘Pro-government propagandist’

Speaking on Aug. 14 to ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, Father Edwing Román, vicar of St. Agatha Parish in Miami, criticized the release of the video. He described Pastrán as a “pro-government propagandist” who fails to mention “anything about the bishop being intercepted by police as he left a clinic in Estelí.”

“They kept him under restrictions and incommunicado for weeks in addition to trying to tarnish his reputation for integrity by questioning him about his property,” he added.

When Mata was detained, the dictatorship of President Daniel Ortega and his wife and vice president, Rosario Murillo, issued a statement noting that the prelate had been subjected to a “necessary inquiry regarding the origin of properties and family ties inconsistent with his priestly status” and that, subsequently, “he has returned to his home, where he remains in perfect condition.”

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Román also noted that “Bishop Mata has always been a critical voice and deeply attuned to the suffering of the Nicaraguan people. His arbitrary detention — being confined to his own home — is part of the pattern of harassment the Church in Nicaragua is facing.”

“This video,” the priest emphasized, “appears in response to pressure from Nicaraguans and, above all, the United States; yet it neither shows nor mentions the police patrols stationed at the property, where the bishop is not free to leave.”

In mid-July, the U.S. government reiterated its demand for the “immediate and unconditional release of Bishop Abelardo Mata” in a statement by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Riley Barnes.

‘The same script’ used with Bishop Rolando Álvarez

Arturo McFields Yescas, Nicaragua’s former ambassador to the Organization of American States, told ACI Prensa that “Nicaragua’s dictatorship has repeated the same script they used with Bishop Rolando Álvarez. They changed the scenery and the persons being interviewed a bit, but it’s the same script.”

“The dictatorship presents a bishop who is being held captive, who is a ‘disappeared’ person deprived of his freedom, yet who appears well, healthy, in excellent physical condition, and well nourished,” he noted.

In November 2023, as various institutions were demanding proof of life from the Nicaraguan regime regarding Rolando Álvarez, the bishop of Matagalpa and apostolic administrator of Estelí, the dictatorship released a series of images showing the prelate, who had been unjustly imprisoned since February of that year. In January 2024, he was expelled from the country and now lives in exile in Rome.

In McFields’ view, the release of the video featuring Mata demonstrates that “we are living under a regime of terror and lies. Bishop Juan Abelardo Mata remains held against his will, and people want to see him free. They do not want partial or illusory freedom. What we are witnessing is another staged performance.”

“No one believes the charade they put on, claiming that Bishop Mata was calm, relaxed, and in robust health. No one believes that lie. The video most likely dates back several weeks or months. It lacks credibility, and so does the interviewer,” he added.

“Free the bishop and put an end to religious persecution in Nicaragua,” urged the former Nicaraguan ambassador. “The life of Bishop Juan Abelardo Mata is in grave danger as long as he remains held captive by the dictatorship,” he declared.

Day of prayer for Mata

Mata led the Diocese of Estelí for more than 30 years, from April 1990 to July 2021.

Mata was ordained a priest on Aug. 15, 1976. To mark this anniversary, a group of Nicaraguans in exile is encouraging a day of prayer for the prelate this Saturday, Aug. 15, “in all parishes and Catholic centers in Nicaragua and around the world.”

The exiles are calling for Masses to be celebrated and the rosary to be prayed, as well as for the offering of the traditional “thousand Hail Marys” for Mata “for his life, his well-being, and his freedom,” and “for his swift release and protection.”

“On this Aug. 15, the Nicaraguan Church gives thanks for his golden jubilee of priesthood and lifts up prayers for the priest, the shepherd, and the brother who today also needs to be accompanied and upheld in prayer,” the group stated.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

The Holy Father delivered the homily during Mass at the Pontifical Parish of St. Thomas of Villanova in Castel Gandolfo, directly adjacent to the papal summer residence there. The small chapel was full for the 10 a.m. liturgy of the solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

In his homily reflecting on Mary’s assumption into heaven, Leo noted that “many works of art depict her as a beautiful young woman physically rising from the earth toward the heavens at the end of her earthly life.”

These depictions of a youthful Mary at the end of her life offer a contrast with “our experience of what the passing of years does to us,” the pope said. He asked rhetorically: “What do we have in common with the beautiful young woman depicted on the altarpieces of our churches?”

Mary’s glorification, the pope said, “teaches us that our true beauty does not lie in hiding the signs of aging but in revealing the signs of love that never end, and are even impressed on our flesh.”

The pope said this sign of faith invites Catholics to “reexamine many of the aesthetic standards, predominantly hedonistic and consumerist in nature, that the world imposes on us.”

He contrasted those who look aged but who radiate “serenity, kindness, and peace” with those who “are perhaps outwardly attractive but hard and cold at heart.”

“It is easy to see where true beauty lies and where, on the other hand, there is still a need for conversion, forgiveness, and healing,” he said.

Love “is humanity’s most beautiful adornment,” the pope said. He urged Catholics to “follow the light of the risen Lord” in part by “looking to Mary, whom God has crowned with glory in body and soul.”

In remarks during his midday Angelus after the Mass, Leo said viewing a depiction of Mary being assumed into heaven “allows us to contemplate our ultimate destiny” as followers of Christ.

He described the Blessed Mother as “a sign of hope and consolation” for the faithful, and he invoked her blessing on “those communities that are particularly in need of consolation,” including the faithful in Ukraine and Russia, as well as those suffering from the recent earthquake in Colombia.

“There are many people longing for true and everlasting love in Christ,” he told ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News.

Now over 70, the priest, who is from the island of Ibiza and is a member of Opus Dei, acknowledges that this providential pastoral work has transformed his ministry: “This has totally changed my life,” he said.

In addition to serving as chaplain for two schools near Valencia and two youth clubs, for the past 15 years he has been receiving dozens of requests from single Catholics — “on a normal day, 60 WhatsApp messages” — at the number +34 609 765 284.

Despite the sheer volume, he said he approaches it with great peace of mind: “I don’t let myself get overwhelmed,” he said.

“The two requirements I set are that they be over 25 and attend Mass on Sundays,” he explained. From there, he asks about their age, their level of church involvement, and where they live, cross-referencing the information whenever possible.

At times, he has to ask those who come to him for patience. “Wait — your turn will come,” he tells those who express a particularly strong desire to find a life partner.

When it comes to exchanging numbers, the first thing he looks at is the city where they live, as this usually makes things easier, though not always. He also tries to ensure the men are taller and two or three years older than the women.

Then there are “people with a strong sense of spirituality” — another factor that really helps ensure that the candidates hit it off.

‘I’m a priest; I completely trust in Providence’

Cuevas sets no limits on divine plans and serves people of all ages, though men are scarce in certain age groups. “I have few men in their 30s. A great many in their 40s. And fewer from age 50 onwards.” Women are less scarce.

Despite his success, the priest approaches this pastoral work with humility: “I have no special gift,” he said.

“I’m a priest; I completely trust in Providence and know that God calls every person, that there is a specific plan from the Lord for them from before they were born. Just as someone might have a vocation to a religious order, a movement, or anything else, God has someone in mind for that person, so that they may attain holiness.”

The priest, dubbed the “Tinder priest” or a matchmaker, is clear that the vocation to marriage is no less significant than others: “It’s a call to total self-giving. Just as a priest or a nun has discovered that deep longing of the human heart.”

It has happened on occasion that phone numbers got mixed up during the exchange. Someone called the wrong person, not the one originally intended. They met up, had a meal, and got to know each other. Obviously, they realized the photos and certain profile details didnʼt match, but they didnʼt mind. “I donʼt know what happened, but itʼs perfect,” one of them wrote to him.

Requests from around the world

At the start of this pastoral work, Cuevas sought to help people in his immediate circle within the Archdiocese of Valencia. However, many people write to him from other countries, particularly from Spanish-speaking America.

To better handle these requests, he relies on the assistance of another priest, Father Vicente Huerta, who is based in Spain and spends many nights speaking with people in Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, and Peru, among other places.

But they have also had candidates from places that might seem unexpected at first glance, such as India.

‘People want to love truly’

In a society like Spain’s, which is experiencing a major crisis regarding marriage and the family, Cuevas said he draws a clear lesson from this apostolate: “People are looking for true love. There is a yearning, an enormous need to love. People are in great need. They want to love truly, to forget themselves, to give of themselves, and to bring Christ into their lives.”

He continued: “The vast majority are looking for someone who places Christ at the center of their lives. There are so many people longing for that. It moves me to see the number of people who say: ‘It doesn’t matter to me if he has blue eyes, is very handsome, or is very smart. If he doesn’t have Christ at the center of his life — forget it.’ That is the hierarchy of values.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Mary’s assumption into heaven is a dogma of faith for Catholics.

Church dogmas encompass truths concerning God, Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, the Church, the sacraments, and the ultimate destiny of human beings. With regard to Mary, the Church has defined four dogmas.

Below is a review of the dogmas proclaimed regarding Mary, a helpful reminder of the role she plays in God’s plan of salvation for us.

1. The Immaculate Conception

The dogma of the Immaculate Conception states that the Blessed Virgin Mary was preserved by a singular grace of God and in view of the merits of Jesus Christ from all stain of original sin from the very first moment of her conception.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) summarizes it thus: The Virgin was “preserved immune from all stain of original sin” such that her “entirely unique holiness” was enriched “from the first instant of her conception,” which God granted her to prepare within her a dwelling place for the Incarnate Word.

This dogma was defined by Pope Pius IX on Dec. 8, 1854, through the papal bull Ineffabilis Deus. Church teaching emphasizes that this grace comes from Jesus Christ, not apart from him: Mary was redeemed in a “prevenient” (or “preceding”) and perfect manner in virtue of her Sonʼs merits.

2. Divine motherhood

Mary’s divine motherhood means that the Virgin is truly the mother of God, because Jesus Christ, her son, is one divine person with two natures, the human and the divine. Therefore, the child born of Mary according to the flesh is the eternal Son of God made man; in this sense, Mary is truly Theotokos, the Mother of God (cf. CCC, 495).

This truth was solemnly proclaimed by the Council of Ephesus in the year 431 under the pontificate of Pope Celestine I. In the 20th century, the Second Vatican Council reaffirmed this doctrine by noting that “from the most ancient times, the Blessed Virgin is honored with the title of Mother of God” (Lumen Gentium, 66).

3. Her perpetual virginity

The dogma of perpetual virginity affirms that Mary was a virgin before, during, and after the birth of Jesus. This truth has been part of the Catholic faith since the early centuries.

It is not merely a matter of noting that Mary remained a virgin up to a certain point but of professing that her virginity was perpetual. St. John Paul II recalled that the Church has consistently regarded this truth as part of the faith received and deepened throughout its history.

Unlike the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption, this dogma was not defined in a single papal bull. Maryʼs perpetual virginity was formally defined through the Second Council of Constantinople (553) and the Lateran Synod (649).

4. The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The dogma of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary states that the Blessed Virgin, having completed the course of her earthly life, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory. The Church does not define the exact manner in which her earthly life ended, but it does proclaim with certainty that she was fully glorified by God (cf. CCC, 966).

This dogma was solemnly proclaimed by Pope Pius XII on Nov. 1, 1950, through the apostolic constitution Munificentissimus Deus. That document reaffirms that the Immaculate Mother of God was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.

Important to remember

Marian dogmas do not detract in any way from Jesus Christ; on the contrary, they reveal the greatness of God’s saving work in the Virgin Mary. Therefore, authentic Marian devotion never separates Mary from Jesus Christ but rather contemplates her as the Lord’s first and most perfect disciple.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

State Gov. Maura Healey signed a bill into law on Aug. 10 making Massachusetts the 11th state to impose no limits on abortion. The law removes all of the state’s restrictions on abortion, leaving the decision to perform a late-term abortion up to the “judgment of the physician” carrying it out.

Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul Coakley, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, called the decision “shocking” and “horrendous.”

“Itʼs an affront against the dignity of life,” he said in an interview on “The World Over with Raymond Arroyo” on Aug. 13.

“I hope it will not stand, but weʼll see,” the archbishop added, describing the decision as “a shocking blow to the pro-life movement and to everyone whoʼs concerned about the dignity and sanctity of human life.”

Meanwhile, the political advocacy group CatholicVote is calling for the excommunication of Healey, who is Catholic.

CatholicVote President Kelsey Reinhardt said in a letter that CatholicVote believes that Healey is an “accomplice” to the procurement of abortions by signing the law. Reinhardt added that the signing caused “scandal” and “was not a private sin.”

“The logic of medicinal punishment is ancient and coherent and teaches that you do not withhold medicine from a sick person to protect their feelings,” Reinhardt wrote. “You administer it because you love them and because you take their illness seriously. Governor Healey is a Catholic in a state of grave sin. She has publicly and now legislatively cooperated in the destruction of innocent human life.”

“Governor Healey did not sign this legislation reluctantly or with any expression of the gravity of what she was authorizing,” Reinhardt said. “She signed it at a celebratory public event. She was met with applause. The ceremony was festive.”

When asked about calls for Healey’s excommunication, Coakley said that the law constitutes a “scandal” but that the matter is between the governor and her bishop.

“Itʼs an affront against the teaching of the Church,” Coakley said of the law. “But truly, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops or any episcopal conference really does not have that kind of authority” to excommunicate Healey.

“This is really a matter that will have to be addressed between the governor and her bishop and the bishops of Massachusetts,” Coakley continued.

The Massachusetts Catholic bishops decried the bill before it was signed, saying that the “elimination of any legal restraint on late-term abortion is, in our judgment, a radical measure which is gravely immoral.”

Pro-lifers praise attorney general for pledging to review mail-order abortion

Pro-life advocates are praising then-Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche for his promise to review the legality of sending abortion pills through the U.S. mail.

During his confirmation hearing on July 15, Blanche pledged to review the Comstock Act, a law already on the books that prohibits the mailing of abortion-related materials. If enforced, the law would halt mail-order abortions.

An Aug. 7 letter signed by 35 pro-life leaders commended Blanche for his promise to “carefully evaluate” the law and whether or not it is being properly enforced.

Lawsuit against Virginia abortion amendment rises to appeals court

A lawsuit against a Virginia state constitutional amendment to establish an unlimited right to abortion is currently before a state appeals court.

Liberty Counsel, a nonprofit Christian legal group, said on Aug. 13 that it had appealed to the Court of Appeals of Virginia about a court order dismissing a legal challenge to the ballot measure.

The lawsuit argues that the Virginia government neglected proper legal processes for proposed amendments, rendering the abortion amendment itself  ineligible for inclusion on the ballot.

Mary Pruski, the leader of the advocacy group Save Our Buffalo Churches, told EWTN News on Aug. 14 that the parishes of St. Josaphat and Our Lady of the Rosary both won appeals at the Holy See over closures that were mandated by the diocese’s “Road to Renewal” plan.

That plan was announced in May 2024, with Bishop Michael Fisher revealing that the diocese would merge about a third of its parishes amid declines in attendance and financial struggles.

The Save Our Buffalo Churches group has advocated against multiple closures in the diocese since the announcement. In December 2025 the Vatican said multiple parishes in the diocese that had petitioned the Vatican would not have to close.

Pruski told EWTN News on Aug. 14, meanwhile, that the St. Josaphat Parish “won their appeal to not merge and close,” while Our Lady of the Rosary “won their appeal against being reduced to common use and sold.”

She said a few parishes represented by the group “continue to await their appeal decision from the Dicastery for the Clergy,” while several other parishes have raised their appeals to the Apostolic Signatura.

“These cases may take up to another year for a final decision,” she said.

Diocesan spokesman Gregory Tucker confirmed to EWTN News on Aug. 14 that per the Vatican’s decision the parishes would not be forced to close.

Fisher “respects the decision of the dicastery and will not appeal these decisions,” Tucker said. “That said, these parishes will be closely monitored to ensure that they can remain viable and self-sustaining going forward.”

The Buffalo parish group’s fight against the closure plan made it all the way to the New York Supreme Court in 2025. The court in July of that year ordered a brief halt to some diocesan-mandated parish payments into the diocese’s abuse settlement fund. The New York Supreme Court ultimately dismissed the case, saying it did not have jurisdiction over internal Church matters.

In April, however, the Vatican issued a revocation of multiple “assessment allocation decrees” against parishes in the diocese, citing canon law violations regarding parish fund procurement “as well as the amounts and methods undertaken to procure those monies.”

Elsewhere in New York state, parishioners in the Diocese of Rochester are petitioning the Vatican to let them save a 160-year-old parish that has been locally recognized for its historic significance.

Advocates hope to preserve Holy Family Parish in Auburn in part to preserve the memory and legacy of Bishop Patrick Byrne, an apostolic delegate to Korea who was martyred in 1950 during a four-month-long forced march while in the captivity of communist forces in North Korea. Byrne was confirmed at the parish in 1900.

“His Holiness' visit is great news for the entire country,” President Keiko Fujimori stated Aug. 12, according to the official newspaper El Peruano.

The decision will enable the government to take the necessary measures to organize activities in Lima, Callao, Chiclayo, Cusco, and Pucallpa — the cities the pontiff will visit. The government will also facilitate customs procedures for the entry of goods.

Additionally, a high-level extraordinary commission will be established to set the guidelines, strategies, and actions necessary to ensure the apostolic visit is a success.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will be responsible for national coordination and will serve as the commissionʼs technical secretariat. The various ministries will designate their representatives, while regional and local governments may also join in.

The Peruvian Church welcomes the pope with joy

The confirmation of the visit was also received with joy by the Peruvian bishops.

“We are very happy because we have received the news that the Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, is coming to visit his beloved homeland, his beloved Peru,” Bishop Edinson Farfán of Chiclayo recently stated.

The prelate particularly highlighted that the pontiff will return to the diocese he once shepherded in Peru. “We are filled with joy because he will visit his beloved Diocese of Chiclayo, which has given him so much, so much to continue being a faithful Church of Jesus Christ,” he said, quoting the first words of Leo XIV to the faithful gathered in St. Peterʼs Square at the Vatican after his election as pontiff.

“We pray for the Holy Father’s intentions and await him with open arms,” he concluded.

The president of the Peruvian Bishops’ Conference, Bishop Carlos García Camader, stated that the presence of Leo XIV “among us will be a true gift for our people and an opportunity to renew our faith, strengthen hope, and walk together.”

More than 700,000 people

According to estimates presented during the Council of Ministers meeting, the apostolic journey could draw at least 700,000 people across the country.

Of this total, approximately 350,000 people are expected to participate in Lima, between 100,000 and 150,000 in Cusco, and around 75,000 in both Pucallpa and Chiclayo.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

In 1950, Pope Pius XII confirmed this belief about the Virgin Mary when he defined it formally — “ex cathedra” — as a dogma of the Catholic faith. In his apostolic constitution Munificentissimus Deus, it states “that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever-Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.”

So, is this solemnity a holy day of obligation? It depends on what day it falls on.

In the United States, Latin-rite Catholics are bound by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) canon law norms, which require Mass attendance on Sundays and six specific holy days of obligation. However, regional exceptions and calendar-based rule adjustments can apply depending on the day of the week a feast lands.

The six holy days of obligations are: Jan. 1, solemnity of Mary, Mother of God; Thursday of the sixth week of Easter, solemnity of the Ascension; Aug. 15, solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary; Nov. 1, solemnity of All Saints; Dec. 8, solemnity of the Immaculate Conception; and Dec. 25, Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

However, when Jan. 1, the solemnity of Mary, Mother of God; Aug. 15, the solemnity of the Assumption; or Nov. 1, the solemnity of All Saints, falls on a Saturday or on a Monday, the obligation to attend Mass is lifted.

According to Canon 1246, paragraph 2, of the Code of Canon Law, “the conference of bishops can abolish certain holy days of obligation or transfer them to a Sunday with prior approval of the Apostolic See.”

Since the solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary falls on a Saturday this year, 2026, Catholics are not required to attend Mass in addition to the regular Sunday obligation.

On Aug. 12, houses in the village of Gazarikura, a community in the Diocese of Mymensingh in the north of the Muslim-majority country, were attacked, looted, and vandalized. Local Indigenous Garo people said the stolen property included cash, cows, goats, and other valuables.

The Indigenous families said the attack and looting were carried out by people from a neighboring Muslim village after the body of a Muslim man was found in their village.

Father Simon Hacha, vicar general of the Diocese of Mymensingh, visited the village together with other priests, sisters, Garo Indigenous leaders, and local leaders.

“We never want unrest; we are for peace,” Hacha, who is himself a Garo, told EWTN News.

“We pray for the soul of the deceased person around whom this problem has arisen and we offer our condolences to his family,” he said.

He urged police not to harass those who are not guilty and to identify the culprits and take appropriate action.

“I hope that the administration will provide security to the Garo Indigenous of this village and that the villagers will maintain good relations with each other so that peace can prevail in the future,” Hacha added.

Losses and arrests

Village leaders told EWTN News that six houses in Gazarikura were vandalized and that the furniture of one house was burned. The attackers took away seven cows, 10 goats, a motorcycle, cash, and expensive furniture. The incident spread panic among local residents.

Father Lawrence Ribeiro, the parish priest of Mariamnagar, told EWTN News by telephone during a visit to the village on Aug. 14 that 11 houses had been looted and that televisions, refrigerators, cows, and goats had been taken away. The families do not have enough food, he said. “So, we brought food, soap, and other items for these families.”

Ribeiro said the families had been calculated to have suffered losses of about 4 million taka (about $32,000). “We are preparing to file a case of looting for this,” he said.

The body of a rice trader, Billal Hossain, 40, was recovered by police. Nineteen people, including men and women from the Garo community, were arrested on suspicion of involvement in the case. Police later released 14 of them.

According to police sources, Hossain, a resident of the Jarultala area of the upazila, or subdistrict, went missing on Aug. 4. On the afternoon of Aug. 12, local farmers working in a field smelled a foul odor near a canal, searched the surroundings, and found the body buried in the ground. Police went to the spot and recovered it after being informed.

An organization of Garo Indigenous students said in a statement: "We want to say very clearly that the responsibility for the crime of an individual can never be imposed on an entire ethnic group, community, or population.”

“If someone is involved in any crime, his involvement will be determined through an impartial and fair investigation. If the crime is proven, he will be tried according to the prevailing law. But suspecting, harassing, or victimizing another innocent person on the basis of an individualʼs identity, ethnic identity, or community identity is against justice,” the student organization said.

S.M. Noor Mohammad, officer in charge of the Jhenaigati police station, said the atmosphere in the village is now calm and that police have been deployed.

“The police are investigating the incident and are continuing their efforts to identify the criminals involved in the incident,” Mohammad said.

On Aug. 9, Indigenous people had rallied for their rights and to protest atrocities against them on the occasion of the International Day of the Worldʼs Indigenous Peoples.

In a message published by the Vatican on Aug. 14, the pope reflected on the theme for the 112th World Day of Migrants and Refugees, “Even Just One of These Children,” drawn from Matthew 18:5. The initiative is organized by the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.

Leo highlighted the growing challenges faced by minors forced to migrate from their home countries, including human trafficking, loss of parents, and sexual violence.

“Sadly, migrant children are more easily ignored, because they lack adults capable of protecting and supporting them,” Leo said in his message.

“To this already appalling situation are added further tragedies: 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.”

He also noted the contributions of families, civil society, and Church communities in helping child migrants.

“We think of the families who open the doors of their homes in order to restore to these children the warmth of a family hearth; the educators who serve in reception centers; the volunteers and aid workers who each day devote themselves to healing the invisible wounds of these little ones along migration routes and in our cities,” Leo said.

The pope then appealed to civil institutions to work to improve protections for migrant children to uphold the dignity of every child.

“Even just one of these children, in the context of civil institutions, calls us to reaffirm the principle of the best interests of the child. Public and private institutions are bound to prioritize the protection and dignity of every single child and adolescent,” he said.

“I have called attention to the respect that all those called to prepare the celebration of the divine mysteries, and priests in particular, must show toward the rites promulgated by Pope Saint Paul VI and Pope Saint John Paul II,” the pontiff wrote in a letter addressed to Cardinal Arthur Roche, prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, published Aug. 14.

“It is vital that this respect ‘springs from an inner attitude of openness and trust in God, manifesting humility before his greatness and sincere fidelity to ecclesial communion,’" Leo added.

Roche is participating in a conference on liturgical formation organized by his dicastery at the Benedictine Abbey of Mount Angel in Oregon from Aug. 14–19. Other participants include cardinals, bishops, and laypeople with diverse Church experiences.

According to the dicastery, the meeting is intended to be “a joint reflection with the aim of defining shared, concrete, and practical proposals.”

“The choice of a monastic community signifies the intention to engage in dialogue within a prayerful setting,” the press release states. “Rather than a scholarly conference, it will be a time of spiritual discernment on the theme of liturgical formation, to continue along the path charted by Sacrosanctum Concilium.”

In Leo’s letter, he stressed the need for clergy and laity to receive ongoing liturgical formation, citing Pope Francis’ apostolic letter on the liturgy, Desiderio Desideravi.

“In his Apostolic Letter Desiderio Desideravi … Pope Francis emphasized the need for an attentive and ongoing formation of clergy and laity alike in revitalizing the liturgical life of the universal Church,” Leo said. “I would therefore encourage you to explore concrete paths for liturgical formation at every level in the Body of Christ.”

One practical opportunity for liturgical formation, he said, is in the regular gathering for Mass on Sundays.

“These celebrations are anchored in the annual rhythm of the liturgical year, with the Paschal Mystery at its center. For this reason, it is essential that they also be profoundly formative, promoting an ever deeper understanding of the ars celebrandi, expressed not only by the celebrant of the liturgy, but also by the entire assembly,” the pope said. “In this way, through proper education and reverent worship, Catholics will be formed both for the liturgy and by the liturgy.”

As the pontiff also noted in his letter, his remarks follow his recent addresses on the Second Vatican Council’s constitution on the liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, during Wednesday general audiences.

In his Aug. 12 audience, Leo encouraged the faithful to attend Sunday Mass and warned that virtual gatherings cannot replace in-person attendance.

In 2024, the USCCB received more than $180 million in funding for government contracts, most of which supported services for migrants and refugee resettlement. When Trump took office, the president ended most of those contracts.

In an interview on “The World Over with Raymond Arroyo,” the archbishop said “we are no longer receiving those dollars, and we have, as a result, discontinued our resettlement services.”

“I donʼt think it has affected … our ability to continue our core mission, thatʼs for sure,” Coakley said. “But weʼll have to adjust our budgets and act accordingly.”

Coakley also addressed Trump’s immigration policy, saying nations have a right to control their borders but they should also be welcoming to immigrants.

“Every nation has a right to protect its sovereign borders, and we bishops have emphasized that again and again,” he said. “... People have a right to live in security in their own land.”

However, he also pointed to a USCCB special message on immigration, which the U.S. bishops approved in a 216-5 vote, which expressed opposition to “the indiscriminate mass deportation of people.”

“[The message] called upon the bishops to continue to accompany and support migrants and assured migrants of our continued support and accompaniment,” Coakley said. “And thatʼs happening around the country in different places and certainly along the border in different ways.”

“Itʼs obviously a challenging situation, both for the people who are concerned about their safety and security within the borders of the United States, but also those who are seeking peace and security and safety by striving to become a part of our people and our culture, our nation,” he said.

“Weʼve always been a nation welcoming of immigrants,” the archbishop said.

“Weʼre all — all but a few of us — are from migrant immigrant families,” Coakley said. “So we have a sensitivity as Americans to the plight of immigrants on both sides of the border.”

In images that have gone viral, Dr. Germán Somoyar is seen holding the infants outside the medical center alongside colleagues and the families of other patients who had to evacuate the building.

Speaking with Noticias Telemundo, Somoyar recounted that he was with his colleagues when everything began to shake and as the intensity increased, “everyone started evacuating the clinic immediately.”

He said that at that moment, he thought he had to go get the babies — the ones the nurses or parents might not be able to reach in their cribs. “In my line of work, the children always have 100% absolute priority,” Somoyar stated.

The doctor added that “there were two mothers in their rooms who were paralyzed with fear and werenʼt evacuating. I had to quickly explain the situation, calm them down, and tell them we’re going to evacuate.”

“After they proceeded to leave, I headed to the room where the newborns are, the neonatal unit” and picked up the babies, carrying them down from the sixth floor to the street, ensuring their safety.

So far, the deaths of 234 people have been confirmed as a result of the 7.4-magnitude earthquake. The hardest-hit cities are Cali, with 95 fatalities, and Pereira, with 72.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

The child, called Gabriel by his surrogate mother, McKenna West, was born in Dallas on Aug. 12. He was born amid an ongoing legal dispute after his biological parents, identified in court documents as Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed, allegedly demanded West undergo an abortion.

At about 20 weeks, Gabriel was diagnosed in utero with hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) — a serious congenital heart condition. Treatment for HLHS typically involves three surgeries, beginning with one procedure shortly after birth.

“Itʼs horrific to think that so-called intended parents, when they found out that their baby had hypoplastic left heart syndrome, told the surrogate mother that they wanted her to abort that child,” Amy O’Donnell, executive director of Texas Alliance for Life, said in an interview with “EWTN News Nightly.”

“Thatʼs horrific at any stage to want to abort a child simply because of a disability or a diagnosis, but late term after 20 weeks is even more so,” she said.

West traveled to Texas from Alaska to ensure that Gabriel could be near doctors experienced in treating his condition. She allegedly offered to take full responsibility of the baby, but the baby’s biological parents reportedly refused.

Gabriel was born “just 24 hours after Attorney General Ken Paxton initiated legal action,” O’Donnell said.

Paxton filed an intervention in the case on Aug. 11 asking the Texas district court to enter orders directing the child’s care upon birth, prohibiting his removal from the state, and setting an expedited hearing on any refusal of treatment.

“According to the district court, because McKenna [West] so bravely fled to Texas from Alaska to ensure that baby Gabriel had lifesaving care, baby Gabriel, now born in Texas, is a Texas resident,” O’Donnell said.

The order stated that UT Southwestern Medical Center and Children’s Medical Center of Dallas were legally obligated to care for Gabriel.

Gabriel has “received the lifesaving treatment available” at Dallas Children’s, O’Donnell said. He is “in great hands and he has either had a heart surgery or itʼs pending.”

“Due to HIPAA, we probably wonʼt get information on the unfolding care, but we are certain that nobody can deny treatment, can demand transfer, and nobody can request that he receive anything less than the best that Texas has to offer.”

“Our laws protect every child born in Texas and guarantee their right to life. The Department of Family and Protective Services [DFPS] holds authority under Texas law to protect children from medical neglect,” Andrew Mahaleris, press secretary for Texas Gov. Gregory Abbott, said in a statement.

“DFPS will be closely monitoring this case and will take any action necessary to safeguard those rights,” he said.

Pope Leo says surrogacy reduces a child to a ‘product’

While acknowledging infertility is an immense cross to bear, the Catholic Church has a clear stance against surrogacy. The practice requires conceiving a child through in vitro fertilization (IVF) or artificial insemination and then transferring the embryo to the uterus of the surrogate.

Pope Leo XIV has affirmed that, by transforming gestation into a negotiable service, one “violates the dignity both of the child, who is reduced to a ‘product,’ and of the mother, exploiting her body and the generative process, and distorting the original relational calling of the family.”

“Techniques that entail the dissociation of husband and wife, by the intrusion of a person other than the couple (donation of sperm or ovum, surrogate uterus), are gravely immoral,” the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) states.

“These techniques (heterologous artificial insemination and fertilization) infringe the childʼs right to be born of a father and mother known to him and bound to each other by marriage. They betray the spouses' ‘right to become a father and a mother only through each other’” (CCC, 2376).

“There are a lot of concerns with surrogacy, and the more we look into it, the more concerns we have,” O’Donnell said.

“We believe that no contract should be able to require death of a child due to a disability or an imperfection. And so we believe that there should be … nationwide protections there,” she said.

“We need to protect the dignity of mothers who are involved in surrogacy as well, as long as it is legal in our nation and in our state,” she said.

Organized by CHARIS India and hosted by the Archdiocese of Madras-Mylapore, the event featured Catholic leaders including Cardinal Anthony Poola, archbishop of Hyderabad and president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India.

JCD Prabhakar, speaker of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, opened the event. According to march organizers, he is the first Indian politician to publicly express his commitment to the protection and promotion of human life. At the march, he unveiled a memorial dedicated to unborn children. India’s National March for Life has previously been held in Delhi (2022), Pune (2023), Thrissur (2024), and Bengaluru (2025).

UK bishop urges prime minister to push for Jimmy Lai’s release

Auxiliary Bishop James Curry of Westminster, England, has written a letter to Prime Minister Andy Burnham urging him to do everything possible to secure the release of jailed China democracy activist Jimmy Lai.

“Jimmy Lai’s ‘crime’ was to voice concerns, engage in peaceful protest, and publish a newspaper which was critical of oppressive new laws,” Curry said, expressing concern that Lai “has no access to the sacraments” and about his deteriorating health conditions.

“Around 200,000 migrants have come to the U.K. from Hong Kong since 2020, many of whom are Catholic. The Church in England and Wales continues to provide pastoral support to all those from Hong Kong who seek it,” he said. “I also offer my prayers for those who are persecuted because of their faith or political beliefs throughout the world. I ask Catholics in England and Wales to join with me in seeking the intercession of St. Maximilian Kolbe for Jimmy Lai, and in seeking the intercession of St. Alban and St. Frances Cabrini for all those who have had to leave their own country because of persecution.”

Lebanon’s general amnesty law raises concern among Christians

Lebanon’s Parliament approved a sweeping general amnesty law on Aug. 12, drawing support from a majority of lawmakers, including representatives of Christian parties.

The vote came shortly after the country abolished the death penalty, but the amnesty has proved far more divisive, ACI MENA, the Arabic-language sister service of EWTN News, reported Aug. 11.

Critics, particularly within Christian circles, fear the release of large numbers of prisoners without adequate rehabilitation programs could deepen Lebanon’s security problems. They argue that the measure does little to address overcrowded prisons, prolonged pretrial detention, slow judicial proceedings, or the rights of victims.

The law also permits some Lebanese who fled to Israel after 2000 to return, provided they did not participate in military or security activities. Lebanese activist Maryam Younes, who was deported to Israel, rejected the measure as inadequate, saying returnees could not be certain of their safety from Hezbollah.

Young Russian Catholics gather to discuss Christianity in a digital world

Around 80 young Russian Catholics participated in the 24th annual Catholic Youth Meeting in the Diocese of St. Joseph in Irkutsk, Siberia, the largest geographical diocese in the world.

Participants in the program, titled “Nets of Jesus: Towards Dull Presence,” included young people from Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Transbaikalia, and Buryatia, Vatican News reported Aug. 10.

The Aug. 6–9 event included reflections on the parable of the good Samaritan, discussions on remaining Christian in a digital age, and discussions of their experiences and plans for future projects at their respective parishes. Participants were also guided in a daily spiritual reflection centered on young saints of the Church, including St. Carlo Acutis.

Ireland’s Mayo Gaelic football team carries trophy to Croagh Patrick in thanksgiving

Footballers from the All Ireland winning Mayo Gaelic football team carried the Sam Maguire cup to the summit of Croagh Patrick, Ireland’s holy mountain, in thanksgiving. They won a historic All Ireland match on July 26, breaking the legend of a 75-year curse by a parish priest placed on the last Mayo team that won for disrespecting a funeral procession during homecoming celebrations.

Mayo won their all Ireland Championship on Reek Sunday, traditionally a day of pilgrimage in the western county, when thousands of Catholics climb the mountain, many barefooted.

The group of Mayo players led by manager Andy Moran and captain Jack Coyne brought the famous trophy to the summit, where there is a small oratory. There they greeted other pilgrims and said a prayer of thanksgiving for their victory.

Kidnappings heighten anxiety among Syrian Christians

A series of reported kidnappings involving Syrian Christians has renewed concern over security in the region.

The cases include the abduction of a deacon near Homs and the disappearance of a young Christian man in Saidnaya, ACI MENA reported Aug. 11.

Elias Khazal, a farmer and deacon at the Syriac Orthodox Church of St. George in Zaidal, was seized by masked gunmen while working about two miles north of his village. His captors held him for 41 days near Tall Manin, between Damascus and Saidnaya, and demanded a ransom of $1 million. Father Hamid Masouh of Our Lady of Deliverance Syriac Catholic Church said security forces eventually raided the building where Khazal was being held. They freed him without a ransom payment and arrested members of the gang. Although the deacon endured several forms of torture, he returned home in good physical condition.

In Saidnaya, local sources reported that armed men abducted jeweler Fadi Samaan after entering a parking area in vehicles without license plates and opening fire. His fate remains unknown.

Mauritius religious leaders pledge united action against drug abuse

Leaders from several religious communities across Mauritius expressed their commitment to closer collaboration in confronting the country’s growing drug crisis in a meeting at Bishop Jean Michaël Durhône’s residence in the Diocese of Port-Louis.

At the Aug. 11 meeting, Durhône emphasized the importance of the family, which he described as “the foundation of society,” and called on Mauritians not to lose hope, ACI Africa, the sister service of EWTN News in Africa, reported Aug. 12. “We are not giving up,” he said, inviting the different religious communities to pool “their experiences, programs, and strengths.”

In a statement issued after the meeting, participants described the drug situation as “alarming,” noting that drugs, particularly “synthetic drugs,” are affecting all sectors of Mauritian society, with young people becoming increasingly involved.

“Families, both rich and poor, are directly affected, while communities are facing a growing deterioration of their social fabric,” the religious leaders said in their statement.

Roman pilgrims prepare to return to the Holy Land

After months of suspended pilgrimages because of war in the Middle East, the Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi, the Diocese of Rome’s pilgrimage office, is preparing to return to the Holy Land. Its first trip is scheduled to depart Monday, Aug. 17.

Father Giovanni Biallo, the organization’s spiritual assistant, told ACI MENA on Aug. 13 that preparations resumed after fighting between Lebanon and the Galilee region ceased and direct flights between Rome and the Holy Land began returning during the past two months. He said European pilgrims have been slower to return than groups from Asia and Latin America, partly because of widespread fears about instability across the region.

The priest welcomed the resumption as a sign of solidarity with local Christian communities whose livelihoods have been devastated. In Bethlehem alone, he said, 100 hotels had been closed and are now waiting for pilgrims to return.

Kevin Mario and Patrick J. Passmore contributed to this report.

By the time the photo was taken, Kolbe had already been arrested by the Nazis once but was clearly resolved to continue his nationwide evangelization efforts. The monastery he had established at Niepokalanów, 25 miles west of Warsaw, had become a major Catholic publishing center.

The beard with which Kolbe is often pictured is notable for several reasons, one of which was the fact that not many of his Franciscan counterparts in Poland sported them. He shaved his signature beard in order to blend in with his fellow Franciscans and with society at large.

The second reason is that Kolbe’s beard is the only first-class relic that exists of him. The rest of his body was incinerated in the ovens of Auschwitz after he was murdered by the Nazis in 1941.

Father James McCurry, a Conventual Franciscan and minister provincial of the Our Lady of the Angels Province, gave a homily in 2016 commemorating the 75th anniversary of Kolbe’s martyrdom in which he mentioned the saint’s beard.

McCurry, author of the book “Maximilian Kolbe: Martyr of Charity,” said Kolbe chose to keep the beard upon his return from six years of missionary work in Japan. In those days, it was customary for missionaries to grow long beards, and Kolbe wanted to keep it as a reminder of his missionary days and as a reminder to always be a “missionary” of the Gospel.

McCurry said Kolbe’s beard made him unusual among his Conventual Franciscan counterparts, who generally did not wear them. Kolbe’s fame was spreading in Poland thanks to his publishing work, and his unique beard helped him to stand out all the more.

It was for this reason that Kolbe eventually, after the 1939 Nazi invasion of Poland, made the decision to shave it, McCurry said, so as not to stand out. Kolbe’s founding of the Militia Immaculata (MI), an evangelization movement identifying with Mary, put him high on Nazi watchlists.

One book on his life offers this quote from the saint: “Beards provoke the enemy who rapidly is approaching our friary. Our Franciscan habits also will provoke him. I can part with my beard. I can’t sacrifice my habit.”

After a fellow brother cut off Kolbe’s beard for him, the brother at first tried to save the beard, but Kolbe objected and told him to throw it in the stove. So, obediently, the brother threw it into the stove, but the fire was not lit, so the brother later retrieved it and stored it in a pickle jar.

Today, Kolbe’s beard is his only surviving first-class relic.

McCurry was also a friend of Franciszek Gajowniczek, the man for whom Kolbe laid down his life at Auschwitz in late July 1941, following his arrest on Feb. 17.

Gajowniczek was one of the 10 men selected to be executed in reprisal for one prisoner’s escape from the barracks. He cried out: “What will happen to my wife and children?” And in response, Kolbe stepped forward and offered to take his place. The 10 were placed, naked, in a starvation chamber.

All 10 of those condemned that day died eventually; six starved, and the deaths of the rest, including Kolbe, were hastened by an injection of carbolic acid.

This story was first published in August 2021 and has been updated.