Her devotion made the circuitous, hourlong journey from her home in La Guaira to the capital city feel shorter. María Elena lived in La Guaira’s Caribbean Golf I building with her family: her husband, Wilson, and their sons, 25-year-old Ricardo and 22-year-old Enrique, all three of whom chose to stay home that day.

In Caracas, the day unfolded normally. María Elena and her friends visited the Colegio Belén, where the remains of Mother Carmen rest. Afterward, they went to the José Gregorio Hernández House Museum and concluded their pilgrimage with a Mass at Our Lady of La Candelaria Parish, where the remains of the “doctor of the poor” also rest.

Earthquakes and uncertainty

At 6:04 p.m., María Elena and her friends were in line to buy ice cream. Dark gray clouds over Caracas signaled an approaching storm, but the roar would not come from the sky but from the earth. At that moment, the ground shook with extreme violence, and panic reigned. The three of them managed to get out of the shopping mall where they had been.

Soon, the power grid failed and both the internet and telephone lines went down. Two hours later, the group was finally able to retrieve their car from where it was parked and began the journey back home, a trip that, this time, seemed to last forever.

María Elena told EWTN News Español, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, that what she encountered in La Guaira looked like something out of a horror movie. Late into the night, only fires broke the darkness. Entire buildings had collapsed. People were searching desperately through the rubble, while others were stealing and looting. There were shrieks, wailing, and weeping.

The journey home was difficult, not only because of the damaged state of the road but also because of the shock evoked by the scene. Every meter covered, every sight of pain and destruction, dealt a blow to the hope María Elena still clung to: the hope of reuniting with her loved ones. She could only reach her home on foot.

María Elena faces unimaginable pain

It was nearly midnight when María Elena saw that where the Caribbean Golf I building had once stood there was now only a massive pile of rubble. The 49-year-old woman said that paradoxically she felt a great sense of inner peace despite the tragedy. Amid the confusion, she was told that one of her children was alive but trapped in the rubble. With great effort, María Elena made her way to the spot.

It was Enrique, her youngest son. He was severely injured but was able to communicate with his mother. The first few hours following the earthquakes were chaotic in La Guaira; rescue efforts had to be carried out by hand because the necessary equipment for a swift response was not available. It was a very long night during which Enrique asked María Elena not to abandon him. “Don’t worry, son, I will never leave you alone,” she told him.

And so, morning came, followed by the afternoon. Trapped and in pain, Enrique could hold on no longer. María Elena, always close by, said she heard his final breath: “He waited for me to take his last breath.” Enrique died right there, alongside his father and his older brother. It was days later that rescuers managed to recover their bodies, after which María Elena was then able to give them a Christian burial.

“My faith grew stronger,” María Elena said. Her journey, however, has not been easy. It has been filled with pain, reproaches, and at times even anger toward God. María Elena was left on her own, and many times she sought answers.

“I fought with God. I was filled with rage. ‘Why did you leave me here? Am I so bad that I have to stay here?’ Yet, I surrendered all my suffering to God for the sanctification of their souls,” she shared.

Her greatest refuge has always been faith. Now she regularly attends a prayer group at a parish in Caracas, which she says has been very beneficial. She seeks indulgences for her husband and children and says she always tries to be cheerful and “let others see God in me.”

“Despite the great loss I’ve experienced, I’ve held onto my sense of humor. That‘s one of the things I asked of God when my son Enrique passed away. I accepted his death with deep pain and entrusted him to God, but I prayed that he wouldn’t take away my joy because I had always been the source of joy in our home. That’s what my children and my husband used to say,” she remarked.

“I want my husband and my children to feel proud of their wife and mother. I know that if I am happy, they will be happy, too. Happiness is a decision, and I decided to entrust my happiness to God because he wants all of us to be happy,” she added.

Oct. 24 marks four months since that terrible day. More than 6,000 Venezuelans lost their lives in a matter of seconds; thousands were left injured, and many others remain missing.

“Despite everything, I thank God for the fact that I was able to speak with my youngest son at that moment. I am grateful to God for life,” María Elena says, though she adds with that sense of humor she hasn’t lost: “Although I do ask him to take me soon.”

“I ask that I might fulfill my mission quickly so that I can go to heaven, because that’s what I long for most these days. Even before, I had no fear of death, because that is our destiny: to die in order to live and I want to live with God,” she said.

María Elena said she doesn’t yet know what will become of her life but affirmed that she has “surrendered herself” to whatever Providence may decide.

A message on the value of suffering

The Church teaches us that God does not desire suffering for its own sake, nor is he its direct cause.

The explanation of how God can permit evil without being its author is profound, yet it does not fully resolve the pain of any given loss. Through faith, Catholics believe that God can bring good even out of evil; however, this does not make the death of innocent people a good thing, nor does it justify tragedies.

Such suffering can take on meaning when experienced in union with Christ. As has been evidenced in the case in Venezuela following the earthquakes, pain can awaken solidarity and mutual responsibility; it can even prompt a society to reflect on how it might improve. This is María Elena’s conviction.

“We have been suffering for years. Just try it, you’ll see: When you entrust that suffering to Christ, all the little things we go through, those moments of anger and indignation, offering them to Jesus for the sake of someone else, you will see how the blessings follow,” she said.

“And another thing: Thank God for everything. It’s incredible, when you thank God for both the bad things and the good, blessings will follow. I’m not saying that problems won’t continue to arise; I still have plenty of things to deal with myself, but when we are with God, our burdens are lighter,” María Elena reflected.

“I am not alone, because I have God; I have the Most Holy Virgin Mary, who has always been with me, and I have felt her presence. And who better than she who knows what this pain is like?” she said.

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

“It’s not so easy to process or come to terms with this situation, given the way it happened,” Calle shared in an interview with EWTN News Español, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. “I could break down at any moment because of the pain I feel inside.”

Calle lives in Quito, Ecuador, and manages the administrative needs of the Redemptorist congregation in the Andean-Caribbean Province, which comprises Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador. He is currently in Guayaquil serving also as the legal representative to handle matters related to Sánchez’s death. He is also taking part in the Oct. 19–27 novena for the repose of his soul.

“He died embracing the cross. The crucifix was not damaged, save for the part of the leg [of the corpus]. It is striking how he celebrated the Lord’s passover, and the Lord celebrated his passover with him… And Patricio died doing what he loved: the Eucharist,” the priest emphasized.

He loved the Eucharist and the Blessed Virgin Mary

Calle described Sánchez as a man “with a pure heart and a ready smile, a smile that created a sense of closeness. People were drawn to him because of his purity of heart, in which there was no trace of ill intent. He was always so very calm, patient, and tolerant.”

“He very much loved the Blessed Sacrament. Wherever he went to any parish he would always emphasize this devotion. And he was always the first one there; he wouldn’t just expose the Blessed Sacrament for a while and then leave, he would stay to pray,” the priest recounted.

Sánchez served in Loja, in southern Ecuador, and later in a mission area called Vinces. He also spent nine years at a parish in Manta, and finally about four years in Guayaquil, at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church. He served as the pastor there, and it was in that church that he died.

“He also loved the Most Holy Virgin Mary. We can describe Patricio as someone who throughout his ministry everyone felt his closeness to them, absolutely everyone,” the Redemptorist priest highlighted.

“He was always a very dedicated man, always spiritual and pastoral. He would say ‘yes’ to everyone. We could say, then, that he was a hardworking man, very self-sacrificing, very devoted,” he remarked.

Calle further noted that “Patricio was a very simple person, very approachable and full of human warmth. That’s why his homilies were so simple.”

“My enduring memory of Patricio,” he added, “is that he was a very welcoming person, always concerned with making sure one had something to eat or drink. He enjoyed going to the cinema and was an athletic person; he liked going for a walk and swimming.”

‘A sign of grace’

The priest shared that he never had a conversation with Sánchez about how he would have liked to be remembered, but he highlighted one aspect he has been reflecting on in recent days following the tragic death of his fellow priest.

“Patricio’s death will become, or is already becoming, a sign of grace for Catholics and for humanity, given the fact that he was in the midst of broadcasting [the Mass] and that the tragedy unfolded in precisely this way, rather than any other. That was a message for everyone,” Calle remarked.

The priest remarked, in closing, that he does not know where the story of this priest will ultimately lead but that it certainly will not leave anyone indifferent.

“I don’t know if his mission is beginning now. I cannot offer any certainty or assurance; it is simply a personal perception, based on the context and the way he died.”

‘One day, all of us here will also die’

Sánchez was born on Nov. 6, 1973, in Cuenca, Ecuador. He made his profession in the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (Redemptorists) on Aug. 15, 2000, the solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. He was ordained a priest on Oct. 15, 2005.

He was pastor at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in south Guayaquil. He served as the superior of his religious community, where he lived alongside a fellow religious brother who had taken his perpetual vows.

In his final homily, on the day of his death, he spoke about the importance of making time for God. “He must come first,” he said, adding: “Dear brothers and sisters, one day, all of us here will also die. Sometimes, the time we have spent on material things does not hold as much meaning as the time we dedicate to God, that quality time we give to God, to our brothers and sisters, to our wife, our husband, to our children, and to our families. That is time spent in the best possible way.”

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

The Canadian nonprofit was founded in 2025 by Eden O’Brien and Monica Sifert. The two met while attending Our Lady Seat of Wisdom College in Ontario and maintained the friendship over the years after graduating in 2018. A shared passion for Catholic arts and culture led to their decision to create a society for Catholic artists.

The inspiration behind Theopolis also came from the story of the apostle Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch. In the story, Philip asks the eunuch if he understands what he’s reading. The eunuch responds no, how can he unless someone explains it to him?

“So once itʼs explained to him, he wants to be baptized in essentially a puddle on the side of the road. And so that was really inspiring because it went to show how people can engage with media that they donʼt 100% understand,” O’Brien told EWTN News in an interview. “It was Scripture in this case, but it can still prepare the soul for baptism. So that passage has become a kind of motif for our project.”

Theopolis — which means “city of God” — works to serve Canadian artists and provide them with visibility and the support and resources they need to be able to focus on their craft and become successful.

O’Brien told EWTN News in an interview that there are “two wings of the project.” One is the community side where the group helps to support the artists they work with and supports them “across their professional lives … connecting them with mentors, resources.” And second is building “an audience that helps appreciate our artists.”

“The other wing to the project is this intersection between faithful and secular audiences,” O’Brien shared. “So, things like our public lecture, our exhibition, any kind of public event is based around creating an audience that can learn more about what our artists are doing either in a direct way — as with the exhibition — or in a couple steps removed like with the lecture. It just gets the conversation going.”

In May, Theopolis hosted its first exhibition called “The Drama of the Soul.” Twelve Canadian Catholic artists participated and created pieces of art that “explored the human soul as the protagonist of a journey that extends beyond life, death, and time,” O’Brien explained.

Since then Theopolis has held an event each month. On Oct. 24, it will host its inaugural Gaudí Lecture, titled “The Christian Imagination and the Question of Autonomous Art,” and will feature Jonathan Pageau, a French-Canadian icon carver, YouTuber, and public speaker who will discuss symbolism, religion, and Eastern Orthodox Christianity.

The goal for the lecture “is to make a public defense of the importance, impact, and enduring relevance of the Christian imagination, generally and specifically in Canada,” O’Brien said.

Venerable Antoni Gaudí was chosen as the namesake “by the fact that he came to the faith through his artistic practice,” she shared.

O’Brien explained that these public events serve as a way to “reignite interest in faith, culture, and the arts within our province and also to turn our artists' artwork to a kind of evangelical purpose by bringing it to Ontarioʼs public square.”

“Canada right now, itʼs different from the States in that with faith people donʼt wear it on their sleeve in the same way as they do in America,” she added. “So itʼs a bit of a different environment here and so being able to speak to people about the faith through the arts, which kind of bypasses some of the maybe intellectual blockage points that people would have, is really important in Canada at this time.”

The impact of AI on Catholic art

Pope Leo XIV recently told a group of Catholic artists at the Vatican that there is a fundamental difference between the art humans create and what artificial intelligence can make based on the work of others.

“The Church needs you,” the pope said. “This is especially true in this age of artificial intelligence, in which we urgently need to distinguish human art from what is produced by machines.”

As a Catholic artist herself, Sifert said, “itʼs certainly a threat, but I still think that people are going to want the human touch to art.”

She added: “I think that the human touch to art will never go away and that you can really tell, especially from an icon perspective, you can really tell when art has been created by AI or not. It might be difficult [to tell], but still, the sacramentality behind art is not going to go away if you have the human touch to it.”

While O’Brien thinks AI can be “a great assistant,” she said that “when it comes to the creative side of things, there really is the threat that it stifles the creative power.”

“I do think that there is this very real threat that imagination, and that kind of faculty, becomes seriously weakened,” she added. “I use AI, as I said, just as an assistant, but even having that habit can weaken your own skills in more basic functions. So I can only imagine how within our own souls itʼs going to weaken that.”

Looking at Theopolis as a whole and its mission, said she O’Brien hopes it will continue “to support the vocation of Catholic artists within the province. Stemming from that, we would like the effect of that to be a kind of creative renaissance of Catholic art within our province.”

“We want this art to be brought to the public square in Ontario so that it can be accessed by a wide audience of both people who are Christians themselves and particularly people who arenʼt practicing the faith, or a faith at all, just so they can have this opportunity to be inspired and, going back to our conviction, that no matter your background or the type of media the Holy Spirit can choose to use it in whatever way he wants.”

The 7.5-magnitude earthquake impacted various sectors throughout the country, including in the nation’s capital city.

According to an Oct. 19 statement from the National Civil Protection System (SINAPROC, by its Spanish acronym), the earthquake injured 27 people and immediately killed one person. More than 9,000 homes sustained some form of damage.

The natural disaster also caused damage to Catholic Church properties. On Oct. 19, the Panamanian Bishops' Conference (CEP, by its Spanish acronym) published a report detailing the condition of the country’s cathedrals, parishes, and chapels.

The document classified the damage to two churches in the Diocese of Santiago de Veraguas as “totally destroyed”: St. Isidore the Farmer parish church in Soná, and Jesus of Nazareth Minor Basilica in the district of Atalaya.

The report classifies the damage of several churches in other regions of the country as serious. For example, in the Diocese of Penonomé, St. John the Baptist Parish has “damage to the bell tower, debris on the ground, and cracks in the side walls and the choir balcony.”

In the Diocese of Chitré, St. Athanasius Church “suffered the loss of the top level of its tower, debris on the ground, and cracks in its walls”; while in the Diocese of David, “subsidence [some sinking] and cracks in the tower, as well as outward tilting of walls,” were recorded at Our Lady of Remedies Parish.

The list of affected buildings also includes churches of high historical value. Among them is the St. John the Baptist Cathedral in the Diocese of Penonomé, which suffered the “partial loss of the upper section of its oldest tower,” while the other tower is tilted and has severe damage to its cupola and cross.

Another site affected was Old St. Mary’s Cathedral Basilica in Panama City, where cracks, severe fissures, and damage to the sacristy dome were identified. According to the report, one issue that “requires special attention” is the “apparent leaning of the bell in the south tower, accompanied by cracking at its base.”

According to the tally mentioned in the report, the Diocese of Chitré accounts for 118 damaged sites, primarily rural chapels. It is followed by the Diocese of Penonomé with 13, the Archdiocese of Panama and the Diocese of Veraguas with eight each, and the Diocese of David with two.

The CEP clarified that the data presented are “preliminary” in nature, and many church-owned properties still require “specialized technical inspections” to determine the exact extent of the damage.

The report concludes by noting that Catholic Church buildings possess more than just “architectural value”; they serve as “meeting places, the celebration of faith, and collective memory, and are closely linked to the history and identity of Panamanian communities.”

The Panamanian episcopate expressed its closeness to the affected communities and highlighted the importance of “protecting people’s lives, addressing the safety conditions of the buildings, and ensuring the preservation of these places of worship.”

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

The runoff follows the first round that took place on Oct. 4, with results that demonstrated the sharp political polarization within the world’s most populous Catholic country. Bolsonaro secured 47.1% of the valid votes, compared with 40.5% for Da Silva.

The political tension reached new heights following a heated Oct. 18 debate between the two candidates. It was the first face-to-face encounter of the electoral contest, and according to Datafolha, it has had an immediate impact: Voter preference has shifted slightly in favor of Bolsonaro.

The latest poll indicates that 47% of Brazilians intend to vote for the conservative candidate, while 45% favor Da Silva, a result that is essentially a statistical dead heat.

Accusations of corruption

“The quality of the debate has been very low,” said journalist Marcelo Musa Cavallari, editor-in-chief of ACI Digital, the Portuguese-language sister service of EWTN News.

“Both candidates focused far more on accusing their opponent of crimes and corruption, while there was very little real discussion of proposals for the country or ideas for the nation’s development.”

Certainly, one of the key moments of the debate involved the mutual accusations regarding corruption cases linked to Da Silva and to Bolsonaro’s inner circle.

The current president spent 580 days in prison between 2018 and 2019, following his conviction for accepting bribes — totaling over a million dollars — from a construction firm, which he used to renovate and furnish a three-story luxury apartment in São Paulo.

Da Silva was released from prison following a ruling by the Supreme Federal Court, which annulled his conviction on the grounds that his rights had not been upheld during the legal proceedings. At least eight other cases remain open in the courts against da Silva, involving charges of corruption, influence peddling, and money laundering.

Meanwhile, the Bolsonaro family is not exempt from accusations. Flávio himself is currently under investigation by the Brazilian justice system for alleged crimes involving corruption, money laundering, and currency evasion.

At the same time, Eduardo — Jair’s son and Flávio’s younger brother — was sentenced this year by the Supreme Federal Court to more than four years in prison for coercing the justice system and attempting foreign interference. Furthermore, he has been barred from holding political office for eight years. Eduardo Bolsonaro has taken refuge in the United States.

Former President Jair Bolsonaro is serving a sentence of more than 27 years handed down by the Supreme Federal Court after being found guilty of an attempted coup dʼétat, violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, and participation in an armed criminal organization.

Issues of particular interest to Catholics

When asked about the candidates' positions on issues of particular interest to Catholics, Cavallari explained that as is the case in much of the Western world, it is the left-wing parties, such as those represented by Da Silva, that advocate for abortion.

“For his part, Flávio Bolsonaro enjoys the support of Protestant churches,” he said. According to Datafolha, the candidate is backed by 59% of Protestants, which represents his “greatest advantage.” Cavallari noted that the evangelical community makes up “a significant part of the pro-life movement in Brazil.”

Furthermore, regarding crime and insecurity, the veteran journalist noted that Da Silva “is seen as highly untrustworthy by voters.” In contrast, Bolsonaro has the support of several senators who “have served as police officers or police chiefs,” which contributes to a “much tougher stance” when it comes to security.

Various polls identify security as the primary concern for Brazilian voters, followed closely by economic issues. Regarding the latter, Cavallari noted that Da Silva’s economic proposals have not had the expected impact on the electorate and, in practice, would entail an enormous cost — “billions of reais” (the national currency) — to the national treasury.

Over the past year, the Brazilian economy has experienced a period of moderate slowdown. In September, year-on-year inflation reached 4.58%, an uptick driven primarily by the rising global cost of energy and fuel.

“The money isn’t there; it’s impossible to pay for everything he promised. So, this is purely an electoral ploy. In the future, making a promise that one knows cannot be kept could even be considered an electoral crime,” noted Cavallari, referring to Da Silva’s proposal to ease the debt burden on Brazilian families through the “Desenrola Brasil 3.0” plan.

The proposal is an aggressive financial rescue plan under which the Brazilian state would directly purchase portfolios of delinquent debt from banks, subsequently refinancing them for citizens with discounts ranging from at least 90% up to 95%. This has been one of the socialist candidate’s primary campaign proposals.

What will determine the outcome of the election?

A factor that could tip the scales in the runoff, Cavallari explained, is the electorate’s “desire for renewal.” Da Silva, who is 80 years old, has been a presidential candidate since 1989 and is now running for his fourth, nonconsecutive term.

“He is a very well-known figure. He is the man who has spent the most time in the Brazilian presidency in the country’s history,” Cavallari said. “There is a sense of fatigue regarding Lula.”

On the other hand, he noted that there is currently an “institutional crisis” affecting almost every sector of public life. Much of this, Cavallari continued, “is perceived by the electorate as being Lula’s responsibility.”

In this regard, the Brazilian journalist emphasized that a potential victory for Flávio Bolsonaro would be “almost an act of revenge” for his supporters, who seek to vindicate former President Jair Bolsonaro, a man they view as being persecuted by a Brazilian justice system affected by the crisis, allegedly instrumentalized by Da Silva and the local left. “That is why the tension in Brazil is so high,” he observed.

In June, the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil issued a message urging voters to cast a conscious, ethical vote committed to the common good, while also stating that “the Catholic Church does not endorse candidates or parties.”

The bishops warned against corruption, vote-buying, disinformation, and political polarization while denouncing the “scandalous social inequality” the country is experiencing.

However, Cavallari reflected on the support that some bishops have shown for the candidates, noting that “it is difficult” to say whether these expressions of support influence the Catholic vote, as one must distinguish between “how Brazil’s bishops think and how the Catholic faithful think.”

“The point is that the Workers’ Party, Lula’s party, was to a large extent a creation of Brazil’s progressive Catholic Church. Within the National Conference of Bishops, there remains a strong preference for, and significant support for, Lula — even though they have committed to not taking an official stance in favor of any particular candidate,” he explained.

“In the first round of these elections, Lula saw his worst performance among Catholic voters. Although he secured a majority, it is the smallest majority he has ever received in any of his candidacies,” Cavallari said.

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

The original image was painted by a slave on an adobe wall around 1651 and survived the massive earthquake of 1655, which was considered miraculous given the scale of destruction. Subsequently, other miracles were associated with the image.

The last time the Cristo Moreno (Dark-skinned Christ) was welcomed at the seat of the Peruvian executive branch was in 1986, during the first administration of the late former president Alan García.

The image’s arrival was accompanied by honors from the presidential guard. Members of the Brotherhood of the Lord of Miracles were responsible for carrying the processional platform into the headquarters of the executive branch.

During the event, Fujimori paused before the imposing image, made the sign of the cross, touched the processional platform with her right hand, and prayed for a brief moment. Her ministers followed suit, making the same sign of respect and devotion.

Subsequently, the officials placed floral arrangements featuring the colors of the Peruvian flag at the feet of the sacred image. Fujimori also presented candles, a national coat of arms, and white flowers in homage to the Christ of Pachacamilla, another name for the image.

The Lord of Miracles makes its way through the streets of Lima

Once the acts of homage concluded, the Lord of the Miracles image was processed through the streets of Lima, accompanied by thousands of devotees. As it passed, a display of fireworks resounded in the sky.

Throughout the procession, the faithful accompanied the processional platforms along various streets in the historic center of Lima. The procession also entered the Dos de Mayo National Hospital, where patients, staff, and devotees were able to approach the image.

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

In response to comments on social media questioning whether the incident was a punishment from God, Father Juan Carlos Vásconez, a priest and rector of St. Josemaría Escrivá Church in Guayaquil, pointed to a passage from the Gospel to explain why it should not be interpreted in that way.

In comments to EWTN News Español, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, Vásconez spoke about the collapse of the tower of Siloam, which resulted in the deaths of 18 people (cf. Luke 13:4-5).

He explained that Jesus made it clear that the victims were no more sinful than the other inhabitants of Jerusalem. Rather than assigning them blame, the Lord called everyone to repentance.

“In the face of death, there is a message of equality. Life is fragile, and we will all go through that moment,” he said.

The priest recalled that Sánchez was very well loved in Guayaquil and noted his piety. In February, he had led a retreat that was attended by other priests.

A cross falls during Mass

For Vásconez, the circumstances surrounding the Redemptorist priest’s death also invite reflection on the Christian faith.

“The Mass is the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary, and it is the greatest thing we Christians have here on earth,” he noted.

Vásconez shared in the grief caused by Sánchez’s passing, affirming that even in the midst of a tragedy, the faithful can find strength in God. He also asked for prayers for the Redemptorists and for the community of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish, which has lost its parish priest.

“I would say that this will serve as a seed, inspiring [more men] to also want to dedicate themselves,” he added, referring to the possibility that the priest’s witness might encourage new vocations.

Reviewing safety in churches

Vásconez also called for an inspection of objects installed within churches to prevent accidents. He emphasized the need to ensure that crosses and religious images are securely fastened and that items attached to walls and ceilings are also checked.

He mentioned that he recently learned of another incident in which a piece of marble detached from a wall. Consequently, he explained that at the church where he serves, they will inspect the ceiling lights to ensure they are securely anchored.

“These are safety matters which incidents like this serve as a reminder to pay attention to such things,” he noted.

The priest asked for prayers for the parishioners of Our Lady of Perpetual Help and for the Redemptorist family following the death of Sánchez.

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

The 53-year-old Redemptorist priest passed away after a crucifix mounted on the wall behind the altar fell on him during Mass.

The Archdiocese of Guayaquil issued a statement, signed by Cardinal Luis Cabrera, announcing that the priest “has departed for the Father’s House to enjoy His presence and His glory” and expressing that it joins “in prayer for the eternal rest of his soul, while offering its solidarity, affection, and care to the Redemptorist family, as well as to his own family and friends.”

In addition, the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (Redemptorists) and the Archdiocese of Guayaquil celebrated an Oct. 18 evening Mass for the soul of Sánchez at the same Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help.

Following the news of his passing, many colleagues and members of the faithful took to social media to express their shock and remember the priest.

“We thank God for all the good received through Father Patricio Sánchez, who accompanied the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians and the young women — especially in our communities in Guayaquil — with closeness, love, and pastoral dedication,” the Salesians wrote regarding the priest, who was born in Cuenca.

“We are certain that he is already enjoying the presence of God. May the Lord, in His infinite mercy, welcome him into His Kingdom and grant comfort and strength to all of us who mourn his passing,” they added.

“May his soul have been received by Almighty God. We are deeply saddened by this situation. Death came upon the priest while he was in the midst of celebrating Holy Mass,” noted Betty Montaño.

Mari Pérez expressed her hope “that he is now rejoicing with God,” while adding: “but we must look into what caused this accident — there needs to be greater care taken when positioning religious images.”

“For a priest, it is an honor to depart from this world to the Father’s house while celebrating Holy Mass; it is a true reflection of Jesus, who died on the cross. He is now in heaven, enjoying the delights that God had prepared for him beforehand,” remarked Carlos Alberto Pastrello.

“Proclaiming Jesus Christ, God calls him into His presence,” María Augusta Guzmanberrezueta remarked.

Vicente Sauhing Dávila wrote on the priest’s Facebook page that “the Lord embraced him and took him with Him to His Holy Home. Jesus said: ‘Be prepared, with your lamps burning. You do not know the day or the hour.’”

San Lorenzo Parish in Vinces, where Sánchez also served as a parish priest, likewise expressed sorrow at his passing, highlighting his “dedication and pastoral love.”

“As a Redemptorist family, we join in prayer for the eternal rest of his soul, and we ask the Lord to grant comfort to his family, his brother priests, and all the faithful who cherish his legacy and memory with gratitude.”

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

Father Rafael Becerra, pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in the San Antonio suburb of Helotes, Texas, explained to EWTN News Español, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News: “We want to research, provide formation on, and raise awareness about the entire Guadalupan event.”

A retreat and a Guadalupan certificate program have been the first steps, Becerra said, confident that the project can grow and become “a Guadalupan center for the United States.”

Becerra, a priest of the Archdiocese of San Antonio, noted that the “Truth about Guadalupe” certificate program began on Oct. 5 as an effort to “prepare ourselves for the 500th anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe,” which will be celebrated in 2031.

Assisting him in this project is Monsignor Eduardo Chávez, director of the Higher Institute of Guadalupan Studies in Mexico City and who is considered the leading expert on Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Chávez “is the one who teaches and gives this course via video,” he said, noting that the diploma program will conclude in April 2027.

The course is taught in English to around 60 students and in Spanish to nearly 90.

Alongside Chávez, Alberto Mata and Javier Fernández, both experienced in the study and dissemination of the Guadalupe event, are also participating as facilitators for the program.

The initial sessions “have been extraordinary,” noted Becerra, as the participants “are excited, want to keep learning, and above all are impressed by the greatness of the Virgin of Guadalupe and all the graces she has brought not only to Mexico but to humanity.”

Through the course, he said, they aim to “collaborate in this great process of preparation for the 500th anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe” and to foster the development of “equipped persons who can then return to their parishes and replicate this diploma course in various parishes across San Antonio.”

Interested persons from Houston and Austin, Texas, have already contacted Becerra about the program, he said, so he hopes this will also serve as a “spearhead” that can be “replicated in the future in different places across the United States.”

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

In a video posted on social media, a resident of Goiás calls the bishop a “representative of Satan” and a “demon,” and accuses him of engaging in politics during his sermons.

According to the priests, “these shameful attacks” are “baseless, filled with hatred, fueled by ideological prejudices, and distorted by uncivil ignorance.”

The 10 priests who signed the joint statement in defense of Guimarães are Fathers Hélio Cordeiro, Ary Ramos, Denis Rodrigues, Deusli Evangelista, Frederico Ornelas, Moacir Santana, Carlos Neves, Mário Vieira, Pablo Veleda, and Renato Silva.

In the video, the man appears wearing a cap bearing the slogan “Lula — Brazil happy again” and criticizes Guimarães’ pastoral work, linking him politically to former President Jair Bolsonaro.

“That Bishop Adair is a Satan — I say it and I repeat it — he is the devil’s representative here on earth,” the man says. In another part of the video, he states: “The guy just goes to church. He doesn’t preach the Gospel; all he talks about is communism.”

Without offering proof, the man also accuses the bishop of receiving money from businessman Daniel Vorcaro to engage in political activity favoring Flávio Bolsonaro, the eldest son of former president Jair Bolsonaro who faces incumbent president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in an Oct. 25 runoff election for president.

“He must be getting money from Vorcaro to play politics for Bolsonaro,” the Lula supporter says.

Throughout the recording, the man urges the faithful to stop attending churches whose leaders, according to him, support Bolsonaro. “If you see a church where the leaders are Bolsonaristas — where their god is Bolsonaro — don’t get involved; get out as fast as you can,” he says.

The video also features criticism of Bolsonaro and members of his family, along with expressions of support for Lula and comments on labor rights, social programs, and the country’s past military dictatorship.

Statements by Bishop Guimarães

Guimarães has made statements touching upon politics and ideologies on various occasions within the context of reflections on Catholic participation in public life, freedom, and the use of faith for political ends.

In August 2025, during a “Desperta Brasil” (“Awaken Brazil”) Catholic event in Brasilia, Guimarães invoked the intercession of Our Lady of Aparecida for the country and mentioned communism during a blessing. Specifically, the bishop asked God to grant a blessing that “spares us from hunger, war, disease, and communism.”

On Jan. 15 of this year, in a video reflection, Guimarães criticized ideologies and dictatorial regimes. “It is impossible for us to be foolish enough to believe that ideology — that dictatorship — brings well-being to people. It brings hunger, misery, and suffering,” he said. He also criticized communism, fascism, and Nazism, stating that these regimes “stifle peopleʼs freedom.”

On Sept. 28, the bishop commented on the circulation of a false report regarding a supposed proposal to strip Our Lady of Aparecida of her title as patroness of Brazil. “Those who use Our Lady of Aparecida for personal gain — of whatever nature — will not fare well,” he said.

The false information linked the alleged proposal to Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, who denied supporting any such initiative.

More recently, on Oct. 2, Guimarães urged Catholics to participate in the elections and examine the track records of the candidates. “If you cast a null vote or do not vote at all, you are empowering the worst politicians, because they benefit from your absence,” he said. The bishop also advised voters to consider the candidates' stances on abortion, family, and faith.

‘We live in a democratic country’

In the statement, the priests of Formosa also emphasized that political disagreements are part of democratic life but do not justify attacks on others' honor.

“We live in a democratic country; as such, and as citizens, we are free to disagree on partisan political issues,” they said. The priests also cited a phrase attributed to St. Augustine: “In essentials, unity; in doubtful matters, liberty; in all things, charity.”

As the priests explained, “partisan politics falls within the realm of the debatable; thus, the fact that we hold divergent positions in this arena does not necessarily make us enemies, let alone give us the right to attack anyone’s honor.”

In closing, the priests asked for the intercession of Our Lady of Aparecida for peace and reconciliation in Brazil.

“May the Virgin of Aparecida, Queen and Patroness of Brazil, intercede for our country and for all the Brazilian people, so that we may find and build paths of peace, justice, and reconciliation.”

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

At a press conference ahead of the Oct. 14-16 event, Pérez Villarreal, who is also an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Mexico, noted that in commemorating the centennial of the religious conflict experienced in the country, known as the Cristiada or Cristero War, “rather than celebrating the tragic nature of this event, the violence, or the war, we commemorate the witness of faith of so many Mexicans.”

“Mexicans, primarily the laity, went to the defense of their faith, self-defense, and their ability and freedom to express what they believed,” he noted.

The prelate recalled that Mexican Catholics in the first half of the 20th century faced “a situation in which the law was clearly violating a fundamental right: the right to freedom of faith and religious expression.”

Amid rising tensions between the Church and the Mexican state, tensions that dated back to the second half of the 19th century, the armed uprising known as the Cristiada broke out in 1926, with Catholics from various parts of the country taking up arms against civil authorities.

The conflict arose in the context of the so-called “Calles Law,” which went into effect on July 31 of that year and severely restricted public worship and the religious life of Catholics.

Pérez Villarreal emphasized that with the colloquium, in which experts from Mexico and other countries are participating, “we are not seeking to vindicate any form of violence; rather, we want to delve deeper into the truth.”

Events like this, he noted, “help us view reality objectively rather than through the lens of ideology,” enabling us “to live in a freer Mexico.”

He further maintained that the conflict “was not an attack on the clergy; it was an attack on the religious freedom of an entire people,” and emphasized that this fundamental right is not one the state can decide to grant or not.

“Universal rights are not granted by the state; they are guaranteed by it,” he noted.

The event, organized by the Mexican Bishops’ Conference (CEM by its Spanish acronym) in conjunction with the Pontifical University of Mexico (UPM by its Spanish acronym) and the Mexican Society of Ecclesiastical History, includes lectures at the Plaza Mariana of the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe and at the UPM auditorium in Mexico City.

Father Juan Carlos Casas García, director of the UPM’s Department of Ecclesiastical History and the CEM’s Department of History and Art, emphasized that the Catholic resistance “went beyond an armed uprising.”

He explained that there was “peaceful resistance by Catholics who found their rights violated by legislation that openly infringed upon religious freedom and the activities of the Catholic Church in our country.”

The aim of the colloquium, he noted, is “to complete and broaden the understanding of this chapter” of Mexican history, a history marked by “contrasts, with both light and shadows.”

The priest noted that, “while acknowledging that this is a painful period in our history, it is also a historical episode filled with testimonies of faith and fidelity that we cannot forget.”

The colloquium can be followed either in person or via the CEM’s social media and the Pontifical University of Mexico.

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

The procession took about five hours for participants to cover the 3.6-kilometer (about 2.25 miles) route from the Belém Metropolitan Cathedral to Sanctuary Square located in front of the Basilica of Our Lady of Nazareth.

The Círio’s Sunday program began at 6:00 a.m. with a Mass celebrated by the Archbishop of Belém, Julio Akamine Endi, in front of the metropolitan cathedral. In his homily, he highlighted the significance of the procession as an expression of a shared journey toward Christ.

“The procession is very slow and takes a long time, but the pace is because we don’t want to leave anyone behind; we don’t want to abandon anyone along the way. We want everyone to reach Jesus Christ, to reach eternal life together,” he said.

“What kind of salvation is it where we leave others behind? We want to walk together, and this must also be reflected in our evangelizing and missionary work,” the archbishop continued.

In closing, he invoked the intercession of Our Lady of Nazareth so that the faithful might persevere on this journey: “May Our Lady of Nazareth, in whose honor we hold this most beautiful procession, help us to walk together toward the definitive Kingdom.”

Akamine also urged the faithful to care for others and to look after the salvation of their brothers and sisters, following Mary’s example.

“Let us ask Our Lady of Nazareth that we may know how to be submissive to God, just as she was, and that we may also care more, having zeal for the salvation of our brothers and sisters. We do not achieve this by seeking to claim a leading role that is not ours. The leading role always belongs to God. He is the Savior. He is the Savior of all. He is our Savior. And it is by obeying God that we actively collaborate in the salvation of humanity,” he noted.

Devotees fulfilling vows express their faith on the streets of Belém

After Mass, the image of Our Lady of Nazareth was placed on the “berlinda” (a ceremonial carriage) and taken in procession through the streets of Belém, pulled by a rope, one of the symbols of the Círio festival, that devotees strive to hold onto.

Along the route, devotees fulfilled their vows in various ways: walking on their knees, carrying heavy crosses or images of Our Lady, performing ballet, and even while blindfolded.

Among those fulfilling vows was 28-year-old Fabrício Corrêa, who traversed the route on his knees to honor a promise made for his motherʼs recovery. She was facing complications resulting from diabetes and was at risk of having one of her feet amputated.

“I am an Evangelical and asked God to heal her, but I also went to the basilica and asked Our Lady to intercede with Jesus so that he would grant this healing to my mother,” Corrêa told the website O Liberal.

According to him, a week later, the family received the news that the amputation would not be necessary. His mother lost only one of her toes, and Fabrício fulfilled the vow during this year’s Círio.

“I promised that if she interceded, I would fulfill that vow. I kept that to myself,” he said. His mother, a Catholic, did not know her son had made the vow and only learned of his participation in the Círio after the video went viral on social media.

Along the route, individuals and institutions also paid tribute to Our Lady of Nazareth. To help alleviate the heat, the fire department used water trucks, while volunteers distributed water to the pilgrims.

After the image arrived at Sanctuary Square, the program for the procession concluded with a Mass celebrated by the auxiliary bishop of Belém, Paulo Andreolli.

The Círio schedule of events continues throughout October with other pilgrimages and religious activities, leading up to the “Recírio”, which marks the conclusion of the festivities in honor of Our Lady of Nazareth.

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

Morel Diplán had been appointed by Pope Leo as coadjutor archbishop of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, on Oct. 18, 2025, with the automatic right of succession.

As reported by the Vatican Press Office on Oct. 12 and by mandate of the Holy Father, the new archbishop of Santo Domingo also assumes the office of Military Ordinary of the Dominican Republic, a role previously held by Ozoria.

Ozoria offers Mass of thanksgiving

On Sunday, Oct. 11, Ozoria, now archbishop emeritus of Santo Domingo, offered a Mass of thanksgiving for his years of episcopal service. He spent 10 of those years serving the primatial see of the Americas, the Archdiocese of Santo Domingo, erected in 1546, the first in the Western Hemisphere.

“I do not cease to be a bishop; I do not cease to be a priest; I am resigning from pastoral governance,” the prelate stated during the Mass in the Santo Domingo cathedral, concelebrated by Morel Diplán and other Dominican prelates, according to the Archdiocese of Santo Domingo.

“Every Eucharist is an act of thanksgiving to the Lord,” the archbishop emeritus said, highlighting that “the way to exercise the priesthood is in the manner of Jesus Christ, who gives life to the world through his death on the cross.”

New archbishop of Santo Domingo

Morel Diplán was born on Nov. 2, 1969, in Monte de la Jagua, Moca, in Espaillat Province. He was ordained a priest on June 24, 2000, for the Archdiocese of Santiago de los Caballeros in the Dominican Republic.

He has served as rector, vice rector, and professor at the seminary; vocations director; parish priest, vicar, and parish administrator; collaborator with various diocesan curia bodies; and professor and director of the School for the Permanent Diaconate in Santiago de los Caballeros.

On Dec. 14, 2016, he was appointed auxiliary bishop of Santiago de los Caballeros. On Dec. 2, 2023, he was appointed apostolic administrator of the Diocese of La Vega, and on Oct. 18, 2024, he was named bishop of the same diocese.

On Oct. 18, 2025, he was appointed coadjutor archbishop of Santo Domingo.

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

According to the Archdiocese of Brasília, “the meeting took place in an atmosphere of cordiality and dialogue, providing an opportunity to reflect on issues of interest to the Church and Brazilian society.”

The archdiocese also reported on its social media that among the topics discussed were “freedom of religion and conscience, respect for the legitimate secularism of the state, the protection of human life and the family, the promotion of social justice, the fight against poverty and inequality; in addition to the importance of collaboration between public authorities and religious institutions in initiatives aimed at the common good.”

During the visit, the cardinal gave Bolsonaro, who is Protestant, a copy of a Bible and a small statue of Our Lady of Aparecida, the patroness of Brazil.

“The senator was presented with a copy of the Jerusalem Bible and a replica of the image of Our Lady of Aparecida. Both gifts are among the items customarily presented to officials on certain occasions or during institutional visits, as part of [archdiocesan] protocol,” the Archdiocese of Brasília’s communications department told ACI Digital, the Portuguese-language sister service of EWTN News.

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

I would be lying if I said this was the date we had in mind from the moment we began this project, as if we had experienced a supernatural vision. That was not the case. But when you work in the service of God and the Church, you learn to view coincidences through different eyes. They are “God-incidences.”

This relaunch goes far beyond simply changing a websiteʼs name. Since 1980, ACI Prensa has accompanied generations of Spanish-speaking Catholics, and since 2014 it has been part of the EWTN family. Today, that journey enters a new phase: the same mission, but with the strength and reach of a global brand like EWTN News.

I confess that, while I am incredibly excited to launch EWTN News Español, I also feel a touch of nostalgia at saying goodbye to ACI Prensa — a brand I have followed and admired for decades. Yet, “we know that all things work together for good for those who love God” (Rom 8:28). St. Augustine spoke of God as a beauty “ever ancient, ever new.” The Gospel does not change; what changes are the ways we transmit and communicate it, or the technologies that help us spread it throughout history.

3 feasts, 3 patrons

This Oct. 12 marks 20 years since the death of St. Carlo Acutis at the age of 15. Canonized by Pope Leo XIV in September 2025, Acutis is the first millennial saint, and his defining characteristic was his use of new technologies to share the faith.

We ask him to guide us in the apostolic use of communication technologies (including the internet, social media, and artificial intelligence) and to help us bring God closer to the many young souls who live their lives online today. It cannot be a coincidence that a new platform is being born under the gaze of a teenager who turned the internet into a path to heaven.

It is also the feast of Our Lady of the Pillar, patroness of the Hispanic world — a title recognized by St. John Paul II in 1984 — and the date on which Spain celebrates its National Day.

There could hardly be a better day to launch EWTN News Español: a language that connects hundreds of millions of people — from the historic Catholic communities of Latin America and Spain to the ever-growing Catholic population of the United States, which now has a home of its own within the global EWTN family.

On this same day of Oct. 12, Brazil celebrates its patroness, Our Lady of Aparecida, a title proclaimed by Pius XI in 1930. Since the mission of EWTN News extends beyond a single language — and with ACI Digital delivering our news in Portuguese — we place our work under her protection as well, honoring her as a patroness of our efforts across the Americas, alongside our beloved Virgin of Guadalupe. Yet today, the focus is on Spanish, and to that we now return.

A platform built for us

A shared brand does not imply an identical experience for everyone. Our goal is not merely to translate the English-language EWTN News site into Spanish but to build a platform tailored to the Spanish-speaking audience — reflecting their customs, their culture, and the ways they stay informed today. That is why EWTN News Español combines the technology and editorial resources of EWTN News with the expertise and capabilities of a team that deeply understands the people it serves and the evolving nature of news consumption habits.

We used to expect users to come looking for us. Now, it’s the other way around: We go where the people are. The latest Reuters Institute report on journalism makes this clear: Today, most people get their news from social media and video rather than from media websites.

That is why EWTN News Español is designed for mobile, where you and I spend our day. We offer content that keeps you informed wherever you are (whether via a newsletter sent to your email or your WhatsApp) while also enriching your faith with devotional material, such as the daily Mass readings or the lives of the saints. The good news alongside the dayʼs headlines.

And if you prefer watching to reading, we now have “Watch” — a new tab on the EWTN News Español site where we gather all our video content, featuring the best reports, interviews, broadcasts, and viral social media clips.

Plus, if something major happens in the Church or the world, we cover it with you in real time through updates on our live blog.

And speaking of staying connected, your EWTN News Español account goes wherever you go. Not only can you save articles, comment on them, and follow your favorite writers and topics, but you can also personalize your experience across EWTN.com, EWTNNews.com, Roku, and EWTN+ using the same login.

As always, access is free, sustained by the generous donations of so many people who believe in and support our mission, a mission that began when Mother Angelica had the “crazy” idea to launch a Catholic television channel on Aug. 15, 1981 (talk about providential dates!).

Behind this platform lies an incredible team that is deeply dedicated to the mission and has decades of experience covering conclaves, World Youth Days, synods, jubilees, and International Eucharistic Congresses, as well as the daily lives of Catholic communities throughout the Spanish-speaking world. The new platform makes this work easier to discover, whether for those who live out their faith every day or for those who are just beginning to explore it.

What does not change

The name (from ACI Prensa to EWTN News Español), along with the design and the site’s tools and features, are changing.

What does not change is our commitment to the truth, to our audiences, and to journalistic excellence — a path ACI Prensa charted four decades ago, bringing hundreds of thousands of people closer to God through quality content and a faithful commitment to the Church’s magisterium. That will not change, with God’s help and the guidance of Mother Angelica.

St. Carlo Acutis used to say that the Eucharist was his “highway to heaven.” We simply aspire to build, by God’s grace, a few digital lanes leading to it. Our hope is that EWTN News — in all its languages — becomes the place where every Catholic turns for information and that we prove ourselves worthy, day by day, of the trust that aspiration represents. Welcome to EWTN News Español!

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

Dead Man Walking is being hosted by Jesus Youth Ontario and will take place Oct. 16–18 at the Mother of God Retreat Center in Orangeville, Ontario. The retreat will include talks from Catholic author and speaker Jason Evert, international missionary George Devassy, and local young adults sharing their personal testimonies.

Jim Isaac, a member of the retreat’s planning team, told EWTN News that the inspiration for the retreat came from conversations with parents where it was evident that there was “an overwhelming need.”

“They felt that while children were in high school there were so many guardrails about who they can interact with, who can reach out to them, and all these things to ensure that they have a proper and safe childhood,” he explained. “But, right when they leave high school, all those guardrails are sort of lifted and almost at the same time they also leave home.”

He added that young people also feel “thrown into adulthood” and that this transition “was something that they were struggling with.”

With this in mind, the Dead Man Walking youth retreat was created to give them a space where they can encounter Christ, help them understand the big questions they’re grappling with, and instill in them a strong foundation to maintain their faith during this transition in their lives.

The theme of the retreat comes from John 11, specifically the raising of Lazarus. Isaac explained that many times “we feel that we are going through the motions [and] we are almost like dead people.”

Each day focuses on a specific part of the raising of Lazarus. The theme for Day 1 is “Dead for Four Days,” focusing on the idea that there is always hope even when we’re at our lowest point. Day 2 is called “come out,” encouraging the participants to take part in the Church and in their faith and ends with the opportunity for attendees to go to confession and attend Mass. The last day is called “untie and unbind,” which will call the young people gathered to go out on mission and spread the Gospel message.

Isaac emphasized that their “primary objective is that they [the attendees] have an encounter with Christ at this crucial juncture of their lives.”

“We want these youngsters, who probably are, within their own realities, bombarded with a lot of contemporary and secular media, to understand the richness of the Church,” he added.

“We are hoping that something might resonate with them and that might help them build their interior life and thereby reach out to the people within the community. At the end of the day, it is about reaching out to people and giving them a call for mission. Thatʼs what we are hoping for by the end of it.”

In a letter signed on Sept. 22, Cardinal Carlos Aguiar Retes, primate archbishop of Mexico, appointed Chávez, the magisterial Guadalupan theologian of the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City, “representative of this particular church, especially in everything concerning the content of this marvelous Guadalupan event, in the preparation and in the celebrations of the fifth centenary of the apparitions of Holy Mary of Tepeyac.”

He said he made the decision in light of Chávez’s “preparation and experience in the subject of the Guadalupan event.”

In the letter, the cardinal recognized the Mexican priest’s work as postulator of the cause of St. Juan Diego, the visionary of Our Lady of Guadalupe, as well as his leadership of the Higher Institute of Guadalupan Studies, which for more than 25 years has borne “fruit in continuing research, in the formation of formators, and in spreading the message of love to so many peoples.”

“May God, Our Lady of Guadalupe, and St. Juan Diego continue to enlighten, inspire, and strengthen you in this mission,” Aguiar wrote.

Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared to St. Juan Diego between Dec. 9 and 12, 1531, asking him to intercede with the first bishop of Mexico, Friar Juan de Zumárraga, so that a “sacred little house” would be built at the foot of Tepeyac Hill to exalt God: “he who is my compassionate gaze, he who is my help, he who is my salvation.”

On Dec. 12, as proof for the bishop that the apparitions were true, the Virgin sent Juan Diego with roses that had miraculously bloomed on the barren Tepeyac, carried in his tilma, or cloak. When the Indigenous man opened his tilma before de Zumárraga, the image of Mary had been miraculously imprinted on the cloth.

Nearly 500 years later, St. Juan Diego’s tilma with the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe is still preserved in her shrine in Mexico City.

‘A great honor, but also a great responsibility’

In remarks to ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, on Oct. 7, Chávez, known as the leading expert on the apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe, said Aguiar’s appointment fills him “with tremendous enthusiasm.”

“It is a great honor, but also a great responsibility,” he said. “It will be a lot of work, but work done with so much affection that you hardly feel it. It is joyful work for Our Lady of Guadalupe.”

The celebration of the fifth centenary of the apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe, he said, is meant to promote “the exaltation of, devotion to, and above all adoration of Jesus, her beloved Son, because that is the center of her message.”

He said the celebration, now only five years away, “should unite us all: unite us in love and in enthusiasm to celebrate her who is our Mother and who offers us, gives us, and entrusts to us her Son Jesus Christ.”

“She is our Mother, she protects us, and she is the source of our joy,” he said.

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 requests were made during an audience on Sept. 11 as part of the ad limina visit the Salvadoran prelates made to Rome from Sept. 7–11.

The Episcopal Conference of El Salvador announced the request in a press release issued Oct. 4 that noted the meeting with the Holy Father “was marked by closeness, fraternity, and the paternal character of the Pontiff.”

In that setting, the bishops presented both petitions concerning St. Óscar Romero, who was assassinated on March 24, 1980, while celebrating Mass in the chapel of Divine Providence Hospital in San Salvador and who was canonized by Pope Francis on Oct. 14, 2018.

According to Archbishop José Luis Escobar Alas of San Salvador, president of the Episcopal Conference of El Salvador, the Holy Father received the proposals with “a very positive and welcoming attitude.” The prelate explained, however, that “both decisions require a process of consultation and discernment before a definitive response can be given.”

Pope Leo XIV’s devotion to St. Óscar Romero

During the meeting, Leo also told the Salvadoran bishops of his particular devotion to St. Óscar Romero.

Escobar said the pope used to carry “a holy card of Monsignor Romero together with a third-class relic and commended himself daily to his intercession.”

During the meeting, the bishops of El Salvador gave the pope a first-class relic of St. Óscar Romero.

What is a doctor of the Church?

The title “doctor of the Church” recognizes canonized men and women who possessed deep knowledge, were outstanding teachers, and contributed significantly to the theology of the Church.

Traditionally the title has been granted on three conditions: evident holiness of the candidate, confirmed by canonization as a saint; eminence in doctrine, shown by a body of teaching that made significant and lasting contributions to the life of the Church; and a formal declaration by the Church, usually by a pope.

There are currently 38 doctors of the Church.

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 announcement brings an end to several years of debate and speculation regarding whether the country would allow doctors to help kill individuals who are suffering from mental health issues but who are not terminally or seriously ill.

Fraser told media at the Canadian House of Commons on Oct. 7 that the country would not move forward with the proposed expansion.

“While there is not a perfect consensus on this issue, we believe this is the correct approach at this particular time,” he told media.

Euthanasia has become a leading cause of death in Canada since it was legalized roughly a decade ago. About 100,000 Canadians have died by the country’s medical assistance in dying (MAID) program since 2016.

The country’s euthanasia program is one of the most permissive in the world. In 2023 euthanasia accounted for roughly 1 out of every 20 deaths there.

The MAID program is nominally limited to those suffering from what the government describes as a “grievous and irremediable medical condition,” though the condition need not be fatal or terminal.

The government had previously debated expanding the program to those suffering from mental health issues, though postponed the question in 2024 after a parliamentary report said the nation was “not ready” for the expansion.

Fraser said on Wednesday that upcoming legislation would indefinitely extend the ban on mental health-related euthanasia.

A 2025 report from Cardus Health found that vulnerable demographics were obtaining suicide assistance at disproportionately high rates in Canada. Among those groups were individuals suffering from mental illness.

Assisted suicide has expanded at the regional level in the country. In 2024, for instance, the provincial government of Quebec said it would begin allowing assisted suicide in the form of “advance requests,” where individuals can be euthanized at a time when they are unable to give consent so long as they agreed to the procedure at some point in the past.

In 2024, meanwhile, a watchdog report found that hundreds of violations of the country’s euthanasia rules had gone unreported to law enforcement.

During the ceremony held at the archdiocesan curia, the “nihil obstat” (“no objection”) from the Vaticanʼs Dicastery for the Causes of Saints was read, along with the decree from Guadalajara Cardinal Archbishop Francisco Robles Ortega, ordering the opening of the process.

The decree noted that the archdiocese has the authority to conduct this cause, as Larrañaga passed away within its territory in 2013. In accordance with the 2007 Vatican instruction Sanctorum Mater, which governs diocesan procedures for canonization causes, it is generally the responsibility of the bishop of the diocese where the servant of God died to conduct this stage of the process.

‘A tireless seeker of God’

Representing Robles Ortega, Auxiliary Bishop Juan Manuel Muñoz Curiel of Guadalajara also took part in the event. During his remarks, he remembered Larrañaga as a “tireless seeker of God.”

He further described him as a “mystic of our time who, through his warm words and profound contemplative experience, taught millions of people how to pray and live in intimacy with the Father.”

“He knew how to translate sublime Franciscan mysticism into a simple, accessible method so that the ordinary person could encounter the Lord face-to-face,” Muñoz Curiel stated.

However, he clarified that the aim of initiating Larrañaga’s cause is not to “raise a man to the altars to be admired from afar” but rather to remember that the call to holiness is a “vocation for every baptized person, as he himself used to teach us.”

Muñoz Curiel stated that life was remarkable not because Larrañaga “was free of difficulties but because, amid his weaknesses and the exhaustion of his tireless apostolic work, he knew how to entrust himself with total confidence to the hands of the Father.”

Inspired by this testimony, the prelate invited those present to “break free from spiritual mediocrity and courageously embrace our own vocation to holiness” and asked God that, “if it be for his greater glory and the good of the Church, he might deign to glorify his servant Ignacio.”

What happens next in the process?

As the first procedural step, Monsignor Óscar Sánchez Barba, the diocesan postulator for the cause, formally presented an initial list of 50 witnesses from 10 countries, as well as 47 books and booklets written by Larrañaga, along with other documents and publications regarding his life and work.

Through an established tribunal, the list of witnesses will be interviewed and the texts examined in order to subsequently produce a document known as the “positio,” which will be sent to the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.

If, following the study at the Vatican, it is determined that Larrañaga lived the Christian virtues to a heroic degree and the pope authorizes the corresponding decree, the servant of God will be considered “venerable.”

To subsequently advance toward beatification, the recognition of a miracle attributed to his intercession will be required.

Who was Ignacio Larrañaga?

Larrañaga was born on May 4, 1928, in the province of Guipúzcoa in Spain’s Basque Country.

In 1940, at the age of 12, he entered the Capuchin Seraphic Minor Seminary in Alsasua and later continued his formation in Fuenterrabía. He subsequently entered the Capuchin novitiate in Sangüesa, where he made his first religious profession in 1948.

The following year, he took the religious name Friar Jesús María de Azpeitia and continued his theological studies in Pamplona, ​​where he was ordained a priest on Dec. 20, 1952.

It is said that “from the beginning of his priesthood, he felt a strong desire to dedicate himself to evangelization and, especially, to deepening his practice of contemplative prayer.”

This led him to travel to the Americas. He arrived in Chile in September 1959, where he “participated in popular missions, visited families, and preached in parishes.”

In 1955, he was appointed director of the Center for Franciscan and Pastoral Studies for Latin America (CEFEPAL). From there, he promoted Franciscan “Fellowship and Renewal Weeks,” initiatives that subsequently spread to various countries across Latin America and Europe.

From 1970 onward, Larrañaga was deeply engaged in work as a preacher and spiritual guide. He traveled to numerous countries in the Americas and Europe, conducting courses and gatherings focused on spirituality.

In 1974, he launched the “Encounters with the Experience of God” in Brazil, which were gatherings centered on silence, prayer, reflection, and listening to the word of God. These encounters began to spread widely.

In Santiago, Chile, in 1984, he developed Prayer and Life Workshops. These workshops were designed to teach the laity various methods of prayer and to help them deepen their Christian lives.

Over the years, the workshops spread across the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa. In 2022, they received approval from the Holy See as an International Private Association of the Faithful of Pontifical Right.

During his final years, Larrañaga continued to travel, offering retreats and formation gatherings.

In October 2013, he traveled to Guadalajara, Mexico, to participate in one of these gatherings. He passed away in the early hours of Oct. 28 at the age of 85 after 60 years of priesthood.

He authored books such as “Sensing Your Hidden Presence: Toward Intimacy with God,” “From Suffering to Peace,” “The Silence of Mary,” and “Brother Francis of Assisi,” among others, addressing themes such as prayer, suffering, trust in God, conversion, and the pursuit of inner peace.

Regarding Larrañaga, Muñoz Curiel stated: “His work continues to convey that invitation to discover God as Father and to live out one’s faith through a deep, trusting, personal relationship with him.”

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 image of the Virgin set out at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 3, from the San Cayetano Sanctuary in the Liniers sector of Buenos Aires, carried and escorted by a delegation from the Diocese of Lomas de Zamora.

Buenos Aires Archbishop Jorge García Cuerva, accompanied by La Plata Archbishop Gustavo Carrara, also set out from Liniers.

Reflecting on the pilgrimageʼs motto — “Mother, in your embrace we recognize each other as brothers and sisters” — García Cuerva observed: “To be brothers and sisters, the first step is discovering that Mary is the mother of all, and that she unites us. I believe we need to lower the intolerance and contempt we have on occasion for others; we must stop emphasizing what divides us and instead focus on what unites us.”

In the rain, wearing store-bought or makeshift raincoats, the crowd began the journey of more than 37 miles separating Liniers from the Basilica and National Shrine of Our Lady of Luján, where anticipation is already building for the visit of Pope Leo XIV, who is scheduled to arrive in Argentina on Nov. 8.

Along the way, there was no shortage of prayers and songs, nor of the ever-present support stations where volunteers from parishes, movements, and organizations offered refreshments, assistance to pilgrims, and “free hugs.”

By early afternoon on Saturday, the rain had passed, and the sun even came out. The first pilgrims began to arrive in Luján, which gradually filled with the faithful coming to the feet of the Mother — some walking with great difficulty, others supported by their companions, and most visibly moved.

Upon arrival in Luján at nightfall, the journey became difficult due to the sheer number of people — far greater than in previous years, according to regular pilgrims. Some reported taking over an hour just to cover the final few blocks to the basilica.

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Once in Luján, the prayers, expressions of gratitude, hugs, and tears bore witness to the faith of a people who — regardless of age, social class, or political views — had come to receive the embrace of the Virgin of Luján.

Marcos, from Our Lady of Fatima Parish, said he particularly valued the act of making the pilgrimage “not because it is mandatory, but because it allows for a deeper connection with the Virgin, with God, with oneself, and even with oneʼs own family.”

Mariana, a “free hugs” volunteer, described her role as providing that “little push” needed for the final 10.5 miles to Luján “to meet the Virgin.”

“That embrace is not just for the person I give it to, but also for the one I receive; because I, too, receive so much affection and love — it is a caress for the soul.”

Going on pilgrimage, she affirmed, “means following in Jesus' footsteps, going to meet Mother, just as Jesus walked with Mother. I imagine Mary teaching Jesus to walk, waiting for him in a little spot, ready to steady him so he wouldnʼt fall. That is how Mary is with us: waiting for us, steadying us so we can reach our destination,” she reflected.

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García Cuerva celebrated the pilgrimageʼs main Mass early Sunday morning in Plaza Belgrano, facing the basilica.

In his homily, García Cuerva noted that “there are no ideological rifts or exclusions on the pilgrimage.”

“The journey leveled the playing field for us all; as we walked, we all wore out our shoes, we all grew tired, and we all longed to reach Mary’s home. What a profound lesson we learned! When we realize we are fellow travelers belonging to the same people, there is no room for individualism or hate speech,” he declared.

Reflecting on the state of the nation, he also observed that “our country has many embraces yet to be shared: embraces of forgiveness in the face of so much disparagement and insult; embraces of solidarity amid such indifference; embraces of reconnection amid such lostness; deep embraces — not merely formal gestures — but embraces from the soul.”

Along these lines, he also spoke of “wounds of disparagement, intolerance, and physical and verbal violence" — wounds that "are already festering, and it seems the heart of the Argentine people is becoming infected."

He therefore urged: “It is time for us to unite. If the Virgin of Luján embraces us all, it is impossible to look upon each other with contempt, for the other is my brother.”

Addressing the faithful, he invited them to be “artisans of fraternity” and to bring Mary’s embrace “to those at their breaking point, to the elderly, to those who think differently, to people with disabilities and their families, to the unemployed, to those sleeping on the streets, to adolescents and young people struggling with drug addiction, and to the poorest among us.”

Finally, looking ahead to the upcoming visit of Pope Leo XIV, he encouraged everyone to make this pilgrimage a "school of fraternity for our country, one where "Mary teaches us to respect and forgive one another and to engage in dialogue with everyone; where we stop disparaging our brothers and sisters, stop being indifferent to those who suffer, and stop giving way to hatred among ourselves; because here in Luján, we have experienced that, within her maternal embrace, we recognize one another as brothers and sisters."

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 archdiocese, headed by Cardinal Ángel Sixto Rossi, made the announcement in an Oct. 2 statement. The judicial process was “ordered by the Holy See’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and conducted by the Interdiocesan Tribunal of Buenos Aires,” the statement indicated.

According to the biography published by the Vatican Press Office, Seirutti, 70, was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Córdoba in 1988 and was appointed auxiliary bishop of Córdoba by Pope Francis in 2015.

According to the Argentine archdiocese, the accusation filed by the two adults “led the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith to order the process that concluded in recent weeks.” The nature of the complaint was not disclosed.

The ruling that concluded the process prohibits Seirutti “from receiving formal appointments or new offices and from administering the sacrament of penance or reconciliation for a period of five years.”

The prelate “retains the faculty to celebrate Mass and administer other sacraments, except for the one stipulated,” the statement adds.

The Archdiocese of Córdoba concluded by offering its support to the affected persons” and renewed its commitment “to continue working so that all the actions of our particular Church are in accord with the Gospel.”

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.

Under the decision reached in the virtual plenary session, content clearly linking Bolsonaro to the initiative must be removed. However, posts where there is reasonable doubt regarding the link to the candidate are to be preserved. This applies to a post by comedian Antonio Tabet, which was permitted to remain online by the reporting justice, André Mendonça.

The case began on Sept. 24 when Tabet posted an image of the dark-skinned Our Lady of Aparecida on X with the caption: “The militia family hates black women so much that they decided to attack Our Lady of Aparecida.” The post did not mention Bolsonaro by name. The senator is the son of Jair Bolsonaro, who was president of Brazil from 2019-2023.

The following day, Mendonça, the vice president of the Superior Electoral Court and the rapporteur for the case, ordered the removal of content that claimed Bolsonaro or his family intended to strip Our Lady of Aparecida of her title as the patroness of Brazil.

Upon reconsidering his vote, the judge concluded there was doubt regarding the link between Tabet’s post and Bolsonaro and decided to allow the post to stay online.

“As it is reasonable to take the content to be ambiguous, I believe the solution most consistent with the criteria of minimal intervention [by the courts] and heightened protection of freedom of expression is to keep the post online,” Mendonça said.

According to the judge, the decisions ordering the removal of the content specifically naming Flávio Bolsonaro “do not amount to prior restraint” nor did they violate religious freedom.

“Confusing a ‘fake news’ report with a restriction on faith represents a distortion of the decision’s actual substance. Faith was not on trial,” Mendonça said. He further noted that “the insinuation that the decisions issued in these proceedings sought to prevent Catholics from expressing support for or devotion to Our Lady of Aparecida is particularly baffling” and emphasized: “Nothing, absolutely nothing, in the decisions warrants such a conclusion.”

He also stated that this change does not alter the other points of his decision and emphasized that he considers “objectively false” the claims that Bolsonaro “had authored, presented, proposed, supported, or concretely orchestrated an initiative aimed at removing Our Lady of Aparecida from her status as the patroness of Brazil.”

The president of the Supreme Electoral Court, Justice Nunes Marques, concurred with Mendonça and stated that the decision “protects religious freedom in its collective and democratic dimension.”

“In my view, the relief granted protects religious freedom in its collective and democratic dimension, as it prevents the faith of millions of Brazilians from being instrumentalized within days of the election [Oct. 4] through a claim without a factual basis designed to artificially stir up emotional reactions among the electorate,” Marques said.

He also highlighted that “the contested post did not need to name the candidate to attribute the claim to him; because it was disseminated at the height of the false narrativeʼs circulation — accompanied by the image of the patroness. Its message was only fully realized and achieved its intended effect due to the context of current news stories in which it was embedded.” Nevertheless, Marques’ difference of opinion regarding Tabet does not alter the effect of the ruling.

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

The association’s first event on Oct. 1 will feature a lecture titled “Business Organization in the Church’s Social Thought.” It will be delivered by Calvo, author of “John Paul II, Friend of Man: Capitalism in the Thought of a Saint.”

Speaking to ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, Calvo noted that “the Church’s social doctrine offers clear criteria for the Christian businessman to exercise his vocation with consistency, honesty, and a sense of responsibility toward their workers and the common good.”

In the business vocation, he noted, “God invites the businessman to assist in his creation, to improve it, and to make it more habitable for humanity.”

“Being a businessman transcends profit, though profit is necessary, because the businessman, through his expertise and effort, creates jobs, goods, and services that benefit those who acquire them, and contributes to building societies that are more worthy of the human person,” he said.

In this regard, he said his lecture aims to “help businessmen discover that their work, when well done, is also a path of service and holiness.”

“A business is not merely an instrument for generating profit but a community of people called to serve society,” Calvo 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.

On Sept. 23, the date of their liturgical memorial, the Diocese of Tlaxcala inaugurated the Jubilee of Holiness and Mission with a Mass. The jubilee will conclude on Sept. 23, 2027.

Cristóbal died a martyr in 1527, at around the age of 12, after his own father punished him for destroying idols. Antonio and Juan gave their lives two years later in 1529 while participating in an evangelization mission.

They were beatified on May 6, 1990, at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City and canonized by Pope Francis on Oct. 15, 2017, in St. Peterʼs Square at the Vatican.

‘They didn’t wait until they were adults’ to evangelize

In his homily for the Mass on Sept. 23, Bishop Julio César Salcedo Aquino of Tlaxcala highlighted that the celebration seeks to highlight the testimony of the three young martyrs as an example of holiness and renew “missionary zeal.”

The prelate pointed out that Cristóbal, Antonio, and Juan, even as children, “embodied to the letter the words of Christ.”

“God’s protection does not mean an absence of physical hardships or persecution” but rather the grace to “persevere in the faith,” he noted.

In this regard, Salcedo recalled that Cristóbal “did not fear threats from his own family,” while Antonio and Juan “maintained the joy of the mission despite knowing the danger they were in.”

“The protomartyrs of the Americas did not wait until they were adults or had some official title to become evangelizers,” he stated. Educated by Franciscan friars, he added, “they became the first catechists of their people [and thus] shared their experience of faith.”

The bishop pointed out that this commitment to evangelization ultimately led them to lay down their lives. “They were beaten with clubs and burned for bearing witness to the truth of the Gospel.” That they willingly shed their blood for Christ “was a very moving example to the Indigenous communities and opened the way for the faith on the continent,” he added.

Salcedo pointed out that “children, adolescents, and young people exposed to so many secularist ideologies need models of piety and of apostolic and missionary generosity rooted in Gospel values.”

The Apostolic Penitentiary granted a plenary indulgence for the jubilee year at the Shrine of the Child Martyrs in the town of Atlihuetzia.

To obtain it, the faithful must fulfill the usual conditions: confession, Communion, prayer for the pope’s intentions, and detachment from all sin, even venial sin.

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.

Tabares is a member of the Binational Pro-Family Pro-Life League, the organization behind the conference “¡Viva Cristo Rey! 100 Years of Faith and Freedom,” taking place on Saturday, Oct. 3, in both El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez in the Mexican state of Chihuahua.

While the enforcement of draconian anticlerical laws in Mexico a century ago drew both nonviolent resistance and the armed Cristero uprising, defending the Catholic faith today in both the U.S. and Mexico often involves pro-life and pro-family advocacy.

In explaining why they decided to hold the event on both sides of the border, Tabares highlighted that “we are a cross-border faith community that witnessed the effects of this historic event.”

“By reflecting on it together, we can not only relive the testimony of those who came before us but also rekindle our commitment as Christians,” she stated.

In the morning, from 9 a.m. to noon, the event will take place at the Starlight Event Center in El Paso, featuring speakers Father Rafael Becerra, a priest of the Archdiocese of San Antonio who has extensively studied the history of the Cristero War; Rodrigo Iván Cortés, president of Mexico’s National Front for the Family; and Ivonne Kuri, a member of the Mexican Center for Sindonology (study of the Shroud of Turin).

Starting at 4 p.m., the conference will continue in Ciudad Juárez at Sagrada Familia (Holy Family) Parish. There, the panel will consist of Cortés, Kuri, and historian José Mario Sánchez.

The ‘Cristero legacy’ on the other side of the border

Tabares highlighted that “Hispanic Catholics in the United States have received as a legacy from the Cristeros a commitment to fidelity, witness, and mission.”

It involves, she said, “fidelity to the faith that was defended; the witness of a life consistent with the example of Christ; and the mission to bring the Gospel to all nations, beginning with this land that has welcomed so many Hispanic Christians.”

A safe haven

Tabares recalled that during the Cristero War (1926–1929), “the northern border between Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, and El Paso, Texas, served as a safe haven for Mexican Catholics” who, in face of the anticlerical restrictions imposed by the government of President Plutarco Elías Calles, crossed the border into El Paso “to receive the sacraments.”

“A notable case is that of St. Pedro de Jesús Maldonado, a Cristero-era martyr and native of Chihuahua, who was ordained a priest at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in El Paso due to the anticlerical persecution in Mexico,” she said.

“Likewise, during this period, certain religious communities from Mexico established themselves in El Paso after being expelled, such as the Perpetual Adorers of the Blessed Sacrament. The sisters settled in the city and founded the Monastery of Christ the King.”

These, she emphasized, are merely “a few examples of the border’s role during the Cristero War,” topics that will be explored in greater depth during the Oct. 3 conference.

‘Those who do not know history are condemned to repeat it’

Tabares explained that the organizers hope conference participants “return home with the earnest desire to educate themselves and delve deeper into the history and the example of courage and zeal for the faith and religious freedom of the Cristeros, because those who do not know history are condemned to repeat it.”

“With this event, we seek to help attendees not only learn about the events of this chapter in Church history but also gain a greater understanding and appreciation of the importance of religious freedom,” she said.

In drawing “a parallel between the sociopolitical context” of the Cristero War years and present-day threats to religious freedom, she noted, “we wish to urge participants to be prepared to defend it not through an armed uprising, as the Cristiada was, but rather through formation and active civic participation grounded in the Church’s social doctrine.”

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 report by the Transparency Commission (TC), a pilot project and the first from an interdisciplinary group of independent experts on addressing and preventing abuse within ecclesial settings, was presented on Sept. 22 at the Santa María La Antigua University auditorium in Panama City.

Speaking during the presentation, Ulloa emphasized: “It has already been said here, and we know it: Our Panamanian culture often prefers to remain silent, but in the face of abuse, we cannot remain silent.”

“We want to listen; we want to take every complaint seriously, with respect, and confidentiality, protecting the individuals involved and acting in accordance with established procedures,” he added.

The prelate explained that the archdiocese he leads “remains committed to reporting relevant allegations to the competent civil authorities in accordance with current legislation” and acknowledged the need to ask what can be done better to move forward in the prevention of abuse.

“A culture of protection is not built solely through written rules; it is built when every priest, religious, pastoral worker, collaborator, and member of our communities understands that protecting minors and vulnerable persons is an ongoing, shared responsibility,” the archbishop emphasized.

Asking forgiveness of the victims

The prelate also addressed “in a special way victims and survivors. We are deeply pained by the suffering you have endured.”

“It pains us to know that those who should have found a place of welcome, care, and trust within the Church experienced situations that caused them such deep wounds,” he continued.

Ulloa emphasized that “wherever members of our Church caused harm, and wherever our institutional response fell short of what the victims needed and had a right to expect, we ask for forgiveness in the name of the Church.”

The archbishop also noted that “over this 25-year period, and I wish to highlight this especially for the media, more than 18 priests have been removed from priestly ministry due to situations involving the Sixth Commandment, offenses against property, or other issues they have experienced.”

The Transparency Commission

According to its website, the Transparency Commission (TC) was established to conduct comprehensive investigations “in a holistic, professional, independent, and rigorous manner regarding cases of abuse of minors and vulnerable persons within the Church.” It is funded by the University of Notre Dame Law School in Indiana and Villanueva University in Madrid.

“This group of experts focuses its work on places where crises related to ecclesial abuse have not yet occurred or have not come to light,” notes the TC website.

The report indicates that in cases of sexual abuse, the AIR “must place victims at the center of the analysis, since the way the institution protects their rights, addresses their needs, and fosters their reparation constitutes the primary criterion for evaluating the quality of the response provided.”

The Transparency Commission is composed of 17 individuals coordinated by Father Jordi Pujol, a lawyer who holds a doctorate in moral theology and is also a professor of law and communication ethics at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome.

Its members include Father Thomas Berg, a professor and researcher at the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame; Yago de la Cierva, a professor of preventive and crisis communication at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross; and Irma Patricia Espinosa, a psychiatrist, member of the National Council for the Protection of Minors of the Mexican Bishops’ Conference, academic director and founding partner of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Training for the Protection of Minors (CEPROME) Latin America, and a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors since 2022.

Also serving on the Transparency Commission are María Inés Franck, professor of canon law at the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina and a member of the Pastoral Council for the Protection of Minors of the Argentine Bishops’ Conference; Monsignor John Paul Kimes, professor of canon law at the University of Notre Dame Law School; and Father Daniel Portillo, dean of the psychology department at Lumen Gentium Catholic University in Mexico. He is the director and a founding member of CEPROME Latin America.

The Panama Report

The request for the report goes back to October 2025, when the archbishop of Panama requested an assessment of institutional response from the TC “on his own initiative, without a court order or a request from the Holy See.”

The commission stated that it accepted the assignment subject to three conditions: full access to information, total independence in the investigation, and a commitment to publish the findings. The archdiocese did not intervene in the compilation of the report and only saw it days before its presentation.

The TC states that it operated with financial independence: Its members received no remuneration from the archdiocese, and costs were covered by Notre Dame Law School and the Villanueva University Foundation. The archdiocese only covered transportation and accommodation and provided workspace.

The commission reported that, during the period under review, the archdiocese received 37 complaints of which it analyzed 24, while the remaining 13 were excluded from the analysis “because they referred to events that occurred outside the archdioceseʼs territory or the time frame examined, or because they did not involve abuse against minors or vulnerable persons.”

The report reveals that case management improved thanks to two initiatives by the archdiocese: the approval of guidelines in 2015 and the creation in 2024 of the Pastoral Care and Prevention Office and the Listening Office.

The report, currently available only in Spanish, identifies five areas requiring improvement: listening to and accompanying victims; recordkeeping; prevention; justice for victims; and reparation.

“Making reparation requires acknowledging the harm, accepting personal and institutional responsibility, and addressing the physical, psychological, moral, spiritual, and social needs of each victim,” the commission emphasizes.

The pilot project

In a FAQ section about the report, the TC explains that this work is a pilot project because “it is the first time that a comprehensive methodology has been applied that can be replicated in other dioceses or ecclesial organizations.”

“This first project has allowed us to test a methodology and a work system, based on professional listening, research in archives, conducting interviews with various audiences of interest, and media analysis and the sociocultural context of the country,” it adds.

The Transparency Commission further specifies that the working methodology aims to “place victims at the center, protecting their rights, and guarantee due process for the accused,” applying a clear standard of prudence to avoid “revictimizing a victim or blaming an innocent person.”

The Transparency Commission also noted that “the Vatican has been kept informed of the workʼs progress at all times; both the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors and the Pontifical Commission for Latin America are aware of the TC’s work. Furthermore, some members of the commission work or have worked with both the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors and the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.”

The TC concludes by noting that anyone who has suffered abuse within the Church may, at any time, turn to the Archdiocese of Panama’s Listening Office and file a report with the public prosecutorʼs office.

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.

During a Sept. 16 meeting at the Planalto Palace (president’s office) in the capital, Brasília, with Americans and Brazilians from the Evangelical Front for the Rule of Law, Da Silva said he had “the opportunity to speak to Pope Francis” about these topics.

“As long as the Catholic Church doesn’t end celibacy and allow women to be priests, to be bishops — allow women to speak, you know? — we’re going to see the Catholic Church face difficulties,” he said. In Da Silva’s view, the fact that a woman can “be whatever she wants” is what “has caused the evangelical church to grow so much in Brazil.”

Catholics currently make up about 57% of the population, down from about 90% in 1970.

On Sept. 19, Araújo da Fonseca posted a video on his social media channels featuring a homily he had delivered the previous night in Santa Bárbara dʼOeste (São Paulo state), in which he responded to the president.

“We are seeing politicians trying to tell the Church what it should do. They even try to speak about priestly celibacy, when they ought to be looking after the country. And they are doing a very poor job of it,” he said.

The bishop of Piracicaba emphasized the need to “be attentive” at the time of the election, the first round of which will take place on Oct. 4, with a runoff, if necessary, scheduled for Oct. 25.

“Let us not have a short memory, for the future depends on the choices we make in the present. And if we, as Christians, turn a blind eye to this, we will pay the price,” he said.

Araújo da Fonseca addressed those who “were thinking of staying home on Election Day and not voting because it isn’t worth it.” He urged them to vote as “an act of sacrifice and penance.”

“But make your choice. Remember that we all bear the consequences. Do not choose those who wish to destroy our freedom. Do not make choices for which we will later have to pay the price,” he added.

The bishop of Formosa (Goiás state), Adair José Guimarães, also commented on Da Silva’s statements. He said he was not surprised by them, “because usually leaders, when they are ignorant, want to meddle in everything. They think they have a monopoly on the truth about everything.”

Guimarães stated that “the Catholic Church is not something just anyone can understand,” as “it is an institution of divine right, over 2,000 years old, with its incredibly rich tradition, its magisterium, and sacred Scripture.”

In the view of the bishop of Formosa, “the nation’s leader needs to take good care of the nation” rather than “meddle in Church affairs.”

He recalled an incident in 2005 when Lula, “in his first term,” said: “I am a Catholic, Apostolic and Roman.” At the time, the then-archbishop of Rio de Janeiro, Cardinal Eusébio Oscar Scheid, was asked about the Workers' Party leaderʼs statement and remarked: “Look, he says he is a Roman Apostolic Catholic, but my take is this: He is chaotic, apostate, and romantic.”

“So, I share that same view held by our late cardinal regarding the matter. I need say no more than that,” Guimarães said.

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

De la Cruz, 48, the parish priest of Santa Cruz in Huejutla, Hidalgo, was found dead on a road in the Lolotla district on Sept. 15.

On Sept. 17, Francisco Ángel Fernández Hasbun, chief of staff for the Hidalgo state attorney generalʼs office, stated in a video that the agency is “conducting the appropriate investigations.”

According to local media, the priestʼs body was found with gunshot wounds near a pickup truck, accompanied by a placard bearing a message whose content has not been disclosed by the authorities.

The Mexican Bishops’ Conference (CEM) has demanded a “thorough investigation” of the case, while Bishop José Hiraís Acosta Beltrán of the Diocese of Huejutla lamented “the alarming situation of violence being experienced in our country.”

Around 600 people marched for peace in Huejutla on Sunday, Sept. 20, and attended a Mass for De la Cruz. During the homily, Acosta called for “a culture of peace and reconciliation,” asking for the crime to be solved and urging that "neither this event nor the other crimes that have wounded our Mexican nation be allowed to go unpunished.”

On the afternoon of Sept. 21, Acosta and Fernández met and delivered a brief joint statement.

Fernández said important information regarding the case was provided during the meeting and said the two believe the case will resolve quickly, noting the Church’s collaboration with the authorities during the inquiries.

‘The telltale signs of organized crime’

According to the Catholic Multimedia Center, a group that documents violence against Church members in Mexico, four priests have been murdered so far during President Claudia Sheinbaum’s term in office. The total number of priests murdered since 1990 exceeds 60.

The center’s director, priest and journalist Father Omar Sotelo, told ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, that the murder “bears the telltale signs of organized crime.”

Sotelo noted that “extortion and threats against priests in the country are an ongoing reality.”

He noted that, among those recorded and analyzed by the group, “more than 80% of cases remain unsolved,” including the 1993 murder of Cardinal Juan Jesús Posadas Ocampo, archbishop of Guadalajara, a case that stands as “a monument to impunity.”

In a 2016 Facebook video, Cardinal Juan Sandoval Íñiguez, then-archbishop emeritus of Guadalajara and Posadas’ successor, declared the murder “a crime by the state, perpetrated by the Federal Judicial Police.” He even named Rodolfo León Aragón, then-director of the police, as the one behind the murder, who Sandoval said probably got his orders from then-Attorney General Jorge Carpizo, whose death in 2012 ended the investigation.

‘This could happen to us, too’

Julieta Appendini, director of the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) in Mexico, told ACI Prensa “it is important not to view these murders merely as isolated criminal acts.”

The impact of a crime against a priest “goes far beyond the loss of an individual,” she said, noting that “the priest often has a very close presence in the life of the community: He knows the families, ministers to the sick, listens to people’s problems, celebrates the sacraments, and can also serve as a figure of trust and mediation.”

“When he is murdered, the community loses someone who fulfilled many of those roles, and an even greater sense of fear and helplessness can take hold.”

She warned that the murder could serve as a warning to other priests: ‘This could happen to us, too.’”

‘The goal is to sow fear’

“The goal is to sow fear,” Sotelo said. The community of Huejutla “is afraid; they have already told us so.”

Despite this, he affirmed that, “the clergy of Huejutla will continue working and carrying out their pastoral mission just as they are doing now.”

According to Sotelo, this type of murder demonstrates “the ruthless power” of organized crime in the country, “where, regrettably, the authorities have been ineffective in managing the situation and ensuring the safety of the Mexican people.”

Appendini pointed out that “a priest working in a community affected by violence does not merely celebrate the sacraments. Often, he is one of the individuals who remains when others have had to leave; he ministers to the families, listens to the victims, defends the vulnerable, and can become a voice denouncing these acts of violence.”

“That can place him in a vulnerable position vis-à-vis those seeking to control territory or impose silence,” she said.

Appendini noted that ACN’s 2025 Religious Freedom Report “points to threats, extortion, murders, assaults, and pressure to remain silent directed at priests and other religious leaders in Mexico.”

However, she clarified that “not every attack on a priest is necessarily motivated by an intent to attack religion. In Mexico, violence can be linked to territorial control, drug trafficking, extortion, or land disputes.”

Religious freedom “comes into play when a person is put at risk precisely for carrying out their mission and ministering to their community,” she said.

‘We must not normalize these situations’

“Fear also has consequences for religious freedom,” Appendini warned, noting that “a person may legally have the right to practice their faith, but if doing so publicly, serving their community, or speaking out against violence puts him in danger, then that right is not being fully exercised.”

“That is why, at ACN, we believe we must not normalize these situations or reduce them merely to statistics. When a priest who serves his community is threatened or murdered, we must also ask ourselves what is happening to that community and to the freedom of the people living there,” she noted.

Sotelo acknowledged that, in both his priestly ministry and his work as a journalist, “we sometimes feel fear; we know that at any moment we could even lose our lives for speaking about these kinds of circumstances.”

However, he affirmed that “God is with us, the Master Jesus is with us, and in the face of that, we have no choice but to continue carrying out our pastoral work as a priest, a journalist, as a reporter.”

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 pope’s visit will be a renewal of faith; many people may sometimes have a faith that is a bit dormant, or they are very practicing Catholics who will come and listen attentively to the message the pope will bring to us,” the bishop stated in an interview with “EWTN Noticias,” the Spanish-language broadcast edition of EWTN News, following his Sept. 18 meeting with the pontiff at the Vatican.

“I believe it will bring about a renewal, a kind of spiritual springtime, for all of Uruguay,” Tróccoli emphasized.

Uruguay’s bishops were in Rome last week for their ad limina visit to the Vatican, a trip that included various meetings at the dicasteries of the Roman Curia.

The pope received them for an hour and shared one of his primary concerns: how to transmit the Gospel.

“Today, we see a sort of breakdown in the transmission of the Gospel, especially within the family. We can no longer take for granted that families are the ones encouraging their children or teenagers to attend church or receive the sacraments; indeed, the number of child baptisms in Uruguay has dropped significantly,” the Uruguayan prelate noted.

However, he noted that much like in other secularized countries such as France, Uruguay is also experiencing an unprecedented phenomenon: a rise in young adults seeking Christian initiation.

“Baptisms for adults are on the rise, specifically young adults requesting the sacrament of baptism and the full process of Christian initiation: baptism, confirmation, and the Eucharist. For us, this is very encouraging,” he commented.

An increasingly secularized country

Uruguay is often described as one of the most secularized countries in Latin America. For instance, it is the only country in the region where Holy Week is not recognized by the government; instead, it was renamed “Tourism Week” by law in 1919.

According to data from the Uruguayan Bishops’ Conference, in a country of barely 3 million inhabitants, approximately 35% of the population identifies as Catholic. Within that group, according to Tróccoli, “we can say that approximately 10% attend Mass every Sunday or frequently receive the sacraments.”

There are also “many who call themselves believers without a religion, that is, without institutional affiliation, who believe in God but do not belong to any specific religion; this is a group that has been growing in recent years.”

He also noted that approximately “40% of the population currently falls into this category, while others declare themselves agnostic or nonbelievers.”

In this context, evangelization constitutes, according to the bishop, “a very great challenge.” The local Church considers Uruguay “a mission country where we must proclaim the Gospel extensively.”

“We must place strong emphasis on the initial proclamation of the Gospel, while the Church also works extensively through various social and human development initiatives, naturally bringing the Gospel and acting out of faith in Jesus Christ, and working for the common good, though these efforts often go unnoticed,” Tróccoli explained.

Drug trafficking, childhood poverty, and suicides

During his meeting with the Uruguayan bishops, Leo XIV showed interest in learning firsthand about the countryʼs social situation.

Tróccoli lamented the extent of “social fragmentation” and the fact that Uruguay is “a society tending toward polarization, just as our world is polarized.”

He also noted the issue of “rising violence stemming from drug trafficking, something we were not accustomed to experiencing. Well, perhaps the rate is very low compared to other countries, but for our society, it is something new and something that deeply affects families."

The bishop also highlighted concerns regarding children living in poverty and the rise in youth suicides, issues he linked to “a lack of a more transcendent perspective.”

“The number of suicides, especially among young people, represents a high percentage, the highest in Latin America. This deeply questions and challenges us as a Church,” he stated.

For the Uruguayan Church, this reality presents the challenge of proclaiming a message of hope. “We must do a better job of proclaiming the Gospel so that it can offer hope, give meaning to life, and provide reasons, truth, for living, growing, and developing as a person.”

A visit marked by devotion to the Virgin of the 33

The visit of the Uruguayan bishops to the Vatican took place less than two months before the apostolic journey with which Pope Leo XIV will begin his Latin American tour.

The pontiff will arrive in Latin America on Nov. 6, lead an event in Montevideo, and meet with President Yamandú Orsi. The following day, he will travel to Paysandú and subsequently return to Montevideo to visit various charitable works of the Church and celebrate a Mass at Centenario Stadium.

On Sunday, Nov. 8, before departing for Argentina, he will celebrate the Mass of the Virgin of the 33, Uruguay’s national patroness, in the city of Florida.

The National Shrine of the Virgin of the 33 is located there, situated about 60 miles from Montevideo. Indeed, the coincidence of dates with the countryʼs principal Marian celebration was one of the factors influencing Leo XIVʼs decision to begin his tour of Latin America there.

The feast of the Virgin of the 33 is celebrated every Nov. 8, although the national pilgrimage traditionally takes place on the second Sunday of the month. In 2026, the two dates coincide, and the pope did not want to miss the occasion.

“For us, it is truly a tremendous gift that the pope could come at this time, especially since it coincides with the feast of the Virgin of the 33, who is the patroness of Uruguay, and the national pilgrimage. The feast day of the Virgin falls on Nov. 8, which is a Sunday this year, and the pope himself will celebrate the Eucharist,” Tróccoli explained.

Memories of St. John Paul II

The Uruguayan bishops presented the pope with two books featuring images of various churches from across the country. They also gave him a collection of letters and drawings prepared by both the faithful and nonbelievers.

Leo XIV has never visited Uruguay. However, some Uruguayans knew him when he was still Father Robert Prevost. During his time as superior general of the Order of St. Augustine, he traveled to Argentina on several occasions, where he met Uruguayan Augustinians.

However, memories of St. John Paul II’s visits remain very much alive among Uruguayan Catholics. The Polish pontiff visited the country twice — in 1987 and 1988 — at a particularly significant time of democratic consolidation following the military dictatorship.

Tróccoli said he believes the visit of Leo XIV could have a similar impact. “It created a sense of unity not only within the country but also a resurgence of faith and personal devotion. We saw an immediate increase, for instance, in the number of people attending Mass or drawing closer to the faith,” the prelate noted.

In this regard, he said he believes Pope Leo XIV’s visit will awaken “the most genuine aspects of the search for faith and of religious sentiment, and from there, more people will want to draw closer.”

The president of the bishops' conference also stated that the trip will mark a turning point for Uruguayan society: “It will be a visit filled with hope. The pope isn’t going to come just for some people; he comes for everyone, and everyone is also invited to feel part of this celebration of encountering him.”

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.

“We have a well-structured routine. We value sound pedagogical planning. Each child has a plan tailored to their age, and we prioritize personalized education for each of them,” the family explained to “EWTN Noticias,” the Spanish-language nightly newscast of EWTN News.

For the Vieiras, home schooling is not merely an academic alternative but a mission directly linked to Christ’s call to become holy.

“That is the goal of Catholic education: heaven, the pursuit of virtue, the pursuit of holiness, and the acquisition of wisdom to truly contemplate the truth,” they stated.

Personalized family-based education

The children’s daily schedule is organized according to their needs. In the mornings, they study the subjects in their educational plan, while in the afternoons, they engage in musical, athletic, and cultural activities, as well as practice chess.

However, this form of home schooling ended up in court.

In late July, a trial court judge ordered that four of Diego and Patricia’s children be enrolled in and attend a traditional school. Additionally, the couple was ordered to pay a fine of nearly $13,000.

The parents said they believe the decision is linked to their public role in advocating for home schooling.

“Because we are public figures and are actively pushing for regulation, we firmly believe this is a case of persecution against leaders of the movement, as the persecution has escalated with each passing year,” they stated.

They also noted that their Catholic identity has influenced how their stance is perceived.

“Because, whether we want to or not, we always uphold the banner of canon law, parental authority, and the family’s authority in the education of children. And when we demonstrate this, we encounter a great deal of prejudice in various situations,” they explained.

‘Home schooling is unstoppable’

Diego Vieira is the president of the Santa Catarina Association of Homeschooling Families and serves on the board of the National Association for Homeschooling. For years, he has supported other families facing legal challenges for educating their children at home.

Together with Patricia, he also spearheads the “Educating for Heaven” project, which offers guidance and materials to families interested in home schooling.

The couple has been promoting this educational approach for over a decade. Their eldest son, Igor, 19, was home-schooled and is currently studying literature and history at a university; he also teaches classes and is a national chess master.

The young man noted that being home-schooled allowed him to develop his abilities at his own pace.

“I was taught to read and write at home, and from a very young age, my parents encouraged me to study. Being able to study at home gave me the freedom to develop at my own pace and have a flexible routine; I could devote more or less effort to tasks I found difficult and truly focus on studying what I enjoyed most,” he stated.

A family active in their community

Despite criticisms leveled at home schooling, members of the Blumenau community highlighted the Vieira family’s social engagement.

City councilman Flavio José Linhares stated that the family maintains an active presence in the city, particularly through sports and culture.

“In chess, the family has already won over 300 medals representing the municipality in the game. So, they lead an active life in the community,” he noted.

The official also expressed his opposition to the court ruling against the family.

“When we saw the decision ordering the family to pay a fine equivalent to 40 minimum wages, we were outraged. We appreciate the quality, care, and love they show for their childrenʼs education,” he stated.

The debate on home schooling in Brazil

There are no official statistics in Brazil regarding the number of families who home-school. The National Association for Homeschooling estimates there are more than 75,000 families and 150,000 students, although these figures come from the organization itself rather than government records.

Currently, home schooling is not regulated by federal law.

In 2018, Brazilʼs Supreme Federal Court ruled that, for the time being, families do not have a recognized legal right to educate their children exclusively at home. However, the court also noted that the constitution does not prohibit home schooling and that it is up to the congress to establish regulations.

A bill to regulate home schooling was approved by the Chamber of Deputies (lower house) and is proceeding through the Senate.

For Diego and Patricia, their defense is grounded in religious and legal principles as well as a matter of conscience.

“We base our position on our faith, our beliefs, Church law, natural law, and human rights. All treaties guarantee this freedom, as well as the primacy of parents,” they stated.

“We’re not doing anything wrong. Therefore, we have a clear conscience regarding this matter and will continue to fight. Home schooling is unstoppable,” they added.

The family has already filed an appeal against the ruling and stated that, if the decision stands, they will take the case to higher courts.

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 a Sept. 16 statement, the Mexican Bishops’ Conference (CEM, by its Spanish acronym) expressed its indignation and sadness over the crime as well as its solidarity with the Diocese of Huejutla, Hidalgo, to which De la Cruz belonged

According to the bishops' conference, the priest’s murder took place on Sept. 15. The newspaper El Universal reported that the body of De la Cruz was found with gunshot wounds along a stretch of the Tolago-Tetlapaya highway in the Lolotla district of Hidalgo.

“We stand in fraternal solidarity with José Hiraís Acosta Beltrán, bishop of Huejutla, his priests, consecrated religious, and the entire people of God of this local Church,” the CEM stated while “calling upon the relevant authorities to conduct a thorough investigation to clarify the facts and ensure that justice is served swiftly.”

The Mexican bishops also prayed “for the eternal rest of Father Román,” asking God “to grant strength and comfort to his family, friends, parishioners, and all those who shared in his ministry and his life.”

The CEM statement joins that of Acosta, who urged against speculating about the crime “to allow the relevant authorities to conduct the investigation and report on the tragedy.”

At the same time, the bishop of Huejutla denounced “the alarming situation of violence going on in our country.”

The prelate asked the faithful to work to build “a culture of peace and reconciliation, seeking the eradication of violence, and not to lose respect for the life of any person.”

“Let us allow God, in his infinite goodness, to help us root out from the human heart every destructive sentiment of resentment, vengeance, and hatred that threatens the most precious gift he has bestowed upon us: life,” he emphasized.

According to the Catholic Multimedia Center, 28 incidents of violence against Church members, including the murders of four priests, have been recorded during Claudia Sheinbaum’s term as president of Mexico so far.

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 embassy made the announcement following a meeting between U.S. Chargé dʼAffaires Mike Hammer and the director of Caritas Cuba, Carmen María Nodal Martínez.

In a post on X, the embassy stated that the additional aid will be directed to the provinces of Camagüey, Ciego de Ávila, Cienfuegos, Matanzas, and Pinar del Rio.

Collaboration between the U.S. government and the Catholic Church in Cuba began in November 2025, when the bishops announced they had received an offer of $3 million in aid for those affected by Hurricane Melissa.

This initial humanitarian assistance began arriving in January 2026, and since then, the United States has made further offers of aid, which have been distributed by Caritas Cuba without the involvement of the Cuban communist regime.

On Feb. 5, the U.S. State Department announced a new shipment of humanitarian aid worth $6 million, “following the successful collaboration” with the Catholic Church in Cuba in distributing the initial $3 million in aid.

On May 13, the State Department announced its intention to provide $100 million in humanitarian assistance to Cuba, $60 million of which would be distributed through Caritas.

The first shipment of this aid package arrived in late July.

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.

Dinorah Figuera, who leads the opposition delegation, arrived in Venezuela on Sept. 13 and before national and international media explained that once this weekʼs discussions conclude, the country could expect an announcement regarding the agreements reached.

Meanwhile, Jorge Millán, who is also part of the opposition delegation, stated that they would continue “pursuing a Supreme Court of Justice with honorable, independent, and impartial judges capable of providing Venezuela with an upstanding judicial system after so many years. At the end of the cycle [of talks], we will present clear and verifiable objectives.”

He also stated that this round of negotiations would also address the status of political parties, political guarantees, and “the dismantling of the repressive apparatus” established by Chavismo (the socialist government established by President Hugo Chávez and continued by President Nicolás Maduro) for over two decades. The state of freedom of expression in Venezuela will also be one of the items on the agenda.

“The foundation for achieving a full democracy requires creating the conditions for elections to be held in Venezuela as soon as possible, as quickly as possible. We are laying the groundwork to reach those important areas that will enable all Venezuelans to elect our leaders very soon, with the speed we desire but also allowing for the time this will take,” Millán added.

Concerns and proposals from the Catholic Church

Last week, Cardinals Baltazar Porras and Diego Padrón, together with Bishop Emeritus Ramón Ovidio Pérez Morales, once again spoke out regarding the political and social situation in Venezuela. The prelates had previously raised their voices at the start of negotiations, offering to serve as guarantors of the process.

On this occasion, they addressed the state of “indeterminacy, confusion, and uncertainty” prevailing in the country, offering “certain opinions, judgments, and proposals” that seek to “open the way” to help overcome the current crisis and achieve solid institutional stability and the national common good.

Following the capture and extradition of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, by U.S. forces on Jan. 3, the prelates noted that “changes have occurred, yet neither the desired and expected change nor a shift toward the structuring and functioning of the country in line with the preamble and fundamental principles of the 1999 Constitution is perceptible.”

The cardinals and the bishop cite as examples of this lack of change that there are still political prisoners and a climate of repression as well as a state monopoly on the media and the continued centralization of power. Although these issues have been placed on the negotiating tableʼs agenda, the prelates maintain that these talks “operate within a framework of limited scope and authority.”

In this regard, they pointed out that the state is operating on “shaky and legally undefined ground,” while the executive branch is “illegitimate regarding both its origins and its exercise of power.” Consequently, they emphasized the urgent need to call for elections soon.

Oil deals with few details

A few weeks ago, the Trump administration and the Chavista regime signed a massive energy deal granting the United States effective control over approximately one-third of Venezuelan oil, some 65 billion barrels of proven reserves.

Beyond the economic aspects, the agreement has sparked particular controversy by including Venezuelan businessman Alejandro Betancourt López as an intermediary. He has been the subject of several investigations regarding alleged corruption, inflated prices in electricity contracts, and money laundering linked to the oil sector.

Within Venezuela, Betancourt is singled out as one of the key figures responsible for the serious deterioration of the electrical grid, which has led to daily, hourslong blackouts across the country for years, severely impacting the populationʼs daily lives and even resulting in loss of life due to various causes.

While acknowledging they are not experts in the field, Porras, Padrón, and Pérez Morales call for greater transparency in the negotiations and recommend “prudence and a gradual approach regarding commitments.” This, they state, reflects the prevailing sentiment among the Venezuelan people, who are concerned about the fate and use of the “vast sums of money” the state is set to receive.

Greater emphasis on the need to call elections

In light of the foregoing, the cardinals and the bishop underscored the priority of allowing the sovereign people of Venezuela to have a “a defined and clear mandate” regarding the nation’s future, a step that would also offer a sure path toward “encounter, social reconciliation, and peace.”

“God has given us this country as a setting in which to build a ‘new society,’ the ideal of the civilization of love. We Venezuelans, through our own efforts and by invoking divine assistance, must keep hope alive and continue working on this compelling task, striving to reap its fruits of peace, freedom, justice, and fraternity,” the prelates stated.

Delcy Rodríguez in New York?

According to a Sept. 14 Bloomberg report, Venezuelaʼs interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, is considering a trip to New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly, which takes place next week.

If the trip goes ahead, Rodríguez would be in the same city where Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores are in U.S. custody. When asked about a possible meeting with the Chavista leader, President Donald Trump simply replied: “Maybe, maybe.”

Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio indicated that an in-person meeting “probably will happen” if the presence of the interim regimeʼs president is confirmed.

Rodríguezʼs presence on U.S. soil would mark a milestone in relations between Washington and Caracas, following more than two decades of tension and discord.

Within Venezuela, the growing rapprochement between the U.S. government and the remnants of Chavismo is fueling concern and uncertainty regarding the possibility of real political change.

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.

Every year, on the night of Sept. 15, Mexico begins its independence day celebrations by reenacting the “Grito de Dolores” (“Cry of Dolores”). On Sept. 16, 1810, in the town of Dolores, Father Miguel Hidalgo rang the church bells and urged the assembled people to take up arms against the Spanish colonial government.

Mexico’s independence was finally achieved on Sept. 27, 1821, with the entry of Agustín de Iturbide into Mexico City at the head of the Army of the Three Guarantees. The army got its name for its defense of the three “guarantees” of the Plan of Iguala: the Catholic faith as the national religion, independence from Spain, and social and legal equality between between all citizens regardless of ethnic origin.

‘Celebrating independence does not mean turning a blind eye’

In a Sept. 14 statement, the CEM said that in Mexico, “we have made progress in recognizing people’s rights, women’s participation, the strengthening of institutions, solidarity in the face of disasters, and a societal yearning for peace that can no longer be ignored.”

“At the same time, the country continues to bleed from violence, persons inexplicably gone missing, impunity, humiliating inequality, and the forced displacement of entire communities,” the bishops lamented.

For the Catholic Church in Mexico, “celebrating independence does not mean turning a blind eye; it means remembering where we come from so we have the resolve to keep on building.”

In their message, the bishops called on leaders at all levels to ensure “that freedom is not [viewed as] a concession, but is a guarantee; that security and justice cease to be mere promises; and that victims are heard.”

“Furthermore, on the eve of a new election season, we call for public debate to be worthy of the [nation that] sustains it,” they stated, with an eye toward the June 2027 elections, in which the entire federal house of representatives will be elected as well as local officials across Mexico’s 31 states.

The bishops also urged citizens “to love Mexico by acting uprightly every day,” participating politically, fulfilling their personal responsibilities, and “by caring for those who have the least.”

Our Lady of Guadalupe, ‘the heart and soul of our people’

The bishops emphasized that Mexican independence “was born clasping a standard,” noting that “the image of Holy Mary of Guadalupe became the banner of a people realizing that it had become a nation.”

“It was the recognition that this people already had a mother and with her, a common identity capable of uniting the Indigenous person, the person of European descent born in Mexico, and the mestizo in a single home. Even the first president of the republic chose to call himself Guadalupe,” they noted, referring to Guadalupe Victoria, Mexico’s first president.

Originally known as José Miguel Fernández y Félix, the independence fighter adopted that name due to his devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe and his confidence in the victory of the independence cause, according to the General Archive of the Nation.

“Two centuries later, she continues to be the heart and soul of our people,” the bishops stated, pointing out that Our Lady of Guadalupe “continues to ask for the same thing as she did on Tepeyac: that her sacred little house [chapel] be built in order to show and give all her love, her compassion, her help and her protection to her littlest children, to hear their cries and remedy their sorrows, their miseries, their pain.”

With a view to the upcoming fifth centenary of the apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which will be celebrated in 2031, the bishops pointed out that "the Intercontinental Guadalupana Novena calls us to make that love an encounter, reconciliation and justice."

‘Protecting and safeguarding’ freedom of expression and religion

Noting that “independence evokes a decisive word: freedom,” the bishops called for “protecting and safeguarding” two human rights in particular: freedom of expression and religion.

The former, they pointed out, “requires media representing various viewpoints, the personal safety of journalists, and a public debate that does not dismiss those who think differently,” while religious freedom “is not limited to worship within a temple but encompasses the right to believe, to educate in accordance with one’s own convictions, to associate, to serve, and to contribute publicly to the common good.”

“This national anniversary finds us amid the centennial remembrance of the Religious Conflict (the Cristero War). We recall it during these celebrations because it was a fratricidal conflict between brothers who shared the same faith, heart, and culture, and because its lesson is urgent: When freedom of conscience is restricted, the entire nation suffers.”

This remembrance, they affirmed, “calls upon us to always call for religious freedom to be fully recognized and exercised as a fundamental human right — for Catholics and for all religious denominations in our country.”

‘The Church is not a guest in Mexico’

The Mexican Bishops’ Conference further emphasized that “the Church is not a guest in Mexico: It has been part of the country’s fabric since before the state even existed.”

The Church in the country, the bishops noted, established and “sustained the first schools, hospitals, and shelters; it educated many of those who envisioned what the nation would be; and it has never ceased to be present where the suffering is greatest.”

“Today, that presence has concrete names: Caritas and its thousands of volunteers in every emergency; schools, universities, and educational foundations; migrant centers, soup kitchens, clinics, and shelters for women and children; human rights advocacy centers; support for victims and their families; the rebuilding of the social fabric; and constant work for peace,” the CEM stated.

The bishops noted that “the social fabric, freedom, and peace in Mexico are also sustained by the quiet, effective work of believers.”

“As the Church, we offer who we are: open communities, hands ready to serve, a voice to speak out without hatred, and the ability to build bridges where others erect walls,” they 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.

The request was submitted to the U.N. special rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery and human trafficking, Katarina Schwarz, to mark the centennial of the 1926 Slavery Convention and the upcoming Human Rights Council session dedicated to the occasion, “the agenda of which includes, among other issues, new forms of slavery.”

The request is based on the argument that surrogacy reduces the child in utero to an object of disposal, which corresponds to the definition of slavery set forth in the 1926 Geneva Convention, namely, the exercise of the attributes of the right of ownership.

In the case of the woman carrying the baby, her body is subjected to the will of third parties, which includes control over her diet and medical care as well as, potentially, embryo reduction or abortion, the statement explains.

The Casablanca Declaration experts and Juristes Pour l’Enfance point out that "at the international level, several United Nations bodies have already characterized surrogacy as the sale of children, including the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children in 2018 and the Committee on the Rights of the Child in 2019."

Furthermore, in her July 2025 report, the special rapporteur on violence against women and girls called for the eradication of all forms of surrogacy and the adoption of a binding international instrument to abolish this practice. Finally, a June 22 joint statement by states calls for a moratorium with a view to the universal abolition of surrogacy.

In their statement, the Casablanca Group of Experts and Juristes Pour l’Enfance also called on Schwarz to urge states to put an end to this practice within their territories and to commit to its universal abolition.

The Catholic Church also condemns the practice of surrogacy.

In his 2024 address to the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See, Pope Francis described the practice of so-called surrogacy as "deplorable," noting that it is "a grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child, based on the exploitation of situations of the mother’s material needs. A child is always a gift and never the basis of a commercial contract.”

The Holy Father urged the international community “to prohibit this practice universally,” as “human life must be preserved and defended” at every stage of its existence.

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 artwork, which bears the unmistakable hallmarks of Rupnik’s style, completes the “Biblical Journey” project, an initiative that covered the shrineʼs four façades with mosaics depicting biblical scenes.

Rupnik faces accusations of spiritual, psychological, and sexual abuse against dozens of nuns — incidents that, in some cases, occurred within the context of his artistic work. He was expelled from the Society of Jesus in June 2023 for disobeying a superiorʼs order not to preach publicly and is currently facing a canonical trial before the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.

In contrast to the basilicaʼs decision to retain Rupnikʼs art, the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes in France plans to cover all of Rupnikʼs mosaics on the façade of the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary ahead of the visit by Pope Leo XIV, scheduled for Sept. 26–27.

The bishop of Tarbes and Lourdes, Jean-Marc Micas, stated that the measure was taken out of consideration for abuse victims and that the mosaics will remain covered following the popeʼs visit.

Works by Rupnik and the Aletti Center can be found in various religious sites, such as the Redemptoris Mater Chapel in the Vaticanʼs Apostolic Palace as well as the shrines of St. Pio of Pietrelcina in Italy and Fátima in Portugal.

Biblical Journey Project

Work on the Brazil shrineʼs exterior began in 2019. The north façade, inaugurated in 2022, depicts the Exodus and the liberation of the people of Israel; the south façade, completed in 2024, portrays the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Christ; and the east façade, inaugurated in 2025, presents scenes of creation from the Book of Genesis.

The west façade, set to be inaugurated Sept. 12, is dedicated to the Book of Revelation, the Second Coming of Christ, and the Last Judgment. According to the shrine, the scenes represent “Godʼs victory over evil.”

The most recent façade work began in 2025. It features nearly 4,000 square meters of mosaics designed and executed by 39 artists associated with the Aletti Center. The stones used in the project come from countries such as Brazil, Italy, Greece, and Afghanistan.

Rupnik remains listed as part of the team on the Aletti Center’s website. The institution identifies him as the director of the Spiritual Art Atelier since 1995 and head of the Theology Atelier since 2008.

The project was funded by the “Devotees' Campaign,” consisting of donations from Our Ladyʼs devotees across Brazil. The shrine announced that the unveiling of the façade would take place during a “catechetical celebration,” featuring a special program and a live broadcast by the Rede Aparecida media network.

In 2024, when ACI Digital, the Portuguese-language sister service of EWTN News, asked the National Shrine about the projectʼs continuation following the allegations against Rupnik, the institution did not directly answer the questions but issued a statement noting that the “work on the façades of the Basilica of Our Lady of Aparecida continues under the leadership and execution of the Aletti Center."

The shrine went on to indicate that since 2020, the project has been directed by Italian artist and theologian Maria Campatelli. “Its leadership team comprises 12 women and nine men, alongside dozens of artists of various nationalities who are directly involved in the project,” the shrine added in a statement.

In addition, the shrine noted that the Vicariate of Rome — to which the Aletti Center is accountable — issued “a finding following a canonical visitation, attesting ‘clearly to a healthy community life at the Aletti Center, free from specific issues.’”

ACI Digital contacted the shrine’s press office to request information regarding the inauguration and to inquire about Rupnik’s role in creating the mosaics as well as the criteria that led Aparecida to retain the artwork, whereas Lourdes decided to cover them out of consideration for abuse victims.

The press office stated that coverage would be restricted to the shrine’s official channels and requested that questions be submitted via email. However, no response was received by the time of publication.

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

The announcement was made by President Abelardo de la Espriella, who thanked the outgoing minister and stated that Hoyos is distinguished by “her talent, strength, integrity, and steadfast defense of values.”

In her new role, Hoyos will have to make decisions regarding the measures left by her predecessor, including the review of school textbooks to remove “woke” ideology from schools and a draft decree that would allow private entities — including religious organizations — to support the provision or administration of educational services in areas with limited state presence.

The proposal sparked a debate regarding the role of churches in public education and the secular nature of the state.

“We are interested because religious education, moral education, and ethical aspects have not received due attention in recent years,” Father Edilberto Estupiñán, director of the Bishops' Conference Department of Education, told EWTN News.

However, the appointment of Hoyos has drawn criticism from feminist and leftist circles, including former President Gustavo Petro, due to her past work with former Inspector General Alejandro Ordóñez, Colombiaʼs current ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS) and a staunch opponent of abortion.

The new minister also faces the challenge of improving educational quality, particularly following recent national test results that showed Colombian youth regressing in reading and mathematics, with only slight improvement in science.

Additionally, she will face the challenge of restoring infrastructure damaged by the Aug. 10 earthquake, which affected more than 3,500 educational centers and left nearly 400,000 students without classrooms.

Who is Ilva Hoyos Castañeda?

Hoyos was born in Bogotá on Oct. 19, 1959. A lawyer who also holds a doctorate in law, she previously served as dean of the law school and director of the Institute of Humanities at the University of La Sabana. She has also taught at various higher education institutions in Colombia and abroad.

Between 2009 and 2016, Hoyos served as the delegate inspector general for the defense of the rights of children, adolescents, and the family. She also served as an adviser to the Pontifical Council for the Family, participating as a lay expert in the fifth general conference of the bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean held in 2007 in Aparecida, Brazil. In addition, she served as an auditor at the first Synod on the Family convened by Pope Francis in 2014.

In Colombia, Hoyos chaired the Episcopal Conference’s National Council for the Culture of Care for seven years, participating in the design and implementation of strategies for the prevention of and response to abuse and violence, as well as in the training of diocesan teams and religious communities.

Hoyos is the author of books such as “Religious Freedom in the 1991 Constitution,” “Freedom and Fidelity in University Education,” “On Dignity and Human Rights,” and “The Legal Dimension of the Human Person,” among others.

Stance on family and abortion

More than a decade ago, during the legal debate regarding same-sex unions, Hoyos stated before the Constitutional Court that “marriage and the family, as institutions and fundamental units of society, are central pillars of the legal system.”

On the subject, she noted that “the characteristics of heterosexuality and procreation — which have been heavily criticized here and which define marriage in Colombia both constitutionally and legally — should not be viewed as grounds for suspecting unjust discrimination against the fundamental rights of individuals or couples with a homosexual orientation.”

Hoyos has consistently expressed opposition to the decriminalization of abortion and defended the right to freedom of conscience, noting that it is “expressly recognized in Article 18 of the Constitution.”

Throughout her career, both academically and professionally, she has been closely linked to the defense of the rights of children and the family as a central part of society.

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.

Cardinal Carlos Aguiar Retes, primate archbishop of Mexico, announced that the grant was issued by the pontiff through the Apostolic Penitentiary.

The jubilee year will begin on Oct. 12, 2026, and end on Oct. 12, 2027. Aguiar indicated that this celebration will also coincide with the 131st anniversary of the pontifical coronation of the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

The cardinal invited the faithful to attend the Mass officially marking the start of this “time of jubilee grace,” which will take place on Oct. 12 at noon at the Basilica of Guadalupe.

Plenary indulgence during the jubilee year

The archbishop explained that the plenary indulgence will be granted to the faithful who visit “with devotion and a contrite spirit the aacred house of St. Mary of Guadalupe and participate in a liturgical act or spend time in prayer at the basilica.”

To receive it, they must also fulfill the usual conditions established by the Church: sacramental confession, Eucharistic Communion, recitation of the Creed, and prayer for the intentions of the Holy Father.

The primate archbishop of Mexico encouraged Catholics to use this period as an opportunity for “spiritual renewal and conversion” under the protection of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

“May St. Mary of Guadalupe, mother of the true God through whom we live, help us to make the most of this jubilee and accompany us on this journey of spiritual renewal and conversion,” he said.

The ‘new basilica’

According to the Nican Mopohua account recording the apparitions of St. Mary of Guadalupe, the Virgin chose St. Juan Diego to convey a request to the first bishop of Mexico, Fray Juan de Zumárraga: the construction of a church “on the plain of Tepeyac.”

Following the miraculous appearance on Juan Diego’s tilma (cloak), de Zumárraga took the image to his private oratory, but a few days later, he placed it out for the veneration of the Mexican people.

By 1695, a simple hermitage had been established; its structure can still be seen today beside the altar of the Old Parish Church of the Indians. The tilma remained there until 1709, when it was moved to what is now called the Expiatory Temple of Christ the King — also known as the Old Basilica of Guadalupe.

By the 20th century — as Father Guillermo Schulenburg Prado, the former abbot of the Basilica of Guadalupe who championed the construction of the new church, explains in his memoirs — the “inadequacy of the old temple to meet liturgical, pastoral, and administrative needs” was evident.

Construction of the new basilica began in 1974, and on Oct. 12, 1976, the image of the Virgin was transferred to its new home.

This is how the Guadalupan jubilee year will begin

Celebrations will commence on Sunday, Oct. 11. Morning prayer (Lauds) and Mass will be celebrated at 8:30 a.m. local time, while Aguiar will celebrate the Sunday Mass at noon. Vespers for the dedication of the new basilica of Guadalupe will take place at 5 p.m.

On Monday, Oct. 12 — the day the jubilee begins — activities will start at 8:30 a.m. with morning prayer and the celebration of Mass.

At 11 a.m., a commemorative video regarding the transfer of the image of St. Mary of Guadalupe to the New Basilica and its dedication will be shown.

At noon, Aguiar will celebrate the traditional Mass of the roses and the opening of the Holy Door, formally marking the beginning of the Guadalupan jubilee year.

The day’s events will continue at 5 p.m. with the archdiocesan rosary; at 6 p.m., a commemorative concert marking the 50th anniversary of the New Basilica will take place; and at 7 p.m., the rosary of Guadalupan love will be held.

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.

“It is the Church’s mission to exhort the faithful to bear witness to the virtues and to avoid vices,” Cota stated in two decrees establishing the new rules. According to the bishop, “the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that vices can be classified according to the virtues they oppose.”

“The virtue of temperance disposes one to avoid every kind of excess, including the abuse of alcohol,” the bishop said. The catechism also states that “it is praiseworthy to impose restitution "to correct vices and maintain justice.”

Sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages

Cota cited Document 100 of the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB, by its Portuguese acronym), which states: “The sale and consumption of alcohol at patron saint festivals and other religious events stand in contrast to the Churchʼs efforts to combat drug abuse. There is an urgent need for the conversion of parish communities to avoid the counter-witness of promoting alcohol consumption at stalls and other community recreational activities.”

According to the bishop, "Pope Francis' encyclical Amoris Laetitia, on the family, views drug addiction as one of the scourges of our time — one that causes suffering for many families and, not infrequently, ends up destroying them."

Ban on bingo games and raffles with cash awards

In a second decree, Cota stated that “bingo games and other raffles offering cash awards tend to lead people into addiction to various forms of gaming and betting.” He further pointed out that, “under current legislation, holding unauthorized raffles and conducting bingo games constitute criminal misdemeanors, as defined in Article 51 of Law 3.688/41 and Article 50 of Law 3.688/41, respectively.”

The bishop noted that Amoris Laetitia regards "games of chance and other addictions as scourges of our time that cause suffering for many families and, not infrequently, end up destroying them.” The bishopʼs decree also cites CNBB Document 114, which draws attention to gambling addiction, noting that it “causes great suffering and indebtedness within countless families and in society.”

According to Cota, “tithe offerings and spontaneous contributions from the faithful are the proper means for the Church’s financial maintenance.”

“Should it become necessary to conduct a donation drive offering prizes to participants, or to hold recreational raffles, the prizes must consist of small gifts and household items,” the bishop decreed.

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

During the Mass, the "Creed of the Ecclesial Base Communities” (known as CEBs, by their synonym in Portuguese) was read. This creed, developed in 2016, professes belief in “a God/Goddess present in the diverse experiences of the communities: a God who is close, a liberating and revolutionary God, a God who is a member of the CEBs, who works and struggles just as Jesus of Nazareth did.”

Following the distribution of the Eucharist but before the final blessing, the bishop — who chairs the Episcopal Commission for Social-Transformative Action of the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CEPAST-CNBB, by its Portuguese acronym) — introduced the referenced creed. He called it a “supplication from the youth of Latin America, who stand before God asking him to come to meet us,” and entrusted the creed’s recitation to two young men.

“We do not believe in a static, patriarchal, clerical, and hierarchical Church,” stated the text read by the young men at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Conception. “We believe in an inclusive, intergenerational community with a voice of its own. We believe in this Church that struggles, ‘casting its lot with the poor of the earth’ in the face of a dominant capitalist system.”

“We believe we are daughters and sons of a ‘Great Homeland’ free from racism and free from rules governing love — embracing all sexual diversity, women, youth, Indigenous peoples, Black people, minorities, and all those at the bottom of the social order.”

The Creed of the Ecclesial Base Communities is part of a suggested liturgy outline for Masses, worship services, and public gatherings marking the 32nd Cry of the Excluded — a mobilization bringing together pastoral groups, Catholic organizations, and social movements, held annually on Brazil’s Independence Day. CEPAST has called upon dioceses, pastoral groups, and grassroots movements to strengthen this mobilization within their respective jurisdictions this year.

In a message released in June regarding the 2026 elections, the CNBB (National Conference of Bishops of Brazil) stated that “the Catholic Church does not endorse candidates or political parties” but affirmed that the Church, “driven by the Gospel and the mission to proclaim it, promotes life and human dignity, and serves the building of the common good.”

Elections, the CEB Creed, and prayers

During the penitential rite, Mass participants asked for forgiveness for “times when we did not take the country’s destiny seriously during elections” and for failing to speak out against “candidacies backed by economic power that will harm the people and potentially even impose authoritarian regimes.”

The other parts of the penitential rite address wars, people living on the streets, real estate speculation, housing movements, violence against women, and femicide.

During the Prayers of the Faithful, an intention regarding the elections was also included: “For this election season, that we may have the discernment not to vote for anyone who seeks to jeopardize Brazil’s sovereignty or harbors plans for a coup. May we not vote for politicians and parties that wish to turn the public good into an object of profit. Sovereignty is not negotiable.” The assembly’s response was: “Deliver us, Lord, from all those who use politics to betray the Brazilian people!”

CEPAST states it did not draft the liturgy guide

CEPAST’s communications office told ACI Digital, the Portuguese-language sister service of EWTN News, that the CNBB commission did not participate in drafting the document. “The ‘Cry of the Excluded’ is a coalition formed by various organizations, and CEPAST did not participate in drafting the liturgy guide,” said Juce Rocha of the commission’s communications team.

The National Coordination of the Cry of the Excluded includes among its participants Catholic pastoral groups, organizations, and social movements such as the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT), Caritas Brazil, the Workers' Pastoral, the Migrants' Pastoral Service, Base Ecclesial Communities (CEBs), the Landless Rural Workers' Movement (MST), the Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB), the Central of Popular Movements (CMP), and the National Confederation of Education Workers (CNTE).

The national map for this year’s “Cry” documented activities in all regions of the country. In Cachoeiro de Itapemirim, Espírito Santo, a march brought together the faithful, pastoral groups, and representatives of social movements, concluding at St. Peterʼs Cathedral, where Bishop Luiz Fernando Lisboa participated in the mobilization. In Santos, São Paulo, the “Cry” was part of the dioceseʼs official agenda and was attended by Bishop Joaquim Giovani Mol Guimarães.

The same order of service was not followed at all Masses linked to the Cry. At the National Shrine of Aparecida in São Paulo, for instance, the Sept. 7 Mass was celebrated within the context of both the 39th Workers' Pilgrimage and the 32nd Cry of the Excluded. The Mass was celebrated by the archbishop of Aparecida, Mário Antonio da Silva; among the concelebrants was the bishop of the Prelature of Marajó, Pará, José Ionilton Lisboa de Oliveira, president of the Pastoral Land Commission.

The Cry was mentioned during the Mass and the homily, but the program used in Brejo was not adopted for the celebration.

The Cry of the Excluded first emerged during the evaluation of the second Brazilian Social Week — promoted by the CNBB in 1993 and 1994 — as a way to continue the reflections from that process. The initiative was also inspired by the 1995 Fraternity Campaign, which featured the theme “Fraternity and the Excluded” and the motto “Was it you, Lord?”

The first edition took place on Sept. 7, 1995, in 170 locations. In 1996, the CNBB adopted the Cry during its general assembly as part of the Toward the New Millennium Project.

Today, the mobilization is led by a National Coordination body comprising the CNBB’s Commission 8, Catholic pastoral groups and organizations, and various social movements and entities — including the CPT, Cáritas Brasileira, the Workers‘ Pastoral, the Migrants’ Pastoral Service, CEBs, the MST, MAB, CMP, and CNTE.

According to the event’s organizers, the choice of Sept. 7 is intended to provide a “counterpoint” to the official Independence Day commemoration. The date has also been identified by the event’s organizers as a moment for “political awareness” and the struggle for a “new national and global order.”

While the movement’s longtime theme is “Life Comes First!”, the slogan for 2026 is: “In defense of the land, peace, and housing, we raise our voices: Women alive and sovereignty!” National demands include ending the “6x1” (six days of work and one day off) work schedule, ensuring dignified housing, agrarian reform, quality public education, and the defense of the SUS (Unified Health System), as well as combating femicide, racism, and what is termed as “LGBTphobia.”

The event’s website states that the choice of Sept. 7 seeks to offer a “counterpoint to the official history of Brazilʼs independence. Contrasting with the civic and military parades that have traditionally marked the day, it calls upon the people — especially the poor and the excluded — to step down from the grandstands, leave passive patriotism behind, and occupy public squares and streets in defense of their rights.”

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

The basilica, located in the city of Buga in the Valle del Cauca department (administrative district), sustained damage to its dome. As a safety precaution, Masses inside the church have been suspended and are currently being held in the town’s central square.

In addition, as the basilica has the legal designation of an asset of cultural interest, any restoration work must be supervised by the Ministry of Culture.

During his Sept. 5 visit to Valle del Cauca, De la Espriella expressed the governmentʼs commitment to “protecting the spiritual symbols of the Colombian people.”

“We already have 1.2 billion pesos [approximately $320,000] to repair our Basilica of the Lord of Miracles, and we are working with the private sector to secure another 5 billion [$1.6 million] to rebuild and repair the basilica so that Masses can be held there,” he announced Sept. 5.

Referring to the image of Christ crucified in the church, which depicts the Savior with dark-colored skin, the president stated the state-funded repairs are intended to “honor our beloved [Black Christ],” as the Lord of Miracles of Buga is also known, “and to defend that symbol of faith and spirituality that means so much to us Colombians.”

The announcement comes just days before the feast of the Lord of Miracles in Buga, celebrated on Sept. 14, which draws thousands of pilgrims.

In a Facebook video, Father Alcides de Jesús Orozco, rector of the basilica, explained that although the basilica is closed, the part of the church where the image of Christ is enthroned suffered no damage and the faithful may enter there.

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 its latest editorial, titled “Before taking away their cellphones, let’s look at our own [use],” Desde la Fe (From a Faith Perspective), the archdiocese’s weekly publication, addressed the debate surrounding the use of mobile devices at schools as millions of students return to class this fall.

According to the publication, 19 states in the country (about 60%) already regulate or prohibit students’ use of such devices in schools, except when teachers allow their use for educational purposes.

A ban ‘just by itself’ won’t solve the problem

The archdiocese acknowledged that younger generations “have grown up connected to a screen” and that social media in particular “is part of how they communicate, entertain themselves, and stay informed.”

However, it warned that excessive use of these devices can lead to “distraction, dividing one’s attention, and hindering concentration.” It also warned of the risk that digital content may gain “greater authority than the words of parents or teachers simply because it is more attractive or popular.”

While the archdiocese stated that it is “appropriate to discuss the regulation of mobile phones in schools,” it noted that “it would be a mistake to think that banning them by itself will solve the problem.”

The editorial highlighted the challenge of teaching students the technical use of digital tools while also helping them engage “responsibly” with “the vast amount of information, stimuli, and content to which they provide access.”

A challenge for parents and teachers

The editorial noted that the responsibility cannot solely fall upon children or schools; rather, parents need “tools to set boundaries, give guidance to their children, and learn to manage the use of technology” themselves.

“If a child spends several hours without a cellphone at school but returns to a home where every family member remains absorbed in their own screen, we will have made little progress,” the editorial pointed out.

The Archdiocese of Mexico invited adults to ask themselves: “How often do we ask [our children] to get off their phones while we look at ours? How many conversations do we interrupt to check a notification? How often are we physically present with them, but our attention is elsewhere?”

The archdiocese acknowledged that digital tools “allow us to learn, work, communicate, and connect with others,” but maintained that the challenge lies in “keeping them at the service of the person and not the person at the service of the screen.”

“Regulating cellphones in schools may be a good start, but let’s not make banning them a way to ease our consciences, nor set ourselves up as judges of the younger generations,” the editorial advised.

The archdiocese emphasized that “educating for the digital world requires time and presence,” inviting parents to ask themselves if they are willing to sit down with their children to “get to know what they are viewing, listen to their concerns, and help them establish the criteria needed to discern what they encounter on a screen.”

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 reform was “unanimously approved in general terms,” ​​Assembly President Gustavo Porras stated on Sept. 1 during a special session held in the city of León, according to the Nicaraguan newspaper La Prensa.

The reform amends the constitution, which extends the presidential term, as well as those of other high-ranking officials, from six to seven years, with the possibility of renewal.

Ortega has governed Nicaragua for about 30 years: since 2007, and previously, from 1979 to 1990. On July 19, he stated that there would be no further elections in Nicaragua, and on July 31, he proposed the reform — set to take effect in 2027 — that excludes “coup plotters” and “terrorists,”, terms he uses to refer to the political opposition, from participating in elections.

Reforms are a ‘formalization of the usurpation of power’

Ruta del Cambio (Pathway for Change), an organization which defends human rights and the rule of law, declared in a Sept. 2 statement that it “categorically rejects and and gives no legal recognition to the partial reform to the Political Constitution [of the Republic of Nicaragua] approved during the first legislative session on Sept. 1, 2026, by a National Assembly stripped of all independence and reduced to a mere rubber stamp for the will of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.”

Ruta del Cambio counts among its leaders Félix Maradiaga, a former presidential candidate and former political prisoner now living in exile.

“What has been approved is not a constitutional reform. It is the formalization of the usurpation of power through a text drafted in secret, approved without opposition, and voted for with unanimous obedience by those who owe their positions, privileges, and impunity to the couple that has hijacked the state,” Ruta del Cambio charged.

“Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo have turned the constitution into a family’s title deed. They have transformed the state into personal property, the law into an instrument of vengeance, and the republic’s [law enforcement apparatus] into tools of terror against the very people they swore to serve,” the organization emphasized.

Ruta del Cambio called for “rejecting the legal validity of this reform and of any act, mandate, extension, or appointment derived from it, and formally declaring it without force under international law.”

Elections ‘without legitimacy’

“What we are seeing in Nicaragua right now is a reform attempting to hold elections without competition, without legitimacy, and without any possibility of change. In other words, Ortega controls the judges and the playing field, and seeks to firmly establish his authoritarian model without any competition,” stated Arturo Mcfields Yescas, Nicaragua’s former ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS), in a Sept. 3 interview with EWTN Noticias, the Spanish-language edition of EWTN News.

“This further undermines not only civil and political freedoms but also another fundamental freedom: religious freedom,” he pointed out.

McFields explained that when the regime speaks of “traitors to the homeland,” it is referring to those who dissent from its rule. “People who questioned Ortega’s authority immediately became traitors to the homeland,” as did those who “simply thought differently” or called for “international mediation.”

“This means,” he charged, “that anyone who does not applaud Ortega becomes a traitor to the homeland.”

U.S. reaction

On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated on X that “the Murillo-Ortega’s National Assembly gutted what remained of Nicaragua’s democracy in the second constitutional rewrite in two years. The U.S. will implement measures at the next @OAS_official [meeting of foreign ministers] to ensure that our hemisphere stops business as usual with this dictatorship.”

Regarding the United States’ call for countries to sever diplomatic and commercial ties with Nicaragua, McFields called it “an extraordinary start.”

“For the first time, Ortega is facing pressure of this nature. For the first time, the OAS has approved a resolution on Nicaragua almost unanimously,” by convening a meeting of foreign ministers to address the situation, McFields said.

Likewise, neighboring Costa Rica expressed its “deep concern regarding the ongoing deterioration of democracy in Nicaragua, exacerbated by the recent constitutional reform that further limits political and electoral participation,” and stated that it “will support a firm and coordinated response” with the OAS.

The government of Peru, led by President Keiko Fujimori, also rejected the approval of the constitutional reform. In a Sept. 2 statement, it declared that it “will stand with the Nicaraguan people, their political prisoners, their exiles, and all those who are currently persecuted for dreaming of free elections.”

Persecution of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua

McFields questioned the stance of countries like Brazil and Mexico, which did not support the resolution against Nicaragua, stating that “it’s surprising, painful, and something that ought to change. There should be empathy for the suffering of the Nicaraguan people, for persecuted politicians, for priests who have been imprisoned, exiled, or banished, and for the churches that have, at times, been burned down. It is truly grotesque, yet ideology seems to be prevailing over democracy.”

Since 2018, the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship has waged a fierce campaign of persecution against the Catholic Church in Nicaragua. Its latest known victim is the bishop emeritus of Estelí, Abelardo Mata (80), who suffers from diabetes, a heart condition, and vision problems. His condition remains uncertain, despite the regime’s claim that he is at home.

In mid-August, the regime released a video of an interview with the prelate, who recently celebrated his 50th anniversary as a priest, without specifying when the footage was recorded.

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.

“Whenever we try to place ourselves ahead of Jesus, instead of following behind him, we cease to be his disciples and lose our way. That is why worn-out dictatorships that hypocritically hide behind religion profane the name of Jesus when they invoke him from their position of power and attribute to him the dominion they exercise over the people, yet never speak of the cross,” the prelate said during an Aug. 30 Mass he celebrated at St. Agatha Parish in Miami.

In view of his past statements, the bishop would appear to be including in that category the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship that controls his country. Indeed, the pro-government news media El 19 Digital proclaims the country is governed in a Christian manner. 

These dictatorships, the prelate continued, “appropriate the name of Jesus to legitimize their authoritarianism while silencing the Crucified One, because a messiah who humbles himself, who serves, and who lays down his life for others unmasks their arrogance and condemns their aspirations to remain in power forever.”

“One cannot profess Jesus as Messiah and Son of God without following him along the path of the cross,” Báez pointed out.

Auxiliary bishop of Managua since 2009, Báez was forced to leave Nicaragua in April 2019 due to his defense of protesters opposing the regime of President Daniel Ortega and his wife and vice president, Rosario Murillo, a crackdown that left more than 350 people dead in 2018, according to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

Since 2018, the Nicaraguan dictatorship has relentlessly persecuted the Catholic Church in the country, controlling priests, expelling religious sisters, confiscating church funds and property, banning ordinations, and exiling bishops — such as Bishop Carlos Enrique Herrera Gutiérrez of Jinotega, president of the Nicaraguan Bishops’ Conference, who was expelled in 2025. 

Báez himself had to leave Nicaragua at the request of Pope Francis in 2019 due to serious concerns for his personal safety and now resides in Miami. In August 2025, Pope Leo XIV confirmed him in his role as auxiliary bishop of Managua, albeit in exile.

The bishop celebrates Mass every Sunday at St. Agatha Parish, where the pastor and the parochial vicar, Fathers Marcos Antonio Somarriba and Edwing Román, are also exiled Nicaraguans.

Taking up the cross

Báez explained that “taking up the cross” does not merely mean “accepting setbacks and suffering. The cross is the price of all authentic love”; rather, it also refers to “choosing a life like Jesus’, overcoming the fear of loving, loving without limits, and becoming weak and vulnerable out of love.”

“Taking up the cross means humbling ourselves to enter the world of the poor and the victims in order to stand with them, share in their anguish, and restore the dignity and hope that God desires for them,” he added.

“Taking up the cross means accepting the consequences, almost always painful, of striving to eliminate the suffering of those whom society crucifies, just as Jesus did,” the Nicaraguan bishop emphasized.

The prelate further highlighted that “in a world built on lies, those who speak the truth are persecuted and silenced; in a society rife with injustice, the righteous are shunned and even condemned to death; in a system where the powerful exalt themselves as gods and turn their whims into law, anyone who is critical and refuses to live in submission becomes a target of slander, insults, and persecution.”

‘Thinking like Peter’

Báez also referred to certain situations where one might “think like Peter,” failing to grasp Jesus’ announcement regarding the sacrifice he had to make to save humanity.

“We think like Peter when we do not accept that there are moments in life when the only way to set things right is to go unnoticed, forget about ourselves, be the last, and sacrifice what we cherish most,” he said.

“We also think like Peter when we are unwilling to be inconvenienced for the good of others, to make sacrifices so that others may fare better, or to fight for a society built on justice,” he pointed out.

“We think it’s better not to complicate our lives,” the bishop remarked.

“Many consider it imprudent to speak out against the abuses of the powerful, preferring instead to remain silent or strike a deal with them. Others believe that the world’s problems can only be solved with money, power, or miracles. Jesus, however, teaches us that things change only when we choose the path of littleness and self-forgetfulness; only when we sacrifice ourselves to put God and others first,” Báez explained.

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 cardinal, retired since April 2024, had been under a cloud of suspicion since Paméla Groleau accused him of touching her without consent on three occasions between 2008 and 2010 while she was training or working as a lay pastoral agent. She also told the court she felt “hunted” at another event, saying Ouellet came from across the room to sit next to her.

“The court finds that the allegations describing the four events cited by Ms. Groleau in the context of the class action are false,” Superior Court Justice Martin Castonguay wrote in a decision released Aug. 31.

Castonguay concluded that Groleau’s testimony against the now-82-year-old Ouellet “was neither credible nor reliable,” noting in his judgment that she had changed her story several times.

Two other women testified against Ouellet at the trial, but the judge ruled their testimony was not pertinent to the question of whether Groleau defamed Ouellet. He also concluded Ouellet was “not the author of the gestures” brought into evidence by one of the women.

The allegations against the cardinal surfaced in 2022 as part of a class-action lawsuit launched against the Archdiocese of Quebec and dozens of clergy and lay members. In response, Ouellet publicly denied any wrongdoing and countered with a CA$100,000 defamation countersuit against his accuser, claiming she had damaged his reputation, honor, and dignity.

After the lawsuit was filed, the Vatican chose not to launch its own investigation into the cardinal. In a statement issued Aug. 18, 2022, by Matteo Bruni, then-director of the Press Office of the Holy See, the Vatican found there were “insufficient elements to open a canonical investigation for sexual assault by Cardinal Ouellet against person F,” as Groleau was identified at the time.

In his ruling, Castonguay said the damage to Ouellet — former archbishop of Quebec who would serve as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops under Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis — and his reputation was “amplified by the chosen vehicle, meaning that of a class action aimed principally at religious pedophiles, thereby equating Cardinal Ouellet, in the eyes of the ‘ordinary citizen,’ with that group of individuals.” He said it “is difficult to quantify” the true impact of the allegations against Ouellet and awarded him the CA$100,000 he sought.

The class action was ratified Aug. 12, with the Quebec Superior Court approving a CA$31.5 million out-of-court settlement.

In a statement, Ouellet’s lawyers were pleased the court recognized the injustice suffered by the cardinal.

“This judgment reaffirms a fundamental principle: even in the context of judicial proceedings, serious allegations must be based on accurate and relevant facts and advanced with the rigour required by their gravity,” Dominique Ménard said in the statement.

The cardinal has promised to donate the award to organizations fighting against sexual abuse experienced by Indigenous Canadians.

The class action also accused Quebec’s current archbishop, Cardinal Gérald Lacroix, of sexual misconduct. After stepping aside for six months in early 2024, Lacroix resumed his role after a Vatican-mandated investigation found no evidence to support the accusations.

This story was first published by Canada’s The Catholic Register and is reprinted here with permission.

Bishop Ramón Castro Castro of Cuernavaca, president of the Mexican Bishops’ Conference (CEM, by its Spanish acronym) was the main celebrant of the Mass. Concelebrating alongside various priests, along with Flores, were Bishop Oscar Cantú of San José, California, chairman of the USCCB Subcommittee on Hispanic/Latino Affairs; and Bishop Pierre Goudreault of Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière, president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.

In a brief message, Flores expressed gratitude for “Bishop Ramón’s inspiration in inviting us to this gathering to strengthen this ecclesial communion.”

“In the times we are living through, it will become increasingly important — indeed, urgent — for the Catholic Church in the Americas to speak with one voice, defending the honor of Our Lord and the dignity of the human person — especially the poor and immigrants, who often have nowhere to lay their heads, just like the Lord Jesus himself,” he said.

“We need to preach together and united as one Church, under the guidance of our Holy Father, Pope Leo, and in communion with all the bishops of the world,” he added.

3 distinct countries ‘but one and the same faith’

In his homily, Castro highlighted that this meeting of leaders from North American episcopal conferences is “the first of its kind in our history.”

“We are three distinct countries. We are three Churches with different histories and realities, yet we share one and the same faith, one baptism, one Eucharist, and one mission,” the Mexican prelate affirmed.

Regarding the role of bishops, Castro emphasized that “before being leaders, we are disciples,” and “before having responsibilities, we are men called by the Lord.”

“Perhaps this can be the profound spirit of this gathering of the Church in North America: for all of us to place ourselves once again behind Jesus.”

‘Enormous challenges’

The president of the CEM emphasized that “our peoples face enormous challenges, particularly Mexico,” and pointed to issues such as “violence, demagoguery, corruption, loneliness, secularization, individualism, materialism, polarization, wounded families, and young people seeking reasons for hope.”

He further noted that “perhaps one of the most common themes among the three of us as countries and conferences is migration.”

“Over the coming days, we will have the opportunity to share our perspectives on these realities, not in a spirit of judgment or confrontation but rather out of the pastoral responsibility that falls to us as shepherds,” the bishop of Cuernavaca said.

“We want to better understand the lives of our people. To what end? To be able to serve them better,” he stated.

Castro emphasized that “migration must not be reduced to statistics, public policies, or economic obligations,” because “behind every migrant there is a face, a story, a family, a hope, and, unfortunately, often many wounds.”

“The Church must view these people as brothers and sisters whose dignity must be recognized and protected,” he said.

The Mexican bishop also expressed his wish “that from Cuernavaca we might send a simple yet powerful sign to our churches, churches on pilgrimage in Canada, the United States, and Mexico.”

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 principal resources used by Menezes are the message for the 60th World Communications Day and the encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, both by Pope Leo XIV, regarding the safeguarding of the human person in the age of artificial intelligence; the document Antiqua et Nova, a joint note from the Holy See’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and Dicastery for Culture and Education, signed by Pope Francis concerning the relationship between artificial intelligence and human intelligence; and a reflection by Father Doriano Vincenzo De Luca, head of the social communications service for the Archdiocese of Naples, Italy.

“The starting point for all the Church’s reflection on artificial intelligence is the unconditional defense of the dignity of the human person,” the archbishop of Aracaju explained. The prelate highlighted that the note Antiqua et Nova “places human dignity at the center of discernment regarding artificial intelligence and reminds us that technology must be guided by the good of the person and of society” and that “human intelligence must guide the use of technology for the sake of the ‘authentic good of the person.’”

Therefore, “in light of the guidelines of the Church’s magisterium and with the aim of guiding discernment regarding the proper use of artificial intelligence tools, ensuring respect for the principle of human dignity by ‘preserving faces and voices,’ and ensuring these tools serve as an aid rather than replacing the responsible work that only a human being can perform, we hereby establish” certain guidelines within the territory of our Archdiocese of Aracaju, the bishop said.

Review and transparency

Menezes mandated that “all art produced with the aid of artificial intelligence” within the archdiocese must “undergo a mandatory human review before publication” and that “any and all content generated or manipulated by artificial intelligence” must also “be labeled and clearly distinguished from content created by humans, especially when the use of AI could affect the perception of the reality being presented.”

Prohibited uses for clergy

Regarding the clergy, Menezes directed that “generative artificial intelligence must not be used to reconstruct or simulate the appearance of a bishop, priest, or deacon when the result replaces their actual photograph or could be interpreted as an authentic representation of their appearance or of a situation they experienced.”

He also established that “generative artificial intelligence must not be used to reconstruct or simulate the voice of a bishop, priest, or deacon in a message or speech not originally delivered by them” and that “one must not attribute to a real person an appearance, speech, action, or situation that does not correspond to reality.”

In addition, the archbishop prohibited the use of artificial intelligence to “reconstruct a real person’s face, replacing their photograph”; to “significantly modify a real person’s features”; to “create an artificial appearance presented as their actual appearance”; to “produce images placing a member of the clergy in situations that did not occur”; to “produce a synthetic representation that could be mistaken for a real photograph”; and to “create audio files attempting to simulate a person’s voice in a message or speech not actually delivered by that person.”

AI as an auxiliary tool

According to the archbishop of Aracaju, “artificial intelligence can be used as an auxiliary tool” in nine situations: creating backgrounds, creating textures, generating abstract elements, creating illustrations, suggesting layouts, working with colors, assisting with composition, assisting with editing, and helping to create visual concepts.

“These guidelines are based particularly on the message from Pope Leo XIV for the 60th World Communications Day, in which the Holy Father warns that the simulation capabilities of artificial intelligence can fabricate ‘parallel realities,’ usurp faces and voices, and make it increasingly difficult to distinguish between reality and fiction,” Menezes explained.

According to the archbishop, “the same document” also “draws attention to the need to protect people’s images, photographs, audio recordings, faces, and voices, preventing harmful uses such as digital fraud, cyberbullying, and deepfakes that can violate privacy and personal intimacy without consent.”

At the end of the decree, Menezes exhorted “all pastoral workers, communicators, and the faithful to act with prudence, always consulting their respective ordinaries and respecting current regulations, so that technology may serve the mission and never distort it.” He further emphasized that “everything the Church communicates must be truthful in content and responsible in its manner of representation.”

The archbishop ended his directive with the prayer “May Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, patroness of our archdiocese, intercede for us and help us preserve, in every communication, the dignity and beauty of human faces and voices called to reflect Christ.”

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

In the world of video games, “farming” means collecting points toward a goal. Under the Merriam-Webster Dictionary’s “Slang and Trending” category, aura farming means “the act of doing something to look cool, impressive, stylish, etc.” To “farm aura,” the dictionary further explains, means to “do something in order to enhance one’s coolness.”

The expression spread rapidly on social media platforms like TikTok, sparking curiosity and a following, primarily among Gen Z youth. However, the phenomenon’s viral nature quickly moved from screens to the streets.

Through specific gestures that have become hallmarks of the trend, young people gather to “farm aura” and even hold competitions featuring distinctive poses, facial expressions, or ways of walking, with the surrounding crowd deciding who performed best.

Reflecting on this trend, Cardinal Fernando Chomali, archbishop of Santiago, Chile, has observed that "‘Aura farming’ is a desperate cry from young people to be seen, heard, valued, loved, and acknowledged.”

“It’s a different version of the ‘therian’ trend [a person who psychologically identifies with an animal], reflecting the same worrying phenomenon: Many young people feel lonely! And, regrettably, little is said about that," Chomali commented on X.

In another post, the cardinal advised young people: “The best way to aura farm is to approach life with hope and joy. I invite you to study assiduously and to prepare your body and soul well to serve others. What better way to aura farm than by thinking big and building a more just country! Aura for and by Chile!” he encouraged.

Towards that end, on Aug. 27, the cardinal highlighted a relevant social service in Santiago: “The Franciscans of Recoleta, day after day, provide lunch for 150 people. The soup kitchen is very orderly and has a wholesome atmosphere.” The stories the guests “tell of so many people without a home, without family, with nothing, except a lunch served with love by the friars and their collaborators. I love the Church and am happy to have given my life to it! Purely aura farming with Christ,” Chomali indicated.

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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 term “cenotaph” comes from a Greek expression meaning “empty tomb” and traditionally refers to a monument built to honor a person whose remains are buried elsewhere.

It is common to find these small structures on streets, sidewalks, medians, and highways in countries such as Peru, Colombia, or Mexico, usually placed to mark the location where a person lost his or her life.

In an interview with ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, Father Roberto Delgado Suárez, a priest of the Diocese of Nezahualcóyotl  in Mexico specializing in grief ministry and palliative care, explained that through Christ’s sacrifice, the cross was transformed from “a sign of condemnation into a sign of salvation.”

He noted that such memorials can help people reinterpret the site where their loved one died, turning a space associated with sorrow into “a sacred place.” He pointed out that, especially for families, the cenotaph serves as a way to express “This is where I last saw my son; this is where my son was — here in this world.”

On the other hand, Delgado noted that for some people, a cenotaph can represent a “call for justice,” as is the case with “mothers or families searching for their children.” In this way, the memorials can take on a dual meaning: an expression of faith, but also “a sign [calling for] justice.”

Although the cenotaphs are neither cemetery monuments nor crypts, the priest urged people to show them due respect, as they are “signs that point us toward God.”

The memorials are built in a variety of ways. Some consist solely of a cross and a plaque bearing the deceased personʼs name; others include photographs, flowers, candles, or religious images. In some cases, families erect larger structures resembling a cemetery monument along the roadside.

Guillermina Hernández Martínez, a psychologist and specialist in thanatology (the study of death, dying, loss, and grief), said the significance of these memorials varies.

In an interview with ACI Prensa, she noted that “sometimes, out on the streets, the crosses are now forgotten,” while others remain tended for years.

Hernández warned that in some cases, too much of a bond to the location of the memorial could hinder emotional healing, as “people often continue to idealize [the deceased] and do not allow themselves to process their grief.” She emphasized the importance of psychological and thanatological support, particularly in the wake of a violent death.

Grief, she explained, is a process requiring time and support, yet one must always remember that “it is part of life,” and for Catholics it is “another step toward being with God.”

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.