We Are Our Mother of Perpetual Help Parish

Dhaka, Bangladesh, Jul 30, 2025 / 14:39 pm (CNA).

As parents grieve the loss of their children, the Catholic bishops of Bangladesh have urged the government to fully support victims and families following the July 21 crash of an air force training jet into a local school that killed at least 35 and injured over 170 people, most of them children.

Bishop Ponen Paul Kubi, secretary-general of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Bangladesh, told EWTN News the incident is “deeply saddening for us and a great loss for our country, as we have lost many from our future generation. We have requested prayers in our churches, because prayer is our source of strength and comfort.”

Pope Leo XIV sent his condolences as families grapple with the loss of loved ones after a F-7 BGI fighter jet took off from Kurmitola Air Base for a routine training mission and developed a technical malfunction shortly after takeoff. The pilot, who was on his first solo flight, attempted an emergency maneuver to avoid populated areas but the aircraft crashed into the two-story Milestone School and College in the Uttara area of Dhaka. The crash sparked a fire that engulfed parts of the school building.

In a telegram sent on July 22, Pope Leo expressed that he was “deeply saddened” by the devastating loss of life, particularly the children who were caught in the sudden disaster.

The message, delivered by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, stated that the Holy Father “entrusts the deceased to the merciful love of the Almighty” and prayed “that their families and friends may be consoled in their grief, and for the healing and comfort of the injured.” He also invoked “divine blessings of peace and strength” upon the entire school community and all those affected.

One of the victims of the crash was 14-year-old Ukya Chhaing Marma, a seventh-grade student at Milestone School who lived in a campus hostel. He loved playing the guitar and riding his bicycle. His parents, both schoolteachers living in Bandarban, 325 kilometers (about 200 miles) from Dhaka, had sent him to the capital for a better education. Ukya was their only child.

Shortly after the crash, the Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defence rescued him from the spot. He was rushed to the Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery in critical condition, suffering burns over 100% of his body. Despite all efforts, he died around 2 a.m.

Ukya’s father, Usai Mong Marma, said: “My son was very talented and dreamed of becoming an engineer. As his father, I feel helpless; I couldn’t do anything for him.” His mother, Daisy Prue Marma, tearfully added: “As a mother, I just pray no other mother ever has to feel the emptiness I carry in my heart.”

This tragic event, one of the worst air disasters in Dhaka in recent memory, has triggered a wave of national mourning and renewed calls from civil society for accountability and improved safety measures in military training missions.

Father Biswajit Bernard Bormon, priest of St. Joseph’s Church in Dharenda, Savar, said: “We held a special Mass in our church dedicated to the victims of the Milestone tragedy. At the beginning of the Mass, we observed a one-minute silence, praying for the eternal rest of those who lost their lives and for the recovery of those who are injured. In addition, we are praying for them daily during our rosary prayers.”

Following the crash, the government declared July 22 a national day of mourning, calling for special prayers across the country.

“I express my deep grief and sorrow over the heartbreaking loss of lives caused by the crash,” interim leader Muhammad Yunus wrote in a post on X. “This is a moment of profound pain for the nation. I pray for the swift recovery of the injured and have instructed all relevant authorities, including hospitals, to respond to the situation with the highest priority.”

Bangalore, India, Jul 30, 2025 / 14:09 pm (CNA).

Protests are spreading in India over the arrest of two nuns on conversion and human trafficking charges in Chattisgarh state in central India. 

The ongoing demonstrations that began with the July 25 arrests intensified after the release of the nuns was delayed by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government opposing bail for the religious, who have been in jail for nearly a week.

“What kind of justice is this?” Cardinal Baselios mar Cleemis, the archbishop of the Syro Malankara Church and former president of Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, said on July 30.

The prelate spoke at the end of a protest march to the Kerala Legislative Assembly at Thiruvananthapuram, demanding the “immediate release” of the nuns, who are from the Christian heartland of Kerala.

On July 27, the Indian Catholic bishops in a press statement expressed “outrage and deep concern over the recent arrest” of the nuns at the Durg railway station in Chattisgarh. The religious were arrested when they reached the station to receive three young women to their convents.

Sister Preetha Mary and Sister Vandana Francis belong to the Assisi Sisters of Mary Immaculate congregation. The police charged them with “conversion and human trafficking,” the bishops said. 

The nuns were “subjected to harassment, false accusations, and fabricated cases. They were physically assaulted and the arrest took place despite written consent letters issued by the parents of each woman above 18 years of age,” the bishops said.

“Anti-national elements” including “Hindu fundamentalist outfits” are “tracking the movements of Catholic nuns,” they alleged.

“Such incidents not only threaten the modesty of women but also put their lives in grave danger. These repeated unwarranted actions are a grave violation of the Constitution and cannot be tolerated,” the bishops said.

“It is absolutely shocking and sad that the two religious sisters have been illegally detained under false charges of human trafficking and forced conversion,” Sister M. Nirmalini, the president of the women’s wing of the Conference of Religious India, told CNA on July 30. 

“Shockingly, the charges have been made without ascertaining or verifying facts,” said the nun, who belongs to the Apostolic Carmel Congregation.

“An entire anti-minority brigade is whipping up a frenzy to create a false narrative and polarize the people against the Christians and particularly the tribals,” Nirmalini said. “This must stop immediately and those responsible and the local police must be booked by the higher authorities.”

“Some congregations have asked members to avoid traditional habits in public places to avoid harassment,” Nirmalini said.

“Even the Kerala BJP president has [criticized] the arrest of the nuns. Yet, they continue to be jailed on trumped-up charges,” said Cleemis, who along with a dozen bishops wore black ribbons on their faces while hundreds of nuns, priests, and even non-Catholics joined the recent protest in the Kerala capital.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the president of the BJP in Kerala, told reporters in New Delhi: “Our top priority is to protect the nuns and ensure justice.”

“The persecution of the nuns by imprisoning them is a shame for the country,” said John Brittas, a Catholic member in the upper house of the Indian Parliament, during the parliamentary debate on July 30.

Spirited protests have continued in several other cities in Kerala and elsewhere, including Bangalore, as the nuns continue to languish in jail.

“You cannot hold the Indian Constitution hostage. Jailing nuns for offering employment to young Christian women with their parents’ consent is a national shame,” Archbishop Andrews Thazhath of Thrissur said at a protest on July 29.

Vatican City, Jul 30, 2025 / 13:39 pm (CNA).

President of Caritas Internationalis Cardinal Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi, SVD, praised the Church’s young humanitarians this week for their generous dedication to the world’s poor, saying they are bearers of hope who have overcome the world’s “biggest problem” of selfishness.

“You see, there are many problems right now,” Kikuchi told CNA in an interview. “But the biggest problem is that people are becoming very, very selfish — to think about themselves only and forget about the cry of those people in need.”

“Young people are living in difficult situations now in many countries,” he said. “The social situation, the economic situation, jobs, and education are not satisfactory and so young people are really only interested in themselves.”

“Caritas wants to tell people that opportunities are not only for them — God created everybody and everybody are brothers and sisters,” he continued.

“We are equal,” he said. “So we have to think about other people.”

In Rome to support the multinational Caritas Youth delegation participating in the July 28 to Aug. 3 Jubilee of Youth, the Japanese cardinal expressed great pride in the young men and women who have chosen to commit themselves to Caritas’ mission to serve the poor. 

“These young people are the real present of this world today,” the cardinal told CNA during his brief visit Tuesday with Caritas Youth delegates stationed near St. Peter’s Basilica to raise awareness of the Church’s humanitarian work with passersby and other jubilee pilgrims.

Kikuchi, who was made a cardinal by Pope Francis in December 2024 and has worked for Caritas since 1995, presides over the Church’s global humanitarian network — comprising 162 national member organizations — operating in thousands of dioceses and parishes in over 200 countries. 

Since the opening of the jubilee dedicated to youth, Pope Leo XIV has reiterated the need for the Church to be witnesses of hope, telling young people to “shout” for peace. This week, he also released his August prayer intention for “mutual coexistence.”

“And today your voices, your enthusiasm, your cries — which are all for Jesus Christ — will be heard to the ends of the earth,” Leo told pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square on Tuesday evening.

“And our cry must also be for world peace,” he insisted. “Let us all say: ‘We want world peace!’”

According to Kikuchi, a missionary priest of the Society of the Divine Word, “Pope Leo is also saying the same thing [as Pope Francis] — that we have to be attentive to the cry of the people.”

 

Turning Pope Leo’s calls for peace into action 

For Caritas Korea youth delegate Maria Mi Kyong Kim, the pope’s continuous calls for peace have brought profound meaning to her work with the world’s second-largest humanitarian aid and development network.

“His first words out, ‘peace be with you,’ was very strong and powerful to many,” Kim told CNA, reflecting on the pope’s first address given from the balcony of St. Peter’s Square in May. “Peace is perhaps the essence of everything.” 

“At this moment, there are so many protracted crises and so many countries that are facing economic failures,” she said. “If you look deep down there is always that issue of ‘peace’ within the country and also with neighboring countries, and there are always constant conflicts.”

Building community, solidarity among people within regions 

Caritas Asia youth coordinator Sam Ratha Lay said the Church needs “the hands of young people” to support the vast region’s activities aimed at helping families affected by natural disasters, such as floods, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions.

“We need them to join together to build communities and even prevent [future] disasters,” he said. 

Supporting the poor, vulnerable in one’s own country   

Concerned by the social problems within her own country, Caritas Egypt youth delegate Engy Zaher coordinates a 90-day residential drug rehabilitation program in her home country. 

“Many younger people and families are facing challenges such as addiction, lack of economic empowerment and youth empowerment, poverty, and lack of access to mental health support,” she told CNA.

“Our professional services and our presence gives people hope and the real chance of rebuilding their lives with dignity,” she said.

Raising the voices of the poor to world leaders

Looking forward to reading Pope Leo’s highly-anticipated first encyclical once it is released, Edward Marshall, who volunteers with Caritas’ England-Wales branch known as the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD), said the role of advocacy is just as important as fundraising or emergency response coordination.

“About 40% of our work is in advocacy in London,” he shared with CNA. “So, campaigning in Westminster for U.K. politicians on global issues like the debt crisis, the migration crisis, and climate change.”

Speaking about the world’s future leaders who will, one day, hold positions of authority and influence in the secular world, Marshall said youth today “have a lot of energy and a lot of wisdom.”

“Younger people have a much greater understanding than people think on the issues that they care about,” he said. “If they have, or are given, a platform, they’ll use it to the best of their abilities.”

CNA Staff, Jul 30, 2025 / 13:09 pm (CNA).

The popular podcasting priest Father Carlos Martins is no longer facing criminal charges after an incident at an Illinois parish last year led to misdemeanor allegations. 

The Burke Law Group said in a Wednesday press release that the priest, who hosts “The Exorcist Files” podcast, had been “fully cleared of all charges” stemming from a Nov. 21, 2024, event held at Queen of Apostles Parish in Joliet, Illinois.

Attorney Marcella Burke told CNA in November that the disputed incident occurred when Martins touched a young girl’s hair while telling a joke about his own baldness. The joke occurred publicly “in a classroom setting with teachers, clergy, parish staff, and volunteers present.”

The incident led to Will County prosecutors filing a criminal complaint against Martins in January, one that alleged that Martins went so far as to place the girl’s hair in his mouth.

On Wednesday the Burke Law Group said that prosecutors “withdrew those charges and dismissed the case” without any finding of any wrongdoing or criminal liability on the part of the priest.

Burke on Wednesday told CNA the charge carried a maximum penalty of 365 days in jail and a $2,500 fine.

In the press release the attorney said the dismissal of the charges was “exactly the result we were expecting.”

“What he was charged with was simply absurd,” Burke said. “This was a case that never should have been brought forward. The court’s ruling is a full vindication of Father Martins’ innocence from the beginning of any and all criminal wrongdoing.”

Martins, meanwhile, said in the release that he was “deeply grateful to all who offered their prayers and support during this time.” 

“I am thankful for the truth coming to light and look forward to resuming my ministry and continuing to preach the Gospel,” the priest said. 

Martins is a priest of the Companions of the Cross order. The order had not yet released a statement on the case by Wednesday afternoon. 

Martins was visiting the Illinois parish as part of his national touring exhibit of a relic of the arm of St. Jude the Apostle via the ministry Treasures of the Church. 

The priest told EWTN News in 2023 that it was “the first time the arm of the saint … [had] left Italy.”

On its website Treasures of the Church says the 16-month-long tour was attended by “almost 2 million pilgrims” while visiting numerous dioceses and locations.

Puebla, Mexico, Jul 30, 2025 / 11:55 am (CNA).

The “The Virgin Everywhere” project, which seeks to bring images of Our Lady of Guadalupe to every corner of the world, has completed its latest challenge: covering the entire perimeter of Mexico.

The accomplishment was announced this month by Alejandro Olivares on TikTok. “Everything ends where it begins. We are in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua state, at St. Lawrence Church. We just finished Mass. We are giving thanks because we started here to place images of the Virgin on the border, and today we finished.”

“There are already images from Tijuana to Matamoros [west to east on the northern border],” he said. “We traveled many kilometers to place the Virgin everywhere, and today we finished. But we didn’t just finish the border, we finished the entire perimeter of this great country.”

“The Virgin Everywhere” began during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 in Monterrey, Nuevo León state on the border with the U.S. as a joint initiative between Olivares and a friend, Juan García Gaeta.

Five years later, “we’ve already reached 120 countries,” Olivares told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. Among other countries far from Mexico, he noted, “there’s already one in Zambia, one in New Zealand, more than three in Australia, five in Iceland, etc.”

Outside of Mexico, he estimates there are “about a thousand” images of Our Lady of Guadalupe, out of a total of 52,000 they’ve produced over the past five years. The rest are “within Mexico.” All the “The Virgin Everywhere” locations around the world can be seen on this map.

In this challenge alone, covering the perimeter of Mexico with images of the Virgin, they used around 1,700.

How to get one

Since its inception, the project’s mechanics have remained the same: someone purchases an image through the website www.lavirgenentodoslados.com and takes it home. With that money, the team finds a suitable wall on a street and with permission stencils a similar image. 

To hold up outdoors, the images are imprinted on the chosen surface by spraying electrostatic paint over a metal stencil. 

The durability of the images was put to the test by the recent wildfires in California. In June, the project shared a series of photos on Instagram “of a friend who lost his house in one of the California fires.”

“They told him the temperature reached over 1,200 degrees Celsius [about 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit],” the post continues, adding: “Even so, an image of #lavirgenentodoslados was recovered, and a clay statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe that was on a shelf fell to the floor and the colors were changed.”

‘Many people cry with emotion’ 

Olivares shared how, over the years, he’s seen the impact of taking the image of the Virgin “everywhere.”

People’s reactions are often “one of surprise, of gratitude ... we’ve had many people cry with emotion,” he said. “Yes, it’s been something that no one expects, and they say, ‘You know what, you made my day.’”

He also shared a very personal story about the impact that “The Virgin Everywhere” has left in a neighborhood called “Infonavit La Huasteca,” an area marked by violence. There, encouraged by Father Humberto Noel Lozano, then-pastor of the Christ the Worker Parish in the area, they managed to put images of the Blessed Virgin Mary on more than 50 walls.

When the priest was finally going to be transferred to another parish, Olivares said, “the municipality thanked him because they’re no longer killing people, there’s no more violence, and there are no more drugs.”

“So you say: Yes, it changes the social fabric; I mean, it works ... it’s worth putting her everywhere, right?”

‘A miracle’

For Olivares, the growth of this project can be summed up as “a miracle.”

“When we started, only one friend was cutting out images of the Virgin, and little by little, people have joined without even looking for them. Right now, there are seven companies making images of the Virgin for free.”

“Free metal, free paint, free cutting, who does that? ... Is it because I’m so good-looking? I don’t think so; it’s because of the Virgin,” he assured.

“The other day, a man told me: ‘Hey Alex, I want to give you metal, I love your project, I want to give you 20 tons of metal. Do you know how much 20 tons of metal is? That’s way over the top. That’s two overloaded trailers,” he noted.

And the reach of “The Virgin Everywhere” continues to surprise him. “The other day, a friend went to Machu Picchu [in Cusco, Peru] and said, ‘Hey, in a little lunch shop here in Machu Picchu, I found the ‘Virgin Everywhere.’ And I said, ‘Well, she’s everywhere.’”

Stories like these, from almost all over the planet, make Olivares see “the Virgin’s action clearly.”

The next challenge

With this challenge complete, there’s another one: the plan is to take the Virgin Mary “to all the inhabited islands of Mexico,” which total 85.

“We’ve only done seven,” he said, while figuring out how he’ll take the Virgin to several more islands on his upcoming trips. And it won’t end there. Afterward, he continued, “let’s see what the Virgin and the Holy Spirit say.” It could include completing Latin America, starting either in Guatemala (right below Mexico) going from north to south, or from Tierra del Fuego (the southern tip of South America) going from south to north.

For now, with the help of Opus Dei Tips, young Catholic women from Monterrey who are currently in Rome for the Jubilee of Digital Missionaries and Catholic Influencers, have traveled with images of “The Virgin Everywhere” that will be distributed throughout the Eternal City.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

CNA Newsroom, Jul 30, 2025 / 09:45 am (CNA).

Bishop Stefan Oster of Passau in Bavaria delivered a spirited defense of American Bishop Robert Barron while sharply condemning what he called “beige Catholicism” in Germany on Sunday. 

The defense came as Barron received the Josef Pieper Prize in Münster on July 27 amid fierce protests from Catholic groups and political organizations.

Critics accused the American prelate of promoting “exclusionary identity politics” and cooperating with networks that “ideologically support autocratic political forces,” reported CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner.

Protesters — including the local Green Party, a diocesan lay association, and the Catholic youth organization BDKJ — staged a public vigil Sunday, citing concerns over Barron’s alleged support for U.S. President Donald Trump and anti-LGBTQ+ positions.

The Catholic-Theological Faculty at the University of Münster added its concerns, expressing “bewilderment” at the award choice.

Oster tackled the protests in his laudatio.

“When I hear how some voices in our country try to reflexively defame [Barron] as right-wing or as a supporter of Trump, such a categorization, which usually happens very quickly, tells us much more about the person making the judgment and often enough about the Church system and its media processes in our country than about the person being judged,” Oster said.

The bishop offered a broader critique of contemporary Catholicism in Germany, which he suggested has risked abandoning magisterial teaching in favor of cultural accommodation. 

He described a phenomenon where “many in our Church have largely left behind binding doctrinal positions” on fundamental anthropological questions and sacramental theology.

Oster warned particularly against what Barron terms “beige Catholicism.” The Bavarian prelate described this as “a phenomenon in which the prevailing culture dominates the faith and adapts it to itself” without faith transforming culture in return.

This, he said, results in “a mostly well-financed Catholicism of appeasement” in Germany, which “has essentially lost its spiritual power and attraction.”

Oster said that much of the German criticism stemmed from discomfort with authentic evangelization. “New evangelization has no easy standing in our specifically German form of church,” he observed.

“Many find it annoying or suspicious. But because ‘new evangelization’ is at the heart of Bishop Barron’s faithful commitment, it seems almost inevitable to his critics that he must somehow come from the right-wing corner.”

Oster predicted a future reckoning: “In the foreseeable future, many more people will ask themselves: How can it be that Bishop Barron has such a reach in our country and has long been one of the beacons of hope for renewal among many young people in our country? How can that be, even though he is so loyal to the magisterium?”

The Josef Pieper Foundation noted Barron’s “unmistakable affinity for Pieper’s philosophy of religion” and his work to restore “an insight-supported access to the unabridged Catholic confession of faith” in contemporary missionary situations.

Barron, who has over 6 million followers across social media platforms and has received nine honorary doctorates, is the founder of the Word on Fire ministry, which reaches millions globally through digital evangelization efforts. 

His signature exhortation is to not “dumb down the faith.”

The Josef Pieper Prize honors the legacy of the German Catholic philosopher (1904–1997), who was renowned for his accessible writings on Thomistic philosophy and his insights into leisure, contemplation, and the relationship between faith and reason.

Buenos Aires, Argentina, Jul 30, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

Opus Dei has denounced the “manipulation of judicial proceedings to create a media and public opinion case” in the lawsuit advanced by former assistant numeraries in Argentina, which now seeks to implicate the highest authorities of the organization in alleged human trafficking.

The case was formally filed in court in 2024, but media coverage began years earlier. According to the lawsuit, Opus Dei authorities allegedly recruited women while they were still minors and subjected them to a regime of semi-slavery in their residences.

The conflict began as a labor complaint and then progressed into a lawsuit for compensation for damages, eventually leading to allegations of alleged labor exploitation. As of June 2023, a judicial investigation has been underway following a complaint alleging that a group of women were victims of human trafficking and labor exploitation.

The Argentine prosecutor’s office has requested an investigation into the last four regional vicars of Opus Dei in Argentina, including the current auxiliary vicar of Opus Dei and the organization’s second in command, Monsignor Mariano Fazio. The plaintiff’s lawyer is calling on prosecutors to also request a statement from the prelate of Opus Dei, Monsignor Fernando Ocáriz.

However, the prelature has pointed out that the presiding judge has not yet charged any crimes, ruled on whether to grant the request, or named those whom he might summon.

Opus Dei issued a statement to clarify that the judicial investigation is based on the personal situation of one woman when she was part of the apostolate and that within this context, the plaintiff’s lawyer “announced in the media that he has requested the prosecutors’ office that Monsignor Fernando Ocariz, the prelate of Opus Dei, be summoned for questioning.”

The prelature believes this request has no factual or legal basis but is part of “a deceptive and sustained media strategy that, from the beginning, has attempted to distort the purposes of a criminal investigation to address a labor compensation claim.”

“The case as a whole represents an attempt at manipulation by introducing the charge of a committing a criminal offense (human trafficking) that actually has no connection with the facts described by the complainants themselves, much less with the reality of Opus Dei,” the apostolate pointed out.

Opus Dei asserts that the request to summon Ocáriz for questioning is an attempt to “artificially extend the scope of the criminal investigation to include people whose direct connection to the alleged events described by the complainant is nonexistent,” with the purpose of “amplifying the impact on public opinion and exerting pressure on the justice system.”

The apostolate also pointed out that something similar happened “with the request that Monsignor Mariano Fazio be summoned to testify, which was announced with an orchestrated media blitz.”

The conflict, the statement adds, reflects a “complete decontextualization of the freely chosen vocation of the assistant numerary of Opus Dei.”

The prelature regretted “that judicial mechanisms are being used to sustain a prefabricated narrative that seeks to establish blame without any basis in the facts that actually occurred” and called for respect for the presumption of innocence.

Opus Dei therefore reiterated that it rejects “these allegations” and maintains its “complete willingness to cooperate with the judicial authorities, trusting that the truth will prevail.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 30, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

This week, Pope Leo XIV welcomed journalism students to Rome who have traveled from across the globe to take part in the fourth annual EWTN Summer Academy.

The 40 students joined thousands of others gathered for the Jubilee of Digital Missionaries and the Jubilee of Youth. On Sunday, Pope Leo said to the young crowds: “I greet the faithful from Kearny, New Jersey; the Catholic Music Award group; and the EWTN Summer Academy.”

The Summer Academy attendees will collaborate on stories and work in teams to produce, shoot, and edit videos over the 10-day course. The goal is that after the training, networking, and prayer, the students will have the skills to go out and be digital missionaries in an age where so much of what people learn and consume is online.

While the students are from 20 different countries and come from various backgrounds in journalism, they are united by the same mission.

One student told “EWTN News Nightly” in Rome: “I was very amazed that we’re all here for the same reason, to work for God and do what we can in this world to spread the truth … It’s very humbling to know that we’re all here connected together, fighting for what is right.”

“We do everything for the Church and ultimately for the evangelization to bring people closer to God,” another student added. “So when you step outside of yourself and you say, ‘It’s not about me, it’s about God,’ you can do almost anything.”

Other young journalists taking part in the July 21–31 summer course are Charbel and Giovanni Lteif, Lebanese twin brothers who have been creating content on social media about Christianity in the Eastern region.

The brothers have built their Christian platform in just one year, expanding across multiple social media outlets to reach global audiences. The success of their digital work earned them acceptance into the academy.

In Rome, Charbel told EWTN that Generation Z is “coming to Christ in big numbers, and that’s very beautiful to see. And people miss tradition. They miss a sense of belonging, a sense of not scrolling all day.”

Giovanni added: “And I think that people, when they see the faith in the East, they get excited and motivated. ‘If they have that strong faith in the East, I want to have it here too.’ So it’s like connecting the entire world … in our faith.”

While working with the 40 students from a number of different nations, Giovanni said: “It was the first time in my life I saw how global our Church is. And I saw that no matter where you are on earth, if you have good Christian values, we’re the same … This is how we change the world; 40 people or 12 disciples, change the world.”

During the closing Mass for the Jubilee of Digital Missionaries, Pope Leo said to the digital creators: “It is not simply a matter of generating content but of creating an encounter of hearts. This will entail seeking out those who suffer, those who need to know the Lord, so that they may heal their wounds, get back on their feet, and find meaning in their lives.”

The head of the Commission for Youth of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church is in Rome with thousands of young people celebrating their Jubilee. He speaks of the power of witness in particular of young Ukrainians from warfront regions.

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The bishops of the Episcopal Conference of Angola and São Tomé (CEAST) are following with concern the wave of vandalism in the Angolan capital, which has already resulted in five deaths and more than 1,000 arrests.

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