Where priestly vocations begin: The lasting impact of Steubenville Youth Conferences
In April, the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate’s (CARA) survey was released and showed that 18% of priests ordained this year attended a Franciscan University of Steubenville Youth Conference during their vocational journey. This was more than any other Catholic conference ministry in the United States.
In previous years — specifically from 2010 to 2025 — this percentage ranged between 8% to 16%.
In 1976, Franciscan University of Steubenville held its first youth conference on its campus in Steubenville, Ohio. Celebrating 50 years this summer, the youth conferences have helped over 1 million young people encounter Jesus Christ through dynamic talks, the Mass, Eucharistic adoration, confession, prayer, and fellowship.
So, what is it about the Steubenville Youth Conference that is having such an impact on young people and specifically vocations?
EWTN News spoke to a priest and a transitional deacon — both of whom credit their experience at a Steubenville Youth Conference with impacting their vocations — about their journeys to the priesthood and why they believe this conference is igniting a fire for the faith in the hearts of young people.
Seeing joyful priests changed everything
Father Rufino Corona is a Third Order Regular Franciscan in Steubenville who was ordained in 2020. Originally from Puebla, Mexico, Corona came to the United States with his parents at the age of 8 and grew up in San Diego.
As a teenager he was active in his youth group, and it was his youth minister who frequently told Corona that he could see him becoming a priest.
“It was something that he would say to me and I would kind of write it off,” Corona recalled. “Itʼs one of those things that as I look back now, I think part of the reason why was — for one thing, I was a teenager and really in that world, but also another thing, I feel like I had priests around me who were not bad priests but Iʼd seen people very passionate for the Gospel, be very passionate for evangelization, but that was not something that Iʼd ever really seen in a priest.”
He continued: “So all of a sudden I go to these youth conferences and, it wasnʼt necessarily one in particular, but it was these men were so on fire for the Lord, so on fire for the youth hearing the Gospel. That was really my first time seeing a priest just be passionate about the Lord, and be passionate about their faith, and be passionate for souls.”
Another impactful moment for Corona was the vocations call that takes place at the end of the weekend. On the last day of the conference, anyone who may be considering religious life is asked to stand up so they can receive a blessing.
“I joke about it now that that used to be my least favorite part of the weekend, because, especially, I went to four conferences, and especially in my third and fourth conference, I started to feel the Lord moving that way but I never got up,” he shared.
However, those moments also served as a “powerful witness” for him because Corona saw so many other men his age stand up and say that they were considering it, which was “part of what really started to open up my heart to it.”
A couple of years went by and Corona was put into a leadership position where he was ministering more to his peers and felt a great desire toward the sacrament of reconciliation as he was working with these individuals. Eventually he spoke to his spiritual director — a layman who worked at Franciscan University — who told him he could continue to pray about it or he could take a step. Corona decided to take a step.
He emailed the vocations director in San Diego but never heard back. However, after speaking more with his spiritual director he was encouraged to look into becoming a friar.
“He just knew how big brotherhood was for me and literally 24 hours into the Come and See [with the Franciscan friars], I knew thatʼs where I was supposed to be,” he recalled.
From the back bleachers to the altar
Deacon Arthur Bodenschatz is a transitional deacon in the Diocese of Youngstown, Ohio, who was ordained on June 6. He grew up in a very devout Catholic household. His parents met as NET missionaries — a youth ministry program — and instilled a love for evangelization in their four children.
In the second grade, Bodenschatz began to dress in all black to attend Mass — pretending that he was the priest. However, it wasn’t until he was 14 when he had a powerful encounter with God at a Steubenville Youth Conference that he knew he was meant to be a priest.
“The moment was during Saturday night adoration … and I was sitting on the back bleachers, in one of the uncomfortable spots, when the Eucharistic procession was going by and I just had a moment of locking eyes with the Lord in the Eucharist and just had a moment of realization, of grace, where I just knew that that was Jesus in the Eucharist. I knew that he loved me. I knew that I loved him. And I knew I was going to be a priest. And it was just a joyful moment filled with a lot of joyful tears,” he recalled.
After that experience, Bodenschatz went back home and became very involved with his youth group, began to attend daily Mass, and found a spiritual director.
After he graduated from high school, Bodenschatz went straight into Borromeo Seminary in Cleveland and will be ordained a priest in 2027.
“Iʼm looking forward to the completion of a nine-year journey. So much preparation leading up to it,” he shared. “And just the idea of celebrating that first Mass — it brings a smile to my face. Knowing that what I feel God has been calling me to for so long, that he wants to use me to turn bread and wine to his body and blood for the people of God … I just canʼt wait to be his instrument.”
The power of encountering a joyful Church
So, what is it about the Steubenville Youth Conferences that is inspiring so many vocations in young people?
For Bodenschatz, it was hearing the Gospel “in such a way that was personal to me.”
“Hearing the insistence and the repeated message that Jesus loves me and that the Holy Spirit is alive in me and wants to work in me was something that maybe Iʼd heard before but I was actually starting to experience it there,” he recalled. “So I think that was just a really powerful message that is embodied by the people who are up there speaking and embodied by the people up there leading worship and the whole community, the whole environment. Itʼs just so joyful.”
He added: “Whereas in my normal experience of parish life, I didnʼt see as much joy and I didnʼt see as many people my age or as many priests and sisters running around who were just so happy to be there. So I think something about that unique experience of just the universal Church so full of life really opened me up to what the Holy Spirit was doing in me.”
Corona echoed a similar sentiment in that it is powerful for young people to see the joy their peers are also carrying for the Lord and their faith.
“There is something about coming to a conference and seeing a thousand other kids there for the same reason,” he said. “It makes your faith seem like ‘OK, this is more than just my high school. OK, this is more than just my area. This is something real. This is something that Iʼm seeing other teens honoring God and so maybe thereʼs something here.’”
“I think that there is so much to the witness of the other groups that I think goes just a really, really long way because all of a sudden the faith becomes something so much more than my familyʼs thing or something so much more than, ‘Well I go to this youth group because thatʼs where my friends go.’”
Corona added: “Itʼs like, ‘Oh my gosh, I am surrounded by anywhere from 1,000 to 4,000 to 4,500 teens who all believe that this is real’ or at least who are trying to and are wanting to see this as something real.”
Poland inaugurates Europe’s tallest statue of the Virgin Mary
On Saturday, Aug. 15, the solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Catholic Church in Poland dedicated the largest statue of the Virgin Mary in Europe during a Mass celebrated by Bishop Krzysztof Wętkowski of Włocławek.
The monument stands 55.6 meters (182 feet) tall from ground level to its highest point. It was built in the town of Konotopie and funded by married couple Grażyna and Roman Karkosik, for whom it represents a “personal vow of thanksgiving for the recovery of their health and lives,” according to Euronews.
Its height exceeds that of the famous Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, which measures 38 meters (125 feet) from its base; it is also taller than the Christ the King of the Universe statue in Świebodzin, Poland, which stands 52.5 meters (172 feet) tall when measured from the mound upon which it rises.
According to Vatican News, the statue depicts Our Lady of Mercy and is located near a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows, which serves as a pilgrimage site. The bishop of Włocławek highlighted this during the blessing ceremony, noting that the site where the new monument stands "is no ordinary place; it is a place sanctified by the prayers of pilgrims.”
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Construction followed the design of sculptor Adam Jakub Matejkowski. The pedestal is surrounded by eight pillars in the form of a crown. Additionally, pilgrims can go up to a terrace at a height of 15.3 meters (50 feet), from where the image of Mary itself rises.
In his homily, the prelate emphasized the importance of lifting oneʼs gaze toward heaven, especially in these times when many people “keep their eyes fixed solely on the earth and focus exclusively on themselves.”
Regarding the name of the new sculpture, Wętkowski noted that St. Faustina Kowalska, to whom Christ revealed his divine mercy, was born in Świnice Warckie, also within the Diocese of Włocławek, where she was baptized and received her first Communion.
“Here in Konotopie, Mary, in the image we see, welcomes us all; she leans toward us and opens her arms to invite us to lift our gaze upward, toward God and heaven,” Wętkowski noted.
The ceremony began with the recitation of the rosary and concluded with a shower of red rose petals dropped from two helicopters hovering over the monument.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
Priest and nun recover sacred hosts from earthquake rubble in Colombia
When the Aug. 10 earthquake hit the town of Chiquinquirá in Roldanillo, a subdistrict of the Valle del Cauca district in Colombia, a wooden tabernacle in a historic chapel was destroyed, scattering consecrated hosts across the floor and covering them with debris. Minutes later, the pastor and a nearby religious sister gathered them up to take care of them according to Church protocol.
The quake severely damaged Our Lady of the Rosary chapel, which dates back to the 17th century. Inside the chapel’s tabernacle was the ciborium containing the consecrated hosts left over from the Mass celebrated the previous Saturday by Father Germán Andrés Clavijo, the pastor of St. Sebastian Parish, the parish to which the chapel belongs.
Immediately after the quake, which struck at 7:34 a.m. local time, the priest entered the chapel with Sister Marcela, a member of the Community of the Blessed Sacrament. They went straight to the wall where the tabernacle had been located. Falling debris had knocked the tabernacle down from its place.
“I said to her, ‘Help me look, because the consecrated hosts are there,’” the priest recounted to ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. “We found the ciborium, but it was completely smashed,” Clavijo said, adding that “some of the hosts were badly broken,” so they began gathering them up with great care.
As they picked them up by hand, both recited the “litanies to the Blessed Sacrament, to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament,” and placed them into a smaller ciborium. Afterward, they sprinkled water over the debris and the areas where particles of the hosts that could no longer be gathered up might have remained.
Regarding the hosts that were mixed in with dirt and debris, Clavijo said: “I told her they must be placed in a container of water so that they would dissolve” and the water could later be poured by a tree or into a potted plant.
No. 1377 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that “the Eucharistic presence of Christ begins at the moment of the consecration and endures as long as the Eucharistic species subsist” in the physical appearance of bread and wine.
The priest from Roldanillo said it was “very sad” to see the hosts scattered on the ground, for the Eucharist “is the life of the priest; that is the life of the Church; it is our center.”
However, he said he had to be “very strong, because I had to find a solution,” adding: “It wasn’t the time for lamenting; after all, the earthquake had just happened, and we were in a very unsafe spot, fearing that an aftershock or something else might cause debris to come crashing down on us.”
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The quake’s effects in Roldanillo
Roldanillo was one of the areas hardest hit areas by the earthquake. Located about 90 miles from Cali and founded in 1576, many of its buildings date back to the colonial era and the early days of the republic.
The day after the natural disaster, the Valle del Cauca governorʼs office reported that two people had died and 112 were injured. In addition, nearly 1,300 homes were affected, “some of which have completely collapsed,” and “60% of the hospital sustained structural damage.”
Regarding the parish church, the priest said that it is has closed due to the effects of the earthquake, so Masses are being celebrated in the town square. The chapel cannot be used either, and its restoration will depend on the Colombian government as it is classified as a national heritage building.
In the video he shared on the day of the earthquake, Clavijo expressed his solidarity with the residents of Roldanillo: “Amid the rubble left behind, I also wish to offer a prayer of hope and encouragement for those who have lost everything, especially those who have lost a loved one.”
The priest affirmed that, although it is not easy, “with hope and God’s hand, all of us united, will overcome this storm. As the Gospel said yesterday [Sunday, Aug. 9], sometimes we walk amid strong winds and turbulent waves, and our boat seems to be sinking, but God reaches out his hand to us. Like Peter, we all cry out: ‘Lord, save us.’”
“And that is what we pray for today. To all of you, I offer my blessing and words of encouragement and hope during these times. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” he said, blessing the viewers.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
Florida attorney general, Miami archbishop spar over vaccine exemptions in Catholic schools
A dispute between Florida’s Catholic bishops and state Attorney General James Uthmeier over vaccine exemptions in Catholic schools is testing the boundaries between state law and Church authority, with both sides arguing religious freedom is at stake.
The dispute began with what Wenski described as Uthmeierʼs “veiled threat” in a July 31 letter to the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops. In it, the attorney general urged the bishops to bring Catholic schools into compliance with Florida law requiring religious exemptions for school vaccine mandates, on pain of the loss of state funding through its school choice scholarship program.
Florida has one of the most expansive school choice programs in the United States, whereby families can use state-funded scholarship money for a variety of education-related expenses, including private school tuition.
Uthmeier argued in his letter that “at least one diocese” in Florida appears to have adopted a policy based on what he characterized as the bishops' erroneous interpretation of guidance given to Wenski in 2011 by the National Catholic Bioethics Center.
The bioethics center’s then-president, John Haas, said Catholic institutions could not grant exemptions to vaccines on religious grounds because the Church has determined that utilizing vaccines derived from aborted fetal cell lines was “not intrinsically evil” because of the remoteness of the original, evil act of abortion.
At the same time, Haas made a distinction between religious and conscience objections, stating Catholic institutions should grant the latter “as liberally as possible for the sake of the delicate consciences” of Catholic parents. He also noted that the consciences of those making school policies must be respected.
Wenski told “EWTN News in Depth” host Catherine Hadro in an Aug. 14 interview: “If a Catholic has conscience objections to the vaccines you canʼt say that your objections come from your understanding of the Catholic faith because the vaccinations available and developed are not contrary to Church teachings.”
Religious exemptions or conscience exemptions?
The distinction between the two types of exemptions is important, making the Florida case complicated, Andrea Picciotti-Bayer, an attorney and the founder of The Conscience Project, told EWTN News.
While most states offer some combination of medical, religious, and conscience exemptions to vaccine mandates, Florida law does not explicitly protect conscience objections, only medical and religious ones.
Uthmeier argues that conscience objections fall under the protection of religious liberty, particularly for Catholics, for whom the formation of conscience is a central aspect of the faith.
“The teachings of the Catholic Church do not require Catholic schools to compel students to take vaccines derived from the tissue of aborted children against the sincerely held religious objections of their parents,” Uthmeier wrote.
The attorney general also noted that some Catholic families object to certain vaccines not only because of their connection to aborted fetal cell lines, but also because of concerns about the safety of vaccine ingredients and methods of production, including the use of mRNA technology, which he said brings a “heightened risk of health defects, including miscarriages.”
The National Catholic Bioethics Center declined to comment to EWTN News. However, the organization maintains resources on its website stating the Church’s position that although vaccines developed through morally problematic means may be used for grave reasons, vaccination is not a moral obligation for Catholics and, in order to protect human dignity and the free exercise of conscience, should be voluntary.
The organization also states that “public health measures and policies should be built upon sound science and ethical principles.”
Uthmeier: Parents' rights are being violated
Uthmeier told EWTN News he is concerned about the "religious freedoms and rights of parents.” He pointed out that many Catholic families have come to him noting the irony that their conscience rights are protected in public schools in Florida but not in Catholic ones.
Uthmeier also said families are confused because Catholic schools in several dioceses across the country do grant vaccine conscience and religious exemptions.
Because Catholic schools receive state scholarship funds, he argued, the state has an interest in ensuring that religious freedoms are protected.
“Where First Amendment rights [and] the religious beliefs of parents are being violated, we as a state have a duty to investigate and see what legal tools we may have to protect our parents in Florida,” he said.
While acknowledging that the state cannot dictate religious beliefs, he said he remains unconvinced that the bishops have identified an authentically religious reason for denying exemptions.
A Catholic himself, Uthmeier further pointed to what he said were long-standing Catholic teachings regarding parental authority and conscience rights.
“Respecting the right of conscience is deeply embedded in our catechism,” he said. “How these rights can be violated, and how Catholic Church officials can disagree on citing religious teaching across the country, perplexes me.”
Wenski: Catholic schools must protect the common good
Wenski likewise framed the controversy as a religious freedom issue, from the perspective of the Churchʼs right to determine and apply its own teachings.
He described Uthmeierʼs position as “an unfair and ill-advised interpretation of separation of Church and state” and argued that lawmakers never intended school-choice scholarships to impose a religious test on participating schools.
“The Church has a right to determine our own teachings,” he said.
Wenski told EWTN News that the bishops “certainly respect the rights of conscience of every person.” At the same time, he said Catholic social teaching also obligates schools to promote the common good and protect children through immunization.
“Weʼve witnessed in recent months an upsurge of cases of measles, and we know that that presents certain dangers for pregnant women,” Wenski said.
The archbishop noted that Catholic schools already grant medical exemptions when a physician certifies that a child should not be vaccinated.
But he maintained that parents who object to vaccination are free to choose another school.
"Nobody is forced to go to a Catholic school,” he said.
The bishops sent Uthmeier a formal response, Wenski said, outlining what they view as the religious freedom issues implicated by the attorney generalʼs intervention.
Wenski said the bishops are “prepared to protect our students, to defend our rights, and to preserve religious freedom” while remaining open to continued dialogue with the state.
Critics of Florida bishops’ policy disagree
While Wenski suggested the issue is largely settled within Catholic teaching, critics of the Florida bishops' policy disagree.
Yvonne Bontkowski, director of Children of God for Life, said the controversy reflects a deeper disagreement over how Catholics should respond to vaccines connected to abortion-derived cell lines.
“This is the first time I have ever seen where the state isnʼt asking the Church to violate its teaching, itʼs asking the Church to honor it,” she told EWTN News.
The organization argues that although the Church has determined it can be morally permissible to receive such vaccines under certain circumstances, Church teaching says Catholics still have a moral duty to advocate for ethical alternatives and resist what it sees as the continued exploitation of aborted fetal tissue in biomedical research.
Bontkowski cited a 2005 document from the Pontifical Academy for Life, which established the moral permissibility of the use of vaccines developed from aborted fetal cell lines in order to protect health but also affirmed that Catholics may exercise conscientious objection regarding such vaccines.
“Our conscience is directed to what is morally good,” she said. “The Vatican never said these vaccines are morally good. It said weʼre not sinning if we take them for grave reasons and on a temporary basis while we demand ethical alternatives.”
She argued that families exercising that duty should not be excluded from Catholic education, which, unlike immunization, is a moral obligation.
Canon law states that parents have both a right and a “most grave obligation” to provide a Catholic education for their children, while Canon 217 affirms that the faithful have the right to a Christian education “by which they are to be instructed properly to strive for the maturity of the human person and at the same time to know and live the mystery of salvation.”
Other critics contend that the debate ultimately turns on differing understandings of public health and the common good.
Barbara Loe Fisher, co-founder and director of the National Vaccine Information Center, told EWTN News that Catholic school officials generally formulate vaccine and other public health policies based on the judgments of public health authorities.
But, she argued, the COVID-19 pandemic exposed public distrust in scientific and governmental institutions, especially regarding data about who is at greatest biological risk for vaccines “that could hurt or even kill people.”
“Unfortunately the entire notion of the common good rests upon the science,” Fisher said. “If the scientists and the government havenʼt done due diligence in doing the best science, or havenʼt told the full truth, that is a moral dilemma the Church is going to have to eventually grapple with.”
New film ‘American Martyr’ tells story of Oklahoma priest and martyr Blessed Stanley Rother
Hundreds gathered late last month in Oklahoma City for the premiere of the new film “American Martyr: The Stanley Rother Story,” a feature-length documentary depicting the inspiring life of Blessed Stanley Rother.
“This has been a long time coming,” Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City told EWTN News on the red carpet July 28.
Born in Okarche, Oklahoma, Rother was a farmer before he attended Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland, and was ordained a priest in 1963. After serving as an associate pastor at a parish in Oklahoma for five years, Rother received permission to join the staff at the Oklahoma diocese’s mission in Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala.
He served the Tz’utujil people, who are descendants of the Mayans, in Guatemala, learning their native Tz’utujil language as well as Spanish. As their pastor, Rother celebrated Mass and helped translate the New Testament into the Tz’utujil language. He quickly gained the trust and love of the local people, ministering to them in their homes, sharing meals, helping them in the fields, and visiting the sick.
While Rother was in Guatemala, a civil war broke out and the Catholic Church was caught in its crosshairs. The priest’s name was placed on a death list. On July 28, 1981, three men entered the rectory at night and killed the beloved priest.
Rother’s cause for canonization opened in 2007 by the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, and in 2016 Pope Francis recognized Rother as a martyr for the faith. He became the first American-born priest to be recognized as a martyr by the Catholic Church.
“We’ve been very intentionally promoting the cause of Blessed Stanley Rother for many years,” Coakley said. “He’s been beatified and now we’re working toward his canonization, and in order for that ever to happen we need more and more people seeking the intercession of Blessed Stanley Rother and seeking his divine favor so that miracles may be performed through his intercession. So that’s why we undertook this production, to introduce him to more and more people.”
The archbishop added that the film is “a beautiful depiction of the life of an ordinary Catholic who responded generously and faithfully to Godʼs grace and mercy and allowed the Lord to transform him and form him into the saint ultimately that we hope he will finally be named.”
Michael Scaperlanda, chancellor at the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, said: “This is an exciting moment for the archdiocese to have a nationwide release … of this wonderful documentary narrated by Martin Sheen.”
He highlighted the importance of sharing Rother’s story to a wider audience because it serves as a reminder that “even ordinary people can become saints.”
For Felipe Coche Pablo, the documentary is particularly personal. Pablo is a native of Santiago Atitlan and was baptized by Rother when he was 6 months old. He was 2 years old when Rother was killed.
When Rother’s cause was opened, Pablo was appointed to serve as the official church notary for Rother’s parish in Santiago Atitlán. It was then that he learned about the potential saint’s life and legacy.
Pablo said learning about Rother deeply impacted his life and taught him “to keep fighting in life. There are always stumbles, but you have to pick yourself back up, like he [Rother] did.”
Today, Pablo is the administrator at Colegio Católico Padre Aplaʼs — also known as the Blessed Stanley Rother Catholic School — in Santiago Atitlán. This school is part of the parish in which Rother served, Santiago Apóstol, or St. James the Apostle Church.
“We have 435 students and the education is trilingual — Tz’utujil, Spanish, and English,” he explained. “Our first language is the Mayan language, Tz’utujil. And he [Rother] was a priest that was very loved by the people because he learned the Mayan language Tz’utujil, like us, like what I speak.”
Pablo said he hopes viewers of the film will be inspired by Rother’s “service to others” and to “carry peace, love, evangelize, and what is most needed in life — look for God.”
Coakley added that he hopes viewers will leave the theater reminded that “all of us are called to holiness.”
“Stanley Rother would not have been the one in high school in the yearbook that said most likely to become a saint … And yet all of us are called, it’s our vocation if you’re baptized, you’re called to be a saint. All of us are called to be saints. And Stanley Rother gives us a hope that for each one of us that is a possibility that is real.”
“American Martyr” can be seen in theaters across the U.S. on Aug. 25 and 26 in English and in Spanish on Aug. 27.
Nigerian seminarian abducted from bishop’s residence escapes unhurt
OTUKPO, Nigeria — A seminarian who was abducted from the bishop’s residence in Nigeria’s Diocese of Otukpo on July 29 has escaped from his captors and returned home unharmed.
In a statement shared with ACI Africa, the sister service of EWTN News in Africa, on Aug. 16, the chancellor of the diocese, Father Joseph Aboyi Itodo, said Kelvin Ochai “managed to escape from his abductors and made his way to Aliade in Gwer East Local Government Area, where he was found and later safely taken home.”
According to the chancellor, Bishop Michael Ekwoyi Apochi, who leads the diocese, expressed gratitude to the people of God “for their show of solidarity and earnest prayers which led to the speedy and safe return of our brother.”
Apochi also thanked the priest and parishioners of Sts. Peter and Paul Aliade Parish, who received Ochai as a seminarian following his escape and provided him with accommodation for the night.
Itodo also expressed the diocese’s appreciation to the Nigeria police for attending to the seminarian after he escaped.
While giving thanks for Ochai’s safe return, the chancellor appealed for continued prayers for the many people being held by criminal groups in different parts of Nigeria, asking God to bring them safely out of captivity.
He also called for prayers for an end to insecurity and the restoration of peace and stability in the West African nation.
“May the good Lord reward you all beyond measure,” Itodo said, appealing for continued prayers that God would protect the people from violence and “restore sanity to our country Nigeria.”
The West African nation has continued to experience attacks by armed groups involved in killings and kidnappings for ransom.
The Boko Haram insurgency has posed a major security challenge in the country since 2009. The group reportedly seeks to turn Africa’s most populous nation into an Islamic state.
Insecurity in other parts of Nigeria has also been linked to attacks involving predominantly Muslim Fulani herders, sometimes referred to as the Fulani militia.
This story was first published by ACI Africa, the sister service of EWTN News in Africa, and has been adapted by EWTN News.
What is heaven? A priest who just turned 100 replies
Upon turning 100, Father Ricardo Bello Mato, a priest from Santiago de Compostela, Spain, talked about what heaven means to him.
“It‘s like a dwelling place around the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. A space filled with the immensity of God, God’s children living together, seeing God’s wonderful, creative power in the cosmos,” the centenarian priest shared in an interview with the Archdiocese of Santiago de Compostela, where he has served for more than seven decades.
Is it worth being a priest?
Reflecting on the most memorable moments of his long life, Bello highlighted “the day of my ordination as a deacon and the day of my first Mass. My diaconal ordination was conferred by the cardinal, Don Fernando Quiroga. There were about 33 of us, and at one point someone had to speak and offer thanks; that role fell to me, as I was the oldest.”
“At my first Mass, I felt unworthy and inadequate. It was a deeply moving experience. It took place in 1955 at the parish in Cances, a time of great celebration and high hopes,” he continued.
Regarding the crosses he has borne in his life, the priest remarked that there have been “many, which I strove to carry well.”
When asked whether he felt it was worth being ordained a priest, he replied: “For me, yes, and I believe also for some of the faithful whom I supported and who later thanked me for it.”
On Wednesday, Aug. 12, the archbishop of Santiago de Compostela, Francisco José Prieto Fernández, visited the priest, who now devotes himself to prayer, spiritual accompaniment, and writing.
Bello’s life
Bello was born on Aug. 1, 1926, in the village of Cances into a large Catholic family. His childhood was marked by the aftermath of the 1936–1939 Spanish Civil War, the loss of his older brother, and the need to assume adult responsibilities, according to the archdiocese.
After the war, he was sent to the Salesian school in Madrid. He entered the seminary in 1943 and celebrated his first Mass in 1955. Shortly thereafter he was assigned to a parish where a group of university students assisted him in his ministry.
“I tried to go to the Americas, but Father Benito Espiño wouldnʼt let me; instead, he sent me to Ozón, near Muxía. The Holy Spirit took hold of me there and never let me go,” the priest recalled, noting that he had also once hoped to reach what is known as the Continent of Hope (Latin America).
He served in various parishes, where he ministered to many people and helped restore a monastery. He also led short courses, spiritual exercises, and gave talks.
In 1999, he was appointed chaplain of the Padre Rubinos Residence and also of the Sisters of Charity, where he ministered to the elderly, the poor, and many other members of the faithful.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
Slovak bishops preach on Mary at 260th Nitra pilgrimage
Three bishops took part in a traditional pilgrimage in Nitra, Slovakia, over the weekend to mark the solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The largest event of its kind in the area, the pilgrimage dates back to the 18th century, with pilgrims first marching up the local hill of Calvary in 1766, according to the website of the Diocese of Nitra.
This year marked the 260th annual thanksgiving pilgrimage to the shrine, according to the diocese. Participation was restricted and at times banned under the communist regime, and the pilgrimages have been held freely again since 1990.
The ceremony in Nitra — the oldest Slavic diocese — drew several thousand faithful. Those taking part included Bishop František Rábek, the retired military ordinary of Slovakia; Bishop Jozef Haľko, auxiliary bishop of Bratislava; and Bishop Viliam Judák of Nitra. Each celebrated a Mass and heard confessions during the two days, which featured several Masses and confessions in Slovak but also in Hungarian, as well as adoration and an organ concert.
Haľko, who celebrated a Mass in Hungarian, told EWTN News that during the pilgrimage he reflected “on how we are very Marian in the Eucharist as we say yes to God, amen, which is our small preaching as we give ourselves to him and vice versa.”
Bishops preach on Mary’s example
For his part, Rábek, who was a priest in the local parish of Nitra-Calvary and now lives on the site of the pilgrimage, invited parents “to search for a healthy balance in your kids to develop their talents, but also the word of God.”
Mary was a simple, ordinary woman, yet she was ready to embrace God’s word and became a role model, he said. “Show me a woman who is as famous, glorified, and respected as Mary,” he emphasized.
The pilgrimage culminated in a Mass on Sunday, which the mayor of Nitra and other local politicians attended. In his homily, Judák cited Carl Jung, the psychologist and son of a Protestant pastor, who called the Catholic Church’s 1950 dogma of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary “the most important religious event since the Reformation.”
The bishop of Nitra asked the Virgin Mary to help all present proceed on the path to the goal of life, which is self-giving love.
“If we strive to live according to our conscience, that is, to fulfill God’s will just like she did, our life and the events of our life, everything we do well, will not perish even upon death,” he stressed.
The prelate encouraged everyone to look, “just as we and many millions of people looked up” on Aug. 12 “to see the cosmic phenomenon of the solar eclipse,” but now “with a spiritual sight to where the Virgin Mary leads us.”
May this moment at the feet of the Virgin Mary of the Assumption help us, Judák continued, “so that tomorrow, in a week, in a month, in a year, at least until the end of our lives, we will never lose sight of the noble goal of our life, and that we strive for it with God’s help.”
He likewise encouraged the faithful to fulfill their Christian duty and to act and profess Christian values in the local elections coming this autumn.
50 pilgrims on foot in the heat
The pilgrimage was organized by the parish of Nitra-Calvary, run by the Divine Word Missionaries (the Society of the Divine Word), whose Slovak province has its seat on the Calvary hill.
The parish priest, Father Ján Štefanec, SVD, told EWTN News that he “is happy this place is alive for the feast, though I would like to see so many people show up more often” in the parish.
He said he finds it interesting that every year many pilgrims come from the region to pray to the Mother of God, that former parishioners return for the feast, and that cyclists at times make part of their pilgrimage on two wheels. Although people nowadays come by car or bus, this time a group of 50 pilgrims walked 20 kilometers (12 miles) in temperatures of 36 degrees Celsius (97 degrees Fahrenheit), the Divine Word missionary said.
Indian Catholics released after 104 days in jail under anti-conversion law
Ten Catholics who were arrested after they chased a group of Hindu activists out of a village church during Mass in India’s desert state of Rajasthan returned home on the night of Aug. 13, more than 100 days after they were jailed.
“We are happy and relieved as our people have been released after being imprisoned for over 100 days on false charges,” Bishop Devprasad John Ganawa of Udaipur, a Divine Word missionary, told EWTN News on Aug. 17.
Hindu activists barged into the church and disrupted the Mass at Communion time on the evening of May 1 in the remote village of Kalinjara, in Banswara district in southern Rajasthan, shouting accusations of “conversion.” Catholics confronted the intruders and chased them out.
Instead of registering a criminal case against the intruders, police in the state, which is governed by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), charged the Catholics with “conversion and attempt to murder” and arrested members of Bandaria Parish on the nights of May 1 and May 3. Ten were held in judicial custody.
Father Arvind Amliyar, the parish priest, told EWTN News in May that the group entered during Communion and began filming and that one of the men drew a knife before parishioners took it from him and forced the group out.
Members of a Hindu Sena group said they had acted on information about alleged cow slaughter and conversion activity, according to Catholic Connect, a news platform of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India. The Banswara district superintendent of police said days after the incident that the situation was under control and that an investigation was underway, with evidence collected from the scene, the outlet reported. Police did not confirm the parish’s allegation that officers had refused to register its complaint.
“Our people are victims of the anti-conversion law. Our legal team pursued the case after bail was denied by the district court. We thank God that they are now out of jail,” Ganawa said.
Under the Rajasthan Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, which took effect in 2025, the burden of proof rests on those accused of causing a conversion, who must show that it was not unlawful. As in several other BJP-ruled states, that reversal has made bail difficult to obtain in the lower courts.
The act is under challenge in India’s Supreme Court, which in November 2025 issued notice to the Rajasthan government on petitions contesting its constitutionality, including one brought by the Jaipur Catholic Welfare Society.
‘A day of great joy’
“It was certainly a day of great joy for us,” said Amliyar, who was celebrating Mass when the May 1 incident occurred. He was at the Kushalgarh jail to receive the men after the Aug. 12 bail order from the Rajasthan High Court reached the jail the following day.
“Our people were thrilled to receive them at the church,” said Amliyar, who had been traveling back and forth to the legal team on behalf of his distant parishioners.
“We thank the Lord for our bail after 104 days,” one of the released Catholics told EWTN News on Aug. 17. His identity is being withheld because of legal restrictions.
“All of us spent days in jail praying. But since we were kept in different cells, we could not pray together. But the Lord took care of us. None of us had any sickness in the jail,” he said.
“The days we spent in jail did not frustrate us. It has only strengthened us in faith,” he added, while thanking all those who prayed for their release and those who worked for it.
A pattern of arrests
Human rights defenders point out that anti-conversion laws are misused against Christian and Muslim minorities, with hundreds arrested under the laws but hardly any convictions.
In a similar case, Father Babu Francis, director of the Diocesan Development and Welfare Society of Allahabad Diocese in Uttar Pradesh state, was detained by police on Oct. 1, 2023, when he went to find out why his driver had been taken from his house by police.
Police were looking for the driver’s brother, a pastor, against whom a Hindu activist had filed a case of “conversion” for conducting prayers in a house. Unable to find the pastor, they took the driver from a nearby house to the police station. The eldest of the three brothers rushed to the station and was also detained, and the driver’s son-in-law was arrested when he went to question the detentions.
The driver’s wife slipped away from the police station during the argument and called Father Francis, who rushed there. Three hours later, the priest was also arrested, and all of them were charged with conversion and even “attempt to murder.”
The Allahabad High Court released the priest on bail 82 days later, just before Christmas 2023.
Pope Leo XIV expresses closeness to victims of earthquake in Indonesia
Pope Leo XIV has sent a message expressing his closeness to the Indonesian people following a 7.7-magnitude earthquake that struck the country on Aug. 15.
In a telegram dated Aug. 17 and signed by Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the pope expressed his sadness on learning of the earthquake, which, according to an Aug. 17 BBC news report, has killed at least 53 people and left over 5,000 displaced.
According to the same report, the earthquake has also caused severe structural damage to hundreds of buildings, particularly on Indonesia’s Flores Island and in North Sumatra. Authorities continue to assess the number of injuries.
“His Holiness Pope Leo XIV was deeply saddened to learn of the devastation caused by the earthquake in the region of East Nusa Tenggara, and he offers the assurance of his spiritual solidarity and closeness to those suffering the continuing effects of this disaster, particularly for the many displaced and injured,” the telegram said.
In the message, addressed to the archbishop of Ende, Archbishop Paulus Budi Kleden, SVD, the pope also encouraged authorities to continue their humanitarian efforts and commended “the dead to the loving mercy of Almighty God.”
Leo’s recent telegram follows that of Aug. 11, in which he expressed closeness to the victims of a 7.4-magnitude earthquake that struck western Colombia on Aug. 10, which killed at least 281 people and injured 3,971, according to Colombia’s President Abelardo de la Espriella on Aug. 13.