As migrant numbers in Mexico continue to fall, a priest reveals what the figures don’t tell
Official figures show a drastic drop in irregular migration in Mexico and in encounters between undocumented migrants and U.S. authorities at the U.S.-Mexican border.
However, a priest who has been helping migrants for over a decade points to a reality that goes unrecorded: routes that are less visible, more expensive, and exposed to organized crime networks.
In Mexico, according to figures from the Migration Policy, Registry, and Personal Identity Unit, the number of recorded instances of individuals with irregular migration status fell from over 1.2 million in 2024 to 155,730 in 2025. As of May of this year, the total stands at 18,083 cases.
On the U.S. side, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recorded 443,671 encounters at the southwest border during fiscal year 2025, compared with 2.1 million the previous year. So far in fiscal year 2026, the figure stands at 90,121.
This trend also reflects the shrinking number of people assisted by Catholic shelters.
Located halfway along the route of those seeking to reach the north of the continent, the Mexican city of Puebla is also seeing a drop in the number of migrants arriving to seek help at Catholic shelters.
Father Alberto Vivar León told ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, that 1,200 migrants were assisted at the Archdiocese of Puebla’s three shelters during 2023. Two years later, in 2025, the figure was 145.
Ordained nearly 15 years ago, Vivar has dedicated the last 11 years to assisting migrants. He estimated that the shelters have assisted around 60 migrants during the first half of 2026.
His close involvement with migrants began at San Felipe de Jesús parish in Hueyotlipan, about an hour north of Puebla. The parish boundaries include the Puebla City Central Bus Terminal (CAPU, by its Spanish acronym), which for years has served as a transit point for many migrants continuing their journey northward.
Both that parish and Our Lady of the Assumption, where Vivar has served as parish priest since late 2021, are located near the railway tracks known to many as “La Bestia” (“The Beast”), another mode of transport historically used by many migrants, despite the risks involved in traveling atop freight cars.
The numbers
Although the figures point to a decline in migration flows, Vivar said this doesn’t mean people have stopped trying to reach the U.S. “The traffic continues,” he said. “Perhaps not as many as before, but they keep coming through. People are still passing through Mexico.”
He believes the policies implemented by the administrations of President Donald Trump and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum have contributed to a “natural decrease in the number of people, because they couldn’t cross as freely.” However, he maintains that these policies have also led to a situation where “organized crime exploited the circumstances and began profiting from them.”
Criminals are currently demanding “between $6,000 and $7,000” of migrants seeking to cross Mexico, he said.
“Organized crime … continues to take advantage” of migrants, he reiterated.
An important change in migrant transportation
Throughout his years of pastoral work, Vivar has observed a significant shift regarding transportation.
In the past, he noted, migrants would board the freight train to take advantage of routes heading north. However, since 2018, many have avoided this option because “drug traffickers with long guns get on, demand payment, and throw anyone who doesnʼt pay off the train.”
Word of this has spread among migrants, leading them to switch to buses; subsequently, however, Mexican authorities stepped up document checks for those traveling through the country.
The result was that many migrants began to rely on buses offering alternative routes, some of which were controlled by criminal groups.
Along these routes, Vivar said that some migrants end up falling victim to scams, abuse, and even forced labor.
Violence: A constant on the migrant’s journey
One of the cases the Mexican priest recalled involved a group of five or six young people whom he had advised to be wary of anyone trying to offer help, “because people are watching where you come from and who you are.”
“They didn’t listen to me, and a pickup truck took them away,” he said. “They took them to a ranch. They kept them there working for about 15 days without pay” and barely gave them anything to eat.
“One day, they managed to escape,” he said. “They returned to the shelter ... and said, ‘Father, you were right.’”
Criminals, Vivar warned, “are lying in wait at bus stops” such as the CAPU terminal, where “several individuals are looking specifically to rob migrants” because they are easy to spot “and [the criminals] know that if they rob them, they won’t cry out” because the authorities “will deport them.”
He also recalled one migrant who was abducted in San Luis Potosí and fell victim to sexual abuse at the hands of criminals. The victim managed to escape when his captors asked him to prepare breakfast. He seized a moment of inattention to flee barefoot and, after receiving help from several people, managed to reach the shelter in Puebla. “It was a very, very ugly situation; and from here, we paid for his fare to Tapachula in southern Mexico so he could continue on to his country.”
The Church’s response
In the face of such suffering, Vivar noted that the Church continues to maintain shelters where migrants can receive food, clothing, medical care, and a place to rest for one or two nights before continuing their journey.
Furthermore, thanks to a bazaar organized by the parish community, there are funds that help cover the cost of travel fares as well.
These shelters receive no government aid. Years ago, during the massive migrant caravans, authorities would send some aid, he said, but “there has been a distancing since 2018 under the new administrations because that support is no longer there.”
“The government does not have migrant shelters; it’s the Church that operates migrant shelters throughout the country. The National Migration Institute has detention centers; they are not shelters,” he said.
Assistance to migrants should not be restricted to Catholic shelters but should be the responsibility of every believer, Vivar emphasized, and every Christian must “try to help.”
Almsgiving, he said, is not about giving from “my surplus” but rather about “giving what is right.”
“Give your alms, but alms in the sense of giving what is necessary. If you have some clothes, if you have a jacket, give it to them.”
“Help however you can, and then — yes — send them to the shelters we have, and we’ll see what else can be done,” he added.
The migrant, he said, “didn’t leave home because he wanted to ... he isn’t going days without eating and sleeping on the street because he wanted to.”
Rather, migrants leave “out of necessity, because they have no other option,” Vivar said, and are “chasing a dream, trying to provide for their families.”
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.
Kenya bishop suspends 7 priests, announces new clergy accountability measures
MARALAL, Kenya — Bishop Hieronymus Emusugut Joya of Kenyaʼs Catholic Diocese of Maralal announced in a pastoral letter a series of clergy accountability measures and suspended seven priests, saying the decisions follow an assessment of the diocese and “credible information” concerning clergy conduct and the administration of Church property.
In the letter, Joya reflected on his nearly four years of episcopal ministry since taking charge of the Maralal Diocese in October 2022, outlining financial, administrative, and pastoral challenges he said he encountered upon his arrival and the reforms he has since undertaken.
“It is painful to state that I found the diocese with multiple problems but no one was willing to tell me the cause of the problems and how to get the solution,” he wrote in the four-page letter dated July 12.
The Kenyan-born member of the Institute of the Consolata Missionaries wrote that, alongside seeking donations and grants to support the diocese, he initiated assessments, financial audits, restructuring, and debt repayment.
“That helped me to conduct assessment of the diocese, carry out audits in all parishes, institutions, offices; set up systems and structures; do restructuring; and pay debts and some loans,” Joya said in the letter.
He went on to respond to the criticism that he had frequently appealed for financial support and failed to act against priests alleged to be living contrary to their vocation or possessing property whose acquisition could not be explained.
Addressing concerns over fundraising, he wrote: “I want everyone to know that I have mobilized hundreds of millions of shillings in the time I have been [here] — more than all the money all Christians of this diocese have done for their Church without counting on the major projects that have been done directly in various parishes and institutions.”
Turning to the issue of clergy discipline, the bishop said he had acted only after obtaining sufficient information.
“I never suspect or hold any priest accountable for any wrongdoing without credible information. Since I now have some information and identified such priests, I announce here two things,” he said.
The first, he wrote, is the introduction of new obligations for priests in the Diocese of Maralal under Canon 277 §3 of the Code of Canon Law.
The measures require priests to be in their presbyteries before 7 p.m. for evening prayers and prohibit them from spending the night away from the priests' residence without the bishop’s permission.
The measures also state that no layperson is to sleep or stay in a priest’s house or a religious sister’s convent without the bishopʼs authorization.
The norms further prohibit priests from drinking alcohol in bars or presenting themselves for liturgical celebrations “drunk or with the hangover of alcohol.”
The new rules also prohibit priests from engaging in private business outside “the business of the Church,” acquiring property they cannot explain, or cohabiting or engaging in relationships “with a person of the opposite sex or same sex.”
Additional measures concern the administration of parish and institutional finances, the functioning of finance councils and parish councils, annual budgets and audits, the authorized use of diocesan vehicles, and adherence to both Church and civil law.
In another measure, Joya announced the suspension of seven priests under Canons 1336 §§1–4 and 1281 §3 of the Code of Canon Law. He said the suspensions will remain in force “until the issues of abuse of ecclesiastical power, negligence of administration, and mismanagement of the temporal goods of the Church are resolved.”
The suspended priests are Fathers Paul Maina, Peter Musau, Stephen Lekasuyan, Peter Nderitu, Christopher Letikirich, John Dida, and Jonathan Namoni, whom Joya noted had already been suspended on July 10.
The pastoral letter did not specify the particular allegations against the priests or indicate whether the suspensions arise from the same circumstances. The letter also did not detail the specific canonical restrictions imposed on each priest beyond citing the relevant provisions of Church law.
Additionally, the letter also did not indicate whether the priests received individual canonical decrees explaining the reasons for their suspension, the scope of the disciplinary measures, or the conditions each would be required to meet before the suspension is lifted.
Inviting the faithful to accompany the suspended priests in prayer, Joya wrote: “Pray for these priests of ours at this moment they are starting a life of deep reflection on the value of their vocation and the importance of working for the common good of the Church.”
Alongside the disciplinary measures, the bishop announced five new priestly appointments in his diocese, including parish, pastoral center, and media apostolate assignments.
The pastoral letter concluded by asking the faithful to continue praying for him as he “endeavors to save the diocese from the difficult challenges it is undergoing.”
This story was first published by ACI Africa, the sister service of EWTN News in Africa, and has been adapted by EWTN News.
Christians celebrate first Divine Liturgy in central Syrian town since war began
Among the oak, pine, walnut, and olive trees surrounding the village of Ghassaniyeh in Syria’s Idlib countryside, prayers according to the solemn Byzantine rite were heard once again after an absence of more than 14 years.
In a moment filled with hope and meaning, Metropolitan Athanasius Fahd, Greek Orthodox archbishop of Latakia and its dependencies, celebrated the first Divine Liturgy for the parish since the outbreak of the war.
The liturgy was held in the hall of St. George Church because the church building itself suffered extensive damage in previous years.
During the celebration, worshippers lit candles before the icon of St. George, the village’s patron saint, symbolically marking the return of spiritual life to the community and the beginning of a new chapter. Residents hope this step will help them restore their natural presence in their homeland.
Speaking to ACI MENA, the Arabic-language sister service of EWTN News, Fahd said the celebration was a first step toward encouraging the people of Ghassaniyeh to return to their land.
He expressed his joy at seeing the happiness on the faces of those who attended the liturgy. He also noted that cooperation between the Church and the villagers had made it possible to prepare the church hall as a center serving the needs of the community.
The metropolitan explained that the space will serve two main purposes.
Its first purpose is spiritual, providing a place for prayers and liturgies that remain at the heart of Christian life.
Its second purpose is social. The hall will remain open to villagers as a common home, especially for those who return to visit their farmland or stay temporarily in the village but do not yet have a home suitable for living or a place to rest.
One resident recalled the difficult years the village endured. He said Ghassaniyeh had been struck by explosive barrels and missiles launched by forces linked to the former government, causing widespread destruction and forcing most residents to leave.
He added that conditions are now more stable, freedom of movement has improved, and residents have begun returning to their homes and farmland.
A woman who recently returned to the village also spoke of her joy at being home again. She said she had come back after 14 years away and had begun rebuilding her house and obtaining the basic supplies needed to make it livable.
The road home, however, remains difficult, especially because of the need to rebuild houses and repair infrastructure.
The Church continues to support residents as they restore their homes and rebuild their lives. In recent months, it has also worked to address issues involving their properties and farmland, including land that had come under the control of foreign armed factions, such as Uyghur and Turkistan groups.
Fahd’s visit was his second to Ghassaniyeh, following an inspection visit in May.
The Latin Church also celebrated its first Mass in the village in November 2025, offering another sign of the Christian community’s determination to return.
This story was first published by ACI MENA, the Arabic-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
Haiti plunged into deepening violence as drone fatalities, gang activity increase
Escalating gang violence and a 120% increase in drone attacks have driven Haiti deeper into what aid officials describe as a rapidly deteriorating situation, placing the country among the top five on the International Rescue Committeeʼs 2026 emergency watch list.
“Haiti is in the grip of an overwhelming humanitarian crisis,” Ciarán Donnelly, senior vice president for crisis response, recovery, and development at the International Rescue Committee, told “EWTN News Nightly” on July 15.
According to Donnelly, more than 1,200 civilians are estimated to have been killed in drone attacks in Haiti this year, including 17 children.
“This is one of the most concerning aspects of the humanitarian situation in Haiti and of the trends that weʼve seen over recent months,” he said.
Donnelly described the drones as “small, cheap, easier-to-operate quadcopter-type drones which are fitted with explosives and then used essentially as improvised explosive devices, some of which have exploded in public areas with children around or people who are out shopping, leading to a number of fatalities.”
“The situation is particularly acute in the capital, Port-au-Prince, which is in the grip of gang-fueled violence, with gangs controlling about 90% of the total territory of the capital city,” he said.
In addition, Donnelly said Haitians face limited access to healthcare, and about half of the country’s population of around 6.4 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance.
“Our team on the ground, working very closely with Haitian civil society organizations, is focused on providing healthcare support, supporting primary healthcare, and, in particular, services for women and children and water and sanitation,” he said. “The risk of communicable diseases, given the displacement and the underfunding of public services in Haiti, is quite significant, as well as protection services for women and children who are particularly at risk of violence given the given the situation on the ground.”
Donnelly’s remarks come as Haiti has climbed from ninth place in 2023 to fifth place in 2026 on the International Rescue Committee’s annual emergency watch list, which ranks the top 20 countries facing the world’s most severe humanitarian crises. No. 1 on the list is Sudan.
Arkansas tops 2026 religious liberty index
Arkansas is the best state at protecting religious liberty, according to the 2026 edition of the annual Religious Liberty in the States (RLS) report from First Liberty Institute.
First Liberty, a legal organization dedicated exclusively to defending religious liberty, released the annual index ranking religious liberty protections for each of the 50 states.
This year, Arkansas and Tennessee ranked first and second, with scores of 89% and 85%. Both states earned an “excellent” rating, meaning that they scored above 80%, marking the first time any state has crossed that threshold in the RLS.
Conducted by the institute’s Center for Religion, Culture, and Democracy (CRCD), the report focuses on select legal safeguards of religious exercise in laws and constitutions.
The report assigns a percentage score to each state based on 50 legal protections that states have to protect religious liberty within six categories: government, healthcare, economic life, religious life, and family and education. These protections are gathered into 20 “safeguards,” which researchers average to produce each state’s index score.
The RLS also measures if states did a “poor,” “adequate,” “competent,” or “excellent” job of protecting religious liberty based on the percentage of protections they had adopted.
After ranking sixth in 2025, Arkansas surged to the top this year, taking the spot from Florida, which dropped to third place.
According to the report, Arkansas’ first-place ranking is largely due to the state decision to enact H.B. 1615 — a law that protects individuals and institutions from being forced to participate in wedding ceremonies to which they have religious objections.
Arkansas’ score is 63 percentage points higher than the lowest-ranked state, New York, which RLS authors said protects 26% of the measured safeguards. New York returned to last place for the first time since 2022, taking West Virginiaʼs previous spot.
While Arkansas protects 89% of the religious liberty safeguards tracked in the 2026 RLS index, it is still missing seven of the specific protections RLS considers.
“There remains room for improvement, however, for all states, and our hope is that the Religious Liberty in the States project can help catalyze such gains for years to come,” Jordan Ballor, executive director of First Liberty’s CRCD, wrote in the report.
Changes and improvements among states
“As the report indicates, there are also some hopeful trends as some states have taken action to increase their protections,” Ballor said.
Changes include Tennesseeʼs move from 10th to second place after it adopted what the report called an “exemplary” medical conscience law, with protections that allow healthcare providers and institutions to refuse to perform, provide, or pay for medical services because of their religious beliefs.
While ranking 23rd and 45th, the RLS noted that Georgia and Wyoming adopted Religious Freedom Restoration Acts in 2025, laws to protect individuals and organizations from government regulations that substantially burden their religious practices.
Due to their “competent” and “average” scores, Montana (71.3%), Illinois (70.4%), Mississippi (66.7%), Ohio (66.3%), Idaho (64.2%), South Carolina (62.9%), and Washington (60%) ranked among the 10 best states at protecting religious liberty.
The trends among states have the “potential to become a virtuous cycle as states learn from what other states have done, emulate them, and become more active in protecting and promoting the free-exercise rights of their constituents,” Ballor said.
Bishop Paprocki: Eucharistic revival calls Catholics to worthy reception of Communion
Four years after U.S. bishops launched the National Eucharistic Revival, Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois, said Catholics must recover “Eucharistic coherence,” saying belief in Christʼs real presence must be reflected in both moral life and the worthy reception of Communion.
The National Eucharistic Revival, a three‑year U.S. bishops’ initiative aimed at renewing Catholic belief in and devotion to the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist through teaching, parish outreach, and national events, was launched in 2022 in response to declining belief among Catholics in the Real Presence. The revival culminated in the National Eucharistic Congress in 2024.
Speaking at the Institute for Catholic Culture on the topic “The Table of the Lord and the Table of Demons: Eucharistic Coherence and the Age of Moral Relativism,” Paprocki said July 14 that the revival’s mission extends beyond renewing devotion to the Eucharist to fostering lives that correspond to what Catholics profess to believe.
Communion with Christ
Paprocki emphasized that the Eucharist is both the sacrifice of Christ made present and the sacrament of communion with God and the Church.
“The core belief of Catholics about the mystery of the Eucharist is our faith in the real presence of Christ,” he said. “The sacrament of the Eucharist is called holy Communion precisely because, by placing us in intimate communion with the sacrifice of Christ, we are placed in intimate communion with him, and through him, with each other.”
Worthy reception of Communion
Because of that reality, Paprocki said, Catholics conscious of mortal sin should first seek reconciliation before approaching the altar.
“As the Church has consistently taught, a person who receives holy Communion while in the state of mortal sin not only does not receive the grace that the sacrament conveys, he or she commits the sin of sacrilege,” Paprocki said.
Quoting St. Paul’s warning in 1 Corinthians, the bishop added that “whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord.”
Paprocki said this understanding forms the basis for what the Church calls “Eucharistic coherence,” which he defined as consistency between belief and conduct.
“A person who, by his or her own action, has broken communion with Christ in his Church but receives the Blessed Sacrament acts incoherently, both claiming and rejecting communion at the same time. It is thus a countersign, a lie,” he said.
Canon law and public witness
Referring to Canon 915, Paprocki said ministers of holy Communion must sometimes withhold Communion from those who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin.
Canon 915 says: “Those who have been excommunicated or interdicted after the imposition or declaration of the penalty and others obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to holy Communion.”
The bishop also cited a 2004 memorandum by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger interpreting Canon 915, which addresses the denial of holy Communion to those who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin. Paprocki said those who publicly and obstinately support grave moral evils such as abortion or euthanasia fall under Canon 915ʼs provisions.
Paprocki quoted the memo: When “the person in question with obstinate persistence still presents himself to receive the whole Eucharist … the minister of holy Communion must refuse to distribute it.”
Paprocki clarified that this denial is not meant as a punishment but to encourage a change of heart.
Paprocki said behaviors that would warrant denial of Communion include heterosexuals cohabiting without marriage, homosexuals engaging in sexual activity, and divorced people remarrying without having received an annulment.
Paprocki referred to his 2018 denial of the Eucharist to Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, for supporting abortion access laws. Paprocki said: “The denial of Communion is a medicinal remedy that seeks to foster a change of heart” and is meant to encourage politicians “to repent and return to being pro-life.”
Paprocki concluded: “In seeking Eucharistic coherence in an age of moral relativism, it is important to remember that the ultimate goal is conversion and readmission to Communion. Even when a difficult decision must be made, not to admit someone to holy Communion until there has been repentance and reconciliation, such discipline does not contradict the law by which it is motivated.”
Priests’ soccer tournament promotes fraternity and vocations
As the sun set behind the hills of Huancavelica in the heart of the Peruvian Andes, the final match ended in a draw. The outcome was decided by a penalty shootout. Cusco took the first kick, and everything came down to the fifth attempt. The Huancavelica goalkeeper managed to block Cuscoʼs final penalty kick, leaving the outcome in the hands — or rather, at the feet — of Father Santiago Salazar of the Huancavelica home team.
The priest took his run-up, waited for the whistle, and placed the ball right next to the goalpost. With that match-winning goal, the crowd broke out in euphoria: Dozens of seminarians rushed onto the field as priests from seven dioceses in southern Peru celebrated Huancavelica’s title win in the 2026 Clergy Champions playoffs.
On July 2, more than 150 priests from the dioceses of Puno, Cusco, Abancay, Ayacucho, Huancavelica, Huancayo, and Tarma participated in the soccer tournament. For a decade, the event has strengthened priestly fraternity, promoted vocations, and served as a reminder that sports can be a means of evangelization.
In an interview with ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, Father José Raúl Ayuque Tornero, a priest of the Diocese of Huancavelica and one of the eventʼs organizers, explained that the initiative grew out of the friendship among priests who attended the major seminary in Abancay.
Its origins are deeply rooted in “fraternity and friendship among the priests,” Ayuque said. “At first, it was simply a get-together of friends.”
The event has since become a tradition for the dioceses in the southern part of the country.
A cliff-hanger final decided by penalty kicks
Ayuque excitedly recalled the final match, which was attended by families, priests, and seminarians.
“The atmosphere was extraordinary. Our minor seminarians kept spirits high throughout the day. We had marching bands performing from St. John Vianney Minor Seminary and the Teresa de la Cruz educational institution run by the Canoness Sisters,” he told ACI Prensa.
The bands provided musical accompaniment and cheered equally for both Huancavelica and Cusco as the teams faced off in the final match, which began around 5 p.m.
In Huancavelica, the sun sets early due to the areaʼs geography, making the match even more exciting. Fans followed each play closely, waiting for a goal.
The end of the match could not have been more suspenseful: Cusco failed to get a penalty kick past the Huancavelica goalie, and all eyes were then on Salazar, who skillfully placed his shot out of reach of the Cusco goalkeeper and won the championship.
A celebration immediately began on the field. The priests sang the St. John Mary Vianney hymn composed by the late bishop emeritus of Huancavelica, William Molloy.
“In Huancavelica, we have a very young clergy, with an average age close to 35, and that is also reflected in the enthusiasm with which we experience these gatherings,” Ayuque said.
The awards ceremony followed. Abancay took fourth place, Ayacucho third, and Cusco second, while Huancavelica received the cup.
The Archdiocese of Huancayo was announced as the venue for the next championship matches.
“Beyond the competition, I saw joy in everyone — the joy of sharing the mission God gives us as priests,” Ayuque commented.
For his part, referee Daniel Jorge Cruz Olarte remarked that the most gratifying aspect of being part of this tournament was “seeing how they respect one another.”
“They are wholesome people; they respect the referee, they respect their teammates and opponents, and they experience the sport with a spirit of fraternity.”
A championship born of friendship
Although it now brings together priests from seven jurisdictions and even the regionʼs bishops, the Clergy Champions League began quite simply.
“It started about 10 years ago. At first, only Abancay, Ayacucho, and Huancavelica — the closest ones — participated. Gradually, it took shape and we can now say that this gathering has become an established tradition in the Peruvian Andes,” Ayuque explained.
He said in the future, the league would also like to include the dioceses of Ica, Arequipa, and Tacna “so that it truly represents all of southern Peru.”
Much more than soccer
For the priest, the Clergy Champions was never just a sports tournament.
“These gatherings strengthen our own sanctification as priests. We meet older, younger, and newly ordained priests from different backgrounds, and we see how the Lord continues to call each one amid varying circumstances,” he said.
Ayuque said the sport can become an authentic tool to awaken vocations. “It helps us learn to live as a team, to understand that life must be built seeking communion, knowing how to share, show solidarity, and always feel the presence of our brother,” he said.
Father Doroteo Borda López, one of the participants, highlighted to ACI Prensa that the league is an experience of communion.
“It’s a way for us to participate as priests of a local Church and to come together. Getting together with nearly 150 priests and seeing that sport unites, heals, and is also part of spirituality is something very valuable,” he said.
For Borda, the Clergy Champions shows young people that the Church remains alive and “that we are just as normal people as anyone else.”
“On the field, we get angry, we play, we run, and we have our differences, but afterward, we continue sharing our lives.”
Ayuque said he believes the league’s greatest lesson for young people is “to show them that the priest’s mission is not limited solely to piety or prayer.”
“All the realities of life can and must be offered to God. The priest is called to bring God’s grace to all people and to all human endeavors. That’s why more laborers are needed for the harvest, more young people who will dedicate their lives,” he stated.
‘Sport is absolutely essential’
The priest also advocated for sports as a necessary part of holistic formation. “In our seminaries, we strive to dedicate at least one hour a day to sports, since the human person is both body and soul,” he said.
“Sport disciplines the body, makes it more agile, and helps eliminate the bodyʼs toxins. When our physical condition is well cared for, it also becomes easier to engage attentively in prayer and the encounter with God,” he said.
“A neglected body ends up influencing one’s spiritual life as well … Pope Francis frequently spoke of acedia, that kind of spiritual sloth that often stems from a body that is overly comfortable,” he added.
“Sport prepares our nature for a personal encounter with the Lord and helps us view the world with greater joy and optimism,” he concluded.
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.
France legalizes euthanasia after forceful push through Parliament
The French National Assembly gave final approval on July 15 to a bill legalizing euthanasia and assisted suicide, making France one of the few European countries to legalize the practice along with Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Spain.
The 291-241 vote came three years after President Emmanuel Macron, who had made it one of his key campaign promises, first opened the question to national debate.
The vote ended an unusual parliamentary stalemate between the National Assembly and the Senate. Members of the National Assembly passed the bill three times over the course of 14 months — most recently on June 30 by a vote of 295 to 232 — and senators rejected it just as many times.
On July 7, the Senate passed, by a narrow majority of 169 to 164, with 11 abstentions, a preliminary motion to outright reject the bill rather than debate it, and this motion itself called on the government to end the legislative process. Rather than heeding this call, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu invoked Article 45 of the Constitution, which allows the government to give the National Assembly the final say when repeated readings fail to produce an agreement between the two chambers. He then referred the bill back to the National Assembly for a fourth and final vote instead of a fourth reading in the Senate.
The July 15 vote, however, did not close the matter. On July 14, Lecornu announced he would refer part of the text to the Constitutional Council, a step Senate President Gérard Larcher had also urged, citing in particular how the billʼs conscience clause would interact with health and social care facilities built around end-of-life accompaniment that exclude assisted dying. The council must rule within a month, or eight days if the government asks for an expedited review, meaning the law cannot be promulgated until that review is complete even though the Assembly has now adopted it.
The end-of-life law covers both euthanasia, administered by a doctor or nurse, and assisted suicide, in which the patient self-administers a lethal substance, under five cumulative conditions: A person must be an adult, a stable resident of France, diagnosed with a serious and incurable condition, in an advanced or terminal phase of that condition, and suffering in a way current treatment cannot relieve, while remaining able to express a free and informed decision. Self-administration is supposed to be the default rule, with the law providing for intervention by a healthcare professional only when the patient is physically unable to act.
A supporting measure aimed at expanding access to palliative care was adopted with much broader support, passing its first reading in the Senate by a vote of 307 to 17. To date, more than 20% of French departments still lack a palliative care unit, according to figures cited repeatedly by the Bishops’ Conference of France during the debate.
The push to legalize assisted dying traces back to September 2022, when the National Consultative Ethics Committee reversed its earlier opposition to assisted dying and endorsed an “ethical” application of the practice. A citizens’ panel Macron had convened spent the following winter weighing the question and backed legalization.
The French president unveiled the outline of a bill in March 2024, but the initiative stalled when he dissolved the Assembly in June the same year. Deputy Olivier Falorni, who had filed an earlier and unsuccessful end-of-life bill, revived it in 2025.
Critics argue the newly adopted framework is among the most permissive of its kind in the world. Grégor Puppinck, a Catholic lawyer and director general of the European Centre for Law and Justice, has published a point-by-point analysis contending that the entire process rests on the judgment of a single physician, who may meet the patient for the first time on the day of the request and need not be the one already treating them.
The two additional professionals that physician must consult are chosen by the same person, are not required to examine the patient in person, and may be consulted by videoconference.
Puppinck noted the statute sets no minimum interval between the decision and the act itself beyond a two-day reflection window, relatives have no guaranteed right to be informed beforehand, and they cannot challenge the outcome in court.
Doctors who object in conscience must still refer patients to a colleague willing to proceed, and private and religious institutions, including nursing homes, must accommodate mobile euthanasia teams under threat of administrative penalties. Oversight, in Puppinck’s account, comes only after death, based on a report filed by the same clinician who carried it out.
The founders of the ethics collective Democracy, Ethics, and Solidarity, Laurent Frémont and Emmanuel Hirsch, wrote in Le Journal du Dimanche that the law’s eligibility criteria — primarily a “serious and incurable condition” causing “unbearable suffering,” are defined vaguely enough that a strict medical interpretation could make more than 1 million people eligible, including patients with chronic illnesses, psychiatric disorders, or advanced age, without requiring a prior written request, a peer review by medical colleagues, or a psychiatric evaluation.
A 2025 study by the Fondation pour l’innovation politique estimated the measure could save the state around 1.4 billion euros ($1.6 billion) a year in health, eldercare, and pension spending, a projection critics have cited as evidence of the pressures vulnerable and elderly patients could face once the law takes effect.
The French bishops’ conference called the text a threat to “the most fragile” among French citizens in a statement issued in May 2025 ahead of the Assembly’s first vote on the bill. The archbishop of Paris, Laurent Ulrich, has repeatedly urged lawmakers to reconsider their position, asserting that true solidarity is built through caring for others rather than through death. “More than assistance in dying, our society needs assistance in living,” he has repeatedly stated.
In a video appeal to lawmakers released before the vote, Archbishop Vincent Jordy of Tours invoked François Rabelais’ centuries-old warning that “science without conscience is but the ruin of the soul.” What is underway, he said, is “an anthropological shift,” a new way of viewing life and its end that will gradually reshape the country, touching caregivers, families, people with disabilities, and the relationship between generations.
He pointed to the Netherlands, where regulators had layered on safeguards for two decades and where health officials confirmed in June that a child under 12 had been euthanized for the first time, under a 2024 expansion of the law to children between the ages of 1 and 12.
Making a law, Jordy said, is also opening doors toward things “one had perhaps not imagined” when it was written.
Former Muslim refugee who fled war in Bosnia ordained a priest in Germany
A man who arrived in Germany as a refugee after fleeing the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina has been ordained a Catholic priest, an exceptional case in that he was born into a Muslim family and embraced Christianity as an adult.
According to the Catholic Churchʼs news site in Germany, 41-year-old Senad Mrkaljevic was ordained a priest a few weeks ago by the archbishop of Berlin, Heiner Koch, at St. Hedwigʼs Cathedral.
“Many people fear that faith will take something away from them. My experience is exactly the opposite: God gives me much more. That is what I want to convey to others,” the new priest stated.
Born in 1984 in Brčko in the former Yugoslavia, Mrkaljevic grew up in a Muslim family where religion did not play a central role.
“Catholics, Orthodox Christians, and Muslims lived peacefully alongside one another back then,” he recalled. However, the outbreak of the war in Bosnia in 1992 forced his family to seek refuge, first in Austria and later in Germany.
“As a child, it was hard to grasp what fleeing meant, and I quickly felt like an outsider in Germany,” he recounted.
Compounding these difficulties, Mrkaljevic has a congenital visual impairment, which made integrating into school life more challenging.
His journey toward the Catholic faith began around the age of 23, when he started reading the Bible and secretly visiting the church every Sunday morning. He felt afraid the first time he entered a church. “Going in there was quite a challenge for me. I kept asking myself, ‘Is what you’re doing right?’” he recalled.
Over time, he realized he no longer wanted to hide. “I didn’t want to lead a double life,” he explained. In 2009, he was baptized during the Easter Vigil, a decision his family initially found difficult.
“It was a problem for my mother; she tried to make me change my mind,” he recounted. Even so, he decided to move forward.
After completing his theology studies at the Lantershofen seminary for adult vocations in 2023, he was assigned first as a deacon and later as a chaplain to St. Edith Stein Parish in Berlin’s Neukölln district, an area with a significant Muslim population.
Mrkaljevic said he believes that, given his background, he can become a bridge-builder between Christians and Muslims.
He also noted that, over time, his decision was met with respect by his loved ones. “My conversion and my decision to become a priest were acknowledged by my Muslim family in Bosnia as well as by my siblings,” he said. His mother even attended his priestly ordination.
Looking ahead to his new ministry, Mrkaljevic expressed his desire to provide spiritual accompaniment to people and “to proclaim the good news.”
“It is never in vain, however few we may be. I myself have experienced how much it has enriched me, and that is what I want to share with others,” 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.
In sworn deposition, job applicant says bishop asked about shielding finances from abuse settlements
A sworn deposition, filed as part of abuse lawsuits in the Diocese of Burlington, Vermont’s federal bankruptcy proceedings, alleges that the former bishop of the diocese asked a job applicant if she would be willing to help shield diocesan finances from a potential abuse settlement.
The prelate himself, meanwhile, told EWTN News that there was “nothing nefarious” in such a proposal, which he said was meant to protect Church assets from additional lawsuits while the diocese was already paying out settlements to abuse victims.
Celeste Heinonen claims in a July 9 court statement that she interviewed for the position of chief financial officer at the Diocese of Burlington in 2020. During that interview she said she spoke to then-Burlington Bishop Christopher Coyne, who she said brought up the topic of sex abuse lawsuits against the diocese.
The state had recently eliminated the statute of limitations of childhood sex abuse lawsuits, and Heinonen claimed in her deposition that Coyne stressed the “financial strain” under which the lawsuits could place the diocese.
The deposition alleges that Coyne claimed the diocese was seeking to “transfer its assets” in order to shield them from the abuse lawsuits. Heinonen said Coyne asked her if she “would be willing to help the diocese prepare the necessary paperwork to ensure that if the diocese lost its lawsuits, there would not be assets left to satisfy the potential judgments.”
In the deposition Heinonen said she was “shocked and felt sick to my stomach” over the request and that she was “noncommittal in my response.”
Heinonen said she later met with then-Chancellor Monsignor John McDermott, who she claims “asked how I felt about Bishop Coyne’s proposal.”
The priest “explained to me that it was important for the diocese to protect its current parishioners and not let the past ‘sins of its fathers’ harm the current parishioners or the diocese.”
Heinonen said she was informed later that same day that she had not received the job, with the position reportedly being offered to another candidate from Florida. Heinonen said in the deposition that she was “extremely upset and confused” by the questions regarding diocesan assets.
Coyne began serving as archbishop of Hartford, Connecticut, starting in 2024; that same year, McDermott was installed as bishop of Burlington.
‘We always tried to make amends’
Speaking to EWTN News from Hartford, Coyne said he did not remember the exact specifics of the conversations he held with the candidates during the interview process. He confirmed that the CFO position was ultimately offered to a candidate from Florida whose professional background in Catholic nonprofit work made him more suitable for the role.
The archbishop said there was “nothing nefarious” in his proposal that Church financial assets be moved around in advance of potential litigation.
“We weren’t violating any court orders,” he said. “The funds we had were free to be moved in any direction.”
He referred to such proposals as “good business.”
“It’s what anyone would do,” he said. “At that point we weren’t being sued. But the state was rattling the saber about the statute of limitations. I wanted to protect the assets of the Church that the faithful had given in good faith.”
“There was nothing untoward, illegal, or nefarious about saying, ‘Let’s protect our assets just in case we get sued again,’” he told EWTN News.
“You can spin anything you want and make it look bad,” he said. “But any person in charge of an organization would certainly do what they can to protect the assets of the organization for the good of the organization.”
Coyne said that during his time as bishop the Burlington Diocese was actively settling lawsuits with abuse victims even as the statute of limitations debate was occurring in the Vermont Legislature.
“These people were obviously victims,” he told EWTN News. “And we would settle with them at a comparable amount to global settlements we’d had in the past. We settled with some people for $350,000 to $400,000.”
“We always tried to make amends,” the archbishop said.
It was not immediately clear why Heinonen had filed the deposition in bankruptcy court, though court records suggest the statement was part of a series of motions by the plaintiffs of the abuse lawsuits playing out as part of diocesan bankruptcy proceedings. Heinonen could not be reached for comment regarding the allegations.
The Diocese of Burlington filed for bankruptcy in October 2024 while facing 31 lawsuits from abuse victims. McDermott said at the time that under the Chapter 11 filing, “funds will be allocated among all those who have claims against the diocese while hopefully allowing the diocese to maintain its essential mission and ministries.”
Coyne himself, meanwhile, oversaw a $35 million abuse settlement in the Diocese of Norwich, Connecticut, in February 2025. Coyne had been serving as the apostolic administrator of that diocese ahead of the installation of now-Bishop Richard Reidy.