Church in Nepal helping flood victims find hope, apostolic administrator says
Father Silas Bogati, apostolic administrator of the apostolic vicariate of Nepal, said the Catholic Church, a small minority of about 10,000 faithful in the Asian nation, is committed to aiding those affected by the recent major flooding.
According to authorities, the number of dead from last week’s flood exceeds 1,000, while more than 4,000 people remain missing across both countries, CNN reported.
“By being there, providing relief now and, later, contributing to reconstruction, we give hope. Our presence among those who are suffering will give them hope,” the priest said in an interview with the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).
Bogati explained that in Nepal, “the Catholic Church has 13 parishes and 10,000 Catholics, but it has always worked for the Nepali population irrespective of their religion, and we will continue to do so as they suffer in this hour of need.”
Caritas Nepal has set up community kitchens and dispatched food supplies for 300 affected families to last for 15 days. Given the forecast of additional rainfall and the fact that many people are still sleeping outdoors, the organization said there is a need for tarpaulins, blankets, and sleeping mats.
After noting that “no Catholic churches or chapels have been destroyed,” the Nepalese priest recalled that “the Holy Father, Pope Leo, was the first to pray and to show his sympathy and closeness to the victims of these flash floods. In the same way, we are receiving prayers and support from the Catholic Church around the world.”
Leo XIV has encouraged prayers for those affected and for rescue teams, and has urged the international community to provide aid in a spirit of solidarity.
Bogati described the affected area of Rasuwa, located on Nepalʼs border with Tibet. He said an important trade route with Tibet runs through the region, as well as the city of Syabrubesi, “one of the main departure points for tourists traveling toward the Langtang Valley.”
One of this concerns is that “members of one of the Catholic communities [who] go down to Syabrubesi to work … may have been swept away by the waters. We do not have any figures yet.”
“All these hotels and settlements were swept away. There has been a high death toll in this area, and the river continued downstream, wreaking havoc across five districts. The flood has caused enormous devastation, as a huge mass of water surged downstream, destroying everything in its path. Some communities are still cut off, and search and rescue operations are proving difficult,” he recounted.
The apostolic administrator asked for prayers for all the victims and those affected by the tragedy, and expressed gratitude for ACN’s closeness and solidarity.
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.
‘God is good’: One of the internet’s most popular nonbelievers announces his return to the Church
“Big news. God exists. Christ is Lord, and he established the Catholic Church.”
That’s how Joe Schmid announced his conversion to Catholicism on his YouTube channel, “Majesty of Reason,” on Aug. 21.
Conversion is always a cause for celebration, but in Schmid’s case it was likely unexpected among his channel’s 55,000 subscribers.
For years, Schmid has used his YouTube channel to explore a broad variety of philosophical and naturalistic arguments and principles — and Schmid himself has openly identified as an agnostic for most of that time.
Schmid, who was raised Catholic, told EWTN News that he adopted atheism and then eventually agnosticism in high school. He said he was originally led to atheism because of “the problem of evolutionary animal suffering,” a well-known topic of philosophical and theological debate.
Philosophers such as Joshua Rasmussen and Alexander Pruss led him to consider “contingency arguments” in favor of God’s existence, he said, but his own “arduous conversion process” would ultimately last a decade.
Schmid launched his YouTube channel in April 2020. Broadly, “my videos focused primarily on philosophy of religion, and secondarily on other areas of philosophy like metaphysics, metaethics, and epistemology,” Schmid told EWTN News, and “criticizing arguments for God’s existence was one of my central focuses.”
To that end, he created a wide variety of videos, including interviews and debates with scholars, lengthy lectures, and episodes responding to other YouTube content, “primarily theist and Christian and Catholic creators.”
Those videos have undergone a marked shift in recent weeks. Videos over the last year have included debates about whether Jesus rose from the dead and an extended case for veganism, among numerous other topics.
On Aug. 21, however, Schmid posted a nearly half-hour-long video revealing his conversion to Catholicism, and in the roughly two weeks since then his videos have focused on topics such as “the best-ever cumulative case for God” and “the best objections to Catholicism answered.”
Schmid, who is a a fourth-year doctoral candidate in philosophy at Princeton University, told EWTN News his return to the faith “wasnʼt my own making.”
“Conversion is a gift of Godʼs grace, and Iʼve seen its transformative impact in my life,” he said. “So God is ultimately what led me to Catholicism.”
Yet, he said a “huge confluence of factors” convinced him of the truth of the Catholic faith “on an intellectual level.” Chief among them are the “vindicatory miracles,” or “miracles wrought by God in confirmation of distinctive Catholic doctrines.”
He cited the charisms of Padre Pio, the healing miracles at Lourdes, the apparitions of Our Lady of Fátima, Eucharistic miracles, “and much more besides.”
“I converted after a long process of working through my many objections to Catholicism and appreciating the many powerful arguments in its favor,” he said. In his video he described the process as a “culmination” of “head factors and heart factors.”
“God is good,” he told his viewers.
The high-profile conversion was noted by the Aquinas Institute, the Catholic campus ministry at Princeton, which urged the Catholic community there to “pray for Joe as he continues to grow in his Catholic faith and begins this new chapter of his public work.”
Schmid also appeared recently in a two-hour-long interview with Catholic apologist Trent Horn, who described Schmid as “one of my smartest critics.” Horn praised Schmid’s rigorous approach to philosophical and theological debate even when Schmid himself was an agnostic.
“Iʼve learned a lot from you in your rebuttals, and it has helped in my own path and trying to grow as an apologist and a philosopher,” Horn told Schmid during the interview.
Speaking to his own viewers when announcing his conversion, Schmid said he has significant plans to continue his YouTube channel in service to Catholicism, and “we will see where the Lord takes me.”
“Debates and discussions will be continuing,” he said. He asked for patience from viewers during the transition.
“And I also ask for your prayers,” he added. “Know that I will be praying for you.”
Abuse settlement in Diocese of Ogdensburg will total $83 million with insurance contributions
The Diocese of Ogdensburg, New York, is moving to settle its long-running bankruptcy proceedings with an $83 million fund for abuse victims, Bishop Terry LaValley has announced, with a significant portion of that amount coming from insurance providers.
The bishop announced the proposed settlement in an Aug. 25 letter to the diocese. The diocese had earlier announced a $45 million agreement in May.
A diocesan spokeswoman confirmed that the additional roughly $38 million would come from insurance contributions.
In his August letter, LaValley said the diocese was hoping to have the plan approved by the bankruptcy court “in the next few months.” The Ogdensburg Diocese filed for bankruptcy in July 2023, the sixth diocese in New York state to do so.
The bishop urged Catholics to pray for both abuse victims as well as the diocese itself. He described the reparation payments as a “moral obligation” on the part of the diocese.
‘Rapid pre-pack’ bankruptcy
In his letter, LaValley said the parishes in the diocese will undergo a notable bankruptcy proceeding called “rapid pre-pack Chapter 11,” one that will settle current abuse allegations while protecting parishes from future litigation.
“Each of our parishes will file a Chapter 11 case at the very last moment, after we know whether we have sufficient votes to confirm the plan,” the bishop said. Parishes are anticipated to be in bankruptcy for about 48 hours before emerging “quickly,” he said.
“The result is that the diocese and parishes will receive a bankruptcy discharge of all alleged abuse claims as of the date the parishʼs pre-packed bankruptcy is filed,” the bishop said. “Going forward, no abuse claims may be brought against parishes from prior to that date.”
The bishop said the unique strategy emerged after a June 2024 Supreme Court decision on bankruptcy, likely a reference to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that month in Harrington v. Purdue Pharma L.P.
That ruling on a complex provision of U.S. bankruptcy law meant that individual parishes and schools in diocesan abuse proceedings could be sued, greatly expanding the possibility of large numbers of expensive lawsuits against Catholic entities.
LaValley said the diocese had been advised that the “rapid” bankruptcy proceeding “is the only viable and realistic way to obtain comprehensive relief” for all diocesan entities there.
A similar strategy had been used in the Diocese of Rockville Centre, New York, and the Archdiocese of New Orleans, he said.
International apostolate seeks to consecrate businesses to Sacred Heart in Bridgeport Diocese
The Diocese of Bridgeport and the apostolate His Way At Work will launch a guild to consecrate Connecticut businesses to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
The diocesan partnership was conceived by Bishop Frank J. Caggiano with the goal of transforming the workplace with the help of His Way At Work, an international apostolate inspiring business owners to consecrate their companies to the Sacred Heart and place God at the center.
His Way At Work, a nonprofit organization, was founded in 2008 by Peter Freissle, an entrepreneur and CEO. His Way At Work reports that it has reached nearly 500,000 employees and their families. It also has aided more than 300 companies, serving in more than 12 countries. Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco serves as the episcopal adviser to His Way At Work.
Caggiano said in a statement shared with EWTN News: “Most people spend the greater part of their waking hours at work, and God wants to be more present to them and through them there. The His Way at Work Guild is an invitation to business owners to consecrate their companies to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and to lead in a way that honors the dignity of every employee.”
“I would say to any business owner in Fairfield County who has ever wondered whether their faith belongs at work: it does, and you are not alone in asking the question. Come and see what this Guild is about,” Caggiano said.
By joining the association of consecrated companies, the Bridgeport Diocese said it hopes the owners will adopt a Catholic framework and encourage care for employees.
The guild will be entrusted to its patrons — Sts. Louis and Marie-Azélie Martin. The pair were two small business owners in 19th-century France. They were also the parents of five nuns, including the beloved St. Thérèse of Lisieux, and the first married couple to be canonized.
“His Way At Work aligned perfectly with the guild system the bishop established, and naming it after a canonized man and woman, who were successful and faithful business owners, seemed a perfect fit,” Deacon Patrick Toole, chancellor of the diocese, said in a diocesan announcement of the guild.
Caggiano established the Guilds of the Diocese of Bridgeport “to offer a unique way for the faithful to deepen their spiritual lives and grow in community through shared vocations and interests,” according to the diocese.
Each of the guilds serves a mission in the community, from fostering Eucharistic adoration to supporting healthcare. The initiative is expanding its reach with a guild focused on supporting business leaders.
“Our hope is that it creates a community of faith among business owners so they can support each other and grow closer spiritually and professionally,” Toole said.
“By consecrating their businesses to the Sacred Heart, their customers will realize there is something different and special about these businesses — something that sets them apart,” he said.
The announcement of the guild follows the dioceseʼs reconsecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which took place in June. The diocese joined the Catholic Church throughout the U.S. in “a great act of faith and love as our bishops consecrate our nation to the Sacred Heart,” Caggiano wrote in a message.
Next steps for companies hoping to add faith to their work
For interested businesses in the diocese, Caggiano will hold an informational session in conjunction with the His Way At Work team. It will be held on Oct. 22 at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Fairfield.
Business owners will receive a guidebook and pray a nine-day novena to the Sacred Heart. Members will receive certificates of consecration and be encouraged to take part in monthly formation meetings offered by the guild with His Way At Work.
The initiative will be funded by the diocese, which will provide members free access to formation materials.
The Diocese of Bridgeport joins numerous other diocesan communities who work alongside His Way At Work to bring God’s presence to the workplace.
The organization works in partnership with the Archdiocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Missouri, and the Diocese of Charleston, South Carolina. It also operates internationally, aiding the Archdiocese of Mexico in Mexico City and the Archdiocese of Monterrey in northern Mexico.
This story was updated at 4:30 p.m. ET on Sept. 2, 2026, with comments from Bishop Frank J. Caggiano and a photograph of Sts. Louis and Marie-Azélie Martin.
Religious freedom commission urges accountability for India violators after leader’s U.S. visit
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is calling for government officials to hold religious freedom violators in India accountable after the leader of the country’s Hindu nationalist party visited the U.S.
“Religious‑freedom conditions in India continue to deteriorate as violence and incitement are increasingly used to target minority faith communities,” USCIRF Chair Asif Mahmood said in an Aug. 26 statement, issued after Mohan Bhagwat — chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a prominent Hindu nationalist volunteer organization accused of targeting Christians — visited the United States Aug. 25–29.
“We urge the U.S. government to consider targeted sanctions against RSS members and Indian officials complicit in religious freedom violations, including revoking the visa issued to Mohan Bhagwat and making him ineligible for future entry into the United States,” Mahmood said.
Bhagwat’s tour also extended to Canada and the United Kingdom, part of the RSS’ effort to strengthen ties with overseas Hindu communities during its centenary year.
“The U.S. government has an opportunity to hold India accountable and signal that the United States stands for religious freedom for the people of India,” Vice Chair CeCe Heil said in the release. “Without this accountability, religious freedom will only deteriorate further, as vigilante mobs continue to attack religious minorities and their houses of worship under the guise of enforcing anti-conversion laws and other harmful policies.”
In a May USCIRF briefing on Capitol Hill, witnesses called for U.S. intervention to end ongoing persecution of religious minorities in India amid warnings of escalating attacks against Christians in India, including mob violence and property destruction. The Catholic population in India is about 23 million, about 1.6% of the country’s population, according to the Vatican.
USCIRF recommended in its 2026 annual report that the U.S. State Department designate India as a country of particular concern.
Congressional support
Rep. Riley Moore, R‑West Virginia, told “EWTN News Nightly” on Sept. 2 he is concerned about “growing intolerance as it relates to Christianity in India” as India’s government considers changes to its Foreign Contributions Regulations Act that could restrict Catholic charities from receiving foreign aid.
“The Indian government does and should prevent foreign money from interfering in the day‑to‑day activities or the governance of their country,” Moore said, but he added that Catholic hospitals aren’t doing that and instead provide essential care to the communities they serve.
Moore said questions remain about how India treats its Christian population, noting the Catholic Church’s humanitarian work, including that of Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity.
“Her feast day is coming up here on the fifth,” he said. “Itʼs just a reminder of why itʼs so important for us to raise our voice in concern when we see what I view as certainly an issue as it relates to Christian intolerance in certain parts of either the government or the country of India.”
This story was updated at 2:55 p.m. ET on Sept. 2, 2026, to include comments by Rep. Riley Moore, R-West Virginia.
Catholic Church weighs legal challenge to new anti-conversion law in India
Indiaʼs Maharashtra state enacted a sweeping anti-conversion law on Aug. 28, prompting Catholic leaders to call for prayer and a legal challenge. Nearby Goa shelved a similar bill days after its cabinet approved it.
The Maharashtra Freedom of Religion Act, passed by the state assembly in March under the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led coalition government, took effect four days after 20 civil rights, secular, and Christian groups made a final plea for its repeal at a press conference in Mumbai, the state capital.
Archbishop Elias Gonsalves of Nagpur, the winter capital of Maharashtra, responded by mandating recitation of the Memorare prayer after every Eucharistic celebration across his archdiocese beginning Aug. 31.
“Yes, the prayers are going on. We look forward to the judiciary since we in Maharashtra cannot expect a U-turn like in Goa,” Gonsalves told EWTN News on Sept. 2.
Goa backtracks
In neighboring Goa, the BJP governmentʼs cabinet approved an anti-conversion bill on Aug. 26 — making it the 14th Indian state to propose such legislation — but reversed course within a week and chose not to introduce the measure in the 40-member Goa Assembly.
The Indian Express reported that the government shelved the bill after strong protests by the Catholic Church and internal opposition from seven Catholic legislators within the BJP-led government, which holds 26 seats.
Christians, the vast majority of them Catholic, account for about a quarter of Goaʼs roughly 1.5 million people. The former Portuguese colony has a distinctive Catholic cultural identity dating back centuries.
The proposed bill “risks irreparably damaging that precious inheritance by replacing mutual trust with suspicion and social harmony with surveillance and fear,” said a joint statement by the Council for Social Justice and Peace of the Catholic Church and the Catholic Association of Goa, a lay forum.
Legal challenge in Maharashtra
In Maharashtra, civil society groups have signaled that the courts are the remaining avenue of redress after the law took effect.
“The government does not bother about our concerns,” Dolphy DʼSouza, one of the coordinators of the Joint Civil Society network, told EWTN News.
“The only option before us now is to approach the judiciary as the Maharashtra Freedom of Religion Act infringes fundamental freedom of faith guaranteed under the constitution,” said DʼSouza, a spokesperson for the Bombay Catholic Sabha, a lay council using the cityʼs former name.
The joint civil society coalition said the act “creates an unparalleled intrusive system of state surveillance over matters of personal faith, marriage, and individual choice.”
The Western Region Bishops Council had warned ahead of the billʼs passage that the law, “far from safeguarding religious freedom … effectively undermines the very right it claims to protect, i.e., the freedom to choose and profess oneʼs religion, as guaranteed under Articles 19, 21, and 25 of the Constitution of India.”
The bishops' council said sections of the legislation “amount to a direct and unjustified interference in the legitimate religious practices of the Catholic Church, particularly its Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults program.”
The law mandates that anyone intending to convert submit notice to a designated authority 60 days in advance — a provision the bishops said “intrudes deeply into the personal domain of conscience and belief, opening the door to scrutiny, suspicion, and harassment.”
‘Consent forms’
Meanwhile, some Christian groups in Maharashtra have made headlines by asking congregation members to sign “consent forms” when attending church services, apparently in response to the new lawʼs requirements.
“The Catholic Church is not doing anything of this sort anywhere in Maharashtra,” DʼSouza said.
Christians number less than 1% of Maharashtraʼs population of more than 120 million.
The constitutional validity of similar anti-conversion laws enacted in other Indian states is under challenge before the Supreme Court of India, according to the press note from the civil society press conference.
Pope calls for ‘unmasking’ the contradictions of the world, such as seeing war as a solution
VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday called for “unmasking the contradictions” of the contemporary world and said that believers are called to take on “the burdens of their brothers and sisters, especially those who are crushed by injustice, discrimination, and violence.”
The pontiff made this appeal during his general audience in St. Peter’s Square on Sept. 2, during which he inaugurated a new series of catecheses dedicated to the pastoral constitution Gaudium et Spes, one of the Church’s most significant responses to the challenges and expectations of the modern world.
The document of the Second Vatican Council, approved and promulgated on Dec. 7, 1965, highlights, as Leo explained, the essentially pastoral nature of the Church, born of “a renewed fidelity to the mystery of Christ who, by becoming incarnate, chooses to share our life.”
For this reason, he recalled that the conciliar constitution Gaudium et Spes opens with the famous statement that the Church makes her own “the joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted.”
This commitment, the pontiff added, calls Christians “to leave behind all passivity and indifference in the face of current events, history, and people’s lives, especially in the face of the rapid and profound changes we are experiencing today.”
He emphasized that closeness to humanity allows for a deeper understanding both of historical events and of revelation itself. From that perspective, he noted that Gaudium et Spes recalls that “the Church has always had the duty of scrutinizing the signs of the times and of interpreting them in the light of the Gospel.”
The Holy Father clarified that this attitude does not stem solely from a “merely moral imperative.” To explain this, he cited the apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, considered the roadmap of Pope Francis’ pontificate, which reminds us that for the Church “the option for the poor is primarily a theological category rather than a cultural, sociological, political, or philosophical one.”
“Christian solidarity commits us to engaging with reality and also to unmasking the contradictions that characterize personal and social life in the contemporary world,” the pope said.
He then listed some examples of those contradictions. On the one hand, he pointed to “scientific and technological progress, which constantly offers new possibilities, but only to some”; on the other, a clearer understanding of the “laws of society,” accompanied, however, by uncertainties “about the direction to give” them.
He also highlighted the paradox of possessing “wealth, resources, and economic power” while, at the same time, “a huge proportion of the world’s citizens are still tormented by hunger and poverty.” Likewise, he lamented that there is growing awareness that the future of the planet is at stake and yet a persistent inability to renounce “selfish consumption” and “the illusion that war is an effective means of building peace.”
“In a time marked by profound changes, giving rise to worrying imbalances, the Church is called to serve the human person, listening to and welcoming the deepest questions of their heart and the longings that dwell within them,” the Holy Father 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.
2 Carmelites survive ambush on highway where bandits killed Catholic sisters in South Sudan
TORIT, South Sudan — Two members of the Order of Discalced Carmelites serving in South Sudan’s Diocese of Torit have survived an ambush by armed bandits along the Juba-Torit highway five years after two sisters of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus were killed by armed men on the same route.
According to local Catholic media, the sisters, identified as Sister Helen and Sister Ansa, were traveling from Torit toward Juba on Aug. 30 when their vehicle came under attack near Jebel Gutun in the Lirya area.
Radio Emmanuel 89 FM reported that the two Carmelite members had departed Torit after morning Mass and were on their way to Juba when they encountered the attackers.
One of the attackers reportedly struck Sister Helen on the head during the incident. The report did not provide further information about the extent of any of her injuries. The sisters and other passengers were reportedly robbed of all their belongings.
Preliminary reports also indicated that two children were abducted during the incident. There was no further information on their whereabouts.
Upon receiving the information about the attack, Bishop Emmanuel Bernardino Lowi Napeta of the Torit Diocese is said to have immediately arranged for assistance from Juba. According to Radio Emmanuel, the sisters were transported to Juba, where Sister Helen was to receive further medical attention.
The circumstances surrounding the attack, including the number and identity of the assailants and their motive, remain unclear.
The incident has renewed concern about security along the Juba-Torit highway, where attacks and ambushes have previously been reported, particularly around the Jebel Gutun area. Local reports have described the stretch as a security concern for travelers.
Previous attack on Catholic sisters
Catholic religious were among five people who died Aug. 16, 2021, in a bus ambush along the highway that links South Sudan and Uganda.
Armed men ambushed a vehicle carrying seven religious sisters and five other people after they had attended centenary celebrations at Our Lady of the Assumption Parish in Loa in the Diocese of Torit.
Sister Mary Daniel, the immediate former superior general of the Sacred Heart Sisters of the Juba Archdiocese who was serving as the head teacher of Usratuna Primary School in Juba, and Sister Regina, a tutor and administrator at the Catholic Health Training Institute in South Sudan’s Wau Diocese, were among those killed.
The late Pope Francis was among those who expressed his condolences to the families and the members of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of the Juba Archdiocese.
The pope expressed the hope that the sacrifice of the two Catholic sisters “will advance the cause of peace, reconciliation, and security in the region” and implored God for “their eternal rest and the comfort of those who grieve their loss.”
The Diocese of Torit has previously spoken out against violence affecting Church personnel and communities.
In April 2025, Napeta, the local ordinary of Torit, condemned an attack on Our Lady of Assumption Parish in Loa, Magwi County, in which a civilian was killed and another person injured.
The bishop described the assault as creating a “climate of fear and anxiety” and called for an impartial investigation.
He said the attack involved personnel of the South Sudan Peopleʼs Defence Forces and that Church personnel, workers, and residents were subjected to intimidation and questioning. He called on the countryʼs armed forces to uphold professionalism, justice, human rights, and respect for religious institutions.
The bishop has also repeatedly emphasized the Churchʼs commitment to peace and service despite insecurity affecting communities in his episcopal see.
Church continues mission amid insecurity
Despite the security challenges, the Diocese of Torit continues its pastoral and social mission across eastern Equatoria.
In January, Napeta described Holy Family Palotaka Parish, which was celebrating its centenary, as a “refuge of hope” and a center of peace-building for local communities.
He highlighted the Churchʼs role in evangelization, charity, and service to people affected by decades of conflict.
This story was first published by ACI Africa, the sister service of EWTN News in Africa, and has been adapted by EWTN News.
‘Worn-out dictatorships’ never speak of the cross, Nicaragua’s exiled Bishop Báez says
Silvio Báez, the exiled auxiliary bishop of Managua, Nicaragua, stated that “worn-out dictatorships” that profane the name of Jesus by attributing the dominion they exercise to him “never speak of the cross.”
“Whenever we try to place ourselves ahead of Jesus, instead of following behind him, we cease to be his disciples and lose our way. That is why worn-out dictatorships that hypocritically hide behind religion profane the name of Jesus when they invoke him from their position of power and attribute to him the dominion they exercise over the people, yet never speak of the cross,” the prelate said during an Aug. 30 Mass he celebrated at St. Agatha Parish in Miami.
In view of his past statements, the bishop would appear to be including in that category the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship that controls his country. Indeed, the pro-government news media El 19 Digital proclaims the country is governed in a Christian manner.
These dictatorships, the prelate continued, “appropriate the name of Jesus to legitimize their authoritarianism while silencing the Crucified One, because a messiah who humbles himself, who serves, and who lays down his life for others unmasks their arrogance and condemns their aspirations to remain in power forever.”
“One cannot profess Jesus as Messiah and Son of God without following him along the path of the cross,” Báez pointed out.
Auxiliary bishop of Managua since 2009, Báez was forced to leave Nicaragua in April 2019 due to his defense of protesters opposing the regime of President Daniel Ortega and his wife and vice president, Rosario Murillo, a crackdown that left more than 350 people dead in 2018, according to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
Since 2018, the Nicaraguan dictatorship has relentlessly persecuted the Catholic Church in the country, controlling priests, expelling religious sisters, confiscating church funds and property, banning ordinations, and exiling bishops — such as Bishop Carlos Enrique Herrera Gutiérrez of Jinotega, president of the Nicaraguan Bishops’ Conference, who was expelled in 2025.
Báez himself had to leave Nicaragua at the request of Pope Francis in 2019 due to serious concerns for his personal safety and now resides in Miami. In August 2025, Pope Leo XIV confirmed him in his role as auxiliary bishop of Managua, albeit in exile.
The bishop celebrates Mass every Sunday at St. Agatha Parish, where the pastor and the parochial vicar, Fathers Marcos Antonio Somarriba and Edwing Román, are also exiled Nicaraguans.
Taking up the cross
Báez explained that “taking up the cross” does not merely mean “accepting setbacks and suffering. The cross is the price of all authentic love”; rather, it also refers to “choosing a life like Jesus’, overcoming the fear of loving, loving without limits, and becoming weak and vulnerable out of love.”
“Taking up the cross means humbling ourselves to enter the world of the poor and the victims in order to stand with them, share in their anguish, and restore the dignity and hope that God desires for them,” he added.
“Taking up the cross means accepting the consequences, almost always painful, of striving to eliminate the suffering of those whom society crucifies, just as Jesus did,” the Nicaraguan bishop emphasized.
The prelate further highlighted that “in a world built on lies, those who speak the truth are persecuted and silenced; in a society rife with injustice, the righteous are shunned and even condemned to death; in a system where the powerful exalt themselves as gods and turn their whims into law, anyone who is critical and refuses to live in submission becomes a target of slander, insults, and persecution.”
‘Thinking like Peter’
Báez also referred to certain situations where one might “think like Peter,” failing to grasp Jesus’ announcement regarding the sacrifice he had to make to save humanity.
“We think like Peter when we do not accept that there are moments in life when the only way to set things right is to go unnoticed, forget about ourselves, be the last, and sacrifice what we cherish most,” he said.
“We also think like Peter when we are unwilling to be inconvenienced for the good of others, to make sacrifices so that others may fare better, or to fight for a society built on justice,” he pointed out.
“We think it’s better not to complicate our lives,” the bishop remarked.
“Many consider it imprudent to speak out against the abuses of the powerful, preferring instead to remain silent or strike a deal with them. Others believe that the world’s problems can only be solved with money, power, or miracles. Jesus, however, teaches us that things change only when we choose the path of littleness and self-forgetfulness; only when we sacrifice ourselves to put God and others first,” Báez explained.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
Federal judge delays mifepristone lawsuit until after midterms
A federal judge on Sunday agreed to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s request to pause a lawsuit over the safety of the mifepristone pill and the drug’s mail-order distribution.
Judge Reed O’Connor of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas ordered that the lawsuit would be delayed until either Dec. 1 or the completion of the FDA’s safety review of mifepristone, whichever comes first.
In the lawsuit, Texas and Florida asked the court to revoke the FDA’s approval of the abortion-inducing pill, saying the agency didn’t adequately evaluate its safety when it approved the drug in 2000. The lawsuit also challenged mail-order distribution of the pill.
The FDA first announced it would review mifepristone in September 2025.
Pro-life group Live Action called on the FDA to protect women and unborn children from the abortion pill, citing studies that show dangerous side effects of the drug.
“The Food and Drug Administration and Health and Human Services officials must do their job to protect women and children from the dangerous abortion pill, which now accounts for 65% of all abortions in the United States and has led to the deaths of 7.5 million preborn children since its release,” Noah Brandt, spokesman for Live Action, told EWTN News.
“Both agencies have seen real-world data that show the harmful effects of the abortion pill,” Brandt said. “Within 45 days of a chemical abortion, 1 in 10 women experience serious adverse events from mifepristone, the first drug in the abortion pill regimen, such as sepsis, infection, or hemorrhaging.”
“This shift in timing for the lawsuit and their ‘promised’ review indicates that they are prioritizing politics over the safety of American women and children,” Brandt said.
“While they continue to brush off these critical issues, the abortion pill is recklessly being mailed across state lines via telehealth distribution, enabling coercion and abuse,” Brandt said. “It’s time deadly mail-order abortion ended once and for all and this lethal pill be removed from the market completely.”