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Catholic apologist Alex Jurado, known as Voice of Reason on social media. / Credit: Courtesy of Alexandro JuradoCNA Staff, Jul 15, 2025 / 15:28 pm (CNA).Alex Jurado, a popular Catholic apologist known for his social media ministry Voice of Reason, is denying allegations in a bombshell report that he sexually groomed an underage teenage girl when he was 21 years old.The Protestant website Protestia on Monday published a report alleging that "whistleblowers within the Catholic community" had revealed sexually explicit texts Jurado, now 28, allegedly sent to a girl possibly as young as 14 years old.The website shared screenshots of the alleged conversations between Jurado and the young girl. The site further alleged that Jurado had sent "sexually explicit messages" to several other women. Jurado sharply denied the allegations on Tuesday. The influencer said in a statement on his Instagram page that the claims were untrue and that he is "voluntarily cooperating in an investiga...
Friar Francesco Patton, outgoing custos of the Holy Land. / Credit: Franciscan Custody of the Holy LandACI Prensa Staff, Jul 15, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).Friar Francesco Patton, the outgoing Franciscan custos of the Holy Land, reflected on his nine years in office and proposed a path to achieving peace in the face of war in the region. He also noted that being a Christian in the holy places, as a minority, is a special vocation and mission.Patton, 61, is leaving the position entrusted to him in 2016. Friar Francesco Ielpo has now been appointed to the position, confirmed as the new custos of the Holy Land by Pope Leo XIV on June 24.In an interview published July 11 on the website of the Custody of the Holy Land, the Italian Franciscan explained that, in the face of the war between Israel and Hamas, "peace requires mutual acceptance between the two peoples who have been in conflict for decades, and the overcoming of ideological readings of history, geography, and even of the Bible....
A map of Nigeria. / Credit: SevenMaps/ShutterstockACI Africa, Jul 14, 2025 / 14:28 pm (CNA).Three seminarians were kidnapped and a security guard was killed in an armed attack on Immaculate Conception Minor Seminary in the Diocese of Auchi in Nigeria on the night of July 10.In a statement issued July 11, Father Peter Egielewa, the director of communications of the Auchi Diocese, provided details about the attack. He said the 9 p.m. attack on the Catholic institution located in Ivhianokpodi, Etsako East Local Government Area (LGA) of Edo state, involved "several gunmen.""In the process, the Nigerian Civil Defense Security official, Mr. Christopher Aweneghieme, stationed at the seminary was killed, and three minor seminarians were abducted and led into the bush," Egielewa said.The other seminarians have been moved to what Egielewa described as "a safe area until security measures around the seminary are tightened.""Unfortunately, no communication has been had with the abductors y...
Pope Leo greets pilgrims during the Jubilee of Families, Children, Grandparents, and the Elderly on Sunday, June 1, 2025. / Credit: Vatican MediaVatican City, Jul 14, 2025 / 08:05 am (CNA).With less than a month to go before the Jubilee of Youth begins, the pope's diocese is making final preparations to welcome tens of thousands of young people from around the world who will participate in this event of great spiritual significance. "Young people will never experience this in their lives again. I'm sure of it. In practice, it will be like a World Youth Day," explained Father Alfredo Tedesco, director of youth ministry in Rome, the host diocese.The Italian priest was 18 when he participated in the Jubilee of 2000 with St. John Paul II: "For our generation, it was an indelible mark. For them, it can be a new beginning."The truly great challenge for the Diocese of Rome is accommodations. The parishes of Rome and 10 dioceses in the Lazio region, those closest to the Italian ca...
St. Peter's Chapel and Native American Museum at Saint Kateri Tekakwitha National Shrine and Historic Site in Fonda, New York. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha National Shrine and Historic SiteChicago, Ill., Jul 14, 2025 / 09:20 am (CNA).Shrines to various saints can be found in every part of the world, including every state in the U.S. Each one is dedicated to faith and prayer, but one shrine in the northeastern United States also has a distinct mission of connecting pilgrims with Native American culture and sharing the fascinating history of Kateri Tekakwitha, the first Native American to be canonized a saint.The Saint Kateri Tekakwitha National Shrine and Historic Site in Fonda, New York, honors not only the life of St. Kateri, whose feast day is July 14, but also the life and history of the local Indigenous people to whom she belonged."We have cultivated strong ties to both the Catholic Mohawk community and the traditional Mohawk community," said Melissa ...
Seminarian Josh Brooks. / Credit: Courtesy of Catholic Philly, official newspaper of the Archdiocese of PhiladelphiaACI Prensa Staff, Jul 13, 2025 / 14:55 pm (CNA).Josh Brooks, a native of Delaware County in metro Philadelphia, dreamed of following in the footsteps of his idol LeBron James and becoming a professional basketball player. However, God had other plans for him.Today, Brooks is in his third year of university studies at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and is preparing for the priesthood."I don't want to just live for myself, but I want to bring the joy God gave me to other people," Brooks said in a recent interview with Catholic Philly, the official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.Raised in the Baptist faith, Brooks had his first contact with Catholicism when his parents enrolled him at St. Ignatius Loyola Elementary School in West Philadelphia. Later, at Monsignor Bonner & Archbishop Prendergast High School, his inte...
Bishop Scott McCaig of the Roman Catholic Military Ordinariate of Canada celebrates Divine Liturgy as part of the spiritual retreat for military chaplains in Lviv, Ukraine. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Bishop Scott McCaigOttawa, Canada, Jul 13, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).Bishop Scott McCaig of the Roman Catholic Military Ordinariate of Canada returned home recently after leading a spiritual retreat for military chaplains in Ukraine, saying that the weight of what he witnessed during his week in Lviv still looms large in his mind. "?I'm still processing it, to be honest," McCaig told Canada's Catholic Register. "On the Eastern equivalent of ?All Souls' Day, I visited the graves of thousands upon thousands of fallen soldiers and prayed with their families, little children, people all grieving their fathers, children, brothers and sisters. The grief and senselessness of it all were heart-wrenching and made vivid how the destruction is so unnecessary. It was a trip that truly l...
Idaho State Capitol building, Boise. / Alden Skeie via UnslpashWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 12, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).Just over a decade ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered that every state must offer marriage licenses to homosexual couples. Ten years later, several lawmakers throughout the country are reigniting the marriage debate within their state legislatures.In 2025, lawmakers in several states introduced resolutions that urged the Supreme Court to overturn the 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, which established same-sex civil marriage nationwide. The North Dakota House and the Idaho House passed resolutions, but both efforts failed when sent to their respective state senates. In most states, the resolutions died in committees.The limited success was in legislative chambers with overwhelming Republican supermajorities. The Idaho House, for example, has a 61-9 Republican majority and passed the resolution in a 46-24 vote. The North Dakota House, with its 81-...
Friar Clodovis Boff belongs to the Order of the Servants of Mary. / Credit: Lennoazevedo, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsSao Paulo, Brazil, Jul 12, 2025 / 08:40 am (CNA).Friar Clodovis Boff has written an open letter to the bishops of the Latin American and Caribbean Bishops' Council (CELAM, by its Spanish acronym), who recently met in assembly, asking: "What good news did I read there? Forgive my frankness: None. You, bishops of CELAM, always repeat the same old story: social issues, social issues, and social issues. And this has been going on for more than fifty years.""Dear older brothers, don't you see that this music is getting old?" asked the priest who belongs to the Order of the Servants of Mary (Servites), in reaction to the final document of the 40th Ordinary General Assembly of CELAM, held at the end of May in the Archdiocese of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. "When will you give us good news about God, Christ, and his Spirit? About grace and salvation? About conver...
French Catholic priest Abbe Pierre takes part in a demonstration on May 6, 1994. / Credit: JOEL SAGET/AFP via Getty ImagesCNA Newsroom, Jul 12, 2025 / 10:00 am (CNA).The Bishops' Conference of France this week said a dozen new accusers have come forth with allegations of abuse against deceased Capuchin priest Abbé Pierre.The famed French priest has already been accused by several dozen people of inflicting abuse over the course of several decades. Pierre founded the Emmaus movement, an international charity effort, after World War II.In a July 10 press release the French bishops said they were "shocked to receive the testimony of 12 new victims of Abbé Pierre, including 7 minors at the time of the events."The bishops "assure these people of their support," the prelates said in the release. Allegations of abuse against Pierre, who for decades was hailed for his charity work in France, shocked the Catholic world last year. Emmaus International revealed the abuse claims in July of...
