How a teenage boy became a 'ninja fighting hunger'

Austin Baron at the "American Ninja Warrior"course filming for Season 17 of the show. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Austin BaronWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 8, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).At just 19 years old, Austin Baron is taking college classes, competing on sports reality television, making handmade dog toys, and raising tens of thousands of dollars to feed the hungry. How does he do it all? According to him, it's all thanks to "the gifts God's given" him.Baron is a rising sophomore at the University of Notre Dame and the founder of Knot Perfect, a nonprofit that has provided more than 100,000 meals to children and families across the globe. He is now using his participation on NBC's reality television show "American Ninja Warrior" to help expand his outreach.Discovering his missionBaron was first moved to feed the hungry when he was 12 years old and volunteered at his parish, St. Theresa Catholic Church in Ashburn, Virginia, to pack meals for Cross Catholic Outreach's food dist...

Vatican announces Pope Leo XIV's public Mass schedule for August and September

Pope Leo greets throngs of faithful in St. Peter's Square on June 11, 2025. / Credit: Vatican MediaACI Prensa Staff, Jul 7, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).The Office for Liturgical Celebrations at the Vatican has announced Pope Leo XIV's public Mass schedule for August and September, following his current stay through July 20 at Castel Gandolfo, the summer retreat of the pontiffs.On Aug. 3, Pope Leo XIV is scheduled to celebrate Mass for the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time at Tor Vergata University in Rome as part of the Jubilee of Youth.Although he will be in the Vatican in August, he is also scheduled to celebrate Mass at the pontifical parish of Castel Gandolfo on Friday, Aug. 15, the solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and to pray the Angelus in the city's Liberty Square. On Sunday, Sept. 7, the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, he will celebrate the eagerly awaited Mass for the canonization of Blesseds Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis, which will take place ...

2 sisters, Catholic school students, lost in Texas flood remembered for faith and kindness

The Guadalupe River, already spilling over its banks on July 4, 2025, (left), rose to a record breaking 47.4 feet on July 5 (right). / Credit: Sophie AbuzeidWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 7, 2025 / 15:04 pm (CNA).Two sisters who attended St. Rita Catholic School in Dallas were among the victims of the Texas Hill Country flash floods that have devastated parts of the state, the school confirmed in a statement on Saturday.Blair Harber, 13, and Brooke Harber, 11, were vacationing with their parents and grandparents on the Guadalupe River near Hunt, Texas. The flash flood raised the river more than 22 feet in half an hour in the early morning hours of July 4, dislodging and carrying away their cabin, in which they were staying with their grandparents.They were discovered in Kerrville, 15 miles from their cabin community, with their hands clasped together, according to reports.Their grandparents, Charlene and Mike Harber, have yet to be found.According to a message shared by their a...

Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati's incorrupt body to be in Rome for Jubilee of Youth

Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, who died at the age of 24 in 1925, is beloved by many Catholic young people today for his enthusiastic witness to holiness that reaches "to the heights." / Credit: Public domainVatican City, Jul 7, 2025 / 14:15 pm (CNA).The coffin holding the incorrupt body of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati will be in Rome for veneration during the Jubilee of Youth July 26 through Aug. 4.According to the Vatican's jubilee office, the coffin will be transferred from the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Turin, in the Italian region of Piedmont, to the Basilica of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva in Rome.Frassati, originally scheduled to be canonized on Aug. 3 during the Jubilee of Youth, will now be declared a saint by Pope Leo XIV on Sunday, Sept. 7, together with Blessed Carlo Acutis.Frassati's remains will be displayed in the Basilica of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva in Rome until Aug. 4 so that they can be venerated by young people attending jubilee events July 28 throu...

Report details killings, discrimination against religious minorities in post-Assad Syria

Mourners gather in the Church of the Holy Cross in Qassaa, Damascus, for the funeral of many who lost their lives in a terrorist attack at the Mar Elias Church in the Dweila neighborhood of Syria's capital on Sunday, June 22, 2025. / Credit: Mohammad Al-Rifai/ACI MENAWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 7, 2025 / 17:51 pm (CNA).Allies of the new Syrian government and other non-state actors have continued violence and discrimination against Christians, Druze, and Shia Muslims, according to a new report from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).Syrian rebels, many of whom were affiliated with Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), toppled former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime in late 2024. The report notes that HTS members, many of whom were foreign fighters, engaged in mass killings and other forms of persecution against religious minorities during the overthrow of Assad and have continued violations after taking control of the government.Syria's new presid...

Catholic leaders, government officials offer condolences and support to Texas flood victims

San Antonio Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller speaks to the press after the memorial Mass for the Guadalupe River flood victims on July 6, 2025. / Credit: Sophie AbuzeidHouston, Texas, Jul 7, 2025 / 17:17 pm (CNA).Catholic leaders and government officials on Monday continued to issue statements of solidarity and support to victims of the catastrophic flash flooding in the Texas Hill Country over the weekend. The death toll rose to 94 Monday afternoon, according to county officials, with Camp Mystic, the girls' Christian camp devastated on July 4, confirming that 27 girls have perished, while 10 girls and a counselor from the camp are still unaccounted for.Notre Dame Catholic Church in Kerrville held a memorial Mass for the flood victims on Sunday. Afterward, San Antonio Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller told CNA the Church is "listening to the cry of all those who suffer, and their cry is not falling on deaf ears."Worshippers pray at the Texas Hill Country flood victims' mem...

Auxiliary vicar of Opus Dei charged with human trafficking and labor exploitation 

Monsignor Mariano Fazio is auxiliary vicar of the Prelature of Opus Dei. / Credit: Opus DeiBuenos Aires, Argentina, Jul 6, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).The Argentine justice system has added the auxiliary vicar of Opus Dei, the organization's second in command, Monsignor Mariano Fazio, as a defendant in the case involving the alleged human trafficking and the reduction to servitude of 43 women in Argentina.The case, which was formally filed in 2024 but had been reported in the media several years earlier, accuses Opus Dei authorities of allegedly recruiting 43 women while they were still minors and subjecting them to a regime of semi-slavery in their residences.Until now, the defendants were four priests who served as authorities at different times between 1991 and 2015: Carlos Nannei, Patricio Olmos, and Víctor Urrestarazu, former vicars of Opus Dei in Argentina, and the former director of the women's branch in the country, Gabriel Dondo.The case now includes another defendant: Fazio...

Archbishop in Zambia calls for responsible, ethical journalism ahead of 2026 elections

Archbishop Benjamin Phiri of Zambia's Archdiocese of Ndola. / Credit: Archdiocese of NdolaACI Africa, Jul 6, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).Archbishop Benjamin Phiri of Zambia's Archdiocese of Ndola has called on journalists and media in the South African nation to resist sensationalism and distorting of facts as the country prepares for general elections in August 2026.In his homily on Sunday, June 29, the solemnity of Apostles Peter and Paul, Phiri called for responsible and ethical journalism."When you report in order to educate, you do not tell lies. You tell the facts as they are," he said during a Mass marking the 40th anniversary of St. Peter the Apostle Mushili Parish of his metropolitan see.The archbishop faulted journalists, "whose narratives fuel more conflict than resolve issues because of the practice of pitting one against the other.""You want that political party to fight against that political party; you want that person there to be fighting the other person there. Is th...

Pope Leo XIV prays for victims, families of Texas flood disaster

Pope Leo XIV, speaking in English, expressed his "sincere condolences" to "families who have lost loved ones, in particular their daughters, who were at the summer camp, in the disaster caused by flooding of the Guadalupe river in Texas in the United States" after praying the Angelus with pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square on July 6, 2025. / Credit: Vatican MediaRome Newsroom, Jul 6, 2025 / 10:30 am (CNA).Pope Leo XIV on Sunday prayed for the victims and families affected by the recent flood disaster in Texas.The Holy Father, speaking in English, expressed his "sincere condolences" to "families who have lost loved ones, in particular their daughters, who were at the summer camp, in the disaster caused by flooding of the Guadalupe river in Texas in the United States" after praying the Angelus with pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square.More than 20 children attending the all-girls summer camp are currently missing after flash floods struck Texas Hill Country in the early h...

Catholic schools in spotlight as French abuse report fuels state oversight debate

A photo shows a view of the National Assembly in Paris on June 10, 2024, a day after the European Parliament elections. / Credit: GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT/AFP via Getty ImagesCNA Newsroom, Jul 6, 2025 / 10:00 am (CNA).A French parliamentary report released on July 2 has shed light on disturbing cases of abuse in schools while also reigniting a longstanding national debate over the balance between state oversight and freedom of education.  The report, resulting from a five-month inquiry into violence within the school system, proposes a series of measures aimed at better protecting minors. However, its heavy focus on Catholic private institutions under state contract has raised concerns about potential political bias and the future of educational pluralism in France. The inquiry was led by parliamentarians Violette Spillebout, from President Macron's centrist party Renaissance, and Paul Vannier, from the far-left party La France Insoumise (LFI). While the report f...