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...

5 ways to sanctify your summer vacation and evangelize

Summertime vacations can also be very spiritually beneficial. / Credit: Egor Pasko from Moscow, Russia, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia CommonsACI Prensa Staff, Jul 8, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).With the arrival of summer in the Northern Hemisphere, many people take a vacation, a period of rest away from their routine but also a unique opportunity to reconnect with their faith.A bishop, a mother, and a priest shared some tips from their own experiences for "sanctifying vacations" and evangelizing at vacation spots.1. Take time to connect with God.Speaking with ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner, the bishop of Matamoros-Reynosa in Mexico, Eugenio Lira, emphasized that summer is a time of rest to "recreate" ourselves, that is, to "completely renew ourselves."The prelate thus advised "dedicating time to prayer and contemplation" to "connect" with God and "better see the great gifts he gives us," being aware "that we are uncondit...

Judge says government must keep funding Planned Parenthood in spite of Medicaid cutoff

A Planned Parenthood facility in Minneapolis. / Credit: Ken Wolter/ShutterstockWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 8, 2025 / 14:24 pm (CNA).A federal judge has temporarily blocked the government's effort to defund Planned Parenthood by ordering President Donald Trump's administration to continue funding to the nation's largest abortion provider for at least the next 14 days.The court order, signed by Judge Indira Talwani, partially halts a provision in the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" that would have cut off Medicaid reimbursements for certain organizations that perform abortions. Trump signed the bill on Friday, July 4, after it passed both chambers of Congress with support from most Republicans and no Democrats.Planned Parenthood Federation of America sued the administration just three days after Trump signed the bill into law and asked the court to issue a temporary restraining order blocking enforcement against the organization while its litigation continues. Talwani signed the ...

IRS ends 70-year gag rule, says churches can now endorse political candidates

A sign outside the Internal Revenue Service building in downtown Washington, D.C. / Credit: Rob Crandall/ShutterstockCNA Staff, Jul 8, 2025 / 13:54 pm (CNA).The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) this week backed off a decades-old rule first established during the Eisenhower administration, declaring for the first time since the 1950s that churches and other nonprofits can openly endorse political candidates without risking their tax-exempt status.The order resolves a lawsuit launched in August 2024 by a coalition of religious broadcasters, one that challenged the 1954 Johnson Amendment, which says that 501(c)(3) nonprofits may not "participate in or intervene in" political campaigns.Advocates have argued that the rule shields the nonprofit industry from caustic politics. The National Religious Broadcasters, meanwhile, said in its suit that the tax rule punished churches by "silenc[ing] their speech while providing no realistic alternative for operating in any other fashion."In a f...

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...