The pontiff offered prayers for the Zimbabwean people in a telegram on Aug. 18.
Pope Leo XIV has offered prayers and condolences to the victims of a recent ferry accident on Lake Kariba in Zimbabwe on Aug. 11.
In a telegram dated Aug. 18 and signed by Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the pope expressed sadness upon learning that a ferry had sunk in Lake Kariba. According to an Aug. 12 BBC news report, at least 44 people died in the incident.
"His Holiness Pope Leo XIV was deeply saddened to learn of the fatal ferry accident on Lake Kariba. Entrusting the souls of the deceased to the loving mercy of Almighty God, he sends heartfelt condolences to those who mourn their loss," the telegram said.
The pope also offered prayers for civil authorities and first responders in their ongoing rescue efforts following the tragedy.
According to the BBC, the ferry had a capacity of 90 people on board, but it was reported that 120 boarded, including 12 children.
The vessel capsized and sank after being struck by strong waves. Rescue efforts continue to intensify, with 77 people rescued at the time of the BBC report.
Leo's recent telegram is the third sent in August to express condolences after disasters. In an Aug. 11 telegram, he expressed closeness to the victims of a 7.4-magnitude earthquake that struck western Colombia on Aug. 10, which killed at least 281 people and injured 3,971, according to Colombia's President Abelardo de la Espriella on Aug. 13.
In an Aug. 17 message, he offered condolences to the victims of a 7.7-magnitude earthquake that struck Indonesia on Aug. 15, which, according to an Aug. 17 BBC news report, killed at least 53 people and left over 5,000 displaced.
The pontiff appointed 12 new consultors to the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development on Aug. 18.
Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday appointed 12 new consultors to the Vatican's Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development — reflecting a diverse group of theologians, experts, and professors, including two from the University of Notre Dame.
Pope Francis established the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development in 2016. It promotes the Church's efforts in the areas of peace, migration, health, and ecology. Consultors are called on to periodically meet with dicastery members to provide expert advice.
Pope Leo XIV renewed the leadership of the dicastery at the end of June with the appointment of Italian economist Sister Alessandra Smerilli, FMA, to succeed Cardinal Michael Czerny, SJ, as prefect.
He also appointed Italian Cardinal Fabio Baggio, CS, who has been the dicastery's undersecretary since 2022, to serve as pro-prefect alongside Smerilli. Father Jozef Barlaš was promoted from the dicastery's undersecretary to secretary. They begin their roles on Sept. 1.
2 Notre Dame professors appointed
Among the new consultors are Father Emmanuel Katongole, a priest from the Archdiocese of Kampala in Uganda and a professor of theology and peace studies at Notre Dame.
Before joining Notre Dame's faculty, as stated in his biography, Katongole served as associate professor of theology and world Christianity at Duke University and as a founding co-director of the Duke Center for Reconciliation. He is also the founder and president of Bethany Land Institute, an education center in Rwanda inspired by Pope Francis' encyclical Laudato Si'.
Clemens Sedmak is the other Notre Dame faculty member among the newly appointed consultors. Sedmak is a professor of social ethics and director of the Nanovic Institute for European Studies.
A native of Austria, Sedmak previously served as the FD Maurice Professor for Moral Theology and Social Theology at King's College in London. He has also served on the faculty of the University of Salzburg and holds degrees in philosophy, theology, and social theory.
Other appointees
The other new consultors to the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development are:
Kathryn A. Koch, president and chief executive officer of Trust Company of the West in Los Angeles
Monsignor Peter Klasvogt, rector of the Pontifical Teutonic College of Santa Maria in Camposanto in Rome
Father Francesco Coluccia, director of the Office of Healthcare Ministry of the Archdiocese of Otranto, Italy
Father Joseph Jeyaraj Swaminathan, SDB, associate professor at the Faculty of Educational Sciences of the Pontifical Salesian University in Rome
Omer S. Combary, professor in the Department of Economics at Thomas Sankara University in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
Lucy Afandi Esipila, regional executive secretary of Caritas Africa
Paolo Foglizzo, editor of Aggiornamenti Sociali — San Fedele Cultural Foundation in Milan, Italy
Peter G. Kirchschläger, director of the Institute of Social Ethics at the University of Lucerne, Switzerland
Jacqueline Remond, adjunct lecturer at the School of Theology of Australian Catholic University in Sydney
Caren Rodrigues, associate professor at St. Joseph's Institute of Management in Bangalore, India
Archbishop Anthony Fisher says the national broadcaster gave a leading euthanasia campaigner four platforms in nine days without comparable access for those who oppose him.
Archbishop Anthony Fisher, OP, of Sydney has demanded an investigation from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) over its coverage of calls to lift the federal ban on using telehealth and other carriage services for voluntary assisted dying (VAD), as euthanasia and assisted suicide are termed in Australian law.
The Australian reported that in a letter to the ABC ombudsman, Fiona Cameron, he claimed the national broadcaster had breached its own guidelines on impartiality.
He asked the ombudsman whether its platforms "operated to amplify one side of a contentious policy debate."
VAD is legal throughout Australia apart from the Northern Territory, which is expected to pass enabling legislation soon.
However, a federal law banning advice about committing suicide over the phone or internet also bans telehealth consultations for VAD.
VAD advocate Andrew Denton — a former ABC television host, comedian, and founder of Go Gentle Australia — has campaigned to have the ban overturned.
Fisher cited four occasions in nine days in July when Denton promoted his views on ABC platforms. Three of them appeared before the Australian Labor Party's national conference in July, which supported an end to the federal ban on telehealth consultations.
In his letter, Fisher set out what he said was documentation of a failure by the ABC to present the contentious issue impartially.
He wrote: "Over a period of nine days the ABC repeatedly provided the founder of an organization established to advocate for euthanasia and assisted suicide law reform with opportunities across television, radio, online, and social media to make the case for amending a federal prohibition on the use of telehealth for euthanasia and assisted suicide."
"The principal arguments for retaining the prohibition were not put forward by those who hold them; rather, they were largely summarized or characterized by Denton," he said.
The imbalance is particularly significant, the bishop continued, "because three of the relevant items, as well as two associated social media posts, were published or broadcast in the four days immediately preceding an Australian Labor Party National Conference vote on the issue being advocated."
A subsequent ABC current affairs program interview occurred in the context of a foreshadowed parliamentary attempt to amend the law, Fisher added.
He stressed: "In those circumstances, providing an alternate perspective at some indefinite later time could not remedy the absence of diversity during the period in which the issue was the subject of an active and imminent political decision."
Given the "significance of the issue, the imminence of the political decisions to which the coverage related, and the ABC's particular obligation to maintain public confidence in its impartiality," Fisher asked that these matters be carefully investigated and addressed.
The archbishop also said Denton had misrepresented remarks he made in 2011 on "redemptive suffering."
"Denton omitted [my] immediately preceding response, which clearly states that the goal of the Catholic Church is to reduce suffering," he wrote in his letter to the ombudsman.
Responding to questions from The Australian, an ABC spokesman said a complaint had been received by the ombudsman's office.
This story was first published by The Catholic Weekly, the news outlet of the Archdiocese of Sydney, and is edited and republished by EWTN News with permission.
The 12 pilgrims were returning from the Marian shrine at Medjugorje when their coach left the M3 motorway in eastern Hungary in the early hours of Sunday.
Twelve Polish pilgrims died and 10 were seriously injured when their bus crashed in Hungary on Aug. 16. They were returning from a pilgrimage to the Marian shrine at Medjugorje in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Others among the roughly 60 people on board suffered minor injuries, and an investigation into the crash has been launched.
The tragedy prompted immediate reactions from public figures, including condolences from Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar and his Polish counterpart, Donald Tusk. The Polish prime minister sent a special aircraft to Hungary carrying representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and medical services to assist those affected. Polish President Karol Nawrocki said he was praying for "the families and loved ones of the victims."
The heads of both the Polish and the Hungarian bishops' conferences also responded to the accident.
Archbishop Tadeusz Wojda of Gdansk, president of the Polish Bishops' Conference, received the news "with great sadness" and prayed "for eternal life for the tragically deceased victims of the accident and for the recovery of the injured."
Wojda extended prayers "to the families of those who died and those injured," asking "God to grant them relief from their pain, as well as the strength and hope that will help them survive these extremely difficult times."
Bishop János Székely of Szombathely, president of the Hungarian Catholic Bishops' Conference, expressed solidarity with the Polish victims who died while passing through his country.
"I was deeply moved to learn of the tragic bus accident," he said, and prayed "for the eternal salvation of those who lost their lives."
Székely asked "the Almighty to grant comfort to the families of the deceased in these difficult hours and to help the injured recover as quickly as possible."
On behalf of the entire Catholic community in Hungary, the bishop assured "our Polish brothers of compassion and solidarity."
The bus carrying the Polish pilgrims overturned in the early hours of Sunday and went off the road into a ditch on the M3 motorway in eastern Hungary. Some media have reported that the driver may have fallen asleep and that he has been taken into custody.
The class action suit was brought against the Canadian archdiocese in 2020.
The Archdiocese of Quebec in Canada will pay out an eight-figure sum as part of a major class action lawsuit that has played out there over the last several years.
The archdiocese said in a press release that the agreement was ratified on Aug. 12 by Quebec Superior Court Judge Danye Daigle. The law firm Dufresne Wee, which had originally brought the lawsuit in 2020, also confirmed the settlement on its own website.
An Aug. 12 filing in the superior court said the agreement would consist of $31.5 million "to compensate the class members covered by [the] class action."
The agreement also stipulated that a "letter of apology" would be delivered to abuse victims.
In its press release the archdiocese said its leaders "welcome this news." The archdiocese said Church officials were "aware that [the settlement] can help members continue on their path to peace and healing."
Announcing the settlement, Auxiliary Bishop Jean Tailleur told victims: "Faced with the suffering you are carrying, there is little that my words can relieve or heal."
"However, something must be said," the prelate continued. "On behalf of the Catholic Church of Quebec, I would like to offer you our most sincere apologies."
The archdiocese said alleged abuse victims would have a final chance to join the class action settlement prior to the distribution of the funds.
The payout signals the looming end of a process that has taken place over more than half a decade, starting in August 2020 when the first filing in the class action suit was made in the superior court.
Filings in the lengthy lawsuit had accused two major Church leaders in Quebec of committing abuse. In January 2024, Archbishop Cardinal Gerald Lacroix was accused of abusing a 17-year-old teenager decades before. Lacroix was ultimately cleared by the Vatican after an investigation.
A new CARA survey found that 18% of priests ordained in 2026 attended a Franciscan University of Steubenville Youth Conference, highlighting the conferences' growing impact on priestly vocations.
In April, the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate's (CARA) survey was released and showed that 18% of priests ordained this year attended a Franciscan University of Steubenville Youth Conference during their vocational journey. This was more than any other Catholic conference ministry in the United States.
In previous years — specifically from 2010 to 2025 — this percentage ranged between 8% to 16%.
In 1976, Franciscan University of Steubenville held its first youth conference on its campus in Steubenville, Ohio. Celebrating 50 years this summer, the youth conferences have helped over 1 million young people encounter Jesus Christ through dynamic talks, the Mass, Eucharistic adoration, confession, prayer, and fellowship.
So, what is it about the Steubenville Youth Conference that is having such an impact on young people and specifically vocations?
EWTN News spoke to a priest and a transitional deacon — both of whom credit their experience at a Steubenville Youth Conference with impacting their vocations — about their journeys to the priesthood and why they believe this conference is igniting a fire for the faith in the hearts of young people.
Seeing joyful priests changed everything
Father Rufino Corona is a Third Order Regular Franciscan in Steubenville who was ordained in 2020. Originally from Puebla, Mexico, Corona came to the United States with his parents at the age of 8 and grew up in San Diego.
As a teenager he was active in his youth group, and it was his youth minister who frequently told Corona that he could see him becoming a priest.
"It was something that he would say to me and I would kind of write it off," Corona recalled. "It's one of those things that as I look back now, I think part of the reason why was — for one thing, I was a teenager and really in that world, but also another thing, I feel like I had priests around me who were not bad priests but I'd seen people very passionate for the Gospel, be very passionate for evangelization, but that was not something that I'd ever really seen in a priest."
Father Rufino Corona, far right, with students at a Steubenville Youth Conference. | Credit: Franciscan University
He continued: "So all of a sudden I go to these youth conferences and, it wasn't necessarily one in particular, but it was these men were so on fire for the Lord, so on fire for the youth hearing the Gospel. That was really my first time seeing a priest just be passionate about the Lord, and be passionate about their faith, and be passionate for souls."
Another impactful moment for Corona was the vocations call that takes place at the end of the weekend. On the last day of the conference, anyone who may be considering religious life is asked to stand up so they can receive a blessing.
"I joke about it now that that used to be my least favorite part of the weekend, because, especially, I went to four conferences, and especially in my third and fourth conference, I started to feel the Lord moving that way but I never got up," he shared.
However, those moments also served as a "powerful witness" for him because Corona saw so many other men his age stand up and say that they were considering it, which was "part of what really started to open up my heart to it."
A couple of years went by and Corona was put into a leadership position where he was ministering more to his peers and felt a great desire toward the sacrament of reconciliation as he was working with these individuals. Eventually he spoke to his spiritual director — a layman who worked at Franciscan University — who told him he could continue to pray about it or he could take a step. Corona decided to take a step.
He emailed the vocations director in San Diego but never heard back. However, after speaking more with his spiritual director he was encouraged to look into becoming a friar.
"He just knew how big brotherhood was for me and literally 24 hours into the Come and See [with the Franciscan friars], I knew that's where I was supposed to be," he recalled.
From the back bleachers to the altar
Deacon Arthur Bodenschatz is a transitional deacon in the Diocese of Youngstown, Ohio, who was ordained on June 6. He grew up in a very devout Catholic household. His parents met as NET missionaries — a youth ministry program — and instilled a love for evangelization in their four children.
In the second grade, Bodenschatz began to dress in all black to attend Mass — pretending that he was the priest. However, it wasn't until he was 14 when he had a powerful encounter with God at a Steubenville Youth Conference that he knew he was meant to be a priest.
"The moment was during Saturday night adoration … and I was sitting on the back bleachers, in one of the uncomfortable spots, when the Eucharistic procession was going by and I just had a moment of locking eyes with the Lord in the Eucharist and just had a moment of realization, of grace, where I just knew that that was Jesus in the Eucharist. I knew that he loved me. I knew that I loved him. And I knew I was going to be a priest. And it was just a joyful moment filled with a lot of joyful tears," he recalled.
Deacon Arthur Bodenschatz during his ordination on June 6, 2026. | Credit: Ed Hall/Catholic Echo
After that experience, Bodenschatz went back home and became very involved with his youth group, began to attend daily Mass, and found a spiritual director.
After he graduated from high school, Bodenschatz went straight into Borromeo Seminary in Cleveland and will be ordained a priest in 2027.
"I'm looking forward to the completion of a nine-year journey. So much preparation leading up to it," he shared. "And just the idea of celebrating that first Mass — it brings a smile to my face. Knowing that what I feel God has been calling me to for so long, that he wants to use me to turn bread and wine to his body and blood for the people of God … I just can't wait to be his instrument."
The power of encountering a joyful Church
So, what is it about the Steubenville Youth Conferences that is inspiring so many vocations in young people?
For Bodenschatz, it was hearing the Gospel "in such a way that was personal to me."
"Hearing the insistence and the repeated message that Jesus loves me and that the Holy Spirit is alive in me and wants to work in me was something that maybe I'd heard before but I was actually starting to experience it there," he recalled. "So I think that was just a really powerful message that is embodied by the people who are up there speaking and embodied by the people up there leading worship and the whole community, the whole environment. It's just so joyful."
He added: "Whereas in my normal experience of parish life, I didn't see as much joy and I didn't see as many people my age or as many priests and sisters running around who were just so happy to be there. So I think something about that unique experience of just the universal Church so full of life really opened me up to what the Holy Spirit was doing in me."
Corona echoed a similar sentiment in that it is powerful for young people to see the joy their peers are also carrying for the Lord and their faith.
"There is something about coming to a conference and seeing a thousand other kids there for the same reason," he said. "It makes your faith seem like 'OK, this is more than just my high school. OK, this is more than just my area. This is something real. This is something that I'm seeing other teens honoring God and so maybe there's something here.'"
"I think that there is so much to the witness of the other groups that I think goes just a really, really long way because all of a sudden the faith becomes something so much more than my family's thing or something so much more than, 'Well I go to this youth group because that's where my friends go.'"
Corona added: "It's like, 'Oh my gosh, I am surrounded by anywhere from 1,000 to 4,000 to 4,500 teens who all believe that this is real' or at least who are trying to and are wanting to see this as something real."
After an opening celebration Sept. 18 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception Washington, D.C., the yearlong tour's schedule will be announced in the coming months.
The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes announced the relics of St. Bernadette Soubirous will travel to the United States as part of a 2026–2027 tour intended to bring the beloved saint to Catholic communities across America.
Following the opening, the relics will continue on a yearlong pilgrimage. Housed in a 132-pound reliquary, the relics will visit about 140 locations and stop at cathedrals, basilicas, shrines, seminaries, Catholic universities, hospitals, and parishes.
"The message of Lourdes remains as relevant today as it was in 1858," said Father Jim Phalan, the English-speaking chaplain for the sanctuary.
"Saint Bernadette's humility, faith, and trust in God continue to inspire people throughout the world. We are honored to bring her relics once again to the United States and invite countless individuals to experience the grace, healing, and hope associated with Lourdes," he said in a press release.
The original acts of St. Bernadette, official Latin-language canonical records documenting the extraction and authentication of her relics preserved in the archives of Nevers, indicate that taken for the relics were fragments of two ribs, kneecaps, a sample of muscle from the external part of the right femur, hair, and various fragments that came from muscles and skin.
The tour builds upon the positive response to the first U.S. pilgrimage of the relics in 2022, which welcomed hundreds of thousands of faithful at churches and shrines across the country.
Tour participants will have opportunities for veneration of the relics, Eucharistic celebrations, Marian devotions, catechetical presentations, and prayers for the sick.
According to the sanctuary, the long-term goal of the tour is to deepen the relationship between American Catholics and the sanctuary while encouraging future pilgrimages to Lourdes.
The tour's detailed schedule, participating dioceses, pilgrimage resources, and other opportunities to support the tour will be announced in the coming months.
A reliquary created by Maison Granda in Spain houses relics of St. Bernadette Soubirous. | Credit: Photo courtesy of Pierre Vincent/Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes
St. Bernadette
Bernadette Soubirous was born in 1844 in Lourdes, France, into a poor family. In 1858, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared 18 times to Bernadette in Lourdes, France. Since then, Lourdes has become one of the world's most popular pilgrimage destinations.
The apparitions led to the discovery of a water spring, which is associated with physical and spiritual healing. The spring welcomes millions of pilgrims to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes to drink and bathe in the water.
Bernadette spent the rest of her life in prayer and service to others. She joined the Sisters of Charity of Nevers and lived a humble life despite becoming famous for the apparitions. She suffered from poor health for much of her life and died in 1879 at the age of 35.
On June 14, 1925, Pope Pius XI proclaimed Bernadette "blessed." Her body was then transferred to the shrine in Nevers, France, on July 18, 1925. On Dec. 8, 1933, Pope Pius XI canonized St. Bernadette, and her feast day is celebrated on April 16 in the U.S.
Despite the danger of the earthquake's aftershocks, a priest and nun in Colombia entered a chapel in search of the hosts that were kept in the tabernacle that they found destroyed.
When the Aug. 10 earthquake hit the town of Chiquinquirá in Roldanillo, a subdistrict of the Valle del Cauca district in Colombia, a wooden tabernacle in a historic chapel was destroyed, scattering consecrated hosts across the floor and covering them with debris. Minutes later, the pastor and a nearby religious sister gathered them up to take care of them according to Church protocol.
The quake severely damaged Our Lady of the Rosary chapel, which dates back to the 17th century. Inside the chapel's tabernacle was the ciborium containing the consecrated hosts left over from the Mass celebrated the previous Saturday by Father Germán Andrés Clavijo, the pastor of St. Sebastian Parish, the parish to which the chapel belongs.
Immediately after the quake, which struck at 7:34 a.m. local time, the priest entered the chapel with Sister Marcela, a member of the Community of the Blessed Sacrament. They went straight to the wall where the tabernacle had been located. Falling debris had knocked the tabernacle down from its place.
"I said to her, 'Help me look, because the consecrated hosts are there,'" the priest recounted to ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. "We found the ciborium, but it was completely smashed," Clavijo said, adding that "some of the hosts were badly broken," so they began gathering them up with great care.
As they picked them up by hand, both recited the "litanies to the Blessed Sacrament, to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament," and placed them into a smaller ciborium. Afterward, they sprinkled water over the debris and the areas where particles of the hosts that could no longer be gathered up might have remained.
Regarding the hosts that were mixed in with dirt and debris, Clavijo said: "I told her they must be placed in a container of water so that they would dissolve" and the water could later be poured by a tree or into a potted plant.
No. 1377 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that "the Eucharistic presence of Christ begins at the moment of the consecration and endures as long as the Eucharistic species subsist" in the physical appearance of bread and wine.
The priest from Roldanillo said it was "very sad" to see the hosts scattered on the ground, for the Eucharist "is the life of the priest; that is the life of the Church; it is our center."
However, he said he had to be "very strong, because I had to find a solution," adding: "It wasn't the time for lamenting; after all, the earthquake had just happened, and we were in a very unsafe spot, fearing that an aftershock or something else might cause debris to come crashing down on us."
Roldanillo was one of the areas hardest hit areas by the earthquake. Located about 90 miles from Cali and founded in 1576, many of its buildings date back to the colonial era and the early days of the republic.
The day after the natural disaster, the Valle del Cauca governor's office reported that two people had died and 112 were injured. In addition, nearly 1,300 homes were affected, "some of which have completely collapsed," and "60% of the hospital sustained structural damage."
Regarding the parish church, the priest said that it is has closed due to the effects of the earthquake, so Masses are being celebrated in the town square. The chapel cannot be used either, and its restoration will depend on the Colombian government as it is classified as a national heritage building.
In the video he shared on the day of the earthquake, Clavijo expressed his solidarity with the residents of Roldanillo: "Amid the rubble left behind, I also wish to offer a prayer of hope and encouragement for those who have lost everything, especially those who have lost a loved one."
The Aug. 10, 2026, earthquake that hit the town of Chiquinquirá in Roldanillo, a subdistrict of the Valle del Cauca district in Colombia, severely damaged Our Lady of the Rosary chapel, which dates back to the 17th century.| Credit: Photo courtesy of Father Germán Andrés Clavijo/video screenshot
The priest affirmed that, although it is not easy, "with hope and God's hand, all of us united, will overcome this storm. As the Gospel said yesterday [Sunday, Aug. 9], sometimes we walk amid strong winds and turbulent waves, and our boat seems to be sinking, but God reaches out his hand to us. Like Peter, we all cry out: 'Lord, save us.'"
"And that is what we pray for today. To all of you, I offer my blessing and words of encouragement and hope during these times. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit," he said, blessing the viewers.
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.
Rising to a height of over 180 feet from ground level, the statue of Our Lady of Mercy exceeds in height the Christ the Redeemer statue in Brazil and the Christ the King statue in Poland.
On Saturday, Aug. 15, the solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Catholic Church in Poland dedicated the largest statue of the Virgin Mary in Europe during a Mass celebrated by Bishop Krzysztof Wetkowski of Wloclawek.
The monument stands 55.6 meters (182 feet) tall from ground level to its highest point. It was built in the town of Konotopie and funded by married couple Grazyna and Roman Karkosik, for whom it represents a "personal vow of thanksgiving for the recovery of their health and lives," according to Euronews.
Its height exceeds that of the famous Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, which measures 38 meters (125 feet) from its base; it is also taller than the Christ the King of the Universe statue in Swiebodzin, Poland, which stands 52.5 meters (172 feet) tall when measured from the mound upon which it rises.
According to Vatican News, the statue depicts Our Lady of Mercy and is located near a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows, which serves as a pilgrimage site. The bishop of Wloclawek highlighted this during the blessing ceremony, noting that the site where the new monument stands "is no ordinary place; it is a place sanctified by the prayers of pilgrims."
Construction followed the design of sculptor Adam Jakub Matejkowski. The pedestal is surrounded by eight pillars in the form of a crown. Additionally, pilgrims can go up to a terrace at a height of 15.3 meters (50 feet), from where the image of Mary itself rises.
In his homily, the prelate emphasized the importance of lifting one's gaze toward heaven, especially in these times when many people "keep their eyes fixed solely on the earth and focus exclusively on themselves."
Regarding the name of the new sculpture, Wetkowski noted that St. Faustina Kowalska, to whom Christ revealed his divine mercy, was born in Swinice Warckie, also within the Diocese of Wloclawek, where she was baptized and received her first Communion.
"Here in Konotopie, Mary, in the image we see, welcomes us all; she leans toward us and opens her arms to invite us to lift our gaze upward, toward God and heaven," Wetkowski noted.
The ceremony began with the recitation of the rosary and concluded with a shower of red rose petals dropped from two helicopters hovering over the monument.
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.
The Diocese of Otukpo gave thanks for the return of the seminarian and those who have provided him care, and called for prayers for other captives.
OTUKPO, Nigeria — A seminarian who was abducted from the bishop's residence in Nigeria's Diocese of Otukpo on July 29 has escaped from his captors and returned home unharmed.
In a statement shared with ACI Africa, the sister service of EWTN News in Africa, on Aug. 16, the chancellor of the diocese, Father Joseph Aboyi Itodo, said Kelvin Ochai "managed to escape from his abductors and made his way to Aliade in Gwer East Local Government Area, where he was found and later safely taken home."
According to the chancellor, Bishop Michael Ekwoyi Apochi, who leads the diocese, expressed gratitude to the people of God "for their show of solidarity and earnest prayers which led to the speedy and safe return of our brother."
Apochi also thanked the priest and parishioners of Sts. Peter and Paul Aliade Parish, who received Ochai as a seminarian following his escape and provided him with accommodation for the night.
Itodo also expressed the diocese's appreciation to the Nigeria police for attending to the seminarian after he escaped.
While giving thanks for Ochai's safe return, the chancellor appealed for continued prayers for the many people being held by criminal groups in different parts of Nigeria, asking God to bring them safely out of captivity.
He also called for prayers for an end to insecurity and the restoration of peace and stability in the West African nation.
"May the good Lord reward you all beyond measure," Itodo said, appealing for continued prayers that God would protect the people from violence and "restore sanity to our country Nigeria."
The West African nation has continued to experience attacks by armed groups involved in killings and kidnappings for ransom.
The Boko Haram insurgency has posed a major security challenge in the country since 2009. The group reportedly seeks to turn Africa's most populous nation into an Islamic state.
Insecurity in other parts of Nigeria has also been linked to attacks involving predominantly Muslim Fulani herders, sometimes referred to as the Fulani militia.
This story was first published by ACI Africa, the sister service of EWTN News in Africa, and has been adapted by EWTN News.
