Catholic News

Peruvian priest Father Edgard Iván Rimaycuna Inga, personal secretary to Pope Leo XIV, said the Holy Father "hasn't changed" since his years as a bishop in Peru and is still approachable, serene, and possesses a great capacity for listening.

In an interview with the Spanish media outlet Alfa and Omega, the priest, who first met the pontiff when their paths crossed in Chiclayo, Peru, emphasized that despite his new responsibilities, the pope "remains the same."

"The only things that have changed are his attire, which is now white, and his responsibilities; otherwise, the man we have all come to know remains exactly the same: approachable, calm, an excellent listener, and always available," he said.

A discreet service alongside the pope

Rimaycuna explained that his role as personal secretary consists of accompanying the Holy Father in his daily life and ensuring he has the necessary time and space for rest.

"It means working alongside a friend, in my particular case, and also serving as the one who assists him in his daily work and protects him, so he is able to carry out his duties in a peaceful atmosphere," he noted.

The priest also said his role is defined by discretion, in which the spotlight always remains on the pope.

"No one teaches you how to be the pope's secretary, because it's an assignment that comes upon you quite suddenly," he remarked, explaining that he has found inspiration in St. Joseph and St. John the Baptist.

He highlighted St. Joseph's silence and his capacity to remain in the background and St. John the Baptist's attitude of humility, expressed in the phrase: "It is fitting that I decrease and that he increase."

"I believe that these are the two images that summarize the mission, the task, of a secretary: to take second place, and for the other person to be the center of attention," he noted.

Latin American warmth in the pontificate

Rimaycuna also said the pope's experience in Latin America has shaped his style of governance, particularly in his closeness to people.

"In Latin America, we are accustomed to physical closeness, close contact," he explained, noting that this characteristic is reflected by the pontiff in particular ways, such as "offering a greeting, smiling, offering a word of encouragement, or making a small gesture."

Some observers perceive Leo's pontificate as reserved, and Rimaycuna confirmed that this reservedness is part of the pope's personality: "He is reserved because that is simply his nature — always prudent, calm, and patient — but his years in Peru have also helped him maintain that closeness with the people."

In this regard, he added that the pope manages to integrate "prudence and practicality" with the "cordial, approachable, and affectionate" gestures characteristic of Latin America.

On the apostolic journey to Spain

Regarding the upcoming apostolic journey to Spain, the pope's personal secretary noted that its primary significance will lie in the closeness of the shepherd to his flock.

He also highlighted that the Holy Father seeks to acknowledge Spain's historical contribution to the Church.

"Throughout history, Spain has been characterized as a land that has produced many saints," he stated, emphasizing that the trip would also serve as a gesture of "gratitude for all that Spain has given to the world and to the Church in terms of faith and Christian life."

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.

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A federal judge has granted a preliminary injunction allowing clergy to minister to people held at an Illinois immigration facility during Holy Week, citing Pope Leo XIV in his ruling.

U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman ordered the Trump administration to allow clergy to enter the Broadview immigration facility from April 2–5 to offer religious services for those who wish to attend.

"The court takes 'at face value the claimant's stated belief' that ministering to detainees specifically at Broadview, who hail from local parishes and share a religious community with plaintiffs, is core to their religious practice," Gettleman's March 31 order said, citing November 2025 comments from Pope Leo XIV calling for detained migrants to have access to spiritual care. 

Gettleman wrote: "With reasonable notice and communication, addressing legitimate security and safety concerns, allowing plaintiffs to provide pastoral care to migrants and detainees does not pose any undue hardship on the government."

The order, which also allows people to pray outside the facility, followed a March 31 hearing.

The judge granted the injunction saying the plaintiffs — the Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership with several priests and religious — had shown the government had "substantially burdened" their exercise of religion by blocking access to the facility and prohibiting prayer on its grounds.

The judge rejected the Trump administration's argument that it was not violating the plaintiff's religious exercise because it had provided clergy access to permanent migrant detention facilities elsewhere.

The Broadview facility is an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office used to process detainees before being transferred to detention centers. Although detainees are only meant to be held there for a few hours, with the maximum being 72 hours, some alleged last year that they were held there for several days and even up to one week during ICE's Operation Midway Blitz, which detained about 3,000 immigrants illegally residing in the state.

DHS response

"ICE follows ALL court orders," according to a statement from the Department of Homeland Security. "The facility in Broadview, IL, is a field office, it is not a detention facility. Illegal aliens are only briefly held there for processing before being transferred to a detention facility. Religious organizations are more than welcome to provide services to detainees in ICE detention facilities. Even before the attacks on the Broadview facility, it was not within standard operating procedure for religious services to be provided in a field office, as detainees are continuously brought in, processed, and transferred out."

While DHS' statement referred to a standard operating procedure, the judge's order noted that "Broadview allowed plaintiffs' religious visitation to Broadview for years before reversing course relatively recently" and that a previous preliminary injunction to allow clergy in the facility on Ash Wednesday had been "implemented without incident."

Clergy provided Communion and ashes to four detainees on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 18, when two priests and a religious sister were permitted to enter the facility at 3 p.m. Each of them — three men and one woman — received the ashes and took Communion. Three guards also received ashes.

Gettleman — appointed to the bench in 1994 by President Bill Clinton — issued a temporary restraining order in November 2025 directing DHS and ICE to improve living conditions at Broadview. Detainees alleged they were being held for several days in squalid conditions, with clogged, overflowing toilets, poor-quality food, inadequate sleeping arrangements, and a lack of access to basic hygiene supplies. The judge required detainees be provided with soap, towels, toilet paper, oral hygiene products (including toothbrushes and toothpaste), and menstrual products.

The plaintiffs did not immediately reply to requests for comment.

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Miriam Lancaster's story sparked "outrage" after she shared that she was offered medical assistance in dying (MAID) after arriving at a Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, hospital with back pain.

In 2025, 84-year-old Lancaster was taken to Vancouver General Hospital via ambulance after waking up with intense back pain. She was taken out of the ambulance and placed into the emergency room.

"The first person that I remember coming to speak to me was a young lady doctor. And this is where the story begins," Lancaster recalled in an interview with "EWTN News Nightly." "The very first thing she said to me was, 'I would like to offer you MAID.'"

MAID is the euthanasia and assisted suicide law in Canada that allows a physician or nurse practitioner to administer or provide a drug that causes death to the patient.

After the doctor offered MAID, "I said: 'No, thank you,'" Lancaster said. "I was certainly taken aback, and there were so many other things on my mind."

Lancaster said she was thinking: "Yesterday I was feeling fine. I got out of bed this morning, and suddenly I am not feeling fine. I am in horrendous pain. So I need to know what's causing the pain. Let's not talk about end of life please.'"

"My husband, three years previously, had also been offered MAID. He turned it down," Lancaster said. As "practicing Catholics, there is no way that we are going to take measures to end our life. That is in the hands of the Lord. So he turned down MAID when he was in hospital, and a few years later, there I am in the same hospital, and I gave the same response."

Later, Lancaster was moved to the UBC Hospital. "By this time they knew that I had a tiny crack in my sacrum. That's a little bone at the base of the spine," she said. "There's no surgery possible, so I was in bed, with some exercises of course, for three weeks."

"When I got home, I thought, 'Oh, I've been given a second chance here. I am going to make the most of whatever time is left,'" she said.

Lancaster said she and her daughter decided to travel to Cuba in the fall and to Mexico and Guatemala in the spring. While on her trip, Lancaster even went horseback riding on a volcano.

Offering MAID 'defeats a person's sense of self-worth'

Amanda Achtman, who works to humanize the conversation around suffering and death through the Dying to Meet You Project, told "EWTN News Nightly" she hopes Lancaster's story "emboldens other seniors to speak out too" who have had similar experiences.

"Your story has gone totally viral in media all around the world because people are rightly outraged at the suggestion that you could have been offered death when you have so much life to live," Achtman said to Lancaster.

People who are opting for MAID "are being killed by having a lethal injection administered by a doctor or nurse directly," Achtman said. "And now in Canada, 1 in 20 deaths is the result of this premature hastening of an end of life."

MAID "is the suggestion that is being made more and more often to Canadian seniors," she said.

Achtman also works with Canadian Physicians for Life on ethics education and she teaches a bioethics course for St. Bernard's School of Theology and Ministry. She was recently invited by the bishop of the Diocese of Victoria, Canada, to Vancouver Island, which she said is "literally the euthanasia capital of the world."

"And while there, I met Miriam, but also others who shared with me experiences about unsolicited offers of euthanasia within the health care system," she said.

One woman shared her story with Achtman about "having had euthanasia brought up by her family doctor, by a cancer specialist, and even by the funeral home."

"Now, bringing up euthanasia is not prohibited in Canada, according to the Canadian Association of MAID Providers and Assessors — the government-funded group that is promoting this," Achtman said. "There's no prohibition, and they stress that."

"However, what I would stress is that simply having euthanasia offered already kills a person, because it deflates and defeats a person's sense of self-worth, self-esteem, and of value," she said.

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The laity are not "a formless mass, but the body of Christ," endowed with dignity and responsibility in the Church and in the world, Pope Leo XIV said in his catechesis at the general audience on Wednesday.

After riding around a packed St. Peter's Square in the popemobile on April 1, the Holy Father recalled the nature and mission of the laity, who for centuries had been defined simply as "those who are not part of the clergy or the consecrated life" in a reflection based on the Second Vatican Council's dogmatic constitution Lumen Gentium.

Dignity and mission of the laity

The pope explained that Vatican II broke with the former understanding of the laity by affirming the equality of all the baptized and emphasizing both the dignity and the mission of the laity in the Church and in the world.

"Naturally, the greater the gift, the greater the commitment too," the pontiff said.

In light of Lumen Gentium, Leo affirmed that, by virtue of baptism, "the lay faithful participate in the very priesthood of Christ."

He recalled the apostolic exhortation Christifideles Laici, in which St. John Paul II emphasized that "the council, with its rich doctrinal, spiritual, and pastoral patrimony, has written as never before on the nature, dignity, spirituality, mission, and responsibility of the lay faithful." In this way, the saintly pope "relaunched the apostolate of the laity," Leo noted.

He also stressed that the vast field of the lay apostolate "is not confined to the Church but extends to the world" and that the Church is present "wherever her children profess and bear witness to the Gospel."

As examples, he cited workplaces, civil society, and all human relationships, "wherever they, through their choices, show the beauty of Christian life, which foretells here and now the justice and peace that will be accomplished in the kingdom of God."

Quoting Lumen Gentium, the Holy Father stated that "the world needs to be permeated by the spirit of Christ, and more effectively fulfill its purpose in justice, charity, and peace." He added: "And this is possible only through the contribution, service, and witness of the laity!"

This, the pontiff explained, is the invitation to be the "outgoing" Church spoken of by Pope Francis: "a Church embodied in history, always open to mission, in which we are all called to be missionary disciples, apostles of the Gospel, witnesses of the kingdom of God, bearers of the joy of Christ whom we have encountered!"

During his greeting to pilgrims, Pope Leo XIV encouraged them to remain close to the tomb of Christ and to be faithful in the hour of silence and trial.

He also encouraged the faithful to strengthen their faith during Holy Week and to ask the Lord that the paschal mystery renew in them the grace to be joyful witnesses of the Risen One, confident that love and peace are stronger than death.

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.

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Leo XIV records his "Pray with the Pope" video each month, but how does he choose the intentions he wants the Church to pray for?

"They're absolutely the pope's intentions; however, he does it in a very synodal way," after gathering input from many sources, Father Cristo´bal Fones, SJ, international director of the Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network (PWPN), told EWTN News.

The prayer network, established as a Vatican entity by Pope Francis in 2018, recently undertook a lengthy consultation process with its national directors in 94 countries and members of the Roman Curia.

"Last year, we received about 300 proposals in different languages," Fones said. "We categorized them, we summarized them, and then the [prayer network's] international office proposed 16 of them to the pope to facilitate his work."

"In December, I passed him these 16 proposals … he put another one that wasn't part of the [original] proposals and changed the order," he continued.

"He's quite involved in this process. For him it is critical," he said.

Every month, Pope Leo records three versions — English, Italian, and Spanish — of his monthly prayer intention.

"It's a lot of work," the PWPN director told EWTN News. "He's committed to this because he knows it is important and because he wants to pray with people."

According to Fones, Pope Leo is continuing the tradition of Pope Francis, who recorded the first video of the monthly intentions in 2016, but the current pope has put his own stamp on the practice.

"[Pope Leo] wanted to invite people not only to pray for the intention but to pray with him," he said. "So he wanted a video where he was praying and people could join him."

"He's teaching us how to pray at the same time," Fones said, "by saying 'hello' to the Lord, pausing a little bit, and meaning every single word."

Fones said Pope Leo asked the global network to help people cultivate a "friendship" with God through the various multimedia resources they offer.

"He said to me, 'Please teach people how to pray,'" Fones said. "He's very conscious that we may be Catholics but not have this kind of relationship with Jesus."

"Prayer is not something that we do or something that we say, but it's a relationship that we build up — not with something — but with someone," he added.

In addition to the "Pray with the Pope" campaign, the Vatican foundation also offers a nine-step spirituality program called "Way of the Heart."

At Leo's request, PWPN launched the "Pray with the Pope" campaign in January with the desire to teach people "intercessory prayer" that is focused on "Christ and the challenges of humanity."

"The closer we are to the heart of Jesus, the closer we are to the pains and sufferings of the world who are at the core of his heart," Fones said.

"The important thing is to be compassionate with so many challenges we are facing around the world, very critical, that obviously are in the heart of the pope, as [they are] in the heart of so many people who are suffering those problems, and … certainly in the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ," he said.

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BRUSSELS, Belgium — The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) told EWTN News that a 40,000-euro (about $46,000) fine on Serbian soccer club Red Star Belgrade was for a banner containing offensive language directed at the organization, not for a massive display featuring an Orthodox Christian icon, which drew international attention.

The case follows a Europa League match between Red Star Belgrade and LOSC Lille (Lille Olympique Sporting Club) on Feb. 26, when UEFA's Control, Ethics, and Disciplinary Body imposed multiple fines on the Serbian club totaling 95,500 euros (about $110,000). These included a 40,000-euro penalty for transmitting a message deemed not fit for a sports event and bringing the sport of football, and UEFA in particular, into disrepute.

The sanction drew political attention after reports suggested it may have been connected to a stadium display featuring an Orthodox Christian icon alongside a religious message invoking faith and victory.

In response to an inquiry from EWTN News, UEFA said the fine was linked to a banner containing the phrase "F*** UEFA" and not to the religious display. It added that there is no sanction related to the choreography itself.

MEP raises concerns

Greek member of European Parliament (MEP) Emmanouil Fragkos said the case raised broader concerns about the application of rules governing religious expression in European football.

"UEFA and all UEFAs must learn to be accountable to the football fans and all the real people," Fragkos told EWTN News, adding that he supports religion, tradition, and the right of people to speak freely. He also emphasized the need for greater awareness among supporters of their "collective power" in shaping how such decisions are received.

In a letter to Glenn Micallef, the European commissioner for intergenerational fairness, youth, culture, and sport, Fragkos said the case "raises serious concerns" about UEFA's approach, questioning how "a peaceful expression of faith and identity" could be deemed inappropriate and calling for "consistent and transparent application" of the rules governing messages displayed at matches.

Christian symbolism debate

Reports had also pointed to a separate sanction involving LOSC Lille following its Europa League match against Aston Villa on March 12, where a banner depicting St. Joan of Arc was displayed. UEFA told EWTN News those claims were inaccurate, stating that any sanction in that case was related to insulting chants directed at an opposing goalkeeper and not to the imagery.

The episode comes amid ongoing debates in Europe over the place of religious symbols in public life, including a case before the European Court of Human Rights, Union of Atheists v. Greece, concerning the display of Orthodox Christian icons in Greek courtrooms. The applicants argue that such imagery may affect perceptions of judicial neutrality and religious freedom.

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DHAKA, Bangladesh — Christians in Bangladesh formed a human chain and rally in the capital March 31 demanding that the government declare Easter Sunday a public holiday.

The Bangladesh Christian Association organized the demonstration in front of the National Press Club in Dhaka, calling on Prime Minister Tarique Rahman to add Easter to the government's official holiday calendar.

Easter Sunday falls on April 5 this year. Bangladesh's roughly 600,000 Christians — less than 1% of the country's approximately 170 million people — currently receive only one public holiday for a Christian feast: Christmas Day.

Catholic bishops support the demand

The Catholic Church in Bangladesh has also voiced support for the campaign.

Archbishop Bejoy N. D'Cruze, OMI, of Dhaka, president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Bangladesh, expressed his solidarity with the demand for a holiday on Easter in an interview with EWTN News on March 30.

"Since we do not have a government holiday on Easter Sunday, we cannot all celebrate this day together. Many cannot go to the villages, and we cannot all observe the religious customs that are in place before Easter," D'Cruze told EWTN News.

"I also demand from the government to declare a public holiday on Easter so that we Christians can celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ together in family, social, and religious ways," the archbishop added.

'A heavy heart'

Bangladesh Christian Association President Nirmal Rozario said the demand for the holiday is long-standing.

"We have come here with a heavy heart and are standing in front of the Press Club. Easter Sunday is very important to us after Christmas. Jesus is the only person in the history of the world who has risen after death. We are demanding a public holiday on this important and significant day, Easter Sunday," Rozario said.

He added that the Christian community "has made considerable contributions to the formation of Bangladesh" in the areas of education, health services, and development, and questioned why the government has not granted the holiday.

Rozario called on Rahman to add Easter Sunday to the government holiday calendar beginning next year and to grant a holiday for this year through an executive order.

Unequal holiday allocations

Muslims, who make up roughly 91% of the population according to the 2022 census, receive multiple public holidays for their major religious celebrations, including several days for Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. Hindus, who constitute about 8% of the population, have two days off for their main religious festival, Durga Puja.

Christians, however, have only one public holiday — Christmas Day.

Manju Maria Palma, secretary of The Christian Cooperative Credit Union Ltd. in Dhaka, a 48,000-member organization, was present at the human chain.

"Christ was resurrected on this day. This day is very important. If this public holiday is given, not only the Christian community will benefit but also our brothers and sisters of other religions will understand the significance of this day," Palma said.

Lawmaker expresses hope

EWTN News contacted at least three members of Parliament, including Abdul Aziz, a member of Parliament from the Natore-4 constituency, which includes a historic Christian settlement.

Aziz told EWTN News: "Since we respect all religious ceremonies, including Christian activities, and since Christians have expressed their demands, our government will definitely consider the matter."

He also expressed hope that the government will soon discuss the issue of a holiday on Easter Sunday.

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A tense calm hangs over the predominantly Christian town of Al-Suqaylabiyah in Syria's Hama countryside after it was attacked on Friday, March 27, by armed groups from outside the town, leaving widespread damage to public and private property.

Footage documenting the destruction — filmed by the attackers themselves or secretly recorded by residents — showed acts of vandalism and theft targeting cars, shops, cafes, and other property, accompanied by threatening chants and insults.

The assault was not an isolated incident. Local sources reported that another attempted attack was thwarted the next day by general security personnel, deepening residents' fears that such assaults could happen again.

In immediate response, the town's residents staged a protest sit-in, raising clear demands, most notably rejecting a "single-color army" (a force dominated by one religious or ethnic group), insisting on compensation for the damage, and calling for those responsible to be held accountable, including members of General Security, whom protesters accused of taking part in the attack.

The demonstrators also stressed their rejection of uncontrolled weapons and sectarianism, affirming that public and private freedoms are a "red line." They voiced frustration with some media coverage that described the incident as merely an individual dispute, holding signs denouncing "false media" and refusing to give interviews to state-run outlets.

On the ecclesial level, reactions were swift and firm. The Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East, together with most Churches in Syria, announced that Easter celebrations would be reduced to prayers inside churches only, citing "the current discouraging circumstances."

At the same time, the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East strongly condemned what happened, saying that incidents targeting the Christian community cannot be dismissed as "individual incidents" and warning against the dangers of fueling sectarian tendencies.

The patriarchate also called for an official investigation, accountability for those responsible, and compensation for those affected. It stressed that responsibility for maintaining security rests solely with the state and its institutions, along with the need to control the spread of weapons outside state authority. It further emphasized the importance of upholding citizenship and integration among all components of Syrian society, far from the logic of majority and minority.

For its part, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Hama described what happened as an attack carried out by "outlaw groups," calling for strict legal measures, including the formation of a judicial investigative committee, accountability for those involved and those who failed in their duties, enforcement of laws restricting weapons to the hands of the state, and guarantees of equality among citizens.

At the same time as the Al-Suqaylabiyah incident, a U.N. report said more than 1,700 people were killed and around 200,000 displaced during a single week of violence in the south of the country in July 2025, most of them Druze civilians. The report warned that the humanitarian situation remains fragile and documented violations that may amount to war crimes or crimes against humanity.

This story was first published by ACI MENA, the Arabic-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

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There are approximately 20,000 sailors stranded near the Strait of Hormuz — one of the world's most strategic maritime routes — according to data compiled by the International Maritime Organization (IMO).

However, beyond the economic and geopolitical impact, the war is "breaking down the mental health of these workers," said Bishop Emeritus Luis Quinteiro Fiuza of Tui-Vigo in Spain, the head of the Apostleship of the Sea, in a statement to ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News.

"Those stranded on those ships, unable to cross through the strait for weeks, live in constant anguish," he said, indicating that these sailors are living "with the very real fear that everything could end at any moment by being bombed."

In the week following the Paschal Triduum, Quinteiro is scheduled to travel to London to hold high-level meetings at the IMO — the United Nations agency responsible for the safety and security of maritime trade — which has proposed the creation of a "safe maritime corridor" to allow vessels to leave the Persian Gulf region and pass through the Strait of Hormuz without risk.

"We are facing a truly dramatic situation for everyone, but especially for seafarers and their families," Quinteiro emphasized. Despite the logistical constraints in the region where there is virtually no Christian presence, the Apostleship of the Sea maintains contact with some of the families of those currently stranded aboard the ships.

"Families are experiencing this with immense anguish. They are horrified, monitoring events minute by minute, and many tell us they are completely overwhelmed," he shared.

Moreover, in many cases, the isolation of the vessels that have been unable to go through the Strait of Hormuz since the war began is almost total: "Right now, there are ships with their internet down. It is a situation of utter abandonment."

"Imagine being on a ship, watching missiles or instruments of destruction fly past. How must a person feel in the midst of that?" Quinteiro said, explaining that the Church's mission in this context is to offer emotional and spiritual support to both the sailors and their families.

This constant pressure, coupled with the inability to leave the area, further aggravates the situation: "They can't get back to their home country. They're stranded. That is the word: completely stranded."

"Ninety percent of global trade is conducted by sea, yet, unfortunately, we forget about the seafarers. Moreover, it is an increasingly unattractive occupation, staffed largely by people from poorer countries, which exacerbates the injustices," the prelate noted.

Pope Leo XIV made reference — albeit indirectly — to those stranded in the Strait of Hormuz during the Angelus on Palm Sunday by asking for prayers for sailors suffering the consequences of conflicts.

Last November, Pope Leo recognized the legal standing of the Apostleship of the Sea, a decision that reinforced the organization's role as an instrument of spiritual and human accompaniment for a group that is frequently overlooked, despite being essential to the functioning of global trade.

In 1977, the then-Pontifical Commission for Migrants published the decree Apostolatus Maris, updating the regulations following the Second Vatican Council. Two decades later, St. John Paul II renewed this commitment with the motu proprio Stella Maris, consolidating the Church's mission in the maritime sphere. More recently, Pope Francis entrusted the direction of this work to the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, underscoring the importance of comprehensive care for people of the sea.

"In the maritime world, there is a great need for justice. To evangelize today means being alongside these people, accompanying them, and making them feel that they are not alone: ??it means not only defending justice and workers' rights but also offering closeness, comfort, and hope amid extreme situations," Quinteiro 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.

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Violence is escalating against Christians in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) by the Islamic State group, a militant organization, according to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).

USCIRF said in a March 31 report that the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria-Democratic Republic of Congo (ISIS-DRC), have been "carrying out a sustained pattern of attacks in eastern DRC that represents a direct assault on religious freedom, particularly for Christian communities in North Kivu and Ituri provinces."

"Early 2026 has brought no respite from ADF violence, as the group has continued to carry out attacks on predominantly Christian areas," the report said. "In one display of its depravity, the group executed around 70 civilians in a Christian village in North Kivu in February, beheading men, women, children, and elderly victims alike."

The report said the latest attacks are part of a continuing trend of violence, which it traced to 2024, when it said ADF fighters "reportedly carried out multiple assaults on predominantly Christian villages and church gatherings in and around Beni, North Kivu, including attacks on prayer meetings and the killing of local pastors and congregants."

The report also noted attacks that occurred in July of that year, with ADF fighters killing an estimated 40 Christians, in addition to numerous abductions and forced displacement, "that prompted some churches to suspend services or close altogether."

The pattern of violence escalated in 2025, the report said, with attacks on Christian villages in North Kivu and in Kasanga in February, as well as "a major assault on worshippers attending a night vigil at a Catholic church in Komanda, Ituri province, killing dozens of men, women, and children gathered for prayer." Further attacks took place over the course of the year, the report said, including strikes on Christian villages, funeral wakes, and facilities.

The commission noted the Trump administration's efforts to address security concerns in the DRC through the Washington Accords for Peace and Prosperity between the DRC and Rwanda, as well as targeted sanctions against human rights offenders and militant groups, but noted "insecurity remains high."

"The ADF and other nonstate actors represent persistent threats to religious communities in the area, as mass killings, abductions, and attacks on places of worship continue to generate widespread fear, drive displacement, and disrupt communal religious life," the commission said in the report. "These challenges highlight the pressing need for sustained security operations, strengthened accountability, and robust civilian protection measures in the DRC to ensure that all are able to live, worship, and practice their religion or belief freely."

Members of the National Episcopal Conference of Congo (CENCO) have condemned violence in the region, pledging not to remain silent in the face of the worsening security and humanitarian crisis in a statement following their March 23–25 plenary assembly.

"Our goal is to contribute, among other things, to the promotion of the inalienable dignity of the human person and to the well-being of the Congolese people. Therefore, in the face of the degrading security and humanitarian situation of our country, we will not be silent," the faith leaders said.

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