Czech and Slovak Christians gathered for ecumenical prayers on Friday at the site of the 1620 Battle of White Mountain and in some 10 cities across the Czech Republic, marking a historic Catholic-Protestant wound as an occasion for reconciliation.
The Habsburg victory at Bílá Hora — Czech for “White Mountain,” on a hill outside Prague — ended a Bohemian Protestant revolt and led to the forcible re-Catholicization of the Czech lands. The event is sometimes referred to as the Czech “national trauma” and helped shape anti-Catholic sentiment that has marked Czech religious identity for centuries.
The May 8 events took place on the Bílá Hora hilltop, which is now part of Prague, and on city squares and in churches across the country. At the main gathering, the Slovak Christian band Timothy performed, joined by other musicians and pilgrims.
The lay group Smíření Bílá hora — Czech for “Reconciliation White Mountain” — has organized the annual events since 2020. On the 400th anniversary of the battle that November, Archbishop Jan Graubner of Prague and the head of the Czech Ecumenical Council of Churches, Daniel Ženatý, presided at an ecumenical prayer service on the hill. Chief Rabbi Karol Sidon represented the Jewish community, and the Czech Bishops' Conference co-organized the event.
A reconciliation cross was installed at the site as “a permanent reminder” and “a place for symbolic events,” according to Father Stanislav Přibyl — then-general secretary of the Czech Bishops' Conference and now archbishop of Prague — speaking to the Czech weekly Katolický týdeník. He called the cross “part of the Czech spiritual tradition.”
When commemorative gatherings resumed in May 2021 as COVID-19 restrictions eased, the then-apostolic nuncio to the Czech Republic, Archbishop Charles Daniel Balvo, sent a letter to the lay organizers conveying that Pope Francis appreciated their prayers, “particularly when they are linked to a genuine wish to reconcile” people and “to heal the past wounds, accompanied by concrete gestures of forgiveness and meeting.”
Spreading reconciliation across the regions
Diocesan support has gradually widened.
The Archdiocese of Olomouc and the Diocese of Ostrava-Opava told EWTN News that while they do not organize anything specifically tied to Bílá Hora, they support all initiatives aimed at reconciliation. The Archdiocese of Prague is “supportive, including bishops, as well as the clergy and consecrated people, so not only laypersons,” its press office told EWTN News. Former archbishops of Prague Cardinal Miloslav Vlk and Cardinal Dominik Duka met with Protestants at Bílá Hora in 2000 and 2010, respectively, the archdiocese recalled.
“We support our local service rather symbolically — through promotion,” the press office of the Diocese of Ostrava-Opava said. In the city of Ostrava, the May 8 gathering is led by an ecumenical community on the conviction that “reconciliation begins in families and small communities and can gradually spread further through churches and into society.”
The eastern Czech diocese held a separate Lenten reconciliation event in the Opava co-cathedral marking its 30th anniversary, asking forgiveness for the sins “which hurt brothers and sisters from other Christian churches,” its press office said.
The Czech Bishops' Conference confirmed to EWTN News that it is no longer involved in organizing or coordinating the Bílá Hora events directly.
A wound rooted in the Thirty Years' War
The Battle of White Mountain took place on Nov. 8, 1620, near Prague during the early phase of the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), a religious-political conflict that ravaged Europe.
The war was ended by the 1648 Peace of Westphalia, which reaffirmed and extended the principle of “cuius regio, eius religio” — “whose realm, his religion” — first established at the 1555 Peace of Augsburg, under which the ruler of a given territory determined the religion of its subjects.
The Catholic Church remains the largest religious community in the Czech Republic, but the country is one of the most secular in Europe. According to the 2021 census, about 22% of Czechs identified as religious, and Catholics made up roughly 9% of the population, down from nearly 40% in 1991. About 30% of respondents declined to answer the religion question.
On May 13, the feast of Our Lady of Fátima, Colombia will be consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary as part of the fourth national rosary for peace and reconciliation.
The theme for the rosary event, organized by various lay groups and supported by the Colombian bishops, is “Colombia’s Peace and Reconciliation Are Built Upon the Conversion of Your Heart.”
The country has been plagued by violent Marxist guerrilla groups and drug trafficking for decades.
The day’s events will consist of two main parts. The first will take place at the Bogotá cathedral at 11 a.m. with the recitation of the rosary, the celebration of Mass, and the consecration of the country to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
The rosary will be led by the cathedral’s parish priest, Father Sergio Pulido Gutiérrez. The president of the bishops’ conference, Archbishop Francisco Javier Múnera Correa, will celebrate the Mass and make the act of consecration.
The second part will begin at 5 p.m. in Bogotá’s Plaza de Bolívar, where Eucharistic adoration, a candlelit procession, and the recitation of the rosary will take place. The organizers said that during this Marian prayer, Our Lady will be asked to intercede “for the conversion of Colombians, in order to achieve peace and reconciliation.”
Múnera invited Colombians living both within and outside the country to “join in on May 13 for the great act of consecration to the Immaculate Heart of the Virgin Mary.”
“We will ask the mother of the Lord to rekindle hope within us, sustain unity, and intercede for the reconciliation and peace of all Colombians,” the president of the bishops’ conference stated.
More information can be found on the national rosaryʼs YouTube and Instagram channels.
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.
In a chapel in Burundi in 1993, after she saw 72 of her friends, family, and colleagues executed, Marguerite Barankitse told God she no longer believed he was love.
“How could God create those killers?” she recalled asking through her tears.
As mass killings and ethnic violence tore apart her home country after a coup, Barankitse fled with 25 children, both Hutu and Tutsi, to the safest place she could think of — a Catholic church.
But her faith had been challenged.
“I felt broken,” she told EWTN News. “After witnessing continued massacres and the deaths of my friends and family, I lost my voice and spirit.”
“[I] told God I no longer believed he was love because I could not understand how he could have created such hatred and killers,” she said.
Then, she heard the voice of a little girl — one of the first children she had rescued.
“We’re still in life,” little Chloe said. “We are here.”
“In this moment, I was reminded and saw that God is love,” Barankitse said.
She prayed for the strength “to go and shine in his glory.”
“I knew God had not abandoned me,” she said.
This wasn’t the only moment that shook Barankitse’s faith to her core. She would see more violence and death over the years. But it would become a defining moment for her.
Beginning with the 25 children she saved, Barankitse would go on to rescue and raise tens of thousands of children, eventually formally creating an organization called Maison Shalom.
Maison Shalom didn’t just provide for the children’s practical needs like shelter, education, and healthcare. Barankitse wanted to teach them to love and forgive, across ethnic barriers.
It was the children who came up with the name.
“We took the name ‘Shalom’ because my children heard on the radio that shalom meant peace, and that is our dream,” she explained.
Marguerite Barankitse with kids in the École Sainte Anne de Kigali program in Rwanda in 2023. | Credit: Photo courtesy of Maison Shalom
“From the beginning, Maison Shalom was more than a shelter — it was a community where every child could belong, regardless of ethnicity,” she said.
Barankitse had seen firsthand the destruction of hate, and she wanted to break the cycle.
“Hate destroys not only its victims but also those who carry it,” she said.
“It is not entire ethnic groups that hate each other; it is individuals who choose hatred,” she said. “I refused to make that choice.”
“I asked myself, what could I do to raise children who would break this cycle?” Barankitse continued. “My answer was to raise children with compassion, forgiveness, and love.”
“My strategy has always been to love, because love is creative and transformative,” she said. “Through this love, I choose to respond to violence with compassion, protection, and reconciliation.”
“Love made me an inventor, and I sought to build a community infused with compassion.”
“Forgiveness, as taught by the Church, is radical — it asks us to break the cycle of vengeance and hatred, even when it seems justified,” Barankitse said.
“Love is not just a feeling; it is a force that builds futures out of the rubble of war,” she said.
“And I know that I can never give up because the children I help give me the strength and courage to always stand up, their resilience inspiring me every day,” Barankitse said.
Walking through war zones
Barankitse would walk through war zones to save orphans — even those other people thought weren’t worth saving.
“As the brutal violence and killings continued, I fought for the safety of these children,” she said. “More and more children continued to find refuge with me.”
“I walked directly into war zones and picked children out amid piles of dead bodies because these children deserved the opportunity to live, be treated with dignity, and build peace,” she said.
Barankitse fought for those who other people thought weren’t worth saving.
“One day, I came across a mother who had been killed in a grenade attack with her 4-month-old baby strapped to her back,” she recalled. “The baby was severely injured and people told me to leave him, but I knew I could not give up.”
“I chose to protect him and find medical help for him,” Barankitse said.
In spite of his injuries, the 4-month-old baby would live.
“I am proud to say that he survived and has grown up into a successful young man,” Barankitse said.
Baranktise still remembers another harrowing moment when she had to fight to get medical help for a child who was injured with a deep gash in her neck.
She took her to the airport to bring her to a hospital that could treat her — but other passengers “were refusing to let me aboard due to her condition,” she said.
“They were afraid,” Barankitse said. “I said, ‘No, you have no compassion. You will help me.’”
“Eventually, they listened to me and let me on the plane, putting a curtain between myself and the child and the other passengers,” Barankitse said.
The little girl survived. Now she is married with two children of her own.
“Sometimes love means standing strong for those who need help,” Barankitse said. “Nobody can stop love, and it remains my way of remaining strong against violence and hatred to this day.”
Barankitse had another “deep spiritual crisis” in 1996 after another wave of killings in which she witnessed the death of one of her best friends.
“I spent a month in prayer and returned humbled, realizing I am just a small instrument in God’s hands,” she said. “That is why I continue to pray to God to give me enough strength to continue doing his work.”
“Faith does not shield you from suffering; it walks with you through it,” she said.
“My strength comes from my faith and from the children themselves,” Barankitse said.
“Even as a child, I was troubled by violence and dreamed of becoming a teacher to change the world by teaching children compassion and love,” she said. “Throughout my childhood, my mother taught me that God is love, and when we are created, he gives us strength.”
Faith amid violence
Even after being forced out of her home nation in 2015 due to threats of violence, Barankitse has continued her work, relying on her faith to motivate her.
She left Burundi for Rwanda, where she created Oasis of Peace, which served more than 70,000 Burundian refugees.
“My faith taught me that we are created in love and that God gives us enough strength — ‘Do not be afraid, I will be with you until the end of the world,’” Barankitse said. “That is where I found my smile and my joy, even in the darkest moments.”
Barankitse’s work is founded in her Catholic faith.
“Being Christian is not just about going to church and praying; it is about restoring dignity to every human being,” Barankitse said.
“You can give someone food or clothes, but if they have no dignity, they have nothing,” Barankitse said. “By showing my love to the people around me, I seek to give back dignity to all — deciding to see the humanity in everyone, even those who have hurt you most.”
Marguerite Barankitse at the Human Rights and Humanitarian Forum in Los Angeles in 2025. | Credit: Aurora Humanitarian Initiative
“This is how I build a future where no child has to suffer as my family and friends did,” she said. “Hate will never have the last word. Not as long as we practice love.”
“Catholic teaching tells us that every person is made in the image of God and deserves reverence and love,” she said. “This belief is a foundation for all of my work.”
Oasis of Peace offers counseling for victims of torture and rape, as well as education, vocational training, and micro-financing “so families can rebuild their lives with dignity,” Barankitse said.
Oasis of Peace also provides education for children. The recently launched École Sainte-Anne de Kigali initiative helps in “bringing together children from both underprivileged and more privileged backgrounds in a shared space of learning, growth, and dignity,” according to Barankitse.
“When I see a child orphaned by violence, I see a child of God. When I meet a woman who has survived rape, I see a person of infinite worth,” Barankitse said. “I believe in celebrating differences because this reminds us of how we are all created uniquely. We all deserve to feel love, compassion, and dignity.”
Barankitse continues her work every day, expanding Oasis of Peace, and speaking internationally about her story and the needs of the people she helps.
“Every day is full and purposeful,” she said.
“My hope is to continue sharing my story and the stories of Mason Shalom, inspiring others by showing them the power of love. My days are spent listening, organizing, and dreaming with those I serve.”
Marguerite Barankitse at the 2025 Aurora Prize Ceremony in Ellis Island, New York, on Nov. 6, 2025. | Credit: Photo courtesy of Aurora Humanitarian Initiative
“My dream is to create Shalom Houses everywhere, so every person knows they belong,” she said.
When asked what message she wanted to share, Barankitse said: “Do not give up.”
“The world can show you things that make you want to despair — I have seen them,” she said. “I have been forced to watch friends be murdered, held mutilated children, and fled my country as a refugee. Yet I still believe love is stronger."
After experiencing an unimaginable loss, Kelly Helsel felt called to begin a new chapter. Following 17 years as a stay-at-home mother, she returned to school to pursue her dream of becoming a counselor — hoping to offer others the same compassionate support and Catholic guidance that helped bring healing to her own life.
In 2023 Helsel’s daughter, Mary Catherine, was stillborn. The experience and grief was ultimately “a huge catalyst to me going back to school,” Helsel told EWTN News.
“I think death has an interesting way of snapping your priorities in line,” she said. “And through the death of our daughter, I understood that tomorrow was not promised. And I had been holding this dream very closely for 17 years, just trusting,” she said.
“Much of my healing process after the stillbirth of our daughter was helped along by solid Catholic counseling,” she said. “So I just felt a whisper at first, and then I felt like, ‘I can turn around and be this for someone else in need.’ And so I did.”
Path back to school
A native of Arizona, Helsel met her now-husband, Doug, in high school. She then attended Northern Arizona University to receive a bachelorʼs degree in psychology with the hopes of becoming a counselor, but motherhood ultimately became her first priority.
“My firstborn … was born during finals week of my bachelorʼs degree,” Helsel said. “I actually had a positive pregnancy test the day before I was scheduled to take the GRE [Graduate Record Examination].”
“I just knew that motherhood was the priority and that Godʼs timing would take care of things. So I stayed at home,” she said.
Helsel decided to put her plans of working as a counselor on the side and focus on her growing family. She and her husband had seven children over the next 17 years, but after the loss of theirsixth child she felt called to switch her plans and return to school.
“We just started taking one step in front of the other,” she said. Helsel started by applying to the University of Mary’s master’s program for counseling about six months after her daughter’s passing but was thrown an unexpected “curveball” during the process.
“On the feast of the Annunciation, I got in. But then I also had a positive pregnancy test with my daughter, Isabel, on the very same day.”
“I remember standing in the bathroom with my husband with my phone in one hand with an acceptance letter, and on the counter was a positive pregnancy test with our seventh baby.”
Motherhood provided ‘the skills to be a fantastic student’
Despite navigating grief, welcoming a new baby, and continuing to care for the rest of her family, Helsel not only decided to return to school but also opted for a five-semester accelerated program.
She graduated on April 25 with a 4.0 GPA and her whole family by her side. It was all possible not in spite of her 17 years as a stay-at-home mom but because of the experience.
Kelly Helsel, her husband Doug Helsel, and their children at her graduation a the University of Mary on April 25, 2026. | Credit: Photo courtesy of Kelly Helsel
“I actually think that motherhood, 17 years of motherhood, gave me the skills to be a fantastic student,” she said. “I learned time management. I learned prioritization. I learned how to ask for help. I learned all kinds of things in the trenches of motherhood that gave me the opportunity to really thrive at UMary.”
“I guess the loss of my daughter really showed me that like all things are ‘figure-out-able,’” she said. “When youʼve gone through something like that, it makes you unafraid to do really big things.”
“I knew that I could just cannonball into the deep end and we could do this. And my husband was an amazing support throughout the program. But, Isabel was the curveball of all curveballs,” she said.
“She was born during Christmas break and I just jumped back in in January. I didnʼt take any time off,” she said. "I would be in a rocking chair breastfeeding her, and my laptop is sitting next to me and Iʼm listening to a lecture.”
“I became a pro at using the dictation tool on Microsoft Word” so “I could hold my baby and dictate a paper,” she said. “It was just a really wild time. I learned to be extremely flexible and gentle with myself … But I just knew God was like, ‘go, go right now.’”
“It was super bumpy at some points,“ she said. ”But I chose the University of Mary because I feel like [University of Mary president] Monsignor [James] Shea and the university really put their money where their mouth is in terms of supporting nontraditional students — especially mothers.”
“All of my professors were extremely accommodating with extensions if I needed one. A few professors gave me early finals because Isabel was born right at the end of that first semester,” she said. “So the University of Mary was really crucial to my success because everyone was behind me.”
Helsel noted that her professors, especially counseling professor Olivia Wedel, and other facility members and students were champions in cheering her “all the way to the finish line.”
Waddell “would always remind me that ‘Iʼm surrounded by support,’” Helsel said. “When youʼre super tired and youʼre on your fourth Crock-Pot meal of the week and you donʼt have anymore bandwidth left, I just thought, ‘I am surrounded by support.’”
“Jesus is real and his promises are too,” Helsel said. “I just remember really having to trust the Lord in a new way and also having to be very open to my dream not looking exactly like I wanted.”
“So yes, I went back to school and I got a masterʼs degree, but it looked absolutely nothing like I thought it was going to, but it was also better, just like he had promised me.”
“Your dreams matter to him,“ she said. ”Trust him, and especially Our Lady, with your dreams. Because he wants both. He wants your motherhood and your dreams.”
Catholic counseling offers ‘the keys to real human flourishing’
Officially a licensed counselor, Helsel is ready to jump in headfirst to help others in need by utilizing the guidance offered by the Catholic Church.
“I believe very deeply that the Catholic Church has the keys to real human flourishing,” she said. “So I knew I wanted to become a mental health professional with those guardrails in place, because I benefited so much from Catholic counseling.”
“I want to turn back around and help the next woman or couple or … anyone in line that needs to hear the good news, coupled with solid mental health formation. Like St. Thomas Aquinas says, ‘faith and reason.’ We need both.”
With her “perinatal mental health training,” Helsel hopes to primarily work in the womenʼs health category “to support other women, pregnant women, postpartum women,” she said. “And obviously I have a love for people who may have lost a child in a particular way.”
Helsel is interested in helping those discerning vocations, as her oldest son plans to apply to the priesthood. She is also hoping to support the vocation of marriage as it is “under a particular attack at this time.”
To accomplish all of this, Helsel has already started her own private practice called Concordia Counseling.
“I chose Concordia because Mary Catherine had a congenital heart condition,” she said. “Concordia means heart to heart or to bring two hearts into harmony. I wanted to honor my baby in heaven and Our Lord with my work. And so I started Concordia Counseling.”
“Iʼm just getting it started. I have a caseload of about 10 clients, but Iʼm hoping to accept more,“ Helsel said. ”I know that the work I want to do most of all involves not just mental health but the teachings of the Catholic Church.”
“I just think the framework needs to be formed properly, and that is the Catholic understanding of the whole person. And from there we can jump off anywhere,” she said.
More than 100 U.S. lawmakers sent President Donald Trump a letter asking him to address Jimmy Lai’s case when he meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on May 14–15.
Lai, founder and publisher of the pro-democracy tabloid Apple Daily, was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Feb. 9 over what Chinese officials claim were national security violations. The sentencing followed Lai’s conviction, which ended what Lai’s defenders described as a politically motivated show trial.
In October 2025, Trump spoke with Xi Jinping about Lai. In the letter sent to the White House on May 8, lawmakers urged Trump to advocate for Lai again by asking for his humanitarian release.
Catholic Rep. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, co-chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, and Sen. Rick Scott, R-Florida, both longtime advocates of Laiʼs, circulated the bipartisan letter that was signed by 105 other members of Congress.
“We know the president wants to do this,” Smith said in a May 8 interview with “EWTN News Nightly." “We want him to know — President Trump — that weʼre solidly behind him about what he might be able to accomplish.”
“And he could use that, frankly, more effectively, with Xi Jinping, and say, ‘Look, donʼt just do it for the executive branch. The legislative branch is asking you, as well, from a humanitarian point of view,’” Smith said.
The president has “an ability to persuade” like “no other president Iʼve ever known,” Smith said. “And I hope he can persuade Xi Jinping to let this great man go.”
The letter notes that Trump’s “direct engagement is critical to securing Mr. Laiʼs immediate release on humanitarian parole” and the case for his freedom “is urgent and undeniable.”
“He is a devout Catholic and successful entrepreneur who has already spent five years in detention, much of it in solitary confinement,” lawmakers wrote.
“His family, his friends, and supporters have indicated that if he is released, he will leave Hong Kong and withdraw from public life,” they wrote. “It is a clear, practical path forward that reunites a family and prevents this case from becoming an irreversible tragedy — and an enduring symbol of repression that will echo far beyond Hong Kong.”
Lai’s ‘deteriorating health’
The group is calling for a humanitarian release due to Lai’s “deteriorating health condition.” They wrote: “His health has declined in custody, and prolonged isolation and inadequate prison conditions only increase the risk of permanent harm.”
“From a humanitarian point of view, weʼre hoping the president will look Xi Jinping in the eyes and say, ‘Let this guy go. Do it now. Itʼs a good gesture. It means a lot to us as Americans,’” Smith said.
“Jimmy Lai spoke truth to power. He did it with grace, eloquence,” Smith said. “His newspaper … was just a beacon of hope and [truth], and for that, heʼs got a life sentence — 20 years. Heʼs 78. Itʼs probably a life sentence, and heʼs very sick.”
“Iʼm very concerned,” Smith said. “Weʼve known for decades that when somebody is a political prisoner, and thatʼs what Jimmy Lai is, or religious prisoner, and you get sick, they let you die. They do not attend to your needs.”
Lai “has a number of very serious ailments,” Smith said. “Type 2 diabetes is just one of them. Heʼs got a lot of other problems, and they all are compounding, cascading. He needs good medical attention, and he needs it now.”
“Otherwise itʼll be a blight on the Chinese Communist Party added to the other blights that theyʼve accumulated over the years. But break that mold of letting people just die in prison through neglect,” Smith said.
“No one can do it better than Trump, and I think he will,” Smith said. “And if it does fail, it wonʼt be on Trumpʼs back. Itʼll be, sadly, that Xi Jinping again has decided to stay with being cruel.”
The U.S. Supreme Court’s stay on the 5th Circuit’s ruling restricting access to telemedicine abortions is set to expire May 11, a deadline that could bring an extension, allow the restrictions to take effect, or prompt the justices to take up the case in full.
Michael New, assistant professor of social research at The Catholic University of America’s Busch School of Business, told “EWTN News Nightly” on May 8: “The Supreme Court may extend the stay if they need more time to deliberate; they may simply uphold the 5th Circuit Courtʼs decision that bans tele-abortion, and the ban will go into effect; or they may want to do a full hearing [and] conduct oral arguments.”
The Supreme Court on May 4 temporarily blocked a lower court order requiring in‑person dispensing of mifepristone after two manufacturers asked the justices to intervene, prompting Justice Samuel Alito to issue an administrative stay that restores mail‑order access until May 11 at 5 p.m. ET while the court weighs the request.
Although Alito instructed the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the state of Louisiana to respond by 5 p.m. ET on May 7, the Justice Department failed to do so.
New described the development as “odd,” saying the failure by the Justice Department, which represents the FDA, to meet the filing deadline could be that “they don’t want to defend the FDA’s position any longer” or that it may signal a policy change.
“Sometimes when people think theyʼre going to lose a case, they change public policy because theyʼd rather change policy than, you know, lose a court case,” New said. “Itʼs really hard to say at this point.”
Ultimately, New said the Supreme Court should “absolutely” reinstate in-person requirements to obtain abortion pills, saying: “Thereʼs some real serious public health issues at play here.”
Judicial Crisis Network President Carrie Severino gave context for the latest developments in a May 7 interview on EWTN’s “The World Over with Raymond Arroyo,” noting that the FDAʼs ongoing approval of nationwide mail-order abortion effectively circumvents Louisiana law protecting unborn human life.
“The court should decide hopefully by the 11th, because thatʼs when the stay expires,” she said. “If they donʼt make any decision, then the 5th Circuit ruling goes back into effect and the FDA will have to disallow mailing of these pills, at least during the pendency of litigation,” said Severino, who is also a former Supreme Court clerk.
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ordered the FDA to carry out a review of the abortion drug in May 2025, which is still ongoing.
Ultimately, Severino said, the Supreme Court will not be ruling on “what the FDA needs to do at the end of the day” but on whether abortion drugs will be allowed to be mailed into Louisiana or not.
“Eventually, you know, then itʼs going to go back and the district court and the 5th Circuit are going to have to reconsider it,” she said. “It could well return to the Supreme Court ultimately, but thatʼs going to be a ways down the litigation.”
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has spoken out against the dangers of mail-order abortion drugs for women and urged the FDA to restore in-person visits to screen for life-threatening conditions such as ectopic pregnancies as well as abuse and human trafficking.
WASHINGTON — Young adult Catholics living in Washington, D.C., are flocking to the Emmaus Happy Hour, a monthly event that its founder says is rooted in authentic friendship and the spirit of the early Church.
“We see all these Catholic communities that are separated from each other, and so the idea behind the happy hour is to bring as many of them as we can in one room and to build that community,” said Fady Antoon, the founder and organizer of the event, citing the Acts of the Apostles as his main inspiration for the event.
“It’s like in the Book of Acts, when you read the disciples not only broke bread together, but also they prayed together and cared for the people in their community,” he said, underscoring the event’s charitable aspect.
Fady Antoon (center right) with attendees at the Emmaus Happy Hour on Jan. 14, 2026. | Credit: Photo courtesy of Fady Antoon
Attendees are invited to make an optional donation, which Antoon said goes to a local charity. “For example, usually we always donate to the Cathedral of St. Matthew Homeless Ministry,” he said, estimating the group to have donated around $1,000 to the D.C.-based ministry since the happy hour started in June 2025.
The most recent happy hour, hosted at a rooftop venue in Arlington, Virginia, called Top of the Town, drew 190 attendees despite a lack of formal advertising, according to Antoon. During Lent, Antoon organized a holy hour that was attended by more than 120 people.
The location of the happy hour — though always in Washington, D.C., or Virginia — changes from month to month, depending on where Antoon can find a venue willing to host the event for free. The Emmaus Hour always begins with a prayer led by a local priest but otherwise bucks additional structure.
“The idea is to bring people together who share the same faith and values, but also to support each other, whether its professionally or on a social level,” he said, describing the gathering as a “support system” and place “to come after hours and socialize.”
Indeed, according to Antoon, the Emmaus Hour has served as the meeting place for 15 couples, while three others have landed jobs through connections made there.
Beyond this, Antoon emphasized that the happy hour has also acted as space for evangelization, particularly for fallen-away Catholics.
“If some people have fallen away from the Catholic Church, it might be harder for them to go to the church,” Antoon said. “But if they showed up to the happy hour and if the happy hour is a gate for them to get into the Catholic Church again, then thatʼs one of the purposes of it.”
Antoon shared that during one of the happy hours, hosted in an event room at a local bar, a military serviceman came up to the Dominican priest who had led the prayer and asked for a blessing.
“He said, ‘Father, would you just lay a hand on me and pray? I’m going to get deployed, and I haven’t been practicing my Catholic faith,’” Antoon recalled.
For those who leave the happy hour inspired to grow in their faith, foster deeper connections, or even delve into classic literature, Antoon has developed a reading list, posted to the event’s website.
The next happy hour will take place on May 20. Further information about the time and location of the event can also be found on the website.
As children in Haiti face unimaginable conditions, a religious sister and her team are changing thousands of lives by providing protection, education, and faith formation in the nationʼs most dangerous slum, Cité Soleil.
Sister Paesie was born Claire Joelle Phillipe in Lorraine, France. Raised in a faith-filled Catholic home, she felt called to religious life at a young age.
Inspired by Mother Teresa’s dedication to serving those most in need, Sister Paesie was drawn to the Missionaries of Charity. With a strong desire to spend her life loving Jesus through loving the poor, she made her final vows in 1996.
Sister Paesie chose her name in connection to St. Thérèse of Lisieux and a woman who showed great repentance. In St. Thérèse of Lisieux’s autobiography, “Story of a Soul,” “she refers to a woman who was known as a sinner and who converted and died of love,” Sister Paesie said. The woman, known as Paesie, was detailed in “the lives of the fathers of the desert,” which tells her story of repentance and salvation.
After various missions around the world, Sister Paesieʼs service as a Missionary of Charity took her to Haiti in 1999, where she worked for several years.
“I had been a Missionary of Charity … for about 30 years, but in 2017, I founded a new community under the bishop of Port-au-Prince,” Sister Paesie told EWTN News during a recent visit to the U.S. “My inspiration for that actually came from Mother Teresa, from one of her visions she had before founding the Missionaries of Charity: She saw Jesus on the cross showing her a group of children in the dark. Then Jesus told her, ‘Do you see those children? They do not love me because they do not know me. So go bring my light to them.'”
Sister Paesie continued: “When I was in Haiti … I saw all the children wandering about in the streets. These words of Jesus really came back to me strongly, and I felt the Lord was asking me to do something to protect them from the dangers of the streets, and then to bring his light to them.”
“I spoke about it with the bishop, and he encouraged me,” she said.
Sister Paesie left the Missionaries of Charity to begin the Kizito Family, a religious community named in honor of St. Kizito, a 14-year-old Ugandan martyr known as a protector of children, especially those facing danger, moral trials, and educational challenges.
On June 3, 2018, the Kizito Family received approval from the archbishop of Port-au-Prince as a pious association of the faithful — the first step in establishing a religious community at the diocesan level.
Sister Paesie then established the Kizito Family as a nonprofit organization to begin her ministry. Today, it runs seven houses for orphaned, abandoned, and in need children as well as eight schools and numerous centers to provide education and catechism in Cité Soleil, Haitiʼs biggest and most notorious slum.
Sister Paesie and some of the Kizito Family schoolchildren. | Credit: Photo courtesy of Sister Paesie
Combating the ‘chaos’ in Haiti
Sister Paesieʼs mission has become even more dire as the state of the nation “has been … sinking deeper and deeper into chaos on the political level,” she said.
Haiti is the most impoverished nation in the Latin American and Caribbean region. Children suffer from cholera without clean water to drink, and nearly 2 million people face emergency levels of hunger. Conflict and natural disasters have displaced approximately 1.4 million people — over half of them are children.
Many children are used to perpetual gang violence; they are trafficked and are victims of daily assaults. Grave violations against children surged 490% between 2023 and 2024, according to a World Vision report.
“The gangs are just becoming stronger and stronger as time goes by,“ Sister Paesie said. ”The gang violence before was limited to the slum areas. But then they began attacking and taking over other areas of the country [and] of the city … which had been peaceful places before.”
The gangs “burn houses, they kill people, they rape women. And people, they just run away and then they donʼt come back because the gang members settle there. They just steal everything from the houses, from the shops. And then after a while, they go attack another place," Sister Paesie said.
“On Easter Sunday, there was a little Protestant church in the countryside which was attacked and everyone was killed in that church. It was 80 people — women, children. And then they burnt it.”
While Sister Paesie was traveling in the U.S. in April, the area where her organizationʼs homes and schools are located fell under attack.
“My staff members … called me and we had to remove all the children from there because they were scared. They went over to another place. So this is going on, all the time,” she said. “I spoke to some of my teachers, and they told me for a week they had been locked inside the house because the gang members just told people, ‘Donʼt come out.’”
“They are ruling, they are deciding everything,” she said. “So this is the dark side of it. But there are other sides also.”
Offering children ‘a safe place’
Despite the increasing violence, Sister Paesie, other sisters, and staff members remain committed to their mission.
In the Kizito Family schools, there are 3,000 children, 1,700 of whom attend school daily, and 1,000 are in the Sunday schools and catechism centers. The schools offer much more than education but are primarily for safety and to ensure the children receive meals.
The Kizito Family schoolchildren attend class. | Credit: Photo courtesy of Sister Paesie
“We have our teachers [who] are local staff members,” she said. “They are young people who live there — right there in the slum area.”
“This is what makes it possible for the schools to operate even when there is violence because they are … not far from the schools. We have 210 staff members altogether — teachers, cooks, drivers, all kinds of people, all Haitians.”
The Kizito Family also prioritizes guiding the children to the faith by providing catechism to 800 children and ensuring they are able to receive the sacraments. They often spend time offering prayer intentions and visiting Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.
Kizito Family children prepare for their first holy Communion. | Credit: Photo courtesy of Sister Paesie
“The country was largely Catholic, because it had been a French colony. But then, like 40 years back, the evangelicals began coming down a lot from the United States and converting many people. So now itʼs maybe half and half," Sister Paesie said.
She said itʼs very important to instill the Catholic faith in the children to combat the practice of voodoo, which is common in the nation. “There are people who are Christians and donʼt practice voodoo at all, but many people are kind of one leg in both sides.”
Full-time care
The Kizoto Family staff cares for another 200 children who live with them in the homes full time. They “are kids who were completely on the streets, cut off from their families, or orphans,” Sister Paesie said.
“The adoption process has been nearly stopped completely … because of the violence and because [of] the high level of corruption,“ she said. ”So most countries have just decided to stop.”
“The children who are with us, they are mostly bigger children because they had been on the streets and then they came to us,” she said. But “now, in the last few months, we did receive little ones.”
“We have a group of them, 2 to 6 years old. Most of their parents have been killed in these gang attacks, or some [of] their moms died in childbirth because … the women are not eating properly.”
“So those little ones actually could be adopted, but the situation of the country now is such chaos that you cannot really think of adoption right now.”
Despite adoption being currently closed, the children still receive love and care each day. With the Kizito Family, children in Cité Soleil are able to play, laugh, and worship with a community, Sister Paesie said. Even amid the mayhem, they sense God’s presence, which offers “joy.” What they really need, Sister Paesie said, are prayers.
VILNIUS, Lithuania — Archbishop Visvaldas Kulbokas, the Vaticanʼs apostolic nuncio to Ukraine, arrived in Kyiv six months before Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. More than four years later, he is still there.
In an interview with Sister Faustina Elena Andrulytė, editor-in-chief of the Lithuanian magazine Kelionė, the Lithuanian archbishop opened a window into his time in Ukraine, defined by missile alerts, exhausted soldiers, grieving mothers and, despite the chaos, an extraordinary surge of faith.
The decision to stay in the midst of war
When the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, most diplomats had fled the country, yet Kulbokas made the firm decision to stay. He recounted how a friend of his from the British military “came to evacuate people, then stayed to help the nunciature,” saying “that soldier made all the nunciature employees complete military training courses,” which included sealing windows, evacuating quickly within 20 seconds, and storing food so it would not spoil.
When word reached the nunciature that Kyiv would be encircled by Russian forces within 24 hours, Kulbokas recalled that most ambassadors had decided to leave, with only Poland and Turkmenistan choosing to remain. “It was clear the city could soon be fully surrounded,” he said. “But we stayed.”
He described one account of a Ukrainian soldier armed with portable Javelin missiles who had spotted a Russian tank moving through a street near Kyiv. The soldier emerged from cover, fired a missile, and hid again. When a second tank appeared, he fired again. Then a third time.
“Itʼs good that I didnʼt know there were a dozen tanks there,” the soldier later said. The Russian convoy, believing it was facing a larger defensive force after several tanks were destroyed, reportedly halted its advance.
For Kulbokas, the episode illustrated how “even one personʼs contribution can be enormous” in moments of national crisis.
Living under missiles and the sound of war
As the war progressed, residents and nunciature staff became experts at reading air raid alerts.
“If the signal indicates a ballistic missile, you have to be in a shelter within 10 minutes,” Kulbokas explained. “If itʼs drones or cruise missiles, I go back to bed and try to sleep.”
A Ukrainian Orthodox priest surveys damage to the Transfiguration Cathedral in Odesa following a Russian missile attack on July 23, 2023. | Credit: Valentyn Kuzan/war.ukraine.ua
One of the sisters working in the nunciature, he explained, had become something of a missile analyst, reading flight data on her phone to calculate how long the staff had before impact. He recalled one instance when she and the nunciature driver were at a market and an alert sounded. Checking her phone, she announced they had eight or nine minutes, just enough time to finish buying vegetables and return safely. They made it through the nunciature door seconds before explosions were heard near that very market.
The nuncio also shared the story of a seminarian who had taken academic leave to serve in the military. When he returned to his seminary, he could not sleep because it was too quiet. He had grown so accustomed to the sound of explosions that silence had become unbearable. Kulbokas later had him sent for treatment.
Chaplains on the front line
The nuncio spoke with particular tenderness about military chaplains, describing them as filling a void that trained psychologists have largely been unable to occupy. He recounted how a woman running a program to train 25 psychologists to work with wounded soldiers watched 23 walk away after a single session, with most saying “this is not for me.”
After a second session, the remaining two psychologists also left. “Then the woman who organized the training said: ‘Now I have only one hope left, priests and monks.’”
One chaplain the nuncio knows regularly brings his dog to the front. He rarely discusses religion directly. Instead, he prepares young soldiers for the raw reality of combat. “Donʼt be surprised, when you first find yourself in the trenches, you may pee and poop out of fear. This is normal. This happens to everyone.” He distributes rosaries, prays, blesses, listens to confessions, and stays present.
“Soldiers are more open with a chaplain than with a psychologist,” Kulbokas noted. “However, soldiers accept a dog best: There is no need for either words or questions, the puppy comes, snuggles up, and the therapy takes place.”
The shortage of chaplains remains acute, with only 60% to 70% of the need being met. The stakes of that gap are painfully illustrated by the archbishopʼs account of a military doctor describing wounded soldiers who, unable to be evacuated under drone surveillance, decline further medical intervention by saying: “Donʼt stitch it up, it wonʼt help anymore, better give me absolution.”
“When you face eternity,” Kulbokas reflected, “forgiveness is the only thing you really need.”
Faith rising from the ruins
Perhaps the most astonishing dimension of the archbishopʼs testimony is what the war has done to religious belief. In Kherson, where Kulbokas said the civilian population has fallen to one-fifth of its prewar size, the Catholic parish has grown fivefold to sixfold. “In Kherson, there are no unbelievers left,” Kulbokas said.
He also described how, in the Diocese of Kharkiv-Zaporizhzhia, roughly 30 to 50 kilometers (19 to 31 miles) from the front lines, Auxiliary Bishop Jan Sobilo and his team distribute food packages of bread and canned meat to residents. They use these moments to foster hope and talk about Christ.
Kulbokas said the war has also led people in the region to reconsider their faith. He noted that an Orthodox bishop and two Protestant pastors had converted to Catholicism and later became Catholic priests.
Recalling one story, Kulbokas said a Protestant pastor became curious after hearing reports about a Catholic bishop known for praying the rosary and rapidly building a church. “Donʼt go, because youʼll convert and become a Catholic,” a friend reportedly warned him. According to the archbishop, the pastor attended a single homily during Mass and soon decided to enter the Catholic Church.
With the aim of proclaiming the Gospel on the so-called “digital continent,” the Colombian Bishops’ Conference launched the Digital Missionaries School last weekend. The school is an initiative of the bishops’ Department of Communications in collaboration with their Digital Ministry.
During the first session on May 2, nearly 500 people connected in real time. In a statement to ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, the Digital Ministry noted that there are “more than 1,400 people who signed up to view a recording of the initial session.
The Digital Missionaries School consists of seven monthly sessions running until October, culminating in an in-person national gathering in the Archdiocese of Cali, “where the aim is to consolidate a network of digital missionaries and officially commission them.”
The May 2 session was moderated by Rafael Beltrán, coordinator of Digital Ministry in Colombia and a member of the “The Church Hears You” team, and by Father Martín Sepúlveda Mora, director of the Colombian bishops' conferenceʼs Department of Communications.
Participants included Bishop Juan Carlos Cárdenas Toro, president of the bishops’ Commission for Communications and Technologies, and Bishop Dimas Acuña, episcopal liaison for the Digital Ministry in Colombia.
Also present was Monsignor Lucio Adrián Ruiz, secretary of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication, who during the launch highlighted the scope and significance of the school, stating that it is a space that manifests “that missionary spirit which the Church has and which lives in our hearts.”
“We are called to widen the tent of our hearts and our gaze, to discover all those who need the Lord, even in those places in life where many seek him without knowing it,” he noted, referring to digital evangelization.
He also reminded the participants that the digital mission consists “not merely of techniques or strategies” but rather “is called to be a presence: an ecclesial presence, a presence that makes visible the fact that we are not alone.”
For this reason, he warned against the risk of reducing evangelization to metrics. “Our mission goes against the current. It’s not measured in followers but in communion, in encounter, and in the capacity to get people to undertake real processes in their lives,” he noted.
Father Álvaro Serrano Bayán, a collaborator with the Dicastery for Communication, was also present via Rome. He noted that “the digital mission is here to stay,” given that more than 70% of the world’s population is connected to the internet.
However, he reminded them that “the mission does not depend on the algorithm but on prayer”; therefore, the digital missionary “proclaims the Gospel in the digital environment with responsibility, creativity, and fidelity.”
For this reason, he encouraged digital missionaries to “keep alive the inner fire, the one that is not kindled by algorithms but by prayer, community, and the Holy Spirit.”
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.
