Catholic News

Pope Leo XIV on Sunday urged parties across the Middle East to suspend their attacks and reopen diplomatic negotiations, warning that escalating military operations were endangering civilians and worsening shortages of drinking water and electricity.

"I continue to follow with deep concern the ongoing and escalating violence in the Holy Land, where, in recent days, many civilians, both in the West Bank and in Gaza, have once again fallen victim," the pope said July 26 after leading the Angelus from the Apostolic Palace in Castel Gandolfo.

His remarks followed one of the most tense days in the West Bank in recent months. A shooting in Tell, southwest of Nablus, reportedly killed at least four Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers and was followed by attacks by Israeli settlers against several Palestinian communities.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz subsequently announced that military operations would be intensified in areas Israel considers centers of terrorism.

"I make a heartfelt appeal for a return to negotiations to achieve a just political solution, founded on the equal dignity and equal rights of every human person," Pope Leo said.

"At the same time, I urge the rejection of further military actions and unilateral decisions, especially those that violate the respect for and the status quo of the holy places of every religion."

The pope also renewed his appeal concerning the wider Middle East, where he said intensified military operations had "again wreaked violence and destruction, endangering the lives of countless civilians and further aggravating the shortages of drinking water and electricity."

"From the depths of my heart, I exhort all parties involved to suspend the attacks and urgently reopen paths of dialogue and diplomacy, so that the longed-for peace for the entire region may be achieved without delay," he said.

Pope Leo invited the faithful to continue praying for people throughout the world who are suffering because of war.

"May the Lord touch the hearts and enlighten the minds of those in power, so that reconciliation and peace may soon prevail," he said.

Prayers for wildfire victims

The pope also expressed his closeness to people affected by devastating wildfires in France and Spain and called for prayers for both the victims and emergency workers involved in relief efforts.

The fires have forced hundreds of thousands of people to leave their homes, while forecasts of temperatures reaching approximately 108 degrees Fahrenheit were expected to increase the danger in the affected areas.

Beatification of Elias Hoayek

Pope Leo recalled the July 25 beatification in Lebanon of Elias Hoayek, who served as Maronite patriarch of Antioch from 1899 to 1931 and founded the Congregation of the Maronite Sisters of the Holy Family.

"For more than thirty years, he led the Maronite Church with great dedication and pastoral sensitivity," the pope said.

"A man of dialogue and hope, he was an outstanding ecclesial, social and political leader, so much so that he came to be known as the 'Father of Greater Lebanon.'"

The pope prayed that the new blessed's intercession would accompany Maronite Catholics throughout the world and obtain peace for Lebanon, "a country dear to my heart."

World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly

Pope Leo also marked the sixth World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly, whose theme was drawn from the words of the prophet Isaiah: "I will never forget you."

"Together, let us give thanks to the Lord for the gift that the elderly are to the Church and society," he said.

"Let us also commit ourselves to respecting and valuing the precious role they play, and to ensuring that they always receive the care, attention and assistance they deserve."

The kingdom of God enlarges life

During his Angelus reflection, Pope Leo focused on the Gospel's images of the kingdom of God as a hidden treasure and a pearl of great price.

"The parables convey the surprise of those who find something far beyond what they could have hoped for, so much so that selling or leaving everything behind no longer seems a sacrifice, but a gain," he said.

The pope said the evangelists present Christ's call to discipleship as irresistible.

"It is a free choice, yet also urgent and capable of eliciting a ready and wholehearted response," he said. "Encountering his Kingdom marks a turning point that does not limit life but enlarges it."

"If anything must change on our part, it is only so that our lives may be opened to greater possibilities, not fewer."

Pope Leo noted that the figures appearing in Christ's parables include peasants, merchants, travelers, fishermen, scribes, shepherds, farmers and women carrying out ordinary household tasks.

"In short, the Kingdom of God reveals its inestimable beauty in different ways, but calls everyone — men and women, young and old, rich and poor — to a profound renewal," he said. "Everyone is capable of understanding it and is drawn to it."

The pope said that the Church likewise brings together people with different backgrounds, cultures, abilities and responsibilities.

"Yet all are called to recognize themselves as 'one' in Jesus Christ: he is the hidden treasure, the pearl of great price, the net that gathers those who are scattered," he said.

"From the beginning, Jesus called and gathered around himself people who would otherwise never have come to know one another. In this way, he demonstrated that God has no favorites, but instead offers his love freely, especially to the little ones or those cast aside."

Pope Leo concluded by urging Catholics to ask for the wisdom sought by the young King Solomon: the ability to recognize what is truly valuable.

"While the consumer culture influences our tastes, constantly creating new needs only to sell us solutions that never satisfy, and that sometimes even poison the heart, we must learn to grasp what truly matters," he said.

That treasure, the pope continued, is "a relationship with God that opens us to joy and helps us to live our relationships with one another more fully."

The July 26 Angelus was Pope Leo's final Sunday appearance during his summer stay at the Apostolic Palace in Castel Gandolfo. He was scheduled to return to the Vatican on Monday, July 27.

The pope was expected to return to Castel Gandolfo on Wednesday, July 29, to meet young choristers participating in the Andrea Bocelli Foundation's Voices of Global Gathering at the Borgo Laudato Si'. Bocelli was scheduled to perform a musical work titled "Cantico di Pace."

This story was first published in two parts 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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Hidden beneath layers of paint for more than 200 years, one of the largest surviving Baroque Christian painting programs in the Baltic region has emerged inside St. John's Church at Vilnius University in Lithuania.

The church, formally named the Church of St. John the Baptist and St. John the Apostle and Evangelist, has yielded a discovery that is both archaeological and religious.

It reveals an almost untouched vision of Catholic worship from the 18th century and offers new evidence that Lithuania was an important center of Europe's shared Christian artistic tradition.

Researchers have confirmed that more than 2,000 square meters (21,500 square feet) of original Baroque murals remain preserved beneath later paint layers, making it one of the most authentic surviving Baroque church interiors in the Baltic region.

Baroque architecture was heavily promoted by the Catholic Church in the early 1600s to counter the austere architectural style present in Lutheran churches following the Reformation.

Starting in Rome, the style spread across Italy, Spain, and Portugal before gaining popularity in Austria, Poland, and Lithuania. Vilnius is today known as the "Rome of the North" because it boasts the largest collection of Baroque architecture in Eastern and Central Europe.

A rare moment of discovery

For lead conservator Indre Valkiuniene, the first glimpse of the hidden paintings immediately signaled that the team had uncovered something extraordinary.

"Uncovering the first painted figures brought a wonderful sense of discovery," she told EWTN News. "It immediately became clear that they had been executed with great skill." The paintings' refined technique and vivid colors, she said, point to "highly accomplished painters active in 18th-century Vilnius."

"An even greater sense of satisfaction came when we realized that the paintings had escaped later alterations and overpainting until the third decade of the 19th century," Valkiuniene said. "They were not overpainted because they could no longer be conserved, but because there was an intention to fundamentally change the decoration of the church interior."

For Valkiuniene, the paintings are important as works of art but also as expressions of Christian faith and culture in Vilnius and broader Lithuania.

"The character of Vilnius Baroque is expressed not only through architecture but also through the artistic conception of church interiors," she explained. Churches were designed as unified sacred spaces where marble, stucco sculpture, gilding, and monumental paintings together proclaimed the Christian message.

The newly investigated vault paintings formed part of that unified program.

Historically across Europe, many Baroque church interiors have been repeatedly restored or repainted, leaving scholars to distinguish original artwork from later interventions. At St. John's Church, the paintings were simply concealed.

Researchers have now identified the arrangement of scenes depicting the lives of St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist while also establishing the original color scheme and assessing the condition of the concealed paintings. This information will guide any future restoration.

For visitors today, Valkiuniene believes the discovery places Lithuania firmly within Europe's Christian artistic heritage.

A Jesuit church at the heart of Lithuania

The discovery carries added significance because St. John's Church stands at the heart of Vilnius University, one of Eastern Europe's oldest universities.

Founded by the Jesuits in 1579, it was one of just 23 Jesuit universities in Europe between the 16th and 18th centuries and, for nearly 200 years, the easternmost university on the continent. From there, it served as a leading center of Catholic learning during the Counter-Reformation, shaping the intellectual and spiritual life of the region.

The university also has close ties to one of the Church's best-known modern devotions. Among its professors was Blessed Michal Sopocko, the confessor and spiritual director of St. Faustina Kowalska, who encouraged the Polish nun to record her mystical experiences and helped spread the message of divine mercy throughout the Church.

For centuries, St. John's Church also hosted royal ceremonies and gatherings of nobles, reflecting its central place in the religious and civic life of Lithuania.

More than restoring art

For Jesuit Father Aldonas Gudaitis, the chaplain of Vilnius University, the discovery is about far more than recovering historical paintings.

"The beauty of Baroque inspires young people to admire art," he said. That fascination, he explained, often encourages them not only to explore Christian artistic traditions more deeply but also awakens an interest in the Christian faith itself. He believes the restoration also carries a powerful message for Lithuania, whose churches suffered greatly during decades of Soviet occupation.

Under the USSR, St. John's Church was closed to worshippers, damaged while being stripped of its religious functions, and later repurposed as a warehouse.

Across the country, Gudaitis explained, restoring what was damaged or hidden has become a source of hope for many people. Comparing the process to the Catholic sacrament of reconciliation, Gudaitis said that just as forgiveness frees a person to live without the burden of guilt, restoring sacred art brings a similar spiritual renewal to communities.

"The restoration of art in churches enriches people spiritually," he said. "It strengthens the hope that even a violent occupation cannot destroy what is beautiful and cherished."

That message may ultimately become the discovery's greatest legacy.

Beyond revealing one of the Baltic region's largest surviving Baroque painting programs, the hidden murals of St. John's Church remind Catholics that beauty created for the glory of God can endure through wars, occupations, and changing fashions, all while waiting patiently to inspire a new generation.

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If you want to clean more-than-century-old marble statues of the apostles, you don't simply use soap and water.

Rather, you must spray the figures with a "specialized conservation material" that subsequently dries into a "latex-like layer," which is then "carefully peeled away," thus preserving the statue's original finish.

The process "is labor intensive and takes significant time," according to staff at the Basilica of Saint Mary, a towering and historic minor basilica in downtown Minneapolis.

The massive church, which was dedicated in 1915 and became the first basilica in the United States when it was designated as such by Pope Pius XI in 1926, has been undergoing a major restoration project since 2025.

Built in the Beaux-Arts style — what was at the time a popular architectural form in the United States — the co-cathedral boasts a towering flèche-topped central dome and an 82-foot-high barrel vault.

Among its many adornments include the statues of the apostles, which were carved in Italy as half-scale replicas of statues at the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran, the cathedral of the pope in Rome.

Church's roots stretch back to 1860s

On its website, the basilica says its roots can be traced to 1868, when a simple "shed church" was constructed in Minneapolis. Years later another, more substantial Gothic Revival edifice was built, but burgeoning development in the neighborhood eventually pushed the parish to relocate to its present location on Hennepin Avenue. The cornerstone of the current structure was laid in 1908.

The church, designated a pro-cathedral, celebrated its first Mass in 1914; it was dedicated the following year. It was still being worked on when the U.S. entered World War I in 1917.

In 1926, Pius XI raised the pro-cathedral to the rank of minor basilica, after which it took on its present name. It would enjoy a vibrant parish life in the following decades, though the construction of adjacent freeways in the 1960s "took a heavy toll" on the building.

The 1980s and 1990s saw parishioners spearheading efforts at ongoing restoration. The latest restoration campaign, titled "Restoring Beauty, Inspiring Hope," has aimed to raise a total of about $50 million in funding.

Among the project's goals are masonry repairs, roof repairs, pew restorations with new kneelers, plaster restoration, and numerous other projects.

Johan van Parys, who has served as the basilica's director of liturgy and the sacred arts since 1995, told EWTN News that the basilica has needed repairs almost from its inception.

"Even from the beginning, the building had issues with moisture intrusion," he said. The architect who designed the church, Emmanuel Louis Masqueray, was French, and he "didn't completely understand the challenges of Minnesota summers and winters."

"He designed flat roofs over part of the building," van Parys said. He jokingly described flat roofs as "the bane of our existence" due to their tendency to hold water. In existing photographs of the church taken in 1914, van Parys said, water damage is already visible.

"We've had to do work on the building ever since," he said.

The church underwent a "somewhat major" restoration in the 1950s, van Parys said, during which for unknown reasons workers painted over intricate stenciling within coffers and other parts of the structure.

Along with those details, van Parys said, the restoration effort is "bringing back the original look of the basilica."

The effort was formally launched in 2019 with a master plan for the entire church campus, but the COVID-19 pandemic the next year set the project back. The process resumed after a few years, and the restoration work itself formally began in 2025.

Van Parys said the basilica is being restored both inside and out from top to the bottom, including the plaster ceiling, which has suffered damage over the years and has to be replastered in parts.

Work is also being done on the church's extensive stained-glass window arrangements. Such windows are generally held in place with a lead matrix, but over time the weight of the glass can weaken the metal frame, leading the glass to bulge outward.

A stained-glass specialist, however, told the restoration crew that the window fixtures were in "great condition," meaning considerable amounts of work could be avoided. Some of the windows were still in need of repair, however, and were sent to a specialist in Newark, New Jersey.

Limestone throughout the building is also being restored, van Parys said. The visible stone throughout the building is bolstered by several inches of reinforced concrete and bricks; moisture often makes its way through this sandwiching of materials, leading to a buildup of salt crystals on the stone, what is known as "efflorescence."

Removing this blemish beautifies the facade of the stone and also protects it from degradation. Crews use a spray-and-peel chemical similar to the process used on the statues of the apostles.

The restoration crews also removed the basilica's pews in order to have them restored with cleaning, sanding, and shellac finishing.

"We opted to restore the original 1914 pews," van Parys said. "One of our principles in terms of restoration is that we don't want to over-restore. We didn't want it to be a new church. People have worshipped in here since 1914. We want this presence of prayer and generations before us to remain."

"So rather than have new pews we decided to restore the old ones," he said. "In doing so we discovered that the people who built the pews in 1914 signed them. So we have the names of all the people who worked on the pews."

Upon removing the pews, the work crews discovered that the flooring of the nave was not level. "One option was to put shims under all the pews," van Parys said. "But that would have been a huge operation."

Since crews were already removing the wood flooring to restore it, they also removed part of the old concrete subfloor and re-leveled it.

Numerous other restoration projects are ongoing, van Parys said, including restoring the church's bronze doors, which were installed after it was designated a basilica. The church's rector at the time, Monsignor James Reardon, had traveled to Rome and observed that the basilicas there had bronze doors. "He decided we needed bronze doors as well," van Parys said.

Crews are aiming to be done with the massive project by Palm Sunday 2027. At the moment the parish holds Masses in the building's undercroft beneath the structure.

"Every week at Mass, I tell people, for instance, 'Last Sunday was Week 35, which means we have 34 weeks to go,'" van Parys said with a laugh.

He said the work is "quite expedited" and progressing quickly. Ultimately the effort is meant not just to restore the church but to develop a "manual of preservation" for future generations to help protect it.

"Our goal is to restore and to also make sure that everything is cared for in the best possible way, to extend the lifespan of the basilica as long as possible before another restoration is necessary," he said.

He said the entire project is being conducted "not only with liturgical principles but also historical preservation principles."

"It is really comprehensive," he said. "Every square inch of the basilica will be restored."

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A sedevacantist group of monks in Scotland hosted an illicit consecration of a "bishop" on July 25 in spite of repeated warnings that doing so would constitute a schismatic act and a break from the Catholic Church.

The Transalpine Redemptorists, or the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer, livestreamed the counterfeit ceremony from their monastery on Papa Stronsay, an island that forms part of the Orkney archipelago in Scotland.

Aberdeen Bishop Hugh Gilbert had warned in a pastoral letter on July 18 that the consecration would constitute an "act of schism" that would "place those engaged in it outside the Catholic Church."

The ceremony was performed by Bishops Rodrigo Ribeiro da Silva, Fernando Altamira and Pierre Roy. Gilbert referred to the three as "unauthorized bishops from the Americas." The ersatz consecration was done on Father Michael Mary, a priest of the order and its rector.

The Transalpine Redemptorists earlier in 2026 publicly denied the legitimacy of the modern papacy. In May they released a sedevacantist statement declaring that they would give "no juridical recognition" to Pope Leo XIV and other popes who have "departed" from the faith in the decades since the Second Vatican Council.

The three bishops that performed the nominal consecration are reportedly sedevacantist as well.

Bishop Gilbert had previously warned of the consecration ceremony in June, noting that the event "would be celebrated without a papal mandate" and would be "unlawful and a grave act of disobedience." 

Even before the several controversies in 2026, the Transalpine Redemptorists had been involved in disputes regarding canonical violations.

In August 2025 the Vatican allowed the Diocese of Christchurch to ban the order from public ministry in that diocese amid allegations of unauthorized exorcisms.

Christchurch Bishop Michael Gielen had said in July 2024 that the community had been subject to an apostolic visitation by Australian Bishop Robert McGuckin.

The bishop had removed the ministry faculties of the members after the Vatican's recommendation and also asked the group "to leave the Christchurch Diocese."

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The lifespan gap between monks and nuns almost disappears inside the cloister, and community life with a rule of life, scheduled prayer, and purpose contributes to successful aging.

These are some of the findings of "The German-Austrian Cloister Study" conducted by Marc Luy of the Vienna Institute of Demography at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. The research project to study health, aging, and life expectancy investigated the factors of health and longevity that revealed the so-called "successful aging" — that is, a long and healthy life.

The research has drawn fresh attention in Europe this month after Benedictine Brother David Steindl-Rast marked his 100th birthday on July 12, as CNA Deutsch, the German-language sister service of EWTN News, reported.

It started in 1997 with a focus on the members of men's and women's religious orders, as they have a very similar life and are easy to study. They resemble one another in daily regime, nutrition, living conditions, faith, and many other aspects that influence health and longevity, the study explains.

Around 16,600 order members participated (more than 9,000 nuns, with the rest monks) in Germany and Austria — with a few members living in Switzerland and Italy. The investigation included anonymous self-conducted questionnaires sent to more than 1,100 of the religious but went back as far as 1890 to consult the archives of numerous religious communities, which are helpful in providing data. Somewhat surprising results emerged.

About one year of difference in life expectancy between the two sexes is attributed to biological factors, according to the study. The bigger sex differences in life expectancy in the population are caused by non-biologically caused mortality of men and not by the low mortality of women, as is often believed.

The research also questioned the well-known saying that "women are sicker, but men die quicker."

Luy set out two hypotheses at the start of the project. The first is that "the overall reversal in sex morbidity and sex mortality differentials occurs because conditions that figure importantly in morbidity are not very important in mortality, and vice versa." The second is that it is "very likely that longevity is directly related to the absolute number of life years in ill health," which means that "women show higher morbidity rates not because they are female but because they are the sex with higher life expectancy."

Men in religious orders live on average about five years longer than men outside the cloister, and monastic life seems to reduce some of the risks that shorten life. Such communities provide an ordered daily routine and a structured schedule for work, eating, and prayer, long-term relationships, shared purpose, and the like. Therefore, one has ideal conditions for well-being both mentally and physically.

What is more, in a monastic community, people take care of one another, and physical or mental decline is usually recognized sooner. Likewise, chronic stress is reduced and prayer helps with emotional stability.

The main person behind the project, German social scientist Luy, who has been working in Austria since 2008, told EWTN News that it would be "interesting" to include religious orders from other countries. However, "this is a matter of resources," he said.

"Nonetheless, I would not expect different results than those we have obtained from several orders in Germany and Austria," he added.

Yet "being a monk or a nun does not necessarily mean living an easy and peaceful life," Slovak religious Sister Cecília Kasanová told EWTN News.

The Dominican sister has been living for six years in the Monastery of St. Dominic and Sixtus of Our Lady of the Rosary in Rome, which safeguards the ancient Marian icon known as the "Advocata," carried across Rome by St. Dominic.

Although she admitted that a balanced lifestyle can influence longevity, "famous long-lived monks or nuns went through suffering, war, persecution because of their religious beliefs, or imprisonment." Sister Cecília said she thinks it is "amazing" that those monks and nuns "had the strength to persevere and not give up."

She acknowledged the good of a day proportionally divided into moments of silence: personal prayer, study, work, daily Mass, regular confession, and common meals. There are moments, too, when they talk, such as community meetings and celebrations, as well as time to relax and to receive visitors at the entrance.

Furthermore, consecrated life in a community of nuns may improve the life of visitors, Sister Cecília observed. It is "a great gift for me personally, for the Church and for the world," as "we live exclusively for the Lord" and pray for those who come. Those faithful "often feel better because they are listened to, accepted, knowing that they are not alone in what they are experiencing, because we accompany them with prayer," she stressed.

A monastic life thus shows that we should "put God first," as he "gives meaning to everything we do and to who we are. He is our God and at the same time a faithful friend," the Slovak nun said.

In a letter dated July 16 and published by the Vatican on July 22, Pope Leo XIV wrote to mark the 70th anniversary of the Conference of Major Superiors of Men in the United States. He encouraged them to consider community life "as a place of sanctification and a source of inspiration, witness, and strength in your apostolate."

According to the pontiff, who is a member of the Augustinian order himself, "it is precisely through sharing everything in common, including material goods, spiritual experiences, apostolic ideals, and charitable service that the hidden presence of the risen Lord is made manifest among you."

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The parents of Blair and Brooke Harber, the Catholic sisters who died in the 2025 Texas Hill Country flash floods, shared how their faith has sustained them through the tremendous grief and how they are honoring their daughters' legacy.

Blair Harber, 13, and Brooke Harber, 11, who attended St. Rita Catholic School in Dallas, were among the victims of the Texas Hill Country flash floods that devastated parts of the state on July 4, 2025.

"I would say after a year, it's almost more difficult than it has been," RJ Harber said in an interview with host Catherine Hadro on "EWTN News In Depth" alongside his wife, Annie Harber.

"The depth of the grief does not go away. It actually enhances, because this is your reality now, and you understand your children are actually gone," he said.

"Now there is comfort knowing that they are in heaven, and we did our job as parents to prepare them to get them there. But our love for them was so deep that the grief that we have is just tremendous," he said.

The family was vacationing with RJ Harber's parents, Mike and Charlene Harber, on the Guadalupe River near Hunt, Texas, when the floods occurred.

The flash flood raised the river more than 22 feet in half an hour in the early morning hours of July 4, dislodging and carrying away the sisters' cabin, in which they were staying with their grandparents.

Harbers have 'leaned heavily' on Catholic faith

Annie and RJ Harber detailed the challenges of navigating such a profound loss. They shared how it tested their faith, while also relying on that same faith to carry them through the past year.

It was "really important to us to instill the Catholic faith and values in our girls," Annie Harber said. "But … after all of this, I definitely questioned God and was angry at God" and "didn't understand why, or how, this could happen to us."

"We have leaned on each other and our faith to get us up every morning," she said. "I think for me, truly, when I wake up, I tell myself I'm one day closer to seeing the girls, because we know they're in heaven and our goal is to ultimately get there. So we have to continue to live by the Catholic faith and our values that we taught the girls."

"I think we're still alive because of our faith," RJ Harber said. "God can accept anger, but he can also help us carry this cross. And the Church has rallied around us."

"We found the girls on Saturday, July 5, and we went to Mass Sunday, July 6. It was probably the most difficult thing I've ever done. But that's because we want to follow the commandments," he said, citing the Third Commandment to keep holy the Sabbath.

"So we've leaned heavily … on our Catholic faith," he said.

RJ Harber, who also lost his parents in the disaster, said his "daughters were their greatest joy." His parents attended "every single sporting event" of their granddaughters.

The girls "were their only grandchildren, so they just doted on them," he said. "My father was suffering from Parkinson's disease, but he would just want me to drive him to Brooke's softball game and watch her pitch, or ask to watch Blair play soccer."

"We find solace in the fact that they're watching over our girls in heaven and are just thankful that they're there with them now," he said.

'The faith was very important to our girls'

As Annie and RJ Harber have relied on their faith through their grief, they detailed the importance the Catholic faith played in their daughters' lives as well.

"Not only did they go to Catholic school, but we would go to Mass every Sunday," RJ Harber said. "It was instrumental in our lives."

RJ reflected on his daughter Blair's faith, sharing that she prayed the rosary "every single night." Two weeks before the tragedy, "her rosary beads broke and she asked to borrow mine, which I received when I converted to the Catholic faith, and took those down to the river with her."

"So we know that she died with those beads in her hands, and with Mary and God protecting her, in those last moments," he said.

So we know that she died with those beads in her hands, and with Mary and God protecting her, in those last moments."

RJ Harber

"We prayed every single night. And we still pray with them every single night," RJ said.

"Prayer has been instrumental. We get messages from all over the world about people praying for us. And I think that's helping us share the girls with the world. And honestly I think God, through the Holy Spirit, is using our daughters to bring people closer to the faith," he said.

The couple said they have heard from several people who have returned to Mass and confession since hearing the sisters' story.

"We've received … messages about people converting to the Catholic faith because of Brooke and Blair. So their work is not done in this world — it's only beginning."

The Blair & Brooke Harber Beloved Sisters Fund

Since losing their daughters, Annie and RJ have started a fund to continue to honor their daughters through The Blair & Brooke Harber Beloved Sisters Fund.

The fund, set up through The Catholic Foundation of Texas, supports flood and disaster relief efforts and aids Catholic after-school activities, including after-school education and Catholic sports.

Blair and Brooke "played lacrosse and there is a large barrier to entry into lacrosse," RJ Harber said. "So we've been able to get hundreds of sticks donated, hundreds of goggles donated, and have allowed girls to come and try lacrosse for the first time who would otherwise never try it."

"This February, we hosted an event. Over 200 girls came out and tried the sport for the first time. So these kindergartners, first graders, second graders are looking up to our girls and carrying their life forward. And I just think that's a beautiful thing to see," he said.

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A Vatican-hosted summit on nuclear weapons and artificial intelligence (AI) highlighted Pope Leo XIV's continued focus on peace-building efforts, according to a Catholic professor who participated in the event.

Maryann Cusimano Love, chair of the politics department at The Catholic University of America and scholar of international relations and peace-building, discussed the Holy Father's focus on the subject in an interview with "EWTN News In Depth" anchor Catherine Hadro.

She also discussed a new book published by the Vatican on July 21, which compiles Leo's writings and speeches on peace. The pontiff authored his own forward for the book, calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons globally.

Peace-building is "a theme that Pope Leo has been consistent with since the beginning of his papacy, and it really fits with the times that we're in right now," Love said.

"We're seeing expansion of war, we're seeing the expansion in the number of conflicts, the deadliness of these conflicts, and we're also seeing new ways in which new technologies are being used — AI drones, lethal autonomous weapons systems — that are very concerning," she said.

"So he's being a voice of really the practical, and a voice of the people, saying: Look, peace is possible. Peace is practical and peace is our calling, as Catholics and people of goodwill. This is something we can do. We've done it before and we can do it again," she said.

Love was one of more than 200 academics who participated in the Vatican-hosted Global Nobel Laureates Assembly on Artificial Intelligence and Nuclear War from July 14–16. The assembly adopted the "Rome Declaration for an Unarmed and Disarming Peace," which laid out concerns about how technological advancement affects warfare.

"The Church has been advocating for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons as long as there have been nuclear weapons, and what's added to this in this last week's activities and the Rome Declaration is the layer of artificial intelligence that increases the urgency with which we need to proceed to disarm nuclear weapons," Love said.

"And it increases the ways in which we need to look at this interaction between AI and our and our military ecosystems," she said. "So the call is specifically for the responsible use of AI, for there to be a slowing down in the integration of these systems, particularly into military systems, until we can be sure that they're safe for the sharing of information between tech companies and the public about the vulnerabilities of these systems and the problem areas — the blind spots — these systems have."

The summit was inspired by Leo's encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, which offers guidance on how society should approach AI. The encyclical specifically raises concerns about AI making decisions about life and death in warfare.

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New bill would protect mothers with surrogacy contracts from forced abortions

Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tennessee, introduced on July 21 a bill designed to protect pregnant mothers who are surrogates from being forced to have abortions.

The ''Preventing Forced Abortions Act of 2026" would prevent federal courts from forcing a woman to have abortion because of a surrogate contract; the act also requires that surrogate mothers still be compensated.

"No woman should ever be forced to murder a child because of a provision buried in a contract," Ogles said in announcing the measure. "The Preventing Forced Abortions Act ensures that federal courts cannot enforce these coercive clauses or allow intended parents to withhold promised compensation when a surrogate mother chooses life."

The pro-life advocacy group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America expressed support for the bill. Spokeswoman Marilyn Musgrave voiced support for the bill, saying: "Women should never be forced or coerced into having an abortion."

Hawley calls for investigation of abortion group 'Plan C'

U.S. Senator Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, is calling on Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and the Department of Justice to investigate Plan C, a group that has shipped abortion pills in the mail allegedly in violation of state and federal law.

In the July 17 letter, Hawley alleged that Plan C is "a left-wing dark-money operation that styles itself a 'public health information campaign' but functions, in practice, as the referral and logistics hub for shipping abortion drugs into states whose laws prohibit it."

Hawley maintained that Plan C operates with abortion pill manufacturers Danco Laboratories and GenBioPro.

"Plan C coaches its users on how to evade the law. Its website instructs users to protect their 'digital footprint' against investigations, recommending privacy-enabled browsers, virtual private networks, and encrypted email," Hawley wrote.

Advocacy groups go to court over sidewalk chalk free speech violation

Groups that advocate for unborn babies are going to court because their free speech rights were allegedly violated in 2020 in the nation's capital.

The Frederick Douglass Foundation and Students for Life of America brought forward an opening brief July 16 with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

The federal free speech lawsuit was brought in a dispute over the right to chalk messages on the city sidewalk, as police in Washington, D.C. prevented advocates from writing messages in chalk in 2020.

Other protesters associated with the Black Lives Matter movement spray-painted messages outside the city's Chamber of Commerce but were not apprehended, according to the Alliance Defending Freedom, the nonprofit free speech law firm that is taking on the case.

"Washington officials can't censor messages they disagree with. The right to free speech is for everyone," said attorney John Bursch.

Advocacy group offers legal resources for abortion pill reversals

Amid an ongoing lawsuit over abortion pill reversals, the Thomas More Society is launching an online hub on abortion pill reversal litigation.

The Catholic legal group is currently litigating the case People of the State of California v. Heartbeat International & RealOptions, in which California is demanding $20 million from the two pro-life groups because they offered abortion pill reversals.

The organization said its online hub "brings together everything supporters, pregnancy centers, movement partners, and the press need to follow this fight in one place."

Judge blocks South Dakota abortion advertising ban

A U.S. district judge is temporarily blocking a South Dakota law prohibiting abortion groups from advertising abortion pills, which are largely illegal in the state.

U.S. District Judge Camela Theeler granted a preliminary injunction temporarily blocking its enforcement, saying it is likely unconstitutional after New York-based abortion group Mayday Health filed a lawsuit.

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Pope Leo XIV has appointed Lebanese-born Archbishop Christophe-Zakhia El-Kassis to serve as the Holy See's permanent observer at the United Nations in New York, the Vatican announced on July 25.

The Vatican is not a full member of the United Nations, but it enjoys permanent observer status. The international organization says permanent observers "have free access to most meetings and relevant documentation."

Born in Beruit, Archbishop El-Kassis previously served as apostolic nuncio to the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. He also served as apostolic delegate to the Arabian Peninsula.

He was ordained a priest in 1994 and consecrated at St. Peter's Basilica in 2019. He is fluent in Arabic, French, Italian, English, Indonesian, Spanish and German.

In his role at the United Nations, El-Kassis will join Archbishop Ettore Balestrero, who serves as the Holy See's permanent observer at the organization in Geneva.

The Vatican first joined the United Nations as a non-member observer in 1964. Palestine is the only other polity that enjoys permanent observer status at the international body.

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A Catholic art studio is beginning to blossom in an unexpected place. Cappella Studio in Atlantic City, New Jersey, aspires to be a light in the darkness of the city, reaching out to those on the periphery and centering the art on the good, true, and beautiful.

"Atlantic City exists at the edge of the world. In many ways it is a forgotten- about place on the periphery," Jim Dessicino, who founded Cappella Studio, told EWTN News. "People go there to gamble away their fortunes or to disappear into vice, and with that comes desperation, homelessness, and poverty."

"It is in places such as this that Christ is most needed," he continued.

The abandoned convent there was going to be sold — and likely razed to the ground. But Dessicino saw that it could be something more.

"When I entered that chapel for the first time, I knew I had the opportunity to emulate St. Francis during his special jubilee year called by Pope Leo XIV," Dessicino said.

"In 1205, kneeling in prayer and searching for his purpose in the crumbling Church of San Damiano, St. Francis heard the voice of God say: 'Francis, go rebuild my church, which you see has fallen into ruin!'" he recounted.

"The chapel in the convent was literally crumbling," Dessicino recalled. "There were holes in the walls and floor. The windows were broken, and the sanctuary lamp had been extinguished 10 years prior."

Time for renewal

Cappella's art program is a way to train artists, to bring beauty to the city, and even to evangelize artists.

"This city has always been about hospitality and welcoming people; it has just been dominated by the vice industry for so long that it is time for a renewal," Dessicino continued.

"It is often difficult to see the beauty of the city through the poverty and corruption, but if you enter our churches … you are instantaneously transported and uplifted out of the mess and towards the heavenly realm," Dessicino said.

The program is an invitation to artists of all faiths to meet Jesus.

"We're inviting artists and the community into a third space; those who might not initially feel comfortable coming into a church are not dissuaded by coming to an art studio," Dessicino said. "Because we have an adoration chapel at the studio, people are confronted with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, even if they don't know it. Amazing things come from these encounters."

"We are set apart from other art studio experiences because we have the option to invite people to meet Jesus face-to-face in the Eucharist," Dessicino said.

"As a catechetical leader, my experience is that I think it's easier to bring good artists who are not yet Catholic into the fold than it is to train an entire generation of artists," Dessicino explained. "It is simpler in my experience to help a person who is sympathetic to Catholicism to convert than it is to spend 10 years training an artist to become proficient enough at their craft to create artworks for the Church."

Cappella offers lodging for visiting artists as well as private studios for local artists. It also offers art classes and even space for communal activities like book clubs.

The art classes are taught by both Catholic and non-Catholic artists.

"The beauty of the Catholic tradition in the arts is that there is no official style," Dessicino said. "The artworks must be instructive and clear. They can have layered meaning, like a Shakespearean drama, but they should be understood by the average parishioner."

Father Robert Hughes, a parochial priest involved in the project, said refurbishing the adoration chapel was their first step.

"We took a leap of faith — focusing on the need to pray that God's will be done by calling upon parishioners to pray for our parish, our city, and success of Cappella Studio," Hughes said. "Therefore, our first initiative was to open the Mercy Chapel."

The daily adoration chapel, open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., has been "well attended," according to Hughes.

"The Eucharist is the source and center of our Christian lives and must be so for our parish life and mission as well as for Cappella Studio," Hughes said. "We hope the artist-in-residency program will give artists an opportunity to integrate prayer and meditation into their work while experiencing the vibrancy of Atlantic City and the beauty of the ocean just two blocks away."

Water and boat imagery is an important part of Cappella Studio, especially as it's located in a city on the ocean.

"The convent was built in the late 1930s and was conceived to look like a ship in honor of Our Lady, Star of the Sea — the name of this campus," Hughes said. "The sisters' chapel is appropriately located in the bow."

Dessicino sees Cappella Studio as a ship as well.

"It's almost too easy to see how Cappella Studio will be a light for the city of Atlantic City: We're connected to the church, Our Lady Star of the Sea (who is the lighthouse for this city), our convent building is shaped like a ship and inside that ship, people will be formed to go out and spread the Gospel to the world," Dessicino said.

"There are precious few places where sacred artists can gather and focus specifically on the sacred. God is, of course, the master artist and he calls sacred artists to cooperate with him in serving the people's prayer and worship by creating beautiful works worthy of contemplation," Hughes said. "Through art, we can touch the divine."

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