Lima Newsroom, Jul 24, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

On the evening of July 21, the Peruvian government, led by President Dina Boluarte, presented “Leo’s Route” simultaneously from four regions in Peru. The project seeks to show the world 39 places related to Pope Leo XIV’s life in the country.

The presentation of the project, also known as “Paths of Pope Leo XIV,” took place in the regions of Lambayeque — where Robert Prevost, the current pope, was bishop of Chiclayo — in La Libertad, Piura, and Callao, where he served as apostolic administrator.

In Lambayeque — where Boluarte and the current bishop of Chiclayo, Edinson Farfán, were present — the president stated that “we have here a route that not only runs through streets or churches but also through the memory, faith, and hope of a people who never stopped dreaming and who today can proudly say that we have a Peruvian pope.”

Although Prevost was born in the United States, he became a naturalized Peruvian citizen in 2015, when he was appointed bishop of his “beloved diocese of Chiclayo,” as he said in his first words to the world, speaking in Spanish, after being elected pope. He also recently updated his information to renew his DNI, the national identity document for Peruvians.

A few days ago, the minister of foreign trade and tourism, Desilú León, emphasized that “this is not just a religious route; it is an integrative project that combines together culture, infrastructure, services, faith, and identity. It is also a commitment to local development through tourism.”

In Lambayeque, the region where the city of Chiclayo is located, 22 tourist points of interest have been identified, organized into four circuits that combine religious, cultural, and natural heritage, such as St. Mary’s Cathedral, the Cross of Motupe, the Pómac Forest, and Pimentel Beach.

In Piura, there will be eight destinations, including St. Joseph the Worker Parish and the Holy Family Cathedral, both in Chulucanas, and the town of La Encantada.

In Callao, there are four destinations: the “Mother Church,” St. Rose Parish, the diocesan chancery, and the Carmen de la Legua district; while in La Libertad, there are five destinations, including St. Thomas of Villanova Convent and the Sts. Charles and Marcellus Major Seminary in Trujillo, where Pope Leo XIV was a professor.

Leo XIV arrived as a priest in Chulucanas in the Piura region of Peru in 1985. He returned to the United States and then came back to Trujillo in the La Libertad district, where he stayed for 11 years. In 2014, he returned first as apostolic administrator and then as bishop of Chiclayo; and years later, he also served as apostolic administrator of Callao.

For the first stage of this route, which has involved coordination with four regions and 20 municipalities, the government has allocated a total of 540 million soles (approximately $151 million).

“In a world with more than 7 billion inhabitants, there is only one pope, and that pope chose by his own decision to become Peruvian. Everything we do to showcase his work will always fall short of his greatness,” the minister stated.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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Even though the Easter season has ended, some bishops are still traveling across their dioceses administering the Sacrament of Confirmation, strengthening young Catholics with the gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. This list of seven appears in Isaiah 11:1-3, where we read: But a shoot […]

There is a holy relic of St. Monica at my parish. I know she hears the pleas of many, begging for her intercession in the conversion of their loved ones who have left the Faith or who have never known Christ. She is a powerful intercessor because she spent long years praying, sacrificing, and suffering […]

Saint John Boste, born in 1544 in Westmorland, England, lived during a time of intense persecution against Catholics in England under Queen Elizabeth I. He was raised in a devout Catholic family and received a strong religious education before studying law at Queen’s College, Oxford. However, influenced by the teachings of the Catholic Church, John […]

CNA Staff, Jul 23, 2025 / 18:17 pm (CNA).

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced a sweeping reform initiative of the nation’s organ transplant system after a four-year investigation by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) uncovered systemic ethical and safety violations. 

The violations discovered during the investigation, outlined July 21 in an HHS press release, showed “that hospitals allowed the organ procurement process to begin when patients showed signs of life,” said HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who called this “horrifying.”

“The organ procurement organizations that coordinate access to transplants will be held accountable,” Kennedy continued. “The entire system must be fixed to ensure that every potential donor’s life is treated with the sanctity it deserves.” 

The investigation identified major problems with organ procurement processes, including poor neurologic assessments, inadequate coordination with medical teams, questionable consent practices, and misclassification of causes of death, particularly in overdose cases. Smaller and rural hospitals were found to be especially vulnerable.

Joseph Meaney, former president of the National Catholic Bioethics Center, said on “EWTN News Nightly” on July 22 that these problems are “extremely concerning” and that organ procurement processes have had “persistent flaws.”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that organ donation after death “is a noble and meritorious act and is to be encouraged as an expression of generous solidarity.”

The donor or a proxy must consent, however, and organs cannot be removed until there is “moral certitude” a person is dead, Meaney said. “The Uniform Determination of Death Act says there has to be zero functioning in the brain to be able to declare a person brain dead … before any kind of vital organ donation process is initiated.”

The HRSA investigation was prompted by the troubling case of Anthony Thomas Hoover II. According to the New York Times, Hoover, now 36, was hospitalized four years ago in Kentucky for a drug overdose.

He was unresponsive for two days, and his family agreed to remove life support so his organs could be harvested.

A federally funded organ procurement organization (OPO) called Network for Hope (formerly known as Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates) began the process of procuring his organs even though he allegedly seemed to be improving. According to the Times, he was “thrashing on the bed” and subsequently sedated. 

Hospital staff became “uncomfortable with the amount of reflexes” the patient was exhibiting, and some began to call his organ procurement procedure “euthanasia,” though representatives of the procurement group told them it was not.

A physician refused to withdraw life support and continue with the organ procurement, despite pressure from the procurers. Hoover survived, though he suffers from neurological impairment.

The HRSA’s investigation of Network for Hope revealed 351 instances where organ donation was authorized but not completed. The results were alarming: 103 cases (29.3%) showed cause for concern, including 73 patients with neurological signs incompatible with organ donation.

Most disturbingly, at least 28 patients may not have been deceased when organ procurement began.

Network for Hope CEO Barry Massa said in a statement to CNA on July 22 that “patient safety is our top priority. Network for Hope looks forward to working collaboratively with HHS and HRSA and encourages the development of policies that support the betterment of the organ transplant system as a whole.”

Every state is served by one or more nonprofit organ procurement organizations (OPOs) that work with hospitals to manage organ donations.

HRSA has directed the implicated OPO to strengthen its patient safeguards and has mandated rigorous corrective actions. These include a root cause analysis of its failure to follow protocols, such as the five-minute observation rule post-death, and the development of clear donor eligibility criteria.

The organ procurement organization must also establish a procedure allowing staff to halt donation if safety concerns arise. Failure to comply risks decertification, a move Kennedy has vowed to enforce.

Father Tad Pacholczyk, a senior ethicist at the NCBC, applauded the new procedure to halt the process due to safety concerns, telling CNA that it is “a very sensible safeguard.”

Brain death vs. circulatory death

The HHS investigation revealed that some OPOs actively seek cardiac, or circulatory, death donors rather than brain death ones.

The majority of organ donations come from patients who are determined to have suffered death by neurologic criteria, or brain death, and whose bodies are being sustained mechanically to preserve organ viability. Organ donation following circulatory death, however, has seen significant growth, driven in part by the increased demand for organ transplants and federal pressure on procurement groups.

Unlike brain death, where patients are determined to be in an irreversible state with no brain activity, circulatory death involves patients who are typically comatose and on life support. 

These individuals retain some brain function but are deemed unlikely to recover based on medical assessments, which can involve the subjective judgment of the doctors. 

Meaney said there are “question marks” surrounding organ donations that result from the determination of circulatory death, or what he called “cardiac determination,” telling EWTN there is no uniform time clinicians must wait after the heart stops. Hospitals establish the amount of time that can pass before clinicians can determine someone has circulatory death, generally around five minutes.

In some of these cases, Meaney said “the extraction of the organs is actually the cause of death” for the patient.

About 20,000 organs last year were procured after a patient was said to have undergone circulatory death, representing one-third of all donations in the U.S, according to the New York Times. This figure is three times higher than it was five years ago, reflecting a rising reliance on this method.

When families consent to organ donation, once the transplant teams have arrived, the hospital discontinues life support and monitors the patient in the operating room until his or her heart stops. While hospitals oversee patient care until death, once there is cessation of cardiac activity for a sufficient amount of time, specialized surgical teams affiliated with the OPOs are often brought in to proceed with organ retrieval, which must occur quickly to ensure organs remain suitable for transplantation.

One neurointensivist who spoke to CNA on the condition of anonymity described OPOs as “vultures” who, after they are informed by the hospital that a patient is moribund and may become a potential organ donor, “set up shop” in a hospital.

The HRSA investigation found that OPOs sometimes pressure families and medical staff to expedite the organ retrieval process.

The HRSA’s proposed reforms are critical to maintaining public trust in organ donation. 

About 170 million Americans are currently listed as organ donors, but the number may go down as trust declines. 

Pacholczyk told CNA: “Many of us would like to become organ donors, but we have questions, even doubts, about whether we can ‘trust the system.’ One of the more widely articulated concerns is whether organs will be taken before patients are properly determined to be deceased, leading many individuals to decide against checking the box on their driver’s license.”

“Given the significant internal and external pressures to procure organs for transplantation today, and given the fact that our society no longer fully esteems the value of every human life, our organ procurement organizations must be subjected to a process of transparent and independent review,” Pacholczyk said.

CNA Staff, Jul 23, 2025 / 18:17 pm (CNA).

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced a sweeping reform initiative of the nation’s organ transplant system after a four-year investigation by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) uncovered systemic ethical and safety violations. 

The violations discovered during the investigation, outlined July 21 in an HHS press release, showed “that hospitals allowed the organ procurement process to begin when patients showed signs of life,” said HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who called this “horrifying.”

“The organ procurement organizations that coordinate access to transplants will be held accountable,” Kennedy continued. “The entire system must be fixed to ensure that every potential donor’s life is treated with the sanctity it deserves.” 

The investigation identified major problems with organ procurement processes, including poor neurologic assessments, inadequate coordination with medical teams, questionable consent practices, and misclassification of causes of death, particularly in overdose cases. Smaller and rural hospitals were found to be especially vulnerable.

Joseph Meaney, former president of the National Catholic Bioethics Center, said on “EWTN News Nightly” on July 22 that these problems are “extremely concerning” and that organ procurement processes have had “persistent flaws.”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that organ donation after death “is a noble and meritorious act and is to be encouraged as an expression of generous solidarity.”

The donor or a proxy must consent, however, and organs cannot be removed until there is “moral certitude” a person is dead, Meaney said. “The Uniform Determination of Death Act says there has to be zero functioning in the brain to be able to declare a person brain dead … before any kind of vital organ donation process is initiated.”

The HRSA investigation was prompted by the troubling case of Anthony Thomas Hoover II. According to the New York Times, Hoover, now 36, was hospitalized four years ago in Kentucky for a drug overdose.

He was unresponsive for two days, and his family agreed to remove life support so his organs could be harvested.

A federally funded organ procurement organization (OPO) called Network for Hope (formerly known as Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates) began the process of procuring his organs even though he allegedly seemed to be improving. According to the Times, he was “thrashing on the bed” and subsequently sedated. 

Hospital staff became “uncomfortable with the amount of reflexes” the patient was exhibiting, and some began to call his organ procurement procedure “euthanasia,” though representatives of the procurement group told them it was not.

A physician refused to withdraw life support and continue with the organ procurement, despite pressure from the procurers. Hoover survived, though he suffers from neurological impairment.

The HRSA’s investigation of Network for Hope revealed 351 instances where organ donation was authorized but not completed. The results were alarming: 103 cases (29.3%) showed cause for concern, including 73 patients with neurological signs incompatible with organ donation.

Most disturbingly, at least 28 patients may not have been deceased when organ procurement began.

Network for Hope CEO Barry Massa said in a statement to CNA on July 22 that “patient safety is our top priority. Network for Hope looks forward to working collaboratively with HHS and HRSA and encourages the development of policies that support the betterment of the organ transplant system as a whole.”

Every state is served by one or more nonprofit organ procurement organizations (OPOs) that work with hospitals to manage organ donations.

HRSA has directed the implicated OPO to strengthen its patient safeguards and has mandated rigorous corrective actions. These include a root cause analysis of its failure to follow protocols, such as the five-minute observation rule post-death, and the development of clear donor eligibility criteria.

The organ procurement organization must also establish a procedure allowing staff to halt donation if safety concerns arise. Failure to comply risks decertification, a move Kennedy has vowed to enforce.

Father Tad Pacholczyk, a senior ethicist at the NCBC, applauded the new procedure to halt the process due to safety concerns, telling CNA that it is “a very sensible safeguard.”

Brain death vs. circulatory death

The HHS investigation revealed that some OPOs actively seek cardiac, or circulatory, death donors rather than brain death ones.

The majority of organ donations come from patients who are determined to have suffered death by neurologic criteria, or brain death, and whose bodies are being sustained mechanically to preserve organ viability. Organ donation following circulatory death, however, has seen significant growth, driven in part by the increased demand for organ transplants and federal pressure on procurement groups.

Unlike brain death, where patients are determined to be in an irreversible state with no brain activity, circulatory death involves patients who are typically comatose and on life support. 

These individuals retain some brain function but are deemed unlikely to recover based on medical assessments, which can involve the subjective judgment of the doctors. 

Meaney said there are “question marks” surrounding organ donations that result from the determination of circulatory death, or what he called “cardiac determination,” telling EWTN there is no uniform time clinicians must wait after the heart stops. Hospitals establish the amount of time that can pass before clinicians can determine someone has circulatory death, generally around five minutes.

In some of these cases, Meaney said “the extraction of the organs is actually the cause of death” for the patient.

About 20,000 organs last year were procured after a patient was said to have undergone circulatory death, representing one-third of all donations in the U.S, according to the New York Times. This figure is three times higher than it was five years ago, reflecting a rising reliance on this method.

When families consent to organ donation, once the transplant teams have arrived, the hospital discontinues life support and monitors the patient in the operating room until his or her heart stops. While hospitals oversee patient care until death, once there is cessation of cardiac activity for a sufficient amount of time, specialized surgical teams affiliated with the OPOs are often brought in to proceed with organ retrieval, which must occur quickly to ensure organs remain suitable for transplantation.

One neurointensivist who spoke to CNA on the condition of anonymity described OPOs as “vultures” who, after they are informed by the hospital that a patient is moribund and may become a potential organ donor, “set up shop” in a hospital.

The HRSA investigation found that OPOs sometimes pressure families and medical staff to expedite the organ retrieval process.

The HRSA’s proposed reforms are critical to maintaining public trust in organ donation. 

About 170 million Americans are currently listed as organ donors, but the number may go down as trust declines. 

Pacholczyk told CNA: “Many of us would like to become organ donors, but we have questions, even doubts, about whether we can ‘trust the system.’ One of the more widely articulated concerns is whether organs will be taken before patients are properly determined to be deceased, leading many individuals to decide against checking the box on their driver’s license.”

“Given the significant internal and external pressures to procure organs for transplantation today, and given the fact that our society no longer fully esteems the value of every human life, our organ procurement organizations must be subjected to a process of transparent and independent review,” Pacholczyk said.

CNA Staff, Jul 23, 2025 / 17:43 pm (CNA).

A popular Catholic influencer has been barred from public events in his local Church amid investigations into allegations of sexual misconduct.

Bishop Artur Bubnevych of the Holy Protection of Mary Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Phoenix issued a statement prohibiting Catholic personality Alex Jurado — who runs the social media ministry Voice of Reason — from public events while he is under investigation for allegations of sexually grooming an underage teenage girl when he was 21 years old.

CNA first reported on the allegations against Jurado on July 15. The Protestant website Protestia published a report alleging that “whistleblowers within the Catholic community” had revealed sexually explicit texts Jurado allegedly sent to a girl possibly as young as 14 years old when he himself was 21.

The popular Catholic apologist has sharply denied allegations. The influencer said in a statement on his Instagram page that the claims were untrue and that he is “voluntarily cooperating in an investigation that will allow the truth to come to light.”

“​​[T]he accusation that I was having an inappropriate relationship with a 14-year-old girl is a complete fabrication,” he said.

He added that he is “prepared to undergo legal action against those who have defamed me,” describing the allegations as an “awful and vicious rumor.”

On July 16, meanwhile, Bubnevych issued a statement to the clergy of his eparchy stating that Jurado, “a regular attendee at one of our parishes,” is prohibited from “any activity or involvement … occurring in any facilities of or events being sponsored by the Eparchy of Phoenix until further notice.”

“We will cooperate fully with any authorized investigations which may occur in this matter,” the bishop wrote in his statement, a copy of which was obtained by CNA. 

“We wish also to stress that our Safe Environment policies, which address the safeguarding and dignity of all persons, are taken most seriously and, with that in mind, I believe the action being taken is therefore warranted,” the bishop said. 

Amid the controversy, Catholic Answers, an apologetics nonprofit that produces the Catholic Answers Live radio show, removed a page featuring Jurado from its website. 

Jon Sorensen, chief operating officer at Catholic Answers, told CNA in an email that Jurado “has never been a staff member of Catholic Answers. He was an occasional guest on our radio program, ‘Catholic Answers Live,’ and, like all our radio guests, he had a profile page on Catholic.com.”

He added: “In light of the recent serious allegations about Alex, we have removed this profile from Catholic.com. We pray that the full truth may come to light, we pray for Alex, and we pray for everyone who may have been victimized, scandalized, or disedified by these reported events.”

Jurado has not responded to queries from CNA regarding the controversy.

CNA Staff, Jul 23, 2025 / 17:43 pm (CNA).

A popular Catholic influencer has been barred from public events in his local Church amid investigations into allegations of sexual misconduct.

Bishop Artur Bubnevych of the Holy Protection of Mary Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Phoenix issued a statement prohibiting Catholic personality Alex Jurado — who runs the social media ministry Voice of Reason — from public events while he is under investigation for allegations of sexually grooming an underage teenage girl when he was 21 years old.

CNA first reported on the allegations against Jurado on July 15. The Protestant website Protestia published a report alleging that “whistleblowers within the Catholic community” had revealed sexually explicit texts Jurado allegedly sent to a girl possibly as young as 14 years old when he himself was 21.

The popular Catholic apologist has sharply denied allegations. The influencer said in a statement on his Instagram page that the claims were untrue and that he is “voluntarily cooperating in an investigation that will allow the truth to come to light.”

“​​[T]he accusation that I was having an inappropriate relationship with a 14-year-old girl is a complete fabrication,” he said.

He added that he is “prepared to undergo legal action against those who have defamed me,” describing the allegations as an “awful and vicious rumor.”

On July 16, meanwhile, Bubnevych issued a statement to the clergy of his eparchy stating that Jurado, “a regular attendee at one of our parishes,” is prohibited from “any activity or involvement … occurring in any facilities of or events being sponsored by the Eparchy of Phoenix until further notice.”

“We will cooperate fully with any authorized investigations which may occur in this matter,” the bishop wrote in his statement, a copy of which was obtained by CNA. 

“We wish also to stress that our Safe Environment policies, which address the safeguarding and dignity of all persons, are taken most seriously and, with that in mind, I believe the action being taken is therefore warranted,” the bishop said. 

Amid the controversy, Catholic Answers, an apologetics nonprofit that produces the Catholic Answers Live radio show, removed a page featuring Jurado from its website. 

Jon Sorensen, chief operating officer at Catholic Answers, told CNA in an email that Jurado “has never been a staff member of Catholic Answers. He was an occasional guest on our radio program, ‘Catholic Answers Live,’ and, like all our radio guests, he had a profile page on Catholic.com.”

He added: “In light of the recent serious allegations about Alex, we have removed this profile from Catholic.com. We pray that the full truth may come to light, we pray for Alex, and we pray for everyone who may have been victimized, scandalized, or disedified by these reported events.”

Jurado has not responded to queries from CNA regarding the controversy.

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 23, 2025 / 17:13 pm (CNA).

In the past year Florida has been the most successful state at protecting religious liberty through safeguards in the state’s statutes or constitution, while West Virginia has been the least successful, according to the fourth annual Religious Liberty in the States report from First Liberty Institute.

First Liberty — the largest legal organization in the U.S. dedicated solely to defending religious liberty — released its annual index ranking religious liberty protections for each of the 50 states. The report, conducted by the institute’s Center for Religion, Culture, and Democracy (CRCD), focuses on select legal safeguards of religious exercise in laws and constitutions.

The 2025 report was revealed on July 21 by the CRCD team at an event with Gov. Ron DeSantis to celebrate Florida holding the No. 1 spot for the first time since the research started.

“Florida holds several No. 1 rankings, leading the nation in education, economy, and tourism — and now, Florida is No. 1 in religious liberty,” DeSantis said at the event. “Religious liberty is critical to the foundation and function of America, and I am proud that Florida excels in protecting this right.”

The report assigns a percentage score to each state based on 47 legal protections that states have to protect religious liberty within six categories: government, health care, economic life, religious life, and family and education. These protections are aggregated into 20 “safeguards,” which researchers average to produce one index score per state. 

The analysis determined that Florida holds the top spot with an accumulated score of 74.6%. Montana (70.6%), Illinois (68.8%), Ohio (66.9%), and Mississippi (66.4%) make up the rest of the top five rankings.

In last place, for the third year in a row, is West Virginia with 19.6%. The state did make some progress by passing a Religious Freedom Restoration Act in 2023 but still holds the lowest score. Also in the bottom five is Wyoming (23.3%), Michigan (27.4%), Nebraska (29.1%), and Vermont (29.3%).  

The majority of the states fall within the 25% to 50% range, meaning there is “significant room for improvement.” CRCD’s researchers found that 38 states are capable of doing more as most states, on average, are employing “less than half of the safeguards measured to protect religious liberty.”

Since the 2022 Religious Liberty in the States report, Montana has improved the most. It has raised its score by about 31%, specifically due to recent legislation protecting rights of health care workers. 

Since 2024, Idaho has improved the most, due to new protections in the categories of health care and family. 

With the new research, First Liberty Institute and CRCD reported they hope “that legislators and concerned citizens will use our findings to identify ways their states can better protect religious liberty.”