Cardinal Manuel Clemente, the patriarch of Lisbon, was the main celebrant for the Tuesday evening outdoor opening Mass for World Youth Day held at Eduardo VII Park on Aug. 1, 2023. / Credit: Jesus Huerta /JMJ Lisboa 2023/Flickr JMJ Lisboa 2023
ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 14, 2023 / 14:11 pm (CNA).
The dictatorship of Daniel Ortega prohibited two priests from returning to Nicaragua from Lisbon, Portugal, where they participated in World Youth Day, a lawyer who has conducted research into the human rights abuses of the regime reported.
Lawyer and researcher Martha Patricia Molina said that Father Tomás Sergio Zamora Calderón and Father William Mora were returning to Nicaragua after participating in World Youth Day (WYD) in Lisbon, Aug.1-6, attended by Pope Francis and more than a million young people from around the world, including a delegation from Nicaragua.
“The priest Tomás Sergio Zamora Calderón, pastor of the Our Lord of the Miracles Parish, belonging to the Diocese of León, attended WYD2023 (Lisbon, Portugal) and upon his return today the dictatorship prohibited him from entering Nicaragua,” Molina reported Aug. 11 on X, the social network formerly known as Twitter.
Molina said that the community “is dismayed by the news because he was a dynamic priest and very close to his people.”
Regarding Mora, the researcher reported that “the Sandinista dictatorship prohibited his entry into the national territory” after having also participated in WYD Lisbon 2023.
Mora is pastor of the Christ the King-Ubu Norte Paiwas parish in the Diocese of Siuna, and is in charge of youth ministry. The priest “had an active pastoral life in his community that now wonders what will become of them without their pastor,” Molina wrote on X.
The newspaper La Prensa reported that in recent months the dictatorship of Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo, has denied entry to Nicaragua “to more than half a dozen priests and lay people, most of them Nicaraguan citizens.”
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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Thousands of pilgrims are expected to participate in the 2024 pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Muxima scheduled to begin on Aug. 30 in Angola’s Catholic Diocese of Viana, Bishop Emílio Sumbelelo has said. / Credit: Diocese of Viana
The President of the Communications Commission of the 2024 International Eucharistic Congress, Father Livingston Olivares (left), accompanies EWTN Vice President for Programming and Production Peter Gagnon (center-right), EWTN Vice President for Spanish-language Production, Marketing, and Radio Enrique Duprat (center-left), EWTN Production Director Michael Holmes (far right), and IEC Quito 2024 Communications Coordinator Marcelo Mejía (front, kneeling) at the Monument to the Equator, the exact location of the Equator (from which the country of Ecuador takes its name) on the outskirts of the country’s capital city of Quito, site of the 2024 International Eucharistic Congress. / Credit: Communications Commission of the 2024 International Eucharistic Congress
ACI Prensa Staff, May 21, 2024 / 06:40 am (CNA).
The 53rd International Eucharistic Congress (IEC) has chosen EWTN as the official channel for providing live coverage of the event, which will take place from Sept. 8–15 in Quito, Ecuador.
“The 53rd International Eucharistic Congress, which will be held in Quito Sept. 8–15, has chosen EWTN as its official channel, which will broadcast everything related” to this great event, said Father Juan Carlos Garzón, secretary-general of the IEC Quito 2024, in a statement sent from Rome to ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner.
The theme for this year’s International Eucharistic Congress is “Fraternity to Heal the World.” On Monday, the Vatican also announced that Pope Francis designated Cardinal Kevin Farrell, prefect for the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family, and Life, as pontifical legate to the congress.
Garzón was in Rome last week as part of a delegation, chaired by Alfredo Espinoza Mateus, archbishop of Quito and primate of Ecuador, “to hold a series of meetings with the main papal authorities.”
Since the beginning of the preparations for IEC 2024, Garzón added: “EWTN has been present at the orientation and training for IEC 2024 communications personnel.”
Logo for the 53rd International Eucharistic Congress that will take place in Quito, Ecuador, from Sept. 8-15, 2024. Credit: Communications Commission of the 2024 International Eucharistic Congress
EWTN preparations for IEC Quito 2024
In tandem, to coordinate EWTN’s transmissions of IEC Quito 2024, a team from the network visited the Ecuadorian capital, including the Quito Metropolitan Convention Center, where the congress will be held.
The team was comprised of EWTN Vice President for Programming and Production Peter Gagnon, EWTN Director of Production Michael Holmes, and EWTN Vice President for Spanish-language Production, Marketing, and Radio Enrique Duprat.
Gagnon said EWTN transmissions of the event will be offered in Spanish, English, and German. “This will be a wonderful event for those attending and for those watching,” Gagnon said.
“For EWTN, it is an immense joy to be the channel for the Quito 2024 International Eucharistic Congress,” Duprat said. “It is essential for us to be the platform on which, no matter where our audience is, everyone can enjoy the most important Catholic events in the Church.”
As for coverage details, Duprat said: “The plan is to be able to offer this International Eucharistic Congress live and direct from Quito and in multiple languages [Spanish, English, and German] both through our television and radio signals, the internet, and through our digital app.”
The event coincides with the 150th anniversary of the 1874 consecration of Ecuador to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In 1886, Quito was also the site of the first National Eucharistic Congress.
During their preparatory visit, the EWTN team traveled the route of a procession that will take place on Sept. 14 in the historic center of Quito, which will begin with a Mass in San Francisco Plaza and then head to the Basilica of the National Vow, where benediction will be given.
They also visited the IEC offices, where they were received by Garzón, who explained how the organization of the event is progressing, including the schedule of a theological symposium to be held Sept. 4–7, just prior to the Sept. 8–15 congress.
The EWTN delegation also visited the Middle of the World Park and Monument to the Equator, marking the equator dividing the northern and southern hemispheres and where a Liturgy of the Word is planned with emphasis on care for creation.
Registration underway
Registration for the International Eucharistic Congress, both for the theological symposium and for the congress itself, is underway and available through the event website.
The largest Catholic media organization in the world, EWTN’s 11 global TV channels and numerous regional channels are broadcast in multiple languages 24 hours a day, seven days a week to over 425 million television households in more than 160 countries and territories. EWTN platforms also include radio services transmitted through SIRIUS/XM, iHeart Radio, and more than 600 domestic and international AM and FM radio affiliates and a worldwide shortwave radio service.
Headquartered in Washington, D.C., EWTN News operates multiple global news services, including Catholic News Agency; The National Catholic Register newspaper and digital platform; ACI Prensa in Spanish; ACI Digital in Portuguese; ACI Stampa in Italian; ACI Africa in English, French, and Portuguese; ACI Mena in Arabic; CNA Deutsch in German; and ChurchPop, a digital platform that creates content in several languages. It also produces numerous television news programs including “EWTN News Nightly,” “EWTN News In Depth,” “EWTN Pro-Life Weekly,” and “The World Over with Raymond Arroyo.”
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Pope Francis and St. Teresa of Avila / Public domain/ACI Prensa.
Rome Newsroom, Apr 13, 2021 / 11:00 am (CNA).
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