NATION
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (OSV News) – Bishop James R. Golka of Colorado Springs announced in late July his office would “study and discern” the “massive undertaking” of determining whether to open a sainthood cause for a teenager who was killed after he rushed the shooter during a school shooting incident six years ago in suburban Denver. Eighteen-year-old Kendrick Castillo was the only student who died in the STEM School Highlands Ranch shooting on May 7, 2019, that left other eight students injured. Two students, were convicted on dozens of charges for the shooting and sentenced to life imprisonment. Months after Kendrick’s death, the Knights of Columbus conferred honorary membership on him and gave his parents a Caritas Medal, their second highest honor. Two priests from St. Mark Catholic Church in Highlands Ranch submitted the petition and preliminary supporting materials for a possible sainthood cause for Kendrick to Bishop Golka, saying that he “lived a life that was so (much) one of faith and service and holiness and caring for others.” In a December 2019 posting on the Knights of Columbus website, John called his son “a catalyst of love” whose devotion to God was “number one.” The boy was days away from high school graduation and planned to study aerospace engineering.

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – A federal district court in Philadelphia on Aug. 13 struck down a religious conscience rule implemented by the first Trump administration exempting employers with religious or moral concerns from having to provide their employees with insurance coverage for contraceptives and other drugs or procedures to which they have an objection. The Little Sisters of the Poor, defendants in the suit, are expected to appeal. U.S. District Judge Wendy Beetlestone in Philadelphia found the rules, which expanded the parameters for the types of nonprofits that could use the exception, were not necessary to protect the conscience rights of religious employers. Becket, the religious liberty law firm representing the Little Sisters of the Poor in their ongoing legal efforts over their objections to paying for abortifacient drugs, sterilizations and contraceptives in their employee health plans, said the nuns would appeal the ruling “in the coming weeks.” “The district court blessed an out-of-control effort by Pennsylvania and New Jersey to attack the Little Sisters and religious liberty,” Mark Rienzi, president of Becket and lead attorney for the Little Sisters, argued in a statement.

VATICAN
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – God never gives up on anyone, even when the person betrays God’s love, Pope Leo XIV said. Christian hope flows from “knowing that even if we fail, God will never fail us. Even if we betray him, he never stops loving us,” the pope said Aug. 13 at his weekly general audience. Arriving in the Vatican audience hall, Pope Leo welcomed the visitors in English, Spanish and Italian and explained that the audience would be held in two parts – in the hall and in St. Peter’s Basilica – so people would not be forced to stay outside under the very hot sun. Pope Leo was scheduled to leave the Vatican after the two-part audience to return to the papal villa at Castel Gandolfo where he had spent part of July. The Vatican press office said he would stay until Aug. 19 in the town, which is about 15 miles southeast of Rome.

WORLD
JINOTEPE, Nicaragua (OSV News) – Nicaragua’s ruling Sandinista regime has seized a prominent Catholic school, claiming without proof that it had operated a “torture” center during past protests and renaming the education facility for a slain partisan. The Colegio San José de Jinotepe, a project of the Congregation of the Josephine Sisters, was “transferred to the state” on Aug. 12, according to Co-President Rosario Murillo. The school was renamed “Héroe Bismarck Martínez,” who supporters of the Sandinista regime claim was tortured and murdered in Jinotepe during the protests of 2018, when Nicaraguans took to the streets and demanded the ouster of then-President Daniel Ortega – now co-president with his wife, Murillo. An investigation by the Inter-American Human Rights Commission found 355 individuals died during “the repression of social protests.” Details of Martinez’s disappearance and death remain mysterious, but Ortega criticized the country’s bishops in 2019 for not condemning Bismark’s death. The seizure of the Colegio San José de Jinotepe continued the Sandinista regime’s crackdown on the Catholic Church. Even the most mild dissent is not tolerated and priests must watch their words during Mass. Four bishops have been exiled from Nicaragua, along with more than 250 priests, women religious and seminarians.
NAGASAKI, Japan (OSV News) – In his homily at a solemn Peace Memorial Mass Aug. 9, Archbishop Peter Michiaki Nakamura of Nagasaki issued a passionate plea: “We must abandon the fists, weapons, and tools of violence we hold in our hands, and stop creating and using nuclear weapons. Let us use our hands to love and embrace others.” The Mass was offered at Urakami Cathedral in Ngagasaki on the exact day that 80 years ago the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on that city – which followed the Aug. 6, 1945, U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima. The concelebrants at the Mass included the four U.S. prelates participating in a “Pilgrimage of Peace”: Washington Cardinal Robert W. McElroy, Chicago Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, Archbishop Paul D. Etienne of Seattle, and Archbishop John C. Wester of Santa Fe, New Mexico. For the pilgrimage, the four prelates were joined by U.S. Catholic university leaders and students to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the bombings and to pray together for peace and for a world without nuclear weapons. After the Mass, the U.S. pilgrims and Japanese Catholics marched from Urakami Cathedral to Nagasaki Peace Park in a torchlight procession symbolizing the light of faith and hope for a nuclear-free future.