2 Syrian girls share ‘moving testimony’ at Jubilee of Youth event
Thousands fill St. Peter’s Square for the Jubilee of Youth welcome Mass on July 29, 2025, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 1, 2025 / 11:00 am (CNA).
Here is a roundup of Catholic world news from the past week that you might have missed.
*2 Syrian girls share ‘moving testimony’ at Jubilee of Youth event*
During a vocation-themed evening in Rome, two young Syrian women, Olga Al-Maati and Christine Saad, moved hearts with their testimony about living faith amid war, CNA’s Arabic-language news partner, ACI MENA, reported on Thursday.
Representing the Marian youth of Damascus, they told fellow attendees that their presence wasn’t about recounting suffering but spreading hope. They spoke of growing up amid bombs and despair yet clinging to Christ and discovering deep meaning in faith.
Their testimony, rooted in the Vincentian spirit of charity and perseverance, received a heartfelt response. “Love is stronger than death,” Saad declared, highlighting the role of Syrian youth in helping others find light in darkness through acts of service.
*Thai diocese provides shelter to those displaced by border clashes with Cambodia*
The Diocese of Ubon Ratchathani in northeast Thailand activated its emergency shelters on Tuesday for those fleeing ongoing border clashes between Thailand and Cambodia, according to a report from Fides.
Despite a Trump administration-brokered ceasefire agreement on Monday, tensions between the two countries remain high, the report said, prompting the diocese to open its shelters, which took in roughly 200,000 displaced people. Bishop Stephen Boonlert Phromsena has opened donation sites across the diocese, while Caritas and other local Catholic agencies are providing food, water, clothing, and other basic necessities to refugees of the conflict.
*South Sudan bishop calls for end to protracted violence *
In a moving letter to the South Sudan government shared this week with ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, Bishop Eduardo Hiiboro Kussala of the Tombura-Yambio Diocese pleaded for bold action to end the protracted violence occurring within his episcopal see.
“Our people live under plastic sheeting, drink unsafe water, walk in fear, and bury their loved ones in silence,” he wrote, adding: “This is not a political inconvenience, this is a humanitarian tragedy and a moral failure.”
Ethnically-driven violence between the Azande and Balanda communities has plagued Tombura as conflicts over political representation, traditional authority roles, and land access continue to escalate.
*In Rome, Lebanese youth kneel for peace in their homeland*
Hundreds of Lebanese youth gathered at the Basilica of the Twelve Holy Apostles in Rome during the Jubilee of Youth to pray for peace in Lebanon, lifting their country in prayer, asking for strength, reconciliation, and a renewed spirit of responsibility among their fellow citizens.
According to ACI MENA, Bishop Jules Boutros, who heads the Syriac Catholic youth committee, urged participants to model their hearts after Christ’s and be beacons of unity and love. Also present, Armenian Catholic priest Father Bedros Haddad invoked prayers for Lebanon’s recovery from its many crises, remembering the victims of the Aug. 4, 2020, Beirut port explosion and the country’s ongoing political and economic turmoil.
*Kenyan bishop says government plan to end free education funding will cause crisis*
Bishop Joseph Obanyi Sagwe of the Kakamega Diocese called out the Kenyan government’s reported plans to scrap free education in the country, warning that the move would trigger a crisis in the education sector by shifting the financial burden to already struggling parents.
Speaking to journalists on July 28, Obanyi said that should government capitation in schools in Kenya be removed, most learning institutions in the East African nation will not be able to operate, ACI Africa reported on Wednesday. “If capitation is removed from schools, there’s going to be a crisis. I’m aware that many of the institutions, even when they were not getting this capitation on time, some of them were taking overdrafts, awaiting the capitation,” he said.
*Munich and Freising bishop encourages citizens to run in local elections in Bavaria*
Cardinal Reinhard Marx, the archbishop of Munich and Freising in Germany, has encouraged the people of Bavaria to vote in the next local election in the free state on March 8, 2026, and to run in the elections.
Marx published the appeal together with the state bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria, Christian Kopp, on Friday, according to CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner.
“The two Christian churches in Bavaria encourage all people to run for a local political mandate with a democratic party or association,” the appeal said. Even if federal and state politics often play a more prominent role in the media, Marx and Kopp emphasized the importance of local politics.
“It takes care of services of general interest, [including] water, energy, garbage disposal, or fire protection,” they continued. “It decides on the weighting of the areas of economic development, construction, social affairs, and education, sport, health, and care.”
*Catholic health giant pledges $500M to build hospital in the Philippines*
Bon Secours Mercy Health, a U.S-based Catholic health care provider, has announced plans to invest up to $500 million to build a major hospital in the Philippines.
“If realized, it would mark one of the largest private-sector health care investments by a U.S.-based system in the Philippines,” the Philippine government task force that oversees foreign investments said in a statement, according to an Inquirer.net report.
According to its website, Bon Secours Mercy Health’s mission “is to extend the compassionate ministry of Jesus by improving the health and well-being of our communities.” Commitment to “uphold the sacredness of life,” integrity, compassion, stewardship, and service are also listed as its core values.