By Tom Tracy / Florida Catholic , OSV News

MIAMI (OSV News) — Representatives and clergy of the Archdiocese of Miami recently accompanied a series of ongoing humanitarian relief shipments to Cuba following last year’s Hurricane Melissa.

The new airlifts of foodstuffs and hygiene supplies were approved by the U.S. and Cuban governments this year and amount to some $3 million in aid to mostly eastern Cuban communities impacted by the Category 5 hurricane in 2025.

The hurricane made landfall on Oct. 28 in Jamaica as a Category 5 storm before passing over the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Cuba. Dozens were killed, mostly in Jamaica and Haiti.

But Cuba’s weakening economic situation prompted action from a small group of donors through Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Miami.

Those local efforts at the end of last year were extended in 2026 through a $3 million governmental partnership with Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. Church’s overseas relief and development agency. The partnership marks a return of the Baltimore-based agency to Cuba for the first time in a decade.

The Catholic Church in Cuba, through its regional dioceses, has been entrusted with overseeing the distribution of the aid to ensure that it benefits those most in need in the communist nation, according to Peter Routsis-Arroyo, CEO of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Miami.

“Caritas Cuba along with priests, staff and volunteers from the parishes in the four dioceses impacted by Hurricane Melisssa continue to distribute the humanitarian assistance provided by CRS using a needs-based criteria,” Routsis-Arroyo said.

“The newest obstacle is the fuel shortage that will make the distribution more challenging,” he said Feb. 21. “It is also making garbage pickup throughout the region almost nonexistent which could lead to the spread of more diseases.”

In November, Routsis-Arroyo and two other archdiocesan representatives traveled to Cuba to accompany the third of four shipments, which departed from Miami International Airport and arrived at Antonio Maceo International Airport in Santiago, Cuba.

On Jan. 28, Father Jose Espino, rector of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Charity in Miami, and Sister Eva Perez-Puelles from the Daughters of Charity in Miami accompanied a new airlift of aid to Santiago, Cuba. Father Elvis Gonzalez, pastor of St. Michael the Archangel Parish in Miami and Father Esney Munoz Diaz, of the same parish, oversaw an air delivery the following day to the Holguín region.

“They are met by a bishop or a representative from Caritas Cuba, making sure these supplies get into the correct hands,” Routsis-Arroyo said, adding that the Jan. 28 flight included 648 food kits, along with 510 hygiene kits, for example.

“Caritas Cuba needs-based criteria for dispensing the aid, with single mothers, senior citizens and people with disabilities and reduced mobility taking priority,” he added, noting that a hurricane appeal in the Miami Archdiocese last year provided an initial $400,000 in hurricane relief to the island following Hurricane Melissa.

“The difference now is that this new aid is part of the $3 million the U.S. government allowed to be used as part of a pledge to help Cuba,” Routsis-Arroyo said, noting that he met on Jan. 28 with Miami Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski to discuss the operation.

“We (in the Miami Archdiocese) are trying to help and complement those efforts, we will continue our own relationships and efforts with Cuba.”

This is not the first time aid has been sent to Cuba. Archbishop Wenski explained to the Florida Catholic in December that it is “something that we’ve been doing for a long time.” “In the last five years, we’ve probably sent 45 containers to Cuba to help dioceses and religious communities in their work with the poor, especially elderly people,” he said.

Archbishop Wenski also organized a campaign in 1996, when he was the director of Catholic Charities of Miami, to collect food after Hurricane Lili struck Cuba. “We were able to send that food on two plane loads,” he said.

That shipment was made possible thanks to the relationship he had developed with the director of Caritas Cuba.

Santiago in the eastern part of Cuba is where the hurricane had the greatest impact. The humanitarian relief effort in Cuba aims to assist people in the Archdiocese of Santiago de Cuba and the Guantanamo-Baracoa, Holguín and Bayamo-Manzanillo dioceses.

The U.S. State Department has said the food kits include supplies such as rice, beans, oil and sugar. The assistance will also include water purification tablets and storage containers, as well as household essentials like pots and pans, along with sheets, blankets and solar lanterns.
Last year, the Trump administration moved to dissolve the U.S. Agency for International Development, placing some of its remaining functions under the purview of the State Department.

Cuts to funding for the government’s now-shuttered humanitarian aid agency in countries all over the globe included funding for some efforts by Catholic and other faith-based humanitarian groups including CRS.

Robyn Fieser, media relations manager for CRS, said in a statement, “Following Hurricane Melissa, we are supporting the delivery of emergency supplies to families in Cuba with funding from the U.S. government, working in coordination with the Catholic Church, a longstanding and trusted partner in reaching communities during times of crisis.”

Archbishop Wenski said this new project with Cuba serves as an opportunity for the U.S. government to rebuild some of its coordination with CRS. “I think (U.S. Secretary of State) Marco Rubio was very wise in rebuilding that relationship,” the archbishop told the Florida Catholic, the archdiocesan news outlet.

“CRS is back helping Cuba and hopefully this opens funds and provides assistance to Cubans, because that is the only thing that is reaching Cubans right now,” the archbishop added.

By Junno Arocho Esteves

(OSV News) — Since 2022, there has been a steady flow of harrowing images and videos of killings, war and destruction from the Holy Land, beginning with the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas, followed by Israel’s war on Gaza.

That, coupled with reported attacks on Christians in the West Bank by Jewish settlers, has led the land known as “The Fifth Gospel” to be nearly empty of pilgrims over the last two years.

Although a ceasefire agreement has been in place since October, Israel launched a deadly strike on Gaza Jan. 31 that killed over 30 people, threatening an already shaky detente.

On Feb. 3, only a handful of sick and wounded Palestinians from Gaza were allowed to cross to Egypt after the Rafah border crossing reopened for the movement of people — it was closed in May 2024.

Nevertheless, in early January, Franciscan Father Francesco Ielpo, custos of the Holy Land, urged pilgrims to return not only as an opportunity to be where Christ was, but also as a sign of solidarity with Christians in the area whose livelihoods depend on pilgrims.

Meeting with pilgrims from Rome Jan. 7 at the Franciscan headquarters in Jerusalem, Father Ielpo said the presence of Christians from around the world visiting the Holy Land “generates hope and strengthens the reason for coming here — not to see a museum, but to encounter a living Church.”

Father Ielpo said he is often asked by many how “to help this land and these peoples.”

The most helpful thing, he said, according to Vatican News, was to “return as pilgrims to this land.”

Pilgrimages are “one of the principal sources of economic support, primarily — but not only — for the local Christian community,” he added.

For Michael Kelly, director of public affairs for Aid to the Church in Need Ireland, pilgrims should consider Father Ielpo’s appeal because he, like many men and women religious in the Holy Land, understands “the reality on the ground, and they would not invite pilgrims there if the situation was unsafe.”

While the ceasefire in Gaza is fragile, “around Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth and the Sea of Galilee the situation is safe,” Kelly said in a Jan. 28 email to OSV News.

Kelly, who said he has led dozens of group pilgrimages to the Holy Land over the past 20 years, urged pilgrims on the fence about visiting to “leave the hesitation at the door, because it is not outsiders telling people to come, it is the people who live the reality every single day who are asking pilgrims to come.”

“Even before the current war, people had a perception that the Holy Land is unsafe,” he said. “I used to say to people, take the words of Jesus to heart ‘come and see’ — and I can tell you honestly, of the 6,000 or so pilgrims I have brought to the Holy Land, not one said they were concerned or worried once they were there.”

With religious tourism slowing to a trickle, he lamented, Christians in Bethlehem and Jerusalem are reaching a breaking point, both economically and mentally.

“They are suffering isolation and hardship because pilgrims have not come in over two years,” he told OSV News. “They want people to come back, but not just for their material benefit (which is important) but because they want to share their lives of faith with Christians from all over the world.”

“Many of the workers in the hotels and restaurants are Christians, and by patronising these businesses we are helping Christians to survive,” he added.

According to a report by the U.S. State Department, Christian clergy and pilgrims are facing increased harassment, including incidents of spitting and verbal assault by ultra-Orthodox extremists.

Asked how one reconciles the spiritual call to return with the physical reality of rising hostility on the streets, Kelly acknowledged that authorities in Jerusalem must do more to ensure that pilgrims “do not have negative experiences.”

“Jerusalem is a holy city for Jews, Christians and Muslims. All of these believers must be allowed to be free to exercise their faith in the city,” he said, noting that rabbis in Jerusalem denounced Jewish extremists for their harassment, which is “not in keeping with authentic Judaism.”

“I have to say, any time I have witnessed an incident and I have reported it to the Israeli police, they took action immediately,” he said. “This hostility on the streets comes from a very small but vocal faction, and it is necessary for Israeli leaders and politicians to denounce it.”

Kelly also told OSV News that when such incidents occur on pilgrimages he has led, he tells pilgrims, “This is how it was. The Lord did not have a sanitized walk to Calvary; try to enter more deeply into his passion with this very small experience of adversity.'”

“The streets of Jerusalem were hostile on that first Good Friday, when the Lord carried his cross,” he said. “Who are we to expect anything less?”

Nevertheless, the images of war and death remain the biggest hurdle in convincing pilgrims to return.

“People are rightly greatly troubled by the huge loss of life and the intensity of the violence,” Kelly said. While noting that major pilgrimage stops, such as Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth, the Sea of Galilee, Capernaum and the Jordan River are safe, he urged pilgrims to overcome their fear by visiting the Holy Land, deepening their faith, and supporting the local Christian community.

“Many Christians are leaving — they see little hope,” he said. “They have not seen Christians from other parts of the world in over two years, (and) they begin to think that they are forgotten about.”

“We have to help Catholics around the world understand that the importance of the Holy Land lies not just in the ancient sites there, but in the life of the local Christians descended from the first followers of Jesus,” Kelly told OSV News.

“My hope is that every Catholic parish in the world will give serious consideration to organizing a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, not only to see the holy sites associated with Jesus, but to be with the local Christian community — to show them that they are really part of the body of Christ, and we will support them,” he said.

(Junno Arocho Esteves is an international correspondent for OSV News. Follow him on X @jae_journalist.)

By Junno Arocho Esteves

(OSV News) — At first glance, the official photo of Venerable Augusto Ramírez Monasterio — known simply as “Fray Augusto” — shows a smiling Franciscan friar standing in a small garden, hands clasped and slightly hidden within the sleeves of his brown habit.

Yet the joyful and peaceful demeanor of the friar masked the horrors he was subjected to before his 1983 martyrdom, which was recognized by Pope Leo XIV Jan. 22.

The photo, in fact, was taken in June 1983, moments after he endured hours of torture at the hands of the military.

In an interview with OSV News Jan. 29, Franciscan Father Edwin Alvarado, vice postulator of Father Augusto’s sainthood cause, said that before his release, his torturers forced him to sign a document stating he had been “treated well” and “only interviewed.”

The official photo “was taken after his torture,” Father Alvarado said. “They wanted to take some photos of him, so he went and placed his hands in his habit so as not to see the burns on his hands.”

The vice postulator told OSV News that he came across the photo and its origin while gathering information on Father Augusto’s life. He immediately sent it to Franciscan Father Giovangiuseppe Califano, the postulator general who oversees the causes of beatification and canonization within the Franciscan order.

Upon receiving the photo, Father Califano said, “There is no better photo than that one, which shows what had happened,” Father Alvarado recalled.

At that time, Guatemala was in the grip of a brutal internal conflict where the Catholic Church frequently became a target of state-sponsored violence, especially under Guatemalan President Efraín Ríos Montt.

Upon seizing power in a 1982 military coup, Ríos Montt oversaw, in his brief one-year tenure, the killing of the Indigenous Mayan population. Catholic priests and nuns were also targeted for their support of the Mayan people.

Father Alvarado, who hails from Costa Rica, recalled his arrival in Guatemala in November 1983 as a postulant, or a candidate for the Franciscan order.

“When I arrived at the airport — I was 17 years old, just a kid — the man who opened my suitcase saw the religious habit and said, ‘Here, you pay for this with your life.’ I didn’t understand because my country, Costa Rica, didn’t have this sort of hostility,” he told OSV News.

It was just a few days later, on Nov. 7, when he heard the news that a priest had been killed. “I didn’t know him … and it was the 13th one they had killed.”

It was Father Augusto.

Born Nov. 5, 1937, in Guatemala City, the would-be Franciscan studied in Nicaragua and Spain, where he was ordained in 1967. He returned to Guatemala to serve as the parish priest of San Francisco el Grande in Antigua Guatemala, dedicating his ministry to youth and the poor during the country’s brutal 36-year civil war.

According to Father Alvarado, witnesses at the time remember “Fray Augusto” as a joyful man who was tirelessly dedicated to the youth and the suffering in Guatemala. As a talented musician, he taught “Solfa,” a singing technique, which allowed him to connect with young people through music.

Father Alvarado told OSV News that those in the parish of San Francisco El Grande, especially members of the church choir, remembered the Franciscan priest’s jovial demeanor and his penchant for making jokes.

“There’s a story about one member of the choir who would always bother people. His name was Francisco but everybody called him (by his nickname) Paco. And Father Augusto called him ‘Paco Satanas,’ (Paco Satan or Paco the devil),” the vice postulator recalled.

“That man still remembers it to this day, saying; ‘That’s the nickname the father (Father Augusto) gave me. He used to say that I was the only Satan that worked in the Church,'” Father Alvarado said.

However, he wasn’t just known for his cheeky sense of humor. The fondest memories many witnesses told Father Alvarado were of how the Franciscan priest would visit the sick at their homes or at the hospital at all hours.

But what he was best known for was the time he spent at the confessional, sometimes for hours, attending to those seeking the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

“Recently, I found the testimony of one friar who said Father Augusto would do everything in pastoral ministry: as a pastor, as a superior, but where he spent the most time was seated at the confessional,” Father Alvarado said, adding that in Guatemala, especially on Sundays, confessions would begin at 6:30 in the morning, and aside from bathroom or lunch breaks, priests would stay until late in the day in confession.

Sadly, Father Alvarado told OSV News Father Augusto’s torture and subsequent martyrdom were not because of his charitable works or youth ministry, but specifically because of his fidelity to the seal of the confessional.

The events leading to his death began in June 1983, when a former guerrilla leader, who was hoping to accept a government amnesty offer went to Father Augusto for confession. Wanting to help the man reintegrate into society, the Franciscan priest accompanied him to the municipality to obtain an identification card.

However, authorities at the municipality recognized the man from past activities and alerted police, who then arrived and arrested Father Augusto, the man, and his three children, who were accompanying him. They were then handed over to the military, Father Alvarado recounted.

Despite the man’s pleas for the soldiers to release his children and Father Augusto, the soldiers took the priest to a separate room, blindfolded him and had his hands tied.

“It was there that he was tortured to ‘tell the truth’ and say that the man belonged to a paramilitary group,” Father Alvarado said. “Father Augusto told them, ‘It was a confession, I cannot speak about it.’ Then they tortured him; they burned his hands, the soles of his feet and other parts of his body.”

Although he was released after posing for the photo and signing the document assuring he was treated well, from that moment, Father Augusto was marked for death by the government.

He was followed by the Guatemalan government for months and received death threats, and on Nov. 7, 1983, Fray Augusto was kidnapped, tortured and, in an attempted escape, was shot dead by police officers loyal to the government.

For Father Alvarado, that moment in June when Father Augusto refused to divulge the man’s confession is at the heart of his martyrdom: his willingness to suffer physical torture rather than violate the spiritual safety of a penitent.

“For us priests, for the people, it says a lot about how a priest can guard one’s confession to the point of giving his life,” Father Alvarado told OSV News. “This only reinforces the sacrament of confession.”

Through his torture and death, he said, “Fray Augusto has told us that it must be this way; that is what the seal of confession is worth.”

With his beatification confirmed, Father Alvarado told OSV News that he was surprised by a providential coincidence while discussions on possible dates were ongoing between the Archdiocese of Santiago de Guatemala, the Vatican Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, and the Franciscan general postulator.

“For these celebrations, they usually ask that it be a Saturday, not Sunday, so that the majority of the clergy can attend,” he said. However, Father Alvarado noted that the calendar was already filled with other ecclesial events, including beatifications in the United States and Italy.

Upon reviewing the dates available in the year, Father Alvarado was surprised to discover that the only Saturday available was Nov. 7, the same day of Father Augusto’s martyrdom.

“I don’t know how it happened, but it is a Saturday. So we confirmed the date with (Archbishop Gonzalo de Villa y Vásquez),” which will be the 43rd anniversary of his martyrdom, Father Edwin said.

The advancement of Fray Augusto’s cause came as the universal Church celebrated the World Day for Consecrated Life on Feb. 2.

In a letter sent Jan. 29 to religious men and women, the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life encouraged those in consecrated life, noting that they are called to be a “presence that remains” alongside wounded peoples and individuals, in places where the Gospel is often lived in conditions of fragility and trial.”

(Junno Arocho Esteves is an international correspondent for OSV News. Follow him on X @jae_journalist.)

By Kate Scanlon , OSV News

(OSV News) — As deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro made his first appearance Jan. 5 in a New York courtroom on narco-terrorism charges after the Trump administration carried out what President Donald Trump called on social media “a large scale strike against Venezuela,” uncertainty about immigration status lingered for some Venezuelan migrants in the U.S.

Astrid Liden, communications officer for the Hope Border Institute, a group that works to apply the perspective of Catholic social teaching in policy and practice to the U.S.-Mexico border region, and a Venezuelan-American, told OSV News, “In recent years, hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans have sought protection in the United States, many passing through the US-Mexico border. Millions of Venezuelans live abroad due to the situation in Venezuela, and we share their hope in the end of the reign of Maduro, whose rule led to the displacement of so many.”

However, she added, “The recent end of TPS for Venezuelans by the Trump administration sets a very dangerous precedent and puts hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans at risk.”

Maduro was arraigned in a Manhattan federal court by Judge Alvin Hellerstein. Cameras are prohibited in most federal court proceedings, but according to reporters, Hellerstein said, “It’s my job to assure this is a fair trial.”

At the brief hearing, Maduro said through an interpreter that he was “innocent” and “still president of my country.”

Maduro’s regime was seen as illegitimate by many countries around the world, including the European Union. Venezuela’s opposition demonstrated through collecting digitized voter tallies that their candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, won the 2024 presidential election with 67% of the vote; but Maduro refused to cede power. The Biden administration, which recognized González as Venezuela’s rightful president-elect, in January 2025 said Maduro “clearly lost the 2024 presidential election and has no right to claim the presidency.”

However, world leaders also expressed concern that the U.S. military action to remove Maduro flouted international law.

At an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council just prior to Maduro’s hearing, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply concerned that rules of international law have not been respected,” while U.S. ambassador Mike Waltz called the action a “surgical law enforcement operation.”

The previous day, Pope Leo XIV expressed “deep concern” following Maduro’s capture.

“This must guarantee the country’s sovereignty, ensure the rule of law enshrined in the Constitution, respect the human and civil rights of all, and work to build together a serene future of collaboration, stability, and harmony, with special attention to the poorest who suffer due to the difficult economic situation,” he said after reciting the Angelus prayer with pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square Jan. 4.

At a Jan. 3 press conference, Trump said the U.S. will “run the country” of Venezuela “until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” but questions remained about that process.

But the action also highlighted uncertainty for some Venezuelans in the U.S.

In 2025, the Trump administration ended Temporary Protected Status for about 600,000 Venezuelans living in the U.S., stripping their legal status to remain in the U.S. TPS status is sometimes granted to countries where natural disasters or civil unrest have fueled displacement.

Asked during an appearance on “Fox News Sunday” Jan. 4 whether Venezuelans in the U.S. who were previously under TPS can apply for asylum, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem suggested they can do so, but did not directly address whether deportations to that country would continue.

“Every individual that was under TPS has the opportunity to apply for refugee status and that evaluation will go forward,” Noem said, without elaborating on how those evaluations would be made.

In a comment on the subject at his press conference, Trump said, “Frankly, some wanna stay and some probably wanna go back.”

Catholic immigration advocates previously urged the Trump administration to leave TPS status in place for countries including Venezuela in part because of its political instability.

“The dismantling of a corrupt autocratic regime does not occur simply through the removal of its head — we know this well,” Linden said. “This protection in the United States must be maintained until voluntary and safe return truly becomes a viable option. As Pope Leo XIV has said, we must ensure that ‘the good of the beloved Venezuelan people’ — both those in the country and those abroad — remains enshrined. We must see Venezuelans, including the leaders elected in 2024, involved in a process of democratic transition for there to be a country where Venezuelans can one day return to.”

J. Kevin Appleby, senior fellow for policy at the Center for Migration Studies in New York and the former director of migration policy for the USCCB, told OSV News, “TPS should be renewed at least until a democratically-elected government is in power, so that people feel they will not face persecution upon return.”

He added, “Moreover, the remittances that would flow to the country from half a million Venezuelans with TPS would help steady the country economically.”

In comments to reporters on Maduro’s hearing, Notre Dame Law School professor and organized crime expert Jimmy Gurulé, a former federal prosecutor and former assistant U.S. attorney general, said the hearing is likely the first part of what will be a lengthy legal process.

“While justice will ultimately be served in the Maduro case, it won’t be anytime soon,” he said.

A jury trial in the Maduro case, Gurulé said, “is unlikely to commence until sometime in 2027” in part because “the list of pretrial issues goes on and on.”

“Initially, defense attorneys will challenge the legality of the court’s jurisdiction over Maduro,” he said. “Defense counsel will argue that the U.S. military invasion of Venezuela and subsequent apprehension of Maduro not merely violated principles of international law, but constituted the crime of aggression.”

“Maduro’s defense attorneys will seek broad criminal discovery, which could include a request for the disclosure of classified evidence,” he added. He said that could involve lengthy litigation under the Classified Information Procedures Act, which “balances the government’s needs to protect secrets with a defendant’s rights to a fair trial.”

(Kate Scanlon is a national reporter for OSV News covering Washington. Follow her on X @kgscanlon.)