By David Agren

MEXICO CITY (OSV News) — Cristina Bautista has never stopped searching for her son, who was among the 43 students who disappeared in a 2014 attack that has never been solved. She searches for two simple reasons: No one else will do it and the government investigations repeatedly run into roadblocks — often owing to a lack of political will.

“These 10 years were a simulation of looking for our children,” Bautista told OSV News. “If it were real, for real, our children would not be absent for these 10 years. It’s not knowing anything about our children.”

The Sept. 26, 2014, attack on the students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Normal School, a rural teachers college for young men, shocked Mexico, which had become seemingly inured to grizzly stories of drug cartel violence. Ten years later, the case remains in the realm of impunity, despite widespread societal outrage, parental searches and Mexican and international investigations.

Ayotzinapa Rural Normal School is part of a network of teacher-training colleges established decades ago to bring education to rural areas. Over time, the schools have become deeply involved with social issues.

The night the students disappeared that had commandeered buses in the city of Iguala — located 190 miles south of Mexico City in the country’s heroin-producing heartland — and had planned to travel to the capital for an annual protest against a previous atrocity: the 1968 attack on students on the eve of the Summer Olympics, according to a government truth commission and international investigations. But their buses were attacked by police, who handed the students over to the Guerreros Unidos drug cartel.

The anniversary offered a rude reminder of the power and impunity of drug cartels, along with the collusion of politicians and police with criminal groups. It also showed the lack of political will to resolve one of the country’s most notorious crimes. For the parents of the missing students, there’s only one question.

“What happened to our children?” Bautista said. “That’s what we want to know.”

The initial news of the attack brought Mexicans from all socioeconomic classes into the streets in protest, shouting, “It was the state” and “They were taken alive, we want them back alive.”

They also protested the initial government investigation, which posited the students were kidnapped and taken to a garbage dump, where their bodies were burned in an inferno. It’s a version of events, then-Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam called, “The historic truth.”

The investigation under President Enrique Peña Nieto, who left office in 2018, was largely based on torturing suspects, according to outside investigators. The military was also uncooperative.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, however, pledged to revive the case. He personally met with the parents of the 43 students during his successful 2018 campaign, where, Bautista recalled, “he promised to clarify the case (and) we had faith and hope in him that we would get to the truth.”

López Obrador formed a truth commission shortly after taking office in December 2018. He also appointed a special prosecutor and international investigators were also invited to return.

“There was clear political will,” said Santiago Aguirre, director of the Jesuit-sponsored Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Human Rights Center in Mexico City. “There were advances.”

The truth commission released a report in 2022, calling the attacks “a state crime.” It also discovered the students had been monitored by the police and military from the moment they left the Ayotzinapa school — some 75 miles south of Iguala — and during the attack, but failed to intervene. The commission didn’t know the students’ whereabouts, but considered it unlikely they were still alive.

At least 80 arrest warrants were subsequently issued and Murillo Karam was detained on charges of torture and forced disappearance — charges he denies.

But the case subsequently stalled, with the special prosecutor suddenly resigning. Lawyers for the families alleged the investigation collided with Mexico’s military, which has become one of the president’s key allies throughout his administration.

The independent prosecutor for Ayotzinapa “found evidence of the level of Mexican authorities corruption and in particular the links between parts of the army and narcotics traffickers,” Aguirre told OSV News. “We at the Centro Pro believe that given the choice of supporting the victims or sticking with the military, the president and the government chose the latter and that explains why the case is not resolved.”

International investigators, meanwhile, allege that the military disobeyed presidential orders to open its archives. They left the country in 2023, saying, “It’s impossible to continue.”

López Obrador insisted, “There’s no impunity,” while saying that the case advanced thanks to the armed forces.

The president later took aim at lawyers for the students’ families, including Centro Pro, a human rights organization. He verbally attacked Centro Pro on multiple occasions in his morning press conference, alleging it was “not what it was before” — referencing Centro Pro’s long history of accompanying victims of violence and confronting state actors such as the military.

He also insisted the Ayotzinapa families “are being manipulated by conservative groups from the right, supported by foreign governments that want to do us damage, politically speaking.” He made the comments in March 2024, resorting to his usual word for supposed opponents — “conservative.”

“This is undoubtedly due to the fact that we have not remained silent in our remarks about the persistence of impunity, violence and cover-up by the army,” Centro Pro said in a December 2023 response to López Obrador. “Our work, together with other respected civil society organizations, has been to defend the interests and rights of families, putting the victims at the center.”

Parents of the missing students backed their representatives after the president’s attacks, including Centro Pro.

“Thanks to them, the government cannot deceive us, can’t deliver a body that isn’t one of our children,” Bautista said.

López Obrador leaves office Sept. 30 with an approval rating topping 70%, according to some polls. His popularity and repeated attacks on the parents’ representatives has diminished some of the support he had received until 2022, according to observers.

The president has said that he hopes his successor, Claudia Sheinbaum, would continue the investigation.

“I made a commitment to them to look for them until we found the young people, we worked on that all the time, we did not progress as we would have liked but it is not a closed case,” he said in a Sept. 25 letter to the families.

The families have repeatedly expressed disappointment with López Obrador, saying in a July letter, “You have lied to us, You have deceived and betrayed us.”

Bautista, meanwhile, promised to find her son’s whereabouts.

“I”m going to continue searching so long as God lets me live,” she said. “I’m going to continue on here.”

(David Agren writes for OSV News from Mexico City.)

By Junno Arocho Esteves
(OSV News) — A study published in July revealed that a new analysis of the Shroud of Turin, including the composition and a microscopic analysis of bloodstains, shows that the marks are consistent with the tortures endured by Christ as described in the Gospels.

The study, titled “New Insights on Blood Evidence from the Turin Shroud Consistent with Jesus Christ’s Tortures,” stated that the presence of creatinine particles with ferritin, which are often a by-product of muscle contractions, “confirms, at a microscopic level, the very heavy torture suffered by Jesus of the HST,” or Holy Shroud of Turin.

Furthermore, “numerous bloodstains scattered throughout the double body image of the HST show evidence that Jesus of the HST was tortured,” it stated.

“Bloodstained marks all over the body image which are consistent with pre-crucifixion flagellation, bloodstained marks on the head that are consistent with a ‘crown’ of thorns, blood marks on the hand and feet that are consistent with crucifixion and the bloodstain on the chest that evidences a post-mortem wound that corresponds with the post-mortem spear wound that Christ received as is described in the Bible,” the report said.

The new study was written by Giulio Fanti, associate professor of Mechanical and Thermal Measurements at the Department of Industrial Engineering of the University of Padua. According to his personal website, Fanti has studied and written about the famed burial cloth since 2004.

The funding for the study, the report said, “was partially supported by a religious group
that requested anonymity” and that the group entrusted Fanti with “the analysis of the so-called ‘Padre Pio handkerchief,’ a fabric on which two images considered miraculous are imprinted on the front and back of (a Shroud of Turin-like) Jesus Christ and Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, respectively.”

According to the report, a preliminary study conducted by Fanti, along with Christian Privitera, an engineer, revealed the presence “of an almost transparent substance” between the bloodstained threads of the shroud.

“This substance, given its origin and in agreement with other scholars who have analyzed the Shroud of Oviedo, could be the semi-transparent fluid produced by pulmonary edema,” the report said, referring to the excessive accumulation of fluid in the lungs that Jesus was believed to have suffered from while on the cross.

The Shroud of Oviedo, Spain, is what both tradition and scientific studies claim was the cloth used to cover and clean the face of Jesus after the crucifixion.

Fanti’s study on the Shroud of Turin stated that aside from confirming the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ torture, including the flagellation, the right eye of the man of the shroud, given that it was “more sunken” with a vertical mark over the “apparently furrowed” eyelid,” indicate that he “could have been blinded by another blow of the scourge on the head.”

“As an alternative to the scourge mark on the right eye, one can think of a wound produced by a thorn from the crown placed on Jesus’ head,” the report stated.

The 14-foot-by-4-foot shroud features a full-length photonegative image of a man, front and back, bearing signs of wounds that correspond to the Gospel accounts of the torture Jesus endured in his passion and death.

The Catholic Church has never officially ruled on the shroud’s authenticity, saying judgments about its age and origin belonged to scientific investigation. Scientists have debated its authenticity for decades, and studies have led to conflicting results.

A 1988 carbon testing dated the cloth to the 12th century, leading many to conclude that the shroud is a medieval forgery. However, scientists have challenged that claim by noting that the methodology of the testing was erroneous and that the sample used in the carbon dating process was a piece used to mend the cloth in the Middle Ages.

A 2014 study published in the 2018 Journal of Forensic Sciences by Matteo Borrini, an Italian forensic scientist, and Luigi Garlaschelli, an Italian chemist, stated that blood patterns on the shroud were not consistent with those left by a crucified person.

Garlaschelli also posted a YouTube video of his experiment in 2015 using a live person to study the blood patterns in various positions as well as pressing a sponge against a plastic mannequin to examine the way the fake blood flowed.

However, several experts and researchers criticized the 2014 study, stating that their findings lacked the accuracy of past studies, some of which involved cadavers of men who died of hemopericardium, the pooling of blood in the heart, which is believed to be what ultimately caused Jesus’ death on the cross.

In his report, Fanti questioned the results of the 1988 study, stating that certain factors, including the presence of neutron radiation, transformed elements in the shroud, “thus heavily skewing the results of the radiocarbon dating of the HST performed in 1988 by many centuries.”

(Junno Arocho Esteves reports for OSV News from Malmö, Sweden.)

By Gina Christian , OSV News

Faith, prayer and a transcendent hope in Christ sustained a Ukrainian Catholic priest amid more than a year and a half of Russian captivity and torture — and now, he is sharing his story to remind others that God “loves us and wants to save us.”

Redemptorist Father Bohdan Geleta reflected on his experiences in an hourlong interview with host Taras Babenchuk that aired Aug. 20 on Zhyve TV, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church’s television channel.

In November 2022, Father Geleta and his fellow Redemptorist Father Ivan Levitsky were seized by Russian forces from their parish, Church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos in Berdyansk, Ukraine.

The two — whose exact locations and conditions were largely unknown to Ukrainian and church officials for most of their 18-month captivity — were among 10 prisoners returned to Ukraine in late June. Both priests had lost significant amounts of weight, and their heads had been shaved.

Father Geleta confirmed that he and Father Levitsky had been subjected to both psychological and physical torture at the hands of Russian forces, confirming reports that Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of the UGCC, had received within the first weeks of the priests’ capture, which took place a full nine months after Russian troops took over Berdyansk.

Initially, the two priests had been able to continue their pastoral ministry after the Russian occupation, celebrating Divine Liturgy, praying and taking in refugees, said Father Geleta.

In fact, the refugees motivated them to stay, he said, and provide both spiritual and material support.

Yet prayers for peace had to be done “very delicately” since “it was dangerous to express such a sentiment there,” he said — and a car marked with the letter “Z,” a symbol of Russian troops in Ukraine, circled the church “several times” as “a sign” that Russian occupiers were watching.

On Nov. 16, 2022, the occupiers made their move in broad daylight. Father Geleta had just returned from a burial and was preparing to celebrate Divine Liturgy; Father Levitsky was about to hold an outdoor prayer gathering.

“Two masked people came into the church. I think they were military. They were carrying weapons, and they came up and said in Russian: ‘Come with us,'” Father Geleta recalled. “I asked them in Ukrainian what they wanted, why they came into the church dressed like they were. They told me that they did not understand Ukrainian. I switched to Russian. Then I changed my clothes, took off my vestments, and went with them to the central pre-trial detention center in Berdyansk … And there they drew up a report that Father Ivan and I had violated some rules. We had to take permission from the authorities to pray in the city.”

The charge is a typical one for Russian occupation forces in Ukraine, who have broadly sought to suppress all faiths except Russian-aligned Orthodox groups by destroying houses of worship; detaining, torturing and killing clergy; and creating laws — in violation of the Geneva Conventions, which prohibit the imposition of outside rule by occupying forces — to restrict religious practice. In Zaporizhzhia, the region surrounding Berdyansk, Russian occupation officials issued a written decree banning the UGCC as well as the Knights of Columbus and Caritas, the official humanitarian arm of the worldwide Catholic Church.

Father Geleta and Father Levitsky, who were kept separate for most of their imprisonment, were first taken to damp basement cells where they “could also hear screams from our cell in the corridors,” as captives were tortured. One of Father Geleta’s cellmates had been electrically shocked and forced to learn the Russian national anthem — or face execution.

The priests were first offered an opportunity to cooperate with employees of the FSB, Russia’s security bureau, which has in some cases sought to recruit religious leaders to promote Russia’s grip in occupied areas of Ukraine.

“They said if we agreed, they would show us around and tell us what we needed to do,” said Father Geleta. “But we refused.”

The priests were also questioned on camera by Russian propagandists, he said, noting that his inquisitors “really don’t like the word ‘war,'” but instead prefer the Kremlin’s euphemism, “special military operation” to describe their attacks on Ukraine, which began in 2014 and which have been determined to constitute genocide, according to two major reports from the New Lines Institute and the Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights.

Yet “neither Father Ivan nor I compromised,” said Father Geleta. “We just told the truth, that it was a war, that they were criminals, to their faces,” he said, adding that it was clear they would be “punished” for their stance.

Their captors, Father Geleta said, “forgot about us for four months,” after which they accused the priests of storing weapons in their church, a charge for which they were to be tried and sentenced to 25 years in prison.

The two were transferred for five more months to Russian penal colony No. 77 in Berdyansk, where Father Geleta was moved to a solitary cell with a speaker that was “was blaring Soviet songs all day long,” which he was forced to listen to.

“I realized then how a person goes crazy, I realized why people commit suicide then,” said Father Geleta. “And, of course, the Lord God helps, and he gives strength through prayer. God, Jesus Christ, Mary and the angels were all present. Prayer was salvation. And as I was saying, I felt the prayer of the church.”

The priests were moved once more — driven handcuffed and blindfolded, with bags on their heads — to another penal colony in Horlivka, located in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, where prisoners were “harmed almost every day … the admission was very terrible, very cruel,” said Father Geleta.

Those who had fought in Ukraine’s Azov regiment, which along with civilians had defied Russia’s occupation of Mariupol until the city fell in May 2022, were “very much abused there,” he said.

The priests were also abused multiple times. “I was almost never beaten during the admission, but Father Ivan was beaten so severely that he lost consciousness twice,” Father Geleta said.

The Ukrainian priest said that while he was being tortured — something “you can’t get used to” — he “remembered Jesus Christ, his cross, his suffering.”

“And such strength and grace poured in that, that I was saying: Lord, I can sympathize with you,” he said. “When they were taking me somewhere, I was already preparing internally, praying and asking God to give me strength. I did not know whether I would survive or not.”

He and Father Levitsky shared a cell for just 15 days of their 10-month imprisonment at Horlivka, where according to the priest about 2,000 prisoners of war were held.

“We had the opportunity to get to know a lot of people,” said Father Geleta. “They told us a lot, and they were looking for help from the inside, spiritual help.”

While unable to celebrate liturgy, Father Geleta said he began holding morning and evening prayer meetings of about five minutes each, reading a passage from a Russian-language Bible, reciting the Our Father and Hail Mary, and then praying for prisoners’ intentions.

“It was enough to “spiritually gain such energy and go on living,” he said. “I wouldn’t say that it was some kind of propaganda or preaching, because the Our Father and the Hail Mary are common Christian prayers. … The warders didn’t even come in and see us.”

Father Geleta said he was also able to hear confessions, and sensed that “the whole church” prayed for the priests’ release.

He said his captors considered UGCC Catholics as “sect that split from Orthodoxy,” and that the UGCC and its priests must be “eradicated, isolated from society, and purified.”

“They genuinely praise God. Genuinely, yet they beat people, you know?” Father Geleta said of his captors. “It’s such religious fanaticism.”

When the June prisoner exchange was arranged, he and Father Levitsky thought they were possibly being moved to Siberia, said Father Geleta, who felt “profoundly grateful” upon regaining his freedom.

“Even now I cannot digest it all, realize it. It is still … coming to me,” he said.

As he readjusts to freedom, Father Geleta has discerned the hand of the divine in the sufferings he and Father Levitsky endured.

“Together with Father Ivan we sympathized and bore this cross with those prisoners who fought for freedom, for a free Ukraine, for winning this happiness of not only living like people, but being close to God, to the salvation of the Lord,” he said.

“And it will probably remain there, this particle, for a lifetime, you know, as long as I live on earth,” he acknowledged.

“And I want to tell all the others, and especially those families, those mothers, wives, who have their sons, their fathers, their sisters in captivity, not to lose hope, to pray, to turn to God, and everything will be all right. The Lord God knows that even through these sufferings he leads everyone to himself. We do not know this, it is a mystery. Otherwise, a person might not be able to bear it,” Father Geleta said.

ALBA DE TORMES, Spain (OSV News) — The silver coffin of St. Teresa of Ávila was opened in Alba de Tormes Aug. 28 only to confirm her body has remained incorrupt since her death in 1582. The opening of her tomb marks the beginning of a study of her relics, which will be carried out by Italian doctors and scientists — with the approval of the Vatican.

The last opening of St. Teresa’s coffin happened in 1914, 110 years ago. The Spanish Diocese of Ávila now wants to obtain canonical recognition of the relics from Rome.

According to the announcement made by the postulator general of the Order of Discalced Carmelites, Father Marco Chiesa, those present at the scene were able to see that “it is in the same condition as when it was last opened in 1914.” The then-general of the Carmelites, Clemente de los Santos, wanted to see the body of the foundress. Both openings — 110 years ago and now — confirmed that the body of St. Teresa has remained incorrupt since her death.

St. Teresa was a Spanish nun, one of the great mystics and religious women of the Catholic Church, and an author of spiritual classics. She started the Carmelite reform, which restored and emphasized the contemplative character of Carmelite life. St. Teresa was elevated to doctor of the church in 1970 by Pope Paul VI, the first woman to be honored with the title.

According to the Diocese of Ávila, the process of reaching the silver coffin containing the body of St. Teresa has been complicated. First, the marble slab in the tomb had to be removed. Then, the reliquaries were moved to the room set aside for the study of the relics. The community of Discalced Carmelites, together with the general postulator of the order, members of the ecclesiastical tribunal and a small group of religious participated in this transfer by singing the Te Deum.

The silver tomb was opened only in the presence of the scientific medical team and members of the ecclesiastical court.

Scholars, the diocese said, were struck by its “magnificent” state of preservation and robustness. The team also praised “excellent” workmanship of St. Teresa’s tomb, which was donated to the community by King Ferdinand VI and his wife, Barbara of Braganza.

Two goldsmiths assisted the opening operation and 10 keys that protect the tomb were used: three that are kept in Alba de Tormes, three kept by the Duke of Alba, another three that the father general keeps in Rome, in addition to the key kept by the king of Spain. Three of these keys are to open the outer gate, three are to open the marble tomb, and the other four are to open the silver coffin.

A first look at her body revealed, Father Chiesa recounted, that “the last few years were difficult for her to walk, due to the pain that she herself described.”

He added that in “analyzing her foot in Rome, we saw the presence of calcareous thorns that made walking almost impossible.” “But she walked,” having the ability to “move forward, despite her physical defects,” explained the postulator.

It is still too early to obtain conclusive results, Father Chiesa said, but assured that with the new study it will be possible to “learn interesting facts about Teresa and also recommendations for the conservation of the relics.”

(The story was originally published in Alfa y Omega, Spanish Catholic news outlet. OSV News contributed to this report.)