St. Jude, known as Thaddaeus, was a brother of St. James the Lesser and a relative of Jesus. According to ancient writings, he preached the Gospel in Judea, Samaria, Idumaea, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Lybia. Eusebius writes that Jude returned to Jerusalem in the year 62, and assisted at the election of his brother, St. Simeon, as bishop of Jerusalem. 

Jude is the author of an epistle to the Churches of the East, in particular to Jewish converts, against the heresies of the Simonians, Nicolaites, and Gnostics. 

Jude was beaten to death with a club and then beheaded post-mortem in 1st century Persia. His relics reside at St. Peter’s in Rome, at Rheims, and at Toulouse, France. 

St. Jude is the patron of desperate situations, forgotten causes, hospital workers, impossible causes, and the diocese of St. Petersburg, Florida. 

St. Simon the Zealot

Little is known about the life of St. Simon. He is thought to have preached in Egypt and then to have joined St. Jude in Persia. Some accounts say that Simon was martyred by being cut in half with a saw, and he is often depicted with one. But the fourth-century St. Basil the Great reported that Simon died peacefully in Edessa. 

The short documentary “The Dating Project” may open with a prologue from a Catholic priest explaining how he prays for young men and women to find one another for a holy Catholic marriage, but this is probably the most secular product the storied Family Theater Productions company has ever produced.

The film, streaming now on EWTN’s new on-demand digital platform EWTN+, is must-watch TV, not only for any serious single Catholic, but for all those Catholic parents of single adult children praying for a good Catholic partner to walk into their child’s life.

It is a short film, but a big topic. And the situation is urgent. According to the film, for the first time in American history, more people are single than married.

“The Dating Project” puts flesh and blood to this demographic red flag by following four distinct groups.

First, there are young people in college experiencing “adulting” for the first time and finding that the collegiate “hookup culture” has replaced traditional dating.

Next, we meet a woman in her mid-20s. She has not been on a date in years, and when she did last go on one, what the young man wanted was not what she was looking for.

Then there is the vibrant career woman in her 30s who works 70 hours a week, lives in the hectic world of New York City, and has little time for anything resembling a romantic relationship.

Finally, there is a single man pushing 40 who has never been married and is actively trying to find someone from online dating services.

Catholic Boston College scholar Kerry Cronin, Ph.D., is the film’s tour guide into the dateless culture we reside in, and has become kind of a legend on campus with her “Dating Assignment” class. To pass the class, a student must ask someone out for a date and do it face-to-face — no DMs or texts. Simply asking someone out for a cup of coffee is a passing grade.

Other than the abundant cartilage in their knees, there is little I envy about young people, and I certainly am glad I do not have to navigate the dating terrain today. As the film shows, especially among college-age students, they do not really know what dating is, and few of them in the film recall ever having gone on one.

There are so many obstacles in their way. The solitary-inducing effects of the internet, the loosening bind of traditional extended families, and the breakdown of social support systems have made the traditional concept of dating seem, well, dated.

But as Cronin makes clear to her students, getting back to basics is a pathway to a real relationship. Like all worthy journeys, the first steps are the smallest. If anyone is looking for an example of how far afield this concept has become for college-aged young adults, I suggest you check out the latest headlines from the sordid affair on the Cornell University campus.

But if dating has been left to atrophy, the desire among people to forge relationships has not. Cronin identifies her students’ main challenge: for the past two generations, the culture has been telling people that relationships and sex are “no big deal.”

Cronin counters that those two “deals” are actually huge. The young college people in the film, having lived their lives with TV sitcoms, movies, and music selling them the opposite view, seem to have an inner desire for the professor’s view, if her overflowing lecture hall is any indication.

As the film’s writer and producer Megan Harrington puts it, “The film offers viewers hope, inspiration, and tools for navigating the relationship landscape.” Since we did not get to this point overnight, it will take time and more efforts like Cronin’s to re-prioritize the “big deals” when it comes to relationships.

To that end, the production company has also launched a YouTube series called “Dating Decoded: Beyond the Dating Project” that dives deeper into the film’s themes, including unseen footage from the original.

It is not a trite subject. The Church needs healthy, happy families, and every family begins with a “boy meets girl” story. If this film helps facilitate that plotline, it is doing God’s work. Who knows, it may sound like a rom-com pitch at the Hallmark channel, but maybe some young man and woman are in the same coffee shop, on their laptops watching “The Dating Project,” and when they look up to see if their latte is ready, their eyes meet and they follow Cronin’s advice.

Written by JD Flynn and published October 27, 2026.

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LONDON — Oppression of Christians has worsened in 55% of countries assessed according to the latest report from Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) UK, without any country showing an improvement.

“Persecuted and Forgotten?” outlines how Christians are being forced from their homes through conflict, extremism, and religiously motivated violence in 18 countries across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America between August 2024 and June 2026.

According to research by ACN, 220 million Christians are directly exposed to persecution worldwide. The latest data from Pew Research Center indicates that anti-Christian harassment, ranging from verbal abuse to killings, occurred in 165 countries in 2023, up from 160 in 2021.

At the launch of the report in Portcullis House, London, John Pontifex, head of press for ACN UK, told EWTN News: “By virtue of our shared faith, we identify, inevitably, particularly strongly, with those of our brothers and sisters who suffer for their faith, and we recognize that itʼs an accident of birth that sees them in that situation of persecution and us in a situation of much greater liberty.”

He added: “There are Christians that suffer persecution in more countries than is the case with any other faith group. Up to 165 countries are those where Christians suffer from discrimination, oppression, or persecution. Thatʼs far more than any other religious group, so we need to share their story, and to tell people, our friends, our family, our parish, our [politicians].”

The report outlines how the persecution of Christians by authoritarian regimes has grown to unprecedented levels in countries where there is an anti-West sentiment.

Chinese authorities have intensified their oppression of Christians, as they aim to align religious doctrine more closely with communist principles. This has led to mass detentions, clergy being jailed on legal technicalities, churches closing, and online religious content being controlled.

The report tells of the persecution in Nicaragua, where the regime increased its crackdown on Christians, arresting and exiling clergy, preventing ordinations, seizing Church institutions, and preventing people entering the country with Bibles.

The report also outlines how the arrests of Christians doubled within 12 months in Iran, as crackdowns have intensified.

“Weʼre calling on all countries around the world and the U.N. to fully implement Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which enshrines religious freedom,” Pontifex said.

“Weʼre not calling for special treatment but simply calling for people to band together, to stop acts of oppression — be it people being kidnapped for their faith, be it people being forced from their jobs for reasons to do with their faith …  And indeed, for those who are unfairly tried and sentenced to life imprisonment, for crimes theyʼve not committed,” he said. “Like blasphemy laws, which are arbitrarily enforced. And then recognizing there are people who are often asked to pay the ultimate price. This should stop.”

Sub-Saharan Africa was one particular area of focus, listing Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger as territories with the worst extremist attacks since the height of the Daesh (ISIS) violence in the Middle East.

The report outlines how jihadist violence in the Sahel region has led to militant groups now controlling 40% of the country.

“They often coerce villagers to follow Islamic customs, making women veil their faces in public and men grow beards. Those who refuse are expelled or even publicly executed. Where insurgents allow Christians to practice their faith, this is restricted to inside churches, and it cannot be taught to children,” Pontifex explained.

Speaking to the conference about the Christians suffering from this oppression, Caroline Hull, national director of ACN UK, said: “These are people just like you and me. If someone said, ‘Will you give up your faith or I will take your children?’
what would you do? If someone said, ‘Iʼll let you get out of prison if you turn your back on Jesus Christ’? These are fair questions to ask ourselves, and we need to remember that these are people just like us.”

In October 2025, receiving an ACN delegation, Pope Leo XIV declared that religious freedom is “a cornerstone of any just society for it safeguards the moral space in which conscience may be informed and exercised… Religious freedom, therefore, is not merely a legal right or a privilege to us granted by governments; it is a foundational condition that makes reconciliation possible.”

ACN is a Catholic charity founded to help Christians in need where they are persecuted, oppressed, or in pastoral need through support, charitable work, and generating awareness.

On Nov. 18, ACN will celebrate the 10th anniversary of its #RedWednesday campaign, which raises awareness about the persecution of Christians worldwide.

The full report is available to read here.

A survey of 2,401 Catholic adults found that 39% said they have faced racial discrimination at some point in their lives, and 10% said they have faced racial discrimination within their parish community.

The survey was published on Oct. 26 by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), which is a research center at Georgetown University that produces social scientific studies about the Catholic Church.

It found significant differences among racial and ethnic categories, with Indigenous and Black Catholics reporting the highest levels of racial discrimination. Non-Hispanic white Catholics reported the lowest levels of racial discrimination.

The survey found that 75% of Indigenous Catholics reported experiences of racial discrimination in their lives. About 15% said they have experienced it in their parishes and 23% have experienced it in Catholic education.

It found that 66% of Black Catholics said they have experienced racial discrimination at some point in their lives, with 26% experiencing it in their parish communities and 26% experiencing it in Catholic education.

About 54% of Hispanic Catholics reported experiencing racial discrimination in their lives, with 15% saying they have experienced it in their parishes and 16% saying they have experienced it in Catholic education.

Among Asian, Pacific Islander, and Native Hawaiian Catholics, 54% said they have experienced racial discrimination in their lives, with 11% saying they experienced it in their parishes and 14% saying they have experienced it in Catholic education.

For white non-Hispanic Catholics, 29% reported they have experienced racial discrimination in their lives, with 6% saying they experienced it in their parishes and 7% saying they experienced it in Catholic education.

The largest category of respondents was white non-Hispanic Catholics, who made up 49% of those surveyed. About 24% of respondents were Hispanic; 16% were Black; 6% were Asian, Pacific Islander, or Native Hawaiian; 2% were Indigenous; 1% were another race; and 1% were mixed.

Ali Mumbach, research assistant for CARA, told EWTN News: “The findings from this report are very revealing about racism in the U.S. Catholic Church.”

“There is one group that experiences racial discrimination within the walls of the Catholic Church in the U.S. more than any other,” Mumbach said. “Black Catholics are the most likely to attend a parish that has merged (26%), have experienced racial discrimination in their parish (26%) as well as in Catholic education (26%). Twenty-six percent is 1 in 4 Black Catholics, compared to 1 in 10 adult Catholics in their parish or in Catholic education.”

“Based on the findings in this study, adult Catholics are generally in agreement with Church teachings that racism is a sin,” she said. “However, the reality of living out anti-racism within the Church seems to be a different story.”

A large majority of each racial and ethnic group said they believe implicit and explicit racism exist in their local communities to some degree. Implicit racism refers to forms of discrimination, such as unfair housing, access to education, and job opportunities. Explicit racism refers to forms of discrimination, such as verbal name calling, being denied services, and racial profiling.

The survey found that 17% of Catholics believe implicit racism exists “very much” in their local communities. It found that 33% believe it exists “somewhat,” 28% believe it exists “a little,” and 22% said it does not exist at all in their communities.

It found that 19% of Catholics said they believe explicit racism exists “very much” in their local communities, 32% said it exists “somewhat,” 27% said it exists “a little” and 22% said it does not exist at all.

White Catholics were the least likely to say explicit and implicit racism exists “very much” in their local communities. Black Catholics were the most likely to say those forms of racism exist “very much” in their communities.

Views about racism

The survey also asked respondents about their views on racism, which CARA said is derived from Church documents that condemn and define racism. A majority of each racial and ethnic group strongly or somewhat agreed with each statement.

It found 75% of Catholics strongly or somewhat agree it is sinful to “exclude, ridicule, mistreat, or unjustly discriminate against persons on the basis of their race or ethnicity.” It found that 19% neither agree nor disagree and 7% either strongly or somewhat disagree.

The survey found that 73% of Catholics strongly or somewhat agree racism can also come in the form of a sin of omission “when individuals, communities, and even churches remain silent and fail to act against racial injustice when it is encountered.” Another 20% neither agree nor disagree and 7% either strongly or somewhat disagree.

It found 67% of Catholics strongly or somewhat agree “racism can only end if we contend with the policies and institutional barriers that perpetuate and preserve the inequality — economic and social — that we still see all around us.” Another 24% neither agreed nor disagreed, and 9% either strongly or somewhat disagreed.