testimonies

U.S., Canadian seminarians prepare in Mexico to serve Hispanic community #Catholic In response to the growing Hispanic Catholic community in the United States and Canada, seminarians from both countries are being sent to study in Mexico at the Hispanic Seminary of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a multicultural formation center for future priests.The seminary was founded on Aug. 31, 1999, by the then-primate archbishop of Mexico, Cardinal Norberto Rivera, after the Catholic Church recognized the need to form priests capable of understanding the cultural richness of Hispanics in North America. Study group at the Hispanic seminary in Mexico. | Credit: EWTN Noticias Rivera was inspired by the call issued by St. John Paul II in the January 1999 apostolic exhortation Ecclesia in America, which called the American Church to a new evangelization.The seminary opened in August 2000 with the arrival of five seminarians from the archdioceses of Los Angeles and Milwaukee. Since then, more than 200 graduates from at least 55 dioceses across the U.S. have passed through the formation center.‘A Church without borders’In an interview with ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, Father Juan Antonio Vértiz Gutiérrez, the seminary’s rector, explained that the learning experience goes beyond language. The seminarians gain firsthand insight into what the Church in Mexico is like as well as its ecclesial and cultural traditions, particularly through apostolates. Seminarians visit the Isabel the Catholic Monarch nursing home in Mexico City. | Credit: Hispanic Seminary of Our Lady of Guadalupe According to the priest, this enables them to “better serve our fellow countrymen and our brothers and sisters of Hispanic origin” in their home dioceses in the U.S. He emphasized that this formation helps these young men understand two distinct cultural realities that, while united in faith, have different cultural expressions.For Vértiz, one of the greatest beauties of Catholicism is that it “doesn’t have any borders.” In a time marked by tensions stemming from immigration policies, he noted that the experience of the Hispanic seminary demonstrates that for the Catholic Church, regardless of one’s background, every person “already belongs to the family of the children of God.”The programLife at the seminary follows the rhythm of any house of priestly formation but with a particular emphasis on cultural encounter. Mornings are dedicated to philosophical and theological studies at Lumen Gentium Catholic University, while in the afternoons, seminarians delve deeper into language learning and spiritual formation.During Holy Week, seminarians are often sent to communities outside Mexico City.The admissions process is typically conducted through diocesan vocations offices in the U.S. “We do not accept young men who do not belong to a diocese,” the rector explained. Currently, the seminary hosts 16 young men hailing from California, Nevada, Washington, Texas, Illinois, Alabama, and Georgia. A map marks the seminarians’ states of origin. | Credit: EWTN Noticias Diverse testimonies of faithRamsés Yates, originally from the Diocese of Yakima, Washington, arrived at the seminary a year and a half ago to complete his theological formation and learn Spanish.In an interview with ACI Prensa, he said his experience in Mexican communities has filled him with “much hope and much joy.” In them, he said, it’s possible to witness what it means to “be a community that lives out Catholicism to the fullest.”He noted that he is eagerly preparing to return to Yakima, knowing that he will now be able to speak “with many more people in my diocese, people with whom I previously could not communicate effectively. That fills me with great enthusiasm.”Ramón Pérez, originally from Guanajuato, Mexico, migrated to Fresno, California, at the age of 17. There, his life was defined by work until he felt “the call to the priesthood, to a more complete dedication to the service of the Church.” A seminarian prays at the Hispanic Seminary of Our Lady of Guadalupe. | Credit: EWTN Noticias He told ACI Prensa that following a lengthy process of discernment, he requested admission to the seminary. His diocese decided to send him to Mexico “to continue nurturing my culture and to support the various people entering the United States” from Spanish-speaking countries.The seminarian said the experience has enabled him “to know and become conscious of my origins, my roots, and my culture, of where I was born and where I come from.” Growing up in two different cultures, he acknowledged, can be challenging, but it has also “profoundly shaped this aspect of my vocation.”This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
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U.S., Canadian seminarians prepare in Mexico to serve Hispanic community #Catholic In response to the growing Hispanic Catholic community in the United States and Canada, seminarians from both countries are being sent to study in Mexico at the Hispanic Seminary of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a multicultural formation center for future priests.The seminary was founded on Aug. 31, 1999, by the then-primate archbishop of Mexico, Cardinal Norberto Rivera, after the Catholic Church recognized the need to form priests capable of understanding the cultural richness of Hispanics in North America. Study group at the Hispanic seminary in Mexico. | Credit: EWTN Noticias Rivera was inspired by the call issued by St. John Paul II in the January 1999 apostolic exhortation Ecclesia in America, which called the American Church to a new evangelization.The seminary opened in August 2000 with the arrival of five seminarians from the archdioceses of Los Angeles and Milwaukee. Since then, more than 200 graduates from at least 55 dioceses across the U.S. have passed through the formation center.‘A Church without borders’In an interview with ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, Father Juan Antonio Vértiz Gutiérrez, the seminary’s rector, explained that the learning experience goes beyond language. The seminarians gain firsthand insight into what the Church in Mexico is like as well as its ecclesial and cultural traditions, particularly through apostolates. Seminarians visit the Isabel the Catholic Monarch nursing home in Mexico City. | Credit: Hispanic Seminary of Our Lady of Guadalupe According to the priest, this enables them to “better serve our fellow countrymen and our brothers and sisters of Hispanic origin” in their home dioceses in the U.S. He emphasized that this formation helps these young men understand two distinct cultural realities that, while united in faith, have different cultural expressions.For Vértiz, one of the greatest beauties of Catholicism is that it “doesn’t have any borders.” In a time marked by tensions stemming from immigration policies, he noted that the experience of the Hispanic seminary demonstrates that for the Catholic Church, regardless of one’s background, every person “already belongs to the family of the children of God.”The programLife at the seminary follows the rhythm of any house of priestly formation but with a particular emphasis on cultural encounter. Mornings are dedicated to philosophical and theological studies at Lumen Gentium Catholic University, while in the afternoons, seminarians delve deeper into language learning and spiritual formation.During Holy Week, seminarians are often sent to communities outside Mexico City.The admissions process is typically conducted through diocesan vocations offices in the U.S. “We do not accept young men who do not belong to a diocese,” the rector explained. Currently, the seminary hosts 16 young men hailing from California, Nevada, Washington, Texas, Illinois, Alabama, and Georgia. A map marks the seminarians’ states of origin. | Credit: EWTN Noticias Diverse testimonies of faithRamsés Yates, originally from the Diocese of Yakima, Washington, arrived at the seminary a year and a half ago to complete his theological formation and learn Spanish.In an interview with ACI Prensa, he said his experience in Mexican communities has filled him with “much hope and much joy.” In them, he said, it’s possible to witness what it means to “be a community that lives out Catholicism to the fullest.”He noted that he is eagerly preparing to return to Yakima, knowing that he will now be able to speak “with many more people in my diocese, people with whom I previously could not communicate effectively. That fills me with great enthusiasm.”Ramón Pérez, originally from Guanajuato, Mexico, migrated to Fresno, California, at the age of 17. There, his life was defined by work until he felt “the call to the priesthood, to a more complete dedication to the service of the Church.” A seminarian prays at the Hispanic Seminary of Our Lady of Guadalupe. | Credit: EWTN Noticias He told ACI Prensa that following a lengthy process of discernment, he requested admission to the seminary. His diocese decided to send him to Mexico “to continue nurturing my culture and to support the various people entering the United States” from Spanish-speaking countries.The seminarian said the experience has enabled him “to know and become conscious of my origins, my roots, and my culture, of where I was born and where I come from.” Growing up in two different cultures, he acknowledged, can be challenging, but it has also “profoundly shaped this aspect of my vocation.”This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

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A seminary was established in Mexico in 1999 to serve the growing Hispanic community in North America, forming future priests who learn Spanish as well as ecclesial and cultural traditions.

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U.S. Religious Liberty commissioner booted from post #Catholic Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick announced that Carrie Prejean Boller has been removed from President Donald Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission.“No member of the commission has the right to hijack a hearing for their own personal and political agenda on any issue,” said Patrick, who serves as chair of the commission, in a post on X. “This is clearly, without question, what happened Monday in our hearing on antisemitism in America.”“This was my decision,” he added.Boller, a Catholic who is former Miss California USA, sparked a debate Feb. 9 among fellow commissioners and panelists at a hearing focused on the topic of on antisemitism when she said her Catholic faith prevents her from embracing Zionism and repeatedly pressed Jewish panelists on whether her views made her an antisemite.The Church recognizes Israel’s fundamental right to exist and universally condemns antisemitism. Catholic teaching does not explicitly oppose Zionism, the movement supporting Jewish self‑determination in a homeland in Israel. Israel is seen as God’s chosen people through whom God revealed himself and prepared the way for the coming of Jesus Christ.TweetPatrick praised the work of the commission, which has held five hearings and has two more scheduled. He described testimonies that have been shared with the commission as “both illuminating and heartbreaking.”He said: “This spring, the commission will deliver one of the most important reports in American history directly to the president.”The commission is a federal advisory panel created in May 2025 under the Trump administration to provide guidance to the White House on protecting religious freedom in the United States. Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, are members. Former Miss California USA, Carrie Prejean Boller, attends a press conference at Trump Tower on May 12, 2009. Boller was removed from President Donald Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission Feb. 11, 2026. | Credit: Michael Loccisano/Getty Images Boller told EWTN News after the hearing that members of the commission asked her to resign a few months ago but that she refused. She also said several members asked to meet with her before the Feb. 9 hearing to discourage her from making her planned remarks. “They were seeing what I was going to say in the hearing, trying to silence me,” she said. “I told them I won’t be silenced.”Boller did not immediately respond to a request for comment about her removal from the panel.
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U.S. Religious Liberty commissioner booted from post #Catholic Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick announced that Carrie Prejean Boller has been removed from President Donald Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission.“No member of the commission has the right to hijack a hearing for their own personal and political agenda on any issue,” said Patrick, who serves as chair of the commission, in a post on X. “This is clearly, without question, what happened Monday in our hearing on antisemitism in America.”“This was my decision,” he added.Boller, a Catholic who is former Miss California USA, sparked a debate Feb. 9 among fellow commissioners and panelists at a hearing focused on the topic of on antisemitism when she said her Catholic faith prevents her from embracing Zionism and repeatedly pressed Jewish panelists on whether her views made her an antisemite.The Church recognizes Israel’s fundamental right to exist and universally condemns antisemitism. Catholic teaching does not explicitly oppose Zionism, the movement supporting Jewish self‑determination in a homeland in Israel. Israel is seen as God’s chosen people through whom God revealed himself and prepared the way for the coming of Jesus Christ.TweetPatrick praised the work of the commission, which has held five hearings and has two more scheduled. He described testimonies that have been shared with the commission as “both illuminating and heartbreaking.”He said: “This spring, the commission will deliver one of the most important reports in American history directly to the president.”The commission is a federal advisory panel created in May 2025 under the Trump administration to provide guidance to the White House on protecting religious freedom in the United States. Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, are members. Former Miss California USA, Carrie Prejean Boller, attends a press conference at Trump Tower on May 12, 2009. Boller was removed from President Donald Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission Feb. 11, 2026. | Credit: Michael Loccisano/Getty Images Boller told EWTN News after the hearing that members of the commission asked her to resign a few months ago but that she refused. She also said several members asked to meet with her before the Feb. 9 hearing to discourage her from making her planned remarks. “They were seeing what I was going to say in the hearing, trying to silence me,” she said. “I told them I won’t be silenced.”Boller did not immediately respond to a request for comment about her removal from the panel.

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Former Miss California Carrie Prejean Boller has been removed from President Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission.

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