Scientists have found that young stellar cousins of our Sun are calming down and dimming more quickly in their X-ray output than previously thought, according to a study using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.
Read More![Beloved Catholic kids book series ‘Chime Travelers’ becomes animated TV show #Catholic The beloved children’s book series “Chime Travelers” has now made an exciting leap from page to screen with its development into an animated TV series, bringing its imaginative world to life in a whole new way. Known for its blend of adventure, time travel, and meaningful life lessons, the Catholic series has captivated young readers with its charming characters and heartfelt storytelling for over 10 years.“Chime Travelers,” written by Catholic author Lisa Hendey, follows twins Patrick and Katie as they travel to different places and time periods — all thanks to some magical church bells — to learn valuable life lessons from the saints.Developed by Family Theater Productions and Herald Entertainment, the new animated series depicts the same stories from the book series and includes episodes on St. Patrick, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Clare of Assisi, St. Kateri Tekakwitha, and the Holy Family.In an interview with EWTN News, Hendey said she’s “absolutely thrilled with the outcome” of the animated series.She shared that she had been in conversations with Family Theater Productions — a Catholic production studio in Hollywood — since 2017 about adapting the books for television.“They really saw at an early point the potential for the books to become a very dynamic [series], something even bigger than what they were as books, and itʼs been a long path enough to get to where we are now,” Hendey said.
Katie meets St. Kateri Tekakwitha in an episode of “Chime Travelers.” | Credit: Family Theater Productions
Father David Guffey, executive producer of “Chime Travelers” and the national director of Family Theater Productions, told EWTN News that he believed this series needed to be made because there aren’t many options in terms of Catholic media for children.“If you look at all the media thatʼs out there, thereʼs not much for Catholic children,” he said. “Thereʼs a lot for Catholic teens. Thereʼs a lot for Catholic adults. Thereʼs not a lot of Catholic childrenʼs programming. And we decided just to take a risk on this animated series so that thereʼd be another option for parents that wanted something solid to show their children.”While the book series only included five stories, the animated series will have more saint stories made into episodes for future seasons. For these additional stories, Hendey is serving as a consultant.“Iʼm so delighted that they continue to involve my voice and to give me the chance to say, ‘Well, I donʼt think my character would say that, or have we tried this, or have we thought about this?’ But the new stories are — theyʼre so exciting because theyʼre brand-new. I didnʼt write books about them,” she said. “And now the question will be, do we adapt books from those or what happens next?”Guffey, who is also a biblical consultant on the hit series “The Chosen," said he believes the rise in popularity in faith-based movies and shows being created has “been a long time in coming.”“For a long time, executives in Hollywood didnʼt believe that Christians were an audience,” he explained. “They didnʼt believe there was a faith-based audience and so they were very reluctant to fund or distribute projects. Weʼve had some big signs that there is an audience. Christians have proved themselves.”He highlighted “The Passion of the Christ” as the faith-based movie that opened the doors for other faith-based films to be created and “The Chosen” for doing the same for faith-based television series.“Christians and Catholics are showing they will seek out the kind of content that suits their families and their faith. And thatʼs going to change Hollywood — the business side of Hollywood especially,” Guffey added.The Catholic priest also emphasized the importance of creating faith-based media specifically for children.“With an adult show, adults will watch it once and theyʼre done. But with childrenʼs shows, if theyʼre of any quality at all, children will watch them over and over and over again. So, these shows and these stories really form young people in a really significant way,” he said.Hendey added that she’s grateful “we have now programming thatʼs not only faithful — because we always wanted to be faithful and we always wanted to really speak to the truth and the beauty and the goodness of our Church — but also thatʼs fun, thatʼs compelling, that kids want to watch over and over again.”As for her hopes for the series, Hendey said: “I hope that the kids who watch this, in particular, understand the agency that they have in their own lives to learn valuable lessons from the community of saints and to be a force for good in our world. We need them. We need their hearts and their purity and the love that they have, and so I hope they feel emboldened to realize that they really can make change in their world and in our world.”Guffey added: “When youʼre a kid, you think the problem youʼre going through, youʼre the only one that ever had it and you think you can be a very lonely place. I hope the series shows that first of all, Katie and Patrick go through some of the things they go through at school or at home, but also that the saints and the people whoʼve gone before us have gone through the same thing. And we can draw on the wisdom and the experience of others to gracefully move through the problems, the troubles that we encounter in our lives today.”“The lives of the saints are the lives of the Gospel in action. And I think itʼs important that children see how faith is put into practice,” Guffey shared. “And when we tell the stories of the saints, we are really telling the story of people who put their faith into practice in the good times and in the more difficult times.”“Chime Travelers” can be watched on Formed and on Hallow.](https://unitedyam.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/beloved-catholic-kids-book-series-chime-travelers-becomes-animated-tv-show-catholic-the-beloved-childrens-book-series-chime-travelers-has-now-made-an-exci-scaled.jpg)
The new animated series depicts the same stories from the books, including episodes on St. Patrick, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Clare of Assisi, St. Kateri Tekakwitha, and the Holy Family.
The exhibition by the Dicastery for Culture and Education features the work of contemporary artists in various fields, inspired by the life and spiritual legacy of St. Hildegard of Bingen.
A married couple that leads the Teams of Our Lady, founded by newly-declared Venerable Father Henri Caffarel, explains how this lay apostolate helps couples grow together in holiness.
![California grandmother aims for 10,000 signatures on petition against second-trimester abortions #Catholic Mary Waldorf didn’t know anything about organizing petitions, but when a hospital worker and fellow parishioner told her that staff were forced to participate in second-trimester abortions, she felt called to do something.Enloe Medical Center in Chico, California, about 80 miles north of Sacramento, is the primary hospital in the area.“It’s the only hospital in a huge county. We all have to use it,” Waldorf told “EWTN Pro-Life Weekly.”Waldorf still remembers how she felt the day she found out about the abortions being performed there.“I spent the rest of the day just bawling because I know what a second-trimester abortion is,” she said.“Everybody was shocked,” she added.Waldorf went with a small group to peacefully protest in front of the hospital, holding signs. Hospital staff approached, asking why they were there.“They didn’t even know” about the later-term abortions being performed at the facility, Waldorf said.Waldorf claimed that local media will not cover the controversy. She said she has sent several letters to the editor of local papers but described the situation as a “media blackout.”A pediatrician at the hospital told her the hospital administration might reconsider if there was enough concern. “Why she told me, God only knows,” Waldorf said. “But I thought, well, if that’s the case, then what if we do a petition?”“I’m just somebody who goes to church, has grandkids, goes to work — I don’t know how to do [a petition],” she told “EWTN Pro-Life Weekly.” “I am not a media [figure]. But when God gives you an opportunity, you got to go for it.”The petition had about 800 signatures as of March 27. Waldorf is aiming for 10,000 — 10% of the size of the town.Waldorf said staff members have told her that the hospital allegedly has refused to allow some medical workers to opt out of assisting with abortion procedures.“They were told that the pre-op and the post-op nurses and personnel could not opt out,” Waldorf said.Waldorf runs a local chapter of 40 Days for Life, a nationwide effort aimed at praying for women seeking abortions and for their children, usually in front of abortion clinics during Lent. She says she wants women to have “true choice.”“If the mindset of people is about death, they don’t consider the child — and you have to consider both,” Waldorf said. “They’re not counseling these women. What about giving them true choice?”“The dignity of the human person is so paramount,” Waldorf added. “And I think that that is what’s being lost here completely.”](https://unitedyam.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/california-grandmother-aims-for-10000-signatures-on-petition-against-second-trimester-abortions-catholic-mary-waldorf-didnt-know-anything-about-organizing-petitions-but-when-a-hospital-wor-scaled.png "California grandmother aims for 10,000 signatures on petition against second-trimester abortions #Catholic Mary Waldorf didn’t know anything about organizing petitions, but when a hospital worker and fellow parishioner told her that staff were forced to participate in second-trimester abortions, she felt called to do something.Enloe Medical Center in Chico, California, about 80 miles north of Sacramento, is the primary hospital in the area.“It’s the only hospital in a huge county. We all have to use it,” Waldorf told “EWTN Pro-Life Weekly.”Waldorf still remembers how she felt the day she found out about the abortions being performed there.“I spent the rest of the day just bawling because I know what a second-trimester abortion is,” she said.“Everybody was shocked,” she added.Waldorf went with a small group to peacefully protest in front of the hospital, holding signs. Hospital staff approached, asking why they were there.“They didn’t even know” about the later-term abortions being performed at the facility, Waldorf said.Waldorf claimed that local media will not cover the controversy. She said she has sent several letters to the editor of local papers but described the situation as a “media blackout.”A pediatrician at the hospital told her the hospital administration might reconsider if there was enough concern. “Why she told me, God only knows,” Waldorf said. “But I thought, well, if that’s the case, then what if we do a petition?”“I’m just somebody who goes to church, has grandkids, goes to work — I don’t know how to do [a petition],” she told “EWTN Pro-Life Weekly.” “I am not a media [figure]. But when God gives you an opportunity, you got to go for it.”The petition had about 800 signatures as of March 27. Waldorf is aiming for 10,000 — 10% of the size of the town.Waldorf said staff members have told her that the hospital allegedly has refused to allow some medical workers to opt out of assisting with abortion procedures.“They were told that the pre-op and the post-op nurses and personnel could not opt out,” Waldorf said.Waldorf runs a local chapter of 40 Days for Life, a nationwide effort aimed at praying for women seeking abortions and for their children, usually in front of abortion clinics during Lent. She says she wants women to have “true choice.”“If the mindset of people is about death, they don’t consider the child — and you have to consider both,” Waldorf said. “They’re not counseling these women. What about giving them true choice?”“The dignity of the human person is so paramount,” Waldorf added. “And I think that that is what’s being lost here completely.”")
Mary Waldorf is rallying her town to petition against second-trimester abortions offered by Enloe Medical Center.
![Pope Leo XIV reunites with his eighth grade classmates #Catholic On the steps of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, Pope Leo XIV met last week with some of his eighth grade classmates from St. Mary of the Assumption lower school in south Chicago, where he grew up.Of the 82 eighth graders with whom he attended St. Mary’s in 1969, 10 greeted him after the general audience on March 18, exchanging laughs, gifts, and warm handshakes.During the meeting, his former classmates gave him a photograph of the class of 1969, which he held up as he posed for another group shot more than 50 years later.Jerome Clemens pointed out the young Robert Prevost standing among his classmates to the L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper: “Here he is, our friend, the pope,” showing the back of the photo with Prevost’s old autograph and his new one, which he signed, “Leo XIV.”Another former classmate, Sherry Stone (née Blue), dropped a sign she held that read “God bless you Pope Leo” when the pope approached her.“Sorry! I’m nervous!” she said, laughing, as he shook her hand.Instagram postLast spring, Stone told the Lansing Journal: “When he was in the conclave, I thought, ‘Could it be him? Could Bob be the new pope? No, probably not.’ When I saw that it was him, I was just amazed. I was crying tears of joy.”“He was a super nice guy, but not nerdy,” she said.After finishing eighth grade at St. Mary’s, Prevost attended boarding school at St. Augustine Seminary High School in Michigan, graduating in 1973. He then attended another Augustinian school, Villanova University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics in 1977 before entering the Augustinian novitiate that September. He was ordained a priest in 1982, earning a master of divinity degree from the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago that same year. He earned a licentiate in canon law (JCL) in 1984 and completed a doctorate in canon law (JCD) in 1987, both from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome.St. Mary’s church and school on Chicago’s ‘most endangered list’St. Mary of the Assumption Church and School, where a young Prevost served as an altar boy and his mother, Mildred Prevost, worked as a librarian, was at the center of a vibrant Catholic community in the Riverdale neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side in the 1960s.The property, which has been vacant since 2011 and is now privately owned, is located just a few blocks from the pope’s childhood home in Dolton, Illinois, but within Chicago city limits.The neighborhood has seen significant decline since then. Ward Miller of Preservation Chicago told EWTN News that St. Mary’s, which has a hole in the roof of the church building, broken windows, graffiti, and many other issues, was listed on Preservation Chicago’s 2026 “7 Most Endangered List" as of March 4.
Broken windows and graffiti on St. Mary of the Assumption School, where Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, the first American pope, attended eighth grade in 1969. | Credit: Matthew Kaplan
“We at Preservation Chicago are of the opinion that the church and school buildings of St. Mary’s are in need of immediate attention in order to secure temporary repairs, with a long-term goal of a full restoration of the campus of buildings, before everything is lost to deterioration,” Miller said.The property’s current owner, Joel Hall, said last year he is open to a landmark designation by the city, according to Miller. Preservation Chicago, a nonprofit advocacy organization dedicated to preserving historic sites in Chicago and encouraging landmark designations in the city, presented its case to designate it as such at a meeting in May 2025 of the Commission of Chicago Landmarks.No decision has been made yet regarding the landmark designation, but Preservation Chicago has created an online petition to the city of Chicago to “Save the Pope’s Church!”“This complex should become a visitors site, an oratory or shrine, as this is our first American pope — a world leader, and from Chicago!” Miller told EWTN News.
The interior of the dilapidated St. Mary of the Assumption Church, showing water damage to the floor and graffiti behind where the altar once stood. Pope Leo XIV served as an altar boy there during his childhood. | Credit: Ward Miller/Preservation Chicago
“We would very much like to see a partnership form to save these buildings and tell the story of this world leader,” reads an article on Preservation Chicago’s website. “An initial step in this process would be to consider a Chicago landmark designation of the buildings of this campus, with a plan to methodically restore and repurpose each of the buildings.”
Close-up of St. Mary of the Assumption Church in Riverdale, Chicago, Pope Leo XIV’s childhood parish, which was recently added to Preservation Chicagoʼs “7 Most Endangered” list of historic structures in the city. | Credit: Cristen Brown
Miller told EWTN News he would like to see the property “prepared [in time] for the pope’s return visits to Chicago!”The pope does not yet have plans to visit the United States.](https://unitedyam.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pope-leo-xiv-reunites-with-his-eighth-grade-classmates-catholic-on-the-steps-of-st-peters-basilica-in-rome-pope-leo-xiv-met-last-week-with-some-of-his-eighth-grade-classmates-from-st-mary.jpg)
Pope Leo XIV met with 10 of his eighth grade classmates in St. Peter’s Square at a recent general audience.
Sister Anna Maria shares about her late-in-life vocation, some wisdom on living a long life, and how her advanced age has not stopped the elderly nun from keeping active.
Archbishop Ignatius Ayau Kaigama appealed for U.S. assistance in combatting Islamic terrorism.
Luis Nava, a high school freshman in Lake Orion, Michigan, felt inspired to help peers find their voice and live their Catholic faith.
| Picture of the day |
|---|
,_parque_nacional_Ras_Muhammad,_Egipto,_2022-03-26,_DD_138.jpg)
|
|
Yellowbar angelfish (Pomacanthus maculosus), Ras Muhammad National Park, Red Sea, Egypt. This marine angelfish is distributed throughout the Persian Gulf, the northwestern Indian Ocean, and the Red Sea south to 19°S. In 2009 it was recorded off the coast of Lebanon in the eastern Mediterranean, probably as a result of Lessepsian migration from the Red Sea through the Suez Canal. Pomacanthus maculosus is found at depths of between 4 and 50 metres (13 and 164 ft). It is a solitary species that lives in sheltered areas, often where there is a mixture of coral and silt. Their diet is dominated by sea sponges and tunicates, although other invertebrates will be eaten opportunistically. The females attain sexual maturity when the reach around 5.5 years of age and a total length of 21.6 centimetres (8.5 in). The maximum longevity is thought to be 36 years old. They are protogynous hermaphrodites and the older females can change sex to become males when there is a shortage of males. The larvae are planktonic. The yellowbar angelfish is occasionally collected for the aquarium trade and in some parts of the Persian Gulf it has been recorded in fish markets.
|