Several of the participants at the 2025 EWTN Summer Academy in Rome, an intensive program in religious journalism and digital storytelling, come from places where Catholics live their faith amid severe adversity. / Credit: Lemmy Ogbonnaya Ijioma/EWTN Summer Academy Vatican City, Jul 31, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA). Mikhail Ajjan fled war-torn Syria and the terrors of ISIS with his family when he was 10. Now a university student in Sweden, the 21-year-old Catholic faces a vastly different challenge of living his faith in a secular environment and is honing his media skills to help spread the Gospel.Ajjan is one of more than 40 young Catholics from 23 countries who have come together to train in the 2025 EWTN Summer Academy in Rome, an intensive program in religious journalism and digital storytelling, which coincides this year with the Catholic Church’s Jubilee of Youth.Mikhail Ajjan, 21, is originally from Aleppo, Syria, but now lives in Sweden. Credit: Lemmy Ogbonnaya Ijioma/EWTN Summer AcademySeveral of the academy participants come from places where Catholics live their faith amid severe adversity — from war zones to countries where cartel violence or religious persecution threaten Christian communities.Among them is Nicolawos Hazboun, a multimedia officer from Bethlehem who works closely with Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa documenting life in the Holy Land for the Latin Catholic Patriarchate of Jerusalem.Nicolawos Hazboun is from Bethlehem, Palestine. He works for the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem as a multimedia officer. Credit: Lemmy Ogbonnaya Ijioma/EWTN Summer AcademyOn a recent afternoon, Hazboun, 26, paused to reflect on the current situation facing Palestinian Catholics in Bethlehem.“It’s a blessing for us to be in the same place where Jesus was born,” he said. “My family is one of the biggest Christian families in Bethlehem. … We are in Bethlehem for more than 500 years … And we want to stay.”But staying isn’t easy. “Nowadays we have a bad situation because of the war,” Hazboun said. “We don’t have any pilgrimage … groups from outside. The people of Bethlehem … depend on the tourists. We don’t have any income.”Many Christian families in Bethlehem, he added, are leaving for Europe or North America. “We want the Christians of Bethlehem to grow and to increase in numbers, but unfortunately, the numbers of Christians in Bethlehem are getting low because of the situation.”Hazboun hopes to bring the skills he learns at the EWTN Summer Academy back to Bethlehem and Jerusalem to help him better communicate the experience of Christians in the Holy Land. “People are always surprised that there are … Palestinian Christians,” Hazboun said. “I want them to know that we are a strong community.”“There are still Christians in Bethlehem. … Not all Palestinians are Muslim.”The EWTN Summer Academy, organized by the global Catholic media network EWTN, CNA’s parent company, is now in its fourth year of training aspiring communicators in skills ranging from video editing to narrative reporting. The academy is held at the Pontifical Urban University’s CIAM center with a panoramic view of Rome and the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica and is offered at no cost to participants.“I feel close to heaven,” said Sister Mary Iyadunni Adeniyi, 27, a Nigerian member of the Congregation of Sisters of St. Michael the Archangel making her first pilgrimage to Rome to take part in the academy.Sister Mary Iyadunni Adeniyi is a Nigerian religious sister with the Congregation of Sisters of St. Michael the Archangel. Credit: Lemmy Ogbonnaya Ijioma/EWTN Summer AcademyShe recalls vividly the 2022 Pentecost massacre at St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo, Nigeria, where dozens of Catholics were killed.“It feels bad that you just go out and you could get killed,” she said. “We pray that God will help our faith and God could restore peace in our country.”Even so, Sister Mary remains committed to building a hopeful future. “The charism of my congregation is evangelization through inculturation,” she explained.“Now, it’s a digital world … so we also have to use that for evangelization.” She edits videos, designs graphics, and believes strongly in the potential of online platforms to reach young hearts.  “Where can you find the young people in the 21st century? In the media,” the sister said. In Vietnam, Tâm Nguyên Bùi, 31, works with the Vietnamese bishops’ conference and also volunteers for the local archdiocese in Saigon.Tâm Nguyên Bùi, 31, works with the Vietnamese bishops’ conference and also volunteers for the local archdiocese in Saigon. Credit: Lemmy Ogbonnaya Ijioma/EWTN Summer Academy“Even though we are a minority in the population — about 7% of 100 million people in the country — we have profound experiences in family life… and devotion in the churches,” Nguyên said. “In the EWTN Summer Academy 2025, we are alongside 43 communicators from 23 countries. We come from different backgrounds, different experiences of faith also. I really l