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Catholics covered in mud and dried banana leaves join the mud people festival on the feast day of Saint John the Baptist at Bibiclat, Nueva Ecija province, northern Philippines on Wednesday, June 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Philippine Catholics honor St. John the Baptist with a mud-covered display of faith

Jun 24
Joeal Calupitan,
Aaron Favila

Melencio Neuda, center, and other devotees who participated in the mud people festival raise their hands during a mass on the feast day of Saint John the Baptist at Bibiclat, Nueva Ecija province, northern Philippines, Wednesday, June 24, 2026. (Credit: Aaron Favila/AP.)

Photos show Philippine Catholics smearing mud on their bodies for festival honoring John the Baptist

Jun 24
Aaron Favila

Pope Leo XIV talks to journalists as he leaves his residence in Castel Gandolfo, on the outskirts of Rome, to return to the Vatican, Tuesday, June 16, 2026. (Credit: Andrew Medichini/AP.)

These traditionalist Catholics are defying Pope Leo XIV, and embracing their outsider status

Jun 24
Nicole Winfield

Vatican says “No” to German bishops’ request for lay homilies

Jun 23
Crux Now Staff

Author's Posts

A hooded penitent of the Nuestro Padre Jesus del Huerto y San Diego brotherhood participates in a Holy Week procession in Baena, southern Spain, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (Credit: Manu Fernandez/AP.)

Women take pride in Holy Week roles after a Spanish Catholic brotherhood’s procession excluded them

Apr 4
Manu Fernandez,
Giovanna Dell'Orto, Associated Press

Spanish towns embrace peculiar old festivals

Jan 26, 2020
Manu Fernandez

Spanish town paints it black over medieval feud over stolen religious image

Sep 10, 2019
Manu Fernandez

Latest

Philippine Catholics honor St. John the Baptist with a mud-covered display of faith

Vatican says “No” to German bishops’ request for lay homilies

Jun 23
Crux Now Staff

Interim report on investigation into abuse allegations against prominent postwar German cardinal expected Thursday

Jun 23
Fionn Shiner

Pope issues clarion call for defense of human life, dignity in medicine

Jun 22
Crux Now Staff

Killing of Sudanese priest symbolic of ‘moral failure’ as civil conflict continues

Jun 23
Ngala Killian Chimtom