Catholic News
- Israeli forces hit Catholic parish in Gaza; two killed (Vatican News)
Two people were killed when an Israeli tank fired on Holy Family parish church in Gaza on July 17. Four people were injured in the morning attack, including the pastor, Father Gabriel Romanelli. Holy Family Church is the only Catholic parish in Gaza. During the last months of his life, Pope Francis had made it his practice to speak with Father Romanelli every day, offering encouragement to the little Catholic community. The Latin-rite Catholic Patriarchate of Jerusalem condemned the attack as “a flagrant violation of human dignity and a blatant violation of the sanctity of life and the sanctity of religious sites.” The patriarchate noted that the parish complex is now sheltering “approximately 600 displaced persons, the majority of whom are children, and 54 people with special needs.” Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa, reporting on the shelling, said: “What we know for sure is that a tank—the IDF says by mistake, but we are not sure of this—they hit the church directly.” Pope Leo XIV issued a statement expressing his “spiritual closeness” to the parish, entrusting the souls of the deceased to God, and renewing his call for an immediate ceasefire. - Vatican official jailed for child pornography returns to work in Secretariat of State (Pillar)
A Vatican diplomat who completed a five-year prison sentence for child pornography returned to work in the Secretariat of State and is listed as an official there in the new edition of the Annuario Pontificio, the Holy See’s annual directory. Father Carlo Alberto Capella, an Italian priest who worked in the nunciature in Washington, was sentenced by a Vatican court in 2018 and released in 2023. His return to work at the Vatican after his release “was clearly presented as an act of mercy,” an official of the Secretariat of State told The Pillar. “The intention was that this man, who had not been laicized but clearly could not return to his diocese or serve in a parish, could collaborate in the office, and remain in the Vatican where he is effectively secluded, but without a formal office.” - Pope welcomes ecumenical pilgrims (Vatican News)
Pope Leo XIV met on July 17 with participants in an ecumenical Orthodox-Catholic pilgrimage to the Holy Land, led by Cardinal Joseph Tobin on Newark and Greek Orthodox Archbishop Elpidophoros. “It is my hope that your pilgrimage will confirm all of you in the hope born of our faith in the risen Lord,” the Pope told the group. He remarked that their pilgrimage was a “return to the sources” of early Christian history, with stops in Rome, Constantinople, and Nicea. - Gaza crisis has reached breaking point, Caritas warns (Caritas Jerusalem)
Caritas Jerusalem warned that “the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has reached an unprecedented level of devastation” and that “as hostilities escalate and essential supplies remain blocked, every sector of civilian life is collapsing.” “Acute hunger has gripped the entire population,” the Catholic charity stated. “Fuel shortages have crippled water production, sewage treatment, and waste removal ... Hospitals are overwhelmed and under-resourced.” Warning that “lives are hanging by a thread,” the organization called on “governments, humanitarian organizations, faith-based institutions, and people of conscience around the world” to “demand an immediate ceasefire; guarantee unhindered humanitarian access; [and] ensure the protection of civilians, especially children and displaced families.” - Support pro-family policies along with gender equality, Vatican diplomat says at UN (Holy See Mission)
Addressing a UN forum on gender equality, a Vatican diplomat said that gender equality “is rooted in the equal God-given dignity of every man and woman” and called for “conditions that enable the integral development of women and girls, including access to quality education and healthcare, and decent work and participation in every sphere of life.” “At the same time, the roles that women and men play within families and communities must be protected,” said Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, apostolic nuncio and Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations. “All too often, the international community’s development efforts treat gender equality primarily as a matter of individual autonomy, detached from relationships and responsibilities.” The prelate added: It is crucial to emphasize the relational understanding of the human person, valuing the complementarity of women and men and affirming the family as a place of relationships. Policies that support and protect families, motherhood, and maternity, need to be implemented alongside the promotion of equality between women and men. - Vatican 'foreign minister' hails new Syro-Malankara theological institute as 'beacon of hope' (CWN)
Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Holy See’s Secretary for Relations with States and International Organizations, hailed a new Syro-Malankara theological institute as a “beacon of hope.” - Chilean cardinal calls on presidential candidates to respect human dignity, eschew violence (Fides)
Cardinal Fernando Chomalí Garib of Santiago, Chile, called upon presidential candidates in the November general election to “respect the dignity of their opponents” and “never to use violence, in any form, as a political method.” The prelate also urged candidates to “be an example of civic culture, generosity, and mutual respect for young people” and to “promote ideas, not hatred.” The South American nation of 18.7 million (map) is 87% Christian (61% Catholic). - 'It is always possible to come together': papal message to charity soccer match (Vatican News)
Pope Leo XIV sent a four-minute video message to “Partita del Cuore” [Match of the Heart], a charity soccer match to raise funds to assist sick children. “It is still possible, it is always possible, to come together, even in a time of divisions, falling bombs, and war,” Pope Leo said. “It is necessary to create the opportunities to do this.” The Pope said he was “reminded of another game—the one told in a film, Joyeux Noël, and in a song by Paul McCartney—played on December 25, 1914, by some soldiers (German, French and English) in the so-called Christmas truce, near the town of Ypres, in Belgium.” - Venerable Belgian Catholic university discontinues Mass to open academic year (La Croix )
The Catholic University of Louvain has announced that the traditional Mass scheduled to mark the opening of its academic year will not be held in September 2025, as the school observes its 600th anniversary. Father Eric Mattheeuws, the head chaplain at the university, explained that few students or faculty members had been attending the opening Mass, and reported “dissatisfaction with this back-to-school Mass for some time.” The university will schedule a Liturgy of the Word service to replace the Mass. - Peruvian cardinal pushes back against critics as accused priest seeks laicization (Pillar)
Father Nilton Zárate Rengifo, a priest of the Archdiocese of Lima, sought laicization amid controversy over Cardinal Carlos Castillo’s handling of allegations against him. The priest was “accused of harassing a religious sister, solicitation in the confessional, and attempted absolution of an accomplice in a sexual sin, but had not been subject to a formal canonical process,” The Pillar reported. Cardinal Castillo pushed back against critics: he claimed he “had received the Pope’s ratification as Archbishop of Lima for five years, at least until I turn 80,” and added, “There is always a group of killjoys, the Pharisees... These days we have had a lot of gossip and lies,” Cardinal Castillo is coauthor of a recent book calling for a “post-clerical” Church. - Vatican newspaper laments plight of Myanmar's Rohingya community (CWN)
L’Osservatore Romano devoted the most prominent front-page coverage in its July 16 edition to the plight of the Rohingya community of Myanmar (map). - Recently ordained US priest sentenced to 7 years for abuse (Diocese of Nashville)
Father Juan Carlos Garcia, a priest of the Diocese of Nashville, Tennessee, was sentenced to seven years in prison after he pleaded guilty to multiple acts of sexual misconduct involving minors and adults. Father Garcia, who agreed not to contest laicization proceedings, was ordained in 2020 following his seminary education at Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans. “I can’t wait to be able to hand shake and give people hugs,” he said before his priestly ordination. “I want to embrace people and tell them, ‘I’m here for you.’” - Federal appeals court upholds West Virginia law against abortion (Religion Clause)
A federal appeals court upheld the constitutionality of West Viriginia’s Unborn Child Protection Act, which protects most of the state’s unborn children from being killed by abortion. GenBioPro, a manufacturer of the abortion drug mifepristone, filed suit against the law. - Poland asks Vatican to rebuke bishops for anti-immigrant statements (Notes from Poland)
Poland’s ambassador to the Holy See, Adam Kwiatkowski, has asked the Vatican to rebuke two bishops for making “harmful and misleading” comments about the Polish government’s attitude toward immigrants. Bishop Wieslaw Mering, the retired leader of the Wlocławek diocese, had charged that “our borders are threatened from both the west and the east,” while the government is “ruled by political gangsters.” Bishop Antoni Diugosz, a retired auxiliary of Czestochowa, said that “the Islamization of Europe has been progressing through mass immigration.” The Polish foreign ministry said that the two retired bishops were “slandering the government” and “indicating clear support for nationalist groups.” - USCCB issues 25-page report on Laudato Si' activities (USCCB)
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat of Justice and Peace has published a 25-page report, “Summary of Activities of the U.S. Church in Response to Laudato Si’.” The report, released July 11, discusses the activities of the USCCB, the Catholic Climate Covenant, Catholic Relief Services, and other Catholic organizations in response to Pope Francis’s 2015 encyclical letter on care for our common home. - Papal prayer for Taiwanese typhoon victims (Rome Reports)
The director of the Holy See Press Office announced that “the Pope is praying for all those affected” by Typhoon Danas “and has asked the Apostolic Almoner to provide concrete aid to the affected population.” At least four people were killed and over 700 injured in the typhoon, which lashed southern Taiwan. - Dig for children's remains begins at Irish home for unwed mothers (New York Times)
“Excavators broke ground on Monday [July 14] in western Ireland to search for the bodies of hundreds of babies and young children, some of them discarded in septic tanks, who died at a home for unwed mothers that was managed by Catholic nuns from 1925 to 1961,” The New York Times reported. Following the 2021 publication of an Irish government report, the Sisters of Bon Secours offered an apology: Our Sisters ran St Mary’s Mother and Baby Home in Tuam from 1925 to 1961. We did not live up to our Christianity when running the Home. We failed to respect the inherent dignity of the women and children who came to the Home. We failed to offer them the compassion that they so badly needed. We were part of the system in which they suffered hardship, loneliness and terrible hurt. We acknowledge in particular that infants and children who died at the Home were buried in a disrespectful and unacceptable way. For all that, we are deeply sorry. - European Parliament calls for protection of Syria's Christians, other religious minorities (Alliance Defending Freedom)
In a 625-7 vote, with 10 abstentions, the European Parliament has passed a resolution on the urgent need to protect religious minorities in Syria, following the recent terrorist attack on a Greek Orthodox church in Damascus. Earlier versions of the resolution garnered less support; these versions included provisions calling for an EU Syrian reconstruction fund and condemning potential American disengagement from the Middle East. With these provisions removed, the resolution garnered almost unanimous support. - Vatican 'foreign minister,' in India, lauds pioneer Syro-Malankara prelate (CWN)
The Holy See’s Secretary for Relations with States and International Organizations lauded the example of Venerable Geevarghese Ivanios (1882-1953), a former Malankara Orthodox Syrian bishop whose reception into the Catholic Church in 1930 led to the formation of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church. - 'Every human life is sacred,' Vatican diplomat says during UN forum on health care (Holy See Mission)
Addressing a UN forum on health care, a Vatican diplomat called for “special attention to be paid to the most vulnerable members of the human family, including the unborn, children, the elderly, persons with disabilities, migrants and those living in conflict-affected areas.” Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, apostolic nuncio and Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, spoke of “the fundamental truth that every human life is sacred and worthy of care from conception to natural death.” “Therefore, any approach that undermines human dignity or denies care based on perceived utility or cost must be rejected,” he continued. “Instead, there must be a commitment to health and wellbeing by protecting and serving those most at risk of being forgotten.” - More...