Author: Eric Deabill

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – A bipartisan pair of lawmakers announced July 30 they will form and co-chair a new caucus in the U.S. House aimed at the prevention of human trafficking.

Reps. Chris Smith, R-N.J. and Kweisi Mfume, D-Md., said the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Protection and Prevention Caucus — named in honor of the abolitionist and statesman — will work to advance legislation to prevent human trafficking, prosecute traffickers, and strengthen support and protection for victims, and facilitate greater cooperation to prevent the trafficking through partnerships between government, law enforcement, private and faith-based organizations.

“I am honored to announce the formation of the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Protection and Prevention Caucus alongside my Co-Chair, Rep. Mfume, who is fiercely committed to ending the modern-day slavery that is human trafficking,” Smith, a longtime Catholic lawmaker, said in a statement.

Mfume noted they made the announcement on the annual World Day Against Trafficking in Persons.

“Human trafficking is modern-day slavery and a scourge on our collective humanity,” Mfume said. “Nearly 27 million people worldwide are trapped in forms of forced labor and human bondage, and Americans in all 50 states have been victimized as well.”

“We owe it to every survivor and victim to pass comprehensive anti-trafficking legislation out of the Congress and send it to the President’s desk,” Mfume continued. “This Caucus and anti-trafficking organizations across the country represent proof of our collective intention to get that done, no matter how long it takes.”

Smith added, “Human trafficking is an ever-evolving crime, as traffickers are constantly finding new ways—both in-person and virtually—to exploit, manipulate, and abuse victims. To meet these changing and challenging demands, this Caucus will work tirelessly to advance new anti-trafficking legislation—especially and including the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Act of 2025 (H.R. 1144), which Rep. Mfume and I introduced earlier this Congress—that uplifts and empowers survivors and raises awareness of this global problem.”

Smith and Mfume urged the House to promptly take up H.R. 1144 for debate and a vote.

“The House passage of the Frederick Douglass TVPRA will bring us one step closer to finally eradicating this modern-day slavery,” they said in a joint statement. “Delay means denial for the millions of men, women, and children currently trapped in trafficking situations. We are working every single day—especially and including World Day Against Trafficking in Persons—to get this critical legislation over the finish line to protect critical funding and programs.”

The Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Protection and Prevention Caucus will also be bicameral, Smith’s office said, as Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., plans to form a complementary caucus in the Senate. Blackburn’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

If enacted, H.R. 1144 would “reauthorize and bolster anti-human trafficking programs across numerous federal agencies, including the State Department, Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, and Department of Health and Human Services; ensure robust prosecutions for human trafficking crimes, along with thorough investigations and jail time commensurate with the crime; and authorize the first-ever housing program for survivors ensuring wrap-around case management, including education, life skills training, mental health services, and employment assistance,” Smith’s office said.

Among other provisions, it would also train teachers and students in grade schools on building situational awareness and self-esteem and give guidance on how to share resources to prevent, identify and respond to human trafficking.

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – Jennie Bradley Lichter will step down as president of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, she said in a July 30 statement.

“This note is to wish you the fondest farewell, as I will be stepping down as President of the March for Life effective tomorrow, July 31,” Bradley Lichter said in a statement. “My next chapter will be a new one for me: full-time mom.”

Organizers of the March for Life – first founded in protest of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision, which was overturned in 2022 – describe it as the nation’s largest annual human rights demonstration.

The March for Life will seek new leadership while the pro-life movement faces a number of key challenges, such as preserving the Hyde Amendment, the recent approval of a new generic abortion drug, a policy permitting the distribution of that drug by mail and a rising abortion rate.

Bradley Lichter said in a statement that the role of March for Life president was the “highlight of my professional life.”

“In countless conversations, public and private, I have doggedly made the case for ending the scourge of chemical abortion and for other pro-life policy priorities,” she said. “With our twin goals of speaking to the head and speaking to the heart, the MFL team and I have continued to prioritize communicating the truth about human life and the harms of abortion—because the truth IS pro-life—and also communicating the beauty and joy of parenthood and the infinite preciousness of every single baby, no matter the circumstances.”

But, she said, “it has become very clear that my family needs more of my time and my active presence than I’m able to give while leading the March for Life. And so I must step away.”

Bradley Lichter, who became president of both the March for Life organization and its sister lobbying organization in February 2025, was previously deputy general counsel at The Catholic University of America in Washington, where she oversaw its Guadalupe Project, a campus-wide initiative to offer tangible support for pregnant and parenting students, faculty and staff.

Lichter previously served in the White House during the first Trump administration as a deputy assistant to the president and deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, where she supervised rulemaking and policy efforts at several federal agencies.

CASTEL GANDOLFO (OSV News) – As dusk settled over the Pontifical Gardens of Castel Gandolfo on July 29, Pope Leo XIV listened as Andrea Bocelli led 164 young voices in a hymn, prompting the pope to offer a reflection on how beauty can lead us to God.

“The beauty of music invites us to encounter the one who is beauty itself,” Pope Leo remarked after the international children’s choir performed with the tenor in the Vatican’s Borgo Laudato si’ gardens.

“It is significant that Sacred Scripture and the Liturgy of the Church speak of ‘choirs of angels and saints’ when describing the joy of heaven,” he added, “not because they are literally singing all the time, but because united in love they behold God together and find in him the fullness of happiness.”

The pope sat before the choir as Bocelli led children and teenagers from the Holy Land, Uganda and Italy in singing “Amazing Grace” as the final song of the evening. The Italian tenor also sang the Latin hymn “Panis Angelicus” for the pope.
The children’s choir was made up of participants in the Andrea Bocelli Foundation’s “Voices Of” program, which pairs choral singing with educational workshops for children in communities affected by poverty, conflict or limited access to schooling.

“My dear young friends, as you were singing, did you notice how music drew all of us into an experience of something new, something that was greater than any one of us alone could create? This is the experience of beauty,” Pope Leo told the choir.

When one seeks beauty, the pope added, “we discover not simply something, but Someone. We encounter God our Creator.”

The young singers, ranging in age from 8 to 19, traveled from Bethlehem and Jerusalem, the Ugandan village of Nabikabala, and the Italian cities of Naples and Camerino to take part in the performance, the culminating moment in a 10-day program in Italy sponsored by the charitable foundation. Choir members from Haiti were unable to travel because of ongoing instability in the country, organizers said.

“Continue to cultivate the gifts that God has given you, and allow them to lead you towards him,” Pope Leo told the young singers. “He is everything we are looking for in life, the one who alone can quell our restless hearts.”

“Remember that you have been made for great things, and that this world is not enough to quench your thirst for meaning and happiness,” he said.

The night of musical performances and prayer, held in the Borgo Laudato si’ gardens near the papal summer residence where Pope Leo spent much of July, was part of the jubilee year celebrations marking the 800th anniversary of the death of St. Francis of Assisi.

Sister Alessandra Smerilli, whom Pope Leo recently named the prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, read aloud St. Francis’ 1225 poem “The Canticle of the Sun” praising God’s creation, while other members of the Roman Curia read excerpts from writings of past popes and passages of Scripture between songs under the garden’s Roman pines.

In attendance at the concert were about 500 employees of the Dicasteries of the Holy See, the Governorate of Vatican City State and offices of the Roman Curia. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani also was present and briefly spoke with the pope after the concert.

At the conclusion of the performance, children from the choir presented Pope Leo XIV with gifts from their home countries. Cardinals and members of the Curia were then invited to a dinner reception in the gardens as the sun set.

Cardinal Fabio Baggio, director general of the Laudato Si’ Center for Higher Education, said the event reflected the mission of Borgo Laudato si’ as “a place where faith becomes an encounter and peace is built by caring for individuals, communities, and creation.”

“Let us entrust this ‘Canticle of Peace’ to the Lord, so that the song that rises from this place today may reach hearts, cross borders and become a seed of hope for the world,” the cardinal said.

(OSV News) – The bishops of Venezuela called on the faithful to reject the superstitious notion that the twin earthquakes that struck the country were a divine punishment.

In a pastoral letter published July 22, the Venezuelan bishops’ conference said that amid the death and destruction wrought by the natural disaster, Christians are called to instead become witnesses of hope that comes from Christ’s victory over death.

“For this reason, we must reject the manipulation of those who, guided by superstition and fundamentalism, have claimed that the earthquakes are a punishment from God, a kind of divine vengeance,” the bishops wrote.

Although humans can “aggravate or accelerate the causes of such phenomena and their consequences,” the bishops said it was important “to understand what God asks of us at a personal and community level.”

Nevertheless, the bishops added, “it is not correct to attribute them to a punishing higher will.”

Venezuela’s National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez posted an update on X July 21 announcing that the death toll rose to 5,346.

The country has experienced 1,405 aftershocks since the twin earthquakes, measuring 7.2 and 7.5 in magnitude, struck the northern Venezuelan state of La Guaira in the evening June 24, Rodriguez announced.

Catholic charitable organizations, such as Caritas Venezuela and Aid to the Church in Need, continue to mobilize relief efforts in the country.

In its July 16 report, Caritas Venezuela said it has distributed 15,963 metric tons of aid, which includes water, food, hygienic supplies and clothes, so far. Nearly 100,000 units of medical supplies and medicines have also been distributed to hospitals and medical centers in the country.

However, the report noted that as thousands continue to remain in camps, aid consumption is outpacing intake and called for financial donations to facilitate local purchasing according to shifting needs.

In their pastoral letter, the Venezuelan bishops said that the devastating earthquakes caused a number of people to ask, “Where is God in the midst of so much anguish?”

Responding to a question that “spans human history,” the bishops said that “God is precisely in and with the victims; they are the favored ones of the Lord Jesus, who is the true Good Samaritan spoken of in the Gospel.”

“He lovingly anoints all who have fallen along the way, carries them on His shoulders, and hosts them in the inn of the Church, where they can be nourished with heavenly and human delicacies to live in fullness: ‘Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest,'” they said.

The Church, the letter stated, “is called to walk” this path and Christians can see that “God is also in all the Samaritans who, like Jesus, help those most in need.”

Compassionate Samaritans

As Venezuelans continue the long road to recovery following the devastation, the bishops said Christians are called to be “compassionate Samaritans” who share in the sufferings of others and unconditionally commit “to relieve their pain and eradicate its causes.”

“We exhort everyone to share in the pain of the victims of these earthquakes and to carry always in our hearts and memories the crying of mothers and fathers who have lost their children, the tears of so many orphaned children, and the anguish of those who searched for days among the rubble for their loved ones,” they said.

The Venezuelan bishops said they were deeply moved by the solidarity shown to their country by people at home and abroad, from first responders working to rescue people trapped in the rubble and to foreign volunteers who “demonstrated to us that all human beings are brothers and sisters beyond borders and flags.”

They also expressed their gratitude to Pope Leo XIV, “who is continuously attentive to the current situation in Venezuela,” and to Caritas and other institutions “that have opened their doors since the beginning of the tragedy to anyone in need, regardless of creed or ideology.”

“The Church continues to be a source of hope and encouragement for all victims through her prayers and accompaniment in grief,” the bishops said.

As the country continues to rebuild, the Venezuelan bishops highlighted the needs of those who were suffering before the earthquakes, including political prisoners, workers barely surviving “on miserable wages or pensions,” the sick and migrants.

“In all of them we see the Lord Himself and we have the moral duty to fight for their sacred dignity,” they said.

The bishops echoed the complaints by victims “who felt neglected by public institutions” in the wake of the earthquakes.

According to a July 18 report by the Reuters news agency, civilians spearheaded the initial response while delayed orders and lack of direction caused military and government officials to arrive late and not aid victims.

Noting “the indignation of the earthquake victims,” the bishops said that while natural disasters are “unpredictable,” government officials are obligated “to be prepared to face them.”

“Moving forward, we must all ensure that the same past mistakes are not repeated in the reconstruction efforts; otherwise, the most vulnerable will once again suffer the consequences of corruption and apathy,” the bishops said.

(OSV News) – Francisco Bocel remembers the night three assassins forced him to bring them to Father Stanley Rother. Bocel shared how he still carries that traumatic moment with him – one of many being featured – in an upcoming documentary on the life of the slain priest.

“American Martyr: The Stanley Rother Story,” scheduled to be released in theaters nationwide Aug. 25-27, tells the story of Blessed Stanley Rother through those who knew him – parishioners, catechists and family members – as well as those currently involved in his cause for canonization.

Born and raised in the small town of Okarche, Oklahoma, about an hour northwest of Oklahoma City, Stanley Rother became a priest of what was then the Diocese of Oklahoma City-Tulsa in 1963. Five years later, he joined the diocese’s mission staff in Santiago Atítlan, Guatemala, where he spent the remainder of his life and ministry. By helping improve the lives of the people he served, Father Stanley — or “Padre Apla’s” as the Tz’utujil Maya called him — was considered a threat. In the early morning hours of July 28, 1981, the three gunmen killed him.

His cause was opened in 2007, and in 2016, Pope Francis officially recognized his martyrdom, clearing the way for his beatification the following year. The Archdiocese of Oklahoma City built a shrine to Blessed Rother and dedicated it in 2023.

Director Derek Watson from Lampstand Story Company filmed on location in Oklahoma and Guatemala, as well as other sites significant to Blessed Rother’s life. The company had previously produced an award-winning mini-documentary on Blessed Rother, “An Ordinary Martyr: The Life and Death of Blessed Stanley Rother,” which premiered at the beatification. While in Santiago, Watson experienced walking in the martyred priest’s footsteps not only in the church but in the homes of the parishioners he visited.

“A lot of those interviews were conducted in their homes, on their porches. This is a story that means something to them. They remember the moment July 28 when they woke up to know that their beloved priest and father and friend had been essentially executed; those are hard, dark moments, and they relived them for us,” Watson said. “But it’s also the moments of joy, too. We tend to start off with what life was like in Santiago, what it was like to be in Blessed Stan’s presence, and they speak with such joy.”

Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning actor Martin Sheen narrates the documentary. The acclaimed Catholic actor read “The Shepherd Who Didn’t Run” — the official biography of Blessed Rother by cause promoter María Ruíz Scaperlanda — and felt drawn to the story, Scaperlanda said.

“I have been very touched by his generous spirit in wanting to do something that he knew would enrich the faith of a person,” said Scaperlanda, who also serves as an executive producer for the film. “The idea that a person living in Malibu who is clearly a high-ranking actor that this is something that matters to him because he fell in love with this farmer from Oklahoma and sees him as a model that he can emulate, that’s all very moving to me.”

When Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City is asked in the documentary what it would take for Blessed Rother to be canonized, he replies simply with, “It will take a miracle.”

Expanding on that, the archbishop — who also serves as executive producer — told OSV News that he doesn’t mean that as an impossibility; rather, it’s a trust and hope for God’s glory to be manifested through miracles due to Blessed Rother’s intercession.

“I offer that as a real possibility and an encouragement to seek his intercession. We have been receiving for years reports of favors due to the intercession of Blessed Stanley Rother, and it is one of the principal reasons that I really was behind this project. I want more people to learn about his life,” Archbishop Coakley said.

“We need to get not just his name out there but his reputation for holiness and heroic virtue and sanctity before the people of God,” he said. “I think this film will be a good way to introduce more people to his life and experience the attractiveness of this holy priest and seek his intercession.”

Famously, Father Rother failed his first attempt at the seminary because he had trouble learning Latin. He got a second chance when he was accepted to Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland. Always the farm boy, even there, he’d be known for working with his hands and tending the garden.

When Father Rother was killed, Archbishop Coakley was a seminarian at Mount St. Mary’s. When students returned for classes that fall, Father Rother’s parents and sister visited the seminary and placed a memorial plaque in the garden that he cared for.

“I found his life to be very appealing, very attractive in some powerful way, so, anything that I could find about Father Rother, I would devour,” Archbishop Coakley recalled. “I remember clearly when I received the phone call telling me that I was to be the next archbishop of Oklahoma City, the one thing I knew about the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City was that’s where Blessed Stanley had been from.

“Before the announcement was made, I did a little secret pilgrimage and came to Okarche, Oklahoma, to lay my ministry here in Oklahoma before Blessed Father Stanley and ask for his intercession.”

The irony of not being able to learn Latin became apparent when Father Rother learned not only Spanish but also the Tz’utujil language — the primary language of the Indigenous people whom he served. While in Guatemala, he worked to translate the New Testament into Tz’utujil, introduced modern farming methods and started a local radio station to help catechize and unite the villages in the area served by the mission.

With a civil war raging in Guatemala, the people would be caught in the middle of the supporters of the military government and rebels with both sides committing atrocities. In the midst of this, people from Santiago Atítlan began disappearing, including parish volunteers and catechists. Father Rother wrote letters home — featured in the documentary — describing the violence and noting when priests in other parts of the country were killed.

With his name and the name of his associate, Father Pedro Bocel, on a death list, he returned briefly to Oklahoma in early 1981. In the documentary, Scaperlanda described this as his “Garden of Gethsemane moment.”

“When you hear the stories of the people that he went to see and who he spent time with, it’s clear that they described him as weighing all the sides of this but knowing in his heart and in their own hearts that he knew where he needed to be, and he was ready to do it,” Scaperlanda told OSV News.

Although Watson, the director, is not Catholic — he attends Frontline Church in downtown Oklahoma City — Blessed Rother’s story resonates beyond the Catholic world. Being from “flyover country,” the priest draws people in from all over Oklahoma — regardless of faith — as well as other parts of the world.

“It is an attractive story, not just for Catholics and not just for Protestants but I think for a world who is looking and yearning for Jesus. Here’s a man who selflessly gave up his life, and it was used by God in such an incredible way to use his gifts and his talents as a farmer, as a priest, as just a man who could fix anything, and who had a desire to be incarnational with his parishioners,” Watson said. “It’s a story that draws you in, and that’s what I’m excited about for this film.”

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – Four orders of women religious and Catholic healthcare ministries sued the state of New York July 17 over a new law allowing physicians to aid terminally ill adults in dying by suicide.

In a lawsuit filed by Becket, a religious liberty law firm, the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm, the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, the Missionary Sisters of St. Benedict and the Little Sisters of the Poor argued the law would require them to facilitate such deaths in violation of their faith.

Mother Mary Rose Heery, prioress general of the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm, said in a July 20 statement, “At our homes, we bring Christ’s unbounded love to elderly New Yorkers of every background and walk of life.”

“We strive to bring His compassion to those entrusted to our care, ensuring that no resident ever has to die alone,” she said. “This law strikes at the heart of that vocation.”

New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Supporters of physician-assisted suicide argue the practice protects the autonomy of suffering individuals in their final days, but opponents argue the practice disregards the dignity of human life and leaves those who are ill or dying vulnerable to coercion, among other concerns.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church explicitly condemns the practice of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide as “morally unacceptable” and a violation of the Fifth Commandment, “You shall not kill.”

Gov. Kathy Hochul, D-N.Y., signed the law in February, arguing she had “secured” guardrails during the legislative process that ensured the “integrity of patient decision and preparedness of medical institutions.” The state’s Catholic bishops were among those who objected to the law.

But Mark Rienzi, president of Becket and the lead attorney for the healthcare ministries, said in a July 20 statement, “New York is forcing sick and dying people to consider suicide at their lowest moment, regardless of whether they ask for it or not.”

“Worse, it’s conscripting the nuns who care for them into its suicide cult on pain of crushing fines and professional ruin,” Rienzi said. “That is both unconscionable and unconstitutional. We’re confident the federal courts will put a stop to it.”

Becket, which is representing the religious orders and Bishop John O. Barres of Rockville Centre, New York, said the religious ministries plan to seek a preliminary injunction against the law in the coming days.

In a statement, Bishop Barres added, “We will never submit to New York’s culture of death.”

“Assisted suicide is a grave moral failure that puts the elderly, the disabled, and those suffering from mental and emotional illness at risk of abuse and manipulation,” said the bishop, whose diocese is also a plaintiff. “Christ the Divine Physician calls us to accompany the sick and dying with compassion, not abandon them to death. The court should protect that millennia-old mission.”

The lawsuit is another in a series of lawsuits from Catholic nuns against recent Empire State laws. Earlier this year, the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, who operate a 42-bed palliative care program for the dying poor, challenged a law implementing requirements on gender identity accommodations for nursing home residents.

New York is one of 13 states, as well as the District of Columbia, that have legalized assisted suicide.

(OSV News) – The venue for the upcoming beatification of the Georgia Martyrs is expanding to accommodate thousands more people after a surge in interest from Catholics around the U.S. and the world.

“The martyrs stood up for the sanctity of marriage,” Bishop Stephen D. Parkes of Savannah, Georgia, told OSV News of the five Franciscan friars from Spain who died in present-day Georgia in the 16th century. “It gives us an opportunity really to … reinforce the Church’s teaching on marriage.”

The martyrs’ beatification Mass scheduled for Oct. 31 in Savannah, Georgia, is changing spaces within the Savannah Convention Center to welcome roughly 12,000 people instead of the 2,000 originally planned. The move comes as Catholics across the country and from Spain are expressing interest in attending, including some with historical connections to the martyrs. The relatives of one martyr may also travel from Spain.

The Franciscan missionaries’ beatification coincides with the Jubilee Year of St. Francis of Assisi that coincides with the 800th anniversary of his death. It will mark the sixth beatification on U.S. soil and the first in Georgia, according to Jill Parks, managing director of communications for the Diocese of Savannah.

All five Franciscan martyrs traveled from Spain to minister to the native Guale people in present-day Georgia. Venerable Pedro de Corpa, Blas Rodríguez de Cuacos, Miguel de Añon, Antonio de Badajoz and Francisco de Veráscola died for their faith in 1597. The violent murders began after Friar Pedro de Corpa forbade the heir to a Guale chiefdom and a baptized Christian, Juanillo, from following his culture’s custom and taking a second wife.

“Our Franciscans were in those first waves of Catholics coming to what’s now the U.S., which is just amazing,” Parks told OSV News. “Then on top of this, they were martyred for defending Christian marriage.”

She added: “A lot of people have been very inspired by them giving their lives essentially for that and for Christian teaching.”

As soon as the date for the beatification was announced, Parks said calls from across the country started pouring in.

“We figured it was really going to be a local Georgia event,” Parks said. “We did not expect that it would be sort of a nationwide thing.”

Meanwhile, many locals are preparing to attend, including Patrick McMahon from Savannah. He told OSV News that he plans to participate in the beatification as a Fourth Degree member of the Knights of Columbus, the world’s largest Catholic fraternal service organization. As a Fourth Degree member, he belongs to the most prestigious degree of the Knights, which is dedicated to the principle of patriotism.

The Knights’ district marshal for the Diocese of Savannah, McMahon said he looked forward to being a part of history.

Laura Daniel, a parishioner of Nativity of Our Lady Catholic Church, a pilgrimage site for the martyrs in Darien, Georgia, also plans to attend with her husband. She helps promote the Georgia Martyrs at her parish, which is located by the sites where the friars were martyred. She called the moment exciting for the local Church.

“It’s just a great opportunity to pass on the history of the Catholic Church in Georgia, coastal Georgia, and the start of the Catholic Church in the Americas,” she told OSV News.

Among those from Spain hoping to attend are Archbishop Joan Enric Vives i Sicília, bishop emeritus of Urgell, who plans to serve as a representative of Spain, Parks said. Archbishop José Rodríguez Carballo of Mérida-Badajoz, who leads the archdiocese where Friar Antonio de Badajoz was raised, also expressed interest in attending and bringing the pastor of the friar’s home parish with him.

Parks said the diocese has also received a call from Church leaders from Friar Francisco de Veráscola’s hometown. The pastor and several other people from the friar’s home parish hope to attend. Parks learned from them that the friar also still has relatives in that area.

“We’re hoping that some of them might actually come to attend the beatification, which would be amazing,” she said.

Both Bishop Parkes and Parks emphasized a desire for a venue that can accommodate and welcome everyone who wishes to attend the beatification. Bishop Parkes called the beatification “a new beginning” to continue to learn more about the history of Catholicism in Georgia, and to ask for the martyrs’ intercession for marriage and family life.

He also hoped it encourages every person to seek heaven.

“There’s a human interest in, well, how is the Church recognizing particular individuals for their holiness?” Bishop Parkes said of Catholics worldwide. “I think that it can inspire each one of us personally in our own road to holiness.”

(OSV News) – Two U.S. Catholic bishops are lamenting recent deadly immigration enforcement encounters, calling for God-given human dignity to be respected in every individual.

“As Catholics, we believe that all persons are created in the image and likeness of God and, therefore, grieve all situations where human life is brought to an unnatural end. This is a core teaching of our faith and one we can never grow weary of proclaiming as disciples of Our Lord Jesus Christ,” said Bishop Daniel E. Garcia of Austin, Texas, and Bishop Brendan J. Cahill of Victoria, Texas.

The two issued a July 20 joint pastoral reflection as chairs, respectively, of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Subcommittee for the Promotion of Racial Justice and Reconciliation and the USCCB’s Committee on Migration.

Their statement follows three separate deaths recorded days apart in July amid operations by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers as they implement the Trump administration’s hardline crackdown on immigration.

Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old Houston area man, was fatally shot en route to work in his vehicle July 7 during an ICE traffic stop. On July 14, ICE agents shot and killed 26-year-old Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a Colombian, after being stopped by ICE agents near a laundromat. Juan Jairo Coronilla Durán, a 28-year-old man from Mexico, was struck and killed by a tractor trailer July 15 in St. Augustine, Florida, while fleeing ICE and Homeland Security agents on foot.

ICE’s claims that Salgado and Durán attempted to ram officials with their respective vehicles have been disputed, with Houston law enforcement officials expressing frustration over the federal agency’s lack of collaboration in investigating forensic evidence in Salgado’s death.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed that Salgado — a Mexican national who had been in the U.S. for some 35 years, and who was in the process of obtaining legal authorization to reside and work in the country — was not the intended target of the ICE operation in which he died.

In Colorado, an employee of the GEO Group — a private firm that contracts with ICE to operate its Aurora processing center — opened fire July 16 on a protester at the site, injuring the woman’s foot.

The Trump administration briefly halted, then resumed, ICE traffic stops in the wake of the deaths.

In their statement, Bishops Garcia and Cahill quoted from the USCCB’s November 2025 special pastoral message on immigration: “We are disturbed when we see among our people a climate of fear and anxiety around questions of profiling and immigration enforcement.”

Drawing on the USCCB’s 2018 pastoral letter on racism, “Open Wide Our Hearts,” the bishops stressed that “racial profiling in particular violates God-given dignity,” adding the practice “also inflicts profound harm on individuals, families, and communities by fostering fear, eroding trust, and increasing the risk of unjust and even tragic outcomes. “

“Our pastoral concerns are distinct from what the civil law itself may permit,” said the two bishops.

They warned that “acts that diminish or disregard the dignity of any person or group of people should never be normalized in our society,” pointing to both “the dehumanization of immigrants, regardless of their legal status” and “the vilification of law enforcement officers” as examples.

Bishops Garcia and Cahill said they “continue to affirm the legitimate role of civil authorities to implement the law in a humane manner and with respect for fundamental human rights, including the rights to life and due process.”

Underscoring that “the power of the state must always be exercised within the limits of the moral law,” they called for “accountability, transparency, and justice, which require that meaningful reforms be made to our immigration system.”

The bishops said they “join in praying for the souls of those killed and for their families, for our nation, and for all those entrusted with the duties of public service.”

They also prayed “for an end to dehumanizing rhetoric, racial prejudice, and violence and for a renewed commitment to recognizing the inherent dignity of every person as a child of God,” and pleaded for “the intercession of Mary, Our Mother, who is the model of perfect faith in times of grief, hardship, and uncertainty.”

According to data analyzed by The Guardian, eight persons — including U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti — have been shot to death by federal immigration agents under the current Trump administration as of July 15, with 13 injured and another 9 other shooting incidents with no injuries.

In a report released in June, Human Rights Watch and Physicians for Human Rights counted 52 deaths in ICE custody during the first 500 days of the second Trump administration. The two organizations said ICE “fails to disclose adequate information about the circumstances surrounding deaths in its custody,” with medical neglect suspected as a key factor.

As of April, more than 60,000 are in ICE custody, the majority of whom (just under 71%) have no criminal convictions, according to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.

(OSV News) – When the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops first considered holding an annual educational campaign on natural family planning, there was some debate over the best timing for it. Ultimately, the bishops settled on July 25, the anniversary of the 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae, in which St. Paul VI articulated Catholic teaching on artificial contraception, human sexuality, marital love and parenthood.

Now, 24 years after the USCCB’s first Natural Family Planning Awareness Week in 2002, Theresa Notare, assistant director for the NFP program in the USCCB’s Secretariat of Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth, said that while the weeklong effort has developed over the years, it remains important. The 2026 National NFP Awareness Week is July 19-25.

Notare said NFP methods offer “an ethical means to live out the Gospel.”

“Sadly, the world does not know how valuable these methods are” and how they “can really strengthen a marriage,” she said.

Natural family planning encompasses several methods that use biomarkers in the woman’s fertility cycle to help couples achieve or postpone pregnancy.

“All of this is deeply rooted into how God made men and women in his image and likeness,” Notare said. “We have a capacity to love just like God. We are not ourselves unless we give of ourselves to each other. The Church’s social doctrine and moral teachings about the proper use of human sexuality is so foundational to who we are.”

She noted that modern pressures often impact couples’ decisions about how large a family to have, or whether to have children at all.

NFP methods are important because “they don’t harm human sexuality as God designed it,” Notare said. “They don’t harm fertility.”

She added that there is “emotional growth and maturity, as well as spiritual growth and maturity, when couples actually work together to live with the gifts that God gave them, to live with their fertility as a gift, rather than suppressing it or keeping the Lord out of their sexual relationship.”

She said that dioceses celebrate National NFP Awareness Week in a variety of ways, ranging from “offering one-day conferences to family picnics to a Mass of celebration with families attending.”

Notare said one major change she has noted after the COVID-19 pandemic is that many dioceses have moved celebrations online, opting for webinars and virtual prayer services.

She said that some couples use NFP as an approach to addressing infertility, and some parishes offer prayer services during National NFP Awareness Week for couples hoping to conceive a child.

The USCCB offers suggestions for parishes, dioceses and individuals to observe the week including educational billboard campaigns, homily notes for pastors to approach the topic sensitively and NFP parish mission ideas.

As the week gets underway July 19, the USCCB website will provide a daily reflection from an NFP leader or supporter.

Notare believes the USCCB’s National NFP Awareness Week poster beautifully captures the theology behind the week. It shows a bride and groom with the message that natural family planning is “designed by God, guided by love, open to life.”

“Natural family planning is designed by God because it’s rooted in the body,” she explained, “and marriage, of course, is rooted in the image and likeness of God, of how we’re made to be gifts to each other and the body has a spousal meaning. So it’s designed by God, guided by love — of course, the love of the spouses for each other, and of course, the love of God for us, who first loved us — and then open to life.”

Some parishes plan to offer educational talks during NFP week, in part to dispel misconceptions around the topic and the methods. Notare said that the most common misconception is that NFP is “guesswork” and “doesn’t work.”

“Natural family planning methods … are based on teaching a woman to identify her biomarkers of fertility,” she said.

She noted the three main NFP approaches: cervical mucus (or ovulation) methods, which tracks when cervical mucus is most conducive to conception; sympto-thermal methods, which look to basal body temperature as well as cervical mucus and other biomarkers; and sympto-hormonal methods, which adds another biomarker: the detection of reproductive hormones in the urine.

She said people do not realize that NFP is reliable, “very doable” and even easier today with apps such as FEMM that make it simpler for a woman to track her fertility cycle.

Notare called National NFP Awareness Week the “tip of the iceberg” of deep reflection and teaching from the Church on how “the goods of marriage are the conjugal union and having children.” Her prayer is that people will learn more about these teachings and embrace them.

CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy, (OSV News) – Catholics from every inhabited continent gathered in Castel Gandolfo July 19 as Pope Leo XIV led the Angelus prayer from the papal summer palace in the small Italian hill town, where the pope reflected on how the kingdom of God grows through “the little things of daily life.”

For many in the crowd that stretched from the town square in front of the palace down its main street, it was their first glimpse of the American-born pope.

“It’s our first time outside Brazil. So it’s all amazing,” Vínicius Marques Diniz, 22, who traveled from Campo Grande, Brazil, with his family, told OSV News. “I’m very happy with this new pope.”

Edwige Koissy made the trip from Ivory Coast for a special pilgrimage with her elderly mother to pray in Rome’s basilicas and holy sites.

“It’s an important pilgrimage for any Christian,” Koissy said. “Seeing Leo for the first time is truly a joy.”

–The kingdom of God grows quietly–

Pope Leo, speaking to pilgrims under the hot summer sun from in front of the summer palace, said the kingdom of God “comes like the smallest of seeds and thus calls for patience in accompanying these processes, so that we can recognize it in the little things of daily life and in the simplicity of ordinary existence.”

He said Christians sometimes long for God to act dramatically, “to intervene from on high, immediately uprooting the weeds of evil,” but that God’s kingdom instead “grows invisibly like yeast in flour.”

“In fact, he is always with us, and his love is always ready to help us,” the pope said.

–Small gestures amid a global crowd–

As Pope Leo made his way through the crowd after leading the Angelus prayer in Latin, he blessed rosaries, clasped hands and accepted a scout neckerchief from a Catholic scouting troop from Brittany, France, who had camped overnight in a nearby soccer field to be present for the prayer with the pope.

“It was absolutely amazing. I shook his hand,” Jack Lebon, 15, a high school student from The Highlands School in Irving, Texas, said.

His classmate, Brady Morgan, also 15, expressed excitement that the pope blessed his rosary. Their former teacher, Sara Mora, 25, currently participating in a missionary summer program with Regnum Christi, reflected on their encounter with the first American pope.

“He was so sweet and gentle and kind,” Mora said.

Pope Leo, quoting Cardinal Josef Ratzinger, the future Benedict XVI, told the crowd that the path of the Gospel lies in embracing “the logic of the seed — which is not that of success and greatness, but that of making ourselves small and serving others.”

“In this way, we will become like small seeds of the Gospel that sprout, and leavens of love that transform the dough of the world,” Pope Leo said.

–Missionary pope inspires future missionaries–

The pope’s words resonated with Salesian Sister Ruth del Pilar Mora, originally from Colombia, who brought to Castel Gandolfo a group of young sisters, including several from Vietnam, whom she is helping to prepare for missionary work.

“I think Pope Leo being a missionary, he will continue to encourage all of us to be disciples, missionaries ready to go. And I like one of his messages: We cannot go out without going in — (that) means to cultivate a strong relationship with Christ in order to go out to the whole world, to witness and to communicate the joy of the Gospel,” Sister Ruth said.

She added that Castel Gandolfo felt like a fitting place to encounter the pope during his period of rest. “We need to rest and to renew our energies in prayer, in reading a nice book, in contemplating the beauty of nature,” she told OSV News.

–A pilgrimage before the World Cup final–

People in the crowd enthusiastically cheered and waved flags from their countries. At one moment, Catholic pilgrims from Spain and Argentina alternated cheering their countries’ names louder and louder. The two countries were scheduled to face each other in the final of the FIFA World Cup in the evening.

Two Argentine priests, Father Juan Giordano and Father Marcos Barrionuevo, made the pilgrimage to kick off a packed Sunday, praying with the pope in the morning and going to watch the World Cup final in Rome’s Campo de’ Fiori piazza in the evening.

Regardless of the outcome of the game, the two priests have something to celebrate. “We are happy, celebrating 25 years of priesthood — we came for this, to go on a pilgrimage,” Father Giordano said.

The priests said they are hopeful for a possible papal visit to Argentina in the fall, though the Vatican has not formally confirmed a papal trip. “We are all waiting for Pope Leo because we were waiting for Pope Francis in Argentina,” Father Giordano added.

–A weekend of music, beauty, and rest–

Castel Gandolfo, perched above the deep blue volcanic Lake Albano in the Alban Hills about 16 miles southeast of Rome, has served as a papal summer retreat for centuries.

The night before the Angelus, Pope Leo attended a concert held in the courtyard of the Apostolic Palace at Castel Gandolfo, organized by the Diocese of Albano as a gesture of affection during his summer stay.

Addressing the audience afterward, he said the concert was a reminder that “we can together offer beauty, which, coming from the heart, helps lift us up toward God.”

“Let us lift our eyes, our gaze, toward Heaven,” he said. “Music, art, and beauty are truly tools that help us look toward God, through a movement that is truly one of the finest aspects of the human condition.”

Pope Leo is scheduled to remain in Castel Gandolfo for his annual period of rest until July 27 and will lead another Angelus from the town on July 26, the Sunday before his return to Vatican City.