Category: 2025 News

(OSV News) – St. John Henry Newman — the 19th-century theologian, intellectual and preacher who journeyed from Anglicanism to Catholicism, powerfully shaping religious thought in both faith traditions — will be named a doctor of the church by Pope Leo XIV.

The news was announced by the Vatican shortly after Pope Leo’s July 31 audience with Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.

The Vatican press bulletin stated that the pope had “confirmed the affirmative opinion of the plenary session of cardinals and bishops, members of the dicastery” for sainthood causes, on conferring the title, which since the early church has been bestowed on saints whose doctrinal writing and teachings are held to have special authority. St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, St. Gregory the Great and St. Jerome were the first four doctors of the church, and excluding today’s announcement, there have been 37 saints so named — including four women, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Thérèse of Lisieux and St. Hildegard of Bingen.

The move had been supported by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, who at their November 2023 plenary assembly voted almost unanimously to support a request by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales that Newman be named a doctor of the church by Pope Francis.

Speaking at the 2023 plenary, Bishop Daniel E. Flores of Brownsville, Texas, said the USCCB doctrine committee, of which he is chair, “considered this matter back in 2019 and concluded that the writings of St. John Henry Newman are truly eminent and of great relevance for the church today, especially in the areas of the development of doctrine, the moral foundations of education, the primacy of conscience, the role of the laity and the search for the truth, amongst many others.

“The committee therefore determined that St. John Henry Newman is indeed worthy of this high honor,” said Bishop Flores at the time, who was joined in his remarks by several bishops.

According to an online biography by the Oratories of England, prepared for his canonization cause, John Henry Newman — born 1801 in London and raised in a middle-class Anglican family — displayed an early interest in Scripture.

In his “Apologia Pro Su Vita” (“A Defense of His Life”), his 1864 autobiography, Cardinal Newman recounted “a great change of thought” he experienced at the age of 15, one that enabled him to “rest in the thought of two and two only absolute and luminously self-evident beings, myself and my creator.”

With the revival sparked by John Wesley, Newman converted to evangelicalism during his final year at Great Ealing School. At 16, he went on to study at Oxford, which along with Cambridge University offered seminary formation for Anglican clergy — a vocation Newman sought out, even looking to take what for that clerical tradition was the unusual vow of celibacy. He was ordained in 1825, and dedicated himself to making pastoral visits to the sick and the poor while also tutoring college students, said the Oratories biography.

However, Newman’s zealous sharing of his faith with the students led to a clash with the administration, and deprived of the opportunity to teach, he began reading the works of the Fathers of the Church, which he described in part as “music to my inward ear” and “response to ideas … I had cherished so long.”

Newman’s preaching began to attract national attention, and a near-fatal bout of illness in 1833, contracted while in Sicily — which saw him feverishly repeat, “I have a work to do in England” — intensified his desire for the renewal of the church. Upon returning to his homeland, Newman teamed up with like-minded others who feared the Church of England had become complacent and politicized, said the Oratories. The group formed what would become known as the Oxford Movement, publishing tracts to rouse faithful from their torpor and reclaim the Gospel.

The future saint fell afoul of the university and Oxford’s bishop by arguing that the Church of England’s doctrines were more Catholic than Protestant. Newman left Oxford, and took up residence in the nearby village of Littlemore, where he pursued study and prayer. Resigning from his parish, he began to discern — albeit not without struggle, as the Oratories observed — a calling to embrace the Catholic faith.

In the canonization cause biography, the Oratories pointed out that Newman’s battle with sacred tradition on matters such as purgatory and papal supremacy spurred further historical study, leading to his 1845 “Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine,” in which he described ideas and doctrines as organic, with “old principles” reappearing “under new forms.” Newman observed in the work that “in a higher world it is otherwise, but here below to live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.”

That same year, he was formally received into the Catholic Church — making his confession right in his home to a Passionist missionary priest, Father Dominic Barberi, and speaking at such length that the priest had him resume the following morning.

Newman’s conversion led to the loss not only of his Oxford fellowship, but of most of his Anglican friends and his family. Yet, said the Oratories, he also wrote of a great peace amid the isolation — describing the conversion as “like coming into port after a rough sea.”

In 1847, Newman — having completed additional study — was ordained a Catholic priest in Rome, where he became acquainted with the Oratorians of St. Philip Neri, whose communal way of life recalled the college fellowship of his university days. A year later, with papal approval, he established the first Oratory of St. Philip in England at Birmingham, with a second founded in London the following year.

Expanding his ministry to Ireland, Father Newman became the rector of the newly established Catholic University of Ireland, now University College Dublin, under the leadership of Ireland’s Catholic bishops. Through his religious, spiritual and intellectual thought, Newman synthesized the pursuit of knowledge and of God, writing that “knowledge is one thing, virtue is another.”

The demands of his role in Dublin — which saw him make 56 sea crossings from Britain to Ireland in just seven years — proved exhausting, said the Oratories, and in 1858 he returned to the Birmingham Oratory.

The succeeding two decades were marked by struggles with both Catholics and Anglicans — with some of the former distrustful of his conversion, and the latter claiming he had never been an honest Anglican in the first place. In response, Father Newman penned his massive 1864 Apologia to “show what I am … I wish to be known as a living man, and not as a scarecrow.”

The candor of his writing helped to assuage both Anglican and Catholic fears, and Father Newman was even invited to serve as an expert theological adviser at the First Vatican Council in 1868 — although, the Oratories noted, he declined in order to complete “The Grammar of Assent,” which considers the process by which an individual espouses convictions.

In 1874, he countered Prime Minister William Gladstone’s assertion that Catholics could not be loyal subjects due to their papal allegiance, with Newman writing in an open letter that his coreligionists did not deserve “this injurious reproach that we are captives and slaves of the Pope,” quoted the Oratories.

Three years later, Father Newman returned to Oxford and received the first honorary fellowship of Trinity College. In 1879, Pope Leo XIII named him a cardinal, extolling his fidelity to the faith, and granted his request to remain in Birmingham and forego consecration as a bishop. The elevation was lauded by Catholics and Anglicans alike, said the Oratories.

In Birmingham, Cardinal Newman continued to write, pondering in one of his final works — quoted by the Oratories in the online canonization biography — that God “has provided for the creation of the Saint out of the sinner … He enters into the heart of man, and persuades it, and prevails with it, while He changes it.”

Cardinal Newman died at age 89 in 1890 and was canonized in 2019 by Pope Francis.

(OSV News) – “He is the one Englishman of that era who upheld the ancient creed with a knowledge that only theologians possess, a Shakespearean force of style, and a fervor worthy of the saints.”

This description of Cardinal John Henry Newman (1801-1890), from the 1913 edition of The Catholic Encyclopedia, captures well three of the many impressive qualities of the man: his theological knowledge, his masterful literary abilities and his holiness.

On July 31, the Holy See announced that Pope Leo XIV would soon proclaim the saint a doctor of the church, acknowledging his significant contribution to Catholic theology.

Given Cardinal Newman’s reputation during his lifetime, both for his prodigious intellect and for his personal sanctity, support for his canonization not surprisingly began at his death. An article in America magazine in 1941, along with Pope Pius XII’s support of the 1945 “Centenary of Newman’s Conversion,” played essential roles in moving the process along.

In an address to the Cardinal Newman Academic Symposium in 1975, St. Paul VI acknowledged the powerful and ongoing witness of Cardinal Newman: “He who was convinced of being faithful throughout his life, with all his heart devoted to the light of truth, today becomes an ever brighter beacon for all who are seeking an informed orientation and sure guidance amid the uncertainties of the modern world — a world which he himself prophetically foresaw.”

In fact, the Pope had hoped that he might celebrate the Holy Year of 1975 with the beatification of the English cardinal. But more research was needed before that event could take place.

Finally, in January 1991, Pope John Paul II declared Cardinal Newman to be “venerable.” He was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI in London in 2010, and he was canonized by Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square on Oct. 13, 2019.

In October 2008, Cardinal Newman’s bones were exhumed and nothing was found save a few red tassels from his cardinal’s hat. Damp conditions had led to the decomposition of the body, thus frustrating the intended move of his remains from a cemetery in Rednal, Worcestershire, to a sarcophagus at Birmingham Oratory.

Cardinal Newman had founded the oratory in the 1840s after he left the Anglican denomination to enter the Catholic Church.

It was Cardinal Newman’s dramatic conversion that captured, and still captures, the attention and imagination of so many.

Born into a family of bankers, the eldest of six children, the shy and studious Newman had a fondness for reading the Bible and the novels of Sir Walter Scott. The religion of his youth was Anglican and evangelical in nature; he described it in his biographical “Apologia Pro Vita Sua” (1864) as “Bible religion.” (It was also quite anti-Catholic.)

The future cardinal once wrote that he “had no formed religious convictions” until he was 15. “Of course,” he added, “I had a perfect knowledge of my catechism.”

The teenager experienced a profound crisis of faith in 1816, but emerged from it with a newfound fervor, evidenced by his frequent reception of communion in the Anglican Church and taking a private vow of celibacy. At 21 he was a professor at Oriel College, Oxford, and was ordained in June 1824 as a priest in the Anglican Communion.

Newman was a curate of St. Clement’s, Oxford, for two years, and then served as vicar of St. Mary the Virgin, the university church, where he overcame his shyness. Several years of impressive scholarly work followed, including his first major publication, “The Arians of the Fourth Century” (1833).

Much of that work had to do with early church history and the Church Fathers. Such study would eventually lead him to communion with Rome.

During the 1830s, Newman became a leader in the Oxford Movement, which consisted of several Oxford theologians who addressed key issues relating to the authority, nature and history of the Anglican Communion. They also sought to reinvigorate what they considered to be a spiritually lethargic institution.

Because of the many theological tracts published by Newman and others, the movement became known as Tractarianism. In Tract 90, published in 1841, Newman argued that the Thirty-Nine Articles — the defining creedal statements of Anglicanism established in 1563 — were essentially Catholic teachings.

This led to controversy and to Newman’s forced resignation from Oxford.

“From the end of 1841,” he wrote in the “Apologia,” “I was on my deathbed, as regards my membership with the Anglican Church.”

Newman retired to the village of Littlemore with a small group of followers and lived a semi-monastic life as he worked on his now-famous “Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine.” It was during his years there that he worked through his various concerns and questions about Catholic doctrine.

He preached his last sermon at St. Mary’s in September 1843, and shortly thereafter he published a retraction of his previous attacks on the Catholic Church.

On Oct. 8, 1845, with his “Essay” still not completed (he never did finish it), Newman wrote: “I am this night expecting Father Dominic, the Passionist. … I mean to ask of him admission into the One Fold of Christ.”

Blessed Dominic Barberi, an Italian, received Newman into the Catholic Church the next day.

The following October, the new convert traveled to Rome, where he was ordained a Catholic priest and given a doctorate in divinity by Pope Pius IX himself. Father Newman joined the Congregation of the Oratory and, having been given a papal brief, set up an oratory in Birmingham, England.

The years of Cardinal Newman’s life were nearly equally divided between those when he was non-Catholic and those when he was Catholic, and the second half of his life, like the first, did not lack for controversy.

“Apologia Pro Vita Sua” was published in response to personal attacks against him by novelist Charles Kingsley. In it, he defended the civic loyalty of English Catholics against the accusations of William Gladstone.

At the same time, many Catholics remained wary of the new priest, not only because he was a convert, but also because some considered him to be a liberal. This accusation stemmed in part from his concerns about the First Vatican Council’s formal definition of the dogma of papal infallibility. In his “Letter to the Duke of Norfolk” (1875), however, he affirmed that he had always believed in the doctrine.

Whatever may have been the qualms of some Catholics about his thinking, in 1879 the convert priest was named a cardinal by Pope Leo XIII.

Cardinal Newman has sometimes been called the “Father of Vatican II” because of the influence of his writings on several key areas of theology and practice. Pope Paul VI, in his 1975 address, highlighted this influence:

“Many of the problems which (Newman) treated with wisdom — although he himself was frequently misunderstood and misinterpreted in his own time — were the subjects of the discussion and study of the fathers of the Second Vatican Council, as for example the question of ecumenism, the relationship between Christianity and the world, the emphasis on the role of the laity in the church and the relationship of the church to non-Christian religions.”

In a 1990 address given on the first centenary of Cardinal Newman’s death, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger wrote:

“The characteristic of the great doctor of the church, it seems to me, is that he teaches not only through his thought and speech but also by his life, because within him, thought and life is interpenetrated and defined. If this is so, then Newman belongs to the great teachers of the church, because he both touches our hearts and enlightens our thinking.”

Shortly before his death, Cardinal Newman asked Bishop William Bernard Ullathorne of Birmingham to bless him. Bishop Ullathorne, deeply moved by the request, later wrote: “I felt annihilated in his presence. There is a saint in that man.”

WILKES-BARRE – All families are invited to join Catholic School Services and its Parents as Teachers program for an afternoon of indoor fun and education on Aug. 2, 2025.

The free event, with a back-to-school focus, will be held from noon to 4:00 p.m. at the King’s College Scandlon Gymnasium, 150 N. Main Street, Wilkes-Barre, 18711. (Free parking is available at 133 S. Franklin Street, Wilkes-Barre, 18711)

There will be face painting, free haircuts and eye exams, along with performances and demonstrations by community groups. Several dozen local organizations have committed to participating in the event.

The first one hundred children will get free water bottles and dental hygiene kits. There will also be an interactive scavenger hunt to be turned in for prizes, and interactive demonstrations by Kerri Berri kids yoga.

The Parents as Teachers program of Catholic Social Services will also be highlighting its program. The program is open for participation from conception until a child reaches kindergarten. A child must be enrolled at least one year prior to kindergarten. There are no income qualifications to participate but families must live within Luzerne County to participate in the Catholic Social Services program.

For more information on the event, or to register your community group to participate, please contact Montie Ford at MFord@cssdioceseofscranton.org.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The enthusiastic joy of young people, who love Jesus and want all wars to stop, will be heard to the ends of the earth, Pope Leo XIV said, welcoming tens of thousands of cheering young men and women to Rome for their Jubilee.

“Buona sera, buenas tardes, good evening!” he said after finishing a long ride in the popemobile, waving to more than 120,000 ecstatic visitors filling St. Peter’s Square and the long, wide boulevard that runs between the square and Castel Sant’Angelo by the Tiber River.

The pope appeared at the end of a Mass presided over by Archbishop Rino Fisichella in St. Peter’s Square July 29 as part of a series of welcome celebrations for the weeklong Jubilee of Youth.

A rainbow of colors covered the streets and squares as different pilgrim groups wore coordinated colored T-shirts or hats, and scores of national flags billowed in the gusting evening wind.

“Jesus tells us you are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world,” Pope Leo said in English.

“And today, your voices, your enthusiasm, your cheers, which are all for Jesus Christ, will be heard until the ends of the earth,” he said in Spanish to huge cheers.

“Today marks the beginning of a journey, the Jubilee of Hope, and the world needs messages of hope. You are this message, and you must continue to give hope to everyone,” he said.

“Let us walk together with our faith in Jesus Christ,” he said in Italian. “And our shouts must also be for peace in the world.”

“Let’s all say it: We want peace in the world!” he shouted, as the crowd responded, “We want peace in the world.”

“Let us pray for peace” and be witnesses to “the peace of Jesus Christ, the light of the world that we are all seeking,” he said, as the evening twilight turned to night and the waxing crescent moon appeared brightly.

It was Pope Leo’s second “surprise” appearance July 29, after arriving to greet the faithful at the end of a morning Mass presided over by Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, marking the conclusion of the Jubilee of Digital Missionaries and Catholic Influencers July 28-29.

The pope was scheduled to lead his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square July 30, and then lead an evening prayer vigil Aug. 2 and morning Mass Aug. 3 in Rome’s Tor Vergata neighborhood, where close to 1 million young people were expected.

Cardinal Tagle and Archbishop Fisichella lead the two sections making up the Dicastery for Evangelization as pro-prefects. The archbishop’s section has been in charge of organizing the Holy Year.

Before celebrating the evening Mass in the square July 29, Archbishop Fisichella welcomed the young people on behalf of the pope, especially those who came from war-torn regions.

“May the fraternal embrace that unites us as one body reach those from Ukraine and Palestine and other countries,” he said. Two young men from Palestine wore the traditional keffiyeh, a wide scarf, over their shoulders during the Mass as they brought up the offertory gifts.

“Make sure to show them a sign of your friendship,” the archbishop said in his greeting before Mass.

To those who had to make many sacrifices to come to Rome, he said, “The Lord will not disappoint you. He comes to meet you — remain vigilant so that you may recognize his presence in your life.”

“Live these days with joy and spirituality, discovering new friendships,” and enjoying the city of Rome, he said.

“We are here to hand on the faith and to understand the great value that Jesus Christ brings into our lives. Let us respond with enthusiasm in these days: Rome, with all that it represents, is in your hands,” Archbishop Fisichella said.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – In an ever-evolving era of technological advancement, including the adoption of artificial intelligence, Catholics in the digital space must focus on being authentic witnesses rather than providing endless streams of content, Pope Leo XIV said.

Arriving after the conclusion of the July 29 Jubilee Mass with digital missionaries and Catholic influencers in St. Peter’s Basilica, the pope said Catholics have “a duty to work together to develop a way of thinking and a language of our time, that gives voice to love.”

“It is not simply a matter of generating content, but of creating an encounter between hearts,” he said. “This will entail seeking out those who suffer and need to know the Lord, so that they may heal their wounds, get back on their feet and find meaning in their lives.”

Hundreds of young Catholic influencers and digital missionaries participated in the Mass at the altar of the Chair of St. Peter, which was presided over by Filipino Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization.

After the final blessing, the pilgrims were surprised by Pope Leo’s arrival, with many excitedly waving and applauding. The pope approached the pews to greet them before making his way to a chair set up for him in front of the altar.

Addressing the influencers in Italian, English and Spanish, the pope echoed the same greeting of peace he made in his first address as pontiff following his election.

“Peace be with you! How much we need peace in these times marked by hostility and war, which in turn calls us to give witness to the greeting of the Risen Lord: ‘Peace be with you,'” he said.

The church’s mission of proclaiming peace to the world, he continued, is entrusted to young people celebrating the Jubilee, especially those who “nourish Christian hope in social networks and online spaces.”

“Peace needs to be sought, proclaimed, and shared everywhere, both in the places where we see the tragedy of war and in the empty hearts of those who have lost the meaning of life and the desire for introspection and the spiritual life,” the pope said.

Another challenge to their mission is the need to look for “the suffering flesh of Christ,” especially in those they meet online absorbed in “a new culture” that is “deeply characterized and formed by technology.”

Urging digital missionaries and influencers “to ensure that this culture remains human,” Pope Leo warned that science and technology influence not just how one lives, but even affects “how we understand ourselves and how we relate to God and others.”

“Nothing that comes from man and his creativity should be used to undermine the dignity of others,” the pope said. “Our mission — your mission — is to nurture a culture of Christian humanism, and to do so together. This is the beauty of the ‘network’ for us.”

Lastly, Pope Leo said that Jesus’ invitation to his disciples to mend their fishing nets extends to Catholics in the digital space. Catholic influencers and digital missionaries are called to “weave other nets” of love, sharing and truth that can “mend what has been broken, heal from loneliness, not focus on the number of followers, but experience the greatness of infinite love in every encounter.”

“Be agents of communion, capable of breaking down the logic of division and polarization, of individualism and egocentrism,” the pope said. “Center yourselves on Christ, so as to overcome the logic of the world, of fake news, of frivolity, with the beauty and light of truth.”

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – A federal judge on July 28 ruled Planned Parenthood clinics nationwide must continue to be reimbursed for Medicaid funding, indefinitely blocking a provision in President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda that would strip those funds for one year.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which enacted key items of Trump’s legislative agenda on issues including taxes and immigration, included a provision eliminating funds to health providers who also perform abortions — but just for one year. Although it was not named in the provision, Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, sued in response, arguing the parameters for ending these funds effectively singled it out.

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston previously temporarily granted Planned Parenthood’s request for a preliminary injunction while its lawsuit against the Trump administration proceeds. But in a new order July 28, Talwani extended the injunction.

The previous order applied to only some Planned Parenthood affiliates, but the new order would apply to Planned Parenthood clinics nationwide.

Talwani wrote in the order, “Patients are likely to suffer adverse health consequences where care is disrupted or unavailable.”

“In particular, restricting Members’ ability to provide healthcare services threatens an increase in unintended pregnancies and attendant complications because of reduced access to effective contraceptives, and an increase in undiagnosed and untreated STIs,” Talwani wrote.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of SBA Pro-Life America, argued in a statement, “An activist judge just issued a ruling full of falsehoods about abortion giant Planned Parenthood in a desperate effort to keep forcing taxpayers to prop up Big Abortion.”

Conversely, Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a statement, “As this case continues, patients across the country can still go to their trusted Planned Parenthood provider for care using Medicaid.”

“We will keep fighting this cruel law so that everyone can get birth control, STI testing and treatment, cancer screenings, and other critical health care, no matter their insurance,” Johnson said.

But Dannenfelser argued, “Every day this order stands, Planned Parenthood continues to rake in millions of our tax dollars, fueling thousands of unborn lives ended daily and putting women at unacceptable risk of serious harm and even death.”

“Women have better and more comprehensive alternatives with community health centers outnumbering Planned Parenthood facilities 15 to 1,” she said. “We look forward to the Trump administration swiftly stopping this lawfare and restoring the historic victory secured through the One Big Beautiful Bill.”

Federal law generally prohibits the use of Medicaid funds for abortion. Supporters of allowing Planned Parenthood to receive Medicaid funds argue the group provides cancer screening and prevention services — such as pap tests and HPV vaccinations. But opponents argue the funds are fungible and could be used to facilitate abortion, and therefore the organization should be denied taxpayer funds.

The Catholic Church teaches that all human life is sacred from conception to natural death, and as such, opposes direct abortion.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Let the Jubilee of Youth be more than an event for making memories and sharing pictures; be sure to encounter Christ and share the Good News, Pope Leo XIV told a group of young people.

“I would like everything you experience during these days to be cherished in your hearts forever, but don’t keep it just for yourselves,” he told the group from Peru during an audience at the Vatican July 28, the start of the weeklong Jubilee and the day Peru commemorates its independence from Spanish colonial rule.

He welcomed them to Rome, where they came as “pilgrims of hope,” and he recognized the sacrifice and hard work of their families and communities that had made the journey possible.

“We must learn to share,” he said. “Please, don’t let all of this remain just a memory, just some nice photos, just something from the past.”

He asked that when they return home after the jubilee celebrations, they share “the joy and strength of the Gospel, with the Good News of Jesus Christ.”

Each person by himself or herself is small, “but we are not alone; the Lord has wanted us to be part of a large family, the family of the church,” he said, so that, like clusters of grapes on the vine, “we can grow and bear fruit, aided by the Lord’s grace.”

During this joyful and important event for young people from around the world, he said, “all of you will have the beautiful experience of feeling part of the people of God, part of the universal church, which encompasses and embraces the whole earth, without distinction of race, language or nation.”

“Love and serve freely, in everyday life, in small things, in hidden ways, because you have experienced the joy of being loved first, and because you have received everything freely from God our Father,” the pope said.

(OSV News) – At least 43 people, including children, were killed July 27 in a brutal overnight attack on a Catholic church in Komanda in eastern Congo.

Militants from the Allied Democratic Forces — an Islamist group linked to the Islamic State group — targeted faithful gathered for a youth retreat, opening fire and using machetes before looting homes and attacking displaced persons sheltering nearby.

The United Nations’ mission in the country called the attack a “heinous” act of violence in a July 27 statement. Victims were buried in a mass grave July 28 following a funeral Mass at the Komanda church with Father Aime Lokana Dhegoin presiding.

Pope Leo expressed “deep sorrow” over the attack in a July 28 telegram, signed by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican’s secretary of state, and sent to Archbishop Fulgence Muteba Mugalu of Lubumbashi, who is president of Congo’s bishops’ conference.

The pope joined “the mourning of the families and the Christian community,” expressing his closeness and assurance of prayers.

“This tragedy invites us to work even harder for the integral human development of the wounded population of this region,” the pope said.

“His Holiness implores God that the blood of these martyrs may be a seed of peace, reconciliation, brotherhood and love for all the Congolese people.”

According to reports, the Allied Democratic Forces, or ADF, descended on Komanda, a township about 46 miles southwest of the city of Bunia, the capital of the province, in the early morning hours of July 27. Targeted were Catholics gathering for a retreat in the Caritas hall of the Blessed Marie-Clémentine Anuarite Nengapeta Catholic Church in the township.

The militants had ambushed the night prayer vigil, catching by surprise the youth who were preparing for the Sunday service. The armed men gunned down some of the worshippers, butchered others with machetes and abducted others.

Father Marcelo Oliveira, a Comboni missionary who has been in the Congo for many years, told the pontifical charity Aid to the Church in Need that the victims were part of a movement called Eucharistic Crusade and were participating in a prayer vigil as part of a summer holiday formation session.

“The attack occurred at around 1 o’clock in the morning. The rebels entered the church and murdered a large number of children, both inside the church building and in the compound,” he said in a message sent to the Portuguese office of ACN.

Nearby homes, shops and banks were looted by the militia, who also attacked displaced people camping in the town’s hospital.

“The people — both the youth and adults — had gathered to celebrate the jubilee of the parish church, when the attack occurred. Those who came from other regions left, but the local worshippers converged in the church hall to wait for the Sunday service,” Father Justin Zanamuzi, vicar general of the Diocese of Bunia, told OSV News in a telephone interview.

“As the church, we condemn this attack in the greatest terms possible. We feel the pain of this attack.”

ADF, an organization blamed for the attack, is a murderous militia group that was launched in Uganda in 1995, and currently operates in the mountainous region between Uganda and Congo. The group has been recruiting child soldiers, maiming, killing, and raping women and children. In 2019, the militant group pledged allegiance to the Islamic State and increased its attacks.

There is an ongoing joint military offensive against the group, but Father Zanamuzi explained that the militia had recently stepped up its violence and was still carrying out killings in villages and towns in the region.

The attack in Komanda, a commercial hub connecting Tshopo, North Kivu and Maniema provinces, is the latest one. The town is an easy target of the Congolese militias due to its geographical location and economic significance.

On July 26, the priest said, the militant group had earlier begun to attack villages before targeting the church gathering at night.

“I think they are everywhere now. We cannot also rule out religious motivation. They are Muslim extremists and are known to attack Christians,” he said.

The Orthodox Public Affairs Committee, a New York-based global advocacy wing of Orthodox Christians worldwide, condemned the attack in Ituri, saying the members of the militant group had killed innocent worshippers during an overnight prayer vigil.

“The attackers … used guns and machetes, setting the church ablaze and slaughtering those in the pews. This was not a battle. This was a massacre of faithful in the house of God,” said the committee in a statement dated July 27.

The United Nations’ mission in Congo, MONUSCO, detailed the 43 killed in the church, saying they included 19 women, 15 men and nine children.

“These targeted attacks against defenseless civilians, particularly in places of worship, are not only appalling but also in violation of all human rights standards and international law,” said Vivian van de Perre, deputy special representative of the secretary general in Congo in a July 27 statement.

Days before the attack in Komanda, another militia known as CODECO, the Cooperative for the Development of the Congo, had desecrated the St. John of Capistrano in Lopa, in Ituri, on July 21.

The attack on the church came a day after the Congolese army and CODECO announced an alliance to fight a new militia known as the CRP, or the Convention for Popular Revolution.

In the attack, the tabernacle was violated, consecrated Hosts spilled, the Marian shrine vandalized, and sacred and liturgical objects destroyed.

“This serious and deliberate desecration of the Catholic church in Lopa is part of a series of violent attacks announced and claimed by the CODECO spokesperson in the trading centers of Lopa and Nizi,” said Bishop Dieudonné Uringi Uuci of Bunia in a July 26 statement, which also expressed great sorrow and dismay at the attack. “It can be recalled that since 2017, this militia has been responsible for numerous gruesome atrocities against Church facilities, members of the clergy, and pastoral workers.”

These latest attacks are part of the deadly cycle of conflict that has unfolded for decades in the provinces of Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu of eastern Congo, a mineral-rich region the size of Western Europe. Fueling the conflict is an intricate mix of regional politics, ethnic and national rivalries, and a fight for control of the mineral resources, according to analysts.

In the July 28 statement, ACN said: “ACN urges all parties to strive to protect civilians and places of worship in the Democratic Republic of Congo and calls on its friends and benefactors to pray for the victims of this horrific attack, and for peace to finally arrive in this African country.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The time for negotiations to start is now, and anything jeopardizing peace must be rejected, Pope Leo XIV said.

“Every human person possesses an inherent dignity, bestowed by God himself,” he said after reciting the Angelus with visitors in St. Peter’s Square July 27. “I urge all parties involved in conflicts to recognize this dignity and to end every action that violates it.”

He called for “negotiations aimed at securing a future of peace for all peoples, and for the rejection of anything that might jeopardize it,” praying to Mary, the “Queen of Peace,” to protect “the innocent victims of conflicts and those leaders who have the power to resolve them.”

Pope Leo expressed his closeness to “all those who are suffering due to conflict and violence throughout the world,” particularly those in southern Syria and Gaza.

“I am following with great concern the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, where the civilian population is suffering from severe hunger and remains exposed to violence and death,” he said. “I renew my heartfelt appeal for a ceasefire, the release of hostages, and the full respect of humanitarian law.”

He also expressed his prayers for “those affected by the clashes along the border between Thailand and Cambodia, especially displaced children and families. May the Prince of Peace inspire everyone to seek dialogue and reconciliation.”

Fighting broke out between the two Southeast Asian neighbors along a disputed border July 24, leading to the death of at least 32 people, including civilians. More than 200,000 people in both countries were evacuated or fled from their homes in the border areas, according to news reports.

(OSV News) – “You are not alone,” said Archbishop Nelson J. Pérez of Philadelphia — the son of Cuban exiles — addressing migrants in a July 23 pastoral letter on immigration.

The archbishop assured migrants that “the Church is a community of faith, and the divine person of Christ, who was forced to flee his homeland as a child, holds you in his compassionate arms.”

Archbishop Pérez’s letter – posted in both English and Spanish to CatholicPhilly.com, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s media outlet – adds to a growing chorus from U.S. Catholic prelates who have expressed grave concerns over the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration to the U.S.

The archbishop’s reflection follows a Jan. 30 statement in which he called for “serious and carefully thought out immigration policy reforms … that will blend dignity, mercy, and justice.”

Following through on a campaign pledge, President Donald Trump has sought to purge the nation of what Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has called “criminal” and “illegal aliens.”

Among the administration’s efforts are terminating protected status for migrants from several conflict-wrought nations; fully or partly banning travel to the U.S. from several nations; ordering Immigration and Customs Enforcement to meet daily arrest quotas of 3,000; halting visa interviews for foreign students; attempting to end birthright citizenship; and deporting individuals without permanent legal status in the U.S. to third countries in defiance of court orders.

While the administration claims to target criminal actors in its sweeps, several high-profile arrests and deportations have impacted individuals with no demonstrated criminal record. Some 71.5% (40,643) of the 56,813 held in ICE detention as of July 13 have no criminal conviction, other than entering the U.S. without permission, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. The TRAC team also noted that “many of those convicted committed only minor offenses, including traffic violations.

Among those who have so far spoken out against the Trump administration’s iron-fisted approach are Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. military archdiocese, who is president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops; Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles, who called for prayer and for restraint amid violent clashes in that city over immigration arrests; Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami, whose archdiocese is home to large expatriate Haitian and Cuban communities and who recently led prayer outside the controversial Alligator Alcatraz migrant detention facility located in the Venice Diocese; and San Diego Bishop Michael M. Pham, who was born in Vietnam and fled to the U.S. as a 13-year-old refugee in 1980, along with his older sister and younger brother.

“Recent news reports detailing the arrest of immigrants throughout the country, including the Philadelphia region, have produced a great deal of fear and unleashed a broad range of other emotions. These events have impacted the migrant community in deeply troubling ways,” said Archbishop Pérez in his July 23 letter.

“I am witnessing your sorrow with great sadness and concern as are people of goodwill from all walks of life,” he said, adding, “As the son of immigrants, I have found recent events particularly heartbreaking.”

The 64-year-old archbishop said in a February 2020 Spanish-language interview with Telemundo 62, “Yo digo que fui hecho en Cuba, pero desempaquetado en Miami” (“I was conceived in Cuba, but born (literally, ‘unpacked’) in Miami”).

His parents, David and Emma Pérez, had fled Cuba, where in 1959 the dictatorship of President Fulgencio Batista fell to what would become the first communist regime in the Western hemisphere under Premier Fidel Castro. Shortly after their arrival in Miami, the Pérez family relocated to northern New Jersey, where the future archbishop, born in 1961, was raised.

In his July 23 letter, Archbishop Pérez highlighted Catholic social teaching on immigration, which seeks to balance three interrelated principles — the right of people to migrate in order to sustain their lives and those of their families, the right of a country to regulate its borders and control immigration, and a nation’s duty to regulate its borders with justice and mercy.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church also instructs that “the more prosperous nations are obliged, to the extent they are able, to welcome the foreigner in search of the security and the means of livelihood which he cannot find in his country of origin” (Catechism, 2241).

“As Catholics, we believe our eternal homeland is heaven, and that as citizens of earth, the dignity of every person means everyone should have a safe place to live, with the opportunity to work for a just wage,” said Archbishop Pérez in his pastoral letter. “Many of you came to the United States seeking new opportunities far away from oppressive regimes and endured difficult and dangerous circumstances to start life anew here.”

He said, “Your presence and your contributions to society through hard work and upright living are a blessing to our country and to our Church.”

“No one should be forced to live in fear of unjust persecution,” he said.

“I encourage you to remain close with the members of your parish communities and the priests who provide you with pastoral care,” said Archbishop Pérez.

That exhortation comes as at least two U.S. dioceses have publicly addressed fears of immigration arrests at parishes. Bishop Alberto Rojas of San Bernardino, California, issued a July 8 dispensation from the Sunday Mass obligation for those with a genuine fear of ICE raids. In May, the Diocese of Nashville, Tennessee, released a message, disseminated to diocesan parishes, reminding the faithful that according to the church’s own teaching and canon law, they are not required to attend Sunday Mass if they fear for their well-being.

“We recognize that our country is rightly safeguarded by law enforcement officials. They uphold the common good by protecting all of us from human trafficking, the exploitation of children, and any other criminal offense against human dignity,” wrote Archbishop Pérez. “At the same time, we strongly advocate for immigration policies that guarantee the protection of life, liberty, and property of all those who call the United States of America home, natural born citizens and those working toward citizenship alike.”

Noting that “there is no instant solution to the challenges pervading immigration policy,” he said, “I urge everyone in parish communities to unite through prayer and social unity with the immigrant faithful under the leadership of parish pastors.”

Archbishop Pérez concluded his letter with a prayer for migrants and for the nation as a whole.

“The Blessed Mother and Saint Joseph cared for the child Jesus in the mystery of the flight into Egypt and their intercession is with us today. I pray with you and for you that you experience the protection of God,” he said. “May our Lord bless our country with peace and inspire comprehensive immigration reform that respects the law and provides meaningful opportunities for all those who wish to call the United States of America their home.”