We Are Our Mother of Perpetual Help Parish

In the Gospel reading for Sunday, July 20, 2025, Jesus corrects Martha when she expresses frustration that her sister, Mary, is listening at his feet instead of helping to serve him. In this homily reflection, Archbishop Weisenburger invites us to consider whether there are any values we hold that Jesus may be asking us to turn upside down.

Feast date: Jul 19

St. Arsenius, an Anchorite, was born in 354 at Rome and died in 450 at Troe, in Egypt.

Theodosius the Great, having requested the Emperor Gratian and Pope Damasus to find him in the West a tutor for his son Arcadius, decided on Arsenius, a man well read in Greek literature, a member of a noble Roman family, and said to have been a deacon of the Roman Church. Upon receving the request to become the tutor of young Arcadius, he left and reached Constantinople in 383, and continued as tutor in the imperial family for eleven years, during the last three of which he also had charge of his pupil's brother Honorius.

Coming one day to see his children at their studies, Theodosius found them sitting while Arsenius talked to them standing. This he would not tolerate, and he ordered the teacher to sit while the pupils to stood.

Upon his arrival at court, Arsenius had been given a splendid establishment, and probably because the Emperor so desired, he lived a very great lifestyle, but all the time felt a growing inclination to renounce the world. After praying for a long time to be enlightened as to what he should do, he heard a voice saying "Arsenius, flee the company of men, and thou shalt be saved." Thereupon he embarked secretly for Alexandria, and hastening to the desert of Scetis, asked to be admitted among the solitaries who dwelt there.

St. John the Dwarf, to whose cell he was conducted, though previously warned of the quality of his visitor, took no notice of him and left him standing by himself while he invited the rest to sit down at table. When the John was half finished with his meal, he threw down some bread before Arsenius, bidding him with an air of indifference to eat if he would. Arsenius meekly picked up the bread and ate, sitting on the ground. Satisfied with this proof of humility, St. John kept him under his direction. The new solitary was from the beginning most exemplary, yet unwittingly retained some of his old habits, such as sitting cross-legged or laying one foot over the other. Noticing this, the abbot requested some one to imitate Arsenius's posture at the next gathering of the brethren, and upon his doing so, forthwith rebuked him publicly. Arsenius took the hint and corrected himself.

During the fifty-five years of his solitary life he was always the most meanly clad of all, thus punishing himself for his former seeming vanity in the world. In like manner, to atone for having used perfumes at court, he never changed the water in which he moistened the palm leaves of which he made mats, but only poured in fresh water upon it as it wasted, thus letting it become stenchy in the extreme. Even while engaged in manual labour he never relaxed in his application to prayer. At all times copious tears of devotion fell from his eyes. But what distinguished him the most was his disinclination to all that might interrupt his union with God. When, after a long period of searching, his place of retreat was discovered, he not only refused to return to court and act as adviser to his former pupil the Emperor Arcadius, but he would not even be his almoner to the poor and the monasteries of the neighbourhood. He invariably denied himself to visitors, no matter what their rank and condition and left to his disciples the care of entertaining them. His contemporaries so greatly admired him because of this, that they gave him the surname "the Great".

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 18, 2025 / 16:00 pm (CNA).

Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, has called for peace and an “immediate ceasefire” following the bombing of the only Catholic church in Gaza.

“With the Holy Father, the Catholic bishops of the United States are deeply saddened to learn about the deaths and injuries at Holy Family Church in Gaza caused by a military strike,” Broglio wrote in a Thursday statement. 

The July 17 Israeli strike killed three people and injured nine others, including the parish priest, Father Gabriel Romanelli.

“Our first concern, naturally, goes out to Father Gabriel Romanelli and all his parishioners, most especially to the families of those killed,” Broglio said. “Our prayers are for them during these tragic times.”

The statement follows a message from Pope Leo XIV on the social media platform X that said: “I commend the souls of the deceased to the loving mercy of Almighty God and pray for their families and the injured. I renew my call for an immediate ceasefire. Only dialogue and reconciliation can ensure enduring peace!”

In agreement, Broglio wrote: “With the Holy Father, we also continue to pray and advocate for dialogue and an immediate ceasefire. Yesterday was the memorial of Our Lady of Mount Carmel; through her intercession, may there be peace in Gaza.”

On Friday, CNA reported that Pope Leo received a phone call from Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, following yesterday’s Israel Defense Forces attack on Holy Family Church in Gaza.

During the conversation, the Holy Father renewed his call for the urgent reactivation of the negotiation process in order to establish a ceasefire and end the war. He expressed his deep concern for the humanitarian situation in Gaza as well as the urgent need to protect places of worship “and the faithful and all people living in both Palestine and Israel.”

ACI Prensa Staff, Jul 18, 2025 / 15:30 pm (CNA).

The Vatican news agency Fides reported that nine people were sentenced to 20 years in prison for the murder of a 44-year-old priest in Myanmar, a crime that shocked a country that has been enveloped in civil war since 2021.

According to the article published July 17, a court affiliated with the Ministry of Justice of the National Unity Government (NUG), the government in exile that leads the opposition, sentenced the nine defendants for the murder of Father Donald Martin Ye Naing Win, a priest of the Archdiocese of Mandalay, who was killed on Feb. 14 on the grounds of Our Lady of Lourdes Church in the Shwe Bo district in the Sagaing region.

According to investigations, those convicted were part of local armed groups linked to the People’s Defense Force (PDF), the resistance force that controls the “liberated areas” wrested from the control of the Burmese military junta.

Although the PDF reports to the NUG — composed of parliamentarians ousted after the February 2021 military coup — these units often operate without full coordination. “In some ways, the PDF itself tried to bring to justice the armed men who, in the situation of widespread instability, are out of control. However, the reasons for the murder are still unclear,” sources cited by Fides said.

“We know that Father Donald was a man of God, a parish priest dedicated to the people, a good and sincere person who was committed, above all, to the education of children left without school due to the civil war. He had done nothing wrong,” said Father John, a priest in Mandalay.

The local Catholic community is moderately satisfied with the sentence, as justice was expected, although “there are still too many unanswered questions; the family would also like more clarity and full justice,” the priest added.

The civil war in Myanmar

Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, has been in a state of civil war since the February 2021 military coup that overthrew the democratic government of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. The military junta’s seizure of power sparked massive protests, the rise of civilian militias (such as the PDF), and spiraling violence across the country.

The repression has left thousands dead, tens of thousands detained, and widespread damage to civilian infrastructure. Among the most recent attacks was the Feb. 6 airstrike on Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Mindat, Chin state, a Christian-majority state.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

CNA Staff, Jul 18, 2025 / 15:00 pm (CNA).

Here is a roundup of recent pro-life and abortion-related news.

California couple that had 21 kids via surrogate mothers charged with neglect, endangerment

A California couple that had 21 children via surrogacy has been charged with felony child endangerment and neglect.

Authorities also alleged that their nannies were physically abusing the children. 

Guojun Xuan, 65, and Silvia Zhang, 38, own a mansion in Arcadia and a business called Mark Surrogacy. 

Unbeknownst to the surrogate mothers the couple was working with, the embryos the mothers were carrying belonged to the company owners — and each embryo was one of many. 

Seventeen of the children are toddlers or infants, and the oldest is 13. All 21 children have since been taken in by the state Department of Children and Family Services.

The investigation took place after a 2-month-old child was brought into a hospital with a traumatic brain injury.

Cops alleged that the family nanny, 56-year-old Chunmei Li, had injured the baby and committed other abuses. Surveillance footage allegedly shows Li shaking and hitting the infant. Footage also showed other nannies abusing the children, according to the authorities. 

Federal court upholds West Virginia ban on abortion drugs

The 4th Circuit Court has upheld West Virginia’s ban on chemical abortion, ruling that the law cannot be overridden by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations.

Mifepristone manufacturer GenBioPro asked the court to strike down West Virginia’s protections for unborn children against chemical abortion, arguing that the FDA has the final say in whether drugs are legal.

In a 45-page opinion by Judge J. Harvey Wilkinson III, the court found that in approving the drug, the FDA “did not create a right to utilize any particular high-risk drug” simultaneously. Rather, the FDA regulations constitute the “minimum safety rules for administering drugs like mifepristone where they may be legally prescribed.”

March for Life President Jennie Bradley Lichter called the decision “huge,” noting that it meant that a state could ban a federally approved drug.

It was the first time a federal appeals court had said states can restrict mifepristone use.

West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey said the decision was a “big win.”

“West Virginia can continue to enforce our pro-life laws and lead the nation in our efforts to protect life,” Morrisey stated. “We will always be a pro-life state!” 

8 babies born via IVF from DNA of 3 people

Eight healthy babies were born via an in vitro fertilization procedure where doctors created embryos with DNA from three people.

The United Kingdom made the procedure legal in 2015 and granted the first license in 2017 to a fertility clinic at Newcastle University.

The doctors used the third-party DNA to prevent children from inheriting incurable genetic disorders. The mothers were at risk for passing on life-threatening diseases to their babies, but the babies have no signs of the mitochondrial diseases they were at risk of inheriting. Four boys and four girls — including one set of identical twins — were born to the seven women.

Houston, Texas, Jul 18, 2025 / 14:30 pm (CNA).

Catholic Charities Fort Worth (CCFW) announced July 17 that it will continue leading the Texas Office for Refugees until September 2026, reversing an earlier decision to step down later this year due to challenges imposed by the Trump administration’s funding cuts to refugee programs. 

The move follows urgent pleas from approximately 60 refugee service providers across Texas, who warned that CCFW’s withdrawal would jeopardize $200 million in critical federal funding for over 118,000 refugees.

In early June, CCFW announced plans to relinquish its role in October as the state’s replacement designee for the Texas Office for Refugees, a role the nonprofit took on in 2021 after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott withdrew the state from the federal refugee resettlement program in 2016.

This prompted a swift response from providers, who sent letters to the group warning that its abrupt exit would disrupt critical refugee services. 

“To do this in this climate is not moral in a lot of ways,” said Kimberly Haynes, Texas director of Church World Service, who urged CCFW to stay for another year to ensure a stable transition.

Haynes told the Houston Chronicle in June that CCFW’s departure could force her organization to lay off employees and close programs, including the Refugee Cash Assistance, Medical Assistance, Immigration Legal Services, and Social Adjustment programs, affecting 80% of its services in Dallas and Houston.

CCFW President and CEO Michael Iglio said in a statement shared with CNA the reversal came after “deeper reflection” and “thoughtful feedback” from providers. 

“We recognized that an early withdrawal could risk serious disruptions in services,” Iglio stated, adding that stepping down prematurely was a decision the agency “could not in good conscience allow.” 

By continuing through September 2026, when its contract ends, CCFW aims to safeguard services and facilitate a responsible transition.

CCFW sued the Trump administration and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in March, alleging an unlawful freeze of $36 million in funding. Although payments resumed after a program integrity review, the incident highlighted the precarious funding environment for refugee programs.

The decision comes amid broader challenges for refugee services under the second Trump administration, which froze the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program in January, disrupting $100 million in aid for Houston-area refugees alone.

As a result, the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston in February laid off 120 employees who mostly worked in refugee assistance.

Catholic social teaching on immigration, which is built on Jesus’ call to welcome the stranger (cf. Matthew 25:35), underpins CCFW’s commitment to refugees. The agency’s decision to stay aligns with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ advocacy for humane immigration policies.

ACI Prensa Staff, Jul 18, 2025 / 14:00 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV received a phone call Friday from Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, following yesterday’s Israeli army attack on Holy Family Church in Gaza.

According to a statement from the Holy See Press Office, the pope received the call at Castel Gandolfo, where he is on vacation.

On July 17, the Israeli army struck with a projectile Holy Family Parish, the only Catholic church in the Gaza Strip, which had been used as a shelter for more than 600 people since the beginning of the war in October 2023.

The attack killed three people and left a number of injured, some of them seriously.

During the conversation, the Holy Father renewed his call for the urgent reactivation of the negotiation process in order to establish a ceasefire and end the war.

He again expressed his deep concern for the humanitarian situation of the population in Gaza, “whose heartbreaking price is being paid, in particular, by children, the elderly, and the sick.”

Finally, Pope Leo XIV reiterated the urgency of protecting places of worship and, above all, the faithful and all people living in both Palestine and Israel.

Also on Friday, the Holy Father called Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, to whom he expressed his strong condemnation of the attack and asserted that “it is time to stop this slaughter.”

Israel Defense Forces stated that “fragments of a projectile fired during a military operation in the area mistakenly hit the church” and that the cause of the incident is currently under investigation.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.