We Are Our Mother of Perpetual Help Parish

Vatican City, May 4, 2025 / 20:28 pm (CNA).

Editor’s Note: On May 4, 2025, Cardinal Dominique Mamberti, the former prefect of the prefect of the supreme tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, delivered the following homily during the ninth day of Novendiales Masses for Pope Francis. The text below is a CNA working translation of the Italian original published by the Vatican.

Venerable cardinal fathers, dear brothers in the episcopate and in the priesthood, dear brothers and sisters:

The Liturgy of the Word of this last Novendial in suffrage of Pope Francis is that of the third Sunday of Easter, and the passage from John’s Gospel just proclaimed represents the encounter of the resurrected Jesus with some apostles and disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, which ends with the mission entrusted to Peter by the Lord and Jesus’ command, “Follow me!”

The episode is reminiscent of that of the first miraculous fishing, recounted by Luke, when Jesus had called Simon, James, and John, announcing to Simon that he would become a fisher of men. Since that time, Peter had followed him, sometimes in misunderstanding and even in betrayal, but in today’s encounter, the last before Christ’s return to the Father, Peter receives from him the task of shepherding his flock.

Love is the key word of this Gospel passage. The first to recognize Jesus is “the disciple whom Jesus loved,” John, who exclaims: “It is the Lord!” and Peter immediately throws himself into the sea to join the Master. After they had shared the food, which will have kindled in the hearts of the Apostles the memory of the Last Supper, the dialogue between Jesus and Peter begins, the threefold question of the Lord and Peter’s threefold response.

The first two times, Jesus adopts the verb to love, a strong word, while Peter, mindful of the betrayal, responds with the less demanding expression “to care,” and the third time Jesus stresses the expression to care, adjusting to the Apostle’s weakness. Pope Benedict XVI noted in commenting on this dialogue: “Simon understands that Jesus is satisfied with his poor love, the only one of which he is capable. ... It is precisely this divine adjustment that gives hope to the disciple, who has recognized the suffering of infidelity. ... From that day on, Peter “followed” the Master with a precise awareness of his own fragility; but this awareness did not discourage him. For he knew that he could count on the presence of the Risen One beside him ... and so he shows us the way as well” (General audience, May 24, 2006).

In his homily at the Mass for the 25th anniversary of his pontificate, St. John Paul II confirmed: “Today, dear brothers and sisters, I am pleased to share with you an experience that has been going on now for a quarter of a century. Every day the same dialogue between Jesus and Peter takes place within my heart. In the spirit, I stare at the benevolent gaze of the risen Christ. He, though aware of my human frailty, encourages me to respond with confidence like Peter: ‘Lord,you know everything; you know that I love you’ (Jn 21:17). And then he invites me to assume the responsibilities that he himself has entrusted to me” (Homily, Oct. 16, 2003).

This mission is love itself, which becomes service to the Church and to all humanity. Peter and the Apostles assumed it immediately, by the power of the Spirit they had received at Pentecost, as we heard in the first reading: “We must obey God rather than men. The God of our Fathers raised up Jesus whom you killed by hanging him on a cross. God raised him to his right hand, as head and Savior.”

We have all admired how much Pope Francis, animated by the Lord’s love and carried by his grace, has been faithful to his mission to the utmost consumption of his strength. He has reminded the powerful that we must obey God rather than men and proclaimed to all humanity the joy of the Gospel, the merciful Father, Christ the savior. He did this in his magisterium, in his travels, in his gestures, in his lifestyle. I was close to him on Easter Day, at the loggia of blessings in this basilica, witnessing his suffering but above all his courage and determination to serve the people of God to the end.

In the second reading, taken from the Book of Revelation, we heard the praise that the whole universe gives to the One who sits on the throne and to the Lamb: “Praise, honor, glory and power, throughout the ages. And the four living creatures said, ‘Amen.’ And the elders prostrated themselves in worship.”

Adoration is an essential dimension of the Church’s mission and the lives of the faithful. Pope Francis often recalled this, as for example in his homily for the Feast of the Epiphany last year: “The Magi had their hearts prostrated in adoration. ... They came to Bethlehem and, when they saw the Child, 'they prostrated themselves and adored him' (Mt 2:11). ... A king who came to serve us, aGod who became man. Before this mystery, we are called to bow our hearts and knees to worship: to worship the God who comes in littleness, who inhabits the normality of our homes, who dies out of love. ... Brothers and sisters, we have lost the habit of worship, we have lost this capacity that gives us adoration. Let us rediscover the taste of the prayer of adoration. ... There is a lack of adoration among us today” (Homily, Jan. 6, 2024).

This capacity that gives adoration was not difficult to recognize in Pope Francis. His intense pastoral life, his countless meetings, were grounded in the long moments of prayer that the Ignatian discipline had imprinted in him. Many times he reminded us that contemplation is “a dynamism of love” that “elevates us to God not to detach us from the earth, but to make us inhabit it in profundity” (Audience to the Delegates of the Discalced Carmelites, April 18, 2024). And everything he did, he did under the gaze of Mary. There will remain in our memory and in our hearts his 126 stops before the “Salus Populi Romani.” And now that he rests at the beloved image, we entrust him with gratitude and confidence to the intercession of the mother of the Lord and our mother.

CNA Newsroom, May 4, 2025 / 20:07 pm (CNA).

The conclave to elect Pope Francis’ successor will begin on May 7, as the Church enters the final preparatory phase for choosing its 267th pope.

Follow here for live updates of the latest news and information on the papal transition:

Feast date: May 04

Pelagia (originally Margarita) was born as the beautiful daughter of pagan parents, and was said to have caught the eye of the Emperor Diocletian's son. However, she had no desire to marry. One day, she attended mass, given by the bishop. She was so inspired by his sermon that she anonymously sought counsel through writing on wax tablets. He asked her to come in person.

Under his inspiration, Pelagia was baptized. As a result of this, the emperor's son turned against her, as did her mother. Together they reported her to the emperor in hopes that her faith would weaken under torture. Diocletian interviewed her, but he failed to persuade her to change her mind and heart about being a Christian.

She ran from home, giving away all of her possessions and setting her slaves free, and lived as a hermit within the mountains. She was called "the beardless hermit," and went by the name of "Pelagius." She then died three or four years later, apparently as a result of extreme asceticism, which had emaciated her to the point she could no longer be recognized.

Feast date: May 04

These 18 Carthusian monks were put to death in England under King Henry VIII between 1535-1540 for maintaining their allegiance to the Pope.

 

The Carthusians, founded by St. Bruno in 1054, are the strictest and most austere monastic order in the western Church.  They live an austere hermitic life, their ‘monastery’ actually being a number of hermitages built next to each other.

When Henry VIII issued his “Act of Supremacy” declaring that all who refused to take an oath recognizing him as head of the Church of England committed an act of high treason, these 18 Carthusians refused and were sentenced to death.

 

The first to die were the Carthusian prior of London, John Houghton, and two of his brothers, Robert Lawrence and Augustine Webster, who were hanged, drawn and quartered, on May 4, 1535. The prior is said to have declared his fidelity to the Catholic Church and forgiven his executioners before dying. 

 

The Carthusians were the first martyrs to die under the reign of Henry VIII. Two more were killed on June 19 of that year and by August 4, 1540, all 18 had been tortured and killed for refusing to place their allegiance to the king before their allegiance to the Pope.

 

They were beatified in 1886 by Pope Leo XIII, and John Houghton, Robert Lawrence, and Augustine Webster, were canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1970.

Vatican City, May 4, 2025 / 19:58 pm (CNA).

On the ninth and final day of Novendiales, the nine days of mourning for Pope Francis, French Cardinal Dominique Mamberti reflected on the papal mission to love and serve Christ and his Church.

The mission of a pope “is love itself, which becomes service to the Church and to all humanity,” the cardinal said in St. Peter’s Basilica.

The Mass for the ninth and last of the Novendiales was celebrated for the third Sunday of Easter.

In his homily, Mamberti, who was the prefect of the supreme tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, the Vatican’s final court of appeal, since 2014, spoke about the day’s Gospel passage, in which Jesus asks St. Peter three times if he loves him, calling on him to “feed my lambs” and “tend my sheep.”

“Love is the key word of this Gospel passage,” Mamberti said. “The first to recognize Jesus is ‘the disciple whom Jesus loved,’ John.”

In the dialogue between Jesus and Peter, Jesus uses “the verb to love, a strong word, while Peter, mindful of the betrayal responds with the less demanding expression, ‘to care,’ and the third time Jesus himself uses the expression to care, adjusting to the apostle’s weakness,” the cardinal said.

Quoting Pope Benedict XVI, Mamberti noted that although Peter knew that Jesus was satisfied with his “‘poor love, the only one of which he [was] capable. ... It is precisely this divine adjustment that gives hope to the disciple.’”

From that point on, Peter followed the Lord with a keen awareness of his own fragility but was not discouraged, Mamberti said, knowing that the Lord was beside him.

Mamberti then quoted St. John Paul II, who said regarding the Gospel passage that “every day the same dialogue between Jesus and Peter takes place within my heart. He, though aware of my human frailty, encourages me to respond with confidence like Peter: ‘Lord,you know everything; you know that I love you’ (Jn 21:17).”

“We have all admired how much Pope Francis, animated by the Lord’s love and carried by his grace, has been faithful to his mission to the utmost consumption of his strength,” Mamberti continued.

Alluding to the first reading of the day from the Acts of the Apostles, Mamberti said Pope Francis “has reminded the powerful that we must obey God rather than men and proclaimed to all humanity the joy of the Gospel, the merciful Father, Christ the savior. He did this in his magisterium, in his travels, in his gestures, in his lifestyle.”

The cardinal recalled how he was close to Pope Francis on Easter Sunday, April 20, as the Holy Father gave his final “urbi et orbi” blessing before the crowds gathered in St. Peter’s Square, one day before he passed away.

Mamberti said he witnessed Pope Francis’ “suffering but above all his courage and determination to serve the people of God to the end.”

Noting that adoration is “an essential dimension of the Church’s mission and the lives of the faithful,” Mamberti observed that “this capacity that gives adoration was not difficult to recognize in Pope Francis.”

“His intense pastoral life, his countless meetings, were grounded in the long moments of prayer that the Ignatian discipline had imprinted in him,” he said.

Everything Francis did, Mamberti said, “he did under the gaze of Mary,” recalling the 126 times the late pope visited the “Salus Populi Romani” icon in the Basilica of St. Mary Major to pray.

“And now that he rests at the beloved image,” Mamberti said, “we entrust him with gratitude and confidence to the intercession of the mother of the Lord and our mother.”

Vatican City, May 4, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).

On May 7, an expected 133 cardinal electors will enter the Sistine Chapel to elect the new Roman pontiff, the successor to Pope Francis, who shied away from giving red hats to the traditional archdioceses but opted to give the honor to far-flung places, many of which had never had a cardinal before.

Of the 133 cardinals with the right to vote in this conclave, 108 were created by Pope Francis and therefore will be participating in the election of a pontiff for the first time.

Compared with the 2013 conclave that chose Pope Francis, none of the major sees typically headed by a cardinal will be represented this time around, including the archdioceses of Sydney, Vienna, Genoa, Paris, Milan, Palermo, Armagh, and Krakow.

Pope Francis’ choice of cardinals from nontraditional countries and sees has dramatically shifted what used to be large and powerful representations within the college, such as the cardinals from Italy.

Now, only 52 Europeans will enter the Sistine Chapel, less than half of the entire electoral body. Of these 52, just 17 are Italians, including curial cardinals — those who work inside the Vatican — and those who live in Rome. 

The Italian presence is significantly reduced compared with the 2013 conclave, which had 28 cardinals of Italian origin.

By contrast, the continent of Africa has grown by seven cardinal electors since the last conclave for a total of 18 red hats, and Asia’s representation has increased to 20 from 10 in 2013. 

Countries represented by a cardinal elector for the first time include Haiti, Mongolia, Myanmar (Burma), Malaysia, Tonga, Cape Verde, East Timor, Sweden, Iran, Luxembourg, Singapore, South Sudan, Ghana, Rwanda, El Salvador, Bangladesh, Central African Republic, Papua New Guinea, and Serbia. 

Another change to the College of Cardinals made by Pope Francis was the decision to surpass the limit of 120 voting cardinals set by Paul VI and confirmed by John Paul II. This limit was exceeded in June 2017, when Francis designated five new cardinals, bringing the total to 121. The total number of cardinal electors currently stands at 135.

In the apostolic constitution governing a “sede vacante,” Universi Dominici Gregis, it says that a cardinal who has been “created and published before the College of Cardinals thereby has the right to elect the pope” if he has not reached the age of 80.

Under Pope Francis, there was also an increase in cardinal electors representing the Eastern Catholic Churches “sui iuris”: Cardinal Mykola Bycok (Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church); Cardinal George Jacob Koovakad (Syro-Malabar Church); Cardinal Baselios Cleemis Thottunkal (Syro-Malankar Church); Cardinal Berhaneyesus Demerew Souraphiel (Ethiopian Metropolitan Church “sui iuris”); and Cardinal Louis Raphaël Sako (Chaldean Church).

Other geographical areas instead have not seen large changes in the number of voting cardinals.

The United States will have 10 voting cardinals (one less than in the 2005 and 2013 conclaves). Canada will have four and Mexico will have two representatives inside the Sistine Chapel.

From Europe, there will be five cardinal electors from France, four from Spain, four from Portugal and Poland, three from Germany and the United Kingdom, two from Switzerland, and one each from Belgium, Bosnia, Croatia, Hungary, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Holland, Serbia, and Sweden.

Central America will bring to the Sistine Chapel one cardinal each from Cuba, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Haiti. South America will see the presence of seven cardinals from Brazil, four from Argentina (there were two in 2013 and one in 2005), and one each from Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay.

The 18 African cardinals include two from the Ivory Coast and one each from Algeria (although Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco is French by birth), Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Madagascar, Morocco (Cardinal Cristóbal Lopez Romero is Spanish by birth), Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, South Sudan, and Tanzania.

There are 20 cardinals who will participate in the conclave from Asia: four from India, three from the Philippines, two from Japan, and one each from China, East Timor, Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia (Cardinal Giorgio Marengo is Italian by birth), Myanmar, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Thailand.

The Middle East will be represented by three cardinals, one each from the Holy Land (Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa is Italian by birth), Iran (Cardinal Dominique Joseph Mathieu is Belgian by birth), and Iraq.

From Oceania, four cardinals will be eligible to vote: one each from Australia (Bycok is Ukrainian by birth), New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and Tonga.

Marco Mancini of ACI Stampa, CNA’s Italian-language news partner, contributed to this report.

CNA Staff, May 4, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Dr. Christopher Stroud was a Catholic OB-GYN who prescribed birth control and gave referrals for in vitro fertilization (IVF) until a priest admonished him in the sacrament of reconciliation. Now Stroud runs a life-affirming fertility clinic that uses Natural Procreative Technology — a treatment model that embraces life-affirming Catholic ethics.

“It changed my life,” Stroud said of the confession. “Probably for all eternity, it changed my life.”

Stroud said he still “get[s] emotional” just talking about the impact of the clinic. Couples send him photos of their babies — it has grown into a wall of photos now.

Since his change of heart in 2012, his practice has “just exploded.” The clinic has grown so popular that there’s a six-month wait period.

“We are blessed with a busy, busy practice,” he told CNA.

While Stroud’s clinic is based in Fort Wayne, Indiana, he received his training in Nebraska at St. Paul VI Institute — an organization founded in 1985 that trains doctors in “NaProTechnology.”

And the demand for NaProTechnology? It’s “unlimited,” Stroud said.

What makes NaPro different? 

NaProTechnology is “a problem-based approach to fertility challenges,” Stroud explained.

The model is “a recognition, more than anything, that infertility is a symptom — it’s not a diagnosis,” Stroud explained.

Rather than jumping to IVF — which is often expensive, arduous, and carries ethical issues with the creation of unused embryos — NaProTechnology applies basic principals of contemporary medicine to fertility treatment.

“Everywhere else in contemporary medicine, we use symptoms to point to a disease state, and then we treat the disease state; then we ask, did the symptom go away?” Stroud said.

But with the advent of IVF in the late 1970s, doctors were taught to promptly refer clients for IVF, Stroud explained.

NaProTechnology is highly effective, Stroud has found. Fertility specialists can address the underlying health issues preventing conception “more times than not,” he said.

Teresa Hilgers, an OB-GYN at the St. Paul VI Institute, added that NaProTechnology often brings a couple’s fertility “back to life.” She said she has seen “so many” couples who, with the help of NaProTechnology, “no longer need medical support to achieve future pregnancies.”

Talking about IVF 

Stroud emphasized that while IVF is against Church teaching, IVF is a challenging issue to talk about. It’s important to acknowledge that the children created through IVF are created in God’s image, Stroud said.

“Any time we have a chance to say [it], we must say that the children created by IVF are children of God — created in his image and likeness,” Stroud said.

“We’ve got to remember that as Catholics, we’re not condemning, we’re educating,” Stroud continued. “And the people that we’re talking to often are very, very wounded and vulnerable.”

When discussing IVF, Stroud noted that “we’ve got to remember the vulnerable, horrible pain that couples are experiencing.”

“I can’t think of another marital stress that could ever hold a candle to infertility because it forces couples to question what it means to be man and woman, what it means to be married, what it means to be intimate,” Stroud said.

“But children are a gift. They’re not a right,” Stroud said. “If they were a right, they’d be property, which is part of the problem with IVF — they do become property.”

The Catholic perspective

IVF is contrary to the Catholic Church’s teaching. But why?

There are several layers to understanding the Church’s teaching on IVF. Most obviously, there’s the high cost of life in IVF.

“IVF is very destructive,” Hilgers said. “Many babies are lost to create one new life.”

The remaining human embryos conceived via IVF often remain in frozen storage for an indeterminate amount of time — often never to grow up.

“[Couples] may have finished their fertility journey, but they do not know what to do with their remaining frozen embryos,” Hilgers said.

IVF also contradicts the Church’s understanding of the purpose of sexual intercourse within the union of marriage.

“The Church teaches that the act of sexual intercourse has two aspects: procreative and unitive. These are inseparable,” Hilgers said. “IVF separates the procreative and unitive acts of intercourse between a married couple.”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (No. 2377) states that IVF is “morally unacceptable” because it separates the marriage act from procreation and establishes “the domination of technology” over human life.

But there’s also a biological and medical argument against IVF, both Hilgers and Stroud noted.

“Many do not realize that IVF is not good medicine,” Hilgers said.

“The success rates are lower than most think,” she said. “A lot of couples go through IVF and fail.”

IVF can bring with it additional risks, including higher complication rates with pregnancy, higher preterm labor, and even higher risk for birth defects, Hilgers added. 

When Stroud meets with patients who are considering IVF, he begins by asking them: “Why?” 

“The thing that I say to the couple is: Wouldn’t you like to know why you’re not getting pregnant — even if it means you’re never going to be pregnant — wouldn’t you like to know?” he said. “I’ve never had a couple say, ‘Actually, no, we don’t care.’” 

For couples with infertility

Both Hilgers and Stroud emphasized that IVF is far from the only option for couples struggling with infertility.

When asked what he would say to couples struggling with infertility, Stroud said: “Don’t settle.” 

“You don’t have to settle as a couple, and you don’t have to choose between the tenets of your faith and your fertility,” Stroud said. “Unexplained infertility is, more times than not, uninvestigated infertility.”

“Many couples who undergo IVF are never given a diagnosis for why they have infertility,” Hilgers added. “They are often told that their infertility is ‘unexplained.’”

But “their infertility is unexplained because a proper evaluation was never done,” Hilgers said.

When asked about the impact of NaProTechnology on families, Hilgers said that by respecting Church teaching on love and life, the human dignity of all involved is also respected.

“When these teachings are respected, then the dignity of everyone involved, the woman, her husband, and children are respected,” she said.

On Sunday afternoon, 4 May, the Third Sunday of Easter, Cardinal Protodeacon Dominique Mamberti presided over the ninth and final Novemdiale Mass in Saint Peter’s Basilica in suffrage for Pope Francis, with the participation of the College of Cardinals. He recalled that Peter’s mission is love expressed through service to the Church and all humanity.

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