We Are Our Mother of Perpetual Help Parish

Over a million young people attended the week-long Jubilee in Rome, ending with Mass, message of hope from Pope

Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley Executive Director Sister Norma Pimentel speaks to reporters on May 8, 2023, in Brownsville, Texas. / Credit: Michael Gonzalez/Getty Images

CNA Staff, Aug 6, 2025 / 14:55 pm (CNA).

A state appeals court in Texas this week affirmed that Attorney General Ken Paxton will not be permitted to question the leaders of a Catholic Charities affiliate at the U.S.-Mexico border amid an inquiry into illegal immigration.

The state 15th Court of Appeals said in an Aug. 4 ruling that Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley has cooperated sufficiently with the state’s investigation into the charity. Paxton’s office has been conducting broad inquiries into allegations that nonprofits have facilitated illegal immigration in the state.

Prosecutors were not entitled to a “pre-suit deposition” from charity leaders, including its executive director, Sister Norma Pimentel, the court ruled.

Rather than “an uncooperative or evasive organization,” the Catholic charity has been “responsive to [Paxton’s] requests,” up to and including extensive documentation and a sworn testimony from Pimentel, the appeals court said. 

Those responses “may not have provided all of the information or the narrative responses” sought by the attorney general’s office, the court said. But they “addressed the lion’s share of the issues” the state was investigating and allowed the attorney general’s office to decide whether or not to file an official lawsuit.

The prosecutor’s office was required to prove that “the benefits of forcing a pre-suit deposition outweigh the burdens to Catholic Charities.” But the charity’s high level of cooperation with the government meant Paxton’s office could not justify the deposition.

A representative with Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley did not immediately respond to a query on the ruling on Wednesday morning.

Following the lower court’s ruling last year, Pimentel said in a statement that the charity hoped to “put this behind us and focus our efforts on protecting and upholding the sanctity and dignity of all human lives while following the law.”

Paxton has challenged several Catholic organizations in the state in recent months, including Annunciation House in El Paso, which he attempted to shut down for allegedly facilitating “illegal border crossings.”

Earlier this year that charity, which operates a shelter network for “migrant, refugee, and economically vulnerable peoples,” argued in the state Supreme Court that though it does offer housing to immigrants in the country illegally, it is “not concealing anyone [or] hiding anyone from detection from law enforcement.”

First Liberty Institute, which advocates religious freedom, also filed a brief against a forced closure of Annunciation House, arguing that the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act protects the charity against “outright closure.”

null / Credit: Lionsgate

CNA Staff, Aug 6, 2025 / 14:17 pm (CNA).

Lionsgate has officially announced the release dates for Mel Gibson’s highly anticipated film “The Resurrection of the Christ.”

In an X post on Aug. 5, the film company announced that the film will be split into two parts and will be released starting Holy Week in 2027.

Part 1 of the film will be released on March 26, 2027, Good Friday, and Part 2 will be released several weeks later on May 6, which will fall on the feast of the Ascension. 

On May 15 it was announced that Lionsgate had been chosen as the studio partnering with Gibson’s Icon Productions on the upcoming film.

“For many, many people across the globe, ‘The Resurrection of the Christ’ is the most anticipated theatrical event in a generation. It is also an awe-inspiring and spectacularly epic theatrical film that is going to leave moviegoers worldwide breathless,” Adam Fogelson, chair of Lionsgate Motion Picture Group, said in a press release announcing the partnership.   

“Lionsgate’s brave, innovative spirit and nimble, can-do attitude have inspired me for a long time, and I couldn’t think of a more perfect distributor for ‘The Resurrection of the Christ,’” Gibson said at the time.

“I’ve enjoyed working with Adam and the team several times over recent years. I know the clever ingenuity, passion, and ambition the entire team commits to their projects and I’m confident they will bring everything they can to the release of this movie.”

This upcoming film, the sequel to “The Passion of the Christ,” will once again feature Jim Caviezel in the role of Jesus. While not much is known about the details of the film, in an interview with podcast host Joe Rogan, Gibson said the film is “very ambitious” and the story follows “the fall of the angels to the death of the last apostle.” 

He also shared that he plans to use “a few techniques,” such as CGI de-aging, on Caviezel due to the fact that over 20 years have passed since the first movie was released.

Released in 2004, “The Passion of the Christ” vividly depicts the final hours of Jesus’ life, from his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane to his crucifixion. 

The film has been the subject of debate since its release. The graphic scenes of Christ’s scourging and crucifixion sparked controversy; some critics considered it excessively violent, while others praised it for its historical authenticity and its ability to realistically convey Christ’s suffering.

In January 2004, Joaquín Navarro-Valls, then the director of the Holy See Press Office, noted that Pope John Paul II had seen the film and gave it a positive review, describing it as “the cinematographic recounting of the historical fact of the passion of Jesus Christ according to the Gospel accounts.”

Despite controversies surrounding the film, it garnered a profit of $370 million domestically with many crediting it as having opened the door to faith-based media in Hollywood.

Knights of Columbus Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly. / Credit: Courtesy of Knights of Columbus/Screenshot

Washington D.C., Aug 6, 2025 / 13:47 pm (CNA).

At the first Knights of Columbus Supreme Convention since Pope Francis’ death, Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly offered a tribute to the former pontiff’s legacy and celebrated the growth of the organization and its charitable accomplishments over the past year.

The Knights of Columbus began their 143rd annual convention on Aug. 5 at the Washington Hilton in Washington, D.C., where thousands of members of the organization — including Archbishop William Lori, the Knights’ supreme chaplain of 20 years — gathered for the occasion.

Kelly, who has served as supreme knight since 2021, remembered Pope Francis’ dedication to the most vulnerable — a hallmark of the Knights of Columbus’ global charity work — and the late pontiff’s close relationship with the fraternal organization.

“Pope Francis was a powerful witness to charity and when he summoned the Church to the peripheries, he led by example — like a good father,” Kelly said in his delivery of the annual report of the Knights’ charity work.

“His love for the poor and the sick was extraordinary,” he said. “Who can forget the moment, in the early days of his papacy, when he embraced a severely disfigured man in St. Peter’s Square or when he celebrated his 80th birthday by sharing breakfast with the homeless? He did what our world so often refuses to do. And the world watched, with admiration.”

Kelly said Francis was “a great friend of the Knights of Columbus” who “encouraged our charity around the world” and “especially praised our humanitarian work in Ukraine, as well as our efforts to combat human trafficking.” He also credited Francis with inspiring the organization to grow its outreach to the Indigenous people of the United States, Canada, and the Philippines.

Knights of Columbus’ global charity work and growth

During his address, Kelly also reported on the fraternal organization’s ongoing charity work globally and its growth.

The report noted that members of the Knights of Columbus collectively dedicated more than 48 million hours to service. The organization also broke its record for charitable donations, reaching about $197 million over the year.

According to the report, the Knights of Columbus surpassed 2.1 million members after more than 96,000 men joined the organization last year. The Knights of Columbus have also grown on college campuses with now 8,000 knights at 146 college councils.

Kelly noted that the Knights of Columbus is currently responding to the flash flood in Texas, where “hundreds of families lost their loved ones — and one brother knight tragically lost both his parents and his two young daughters.” The Knights also responded to floods in Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Florida along with the wildfires in California.

The report stated that the Knights of Columbus have continued “bringing emergency supplies to refugees” in Ukraine with the organization’s Charity Convoys and serve people in the country through its Mercy Centers.

“We pray for an end to the war in Ukraine, but so long as the war continues, we’ll be there for those who suffer,” Kelly said.

Kelly reported on the growth of the Knights’ Global Wheelchair Mission, which has now donated more than 158,000 wheelchairs, including 19,000 last year. This includes 300 to Nigeria, which was provided to “Christians who have endured violence and persecution for their faith.”

The Knights of Columbus also set a new record for winter jackets delivered to children through its Coats for Kids initiative, which has now surpassed 1.6 million total jackets to children.

According to the report, the Knights’ program Aid and Support After Pregnancy (ASAP) provided pro-life pregnancy centers with $6 million last year and more than $17 million over the last three years. The Knights also surpassed more than 2,000 donated ultrasounds through its Ultrasound Initiative meant to “save lives by showing parents their unborn children.”

The Knights of Columbus also saw growth in its Cor program, which is a “small-group setting [that] gives men a place to embrace the mission for which they were made — the mission that God himself has uniquely given to them,” according to the report. In August 2024, Cor was active at 650 councils but has now expanded to more than 5,000 councils.

“Like every generation that came before us, we will move forward — in charity, unity, and fraternity,” Kelly said.

“We will serve Our Lord by serving others,” he added. “And we will sacrifice for them, like he did for us.”

Irish high cross at the Rock of Cashel in County Tipperary, Ireland. / Credit: Marie-Lise Van Wassenhove via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0)

Dublin, Ireland, Aug 6, 2025 / 13:11 pm (CNA).

This week in Ireland, the Intercession for Priests ministry marks its 50th anniversary with Mass in Knock followed by a weeklong retreat at Maynooth led by Sister Briege McKenna, OSC. McKenna, who ministers to priests and bishops around the world, said the ministry is a gift from God that renews the spiritual life of priests.

The Intercession for Priests was started at All Hallows College in 1976 by the late Father Kevin Scallon, who established it following an encounter with a similar program in the United States. It was a critical time for priests, and many were deciding to leave the priesthood.

Scallon was also significantly affected by the words of an elderly Biafra woman to whom he ministered on the missions when she told him: “For me today, Father, you are Jesus.” This prompted a search for a more profound understanding of his priestly ministry. The ministry he established has, for over 50 years, provided a rock and place of security where many priests from around the world can come and feel at home in their priesthood. 

For McKenna — who was born in Ireland, entered the Sisters of St. Clare at age 15, and experienced an instantaneous healing of a serious health issue at a Mass when she was 24 — the Intercession for Priests is a “gift that God blessed us with 50 years ago to renew the spiritual life of priests, to affirm them, encourage them, and challenge them to holiness.”

She told CNA: “Father Scallon was the spiritual director in All Hallows, where it started on the 16th of July, the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. There were about two priests registered, but 12 came. From there, it spread. Every year it got bigger. Then we started getting the missionaries from around the world coming. Father Kevin and I went to Germany. Same with Poland. We went to over 100 countries in the five continents; it has transformed the lives of priests and bishops.”

For McKenna, the Intercession offers priests renewal, focusing directly on the priest himself. 

Speaking at the Mass for the 50th National Day of Intercession for Priests at Knock, Archbishop Eamon Martin told all those gathered: “As I have gotten older, I’ve come to realize how important it is to pray for priests. It’s understandable that people are more used to asking priests to pray for them and might not realize how much we priests are ourselves in great need of prayer.”

McKenna explained that the Intercession for Priests is built around the Divine Office, the Eucharist, the sacraments, and Our Lady. 

“For 50 years, we have never missed the rosary, and we have a consecration to Our Lady. It’s built on priestly spirituality. We have a renewal of ordination. We have a healing service, which means priests stand before the Eucharist. We pray with them for healing; not just physical healing but all kinds of healings. We also have the anointing of the sick for those who are ill or have any kind of sickness,” she explained.

The religious sister returned repeatedly to the ministry: “It’s very focused on the effects of the priestly ministry. And for me, it’s a great encouragement, because I speak to them during the day on healing. I speak often on the celibate call. We pray for the charism. We pray for the things to affirm them and encourage them. I try to impress on them that the priesthood is not something you do 9 to 5. It’s a vocation, and it’s a divine call. And whether you’re preaching, teaching, or having recreation, you’re always carrying the Christ, the priest.”

Father Michael Doody is a parish priest at Our Lady of Kirkstall, Leeds, England, who first encountered the Intercession for Priests in Leeds shortly after his ordination in 2013. He said it was a life-changing experience.

“There has always been a wonderful atmosphere at the retreats and an experience of fraternity with the other priests that is profoundly encouraging,” he said. “Sister Briege and Father Kevin, and now Father Pablo [Escriva], have always spoken to us very simply about the truth of who we are — that Jesus has chosen us and anointed us to bring him to the world, a world in much darkness and hungry for Jesus.”

Father Tom Surlis is the seminary rector of St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth, and he first encountered the Intercession for Priests in 2004 as a recently-ordained priest. Since then, the annual gathering has been a staple in his “spiritual diet.”

Surlis described it as “a regular dose of medicine from the Divine Physician, who gathers his priests to spend time together and with him, and who is tangibly present in our midst to renew, restore, and revivify our identity as ministers of word and sacrament in an atmosphere that is fraternal and deeply spiritual.”

The Intercession for Priests in Ireland is hosted at St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth. Surlis said: “On this 50th anniversary I can only say ‘Ad multos annos’ to the Intercession and thank God for Father Kevin, Sister Briege, the Core Groups in Ireland, England, Germany, and Poland and all who make it possible for this great work to continue as a sign of hope, a vessel of love, and a deepener of faith in our time.”

Surlis pointed to the words of Father Jack Finnegan, SDB, who has been with the Intercession for Priests from the outset. 

“The more the priest encounters Christ, the more he prays and meditates, the more he will come to unity in Christ. The more he grows into union with Christ, the more he will experience the disintegration of his selfish ego and put on the compassionate gentleness and understanding humility of Jesus. Such is the transformative power of the Spirit. Such is the vastness of grace,” he said.

Archbishop Martin told the congregation in Knock: “We priests tend to be caught up in a multitude of demands and distractions. In recent times, like many others, we have become vulnerable to isolation and loneliness, and sometimes to unhealthy or harmful influences that can steal away the joy of our vocation. And we priests are not the best at accepting when we need help and support or finding guides and mentors to accompany us spiritually, pastorally, intellectually, and especially in our personal human development.”