We Are Our Mother of Perpetual Help Parish

In an interview with the Italian Catholic news agency AgenSIR, the President of the Thai Bishops’ Conference expresses his concern over the conflict brewing at the border with Cambodia and calls for a culture of solidarity and fraternity.

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Two Catholic nuns were detained over allegations of human trafficking at a train station in India.

In yet another sign of the worsening crisis in the East of the Democratic Republic of Congo, rebels of the Cooperative for the Development of Congo (CODECO) have attacked the church of St. John Capistran Parish.

As the Church marks the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Fr Edmund Power considers Jesus' invitation to reflect on our own personal prayer life.

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In a message to participants in Pax Christi USA’s annual National Assembly, Pope Leo says “efforts to promote nonviolence are all the more necessary” in a world facing the challenges including war, division, and forced migration.

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 25, 2025 / 17:25 pm (CNA).

More than two dozen Planned Parenthood facilities across the country in recent months have announced plans to shut down amid funding concerns caused by new federal rules that prevent the abortion giant from receiving Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements.

As of Friday, July 25, the growing number of Planned Parenthood facility closures has reached at least 25, which span across 10 states. The most recent announcement came yesterday, July 24, with Planned Parenthood Mar Monte indicating its plan to shut down five facilities in northern California.

On July 4, President Donald Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which put a one-year freeze on Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements for Planned Parenthood. The provision is being challenged in court, but a federal judge this week allowed the freeze to go into effect for most Planned Parenthood affiliates.

Some of Planned Parenthood’s facilities announced closures before the bill’s passage in anticipation of the funding cuts while others have begun announcing closures this week.

“We are heartbroken and outraged to have to close five of our health centers and sunset three crucial services,” Planned Parenthood Mar Monte wrote in an Instagram post.

In the post, the Planned Parenthood affiliate called the defunding provision “a back-door ban on abortion in reproductive freedom states.”

The affiliate will still operate 30 other abortion clinics in California and Nevada.

Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkins referred to the news as “a win for babies in California,” a state she said is “a hub for late-term abortions,” in a statement on X.

Planned Parenthood affiliates are also shutting down four facilities in Iowa, four in Michigan, four in Minnesota, two in Ohio, two in Utah, one in Vermont, one in New York, one in Indiana, and one in Texas.

Planned Parenthood Federation of America stated on July 1 that the defunding provision could force the abortion network to shut down nearly 200 clinics, which is 60% of Planned Parenthood’s facilities.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said in a statement provided to CNA that Planned Parenthood should “look in the mirror for the reason their centers are shuttering.”

“Planned Parenthood’s focus is on abortions, gender transitions, and political spending — all while raking in hundreds of millions from taxpayers,” Dannenfelser said. “Many times they’ve been offered a path to keep their funding by dropping abortions, but they refuse. Meanwhile, they have no monopoly on health, as women already go to community health centers that provide much more comprehensive care and are more accessible, outnumbering Planned Parenthoods 15:1 nationwide.”

Michael New, a senior associate scholar at the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute, told CNA that “it should come as no surprise that Planned Parenthood is responding to the federal funding cutoff by closing some of its facilities,” noting that Planned Parenthood receives hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer funds annually.

New said Planned Parenthood closures “should be seen as a win for the pro-life movement.”

“Even those Planned Parenthood facilities that do not perform abortions still do abortion referrals,” New said. “Furthermore, when a Planned Parenthood closes, that means that there are fewer people who work for the abortion industry. Finally, Planned Parenthood's contraception and sex education programs create a more promiscuous culture that result in more abortions.”

Under long-standing federal law, Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements were not available for most abortions. But before the new law went into effect, Planned Parenthood was able to obtain reimbursements from those programs for non-abortive services.

According to Planned Parenthood’s annual report for July 2023 through June 2024, about 40% of the abortion network’s total revenue came from taxpayer money, a large portion of which was obtained through Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements. Over that year, Planned Parenthood was given nearly $800 million in public funds.

In the Gospel reading for Sunday, July 27, 2025, Jesus gives his disciples the words that continue to shape the lives of his followers today: The "Our Father." In this homily reflection, Archbishop Edward J. Weisenburger digs into these words to help us better understand this treasured prayer.

Vatican City, Jul 25, 2025 / 16:23 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV in a message released Friday pointed out that Catholic migrants and refugees “can become missionaries of hope today in the countries that welcome them.”

“With their spiritual enthusiasm and vitality, they can help revitalize ecclesial communities that have become rigid and weighed down, where spiritual desertification is advancing at an alarming rate,” the pope noted July 25 in his message for the 111th World Day of Migrants and Refugees, which will be celebrated Oct. 4–5, coinciding with the Jubilee of Migrants and the Jubilee of the Missions.

The pontiff focused his reflection on the link between Christian hope and migration and praised the faith with which immigrants “defy death on the various contemporary migration routes.”

“Many migrants, refugees, and displaced persons are privileged witnesses of hope. Indeed, they demonstrate this daily through their resilience and trust in God, as they face adversity while seeking a future in which they glimpse that integral human development,” the pope noted in the statement.

He emphasized that their presence “should be recognized and appreciated as a true divine blessing, an opportunity to open oneself to the grace of God, who gives new energy and hope to his Church.”

The Holy Father pointed out that “in a world darkened by war and injustice, even when all seems lost, migrants and refugees stand as messengers of hope. Their courage and tenacity bear heroic testimony to a faith that sees beyond what our eyes can see and gives them the strength to defy death on the various contemporary migration routes.”

“Migrants and refugees remind the Church of her pilgrim dimension, perpetually journeying toward her final homeland, sustained by a hope that is a theological virtue,” he added.

Thus, the pope called for hope for “a future of peace and of respect for the dignity of all” despite the “frightening scenarios” of “wars, violence, injustice, and extreme weather events.” 

Arms trade and current climate crisis

“The prospect of a renewed arms race and the development of new armaments, including nuclear weapons, the lack of consideration for the harmful effects of the ongoing climate crisis, and the impact of profound economic inequalities make the challenges of the present and the future increasingly demanding,” the pontiff noted in the message.

Pope Leo warned the Catholic Church against the temptation of “sedentarization” and, therefore, of ceasing to be a “civitas peregrine,” since as St. Augustine points out in “The City of God,” the people of God are “journeying toward the heavenly homeland,” because otherwise she ceases to be “in the world” and becomes “of the world.”

“This temptation was already present in the early Christian communities, so much so that the Apostle Paul had to remind the Church of Philippi that ‘our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself’ (Phil 3:20-21),” Leo XIV emphasized.

He also called for a move beyond individualism, which he defined as a “serious threat” to the “sharing of responsibilities, multilateral cooperation,” and “the pursuit of the common good.”

In this regard, he criticized the “widespread tendency to look after the interests of limited communities” and pointed out that there is “a clear analogy” between immigrants and “the experience of the people of Israel wandering in the desert, who faced every danger while trusting in the Lord’s protection.”

Finally, Pope Leo expressed his desire to entrust every migrant, and those who accompany them with generosity and compassion, “to the maternal protection of the Virgin Mary, comfort of migrants.”

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

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 25, 2025 / 15:53 pm (CNA).

A federal appeals court ruled in a 2-1 decision that Oregon likely violated a Christian mother’s First Amendment rights by demanding that she embrace gender ideology and homosexuality in order to adopt children.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ordered that the Oregon Department of Human Services must allow the mother, Jessica Bates, to begin the process of adopting two children without first making her comply with the gender ideology affirmation.

Bates, who is represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, challenged the department rule in 2023. The rule requires that, to obtain certification to become an adoptive or foster parent, the applicant must agree to “respect, accept, and support the … sexual orientation, gender identity, [and] gender expression … of a child or young adult” who is placed in the home.

According to the lawsuit, Bates told the certification officer that she would love and treat any child as her own. Yet, she was denied certification because she said she would not provide transgender drugs to the child if he or she requested them and would not use a child’s preferred pronouns if he or she began to identify as transgender.

Bates was seeking to adopt two children under the age of 9. The gender ideology affirmation rule applies to any person seeking to foster or adopt, regardless of how old the children are and regardless of whether any of the children suffer from gender dysphoria or other gender identity issues.

Bates is a devout Christian who objected to promoting values to her adoptive children that conflict with her religious beliefs, according to the lawsuit. The court agreed with her objections, saying that adoption is “not a constitutional law dead zone” and that state’s interests do not “create a force field against the valid operation of other constitutional rights.”

“We deal here with two vital such rights: the First Amendment’s protections for free speech and the free exercise of religion,” the ruling stated. 

The court opinion states the rule “restricts and requires speech based on content and viewpoint in the areas of sexuality, gender identity, and gender expression.” It also found that although the state is not likely acting on a “hostility or animus toward religion” with its enforcement of the rule, it is still not a “policy neutral toward religion” because certain religious beliefs are implicated.

In the opinion, the court’s majority found that Bates is likely to succeed on the merits of her challenge against the Oregon rule. The case is still ongoing and does not settle the constitutionality of the rule, which will likely be decided at a later date.

Jonathan Scruggs, senior counsel and president of litigation strategy for Alliance Defending Freedom, argued on behalf of Bates in court. He said in a statement after the ruling that she is already a “caring mom of five [children]” who can now adopt.

“Oregon officials excluded her because of her commonsense belief that a girl cannot become a boy or vice versa,” Scruggs said.

“Because caregivers like Jessica cannot promote Oregon’s dangerous gender ideology to young kids and take them to events like pride parades, the state considers them to be unfit parents,” he added. “That is false and incredibly dangerous, needlessly depriving kids of opportunities to find a loving home. The 9th Circuit was right to remind Oregon that the foster and adoption system is supposed to serve the best interests of children, not the state’s ideological crusade.”

Conscience Project Director Andrea Picciotti-Bayer, who filed an amicus brief with the court in support of Bates, told CNA that the court’s decision “is an important rebuke against the attacks of gender ideologues on people of faith.”

“There is a foster care crisis in America where there aren’t enough qualified homes to meet the needs of vulnerable children,” she said. “There is no reason to exclude loving parents with traditional Christian beliefs on human sexuality from responding to these needs of children.”

A few other states, such as Vermont, have adopted similar rules for people seeking to adopt or foster children that force them to embrace gender ideology. A handful of states, such as Kansas and Arkansas, have gone in the opposite direction, passing laws that ensure religious freedom rights for adoptive and foster parents.