We Are Our Mother of Perpetual Help Parish

Three pilgrims from Tahiti, Tonga and Guam share with Vatican News their excitement in participating in the Jubilee of Youth and the hope and energy they want to bring back home.

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Pope Leo XIV says all Christians are called to enter “the dynamism of mission and to face the challenges of evangelization.”

MSF Dr. Mohammed Abu Mughaisib in Gaza shares a dramatic testimony on the inhumane conditions faced by the citizens of the enclave who are starving to death, their human dignity eroded day by day:

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Dalit Catholics of the Kottapalayam village in the Kumbakonam Diocese of the India state of Tamil Nadu organised a hunger strike near the district collector’s office on July 21, alleging that they were subjected to “casteist” slurs and discrimination.

A Catholic bishop in the Central African Republic (CAR) has denied accusations that he remained silent and was complicit in covering up an alleged sexual abuse case involving a diocesan priest.

Ihab Hassan, a Palestinian Christian activist, speaks to Vatican News about the recent settler violence reported by residents of the village of Taybeh.

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Cultivating friendship with Christ and experiencing the Master's closeness and love is vital to happiness for priests and lay faithful alike, reminds Pope Leo XIV when welcoming formators and Xaverian Missionaries in the Vatican on Friday.

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In his Message for the 111th World Day of Migrants and Refugees, Pope Leo XIV emphasizes the important witness that Catholic migrants and refugees can offer in a world affected by conflict and inequality in hoping and searching for a better and more peaceful future.

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 24, 2025 / 18:13 pm (CNA).

“Thanks be to God more people weren’t harmed,” said Father Gabriel Romanelli in an exclusive interview with EWTN on July 24 in the wake of the July 17 bombing of his parish, Holy Family Church in Gaza, which left three dead and 15 wounded, including himself. 

“It was a shocking experience,” Romanelli told “EWTN Noticias” in the Spanish-language interview, noting that while the parish grounds were struck toward the beginning of the war in December 2023, last week’s attack marked the first time the church itself was hit. The front of the church was hit in a strike that Israeli officials have said was an accident. 

“That iconic cross you’ve seen — it’s about 2 meters [6.5 feet] tall — was heavily damaged,” the priest said of the crucifix fixed atop the church structure. “Shrapnel flew in all directions,” he recounted. 

“The area is quite small, and while we hear bombings daily and metal fragments often fall, there hadn’t been such a severe incident since the war began,” Romanelli continued, adding: “The recent strike has left a deep mark.”

Romanelli sustained an injury to his leg during the strike, which he shared is healing despite “a minor infection.” Of the others injured, Romanelli revealed only two are now no longer in life-threatening condition: one who suffered a punctured leg and another who sustained internal organ damage.

Life inside the walls of Gaza’s only Catholic parish

In the 17 days leading up to the strike on Holy Family, Romanelli described an atmosphere of “intense military activity and heavy bombardment.” Amid it all, he said, those living in the parish strive to “keep some semblance of a routine.” 

Every morning, the priest shared, the residents at Holy Family begin each day at 7 a.m. with silent adoration in front of the Blessed Sacrament. “The children and youth participate in their own way — writing prayers or meditating,” he said. “It’s a miracle they are able to pray for peace amid the chaos.” Morning prayers in Arabic and a Eucharistic blessing follow.

Due to recent escalation, the parish has had to suspend many of its activities, which included games, youth meetings, and educational programs. “Shrapnel was falling so frequently that we couldn’t risk anyone being in the central courtyard, although it’s small,” Romanelli said. 

Holy Family Parish grounds include two homes run by the Missionaries of Charity, the order founded by Mother Teresa, as well as the residences of the priests and sisters from the Institute of the Incarnate Word, a kindergarten and its oratory, a middle school, and an elementary school. 

Romanelli explained that the classrooms have been converted into living spaces, where about 500 mostly Christian refugees now live. “The few Muslims staying with us are terminally ill or disabled individuals cared for by the sisters,” he said. 

While the grounds provide much-needed shelter, Romanelli said the lack of access to proper sanitation or running water in addition to Gaza’s 100-plus-degree weather has made keeping children inside the classrooms, which are inhabited by 10-12 people each, “nearly impossible.” Prior to the escalations, nighttime soccer and basketball games were a staple among the children before prayers. 

While families mostly “fend for themselves” amid the widespread food shortage plaguing the region, the parish cooks for everyone twice per week. The parish relies mainly on solar panels, and the task of purifying water remains ongoing. 

Amid the disruption of daily life caused by the recent strike, Romanelli said religious formation for young people continues, “albeit modestly.” He noted the parish sometimes shows religious films, depending on power availability. Tomorrow, they will watch “the life of St. Rafqa, a Lebanese saint.”

When asked whether the parish could face closure under the current circumstances, Romanelli said: “Where would we go? The Christians here continue to say: ‘We’ll stay with Jesus.’” 

“No one has considered leaving,” he added. “They’ve known from the start there is nowhere else to go. Danger is everywhere, not just in designated ‘danger zones.’” 

Church’s critical role in supplying aid, hope among Gazans 

Catholic agencies alongside other churches were able to provide humanitarian assistance to tens of thousands of families during the ceasefire five months ago. Since most of Gaza is currently under active military operations, “almost no aid has entered northern Gaza,” Romanelli said. 

Caritas Jerusalem and Holy Family Parish have provided medical services to the wider community, operating two makeshift clinics. In total, Romanelli noted, the Church has 10 clinics across Gaza, one permanent and nine mobile. But the lack of supplies limits what they are able to do. 

“There is dire need, particularly for food and medicine,” he emphasized. While some aid has been distributed across southern parts of Gaza, it has yet to reach Gaza City in the north, where the majority of the region’s Christians are concentrated.

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzabella, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, was able to enter the city following the strikes but was prevented from distributing aid. “He’s doing all he can to bring relief,” Romanelli said.

“We implore and beg that large-scale humanitarian assistance be allowed in,” the priest said, adding: “Even though some trucks are looted at times, that cannot justify stopping all humanitarian assistance. The more aid comes in, the less likely theft becomes.” 

A message to the international community

In his parting words, Romanelli called on the faithful and the international community to pray and to “speak the truth clearly and with fairness.” With prayer and diplomacy, he said, peace can be possible. 

On a practical level, the priest encouraged those who wish to help to “channel their support through the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem,” which has succeeded in bringing aid to the region in the past. 

“As we walk this way of the cross in Gaza, we cling to the hope that every via crucis ends with the empty tomb — with the Resurrection,” Romanelli said. “Christ suffers now in the innocent. But one day, glory will shine through.”

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 24, 2025 / 17:53 pm (CNA).

This week the White House released its plan for artificial intelligence (AI) in the United States, which aims “to achieve global dominance in AI” and promote “human flourishing, economic competitiveness, and national security for the American people.” 

The plan comes as Catholic leaders continue to urge developers to exercise caution when growing and refining the new technology.

The government’s “Winning the AI Race: America’s AI Action Plan” identifies more than 90 federal policy actions within the categories of “accelerating innovation, building American AI infrastructure, and leading in international diplomacy and security.”

The White House announcement laid out the key policies the AI plan will focus on, including sharing technology with allies around the world, developing data centers, and stripping away red tape around AI development.

The government will also focus on “updating federal procurement guidelines to ensure that the government only contracts with frontier large language model developers who ensure that their systems are objective and free from top-down ideological bias.”

Catholic perspective on AI

Charles Camosy, an author and professor of moral theology and bioethics at The Catholic University of America, told EWTN News this week that people need to be “extremely, extremely careful” when using AI, particularly as it continues to advance in the U.S. and abroad. 

Camosy told “EWTN News In Depth” that “we have to create a culture that shapes AI to serve human beings, not the other way around.”

In the midst of AI expanding, Camosy said he is “100%” sure that Pope Leo XIV is aware of the dangers that come with it. Camosy said addressing AI could be the “most ambitious and enduring project” of the pope’s legacy.

At the Vatican in June, Pope Leo said that AI “will certainly be of great help to society, provided that its employment does not undermine the identity and dignity of the human person and his or her fundamental freedoms.”

The pope added: “It must not be forgotten that artificial intelligence functions as a tool for the good of human beings, not to diminish them, not to replace them.”

“He took the name [Leo XIV] to connect himself to Leo XIII, who himself was dealing with the industrial revolution of the late 19th century,” Camosy said. 

“So he’s imagined himself in a situation where he’s saying, ‘We’re undergoing right now a similar technological change that is going to totally transform the culture. How do we respond?’”

“The Church is certainly not going to be able to control AI,” Camosy said. But, he said, Leo XIV will be able to draw from what Leo XIII articulated during the industrial revolution to say “it’s important to have developments of technology, but workers have rights.”

If AI’s presence does become too large within the work realm, Camosy said, “we won’t even think of ourselves as people who need to work or want to work. But as so many popes have said over the years, through Catholic social teaching, work is an integral part of the human experience.”

“It’s how we mirror, in some ways, God’s creative work. And how we reflect God’s image in precisely that way.”

Camosy also highlighted the risks of AI chatbots, which he said can be “super dangerous” because sometimes “people can’t tell the difference often when they’re talking to a human being or a chatbot. And to the extent that we have any sort of confusion about that, that’s really super worrisome.”

“We are flesh and blood, made in the image and likeness of God with a soul that reflects a relationship that can’t possibly be present in a chatbot,” Camosy said.

Humans must be careful with AI and chatbots because they can “absolutely” be a source of evil, especially as they can cause “horrible delusions” to some users. 

“We don’t have to go into some sort of metaphysical understanding of the relationship between the demonic and chatbots to say, ‘Of course it can be a portal for evil.’” 

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has also urged the importance of AI upholding human dignity as it progresses. 

“AI is a tool that, when informed by sound moral principles, can help overcome many of life’s obstacles and improve the human condition,” the bishops told Congress earlier this year.

“But this technology should supplement what human beings do, not replace them or their moral judgments.”

“As pastors entrusted with the care of human life and dignity, we urge lawmakers to heed the call of our Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, to help ensure that AI is developed with responsibility and discernment so that it may truly benefit every person,” the bishops said. 

With the technology progressing at a rapid rate, Camosy said: “Thank God we have the Holy Father we do.”

The Catholic Church, he said, “may be the sole countercultural voice speaking out against some of these trends.”