We Are Our Mother of Perpetual Help Parish

CNA Staff, Jul 30, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Sign language is currently one of the most popular families of languages in the world, with National Geographic estimating more than 300 forms of sign language used by more than 70 million people worldwide.

Yet most people, and even most users of sign language, may be unaware of the notable role that Catholics played in the earliest years of modern sign language, including the founding of the world’s first free school for deaf people.

That school, the National Institute for Deaf Youth of Paris, was founded in 1760 by Father Charles-Michel de l’Épée. The institute says on its website that the priest was inspired to develop a system of sign language after meeting two deaf twins. He would go on to launch a small school on the rue des Moulins in Paris that would in time become the national institution. 

Jordan Eickman, a professor of Deaf studies at California State University, Northridge, told CNA the Catholic contribution to Deaf history and Deaf education is “significant.”

“Catholic priests and nuns founded or ran several of the earliest schools and later on, others founded around the world,” he said. “Some taught using sign language, others taught using the oral method.”

With a life of “relative ease” due to a generous inheritance, l’Épée did not seek compensation for his efforts. He organized “public exercises” for his students, generating a considerable amount of interest in Deaf education. 

Though sign languages had existed in various forms for centuries, l’Épée’s contribution to Deaf history is notable for his development of what he called a “universal language” by “constructing natural signs into a method.”

In the decades after the priest’s death in 1789, the institute expanded, being led by l’Épée’s fellow priest Father Roch-Ambroise Cucurron Sicard. The revolutionary National Assembly would go on to recognize l’Épée as a “benefactor of humanity.” 

Though the Church can boast of a notable history in early Deaf education, Eickman said Catholic leaders can still do more to make the faith accessible to those who are deaf.

The Church “can increase its accessibility to Deaf people worldwide by providing direct access through local sign languages,” he said. 

This will “prevent language deprivation within Deaf education and provide Deaf people access to religious knowledge and ministry.”

At the parish level this is “best done through a Deaf priest fluent in the local signed language,” the professor said. 

“Protestant denominations have a far higher number of Deaf priests and lay leaders compared to the Catholic Church and any other religion,” he noted. “Increasing the number of Deaf priests is one way to provide accessibility and more effective ministry.”

Some leaders have already taken steps to shore up gaps in that ministry. In Maryland earlier this year, for instance, hundreds of Deaf Catholics gathered for the first-ever Eucharistic Congress for the Catholic Deaf community. The event was organized by Father Mike Depcik, one of just a few Deaf priests in the world. 

In Washington, D.C., meanwhile, the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception has begun offering specialized guided tours for deaf and blind visitors, giving immersive and sensory experiences to make the sacred site more accessible.

Writing in 1776 and reflecting on the apparent rise in deaf children throughout France, l’Épée said that number appeared to be growing “because until [the present day], children who were born deprived of the faculties of hearing and speaking were kept away from the world, because their intrusion had always been very difficult and somewhat impossible.”

Though being deaf was for centuries considered “only a dreadful situation” and a “misfortune without remedy,” l’Épée attributed such beliefs to “prejudice.” 

“This is not a question of [folly],” the priest wrote; rather, “it is a matter of doing everything we can to make ourselves useful to [those who are deaf] of today and tomorrow.”

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 29, 2025 / 17:29 pm (CNA).

Holy Name Medical Center, the only independent Catholic health system in New Jersey, announced it has received a $75 million gift, the largest-ever donation to a U.S.-based Catholic health system. 

“This transformational gift is not just about its remarkable size; it’s about the profound impact it will have on Holy Name’s ability to tackle some of the most critical health care challenges facing our community in the decades to come,” the hospital’s president and CEO, Michael Maron, said in a press release on Monday in which he announced the sizable donation from the Douglas M. Noble Family Foundation.

Holy Name Medical Center, located in Teaneck, New Jersey, hosted a special event to celebrate the gift and honor the legacy of the late Dr. Doug Noble, an accomplished neuroradiologist who passed away in 2019. His mother, Joan Noble, made the donation to the hospital on its 100th anniversary in honor of her son.

“My son was a very special person. Not only to me, as his mother, but also to the people in his world of medicine. Doug was an intelligent, dynamic individual sharing so much — energetically and with integrity and love,” Noble said at the event. “It became clear to me in order to make Doug’s legacy endure beyond any one individual’s or organization’s memory, including my own, I needed to give the gift that was Doug’s to a place that would appreciate it — and him; one that would turn his compassionate vision into reality in a way that he would endorse.”

“It was a challenging journey,” she added, “but through Father Roy Regaspi and prayer, I was blessed to be introduced to the people and mission of Holy Name. It is here at Holy Name where I found Doug’s legacy would live on.”

“In deciding where to bestow the funds of the Douglas M. Noble Family Foundation, the fact that Holy Name is a faith-based Catholic health organization entered strongly into Joan Noble’s decision,” Cathleen Davey, president of the Holy Name Foundation, told CNA. “Mrs. Noble told us she had prayed on the question for some time and that her prayers were answered with Holy Name.”

“Doug was a person of faith, and we learned that his desire to emulate Jesus as a healer was something very close to his heart,” Davey said. “Where could these funds promote the kind of medical competence and compassionate care that Doug himself delivered? Where could young physicians be trained as Doug himself taught — not only in the knowledge and skills of doctoring but in the concept of servant leadership?”

“So in getting to know Holy Name, it became apparent to Mrs. Noble that ours was the kind of health system Doug would have appreciated and endorsed,” Davey continued.

The historic gift will be used to expand the hospital’s specialized care units, according to Maron, including the hospital’s Level III neonatal intensive care unit as well as a new neuroendovascular institute.

The funds will also help launch the hospital’s graduate medical education program to help counter ongoing physician shortages.

“The potential impact is limitless — enhancing patient care, fueling medical innovation, attracting the best physician talent, and allowing us to continuously grow and adapt in line with our core values of compassion and healing,” Maron said.

New Jersey Democrat state Sen. Paul Sarlo, who is Catholic, also attended the event.

“Congratulations to Holy Name and God bless the Noble Family Foundation for this donation,” Sarlo said at the event, adding: “This does not happen in a vacuum. This family doesn’t make this contribution to any institution. It made it to Holy Name because when you walk into this place you feel like you belong. You are rooted in that Catholic mission. This gift is a compliment to each and every individual in this hospital. The work you do, day in and day out, ensures folks receive the care they need with gifts like this.”

U.S. Rep. Nellie Pou and state Sens. Joseph Lagana and Gordon Johnson were also present.

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 29, 2025 / 16:59 pm (CNA).

A coalition of Protestant denominations filed a lawsuit on July 28 to challenge a policy from U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration that makes it easier for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to arrest suspects at churches and other sensitive locations.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in January rescinded the previous administration’s guidelines that had prevented ICE agents from conducting immigration arrests at churches and other sensitive locations unless there is approval from a supervisor or there is an urgent need to take enforcement action, such as an imminent threat.

The lawsuit brought by the Protestant coalition argues that the change in policy violates the First Amendment’s right to the free exercise of religion and two federal laws: the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the Administrative Procedure Act.

Churches suing the administration over the policy include several synods of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America along with Quaker churches, Baptist churches, and community churches. The nonprofit Democracy Forward is serving as co-counsel in the lawsuit.

“Raids in churches and sacred spaces violate decades of norms in both Democratic and Republican administrations, core constitutional protections, and basic human decency,” Democracy Forward President and CEO Skye Perryman said in a statement.

“Faith communities should not have to choose between their spiritual commitments and the safety of their congregants,” Perryman said. “Democracy Forward is honored to be alongside these religious leaders in court. We will not give up until this unlawful and dangerous policy is struck down.”

Under the current rules, the formerly “sensitive” locations — such as churches, other houses of worship, schools, hospitals, shelters, and playgrounds — do not receive the special protections they had under the previous administration.

Yet a memo from DHS at the time instructed ICE agents to still maintain discretion and “balance a variety of interests” including the degree to which enforcement actions should be taken in one of those locations. It tells agents to use “a healthy dose of common sense.”

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin countered the lawsuit’s narrative in a statement provided to CNA, saying that any enforcement in houses of worship would be “extremely rare.”

“Our officers use discretion,” she said. “Officers would need secondary supervisor approval before any action can be taken in locations such as a church or a school.”

The lawsuit contends it is not enough that the discretion is “guided only by ‘common sense’” and said the policy “does not require any internal process before agents may carry out enforcement at these locations” and “does not require that exigent circumstances exist before agents enter.”

Effects of the DHS policy change

The lawsuit alleges that the policy change causes people to “reasonably fear attending houses of worship” and that some churches represented in the lawsuit “have seen both attendance and financial giving plummet.” It states that this impugns the free exercise of religion and argues that the new policy is not the least restrictive way to further the government’s interest of immigration enforcement.

“Congregations whose faith compels them to worship with open doors and open arms have suddenly had to lock those doors and train their staff how to respond to immigration raids,” the lawsuit contests. “In many places of faith across the United States, the open joy and spiritual restoration of communal worship has been replaced by isolation, concealment, and fear.”

Similar concerns have also been raised by Catholic dioceses. For example, the Diocese of San Bernardino, California, issued a Sunday Mass dispensation for those fearing deportation. Los Angeles Archbishop José Gómez said people are missing Mass amid such fears.

The lawsuit further states that the administration’s policy change has also “led to a growing number of immigration enforcement actions at or near these formerly protected areas.”

Although there are no allegations of targeted raids in churches, the lawsuit cites examples of immigration arrests on or near church properties.

It references two arrests in the San Bernardino Diocese: one in which men were chased into a church parking lot and another in which a man was doing landscaping work. It also references two arrests near churches in Los Angeles and the arrest of a man near a church in Oregon.

“The present threat of surveillance, interrogation, or arrest at their houses of worship means, among other things, fewer congregants participating in communal worship; a diminished ability to provide or participate in religious ministries; and interference with their ability to fulfill their religious mandates, including their obligations to welcome all comers to worship and not to put any person in harm’s way,” the lawsuit states.

McLaughlin, however, disputed these claims, saying that the policy change “gives our law enforcement the ability to do their jobs.”

“We are protecting our schools [and] places of worship by preventing criminal aliens and gang members from exploiting these locations and taking safe haven there because these criminals knew law enforcement couldn’t go inside under the Biden administration,” she said.

Other religious groups have brought similar lawsuits against the DHS following the policy shift.