We Are Our Mother of Perpetual Help Parish

ACI Prensa Staff, Oct 23, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

The bishop of Chartres, France, Philippe Christory, addressed a letter to the senators of Eure-et-Loir, a region belonging to his diocese, in which he stated that assisted suicide and euthanasia contradict “an immemorial law: You shall not kill.”

The French prelate’s letter comes at a crucial moment as the “end-of-life” bill is under legislative review after years of political pressure to legalize euthanasia in the country.

The bill, filed last May, introduces the concept of “assistance in dying,” a term that encompasses both euthanasia — where a third party directly administers the lethal substance — and assisted suicide, in which the patient performs the final act. 

Although the procedure must be subject to a medical evaluation, the legislative proposal also provides that adults suffering from a serious and incurable condition that causes unbearable physical or psychological suffering could be eligible.

On May 24 of this year, members of the National Assembly approved the creation of an offense for obstructing access to “assistance in dying,” which would criminalize any attempt to prevent the act itself or access to information about it.

In this context, Christory appealed to the right to conscientious objection of those doctors who “cannot contemplate committing a lethal act,” as it would go against their conscience “and the very purpose of their profession, which is to care for and support patients in their life project even if this is moving toward its physical end.”

The bishop denounced the French Legislature’s lack of support for these professionals as “unacceptable,” since “freedom of conscience should never be taken away or limited; it’s a fundamental right of every person.”

After lamenting the high suicide rate in France — more than 8,000 suicides were recorded in 2023 — Christory recalled that the essence of an advanced civilization “is to promote life and support the lives of those who suffer” and noted that those who ask to end their lives often lack support.

“The end of life can be a decisive moment for reconsideration, reconciliation, and sharing with loved ones,” he added. At the end of his letter, he urged the senators to “promote a plan for life, not a plan for death that would stain our culture.”

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

CNA Staff, Oct 23, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

During Pastoral Care Week, celebrated Oct. 19–25, a Catholic psychotherapist encouraged a group of Catholic chaplains and ministers to pursue prayer, rest, and self-care in light of burnout — a challenge that often accompanies their unique work.

At an Oct. 22 webinar, “Carrying the Cross Without Burnout: Self-Care for Catholic Chaplains,” Adrienne Koller, a Catholic psychotherapist and founder of Strong Self Psychotherapy, encouraged chaplains to make time for spiritual and emotional renewal. 

The webinar, organized by the National Association of Catholic Chaplains (NACC), a group that educates and supports Catholic chaplains across the country, highlighted the importance of finding rest amid the emotional toll of ministry.

“God doesn’t call us to self-erasure,” Koller told the nearly 100 chaplains who attended the webinar. “He calls us to stewardship of our bodies, our minds, and spirits.”

Koller described self-care as “stewardship” and “caring for the vessel God entrusted to you.”

“One of the most powerful mindset shifts I’ve seen in ministry is this: Self-care is not selfishness; it’s stewardship,” Koller said. “You are the vessel God entrusted with the work he gave you, and taking care of that vessel honors him.”

“You’re not taking away from your calling. You’re strengthening it,” she said. “Renewal isn’t an indulgence — it’s obedience.” 

Erica Cohen Moore, executive director of NACC, highlighted the importance of caring for chaplains, both during Pastoral Care Week and throughout the year. 

“Our chaplains are often called into spaces where few others are willing or able to go,” Cohen Moore told CNA. “They serve people in some of the most marginalized and challenging situations, where grief and suffering can be profound.” 

Pastoral Care Week “gives opportunities for organizations and institutions of all types to recognize the spiritual caregivers in their midst and the ministry that the caregivers provide,” according to the NACC’s website.

Chaplains are often priests, but seminarians, deacons, religious brothers and sisters, and laymen and laywomen can all serve as chaplains, providing professional spiritual and emotional support in a range of areas — often in prisons, hospitals, fire departments, and campuses.  

To help prepare and support chaplains, the NACC offers a variety of resources, training, community, and support for chaplains, both Catholic and non-Catholic. 

What does burnout look like? 

“Over the years, I’ve walked with countless individuals who appear incredibly strong on the outside yet wrestle with exhaustion, doubt, or the feeling that their work has taken more from them than they have time to replenish,” Koller told attendees. 

Koller noted that the “emotional weight” of service can lead to burnout.

“That emotional weight, it doesn’t mean you’re doing something wrong; it means you’re human,” she said. “But we do take on that emotional weight, and that can lead, if unchecked, to burnout.”  

“Burnout doesn’t happen because we’re weak or we’re incapable,” Koller continued. “It happens because we care deeply, we give fully, and sometimes we forget to refill our own cup.”

To combat the weight of service, Koller encouraged ministers to pray before and after each difficult meeting or encounter, and to offer the weight of those challenges to the Lord. She also led the group in grounding prayer exercises that incorporate breathing into prayer. 

Cohen Moore noted that burnout is a “very real concern” that chaplains face — one that her organization works to combat through the resources they provide.  

The association educates chaplains with a program called Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE), which is “a process that equips them to manage burnout and care for themselves and one another,” according to Cohen Moore.

The group also offers webinars on topics such as self-care, mental illness and trauma, and mental health, as well as networking groups and in-person gatherings, and publishes a magazine called Works of Hope.

The association plans to launch a learning institute early next year to include a course on “sustaining pastoral ministers and helping them avoid burnout,” Cohen Moore said. 

“Burnout is a very real concern in our field, and we take it seriously as we continue exploring new ways to provide care and connection,” Cohen Moore said. 

‘I will give you rest’ 

When Koller speaks with “those in service, especially chaplains and first responders,” she said that one verse “always comes to mind.” 

In Matthew 11:28, Jesus says: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.”

Koller noted that Christ “doesn’t say: ‘Keep pushing, work harder, work harder, deplete yourself, run yourself into the ground.” 

“No — he says, ‘Come to me,’” she said.

“That invitation isn’t to perform,” Koller continued. “It’s to rest, in a way, to surrender the illusion that we have to carry everything alone. That’s where our renewal begins.”

ACI Prensa Staff, Oct 23, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Antonia Salzano, the mother of St. Carlo Acutis, who was present with the rest of her family at his canonization on Sept. 7, recently shared what it’s like to be the mother of a saint and offered valuable advice to other mothers who, like her, have gone through the painful experience of the death of a child.

Salzano shared having had the opportunity to attend the canonization with Assunta Carlini Goretti, the mother of St. Maria Goretti, who saw the child martyr of purity declared a saint on June 24, 1950.

When asked what it is like to be the mother of a saint, Salzano in an interview with “EWTN Noticias,” the Spanish-language broadcast edition of EWTN News, said: “Naturally, it’s a privilege, but also a duty, because first and foremost, I have to become a saint myself, because the call is also for me. I have to set an example.”

The mother of St. Carlo Acutis, who died at age 15 in 2006 from leukemia, emphasized that being the mother of a saint is also “a call to help others, because people are in darkness. Many people haven’t found God.”

The saint’s parents — Salzano and her husband, Andrea Acutis — accompanied by his younger twin siblings, Michele and Francesca, brought the offertory gifts to Pope Leo XIV during the canonization Mass.

“If I can give advice, speak a good word to help souls, I do it gladly, with great love, because I think the most important thing is to find God in our lives and live in God’s light,” emphasized the mother of St. Carlo, the “Apostle of the Eucharist” who created a virtual exhibition on Eucharistic miracles around the world.

Salzano’s counsel to those who have suffered the death of a child

“The important thing is to understand that what matters is loving God [and] our neighbor. This is the most important thing. If you lose your child, it’s not that you’ve lost him or her for eternity. It’s not goodbye. It’s to find yourself in another, more beautiful life, with God, with God’s light,” Salzano said.

“Carlo said that death is the passage to true life. Whoever is afraid of death does so because they don’t trust in God, they don’t have faith in God. Because if we have trust in God, we cannot be afraid of death,” she continued.

The only thing we should fear, Salzano pointed out, “is sin, because this can separate us forever from God. Death is ultimately the encounter with the beloved, the encounter with the most beautiful thing in the universe, with God.”

“Carlo began going to Mass every day when he was 7 years old. He wrote on that occasion: ‘To always be united to Jesus, this is my life plan,’” Salzano recalled.

“The encounter with Jesus was the most important part of his day. Naturally, this didn’t prevent Carlo from having a normal life, like all young people — his studies, his sports, all his friends — but for Carlo, the central focus was the encounter with Jesus truly present in the Blessed Sacrament,” Salzano said.

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

Feast date: Oct 23

On Oct. 23, the Catholic Church celebrates the life of Saint John of Capistrano, a Franciscan priest whose life included a political career, extensive missionary journeys, efforts to reunite separated Eastern Christians with Rome and a historically important turn at military leadership.

Invoked as a patron of military chaplains, St. John of Capistrano was praised by St. John Paul II in a 2002 general audience for his “glorious evangelical witness,” as a priest who “gave himself with great generosity for the salvation of souls.”

Born in Italy during 1385, John lost his father – a French or possibly German knight who had settled in Capistrano – at a young age. John’s mother took care to have him educated, and after learning Latin he went to study both civil law and Church law in Perugia. An outstanding student, he soon became a prominent public figure and was appointed governor of the city at age 26.

John showed high standards of integrity in his civic career, and in 1416 he labored to end a war that had erupted between Perugia and the prominent House of Malatesta. But when the nobles had John imprisoned, he began to question his life’s direction. Encountering Saint Francis of Assisi in a dream, he resolved to embrace poverty, chastity, and obedience with the Franciscans.

Abandoning his possessions and social status, John joined the religious order in October 1416. He found a mentor in Saint Bernardine of Siena, known for his bold preaching and his method of prayer focused on the invocation of the name of Jesus. Taking after his teacher in these respects, John began preaching as a deacon in 1420, and was ordained a priest in 1425.

John successfully defended his mentor from a charge of heresy made against his way of devotion, though he found less success in his efforts to resolve internal controversy among the followers of St. Francis. A succession of popes entrusted important matters to John, including the effort to reunite Eastern and Western Christendom at the Ecumenical Council of Florence.

Drawing immense crowds in his missionary travels throughout Italy, John also found success as a preacher in Central Europe, where he opposed the Hussites’ error regarding the nature and administration of the Eucharist. After Constantinople fell to Turkish invaders in 1453, Pope Nicholas V sent John on a mission to rally other European leaders in defense of their lands.

Nicholas’ successor Pope Callixtus III was even more eager to see the Christian world defend itself against the invading forces. When the Sultan Mehmet II sought to extend his territorial gains into Serbia and Hungary, John joined the celebrated general Janos Hunyadi in his defense of Belgrade. The priest personally led a section of the army in its historic victory on Aug. 6, 1456.

Neither John nor the general, however, would survive long past the battle.

Weakened by the campaign against the Turks, Hunyadi became sick and died soon after the victory at Belgrade. John survived to preach Janos Hunyadi’s funeral sermon; but his own extraordinary life came to an end after a painful illness, on Oct. 23, 1456. St. John of Capistrano was canonized in 1724.

CNA Staff, Oct 23, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).

On Oct. 23, the Catholic Church celebrates the life of St. John of Capistrano, a Franciscan priest whose life included a political career, extensive missionary journeys, efforts to reunite separated Eastern Christians with Rome, and a historically important turn at military leadership.

Invoked as a patron of military chaplains, St. John of Capistrano was praised by St. John Paul II — whose feast day was yesterday, Oct. 22 — in a 2002 general audience for his “glorious evangelical witness” and as a priest who “gave himself with great generosity for the salvation of souls.”

Born in Italy in 1385, John lost his father — a French or possibly German knight who had settled in Capistrano — at a young age. John’s mother took care to have him educated, and after learning Latin he went on to study both civil law and Church law in Perugia. An outstanding student, he soon became a prominent public figure and was appointed governor of the city at age 26.

John showed high standards of integrity in his civic career, and in 1416 he labored to end a war that had erupted between Perugia and the prominent House of Malatesta. But when the nobles had John imprisoned, he began to question his life’s direction. Encountering St. Francis of Assisi in a dream, he resolved to embrace poverty, chastity, and obedience with the Franciscans.

Abandoning his possessions and social status, John joined the religious order in October 1416. He found a mentor in St. Bernardine of Siena, known for his bold preaching and his method of prayer focused on the invocation of the name of Jesus. Taking after his teacher in these respects, John began preaching as a deacon in 1420 and was ordained a priest in 1425.

John successfully defended his mentor from a charge of heresy made against his way of devotion, though he found less success in his efforts to resolve internal controversy among the followers of St. Francis. A succession of popes entrusted important matters to John, including the effort to reunite Eastern and Western Christendom at the Ecumenical Council of Florence.

Drawing immense crowds in his missionary travels throughout Italy, John also found success as a preacher in Central Europe, where he opposed the Hussites’ error regarding the nature and administration of the Eucharist. After Constantinople fell to Turkish invaders in 1453, Pope Nicholas V sent John on a mission to rally other European leaders in defense of their lands.

Nicholas’ successor Pope Callixtus III was even more eager to see the Christian world defend itself against the invading forces. When Sultan Mehmet II sought to extend his territorial gains into Serbia and Hungary, John joined the celebrated general Janos Hunyadi in his defense of Belgrade. The priest personally led a section of the army in its historic victory on Aug. 6, 1456.

Neither John nor the general, however, would survive long past the battle.

Weakened by the campaign against the Turks, Hunyadi became sick and died soon after the victory at Belgrade. John survived to preach Hunyadi’s funeral sermon, but his own extraordinary life came to an end after a painful illness on Oct. 23, 1456. St. John of Capistrano was canonized in 1724.

This story was first published on Oct. 21, 2012, and has been updated.

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