We Are Our Mother of Perpetual Help Parish

Josef Blotz, Grand Hospitaller of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta since February 2025, speaks to Vatican News about the Order’s priorities to help people in areas of conflict like Ukraine and Gaza, while combining spiritual mission with providing humanitarian aid.

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The Apostolic Constitution ‘Praedicate Evangelium: On the Roman Curia and Its Service to the Church in the World’, promulgated by Pope Francis in 2022, outlines the mission and the duties of each Dicastery.

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 10, 2025 / 17:55 pm (CNA).

Bishop Alberto Rojas of the diocese of San Bernardino, California has granted a dispensation from the obligation to attend Sunday Mass for those within the diocese who fear deportation. 

The bishop said all of the faithful within the diocese who possess “genuine fear” of arrest while attending Mass are dispensed from the obligation until further notice, and are "encouraged to maintain their spiritual communion with Christ and His Church through acts of personal prayer.” 

In a July 8 statement, Rojas said the decision to grant the dispensation came after he recognized that “fear of immigration enforcement raids by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) may deter some members of our diocese from fulfilling the obligation to attend Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation.” 

According to John Andrews, the director of communications for the diocese, attendance for Spanish language Masses across the diocese has been “down about 50 percent,” since around the time raids began in Southern California last month. 

Andrews told CNA the diocese is aware of two recent instances of ICE enforcement actions on church properties, with both taking place on June 20. 

One of the instances, he said, occurred at St. Adelaide Church in Highland and “involved several men who had been working in the neighborhood where the church is located.” The men were chased into the church parking lot and detained, according to Andrews, who said “we do not know whether these men were actually arrested.”

The second instance occurred at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Montclair, and "involved the apprehension and arrest of one man who was on parish property to do landscaping work,” Andrews told CNA, adding: “He and his family are longtime parishioners there and we know that he was arrested and ultimately sent to a detention facility in Texas.” 

“There is real fear gripping many in our parish communities,” said Rojas in a separate statement to CNA. “I want our immigrant communities to know that their Church stands with them and walks with them through this trying time.” 

A bishop is enabled under the Code of Canon Law to provide dispensations for the faithful under his care “whenever he judges that it contributes to their spiritual good.”

“I know that they would be in church if not for this threat to their safety and their family unity,” the bishop added. “With all the worry and anxiety that they are feeling, I wanted to take away, for a time, the burden they may be feeling from not being able to fulfill this commitment to which our Catholic faithful are called.”

In the July 8 announcement, which was also signed by Vicar General Msgr. Gerard López, Rojas stipulated that priests within the diocese must seek ways to provide support to those affected, and that parishes must also "explore alternative means of catechesis and sacramental preparation for those unable to attend regularly.” 

“In issuing this decree, I am guided by the Church’s mission to care for the spiritual welfare of all entrusted to my care, particularly those who face fear or hardship,” the bishop declared. 

This past May, the Diocese of Nashville also granted a Sunday Mass dispensation to “those in our diocese [who] are concerned about the possibility of being confronted or detained while attending Mass or other parish events.” 

ICE: agency 'does not indiscriminately take enforcement actions’ at churches

An ICE spokesperson told CNA, “While ICE is not subject to previous restrictions on immigration operations at sensitive locations, to include schools, churches and courthouses, ICE does not indiscriminately take enforcement actions at these locations.” 

“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests aliens who commit crimes and other individuals who have violated our nation’s immigration laws,” the spokesperson noted, adding: “All aliens in violation of U.S. immigration law may be subject to arrest, detention and, if found removable by final order, removed from the United States.”

In January 2025, the Department of Homeland Security removed places of worship from its sensitive locations list, allowing ICE agents to carry out immigration enforcement procedures. 

Following a lawsuit from a group of 27 religious organizations, ICE was temporarily blocked in March from carrying out deportations in places of worship. However, a federal judge in April found the organizations did not have legal standing, thereby allowing operations to continue.

In an interview with CNA last week, Andrew Arthur, a former immigration judge and current fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, expressed doubt that ICE would carry out extensive raids in Catholic churches. 

He noted that while it’s possible a dangerous criminal could be targeted for enforcement at a church, “it’s not like they’re going to sweep through Sunday Mass looking for people.”

Rome Newsroom, Jul 10, 2025 / 17:29 pm (CNA).

For the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly established by Pope Francis and celebrated this year on July 27, Pope Leo XIV has issued a message of hope to the elderly.

At the beginning of his message, the Holy Father evoked the Jubilee Year to remind the faithful that "hope is a constant source of joy, whatever our age." 

He cited some elderly biblical figures, such as Abraham and Sarah, Moses, and Zechariah, whom the Lord surprised in "an act of saving power": "God repeatedly demonstrates his providential care by turning to people in their later years," he explained.

The pontiff noted that by making these choices, "God thus teaches us that, in his eyes, old age is a time of blessing and grace, and that the elderly are, for him, the first witnesses of hope."

Life is more than the present moment

He then emphasized that the increasing number of elderly people "is a sign of the times that we are called to discern, in order to properly interpret this moment of history."

The Holy Father noted that "embracing the elderly helps us to understand that life is more than just the present moment, and should not be wasted in superficial encounters and fleeting relationships. Instead, life is constantly pointing us toward the future."

He also emphasized that "if it is true that the weakness of the elderly needs the strength of the young, it is equally true that the inexperience of the young needs the witness of the elderly in order to build the future with wisdom.”

“How often our grandparents have been for us examples of faith and devotion, civic virtue and social commitment, memory and perseverance amid trials! The precious legacy that they have handed down to us with hope and love will always be a source of gratitude and a summons to perseverance,” he said.

In the context of the Jubilee Year, he invited the faithful to “to break through the barriers of indifference …” and to give of themselves to prevent feelings of loneliness and abandonment among the elderly.

“Our societies, everywhere in the world, are growing all too accustomed to letting this significant and enriching part of their life be marginalized and forgotten,” he lamented.

Protagonists of the “revolution” of gratitude and care

The pope emphasized that every parish, association, or church group is called to be “protagonists in a ‘revolution’ of gratitude and care,” and that this must be done “by regular visits to the elderly, the creation of networks of support and prayer for them and with them, and the forging of relationships that can restore hope and dignity to those who feel forgotten.”

“Christian hope always urges us to be more daring, to think big, to be dissatisfied with things the way they are … [and] to work for a change that can restore esteem and affection,” he explained.

The Holy Father recalled that Pope Francis wanted the faithful, and especially young people, to reach out to those who are alone. He noted that those who cannot make the pilgrimage to Rome this year will be able to obtain the Jubilee indulgence if they visit the elderly alone for an appropriate amount of time.

The freedom to love and to pray 

Addressing grandparents and the elderly, Pope Leo XIV encouraged them not to lose hope, even in those moments when they are tempted “to look not to the future but to the past.”

"We possess a freedom that no difficulty can rob us of: it is the freedom to love and to pray. Everyone, always, can love and pray," he emphasized

The pope also recalled Pope Francis's words during his last hospitalization: "our bodies are weak, but even so, nothing can prevent us from loving, praying, giving ourselves, being there for one another, in faith, as shining signs of hope."

Pope Leo XIV also indicated that "affection for our loved ones – for the wife or husband with whom we have spent so much of our lives, for our children, for our grandchildren who brighten our days – does not fade when our strength wanes."

“Indeed, their own affection often revives our energy and brings us hope and comfort,” he added.

Therefore, the pontiff continued, “especially as we grow older, let us press forward with confidence in the Lord. May we be renewed each day by our encounter with him in prayer and in Holy Mass.”

“Let us lovingly pass on the faith we have lived for so many years, in our families and in our daily encounter with others. May we always praise God for his goodness, cultivate unity with our loved ones, open our hearts to those who are far away and, in particular, to all those in need. In this way, we will be signs of hope, whatever our age,” the pope concluded.

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

CNA Newsroom, Jul 10, 2025 / 17:10 pm (CNA).

Here is a roundup of recent pro-life and abortion-related news.

Studies debunk pro-abortion maternal health, 'OB-GYNs exodus' claims

Recently released peer-reviewed research is disputing what pro-life researchers call “fear-mongering narratives” about maternal health and OB-GYNs. 

A peer reviewed study published last week found that the maternal morbidity — health problems following pregnancy or giving birth — remained unchanged in states with pro-life protections for unborn children. 

But in pro-abortion states, maternal morbidity rates increased significantly, according to the study published by BMC Public Health. Additionally, the infant mortality rate remained the same in states with pro-life protections.

The so-called “OB-GYN exodus,” the claim that OB-GYNs were fleeing pro-life states, is also untrue, according to a recent JAMA article. The article found that OB-GYNs aren’t fleeing states with pro-life protections. 

About 94% of OB-GYNs stayed in the same practice location when their state implemented pro-life protections, which is nearly the same as the 95.8% in pro-abortion states, according to a Charlotte Lozier Institute spokeswoman. 

Ingrid Skop, the vice president and director of medical affairs at the Lozier Institute and a board-certified OB-GYN, said that following the Dobbs decision, abortion activists “tried to convince the public that legal protections for the unborn would force OB-GYNs to leave pro-life states, and that pregnancy-related complications for women and infant mortality would increase.”

But this recent data, Skop said, “shows the fearmongering didn’t match the facts.” 

"It turns out that providing better quality, life-affirming medical care protects the lives of both mothers and babies,” Skop told CNA. “The fearmongering narratives alleging otherwise have been disproven.” 

Nearly three in 10 unborn babies aborted in England and Wales 

Nearly three in 10 pregnancies ended in abortion in 2022 in England and Wales, according to government statistics.

Abortions are at the highest levels since recording began in England and Wales, according to recent data from the Office for National Statistics. 

Abortions are up from about two in 10 a decade earlier. The percent of pregnancies ending in abortions went from 20.8% in 2012 to 26.5% in 2021, and has now reached 29.7% in 2022.

The numbers came out soon after the British Parliament voted to decriminalize illegal abortions in June. 

Abortions drop in South Carolina by 63%

Two years after South Carolina’s six-week heartbeat protection law went into effect in May of 2023, the state health department is reporting that legal abortions have plummeted.

From 2023 to 2024, the state saw a 63% drop in abortion, per the annual abortion report. This was the first full year that the Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act was in effect. In 2023, there were a reported 8,187 abortions, but the number dropped by more than half a year later, to 3,025 abortions statewide in 2024.

Lisa Van Riper, the president of South Carolina Citizens for Life, said the state pro-life organization “rejoices in these numbers,” citing the “the preservation of the precious little lives,” according to a statement by the National Right to Life.

The National Right to Life group also condemned the disproportionate amount of abortions of black babies. While 26% of South Carolina is black, 41% of aborted babies were black children, the group noted.

Vatican City, Jul 10, 2025 / 16:30 pm (CNA).

“I was on the edge of a precipice, dead inside, at the very bottom of a dark pit.”

With these stark words, Spanish priest Salvador Aguado Miguel shared his testimony following the suicide last week of young Father Matteo Balzano, an event that has shaken the Catholic Church, especially in Italy.

In the wake of this tragedy, Aguado shared on social media something he had not said publicly until now: “Five years ago, I was in the same place, on the edge of that precipice, at the bottom of that dark pit. Thank goodness Manuel, my psychologist, came into my life; he was like an angel who rescued me, sent by God.

"It's very, very hard to be in that situation,” the priest wrote on Instagram.

The pastor of Holy Faith parish in Valencia, Spain, revealed that he went through an extremely difficult period of anxiety, during which he felt “dead inside.” He confessed that the pressure was so intense that he even considered “getting out of the way.” 

The importance of mental health

Speaking with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, Aguado said he “really identified” with Balzano, because often “we are not aware of those demands we make on ourselves or all the pressures we subject ourselves to.”

“We’re not superheroes…we also go through emotional lows,” the priest explained, emphasizing that seeking professional help, especially a psychologist, “is not a bad thing, but quite the opposite.”

For Aguado, it is urgent to raise greater awareness about mental health and the importance of psychological help “at all levels.”

The ‘idealization’ of the priesthood

The priest lamented the criticism or stigmatization of those who have experienced depression or publicly shared their suffering, and expressed his sorrow for the judgment passed on Balzano following his suicide. 

“We have to put ourselves in the shoes of these people. Recognizing something like that is not easy; I know this from experience. In those moments, no matter how much faith or commitment you may have, managing such profound suffering is extremely difficult,” he pointed out.

Aguado added that one of the reasons that leads to the demands and pressure on priests is the “idealization” of the priesthood: “We forget that human side, that fragile side.”

The self-imposed need to always give his best and the false belief that he must be available 24/7 pushed the priest to the limit, to the point of even considering leaving the priesthood. “We too need our space: going to the movies, taking a walk, having coffee with another priest or a parishioner,” he explained.

A deeply Catholic psychologist

Regarding his experience with the psychologist, whom he described as “an angel” and a true gift from the Lord, he emphasized the great difference it made that he was a “deeply Catholic” person.

“During the sessions, we also worked with the Bible. He often encouraged me to read what Jesus did in this or that passage,” reflecting on the “more psychological” side of Jesus, the priest recounted.

Addressing priests who may be going through a similar situation, Aguado encouraged them to “allow themselves to be touched by the fragility of the Lord and understand that, in the end, we are not made of iron, but rather flesh and blood.”

He advised them to remove the “mask” that “everything is fine” and learn to “combine human and priestly reality at the same time.” Above all, he recommended “allowing themselves to be accompanied by professionals” and to draw from resources within the parish or pastoral ministry, “which is always very helpful.”

In addition to self-imposed demands, he noted that criticism, from both clergy and laity, also caused him a lot of pain. “I learned to deal with all those critical and angry attacks with the Bible,” he explained.

The Lord always draws a lesson from evil

The Spanish priest, who last winter experienced firsthand the tragedy of the catastrophic flooding in Valencia, which caused more than 200 deaths and extensive property damage, emphasized that “the Lord always draws a lesson from every evil.”

In his case, he says, he found his passion for digital evangelization, something that has helped him "discover that unique gift that the Lord has placed in my life." Now, he enthusiastically evangelizes through social media, where he has more than 50,000 followers.

Improving formation in seminaries

To anticipate these situations, Aguado suggested more mental health formation in seminaries: "We receive a lot of formation in spirituality and theology, but we don't have any formation in mental health," he said.

According to the priest, they also lack a place to turn when they are in a bad way such as a team of psychologists in the diocese who can help them through the most difficult moments. "I believe it is essential, in addition to the seminary, which is the place of formation par excellence, to have follow-up support."

Aguado concluded with hope, emphasizing that the important thing is to recognize the problem, "realize that there is something to change in your life," and take the steps to get help.

Help is available

If you or someone you know is experiencing an emotional crisis or having suicidal thoughts, remember that the Catholic Church offers spiritual guidance, prayer, and listening spaces, and encourages seeking professional help. You can contact helplines, such as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline for your country, or go to your parish, where you will find pastoral support and resources. The Catholic Church teaches that life is a gift from God and compassionately accompanies those who suffer, without judging, and offers hope, prayer, and comfort to affected families.

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 10, 2025 / 16:05 pm (CNA).

A circuit court blocked a West Virginia agency from awarding a $5 million grant to St. Joseph the Worker, an Ohio-based Catholic trade college that planned to expand into the state.

In a bench ruling, Judge Richard Lindsay found that the planned grant would violate Article III of the West Virginia Constitution, which forbids the government from using tax funds “for the erection or repair of any house for public worship or for the support of any church or ministry.”

The grant had been approved by the West Virginia Water Development Authority for the purpose of economic development. The American Humanist Association filed a lawsuit against the agency for awarding the grant and had legal representation from the West Virginia American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

“We’re proud to have taken a stand on behalf of our members and are encouraged that the court held the line on this unconstitutional appropriation of funds,” American Humanist Association Legal Director Amitai Heller said in a statement.

“The separation of church and state is a non-negotiable, and the [water authority] had no business granting public infrastructure dollars to fund religious education and advocacy,” Heller said. 

“Our members saw this blatant violation of church-state separation happening in their community and in concert with the ACLU of West Virginia, we acted,” he said.

The ruling was announced in a news release from the humanist group. Because the judge delivered an oral ruling from the bench, a written order was not available as of Thursday afternoon. A spokesman for the group told CNA a written order is expected within the next 30 days.

According to the humanist organization, the court gave the water authority 30 days to submit a filing to the court that shows compliance with the order.

St. Joseph the Worker, which is based in Steubenville, Ohio, teaches construction-related trades such as carpentry, HVAC, electrical, and plumbing. It also offers a bachelor’s degree in Catholic studies along with the trade lessons.

The grant money would have supported job training and education programs based in West Virginia. It would have also supported the creation of a non-profit construction company that would have employed students to work on community revitalization projects that would not be profitable enough to receive private investment.

A spokesperson for St. Joseph the Worker was not available to provide a comment by press time.

When reached for comment, West Virginia Water Development Authority Executive Director Marie Prezioso declined to comment on the ruling directly.

“[A]ny comments … will be made in public court filings or other public disclosures,” Prezioso said. She did not respond to a followup email asking whether the water authority plans to appeal the ruling.

The decision to block the grant comes about two weeks after the court rejected the authority’s request for the lawsuit to be dismissed.

Vatican City, Jul 10, 2025 / 15:15 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Thursday said developers and users of artificial intelligence (AI) are jointly responsible for ensuring innovations uphold human dignity and the common good in his message to participants of the 2025 AI for Good Summit taking place in Geneva, Switzerland.

"Although responsibility for the ethical use of AI systems begins with those who develop, manage and oversee them, those who use them also share in this responsibility,” the Holy Father said in a message to participants at the July 8-11 global meeting. 

The letter, signed by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, expressed the pope’s call for “regulatory frameworks centered on the human person” and “proper ethical management” of AI technologies on local and global levels.

“Humanity is at a crossroads, facing the immense potential generated by the digital revolution driven by artificial intelligence,” the pope said. “The impact of this revolution is far-reaching, transforming areas such as education, work, art, healthcare, governance, the military, and communication.”

In spite of these global advancements, Leo commented that approximately 2.6 billion persons living in rural and low-income areas do not even have access to basic communication technologies.

“This epochal transformation requires responsibility and discernment to ensure that AI is developed and utilized for the common good, building bridges of dialogue and fostering fraternity, and ensuring it serves the interests of humanity as a whole,” he said.

While AI can perform specific tasks, “simulate” human reasoning, or technically enhance global cooperation with speed and efficiency, Leo said it “cannot replicate moral discernment or the ability to form genuine relationships.   

“Ultimately, we must never lose sight of the common goal of contributing to that ‘tranquillitas ordinis — the tranquility of order,’ as St. Augustine called it,” he said, “and fostering a more humane order of social relations, and peaceful and just societies in the service of integral human development and the good of the human family.” 

Just days into his pontificate, at his first meeting with the College of Cardinals on May 10, Pope Leo identified AI as “another industrial revolution” that can “pose new challenges for the defence of human dignity, justice and labor.”