We Are Our Mother of Perpetual Help Parish

Following weeks of settler attacks on the last entirely Christian village in Palestine, the Vicar of the Custody of the Holy Land, Fr. Ibrahim Faltas, makes an impassioned plea for peace.

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Three young seminarians from Mexico are volunteering at the Laudato Si' Village at Castel Gandolfo this summer and are helping to bring Pope Francis’ ecological dream to life—now being carried forward by Pope Leo XIV.

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A leading Cameroonian priest says the Church's idea of Synodality as a vital alternative for politics in 2025 and beyond.

Josep Lluís Iriberri helps celebrate Mass at a mountaintop basilica, swaps his priest’s robe for a hiking backpack and rallies his latest group of pilgrims literally following him in the footsteps of the 16th-century St. Ignatius.

The second season of the MISSION POSSIBLE Youth Social Hackathon concluded on Sunday, July 13, with powerful pitches, proud mentors, and a renewed sense of hope in the capacity of young people to shape a better world.

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Bishop Bohdan Manyshyn, head of Military Chaplaincy for the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, explains his office's various initiatives to support soldiers returning from the front or those who have lost loved ones.

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ACI Prensa Staff, Jul 14, 2025 / 18:10 pm (CNA).

Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris has become the most visited place in France. Since reopening its doors last December after a 2019 fire, it has welcomed more than 6 million people.

On April 15, 2019, the French capital witnessed one of the most devastating tragedies in its recent history. Its iconic cathedral — a religious, architectural, and cultural symbol that had withstood the test of centuries — was engulfed in flames.

The fire left in its wake incalculable losses, including the emblematic spire located above the transept of the church. However, the high altar was undamaged and all the works of art housed in the church, including the relic of the Crown of Thorns, were rescued and brought to a safe place.

Five years later, on Dec. 7, 2024, the cathedral doors were once again opened wide, marking a new beginning for the restored church. On that occasion, Pope Francis referred to Notre-Dame Cathedral as “a masterpiece of Christian faith and architecture,” stating that with its reopening, “sadness and mourning” gave way to joy.

Since its reopening, the influx of faithful and pilgrims to the cathedral has continued. Just one month later, the church had already received 800,000 visitors, equivalent to nearly 29,000 people per day.

The number has continued to grow. According to a recent report, the total number of visitors exceeded 6 million as of June 30, with a daily average of approximately 35,000.

The French newspaper La Tribune Dimanche reported that, in the six months since its reopening, 6.015 million people have passed through its doors.

As a result, Notre-Dame has become the most visited place in France, the cathedral’s rector, Monsignor Olivier Ribadeau Dumas, told the newspaper. The French priest also highlighted that, each month, visits average 1,000 more than the previous month.

Taking into account these numbers represent only a half a year, they are on track to exceed the 8.7 million visitors to the famous Louvre Museum all last year, the 8.7 million recorded at Versailles, and the 6.3 million people who went up the iconic Eiffel Tower.

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

CNA Staff, Jul 14, 2025 / 17:23 pm (CNA).

The village of Dolton purchased Pope Leo XIV’s boyhood home for $375,000 on Tuesday, July 8, after the village board unanimously approved its purchase at a special meeting the week before. 

Newly-elected Dolton Mayor Jason House said on July 10 that a steering committee would be formed in order to plan how to manage the property, which will become a historic site open to the public. He said the committee would then “lay out the plans to trustees and the community.”

House called for the special July 1 vote, which was unanimous, after hearing from the trustees and allowing for comment from members of the public, several of whom opposed the home purchase by the cash-strapped village.

Amid the pushback from Dolton residents who complained about the dilapidated state of local roads and the village’s high debt, House said the purchase of the childhood home of the first U.S.-born pope, Robert Francis Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, would eventually “pay for itself,” calling it a “historical opportunity.”

Dolton, a formerly prosperous village due to the industrial boom during the second half of the 20th century, has declined economically since the 1980s. The per capita income is $29,776 and 20% of the residents live in poverty, according to census data.

Trustee Edward Steave referred to the “busloads of people” in and out of the village to see the house, located at 212 E. 141st Place, since the pope’s election, emphasizing the economic benefits visitors to the historic site would bring to the community.

Also acknowledging residents’ concerns, Trustee Kiana Belcher asked them to “stand with us as we make this decision because we know it will help all of us as a village.”

Trustee Stanley Brown said that while he is not a Catholic himself, he is a Christian who would like to “help out the Catholics.”

“I just believe in this opportunity that’s been given us, and I believe in waiting on the Lord,” Brown continued. “He’s here to strengthen our town, so don’t let this opportunity get away from us!”

“We have been put on the back row … and now we have the opportunity to get on the front row, and we don’t want to let this opportunity get away from us,” he said.

Dolton City Attorney Burt Odelson agreed, telling CNA that a “world of opportunity” has opened for the small suburb, which is like “no other place in the world.”

“Things are just going to get better and better for the people of Dolton,” he said. 

On the Village of Dolton’s Facebook page on July 1, the village posted photos of the house getting a new roof, paid for by a donor, according to Odelson.

“The pope’s house continues to draw in people, bringing new energy and attention to our village. This increased traffic represents a new day in Dolton — full of potential, progress, and promise,” the village wrote on its Facebook page.

Speaking to the press after the meeting, House said he hoped the house could be “converted into its ultimate form” within 30-60 days after its purchase was finalized.

House said the village will have the help of a “number of partnerships,” possibly referring to the Archdiocese of Chicago.

As it considers next steps, Odelson said the village has done research on how former popes’ homes are preserved around the world. Last month, he told CNA that he was speaking with someone “high up” in the archdiocese who was helping “guide” the village in its goal to preserve the historic home.

The Archdiocese of Chicago did not respond to CNA’s request for comment by the time of publication.

Odelson told CNA in June that once the house was purchased, the village would set up a nonprofit charity to help fundraise for the preservation of the house and the revitalization of the neighborhood.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to preserve what many people believe is a sacred” place, Odelson told CNA about the pope’s former home. “We need to do it right and we don’t have the funds to do it right. We have to lean on others.”

People from “all over the U.S. have already offered to help preserve the house,” Odelson said, “and the charity will enable them to do so.”

On the heels of the pope’s election in May, Odelson and House said at the time that the city intended to purchase the modest three-bedroom, 1,050-square-foot brick home, which had been listed for sale since January.

Realtor Steve Budzik told CNA in May that as soon as the owner, house renovator Pawel Radzik, found out the house he had updated and listed for sale once belonged to the newly elected pope, he removed it from the market to “reassess” the situation.

Radzik relisted it for sale by auction through Paramount Realty auction house. The auction was originally set to close on June 17 but was extended by a month “to finalize negotiations with the village of Dolton,” Odelson told CNA in June.

The final sale price of $375,000 was much lower than the $1 million Budzik had said he thought the house might sell for at auction.

This story was first published on July 2, 2025, and was updated on July 14, 2025, at 5:23 p.m. ET with details on the purchase of the home.

ACI Prensa Staff, Jul 14, 2025 / 16:53 pm (CNA).

The funeral of Matteo Balzano, a young Italian priest who recently took his own life at the age of 35, was held July 8 in the presence of the faithful — especially young people — he served at the parish in Cannobio in the Piedmont region.

The bishop of Novara, Franco Giulio Brambilla, who offered the funeral Mass, gave an impromptu homily marked by hope but with considerable effort due to the fact that he was, as he put it, “devastated by grief.”

Before the tragic event, Balzano had resumed his mission among the young people at the oratory of the parish in Cannobio, so Brambilla wanted to address them in particular: “I was struck by the inconsolable grief of the young people, the same ones who are here before us today,” he commented.

‘You always believed in all of us and in every one of our dreams’

A young woman named Alessia then read a letter addressed to Balzano on behalf of the young people he had served. “Even in our most difficult moments, you always managed to get us to smile, telling us something silly or teasing us, as you often did.”

The young woman thanked him for bringing “life back” to the oratory and for valuing “each of our strengths.” With nostalgia, Alessia stated that, from the very beginning, the priest became “a fundamental pillar,” a person “to whom I could confide anything, even the most foolish, because for me, you were not just my priest, my confessor, or my ‘superior,’ for me, you were above all a friend.”

She also recalled how the young people were “fascinated” by Balzano’s talks and highlighted his ability to involve them all. “You always believed in all of us and in every one of our dreams. You managed to help us face many insecurities and bring out the best in us.”

“We will remember every laugh, every joke, every day together, because with your presence you knew how to make everything special. Our relationship has not ended; it has only transformed, because now you will be our guardian forever,” the young woman concluded.

Speaking again, Brambilla affirmed with hope that “the Lord will be close to us through the affectionate memory of Don Matteo, which each of us holds in our hearts and which will come to our aid in life’s critical moments.”

Addressing the faithful of the Diocese of Novara, Brambilla openly shared that the “unimaginable and incomprehensible news of the traumatic death” of the young priest left him “shocked and speechless.”

He also expressed his gratitude to the priests and laypeople who have written to the diocese to express their closeness: “I have noticed that, above all, such a tragic circumstance has made us rediscover what is true, profoundly true, in our lives: the profound bond that unites us in the Lord Jesus,” he noted.

He then shared some reflections that he said arose from his “heart torn apart” by grief.

Helping priests stay the course 

First, he recalled when Jesus sent the apostles to prepare the Passover and explained that, in the same way, all the faithful “must help the bishop, the families of priests, the priests, and especially the younger ones, not lose the compass that points to the deepest meaning of the priest’s mission: to prepare the Passover, to eat the Passover.”

“Preparation, setting the table for Passover, is the meaning of our entire mission, which means guiding the life of every person, every family, every child, adolescent, and young person to understand that the most difficult, but also the most beautiful moment of life, is to go through the Passover, which means ‘passage,’” he explained.

He pointed out that, when difficulties arise, “it’s important to understand that there is something greater that drives us forward, and that is the Lord Jesus who dies with us, accompanies us, and makes us rise with him.” Thus, he encouraged priests to “never lose” the sense of this reality.

Faced with this reality, he emphasized that “our language, our ways of speaking, must be edifying and reveal the communion that unites us. Only in the face of the truth of life and death can it be revealed whether our language edifies and whether our actions build communion,” he added.

He also noted that, after what happened, he understood that “we must learn to listen to each other, to speak the truth more simply, to not hide our most intimate sufferings, to be open with one another in a transparent way, because this is the essential condition for building together the preparation for Jesus’ Passover.”

At the end of his homily, he invited those present to “take more care for the soul” and give less importance to material things: “Our homes are too full of things, but poor in what is meaningful for living,” he said.

“Don Matteo’s presence, his contagious spirit, his beautiful person, all these people present today in these saddest of circumstances, reveal to us precisely that there exists a profound bond, without which we run the risk of suffering from spiritual anemia,” he commented.

The Italian prelate confessed that he doesn’t know if his heart “will ever stop crying, but I know that from now on and forever I will never be able to forget Don Matteo.”

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