We Are Our Mother of Perpetual Help Parish

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 10, 2025 / 09:20 am (CNA).

Since last year, there has been a 32% decline in U.S. child abuse allegations against Catholic clergy, according to the 2024 annual report of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Secretariat of Child and Youth Protection.  

Overall, “902 allegations were reported by 855 victims-survivors of child sexual abuse by clergy,” the report said, compared with 1,308 allegations by 1,254 survivors last year. 

Covering July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024, the annual report is based on a survey of 195 U.S. Catholic dioceses and eparchies, drawn from data collected by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University as well as an audit by StoneBridge Business Partners. 

The annual reporting stems from the U.S. bishops’ 2002 creation of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, which established a framework and protocols related to allegations of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy.

A total of 717 clerics were accused within the most recent audit period, with the majority of those accused (54%) being already deceased.

StoneBridge also pointed out several cases of noncompliance by jurisdictions and entities that are in violation of the articles established in the 2018 revision of the youth protection charter.

The Diocese of Our Lady of Deliverance Syriac Catholic Church in the USA, for example, was noncompliant due to the absence of a safe environment training program and for not completing background checks on volunteers.

The Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, Pennsylvania, meanwhile, was cited by not having a functional review board during the audit period.

“Measuring charter compliance allows each diocese/eparchy to assess strengths and weaknesses and identify programmatic areas requiring improvement, which are critical in our mission of protecting our children,” the report said.

The report restated the Catholic Church’s commitment “to work to ensure the safety of children and vulnerable adults by performing background checks on clergy, employees, and volunteers, and providing training on how to identify and report abuse signs.”

“For the U.S. Church and as articulated in the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, this commitment translates into a zero-tolerance policy toward abuse,” the USCCB report reads.

Abuse allegations have shown a steady decline since 2020, averaging a 30% decrease annually, according to data accumulated over the past five years.

Washington D.C., Jun 10, 2025 / 08:50 am (CNA).

Harvard professor of mathematics and biology Martin Nowak focused on math as a path to God during a presentation at the 2025 annual conference of the Society of Catholic Scientists in Washington, D.C.

During a June 8 lecture titled “Does Mathematics Lead Us to God?” Nowak said that among other things, math can be viewed as “an argument for the existence of God.”

Referencing St. Augustine, Nowak said math is like “an intelligible object.”

“We judge mathematics in truth by a criterion that is within us. That is, of course, the doctrine of divine illumination. So Augustine says, ‘This is possible because God is the teacher of the soul.’”

“Mathematics is not in meta,” Nowak said. He explained that math is “timeless” and “atemporal.”

“If you accept this … you have made a step toward God.” Because “you are no longer a materialist, you are no longer a naturalist in the sense you’re no longer an atheist.” 

Math provides meaning and understanding, according to Nowak. “We walk through life and the world as meaning,” he said. “You need intelligent objects, you need mathematics.”

“It is mathematics that gives meaning … We experience mathematics as we experience love. Mathematics tells us who we are, who the other is. Mathematics tells us what stuff we are made of. Mathematics enables us to see God.”

Nowak’s discussion of math was a hot topic at the conference, especially given recent attention to Pope Leo XIV having earned a degree in mathematics from Villanova University.

“Mathematics is beautiful,” Nowak noted. “If you ask mathematicians what’s the most beautiful thing they have seen in their lives, it’s some mathematical equation.”

“Why is mathematics beautiful?” Nowak asked. He explained it’s beautiful because “God is beautiful.”

“Mathematics is the set of all correct statements,” he continued. “Mathematics is about truth with a capital T.”

“We will never be done with mathematics … because it takes forever to get to know an infinite being, God.”

“I think mathematics helps us to remember that we are eternal objects, that we are not only in time and in space,” Nowak said. 

Since God transcends everything, Nowak added, God “cannot be captured or described by mathematics.” Math, he said, has more to do with the “thoughts of God.”

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 10, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

“What if the most important thing that God wants you to do is still in front of you, and that is passing on the faith to your grandchildren?” That’s the proposition Pili Abouchaar focuses on as co-founder and director of Grandly, an apostolate dedicated to helping grandparents do just that.

In an interview on “EWTN Pro-Life Weekly,” Abouchaar acknowledged that grandparents often feel helpless and hopeless in regard to this mission, but Grandly can make a difference in their approach and outlook. 

“The main thing that we try to tackle in our mission in Grandly is to try to give grandparents hope to help them bridge that generational gap between how they were raised and how youth culture is moving right now.”

The apostolate, which celebrates its 10th anniversary next year, is especially relevant now, within the context of the jubilee year and the upcoming July 27 World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly, with this year’s theme being “Blessed Are Those Who Have Not Lost Hope.” 

Abouchaar said among Grandly’s offerings is “a seminar called the ‘Do It Grandly’ seminar, which grandparents can take by themselves. They can find the seminar on our website. We are also helping parishes across the United States and in other countries to host seminars for their grandparents locally.”

“Do It Grandly,” a five-session online seminar, helps grandparents embrace their unique role in fostering the faith of their grandchildren. The sessions include topics on a bold vision, renewing hope, grandparenting and youth work, the strategic grandparent, and faith to move grandchildren.

The series’ free, opening 30-minute session, titled “A Bold Vision,” covers how youth see our culture and how God is in their lives, and offers interviews and discussions with grandparents. Grandly also features on its website a variety of helpful testimonies, stories, and discussion groups.

So far, Abouchaar said Grandly has reached some 20,000 grandparents and, through them, approximately 100,000 grandchildren.  

The full segment about Grandly on “EWTN Pro-Life Weekly” can be viewed below.

The just-published report issued by the Pew Research Centre on its findings on how the world’s religious landscape has evolved over the past decade highlights demographic growth, shifting affiliations, and rising secularism. It notes that Christians remain the world’s biggest religious group, although Muslims are growing fastest.

Read all

 

US President Donald Trump orders California National Guardsmen and marines to L.A. in response to protests against expanded raids aimed at undocumented migrants.

Read all

 

A Bill that would decriminalize abortion in Britain is opposed by the Catholic bishops, with Archbishop John Sherrington saying it would “reduce the protection of unborn children and their mothers.”

Catholic bishops in Nigeria have lashed out against the continued killing of Christians in the country, saying in a June 6 statement that there is “no justification for the continuous bloodletting.”

Pope Leo XIV meets with his Pontifical Representatives across the globe, and urges them to bear witness to the Church’s love for the world and her desire to do anything possible to stand on the side of those in need.

Read all

 

Catholic business leaders from Thailand and the Philippines gathered at the Baan Phu Waan Pastoral Training Center on June 7–8 for the inaugural session of the Catholic Business Wisdom Enhancement Program, a new formation initiative aimed at aligning business leadership with Christian values.

Read all

 

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 9, 2025 / 18:08 pm (CNA).

While Christianity remained the largest global religion from 2010 to 2020, the latest Pew Research study found that followers of Islam outpaced every world religion in population over the course of the decade.

The recently released report, “How the Global Religious Landscape Changed from 2010 to 2020,” includes data from over 2,700 sources, including national census, demographic surveys, and population registers. Some of the estimates made in the report originate from data about 2020 that was not made available till 2024 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which delayed census data in at least 65 countries.

The report covered 201 countries, focusing on seven religious categories: Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, people who belong to other lesser-known religions, and religiously unaffiliated.

According to the report, the total number of Christians rose by 122 million from 2010 to 2020, while the total number of Muslims rose by 327 million — “more than all other religions combined.” The global Christian population rested at 2.3 billion in 2020, while the global Muslim population came to 2 billion.

Apart from Muslims, the only other group that grew as a percentage of the global population were those who identify as having no religion, known as “nones.” 

The report described this phenomenon as “striking” because religiously unaffiliated people are typically older and have lower fertility rates, putting them at a “disadvantage” for population growth.  

By the end of 2020, however, “nones” made up 24.2% of the global population, making it the third-largest group in the study, following Christians and Muslims. 

According to the report, “people shedding their religious identity after having been raised as Christians” is the primary reason why religiously unaffiliated people outpaced religiously affiliated people across the decade. After Christianity, Buddhism lost the second-largest number of followers due to religious switching.

The U.S. was among many countries where a large percentage of its Christian population became unaffiliated from 2010 to 2020. However, Pew noted findings since 2020 have indicated that the decline appears to have leveled off. As of 2020, the U.S. had the second-largest population of religiously unaffiliated individuals globally, following China.

In terms of regional distribution, sub-Saharan Africa is now home to the majority of the world’s Christians, with 30.7% living in the region as of 2020. This is a change from 2010, when 24.8% lived in sub-Saharan Africa and 25.8%, the majority of the world’s Christians, lived in Europe. 

The shift was due to both natural population increase in sub-Saharan Africa and “widespread Christian disaffiliation in Western Europe,” the report found, noting: “This is a major geographic change since the early 1900s, when Christians in sub-Saharan Africa made up 1% of the global Christian population and two-thirds of Christians lived in Europe.” 

In fact, Christians experienced substantial change in more countries than any other religious group, shrinking as a share in the population in all but one country — Mozambique, where the share of Christians rose by 5 percentage points.  

Regional concentrations of Jews also changed, the report noted, with 45.9% living in the Middle East-North Africa region and 41% living in North America. In 2010, the largest number of Jews lived in North America. The shift was largely due to the growth of Israel’s population from 5.8 million to 6.8 million through migration and natural increase over the course of the decade. 

Few countries experienced substantial change in percentage of Muslims in their populations, the report noted, despite having the largest global population growth overall. This is because the growth occurred in countries where Muslims were already the dominant religious group. Islamic population growth was largely attributed to high fertility rates.

Hindus were the fourth-largest religious group as of 2020, growing about 12% from 2010 to 2020, with the most notable growth in the Middle East-North Africa region, where they rose to 3.2 million — up 62%. Nonetheless, the majority of Hindus are still in India, and the religion remained at a stable 14.9% of the global population over the course of the decade.

Of all religions represented in the report, Buddhists were the only group to experience worldwide decline between 2010 and 2020, with the number of Buddhists around the world shrinking by 5% from 343 million in 2010 to 324 million in 2020. 

“This was due both to religious disaffiliation among Buddhists in East Asia and to a relatively low birth rate among Buddhists, who tend to live in countries with older populations,” the report explained. 

Pew also examined growth in people who adhere to “other religions,” including Baha’is, Jains, Shintoists, Sikhs, Daoists, Wiccans, Zoroastrians, and others. Pew estimated that the number of people belonging to this category rose by 12%, from 154 million to 172 million from 2010 to 2020. However, the world’s population grew at the approximately the same rate, leaving the percentage of adherents to “other religions” at a stable percentage of around 2% of the global population.