We Are Our Mother of Perpetual Help Parish

Pope Leo XIV continues his predecessor’s Saturday Jubilee audiences, focusing on St Irenaeus as a witness of hope as he welcomes athletes to St Peter’s Basilica for the Jubilee of Sport.

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 13, 2025 / 18:09 pm (CNA).

The U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security and Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability have announced the launch of an investigation into more than 200 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), including two major Catholic nonprofits, that provided taxpayer-funded services to migrants during the Biden administration. 

Catholic Charities USA and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) are among those named in the investigation. According to a June 11 press release, the probe will investigate whether the NGOs “used taxpayer dollars to facilitate illegal activity” by migrants who entered the U.S. during the Biden administration.

All the NGOs named in the investigation have been sent a letter requesting that they fill out a survey. The letter also expresses concern that some of the NGOs continue to actively advise “illegal aliens on how to avoid and impede law enforcement officials, which can only be seen as an attempt to undermine the work of the federal government.”

“The chairmen request each NGO complete a survey that includes questions on the government grants, contracts, and disbursements they have received; any lawsuits against the U.S. federal government they are petitioning; amicus briefs they have filed in any lawsuit brought against the U.S. federal government; any legal service, translation service, transportation, housing, sheltering, or any other form of assistance provided to illegal immigrants or unaccompanied alien children since January 2021; and more,” the press release stated. 

USCCB spokesperson Chieko Noguchi told CNA that “we have received the questionnaire and will respond.” 

“For over 45 years the USCCB has entered into agreements with the federal government to serve groups of people specifically authorized by the federal government to receive assistance,” Noguchi said. She added that “this included refugees, people granted asylum, unaccompanied children, victims of human trafficking, and Afghans who assisted the U.S. military abroad.” 

The investigation comes after the USCCB announced in April that it would not renew its cooperative agreements with the federal government on migration and refugee services, which had been ongoing for nearly half of a century. The USCCB began phasing out its programs shortly after.

The Biden administration provided the USCCB with more than $100 million annually, which the bishops allocated to affiliated Catholic nongovernmental organizations, according to the USCCB’s audited financial statements. In recent years, federal funding covered more than 95% of the bishops’ spending on the programs.

Other non-Catholic NGOs named as subjects of the probe include the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), and the Haitian Bridge Alliance.

As tensions rise between Iran and Israel, Cardinal Dominique Joseph Mathieu, Archbishop of Tehran-Ispahan of the Latins, issues an appeal for peace and dialogue, cautioning against the continued use of pre-emptive military action.

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Pope Leo XIV receives the President of the Republic of Lebanon, Joseph Aoun, in audience in the Vatican.

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On Pentacost Sunday Catholic faithful in Myanmar celebrate the "Jubilee of Ecclesiastical Movements"

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The National Episcopal Conference of the Democratic Republic of Congo (CENCO) responded on Thursday, 12 June, to a statement made on Monday, 9 June, during a press briefing by the DRC’s Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Transport, Jean-Pierre Bemba, accusing Catholic Bishops of attitudes that could harm the country’s stability. The Congolese Bishops fear that such a statement from a senior government minister could jeopardise and undermine national cohesion and peaceful coexistence.

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As the Church prepares to mark the Ninth World Day of the Poor on Sunday, 16 November 2025, Pope Leo XIV issues a message centred on the theme: “You are my hope”, and expresses his hope that this Jubilee Year may encourage the development of policies aimed at combatting forms of poverty both old and new.

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In a joyful and Spirit-filled celebration of Pentecost, the Archbishop of Johannesburg, Cardinal Stephen Brislin, joined the Zimbabwean Catholic community resident in Johannesburg, for a pastors’ visit.

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In the first Ordinary Public Consistory of his pontificate, Pope Leo XIV sets the date for the canonisation of eight Blesseds, including Peter To Rot, the first canonised saint from Papua New Guinea.

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Pope Leo XIV presides at an Ordinary Public Consistory for the Vote on Causes for Canonization, which gave formal approval for the canonizations of eight Blesseds, and set the date for their canonizations.

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