We Are Our Mother of Perpetual Help Parish

Cardinal Christophe Pierre speaks to EWTN News President and COO Montse Alvarado in Rome on Friday, April 25, 2025. / Credit: EWTN News

Baltimore, Maryland, Nov 11, 2025 / 14:26 pm (CNA).

Apostolic Nuncio Cardinal Christophe Pierre told bishops at the 2025 United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Fall Plenary Assembly that the Second Vatican Council is “the key to understanding what Church we are called to be today and the reference point for discerning where we are headed.”

The French-born prelate has served as the Vatican’s nuncio, or chief diplomat, to the U.S. since 2016. He spoke Nov. 11 at the bishops’ fall assembly in Baltimore highlighting the message of Vatican II and its mission of evangelization, education, and unity. 

In his address Pierre asked the bishops a two-part question: “Where have we been and where are we going?” Pope Leo XIV, in his new apostolic letter on education, asks the same question as he “urges education and communities to ‘raise your eyes’ and ‘know how to ask yourselves where you are going, and why,’” Pierre said. 

“This act of questioning, of examining the direction of our journey, is an essential part of Christian discernment,” Pierre said. “It’s something that every bishop must do when thinking about the Church and trusting in his care, and it’s something that we must do in our shared journey as shepherds of the Catholic Church in the United States.”

Two days after his election, Pope Leo told the cardinals: “I would like us to renew together today our complete commitment to the path that the universal Church has now followed for decades in the wake of the Second Vatican Council.” 

Pierre detailed multiple aspects that the Second Vatican Council offers to the bishops and the world today. It serves as “the self-description of the Church for our age.” In the words of popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, it was “the great grace bestowed on the Church in the 20th century.”

“The council offered us not a new faith but a new way of describing and living the one faith in the modern world,” Pierre said. “The vision of the council was a vision for the future — a prophetic orientation toward a world that was only beginning to take shape.”

“When the council fathers issued those texts, the churches were still full; the effects of secularization had not yet become deeply visible. Many of the realities that the council intuited had not yet manifested themselves in the life of the world or of the Church.

“For this reason, the council’s documents were not fully understood in their time. They were not a description of where the Church stood but a map drawn for the territory into which she was being sent.”

“Today, that territory is our daily experience,” Pierre said. “We now inhabit the world that the council foresaw — a world marked by profound cultural shifts, technological change, and a secularized mindset that challenges faith at its roots. Now is the time to unfold the council’s map and walk its path — to rediscover in those texts the light and courage needed to navigate this moment with fidelity and creativity.”

Pierre: Vatican II continues its path from Francis to Leo XIV

“When asked about a Third Vatican Council, Pope Francis replied that the time is not ripe, because we are still laboring to fully implement the second. His pontificate was marked not by innovation for its own sake but by a call to live more fully the vision of the council.”

“In his first apostolic exhortation Dilexi Te, which Francis had begun, the Holy Father’s reference point continues to be Vatican II, this time as it addresses our mission among the poor. Recalling Pope Paul VI, who said that ‘the ancient parable of the good Samaritan served as the model for the council’s spirituality,’ Leo writes: ‘I am convinced that the preferential choice for the poor is a source of extraordinary renewal both for the Church and for society.’”

“He says that ‘the Second Vatican Council represented a milestone in the Church’s understanding of the poor in God’s saving plan.’”

Catholic education and evangelization 

The nuncio detailed Catholic education and ecclesial renewal. Vatican II’s “teaching on worship, the mystery of the Church, the Word of God, and dialogue with the world converge in one vision: a Church rooted in faith, animated by hope, and engaged with humanity through love.”

Gravissimum Educationis remains “a sure guide,” Pierre said. “It affirmed the right of every person to an education ordered to truth and dignity, the role of parents as first educators, and the inseparable bond between faith and reason in forming the whole person.”

“Pope Leo now develops that heritage, urging educational communities to be builders of bridges, not walls — allowing reconciliation and peacemaking to become ‘the method and content of learning.’”

Leo urges “educational communities not just to impart skills but to heal relationships, form consciences, and choose not what is convenient but what is just,” Pierre said.

Catholic education remains one of the great “success stories” and “enduring strengths” of the Church in the United States, Pierre said. “Vatican II did not create this educational mission, but it gave it a new horizon: calling Catholic education to look outward, to engage a rapidly changing world, and to form disciples ready to bring the Gospel into new cultural and social contexts.”

Catholic education “continues to be a radiant witness of evangelizing hope; where it is neglected or narrowed, the light grows dim,” Pierre said. It “offers a window into the wider story of how the council’s teaching has been received across the Church in this country.”

Mission of the bishops 

“If we embrace this full inheritance of Vatican II — the educational, pastoral, and social dimensions alike — the Church in the United States can continue to be what she has so often been: a leaven within this nation, a sign of hope that transcends division, and a servant of the common good grounded in the dignity of every human being.”

Bishops have “a call to represent the Church of the council,” Pierre said. “In our priesthood and episcopal vocation, we are called to be men of communion — pastors who walk with the people of God rather than standing apart.”

Bishops have a mission in evangelization and ecumenism, and in their engagement with public life, he said. Bishops “are not chaplains to parties or distant commentators but shepherds who bring the breadth of Catholic social teaching into civic discourse in a way that transcends partisanship.”

Pierre once again asked the bishops: “Where have we been, and where are we going?”

“The council is not behind us; it stands before us, the map for our journey,” Pierre said. “We are a Church rooted in the grace of the Second Vatican Council; a Church still receiving and embodying its vision; a Church sent forth in unity, as disciples and shepherds, bringing hope, joy, and mercy to a world in need.”

“The council’s documents continue to form us and guide our discernment of this moment,” Pierre said. “Pope Leo XIV now carries that same vision forward, interpreting it anew for the world of today.”

“If we walk faithfully with him, we will be the Church the council envisioned: a pilgrim people, a sacrament of communion, a beacon of hope, and a servant of the poor — drawing, even now, new maps of hope for the generations to come,” the nuncio concluded.

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CNA Staff, Nov 11, 2025 / 13:44 pm (CNA).

Tennessee’s Catholic bishops issued a plea for mercy, calling for an immediate halt to the death penalty and its eventual abolition as the state prepares to execute Harold Wayne Nichols on Dec. 1.

Tennessee’s three bishops, Bishop J. Mark Spalding of Nashville, Bishop David P. Talley of Memphis, and Bishop Mark Beckman of Knoxville, as well as the Tennessee Catholic Conference issued a joint statement on Nov. 10 calling for an end to the death penalty in the state.

“The Catholic Church upholds the sacredness of every human life, even the life of one who is guilty of serious crimes,” the bishops wrote. “To take a life in punishment denies the image of God in which every person is made. The Gospel calls not for vengeance but for mercy.”

The bishops acknowledged that the Church has historically recognized the state’s right and duty to protect its citizens by sometimes employing the death penalty. However, the bishops wrote, “even in allowing for that possibility, Church teaching reflected the understanding that execution is permissible only when it is the sole practicable means to prevent further harm.”

“That understanding includes the recognition that even the most serious criminals retain an inherent dignity that must be respected, prompting the Church to limit the use of the death penalty as much as possible,” the statement says.

Nichols was convicted in 1990 of raping and murdering 21-year-old Karen Pulley, a student at Chattanooga State University, in 1988. During his trial, he expressed remorse and admitted to her rape and murder, and he said he would have continued his violent behavior had he not been arrested, according to the Associated Press.

In the joint statement, the Tennessee bishops invoked Pope Leo XIV’s recent rebuke: “Someone who says ‘I’m against abortion’ but says ‘I am in favor of the death penalty’ is not really pro-life.”

“The death penalty extinguishes the chance for repentance and redemption,” they continued. “It closes the door that mercy would open. True justice protects life, even as it punishes wrongdoing. A culture of life cannot coexist with the machinery of death.”

“We pray for Karen and her family and friends,” they wrote in the statement.

Tennessee has scheduled four more executions for 2026. 

The statement comes amid growing scrutiny of Tennessee’s execution protocol. According to the AP, an independent review of Tennessee’s lethal injection process found that improper testing of the drugs led to prolonged suffering during executions.

“To oppose the death penalty is to affirm hope — that no one, even a person who has committed a grave crime, is beyond the reach of grace,” the statement concluded. “God’s judgment, not our retribution, has the final word.”

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Archbishop Paul S. Coakley preaches during a Mass in the Oklahoma City cathedral in 2021. / Credit: Archdiocese of Oklahoma City

Baltimore, Maryland, Nov 11, 2025 / 12:15 pm (CNA).

Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City was elected to serve as the next president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) in a secret ballot on Nov. 11.

Bishops chose Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas, to serve as vice president. Flores, who serves in the southernmost diocese in Texas, finished second in balloting for president. Coakley subsequently won a runoff.

Coakley, who was previously secretary of the USCCB, will serve a three-year term as president, succeeding the former president, Archbishop Timothy Broglio. The bishops held the election at the Fall Plenary Assembly in Baltimore.

He has a history of promoting a culture of life, opposing gender ideology, and supporting migrants.

The archbishop, who turned 70 years old in May, became a bishop in 2004. He has served in the Oklahoma City Archdiocese since 2011. He holds a licentiate in sacred theology.

Coakley’s defense of a culture of life is a continuation of Broglio’s leadership on the subject. Under Broglio, the bishops maintained that abortion is the “preeminent priority” in elections.

In 2022, Coakley praised Oklahoma lawmakers “for supporting pro-life measures” following a law that banned nearly all abortions. He said, to build a culture of life, one must recognize “the inherent dignity of every person [and it] requires the protections afforded by pro-life legislation and a profound change of heart.”

Coakley has criticized the Oklahoma government for its support of the death penalty. In 2022, he said: “The use of the death penalty only contributes to the continued coarsening of society and to the spiral of violence.”

In 2023, he expressed concern about the rise of gender dysphoria and the promotion of gender ideology in American society. He provided advice to parents but criticized drugs and surgeries used to facilitate a gender transition.

Coakley has also criticized the mass deportation efforts taken by President Donald Trump’s administration. In February of this year, he said deportations are “creating fear and even distress for our immigrant, migrant, and refugee neighbors who have arrived in search of the same dreams that awaited many of our ancestors at a different moment in time.”

He also said in the statement that “illegal immigration is wrong, and renewed efforts should be considered to protect our nation’s borders.” He mentioned concerns about human and drug trafficking but said the majority of people who entered the country illegally “are upstanding members of our communities and churches, not violent criminals.”

Flores to serve as vice president

Flores is former president of the USCCB Committee on Doctrine and was the only southern-border bishop in contention for the role of president.

Flores will serve a three-year term as vice president, succeeding the former vice president, Archbishop William Lori.

Flores, who is 64 years old, holds a doctorate in sacred theology and is a former theology professor. He has been a bishop since 2006. He was one of 12 bishops to serve on the Ordinary Council of the General Secretariat of the Synod on Synodality and is a promoter of synodality in the Church. 

In 2017, Flores said support for mass deportations is “formal cooperation with an intrinsic evil,” similar to driving someone to an abortion clinic. He has expressed concern about polarization in the Church and urged “civil conversation … to seek what is good and make the priority how to achieve it and how to avoid what is evil.”

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CNA Staff, Nov 11, 2025 / 11:40 am (CNA).

An Arizona man will serve more than half a decade in prison after he carried out multiple hoax bomb threats at churches in the western U.S.

The U.S. Department of Justice said in a press release that 46-year-old Phoenix resident Zimnako Salah would spend six years in prison after his 2025 conviction in the terror plot.

From September to November 2023 Salah “traveled to four Christian churches in Arizona, California, and Colorado” with black backpacks, according to the Department of Justice. At two churches he was turned away by security, while at two others he “planted” the backpacks, causing congregants to believe they contained bombs, the Justice Department said.

Though the planted backpacks were in fact hoaxes, Salah reportedly had “been building a bomb capable of fitting in a backpack,” the department said. FBI investigators said they seized “component parts of an improvised explosive device” from a storage unit being rented by Salah.

Salah also had been actively searching for “extremist propaganda online,” the government said, including searches for videos such as “infidels dying.”

The jury that convicted Salah in 2025 found that he “targeted the church because of the religion of the people who worshipped there, making the offense a hate crime.”

U.S. District Judge Dena Coggins levied a $10,000 fine against Salah, telling him he “failed to take responsibility for [his] actions.”

U.S. Attorney Eric Grant said Salah’s ultimate goal appeared to be “many deaths and injuries.”

“Thanks to the action of church security, local law enforcement, and the FBI, this defendant was stopped before he had a chance to carry out the crimes he sought to commit,” he said.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, meanwhile, said in the press release that criminals “who target people because of their faith will face the full force of federal law.”

“The Department of Justice will continue to protect the rights of all people of faith to worship and live free from fear, and we will hold accountable anyone who threatens or harms them,” she said.