We Are Our Mother of Perpetual Help Parish

ACI Prensa Staff, Jul 17, 2025 / 11:40 am (CNA).

Following a strike against the Holy Family Church, the only Catholic Church in Gaza, which left at least two dead on Thursday, Pope Leo XIV issued an urgent call for an immediate ceasefire.

In a telegram signed on the pope’s behalf by the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the pontiff expressed his “deep sadness” over the military attack and offered his prayers for “the consolation of those who are mourning and for the healing of the wounded.”

“Pope Leo renews his profound hope for dialogue, reconciliation, and lasting peace in the region,” the message stated.

Finally, the Holy Father entrusted the souls of the deceased “to the loving mercy of Almighty God” and assured his “spiritual closeness” to all those affected.

The pope also posted a message on social media platform X, where he said "Only dialogue and reconciliation can ensure enduring peace!"

According to humanitarian aid organization Caritas Jerusalem, the two victims were outside the parish building — converted into a shelter for more than 500 people since the war began in October 2023 — at the time of the projectile strike.

Saad Salameh, 60, the parish caretaker, was in the courtyard and Fumayya Ayyad, 84, was sitting inside a Caritas psychosocial support tent when the explosion sent shrapnel flying and caused debris to fall in the area.

Both were rushed to Al-Mamadani Hospital, just over half a mile from the church, but died shortly afterward due to a "severe shortage of medical resources and blood units in Gaza," the statement said.

Caritas Jerusalem denounced these deaths, saying they represent “a painful reminder of the impossible conditions faced by civilians and medical personnel under siege.”

The humanitarian aid organization's teams in Gaza are “in a state of shock and mourning,” having witnessed “another senseless loss of innocent lives,” the group said.

In response to the tragedy, Caritas Jerusalem issued a new appeal to the international community: “Once again, we urgently call for swift action to protect civilians, places of worship, and humanitarian spaces, and to ensure that people in Gaza have access to the most basic right: the opportunity to survive.”

“May Saad and Fumayya rest in peace. We carry their memory with us,” the message concludes.

For his part, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, expressed doubt that the attack was not deliberate.

“They say it was a mistake by an Israeli tank, but we don't know; it hit the church … directly,” Pizzaballa told Vatican News. In addition to the two deaths, the explosion caused five injuries, including to the parish priest, Father Gabriel Romanelli, who suffered a minor leg injury.

Pizzaballa acknowledged that it is still too early to fully assess the consequences of the attack, but he insisted on the need to clarify what happened and protect the local community.

“Now is too early to talk about all this; we need to understand what happened, what must be done, above all, to protect our people, naturally trying to ensure that these things don't happen again, and then we will see how to continue,” he said.

The patriarch reaffirmed the Catholic Church's closeness and commitment to the Christians of the Gaza Strip: "We always try to reach Gaza in every possible way, directly and indirectly."

Following the attack, Israeli Foreign Minister Oren Marmorstein in a message posted on the social media platform X expressed the Israeli government's "deep sorrow for the damage to the Holy Family Church in Gaza City and for any civilian casualties."

The Israeli foreign minister indicated that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are examining the incident, the details of which "are still unclear."

"The results of the investigation will be published with complete transparency," he said.

In his statement, the minister stressed that "Israel never targets churches or religious sites" and regretted "any damage to a religious site or to uninvolved civilians."

This article was originally published by ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish language news partner, and has been adapted by CNA.

ACI MENA, Jul 17, 2025 / 09:12 am (CNA).

The Holy Family Church in Gaza was struck by an Israeli attack on Thursday, with the strike resulting in casualties and injuries among civilians present at the historic church. The pastor of the parish, Father Gabriel Romanelli, was also injured.

The direct strike killed three people — Saad Issa Kostandi Salameh and Foumia Issa Latif Ayyad, confirmed by the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem a few hours after the attack. A third person, Najwa Abu Daoud, succombed to her injuries a few hours later.

The patriarchate stressed that it was praying for the repose of the souls of the dead and for an end to what it called this “barbaric war.” 

According to press reports, several other civilians sustained moderate to severe injuries, while the parish priest, Father Gabriel Romanelli, was wounded by shrapnel in his leg.  

His condition was described as mild, and he later returned to check on the wounded. According to church sources in Gaza, 14 people were injured in the attack.

In its initial statement earlier in the day, the patriarchate said: “The church was attacked this morning, causing injuries among those inside, including the parish priest.” 

In Rome, the Vatican issued a statement signed by Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin expressing Pope Leo XIV’s profound sorrow upon learning that lives were lost and others injured.  

The Holy Father conveyed his spiritual closeness to Romanelli and the parish community, renewing his call for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and expressing his desire for dialogue, reconciliation, and lasting peace in the region. 

While the Israel Defense Forces said they were investigating the incident, the spokesperson for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Oren Marmorstein, expressed his country’s “deep regret over the damage to the Holy Family Church in Gaza City and over any civilian casualties.”  

He added that the circumstances of the incident remain unclear and that the results of the investigation would be published transparently. 

The Holy Family Church is considered the last Christian refuge in Gaza, where dozens of families have been sheltering since the outbreak of the war in October 2023. The church also suffered partial damage in July 2024, when its surroundings were shelled, an incident that at the time drew condemnation from church leaders in the Holy Land. 

This story was updated at 2:20 p.m. July 17 to reflect the latest reports of deaths from the attack.

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

ACI Prensa Staff, Jul 17, 2025 / 07:30 am (CNA).

“I believe that artificial intelligence will become an essential technology for preaching or pastoral care of the faithful,” said Fr. Ignazio Son Chang-hyun, one of the priests who participated in a recent innovative training organized by the Diocese of Suwon, South Korea.

According to Asia News, earlier this month the South Korean diocese brought together priests from the cities of Suwon, Daegu, and Masan to learn about the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in parish life.

Unlike other meetings focused on ethics, this training sought to explore the practical opportunities that AI offers for evangelization and care of the faithful.

“Since it is a hot topic at the moment and its areas of application are expanding, we have prepared training for priests to learn skills that can be used in the pastoral field,” explained Father Lee Cheol-gu, director of the Office of Social Communications of the Diocese of Suwon, the event's sponsor.

During the event, held in collaboration with a company specializing in AI literacy, priests learned how to use tools such as ChatGPT and other generative platforms to create images, presentations, videos, and even background music for their parish activities. They also experimented with a chatbot that can automatically take meeting minutes.

For Father Son Chang-hyun, this technology can not only assist with administrative tasks, but could go further in its application. “I think that if we could better understand the trends and moods of the faithful, which change from place to place, through data analysis, we could get closer to them in pastoral terms,” he said.

Father Bartolomeo Choi Jae-yong, another participant, emphasized the importance of integrating faith and science: “I believe that religion and science must be well harmonized in order for God's new work to be accomplished.”

Speaking with Asia News, he added that religion "must actively learn and understand science and technology in order to prevent abuses related to their use.”

Another goal of this initiative is to build bridges between the Church and technology companies, in order to improve the content of tools that use AI.

“I have noticed that Catholic and Protestant terminology are often confused and that there is a lot of misinformation about the saints. I therefore thought it necessary for the Church to collaborate with companies to improve these aspects,” said Father Leone Lee Jae-geun, deputy director of the Office of Social Communications.

In a country like South Korea, a world leader in technology, the local Church has taken this significant step to evangelize in the digital world as well. According to the participating priests, this experience could become a model for other dioceses around the world seeking to integrate technological innovation in the service of the Gospel.

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

Dublin, Ireland, Jul 17, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

One in 6 unborn children’s lives now end in abortion in the Republic of Ireland, according to the Irish Department of Health statistics, which reports 10,852 abortions in 2024 — the highest number on record since the law changed in 2019 following the 2018 referendum.

Pro Life Campaign spokesperson Eilís Mulroy speaking to CNA said: “That’s a truly horrifying figure, and it’s the opposite of what senior politicians promised the public would happen if they voted for repeal in 2018,” she added.

During the 2018 referendum, pro-life voices warned that abortion numbers would increase dramatically if access to abortion were widened. Mulroy pointed out that 10,852 abortions in 2024 represent a 280% increase from the 2,879 Irish abortions that happened in 2018, the year before the law changed.

Mulroy said the Pro Life Campaign and other groups have asked for a meeting with the minister for health, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, to discuss the shocking new figures.

“I personally know politicians, TDs [a Teachta Dálaa is a member of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish Parliament, the Oireachtas], and senators who would have been people who campaigned back in 2018 for a yes vote, who would have been encouraging other people to vote yes at that time for different reasons, who now feel it’s gone too far and are appalled at the figures,” Mulroy said.

During the lead-up to the 2018 referendum vote to widen access to abortion, pro-life campaigners pointed out that in Britain at that time, 1 in 5 pregnancies ended in abortion. 

“Members of the media in Ireland were accusing the pro-life side of scaremongering, and were trying to disprove those figures, and saying that that was never going to happen in Ireland,” Mulroy said. 

“We have nearly caught up with that figure — we’re now at 1 in 6 babies’ lives ending in abortion,” she said. “And Britain, just this last week, released its latest figures, and they’re nearly at 1 in 3 pregnancies ending in abortion. So once you introduce abortion, once you change the law, over time, abortion rates grow, and if there was any doubt about that, there’s no doubt anymore.”

She added: “Even if one accepts at face value the highly debatable claim by abortion advocates that an additional 1,000 illegal abortion pills were purchased annually before the law was repealed, the post-2018 surge in abortions is still staggering. Over 98% of all abortions in Ireland in 2024 were during early pregnancy up to 12 weeks.” 

Speaking to CNA, David Quinn of the Iona Institute highlighted the messaging used by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and the Irish government at the time of the 2018 referendum. In announcing the referendum, Varadkar had said he was speaking “as Taoiseach, as a medical doctor, and as a former minister for health.”

“Leo Varadkar, when he announced the referendum in early 2018, said abortion would be ‘safe, legal, and rare,’ which clearly is not the case,” Quinn said. “... So would Leo Varadkar consider 11,000 rare? They were spinning a line about it being rare that was convenient to them, and it was convenient to those who voted yes to believe it as well.”

At the time of the 2018 abortion referendum in Ireland, Quinn said many people were led to believe that the subsequent legislation introduced would limit access to abortion. He wondered if the electorate realized the implications of voting yes.

“If they had looked into a crystal ball and seen that it would go above 11,000 or 1 in 6 pregnancies ending this way, would that have given them pause? Would they have realized the law is not half as restrictive as we were led to believe?”

He added: “It was sold to the voters on the hard cases — like the baby is going to die soon after birth. And there was very little focus on the fact that the vast majority of babies aborted will be the healthy children of healthy women. That was barely spoken about. I mean, our pro-life side tried to raise it, but the pro-choice circles and the government very successfully kept the conversation about the hard cases and weren’t telling people that 90% of abortions would take place before 12 weeks.”

Mulroy is pressing for intervention by the minister for health and shared concerns about what people’s expectations were in 2018. 

“We spend a lot of time talking to politicians — even [those] who might not necessarily be coming from a pro-life perspective, but who might share common ground on some of the issues associated with the abortion question. For example the need for more positive alternatives for women in unplanned pregnancy.”

Mulroy said that it is politicians who have “responsibility in the area of public policy.” 

“We’re talking about human lives here,” she said. “It’s not just like any other area of health care, where we’re trying to reduce waiting lists or other things. This is not health care. This is the ending of human lives, and that’s why we are really pushing for a meeting with the minister for health to discuss these figures and really allow us to discuss what’s happened under the abortion law, rather than this polarized situation where the pro-life voice is not allowed at all be at the decision-making table, which has happened in the Irish government in recent years.”

Mulroy does see some small signs of hope in the current Irish government.

“I would see a lot of positives there — the makeup of the current government. This government is supported by a number of independents, and some of those independents are very pro-life.”

She said she thinks Ireland will “hopefully see in the lifetime of this government” some incremental changes, “even if the only focus is to ensure that women in unplanned pregnancy have all of the information they need to parent.”

“Right now, when you ring the government-funded helpline to say that you are in an unplanned pregnancy, you really are only getting one piece of information, and that’s about where the nearest abortion-performing doctor is,” she said.

She added: “No matter what side of the fence you’re on… everyone should be united in and agree that women who are in unplanned pregnancy should get all of that information, and I think that would have an impact on the abortion numbers.”

Quinn is concerned that the issue of abortion numbers is simply not getting enough attention in the mainstream media. 

“It’s not getting enough publicity; it’s not being discussed. Actually, very few people know about it outside pro-life circles. Nobody … on air has been asked, ‘Well, do you think 11,000 is rare? You said it would be rare. So what’s going on?’ Mainly, there’s a conspiracy of silence. It is quite hard to break through the conspiracy of silence. But we’ve just got to keep trying.”

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