St. Andrew Catholic Church

A rendering of the interior of Whistler’s Our Lady of the Mountain’s newest church, as designed by Oberto Oberti Architecture and Urban Design Inc. The grand opening of the new parish design is slated for later in the fall 2025. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Oberto Oberti Architecture and Urban Design Inc.

Vancouver, Canada, Jul 21, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Nestled within Whistler’s many snow-covered peaks, Our Lady of the Mountains Parish finds itself just months away from the grand opening of its newly renovated church, a multimillion-dollar restoration project five years in the making, which is set to embrace the town’s historic alpine atmosphere.

As the only Catholic church in the popular British Columbia resort town in the Coastal Mountains north of Vancouver, Our Lady of the Mountains’ transformation will see what was once no more than a quaint multipurpose hall become a fully functional sacred space for prayer, service, and evangelization as well as a visual testament to the community’s steadfast faith and perseverance.

Whistler is part of the Diocese of Kamloops but has long been a spiritual home for many Catholics in the wider region who flock there for vacation.

Whistler welcomes around 3 million visitors each year — about 45% in winter and 55% in summer — so thousands of Catholics are served by the parish during ski weekends and summer getaways.

In early 2020, Our Lady of the Mountains launched an ambitious campaign to build a larger church, beginning with a vision that pastor Father Andrew L’Heureux called “a dream.” From the start, parishioners said they felt God walking with them through each challenge and triumph.

The project was spearheaded by Andy Szocs, a parishioner since the late 1970s and fundraising lead for the project. Szocs took on much of the fundraising himself, leveraging his network and experience from renovating a 250-year-old church in Hungary in 2010 to contribute toward the project’s $6.7 million target.

“I know the value of building a church up, and I saw this as a similar opportunity back at home,” the 85-year-old said. “It has been quite the challenge, and we had to rely on the Holy Spirit a lot. I would go to bed at night with all these challenges about where I would find this money, and I said to the Holy Spirit that I needed some answers. It happened so many times, it has to be divine providence.”

“Standing inside the new church is awe-inspiring,” L’Heureux wrote in a letter to parishioners this month. “It offers more than beauty — it is a sign of hope, unity, and the bright future of our parish.”

The journey hasn’t been without obstacles. Unexpected soil conditions, design refinements, and inflation pushed the original budget from $5.5 million to $6.7 million. After reaching the initial goal, the parish needed to urgently raise an additional $1.2 million. In June, an existing donor, along with partners and friends, stepped forward to close the gap.

“We believe, without question, that the Holy Spirit guided their hearts, reminding us once again that we are not alone in this mission,” L’Heureux said in his letter.

The new spiritual home, including the use of the preexisting hall, will seat 500 people — more than triple of the current capacity of 160.

The $6.7-million price tag also affords the parish a completely new interior, including a sanctuary, a 15-foot choir loft with space for 25 choir members and instruments, and an an interior design featuring 23 sacred elements such as the altar, crucifix, statues, lighting, and a communion rail — with stained-glass windows and a pipe organ remaining as future goals when funds allow.

Unique to the sanctuary’s design by Oberto Oberti Architecture is the 40-foot timber-frame ceilings, a design reflective of Whistler’s distinct outdoor ethos. A nod to Whistler’s prominent winter and ski culture, the interior is reminiscent of an old-school wooden ski chalet.

“I don’t think you can help but connect to it and feel impressed. It’s what we set out to create, which is something sacred, attractive, and reflective of that Whistler-style look and feel,” Szocs said.

He also shared that through donors’ efforts, close to 90% of the project was funded externally, with local pride in the world-class resort destination and a strong Catholic belief being the main draw for those involved.

“This was possible with a strong fundraising strategy, but we knew from the start that we couldn’t do this without help from our major donors. Quite a number of them, like myself, had an attachment to Whistler,” Szocs said.

“We have the lakes and the valley trails, the ski mountains. It’s just one of God’s beautiful nature scenes. We raised the money with those donors strictly through the personal efforts of selling the vision. We used the motto: ‘If we build the church, they will come.’”

Still, Szocs knew the parish couldn’t solely depend on traditional methods.

“You can’t do something like this with bake sales and bingo,” he said with a laugh, emphasizing the importance of his continued targeted strategy for intriguing wealthy donors.

With the grand opening of the new church slated for October, the Catholic community in Whistler continues to work amid the anticipation. L’Heureux noted in the church’s latest newsletter that many parishioners have contributed both their time and labor by assisting in drywalling, painting, and donating needed tools. One parishioner donated pews, accounting for up to 250 seats in the new sanctuary.

Beyond worship, Szocs sees the church as a beacon for evangelization, potentially hosting Catholic conferences inspired by the Napa Institute to draw Catholics to Whistler’s new spiritual appeal.

“It’s not just a church; it’s a place for people to find God,” he said.

Szocs said the project’s success comes from a balance of divine trust and devoted human action, as often expressed by St. Augustine and St. Ignatius.

“Some would say, ‘Leave it to the Holy Spirit,’ but you can’t just pray and wait. It doesn’t always work that way,” he said. “God gave us gifts for a reason. So I like the saying, ‘Pray like everything depends on God, and act like everything depends on you.’”

This story was first published by The B. C. Catholic and is reprinted here with permission.

Pope Leo XIV speaks by video call with Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin from Castel Gandolfo, Italy, on July 20, 2025. / Credit: Holy See Press Office

Rome Newsroom, Jul 21, 2025 / 06:30 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV marked the 56th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing with a video call to U.S. astronaut Buzz Aldrin and a visit to the Vatican Observatory, located on the papal estate of Castel Gandolfo, where he has been staying for two weeks.

According to the Vatican, the pontiff’s July 20 call with the 95-year-old Aldrin, the last surviving Apollo 11 crew member, included reminiscing on the historic 1969 landing and meditating together on the “mystery, greatness, and fragility” of God’s creation as described in Psalm 8.

Earlier in the day, Leo visited the Vatican’s internationally-recognized observatory, called the Specola Vaticana, where he was able to look through the astronomical center’s historic telescopes.

The Vatican Observatory has been located on the papal estate of Castel Gandolfo, around 18 miles southeast of Rome, since the 1930s, but the history of the institution dates to the 18th century. After several years of closure in the late 1800s, Leo’s predecessor, Pope Leo XIII, re-founded the observatory in 1891.

In 1993, the Vatican Observatory Research Group, which opened a second research center at the University of Arizona in Tucson in 1981, completed construction of the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope in Mount Graham, Arizona.

Pope Leo has been taking a break from the heat of Rome with a sojourn at the lakeside town of Castel Gandolfo, a revival of a tradition last observed by Pope Benedict XVI. The pontiff’s stay was originally expected to end July 20, but the Vatican announced Sunday that Leo had extended the two-week stay an additional two days, through July 22.

A pope close to science

On June 16, Pope Leo XIV, who holds a degree in mathematics from Villanova University, expressed his appreciation for astronomy when he received the participants of this year’s Vatican Observatory Summer School.

On that occasion, he asked the young scientists to never forget “that what they do is meant to benefit everyone.”

“Be generous in sharing what you learn and what you experience, to the best of your ability and in any way possible,” he added.

The pope also urged them not to hesitate to share “the joy and wonder born of your contemplation of the ‘seeds’ which, in the words of St. Augustine, God has sown in the harmony of the universe.”

The summer program, held every two years, brings together young astronomers from different countries. The most recent edition hosted 24 students from 22 nations under the theme “Exploring the Universe with the James Webb Space Telescope,” an instrument that has revolutionized astronomical observation since 2022.

During his meeting with astronomy students, Pope Leo highlighted the importance of the advances made by the telescope: “For the first time we can deeply observe the atmosphere of exoplanets where life may be developing and study the nebulae where the planetary systems themselves are forming” as well as trace “the ancient light of distant galaxies, which speaks of the very beginning of our universe.”

Catholic images and crucifixes fill the walls in Times Square Tattoo. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Tommy Houlihan

CNA Staff, Jul 21, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

In the heart of New York City, nestled among the tall buildings of Times Square, sits a small tattoo shop with two 17-inch signs of the Miraculous Medal hanging outside the front door. Inside, walls of rosaries, crucifixes, and religious images greet visitors, while an old church pew serves as a place to sit and wait. A glass jar filled with blessed Miraculous Medals sits on the front desk. 

The tattoo parlor, Times Square Tattoo, is more than a tattoo parlor, according to owner Tommy Houlihan, who has a deep devotion to the Miraculous Medal and the Blessed Virgin Mary. The 55-year-old told CNA that he views his shop as a “ministry for the Miraculous Medal.”

Houlihan has been a tattoo artist since 1990. He grew up in a Catholic household in Hell’s Kitchen, a neighborhood on the west side of midtown Manhattan, and by the age of 18 began his career in body art.

In the early years of his tattoo career, Houlihan shared that he was making a lot of money — he wore expensive jewelry and tailored clothes, went to steakhouses every night, and “lived like a rock star.”

“That’s all gone now,” he said. “It’s all gone because I went and really cracked down on my faith.”

About five years ago, Houlihan returned to the Catholic faith. A big factor was the powerful testimony of Zachary King, a former Satanist who had a powerful conversion to Catholicism after an encounter with the Miraculous Medal, a sacramental based on the vision of a French nun in 1830. St. Catherine Labouré, a young sister at the time, was instructed in an apparition of the Virgin Mary to have a special medal cast. Originally called the Medal of the Immaculate Conception, it became better known as the “Miraculous Medal.”

After hearing King’s testimony, Houlihan began digging deeper into his faith and praying about what he should do with his tattoo shop. He also spoke to several priests, some of whom were exorcists, about his struggle of wanting to keep his tattoo shop open but also honoring his faith.

In one of his conversations, Houlihan told the priest about the kinds of places around his shop — a Wiccan coven to his right, a Masonic temple to his left, and a church of Scientology across the street — describing it as being “in a den of vipers.” The priest told Houlihan that he was the “antivenom.” This response moved Houlihan to hand his shop over to the Blessed Mother.

“I work almost exclusively on tourists from all over the world,” Houlihan explained. “And every single person that comes in my shop gets a medal when they first walk in. And then they fly back to France, Germany, Argentina, Canada, wherever they’re going back to, so that makes us a worldwide ministry.”

Houlihan has implemented strict guidelines for the type of work he and his employees do.

Some of the images that Houlihan’s shop declines to do include Satanic symbols, zodiac signs, anything related to witchcraft or sorcery (including shows like “Wicked” or “Harry Potter”), anything that desecrates a sacred image, anything related to the LGBT “pride” movement, and other things. He says he will also not tattoo on places on the body that are primarily meant to sexualize the individual.

“I cannot attach myself to anything in the occult and I can’t put that image on you. One day I got to answer for that,” he said.

Despite turning down many requests and handing out Miraculous Medals to those who are religious or not, Houlihan pointed out that “almost everybody gives a positive reaction.”

“I think 60% of the people react really favorably; I’d say maybe 30% are indifferent. But I do get some that don’t want it or people [who] are outright hostile to it,” he said.

When asked how his guidelines have impacted the business, Houlihan said: “I definitely took a hit, but the Blessed Mother’s making sure that I make enough money to get by.”

Seeing his tattoo shop as a ministry, Houlihan said he hopes those he encounters experience a change in their lives and in their faith.

“I hope they have an instant conversion,” he shared. “And if they’re a bad Catholic, [that] they become a good Catholic, and if they’re a good Catholic, [that] they become a great Catholic.”

He added that not only has his shop helped to keep his own faith “in line,” but it has also given him a way to evangelize and to “give the word of God” to all those who visit. 

Pope Leo XIV delivers the Angelus address on July 13, 2025, from Liberty Square in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, where he is spending a two-week summer break. / Credit: Vatican Media

Rome Newsroom, Jul 20, 2025 / 08:46 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Sunday prayed by name for the victims of a deadly Israeli strike on the only Catholic parish in Gaza, decrying the “barbarism of the war” as he renewed his call for an immediate ceasefire.

“I express my profound sadness regarding last Thursday’s attack by the Israeli army on the Catholic Parish of the Holy Family in Gaza City, which as you know killed three Christians and gravely wounded others,” the pope said in his Angelus address from the papal estate at Castel Gandolfo, about 16 miles southeast of Rome.

He named the dead — Saad Issa Kostandi Salameh, Foumia Issa Latif Ayyad, and Najwa Ibrahim Latif Abu Daoud — and said: “I am especially close to their families and all the parishioners.”

The July 17 strike on the parish compound also wounded nine others, including the local parish priest, Father Gabriel Romanelli. The church had been serving as a shelter for more than 600 people since the conflict began in October 2023, including Catholics, Orthodox Christians, and Muslims.

“Sadly, this act adds to the continuous military attacks against the civilian population and places of worship in Gaza,” Leo said. “I again call for an immediate halt to the barbarism of the war and for a peaceful resolution of the conflict.” 

“I renew my appeal to the international community to observe humanitarian law and to respect the obligation to protect civilians, as well as the prohibition of collective punishment, the indiscriminate use of force, and the forced displacement of the population.” 

Thursday’s attack drew swift condemnation from Church leaders. On the same day, Pope Leo sent a telegram signed by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin lamenting the loss of life and injuries caused by the military attack and calling for an immediate ceasefire. The following day, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa and Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III entered Gaza to offer spiritual, moral, and material comfort. 

According to Caritas Jerusalem, two of the victims were outside the main parish building — which had been repurposed into a shelter — when the explosion occurred. Salameh, 60, the parish caretaker, was in the courtyard, and Ayyad, 84, was sitting inside a Caritas psychosocial support tent when shrapnel and falling debris struck them. Both later died at Al-Mamadani Hospital due to what Caritas called a “severe shortage of medical resources and blood units in Gaza.” 

Israel Defense Forces acknowledged responsibility, stating that “fragments from a shell fired during operational activity in the area hit the church mistakenly.”  

Pope Leo XIV also spoke on the phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following the strike, urging the reactivation of peace negotiations. He reiterated his concern for the humanitarian situation of the population in Gaza, “whose heartbreaking price is being paid, in particular, by children, the elderly, and the sick,” a statement from the Vatican said. 

After praying for the Gaza victims during his Angelus address, Pope Leo XIV offered a message of solidarity to all Christians in the region.  

“To our beloved Middle Eastern Christians, I say: I deeply sympathize with your feeling that you can do little in the face of this grave situation,” he said. “You are in the heart of the pope and of the whole Church. Thank you for your witness of faith.”

He entrusted them to the Virgin Mary, “woman of the Levant, dawn of the new Sun that has risen in history,” and prayed that she “protect you always and accompany the world towards dawns of peace.”

Sunday marked the second time Pope Leo has led the Angelus prayer from Castel Gandolfo during his two-week summer retreat. Earlier in the day, the pope offered a Mass for local Catholics in the nearby Cathedral Basilica of St. Pancras in Albano.

He ended his Angelus address by greeting pilgrims in the courtyard, including students and staff from the nearby Catholic Institute of Technology and a group of Catholic scouts on a jubilee pilgrimage destined for the tomb of Blessed Carlo Acutis, whom Pope Leo is expected to canonize in September as the first millennial Catholic saint.

The Vatican has confirmed that Pope Leo XIV will return to Vatican City on Tuesday.

Pope Leo XIV greets a young woman along the streets of Albano, Italy, before offering Mass in the Cathedral Basilica of St. Pancras near Castel Gandolfo on July 20, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

Rome Newsroom, Jul 20, 2025 / 07:05 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Sunday encouraged people to embrace the summer season as a time to deepen their relationship with God through silence, reflection, and time spent with others.

“Summer can be a providential time to experience the beauty and importance of our relationship with God and how much it can help us to be more open and welcoming to others,” Pope Leo said during a homily at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Pancras in Albano, a town about 16 miles south of Rome.

The pope, who is spending two weeks on summer holiday at the papal estate in nearby Castel Gandolfo, reflected on the example of Martha and Mary in the Gospel of Luke of how service and listening can be “twin dimensions of hospitality.”

“We should set aside moments of silence, moments of prayer, times in which, quieting noise and distractions, we recollect ourselves before God in simplicity of heart,” he said.

Preaching to a congregation of approximately 300 people — including local priests, seminarians, parishioners, religious sisters, and 60 sick individuals — Pope Leo emphasized the need to “make room for silence” and to step back from the “whirlwind of commitments and worries” that often crowd out opportunities for peace and prayer.

Outside the cathedral, hundreds more gathered in the streets and piazzas. Thirteen mayors from neighboring towns attended the Mass, along with a group of young Catholic scouts who paused to see the pope on their way to summer camp.

As he walked through Albano toward the cathedral, people waved and shouted greetings. The pope stopped to bless children and greet those in wheelchairs who kissed his ring in front of the church.

Pope Leo presided over the Mass, which was concelebrated by 80 priests in the basilica named for St. Pancras, a young Roman martyr from the fourth century.

In his homily, the pope turned to St. Augustine’s reflections on Martha and Mary.

“‘These two women symbolize two lives: the present and the future; a life lived in toil and a life of rest; one troubled and the other blessed; one temporary, the other eternal,’” Pope Leo said, quoting from Augustine’s Sermon 104.

Quoting further, he added: “‘The weariness will pass and rest will come, but rest will only come through the effort made. The ship will sail and reach its homeland; but the homeland will not be reached except by means of the ship.’”

The pope said that Martha and Mary are a reminder that “listening and service are two complementary attitudes that enable us to open ourselves and our lives to the blessings of the Lord.”

He urged Christians to seek a wise balance between “contemplation and action, rest and hard work, silence and the bustle of our daily lives,” guided always by the Lord, taking “Jesus’ charity as our measure, his word as our light, and his grace as our source of strength, which sustains us beyond our own capacity.”

“During the summer, we have more free time in which to gather our thoughts and reflect, and also to travel and spend time with each other. Let us make good use of this, by leaving behind the whirlwind of commitments and worries in order to savor a few moments of peace and reflection, taking time as well to visit other places and share in the joy of seeing others — as I am doing here today,” Leo said.

“Let us make summer an opportunity to care for others, to get to know each other, and to offer advice and a listening ear,” he said. “These are expressions of love, and that is something we all need. Let us do so with courage.”

Pope Leo is nearing the end of his current stay at Castel Gandolfo, the 135-acre papal retreat overlooking Lake Albano, long favored by previous pontiffs including John Paul II and Benedict XVI. Pope Francis, however, opted not to use the summer estate during his pontificate.

During his retreat, Leo has continued to lead public prayers, including the Angelus, and has celebrated Sunday Masses in the local community, including last week at the 17th-century Church of St. Thomas of Villanova in Castel Gandolfo’s central square.

In his Angelus address on July 20, Pope Leo returned to the theme of summer as a time of rest and encounter.

“The summer season can help us learn how to slow down and become more like Mary than Martha. Sometimes we too fail to choose the better part. We need to take time to rest and try to learn better the art of hospitality,” he said.

“The holiday industry wants to sell us all sorts of ‘experiences,’ but perhaps not the ones we are really looking for. Every genuine encounter is free; it cannot be bought, whether it is an encounter with God, with others, or with nature. We need only learn the art of hospitality, which includes both welcoming others and allowing ourselves to be welcomed.”

The pope is expected to return briefly to Castel Gandolfo in August for the solemnity of the Assumption of Mary, spending time there from Aug. 15–17.

Members of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Ethiopia say the situation currently in Ethiopia “calls more than ever” for a unified voice. / Courtesy of CBCE

ACI Africa, Jul 20, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

In a statement shared on July 13 following its 58th plenary assembly, members of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Ethiopia (CBCE) said the current situation in Ethiopia calls “more than ever” for a unified voice.

“The Church, as a mother, always longs and grieves for her children to enter into peace,” the bishops said, encouraging the people of God in the country to continue praying, fasting, and working earnestly for peace.

In March, Bishop Tesfasellassie Medhin of the Catholic Eparch of Adigrat, which covers the Tigray region in Ethiopia’s northernmost territory, warned of “a very bloody confrontation” that could involve Ethiopia and neighboring Eritrea.

He confirmed at the time that tensions were continuing to escalate in the region following an internal split within the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which led a rebel faction of the group to seize control of Adigrat, a town near the Eritrean border, on March 11.

“Instability in our region continues to persist, tensions between Ethiopia and Eritrea are increasing, and the country could be engulfed in a very bloody confrontation,” he said.

This would come on the heels of a civil war that raged mainly in the Tigray area from November 2020 to November 2022, primarily fought between the TPLF and the Ethiopian government, which joined forces with Eritrea. Some estimates say over a half a million people died from violence, famine, and lack of medical access during that time.   

During their latest assembly, the Ethiopian bishops also focused on other issues related to the Church’s “mission, structure, institutions, evangelization, national and global matters.” They committed to strengthening the apostolic mission of the Catholic Church in Ethiopia through renewed efforts under a general secretariat.

“Plans are underway to appoint qualified priests soon, and there is an emphasis on working in a synodal spirit (journeying together) with the faithful to strengthen evangelization,” the bishops said in their statement.

In Ethiopia, which is predominantly Ethiopian Orthodox, the Latin rite is observed in nine ecclesiastical jurisdictions and the Eastern rite in four.

Meanwhile the bishops welcomed the newly ordained auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Addis Ababa, Bishop Tesfaye Tadesse Gebresilasie, as well as Bishop Merhakristos Gobezayehu Getachew Yilma of the Vicariate Apostolic of Awasa.

The late Pope Francis appointed Gebresilasie, a member of the Religious Institute of the Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus (MCCJ) in November 2024 to assist Cardinal Berhaneyesus Demerew Souraphiel, the archbishop of Addis Ababa. Yilma has been at the helm of Awasa Apostolic Vicariate since February 2024.

CBCE spokesperson Bishop Lisane-Christos Matheos Semahun, who leads the Diocese of Bahirdar-Dessie, said in the bishops’ statement that the new appointments will “enhance shared Church responsibilities, contribute new ideas for addressing challenges, and strengthen many services.”

The bishops also welcomed the new apostolic nuncio to Ethiopia, Archbishop Brian Ngozi Udaigwe, and recognized his presence for the first time at a CBCE plenary assembly.

“Archbishop Brian expressed his happiness in coming to Ethiopia and showed his willingness to collaborate in the mission of the Church,” the statement said in reference to the Vatican diplomat who “delivered Pope Leo XIV’s message of fraternal communion to the bishops.”

The late Pope Francis transferred Cameroonian-born Udaigwe from Sri Lanka to Ethiopia on April 12. The Nigerian national previously served as the representative of the Holy Father in Benin and Togo.

The Addis Ababa-based apostolic nunciature had been vacant since May 2024, when the Holy Father reassigned Archbishop Antoine Camilleri to Cuba.

This story was first published by ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, and has been adapted by CNA.

An image of Servant of God Julia Greeley in a parish. / Credit: Screenshot/Colorado Capuchin Franciscans

CNA Staff, Jul 20, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

A new, short documentary tells the story of Servant of God Julia Greeley, also known as Denver’s Angel of Charity, who was born into slavery near Hannibal, Missouri. 

“Julia Greeley: Servant of the Sacred Heart” features interviews with Father Blaine Burkey, OFM Cap, who wrote a book on Greeley’s life; Mary Leisring, president of the Julia Greeley Guild; Father Eric Zegeer, pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Denver, Greeley’s parish; and Jean Torkelson, executive director of the Julia Greeley Home, a Denver nonprofit that serves women in need.

In the 13-minute documentary, interviewees discuss Greeley’s deep faith, her acts of charity, and her courageous response to the challenges presented throughout her life. 

When she was a child, while her master was beating her mother, his whip caught Greeley’s right eye and destroyed it. After she was freed in 1865, she spent her time serving poor families, mostly in Denver.

In 1880, Greeley entered the Catholic Church at Sacred Heart Parish in Denver. She attended daily Mass and had a deep devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and the Blessed Virgin Mary. 

She joined the Secular Franciscan Order in 1901 and was known for her dedication to the people in her community, bringing them things they needed. Despite having arthritis, she walked countless miles to collect and distribute alms and to spread devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Greely died on June 7, 1918, and her cause for canonization was opened by the Archdiocese of Denver in 2016.

Burkey is a retired priest in the Archdiocese of Denver. A scholar and expert on the life of Greeley, in an interview with CNA he described her as “a very zealous person.”

“Despite all the problems people gave her, she turned it around and didn’t spend time worrying about that,” he said.

The priest also highlighted that among Greeley’s many charitable deeds, “every time she had money leftover to take care of herself, she [instead] took care of the poor,” and “she didn’t spend her life trying to get even or [seek] vengeance or anything like that.”

He said he hopes the faithful are “encouraged by that message that you shouldn’t be concerned with vengeance but with mercy.”

“Julia Greeley: Servant of the Sacred Heart” can be viewed for free on YouTube. 

Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Pierbattista Pizzaballa (left) and a members of a Christian visit St. Porphyrius Church in Gaza City on July 18, 2025. / Credit: OMAR AL-QATTAA/AFP via Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 19, 2025 / 11:30 am (CNA).

Bishop William Shomali, the auxiliary bishop for the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, said this week the community has been “very distressed” following the bombing of Holy Family Church in Gaza, with the prelate calling for the protection of nearby Christian villages. 

On July 17, the Israeli military bombed the only Catholic parish in Gaza. The strike killed three and injured nine, including the parish priest Father Gabriel Romanelli. 

Israel Defense Forces subsequently apologized for the strike, stating that “fragments from a shell fired during operational activity in the area hit the church mistakenly.” Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa later seemed to imply that the strike was intentional, telling an Italian newspaper that “everybody [in Gaza] believes it wasn’t” a mistake.

The day after the strike, Pizzaballa and Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III visited Gaza, providing “spiritual comfort, moral comfort, and also material comfort, which is much needed.” 

In an interview with “EWTN News In Depth” on Friday, Shomali — who serves as general vicar and patriarchal vicar for Jerusalem and Palestine — said the patriarch and his colleagues were able to bring one of the wounded back to Jerusalem where he is now “under treatment.”

As the Vatican is now urging a ceasefire, Shomali said it is “great in itself” that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on the phone with Pope Leo XIV following a written message from the Holy Father offering prayers. 

Shomali said the Holy See has asked “frequently” for a ceasefire “during the time of Pope Francis and even now with Leo XIV.” He reflected on Pope Francis’ “very close” relationship with Romanelli and the people in Gaza.

Pope Francis “knew every detail about the life of the Christian community in Gaza,” he said. It was “unique, to say the truth. Every pope has his own style. The style of our Holy Father is different, but we know that he asks a lot about Gaza, and the telegram he sent yesterday showed his closeness to Father Gabriel and to the community.”

During the interview, Shomali said the situation in the West Bank continues to be “critical” for a number of reasons. He highlighted the “daily confrontation between Palestinians and the settlers.”

“We are suffering now because in two of our Christian villages, Taybeh and Abu, settlers enter almost every day to conquer more land and to enlarge the settlements,” Shomali said.

He explained that they have asked Israel Defense Forces “to prevent settlers from coming to the Christian village of Taybeh” and now are “waiting [for] the answer.”

“We hope they can do something,” Shomali said. “But … the settlers have weapons and I don’t believe that the army would like to be in confrontation with the settlers, who are more than 700 people in the West Bank.” 

“It is really difficult to convince them to change their mentality, which is very … ideological because they consider all the land in the West Bank theirs and it’s a matter of time for them to take it without any sense of guilt,” the prelate said. 

“So really we are in front of an ideological conflict with two narratives where a negotiation for peace [is] very difficult,” he added.

Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski talks to “EWTN News In Depth” anchor Catherine Hadro on Friday, July 18, 2025. / Credit: EWTN News

CNA Staff, Jul 19, 2025 / 10:45 am (CNA).

From Detroit to California to Florida, Catholic clergy are rallying to show support and solidarity for immigrants facing deportations.

While the Tennessee bishops and Bishop Alberto Rojas of San Bernardino, California, recently granted dispensations to the Sunday Mass obligation for those who fear arrest, other Catholic clergy are attending marches to show solidarity and support for immigrants.

In Detroit, one Catholic priest took a unique approach — delivering a letter to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Father David Buersmeyer, ​the ​ombudsman of the Office of the Archbishop of Detroit, shared his growing concerns about immigration enforcement operations in a letter addressed to ICE’s Detroit field office and its director Kevin Raycraft.

“Over the last few months, not only in Detroit but throughout the nation, we have been seeing Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel become more confrontational [and] less transparent, in ways that have created more fear and chaos among many of our immigrant communities,” Buersmeyer told CNA.

Buersmeyer is a chaplain for Strangers No Longer, a Michigan-based Catholic grassroots immigration advocacy group. Earlier this week, the group held a prayerful march to the local ICE office to deliver the letter, which was signed by Buersmeyer and the group’s board president, Judith Brooks.

Archbishop Edward Weisenburger of Detroit also joined the march, which was made up of several hundred people, including Catholic clergy, women religious, Protestant clergy, and Jewish leadership, according to Buersmeyer.

The procession began with prayer at Most Holy Trinity Church — which Buersmeyer calls “a longtime symbol” for immigrants and those in need — and ended at the nearby ICE office. 

Though the office refused to accept the letter at the door, Buersmeyer said the advocates passed the correspondence on to a congressman and a senator who agreed to deliver it to the director. 

The letter cited concerns about face masks and lack of identification of ICE agents during immigration action, urging the director to enforce ID requirements and ban face masks. Additionally, the letter urged ICE to not act without a federal warrant and to communicate with local police during enforcement.

Finally, the letter criticized the separation of families when ICE arrests men, leaving women and children behind.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement this week that “rather than separate families, ICE asks mothers if they want to be removed with their children or if the child should be placed with someone else safe the parent designates.”

Despite being turned away at the door by ICE staff, Buersmeyer said he hopes for “dialogue.” 

“Our hope is that enough people will come to see that the current procedures in place for treating immigrants leads too easily to inhumane, unjust, and unnecessary actions,” Buersmeyer said.

“That in turn can lead to a dialogue about national policies that can provide a more just and less knee-jerk framework for handling immigration cases.”

The subject of masking and identification is being discussed in Michigan and around the U.S. Earlier this week, the Michigan attorney general and other attorneys general sent a letter urging federal lawmakers to prohibit ICE officers from wearing masks. 

Several federal Democrat legislators recently proposed a bill that would require ICE agencies to better identify themselves. 

But in the same week, the Department of Homeland Security reported a spike in assaults and doxxing of ICE agents and expressed concern over “charged” rhetoric in the media.  

“Because our city has a major ICE field office we wanted to let him know that there are large numbers of community leaders who have the pulse of the people being affected by these newer enforcement procedures and that there are ways to both respect the work that ICE needs to do and to lessen that fear and work more positively,” Buersmeyer said.

For Buersmeyer, the march was also about “solidarity” and living out Catholic social teaching.

“We wanted to publicly witness to our support of such communities,” he said.

Across the country in Los Angeles, a local Catholic priest had a similar goal — he hoped to bring spiritual guidance to his flock amid the unrest.

Jesuit Father Brendan Busse, the pastor at Dolores Mission Church, said that intensified activity from Immigration and Customs Enforcement has deeply shaken the people he serves.

In the largely Hispanic neighborhood of Boyle Heights, people are filled with “anxiety” and have to make “hard decisions,” Busse explained.

“We’ve received calls here at the parish — you know, ‘Father, I’m not sure our family feels safe coming to Mass,’” Busse told EWTN News President Montse Alvarado on “EWTN News In Depth” this week. “I think it’s affected everybody."

Busse participated in a June 10 peaceful gathering in Los Angeles’ Grand Park as well as a procession to a federal building, along with other faith leaders including Los Angeles Archbishop José Gómez, who has repeatedly called for action on immigration reform.

“We walked between protesters and National Guardsmen in a moment that was very tense,” Busse recalled. “And we brought into that place a spirit of peace.”

The Diocese of San Bernardino faces similar challenges, leading to the archbishop’s decision to dispense Mass attendance for those affected by ICE activity. 

John Andrews, a spokesman for the San Bernardino Diocese, said ICE has come onto parish property twice that he is aware of, including for the arrest of a parishioner of Our Lady of Lourdes in Montclair. 

“A man who was doing landscaping work on the parish property was taken into custody there, arrested, and was later taken to an immigration facility in Texas,” Andrews told “EWTN News In Depth.”

In Florida, meanwhile, concerns have proliferated over the state’s so-called “Alligator Alcatraz,” a detention facility for illegal immigrants in the Everglades. State leaders have touted the facility’s remote location as well as its being surrounded by dangerous wildlife.

Venice, Florida, Bishop Frank Dewane said earlier this month that it was “unbecoming of public officials and corrosive of the common good” to speak of the threat of alligators and other dangerous animals in the context of the immigrants housed there.

Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski, meanwhile, told “EWTN News In Depth” this week that his “greatest concern is the health and care of the people that are being detained there.”

“It’s in a very isolated place far away from medical facilities. It’s in a swamp that is very hot on a tarmac, which makes it even hotter,” the bishop said. 

The archbishop said that advocates are calling for “a minimum of standards” and that “one of those standards should be access to pastoral care.” 

He described the difficulty of arranging Masses and spiritual care at the detention center, claiming that the Florida state government and the federal government are “arguing among themselves who is accountable for this place.”

The prelate said people should be aware of the difference between illegal immigration and “violent crime or felonies.”

“Most of the the immense majority of these people,” he said, “are here and working in honest jobs and trying to make a living for themselves and their families, trying to just have a future of hope for themselves and their families.”

Joseph Hazboun, the regional director at the Pontifical Mission in the Jerusalem field office, speaks to Tara Mergener on “EWTN News Nightly” on Friday, July 18, 2025. / Credit: EWTN News

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 19, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).

In the wake of an Israeli missile strike on Gaza’s only Catholic church this week that left three dead, the regional director of the Jerusalem field office for the Pontifical Mission, Joseph Hazboun, spoke with “EWTN News Nightly” on July 18 about the situation facing the people there. 

Citing Pope Leo XIV’s phone call Friday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Hazboun told “EWTN News Nightly” anchor Tara Mergener that he hopes “more pressure will be put to end this tragic and meaningless war that has taken so many lives.” 

Pope Leo in a telegram as well as on social media also issued a call for an immediate ceasefire after the deadly attack.

The director for the Pontifical Mission, a Vatican-sponsored charity, noted that the attack on Holy Family Church in Gaza has sparked “a lot of solidarity internationally,” which he called “very good.”

Israel said the church was “mistakenly” hit and that it “regrets” the damage caused to the city’s only Catholic parish. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement on X that the parish had been hit by “fragments from a shell.” The church has been sheltering more than 600 people since the war broke out, including Catholics, Orthodox Christians, and Muslims. 

“The cause of the incident is under review,” the statement read. “The IDF directs its strikes solely at military targets and makes every feasible effort to mitigate harm to civilians and religious structures, and regrets any unintentional damage caused to them.”

The Pontifical Mission has been operating in Gaza for “decades,” according to Hazboun. In recent years, the charity has provided critical aid such as water, food, and psychosocial support for mothers and children through various local partners. 

Most recently, the organization was able to purchase fresh vegetables from a local market in Gaza — which Hazboun said due to widespread food scarcity was “surprising to us” — and distribute them in cooperation with the Near East Council of Churches to over 500 families. The Pontifical Mission was also able to buy and distribute five and a half tons of flour, which it also gave to over 500 families. Hazboun noted “the tragic news of people going to the distribution centers and getting killed just for some kilos of flour.”

According to Hazboun, the Christian community in Gaza was very active prior to the war that started in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks. “There were once around 17 centers providing services,” he said, including several hospitals, schools, cultural centers, and various scouting troops.

“It was a very vibrant community,” he said. “Unfortunately, during the war many of the institutions were targeted and now they are inoperational.”

“The YMCA is dysfunctional,” he continued. “The Arab Orthodox Cultural center is destroyed — and so unfortunately we are not sure how things will look after the war. It all depends on how many will remain in Gaza.”

Nevertheless, Hazboun said he is “confident” that many Christians will remain in Gaza.

He stressed that the Pontifical Mission’s message to Gazans, especially to youths, has been that “as long as you see Gaza as a homeland, we will support you and we will provide everything that we can so that you can have a dignified life and see a future for yourself in Gaza.”

“If you decide that you no longer have a future in Gaza,” he said, “that’s your decision; we respect it and we ask for God’s blessing wherever you decide to go.”