St. Andrew Catholic Church

The replacement bell at Urukami Cathedral waits to be installed in Nagasaki, Japan, Thursday, July 17, 2025. / Credit: Photo courtesy of James Nolan

CNA Staff, Jul 26, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Catholics in Nagasaki, Japan, have replaced a bell in a cathedral bell tower there almost exactly 80 years to the day after it was destroyed by the atomic blast that leveled most of the city at the end of World War II.

An international effort to fund the construction and installation of the bell at Urakami Cathedral raised $125,000 in just over a year, with the funds coming from over 600 individual donors, according to Williams College Professor James Nolan.

Nagasaki was one of the two Japanese cities, along with Hiroshima, largely destroyed by the U.S. atomic bombings at the close of World War II. The city was bombed on Aug. 9, 1945, marking the second and last time an atomic bomb was used as an act of war.

Nolan told CNA last year that parishioners at Urakami Cathedral managed to dig up one of the original bells after the bombing and save it; the bell was installed in the cathedral’s right bell tower after it was rebuilt in 1959.

The remaining bell, however, was destroyed, with the second rebuilt tower remaining empty for decades.

Nolan — a sociology professor who came to Nagasaki frequently while writing and researching a book about the local Catholic population’s response to the bombing — said a parishioner at the cathedral, Kojiro Moriuchi, remarked to him at one point that it would be “wonderful if American Catholics gave us the bell for the left tower,” leading the professor to help spearhead the effort to replace the instrument. 

For the professor, his own involvement in the project is personal. His grandfather served as the chief medical officer at the Los Alamos, New Mexico, facility where the atomic bomb was developed and later came with a survey team to both Nagasaki and Hiroshima after the bombs fell.

People “were keen to give, once they learned the story about Nagasaki,” Nolan told CNA this week.

“We reached our goal of $125,000 on July 15,” he said. The funds will pay off the cost of making the bell as well as transporting and installing it, he said. 

“It took about one year and four months to raise the funds. In the final tally there were a total of 628 individual donations,” Nolan said. 

Moriuchi spoke at the blessing ceremony on July 17 and “got a bit choked up,” Nolan said. 

Nagasaki Archbishop Peter Michiaki Nakamura blessed the bell on that date and named it the “St. Kateri Bell of Hope,” according to the Associated Press.

The bell will be officially installed on Aug. 9, eight decades after the parish was leveled by the atomic bomb. Nolan said it will be rung at 11:02 a.m., the exact moment in 1945 when the bomb detonated around 1,600 feet west of the church. 

At the bombing location, a section of wall from the old, destroyed cathedral sits in Nagasaki Peace Park. At the rebuilt parish to the east, meanwhile, Nolan said he hopes the bell “will bear the fruit of fostering hope and peace and solidarity between American and Japanese Catholics.” 

In remarks delivered at the blessing ceremony this month, Nolan said American Catholics learning of the destruction wrought at Nagasaki “expressed sorrow, regret, sadness, and a wish for forgiveness and reconciliation.”

One person, he said, wrote to him: “May the ringing of these bells continue to remind the people of Nagasaki of our sorrow for what their people have endured and reassure them of ours and God’s love for them.”

Another said the bell’s donation was meant “to heal the wounds of this war and progress to world peace.”

Ernesto Escaler, a Filipino businessman, in front of his restaurant, Gourmet Farms Philippines, in July 2025. / Credit: Valerie Joy Escalona

Manila, Philippines, Jul 26, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Ernesto Escaler, a renowned Filipino businessman and the owner of Gourmet Farms Philippines, one of the most iconic restaurant brands in the country, is described as a man of few words but remarkable action.

His staff describe him as deeply low-key — someone who avoids attention and prefers not to speak about his philanthropy. But for the sake of this story, his friends and employees have allowed CNA a glimpse into his quiet, powerful mission.

Every year, he feeds over 3,000 prisoners across three major correctional facilities in the Philippines. He offers them dignity by employing them in planting vegetables, which Gourmet Farms then buys. He also supports the sick cared for by the Missionaries of Charity and Canossian Sisters on top of supporting various other seminaries, convents, and religious communities.

In 2024, Escaler achieved the extraordinary: He persuaded no less than the leader of the Philippines himself, President Bongbong Marcos, to consecrate the entire nation — and the presidential family — to Our Lady of Guadalupe, to whom Escaler is devoted.

He organized public recollections on divine mercy and Marian consecration in four major cities across the country and was instrumental in bringing to life a clergy retreat for 800 priests and 16 bishops.

More than a philanthropist, Escaler is an evangelist in the workplace, bringing the Gospel to his own staff. His entire company — and most of his 400 employees — is consecrated to Mary. One of his biggest priorities as a business owner is to provide spiritual formation to his own staff, providing recollections, booklets, and weekly access to prayer and the sacraments.

At the heart of his company lies a sanctuary — the Sanctuary of St. Joseph — which Escalar built on his 50th birthday 25 years ago.

“We are a consecrated company to Mama Mary. The entire Escaler Group of Companies is consecrated to her,” shared Ginny de Villa, executive director of the Escaler Group.

Escaler takes no credit.

“I am simply being used by Our Lady. It’s not my doing. None of this was planned,” he said. “I am just an instrument. I cannot claim credit for anything.”

Asked if he had any specific “conversion experience,” Escaler stated: “I’ve always grown up praying to Our Lord. We grew up as a very Catholic family … but the ‘a-ha’ moment for me was when I got introduced to Marian consecration and divine mercy.”

In 2017, Father Michael Gaitley, MIC — author of the bestselling book “33 Days to Morning Glory” — came to the Philippines to give a retreat for the Catholic bishops’ conference. Due to the priest’s dietary restrictions, he was housed at Gourmet Farms, where he met Escaler. The two quickly became friends, and Gaitley introduced Escaler to Marian consecration.

“I was taken by it,” Escaler said. The priest later invited Escaler to a pilgrimage in Poland, deepening his understanding of divine mercy and Our Lady’s mission.

“Our Blessed Mother came into this world with one mission: to bring people closer to Jesus. And when you consecrate yourself to her, what you’re doing is you’re giving her permission to use you for her mission. And what is her mission? To bring people to God. So I become an instrument of bringing people to God by virtue of my Marian consecration.” 

“There are many lukewarm Catholics today, each with their own struggles. But I believe Mama Mary can touch their hearts — through people like us, consecrated and willing to be used by her.”

“Look at the world today — war, terrorism, human trafficking, pedophilia — it’s clear Satan is at work. How do we fight back? With the rosary. With Marian consecration. We cannot fight evil on our own. It is Mary who will do the work, and she will use us as her instruments if we consecrate ourselves to her.” 

Consecration in the workplace

Escaler’s commitment to Marian consecration extends deeply into his company.

“It was through Escaler that I was introduced to Marian consecration. It’s powerful,” de Villa said. “If there are Catholics by convention, Marian consecration deepens that so you become Catholics by conviction.”

She added: “Mr. Escaler evangelizes not just through personal testimony but with history. He shared the story of the Battle of Lepanto and showed how Mama Mary was always there, guiding history toward Christ. Her goal is always to bring you closer to her Son and make you a saint in the process. It was gripping and life-changing.”

“The most powerful realization I had was that in Marian consecration, you let Mary take over your life. We are here in the world of business, in the world of control and managing people and situations. But consecration requires total surrender. And that surrender becomes your strength. You are now at her disposal — and it’s liberating.”

The company provides 33-day consecration booklets to staff, offers weekly Mass, First Friday devotions, and Marian feast-day celebrations.

“It’s part of the company culture espoused by Mr. Escaler — that spirituality, that God-centeredness, that devotion to Mama Mary and divine mercy,” de Villa said. “It’s in our DNA.”

A God-centered company

“Many people ask Mr. Escaler, ‘Why do you have a chapel in your business? Why a sanctuary in the middle of the farm?’” Joel Layug, head of human resources, told CNA. 

“Mr. Escaler always tells us, we are a farm. Our business is organic farming. We take care of nature and the environment. To whom else should we go but to the Author of nature? We must turn to the Creator. That’s why at the heart of our farm is this sanctuary.”

“He was very deliberate in calling this the Sanctuary of St. Joseph. He chose St. Joseph because it is through silence that God speaks. St. Joseph was the silent strength. In the whole Gospel, St. Joseph did not speak a single word, and yet he did the Father’s will. That’s the spirit of this place.”

Escaler added: “I built this 25 years ago as a birthday gift to God. It’s a retreat center for people to come and talk to him. And how do you talk to God? In silence, in nature. I don’t advertise it. It’s his sanctuary. I simply built it — and he invites whom he wills.”

Nationwide efforts

Escaler translates his religious piety into concrete works of mercy.

“He feeds prisoners in three major jails, helps the sick cared for by the Missionaries of Charity, and supports many religious communities, but he’s very low-key,” de Villa added. “And he’s very active in spreading Mama Mary’s devotion across the Philippines — especially Our Lady of Guadalupe.”

His greatest passion is to spread divine mercy and Marian consecration not just among his staff but throughout the nation.

“In 2023, Mr. Escaler invited Father Chris Alar, MIC, to give a retreat to 800 priests and 16 bishops,” Layug said. “He also brought Father Chris to the president to consecrate the Philippines to divine mercy.”

What began as a clergy retreat expanded to the laity. Public demand was so overwhelming that he organized events in four major cities. Within hours of opening registration, seats were fully booked.

“When I got Father Chris to say yes, I asked — why not open it to the laity too?” Escaler recounted. “We organized retreats in Quezon City, Alabang, Baguio, and Cavite. People asked, ‘How did you organize a retreat for 5,000 people?’”

“I didn’t invite them. I created the venue, the schedule. She — Mama Mary — invites whomever she wants. I’m just an instrument.”

He also organized a 4,000-person retreat in Davao with Gaitley in the past and personally gave Marian consecration talks in seminaries, convents, dioceses, and even to a group of Franciscans in England.

At 75, does he plan to continue? “Whenever it is needed,” he said. “And she [Mary] will decide when and where. I don’t plan it.”

How does he manage to do it all? His answer is as simple as it is profound: “I just live by example. There’s no other way to speak to people. You have to show them through action.”

In recent months, more than two dozen Planned Parenthood locations have announced they will close. / Credit: Jonathan Weiss/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 25, 2025 / 17:25 pm (CNA).

More than two dozen Planned Parenthood facilities across the country in recent months have announced plans to shut down amid funding concerns caused by new federal rules that prevent the abortion giant from receiving Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements.

As of Friday, July 25, the growing number of Planned Parenthood facility closures has reached at least 25, which span across 10 states. The most recent announcement came yesterday, July 24, with Planned Parenthood Mar Monte indicating its plan to shut down five facilities in northern California.

On July 4, President Donald Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which put a one-year freeze on Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements for Planned Parenthood. The provision is being challenged in court, but a federal judge this week allowed the freeze to go into effect for most Planned Parenthood affiliates.

Some of Planned Parenthood’s facilities announced closures before the bill’s passage in anticipation of the funding cuts while others have begun announcing closures this week.

“We are heartbroken and outraged to have to close five of our health centers and sunset three crucial services,” Planned Parenthood Mar Monte wrote in an Instagram post.

In the post, the Planned Parenthood affiliate called the defunding provision “a back-door ban on abortion in reproductive freedom states.”

The affiliate will still operate 30 other abortion clinics in California and Nevada.

Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkins referred to the news as “a win for babies in California,” a state she said is “a hub for late-term abortions,” in a statement on X.

Planned Parenthood affiliates are also shutting down four facilities in Iowa, four in Michigan, four in Minnesota, two in Ohio, two in Utah, one in Vermont, one in New York, one in Indiana, and one in Texas.

Planned Parenthood Federation of America stated on July 1 that the defunding provision could force the abortion network to shut down nearly 200 clinics, which is 60% of Planned Parenthood’s facilities.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said in a statement provided to CNA that Planned Parenthood should “look in the mirror for the reason their centers are shuttering.”

“Planned Parenthood’s focus is on abortions, gender transitions, and political spending — all while raking in hundreds of millions from taxpayers,” Dannenfelser said. “Many times they’ve been offered a path to keep their funding by dropping abortions, but they refuse. Meanwhile, they have no monopoly on health, as women already go to community health centers that provide much more comprehensive care and are more accessible, outnumbering Planned Parenthoods 15:1 nationwide.”

Michael New, a senior associate scholar at the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute, told CNA that “it should come as no surprise that Planned Parenthood is responding to the federal funding cutoff by closing some of its facilities,” noting that Planned Parenthood receives hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer funds annually.

New said Planned Parenthood closures “should be seen as a win for the pro-life movement.”

“Even those Planned Parenthood facilities that do not perform abortions still do abortion referrals,” New said. “Furthermore, when a Planned Parenthood closes, that means that there are fewer people who work for the abortion industry. Finally, Planned Parenthood's contraception and sex education programs create a more promiscuous culture that result in more abortions.”

Under long-standing federal law, Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements were not available for most abortions. But before the new law went into effect, Planned Parenthood was able to obtain reimbursements from those programs for non-abortive services.

According to Planned Parenthood’s annual report for July 2023 through June 2024, about 40% of the abortion network’s total revenue came from taxpayer money, a large portion of which was obtained through Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements. Over that year, Planned Parenthood was given nearly $800 million in public funds.

Pope Leo XIV addresses the crowd at the Angelus on July 13, 2025, at the papal estate of Castel Gandolfo. / Credit: Stefano Costantino/EWTN News

Vatican City, Jul 25, 2025 / 16:23 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV in a message released Friday pointed out that Catholic migrants and refugees “can become missionaries of hope today in the countries that welcome them.”

“With their spiritual enthusiasm and vitality, they can help revitalize ecclesial communities that have become rigid and weighed down, where spiritual desertification is advancing at an alarming rate,” the pope noted July 25 in his message for the 111th World Day of Migrants and Refugees, which will be celebrated Oct. 4–5, coinciding with the Jubilee of Migrants and the Jubilee of the Missions.

The pontiff focused his reflection on the link between Christian hope and migration and praised the faith with which immigrants “defy death on the various contemporary migration routes.”

“Many migrants, refugees, and displaced persons are privileged witnesses of hope. Indeed, they demonstrate this daily through their resilience and trust in God, as they face adversity while seeking a future in which they glimpse that integral human development,” the pope noted in the statement.

He emphasized that their presence “should be recognized and appreciated as a true divine blessing, an opportunity to open oneself to the grace of God, who gives new energy and hope to his Church.”

The Holy Father pointed out that “in a world darkened by war and injustice, even when all seems lost, migrants and refugees stand as messengers of hope. Their courage and tenacity bear heroic testimony to a faith that sees beyond what our eyes can see and gives them the strength to defy death on the various contemporary migration routes.”

“Migrants and refugees remind the Church of her pilgrim dimension, perpetually journeying toward her final homeland, sustained by a hope that is a theological virtue,” he added.

Thus, the pope called for hope for “a future of peace and of respect for the dignity of all” despite the “frightening scenarios” of “wars, violence, injustice, and extreme weather events.” 

Arms trade and current climate crisis

“The prospect of a renewed arms race and the development of new armaments, including nuclear weapons, the lack of consideration for the harmful effects of the ongoing climate crisis, and the impact of profound economic inequalities make the challenges of the present and the future increasingly demanding,” the pontiff noted in the message.

Pope Leo warned the Catholic Church against the temptation of “sedentarization” and, therefore, of ceasing to be a “civitas peregrine,” since as St. Augustine points out in “The City of God,” the people of God are “journeying toward the heavenly homeland,” because otherwise she ceases to be “in the world” and becomes “of the world.”

“This temptation was already present in the early Christian communities, so much so that the Apostle Paul had to remind the Church of Philippi that ‘our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself’ (Phil 3:20-21),” Leo XIV emphasized.

He also called for a move beyond individualism, which he defined as a “serious threat” to the “sharing of responsibilities, multilateral cooperation,” and “the pursuit of the common good.”

In this regard, he criticized the “widespread tendency to look after the interests of limited communities” and pointed out that there is “a clear analogy” between immigrants and “the experience of the people of Israel wandering in the desert, who faced every danger while trusting in the Lord’s protection.”

Finally, Pope Leo expressed his desire to entrust every migrant, and those who accompany them with generosity and compassion, “to the maternal protection of the Virgin Mary, comfort of migrants.”

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

Oregon resident Jessica Bates, who the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit says is likely being discriminated against by the state for refusing to accept gender ideology as an adoptive mother. / Courtesy: Alliance Defending Freedom

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 25, 2025 / 15:53 pm (CNA).

A federal appeals court ruled in a 2-1 decision that Oregon likely violated a Christian mother’s First Amendment rights by demanding that she embrace gender ideology and homosexuality in order to adopt children.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ordered that the Oregon Department of Human Services must allow the mother, Jessica Bates, to begin the process of adopting two children without first making her comply with the gender ideology affirmation.

Bates, who is represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, challenged the department rule in 2023. The rule requires that, to obtain certification to become an adoptive or foster parent, the applicant must agree to “respect, accept, and support the … sexual orientation, gender identity, [and] gender expression … of a child or young adult” who is placed in the home.

According to the lawsuit, Bates told the certification officer that she would love and treat any child as her own. Yet, she was denied certification because she said she would not provide transgender drugs to the child if he or she requested them and would not use a child’s preferred pronouns if he or she began to identify as transgender.

Bates was seeking to adopt two children under the age of 9. The gender ideology affirmation rule applies to any person seeking to foster or adopt, regardless of how old the children are and regardless of whether any of the children suffer from gender dysphoria or other gender identity issues.

Bates is a devout Christian who objected to promoting values to her adoptive children that conflict with her religious beliefs, according to the lawsuit. The court agreed with her objections, saying that adoption is “not a constitutional law dead zone” and that state’s interests do not “create a force field against the valid operation of other constitutional rights.”

“We deal here with two vital such rights: the First Amendment’s protections for free speech and the free exercise of religion,” the ruling stated. 

The court opinion states the rule “restricts and requires speech based on content and viewpoint in the areas of sexuality, gender identity, and gender expression.” It also found that although the state is not likely acting on a “hostility or animus toward religion” with its enforcement of the rule, it is still not a “policy neutral toward religion” because certain religious beliefs are implicated.

In the opinion, the court’s majority found that Bates is likely to succeed on the merits of her challenge against the Oregon rule. The case is still ongoing and does not settle the constitutionality of the rule, which will likely be decided at a later date.

Jonathan Scruggs, senior counsel and president of litigation strategy for Alliance Defending Freedom, argued on behalf of Bates in court. He said in a statement after the ruling that she is already a “caring mom of five [children]” who can now adopt.

“Oregon officials excluded her because of her commonsense belief that a girl cannot become a boy or vice versa,” Scruggs said.

“Because caregivers like Jessica cannot promote Oregon’s dangerous gender ideology to young kids and take them to events like pride parades, the state considers them to be unfit parents,” he added. “That is false and incredibly dangerous, needlessly depriving kids of opportunities to find a loving home. The 9th Circuit was right to remind Oregon that the foster and adoption system is supposed to serve the best interests of children, not the state’s ideological crusade.”

Conscience Project Director Andrea Picciotti-Bayer, who filed an amicus brief with the court in support of Bates, told CNA that the court’s decision “is an important rebuke against the attacks of gender ideologues on people of faith.”

“There is a foster care crisis in America where there aren’t enough qualified homes to meet the needs of vulnerable children,” she said. “There is no reason to exclude loving parents with traditional Christian beliefs on human sexuality from responding to these needs of children.”

A few other states, such as Vermont, have adopted similar rules for people seeking to adopt or foster children that force them to embrace gender ideology. A handful of states, such as Kansas and Arkansas, have gone in the opposite direction, passing laws that ensure religious freedom rights for adoptive and foster parents.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore is hosting a gun buyback program for the third year in a row. / Credit: Sean Pavone/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Jul 25, 2025 / 15:23 pm (CNA).

The Archdiocese of Baltimore will host a gun buyback event for the third year in a row, urging citizens to surrender their guns for cash as the city continues to see declining gun crime rates.

The archdiocese hosted successful gun buyback events in 2023 and 2024. The program raised tens of thousands of dollars each year to help finance the purchasing of guns.

The archdiocese says on its website that the event will take place Aug. 9 in the southwestern part of the city. The Baltimore City Police Department, St. Joseph’s Monastery Parish, and the Health by Southwest coalition will join the archdiocese in supporting the buyback.

The 2023 program netted nearly 160 handguns as well as shotguns and rifles. Handguns and long guns were purchased for $200 apiece, while assault weapons were bought for $300. All of the purchased firearms were destroyed. Last year’s event, meanwhile, collected nearly 300 guns.

Father Mike Murphy, the pastor of St. Joseph Monastery as well as of Our Lady of Victory in Arbutus, told CNA this week that organizers have raised roughly $60,000 so far this year, about the same as last year. The first year the effort raised about $40,000.

“We have cultivated a group of wonderful supporters over the years,” he said. “I anticipate a bit more leading up to the day of the buyback.”

The latest buyback comes as crime has been dropping rapidly in Baltimore, including gun crime.

The city has long struggled with a violent crime rate significantly higher than the national average. From 2015–2022 the city recorded more than 300 homicides annually, including 348 in 2019, which nearly equaled the record of 353 set in 1993.

Earlier this year in the city the Sisters of Bon Secours launched a citywide campaign against gun violence, one featuring ads inside and outside of city buses and in subway transit stations urging residents to “put the guns down” and “let peace begin with us.”

In a press release earlier this month, meanwhile, the Baltimore Police Department said it has recorded “double-digit reductions in gun violence” in the city throughout 2025.

That decline includes a 22% decrease in homicides and a 19% reduction in nonfatal shootings. By this time last year, the police department said, there were 88 gun killings, compared with 68 so far this year.

“Baltimore is a safer city today, and I’m proud of the dedication shown by our officers, community members, and all of our partners in working together towards that goal,” Police Commissioner Richard Worley said in the release.

Murphy, meanwhile, told CNA he thinks the drop in homicides is “due to a few factors, of which I hope we played some part in.”

The priest said the effort to bring down crime has been citywide.

“Mayor [Brandon] Scott has worked hard on this issue [as have] others in the city,” he said. “It is, I think, all of us doing our part that helps real change to come about.”

“And we cannot stop these efforts,” he added. “The city, groups, churches, and neighborhoods [all] have to work together to stop the senseless loss and disrespect of life.”

Pope Leo XIV on July 25, 2025, addresses priests belonging to the Society of St. Xavier and participants of a monthlong seminary formators course at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Jul 25, 2025 / 14:53 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV offered three brief suggestions to two groups of priests he met at the Vatican on Friday morning, saying a “solid and integral formation” is essential for all Catholic faithful but especially for those who give Christian formation.

In his July 25 address to priests belonging to the Society of St. Xavier and participants of a monthlong seminary formators course at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum, the Holy Father said the main purpose of formation is to have “the same mind” as Jesus Christ and “reflect the Gospel.”

“Indeed, it is necessary that the ‘house’ of our life and vocational journey, whether priestly or lay, be founded on ‘rock,’” the pope said Friday.

The formation of priests, laypeople, and consecrated men and women, Leo said, is not “limited to specialized knowledge” but involves “a continuous journey of conversion.” 

The Holy Father’s first suggestion to build a rock-solid formation was to cultivate a “friendship with Jesus.”

“This is the foundation of the house, which must lie at the heart of every vocation and apostolic mission,” he said. “We need personally to experience the closeness of the Master; to know that we have been seen, loved, and chosen by the Lord by pure grace and without merit on our part.”

The Augustinian pope’s second suggestion for Catholic formators was to live an “effective and affective fraternity” with others.

“It is necessary to learn to live as brothers within the presbyterate as well as in religious communities and with our bishops and superiors,” he said.

“We must work hard on ourselves in order to overcome individualism and the desire to overtake others, which makes us competitors, so that we learn gradually to build human and spiritual relationships that are both healthy and fraternal,” he continued.

Before concluding his Friday meeting with the group of priests, the Holy Father gave his third and final suggestion: “to share the mission with all the baptized.”     

The pope said priests should not view themselves as “lone leaders” or live their ordained ministry with a “sense of superiority” but to be pastors who are “immersed in the reality of the people of God.”

“During the first centuries of the Church, it was usual for all the faithful to be like missionary disciples and to commit themselves personally to evangelization,” Leo explained. “The ordained ministry was at the service of this mission shared by all.” 

“Today, we feel strongly that we must return to this participation of all the baptized in witnessing to and proclaiming the Gospel,” he said.

Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, who died at the age of 24 in 1925, is beloved by many Catholic young people today for his enthusiastic witness to holiness that reaches “to the heights.” / Credit: Public domain

Vatican City, Jul 25, 2025 / 14:23 pm (CNA).

Update: The Vatican's jubilee office on Tuesday, July 8, removed posts on its website and social media pages referring to plans to expose Frassati's relics as described below. However, the Diocese of Rome confirmed on July 22 that Frassati's incorrupt body will be in Rome for veneration.

The coffin holding the incorrupt body of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati will be in Rome for veneration during the Jubilee of Youth July 26 through Aug. 4.

According to the Diocese of Rome, the coffin will be transferred from the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Turin, in the Italian region of Piedmont, to the Basilica of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva in Rome.

The official opening of the veneration will take place on July 26 with a Mass celebrated by Cardinal Vicar Baldo Reina, who will also impart a blessing to the volunteers working during the Jubilee.

Frassati, originally scheduled to be canonized on Aug. 3 during the Jubilee of Youth, will now be declared a saint by Pope Leo XIV on Sunday, Sept. 7, together with Blessed Carlo Acutis.

Frassati’s remains will be displayed in the Basilica of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva in Rome until Aug. 4 so that they can be venerated by young people attending jubilee events July 28 through Aug. 3, when Pope Leo will celebrate the youth jubilee’s closing Mass at the Tor Vergata University campus on the southeastern outskirts of Rome.

The relic will return to Turin after a Mass celebrated by Archbishop of Sydney Anthony Fisher on Aug. 4 at 11 a.m. concludes.

The young blessed’s relics were also present at World Youth Day in Sydney, Australia, in 2008, at the request of Cardinal George Pell.

Frassati was born to a prominent family in Turin in 1901. He balanced a deep life of faith with active engagement in politics and service to the poor. He joined the Dominican Third Order, climbed Alpine peaks, and distributed food and medicine to the needy in the poorest parts of Turin.

This weekend, towns in northern Italy marked 100 years since Pier Giorgio Frassati’s death on July 4, 1925, from polio.

When Frassati’s coffin was opened during his beatification process in 1981, his body was found to be incorrupt, or preserved from the natural process of decay after death. According to Catholic tradition, incorruptible saints give witness to the truth of the resurrection of the body and the life that is to come.

Ralph Martin appears on a December 2020 episode of “EWTN Live.” / Credit: EWTN

National Catholic Register, Jul 25, 2025 / 13:53 pm (CNA).

Prominent Catholic theologian Ralph Martin says Detroit’s new archbishop told him he fired him from the archdiocese’s seminary faculty over undefined “concerns about my theological perspectives.”

Martin, 82, who had taught at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit since 2002, said Archbishop Edward Weisenburger told him Wednesday he “was terminating my position at the seminary effective immediately.”

“When I asked him for an explanation, he said he didn’t think it would be helpful to give any specifics but mentioned something about having concerns about my theological perspectives,” Martin said in a written statement Thursday afternoon.

“This news came as a shock,” Martin said. “I have contributed much to the seminary over more than 23 years. I even helped introduce and lead, up until yesterday, our flagship pontifical degree program, the Licentiate of Sacred Theology Degree in the New Evangelization.”

Martin did not offer comment about the archbishop, who was installed March 18.

“I want what I say about this situation to be truthful, but I also do not want to unnecessarily contribute to current polarization in the Church,” Martin said.

A spokesman for the archbishop declined comment on Thursday.

Martin and another theologian, Eduardo Echeverria, 74, were fired on Wednesday. Echeverria, who taught philosophy and systematic theology, confirmed his firing Thursday when asked by the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, but declined further comment, citing a nondisclosure agreement.

Both men have criticized Pope Francis in the past for what they described as his theologically ambiguous or even misleading public statements.

In January 2024, Martin wrote a column for the Register arguing that an oral statement by Pope Francis during an interview expressing hope that hell is empty “plays into a widespread sympathy towards a heresy called ‘universalism,’ which teaches that perhaps — or certainly — everyone will eventually end up in heaven.”

Martin is the host of “The Choices We Face” on EWTN, which owns the Register and CNA, and has appeared on or hosted other EWTN programs.

He is also the founder and president of Renewal Ministries, which sponsors international missions and holds evangelizing events in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Toronto each year.

In his written statement Thursday, Martin described a busy summer schedule that continues despite his firing from the seminary.

“As I write this, I have just returned from a national deacons’ conference in St. Louis, Missouri. Tomorrow, I will leave for a conference in Birmingham, Alabama. Then, Bishop Scott McCaig and I will leave on Monday for a priests’ retreat supporting hundreds of priests in Cameroon,” Martin said.

When Pope Francis died April 21, Weisenberger called a press conference, during which he praised the late pontiff for his statements on climate change and immigration, among other things, and called Francis “the perfect man at the right time” and suggested he was “a saint.”

The archbishop also praised Pope Francis for his informal speaking style.

“No one could be that transparent and not be authentic,” Weisenburger said. “So many people in the world today, especially on the international stage, measure every word. He didn’t measure anything.”

“He spoke from the heart,” Weisenburger continued. “He spoke what was on his mind. And in that way, I think he kind of just reflected something of the great prophets of Scripture, who would allow the Holy Spirit to well up within them, speak the words, and let it fall on whatever ears would listen.”

A reporter asked the archbishop about how he deals with Catholic conservatives and traditionalists who thought Pope Francis was too liberal.

“Whenever anyone speaks prophetically, they’re always going to rub some people the wrong way,” Weisenburger said.

He said that when he ran into Catholics who didn’t like Pope Francis, they nevertheless accepted him as pope and prayed for him.

“Even the Holy Father himself would say the arms of the Church are broad and wide, and there’s a place for almost everybody. And so I think he was OK with people who ask questions,” Weiseburger said. “And I’m kind of OK with them, too.”

This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, and has been adapted by CNA.

Palestinian children shove to receive a meal at a charity kitchen in the Mawasi area of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on July 22, 2025. The head of Gaza’s largest hospital said 21 children have died due to malnutrition and starvation in the Palestinian territory in the past three days, amid a devastating assault by Israeli forces. / Credit: AFP via Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 25, 2025 / 13:23 pm (CNA).

The humanitarian organization United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has reported that “1 in every 5 children is malnourished in Gaza City” and cases continue to “increase every day.”

In a post to the social media platform X, Commissioner General of UNRWA Philippe Lazzarini wrote that “when child malnutrition surges, coping mechanisms fail, access to food and care disappears, famine silently begins to unfold.”

As “more than 100 people, the vast majority of them children, have reportedly died of hunger,” UNRWA is urging “humanitarian partners to bring unrestricted and uninterrupted humanitarian assistance to Gaza.”

Lazzarini said the people in Gaza are “neither dead nor alive, they are walking corpses.” He added that the children are “emaciated, weak, and at high risk of dying if they don’t get the treatment they urgently need.”

“Parents are too hungry to care for their children” and “families are no longer coping, they are breaking down, unable to survive,” he said. Lazzarini detailed that “those who reach UNRWA clinics don’t have the energy, food, or means to follow medical advice.”

“This deepening crisis is affecting everyone, including those trying to save lives in the war-torn enclave,” Lazzarini wrote. Frontline health workers “are surviving on one small meal a day … if at all. Since they “cannot find enough to eat, the entire humanitarian system is collapsing.” 

In an interview with EWTN on July 24, Gaza parish priest Father Gabriel Romanelli also warned of the famine. He said: “There is dire need, particularly for food and medicine.”

Romanelli, who was recently injured in the strike on Holy Family Church, said despite the bombings and lack of resources, “almost no aid has entered northern Gaza.” 

“We implore and beg that large-scale humanitarian assistance be allowed in,” the priest said. “Even though some trucks are looted at times, that cannot justify stopping all humanitarian assistance. The more aid comes in, the less likely theft becomes.”

While families mostly “fend for themselves,” Romanelli shared that the parish cooks for everyone twice per week. But the parish relies mainly on solar panels, and the need for purified water continues.

Amid the devastating war, Pope Leo XIV has called multiple times “for an immediate halt to the barbarism” 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,” the pope said.