St. James the Less Catholic Parish

Over 200 Christians were murdered by Islamist militants in Nigeria on June, 13, 2025. / Credit: Red Confidential/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Jul 21, 2025 / 13:14 pm (CNA).

A joint resolution introduced last week by Rep. Riley Moore, R-West Virginia, and Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, condemns the persecution of Christians in Muslim-majority countries worldwide.

Introduced on July 17, the resolution follows a speech delivered by Moore in April on the House floor, where he addressed the “rampant violence and martyrdom” endured by Christians worldwide for “proclaiming their faith in Jesus Christ.”

“Around the world, our brothers and sisters in Christ face rampant persecution for simply acknowledging the name of Jesus. That is unacceptable,” he said.

The measure calls on the Trump administration to leverage diplomatic tools, including trade and security negotiations, to advocate for religious freedom.

The resolution cites data from the 2025 World Watch List by Open Doors, which estimates that over 380 million Christians worldwide face significant persecution and discrimination, including targeted killings, church closures, forced conversions, denial of worship rights, kidnappings, and displacement in Muslim-majority countries like Egypt, Nigeria, Iran, Pakistan, and Syria, among others.

In Nigeria, more Christians are killed each year than in all other countries combined, according to Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International. Islamist militants killed nearly 200 Christians in an attack in Nigeria’s Benue state in June.

“In Nigeria alone, more than 50,000 Christians have been martyred and more than 5 million have been displaced simply for professing their faith,” Moore said. “During a Divine Liturgy in Damascus last month, an Islamic jihadist opened fire on worshippers and detonated an explosive device — killing at least 30 and wounding dozens more. These examples illustrate the violence and death Christians face on a daily basis.”

“No one from any religious background should face persecution for their faith,” said Kelsey Zorzi, the director of global religious freedom at ADF International, which supports the resolution. “Yet year after year, Christians remain the most persecuted religious group worldwide, especially in many Muslim-majority countries. We applaud the resolution for recognizing this grave reality and urging U.S. action. When Christians are being killed, silenced, or driven underground, we cannot look the other way.” 

Moore also criticized past U.S. foreign policy. He cited the religiously-motivated violence in Iraq after America’s failure to stabilize the country after the 2003 invasion, stating: “Unfortunately, decades of U.S. foreign policy blunders have exacerbated this crisis.”

He then urged action, adding: “We as lawmakers cannot continue to sit idly by. I urge my colleagues to join me in condemning the persecution of Christians across the globe.”

Hawley, who introduced the same resolution in the U.S. Senate, echoed Moore’s call, emphasizing the foundational importance of religious liberty.

“Our country was founded on religious liberty. We cannot sit on the sidelines as Christians around the world are being persecuted for declaring Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior,” Hawley said, urging colleagues to join him in condemning the persecution of Christians around the world.

The resolution has garnered support from several lawmakers, with original cosponsors including Reps. Greg Steube, Michael Guest, Glenn Grothman, Addison McDowell, Brandon Gill, Pat Harrigan, and Anna Paulina Luna.

It is also endorsed by prominent organizations including Heritage Action for America, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, In Defense of Christians, Global Christian Relief, CatholicVote, Advancing American Freedom, Center for Urban Renewal and Education (CURE), Family Policy Alliance, Christians Engaged, and Save the Persecuted Christians.

The Poong Jesus Nazareno Filipino Catholic Center in Anaheim, California, is a first-of-its-kind Filipino Catholic center set to open in Anaheim, California, on July 21, 2025, offering a new spiritual and cultural landmark for Filipino Catholics in America’s most populous state. / Credit: Ian Tran/Diocese of Orange

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 21, 2025 / 11:00 am (CNA).

A first-of-its-kind Filipino Catholic center is set to open in Anaheim, California, offering a new spiritual and cultural landmark for Filipino Catholics in America’s most populous state.

Bishop Kevin Vann of the Diocese of Orange is scheduled to bless the opening of the Poong Jesus Nazareno Filipino Catholic Center Monday evening, marking the launch of what the diocese says is the only such dedicated Filipino Catholic center operating in the United States.

“I feel blessed and excited that so many people are taking part in our mission to bring the people closer to Our Lord with Mary at the foot of the cross,” said Father Peter Lavin, a priest affiliated with the Philippines-based Alagad ni Maria (Disciples of Mary) institute who will serve as director of the center.

Alagad ni Maria currently has eight priests ministering in the Diocese of Orange, where they have been present since 2005 at the invitation of then-Bishop Tod Brown.

The center occupies a 1.4-acre site previously used by a Vietnamese-language congregation of the Southern Baptist Convention. It includes a 180-seat chapel where Mass will be offered in English and Tagalog as well as classrooms, offices, a music room, a fellowship hall, and a kitchen. Plans are also underway to build a rectory for priests on site.

According to a statement from the diocese, the center will provide the Filipino Catholic community in Southern California with a dedicated space for faith formation and cultural education. 

“Having the center will grant the local Filipino Catholic community dedicated spaces to engage in promoting education on their cultural heritage and traditions, including dance and song,” the diocese said in a press release.

While part of the Diocese of Orange, the Poong Jesus Nazareno Filipino Catholic Center will be owned and operated by Alagad ni Maria. Its primary mission will be to serve as a cultural and spiritual hub for the estimated 90,000 Filipino Catholics in the region.

Alagad ni Maria acquired the property for $5.2 million, raising $2.1 million from about 500 donors. Two individuals each contributed $500,000, and the Diocese of Orange assisted in securing the loan.

“For many years, it has been a heartfelt dream of the Filipino community here in the Diocese of Orange to have a center of their own — a sacred space where they can gather in faith, grow in spiritual fellowship, and pass on the richness of their heritage, language, and customs to future generations,” said Father Angelos Sebastian, vicar general and moderator of the curia for the Diocese of Orange. “The recent decision to guarantee the loan for the purchase of their property in Anaheim was a tangible expression of the diocese’s deep gratitude and esteem for their ongoing ministry and presence.”

“Bishop Kevin Vann, together with the entire Diocese of Orange, joins in celebrating this historic milestone: the opening of the only Filipino Catholic center in the country,” he continued. “With heartfelt joy, we offer our warmest congratulations, our prayers, and our full support as this long-cherished vision becomes a reality.”

The Poong Jesus Nazareno Filipino Catholic Center will be the sixth cultural center within the Diocese of Orange. The other five are a Polish center in Yorba Linda, a Vietnamese center in Santa Ana, and Korean centers in Irvine, Westminster, and Anaheim. 

The center will house an official replica of the Poong Jesus Nazareno statue. The original statue, brought from Mexico to Manila in 1606, has millions of devotees worldwide. 

The center will also serve as the U.S. headquarters for Alagad ni Maria, which has maintained a presence in the Diocese of Orange since 2005.

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. 

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.”

For more than 40 years, the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception has welcomed visitors to its annual summer organ recital series. / Credit: Timothy Dias/Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 19, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

For more than 40 years, the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., has welcomed visitors to its annual summer organ recital series, providing a unique opportunity to experience the grandeur of sacred music outside the liturgical setting.

“[The series is] a promotion of an extraordinary and almost mystical form of art that has existed for centuries,” Peter Latona, director of music at the basilica, told CNA.

Held on Sunday evenings throughout July and August, the series features performances on the basilica’s renowned chancel and gallery organs — together comprising more than 9,600 pipes. 

Each recital begins at 6 p.m. preceded by a half-hour carillon performance from the basilica’s 56-bell Knights’ Tower Carillon, performed by Jeremy Ng, a rising senior at Yale University and a certified carillonneur member of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America.

According to basilica officials, the organ series is intended to offer a musical experience as profound as the visual beauty of the church’s art and architecture.

“It provides visitors an opportunity to hear the marvelous instruments and enjoy music outside of the context of Mass in the same way they would walk through the basilica to soak in the beautiful mosaics and other works of art,” Benjamin LaPrairie, associate director of music at the basilica, told CNA.

While most concert attendees sit in the pews facing the “Christ in Majesty” mosaic, a few families visit the chapels, briefly praying and soaking up the beauty of the sacred space.

“Our mission as musicians of the basilica to ‘transform hearts and minds through the power and beauty of music in the Roman Catholic liturgy’ applies here as well,” Adam Chlebek, assistant director of music at the basilica, told CNA.

Each summer, musicians are selected from a global pool of applicants with the music department curating a lineup that features both emerging artists and internationally acclaimed performers. This year’s series opened with Chlebek himself, a recent graduate of the Eastman School of Music.

“Performing on this instrument, I feel a connection to the musical heritage that has been cultivated in the basilica since the organ’s installation and dedication in 1965,” Chlebek said. “I am honored to continue this heritage.”

Attendance is open to all, with a freewill offering accepted to support the program. The basilica encourages the public to take advantage of this opportunity to hear “one of the finest organs in Washington, D.C., in one of the most beautiful and inspiring sacred spaces in North America.”

Reflecting on the series — which draws about 100 attendees each week — Chlebek expressed his hopes for its impact: “My hope is that the audience comes away with their hearts and minds transformed.”

Latona noted that the audience demographic has evolved over time, now including more young people and people from diverse backgrounds.

“Our objective is to grow the audience so that more people get to share in this experience,” he  said.

The 2025 Summer Organ Recital Series runs through its final performance on Aug. 31. Details on upcoming performers are available on the basilica’s official website.

Archbishop Timothy Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. / Credit: USCCB video

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 18, 2025 / 16:00 pm (CNA).

Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, has called for peace and an “immediate ceasefire” following the bombing of the only Catholic church in Gaza.

“With the Holy Father, the Catholic bishops of the United States are deeply saddened to learn about the deaths and injuries at Holy Family Church in Gaza caused by a military strike,” Broglio wrote in a Thursday statement. 

The July 17 Israeli strike killed three people and injured nine others, including the parish priest, Father Gabriel Romanelli.

“Our first concern, naturally, goes out to Father Gabriel Romanelli and all his parishioners, most especially to the families of those killed,” Broglio said. “Our prayers are for them during these tragic times.”

The statement follows a message from Pope Leo XIV on the social media platform X that said: “I commend the souls of the deceased to the loving mercy of Almighty God and pray for their families and the injured. I renew my call for an immediate ceasefire. Only dialogue and reconciliation can ensure enduring peace!”

In agreement, Broglio wrote: “With the Holy Father, we also continue to pray and advocate for dialogue and an immediate ceasefire. Yesterday was the memorial of Our Lady of Mount Carmel; through her intercession, may there be peace in Gaza.”

On Friday, CNA reported that Pope Leo received a phone call from Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, following yesterday’s Israel Defense Forces attack on Holy Family Church in Gaza.

During the conversation, the Holy Father renewed his call for the urgent reactivation of the negotiation process in order to establish a ceasefire and end the war. He expressed his deep concern for the humanitarian situation in Gaza as well as the urgent need to protect places of worship “and the faithful and all people living in both Palestine and Israel.”

Human embryos. / Credit: Andrii Vodolazhskyi/CNA

CNA Staff, Jul 18, 2025 / 15:00 pm (CNA).

Here is a roundup of recent pro-life and abortion-related news.

California couple that had 21 kids via surrogate mothers charged with neglect, endangerment

A California couple that had 21 children via surrogacy has been charged with felony child endangerment and neglect.

Authorities also alleged that their nannies were physically abusing the children. 

Guojun Xuan, 65, and Silvia Zhang, 38, own a mansion in Arcadia and a business called Mark Surrogacy. 

Unbeknownst to the surrogate mothers the couple was working with, the embryos the mothers were carrying belonged to the company owners — and each embryo was one of many. 

Seventeen of the children are toddlers or infants, and the oldest is 13. All 21 children have since been taken in by the state Department of Children and Family Services.

The investigation took place after a 2-month-old child was brought into a hospital with a traumatic brain injury.

Cops alleged that the family nanny, 56-year-old Chunmei Li, had injured the baby and committed other abuses. Surveillance footage allegedly shows Li shaking and hitting the infant. Footage also showed other nannies abusing the children, according to the authorities. 

Federal court upholds West Virginia ban on abortion drugs

The 4th Circuit Court has upheld West Virginia’s ban on chemical abortion, ruling that the law cannot be overridden by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations.

Mifepristone manufacturer GenBioPro asked the court to strike down West Virginia’s protections for unborn children against chemical abortion, arguing that the FDA has the final say in whether drugs are legal.

In a 45-page opinion by Judge J. Harvey Wilkinson III, the court found that in approving the drug, the FDA “did not create a right to utilize any particular high-risk drug” simultaneously. Rather, the FDA regulations constitute the “minimum safety rules for administering drugs like mifepristone where they may be legally prescribed.”

March for Life President Jennie Bradley Lichter called the decision “huge,” noting that it meant that a state could ban a federally approved drug.

It was the first time a federal appeals court had said states can restrict mifepristone use.

West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey said the decision was a “big win.”

“West Virginia can continue to enforce our pro-life laws and lead the nation in our efforts to protect life,” Morrisey stated. “We will always be a pro-life state!” 

8 babies born via IVF from DNA of 3 people

Eight healthy babies were born via an in vitro fertilization procedure where doctors created embryos with DNA from three people.

The United Kingdom made the procedure legal in 2015 and granted the first license in 2017 to a fertility clinic at Newcastle University.

The doctors used the third-party DNA to prevent children from inheriting incurable genetic disorders. The mothers were at risk for passing on life-threatening diseases to their babies, but the babies have no signs of the mitochondrial diseases they were at risk of inheriting. Four boys and four girls — including one set of identical twins — were born to the seven women.