Gaza's only Catholic priest among injured in Israeli attack

Father Gabriel Romanelli with Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, celebrating Christmas Mass at Holy Family Parish in Gaza, in December 2024. / Credit: Courtesy of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.Vatican City, Jul 17, 2025 / 15:00 pm (CNA).The Holy Family Church in Gaza was hit Thursday amid a new wave of Israeli bombings, leaving several people dead and injured, including the church's pastor, Gabriel Romanelli, a native of Argentina.The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem confirmed the incident in an official statement. The attack left three dead, according to Caritas Jerusalem.One of the victims was Saad Issa Kostandi Salameh, 60, the parish's maintenance manager who was in the courtyard at the time of the explosion. The other two fatalities were Foumia Issa Latif Ayyad, an 84-year-old woman, and Najwa Abu Daoud, 70, who were receiving psychological care at the time inside the tent of Caritas' psycho-social support project.According to Avvenire, th...

The Holy See at the UN calls for urgent measures to protect families

Archbishop Gabriele Caccia. / Credit: Holy See Mission to the United NationsVatican City, Jul 17, 2025 / 15:30 pm (CNA).The permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, participated in this week's 'High-Level Political Forum' with two speeches at UN headquarters in New York.The July 13-15 event focused on the UN's sustainable development goals, according to Vatican News. In particular, Caccia addressed Goal 3, which seeks to guarantee access to healthcare, and Goal 5, on "gender equality and empowering women."The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is an action plan approved by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015. It is structured around 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets to be achieved within a 15-year period.Among these goals are "No poverty, zero hunger, good health and well-being, affordable and clean energy, gender equality, and reduced inequalities." While many of these goals enjoy broad Catholic su...

Catholic Sen. Tim Kaine blasts GOP for slashing aid funding

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) speaks during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on July 15, 2025. / Credit: Michael M. Santiago/Getty ImagesCNA Newsroom, Jul 17, 2025 / 15:58 pm (CNA).U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) delivered a speech on the Senate floor on July 16 denouncing cuts to federal funding of faith-based organizations that play critical roles in refugee resettlement and international humanitarian aid. The Rescissions Act of 2025, pushed by both President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans, proposes $9.4 billion in cuts to previously appropriated federal funding, $800 million of which supports faith-based organizations like Catholic Relief Services (CRS) as well as World Vision, an evangelical organization, the two largest faith-based organizations that help resettle legal immigrants.The rescissions bill, which passed in the U.S. House of Representatives 214-212 on June 12 and passed in an amended form in the Senate on July 17, threatens to dismantle fundin...

Catholic youth urge European leaders to address migrant crisis with charity, understanding

Migrants aboard an inflatable vessel in the Mediterranean Sea approach the guided-missile destroyer USS Carney in 2013. Carney provided food and water to the migrants aboard the vessel before coordinating with a nearby merchant vessel to take them to safety. / Credit: Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa/U.S. 6th Fleet, Public domain, via Wikimedia CommonsWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 17, 2025 / 17:15 pm (CNA).Young Catholic Europeans have issued recommendations to leaders on the continent in an effort to address the current migration crisis affecting numerous countries there.This year's written contribution by the Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Union (COMECE) Youth Net centers on solutions for "fostering integration of migrants in the European Union." The region has seen high levels of immigration in recent years, particularly from the Middle East and Africa. The paper, published this month, is based on a small-scale survey conducted by COME...

Gaza church attack: Without warnings by priest 'it would have been a massacre'

Holy Mass at the Holy Family Parish in Gaza, led by the parish priest, Father Gabriel Romanelli during the Advent season. December 2024. / Courtesy of Father Gabriel RomanelliVatican City, Jul 17, 2025 / 18:00 pm (CNA).Father Yusuf Asad, 49, who has been the assistant parochial vicar at Holy Family Church in Gaza for six years, had just celebrated morning Mass when a loud bang sounded. At around 10:20 a.m. local time, a projectile hit the building. "It fell directly on the roof. The explosion occurred next to the cross atop the church and soon scattered shrapnel throughout the courtyard," Anton Asfar, director of Caritas Jerusalem, told ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner. He received a call from Gaza shortly after the attack alerting him to the incident."It was later clarified to us that at the time of the explosion, there were some people in the courtyard outside, even though Father Gabriel Romanelli, the pastor, had warned everyone to stay inside," he expla...

Pope urges immediate ceasefire after deadly attack on Catholic parish in Gaza

A view of the damage to the Holy Family church in Gaza City following an Israeli strike on the church, in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City on July 17, 2025. The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said an Israeli strike on Gaza's only Catholic church killed two and injured several people on July 17, including the parish priest, as well as causing damage to the building. / Credit: OMAR AL-QATTAA/AFP via Getty ImagesACI Prensa Staff, Jul 17, 2025 / 11:40 am (CNA).Following an airstrike against the Holy Family Church, the only Catholic Church in Gaza, which left at least two dead on Thursday, Pope Leo XIV issued an urgent call for an immediate ceasefire.In a telegram signed on the pope's behalf by the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the pontiff expressed his "deep sadness" over the military attack and offered his prayers for "the consolation of those who are mourning and for the healing of the wounded.""Pope Leo renews his profound hope for dialogue, rec...

Pope Leo XIV meets with U.S. Orthodox-Catholic pilgrim group at Castel Gandolfo

Pope Leo XIV on Thursday met with a U.S. ecumenical group, led by Cardinal Joseph Tobin and Greek Orthodox Archbishop Elpidophoros of America, encouraging them to "return to the roots of our faith" in their pilgrimage to Italy and Turkey. July 17, 2024. / Credit: Vatican MediaRome Newsroom, Jul 17, 2025 / 12:31 pm (CNA).Pope Leo XIV on Thursday met with a U.S. ecumenical group, led by Cardinal Joseph Tobin and Greek Orthodox Archbishop Elpidophoros of America, encouraging them to "return to the roots of our faith" in their pilgrimage to Italy and Turkey.    Welcoming the group from his "native country" to his papal residence in Castel Gandolfo, located 15 miles southeast of Rome, the Holy Father said their visits to various holy sites in both countries are a "concrete way" of renewing their faith in the "Gospel handed down to us by the apostles."He said: "Your pilgrimage is one of the abundant fruits of the ecumenical movement aimed at restoring full unity a...

Bishop says U.S. aid cuts, not migrants, crippling South Africa's health system

Bishop Joseph Mary Kizito, the Liaison Bishop for the SACBC Migrants and Refugees Office. / Credit: SACBCACI Africa, Jul 17, 2025 / 14:28 pm (CNA).Bishop Joseph Mary Kizito of the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference (SACBC) said on July 15 that South Africa's health sector has been brought to its knees not by foreign nationals, but by the recent suspension of most U.S. foreign aid. In an interview with ACI Africa, CNA's news partner in Africa, the bishop said that many locals protesting against migrants "do not understand world politics" and are unaware of the effects of directives from the U.S. government. That is the reason they have turned against migrants and refugees, he said.Kizito, the liaison for the SACBC's Migrants and Refugees Department, denounced ongoing xenophobic attacks against foreign nationals in some parts of the country, noting that they are not to blame for the shortage of medication in the country's health facilities. "It is true that there is a ...

Irish team begins search for children's remains at former home for unwed mothers

View of the mass grave at the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in the town of Tuam, County Galway. / Credit: AugusteBlanqui, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsRome Newsroom, Jul 16, 2025 / 15:45 pm (CNA).A team of 18 archaeologists, anthropologists, and forensic scientists have begun excavating an old septic tank this week at the former St. Mary's Mother and Baby Home run by the Bon Secours Sisters in Tuam, County Galway, western Ireland, now the site of a housing development.Over the next two years, according to The Irish Times, an excavating machine will go through the site in search of remains for 796 children allegedly buried, in the words of the Bon Secours Sisters "in a disrespectful and unacceptable way" between 1925 and 1960. The Bon Secours Sisters have released a statement apologizing for the treatment of the deceased babies, and their mothers during that time.The goal of the excavation is to find, analyze, identify, and provide a decent burial for the children's rem...

Small business agency launches 'Center for Faith,' ends ban on relief for faith groups

U.S. Small Business Administration, Washington, D.C. / Jer123/ShutterstockCNA Newsroom, Jul 16, 2025 / 16:35 pm (CNA).The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is opening a "Center for Faith" and eliminating a regulation that banned faith-based groups from receiving disaster loans. The SBA, a branch of the federal government established to bolster the economy by supporting small businesses, announced they would remove the longstanding regulation as part of the agency's efforts to end faith-based discrimination by the government. The SBA previously prohibited any group "principally engaged in teaching, instructing, counseling, or indoctrinating religion" from applying for Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL), a regulation which the SBA is now nixing under the Trump administration. The SBA argues that the regulation is unconstitutional, citing the 2017 U.S. Supreme Court decision Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. v. Comer. In the ruling, the court ...