Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church

Pope Francis is a pope of the poor and for the poor. However, he is not an academic revolutionary, an armchair critic propounding big theories. What the pope proposes for the poor—and that is all of us, in one way or another—is not a theory but Jesus. Thus, the pope’s latest encyclical, Dilexit Nos (Latin […]

The post Pope Francis calls for a world shaped by the Sacred Heart appeared first on U.S. Catholic.

Toronto, Canada, Mar 20, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Canada’s Finance Department has avoided providing a clear answer to a written appeal from the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) urging the federal government not to adopt budget recommendations that would strip charitable status from “anti-abortion” and “advancement of religion” nonprofit organizations.

A statement provided to The Catholic Register in Canada on March 13 by the department’s media relations officer, Marie-France Faucher, did not reference the CCCB or its specific concerns surrounding recommendations 429 and 430 of the pre-budget consultations in advance of the 2025 budget.

In her email response, Faucher said “the government of Canada recognizes the vital role charities play in delivering essential services to those in need” and provided general information about how an organization may apply for charitable registration under the Income Tax Act.

Her only comment about the next budget was that the Finance Department “continues to explore ways to ensure the tax system remains fair and effective in supporting Canadians and the organizations that serve them.”

The CCCB’s permanent council sent its March 10 letter to then-Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc and a follow-up letter on March 18 to François-Philippe Champagne, who was appointed finance minister on March 14 by newly minted Prime Minister Mark Carney.

The CCCB said a clearer stance on the concerns is required soon, highlighting in its letters that “40% of all charitable organizations in Canada are faith-based.”

The bishops said depriving these organizations of charitable status “would decrease donations, causing their revenue to dwindle, thus crippling their ability to inspire, operate, and maintain essential social services that benefit the wider community.”

Among the 14 signatories are conference president Bishop William McGrattan of Calgary, vice president Bishop Pierre Goudreault of Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière, Cardinals Francis Leo of Toronto and Gerald Lacroix of Quebec, and Montreal Archbishop Christian Lépine.

Campaign Life Coalition (CLC) applauded the permanent council’s letter.

“Thank God the Canadian bishops have joined in this fight to save Christian Canada,” said CLC national president Jeff Gunnarson. “Canada, as our charter states, is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God. The government is attacking the very foundation of our country with these proposals. United together we will stave off this governmental assault on our nation and our treasured faith.”

Chalice, a Canadian Catholic international child sponsorship charity headquartered in Bedford, Nova Scotia, is one of the nonprofits registered with the Canada Revenue Agency that would be targeted by recommendation 430.

Chalice founder and president Father Patrick Cosgrove said in an email the recommendation “reveals a negative bias against religion that is not supported by the evidence that active faith and the practice of religion have a measurably positive impact on society and the individual.”

Cosgrove, whose 29-year-old organization operates 52 sites in 14 different countries, said a 2018 study released by the Christian research organization Barna found Christians are more likely than others to donate clothing or furniture, provide food, and volunteer to serve in the community.

Pregnancy Care Canada executive director Dr. Laura Lewis sent a letter to LeBlanc on March 6 noting that recommendation 429 “does not define the scope of this proposal,” leaving it unclear how an organization will be classified as “anti-abortion.” She added that the mission of Pregnancy Care Canada and 81 affiliated centers is to offer alternatives to abortion.

“The free support available at local pregnancy care centers is crucial to providing a national safety net for women looking for support for an unexpected pregnancy,” Lewis said.

She also suggested that recommendation 429 is a way to implement a pledge in the Liberals’ 2021 election platform to “no longer provide charitable status to anti-abortion organizations that provide dishonest counseling to women about their rights and about the options provided to them at all stages of pregnancy.”

This story was first published by The Catholic Register and is reprinted with permission.

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

The National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Maryland is hosting the first-ever Eucharistic Congress for the Catholic Deaf community this spring. 

The congress, which will take place April 4–6, will bring together about 230 Catholics to pray and honor the Eucharist, according to the event organizer, Father Mike Depcik, who is one of just a few deaf priests in the world. 

Depcik serves as the chaplain for the Deaf ministry in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and is known for his work in growing the Deaf Catholic community in Maryland and beyond.

Depcik designed the congress for deaf people to be able to actively participate. He noted that the Deaf community has limited accessibility to services in and from the Catholic Church and that the majority of deaf people don’t attend Mass. 

“Several statistics have shown that 96% of Deaf people, including those baptized Catholics, do not go to any church due to very limited services available to them in their own language (American Sign Language),” Depcik explained.

While the 2024 National Eucharistic Congress in Indiana had ASL interpreters, Depcik wanted to focus on the Deaf community by holding this congress.

“This Deaf Eucharistic Congress is unique and focused entirely on the members of the Deaf Catholic community, which includes the Deaf, hard of hearing, DeafBlind, hearing pastoral workers working within Deaf ministry, hearing parents of Deaf children, etc.,” he told CNA. 

“We believe this event is going to be a memorable one since it will be the first time ever for such a Eucharistic Congress specifically by and for Deaf Catholics.” 

“It is our goal to have those people attending the Deaf Eucharistic Congress to feel inspired with their Catholic faith and appreciate the Eucharist,” Depcik continued. “We also hope this will bring awareness to the Church hierarchy on the needs of Deaf Catholics.”

The National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, located in Emmitsburg, Maryland, has been a place of gathering for deaf Catholics before. The Seton Shrine frequently hosts retreats, including a Lenten retreat for the deaf last year. The Seton Shrine is located just a half hour away from the K–8 Maryland School for the Deaf. 

The event will draw speakers from around the United States, including Deacon Patrick Graybill, a deaf retired professor with a background in the creative arts known for acting, ASL poetry, and translating English texts into ASL.

Also attending will be Jeannine Adkins, a member of the National Catholic Office for the Deaf. Graybill is set to give a presentation titled “Eucharist: Holy Ground,” while Adkins will present on “The Healing Power of the Eucharist.”

Attendees are anticipated to come from all over the United States, including from as far as California, Florida, and South Dakota.

On the first day of the Congress, ASL tour guides will be available to give tours of the shrine, which includes St. Elizabeth Ann Seton’s tomb and a museum about her life as well as historical buildings associated with Seton and the basilica. 

Adoration, confessions, and Mass will also be held on Saturday in addition to various presentations and time for fellowship. On Sunday, Mass will be held with the local Deaf Catholic community in Urbana, Maryland. 

For more information about the event or to register, visit here.

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

The National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Maryland is hosting the first-ever Eucharistic Congress for the Catholic Deaf community this spring. 

The congress, which will take place April 4–6, will bring together about 230 Catholics to pray and honor the Eucharist, according to the event organizer, Father Mike Depcik, who is one of just a few deaf priests in the world. 

Depcik serves as the chaplain for the Deaf ministry in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and is known for his work in growing the Deaf Catholic community in Maryland and beyond.

Depcik designed the congress for deaf people to be able to actively participate. He noted that the Deaf community has limited accessibility to services in and from the Catholic Church and that the majority of deaf people don’t attend Mass. 

“Several statistics have shown that 96% of Deaf people, including those baptized Catholics, do not go to any church due to very limited services available to them in their own language (American Sign Language),” Depcik explained.

While the 2024 National Eucharistic Congress in Indiana had ASL interpreters, Depcik wanted to focus on the Deaf community by holding this congress.

“This Deaf Eucharistic Congress is unique and focused entirely on the members of the Deaf Catholic community, which includes the Deaf, hard of hearing, DeafBlind, hearing pastoral workers working within Deaf ministry, hearing parents of Deaf children, etc.,” he told CNA. 

“We believe this event is going to be a memorable one since it will be the first time ever for such a Eucharistic Congress specifically by and for Deaf Catholics.” 

“It is our goal to have those people attending the Deaf Eucharistic Congress to feel inspired with their Catholic faith and appreciate the Eucharist,” Depcik continued. “We also hope this will bring awareness to the Church hierarchy on the needs of Deaf Catholics.”

The National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, located in Emmitsburg, Maryland, has been a place of gathering for deaf Catholics before. The Seton Shrine frequently hosts retreats, including a Lenten retreat for the deaf last year. The Seton Shrine is located just a half hour away from the K–8 Maryland School for the Deaf. 

The event will draw speakers from around the United States, including Deacon Patrick Graybill, a deaf retired professor with a background in the creative arts known for acting, ASL poetry, and translating English texts into ASL.

Also attending will be Jeannine Adkins, a member of the National Catholic Office for the Deaf. Graybill is set to give a presentation titled “Eucharist: Holy Ground,” while Adkins will present on “The Healing Power of the Eucharist.”

Attendees are anticipated to come from all over the United States, including from as far as California, Florida, and South Dakota.

On the first day of the Congress, ASL tour guides will be available to give tours of the shrine, which includes St. Elizabeth Ann Seton’s tomb and a museum about her life as well as historical buildings associated with Seton and the basilica. 

Adoration, confessions, and Mass will also be held on Saturday in addition to various presentations and time for fellowship. On Sunday, Mass will be held with the local Deaf Catholic community in Urbana, Maryland. 

For more information about the event or to register, visit here.

WASHINGTON - In response to the Executive Order signed today by President Trump, “Improving Education Outcomes by Empowering Parents, States, and Communities,” the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) offered the following statement from its spokesperson, Chieko Noguchi, executive director of public affairs:

“While the USCCB does not take a position on the institutional structure of government agencies, the Catholic Church teaches that parents are the primary educators of their children and should have the freedom and resources to choose an educational setting best suited for their child. The Conference supports public policies that affirm this, and we support the positive working relationships that the dioceses, parishes, and independent schools have with their local public school system partners. As this Executive Order is implemented, it is important to ensure that students of all backgrounds in both public and non-public schools, especially those with disabilities or from low-income backgrounds, will continue to receive the resources they need.”

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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Catholic Church needs to expand its safeguarding efforts to include the new threats and opportunities posed by artificial intelligence, top organizers of a Vatican conference said.

"We are really currently in a war" on two fronts when it comes to protecting children from abuse and mistreatment, Joachim von Braun, president of the Pontifical Academy for Sciences, said at a Vatican news conference March 20.

There is the traditional battleground that most safeguarding guidelines and policies address: protecting minors from "one-on-one" exploitation by a perpetrator in their environment at home, school, church, society and online, he said. But the new frontier is where AI and gender-based violence have come together in very sophisticated ways and "at scale" that is, where the crime and its victims are easily and rapidly multiplied, he said.

The church has a role to play, he and other speakers at the conference said. 

The Catholic Church must work with science-based knowledge about AI and "deeply engage in the regulatory debate, otherwise, we cannot win these two wars at two frontiers," von Braun said.

The president of the papal academy and others were presenting a conference organized by the academy with the Institute of Anthropology: Interdisciplinary Studies on Human Dignity and Care in Rome and the World Childhood Foundation, founded by Queen Silvia of Sweden to help prevent child sexual abuse and exploitation.

The conference, scheduled for March 20-22 at the Vatican, was to look at the risks and opportunities of AI for children and to come up with a common commitment for safeguarding.

Some of the risks include AI being used to: generate and distribute child sexual abuse material; groom children online; facilitate human trafficking; and infringe on a child's right to privacy and dignity with excessive monitoring, according to the conference program.  

However, AI can also be used to promote the safety and dignity of children as well as expand their access and opportunities in health care and education, the speakers said.

But to do that, they added, there must be greater awareness about AI, clear and consistent regulation by governments and ethical guidelines in AI development.

"Scientists play a key role," said von Braun, a German agricultural scientist specializing in food security. Scientists at corporations or in academia "are writing the algorithms out of which the risks and opportunities result."

Calling on mathematicians and applied computer scientists to follow ethical rules is new, he said. "For centuries, mathematics was considered free of ethical concerns. That's no longer the case." 

Cardinal Peter Turkson, chancellor of the papal academy, said church members are already working with AI practitioners and scientists "from Silicon Valley" who come to Rome for the so-called "Minerva dialogues."

These "conversations" focus on the impact of AI so that when experts go back to work, "they will be able to also influence their colleagues in the development of these models" to be more ethical, he said. However, what AI does cannot be left only in the hands of industry, and governments must address the use of AI, too.

Jesuit Father Hans Zollner, director of the Institute of Anthropology, said there has long been a "lack of consistency in policy making and in the engagement of tech companies that make enormous mountains of money but don't invest in the safety of young people as much as they could and should."

"The church has an important part to play in this," he said, "even with all the history of abuse that has been going on in the church."

"We also have our moral and ethical responsibility to raise our voice and to point out where governments and tech companies fail" to come up with consistent and meaningful rules or guidelines, the Jesuit priest said.

Von Braun said that because advancements in AI are moving at lightning speed, each national bishops' conference should have "an AI council of scientists and practitioners from their respective country so that they have evidence-based advice in this extremely dynamic field."

These councils could function like the pontifical academies, which invite experts to provide their findings and recommendations to the pope, he said. The church should "build such an architecture in order to not only track but to influence the AI risks" and become open to opportunities. 

Father Zollner said the Catholic Church "has a unique convening power" that can bring "together the key players that need to sit around one table because this artificial intelligence and child dignity in the digital world are way beyond the capacities and the competencies of one player alone."

Britta Holmberg, deputy secretary general of the World Childhood Foundation, said prevention starts with speaking clearly about how common child abuse is. "One in five girls and one in seven boys globally are affected by child sexual abuse. They are among us."

"We also know that technology is part of the problem, but it needs also to be part of the solution," for example, by utilizing new technologies to reach out to those who are most at risk, she said. 

Partnering with the tech companies "is really crucial," she said, "because we know that the people who want to abuse or misuse technology, they will always find a way."

Those who "develop tech understand the problems, understand how it can be misused," she said, so they can help those who are trying to "introduce safeguards early on."

Because the church is influential and its leaders are role models, she said, Catholics must "speak up" and increase awareness about AI's risks and possibilities. "Just choosing to not do something because it's scary" will have consequences.

Queen Silvia, 81, "serves as an example for all of us that you are not too old, we're not too little tech savvy to care about AI" and seek ways it can help protect children, Holmberg said. 
 

“Jesus climbed a high mountain for a transforming experience of prayer with the Father. What things or pastimes can we sacrifice and what challenges can we overcome for the sake of such an experience in prayer too?” Three things happened to Jesus as He prayed on the Mount of the Transfiguration (Cf. Lk 9:28-36) Firstly, […]

The post The Transfiguration: Our Model of Authentic Prayer appeared first on Integrated Catholic Life™.

This past Ash Wednesday I was travelling, so I had to go to Mass and receive ashes at a church I did not know.  It was a very large parish in a big city.  The Mass was full—well over a thousand people.  It seemed normal until the homily.  Every year on Ash Wednesday, the Gospel […]

We like numbers. In ministry and evangelization efforts, we want to see big numbers, or at least numbers that demonstrate that our hard work is paying off. The problem is, numbers are often an illusion and a temptation to pride. As we have seen through multiple studies, the numbers don’t reveal activated disciples. With 22% […]

St. Wulfram was born in the late 7th century in France and became a priest despite originally being drawn to a life at court. Known for his deep faith and strong leadership, he was appointed Archbishop of Sens but soon felt called to missionary work. He traveled to Friesland (modern-day Netherlands), where he preached the […]