Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, a Catholic, walks out of the Senate Chamber on Capitol Hill on April 23, 2024, in Washington, D.C. / Credit: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 15, 2024 / 15:43 pm (CNA).

Donald Trump on Monday announced that Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance will be his running mate in the 2024 presidential election.

"After lengthy deliberation and thought, and considering the tremendous talents of many others, I have decided that the person best suited to assume the position of Vice President of the United States is Senator J.D. Vance of the Great State of Ohio," Trump said on Truth Social on Monday afternoon.

Vance "honorably served our Country in the Marine Corps, graduated from Ohio State University in two years, Summa Cum Laude, and is a Yale Law School Graduate, where he was Editor of The Yale Law Journal, and President of the Yale Law Veterans Association," Trump wrote.

The former president made the announcement days after surviving an assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania rally.

Vance, who was baptized Catholic in 2019, has served as the junior U.S. senator from Ohio since 2023. He first rose to national prominence with the 2016 book "Hillbilly Elegy" in which he examined the economic and social dysfunctions of modern U.S. Appalachia.

The Republican won his Senate seat — the first public office to which he was elected — after securing Trump’s endorsement in 2022.

Vance previously served in the U.S. Marines as a combat correspondent during the Iraq War. He attended the Ohio State University and Yale Law School.

Over the course of his short political career Vance has adopted conservative positions, speaking out against abortion and transgender procedures for minors and taking a hardline stance against illegal immigration. He has advocated for an isolationist foreign policy, opposed foreign aid to Ukraine, and favored protectionist trade policies.

Praising Vance for championing "the hardworking men and women of our country," Trump on Monday said the senator "will be strongly focused on the people he fought so brilliantly for, the American Workers and Farmers in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota, and far beyond."

null / ElenaR/Shutterstock

CNA Newsroom, Jul 15, 2024 / 14:55 pm (CNA).

A New Jersey resident is being hailed for identifying tens of thousands of dollars in “unclaimed funds” from the state government and helping that money get back to the Diocese of Camden and local parishes. 

Philip Britton, who lives in the western part of the state in the township of Pennsville, was searching the website of the state’s Unclaimed Property Administration, which allows New Jerseyites to obtain “abandoned or lost intangible and tangible property” obtained by the government.

While looking, Britton told the Catholic Star Herald that he “found unclaimed property listed for a local parish, which merged in 2010, and a local Catholic school that had closed in 2000,” the Catholic newspaper reported.

Britton told CNA on Monday that he began searching the online database after his housekeeper asked him to look through it.

"I’m old and I don’t move too well," he said via phone. "I do play with the computer since I’ve been retired. And my housekeeper asked me to look up if she had any unclaimed property" on the state website.

"I found a few listings, gave them to her, and helped her process those," he said. "And then I started looking some more. I came across Queen of the Apostles, the parish I used to go to in Pennsville. Then I came across multiple other institutions."

“Everybody has unclaimed money!” he said with a laugh.

He continued reviewing the records, he said, eventually identifying around $40,000 in unclaimed property and informing the Camden diocese of his findings. He has since reached out to the other Catholic dioceses in New Jersey to let them know of the state service.

Diocese of Camden spokesman Michael Walsh told CNA in a statement on Monday that Britton's "initiative to look up unclaimed property for his parish and then the diocese at large was another great example of Christian service."

"Especially since the diocesan Catholic Charities office was one of the largest benefactors of this process," Walsh said. "The monies found for Catholic Charities will be used specifically to help those in need throughout South Jersey."

"His act is also a great reminder to any individual and business to investigate the NJ.gov unclaimed property website," Walsh added.

A CNA review of unclaimed properties associated with Catholic entities and corporations in New Jersey revealed dozens more unclaimed property parcels, including property belonging to “Catholic Charities,” “Catholic Teachers Union” and “Catholic Views Broadcast,” among others. 

Residents of every state are able to search public databases in order to see if they have any unclaimed property being held by the state. 

Each state “maintains a database of unclaimed property for that state, and — by law — attempts to return the property to its rightful owners,” according to the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators.

Diocesan chief financial officer Laura Montgomery told the Star Herald that she has “sent emails to all of the parishes, schools, and business managers [in the Camden diocese] urging them to visit the Department of the Treasury site to see if there are any claims for their locations.”

The process took roughly a month for the check to arrive, Montgomery said. 

“Do exactly what I did: Go to the site and search by your name, your family’s names and see if there’s anything they are holding for you,” she said. 

Britton, meanwhile, said more people should know about the unclaimed property databases they can access.

“It’s amazing the organizations, societies, doctors, everyone that has money out there that they’re not aware of at all," he told CNA. "I’m kind of on this evangelization kick telling everybody about it I can.”

"It makes me feel good that I did something," he continued. "It’s mentally stimulating. It keeps my brain active. And, hey, nobody else is doing it. So why not me?” 

Statue of St. Peter in front of St. Peter's Basilica. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Jul 15, 2024 / 12:45 pm (CNA).

The Vatican has said that two women have been hired for the specialized maintenance crew of St. Peter’s Basilica for the first time in its 500-year history.

While women have worked for the Fabbrica di San Pietro — the department that oversees maintenance, restoration, and repairs of the Vatican’s papal basilica — before, it is the first time women are officially part of the “Sanpietrini” maintenance staff, according to Vatican News.

Two teams of Sanpietrini "work simultaneously on a daily basis to fulfill their principal tasks of reception, stewardship, cleaning, and maintenance of the Vatican Basilica and its facilities respectively," the basilica's website says.

The two Italian women, 21 and 26 years of age, studied masonry and decorative and ornamental plastering at the basilica’s newly relaunched School of Fine Arts and Traditional Trades.

The Vatican basilica’s art and trades school started in 2022 to train up new laborers in artisanal artistic skills. The courses and room and board are offered to students without cost.

Father Enzo Fortunato, communications director for St. Peter’s Basilica, said the presence of women in the Fabbrica is not entirely new — there were women mosaic artists who worked in the Vatican’s mosaic studio for many years — but their entrance in the Sanpietrini corps is a novelty.

According to Vatican News, in the 1500s, some women and orphans who inherited family businesses from their deceased husbands or fathers were also employed by the Fabbrica under the same conditions as the deceased, male breadwinner.

In the past 500 years, other women in the artistic trades were also hired by the Fabbrica, which was founded with the laying of the foundation stone of St. Peter’s Basilica on April 18, 1506. 

The maintenance crew takes its name from “sanpietrini,” also spelled “sampietrini,” the Italian name for the small, square stones that pave St. Peter’s Square and other historic streets in the center of Rome. 

Pope Francis meets with the Council of Cardinals on Feb. 5, 2024, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media

ACI Prensa Staff, Jul 15, 2024 / 11:49 am (CNA).

Pope Francis has written the preface to the book “Women and Ministries in the Synodal Church,” authored by three theologians and two cardinals who participated in the meeting of the Council of Cardinals, C9, this past February at the Vatican. 

The theologians, noted Vatican News, are Salesian Sister Linda Pocher, professor of Christology and Mariology at the Auxilium in Rome; who also wrote the book's introduction; Jo Bailey Wells, a female Anglican bishop and undersecretary general of the Anglican Communion; and Giuliva Di Berardino, consecrated woman of the Ordo Virginum of the Diocese of Verona in Italy, liturgist, teacher and organizer of spirituality courses and spiritual exercises.

The cardinals are Jean-Claude Hollerich, archbishop of Luxembourg and relator general of the Synod on Synodality, who in 2023 stated that “over time” the pope could allow the ordination of women; and Seán Patrick O'Malley, archbishop of Boston and president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

Pope Francis’ preface

The preface was published in its entirety in L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper.

In the text, the Holy Father laments that "the drama of abuse has forced us to open our eyes to the plague of clericalism, which does not only concern ordained ministers, but also a distorted way of exercising power within the Church into which everyone can fall: even lay people, even women."

The pontiff notes that “A certain suffering of ecclesial communities regarding the way in which the ministry is understood and lived is not a new reality.”

Pope Francis then states: “Listening to them without judgment and without prejudice, we realize that in many places and in many situations they suffer precisely because of the lack of recognition of what they are and what they do and also of what they could do and be if only they had the space and the opportunity.”

“The women who suffer the most are often the closest, the most available, prepared and ready to serve God and his Kingdom,” he noted.

“Reality, however, is always greater than the idea,” the pope states, “and when our theology falls into the trap of clear and distinct ideas it inevitably transforms into a Procrustean bed (arbitrary standard), which sacrifices reality, or part of it, on the altar of the idea.”

Women in the Church and the female diaconate

The issue of women in the Church appears in the Instrumentum laboris (working document) for the second phase of the Synod on Synodality, which will take place in October 2024 at the Vatican.

The text highlights "the need to give fuller recognition" to the charisms and vocations of women who, "by virtue of Baptism are in a condition of full equality, receive the same outpouring of gifts of the Spirit and are called to the service of the mission of Christ."

In an interview with EWTN News, Salesian Sister Laura Pocher pointed out that “at this moment the debate on this issue [the female diaconate] is very hot and various scientific publications are appearing from the theological point of view that address this topic and the positions are very diverse."

“There are many positions on this and the pope has also expressed himself in an interview saying that he does not plan to ordain women,” she added.

In May of this year, the Holy Father gave an interview to CBS News anchor Norah O'Donnell, who asked him if a Catholic girl could ever become a deacon and member of the clergy. “No,” was Pope Francis' firm response.

“Three possibilities” for women in the Catholic Church

“However, the possibilities are fundamentally three,” said Pocher. “The first is to do nothing and continue as we are. Some believe that this is the best option, because they know that in the first centuries there were women deacons, but with the sources we have it is not possible to reconstruct exactly what this diaconate consisted of,” she explained.

The second possibility mentioned by the Salesian theologian is “a form of diaconate without ordination, because it is important from an institutional point of view to recognize the service of women in the Church and thus give a form of ministries at the established age (for ordination).” 

“The third possibility, the most radical, is to also give women the possibility of being ordained deacons. Just as we have deacons, married men who are not priests,” she said.

Then, she continued, “an ordained diaconate which should not because of this be a first step towards priestly ordination, but which would allow for a recognized service within the Church, for example in the guidance of communities.”

When asked if the issue was discussed at C9 in February, Pocher said yes, although “it is not a possibility on the Synod agenda and the pope is not very favorable, because this issue of the ordination of women is a “bit like the elephant in the room.”

In the theologian’s opinion, “not everyone thinks about it but often there is no courage to speak because it is a very conflictive issue and it seemed to us that in the spirit with which the pope guides these meetings of the council (C9) it was important to put the difficult things on the table.”

Pope Francis and deaconesses in the Catholic Church

Although the topic of the female diaconate does not appear in Instrumentum laboris 2, Cardinal Mario Grech, Secretary General of the Synod, said in a July 9 press conference that Pope Francis has asked the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) to study women's participation and leadership in the Catholic Church, including the possibility of women deacons, to publish a document on the subject.

Prior to this assignment for the DDF, Pope Francis had created two commissions to study deaconesses in the Catholic Church: one in 2016; that was closed without reaching a consensus; and the second in 2020; after the majority of participants in the Amazon Synod expressed themselves in favor of the issue.

In Querida Amazonia, Pope Francis' apostolic exhortation following the 2019 synod, the Pope encouraged women to participate in the Church, but not in the ordained ministries of the diaconate or priesthood.

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

Jesus in the Eucharist is processed through downtown Columbia, South Carolina, on April 6, 2024. Over 1,700 traveled to the state’s capital for this procession as part of the Diocesan Eucharistic Congress / Credit: The Catholic Miscellany/Carolina Mascarin

CNA Newsroom, Jul 15, 2024 / 09:00 am (CNA).

More than 50,000 people will gather in Indianapolis this week for the National Eucharistic Congress, which bishops hope will be a culminating moment in the U.S. Catholic Church’s three-year revival to inspire people to encounter Jesus in the Eucharist.

The five-day congress in the NFL’s Lucas Oil Stadium and the Indiana Convention Center will be the first National Eucharistic Congress held in the United States since World War II. 

U.S. bishops launched the multi-year National Eucharistic Revival in 2022 in response to concern about waning belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist among American Catholics. 

The goal of the revival has been to “renew the Church by enkindling a living relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ in the holy Eucharist.” 

Organizers told CNA that 51,000 people had bought tickets for the congress as of a week before the event. 

“There is a lot of energy and excitement to finally be on the precipice of this moment that we’ve been building up to for so long,” Tim Glemkowski, the Chief Executive Officer of the congress, said.

The event is the climax of four Eucharistic pilgrimages that have traversed the United States over the past two months, carrying the Blessed Sacrament across the nation.

Leading up to the congress, more than 100,000 people participated in four pilgrimage routes, originating in California, Connecticut, Minnesota, and Texas respectively, and traveling a combined total of 6,500 miles. 

The pilgrimage groups will meet in Indianapolis as they process into the Lucas Oil Stadium during the opening ceremony of the Eucharistic congress on Wednesday night, which will feature U.S. nuncio Cardinal Christophe Pierre, Sister Bethany Madonna of the Sisters of Life, and Bishop Andrew Cozzens of Crookston as keynote speakers.

During the opening ceremony, Cozzens will carry the Blessed Sacrament in a massive monstrance created specifically for the congress through the football stadium as tens of thousands of people pray together in Eucharistic adoration. 

The congress will also feature liturgies, service opportunities, Eucharistic adoration and confession, and impact sessions aimed at fostering deep spiritual renewal and unity among attendees. 

Breakout sessions each morning will give clergy, families, young people, and ministry leaders the chance to meet among themselves for formation tailored to their state in life and mission.

EWTN will offer television and livestream coverage of the main events and speakers at the National Eucharistic Congress with Relevant Radio providing live radio broadcast coverage.

Speakers at the congress include Father Mike Schmitz, Bishop Robert Barron, Chris Stefanik, Sister Josephine Garrett, Dr. Scott Hahn, Chosen actor Jonathan Roumie, and musician Matt Maher.

Catholics attending the congress will also have the unique opportunity to pray with the relics of Sts. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Manuel González García, Paschal Baylon, Junípero Serra, Juan Diego, and Blessed Carlo Acutis, as well as part of a relic from Chartres, France, known as “the Veil of Our Lady” at a specially designated reliquary chapel within the Indiana Convention Center.

Cardinal Luis Tagle, the pro-prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Evangelization who was appointed by Pope Francis to serve as the papal envoy for the event, will offer the closing Mass for the congress on July 21.

Pope Francis extended a special blessing to all those attending the National Eucharistic Congress in a letter published by the Vatican in Latin earlier this month. 

The pope expressed his hope that “all participants in this event will be encouraged so that, united with Jesus in the Most Sacred Sacrament of our redemption, they are fully aware of the universal gifts they receive from heavenly food and can impart them to others.”

Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller of San Antonio blesses matachine dancers during a celebration on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. He believes that Hispanics — immigrants especially — will help bring new life into the Church. / Credit: Archdiocese of San Antonio

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 15, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

It’s Dec. 12 in San Antonio. Despite the cold outside, the inside of San Fernando Cathedral is packed with thousands of people of all ages: young, old, and in between.

By the altar is a brightly lit image of Our Lady of Guadalupe surrounded by roses of all colors. It’s a peaceful scene.

But that peace is suddenly broken by the loud, quick thumping of drums and the rattling of maracas as two lines of brightly colored dancers process in from the back doors. In unison, the dancers approach the image of the Virgin and after dancing before Our Lady for a few moments, the drums cease just as suddenly as they began. All say a silent prayer and then the drums resume as the group exits the church.

This is the “danza de matachines,” a Mexican tradition practiced in parishes and cities across Mexico and the U.S. to honor the Blessed Mother’s feast day. The lively matachines performance will often be accompanied by special prayers, Mass, and parties that gather entire parish communities.

Since Our Lady of Guadalupe’s apparition in 1531, Catholicism has been a mainstay in the life and culture of Hispanics across Latin America and the United States.

But today the future of the Hispanic Catholic Church is being called into question as new reports and data indicate that Latinos, especially those under 30, are leaving the Church in significant numbers, leading some to ask: Is Catholicism dying out in the country's Hispanic communities?

Is the Catholic Church being replaced?

A recent study by the Pew Research Center found that 43% of Hispanics in America are Catholic, a major decline from 67% in 2010.

Some chalk up this trend to Hispanics converting to evangelicalism or other Protestant denominations. A recent article in The Free Press touted that narrative, claiming: “Latinos are flocking to evangelical Christianity.” But while The Free Press foresees an evangelical boom, available data as well as Hispanic leaders in the Catholic Church paint a different picture.

According to Pew, Christianity in the U.S. across all demographics has been waning. The Catholic decline among Latinos is being led by young Hispanics, ages 18–29, a demographic in which evangelicalism is also declining.

Today, 30% of Hispanics ages 18–29 identify as Catholic. Meanwhile, 11% of Hispanics in this age group identify as evangelical, 6% below the next two older age brackets, 30–49 and 50–64.

The largest religious group — 49% — of Hispanics ages 18–29 is religiously unaffiliated, a category often referred to as the “nones.” Thus, the average young Hispanic in America today is more likely to identify as a “none” than as either a Catholic or an evangelical.

“Young Hispanics are following the same trend as non-Hispanics,” said José Manuel De Urquidi, founder of the Juan Diego Network, a Latino media ministry. “By 25, most are leaving the Church. And contrary to what other people believe, they’re mostly going to the nones. Some are going to other Christian denominations, but most are not.”

Why are they leaving?

In an interview with CNA, De Urquidi explained that since the COVID lockdowns many Hispanics, especially younger Latinos, are neglecting to participate in basic aspects of the life of the Church such as Mass, confession, and other sacraments.

For De Urquidi and others who are deeply engaged in Hispanic ministry, it comes down to a crisis of communion and community. Oftentimes young people simply feel that they don’t belong in the pews.

“We’re not doing enough to welcome young Hispanics, so they feel it is their abuelita’s [grandmother’s] Church or their parents’ Church, but not theirs,” De Urquidi said.

Father Allen Deck, a professor of theology who also works in campus ministry at Los Angeles’ Loyola Marymount University, said that the trend among Hispanics is also “part of a much bigger phenomenon within a growing secular environment.”

“It’s not only about what is happening in the Hispanic-Latino context, but it’s what’s happening with institutional religions across the board,” he explained.

Though worrying, Deck said that the Church should use this as an opportunity to take young people’s concerns to heart, especially when it comes to their need for community and a sense of belonging.

“We need to be part of a living group of faith, whether that be family, parish, diocese, or society,” he explained. “So liturgical prayer that stresses active participation, particularly in the Eucharist, is very important for people to develop a sense of belonging to something bigger.”

What do America’s bishops have to say?

In 2021, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) reported that the country’s Hispanic Catholic population, estimated at 30 million, comprises 40% of all U.S. Catholics.

Even dioceses in cities that are not traditionally associated with Hispanics are now seeing the fruits of the Latino Church. 

“Faith is alive in the Hispanic communities,” Edmundo Reyes of the Archdiocese of Detroit told CNA.

“Yes, there are some challenges, especially among Latinos born in the United States, as part of the larger secularization of the American people,” he admitted. “However, faith is still a significant part of Latinos’ lives and worldview.” 

Archbishop Nelson Perez of Philadelphia told CNA the country’s leading bishops understand the Church has been losing young Hispanics in significant numbers and is aware of the danger this reality poses.

Addressing the problem was the subject of extensive discussion at a national “encuentro” (encounter) organized by the USCCB in 2018. The event saw extensive discussions on how the Church can better minister to Hispanics and involved the input and participation of some 300,000 Latino Catholics from more than 3,000 parishes.

From these discussions, the country’s bishops drew up a National Pastoral Plan for Hispanic Ministry that was released in 2023. Titled “Missionary Disciples Going Forth With Joy,” the document outlines the bishops’ recommendations and priorities for U.S. dioceses, parishes, and Catholic institutions ministering to Hispanic Catholics.

Perez, who was lead bishop for the 2018 Encuentro, shared that one of the most powerful fruits of the initiative was that Hispanic lay leaders have begun to “take their place in the Church.”

This development, Perez believes, will be a boon to the Catholic Church in the U.S. “I find that Hispanics are very much within their comfort zones to reach out with their faith. Their faith is worn on their sleeve,” he said, adding: “Where Hispanic ministry is present it’s strong and vibrant.”

Pointing to his Philadelphia Archdiocese where he has seen previously emptying parishes now being filled with Hispanics, he concluded: “I don’t just think Hispanics are the future. They’re the present.”

Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller of San Antonio, who first came to the U.S. from Mexico in 1980, told CNA that despite the challenges and losses, “in many ways there has been change for the better” because the Hispanic population in the Catholic Church “has been more organized and has mobilized more and in that sense they’re more prepared for ministry in the Church.” 

He believes that Hispanics, immigrants especially, will help bring new life into the Church. 

“The newcomers nowadays, they bring with them their faith, which here we have been losing,” he said.

New life for the Church

Cristofer Pereyra, an immigrant from Peru who founded the Tepeyac Leadership Initiative, told CNA “the influence that Latinos have in the Church and society is only going to continue to increase.”

“Yes, we’re losing so many,” he granted. “But what I find is that the ones that stick around are more committed. They are very secure in who they are and in their faith.”

Though a painful process, Pereyra believes the result will be an even stronger Hispanic presence in the Church that will eventually lead to a resurgence of the faith.

“The ones who are staying are staying to lead, to lead within the Church and to lead outside,” he said.

Natalia Ramírez, a 23-year-old Hispanic Catholic who attends San Francisco de Asís Parish in Chicago and is a member of the Hispanic young adult ministry “Iskali,” put it simply: The Hispanic Church is facing a crisis because many Latinos were not taught the “beautiful gifts” of their Catholic faith.

Born in Mexico City and raised in a heavily Catholic Hispanic community in Chicago, Ramírez said that many of her family members and childhood friends no longer practice any faith at all.

But this doesn’t have to be the end of the story. She knows this from personal experience.

“The more I’m learning about the faith, the more I fall in love with it,” she said. “Before I had no idea of what the Holy Eucharist was. But after learning about the Holy Eucharist, I realized that Jesus is closer to me than I ever thought before.”

Capella di Santa Rosa, St. Rosalia's Chapel inside of the Palermo Cathedral, Basilica Cattedrale Metropolitana Primaziale della Santa Vergine Maria Assunta in Sicily, Itay. May 5, 2022. / Credit: Frank Bienewald/LightRocket via Getty Images

Palermo, Italy, Jul 15, 2024 / 04:00 am (CNA).

The city of Palermo on the Italian island of Sicily is celebrating the 400th anniversary of the feast day of its beloved patron, St. Rosalia, affectionately known as “la Santuzza” in Sicilian dialect.

The July 15 feast marks when tradition holds the hermit girl’s remains were rediscovered in a cave close to Palermo in 1624. Her intercession, begged by carrying her relics in solemn procession through the Spanish-ruled city, is said to have saved its inhabitants from plague 400 years ago this summer.

“‘Per amore Domini mei,’ [‘for love of my Lord’] is the motive St. Rosalia invokes in surrendering one’s existence and abandoning the wealth of the world,” Pope Francis said in a message sent to Archbishop Corrado Lorefice of Palermo July 8.

“The life of the Christian, both in the times when our hermit Virgin lived and in our days, is constantly marked by the cross,” the pontiff said. “Christians are those who always love, but often in circumstances where love is not understood or is even rejected.”

St. Rosalia is believed to have been born around 1130 to a family of Norman origin that boasted to be descended from Charlemagne. She lived about 60 years after the Norman conquest of Palermo, which saw the city returned to Christianity after a period of Arab and Muslim rule. 

Despite belonging to a noble family, Rosalia renounced her riches to live as a hermit in a cave on Mount Pellegrino, just north of the city.

According to popular belief, St. Rosalia was led to the cave by angels and wrote on the cave wall: “I, Rosalia, daughter of Sinibald, Lord of [Monte] delle Rose, and Quisquina, have taken the resolution to live in this cave for the love of my Lord, Jesus Christ.” She died in the cave, poor and alone, around 1166, while only in her mid-30s.

The groundbreaking for the construction of the Palermo cathedral began two decades later, in 1185.

But the remains of the holy young woman would not be found until over 400 years later, when, the tradition says, Rosalia appeared to a hunter, to whom she indicated where her relics could be found.

Rosalia’s remains were carried around Palermo three times in procession, as she had indicated to do in her apparition to the hunter, and a plague then ravaging the city ceased.

From that point onward, Rosalia, called “la Santuzza” (“the little saint” in English), has been the patron saint of Palermo.

The Palermo Archdiocese marks her feast day with a week of religious and cultural events leading up to the grand finale on July 15: a solemn procession of her relics through the city’s main streets followed by a fireworks show on the steps of the cathedral.

But the night prior, on July 14, the city takes part in a less devotional spectacle: a parade of colorful floats and a statue of the saint, which goes from the Palace of the Normans, a governmental building, to the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea.

To mark the feast’s 400th anniversary, the archdiocese and city have been celebrating a Rosalian jubilee year to conclude on Rosalia’s other feast day, Sept. 4.

“The happy occurrence of the fourth centenary of the discovery of the body of St. Rosalia is a special occasion to unite myself spiritually with you, dear sons and daughters of the Church of Palermo, who wish to raise to the heavenly Father, the source of all grace, praise for the gift of such a sublime figure of a woman and ‘apostle,’ who did not hesitate to accept the trials of loneliness for love of her Lord,” Pope Francis said in his message last week.

“With Rosalia, woman of hope, I therefore exhort you: Church of Palermo stand up! Be beacons of new hope, be a living community that, regenerated by the blood of the martyrs, gives true and luminous witness to Christ our Savior,” he continued. “People of God in this blessed stretch of land, do not lose hope and do not give in to discouragement. Rediscover the joy of wonder before the embrace of a Father who calls you to himself and leads you on the paths of life to savor the fruits of harmony and peace.”

Trump supporters are seen covered with blood in the stands in aftermath of assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, July 13, 2024. / Credit: Photo by REBECCA DROKE/AFP via Getty Images

Boston, Mass., Jul 14, 2024 / 15:46 pm (CNA).

The 50-year-old husband and father who was fatally shot Saturday at former president Donald Trump’s campaign rally outside of Pittsburgh was a devoted Christian and “the very best of us,” according to his family and the state’s governor.

Corey Comperatore “went to church every Sunday. Corey loved his community. Most especially, Corey loved his family,” Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said in a press conference Sunday.

Speaking to reporters north of Pittsburgh, the Democratic governor said that he spoke to Comperatore’s wife and two daughters. 

Comperatore was a “girl dad” who worked as a firefighter, Shapiro said.

“I asked Corey’s wife if it would be okay for me to share that we spoke. And she said yes,” Shapiro said on Sunday. 

“She also asked that I share with all of you that Corey died a hero. That Corey dove on his family to protect them last night at this rally. Corey was the very best of us. May his memory be a blessing.”

Comperatore was “an avid supporter of the former president and was so excited to be there last night with him in the community,” the governor added.

Flags will be flying at half staff in the state after the tragedy, Shapiro said. 

Comperatore was a chief at the Buffalo Township Volunteer Fire Department. That township is about a 30-minute drive northeast of Pittsburgh.

Comperatore’s LinkedIn and Facebook profiles say that he was a project and tooling engineer at JSP, a manufacturing company.

A Saturday Facebook post from Comperatore’s wife, Helen — posted prior to the shooting — said that the family wasn’t originally sitting in the bleachers behind the former president.

It wasn’t until a campaign official approached the family and asked if they wanted to be seated in the bleachers behind Trump that they were moved, she wrote.

Dawn Comperatore Schafer, who identified herself as Corey’s sister, said on Facebook Sunday that the firefighter “was a hero that shielded his daughters. His wife and girls just lived through the unthinkable and unimaginable. My baby brother just turned 50 and had so much life left to experience.”

“The hatred for one man took the life of the one man we loved the most,” she said. “Hatred has no limits and love has no bounds. Pray for my sister-in-law, nieces, my mother, sister, me, and his nieces and nephews as this feels like a terrible nightmare but we know it is our painful reality.”

A Facebook post by Comperatore’s daughter Allyson was circulating the internet on Sunday; in it she called the event “a real-life nightmare.”

“What was supposed to be an exciting day that we had all looked forward to (ESPECIALLY my dad), turned into the most traumatizing experiences someone could imagine,” she wrote.

Allyson called her father “the best dad a girl could ever ask for,” adding that he “was a man of God, loved Jesus fiercely, and also looked after our church and our members as family.”

“The media will not tell you that he died a real-life superhero. They are not going to tell you how quickly he threw my mom and I to the ground,” she said. 

“They are not going to tell you that he shielded my body from the bullet that came at us. He loved his family. He truly loved us enough to take a real bullet for us. And I want nothing more than to cry on him and tell him thank you. I want nothing more than to wake up and for this to not be reality for me and my family,” she said.

A GoFundMe fundraiser had raised nearly $500,000 for the Comperatore family by Sunday evening.

Pope Francis waves to crowds before his noon Angelus address during a hot day in Rome on July 14, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Jul 14, 2024 / 09:30 am (CNA).

Pope Francis on Sunday urged Christians to be an example to others of how to live a sober, nonmaterialistic lifestyle in peace with one’s community.

“It is important to know how to guard sobriety, to know how to be sober in the use of things — sharing resources, skills, and gifts, and doing without excess. Why? To be free: Excess enslaves you,” the pope said in his Angelus address on July 14.

The pope addressed the problems of materialism in his comments before praying the Angelus, a Marian prayer he leads every week on Sundays.

Speaking from a window overlooking St. Peter’s Square, he reflected on the Sunday Gospel, from Mark 6, focusing on Jesus’ instructions to his apostles to “take nothing for the journey” as he sent them forth to preach.

“Let’s pause for a moment on this image,” he said. “The disciples are sent together, and they are to take only what is necessary with them.”

A large crowd attended the Angelus despite the powerful noon sun raising temperatures in the stone-paved square well into the 90s Fahrenheit.

Many people wore hats or held umbrellas to shade themselves from the rays, and despite the heat, still gave an enthusiastic welcome to the pope when he appeared at the window of the Apostolic Palace.

Pope Francis invited those present to reflect on “what happens in our families or communities when we make do with what is necessary, even with little...”

“Indeed, a family or a community that lives in this way creates around it an environment rich in love, in which it is easier to open oneself to faith and the newness of the Gospel, and from which one leaves better, one leaves more serene,” he said.

“If, on the other hand,” he pointed out, “everyone goes his or her own way, if what counts are only things — which are never enough — if we do not listen to each other, if individualism and envy prevail ... the air becomes heavy, life difficult, and encounters become more an occasion of restlessness, sadness, and discouragement, than an occasion for joy.”

“Envy is a deadly thing, a poison,” the pope added, while noting that “communion, harmony among us, and sobriety are important values, indispensable values, for a Church to be missionary at all levels.”

After praying the Angelus in Latin, Pope Francis spoke about Sea Sunday, which the Church is commemorating July 14.

Sea Sunday is the day the Church remembers and prays for all those who work at sea, often in dangerous and lonely conditions.

“On Sea Sunday, let us pray for those who work in the maritime sector and for those who take care of them,” Francis urged.

He also asked Our Lady of Mount Carmel, whose feast day is July 16, to “comfort and obtain peace for all populations who are oppressed by the horror of war.”

“Please, let us not forget tormented Ukraine, Palestine, Israel, and Myanmar,” the pontiff said.

Facade of St. Peter's Basilica. / Credit: Nils Huber/Unsplash

Rome Newsroom, Jul 14, 2024 / 08:49 am (CNA).

The Holy See has condemned acts of violence in the wake of the shooting that injured former U.S. president Donald Trump and others and left one dead at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on July 13.

A brief statement provided to CNA by Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni on July 14 said the Holy See expressed “concern about last night’s episode of violence, which wounds people and democracy, causing suffering and death.”

The comment also said the Holy See “is united to the prayer of the U.S. bishops for America, for the victims, and for peace in the country, that the motives of the violent may never prevail.”

Pope Francis did not comment on the incident during his weekly public appearance for the Angelus at noon on Sunday.

Political leaders from around the globe have spoken out against political violence and in support of democracy after the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, Saturday evening. 

In a statement posted to Truth Social July 13, Trump said a bullet pierced the upper part of his right ear. After receiving treatment at a nearby hospital, the former president flew to New Jersey under Secret Service protection late Saturday night.

The FBI has identified the Trump rally shooter as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. Crooks, who carried no ID and was identified with DNA analysis, was killed by a Secret Service sniper at the rally, according to officials.