In a July 17 telegram, Pope Leo XIV said he was “deeply saddened to learn of the loss of life and injury caused by the military attack on the Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza,” and assured Father Gabriel Romanelli, the parish priest, and the whole parish community of his “spiritual closeness.” He prayed for those who died and “for the consolation of those who grieve and for the recovery of the injured.”

“His Holiness renews his call for an immediate ceasefire, and he expresses his profound hope for dialogue, reconciliation and enduring peace in the region,” the telegram said.

The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem confirmed the injuries and damage to the church in a brief morning statement. “The Holy Family Church in Gaza has been struck by a raid this morning,” the first July 17 statement said.

In a later statement, the patriarchate expressed its “deepest condemnation” of the attack, saying it was a “flagrant violation of human dignity and a blatant violation of the sanctity of life and the sanctity of religious sites, which are supposed to provide a safe haven in times of war.”

The statement emphasized that the bombing had destroyed large parts of the complex, forcing those with special medical needs to evacuate the area, some without the respirators they need to survive, endangering their lives.

“At this critical moment, the Patriarchate affirms that churches are spiritual and humanitarian beacons, serving everyone without discrimination,” the statement said. “It also calls on the international community and United Nations agencies to provide urgent protection for religious institutions and humanitarian centers in the Gaza Strip and to ensure respect for international humanitarian law, which criminalizes the targeting of civilians and places of worship.”

The parishioners confirmed dead by the Latin Patriarchate were Saad Salameh, 60, Fumayya Ayyad, 84, and Najwa Abu Daoud, a woman in her 70s. Salameh was the janitor of the parish and was in the yard at the time of explosions, a July 17 Caritas press release said. Ayyad was sitting inside a Caritas psychological support tent when the blast sent shrapnel to the area and fatally injured her. Abu Daoud was sitting in the same tent as Ayyad, the patriarchate’s CEO Sami El-Yousef confirmed to OSV News.

In a July 17 statement posted on X, Israel Defense Forces said it is “aware of reports regarding damage caused to the Holy Family Church in Gaza City and casualties at the scene. The circumstances of the incident are under review.”

“The IDF makes every feasible effort to mitigate harm to civilians and civilian structures, including religious sites, and regrets any damage caused to them,” the IDF said.

Despite sustaining a light leg injury, parish priest Father Romanelli was shown placing his hand on the forehead of an injured man being carried out on a stretcher in a video broadcast by the Al-Arabiya TV station as he was accompanied by two men — one of whom was holding a bandage to the side of his face.

Father Romanelli was also transferred to the Al-Ahli Arab hospital for treatment, according to Reuters, but left after receiving care.

Photos show part of the church’s roof next to the cross blown away by the tank fire with burned marks down the wall, and windows shattered.

“The explosion occurred near the cross on the church roof, scattering shrapnel and debris across the yard,” said Caritas Jerusalem in a statement, adding that the church was “struck by a shell.”

The two elderly women had been sitting inside the Caritas psychosocial support tent when they were injured, the statement said. Three young people standing at the entrance of the church were also seriously injured, according to the statement.

The statement said Father Romanelli had been urging people to stay inside their rooms over the past week as the fighting in the area intensified.

“If Father Gabriel hadn’t warned us to stay indoors, we could have lost 50 to 60 people today. It would have been a massacre,” the statement quoted one of “our Caritas colleagues.”

“Yesterday, the threat became especially severe due to the presence of Israeli tanks near the church compound and continuous strikes in close proximity,” said the statement.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni condemned the Israeli strike and said it was “unacceptable.”

“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,” said Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and head of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services.

He said the bishops joined their prayers with the pope for Father Romanelli, for his parishioners and especially for the families of those killed and injured. “With the Holy Father, we also continue to pray and advocate for dialogue and an immediate ceasefire.”

The Christian community of the Holy Family Parish now numbers around 600, the Latin patriarchate said in a statement.

Prior to the July 17 attack, the parish priest of this small Christian community in the Gaza Strip admitted in a recent Vatican News interview that his flock was already exhausted by war and a severe lack of food.

For many months before he died April 21, Pope Francis would call Father Romanelli nearly every night to ask the priest about the well-being of the Holy Family Parish community, those sheltering at the church’s compound and the overall situation in Gaza. The calls, which Father Romanelli described as “blessed,” provided comfort and support for the parish community.

“The Latin Patriarchate strongly condemns this tragedy and this targeting of innocent civilians and of a sacred place,” church leaders of the Holy Land wrote in a July 17 statement released in the afternoon local time. “However, this tragedy is not greater or more terrible than the many others that have befallen Gaza. Many other innocent civilians have also been harmed, displaced and killed. Death, suffering and destruction are everywhere.”

“The time has come for leaders to raise their voices and to do all what is necessary in order to stop this tragedy which is humanly and morally, unjustified,” the patriarchate said.

By Judith Sudilovsky | OSV News

OSV News reached out to the Vatican press office July 14 for a comment on the Italian monsignor’s continued employment and also sought comment from the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. OSV News is awaiting a response, as neither has issued a statement.

The news of the continued employment of Msgr. Capella, who was sentenced to a five-year prison term in 2018, was first reported by the Spanish conservative news site InfoVaticana on July 12.

“The Ssecretariat’s decision to re-employ a priest convicted of distributing and possessing child sex abuse images was irresponsible and arrogant,” Anne Barret Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org, a watchdog group that tracks abuse cases in the Catholic Church, told OSV News in a July 17 email.

Back in 2021, The Washington Post reported that during his prison term, Msgr. Capella was allowed to work during the day in the office that sells certificates of papal blessings; however, he was barred from leaving Vatican City. He was presumably released in 2023.

Nevertheless, according to the “Annuario Pontificio 2025,” the Vatican yearbook, Msgr. Capella is listed as a “minutante,” a senior clerk or assistant, at the Vatican Section for Relations with States and International Organizations.

Barrett Doyle said Msgr. Capella’s continued employment in the Vatican’s diplomatic offices shows that the Roman Curia “continues to minimize sexual crimes against children.”

“Employing him isn’t an act of mercy — it’s an act of recklessness, and it implies contempt for the plea of survivors and Catholics that the church show zero tolerance toward sex offenders,” she said.

Born in Carpi, a town in northern Italy, Msgr. Capella was ordained to the priesthood in 1993 for the Archdiocese of Milan. After studying at the Vatican diplomatic academy in Rome, he entered the Vatican diplomatic service in 2004. He had worked at the Vatican nunciature in Washington since the summer of 2016.

In August 2017, the U.S. State Department notified the Holy See of Msgr. Capella’s possible violation of laws relating to child pornography images, and he was subsequently recalled to the Vatican.

In September of the same year, police in Canada issued a nationwide arrest warrant for Msgr. Capella on charges of accessing, possessing and distributing child pornography.

“The Holy See, following the practice of sovereign states, recalled the priest in question, who is currently in Vatican City,” the Vatican said at the time.

Following an investigation by Vatican prosecutors, a trial was held in 2018. During the trial, Gianluca Gauzzi, the Vatican Gendarme’s tech expert who analyzed the Italian priest’s phone and computers, testified that he found drawings, photos, and videos depicting “sexual intercourse of all kinds between adults and prepubescent children,” between the ages of 13 and 17.

Among the videos, he said, there is also one of “a very young child engaged in explicit acts.”

Msgr. Capella addressed the court, saying that the “mistakes I have made are evident as well as this period of weakness. I am sorry that my weakness has hurt the church, the Holy See, and my diocese. I also hurt my family, and I am repentant.”

Calling his possession and distribution of child pornography “a bump in the road in my priestly life,” the former Vatican diplomat said he wanted to continue receiving “psychological support.”

Roberto Borgogno, Msgr. Capella’s lawyer, asked the court to give the monsignor a reduced sentence, referring to his client’s crimes as “a problem” that required intense therapy and not a heavy sentence.

Nevertheless, Judge Giuseppe Della Torre, head of the tribunal of the Vatican City State, sentenced Msgr. Capella to five years in prison and a $5,833 fine.

After his conviction, the Vatican press office said he would serve his sentence in a Vatican cell located in the building of the Gendarmerie Corps of Vatican City State, as the Vatican police force is formally known.

Barrett Doyle told OSV News that while there might be valid reasons to keep the Italian priest in Vatican City rather than laicizing and releasing him to the public, the Roman Curia “should pay to have Capella closely monitored for the rest of his life.”

Nevertheless, she expressed her hope that Pope Leo XIV would make “zero tolerance a reality, and he could start with the case of Msgr. Capella.”

“We urge Pope Leo to immediately order Capella removed from his position. He should also discipline the secretariat officials who approved Capella’s hire,” she told OSV News.

By Junno Arocho Esteves | OSV News

A record-high 79% of U.S. adults say immigration is generally a good thing for the country, the poll found.

In its analysis of the poll, Gallup said, “These shifts reverse a four-year trend of rising concern about immigration that began in 2021 and reflect changes among all major party groups.”

Lydia Saad, Gallup’s director of U.S. Social Research, added that “the recent jump in perceptions of immigration being a good thing is largely owed to a sharp increase among Republicans and, to a lesser extent, independents. These groups’ views have essentially rebounded to 2020 levels after souring in the intervening years.”

Mike Madrid, a political consultant and author of “The Latino Century: How America’s Largest Minority Is Transforming Democracy,” told OSV News the poll shows the public feels the Trump administration has “overreached” on migration issues.

“It’s no longer even viewed as simply an immigrant or immigration issue,” Madrid said. “This is viewed as a constitutional issue, a due process issue, a militarized country issue, and the numbers are tanking.”

The poll, while showing a starker shift, is not an outlier in recent polling on the public’s views of migration issues. A June NPR-PBS News-Marist College poll showed 59% of independents disapproved of Trump’s handling of the issue of immigration. A Quinnipiac University poll showed 66% of independents disapproved.

That same poll also found 64% of all adults said they would prefer to give most unauthorized immigrants in the United States a pathway to legal status, while just 31% said they would prefer deporting most immigrants who are in the United States without legal documents.

Julia Young, a historian of migration, Mexico and Latin America, and Catholicism at The Catholic University of America told OSV News, “This swing in opinion happened during the last Trump administration as well.”

“Americans expressed higher levels of support for immigrants and immigration,” Young said. “This support then declined again because of rapid increases in immigration and the perception of disorder at the U.S.-Mexico border. The fact is, what most Americans really want is a fair and orderly immigration system, which can only come about through comprehensive immigration reform.”

Both Young and Madrid pointed to backlash to some hardline enforcement actions as behind the shift.

“When politicians enact punitive policies like mass incarceration or deportation to Salvadoran prisons, images of the results of these cruel policies appear in the press and evoke sympathy from the broader public,” Young said. “They recognize the immigrants do essential work and enrich the country in many other ways.”

Catholic social teaching on immigration seeks to balance three interrelated principles: the right of persons to migrate in order to sustain themselves and their families, the right of a country to regulate its borders and immigration, and a nation’s duty to conduct that regulation with justice and mercy.

By Kate Scanlon | OSV News

The massive explosion on July 16, 1945, the culmination of the codenamed “Trinity” project, in White Sands National Park could be felt within a 160-mile radius, and covered an area populated by about 500,000 mostly Latino and Native American residents.

The local population, according to documentarians and witnesses who experienced the test, did not receive prior warnings about the detrimental health effects of the nuclear explosion that took place just a few miles from their homes. Some experienced a shower of ash while others spent days and days dusting it off from their homes. The earliest reported harmful effects were an increase in infant deaths months after the test, and then a surge in cancer cases, among other serious health issues that residents say continue to plague the local population.

Tina Cordova, a resident who grew up in Tularosa, a town adjacent to the site of the Trinity test explosion, heads Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium. For the past 20 years, her group had been advocating for New Mexico’s inclusion in the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, or RECA, particularly the state’s uranium mine workers, mostly Indigenous people, who were exposed to dangerous radioactive levels. Cordova, a cancer survivor, noted that recently the act was expanded to include her home state.

“For the first time ever, we now have acknowledgement from the federal government and a program in place that will pay a very small amount of money, $100,000, in reparations,” said Cordova. “I say all the time, the $100,000 that they will offer to my mother will never replace the father that we buried that should still be here today. My father was a four-year-old child living a completely organic lifestyle in Tularosa, never knowing that the ash that fell in those days afterwards — that contaminated their water supply and their food supply — that it was dangerous.”

The U.S. Department of Justice announced July 3 that Congress reauthorized RECA claims and that claims could not yet be filed while the department was reviewing amendments in the act.

Speakers at the interfaith observance called “80 Years and Still Waiting A World Without Nuclear Weapons” in Albuquerque included members of Soka Gakkai International, a Japan-based Buddhist group focused on promoting peace through “key actions” such as nuclear disarmament; Students for Nuclear Disarmament, a youth awareness campaign on the harms of nuclear weapons at college campuses across the country; and the head of Nuclear Watch New Mexico, who drew attention to the U.S. government’s nearly $2 trillion nuclear weapons modernization plan.

Songs of peace and prayers from Christian and Jewish groups were interspersed with the talks.

Dr. Ira Helfand said it is important to undo the harm of past atomic bomb explosions in New Mexico and Japan, but that it is also important to look at the present, in which he said five nations that have nuclear weapons “have engaged in active warfare.” The five include the U.S. June 21 strike of Iran’s nuclear facilities in Iran’s conflict with Israel and recent tensions between India and Pakistan.

Helfand, a retired Massachusetts internist, is past president of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and on the steering group of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017. Helfand gave an assessment of the strength of today’s nuclear weapons which have about 10 times the power of those used by the U.S. against Japan (the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II) and held by superpowers with mega cities.

“In the cases of New York or Moscow or Beijing, we’re talking about 12 to 15, possibly 18 million people dead in a half an hour. And if this were part of a large-scale war between the United States and Russia, or the United States and China, this kind of destruction would take place in every major city in each of these countries,” he said. “All told, 200-300 million people dead in an afternoon.”

He urged ordinary citizens to push for the dismantling of nuclear weapons and to convince leaders “the nuclear policy they are pursuing is profoundly dangerous,” citing the conclusion by U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev that nuclear disarmament would achieve “genuine security.” But the U.S. formally pulled out of the agreement those leaders struck, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, in 2019.

ICAN Executive Director Melissa Parke, from Australia, said she hoped to see “truth telling” on the part of the U.S. government regarding the effects of the Trinity test and other nuclear weapons’ development as well as an apology and “recognition that nuclear weapons do not provide national security.”

“The case for disarmament is not utopian,” said Parke. “It is existential, and therefore must be reframed as a global security imperative. The future demands common security, not mutual destruction. The solidarity between peoples impacted by nuclear weapons’ use and testing and all that comes with those activities, has fueled a global movement to end nuclear weapons.”

Parke pointed to the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, a legally binding document that would ban nuclear weapons aimed at their total elimination. So far the treaty has 94 signatory countries, not including the U.S., which has “strongly encouraged” other nations to vote against the resolution, according to ICAN.

The Holy See is listed as one of the first signatories to the TPNW on Sept. 20, 2017, the first day the U.N. opened it for signers.

Santa Fe Archbishop John C. Wester said the late Pope Francis’ statement on nuclear weapons being immoral “was groundbreaking” and that the Vatican is very much behind the banning of nuclear weapons. But he said at the parish level it poses a complicated question, because some of the faithful could interpret this as taking a political stance.

“We’re called to speak the truth. So we must not let other people tell us that we can’t speak that truth. So I think it’s important, but I just want to underscore that there is that tension (for the faithful), and people are afraid,” he said.

Moments later, the archbishop led the closing prayer of the event.

“We pray that what we’ve done here today might continue to light a spark and that might continue to further the cause of peace in our hearts and in our world,” he said. “We pray for those who make decisions that affect all of us, that they might care about us … (and) about all, especially the poor, and those who live on the margins and those who suffer so much every day.”

By Simone Orendain | OSV News

The sheriff’s office of Barton County, Kansas, stated on its Facebook page that it had been dispatched on July 10 at approximately 5 p.m. to St. Ann’s Catholic School in Olmitz following a report of vandalism.

“Deputies arrived and found the school had been broken into,” said the sheriff’s office in its July 11 post. “Unknown persons entered the building causing extensive damage to the interior of the building and other property inside the building.”

Images included in the post showed chairs and tables upended, with books and papers strewn across the floors of what appeared to be several rooms. A stairwell was blocked by debris, with furniture, fabrics, crayons and books littering the steps.

In one photo, a large swastika had been formed on a desktop with what appeared to be a white powder. In another image, a chalkboard could be seen with a red swastika, under which was written “all Hail Hitler.”

The markings stood in stark contrast to a banner above the chalkboard that featured an angel blowing a trumpet and the words “Rejoice in the Lord.”

The sheriff’s office, which noted in its Facebook post that “the total cost of the damage is not known at this time,” has asked those with any information to confidentially contact the Crime Stoppers line at 620-792-1300 or 888-305-1300.

OSV News has contacted the pastor of St. Ann’s parish, Father Warren Stecklein, as well as the Diocese of Dodge City, Kansas, for comment and is awaiting a response.

The Kansas chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations denounced the attack in a July 11 statement.

“We condemn this apparently bias-motivated attack on a religious institution and urge law enforcement authorities to swiftly apprehend and punish those responsible to the full extent of the law,” said CAIR-Kansas Board Chair Moussa Elbayoumy.

He also pointed to the organization’s “Best Practices for Mosque and Community Safety” as a security resource for faith communities.

According to a Sept. 21, 2013, article in the Great Bend Tribune of nearby Great Bend, Kansas, St. Ann’s School opened in 1903, staffed by the Sisters Adorers of the Most Precious Blood. The church and school were rebuilt following a 1913 fire.

A shortage of teaching sisters led to the school’s closure in the mid 1970s, although the building continued to be used by the parish for religious education and youth events, according to the Great Bend Tribune. Local media reported that the building is used for parish activities during the school year. The school is not listed on the Diocese of Dodge City’s website.

By Gina Christian | OSV News

On July 8, the remains of the young Congolese layman were transferred from the Kanyamuhanda public cemetery to St. Joseph’s Cathedral in Goma.

“I thank the members of Floribert Bwana Chui (Bin Kositi’s) biological family … for agreeing to donate their son’s remains to the church,” Bishop Willy Ngengele Ngumbi of Goma told the faithful.

The cemetery had been the blessed’s Congolese resting place since 2007, when he was killed at age 26, for rejecting bribes given to entice him to allow the entry of expired foods and goods into eastern Congo through the Goma port.

“Floribert was a civil servant and we know the concept we have of civil servants in our society. He made a difference by demonstrating that those armed with faith in Jesus Christ cannot retreat before the invasion of values,” Archbishop Flugence Muteba of Lubumbashi, president of Congo’s bishops’ conference, told the faithful gathered at the thanksgiving July 8 Mass in Goma.

The Mass was a culmination of a three-day celebration following the beatification of Kositi — and was attended by the blessed’s immediate family members, Congolese Catholics from all walks of life, clergy and delegations from different countries. Cardinal Marcello Semeraro beatified the Congolese civil servant on June 15 in Rome’s Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.

Blessed Kositi, born in 1981 in Goma, and the first son of the late Deogratias Kositi Bazambala and Gertrude Kamara Ntawiha is being celebrated as a hero of Christian ethics. He was the eldest in a family of 12 — six boys and six girls. A member of the Holy Spirit Parish in Goma, Blessed Kositi was an active member of the Community of Sant’Egidio in the diocese. Among other apostolic commitments, while at the university, he joined the Sant’Egidio community in the Diocese of Goma, and devoted his life to the poor, especially street children.

Growing up in eastern Congo, a region beset by militia violence, Blessed Kositi launched a school of peace, aiming to shape the future of Congolese people through education.

But while working with the Congolese Control Office — as a commissioner in the damage department — Kositi was kidnapped on July 7, 2007. In a discovery that shocked the community, his lifeless body, bearing signs of torture, was found on July 9, 2007, near the Free University of the Great Lakes Countries in Goma.

During his apostolic visit to Kinshasa on Feb. 2, 2023, Pope Francis presented Kositi as an example of honesty and integrity to thousands of Congolese Christians gathered at the football stadium in the city.

When on an apostolic trip to Kinshasa, Congo’s capital, in February 2023, Pope Francis said of the future blessed: “He could easily have turned a blind eye; nobody would have found out, and he might even have gotten ahead as a result,” he said of the corruption attempt Kositi refused. “But, since he was a Christian, he prayed. He thought of others and he chose to be honest, saying no to the filth of corruption. That is what it means to keep your hands clean, for hands that traffic in easy money get stained with blood.”

If he becomes a saint one day — and for this declaration a miracle is needed even if one is beatified as a martyr — Kositi would become Congo’s first saint, in an African country with one of the largest numbers of Catholics on the continent.

By Fredrick Nzwili | OSV News