Feast date: Jul 05

On July 5, the Catholic Church remembers Saint Anthony Mary Zaccaria. A renowned preacher and promoter of Eucharistic adoration, he founded the order of priests now known as the Barnabites.

In 2001, the future Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, wrote the preface for a book on St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria, praising the saint as “one of the great figures of Catholic reform in the 1500s,” who was involved “in the renewal of Christian life in an era of profound crisis.”

The Italian saint, Cardinal Ratzinger wrote, “deserves to be rediscovered” as “an authentic man of God and of the Church, a man burning with zeal, a demanding forger of consciences, a true leader able to convert and lead others to good.”

Anthony Mary Zaccaria was born into an Italian family of nobility in Cremona during 1502. His father Lazzaro died shortly after Anthony's birth, and his mother Antonietta – though only 18 years old – chose not to marry again, preferring to devote herself to charitable works and her son's education.

Antonietta's son took after her in devotion to God and generosity toward the poor. He studied Latin and Greek with tutors in his youth, and was afterward sent to Pavia to study philosophy. He went on to study medicine at the University of Padua, earning his degree at age 22 and returning to Cremona.

Despite his noble background and secular profession, the young doctor had no intention of either marrying or accumulating wealth. While caring for the physical conditions of his patients, he also encouraged them to find spiritual healing through repentance and the sacraments.

Anthony also taught catechism to children, and went on to participate in the religious formation of young adults. He eventually decided to withdraw from the practice of medicine, and with the encouragement of his spiritual director he began to study for the priesthood.

Ordained a priest at age 26, Anthony is said to have experienced a miraculous occurrence during his first Mass, being surrounded by a supernatural light and a multitude of angels during the consecration of the Eucharist. Contemporary witnesses marveled at the event, and testified to it after his death.

Church life in Cremona had suffered decline in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. The new priest encountered widespread ignorance and religious indifference among laypersons, while many of the clergy were either weak or corrupt.

In these dire circumstances, Anthony Mary Zaccaria devoted his life to proclaiming the truths of the Gospel both clearly and charitably. Within two years, his eloquent preaching and tireless pastoral care is said to have changed the moral character of the city dramatically.

In 1530, Anthony moved to Milan, where a similar spirit of corruption and religious neglect prevailed. There, he decided to form a priestly society, the Clerics Regular of St. Paul.

Inspired by the apostle's life and writings, the order was founded on a vision of humility, asceticism, poverty, and preaching. After the founder's death, they were entrusted with a prominent church named for St. Barnabas, and became commonly known as the “Barnabites.”

The priest also founded a women's religious order, the Angelic Sisters of St. Paul; and an organization, the Laity of St. Paul, geared toward the sanctification of those outside the priesthood and religious life. He pioneered the “40 Hours” devotion, involving continuous prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.

In 1539, Anthony became seriously ill and returned to his mother's house in Cremona. The founder of the Clerics Regular of St. Paul died on July 5, during the liturgical octave of the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, at the age of only 36.

Nearly three decades after his death, St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria's body was found to be incorrupt. He was beatified by Blessed Pope Pius IX in 1849, and declared a saint by Pope Leo XIII in 1897.

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 4, 2024 / 11:00 am (CNA).

In response to heightened tensions and violence plaguing the Middle Eastern region, the Philos Project and SpiritualDirection.com announced an emergency novena prayer, “Novena for Peace in the Near East.” 

The novena, which will take place between July 16–24, will implore protection for Christians and all innocent civilians in the region, particularly in Israel and Lebanon.

The Philos Project, whose mission is to “promote positive Christian engagement in the Near East by creating leaders, building community, and taking action in the spirit of the Hebraic tradition,” specifically chose these dates to align with major feast days.

“Mount Carmel in Israel is about 100 miles from Mount Lebanon,” noted Simone Rizkallah, deputy director of education at the Philos Project. “There’s a perfect novena in there from the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel on July 16 to St. Charbel, a very important Maronite saint, on July 24.”

The announcement of the novena comes in the midst of ongoing clashes between the Israeli military and Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed, Shiite Muslim militant group based in Lebanon.

On July 3, an Israeli attack on southern Lebanon killed a top Hezbollah commander, making him the third high-ranking official in the group to be killed in recent months.

Many fear the implications that an all-out war would have between the militant group and Israel. “[A war between Israel and Hezbollah] would be something far more terrible than what we’ve seen with Hamas,” said Andrew Doran, a senior research fellow at the Philos Project. 

Appearing alongside Rizkallah in an interview with SpiritualDirection.com, Doran explained the gravity of the conflict: “Hezbollah is far more sophisticated. Their weaponry is more sophisticated, and this is a very different and more serious war that is pending here.”

Along with diplomatic efforts to prevent the escalation of the clashes — and, subsequently, a possible confrontation between Israel and Iran — the Philos Project and SpiritualDirection.com have taken the initiative to specifically encourage people to pray for the afflicted region.

“I do believe prayer can keep war off,” Rizkallah shared. “What I hope is that we really pray with affection knowing that our faith started in Jerusalem and our faith spread initially in these countries.”

Those who wish to participate in the Novena for Peace in the Near East initiative and sign up to receive the daily prayers via email can do so here.

CNA Staff, Jul 4, 2024 / 10:00 am (CNA).

Malaysia’s Cardinal Sebastian Francis, bishop of Penang, has called for the beatification and canonization of Sybil Kathigasu, a heroine and lay martyr who protected information and housed and nursed local members of the anti-Japanese resistance. 

During the Japanese occupation of Malaya in World War II, Kathigasu — a wife, mother of three, nurse, and devout Catholic — was imprisoned, beaten nearly to death, and left crippled for healing a rebel guerrilla fighter of his bullet wounds. 

At the start of the occupation, Kathigasu hung an image of the Sacred Heart on her wall. It concealed a peephole. On the worst nights after her arrest, imprisoned and isolated, she clung to a rosary. Once released, she went immediately to a church. Unable to walk because she was paralyzed due to a severe beating, she crawled down the aisle of St. Joseph’s Church in Batu Gajah, Perak, offering thanksgiving to God.

The bishop of Penang has appointed Father Eugene Benedict from the Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur to investigate Kathigasu’s life to determine whether to move forward with her beatification cause.

Devotion in war 

Kathigasu lived an ordinary life before the war began. She was born in Medan, Sumatra, in Indonesia to an Irish-Eurasian planter named Joseph Daly and his wife, Beatrice Matilda Martin, a midwife. She was their fifth child and only daughter.

They raised her in the Catholic faith and were concerned when she fell in love with Abdon Clement Kathigasu, a Hindu doctor. When he asked her father’s permission to wed her, Abdon assured him he would join the faith so important to their family. 

They were married on Jan. 7, 1919, and had their first son, Michael, just nine months later. Michael died 19 hours after his birth on Aug. 26, 1919, and Sybil’s mother suggested they adopt a son, William. Their first daughter, Olga, was born less than two years later, on Feb. 26, 1921, and Dawn, their youngest daughter, came into the world on Sept. 21, 1936.

Beginning in 1926, the couple ran a private medical practice in Ipoh town in Malaya. Signs of war interrupted their happy lives in 1941 when Ipoh was bombed. Abdon, struck by shrapnel, had to be rushed to the hospital and operated on. 

It was the start of the Japanese occupation of Malaya. The family moved to the outskirts of Ipoh for safety, in a small tin-mining town called Papan. They lived in the shophouse of a friend at No. 74 on Main Street. 

The Japanese police, known as the Kempeitai, came to occupy Ipoh, enforcing strict laws and using torture to investigate any suspects, including a Japanese form of waterboarding called “water treatment” in which the perpetrator forces gallons of water down a victim’s throat and then stamps on victim’s stomach.

Kathigasu and her husband followed the news via an illegal shortwave radio they nicknamed “Josephine.” They treated patients throughout the war, giving their services for free to those most in need. When a guerrilla stumbled into their clinic with bullet holes in his leg, they helped him. Kathigasu provided medical care, information, and shelter to the anti-Japanese resistance.

Word spread of the rebel midwife. Her husband was arrested in July 1943, and a month later, she was too. 

During their imprisonment, Kathigasu and her husband were interrogated and beaten, and Abdon was given the water treatment three times. Kathigasu was beaten and questioned but prayed her rosary, refusing to give any information to the Kempeitai.

The psychological and physical torture reached its peak when Kempeitai Sgt. Eiko Yoshimura kidnapped the couple’s daughter Dawn, who was 5 years old at the time. The officers tied her to a tree and set it on fire in front of Kathigasu, threatening to cut the ropes holding her above the fire if Kathigasu didn’t talk. Kathigasu was bound and beaten with a stick. 

“Be very brave, Mummy,” she recalled her daughter saying in her autobiography. “Do not tell them anything.” 

Kathigasu didn’t tell them anything. The officers began to cut the ropes. But they took pity on the young girl and brought her down into safety.  

Kathigasu chastised Yoshimura for his actions and he beat her, kicking her face so badly that she would ultimately die from the injury to her jaw. 

Kathigasu and Abdon were brought to Batu Gajah prison, a more humane location that served three meals a day. She was tried for her crimes — which Yoshimura had told her would result in death. She was accused of being a spy for the rebels, spreading British propaganda, and of being a medic to the rebels.

Kathigasu lost the use of her legs, experiencing paralysis from a previous beating, but she was sentenced only to life imprisonment rather than death. Her husband and son were given 15 and three years respectively. 

They were freed in 1945 after Germany’s surrender, shortly before Japan’s surrender in WWII. The Malayan guerrilla rebels brought the fall of the Japanese occupation in Malaysia.

Kathigasu visited St. Joseph’s Church after the release, praying in thanksgiving though she had to crawl, not walk, down the aisle. 

She was quickly flown to London for medical treatment, where she wrote her autobiography, “No Dram of Mercy,” which was published after her death in 1954. The written statements were used in a trial against Yoshimura, who was executed by hanging for his war crimes. 

King George VI awarded Kathigasu the George Medal at Buckingham Palace for her bravery.

On June 12, 1948, at the age of 49, Kathigasu died of sepsis — blood poisoning — in her jaw. She was buried in Scotland but her body was returned to Ipoh a year later, and she was re-buried in St. Michael’s Church. Her husband died 24 years later, in December 1972.

Sybil Kathigasu’s legacy

Kathigasu has been honored in Malaysia and across the world. A road in Ipoh was named for her, and the shophouse clinic remains standing as a memorial to her. 

On June 28, 1948, she was honored in Time magazine for her bravery and medical aid. A TV series was produced about her in 2010 and on Sept. 3, 2016, she was the subject of a Google doodle, standing in front of the shophouse, surrounded by the ribbon of the George Medal. Filmmakers are currently researching and casting for a biopic about her, which is set to come out in the coming years. 

Kathigasu is also honored by Catholics. Pilgrims visit her graveside at the Church of St. Michael and the shophouse. During the 2019 Year of Mission, she was honored in Malaysia as one of five examples of witnesses to the Church’s mission. A chapter of the Malaysian catechetical series is dedicated to her; a wing in the Church of St. Joseph, Batu Gajah, Perak, is named for her. 

In a July 1 announcement, Cardinal Francis lauded Kathigasu for her “life of service in love and compassion for the sick and suffering” and noted that this year marks the 76th year since her passing. 

“We will do well to revisit her life and works to find inspiration for our times,” he continued. “I wish that efforts be made to gather, compile, study, reflect, and make available her life and work as a testimony to us. I hope to advance her cause for beatification and canonization by God’s grace.” 

The beatification process requires both verification that the candidate lived a holy life and a miracle granted through intercession to that candidate. Canonization requires a second miracle.  

“I see this as an opportunity to bring together and reflect on her life for us as people of faith,” the cardinal wrote. “I wish that we would undertake the cause of Sybil Kathigasu as an example and inspiration of Gospel living.”

“Her life example draws us to the fact that what motivated her is the faith that was instilled in her by her family, that enabled her to live a life marked by a spirituality of dependence on God’s grace and the love of Jesus that filled her with hope in her life, and her love for the suffering and needy in normal situations and circumstances of conflict,” he added.

“Her story continues to inspire many people from all walks of life in society till today,” he wrote. “She inspires people across all cultures and faiths.”

ACI Prensa Staff, Jul 4, 2024 / 09:00 am (CNA).

Cardinal Luis José Rueda Aparicio, the president of the Colombian Bishops’ Conference (CEC) and archbishop of Bogotá, opened the 117th Plenary Assembly of the conference on July 1 in Bogotá with a reflection on the role of a bishop.

The Christian, and even more so the bishop, who places his trust in the cross and resurrection of Christ can face the most adverse situations, Rueda said.

Referring to the beatitudes, the cardinal applied them to the mission of a bishop: “Blessed are the bishops who strive to live austerity,” he said, emphasizing that an austere life is “a powerful message and a great contribution to peace in Colombia,” as it is an example of the fight against corruption and greed.

The archbishop exhorted the prelates to live poverty and detachment, being “humble servants who do not live to have a good image but who, in their own conscience, know with sincerity who they are and put their hearts in the true treasure that is “Christ crucified and resurrected, alive and close to us every day.”

In his reflection, the cardinal also called on his brothers of the episcopate to encourage with their lives the mission that has been entrusted to them, being grateful “for the small step that was able to be taken” and remaining calm despite the fact that “the wolf is on the prowl.”

Be “bishops who trust in the action of the Holy Spirit and who kneel down in silence to give thanks before the tabernacle after a day of apparent failures,” he counseled.

The main item on the agenda of the plenary assembly taking place through July 5 is to elect the CEC board of directors for the 2024–2027 term.

Rueda also expressed his gratitude for the support he received during the three years that he served as president of the bishops’ conference along with Archbishop Omar Alberto Sánchez Cubillos as vice president and with Bishop Luis Manuel Alí Herrera as secretary-general.

In addition, he thanked Father Jorge Bustamante Mora, who became secretary-general after Herrera was appointed secretary of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors in March.

The CEC website said that the first day of the 117th Plenary Assembly also included a Mass celebrated by Sánchez, who in his homily “recalled the leading role of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Church and the need to invoke his presence to discern, guide, and project, in unity, the decisions that will be made” during this week.

In addition to electing the presidency of the conference, the nearly 90 prelates present will also elect others to 40 leadership positions.

The archbishop emeritus of Bogotá, Cardinal Rubén Salazar, recalled that as pastors they must put themselves at the service of the infinite love of God, discern the signs of the times, and keep in mind that the Church is a witness and instrument of salvation.

To examine the state of society in Colombia, the prelates divided the country by regions for consideration.

The CEC explained that three questions guided the discussion: “What is the most deeply rooted social problem in the region? What are the characteristics of the country you want to help build? What are the main lines of action to deal with the identified social problem?”

The closing of the plenary assembly will coincide with the opening of the 13th National Missionary Congress, which will take place from July 5–7 at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana.

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

CNA Staff, Jul 4, 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA).

The president of The Catholic University of America (CUA), Peter Kilpatrick, announced the creation of an endowed chair in honor of Cardinal Seán O’Malley, archbishop of Boston, who is also a member of CUA’s board of trustees and an alumnus.

The endowed chair, to be named the Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley Endowed Chair for Hispanic Ministry and Evangelization, will reside in the university’s School of Theology and Religious Studies.

“This endowed position is an expression of gratitude for the cardinal’s robust contributions to the university and reflects his decades of leadership in Hispanic and Latino ministry,” Kilpatrick wrote in a letter to the university community.

Highlighting O’Malley’s service to Hispanics in the Church, Kilpatrick referenced O’Malley’s service as executive director of the Centro Católico Hispano in the Archdiocese of Washington and work as episcopal vicar for the Hispanic, Portuguese, and Haitian communities in the late 1970s.

“That love and dedication to Hispanic and Latino communities has remained an extraordinary example for the Church in America,” Kilpatrick wrote.

“We are confident that this chair, once fully funded and established, will have a lasting impact on the scholastic excellence of our School of Theology and Religious Studies,” he continued. 

“We also believe it will generate greater evangelical fervor and pastoral expertise in the care of the Hispanic and Latino Catholic communities in the United States for generations to come,” he added. 

The announcement comes on the heels of O’Malley’s milestone 80th birthday on June 29. O’Malley voted in the 2013 conclave that elected Pope Francis, but his 80th birthday now marks his loss of voting power in any future conclave. 

Cardinals must be under 80 to vote in a conclave, meaning that the U.S. has lost one of its 10 cardinal-electors. 

O’Malley attended CUA as a Capuchin seminarian in the late 1960s, where he earned a master’s degree in religious education and a doctorate in Spanish and Portuguese literature. O’Malley later taught at CUA for several years and is a former chairman of the university’s board of trustees.

Often standing out with his brown habit of a Capuchin paired with the red hat of a cardinal, O’Malley was made a cardinal in 2006 by Pope Benedict XVI and has been archbishop of Boston since 2003.

Jerusalem, Jul 4, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

When he fell asleep the evening of Oct. 6, 2023, Danny Miran was happy.

“I thought: How wonderful, tomorrow is a holiday,” he told CNA sitting in the headquarters of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum in Tel Aviv. The holiday was Simchat Torah (the joy of the Torah).

“But I woke up to one of the darkest days in my life,” he said.

Miran is the father of one of the Israelis who was kidnapped on Oct. 7 and is still being held hostage in Gaza. Omri Miran, 46 years old at the time of his kidnapping (he turned 47 in captivity), was living in the kibbutz Nahal Oz, a few kilometers far away from Gaza, with his wife, Lishay, and their two daughters, ages 6 months and 2 years old. He is a gardener, like his father, and a shiatsu therapist.

“I turned on the TV and saw that there was an alarm in the Gaza envelope. I called my son and he told me to not be excited, that it happens from time to time and it would pass.”

When the news got worse, Miran called his son again, who this time was worried. He was in the shelter with his wife and two daughters, holding a kitchen knife, the only “weapon” available in his house.

“We were texting each other until he stopped answering. And that was around 11 am. At that moment I felt I didn’t have a son anymore; I didn’t have a daughter-in-law and grandkids anymore. I was sure they [were] gone, they’re killed.”

For Danny Miran it was like lightning on a clear day: “Nobody prepares you for such a thing. I started to cry with no control on my tears. This is how I basically stayed. I was alone at home, with myself.”

That evening, Miran discovered that everyone was alive: His daughter-in-law and granddaughters were evacuated near Beer Sheva, in the center of the country, while his son was taken hostage and brought to Gaza.

A few days after Oct. 7, Miran, 79, left his home in northern Israel and joined the Hostages Families Forum. He now lives in a hotel, and his life’s purpose has become bringing his son and the other hostages (there are still 120) home and keeping the issue central in the public discourse.

For this reason, Miran is willing to participate in all advocacy activities, both domestically and abroad. He has traveled to many countries and has spoken to politicians, diplomats, and religious leaders.

On April 8, Miran was part of the delegation who met Pope Francis at the Vatican, and on June 13, in Jerusalem, he shared his testimony with Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, and a group of 160 Catholic pilgrims.

“I felt the entire community was visiting and talking to me and how they resonated with what I was going through. I felt supported; they came with love, with great love,” he said.

Miran, who defines himself as a believer — “I’m not practicing Judaism fully like a religious practicing person, but I’m a believer” — was deeply moved by his meeting with Pope Francis.

“I was looking at him, into his eyes, and it was like looking into my father’s eyes. They were full of mercy and I saw that he cared.”

Miran also shared with CNA the words that the pope personally said to him: “He said, ‘This is like a Shoah,’” the Jewish Holocaust. 

Miran asked the pope to share what he told him with the entire Christian world. In fact, he is convinced that “the message would be so influential and different when it comes from him” and the pope “has the potential to counter antisemitism that also comes from within the Christian world.”

“As a Jew, as a believer,” Miran shared, “I also believe that wherever I will go within the three monotheistic beliefs — Judaism, Christianity, Islam — if I’m invited to pray, I will join because it’s the same God.” But, he added, “what happened on Oct. 7 was against anything in the beliefs of the three Abrahamic beliefs.”

Miran also shared a hope: “After World War II, European people realized that wars would not lead them anywhere. Therefore, they decided to pursue peace and prosperity by opening borders, and that was the way to move forward. I pray in my heart that the day will come when the same thing will happen in our region: to open our hearts, to open our borders, and to live in peace among ourselves.”

On the fourth floor of a building in Tel Aviv, where the Hostages and Missing Families Forum has established its headquarters, people share their struggles and work but also food and friendship. This is what gives Miran the strength to continue fighting for his son.

“Jews from all around the world showed their support and empathy in an active way. Thanks to their donations we were able to establish an NGO [nongovernmental organization], rent several floors in this building, and provide food. We also have a permanent presence [at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art] with installations donated by various artists. What could be stronger than that?”

Every week, Miran visits his daughter-in-law, for whom he has words of great affection and admiration, along with his two granddaughters.

“The last time Omri saw the youngest, she was 6 months old. He never saw her crawl, take her first steps, he never saw her teeth grow, or heard her say her first words. His daughter calls a picture ‘dad.’ And his older daughter asked her mom if her dad is still her dad.”

“Day by day, the absence of him just grows. I miss him more and more,” Miran said. “I don’t know what kind of life he has... I assume he doesn’t even have any means to shave, so I decided not to shave and wait for the day he will return so we can shave our beards together.”

CNA Staff, Jul 4, 2024 / 04:30 am (CNA).

Charles Carroll of Carrollton was a man of superlatives. 

Out of all the signers of the Declaration of Independence, Carroll was the wealthiest. He was also the longest-lived of all the signers, surviving to the ripe old age of 95. 

But perhaps most notably, Charles Carroll was the only signer of the Declaration who was Catholic — in a time and place when Catholics faced serious prejudice and marginalization. 

“It was really Carroll who broke through that glass ceiling and became the first prominent Catholic politician in American history,” Scott McDermott, an assistant professor of history at Albany State University in Georgia, told CNA in 2019.

Carroll was born on Sept. 19, 1737, as the only son of Charles Carroll of Annapolis and Elizabeth Brooke. The young Carroll spent more than a decade and a half of his formative years in Europe, studying at prestigious Jesuit schools. He inherited a massive estate upon his return and he and his wife, Molly, married in 1768, stayed busy supporting and hosting figures such as George Washington at their home throughout the Revolutionary War.

McDermott, author of “Charles Carroll of Carrollton: Faithful Revolutionary,” noted that Catholics “really were a very oppressed minority group” in the original 13 colonies.

“In the early days of the American colonies, Catholics faced some pretty serious persecution, including not being able to vote, not being able to hold public office, not being able to worship publicly,” he said.

The colony, and eventually state, of Maryland had been founded in 1688 by Lord Baltimore, a Catholic, originally as a haven for Catholics arriving in North America. But later on, Protestants largely took over the government and Catholics were not permitted to worship openly. Carroll emerged as an outspoken proponent of religious freedom, and his ideas shaped the founding of the United States. 

“Wealthy Catholics, like the Carrolls, were very important for the Catholic community because they were able to sponsor Masses in their homes. They had chaplains who were trying to keep the Catholic faith alive in America, but it was very difficult,” McDermott said. 

Although the Carroll family was wealthy, the prejudice they faced made life difficult in many ways. Catholics were seen by the Protestant majority as a danger to the state, and thus many colonies passed laws restricting their freedoms.

According to an online biography of Carroll, the educated Charles gained public acclaim after he wrote published letters embracing the principle that the people are the true foundation of government. He was appointed to an Annapolis committee and later was elected to the Second Maryland Convention in 1774, his first elected office and an effective shattering of the ban on Catholics serving in Maryland politics. 

He was elected as a Maryland representative two years later and in that role joined the other delegates in signing the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia on Aug. 2, 1776.

Many members of the Carroll family became active in the political sphere of the 13 colonies, with Charles’ cousin Daniel Carroll helping to frame the Constitution. Another of Charles’ cousins, John Carroll, became the very first archbishop in the colonies when he became shepherd of the Diocese of Baltimore.

After signing the Declaration, Charles himself held a number of diverse political positions within the newly formed country. In 1789, he became one of Maryland’s first two U.S. Senators before retiring from politics in 1800. He died in 1832. 

“It was really the character and the personality of Carroll and his intellect — which was formed in the great Catholic tradition of political thought by the Jesuits — who was able, just at the right moment in the 1770s, to step forward and to make himself really indispensable to the revolutionary movement,” McDermott said. 

“This was something that surprised the other Founding Fathers, who couldn’t conceive of a Roman Catholic who was also a patriotic American.”

In 1822, a mission church, St. Mary’s, was erected and built on the Carroll property in Annapolis. St. Mary’s later became a parish in the 1850s when it was given to the Redemptorist order, which still runs the parish today. 

McDermott says Charles Carroll’s brand of patriotic Catholicism is one that we can learn from today.

“It’s easy for us, as Catholics, to get discouraged, and we may be tempted to just give up, to withdraw from public life,” McDermott said. 

“But again, with Carroll, we’re looking at someone who was under severe legal and personal disabilities, who didn’t give up, who persevered, and ultimately triumphed, and who made this country a better place, not just for Catholics, but for everyone.”

CNA Staff, Jul 4, 2024 / 04:00 am (CNA).

Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, born on April 6, 1901, to a prominent and wealthy Italian family, became a popular role model soon after he died on July 4, 1925, at the age of 24. He could be declared a saint during the Catholic Church’s 2025 Jubilee Year, according to the head of the Vatican’s office for saints’ causes.

According to the website dedicated to him by the U.S. Catholic bishops, for years Frassati has been “a significant global patron for youth and young adults — and has a special place in the hearts of young people across the United States as well. St. John Paul II declared him a patron for World Youth Days and deemed him ‘the man of the beatitudes’ as he exemplified those blessings in his everyday life.”

Here are 12 amazing facts about his short but very intense life:

1. Despite being raised by agnostic parents, Frassati’s inclinations to help others manifested in his childhood. Once, as a child, he answered the door to find a mother begging with her son who was shoeless. He took off his own shoes and gave them to the child.

2. At an early age, he joined the Marian Sodality and the Apostleship of Prayer and obtained permission to receive daily Communion, which was rare at the time.

3. At the same time, he was known among his friends as “Il Terrore” (“The Terror”) due to his fondness for practical jokes.

4. At 17, he joined the St. Vincent de Paul Society and dedicated much of his spare time taking care of the poor, the homeless, the sick, and the demobilized servicemen returning from World War I.

5. In 1919, Frassati joined the Catholic Student Foundation and the Popular Party, whose principles were based in the social doctrine of the Church. He strongly opposed the rise of fascist leader Benito Mussolini and was jailed in Rome after joining the protest of the Catholic Workers’ Association.

6. He became notable for giving literally everything he had to the poor. He would even use his bus fare for charity and then run home to be on time for meals.

7. An avid and accomplished mountain-climber, he saw many parallels between Catholic life and his favorite pastime. He would regularly organize trips into the mountains with occasions for prayers and conversations about faith on the way up or down from the summit.

8. After what would become his final climb he wrote a simple note on a photograph: “Verso L’Alto” (“To the heights”) — a phrase that has become a popular Catholic motto.

9. At 24, Frassati became very ill with polio. Some of his friends believed that he contracted the disease from the people in the slums of Turin. In his last days, he whispered the names of people who still needed assistance to his family and friends who gathered at his bedside. He died on July 4, 1925.

10. Pier Giorgio Frassati was declared “Blessed” in 1990 by Pope John Paul II, who called him a “man of the beatitudes” and a “joyful apostle of Christ.” A year before, after visiting his tomb, John Paul II revealed that he also had felt in his own youth “the beneficial influence of his example.”

“He left the world rather young,” he said, “but he made a mark upon our entire century.”

11. In her biography of her brother, Frassati’s sister, Luciana, wrote that “he represented the finest in Christian youth: pure, happy, enthusiastic about everything that is good and beautiful.”

12. Pier Giorgio Frassati’s popularity is big among young people, especially in America. Many apostolates have been created with his name, and he is regarded as the patron of students (mainly because he wasn’t good at school), young Catholics, mountaineers, youth groups, Catholic Action, Dominican tertiaries (he became one), and World Youth Day.

This article was first published on July 4, 2021, and has been updated.

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 3, 2024 / 19:19 pm (CNA).

Pro-life activist Paul Vaughn, who was convicted on federal charges for his role in a protest at a Tennessee abortion clinic, has been sentenced to three years of supervised release — but he did not receive prison time or any fines.

The July 2 sentencing stemmed from Vaughn’s conviction of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which imposes penalties for obstructing access to services provided at abortion clinics or pregnancy centers. He was convicted of conspiracy to prevent clinic employees from providing, and patients from receiving, reproductive health services, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. 

Prosecutors unsuccessfully sought a one-year prison sentence for Vaughn for a demonstration at an abortion clinic in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, on March 5, 2021. In a statement issued through his attorneys at the Thomas More Society, Vaughn said he planned to appeal the conviction and accused the Department of Justice of misusing the FACE Act to convict pro-life activists. 

“We must stand and fight for what is right; we cannot bow down to the lie,” Vaughn said. “Laws have to be grounded in truth, they have to align with the ultimate lawgiver, who is Christ Our Lord. The false narratives plaguing our nation will fall when we stand up to them. That is what this case is about and I’m ever thankful to have a legal team who understands that truth and who is willing to fight for it all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary.”

Steve Crampton, who serves as senior counsel at the Thomas More Society and as Vaughn’s attorney, said he is “pleased the judge has shown leniency” to his client but accused President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice of weaponizing the FACE Act “against its ideological opponents.” 

“The weaponized and evidence-free charges brought here by the Biden Department of Justice against peaceful pro-lifers should have never been filed,” Crampton said. “The event for which the Biden Department of Justice targeted Paul and his fellow pro-lifers was a peaceful demonstration by entirely peaceable citizens — filled with prayer, hymn-singing, and worship — and oriented toward persuading expecting mothers not to abort their babies.”

Vaughn was one of 11 pro-life activists convicted of FACE Act violations for the demonstration at the Mt. Juliet abortion clinic. One of the activists, Caroline Davis, took a plea deal and testified against her fellow activists — she received three years of probation. The other activists, who did not take plea deals, could face up to 10 and a half years in prison.

Under the Biden administration, pro-life activists were also charged with FACE Act violations for a protest at an abortion clinic in Washington, D.C., in October 2022. The longest sentence was given to Lauren Handy, who received more than four and a half years in prison. Several other activists received more than one year in prison.

Less than two weeks ago, former President Donald Trump — the presumptive Republican nominee for the 2024 U.S. presidential election — criticized the prosecution of pro-life activists and said if he is elected again, he will “get them out of the gulags and back to their families where they belong.”

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 3, 2024 / 17:38 pm (CNA).

A third judge has temporarily halted the U.S. Department of Education from enforcing a regulation that would broadly prohibit discrimination based on a person’s self-asserted “gender identity.”

United States District Court Judge John W. Broomes issued a ruling that blocks enforcement of the regulation in every school and college in Kansas, Alaska, Utah, and Wyoming. The ruling also prevents the government from enforcing the regulation in every school and college that is attended by members of Female Athletes United and Young America’s Foundation, along with schools attended by children whose parents are members of Moms for Liberty — which are all listed as plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

The U.S. Department of Education had already been blocked from enforcing the regulation in 10 other states based on two separate rulings: Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Republican attorneys general in 12 other states have also filed lawsuits seeking to block the department from enforcing the rules in their states.

The Biden administration regulation, which is set to go into effect on Aug. 1, would reinterpret Title IX’s prohibition on sex discrimination to include a new prohibition on discriminating against a person’s “gender identity.” The rule would prohibit education institutions that receive federal funds from enforcing any policy or practice that “prevents a person from participating in an education program or activity consistent with their gender identity,” even when the self-purported gender identity is different from the person’s biological sex.

Although the regulation itself does not specify how the rule would be enforced in practice, the attorneys general who sued the Department of Education have said the rules would force schools and colleges to allow biological men who identify as women to access sports competitions, locker rooms, bathrooms, and dormitories that are exclusive to women — even when states have enacted laws to prevent this. 

“The Biden administration’s radical redefinition of sex won’t just rewire our educational system,” Rachel Rouleau, who serves as legal counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom — the group that is representing Female Athletes United — said in a statement. 

“[The regulation] means girls will be forced to undress in locker rooms and share hotel rooms with boys on overnight school trips, teachers and students will have to refrain from speaking truthfully about biological sex, and girls will lose their right to fair competition in sports,” Rouleau said. “The court was right to halt the administration’s illegal efforts to rewrite Title IX while this critical lawsuit continues.”

When Congress first added Title IX’s sex discrimination provisions into federal law in the 1970s, the goal was to give girls and women equal access in education. The law prohibits sex-based discrimination but makes no mention of gender identity.

In his ruling, Broomes found no justification for the Department of Education interpreting Title IX’s sex discrimination provisions to include a prohibition on “gender identity” discrimination. Rather, he ruled that “the court finds that the unambiguous plain language of the statutory provisions and the legislative history make clear that the term ‘sex’ means the traditional concept of biological sex in which there are only two sexes, male and female.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Education told CNA that “we are reviewing this recent ruling that impacted an additional four states” and defended its Title IX interpretation.

“The department crafted the final Title IX regulations following a rigorous process to realize the nondiscrimination mandate of Title IX,” the spokesperson said. “The department stands by the final Title IX regulations released in April 2024, and we will continue to fight for every student. While the appeals of previous rulings are pending, we have asked the trial courts to allow the unchallenged provisions — the bulk of the final rule — to take effect in these states as scheduled, on Aug. 1.”

The rulings only temporarily halt the Department of Education’s enforcement of the regulation and only prevent enforcement against the individuals and entities who filed the lawsuits — including the entirety of states whose attorneys general filed lawsuits. The temporary pause puts the regulation on hold until the courts make a final decision on the legality of the Biden administration’s interpretation of Title IX.