Ss. Cyril and Methodius Ukrainian Catholic Church

The Amerigo Vespucci Italian naval ship. / Credit: Superchilum, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

CNA Staff, Jan 13, 2025 / 17:15 pm (CNA).

The Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian naval ship named after the 15th-century explorer that inspired the name “America,” has been designated a 2025 Jubilee church.

Archbishop Santo Marcianò of the Military Ordinariate of Italy officially designated the ship as a jubilee church for 2025, according to a Jan. 9 statement from the ship’s press office.

He explained that the ship’s chaplain, Don Mauro Medaglini, “will have the task of accompanying the sailors in this precious time of the jubilee. During its long navigation, the Vespucci has always had the presence of several chaplains who have alternated, silently but very effectively, accompanying the spiritual life of the crew, and they will do so in a particular way in this year of the Jubilee of Hope.”

The ship, which dates back to 1931, has been touring the world as a cultural ambassador for Italy since July 2023. During its journey, the Amerigo Vespucci has stopped in places including Los Angeles; Tokyo; Mumbai, India; Doha, Qatar; and Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, among others. 

Despite not having a designated chapel onboard, the ship’s chaplain is able to celebrate Mass on the quarterdeck, a structure raised above the deck, when weather permits, or in an atrium inside.

The statement said that the Amerigo Vespucci will be a jubilee site “for sacred pilgrimages and for pious visits among its missions at sea.”

“The church that lives among the military also wants to establish signs during the jubilee year that express that hope that the church and the world await from God, and which God entrusts to the military world,” Marcianò said on the designation. “These certainly include the sacred jubilee sites, through which our military can attain the spiritual benefits originating from the jubilee indulgence.”

One way Catholics can obtain a plenary indulgence during the jubilee year is by making a pilgrimage to their cathedral or to another church or shrine selected by the local bishop. Other ways include making a pilgrimage to Rome, praying in certain churches in Rome, performing works of mercy, fasting from social media, and volunteering.

Devout Catholic and pro-life advocate Congressman Chris Smith will be honored at the 2025 National Catholic Prayer Breakfast held in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 28. / Credit: Photo courtesy of the office of Rep. Chris Smith

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 13, 2025 / 15:20 pm (CNA).

Devout Catholic and pro-life advocate Congressman Chris Smith will be honored at this year’s National Catholic Prayer Breakfast held in Washington, D.C.

The New Jersey representative will receive the organization’s annual Christifideles Laici Award at the 20th National Catholic Prayer Breakfast on Feb. 28. Previous recipients of the award include religious freedom advocate Jimmy Lai; legal scholar Helen M. Alvaré; attorney and policy expert Mary Rice Hasson; and former U.S. Attorney General William Barr.

The Christifideles Laici Award was founded in 2019 by the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast to highlight the “good works” of those in service of the Church, according to the organization’s website. The award itself is an original work commissioned by the organization from the classical artist Isaac Dell and is inscribed with the words “In Honor and Gratitude for Fidelity to the Church, Exemplary Selfless and Steadfast Service in the Lord’s Vinyard.”

Smith is currently in his 22nd term in the U.S. House of Representatives for New Jersey’s 4th Congressional District, serves on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, and has been a tireless defender of those suffering from religious persecution and human trafficking.

A staunch advocate of the pro-life cause, Smith is among the confirmed speakers at the March for Life this year along with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Live Action Founder Lila Rose.

Late last year, Smith told CNA in an interview following a Mass celebrated in the U.S. Capitol that he and his wife, Marie, share a particular devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe and that his office “places all of our pro-life and human rights work under her mantle.” 

“I do a lot on the human rights issue,” he said at the time, “and every bit of it, we turn to her and pray, you know, and ask her for guidance.” 

Smith told CNA he has a life-sized replica of the tilma of Our Lady of Guadalupe hanging in his office. “I’m amazed at how many people I meet — because I meet with diplomats all the time because of my human rights work and my committee assignments — they always take note of [the tilma].”

“I find there’s such devotion, particularly with the Latin Americans who come in — they look at [the tilma] and it’s instant,” he said. “And so this is, of course, a celebration of her, [and] the whole story of Juan Diego, and the whole story of, you know, 8 to 9 million people converting from human sacrifice and worshipping gods is such an amazing story of conversion and repair of souls.”

The New York State Capitol in Albany, New York. / Credit: Beyond My Ken, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

CNA Staff, Jan 13, 2025 / 14:50 pm (CNA).

New York’s Catholic bishops are supporting a proposal from Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul to increase the state’s child tax credit — an effort to address New York’s stubbornly high child poverty rate, which has exceeded the national average for over a decade.

In an announcement last week, Hochul proposed an annual tax credit of up to $1,000 per child under age 4 and up to $500 per child from 4 through 16, roughly doubling the average credit disbursed by the state to families from $472 to $943. The existing state credit provides up to $330 per child.

Kristen Curran, director of government relations for the New York State Catholic Conference, expressed support on behalf of the state’s Catholic bishops for the proposal, saying it would provide “important relief” to an estimated 1.6 million families.

“For more than 20 years, the New York State Catholic Conference has championed the issue of child tax credits. This initiative is a powerful way to walk with moms in need, support working families, and help lift children out of poverty,” Curran said in a Jan. 7 statement.

“Working class families will be better positioned to navigate the cost-of-living crisis and provide for their children. It is critical that the child tax credit apply to babies, starting at birth. We are glad to see that coverage as part of this proposal.”

In 2022, the latest year figures are available, the child poverty rate in New York was nearly 19% — a figure that exceeds the national average and has since 2011. The figure is also at least six percentage points higher than any state it borders and ranks New York in the top 10 nationwide for child poverty, according to the state comptroller. 

Curran urged lawmakers to pass the increased child tax credit, framing it as a vital step toward strengthening the community and state.

“Now more than ever, it is imperative that we address the affordability crisis to help parents as they raise their children. We urge all lawmakers to support this initiative,” she concluded.

“When we join together to lift up the most vulnerable, we are strengthened as a community and as a state. The governor can count on the strong support of the New York State Catholic Conference for this pro-family proposal.”

At the federal level, the current child tax credit allows parents and guardians to claim their dependent children on their tax forms, granting a tax break of up to $2,000. Up to $1,600 of that credit may be “refundable,” meaning taxpayers can receive cash payments for the credit.

A bipartisan effort to increase the tax credit from the current refundable amount of $1,600 to $2,000 per child in 2025 failed to pass the Senate in August. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has been a staunch advocate for the bill’s passage, sending a message ahead of the vote encouraging the faithful to urge senators to vote in favor of the measure.

The 2021 American Rescue Plan briefly expanded the credit to $3,600 and made it fully refundable; that law also allowed parents to claim half of the refundable sum in advance monthly payments. Those new rules expired after that year.

The Dominican House of Studies has a bell in its Washington, D.C., priory for the first time in 120 years. / Credit: Photo courtesy of the Dominican House of Studies

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 13, 2025 / 14:20 pm (CNA).

The Priory of the Immaculate Conception at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C., celebrated an exciting new addition this past weekend.

One hundred and 20 years after its founding in 1905, the Dominican House of Studies finally has a bell for its tower.

The friars celebrated the blessing of their new bell on Sunday morning in the Academic Courtyard of the priory. A Mass for the Baptism of the Lord followed the blessing, according to the priory’s website.

The roughly 980-pound bell was cast in 1929 in Watervliet, New York, by the Meneely Bell Foundry, according to Father Gregory Schnakenberg, OP, and is set to be installed in the coming weeks.

“Whether friars thought it unnecessary (we do live across the street from one of the most beautiful bell carillons in America) or we simply lacked the resources, today we dedicated our new bell,” Father Patrick Mary Briscoe, OP, wrote in a post on Instagram. 

Briscoe also revealed in the post that the new bell has been named after St. Gabriel and is inscribed with the words “I sing to the honor of St. Gabriel the Archangel, who announced the Word of God to the Immaculate Virgin Mary.”

“During the blessing ceremony, Father Gregory pointed out that we need the bell today more than ever, to call us out of our distractions and summon us to prayer and contemplation,” Briscoe recalled, adding: “I couldn’t agree more! Bells are evangelizers, calling us all to the joy and hope that the Gospel alone brings.”

The Dominican House of Studies’ next major project will be the restoration of its St. Catherine of Siena and St. Rose of Lima altars, which are both located in the main chapel. 

Knights of Columbus process with the new Knights of Columbus Sacred Heart Pilgrim Icon during a Mass and Sacred Heart Holy Hour at St. Mary Church in New Haven, Connecticut, Jan. 3, 2025. / Credit: Paul Haring

CNA Staff, Jan 13, 2025 / 12:20 pm (CNA).

For more than 45 years, the Knights of Columbus Pilgrim Icon Program has brought sacred images to Catholic parishes around the world for prayer and devotion. On Jan. 3, the Knights launched a new Pilgrim Icon of the Sacred Heart of Jesus program during a Holy Hour at St. Mary Church in New Haven, Connecticut.

During the Holy Hour, an icon depicting the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus painted by Pompeo Batoni in 1767 was displayed. This reproduction of the original image is one of more than 300 icons, each bearing the apostolic blessing of Pope Francis, that are now traveling around the world as part of the Knights’ Pilgrim Icon Program.

The original image is currently venerated in the Church of the Gesú in Rome.

The prayer service to launch the new icon included readings from Scripture and reflections from Pope Francis on the Sacred Heart as well as the Divine Mercy Chaplet, prayers to the Sacred Heart, and time for prayer and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.

The launch of the new icon program coincides with the release of Pope Francis’ fourth encyclical, Delixit Nos, which is devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

“In many ways, Dilexit Nos can serve as a mission statement for the Knights of Columbus in today’s world,” said Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly in a press release. “The pope observes that we live in a fragmented and divided society, but the heart of Christ is a unifying center. It is the source of truth and goodness that we all need.”

Kelly met with Pope Francis in a private audience on Dec. 20, 2024. During their meeting, Kelly presented the Holy Father with an icon and booklet for the Sacred Heart Holy Hour and shared updates on notable activities of the Knights of Columbus in the past year. 

Both the Knights’ new Pilgrim Icon Program and the Holy Father’s encyclical coincide with the Catholic Church’s commemoration of the 350th anniversary of the visions of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, the French nun who received the 12 promises of the Sacred Heart and the First Friday devotions. 

Founder of the Knights of Columbus Blessed Michael McGivney had a deep devotion to the Sacred Heart. The McGivney family had a devotional plaque of the Sacred Heart in their home that is still in the Knights’ possession. Additionally, it was discovered that McGivney was buried with a cloth image of the Sacred Heart when his body was exhumed in 1981.

The Knights’ Pilgrim Icon Program has allowed more than 23 million people to honor Our Lord, Our Lady, and the saints through 191,000 prayer services featuring icons including Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Holy Family, and St. Joseph. The Sacred Heart of Jesus icon is the 20th icon venerated through the program since 1979.

Kelly has called upon the Knights to “bring reproductions of this beloved image to parishes around the world and invite their families — and all families — to consecrate their homes and themselves to the Sacred Heart.”

The beatification cause of Sister Clare Crockett, an inspirational young Irish religious sister who died in 2016, formally opened Jan. 12, 2025, with a ceremony at the Cathedral of Alcalá de Henares in Madrid, Spain. / Credit: Courtesy of Servants of the Home of the Mother

Vatican City, Jan 13, 2025 / 11:50 am (CNA).

The beatification cause of Sister Clare Crockett, an inspirational young Irish religious sister who died in 2016, formally opened Sunday with a ceremony at the Cathedral of Alcalá de Henares in Madrid, Spain.

The ceremony marked the beginning of the diocesan phase of the process, in which an elected tribunal will investigate her life, virtues, and reputation for holiness. 

Crockett, who died in a 2016 earthquake in Ecuador at the age of 33, is now titled “servant of God,” the first step in the Catholic Church’s path to sainthood.

More than 100 people traveled from her hometown of Derry, Northern Ireland, to attend the event, including Bishop Donal McKeown. South American Cardinal Fernando Chomalí Garib, the archbishop of Santiago de Chile, also attended.

In Derry, approximately 500 people gathered at a movie theater to watch the ceremony broadcast live.

“The people of Derry are so proud of her,” McKeown told The Irish News. Crockett’s story “is a very striking example of someone who had a conversion experience and dedicated their life to Jesus.”

Crockett was born on Nov. 14, 1982, in Derry. As a charismatic and fun-loving teenager, she had a gift for acting and was contracted to present a television show on Channel 4 in the U.K., attracting interest from Nickelodeon. Already in her early teens she was frequently partying, drinking, and smoking.

But her life changed when she attended a Holy Week retreat in Spain at the age of 17 with the Servant Sisters of the Home of the Mother, a community founded in 1982 with a focus on the Eucharist, Marian spirituality, and outreach to youth.

She recalled later in her personal testimony that when she arrived in Spain she was “very superficial and a wild child.” But that began to change when she took part in the Good Friday adoration of the cross, kissing the feet of Jesus. 

“I do not know how to explain exactly what happened. I did not see the choirs of angels or a white dove come down from the ceiling and descend on me, but I had the certainty that the Lord was on the cross, for me,” she remembered. 

“And along with that conviction, I felt a great sorrow … and prayed the Stations of the Cross. When I returned to my pew, I already had imprinted in me something that was not there before. I had to do something for him who had given his life for me.”

It was the start of a long journey of conversion and healing that led to her joining the Servant Sisters of the Home of the Mother.

Despite initial struggles to leave behind a life of “superficiality and sin,” she entered religious life in 2001 in Spain, making her first vows in 2006 and her final vows in 2010. 

Known for her infectious joy and dedication to others, she served in Spain, the United States, and Ecuador.

Sister Clare died on April 16, 2016, when a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck the school in Playa Prieta, Ecuador, where she was teaching music. Five postulants also lost their lives in the collapse.

A documentary about her life, “All or Nothing: Sister Clare Crockett,” has amassed over 4 million views on YouTube in Spanish and English, and her story continues to inspire vocations and deepen faith worldwide. 

In the years since her death, stories of graces and miracles attributed to Crockett have poured in from around the world, according to Sister Kristen Gardner, the postulator of her cause. 

“Desperate souls on the verge of suicide have regained hope, university students lost in vice have found strength to return to the Lord,” Gardner said during the ceremony on Jan. 12.

“There is a very characteristic common note in the messages received,” she said, “and that is that many describe Sister Clare as their friend, even without having met her, she is their friend.”

Her family, present at the ceremony, expressed pride and gratitude for the recognition of Sister Clare’s life. 

“Never in a million years did we think she was going to be a nun, never mind make her way to sainthood,” Shauna Gill, Crockett’s sister, told BBC News in Northern Ireland.

More than 13,000 people had watched the livestream of the ceremony on YouTube within 24 hours of the event.  

The opening of the beatification process is the first step in what could be a long journey toward sainthood. Bishop Antonio Prieto Lucena of Alcalá de Henares, who presided over Sunday’s ceremony, noted that the process will examine Crockett’s heroic virtues and any graces or favors attributed to her intercession. 

According to Gardner, the sisters have received “messages and mail from more than 50 countries” with testimonies of how Crockett’s story has inspired, including from young people who have decided to embrace religious life after learning more about her life. 

“Countless seminarians and religious have said that Sister Clare has saved their vocation, just when they were thinking that they had no other option but to turn their backs on God,” Gardner said.

The postulator added that Crockett’s overflowing joy and coherence of life has led many souls “to discover that true happiness is found only in God.”

The opening of her cause “is not motivated by human reasons but by the desire to give glory to God, which is manifested in the testimony of dedication to Christ that shines in the lives of his servants,” she said.

Pope Francis meets with U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday, June 14, 2024, after a session at the G7 summit, which is being held June 13–15 in the southern Italian region of Puglia. / Credit: Vatican Media

CNA Staff, Jan 11, 2025 / 19:45 pm (CNA).

U.S. President Joe Biden spoke with Pope Francis on Saturday and named him a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom with distinction, the White House said in a statement.

As the nation’s highest honor, the medal is “presented to individuals who have made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant societal, public, or private endeavors,” the statement said.

This is the first time Biden has awarded the medal “with distinction,” according to the statement.

“The first pope from the Southern Hemisphere, Pope Francis is unlike any who came before,” the statement continued. “Above all, he is the People’s Pope — a light of faith, hope, and love that shines brightly across the world.”

“For decades, [Jorge Bergoglio] served the voiceless and vulnerable across Argentina,” the White House statement said. “As Pope Francis, his mission of serving the poor has never ceased. A loving pastor, he joyfully answers children’s questions about God. A challenging teacher, he commands us to fight for peace and protect the planet. A welcoming leader, he reaches out to different faiths.”

Earlier this week, Biden canceled his planned trip to Rome and a visit with Pope Francis in order to address the ongoing deadly wildfires in California. Biden was set to travel to Rome from Jan. 9–12 at Pope Francis’ invitation. His audience with the Holy Father was set for Jan. 10.

The president’s meeting with the pope was set to focus on efforts to advance peace around the world. Biden was also scheduled to meet with Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

Biden last met with Pope Francis in June of last year where the two discussed foreign policy in Israel, Gaza, and the Ukraine as well as climate change.

During a private audience at the G7 Summit in Apulia, Italy, the two leaders “emphasized the urgent need for an immediate ceasefire and a hostage deal” in Gaza and the need to “address the critical humanitarian crisis,” according to the White House.

CNA senior editor Daniel Payne contributed to this report.

From left to right: Ivan, Olga, Julia, and Violetta Petrosyan. / Credit: Photo courtesy of the Petrosyan family

CNA Staff, Jan 11, 2025 / 10:00 am (CNA).

A new movie telling the true story of an Armenian family who was forced to flee their home country of Azerbaijan amid political turmoil will be in theaters Jan. 26–28.

The Petrosyans — made up of husband and wife Ivan and Violetta and their two daughters Olga and Julia — inspired the new film “Between Borders,” which depicts the real-life events the family endured while fleeing their home in Baku, Azerbaijan, during the anti-Armenian massacre that took place in the late 1980s.

Experiencing discrimination in their home country and then in Russia, the country to which they fled, the Petrosyans eventually found hope in a church established by American missionaries. There they came to the faith and were helped to seek refuge in the United States.

CNA spoke to Violetta and Olga Petrosyan about their experience fleeing persecution and how they came to find refuge in Christ along the way.

Olga, who was only 4 years old when the violence broke out, said watching their story depicted in a movie has been “healing.”

“Growing up, when you end up going through all of those tribulations, you don’t know that there is a life not lived like this,” she explained. “You think that this is how everyone probably lived their life, but the older you get and the more normal your life becomes away from all the hardships, you understand how much you’ve gone through in your childhood and teenage years that affected you in many different traumatic ways.” 

She pointed out that by watching their story now in a movie format with others who are “processing your story with you” it feels as though “you are seen and known and you are affirmed in some of those situations where you felt it wasn’t as bad — no, it was as bad because you can hear other people processing it out loud so it becomes healing.”

Violetta added that it was “a mix of emotions” watching their story on the big screen.

“It was so intense, so many emotions, bringing back memories — at the same time, in awe and wonder that God actually made it happen,” she said.

She explained that there are moments from your past “that you want to forget but you also don’t want to forget because there’s some aspect in life that still shows you how God brought you through, even at the moments when we didn’t know him. So, that’s how important it is that you understand that his hand was always protecting our family.”

While in Volgograd, Russia, after fleeing Azerbaijan, the family began to attend a church established by American missionaries and it was there that Violetta experienced a conversion.

She shared that she was taught by her grandmother at a young age to always make the sign of the cross and say the Lord’s Prayer before bed but her grandmother never spoke about God.

As she became an adult, Violetta became a member of the Communist Party and even led a Communist Party organization at the school she taught at.

“We were raised in the Communist era and we learned that there is no God, that God is evil. I would protect children from going to church because I said that it doesn’t exist,” she shared. “I still don’t know how I was saying that.”

“When God came into our life in Volgograd through the missionaries that was the immediate click and I realized that I’ve always known that God existed but I pushed him away from me and then it actually happened — my conversion happened on the 6th of October, on my physical birthday.”

Olga added: “I saw my family before Christ and then I saw my family after Christ and the difference that it makes to be united in Christ in the midst of hopelessness, around the circumstances, makes everything different. We still had the same tribulations after we came to Jesus, but we had this center, which was Christ binding us all together, that we knew that no matter what, we can do this with Christ who gives us strength.”

“It was Jesus that made the whole difference for me,” Olga said. “The world can give us temporary labels and I think we all carry some sort of labels that were given to us by people of this world. And I’ve carried those labels as a ‘foreigner,’ ‘unwanted,’ ‘refugee,’ ‘dirty,’ but I got one label from the Lord and that’s the one that will stick with me through eternity and that’s ‘child of God.’” 

Olga hopes that “Between Borders” will help shed light not on the political conflict but on what hatred does to people.

“It’s not ‘Oh, look at what Azeris have done.’ I think for me it’s important, at least, that it’s more ‘Look what evil that is fostered, or hatred that is fostered, between two nationalities can do, what it can lead to,” she explained. “But at the same time, look what God can do despite and through that … There’s always hatred between two … and it’s fostered and it bursts more hatred and it bursts destruction and tragedy, but look what God can do.”

Violetta added that she hopes viewers will see that “there is always forgiveness.”

“No matter how hard the events were in that conflict … no matter how severe it is, love and forgiveness always conquer.”

Check theater listings near you for showtimes.

CNA's video interview with Violetta and Olga Petrosyan can be watched below.

Immigrants at Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley humanitarian respite center in McAllen, Texas. / Credit: Vic Hinterlang/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 10, 2025 / 17:20 pm (CNA).

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) issued guidelines for immigration reform that encourage lawmakers to safeguard communities in a “targeted, proportional, and humane” manner.

With President-elect Donald Trump taking office on Jan. 20, bishops have grown increasingly vocal about immigration policy. The incoming president has expressed his intent to implement mass deportations of immigrants who are in the country illegally — a position that many bishops are voicing concerns about.

The guidance issued this month, just weeks before Trump takes office, states that “safeguarding American communities and upholding the rule of law are laudable goals” but adds that “a country’s rights to regulate its borders and enforce its immigration laws must be balanced with its responsibilities to uphold the sanctity of human life, respect the God-given dignity of all persons, and enact policies that further the common good.”

“Enforcement measures should focus on those who present genuine risks and dangers to society, particularly efforts to reduce gang activity, stem the flow of drugs, and end human trafficking,” the guidelines read.

“Just enforcement also requires limiting the use of detention, especially for families, children, pregnant women, the sick, elderly, and disabled, given its proven harms and the pervasive lack of appropriate care in detention settings,” the guidance continues.

Trump nominated Tom Homan, the former director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to serve as his border czar in the next administration. He and Trump have said their first priority for deportations will be criminals.

The USCCB guidelines discourage the use of military personnel, resources, and tactics to carry out deportations, and state enforcement should consider “families, community ties, and religious liberty interests.”

On the matter of families, the USCCB discourages policies “that require eligibility for programs or services to hinge on an entire family being comprised of citizens,” noting the prevalence of mixed-status families that include “combinations of citizens and noncitizens.” 

“Catholic teaching maintains that families are the foundation of society, and the success of any civilization hinges on the well-being of its families,” the document adds. “... Immigration reform measures should be evaluated according to whether they strengthen families and promote family unity.”

The bishops also urge lawmakers to support a pathway to citizenship for long-term residents of the United States and an expansion of pathways for legal immigration. According to the bishops, “improving and increasing opportunities for people to lawfully enter the United States, on both a temporary and permanent basis, are necessary steps to address several pressing issues, from family separation to regional labor shortages.”

Additionally, the bishops request that protections for refugees, asylum seekers, and victims of human trafficking and abused youth remain in place. 

“The dehumanization or vilification of noncitizens as a means to deprive them of protection under the law is not only contrary to the rule of law but an affront to God himself, who has created them in his own image,” the guidelines add. “Further restricting access to humanitarian protections will only endanger those who are most vulnerable and deserving of relief.”

Furthermore, the USCCB is urging “meaningful cooperation between the United States and other countries” to address forced migration and conditions that cause migrants to flee their home countries. 

“There are a multitude of factors causing people around the world to migrate in large numbers today, often as the only way to sustain or protect human life,” the guidelines state.

Archbishop José Gomez delivers the homily at a special Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels amid burning fires in Los Angeles on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. / Credit: The Archdiocese of Los Angeles/YouTube

CNA Staff, Jan 10, 2025 / 14:50 pm (CNA).

Fires in suburban Los Angeles are continuing to burn and lay waste to entire neighborhoods as Archbishop José Gomez on Thursday urged Catholics to remember the preciousness of human life and to make themselves “instruments” of God amid the devastation. 

The prelate delivered the remarks in a homily at a special Mass celebrated at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles. The cathedral sits just over a dozen miles from the outer edges of the Eaton Fire, which is burning northeast of the city center.

“These are difficult and challenging days for our city and county and our local Church,” the archbishop said. “As we pray, the wildfires keep burning around us and, as we know, the damage continues to be devastating.”

“We are reminded today how precious every life is, and how fragile,” he continued. “We are reminded also that we are brothers and sisters, that each of us — we all belong to the family in God.”

Raising the question of why God “let[s] evil things happen,” the prelate admitted, “there is no easy answer.”

“But that doesn’t mean that there are no answers,” he said, arguing that “love is what is asked of us in this moment.”

“In this moment, God is calling each of us to be the instruments through which he shows his love and compassion and care to those who are suffering,” the archbishop said. 

Family’s Virgin Mary statue survived blaze

Much of the archdiocese has been left reeling amid the fires, which have destroyed blocks of homes in the city and left countless buildings in ruins. 

The fires began on Tuesday and quickly spread via dry conditions and hurricane-force Santa Ana winds blowing in from the east. On Friday multiple fires were raging unchecked across thousands of acres as firefighters worked to get the blazes under control. 

Among the destroyed structures was Corpus Christi Catholic Church. Los Angeles resident Sam Laganà told Angelus News, the magazine of the archdiocese, that the destruction was “too much” and “overwhelming.” 

Laganà is well known in the area for providing the “stadium voice” for the Los Angeles Rams. He grew up in the Corpus Christi Parish and was catechized there. 

He told Angelus that as the fires began earlier this week he was “using water from garden hoses and his backyard jacuzzi to put out the flames encircling his home of 28 years,” the magazine reported. 

“As I was leaving, I was trying to defend my home and hoping to keep the [Corpus Christi] school from catching on fire by watering down the hillsides,” he said. The school was mostly spared from destruction. 

Corpus Christi parishioner Rick McGeagh, meanwhile, told Angelus that his family discovered on Wednesday that their house had burned to the ground. 

The “sole part of his home left standing,” however, was a Virgin Mary statue the family first installed when they moved in nearly 30 years ago. 

“That statue belonged to my grandmother, who died in 1997,” McGeagh told the magazine. 

“The fact that she survived, when everything, even our Viking stove, burned down, I think is miraculous. There’s no way to explain that.”

The Los Angeles resident attended the archbishop’s Mass at the downtown cathedral, which he described as an “easy choice.”

“I need God’s strength, as we all do,” he said. “We’re all going to have a tough road ahead to rebuild our homes, and Monsignor [Liam Kidney]’s got to rebuild [the Corpus Christi Parish], and he’s not alone. We’ll be there to help.”

Kidney, who has been pastor of the parish since 1999, told the news outlet that the destruction of the parish — and thus of his home of nearly a quarter-century — ”still hasn’t sunk in yet.” 

But the priest said the tragedy would ultimately work for good for a parish that is still reeling from the COVID-19 crisis nearly five years ago. 

“COVID kind of ripped us apart,” he said. “This is going to bring us together.”

Deacon, parishioners save parish as fires rage

In at least one other instance a parish was saved by quick-thinking parishioners who luckily had the resources to protect it. 

Angelus reported that Deacon José Luis Díaz and a group of parishioners worked to save Sacred Heart Church in Altadena from the fires. That effort involved breaking roof tiles and using a low-pressure garden hose to keep the flames at bay. 

Though the heroic parishioners saved the church, Diaz told Angelus that much of the rest of the city resembles a war zone. 

“It looks like we’re in the middle of a battlefield. Everything is wiped out,” he said. “There are so many burned homes gone, with only the chimney left.”

Federal rescue workers have been on hand to assist state and local responders in battling the blazes. Helicopters have been visible throughout the week dumping water on walls of flame just feet from homes. California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday declared a state of emergency over the fires. 

President Joe Biden canceled his upcoming visit to Italy — what would have been the final diplomatic trip of his presidency and which included a planned meeting with Pope Francis — in order to address the ongoing deadly wildfires in Southern California.

The archdiocese, meanwhile, is working with local Catholic agencies to bring resources to those affected by the fires. The archdiocese has set up a donation portal to receive funds to help the community “recover and rebuild.”

In his homily on Thursday, Gomez said Catholics in Los Angeles “must be the ones who bring comfort to our neighbors in this time of disaster.” 

“And we must be the ones also who stand by their side and help them to rebuild and go forward with courage and faith and hope in God,” he said. “Let us pray for them.”