The Catholic Church “maintains its stance of not endorsing or opposing political candidates,” said U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops spokesperson Chieko Noguchi, following a recent court case in which a long-standing federal ban against such activity appeared to have been partly relaxed.
A French woman claims she was healed after a miraculous encounter with Minnesota Benedictine Sister Annella Zervas in October 2024, and hopes to contribute to momentum driving canonization efforts. Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens of Crookston had submitted preliminary documents to Rome in November 2024, seeking to open a canonization cause.
Colombian authorities continued their search for Father Carlos Jaimes Guerrero, a 30-year-old Augustinian priest who vanished June 17 near Viotá, southwest of Bogotá. Christians are often targeted in Colombia because they oppose the country’s drug cartels and guerrilla groups, according to Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch Report of the 50 countries where it is the most difficult to be a Christian.
Days after July 4 flash floods ravaged the state of Texas’ Hill Country, OSV News spoke with Father Joshua Whitfield, pastoral administrator of St. Rita Catholic Community in Dallas, who shared how the floods have impacted his parish community, which counts several victims.
A federal judge placed a temporary restraining order July 7 on a provision in the “One Big Beautiful Bill” Act, which President Donald Trump signed into law July 4, that would have stopped Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid payments for a year. A different federal judge on July 10 placed a new, temporary nationwide block on an executive order to end the practice of birthright citizenship as part of a class action lawsuit, a different legal procedure after the Supreme Court previously limited the ability of federal judges to issue nationwide injunctions.
As he steps down after nine years as custos of the Holy Land, Franciscan Father Francesco Patton says his time shepherding the friars and guarding Christianity’s holiest sites has been the most “formative” experience of his life. He is succeeded by Father Francesco Ielpo, who was approved by Pope Leo XIV in June.
Amid concern over immigration enforcement raids in the area, the bishop of the Diocese of San Bernardino in California on July 8 issued a dispensation from the obligation to attend Sunday Mass for the faithful if they fear for their well-being. The Trump administration rescinded in January long-standing restrictions on arrests at sensitive locations, including houses of worship, schools and hospitals.
In France, Archbishop Guy de Kerimel of Toulouse is defending his controversial decision to appoint a convicted abuser as diocesan chancellor, saying he “chose the path of mercy.” The appointment sparked backlash, with critics citing canon law’s requirement that chancellors be “above all suspicion.”
Pope Leo XIV began his summer break July 6 at Castel Gandolfo, where he’ll stay through July 20. But don’t expect the Holy Father to simply relax: According to a longtime friend of the pope, Pope Leo plans to draft the framework of his first encyclical during the break. On July 9, the pope celebrated a new formulary of the Mass “for the care of creation” recently added to the Roman Missal, wearing a deep green, brocade chasuble specially made by the House of Hansen, a tailor and liturgical goods firm based in his hometown Chicago. That same day, he also met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, reiterating the Vatican’s willingness to host Russia-Ukraine peace negotiations. Pope Leo’s prayer intention for the month of July is “that we might again learn how to discern and how to choose paths of life and reject everything that leads us away from Christ and the Gospel.”
In the West Bank, Christian leaders in Taybeh — the region’s only entirely Christian Palestinian village — are sounding the alarm over escalating settler violence. On July 8, the Latin, Greek Orthodox, and Melkite parish priests in the West Bank denounced recent attacks on the region’s only entirely Christian Palestinian village by settlers, urging international and church missions to document the damage. The latest July 7 arson threatened a fifth-century church and a Byzantine cemetery.
