“The cathedral suffered extensive damage, and several churches will have to be demolished because of the effects of the earthquakes,” Vatican News reported. Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish remains structurally sound despite damage to the altar and the fall of statues from their niches.

“Never stop praying for Venezuela,” said Father Antonio Rella, the parish priest. “Not everyone can help materially, but a daily prayer for us is worth so much, because it reaches the throne of God, where it bears fruit.”

“On the eve of the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Volyn Massacre, we convey words of sympathy and grief to the families who lost their loved ones as a result of Ukrainian military actions,” the bishops said. “We join you in your pain and express our deep regret for the bloody events that took place at that time.”

The bishops also said that “both Ukrainian crimes against Poles and Polish crimes against Ukrainians should be condemned,” and called on Polish and Ukrainian officials to “assist in finding all the graves, in identifying the victims and in their dignified burial.”

“It is up to Polish and Ukrainian historians to reliably explain the circumstances of those tragic events and to determine the actual number of victims on both sides,” the prelates added.

“We serve our own people well, close to home,” Archbishop Gudziak said. “But Christ’s call is, ‘Go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.’ Maybe we haven’t fully heard that yet. This is a great challenge: understanding Christianity as more than a cultural identity.”

The prelate also described the “shortage of candidates for the episcopacy” as “one of the major problems facing the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church globally.”

“In 1900 there were two bishops; today there are 56,” he said. “The overall number of faithful is roughly comparable. If it was three million then, today it is four and a half million.”

In the most prominent article in its July 10 edition, the Vatican newspaper asserted that the Panama Canal has become a new symbol of the world’s climate crisis.

“I encourage any persons locally who have been attached to the SSPX and who desire the spiritual nourishment of the Church and the Extraordinary Form of the Mass to become active in any one of the eight locations in our diocese where this is currently possible,” Bishop Michael Burbidge said in his July 8 statement.

“To my brother priests in the SSPX, please know of my prayers for you and my heartfelt desire for your return to full communion with the Church,” Bishop Burbidge added. “I invite all the faithful to join me in prayer for the end of all division and schism and for the unity of the Church, so that she may better fulfill the divine commission to make disciples of all nations.”

Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois, said that “in the Charter revision process, the feedback we were getting was not to make any major revisions, that what we have has been working well—and so that’s the approach the revision process took.” He said that positive revisions include a glossary that defines terms and references to the presumption of innocence and mandatory Church reporting of allegations.

Defending the continued exclusion of the sexual abuse of adults from the document, the prelate said that “one reason is the potential ramifications—currently under the charter and the Essential Norms, we have a policy of zero tolerance and that is not necessarily the case with adult misconduct ... Bringing them into the Essential Norms would be the whole process of having to take that to the Holy See, and just delaying this whole thing, in order to deal with these other issues under the Charter.”

“Our only concern is to safeguard the life of every human being,” said Bishop Rafael Valdivieso of Chitré, Panama. “Anything that endangers human health and life represents a serious risk.”

Father Jeffrey von Arx, S.J., wrote that “while there is growing awareness of the severe humanitarian crisis in Cuba, in large measure brought on by the U.S. fuel blockade, few are paying attention to the damage that decades of sanctions are inflicting on the Catholic Church’s ability to serve the Cuban people,”

“The sisters who bake the hosts for Holy Communion for most of the parishes in Cuba can no longer provide them because they cannot use their ovens due to lack of gas and electricity,” Father von Arx continued. “Churches have appealed abroad for assistance simply to celebrate the Eucharist.”

“The Church has become one of the few institutions capable of accompanying vulnerable families, providing humanitarian assistance and creating space for dialogue,” he added, as he argued that “policies that further weaken the Church’s ability to carry out that mission ultimately harm the very people the United States says it wants to support.”

“To all those who have suffered because of our Church, please hear this: first, I’m sorry,” Father Chris Lawton, C.S.P., preached. “I am sorry for the times that the Church has not recognized the presence of God in you, and for the times it has implicitly encouraged others to do the same.”

“I want to apologize to our transgender siblings, who continue to face unique injustice in this Church, and at this time in the life of our country as well,” Father Lawton added.

Archbishop Gänswein, now apostolic nuncio to three Baltic nations, said in an interview that Summorum Pontificum, Pope Benedict’s 2007 document permitting wider celebration of the extraordinary form, bore fruit “especially for young people, and this can be seen first of all in the increasing numbers of the Paris-Chartres pilgrimage every year.”

“These young people are nourished by the beauty of the liturgy; they are not at all opposed to the Second Vatican Council,” he continued. “It is not true that those who have a traditional liturgical sensibility and participate in the Tridentine Masses are anti-conciliar.”

In 2021, Pope Francis repealed the provisions of Summorum Pontificum when he issued Traditionis Custodes, his 2021 document restricting the extraordinary form of the Mass.