Saint Joseph Catholic Church

“My delegation is particularly concerned by the tightening obstruction of humanitarian access, and the siege-like conditions in which food, water and fuel are scarce, and essential city services are under attack,” Archbishop Ettore Balestrero, apostolic nuncio and Permanent Observer to the United Nations and other international organizations in Geneva, Switzerland, said during a UN Human Rights Council meeting on July 3.

“Starving civilians can never be a method of warfare,” Archbishop Balestrero continued. “All parties must comply with international humanitarian law, protect and uphold human rights, step back from any assault upon El Obeid, open safe corridors for those in need, and ensure unimpeded humanitarian access.”

The bishops also applied the principles enunciated in the Declaration of Independence to Ukraine today:

Ukrainians are not fighting for territory alone. They are fighting for the same truths that the Founders called self-evident: that human beings are created equal, that their rights come from God and not from governments, and that no empire has the authority to extinguish them.

Freedom is not free. Americans have known this and have paid for it in blood throughout their history. Today Ukrainians are paying the same price in their own blood. Their struggle, however, is not for Ukraine alone. It is a witness to the world that the principles of the American founding are not the property of one nation or one moment in history. They are universal, and they are always worth defending.

The U.S. Embassy to the Holy See stated that “Ambassador Burch and the Holy Father discussed President Trump‘s bold leadership and American efforts to pursue peace, religious freedom, and the need for moral clarity and courage around the world.”

The embassy also stated that “the Ambassador and his family presented the Holy Father a USA World Cup jersey, a commemorative Freedom 250 baseball, and a homemade apple pie,” and that “Pope Leo confirmed he is rooting for the country of his birth in the World Cup.”

“As we celebrate this great moment that marks our nation’s past and calls us to its future, let us as people of faith embrace a patriotism rooted both in the founding vision of our nation and in our deep love for the specific culture and society in which we live,” Cardinal McElroy preached. “And let us also as people of faith constantly reform both of these foundations of patriotism in the light of the Gospel and the Beatitudes which are the template for our transformation of the world.”

“For we must always, in patriotism, be moving forward, never complacent, always aspirational and called to the greatness, the true greatness to which our country should move,” he concluded.

However, at least eight other members of the Beijing Zion Church, which Mingri founded, remain in prison.

During his recent visit to China, President Donald Trump advocated for Jin’s release, along with the release of lay Catholic Jimmy Lai, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison in February.

Giving of oneself, out of love, “constitutes Jesus’ yoke, which is the essence of his teaching and the heart of his wisdom,” Pope Leo XIV said during his July 5 Angelus address (video).

Pope Leo XIV paid tribute to the “strong, though largely unknown, Eucharistic heritage of the United States of America” in a video message for the conclusion of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State of His Holiness, sent a letter in the Holy Father’s name to the bishop of Lodi, Italy, for the 27th celebration of Columbanus Day.

The priest, slain by Japanese soldiers, “was killed in 1946 in hatred of the faith,” Pope Leo said. “Amid oppression and violence, he defended the rights of the people and did not abandon his parishioners. May his intercession and prayers strengthen all those who proclaim the Gospel in situations of persecution today.”

The Pontiff also said that he continued to “remember in my prayers the victims of the earthquake and all the Venezuelan people. May the Lord sustain them in this time of great hardship.”