Saint Joseph Catholic Church

The apostolic nuncio to the Philippines called on the Philippine bishops and faithful to advocate for the right to life from conception to natural death and to combat evils such as corruption.

“We need a society that works to eliminate corruption, sin, crime, discrimination, and all those things that weigh us down and degrade our earthly dreams,” Archbishop Charles Brown said during a July 8 homily in Ozamiz Cathedral, as the nation’s bishops gathered for their summer meeting, and the faithful witnessed the crowning of an 18th-century Marian image, the Blessed Virgin of the Fort.

In a detailed analysis of priesthood statistics between 2013 and 2024, the Vatican newspaper found that the total number of priests worldwide decreased 1.9% over the 11-year period to 407,421. The number of diocesan priests fell by 0.5%; the number of religious priests fell by 4.9%.

In Africa, however, the number of priests soared by 35.8% between 2013 and 2024, and in Southeast Asia, the number of priests increased by 23.2%. In contrast, the number of priests in Europe declined by 17.2%, and the number of priests in North America (classified as the United States and Canada) declined by 14.2%.

In 2024, Europe had 20.2% of the world’s Catholic population, 37.5% of the world’s priests, and only 11.7% of the world’s major seminarians. Africa, with 20.3% of the world’s Catholics, had 13.9% of the world’s priests, but 34.5% of the world’s major seminarians.

Addressing the UN’s Global Dialogue on AI Governance, a Vatican diplomat said that “the necessity for robust governance does not mean placing limits on AI as obstacles for their own sake.”

Robust governance is “a prerequisite for ensuring that technological progress is meaningfully oriented towards a broader horizon, at the service of all humanity, while respecting the inalienable God-given dignity of all persons and the common good,” Archbishop Ettore Balestrero, apostolic nuncio and Permanent Observer to the United Nations and other international organizations in Geneva, Switzerland, said on July 7.

“Good governance requires the responsible use of AI, in a way that does not involve outsourcing or surrendering responsibility to an algorithm,” the prelate added. “Therefore, every critical choice made by an automated system must be subject to human oversight.”

The head of the Syro-Malabar Church wrote in a pastoral letter that “in an age when rumors spread rapidly and truth is frequently obscured, we must become seekers of truth like St. Thomas.”

“There is no doubt that social media is beneficial in many aspects of life,” Major Archbishop Raphael Thattil wrote in a wide-ranging letter for the Feast of St. Thomas the Apostle, the Syro-Malabar Church’s patron saint. “Yet it has also become a platform where falsehood, hatred, and defamation are deliberately disseminated.”

The Major Archbishop added:

When messages that malign others, harm the innocent, and spread falsehood are created or shared indiscriminately, the fifth commandment, “You shall not kill,” is violated, for such actions can wound a person’s dignity, reputation, and well-being.

Today, more than ever, we need the prudence and vigilance to examine carefully what we encounter, to verify what we do not know, to refrain from promoting what is untrue, and to courageously oppose falsehood wherever it appears.

Based in India, the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church (CNEWA profile) is among the Eastern Catholic churches in full communion with the Holy See.

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The Church commemorates the Optional Memorial of Saint Augustine Zhao Rong (1746-1815). He was a Chinese diocesan priest who was martyred with his 119 other Chinese Catholics. Among their number was an eighteen-year-old boy, Chi Zhuzi, who cried out to those who had just cut off his right arm and were preparing to flay him alive: "Every piece of my flesh, every drop of my blood will tell you that I am Christian."

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