Saint Joseph Catholic Church

Pope Leo XIV met on July 17 with participants in an ecumenical Orthodox-Catholic pilgrimage to the Holy Land, led by Cardinal Joseph Tobin on Newark and Greek Orthodox Archbishop Elpidophoros.

“It is my hope that your pilgrimage will confirm all of you in the hope born of our faith in the risen Lord,” the Pope told the group. He remarked that their pilgrimage was a “return to the sources” of early Christian history, with stops in Rome, Constantinople, and Nicea.

Two people were killed when an Israeli tank fired on Holy Family parish church in Gaza on July 17.

Four people were injured in the morning attack, including the pastor, Father Gabriel Romanelli.

Holy Family Church is the only Catholic parish in Gaza. During the last months of his life, Pope Francis had made it his practice to speak with Father Romanelli every day, offering encouragement to the little Catholic community.

The Latin-rite Catholic Patriarchate of Jerusalem condemned the attack as “a flagrant violation of human dignity and a blatant violation of the sanctity of life and the sanctity of religious sites.” The patriarchate noted that the parish complex is now sheltering “approximately 600 displaced persons, the majority of whom are children, and 54 people with special needs.”

Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa, reporting on the shelling, said: “What we know for sure is that a tank—the IDF says by mistake, but we are not sure of this—they hit the church directly.”

Pope Leo XIV issued a statement expressing his “spiritual closeness” to the parish, entrusting the souls of the deceased to God, and renewing his call for an immediate ceasefire.

Today is the Optional Memorial of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Sacred Scripture celebrated the beauty of Carmel where the prophet Elijah defended the purity of Israel's faith in the living God. In the twelfth century, hermits withdrew to that mountain and later founded the Carmelite order devoted to the contemplative life under the patronage of Mary, the holy Mother of God.

Today is the Memorial of St. Bonaventure (1221-1274), who was born in Italy in 1221. He joined the Franciscan Order and went to Paris for his studies. He was made General of his Order and deserves to be reckoned its second founder for his work in consolidating an institution that was as yet ill-defined in nature. St. Bonaventure died at Lyons in 1274 during the general Council between Greeks and Latins held in this city. Dante had already included him among the inhabitants of his "Paradise." He is known as the Seraphic Doctor.

Today the USA celebrates the Memorial of St. Kateri Tekakwitha (1656-1680). Kateri was born in 1656 near the town of Auriesville, New York, the daughter of a Mohawk warrior. She was baptized by Jesuit missionary Fr. Jacques de Lambertville on Easter of 1676 at the age of twenty. She devoted her life to prayer, penitential practices, and the care of the sick and aged in Caughnawaga near Montreal (where her relics are now enshrined). She incurred the hostility of her tribe because of her faith. She was devoted to the Eucharist, and to Jesus Crucified, and was called the "Lily of the Mohawks." She died in 1680 and was beatified June 22, 1980, and canonized on October 21, 2012--the first native American to be declared "Blessed" and "Saint."

Gospel Excerpt, Luke 10:33-34, Cycle C: But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him was moved with compassion at the sight. He approached the victim, poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them. Then he lifted him up on his own animal, took him to an inn and cared for him.

Today the Roman Martyrology commemorates:

Today is the Memorial of St. Benedict (480-547), who was born at Nursia in Umbria in about 480 and was sent to Rome to be educated, but soon left the world to live a solitary life at Subiaco. After living in a cave in the mountains for two years as a hermit, he had acquired such a reputation that disciples came in numbers to join him and important Roman families entrusted him with the education of their children. He organized a form of monastic life in twelve small monasteries. Under his guidance, as abbot, the monks vowed to seek God and devoted themselves to work and prayer. A few years later St. Benedict left the district of Subiaco to found the great abbey of Monte Cassino on the heights of Campania. There he wrote his Rule in which are wonderfully combined the Roman genius and the monastic wisdom of the Christian East. St. Benedict died in 547. St. Benedict's feast bBefore the reform of the General Roman Calendar in 1969 was celebrated on March 21.

The Roman Martyrology commemorates today: St. Canute (or Knud) (1043-1086), King of Denmark. St. Canute was put to death out of hatred of his faith and his zeal in working for its extension in his kingdom. He was killed in St. Alban's Church in Odense.

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."