Day: July 15, 2026

Haiti preschool class advances thanks to Stirling parish support #Catholic –

St. Paul Catholic School in Nanpol, Haiti, is celebrating its first preschool graduating class and dedicating the class to its sister parish, St. Vincent de Paul Parish in the Stirling neighborhood of Long Hill Township, N.J. The students will move on to the newly completed primary school in the fall.

St. Vincent’s has been participating in Haiti’s Hope, the parish twinning program with St. Paul, for several years. Parishioner generosity provided for the construction and operation of the school, where children receive a Catholic education and meals. The students will advance to the newly completed primary school in the fall.

Haiti’s Hope, a Parish Twinning Program of Americas project, is desperately needed in the island nation. It faces a political, social, and humanitarian crisis, marked by murders, gang violence, injuries, kidnappings, and hunger.

Nanpol is relatively calm, but villagers live in fear. Gangs block roads, stopping raw materials and food from reaching people.

St. Vincent’s supported rebuilding the church that was damaged by an earthquake in 2010, installing a solar-powered water purification system, making extensive exterior and interior rectory repairs, and building the school.

The Stirling parish has raised more funds for school supplies, books, faculty salaries, and meals. The school has two pre-school classes and plans to add a grade each year.

Read Colette Liddy’s story on Haiti’s Hope.

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– St. Paul Catholic School in Nanpol, Haiti, is celebrating its first preschool graduating class and dedicating the class to its sister parish, St. Vincent de Paul Parish in the Stirling neighborhood of Long Hill Township, N.J. The students will move on to the newly completed primary school in the fall. St. Vincent’s has been participating in Haiti’s Hope, the parish twinning program with St. Paul, for several years. Parishioner generosity provided for the construction and operation of the school, where children receive a Catholic education and meals. The students will advance to the newly completed primary school in the fall.

Faith leads effort to end preventable blindness in Guatemala and beyond #Catholic –

(OSV News) — Many profess that nothing is impossible with God (Luke 1:37), but a story unfolding in Guatemala has validated that Scripture daily for more than two decades.

An international partnership of those involved with Guatemala Brillando — a plan to end treatable blindness for 17 million Guatemalans by 2032 — recently had occasion to look back in wonder and gratitude.

They gathered for the opening of Hospital Oftalmológico Visualiza in Santa Cruz del Quiché, Guatemala, the fourth in a planned system of eight eye hospitals and 38 clinics across the Central American country, and they celebrated the innumerable connections that have made it all possible.

Chris Wurst — who has participated in what he calls over 50 “adventures” around the globe addressing vision problems and a longtime board director of Vision for the Poor — cut the ribbon for the latest hospital last fall. He remembers his first mission to Mexico.

“We were basically just giving out glasses,” he said. But even then, he witnessed transformation.

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“After one woman received hers, she threaded a needle,” he said, “and everyone just started to clap. I was hooked.”

But it was Dr. Doug Villella of Erie, Pennsylvania, an eye doctor, who recognized that mission trips were not meeting the enormous need in Guatemala.

Soon after graduating from optometry studies, Villella participated in several mission trips to poor nations in the Western Hemisphere. Seeking a more sustainable approach, he was introduced to Vincent Pescatore, founder of an orphanage in Guatemala’s Petén region.
Their bond was immediate.

“Vincent said, ‘I need you to build an eye hospital,’” Villella recalled in an interview for OSV News. “He didn’t say, ‘Would you,’ he said, ‘I need you to.’”

Although Villella readily agreed, today, he finds it almost comical.

“I had no skill other than taking care of people’s eyes,” Villella told OSV News. “No grant writing, no idea how to run a nonprofit. But because of who and what Vincent was, I didn’t hesitate.”

And so, in prayer and trust, Villella began the work, inviting several board members of VOSH/PA, the Pennsylvania chapter of Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity, into the fold.

A seismic shift occurred when Villella met Dr. Mariano Yee of Guatemala City. Yee, a young chief resident ophthalmologist and surgeon, was asked if he knew someone who could escort Villella’s group during another mission.

“I volunteered,” Yee remembered. He describes that outreach as massive, with hundreds of patients seen each day. But there were many who needed more care, people with cataracts and other eye diseases.

The doctors spent their evenings brainstorming ways to address the vast needs in a consistent, sustainable way.

“It was a good thing we were naive,” Yee said with a laugh. “When you don’t know how big the problem is, you’re like, ‘Let’s go and do it!’ But we saw the need and said, ‘Whatever it takes.’”

Nearly a quarter century later, Yee is flanked daily by two of his brothers: Nicolás, also an eye surgeon, and Juan Francisco, an architect who earned his MBA when his brothers asked him to oversee what is now Visualiza. A fourth brother is now in charge of operations for the hospital that just opened in the Quiche region. In addition to changing the landscape of eye care in Guatemala, the organization employs 410 people.

For the Yees, family is essential.

“It’s something that God called us to do,” Nicolás Yee said “And because he called us, God resolves the problems. On our own we can do nothing.”

The Yees credit their parents, who were deeply committed to the Catholic faith.

“My parents showed us how to live our faith,” Mariano Yee said. “Our house was always full of people, it was fun! We went to nursing homes just to talk with the residents. In high school, our parents took us to marginalized areas of Guatemala City to teach catechism to younger kids. We realized we had to give back.”

Now that the project has a track record and a detailed plan to ensure all Guatemalans have access to eyecare by 2032, the group is developing a model for other low and middle-income countries.

Another momentous leveling up occurred in 2006 when Visualiza and Vision for the Poor formed a partnership with the Seva Foundation, an international organization dedicated to creating equitable access to eye care in underserved populations.

Seva’s executive director is Kate Moynihan, a former regional director for Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. Church’s overseas relief and development agency. She has worked in areas ranging from the Balkans to the Middle East. Although Seva has supported the work of Visualiza for more than two decades, Moynihan recognized the potential when she took the reins in 2017.

“Kate and Doug knew their work was in alignment,” said Auxiliary Bishop Joseph L. Coffey of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services and a director on the board of Vision for the Poor. “Seva has helped to elevate the excellence Vision for the Poor and the Yee brothers created.”

Seva’s research underpinning the work taking place demonstrates:

— Vision loss drains more from the global economy each year than the combined direct costs of all natural disasters.

— Ninety percent of people affected with vision impairment live in developing countries, where not being able to see often means a life of poverty.

— Restoring sight is one of the most cost-effective health interventions to reduce poverty.

Moynihan noted that treatable visual impairment is among the most prevalent yet under-prioritized health challenges globally, although the tools to address the situation already exist.

“What’s missing is global urgency,” she said.

Seva, along with the Fred Hollows Foundation, an international development organization committed to improving eye care globally, presented an investment case to the U.N. General Assembly this fall.

The people behind Visualiza continue to promote and provide high-quality, effective eye care to populations that otherwise would not have access. Seva and Vision for the Poor continue to mentor, fundraise and provide technical support, maintaining their commitment to sustainability.

Efforts in Guatemala have required $24 million to date, more than half of which has been raised by the Seva Foundation. Building the four remaining hospitals to provide nationwide access will require another $30 million. It also will point the way for developing countries across the globe.

The goal is audacious, but those involved are undeterred.

“So often we try swimming upstream,” Villella said. “But grace doesn’t flow that way. Now I go with the flow. I still bump into rocks, but I find ways around them.”

As for the future?

“It once seemed beyond imagination to create nationwide eye care in a developing country,” he said. “All we can do is keep trying. We will take steps forward in the dark, meeting with potential benefactors. The Holy Spirit will have to take over from there.”

Anne-Marie Welsh writes for OSV News from Erie, Pennsylvania.

– (OSV News) — Many profess that nothing is impossible with God (Luke 1:37), but a story unfolding in Guatemala has validated that Scripture daily for more than two decades. An international partnership of those involved with Guatemala Brillando — a plan to end treatable blindness for 17 million Guatemalans by 2032 — recently had occasion to look back in wonder and gratitude. They gathered for the opening of Hospital Oftalmológico Visualiza in Santa Cruz del Quiché, Guatemala, the fourth in a planned system of eight eye hospitals and 38 clinics across the Central American country, and they celebrated the innumerable

Rates of HIV, AIDS down, but children still vulnerable, says Vatican diplomat to UN #Catholic –

(OSV News) — Much has been done to mitigate rates of HIV and AIDS, but more work remains as children are still vulnerable to the virus and the disease it causes, said the Holy See’s diplomatic representative to the United Nations in a July 10 address.

“The number of new HIV infections has declined in most regions since 2010, with the greatest decreases in sub-Saharan Africa,” said Msgr. Marco Formica, the interim chargé d’affaires of the Vatican’s permanent observer mission at the U.N. Archbishop Gabriele G. Caccia served as the Vatican’s U.N. permanent observer from 2019 until his March appointment as papal nuncio to the U.S.

Msgr. Formica shared his thoughts during the U.N.’s 2026 high-level meeting on HIV/AIDS, which had as its theme, “United to End AIDS.”

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Since 2001, the meeting has taken place every five years at the U.N. Secretariat, the multinational body’s main administration, in New York.

According to its website, UNAIDS — the U.N. agency tasked with eradicating that disease and its underlying virus — serves “as the primary political mechanism for accountability and commitment in the global HIV response.”

This year’s high-level meeting was held June 22-23, with additional speakers scheduled on July 10, when Msgr. Formica spoke, the Holy See U.N. Mission confirmed to OSV News.

In his address, Msgr. Formica said that the Holy See “acknowledges the progress that has been accomplished in preventing and treating HIV and AIDS in the past five years,” while also commending the “great strides made overall” since the inaugural high-level meeting in 2001.

Since 1995 — when an average of 3.5 million annually contracted the immunodeficiency virus — new HIV infections have been slashed by 65%, according to UNAIDS.

“Having access and adherence to antiretroviral treatment, people with HIV can live longer and lead healthier lives,” said Msgr. Formica.

However, as of 2025, there were close to 41 million living with HIV, with more than half (51%) women and girls, and 1.3 million of that total number children ages 14 and under, the agency states on its website.

Msgr. Formica described children as “particularly vulnerable to HIV,” noting “gaps in both diagnosis and treatment.”

Citing the U.N. Secretary-General’s report to the conference, Msgr. Formica said such gaps “mean that the 3% of HIV patients that are children account for 12% of deaths due to HIV.”

The report itself stressed that “AIDS is not over,” and that “the global HIV response is at a critical juncture” due to funding declines, debt burdens in affected nations, increasing humanitarian crises and “a regression in human rights.”

Msgr. Formica specifically noted a lack of testing and treatment for at-risk and HIV positive mothers, while urging “quality” care for women before, during and after pregnancy.

“It is vital to ensure early testing and consistent access to treatment for children with HIV in child-friendly formulations,” he said.

“Multisectoral partnerships” have made care more available and affordable, yet “many are still excluded” from HIV and AIDS treatment, “mostly in the developing world,” he lamented.

Msgr. Formica called for enhancing healthcare systems and research in developing nations, quoting Pope Leo XIV’s comments during a 2025 visit to a Lebanon hospital: “We cannot conceive of a society that races ahead at full speed clinging to the false myths of wellbeing, while at the same time ignoring so many situations of poverty and vulnerability.”

Catholic healthcare institutions, which “provide approximately a quarter of all HIV-related care worldwide,” will continue working to “ensure that all people living with HIV receive treatment and care in line with their inherent human dignity,” said Msgr. Formica.

Gina Christian is a multimedia reporter for OSV News. Follow her on X @GinaJesseReina.

– (OSV News) — Much has been done to mitigate rates of HIV and AIDS, but more work remains as children are still vulnerable to the virus and the disease it causes, said the Holy See’s diplomatic representative to the United Nations in a July 10 address. “The number of new HIV infections has declined in most regions since 2010, with the greatest decreases in sub-Saharan Africa,” said Msgr. Marco Formica, the interim chargé d’affaires of the Vatican’s permanent observer mission at the U.N. Archbishop Gabriele G. Caccia served as the Vatican’s U.N. permanent observer from 2019 until his March appointment

Pope Leo shares meal with vulnerable guests at Castel Gandolfo #Catholic –

ROME (OSV News) — Under the Italian sun of Lake Albano and the shade of Castel Gandolfo’s Borgo Laudato si’ trees, Pope Leo XIV enjoyed lunch with people experiencing social vulnerability.

Around 200 people from the Diocese of Rome took part in the event on July 11. “Lunch with the Pope” was “a day of welcome and fraternity” within the Pontifical Gardens of Castel Gandolfo, the Vatican’s Laudato Si’ Center for Higher Education said in a statement.

Before the guests, including nearly 40 children, enjoyed the guided tour through the gardens, the day begun with Mass celebrated by Cardinal Fabio Baggio, general director of the Laudato Si’ Center for Higher Education, and concelebrated by Archbishop Luis Marín de San Martín, prefect of the Dicastery for the Service of Charity.

“I came without a prepared speech, but I did come with hunger — hunger for justice, hunger for genuine charity, hunger for a Church that truly knows how to open its doors, to welcome and receive everyone; where there is love for all and no one is an enemy, where all of us know how to live reconciliation, forgiveness and peace,” Pope Leo said, welcoming those present, as reported by Vatican News.

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Pope Leo recalled that one of the pope’s titles is the “Pontiff — a builder of bridges.”

“And today we too want to build a bridge with all of you, with your families, and with the society in which we want to live — a society marked by justice, where the causes of poverty can be eliminated and where the causes of the injustices that still exist in our world can be overcome,” Pope Leo said.

“This,” he said, “is the Church we want to be,” Vatican News reported.

Only a few months after taking upon the See of Peter, Pope Leo first met with people experiencing vulnerability from the Diocese of Albano. That meeting on Aug. 17, 2025, gave birth to an annual tradition of encounters with the underprivileged.

“Each year, a diocese will be invited to involve people living in situations of poverty, refugees, migrants, and others experiencing social vulnerability,” to let them experience ” the beauty of creation” and create an “opportunity to meet the Holy Father,” Laudato Si’ Center said.

Cardinal Baggio said in the July 7 press release that “Borgo Laudato si’ was created to show that the care of creation and the care of the human person are one and the same mission.”

“After Lampedusa, this day represents a new step in Pope Leo XIV’s journey towards the social peripheries of our time,” the cardinal said, referencing Pope Leo’s visit the prior weekend to an Italian island that serves as both a place of the hope of a new life and of the tragedy of those that never made it through the sea to Europe.

“At Borgo Laudato si’, the Holy Father meets people experiencing vulnerability, reaffirming that the Church is called to inhabit the places where human dignity calls for listening, closeness and hope,” Cardinal Baggio said.

The encounter embodies the Church’s service to the poor, Archbishop Marín, papal almoner, emphasized.

“The Holy Father’s choice confirms that charity consists of closeness, encounter and sharing. When the Church places the most vulnerable people at the center, it makes the Gospel visible and bears witness that no one is on the margins of God’s heart,” he said in the July 7 statement.

Pope Leo expressed his gratitude to those that organized the July 11 gathering, which included dozens of organizations that on a daily basis assist people experiencing vulnerability.

“Whenever we come together, whenever we share this spirit of encounter around the same table — the one table where Jesus is also present among us,” Pope Leo said, as reported by Vatican News.

“We are truly building a different world, a world of hope, a world that is a light in the midst of our own,” he added.

The pontiff urged that in a world fractured by “violence, hatred and discrimination,” communities need to “work together and strive always to be this kind of Church: a Church of justice, peace and love,” praying that in families of those that gathered in the Castel Gandolfo picturesque setting people “find peace, forgiveness and reconciliation.”

Cardinal Baldassare Reina, vicar general for the Diocese of Rome, said in the July 7 statement that the organizers “wanted the protagonists of this day to be people who are accompanied every day by parishes, Caritas, and the many ecclesial and social organizations of the Diocese of Rome,” adding that “the encounter with the Holy Father restores centrality to those who too often remain on the margins and calls the entire Christian community to the responsibility of welcome.”

Borgo Laudato si’ extended “their heartfelt thanks” to Ristorante L’Isola della Pizza in Rome, which “generously offered the lunch,” and to Bar Al Duomo in Albano Laziale, “which provided the welcome breakfast, contributing through their generosity to the success of the day.”

Paulina Guzik is international editor for OSV News. Follow her on X @Guzik_Paulina.

– ROME (OSV News) — Under the Italian sun of Lake Albano and the shade of Castel Gandolfo’s Borgo Laudato si’ trees, Pope Leo XIV enjoyed lunch with people experiencing social vulnerability. Around 200 people from the Diocese of Rome took part in the event on July 11. “Lunch with the Pope” was “a day of welcome and fraternity” within the Pontifical Gardens of Castel Gandolfo, the Vatican’s Laudato Si’ Center for Higher Education said in a statement. Before the guests, including nearly 40 children, enjoyed the guided tour through the gardens, the day begun with Mass celebrated by Cardinal Fabio

Exhibit highlights St. John Paul II’s US visits, esteem for nation’s foundational documents #Catholic –

WASHINGTON (OSV News) — In his seven visits to America during his papacy, St. John Paul II often shared his mastery of the nation’s foundational documents — the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

“(He) really was a genius at researching and understanding,” Grattan Brown, the director of mission and ministry at the St. John Paul II National Shrine, told OSV News.

The message, reaffirmed in several ways, was that Americans are blessed to have the freedoms they have. And this merged with the pontiff’s promotion of human rights.

The shrine, through Sept. 9, has an exhibit dedicated to those papal messages to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the United States.

Titled “A New Birth of Freedom,” the exhibit includes audio and video, photos and artifacts from his visits, including the future pope’s trip to America for its bicentennial in 1976. Two years later, Polish Cardinal Karol Wojtyla was elected the successor to Peter — on Oct. 16, 1978.

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As pope, his visits to the U.S. were: 1979, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Des Moines and Washington; 1981, brief stopover in Anchorage, Alaska; 1984: brief stopover in Fairbanks, Alaska; 1987, Miami, Columbia, South Carolina, New Orleans, San Antonio, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Monterey, California, San Francisco and Detroit; 1993, World Youth Day in Denver; 1995, Newark and East Rutherford, New Jersey, New York and Baltimore; and 1999, St. Louis.

Some elements in the shrine’s exhibit were loaned by the archdioceses of Miami, Denver, St. Louis, Chicago and Philadelphia as well as Xavier University of Louisiana and The Catholic University of America. Brown curated the exhibit with contributions from Bethany Bromwell, collections curator, and Victoria Gallegos, curatorial assistant.

The pontiff’s eager embrace of American principles was obvious in his 1979 visit, when he celebrated a Mass, which drew 350,000, at Living History Farms in Urbandale, Iowa, simply because Joe Hayes, a farmer from nearby Truro, wrote him a letter inviting him to come to Iowa.

In April 1984, when St. John Paul accepted the credentials of William A. Wilson, the first U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, the pope referenced the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

“Certainly the recognition of God and the defense of human dignity, and therefore of human life, are a most precious part of your national heritage,” the pope said. “Your Declaration of Independence speaks to the whole world about the ‘Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God,’ and with great wisdom it recognizes inalienable rights for man. Your Constitution for its part sees the need to ‘establish justice … and secure the blessings of liberty.’”

Accepting Wilson’s credentials as ambassador was historic — it established full formal diplomatic relations between the U.S. and the Vatican.

In September 1987, he easily quoted Abraham Lincoln, citing “a new birth of freedom,” which is in Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. (The pope also invoked Lincoln’s address on Oct. 8, 1995, during his homily at Camden Yards in Baltimore.)

Arguing that freedom must be renewed by each generation, he addressed his 1987 remarks directly to President Ronald Reagan in Miami, saying, “A new birth of freedom is repeatedly necessary. Freedom to exercise responsibility and generosity, freedom to meet the challenge of serving humanity.”

Reagan welcomed the pope at Miami’s Vizcaya Museum, on Sept. 10, 1987, for the start of his U.S. tour. The two leaders discussed human freedom, democracy and Central American peace, according to the Reagan Library.

In his farewell address to the United States on the final day of his 1987 visit, the phrase “America the beautiful” echoed through his remarks as he challenged the country to defend human dignity, family values and the right to life.

“America the beautiful!” he said in Detroit on Sept. 19, 1987. “Yes, America you are beautiful indeed, and blessed in so many ways. … But your greatest beauty and your richest blessing is found in the human person: in each man, woman and child, in every immigrant, in every native-born son and daughter. … The ultimate test of your greatness in the way you treat every human being, but especially the weakest and most defenseless ones.”

“If you want equal justice for all, and true freedom and lasting peace, then, America, defend life!” he said.

Grattan encountered the pope three times, the first at World Youth Day in 1993 in Denver and the last time in 1997 in Rome when he was a theology student at the Pontifical Lateran University, and was able to introduce his mother, Elizabeth, after an early-morning Mass. The pontiff’s heavily accented “God bless your mother!” is a cherished memory.

He also warmly recalled being part of a group of aspiring seminarians addressed by St. John Paul II in 1995 at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers, New York. To encourage them, he said, “I come to you as a friend in Christ and friends can talk about difficult things.”

Kurt Jensen writes for OSV News from Washington. More about the St. John Paul II National Shrine and the exhibit “A New Birth of Freedom” can be found at www.jp2shrine.org.

– WASHINGTON (OSV News) — In his seven visits to America during his papacy, St. John Paul II often shared his mastery of the nation’s foundational documents — the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. “(He) really was a genius at researching and understanding,” Grattan Brown, the director of mission and ministry at the St. John Paul II National Shrine, told OSV News. The message, reaffirmed in several ways, was that Americans are blessed to have the freedoms they have. And this merged with the pontiff’s promotion of human rights. The shrine, through Sept. 9, has an