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After stillbirth loss, mother of 7 returns to school to help others heal #Catholic After experiencing an unimaginable loss, Kelly Helsel felt called to begin a new chapter. Following 17 years as a stay-at-home mother, she returned to school to pursue her dream of becoming a counselor — hoping to offer others the same compassionate support and Catholic guidance that helped bring healing to her own life.In 2023 Helsel’s daughter, Mary Catherine, was stillborn. The experience and grief was ultimately “a huge catalyst to me going back to school,” Helsel told EWTN News.“I think death has an interesting way of snapping your priorities in line,” she said. “And through the death of our daughter, I understood that tomorrow was not promised. And I had been holding this dream very closely for 17 years, just trusting,” she said.“Much of my healing process after the stillbirth of our daughter was helped along by solid Catholic counseling,” she said. “So I just felt a whisper at first, and then I felt like, ‘I can turn around and be this for someone else in need.’ And so I did.”Path back to schoolA native of Arizona, Helsel met her now-husband, Doug, in high school. She then attended Northern Arizona University to receive a bachelorʼs degree in psychology with the hopes of becoming a counselor, but motherhood ultimately became her first priority.“My firstborn … was born during finals week of my bachelorʼs degree,” Helsel said. “I actually had a positive pregnancy test the day before I was scheduled to take the GRE [Graduate Record Examination].”“I just knew that motherhood was the priority and that Godʼs timing would take care of things. So I stayed at home,” she said.Helsel decided to put her plans of working as a counselor on the side and focus on her growing family. She and her husband had seven children over the next 17 years, but after the loss of their sixth child she felt called to switch her plans and return to school. “We just started taking one step in front of the other,” she said. Helsel started by applying to the University of Mary’s master’s program for counseling about six months after her daughter’s passing but was thrown an unexpected “curveball” during the process.“On the feast of the Annunciation, I got in. But then I also had a positive pregnancy test with my daughter, Isabel, on the very same day.”“I remember standing in the bathroom with my husband with my phone in one hand with an acceptance letter, and on the counter was a positive pregnancy test with our seventh baby.”Motherhood provided ‘the skills to be a fantastic student’Despite navigating grief, welcoming a new baby, and continuing to care for the rest of her family, Helsel not only decided to return to school but also opted for a five-semester accelerated program.She graduated on April 25 with a 4.0 GPA and her whole family by her side. It was all possible not in spite of her 17 years as a stay-at-home mom but because of the experience. Kelly Helsel, her husband Doug Helsel, and their children at her graduation a the University of Mary on April 25, 2026. | Credit: Photo courtesy of Kelly Helsel “I actually think that motherhood, 17 years of motherhood, gave me the skills to be a fantastic student,” she said. “I learned time management. I learned prioritization. I learned how to ask for help. I learned all kinds of things in the trenches of motherhood that gave me the opportunity to really thrive at UMary.” “I guess the loss of my daughter really showed me that like all things are ‘figure-out-able,’” she said. “When youʼve gone through something like that, it makes you unafraid to do really big things.”“I knew that I could just cannonball into the deep end and we could do this. And my husband was an amazing support throughout the program. But, Isabel was the curveball of all curveballs,” she said.“She was born during Christmas break and I just jumped back in in January. I didnʼt take any time off,” she said. "I would be in a rocking chair breastfeeding her, and my laptop is sitting next to me and Iʼm listening to a lecture.”“I became a pro at using the dictation tool on Microsoft Word” so “I could hold my baby and dictate a paper,” she said. “It was just a really wild time. I learned to be extremely flexible and gentle with myself ... But I just knew God was like, ‘go, go right now.’”“It was super bumpy at some points,“ she said. ”But I chose the University of Mary because I feel like [University of Mary president] Monsignor [James] Shea and the university really put their money where their mouth is in terms of supporting nontraditional students — especially mothers.”“All of my professors were extremely accommodating with extensions if I needed one. A few professors gave me early finals because Isabel was born right at the end of that first semester,” she said. “So the University of Mary was really crucial to my success because everyone was behind me.” Helsel noted that her professors, especially counseling professor Olivia Wedel, and other facility members and students were champions in cheering her “all the way to the finish line.”Waddell “would always remind me that ‘Iʼm surrounded by support,’” Helsel said. “When youʼre super tired and youʼre on your fourth Crock-Pot meal of the week and you donʼt have anymore bandwidth left, I just thought, ‘I am surrounded by support.’”“Jesus is real and his promises are too,” Helsel said. “I just remember really having to trust the Lord in a new way and also having to be very open to my dream not looking exactly like I wanted.”“So yes, I went back to school and I got a masterʼs degree, but it looked absolutely nothing like I thought it was going to, but it was also better, just like he had promised me.”“Your dreams matter to him,“ she said. ”Trust him, and especially Our Lady, with your dreams. Because he wants both. He wants your motherhood and your dreams.”Catholic counseling offers ‘the keys to real human flourishing’Officially a licensed counselor, Helsel is ready to jump in headfirst to help others in need by utilizing the guidance offered by the Catholic Church.“I believe very deeply that the Catholic Church has the keys to real human flourishing,” she said. “So I knew I wanted to become a mental health professional with those guardrails in place, because I benefited so much from Catholic counseling.”“I want to turn back around and help the next woman or couple or … anyone in line that needs to hear the good news, coupled with solid mental health formation. Like St. Thomas Aquinas says, ‘faith and reason.’ We need both.”With her “perinatal mental health training,” Helsel hopes to primarily work in the womenʼs health category “to support other women, pregnant women, postpartum women,” she said. “And obviously I have a love for people who may have lost a child in a particular way.”Helsel is interested in helping those discerning vocations, as her oldest son plans to apply to the priesthood. She is also hoping to support the vocation of marriage as it is “under a particular attack at this time.”To accomplish all of this, Helsel has already started her own private practice called Concordia Counseling.“I chose Concordia because Mary Catherine had a congenital heart condition,” she said. “Concordia means heart to heart or to bring two hearts into harmony. I wanted to honor my baby in heaven and Our Lord with my work. And so I started Concordia Counseling.”“Iʼm just getting it started. I have a caseload of about 10 clients, but Iʼm hoping to accept more,“ Helsel said. ”I know that the work I want to do most of all involves not just mental health but the teachings of the Catholic Church.”“I just think the framework needs to be formed properly, and that is the Catholic understanding of the whole person. And from there we can jump off anywhere,” she said.
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After stillbirth loss, mother of 7 returns to school to help others heal #Catholic After experiencing an unimaginable loss, Kelly Helsel felt called to begin a new chapter. Following 17 years as a stay-at-home mother, she returned to school to pursue her dream of becoming a counselor — hoping to offer others the same compassionate support and Catholic guidance that helped bring healing to her own life.In 2023 Helsel’s daughter, Mary Catherine, was stillborn. The experience and grief was ultimately “a huge catalyst to me going back to school,” Helsel told EWTN News.“I think death has an interesting way of snapping your priorities in line,” she said. “And through the death of our daughter, I understood that tomorrow was not promised. And I had been holding this dream very closely for 17 years, just trusting,” she said.“Much of my healing process after the stillbirth of our daughter was helped along by solid Catholic counseling,” she said. “So I just felt a whisper at first, and then I felt like, ‘I can turn around and be this for someone else in need.’ And so I did.”Path back to schoolA native of Arizona, Helsel met her now-husband, Doug, in high school. She then attended Northern Arizona University to receive a bachelorʼs degree in psychology with the hopes of becoming a counselor, but motherhood ultimately became her first priority.“My firstborn … was born during finals week of my bachelorʼs degree,” Helsel said. “I actually had a positive pregnancy test the day before I was scheduled to take the GRE [Graduate Record Examination].”“I just knew that motherhood was the priority and that Godʼs timing would take care of things. So I stayed at home,” she said.Helsel decided to put her plans of working as a counselor on the side and focus on her growing family. She and her husband had seven children over the next 17 years, but after the loss of their sixth child she felt called to switch her plans and return to school. “We just started taking one step in front of the other,” she said. Helsel started by applying to the University of Mary’s master’s program for counseling about six months after her daughter’s passing but was thrown an unexpected “curveball” during the process.“On the feast of the Annunciation, I got in. But then I also had a positive pregnancy test with my daughter, Isabel, on the very same day.”“I remember standing in the bathroom with my husband with my phone in one hand with an acceptance letter, and on the counter was a positive pregnancy test with our seventh baby.”Motherhood provided ‘the skills to be a fantastic student’Despite navigating grief, welcoming a new baby, and continuing to care for the rest of her family, Helsel not only decided to return to school but also opted for a five-semester accelerated program.She graduated on April 25 with a 4.0 GPA and her whole family by her side. It was all possible not in spite of her 17 years as a stay-at-home mom but because of the experience. Kelly Helsel, her husband Doug Helsel, and their children at her graduation a the University of Mary on April 25, 2026. | Credit: Photo courtesy of Kelly Helsel “I actually think that motherhood, 17 years of motherhood, gave me the skills to be a fantastic student,” she said. “I learned time management. I learned prioritization. I learned how to ask for help. I learned all kinds of things in the trenches of motherhood that gave me the opportunity to really thrive at UMary.” “I guess the loss of my daughter really showed me that like all things are ‘figure-out-able,’” she said. “When youʼve gone through something like that, it makes you unafraid to do really big things.”“I knew that I could just cannonball into the deep end and we could do this. And my husband was an amazing support throughout the program. But, Isabel was the curveball of all curveballs,” she said.“She was born during Christmas break and I just jumped back in in January. I didnʼt take any time off,” she said. "I would be in a rocking chair breastfeeding her, and my laptop is sitting next to me and Iʼm listening to a lecture.”“I became a pro at using the dictation tool on Microsoft Word” so “I could hold my baby and dictate a paper,” she said. “It was just a really wild time. I learned to be extremely flexible and gentle with myself … But I just knew God was like, ‘go, go right now.’”“It was super bumpy at some points,“ she said. ”But I chose the University of Mary because I feel like [University of Mary president] Monsignor [James] Shea and the university really put their money where their mouth is in terms of supporting nontraditional students — especially mothers.”“All of my professors were extremely accommodating with extensions if I needed one. A few professors gave me early finals because Isabel was born right at the end of that first semester,” she said. “So the University of Mary was really crucial to my success because everyone was behind me.” Helsel noted that her professors, especially counseling professor Olivia Wedel, and other facility members and students were champions in cheering her “all the way to the finish line.”Waddell “would always remind me that ‘Iʼm surrounded by support,’” Helsel said. “When youʼre super tired and youʼre on your fourth Crock-Pot meal of the week and you donʼt have anymore bandwidth left, I just thought, ‘I am surrounded by support.’”“Jesus is real and his promises are too,” Helsel said. “I just remember really having to trust the Lord in a new way and also having to be very open to my dream not looking exactly like I wanted.”“So yes, I went back to school and I got a masterʼs degree, but it looked absolutely nothing like I thought it was going to, but it was also better, just like he had promised me.”“Your dreams matter to him,“ she said. ”Trust him, and especially Our Lady, with your dreams. Because he wants both. He wants your motherhood and your dreams.”Catholic counseling offers ‘the keys to real human flourishing’Officially a licensed counselor, Helsel is ready to jump in headfirst to help others in need by utilizing the guidance offered by the Catholic Church.“I believe very deeply that the Catholic Church has the keys to real human flourishing,” she said. “So I knew I wanted to become a mental health professional with those guardrails in place, because I benefited so much from Catholic counseling.”“I want to turn back around and help the next woman or couple or … anyone in line that needs to hear the good news, coupled with solid mental health formation. Like St. Thomas Aquinas says, ‘faith and reason.’ We need both.”With her “perinatal mental health training,” Helsel hopes to primarily work in the womenʼs health category “to support other women, pregnant women, postpartum women,” she said. “And obviously I have a love for people who may have lost a child in a particular way.”Helsel is interested in helping those discerning vocations, as her oldest son plans to apply to the priesthood. She is also hoping to support the vocation of marriage as it is “under a particular attack at this time.”To accomplish all of this, Helsel has already started her own private practice called Concordia Counseling.“I chose Concordia because Mary Catherine had a congenital heart condition,” she said. “Concordia means heart to heart or to bring two hearts into harmony. I wanted to honor my baby in heaven and Our Lord with my work. And so I started Concordia Counseling.”“Iʼm just getting it started. I have a caseload of about 10 clients, but Iʼm hoping to accept more,“ Helsel said. ”I know that the work I want to do most of all involves not just mental health but the teachings of the Catholic Church.”“I just think the framework needs to be formed properly, and that is the Catholic understanding of the whole person. And from there we can jump off anywhere,” she said.

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After navigating loss and grief, Kelly Helsel is officially now a licensed counselor thanks to the guidance given to her by the Catholic Church and her desire to use her experience to help others.

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Canadian priest offered euthanasia twice while recovering from hip fracture #Catholic A priest from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, recovering from a hip fracture at Vancouver General Hospital (VGH) said he was twice offered assisted death by healthcare staff who knew he was a priest and opposed to euthanasia — a practice critics say is growing as medical professionals are increasingly encouraged to initiate such conversations.“There are some things you just don’t talk about to some people,” said Father Larry Holland, who has completed studies in healthcare chaplaincy in addition to serving at numerous parishes in the Archdiocese of Vancouver.He described his reaction when a doctor brought up the option of medical aid in dying (MAID) should his condition deteriorate. “I think I was very shocked,” he said. “It is such a sensitive subject.”Holland, 79, is currently convalescing at VGH after suffering a hip fracture from a fall in his bathroom on Christmas Day. He spoke to The B.C. Catholic about the offers of MAID from two healthcare professionals, despite their knowing he was a Catholic priest.Holland said he wasn’t dying then or now and that the doctor’s mention of MAID left him “kind of silent” for a moment. The doctor then raised the subject again, saying it’s “something they have to discuss with someone who’s been given a terminal diagnosis.”Holland recalled telling the doctor he was morally opposed to euthanasia. The doctor explained that “he just wanted to make sure that, if a [terminal] diagnosis came up or not … I knew of the different services I had access to.”Weeks later, a second offer of MAID came from a nurse who the priest said seemed uncomfortable raising the topic and was likely doing so out of compassion because of the pain he was enduring.“It’s a false compassion, really,” he said.A spokesman for Vancouver Coastal Health, which operates VGH, told The B.C. Catholic in an email that “staff may consider bringing up MAID based on their clinical judgment, provided they possess the necessary knowledge and skills to do so.”Staff are also “responsible for answering questions when patients bring up the topic of MAID,” the spokesman said.The two incidents arise as Canada approaches 100,000 assisted dying deaths.Father Larry Lynn, the archdiocese’s pro-life chaplain, said he was shocked to hear about Holland’s case.“This must surely be among the most appalling examples of Canada’s coercive and insensitive euthanasia regime,” Lynn said in an interview.He said it’s disturbing that a healthcare provider suggests euthanasia with any patient, and particularly when the patient is a consecrated religious known to be morally opposed. “It places the medical practitioner into the role of the devil, tempting a vulnerable person into mortal sin.”He’s equally troubled that Canadian euthanasia providers aren’t ruling out initiating discussions with Roman Catholics about MAID. In a document titled “Bringing up Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) as a Clinical Care Option,” the Canadian Association of MAID Assessors and Providers recommends against assuming patients oppose MAID because of their faith.The document says: “Healthcare professionals may draw incorrect assumptions about a person’s views on MAID; e.g., they may assume that a patient objects to MAID because she is a Roman Catholic nun, and yet Roman Catholic nuns and others dedicated to a faith-based way of life have requested MAID.” The booklet does not provide a source for the information.An updated version published in March removes the Catholic reference but gives the same advice regarding people of a “faith community” and even those of “strong faith.”Lynn called it “diabolical” to use a nun as an example for overcoming a patient’s moral objections.The booklet reflects a recent trend of encouraging healthcare personnel to initiate MAID discussions with patients. In November 2025, The B.C. Catholic reported on a little-known 2023 Health Canada document urging health authorities and professional bodies to adopt “practice standards” requiring doctors and nurse practitioners to raise MAID with certain patients.The MAID assessors and providers document similarly says physicians and nurse practitioners involved in care planning and consent processes “have a professional obligation to initiate a discussion about MAID if a patient might be eligible for MAID.” However, Health Canada does not have the authority to require provinces or health authorities to adopt such guidelines and The B.C. Catholic found no evidence of any public agency or professional body in British Columbia doing so.Amanda Achtman, creator of the anti-euthanasia project Dying to Meet You and ethics director of Canadian Physicians for Life, said initiating MAID discussions in a medical setting is a form of coercion that attacks patients’ deepest convictions when they’re vulnerable. To “torment” someone who has deeply held beliefs with an offer of MAID is “an attack on their identity,” Achtman said.Holland admitted he was in so much pain that he could “feel the temptation” to accept MAID. “It’s a human reaction. We always look for the easy way out.”Conservative member of Parliament Garnett Genuis has introduced Bill C-260, An Act to Prevent Coercion of Persons Not Seeking Medical Assistance in Dying, which would prohibit federal employees from proactively offering or recommending MAID. The bill resulted from incidents of bureaucrats such as veterans counselors trying to steer vulnerable people toward assisted dying.The Alberta government introduced legislation in March that would restrict regulated health professionals from providing information about MAID to their patients unless the patient brings it up. The Safeguards for Last Resort Termination of Life Act would also restrict the public display of MAID information, such as posters, within healthcare facilities.The bill is worth supporting, said Achtman, who lives in Calgary. “Simply being offered euthanasia already kills the person, because it defeats and deflates their sense of self-worth and value.”The unwanted initiation of MAID discussions in Canada made international headlines in March after Achtman shared the story of an 84-year-old woman, Miriam Lancaster, who went to VGH last year for severe back pain. She said the first doctor she spoke with in the emergency room raised MAID before any diagnostic work had been done. Lancaster’s daughter was present and confirmed the incident, adding her mother eventually responded to rehabilitation and rest.The Catholic chaplain at VGH, Father Ronald Sequeira, said it’s a constant struggle to help suffering patients not lose hope. He said he tries to offer them “some kind of encouragement and comfort,” but many give up.“The moment you lose hope, the devil comes in, in different personalities, and says, ‘Do you want MAID? I don’t want people to suffer.’”Patients often don’t realize that suffering is redemptive, he said. “God makes us more pure, more strong, through the suffering when we offer it up,” Sequeira said. “So we give hope — help them not to lose hope.”Holland said turning down an offer of death opens one to new experiences. Even enduring pain “can encourage growth,” he said. “It can motivate you, it can open up new worlds, new vistas, new opportunities,” including enriched relationships.He said he is sharing his story in the hope it will help others. “I went through it; you can go through it, too.”This story was first published in The B.C. Catholic and is reprinted here with permission and adaptations.
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Canadian priest offered euthanasia twice while recovering from hip fracture #Catholic A priest from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, recovering from a hip fracture at Vancouver General Hospital (VGH) said he was twice offered assisted death by healthcare staff who knew he was a priest and opposed to euthanasia — a practice critics say is growing as medical professionals are increasingly encouraged to initiate such conversations.“There are some things you just don’t talk about to some people,” said Father Larry Holland, who has completed studies in healthcare chaplaincy in addition to serving at numerous parishes in the Archdiocese of Vancouver.He described his reaction when a doctor brought up the option of medical aid in dying (MAID) should his condition deteriorate. “I think I was very shocked,” he said. “It is such a sensitive subject.”Holland, 79, is currently convalescing at VGH after suffering a hip fracture from a fall in his bathroom on Christmas Day. He spoke to The B.C. Catholic about the offers of MAID from two healthcare professionals, despite their knowing he was a Catholic priest.Holland said he wasn’t dying then or now and that the doctor’s mention of MAID left him “kind of silent” for a moment. The doctor then raised the subject again, saying it’s “something they have to discuss with someone who’s been given a terminal diagnosis.”Holland recalled telling the doctor he was morally opposed to euthanasia. The doctor explained that “he just wanted to make sure that, if a [terminal] diagnosis came up or not … I knew of the different services I had access to.”Weeks later, a second offer of MAID came from a nurse who the priest said seemed uncomfortable raising the topic and was likely doing so out of compassion because of the pain he was enduring.“It’s a false compassion, really,” he said.A spokesman for Vancouver Coastal Health, which operates VGH, told The B.C. Catholic in an email that “staff may consider bringing up MAID based on their clinical judgment, provided they possess the necessary knowledge and skills to do so.”Staff are also “responsible for answering questions when patients bring up the topic of MAID,” the spokesman said.The two incidents arise as Canada approaches 100,000 assisted dying deaths.Father Larry Lynn, the archdiocese’s pro-life chaplain, said he was shocked to hear about Holland’s case.“This must surely be among the most appalling examples of Canada’s coercive and insensitive euthanasia regime,” Lynn said in an interview.He said it’s disturbing that a healthcare provider suggests euthanasia with any patient, and particularly when the patient is a consecrated religious known to be morally opposed. “It places the medical practitioner into the role of the devil, tempting a vulnerable person into mortal sin.”He’s equally troubled that Canadian euthanasia providers aren’t ruling out initiating discussions with Roman Catholics about MAID. In a document titled “Bringing up Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) as a Clinical Care Option,” the Canadian Association of MAID Assessors and Providers recommends against assuming patients oppose MAID because of their faith.The document says: “Healthcare professionals may draw incorrect assumptions about a person’s views on MAID; e.g., they may assume that a patient objects to MAID because she is a Roman Catholic nun, and yet Roman Catholic nuns and others dedicated to a faith-based way of life have requested MAID.” The booklet does not provide a source for the information.An updated version published in March removes the Catholic reference but gives the same advice regarding people of a “faith community” and even those of “strong faith.”Lynn called it “diabolical” to use a nun as an example for overcoming a patient’s moral objections.The booklet reflects a recent trend of encouraging healthcare personnel to initiate MAID discussions with patients. In November 2025, The B.C. Catholic reported on a little-known 2023 Health Canada document urging health authorities and professional bodies to adopt “practice standards” requiring doctors and nurse practitioners to raise MAID with certain patients.The MAID assessors and providers document similarly says physicians and nurse practitioners involved in care planning and consent processes “have a professional obligation to initiate a discussion about MAID if a patient might be eligible for MAID.” However, Health Canada does not have the authority to require provinces or health authorities to adopt such guidelines and The B.C. Catholic found no evidence of any public agency or professional body in British Columbia doing so.Amanda Achtman, creator of the anti-euthanasia project Dying to Meet You and ethics director of Canadian Physicians for Life, said initiating MAID discussions in a medical setting is a form of coercion that attacks patients’ deepest convictions when they’re vulnerable. To “torment” someone who has deeply held beliefs with an offer of MAID is “an attack on their identity,” Achtman said.Holland admitted he was in so much pain that he could “feel the temptation” to accept MAID. “It’s a human reaction. We always look for the easy way out.”Conservative member of Parliament Garnett Genuis has introduced Bill C-260, An Act to Prevent Coercion of Persons Not Seeking Medical Assistance in Dying, which would prohibit federal employees from proactively offering or recommending MAID. The bill resulted from incidents of bureaucrats such as veterans counselors trying to steer vulnerable people toward assisted dying.The Alberta government introduced legislation in March that would restrict regulated health professionals from providing information about MAID to their patients unless the patient brings it up. The Safeguards for Last Resort Termination of Life Act would also restrict the public display of MAID information, such as posters, within healthcare facilities.The bill is worth supporting, said Achtman, who lives in Calgary. “Simply being offered euthanasia already kills the person, because it defeats and deflates their sense of self-worth and value.”The unwanted initiation of MAID discussions in Canada made international headlines in March after Achtman shared the story of an 84-year-old woman, Miriam Lancaster, who went to VGH last year for severe back pain. She said the first doctor she spoke with in the emergency room raised MAID before any diagnostic work had been done. Lancaster’s daughter was present and confirmed the incident, adding her mother eventually responded to rehabilitation and rest.The Catholic chaplain at VGH, Father Ronald Sequeira, said it’s a constant struggle to help suffering patients not lose hope. He said he tries to offer them “some kind of encouragement and comfort,” but many give up.“The moment you lose hope, the devil comes in, in different personalities, and says, ‘Do you want MAID? I don’t want people to suffer.’”Patients often don’t realize that suffering is redemptive, he said. “God makes us more pure, more strong, through the suffering when we offer it up,” Sequeira said. “So we give hope — help them not to lose hope.”Holland said turning down an offer of death opens one to new experiences. Even enduring pain “can encourage growth,” he said. “It can motivate you, it can open up new worlds, new vistas, new opportunities,” including enriched relationships.He said he is sharing his story in the hope it will help others. “I went through it; you can go through it, too.”This story was first published in The B.C. Catholic and is reprinted here with permission and adaptations.

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A Vancouver priest says he was twice offered assisted death by hospital medical staff who knew he was a priest and opposed to euthanasia — a practice critics say is growing.

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New York City street renamed for religious sister’s decades of service #Catholic A New York City street acquired a new name this past weekend honoring a Catholic sister’s decades of dedication to the East Harlem community.On Saturday, April 25, more than 100 people gathered to celebrate the newly named street — Sister Susanne Lachapelle Way — named for the life and legacy of Lachapelle and her contributions as a registered nurse, advocate, and Little Sister of the Assumption (LSA).“With a heart rooted in justice, she dedicated herself to serving the vulnerable through home visits, healthcare, and tireless advocacy, both locally and globally,” Rosario Jimenez, director for LSA Family in Mission, told EWTN News.The event and street naming flowed from Lachapelleʼs work with Little Sisters of the Assumption Family Health Service, a community-based nonprofit based in East Harlem. Founded by the Little Sisters, the organization offers numerous programs to help vulnerable families and children meet their basic needs. Crowd celebrates the unveiling of the Sister Susanne Lachapelle Way street sign in East Harlem, New York, on April 25, 2026. | Credit: Photo courtesy of Alysa Jette and Grace Ayres-Doyle The group has been in the city for almost 70 years and Lachapelle “really helped to set the trajectory for the organization,” Ray Lopez, chief program officer of LSA Family Health Service, told EWTN News.She was “a foundational visionary staff person and a leader who really, to this day, has a very profound impact on many of us who are on the staff and worked shoulder to shoulder with her, learning from her,” he said.“Since her passing, weʼve all … redoubled our efforts to find a way to keep LSAʼs original mission and vision going in this current environment,” Lopez said. “We really wanted to find ways to keep her name out there and the legacy going.”The street is on the southeast corner of East 115th Street and First Avenue. "Itʼs almost the exact midpoint of where Sister Susanne Lachapelle lived in the Little Sisters of the Assumption brownstone and where the LSA Family Health Service … center is located,” Lopez said.“She walked there every day for at least two decades,” he said. “We thought it was the appropriate place.”Sister Susanne and the Little Sisters: ‘Unsung heroes’Lachapelle entered the LSA order in 1962 and took the religious name Sister Susanne Mary of the Sacred Heart. She made her final vows in 1971. Sister Susanne Lachapelle. | Credit: Photo courtesy of LSA Family in Mission In her 60 years of religious life, she served in numerous areas and worked with many ministries. But for 45 years she made the community of East Harlem her home, helping to spearhead the LSA Family Health Service’s programs.As a nurse, Lachapelle conducted home visits, which “was a foundational program of LSA Family Health Service,” Lopez said. “All of the programs grew out of those interactions, those early interactions of nurses going into the homes to treat the sick and poor and really seeing conditions firsthand, sitting with families at their kitchen table, hearing their stories.”“Sister Susanne and the rest of the leadership created other programs to really provide wraparound services for families,” he said. "The Little Sisters set up a food pantry and a thrift store just to make sure that people had the very basics.”“From there, the services were about connecting people with public benefits, providing support around education, education enrichment, education navigation. A lot of … programs focused on maternal child health and early childhood development.”Along with her support for health and families, Lachapelle also had a passion for protecting the environment through her commitment to Pope Francis' Laudato Si', a call to protect our common home. Sister Susanne Lachapelle. | Credit: Photo courtesy of LSA Family in Mission Lachapelle decided to initiate “an environmental health component to the work that the Little Sisters were doing,” Lynn Tiede, a volunteer for LSA Health Service who worked with Lachapelle, told EWTN News.“She worked with the families and saw problems like asthma and other debilitating health things, she realized that … itʼs mold, itʼs the air quality, itʼs these other things that are really at the root of these health problems.”“Everybody was just so inspired … to see her traipsing into rough, rough buildings and just without any hesitation,” Tiede said. “If you went into a home and people were dealing with asthma, you … send in the environmental health team and then they try to work to get the building management to actually address those things.”With the success of her work, she even collaborated with the human rights group and nongovernmental organization Vivat International, where she helped bring voices and environmental issues to the United Nations, but she always remained “very, very humble,” Tiede said.Due to her humility “there were a few people who were against [the street-naming] when we proposed it, because they thought she would hate it — because she was so humble,” Tiede said. Sister Susanne Lachapelle Way in East Harlem, New York. | Credit: Photo courtesy of LSA Family in Mission Ultimately they chose to honor Lachapelle and the Little Sisters because they are “unsung heroes — these quiet heroes,” Tiede said.The process to get the street renamed began in 2024 and it was found to be an easier process than expected, as the city council was eager to acknowledge Lachapelle and the Little Sisters.Sister Susanne’s lasting impactAt the street naming celebration organizers “were expecting around 80 participants, but I think it was maybe 150 or a little bit more,” Jimenez said. “There were community members, families that she served, youth that she served, … volunteers, and of course, our board members and benefactors.”It honored her “simplicity and the way that she used to be a leader,” which was “was grounded in integrity, purpose, love,” Jimenez said. “Having a street named after her will honor all of that.”Reflecting on the event, Lopez said: “[It] feels like a dream because so many people came that worked with her in the past.”Despite having to move the event inside to avoid the cold and rain, the crowd of people stayed to celebrate. It “was crowded with people, and our center lobby was filled completely,” Lopez said. “It was just a very festive atmosphere.”He added: “It was really moving to have so many people there from so long ago that still feel it in their hearts, [how] the work here in East Harlem impacted their careers, impacted their lives, and that itʼs still a very significant thing for them,” he said.
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New York City street renamed for religious sister’s decades of service #Catholic A New York City street acquired a new name this past weekend honoring a Catholic sister’s decades of dedication to the East Harlem community.On Saturday, April 25, more than 100 people gathered to celebrate the newly named street — Sister Susanne Lachapelle Way — named for the life and legacy of Lachapelle and her contributions as a registered nurse, advocate, and Little Sister of the Assumption (LSA).“With a heart rooted in justice, she dedicated herself to serving the vulnerable through home visits, healthcare, and tireless advocacy, both locally and globally,” Rosario Jimenez, director for LSA Family in Mission, told EWTN News.The event and street naming flowed from Lachapelleʼs work with Little Sisters of the Assumption Family Health Service, a community-based nonprofit based in East Harlem. Founded by the Little Sisters, the organization offers numerous programs to help vulnerable families and children meet their basic needs. Crowd celebrates the unveiling of the Sister Susanne Lachapelle Way street sign in East Harlem, New York, on April 25, 2026. | Credit: Photo courtesy of Alysa Jette and Grace Ayres-Doyle The group has been in the city for almost 70 years and Lachapelle “really helped to set the trajectory for the organization,” Ray Lopez, chief program officer of LSA Family Health Service, told EWTN News.She was “a foundational visionary staff person and a leader who really, to this day, has a very profound impact on many of us who are on the staff and worked shoulder to shoulder with her, learning from her,” he said.“Since her passing, weʼve all … redoubled our efforts to find a way to keep LSAʼs original mission and vision going in this current environment,” Lopez said. “We really wanted to find ways to keep her name out there and the legacy going.”The street is on the southeast corner of East 115th Street and First Avenue. "Itʼs almost the exact midpoint of where Sister Susanne Lachapelle lived in the Little Sisters of the Assumption brownstone and where the LSA Family Health Service … center is located,” Lopez said.“She walked there every day for at least two decades,” he said. “We thought it was the appropriate place.”Sister Susanne and the Little Sisters: ‘Unsung heroes’Lachapelle entered the LSA order in 1962 and took the religious name Sister Susanne Mary of the Sacred Heart. She made her final vows in 1971. Sister Susanne Lachapelle. | Credit: Photo courtesy of LSA Family in Mission In her 60 years of religious life, she served in numerous areas and worked with many ministries. But for 45 years she made the community of East Harlem her home, helping to spearhead the LSA Family Health Service’s programs.As a nurse, Lachapelle conducted home visits, which “was a foundational program of LSA Family Health Service,” Lopez said. “All of the programs grew out of those interactions, those early interactions of nurses going into the homes to treat the sick and poor and really seeing conditions firsthand, sitting with families at their kitchen table, hearing their stories.”“Sister Susanne and the rest of the leadership created other programs to really provide wraparound services for families,” he said. "The Little Sisters set up a food pantry and a thrift store just to make sure that people had the very basics.”“From there, the services were about connecting people with public benefits, providing support around education, education enrichment, education navigation. A lot of … programs focused on maternal child health and early childhood development.”Along with her support for health and families, Lachapelle also had a passion for protecting the environment through her commitment to Pope Francis' Laudato Si', a call to protect our common home. Sister Susanne Lachapelle. | Credit: Photo courtesy of LSA Family in Mission Lachapelle decided to initiate “an environmental health component to the work that the Little Sisters were doing,” Lynn Tiede, a volunteer for LSA Health Service who worked with Lachapelle, told EWTN News.“She worked with the families and saw problems like asthma and other debilitating health things, she realized that … itʼs mold, itʼs the air quality, itʼs these other things that are really at the root of these health problems.”“Everybody was just so inspired … to see her traipsing into rough, rough buildings and just without any hesitation,” Tiede said. “If you went into a home and people were dealing with asthma, you … send in the environmental health team and then they try to work to get the building management to actually address those things.”With the success of her work, she even collaborated with the human rights group and nongovernmental organization Vivat International, where she helped bring voices and environmental issues to the United Nations, but she always remained “very, very humble,” Tiede said.Due to her humility “there were a few people who were against [the street-naming] when we proposed it, because they thought she would hate it — because she was so humble,” Tiede said. Sister Susanne Lachapelle Way in East Harlem, New York. | Credit: Photo courtesy of LSA Family in Mission Ultimately they chose to honor Lachapelle and the Little Sisters because they are “unsung heroes — these quiet heroes,” Tiede said.The process to get the street renamed began in 2024 and it was found to be an easier process than expected, as the city council was eager to acknowledge Lachapelle and the Little Sisters.Sister Susanne’s lasting impactAt the street naming celebration organizers “were expecting around 80 participants, but I think it was maybe 150 or a little bit more,” Jimenez said. “There were community members, families that she served, youth that she served, … volunteers, and of course, our board members and benefactors.”It honored her “simplicity and the way that she used to be a leader,” which was “was grounded in integrity, purpose, love,” Jimenez said. “Having a street named after her will honor all of that.”Reflecting on the event, Lopez said: “[It] feels like a dream because so many people came that worked with her in the past.”Despite having to move the event inside to avoid the cold and rain, the crowd of people stayed to celebrate. It “was crowded with people, and our center lobby was filled completely,” Lopez said. “It was just a very festive atmosphere.”He added: “It was really moving to have so many people there from so long ago that still feel it in their hearts, [how] the work here in East Harlem impacted their careers, impacted their lives, and that itʼs still a very significant thing for them,” he said.

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For 45 years, Sister Susanne Lachapelle made the community of East Harlem her home, helping to spearhead the LSA Family Health Service’s programs to help the most vulnerable.

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Pope Leo XIV: Universities must seek truth and form the whole person #Catholic MALABO, Equatorial Guinea — Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday said the inauguration of a new university campus in Equatorial Guinea is “an act of trust in human beings,” praising investment in the education of young people during the final stop of his Africa trip.Speaking at the opening of the Pope Leo XIV University Campus in Basupú, part of the National University of Equatorial Guinea (UNGE), the pontiff said the new institution represents more than new buildings.“This inauguration is an act of trust in human beings, an affirmation of the fact that it is worth the effort to continue wagering on the formation of new generations and on the task, so demanding and yet so noble, of seeking the truth and putting knowledge at the service of the common good,” Leo said.The new campus, in the northern part of Bioko Island, is the country’s largest academic facility. The government chose to dedicate it to the pope in conjunction with his visit. Founded in 1995, the National University of Equatorial Guinea was established to help form national leaders and align academic and professional training with the country’s development needs.Leo was welcomed by Rector Filiberto Ntutumu Nguema Nchama and the archbishop of Malabo, Archbishop Juan Nsue Edjang May. A bust of the pope was unveiled before he met with students and professors gathered in the square outside the main entrance.Students appealed to the pope for encouragement in becoming “a generation characterized by discipline, respect, responsibility, and commitment to the common good,” one aimed not only at personal success but also at contributing to the development of Equatorial Guinea.Faculty members, for their part, pledged themselves to academic excellence, innovation, and the integral formation of students. University officials also stressed that science and technology are powerful tools whose value depends on how they are used and that Christian moral tradition offers essential guidance in that task.In his address, Leo turned to an image deeply resonant in Equatorial Guinea: the ceiba, the country’s national tree.“For the people of Equatorial Guinea, the ceiba, the national tree, has a great symbolic meaning,” he said. “A tree puts forth deep roots and ascends slowly with patience and strength to the heights, embodying in itself a fruitfulness that does not exist for itself.”The pope said the tree offers “a parable of that which a university is called to be”: an institution rooted in serious study, living memory, and the persevering search for truth.Leo then drew on biblical imagery to reflect on the relationship between faith, reason, and knowledge. Referring to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in Genesis, he said the biblical account is not a rejection of human intelligence.“It should be emphasized that this story is not about a condemnation of knowledge as such, as if faith was afraid of intelligence or looked with suspicion upon the desire for knowledge,” he said.Instead, he warned against knowledge detached from truth and goodness and reduced to self-interest or domination.“The problem, therefore, does not rest with knowledge but in its deviation towards an intelligence that no longer seeks to correspond to reality but rather to twist it for its own purposes,” he said.Leo said Christian tradition points to another tree — the cross — as the redemption, not the negation, of human intelligence.“Christian tradition contemplates another tree, that of the cross, not as a denial of human intelligence but as a sign of its redemption,” he said.“At the cross, human beings are invited to allow their desire for knowledge to be healed: to rediscover that truth is not fabricated, not manipulated nor possessed like a trophy but welcomed, sought with humility, and served with responsibility.”For that reason, he said, Christ is not an escape from intellectual effort.“From a Christian perspective, Christ does not appear as a religious escape in the face of intellectual endeavors, as if faith began where reason ended,” Leo said. “On the contrary, in him the profound harmony between truth, reason, and freedom are manifested.”The pope said the Church’s concern in education is that young people be formed integrally, “rather than giving the mere appearance of success.”He added that the university should be judged less by its size or number of graduates than by the quality of the people it forms for society.“Here on this campus, the ceiba of Equatorial Guinea is called to bear fruits of progress rooted in solidarity and of a knowledge that ennobles and develops the human being in an integral way,” he said. “It is called to offer the fruits of intelligence and uprightness, of competence and wisdom, of excellence and service.”“If generations of men and women are profoundly shaped in this place by truth and are capable of transforming their own existence into a gift for others, then the ceiba will remain an eloquent symbol rooted in the best things of this land, elevated by wisdom and abounding in fruits that pay tribute to Equatorial Guinea and enrich the entire human family.”Before the university event, the pope also made a brief visit to St. Elizabeth of Hungary Cathedral in Malabo, built in 1897.This story was first published by ACI Stampa, the Italian-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
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Pope Leo XIV: Universities must seek truth and form the whole person #Catholic MALABO, Equatorial Guinea — Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday said the inauguration of a new university campus in Equatorial Guinea is “an act of trust in human beings,” praising investment in the education of young people during the final stop of his Africa trip.Speaking at the opening of the Pope Leo XIV University Campus in Basupú, part of the National University of Equatorial Guinea (UNGE), the pontiff said the new institution represents more than new buildings.“This inauguration is an act of trust in human beings, an affirmation of the fact that it is worth the effort to continue wagering on the formation of new generations and on the task, so demanding and yet so noble, of seeking the truth and putting knowledge at the service of the common good,” Leo said.The new campus, in the northern part of Bioko Island, is the country’s largest academic facility. The government chose to dedicate it to the pope in conjunction with his visit. Founded in 1995, the National University of Equatorial Guinea was established to help form national leaders and align academic and professional training with the country’s development needs.Leo was welcomed by Rector Filiberto Ntutumu Nguema Nchama and the archbishop of Malabo, Archbishop Juan Nsue Edjang May. A bust of the pope was unveiled before he met with students and professors gathered in the square outside the main entrance.Students appealed to the pope for encouragement in becoming “a generation characterized by discipline, respect, responsibility, and commitment to the common good,” one aimed not only at personal success but also at contributing to the development of Equatorial Guinea.Faculty members, for their part, pledged themselves to academic excellence, innovation, and the integral formation of students. University officials also stressed that science and technology are powerful tools whose value depends on how they are used and that Christian moral tradition offers essential guidance in that task.In his address, Leo turned to an image deeply resonant in Equatorial Guinea: the ceiba, the country’s national tree.“For the people of Equatorial Guinea, the ceiba, the national tree, has a great symbolic meaning,” he said. “A tree puts forth deep roots and ascends slowly with patience and strength to the heights, embodying in itself a fruitfulness that does not exist for itself.”The pope said the tree offers “a parable of that which a university is called to be”: an institution rooted in serious study, living memory, and the persevering search for truth.Leo then drew on biblical imagery to reflect on the relationship between faith, reason, and knowledge. Referring to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in Genesis, he said the biblical account is not a rejection of human intelligence.“It should be emphasized that this story is not about a condemnation of knowledge as such, as if faith was afraid of intelligence or looked with suspicion upon the desire for knowledge,” he said.Instead, he warned against knowledge detached from truth and goodness and reduced to self-interest or domination.“The problem, therefore, does not rest with knowledge but in its deviation towards an intelligence that no longer seeks to correspond to reality but rather to twist it for its own purposes,” he said.Leo said Christian tradition points to another tree — the cross — as the redemption, not the negation, of human intelligence.“Christian tradition contemplates another tree, that of the cross, not as a denial of human intelligence but as a sign of its redemption,” he said.“At the cross, human beings are invited to allow their desire for knowledge to be healed: to rediscover that truth is not fabricated, not manipulated nor possessed like a trophy but welcomed, sought with humility, and served with responsibility.”For that reason, he said, Christ is not an escape from intellectual effort.“From a Christian perspective, Christ does not appear as a religious escape in the face of intellectual endeavors, as if faith began where reason ended,” Leo said. “On the contrary, in him the profound harmony between truth, reason, and freedom are manifested.”The pope said the Church’s concern in education is that young people be formed integrally, “rather than giving the mere appearance of success.”He added that the university should be judged less by its size or number of graduates than by the quality of the people it forms for society.“Here on this campus, the ceiba of Equatorial Guinea is called to bear fruits of progress rooted in solidarity and of a knowledge that ennobles and develops the human being in an integral way,” he said. “It is called to offer the fruits of intelligence and uprightness, of competence and wisdom, of excellence and service.”“If generations of men and women are profoundly shaped in this place by truth and are capable of transforming their own existence into a gift for others, then the ceiba will remain an eloquent symbol rooted in the best things of this land, elevated by wisdom and abounding in fruits that pay tribute to Equatorial Guinea and enrich the entire human family.”Before the university event, the pope also made a brief visit to St. Elizabeth of Hungary Cathedral in Malabo, built in 1897.This story was first published by ACI Stampa, the Italian-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

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At the inauguration of a new campus named in his honor in Equatorial Guinea, the pope urged the education of young people in truth, responsibility, and service to the common good.

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Picture of the day View of the village of Gyakar surrounded by a poplar grove in the Upper Mustang region of Nepal. The summits of the Damodar Himal, the Purkung Himal and the Annapurnas are visible in the distance. A suspended bridge over the deep canyon (left) connects it to the neighbouring Chele village and thence to the rest of Nepal. #ImageOfTheDay
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Picture of the day View of the village of Gyakar surrounded by a poplar grove in the Upper Mustang region of Nepal. The summits of the Damodar Himal, the Purkung Himal and the Annapurnas are visible in the distance. A suspended bridge over the deep canyon (left) connects it to the neighbouring Chele village and thence to the rest of Nepal. #ImageOfTheDay

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Picture of the day
View of the village of Gyakar surrounded by a poplar grove in the Upper Mustang region of Nepal. The summits of the Damodar Himal, the Purkung Himal and the Annapurnas are visible in the distance. A suspended bridge over the deep canyon (left) connects it to the neighbouring Chele village and thence to the rest of Nepal.
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