Happy Friday friends,
I am supposed to be going on vacation this evening, through at least next week. I say supposed to be because the plans are a bit up in the air right now.
My version of a break consists of repairing to a particular corner of Western Pa., from whence hail my mother’s clan, and spending as much time clustered around a muddy puddle of a lake with as many of my family, immediate and extended, as I can manage.
It is, in the best sense, in the middle of nowhere. That is to say there is nothing to draw anyone there who isn’t in some way from there. I can’t claim to be from there, strictly speaking, though my family have been there since my great-great grandfather’s time. And I have gone there every summer of my life, bar one when I was in the Holy Land for an extended stay back in 2000 — a story for another time maybe.
For me, having seen the total terraforming of my childhood neighborhood in Chicago and the literal demolition of the house where we lived in the UK, the ramshackle lakehouse built by my grandparents is the only fixed point on the map of my life. It has become, for me, home base, the point of return, the place to which I spend the rest of the year trying to steal safely back.
Unfortunately, our allotted window there this year is forecasting a week’s worth of rain and decidedly unseasonal temperatures. All else being equal, this wouldn’t bother me, watching storms over the water from under the eves is the best television there is, and I’ve no objection to days of beer and books.
But the real magic of the place is family, and the wide open space for each sprawling generation of cousins to spend the days chasing rabbits, catching crayfish and generally banding together to burn themselves out. Being unable to will siblings for my daughter into existence, it’s the next best thing I can give her every year. However, twenty-some kids, aged 12-infant, cooped up indoors is a holiday of a different complexion for all concerned.
So we’re watching the weather to see what it brings. If it’s a washout, we’ll regroup.
In the meantime, here’s the news.
The News
The Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines urged Catholics this week not to visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Naju in South Korea.
The Philippines bishops’ conference president Archbishop Gilbert Garcera noted in a July 13 statement that South Korea’s Gwangju archdiocese had issued a negative judgment on the events at Naju, following a discernment process in communion with the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.
The statement appears to be the first instance of a national bishops’ conference publicly issuing its own formal guidance on the Naju site, telling Catholics not to organize, promote, or participate in pilgrimages there.
The intervention follows a flurry of declarations about the phenomenon issued by archdioceses in Southeast Asia — an indication of growing concern at the shrine’s influence on clergy and laity.
What are the origins of the Naju shrine? How have bishops responded? And what’s likely to happen next?
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The Society of St. Pius X announced this week that an appeal has been filed against the July 2 decree which declared six bishops to be excommunicated.
In an unsigned notice to media, released via the SSPX website, the society stated that “in response to the decree issued on 2 July 2026 by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, [the society] submitted on 11 July a preliminary recourse to the same Dicastery, in accordance with canons 1734 and following of the Code of Canon Law.”
The society did not release the text of the submitted recourse. And absent that, their statement leaves open a number of questions, which will bear directly upon how such an appeal is received within the Vatican — or if it is rejected out of hand.
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Cardinal Baldassare Reina, vicar of the Diocese of Rome, has announced that the pope’s diocese will join an Italian bishops’ conference initiative to hold a national collection for Venezuelan earthquake victims.
Reina said in a July 13 letter to priests that the Roman Church “wishes to join in this gesture of communion and charity, so that Christian communities may tangibly demonstrate their solidarity with their brothers and sisters who have seen their homes destroyed, lost their loved ones, and are forced to live in conditions of extreme precariousness.”
The earthquakes have so far left 4,734 dead, 16,740 injured, almost 1,000 buildings partially or fully destroyed, and 17,907 homeless, with numbers being updated almost daily. Diplomatic and Church sources told The Pillar they fear the final death toll could be around 20,000 to 30,000, or even higher, with nearly 30,000 people still missing.
Reina’s letter came after the Italian bishops’ conference announced July 9 that a nationwide collection would be held at Sunday Masses across Italy July 26.
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A new law in Switzerland that will end military service exemptions for clergy has drawn criticism from Christian groups in the country.
Members of the clergy have long been exempt from mandatory military service in the country, because they were designated as essential workers in the civilian population. But revisions to the nation’s military law, which took effect June 1, removed these exemptions for priests, monks, and members of religious orders.
The country’s Federal Council defended the change on the grounds that the ministry of clergy members is no longer essential in modern society. Yep, that’s what they said.
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One of the remaining great unknowns of the Leonine pontificate is when the pope could choose to replace the heads of Vatican departments.
At the largest and most influential of these, the Secretariat of State, Pope Leo XIV could replace Cardinal Pietro Parolin as Secretary of State as early as this summer, according to several diplomatic and Vatican sources who spoke to The Pillar.
The move, if it happens, would replace the Vatican’s second-highest official and the pope’s closest institutional advisor. According to several of these sources, Pope Leo has privately expressed some reservations about Parolin’s effectiveness as the epicenter of curial organization, a dynamic that may have led the pope to start considering replacing him.
While no one knows except the pope when he might choose to replace the 71-year-old Parolin, speculation has already begun about his potential successors.
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A new report released this week has highlighted the growing mental health challenges facing seminaries, and the need for bishops to focus on the quality of seminarians, rather than the number of men in formation for their dioceses.
The report, from the University of Notre Dame’s McGrath Institute for Church Life, found a deficiency in the use and implementation of psychological resources in seminary formation and wants to see greater collaboration between seminary formators and psychological staff.
It also flagged a “startling disconnect” between formations and clinical professionals over the sexual maturity of new students.
The report proposes concrete ways for formators to address the growing mental health needs of seminarians today along with methods to better evaluate their worthiness for ordination.
Read all about the report here.
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Police are investigating the apparent theft of more than $600,000 from a parish in Ontario, and the pastor has been removed from ministry while the investigation takes place.
Father David Collins, O.F.M. Conv., has served as pastor at St. John Parish in the Archdiocese of Kingston since at least 2017. On June 13, the archdiocese announced that “[a] financial issue has come to light regarding Friar David’s use of the accounts of St. John Parish.”
Archbishop Michael Mulhall of Kingston said an investigation had been launched into “significant financial irregularities” that had been discovered in the parish’s accounts.
A July 10 letter from the archbishop was sent to local members of the Franciscan community, with updates on the situation.
“A review of all parish accounts extending back to 2019 has determined that over $630,000.00 has been taken from the parish accounts through the issuing of irregular cheques,” said the letter, which was obtained by The Pillar.
“At this time, it is unclear where all of the funds were distributed. The police are now investigating,” the letter said.
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India’s largest lay Catholic organization condemned Monday an incident in the state of West Bengal in which a mob reportedly threatened violence against religious sisters.
The All India Catholic Union said that on July 12 a group of 60 people entered a house of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians in Barasat, West Bengal, and demanded that they immediately demolish a memorial chapel and cemetery or face violence.
The AICU alleged that the individuals involved in the incident were linked to the Hindu Jagran Manch (Forum for Hindu Awakening), a Hindu nationalist group affiliated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, an influential umbrella body.
Papal holidays
Leo departed Rome last week for Castel Gandolfo, where he remains in papal semi-purdah for a three week vacation.
To be sure, the pope never gets to actually break entirely from what is going on in the world, it is a big Church he runs after all, and I am sure the rounds of daily briefings will continue in some form, and some decisions will need to be taken in real time and not wait for his return.
But it is a real break, nonetheless. The daily rounds of audiences are halted, as are the endless and punishing public appearances — I think we can forget exactly how emotionally draining it can be to be constantly under a microscope, or camera lens, and Leo is.