For more than 30 years, Dr. Pietro Bartolo said he has examined more than 350,000 people and performed postmortem examinations on those who died making the crossing to Lampedusa, where migrants rescued from the Mediterranean first arrived.

The nation’s 250th anniversary and the conclusion of the 2026 National Eucharistic Pilgrimage in Philadelphia July 5 evoke memories of a major Eucharistic gathering held in that city the same year the U.S. marked its bicentennial.

I extend my heartfelt congratulations to all Americans on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. This semiquincentennial marks that defining moment in the history of the United States of America, July 4, 1776, that gave enduring voice to the ideals of liberty, equality, the pursuit of happiness, justice and democratic self-government.

Following the July 1 illicit consecration of four bishops at its seminary in Écône, Switzerland, by the now-schismatic traditionalist Society of St. Pius X — an action without papal approval that incurred automatic excommunication — that question isn’t simply one of Church politics.

The Vatican has declared the Society of St. Pius X to be “in schism” after the traditionalist group consecrated four bishops without the papal mandate, marking the most serious rupture in the Church since Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre’s unauthorized episcopal consecrations in 1988.

Pope Leo XIV spent what is traditionally his weekly day off on Tuesday issuing a flurry of legislation and appointments June 30, overhauling the Vatican’s financial watchdog agency, revising the governing structure of the Vicariate of Rome and making several appointments in the Roman Curia.

The National Eucharistic Pilgrimage ends July 5 with a closing Mass, procession and celebration in Philadelphia, which will begin with a special video message from Pope Leo XIV.

Vice President JD Vance said during a June 30 interview that he sees some of the Vatican’s views on immigration as “troubling.”

A woman religious in McAllen, Texas, told OSV News the “power of prayer” was key to the release of a religious sister detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as she walked to Sunday Mass — but foreign-born religious in the area are now on their guard after the incident.

Despite a personal appeal from Pope Leo XIV, the Society of St. Pius X went ahead July 1 with the unauthorized consecration of four new bishops at its seminary in Écône, Switzerland, with Mass broadcasted live and thousands of faithful attending.