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The Archbishop of San Antonio is set to hold a memorial Mass on Thursday following the discovery of dozens of migrants who died in an abandoned tractor-trailer in Texas. Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller, and Auxiliary Bishops Michael Boulette and Gary Janak will preside at a memorial Mass for the migrants June 30. The migrants were found dead in an abandoned tractor-trailer baking in extreme heat in San Antonio, Texas on the evening of June 27. The official death toll has risen to at least 53, and the dead include 22 Mexicans, 7 Guatemalans, and 2 Hondurans, with the others not yet having been identified. Four people have so far been charged in the deaths.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/251674/san-antonio-archbishop-to-preside-at-memorial-mass-after-texas-migrant-deaths
The Nicaraguan Ministry of the Interior has ordered the closure of 101 nongovernmental organizations, including the Missionaries of Charity, the congregation founded by Saint Teresa of Calcutta that is dedicated to serving the poorest of the poor. According to the government of Daniel Ortega, the missionaries are not accredited “by the Ministry for the Family to function as a nursery-center for childhood development, home for girls, and home for the elderly,” nor “do they have an operating permit from the Ministry of Education to provide remedial education for students” and their “financial statements reported to the Ministry of the Interior don’t agree” with other documents presented for review. Among other ministries, the Missionaries of Charity run the Immaculate Heart of Mary Home in the city of Granada, where they take in abandoned adolescents or victims of abuse. Managua Auxiliary Bishop Silvio José Báez, who has been living in exile at the request of Pope Francis since April 2019 due to numerous death threats, deplored the decision of the Ortega government to expel the Missionaries of Charity from the country.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/251675/ortega-government-orders-dissolution-of-missionaries-of-charity-in-nicaragua
Today, the Church celebrates The First Holy Martyrs of the Holy Roman Church. These “proto-martyrs” of Rome were the first Christians persecuted en masse by the Emperor Nero in the year 64, before the martyrdom of Saints Peter and Paul. Nero was widely believed to have caused the fire that burned down much of Rome in the same year. He blamed the fire on the Christians and put them to death, many by crucifixion, being feeding to the wild animals in his circus, or by being tied to posts and lit up as human torches. Today, the site of Nero's Circus, also the location of Saint Peter's martyrdom, is marked by the Piazza dei Protomartiri Romani in the Vatican next to Saint Peter's basilica.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/the-first-holy-martyrs-of-the-holy-roman-church-502