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Hello, I'm Gina Christian, and you're listening to our OSV newscast for Friday, July 31st, 2026. Today is the feast of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus, or the Jesuits. He was born in 1491 in Spain and died in 1556 in Rome. And in that span, he went from soldier to theologian and mystic and saint. He deserves his own podcast, so I'll just say, Saint Ignatius, pray for us. Now let's catch you up on the Catholic news of the day, and here we go. Yesterday, a federal judge temporarily shielded four orders of women religious and Catholic health care ministries from having to enforce a New York State law that allows physicians to aid terminally ill adults to die by suicide. The Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm, the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, the Missionary Sisters of St. Benedict, and the Little Sisters of the Poor had all previously sued the state, arguing the law would require them to violate their faith by facilitating such suicides for their patients. U.S. District Judge Anne Narachi issued a temporary restraining order, giving New York Attorney General Leticia James until August 20th to respond. James's office did not immediately reply to OSV News' request for comment. Bishop John Barris of Rockville Center, New York, said in a statement through Beckett, the religious liberty law firm representing the Catholic entities, New York cannot force the Church to answer suffering with suicide or abandon the sick and dying when they need care most. Until our legal fight is resolved, this temporary agreement keeps our ministries free to serve every patient according to the gospel. The blast shattered windows and doors at Al-Ahi Arab Hospital and damaged an elevator serving its diagnostic center, though the hospital itself was not directly struck. Hospital manager Musa Ayad said the explosion traumatized patients and staff, underscoring the ongoing strain on Gaza's health system despite the October 2025 ceasefire. Ayad said hospitals continue to face shortages of medicines, equipment, and basic supplies, while thousands of patients remain on surgical waiting lists or need treatment outside Gaza. Local emergency officials also reported an increase in strikes on residential buildings and said evacuation orders often leave families unsure where attacks will occur. Civil defense crews cited equipment shortages that delayed their response, while aid workers said the conflict's psychological and humanitarian toll remains severe. Ayad said, even after more than nine months of the ceasefire, the war's impact is still present in every part of daily life. The Hillbilly Thomists are in the midst of a 10-city U.S. tour that's scheduled to end on August 8th, the Feast of St. Dominic. That performance will be in Nashville as part of Dominican Fest at the Dominican campus, home to three schools run by the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia. The Hillbilly Thomists are a bluegrass and folk band made up entirely of Dominican friars, and they launched their 2026 Strange Land Tour on July 24th in Providence, Rhode Island. The tour has included stops in New York City, Bear, Delaware, and Baltimore. The band played yesterday at the Catholic University of America. Their upcoming performances include August 1st at the Kingfisher Folk Festival in Asheville, North Carolina, August 3rd at the Center for Evangelical Catholicism in Greenville, South Carolina, an August 4th show at the Capitol Theater in Macon, Georgia, and an August 6th performance at the Lyric Theater in Birmingham, Alabama. Back on July 28th, the band launched its sixth album, Strangeland, featuring 10 new songs. The band performs a mixture of bluegrass folk, gospel, and original songs composed by the Dominican Friars. The band was founded by members of the Dominican Province of St. Joseph, which encompasses the Northeast United States and is one of four Dominican provinces in the nation. The Diocese of Cádiz and Theuta is offering emergency assistance to civil authorities after more than 60,000 migrants crossed from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Teuta, creating the largest migration crisis in the territory's history. The sudden influx increased the enclave's population by nearly 50%, forcing thousands of people to sleep in streets and public parks. At least 19 migrants died while attempting to swim around border breakwaters, and officials expect the death toll to rise as search and rescue operations continue. In response, local Catholic leaders announced that special collections taken at parishes over the weekend will directly fund diocesan migrant centers, providing immediate food and emergency aid. Church leaders also urged the faithful to pray for those suffering and for government officials tasked with managing the emergency. The crisis has sparked sharp political backlash across Europe. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni warned of growing border security risks and proposed suspending border-free Schengen travel with Spain, a move publicly supported by Finnish officials. And finally, as an estimated 350,000 Haitian immigrants in the U.S. face losing temporary protected status, church leaders are calling for prayer and action. The concern follows the U.S. Supreme Court's June 25th ruling allowing the Trump administration to end a program that had temporarily protected eligible Haitian and Syrian immigrants from deportation. On July 28th, Cardinal Shibri Langlois of Le Calle, Haiti, celebrated a mass of solidarity at Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Tacoma Park, Maryland, for Haitians affected by the policy changes. In his homily, the Cardinal said the gathering was meant to bring before God the pain, sorrow, and anxiety of the Haitian community in the U.S. as it faces the consequences of the end of TPS. Joining the Cardinal as concelebrants at the Mass were Archbishop Thomas Wensky of Miami, Archbishop Robert Casey of Cincinnati, Haitian-born Bishop Jacques Fab Jun of Charleston, South Carolina, and several priests, including those from Haiti serving Haitian immigrants in the U.S. Earlier that day, the Cardinal and the three U.S. bishops met with U.S. Senators and their staff on Capitol Hill, urging lawmakers to pass legislation that would extend Haiti's temporary protected status designation. And that's your OSV Newscast for today. I'm Gina Christian. Check out the show notes for a link to our website where you can find the stories in this episode. Make sure to subscribe to this podcast, follow us on social media, and bookmark osvnews.com. As always, a shout out to our listeners in the U.S., Canada, and all over the world. We see you and we're grateful for you. Drop us a line, let us know what you think. We'll be back on Monday. Thanks so much for listening. God bless.

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