null / Credit: Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 6, 2024 / 18:37 pm (CNA).

Ryan Burge, a leading researcher on religion and politics, recently compiled data indicating that ?cafeteria Catholicism? is rampant in the United States. Specifically, the country?s Catholics express widespread disagreement with the Church?s teaching on abortion, euthanasia, and the death penalty.

The term ?cafeteria Catholic? refers to a Catholic who picks and chooses which Church teachings he or she affirms and adheres to. Washington, D.C., Cardinal Wilton Gregory recently used the term to describe President Joe Biden, who as president has advocated for unrestricted abortion through all nine months of pregnancy.

Burge found that only 0.9% of Catholics agree with Church teaching on all three of the issues.  His conclusions were based on 2022 data collected by the Global Social Survey (GSS) and compiled by the Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA). Burge told CNA that the 0.9% number is an all-time low since GSS started collecting data in 1972.

?It?s not just many Catholics who disagree with the teachings of the Church ? in fact, if you look at the data, it?s nearly all of them,? said Burge, who teaches political science at Eastern Illinois University. 

This coincides with an overall 12% decline in Church attendance among Catholics over the last two decades, as found by Gallup.

Abortion

Despite the Catholic Church?s clear teaching that abortion is gravely immoral, Burge said, there is ?clear majority support for elective abortion in almost every circumstance.?

Over 50% of Catholics support abortion when the mother?s health is at risk, the child is the result of rape, if there is a ?strong chance of serious defect in the baby,? and when the family or mother either does not want or cannot support another child. 

Nearly 90% of Catholics support abortion in such cases in which the mother?s health is at risk. Over 80% of Catholics support abortion in cases of rape, and close to 80% of Catholics support abortion for serious defects. 

ARDA also reports that 17.7% of Catholics believe abortion should be illegal in all cases. 

Euthanasia 

Regarding euthanasia, which the Church teaches is morally unacceptable, and suicide, which the Catechism of the Catholic Church calls ?contrary to love for the living God,? most Catholics again are not in agreement with the Church?s teaching. 

According to the data, 70% of Catholics support euthanasia, defined in the survey as a person?s ability to commit suicide in the case of an incurable disease. As pointed out by Burge, Catholics? support for euthanasia and assisted suicide has been growing since the 1980s. 

Death penalty 

In recent decades, the Church has been increasingly voicing its opposition to the death penalty. In 2018, the Catechism of the Catholic Church was revised to reflect that opposition.

The catechism acknowledges that in the past ?recourse to the death penalty on the part of legitimate authority, following a fair trial, was long considered an appropriate response to the gravity of certain crimes and an acceptable, albeit extreme, means of safeguarding the common good.?

?Today, however, there is an increasing awareness that the dignity of the person is not lost even after the commission of very serious crimes. In addition, a new understanding has emerged of the significance of penal sanctions imposed by the state. Lastly, more effective systems of detention have been developed, which ensure the due protection of citizens but, at the same time, do not definitively deprive the guilty of the possibility of redemption,? the catechism indicates.

The catechism goes on to quote Pope Francis in stating that ?the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person.?

Despite this, ARDA found that 61% of Catholics are in favor of the death penalty for convicted murderers. Support for the death penalty among Catholics has waned in recent decades after reaching a high of 81% in 1990. 

?A lot of work to do?

Monsignor Charles Pope, a Catholic author and pastor of Holy Comforter-Saint Cyprian Church in the Archdiocese of Washington, told CNA that the 0.9% number does not accurately represent Catholics? ?buy-in? to the faith. 

Pope called the study ?very unfair? and said it is ?bringing things together which need to be analyzed separately.? He pointed out that the Church is clear in its teaching that abortion is intrinsically evil, while there is more leeway when it comes to the death penalty, which he described as a ?prudential? rather than a ?doctrinal? matter. 

He agreed, however, that there is still a disconnect between Church teaching and what many Catholics believe. This, he thinks, is due to what he called ?the politicization of moral issues.? 

?Politics, sadly, is driving the conversation more than faith, because we are very worldly in our outlook,? he said. ?So, if there?s one positive thing to take from this study it?s that we certainly have a lot of work to do to convince our own faithful of our teachings.?

?We?ve got a lot of work to do, but it doesn?t mean our teachings are wrong,? he went on. ?It?s not the job of the Church to reflect the public opinion polls of our people, it?s the job of the Church to say: ?Here?s what Jesus says.??

The Diocese of Pittsburgh's Gismondi Job Training Program helps those in need. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Pittsburgh

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 6, 2024 / 17:40 pm (CNA).

Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Pittsburgh is expanding its social services offered to people who are homeless and those in poverty with a newly created ?Compassion Corner? opening in August. 

The nonprofit charity group is renovating a former office building located in downtown Pittsburgh to provide health care services, mental health services, job training programs, a place for the homeless population to eat, and a variety of other resources. The nearly 45,000-square-foot building is located at 111 Boulevard of the Allies, next to The Red Door (run by the Catholic Divine Mercy Parish), which provides services such as food for people who are homeless.

?I believe this is all divinely led,? Christopher Scoletti, a board member of Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Pittsburgh and previous president of the board, said during an official launch last week. 

?I believe God is working and channeling the love that we all have for our communities, for our neighbors, for one another,? Scoletti added. ?I believe God is channeling the pride that we have for the City of Pittsburgh to enforce a powerful change for a better future.?

Susan Rauscher, who serves as the charity?s executive director, told CNA that the new building will allow Catholic Charities to provide more medical and dental care, which it offers to those in poverty for free. She said this expansion will allow for more dental chairs and more medical services, among other things. 

?[We?re] really excited about the increase in the number of people who can get health care services,? Rauscher said. 

According to Rauscher, the added space will allow the nonprofit to provide mental wellness services, which will include anger management and therapy. The group will also provide job training services, which will include a free 12-week telecommunications course, and connect them with employers with whom the charity has existing relationships. The job programs will include training for five certifications. 

?Moving into the new building gives us some additional space to move into new areas that help us bring holistic solutions to our clients,? Rauscher added.

Because of the Compassion Corner?s proximity to The Red Door, Catholic Charities will create a spot for people who are homeless to eat inside. Rauscher noted that those people will also receive access to these services. 

?[Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Pittsburgh is] pushing toward not only providing that emergency assistance and those basic needs but also incorporating case management and that long-term stability,? Rauscher said.

More than 100 elected officials, community leaders, and business leaders attended the official launch of the Compassion Corner, according to the diocesan Catholic Charities. This included Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey, who praised the work of the nonprofit and said Christians ?can?t just read the Bible and teach the Bible? but need to show their faith in Christ through the ?works and deeds that we do.?

?That falls on all of us to do,? Gainey said during a speech at the launch. ?It doesn?t just fall on government [and] nonprofit [organizations]. It falls on us.?

Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Pittsburgh has raised about $12 million in donations for its Campaign for Compassion Corner to provide these services, which is more than 70% of its goal of $17 million. The group is trying to raise $13 million for Catholic Charities and $4 million for its partner, Gift of Mary, an emergency women?s shelter. 

Rauscher told CNA that 100% of the staff at the Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Pittsburgh has personally contributed to the fundraising effort. She praised the work of the staff, saying: ?They can squeeze every penny out of every dollar that?s entrusted to us and turn it into solutions for the people they serve.?

Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Pittsburgh serves about 20,000 people annually, according to Rauscher. She said the nonprofit served about 23,000 people last year.

Bishop Bart van Roijen walked the length of the Gaza Strip on April 29 in support of those suffering due to the Israel-Hamas conflict. / Development and Peace - Caritas Canada

CNA Staff, May 6, 2024 / 17:20 pm (CNA).

A Catholic bishop walked the length of the Gaza Strip on April 29 in support of those suffering due to the Israel-Hamas conflict. 

Bishop Bart van Roijen of the Diocese of Corner Brook and Labrador in Newfoundland, Canada, walked 42 kilometers, a little over 26 miles, from York Harbor to Corner Brook and ended his journey with a prayer service at the Cathedral of the Holy Redeemer. 

People around the world are participating in similar walks to call for a cease-fire in Gaza and for peace in both Israel and Palestine. 

Van Roijen told CNA in an interview that he felt called to do this walk because he wanted ?to quietly witness to the sufferings of both citizenries and to make a strong statement that the atrocities, damage, and indignities that are being done must end.?

He explained that just a few days before being approached to take part in the walk, he was speaking with someone about the difficulties he was having with the ?unresolved conflicts in the world and how they were perpetuated by endless justifications, open acts of aggression, and an unwillingness to dialogue in a meaningful way.?

?I expressed a tiredness with the whole idea of taking sides when it was clear that atrocities have, and continue to be, committed by both sides and that the civilian populations, on both sides of a conflict, are always the ones who pay the price,? van Roijen said.

He added: ?The idea of a 42-kilometer walk helped me focus some of this energy on something constructive that was building greater awareness and solidarity with a civilian population that was forced to migrate 42 kilometers from the North to the South of Gaza, and helped me to appreciate how difficult this must be when dealing with possessions, children, infirmities, checkpoints, ongoing conflict, and the possibility of being targeted.?

Van Roijen emphasized that the walk allowed him to ?move from my response to the atrocities committed by both sides to a spirit of offering it to God.?

The bishop completed the walk in six hours and 45 minutes. The weather hovered between 46 and 50 degrees Fahrenheit and, despite the rain and wind, the clergyman did not take any breaks and managed to stay dry thanks to his umbrella and rubber boots. 

He credited his four-mile walk to and from his office each day during the winter months for being properly prepared. 

?Walking along the Bay of Islands, from York Harbor to the Cathedral in Corner Brook, gave me some nice views of the bay and the surrounding hills and villages,? he said.

?It also gave me the sense of the Gaza Strip in its proximity to its own body of water and the narrowness of its borders,? he said, adding: ?By walking and praying I was given a sense of peace ? a peace that I was able to integrate into the prayer service that followed at the cathedral.?

As for what Catholics can do to aid in the current situation, van Roijen said: ?Ours is a role of intercession, healing, and reconciliation, not of judgment or condemnation,? adding: ?Though we should be strong in our insistence of the inviolable and inalienable dignity of all people, and that atrocities have been and are committed by both sides.? 

?Catholics need to stand with the Palestinian and Israeli citizens who have had their human rights and dignity violated, to insist that all forms of violence cease, all hostages be released, and all channels of dialogue be opened,? he said.

?This conflict, like all conflicts big or small, is perpetuated by all those who contribute fuel to the fire, either in word or deed. The more resources and arguments that are provided to each side, and the more we divide ourselves into factions, the more conflict rages,? he expressed. 

He urged the faithful to ?be wiser in regards to conflict within our Church, communities, countries, and world.?

?Rather than perpetuate it by immediately taking sides,? he continued, ?we need to challenge it and expose it for what it is: a failure to be truly human in word or deed, an affront to our dignity as humans and as brothers and sisters to one another.?

Naples Archbishop Domenico Battaglia kisses the reliquary containing the blood of St. Januarius on May 4, 2024. / Credit: Chiesa di Napoli

ACI Prensa Staff, May 6, 2024 / 16:48 pm (CNA).

The miracle of the liquefaction of the blood of St. Januarius, bishop, martyr, and patron saint of Naples, Italy, was repeated in St. Clare Basilica on May 4.

The Archdiocese of Naples reported on its website that on May 4 at 6:38 p.m. local time, the miracle of the liquefaction of the blood of St. Januarius occurred once again. 

St. Januarius was martyred in the year 305, during the fierce persecution unleashed by the Roman emperor Diocletian.

The miraculous liquefaction occurred during the Mass offered by the archbishop of Naples, Domenico Battaglia, with Abbot Vincenzo De Gregorio participating and the mayor of Naples, Gaetano Manfredi, in attendance.

When the miracle is repeated, a white cloth is waved to indicate to the people that the miraculous sign has taken place. On this occasion, De Gregorio gave the sign.

?It?s not an oracle?

Challenging the belief that when the blood does not liquefy some misfortune might occur, Battaglia told those present at the Mass that ?this blood is the sign of a dream of salvation, of hope, of trust. It is not an oracle to consult but a compass to follow because it is always well oriented toward Christ, the origin and goal of our journey, our history and the history of the world.?

?The hagiographic sources and records of Bishop Januarius? martyrdom tell us how he, without any fear, put the good of his brothers before his own safety, going to visit a brother imprisoned because of his faith in Christ,? Battaglia continued.

The prelate then prayed to the martyr: ?Help us to walk along the paths of time and history, with our gaze fixed on the Lord whom you have loved and served, and may we always be with feet ready to go to our brothers and sisters who are in physical, interior, or social prisons.?

?May we be like you, who despite the danger and persecution, for the love of God and the brethren, were not afraid to set out and risk your life to spread the bread of the Word that restores the brothers imprisoned because of the Gospel and the violence of men,? he also prayed.

Still addressing the patron saint of Naples, the archbishop continued: ?Witness of fruitful blood, pray with us and help us to pray without tiring so that in this your city innocent blood will not be shed again, so that in our Europe, in the Holy Land and the world, fratricidal conflicts cease? and may Jesus Christ ?defeat all violence, wipe away the tears of pain and disarm with forgiveness all desire for revenge.?

The liquefaction of the blood of St. Januarius

The miracle of the liquefaction of the blood of the martyred bishop St. Januarius usually occurs three times a year.

The first occasion is the day commemorating the transfer of his remains to Naples, the Saturday before the first Sunday in May; and the second is his liturgical feast day, Sept. 19.

The third occasion is Dec. 16, when devotees thank him for his intercession to lessen the effects of the eruption of the Mount Vesuvius volcano, which occurred in 1631.

Who is St. Januarius?

St. Januarius was the bishop of Benevento in the Campania region, an Italian diocese adjacent to Naples, where he was born in 272.

During the persecution of the Church by the Roman emperor Diocletian, known as the ?Great Persecution? (303?313), Januarius was taken prisoner along with a group of other Christians and subjected to terrible tortures.

The bishop and his friends refused to renounce their faith and worship the pagan gods. Despite the cruelties they were subjected to, none of them gave in and all were sentenced to death.

They tried to burn them alive in a furnace, but the fire did not harm them. They were then thrown to the lions, but the animals did not come near them. So the Romans decided to behead them all. On Sept. 19, 305, St. Januarius and his friends were executed near Pozzuoli.

Every Sept. 19, the Catholic Church celebrates the feast of St. Januarius, bishop and martyr.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA?s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

President Joe Biden presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to U.S. swimmer Katie Ledecky in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on May 3, 2024. / Credit: ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images

CNA Staff, May 6, 2024 / 16:15 pm (CNA).

Katie Ledecky, Olympic swimmer, devout Catholic, and winner of 10 Olympic medals, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Friday. 

?Thank you Mr. President for this honor, and thank you to everyone at the White House for an incredibly special day!? Ledecky wrote in a post on X.

Since she began her Olympic career in 2012 as a 15-year-old in the London Olympics, Ledecky has earned seven Olympic gold medals and three silver medals. She also earned 26 world championship medals, 21 of which are gold, and she currently holds two world records in the 800- and 1,500-meter freestyle events. 

Ledecky finds herself among other iconic athletes including gymnast Simone Biles, golfer Tiger Woods, and baseball star Babe Ruth in receiving the nation?s highest civilian honor, the Medal of Freedom.

But between the excitement of the Olympics, Ledecky is a regular parishioner of the Church of the Little Flower in Bethesda, Maryland.

Raised in Washington, D.C., she attended Catholic high school and practices her faith by praying before her meets, according to her local diocesan newspaper, the Catholic Standard.

Ledecky was a student at the all-girls Catholic school Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart when she flew to London for her first Olympic competition. The Olympian has since returned to Stone Ridge to visit with the students and share her gratitude for the community?s support for her.

She?s not the only Catholic to receive the medal this year. Jesuit priest Father Gregory Boyle, who founded a rehabilitation program for gang members, was one of 19 who received the Medal of Freedom this year.

Biden also extended the award posthumously to Jim Thorpe, who in 1912 became the first Native American to win an Olympic gold medal, as well as to his political allies such as former speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrat Party leaders.  

President Joe Biden is himself Catholic, though he has received criticism from Church leaders for his pro-abortion stance. 

Ledecky will compete in the 2024 Paris Olympics, which will begin July 26, while her memoir, ?Just Add Water: My Swimming Life? is set to be released on June 11.

Pro-lifers march in Colombia on May 4, 2024, in the country's capital, Bogotá, and other cities and towns throughout the country. / Credit: Eduardo Berdejo/ACI Prensa

ACI Prensa Staff, May 6, 2024 / 15:45 pm (CNA).

Under the theme ?Colombia, With Life There Is Hope,? tens of thousands of Colombians took to the streets May 4 in more than 110 cities and towns during the South American country?s 18th National March for Life, according to the United for Life platform, which organized the event.

The marchers called on Colombia?s Constitutional Court to annul its rulings that decriminalized and subsequently liberalized abortion.

United for Life was also joined by multiple pro-life organizations, including 40 Days for Life, the Men?s Rosary, and Rachel?s Vineyard, as well as dioceses, nuns, priests, families, and numerous laypeople.

The simultaneous pro-life demonstrations took place in Bogotá, Medellín, Cali, Cúcuta, Montería, Pereira, Cumaral, and scores of other cities.

In Bogotá, the marchers departed from the National Park and went down 7th Street until reaching Plaza Bolívar in the center of the Colombian capital.

In front of the thousands of people holding light blue flags and wearing blue neckerchiefs ? the color of the pro-life movement ? the president of United for Life, Jesús Magaña, read a manifesto in which he decried the ?close to 20,000 abortions that have taken place in the city of Bogotá alone,? which amounts to ?20 times more than other causes of violent deaths.?

Magaña also warned that the Constitutional Court intends to ?say that abortion is a fundamental right, against the entire letter and spirit of our constitution, the feelings of the Colombian people, and signed international treaties.?

?We are unwilling to remain silent and stand by in the face of the largest massacre in the country,? he declared.

?Which is why,? he said, ?as citizens of Colombia who love, respect, and defend life, we have mobilized in 114 cities throughout the country to fill the streets and squares and proclaim firmly, loudly, and clearly that life is sacred, that it must be respected and cared for from the moment of fertilization until natural death.?

In addition to abortion, the pro-life leader pointed out that Colombia?s survival is in danger from ?euthanasia, suicide, and structural conditions that deny life.?

The United for Life manifesto demanded that the Constitutional Court annul its pro-abortion rulings C-355 of 2006 and C-055 of 2022, ?which are producing a terrible holocaust.? In addition, the organization urged the Legislature to shelve ?euthanasia bills? and pass ?laws that protect life,? pregnancy, motherhood, and the family.

The manifesto also demanded the Legislature ?defeat bill 270 of 2024 that prohibits parents from choosing the best psychological treatment for their children according to their convictions, values, and principles.?

The text also called for forceful action against child sexual exploitation and support for ?women with crisis or unexpected pregnancies through well-funded public policies.?

?The only lord of life is God?

Among those who addressed the participants was Father Laureano Barón, a priest of the Archdiocese of Bogotá who emphasized that ?the only lord of life is God, from natural conception to natural death.?

?Let everyone know that Colombia is a pro-life country,? he said, encouraging prayers for the conversion of ?all those who try to implement and carry forward projects that cause the death of the innocent.?

?We wish evil on no one. We ask that God touch their hearts,? Barón said.

United for Life noted that in 2023 alone, ?according to figures, 52,000 elective abortions occurred in Colombia.?

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA?s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Abortion pill reversal seeks to counter the effects of the first progesterone-blocking abortion pill, providing an opportunity to save the unborn child. / Credit: Shutterstock

CNA Staff, May 6, 2024 / 14:57 pm (CNA).

New York Attorney General Letitia James on Monday filed a lawsuit against multiple pregnancy resource centers and a pro-life group over what the prosecutor alleged were misleading statements about abortion pill reversal. 

James said in the filing that the defendants ? the group Heartbeat International and 11 crisis pregnancy centers affiliated with the nonprofit ? have engaged in ?repeated and persistent misleading and/or false claims? regarding the medical procedure of abortion pill reversal. 

The abortion pill is a two-step procedure in which a pregnant woman first ingests the drug mifepristone, which cuts off the unborn baby?s supply of the hormone progesterone, leading to the baby?s death. 

The woman then takes a second drug, misoprostol, which causes the uterus to contract, eventually expelling the baby?s body. 

Abortion pill reversal works by administering progesterone in high doses after a woman has ingested mifepristone; the hormone is meant to counteract the effects of the abortive drug. Several surveys have found evidence that the drug can be effective at halting a medicated abortion. 

Downplaying that evidence by pointing to scientific disputes over the studies in question, James in her filing alleged that there is ?no competent and reliable scientific evidence? to support the abortion pill reversal procedure. 

The defendants ?distort the evidence and mislead New Yorkers? with claims about the effectiveness and safety of abortion pill reversal, James argued. 

The filing asks that the defendants be ordered to ?remove from their websites, social media accounts, and other promotional materials? their claims about abortion pill reversal, that they be fined thousands of dollars for their purported violations of state law, and that they be prohibited from making similar claims in the future about abortion pill reversal. 

In a statement announcing the filing, James claimed that abortions ?cannot be reversed.?

The state ?must protect pregnant [women?s] right to make safe, well-informed decisions about their health,? she argued in the press release. 

This is not the first time that abortion pill reversal has been targeted by pro-abortion politicians and government officials. 

California Attorney General Rob Bonta in September 2023 sued five pro-life pregnancy centers and Heartbeat International, accusing them of utilizing fraudulent and misleading statements when advertising the abortion pill reversal drug.

In April 2023, meanwhile, Colorado enacted several new pro-abortion laws including a ban on abortion pill reversal treatments.

A mother-and-daughter team of Catholic nurse practitioners brought suit against the Colorado law in October in order to be allowed to continue their ministry helping women reverse unwanted chemical abortions.

A judge quickly issued an injunction against the reversal ban, allowing the women to continue their medical practice while the lawsuit plays out in court. 

Pilgrims gather in St. Peter?s Square at the Vatican for Pope Francis? Regina Caeli prayer and address on Sunday, May 5, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media

ACI Prensa Staff, May 6, 2024 / 14:07 pm (CNA).

A priest armed with several weapons and dressed in a cassock tried to enter St. Peter?s Square in the Vatican to participate in the Regina Caeli prayer with Pope Francis on Sunday, May 5.

According to the Italian news agency ANSA, the priest, who is from the Czech Republic, tried to pass through the metal detector carrying an air pistol, two knives, a cutter, and a screwdriver.

After being arrested, the priest was reported to the authorities for illegal possession of weapons. When questioned, the priest said he carried the weapons for personal defense.

According to the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, the priest is 59-year-old Father Milan Palkovic.

According to Europa Press, the weapons were in a bag that belonged to another man, a 60-year-old Czech who accompanied the priest and who was also detained.

Neither has a criminal record and both came to Rome on a pilgrimage from the Czech Republic.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA?s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

The Vatican announced on May 6, 2024, that Pope Francis has appointed Monsignor John McDermott as the bishop of the Diocese of Burlington, Vermont. / Credit: Diocese of Burlington, Vermont

CNA Staff, May 6, 2024 / 11:52 am (CNA).

Pope Francis has appointed Vermont priest John McDermott as the bishop of the Diocese of Burlington in that state, the Vatican announced Monday.

The Burlington bishopric was previously headed by Bishop Christopher Coyne, whom Pope Francis named as coadjutor archbishop of Hartford, Connecticut, last year and who on May 1 took over as archbishop there.

McDermott has been serving as administrator of the Burlington Diocese since October of last year.

The bishop-elect was born in New Jersey in 1963. He attended Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina and obtained a master?s degree in divinity, as well as a master?s in theology and Scripture, from Mount St. Mary?s Seminary in Maryland. He also holds a licentiate in canon law from the Catholic University of America.

He was ordained to the priesthood in the Burlington Diocese in 1989. He has served a variety of pastoral and administrative roles in the diocese since then, including as chaplain at Middlebury College. He has also held the positions of both vice chancellor and chancellor of the diocese, as well as diocesan vicar general and moderator of the curia.

McDermott is one of 10 siblings, according to the Diocese of Burlington. He was named a Prelate of Honor in 2012, granting him the title Monsignor. 

The Burlington Diocese is the only diocese in the state of Vermont. It consists of approximately 75 parishes of about 100,000 Catholics. 

Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein), pictured in 1938-1939. / Credit: Public Domain

Rome Newsroom, May 6, 2024 / 11:12 am (CNA).

Edith Stein could be declared a doctor of the Church with the title ?doctor veritatis,? or ?doctor of truth,? following a petition from the Discalced Carmelites.

Pope Francis received an official request from the superior general of the Discalced Carmelites, Father Miguel Márquez Calle, on April 18 in a private audience at the Vatican to recognize the theological legacy of the saint who was martyred in Auschwitz.

If accepted, Stein, also known by her religious name St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, could become the fifth woman to be declared a doctor of the Church, a title that recognizes a substantial contribution to the Church?s theology and moral life.

With the petition, the Vatican Dicastery for the Causes of Saints can officially begin the required process to grant Stein the title.

The Carmelites first launched an international commission to gather the necessary documentation required by the Vatican in 2022, a year that marked both the 100th anniversary of Stein?s baptism and the 80th anniversary of her martyrdom.

A title that was proposed for her at the time was ?doctor veritatis? because of her relentless intellectual pursuit of truth, which after her conversion she recognized in the person of Jesus Christ.

Stein was born in 1891 into a Jewish family in what is now Wroc?aw, southwestern Poland. The city was then known as Breslau and located in the German Empire.

After declaring herself to be an atheist at the age of 20, she went on to earn a doctorate in philosophy.

She decided to convert to Catholicism after spending a night reading the autobiography of the 16th-century Carmelite nun St. Teresa of Avila while staying at a friend?s house in 1921.

?When I had finished the book,? she later recalled, ?I said to myself: This is the truth.?

Stein was baptized on Jan. 1, 1922, at the age of 30. She took the name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross when she became a novice Carmelite nun 12 years later.

Ten years after Stein entered the Carmelite convent, she was arrested along with her sister Rosa, who had also become a Catholic, and the members of her religious community.

She had just finished writing a study of St. John of the Cross titled ?The Science of the Cross.?

St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross died in the Auschwitz concentration camp on Aug. 9, 1942. Pope John Paul II canonized her in 1998 and proclaimed her a co-patroness of Europe the following year.

?God is truth,? Stein wrote after her conversion. ?Anyone who seeks truth seeks God, whether or not he is aware of it.?

Solar panels on the affordable housing Bishop Valero Residence in Astoria, Queens. / Credit: Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens

CNA Staff, May 6, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Catholic dioceses around the U.S. are setting ambitious goals and launching environmental programs inspired in part by the Pope Francis-led effort to make ecological care a priority for the global Church.

The Holy Father has made environmentalism a major focus of his pontificate. His 2015 encyclical Laudato Si? was heralded at the time of its publication as a revolutionary papal document for its emphasis on Catholic ecological responsibility and for its call for ?swift and unified global action? in the ?care for our common home.?

In October of last year, Francis published a new apostolic exhortation titled Laudate Deum, meant as a further call to address what he called the ?global social issue? of climate change. The pope said that in the eight years since Laudato Si? was published, ?our responses have not been adequate? to address ongoing ecological concerns.

?Our brothers and sisters around the world are impacted by this?

In the Diocese of San Diego, the diocese?s Creation Care program says it seeks to ?spread the Catholic teaching? concerning ?our duty to be good stewards of our common home.?

Christina Slentz, the director of the program, told CNA that the diocese launched Creation Care in 2022 using the pastoral guidelines of ?See, Discern, Act? to guide its undertakings. 

Among its offerings, the program promotes the movie ?The Letter? ? a 2022 film that ?tells the story of a journey to Rome of front-line leaders? to discuss Laudato Si? with Pope Francis. 

Slentz said the San Diego program has offered workshops on the film and also offers twice-yearly workshops that present ?the ecclesial context, the science, and the eco-spirituality of Laudato Si?.?

The diocese further gives ?Laudato Si? Action Planning Hands-On? workshops at which ?parishes, schools, families, businesses, and universities? are guided through ?the Vatican?s online platform for taking action to lessen your impact? on the earth. 

Slentz said the diocese also hosts an annual Feast of St. Francis Tree Festival at which saplings are distributed for planting. ?I think we planted 730 acorns last year,? Slentz told CNA with a laugh. She noted that the overall program is ?not about just some abstract love for trees.? 

?This is love of neighbor at a global scale,? she said. ?Our brothers and sisters around the world are impacted by this so much more seriously than any of us.?

?Excited and encouraged by Laudato Si??

Laudato Si? has had a major effect on Catholic environmental awareness around the world and in the U.S. The Archdiocese of Seattle, for instance, last month announced the launch of a new Care for Creation Ministry that will be based on the Vatican?s Laudato Si? action platform. 

That initiative, launched by the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, promotes seven goals that ?provide guidance on urgent and immediate actions each one of us can take in the care of our common home.? Among those goals is the ?adoption of sustainable lifestyles,? the promotion of ?ecological spirituality,? and a ?response to the cry of the poor.? 

Terri Nelson, the director of the Seattle Archdiocese?s Integral Human Development and the new leader of the creation ministry, said last month that the archdiocese would ?use the foundation of the Laudato Si? action platform ? so that our parishes, schools, and the people of God can learn more about this urgent crisis and take action.?

The initiative will ?develop and execute a strategic plan to educate and inspire people to act ? at home, in their communities, workplaces, parishes, and more.?

Similar programs have been launched in the Archdiocese of Washington, the Archdiocese of Atlanta, the Diocese of Syracuse, and other bishoprics around the country.

?Not just environmentally sound but financially so?

In New York, meanwhile, Catholic Charities of Brooklyn and Queens is using its affordable housing portfolio to develop green energy infrastructure in line with the Church?s environmental goals. 

The diocese said the effort works to reduce carbon footprints and provide affordable and energy-efficient homes to low-income seniors and families.

Tim McManus, the senior vice president of the charity?s Progress of Peoples Development Corporation, which oversees the affordable housing program, told CNA that several years ago the charity ?created a sustainable nonprofit entity [the Laudato Si? Corporation] that is under the housing arm, from which we are launching and leading the sustainable initiatives.?

David Downs, the director of the Laudato Si? Corporation, told CNA that the mission-aligned sustainability program is currently ?utilizing our existing portfolio of affordable multifamily housing in Brooklyn and Queens by leveraging public financing resources to create new forms of renewable energy for our residents and New York City as a whole.?

About 75% of the charity?s portfolio is senior housing, typically subsidized voucher programs that assist elderly residents with rent. The charity also offers supportive housing for individuals coming from facilities such as shelters; the portfolio also includes traditional family housing. 

McManus said he and Downs ?had always been looking at figuring out how to work [environmental care] into the affordable housing work we do.? 

The developers said making more of their properties environmentally friendly also coincided with increased green requirements in New York City itself. ?We were trying to identify strategies and get ahead of new building requirements,? McManus said. 

Much of the effort, Downs said, is ?really focusing on retrofit work on existing buildings.? 

?We?re thinking about solar,? he said. ?We?re also really excited about exploring adding battery or backup power options with those solar arrays. That?s something we?ve not done to this point.?

?The goal here is producing income, credits from the solar itself ? that money and those proceeds help to keep self-investing in the project as it grows,? he said. 

Then-Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio said in 2021 that the affordable housing initiative ?rests upon the Church?s teaching and reflects the dignity of the human person and the value of the family,? while the new environmental initiative ?reflects our commitment to the planet and our future.?

McManus said it was clear when the program launched that the newest green energy measures were not just environmentally sound but financially so. ?From a bottom line perspective, some of these technologies started to really pencil out across our portfolio,? he said.

The Church?s new vigorous devotion to the environment underscores the sustainability work, McManus said.

?We were very excited and encouraged by Laudato Si?, to see the pope and the Catholic Church recognize and acknowledge the importance of bringing sustainability efforts to the people we serve,? he said.

The CatéGPT logo. / Credit: CatéGPT

CNA Staff, May 6, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

If you have a question about a teaching of the Catholic Church in 2024, where do you go for a solid answer? You can crack open the catechism yourself, ask a trusted personal source like a priest or theologian, or you can delve into that famously infallible repository of knowledge ? Google.

A friendly arms race of sorts has arisen among Catholics around the world to provide Catholics with another option, however ? one based around artificial intelligence (AI). In the past year or so, several online AI tools have been released that generate authoritative-sounding answers about Catholic teaching based on users? questions.

You may also have heard about one recent and unfortunate misfire: an AI ?priest? created and unveiled last week by the California-based apologetics apostolate Catholic Answers, which was criticized by some users for its video game-like priestly avatar.

Moreover, at least one user managed to goad the character into providing ?absolution,? prompting a statement from the apostolate in which it promised to replace the priest character with a lay character named ?Justin.? Catholic Answers? leaders have expressed optimism about the project, despite the initial public setback. 

Meanwhile, Catholics looking for AI-powered answers have other, avatar-less options, like CatéGPT, an artificial intelligence chatbot designed to provide accurate and thorough answers to questions about Catholic teaching by drawing on authoritative documents. 

Nicolas Torcheboeuf, a 31-year-old Swiss engineer and a Catholic, developed CatéGPT in his spare time and launched it in the late spring of 2023. (?Caté? is French for catechism, and the name is also a play on the name of the groundbreaking secular chatbot ?ChatGPT.?) 

The simple online tool accepts a user?s question related to the Church?s teaching ? ?Why is baptism necessary?? for example ? and provides a succinct summary of the answer, citing sources and categorizing the sources by type, making distinctions between encyclicals, Scripture, canon law, various writings of popes and Church Fathers, and other authoritative Catholic sources. 

This concept might sound familiar ? Torcheboeuf concocted the idea for CatéGPT around the same time that the similar U.S.-based Magisterium AI made its debut. Also in the online ether is Catholic.chat, an interactive platform that allows users to engage with the catechism in a natural, conversational format. The similarities between the various projects, Torcheboeuf said, ?goes to show that our intuition was right and meets a real need.?

Despite the free tool?s impressive ability to summarize answers to complex questions about the Church?s teaching, Torcheboeuf said his invention primarily aims to encourage Catholics to read the relevant Church documents for themselves. 

?In addition to providing clear answers, [CatéGPT provides] a list of reference documents to encourage the user to read them,? he explained.

?The main aim is above all to invite the user to rediscover the wealth of documents that the Church has produced over the course of its existence, and which constitute a formidable heritage for understanding the world in which we live,? Torcheboeuf said. 

Torcheboeuf presented his invention, which is available in English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Polish, and Portuguese, at the 58th World Day of Social Communications at the Vatican in February. He said the project was initially ?born out of the craze surrounding ChatGPT,? OpenAI?s powerful chatbot that burst onto the scene in late 2022. 

?I was quickly impressed by the power of artificial intelligence and the number of tools that could be developed using this technology,? he said. 

Tinkering with the tech, he started creating chatbots that used customized databases to provide answers within specific fields. 

?That?s when I came up with the idea of creating a chatbot that uses the teachings of the Catholic catechism and the texts of the magisterium: These texts exist completely freely and don?t change too much over time, which means that the answers are reliable and stable over time,? he noted. 

The idea for CatéGPT, which is kept afloat entirely by donations, didn?t come out of nowhere ? Torcheboeuf said his motivation for the project ?corresponds to a concern I?ve had for a long time.? He said the area where he lives in Switzerland, while economically prosperous, lacks a vibrant practice of the Catholic faith. 

?I?ve noticed that young Catholics today have a fairly low level of education; we?re often called upon to debate fairly complex social issues, and unfortunately we don?t have enough intellectual knowledge to do so properly,? Torcheboeuf said. 

?Before trying to reform everything, we need to rediscover the fundamental texts of the Church. When we read these texts, we realize that many of the questions we ask ourselves are answered in encyclicals and catechisms.?

Torcheboeuf?s tool isn?t infallible, of course ? no AI is. But the fact that CatéGPT makes use of publicly available documents on the Vatican website means that its curated sources are virtually guaranteed to be solid, and also that the tool?s database is far less complex than a massive AI like ChatGPT, which might be called on to opine on any topic imaginable.

Still, if the idea of asking an AI for guidance on the Church?s teaching makes you wary, you?re not alone ? Catholic Answers? AI, though well-intentioned, was less than favorably received. 

Catholic Answers? ?Father Justin? ? clearly an attempt to give a Catholic AI a more pastoral, human face ? may have misfired, at least in its initial form. But the idea of making AI more pastoral is one that Torcheboeuf endorses. After all, he said, AI in its current form can be great as a training tool, but ?it won?t be able to fully assist the Church in the way that priests, religious, or people fully invested in the Church can.? He said he is in the process of integrating video clips from ?Catholic influencers? into CatéGPT?s answers in an attempt to ?put a human face behind the theoretical answers.?

The Church under Pope Francis has been engaging with the idea of AI long before the release of ChatGPT. The pontiff, on numerous occasions, has called for the ethical use of the technology and is scheduled to speak at the G7 summit in June in Italy about the ethics of artificial intelligence, amid much talk in the wider world about the threats that AI could pose to humanity.  

The explosion of generative AI tools and applications in recent years constitutes a revolution, Torcheboeuf said ? and like any revolution, ?it can be dangerous.? 

Still, Torcheboeuf is quick to point out that ?artificial intelligence is only intelligent if there?s a real human intelligence behind it.?

?I think that rather than being afraid of this technology, let?s try to be a player in this field and exploit its positive aspects. Right now, this technology is in full expansion, and there are places [for it] to be taken while remaining careful of course.?

Torcheboeuf said he expects that CatéGPT users will be surprised by the answers they get, in the sense that they will realize, perhaps for the first time, that ?the Church has already asked itself most of the contemporary questions and answered them, with great wisdom and coherence.?

?Little by little, we hope that with the help of the references given at the end of the answers, they will read the fundamental texts of the Church and come to understand and reappropriate this heritage,? he said. 

Swiss Guard cadets prepare their armor in the guards' barracks at the Vatican on April 30, 2024. / Credit: Matthew Santucci/CNA

Vatican City, May 5, 2024 / 17:00 pm (CNA).

For the newest class of 34 Swiss Guards who will be sworn in on Monday, their service is based on faith and a love for the Church and the pope as storied as the uniform itself. 

?For me it was something, first and foremost, to give something to the Church, because the Catholic Church gave us a lot when I was a child and with this service, I can give something back,? explained Nicolas Hirt, one of the new guards who hails from the Swiss canton of Fribourg. 

The cadets, joined by their instructors, gathered for a media event on April 30 in the courtyard behind the barracks adjacent to the Sant?Anna entrance, which was adorned with the flags from each of the Swiss cantons. 

The Swiss Guard?s annual swearing-in ceremony will take place on Monday, May 6, in the San Damaso courtyard of the Apostolic Palace. There, the new guards will solemnly raise their right hands, with three fingers extended, representing the Holy Trinity, and proclaim their oath: ?I swear I will faithfully, loyally, and honorably serve the Supreme Pontiff and his legitimate successors and I dedicate myself to them with all my strength. I assume this same commitment with regard to the Sacred College of Cardinals whenever the Apostolic See is vacant.?

There was a palpable sense of pride, perhaps even a hint of nervousness, as the young men marched last week in the storied corridors, perfecting the ancient rites ahead of a day that will mark a milestone in their lives. 

Renato Peter, who comes from a small village near St. Gallen (the first from his village to enter the guards), said he first developed a desire to enter into the service of the papal guards after a trip to Rome in 2012 with his diocese. 

?When you work in the Vatican, you have to feel like you go back in history because a lot of European history has been made here,? said Peter, who is mindful that those who wear the iconic tricolor uniform bear a great responsibility and represent a connection to the history of the Church. 

?We are the smallest military in the world,? Peter continued, emphasizing that service in the Swiss Guards is like no other. ?But, we are not training to make war. We are like the military, yes, but we?re for the security of the pope.? 

The Swiss Guard is indeed the smallest standing army in the world, numbering only 135 members (Pope Francis increased its ranks from 110 in 2018), protecting not only the smallest sovereign territory in the world, Vatican City State, but also acting as the personal security force of the Holy Father. 

This year the Swiss Guard celebrated 518 years of service to the Apostolic See. Its history dates back to Jan. 22, 1506, when 150 Swiss mercenaries, led by Captain Kasper von Silenen from the central Swiss canton of Uri, arrived in Rome at the request of Pope Julius II.

But the swearing-in ceremony takes place on May 6, marking the anniversary of the Sack of Rome in 1527 by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V when 147 guards died protecting Pope Clement VII. 

The Swiss Guards form an integral part of the history of the papacy and a core component of the security apparatus of the Vatican, but they also occupy a special palace in the popular imagination, one underscored by a profound spirituality. 

?It?s another world, another culture, and above all doing a fairly unique job, that is to say, there is the protection of the Holy Father,? said Vice-Corporal Eliah Cinotti, spokesman for the guards. 

?I don?t think there are many of us who are lucky enough to have the opportunity to serve the Holy Father in that way, therefore the Swiss Guard is a quite unique institution.?

Cinotti observed that for many of the pilgrims coming to Rome, which is often a once-in-a-lifetime experience, the guards act as a point of encounter between the people and the Church, shedding light on an evangelical dimension of their mission. 

?Since we are Swiss Guards and represent the pope, we are also there to be Christians, to listen to these people. There is no specific training for this because it already comes from our Christian character to help others.?

Service in the Swiss Guards is both physically and psychologically demanding, and the entry requirements are strict, even though the guards do not face deployment to active war zones like conventional soldiers.

A prospective guard must hold Swiss citizenship, be Catholic, single, and male (after five years in service the guards are allowed to marry), and be at least 1.74 meters tall (approximately 5?8?). They are required to have completed secondary school (or the equivalent) and have completed mandatory military service. 

Despite what some may consider prohibitive entry restrictions, Cinotti noted, during the annual call for applications there are anywhere from 45-50 applicants, and there has not been a problem with recruitment. 

During the first round, prospective candidates go through a preliminary screening and, if selected, they will sit with a recruitment officer in Switzerland for an initial interview, which generally lasts anywhere from 30 minutes to one hour. Candidates also have to undergo an intensive psychological test to assess whether they can withstand the demands of the job. 

Should their candidacy proceed, they are then sent to Rome where, for the first two months, they are exposed to the working environment of the Vatican and receive approximately 56 hours of intensive instruction in Italian. Their instruction also includes an emphasis on their cultural and spiritual formation.

The cadets are then sent to the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino in Switzerland, where they are instructed in self-defense and the use of firearms by local police. While the guards carry medieval halberds ? an ax blade topped with a spike mounted on a long shaft ? during official papal events, each is equipped with a 9mm GLOCK 19 Gen4 pistol, taser, and pepper spray. 

There is also a two-year minimum service requirement after which they can decide to remain or return to Switzerland. 

?About 80% return to Switzerland and 20% stay,? Cinotti said. ?And the 80% who return to Switzerland go to the police or the army or return to their basic profession or go to study at university.? 

He also noted there have been some years where a guard will discern a vocation to the priesthood. ?And we also had a certain point, people who entered the seminary at the time, one per year more or less.? 

He added: ?We haven?t had anyone for two years, but I think they will arrive, or rather it?s a question of vocations.?

Cinotti spoke on the myriad security challenges that a guard will have to face in his day-to-day work, which can last anywhere from six to 12 hours of continuous duty, noting that there has been an uptick in the number of people coming to the Vatican for help. 

Cinotti also noted that for all of the guards, there has been the additional learning curve of adapting to Pope Francis? pastoral style, which has brought him in close proximity to the faithful during his audiences in Rome and his travels abroad.  

?Pope Francis is like every pope,? Cinotti remarked. ?He has his own style, and we must adapt to the pope.? 

?If he wants to go to contact the people of God, we must guarantee that, of course, everything is fine, but we cannot prevent it. He does what he wants, he is the pope,? he added. 

While this can raise some logistical problems, Cinotti reassured that the guards have been trained to respond to possible threats. He said they have developed a symbiotic, and always professional, relationship with Francis. 

?He transmits a certain serenity and a certain awareness that we are there next to him, we are there, like the gendarmerie, which allows us to operate in complete tranquility on the ground without being disturbed,? he said. 

?He likes to change plans and will change plans throughout the day,? Cinotti added, ?but it suits us very well because we adapt to him and we do this service and for us, it is still important to guarantee his safety.? 

In an aerial view, the cargo ship Dali sits in the water after running into and collapsing the Francis Scott Key Bridge on March 26, 2024, in Baltimore. / Credit: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

ACI Prensa Staff, May 5, 2024 / 14:00 pm (CNA).

Bishop Brendan Cahill of Victoria, Texas, is inviting Catholics throughout the United States to join the May 22 ?National Day of Prayer and Remembrance for Sailors and People of the Sea,? which this year will include a special prayer in memory of those affected by the catastrophic March 26 Baltimore bridge collapse. 

?Each year, we pray for those who work on the high seas and the ports. In a special way this year, we remember those who have been impacted by the collapse of the Key Bridge, particularly the six construction workers who perished in the bridge collapse, and for their families as they mourn the loss of their loved ones,? Cahill said.

On March 26, the container ship Dali suffered a power failure and collided with one of the bridge pillars, causing the collapse of most of the bridge while a group of eight construction workers were doing maintenance work on the structure. The six fatalities were immigrants to the United States from Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala.

Immediately following the tragedy, the Stella Maris network of port chaplains and volunteers mobilized to provide pastoral care and support to crew members of the Dali and for crew members of other vessels in the Port of Baltimore.

Cahill, who is also the bishop promoter of the Apostleship of the Sea ?Stella Maris,? solicited prayers ?for the captain and crew of the cargo ship and for the countless people who have been working in the aftermath of the tragedy.? He also remembered the longshoremen and those who depend on the Port of Baltimore to make a living.

Around the world, Cahill noted, ?there are countless men and women who labor on the high seas for their livelihood. Let us seek the intercession of Our Lady, Stella Maris, that she protect and guide us,? he emphasized.

As part of this commemoration, a Mass will be celebrated on May 18 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., at 12:10 p.m. local time.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA?s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Pope Francis greets the crowd gathered at St. Peter's Square on May 5, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, May 5, 2024 / 09:30 am (CNA).

Pope Francis asked for a moment of silence as he spoke from the window of the Apostolic Palace on Sunday for people to thank the Lord for their friends. 

The pope reflected on the gift of friendship during his Regina Caeli address on May 5.

?Since childhood, we learn how beautiful this experience is: We offer friends our toys and the most beautiful gifts; then, growing up, as teenagers, we confide our first secrets to them; as young people we offer loyalty; as adults, we share satisfactions and worries; as seniors, the memories, considerations, and silences of long days,? the 87-year-old pope said.

?The word of God, in the Book of Proverbs, tells us that ?Oil and perfume make the heart glad, and the sweetness of a friend comes from his earnest counsel? (Prv 27:9). Let us think a moment of our friends and thank the Lord for them.?

Speaking to the crowd gathered below in St. Peter?s Square on a sunny Sunday in Rome, the pope remarked that Jesus desires to share in this great gift of friendship with us.

?Today the Gospel tells us about Jesus? words to the apostles: ?I do not call you servants any longer, but friends,?? he said.

?And today Jesus, in the Bible, tells us that for him we are precisely this, friends: dear people beyond all merit and expectation, to whom he extends his hand and offers his love, his grace, his Word; with whom he shares what is dearest to him, all that he has heard from the Father (cf. Jn 15:15),? he added.

Pope Francis asked people to reflect on whether they feel loved by the Lord as a beloved friend or if Jesus seems like more of a stranger.

?May Mary help us to grow in friendship with her Son and to spread it around us,? the pope said as he began to pray the Regina Caeli prayer in Latin.

At the end of his address, the pope prayed for peace in Ukraine and the Holy Land and offered his solidarity to people affected by the heavy flooding in southern Brazil that has killed at least 60 people.

Pope Francis gave a shoutout to pilgrims visiting Rome from Texas, Chicago, Berlin, and Paris, as well as to the Pontifical Swiss Guards, who will celebrate their swearing-in ceremony on Monday.

The pope also wished a happy Easter to Orthodox Christians and Eastern-rite Catholics who are celebrating Easter this weekend according to the Julian calendar.

?May the risen Lord fill all communities with joy and peace and comfort those who are in trial,? Pope Francis said.

The Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III exits the Aedicule of the Holy Sepulcher on May 4, 2024, in Jerusalem, showing the faithful the two candles just lit from the oil lamp that is believed to have been miraculously ignited inside Jesus' tomb. / Credit: Studio Sami Jerusalem

Jerusalem, May 5, 2024 / 09:00 am (CNA).

Pilgrims gathered in Jerusalem on Saturday for the annual ?Holy Fire? ceremony at the revered site of Jesus? burial and resurrection, an ancient custom considered by many believers to be a miraculous event that takes place the day before the Orthodox Christian celebration of Easter.

For safety reasons, attendance at the May 4 event was capped at 4,200 people inside the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher, though the crowds were more manageable and somewhat subdued this year because of a lack of pilgrims from the Palestinian territories and abroad due to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

Access to the Old City where the basilica is located was restricted beginning on Friday night amid a heavy police presence. Numerous medical personnel and firefighters were present inside the basilica.

Though its authenticity is disputed by some, the ?Holy Fire? or ?Holy Light? refers to a fire of purported divine origin that ignites inside Jesus? tomb while only the Greek Orthodox patriarch is present. Pilgrims then light their candles by extending them through a small opening in the tomb, producing a dramatic scene of flickering flames and joyous celebration.

The Orthodox Christian ceremony, which is attended by Catholics and other Christians as well, has been held continuously since at least 1106, though accounts dating to the fourth century relate that the apostle Peter saw the holy light himself inside the tomb.

The doors of the Holy Sepulcher were opened at 9 a.m. by Greek Orthodox representatives and again at 9:30 a.m. by representatives of the Armenian Apostolic Church ? the two Orthodox communities that serve with Catholic Franciscans as the custodians of the site. Only then did the faithful begin to enter the basilica.

Around 11 a.m., those present began to sing traditional hymns in the loudest voice possible. These chants date back to the Turkish occupation of Jerusalem in the 13th century when Christians were not allowed to chant anywhere but in the churches.

The heart of the ceremony was between 1 and 2 p.m. After the solemn entrances of the other Orthodox patriarchs of Jerusalem, the Greek Orthodox patriarch, Theophilos III, entered the basilica.

Previously, the doors of the edicule (the small shrine that houses the tomb of Jesus Christ) had been sealed with a large wax seal ? signifying that the tomb had been inspected and that nothing was present that could be used to start a fire. Shortly before the arrival of the Greek patriarch, the seal was removed, and a large oil lamp was carried into the tomb.

After completing three rounds around the edicule, leading a procession of monks and priests, Patriarch Theophilos III entered the edicule, followed by a delegate of the Armenian patriarch (who could not attend due to an internal dispute) and several bishops from various denominations.

Only the Greek Orthodox patriarch is allowed to enter the chamber that houses the tomb of Jesus, while all the others remain in the Chapel of the Angel, a sort of antechamber that commemorates the appearance of a heavenly messenger to the women at the tomb announcing Jesus? resurrection.

Before entering the tomb, the Greek patriarch was inspected by Israeli authorities to prove that he didn?t carry any technical means to light the fire.

All the lights and lamps in the basilica were extinguished, especially those inside the edicule, which was left in darkness.

What believers attest to be a miracle takes place after a brief time of prayer: A holy fire is said to descend from heaven and ignite an oil lamp inside the tomb.

On Saturday, after the lamp was lit the Greek Orthodox patriarch emerged from the tomb and lit bundles of 33 candles (a number representing the age of Christ at the time of his crucifixion and resurrection). Meanwhile, pilgrims lit their candles also from the small round windows on the sides of the edicule, creating a dramatic scene outside the tomb. It is said that the fire does not burn anything (or anyone) for the first 33 minutes after being lit.

For Orthodox believers, the lighting of the fire is a genuine miraculous event, although voices within the Orthodox world itself have repeatedly questioned the authenticity of the miracle, attributing the spontaneous lighting of the lamp to tricks or chemical methods.

In solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza and the victims of the war, the Orthodox Christians have chosen a more subdued celebration this year. To that end, the Holy Fire was not passed hand to hand through the streets of the Old City of Jerusalem, as is the custom, but was brought directly into the homes of the faithful.

Special lanterns transport flames from the tomb to the main Orthodox churches in the Holy Land and around the world (via specially arranged flights). The arrival of the flames from Jerusalem will mark the beginning of the Easter celebrations.

Archbishop Filomeno do Nascimento Vieira Dias of Angola?s Archdiocese of Luanda. / Credit: Radio Ecclesia

ACI Africa, May 5, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Archbishop Filomeno do Nascimento Vieira Dias of Angola?sArchdiocese of Luanda has asked the people of God under his pastoral care to dedicate the last Sunday of the month to adoration of the Blessed Sacrament as part of the preparations for theChurch?s 2025 Jubilee Year. 

Pope Francis on Jan. 21 announced the start of a Year of Prayer in preparation for the Church?s 2025 Jubilee Year, the second in his pontificate after the extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy in 2015.

?Following the Holy Father?s call, as an archdiocese, we will be holding adoration of the Blessed Sacrament on the last Sunday of each month in all parishes and, in alternate months, a meditation on the importance of prayer in the life of the Church,? the archbishop said in his April 18 message.

Eucharistic adoration, he said, facilitates ?a true encounter with Christ.?

The archbishop highlighted the link between prayer and holiness as important, saying: ?Just as there is no true encounter with Christ that does not give rise to holiness, so there is no holiness without a deep life of prayer.?

Prayer provides ?the space in which holiness takes shape,? Dias further said. ?Holiness is the journey of discovering God?s beauty and truth in every man and woman of all times.?

?Holiness is fulfilled in the silent openness of one?s life to the totality of God?s love,? he added. 

Referring to Pope Francis? February 2022 letter to the pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, Archbishop Salvatore Rino Fisichella, Dias highlighted aspects of prayer that he considers essential as monthly Eucharistic adoration in all parishes is set to begin.

He encouraged ?prayer, above all else, to renew our desire to be in the presence of the Lord, to listen to him and to adore him. Prayer, moreover, to thank God for the many gifts of his love for us and to praise his work in creation, which summons everyone to respect it and to take concrete and responsible steps to protect it.?

Referring more to the Holy Father?s letter, Dias encouraged ?prayer as the expression of a single heart and soul, which then translates into solidarity and the sharing of our daily bread.?

He also called for ?prayer that makes it possible for every man and woman in this world to turn to the one God and to reveal to him what lies hidden in the depths of their heart.?

He went on to describe prayer as ?the royal road to holiness, which enables us to be contemplative even in the midst of activity.?

?In a word, may it be an intense year of prayer in which hearts are opened to receive the outpouring of God?s grace and to make the ?Our Father,? the prayer Jesus taught us, the life program of each of his disciples,? he said.

?Let us, therefore, entrust ourselves to the intercession of Mama Muxima [?Mother Heart?], the beloved mother, who taught us through her life that prayer, as the silent gaze of the soul toward God, is the first fruit of faith and the place in which Christians learn to keep the precious things of God in the sacred place of the heart, to meditate on them daily,? he said.

This article was originally published by ACI Africa, CNA?s African news partner, and has been adapted for CNA.

A patient at the new Misky María Palliative Care Hospital located on the outskirts of Lima, Perú. / Credit: Asociación de las Bienaventuranzas (Association of the Beatitudes)

ACI Prensa Staff, May 4, 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA).

In the context of the recent news of the death of Ana Estrada, the first person to request and receive euthanasia in Peru, there is a contrasting story to tell on care for the dying in that country: that of a new Catholic hospital on the outskirts of Lima that provides palliative care, which extends the love of Christ to those in extreme poverty who are in the final stages of their lives.

The beginning of the ?Misky María? Hospital

In 2021, Father Omar Sánchez Portillo, a priest known for his extensive charitable work in the district of Lurín (south of Lima) and founder of the Association of the Beatitudes, had the dream of building a center to serve, with the ?sweetness of Mary,? people in situations of abandonment and extreme poverty who have terminal illnesses. After much prayer, he shared the idea with a German Catholic friend and philanthropist.

?We thought about it, we meditated on it, and we always present our great projects as they begin, as a dream of the heart that we offer to God. They are our guides. So, we dreamed of this and presented the initial project, a small project, to serve 10 people,? Sánchez said in an interview with ACI Prensa, CNA?s Spanish-language news partner.

In a virtual meeting with Bishop Carlos García of the Diocese of Lurín, Peru, Sánchez and the bishop told the philanthropist about this dream.

A painting of the Virgin Mary, dressed in a typical Peruvian, Cusco dress, adorned the meeting room. At one point, the German Catholic asked the bishop about the depiction of the Virgin. García responded that it was ?Misky María,? which in the Indigenous Quechua means ?Sweet Mary.?

Later, the German benefactor said: ?That is going to be the perfect name for the palliative care hospital that I am going to give you, as a gift for the silver anniversary [25 years] of the Diocese of Lurín.? The bishop and priest, surprised, praised God and thanked the gentleman.

So it was that the hospital, with the capacity for 60 terminally ill patients, began to become a reality. It has an intensive care unit, palliative care, nursing, physical therapy, a kitchen, a chapel, and a funeral parlor. Care is provided free of charge and is provided by a multidisciplinary team of doctors, nurses, volunteers, and priests.

Construction began on Sept. 6, 2021, and the complex was inaugurated on Nov. 20, 2022. So far in their facilities, they have treated more than 100 patients who have already passed on. The hospital is currently treating 60 people with different types of terminal illnesses, such as cancer, AIDS, and other degenerative diseases.

?The spirit of this work is to transmit the sweetness of Mary. I always tell the staff who work with me: ?Imagine how Mary cared for Joseph in his last days, for her husband, St. Joseph, in his last days.? That is why St. Joseph is the patron saint of a good death, because he was accompanied by Mary and Jesus. So, imagine that and that is the first attention we have to give them,? Sánchez explained to ACI Prensa.

According to the priest, ?a truly dignified death is one that occurs in peace and, if possible, in communion with God.?

?As St. Francis said, we must receive sister death with open arms and without fear. This is what God asks of us: to perceive death as a companion that assists us on the journey toward life, preparing us for the last step toward meeting our full happiness, our eternal happiness,? he added.

?We cannot miss the opportunity to save souls,? Sánchez further emphasized.

The importance of a spiritual approach

Sánchez explained that when a patient arrives at the hospital, the staff first provides basic hygienic and medical care.

?Our first task is to serve [the patient],? he said. ?We don?t talk to them about God or the future at that time. First, we assist them and notice how they open their hearts.?

?Those who can smile begin to do so, and for those who cannot communicate, we interpret their gestures, their gaze, and their smile as signs that they are feeling the love we give them,? he explained.

After the patient is stabilized, the volunteers sit to listen or talk, depending on the person?s ability. With those who can speak, a gradual conversation about faith is established. Some accept this process immediately, especially those who have had previous Catholic formation.

?Then comes the third part. They are asked if they are baptized. Many don?t know or don?t remember it. For those who do not have the ability to speak, we perform what the Church allows, known as conditional baptism. This guarantees the sacrament in case they are not sure if they have been baptized,? Sánchez continued.

Other sacraments are also administered. ?No one is ever forced to receive them. For those who cannot make decisions for themselves, such as those who are unconscious, the sacraments are also given. It is considered that if the soul is open to receiving them, it constitutes an opportunity for salvation and eternal life,? the priest said.

Stories that touch the heart

Sánchez also shared some of the most difficult, moving stories of abandonment of the people who have passed through the Misky María Hospital.

He told the story of one young man who was imprisoned for having stolen a cellphone and who was released three years later from the Lurigancho prison, one of the most violent prisons in Latin America, ?with all the diseases you can imagine.?

?He essentially left to die with his family. However, this family, which was very poor, told him: ?You can?t stay here, because we have no possibility of taking care of you.? He left and ended up living in the garbage dump of a market in the south section of Lima. A group of friends looked for him and found him. They brought him to Misky María.

?He lived four days with us, days full of love and attention,? Sánchez continued.

Sánchez shared that of his own volition the young man was baptized and received Communion, confirmation, and extreme unction. ?He received all the sacraments and died in my arms four days later,? the priest said. ?That was a truly dignified death, a dignified death in every respect.?

Sánchez also shared the story of a heroic young Catholic priest, Father Juan, who died in the hospital at the age of 39 as a result of a severe infection of COVID-19, which he contracted during his apostolic service.

?He worked hard for the Church, but the time came when he was no longer able to do so. He went to the hospital and had 90% of his lungs affected. There was nothing to do. He remained in a vegetative state and only moved his eyes. For a time his diocese was able to help him, but then we received him and he died with us,? Sánchez said.

The priest also remembers a young homosexual man who studied fashion and lived a life of debauchery for many years. He contracted AIDS and his family expelled him from their home.

?He was a young man who could work as a model, who loved to dress well, but he ended up abandoned and taken care of by us. He received love until the last of his days,? Sánchez said.

A story that moved Sánchez to tears is that of Jeffrey, a child with a slight mental disability whom he described as a ?saint.? The little boy died in Misky María due to pulmonary fibrosis.

According to the priest, in the last weeks of his life, the little boy told him: ?Father, give my toys to the other children because I am leaving. I?m going to Jesus. There I am not going to need these toys.?

?This case moved me deeply. He was a child convinced of his holiness, wasn?t he?? Sánchez said.

?A caress from God for the poor?

Misky María Hospital is one of the works of the Association of the Beatitudes, an organization founded by Sánchez. The organization also currently serves 170 boys, girls, adolescents, young people, adults, and elderly who have been declared abandoned and who have various illnesses and needs.

When referring to the palliative care hospital, Sánchez recalled that ?one way the Church has always had to help improve humanity is by filling in gaps and caring for the poorest, abandoned, and vulnerable.?

He also clarified that the charity does not charge money or establish conditions of any kind to receive people in the last stage of their lives. ?Otherwise it would change the absolute meaning of the project that God placed in our hearts and that we are administering in his name,? he said.

However, he called on people to continue collaborating with the association?s multiple initiatives each year.

?Now you can understand why we sell panettone [sweet bread], why we have collection points to collect donations, why we look for godfathers and godmothers, why we constantly ask you for help for food, diapers, etc. Because only in this way can we continue to be a caress of God for the poor. Join us, help us, collaborate so we can continue making this world, our society, and our country better. God bless you,? Sánchez said.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA?s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Professor Mouna Maroun is the first Arab to be elected as the rector of an Israeli university, the University of Haifa. Maroun belongs to the Arab minority in Israel, the Christian minority among Arabs, and the Maronite minority among Christians. She says she is proud of her religious affiliation and wears a golden crucifix around her neck. "My election is an important message that everything is possible in the Israeli academia," she told CNA. / Credit: Marinella Bandini

Haifa, Israel, May 4, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

For the first time, an Arab Christian woman has been elected as the rector of an Israeli university ? the University of Haifa. The announcement of Professor Mouna Maroun?s appointment was made on April 11 amid tensions with Iran and while anti-Israel protests were mounting at universities around the world.

Maroun belongs to the Arab minority in Israel, the Christian minority among Arabs, and the Maronite minority among Christians. No other Arab, Christian, or woman has held the position of rector before at the University of Haifa. (In the Israeli system, the rector is the head of the university.)

For this reason, Maroun said in an interview with CNA, ?my election is an important message that everything is possible in the Israeli academia. It is a message for the Christian minority that we are rooted here, that we can succeed here; and it is also a message for the young Arab generations: If you have a dream you can really realize it within the Israel society and especially in universities.?

The University of Haifa is located on Mount Carmel, about six miles from the small village of Isfiya, where Maroun was born. Her grandparents arrived here from Lebanon in the early 20th century. Her parents are semi-literate because there were no schools for them at that time, but, she recounted, ?they believed that only through higher education could their four daughters [succeed] to be integrated in Israeli society. That?s why they encouraged us to continue our studies.?

Maroun has embraced that belief as well. ?My childhood was around being very active in the church and studying, knowing that only through studying I could have succeeded in Israel.? 

Regarding this prestigious position in academia, she said: ?I have always believed that the emancipation of the Arab minority in Israel is through higher education. I don?t believe in politics; I do believe in higher education.?

When Maroun arrived at the university, she didn?t know a word of Hebrew ? Arabs and Jews have a separate education system ? and she barely spoke English. At 54 years old, she is now a renowned neuroscientist and expert in post-traumatic stress disorder. She has been a faculty member of the university for more than 20 years and has served as chairwoman of the Department of Neurobiology and as a member of the academic senate, among other positions. She will officially assume her four-year role as rector beginning this October.

When asked about the key to her success, Maroun said: ?I think the lack of expectations from me to succeed was the secret of my success.? 

?No one expected me to succeed ? being an Arab in Israel, a Christian, and on top of all of this, being a woman,? she added. ?I could do what I believed in, I had a dream and I followed this dream without pressure ? only my family encouraged me to continue in this pathway.?

Excellence will be a theme of her tenure as rector, Maroun said. 

One of the first challenges she will face is integrating the faculties of medicine and engineering into the university ? historically mainly composed of arts and humanities. The second aim is to rank as one of the top research universities, both in Israel and also internationally.

The University of Haifa is one of the most diverse and inclusive universities in Israel: 45% of the 17,000 students come from the Arab society and 50% of all the students are first-generation students receiving a higher education. 

The student body is composed of Jews, Muslims, Druze, and Christians (totaling 15-20 different religious denominations). Maroun herself is proud of her religious affiliation and wears a golden crucifix around her neck.

?We have what is called a natural laboratory, having all the religions coexisting and living without tensions,? she said. 

Additionally, the Laboratory for Religious Studies is part of the University of Haifa, with a focus on interfaith dialogue.

Becoming the Arab rector of an Israeli university after Oct. 7, 2023, is a challenging task, she said.

?I work on post-traumatic stress disorder,? she explained. ?I usually ask my audience if they remember where they were on 9/11, but unfortunately I?m [now] going to ask where they were on Oct. 7. It was a trauma for everyone, and everyone will remember where she or he [was] at that moment. We are terrified as Israelis, as human beings, regarding what happened on Oct. 7 and at the same time we are also terrified about what?s going on in Gaza, where thousands of innocent children have been killed.?

Maroun shared her opinion of the anti-Israel protests currently happening at some American universities.

?The administration of the universities in the States should have a moral and ethical statement saying that they cannot deny what happened on Oct. 7 as well as what?s going on in Gaza, and they should take actions in order to promote [the] peace process without having a side, because academia cannot take a side in this conflict,? she said. ?Academia worldwide should be a bridge for peace, for negotiation, and for interaction and not to be biased because this is very different from what science is.?

She went on to say that ?academia means the freedom of speech, the freedom of action, the freedom of collaboration, the freedom to grow and to research, and the freedom of knowledge. I think you cannot really put ?academia? and ?boycotting? in the same sentence.?

Maroun explained that her expertise in trauma and the brain as well as her Christian background have led her to develop a particular sensitivity toward others and to seek paths of dialogue and reconciliation. This will be especially important in the days and months to come in Israel, she said.

?In order to overcome this trauma we need time, we need rehabilitation, and we need reconciliation between the two sides,? she said. ?I do believe that with time, we can reconcile and start to establish bridges of empathy, of understanding, and of containing the emotions of each other. After all we are neighbors, we are living side by side, and I believe and I pray that it?s about time that kids from both sides will grow up to have dreams and maybe fulfill these dreams through higher education.?

Mother Marla Marie stands on the front porch of the sisters? Mother of the Light convent in Dartmouth, Massachusetts. / Credit: Joe Bukuras/CNA

Boston, Mass., May 4, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

It was 1983, in the last years of the Cold War, when 21-year-old Marla Lucas? eyes filled with tears at the sight of a political cartoon prepared to be printed in the Washington Post criticizing then-Pope John Paul II during his activism against communism in Poland.

Lucas, who is now known as Mother Marla, was fresh out of college at the time and had recently experienced a reversion to her Catholic faith and was ?on fire? for Christ, she told CNA on April 22.

What hurt Mother Marla the most about the drawing was her own perceived involvement in its creation. She was a research assistant for the cartoonist who drew it, three-time Pulitzer Prize winner and ?unrepentant liberal,? the late Herbert Block, commonly known as ?Herblock.?

?I felt like an accomplice,? she said.

It wasn?t only Block?s criticism of Pope John Paul II that bothered Mother Marla, it was also his cartoons in support of abortion. 

?I wanted to be a journalist to spread the truth. Mr. Block was a kind person and personable, but I just felt like this was against my faith,? she said.

Before the cartoon of the pope, Mother Marla had been discerning religious life and spent a day visiting the Daughters of St. Paul at their convent in Alexandria, Virginia.

After that day, her decision was made. She was going to apply.

But a short time following the application process, Mother Marla received news that she was not admitted by the Daughters of St. Paul because she is deaf in one ear. 

?The provincial?s reasoning was that she didn?t want to jeopardize my good ear with the work that I would be doing,? Mother Marla said.

A friend then suggested Mother Marla look into the Parish Visitors of Mary Immaculate where, months later, she would say goodbye to her position at the Post and enter religious life in December 1983.

Recounting her last days at the newspaper in the fall of that year, Mother Marla said she went to her boss, Block, and his assistant and said she had some news to share. 

Mother Marla recounted their response: ??You?re getting married??? 

?Well...? Mother Marla said back to them. ?Sort of. I?m marrying Jesus.?

She said both of their jaws ?dropped open? and they looked at her with ?almost horror and disbelief.?

?And that last month at the Post was agony because all of a sudden, whatever they had against the Catholic Church, I was absorbing it. They didn?t throw me a going away party,? she said with a chuckle.

She made her first vows in 1986 and her final vows in 1993. 

Mother Marla ?loved the life? in her religious community and had several assignments on the East Coast including in New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Washington, D.C. The Parish Visitors are a New York-based congregation that has the charism of being contemplative-missionaries to the home.

But it was during her time in Pennsylvania she began deepening her awareness and affection for her Lebanese heritage as a Maronite Catholic.

Mother Marla was always aware of her Maronite roots. Her mother was from Lebanon and her father?s parents were from Lebanon. There wasn?t a Maronite church near her childhood home in Poughkeepsie, New York, so her family attended a Latin-rite parish. But a Maronite priest would make his way up to the Lebanese community there a few times a year to minister to them. 

During her assignment in Pennsylvania, Mother Marla attended a series of Lenten talks in Scranton at a Maronite church. The speaker for the week was Maronite priest Father Gregory Mansour.

?I was very impressed with his spiritual teachings and I said, ?This is a man of prayer. This man really practices his priesthood.? And we struck up a friendship that God used,? she said.

The two would occasionally cross paths and keep in touch over the years. Mother Marla sent Mansour a note of congratulations in 2004 when Pope John Paul II appointed him as bishop for the Eparchy of Saint Maron of Brooklyn.

Mother Marla and Mansour wouldn?t reconnect again until a few years later, in Washington, D.C., where Mother Marla spent a year taking classes at the Dominican House of Studies. 

Twenty-four years a nun at this point, Mother Marla was not on an assignment at a particular parish, so she chose to attend Mass at the Maronite church in the city, Our Lady of Lebanon Parish.

The priest at the parish approached Mother Marla and asked her if she would head the parish?s religious education program. In her previous assignment, she served as a director of religious education for several years.

?And I said, ?Oh Father, I?m here for other reasons.??

But the priest insisted, so Mother Marla took it to prayer, and with the permission of her superior, discerned that God was asking her to head the program. 

She then asked the rector of the Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Seminary, adjacent to the parish, if she could take some classes to learn more about Maronite spirituality and liturgy to help her with catechesis.

He agreed.

Just a few weeks after she accepted the position, Mother Marla again crossed paths with Bishop Mansour while the prelate was visiting the parish. 

Mansour was happy to hear that Mother Marla was heading the program. But the next thing he said to her would change the course of her life forever.

?He said to me, ?Sister Marla Marie, would you help me found a Maronite congregation of sisters for our Church??

?And it was just like that. He just said, ?Hello, it?s nice to see you. How are you?? And then the next thing was, ?Would you found a religious community???

Mother Marla was ?startled.? But at the same time, she felt ?a deep abiding peace.?  

?It was the same peace I had 25 years prior, when I realized my call to be a religious,? she said.

Mother Marla told Mansour she would take his request to prayer and discernment. In time, she agreed and requested leave from her congregation to pursue this vocation.

On June 1, 2008, Sister Marla became Mother Marla Marie, foundress of the Maronite Servants of Christ the Light.

The sisters were founded to ?radiate Christ?s love and light to our people,? Mother Marla said. ?Our life is rooted in Eucharistic prayer and devotion to the Mother of God."

Fast approaching the community?s 16-year anniversary ? or ?sweet 16? as Mother Marla calls it ? the sisters are involved in a variety of ministries including facilitating conferences and parish missions, teaching catechism classes, leading youth and young adult ministry, bringing solace and prayer to those with grief, and accompanying those passing to the next life.

Sister Therese Touma, 40, joined the congregation in 2010 and Sister Emily Lattouf, 29, joined in 2019.

The sisters encounter and serve more than 1,000 people each year, including hundreds of children and young adults in their several ministries, Mother Marla said. Last year the sisters visited 10 parishes for missions across the Maronite Eparchy of Saint Maron of Brooklyn, which spans from Maine to Florida. 

Sister Emily, who took her first vows in 2023, said that ?Mother Marla Marie is an amazing and courageous woman.?

?I admire her courage to leave the world she knew in her previous community to begin this new foundation. I am blessed to have her as a mother-servant, friend, and formator,? she said.

The Maronite Servants are now located in suburban Dartmouth, Massachusetts, located in close proximity to several Maronite parishes and dozens of Roman Catholic parishes where they serve in ministry.

?I keep looking at my life and thinking, ?Wow, that happened to me?? Isn?t it amazing how God works? And he does that in your life too, and in everybody?s life. If people stop to look and be attentive, we can see that the Holy Spirit is always acting. We just have to give him room,? Mother Marla said.

Father Roger Landry, Catholic chaplain at Columbia University, discusses the protests at Columbia University in New York City on EWTN?s ?The World Over with Raymond Arroyo? on May 2, 2024. / Credit: EWTN News The World Over / Screenshot

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 3, 2024 / 17:05 pm (CNA).

Father Roger Landry, a Catholic chaplain at Columbia University, said on Thursday that the protests making national headlines at the New York City school are being organized in part by ?explicitly communist? outside forces. 

?There is an instrumentalization of what?s going on in Gaza to advance an agenda,? he said. ?And that is to deconstruct our present world order at which the United States is considered the top of that order.?

Speaking on EWTN?s ?The World Over with Raymond Arroyo,? Landry said that he had been walking through the encampment nearly daily, conversing with student protesters and other ?outside agitators.? 

While he said he believes that many of the protesters were genuinely concerned for Gazan civilians, there was a sizable percentage of whom were ?explicitly in favor of Hamas? and ?definitely antisemitic by their language and their actions.? 

What is going on at Columbia?

The Columbia demonstration began on April 17 when a large group of students set up dozens of tents to occupy the university?s main quad. Protesters at the encampment said they were standing against Israel?s ?genocide? against Palestinians in Gaza. 

Many videos circulated online of protesters shouting antisemitic chants and calling for the destruction of Israel, and some Jewish students have reported being threatened by protesters. 

Clad in riot gear, officers from the New York City Police Department cleared the encampment in a Wednesday raid that resulted in several hundred arrests. 

Similar protests and encampments on campuses across the country, many of which are still ongoing, have taken place since the demonstration at Columbia began. 

Marxist ideology at heart of protest

According to Landry, nearly half of the approximately 300 protesters arrested were non-student activists. 

He said these outside forces are ?explicitly communist groups? who have been distributing Marxist materials attacking the state of Israel since the Hamas Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack. 

Landry said that these materials attempt to justify the Hamas attack ?out of this neo-Marxist, ?oppressor versus oppressed? ideology that says whatever somebody in the category of ?oppressed? wants to do against a so-called ?oppressor? is justified, even killing way more than a thousand innocent people at a party.? 

?This divide and conquer class warfare that comes from Marx and Lenin is the exact antithesis of what Jesus Christ himself taught,? he continued. ?So, I try to get the Catholic students aware of that problem so at least they?re inoculated to that intellectual virus.? 

Catholic students act as peacemakers 

Landry said he was proud of the many Catholic students who have ?stepped up? to be peacemakers amid all the hatred on campus.   

He said that student Mass attendance has increased on campus. A Catholic student group sent symbolic olive plants to both Jewish and Muslim leaders at Columbia to show the ?solidarity and peace of Christ,? he said. 

?Transcending the moment but also incarnating ourselves in the moment, [we] are trying to bring the peace we have received from Christ that our world and our campus very much need,? he said.

Watch the full interview with Landry on ?The World Over? below.

President Joe Biden presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Jesuit Father Greg Boyle on May 3, 2024. / Screenshot/public domain

CNA Staff, May 3, 2024 / 15:30 pm (CNA).

The White House on Friday announced that Jesuit Father Greg Boyle, the founder of a prominent ministry dedicated to rehabilitating gang-affiliated youth, will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom alongside 18 other recipients this afternoon. 

Boyle, ordained a priest in 1984, founded Homeboy Industries in 1992 while pastor of Dolores Mission, a Catholic church and school in an area that at one time had one of the highest concentrations of gang activity in Los Angeles. 

Today, Homeboy Industries claims to be the largest gang-intervention program in the United States.

The successful ministry, which now operates nationwide, offers training and job skills to those formerly involved in gangs or in jail, as well as case management, tattoo removal, mental health and legal services, and GED completion.

While the group has said it is ?not affiliated with any particular religion,? it also notes that many of its works are ?in line with the Jesuit practice of social justice,? and Boyle has said that the organization does not seek to ?downplay? its Catholic identity.

Boyle described the ministry several years ago to CNA as ?soaked with the Gospel.?

The Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation?s highest civilian honor, is presented to individuals who have made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant societal, public, or private endeavors, the White House says.

In announcing this year?s recipients, the White House noted that the honorees ?built teams, coalitions, movements, organizations, and businesses that shaped America for the better.?

?They are the pinnacle of leadership in their fields. They consistently demonstrated over their careers the power of community, hard work, and service,? the announcement says. 

Biden, who is Catholic, announced that among the honorees is former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and former Secretary of State John Kerry, both fellow Catholics known for their pro-abortion advocacy.

Other honorees this year include former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former Vice President Al Gore, Olympian Katie Ledecky, and actress Michelle Yeoh.

In 2020, Boyle was one of several hundred religious leaders who signed an endorsement of Biden?s campaign. The priest has called for the Church to ?include with more compassion our LGBTQ sisters and brothers.?

In 2021, meanwhile, Homeboy Industries received $20 million in grants from prominent progressive backers Mackenzie Scott and Dan Jewett.

Martyred by the Nazis, Dutch St. Titus Brandsma was a journalist who gave his life so that the truths of the faith would not be silenced. / Credit: Wikimedia Commons

CNA Newsroom, May 3, 2024 / 13:45 pm (CNA).

World Press Freedom Day is celebrated every May 3, drawing attention to the importance of free and independent news media. 

Among modern-day saints, there is a journalist-priest who suffered martyrdom by the Nazis for his work in Catholic media: St. Titus Brandsma.

St. Titus (1881?1942), canonized by Pope Francis in 2022, was a Carmelite priest and native of the Netherlands. During the Nazi occupation of that country, the Nazi public relations bureau informed Dutch newspapers that they had to accept advertisements and press releases emanating from official sources.

The cardinal-archbishop of Ultrecht, Johannes de Jong, commissioned Brandsma, in his capacity as a journalist and spiritual director of the country?s Catholic journalists, to convey the hierarchy?s response to the Nazis? mandate to all the Catholic editors in the country.

Brandsma concluded each visit to the editors with remarks along these lines: ?We have reached our limit. We cannot serve them. It will be our duty to refuse Nazi propaganda definitely if we wish to remain Catholic newspapers. Even if they threaten us with severe penalties, suspension, or discontinuance of our newspapers, we cannot conform with their orders.?

Brandsma visited 14 editors before the Gestapo arrested him. He was arrested and taken to the Amersfoort penal camp, where he was made to work in inhumane conditions. Later, he ended up in the terrifying Dachau concentration camp in Germany, where the regime carried out experiments on prisoners. He was ultimately killed with a lethal injection of carbolic acid.

Before dying, he gave his rosary to the nurse who injected him with the deadly substance. She told him that she did not know how to pray, and he replied that she should only say: ?Pray for us sinners.? Some time later the young woman converted and was a witness in the canonization process of Brandsma.

His body was never found and it is believed that he was cremated in the ovens of the Nazi extermination center. St. John Paul II approved the decree recognizing his martyrdom, and he was beatified in 1985. Pope Francis canonized him on May 22, 2022.

According to the Dutch newspaper Nederlands Dagblad, dozens of international journalists and the 520-member German Association of Catholic Journalists signed a letter to Pope Francis asking him to name St. Titus Brandsma as patron of journalism.

For their part, the Carmelites indicate that the saint wrote a special prayer between Feb. 12?13, 1942, when he was in prison titled ?Before an Image of Christ?:

O Jesus, when I gaze on you

Once more alive, that I love you

And that your heart loves me too

Moreover as your special friend.

Although that calls me to suffer more

Oh, for me all suffering is good,

For in this way I resemble you

And this is the way to your kingdom.

I am blissful in my suffering

For I know it no more as sorrow

But the most ultimate elected lot

That unites me with you, O God.

O, just leave me here silently alone,

The chill and cold around me

And let no people be with me

Here alone I grow not weary.

For thou, O Jesus, art with me

I have never been so close to you.

Stay with me, with me, Jesus sweet,

Your presence makes all things good for me.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA?s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

null / Gutzemberg / Shutterstock

CNA Staff, May 3, 2024 / 13:00 pm (CNA).

A priest in Chicago last month blessed a same-sex couple, saying that the Vatican?s recent document Fiducia Supplicans authorized such blessings. 

Father Joseph Williams, the pastor of St. Vincent de Paul Parish near downtown Chicago, is seen in an April 22 video shared on Instagram by Kelli Knight, a Methodist minister and self-identified ?queer? community organizer. 

In the video, Williams is seen in the parish with Kelli and Myah Knight. ?Myah always wanted to get married at the chapel of her alma mater, so I surprised her with a blessing of our marriage!? Kelli wrote in the post. The parish is affiliated with the Catholic DePaul University in Chicago. 

In the video, Williams can be seen asking the couple: ?Kelli and Myah, do you freely recommit yourselves to love each other as holy spouses and to live in peace and harmony together forever?? The two women respond, ?I do.?

?Loving God, increase and consecrate the love which Kelly and Myah have for one another,? the pastor then says. ?The rings that they have exchanged are the sign of their fidelity and commitment.? 

?May they continue to prosper in your grace and blessing,? he added. 

?May God?s blessing be yours, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen,? the priest finished. 

Neither the priest nor the Archdiocese of Chicago immediately responded to requests for comment from CNA on Friday morning. The pastor told OSV News that his understanding of Fiducia Supplicans is that ?same-sex couples can be blessed as long as it does not reflect a marriage situation ? as long as it?s clear that it?s not a marriage.?

He reportedly told Knight when she first inquired about the blessing: ?Please understand that this is not in any way a marriage, a wedding, anything like that. This is just simply a blessing of persons.?

Fiducia Supplicans has generated global controversy since it was first promulgated last December. The Vatican at the time directed that Catholic priests can bless same-sex couples as an expression of pastoral closeness without condoning their sexual relations. 

Bishops around the world in the subsequent months have been deeply divided over the declaration. Some prelates have responded warmly to the directive, while others have said they will not implement the practice.

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa gives the homily at a Mass in which he took possession of his titular church, St. Onuphrius, in Rome on May 1, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media

Rome Newsroom, May 3, 2024 / 12:21 pm (CNA).

The Latin patriarch of Jerusalem delivered an impassioned lecture on Thursday at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome detailing the process of peace in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, noting that it is an integral part of the Church?s universal mission and one that must not be conflated with overtly temporal or political aims. 

?Peace needs the testimony of clear and strong gestures on the part of all believers, but it also needs to be announced and defended by equally clear words. We cannot remain silent in the face of injustices or invite people to live peacefully and disengage,? Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa remarked during his ?lectio magistralis? on Thursday at the pontifical university.

?The preferential option for the poor and the weak, however, does not make us a political party,? he added.

The hourlong lecture, titled ?Characteristics and Criteria for a Pastoral Care of Peace,? was the latest installment in the university?s ongoing series of studies in peace sciences and international cooperation launched by the school?s Pontifical Pastoral Institute Redemptor Hominis.

The cardinal stressed that the Israel-Hamas conflict is not just an issue for the local Church but also an issue for the universal Church. 

?What I tend to say is that conflict is not a temporary and secondary issue in the life of our Church,? the cardinal continued; rather, he said, it ?is now an integral and constitutive part of our identity as a Church.?

Pizzaballa underlined that ?talking about peace, therefore, is not talking about an abstract topic but of a deep wound in the life of the Christian that causes suffering and tiredness, a lot of tiredness, and deeply touches the human and spiritual life of all of us.?

Stressing the universality of the conflict, he added it ?involves the life of everyone in our diocese and is therefore an integral part of the life of the Church, of its pastoral care.?

The day before the lecture, Pizzaballa took possession of his titular church in Rome, St. Onuphrius, where he spoke on the historic, symbolic, and theological links between the Church in the Holy Land and Rome, again expressing the importance of the Holy Land for the universal Church.

?The Church of Jerusalem is the mother Church of the Church, where the roots of the entire universal Church lie, and it is a place that still retains a local and universal character today,? he said during his May 1 homily.

In his lecture on Thursday, Pizzaballa made overtures to the historical roots of the conflict in order to stress the ?plurirelgious? and ?pluricultural? nature of the Holy Land and to open a reflection on the importance of narrative in the process of peace. 

?These problems of memory cannot be solved by reading one?s own history,? he said. ?Intercultural conflicts will not be overcome if we do not reread different readings of the strong religious and cultural histories.?

While arguing that ?peace is not the exclusive responsibility of the pastor,? he noted that religious leaders must work to ?create contexts in which communities can express themselves.?

?Today, especially in the Holy Land, everyone has their own little story to tell,? he added. 

Pizzaballa stressed the importance of dialogue as a critical underpinning of the peace process, noting that through the promotion of ?continuous dialogue? and ?mutual listening? that ?a serious pastoral care in peace is born and developed.? 

The cardinal also noted religious leaders must work to promote both ?a new culture of legality? as well as to ?become a living and prophetic voice of justice, human rights, and peace.? 

While acknowledging that there has always been ?a close relationship? between ecclesial and civic leaders, playing a delicate role in the ?function[ing] in the life of national communities,? Pizzaballa warned that the Church?s call for peace must exist ?without entering into logics of competition and division? in order to offer ?credible witnesses.?

The spiritual shepherd of the Church in Singapore is Cardinal William Goh, archbishop since early 2013 and a cardinal since 2022. / Credit: Sean Boyce/EWTN News

National Catholic Register, May 3, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Pope Francis recently announced his intention to travel to Southeast Asia in September to visit Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor, and Singapore. The island nation of Singapore is one of the most ethnically and religiously diverse regions in Asia and is home to about 395,000 Catholics. The small but strategically important nation also has the highest urban density in Asia but is ranked as the country with the highest quality of life. Like everywhere else, it also faces the threats of secularism and relativism and a loss of traditional values, especially a commitment to family and respect for the elderly. 

The spiritual shepherd of the Church in Singapore is Cardinal William Goh, archbishop since early 2013 and a cardinal since 2022. He sat down in his residence in Singapore on April 19 with Matthew Bunson, EWTN News? vice president and editorial director, to discuss the Holy Father?s upcoming trip, the College of Cardinals, the synodal process, and the challenges and opportunities for the Church in Asia.

In the following edited transcript, Goh, 66, observes that ?most of us? in the College of Cardinals ?do not know each other,? a disadvantage for a body that will one day be called upon to choose a successor to Pope Francis. The cardinal also suggests the need for ?another level? to the Synod on Synodality beyond its second and final assembly this October ? namely a bishops-only synod. The existing synod, which includes bishops, clergy, and laypeople, ?cannot really be considered a theological dogmatic synod,? he says, because not all of the delegates are theologically trained.

Your Eminence, I?m so grateful for your time. I know that you?re a very busy man, even busier now with the announcement that Pope Francis is going to be visiting Singapore. I?d like to start with a question about yourself. You are a native Singaporean?

Yes.

Could you talk about your faith journey, especially leading to the priesthood, to being a bishop, and now to being a member of the College of Cardinals?

My faith journey is really from hindsight. When I look at my life, it?s really a faith-filled journey, but truly a grace of God. My family is not extremely religious, except perhaps for my mother. But when I was young, being an introvert, instead of joining my fellow classmates to play before class, I would go to the church to pray the rosary, at the age of 7. At the age of 12, I was bringing the Divine Office, although I didn?t know what it was all about. And then I joined the altar servers. I was also in the Crusaders. And then we started the Rosary Club, where 100 young people would come every evening in the school. ? During the recess, they would come to pray the rosary, 60 of them; instead of going for their recess, for their food, they came to pray. And then later on, I was very much attracted to this vocation, and I joined the seminary; and then I was ordained, and then I was assistant priest for a few years, and then they sent me to Rome for further studies. [When] I came back, I taught in the seminary for 22 years. 

I held all the different positions in the seminary, from dean of studies right up to rector. That was my last position, and then I was appointed bishop. But parallel to what I was doing, I was also appointed as the spiritual director of the Catholic Spirituality Center; this was the Charismatic Renewal. So I?m very much in the renewal movement. And so I conducted conversion-experience retreats. This will be the 60th session I?ve been conducting, and one retreat is about five days. 

.... So my own conversion experience, I must say, came about because I conducted the conversion-experience retreat, because I came to really be in touch with the sufferings of people, the real life, the struggles as Catholics; because during that retreat, they all make, I always call [it] ?deathbed confession.? They are properly prepared for confession, and it is really heartwarming, and it changed my whole perspective on life, very different from my life in the seminary. As a professor, you are always teaching, you are always reading, and it is more theoretical; but, here, it really helps me to put theology into practice. On hindsight, really, when I look back at my life, God has always been guiding me.

How did you learn that you had been named a member of the College of Cardinals?

Just like all the other cardinals, because [of] Pope Francis, his way of announcement at the Angelus. And so somebody sent me an SMS, ?Your name has been mentioned.? I couldn?t be bothered, you know; I was so busy preparing a homily. Then a few more SMS messages came in. Then I realized?

You had no idea that this was coming, obviously. What has the experience been like to be a member of the college, with all of the responsibilities, but that particular relationship with the Diocese of Rome?

Well, certainly as a cardinal, we have a greater responsibility to the universal Church. But so far, I?ve just attended only two consistories and one meeting because I belong to, I?m a member of the Dicastery for Family and Life. That is the connection so far. So I think to be chosen as a cardinal, and I think what Pope Francis has been doing, I mean, it?s a good idea. ? The Church should be inclusive, to be universal. We have cardinals from all over the world. But I think the difficulty, the challenge would be getting the cardinals together to know each other well, especially when the time comes for voting for the pope for the conclave. That would be necessary. But, presently, I think most of us do not know each other and not all speak Italian, as well. So I think that area of rapport among the cardinals would be necessary for greater communion.

You mentioned Pope Francis. He?s coming to Singapore. What does his visit here mean? I know that John Paul II was here very briefly in 1986. First, what was that experience like? And what are your hopes for Francis? visit?

Well, Francis is always popular with many of our Catholics, and I think he is a beacon of hope, a beacon of mercy and compassion. That is his forte, really, to try to continue the work of Pope St. John Paul II, Pope Benedict. The theme of evangelization is very dear to the heart of Pope Francis, but his way of evangelization is really to proclaim the joy of the Gospel, which includes welcoming people, being with the poor, with the marginalized. So, in that sense, he will be able to promote greater unity and strengthen the faith of our Catholics and also to inspire people of other faiths, that the Church is not inward-looking, but we are actually at the service of humanity. So I believe that his coming will certainly not just inspire and renew the faith of our Catholics, but also people who listen to him and people who are very appreciative of Pope Francis. In fact, the religious, the non-Catholic religious, leaders here, they are all very appreciative of Pope Francis, and they speak highly of him.

We?re reaching the conclusion of this long process of synodality. I know that you attended the Synod of Bishops last October. What was that experience like?

What I like about that synod was the retreat and the small-group sharing ? in that group sharing, we truly were able to journey with each other, listen to each other, without judgment, and accompany each other, especially when we are among bishops. It?s much easier because we understand our own struggles and difficulties and challenges and also aspirations. That?s the good thing about the synod. And I think that is the way, not just for the universal Church, but also for the particular Church, local Church, that we need to listen to, journey with each other. I think that is very helpful, so that there will be a greater understanding and communion between the clergy and the laity, so that we walk as one, so that we will truly be coming together as one Church.

But the synod, I think that, for me, is really great. That is the most important thing. I benefit from the synod. But when you have a plenary assembly where everybody is giving intervention [talks], that becomes a little bit more sensitive, because we are not able to be as open or direct as you wish to be ? for fear that you might offend people who have other views.

So it needs a lot of courage to state what you need to say and be open about it. But I suppose there is also a subtle pressure that what we say, if it is not appreciated by some quarters, may not go very well. So I think that is also a subtle pressure. And I think, most of all ? at the end of the day, although it has been underscored that the synod is not a parliamentary session, which it is not, but there is voting at the end. So the voting, so in the mind of people, although it is not a parliamentary session, but I think most people would take the votes as a kind of consensus making. Of course, at the end of the day, it?s the Holy Father who takes the decision; that?s what he has done. So I think, in the area of consultation, it is helpful for the Church, and I think it?s very important also for the prelates to listen also to the laity. But as has often been said, or some bishops are suggesting, perhaps there should be another level where it is really a Synod of Bishops, after hearing the laypeople, after journeying with them; there should be that level of bishop synods, where the bishops can come together, because that synod [with laity] cannot really be considered a theological dogmatic synod, because not all are theologically trained.

All those who vote are not theologically trained. So you might need to have another level, where it is just basically bishops, with the Holy Father, to determine certain doctrinal issues. In terms of pastoral outreach, I think for that kind of synod, it would be helpful; but when it comes to doctrines, I think it?s a bit different.

And the Christian population here makes, I think, about 19%, 20% of the total population. Is that right? What are the opportunities for ecumenical outreach for Catholics, but then also interreligious dialogue here? This seems a very rich place for that.

Yes, this is something unique in Singapore. We try to make Singapore an icon for ecumenism and interreligious dialogue. But I think, and I did share with many people, that it?s a bit difficult for other countries to duplicate what we are doing in Singapore. We have excellent religious, harmonious relationship with all the other religions. We know the religious leaders all by name, and we know them as friends. And so we do not have any issues. Anything we have, we will speak to them. We are all very friendly and supportive of each other. We visit each other for their religious celebrations. We are present for meetings quite often, and we share, and there is a lot of mutual respect, appreciation ? and also the fact that, in Singapore, we have a law that forbids anyone to speak ill of another religion. That helps a lot, and so that makes everybody respectful because it is very sensitive. So, in that sense, there is already a lot of interfaith sharing among Catholics, among religious leaders. In terms of ecumenism, we are on very good terms with the Christians, and we are supportive of each other. So, of course, we could do more, you know, but I started an office ? an archdiocesan [office] for interreligious dialogue and also ecumenism. But our resources are limited. And also my time is limited. I cannot be everywhere. I try my best, according to whatever time that I have to reach out to the Christians and especially to the non-Christians.

The Church here, like the Church everywhere, is facing pressures from secularism, relativism. You?ve spoken about the importance of defending ? I think you use the phrase ?truth and justice.? What does that mean?

It?s important for us that, in the face of this secularism or the -isms, individualisms and so on, I think the Church has to be truthful in what we proclaim. I do not believe that we should make the Gospel message [different] or dilute the Gospel message. The truth has to be spoken because the truth sets us free. But, of course, truth has to be spoken with charity. That is very important. But I don?t believe that we should try to compromise the Gospel. And that is my fear: that, today, even Church leaders are compromising the Gospel. I don?t think Jesus ever compromised the Gospel, even for the adulterous woman. He says, ?I do not judge you, I do not condemn you, but please sin no more.? I think that has to be mentioned. This is where the importance of truthfulness, mercy, and compassion [comes in]. 

You look at the world today: There is so much injustice. So what can we do? In some countries, not in Singapore, because I am a member of the FABC [Federation of Asian Bishops? Conferences], in some countries, they are being persecuted because of their religion, sometimes because of their race, by political authority.

So how do we speak with those people in authority? How do we dialogue? So I think this is where, again, I think Pope Francis, I think his direction is certainly the direction we need to follow. Dialogue. We need to dialogue. We need to listen; we need to dialogue. We need to strengthen trust because, at the end of the day, we are all for the same goal. Humanity is all for the same goal: We want happiness, but not happiness, only true happiness. We don?t want just love. We want fruitful love.

Singapore has been described as a kind of bridge between the West and the East. What can Singapore show, and what can this region show, to the wider Church, in terms of harmony, but also the direction that you think we need to go?

Actually, Singapore is more in the first world [as a] country than the rest. That?s why, when I attend FABC meetings, FABC, although it?s a Federation of Asian Bishops conference, but actually the whole world is there, because countries are very affluent, ? and some are poor; some [there is] a political issue, some religious suppression. So it?s very diverse. So, in that sense, a bit difficult. But for us as a Church, I think Singapore can be a model, in terms of: How do we remain faithful in our faith in an affluent country? Because the challenges facing Singapore is basically a first-world problem. So we could identify very much with Europe; whereas the problems that Europe is facing is not the problem of Africa or Asia, in general. So it is sometimes a continental issue rather than the issue of the universal Church. So, like in Singapore, what I think we can do is really help to promote religious harmony. That is our strength because of the work that we have been doing ? and especially to help governments. In Singapore, the beautiful thing about our government is we see ourselves as a multiracial, multireligious country. We are not a secular country.

We have a secular government, yes, to ensure fairness, impartiality; and even most of the members in the government, they belong to some faith, and they are very staunch in their faith. But I think this is where Singapore can show the way: how, even in a very cosmopolitan country, very diversely religious country, we can live together. So long as there is respect, sensitivity to each other, then I think we can work together. And Singapore has so many races, as well, so many ethnic groups of people; we can live together as one, so that, for us, I think [we have] a forte [to model] for other countries in the world, [showing] how to live harmoniously. I think you need to have a good government, a strong government to be able to support the work of the religions and all the NGOs.

So that relationship between the Church and state has to be respectful.

Yes. And in Singapore, the state sees us as partners, which is true. We are partners with the government for the same reason, because it?s for the common good of the people. We take care of their spiritual needs; we help the government to make sure that they rule justly. We express our views, and the government is very grateful. When they have certain issues, moral, social issues, they will consult the religious leaders. Of course, at the end of the day, they have to make the decision. I mean, it is a multireligious country.

Asia is one of those parts of the Church, like Africa, where the Catholic population is growing. Do you see the importance of Asia increasing in this century? And, if so, what can the rest of the Church learn from Asia as an experience? I know that we?re talking about a very diverse set of cultures and countries, but the Church does seem to be growing here, and it?s very vibrant.

I would say that, and this is my assessment, I think the problem with established Christian countries, like Europe, for example, faith, I think, has become too institutional. Religion has become ritualized. It becomes routine; it becomes a custom, even. It is not a personal faith. They don?t have this personal encounter with Jesus. In Asia, because many of us are converts, at least for the last two, three generations ? and to convert from one faith to another, it?s not an easy thing; you will be marginalized initially ? and so these people, not only have they studied about the faith, most of all, they have encountered Jesus. And that is what my conversion-experience retreat tries to do. Actually, the conversion-experience retreat, at first, [when] I started, it was meant for lapsed Catholics. I wanted to bring back the lost sheep. Then, after that, a lot of members in the Church [say], ?We also never experience God. We also want to join,? so it becomes for all now. But I believe that when we get a person to encounter Jesus personally, Jesus is real; Jesus is alive. They can encounter his mercy, his love, his forgiveness. Their life will change.

And I honestly believe all these ideological struggles, whether it?s gender ideology, same-sex, all this abortion, euthanasia ? all this comes about because you are operating on the level of the head. On the level of the head, you can twist and turn. You can argue from every side. For us who are Catholics, if you encounter Jesus, you know he is your Lord and Savior. You will accept whatever is taught in the Scriptures. You will live your life according to what Jesus has lived and has taught, even though you might not agree ? because we have faith in Jesus. So, my pastoral approach in dealing with people who are disagreeable with the Church is ? we cannot force our doctrines on these people. I invite them to know Jesus. I invite them to fall in love with Jesus. And I believe Jesus will take care of them ? and Jesus will. Because if you love Jesus so deeply, surely you want to live like him. ? Who are those people who are grumbling about certain moral issues of the Church? These are all ? nominal Catholics, because they have no faith.

So your message to them is: Jesus?

Yes. We need to have a personal relationship, and the Church has to provide the opportunity, so it?s not just preaching, teaching; that is important, but that comes after. So even in the early Church, what do we do in the early Church? ?Didache? comes after being evangelized. So the ?kerygma? has to be preached first; then ?Didache?; then the teaching. But we are putting the cart before the horse. We are teaching, and hopefully they receive the ?kerygma.? ? That is also my fear that the young people today, they don?t ? because if they are brought up from a traditional Catholic family and if the parents are weak in their faith after confirmation, as Pope Francis will always say, it?s a farewell [to faith] ? bye-bye. Because they have no faith; we call it a routine faith. It is not real faith. So what we try to do now, even for young people, is also to give them a deep encounter with Jesus. And we have the office of young people doing parallel to what I?m doing for the adults. We give them a good experience of Jesus. Their lives change.

With so many influences on young people, you?ve mentioned this office being developed. Your message to young people today, what is your immediate message to somebody who?s being challenged by social media, by the secular influences?

What I feel that is most important for young people: We need to build faith communities. They need to be supported in their faith. And that is the reason why, in order to keep the young people within the faith, we need to help them to form faith communities where they can support each other. So two things for me are critical in helping our young people to deal with all the challenges in the world: an encounter with Jesus; belonging to a faith community. And they will grow. As their faith grows, they will know what to do and how to deal with all these, you can say, challenges, in society. And, of course, I think there is also an important part to play ? after ?kerygma?is ?Didache.? But then also we need to continue to preach and to teach. One of the reasons why young people have left the Church is because they feel that they cannot connect with the Church; they cannot connect with the doctrines of the Church. And we need to have more theologians, lay theologians perhaps, to be able to be the bridge between the ecclesiastical language and the ordinary language.

The problem is that we are trained in theology and Scripture. We tend to use this kind of ecclesiastical language. For us, it?s our ? what do you call it? ? our cup of tea. You know, we use that language so often that we don?t realize the people in the world don?t understand what we?re talking about. And so we cannot connect with the young people. So I think we need to have a bridge. And this is where all the social media and all these things will try to make it more palatable for young people to understand, to appreciate, and to be able to share with their friends.

Your Eminence, the last question I have is on one of the things that?s very clear in Singapore: the importance of family. Pope Francis talks about respecting the generations, of having those bridges from the old to the young. What is the secret here? Why is that still so much a part of life here? And what is a lesson there for other cultures to learn?

I think generally, not only within the Catholic Church definitely, generally Asian society, we tend to be focused more on the family. Family piety, filial piety, all these are very important. But that is also being eroded away because of the Western influence; because of affluence, because people want to have a better life, they will live, they will migrate, and parents both are working, in order to have a better life. Cost of living is high. So there are a lot of threats against the family, even in Singapore, although we are trying to protect the family. We have many ? I think we have 11 ? organizations that deal with family life. So we have to work hard at it. I won?t say that we are doing extremely well, but because we belong to this Asian culture, that family dimension is always important; but we need to protect it, because I think, with affluence, that family is being threatened. And because parents are all working, and the children, we have small families. In fact, we are below replacement of the population, as well. And then the younger people, they are not interested in having families. ...

So we are promoting [family life]. And the beautiful part is this, the government is working with us all. We have a ministry; we call it the Ministry of Social and Family. And this ministry, they try to promote family life. The programs that they have are very good programs, so we complement each other. And so we are grateful that the government also sees the importance of growing the family, strengthening our family, and healing people who are divorced and those from dysfunctional families.

This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, CNA?s sister news partner, and has been adapted by CNA.

Oviedo Archbishop Jesús Sanz Montes accused the government of focusing "in a biased and manipulative way on the problem of pedophilia as something attributable only to the Catholic Church." / Credit: Archdiocese of Oviedo

ACI Prensa Staff, May 2, 2024 / 18:50 pm (CNA).

?They have done it again. It is a kind of obsessive mantra every time they need a smokescreen to distract from the real problems we have and to which they so clumsily and insidiously apply their tortuous governance.?

That is how the archbishop of Oviedo, Jesús Sanz Montes, began a letter released this week titled ?The Accusing Rattle? in which he responds to the socialist government?s announcement of an exclusive plan to address sexual and power abuses committed within the Catholic Church.

In the opinion of the prelate, the country?s executive ?has tried to focus in a biased and manipulative way on the problem of pedophilia as something attributable only to the Catholic Church, which represents an exclusive and improper singling out and leaves unprotected the majority of those who have suffered this terrible scourge.?

The Franciscan archbishop encouraged people to denounce ?the deceitful, biased, or false information and to humbly say how much good we do as a Christian community,? while at the same time acknowledging errors, asking for forgiveness, and accompanying victims.

The archbishop said Christians are called to defend abuse victims, ?assuming our responsibility in what concerns us, but urging that the entire society also adopt appropriate measures, starting with government leaders,? he added.

Sanz criticized the executive for falsifying ?the identity of the human person? and destroying ?anthropology in its masculine and feminine identity.? 

He added that the government propagates a version of feminism that not only fails to eradicate unjust sexist violence against women but ?actually exacerbates it? along with ?a perverse pornographic and obscene manipulation that confuses and harms children and young people based on gender ideology.?

If such policies are maintained, the archbishop predicts, ?the society thus poisoned and confused will be more manipulable by those who, from their narcissistic and fallacious amorality, seek to perpetuate themselves in power.?

The prelate has described as ?clear? the statement from the Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE, by its Spanish acronym) in which it rejected the government?s plan and denounced that the plan ?parts from a condemnatory judgment of the entire Church, carried out without any type of legal guarantee, a public and discriminatory accusation by the state.?

Sanz emphasized that ?we must not allow ourselves to be identified with this false story that disfigures the true work of the Church? and, turning the tables on the subject, asked: ?Which institution of those affected by this crime has taken the matter seriously? Which ones have created offices of shelter and support, have preventively educated their members, and have actively collaborated with the prosecutor?s office??

?The arbitrary imputation is unacceptable?

The prelate reminded the faithful that the problem of the sexual abuse of minors in Spain is one in which Catholic clergy and religious account for a miniscule 0.2% part. That figure comes from a study by the Anar Foundation, specialized in the protection of children, which details that between 2008 and 2009, 0.2% of the more than 6,000 reported cases of abuse can be attributed to priests and religious.

According to the cited foundation that works on the prevention of child abuse, parents represented the largest number of aggressors, totaling 23.3%. Companions occupied second place among perpetrators against minors, with 8.7%, while friends represent 5.7% and partners, boyfriends, or girlfriends represent 5.6%.

The archbishop of Oviedo concluded by rejecting as unacceptable ?the arbitrary accusation that only focuses on us, having such a low criminal percentage, with a whole series of legal, fiscal, economic, and social measures,? adding: ?What do those who continue in this foul play want to cover up or distract from? ?Cui prodest?? said Seneca [?Who benefits??].?

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA?s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

null / Credit: Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 2, 2024 / 18:20 pm (CNA).

The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) released a pair of emergency rules that it said are aimed at combating ?misinformation? and a ?deeply dishonest scare campaign? by the Biden administration about the state?s new six-week pro-life law. 

The rules, published on May 1, establish guidance for lifesaving measures and clarify that certain procedures, including treatment for ectopic pregnancies, are not considered abortion and remain legal under the Florida Heartbeat Protection Act, which went into effect on Wednesday.  

This comes amid significant criticism over the state?s pro-life law that prohibits abortions on women after six weeks of pregnancy except for in cases of rape, incest, or when the life of the mother is in danger. The new AHCA rules further clarify those exceptions. 

?The agency finds there is an immediate danger to the health, safety, and welfare of pregnant women and babies due to a deeply dishonest scare campaign and disinformation being perpetuated by the media, the Biden administration, and advocacy groups to misrepresent the Heartbeat Protection Act and the state?s efforts to protect life, moms, and families,? the AHCA wrote in both rules. ?The agency is initiating rulemaking to safeguard against any immediate harm that could come to pregnant women due to disinformation.? 

?This rulemaking,? the AHCA goes on, ?will ensure health care providers establish medical records procedures that will adequately protect the care and safety of both mothers and their unborn babies during medical emergencies.?

The rules state that ?regardless of gestational age,? treatment for ectopic pregnancies, premature rupture of membranes, trophoblastic tumors, and ?other life-threatening conditions? is ?not to be considered an abortion and shall not be reported [as such]? even if those procedures inadvertently result in the death of the unborn child. 

In a ?Myth vs. Fact? sheet published the same day, the AHCA also clarified that ?Florida law does not prohibit the removal of the pregnancy for women who experience a miscarriage in any circumstance.? 

The Biden administration has been outspoken about its opposition to Florida?s six-week law. Vice President Kamala Harris gave a speech in Jacksonville, Florida, on Wednesday in which she condemned the Florida pro-life law as ?extreme? and dangerous for the health and safety of women. 

President Joe Biden also attacked Florida?s six-week law in a campaign speech in Tampa on April 23. He blamed former President Donald Trump and Republicans for unleashing a ?nightmare? on American women. 

Florida state Sen. Lauren Book said that ?women and girls will die? because of the law.  

AHCA Secretary Jason Weida issued a statement the same as the rule in which he said: ?The pro-abortion left is lying for political gain. The attempts to demonize standard health care for women make a physician?s job more difficult and can put a pregnant woman?s life at risk. The Heartbeat Protection Act protects women from life-threatening complications while protecting the life of the unborn.? 

Fertility rose at the end of the Depression and the end of World War II with the baby boom, to more than 3.5 births for every woman by 1960 ? then plummeted immediately thereafter. / Credit: Glenn|Wikimedia|CC BY-SA 2.0

Washington D.C., May 2, 2024 / 17:55 pm (CNA).

The record-low fertility rates in the United States and the decline in fertility globally are driven by both social and economic factors, according to Catholic panelists speaking at an event hosted by the Institute for Human Ecology (IHE).

According to provisional data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week, the 2023 American fertility rate fell to 54.4 births per 1,000 women, which is the lowest in recorded history. The total fertility rate, which estimates how many children the average woman will have over her lifetime, fell to just over 1.6 ? well below the replacement rate of 2.1.

The panel, titled ?The Population Bust,? took place at the Catholic University of America. The institute is affiliated with the university?s Department of Politics. The panel was moderated by Catholic New York Times columnist Ross Douthat.

How fertility began to trend downward

In 1800, the fertility rate was more than four times the current rate, standing strong at more than seven births for every woman over her lifetime. 

The rate steadily decreased to just over three births for every woman in 1925, until taking a large dip to 2.06 during the Great Depression. Fertility rose again at the end of the Depression and the end of World War II with the baby boom, to more than 3.5 births for every woman by 1960 ? then plummeted immediately thereafter. 

Apart from a few small short-term bumps, the country?s fertility rate has never recovered from the post-1960 downward trajectory. 

Catherine Pakaluk, an IHE scholar, mother of eight, and author of the recently published book ?Hannah?s Children,? said the gradual decline since 1800 was primarily a result of industrialization. When the country was more agrarian, children were an economic necessity to help with work and to provide care for their parents as they aged. But industrialization and the social safety nets ended that incentive. 

Before industrialization, Pakaluk noted, the mindset was, ?You?re going to do this really hard thing because it?s the sort of thing you need to do.?

Yet fertility had mostly remained above the 2.1 replacement rate until the 1960s when there were significant shifts in the culture. In 1960, just before birth rates began to plummet again, the Food and Drug Administration approved the first birth control pill and the women?s liberation movement began to take hold of the country.

When the ?contraceptive revolution? occurred, along with a rise in feminism, Pakaluk said many women still wanted to have children but began to prioritize professional goals instead. 

?They also want to have jobs and careers,? Pakaluk added. ?Literally, that?s the problem. They want to have two things that are in conflict. ? Women?s large-scale entry into the paid workforce is the thing that?s in tension with having the children they want to have.?

Timothy Carney, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, father of eight, and author of the recently published book ?Family Unfriendly,? said the United States has become ?a contraceptive society.? He lamented the social view that children are simply ?your individual deliberate choice,? which he said emboldens the mindset that this ?freed up everybody else from having to help out.?

?Our society is failing to make people want to have kids,? Carney said. ?Our society is falling short in all these ways. ? It is our culture that is family-unfriendly.?

Carney said that having children used to simply be a part of life, but now people postpone and agonize over the decision. He criticized ?helicopter parenting? as one of the reasons people are afraid to have more children.

?Millennials were more helicoptered as kids, and so their view of what parenting is was much more daunting than [Generation] X, where it was ?come home when the street lights turn on? when we were little,? Carney said.

?It?s our culture?s values that are off,? Carney added. ?And it?s all tied to the overparenting [and] the strange new mating and dating norms, which [are based on] a belief in hyper-individualism.?

Complexities in fixing these trends

For her recent book, Pakaluk interviewed women who have defied these trends and built large families with their husbands. The reasons that those women decided to have large families, she noted, were rooted in religious faith.

According to Pakaluk, these women believed that ?children are blessings from God, expressions of God?s goodness and the purpose of my marriage.?

?Churches and religious people are actually holding the one thing that can make the biggest difference because it?s either true or it?s not true that children are blessings [and] that they?re always valuable,? Pakaluk said. ?... If it?s true, it?s not propaganda to say it. ? If it?s true and it?s not propaganda, people can begin to believe this.?

Pakaluk said the central assertion of Christianity is that ?God became Man as a human infant and that reality is supposed to color the way we see the value of human infancy.? Although the women she spoke to have goals and responsibilities apart from their roles as mothers, she said the faith component ensures that they prioritize building a family first.

?To get more children, you have to find some way ? to argue that this particular good ? the ?children? good ? is of greater value or more importance,? Pakaluk added.

Carney suggested that some of the cultural difficulties could be mitigated through economic incentives. He criticized the failure to pass a child tax credit and rebuked the mindset that society has no role in supporting families. 

?People have less community support,? he said.

Still, Carney cited the importance of a resurgence in faith as a fundamental component of raising fertility rates. 

?The secular story ? the godless story ? ends up being too sad to want to continue the human race,? Carney said.

null / Credit: Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 2, 2024 / 15:26 pm (CNA).

Former President Donald Trump is polling more than 10 points ahead of President Joe Biden among Catholic voters, thanks in part to increasing support from Hispanic Catholic voters, according to a recent Pew survey.

Overall, Pew has Trump leading by only 1% among the general voter population. His support among the Catholic demographic, however, shows noteworthy signs of growth compared with 2020.

According to the latest Pew Research Center poll, which was taken April 8?14, Trump leads Biden among Catholics 55% to 43%. The 12% lead is a significant increase from 2020, when Catholics voted in favor of Trump by just 1%, 50% to 49%. 

Chad Pecknold, a theology professor at the Catholic University of America and an expert on the American Church, told CNA the Hispanic Catholic shift is what stands out most in Pew?s latest poll. 

Hispanic Catholics, who make up approximately 40% of the U.S. Church, continue to favor Biden, but at a much smaller margin, 49% to 47%. This is a serious decline in Hispanic Catholic support for Biden. A similar Pew poll taken a month before the 2020 election showed Hispanics favored Biden by an overwhelming margin of 67% to 26%. 

This comes as Pew projects Hispanics to make up a record-high 14.7% of all eligible U.S. voters this election season. 

?Democrats are experts at harvesting ?identities? for votes, so it?s important to pay close attention when they fail,? Pecknold said. 

?They [Hispanic Catholics] were once reliable votes for Democrats, but they are now splitting down the middle. What this suggests is that, despite their best attempts at buying their votes through political favors, Democrats are losing one of the identity groups they?ve worked hardest at keeping.? 

Meanwhile, Trump?s lead among White Catholics has also grown, currently at 61% in favor of Trump to 38% for Biden, compared with 57% to 42% in 2020. 

Nevertheless, both Biden and Trump currently hold high unfavorability ratings among Catholics. According to Pew, only 35% of Catholics hold a favorable view of Biden while 64% have an unfavorable view. Trump, meanwhile, is also viewed unfavorably by a majority of Catholics (57%) and favorably by 42%. 

Though he is the second Catholic president in U.S. history, Biden has sparked outrage among many Catholics for invoking his Catholic faith to support abortion. Cardinal Wilton Gregory, archbishop of Washington, D.C., recently criticized Biden on national television, saying he ?picks and chooses? elements of the Catholic faith to follow.

Pew?s data reveals a marked difference in political affiliation between Catholics who attend Mass at least monthly or more and those who do not.

Regardless of ethnicity, among all Catholics who attend Mass monthly or more often, 61% identify with the Republican Party or lean Republican. This includes a majority (67%) of both white Catholics and Hispanic Catholics (52%).

Biden?s most significant polling lead is among atheist voters, a demographic he leads by 76 percentage points, 87% to 11%. He also holds very large leads among Black Protestants (77% to 18%) and agnostics (82% to 17%). Biden leads among religiously unaffiliated voters 69% to 28%, which is very similar to his support in this demographic in 2020.