By Kate Scanlon (OSV News) – A federal judge in Texas on Nov. 7 struck down a Biden administration program to protect from deportation and provide a path to U.S. citizenship for hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants living in the country who are married to U.S. citizens.
The program, known as “Keeping Families Together,” which sought to allow undocumented spouses and stepchildren of U.S. citizens to apply for a green card without first having to leave the country, was challenged by 16 Republican-led states that filed a lawsuit after applications were made available in August. At that time, a judge put the program on hold.
“Sadly, this court decision will likely end the program, as Trump will terminate it upon taking office,” J. Kevin Appleby, senior fellow for policy at the Center for Migration Studies of New York and the former director of migration policy for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, told OSV News.
“Instead, his administration will start targeting the exact same families for deportation, separating U.S. citizen children from their parents,” Appleby said. “Hopefully, Catholic advocates, including the U.S. bishops, will not pull their punches in opposing Trump’s mass deportation and anti-asylum plans. History will mark how the church in the U.S. defends the rights of migrants in the years ahead.”
A migrant from Chiapas, Mexico, looks through his family’s immigration paperwork at Casa Alitas in Tucson, Ariz., March 15, 2024. A federal judge in Texas Nov. 7 struck down a Biden administration program that gave a pathway to legalization and citizenship for certain undocumented spouses and children of U.S. citizens. (OSV News photo/Rebecca Noble, Reuters)
Under the terms of the program, applicants must have resided in the U.S. for 10 or more years and be legally married to a U.S. citizen. Those approved by the Department of Homeland Security would have been permitted to remain in the U.S. for a three-year period to apply for permanent residency. In June, the White House had said the program would benefit “approximately half a million spouses of U.S. citizens, and approximately 50,000 noncitizen children under the age of 21 whose parent is married to a U.S. citizen.” But Judge J. Campbell Barker of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, who previously temporarily blocked the program, struck it down Nov. 7, arguing the administration exceeded its authority in creating the program.
The program would have been unlikely to remain in place once President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January.
Andrew Bailey, the attorney general of Missouri, one of the states that joined the lawsuit challenging the program, said in a post on X (formerly Twitter), “The court just granted our request to throw out the Biden-Harris administration’s illegal parole-in-place program allowing illegal aliens to remain in our country after they have crossed the border. A huge win for the rule of law.”
FWD.us, an immigration and criminal justice reform advocacy group, said in a post on X it is “deeply disappointed” by the ruling, arguing the program represented “a lifeline for hundreds of thousands of American families in desperate need of protection from being separated by our failed immigration system.”
Previously, Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Texas, who serves as chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration, praised the Biden administration rule at the time. He noted a similar program had been available to military service members and their families for several years. In a June 18 statement, Bishop Seitz said, “We’ve seen the positive impacts such programs can have, not only for beneficiaries themselves but for the families, employers, and communities that rely on them,” adding that the new program was “sure to yield similar benefits.”
The Catholic Church’s magisterium outlines the church’s moral parameters on immigration. The Catechism of the Catholic Church instructs, “The more prosperous nations are obliged, to the extent they are able, to welcome the foreigner in search of the security and the means of livelihood which he cannot find in his country of origin.”
At the same time, the church has also made clear human laws are also subject to divine limits. St. John Paul II’s 1993 encyclical “Veritatis Splendor” (“Splendor of Truth”) and 1995 encyclical “Evangelium Vitae” (“The Gospel of Life”) — both quote the Second Vatican Council’s teaching in “Gaudium et Spes,” the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, which names “deportation” among various specific acts “offensive to human dignity” that “are a disgrace, and so long as they infect human civilization they contaminate those who inflict them more than those who suffer injustice, and they are a negation of the honor due to the Creator.”
Back in June, Bishop Seitz emphasized that “legislators have a moral and patriotic duty to improve our legal immigration system, including the opportunities available for family reunification and preservation.” “A society is only as strong as its families, and family unity is a fundamental right,” he said. “For the good of the country, Congress must find a way to overcome partisan divisions and enact immigration reform that includes an earned legalization program for longtime undocumented residents.”
(Kate Scanlon is a national reporter for OSV News covering Washington. Follow her on X (formerly known as Twitter) @kgscanlon.)
NATION WASHINGTON (OSV News) – Catholic Mobilizing Network, a group that advocates for the abolition of capital punishment in line with Catholic teaching, issued a statement Nov. 6 urging President Joe Biden to take action on the practice during the remainder of his presidency while 40 lives on death row “hang in the balance.” Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, CMN’s executive director, noted in a statement that Biden became the first U.S. president in 2020 to have campaigned on an openly anti-death penalty platform. After Biden was elected, his administration declared a moratorium on federal executions, but some activists say he should have gone further to end the practice. Vaillancourt Murphy argued the nation’s second Catholic president should follow through with concrete action in the post-election lame-duck period before President-elect Donald Trump, who has sought to expand the uses of capital punishment, returns to the White House. “As faithful anti-death penalty advocates, we know lives hang in the balance,” Vaillancourt Murphy said. She said CMN would “redouble its efforts to urge President Biden to commute the sentences of all 40 men currently on federal death row before he leaves office in January.” The group invited Catholics to sign a petition, hosted at catholicsmobilizing.org, calling on Biden to do so.
WASHINGTON (OSV News) – The Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ $880 million abuse claims settlement, announced Oct. 16, brings the total payouts of U.S. Catholic dioceses for abuse claims since 2004 to more than $5 billion – and possibly more than $6 billion – OSV News has found. An aggregated total from two decades of reports issued by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops shows the nation’s dioceses and eparchies paid some $4.384 billion to settle claims between 2004 and 2023. Data for fiscal year 2024 is still pending; however, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ $880 million settlement and a $323 million settlement announced Sept. 26 by the Diocese of Rockville Centre, New York, account for $1.2 billion within the span of less than a month. Those two settlements, plus the USCCB total for 2004-2023, add up to $5.59 billion. The USCCB 2004-2023 total does not appear to include a $660 million settlement announced in 2007 by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles which, along with the Oct. 16 settlement, brings that archdiocese’s total to at least $1.54 billion in abuse-related costs over the past two decades. An archdiocesan official told OSV News the archdiocese was looking into how that settlement data was reported. The overall national total of diocesan settlement payouts for the past two decades could exceed $6.24 billion, if the USCCB data does not already include the 2007 Archdiocese of Los Angeles payout. Data from the USCCB’s reports does not include any settlements that dioceses reached with victims prior to 2004.
The Christmas tree is lighted in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican Dec. 9, 2023. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)
VATICAN VATICAN CITY (CNS) – A local Italian group launched an online petition urging Pope Francis, the Vatican and others to stop the “fir tree-icide” of cutting down a 200-year-old red pine to decorate St. Peter’s Square for Christmas. The Bears and Others Association, a land and wildlife conservancy group located in the northern Italian province of Trento, launched the petition on change.org Oct. 13. It had gathered more than 49,800 signatories by midday Nov. 15. Citing the pope’s teachings on caring for creation, the group said, “It is necessary to give clear and concise signals” to change people’s attitudes toward respecting nature, especially given the rapidly evolving climate change. The Christmas tree “is a pagan tradition and has nothing to do with the birth of Christ,” the petition said. Renato Girardi, mayor of Ledro, told the Italian state television network, RAI, that the donated tree comes from a certified sustainable working forest that follows strict forest management practices, which include thinning out towering, older trees to open up the canopy and facilitate the growth of multiple younger trees below. Renato Girardi, mayor of Ledro, said the tree was actually 60 years old, according to Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian bishops’ conference, Nov. 19.
WORLD MEXICO CITY (OSV News) – The Mexican bishops’ conference expressed deep concern over an initiative in the Mexico City assembly “which seeks to completely eliminate legal protection for life in gestation” and could lead to the further removal of limits on abortion across the country. “This initiative, which seeks the total decriminalization of abortion in Mexico City, and which will probably be extended to other states in the Republic, would not only eliminate the current limit of twelve weeks of gestation, but would also open the door to the termination of pregnancy at any time,” the bishops’ said in a Nov. 6 statement signed by the conference president, Archbishop Rogelio Cabrera López of Monterrey, and its general secretary, Bishop Ramón Castro Castro of Cuernavaca. “As pastors, we cannot remain silent in the face of a measure that, under the pretext of defending rights, in reality ignores the most fundamental human right: ‘the right to life from conception to natural death,’ and abandons women to decisions that can dramatically affect their lives.” A pair of commissions in the Mexico City assembly voted Nov. 4 to eliminate abortion from the criminal code, along with any limits on how late an abortion could occur during pregnancy. Punishments of three to six months in prison or 100 to 300 days of community service for women who abort were also scrapped.
VIENNA (OSV News) – With new reports of human rights organizations in Europe, it is clear that anti-Christian discrimination is a hot-button issue in the old continent, and on the rise. The Vienna-based Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe revealed widespread intolerance and discrimination against Christians in Europe in its Nov. 15 report, published in cooperation with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, or OSCE, and its Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights. OIDAC Europe identified 2,444 anti-Christian hate crimes which were documented by police and civil society in 35 European countries in 2023, including 232 personal attacks on Christians, such as harassment, threats and physical violence. These figures include data requested from governments, which found 1,230 anti-Christian hate crimes recorded by 10 European governments in 2023, up from 1,029 recorded by governments in 2022. While only 10 European governments submitted data on anti-Christian hate crimes in 2023, civil society reported incidents from 26 European countries. The report was published ahead of Nov. 16 observance of International Day for Tolerance, which was established in 1996 by the United Nations General Assembly.
JACKSON — A spot in the parking lot of the Cathedral of St. Peter is being prepared for the arrival of a bronze statue of Sister Thea Bowman. Bishop Joseph Koapcz will bless the statue following Mass on Saturday, Dec. 21 at 11 a.m. in the Cathedral. (Photos by Tereza Ma)
SPIRITUAL ENRICHMENT GLUCKSTADT – St. Joseph, Millions of Monicas – Praying with confidence for our children, each Tuesday from 6:30-7:30 p.m. in the church. Join with other mothers, grandmothers and step-mothers as we pray to grow in holiness and humility, and for our children’s faithful return to the church. Details: church office (601) 856-2054 or email millionsofmonicas@stjosephgluckstadt.com.
St. Joseph, Fatima Five First Saturdays Devotion, Jan. 4, Feb. 1, March 1, April 5 and May 3, 2025. Confession begins at 8 a.m. and ends with a period of meditation beginning at 10 a.m. Details: church office (601) 856-2054.
OFFICE OF CATHOLIC EDUCATION – The OCE hosts a Zoom Rosary the first Wednesday of each month during the school year at 7 p.m. On Dec. 4, Annunciation School will lead us in prayer. Join early and place your intentions in the chat. Details: Join the rosary via zoom at https://bit.ly/zoomrosary2024 or check the diocese calendar of events.
ROBINSONVILLE – Good Shepherd, “Journey through Advent,” Wednedays, Dec. 4, 11 and 18 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Small group sessions on Advent Sunday readings led by Sister Rose. All are invited! Details: church office (662) 342-1073.
PARISH, FAMILY & SCHOOL EVENTS COLUMBUS – Annunciation Parish, “Columbus Sings G.F. Handel’s Messiah,” Tuesday, Dec. 10 at 7 p.m. Tickets available in church office. No charge. Details: church office (662) 328-2927.
CORINTH – St. James the Less, Parish Thanksgiving Meal, Thursday, Nov. 28 after 9 a.m. Mass. Bring your favorite dish and celebrate Father Mario’s birthday. Come enjoy fellowship and give thanks to God for all of His blessings. Details: church office (662) 331-5184.
FLOWOOD – St. Paul, Christmas Bingo, Friday, Dec. 6, doors open at 6 p.m. with bingo at 6:30 p.m. Be sure to wear your festive Christmas attire and come join the fun. Adults only. BYOB. Details: church office (601) 992-9547.
St. Paul, Breast Cancer Support Group, Sunday, Dec. 8 at 2:30 p.m. in the Family Life Center (St. Peter’s Room). A gathering of women in all stages of their breast cancer journey. Details: call or text Monica at (601) 942-5753.
HERNANDO – Holy Spirit, Christmas Program and Dinner, Sunday, Dec. 8. Save the date. Details: Keelan at (601) 604-2202.
JACKSON – St. Peter the Apostle, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration, Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025 from 1-2:30 p.m. with speaker Constance Slaughter Harvey. You may write a one page reflection on how Dr. King’s message impacted your life or society. Submit no later than Jan. 10. Details: amelia.breton@jacksondiocese.org.
NATCHEZ – St. Mary Basilica, Advent Wreath Workshop, Sunday, Dec. 1, in the Family Life Center after 10 a.m. Mass. Families or individuals are invited to come and make an Advent wreath. Fun craft activities available for children. Details: church office (601) 445-5616.
SOUTHAVEN – Christ the King, Advent Program, Sunday, Dec. 1 at 4 p.m. followed by dinner. Details: church office (662) 342-1073.
DIOCESE #iGiveCatholic on #GivingTuesday, Dec. 3, Advanced giving is now open – Nov. 18 through Dec. 2. Details: https://jackson.igivecatholic.org.
YOUNG ADULTS – Theology on Tap Karaoke Christmas, Thursday, Dec. 19 from 7-9 p.m. at Mr. Chen’s Restaurant in Jackson. Adults 21+ are welcome for an evening of food, fellowship and karaoke. Guest are responsible for cost of drinks and dinner. Details: amelia.rizor@jacksondiocese.org.
Camino de Santiago Pilgrimage, May 12-27. Father Lincoln Dall will be leading this once in a lifetime journey. Space is limited. Email amelia.rizor@jacksondiocese.org for more information.
YOUTH – Diocesan SEARCH Retreat for tenth through twelfth graders, Jan. 17-19, 2025 at Camp Wesley Pines, Gallman. Diocese High School Confirmation Retreat, Jan. 25-26, 2025 at Lake Forest Ranch, Macon. Diocese Catholic Youth Conference – DCYC for ninth through twelfth grades, March 21-23, 2025 at the Vicksburg Convention Center. Details: contact your individual parish offices or contact Abbey at (601) 949-6934 or abbey.schuhmann@jacksondiocese.org.
CATHOLIC ENGAGED ENCOUNTER – CEE is the diocesan marriage prep program for couples preparing for the sacrament of marriage. The upcoming weekends for 2025 are: Feb. 21-23; Aug. 1-3; and Oct. 24-26 at Camp Garaywa in Clinton; and April 25-27 at Lake Tiak-O’Khata in Louisville. Register at https://bit.ly/CEE2024-2025. Details: email debbie.tubertini@jacksondiocese.org.
PENANCE SERVICES CLINTON – Holy Savior, Wednesday, Dec. 18 at 6 p.m. CANTON – Sacred Heart, Tuesday, Dec. 10 at 6 p.m. COLUMBUS – Annunciation, Thursday, Dec. 19 at 6 p.m. GREENVILLE – St. Joseph, Monday, Dec. 16 at 5:30 p.m. HERNANDO – Holy Spirit, Wednesday, Dec. 18 at 7 p.m. JACKSON – Cathedral of St. Peter, Tuesday, Dec. 17 from 5:30-7 p.m. MADISON – St. Francis, Thursday, Dec. 5 at 6 p.m. MAGEE – St. Stephen, Monday, Dec. 9 at 6 p.m. OLIVE BRANCH – Queen of Peace, Wednesday, Dec. 11 at 7 p.m. PEARL – St. Jude, Wednesday, Dec. 11 at 6 p.m. SOUTHAVEN – Christ the King, Tuesday, Dec. 10 at 7 p.m.
By Michael R. Heinlein (OSV News) – We are greatly blessed by the contributions of Black Catholics in the church in the United States, particularly their illuminating legacy of holiness. The struggles and pain faced by the African American community are succinctly captured in the lives of these six Black Catholics now being considered for canonization. In them we can find the greatest of human characteristics, truly men and women for our times.
Pierre Toussaint, declared “Venerable” in 1996, is depicted in a stained-glass window in the mausoleum chapel at Holy Rood Cemetery in Westbury, N.Y. Born into slavery in modern-day Haiti, Toussaint (1766-1853) became a successful hairdresser in New York City. He later bought his freedom and generously supported many charitable endeavors of the local Catholic church. Toussaint is among the U.S. Black Catholic sainthood candidates who receive special recognition during National Black Catholic History Month, observed every November. (CNS photo/Gregory A. Shemitz)
– Venerable Pierre Toussaint (1766–1853) Born a slave in Haiti, Toussaint came to New York as property of a French Haitian family, who later freed him in 1807. Establishing himself as a successful hairdresser, Toussaint earned a sizable salary, which he put to use for the good of others, beginning with the purchase of his sister’s freedom as well as that of his future wife, Juliette. Together the Toussaints spent their lives in service to the poor and needy. When urged to retire and enjoy his remaining years, Toussaint is quoted as saying, “I have enough for myself, but if I stop working, I have not enough for others.”
Toussaint’s great charity and works of mercy were fueled by an abiding faith. A daily Mass attendee for more than 60 years, Toussaint lived as he worshiped. Not embittered by the hardships he endured because of his race and his Catholic faith, the model layman gave of himself to others. Toussaint and his wife adopted his niece, took in orphans and funded orphanages, operated a credit bureau, established hostels for priests and refugees, and generously supported the church and other institutions. Toussaint attended to the sick and suffering, too, even strangers whom he helped nurse to health.
Toussaint died June 30, 1853. In 1990, his remains were moved to a niche in the bishop’s crypt at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City – a rather poetic postscript to the life of a man whose race once prohibited him from entering the city’s Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral. He was declared venerable in 1996.
Venerable Henriette Delille, who founded the Sisters of the Holy Family in New Orleans in 1842, is depicted in a painting by Haitian artist Ulrick Jean Pierre. The Diocese of Little Rock, Ark., submitted formal documentation from a fact-finding mission regarding an alleged miracle, a healing through the intercession of Mother Henriette of a 19-year-old Arkansas college student in 2008. (CNS photo/courtesy Sisters of the Holy Family)
– Venerable Mother Henriette Delille (1812–1862) Born out of wedlock to a Frenchman and a free woman of color, Henriette Delille spent all her life in and around New Orleans’ French Quarter. A cultured young woman of high society, Delille was expected, like her mother and the women of her family, to form a liaison relationship with an eligible white man. After receiving the sacrament of confirmation, however, Delille clearly became a woman committed to the Lord. Her guiding motto, written in a prayer book, captures what defined her heart and spurred her vocation: “I believe in God. I hope in God. I love. I want to live and die for God.”
Prevailing racist attitudes, even within the church, made Delille’s pursuit of a religious vocation painful and difficult, and two congregations denied her admittance. Undeterred by the rejection, Delille persevered to establish a religious congregation herself in 1836. Using inheritance from her mother, Delille began what became known as the Sisters of the Holy Family with the aim to serve the poor, sick and elderly, and to teach the faith to both slave and free children.
Delille’s generosity and love was known to everyone who knew her. She was a mother to all she encountered, and sacramental records show she even served as godmother and marriage witness to many. She died Nov. 16, 1862, at age 49. An obituary summed up her calling: “For the love of Jesus Christ she had become the humble and devout servant of the slaves.” Delille’s cause for canonization opened in 1988, and she was declared venerable in 2010.
Father Augustine Tolton, also known as Augustus, is pictured in a photo from an undated portrait card. Born into slavery in Missouri, he was ordained a priest April 24, 1886. He served as pastor at St. Joseph Church in Quincy, Ill., and later established St. Monica’s Church in Chicago. (CNS photo/courtesy of Archdiocese of Chicago Archives and Records Center)
– Venerable Father Augustus Tolton (1854–1897) Augustus Tolton, born the son of slaves on April 1, 1854, was the first Black individual from the United States to be ordained a priest. But his path to priesthood was not easy.
After a harrowing escape from their Missouri home, Tolton’s family settled in freedom in Quincy, Illinois, where the pastor accepted him into the parish school despite much opposition from parishioners. Later, as Tolton began to pursue a priestly vocation, seminaries across the United States rejected his applications out of prejudice.
With heroic determination, Tolton pressed on toward his calling. He was accepted to a seminary in Rome and was ordained there in 1886. Though Tolton expected to serve as a missionary in Africa, he soon found out that he was destined for service back in the United States. “America has been called the most enlightened nation; we will see if it deserves that honor,” said Cardinal Giovanni Simeoni, prefect of the Holy See’s Congregation for Propagation of the Faith, which oversaw Tolton’s seminary. “If America has never seen a black priest, it has to see one now.” Upon his return to Quincy, Father Tolton was met with racial prejudice by laity and clergy alike. An authority even told him not to allow white people to attend his parish. A priest of great humility and obedience, Tolton was invited to minister in Chicago in 1889, and left Quincy thinking he had been a failure there.
In Chicago, Tolton was indefatigable in his efforts to serve a growing Black Catholic community and established St. Monica Church for Black Catholics. Returning from a retreat by train, Tolton collapsed on a Chicago street amid record heat and died July 9, 1897, at the young age of forty-three, and his body was returned to Quincy for burial. Tolton’s cause for canonization was opened in 2010, and he was declared venerable in 2019.
A painting depicts Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange, founder of the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the first Catholic order of African American nuns, who work largely in the Baltimore area. Vatican officials are moving ahead with Mother Lange’s sainthood cause, Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori said Dec. 5, 2019, in Rome. (CNS photo/courtesy of the Catholic Review)
– Venerable Mother Mary Lange (c. 1784–1882) Few details are known about the early life of Elizabeth Lange. Likely born in Santiago de Cuba, she emigrated to the United States with a heart ready for service. Known to be of African descent, Lange once described herself as “French to my soul.” God’s providence eventually led Lange to Baltimore, where there was a sizable group of French-speaking Catholics who fled Haiti at the time of their revolution. At that time, no free education existed for Black children in Maryland. There, Lange operated a free school out of her home. Financial difficulties eventually forced its closure.
Lange was drawn into further teaching by Sulpician Father James Joubert, who also encouraged her and a few companions to consecrate their lives and work to God as professed religious women. With Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange as the first superior, the Oblate Sisters of Providence were established in 1829 – the first successful congregation for Black women in the United States. With Lange’s pioneering vision and holy example, the Oblate sisters persevered through great difficulties and offered their lives in service to all in need – especially to pupils, orphans, widows, the sick and those in spiritual need.
With a humble heart, Lange accepted whatever tasks lay before her. In her final years she patiently endured many hardships. Yet, Lange consistently persevered trusting in God’s provident hand. She died Feb. 3, 1882, and her cause for canonization formally was opened in 1991.
This image of Julia Greeley, a former slave who lived in Colorado, was commissioned by the Archdiocese of Denver by iconographer Vivian Imbruglia. During their fall general assembly Nov. 14-16, 2016 in Baltimore, the U.S. bishops in a voice vote approved Greeley’s sainthood cause moving forward. (CNS photo/iconographer Vivian Imbruglia, courtesy Archdiocese of Denver)
– Servant of God Julia Greeley (c. 1840–1918) Born into slavery in Hannibal, Missouri, Julia Greeley gained her freedom after the Emancipation Proclamation. Her years as a slave left a permanent mark: a drooping eye, received as the result of a beating. After moving to Colorado in 1879, Greeley fell in love with the Catholic faith. She converted the following year and immediately immersed herself in the devotional and sacramental life of the church. She attended daily Mass, was devout and pious, and took up intense fasting. When questioned about regularly eating no breakfast, Greeley would respond, “My Communion is my breakfast.”
Greeley found great joy in her love for the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which she saw as the source for her many charitable and service-oriented ministries. She was known to spread the devotion, even using it as a tool to evangelize Denver’s firemen. From her heart flowed the love of Christ’s heart.
Greeley took on a life of poverty, living in union with the poor of Denver. Taking on odd jobs like cooking and cleaning, she used her meager salary to finance a ministry to the poor while suffering from painful arthritis. She could not write, read or count, but wearing her trademark floppy hat Greeley could show Christ’s love. She dragged a red wagon filled with goods to distribute to the poor, and, at times, she even begged for them. Many of those she helped were among the nearly 1,000 mourners who attended the funeral after her death on June 7, 1918. Her canonization cause was opened in 2016.
– Servant of God Sister Thea Bowman (1937–1990) Born in Mississippi on Dec. 29, 1937, Bertha Bowman converted to Catholicism at the age of nine. Missionary priests and sisters began a Catholic school in her hometown to provide a better education for Black children, and it did not discriminate. The Gospel-filled joyfulness of those missionaries attracted the young Bowman to the faith. This same joyfulness became a hallmark trait of hers later on. Bowman was so attracted to their way of life that at fifteen she went on a hunger strike to get her parents’ permission to enter as an aspirant with her teachers’ order, the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in La Crosse, Wisconsin.
CANTON – Holy Child Jesus school students sing with Sister Thea Bowman. (Photos courtesy archives)
Life in the convent did not protect her from racial prejudice, but she won people over with her joyful, outgoing demeanor and love for Christ and the church. The daughter of a doctor and a teacher, Sister Thea, her name given upon taking religious vows, was intellectually gifted. She earned a doctorate in English at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and subsequently served in a variety of teaching roles.
After she, as an only child, returned home to take care of her parents in 1978, Sister Thea served as director for intercultural affairs in the Diocese of Jackson. She dedicated herself to overcoming divisions in the church and society in the wake of the Second Vatican Council and the racial strife of the 1960s. As a writer, teacher, musician and evangelist, Sister Thea preached the Gospel to clergy and laity alike, promoting ecclesial and cultural harmony and reconciliation as a tireless spokeswoman for the Black Catholic experience. Pledging to “live until I die,” Sister Thea remained wholeheartedly committed to her ministry while battling breast cancer for several years. She died March 30, 1990, and her cause for canonization was opened in 2018.
(Michael R. Heinlein is editor of “Black Catholics on the Road to Sainthood” and author of “Glorifying Christ: The Life of Cardinal Francis E. George, OMI.”)
By Justin McLellan VATICAN CITY (CNS) – People in positions of authority should care for the vulnerable and exercise their power with humility, not with hypocrisy and arrogance, Pope Francis said.
Reflecting on the day’s Gospel reading from St. Mark, the pope highlighted Jesus’ warning about “the hypocritical attitude of some scribes” who use their prestige in the community to look down on others. “This is very ugly, looking down on another person from above,” the pope told visitors gathered in St. Peter’s Square Nov. 10. “They put on airs and, hiding behind a facade of feigned respectability and legalism, arrogated privileges to themselves and even went so far as to commit outright theft to the detriment of the weakest, such as widows.”
In St. Mark’s Gospel, Jesus denounces the scribes who “devour the houses of widows and, as a pretext, recite lengthy prayers,” adding that “they will receive a very severe condemnation.”
Pope Francis said that rather than using their authority to serve others “they made it an instrument of arrogance and manipulation,” to the point where “even prayer, for them, was in danger of no longer being a moment of encounter with the Lord, but an occasion to flaunt respectability and feigned piety, useful for attracting people’s attention and gaining approval.”
As a result, the pope said those leaders “behaved like corrupt people, feeding a social and religious system in which it was normal to take advantage of others behind their backs, especially the most defenseless, committing injustices and ensuring impunity for themselves.”
Pope Francis gives his blessing to visitors in St. Peter’s Square gathered to pray the Angelus at the Vatican Nov. 10, 2024. (CNS photo/Pablo Esparza)
In contrast, Jesus “taught very different things about authority,” Pope Francis said.
“He spoke about it in terms of self-sacrifice and humble service, of maternal and paternal tenderness toward people, especially those most in need,” he said. “He invites those invested with it to look at others from their position of power, not to humiliate them, but to lift them up, giving them hope and assistance.”
After reciting the Angelus, the pope prayed for the victims of a Nov. 9 volcanic eruption in Indonesia, which he visited in September. He also expressed his closeness to the people of Valencia, Spain, affected by severe floodings and mudslides.
The pope also recalled the situation in Mozambique, where 21 people have been killed in clashes with police following a disputed election in October. He prayed for the people of Mozambique, asking that “the present situation does not cause them to lose faith in the path of democracy, justice and peace.” The day before the opening of COP 29, the U.N. climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, Pope Francis prayed that participating nations would “may make an effective contribution for the protection of our common home.”
By Gina Christian (OSV News) – With immigration an ongoing issue after the 2024 U.S. general election, three U.S. Catholic bishops issued a Nov. 14 statement of pastoral concern pledging support for immigrants.
“Compelled by the Gospel of Jesus Christ and recognizing the inherent dignity of each person as a child of God, we stand in firm solidarity with our immigrant brothers and sisters who live and labor in these United States,” wrote Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops; Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Texas, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Migration; and Bishop Jaime Soto of Sacramento, chairman of the board for Catholic Legal Immigration Network Inc.
Known as CLINIC, the network is a Maryland-based nonprofit that provides advocacy, training and support for more than 400 Catholic and community-based immigration law providers in 49 U.S. states. The bishops noted that “from the founding of our nation, immigrants have been essential to this society’s growth and prosperity.”
The Border Wall is seen in the background as migrants from South and Central America look to surrender to immigration officials after crossing into the United States from Mexico in Ruby, Arizona, June 24, 2024. (OSV News photo/Adrees Latif, Reuters)
“They come to our shores as strangers, drawn by the promises this land offers, and they become Americans,” said the bishops. “They continue to provide food security, health services, and many other essential skills that support our prosperous nation.”
According to data from the Pew Research Center, immigrants currently account for 14.3% of the U.S. population – the highest level since 1910, but still less than the 14.8% marked in 1890.
Data for 2022 showed that the majority of immigrants (77%) are in the U.S. legally, with close to half (49%) being naturalized citizens, just under a quarter (24%) lawful permanent residents and 4% legal temporary residents. Slightly less than one quarter (23%) are unauthorized. While President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to deport millions of undocumented immigrants, the bishops said in their statement that “our country deserves an immigration system that offers fair and generous pathways to full citizenship for immigrants living and working for many years within our borders.”
In particular, they said, “We need a system that provides permanent relief for childhood arrivals, helps families stay together, and welcomes refugees.”
With much of global migration driven by conflict and natural disaster, the bishops stressed the need to “develop an effective asylum system for those fleeing persecution.”
Under international human rights law – such as the U.N.’s 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, the latter of which the U.S. acceded to in 1968 – the fundamental principle of non-refoulement provides that refugees cannot be expelled to territories where substantial threats to life or freedom exist. At the same time, the bishops called for “an immigration system that keeps our borders safe and secure, with enforcement policies that focus on those who present risks and dangers to society, particularly efforts to reduce gang activity, stem the flow of drugs, and end human trafficking.”
Catholic social teaching on immigration balances three interrelated principles – the right of persons to migrate in order to sustain their lives and those of their families, the right of a country to regulate its borders and control immigration, and a nation’s duty to regulate its borders with justice and mercy. The bishops said the U.S. “should have an immigration system that protects vulnerable migrants and their families, many of whom have already been victimized by criminal actors.”
“Together, we must speak out on behalf of the ‘huddled masses yearning to breathe free’ and ask our government to provide fair and humane treatment for our beloved immigrant brothers and sisters,” said the bishops, quoting a line from poet Emma Lazarus’ “The New Colossus,” the full text of which is inscribed on the base of the Statue of Liberty. “It is our hope, and our prayer, that all of us can work together to support a meaningful reform of our current immigration system.”
(Gina Christian is a multimedia reporter for OSV News. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) @GinaJesseReina.)
By Peter Jesserer Smith BALTIMORE (OSV News) – The U.S. bishops’ annual fall assembly in Baltimore saw the shepherds of the Catholic Church in this country make intentional steps toward integrating their work with the synodal missionary style called for by the global church’s recently concluded Synod on Synodality.
At the outset of the Nov. 11-14 plenary assembly, Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, delivered a homily in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary – “the mother church of the synodal activity of the hierarchy in this country” – where he called upon the bishops to beg for wisdom “because we recognize that we are servants of the truth and charged to find ways to help those entrusted to our care.”
At the opening public session, Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the papal ambassador to the U.S., told the bishops that Pope Francis’ recent encyclical “Dilexit Nos,” on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, is a call to “return to the heart” of Jesus – and key to understanding the church’s call to synodal evangelization, Eucharistic revival and the upcoming Jubilee 2025.
“The deeper we go into his heart, the more strengthened we will be to proclaim the Good News together,” he said Nov. 12.
Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of Arlington, Va., speaks during a Nov. 13, 2024, session of the fall general assembly of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Baltimore. (OSV News photo/Bob Roller)
Over the course of the assembly’s Nov. 12 and 13 public sessions, the bishops voted to approve a new “mission directive” for 2025-2028, which commits USCCB committees and staff to prioritize in their work “evangelizing those who are religiously unaffiliated or disaffiliated from the Church, with special focus on young adults and the youth.”
Regarding the global synod that concluded in October, a majority of the U.S. bishops in a voice vote Nov. 12 called for the USCCB’s Committee on Priorities and Plans to discern developing a task force to help the conference and dioceses implement the final synod document approved by Pope Francis.
Bishop Daniel E. Flores of Brownsville, Texas, who has led the USCCB’s involvement in the synod process, briefed the bishops on the synod’s October meeting. He said that more theological work needs to be done alongside efforts to develop a synodal missionary culture among Catholics.
“If it doesn’t reach the parishes, it hardly reaches the people of God,” he noted.
The bishops also decided to go ahead with drafting a new document on lay ecclesial ministry in the U.S., that would take into account what Bishop Robert E. Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, chair of the Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth, called “the experience of co-responsibility in the church, the evolving nature of parish and diocesan workplaces, and above all the call to greater synodality.”
They also approved a final draft of “The Order of Crowning an Image of the Blessed Virgin Mary,” Spanish texts for the Liturgy of the Hours, and the revised New American Bible for use in liturgy.
The conference also saw exemplars of American holiness promoted. The bishops affirmed two new causes brought to them for consultation: Benedictine Sister Annella Zervas of Moorhead, Minnesota, and Gertrude Agnes Barber, a laywoman from Erie, Pennsylvania.
Auxiliary Bishop Roy E. Campbell of Washington, president of the National Black Catholic Congress, who presented on the NBCC’s 2023 congress and resulting pastoral action plan, called on the bishops to promote the canonization causes of Black Catholics known collectively as the “Holy Six” – Venerable Mother Mary Lange; Venerable Father Augustus Tolton; Venerable Mother Henriette DeLille; Venerable Pierre Toussaint; Servant of God Julia Greeley; and Servant of God Sister Thea Bowman.
Bishop Stepan Sus, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church’s Pastoral and Migration Department, received a standing ovation from the bishops after sharing with them Ukraine’s plight under Russian occupation and thanking the U.S. church for its continued solidarity.
“As a church we cannot change all realities of the world,” he said. “But we can be next to those people who suffer and wipe their tears.”
Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens of Crookston, Minnesota, and board chair of the National Eucharistic Congress Inc., discussed the NEC’s next steps after the overwhelmingly positive feedback from the 2024 national Eucharistic pilgrimages and congress, saying the organization would support dioceses in their own events, “especially helping to form and send Eucharistic missionaries.”
The bishops also discussed how to mark the 10th anniversary of the release of “Laudato Si’,” Pope Francis’ encyclical on integral ecology. Ukrainian Catholic Archbishop Borys A. Gudziak of Philadelphia, chair of the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, suggested the encyclical could be “integrated into our core mission of evangelization,” and that bringing back fasting practices, such as regularly abstaining from eating meat on Fridays, “would be good for the soul and for the planet.”
The bishops also heard a presentation offered by the committees on Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth; Pro-Life Activities; and Catholic Education in relation to implementing the Vatican declaration on human dignity, “Dignitas Infinita,” released in April.
The looming potential of President-elect Donald Trump implementing his campaign promise to enact mass deportations also shaped the bishops’ conversation. Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration, encouraged his brother bishops and their priests to speak loudly and unified on the issue of migration, especially in light of recent rhetoric from public figures, saying the lay faithful have a “real hunger … for leadership from their priests and bishops alike on this issue.”
The conference also passed an operating budget for 2025 with no increase in diocesan assessment. They elected bishops to several USCCB leadership positions. Archbishop Bernard A. Hebda of St. Paul and Minneapolis was voted in as treasurer-elect and chairman-elect of the budget committee. Auxiliary Bishop Michael G. Woost of Cleveland was elected chairman-elect for the Committee on Divine Worship; Archbishop Shelton J. Fabre of Louisville, Kentucky, was elected chairman-elect of the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development; and Bishop Edward J. Burns was elected as head of the Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth; and Bishop Brendan J. Cahill of Victoria, Texas, was elected chairman-elect of the Committee on Migration. The prelates assume their positions at the conclusion of the bishops’ 2025 fall assembly.
The bishops also confirmed two bishops to the board of directors of Catholic Relief Services, the international relief agency of the Catholic Church in the U.S.: Bishop Donald J. Hying of Madison, Wisconsin, and Auxiliary Bishop Evelio Menjivar-Ayala of Washington.
The USCCB concluded its annual plenary assembly Nov. 14 in executive session, but released a statement of pastoral concern that day of “firm solidarity with our immigrant brothers and sisters who live and labor in these United States.” It stated, “Together, we must speak out on behalf of the ‘huddled masses yearning to breathe free’ and ask our government to provide fair and humane treatment for our beloved immigrant brothers and sisters.”
(Peter Jesserer Smith is the national news and features editor for OSV News.)
By Carol Glatz VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis announced that he will canonize Blesseds Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati next year and that the Vatican will host a world meeting on the rights of the child Feb. 3. The pope will canonize Blessed Acutis April 27, during the Jubilee for Adolescents in Rome April 25-27 and Blessed Frassati during the Jubilee of Young People in Rome July 28-Aug. 3.
The pope made the announcement during his general audience in St. Peter’s Square Nov. 20, which is World Children’s Day.
The annual celebration marks the date when the U.N. General Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child in 1959 and when the assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989.
Pope Francis recognized May 23, 2024, the second miracle needed for the canonization of Italian Blessed Carlo Acutis, who died of leukemia in 2006 at the age of 15. He is pictured in an undated photo. (CNS photo/courtesy Sainthood Cause of Carlo Acutis) Editors: best quality available.
“On the occasion of the International Day of the Rights of the Child and Adolescents that is celebrated today,” the pope said he wanted to announce holding a world meeting at the Vatican.
The World Leaders’ Summit on Children’s Rights will be dedicated to the theme of “Let’s love them and protect them,” and it will include experts and celebrities from different countries, the pope said.
“It will be an occasion to pinpoint new paths directed at better assisting and protecting children still without rights who live in precarious conditions. They are exploited and abused and suffer the dramatic consequences of wars,” he said.
A small group of children involved in preparing for the Feb. 3 meeting joined the pope for a photograph after the announcement along with Franciscan Father Enzo Fortunato, coordinator of the church’s first World Children’s Day, which was held in Rome May 25.
Pope Francis also established a new papal committee for World Children’s Day and named Father Fortunato its president.
The new committee, he said, will ensure that “World Children’s Day does not remain an isolated event” and that “the pastoral care for children increasingly becomes a more qualified priority in evangelical and pedagogical terms,” he said in the decree, also known as a chirograph, published by the Vatican Nov. 20. The aim of the world day, he said, is to make a concrete contribution toward carrying out “the church’s commitment to children” by giving voice to children’s rights and making sure the church’s pastoral activities have the same kind of care and attention toward children Jesus had.
Other goals include helping the Christian community become more of “an educating community capable first of all of being evangelized by the voice of the little ones” and helping the church become more “like children” and let go of “signs of power” in order to become “a welcoming and livable home for all, starting with children,” the decree said.
Pope Francis said he wants the day to be celebrated at the universal, regional, national and local levels and, therefore, the committee will help promote and organize those celebrations with the universal event held “possibly every two years.”
“I entrust the preparation of World Children’s Day to the regional and national bishops’ conferences that will institute local organizing committees,” he said.
By Justin McLellan CIUDAD DEL VATICANO (CNS) – Las personas en posiciones de autoridad deben cuidar de los vulnerables y ejercer su poder con humildad, no con hipocresía y arrogancia, dijo el Papa Francisco.
Reflexionando sobre la lectura del Evangelio de San Marcos, el Papa destacó la advertencia de Jesús sobre “la actitud hipócrita de algunos escribas” que utilizan su prestigio en la comunidad para mirar a los demás por encima del hombro.
“Esto es muy feo, mirar al otro desde arriba”, dijo el Papa a los peregrinos reunidos en la Plaza de San Pedro el 10 de noviembre. “Se daban aires de grandeza y, escondiéndose tras una fachada de pretendida respetabilidad y legalismo, se arrogaban privilegios e incluso llegaban a cometer auténticos robos contra los más débiles, como las viudas”.
En el Evangelio de San Marcos, Jesús denuncia a los escribas que “se echan sobre los bienes de las viudas haciendo ostentación de largos rezos”, añadiendo que “recibirán un castigo muy riguroso”.
El Papa Francisco dijo que en lugar de usar su autoridad para servir a los demás “la convirtieron en instrumento de arrogancia, de manipulación”, hasta el punto de que “incluso la oración corría el riesgo de dejar de ser para ellos un momento de encuentro con el Señor y convertirse en una ocasión para ostentar una respetabilidad y una piedad fingidas, útiles para atraer la atención de la gente y obtener su aprobación”.
El Papa Francisco se dirige a los peregrinos en la Plaza de San Pedro reunidos para rezar el Ángelus en el Vaticano el 10 de noviembre de 2024. (Foto CNS/Pablo Esparza)
Como resultado, el Papa dijo que esos líderes “se comportaban como corruptos, alimentando un sistema social y religioso en el que era normal aprovecharse a espaldas de los demás, especialmente de los más indefensos, cometiendo injusticias y asegurándose la impunidad”.
En cambio, Jesús “enseña cosas muy distintas sobre la autoridad”, dijo el Papa Francisco. “Habla de ella en términos de abnegación y servicio humilde, de ternura maternal y paternal hacia las personas, especialmente hacia los más necesitados”, dijo. “Invita a quienes están investidos de ella a mirar a los demás, desde su posición de poder, no para humillarlos, sino para levantarlos, dándoles esperanza y ayuda”.
Tras rezar el Ángelus, el Papa rezó por las víctimas de la erupción volcánica del 9 de noviembre en Indonesia, país que visitó en septiembre. También expresó su cercanía a la población de Valencia, España, afectada por graves inundaciones y deslizamientos de tierra.
El Papa también recordó la situación en Mozambique, donde 21 personas han muerto en enfrentamientos con la policía tras unas disputadas elecciones en octubre. Rezó por el pueblo de Mozambique, pidiendo que “la situación actual no les haga perder la fe en el camino de la democracia, la justicia y la paz”.
El día antes de la apertura de la COP 29, la conferencia climática de la ONU en Bakú, Azerbaiyán, el Papa Francisco rezó para que las naciones participantes “puedan hacer una contribución efectiva para la protección de nuestra casa común”.