Category Archives: U.S. News

With synod in mind, US bishops focus on advancing core mission priorities

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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.)

Pope says he’ll canonize Acutis, Frassati, host meeting on child’s rights

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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.

Posadas and pastoral outreach are central features in Latino Advent preparation

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The Christmas season is a time anticipated not only by children, but by everyone. In a time when the cold winter permeates much of the United States, the warmth of celebrating as a family fills homes with the aromas of seasonal dishes and their hearts with joy.

Celebrations come one after another since the beginning of the Advent season. And many Hispanic families and parish communities live this time of preparation for the birth of Jesus with different traditions, always united in faith.

Las velas de Adviento y la corona ayudan a centrar la atención en el tiempo que precede a la venida del Señor. Cada vela representa una semana de Adviento. (OSV News photo/Nancy Wiechec)

One of the traditions from Latin America is the Día de las Velitas (Day of the Little Candles), celebrated by Colombians Dec. 7 as a prelude to the commemoration of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, which the Catholic world celebrates Dec. 8. Many communities in the U.S. and the world join the Dec. 12 celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe, one of the liturgical feasts that summons large communities of devotees of the Patroness of the Americas — with the largest pilgrimage being to her basilica in Mexico.

Among other traditions are the Novena de Aguinaldos, held Dec. 16-24 in countries such as Ecuador, Venezuela and Colombia, as well as the traditional posadas celebrated in Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and other Latin American countries. This tradition commemorates Joseph and Mary traveling from Nazareth to Bethlehem and looking for a place where the Son of God would be born.

(Marietha Góngora V. writes for OSV News from Bogotá, Colombia)

Host of new ‘The Rosary in a Year’ podcast hopes people ‘fall in love’ with the prayer

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By Katie Yoder
(OSV News) – A new podcast about the rosary promises to deepen listeners’ love of the Marian devotion and draw them closer to Jesus and his mother, Mary, in the new year.

“I hope people fall in love,” Father Mark-Mary Ames, a Franciscan Friar of the Renewal, the host of “The Rosary in a Year” podcast, said during a virtual press conference Oct. 28. “I hope our listeners and those who make this journey with us … fall in love with the rosary because they experience it as … a privileged door for encounter with Our Lord and Our Lady.”

A new podcast from Ascension – “The Rosary in Year” – promises to deepen listeners’ love of the Marian devotion hosted by Father Mark-Mary Ames, CFR begins Jan. 1, 2025. (Photo by Ascension)

The free podcast by Ascension, a Catholic multimedia network, begins Jan. 1, 2025, and continues through the year with a new episode released daily. Listeners can tune in on platforms including the Ascension App, Spotify and Apple Podcasts, for the episodes that run 10 to 15 minutes long. Each one will feature guidance and instruction, a prayer prompt and prayers of the rosary.
Father Mark-Mary, director of communications and director of priestly studies for the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, said he hopes the podcast meets people where they are, from those who pray the rosary regularly to those who are beginners.

“I believe that our journey for ‘The Rosary in a Year’ is going to be learning how to – and actually being accompanied in – praying with the truths of our faith,” he said during the virtual event.

The podcast will walk with listeners through six phases of deepening prayer by starting small and gradually growing over time. It promises to help people of faith learn how to build a daily prayer habit, form relationships with Jesus and Mary, discover the biblical foundations of the rosary, realize Mary’s influence in one’s own life and meditate with sacred art, the writings of the saints and Scripture.

Listeners can follow along with the podcast by signing up online for a free prayer plan at Ascension’s website, ascensionpress.com. Other related resources are available there too, including “The Rosary in a Year Prayer Guide,” a free parish kit and a package of 50 “How to Pray a Better Rosary” booklets. Ascension also offers rosaries inspired by the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal and their devotion to their patroness, Our Lady of Guadalupe. A new “The Rosary in a Year” YouTube channel will provide video content.

The podcast is the fourth of Ascension’s popular “In a Year” podcasts, following “The Bible in a Year,” its sister podcast in Spanish, “La Biblia en un Año,” and “The Catechism in a Year.”

Father Mike Schmitz, host of “The Bible in a Year” and “The Catechism in a Year” podcasts, will appear on bonus episodes with Father Mark-Mary.

This latest podcast comes after Father Mark-Mary did a video for Ascension in 2021 about learning to pray the rosary in a year. He has spoken about the rosary for Ascension before, including in a 2019 pray-along rosary video that went viral with more than 5 million views.

At the virtual press conference, Father Mark-Mary revealed that he struggled with the rosary as a teenager and hoped that this podcast serves as the resource he wishes he had as a young man. Pointing to St. John Paul’s II apostolic letter on the rosary, which kicked off the “Year of the Rosary” from October 2002 to October 2003, he shared how the rosary has impacted him personally.

At the end of the year, in October 2003, Father Mark-Mary was in his first semester of college and had stopped attending Mass for the first time, he said in response to a question by OSV News. Then, out of nowhere, he found himself speaking with a young woman at a dorm party who identified as an atheist.
“I said like, ‘How can you not believe?’” he remembered. “I started to defend the faith and all of a sudden like all of the lights went on. It’s like, I believe and it needs to affect my whole life.”

“The timing of it – it just can’t be coincidental,” he said of the event, adding that he believes that the grace of his own conversion came from all of the prayers said during the rosary year.

Today, he said, he prays the rosary every day and wears a rosary as a part of his habit.

For those who want a preview of Father Mark-Mary’s podcast, a bonus introduction episode is available.
“In a difficult world and a difficult time where it’s so easy for us to turn our attention towards everything going wrong, brothers and sisters, here is the response,” Father Mark-Mary says toward the end of that episode. “Let’s go to the Lord, let’s pray, let’s focus on him, let’s focus on the great mysteries of our salvation, let’s turn back to Our Lady, let’s remember that we have a mother who loves us, who is also powerful, who is queen of heaven and earth.”

(Katie Yoder is a contributing editor for Our Sunday Visitor magazine.)

In response to ‘black mass,’ thousands join Atlanta procession to show devotion to Eucharist

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By Andrew Nelson
NORCROSS, Ga. (OSV News) – Traffic came to a standstill along Beaver Ruin Road in the northeast metro area of Atlanta Oct. 25 as Catholics, representing several parishes and speaking multiple languages, followed on foot the Blessed Sacrament as a sign of devotion.

Called “Pilgrims of Hope,” the fall procession’s route linked St. Patrick Church and Holy Vietnamese Martyrs Church in Norcross and Our Lady of Americas Mission, Lilburn, in a prayerful march defending an attack on the participants’ most sacred beliefs. Drivers took photos of the passing event, as organizers handed out rosaries to people stopped in their cars.

Organizers estimated thousands of people took part in the walk.

Ighocha Macokor, 41, a member of the Knights of Columbus at St. Patrick Church said he was walking in his first procession to “stand against evil” and to show the faith to people passing by.

Meanwhile, lawyers working for the Archdiocese of Atlanta received a response from the organizers of a so-called “black mass” scheduled for the same Friday. The organizers confirmed they intended the event as entertainment and possessed no consecrated host.

Concern about the event and its possible sacrilege of a consecrated host prompted the Archdiocese of Atlanta to call for a special day of prayer, reparation and public support for belief in the Eucharist.
Pedro Ulloa and his wife, Flor, and their two grown daughters walked in the thick of the procession. Wearing two crosses around his neck, he said the show of faith allows others to “see the good things about Jesus Christ.”

Faith calls for people to show respect to Jesus, but some choose not to, he told The Georgia Bulletin, Atlanta’s archdiocesan newspaper.

“People can see we want to make a difference,” said Ulloa.

Nancy Frost, a longtime church member, spoke about the black mass event.

“We can’t have people doing that,” she said about the alleged mistreatment of what the faithful believe to be the body of Christ. “I am proud of the people that we have in our community. It just called to me. There’s no reason I can’t do this. It moves me that this many people are out.”

The procession began at St. Patrick Church, which celebrates Sunday Mass in English, Spanish and Korean, serving a large, diverse congregation. Following the prayers, the believers set out around 3:30 p.m. for a two-hour walk to Holy Vietnamese Martyrs Church.

Under a cloudless sky, the faithful spilled over the narrow sidewalk lining the road, reciting traditional prayers in Spanish and English. Lilburn police escorted the believers along the two-and-a-half-mile route for the first leg of the pilgrimage.

A rotating crew of men and women carry an altar with the Blessed Sacrament Oct. 25, 2024, during the “Pilgrims of Hope” procession along Beaver Ruin Road in Norcross, Ga., in the Archdiocese of Atlanta in response to a satanic group’s planned black mass event (OSV News photo/Andrew Nelson, Georgia Bulletin)

A rotating crew of men and women were pulled from the crowd to shoulder the heavy wooden altar, leaving them with strained and sweaty faces. A large sunburst monstrance with the exposed Eucharist was surrounded by white flowers and candles.

Loud booms of drums greeted the Eucharist as the participants arrived at the first stop at the Vietnamese church. It was another five miles to the mission destination.

“This shows we are one united church,” said Marissa Anguiano, who works at Our Lady of Americas Mission. She said believers are hurting at the idea of others intentionally desecrating the Eucharist, which Catholics believe is Jesus’ body, soul and divinity.

“We know Jesus is alive and hurting him really brings the community together in prayer,” said Anguiano.

Around the same time that afternoon, Atlanta Archbishop Gregory J. Hartmayer updated the Catholic community on a response. Staff at archdiocesan offices were “overwhelmed with calls, emails and messages of all kinds offering support,” he said. However, the archbishop emphasized that all action from Catholics must be a sign of “love stronger than hate or violence.” He condemned any threats or violence against the venue hosting the event or its organizers.

Lawyers with Smith Gambrell Russell, on behalf of the archdiocese, prepared to take the issue to court to force the return of the Eucharist. A group planning a black mass in Oklahoma returned a stolen host after the diocese there pursued a lawsuit in 2014.

According to the archbishop’s statement, the Satanic Temple of Atlanta responded saying that “they had no such consecrated host, and no such consecrated host would be used in their black mass.” The group’s letter “called their event entertainment and defended their right to express their beliefs by mocking ours,” said the archbishop.

“While their letter continued to mock the Eucharist and our beliefs, it also demonstrated an understanding of how seriously we have taken this threat to our core belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist,” he said.

In the end, “while there will always be people who mock and blaspheme Our Lord in the public square,” the archbishop wrote, “we know too, that he will be defended by all of us who love him.”

Archbishop Hartmayer urged “continued prayer both in reparation for all insults to Christ our Lord, but also prayer for those who do not yet know of his love for them.”

“Let us pray for those who turn to darkness. Let us pray that they will come to know that they are welcome in the arms of Jesus; that they will come to experience his true presence and experience true conversion,” he said.

(Andrew Nelson is a staff writer at The Georgia Bulletin, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Atlanta.)

Briefs

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NATION
FORT WORTH, Texas (OSV News) – Members of a women’s religious community in Arlington have been dismissed from the Carmelite order and Catholic religious life, according to Oct. 28 statements from Bishop Michael F. Olson of Fort Worth and Mother Marie of the Incarnation, whom a Vatican office appointed as the community’s major superior in April. The bishop and major superior attributed the dismissal to the nuns’ decisions “to break faith with their Mother, the Church of Rome” through denying the authority of the Vatican Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, their bishop and the dicastery-appointed major superior. The nuns also entered into an unlawful, formal association with the Society of St. Pius X Sept. 14 and soon after illicitly transferred ownership of their Monastery of the Most Holy Trinity to a nonprofit organization of laypeople, the statement notes. The affected nuns did not immediately respond on their website, which has been their mainstay for public communication over the past 18 months as they have openly feuded with Bishop Olson following his allegations in April 2023 that their community-elected prioress had committed unspecified sins against chastity. The saga has included church and civil courts, the nuns’ public rejection of the bishop’s governance authority over them, and their formal affiliation with the Society of St. Pius X.

LONG BEACH, Calif. (OSV News) – This year’s National Catholic Youth Conference theme “El Camino / The Way,” seeks to resonate with attendees, said Natalie Ibarra, the communications manager for the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry, emphasizing the focus is on walking alongside peers and families in faith. The three-day conference, scheduled for Nov. 14-16 in Long Beach, California, is designed for high school students and their chaperones, and provides a central location that is more accessible for West Coast participants. NCYC 2024 will include a variety of engaging activities, including over 20 youth breakout sessions on topics ranging from pro-life activism to vocational discernment. Notable speakers and artists will enhance the experience, while an interactive exhibit hall will allow youth to explore various aspects of Catholic life and ministry. Ibarra noted efforts to reach Latino youth, acknowledging the financial barriers some families face. Organizers stressed that NCYC aims to unite young Catholics from across the country, fostering a sense of belonging and shared faith among participants. Pat Clasby, a parish director of confirmation and youth ministry at St. Patrick Church in Carlsbad, California, who is involved in organizing this year’s NCYC, said the conference will allow youth to see the larger Catholic Church. “It’s an opportunity for the youth to see other young people from around the country practicing their faith and realize they are not the only ones that are teenagers who are Catholic,” he said. “They are not the only ones trying to live their faith out loud.”

VATICAN
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Migrants demonstrate what hope is, and the Catholic Church must support them to keep that hope alive, Pope Francis said. “If migrants are to preserve the strength and resilience necessary for them to continue on their journey, they need someone to attend to their wounds and to care for them in their extreme physical, spiritual and psychological vulnerability,” the pope told members of the Scalabrinians during an audience at the Vatican Oct. 28. “Effective pastoral interventions that demonstrate closeness on the material, religious and human levels are required in order to keep their hope alive and to help them advance on their personal journey toward God, their faithful companion on the way,” he said. The pope lamented “the hostility shown by rich countries that perceive those knocking at their door as a threat to their own well-being.” Migrants are to be welcomed, accompanied, supported and integrated in the host communities, he said. Regardless of who they are or where they came from, all immigrants are to be “viewed as a gift of God, unique, sacred, inviolable, a precious resource for the benefit of all,” he said.

A person walks in a flooded street Oct. 30, 2024, in Llombai, in Spain’s Valencia region, after the Spanish meteorological agency put the region on the highest red alert for extreme rainfalls. (OSV News photo/Eva Manez, Reuters)

WORLD
DHAKA, Bangladesh (OSV News) – Amid signs of changes and more religious inclusivity in the country, church leaders in Bangladesh called for Easter Sunday to be a public holiday. The United Church Council of Bangladesh, the Catholic bishops’ conference and Bangladesh’s Christian Association have separately demanded a public holiday from the interim government on Easter Sunday. On Oct. 17, Bangladesh’s United Church Council president, Archbishop Bejoy Nicephorus D’Cruze of Dhaka, sent a letter to the chief adviser to the interim government. After the student uprising in August that left hundreds of people dead, the country’s prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, stepped down and fled the country to India. In his letter, Archbishop D’Cruze welcomed the interim government led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus and said that Easter Sunday celebrates “the triumph of Lord Jesus Christ over sin and death” and is an important day for Christians. “Unfortunately, the government has not given it a (status of) holiday, despite repeated appeals to the previous government. As a result, many Christians cannot observe Easter Sunday,” the archbishop of Dhaka wrote. According to the 2022 national census by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, the Muslim-majority country has about 500,000 Christians out of about 180 million, including 400,000 Catholics told ACN. “But even if the terrorists burned everything, they didn’t burn our faith!”

VALENCIA, Spain (OSV News) – The archbishop of Valencia expressed “grave concern” and said Mass for those affected after at least 72 people died, and many more went missing amid torrential rains that caused massive flooding in southeastern Spain. The flooding turned roads into rivers of floating cars and cut off highways and access points, with water reaching the first floor of buildings. Archbishop Enrique Benavent said Oct. 30 he “hopes that the victims and missing persons will be found safe and sound as soon as possible,” according to Spanish Catholic news outlet Alfa y Omega. The archbishop celebrated Mass for all those affected on the morning of Oct. 30 in a local basilica. In a letter sent to Archbishop Benavent and Msgr. Julián Ros, apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Albacete, West from Valencia, Spanish bishops said that they share “their pain at the difficult times that they are experiencing in their dioceses.” The horrendous flooding that left piles of cars stuck in between buildings in historical narrow streets of Valencia and trapped dozens of residents was caused by storm Dana – described as an “unprecedented phenomenon” by Spain’s defense minister, Margarita Robles. King Felipe VI spoke of his “devastation and concern” over the flash flooding. Speaking of “enormous destruction” Oct. 30, he said accessing some areas was still difficult. Spain declared three days of mourning after the flash floods devastated parts of the country.

Catholic’s ministry is collecting used religious objects to give to churches in need of them

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By Mike Latonad
ITHACA, N.Y. (OSV News) – While cleaning out your house or a loved one’s, you come across a batch of rosaries, crucifixes and other religious artifacts. You hesitate to throw them out, recoiling at the thought of treating such spiritually significant items as mere garbage.
Yet you may not wish to keep them for yourself.

A box of religious items destined for recycling by St. Mary Recycle Mission Group is seen July 27, 2024, at Immaculate Conception Church in Ithaca, NY. Based in Lancaster, Pa., the mission group picks up unwanted items belonging to the parishes and parishioners all over the northeastern United States, repurposing them for use elsewhere. (OSV News photo/Mike Latona, Catholic Courier)

What to do?

One popular option – as Erika Lindsell knows from experience – is to leave the goods at the local parish. Lindsell, the administrative assistant at Immaculate Conception in Ithaca, has often found boxes full of religious objects on the office doorstep upon arriving for work.

“People leave stuff there figuring the church will know what to do with it,” Lindsell remarked. The rub, she said, is that it’s not so simple for parishes to place the objects, especially if there are large quantities.

Earlier this year, Lindsell received an email from a ministry in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, addressing that very dilemma. The organization, St. Mary Recycle Mission Group, offered to come to Immaculate Conception to pick up unwanted items belonging to the parish and parishioners, repurposing them for use elsewhere.
“I thought, ‘Hey, now this makes a lot of sense,’” Lindsell told the Catholic Courier, newspaper of the Diocese of Rochester.

A drop-off took place at Immaculate Conception’s weekend Masses July 27-28. On July 29, the recycling ministry – essentially a two-person operation – took away many containers full of religious items, as well as a Stations of the Cross set the parish no longer needed.

St. Mary Recycle Mission Group is operated by Kimberly Walters, a Catholic who formerly lived in the Diocese of Rochester and attended church at Rochester’s Our Lady of Victory Parish. She travels with her husband, Mike, all over the northeastern United States, letting parishes know in advance they’ll be in their area if interested. They arrive in town with their pickup truck – and, if the need calls for it, a trailer that serves as their warehouse back home.

Walters and her husband go to as many as 40 churches in a week. Their recent trek involving Immaculate Conception also included stops at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Rochester, the Carmelite Monastery in Pittsford, St. Joseph Church in Penfield and St. Patrick Church in Victor.

The couple hauls away such used items as vestments, crucifixes, statues, rosaries, chalices, altar ware, candlesticks, tabernacles, relics, monstrances, holy medals and cards, linens, framed religious pictures, musical instruments and prayer books.

At St. Patrick Church, the parish published in its bulletin a list of religious items the group would accept for several weeks over the summer in advance of their July 26 pickup date, according to Cathy Fafone, secretary at the parish.

“It’s a lot. It’s labor intensive,” Walters said of the pickup process.

Objects are eventually shipped by request to other churches and individuals, including in Third World countries. Walters said all items are donated, not sold, noting that few have any real monetary value due to their age.

The ministry’s website, www.StMaryRecycleMissionGroup.com, offers contact details so those interested can access a full list of accepted objects, state their needs, and arrange for deliveries and exchanges. Walters prefers to work with objects not needing repairs, although the ministry is able to arrange for some refurbishing. Her local Knights of Columbus council helps with the restoration and placement of items as well as travel expenses; Walters assumes the bulk of the ministry’s operational costs.

The recycling effort got its start after Walters rescued several religious articles in usable condition from a dumpster at a Rochester-area parish in 2004. She eventually sent hundreds of items to a New Orleans parish that had been devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The initiative has grown since Walters’ move to Lancaster 18 years ago – largely, she said, due to goods becoming available through church closings.

Walters said her ministry is faithful to Canon 1171 in the Code of Canon Law, which states: “Sacred objects, which are designated for divine worship by dedication or blessing, are to be treated reverently and are not to be employed for profane or inappropriate use.”

Walters strives to find homes for all of her inventory, regardless of knowing which objects have been blessed by a priest or deacon: “We try not to let anything go to waste.” However, she has burned and buried some items, especially those in poor shape. Doing so, she said, reflects more reverence in the eyes of the church than if they were thrown out.

Yet by and large, Walters manages to place her abundant stock. Her unique ministry can be exhausting – “Every day I wake up with 15 voicemails” – but she’s happy that God has assigned her this special mission.
“I think it’s a great purpose, myself,” she said. “It becomes a passion; it drives me.”

(Mike Latona is senior staff writer at the Catholic Courier, newspaper of the Diocese of Rochester.)

March for Life unveils 2025 theme: ‘Every Life: Why We March’

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By Kate Scanlon
WASHINGTON (OSV News) – The March for Life Education and Defense Fund Oct. 10 unveiled the theme for its upcoming event: “Every Life: Why We March.”

The 52nd annual March for Life is scheduled for Jan. 24, just days after the winner of the 2024 presidential election will be inaugurated, and it comes amid what the group’s president, Jeanne Mancini, described as a time of “confusion and erroneous messaging” about abortion.

The theme, Mancini told reporters at a media briefing, was selected because the group believes “we really deeply want to do everything possible to encourage that we’re on the right side of history, that we’re in this for the long game, and that we need to lean in.”

“Our theme is returning to the basics, she said, adding, “This year in particular, the topic of abortion has emerged as a major political conversation, both on the national stage and in households across America. So we want to go back to the very basics on showing why life is important. So we plan to return to some of the fetal development truth that we know, just facts, biological facts, that we know to show the beauty of the unborn child. We plan to draw people together in unity, and we plan to just encourage people, really, to know that they’re in this for the long game.”

Mancini said in her travels to state marches, she has encountered discouragement among the group’s supporters about the political landscape just two and a half years after the Supreme Court reversed the Roe. v. Wade decision that prompted the original 1974 March for Life, especially when it comes to ballot measures, which have so far eluded pro-life activists. Voters in Ohio, California, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana, Vermont and Kansas either rejected new limitations on abortion or expanded legal protections for it as the result of ballot measures since Roe was overturned, and about 10 more will be on the ballot Nov. 5.

As a result, the group wanted to “just to return to the basics, pro-life 101, and especially within that some fetal development, but the fact that every life is inherent human dignity from the moment of conception. Because look at it, it seems like our culture is for our culture is forgotten right now, and that is so important.”

Jennie Bradley Lichter, who was named in September as the group’s president-elect and who will take the reins of the organization after the Jan. 24 event, told reporters she was drawn to the role because “I’ve always loved the March for Life. I love its positive spirit. I love its joyfulness and its youthfulness and the esprit de corps (the common spirit), and I love the doggedness of people who come year after year after year, even when it’s snowing.”

Mancini added the upcoming event will feature Bethany Hamilton, a professional surfer, author and motivational speaker, as the keynote speaker at the event, and its first female athlete to participate in that capacity.

(Kate Scanlon is a national reporter for OSV News covering Washington. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) @kgscanlon.)

Briefs

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A pilgrim wears a scarf featuring an image of St. Elena Guerra ahead of her canonization Mass, presided over by Pope Francis, in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican Oct. 20, 2024. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)

NATION
WASHINGTON (OSV News) – National Eucharistic Pilgrimage organizers are seeking eight young adults to spend six weeks traveling with the Eucharist from Indiana to California next summer as perpetual pilgrims in the United States’ second national Eucharistic pilgrimage. The route is scheduled to begin Pentecost Sunday, May 18, following a Mass of thanksgiving in Indianapolis and end in Los Angeles on the feast of Corpus Christi June 22 with a special event hosted by the National Eucharistic Congress Inc. and a citywide Eucharistic procession. The pilgrimage route will cover several Southwestern states, with route details forthcoming in early 2025. The pilgrimage expects to visit the tomb of Father Emil Kapaun, a servant of God, in Wichita, Kansas, and the Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine in Oklahoma City. The route’s perpetual pilgrims will be accompanied by two chaplains and participate in weekly service projects in communities they visit. The 2025 National Eucharistic Pilgrimage was inspired by last year’s first-ever National Eucharistic Pilgrimage that preceded the National Eucharistic Congress in July. Perpetual pilgrim applications are due Nov. 1. More information is available at eucharisticpilgrimage.org.

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – The U.S. bishops are gathering in Baltimore Nov. 11-14 for their 2024 fall general assembly, which takes place just weeks after the conclusion of the second session of the Catholic Church’s synod on synodality in Rome. Only two days of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ meeting, Nov. 12-13, will be public and livestreamed on the conference’s website. As in years past, Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the papal nuncio to the U.S., and Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services, president of the USCCB, will both address the assembly. Although the conference said its agenda for the November assembly is subject to change, the bishops plan to consider updates for a collaborative effort on Dignitas Infinita which concerns human dignity; an update on the interim implementation of Antiquum Ministerium, which concerns the ministry of the catechist; the pastoral implementation of Pope Francis’ teaching document Laudato si’, which concerns environmental stewardship; as well as the conference’s mission directive for the years 2025-2028. The bishops also plan to have a consultation on the sainthood causes of Sister Annella Zervas, a professed religious of the Order of St. Benedict, and for the Servant of God Gertrude Agnes Barber. During the assembly, the bishops will vote for the new conference treasurer, as well as chairmen-elect of five conference committees.

VATICAN
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis called on the faithful to yearn to serve, not thirst for power, as he proclaimed 14 new saints, including Canada-born St. Marie-Léonie Paradis, founder of the Little Sisters of the Holy Family, and 11 martyrs. “Those who dominate do not win, only those who serve out of love,” he said Oct. 20, World Mission Sunday, in St. Peter’s Square. “When we learn to serve, our every gesture of attention and care, every expression of tenderness, every work of mercy becomes a reflection of God’s love,” he said. “And so, we continue Jesus’ work in the world.” The pope said the new saints lived Jesus’ way of service. “The faith and the apostolate they carried out did not feed their worldly desires and hunger for power but, on the contrary, they made themselves servants of their brothers and sisters, creative in doing the good, steadfast in difficulties and generous to the end.” “This is what we should yearn for: not power, but service. Service is the Christian way of life,” he said.

WORLD
LIVERPOOL, England (OSV News) – A court has convicted a British army veteran of violating a “buffer zone” around an abortion clinic after he prayed silently within the boundary. Adam Smith-Connor was given a conditional discharge – in which a fine or prison sentence will be imposed if he repeats his offense in the next two years – and ordered to pay prosecution costs of 9,000 British pounds (US $11,700). The Oct. 16 judgment of the Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole Council, or court, on England’s south coast, represents the first time anyone has been convicted for praying silently outside an abortion facility in the U.K. The court decided that his posture had expressed “disapproval for abortion,” noting that his hands were joined in prayer and his head was bowed solemnly. Afterward, Smith-Connor said: “Today, the court has decided that certain thoughts – silent thoughts – can be illegal in the United Kingdom. That cannot be right. All I did was pray to God, in the privacy of my own mind – and yet I stand convicted as a criminal.” Jeremiah Igunnubole, legal counsel for ADF UK, described the ruling as “a legal turning point of immense proportions.” “A man has been convicted today because of the content of his thoughts – his prayers to God – on the public streets of England,” he said.

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (OSV News) – In an early October massacre, at least 150 people, including many Christians, were killed in northeastern Burkina Faso’s town of Manni, in what turned out to be a brutal terrorist rampage. Days after the massacre, Aid to the Church in Need, a pontifical charity working for the cause of persecuted Christians globally, learned that the attack had occurred Oct. 6. Manni is home to a large Catholic community, and many Christians, as well as Muslims, were killed in the massacre, ACN said on the organization’s website. Sources told ACN that the terrorists first cut mobile phone networks before attacking the local market, where many people had gathered after Sunday Mass. “They then opened fire indiscriminately, looted shops and set fire to several buildings, burning some victims alive. The same sources reported that the next day, the perpetrators returned to attack medical staff and kill the many wounded in the city’s hospital,” ACN said. A new incursion took place two days later, when the terrorists again invaded the town of Manni, massacring all the men they could find. Many of the victims were residents from nearby villages who had sought refuge in Manni after being driven out of their homes by terrorists. “The situation is beyond horrific,” one of the local sources told ACN. “But even if the terrorists burned everything, they didn’t burn our faith!”

In western North Carolina, parishes and schools respond to Helene devastation with supply drives, donations

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By Catholic News Herald , OSV News

CHARLOTTE (OSV News) — Late Sept. 27 night, as the first photos and cries for help emerged after Tropical Storm Helene ripped through the North Carolina mountains, Father John Putnam texted his staff at St. Mark Church, in Huntersville:

“There’s a great need for supplies for diapers, canned goods and water in the mountains. We have folks that can deliver on Sunday. Can we get a blast out?”

By dawn on Saturday, Sept. 28, parishioners and neighbors who had seen the social media blast began dropping off supplies. By afternoon, St. Mark had delivered its first truckload to the Statesville airport for transport to remote mountain regions. Remaining supplies went into a truck for church volunteers to drive 150 miles to Waynesville, home of St. John the Evangelist Parish.

In Concord, Dan Ward was on his way to Mass on Sunday morning when he fully understood how devastating Helene had been. As the properties and risk manager for the Diocese of Charlotte, Ward had the principal of Immaculata School on the phone describing the scene around her after record rainfall in Hendersonville.

“There is damage everywhere. Trees are down. Houses and roads are washed away. There is no power — and no water,” Principal Margaret Beale told him.

“It wasn’t just what she said — it was how she said it,” Ward recalled.

He skipped Mass and called his bosses.

Over the next few hours, Beale’s hint of desperation and the trickle of news from the mountains — of people being swept down rivers, of homes washing away, of trees trapping people in neighborhoods with no way in or out — unleashed what would become an unprecedented outpouring of support from across the diocese “to get people what they need — now.”

That’s how Monsignor Patrick Winslow, the diocese’s vicar general and chancellor, described what he and Charlotte Bishop Michael T. Martin wanted to see in response to the storm. From the diocese’s central administration. From priests and parishioners. From Catholic Charities, and schools and ministries. Everybody who could help, should help.

“For those of you who are suffering so much from this natural disaster, especially those who have lost loved ones, please know you are not alone! Motivated by the image of Christ Crucified, we stand with you, we love you, and we are lifting you up in constant prayer,” Bishop Martin wrote Oct. 2 in an email to the faithful. “The good people of our diocese are also pitching in to get you the help you need, now and over the long haul.”

In a similar message to priests, he noted their pastoral mission in addition to supply drives and fundraising: “It is at times such as these that we are called as shepherds to lead our communities. We may not be able to provide for every need presented to us in this moment, but we can accompany — walk with all those who are struggling … While water and power may now be scarce, God’s love and our ability to make that love real are in abundance.”

Helene crashed ashore in Florida late in the evening of Sept. 26 as a Category 4 Hurricane, churning through six states and killing more than 190 people, according to media reports as of Oct. 3 — including more than 96 in North Carolina — as it became a tropical storm, making it one of the deadliest storms in the U.S.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper called it “one of the worst storms in modern history for parts of North Carolina.”

More than half of the Diocese of Charlotte’s 46 counties have been declared federal disaster areas, a territory that includes 44 of the diocese’s 92 churches. While church buildings sustained only minor damage, the people and communities they serve are devastated. The diocese and its Catholic Charities agency have transformed many of its churches and schools into relief centers — either collecting supplies for dispatch to western North Carolina or, in ravaged areas, serving as distribution points for weary residents, who are hungry and thirsty and cut off from the outside world.

“The best cell phone signal anywhere is right here on the property of St. Margaret Mary — but that’s how God works,” said Claudia Graham, the church’s assistant who is leading relief efforts as the parish awaits the appointment of a new pastor.

Never mind that the beautiful old oak tree out front had fallen onto the roof of the 88-year-old church and remained there. Graham opened the church anyway and, thanks to an Oct. 1 delivery from the diocese, she was able to hand out supplies the next day — giving away food and water and diapers and baby formula to the people of Swannanoa, one of the communities hardest hit by the storm.

Swannanoa is the distribution point for one of three supply routes the diocese and Catholic Charities established right away. Waynesville is another receiving station — where supplies are divided between St. John the Evangelist Church and a 1950s diner called Jukebox Junction. In Hendersonville, Immaculata School was the first supply site to open, on Sunday, just hours after principal Beale made that fateful call.

As of Oct. 2, 14 truckloads of supplies had been delivered to the diocese’s drop locations, including two filled by parishioners of St. Matthew and two by parishioners of St. Gabriel.

Another nine trailer, truck, van and carloads went to Waynesville from St. Mark and Charlotte’s St. Thomas Aquinas, and St. Mark sent two loads to airlift operations. All three of the diocese’s high schools got into the act, enlisting families and serving as supply drop sites.

Catholic Charities launched an online donation site (www.ccdoc.org/helenerelief), which, as of Oct. 3, had raised more than $650,000 from about 2,400 donors across 47 states.

“While we’ll be there handing out water and providing food…our real impact is on the longer-term restoration of lives,” said Gerry Carter, executive director and CEO of Catholic Charities.

“It’s important to remember that when you’ve lost everything, it can frequently take months, if not years, to be restored,” he said. “In addition to immediate financial assistance and the distribution of food, diapers and other essentials, we’ll also be there offering case management services to help rebuild and restore lives.”

In Swannanoa, Graham was rebuilding lives hour by hour, juggling tasks she’d never imagined. She provided food and comfort to a woman who had been plucked from raging floodwaters a few days earlier. She coordinated dispatch for a crew of parishioners with chainsaws to cut away fallen trees that trapped people in their homes. She also managed to get a visiting priest approved to respond to requests she was receiving for an anointing of the sick.

“There are helicopters flying low, seeking people who are homebound and hopefully we won’t have too many that are trapped inside,” she said. “We’re doing everything we can. I’m even letting people use our dumpster at the church. It’s filling up and it’s not totally bear-proof, but I am hoping the trash service will start again soon.”

The drive from Charlotte to Waynesville, which normally takes about three hours, took five for relief teams to reach St. John and Jukebox Junction in the initial days.

The diner, owned by St. John the Evangelist parishioner Mike Graham, lost power but managed to cook up — then gave away — all of its food. It has remained open as a drop zone for supplies from the diocese and others. A steady flow of people living in surrounding Canton, Cruso and Waynesville came around for supplies — greeted by parishioners from St. John and others who are helping with distribution.

Father Paul McNulty, the Waynesville church’s pastor, has spent his days checking on parishioners and other community members, ferrying supplies, and bringing prayers and sacraments to those in need. His church overlooks the historic Frog Level business district of Waynesville, which during the storm stood under six feet of muddy water.

Among parishioners helping out are Father Aaron Huber’s parents, who live in Cruso, and on Sunday, Sept. 29, climbed to the top of Cold Mountain to secure cell service to call their son, who is based at St. Mark and serves as chaplain of Christ the King High School in Huntersville.
“It was a huge relief to hear from them,” Huber said, “and they told me how hard they’d been hit in that area — so St. Mark made those communities their mission to serve.”

On Wednesday, Oct. 2, Catholic faithful left Wilmington at 4 a.m. for Waynesville, where 12 hours later they had established Starlink satellite service at St. John the Evangelist, bringing internet service to people desperate to reach out to loved ones for the first time in a week.

In Asheville, determined also to serve people’s spiritual needs, St. Eugene Church kept Masses going immediately after the storm, even without power. Just two couples made it on Saturday evening, a Mass lit by candlelight and the waning sun. The group prayed for those affected by the disaster, and family and friends who were ill. Mike and Eileen Crowe attended: “It was a nice little oasis to take your mind off things…”, Mike Crowe said, “very intimate.”

On Wednesday, Oct. 2, the diocese’s relief efforts intensified in Asheville. That Monday, Mike Miller, the former principal of Asheville Catholic School, had reported that conditions remained dire across the city. Basic necessities remained in short supply.

“Water is the biggest problem right now,” Miller said. “Unless someone has a well that wasn’t over-washed with flood waters, people don’t have clean water or water service. If anyone is donating, water is crucial.”

Across the diocese, parishes were jumping in to assist.

In Concord, St. James the Greater Parish organized a supply drive through the Concord airport as part of Operation Airdrop, a Texas-based nonprofit founded in 2017 in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. In Greensboro, St. Paul the Apostle and St. Pius X also coordinated and collected supplies.

And although classes have been canceled this week due to flooding damage, Hendersonville’s Immaculata School has remained a hub at ground zero.

Principal Beale wept when she learned the first supplies would reach her on Sunday, the same day she’d issued her call of distress. On Monday morning, after a long traumatizing weekend, dozens of people waited in the parking lot for the distribution of supplies to begin.

“Friday was a tough day,” she said, “and it’s really frustrating for a school that has gained so much momentum. But then you get on the other side of the storm and you see how horrific the damage is, you realize you are blessed. There isn’t anything that’s happened at our parish or school that can’t be repaired. We are such a strong community that we’ll come back from this.”

The Catholic News Herald is the newspaper of the Diocese of Charlotte.

NOTES: Electricity, drinkable water, food, medical care and cellphone service are in critically short supply in Western North Carolina in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Helene. Monetary donations are the fastest, most flexible and most effective way to support emergency relief efforts — local responders on the ground can use the funds to help people with immediate as well as long-term needs.

Give securely online: www.ccdoc.org/helenerelief.