Category Archives: U.S. News

National Eucharistic Pilgrimage connects Catholics across U.S. to 2024 Congress

Posted on by
Reply

By Maria Wiering

ST. PAUL, Minn. (OSV News) – Mike Wavra thinks of the 2024 National Eucharistic Pilgrimage as “an opportunity to walk with the Lord.”

He and his wife, Cindi, both 65-year-old retirees, plan to join the pilgrimage at its northern launch point in Minnesota in May 2024, and then walk for about a week, before rejoining the pilgrims seven weeks later in Indianapolis for the 10th National Eucharistic Congress.

The Wavras are among thousands of Catholics from across the United States anticipated to participate in next year’s pilgrimage to the Congress, part of the U.S. bishops’ three-year National Eucharistic Revival that began in 2021. The pilgrimage has four routes, with one beginning in the north, south, east and west of the country.

This is the logo for the U.S. bishops’ three-year National Eucharistic Revival. The National Eucharistic Congress organizers describe the routes pilgrims will walk with the Eucharist to the NEC in 2024. The National Eucharistic Congress organizers have set the routes pilgrims will walk with the Eucharist to the NEC in 2024. (OSV News photo/courtesy USCCB)

Pilgrims traveling in the “Eucharistic caravans” on all four routes will begin their journeys with Pentecost weekend celebrations May 17-18, 2024, leaving May 19. They will all converge on Indianapolis July 16, 2024, the day before the five-day Congress opens.
The pilgrimage is an opportunity for prayer and evangelization, as well as a way to engage Catholics unable to attend the Congress, said Tim Glemkowski, the National Eucharistic Congress’ executive director.

“What the pilgrimage does is it builds us in prayerful anticipation for what God is going to do at the Congress,” he told OSV News May 5. “It’s two months of us pilgrimaging, fasting, praying, interceding, asking the Lord to renew his church, his bride, in those five days. … They’re not two different things. It’s one pilgrimage: five days of which happen in a stadium in Indianapolis, and two months of which happen across our country on the way there.”

Weekend stops in major cities will include special liturgies, Eucharistic adoration, processions and service opportunities, Glemkowski said.

The northern “Marian Route” that the Wavras plan to take begins in northern Minnesota at Lake Itasca, the headwaters of the Mississippi River. The route follows the river to St. Paul and Minneapolis, its first weekend stop. Then the route heads south to Rochester, Minnesota, and then east through La Crosse and Green Bay, Wisconsin. It continues through Milwaukee, Chicago and Notre Dame, Indiana, before arriving in Indianapolis.

The “Juan Diego Route” begins more than 1,600 miles south of Lake Itasca in Brownsville, Texas, at the U.S.-Mexico border. It will follow Texas’ eastern border through Corpus Christi and Houston, and continue through New Orleans; Mobile, Alabama; Atlanta; Nashville, Tennessee; and Louisville, Kentucky.

The “Seton Route” – named for St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first U.S.-born saint – begins in New Haven, Connecticut, and continues through New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Pittsburgh, and Steubenville, Columbus and Cincinnati, Ohio.

The “Junipero Serra Route” begins in San Francisco – with hope of walking over the Golden Gate Bridge – and continues through Reno, Nevada; Salt Lake City; Denver; North Platte and Omaha, Nebraska; Kansas City, Kansas and Missouri; and St. Louis.

At more than 2,200 miles long, the Junipero Serra Route is the longest and most rigorous route. Pilgrims will use transport to cross sections of their route, but the Rocky Mountains and Great Plains are expected to be crossed on foot. In an interview with Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens of Crookston, Minnesota, for a February episode of the popular podcast “Catholic Stuff You Should Know,” co-host Father John Nepil said he wanted to walk with the Eucharist and fellow priests over Colorado’s Vail Pass, which, at 10,541 feet above sea level, is the highest elevation the pilgrimage routes will reach.

Besides the thrill of the physical challenge, “there’s always been a close connection for me between thinking of the Eucharist as the source and summit of our faith, and the ways we reflect on the Eucharistic high points as a place of transcendence, and then the way it connects to the mountains,” Father Nepil, a priest of the Archdiocese of Denver and vice rector of St. John Vianney Theological Seminary in Denver, told OSV News May 8. “We just kind of jumped at that as a cool prospect of leading some people and shepherding them over that pass as we make our way.”

Modern Catholic Pilgrim, a pilgrimage nonprofit with offices in Minnesota and California, is organizing the national pilgrimage. Its founder and president, Will Peterson, connects the pilgrimage to the scriptural journey from Jerusalem to Emmaus, where two of his disciples met Jesus after the Resurrection. Luke 24 recounts how Jesus comforted them, and then revealed himself in the breaking of the bread.

The routes include important Catholic sites in the United States, such the 18th-century ministry of St. Junipero Serra in what is now California, the Philadelphia tombs of St. John Neumann and St. Katharine Drexel, and in Wisconsin, the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion, the only approved Marian apparition in the United States.

Pictured is a monstrance from a Eucharistic Revival event at St. Joseph parish in Gluckstadt in October of 2022. The National Eucharistic Revival will include a pilgrimage after Pentecost 2024 as an opportunity to “walk with the Lord” leading up to the Eucharistic Congress in mid-July 2024 in Indianapolis. (Photo by Joanna Puddister King)

“People are going to reach an ‘Emmaus point’ at these spots along the way, and we want to support the local church,” Peterson said May 9. “That’s where it’s such a great gift to coordinate with like 65 dioceses to say, ‘How can we really highlight the great sacred sites of your diocese?’”

Each pilgrimage route is expected to have 12 “perpetual pilgrims,” young adults, including two seminarians, committed to traveling the entire route, from their launch points to Indianapolis. Each route also will include priest chaplains who will carry the Eucharist, usually in a monstrance specially designed for the pilgrimage. While some chaplains may join the entire pilgrimage route, others may join for segments of the journey, Glemkowski said.

The faithful are invited to join the pilgrimage for hours, days or weeks. Each day of the pilgrimage will begin with Mass and a Eucharistic procession with the local community before pilgrims continue the trek to their next stopping point. Pilgrims joining the Eucharistic caravans for short stretches will be responsible for arranging their own food and overnight accommodations, although some parishes along the routes may provide meals and lodging.

Parishioners of St. Bernard Parish in Thief River Falls, Minnesota, the Wavras have worked out their own logistics: They plan to take their truck with a camper and two motorized bicycles, and “hopscotch” their way along the route, taking their truck each morning to drop off their bikes at that evening’s stop, driving back, walking the pilgrimage route, and then taking their bikes to pick up their truck.

The Wavras expect the pilgrimage to include comradery with fellow Catholics and their bishop, Bishop Cozzens, whose Diocese of Crookston is home to Lake Itasca and the first stretch of the Marian Route. Bishop Cozzens is chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis, which is overseeing the revival.

The pilgrimage “brings Jesus out of our churches and out into the public,” Mike Wavra told OSV News May 4. “This is just an opportunity for people to see the Jesus that we know and love.”

Wavra also expects the pilgrimage to attract interest and curiosity from non-Catholics. “They wonder what some crazy Catholics are doing, following a piece of bread,” he said. “It’s not a piece of bread, it’s the Lord himself. What an opportunity for us to share that.”

(Maria Wiering is senior writer for OSV News.)

Mississippi enacts legislative package praised by advocates as ‘pro-life safety net’

Posted on by
Reply

By Kate Scanlon
(OSV News) – After its defense of a state law limiting abortion made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, resulting in the court’s subsequent decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in June, Mississippi passed a package of bills that state officials said demonstrate creating a safety net for both mothers and babies.
The package introduces an income tax credit for qualified adoption expenses, as well as amends the state’s Safe Haven law to increase the amount of time in which an infant can be safely surrendered to qualified personnel at designated Safe Haven locations, among other measures.

The Mississippi State Capitol is pictured in Jackson May 23, 2021. Mississippi has passed eight bills that supporters say are part of the state’s efforts to build a better pro-life social safety net. (OSV News photo/Evelyn Hockstein, Reuters)

After Roe v. Wade was overturned, abortion advocates would sometimes point to statistics showing states that restricted abortion often have smaller safety nets for women facing unplanned pregnancies. But proponents of Mississippi’s package argued that the state can support mothers and children with what the office of Gov. Tate Reeves, R-Miss., called “Pro-Mom, Pro-Life Legislation.”

Reeves said in a statement that “Mississippi will always protect life.”

“Our state will continue to be a beacon on the hill, a symbol of hope for the country, and a model for the nation,” Reeves said. “Mississippi will be relentless in its commitment to life. We will be relentless in our support of mothers and children. And we will be relentless in our efforts to advance the New Pro-life Agenda. The legislation I signed today is further proof that when it comes to protecting life, Mississippi isn’t just talking the talk – we’re walking the walk.”

Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, who defended the state’s law restricting abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy that was at issue in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, where the high court reversed its jurisprudence since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, returning the matter of regulating abortion to the legislature, said in a statement, “I applaud Mississippi for adopting legislation that supports pregnant women and new mothers, streamlines and reforms adoption and foster care systems, enhances child support enforcement, and expands tax credits for employers providing childcare for their employees.”

“These initiatives will help build healthy families and, as a result, healthy communities,” Fitch said.
Measures passed by the state also increase resources for foster parents and children, and grant what the governor’s office said was the largest budget in the Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services’ history.

Fitch, who published a post-Dobbs legislative agenda dubbed The Empowerment Project, celebrated some of the initiatives passed that were included in that legislative framework.

“Whether it is offering compassionate, life-affirming options to mothers in need or providing resources to those looking to upskill and grow, Mississippi is showing the nation that we can both empower women and promote life,” Fitch said.

“We are not done yet – we can and will do more to empower women and their families – but I am encouraged by the progress we’ve made in only a few short weeks and appreciate the hard work that the Mississippi Legislature has done to demonstrate that women and children are their priority, too.”

Caitlin Connors, southern regional director for SBA Pro-Life America, said in an April 19 statement that Mississippi “makes history again today, as Governor Reeves signs eight pro-life safety net measures into law.”

“Through its Gestational Age Act, the life at conception protection that is now in effect, and more policies and programs that help families, it’s incredible to see how much ground Mississippi has covered in the course of a year to protect the unborn and serve their mothers in the Dobbs era, Connors said. “We thank Gov. Reeves, Attorney General Lynn Fitch, and legislative leaders for boldly advocating measures that carry out the full-picture pro-life mission to support women during pregnancy and beyond. The impact of these policies will be felt for generations.”

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

Briefs

Posted on by
Reply

NATION
WASHINGTON (OSV News) – The U.S. Supreme Court said April 21 it would block a lower court’s restrictions on an abortion pill, leaving the drug on the market while litigation over the drug proceeds. The court’s order was an apparent 7-2 vote, with Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito publicly dissenting. The decision froze a lower court’s ruling to stay the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the drug. The Justice Department and a pharmaceutical company that manufactures the abortion pill mifepristone previously asked the Supreme Court to intervene in the case after an appeals court allowed portions of the ruling by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk to take effect. A coalition of pro-life opponents of mifepristone, the first of two drugs used in a medication or chemical abortion, had filed suit in an effort to revoke the FDA’s approval of the drug, arguing the government violated its own safety standards when it first approved the drug in 2000. However, proponents argued mifepristone poses statistically little risk to women using it for abortion early in pregnancy, and claim the drug is being singled out for political reasons. In an April 21 statement, President Joe Biden said he would continue “to stand by FDA’s evidence-based approval of mifepristone, and my Administration will continue to defend FDA’s independent, expert authority to review, approve, and regulate a wide range of prescription drugs.” On April 22, Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of Arlington, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, called the Supreme Court’s interim order “a tremendous disappointment, both for the loss of innocent preborn life from chemical abortion, and for the danger that chemical abortion poses to women.”

SAN FRANCISCO (OSV News) – On the very day Elon Musk launched SpaceX rocket Starship on its ill-fated maiden voyage toward space, that final frontier, Musk’s company Twitter did boldly go purging blue verification check marks from users who had not signed up for its paid Twitter Blue service on April 20, including Pope Francis’ Twitter accounts. The nine papal Twitter accounts, first set up under Benedict XVI in 2012, tweet a daily message from the Holy Father in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Latin, French, Polish, Arabic and German. The Vatican press office, noting that the nine @Pontifex accounts have a total of more than 53 million followers, told CNS Rome April 21 it understood Twitter was changing some of its policies. But it added, “the Holy See trusts that they will include certification of the authenticity of accounts.” That same day, following the loss of its blue checkmark, each papal account received a new gray verification checkmark designating “a government or multilateral organization account.” Other religious entities and organizations that have lost their blue checkmark include the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, National Catholic Reporter, Catholic News Service Rome and Protestant televangelist Joel Osteen. There is now a triad of checkmark colors on Twitter. Blue marks mean an account has an active subscription to Twitter Blue, gold indicates an official business account through Twitter Verified Organizations, and gray indicates a government or multilateral organization. There also are affiliate account badges for each, as well as automated account labels for bots.

BALTIMORE (OSV News) – For every Dorothy Day – or St. Teresa of Kolkata, St. Oscar Romero or St. Pope John Paul II – there may be hundreds, even thousands, of anonymous potential saints who are not raised to the altars for a very simple reason: Their advocates just can not afford it. The sainthood process entails expenses for research, travel, translation and, if the cause progresses, beatification and canonization ceremonies. On average, costs total about $250,000 – with high-profile causes potentially topping $1 million. While ultimately conducted by the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, causes are typically initiated by a diocese, religious order or nonprofit lay group. The intricacies of the canonization process – with stages marked by the titles servant of God, venerable, blessed and saint – also poses a challenge for under-resourced dioceses. In addition to undisputed holiness, there is intense research, reams of paperwork, continuous fundraising, potential discrimination – and sometimes, a few unanticipated roadblocks. Ralph E. Moore Jr., a lifelong Catholic and African-American parishioner of St. Ann Catholic Church in Baltimore and a member of its Social Justice Committee, has organized a canonization letter writing campaign to Pope Francis, urging him to advance the sainthood causes of six African Americans, noting that a lack of finances has played a role in denying Black Catholics their own recognized saints.

VATICAN
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – At least three dozen women will be voting members of the assembly of the Synod of Bishops in October, Pope Francis has decided. In a decision formalized April 17, “the Holy Father approved the extension of participation in the synodal assembly to ‘non-bishops’ – priests, deacons, consecrated men and women, lay men and women,” the synod office said in a statement April 26. Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, relator general of the synod, told reporters that about 21% of the synod’s 370 members would not be bishops and at least half of that group would be women. Adding women and young people to the membership will make sure “the church is well represented” in the prayer and discussions scheduled for Oct. 4-29 at the Vatican, the cardinal said. “It will be a joy to have the whole church represented in Rome for the synod.” “As you can see, the space in the tent is being enlarged,” Cardinal Mario Grech, synod secretary-general, told reporters. “The Synod of Bishops will remain a synod of bishops,” Cardinal Grech said, but it will be “enriched” by representatives of the whole church.

The Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Berdyansk, Ukraine, is seen in this undated photo. Ukrainian officials reported April 22, 2023, that Russian forces seized the church in occupied Berdyansk, part of what the Institute for the Study of War calls an ongoing persecution of Catholics. (OSV News photo/courtesy Primorka City)

WORLD
BERDYANSK, Ukraine (OSV News) – Russian forces have reportedly seized a Roman Catholic church in Ukraine, according to published accounts. The nonprofit, nonpartisan Institute for the Study of War (ISW) released an April 22 assessment stating that Viktoria Halitsina, head of the Ukrainian military administration of the port city of Berdyansk, wrote on her agency’s Telegram channel April 22 that Russian troops had seized the city’s Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In her post, Halitsina said that the church “was not only a religious community,” but a place where “the needy could receive support.” In November 2022, two priests based at the church, who served both Latin-rite Catholics and Ukrainian Catholics, were abducted, and their fates remain unknown. ISW noted April 9 that Russia has engaged in widespread religious persecution in Ukraine, targeting a number of Catholic, Christian and Islamic communities.

NAIROBI, Kenya (OSV News) – Catholic bishops in Kenya have expressed shock and strongly condemned the mass “starvation suicide” in Shakahola, a remote forest-ranch area in eastern Kenya, where a pastor led congregants to fast to death. Kenyan authorities still continue to retrieve bodies from shallow graves in the 800-acre ranch in Kilifi County near the town of Malindi. On April 27 the official death toll was 95. All victims were followers of the Good News International Church Pastor Paul Mackenzie. He told his followers to pray and fast to meet Jesus and that the world would end April 15. As families arrived in the town of Malindi in search of their relatives following the Shakahola tragedy, the Kenyan Red Cross Society in Kilifi County said April 26 that officials had recorded 322 missing persons. Some of the devastated families that arrived in Malindi had lost several relatives to the cult. “We condemn in the strongest terms possible, the cultic preaching orchestrated by (the) pastor … which induced his followers to fast to death,” said Archbishop Martin Kivuva Musonde of Mombasa, president of the Kenyan bishops’ conference, in a statement April 24.

Synod’s ‘messy,’ ‘joyful’ North American phase concludes with call to mission, moves to Rome

Posted on by
Reply

By Gina Christian

(OSV News) – The final document for the North American phase of the 2021-2024 Synod on Synodality was released April 12, capturing a process of dialogue and discernment that two participants described as ‘messy,’ ‘joyful’ and unifying – like the synod itself.

“It’s amazing what comes about when … you invoke the Holy Spirit in the conversation,” Julia McStravog, a theologian and co-coordinator of the North American team for the synod’s continental phase, told OSV News.

“The synodal approach provoked a genuine appreciation and joyfulness on the part of the people of God to be able to engage in conversation, even if they were talking about difficult issues,” team co-coordinator Richard Coll told OSV News. Coll also serves as executive director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development.

Led by Catholic bishops from Canada and the United States, McStravog, Coll and their fellow team members have now synthesized the results of synod listening sessions throughout the two countries, producing a 36-page final document available for download at usccb.org/synod. (According to the USCCB, the Catholic Church in Mexico is participating in the global synod with the Latin American Episcopal Council, or CELAM, given its long partnership with that conference.)

Philadelphia Archbishop Nelson J. Pérez joins college students, other young adults and ministry leaders during a synodal listening session at La Salle University April 4, 2022. (OSV News photo/CNS file, Sarah Webb, CatholicPhilly.com)

The North American synod team – consisting of eight bishops, three laywomen, two priests, two laymen and two women religious – spent time in prayer, silence and discussion to distill responses for inclusion in the text, which forms a response to the Document for the Continental Stage issued by the Holy See’s General Secretariat for the Synod of Bishops in October 2022.

The final document for the continental stage from North America, along with the contributions of the six other continental assemblies, will form the basis of the “Instrumentum Laboris,” the global synod’s working document, to be released by the General Secretariat in June.

Bishop Daniel E. Flores of Brownsville, Texas, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Doctrine, who leads the North American team with Canadian Bishop Raymond Poisson of Saint-Jérôme-Mont-Laurier, Quebec, presented the document at the Vatican April 12.

Launched by Pope Francis in October 2021, the multi-year synod of bishops – the theme of which is “communion, participation and mission” – seeks to cultivate an ongoing dynamic of discernment, listening, humility and engagement within the Catholic Church.

The North American report highlighted three key themes: the implications of baptism, communion with Christ and one another, and missionary discipleship as a living out of the baptismal calling.

“Our baptismal dignity is inseparable from our baptismal responsibility, which sends us forth on mission,” the document stated. “Every human person possesses the dignity that comes from being created in the image of God. Through baptism, Christians share in an exalted dignity and vocation to holiness, with no inequality based on race, nationality, social condition, or sex, because we are one in Christ Jesus.”

By virtue of their baptism, participants in the synod’s North American phase expressed “a desire for a greater recognition of, and opportunities for, co-responsibility within the church and her mission,” with greater collaboration “among the laity and the clergy, including bishops,” said the document. It stressed “there can be no true co-responsibility in the church without fully honoring the dignity of women.”

An “authentic acknowledgment and respect for the gifts and talents of young people is another vital aspect of a co-responsible church in North America,” said the document.

Amid “polarization and a strong pull towards fragmentation,” synod participants in North America emphasized the need to “maintain the centrality of Christ,” especially in the Eucharist.

The document candidly acknowledged that a “significant threat to communion within the church is a lack of trust, especially between bishops and the laity, but also between the clergy in general and the lay faithful.”

The clergy sexual abuse crisis in particular has caused “major areas of tension in North America,” as have “the historical wrongs found in the residential (and) boarding schools for Indigenous people, which … included abuse of all kinds,” said the document.

In their introduction to the document, Bishop Flores and Bishop Poisson admitted the need to “(make) efforts to listen more effectively to those from whom we have not heard, including many who have been relegated to the margins of our communities, society and church.” They noted their “absence” in the synodal process was “not easily interpreted but was palpably felt.”

Among those often missing from synodal sessions were priests, with bishops acknowledging their responsibility to address that lack “by example and by conveying the transparency and spiritual/pastoral fruitfulness of synodality.”

Synod participants listed women, young people, immigrants, racial or linguistic minorities, LGBTQ+ persons, people who are divorced and civilly remarried without an annulment, and those with varying degrees of physical or mental abilities as marginalized within the church.

Outreach and inclusion of these groups is ultimately driven at the local level by the faithful actively living out their baptism, McStravog told OSV News.

At the same time, “the bishops really took to heart the call … to reach out to the periphery,” Coll told OSV News, who added that virtual synod sessions enabled broader participation.
Synod participants consistently articulated a longing for better formation in the faith and in Catholic social teaching, the document said.

As the synod process moves into its next phase, Coll and McStravog pointed to the need for humility and openness to God’s will.

“We don’t have all the answers, and none of this is pre-packaged,” said Coll. “You have to trust that the Spirit will be there to guide us despite the messiness – or maybe because of it.”

(Gina Christian is a national reporter for OSV News. Follow her on Twitter at @GinaJesseReina.)

Briefs

Posted on by
Reply

NATION
BALTIMORE (OSV News) – The release of the Maryland Attorney General’s report on clergy sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Baltimore was a day of sorrow, Archbishop William E. Lori said in his first interview after the April 5 release. “It’s a day that I must face, and the archdiocese must face the enormity of this horrid legacy of sexual abuse. It is a day when my heart goes out to the victim-survivors, recognizing how many people have been harmed, and harmed very significantly,” he told the Catholic Review, the archdiocesan news outlet. He said that as he read the report, “just as a pastor of souls and as a Catholic,” he felt ”deep sadness” and “shame” and “felt sickened by the report.” Archbishop Lori said he spoke to some victim-survivors in the morning before the anticipated release, an opportunity for which he was grateful, as he has been for the many conversations he has had with victim-survivors over the years. He emphasized that there is no one currently in ministry in the archdiocese who has been credibly accused of abuse. The church began to change decades ago, the archbishop said, and in hearing the voices of victim-survivors, has steadily taken “really important steps to root sexual abuse out of our ranks,” including zero tolerance and removal from ministry of anyone credibly accused of abuse; creating safe environments within parishes and schools to keep young people safe; reporting “any and every allegation” to authorities; offering counseling to victims; and settlements “where desired.”

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (OSV News) – At least five people were killed and eight were injured in a shooting at Old National Bank in downtown Louisville, Ky., on April 10, local police said. That shooting followed another mass shooting where six people, including three children, were killed at a Nashville school two weeks earlier on March 27. Both mass shootings are just some of the violent events with multiple casualties involving guns, that have taken place in the U.S. A public policy response to gun violence from a Catholic perspective should prioritize the common good, theologians and church leaders told OSV News. Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller of San Antonio in whose diocese is Uvalde, where a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers last year, has emerged in the wake of the tragedy as an advocate for more gun control. He told OSV News that gun violence is tied to a host of other signs of an acceptance of violence in the culture, from abortion, to domestic violence, to a lack of regard for the immigrant, to failing to care for creation. Archbishop García-Siller said the U.S. bishops have called for gun ownership regulations – banning civilian ownership of tactical-style semi-automatic weapons, eliminating high capacity magazines, and extending universal background checks – because “people are really suffering.” He said, “We have the teaching of Jesus about being peacemakers. We have to continue advocating, to continue promoting justice, to promote behavior that goes more along with our dignity.”

VATICAN
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The Vatican’s chief prosecutor said Pope Francis has given him free rein to investigate the 1983 disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi, a 15-year-old Vatican resident. The case has fueled conspiracy theories for close to 40 years and inspired a Netflix series in 2022. Alessandro Diddi, the Vatican prosecutor, told Corriere della Sera, an Italian newspaper, that the pope and Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, have an “iron will” to shed whatever light is possible on what happened to Orlandi, the daughter of a Vatican employee, who vanished in Rome June 22, 1983. Diddi’s interview with Corriere della Sera was published April 11, the same day Pietro Orlandi, Emanuela’s brother, met with Diddi and other Vatican prosecutors for more than eight hours. It was their first meeting since Diddi opened a new file on the case in January at Orlandi’s request. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Orlandi said that in 40 years he had “never been questioned so thoroughly” on the case, but the meeting also gave him an opportunity to discuss “the most important things that have come out in these 40 years.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis has chosen “His mercy is from age to age,” a passage from the Gospel of Luke, as the theme for the 2023 celebration of the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly. On the world day, which will be celebrated July 23, Pope Francis will celebrate Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, according to the Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life. Pope Francis chose the theme to tie the celebration of the World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly to World Youth Day, which will be celebrated just over a week later, in Lisbon, Portugal, the dicastery said. The theme for the youth gathering Aug. 1-6 is “Mary arose and went with haste” from Luke 1:39, the dicastery said, and it describes how Mary sets out to visit her elderly cousin Elizabeth and “proclaims, in the Magnificat, the strength of the alliance between young and old. ”Pope Francis celebrated the first World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly in 2021 and decreed that it be observed each year on the Sunday closest to the feast of Sts. Joachim and Anne, Jesus’ grandparents.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis confirmed he will travel to Mongolia in September, becoming the first pope to visit the Asian nation, which is home to a cardinal and some 1,300 Catholics. In an audience April 14 with executives and staff of ITA Airways, the airline that has taken the pope on his international trips since 2021, he said that he will visit Mongolia, a country sandwiched between Russia and China, after traveling to Hungary in late April and Marseille, France, in September. During an airborne news conference on his return flight from South Sudan in February, the pope told journalists there was a “possibility that from Marseille I will fly to Mongolia.” To the airline workers, Pope Francis said that “God willing” he will leave for his 41st apostolic trip, traveling to Hungary April 28-30 “and then there will be Marseille and Mongolia, and all the others that are on the waiting list.” In August 2022, Pope Francis named Italian Bishop Giorgio Marengo, apostolic prefect of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, to be the first cardinal based in Mongolia. The cardinal, 48, is the youngest member of the College of Cardinals.

WORLD
JERUSALEM (OSV News) – A British-Israeli mother and her two daughters were killed in a drive-by-shooting terrorist attack in the Jordan valley on April 7, during a week that, instead of seeing the holidays of Passover, Easter and Ramadan celebrated in parallel peacefully, spiraled the region into violence. Rina, 15, and Maia, 20, Dee died at the scene of the attack while their mother Lucy, 48, died of her wounds on April 10. Following the Jordan valley attack, an Italian tourist identified as Alessandro Parini, 36 – in Israel for the Easter holiday – was killed in what Israeli police have said was a car-ramming terrorist attack on a beach promenade in Tel Aviv which left one other Italian and three British nationals among the injured. The attacks were spurred on by an Israeli police raid into Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa Mosque compound in the early morning of April 5, and is on a site known to Jews as the “Temple Mount.” Israel police also issued a statement saying they had completed their “extensive…work” in preparation for the Orthodox Holy Fire ceremony on April 15, following coordination meetings with heads of churches. The fire hazard security regulations imposed by Israeli police on the ceremony, and the way in which it is enforced, is always a point of contention. It imposes restrictions on the number of faithful who can attend the ceremony, which sees the holy fire brought forth from the traditional tomb of Jesus inside Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

Scaffolding surrounds the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris July 28, 2022. Four years into the devastating fire, Notre Dame Cathedral will get the spire back by the end of 2023. But to reopen the beloved symbol of France by Dec. 8, 2024, three conditions need to be met. (OSV News photo/Geoffroy Van Der Hassel, pool via Reuters)

PARIS (OSV News) – Notre Dame Cathedral will get its spire back by the end of 2023, more than four years after it was devastated by a fire. But to reopen by its deadline of Dec. 8, 2024, the cathedral, a beloved symbol of France, needs to meet three conditions, currently in the works. This includes cleaning and restoration of the interior of the building; restoration of masonry and collapsed vaults; and working to restore the missing spire and frameworks, which, according to the newest statement from the “Rebuild Notre Dame” committee, “is in progress, both on the Ile de la Cité and in the workshop.” More than 1,000 people, spread throughout France, are working simultaneously on the revival of the masterpiece of Gothic art that Notre Dame is, including nearly 500 workers, craftsmen and supervisors who are currently working on the building site, inside the cathedral. Notre Dame also attracted an unprecedented surge of generosity in the history of French philanthropy, with 340,000 donors from 150 countries raising $929 million in donations.

ABUJA, Nigeria (OSV News) – At least 52,250 people have been killed over the last 14 years in Nigeria just for being Christian, a new report published April 10 revealed. The report, titled “Martyred Christians in Nigeria” and published by the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), says 30,250 of those killed were killed since 2015, when President Muhhamadu Buhari came to power. The report blames what it calls Buhari’s radical Islamism for those killings. Approximately 34,000 moderate Muslims were also butchered or hacked to death within the same period. The sheer number of Christians and moderate Muslims killed or displaced has sent chills down the spines of many, including Andrew Boyd, spokesman for Release International, which serves the persecuted church in some 30 countries. He described the report’s finding as “a staggering death toll.” “It is absolutely appalling that so many Christians are being targeted for their faith and killed in Nigeria, while the Nigerian government seems to stand by and let it happen. It is no less appalling that the international community appears content to stay on the sidelines and watch,” he told OSV News. Meanwhile, Aid to the Church in Need, in its own report, has given voice to the thousands of Christians persecuted for their faith in Nigeria.

‘Pray for God’s hand’ over Mississippi: destructive tornado kills, injures dozens

Posted on by
Reply

By Maria-Pia Negro Chin, Gina Christian

(OSV News) – Powerful tornadoes tore through rural Mississippi the night of Friday, March 24, killing or injuring dozens and causing widespread destruction.

By Saturday night, an update from the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) reported the death toll had risen to 25 and dozens of others were injured; four persons reported missing are accounted for. Multiple state agencies and partners have been working together to help in response and recovery efforts. News reports said that search and recovery crews continue to dig through destroyed homes and buildings on Sunday. Updated reports have the death toll from the storms as 21.

“The loss will be felt in these towns forever,” Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said in a Twitter post on Saturday. “Please pray for God’s hand to be over all who lost family and friends.”

An aerial view of the aftermath of a tornado, in Rolling Fork, Mississippi, U.S. March 25, 2023 in this screengrab obtained from a video. Dozens are dead or injured after a least one powerful tornado tore through rural Mississippi March 24. (OSV News photo/SevereStudios.com, Jordan Hall via Reuters)

Bishop Joseph R. Kopacz of the Diocese of Jackson, Mississippi, extended his prayers and encouraged Catholics to support all communities affected by this tragic event. “We join in prayer for all those affected by the storms that crossed our state,” he said in a statement posted on the diocesan website March 25.
During his Angelus, Pope Francis also prayed for the victims of the deadly weather and the people recovering from the loss of life and devastating destruction, according to Vatican News.

“We pray also for the victims of the terrible tornado that struck Mississippi in the United States,” the pope said at the end of his Angelus prayer on March 26.

Early Sunday morning, President Joe Biden ordered Federal aid to supplement state and local recovery efforts in the areas affected, due to the major disaster in Mississippi.

According to the White House disaster declaration, funding would be available to aid people in the counties of Carroll, Humphreys, Monroe, and Sharkey, and it can include grants for temporary houses and home repairs, as well as loans to cover uninsured property losses.

The National Weather Service confirmed tornado damage about 60 miles (96 kilometers) northeast of Jackson, Mississippi, with a lot of the destruction reported in Silver City and Rolling Fork, a rural town of more than 1,800 people.

Processing information from damage surveys could take days to complete, but the National Weather Service noted the Rolling Fork/Silver City tornado has a preliminary EF-4 rating, which estimates wind speeds to have been 166-200 mph. Preliminary statistics from the National Weather Service said that tornado traveled approximately 59 miles over the course of an hour and 10 minutes. The Blackhawk/Winona tornado now has a preliminary EF-3 rating, with severe wind speeds in the 136-165 mph range.

“My city is gone. But we are resilient,” Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker said on CNN. Video and photos of the area showed houses reduced to rubble. On Twitter, Governor Reeves shared photos of relief efforts underway in Rolling Fork, Silver City, Amory and Winona, noting perseverance, unity and even prayer behind the response of responders and volunteers.

In an interview with OSV News, Marvin Edwards, a lay ecclesial minister of Sacred Heart Parish in Winona, shared what it was like to be in the tornado’s path. He said that he and his wife – who live 20 miles away from the parish – were in bed for the night when the tornado struck.

“This is the first time a tornado hit us directly. My emergency tornado watch went off on my cell phone. That’s not unusual, so I didn’t pay a lot of attention. All of a sudden, I heard this loud noise as my wife and I were laying in bed. We jumped up and the roof went away. We didn’t have time (to shelter); all of a sudden it (the tornado) was there,” he told OSV News.

Saying it all happened quickly, Edwards said they were not injured and only saw the damage once it was morning. “The tornado had a mile-wide path, and it picked up (strength) as it moved across the lake,” he said. “It took the roof off my house. I’ve got two cars with a big tree sitting across them; both of them are smashed.”

“As far as I know, all of our parishioners (at Sacred Heart) are OK. We don’t have a lot of parishioners; we’re a small mission church,” he said. “My immediate thought was, ‘I got angels protecting me evidently.’ I just thanked him (God). Something was protecting me.”

A local TV station reported a crisis shelter opened in Rolling Forks to provide a medical station, as well as cots, toiletries, and water. The state’s emergency management agency said shelters have also been opened in Belzoni and Amory to provide shelter to those affected, which includes hundreds of people who lost their homes.

On March 25, Gov. Reeves issued a State of Emergency in all counties affected by the tornado and severe storms that occurred across Mississippi. He called on agencies to set forth the emergency responsibilities delineated in Mississippi’s Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan.

“We give thanks and pray for first responders, who are working tirelessly in affected communities trying to reach those missing, restore power and assist those surviving,” Bishop Kopacz said in a statement on the Diocese of Jackson website.

A man stands amid the debris of a destroyed home in Rolling Fork, Miss., March 26, 2023, after a tornado swept through the town. At least 25 people were killed and dozens of others were injured in Mississippi as the massive storm ripped through more than a half-dozen towns late March 24. (OSV News photo/Cheney Orr, Reuters)

“I encourage all to continue to pray and find ways to support all affected communities,” he added. “We will be reaching out through our Catholic Charities Disaster Response team to assist in recovery efforts.”

The National Weather Service of Huntsville, Alabama, also confirmed four tornadoes touched down in their state overnight March 24-25, all of which were EF-1 or EF-2 strength. The New York Times reported Saturday morning that at least one person died in Alabama as a result of the severe storm system.

In a Saturday afternoon email, Donald Carson, the Diocese of Birmingham’s communications director, noted Alabama did not experience similar levels of lives lost or destruction as the neighboring state.
“We will pray for all whose lives were lost in Mississippi and those who love them and all affected by the storms,” he said.

The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency’s Twitter and Facebook page, @MSEMA, also warned Mississippians that a large portion of the state has the potential for more severe storms Sunday evening and “tornadoes cannot be ruled out.”

(Maria-Pia Chin is Spanish editor for OSV News. Follow her on Twitter @MariaPiaChin. Gina Christian is a national reporter for OSV News. Follow her on Twitter @GinaJesseReina. Megan Marley is digital editor for OSV News. Follow her on Twitter @mnmarley.)

For information on how to support the Diocese of Jackson Catholic Charities’ relief efforts, visit https://jacksondiocese.org/storm-donations

A family recovers belongings from their destroyed home in Rolling Fork, Miss., March 26, 2023, after a tornado swept through the town. At least 25 people were killed and dozens of others were injured in Mississippi as the massive storm ripped through more than a half-dozen towns late March 24. (OSV News photo/Barbara Gauntt/USA Today Network via Reuters)
Jeremiah Stapleton, 18, climbs into the window of his grandfather’s destroyed home in Rolling Fork, Miss., March 26, 2023, after a tornado swept through the town. At least 25 people were killed and dozens of others were injured in Mississippi as the massive storm ripped through more than a half-dozen towns late March 24. (OSV News photo/Cheney Orr, Reuters)
A woman looks through the debris of her destroyed home in Rolling Fork, Miss., March 26, 2023, after a tornado swept through the town. At least 25 people were killed and dozens of others were injured in Mississippi as the massive storm ripped through more than a half-dozen towns late March 24. (OSV News photo/Cheney Orr, Reuters)

In memoriam: New Orleans Auxiliary Bishop Cheri

Posted on by
Reply

By Peter Finney Jr.
NEW ORLEANS (OSV News) – Bishop Fernand (Ferd) Joseph Cheri III, a New Orleans native who had served since 2015 as auxiliary bishop of New Orleans, died March 21 at Chateau de Notre Dame in New Orleans following a lengthy illness. He was 71.

Ordained to the episcopacy March 23, 2015, at St. Louis Cathedral, the late prelate was one of seven active African American bishops in the U.S.

A solemn vesper service took place on March 31 at Notre Dame Seminary with a funeral Mass held on April 1 at St. Louis Cathedral, for Bishop Cheri.

Bishop Cheri served most recently as administrator of St. Peter Claver Parish in New Orleans until kidney and heart problems forced him to step away from active ministry. He was born with one kidney and had been on dialysis three days a week for several months.

“He has been called home to the Lord,” New Orleans Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond said in a message to priests, religious and laity of the archdiocese. “We mourn his death and thank God for his life and ministry.”

Auxiliary Bishop Fernand (Ferd) J. Cheri III of New Orleans is seen during a Black History Month Mass of thanksgiving Feb. 14, 2016, at the Immaculate Conception Center in Douglaston, N.Y. Bishop Cheri died March 21, 2023, at Chateau de Notre Dame in New Orleans following a lengthy illness. He was 71. The New Orleans native had served as auxiliary bishop of his home archdiocese since 2015. (OSV News photo/Gregory A. Shemitz)

The archbishop said Bishop Cheri started his vocational journey in the Archdiocese of New Orleans “as a seminarian, as a priest and as a pastor” and had directed a “very dedicated ministry.”

“And then, he heard God’s call to join the Franciscans and was a valued member of the Franciscan community,” Archbishop Aymond said. “We were delighted to receive him back into the Archdiocese of New Orleans as auxiliary bishop in 2015, and I have enjoyed working with him in sharing episcopal ministry and shepherding God’s people.”

The late bishop was ordained a New Orleans archdiocesan priest May 20, 1978, by Archbishop Philip M. Hannan. In 1992, then-Father-Cheri entered the novitiate of the Franciscans’ Sacred Heart Province. He professed solemn vows in the order Aug. 26, 1996, and served mostly in Illinois in various ministries, including as a high school chaplain, guidance counselor, choir director and campus minister. He also was pastor of a Nashville, Tennessee, parish from 1996-2002; during that time he also was a member of the provincial council for his Franciscan province (1999-2002).

In 2015, when Pope Francis named him an auxiliary bishop of New Orleans, he had been director of campus ministry at Quincy University in Quincy, Illinois, and as vicar of the Holy Cross Friary in Quincy since 2011.

“We saw him not only as a vocal advocate for African American Catholics and advocating for our needs, but also as a shepherd to the world,” said Ansel Augustine, director of the New Orleans archdiocesan Office of Black Catholic Ministries. “When you think of bishops being shepherds, you see someone who cares about people, one on one. When you talked to him, you felt like you were the only person in the world that mattered even though he might have had eight million other things going on.”

In 2020, after the murder of George Floyd by police officers in Minneapolis, Bishop Cheri led a peaceful march of 250 from the archdiocesan chancery building to Notre Dame Seminary. The prayer service was called “Requiem for the Black Children of God.”

In a 2018 address honoring New Orleans’ tricentennial, Bishop Cheri traced the history of the Black Catholic church in New Orleans and praised the Sisters of the Holy Family, founded in 1842 by Venerable Henriette Delille, a free woman of color; the Knights and Ladies of St. Peter Claver; the Office of Black Catholic Ministries; and the Institute of Black Catholic Studies at Xavier University of Louisiana, founded in 1980 to explore Scripture and church teachings from both “a righteous Black consciousness and an authentic Catholic tradition.”

“These individuals and moments challenged the Catholic community of the Archdiocese of New Orleans to not only change the narrative of the church, but to affirm that we share common journeys together,” Bishop Cheri said.

Fernand (Ferd) Joseph Cheri III was born Jan. 28, 1952, to Fernand Jr. and Gladys Cheri. He received his high school education at St. John Vianney Preparatory Seminary in New Orleans. He went on to study at St. Joseph Seminary College in Covington, Louisiana, and Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans.

A lifelong singer, Bishop Cheri loved to break into song during a homily or whenever the mood struck. When he was just 3 years old, his mother recalled little Ferd, the first boy among her seven children, belting out a tune in their house on St. Anthony Street in New Orleans.

In a 2015 interview before his ordination, Bishop Cheri spoke about how he reveled in the gift of music and his vocation.

“The experience of becoming a bishop – and how people are reacting to it – I feel like I sang a solo that became the community’s prayer,” he told the Clarion Herald.

(Peter Finney Jr. is executive editor of the Clarion Herald, newspaper of the Archdiocese of New Orleans.)

Briefs

Posted on by
Reply

NATION
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (OSV News) – Catholic faithful turned to prayer as tornadoes tore through several U.S. states March 31, killing at least 21, injuring dozens and devastating thousands of homes, businesses and schools. Amid the loss of life and property, Catholics in hard-hit Arkansas told OSV News they see a glimpse of God’s mysterious mercies. “Any time a natural disaster hits … it brings us to our knees, and not in a cute theological sense,” Father Stephen Gadberry, pastor of St. Teresa Catholic Church in Little Rock, told OSV News. “It levels the playing field and shows we’re not the big and strong individuals we think we are. We really do need community. Literally, overnight, enemies are working together in the same yard, getting past their differences. … We’re a pilgrim people, and we have to journey on together.” St. Teresa school principal Kristy Dunn, who lost her home to a tornado as a child, added, “The Lord is so good … and there is so much good in humanity. Praise God I’m able to see it up close and personal now.”

HOUMA, La. (OSV News) – Bishop Mario E. Dorsonville, a former auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Washington, was installed March 29 as the fifth bishop of Houma-Thibodaux, Louisiana. “I put my trust in Jesus Christ because whenever he gives us a mission, he also gives us the strength and the wisdom to carry it out,” Bishop Dorsonville said as he was installed during a nearly two-hour liturgy at the Cathedral of St. Francis de Sales in Houma.

Bishop Mario E. Dorsonville, seated in the cathedra, or bishop’s chair, with his crosier, is applauded by Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States, and New Orleans Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond during his installation Mass as the fifth bishop of Houma-Thibodaux, La., at the Cathedral of St. Francis de Sales in Houma March 29, 2023. (OSV News photo/Lawrence Chatagnier, Bayou Catholic)

During the Mass, Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the apostolic nuncio to the United States, read Pope Francis’ mandate appointing Bishop Dorsonville as the bishop of Houma-Thibodaux. In the decree, Pope Francis asked the faithful of the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux to welcome their new bishop “as a father to be loved and a teacher to be heeded.” Archbishop Pierre told Bishop Dorsonville that he will be made to feel at home in his new diocese “because you will find in this diocese many opportunities to continue your ministry as shepherd.” He also urged Bishop Dorsonville to “listen to the laity who have many gifts and much love for the Church” and serve as “both a brother and a father” to his priests.

THOMASTON, Conn. (OSV News) – The Archdiocese of Hartford is investigating a possible Eucharistic miracle after Communion hosts, distributed by a lay minister, seemingly multiplied during a March 5 liturgy at St. Thomas Church in Thomaston, where Blessed Michael McGivney, founder of the Knights of Columbus, had once served as pastor. Celebrant Father Joseph Crowley, pastor of the merged St. Maximilian Kolbe Parish of which the church is a part, described the incident in a March 12 homily livestreamed on YouTube as “one of those moments where God showed up in a very powerful, powerful way.” He added the occurrence showed St. Thomas Church “is a very special place” because of “Blessed McGivney’s life here.” At the same time, said Father Crowley, “the real miracle is the fact that we’re able to take simple bread and wine, and through the prayers of the church, through the hands of the priest, Christ is made present through transubstantiation. Our Lord then becomes the flesh and blood hidden under the mere presence of bread and wine.” David Elliott, associate director of communications for the Archdiocese of Hartford, told OSV News that the archdiocesan judicial vicar, Father George S. Mukuka, “has been looking into the possibility of a Eucharistic miracle” at the parish. Following the investigation, Elliott said, the judicial vicar will prepare a report for Hartford Archbishop Leonard P. Blair, “who will make a determination from there” regarding the event’s supernatural nature.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (OSV News) – Officials of the Nashville Diocese called news of a morning mass shooting and loss of life at a private Christian school in the city heartbreaking and “deeply sad and shocking.” Six individuals, including three children, were fatally shot during the mid-morning hours March 27, at The Covenant School in the Green Hills neighborhood of Nashville. The private, Christian school educates students in preschool through sixth grade and was founded as a ministry of Covenant Presbyterian Church. The shooter, identified as 28-year-old Audrey E. Hale, carried out the attack armed with two short barrel, magazine-fed tactical-style semiautomatic weapons, and a semiautomatic handgun. Hale died upon being immediately engaged by police officers who had responded to the scene. “My heart breaks with news of the school shooting at The Covenant School this morning,” Bishop J. Mark Spalding of Nashville said in a statement posted to social media. “Let us pray for the victims, their families and the Covenant Presbyterian community.” Bishop Spalding celebrated the 5:30 p.m. Mass March 27 at the Cathedral of the Incarnation to pray for the victims of the shooting and the school.

VATICAN
VATICAN CITY (OSV News) – “I’m still alive,” Pope Francis joked to reporters who asked how he was doing as he left Rome’s Gemelli hospital April 1. The 86-year-old pope, who had been hospitalized since March 29 for treatment of bronchitis, stopped his car and got out to greet well-wishers and reporters waiting outside the hospital. He embraced a sobbing mother, whose daughter had died the night before. He reached out to the father, too, and holding their hands, he prayed with them. The pope then traced a cross on the forehead of each of them and gave them both a kiss on the cheek. Reporters present said he also signed the cast of a boy who said he broke his arm playing soccer. Before returning to the Vatican, he stopped to pray at the Basilica of St. Mary Major, a stop he makes before and after every trip abroad and a stop he also made in July 2021 after undergoing colon surgery at the Gemelli. “Pausing before the icon of Mary, ‘Salus Populi Romani,’ he prayerfully entrusted to her the children he met yesterday in the hospital’s pediatric oncology and children’s neurosurgery wards, all the sick and those suffering from illness and the loss of their loved ones,” the Vatican press office said.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis has updated the procedures for investigating allegations of sexual abuse or the cover up of abuse, specifying that the leaders of Vatican-recognized international Catholic lay associations and movements have the same responsibilities over their members that a bishop has over the priests of his diocese. The updated version of “Vos Estis Lux Mundi” (You are the light of the world), published March 25, also expanded the categories of victims covered by the regulations to include vulnerable adults. The original text spoke of the crime of “sexual acts with a minor or a vulnerable person.” The updated text read, “a crime against the Sixth Commandment of the Decalogue committed with a minor, or with a person who habitually has an imperfect use of reason, or with a vulnerable adult.” Oblate Father Andrew Small, secretary of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, told Catholic News Service March 25, “Anything that expands the categories of those who should be protected is to be welcomed.” Father Small also pointed to the updated document’s insistence that not only must dioceses and bishops’ conferences have a “system” for reporting abuse or its cover up, they also must have “organisms or offices easily accessible to the public” to accept reports. Making the procedures “well known and publicly accessible is part of justice,” he said.

WORLD
MEXICO CITY (OSV News) – A fire in a Mexican immigration detention center has claimed the lives of at least 40 migrants, who appeared to be abandoned by guards as flames engulfed their locked cells, according to a leaked video from the facility near the U.S. border in Ciudad Juárez. The tragedy provoked sorrow and outrage from Catholic leaders and laity working on migration matters in the United States, Mexico and across Central America, along with calls for a rethinking of immigration policy which criminalizes migrants streaming through Mexico toward the U.S. border. “The pain and suffering from abandoning their homes is already too much, and we cannot allow their transit through Mexico to become an ordeal for those who leave their family and country in search of a better life,” said a March 28 statement from the Mexican bishops’ conference.

MANAGUA (OSV News) – Imprisoned Nicaraguan Bishop Rolando Álvarez appeared unexpectedly on Nicaraguan television March 24, more than six weeks after refusing to head into exile and being sentenced to 26 years behind bars. Pale, gaunt and dressed in blue, Bishop Álvarez was reunited with his brother and sister for a meal at the La Modelo prison, where he has been held since hastily being convicted in a secret trial of conspiracy for “undermining national integrity” and spreading false information. The appearance followed weeks of Catholic leaders and human rights groups demanding proof of life – with the last photos of Álvarez dating back to a Jan. 10 court date. He had previously been held under house arrest after being detained in an August 2022 raid on his diocesan headquarters.

MARKOWA, Poland (OSV News) – Kelly Lindquist was three months pregnant with their seventh child when her husband Ian was diagnosed with leukemia on March 24, 2021. That was the day when she learned about another family of seven, living in Poland at the beginning of the 20th century: Servants of God Józef and Wiktoria Ulma. They became the Lindquist family’s protectors throughout Ian’s disease. Ian Lindquist, an education scholar of Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, died of leukemia on May 5, 2022. His wife and their seven children made a trip to the Polish village of Markowa to thank the descendants of the Ulmas for prayers and the special bond the Lindquists’ felt throughout the battle for Ian’s life. “What I saw in Markowa is the Ulma family struggle, the evils that persisted around them and how they didn’t stop being good despite the evil,” Lindquist said. “And I found myself very grateful for their willingness to die for what is good.” “Kelly entrusted everything to God and for us here in Markowa it is a testimony we will never forget,” Urszula Niemczak, Wiktoria Ulma’s relative, told OSV News.

‘New pro-life agenda’ sees wins in state battles to expand Medicaid coverage for new moms

Posted on by
Reply

By Kimberley Heatherington

(OSV News) – The pro-life movement in post-Dobbs America requires robust support for health care and social service programs to accompany parents who choose life, some clergy, legislators and advocates told OSV News – including efforts to expand Medicaid coverage for postpartum mothers.

The most recent front in the struggle to deliver such assistance is Mississippi, home to the city of Jackson referenced in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June that overturned Roe v. Wade. After a two-year clash of political wills, Mississippi’s House March 7 finally passed 88-29 a Medicaid postpartum coverage extension already approved by the state Senate, after the governor said this legislation was part of the “new pro-life agenda.”

JACKSON – Bishop Joseph Kopacz and other faith leaders gathered at a press conference offering their support of the extention of postpartum coverage for Mississippi mothers on Monday, Feb. 27 at the Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle. (Photo by Tereza Ma)

Medicaid is a joint federal and state program that gives health coverage to some individuals, families and children with limited income and resources. It’s also the largest single payer of pregnancy-related services, funding 42% of all U.S. births in 2019. According to a 2022 Kaiser Family Foundation study, the average U.S. birth costs $18,865; for those insured, the average out-of-pocket expense is $2,655.
In Mississippi, low-income mothers will now be eligible for a full year of postpartum coverage instead of just 60 days. With the signature of Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, who as lieutenant governor helped craft the Dobbs brief, the bill becomes law.

“I am grateful for the prayer, hard work and collaboration that brought this bill to the finish line,” Bishop Joseph R. Kopacz of Jackson told OSV News. “One big step forward for the common good.”

“Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, it is very important that we provide support to moms and parents who are keeping their babies rather than aborting them,” Debbie Tubertini, coordinator in the Diocese of Jackson’s Office of Family Ministry, told OSV News.

Jennifer Williams, diocesan director of Catholic Charities of South Mississippi, also shared with OSV News that “expanded Medicaid for postpartum benefits will allow our clients and others across the state the opportunity to receive much-needed medical care and mental health care.”

Both Bishop Kopacz and Bishop Louis F. Kihneman III of Biloxi, Mississippi, issued a Feb. 24 letter urging lawmakers “to protect the life and health of mothers in this state.”

Mississippi is one of the poorest states in the nation. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), indicates Mississippi has the country’s highest infant mortality rate, and its population includes a sizable number of women with chronic medical conditions.

While federal law requires all states to provide Medicaid coverage without cost sharing for pregnancy-related services to pregnant women with incomes up to 138% of the federal poverty level, individuals with pregnancy-related Medicaid coverage typically lose benefits two months after the end of pregnancy.
The 2021 American Rescue Plan Act allowed states to extend Medicaid pregnancy coverage from 60 days to one year postpartum – however, the law’s provision expires in May.

Not all states have taken legislative action – some have done so in varying degrees – owing to political disagreement about the role of government when it comes to assisting mothers in need. Some advocate the government should provide a wider and stronger social safety net, while others oppose efforts to enlarge government programs and spending.

“It’s a philosophical difference about the role of government. I understand that,” said former Congressman Dan Lipinski, a Catholic pro-life Democrat who represented his Illinois district in the U.S. House 2005-2021.

“But I believe that (extending postpartum coverage) is the right thing to do. I don’t think that it is the government stepping in too much to help women who are really in need.”

Two pro-life groups, Democrats for Life of America and Americans United for Life, outlined a proposal declaring that “to change the future, we need a new model, a better paradigm. Birth in the United States of America should be free.”

Lipinski said the pro-life movement is at a critical moment “to demonstrate – now that Roe is gone – what we really stand for, and what we really want to do.”

Lipinksi’s call to comprehensive pro-life action has been echoed on the other side of the political aisle.
“As we take steps to protect the unborn, we also have an obligation to support pregnant and new moms, as well as their young children,” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., told OSV News. “My Providing for Life Act provides a national blueprint to do exactly that, and I am encouraged to see states across the nation stepping up to do the same.”

Rubio’s plan would enable paid parental leave; expand the Child Tax Credit, Child Support Enforcement requirements, tax relief for adoptive parents and access to social services; provide additional funding, with reforms, to the Women, Infants, and Children, or WIC, program, and more.

Wyoming state Rep. Cody Wylie, R-Sweetwater, grabbed headlines when he declared in support a bill to expand temporarily postpartum Medicaid coverage from 60 days to 12 months through 2024, “If we’re going to hold the line and protect life by outlawing abortion, we also need to be damn sure we’re prepared and willing to roll up our sleeves and fund programs for mothers and children.”

Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon signed the bill into law March 3 calling it a “signature piece of pro-life legislation” that is expected to help as many as 2,000 low-income Wyoming mothers.

Patrick Brown, a Catholic and fellow in the Life and Family Initiative at the Ethics & Public Policy Center in Washington, told OSV News that both Lipinski and Rubio are “champions in trying to think through what an authentically pro-life policy agenda should be.”

“We should be prudently – but also meaningfully – investing in families, because they’re doing the important work of carrying on society for the next generation,” Brown explained. “That’s my overarching argument for why these kinds of policies are important.”

Nonetheless, “big changes like this don’t happen overnight,” he said. “It took 49 years to overturn Roe v. Wade – and we’re not even in the first year of what a post-Dobbs reality looks like.”

(Kimberley Heatherington writes for OSV News from Virginia.)

Traditional Irish dance is individual and communal, much like faith, priest says

Posted on by
Reply

By George P. Matysek Jr.

BALTIMORE (OSV News) – As a lilting Irish hornpipe blared from his smart phone, Jesuit Father Brian Frain’s hard shoes repeatedly smacked a wooden floor with rapid-fire precision. The hypnotic rat-a-tat-tat-tat that echoed in the empty room seemed like the perfect percussive accompaniment to the Celtic tune.

When the music changed to a jig, the priest’s feet flew even faster as he floated across the floor – arms rigidly held alongside his torso.

The music ended, and a smile engulfed the clergyman’s face as he leaped about three feet and kicked.
“You know, I should really have the 911 button ready to go,” said the 59-year-old pastor of St. Ignatius Parish in Baltimore, his breathing slightly heavy after several minutes of high-energy dance. “I’m out of shape.”

Jesuit Father Brian Frain, pastor of St. Ignatius Church in Baltimore, shows a traditional Irish dance step Feb. 6, 2023. He is a former competitive Irish dancer and avid accordion player who first learned Irish dancing at age 5. His father was born in Ireland, as were his maternal grandparents. (OSV News photo/Kevin J. Parks, Catholic Review)

Traditional Irish dance has been an important part of Father Frain’s life ever since he was a boy. His father was born in Ireland, as were his maternal grandparents. His aunt, who first taught him to dance when he was about 5, learned the art form while attending an Irish boarding school. He later studied in an Irish dance school.

Born in Philadelphia and raised in New Jersey, Father Frain remembers falling in love with the beauty of the movement. He won several regional Irish dance championships and once competed at the national level. From 1987 to 1992, he ran his own school of Irish dancing before giving it up to enter religious life.
Father Frain, who earned his dance licensure from An Coimisiún Le Rincí Gaelacha in Dublin, the world’s premier Irish dance commission, also taught with Irish dance groups at Fordham University in New York, St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia and Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Missouri.

Now just under a year into his new pastoral assignment in Baltimore, he plans to offer Irish dance classes at St. Ignatius this Lent. Over the years, he has helped three people earn their certification to teach Irish dance.

Irish dance is both individual and communal, Father Frain said, much like the practice of the Catholic faith.
“It takes a lot of coordination and perfection with others,” he told the Catholic Review, the news outlet of the Archdiocese of Baltimore. “You are no longer just a self, but you’re part of a community and you can’t do what you want. You have to lift your leg exactly at the same height that the others lifted. You have to lift your hands at the precise millisecond that the others lift their hands. It requires you to stop thinking individually and start thinking of who’s around you.”

Father Frain, who has visited Ireland seven times, also plays the accordion and enjoys monthly Irish jam sessions in the rectory with a cousin. He recently began serving as chaplain to the Baltimore-area Lady’s Ancient Order of Hibernians.

“There’s a joy that’s expressed in Irish dancing,” he said. “I just love it when I see kids dancing and they know what they’re doing and that they can do it. It’s a beautiful thing.”

(George Matysek Jr. is managing editor of the Catholic Review, news outlet of the Archdiocese of Baltimore.)