By Peter Finney Jr. NEW ORLEANS (CNS) – Eternal hope is the overarching message of Christmas: A child born in a barn changed the world.
Charlie LeBlanc was one of those hope-filled New Orleans Catholics – a regular communicant, a longtime member of the Knights of Columbus and a straight shooter – who for decades ran the Christ in Christmas Committee billboard campaign with deep faith, good humor and back-of-the-envelope math.
When LeBlanc’s home was flooded after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, he never lost his faith that someone bigger was in control.
“I don’t know,” he said in 2006 as he prepared to rebuild, shortly before his death. “I’m 85 years old, and I just got approved for a 30-year mortgage.”
LeBlanc was one in a line of New Orleans Catholics who since 1952 have created the most successful Christmas billboard campaign in the country.
This year, more than 60 “Keep Christ in Christmas” billboards sponsored by Catholic schools, Knights of Columbus councils and women’s auxiliaries, businesses and individuals sprouted up after Thanksgiving in the Greater New Orleans area. The billboards, emphasizing the spiritual meaning of Christmas, are put up by Outfront, the company that has been involved in the program since 1952.
Another seven to 10 electronic billboards with the “Keep Christ in Christmas” message will be running around the clock near the city on the Northshore, courtesy of Lamar.
“I’ve mentioned it to people in other states, and nobody’s done it to the extent that we have in the Archdiocese of New Orleans,” said Stephen Hart, who succeeded LeBlanc as committee chair in 2002 and has witnessed the number of billboards grow from the low to mid 20s to more than 60.
Former committee member Blanche Comiskey recalled being asked to join the mostly male group in the late 1960s. She said Francis Doyle, a local bank executive, had started the effort because he felt the secularization of Christmas, with the emphasis on buying things, was overshadowing the spiritual message.
As a leading member of the Council of Catholic School Cooperative Clubs – the association of parents’ clubs across the archdiocese – Comiskey recruited more schools to sponsor billboards. Dozens of schools continue to do so.
“The schools really do cooperate, and if one school can’t afford a whole board, they can combine with another school,” Comiskey said. “It was wonderful to see the reaction. It means that sometimes volunteer work is rewarding. Imagine the little kids who might have put in a little money for a billboard. They had to feel special.”
The cost of sponsoring a “Keep Christ in Christmas” billboard is $430. Although all reservations have been made for this year, there are always openings for next year, Hart said.
“We’ve had a number of people thank us for doing the ministry – for getting the message out and for putting it at the front of people’s attention,” Hart said.
“I’m hoping what the billboards do is bring back the family celebration and the real meaning of Christmas, where people can celebrate together,” he said. “This whole isolation – where parents are isolated in their home and often couldn’t visit their grandkids because they were afraid for their own safety – hopefully will all be over.”
(Editor’s Note: More information on the Christmas billboard campaign can be found at www.keepchristinchristmasnola.org. Finney is executive editor/general manager of the Clarion Herald, newspaper of the Archdiocese of New Orleans.)
Por Carol Zimmermann WASHINGTON (CNS) – En el primer caso importante sobre el aborto en la Corte Suprema en décadas, que examinó la prohibición de Mississippi sobre los abortos después de 15 semanas de embarazo, la mayoría de los jueces parecían dispuestos el 1 de diciembre a dejar que la prohibición se mantenga.
Pero no estaba claro si irían más allá y anularían el antecedente de Roe contra Wade que permitió el aborto en EE.UU. como un derecho.
Mientras los jueces consideraban la ley estatal y las posibles ramificaciones de apoyarla o no, partidarios de ambos lados del asunto estaban en las escalinatas de la Corte Suprema exponiendo la división en este tema por lo que gritaban o con sus mensajes en pancartas calificaban al aborto como un asesinato o un derecho esencial.
En varios momentos en la etapa de argumentos, el presidente de la Corte Suprema de Estados Unidos, John Roberts, continuó centrando la atención en el tema principal: la prohibición de abortar a las 15 semanas en Mississippi, que fue anulada por un Tribunal Federal de Distrito en Mississippi en 2018 y confirmada un año después por el Tribunal de Apelaciones de Estados Unidos para el 5º Circuito, con sede en Nueva Orleans. Una prohibición de 15 semanas no es “una desviación drástica de la viabilidad”, dijo Roberts.
El punto de viabilidad –cuando se dice que un feto es capaz de sobrevivir por sí mismo– fue clave en la discusión porque el Tribunal Supremo ha dictaminado sistemáticamente que los estados no pueden restringir el aborto antes de las 24 semanas o cuando se dice que un feto es capaz de sobrevivir por sí mismo. Roberts parecía tener dudas en cuanto a llevar el asunto más allá al preguntar si en el caso que el tribunal anulara Roe vs. Wade, también se le pediría que reconsiderara varios otros casos que la gente podría decir que se han decidido erróneamente. Y en esa discusión sobre decisiones anteriores del tribunal, el uso de “stare decisis” surgió con frecuencia. El término, que literalmente significa mantener lo que se ha decidido, se utilizó en referencia a casos anteriores sobre el aborto, pero también a otros varios casos en los que algunos jueces señalaron que el precedente no debería ser siempre un factor decisivo y que algunos casos debían ser revocados.
Pero a medida que los argumentos continuaban, la mayor reflexión parecía centrarse en la cuestión del aborto en sí y en la posibilidad de devolver el asunto “al pueblo”, como sugirió el procurador general de Mississippi, Scott Stewart.Stewart subrayó que las decisiones judiciales Roe y Casey “persiguen a nuestro país” y “no tienen cabida en nuestra historia ni en nuestras tradiciones”.
El caso Casey contra Planned Parenthood es la decisión de 1992 que afirmó el fallo en Roe y también subrayó que una regulación estatal sobre el aborto no podía imponer una “carga indebida” a una mujer “que busca un aborto antes de que el feto alcance la viabilidad”. El juez Brett Kavanaugh enfatizó que el tribunal se estaba viendo obligado a “elegir un bando” en un tema polémico y cuestionó por qué el tribunal tenía que ser el árbitro aquí.”La Constitución no está ni a favor de la vida ni a favor del aborto”, dijo, y señaló que “deja la cuestión al pueblo para que la resuelva en el proceso democrático”. El juez Clarence Thomas preguntó qué pensaban los que se oponían a la prohibición estatal sobre el derecho constitucional al aborto, y el juez Samuel Alito habló de que el feto tiene “un interés en tener una vida”.Julie Rikelman, del Centro de Derechos Reproductivos, que representó a la Organización de Salud de la Mujer de Jackson en su impugnación de la ley de aborto de Mississippi, dijo que mantener la ley en vigor causaría “un profundo daño a la libertad de la mujer, a la igualdad y al estado de derecho”.
La procuradora general de EE.UU., Elizabeth Prelogar, continuó argumentando que anular las sentencias anteriores del tribunal sobre el aborto tendría efectos “graves y rápidos” que provocarían restricciones al aborto en otros estados.
Si el tribunal da la razón a Mississippi, sería la primera vez que el tribunal permitiría una prohibición del aborto antes del punto de viabilidad y podría sentar las bases para otras restricciones al aborto que podrían seguir en otros estados.
La Conferencia de Obispos Católicos de EE.UU., en un escrito judicial de apoyo a Mississippi, subrayó que el aborto no es un derecho creado por la Constitución y lo calificó de “intrínsecamente diferente de otros tipos de decisiones personales a las que este tribunal ha concedido protección constitucional”. “Rezamos para que el tribunal haga lo correcto y permita que los estados vuelvan a limitar o prohibir el aborto y, al hacerlo, protejan a millones de niños no nacidos y a sus madres de este doloroso acto que destruye la vida”.
NATION INDIANAPOLIS (CNS) – Jim Liston believes his idea of emphasizing the true meaning of Christmas is so simple that he wonders why it took him so long to think of it. The idea came to Liston as he traveled through the neighborhoods around his Indianapolis home and saw how many people decorated their houses with brilliant light displays and filled their lawns with large, inflated Santas, reindeer and snowmen. It suddenly hit him that he rarely saw another kind of Christmas display. “It’s almost an anomaly when you see a Nativity scene,” said Liston, a member of St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in Indianapolis. “We’re in a society where everything about Christmas is glitz and consumerism. The simplicity of the Nativity scene struck me right in the heart. This is what Christmas is all about. I thought, ‘Why don’t I get one?’” Liston not only got one – and loved it – he also had the grand idea to make central Indiana the “Outdoor Nativity Scene Capital of the United States.” He set his plan in motion this year with a two-part approach. He contacted the manufacturer that made his Nativity scene to see if he could negotiate a reduced price for a large order. He also reached out to all the Catholic schools in the Indianapolis deaneries and in nearby Hamilton County to have them ask their families who would be interested in buying a Nativity scene to display in front of their homes.
CLEVELAND (CNS) – As an author and lecturer, Father Donald B. Cozzens, a Cleveland diocesan priest and former seminary rector, shared candid insights on the priesthood, challenging the Catholic Church to confront clericalism and renew its structure. Despite criticism privately and publicly from fellow clergy, Father Cozzens maintained that it was his love of the priesthood that prompted his outspokenness for positive change. Father Cozzens, 82, died Dec. 9 of complications from pneumonia caused by COVID-19. It was Father Cozzens’ book, “The Changing Face of the Priesthood,” published in 2000, that set the course for much of his life after he stepped down as president-rector of St. Mary Seminary and Graduate School of Theology in the Diocese of Cleveland a year later to focus on teaching and writing. He spent more than 20 years tackling the issues he believed church officials needed to address including transparency in decision-making and welcoming women into a wide role in the church. Other works included “Sacred Silence: Denial and the Crisis in the Church,” “Faith That Dares to Speak,” and “Freeing Celibacy.”
Pope Francis blows out a candle on a 13-foot-long pizza as he celebrates his 81st birthday at the Vatican in this Dec. 17, 2017, file photo. The pope will celebrate his 85th birthday Dec. 17 and, according to his nephew, Jesuit Father José Luis Narvaja, he is still energetic and rarin’ to go. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
VATICAN VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Although Italy no longer has a 10 p.m. curfew in force as part of its measures to stem the spread of COVID-19, Pope Francis will celebrate the “Christmas Mass at Night” at 7:30 p.m., as he did in 2020. On Dec. 13, the Vatican published the list of Pope Francis’ liturgies for the Christmas season. The schedule begins with what many people refer to as “midnight Mass” although the Mass has not been celebrated at midnight at the Vatican since 2009 when Pope Benedict XVI moved it to 10 p.m. Pope Francis moved it to 9:30 p.m. in 2013, his first Christmas as pope, and to 7:30 p.m. in 2020.
ROME (CNS) – Pope Francis will turn 85 years old Dec. 17. And according to his nephew, Jesuit Father José Luis Narvaja, he is still rarin’ to go. “I see him doing very well, with so much strength; really, he doesn’t seem to be 85,” the Argentine priest told the Italian Catholic magazine, Famiglia Cristiana, for its Dec. 12 issue. Father Narvaja, who is the son of the pope’s youngest sister, the late Marta Regina Bergoglio, said he visited his uncle, the pope, right after his colon surgery in July. Even then, “he was doing well but he was still in a bit of pain, and he told me, ‘Don’t make me laugh, the stitches hurt!’” he said. “He is very active, enthusiastic, he doesn’t stop. He said some people had hoped his illness would make him shut up a little, but it didn’t. He’s doing very well,” said Father Narvaja, who teaches patristics and divides his time between Rome and Cordoba, Argentina. Speaking about his uncle’s approach to his ministry as pontiff, the fellow Jesuit said, “He does what he feels the Spirit is asking of him.”
WORLD BETHLEHEM, West Bank (CNS) – When restoration on the Church of the Nativity’s wooden beams and leaking roof began in 2013 with the blessing of the three custodial churches, everyone involved was aware of the historic significance of the venture. It was the first time in 540 years that any repair work was done on the church on the site where Jesus was born. But what the team of workers – including local Palestinian committees and engineers and international restoration experts – did not know was the true impact of the initial ecumenical cooperation. Historically the Franciscans, Greek Orthodox and Armenians jealously guarded their rights in the church, under the 1852 Status Quo agreement that regulates the ownership of spaces in various holy sites as well as the times and duration of religious liturgies. As recently as 2011, Greek Orthodox and Armenian monks came to blows over cleaning rights in a certain area in the church. But with the leaking of the roof endangering the ancient structure, all agreed to undertake the necessary work. And a new era began. “Along the way the three churches noticed the good results that were coming from the cooperation and that it would be good to continue,” said Khouloud Daibes, the new executive director of the Bethlehem Development Foundation.
SOMERSET, England (CNS) – Through the heavy oak door of a 15th-century mansion set in a sweeping, frosty valley comes the sound of singing, backed by a mix of violins, concertinas and woodwinds. “Almighty God, who hast given us thy only begotten Son to take our nature upon him – at this time born of a pure virgin.” When Thomas Clark, a cobbler, composed his Christmas Day liturgical music around 1830, he probably never expected it would still be performed two centuries later. Halsway Manor, in Somerset’s Quantock Hills, has been a center for English folk arts since the 1960s and includes “West Gallery” music by Clark and others on its annual Christmas program. “Although long neglected and forgotten, this music has an intrinsic quality,” explained Dave Townsend, co-founder of Britain’s West Gallery Music Association. “Beneath the surface simplicity of some West Gallery settings, there’s a depth of feeling not found in more expansive music from the period. It was central to people’s lives and deserves historical recognition.”
By Catholic News Service BALTIMORE – The U.S. bishops spotlighted two major initiatives focused on the central role of the Eucharist Nov. 17, the second of two days of public sessions of their fall general assembly.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops approved a 26-page statement, “The Mystery of the Eucharist in the Life of the Church,” with 222 “yes” votes, and also OK’d plans for a three-year National Eucharistic Revival that will culminate with the National Eucharistic Congress 2024 in Indianapolis.
On other matters, they were invited to take a multicultural journey with young Catholics to Chicago next June; were urged to implement a framework for marriage and family ministry that they had approved at their spring assembly in June; agreed to begin review of the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People” earlier than planned; and heard how the pandemic may have slowed but not stopped a pro-life initiative called “Walking With Moms in Need.”
They approved guidelines governing the USCCB’s financial investments that include wider limits on where money would be invested. The guidelines advance a policy of engagement on corporate practices that impact human dignity. The prelates, meeting in person for a national gathering for the first time since 2019, also approved guidelines for the exposition of the Eucharist and Benediction, affirmed sainthood causes for three U.S. laypeople, approve revisions of statutes for the catechumenate and voted for revised English- and Spanish-language editions of the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults.
Bishops attend a Nov. 16, 2021, session of the fall general assembly of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Baltimore. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is the first in-person bishops’ meeting since 2019. (CNS photo/Bob Roller)
The bishops assigned a feast date to St. Teresa of Kolkata – Sept. 5, the death date in 1997 for the founder of the Missionaries of Charity. It will be an optional memorial on the U.S. liturgical calendar.
Their vote on the Eucharist statement came a day after their discussion of the document – a discussion that was markedly different than their debate in June about what it could potentially contain, namely a call for President Joe Biden and Catholic politicians who support abortion to be denied Communion. But the final document had nothing like that and is addressed to all Catholics in the United States.
It “endeavors to explain the centrality of the Eucharist in the life of the church,” said Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, chairman of the bishops’ doctrine committee, in a short presentation on the statement Nov. 16. It “addresses the fundamental doctrine about the Eucharist that the church needs to retrieve and revive.” Even bigger than the statement is the plan for the three-year eucharistic revival, ending with the National Eucharistic Congress 2024 in Indianapolis. The bishops approved it 201-17, with five abstentions.
The revival will officially start on the feast of Corpus Christi, June 16, 2022, with a diocesan focus that will include eucharistic processions and other events of adoration and prayer around the country. In 2023, the emphasis will be on parishes and resources aimed at increasing Catholics’ understanding of what the Eucharist really means.
As chairman of the bishops’ Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis, Auxiliary Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens of St. Paul and Minneapolis, who was recently named bishop of Crookston, Minnesota, gave the bishops details about this planned revival just before they voted on it.
The revival could be a time of healing for the entire church, he said, as well as a movement of evangelization and a reawakening of understanding of the sacrament of the Eucharist for Catholics across the country.
Philadelphia Archbishop Nelson J. Pérez invited fellow bishops to a national gathering in Chicago in June to participate with young Catholics in a dialogue about issues of culture, racism and inclusion through the prism of faith.
“Perhaps it was the Holy Spirit’s way of telling us bishops that we really needed to take time to listen to young people, those who minister to them and, especially, those who are in the peripheries, feeling unimportant and unloved, and often alienated from the church,” Archbishop Pérez said Nov. 17. He is chairman of the bishops’ Committee on Cultural Diversity in the Church.
He detailed the opportunity the coronavirus pandemic has provided in facilitating virtual gatherings between young Catholics and bishops over the last year and a half. More than 60 bishops have joined virtual gatherings as part of a process called “Journeying Together,” he said.
The gatherings have taken place online in the midst of a pandemic, under “social unrest, racial reckoning, and the polarization affecting U.S. society,” he said. The process created “an opportunity for bishops, young adults, youth ministers and campus ministers, and leaders of various other ministries with young people, to engage in respectful yet honest dialogue in matters of faith, culture, racism, inclusion and the issues that affect them as young people,” he explained.
The chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth called on his fellow bishops to work “in every way possible” to implement the national pastoral framework for marriage and family ministry that they approved in June.
Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco said that addressing marriage and family life is vital in a time when families are under increasing threats from “sweeping ideological currents that destroy and undermine our sexual identity as man and woman and God-given vocations as father and mother, son or daughter.” Bolstering marriage and family ministry is an appropriate undertaking to start during the “Amoris Laetitia Family Year,” declared by Pope Francis, the archbishop said.
Titled “Called to the Joy of Love: A Pastoral Framework for Marriage and Family Life Ministry,” the document can serve as a practical guidebook to serve couples and families because it offers an adaptable set of principles and strategies for pastoral care, he said.
Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, chairman of the bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, told his fellow bishops that the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities’ “Walking with Moms in Need” initiative may have been slowed by the coronavirus pandemic, but it has by no means stopped helping expectant mothers from any walk of life. It was launched March 25, 2020, just as the pandemic began to take hold.
This initiative “has the capacity to take what is often seen as a partisan divide and transform it into pastoral unity, bridging the divide between Catholics who describe themselves using the labels of ‘pro-life’ or ‘social justice,'” he said. “The vision of WWMIN is that a pregnant or parenting mother in need can turn to any local Catholic parish and be connected with the life-affirming assistance and accompaniment that she needs.”
A bishop looks over paperwork Nov. 16, 2021, during a session of the fall general assembly of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Baltimore. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is the first in-person bishops’ meeting since 2019. (CNS photo/Bob Roller)
In presentations at end of the Nov. 17 public session: – Anna Gallagher, executive director of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, told the bishops 3 million to 11 million people in the U.S. could soon benefit from some type of immigration reform. – Auxiliary Bishop Mario E. Dorsonville of Washington, chairman of the USCCB’s migration committee, asked his fellow prelates to advocate, pray and walk with immigrants in their respective dioceses. – From Haiti to Afghanistan, the work of Catholic Relief Services has focused on responding to the impact of climate change, natural disasters such as earthquakes, hunger, meager farm production and developing education for children, reported Bishop Frank J. Caggiano of Bridgeport, Connecticut, president of the CRS board of directors. He gave the presentation with Sean Callahan, CRS president and CEO. – Dominican Sister Donna Markham, president and CEO of Catholic Charities USA, told the bishops the national network of Catholic Charities agencies had provided $5.1 billion in assistance in the last year, much of it connected to the economic fallout caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. – The synodal process the church is entering into is meant to show that “no one is unimportant in this time of listening,” said Bishop Daniel E. Flores of Brownsville, Texas. The bishop, a member of the USCCB’s Committee on Doctrine and voted its chairman-elect during the assembly, said the process over the next seven months must involve the participation of the whole church “listening together, praying together, discerning together.”
At sunrise Nov. 18 outside the hotel where the bishops held their assembly, Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin of Newark, New Jersey, Boston Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley and six other Catholic prelates joined survivors of sex abuse, some the victims of clergy in an invitation-only walk to pray for an end to the “evil” of abuse and call for a day of prayer for survivors and an end to the abuse.
(Contributing to this story were Carol Zimmermann, Dennis Sadowski, Rhina Guidos and Mark Pattison.)
By Carol Zimmermann BALTIMORE (CNS) – The U.S. bishops’ focus on the significance of the Eucharist in the life of the church isn’t just about on the statement they approved at their fall meeting.
It also is about something bigger: a three-year eucharistic revival that will culminate with the National Eucharistic Congress 2024 in Indianapolis.
The bishops approved a motion Nov. 17 during their general assembly in Baltimore to host this congress with 201 votes in favor, 17 against and five abstentions.
Auxiliary Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens of St. Paul and Minneapolis, who was recently named bishop of Crookston, Minnesota, gave the bishops details about this planned revival just before they voted on it.
The bishop, who is chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis, said the revival could be a time of healing for the entire church as well as a movement of evangelization and a reawakening of understanding of the sacrament of the Eucharist for Catholics across the country.
The revival will officially start on the feast of Corpus Christi June 16, 2022, with a diocesan focus that will include eucharistic processions and other events of adoration and prayer around the country.
In 2023, the emphasis will be on parishes and resources aimed at increasing Catholics’ understanding of what the Eucharist really means.
Part of the impetus prompting this effort was a Pew study in the fall of 2019 that showed just 30% of Catholics understand the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
Bishop Cozzens noted the price tag for the National Eucharistic Congress – $28 million – is expensive, but said it is worth it and can be doable with fundraising.
He said many apostolates and ministries are donating time and resources to help make the eucharistic revival a reality. Some bishops questioned the cost of the congress that wraps up this venture, but others spoke about the potential this will have to bring Catholics back to the church and bring those in the church to a deeper sense of devotion and a stronger faith.
Bishop Cozzens pointed out that such large-scale church events can be transformative and said the National Eucharistic Congress may end up being something the Catholic Church revisits 10 years from now.
Blessed Carlo Acutis will be the patron for the first year of the revival. The Italian teen, who was beatified in October 2020, died of leukemia in 2006 at age 15. He was a programmer who used social media to unite many people and spread Christian values.
In his apostolic letter proclaiming the youth “blessed,” Pope Francis said he “cultivated a friendship with our Lord Jesus, placing the Eucharist and the witness of charity at the center of his life.”
By Carol Zimmermann BALTIMORE (CNS) – Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the apostolic nuncio to the United States, spoke to the U.S. bishops Nov. 16 about the importance of listening to people in the church and being open to the work of the Holy Spirit. He addressed the bishops on the first day of two days of public sessions at their fall general assembly Nov. 15-18 in Baltimore.
The archbishop noted that he has been in the role of apostolic nuncio for five years and has been on a journey with the U.S. bishops through challenges of religious disaffiliation, the sexual abuse crisis, increasing secularization, polarization within the nation and the church, and most recently the global pandemic.
He quickly jumped into discussing a topic fresh on the bishops’ minds from hearing about it the previous night at their opening Mass and one they will continue discussing in preparation for an upcoming world Synod of Bishops: synodality.
“I believe that synodality is an answer to the challenges of our time and to the confrontation, which is threatening to divide this country, and which also has its echoes in the church,” Archbishop Pierre said.
Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States, speaks Nov. 16, 2021, during a session of the fall general assembly of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Baltimore. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is the first in-person bishops’ meeting since 2019. (CNS photo/Bob Roller)
“It seems that many are unaware they are engaged in this confrontation, staking out positions, rooted in certain truths but which are isolated in the world of ideas and not applied to the reality of the lived faith experience of the people of God in their concrete situations,” he said.
To define this often-repeated word in church circles today, the nuncio explained what it is not. He said synodality is not “a meeting about meetings” and went a step further to jokingly say: “If that were the case, we would certainly be in one of the lower rings of hell in Dante’s ‘Inferno.’”
He stressed that the term – and what the church is engaged in right now in the listening phase in preparation for the 2023 synod – goes beyond the physical act of hearing people to actually being close to them.
For the bishops, he said, this process should start at home by listening to each other. “The church needs this attentive listening now more than ever if she is to overcome the polarization facing this country,” he said.
The bishops’ act of listening also is a means of leading by example to help U.S. Catholics be missionary disciples engaged in their own listening and discernment that he said should be a “way of life” in families, parishes, dioceses and on the periphery.
But for all this to happen, there also has to be overall unity because, he said, “a divided church will never lead people to where it should be.”
Throughout his half-hour address to the bishops, the nuncio continued to drive home the message that more needs to be done to bring the church to where it should be.
For example, when he mentioned that the church “should be unapologetically pro-life,” he stressed the need to look at causes and factors that lead women to seek abortions and then to reach out in practical ways to mothers in need. Along that same line, he said the church needs to address racism and should go further with that by acknowledging “the lived reality” many in the church experience each day.
Also, regarding the Eucharist, he said people can have theological ideas about the Eucharist, which are important, but “none of these ideas compare with the reality of the eucharistic mystery, which needs to be discovered and rediscovered through the practical experience of the church, living in communion, particularly in this time of pandemic.”
The nuncio, hinting at a topic the bishops planned to address in their discussion of their proposed statement on the Eucharist, said many can “miss the true encounter” of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
He also noted that there is “the temptation to treat the Eucharist as something to be offered to the privileged few rather than to seek to walk with those whose theology or discipleship is falling short, assisting them to understand and appreciate the gift of the Eucharist, and helping them to overcome their difficulties.”
Looking back and ahead, the archbishop, who was appointed U.S. nuncio in April 2016, reiterated that he and the bishops had “been on the road together for more than five years” and that they would journey forward, in unity, by “listening to one another and to the Spirit and walking with our brothers and sisters.”
“We will emerge from the present crises together,” he said, “as the church Christ has called us to be.”
NATION BALTIMORE (CNS) – A funeral Mass was offered Nov. 23 at St. Peter Claver Church in West Baltimore for Beverly A. Carroll, a social justice advocate who spent her life raising her voice for African American Catholics in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, the United States and the world. Carroll, the founding director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat for Black Catholics, died Nov. 13. She was 75. Bishop John H. Ricard, a former auxiliary bishop of Baltimore and current superior general of the Baltimore-based Josephites, celebrated the Mass for his friend. Carroll worked for many years with Bishop Ricard, who also is the retired bishop of Pensacola-Tallahassee. “She was a great advocate for the community, for the church, for African Americans in the church,” said Josephite Father Ray P. Bomberger, pastor of St. Peter Claver Parish, to which Carroll belonged her whole life. “She was interested in the church, the people of the church, what was going on, (and) how we could do it better,” he said. Father Bomberger praised Carroll’s devotion to her church, both in her home community and around the country, as well as her interest in education and social justice. Carroll was a lifelong parishioner of St. Peter Claver, where she served as a corporator and parish council member.
Alex Lindbergh, left, a freshman at Bishop Bruté College Seminary in Indianapolis, arm wrestles Asia Carmon of the Diocese of Raleigh, N.C., at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis Nov. 20, 2021, during the National Catholic Youth Conference. (CNS photo/Sean Gallagher, The Criterion)
INDIANAPOLIS (CNS) – “Follow me to arm-wrestle a seminarian! See if you can beat a man who receives Communion every day!” Holding a chalk board with “Arm Wrestle a Seminarian” written on it, seminarian Samuel Hansen barked his invitation while walking through the halls of the Indiana Convention Center Nov. 20, the final day of the National Catholic Youth Conference. “It was incredibly fun,” said Hansen, a senior at Bishop Simon Bruté College Seminary and a member of St. Roch Parish, both in Indianapolis. “Just walking with the sign made a lot of people laugh. I felt like a ballpark food salesman. But it energized the convention center quite a bit.” In response to Hansen’s hawking, a steady group of challengers gathered around a table promoting vocations to the diocesan priesthood that had earlier attracted fewer visitors when the seminarians manning it waited for NCYC participants to come to them on their own. As lighthearted and winsome as his strategy to attract attention was, Hansen saw it as following in the tradition of the saints. St. John Bosco, for example, did sleight-of-hand tricks and juggling acts for kids in his village to get them to listen to his catechesis lesson. The NCYC always includes a thematic area made up of villages, or venues, in the convention hall that have traditional exhibits as well as interactive educational and recreational activities for attendees. “The saints stepped out of line and took extraordinary actions to inspire others,” Hansen told The Criterion, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.
VATICAN VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis signed a decree recognizing a miracle attributed to the intercession of Blessed Titus Brandsma, clearing the way for the canonization of the 20th-century martyr murdered at the Dachau concentration camp. The Dutch Carmelite friar was sent to Dachau for treason – after defending Jews and press freedom – and was killed with a lethal injection. The Vatican announced Pope Francis’ decision in his case and a number of other sainthood causes Nov. 25. Dachau, the notorious Nazi concentration camp in Germany most associated with the genocide of thousands of Jews during World War II, also held more than 2,700 clergy – 2,400 of them Catholic priests. Blessed Brandsma was sent there after urging editors of the Dutch Catholic press to violate a new law of the Third Reich and not print any Nazi propaganda. He also denounced Nazism as “a sewer of falsehood that must not be tolerated,” said Dianne Traflet, an assistant professor of pastoral theology and the associate dean of graduate studies at Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey, during a talk at the national World War II Museum in 2018. Pope Francis also recognized a miracle attributed to the intercession of Blessed Carolina Santocanale, also known as Blessed Mary of Jesus, an Italian nun born in 1852, who founded the Congregation of the Capuchin Sisters of the Immaculate of Lourdes. The Vatican did not immediately announce dates for the canonization ceremonies.
WORLD ANKAWA, Iraq (CNS) – Walking through this mainly Christian town outside of Irbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, it’s easy to see many changes since the victims of Islamic State militants fled here for safety seven years ago. Gone are the tents and caravans that dotted church yards and open fields to house those escaping forced conversion to Islam or death at the hands of the Islamic State militants in 2014. Colorful laundry once hung from balconies, while some people slept on church pews. The cavernous concrete skeleton of a shopping mall then sheltered 2,500 displaced people. Support from Catholic and other churches built and cordoned off rooms on three-stories; each room housed a single family, and all shared basic cooking and bathroom facilities. The unfinished structure has given way to the Ankawa Mall, where people can food shop at the French Carrefour supermarket, eat in a Turkish restaurant or buy Hello Kitty accessories at a Japanese import shop. In 2017, the Iraqi military and U.S.-led coalition troops forced out Islamic State fighters. Since then, Catholic churches and organizations have been working hard to address challenges faced by Iraq’s historic Christian community and other religious minorities. “People have faced tremendous difficulties and wounding by the Islamic State. We are still experiencing the practical effects of loss and trauma,” said Fadi, an Armenian Christian worshipping at a local church. Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Bashar Warda of Irbil stewarded the building of four schools, a university and a hospital, providing local people with badly needed employment, with assistance from Stephen Rasche, who is counsel to the Chaldean Archdiocese of Irbil.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (CNS) – When Father Francis Galvan left Sacred Heart Church in Delta Nov. 15, he did not expect to find himself at the center of a catastrophic flood and what is being called the storm of the century. But within hours, the Augustinian priest was at ground zero of rescue efforts and witnessing humanity at its best, joining with Agassiz residents in responding to the needs of stranded travelers. “There I saw and realized how the human heart in the worst situations comes out its best – eyes looking only at those in need of help,” he told The B.C. Catholic, newspaper of the Vancouver Archdiocese, by email. Father Galvan arrived in Harrison Hot Springs only to find the study week canceled due to torrential rains, so he headed over to St. Anthony of Padua Church in Agassiz to check in with pastor Father Dennis Flores. There, the two priests saw rescue helicopters flying overhead and decided to head to the town’s community center. They found themselves in the middle of a massive rescue and relief effort. “Strong winds were blowing along with heavy rains, and I watched rescue helicopters landing, one after another,” Father Galvan said. Evacuees who had been stranded by highway mudslides emerged from the helicopters.
Anyone who has been a victim of abuse or exploitation by clergy, religious or lay church personnel and has not yet reported it is encouraged to do so.
Our victim assistance coordinator, Erika Rojas, a licensed social worker, is available to assist in making a report. Please contact her at (601) 326-3760. To report an allegation of abuse or mishandling of allegations of sexual abuse by a bishop, please visit https://reportbishopabuse.org.
By Catholic News Service WASHINGTON – More than 4,200 allegations of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy and others were reported during the year ending June 30, 2020, a slight decline from the previous auditing period, according to a report on diocesan and eparchial compliance wit the U.S. bishops’ “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.”
Released late Nov. 9, the 18th annual report from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat of Child and Youth Protection stated that 3,924 child sexual abuse survivors filed 4,228 allegations.
In the 2019 report, covering the 2018-2019 audit period, 4,220 adults filed 4,434 allegations.
The charter was adopted in 2002 by the U.S. bishops following widespread reports of clergy abuse and has been revised several times since to adapt to changing situations surrounding the question of clergy sexual abuse of minors.
Conducted by StoneBridge Business Partners of Rochester, New York, the new report covers the year from July 1, 2019, through June 30, 2020.
While the number of allegations remained high during the audit period, the report said only 22 allegations involve current cases of abuse.
The report said the number of allegations remained high in part because of changes in statutes of limitations on reporting abuse in several states. “It should be noted that the vast majority of these reports were historical in nature,” the report said.
The report attributed about 66% of allegations to lawsuits, compensation programs established by dioceses and other entities and bankruptcies. In addition, 1% of allegations emerged after a review of clergy personnel files, according to the report.
Of the 22 allegations for the current year, six were found to be substantiated. The report said they originated from five dioceses.
Of the remaining reported allegations, seven continued to be investigated, two were unsubstantiated, three were determined to be “unable to be proven,” and four were classified as “other.”
The report said nine of the allegations involved the use of child pornography. Seven of those cases remained under investigation, one was substantiated and one was referred to a provincial or a religious order.
The allegations involved 2,458 priests, 31 deacons and 282 unknown clerics, statistics in the report show.
The report indicated that 195 of 197 dioceses and eparchies participated in the audit. Auditors conducted 61 onsite visits with 10 in person before the pandemic erupted in early 2020. The other 51 were conducted online. Data also was collected from 135 other dioceses and eparchies.
The Syro-Malankara Eparchy of St. Mary Queen of Peace of the United States and Canada and the Chaldean Catholic Eparchy of St. Peter the Apostle of San Diego did not participate in the audit.
Of the 61 entities undergoing onsite audits, two dioceses and two eparchies were determined to be in noncompliance. The dioceses of Fort Worth, Texas, and Helena, Montana, were noncompliant with charter’s requirement for not having their respective Diocesan Review Board meet during the audit period. Subsequent to the audit, the boards in each diocese were convened, making them compliant with the charter, the report said.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of St. Nicholas in Chicago and the Syriac Catholic Eparchy of Our Lady of Deliverance, which covers the United States and is based New Jersey, were found noncompliant with charter provisions that require background screening and training of adults working with minors.
The report also acknowledged the continuing work of church entities to ensure the safety of children and vulnerable adults. The USCCB said that expenditures on protective services rose 15% in 2020 with more than 2.5 million background checks of adults and training in safety measures for 3.1 million children.
Suzanne Healy, who chairs the National Review Board, said that as the charter enters its third decade of implementation it becomes important to continue evaluating incidents of abuse as well as understand trends of abuse and why they change.
In a letter to Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez, USCCB president, that accompanied the report, Healy said a board committee is examining the safe environment education programs for adults and children in dioceses throughout the country.
“The research is an attempt to determine which elements or combination of elements of these training programs is most effective in mitigating the occurrence of child abuse and ensuring that any suspicion of abuse is reported to authorities,” Healy wrote.
She also said the board recommended two procedures be added to the audit process and welcomed their edition for the 2020-2021 audit cycle. The first is “a three-year look-back window, which will eliminate any gaps that existed regarding the reporting of case resolution,” Healy said.
The second relates to onsite visits by StoneBridge that finds auditors meeting with all or most diocesan review board members rather than one or two individuals.
“The ministries of safe environments and victim assistance are here to stay. The protocols and procedures for letters of suitability, background checks, and safe environment training are the norm,” said Deacon Bernie Nojadera, executive director of the USCCB Secretariat for Child and Youth Protection.
“By the grace of God, the church is working toward being accessible, accountable, and safe. We continue to rely on the Holy Spirit and the intercession of Our Mother to guide our efforts as we promise to protect and pledge to heal,” he wrote in a letter addressed to Archbishop Gomez and Healy that was included in the report.
In his preface to the report, Archbishop Gomez said: “As we know, one allegation of abuse is too many. But my brother bishops and I remain firmly committed to maintain our vigilance in protecting children and vulnerable adults and providing compassion and outreach to victim-survivors of abuse.”
Speaking for himself and the body of bishops, the archbishop expressed their “sorrow and apologies to every person who has suffered at the hands of someone in the church.”
“While we cannot give you back what has been taken from you,” Archbishop Gomez said, “we do commit ourselves to doing everything in our power to help you to heal and to fight the scourge of abuse in the church and in the wider society.”
Editor’s Note: The full annual report on compliance with the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People” of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops can be found online at https://bit.ly/3CYMQdX.
By Priscila González de Doran BALTIMORE (CNS) – When Sister Rita Michelle Proctor was a young child, she was taught by the Oblate Sisters of Providence from grades three to 10.
The sisters’ hospitality and trust in Divine Providence inspired her to become a religious sister in their Baltimore-based order.
After 53 years of love and service for the Lord in the Oblate community, the current superior general of her religious community was honored to participate at St. Ann Church in Baltimore in a Nov. 1 procession of six candidates for canonization.
She held a portrait of the community’s foundress – and one of those sainthood candidates: Mother Mary Lange, who has the title “Servant of God.”
Five other members of the African American Catholic community processed to the altar holding portraits of the other prominent Black Catholics they hope will be canonized.
They are: Sister Thea Bowman, the first African American member of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, and Julia Greeley, known as the city of Denver’s “Angel of Charity” – both have the title Servant of God – as well as Mother Henriette Delille, founder of the Sisters of the Holy Family, Father Augustus Tolton and Pierre Toussaint. The latter three have the title “Venerable.
Theresa Wilson Favors, former director of the Office of Black Catholic Ministries for the Archdiocese of Baltimore, carries a portrait of Sister Thea Bowman, a Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration from Canton, Miss., during the opening procession of an All Saints’ Day Mass at St. Ann Catholic Church in Baltimore Nov. 1, 2021. Sister Bowman, who died in 1990 at age 52 from cancer, is one of six African Americans who are sainthood candidates and whose causes advocates hope will be expedited by Pope Francis. (CNS photo/Kevin J. Parks, Catholic Review)
The title “Servant of God” is given by the church to a sainthood candidate when his or her cause is officially opened.
The first step in the process after that is the declaration of a person’s heroic virtues, after which the church bestows the title “Venerable.” The second step is beatification, after which he or she is called “Blessed.” The third step is canonization.
In general, for beatification one miracle needs to be accepted by the church as having occurred through the intercession of the prospective saint and a second such verified miracle is needed for canonization.
Following the procession, Auxiliary Bishop Bruce A. Lewandowski of Baltimore, the archdiocese’s urban vicar, celebrated a Mass for the feast of All Saints. Nearly 200 people were present.
The Mass was organized by a national campaign made up of members of three Baltimore parishes, St. Ann, St. Francis Xavier and St. Wenceslaus, as well as longtime members of St. Ann’s social justice committee.
The purpose was to create awareness and educate the American people about the stories of these six candidates for sainthood.
Members of the campaign are collecting signatures in a letter to Pope Francis asking him to expedite their canonization.
“While there are no U.S. African American saints, there are 11 white Americans who have been canonized,” the letter said. “We know there is a process, but it is not working for Black American Catholics and supporters. The process is reaping unfair, uneven results, especially when you realize that the six Black saints have been waiting 714 years totally if you add up the times since each died.”
Toussaint died 168 years ago, and a few of the others have been deceased for more than a century. Sister Bowman is the most contemporary, having died in 1990.
The letter asked the pope to canonize the six candidates “immediately.” “If not now, when?” it said. “If not you, who?”
Delores Moore, one of the leaders of the national campaign, a member of St. Ann’s social justice committee and a parishioner there, said the campaign started when parishioners serving the African American community realized only a few people knew about the lives of these African American holy men and women, who despite their struggles with systemic racism, remained loyal to God.
Father Donald Sterling, the first African American priest ordained in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and pastor of New All Saints in Liberty Heights, carried the portrait of Father Tolton, first African American diocesan priest in the United States.
“Besides being historical, it is humbling to think that in all these years I am the first African American priest in the Archdiocese of Baltimore,” Father Sterling said. “It is a humbling call on God’s part.”
Many present knew Sister Bowman, including Father Sterling and Therese Wilson Favors, a longtime Catholic educator and former director of the Baltimore archdiocesan Office of Black Catholic Ministries, who carried the portrait of her friend and co-worker.
Wilhelmena Braswell, a St. Ann parishioner, met Sister Bowman in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in downtown Baltimore and said “her presence would light up the room.”
Bishop Lewandowski said that in the church there are saints for every community and every person, but not in the case of the African American community.
He invited the congregation to share with everyone the stories of these future saints, to make sure their parishes display pictures of them and to ask for their intercession.
The bishop said it is important to have Masses to celebrate African American saints because the faithful identify with saints who “look like us, spoke our language, lived our experiences and can understand our struggles.”
Although the process of canonization can be long and tedious, Bishop Lewandowski encouraged the congregation by reminding them, “We don’t make saints; God does.”
(González de Doran writes for the Catholic Review, the news outlet of the Archdiocese of Baltimore.)
During November, Black Catholics across the country will tell stories, sing from our “Lead Me Guide Me” hymnals and praise God in thanksgiving. The many acts of significance our ancestors put forth in the name of Black spirituality and creating a place for Black Catholics in the church are a cause for joy and celebration.
Father Michael Okere, vicar for Black Catholics, said this month “calls us to rejoice for all the huddles our ancestors went through to sustain their faith in the Catholic Church. Also, it calls us to rejoice in hope as we practice our faith in deep spirituality, and to leave a strong Catholic faith legacy for the generations that will come after us.”
According to demographics found on the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) African American Demographics page, there are 3 million African American Catholics, 250 priests, 437 deacons, 75 in seminary formation for the priesthood, 400 religious sisters and 59 religious brothers.
Sister Thea Bowman
The diocesan Office of Black Catholics frequently celebrates the history of our African American parishioners. They have persevered through the centuries, remaining true to the mission of evangelizing Black Catholics. It is the passing on of these stories to our youth, from generation to generation, that serve as one of our best resources. Families are the center of the church, and Black Catholic History Month celebrates our families in many ways.
There are no Black saints from the United States, which is why there is a strong movement for six African Americans on the road to sainthood today. Imagine the impact on youth that the sharing of the story of faith and perseverance of our first known African American priest, Venerable Father Augustus Tolton, can have.
If you’ve never heard a speech by Servant of God Sister Thea Bowman, please go to YouTube, search her name and listen. The talk she delivered to the USCCB in 1989 on Black spirituality was so powerful that all the bishops stood up, joined hands and engaged in singing and swaying to a Negro spiritual, with her leading the song. Sister Thea is among the African American candidates for sainthood.
Many in our diocese remember meeting Sister Thea when she visited and facilitated retreats on Black spirituality. The most enlightening thing about her visit to South Carolina is that there are some people alive today who, in future, may be able to say they spent time with a saint.
Among her many contributions to the evangelization of Black Catholics, Sister Thea was instrumental in the publication of the “Lead Me Guide Me” hymnal. It became a tool for outreach Catholic Churches in Black communities. Its second edition is now available and provides a wonderful enhancement to liturgies in all parishes, not just those that are historically African American. It is another resource that allows us and the church to embrace its diversity as a gift. In addition to Father Tolton and Sister Thea, there are four more African Americans on the path to sainthood.
Included are Henriette Delille and Mother Mary Lange, who started religious orders for women of color. DeLille founded Sisters of the Holy Family in 1836 and Lange co-founded the Oblates Sisters of Providence in 1829. The Oblates were the first religious community of women of African American descent.
Another on the road to sainthood is Pierre Toussaint. He arrived in the United States from Haiti and was one of New York’s most sought-after hairstylists. After he was given his freedom, he donated his accumulated wealth to help the poor in his community. Julia Greely, last of the six, also known as Denver’s “Angel of Charity,” provided assistance to countless families in poverty.
Black Catholic history was made again in 2020 when Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory became the first African American to be made cardinal. He was also the first Black president of the USCCB. Imagine if there had never been a Father Augustus Tolton to lead the way!
The Office of Ethnic Ministries published a book called My Little Black Catholic History Book, which focuses on African saints and popes, plus quizzes on Black Catholic history and an essay on Black Catholics in South Carolina. The book is free and can be downloaded from the office’s webpage.
(In addition to the book, visit charlestondiocese.org/ethnic-ministries for more Black Catholic History events and resources.)
Kathleen Merritt is the director of the diocesan Office of Ethnic Ministries. Email her at kmerritt@charlestondiocese.org.
