Category Archives: U.S. News

Briefs

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What to do?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Briefs

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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By Catholic News Herald , OSV News

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

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

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

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

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

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

He skipped Mass and called his bosses.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Across the diocese, parishes were jumping in to assist.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Catholic’s guide to voting

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By Greg Erlandson Lori Dahlhoff, OSV News

Voting: It is one of our most important responsibilities as citizens. Indeed, the church teaches that there are three primary responsibilities of all citizens: to pay taxes, to defend their country and to vote.

Each of these responsibilities asks us to put the good of society and our fellow citizens above our individual desires and needs. Thus a primary question we must answer as Catholic voters is whether the needs of the weakest and most defenseless among us are being addressed. In the voting booth we have a privileged opportunity to contribute to our nation and promote the common good by bringing the values and teachings of our faith to bear on the issues facing our society.

This is the logo for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ teaching document on political engagement, “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,” and related materials.The document provides guidance to Catholic voters during a presidential election year. On Nov. 15, 2023, during their fall plenary assembly in Baltimoere, the U.S. bishops approved supplements to the document. (OSV News/courtesy USCCB)

The following is an FAQ on voting as a Catholic.

Q. Does the church tell me whom I should vote for?

A. No. The church does not tell us whom to vote for when we enter the voting booth. It does not endorse an official list of candidates or tell us which party Catholics should join. Instead, Catholics are to use their judgment and follow their consciences as they apply the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ and the core faith values to the choices they make in the voting booth.

As Catholics, following the challenging path of discipleship, we need to evaluate the issues and candidates in the light of our Catholic faith. Then, we are challenged to live out our faith by getting actively involved — by voting and engaging in other civic activities.

Q. How does my Catholic faith help me to make these choices?

A. We are taught from an early age to form our consciences in the light of Catholic teaching. “To follow one’s conscience” is often misunderstood as something that allows us to do whatever we want, or as following the “feeling” we have that something is right or wrong.

But our faith teaches us that “conscience is the voice of God resounding in the human heart, revealing the truth to us and calling us to do what is good while shunning what is evil” (from the U.S. bishops’ 2015 document “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,” 17, hereafter referred to as FC).

It is our responsibility as Catholics to form our consciences by developing the virtue of prudence to discern true good in circumstances and to choose the right means of achieving it by maintaining a willingness and openness to seek what is right through studying Scripture and church teaching by using our reason to study key issues in light of this teaching, and by prayerfully seeking to understand the will of God.

Q. What about the separation of church and state? Can the church ask me to vote according to my Catholic principles?

A. Our nation’s founders sought to “separate church and state” in the sense of prohibiting the establishment of any particular denomination as the official religious body of the nation — not in the sense of forbidding religious organizations to address matters of grave importance to human welfare.

Building upon Scripture and the teachings of church leaders and saints for centuries, our faith has clear principles for how best to achieve justice, peace, and human dignity for all men and women. Moreover, the Catholic moral tradition rests firmly on the natural law binding upon everyone, not just Catholics.

Q. What are the key principles that should guide us as we enter the voting booth?

A. Four principles of Catholic social doctrine are key to making practical judgments to do good and avoid evil in voting: Promoting and defending the dignity of the human person; supporting the family and subsidiarity in local, state and national institutions; working for the common good where human rights are protected and basic responsibilities are met; and acting in solidarity with concern for all as our brothers and sisters, especially the poor and most vulnerable.

Q. Is there anything Catholics must always reject?

A. As Catholics we “may choose different ways to respond to compelling social problems, but we cannot differ on our moral obligation to help build a more just and peaceful world through morally acceptable means, so that the weak and vulnerable are protected and human rights and dignity are defended” (FC, 20).

Our faith reminds us that we must always reject and oppose “intrinsically evil” actions of any sort. Acts such as the taking of innocent human life are so deeply flawed that they are always incompatible with love of God and neighbor.

This is why the church so strongly opposes abortion and physician-assisted suicide (euthanasia). In each case, the lives of the weak and the vulnerable are endangered, and there can be no good reason to allow the taking of these innocent lives or to vote for legislation that would allow these evils to result. Likewise, our church opposes other actions that both violate human dignity and are destructive of life, such as human cloning or the destructive research on human embryos.

The church condemns genocide, torture, the targeting of noncombatants in acts of terror or war, and racism, for they too are severe violations of human rights and human dignity. Related concerns are excessive consumption of material goods, unjust discrimination, and the narrowing redefinition of religious freedom.

Q. If all of these are priorities, what is most important?

A. All of these issues are important, but they are not all morally or ethically equivalent. “The direct and intentional destruction of innocent human life from the moment of conception until natural death is always wrong and is not just one issue among many. It must always be opposed” (FC, 28).

At the same time, issues such as war, the death penalty, racism, and care for the poor and the immigrant are enormously important. “These are not optional concerns which can be dismissed” (FC, 29).

Q. But if we must keep all of these principles in mind, is there going to be anyone who we can vote for?

A. Unfortunately, we are often forced to choose between two inadequate and flawed political agendas. It can be quite difficult to find candidates who align with our consciences on all of the key moral issues.

This is why the virtue of prudence is necessary when approaching the voting booth. This virtue helps us deliberate over the choices before us — to determine, in light of church teaching and our formed consciences, who is most deserving of our support. In other words, in a world of imperfect choices, we must strive to make the best choice possible.

Where Catholics must be in agreement is that fundamental moral obligation we share: to “help build a more just and peaceful world through morally acceptable means, so that the weak and vulnerable are protected and human rights and dignity are defended” (FC, 20).

Q. If no single party or candidate in a given election conforms to our key Catholic principles, what are we to do?

A. It is clear that one absolutely may not vote for a “candidate who favors a policy promoting an intrinsically evil act, such as abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide, deliberately subjecting workers or the poor to subhuman living conditions, redefining marriage in ways that violate its essential meaning, or racist behavior, if the voter’s intent is to support that position” (FC, 34, emphasis added). But neither can one use a candidate’s opposition to such evils “to justify indifference or inattentiveness to other important moral issues involving human life or dignity” (FC, 34).

There may be times when a voter selects a candidate who holds an unacceptable position, but this can be done only for “truly grave moral reasons,” not just for partisan or personal interests. It may involve the prudential judgment that one candidate seems likely to do less harm or is more likely to pursue other positive priorities.

If, for a grave reason, we do vote for a candidate who holds positions contrary to fundamental moral goods, we have a duty to make our opposition to those positions heard. Writing letters, speaking up at forums, and participating in local party political activities are ways to steadfastly assert our Catholic values.

There may even be occasions when some Catholic voters feel that they must take “the extraordinary step of not voting for any candidate” (FC, 36). This, too, is a serious decision that must be guided by one’s conscience and the moral teachings of our faith.

Q. What can I do to prepare to vote?

A. Inform yourself about the church’s teachings. The Catechism of the Catholic Church is a great place to start. Consider gathering a small group to discuss church teachings in relation to the candidates or policies.

Inform yourself about the issues. Read the Catholic press and listen to the candidates. See where the candidates stand on critical moral and social issues.

Seek input from Catholics you respect.

Pray. Take your hopes, concerns and worries to the Lord and ask for his guidance.

Q. This seems hard.

A. In today’s political environment, voting as a Catholic is hard work. It takes serious reflection, knowledge of church teaching, and awareness of who the candidates are and where they stand on the issues.

The church challenges us to vote for what is best for society and all of its members, particularly those least able to speak up for or defend themselves. The great privilege of democracy is that we, as citizens and religious believers, can have a voice in the direction of our country by voting for the common good; this is both a right and a responsibility. The great privilege of being Catholic is that we have a community of faith and a body of teaching, going back to Christ himself, which can help us make good decisions in the voting booth.

Q. Where can I find out more?

A. Our bishops offer a detailed reflection on Catholic teaching and political life, called “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,” at www.faithfulcitizenship.org.

(Greg Erlandson is an award-winning Catholic publisher, editor and journalist. Lori Dahlhoff, EdD, has more than 20 years of experience in catechetical ministry.)

‘Revival of prayer and action’ needed to end abortion,says US bishops’ pro-life chair

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By Gina Christian
(OSV News) – Ahead of Respect Life Month, the pro-life committee chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is urging “a revival of prayer and action” to end abortion and uphold the sanctity of human life.

A statement for the October observance, written by Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of Arlington, Virginia, was released by the USCCB Sept. 19 and posted to the website of the USCCB’s Respect Life Month initiative. The effort traces its origins to 1972, just prior to the U.S. Supreme Court rulings on Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, the two 1973 decisions that broadly legalized abortion.

In his message, Bishop Burbidge stressed that “Jesus, truly present in the Eucharist, gives us the fullness of life,” and “calls each of us to respect that gift of life in every human person.”

The bishop pointed to the 10th National Eucharistic Congress, held during July in Indianapolis as part of the National Eucharistic Revival, the U.S. bishops’ three-year effort to rekindle devotion to the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

The congress and the Eucharistic processions leading up to it “involved hundreds of thousands of Catholics who will never be the same,” he said. “The revival continues, and is so needed, especially in our efforts to defend human life.”

He quoted a 2013 address by Pope Francis to Catholic medical professionals, in which the pope said that “every child who, rather than being born, is condemned unjustly to being aborted, bears the face of Jesus Christ, bears the face of the Lord, who even before he was born, and then just after birth, experienced the world’s rejection.”

However, “the law and millions of our brothers and sisters have yet to recognize this reality,” said Bishop Burbidge.

Despite the Supreme Court’s June 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, enabling elected officials “to reduce or end abortion … fifty years of virtually unlimited abortion has tragically created a national mindset where many Americans have become comfortable with some amount of abortion,” said Bishop Burbidge. “This allows the abortion industry to continue to provide any amount of abortion.”
Abortion rates actually rose or stayed at pre-Roe levels in the U.S. following the Dobbs decision, which overturned the Roe and Doe rulings.

Globally, there are a total of some 73.3 million abortions each year, according to the Guttmacher Institute – a number about 4 million greater than United Kingdom’s current population, and almost 15 million more than the United Nation’s 2019 crude death rate, or total number of deaths worldwide in a given year.

“Given this challenge, the U.S. bishops have affirmed that, while it is important to address all the ways in which human life is threatened, ‘abortion remains our pre-eminent priority as it directly attacks our most vulnerable brothers and sisters, destroying more than a million lives each year in our country alone,’” said Bishop Burbidge, quoting a 2024 document by the U.S. Bishops on conscience formation and political responsibility for Catholics.

With the U.S. presidential election just weeks away, Bishop Burbidge asked Catholics in the U.S. to “renew our commitment to work for the legal protection of every human life, from conception to natural death, and to vote for candidates who will defend the life and dignity of the human person.”

In addition, he said, “we must call for policies that assist women and their children in need, while also continuing to help mothers in our own communities through local pregnancy help centers and our nationwide, parish-based initiative, Walking with Moms in Need.”

Faithful must “likewise continue to extend the hand of compassion to all who are suffering from participation in abortion,” highlighting the church’s abortion healing ministries, such as Project Rachel.
“Most importantly, we must rededicate ourselves to fervent prayer on behalf of life,” said Bishop Burbidge, who invited Catholics “to join me in a concerted effort of prayer between now and our national elections, by daily praying our Respect Life Month, ‘Prayer for Life to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.’”
The text of the prayer, along with several resources for Respect Life Month, is available on the initiative’s website at https://www.respectlife.org/respect-life-month.

(Gina Christian is a multimedia reporter for OSV News. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) @GinaJesseReina.)

Briefs

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A priest raises the monstrance as pilgrims gather for the Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington Sept. 28, 2024. Thousands of pilgrims from across the country gathered at the shrine to honor Mary, the Mother of God, and her gift of the rosary. (OSV News photo/Jeffrey Bruno)

NATION
WASHINGTON (OSV News) – Thousands of pilgrims from across the country gathered at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington Sept. 28 to honor Mary, the Mother of God, and her gift of the rosary. “I am entirely yours, Mary, I am entirely yours,” the crowd sang in Latin as the second annual Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage opened with a procession of a statue of Mary, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary. “All that I have, Mother of Christ, all that I have is yours.” More than 3,000 people registered for the free, daylong pilgrimage celebrating the rosary hosted by the Dominican Friars of the Province of St. Joseph and their local charters of the Confraternity of the Most Holy Rosary, a spiritual association dedicated to the rosary. Dominican friars and sisters dotted a diverse crowd of men and women, young and old, individuals and families of different cultures and backgrounds. The event at the basilica, the largest Roman Catholic church in North America, included preaching, adoration, confession, book signings, a recitation of the rosary, enrollment in the confraternity, Mass and an evening concert with the Hillbilly Thomists, a bluegrass band of Dominican friars. Founded in 1216 by St. Dominic de Guzmán, the Dominican Order, also known as the Order of Preachers, has a special relationship with the rosary: According to tradition, Mary appeared to St. Dominic, entrusting the rosary’s promotion to him.

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – Three years after being approved by the U.S. Catholic bishops, updates to the ritual texts for distribution of holy Communion outside of Mass and for Eucharistic adoration will take effect. The revised version of “Holy Communion and Worship of the Eucharistic Mystery outside Mass” will be implemented on the First Sunday of Advent, Dec. 1, 2024. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops had signed off on the fresh texts in 2021, with the revisions reviewed by the USCCB’s Secretariat for Divine Worship and confirmed by the Vatican in March 2023. Father David R. Price, associate director of the USCCB’s Secretariat of Divine Worship, told OSV News that “the main thing to keep in mind” regarding the revisions is that “this is a new translation of the ritual book that was given in Latin in the 1970s – so it’s a new translation, it’s not a new ritual book per se.” He emphasized that “the discipline of distribution of holy Communion outside Mass that is in place now is not changing.” The new translation “should hopefully be a way for people to continue to grow and deepen in their faith and to have a sense of unity with the universal church, in that we are praying with words in English that are similar, that are the same in meaning, as words that people are praying these same prayers in other languages – and that the translations are consistent in their meaning between these different languages,” said Father Price. “And that shows the universality of the church.”

VATICAN
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Following an investigation into an influential Peru-based Catholic movement that has expanded across Latin America and the United States, Pope Francis has expelled 10 members from its ranks for physical and spiritual abuse. The group, Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, which operates in seven Latin American countries and has communities in the archdioceses of Denver and Philadelphia, was subject to a Vatican investigation in 2023 for alleged abuses. In a letter from the apostolic nunciature in Peru posted on the Peruvian bishops’ conference website Sept. 25, the Vatican announced the expulsion of the 10 members, including the former superior general, a retired archbishop and three other priests. The 68-year-old Peruvian Archbishop José Antonio Eguren of Piura, the highest-ranking expelled member, resigned from leading his archdiocese in April, eight years shy of the mandatory retirement age for bishops, amid an investigation into Sodalitium. The forms of abuse listed in the Vatican letter include: physical abuse “including sadism and violence,” deploying tactics to “break the will of subordinates,” spiritual abuse, abuse of authority including the cover-up of crimes and abuse in the administration of church goods. “Abuse in the exercise of the apostolate of journalism” was also cited as a form of abuse committed; the list of those expelled included Peruvian journalist Alejandro Bermudez, founder and former executive director of Catholic News Agency, which is now owned by EWTN.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Calling St. John Paul II “one of the men who most shaped the last century,” Pope Francis encouraged Catholics to get to know him better, especially through what he did and wrote before being elected pope Oct. 16, 1978. “Saint John Paul II, despite the time that has passed since his pontificate, continues to be a source of inspiration and draws people to Christ through his way of life, the depth of his teachings, and his ability to connect with the lives of people,” Pope Francis wrote in the introduction to a book titled, “The Goal is Happiness.” Published in Italian, the book offers 366 short passages from St. John Paul’s writings, “most of them unpublished outside of Poland, and some even unpublished within Poland,” Pope Francis noted in the introduction, which was translated into English and posted on Vatican News Sept. 26.

WORLD
MEXICO CITY (OSV News) – Six migrants were killed after soldiers shot at a vehicle evading a military checkpoint in Mexico’s southern Chiapas state – a tragedy condemned by Mexico’s bishops as “the disproportionate use of lethal force on the part of agents of the state.” The Mexican bishops’ conference’s migrant ministry expressed solidarity with the victims and called for a “serious, impartial and investigation” of the shooting. A green truck carrying 33 migrants failed to stop at a checkpoint roughly 50 miles from the Guatemala border, at 8:50 p.m. on Oct. 1, drawing fire from two soldiers, according to an army statement the following day. Six migrants were killed in the incident while 10 were injured and 17 escaped unharmed. The migrants hailed from Nepal, Pakistan, India, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Cuba. The army said two soldiers opened fire on the vehicle, which was traveling at high-speed and taking evasive actions. It added that two other trucks, “similar to those used by criminal groups in the region,” were following behind. “Military personnel reported hearing shots, so two (soldiers) fired their weapons, stopping one of the flatbed trucks,” the statement said. A collective of human rights and migration organizations sponsored by the Jesuit-run Iberoamerican University condemned the army’s actions, along with the Mexican government’s militarized response to migration enforcement. The stepped-up enforcement ahead of the November U.S. election has coincided with the Biden administration placing restrictions on asylum-seekers.

Boston College launches millionaire project to empower Hispanic Catholic organizations

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By Omar Cabrera

(OSV News) In response to the pastoral needs of the growing number of Latinos in the U.S., a new initiative from Boston College’s Clough School of Theology and Ministry seeks to strengthen Catholic organizations that work with Hispanic ministry.

With 45% of Catholics in the United States identifying as Latino and 60% of Catholics under the age of 18 years in this country being Latino, these Catholics “are transforming Catholicism in the United States,” said Hosffman Ospino, a professor of theology and religious education at Boston College who researches the dialogue between faith and culture as well as Hispanic Catholics. “We find ourselves in a church that is becoming Hispanicized at a fast pace.”

This reality, he added, opens the opportunity to be better disciples and respond appropriately to the challenges that come with it. To do this, Boston College launched “Nuevo Momento: Leadership and Capacity Building for Ministerial Organizations Serving Hispanic Catholics” at the end of August.

Los principales líderes de la organización y los socios que forman parte de Nuevo Momento, un proyecto de Boston College para fortalecer a organizaciones católicas que trabajan con el ministerio hispano, se reúnen en persona por primera vez en el Connors Center de Dover, Massachusetts. (OSV News photo/cortesía del programa Nuevo Momento, Clough School of Theology and Ministry at Boston College)

This five-year project, supported by a $15 million grant from the Lilly Endowment Inc., seeks to empower organizations through four building blocks: strong organizational capacity, a path toward economic or financial sustainability, leadership training and renewal, and a grant to strengthen its internal capacity.

The 15 organizations participating in Nuevo Momento are among “the most influential and representative of the work that is being done in the Catholic Church in the United States to accompany the Hispanic community,” said Ospino, who directs Nuevo Momento.

These include associations of Latino priests and sisters, organizations focused on catechesis and formation, organizations that work with youth and young adults, associations of leaders and ministries, regional institutes and offices, as well as an organization that focuses on migrant ministry.

“We are very excited to be part of something like Nuevo Momento,” said Lisset Mendoza, treasurer of the National Catholic Association of Diocesan Directors for Hispanic Ministry.

Mendoza added that her organization has the possibility of assigning three people to pursue a cohort-based Master of Arts in Ministerial Leadership, which the Clough School of Theology and Ministry at Boston College has designed specifically for Nuevo Momento.

The master’s degree will follow a hybrid format, with face-to-face sessions in the summer and winter, in addition to online classes, Ospino explained. The curriculum is designed for students to complete in 18 months. All expenses, including tuition, travel and lodging will be covered by Nuevo Momento, at no cost to students or their organizations, he added.

It is expected that between 35 and 45 people will graduate from the new master’s degree through the Nuevo Momento program. Each participating institution may designate people under 40 years of age to benefit from the degree.

Elisabeth Román, president of the National Catholic Council for Hispanic Ministry, said that her organization currently operates without employees, with people donating their time to the ministry. Therefore, they hope that New Moment will help the 33-year-old ministry discern ways to “go towards the creation of a staff” to usher in the next 33 years.

Ospino explained that several participating organizations also work with volunteers instead of paid staff. Yet, the organizations need to hire employees to expand their impact, reflecting on Nuevo Momento’s pillar to improve the economic capacity of participating institutions.

“That financial stability has to do with how they manage their finances, how they manage their economy, how they manage their projects and, at the same time, how they carry out campaigns and develop fund-raising mechanisms to help them financially,” Ospino explained.

In addition to the master’s degree, the new project will include training modules for the leaders of the institutions, whether they are called presidents, executive directors, or other leadership positions. These modules will cover topics such as strategic planning, how to do fundraising, how to organize and operate boards of directors, among others. Most of the work for these modules will be online.

To deliver the training modules to its participants, Nuevo Momento has established partnerships with the Leadership Roundtable, Corresponsables de Dios (an organization that specializes in the areas of stewardship and planned giving), the fundraising company For Impact, and the Lake Institute on Faith & Giving, according to the initiative’s website.

In addition, the program will have the participation of consultants specialized in leadership, administration, theology and ministry.

The 15 organizations that have been selected to participate in Nuevo Momento “have a very clear and defined mission,” Ospino said. “They know what they’re doing, they know it very well, they have both organizational and community wisdom, they understand the concerns of the Latino community and its hopes.”

But the great work that these organizations do is done “in a limited way,” the theologian added. Nuevo Momento seeks to support them to scale up their impact.

Román stressed that improving the way Latino Catholics are served must be a key priority within the church. “We are almost half of the church. We must invest so that our children, so that our families continue to be an important part of it,” she said.

She thinks that some Hispanic organizations are only able to do ministry on a smaller scale because of a tendency not to see the richness Latinos can offer to the church. There might also be a perception of being a community that wants to change the church.

“I think sometimes we are not understood,” Román said. “Possibly, they do not understand that the culture and faith — at least for Latin Americans, Caribbeans, for us who come from the south — are tied. We cannot separate them,” she said.

Yet, se is confident that the New Moment initiative will help foster understanding and improve this situation.

Ospino stressed that Nuevo Momento points to “what theologically we would call a ‘Kairos’ (the time perfect that God has so that everything happens when He wills it).”

“It is a moment in history where we recognize, on the one hand, the way in which the church is being updated in response to the current realities,” he said. “And on the other hand, when we see that God becomes present within that history giving us the opportunity to be better disciples.”

The theologian added that “our African American brothers” also need a project like Nuevo Momento, and it would be great to craft such an initiative.

Ospino said to be hopeful that this project will be a catalyst for big changes.

“Jesus started with 12 people. These 12 people didn’t have to be the smartest, nor the richest, nor the most powerful, but they were people who showed a new way of living their faith, a new way to understand reality,” he said. “And those people went on to inspire many, many others.”

Ospino added that he trusts God will accompany them and usher a stronger response to the transformation that is already underway within the church in the United States.

(Omar Cabrera writes for OSV News from Ohio.)

Briefs

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James Earl Jones, poses for photographers as he stands next to Darth Vader at the premiere of the film “Star Wars: Attack of the Clones” at the TriBeCa Film Festival in New York City May 12, 2002. The late actor, a Catholic with a storied career that included voicing the character Darth Vader, died the morning of Sept. 9, 2024. (OSV News photo/Chip East, Reuters)

NATION
DUTCHESS COUNTY, N.Y. (OSV News) – James Earl Jones, a distinguished actor known for his resonant voice and a Black Catholic, died Sept. 9 in Dutchess County at age 93. His numerous and versatile roles over an illustrious 70-year career included the voice of Darth Vader in “Star Wars,” beginning in 1977, and Mufasa in “The Lion King” (1994); a reclusive author in “Field of Dreams” (1989); and Admiral James Greer in “The Hunt for Red October” (1990), as well as Broadway and Shakespearan plays. He was also the dramatic voice behind CNN’s tagline “This is CNN.” A convert to the Catholic faith as a young man while serving in the U.S. Army, Jones wrote in 1993, “Perhaps my greatest honor came when I was asked to read the New Testament on tape,” pointing to an unabridged recording of the King James Version of the New Testament he made in the 1980s that was remastered for CD in 2002. His talent earned him the elusive “EGOT,” having garnered Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards. The Oscar was an honorary Academy Award granted in 2011. Jones’ passing coincided with the feast of St. Peter Claver, a patron saint of Black Catholics.

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – Sen. JD Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee, repeated – without evidence – claims about Haitian immigrants eating the pets of residents in Springfield, Ohio. But Vance’s fellow Ohio Republican officials have said such claims are false, and Catholic leaders have called for respect for migrants. At a Sept. 10 debate, former President Donald Trump also repeated the viral, unverified claims – refuted by local authorities – about Haitian migrants, a largely Catholic population, living in the city of Springfield, Ohio, that accuses them of abducting pets and eating them. In a Sept. 15 interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Vance was confronted by anchor Dana Bash about that claim, which he has also repeated. “If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do, Dana, because you guys are completely letting Kamala Harris coast,” Vance said. Vance’s fellow Ohio Republicans including the state’s governor and Springfield’s mayor, called the claims that Haitian migrants are kidnapping and eating pets false. “We have a big-hearted community, and we’re being smeared in a way we don’t deserve,” said Mayor Rob Rue, also a Republican. Credible estimates vary, but a few thousand immigrants from Haiti have settled in Springfield, Ohio, city officials said, and most have legal status. Most came as a result of a local Chamber of Commerce effort to revive Springfield as a manufacturing hub.

VATICAN
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The second session of the Synod of Bishops on synodality, set to bring 368 bishops, priests, religious and laypeople to the Vatican, will begin by asking forgiveness for various sins on behalf of all the baptized. As synod members did before last year’s session, they will spend two days on retreat before beginning work; that period of reflection will conclude Oct. 1 with a penitential liturgy presided over by Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Basilica, the Vatican announced. The liturgy will include time to listen to the testimonies of three people: one who suffered from the sin of abuse, one from the sin of war and third from the sin of indifference to the plight of migrants, according to a Vatican statement announcing the liturgy. Afterward, “the confession of a number of sins will take place,” said the statement, released Sept. 16. “The aim is not to denounce the sin of others, but to acknowledge oneself as a member of those who, by omission or action, become the cause of suffering and responsible for the evil inflicted on the innocent and defenseless.” The liturgy is open to all but is specifically geared toward young people, as it “directs the church’s inner gaze to the faces of new generations,” the Vatican said.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Maybe it is a sign of aging, Pope Francis said, but he is increasingly concerned about what kind of world he and his peers will leave for younger generations – and the prognosis is not good. “This isn’t pessimism,” the pope told about two dozen representatives of popular movements and grassroots organizations meeting Sept. 20 at the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. Pope Francis said he feared adults are leaving behind “a world discouraged, inferior, violent, marked by the plundering of nature, alienated by dehumanized modes of communication,” and “without the political, social and economic paradigms to lead the way, with few dreams and enormous threats.” But, he said, if people join forces, especially with those who are most often the victims, things can change.

WORLD
HANOI, Vietnam (OSV News) – More than 100 people, including a Catholic religious sister, are still listed as missing after Typhoon Yagi, the most powerful storm to hit Asia this year, left at least 233 dead in northern Vietnam. Sister Maria Nguyen Thi Bich Hang from the Lovers of the Holy Cross congregation is believed by her family to have been killed in the storm. On Sept. 9, heavy rain collapsed the Phong Chau Bridge over the Red River in Phu Tho province and eight people, including 35-year-old Sister Maria Nguyen, were washed away. With winds of up to 92 mph, Typhoon Yagi, the most powerful typhoon to hit Asia in 2024, wreaked havoc in northern Vietnam Sept. 7-11. Besides the death toll, the subsequent landslides and floods also left 807 people injured and 103 missing, according to government figures. In a Sept. 12 telegram signed by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, the pope said he was “deeply saddened” to learn of the destruction wrought by Typhoon Yagi, offering his “spiritual solidarity to the injured and to all those suffering the continuing effects of this disaster.” The church and the government agencies have provided aid to victims of the storm that hit 20 out of Vietnam’s 25 northern provinces. In the Hung Hoa Diocese in Phu Tho province, Caritas workers were distributing instant noodles, milk, rice and clean water to flood victims.

KRAKOW, Poland (OSV News) – Poland’s government is preparing a decree of a state of natural disaster as the southwestern part of the country was severely flooded by torrential rains caused by Storm Boris. Throughout the weekend of Sept. 14-15, the storm continued to wreak havoc across Central and Eastern Europe. In Austria, Poland and Czech Republic, 11 people were confirmed dead in the regions affected. “I want to express our sympathy to those who have experienced this great drama, but at the same time assure them that they are not left alone,” Archbishop Tadeusz Wojda of Gdansk, president of the Polish bishops’ conference, said in a Sept. 16 statement as thousands of people were evacuated from the flood-affected region of the country. “Water, after heavy rains, flooded many houses, schools, kindergartens, and hospitals. Many homes and public buildings have been destroyed, and the entire road infrastructure in that area has been badly damaged,” the archbishop said. A 17th-century Franciscan monastery in Klodzko was dramatically affected by the flood. “The whole main church was flooded,” said Father Ignacy Szczytowski, guardian of the monastery. “We’re located right at the curve of the Nysa Klodzka River. There were no chances that with this amount of water we would manage to stop it from coming,” he said, estimating the monastery’s losses at $3.5 million.