Category Archives: U.S. News

University, institute to be hub for causes of African-American Catholics

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By Christine Bordelon
NEW ORLEANS – Reynold Verret, president of Xavier University of Louisiana, announced July 31 that the university and its Institute for Black Catholic Studies will become the new hub for the advancement of sainthood causes of African-American Catholics.
Verret made the announcement in the university’s St. Katharine Drexel chapel.
Privy to this historic announcement were attendees of the Joint Conference 2018 of the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus, the National Black Sisters Conference, the National Black Catholic Seminarians Association and the National Association of Black Catholic Deacons held in New Orleans July 28 – Aug. 2.
Verret said Xavier and its Institute for Black Catholic Studies will serve as hosts and administrators, and Chicago Auxiliary Bishop Joseph N. Perry will be moderator and chair of the center, whose goal is to unite all guilds advancing the causes of black sainthood.
Bishop Perry is postulator of the cause of Father Augustus Tolton, the first recognized African-American priest. Father Tolton has the title “servant of God” at this stage in his cause.
The center’s initial focus will be on the canonization of Father Tolton and Pierre Toussaint, Mother Henriette Delille, Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange and Julia Greeley, Verret said, with the hopes, this fall, of adding another ground-breaking black Catholic, Sister Thea Bowman, who taught at Xavier’s Institute for Black Catholic Studies.
The eventual goal, Verret said, is to establish “a resource center at Xavier with scholarly work on the lives and work of the … soon-to-be six candidates for sainthood and St. Katharine Drexel and St. Kateri Tekakwitha.”
A brief update was given during the announcement by promoters of the causes of each of the five sainthood candidates:
– Father A. Gerard Jordan, representing Bishop Perry, described Pierre Toussaint as a former slave and hairdresser who purchased freedom for his family. Toussaint has been declared “venerable.”
– Father Jordan also talked about Father Tolton, a former slave from Missouri whose family used the Underground Railroad to find freedom in Illinois. He trained for the priesthood in Rome because he was refused entrance into American seminaries and was ordained in 1886. He suffered threats while pastoring in his Illinois hometown and moved to Chicago to found St. Monica’s, the city’s first black parish.
“His life was a life of courage,” Father Jordan said. The cause for his canonization was proclaimed in 2011. He was named a “servant of God” in 2012. The Vatican Congregation for Saints’ Causes declared affirmatively to the validity of the inquiry into his life in 2015. His remains were exhumed in 2016, and his “positio” was approved so his cause can move forward to the pope.
Father Jordan also said the five candidates were universal saints for everybody, and their causes are “not in competition but in communion” to recognize black Americans who are people of virtue.
– Sister Magdala Gilbert, an Oblate Sister of Providence, discussed Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange, her order’s founder and a “servant of God.” Sister Gilbert described her “as a no-nonsense woman who did what she had to do.” She worked to educate African-American children when it wasn’t popular: “When you have God at your side, you fear nothing.” Mother Lange’s cause began in 1991 but was recently assigned a new postulator in hopes that the “positio,” or position paper, on her life will be completed this October.
– Sister Greta Jupiter, a member of the Sisters of the Holy Family, talked about the cause of Mother Henriette Delille, who founded the order in 1842. She was declared “venerable” in 2010 by Pope Benedict XVI. Two miracles attributed to her intercession are being examined. In general, one authenticated miracle is required for beatification and a second such miracle for canonization.
– Mary Leising described the Denver Archdiocese’s progress made on the cause of “Angel of Charity” Julia Greeley of Colorado. Born in Hannibal, Missouri, she worked and walked the streets of Denver collecting food, coal, clothing in a little red wagon and delivered the goods at night to the needy. She joined the Secular Franciscan Order in 1901. A guild to research her sainthood was established in 2011. Her cause was opened by Denver Archbishop Samuel J. Aquilla in 2016. On Aug. 10, the archdiocese will close its investigative phase and send its findings to Rome.
Xavier University was the last stop on the conference’s Black Catholic Enrichment Tour that treated attendees to significant sites in the life of African-Americans in New Orleans. The conference celebrated the 50th anniversary of the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus and the National Black Sisters Conference and their formation of strong black Catholic men and women of service.
The enrichment tour illustrated the joint conference theme of “We’ve Come a Mighty Long Way!”
“Welcome. You are standing on holy ground” were the first words tour participants heard when entering St. Augustine Church, founded in 1841, in New Orleans’ historic Treme’ neighborhood.
Local conference committee member Jari Honora and New Orleans Auxiliary Bishop Fernand J. Cheri explained that St. Augustine Church saw whites, free people of color and slaves worshipping together.

Pictures of five candidates for sainthood are featured on the altar at St. Katharine Drexel Chapel of Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans July 31. An announcement was made that day that Xavier would be the center for coordinating the advancement of all African-American sainthood causes. (CNS photo/Christine Bordelon, Clarion Herald)

It also was where Mother Henriette Delille began her ministry to the poor and elderly; and where civil rights activists Homer Plessy, attorney A.P. Tureaud and many musicians prayed. It also is home to the “Tomb of the Unknown Slave.”
Along the route, Bishop Cheri referenced Congo Square as a place where free people of color congregated, the Mahalia Jackson Performing Arts Center (named after the New Orleans-born gospel singer) and how native Louis Armstrong was baptized Catholic at Sacred Heart of Jesus Church on Canal Street.
When passing Corpus Christi-Epiphany Church, which merged after Hurricane Katrina, Corpus Christi Parish, founded in 1916, was noted as once being the largest African-American parish in the world and was considered “Queen of the Josephite missions.” Bishop Cheri recalled there being about 53 majority-black parishes in New Orleans; now, the number is close to 24 parishes and three predominantly black schools.
At the Sisters of the Holy Family Motherhouse in Gentilly, Sister Laura Mercier said when her order’s founder is canonized, she would be the first native-born African-American saint. “Her life will be a reminder that everyone can be a saint, no matter what color they are,” Sister Laura said.
Blessed Sacrament Sister Eva Marie Lumas, interim director of the Institute for Black Catholic Studies, said Xavier University is a special place that understands the woes and giftedness of the African American community and a perfect place to honor black Catholic ancestors who walked before and contributed much to society and the church.
She said elevating these African-Americans to sainthood is “a witness to advancing some who are ordinary people who did extraordinary things, and extraordinary people that understood the frame of reference of ordinary things …” While they might not have seen the fruits of their labors in their lifetime, these candidates for sainthood did what was right anyway by standing tall, walking, talking and showing how to do it right.
“It is both appropriate and significant that this joint effort to promote the cause for sainthood for these six extraordinary individuals should originate at Xavier,” Verret said.
The center will add Sister Thea Bowman once her cause is officially opened by the Diocese of Jackson, hopefully later this year.

(Bordelon is associate editor of the Clarion Herald, newspaper of the Archdiocese of New Orleans.)

Catholic death penalty opponents praise pope’s catechism revision

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By Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON (CNS) – The Aug. 2 announcement that Pope Francis had ordered a revision of the Catechism of the Catholic Church calling the death penalty “inadmissible” was praised by Catholic death penalty opponents in the U.S.
“I am overjoyed and deeply grateful to learn that Pope Francis closed the last remaining loophole in Catholic social teaching on the death penalty,” said Sister Helen Prejean, a Sister of St. Joseph of Medaille, who is a longtime opponent of capital punishment.
Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, executive director of Catholic Mobilizing Network in Washington, an advocacy group seeking to end the death penalty, called the news “a capstone teaching moment for the Catholic Church.”
Both advocates, in separate statements, stressed the clarity of the pope’s announcement. Sister Prejean said the Catholic Church “has opposed capital punishment for many years, but the official language used to talk about the issue up to this point has always been equivocal” leaving room for some to say that “executions are morally permissible.”
The catechism’s “new language is very clear,” Sister Prejean said, with its description of the death penalty as “an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person.” There are “absolutely no exceptions,” she added.
Vaillancourt Murphy said Catholic bishops in every state that have the death penalty have taken stands to see an end to this practice. She said the revision to the catechism “further clarifies any remaining ambiguity about the church’s teaching against the death penalty and strengthens the global resolve to bring an end to this practice.”
Both leaders pointed out that the Pope Francis’ action builds on work begun by St. John Paul II, who spoke of the dignity of guilty and innocent life and described executions as cruel and unnecessary.
“The moral ground zero of this issue in the Catholic context has been the question of self defense and the inviolable dignity of every human being,” said Sister Prejean, who pointed out that there is “nothing dignified about rendering a person defenseless, strapping them down to a gurney and killing them.”

Father Chris Ponnet, chaplain at the St. Camillus Center for Spiritual Care in Los Angeles, speaks during a rally protesting the death penalty in Anaheim, Calif., Feb. 25, 2017. Pope Francis has ordered a revision to the catechism to state that the death penalty is inadmissible and he committed the church to its abolition. (CNS photo/Andrew Cullen, Reuters)

“The moral tectonic plates have shifted,” she added, saying the “very nature of the act of executing a person can no longer be justified.”
But as thrilled as she was by the pope’s announcement, the author of “Dead Man Walking” – about her experience helping death-row inmates – also said the revision is “still just words on a page. Words must be followed by action. It’s time to abolish state-sponsored killing forever.”
Vaillancourt Murphy similarly stressed the reality of the death penalty in the United States, saying 31 states “still have it on the books.”
She also said more than 2,800 people are currently on death row in the United States and 14 executions are scheduled for the remainder of 2018, including three in August.
“These upcoming executions are a stark reminder that the death penalty is active in the United States, and it violates our commitment to the dignity of all life,” she said. “The death penalty is a failed practice that perpetuates the cycle of violence and disproportionately targets marginalized populations, especially people of color, those living in poverty and people suffering with mental illness.”
Hannah Cox, national manager of Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, also issued a statement in support of the pope’s revision.
“(It) reflects what we are seeing in our work with conservative Catholics who increasingly understand the death penalty is a failed and unnecessary policy that does not value life and does nothing to make our society safer,” she said. “We are grateful for the leadership of the Catholic Church, including Popes John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Francis, in efforts to end the death penalty.”

Many urge more accountability by church after abuse revelations

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By Mark Pattison
WASHINGTON (CNS) – The sexual abuse allegations surrounding now-former Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick have prompted some church figures to call for a more thorough reckoning of the U.S. church’s clerical sexual abuse policies.
“We can – and I am confident that we will – strengthen the rules and regulations and sanctions against any trying to fly under the radar or to ‘get away with’ such evil and destructive behaviors,” said Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger of Albany, New York, in a July 27 letter to clergy in his diocese. “But, at its heart, this is much more than a challenge of law enforcement; it is a profoundly spiritual crisis.”
“In negative terms, and as clearly and directly as I can repeat our church teaching, it is a grave sin to be ‘sexually active’ outside of a real marriage covenant. A cardinal is not excused from what a layperson or another member of the clergy is not,” Bishop Scharfenberger said.

Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, retired archbishop of Washington, delivers the homily in 2009 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington. Pope Francis has accepted the resignation from the College of Cardinals of Archbishop McCarrick, and has ordered him to maintain “a life of prayer and penance” until a canonical trial examines accusations that he sexually abused minors. (CNS photo/Nancy Wiechec)

“A member of the clergy who pledges to live a celibate life must remain as chaste in his relationship with all whom he serves as spouses within a marriage. This is what our faith teaches and what we are held to in practice. There is no ‘third way,'” he added.
Bishop Scharfenberger said, “Abuse of authority – in this case, with strong sexual overtones – with vulnerable persons is hardly less reprehensible than the sexual abuse of minors, which the USCCB (U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops) attempted to address in 2002. Unfortunately, at that time – something I never understood – the ‘Charter’ (‘for the Protection of Children and Young People’) did not go far enough so as to hold cardinals, archbishops and bishops equally, if not more, accountable than priests and deacons.”
He said he believes the “vast majority of clergy – priests, deacons and bishops alike – live or, at least, are striving to live holy and admirable lifestyles. I am ashamed of those of my brothers, such as the cardinal, who do not and have not.”
With his resignation July 28 from the College of Cardinals, McCarrick retains the title of archbishop. However, “his prompt reduction canonically to the laity should be strongly deliberated,” said a July 28 statement by Bishop Michael F. Olson of Fort Worth, Texas.
“As each day passes, we learn that the former cardinal not only allegedly perpetrated abuse against minors but also against subordinates including priests, seminarians and members of the laity. The evil effects of these actions were multiplied by the fact that financial settlements were arranged with victims without transparency or restrictions on the former cardinal’s ministry,” Bishop Olson said.
“Justice also requires that all of those in church leadership who knew of the former cardinal’s alleged crimes and sexual misconduct and did nothing be held accountable for their refusal to act thereby enabling others to be hurt.”
Trinity Washington University president Patricia McGuire, in a July 27 blog posting titled “Cardinal Sins,” reflected on the allegations against Archbishop McCarrick through the prism of her mother’s late-in-life dread that she may have exposed her young sons to abusive clergy.
“As the tawdry, tragic stories of priests committing appalling acts of abuse spread from Boston to Philadelphia and parishes and dioceses nationwide, the mothers of the altar boys, in particular, suffered silent grief and suspicion, leading to a sense of betrayal and then alienation from the church to which they had devoted unquestioning loyalty throughout their lives,” McGuire said.
In the year before McGuire’s mother died, “the abuse scandal left her bitter about the hypocrisy of priests and bishops; she wondered aloud about her own father, my grandfather who, as a young man in Milan (Italy), had been in the seminary for a while. He left the seminary and came to America and, in my mother’s memory, he would not set foot inside a church. ‘All’s right between God and me,’ he would say to her,” she wrote.
“The emergence of the American abuse scandal made her wonder if something had happened to her father even so long ago in the Italian seminary; again, no evidence, but the scandal created more doubts, caused more anguish, like a rapidly spreading toxic algae bloom.”
McGuire added, “The church’s response to the massive sex abuse crisis has always seemed to lack a certain level of deep, urgent understanding of the gravity of the sin against children and other victims. Certainly, words have cascaded, gestures made, money paid out. But, somehow, the words and gestures and checks have all seemed more self-protective of the organization than truly penitential at the most profound level.”
“As a father, I am appalled and angry. As a Catholic, I feel ashamed and betrayed,” said a statement from John Carr, director of the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University, who had worked closely with Archbishop McCarrick on various policy initiatives when Carr worked at USCCB headquarters in Washington.
“As a friend of former Cardinal McCarrick, I am devastated, especially for the victims and their families,” Carr added. “I pray that these horrific developments can help end this evil of clerical sex abuse and dismantle the culture that permitted it within our family of faith.”
Msgr. Owen Campion, former editor of the national newspaper Our Sunday Visitor and now chaplain of OSV Newsweekly, said he felt dismay, revulsion, heartsickness, anger and – for once – weariness upon learning of the accusations lodged against Archbishop McCarrick.
“I am weary of trying to make excuses, of trying to find something to say,” Msgr. Campion wrote July 18. 
“I am tired of stepping away from restrooms in restaurants until a youth has emerged. I am tired of watching my every move and calculating my every word if a young person is present. I am tired of calling my diocese when I have been invited to preach in another location, asking for a letter stating that I have never been in trouble.”
He added that he is tired of making the point that “sexual abuse is a vast problem in our culture,” because he is “assailed for concocting excuses.” “But I make it again,” he said.
Sexual abuse “hardly only involves clergy. Our society’s insanity when it comes to satisfying erotic desires in the most selfish of circumstances, and our increasing disregard for morality in any setting, is sickening and frightening because of where it is taking us,” Msgr. Campion said. “We must face this fact.”
Msgr. Campion said, “One excuse that I have offered with increasing lack of enthusiasm is the Dallas ‘Charter,’ a policy created by U.S. bishops to right the wrongs. The charter, whether it is followed or not, spoke of children, but attention must also be given to the wide sexual abuse of adults.”
He added, “A seminarian would have to be very brave to accuse an archbishop, let alone a cardinal. The seminarian, however persuasive his story, would not enjoy the benefit of the doubt. Quite likely, he could forget about being a priest.”
In Baltimore, Archbishop William E. Lori said allegations against Archbishop McCarrick “have shaken our church to its core.”
“That we find ourselves in this place again is tragic and heart wrenching – for the victims; for their families and friends; for all Catholics; and for our neighbors whom we are called to serve in truth and love,” he said in a July 30 statement.
He said he strongly supports Pope Francis’ response to Archbishop McCarrick’s case and other recent cases, including accepting the resignation of several Chilean bishops, and praised the pope’s “determination to hold accountable all those who have sexually abused others or failed to report allegations of sexual abuse, regardless of their position or rank in the church.”
Building on those efforts “to strengthen the accountability of bishops,” Archbishop Lori said, “some bishops in the United States are discussing proposals to do the same, (including) measures that can be implemented in each diocese to ensure that victims can easily report allegations of abuse by any member of the church, including bishops, and can confidently expect that those allegations will get a full and fair hearing.”
“I will contribute actively to those discussions and will fully implement their results in the Archdiocese of Baltimore to best protect those in our local Catholic community and all those we serve,” he said, pledging his “continued diligent oversight of the measures currently in place” and renewing his commitment “to do all I can to build a culture of accountability and transparency.”

(Follow Pattison on Twitter: @MeMarkPattison)

Experts in youth, Hispanic ministry to headline workshops

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By Maureen Smith
JACKSON — Two of the leading voices in ministry in America today are coming to the Diocese of Jackson. Dr. Hoffsman Ospino and Robert Feduccia will lead this year’s faith formation workshop. The Office of Hispanic Ministry and the Department of Faith Formation are using the opportunity to also host a series of workshops and appearances with Ospino, associate professor of theology and religious education at Boston College and a member of the leadership team for the V Encuentro.

Hosffman Ospino, assistant professor of theology and religious education at Boston College’s School of Theology and Ministry, delivers a lecture in 2017 at The Catholic University of America in Washington. Ospino told Catholic News Service in an interview that emerging in the national encuentro process as it unfolds is the need for all U.S. church leaders to strengthen outreach to Hispanic youth and young adults. (CNS photo/Jaclyn Lippelmann, Catholic Standard) See ENCUENTRO-OSPINO-YOUNG July 5, 2018.

On Saturday, August 25, Ospino and Feduccia are set to be keynote speakers anchoring this year’s Faith Formation Day at Madison St. Joseph School. The day is aimed at catechists and those who work in the protection of children, but others can register if they would like to attend. The theme this year – One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic – was developed around the four marks of the Church.
“We are looking at what unites us as Catholics and underscoring the importance of our Catholic identity, presence and catechesis in the world we live in today. Both keynote speakers have a well-developed perspective on what evangelization looks like in the modern era,” said Abbey Schuhmann, coordinator for youth ministry for the Diocese of Jackson and one of the organizers.

Robert Feduccia

Feduccia is a native of Brookaven and was active in the youth group at St. Francis. He was even a seminarian for the diocese before he discerned a call to married life. He helped found a youth liturgical leadership program called One Bread, One Cup at St. Meinrad Seminary and has worked with the National Catholic Youth Conference and World Youth Day.
Breakout sessions will focus on all areas of faith formation including family catechesis, adult faith formation, RCIA, youth ministry, elementary catechesis, Confirmation, self-care, and protection of children. Anyone involved in Faith Formation or Religious Education is encouraged to attend. The $10 cost includes a lunch.
That afternoon, from 3-7 p.m., Ospino will offer a program in Spanish at Pearl St. Jude Parish. Ospino is leading a workshop for pastors, deacons and lay ecclesial ministers one day before the public events.
In the invitation to the pastor event, Christian Brother Ted Dausch, coordinator for the Office of Hispanic Ministry, wrote a little about why hearing from Ospino is so relevant.
“We are living in very challenging times. Most of us cannot remember time a of such divisions, lack of civility, polarizations. It is against this backdrop, we are called to bring together people of different, languages, cultures, values, political preferences to reflect Catholic values lived out in very concrete ways. (Mt. 25)” he wrote.
Ospino has worked for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the National Catholic Educational Association. He brings with him a love for research and years of experience working with the Hispanic communities across the United States. He will speak with pastors, deacons and LEMs about the challenges of uniting diverse communities within faith communities. Registration for all events is open through the Office of Faith Formation, (601) 960-8473 or by emailing fran.lavelle@jacksondiocese.org.

Synod working document: Young Catholics need church that listens to them

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By Junno Arocho Esteves
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Young Catholics are looking for a church that listens to their concerns, accompanies them in discerning their vocations and helps them confront the challenges they face, said a working document for the upcoming Synod of Bishops on young people.
The synod’s “instrumentum laboris” (working document), published by the Vatican June 19, stated that young people “want to see a church that shares their situations of life in the light of Gospel rather than by preaching.”
Quoting a presynod gathering of young people who met at the Vatican March 19-25, the working document said young Catholics “want an authentic church. With this, we would like to express, particularly to the church hierarchy, our request for a transparent, welcoming, honest, attractive, communicative, accessible, joyful and interactive community.”
The working document is based mainly on comments solicited in a questionnaire last June from national bishops’ conferences around the world as well as the final document of the presynod gathering.
An estimated 305 young adults participated in the weeklong presynod meeting, which allowed practicing Catholics and others to provide input for Pope Francis and the world’s bishops, who will meet at the synod in October to discuss “young people, faith and vocational discernment.” Some 15,000 young people also participated in the presynod process through Facebook groups online.
The meeting, the working document said, “highlighted the potential that younger generations represent” as well as their “hopes and desires.”
“Young people are great seekers of meaning, and everything that is in harmony with their search to give value to their lives arouses their attention and motivates their commitment,” it said.
Presenting the “instrumentum laboris” to journalists at a press briefing June 19, Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, secretary-general of the synod, said the synod’s goal is that young Catholics may find “the beauty of life, beginning from the happy relationship with the God of the covenant and of love” in a world that often robs them of their “affections, bonds and prospective of life.”
“The synod dedicated to young people gives us the opportunity to rediscover the hope of a good life, the dream of a pastoral renewal, the desire for community and passion for education,” he said.
Divided into three parts, the working document outlines the church’s need to listen to young people, to help guide them in the faith and in discerning their vocational calling, and to identify pastoral and missionary paths to be able to accompany them.
The responses collected by bishops’ conferences around the world cited a need for ways to help young men and women confront the challenges of cultural changes that sometimes disregard traditions and spirituality.

Pope Francis prepares to take a photo with young people at a presynod gathering of youth delegates in Rome March 19. The Vatican has released the working document for the October Synod of Bishops on young people, the faith and vocational discernment. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

The working document also states that while the church highlights the importance of the body, affection and sexuality, many young Catholic men and women “do not follow the directions of the sexual morality of the church.”
“Although no bishops’ conferences offer solutions or indications, many (conferences) believe the issue of sexuality should be discussed more openly and without judgment,” it said.
Young people attending the presynod meeting said issues such as contraception, abortion, homosexuality, cohabitation and marriage are often debated both by young Catholics and non-Catholics.
The working document also highlighted the need to reaffirm church teaching on the body and sexuality at a time when biomedical advancements have pushed a more “technocratic approach to the body,” citing examples such as egg donation and surrogacy.
“Moreover, precocious sexuality, sexual promiscuity, digital pornography, the exhibition of one’s own body online and sexual tourism risk disfiguring the beauty and depth of emotional and sexual life,” the “instrumentum laboris” said.
Church leaders, it said, must “speak in practical terms about controversial subjects such as homosexuality and gender issues, which young people are already freely discussing without taboo.”
Also, “LGBT youths, through various contributions received by the secretariat of the synod, want to benefit from a greater closeness and experience greater care from the church,” while some bishops’ conferences are asking what they can recommend to young people who enter into a homosexual relationship, but want to be closer to the church, the document said.
Regarding the use of the initials “LGBT” in a major church document, Cardinal Baldisseri told journalists that it was a term used in one of the documents given by the bishops’ conferences “and we quoted them.”
“We are open. We don’t want the synod to be closed in itself,” Cardinal Baldisseri said. “And in the church, there are many areas, there is freedom for people to express themselves – on the right, left, center, north and south – this is all possible. That is why we are willing to listen to people with different opinions.”
The working document also said young Catholics would like more initiatives that allow further dialogue with nonbelievers and the secular world to help them integrate their faith in their dealings with others.
Young men and women from primarily secularized areas “ask nothing from the church” and “expressly asked to be left in peace, because they feel its presence as annoying and even irritating.” These feelings, the document stated, do not come from contempt but rather due to “serious and respectable reasons.”
Among the reasons are the church’s sexual and economic scandals, priests who do not know how to engage with young people, and the way the church justifies its doctrinal and ethical positions to modern society.
Young men and women are also hoping the church can help them “find a simple and clear understanding of the meaning of vocation,” which is often misinterpreted as referring only to priesthood and consecrated life.
While the church has confirmed that marriage is also a vocation, the document confirms the need for “a youth vocational ministry capable of being meaningful for all young people.”
“Called to holiness and anointed by the spirit, the Christian learns to grasp all the choices in existence in a vocational perspective, especially the central one of the state of life as well as those of a professional nature,” it said.
“For this reason, some bishops’ conferences hope that the synod will find ways to help all Christians rediscover the link between profession and vocation in all its fruitfulness … and in view of the professional orientation of young people with a vocational perspective,” the document said.

Bishops end border visit, call reunification of children urgent

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By Rhina Guidos
SAN JUAN, Texas (CNS) – In less than 48 hours, a group of Catholic bishops saw the faces of triumph and relief from migrants who had been recently released by immigration authorities, but ended their two-day journey to the border with a more “somber” experience, visiting detained migrant children living temporarily within the walls of a converted Walmart.
During a news conference after the second and last day of their visit July 2, they stressed the “urgent” need to do something to help the children.
The separation for some of the children began shortly after U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced in early May that if migrants wanted to take their chances crossing the border illegally with their children, they faced the consequence of having them taken away – and he implemented a policy doing so.
Widespread outrage in the weeks following led to President Donald Trump essentially rescinding the policy in mid-June. But the stroke of the pen could not automatically reunite the children and parents who had been and remain apart.
“The children who are separated from their parents need to be reunited. That’s already begun and it’s certainly not finished and there may be complications, but it must be done and it’s urgent,” said Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The visit to the facility known as Casa Padre capped the bishops’ brief journey to the border communities of McAllen-Brownsville near the southern border.

Trump picks Judge Brett Kavanaugh as Supreme Court nominee

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By Carol Zimmermann
WASHINGTON (CNS) – President Donald Trump announced July 9 that his nominee for the Supreme Court is Judge Brett Kavanaugh, a federal appeals court judge in Washington and a Catholic who once clerked for retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy.
“What matters is not a judge’s personal views but whether they can set aside those views to do what the law and the Constitution require,” Trump said in his announcement at the White House, adding: “I am pleased to say I have found, without doubt, such a person.”
He said the nominee has “impeccable credentials” and is “considered a judge’s judge.”
“I am grateful to you and I am humbled by your confidence in me,” said Kavanaugh, who was standing near his wife and two daughters.

Brett Kavanaugh, a Catholic, who is a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, smiles July 9 at the White House in Washington after President Donald Trump named him his Supreme Court nominee. (CNS photo/Jim Bourg, Reuters)

Kavanaugh spoke about his Catholic faith saying he tries to live by the motto instilled in him by his Jesuit high school: “be men for others.” Kavanaugh, like Justice Neil Gorsuch, attended Georgetown Prep, a Jesuit boys school in Maryland. He also pointed out that his former pastor, Msgr. John Enzler, was in the audience. He said he he used to be an altar boy for him and now the two serve the homeless together. The priest is the president and CEO of Catholic Charities of Washington. Kavanaugh also gave a shout-out to the girls basketball team at his parish which he coaches. He said the team has nicknamed him “Coach K,” the name given to Duke basketball’s head coach Mike Krzyzewski.
Kavanaugh said if he is chosen to be on the Supreme Court he would “keep an open mind in every case” and “always strive to preserve the Constitution of the United States and the American rule of law.”
Immediately after Justice Anthony Kennedy’s announced his retirement June 27, Trump said he would move quickly to nominate a replacement, saying he would review a list of candidates from the list he had to fill the seat now held by Gorsuch after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.
Kennedy is one of five Catholic justices on the Supreme Court along with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Sonia Sotomayor.
Kavanaugh, 53, is a Yale Law School graduate who currently serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, where he has authored more than 280 opinions. He was part of the Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr’s Whitewater investigation, which ultimately led to President Bill Clinton’s impeachment by the House and acquittal by the Senate.
His biography on the court website notes that he is a regular lector at his church, the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Washington. He also volunteers for the St. Maria’s Meals program at Catholic Charities, has coached CYO, tutors at the Washington Jesuit Academy and belongs to the John Carroll Society, a group of Catholic lawyers and professionals.
He dissented from a recent ruling by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals that a teenager in an immigrant detention center was entitled to seek an abortion. He claimed the decision would give immigrant minors a right to “immediate abortion on demand,” but urged the government to transfer her to private custody so she could do “as she wished.”
Kavanaugh also dissented from a majority decision of the D.C. Circuit that rejected a request from the Archdiocese of Washington and Priests for Life to have the full court review their challenge to the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate.
He said that “the regulations substantially burden the religious organizations’ exercise of religion because the regulations require the organizations to take an action contrary to their sincere religious beliefs.” But he also wrote that the government “has a compelling interest in facilitating access to contraception for the employees of these religious organizations” and should “achieve it in other ways.”
Two of the other judges reported to be top picks as nominees are also Catholic: Judges Amy Coney Barrett and Thomas Hardiman. Judge Amul Thapar, on a broader top list, is also Catholic.
The nominee must be confirmed by the Senate in order to have a seat on the Supreme Court. The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold hearings questioning the nominee and if the committee approves, a vote for or against the nominee goes to the full Senate floor and must be approved with a simple majority or 51 votes. – –

(Follow Zimmermann on Twitter: @carolmaczim.)

Trump firma orden para detener separación de familias

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Por Mark Pattison
WASHINGTON (CNS) — El presidente Donald Trump firmó una orden ejecutiva el 20 de junio que suspende la práctica de separar a menores de edad del lado de sus padres, una política de su administración que se ha aplicado a familias que han estado cruzando la frontera entre Estados Unidos y México ilegalmente.
La orden ejecutiva enfrenta un obstáculo por un decreto de consentimiento de 1997 que prohíbe al gobierno federal mantener a los niños en detención dentro de un centro de inmigración más de 20 días, aunque estén con sus padres. La orden ejecutiva ordena al fiscal general que solicite  el permiso de una corte federal para modificar el decreto de consentimiento.
La crisis comenzó cuando el fiscal general de los Estados Unidos Jeff Sessions anunció una política de “tolerancia cero” para los que cruzan la frontera. Según la política, adultos que cruzan la frontera sin documentos se les acusará de un delito grave en lugar de un delito menor. Bajo ley federal, personas acusadas de delitos graves no pueden tener a sus hijos con ellos mientras están detenidos.
El gobierno dijo a principios de junio que 1,995 menores de edad habían sido separados de 1,940 adultos que habían cruzado la frontera entre Estados Unidos y México, aunque algunos menores habían cruzado sin sus padres o parientes adultos.
La política y su resultado provocaron algunas de las reacciones más hostiles de cualquier iniciativa de Trump.

Children of detained migrants play soccer at a tent encampment near Tornillo, Texas, June 18. Image taken from Guadelupe, Mexico. (CNS photo/Jose Luis Gonzalez, Reuters)

Horas antes de que se firmara la orden ejecutiva, el papa Francisco dijo que estaba de acuerdo con los obispos estadounidenses, quienes habían condenado la política de separación de familias, la cual ha llevado a que niños permanezcan en centros de detención del gobierno mientras que sus padres van a cárceles federales. Los obispos de México también criticaron la política.
Todas las primeras damas vivientes, incluso la primera dama, Melania Trump, una inmigrante de Eslovenia, expresaron su tristeza o una emoción más fuerte al ver imágenes de los niños separados de sus padres.
Trump dijo que su esposa, tal como él, tienen sentimientos “fuertes” al ver las imágenes.
“Creo que cualquiera con corazón lo sentiría con fuerza”, dijo Trump durante la ceremonia en la cual firmó el documento el 20 de junio en la Oficina Oval.
Trump dijo que no le gustaba ver a familias separadas, ni los sentimientos que le provocaba
“Esto resolverá ese problema y al mismo tiempo mantendremos una frontera muy fuerte”, dijo.
Aun así, la orden ejecutiva no es necesariamente un remedio. Le permite al Departamento de Seguridad Nacional detener a las familias juntas “bajo las actuales limitaciones de recursos”. La “política de detención temporal” también solo está vigente “en la medida permitida por la ley y sujeta a la disponibilidad de las asignaciones”

Hundreds of calls come in at USCCB HQ seeking to foster detained kids

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By Mark Pattison
WASHINGTON (CNS) – Maybe it was the request by the Pentagon for 20,000 mattresses as military bases become, at least partly, shelters for detained border crossers.
Maybe it was the federal government report that 2,342 children had been separated from 2,206 parents at the U.S.-Mexico border between May 5 and June 9.
Maybe it was the now-famous audio recording of children crying after being separated from their parents.

An immigrant entering the U.S. illegally is seen arriving in shackles for a court hearing in McAllen, Texas, June 22. (CNS photo/Loren Elliott, Reuters) See IMMIGRATION-BORDERS June 22, 2018.

Or maybe it was the pictures of kids in cages.
Whatever the reason, hundreds of American adults have called the Washington headquarters of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops seeking to provide foster care for the separated children.
At first report June 20, 300 calls had come in. And the calls keep coming. “We’re triaging the calls,” said Katie Kuennen, associate director for children’s services for the USCCB’s Migration and Refugee Services office.
“We’re getting flooded,” Kuennen added. “It’s not just Catholic Charities, but MRS-wide.”
The one hitch: Most of those who have called are not licensed or certified to be foster parents. That’s a process that varies from state to state, according to Kuennen. While most states can train and certify parents for foster care in two or three months, some states can take a lot longer.
Further, while many Catholic Charities USA affiliate agencies are set up to match foster families with children, not all are. MRS, Kuennen said, also partners with Bethany Christian Services in some areas of the country. Agencies wishing to add foster care to their portfolio of services can typically gain state licensing in a month or two, she added.
So what happens when the calls come in? “We’re able to direct them to the nearest ORR foster care program that we have available,” Kuennen told Catholic News Service June 22. ORR is the acronym for the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement.
“The programs aren’t new, the process of bringing foster families on board isn’t new,” she said. “What’s new is the public awareness of the program and the seeing of these images on television to get engaged and to open their homes to these families.”
Even though President Donald Trump signed an executive order June 20 that essentially reversed that part of the administration’s “zero tolerance” policy that separated kids from their parents, it was silent on the fate of those 2,352 kids already torn from their folks, plus whatever additional children were separated from their parents after June 9.
Moreover, a policy enacted in 1997 sets a 20-day limit for detained children to be detained alongside their parents. A Trump administration request to exceed that limit is before a federal judge in California.
“For years there has not been sufficient capacity in the ORR residential network for foster care placement,” Kuennen told CNS. “Historically they (children) have been going into shelter settings.”
However, “our department is currently responding to a funding opportunity announcement from ORR. I’m sure others (agencies) are as well. We are actively seeking to increase our transitional foster care and our long-term foster care,” she added.
It could be coincidence that the ORR money is being freed up at this time, or it could be consequence.
“My sense is that it was initiated in May, released in May, so the timing does match up,” Kuennen said, “before the family separation issue got a lot of attention after the zero tolerance (policy) was put into effect.”
Although the money won’t be officially freed up until the start of the new federal fiscal year Oct. 1, Kuennen said there is precedent for ORR to retroactively reimburse groups it has funded for expenses incurred if the group can show the money was spent on the specific grant plan.

Follow Pattison on Twitter: @MeMarkPattison

Passing a farm bill in 2018’s political climate a hard row to hoe

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By Mark Pattison
WASHINGTON (CNS) – For rural advocates, there were a lot of things not to like in this year’s farm bill.
For starters, there was the zeroing out the Conservation Stewardship Program, which has a $1 billion price tag. There also was a rewrite to the federal Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program that would kick off 2 million Americas from its rolls, more than canceling out the indexing of benefits for those remaining in the program – not to mention the imposition of work requirements to qualify for the benefit.
When the House voted on the farm bill May 18, the measure’s merits were only partly considered. But what brought it down to a surprising defeat was not its content, but a vastly different subject: immigration.
Some Republicans rebelled against their outgoing House speaker, Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, and voted no on the bill in a bid to force a vote on immigration bills that they charge have been stymied by House leadership.
The turn of events left James Ennis, executive director of Catholic Rural Life, sounding shell-shocked.
“It’s a surprise, but at the same time there were flaws in the bill, so it was already vulnerable,” Ennis told Catholic News Service from Wisconsin, where he was conducting Catholic Rural Life business. “Then the division within the House made it that much more divisive.”
Ennis allowed how the thumbs-down on the farm bill could serve as a catalyst for change within it.
“There’s more time for conversations with representatives who are concerned about those kinds of questions. There will be opportunities that maybe convince some to make some revisions,” he said.
“But then again, that’s what myself, Catholic Rural Life, and Catholic Charities and the USCCB (U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops) are trying to do by getting messages out to our constituents. We’ve got this window. So let’s continue to communicate these concerns. There may be some opportunities to get some changes in this version of the farm bill. We’re about a month out. So there is some opportunity. How much is still debatable.”

A truck travels along a dirt road near a grain farm in Hesper Township, Iowa. The 2018 farm bill was defeated on the floor of the House May 18. It could back for a second vote in late June, but Catholic and other rural life advocates see a need for improvements in the measure before then. (CNS photo/Bob Roller) See WASHINGTON-LETTER-FARM-BILL May 25, 2018.

Some lawmakers are collecting signatures from their colleagues for a discharge petition that would force the House to vote on immigration bills. Among them are:
– The DREAM Act, which would let immigrants who arrived as minors without legal permission to stay in the United States and give them a path to citizenship. These immigrants are known as “Dreamers,” the recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA.
– The Agricultural Guestworker Act sponsored by Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Virginia, that would grant temporary status for DACA recipients with renewable three-year visas and would include stronger border enforcement and legal immigration restrictions, including removing protections for immigrant farmworkers.
– The Securing America’s Future Act, which incorporates the Goodlatte bill, cuts lawful immigration by 40 percent, eliminates the ability of citizens to sponsor their siblings, parents or adult children, and offers no path to citizenship for “Dreamers.”
– The Uniting and Securing America Act, a bipartisan compromise that offers a path to citizenship, mandates security cost estimates for each mile of the U.S.-Mexico border, and funds more immigration judges and lawyers.
If the petition is successful, all four bills would be voted on, and the one receiving the most yes votes would be declared the winner. It would be then up to Senate to consider its own legislation. And President Donald Trump has already vowed a veto.
Susan Alan, associate director of the National Farm Worker Ministry, told CNS May 21 the organization was dead-set against the Goodlatte bill.
The bill, she said, would relieve employers from having to pay for transportation for guest workers or reimburse them for their costs as well as having to look for local workers to do the work, do away with the prevailing wage program based on the cost of living in different regions of the country, and take away guest workers’ right to sue for withheld wages.
“It’s reinstituting the ‘bracero’ program of the 1940s and its worst abuses. And it’s no way to treat a neighbor, and it’s no way to treat a guest worker. It would also displace more local workers,” Alan said. “The farmworker community right now is very frightened. What we see is: The more afraid, the more fearful the population is, the more exploitable it is.”
The National Farm Worker Ministry and a Washington-based group, Farmworker Justice, jointly urged members and supporters in a May 25 email to tell their congressional representative to reject the Goodlatte bill and the Securing America’s Future Act.
“There are significant improvements that need to be made to the bill,” said Andrew Jerome, a spokesman for the National Farmers Union. “We’ve been encouraging them to send it back to committee.”
Jerome’s list of improvements included more money for promotion programs that promote diverse markets for family farmers, which he called a big help “with the farm economy being where it’s at right now.” Improvements in the rural safety net and restoration of the Conservation Stewardship Program also rank high on his list.
Whether the House will send it back to committee “is another story,” he said. “They could just bring it up as is.” Jerome said he expects a new vote on a farm bill during the third week of June.
No farm bill? No problem – maybe, said Catholic Rural Life’s Ennis.
“They may pass a continuing a resolution. It depends how long that is,” he said. “The 2012 farm bill became the 2014 farm bill. That took two years to get agreement. I don’t think they don’t want to go down that road again, but that’s always a possibility because of the midterm elections.” The farm bill is supposed to have a five-year lifespan.
Ennis added, “Farmers need to know that certain programs are in place. They need some security. That’s really key. They could do a continuing resolution, kick the can down the road for another year, or pass a farm bill.”
“Maybe it’s better to wait a year,” he sighed. “Who knows their thinking?”

(Editor’s note: Bishop Joseph Kopacz sent a letter to Representative Trent Kelly in May asking him to consider an amendment to the Farm Bill in support of international food assistance programs supported by Catholic Relief Services.)