By John Feister , OSV News

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (OSV News) — This Juneteenth holiday a group of Glenmary Home Missioners will have a deeper appreciation for the historic struggle of African Americans for freedom and equality in the United States. The federal holiday June 19 is a commemoration of the end of slavery in the U.S. at the conclusion of the Civil War.

The Glenmary group recently completed a mid-May pilgrimage through Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee, stopping and praying at significant sites in the slavery era and the U.S. Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and ’60s, and to meet with contemporary community workers.

Thirteen of the 31-member pilgrimage group were Kenyan and Ugandan students in Glenmary formation; others were priests, brothers and lay co-workers primarily from the U.S.

“The point was to have an encounter, an opportunity for them to gain a better understanding of the Southerners they’ll be working with,” Father Dan Dorsey, president of Glenmary, told OSV News. “But the most important thing for me was that the participants had a profoundly spiritual experience, where people see Christ in the experience of others, whether that’s in a museum or in the people who continue to struggle for justice.”

Trip coordinator Polly Duncan Collum, Glenmary’s director of justice, peace and integrity of creation, echoed that sentiment. “It was a tour, and a time of reflection. But also, it was a connection between the past and the present in the meeting community organizers and leaders working for racial and economic justice,” she said.

She offered the example of a meeting with Bishop Joseph R. Kopacz and a multiracial coalition in Jackson, Mississippi, of which the Diocese of Jackson is a member.

In Birmingham, Alabama, pilgrims visited sites commemorating the 1955-56 bus boycott, a key moment in civil rights history. The yearlong boycott, started by the act of defiance by civil rights activist Rosa Parks, brought newly minted preacher the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., into a leadership position that would persist until his murder in 1968. (Parks met with St. John Paul II during his 1999 pastoral visit to St. Louis.)

The pilgrims also visited Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church, where a 1963 Ku Klux Klan bombing caused the death of four child congregants. Across the street was Kelly Ingram Park, where months later police, seen on national television, viciously attacked child protesters with police dogs, fire hoses and water cannons. Today, sculptures and a civil rights museum commemorate those events. Interpreters helped the pilgrims to see the strategy of Civil Rights activists to engage law enforcement in the public eye. Repeatedly, though, the racist reaction was more violent than the activists had anticipated.

Pilgrimage participants later walked across the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma, Alabama, where marchers were viciously attacked by law enforcement in 1965 as the nation looked on. These were key events that eventually led to the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964, championed by President Lyndon B. Johnson.

In Mississippi, the group also stopped to pray at the Canton home of Servant of God Sister Thea Bowman, whose cause for canonization is underway. Sister Thea (1937-1990), a key leader in the Black Catholic movement, worked for intercultural understanding in churches across the United States. She was the first African American to be a member of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration.

Moses Ngund’u, a Glenmary seminarian from Nakuru, Kenya, said what struck him most was listening to the stories of Parks and Rev. King, “especially the way he advocated for a peaceful resolution.”

Seminarian Evarist Mukama was moved by being in the 16th St. Baptist Church, “where the four little girls were killed, innocent as they were, and the scene for their parents and friends. I asked myself, ‘Will there be any point where there will be equality for all?'”

When he saw a museum display of KKK robes, seminarian Philip Langford, a Texan from a multiethnic family, was brought back to a childhood experience.

“I actually have a memory of encountering the KKK,” he said, recalling a 2004 cross-country family car trip from Texas to Florida, with a gas stop in Mississippi. “Coming down the road a group of Klansmen were carrying a cross. I remember my mother immediately told me to lie on the floorboard. I was just reminded of all of that today. I can imagine how somebody who went through the Civll Rights Era, with all of the lynchings, would have responded to that cross.”

Langford added, “The most jarring thing for me was all of the hatred, and I would argue that it’s still there today. And I don’t know if I would say quieter, because it’s getting louder and louder.”

“Very much!” was Deacon Joseph Maundu’s response when asked whether he thought this pilgrimage might have an impact on his ministry. The deacon spoke of prejudice today: “When you know the history of a place, and then experience things there, you know it’s not about you. It’s about the issue, about what happened there. And you stop your own prejudices. We can sympathize with other people. I think this (pilgrimage) experience will give us a positive approach.”

Another stop in Mississippi was the Jackson home, now National Historic Landmark, of slain civil rights activist Medgar Evars. He was targeted and killed in his driveway by an assassin, his wife and young children close at hand. Another stop, outside of Greenwood, Mississippi, was the site of Bryant’s Grocery and Meat Market, where Emmett Till, a Black 14-year-old, was falsely accused of flirting with and touching a white woman. He was kidnapped, tortured and murdered by her relatives.

One evening the pilgrimage group was hosted by Resurrectionist Father Manuel Willams at the Resurrection Catholic Missions of the South. The 81-year-old ministry has included a variety of educational and health care services to the local community and recently hosted volunteers from various Catholic universities.

Father Willams told the pilgrims, “The root of all ‘isms’ is the lack of proximity.”

Then he invited those gathered, which included a group of student volunteers from Misericordia University in Dallas, Pennsylvania, to be closer to the Montgomery experience by listening to veteran civil rights activists. He introduced a small panel, including former Carter White House staffer Doris Crenshaw, who has a history in civil rights from the time in the 1950s when she was vice president of the NAACP Youth Council, under the advice of Rosa Parks. She was 12 at the time.

“Our lives are in your hands,” she told the young women from Misericordia. All of the rights movements in the world were compelled by the women and the youth.” It was the only time the pilgrims were joined by an outside group.

The Civil Rights Pilgrimage ended in Memphis, Tennessee, where the group attended Mass at Christian Brothers University. Earlier in the day the pilgrims had been at the National Civil Rights Museum, built around the Lorraine Motel, where Rev. King was assassinated.

Father Dorsey implored those at Mass, “Listen to our pain. Listen to our hope. Listen to who we are. And just be present.” It was a church-driven fight for rights, he had said earlier. He echoed that at the end: “We must always have a vision of hope. We must never give in to fear. Let’s always be those people, our heroes, who in the midst of it all, stood up to incredible violence. Fear did not give way.”

On the road back across Alabama to homeward-bound travel from Birmingham, Mukama looked back on the weeklong pilgrimage and said, “What stood out to me was the struggle for freedom. That first was started by the Blacks who came here as slaves, and who have been slaves in most other continents. One of the quotes that really comes out clear for me is, ‘No one is free until everyone is free.'”

“The slavery, or segregation, or whatever else happened to Blacks is not just limited to the Blacks, but to the wider community of humanity,” Mukama added. “I’ve walked all the steps on this pilgrimage from first up until the last and that’s what stands out for me: Humanity needs to be free.”

John Feister, editor of Glenmary Challenge magazine, writes for OSV News from Cincinnati.

By Gina Christian
(OSV News) – Growth, undeniable tensions and “a deep desire to rebuild and strengthen” the body of Christ have emerged as key themes in the latest synod report for the Catholic Church in the U.S.

Released by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops May 28, the “National Synthesis of the People of God in the United States of America for the Interim Stage of the 2021-2024 Synod” summarizes responses from more than 35,000 participants and over 1,000 listening sessions, with 76% of the nation’s dioceses and eparchies submitting reports to the U.S. synod team.

In addition, over 350 people met in some 15 listening sessions that focused on church life, social justice and vocations, while U.S. bishops also met for a synod listening session.

Launched by Pope Francis in October 2021, the first session of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, organized around the theme “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, Mission,” was held Oct. 4-29, 2023, in Rome.

Ahead of the concluding session of the synod, which will take place in Rome in Oct. 2-27, dioceses across the U.S. were asked to hold additional listening sessions during Lent 2024, following a request from the Vatican’s Secretariat for the Synod of Bishops. Those responses were incorporated into the newly released synthesis.

In his introduction to the synthesis, Bishop Daniel E. Flores of Brownsville, Texas – who serves as chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Doctrine, and who has shepherded the synodal process in the U.S. – noted that “while no document could cover the full range of topics on the hearts and minds of Catholics” who took part in the listening sessions, the report showed the synodal journey has made progress in the U.S.

Among their insights, many of which were directly quoted in the report, participants expressed “two basic hopes for the church” – that it be both a “safe harbor” and a “fiery communion.”

As a “safe harbor,” the church can be a place “where the faithful are embraced, sustained and loved,” said the synthesis, citing one respondent who observed, “People come when they are broken. … At my parish, I feel I have a family there.”

That welcome must be more than “superficial,” the report said, pointing to parishes with numerous small communities and prayer groups as being “most successful” in reaching and integrating people from diverse backgrounds. With the church in the U.S. comprising “countless cultural and ethnic groups,” the report noted a desire “to promote interculturality, so that there is more unity between cultures that share the same church.”

At the same time, respondents described the church as a “fiery communion,” with the synodal process digging up a number of tensions within the church.

In particular, a lack of clear communication from church hierarchy and from media, both Catholic and secular, creates confusion and division over what it means to be Catholic – and hinders the church’s mission, said synod participants.

That uncertainty can be especially evident when trying to balance welcoming LGBTQ and other marginalized persons while making known the truths of the Catholic faith, said synod participants.

Catholic social teaching was “another area where division was keenly experienced,” with “conversations ‘on social justice and inclusion … filled with moments of profound pain and generational hurt,’” the report said. “Participants expressed concerns that the church has allowed the ongoing polarization and conflict (in civil society) to lead to a denial of the church’s social magisterium in many situations.”

The liturgy itself can be a flashpoint for tension, with the celebration of the Mass using the Roman Missal of 1962 (informally known as the “Latin Mass”) becoming “a focal point of broader debates about tradition, modernity, and the best ways to nurture faith across the diverse spectrum of Catholic belief and practice,” the interim synthesis said.

Another sore spot identified by participants was complacency in many parts of the church, which potentially stands to pave the way for “grave institutional sins such as sexual abuse and racism” – both of which remain “enduring wounds” that “continue to inflict pain today,” said the document.
Likewise, the sin of racism, and “the sin of enslaving Black people for the betterment of the church,” continue to haunt the church, the report said.

At the same time, the listening sessions revealed a commitment to the importance of evangelization, and the need for catechesis and formation to sustain such witness. Participants also articulated a desire to actively participate in the church’s mission, seeking greater co-responsibility for the laity (especially women and young adults) in that task through their “baptismal dignity.”

Both clericalism and a lack of vocations to the priesthood and religious life were lamented, as was division among priests, with one priest participant sharing that clergy “need to be better at getting past the bitterness and different theologies and political preferences.”

Bishops who attended the listening session also highlighted polarization among priests, with some shepherds likening themselves to “the episcopal referee” among an increasingly diverse clergy, many of whom hail from other countries.

The interim synthesis concluded by noting that “a major theme” articulated by participants was “the deepening awareness of how our trust in God expresses itself in relation to our imperfect institutions within the church.”

“It was noted by many that the faithful ‘should not be embarrassed about recognizing that our church might be a little messy – it’s better not to pretend that we are the perfect institution, but that we belong to the perfect and one, true faith,’” said the report.

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

By Maria Wiering
(OSV News) – The Gulf Coast, Deep South and the Blue Ridge Mountains set the backdrop for the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage’s St. Juan Diego Route, which launches from the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas and goes through Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky and Indiana.
Beginning on Pentecost May 19, the Juan Diego Route is one of four National Pilgrimage Routes that will converge in Indianapolis ahead of the July 17-21 National Eucharistic Congress. The pilgrimage and the congress are part of the National Eucharistic Revival, a three-year initiative of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops that launched in 2022.

The 1,900-mile route will be traveled by six perpetual pilgrims accompanied by chaplains from the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, who will carry the Eucharist in a monstrance. While Catholics may join the pilgrims for legs of their journey, they are especially encouraged to join the route’s public events, which include Masses, all-night adoration and confessions, processions, talks, blessings, service events, picnics and social gatherings.

The route itself is named for St. Juan Diego, whom Mary appeared to in 1531 near present-day Mexico City and famously filled his tilma with roses and an image of herself that is still visible today. The following is a list of selected highlights from the pilgrimage’s Southern route. Find information for the full Diego Route at https://tinyurl.com/JuanDiegoRoute.

– Our Lady of San Juan del Valle, San Juan, Texas: After launching May 19 from the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Brownsville at a Mass celebrated by Bishop E. Daniel Flores of Brownsville. the pilgrimage journeys from that U.S.-Mexico border city westward to San Juan and its national shrine, the Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle, for Mass May 22. The shrine honors Our Lady of San Juan, a devotion to Mary that emerged in the 1600s in San Juan de los Lagos, Mexico, after a miraculous healing associated with an image of Mary.

– Corpus Christi Cathedral, Corpus Christi, Texas: The pilgrimage continues along Texas’ Gulf Coast, reaching Corpus Christi Cathedral May 26, for Mass and a mile-long procession. According to legend, the city was named for the “body of Christ” in 1519 when a Spanish explorer discovered its lush bay on the feast of Corpus Christi. From there, the pilgrims will continue through the Diocese of Victoria and Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston.

– Blessed Carlo Acutis Chapel, Beaumont, Texas: On June 2, the pilgrims stop at Christ Central Camp and its Blessed Carlo Acutis Chapel in the Diocese of Beaumont for talks, testimony and Eucharistic adoration with Bishop David L. Toups of Beaumont. Blessed Carlo, the namesake for the diocesan summer camp’s chapel, died in 2006 at age 15. He was known for his deep love of the Eucharist, and the U.S. bishops named the teenager an intercessor for the National Eucharistic Revival.

– St. Louis Cathedral, New Orleans: The pilgrims continue east into Louisiana and through the dioceses of Lake Charles, Lafayette, Houma-Thibodaux and Baton Rouge, into the Archdiocese of New Orleans. They stop June 9 at the Cathedral-Basilica of St. Louis King of France for Mass with Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond and a procession in New Orleans’ French Quarter. Catholics have worshipped on the cathedral site since 1727, with the current church erected in 1794 and reconstructed in the mid-1800s. The cathedral’s namesake, St. Louis IX of France, was known to have ordered his day around Mass and prayer.

– Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament, Alabama: The pilgrimage continues through the Diocese of Biloxi, Mississippi, where pilgrims will attend a blessing of the sea in Long Beach June 12. Passing through Alabama’s Archdiocese of Mobile into the Diocese of Birmingham, the pilgrims will spend June 20 at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville, Alabama, with Mass, confession, talks, a shrine tour, prayer with sisters from Our Lady of the Angels Monastery and a Eucharistic procession from the grotto to the main church. Under the leadership of Mother Angelica, founder of the Eternal Word Television Network, and her sisters, the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament and adjacent monastery were completed in 1999. The shrine chapel contains an 8-foot-tall monastrance for perpetual adoration.

– Abbey of Gethsemani, Trappist, Kentucky. The pilgrimage continues through the Archdiocese of Atlanta and the dioceses of Knoxville, Nashville and Owensboro, Tennessee, before entering the Archdiocese of Louisville. On July 4, the pilgrims will process to the Abbey of Gethsemani, for prayer, Mass and lunch. Founded by Trappist monks from France in 1848, the monastery was also home to American monk, mystic and writer Thomas Merton. Trappist monks – formally called Cistercians of the Strict Observance – are contemplative monks who follow the Rule of St. Benedict and generally maintain silence throughout their day. After leaving the abbey, the pilgrims continue into the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, Indiana, converging with pilgrims with the other three routes ahead of the National Eucharistic Congress.

(Maria Wiering is senior writer for OSV News.)

By Gina Christian
(OSV News) – Parishioners in several Midwestern states are coming together to bring help and healing after tornadoes ravaged the area April 26-28, killing at least four.

The storms – which along with tornadoes dumped heavy rain and hail on Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas – claimed four lives in Oklahoma, including that of an infant, and caused widespread destruction.

“We have experienced a pretty devastating time here in the Elkhorn area,” said Father Tom Fangman, pastor of St. Patrick Parish in Elkhorn, Nebraska, in an April 28 video message posted to the parish’s Facebook page.

A previous post by the parish that same day said there were “over 30 families who have come to us for help and the applications just keep rolling in.”

On April 26, the Omaha suburb was devastated by what the National Weather Service assessed to be at least one EF3 tornado, with winds ranging from 136 to 165 miles per hour. Drone footage from local television station KETV showed homes leveled to the ground, with roofs sheared and structural walls badly damaged in others. Train cars were derailed about an hour away near Lincoln, Nebraska.

One Elkhorn family’s escape is being called “miraculous.”

KETV in Omaha reported that a bedridden father, unable to shelter before the twister’s impact, was shielded by his wife and son, who lay on top of him as their roof was torn away. The man sustained non-life-threatening injuries. While the home has been reduced to rubble, two crucifixes and an image of the Immaculate Heart of Mary remained intact, still affixed to the remaining walls. A GoFundMe page for the family, whose last name has been listed as Sturgeon, has been set up by one of the son’s co-workers.

St. Francis Xavier Church in hard-hit Sulphur, Oklahoma – where at least one person died and 30 were injured – withstood the storm, but a number of parishioners lost their homes, a staff member at St. Joseph Catholic Parish in Ada, of which St. Francis Xavier is a mission church, told OSV News.

The disaster is a call to serve – and to witness to the love of Christ, said St. Patrick Parish in its Facebook message.

The parish, which has set up a relief fund, is working in concert with other local groups to organize humanitarian relief, and convened an April 29 volunteer meeting in its school cafeteria.

“We need you. … We ask you to prayerfully consider how God is calling you to help and if you can be part of this,” said the parish in its post. “Lives have been turned upside down and people have nothing. Let’s be in this mess with them and help them carry their cross. And let’s show our community that life isn’t going on for everyone else but them. We are the Body of Christ.”

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

By Maureen Boyle
WASHINGTON (OSV News) – Adding another distinguished medal to her already sizable collection, Katie Ledecky – the most decorated woman in swimming history – was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom on May 3 in a White House ceremony.

A native of the Washington area and a parishioner of the Church of the Little Flower in Bethesda, Maryland, Ledecky received the nation’s highest civilian honor, along with 18 other Americans who have “made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant societal, public or private endeavors,” according to a White House statement.

Ledecky, 27, is a three-time U.S. Olympic swimmer, a seven-time Olympic gold medalist, a 21-time world champion and a 16-time world-record breaker in her sport.

“Thank you, Mr. President and everyone at the White House today for this honor and an incredibly special day!” announced Ledecky, who also shared photographs of the event on her social media pages, following the Friday afternoon ceremony held in the East Room of the White House before hundreds of guests.

Ledecky was among 19 recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom this year. The group included Jesuit Father Gregory Boyle, founder of Homeboy Industries, an intervention and rehabilitation program for gang members in Los Angeles; Elizabeth Dole, a former U.S. senator, U.S. secretary of labor and president of the American Red Cross; Medgar Evers (awarded posthumously), a pioneering civil rights leader murdered in 1963; and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

“Powered by faith, family, and teamwork, Katie Ledecky is a symbol of perseverance and strength with a heart of gold that shines for the nation and for the world,” President Joe Biden said before presenting the honor to the swimmer.

A graduate of Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Washington, Ledecky plans to compete in her fourth summer Olympic Games July 26-Aug. 11 in Paris.

During the summer of 2012, Ledecky was a rising 15-year-old sophomore at Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart in Bethesda when she was the youngest athlete on the U.S. Olympic swim team and won her first gold medal in the women’s 800-meter women’s freestyle race during the London Olympics.

Before she headed off to her inaugural Summer Games, Ledecky told the Catholic Standard, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Washington, that to calm her nerves she always prays right before a race.

“The prayer I say is the ‘Hail Mary,’” said Ledecky, adding that her faith and the sacraments give her a welcome opportunity to pause in her busy routine. “I also love going to Mass every week. It’s a great chance to reflect and connect with God. (My faith) has been a big part of my life since I was born.”

Although the medals, records, accolades and commercial endorsements have mounted up in the ensuing years, Ledecky is very much the same humble, hometown athletic phenom she was 12 years ago.

Following the Tokyo Summer Games, Ledecky returned to Stone Ridge in the fall of 2021 to a hero’s welcome, speaking to students and answering their questions for two hours. Wearing her new, shiny gold and silver swimming medals around her neck, Ledecky spoke about her Olympic experiences and her intense swim regime, while encouraging the students to work hard and follow their own dreams.

At the time, she told the Catholic Standard she was grateful for her lifelong Catholic faith – something she especially relied on during the COVID-19 pandemic, and how it remained very important in her life, especially the during the difficult challenges of the global shutdown – which led to a year’s postponement of the 2020 Summer Games. She recalled attending Mass virtually every week with her family whom she hadn’t seen in person since December 2019.

“My faith is strong, and I realized more how important that is,” she said.

Ledecky told the students her proudest moments are not the Olympic medals, but rather the happiness she found in and the gratitude she has for the communities she has been a part of and which have supported her throughout the years – including her Catholic school alma maters, Stanford University, Bethesda and the entire Washington region.

“Yes, (the medals) are heavy, but they are small relative to all the hard work from my family, my parents (David and Mary Gen), my brother (Michael),” she said. “(The medals) are a great symbol (of the work). It takes a village. I wish I could give medals to all of you.” Ledecky began swimming at age 6 at her neighborhood community pool.

During her years swimming for the Stone Ridge Gators, Ledecky set many records there, and after her initial triumph in the London Olympics in 2012, she went on to even greater success at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. At the Tokyo Games, then 24-year-old Ledecky won her 10th Olympic medal for swimming, adding two gold and two silver medals to her collection. She also won the inaugural gold in the women’s 1500-meter freestyle swim, a first-time Olympic event.

At the 2023 World Aquatics Championships, Ledecky won gold medals in the women’s 1500-meter freestyle and 800-meter freestyle and silver medals in the women’s 4×200-meter freestyle relay and 400-meter freestyle.

Following the White House ceremony, tributes flooded Ledecky’s Facebook and Instagram pages, with many followers offering their hearty congratulations for her recent honor. Other messages included those of support, pride and gratitude from individuals all over the United States.

In one Facebook comment, a mother wrote, “You are such an inspiration for my little girl! We are so lucky to have you as a role model not only in the pool, but outside as well. Congratulations, Katie!!”

Maureen Boyle writes for the Catholic Standard, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Washington.