10 top takeaways from the synthesis report and why they matter

Posted on November 9, 2023 by Mississippi Catholic

By Peter Jesserer Smith (OSV News)

The Synod on Synodality’s first session at the Vatican has concluded, with its results wrapped up in a 41-page “half-time report” for the entire church to digest, reflect on and give feedback about ahead of the synod’s final session in Rome next October.

Pope Francis gives his blessing at the conclusion of the assembly of the Synod of Bishops’ last working session Oct. 28, 2023, in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

The report, a synthesis of the Oct. 4-29 meeting, is fundamentally an instrument for discernment, and it is designed to elicit further reflection and response from the whole church. The synod’s next session in Rome will have the task of making decisions about what concrete proposals to present before the pope. Ultimately, the pope will decide what to implement coming out of the Synod on Synodality.

The following are 10 takeaways about the synod’s synthesis report, with why it matters for Catholics in parishes and what happens next.

– 1. Synodality is about the church’s evangelizing mission, and baptism is why synodal governance matters.

The synod relates that “synodality is ordered to mission,” recognizing that the church’s members – with diverse backgrounds, languages and cultures — share the “common grace of baptism.” The synod’s themes of “communion, participation, mission” are the hallmarks for how the entire people of God in a synodal church – the laity, consecrated religious, deacons and priests with the bishops united with the pope – relate to each other and live together the call to holiness, proclaiming Jesus Christ’s good news to the world.

The synod explicitly says its work is rooted in the church’s dynamic and living tradition in the context of the Second Vatican Council’s teaching. But the synod also recognizes much remains to be done to clarify what “synodality” means, and to develop it into real processes and structures.

Part of that is figuring out how decisions are made in the church in a way that is faithful to its nature – including discerning how episcopal collegiality is exercised in a synodal church – because the church’s members have “differentiated co-responsibility for the common mission of evangelization.”

The synod’s “conversations in the Spirit” – an experience of listening and sharing in the light of faith, and seeking God’s will in an authentically evangelical atmosphere” – is recognized as a helpful tool in this regard.

– 2. The synod calls for formation in “authentic discipleship,” united by the Eucharist and nourished by the Word.

The synod stresses that all the church’s members are called to be “all disciples, all missionaries” who have the “responsibility of demonstrating and transmitting the love and tenderness of God to a wounded humanity.” In other words, living discipleship is at the heart of being Catholic.

The synod suggested deepening the notion that a “mature exercise of the ‘sensus fidei’ requires not only reception of baptism but a life lived in authentic discipleship that develops the grace of baptism.” The synod recognizes this can help discern where the Holy Spirit is at work, as opposed to where the baptized are just advocating dominant thinking, cultural conditions or “matters inconsistent with the Gospel.”

In this regard, the synod stresses that “the Eucharist shapes synodality,” and so the Mass should be celebrated “with an authentic sense of friendship in Christ” that reflects beauty and simplicity. The synod proposes “liturgy celebrated with authenticity is the first and fundamental school of discipleship.”

It also proposes enriching Catholic life beyond the Mass with alternative forms of liturgical prayer, as well as popular piety, particularly Marian devotion – both of which form the faithful and can also help others outside the church encounter the Lord.

– 3. Synodality is not about having more meetings, but it is about discerning together how to go on mission at each level of the church.

The synod also emphasizes that synodality in the church calls Catholics to discern intentionally as a community how Jesus is calling them to live out their mission. It’s not about self-referential meetings, but rather a style of carrying out “evangelical proclamation, service to those experiencing poverty, care for our common home and theological research.”

The document emphasizes the need for formation, and also making spaces to receive the church’s teaching, and discern how to act on it. The church’s social doctrine needs to be understood by the faithful so they can build up the kingdom of God.

Synodality is about gathering the disciple community together to discern what is their mission and how Jesus is sending them on mission. Any effective structural change to make the church’s members “co-responsible” presupposes “profound spiritual conversion,” both personal and communal, in order to carry out Jesus’ mission.

At the same time, the synod calls for further consideration on how the church’s theology and modern developments in science can dialogue, and effective ways to do that for the church’s discernment, particularly on complicated or controversial questions. Above all, the synod says, “Jesus’ actions, assimilated in prayer and conversion of heart, show us the way forward.”

– 4. A synodal church must reflect on what formation its priests, deacons and laity need to carry out their mission together.

The synod recognizes bishops and priests face disproportionate burdens of responsibility for the church’s mission. It also identifies clericalism as opposed to Jesus’ model of ministerial service, leading to “authoritarian attitudes,” and vocations stifled by privilege and power that refuse accountability.

The synod suggests extensive discussion and consideration of revising priestly formation to address this. Instead of forming priests in an “artificial environment separate from the ordinary lives of the faith,” they should develop through “close contact with the People of God and through concrete service learning experiences.”

The synod recognized there is universal agreement that priestly celibacy is “richly prophetic and a profound witness to Christ.” But it also suggested further consideration of whether it is appropriate for the Latin Church alone to continue to insist on it – the Eastern Churches (Catholic and Orthodox) have a tradition of celibate and married clergy – when there are ecclesial and cultural contexts that make it more difficult for the church’s mission.

The synod is calling for a deepening reflection on the vocation of the deacon, “above all in the exercise of charity.”

The synod indicated the importance of expanding women’s access to theological formation, their inclusion in decision-making and responsibility in pastoral care and ministry, and even the exploration of new ministries where women could decisively contribute. It noted the debate over women and the diaconal ministry, and expressed openness to continuing research and examining what has been done so far.

It also touched on lay ministry and called for more creativity in how these roles are thought of and lived at the service of mission: for example, developing the ministry of lector beyond its liturgical role, such as preaching in appropriate contexts. It also envisioned possibly a lay ministry taken up by married couples to support married and family life.

– 5. Disciples listen to people and accompany them like Christ in whatever their personal, familial or social situations.

The synod says “listening is the word that best expresses our experience. This is listening given and received.” Listening really is where the church discerns the mission Jesus is calling his disciples and their particular communities.

It also emphasized the church needs to give its closeness, listening and accompaniment to those who feel alone in remaining faithful to the church’s teaching on marriage and sexual ethics, as well as to those on the margins because of “their marriage status, identity or sexuality.”

The synod suggests further consideration of the point that listening “does not mean compromising proclamation of the Gospel or endorsing any opinion or position proposed” – but rather being like Jesus, who listens and loves unconditionally to share his good news.

It also emphasized the church needs to extend its closeness to the lonely and abandoned, the elderly and sick.

The synod document called for further discernment about “Eucharistic hospitality” – the situation of people of different churches receiving Communion – and “inter-church marriages.”

– 6. The Catholic Church needs strong Eastern Churches collaborating with the Latin Church.

The synod indicates it is vital for Catholics to realize that the Catholic Church is a communion of coequal sister churches – Latin Church (the biggest and headed by the pope) and 23 different Eastern Catholic Churches, all enjoying communion through their unity with the pope. The synod calls for all Catholic communities and clergy to learn about each other and actively work together modeling “unity in diversity.”

It stresses that the Latin Church’s members (for the most part known as Roman Catholics) need to help Eastern Catholics in situations where they do not have access to their own churches to live out their traditions. The synod said “Latinization” (making Eastern churches conform to the traditions and practices of Latin churches) is “outdated.”

The synod indicated that Eastern Churches must work out their relationship to role of the pope, whose role is rooted in the Latin Church, specifically in whether his assent is needed in the selection of bishops, and the fact that Catholics of these Eastern Churches are no longer confined to traditional patriarchal territory but are now all over the world.

It proposes a permanent council of patriarchs and major archbishops to the Holy Father, and that Eastern Catholics should be adequately represented throughout the Roman Curia.

– 7. The synod suggests a new path for ecumenism, particularly thanks to the martyrs.

There has been a lot of discouragement about dialogue between Catholic and other Christian confessions achieving its goal of actual unity – but the synod appears to have made significant suggestions for moving ahead.

Among the proposals was that an “ecumenical martyrology” be developed, which would allow the church to commemorate Christian martyrs who share a common baptism but not the same confessional boundaries. The point has been emphasized most recently by the early 21st-century martyrdoms, such as in the Middle East, where Islamist militants killed Orthodox and Catholics for being Christians – among them the 21 Coptic Orthodox martyrs of Libya.

The synod emphasized that local churches can engage ecumenically with other churches in carrying out the work of the Gospel, and the importance of continuing to involve Christians of other churches and traditions in synodal processes “at all levels.”

Among the proposals is to find a common date for the celebration of Easter with an eye to the year 2025, the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea.

– 8. The synod emphasizes the church needs to evangelize digital spaces intentionally as a dimension of its mission.

The synod views the digital realm not as a separate field but a “crucial dimension of the church’s witness in contemporary culture.” This means understanding digital culture in order to evangelize it and engaging the church’s younger generation – clergy, religious and lay – in carrying out the mission here.

The synod proposes discernment on how the church can be involved in helping make the online world “safe” for families — noting the dangers of intimidation, disinformation, sex exploitation and addiction — and how the church can make the digital realm “spiritually life-giving.”

This challenges parishes and dioceses about how to engage here, especially forming and accompanying “digital missionaries” and networking them together. It also suggests creating collaborative opportunities with influencers, particularly in areas of “human dignity, justice and care for our common home.”

– 9. Sex abuse is undermining the church’s missionary life, and the synod recognizes that a truly synodal church needs to get this right.

The synod stated, “Sexual abuse and the abuse of power and authority continue to cry out for justice, healing and reconciliation.” It acknowledges this synodal process has seen the Holy Spirit pour out fruits of “hope, healing, reconciliation and restoration of trust.”

Furthermore, listening to and accompanying those who have suffered abuse in the church have helped people feel no longer invisible. At the same time, the synod makes clear “the long journey towards reconciliation and justice” remains and requires “addressing the structural conditions that abetted such abuse” and “concrete gestures of penitence.”

A synodal church requires a “culture of transparency,” respect for existing procedures to safeguard minors and people when they are vulnerable, and “further structures dedicated to the prevention of abuse.” It noted bishops are in a difficult situation of reconciling their “role of father with that of judge,” and suggested exploring the possibility of giving the judicial task to another body specified in canon law.

– 10. The bishops must now figure out how to take these ideas to the pews for further discernment and bring that back to the synod.

The synod synthesis’ 41-pages are broken up into three sections with vital topics that truly interest and affect the entire People of God.

At this point, the synod leaves it to worldwide episcopal conferences to discern the next steps to take. During the synod’s first session, Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services, who is president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, acknowledged that the bishops would have to foster greater participation, including encouraging pastors to buy in. U.S. participation rate in the synod’s preparatory process was 1% of U.S. Catholics.

The prospect of getting this feedback within a year may seem daunting to bishops. If the document is really going to be thoroughly discerned and feedback provided within 11 months, the lay faithful will likely have to raise their voices and volunteer to work with their pastors and bishops to get it done in time for the second October session.

Peter Jesserer Smith is national news and features editor for OSV News.

NOTES: The synod’s synthesis report can be found here: https://www.synod.va/en/news/a-synodal-church-in-mission.html.

As synod winds down, members urged to sow patience

Posted on October 26, 2023 by Mississippi Catholic

By Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – As members of the assembly of the Synod of Bishops return home, share the results of their work and prepare for the final synod assembly in 2024, they must be on guard against people who will want to make them take sides as if the synod were a political debate, said Dominican Father Timothy Radcliffe.

“The global culture of our time is often polarized, aggressive and dismissive of other people’s views,” Father Radcliffe, spiritual adviser to the synod, told members Oct. 23. “When we go home, people will ask, ‘Did you fight for our side? Did you oppose those unenlightened other people?'”

“We shall need to be profoundly prayerful to resist the temptation to succumb to this party-political way of thinking,” he said. “That would be to fall back into the sterile, barren language of much of our society. It is not the synodal way,” which is “organic and ecological rather than competitive.”

Having discussed synodality, communion, mission and participation over the previous three weeks, members of the synodal assembly began the final segment of their work with talks from Father Radcliffe, Benedictine Mother Maria Ignazia Angelini, the other spiritual guide for the synod, and by Father Ormond Rush, a theologian from Australia.

Pope Francis greets U.S. synod members Father Ivan Montelongo from the Diocese of El Paso, Texas, Wyatt Olivas, a student at the University of Wyoming, and Julia Oseka, a student at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, before the assembly’s working session Oct. 10, 2023, in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

They were to work on a “Letter to the People of God” at the synod’s morning session Oct. 23.
After a day off to give time to the committee writing the synthesis of the assembly’s discussions, participants were to meet again Oct. 25 to examine, discuss and amend the synthesis and to propose “methods and steps” for continuing the synodal process in preparation for its next assembly in October 2024.

“We have listened to hundreds of thousands of words during the last three weeks,” Father Radcliffe said. “Most of these have been positive words, words of hope and aspiration. These are the seeds that are sown in the soil of the church. They will be at work in our lives, in our imagination and our subconscious, during these months. When the moment is right, they will bear fruit.”

Father Rush told participants that as he listened to discussions over the previous three weeks, “I have had the impression that some of you are struggling with the notion of tradition, in the light of your love of truth.”

During the Second Vatican Council, when different approaches to the question of tradition were hotly debated, then-Father Joseph Ratzinger – later Pope Benedict XVI – explained the two approaches as being “a ‘static’ understanding of tradition and a ‘dynamic’ understanding,” Father Rush said.

The static version is “is legalistic, propositional and ahistorical – relevant for all times and places,” he said, while “the latter is personalist, sacramental and rooted in history, and therefore to be interpreted with an historical consciousness.”

Father Ratzinger wrote that “not everything that exists in the church must for that reason be also a legitimate tradition,” but that a practice must be judged by whether it is “a true celebration and keeping present of the mystery of Christ,” Father Rush said.

The Second Vatican Council “urged the church to be ever attentive to the movements of the revealing and saving God present and active in the flow of history, by attending to ‘the signs of the times’ in the light of the living Gospel,” he said.

As synod members continue their discernment, he said, they are urged “to determine what God is urging us to see – with the eyes of Jesus – in new times,” while also being “attentive to the traps – where we could be being drawn into ways of thinking that are not ‘of God.'”

“These traps,” Father Rush said, “could lie in being anchored exclusively in the past, or exclusively in the present, or not being open to the future fullness of divine truth to which the Spirit of Truth is leading the church.”

Benedictine Mother Maria Ignazia Angelini, spiritual adviser to the assembly of the Synod of Bishops, addresses the gathering in the Vatican’s Paul VI Audience Hall Oct. 23, 2023. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)

To open the assembly’s final section of work, Father Radcliffe and Mother Angelini chose the parable of the sower and the parable of the mustard seed from the fourth chapter of the Gospel of Mark.

And Mother Angelini encouraged synod members to “narrate the parable” rather than “issue proclamations” as they continue working over the next year.

“Today – in a culture of striving for supremacy, profit and followers, or evasion – the patient sowing of this synod is, in itself, like a profoundly subversive and revolutionary act. In the logic of the smallest of seeds sinking into the ground,” she said. “Thus, the synod seems to me to find itself called to dare a synthesis-as-sowing, to open up a path toward reform – new form – which life requires.”

The synodal process, Father Radcliffe told members, “is more like planting a tree than winning a battle.”
And the only way to ensure they continue the sowing rather than join the fighting is to “keep our minds and hearts open to the people whom we have met here” and treasure the hopes and fears they shared.

“Humanity’s first vocation in paradise was to be gardeners,” he said. “Adam tended creation, sharing in speaking God’s creative words, naming the animals. In these 11 months, will we speak fertile, hope-filled words, or words that are destructive and cynical? Will our words nurture the crop or be poisonous? Shall we be gardeners of the future or trapped in old sterile conflicts? We each choose.”

Hospital attack evokes ‘disbelief, horror,’ says Catholic aid organization spokesman

Posted on October 26, 2023 by Mississippi Catholic

By Gina Christian
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – An attack on a Christian hospital in Gaza amid the Israel-Hamas war has left staff at the U.S. offices of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association reeling.

“Disbelief and horror,” Michael La Civita, director of communications for the Catholic Near East Welfare Association, told OSV News, describing his reaction just hours after an Oct. 17 strike on al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza.

The facility, a humanitarian outreach of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, is Gaza’s oldest hospital, and the only Christian one in the enclave. Opened in 1882, al-Ahli Arab – which was a Baptist Medical Mission from 1954 to 1982 – has been “one of the most important institutions in our network of partners for decades,” said La Civita. “It’s a significant player in the region.”

CNEWA, founded by Pope Pius XI in 1926, supports the hospital as part of its overall mission to support the Catholic Church in the Middle East, Northeast Africa, India and Eastern Europe.

Joseph Hazboun, regional director for CNEWA’s Jerusalem office, said the hospital was sheltering more than 5,000 people at the time of the strike.

Children sit in the back of an ambulance at Shifa Hospital following an airstrike on the CNEWA-supported al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City Oct. 17, 2023. (OSV News photo/Mohammed Al-Masri, Reuters) EDITORS: Note graphic content.

Causes and casualties have been contested by both sides. Palestinian officials claimed the al-Ahli Arab Hospital had been struck by Israel, killing some 500, while the Israel Defense Forces countered that intelligence showed the blast was due to a failed rocket launch by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group.

The war itself was sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7 ambush – coinciding with a Sabbath and Jewish holiday – on some 22 locations in Israel. Hamas members gunned down civilians and took at least 199 hostages, according to Israel, including infants, the elderly and people with disabilities.

Israel declared war on Hamas Oct. 8, placing Gaza under siege and pounding the region with airstrikes as Hamas has returned fire. To date, some 1,400 in Israel, including at least 30 U.S. citizens, and at least 3,500 in Gaza have been killed, according to Palestinian officials. The ensuing humanitarian crisis has left the Middle East “on the verge of the abyss,” said United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres.

CNEWA, which has had a presence in Gaza since at least 1949, has “a long record of support … with (the) hospital, particularly with programs that provide assistance to children and families suffering from post-traumatic stress disorders,” La Civita told OSV News.

The part of the hospital that was hit “is where most of our psychosocial programs over the last few years were organized,” said La Civita.

At an Oct. 18 press conference by the Jerusalem patriarchs and heads of churches, Jerusalem Anglican Archbishop Hosam Naoum told media that a few hours before the attack, civilians who had gathered in the courtyard (of the hospital) were “singing for peace, and the children were playing,” but “two hours later they were all struck by … the power of death.”

On Oct. 14, al-Ahli Arab Hospital’s diagnostic cancer treatment center in Gaza City was struck by Israeli rocket fire, significantly damaging the ultrasound and mammography wards and injuring four staff, according to the American Friends of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem.

Archbishop Naoum said al-Ahli Arab would “continue to be open” as he and fellow church leaders “are determined to keep our institutions open, to keep our places of worship, our churches, open … as places of sanctuary.”

La Civita told OSV News he is “very concerned about the future (and) the present” of two maternity clinics subsidized by CNEWA and operated by the Near East Council of Churches in Gaza.

He urged the faithful to pray and to “stay informed,” particularly by consulting Catholic media coverage of the situation.

“We want Catholics in particular to be paying attention to Catholic news about this, because … it’s about as close to the truth as we can possibly get,” he said. “It’s reliable and objective.”

In addition, “consider providing support to those who can handle aid responsibly and get it to the hands of those who need it most,” said La Civita.

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

Briefs

Posted on October 26, 2023 by Mississippi Catholic

NATION
LAS VEGAS (OSV News) – In a sign of the growing Catholic community of southern Nevada and the Western United States, the Archdiocese of Las Vegas has become the newest archdiocese in America. A solemn Mass Oct. 16 at the Shrine of the Most Holy Redeemer in Las Vegas formally celebrated the designation of the archdiocese and the appointment of Archbishop George Leo Thomas by Pope Francis May 30. The new metropolitan archdiocese and province of Las Vegas includes Reno, Nevada, and Salt Lake City as suffragan dioceses of the province. During the Mass, Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the pope’s representative as apostolic nuncio to the United States, placed the pallium – a woolen liturgical garment worn by a metropolitan archbishop – upon Archbishop Thomas’ shoulders. The pallium represents a pastor’s care of his flock and his unity with the pope. Pope Francis gave the archbishop the pallium in June at the Vatican. The growth in the presence of Catholics in Las Vegas and southern Nevada was a key factor in its elevation to an archdiocese. The 350,000 Catholics among a total regional population of more than 1 million in 1995 has ballooned to an estimated 750,000 Catholics among more than 2 million residents today, according to the archdiocese. This growth was “a result of the dynamism and the vitality of the church here,” Cardinal Pierre told Massgoers.

Members of a tour group explore the catacombs of the Basilica of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral in New York City Oct. 15, 2023. Tours of the historic basilica, its catacombs and cemetery have proven to be popular with New Yorkers and out-of-towners. (OSV News photo/Gregory A. Shemitz)

NEW YORK (OSV News) – “Catacombs by Candlelight” perhaps conjures images of a subterranean tour in Rome led by a guide wearing a headlamp. In New York, it’s the name of a revenue-generating history lesson told while exploring the cemetery and burial vaults of one of the city’s oldest Catholic churches. At the Basilica of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral, the tour’s tone is respectful and the candles are battery-operated LED models. Frank Alfieri, the basilica’s director of cemetery and columbaria, said the tours were established in 2017 to communicate and monetize the historical significance of the property, which has been an active mainstay of the lower Manhattan area for more than 200 years. When it opened in 1815, St. Patrick’s served as New York’s first cathedral until the new St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Fifth Avenue was dedicated in 1879. The Old Cathedral was named a basilica in 2010. The catacombs were developed before the church was built above them and consist of 37 hermetically sealed family and group vaults arrayed along three 120-foot corridors. Most of the vaults have marble facades and bear the now-unfamiliar names of prominent 19th-century New York Catholics of Irish, German, French and Spanish heritage. Eight 80-minute tours are offered five days a week for groups as large as 40.

VATICAN
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis will celebrate a memorial Mass Nov. 3 for Pope Benedict XVI and cardinals and bishops who have died in the past year. The Mass will take place at the main altar in St. Peter’s Basilica at 11 a.m., the Vatican announced. Pope Benedict died Dec. 31 at the age of 95. The previous day, the Nov. 2 feast of All Souls, the pope will celebrate Mass at the Rome War Cemetery, the burial place of members of the military forces of the Commonwealth who died during and immediately after World War II. The 426 men buried there died between November 1942 and February 1947. They came from the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and South Africa. Also on the pope’s liturgical calendar for November is his celebration of Mass for the World Day of the Poor. He will preside over the liturgy Nov. 19 in St. Peter’s Basilica.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis said a trip to his native Argentina remains on his schedule and that he has been encouraged to travel through Oceania. Asked by an Argentine reporter what important trips remain pending in his pontificate, the pope said “I would like to go” to Argentina in an interview released Oct. 16. “Talking a bit farther away, Papua New Guinea is still left.” He added that someone had told him, “Since I’m going to Argentina, to have a layover in Río Gallegos (Argentina), then the South Pole, land in Melbourne and visit New Zealand and Australia.” Though the 86-year-old pope said, “It would be a bit long.” In the wide-spanning interview recorded in September with the Argentine state news agency Télam, Pope Francis said that while he receives many invitations to visit countries and there is a list of possible papal trips, ideas for trips also originate from the Vatican, such as his Aug. 31-Sept. 4 trip to Mongolia. Pope Francis also spoke about the synod on synodality, relating it to the vision of St. John XXIII at the start of the Second Vatican Council. “It is not only about changing style, it is about a change of growth in favor of people’s dignity,” he said.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Huddled in a stairwell at the Catholic parish and school in Gaza, Rosary Sister Nabila Saleh, another sister and Father Youssef Asaad filmed themselves speaking to Pope Francis on the phone and begging for his continued prayers. Pope Francis phoned Holy Family parish – the only Catholic parish in Gaza – the evening of Oct. 15, Vatican News reported. Sister Saleh said Father Asaad passed her the phone because he doesn’t speak Italian as well as she does. After Hamas launched attacks on Israel Oct. 7 and Israel responded by bombing targets in Gaza, “the Holy Father wanted to know how many people we are hosting in the parish facilities,” Sister Saleh told Vatican News. There are about 500 people, including “the sick, families, children, the disabled, people who have lost their homes and every belonging.” Sister Saleh said, it was “a great blessing” to speak with the pope. “He gave us courage and the support of prayer.”

WORLD
NAIROBI, Kenya (OSV News) – On the day the world celebrates efforts to combat hunger and food insecurity, a bishop in Ethiopia was warning that his people were still dying of hunger, a year after a ceasefire ended a deadly conflict in the northern region of Tigray. Bishop Tesfasellassie Medhin of Adigrat said he wanted the world to know the situation in the region was still critical, and deaths were occurring due to serious food shortages and malnutrition. “The situation is very bad. Many parts of the region experienced failed harvests due to drought, and food aid distribution had also stopped,” Bishop Medhin told OSV News in an interview ahead of the World Food Day. “People are dying of hunger. The hospitals are also reporting increased cases of malnutrition. It is very frustrating.” More than 20 million people need food assistance in Africa’s second most populous nation after the Horn of Africa’s worst drought in decades and a two-year conflict in the Tigray region on top of it. On Oct. 16, the globe rallied to mark the World Food Day, an annual awareness and action day against hunger and malnutrition, reminding of the importance of food security and access to nutritious food for all. It also addresses the importance of sustainable agriculture and food production.

OSLO, Norway (OSV News) – Church leaders in Norway have welcomed the award of the Nobel Prize for Literature to Jon Fosse, a Catholic convert, predicting the honor could raise Catholicism’s profile in the traditionally Protestant country. “Fosse gives voice, with elegance and beauty, to the mystery of faith. … I think our country is blessed to have a poet of his stature,” said Bishop Erik Varden of Trondheim. “A Catholic writer is someone who assimilated the grace of belonging to the church in such a way that it’s perfectly innate and natural to their self-expression. In that sense, Fosse is very much a Catholic writer.” The novelist and playwright will receive the 2023 prize in Stockholm Dec. 10. Born in 1959 at Haugesund on Norway’s west coast, Fosse has published over 30 novels, as well as poetry collections, essays, children’s books and translations. His theater works, performed worldwide, have made him Norway’s most performed playwright since Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906). Fosse was received into the Catholic Church at St. Dominic’s Monastery, Oslo, in 2012. His multivolume work, “Septology,” centering on a Catholic convert-painter, was shortlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize and National Books Critics Award. In a November 2022 interview with The New Yorker, Fosse described his style as “slow prose” and “mystical realism,” adding that he had turned to religious faith while struggling with alcoholism and other problems.

Briefs

Posted on October 11, 2023 by Mississippi Catholic

NATION
BRICK, N.J. (OSV News) – An air of both excitement and reverence permeated the parish community of St. Dominic in Brick, Oct. 1, when some 1,200 worshippers gathered throughout the church complex to witness the dedication by Bishop David M. O’Connell of Trenton of a new Diocesan Shrine to Blessed Carlo Acutis and to pray with his mother, Antonia Salzano Acutis, who was visiting from Italy. Blessed Carlo was 15 when he died from leukemia Oct. 12, 2006. He had a deep devotion to the Eucharist and became known for developing a website catalog of Eucharistic miracles. He was declared venerable in 2018 and beatified in 2020. He became the first millennial to be beatified by the church. In his homily, Bishop O’Connell used the day’s Gospel to emphasize how all are called to do the right thing for the right reason. “It’s not simply a matter of our words or what we say but rather, what we do that makes a difference in life.” After the final blessing, Antonia Acutis, Bishop O’Connell and the clergy processed out of the church to the shrine for the dedication ceremony. Following the dedication, Antonia Acutis returned to the church to address the congregation. “God wants us to be awakened toward the Eucharist,” she said. Using her son’s well-known quote, “The Eucharist is the highway to heaven.”

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – Over 3,000 pilgrims from across the United States filled the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington Sept. 30, drawn by a shared love of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the rosary. The first annual Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage included a day of preaching, confessions and music, culminating in a chanted rosary procession and the celebration of Mass. Nine months ago, when the Dominican friars of the Province of St. Joseph first issued an invitation to “unite … to confidently seek the intercession of Our Lady,” American Catholics responded in force. Lay pilgrims were joined by more than 80 Dominican friars and over 50 religious sisters from communities across the U.S. “I was completely overwhelmed by the joy and enthusiasm demonstrated by pilgrims,” said Dominican Father Patrick Mary Briscoe, who helped plan the pilgrimage and served as master of ceremonies for the day. “One of the best parts of the day was the demand for confessors. Many, many people sought access to the sacraments. … Pilgrims were evidently moved by the experience.”

VATICAN
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Christian life is a battle each person must fight against the temptation to be self-sufficient and against a paganism disguised as sacredness, Pope Francis said in an introduction to a small book distributed to participants at the synod on synodality. Such “spiritual worldliness,” he wrote, “though it be camouflaged with the appearance of the sacred, it ends up being idolatrous because it does not recognize the presence of God as Lord and liberator of our lives and of the history of the world. It leaves us prey to our capricious desires.” The booklet contains two republished essays by the pope that are “united by the concern, which I feel to be a loud call from God to the entire church, to remain vigilant and to fight with the strength of prayer against every concession to spiritual worldliness,” he wrote in the introduction. Titled, “Holy, Not Worldly: God’s Grace Saves Us From Interior Corruption,” the booklet was released by the Dicastery for Communication and the Vatican publishing house Oct. 6 and was offered to the more than 350 participants attending the afternoon session of the Synod of Bishops on synodality. “I offer these texts to the reader as an opportunity to reflect on his life and on the life of the church, with the conviction that God asks us to be open to His newness, he asks us to be unquiet and never satisfied, searching and never stuck in comfortable opacity, not defended within the walls of false certainties, but walking on the road of holiness,” the pope wrote in the introduction.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – As Catholic young people around the world prepare for the Holy Year 2025, Pope Francis has asked them to focus on hope. Before the Jubilee of Young People, which will be part of the Holy Year celebration, and the next international celebration of World Youth Day in 2027 in Seoul, South Korea, dioceses around the world are to celebrate World Youth Day on a local level on the feast of Christ the King. The Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life announced Sept. 26 that Pope Francis had chosen as the theme for the upcoming Nov. 26 celebration “Rejoicing in hope,” from Romans 12:12. And for World Youth Day Nov. 24, 2024, he chose: “Those who hope in the Lord will run and not be weary,” drawing from the Lord’s promise in Isaiah 40:31.

An aerial view shows restoration work under way July 18, 2023, at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, which was badly damaged in a devastating fire in 2019. (OSV News photo/Pascal Rossignol, Reuters)

WORLD
PARIS (OSV News) – By the end of the year, the Notre Dame Cathedral silhouette will be restored: Its entire 315-foot-high spire will once again crown the transept crossing, hidden beneath a 330-foot-high scaffolding. The biggest reconstruction in France’s modern history is “a sign of hope for everyone,” the rector-archpriest of Notre Dame Cathedral, Father Olivier Ribadeau Dumas, told OSV News. A Sept. 13 statement by the public institution Rebâtir Notre-Dame de Paris (Rebuilding of Notre Dame) mentions “spectacular results” and that progress is on schedule for the cathedral’s reopening Dec. 8, 2024, as initially announced. The spire collapsed dramatically during the fire that devastated France and the world on April 15, 2019, destroying part of the nave vaults and the transept crossing. Once rebuilt, the transept crossing vaults will be reassembled, like the other vaults already rebuilt or consolidated. The spire will be gradually unveiled over the first half of 2024, when it is covered with its roof to protect the wooden framework. In 2018, before the fire, there were close to 12 million visitors a year to Notre Dame. An estimated 14 million to 15 million a year are expected once the cathedral reopens. About 340,000 donors from 150 countries raised almost $900 million in donations. Among them are thousands of Americans, especially through the Friends of Notre-Dame de Paris foundation.

MEXICO CITY (OSV News) – A Nicaraguan priest has been reported kidnapped from his parish residence as the country’s increasingly totalitarian regime continues cracking down on the Catholic Church and silencing all dissenting voices. Father Álvaro Toledo was taken by police at 10:30 p.m. local time on Oct. 5, according to a Facebook post from Radio Stereo Fe, which belongs to the Diocese of Estelí. Father Toledo was identified on social media as pastor of Our Lady of the Assumption Parish in Ocotal. His abduction marked the latest in a wave of kidnappings carried out against priests in the Estelí Diocese, located in the country’s northwest, where imprisoned bishop Rolando Álvarez is apostolic administrator. Three other priests in the diocese have been reported abducted from their parishes in less than a week. Father Ivan Centeno, pastor of Immaculate Conception of Mary Parish in Jalapa, and Father Julio Norori, pastor at St. John the Evangelist Parish in San Juan del Río Coco, were abducted Oct. 1 by plain-clothed individuals. Nicaragua media later reported Father Cristóbal Gadea, pastor of the Our Lady of Mercy in the Diocese of Jinotega, was also abducted on the night of Oct. 1. The priest was lured from his parish residence and arrested, according to 100% Noticias.

Jerusalem church leaders call for peace following deadly Hamas attack

Posted on October 11, 2023 by Mississippi Catholic

By Judith Sudilovsky
JERUSALEM (OSV News) – Patriarchs and Heads of the Churches in Jerusalem united in a call for peace and justice amid unfolding violence, following a surprise attack by Hamas in southern Israel, which has left over 700 Israelis dead, among them civilians and dozens of soldiers and police who were killed battling the Hamas fighters. Over 2,000 people were injured. Israeli media said that more than 250 bodies had been recovered from the site of the music festival that was attacked by Hamas fighters on Oct. 7 in southern Israel.

Fears of a ground invasion of Gaza are growing after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened to turn the besieged Palestinian enclave into a “deserted island,” while the latest reported death toll of Palestinians is 511. Thousands of people in Palestinian territories are injured in Israeli airstrikes, which began hours following the Hamas attack.

During the Angelus prayer on Oct. 8, Pope Francis said he was “following apprehensively and sorrowfully what is happening in Israel where the violence has exploded even more ferociously, causing hundreds of deaths and casualties.”

He appealed: “May the attacks and weaponry cease. Please!” crying out that “terrorism and war do not lead to any resolutions, but only to the death and suffering of so many innocent people.” The Holy Father stressed that “War is a defeat! Every war is a defeat!” He also asked for prayers for peace in Israel and Palestine.

“The Holy Land, a place sacred to countless millions around the world, is currently mired in violence and suffering due to the prolonged political conflict and the lamentable absence of justice and respect for human rights,” The Patriarchs and Head of the Churches in Jerusalem said in an Oct. 7 joint statement.
“We unequivocally condemn any acts that target civilians, regardless of their nationality, ethnicity or faith,” said the Patriarchs, among them Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem.
Some countries started to evacuate their citizens from Israel, with some 200 Polish pilgrims and tourists being airlifted from Ben Gurion International Airport in the early morning hours of Oct. 9 by two C-130 Hercules planes that landed at Tel Aviv airport amid rocket strike from Hamas, and the Israeli Iron Dome intercepting rockets from Gaza.

American officials said on Oct. 8 that they were also working through plans to evacuate thousands of Americans from Israel if necessary – no decisions have been made, according to the New York Times.
Shocked by the unhindered breakthrough of hundreds of Hamas gunmen through the fence barrier, Israelis hunkered down in safe rooms and called to relatives and radio programs whispering terrified messages as they heard the militants breaking into their homes. The attack included the takeover of the police station in the city of Sderot, which was later reclaimed.

The attack took place under the barrage of thousands of rocket attacks, which were largely intercepted by the Israeli Iron Dome defense system.

Hamas breached Israel’s security gate in the early morning Oct. 7 and infiltrated dozens of Israel border communities, killing people in their cars and homes and taking others hostage, including several elderly people, a mother with her two preschool-aged daughters, young people and foreign workers. Soldiers were also taken hostage. Social media videos showed captives and bodies of dead Israelis paraded through the streets of Gaza.

One video showed a terrified young woman being pulled by the hair and transferred from one jeep into another by armed Hamas gunmen. In another video, the body of a young man in shorts taken from a kibbutz, a Jewish communal settlement, was paraded through the streets on the back of a motorcycle.

Thousands of young Israelis and foreigners had been celebrating at a dance party next to one of the kibbutz, and dozens were murdered by the gunmen as they fled in panic through the desert. Many of the captives had been at the party.

The attack took place on the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, which marks the completion of the annual cycle of reading the Torah scroll. The attack also fell a day after the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the 1973 War, which began with a surprise attack on Israel by a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria on Yom Kippur, Judaism’s holiest day of the year.

The attack follows a year of increasing violence from both settlers and the Israel Defense Forces after the election of Israel’s far-right nationalist government.

For many Israelis, there were moments of terror and desperation as they identified their loved ones on the horrifying videos. One video showed a shrieking young woman speeding away in a motorcycle sandwiched between two gunmen as her boyfriend was led off by others. One shirtless man was led through the streets by the neck as gunmen pushed his head down. Another video showed gunmen sitting on and near the half-naked body of another woman with dreadlocks, later identified as a German national, in the open back of a truck.

Kibbutz residents said it took some eight hours for the Israeli army forces to reach their communities. One mother told Israel radio she and her children were rescued by special forces through the window of their safe room and taken by armed guard to a secured location because militants were still roaming their kibbutz.

After the Israeli army and police gathered forces and responded to the attack, the Associated Press reported that Israeli Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters “hundreds of terrorists” have been killed and dozens captured.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces also exchanged fire with Hezbollah over the weekend as Lebanon’s militant group fired dozens of rockets and shells at Israeli positions in a disputed area along the country’s northern border.

In a TV broadcast, Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant vowed Oct. 7 that retaliation against Hamas would be swift and harsh.

An Oct. 7 U.S. Department of Defense press release said U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III had spoken with Gallant by phone and had conveyed his condolences “for the victims of this appalling, abhorrent terrorist attack by Hamas on Israel,” and emphasized his “ironclad support for the Israeli Defense Forces and the Israeli people.”

“He also reaffirmed that the Department’s commitment to Israel’s security and its absolute right to defend itself from acts of terrorism is unwavering,” the release said.

The Patriarchs and Head of the Churches said that it is their “fervent hope and prayer” that all parties involved “will heed this call for an immediate cessation of violence.” They also called for dialogue “seeking lasting solutions that promote justice, peace, and reconciliation for the people of this land, who have endured the burdens of conflict for far too long.”

Judith Sudilovsky writes for OSV News from Jerusalem.

Briefs

Posted on October 11, 2023 by Mississippi Catholic

10 things to know about October’s Synod on Synodality in Rome

Posted on September 26, 2023 by Mississippi Catholic

By Maria Wiering
(OSV News) – The eyes of the Catholic world turn to Rome Oct. 4, as the worldwide Synod of Bishops convenes on the feast of St. Francis of Assisi to focus on “synodality” and understanding what it means in terms of “communion, participation and mission” in the church. Here’s what it is, how we got here and what to expect.

– 1. The Synod on Synodality is three years in the making.
Pope Francis announced in March 2020 (at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in Italy) that the next Synod of Bishops would be held in October 2022 on the theme “For a synodal church: communion, participation and mission,” which quickly became known as the “Synod on Synodality.” In May 2021, he postponed the two-part meeting to 2023 (with a second gathering in 2024), due in part to the pandemic, and announced that it would be preceded by a two-year process.

That decision reflected Pope Francis’ vision for the Synod of Bishops outlined in the 2018 apostolic constitution “Episcopalis Communio,” including what Cardinal Mario Grech, the general secretary for the Synod of Bishops, described at the time as “transforming the Synod from an event into a process.” Pope Francis officially opened the “synodal path” with a Mass Oct. 10, 2021, with dioceses around the world following suit.

– 2. Synodality is “the action of the Spirit in the communion of the Body of Christ and in the missionary journey of the People of God.”
Despite the long history of synods in the church, the term “synodality” is relatively recent, emerging in church documents about two decades ago. In 2018, the topic was addressed by the International Theological Commission, which defined it as “the action of the Spirit in the communion of the Body of Christ and in the missionary journey of the People of God.”

Synodality was also a topic of conversation at the 15th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the theme “Young People, Faith and Vocational Discernment” that took place in 2018.

In the Synod on Synodality’s “vademecum,” an official handbook issued in September 2021, “synodality” is described as “the particular style that qualifies the life and mission of the hurch, expressing her nature as the People of God journeying together and gathering in assembly, summoned by the Lord Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit to proclaim the Gospel,” adding, “Synodality ought to be expressed in the church’s ordinary way of living and working.”

In his homily for the Mass opening the synod process, Pope Francis said, “Celebrating a synod means walking on the same road, walking together.” He said that when meeting others, Jesus would “encounter, listen and discern,” and those verbs “characterize the synod.”

“The Gospels frequently show us Jesus ‘on a journey’; he walks alongside people and listens to the questions and concerns lurking in their hearts,” he said. “He shows us that God is not found in neat and orderly places, distant from reality, but walks ever at our side. He meets us where we are, on the often rocky roads of life.”

He continued: “Today, as we begin this synodal process, let us begin by asking ourselves – all of us, pope, bishops, priests, religious and laity – whether we, the Christian community, embody this ‘style’ of God, who travels the paths of history and shares in the life of humanity. Are we prepared for the adventure of this journey? Or are we fearful of the unknown, preferring to take refuge in the usual excuses: ‘It’s useless’ or ‘We’ve always done it this way’?”

– 3. A synod is a meeting of bishops. It has ancient roots in the Catholic Church’s history and continuity in the Eastern Churches, but declined in the Latin Church. The modern Synod of Bishops was instituted near the end of Vatican II.
“Synod” has been historically interchangeable with “council,” such as the churchwide Council of Nicea or the Council of Trent, or more localized meetings, such as the Plenary Councils of Baltimore, which brought the U.S. bishops together in 1852, 1866 and 1884. The late Jesuit Father John W. O’Malley, a theologian at Georgetown University, noted in a February 2022 essay for America magazine that local councils declined in use following the First Vatican Council, which defined papal primacy, but they didn’t die out: “One of the first things that the future Pope John XXIII did when he became patriarch of Venice was to call a diocesan synod,” he wrote.

The idea for a permanent bishops’ council surfaced during the Second Vatican Council, and in 1965 St. Paul VI established the Synod of Bishops with “the function of providing information and offering advice.” “It can also enjoy the power of making decisions when such power is conferred upon it by the Roman Pontiff; in this case, it belongs to him to ratify the decisions of the Synod,” St. Paul VI wrote.

– 4. The Synod on Synodality is the 16th Ordinary Synod since the global Synod of Bishops’ institution.
Three extraordinary general assemblies have also been held, including in 2014 to complete the work of the 2015 ordinary general assembly on the family. An additional 11 special Synods of Bishops have been held to address issues facing a particular region. Among them was a special synod on America in 1997 and one on the Amazon region in 2019. Synods have regularly resulted in the pope, who serves as the synod president, writing a post-synodal apostolic exhortation.

– 5. Preparations for the Synod on Synodality sought to be the most extensive ever, with an invitation to every Catholic to provide input.
An unprecedented worldwide consultation occurred at the diocesan/national and continental levels. The synod’s two-year preparation process invited all Catholics worldwide to identify areas where the church needed to give greater attention and discernment. That feedback was gathered and synthesized by dioceses and then episcopal conferences, before being brought to the continental level. The syntheses from episcopal conferences and continental-level meetings were shared with the Holy See, and they informed a working document known as an “Instrumentum Laboris” for the general assembly’s first session. The document’s authors describe it as “not a document of the Holy See, but of the whole church.” However, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ report indicates that only about 700,000 Catholics in the U.S. participated, representing just over 1% of the U.S. Catholic population of 66.8 million.

– 6. The Synod on Synodality’s objective boils down to answering a two-part question.
According to the vademecum, “The current Synodal Process we are undertaking is guided by a fundamental question: How does this ‘journeying together’ take place today on different levels (from the local level to the universal one), allowing the church to proclaim the Gospel? and what steps is the Spirit inviting us to take in order to grow as a synodal church?”

The working document released in June to guide general assembly participants includes many other reflection questions; but it particularly asks participants to reflect on these priorities, guided by its focus on communion, participation and mission: “How can we be more fully a sign and instrument of union with God and of the unity of all humanity?”; “How can we better share gifts and tasks in the service of the Gospel?”; and “What processes, structures and institutions are needed in a missionary synodal church?”

– 7. For the first time ever, non-bishops – including lay men and women – have a vote in the synod.
The synod’s general assembly includes more than 450 participants – 363 of whom are voting members – with leaders from the Vatican curia and episcopal conferences. More than a quarter of synod members are non-bishops, including laypeople, who for the first time will have a vote during synod deliberations. A deliberate effort was made to include women and young adults. As of July 7, when the Vatican released the initial list, the number of voting women was the same as participating cardinals: 54. The list was subject to change ahead of the synod, organizers said.

In previous synods, some non-bishop participants held the non-voting role of “auditor,” which has been eliminated at this assembly, although some attendees will be non-voting observers, called “special envoys,” or non-voting facilitators or advisers.

The presence of “non-bishops,” according to Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, the synod’s general relator, in a letter published at the time the change was announced, “ensures the dialogue between the prophecy of the people of God and the discernment of the pastors.”

– 8. More than 20 Catholics from the United States have been invited to participate.
Participating American bishops chosen by Pope Francis are Cardinal Blase J. Cupich of Chicago, Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory of Washington, Archbishop Paul D. Etienne of Seattle, Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley of Boston and Cardinal Robert W. McElroy of San Diego, California.

Additional bishop-delegates selected by the USCCB and confirmed by Pope Francis are Bishop Daniel E. Flores of Brownsville, Texas; Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York; Bishop Robert E. Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota; Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana; and Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, who leads the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services, and serves as USCCB president.

American prelates Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin of Newark, New Jersey, and Cardinal Kevin J. Farrell, formerly the bishop of Dallas, are also delegates by nature of prior papal appointments. Cardinal Tobin is an ordinary member of the Synod of Bishops and Cardinal Farrell is prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life.

Pope Francis also nominated synod member Jesuit Father James Martin, editor-at-large for America magazine and founder of Outreach, a ministry for Catholics who identify as LGBTQ+.

Other U.S. delegates were nominated by the USCCB and confirmed by the pope. They include: Richard Coll, the executive director of the USCCB’s Department of Justice, Peace and Integral Human Development; Cynthia Bailey Manns, director of adult faith formation at St. Joan of Arc Parish in Minneapolis; Father Iván Montelongo of El Paso, Texas; Wyatt Olivas, a student at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, Wyoming; Julia Oseka, a Polish student at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia; and Sister Leticia Salazar, a member of the Company of Mary, Our Lady and chancellor of the Diocese of San Bernardino, California.

USCCB-nominated delegates participated in the continental synod, and Coll, Bishop Flores and Sister Salazar were members of the 18-person North American Synod Team that prepared the North American continental synod report for the U.S. and Canada. Bishop Flores has been named one of nine delegate presidents of the assembly.

Sister Maria Cimperman, a member of the Society of the Sacred Heart and theologian at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, and American Jesuit Father David McCallum, executive director of the Discerning Leadership Program in Rome, are among the 57 non-voting experts.

– 9. In the U.S., the meeting has been a source of great expectation and great apprehension.
The synod has inspired both great praise and deep criticism for its approach, including allowing laypeople to vote; its subject matter, which includes controversial topics such as leadership roles for women, ministry to Catholics who identify as LGBTQ+, and the relationship between laypeople and clergy. At least one cardinal expressed concern that the meeting could lead to confusion and error in church teaching.
However, Bishop Flores, speaking recently with OSV News, said the meeting aims to better understand people’s reality so it can better minister to them. “We can’t respond with the Gospel if we don’t know what the reality they’re facing is,” he said of people, especially those on margins and in difficult situations.

– 10. October’s meeting is just the beginning.
In an unusual move, the synod general assembly has been divided into two sessions, with the first Oct. 4-29, and the second planned for October 2024. The decision, announced in October 2022, has parallels to the Synod of Bishops on the Family, which met in 2014 for an extraordinary general assembly of the Synod of Bishops, and then continued its work the following year as an ordinary assembly. The work of both meetings culminated in the post-synodal apostolic exhortation “Amoris Laetitia” (“The Joy of Love”), released in 2016.

Prior to the synod, Pope Francis presides over an ecumenical prayer vigil in St. Peter’s Square Sept. 30. Synod participants attend a retreat Sept. 30-Oct. 3 in Sacrofano, about 16 miles north of Rome. The retreat includes morning meditations – offered by Dominican Father Timothy Radcliffe of the United Kingdom and the Benedictine Rev. Mother Maria Ignazia Angelini of Italy – afternoon small-groups and Mass.

Meanwhile, the Taizé community and other organizations have organized a meeting in Rome that weekend called “Together – Gathering of the People of God” for young people to pray for the synod.
The synod’s general assembly opens Oct. 4 with a papal Mass that includes the new cardinals created at a Sept. 30 consistory. Among them is expected to be Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

(Maria Wiering is senior writer for OSV News.)

Briefs

Posted on September 25, 2023 by Mississippi Catholic

NATION
LOS ANGELES (OSV News) – A recent court ruling has become another bend in a “rollercoaster” ride for hundreds of thousands of individuals who arrived in the U.S. as children without legal permission, said an immigration expert. On Sept. 13, a federal judge in Texas found the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program unlawful. DACA was created in 2012 under the Obama administration. According to a March 2023 report by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 578,680 people are beneficiaries of DACA. Ilissa Mira, a senior attorney with the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc., or CLINIC, said DACA recipients can continue to file renewal applications and their employment authorizations. She added they will do so “with this thing that’s still gonna continue to loom over their heads – this uncertainty about what will happen to DACA in the long run. So it’s still a situation where the clock is ticking for them.” Carlos Alberto Méndez Velázquez told OSV News he knows that anxiety all too well. The 33-year-old Los Angeles resident, a filmmaker, said he wants the government to give DACA recipients like him a path out of their immigration limbo, especially since he and fellow DACA recipients generate jobs and contribute to the nation’s prosperity.

Pictured is one bead from a living rosary prayed in memory of Ethan Gerads Sept. 3, 2023, at Seven Dolors Church in Albany, Minn. Ethan, 16, was killed in a car accident July 21, a short time after he helped make the rosary. (OSV News photo/Dianne Towalski, The Central Minnesota Catholic)

ALBANY, Minn. (OSV News) – Earlier this summer, Jeff Gerads volunteered to construct a giant rosary for the Harvest of Hope Area Catholic Community. When he invited his sons Ethan, 16, and Owen, 12, to help, he could never have known how special that rosary would become. Ethan was killed in a car accident July 21. Now that rosary and the community are helping the family, Jeff and his wife, Melissa, Owen and his sister, Emma, to cope with the loss. People from across the Harvest of Hope community, which includes the parishes in Albany, Avon, St. Martin and St. Anthony, in central Minnesota, gathered Sept. 3 at Seven Dolors in Albany to pray a special living rosary to remember Ethan using the rosary he helped make. Ethan was an usher and an altar server and would have been a junior this year at Albany High School. He grew up seeing his dad pray the rosary while they were hunting and had started bringing his own rosary on hunting trips, Jeff said. “The four parishes each have an identity, but then an event like this happens and we discover something that we hold in common,” said Deacon Steven Koop, who is assigned to the Harvest of Hope community. “And that is how much we love family, how much we respect one another.”

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – The American public’s views of the family are “complicated” and becoming “more pessimistic than optimistic about the institution of marriage and the family,” according to a new report from Pew Research Center. Social and legal changes in recent decades have increased the variety of households in the United States, data shows. A growing share of U.S. adults in recent decades have either delayed or foregone marriage, according to Pew’s analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data. The survey about the future of the country found that when asked about marriage and family, 40% of Americans said they are very or somewhat pessimistic about the institution of marriage and the family. Just 25% are very or somewhat optimistic. Another 29% said they are neither optimistic nor pessimistic. Just 23% of Americans called being married as either extremely or very important to living a fulfilling life, while just 26% said the same of having children. Those trends hold across religious groups. Just 22% of Catholics identified marriage as either extremely or very important to living a fulfilling life; 31% said the same about having children. When asked to rank what factors were extremely or very important for a fulfilling life, most Americans pointed to career satisfaction (71%) and having close friends (61%). Most Catholics ranked having a job or career they enjoy (77%) and having close friends (59%) as extremely or very important to living a fulfilling life.

VATICAN
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – On the recommendation of the Catholic bishops of mainland China in consultation with the Chinese government, Pope Francis has named two bishops from the country’s mainland as members of the assembly of the Synod of Bishops. Bishop Joseph Yang Yongqiang of Zhoucun, who has served as vice president of the government-related Council of Chinese Bishops, and Bishop Anthony Yao Shun of Jining, the first bishop ordained after the Vatican and China signed a provisional agreement on the nomination of bishops in 2018, will be among the 365 synod members, a number which includes the pope, the Vatican said. The Vatican released an updated list Sept. 21 of people expected to participate in the assembly of the Synod of Bishops Oct. 4-19. A list released in July included Cardinal-designate Stephen Chow Sau-Yan of Hong Kong, but no bishop from the Chinese mainland. Bishop Luis Marín de San Martín, undersecretary of the synod, told reporters that 464 people are expected to be involved in the synod, including 54 women participating as full members and 27 women joining as experts, facilitators or special guests.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The Vatican urged members of the U.N. Security Council to be “creative and courageous artisans of peace and weavers of constructive dialogue” to find a peaceful solution to the war in Ukraine. Addressing a meeting of the U.N. Security Council in New York Sept. 20, Archbishop Paul R. Gallagher, the Vatican’s foreign minister, said today the “entire international community, more than ever, cannot surrender itself and let this issue pass in silence.” He said “all member states of the United Nations, and especially those of the Security Council, are called upon to join efforts in the search for a just and lasting peace for Ukraine as an important element of the global peace of which the world thirsts.” The Security Council meeting included a speech from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy who criticized the council’s structure which gives five countries the power to veto any council resolution or decision, saying that Russia’s misuse of the veto power is “to the detriment of all other U.N. members.” Archbishop Gallagher did not discuss the subject of veto power, but said it is “undeniable that the Russian attack on Ukraine has jeopardized the entire global order which arose after World War II.”

WORLD
ABUJA, Nigeria (OSV News) – In another chapter of an “evil scheme” plaguing Nigeria, the southern Enugu Diocese asked for prayers for Father Marcellinus Obioma Okide, who was kidnapped Sept. 17. The priest was reportedly abducted on his way to St. Mary Amofia-Agu Affa Parish, where he serves as a parish priest. Six other people who were traveling with him were also kidnapped. In a Sept. 18 release sent to OSV News, Father Wilfred Chidi Agubuchie, the diocesan chancellor and secretary confirmed the abductions, and called on the Christian community to pray for the priest’s safe release and “a change of heart on the part of the kidnappers.” Christians in Africa’s largest nation have become prized targets for terrorist groups such as Fulani herdsmen, according to Emeka Umeagbalasi, chairman of Intersociety, a nongovernmental human rights organization. He said 22 communities and villages have been under the siege of the jihadist Fulani herdsmen and other assembled jihadists since 2022, accusing the government of former President, Muhammaru Buhari of using such Fulani attacks to enhance an agenda of “Islamizing Nigeria.” Johan Viljoen, Director of the Denis Hurley Peace Institute of the South Africa Catholic bishops’ conference told OSV News that “the situation in Enugu is particularly severe. Enugu state shares a border with Benue state, which has been under sustained attack.”

MEXICO CITY (OSV News) – Dominican Brother Obed Cuellar has seen large numbers of migrants arrive daily in the Mexican border city of Piedras Negras, where they plan to cross the Rio Grande into neighboring Eagle Pass, Texas. But there’s still space available in the diocesan-run migrant shelter. “They head straight for the river,” he told OSV News. An estimated 2,200 migrants crossed the Rio Grande into Eagle Pass in the early morning hours of Sept. 18, one of the largest massive crossings on record, according to Fox News. It’s a scene playing at other crossings across the nearly 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border as migrants arrive in increasingly large numbers, straining the resources of migrant-assistance organizations and U.S. border patrol officials alike. The U.S. Border Patrol recorded more than 177,000 arrests in August, according to the Washington Post – roughly a 30% increase from the 132,652 migrants detained in July. The sharp increase in arrests followed a jump from 99,539 detentions in June – the month following the end of Title 42, the pandemic-era health provision which allowed for the immediate expulsion of migrants to Mexico. A record number of families also were taken into custody by Border Patrol in August, according to the Post. Analysts say the urge to migrate remains strong – with many people coming from countries such as Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba. Some migrants are allowed entry into the U.S. and receive notices to appear in court. But many are sent back to Mexico and transported to destinations in southern states far from the United States border.

LAMPEDUSA, Italy (OSV News) – In front of the Church of St. Gerland on the Italian island of Lampedusa, dozens of migrants lined up Sept. 14 in a neat row, one after the other. The queue was long as they waited patiently. More than 130 Red Cross employees and volunteers were working day and night to provide migrants not only with sanitary assistance, but also with a warm meal. They prepared 5,000 portions at noon and a similar amount for dinner. From Sept. 12 to Sept. 13, 7,000 migrants reached Lampedusa, an Italian island once visited by Pope Francis as his first apostolic trip destination in July 2013. On Sept. 13, authorities said a record number of 120 fragile boats arrived on the island within 24 hours. “If you count all of us here on the island we are just 5,000 inhabitants,” former Mayor Totò Martello told journalists, when, together with other people of goodwill, he rolled up his sleeves and offered the outstretched hand of another refugee a plate of pasta al pomodoro. “There haven’t been that many people here ever before probably,” 80-year-old Salvatore, who only gave his first name, told OSV News, but “at least there is a relative order here close to the church.” So far in 2023, nearly 126,000 migrants have arrived in Italy, almost double the figure by the same time in 2022. Those desperately trying to reach Europe came mainly from Africa’s Guinea, Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso, but also from Bangladesh and Pakistan.

Church in Morocco, pope offer prayers after quake; death toll rises to more than 2,800

Posted on September 14, 2023 by Mississippi Catholic

By Maria-Pia Negro Chin
(OSV News) – Rescuers continue to search through the rubble in the hopes of finding survivors after a powerful earthquake struck Morocco the night of Sept. 8, killing more than 2,800 people and causing widespread destruction.

Search and rescue teams continue their attempt to reach those in isolated villages closer to the earthquake’s epicenter. Previous attempts to help had been delayed by fallen rocks covering the roads leading to the hard-hit rural communities.

The deadly quake’s epicenter was reported to be in the High Atlas mountains, about 44.7 miles (72 kilometers) southwest of historic Marrakech, a city of about 840,000 people. The villages in these areas were reported to have suffered the worst destruction, with buildings falling and killing many of the villagers while they were asleep.

Even as some aid was starting to reach the villages Sept. 9 and 10, media reports shared that survivors were struggling to find food, water and shelter.

The Sept. 8 earthquake struck shortly after 11 p.m. local time, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, which said its preliminary magnitude was 6.8 and it lasted several seconds, with a 4.9 aftershock hitting the area minutes later. The quake was the strongest to hit that part of the North African nation in 120 years, according to USGS.

A woman reacts as rescue workers recover a body from the rubble in Ouirgane, Morocco, Sept. 10, 2023, in the aftermath of a deadly magnitude 6.8 earthquake. An aftershock rattled Moroccans that day as they mourned victims of the nation’s strongest earthquake in more than a century Sept. 8, killing more than 2,000 people, a number that is expected to rise. (OSV News photo/Hannah McKay, Reuters)

On Sept. 11, Morocco’s interior ministry confirmed the earthquake’s death toll had risen to 2,862, as of 3:40 p.m. ET. Authorities warned that these numbers are expected to rise. The ministry said there are over 2,500 people injured, with at least 1,404 in critical condition. According to CNN, state media reported that most of the dead – nearly 1,500 – were in the Al Haouz district in the High Atlas Mountains.

“The next 2-3 days will be critical for finding people trapped under the rubble,” Caroline Holt, global director of operations for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, told Reuters.

Soon after news of the devastation spread, the Archdiocese of Rabat – which has churches in Marrakech and Ouarzazate that suffered minor material damage – urged prayers for those affected through a message posted on social media. “Let us pray with Our Lady of Morocco for the victims and their families,” the archdiocese said.

In a Sept. 9 telegram, Pope Francis expressed his sorrow and “deep solidarity” with the people of the North African nation, praying for those who perished, healing for the wounded and consolation for those mourning the loss of their loved ones and homes, Vatican News reported.

The pope continued expressing his proximity to the Moroccan people “stricken by a devastating earthquake” after the Angelus prayer Sept. 10. He also thanked “the rescue workers and those who are working to alleviate the suffering of the people.”

“May concrete help on the part of everyone support the population at this tragic time: Let us be close to the people of Morocco!” he said.

With roads damaged or blocked, rescue teams had difficulty reaching the hardest-hit areas. The Associated Press reported that authorities were working to clear roads in Al Haouz province to allow passage for ambulances and aid to those affected. But large distances between mountain villages meant it will take time to learn the extent of the damage, said Abderrahim Ait Daoud, head of the town of Talat N’Yaaqoub. CNN reported that the Moroccan army cleared a key road from Marrakech to the mountains early Sept. 10.

Ayoub Toudite, from the mountainside village of Moulay Brahim, told AP that his village was inhabitable after the earthquake. “We felt a huge shake like it was doomsday,” he said. In 10 seconds, he said, everything was gone. “We are all terrified that this happens again,” Toudite said.

Social media videos from Sept. 8 showed buildings collapsing and there were reports of people trapped amid the rubble in the city. “People were all in shock and panic. The children were crying and the parents were distraught,” when the deadly earthquake hit, Abdelhak El Amrani told the Agence France-Presse news agency.

The BBC reported that many Moroccans “spent the night out in the open as the Moroccan government had warned them not to go back into their homes” in case of severe aftershocks. Those whose homes were destroyed by the earthquake slept outside again Sept. 9, CNN reported.

Media reported that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened the G20 summit Sept. 9 with “heartfelt condolences” to everyone affected by the quake. Other world leaders expressed their condolences and offered support, with many countries – including France, the United States, Germany and Turkey – saying they are ready to assist Morocco following the disaster. Algeria, which severed diplomatic ties with Morocco in 2021, offered to open its airspace to allow humanitarian aid or medical evacuation flights, according to reports.

On Sept. 9, U.S. President Joe Biden shared multiple messages expressing sadness at the loss of life and devastation following the earthquake and stating that “the United States stands by Morocco” during this difficult time. “My Administration is ready to provide any necessary assistance for the Moroccan people,” he said on X, previously known as Twitter.

He also addressed the deadly earthquake as he began his news conference in Hanoi, Vietnam, where he was on a diplomatic visit following his attendance at the G20. “I want to express my sadness by the loss of life and devastation caused by the earthquake in Morocco,” Biden said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the people in Morocco,” Biden said, adding that he also is working with Moroccan officials to ensure U.S. citizens in Morocco are safe.

On Sept. 9, the Royal Palace announced three days of national mourning following the disaster. Morocco’s King Mohammed VI has mobilized the country’s military for search and rescue missions as well as a surgical field hospital, according to AP. The government also ordered water, food and shelter to be sent to those who lost their homes.

On Sept. 10, AP reported that, according to Rescuers Without Borders, teams totaling 3,500 rescuers registered with a U.N. platform were ready to deploy in Morocco when asked. The news agency added that, even as some international help is arriving, the Moroccan government has not made an international appeal for help as Turkey did after a massive quake devastated the country in February. Other countries like France were waiting for Morocco’s formal request to immediately assist.

It was later reported that the interior ministry said it had accepted search and rescue aid from four countries: Britain, Spain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

A Sept. 9 statement from the Archdiocese of Rabat expressed solidarity with the victims, “especially for those Moroccan families who are mourning or who have injured family members,” and urged the faithful to pray and to help those affected.

“We are appealing for emotional and effective solidarity with those in distress at this time,” said the statement posted on the archdiocesan website, adding that Caritas will be working to make aid available to help where the need is most urgent.

The director of Caritas Rabat will visit sites affected, and initial emergency aid is being prepared, according to a Caritas statement posted on the archdiocesan site.

Cardinal Cristóbal López of Rabat planned to preside over a Sept. 10 Mass in Marrakech for all the victims. He also encouraged all communities to pray, express compassion to local authorities and organize solidarity.

“May God help us to draw positive consequences from this painful event, by transforming our hearts into hearts of mercy, solidarity and tenderness towards our brothers and sisters in distress,” the archdiocesan statement said.

(Maria-Pia Negro Chin is Spanish editor for OSV News. Follow her on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MariaPiaChin.)

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Church in Morocco, pope offer prayers after quake; death toll rises to more than 2,800