CRESCO (May 12, 2022) – After years of dreaming and planning, a Mass of Dedication for the new Most Holy Trinity Church in Cresco will be celebrated on Sunday, May 15, 2022, at 2 p.m.
The Most Reverend Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, will serve as principal celebrant and homilist for the Dedication Mass. The Mass will be concelebrated by Father Brian J.W. Clarke, pastor, Most Holy Trinity Parish, and other priests from the Diocese of Scranton.
When a new church opens, it is dedicated to the Lord with a solemn rite, in accordance with the ancient custom of the Church. During the Dedication Mass at Most Holy Trinity, Bishop Bambera will pray the Prayer of Dedication and participate in the Anointing of the Altar and Walls of the Church.
The community is invited and welcome to attend the Dedication Mass. Everyone is invited to stay after Mass for refreshments in the narthex.
Most Holy Trinity Parish was created upon the consolidation of Saint Ann Parish, Tobyhanna; Saint Mary of the Mount Parish, Mount Pocono; and Saint Bernadette Parish, Canadensis.
The Dedication Mass will be the first time that many parishioners will have the opportunity to see the new worship space. Members of the media are welcome to attend the Mass of Dedication for interviews and/or photographs.
Mass of Dedication for Most Holy Trinity Parish, Cresco Sunday, May 15, 2022 at 2 p.m. 212 State Route 390 Cresco, PA 18326
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The Most Reverend Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, served as principal celebrant and homilist for the annual Mother’s Day Adoption Mass at the Cathedral of Saint Peter on May 8. (Photos/Eric Deabill)
SCRANTON – The beauty and importance of adoption once again became the focal point of the Diocese of Scranton’s annual Mother’s Day Mass – thanks to dozens of families who attended the liturgy with their adopted children.
The Mass, celebrated May 8 at the Cathedral of Saint Peter, brought together dozens of families and their adopted children.
Many, like Karen Trently of Throop, were joyful in discussing their adoption stories following Mass.
“It will almost be nine years in July that we got the call about Addison. My husband and I tried about ten years to get pregnant and unfortunately it didn’t happen for us,” Trently explained.
That is when the couple decided to adopt.
“The day that we got the call about Addison was one of the happiest days of our lives. Every day with her is a blessing and she really completed our family,” she added.
The Trently family makes it an annual tradition to attend the Mother’s Day Adoption Mass at the Cathedral.
“She didn’t grow inside me but she grew in our hearts,” Trently said. “She knows about her adoption and we thank her mother for being so brave and putting her up for adoption.”
This was the first year Dan and Sarah Wilson attended the Mother’s Day Adoption Mass. The Milford couple has an eight-year-old son, Luke, and recently adopted their two-year-old son, Jude.
Dan and Sarah Wilson, along with their children, Luke, 8, and Jude, 2, attended the Mother’s Day Adoption Mass for the first time. Jude recently joined the Wilson family through the adoption process.
“We knew our family wasn’t complete with Luke and we knew that he needed to have a sibling so we went through the adoption process and adopted Jude. He is from Atlanta, Georgia. We have a completely open adoption with his birth family and it is the most happy and joyous relationship in our life and our family is complete,” Sarah Wilson said.
“He is an absolute miracle. Our lives are so much richer, I don’t know how we existed without him,” Dan Wilson added. “Luke is amazing as well but Jude really completes our whole family.”
When asked to describe his thoughts on having a brother, Luke responded it was “probably the happiest time of my life.”
The Most Reverend Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, was principal celebrant and homilist for the Mother’s Day Adoption Mass. During the liturgy, the bishop not only acknowledged adoptive and foster mothers, but all mothers, grandmothers and godmothers.
“For all of the commercialization and hype that can cause us at times to lose touch with the heart of its real meaning, doesn’t this day cause us to reflect upon the essence of the gospel message for the Fourth Sunday of Easter, Good Shepherd Sunday?” the bishop asked. “Selfless love, forgiveness, unconditional acceptance and hope are all qualities that a mother seeks to impact to her child whom she knows and loves so well.”
Mothers, the bishop added, remind us that we are all given the power and responsibility to become vehicles for God’s presence in the world.
“May we especially give thanks for those women who have nurtured and cared for us, their children, and have taught us that it is possible to love as Jesus, the Good Shepherd,” Bishop Bambera noted.
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WASHINGTON – In response to the leak of a draft opinion in the U.S. Supreme Court case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, some abortion advocates are calling for nationwide demonstrations, disruptions of church services, and the personal intimidation of specific Supreme Court justices. Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Pro-Life Activities invited the faithful to unite in fasting and prayer:
“In the midst of current tensions, we invite Catholics around the country to join us in fasting and praying the Rosary on Friday, May 13, the Memorial of Our Lady of Fatima. Let us offer our prayers and fasting for these intentions:
• For our nation, for the integrity of our judicial system, and that all branches of government be dedicated to seeking the common good and protecting the dignity and rights of the human person, from conception to natural death.
• For the overturning of Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey in the Supreme Court’s final decision in Dobbs v. Jackson.
• For the conversion of the hearts and minds of those who advocate for abortion.
• For a new commitment to building an America where children are welcomed, cherished, and cared for; where mothers and fathers are encouraged and strengthened; and where marriage and the family are recognized and supported as the true foundations of a healthy and flourishing society.
• For Our Blessed Mother’s intercession and guidance as the Church continues to walk with mothers and families in need, and continues to promote alternatives to abortion, and seeks to create a culture of life.
As Catholics, let us witness to the beautiful gift of life with civility and love, and with our peaceful prayers and our compassionate service to all those in need.
Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us.”
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On Sunday, May 1, these twenty boys and girls received the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist for the first time during the 11:00 a.m. Sunday Liturgy with Rev. Michael M. Bryant, Pastor, presiding.
Pictured with Father Michael are: Nicholas Zbylicki, Paige Hubert, Penelope Nealis, Liliana Nee, Lyla Lenceski, Aaron Traeger, Joseph Gromelski, Ashton Schumaker, Roman Limongelli, Vincent Wall, Matthew Balchune, Christian Pace, Luke Sciandra, Levi Boyanowski, Emma Rose Hadley, Aubrianna Scartelli, Anna Barycki, Hannah MacRae, Ayla Amico, and Mia Concepcion.
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Pope Francis talks with Abbot Gregory Polan, leader of the confederation of Benedictine monasteries, during an audience with students and professors of Rome’s Pontifical Institute of Liturgy at St. Anselm, at the Vatican May 7, 2022. The pope said that the celebration of the liturgy and the study of it should lead to greater unity in the church, not division and squabbles. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The study and celebration of the liturgy should lead to a sense of awe before God, a commitment to mission and a growing unity within the church, not tensions and squabbles, Pope Francis said.
“When liturgical life is a bit of a banner of division, there is the odor of the devil, the deceiver. It is not possible to worship God and at the same time make the liturgy a battlefield,” the pope said May 7 during a meeting with students and professors from the Pontifical Institute of Liturgy at St. Anselm in Rome.
The papal audience marked the conclusion of a celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Benedictine-run institute, which was founded after the Second Vatican Council and its reform of the liturgy.
Pope Francis said the institute responded to “the growing need of the people of God to live and participate more intensely in the liturgical life of the church” by understanding it and experiencing “its mystery with an ever-new sense of wonder.”
“One does not possess the liturgy,” he said. Rather, the liturgy is lived and celebrated.
However, the pope said, people must be aware of “the temptation of liturgical formalism: to focus on forms, formalities rather than reality, as we see today in those movements that try to go backwards and deny the Second Vatican Council. Then the celebration is recitation, it is something without life, without joy.”
The teaching of every church council has taken time to be accepted fully, he said, and it is no different with Vatican II, especially with its reform of the liturgy.
He told the students and professors that he remembers as a youngster how people were so upset — “they rent their garments” — by reforms that began even before the council, such as Pope XII ruling that drinking water did not violate the required fast before Mass or allowing people to fulfill their Sunday Mass obligation by attending a Saturday evening Mass or the restoration of the Easter vigil on Saturday night.
“All of these things scandalized closed-minded people,” he said, and “it still happens today. Indeed, those with closed mindsets use liturgical patterns to defend their own point of view. Using the liturgy: this is the drama we are experiencing in ecclesial groups that are distancing themselves from the church, questioning the council (and) the authority of the bishops” even as they claim “to preserve tradition.”
Celebrating the liturgy must increase communion within the church and unity with others, he said, because “the liturgical life opens us to each other, to those closest and furthest from the church, in our common belonging to Christ.”
“Giving glory to God in the liturgy finds its counterpart in love of neighbor, in the commitment to live as brothers and sisters in daily life, in the community in which I find myself, with its merits and its limitations,” Pope Francis said.
And, he said, every Mass or liturgy ends with sending members of the congregation out on mission.
“What we live and celebrate leads us to go out to meet others, to meet the world around us, to meet the joys and needs of so many people who perhaps live without knowing the gift of God,” he said. “A genuine liturgical life, especially the Eucharist, always impels us to charity, which is above all openness and attention to others.”
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis said he wants LGBT Catholics to know that God is a father who “does not disown any of his children.”
The pope’s comment was among the short answers to three questions posed in a letter by Jesuit Father James Martin, editor at large of America magazine and a driving force behind its new website, outreach.faith, which provides news and resources for LGBT Catholics, their families and the people who minister with them.
Pope Francis’ letter, in Spanish, is dated May 8; it was posted on Outreach the next day. And Vatican Media also published a translation in Italian.
Father Martin asked the pope, “What do you say to an LGBT Catholic who has experienced rejection from the church?”
“I would have them recognize it not as the ‘rejection of the church,’ but instead ‘of people in the church,'” the pope responded.
“The church is mother and calls together all of her children,” he continued. “Take for example the parable of those invited to the feast: ‘the just, the sinners, the rich and the poor, etc.'”
A church that is “selective,” or makes some pretext about who is “pure,” he said, “is not the Holy Mother Church, but rather a sect.”
Asked what the most important thing LGBT people should know about God, Pope Francis responded, “God is Father and he does not disown any of his children. And ‘the style’ of God is ‘closeness, mercy and tenderness.’ Along this path you will find God.”
Father Martin also asked the pope what he would like LGBT people to know about the church, to which the pope responded that they should read the Acts of the Apostles. “There they will find the image of the living church.”
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This is a portrait of Pauline Jaricot. In 1822, the young and rich French woman founded the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. (CNS photo/courtesy Pontifical Mission Societies in the United States)
WASHINGTON (CNS) – In 1822, a young and rich French woman, Pauline Jaricot, founded the Society for the Propagation of the Faith.
In 2022, this international association that coordinates assistance for Catholic missionary priests, brothers, and nuns in mission areas, is still going strong and renewed attention has been given to its founder, who will be beatified May 22.
Born in Lyon, France, in 1799, Jaricot was the youngest of seven children. At age 17, while recuperating from a serious fall, her mother died. Jaricot then led a life of intense prayer, and on Christmas 1816, took a vow of perpetual virginity.
Jaricot first founded an association for pious servant girls, the Repairers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ. While her brother, Phileas, was studying to be a missionary priest, she felt an urge to help the missionary cause. So, in 1822, with the help of workers at the family’s silk factory, she established the Society for the Propagation of the Faith.
She encouraged each participant to invite 10 other people to pray and make contributions which was dubbed the “circle of 10.”
“Pauline had a vision of two lamps. One lamp was empty and the other lamp was full and filling up the other lamp,” said Monica Yehle, chief of staff for the Pontifical Mission Societies in the United States. “She saw the empty lamp as France after the revolution.” She wanted to rebuild the strength of the church in France just a few decades after the French Revolution.
“She wanted to do something, right? So she sent to the circles of 10 a sous — equivalent to a penny — for the work of the church,” Yehle said.
In 1826, while fostering the growth of the society supporting missionary work, Jaricot also founded the Association of the Living Rosary. Instead of organizing by tens, she assembled groups of 15 — one for each decades of three “mysteries” of the rosary at that time. By 1832, Pope Gregory XVI gave canonical status to the latter organization.
In 1835, Jaricot became severely ill again, and while heading toward a pilgrimage in Italy, she was healed. She attributed the cure to St. Philomena.
In 1845, she set out to practice Christian social reform by buying a blast furnace plant, with workers and their families living in an adjacent building, with a school and chapel nearby. She left the management to people who defrauded her and left her virtually penniless. She declared bankruptcy but preached forgiveness to those who had bilked her. Jaricot died destitute in 1862.
But what she started bore many fruits.
The United States, which got all of $6 from the society in its first contribution, now accounts for 25% of all donations to its current work. By 1908, the church in the United States had grown so vigorous that it was decided that it was no longer missionary territory.
The last U.S. diocese still receiving funds from the society is the Diocese of Fairbanks, Alaska — and this is the final year of society contributions, according to Father Kieran Harrington, director of the Pontifical Mission Societies of the United States.
In May 3, 1922, a century after its founding, Pope Pius XI declared the Society for the Propagation of the Faith “pontifical.” There are three international groups with the “pontifical” designation: the Missionary Childhood Association, the Society of St. Peter Apostle, and the Missionary Union. The first two were also founded in France and raise funds for the church.
Since 1935, Jaricot’s remains are in St. Nizier Church in Lyon.
On Feb. 25, 1963, a century after her death, St. John XXIII declared Jaricot venerable.
In 1995, during the worst of the Rwandan Hutu-Tutsi civil war, a parish church in Rwanda gave $81 to the World Mission Sunday collection, which is held on the next-to-last Sunday in October.
In November 1997 — the 175th anniversary of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, during a Mass in conjunction with the U.S. bishops’ annual fall meeting, Auxiliary Bishop John J. McCormack of New York praised the work of Jaricot, saying her work is still in need today.
“We know that God, in a way known to him, helps those to be saved who, through no fault of their own, do not hear the Gospel and see it lived,” Bishop McCormack said. “But will God help us if we neglect to do all that we can to make it possible for them to hear and to see the truth, the truth who is Jesus Christ?”
Then there is the matter of the miracle.
Mayline Tran had been in painful agony for two years. But her intercession with Jaricot resulted in what she describes as a miraculous recovery in 2012. Her doctor, stunned by the reversal of her condition, was dumbstruck to learn she was going to middle school. The girl’s brain waves, a jumble in the wake of the accident that nearly killed her, were once again normal.
The file was presented he case to the archbishop of Lyon in late 2017. On May 26, 2020, Pope Francis authorized the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to promulgate a decree recognizing a miracle attributed to Jaricot’s intercession.
The May 22 beatification will be in Lyon, with Filipino Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle presiding on the pope’s behalf.
To learn more about Pauline Jaricot, the documentary “Heart of a Missionary: The Story of Pauline Jaricot” can be seen at https://blessedpauline.org/
An “EWTN Live” episode about Pauline Jaricot –that starts at about the 8-minite mark — can be seen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yZOoLU-dUU
The story of the miracle linked to her intercession can be found at https://3415701.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/3415701/The-true-story-of-a-miracle.pdf
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The 2022 First Communion Class shown with L-R Deacon Tom Spataro, Catechist Anne French and Pastor of the Church of St. Patrick, Rev. Joseph Manarchuck (Photo by Tom Duncan Photography)
Nineteen area children received the sacrament of Holy Communion for the first time in ceremonies held at the Church of St. Patrick in Milford.
The catechetical student recipients were: Emma Armandi, Joseph Barcia, Emma Bauman, Michael DeMaio, Noah Eira and Harper Ganska, all of Milford; Liam Johnson, Charlotte Keller, Ayden and Anaya McIntosh of Dingmans
Ferry; Anya Nielsen, Jacob and Julianna Rizzo, Aaron Rodgers, Jillian Sell, Jason and Theodore Stierle, Avery Stewart and Mya Terry, all of Milford.
The Mass and ceremony, witnessed by their parents, grandparents, guardians and family members, included: Introductory Rites, Liturgy of the Word, Renewal of Baptismal Promises, Liturgy of the Eucharist and Communion Rite.
Jillian Sell presents a bouquet of flowers in honor of the Blessed Mother. (Photo by Tom Duncan Photography)
In preparation for the occasion, students made beautiful banners reflective of images associated with Holy Communion, e.g. the chalice and sacred host.
Following the ceremony, the students received special gifts and a Certificate of Holy Communion signed by Pastor, Rev. Joseph Manarchuck. On the day after receiving First Holy Communion (Mother’s Day), several of the students participated in the crowning of the statue of the Blessed Mother.
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Pope Francis greets seminarians and the rector from the Pontifical North American College during his general audience in the Paul VI hall at the Vatican in this Sept. 29, 2021. In his message for the World Day of Prayer for Vocations, the pope said that priests and laity should work together to evangelize. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The Christian vocation is for all members of the church to work together and show that one human family united in love is not a utopia but is the reason God created humanity, Pope Francis said.
“When we speak of ‘vocation,’ then, it is not just about choosing this or that way of life, devoting one’s life to a certain ministry or being attracted by the charism of a religious family, movement or ecclesial community,” he wrote in his message for the 2022 World Day of Prayer for Vocations.
“It is about making God’s dream come true, the great vision of fraternity that Jesus cherished when he prayed to the Father ‘that they may all be one,'” he wrote.
The day of prayer will be observed May 8 at the Vatican and in many dioceses around the world.
The message, released at the Vatican May 5, was dedicated to the theme, “Called to build the human family,” and it looked at the meaning of “vocation” within the context of a synodal church, that is, “a church that listens to God and to the world.”
In his message, the pope wrote, “We know that the church exists to evangelize, to go forth and to sow the seed of the Gospel in history. This mission can only be carried out if all areas of pastoral activity work together and, even more importantly, involve all the Lord’s disciples.”
“We must beware of the mentality that would separate priests and laity, considering the former as protagonists and the latter as executors,” he said, and instead “together carry forward the Christian mission as the one people of God, laity and pastors.”
All members of the church are called: to be protagonists together in the church’s mission as “an evangelizing community”; to be guardians of one another and of creation; and to build a fraternal world, he wrote.
“In a word, we are called to become a single family in the marvelous common home of creation, in the reconciled diversity of its elements,” the pope wrote.
Everything is rooted in welcoming and responding to God’s loving gaze, he wrote. “Our lives change when we welcome this gaze. Everything becomes a vocational dialogue between ourselves and the Lord, but also between ourselves and others.”
This dialogue allows each Christian to become “ever more who we are,” meaning, for those ordained in the priesthood, to become ever more “instruments of Christ’s grace and mercy,” for consecrated men and women to become ever more “the praise of God and the prophecy of a new humanity,” and for married couples “to be mutual gift and givers and teachers of life.”
Christians receive a vocation as individuals and “we are also called together” like “the tiles of a mosaic,” he wrote. “Each is lovely in itself, but only when they are put together do they form a picture.”
“This is the mystery of the church: a celebration of differences, a sign and instrument of all that humanity is called to be,” he wrote.
For that to happen, Pope Francis said, “the church must become increasingly synodal: capable of walking together, united in harmonious diversity, where everyone can actively participate and where everyone has something to contribute.”
Therefore, with each vocation striving to make “God’s dream” of human fraternity come true, each vocation “contributes to a common objective: to celebrate among men and women that harmony of manifold gifts that can only be brought about by the Holy Spirit.”
The pope urged priests, consecrated men and women, and the lay faithful, “let us journey and work together in bearing witness to the truth that one great human family united in love is no utopian vision, but the very purpose for which God created us.”
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Abortion demonstrators are seen outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington May 3, 2022, after the leak of a draft majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito preparing for a majority of the court to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision later this year. (CNS photo/Elizabeth Frantz, Reuters)
WASHINGTON (CNS) – Although many pro-life groups immediately reacted positively to the news that the majority of Supreme Court justices seem set to overturn the court’s Roe v. Wade decision, some tempered their reaction with a continued call for more advocacy while others kept a wait-and-see approach until the court issues its opinion in the weeks ahead.
Some Catholic bishops likewise kept their response in check, but acknowledged the work done on the grassroots level by pro-life activists.
For example, hours after the draft of the court’s opinion was published by Politico May 2, San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone tweeted: “Tonight I am thinking of all the years of hard work by pro-life people of all faiths and none. Years and years of patient advocacy, help for unwed moms, political engagement and more.”
The next day, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis released a statement that Archbishop Bernard Hebda will comment when the Supreme Court releases its official statement. “No matter the court’s decision, the Catholic Church will continue to work toward building a culture of life and supporting women and their children,” the statement said.
Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, said in a May 4 statement that the leaked opinion draft “reminds us of the urgent need for prayer and action at this pivotal moment in our country.”
“As we await the court’s decision, we urge everyone to intensify their prayer and fasting that the final decision of the court will bring about the reversal of Roe and Casey,” he said, referring to the court’s 1992 decision that affirmed Roe.
“We hope and pray for a change in our laws and stand ready to help all pregnant women in need in each of our communities,” he added.
National Right to Life, an advocacy group that has long fought against abortion, similarly said it “agrees with the statement of Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, who said, ‘We will let the Supreme Court speak for itself and wait for the Court’s official opinion.'”
Other groups were not so cautious. Texas Right to Life said it was encouraging news that “Roe soon may be gone. Yet new attacks on life will emerge.”
In its May 2 statement, the group called its supporters to further action saying: “Already, abortion advocates are calling on Congress to ban states from passing pro-life laws.”
“If and when the court overturns Roe, the pro-life movement must defeat attacks such as these and build a culture that values preborn children and pregnant mothers.”
Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, likened the potential overturning of Roe v. Wade as the beginning for the antiabortion movement.
The previous day, her group sent a letter to all the Republican members of Congress urging them to back a nationwide “heartbeat bill,” banning abortions at six weeks of pregnancy. Hawkins, and nine other antiabortion leaders, emphasized that the 15-week ban at stake in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case before the court did not go far enough.
“If we are not focusing on limiting early abortions, we are not really addressing the violence of abortion at all,” Hawkins wrote in the letter.
After the court’s draft decision was leaked, she told The Washington Post: “We are on the precipice of a whole new America.”
One thing many groups said they were not happy with was that the opinion was leaked to a news outlet.
Dennis Poust, executive director of the New York State Catholic Conference, said the leak was a breach of trust and “an attack on the integrity of the Judicial Branch of government.”
“When our highest court cannot operate free of political interference or intimidation, it serves as a stark example that nothing is sacred anymore. While we fervently pray for legal protections of unborn children, we will not dignify the goals of the leaker by commenting on the contents of the draft document.”
The California Catholic Conference said in a May 3 statement that the leak of the opinion draft “triggered the governor and California legislative leadership to announce its intent to create a California constitutional amendment to protect the right to abortion. This will destroy lives, families and significantly limit the ability of the Catholic Church in California to protect the unborn.”
The conference said this was moment for the church and California Catholics to “engage with their communities, actively and publicly oppose this amendment.”
Right to Life Michigan expressed “cautious optimism” about the leaked draft and said its mission won’t change if Roe is overturned.
“We’d have a complete abortion ban in our state, but there are a lot of different moving parts with different groups and with a governor who is trying to invalidate this law. Our focus would be on those efforts and making sure we are fighting against them and have as many people on our side fighting against them as well,” Anna Visser, director of communications and education for Right to Life Michigan, told Detroit Catholic.
She warned pro-life advocates not to celebrate too early, considering the official opinion hasn’t been released and the final version might not reflect the views of Justice Samuel Alito, who authored the draft opinion.
She also noted that the work of pro-life advocacy goes beyond abortion.
“As a pro-life organization, we have to protect the vulnerable, the elderly, the disabled, the unborn,” she said, adding that the focus is “on the marginalized and those discriminated against.”