ROME (CNS) – Pope Francis had a restful, peaceful first night at Rome’s Gemelli hospital after a successful three-hour operation June 7 for a hernia.

He has been informed of the many messages of “closeness and affection” from well-wishers and he “expresses his gratitude, while asking for continued prayers,” said Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office, in a written statement June 8.

A statue of St. John Paul II is seen outside of Rome’s Gemelli hospital June 8, 2023, where Pope Francis is staying in the papal suite on the top floor after undergoing surgery to treat a hernia June 7, 2023. Because of his frequent visits over his three-decade pontificate, the Polish pope affectionately called the hospital “the third Vatican” after his second “home” at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo outside of Rome. (CNS photo/Justin McLellan)

The medical staff in charge of monitoring the 86-year-old pope’s post-operative recovery said that “Pope Francis had a peaceful night, managing to rest extensively,” Bruni said.

The pope “is in good general condition, alert and breathing on his own. Routine follow-up examinations are good. He will observe the necessary post-operative rest for the entire day,” June 8, Bruni added.

The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services, asked that Catholics “keep Pope Francis and all those in the hospital in your prayers.”

“As Pope Francis recovers from surgery, he is strengthened by faith in the healing power of our merciful God,” he said in a written statement released June 7. “Jesus always walks with us and is even closer whenever we need healing and comfort.”

Pope Francis underwent a three-hour abdominal surgery “without complications” June 7 to treat a hernia, according to the Vatican press office.

The 86-year-old pope was taken to Rome’s Gemelli hospital shortly after his general audience June 7. He was put under general anesthesia and underwent abdominal surgery to treat a hernia that developed at the site of abdominal incisions from previous operations, Dr. Sergio Alfieri, the chief surgeon operating on the pope, said at a news conference at the hospital following the operation.

Speaking to journalists after the surgery, Alfieri said Pope Francis had a number of internal scars and adhesions from two operations many years ago, possibly in Argentina; one was to treat peritonitis — inflammation of abdominal tissue — caused by an infected gallbladder and another to treat hydatid disease caused by cysts containing a parasite. It was this last operation that had left behind scars in the pope’s abdominal tissue where another hernia had developed.

Alfieri said that during the three-hour operation adhesions were found between the intestine and the membrane that lines the abdomen, that for months caused an “aggravating, painful” intestinal blockage.

The adhesions were freed during the surgery and the opening in the abdomen’s wall that led to the hernia was repaired with prosthetic mesh.

Alfieri, who also operated on the pope in 2021, said the pope had no complications and responded well to the general anesthesia he was administered during this surgery and the one in 2021 that removed part of his colon.

The chief surgeon underscored that, in both operations, all affected tissue had been benign.

“The pope does not have other illnesses,” he said.

Alfieri explained that while the medical team that follows the pope had been discussing the scheduled operation for several days, the final decision to operate was not taken until June 6, when Pope Francis briefly visited the hospital for a medical checkup and tests.

“It was not urgent,” he said, “or else we would have operated on him then.”

Before going to the hospital the pope seemed well and in good spirits, holding his general audience as usual, riding in the popemobile, blessing babies, walking with a cane and meeting special guests afterward. He had held two private meetings before the general audience in St. Peter’s Square.

Vatican News reported he arrived at the Gemelli hospital around 11:30 a.m. local time in the compact Fiat 500 he often rides in. The windows of the papal suite on the 10th floor of the hospital were opened just after 6 p.m.

Alfieri noted that shortly after the surgery Pope Francis was already working and making jokes, and had asked the surgeon in jest: “When are we doing the third (surgery)?”

While Alfieri said recovery for this operation typically lasts about seven days. Vatican News reported that the pope’s audiences have been canceled until June 18 as a “precaution.”

Bruni said June 7 that, for now, all events the pope was scheduled to attend after June 18 were still on his calendar and had not been canceled.

Pope Francis was scheduled to meet with 29 Nobel Peace Prize winners at the Vatican June 10 for an event to celebrate human fraternity. Before going to the hospital, the pope encouraged its organizers to continue with the event as planned without him, a statement from the foundation organizing the event said.

This was Pope Francis’ third hospitalization at the Gemelli hospital, the most recent was from March 29 to April 1 when he was admitted for an acute respiratory infection.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Individuals become Christian because they have been touched by Christ’s love, not because they have been convinced or coerced by someone else, Pope Francis said.

The Catholic Church needs missionary disciples who have hearts like St. Thérèse of Lisieux and who “draw people to love and bring people closer to God,” he told people at his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square June 7.

“Let us ask this saint for the grace to overcome our selfishness and for the passion to intercede that Jesus might be known and loved,” he said.

Pope Francis carries a white rose as he approaches a reliquary containing the relics of St. Thérèse of Lisieux before the start of his general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican June 7, 2023. He announced he was planning on issuing an apostolic letter dedicated to her for the 150th anniversary of her birth. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)

The pope continued his series of talks about “zeal” for evangelization by focusing on St. Thérèse, the 19th-century French Carmelite nun who is patron saint of missions and a doctor of the church.

Before beginning his general audience talk, the pope walked with his cane to a large reliquary containing the relics of St. Thérèse that was placed on a table near where he sits to deliver his catechesis. He placed a large white rose before the ornate reliquary and stood a few moments in prayer.

During his catechesis he announced he was planning to dedicate an apostolic letter to her to mark the 150th anniversary of her birth this year.

Pope Francis has said he has a special devotion to the saint, once telling an interviewer that he used to keep a photo of this 19th-century French Carmelite nun on his library shelf when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires. He told journalist Sergio Rubin in 2010, “When I have a problem I ask the saint, not to solve it, but to take it in her hands and help me accept it, and, as a sign, I almost always receive a white rose.”

St. Thérèse displayed patience, trust in God and a “spirit of humility, tenderness and goodness,” that God “wants from all of us,” Pope Francis has said.

During his Wednesday general audience talk, the pope asked Christians to find inspiration in the life of St. Thérèse, who lived “according to the way of littleness and weakness,” defining herself as “a small grain of sand.”

She lived in poor health and died at the age of 24, but “her heart was vibrant, missionary,” the pope said.

The Carmelite nun wanted to be a missionary and served, from her monastery, as a “spiritual sister” to several missionaries, accompanying them through her letters and prayers, he said.

“Without being visible, she interceded for the missions, like an engine that, although hidden, gives a vehicle the power to move forward,” Pope Francis said. “Such is the power of intercession moved by charity; such is the engine of mission!”

Therefore, missionaries are not only those who “travel long distances, learn new languages, do good works and are good at proclamation,” he said. “No, a missionary is anyone who lives as an instrument of God’s love where they are” so that “through their witness, their prayer, their intercession, Jesus might pass by.”

St. Thérèse’s daily resolution was to “make Jesus loved” and to intercede for others, the pope said. “Following the example of Jesus the Good Shepherd, her zeal was directed especially toward sinners.”

Apostolic zeal never works with proselytism or coercion, he said. “One does not become a Christian because they are forced by someone, but because they have been touched by love.”

“The church needs hearts like Thérèse’s, hearts that draw people to love and bring people closer to God,” he said.

The pope ended the audience with his usual greetings to special guests and then went to Rome’s Gemelli hospital for abdominal surgery that was scheduled for that afternoon. He was expected to remain for several days, according to the Vatican press office.

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – Prior to the first anniversary of a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn its prior abortion precedent, pro-life activists lauded legislation passed in multiple states while advocating for additional support services for women and families facing unplanned pregnancies.

The Supreme Court issued its historic decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization June 24, 2022, little more than a month after Politico leaked an earlier draft of Justice Samuel Alito’s opinion. The leak caused a public firestorm before the court issued its official ruling and is seen as the most significant breach of the court’s confidentiality in its history.

A memorial stone dedicated to the unborn children of the world is seen at St. Patrick Parish Cemetery in Smithtown N.Y., Jan. 22, 2021. (CNS photo/Gregory A. Shemitz)

The Dobbs case involved a Missisppi law banning abortion after 15 weeks, in which the state directly challenged the high court’s previous abortion-related precedents in Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. The Supreme Court ultimately overturned its own prior rulings, undoing nearly a half-century of its own precedent on the issue.

Under Roe and its ensuing precedents, states were generally barred from restricting abortion prior to viability, or the point at which a child could survive outside the womb. When Roe was issued in 1973, fetal viability was considered to be 28 weeks’ gestation, but 50 years later, estimates now are generally considered to be 23-24 weeks, with some estimates as low as 22 weeks.

While supporters often described Roe as settled law, opponents argued the court in 1973 improperly legalized abortion nationwide, a matter that should have been left to legislators in Congress or state governments. Many, including the Catholic Church, also argued that abortion is murder and its legalization should be opposed on moral grounds. Opponents of the ruling challenged it for decades, both in courts and in the public square, such as the national March for Life held annually in Washington.

In a June 6 statement marking the first anniversary of Dobbs, Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of Arlington, Virginia, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, said, “We have much to celebrate.”

“By the grace of God, the nearly fifty-year reign of national abortion on demand has been put to an end. Roe v. Wade — a seemingly insurmountable blight on our nation — is no more!” Bishop Burbidge said. “Over the past year, while some states have acted to protect preborn children, others have tragically moved to enshrine abortion in law — enacting extreme abortion policies that leave children vulnerable to abortion, even until the moment of birth. … The work that lies ahead continues to be not just changing laws but also helping to change hearts, with steadfast faith in the power of God to do so.”

Bishop Burbidge said the “task before us begins with the knowledge of the truth and our courage to speak it and to live it with compassion,” calling for the faithful to show “radical solidarity” with women facing an unexpected or challenging pregnancy.

“In this shifting political landscape, we persist confidently in our efforts to defend life,” he said. “The work that lies ahead continues to be not just changing laws but also helping to change hearts, with steadfast faith in the power of God to do so. The task before us begins with our knowledge of the truth and our courage to speak it and to live it with compassion.”

Jeanne Mancini, president of the March for Life organization, told OSV News the first post-Roe year has been “amazing in so many ways” in reducing abortion. Mancini said the sheer overturn of Roe itself “is a huge accomplishment.”

“I’m not sure many of us thought that would happen in our lifetime,” she said.

But, Mancini said, the year following the Dobbs decision has come with many challenges and also introduced “an element of confusion.”

In the months following Dobbs, some women in states that restricted abortion said they were denied care for miscarriages or ectopic pregnancies, or other adverse pregnancy outcomes as a result of unclear abortion legislation.

Pro-life activists said pro-life bills restricting abortion contained exceptions for such circumstances, while opponents claimed bill texts insufficiently addressed those circumstances or lacked clarity on exceptions.

Public support for legal abortion also increased after Roe was overturned, according to multiple polls conducted in the months following the Dobbs ruling.

“I think the overturning of Roe has revealed how conflicted our culture is about abortion,” Mancini said. “It shows me our work is still very much cut out for us.”

May 2023 polling from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 42% of U.S. adults said the Democratic Party best represents their views on abortion, while 26% said the same of the Republican Party. A substantial portion, 32%, said neither major political party best represents their views on abortion.

In the November elections following Dobbs, voters in states across the U.S. either rejected ballot measures meant to restrict abortion, or voted to codify measures protecting the procedure.

“We’ve got a long way to go towards the day abortion is unthinkable,” Mancini acknowledged.

The way forward, Mancini said, must be to “lean into this and do it with a lot of love.”

“And then also, of course, to emphasize the truth that pro-life is pro-woman, whether it’s the support of a pregnancy care center or funding support at the state level,” she said.

Since the Dobbs decision, more than 20 states have moved to ban or restrict abortion. Some states like Texas implemented a near-total ban on the procedure at any point in pregnancy, while others, such as Georgia, banned the procedure after six weeks, effectively before many women know they are pregnant and thus banning most abortions in practice. Other states, including North Carolina, have approved restrictions at later gestational points in an unborn child’s development, such as North Carolina, where a 12-week abortion ban is scheduled to go into effect in July.

Bans or other limitations are blocked pending legal challenges in South Carolina, Arizona, Indiana, North Dakota, Ohio, Utah and Wyoming. South Carolina’s bill, for example, would ban abortion after six weeks if it remains in effect; a judge put a temporary hold on it one day after Gov. Henry McMaster signed it into law, asking the state Supreme Court to review the law. The state’s high court previously struck down similar legislation.

Meanwhile, some other states have moved to keep or expand abortion access within their borders, including Oregon, which allocated about $15 million dollars to pay for travel expenses for women who come to the state seeking abortions. California enacted legislation its Gov. Gavin Newsom said would shield patients and providers who travel from other states to perform or undergo abortions in California from laws in other states. New York enacted similar legislation.

Destiny Herndon-De La Rosa, founder and president of New Wave Feminists, told OSV News that the U.S. birth rate may be one indicator of the long-term impact of the end of Roe.

But the U.S. may already be seeing the effects of the fall of Roe without a substantial shift in the culture toward life. Abortion pills, Herndon-De La Rosa said, are representing a higher share of U.S. abortions, and their impact is still being tallied amid ongoing legal disputes.

“It can feel very defeating sometimes,” she said. “Like that scene from Jurassic Park where they say ‘life always finds a way,’ sometimes it feels like abortion will always find a way, because when a woman is is desperate and terrified and that second line shows up (on a pregnancy test), I don’t know how much laws make a difference if she feels she has no other option.”

Abortion, she said, is a matter of both supply and demand.

“What are we doing to address the demand side?” Herndon-De La Rosa asked, arguing for further increases in affordable housing and child care.

Herndon-De La Rosa said that pro-life bills also need to be crafted carefully so health providers are not discouraged from timely medical interventions to save the lives of women during pregnancy.

The bills cannot “put women’s lives at risk, intentionally or not,” she said.

Kristen Day, executive director of Democrats For Life of America, co-authored a policy proposal in January alongside Catherine Glenn Foster, president and CEO of Americans United for Life, about making birth free to mothers. Day told OSV News the pro-life movement should both seek to address “the needs of women and on bringing the U.S. more in line with Europe as far as limitations on abortion,” noting many European nations limit elective abortion to the first trimester.

“I think there’s a lot to be optimistic about with the pregnancy-support side of things,” Day said, adding that states including Mississippi, the impetus for Dobbs, also expanded resources for pregnant women and new mothers in its abortion restrictions.

Day said a challenge for the pro-life movement is a negative public perception of early limitation bills, which is all the more reason for pro-lifers to “really focus on more than just the limitation.”

“It’s complicated,” Day said. “It’s complicated in part because the Supreme Court made a law (in Roe), and so we’re just trying to move the legislative duties back where they’re supposed to be.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – A faster change of course away from today’s throwaway culture and toward greater care for the common good is necessary to ensure the planet’s livability for future generations, Pope Francis said on World Environment Day.

The pope called on people “to move away from the throwaway culture toward ways of living marked by a culture of respect and care; care of creation and care of our neighbors, whether they be near or far from us either geographically or through time.

Pope Francis speaks to the organizers of the Green & Blue Festival during an audience at the Vatican June 5, 2023. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

Meeting at the Vatican June 5 with the organizers of a festival supporting sustainability and bringing together activists, researchers, artists and scientific experts in Rome and Milan, Pope Francis noted how science increasingly demonstrates that actions taken today will have an effect on the environment for thousands of years.

“This has also increased our sense of responsibility to God, who has entrusted us with the care of creation, to our neighbors and to future generations,” he told the group of organizers of the “Green & Blue Festival: Earth For All.”

World Environment Day was established in 1972 and is celebrated every June 5 to promote awareness about protecting the environment.

Combating climate change, Pope Francis said, requires recognizing one’s responsibility to those “who have contributed least to its occurrence” – the world’s poorest and most vulnerable – and developing a sense of “responsible cooperation” among everyone.

“Our world is now thoroughly interdependent and cannot allow itself to be divided into blocs of countries that promote their own interests in an isolated or unsustainable way,” the pope said. “The real enemy is an irresponsible behavior that has profound consequences for every aspect of the lives of the men and women of today and tomorrow.”

The pope said that changing the current model of consumption and production is “an immense and demanding challenge” that is possible to face.

He gave the example of efforts at the Vatican where the tiny city-state is trying to eliminate the sale of single-use plastic items on its territory. “These are steps, real steps that we have to continue,” the pope said.

After the meeting, Pope Francis helped the organizers hold up a banner that read “Loss and Damage. Finance Now,” a reference to a fund that was agreed upon at the COP27 U.N. climate conference in 2022 after decades of pressure from vulnerable developing countries. The fund would seek to provide financial assistance to nations most vulnerable and impacted by the effects of climate change.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The pontifical mission societies are called to inspire all Catholics to share the Gospel, a work that requires funding but can never be about money, Pope Francis said.

Pope Francis receives a gift as he greets national directors of the pontifical mission societies in the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican June 3, 2023. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

“Please do not reduce the societies to money,” the pope told the Vatican-based officers and national directors of the societies June 3 during their annual meeting.

The four societies, which operate under and cooperate with the Dicastery for Evangelization, are the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, Society of St. Peter Apostle, Holy Childhood Association and the Missionary Union of Priests and Religious.

The societies rely on donations to fund their work in places where the Gospel has yet to be proclaimed or where the church is still being established — areas traditionally called “mission territories.”

“They certainly need money, which is a means, but do not reduce them to that, for they are bigger than money,” Pope Francis told the officers and directors. “Money is what we need to move forward. Yet if spirituality is missing and they become merely a business, then immediately corruption arises.”

“Indeed, even in these days, we have seen newspaper reports of alleged corruption having occurred in the name of the church’s missionary work,” the pope said without providing more details.

Earlier in the week, the Associated Press ran a story claiming the Vatican was investigating transfers made between funds related to the Pontifical Mission Societies in the United States, although the story said the transfers “appear to be fully legal.”

The societies promote missionary awareness and offer direct aid to dioceses and religious orders and help fund the education of priests, religious and lay workers for the church in mission lands.

Pope Francis insisted the societies “are not merely an agency for the distribution of funds for those in need of help, but a reality called to support the mission of evangelization in the church, both universal and local and to foster the missionary spirit among the people of God.”

The directors and staff of the societies, he said, must be bold and creative, relying on the help of the Holy Spirit to educate all Catholics about their role in evangelization.

“I invite you to promote the missionary responsibility of the baptized, supporting the capillary network of national offices, both in newly evangelized countries and those of ancient Christian tradition, who perhaps need another first evangelization,” the pope said, adding that some traditionally Christian countries are experiencing “a serious crisis of faith and are in need of renewed evangelization and pastoral conversion.”

Reminding his audience that June is a month dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the pope asked them to remember why sharing the Gospel is so important.

“As we contemplate the heart of Christ, we discover the greatness of God’s plan for humanity,” he said. “Indeed, the Father ‘so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.'”

“In the pierced heart of the Crucified we can discover the infinite measure of the Father’s love: he loves us with eternal love; he calls us to be his sons and daughters and to share in the joy that comes from him,” the pope said.

In Jesus’ “compassion for those who are wounded, in his concern when faced with suffering, in the mercy with which he anoints sinners, in his sacrifice for the sins of the world,” Pope Francis said, Jesus “has shown us the heart of God.”

And, like him, the pope said, Christians must reach out to share the good news that God is “a father who always awaits us, sees us from afar, comes toward us with open arms; a father who turns no one away, but welcomes all; who excludes no one, but calls everyone.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis has named U.S. Cardinal Kevin J. Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life, to be the next president of the supreme court of Vatican City State.

Cardinal Kevin J. Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life, attends a news conference at the Vatican in this May 10, 2022, file photo. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

Until Pope Francis modified the judiciary of the city-state in April, the president of the court always was the prefect of the Apostolic Signature, the Holy See’s highest court. The current president is Cardinal Dominque Mamberti.

The Vatican announced June 2 that Cardinal Farrell, 75, would become president of the Court of Cassation, as the Vatican’s highest civil court is known, beginning Jan. 1. The position is not a fulltime role.

As judges on the court, Pope Francis named Cardinals Matteo Zuppi of Bologna, Paolo Lojudice of Siena and Mauro Gambetti, the papal vicar for Vatican City.

All four cardinals were appointed to five-year terms.

The Court of Cassation is the highest court of appeals for Vatican City State and can interpret Vatican City law.

In addition to serving as prefect of the dicastery, Cardinal Farrell also is camerlengo or chamberlain of the Holy Roman Church. While the pope is alive, the job is basically just a title. But when a pope dies or resigns, the chamberlain is charged with sealing the papal apartments, chairing consultations about the papal funeral, making the practical preparations for the conclave to elect the next pope, and chairing a committee of cardinals that takes care of the church’s ordinary affairs until a new pope is elected.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis was scheduled to undergo surgery at Rome’s Gemelli hospital June 7 to treat a hernia that had developed at an incision of a previous operation, the Vatican said.

Pope Francis greets visitors from the popemobile as he rides around St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican before his weekly general audience June 7, 2023. The Vatican announced the pope would be going to Rome’s Gemelli hospital that afternoon for surgery for an “incisional laparocele” or hernia. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)

The pope was to be put under general anesthesia and undergo abdominal surgery involving “plastic surgery on the abdominal wall with prosthesis,” Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office, said in a brief statement released shortly after the pope’s morning general audience June 7.

He was expected to remain in the hospital for several days.

The operation, “agreed upon in recent days by the medical team assisting the Holy Father, has become necessary due to an incisional hernia” causing “recurring, painful and worsening” intestinal blockage, the statement said. An incisional hernia might occur at the site of an incision in the abdominal wall.

The pope briefly visited the Gemelli hospital’s geriatric medical center for a medical checkup and tests June 6. According to the Italian news agency ANSA, he was there for some 40 minutes before returning to the Vatican.

Pope Francis was previously hospitalized for 10 days in July 2021 to treat diverticulitis, a condition marked by the inflammation of bulges lining the intestine, and underwent a surgery that removed part of his colon. In January 2023, the pope told the Associated Press that the bulges in his intestinal wall had returned.

The pope has said that he did not respond well to the general anesthetic used during his colon operation and said that reaction was part of the reason he declined having torn ligaments in his knee operated on. For more than a year Pope Francis has been using a wheelchair in many of his public events.

SCRANTON – Fourteen priests who are celebrating milestone anniversaries of their ordination year will be recognized during the 2023 Mass for Priest Jubilarians at 12:10 p.m. on Thursday, June 8, 2023, at the Cathedral of Saint Peter in Scranton.

The Most Reverend Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, will serve as principal celebrant and homilist. During the Mass, the bishop will recognize a total of 665 years of service to the priesthood.

Monsignor John A. Esseff, M.S., D.Min., will be recognized for 70 years of priestly service. Monsignor Esseff was ordained on May 30, 1953, by the late Bishop William J. Hafey and has served as a retreat director and confessor to Saint Mother Teresa.
In addition to Msgr. Esseff, priests who are celebrating 65, 60, 50 and 25 ordination year anniversaries will be honored. 

Here is the full list of Jubilarians:

70 Years – 1953

 Monsignor John A. Esseff, M.S., D.Min.

 

65 Years – 1958

 Reverend William D. Campbell, S.T.D.

 

60 Years – 1963

 Reverend John P. Ryan

 Reverend Eugene R. Carr

 Monsignor Thomas V. Banick

 

50 Years – 1973

 Reverend William M. Petruska, Capt., CHC, USN

 Reverend Anthony M. Urban, M.S., M.A.

 Reverend Thomas R. Hudak, M.Div.

 Reverend Paul M. Mullen, M.A.

 Reverend James J. Walsh, J.C.L.

 

25 Years – 1998

Reverend Philip S. Rayappan

Reverend Jackson Pinhero, O.S.J.

Reverend Mariusz Beczek, O.S.J.

Reverend Andrew Mensah Amankwaa

 

The 2023 Mass for Priest Jubilarians will be broadcast live by CTV: Catholic Television of the Diocese of Scranton and will be available for viewing on the Diocese of Scranton website, YouTube channel, and social media platforms.

 

SCRANTON  – Nearly 150 couples who are celebrating milestone anniversaries in 2023 will be recognized at the Cathedral of Saint Peter on Sunday, June 4, 2023.

Bishop Joseph C. Bambera will serve as principal celebrant and homilist for the Diocese of Scranton’s annual Wedding Anniversary Mass that recognizes married couples who are celebrating their 25th and 50th anniversaries this year. The Mass will begin at 2:30 p.m.

In addition to married couples celebrating their Silver and Golden anniversaries, there are expected to be one couple in attendance celebrating 66 years of marriage and two couples in attendance celebrating 60 years of marriage.

In all, a total of 6,528 years of marriage will be celebrated between the 148 couples who have pre-registered to attend the Mass.

CTV: Catholic Television of the Diocese of Scranton will broadcast the Mass live and provide a livestream on the Diocese of Scranton website and all Diocesan social media platforms.

The broadcast and livestream opportunities are a valuable opportunity for all married couples (no matter how many years they have been married) to pause and reflect upon the beauty of the vocation of marriage in our lives and in the life of our church.

SCRANTON – Just minutes before his Ordination Mass, William A. Asinari was so overwhelmed with gratitude he started to cry.

“It’s inexplicable. I was sitting up in the chapel and I was just in tears thanking God for the blessing of service,” Deacon Asinari said.

The Most Reverend Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, lays his hands on the head of William A. Asinari during the Rite of Ordination of Deacons on May 27, 2023, at the Cathedral of Saint Peter in Scranton. (Photo/Mike Melisky)

Less than an hour later, the 24 year old became a transitional deacon through the Rite of Ordination to the Diaconate, which includes the presentation of the candidate, election by the bishop, promise of the elect, litany of supplication and laying on of hands.

“I think one of the most beautiful moments was just hearing from the Church, we have found this man to be worthy,” Deacon Asinari explained. “I think every seminarian, to some degree, goes through the struggle that God is giving me this gift and I don’t deserve this. It is immensely beautiful and it’s beyond what I could ever deserve. You fight that feeling of unworthiness and when you finally get there in that moment and hear it, it hits home!”

Asinari, a native of Honesdale, is the son of Robert and Cathleen Asinari and is a parishioner of Saint John the Evangelist Parish, Honesdale. Several friends and fellow parishioners from Wayne County made the trip to the Cathedral for the Ordination Mass.

“These are the people that have seen me since I was one or two (years old). I remember them saying, ‘Have you thought about the priesthood’ or ‘You look like you’d make a good priest,’” Deacon Asinari added. “To have them sitting there as I’m ordained a deacon was beautiful.”

The Most Reverend Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, served as ordaining prelate and principal celebrant for the Ordination Mass.

“What a blessing this day is for Bill and for his family, our Diocese and particularly for all those who have helped him to arrive at this faith-filled moment,” Bishop Bambera said during his homily.

Bishop Bambera reminded Asinari that service to the People of God must lie at the heart of his vocation.

“For as meaningful and significant as this moment may be for you personally, the ministry that you will embrace is not yours alone,” Bishop Bambera continued. “It comes from – and is rooted in the life of the Lord Jesus – who came to save us from sin and the brokenness of our world.”

Deacon Asinari will serve for the next year as a transitional deacon, the ordination serving as the last major step before ordination to the priesthood, which typically occurs a year later after additional pastoral, liturgical and educational preparation.

As a deacon, he will assist the bishop and his priests in ministries of the Word, Liturgy and Charity. This includes proclaiming the Gospel, leading intercessions, preaching, preparing the altar, celebrating baptisms, leading the faithful in prayer, distributing holy communion, witnessing marriages and conducting wake and funeral services. Deacons also identify the needs of poor and underserved, and shepherd the Church’s resources to meet those needs.

“I think I’m most looking forward to baptisms,” Deacon Asinari said. “I know over my summer assignment there are a couple scheduled. There is just something so beautiful about getting a family together and by my hands, blessing the water and baptizing a child. It is overwhelming.”

This summer, Asinari will be serving the Saint Rose of Lima and Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parishes in the city of Carbondale.

“While you have been given tremendous gifts and talents, we pray that you will always rely upon the grace of God to fill up whatever may be lacking in you to carry out fully the ministry entrusted to you this day,” Bishop Bambera stated as he finished his homily.