Category: 2024 News

 

(OSV News) – The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops invites the faithful to join in a novena for mental health as part of the second year of the USCCB’s ongoing National Catholic Mental Health Campaign.

The nine days of prayer will commence on Oct. 10, which marks the international observance of World Mental Health Day, and conclude on Oct. 18, the feast of St. Luke, the evangelist and a patron of health care, who in the Letter to the Colossians is referenced as “the beloved physician” (Col 4:14).

Each day of the novena, which opened the USCCB campaign in October 2023, focuses on a particular aspect of mental health, addressing stigma, social relationships, and the impact of factors such as racism and poverty. Saints and others invoked during the novena include St. Dymphna, patron of those with mental illness; St. Martin de Porres, who experienced racial discrimination throughout his life; and Dorothy Day, a servant of God who twice attempted suicide as a young woman.

The Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time – which this year falls on Oct. 13, on the fourth day of the novena – has been designated as “Mental Health Sunday” by the USCCB, during which parishes can highlight the campaign by integrating mental health into the homily, offering prayers or special blessings for those experiencing anguish or distress, and including a petition for mental health during the prayer of the faithful at the liturgy.

Novena materials can be found online at https://www.usccb.org/mental-health-novena.

The novena – which encourages participants to pray, learn about and take action about mental health issues – “is offered in solidarity with those suffering from mental health challenges as well as health care professionals, family, and friends who are caring for people in need,” said the USCCB on its webpage introduction to the novena. “We hope that this modest novena will move all people to discern how God is calling them to offer greater assistance to those with mental health needs.”

The USCCB is encouraging Catholic dioceses to share novena information with their parishes with a special emphasis on Mental Health Sunday, Oct. 13, as it falls in the midst of the nine-day renewal effort and is an opportunity to promote and support the efforts of local mental health programs.

The “simple message” of the campaign is that “everyone who needs help should receive help,” said the USCCB in a Sept. 23 press release, quoting October 2023 remarks by two bishops spearheading the initiative, Archbishop Borys A. Gudziak of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, and Bishop Robert E. Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth.

(OSV News) – Ahead of Respect Life Month, the pro-life committee chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is urging “a revival of prayer and action” to end abortion and uphold the sanctity of human life.

A statement for the October observance, written by Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of Arlington, Virginia, was released by the USCCB Sept. 19 and posted to the website of the USCCB’s Respect Life Month initiative. The effort traces its origins to 1972, just prior to the U.S. Supreme Court rulings on Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, the two 1973 decisions that broadly legalized abortion.

In his message, Bishop Burbidge stressed that “Jesus, truly present in the Eucharist, gives us the fullness of life,” and “calls each of us to respect that gift of life in every human person.”

The bishop pointed to the 10th National Eucharistic Congress, held during July in Indianapolis as part of the National Eucharistic Revival, the U.S. bishops’ three-year effort to rekindle devotion to the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

The congress and the Eucharistic processions leading up to it “involved hundreds of thousands of Catholics who will never be the same,” he said. “The revival continues, and is so needed, especially in our efforts to defend human life.”

He quoted a 2013 address by Pope Francis to Catholic medical professionals, in which the pope said that “every child who, rather than being born, is condemned unjustly to being aborted, bears the face of Jesus Christ, bears the face of the Lord, who even before he was born, and then just after birth, experienced the world’s rejection.”

However, “the law and millions of our brothers and sisters have yet to recognize this reality,” said Bishop Burbidge.

Despite the Supreme Court’s June 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, enabling elected officials “to reduce or end abortion … fifty years of virtually unlimited abortion has tragically created a national mindset where many Americans have become comfortable with some amount of abortion,” said Bishop Burbidge. “This allows the abortion industry to continue to provide any amount of abortion.”

Abortion rates actually rose or stayed at pre-Roe levels in the U.S. following the Dobbs decision, which overturned the Roe and Doe rulings.

Globally, there are a total of some 73.3 million abortions each year, according to the Guttmacher Institute — a number about 4 million greater than United Kingdom’s current population, and almost 15 million more than the United Nation’s 2019 crude death rate, or total number of deaths worldwide in a given year.

“Given this challenge, the U.S. bishops have affirmed that, while it is important to address all the ways in which human life is threatened, ‘abortion remains our pre-eminent priority as it directly attacks our most vulnerable brothers and sisters, destroying more than a million lives each year in our country alone,'” said Bishop Burbidge, quoting a 2024 document by the U.S. Bishops on conscience formation and political responsibility for Catholics.

With the U.S. presidential election just weeks away, Bishop Burbidge asked Catholics in the U.S. to “renew our commitment to work for the legal protection of every human life, from conception to natural death, and to vote for candidates who will defend the life and dignity of the human person.”

In addition, he said, “we must call for policies that assist women and their children in need, while also continuing to help mothers in our own communities through local pregnancy help centers and our nationwide, parish-based initiative, Walking with Moms in Need.”

Faithful must “likewise continue to extend the hand of compassion to all who are suffering from participation in abortion,” highlighting the church’s abortion healing ministries, such as Project Rachel.

“Most importantly, we must rededicate ourselves to fervent prayer on behalf of life,” said Bishop Burbidge, who invited Catholics “to join me in a concerted effort of prayer between now and our national elections, by daily praying our Respect Life Month, ‘Prayer for Life to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.'”

The text of the prayer, along with several resources for Respect Life Month, is available on the initiative’s website at https://www.respectlife.org/respect-life-month.

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – In a message ahead of the 110th World Day of Migrants and Refugees, the U.S. bishops’ migration chair stressed Pope Francis’ call for solidarity with migrants, “reminding us that their journeys mirror the biblical Exodus, with God as their guide and companion.”

“(The pope) emphasizes that every encounter with migrants is an encounter with Christ, urging us to respond with compassion, recognizing their struggles as a reflection of our shared journey toward the Kingdom of Heaven,” said Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Texas, chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration, according to a Sept. 19 news release.

The USCCB release highlighted the beginning of National Migration Week, observed Sept. 23-29 this year. During the time leading up to World Day of Migrants and Refugees — which takes place on the last Sunday of September — the Catholic Church in the U.S., it said, calls “attention to the challenges confronting migrants and refugees, from their country of origin to their destination, and how Church teaching calls on Catholics to respond with compassionate acts of love.”

Catholic dioceses and institutions around the country are set to commemorate this week with events like special Masses, volunteer opportunities and immigration legal clinics, the statement said.

In his message for this year’s World Day of Migrants and Refugees, Pope Francis emphasized that “God walks with his people,” and he walks within his people, particularly the poor and the marginalized.

“It is possible to see in the migrants of our time, as in those of every age, a living image of God’s people on their way to the eternal homeland,” the pope wrote in his message. “Their journeys of hope remind us that ‘our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ’ (Phil 3:20).”

The pope also said that, like the people of Israel in the time of Moses, “migrants often flee from oppression, abuse, insecurity, discrimination, and lack of opportunities for development.” Like the Jewish people in the desert, migrants are tried by obstacles, including thirst, hunger, exhaustion, and the temptation of despair, he said.

Yet, “God not only walks with his people, but also within them,” and many migrants entrust themselves to God during their perilous journey seeking safe refuge and consolation amid discouragement, the pope added.

“How many Bibles, copies of the Gospels, prayer books and rosaries accompany migrants on their journeys across deserts, rivers, seas and the borders of every continent!” he exclaimed.

According to United Nations’ estimates, there were about 281 million international migrants in the world in 2020 (accounting for 3.6% of the global population). The UN’s refugee agency has said that, in 2023, there were 117.3 million forcibly displaced people — which includes refugees, asylum-seekers, people in need of international protection and internally displaced people — in the world.

In his annual message, Pope Francis recalled Jesus Christ’s insistence that his followers help others in need, as told in Matthew 25. He said that the encounter with the migrant, as with every brother and sister in need, is also an encounter with Jesus.

“Every encounter along the way represents an opportunity to meet the Lord,” the pope said. “It is an occasion charged with salvation because Jesus is present in the sister or brother in need of our help. In this sense, the poor save us, because they enable us to encounter the face of the Lord.”

The USCCB’s statement pointed people to its Justice for Immigrants website for suggestions on how to walk with migrants during National Migration Week through prayer and action.

The website includes a kit about National Migration Week, which suggests ways to volunteer, refers people to the joint pastoral letter that the U.S. and Mexico bishops issued in 2003, and lists ways to offer accompaniment in the context of migration. Some of these ways to accompany migrants include assisting migrants with transportation to court proceedings and medical appointments, helping parents enroll their children in schools, and being present to listen to their stories.

The Sept. 19 USCCB statement also referred people to resources prepared by the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.

“Migrants are a contemporary icon of this people on a journey, of the Church on a journey, and at the same time, it is in them and in all our vulnerable brothers and sisters that we can encounter the Lord who walks with us,” said a webpage from the dicastery, which shared information and videos about a communication campaign inviting all people of goodwill to organize initiatives with migrants, refugees, vulnerable people.

In closing his World Day of Migrants and Refugees message, Pope Francis urged people to “unite in prayer for all those who have had to leave their land in search of dignified living conditions.”

“Help us to keep walking, together with our migrant brothers and sisters, toward the eternal dwelling you have prepared for us,” the pope prayed. “Open our eyes and our hearts so that every encounter with those in need becomes an encounter with Jesus, your Son and our Lord.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Maybe it is a sign of aging, Pope Francis said, but he is increasingly concerned about what kind of world he and his peers will leave for younger generations — and the prognosis is not good.

“This isn’t pessimism,” the pope told about two dozen representatives of popular movements and grassroots organizations meeting Sept. 20 at the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.

Pope Francis said he feared adults are leaving behind “a world discouraged, inferior, violent, marked by the plundering of nature, alienated by dehumanized modes of communication,” and “without the political, social and economic paradigms to lead the way, with few dreams and enormous threats.”

But, he said, if people join forces, especially with those who are most often the victims, things can change.

And he prayed that “the cry of the excluded” would “awaken the slumbering consciences of so many political leaders who are ultimately the ones who must enforce economic, social and cultural rights.”

Pope Francis was meeting with representatives of movements and organizations from Europe, North and South America, Africa and Asia, including those that organize informal workers who collect and recycle trash, gather people who live in the informal settlements on the outskirts of cities, rally citizens to promote care of the environment, assist subsistence farmers and rescue migrants at sea.

Cardinal Michael Czerny, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, told the representatives that “justice cannot be an intellectual or even a juridical matter. It must be rooted deep within us, as urgent and impossible to ignore as hunger and thirst.”

“To raise our voices for the voiceless,” the cardinal said, Christians must follow the example of Jesus and be “humble, not caught up in pride, success, money and fame; in solidarity with those who suffer, capable of weeping with them and comforting them; meek, acting without violence or boasting, but with a deep thirst for justice.”

Pope Francis told the leaders that the injustices that keep too many people poor, malnourished, unemployed and on the margins of their community’s social and political life fuel violence and ultimately war.

Gloria Morales-Palos, a member of Christ the King Parish in San Diego and an officer in the local, state and national offices of the PICO Network, a faith-based community organizing group, told Catholic News Service she feared Pope Francis was right; “In America, this is the first generation of children who will not be better off than their parents.”

“The political environment is very harsh right now and scary for many Latinos,” especially those who have family members in the United States without legal papers, she said.

“The immigration laws are old, broken and need to change,” Morales-Palos said. “People always say, ‘They should get in line,’ but there is no line.”

Pope Francis told the group that he has been criticized for never speaking up for the middle class, “and I apologize for that,” he said. But at the same time, “it was Jesus who put the poor at the center.”

“Millionaires should pay more taxes,” the pope said. They draw their wealth from the goods of creation, which God made for everyone, and from which everyone should benefit.

People with money like to speak of the economy as a “meritocracy,” but oftentimes, they are rich through no merit of their own, he said. Their money comes from “inheritance, they are fruit of the exploitation of people, of the pollution of nature,” or “they derive it from corruption or from organized crime.”

“The blind competition to have more and more money is not a creative force, but an attitude, a path to perdition,” the pope said. “It is reckless, immoral, irrational behavior. It destroys creation and people’s lives.”

Too many people, and not just the rich, want to have someone they can look down on so they feel superior, he said. They “look from afar, look from above, look with indifference, look with disrespect, look with hate.”

“This is how the silence of indifference is exercised,” the pope said, and “it is silence and indifference that enliven the roar of hate. Silence in the face of injustice opens the way to social division. And social division opens the way to violence.”

The answer and the key to hope is love, he said. The fight for social justice, for respect for the sacredness of all human life and for care for creation must all be motivated by love.

SCRANTON – The Catholic Church recognizes the month of October as Respect Life Month and the first Sunday in October is designated as Respect Life Sunday.

The Most Reverend Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, will celebrate Respect Life Sunday Mass on Oct. 6 at 10:00 a.m. at the Cathedral of Saint Peter in Scranton.

The Mass is open to the public. Faithful from across the Diocese of Scranton are invited to attend the Respect Life Sunday Mass and focus on God’s precious gift of human life and our responsibility to care for, protect and defend the lives of our brothers and sisters.

The theme for the 2024 Respect Life celebration is “I came so that they might have life” (John 10:10). Jesus gave His very flesh to give us the gift of eternal life and invites us to the most profound experience of this gift in our celebration of the Eucharist. When we meet Jesus in the Eucharist, this encounter has the power to change us. The Eucharist has the power to transform the depths of our hearts and heart of our culture. United to the power of His Eucharistic Presence, Catholics are called to work to ensure that each person has life – and has it in abundance.

Catholics are called to cherish, defend, and protect those who are most vulnerable, from the beginning of life to its end, and at every point in between. During the month of October, the Church asks us to reflect more deeply on the dignity of every human life.

For those unable to attend in-person, the Mass will be broadcast live on CTV: Catholic Television of the Diocese of Scranton and the Diocese of Scranton’s YouTube Channel. The Mass will also be livestream on the Diocese of Scranton website with links provided on the Diocese of Scranton social media platforms.

SCRANTON – The Diocese of Scranton’s annual Red Mass will be celebrated on Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, at 12:10 p.m. at the Cathedral of Saint Peter in Scranton.

The Most Reverend Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, will be the principal celebrant. Rev. Joseph Marina, S.J., President of The University of Scranton, will be the homilist.

Historically, the Red Mass is attended by judges, lawyers and legislators for the purpose of invoking God’s blessing and guidance in the administration of justice. Its traditional name is derived from the color of vestments worn by the celebrants of the Mass, symbolizing the tongues of fire, which indicate the presence of the Holy Spirit. Moreover, the robes of the attending royal judges were, in ancient days, bright scarlet.

The public is invited to the Red Mass to pray for those in the legal, judicial and governmental profession. Members of the county bar associations from across the 11-county Diocese and the Diocesan Tribunal staff are also invited to participate.

Attendees will be asked to pray that decision-makers always serve the truth and to make and apply laws in ways that are right and just.

Catholic Television of the Diocese of Scranton will broadcast the Red Mass live and a livestream will be available on the Diocese of Scranton website and social media platforms.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – With some prudence, Catholics can benefit spiritually from the messages and spiritual practices associated with the alleged apparitions of Mary in Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina, said the Vatican Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.

“This does not imply a declaration of the supernatural character of the phenomenon,” nor does it mean that the tens of thousands of alleged messages from Mary published by the supposed “seers” are authentic, the dicastery said in a long “Note About the Spiritual Experience Connected with Medjugorje,” released Sept. 19.

With the approval of Pope Francis, the dicastery did, however, recognize “the abundant and widespread fruits, which are so beautiful and positive,” associated with devotion to Mary, Queen of Peace, and with pilgrimages to Medjugorje.

Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, dicastery prefect, presented the note at a news conference Sept. 19. He said he had not met with the alleged visionaries, but that once the notification was prepared, he wrote to the six of them with some “suggestions” about the future. He provided no further details.

The cardinal also showed reporters the official “nihil obstat” — a declaration of no objection — issued by Bishop Petar Palic of Mostar-Duvno, the diocese where Medjugorje is located, authorizing public devotion there to Mary, Queen of Peace.

While it is possible that a pope could go further and make a declaration about whether the alleged apparitions and messages have a supernatural origin, Cardinal Fernández said he asked Pope Francis if he wanted to move in that direction and the pope said, “Not at all.”

The devotions in Medjugorje began after six young people, aged 10 to 16, said Mary began appearing to them in June 1981. Three of them say they still have apparitions of Mary each day, while the other three have them only on special occasions.

The Vatican’s positive judgment of the spiritual experience connected to Medjugorje highlighted: “abundant conversions; a frequent return to the sacraments, particularly, the Eucharist and reconciliation; many vocations to priestly, religious and married life; a deepening of the life of faith; a more intense practice of prayer; many reconciliations between spouses; and the renewal of marriage and family life.”

“It should be noted that such experiences occur above all in the context of pilgrimages to the places associated with the original events rather than in meeting with the ‘visionaries’ to be present for the alleged apparitions,” the dicastery added.

The 10,000-word notification looked in-depth at hundreds of the “alleged messages,” highlighting the positive, orthodox character of most of them while cautioning that some contain questionable theological affirmations or appear to be more a reflection of the young people’s thoughts than what the church would expect from Mary.

Archbishop Aldo Cavalli, the resident apostolic visitor to Medjugorje, is charged with determining whether to allow the publication of alleged messages revealed in the future or alleged messages from the past that have not yet been published, the notification said.

At the news conference, Cardinal Fernández said the wording of some of the messages is “not exactly from St. Thomas Aquinas.” As an example, he pointed to one about the faithful departed being happy when Masses are celebrated for them, a statement which could give the impression that even those in purgatory can be happy.

A key principle in the church’s evaluation of phenomena like Medjugorje, the note said, is that “when one recognizes an action of the Holy Spirit in the midst of a spiritual experience, it does not mean that everything belonging to that experience is thereby free from all imprecisions, imperfections, and areas of possible confusion.”

Affirming the spiritual value of an alleged apparition or a specific devotion, it said, does not exclude the possibility of “some error of a natural order, not due to bad intentions, but to the subjective perception of the phenomenon.”

For example, it said so many of the messages have Mary allegedly insisting people listen to her that they can give the impression that the alleged messages are more important than the Bible.

“This often-repeated appeal probably comes from the love and generous fervor of the alleged visionaries who, with goodwill, feared that the Blessed Mother’s calls for conversion and peace would be ignored,” the note said. “This insistence becomes even more problematic when the messages refer to requests that are unlikely to be of supernatural origin, such as when Our Lady gives orders about specific dates, places, and practicalities and when she makes decisions about ordinary matters.”

In fact, in many of the messages, the dicastery said, Mary “asks that her messages be listened to, but she also subordinates them to the incomparable value of the Word revealed in the Holy Scriptures.”

The dicastery drew particular attention to the alleged messages’ description of Mary as “Queen of Peace” and how they rightly offer “a vision that is theocentric and very rich in the true meaning of peace. According to this understanding, peace signifies not only the absence of war; it also has a spiritual, family, and social meaning.”

“A constant call to abandon a worldly lifestyle and excessive attachment to worldly goods appears in the messages, along with frequent calls for conversion, which makes true peace in the world possible,” it said.

Cardinal Fernández said that with a little “good sense,” most Catholics will be able to distinguish between the alleged messages that are spiritually beneficial and those that are imprecise or simply unimportant, like one in which Mary tells the young people her birthday is Aug. 5 and not Sept. 8, as celebrated on the church’s calendar.

Asked if he had ever been to Medjugorje, the cardinal said he had during a trip to Europe with two confreres to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their ordinations, which would have meant the trip was in 2011 or 2012. The cardinal said he had not wanted to go — he preferred Venice or Florence — but one of the priests was a “fanatic” and they gave in.

Although the bus journey was not easy, the cardinal said what he found in Medjugorje was “an environment of prayer and peace” and a desire among the pilgrims to change their lives.

“We prayed, and it did us well,” he said.

(OSV News) – A new report identifies what researchers call “three big myths” about faith and politics in the U.S., concluding that the nation is less polarized around such issues than popularly believed — and that faith leaders are key to healing division in American society.

The findings were shared Sept. 17 by More in Common, a nonpartisan research and civic nonprofit based in New York, in a 140-page report titled “Promising Revelations: Undoing the False Impressions of America’s Faithful.”

The study drew on data collected from a representative sample of over 6,000 U.S. citizens polled at various intervals during the period September 2023 through August 2024. More in Common teamed up with polling companies YouGov and ROI Rocket for several rounds of surveys and focus groups, while also conducting online research, social media analysis and conversations with faith and community leaders.

While the nation’s heated social discourse might suggest a deep connection between faith and political polarization, “the findings in this study challenge some key parts of the story that we have been hearing about our polarized landscape,” such as “narratives that evangelicals are chiefly concerned with politics, that the relevance of religion is fading, that young generations feel distant from their faiths, and that religious Americans are mostly intolerant of others,” said the report’s executive summary.

In contrast, “the evidence shows something different to what we might expect: more shared values, more desire to keep faith distinct from partisan politics, more longing to transcend divisions, more respect for each other, more commitment to pluralism and more desire for guidance and help from local faith leaders and institutions in navigating this difficult time in American life,” said the report. “We also find less intolerance towards other faiths, and less of a generation gap within faith communities.”

The report noted three critical misperceptions about the relationship between faith and politics in the U.S., particularly with regard to evangelical Christians — that faith is “all about politics,” that faith is “becoming irrelevant in Americans’ lives,” and that religious Americans are “intolerant.”

More in Common researchers found that “non-evangelicals significantly overestimate the importance evangelicals place on their political identity and partisan affiliation” — by as much as 10 times, with the estimate that 41% of evangelicals say political party affiliation “is their most important identity” and the actual response at just 4%.

Evangelicals are also seen to be more affiliated with the Republican Party (63% estimate) than they actually are (46% actual), with the data revealing evangelical Christians hold “a wide range of political views” and prioritize religion, family and general American identity over their political party choices, said researchers.

Erroneous assumptions about faith and political affiliation “carry significant consequences,” fostering what researchers called “collateral contempt,” or “the tendency for animosity towards political opponents to spill over to religious groups … perceived to be aligned with one political team.”

That animosity can in turn provoke “generalized hostility towards entire faith communities based on their supposed political affiliation,” the report said.

Although several studies by Pew and Gallup have tracked significant declines in religious affiliation in the U.S. — trends that More in Common researchers call “important” — the general public “underestimates the value Americans, especially younger Americans, still place on personal faith and belonging to faith communities.

“In fact, our research found that most Americans (73 percent) see their faith as an important part of who they are,” said the report. “Young generations of Jewish and Muslim Americans, in particular, value their Jewish and Muslim identity much more than commonly assumed.”

Specifically, said the report, “the decline in trust in institutions is impacting Americans’ relationship with religious institutions and houses of worship.”

A third “perception gap” centers on the view of religious Americans as “intolerant,” although report data showed that “the majority of Americans across religious groups value religious pluralism and want the United States to be a place where people of all religions feel that they belong,” said the report, with 78% of evangelicals and 75% of Muslims sharing that ideal.

While “many Americans see the United States as a country founded on values inspired by Christian principles … most do not see a conflict between recognizing the many ways in which Christianity shaped America through past centuries, and their personal commitment to building a pluralistic society,” the report said.

Faith leaders have a vital role to play in resolving such disjunction and discord, as they still enjoy high levels of trust and are “well positioned to mitigate the toxic national polarization that faces the country,” said researchers.

By drawing on their faith traditions — and by “highlighting shared values and practices such as self-reflection, humility, kindness, and dignity” — faith leaders “can build common ground, reduce fear, and foster unity,” researchers said.

Kindness and respect for human dignity were the values most highly esteemed by study participants, regardless of religion, researchers found.

“This report shines a light on the enormous potential of America’s faith communities to heal divisions and foster a more united society,” said Jason Mangone, executive director of More in Common. “It’s time we move beyond the misperceptions that have distorted the public narrative about faith in America and embrace the vital role faith leaders can play in building bridges across divides.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The second session of the Synod of Bishops on synodality, set to bring 368 bishops, priests, religious and laypeople to the Vatican, will begin by asking forgiveness for various sins on behalf of all the baptized.

As synod members did before last year’s session, they will spend two days on retreat before beginning work; that period of reflection will conclude Oct. 1 with a penitential liturgy presided over by Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Basilica, the Vatican announced.

The liturgy will include time to listen to the testimonies of three people: one who suffered from the sin of abuse, one from the sin of war and third from the sin of indifference to the plight of migrants, according to a Vatican statement announcing the liturgy.

Afterward, “the confession of a number of sins will take place,” said the statement, released Sept. 16. “The aim is not to denounce the sin of others, but to acknowledge oneself as a member of those who, by omission or action, become the cause of suffering and responsible for the evil inflicted on the innocent and defenseless.”

According to the Vatican, the sins confessed will include: sins against peace; sins against creation, sins against Indigenous populations and migrants; the sin of abuse; sins against women, family and youth; the sin of “using doctrine as stones to be hurled”; sins against poverty; and sins against synodality or the lack of listening and communion.

The liturgy is open to all but is specifically geared toward young people, as it “directs the Church’s inner gaze to the faces of new generations,” the Vatican said.

“Indeed, it will be the young people present in the Basilica who will receive the sign that the future of the Church is theirs, and that the request for forgiveness is the first step of a faith-filled and missionary credibility that must be reestablished,” it said.

Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary-general of the synod, said that in addressing young people, the church wants “to communicate to them and to the world that the church is in a dynamic of conversion.”

“After all, this is the path to holiness, not that there is no sin but that we recognize our limits, our weakness, that we are open to conversion, to learning, always with the help of the Lord,” he said.

Presenting details for the upcoming synod session at a news conference Sept. 16, Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, relator general of the synod, said most of the participants would be the same as those who participated in the first assembly, which was held in October 2023, though 25 changes were made for different reasons, such as health problems.

Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, who participated last year as an alternate delegate of the U.S. bishops’ conference, will not be at the assembly; Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore, who was elected but could not attend in 2023, will take his place as part of the U.S. delegation.

Cardinal Hollerich said that of the 368 voting members, 96 — or just over a quarter — are not bishops. Additionally, he said the number of representatives from other Christian communities participating in the synod without voting privileges increased from 12 to 16 “given the great interest that the sister churches have shown in this synodal journey.”

Jesuit Father Giacomo Costa, special secretary of the synod, said at the news conference that unlike the first session of the synod on synodality’s assembly, which focused on “an awareness and identification of some priorities,” the second session is about “going in-depth” into some of the key points raised during the listening sessions around the world and during the first assembly.

But Cardinal Grech confirmed that some of the more controversial points raised, including about ordaining women to the diaconate, would not be a topic of discussion at the assembly. In March, the Vatican announced that Pope Francis had established study groups to examine those issues and report back to him in 2025. But the groups will share a progress report with the synod members at the beginning of the October assembly.

Whereas the synod assembly produced a synthesis report at the end of its first session in 2023, the 2024 session will produce a final document to be given to the pope.

“To date, there has always been a communication to the people of God on the part of the Holy Father,” Cardinal Grech said in response to a question on whether the pope will issue a post-synodal exhortation after the synod.

Another introduction into this year’s session is the organization of four public “theological-pastoral forums” centered on different topics for a deeper understanding of synodality. The forums, hosted in Rome and open to the public, are titled: “People of God as Subject of the Mission”; “The Role and Authority of the Bishop in a Synodal Church”; “The Mutual Relationship Local Church-Universal Church”; and “The Exercise of the Primacy and the Synod of Bishops.”

The forums are intended to respond to the need to “continue the theological, canonical and pastoral deepening of the meaning of synodality for the different aspects of the Church’s faith and to offer theologians and canonists the opportunity to contribute to the work of the Assembly,” a Vatican statement said.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – It is not enough to know about Jesus, one must encounter him, be changed by his Gospel and follow him, Pope Francis said.

“I can know many things about Jesus, but if I have not encountered him, I still do not know who Jesus is,” the pope told visitors and pilgrims who joined him in St. Peter’s Square Sept. 15 for the midday recitation of the Angelus prayer.

“It takes this life-changing encounter; it changes one’s way of being, one’s way of thinking, it changes the relationships you have with your brothers and sisters, your willingness to accept and forgive, it changes the choices you make in life,” he said.

In the day’s Gospel reading from St. Mark, Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?”

Peter responds correctly, saying that he is the Christ, the pope said. However, Peter still has a “worldly” way of thinking that believes the Messiah must be strong and victorious, and can never suffer or die.

“So, the words with which Peter responds are ‘right,’ but his way of thinking has not changed,” Pope Francis said. “He still has to change his mindset; he still has to convert.”

This is the same message for all Catholics, who must ask themselves, “Who is Jesus for me?” he said. It is not enough to respond with something learned in catechism class, to know doctrine and to recite prayers correctly.

“In reality, to know the Lord, it is not enough to know something about him, but rather to follow him, to let oneself be touched and changed by his Gospel. It is a matter of having a relationship with him, an encounter,” he said.

The faithful, he said, should be “bothered” by the questions and ask “who Jesus is for me, and what place does he occupy in my life? Do I follow Jesus only in word, continuing to have a worldly mentality, or do I set out to follow him, allowing the encounter with him to transform my life?”

“Everything changes if you have truly come to know Jesus!” the pope said.