Category: 2024 News

LAFLIN — The Congregation of the Oblates of Saint Joseph, located at 1880 Route 315, Laflin, will host their annual Triduum and Labor Day Mass celebrations honoring Saint Joseph the Worker.

A three-day preparation of Masses over the Labor Day Weekend will be offered on Friday, Saturday & Sunday, Aug. 30-Sept. 1, with liturgies celebrated daily at noon in the Oblates seminary chapel.

Devotions to Saint Joseph, with special intentions for all workers and the unemployed, will follow each Mass. A blessing with the first-class relic of Saint Joseph Marello, founder of the Oblate religious order, will conclude the devotions.

A special morning Mass will be celebrated on Labor Day, Sept. 2, at 11 a.m., honoring the Patron Saint of Workers. Following the Mass, bread will be blessed and distributed to all the faithful as a symbol of the “fruit of our labor.”

Serving as celebrant and homilist for this year’s Labor Day Mass will be Oblate Father Paul A. McDonnell, rector of the OSJ religious community and pastor of Divine Mercy Parish in Scranton.

The Triduum and Labor Day liturgical celebrations will be broadcast live on JMJ Catholic Radio 104.5 FM. For more information, contact the Oblates main office at (570) 654-7542 or email: osjseminary@comcast.net.

SCRANTON – September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, and to offer healing and to increase awareness about the Church’s mercy and care for those who have died by suicide, the Most Rev. Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, will celebrate a Mass for Suicide Healing and Remembrance Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, at 12:15 p.m. at the Cathedral of Saint Peter in Scranton.

The Mass will serve to remember loved ones lost to suicide, and to promote healing for those who grieve their passing.

During the Mass, those attending will be invited to bring forward a flower in remembrance of those lost to suicide. If you, your family, or someone you know has been affected by suicide, please share this information and encourage them to participate.

All are welcome to attend the Mass.

The Mass will also be broadcast live on CTV: Catholic Television of the Diocese of Scranton and livestream on the Diocese of Scranton website (dioceseofscranton.org), YouTube channel, and links to the Mass provided on all Diocesan social media platforms.

For more information on the upcoming Mass for Suicide Healing and Remembrance, please contact the Diocesan Office for Parish Life at (570) 207-2213.

SCRANTON – The annual Mass in Italian will be celebrated on Sunday, Sept. 1, 2024, at 10:00 a.m., in the Cathedral of Saint Peter. All are welcome to attend.

The liturgy is celebrated in conjunction with La Festa Italiana, which occurs over the Labor Day weekend, Friday through Monday, Aug. 30 – Sept. 2, on Courthouse Square, one block away.

The Most Rev. Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, will preside and be the homilist.

Father David P. Cappelloni, V.F., La Festa Chaplain and pastor of Saints Anthony and Rocco Parish in Dunmore and Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Dunmore, will be the principal celebrant.

Concelebrants will include Monsignor Constantine V. Siconolfi, La Festa Chaplain Emeritus, and priests from the Diocese of Scranton. Deacons from the Diocese will also participate.

The Mass will be broadcast live by CTV: Catholic Television of the Diocese of Scranton and will be rebroadcast on Tuesday, Sept. 3, at 8 p.m., and Wednesday, Sept. 4, at 10:30 a.m. In addition to airing live on CTV, the Mass will also be available on the Diocese of Scranton website (dioceseofscranton.org) and links will be provided on all social media platforms. The Mass will also be available to watch anytime on demand after the live broadcast concludes.

This year’s Italian Mass is being offered in memory of all those members and friends of La Festa Italiana who passed away since the last Mass was celebrated, including Rose Blasi, Ken Brader, Anna Brunetti, Mayor James P. Connors, Tom “Chick” DiPietro, Bill DelPrete, Joe Hoban, James Mack, Sr., John Moffitt, Mariann Moran, Charles Morell, Angelo Rose, Billy Saar, Sheriff John Szymanski and Bill Weber.

Music ministry for the Italian Mass will be provided by the choirs of Saints Anthony and Rocco and Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parishes, accompanied by a brass quartet, all directed by Joseph Moffitt. Dominick DeNaples, mandolin; Patrick Loungo, Nicholas Luongo, Eugene Mentz, organist, and Monica Spishock, timpani, will also accompany.

Ashley Yando-DeFlice is the cantor. The featured soloist will be T.J. Capobianco from the New York City Metropolitan Opera.

The lectors are Atty. Frank T. Blasi and Anthony Bengivenga, President of UNICO National.

The Prayer of the Faithful will be led by Diane Alberigi, Karen Clifford and Joe Guido.

The offertory gifts will be presented by Alex and Annette Blasi-Strubeck, Robert W. Pettinato, the Honorable Robert Mazzoni and the Honorable Leonard Zito (Ret.).

James Baress, Patrick Caramanno, Joshua Cillo, Jonathan Eboli, Stephen Eboli, Richard Garofalo and Joseph Wentline are the ushers. Guy Valvano is honorary usher.

At the conclusion of Mass, members of The Italian Colony of Saint Lucy will process out with the statue of Saint Lucy onto the festival grounds to the Heritage Piazza on Spruce Street.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Working to turn migrants away from the prospect of peace and security in a new country is “a grave sin,” Pope Francis said.

“It needs to be said clearly: There are those who systematically work by all means to drive away migrants, and this, when done knowingly and deliberately, is a grave sin,” he said during his general audience Aug. 28.

The pope began his audience in St. Peter’s Square by explaining that he would “postpone the usual catechesis” — he currently is in the middle of a series of talks about the Holy Spirit – to discuss “the people who – even at this moment – are crossing seas and deserts to reach a land where they can live in peace and security.”

“Brothers and sisters, we can all agree on one thing: Migrants should not be in those seas and in those lethal deserts,” he said. “And, unfortunately, they are there.”

But migrants cannot be deterred from those deadly crossings “through more restrictive laws, nor through the militarization of borders, nor through rejections,” the pope said. “Instead, we will achieve it by expanding safe and legal avenues for migrants, by facilitating sanctuary for those fleeing wars, violence, persecution and many calamities; we will achieve it by fostering in every way a global governance of migration based on justice, fraternity and solidarity.”

Everyone, he added, must join forces “to combat human trafficking” and “stop the criminal traffickers who mercilessly exploit the misery of others.”

“What kills migrants is our indifference and that attitude of rejection,” he said, and, praising the many “good Samaritans” and organizations working to support migrants, he noted that ordinary people must be involved in alleviating the plight of migration as well.

“We cannot be on the front line, but we are not excluded; there are many ways for one to make their contribution, first of all prayer,” the pope said, asking visitors in the square directly: “Do you pray for migrants? For those who come to our lands to save their lives?”

Pope Francis followed his question to the audience with a pregnant pause.

The pope made specific mention of Mediterranea Saving Humans – an Italian NGO that rescues migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea – as a group “on the front line” of the migrant crisis. The group posted a message on social media Aug. 24 saying the pope had blessed the crew of a ship set to sail on a rescue mission in the Mediterranean Sea organized with the migration office of the Italian bishops’ conference.

According to the U.N. Refugee Agency, 4,110 people died or went missing while crossing the Mediterranean Sea in 2023.

Referring to the migrant deaths in the Mediterranean, the pope said that “the tragedy is that many, the majority of these deaths, could have been prevented.”

Reflecting on the seas and deserts migrants many cross to reach their destinations, Pope Francis noted the biblical significance of such areas as “places of suffering, of fear, of despair, but at the same time they are places of passage to liberation, to redemption, to attaining freedom and the fulfillment of God’s promises.”

Yet the Mediterranean Sea and the deserts, plains, forests and jungles crossed by migrants in pursuit of a better life have become “migrant cemeteries,” the pope said. “And even here these are often not ‘natural’ deaths, no. At times, they have been taken to the desert and abandoned.”

But, Pope Francis said, “to accompany the people on their journey to freedom, God himself crosses the sea and the desert.”

“God does not remain at a distance, no. He shares in the migrants’ drama, God is there with them, with the migrants,” he said. “He suffers with them, with the migrants, he weeps and hopes with them.”

 

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Being obedient to God’s commandment and spirit of love can radically change attitudes and actions to convert people from “predators” of natural resources to “tillers” of God’s great garden of planet Earth, Pope Francis said.

“The earth is entrusted to our care, yet continues to belong to God,” according to Judeo-Christian tradition, the pope said in his message for the 2024 the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation.

“To claim the right to possess and dominate nature, manipulating it at will, thus represents a form of idolatry, a Promethean version of humanity who, intoxicated by its technocratic power, arrogantly places the earth in a ‘dis-graced’ condition, deprived of God’s grace,” he wrote in his message, which was released by the Vatican June 27.

The World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, which will be celebrated Sept. 1, marks the start of the ecumenical Season of Creation. The season concludes Oct. 4, the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of ecology.

The theme for 2024 is “Hope and Act with Creation,” based on St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans (8:19-25), in which the apostle considers the destiny of the created world as it shares in the penalty of corruption brought about by sin, concluding that creation will share in the benefits of redemption and future glory that comprise the ultimate liberation of God’s people.

“Why is there so much evil in the world? Why so much injustice, so many fratricidal wars that kill children, destroy cities, pollute the environment and leave mother earth violated and devastated?” the pope said in his message.

“Creation itself, like humanity, was enslaved, albeit through no fault of its own, and finds itself unable to fulfill the lasting meaning and purpose for which it was designed,” he wrote, reflecting on St. Paul’s letter. “It is subject to dissolution and death, aggravated by the human abuse of nature.”

At the same time, St. Paul saw that “the salvation of humanity in Christ is a sure hope also for creation,” which will be “set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God,” he wrote.

“This conversion entails leaving behind the arrogance of those who want to exercise dominion over others and nature itself, reducing the latter to an object to be manipulated, and instead embracing the humility of those who care for others and for all of creation,” he added.

“To hope and act with creation, then, means above all to join forces and to walk together with all men and women of goodwill,” he said in his message.

It also means rethinking the meaning and limitations of human power, which has “made impressive and awesome technological advances,” he wrote. However, “unchecked power creates monsters and then turns against us” and there is “an urgent need to set ethical limits on the development of artificial intelligence.”

Rather than being used for domination over humanity and nature, technology must be “harnessed for the service of peace and integral development,” he wrote.

The pope’s message said Christian theology and its understanding of hope play an important role in helping people of faith make the needed “ecological conversion.”

With God as the loving Father, his Son as the “friend and redeemer of every person, and the Holy Spirit who guides our steps on the path of charity,” he wrote, “obedience to the Spirit of love radically changes the way we think: from ‘predators,’ we become ’tillers’ of the garden.”

Presenting the pope’s message at a news conference at the Vatican June 27, Salesian Sister Alessandra Smerilli, secretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, said “ecological conversion, like any conversion experience, is a spiritual event with visible, concrete repercussions.”

That is why this year’s message is “markedly theological,” she said, so that it can “support this awareness that makes hope almost a miracle of God in us, but also around us” and help the faithful respond concretely to what is happening in the world.

Father Alberto Ravagnani, who works in youth ministry for the Archdiocese of Milan, said it is important to help young Catholics be able to approach ecological crises and caring for creation from a place of faith and hope, rather than fear.

“The topic of caring for creation is not always adequately brought to the attention of children and young people as a topic of faith,” that is, linking the environment with “our identity as creatures, as children, as brothers and sisters.”

Responding to a question about activists who turn to violent or harmful methods to raise awareness about climate change and related issues, he said, the majority of young people are looking for positive ways to be engaged and help change things, “not by destroying …, but by shaping something new.”

That is why it is important to create real possibilities for young people to take the lead in constructive projects and even help with funding, the priest said.

Most young people are under the impression that the church is trying to hinder technological progress or that “God is insignificant” or “unreliable,” he said.

Young people need to see that the church questions development that threatens human dignity and creation, and promotes progress that is “for the true good of humanity.”

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – As part of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception’s continuing celebration marking 100 years of worship at “Mary’s House,” as it’s often called, Washington Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory offered a Mass of thanksgiving for all the priests who were ordained or otherwise connected to the church.

“You have come to the location where you launched your ritual journey to become Christ’s priest,” Cardinal Gregory told the several dozen priests who participated in the late afternoon liturgy Aug. 22. “This is the place where a life-giving grace was bestowed upon you for the sanctification of God’s people. This is the place where you received ordination and where you handed over your life to the church’s ministry.”

The cardinal added that “for 100 years, this shrine has been the place where youthful dreams have come true, where the mission of the Lord has gained new collaborators, where the church has been strengthened by the promises that you and countless others have made to continue the ministry of Christ.”

More than 100 people attended the Mass at the Crypt Church, which Cardinal Gregory referred to as a “subterranean chapel … in this hallowed basilica.”

Noting that the priests entering the national shrine must be recalling memories of their ordinations, the cardinal said, “your hearts have many memories that were born herein at Our Lady’s Shrine. I pray that just entering this building, those memories will fill you with much happiness and deep gratitude.”

Cardinal Gregory, who as archbishop of Washington serves as chairman of the shrine’s board of trustees, was the principal celebrant of the Mass.

Among those concelebrating the Mass were Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl, the archbishop emeritus of Washington and chairman of the newly established Basilica of the National Shrine Trust; Washington Auxiliary Bishops Roy E. Campbell Jr., Evelio Menjivar and Juan Esposito; Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of Arlington, Virginia; and Bishop Alfred A. Schlert of Allentown, Pennsylvania, both of whom are members of the shrine’s board of trustees; and Benedictine Abbott James Wiseman from St. Anselm’s Abbey in Washington.

The Mass was offered on the feast of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Pope Pius XII established this feast in 1954 “so that all may recognize more clearly and venerate more devoutly the merciful and maternal sway of the Mother of God.” It is celebrated exactly one week after the Solemnity of the Assumption.

This year marks the centennial of the first public Mass offered at the national shrine. On Easter Sunday in 1924 at the shrine’s still unfinished Crypt Church, Mass was offered publicly there for the first time.

That first Mass, said Msgr. Walter Rossi, the shrine’s rector, was “celebrated in the midst of a construction zone, with a wooden altar made by Father John Carroll,” who in 1789 became the first bishop of the new United States, leading the new Diocese of Baltimore, which then included all 13 original states.

Three months after that Mass at the national shrine in 1924, the first priestly ordinations took place in the Crypt Church. Msgr. Rossi said the centennial Mass was being offered “to honor all the priests of the United States, especially those who were ordained here at Mary’s Shrine or simply have joined us for a pilgrimage or a simple, private visit.”

In his homily, Cardinal Gregory told the priests that it is “a blessing we all share today in this sacred place of prayer. We have returned to a place with memories of dates that forever changed our lives.”

“For 100 years families, friends, and colleagues have rejoiced at the ordination events that have taken place in this sacred shrine — among those are your own cherished memories of that moment when God’s Holy Spirit shared with you Christ’s priestly office,” Cardinal Gregory said.

The cardinal also said that all priests are connected to the national shrine because at their ordinations, “wherever you were on whatever date it was, you were here with Mary.”

He also said that for those ordained at the shrine, the specific dates may vary, but “the location is the same for all of you and for me as I rejoice with you in this place where my own life was joined to the Archdiocese of Washington.”

It was on May 21, 2019, at the national shrine that then-Archbishop Gregory was installed as the seventh archbishop of the Archdiocese of Washington. He was made a cardinal by Pope Francis Nov. 28, 2020.

Although the first public Mass at the national shrine was celebrated 100 years ago, the shrine’s history dates back even earlier.

In 1913, Bishop Thomas Shahan, rector of The Catholic University of America, proposed building a national shrine dedicated to Our Lady under her title of the Immaculate Conception. It is under that title that Mary is honored as the patroness of the United States.

He presented his proposal to Pope Pius X (canonized in 1954), who supported the construction of such a church and made a donation to help build it.

In 1920, Baltimore Cardinal James Gibbons blessed the foundation stone and construction began. Masses were offered in the Crypt Church as it was being built. In 1932, the Great Depression halted the construction on the Great Upper Church, and the onset of World War II further delayed construction. In 1954, construction resumed to complete the church. It was designated a basilica in 1990.

Today, the national shrine includes more than 80 ethnically and culturally diverse chapels and oratories dedicated to Our Lady and representing the different titles under which she is venerated and honored by people around the world.

Since that first Mass, National Shrine officials say that more than 800,000 Masses have been celebrated there along with nearly 7,000 ordinations.

The Aug. 22 Mass continues the yearlong celebration of 100 years of worship at the National Shrine. This past March on Easter Sunday, Cardinal Gregory celebrated Mass using special liturgical items, including the same chalice that was used in the first Mass 100 years ago, the crosier of Bishop Shahan, and the Marian year cruets of Pope Pius XII.

(OSV News) – The U.S. bishops’ Subcommittee on Hispanic Affairs conducted a survey of dioceses and archdioceses in the country’s 14 episcopal regions and released its results Aug. 21. The survey shows how Hispanic ministry has taken off across the country and that in most dioceses, there is a parish-based pastoral response to Hispanic Catholics.

Alejandro Aguilera-Titus, assistant director of Hispanic Affairs under the Secretariat for Cultural Diversity in the Church at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, explained that the subcommittee sought to determine a baseline about the state of Hispanic ministry at the parish level.

He told OSV News that it was important to observe the implementation of the National Pastoral Plan for Hispanic/Latino Ministry, a 10-year plan that was approved by the U.S. bishops in June 2023, and “to see how that parish ministry will develop in the years ahead.”

The survey, which was conducted from last April through mid-August, included questions on the number of parishes in each diocese, the number of parishes offering Mass in Spanish, and the number of parishes with a Hispanic/Latino presence or ministry without a Mass celebrated in Spanish.

“It was very important to know what the starting point is, what is the number of parishes that already have a Sunday Mass in Spanish, which is the quintessential sign that we see that the Hispanic community has been welcomed as a community in a parish,” said Aguilera-Titus. “In communities where the Spanish Mass is already established, many other ministries emerge as well.”

He said the committee was pleased to find that almost 30% of the parishes in the country have a Sunday Mass in Spanish established.

An Aug. 21 press release from USCCB indicated that 175 surveys were completed, representing 100% of the Latin Catholic archdioceses and dioceses in the U.S. It showed that 4,479 out of 16,279 U.S. parishes offered Sunday Mass in Spanish.

The survey also found that about 2,760 parishes have a Hispanic/Latino presence or ministry but do not currently offer Mass in Spanish and that “99% of the dioceses surveyed have several parishes that offer Mass in Spanish,” according to the release.

“We are talking about the fact that there is a Hispanic presence throughout the country, in the 175 dioceses (of the Latin Church) in the country” and that in most of those dioceses, “there is a significant response or parish ministry,” said Aguilera-Titus.

This survey focused on examining parishes serving Hispanics/Latinos in U.S. dioceses, but it also clarified that “several dioceses reported having missions or ministries serving Hispanics/Latinos extraordinary ministries or locations that are not identified as parishes” and that the survey did not intent to diminish those efforts.

Aguilera-Titus explained that in 2016-2017, a survey that was part of the V Encuentro process showed that about 4,485 parishes had some type of Hispanic ministry, although it did not specify data on Sunday Mass in Spanish, but rather Masses during the week or monthly masses. This new survey indicates that 4,479 parishes have Sunday Mass in Spanish and that, in addition, almost 3,000 parishes have some type of Hispanic ministry or presence but do not have a Sunday Mass in Spanish.

“We are talking about the significant growth in the response that the church is giving at the parish level,” Aguilera-Titus said.

Over 42% of U.S. Catholics self-identified as Hispanic and it has been reported that this is the case for more than half of all U.S. Catholics under 30. But even though Latino Catholics have accounted for much of the growth of the U.S. church for decades, the data shows these Catholics are also leaving the church at high rates and becoming religiously unaffiliated, according to a 2023 report by the Pew Research Center.

“Much progress has been made in the awareness of the Hispanic presence in the country and in the response at the parish level,” Aguilera-Titus said, but the subcommittee’s survey also shows “that there are still thousands of parishes where that Hispanic presence needs to be more accurately recognized, and an adequate pastoral response needs to be given to that presence.”

Aguilera-Titus anticipated that, in the context of the new pastoral plan for Hispanic ministry and its implementation, the number of parishes with Sunday Mass in Spanish and “with developed and well-organized ministries” will grow over the years.

Bishop Oscar Cantú of San Jose, California, chair of the Subcommittee on Hispanic Affairs, welcomed the results and said these types of surveys are vital to the church’s response to Hispanic/Latino communities.

“There are common obstacles that dioceses face when engaging in Hispanic/Latino ministry, such as bilingual priests or limited resources,” the bishop said, according to the USCCB press release. “This survey helps to measure our work and determine how we can continue serving this thriving part of our Church and the importance of ongoing ministry to the needs of our Spanish-speaking brothers and sisters.”

Aguilera-Titus echoed the crucial need to promote more vocations to the priesthood and religious life among Hispanic Catholics. He added that it was important that, regardless of culture and origin, seminarians and priests, “especially pastors, who are not yet interculturally capable, acquire that intercultural capacity,” knowledge, attitudes and skills “that will allow them to effectively and joyfully pastor with that Hispanic/Latino people that continues to grow in practically every corner of the country.”

He also told OSV News that despite the financial challenges facing the church in the U.S., particularly dioceses, Hispanic ministry at the diocesan level continues to be very strong. “It’s really good news that 57 of the dioceses that responded (to the survey) have their Hispanic pastoral office and director,” he said.

The survey indicated that close to 47% of respondents were directors or coordinators of Hispanic/Latino ministry. Meanwhile, “while another 35% of respondents held positions in offices dedicated to cultural diversity, faith formation, and catechesis, signaling that there are other diocesan offices engaged in, or overseeing Hispanic/Latino ministry,” the press release stated. According to the subcommittee, this point shows the correlation of a robust diocesan structure and a vibrant ministry at the parish level.

Aguilera-Titus also commented on places where there was a need for further growth. “We also have about 20% of the dioceses where we see that the diocesan structure could be further strengthened to support Hispanic ministry. That was also included in the pastoral plan,” he said.

Aguilera-Titus explained that three characteristics determine a successful diocesan ministry of Hispanic ministry (also known as “pastoral hispana”): the person who coordinates it has direct contact with the diocesan bishop, a budget that allows for the development of specific programs to support and promote and develop Hispanic ministry, and collaboration with other diocesan offices.

“We are deeply grateful for the high participation from the dioceses starting with the people who coordinate and direct Hispanic ministry, but also in some cases with people who were learning more about the Hispanic presence in their dioceses,” Aguilera-Titus said.

The USCCB press release stated the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services, the Diocese of St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands, the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, and the Eastern Catholic archeparchies and eparchies in the U.S. were also not included in this survey.

(OSV News) – Scott Surette, a devout Catholic and longtime owner of a home inspection firm, is on a mission to help renew the church.

Yet for all his four decades of experience with construction and code compliance, he’s not looking to renovate buildings — instead, Surette is seeking to repair what Scripture calls the “living stones” that comprise the spiritual house of Jesus Christ.

And now, as one of several recent appointees to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ National Review Board, a lay-led advisory group on child and youth protection, Surette is “under contract,” so to speak, to make that happen.

The board is mandated by the USCCB “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People,” established in 2002 amid a torrent of emerging clerical abuse scandals. Commonly called the Dallas Charter, the document lays out a comprehensive set of procedures for addressing allegations of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy, and includes guidelines for reconciliation, healing, accountability and prevention of abuse.

The 55-year-old Surette — an Indiana native, husband and father of five — would be the first to admit that being part of a national corporate governance organization is a bit out of his comfort zone.

“I’m better off with a hammer than I am with a committee,” he told OSV News. “Give me something to do; that’s just kind of in my nature.”

But as a survivor of clerical sexual abuse, Surette has a powerful message to share.

“I want to bring a paradigm shift to the church, to the whole United States, to the world, if they’ll hear me — to bring a paradigm shift where we can get from a place of anger and vengeance to true healing,” he said.

Surette knows well the scope — and the cost — of that project. After being sexually abused at age 15 by a priest, he spent 40 years battling what he described as a “Jekyll and Hyde” inner dynamic that eventually caused him to lose his first marriage.

“I was a super nice guy, but then somebody would push a button, and I would get angry,” he said. “I would sabotage my relationships. If somebody was interested in me, if somebody liked me, a friend, a girlfriend — if somebody really thought that I was a great guy, they were a threat.”

The abuse he suffered took place during a weekend youth retreat, when a visiting priest “came after me twice,” said Surette, whose brother, also on the retreat, had witnessed the incidents.

Surette and his family reported the abuse immediately, with the school even bringing the visiting priest back to Indiana a week later for questioning.

“We sat in a room in the basement of my church, and he denied the whole thing to my face and said, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about, Scott. I was nice to you. I was kind to you. I was loving to you. I was admiring who you are as a youth.’ And he denied the whole thing,” Surette said.

“Back in 1979, nothing happened” at the diocesan level to address the abuse, Surette said, but in 2019, “we started a case and the diocese decided to pay for counseling.”

At that point, he said, “I began to really earnestly pray about (the abuse), and through the prayer process, Jesus just kind of gave me the grace to look at my abuser through his eyes — through the eyes of Christ.”

The result was “stunning,” said Surette.

“All that I had in my brain and my heart was anger and vengeance,” he said. “I was like, ‘You know what, dude? You messed me up for 40 years and I’m mad about it. … I mean, you screwed up my first marriage and how many relationships, and in ways I don’t know.”

And then, Surette told OSV News, “Jesus said, ‘Scott, would you like to see (this man) through my eyes?'”

“Jesus saw (him) as a hurt, wounded, lost soul who made choices to sin, and that made Jesus really sad,” said Surette. “And the biggest thing that came through in that grace (from prayer) was (the realization that) Jesus wasn’t full of anger and vengeance. Jesus didn’t want (him) to burn in hell forever. Scott wanted (him) to burn in hell forever, but Jesus didn’t.”

Surette said the experience enabled him to see his abuser in “a different light” — one that fully revealed the evil perpetrated by the priest, while illuminating hope for redemption and healing through Christ for both Surette and his abuser.

“(The abuser) chose out of his own free will to sin and to come after me and to pursue his own pleasures and passions,” said Surette. “Truly, he sinned. But he did that because he was hurt and wounded. And I could get my brain around that. I could get my heart around that and say, ‘If he’s wounded, I can forgive him.’ And if Jesus is sad and weeping that he is potentially not gonna be in heaven for eternity, then I’m sad that he’s potentially not going be in heaven for eternity. And that became a moment where everything changed.”

Referencing St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians, Surette said he felt “the peace that passes all understanding,” a sensation that was “flat-out overwhelming” and “permeated everything” in his life, including relationships and work.

Surette now prays regularly for the soul of his abuser, who was eventually removed from the clerical state and — as Surette’s wife was able to learn — died sometime around 2018.

He also met with Bishop Timothy L. Doherty of the Diocese of Lafayette, Indiana — who, said Surette, “sought me out” and gave him some two hours of undivided time, an encounter that “really solidified the healing.”

Referencing Christ’s parable of the lost sheep (Mt 18:10-14, Lk 15: 1-7), Surette said that Bishop Doherty, as a shepherd, “came after me because he knew that my soul mattered.”

Surette began serving on his diocesan review board, and at Bishop Doherty’s initiative, he is now taking a seat on the National Review Board, with a message for the U.S. Catholic bishops.

“We need to go after the one, the wounded,” said Surette.

Fresh from the 10th National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis — at which organizers urged participants to evangelize to their communities by committing to “walk with one” in spreading the Gospel — Surette is already putting that mission into practice by reaching out to family members who left the Catholic Church as a result of the abuse he endured and the church’s lack of response at the time.

“There are victims out there (beyond) the (direct) victims” of clerical abuse, said Surette. “Families have been ripped apart from the church, and they are wounded on the battlefield, and their souls are worth going after too. So this whole idea of ‘going after the one’ is a message that I’m going be proclaiming as loud and hard as I can for as long as I can.”

Surette said the paradigm shift he seeks regarding the clerical abuse crisis is ultimately rooted in Christ’s death and resurrection.

“I kind of see the church as the disciples in the upper room after the crucifixion. And they’re sitting around, looking at each other like, ‘What has just happened? We are destroyed. This is so horrific. How can we possibly move on? We have to make sure this Judas thing doesn’t happen again,'” said Surette.

Similarly, he said that “25 years of having the Dallas Charter has been like making sure the Judas thing doesn’t happen again — we have to prevent this, we have to fix this.”

To fully implement the charter and redress clerical abuse, the fullness of Christ’s salvation must proclaimed, said Surette.

“Satan failed at the crucifixion, and he has failed throughout the church’s history … (through) different battles and heresies, and in regards to the clergy sexual abuse, Satan has failed again,” said Surette, admitting that while “certainly it’s not perfect … the number of cases are a fraction of what they used to be.”

“Satan failed to take Christ down. Satan failed to take me down. And I believe Satan failed to take my abuser down,” said Surette. “When this is all said and done, when you look at it from the eternal perspective, Christ won at the crucifixion and resurrection. Christ won with the clergy sexual abuse scandal. Christ won in my personal story. Christ won in my abuser’s story. And that’s where we go out and proclaim.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – When Christians spend time with Jesus in adoration or receive him in the Eucharist, they cannot help but spread his love with others, Pope Francis said.

“When you have met Christ in adoration, when you have touched him and received him in the Eucharistic celebration, you can no longer keep him to yourself, but you become a missionary of his love to others,” the pope wrote in a letter to Bishop Marie Fabien Raharilamboniaina, president of bishops’ conference of Madagascar.

In the letter published Aug. 23, Pope Francis praised the country’s Eucharistic congress, which, he said, “aims to bring the sons and daughters of your Christian communities back to basics, helping them to rediscover the meaning of Eucharistic adoration and their appetite for spending time with Christ.”

Encountering Christ in adoration and receiving him at Mass “is a process that helps each person grow into the Christian he or she is called to become,” the pope wrote.

The congress Aug. 23-26 coincides with preparations for the final assembly of the Synod of Bishops on synodality in October, the pope said, and he prayed that it would help participants in the congress “rediscover the importance of meeting, praying and committing themselves with and for others, following Jesus in the Eucharist.”

Pope Francis also asked, “since the faith in the real presence of the Lord is a great challenge,” that the young people present at the congress “help their brothers and sisters to have the experience of Jesus in the Eucharist.”

“Help them to make their own lives an offering to God, united to that of Jesus on the altar, to make him better known, loved and served,” he said.

The pope prayed that the Eucharistic congress would help each attendee “cultivate feelings of charity and solidarity toward all people, especially those in difficulty, for whom the path of life becomes more difficult every day.”

“There are many discouraged people who look to the future with skepticism and pessimism, as if nothing can bring them happiness,” he said. “Bring them the Lord’s hope, be witnesses to his compassion and merciful love.”