Category: 2024 News

 

SCRANTON – More than 100 people came together at the Cathedral of Saint Peter on Jan. 24, 2024, to observe the global Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox Christians were among those gathered at the Cathedral to uphold our commitment as disciples of Jesus, whose hope was that all of His followers may be one.

“As we put our faith into practice, we come to learn from one another, to see what we have in common and where we differ,” Monsignor Vincent Grimalia, Coordinator for Ecumenism and Interfaith Relations for the Diocese of Scranton, said in welcoming the crowd. “The parable of the good Samaritan teaches us to show love in spite of our differences as children of God.”

The Most Rev. Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, led the Ecumenical Prayer Service. Bishop Bambera serves as the chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs.

He urges Christians throughout the United States to unite across denominational lines and pray for peace.

“Given the paralyzing nature of polarization and tragedy of war that have spread throughout our world today, the importance of living the love of Christ in our own circumstances cannot be overemphasized,” Bishop Bambera said. “May Christians throughout our country come together across denominational lines to pray for peace in our world and an end to the sad divisions that prevent us from fully loving each other as Christ loves us all.”

The theme for this year’s Week of Prayer for Christian Unity was, “You shall love the Lord your God … and your neighbor as yourself.” (Luke 10:27)

The Reverend Rebecca Barnes of Saint Luke Episcopal Church in Scranton focused on that theme and the Gospel reading of the good Samaritan as offered a sermon.

“‘Who is my neighbor’ is a central question in our church, in our congregations and communities, in our ecumenical and interfaith conversations today. It is a question in our society at large,” Mother Barnes said. “Though we may not wish to admit it, I wonder how often do we think that people with whom we disagree or people who are different than us, don’t really deserve God’s mercy, don’t really deserve saving.”

In using the Gospel parable, she explained that “mercy is a gift freely given” by God, who uses it “for our weaknesses, our distress, our fear and our anxiety.”

In a world where that mercy might currently be in short supply, Mother Barnes challenged those in attendance to be like the good Samaritan and be courageous enough to act as each other’s neighbor.

“Together, we are called to be agents of God’s love, mercy, and healing. We are called to love God and love our neighbor. That is everyone – because we are all made in the image of God. We are all children of the one God – and so – we are all more than even neighbors. We are brothers and sisters, one of another,” she said.

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity started in 1908 when Father Paul Wattson, SA, the founder of the religious order, the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement, conceived of the idea of a Christian Unity Octave – an observation of eight days of prayer – for an end to divisions between Christians.

Since the Second Vatican Council, it has been co-organized by the World Council of Churches and the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity.

SCRANTON – The Diocese of Scranton was honored and privileged to welcome the Most Rev. Matthew Kwasi Gyamfi, Bishop of Sunyani, Ghana, to northeastern Pennsylvania on Jan. 30, 2024, for a brief pastoral visit.

Bishop Matthew celebrated the 12:10 p.m. Mass at the Cathedral of Saint Peter in Scranton and visited several parishes where eight priests from the Diocese of Sunyani are currently ministering locally.

“On behalf of the Diocese of Sunyani, the priests, religious and lay faithful, I would like to extend our sincere gratitude to Bishop Joseph (Bambera) and the entire diocese for receiving our priests into your diocese and being kind and making life possible for them here in the United States,” Bishop Matthew said.

Father Gerald W. Shantillo, Vicar General and Moderator of the Curia, welcomed Bishop Matthew to the Cathedral at the start of the Mass on behalf of Bishop Bambera.

“It is so good to have Bishop Matthew with us today. He is the Bishop of a younger diocese, only 50 years old, but it is alive and vibrant with the faith,” Father Shantillo stated.

Two years ago, Father Shantillo accompanied Bishop Bambera for a pastoral visit to the Diocese of Sunyani and was struck by the faith of the African people. He explained the important role each Ghanian priest is having in our community.

“I can tell you, the people of Scranton, no matter where I go, tell me they are grateful for your priests who are here ministering to them and they love them just like one of our own priests from this diocese,” Father Shantillo added.

After preaching a homily on forgiveness – in which he told the crowd forgiving those who have offended us is one of the important teachings of Christ – Bishop Matthew ended the Mass by showcasing his visit highlights the universality of the Catholic Church.

“We thank you for the contributions, help, and assistance that this diocese has given to my diocese. We are grateful to you,” Bishop Matthew said. “It is where we see the Church as one universal Catholic Church, otherwise, how else could I have come to be here, sitting in the chair of my brother Bishop, speaking, and proclaiming the Word of God and praying with you.”

To view the Mass celebrated by Bishop Matthew, visit the Diocese of Scranton’s YouTube channel.

(OSV News) – Lisa Lopez-Galvan, a Catholic mother of two and beloved disc jockey for the KKFI radio station in Kansas City, Missouri, was killed Wednesday amid a mass shooting following the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl victory parade.

“It is with sincere sadness and an extremely heavy and broken heart that we let our community know that KKFI DJ Lisa Lopez, host of Taste of Tejano lost her life today in the shooting at the KC Chiefs’ rally,” the radio station announced on Facebook Wednesday evening. “This senseless act has taken a beautiful person from her family and this KC Community.”

Lopez-Galvan was an active parishioner at Sacred-Heart Guadalupe Church in Kansas City, Missouri, where she was fondly remembered by her fellow parishioners.

Ramona Arroyo, director of religious education at the parish, told OSV News that Lopez-Galvan’s whole family is “devoted to the church.” Her brother, Beto Lopez Jr., is the chief executive officer of Guadalupe Centers, one of the nation’s first social service agencies for the Latino community.

Arroyo said the loss was “devastating” to the community. “She was a beautiful person,” she said, and she expressed her sympathy for Lopez-Galvan’s husband, Michael, saying, “it’s a horrible thing that happened to a good family.”

Monica Palacio, another parishioner who knew Lopez-Galvan, said the shooting was a “tragedy for our whole community because everybody knows the family” and they “grew up within blocks of each other.”

She also noted Lopez-Galvan’s role as host of Tejano Tuesdays at KKFI and as a well-known DJ presence at local weddings and quinceañeras.

“She was an amazing person,” Palacio said. “She was full of joy all the time, no matter where she was.” Palacio remembered Lopez-Galvan as the “life of the party” who “came with red lipstick and a big smile.”

The Kansas City Star reported that Lopez-Galvan, who was in her mid-40s with two adult children, died in the hospital during surgery after a gunshot wound to her abdomen.

Arroyo and Palacio said Lopez-Galvan, a known KC Chiefs fan, was at the parade with her family, including her son and nieces and nephews, and they had heard that other family members had been injured as well.

Father Luis Suárez, parochial administrator of Sacred-Heart Guadalupe parish, remembered Lopez-Galvan in his homily at the Ash Wednesday evening Mass and encouraged the community to unite in prayer amid the tragedy.

ROME (CNS) – In an age when even one’s most intimate thoughts and feelings can become fodder for social media, Lent is a time to cast aside appearances and to find God at work in the depths of the heart, Pope Francis said.

Without realizing it, Christians have become immersed “in a world in which everything, including our emotions and deepest feelings, has to become ‘social,'” the pope said while celebrating Mass at the Basilica of Santa Sabina in Rome to mark the beginning of Lent Feb. 14.

Today, “even the most tragic and painful experiences risk not having a quiet place where they can be kept,” he said. “Everything has to be exposed, shown off, fed to the gossip mill of the moment.”

Dressed in purple vestments to mark the Lenten season, Pope Francis said Lent is a chance for Christians to ensure their relationship with God “is not reduced to mere outward show.”

Lent “immerses us in a bath of purification,” he said. “It means looking within ourselves and acknowledging our real identity, removing the masks we so often wear, slowing the frantic pace of our lives and embracing the truth of who we are.”

The Lenten practices of “almsgiving, prayer and fasting are not mere external practices; they are paths that lead to the heart, to the core of the Christian life,” he added, encouraging Christians to “love the brothers and sisters all around us, to be considerate to others, to feel compassion, to show mercy, to share all that we are and all that we have with those in need.”

The liturgy began with a prayer at the nearby Church of St. Anselm, which is part of a Benedictine monastery on Rome’s Aventine Hill. Chanting the litany of saints, cardinals, joined by Benedictine and Dominican religious, then processed to the Basilica of Santa Sabina – considered the mother church of the Dominican order – for Mass.

Pope Francis, who has regularly used a wheelchair since May 2022, did not participate in the procession. In the basilica the pope blessed the ashes with holy water, praying that “we recognize that we are dust and to dust we will return.”

The pope received ashes from Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, head of the Apostolic Penitentiary, who also was the Mass’s main celebrant at the altar.

In his homily, Pope Francis said “the ashes placed on our head invite us to rediscover the secret of life.”

“We are ashes on which God has breathed his breath of life,” he said. ” And if, in the ashes that we are, the fire of the love of God burns, then we will discover that we have indeed been shaped by that love and called to love others in turn.”

Pope Francis also recalled the day’s Gospel reading from St. Matthew, in which Jesus tells his disciples not to make a public show of their prayer but to rather “go to your inner room” to pray.

Jesus’ message “is a salutary invitation for us, who so often live on the surface of things, who are so concerned to be noticed, who constantly need to be admired and appreciated,” he said.

The pope urged Christians to “return to the center of yourself,” where “so many fears, feelings of guilt and sin are lurking.”

“Precisely there the Lord has descended in order to heal and cleanse you,” he said. “Let us enter into our inner chamber: There the Lord dwells, there our frailty is accepted and we are loved unconditionally.”

Pope Francis suggested that during Lent Christians make space to incorporate silent adoration into their lives, as practiced by Moses, Elijah, Mary and Jesus.

“Have we realized that we’ve lost the meaning of adoration? Let us return to adoration,” he said.

Like St. Francis of Assisi, Christians should “strip ourselves of worldly trappings and return to the heart, to what is essential,” the pope said. “Let us acknowledge what we are: dust loved by God.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – St. María Antonia de Paz Figueroa, known as Mama Antula, devoted herself completely to helping others experience God’s closeness and compassion, Pope Francis said after he declared the 18th-century consecrated laywoman a saint.

By letting her heart and life be “touched” and “healed” by Christ, he said, “she proclaimed him tirelessly her whole life long, for she was convinced, as she loved to repeat: ‘Patience is good, but perseverance is better.'”

“May her example and her intercession help us to grow according to the heart of God, in charity,” the pope said in his homily after proclaiming her a saint during a Mass Feb. 11 in St. Peter’s Basilica.

St. María Antonia de Paz Figueroa is Argentina’s first female saint. She was closely tied to the Jesuits and continued to lead Ignatian spiritual exercises in Argentina after the expulsion of the order.

Argentine President Javier Miliei was present at the Mass and was to have a private meeting with the pope Feb. 12. At the end of the Mass, the two shook hands, spoke briefly, smiled and laughed. The president, who has made disparaging remarks about the pope in the past, leaned down and gave a big hug to the pope, who was seated in his wheelchair.

Claudio Perusini, whose unexplained recovery from a severe stroke became the second miracle attributed to the new saint, also was present. He has known the pope since he was 17 and he, his wife and two adult children brought the offertory gifts to the pope during the Mass.

Sickness and healing were the key themes in Pope Francis’ homily during the Mass Feb. 11, the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes and the World Day of the Sick.

Reflecting on the day’s readings, which included St. Mark’s account of Jesus’ “cleansing of a leper,” the pope spoke about other forms of “leprosy” that lead some people, even Christians, to ostracize and scorn others.

Those who were afflicted with Hansen’s disease during Jesus’ time were further wounded by ostracism and rejection because of fear, prejudice and a false religiosity, the pope said.

People were afraid of contracting the disease and they were prejudiced by believing those who were ill were being punished by God for some sin they had committed and, therefore, deserving of their fate, the pope said.

Also, the belief that even slight contact with someone with leprosy made one “impure” is an example of false or “distorted religiosity,” which “erects barriers and buries pity,” he said.

Fear, prejudice and false religiosity represent “three ‘leprosies of the soul’ that cause the weak to suffer and then be discarded like refuse,” he said.

Many people suffering today also are scorned and discarded because of so many “fears, prejudices and inconsistencies even among those who are believers and call themselves Christians,” he said.

The way to tear down those barriers and cure new forms of “leprosy,” he said, is with the same style as Jesus, which is to draw near to those who are shunned to touch and heal them.

Jesus responds to the leper’s cry for help “knowing full well that in doing so he will in turn become a ‘pariah,'” the pope said.

“Oddly enough, the roles are now reversed: once healed, the sick person will be able to go to the priests and be readmitted to the community; Jesus, on the other hand, will no longer be able to enter any town,” he said.

Jesus could have avoided touching the man and instead perform “a distance healing,” he said. “Yet that is not the way of Christ. His way is that of a love that draws near to those who suffer, enters into contact with them and touches their wounds.”

Christians must reflect whether they, like Jesus, are able to draw near and be a gift to others, the pope said. The faithful should ask if they “withdraw from others and think only of ourselves” or believe “the problem is always and only other people.”

This “leprosy of the soul,” he said, is “a sickness that blinds us to love and compassion, one that destroys us by the ‘cankers’ of selfishness, prejudice, indifference and intolerance.”

“Once we let ourselves be touched by Jesus, we start to heal within, in our hearts. If we let ourselves be touched by him in prayer and adoration, if we permit him to act in us through his word and his sacraments, that contact truly changes us,” he said.

“Thanks to the love of Christ, we rediscover the joy of giving ourselves to others, without fears and prejudices, leaving behind a dull and disembodied religiosity and experiencing a renewed ability to love others in a generous and disinterested way,” he said.

Later, after reciting the Angelus prayer with visitors in St. Peter’s Square, the pope recalled the day’s celebration of Our Lady of Lourdes and World Day of the Sick.

“The first thing we need when we are sick is the closeness of loved ones, health care workers and, in our hearts, the closeness of God,” he said. “We are all called to be close to those who suffer, to visit the sick” the same way Jesus did with “closeness, compassion and tenderness.”

“We cannot be silent about the fact that there are so many people today who are denied the right to care, and, therefore, the right to life!” he said.

In those places where people live in extreme poverty or war zones, he said, “fundamental human rights are violated there every day! It is intolerable. Let us pray for the tormented Ukraine, for Palestine and Israel, let us pray for Myanmar and for all war-torn peoples.”

(OSV News) – Only about 15% of U.S. adults who were raised Catholic said they had remained practicing Catholics attending weekly Mass into adulthood, according to data from the General Social Survey conducted by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago.

But what were some of the things that distinguished the families of those children who remained practicing Catholics as adults from those who left the faith entirely? Seeking answers to this question, researchers at Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate and the Peyton Institute for Domestic Church Life conducted the “Future Faithful Families Project” study.

The interviews for the study were conducted with 28 individuals from June 2021 to February 2023 and included qualifying participants from past CARA surveys. The study noted “a greater lack of response from the adult children than the parents who had been interviewed,” but added that “it is well known in the social science research fields that it is often easier to recruit participation from older adults than young adults.”

The study found that participants from these families generally described their households as “warmer and more affectionate than the average family.” Most of the participants also indicated “very good communication” within the family.

Another shared thread among those interviewed was having rituals of meals eaten together and prayer, with most indicating that faith was a part of family routines regardless of the routines themselves.

Additionally, all participants emphasized the importance of weekly Mass attendance and nearly all participants reported doing service work and giving to charity, with many doing so through their parish or a church organization.

Mark Gray, director of CARA Catholic Polls, co-wrote the study along with Greg Popcak, co-executive director of the Peyton Institute for Domestic Church Life. Gray told OSV News that while the findings from these qualitative interviews were not meant to be taken as some sort of “checklist” of things to keep one’s child Catholic, parents could gain insight from the common responses.

For these families, he said, “their faith wasn’t just something that they went and did on Sunday morning; their faith was present in the household. It was present every day. It came out in conversations about the faith, with prayer, with things that are in the home.”

He also noted that when children would come to the parents with doubts about the faith, most of the parents “went on a journey with their children and said, ‘Well, let’s see why the church teaches this,'” as opposed to strictly shutting down questioning of the church’s teachings.

“It’s a lot of discussion, working through things, thinking about things rather than being this overbearing parental force,” he said.

The study also included an analysis of existing data from the General Social Survey, or GSS, going back to the 1970s, which showed a marked decline in the number of U.S. adults who were raised Catholic and stayed Catholic while still attending Mass weekly.

In the 1970s, “an average of 36% of those who were raised Catholic remained Catholic as adults and attended Mass weekly (peaking at 40% in 1977).” GSS data later showed “this average percentage declined to 32% in the 1980s, 25% in the 1990s, and 21% in the 2000s. In the 2010s, this averaged 15% and was 14% in the 2018 study.”

These numbers exclude those who converted to Catholicism but were not raised Catholic. The study also notes the large number of Catholics who have immigrated to the U.S.

Focusing on the 51% of U.S. adults who were raised Catholic and had remained so between 2010 to 2018, there were some commonalities. Among weekly Mass attendees who had remained Catholic, 81% were “more likely to have been living with both parents at age 16” compared to the 72% who attend Mass less often than weekly or the 63% who left the Catholic faith.

Gray said that the families they spoke with referenced things that “any parent can do,” noting the importance of the child to see their parent be “Catholic every day of the year, not just on Sundays” and for the parent “to listen to their children and have conversations with them, and guide them through what the faith teaches and why the faith teaches it.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The importance of women in the Catholic Church cannot be “reduced” to the question of ministry, Pope Francis told members of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

Pope Francis made his remarks Feb. 8 in the context of explaining how every attempt at church reform, like the Second Vatican Council’s reform of the liturgy, must be motivated by “spousal fidelity: the church-bride will always be more beautiful the more she loves Christ the bridegroom, to the point of belonging to him totally, to the point of conforming to him fully.”

Mentioning the church as the bride of Christ, the pope added to his prepared text: “I want to say one thing about women’s ministry. The church is woman, the church is mother, the church has its figure in Mary, and the church-woman, whose figure is Mary, is greater than Peter; that is, it is something else.”

“One cannot reduce everything to ministry,” he said. “The woman in herself has a very great significance in the church-as-woman, without reducing it to ministry. This is why I said that every instance of reform in the church is always a question of spousal fidelity, because it (the church) is woman.”

At their plenary meeting in Rome Feb. 6-9, members of the dicastery were focused on ways to improve the liturgical formation of priests and laity.

Drawing members’ attention to the introduction of Vatican II’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, the pope said, “A church that does not feel passion for spiritual growth, that does not try to speak in a way that is understandable to the men and women of its time, that does not feel sorrow for the division among Christians, that does not quiver with anxiety to proclaim Christ to the nations, is a sick church, and these are the symptoms.”

“Without a renewed encounter with Christ, there is no reform of the church,” the pope said. That is why the bishops gathered at the Second Vatican Council in 1962-65 “knew they had to place the liturgy at the center, because it is the place par excellence for encountering the living Christ.”

The more Catholics are educated about the liturgy and by the liturgy, he said, the more the liturgy will be that place of encounter.

Liturgical formation, he said, is not something for “a few experts” but should be a goal for all Catholics.

“Naturally that does not exclude that there will be a priority in the formation of those who, by virtue of the sacrament of Holy Orders, are called to be mystagogues, that is, to take the faithful by the hand and accompany them in learning about the holy mysteries,” Pope Francis said.

Pastors, he said, must “know how to lead the people to the good pasture of the liturgical celebration, where the proclamation of Christ who died and rose again becomes a concrete experience of his life-transforming presence.”

“Begin with the assemblies that gather on the Lord’s Day and on the feasts of the liturgical year,” he said. The Mass itself is the primary opportunity for liturgical formation.

When liturgies are “prepared with pastoral care,” he said, “they become favorable occasions for people to rediscover and deepen the meaning of celebrating the mystery of salvation today.”

SCRANTON – The Most Rev. Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, will celebrate a special Mass in recognition of the ‘World Day of Prayer for the Sick’ on Monday, Feb. 12, 2024, at the Cathedral of Saint Peter.

The liturgy will be held at 12:10 p.m. and will feature the Liturgy of the Anointing.

All people who are sick, as well as those who provide care for those who are ill, are especially encouraged to attend the Mass.

For those unable to attend in person, the Mass will be broadcast live on CTV: Catholic Television of the Diocese of Scranton and livestream on the Diocese of Scranton website and YouTube channel and links will be provided on all Diocesan social media platforms. 

The “first therapy” that must be offered to the sick, and to the world, is a dose of closeness, friendship and love, Pope Francis said in his message for the World Day of the Sick.

“We came into the world because someone welcomed us; we were made for love; and we are called to communion and fraternity,” he wrote in his message for the annual observance Feb. 11, the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes.

A connection with other people “is what sustains us, above all at times of illness and vulnerability,” the 87-year-old pope wrote. “It is also the first therapy that we must all adopt in order to heal the diseases of the society in which we live.”

The theme chosen for the 2024 observance is from the Book of Genesis, “It is not good that man should be alone.” It was subtitled, “Healing the Sick by Healing Relationships.”

In his message, released Jan. 13, Pope Francis said Christians believe that “from the beginning, God, who is love, created us for communion and endowed us with an innate capacity to enter into relationship with others.”

“We were created to be together, not alone,” he wrote. “Precisely because this project of communion is so deeply rooted in the human heart, we see the experience of abandonment and solitude as something frightening, painful and even inhuman.”

Pope Francis recalled the horrible pain of loneliness endured by those who were sick or in nursing homes during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic and had no contact with their loved ones.

“I share too in the pain, suffering and isolation felt by those who, because of war and its tragic consequences, are left without support and assistance,” he said. “War is the most terrible of social diseases, and it takes its greatest toll on those who are most vulnerable.”

But even in rich countries at peace, he said, “old age and sickness are frequently experienced in solitude and, at times, even in abandonment.”

When a culture emphasizes the individual, “exalts productivity at all costs, cultivates the myth of efficiency,” he said, it “proves indifferent, even callous, when individuals no longer have the strength needed to keep pace.”

“It then becomes a throwaway culture, in which ‘persons are no longer seen as a paramount value to be cared for and respected, especially when they are poor or disabled, ‘not yet useful’ –like the unborn — or ‘no longer needed’ — like the elderly,'” he said, quoting his encyclical “Fratelli Tutti, on Fraternity and Social Friendship.”

The pope said such thinking is reflected in “certain political decisions that are not focused on the dignity of the human person and his or her needs, and do not always promote the strategies and resources needed to ensure that every human being enjoys the fundamental right to health and access to healthcare.”

But, he said, the human dignity of sick and vulnerable also is abandoned when health care is seen simply as the provision of procedures and medication, rather than as caring for the whole person and involving the family in creating a network of support.

“Brothers and sisters,” he wrote, “the first form of care needed in any illness is compassionate and loving closeness. To care for the sick thus means above all to care for their relationships, all of them: with God, with others — family members, friends, health care workers — with creation and with themselves.”

Addressing those who are ill, Pope Francis said: “Do not be ashamed of your longing for closeness and tenderness! Do not conceal it, and never think that you are a burden on others.”

And he called on all Catholics, “with the love for one another that Christ the Lord bestows on us in prayer, especially in the Eucharist,” to “tend to the wounds of solitude and isolation” found particularly among the sick.

“In this way,” the pope said, “we will cooperate in combating the culture of individualism, indifference and waste, and enable the growth of a culture of tenderness and compassion.”