Category: 2024 News

ROME (CNS) – Pope Francis encouraged priests to seek out those who are “invisible” in society and he warned against “ideologies” in the church.

According to Italian news reports, one of the ideologies he specified was a gay culture, referring to it, however, by using the same derogatory slang term in Italian that he reportedly used in a closed-door meeting with members of the Italian bishops’ conference in May when describing some seminaries as being marked by a gay culture.

During a closed-door meeting June 11 with about 160 priests from the Diocese of Rome at the Pontifical Salesian University, the pope said it would not be prudent to admit young men with homosexual tendencies to seminaries as candidates for the priesthood, according to the Italian news agencies, ANSA and Adnkronos, citing unnamed individuals who attended the meeting with the pope.

These young men are “good kids,” but they will encounter difficulties that will then show up in the exercise of their ministry, the pope said, sources told the two agencies.

The pope was not condemning gay people, and he reiterated that the church is open to everyone, ANSA reported.

What he was warning against was a kind of “lobby” that turns a homosexual lifestyle into an ideology, sources told Adnkronos. ANSA reported sources said the pope used the derogatory term when talking about the Vatican, saying that “in the Vatican there is an air of” a gay culture, and that it is not easy to guard against this trend.

The meeting at the Salesian University included priests ordained 11-39 years ago, and it was the third and last of a series of meetings with clergy from the Diocese of Rome. The pope met May 14 with some 70 priests who have been ordained 40 years or more, and he met May 29 with priests ordained 10 years or less.

The Vatican press office said the pope “spoke about the danger of ideologies in the church and returned to the issue of the admission into seminaries of people with homosexual tendencies, reiterating the need to welcome and accompany them in the church and the prudential recommendation of the Dicastery for the Clergy regarding their admission to a seminary.”

Among the many issues discussed during the question-and-answer dialogue with priests, the press office said, was the need for parishes to expand their welcome “to everyone, everyone, everyone!”

In response to comments about addressing people’s suffering, the pope said people should be accompanied with closeness, compassion and tenderness, which are three qualities of God.

The importance of pastoral care in hospitals and the difficulties of life in the city of Rome, such as the housing crisis, the spread of drugs and loneliness, were also discussed, the press office said.

“Our job as priests is to go and look for these people” who are “invisible” in society because “the church is either prophetic or it is clerical: it is up to us to choose,” he said.

Responding to the housing crisis, the pope invited religious congregations that own buildings and facilities to be generous, the press hall said. According to ANSA, the pope had been criticizing religious who, despite their vow of poverty, are focused on making money and are speculating on rent prices with the upcoming Jubilee.

Assets are for the community and not for speculation, the pope reportedly said, according to ANSA.

According to the Vatican press office, the dialogue between the pope and priests also touched on the tragedy of the wars underway and the huge amounts of money nations spend on weapons and birth control and that individuals spend on veterinary care and cosmetic surgery.

For this reason, more should be done to promote the church’s social teachings, the common good and peace, the pope said.

The pope thanked the priests for their work and urged them to continue to listen to all those who turn to them and to engage in community discernment.

Rome Auxiliary Bishop Michele Di Tolve, who was present at the meeting, told Vatican News that the pope invited priests “to be strong and meek at the same time, to let the parish feel close to people, like a home among homes and where they can relive an experience of being a family.”

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – “Called to the Fullness of Dignity” is the theme of this year’s Religious Freedom Week of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The observance opens June 22, the feast day of Sts. Thomas More and John Fisher, both English martyrs who fought religious persecution. The week ends June 29, the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, and includes the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, which is June 24.

Building on this year’s annual report by the USCCB’s Committee on Religious Liberty, Religious Freedom Week 2024 highlights concerns about attacks on houses of worship.

“There is no greater threat to religious liberty than for one’s house of worship to become a place of danger, and the country sadly finds itself in a place where that danger is real,” the committee said in its 48-page report, “The State of Religious Liberty in the United States,” issued in January.

Religious Freedom Week also calls attention to threats to Catholic ministries that serve immigrants.

“In recent years, Christian services to migrants have faced aggressive accusations by both media personalities and political leaders seeking to advance a certain narrative about current immigration trends,” said the June 7 USCCB release on the upcoming weeklong observance. “The attacks on both sacred spaces and ministries to migrants reflect the political and cultural polarization that has come to characterize so much of American life.”

One recent example of political leaders’ aggressive moves against assistance for migrants by churches and other nonprofits is Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s attempt to shut down El Paso’s Annunciation House, a Catholic nonprofit serving migrants. A couple of months after Paxton’s previous effort was blocked by a judge, his office said May 8 it filed an application for a temporary injunction against Annunciation House, accusing it of “systemic criminal conduct in Texas,” including facilitating illegal border crossings or concealing “illegally present aliens from law enforcement.” Annunciation House’s lawyer said those are false allegations.

In his earlier attempt to shut down Annunciation House, Paxton accused it of “human smuggling,” which was denounced by Catholic immigration advocates, including El Paso Bishop Mark J. Seitz.

The special week “encourages Catholics do their part to promote civility by recognizing the dignity of all people and inviting others to do the same,” the release said, adding that “through prayer, education and public action during Religious Freedom Week, the faithful can promote the essential right of religious freedom for Catholics and for those of all faiths.

The USCCB provides “Pray-Reflect-Act” resources at www.usccb.org/ReligiousFreedomWeek. Each day focuses on different religious liberty topics for prayer, reflection and action.

Once again, the Committee for Religious Liberty, in collaboration with the USCCB Secretariat of Catholic Education and Our Sunday Visitor Institute, hosted a religious liberty essay contest. Contestants were asked to share the story of a witness to freedom — a story of the people who inspire us. The top essays from the competition will be published during Religious Freedom Week at www.usccb.org/ReligiousFreedomWeek.

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – Prior to the second anniversary of a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn its prior abortion precedent, pro-life activists said much of their work remains to be done.

Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of Arlington, Virginia, chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, told OSV News in a June 10 interview “we realized quickly we have a challenge on our hands,” pointing to losses at the ballot box after the Dobbs ruling, with more such contests on the horizon.

“So after two years, there is still reason to celebrate because we know God’s grace is more powerful than all this, but also, we have to embrace the challenge that faces us,” he said.

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

The Dobbs case involved a Mississippi law banning abortion after 15 weeks, in which the state directly challenged the high court’s previous abortion-related precedents in Roe v. Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992). The Supreme Court ultimately overturned its own prior rulings, undoing nearly a half-century of its own precedent on the issue and returning it to legislatures.

While Roe and its ensuing precedents were in place, states were generally barred from restricting abortion prior to viability, or the point at which a child could survive outside the womb. When Roe was issued in 1973, fetal viability was considered to be 28 weeks gestation, but current estimates are generally considered to be 23-24 weeks, with some estimates as low as 22 weeks as medical technology continues to improve. After the Dobbs ruling, states across the country quickly moved to either restrict or expand access to abortion.

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

Jeanne Mancini, president of the March for Life organization, told OSV News that after Dobbs, there was “so much confusion about what that means and anger and frustration from people who are confused about the inherent dignity of the unborn child and how abortion impacts women. So, I think that we’re still very much in the middle of that reverberation.”

When discussing abortion policy, Mancini said, pro-life advocates should strive “to get very clear” on the specific state, law or situations involved “because there’s a lot of misinformation out there right now.”

In the years following Dobbs, some women in states that restricted abortion said they were denied timely care for miscarriages or ectopic pregnancies or experienced other adverse pregnancy outcomes as a result of medical professionals’ hesitation due to unclear abortion legislation. But pro-life activists said laws restricting abortion contained exceptions for such circumstances. Their opponents claimed bill texts insufficiently addressed those circumstances or lacked clarity on exceptions.

Public support for legal abortion also increased after Roe was overturned, according to multiple polls conducted in the years following the Dobbs ruling. In multiple elections since the ruling, ballot measures on abortion have so far proven elusive for the pro-life movement. In elections in both 2022 and 2023, voters in Ohio, California, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana, Vermont and Kansas either rejected new limitations on abortion or expanded legal protections for it.

Several states – including Maryland and Florida – have ongoing efforts to enshrine abortion protections in their state constitutions on the ballot, with more states likely to follow suit.

Kelsey Pritchard, state public affairs director for SBA Pro-Life America, told OSV News in an interview that since the Dobbs decision, “we’ve gained major ground in the fight for life.”

“And you look at the states, and today we have 24 states that have laws defending life at 15 weeks or sooner, and 20 of those states have a law that protects babies with a heartbeat,” she said.

Asked about the upcoming ballot measures in November, Pritchard said, “People are literally going to vote in November and their votes could save lives or end lives depending upon how they vote.”

Pritchard said pro-life advocates must respond to “fear-mongering” about state abortion restrictions, including arguing that “there is a life of the mother exception in every single state” with restrictions.

Asked about how pro-life advocates should approach ballot initiatives on abortion, Bishop Burbidge said that efforts have been made, and should continue to be made, “to win minds by proclaiming the truth and proclaiming the Gospel of Life.”

“So we have the truth. So there’s no doubt about it,” he said. “And we’ve proclaimed that clearly and we will continue to do so without compromise. But I think what we’ve learned is that we also have to transform hearts.”

“We have to speak to the hearts of people who love women and love children. So do we. So do we, and we want to be there for every woman and every child,” he added.

Bishop Burbidge said that those seeking to aid the pro-life cause should offer their prayers, and they can sign up for alerts and resources on the committee’s work by visiting respectlife.org.

“I think beyond our role in advocacy too, the Catholic Church has long offered hope, healing, and material support to vulnerable mothers and children,” he said, noting that Walking with Moms in Need and Project Rachel are a means of such support.

The Supreme Court is expected to issue in June a decision in a case concerning mifepristone, a pill commonly used for early abortion as well as for managing early miscarriage, its first major case involving abortion since Dobbs.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Sitting in the Vatican Gardens with the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica as a backdrop, Pope Francis told cardinals and diplomats, including the ambassadors of Israel and Palestine, “Every day I pray that this war will finally end.”

With a representative of Rome’s Jewish community and a representative of the city’s Muslim community in attendance June 7, the pope repeated his call for a cease-fire, his appeal to Hamas to release all the hostages it kidnapped Oct. 7 and his plea that Israel protect civilians in Gaza and allow humanitarian aid to reach them.

The prayer service marked the 10th anniversary of Pope Francis and Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople praying for peace in the Holy Land with Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the same spot in the Vatican Gardens.

In 2014 they had planted an olive tree; now it towered over the pope.

“We wish to ask the Lord to give continued growth to the olive tree we planted on that day, which has already become strong and flourishing because it has been sheltered from the wind and watered with care,” the pope said. “Likewise, we must ask God that peace may spring forth in the heart of every person, in every people and nation, in every corner of the earth, protected from the winds of war and nourished by those who daily strive to live in fraternity.”

Holding a green watering can, the pope was joined at the tree by: Raphael Schutz, the Israeli ambassador to the Holy See; Issa Kassissieh, Palestinian ambassador to the Holy See; Rabbi Alberto Funaro of Rome’s Jewish community; and Abdellah Redouane, secretary-general of the Islamic Cultural Center in Rome.

Rabbi Funaro told reporters that events like the pope’s prayer service “somehow help us to go on. If there were one of these initiatives every day, who knows what could happen. We are all here in hope.”

In his brief address, Pope Francis said he was thinking of all the people suffering in the Holy Land today.

“I think of how urgent it is that from the rubble of Gaza a decision to stop the weapons will finally arise, and therefore I ask that there be a ceasefire,” he said. “I think of the families and of the Israeli hostages and ask that they be released as soon as possible.”

“I think of the Palestinian population and ask that they be protected and receive all necessary humanitarian aid,” he continued. “I think of the many who are displaced due to the fighting and ask that their homes be rebuilt soon so that they can return to them in peace.”

The pope said he also was thinking of “those Palestinians and Israelis of good will who, amid tears and suffering, continue to hope for the coming of a new day and strive to bring forth the dawn of a peaceful world where all peoples ‘shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.'”

Repeating the Vatican’s longstanding position on the region, he encouraged everyone to work for “a lasting peace, where the State of Palestine and the State of Israel can live side by side, breaking down the walls of enmity and hatred.”

And, he added, “we must all cherish Jerusalem so that it will become the city of fraternal encounter among Christians, Jews and Muslims, protected by a special internationally guaranteed status.”

At the same time, Pope Francis said, “peace is not made only by written agreements or by human and political compromises. It is born from transformed hearts and arises when each of us has encountered and been touched by God’s love, which dissolves our selfishness, shatters our prejudices and grants us the taste and joy of friendship, fraternity and mutual solidarity.”

“There can be no peace if we do not let God himself first disarm our hearts, making them hospitable, compassionate and merciful — God is hospitable, compassionate and merciful,” he said.

Pope Francis then read the same prayer for peace he had read 10 years ago in the presence of the Orthodox patriarch and the presidents of Israel and Palestine.

“Lord God of peace, hear our prayer,” he said. “We have tried so many times and over so many years to resolve our conflicts by our own powers and by the force of our weapons. How many moments of hostility and darkness have we experienced; how much blood has been shed; how many lives have been shattered; how many hopes have been buried. But our efforts have been in vain. Now, Lord, come to our aid!”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – While Pope Francis often raises warnings against “clericalism” and “spiritual worldliness” in the priesthood, he expressed his deep gratitude and affection for priests and deacons around the world for what he called their generous and faith-filled dedication to their communities.

“I would like first to convey my gratitude, my affection and my closeness to the priests and deacons of the whole world,” he told members and consultants of the Dicastery for Clergy, which was holding its plenary assembly at the Vatican.

“Many times, I have warned against the dangers of clericalism and spiritual worldliness, but I am well aware that the vast majority of priests work with great generosity and spirit of faith for the good of the holy people of God, bearing the weight of many hardships and facing pastoral and spiritual challenges that are sometimes not easy,” he said during an audience at the Vatican June 6.

The pope emphasized the importance of giving priests support and ensuring they do not feel alone.

“Unfortunately, many priests are too lonely, without the grace of accompaniment, without that sense of belonging that is like a life buoy in the often-stormy sea of personal and pastoral life,” he said.

“Weaving a strong network of fraternal relations is a priority task in ongoing formation,” he said.

“It is indispensable for priests to feel ‘at home,'” the pope said. This network should include the bishop, other priests, communities in relation to their pastors, religious and consecrated men and women, associations and movements.

He encouraged the dicastery to continue to build and strengthen a global network so that it offers support to priests and “bears fruit throughout the world.”

“One of the great challenges for the people of God is the fact that, in an increasing number of areas of the world, vocations to the priestly ministry and to consecrated life are declining sharply, and in some countries they are almost dying out,” he said.

“But the vocation to marriage, with that sense of commitment and mission it requires, is also in crisis,” he added. That is why in his recent messages for the World Day of Prayer for Vocations, he included the whole range of Christian vocations and the vocation of discipleship as a consequence of baptism.

“We cannot resign ourselves to the fact that for many young people the hypothesis of a radical offering of life has disappeared from the horizon,” he said, encouraging them to revitalize the dicastery’s Pontifical Work for Priestly Vocations, “perhaps by networking with the local churches and identifying good practices to circulate.”

The pope also asked the dicastery to devote resources to research and reflections regarding the permanent diaconate, noting how questions are often asked about its “specific identity.”

The synthesis report of the first session of the Synod of Bishops on synodality recommended an assessment of how the diaconal ministry has been implemented since Vatican II and called for “a more decisive focus, among the various tasks of deacons, on the ‘diakonia’ of charity” and service to the poor, he said.

Thanking members for their work, the pope asked the dicastery to “always work so that the people of God may have pastors according to the heart of Christ and may grow in the joy of discipleship.”

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – Legislation to protect access to contraception nationwide failed to advance in the U.S. Senate on June 5 in an expected outcome.

Aprocedural vote to advance the Right to Contraception Act failed 51-39, falling short of the Senate’s 60-vote threshold to proceed. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who supports the bill, switched his vote to oppose advancing the bill so he can potentially bring it back up in the future.

The legislation would codify the right of Americans to have access to contraceptives including birth control pills and intrauterine devices (IUDs), but also sterilization procedures, including vasectomies.

In remarks prior to the vote, Schumer argued that opponents of the bill expressed concern about abortion and threats to religious freedom, both of which he said were not in the bill. 

“If you believe all women deserve to have contraception then you should vote for this bill,” he said. “That’s all there is to it.”

But Senate Minority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., argued in his own remarks on the Senate floor that the matter was a “show vote” that was expected to fail without the support of 60 senators. 

“Under the guise of protecting access to contraception — something that is not under threat — the Democrat leader is bringing up legislation that would not only funnel money to Democrats’ allies at Planned Parenthood but would wipe out conscience protections for health care providers,” Thune said. 

Polls consistently show most U.S. adults support access to contraception, and Democrats have sought to tie the issue of contraception to abortion restrictions in an election year. The Catholic Church opposes artificial methods of birth control, but supports couples using natural fertility-based awareness methods for either achieving or postponing pregnancy as an exercise of responsible parenthood.

The vote followed comments from former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, where he appeared to suggest he was open to restrictions, before walking it back, signaling his support. 

Trump, on his Truth Social website, wrote at the time that he does not support a ban on birth control, adding that the Republican Party will not either. 

The day prior to the vote, the National Republican Senatorial Committee released a memo advising GOP Senate candidates to express their support for birth control.

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and 21 other Republican senators who voted against the bill signed a joint statement critical of the bill itself, rather than contraception. 

“There is no threat to access to contraception, which is legal in every state and required by law to be offered at no cost by health insurers, and it’s disgusting that Democrats are fearmongering on this important issue to score cheap political points,” they said. “This bill infringes on the parental rights and religious liberties of some Americans and lets the federal government force religious institutions and schools, even public elementary schools, to offer contraception like condoms to little kids. It’s just another way for Democrats to use activist attorneys and our courts to advance their radical agenda and that is why we oppose this bill.”

The closely watched vote prompted reaction near the capitol as well. Americans for Contraception erected a 20-foot inflatable in the shape of an IUD outside Union Station in Washington, D.C., to demonstrate their support of the legislation.

In a guide about the church’s teaching on issues including contraception, the National Catholic Bioethics Center describes contraception as “any action that is specifically intended, whether as an end or as a means, to prevent procreation either before, at the moment of, or after sexual intercourse.”

While contraception “is never to be directly intended,” the guide states, its use for “therapeutic means needed to cure diseases is not illicit, even if it results in a foreseeable impediment to procreation — provided the impediment is not directly intended for any motive whatsoever.”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that unlike contraception, “the methods of birth regulation based on self-observation and the use of infertile periods, is in conformity with the objective criteria of morality.” These are known as fertility-based awareness methods of family planning; the methods are sometimes collectively referred to as natural family planning.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis announced that he is preparing a document on the Sacred Heart of Jesus to “illuminate the path of ecclesial renewal, but also to say something significant to a world that seems to have lost its heart.”

The document is expected to be released in September, he said, and will be part of ongoing celebrations marking the 350th anniversary of the first apparition of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. The celebrations began Dec. 27 and are scheduled to end June 27, 2025.

The pope made the announcement during his general audience in St. Peter’s Square June 5. The Catholic Church traditionally dedicates the month of June to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the solemnity of the Sacred Heart will be celebrated June 7 this year.

The document will include reflections from “previous magisterial texts” and it will aim to “re-propose to the whole church this devotion laden with spiritual beauty. I believe it will do us much good to meditate on various aspects of the Lord’s love,” the pope said.

Meanwhile, in his main audience talk, Pope Francis continued a new series on the relationship between the Holy Spirit and the church, particularly in how the Holy Spirit leads God’s people to meet Jesus, the source of Christian hope.

The Biblical name of the Holy Spirit is “ruach” in Hebrew, which means breath, wind or spirit, he said.

The image of wind expresses the power of the divine Spirit, he said, and Jesus highlighted its freedom to blow and go where it wants.

“The wind is the only thing that absolutely cannot be bridled, cannot be ‘bottled up’ or put in a box,” he said. “To pretend to enclose the Holy Spirit in concepts, definitions, theses or treatises, as modern rationalism has sometimes attempted to do, is to lose it, nullify it or reduce it to the human spirit.”

A similar temptation in the church is the attempt “to enclose the Holy Spirit in canons, institutions, definitions. The Spirit creates and animates institutions, but he himself cannot be ‘institutionalized'” or turned into an object, the pope said.

The freedom Jesus offers with his Spirit is special, he said. It has nothing to do with the selfishness of being free to do what one wants, but it is “the freedom to freely do what God wants! Not freedom to do good or evil, but freedom to do good and do it freely, that is, by attraction, not compulsion. In other words, the freedom of children, not slaves.”

True freedom is choosing to serve “in love and joy,” he said. And it is “a commitment to grow in the truth revealed by Christ and to defend it before the world,” he said in his greeting to Polish-speaking pilgrims.

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – President Joe Biden June 4 signed an executive order aimed at reducing unauthorized border crossings by asylum-seekers. The move was expected and comes as Biden faces increasing political pressure on the issue of migration in the midst of his reelection bid.

Catholic immigration advocates expressed concern about the impact Biden’s order could have on asylum-seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, chairman of the Committee on Migration for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in a statement that the group is “deeply disturbed by this disregard for fundamental humanitarian protections and U.S. asylum law.”

J. Kevin Appleby, senior fellow for policy at the Center for Migration Studies of New York and former director of migration policy for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, told OSV News, “This action will drive desperate asylum-seekers to more remote areas of the border, leading to the loss of life, and strengthen smuggling networks, who will charge enormous sums to get people across the border undetected.”

In its announcement, the White House said Biden’s order would “bar migrants who cross our Southern border unlawfully from receiving asylum.”

The order would temporarily shut down asylum requests once the seven-day average number of daily encounters with noncitizens between official ports of entry is over 2,500. Asylum requests would be reopened once daily encounters dropped below 1,500 — something that has not taken place since July 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The order, however, excludes “unaccompanied children … from non-contiguous countries” in calculating the number of encounters.

The White House announcement said Biden “believes we must secure our border.”

“That is why today, he announced executive actions to bar migrants who cross our Southern border unlawfully from receiving asylum,” it said. “These actions will be in effect when high levels of encounters at the Southern Border exceed our ability to deliver timely consequences, as is the case today. They will make it easier for immigration officers to remove those without a lawful basis to remain and reduce the burden on our Border Patrol agents.”

The White House also took aim at congressional Republicans for ultimately coming out against a bipartisan border security package previously negotiated by Sens. James Lankford, R-Okla., Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz. The legislation failed to advance in February after former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, despite his own hard-line stance on immigration policy, argued passing the bill would aid Biden in the November election. It also failed to advance in May when even some of its original negotiators did not support bringing it up for another vote.

That legislation would have implemented strict new migration policies for the U.S.-Mexico border, among other measures. But Catholic migration advocates previously expressed concern about the implications of the legislation, particularly for people seeking asylum.

In its announcement, the White House argued, “We must be clear: this cannot achieve the same results as Congressional action, and it does not provide the critical personnel and funding needed to further secure our Southern border. Congress still must act.”

Sister Norma Pimentel of the Missionaries of Jesus, who is the executive director of Brownsville, Texas-based Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, told OSV News she is concerned about particularly women and children who will be denied asylum because they are often “exposed more to more danger” on the journey to the border.

“They’re more exposed to the dangers of human trafficking, and that worries me a lot,” she said.

Sister Norma added that elected officials should prioritize policies that protect vulnerable people, and Catholics must advocate for humane responses to migration.

“We’re not helping them because they’re immigrants, we’re helping because they’re here — they’re here and in our communities here at the border,” she said. “And there are people suffering and so we have a responsibility before God to respond correctly.”

In his statement, Bishop Seitz added, “There is a crisis of conscience at the U.S.-Mexico border.”

“When vulnerable families seeking safety and the means for a dignified life are labeled ‘invaders’ or ‘illegals’, terms that mask their humanity, we have strayed from the path of righteousness, succumbed to our fear of the ‘other’, and forsaken the values upon which our nation was founded,” he said. “This sentiment in no way violates a country’s right and responsibility to maintain its borders and regulate immigration in furtherance of the common good. Nevertheless, as defenders of human life and dignity, which we hold sacred and inviolable from the moment of conception, we cannot accept unjust conditions on the right to migrate for those fleeing life-threatening situations. We especially worry for those compelled by these policies to traverse more treacherous terrain, further endangering their lives and the lives of Border Patrol agents.”

Bishop Seitz said, “For those concerned about violent gangs, drug smugglers, and human traffickers, we join you in opposing those evildoers. At the same time, we ask: What fate awaits the families who flee for their lives from the same predatory actors, only to be returned to their grasp once they reach our borders?”

“Imposing arbitrary limits on asylum access and curtailing due process will only empower and embolden those who seek to exploit the most vulnerable. These measures will not sustainably reduce the increased levels of forced migration seen worldwide,” he added. “Mindful of challenges faced by American communities and consistent with our longstanding and repeated calls for bipartisan reform of our broken immigration system, we strongly urge the President to reverse course and recommit his administration to policies that respect the human life and dignity of migrants, both within and beyond our borders.”

Dylan Corbett, executive director of the Hope Border Institute, said in a statement the Biden administration’s “proposed actions are a real step backward in our nation’s commitment to human rights and asylum protections as well as a humane and orderly process at the border.”

“Political considerations cannot override the moral imperative to offer protection to those fleeing persecution and violence,” Corbett said. “Instead, we can choose to lead with compassion, justice and respect for human dignity.”

Appleby told OSV News the June 4 executive action “also likely violates domestic and international law and will certainly be challenged in the courts.”

Anna Gallagher, executive director at Catholic Legal Immigration Network Inc., or CLINIC, said in a statement the organization was “appalled that the United States is abandoning its commitment to humanitarian protection and national and international asylum law.”

“This move to drastically reduce asylum access is dangerous, immoral, and illegal,” Gallagher said.

“The policy will strip countless migrants of their legal right to seek asylum with due process, and as a result many lives will be endangered and lost, and families separated,” she said.

The American Civil Liberties Union indicated it intends to sue over the order, writing on X, formerly Twitter, “We will be challenging this order in court.”

Appleby noted the order “comes at a peculiar time, as arrivals at the border have gone down significantly.”

U.S. officials have observed a dip in unauthorized border crossings in March and April after a surge the previous year.

“The human and moral costs of the policy will exceed any perceived political gain for President Biden,” Appleby said.

A Gallup poll released April 30 found that Americans said the most important problem facing the U.S. is immigration, marking the third consecutive month immigration topped that list, which it said was “the longest stretch for this particular issue in the past 24 years.”

(OSV News) – The U.S. Catholic bishops’ latest annual report on child and youth protection shows abuse allegations are down, while safe environment protocols have taken root in the church — but guarding against complacency about abuse prevention is critical, as is providing ongoing support for survivors.

On May 28, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat of Child and Youth Protection released the “2023 Annual Report — Findings and Recommendations on the Implementation of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.”

The 2023 report is the twenty-first since the charter was established by the U.S. Catholic bishops in 2002 as a number of clerical abuse scandals emerged. 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.

Data for the report came from audits conducted by StoneBridge Business Partners, a Rochester, New York-based consulting firm that provides forensic and compliance services to a range of organizations. In addition, the report includes a 2023 survey by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate on allegations and costs related to the abuse of minors.

For the July 1, 2022-June 30, 2023, period, CARA’s report found a more than 51% drop in historical allegations from those reported in the same period last year, from 2,704 in 2022 to 1,308 in 2023. The decrease was partly due to the resolution of allegations received as a result of lawsuits, said the report.

Another milestone was the full participation of all 196 dioceses and eparchies in the Charter audit, a 100% response rate that was unprecedented. Of those, 28 were visited on-site by StoneBridge, with another 17 audited remotely by the firm and 131 other dioceses and eparchies submitting data for the report.

At the same time, “the number of new allegations from minors remained similar to the prior year, at 17,” wrote Suzanne Healy, chairwoman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ National Review Board, a lay-led group that advises the bishops on preventing sexual abuse of minors, in a Feb. 21 letter to USCCB president Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio that was included in the report.

Healy — a licensed marriage and family therapist who served as the victim assistance coordinator for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles from 2007 to 2016 — also cautioned against “charter fatigue or complacency” in addressing sexual abuse in the church.

“Even as we move forward with progress, we must acknowledge that without ongoing diligence and commitment, there is the possibility that failures can happen and we must be ready to act if they do. … We must remain vigilant,” wrote Healy. “One new allegation is one too many.”

She wrote that 70% of the nation’s dioceses and eparchies “conduct their own parish audits on the implementation of safe environment programs and policies,” with the data showing “a correlation between parish audits and charter compliance.”

Yet Healey warned, “Without monitoring implementation at the parish level, the risk of abuse increases.” She noted the National Review Board supported the use of high reliability organization principles — used to maximize safety in complex organizations where error stands to inflict great harm — to examine the 17 new claims for “any holes or practices that need to be shored up to prevent future abuse.”

One such deficit was highlighted by a recent discovery in the Diocese of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, that several safe environment clearance documents were missing from the file of a parish staffer who had previous criminal charges flagged in an FBI fingerprint check.

The gap came to light when the employee was arrested May 8 for unrelated alleged sexual assaults against a minor, which were said to have occurred off site from the two parishes at which he had worked. The pastor who oversaw both parishes had attested that he had personally reviewed the clearances and had found them in order. Bishop Larry J. Kulick of Greensburg took swift action, removing the pastor, placing the parish staff involved on leave and ordering an immediate audit of all safe environment clearances throughout the diocese.

StoneBridge wrote in its assessment that “chancery offices (that) maintain regular face-to-face contact with parishes have better results in implementing training and background check procedures than those (that) do not,” and recommended that diocesan officials periodically visit parishes and schools to review safe environment documentation.

Four dioceses and eparchies audited by StoneBridge were found to be noncompliant with various articles of the charter, but subsequently took steps after the audit to address the issues and attain compliance: St. Mary Queen of Peace Syro-Malankara Catholic Eparchy in USA and Canada, the Chaldean Diocese of St. Thomas the Apostle USA and the Archdiocese of Milwaukee initially failed to meet review board requirements. St. Mary Queen of Peace along with the Ukrainian Eparchy of St. Nicholas in Chicago also lacked safe environment training for minors during the 2023 audit period.

StoneBridge also found several issues at more than 25% of the dioceses and eparchies audited:

– A struggle to maintain functioning review boards, which serve as consultative bodies for their bishops, due to lack of meetings, members, bylaw compliance, policy reviews and understanding of member roles.

– A lack of language in child protection policies regarding either child sexual abuse content or “individuals who habitually lack the use of reason.”

– Ineffective monitoring by dioceses and eparchies to ensure compliance with their existing safe environment programs, with a lack of updated documentation and visitation to parishes and schools.

– Outdated or missing letters of promulgation from bishops on their safe environment programs.

Among the problems StoneBridge identified in less than 25% of the dioceses and eparchies:

– Some clergy, employees and volunteers were not trained or background checked, but nonetheless had contact with minors.

– Offers by the bishop or his representative to meet with victims and their families were not specified in the policies or were not made on a timely basis.

– Abuse reporting procedures were not consistently displayed at parishes and schools, or were not available in all languages in which liturgies were offered, thereby limiting the ability of non-English speakers to file complaints.

– Documented policies regarding accused clergy were lacking with regard to a presumption of innocence, retention of civil and canonical counsel, steps to restore a cleric’s good name in the case of an unsubstantiated allegation, or clergy transfers.

– Lack of a formal policy on communicating with the public regarding clerical sexual abuse of minors.

The CARA survey included in the 2023 report showed that between July 1, 2022-June 30, 2023, reporting dioceses and eparchies paid more than $260.5 million in allegation-related costs — 99% higher than that paid during the previous fiscal year. Of the 2023 total, 73% represented victim settlements, with 19% dedicated to attorney fees.

Over the past 10 years, the Catholic dioceses and eparchies in the U.S. alone have paid more than $2 billion in costs regarding abuse allegations.

But the cost to abuse survivors is far greater, said both Archbishop Broglio and Healy in the report.

“Theirs is a lifelong journey and the mission of the church is a lifelong commitment to accompany them on this healing journey … to minister, even to those who believe they have lost God along the way and left the church,” wrote Healy, noting that during the audit period, 183 new survivors and their families received pastoral care and 1,662 survivors and their families receive ongoing pastoral care.

“I am deeply sorry for their suffering,” wrote Archbishop Broglio in his preface to the 2023 report. “These numbers are not just numbers. The statistics are the many stories and accounts of the betrayal of trust and the lifelong journey towards recovery.”

The archbishop also wrote that he was “grateful” to victim survivors “for holding all of us accountable,” stressing as well the importance of countering abuse amid a landscape “in flux,” given both technological and therapeutic developments.

“I pray that together, we continue working toward the goal of ending the scourge of child sexual abuse, not only in the church but in society,” wrote Archbishop Broglio.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See Joe Donnelly will leave his post in July, the embassy announced.

The ambassador will step down from his role and return to his native Indiana on July 8, the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See said in a post on X published May 30.

“It has been an honor and a privilege to serve my country in this unique way,” Donnelly was quoted as saying in the post.

The former Indiana senator assumed his role in Rome in April 2022 when he presented his letters of credential to Pope Francis. His posting coincided with the 40th anniversary of the United States establishing formal diplomatic relations with the Holy See in 1984.

In a March interview with Catholic News Service, Donnelly said that when interacting with Vatican officials his job was “to try to make sure that where the United States stands, it’s understood.”

As an example, when Pope Francis said the Russian invasion of Ukraine may have been “facilitated” in part “because NATO is barking at Russia’s doors,” Donnelly said, “We tried to let them know, well, here’s what’s actually going on” in the various parts of Ukraine and “here’s the plans that Russia actually had to invade Ukraine based on that they just wanted to take Ukraine back.”

The embassy announced that Laura Hochla, a career diplomat who has served as deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See since July 2023, will serve as chargé d’affaires of the embassy.