Category: 2024 News

(OSV News) – As a Eucharistic procession made its way May 28 through Victoria, Texas, a 20-something man sitting on the side of a street caught Charlie McCullough’s attention. McCullough stopped to talk with him, explaining what was going on: The procession was part of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage en route to Indianapolis for the National Eucharistic Congress, and the Eucharist they were walking behind is really, truly Jesus.

“He had grown up in the Protestant faith and had never seen a Eucharistic procession before, and was at a time in life where he was asking a lot of big questions about what is the reason I exist for, what’s the purpose of life, all these things,” McCullough, one of six perpetual pilgrims on the pilgrimage’s southern St. Juan Diego route, recalled May 29. “We talked briefly and I kept walking.”

About five blocks later, McCullough looked over his shoulder and saw the man running after the procession. He caught up to McCullough and asked if they could talk more.

“He told me that that morning was the first time he had tried to pray in years. He opened his Bible, and he didn’t know if the Lord had heard him. And when we walked by — when Jesus Christ walked by — he knew something was different. And he knew that he wanted to follow the Lord, and he had so many questions about how and what he wants to do, and there was this zeal welling up in his heart,” McCullough said. “I just got to pray with him and encourage him.”

“At the end of our conversation, he goes, ‘I know this sounds crazy, but I want to go all the way to Indianapolis,'” he said.

McCullough, a fellow Texan, thinks it’s unlikely the man will follow the pilgrimage to Indianapolis, “but I pray that he follows the Lord the rest of his life,” he said. “He had a very profound experience, and the Lord stirred his heart through a simple encounter there, and it was very beautiful.”

McCullough shared that encounter on a May 29 media call that included pilgrims from all four routes of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, which began May 18-19 in California, Connecticut, Minnesota and Texas. Ten days into their journeys, the 23 perpetual pilgrims were in the Diocese of Victoria; the Diocese of Boise, Idaho; the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis; and the Diocese of Trenton, New Jersey.

Their second week included already iconic events — such as when Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York blessed the city with the Eucharist from a boat near the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor May 27 — and hidden moments — like when a man got out of a truck in the middle of Oregon, far away from any towns, and genuflected as the Eucharistic caravan passed.

“It was just a moment driving by, but he had gone out that distance to make sure he knew he would be by Jesus,” said Chas Firestone East, a perpetual pilgrim from Virginia journeying on the western St. Junipero Serra Route.

The pilgrims shared other stories of encounter and conversion: On the California side of Lake Tahoe, a photographer for a secular news outlet — amazed by the masses of people turning out for processions — told the perpetual pilgrims that he was inspired to learn more about the Eucharist and plans to begin the process for becoming Catholic. Meanwhile, a woman who isn’t able to walk with the pilgrims has been joining each procession along the St. Juan Diego Route since Brownsville, Texas, on a retrofitted tricycle. Also in Texas, some perpetual pilgrims helped bandage a woman’s wounded leg at a homeless shelter, and then the woman — whose name is Hope — asked the pilgrims to pray with her.

“It was just a beautiful moment to see Jesus … getting to see him inside the person that we encounter,” said Shayla Elm, a Juan Diego Route perpetual pilgrim originally from North Dakota.

The pilgrims have been amazed by the number of people who met them for Eucharistic processions, Holy Hours and Mass.

“I have been blown away at how hungry people are to show their faith and how thirsty Jesus is for their souls,” Elm said. “Jesus really is thirsty for this whole country. He really wants so many souls to encounter him, and he’s the one walking in the streets. He’s leading us right now. So, it’s really beautiful to have all of us walking alongside our Lord.”

Meanwhile, the pilgrims have been bringing the Eucharist to places where people cannot join the public events. On May 28, perpetual pilgrims on the northern Marian Route visited a St. Paul, Minnesota, nursing home run by the Little Sisters of the Poor. The visit was a day after a 7,000-person procession on a nearby avenue. A deacon with them pointed out that Jesus wanted to come to people, who due to age or infirmity, couldn’t come to him, and his message stuck with perpetual pilgrim Kai Weiss, a German student who studies in Washington.

“Jesus is really seeking all kinds of different people out on this journey,” he said.

While the perpetual pilgrims expected large turnouts in the cities along their routes, events in small towns have also drawn hundreds. Weiss noted that processions in rural parts of the Diocese of St. Cloud, Minnesota, likely exceeded the towns’ populations.

“The enthusiasm in those small towns was shocking,” he said. “You just walk through these small towns and church bells are ringing, the first communicants have flowers … people along the route come out of their houses to check what is going on and they’re really moved. Many of them kneel down, but I think a lot of them are like, ‘Wow, this is amazing.'”

On May 26, the Serra Route’s perpetual pilgrims had driven a long time across the Nevada landscape without passing any towns — an experience that East described as beautiful but eerie, especially right after spending time in major California cities. Then, they pulled up to a tiny mission church on the Nevada-Oregon border town of McDermitt, where they were warmly welcomed by a group of Catholics. That arrival “felt like there was a family waiting for us,” East said.

In McDermitt, they met Bishop Liam S. Cary of Baker, Oregon, who accompanied the pilgrims in driving processions for the 24 hours they were in his state. The Baker Diocese encouraged the Catholics joining them by car to pray, sing and listen to Catholic podcasts. As the vehicles crossed into Idaho May 27, Bishop Cary knelt before the monstrance on a float pulled by a truck.

Zoe Dongas, a perpetual pilgrim from New York on the eastern St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Route, said a highlight from the pilgrimage has been “the amount of faithful bishops and priests we’ve been able to encounter.”

“We were just on a boat … with Cardinal Dolan and (Metuchen, New Jersey) Bishop (James F.) Checchio, (and New York Auxiliary) Bishop (Edmund J.) Whalen … and getting to bless the Statue of Liberty — that was wild,” she said. “To get to spend time in adoration with all of these holy men that love their church so much and are willing to say ‘yes’ to this amazing adventure and to receive us with such great hospitality — it’s truly been such a gift.”

On May 30, the Seton Route pilgrims had moved into the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and the Juan Diego Route pilgrims were in the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston. The Serra Route pilgrims were preparing to leave the Boise Diocese for the Diocese of Salt Lake City; and the Marian Route pilgrims were preparing to leave the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to enter Minnesota’s Diocese of Winona-Rochester, which is led by Bishop Robert E. Barron, who in 2019 first proposed the idea of a National Eucharistic Revival.

On the May 29 media call, the perpetual pilgrims acknowledged that their packed days can sap their energy. As they aim to become more like Jesus through time with him in the Eucharist, that also means “ourselves becoming a kind of broken bread, and abandoning yourself to that,” Weiss said.

“We’ve had some days where we would get up at 5 a.m. and we’ll hit four or five different parishes by 10 a.m. And, it’s like 10 a.m. and I’m like, ‘Gosh, it’s already so many parishes, and I can’t keep them apart,'” Weiss said with a laugh. “But one of the beautiful things is that the Lord really provides then with some kind of spark, some kind of amazing encounter that really makes you realize again what is happening and the impact that the pilgrimage is having.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Through the gift of their vocation and their different charisms, consecrated men and women play a central role in the Catholic Church’s mission to spread the Gospel, Pope Francis said.

“Indeed in many places on the planet the first proclamation of the Gospel bears the face of consecrated men and women who take up with great commitment and dedication of their lives the Lord’s mandate: ‘Go into the world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature,'” the pope said, quoting St. Mark’s Gospel.

Pope Francis’ comments came in a message to participants in a conference for consecrated religious life in Brazil released by the Vatican May 30. The theme for the conference is taken from Jesus’ instruction to the disciples in St. John’s Gospel: “Remain in my love.”

The pope told participants that “the gift of the vocation must be kept and cultivated every day, so that it produces good fruits in the life of every religious man and woman.”

To live out one’s vocation in a good way, “it is necessary to remain in His love, through constant dialogue with Jesus in daily prayer and faithfulness to the vows that express our consecration in a beautiful way,” he wrote.

Citing his homily for World Day for Consecrated Life in 2020, Pope Francis said that in consecrated life: “poverty is not a colossal effort, but a higher freedom;” chastity is not “austere sterility, but the way to love without possessing;” and “obedience is not a discipline, but victory over our own chaos, in the way of Jesus.”

The pope congratulated the Conference of Religious Men and Women of Brazil for their 70 years of service to the church, and he encouraged them to live in the present while sustained by their specific charisms and “to look to the future with hope.”

SCRANTON – Starting on Tuesday, June 4, 2024, the main entrance to Cathedral Cemetery, located in the 1700 block of Oram Street, West Scranton, will be temporarily closed to both vehicles and pedestrians.

The temporary closure is necessary so that renovation work to the cemetery entrance gates and sidewalks can be completed. The work is expected to be completed, and the main entrance to Cathedral Cemetery reopened, no later than Labor Day weekend.

Cathedral Cemetery will remain open to visitors throughout the duration of the renovation work, however access by both vehicles and pedestrians will be the alternative entrance on Pettibone Street (adjacent to the green maintenance garage).

The Diocese of Scranton and the staff of Cathedral Cemetery appreciates the understanding of all people avoiding the construction area to ensure the safety of both workers and visitors.

ROME (CNS) – The first years of priesthood are challenging, and the best way to survive and thrive is through closeness to God, to one’s bishop, one’s fellow priests and to one’s parishioners, Pope Francis told priests who have been ordained less than 10 years.

“One never comes out of a crisis alone,” the pope told them, according to the Vatican press office.

Pope Francis held a closed-door meeting May 29 with about 90 priests working in the Diocese of Rome who have been ordained since 2014; they included priests who were ordained for the diocese in April.

Earlier in May the pope had met with priests who have been in ministry for more than 40 years, and he is scheduled to meet June 11 with clerics ordained between 11 and 39 years ago.

Meeting at a church complex owned and staffed by the Pious Disciples of the Divine Master, a religious order of women, Pope Francis and the priests began with prayer and then moved into a private question-and-answer session.

“Among the topics at the center of the dialogue were the experience of the early years of priesthood, the happy discovery of people’s faith but also the challenge of ministering to the sick, to whom one must respond with closeness, compassion and tenderness, and the crises one faces in priestly life,” including loneliness, according to a summary provided by the Vatican press office.

The pope and priests also talked about what is going well and what challenges the Diocese of Rome faces, the summary said. Pope Francis told the priests the problems must be faced “not with gossip, but with dialogue.”

Rome Auxiliary Bishop Michele Di Tolve, who was present at the meeting, described the dialogue with the pope as part of the priests’ formation.

“It is not enough just to have seminary training; one becomes a priest by exercising ministry,” he told Vatican News. “And so, the questions of our priests were precisely in reference to their becoming pastors in the midst of the people of God.”

In response to several of the questions, he said, Pope Francis spoke of the importance of “the four proximities: closeness to God, to the bishop, to each other in fraternity and closeness to the people of God.”

Auxiliary Bishop Baldo Reina, who also was present, told the diocesan media that Pope Francis “gave advice, like that which a father gives — or a grandfather, we might say — to grandchildren, to younger children, related to his experience. He talked a lot about closeness: to the elderly, to the sick, to those living in distress.”

“He also recommended closeness among them, among priests, without giving space to the gossip that sometimes frays relationships and a healthy spiritual life,” Bishop Reina said. “The meeting was beautiful as was the frankness with which the young priests put questions to the Holy Father, even questions about problematic issues, and he answered them naturally, without hiding problems but manifesting his willingness to deal with them and resolve them in a positive way.”

BROOKLYN, N.Y. (OSV News) – Almost halfway across the Brooklyn Bridge toward Manhattan May 26, “amazing” was the only word Riya D’Souza-Pereira could come up with to describe the scene around her of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage.

“I don’t have words to say, but it’s giving me goosebumps just that they’re coming there and we’re coming to meet our Lord over here and from here it goes ahead,” D’Souza-Pereira said. “It’s just amazing.”

D’Souza-Pereira was referring to hundreds of pilgrims from the Archdiocese of New York and Diocese of Brooklyn converging on the Brooklyn Bridge that afternoon, where New York Auxiliary Bishop Gerardo J. Colacicco and Bishop Robert J. Brennan of Brooklyn met for benediction before Eucharist continued in the monstrance into Brooklyn.

The major liturgical event was a high point for the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, which launched the week before from California, Connecticut, Minnesota and Texas. Groups of young adults known as “perpetual pilgrims” walking the four routes with the Eucharist are tacking toward Indianapolis, where they will converge for the National Eucharistic Congress July 17-21.

The Memorial Day weekend included key highlights along all four routes. Before entering Brooklyn, pilgrims on the eastern route spent the weekend in other New York boroughs, with Masses, Eucharistic adoration, and processions through Central Park and Midtown Manhattan. On May 27, the perpetual pilgrims and their priest chaplains boarded a boat in New York Harbor with Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, who, from the water near the Statue of Liberty, gave benediction and blessed the city with the Eucharist before the pilgrims continued on to the Diocese of Metuchen, New Jersey.

“For Catholics, the Eucharist is the source and summit of our lives and I can’t think of a better way to bring that message to the world than something like this kind of display of solidarity, and faith, and conviction,” Joe Cerato, who participated in Brooklyn’s procession, told The Tablet, newspaper of the Diocese of Brooklyn. “I think it’s tremendous that we can be a part of what’s happening across the country.”

In St. Paul, Minnesota, an estimated 7,000 Catholics gathered for a 4.5-mile procession from the St. Paul Seminary along a historic avenue to the Cathedral of St. Paul. Despite predictions for thunderstorms, the sun shone as pilgrims pushed children in strollers and wagons while others in the procession rode wheelchairs or leaned on canes. Passersby knelt in reverence for the Eucharist or stared in awe at the massive crowd, which spanned several blocks of shoulder-to-shoulder pilgrims. The procession also included many priests, deacons, seminarians, and religious sisters and brothers.

Archbishop Bernard A. Hebda of St. Paul and Minneapolis led the procession with Auxiliary Bishops Michael J. Izen and Joseph A. Williams, who was recently named coadjutor bishop of Camden, New Jersey.

Also processing were retired Bishop Richard E. Pates of Des Moines, Iowa, and Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens of Crookston, a leader in the National Eucharistic Revival, first in a three-year role for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and now as board chairman of National Eucharistic Congress, Inc. Bishop Cozzens oversaw the northern route’s launch May 19 at Itasca State Park, and he accompanied the pilgrims for several days their first week.

“Here we are so close to our God, filled with gratitude for the gift of the Eucharist, and really desiring that all would come to know the greatness, the closeness, the tenderness and the compassion of our God,” Bishop Cozzens said shortly before the procession began. “The Lord has accompanied us all these years, and today we are accompanying him. This pilgrimage reminds us that we are on our way with him to the Father’s house.”

On the pilgrimage’s southern route, pilgrims spent the weekend in the Diocese of Corpus Christi, Texas, named for the body and blood of Jesus, where Catholics joined a mile-long procession after Sunday Mass celebrated by Bishop W. Michael Mulvey at the Corpus Christi Cathedral May 26.

“It’s a reverent movement as Jesus is with us,” said Elizabeth Morales, the diocese’s social media coordinator, as she reported live from the procession. “It’s been a beautiful five days of faith and people witnessing to their love of Christ.”

On Memorial Day, the southern route’s perpetual pilgrims entered the Diocese of Victoria, Texas, spending the evening in praise and Eucharistic adoration at Presidio La Bahía, an historic Spanish colonial fort that played a significant role in the Texas Revolution.

After crossing from California into Nevada via a Eucharistic procession on Lake Tahoe May 24, perpetual pilgrims on the western route spent three days in the Diocese of Reno, with a Eucharistic procession following Sunday Mass celebrated by Bishop Daniel H. Mueggenborg at St. Thomas Aquinas Cathedral May 26. That afternoon, the pilgrims headed north to the Nevada-Oregon border town of McDermitt, where Bishop Liam S. Cary of Baker, Oregon, met them for a driving procession to Burns, Oregon, for dinner, faith-sharing and overnight adoration. Memorial Day included a series of driving processions across the state.

The perpetual pilgrims crossed in vehicles from Oregon into Idaho — with Bishop Cary leading the procession on a float, kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament — to meet Bishop Peter F. Christensen of Boise and hundreds of Catholics for a short time of Eucharistic adoration at Corpus Christi Church in Fruitland, Idaho.

Across the country in New York, as the eastern route’s entourage prepared to leave May 27, perpetual pilgrim and New York resident Marina Frattaroli stood in the rain at Pier Four in New York Harbor and, via social media, asked the Catholic faithful for prayers. “Please pray for us, for all of the seeds we just planted, all the fruit that’s going to come from our time in New York,” she said. “Pray for the revival, pray for the church, pray for us pilgrims.”

(OSV News) – Growth, undeniable tensions and “a deep desire to rebuild and strengthen” the body of Christ have emerged as key themes in the latest synod report for the Catholic Church in the U.S.

Released by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops May 28, the “National Synthesis of the People of God in the United States of America for the Interim Stage of the 2021-2024 Synod” summarizes responses from more than 35,000 participants and over 1,000 listening sessions, with 76% of the nation’s dioceses and eparchies submitting reports to the U.S. synod team.

In addition, over 350 people met in some 15 listening sessions that focused on church life, social justice and vocations, while U.S. bishops also met for a synod listening session.

Launched by Pope Francis in October 2021, the first session of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, organized around the theme “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, Mission,” was held Oct. 4-29, 2023, in Rome.

Ahead of the concluding session of the synod, which will take place in Rome in Oct. 2-27, dioceses across the U.S. were asked to hold additional listening sessions during Lent 2024, following a request from the Vatican’s Secretariat for the Synod of Bishops. Those responses were incorporated into the newly released synthesis.

“We had to be nimble with the Spirit,” U.S. synod team member Alexandra Carroll, who serves as the USCCB’s communications manager for social mission, told OSV News, adding that even with short notice of the extra sessions, “our diocesan synod leaders took it on and really owned the process.”

Fellow synod team members Richard Coll, executive director of the USCCB’s Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development, and the USCCB’s senior adviser for the synod Julia McStravog agreed.

Coll said he was “very, very taken by the commitment that was evident” in the responses to the listening sessions.

“The diocesan directors continue to be very devoted to this path,” he told OSV News. “It’s a wonderful thing to see, because it is now the third year of this process, but it didn’t seem … to me that there was any kind of ‘synod fatigue.’ People seem to be even more enthusiastic.”

“Synodality is really taking root,” said McStravog. “People are getting accustomed not only to sharing, but to listening in a deeper way.”

In his introduction to the synthesis, Bishop Daniel E. Flores of Brownsville, Texas — who serves as chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Doctrine, and who has shepherded the synodal process in the U.S. — noted that “while no document could cover the full range of topics on the hearts and minds of Catholics” who took part in the listening sessions, the report showed the synodal journey has made progress in the U.S.

Among their insights, many of which were directly quoted in the report, participants expressed “two basic hopes for the church” — that it be both a “safe harbor” and a “fiery communion.”

As a “safe harbor,” the church can be a place “where the faithful are embraced, sustained and loved,” said the synthesis, citing one respondent who observed, “People come when they are broken. … At my parish, I feel I have a family there.”

That welcome must be more than “superficial,” the report said, pointing to parishes with numerous small communities and prayer groups as being “most successful” in reaching and integrating people from diverse backgrounds. With the church in the U.S. comprising “countless cultural and ethnic groups,” the report noted a desire “to promote interculturality, so that there is more unity between cultures that share the same church.”

At the same time, respondents described the church as a “fiery communion,” with the synodal process digging up a number of tensions within the church.

In particular, a lack of clear communication from church hierarchy and from media, both Catholic and secular, creates confusion and division over what it means to be Catholic — and hinders the church’s mission, said synod participants.

That uncertainty can be especially evident when trying to balance welcoming LGBTQ and other marginalized persons while making known the truths of the Catholic faith, said synod participants.

Catholic social teaching was “another area where division was keenly experienced,” with “conversations ‘on social justice and inclusion … filled with moments of profound pain and generational hurt,'” the report said. “Participants expressed concerns that the church has allowed the ongoing polarization and conflict (in civil society) to lead to a denial of the church’s social magisterium in many situations.”

The liturgy itself can be a flashpoint for tension, with the celebration of the Mass using the Roman Missal of 1962 (informally known as the “Latin Mass”) becoming “a focal point of broader debates about tradition, modernity, and the best ways to nurture faith across the diverse spectrum of Catholic belief and practice,” the interim synthesis said.

Another sore spot identified by participants was complacency in many parts of the church, which potentially stands to pave the way for “grave institutional sins such as sexual abuse and racism” — both of which remain “enduring wounds” that “continue to inflict pain today,” said the document.

“The trauma and scandal (of the clerical abuse crisis) have had a generational impact,” keeping youth and young adults distrustful and desiring an apology “for abuses that happened not to them, but to their parents, grandparents or further generations,” the interim synthesis said.

Likewise, the sin of racism, and “the sin of enslaving Black people for the betterment of the church,” continue to haunt the church, the report said.

At the same time, the listening sessions revealed a commitment to the importance of evangelization, and the need for catechesis and formation to sustain such witness. Participants also articulated a desire to actively participate in the church’s mission, seeking greater co-responsibility for the laity (especially women and young adults) in that task through their “baptismal dignity.”

Both clericalism and a lack of vocations to the priesthood and religious life were lamented, as was division among priests, with one priest participant sharing that clergy “need to be better at getting past the bitterness and different theologies and political preferences.”

Bishops who attended the listening session also highlighted polarization among priests, with some shepherds likening themselves to “the episcopal referee” among an increasingly diverse clergy, many of whom hail from other countries. The Ukrainian Catholic bishops of the U.S. expressed their gratitude for the positive relationships they enjoyed with the USCCB and the Roman Catholic Church in the U.S., noting that “sometimes the Latin Church in other parts of the world (is) not so accepting and supportive.”

The bishops also applauded recent changes in the structure of their biannual meetings, which have facilitated more small group encounters reminding them they are “spiritual brothers and not just ecclesial figures.”

On balance, bishops’ relations with the Holy See were “generally positive,” and although “direct contact with Rome is not very frequent,” the report said that the apostolic nuncio, Cardinal Christophe Pierre, has succeeded in “fostering a spirit of communion” and in “facilitating communication with the Holy See.” At the same time, the bishops “did express some frustration that communication between bishops and the offices of the Holy See could be better,” but described their ad limina visits to Rome — during which they provide the pope with an update on the status of their respective dioceses — as “occasions of fraternity and joy.”

The interim synthesis concluded by noting that “a major theme” articulated by participants was “the deepening awareness of how our trust in God expresses itself in relation to our imperfect institutions within the church.”

“It was noted by many that the faithful ‘should not be embarrassed about recognizing that our
church might be a little messy — it’s better not to pretend that we are the perfect institution, but that we belong to the perfect and one, true faith,'” said the report.

Carroll, Coll and McStravog told OSV News that the synodal process of listening and dialogue is essential to healing the church’s wounds — and that dynamic is for all the faithful, they said.

“Synodality isn’t just in Rome or at the USCCB,” said Coll. “It’s right here. It’s with you. It’s with all of us.”

JERUSALEM (OSV News) – As tensions and the number of victims mount in southern Gaza Strip, Catholic Relief Services said it has not been able to get humanitarian aid through to the southern Gaza Strip since May 6 and it no longer has any supplies left in its warehouses in that area, said Jason Knapp, CRS country director for Jerusalem, West Bank and Gaza.

Knapp also called for all crossings into Gaza to be opened for humanitarian aid.

CRS carries out the work of the U.S. bishops to assist the poor and vulnerable worldwide who live in extreme poverty, war zones or who have suffered natural disasters.

“Right now our distribution has been paused. We need to get things in from either Jordan or Egypt. In the last few days we have distributed everything we have access to, which is why it is becoming all the more urgent to make sure those crossings are functioning,” said Knapp.

The agency’s functioning capacity in Rafah in southern Gaza is still in place in partnership with local groups and other agencies such as the World Food Program through the logistics structure they set up in the beginning of the war with warehouses and trucking capacities, Knapp noted.

However, their ability to move things has been severely impacted by the Israeli incursion launched in early May that has caused nearly 1 million people to flee from Rafah. They now seek refuge in squalid tent camps and other war-ravaged areas.

Palestinian health officials said at least 45 people, around half of them women and children, were killed in a strike on May 26 in Rafah’s camp, a consequence of an Israeli strike nearby that caused fire in the densely populated camp.

According to The Associated Press, the strike caused widespread outrage, including from some of Israel’s closest allies. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was the result of a “tragic mishap.”

The International Court of Justice May 24 called on Israel to halt its Rafah offensive, an order it has no power to enforce.

CRS moved its operations from Gaza City in the northern Gaza Strip at the start of the war, which broke out following an Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israeli communities.

The Hamas assault left 1,200 mostly civilians murdered and 254 people taken captive into Gaza, according to Israel, with 125 hostages still remaining in Gaza, including 39 bodies.

The subsequent Israeli military campaign into Gaza has killed more than 36,000 Palestinians, mostly children and women, according to the Hamas Gaza Ministry of Health, which does not differentiate between Hamas members and civilians.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East has said that 1.7 million people in Gaza have been displaced since the start of the war in October.

Families that have been already displaced several times are on the move again due to military operations and Israeli evacuation orders. As of May 19, the estimated number of people displaced from Rafah is nearly 815,000 people since May 6, with a further 100,000 people displaced in northern Gaza, UNRWA said in its latest report published on May 24.

For many families this most recent displacement is the seventh or eighth time they have had to move since the start of the war, said Knapp. People are lacking not only in basic supplies such as food and shelter but also clean water, sanitation, health care and education, he said.

“It is the needs of the whole of the person and it is what has been challenging on a large scale in such a significant crisis for the past seven, eight months,” he said.

U.N. humanitarian organizations also have repeated warnings that famine is still an imminent threat because of aid restrictions and lack of safe access.

Knapp said CRS has now had to shift its operations from Rafah to the middle area of the Gaza Strip and Khan Younis.

“We are not able to service Rafah. Our operational capacity is still in place but the big obstacle is the functioning of the crossings where a deep focus is needed for goods to be able to come to the north and south of Gaza,” he said. “That is what we are advocating for, especially that the Kerem Shalom crossing be accessible from the Gaza side as soon as possible.”

Since the start of the war CRS has been able to serve almost 800,000 people with aid including cash, food parcels, bedding supplies, tarps, tents and hygiene kits through its already established partnerships network, said Knapp, who was in Gaza almost at the beginning of May and expressed “deep concern” about the physical conditions and enormous human displacement he witnessed.

“It has been so challenging to get things in and to operate safely. We are not able to provide the same standards in Gaza as we are in other places,” he said.

CRS head of Gaza Office Bassam Nasser said in a Whatsapp written exchange that looting of warehouses is rampant, and even if people have money, they are unable to access their cash from banks with only three ATMs in service in the southern Gaza Strip. Goods are only sold in stalls in the streets for cash and there is a critical shortage of feminine hygiene products, baby diapers, cooking gas, fuel and bottled water, said Nasser.

Nasser said critical needs vary for each family. As a pharmacist, his wife has been trying to maintain a supply of medicines for the chronically ill in Rafah, to where his family fled from their home in northern Gaza in the early days of the war.

Nasser’s family was among the tens of thousands of people who had to once again escape from Rafah.

“The threats turned into artillery bombardment and air strikes in the neighborhood (where) we lived in,” Nasser said. He said his family was “among the lucky families” who found an apartment shared with three other families with 20 people living in a 1,300-square-foot apartment of a family who was able to leave Gaza in the early days of the war. Each family pays $500 rent without any services and must buy water from trucks and has electricity only if there are solar panels, he said.

“I am losing faith in global and universal values, and day after the other, (I turn) to think that the world is ruled by racists powers and elements. Personally, I never want to get to this conclusion as it will destroy what I live for,” said Nasser.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – To change the world, children must press ahead, be joyful, ask adults why there is injustice and always help others, Pope Francis told thousands of children gathered in Rome’s Olympic Stadium for the church’s first ever World Children’s Day.

“We are gathered here at the Olympic Stadium, to ‘kick-off’ the movement of boys and girls who want to build a world of peace, where we are all brothers and sisters, a world that has a future because we want to take care of the environment around us,” he said May 25.

About 50,000 people gathered in the stadium for a sunny afternoon of music, dance and even a brief friendly match in the center field between two teams made up of kids and retired Italian soccer champions. Multiple award-winning goalie, Gianluigi Buffon, placed a soccer ball in front of the pope’s chair. The pope stood and kicked the ball from the sidelines to symbolically kick-off the game. The pope later signed the ball and the kids’ jerseys.

The pope established the world day, which will include a Mass in St. Peter’s Square May 26, after holding a smaller encounter at the Vatican in November 2023 with some 7,500 children from 84 countries dedicated to learning from young children and listening to their questions about the future.

That event “brought a wave of joy” and “left a lasting impression in my heart,” he told the kids and those accompanying them in the stadium. He said he wanted that conversation to continue and expand to reach more children and young people, and “that is why we are here today: to keep the dialogue going, to ask questions and seek answers together.”

The pope told the children he knows they are sad about war, and he recounted his meeting earlier that day with children from Ukraine, Palestine and other parts of the world experiencing war. Many of the children had been injured and were in Italy to receive care. Vatican News reported that among those at the audience was Yana Stepanenko, 13, who lost both legs from a Russian missile strike in Ukraine. She ran the 5K at the Boston Marathon in April to raise money for prosthetics for a Ukrainian soldier in need.

The pope asked the children in the stadium to pray for their peers who cannot go to school, who suffer from war, who have no food or who are sick and lack medical care.

“Dear children, let us press ahead and be joyful. Joy is healthy for the soul,” he said, quizzing them to make sure they knew that Jesus loved them, and the devil did not.

Dozens of children representing different continents and countries gave the pope gifts, including two baskets of letters, 5,000 drawings and a pectoral cross modeled after the large and colorful “cross of joy” that was created for the world day and accompanied the events.

Riad, a young boy from Syria, gave the pope copies of photos taken in 2016 when Pope Francis invited 12 Syrian refugees, Riad included, to fly with him to Italy from a refugee camp in Lesbos, Greece.

“He’s grown!” the pope said, looking at the young boy and the photos of him as a small child.

Between musical sets, children from different parts of the world asked the pope questions, such as what can children do to make the world a better place. Speak nicely, play together and help others, the pope replied.

How can people truly love everyone? a boy asked the pope. “It’s not easy,” the pope said. But start with just the people in one’s own life, including one’s classmates, and expand from there, he said.

When asked about why there were people without jobs or homes, the pope said all injustices were “the fruit of malice, egoism and war.”

Those who “climb the ladder,” crushing those below, are bad, and many countries spend money to build or buy arms while there are people going hungry, he said. He asked the huge crowd to be quiet for a moment of silence, praying for all those facing injustice and remembering that everyone shares a bit of the blame.

When asked how to help adults be more compassionate about those who are less fortunate, the pope said kids can help others and be a good example, and they can create “a true revolution” by always asking God and their parents, “Why?” such as why are there people living on the street or going without food.

He also urged the kids to visit their grandparents, who gave life, raised families and passed down their wisdom. “We have to respect,” visit and listen to grandparents, he said.