Category: 2024 News

(OSV News) – A new report shows a continued decrease in the number of permanent vocations to consecrated life in the U.S. — but key factors such as family life, devotional practices, Catholic education and personal encouragement can positively impact those numbers.

“Women and Men Professing Perpetual Vows in Religious Life: The Profession Class of 2023” was released Jan. 26 by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University, ahead of the church’s World Day of Prayer for Consecrated Life on Feb. 2.

The study – annually commissioned since 2010 by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations – was written by CARA researchers Jonathon Wiggins and Sister Thu T. Do, a member of the Lovers of the Holy Cross of Hanoi.

The 101 religious members (53 sisters, 48 brothers and priests) who participated in the survey represented 70% of the 144 potential members of the profession class of 2023, as reported to CARA by 69% of the nation’s religious superiors.

Of the participating religious superiors, 87% reported their orders had no member profess perpetual vows in 2023, up from 82% in the 2022 report. In 2023, one in 10 institutes had one perpetual profession, while 4% reported between two to 15 members professed perpetual vows.

“We are finding that there’s a continuous decline in the number of men and women making a final profession to religious life each year,” Jesuit Father Thomas Gaunt, CARA’s executive director, told OSV News.

He also noted the length of time from entrance into religious life to perpetual profession can vary from “seven to 20 years,” with the Jesuits, or Society of Jesus, having a particularly long span.

The average age of the 2023 profession class is 36, with half of the survey participants age 33 or younger.

More than three quarters (76%) were born in the U.S., and 67% listed their primary race or ethnicity as Caucasian, European American or white. One in 10 or less identifies as Asian/Pacific Islander/Native Hawaiian (12%); as Hispanic or Latino (9%); as African, African American or Black (7%); and as mixed race or other (5%).

An overwhelming majority, 94%, said that as children they had at least one parent who was Catholic, with 86% of the respondents stating both parents were Catholic. Almost all survey participants (99%) were raised by their biological parents during the most formative part of their childhood. Close to nine in 10, or 88%, were raised by a married couple.

Just over half of the class, 51%, attended a Catholic elementary school, and respondents were more likely than other Catholics in the U.S. to have attended both a Catholic high school (46%) and college (43%). About 14% reported being homeschooled at some point, with the average length of time being nine years.

“Generally, the more Catholic education, (the more) you increase the likelihood that someone will consider a religious vocation,” said Father Gaunt. “And it gets stronger often enough, if (that education extends) to Catholic high schools or colleges. Part of that is you’re just more exposed to a Catholic environment, and the consideration of a religious vocation will not be as countercultural, in one sense, as if you had not attended those Catholic schools. It makes (religious life) a little more thinkable.”

The report described the 2023 profession class as “highly educated,” with 62% entering their respective religious institutes after earning at least a bachelor’s degree, and 20% after obtaining a graduate degree.

At the same time, educational debt did not delay most survey participants from entering religious life; the 9% who reported educational debt experienced less than a year of delay as they cleared just under $37,000 in student loans, assisted by friends and family members.

While respondents said they were on average 18 years old when they first considered a vocation, some 82% had prior work experience before entering religious life – more than half (55%) had worked full time – with business, education and health care the top fields.

Respondents reported that Eucharistic adoration (82%), the rosary (72%) and retreats (72%) were among their most common formative prayer experiences, with four out of five respondents regularly practicing adoration prior to entering religious life.

Father Gaunt also highlighted the need to pay “attention to the cultural differences in devotions and practices” — such as processions, home altars, family prayers and other forms of popular piety — which are informing the one quarter of foreign-born religious aspirants to religious life in the U.S.

The study found that participation in religious programs and activities also correlated highly with vocations, as more than 93% of the respondents cited experience in ministries such as lector (55%), altar servers (54%), and youth ministry or youth group (45%).

“That’s a key element, and a piece of the invitation,” said Father Gaunt. “It’s just placing younger people in a ministerial role.”

Personal interactions also helped to foster consecrated life, with 82% of the respondents noting that they had been encouraged to consider a vocation by a priest (45%), religious sister or brother (44%), friend (41%), teacher or catechist (27%) or parent (mother, 26%; father, 23%).

At the same time, more than 55% reported that one or more persons had discouraged them from pursuing a religious vocation, with women more likely than men to report this experience.

Just under one third of the respondents (31%) said they first became acquainted with their respective religious orders through a sponsored institute, such as a school or hospital. Another 26% said they learned of their institute through print or online promotional material.

Almost all (94%) of the respondents said they had taken part in some form of vocational discernment program, particularly “come and see” experiences.

In many respects, creating a culture of religious vocations involves consistently doing “simple things … that are very important for us to keep in mind,” said Father Gaunt.

Young people are “getting a lot of reinforcement going in the other direction,” away from religious life, he said. “What’s the positive reinforcement that they find or experience? That would be the key.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Today’s wars and conflicts have put humanity on the brink of the abyss, Pope Francis said, calling for a worldwide cease-fire.

“I will never tire of reiterating my call, addressed in particular to those who have political responsibility: stop the bombs and missiles now, end hostile stances” everywhere, the pope said in an interview with La Stampa, an Italian newspaper, published Jan. 29.

“A global cease-fire is urgent: either we do not realize it or we are pretending not to see that we are on the brink of the abyss,” he said.

Asked specifically about the situation in Israel and Palestine, the pope said that the Oslo Accord is “very clear with the two-state solution. Until that agreement is implemented, real peace remains distant.”

The pope said the thing he fears most is a “military escalation” in which the conflict might “further worsen the tensions and violence that already mark the planet.”

However, he said he is also hopeful because “confidential meetings are taking place to try to reach an agreement. A truce would already be a good result.”

A key figure in the Vatican’s efforts concerning the Middle East, he said, is Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem. “He is trying with determination to mediate.”

“The Christians and the people of Gaza — I don’t mean Hamas — have a right to peace,” the pope said.

He said he connects daily on the video platform Zoom with the Holy Family Catholic Parish in Gaza to speak to them. Some 600 people sheltering in the parish compound are “living their lives looking death in the face every day.”

The other priority remains the release of the Israeli hostages, he added.

The Holy See continues with its diplomatic efforts regarding Ukraine, particularly through the papal envoy, Italian Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, who is working to “build an atmosphere of reconciliation,” the pope said.

It is also still mediating for the exchange of prisoners, the return of Ukrainian civilians and repatriation of Ukrainian children forcibly taken to Russia. One child has already returned to its family, he said.

Asked if there were such a thing as “just war,” the pope said it is better to use the term “legitimate defense.”

“If thieves come into your house to rob you and attack you, you defend yourself. But I don’t like to call this reaction a ‘just war’ reaction, because it is a definition that can be exploited,” he said.

“It is right and legitimate to defend yourself,” he said, so it is better to discuss situations of legitimate defense, “so we can avoid justifying wars, which are always wrong.”

World peace must be built on dialogue and the pursuit of human solidarity and fraternity, he said. “We can no longer kill each other, between brothers and sisters! It makes no sense!”

The pope also called for peace after praying the Angelus with visitors in St. Peter’s Square Jan. 28.

He highlighted the current conflict in Myanmar, joining the call of some Burmese bishops for turning weapons of destruction “into instruments for the growth of humanity and justice” and for allowing humanitarian aid to reach everyone in need.

“Peace is a journey, and I invite all parties involved to take steps in dialogue and to clothe themselves in understanding so that the land of Myanmar may reach the goal of fraternal reconciliation,” the pope said.

“The same must happen in the Middle East, in Palestine and Israel, and wherever there is conflict: the populations must be respected!” he said.

Thinking of all victims of war, especially civilians, the pope said, “Please, listen to their cry for peace: it is the cry of the people, who are tired of violence and want the war to stop. It is a disaster for the people and a defeat for humanity!”

The pope also thanked the boys and girls of Catholic Action, parishes and Catholic schools in Rome who came to Rome for the annual “Caravan of Peace,” organized by Catholic Action.

“Thank you for your presence! And thank you for your commitment to building a better society,” he said.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis again insisted that an informal blessing of a gay or other unmarried couple is not a blessing of their union but a sign of the Catholic Church’s closeness to them and its hope that they will grow in faith.

“The intent of ‘pastoral and spontaneous blessings’ is to concretely show the closeness of the Lord and the church to all those who, finding themselves in different situations, ask for help to carry on — sometimes to begin — a journey of faith,” Pope Francis said Jan. 26 as he met members of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The full membership of the dicastery was holding its annual plenary meeting at the Vatican.

While Pope Francis’ remarks to the members focused on their discussions about the sacraments, human dignity and faith, particularly the centrality of evangelization, he also mentioned “Fiducia Supplicans” (“Supplicating Trust”) on “the pastoral meaning of blessings,” which was published by the dicastery and signed by Pope Francis Dec. 18.

The document said that while the church “remains firm” in teaching that marriage is only a life-long union between a man and a woman, in certain circumstances priests can give non-sacramental, non-liturgical blessings to “couples in irregular situations and same-sex couples without officially validating their status or changing in any way the Church’s perennial teaching on marriage.”

Reaction from bishops to the document ran the gamut from saying it did not go far enough to outrage and diocesan bans on implementing it.

Pope Francis told dicastery members that he wanted to make two points about the document. The first, he said, was that “these blessings, outside of any liturgical context and form, do not require moral perfection to be received.”

Secondly, he said, “when a couple spontaneously approaches to ask for it, one does not bless the union, but simply the people who made the request together. Not the union, but the people, taking into account, of course, the context, the sensitivities, the places where people live and the most appropriate ways to do it.”

In early January, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the dicastery, issued a note clarifying that “prudence and attention to the ecclesial context and to the local culture could allow for different methods of application” of “Fiducia Supplicans.”

In his speech to dicastery members, Pope Francis also mentioned a document on human dignity that the dicastery is working on.

In an interview with the Spanish news agency EFE Jan. 13, Cardinal Fernández said, “We are preparing a very important document on human dignity which includes not only social issues, but also a strong critique of moral issues such as sex change, surrogacy, gender ideologies, etc.”

“As Christians, we must not tire of insisting on the primacy of the human person and the defense of his or her dignity beyond every circumstance,” the pope said, adding that he hoped the new document “will help us, as a church, to always be close to all those who, without fanfare, in concrete daily life, fight and personally pay the price for defending the rights of those who do not count.”

Pope Francis began his speech to the group by quoting the dicastery’s main task as described by “Praedicate Evangelium,” which says it is “to help the Roman Pontiff and the Bishops to proclaim the Gospel throughout the world by promoting and safeguarding the integrity of Catholic teaching on faith and morals.”

As the church prepares to celebrate the Holy Year 2025 and as it strives to preach the Gospel to a changing world, he said, the dicastery must lead the way in helping the church “reflect again and with greater passion on several themes: the proclamation and communication of the faith in the contemporary world, especially to the younger generations; the missionary conversion of ecclesial structures and pastoral workers; the new urban cultures with their many challenges but also unprecedented questions about meaning; finally, and especially, the centrality of the kerygma in the life and mission of the church.”

In his 2013 exhortation “Evangelii Gaudium,” Pope Francis summarized the “kerygma” as the message: “Jesus Christ loves you; he gave his life to save you; and now he is living at your side every day to enlighten, strengthen and free you.”

“For us, that which is most essential, most beautiful, most attractive and, at the same time, most necessary, is faith in Christ Jesus,” the pope told dicastery members. “All of us together, God willing, will solemnly renew it in the course of the jubilee year and each one of us is called to proclaim it to every man and woman on earth.”

(OSV News) – A new study offers a more nuanced take on the nation’s religiously unaffiliated, and the findings show that Catholic parishes need to become more “outward facing” to reach those beyond the pews, an evangelization expert said.

“This is the managing of the journey out of Christendom,” Sherry Anne Weddell, cofounder and executive director of the Colorado-based Catherine of Siena Institute, told OSV News. “And what we’re struggling with is, what does it mean now to function missionally outside of Christendom? That’s the transition.”

“Religious ‘Nones’ in America: Who They Are and What They Believe,” released Jan. 24 by Pew Research Center, found that about 28% of U.S. adults are religiously unaffiliated. Of that group, which has been dubbed the “nones,” 63% described their religion as “nothing in particular,” with 17% saying they were atheist and 20% saying they were agnostic. 

Weddell, author of the 2012 book “Forming Intentional Disciples” and a consultant for hundreds of parishes worldwide, said the study was “really fascinating” and “fits everything else” she is seeing in the field regarding “nones.”

“It’s not a surprise, but it’s wonderful to have it all documented in this way,” she said.

The Pew data reveals a more complex view of “nones,” exploring their views of God, religion, morality, science and spirituality.

Broadly, researchers found that most “nones” believe in the God of the Bible (13%) or another higher power (56%), but few attend religious services regularly: 90% said they “seldom” or “never” do.

Pew researchers noted that “nones” are “not uniformly anti-religious,” allowing that religion can do either equal amounts of harm and good (41%) or more good than harm (14%), although most “nones” maintain that religion does more harm than good (43%).

The “nones” — a roughly even mix of women (47%) and men (51%) — are a younger population, according to Pew, with 69% under the age of 50, and 31% of them 50 or older. In contrast, 45% of U.S. adults who identify with a religion are under 50, and 55% are age 50 or older. Men are significantly more represented among atheists and agnostics. 

Gregory A. Smith, associate director of research at Pew Research Center and primary researcher for the study, told OSV News that “one of the most important factors in understanding the growth of the nones over time is that this is a generational thing.”

During the last few decades, said Smith, “quite religious” older cohorts of Americans who have aged and passed away “are being replaced by a new generation of young adults that is simply far less religious than their parents and their grandparents before them.”

Weddell sees the “nones” demographic as comprising “the generation of the sexual abuse scandals.”

“I’ve heard this over and over again: ‘My child was 18, when in 2002 …  (clerical abuse scandals arose), and they’re old enough to understand it, and to get the kind of damage that it did and has done,'” said Weddell. “And since (2002), there’s just been all kinds of conflict within the church. … Their peers are skeptical, and the culture they’re immersed in, especially online, is skeptical.”

The Pew study found that the top reason “nones” cited for their stance was doubt about religious teachings themselves (60%), with 32% naming a lack of belief in God or any higher power. 

In addition, 47% of “nones” listed dislike of religious organizations and 30% pointed to negative experiences with religious people. In total, 55% of the “nones” said religious organizations, religious people or both were key reasons for being nonreligious. In 44% of the nones, a lack of need or time for religion was cited. 

The Pew study also adds an important dimension to what the authors call the “complicated” link between religious disaffiliation and civic engagement. While “nones” tend to vote, volunteer and follow public affairs at lower rates, that lower level of involvement is “concentrated among ‘nones’ whose religion is ‘nothing in particular,'” rather than agnostic or atheist. In fact, the study said that “atheists and agnostics tend to participate in civic life at rates matching or exceeding religiously affiliated people.” Overall, most “nones” expressed satisfaction with their family, social and communal lives, according to the study.

The researchers also highlighted the following features of “nones”:

– Moral decision making. Most “nones” (83%) base decisions between right and wrong on a desire to avoid hurting people, with an almost equally high percentage (82%) also saying that logic and reason are crucial in this regard. Feeling good about moral decisions is a major driver (69%), as is the desire to stay out of trouble (60%). The same factors also apply to religiously affiliated people, but the “nones” do not rely on religious beliefs to weigh such factors. 

– Spirituality. More than half (54%) of “nones” undertake some activity (such as meditation, exercise, yoga, spending time in nature, centering themselves) to connect with either a sense of transcendence, others or their “true self.” Most “nones” also hold that animals have spirits or spiritual energies, and believe the same to be true for cemeteries, part of nature and certain objects. However, such beliefs and practices are also shared by those who are religiously affiliated. 

– Perspective on science. “Nones” tend to view science more favorably than their religiously affiliated counterparts (56% compared to 40%). Yet most “nones” admit there is “something spiritual beyond the natural world” (63%) and that science is unable to explain some things (56%).

Smith told OSV News that while “there are a number of trends that suggest the U.S. is growing less religious … it’s also important to remember that in many ways, the U.S. remains a very religious place, and most Americans identify as Christians.”

For Catholics, the challenge is now to focus on “two big starting points” for recalibrating their pastoral outreach to “nones” — those who may be in the pews and those beyond the church doors, said Weddell.

“We want to break the silence about the reality of a living relationship with God; we want to break the silence about Jesus,” she said. “The church teaches that when we name his name, he is present; we’re invoking his presence.”

The second “crucial” step is “serious, intercessory prayer for a change in the local spiritual climate,” joining with Christ, who is “interceding for every human being, and for the purpose of God in the fulfillment of the Father’s plan of salvation,” Weddell said.

Such prayer lifts the “secular haze” that “makes it very difficult for people to see and experience the presence of God,” she said.

Amid the National Eucharistic Revival — a three-year, grassroots initiative of the U.S. bishops to enkindle devotion to the Real Presence — parishes can offer Eucharistic adoration to seekers, inviting them encounter Christ and pursue a deeper relationship with him through the Catholic faith. 

“The great high priest intercessor is dwelling in our tabernacles … pouring out his Holy Spirit,” said Weddell. “When we intercede (for souls), we will see a lot more of these sovereign sort of actions of God that we don’t have in our five-year plan, that we never even dreamed of, and that we don’t even have concepts for.”

(OSV News) – As Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine reaches the two-year mark, the Knights of Columbus remain steadfast in bringing relief to vulnerable Ukrainians living in some of the hardest-hit areas, one of the organization’s leaders told OSV News.

“Our members are doing heroic work, and they are willing to risk their lives to bring aid to people in places like Avdiivka and … other villages that (are) close to the front line,” said Szymon Czyszek, director of international growth in Europe for the Knights of Columbus.

The global Catholic fraternal organization established its first council in Ukraine in 2012 and now counts some 10,000 members in Ukraine and neighboring Poland, said Czyszek, who spoke amid another massive Russian attack on Ukrainian cities. Air strikes hit Kyiv, the capital, and Kharkiv, among other places, on Jan. 23, local officials said, killing 10 people and wounding more than 70 as Moscow’s war approaches the start of its third year. Video from Ukraine’s police showed emergency workers helping residents of apartment buildings as another video showed a body of a 9-year-old girl pulled from under the rubble. Her mother also died in the attack.

Among the first six members of the Knights in Ukraine were Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kyiv-Halych, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, and Roman Catholic Archbishop Mieczyslaw Mokrzycki of Lviv, said Czyszek, noting that the “beautiful ceremony” during which both were inducted was “a great symbol of the unity (between) both rites, (which) the Knights want to bring together to work to support the church, the people and families.”

With the support of more than 67,500 donors, the Knights as a whole have provided Ukraine with close to $22.1 million in aid through the Ukraine Solidarity Fund, which the organization established within hours of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. To date, the Knights have sent over 7.3 million pounds of supplies and goods, more than 250,000 care packages and 400 wheelchairs to Ukraine, helping upward of 1.4 million people.

Czyszek told OSV News the Knights “can be defined as men who courageously respond to the needs of people” — especially in places like Avdiivka, located about 15 miles north of Russian-occupied Donetsk and site of some of the most intense clashes between Ukraine’s defense and invading Russian troops along the estimated 808-mile front line.

Czyszek told OSV News that some Knights have had “bombs explode in front of them” as they travel to ensure aid reaches such areas, where “people are very often forgotten and have nowhere to go.”

During the Christmas season, Knights hosted several dinners across Ukraine for families of fallen soldiers, even as Russia unleashed its largest missile barrages since the start of its full-scale invasion in February 2022. At a Dec. 30 gathering in the western city of Ivano-Frankivsk, women and children braved a missile alert to pray for the men they have lost to the war, and to share a dinner catered by the Knights.

In occupied areas of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, the Knights — along with the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and Caritas, the official humanitarian arm of the universal Catholic Church — were banned by Yevgeny Balitsky, the Kremlin-installed head of the area’s military-civil administration.

An order signed by Balitysky in December 2002 denounced the Knights as “associated with the intelligence services of the United States and the Vatican.”

Czyszek said the order serves as “a confirmation” of the power of the works of the Catholic Church and its ministries — one that also “tells you something” about those behind the ban.

“It’s a sign that people who want to bring (this aid) are driven by Christian love,” said Czyszek, adding that “we see again” the “tactics of banning the church.”

At the same time, the Knights are taking “appropriate measures to make sure that we do reasonable things,” he said. “We are of course very careful about our actions, because we don’t want our members to die in the work of doing these (charitable works).”

Russia’s invasion, which continues attacks launched in 2014, has been named a genocide in two joint reports from the New Lines Institute and the Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights. Ukraine has reported some 123,685 war crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine since February 2022.

In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, for the unlawful deportation and transfer of 19,546 children from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.

The effects of Russia’s war – which has intensely targeted civilian housing and infrastructure – have been devastating, said Czyszek.

“It’s just a difficult reality, when you see the pictures, the conditions,” he said. “They live in apartment buildings with no windows in the middle of winter.”

Through their ministry, the Knights seek to reassure those they serve that the Lord has not abandoned them, he said.

“Many of these people are asking, ‘Where’s God in this; where’s God?'” said Czyszek. “And the work that we are doing is to really show to people that amid the suffering, God is present. So every care package that we deliver or generator or clothing … we just want to show people that God has not forgotten them, and they are not alone. And we just want to be instruments of God’s mercy.”

Along with meeting immediate needs for basic provisions, that mission has expanded to include what Czyszek calls “a new phase,” where Knights “try to address the long-term challenges and difficulties” faced by a population wounded at heart by a decade of war.

“His Beatitude (Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church) has said that more than 80% of Ukrainians will need some kind of psychological and spiritual assistance, and (assistance in) dealing with trauma,” said Czyszek. “And we have already started doing a huge number of things (in this regard). We are doing work with widows and orphans, because I think these women and children, and the families of the fallen soldiers are already paying the highest price for the war.”

Among the initiatives in this area are events such as “pilgrimages and dinners,” which offer “a time when they can experience solidarity,” he said.

“We have stories of women who have said in meetings organized by our local councils that when they receive support, they want to live again,” Czyszek said. “This horrible experience of losing a husband or a father or a son — you can think that your life is over. But with the work that we try to do in different areas, they regain hope for the future.”

Czyszek also stressed that “it’s very important that this work … is done in a way that provides a holistic approach and a proper Christian anthropology,” adding that the Knights sponsor “a number of psychological workshops for veterans and their spouses” that reflect such an approach.

He said that such a faith-based response embraces “not only Catholics, (but) … anybody in need,” and includes “spiritual support (for) the deep spiritual wounds that people will carry within themselves for years” after the hostilities cease.

Czyszek urged supporters of the Knights to live out Pope Francis’ call to global solidarity by “being aware” and not “forgetting about the people of Ukraine.”

He also highlighted that the Knights’ work is “possible only because of the generosity of so many people.

“And the last thing that we ask people is pray,” said Czyszek. “Prayer has this power to transform the hearts and minds of those that we can’t convince with the strength of our argument. Prayer is the response that we can offer, wherever we are. This is a spiritual gift that we can offer to people who suffer in Ukraine.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – With little fanfare, Pope Francis officially opened the Year of Prayer after Mass for the church’s celebration of Sunday of the Word of God.

“Today we begin the Year of Prayer; that is, a year dedicated to rediscovering the great value and absolute need for prayer in personal life, in the life of the church and in the world,” he said, after praying the Angelus with visitors in St. Peter’s Square Jan. 21.

The pope called for the special year last February to help prepare Catholics worldwide for the Holy Year, which begins with the opening of the Holy Door in St. Peter’s Basilica Dec. 24.

Preparing for the jubilee is not just about the huge construction projects underway throughout Rome to help welcome and facilitate the flow of an estimated 35 million pilgrims expected for the Holy Year 2025.

The year 2024 also should be about rebuilding and renewing spiritual pathways and practices so that the spiritual significance of the jubilee can “emerge more clearly, something which goes far beyond the necessary and urgent forms of structural organization,” said Archbishop Rino Fisichella, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization’s section for new evangelization, which is coordinating the Holy Year.

Speaking at a news conference Jan. 23 about the Year of Prayer, the archbishop said 2024 is about preparing the groundwork so the jubilee “spiritually enriches the life of the church and of the entire people of God, becoming a concrete sign of hope.”

The jubilee must be “prepared for and lived in individual communities with that spirit of expectation which is typical of Christian hope,” he said, unveiling several resources the dicastery is providing to help bishops, dioceses, parishes, families and religious communities rediscover the value of and need for daily prayer.

Unlike other years designated by the pope, “this is not a year marked with particular initiatives,” Archbishop Fisichella said. Rather it is a time to get back to basics: to discover how to pray and how to educate people in prayer “so that prayer can be effective and fruitful.”

“It will not be a year which hinders initiatives of the local churches; rather it should be seen as a period in which every planned initiative is supported effectively, precisely because it has prayer as its foundation,” he said.

When asked how the year can complement the U.S. bishops’ National Eucharistic Revival underway, Msgr. Graham Bell, undersecretary of the dicastery’s section for new evangelization, told Catholic News Service, “We are well pleased that the American bishops want to call attention to what Vatican II calls the source and summit of Christian life because it must be the foundation of every renewal.”

Therefore, the revival initiative “is very appropriate in view of the 2025 jubilee,” he said.

The dicastery will release ideas, suggestions and resources as the year continues, starting with an eight-volume series of booklets titled, “Notes on Prayer,” that “delve into the various dimensions of the Christian act of praying, signed by authors of international renown,” Msgr. Bell said at the news conference.

As the translations are done, the series will be made available to the world’s bishops’ conferences, the archbishop said.

The first volume, titled “Praying Today. A Challenge to Be Overcome,” was released Jan. 23 and was written by Cardinal Angelo Comastri, retired archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica, with a preface by Pope Francis.

“Prayer is the breath of faith, it is its most proper expression. Like a silent cry that comes forth from the heart of those who believe and entrust themselves to God,” the pope wrote.

The other texts, to be released over the next three months, will carry titles such as “Praying with the Psalms,” “The Prayer of Jesus,” “Praying with Saints and Sinners,” and “The Prayer Jesus Taught Us: The ‘Our Father.'”

The dicastery also will send out texts and guides digitally for dioceses to integrate, modify and distribute as they see fit, Archbishop Fisichella said. The different texts will cover many possible aspects of a Christian’s prayer life, including spiritual retreats, shrines and the priesthood.

In addition, he noted, Pope Francis’ 38 general audience talks on prayer, given from May 6, 2020, to June 16, 2021, are available online, reflect on the various forms of prayer and contain many useful suggestions.

Pope Francis will set up a “school of prayer” for 2024, he said. It will be similar to the pope’s “Fridays of Mercy” initiative during the extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy in 2016, when he visited people on the “peripheries,” including babies in a neonatal unit, a center for the blind and a housing project.

“This will be a series of moments of encounter with specific groups of people to pray together and better understand the various forms of prayer: from thanksgiving to intercession; from contemplative prayer to the prayer of consolation; from adoration to supplication,” the archbishop said.

There is “a profound need for spirituality,” he said. And the Year of Prayer is meant to be “a way of fostering the relationship with the Lord, offering moments of genuine spiritual rest.”

“It is like an oasis sheltered from daily stress where prayer becomes nourishment for the Christian life of faith, hope and charity,” the archbishop said.

(OSV News) – Against gray skies and falling snow, thousands of people flocked Jan. 19 to the nation’s capital for the national March for Life, gathering them under the theme “With every woman, for every child,” showing their resolve amid the piercing cold to make abortion eventually “unthinkable” in the U.S.

“If not us, then who? If not now, then when?” Miguel Ángel Leyva, 21, a Catholic and third-year college student from Detroit, told OSV News.

The March for Life began in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade, which once legalized abortion nationwide, and gathers pro-life advocates from across the U.S. This year’s march — its second year since the Supreme Court overturned Roe in 2022 — took place as winter weather put much of the U.S. in a deep freeze, snarling transportation and canceling flights.

While the crowds appeared smaller than in years past, this year’s march showed a movement eager to up its game to help American society embrace a culture that affirms and supports the dignity of all human life, and not just for the unborn.

Levya said the presence of so many people amid the punishing weather conditions “shows there are many who are willing to serve God and stand up for what is right.”

Jeanne Mancini, president of March for Life Education and Defense Fund, and others emphasized during the March for Life Rally that not only was the national march there to stay, but pro-life marches would be multiplying throughout all 50 states in the coming years.

“We will keep marching every year at the national level, as well as in our states, until our nation’s laws reflect the basic truth that all human life is created equal and is worthy of protection,” Mancini told the thousands gathered on the National Mall.

Speaker after speaker at the march rally emphasized its theme of making abortion “unthinkable,” in particular by emphasizing the culture-changing and life-saving work of pregnancy resource centers and related efforts.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., addressed the crowd and shared that he himself was once an unplanned pregnancy for his parents, just teenagers at the time, who chose life.

Johnson said the U.S. House of Representatives passed two important pieces of legislation right before the march: the Pregnant Students’ Rights Act for colleges and universities to follow and another bill that prohibits the Health and Human Services Department from excluding pregnancy resource centers from obtaining federal funds.

Johnson criticized President Joe Biden for his administration’s efforts to prevent pregnancy resource centers from accessing these grants under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program.

However, speakers at the march acknowledged that the end of Roe came with both successes and setbacks for the pro-life movement. Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., a Catholic lawmaker and co-chair of the House Pro-Life Caucus, told those gathered that they should remain “undeterred.”

“We will never quit in our defense of the weakest and most vulnerable,” he said.

Aisha Taylor, author of “Navigating the Impossible: A Survival Guide for Single Moms,” took to the rally stage and reminded the crowd, “It was people like you who helped people like me to choose life for my unborn twins.”

“I am eternally grateful for that pregnancy center,” she said, adding that her presence among them was part of her pledge to “pay it forward” for all the support she had received to choose life.

But March for Life speakers also indicated strongly that changing the culture for life did not just affect the unborn, but extended to all human beings. Rallygoers watched on the screens a preview of the movie “Cabrini” — a film about St. Frances Xavier Cabrini who cared for immigrants, orphans and people of all races — which Mancini said exemplified the march’s theme.

A voiceover in the “Cabrini” trailer reflected that New York, where Mother Cabrini ministered, is a city “built on immigrant bone.”

It said, “Is this bone not ours as well? Did we not all arrive as immigrants? Do we not owe these children, our children, a life better than a rat’s?”

Benjamin Watson, a former NFL tight end, said pro-life advocates must embark on “a new fight for life” that also addresses the factors behind abortion, and he connected those efforts to the wider struggle for peace and justice in society.

“Roe is done, but we still live in a culture that knows not how to care for life,” Watson said.

An unrelated incident underscored Watson’s words. As the March for Life was going on, the District of Columbia’s law enforcement and emergency personnel were responding to a teenager who had been shot just a few blocks from Capitol Hill.

The national march also showcased organizers’ determination to mobilize the thousands gathered for immediate and effective action. At one point, Mancini invited the crowds to pull out their phones and told them to text MARCH to 73075 and “send a message to Congress that you want to protect pregnancy resource centers.”

“We want to make sure Congress hears you are pro-life and we support pro-life policies,” said Mancini. She pointed to the large screens, which featured a map of the U.S. with “pins” showing in real time how many people were texting the number. As pins filled up the map, Mancini cajoled people from states lagging behind in pins.

“I think California needs a little love,” she said. “Come on, Texas!”

More pins popped up on the screens. Marchers also were encouraged to take the time to visit their members of Congress in person and ask them to affirm life-affirming policies.

Thousands of Catholics participating in the march came from prayer vigils and Masses held that day or the evening before.

At the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of Arlington, Virginia, preached to a crowd of 7,000 gathered for a vigil Mass that was followed by a National Holy Hour for Life.

At the morning Mass in the basilica Jan. 19, Bishop Earl K. Fernandes of Columbus, Ohio, encouraged Catholics not to get discouraged by setbacks in the pro-life movement but to recall how Jesus Christ “fell three times under the weight of his cross but he got back up.”

“Even after defeats we get back up and we march for life in radical solidarity with women and children,” he said.

Sarai Gonzalez, 18, a public school student from Detroit who was attending the national march for the second time, said she was touched by Bishop Fernandes’ homily during the Mass, calling it inspirational and moving.

“I felt at peace and loved. I felt the fire of the Holy Spirit within me,” she said.

Braving the freezing temperatures of the early morning were nearly 6,000 youth and adults who joined the March for Life Rally coming from the second annual Life Fest at the D.C. Armory, where they had fortified themselves listening to inspiring music and personal testimonies, and engaged in Eucharistic adoration and Mass.

As the snow continued to fall, thousands of marchers took to the streets to march between the Capitol and the Supreme Court buildings as the song “God bless America” rang out through the loudspeakers.

Before she went to the rally stage and on to march, Mancini told OSV News what she hoped people take away from the March for Life — besides “a lot of snowballs.”

“I hope that they take away that the pro-life movement is about the full flourishing of both mom and baby,” she said.

Ashley McGuire of The Catholic Association told OSV News that the march demonstrates that even with the end of Roe “there’s still a lot of work to be done.” In fact, the theme of the next day’s 25th Annual Cardinal O’Connor Conference on Life at Georgetown University focused on this pro-life challenge: “Discerning the next 25 years.”

“But I think we still have that same kind of youthful energy that we need to finish the work that was started,” she said.

It was a point Gonzalez emphasized as well. “This march shows everyone — women, men, children and politicians — that we do not support abortion,” she said.

“We can’t let peer pressure hold us back,” she added. “We can’t be mediocre. We must fight for life.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The obligation to care for creation is not only about the environment, “it has to do with human life, as the Creator conceived and arranged it,” Pope Francis told a group from northern Italy dedicated to remembering the 1,910 people who died from the Vajont dam disaster.

“One thing is striking,” the pope said; “it was not mistakes in the design or construction of the dam that caused the tragedy, but the very fact of wanting to build a reservoir in the wrong place.”

In October 1963 a landslide on an unstable mountain on the southern side of the reservoir set off a massive tsunami, wiping out entire towns and villages and killing 1,910 people. The dam, built to generate power, remained intact.

The decision to build and use the dam, despite cautionary studies about its surroundings, put “the logic of profit before the care of people and the environment in which they live,” the pope said during a meeting Jan. 19 with pilgrims from the Diocese of Belluno-Feltre and from the association “Vajont: The Future of Memory.”

The support survivors showed one another and the way people in the region built new towns and have continued to work together to protect the land have set off a “wave of hope” motivated by fraternity whereas the “wave that brought despair was caused by greed. And greed destroys, while fraternity builds,” the pope said.

“This is extremely relevant today,” the pope said. “The care of creation is not simply an ecological factor, but an anthropological issue: It has to do with human life, as the Creator conceived and arranged it, and it concerns the future of everyone, of the global society in which we are immersed.”

The earth, “the common home, is crumbling,” the pope said, “and the reason is once again the same: greed for profit, a frenzy to earn and possess that seems to make people feel omnipotent” when being creatures should mean learning to respect limits.

Pope Francis noted that 2024 marks the 800th anniversary of St. Francis of Assisi writing most of the “Canticle of the Creatures,” the hymn of praise to God for the gifts of creation, a hymn in which he addresses as brother or sister the sun, moon, stars, wind, fire and other elements.

Calling them brothers and sisters, the pope said, makes it clear that all creation is “part of a single ‘living web of good,’ lovingly arranged by the Lord for us.”

In the canticle, St. Francis praises the Lord for “Sister Water, which is very useful and humble and precious and chaste.”

And it is useful and humble, the pope said, “yet it became tremendous and destructive in the case of the Vajont and is inaccessible for so many in the world today who suffer thirst or have no drinkable water.”

“We need the contemplative gaze, the respectful gaze of St. Francis to recognize the beauty of creation and to know how to give things their proper order, to stop devastating the environment with the deadly logic of greed and to collaborate fraternally in development,” he said.

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – The U.S. bishops’ upcoming Collection for the Church in Latin America helps meet the “myriad spiritual and material needs among the most impoverished people in the Western Hemisphere,” said Bishop Octavio Cisneros, chair of the bishops’ Subcommittee on the Church in Latin America.

“In an era with too much focus on what divides us from our sisters and brothers in Latin America,” he said that U.S. Catholics “continue to strengthen bonds of faith, hope and love” and show solidarity with them.

Bishop Cisneros, the retired auxiliary bishop of Brooklyn, New York, made the comments in a column shared with OSV News by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Office of National Collections.

Parishes in most U.S. dioceses take the collection during Masses the weekend of Jan. 27-28. The #iGiveCatholicTogether campaign also accepts online donations at usccb.igivecatholictogether.org, where visitors can give by selecting the “Church in Latin America” campaign.

The collection supports pastoral projects in Latin America and the Caribbean. In 2022, it provided 251 grants totaling nearly $6.6 million “to support a region where poverty, political and religious oppression, and other hardships” make the Catholic Church’s work “exceptionally difficult,” Bishop Cisneros said.

He gave some examples of how funds are used, including supporting “crucial ministries” that help people in Mexico build new lives after imprisonment; training for deacons in Brazil who will serve rural areas deprived of priests due to ongoing shortages of celibate clergy; and equipping religious sisters in Colombia who teach families practical and spiritual skills they need “to strengthen and grow in faith.”

The collection also supports efforts by Venezuela’s Archdiocese of Caracas to stop human trafficking and to hold training workshops on prevention and on spiritual and psychological support for survivors of trafficking. In Peru, grants help set up 24 mission posts to serve Indigenous people.

Each program is designed by local church leaders in response to specific needs. An annual report available in English and Spanish online gives a breakdown of how grant funds are used in different countries: usccb.cld.bz/cla-annual-report.

Bishop Cisneros said these ministries and hundreds of others supported by the Collection for the Church in Latin America “bring hope to people whose afflictions are impossible for most people in our nation to imagine.”

In an October 2015 letter to the USCCB marking the collection’s 50th anniversary that year, Pope Francis described it as “a precious means of sustaining, both spiritually and temporally,” the efforts of the church in Latin America and the Caribbean “to proclaim the Gospel and to form missionary disciples imbued with zeal” for spreading God’s kingdom “of justice, holiness and peace.”