Category: 2024 News

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – After members of the Synod of Bishops approved their final document, Pope Francis announced that he would not write the customary post-synodal apostolic exhortation but would offer the final document to the entire church to implement.

“There are already highly concrete indications in the document that can be a guide for the mission of the churches in the different continents and contexts,” he told synod members late Oct. 26.

“For that reason, I do not intend to publish an apostolic exhortation. What we have approved is enough,” he said. Instead, he ordered the publication of the synod’s final document.

With the exceptions of the first synods convoked by St. Paul VI in 1967 and 1971, all ordinary assemblies of the Synod of Bishops have been followed by an exhortation on the synod’s themes and discussions by the pope.

Members of the synod on synodality, after meeting for a month in 2023 and again from Oct. 2-26, approved their final document by voting on each of the 155 paragraphs. All paragraphs passed with the approval of more than two-thirds of the members present and voting.

The document presented synodality as a style of Christian life and ministry based on the “equal dignity of all the baptized” and a recognition that they all have something to offer to the mission of proclaiming salvation in Christ.

The practical suggestions included making pastoral councils mandatory for every parish and ensuring the bodies are truly representative of the parish members, recognizing the contributions of women to the life and ministry of the church and hiring more women and laymen to teach in seminaries.

The 10 study groups the pope set up in the spring to research some of the more complicated issues raised by the synod — women’s ministry, seminary education, relations between bishops and religious communities, the role of nuncios — will continue to work before offering him proposals, the pope said. “Time is needed, to arrive at choices that involve the whole church.”

However, he promised that “this is not the classical way of postponing decisions indefinitely.”

Instead, he told synod members, it “corresponds to the synodal style with which even the Petrine ministry is to be exercised: listening, convening, discerning, deciding and evaluating. And in these steps, pauses, silences, prayer are necessary. It is a style that we are learning together, little by little.”

Much of the 2021-2023 process for the synod on synodality, the pope said, involved listening sessions on a parish, diocesan, national and continental level and included helping synod members themselves learn to listen to each other respectfully and listening for the voice of the Holy Spirit in those conversations.

The final document “is a triple gift,” he said, one given to him first of all. “The bishop of Rome, I often remind myself, needs to practice listening and wants to practice listening so as to respond each day to the words of the Lord, ‘Confirm your brothers and sisters in the faith. Feed my sheep.'”

The task of the pope, he said, “is to safeguard and promote — as St. Basil teaches us — the harmony that the Spirit continues to spread in God’s church, in relations among the churches, despite all the struggles, tensions and divisions that mark its journey toward the full manifestation of the Kingdom of God, which the vision of the Prophet Isaiah invites us to imagine as a banquet prepared by God for all peoples — all, with the hope that no one is missing.”

Pope Francis repeated the phrase that has become a refrain since he first said it at World Youth Day in Portugal in 2023: “Everyone, everyone, everyone! No one excluded, everyone.”

Harmony is the goal, he said, not uniformity. It is a sign of the Holy Spirit, just as it was on Pentecost when people of different nations heard the disciples proclaiming the wondrous works of God in their own languages.

The church, the pope said, “a sign and instrument of how God has already set the table and is waiting. His grace, through the Spirit, whispers words of love into the heart of each person. It is given to us to amplify the voice of this whisper, without hindering it; to open doors, without erecting walls.”

“How bad it is when women and men of the church erect walls,” he said. The Gospel is for “everyone, everyone, everyone! We must not behave as if we were dispensers of grace who appropriate the treasure and tie the hands of the merciful God.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Parishes and dioceses must move quickly to give life to the consultative bodies and broad participation in mission and ministry already foreseen by church law if the Catholic Church is to have any hope of becoming a more “synodal” church, members of the Synod of Bishops said.

“Without concrete changes in the short term, the vision of a synodal Church will not be credible and this will alienate those members of the People of God who have drawn strength and hope from the synodal journey,” the members said in the final document they approved Oct. 26.

Pope Francis convoked the synod in 2021 and called on parishes, dioceses and bishops’ conferences to hold listening sessions before the first synod assembly in Rome in 2023. The current assembly, including most of the same members, began with a Mass at the Vatican Oct. 2.

Members voted on each of the 155 paragraphs of the document, which made suggestions and requests to Pope Francis that included long-term projects, such as continuing discernment about the possibility of women deacons, the need to reform seminary training and the hope that more lay people would be involved in the selection of bishops.

But they also included actions that could and should be implemented immediately, including hiring more women and laymen to teach in seminaries or having bishops make pastoral councils mandatory for every parish and pastors ensuring those bodies are truly representative of the parish members and that he listens to their advice.

Synod officials said all the paragraphs were approved by the necessary two-thirds of synod members present and voting; 355 members were present and voting, so passage required 237 votes. A paragraph devoted to increasing women’s profile in the church received, by far, the most negative votes of any paragraph with 97 members voting no and 258 voting yes. The paragraph, which required 66% of the votes, passed with 72%.

“In simple and concise terms,” members said, “synodality is a path of spiritual renewal and structural reform that enables the Church to be more participatory and missionary, so that it can walk with every man and woman, radiating the light of Christ.”

In a synodal church, the document said, members have different roles, but they work together for the good of all members and for the mission of the church.

Like the synthesis report from the first assembly of the synod in 2023, the final document did not use the term “LGBTQ” or even “homosexuality” and spoke only briefly about the need to reach out to people who “experience the pain of feeling excluded or judged because of their marital situation, identity or sexuality.”

The document repeatedly referred to the “equal dignity” of men and women by virtue of their baptism and insisted the Catholic Church needed to do more to recognize women’s contributions to the life and mission of the church and their potential to offer more.

“Women continue to encounter obstacles in obtaining a fuller recognition of their charisms, vocation and roles in all the various areas of the Church’s life,” it said. “This is to the detriment of serving the Church’s shared mission.”

Members of the synod called for the “full implementation of all the opportunities already provided for in Canon Law with regard to the role of women,” and said, “there is no reason or impediment that should prevent women from carrying out leadership roles in the Church. What comes from the Holy Spirit cannot be stopped.”

“Additionally, the question of women’s access to diaconal ministry remains open,” they said. “This discernment needs to continue.”

The question of women deacons was among several questions Pope Francis assigned to study groups last spring. Synod members asked the General Secretariat of the Synod “to continue to watch over the synodal quality of the working method of the study groups,” which are supposed to report to the pope in June.

The synod process, members said, was a “call to joy and renewal of the Church in following the Lord, in committing to service of His mission and in searching for ways to be faithful.”

But the document repeatedly acknowledged the crime and sin of clerical sexual abuse and abuse of power, and insisted that a commitment to synodality, particularly to learning to listen and to necessary forms of transparency and accountability, were essential to preventing abuse.

Synodality, members said, “will also help to overcome clericalism, understood as use of power to one’s own advantage and the distortion of the authority of the Church which is at the service of the People of God. This expresses itself above all in forms of abuse, be they sexual or economic, the abuse of conscience and of power, by ministers of the Church.”

Lay men and women have many talents that can and should assist bishops and parish priests in the smooth functioning of their dioceses or parishes, synod members said. Tapping into those talents can help bishops and priests, who often feel overworked.

Where church law requires the bishops to consult their priests’ or pastoral council or pastors to consult the parish council, the document said, they “may not act as if the consultation had not taken place.”

“As in any community that lives according to justice,” it said, “the exercise of authority does not consist in an arbitrary imposition of will.”

Synod members also said listening, consulting, praying and discerning before making a decision is not the end of the process. “It must be accompanied and followed by practices of accountability and evaluation in a spirit of transparency inspired by evangelical criteria.”

Ensuring accountability and regularly evaluating all those who minister in the church’s name “is not a bureaucratic task for its own sake. It is rather a communication effort that proves to be a powerful educational tool for bringing about a change in culture,” synod members said.

One issue that prompted debate during the synod involved the authority of national bishops’ conference, particularly when it came to doctrinal matters.

The synod members, in the final document, called for a study of the theological and juridical status of bishops’ conferences and for a clear definition of “precisely the domain of the doctrinal and disciplinary competence” of the conferences.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The Catholic Church has a valuable role to play in providing “clear moral leadership” to protect humanity from the negative impact of new technology, a leading AI researcher said under the vaulted ceiling of the Pontifical Academy for Sciences headquarters in the Vatican Gardens.

“You could have made so much money on human cloning; the Catholic Church came out against it, all countries are against it, it’s illegal everywhere, we do not have a problem with that,” said Max Tegmark, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and president of the Future of Life Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to reducing existential risks from advanced technologies.

Speaking at a forum on artificial intelligence development Oct. 24, Tegmark said that today, in the AI age, the church must advocate for pausing further developments in artificial general intelligence — a form of AI which surpasses human cognitive capabilities across many tasks — and computer superintelligence “at least until maybe one day someone will figure out how it can be controlled or aligned.”

Otherwise, he said, “we have no idea how to keep things like that under control.”

Leaders in the tech industry, church officials, ethicists and entrepreneurs gathered at the Vatican for a conference on ethical AI development Oct. 24-25, hosted at the Pontifical Academy for Sciences.

AI, and its perils and promises, have become an increasingly important area of concern for the Vatican. Pope Francis dedicated his message for World Day of Peace Jan. 1 to the theme of artificial intelligence and peace, and he spoke about AI to world leaders at the G7 summit in southern Italy in June.

At the conference Oct. 24, Taylor Black, director of AI and venture ecosystems at Microsoft, noted how few people in the technology industry “think of persons in a holistic sort of way because we think that a whole bunch of things about what makes a person a person are outside of the purview of tech, whether that’s correct or incorrect.”

That is why the advent of artificial intelligence is a “fantastic opportunity” for the church, he said, since “tech has to come to the only place where the person is really understood and where we have paths to further understand the human person.”

One way in which unchecked AI development could harm the dignity of the human person is by replacing large swaths of the workforce without providing any kind of fallback for people put out of work, said Anthony J. Granado, associate general secretary of the U.S. Conference of Catholics Bishops.

Artificial intelligence, he told Catholic News Service, “should supplement what humans do, it should not replace humans,” he said, noting how the U.S. bishops’ conference is currently looking at ways to “minimize the impact” of artificial intelligence on job losses.

A 2023 Goldman Sachs report estimated that artificial intelligence could replace the equivalent of 300 million full-time jobs while increasing the total annual value of goods and services produced globally by 7%.

Yet he noted that AI also holds potential benefits for the church, such as being a “great tool for helping to promote catechesis.”

“The church throughout all of human history has to look at and read the signs of the times and use those opportunities to promote the Gospel in different ways, so AI will be one of those frontiers where the Gospel will need to be preached,” Granado told CNS.

Addressing the church’s dual role in embracing but also ethically guiding the development of AI, Dominican Father Eric Solobir, chairman of the Human Technology Foundation’s executive committee, said the church must work with the tech industry to “align the planets” between its profitability and ethics.

“We need to try to create a paradigm shift to change the ethical software” of the tech industry, he said, which tends to be consequentialist and prioritize long-term gains to the point of ignoring immediate harm caused by certain decisions.

Father Solobir recalled engaging with tech leaders on matters of ethics, explaining that people in the tech industry would typically gauge the permissiveness of an action on its legality and not in terms of promoting human flourishing.

The church, he said, “can put some drops of this virtue ethics in their process of reflection, and that completely changes how one deals with the ethics of technology.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – A world that has become “heartless” and indifferent to greed and war, and a Catholic Church in need of revitalizing its missionary joy need to open themselves up to Christ’s infinite love, Pope Francis wrote.

By contemplating Jesus’ Sacred Heart, the faithful can be filled with the “living water that can heal the hurt we have caused, strengthen our ability to love and serve others, and inspire us to journey together toward a just, solidary and fraternal world,” the pope wrote in his encyclical, “‘Dilexit nos’ (‘He loved us’): on the Human and Divine Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ.”

The Vatican released the 28,000-word text Oct. 24.

While it is the pope’s fourth encyclical, he wrote that it is meant to be understood in tandem with his previous two encyclicals, “Laudato Si’, on Care for Our Common Home” and “Fratelli Tutti, on Fraternity and Social Friendship.”

“The present document can help us see that the teaching of the social encyclicals … is not unrelated to our encounter with the love of Jesus Christ,” he wrote. “For it is by drinking of that same love that we become capable of forging bonds of fraternity, of recognizing the dignity of each human being, and of working together to care for our common home.”

The pope had said in June, the month the church traditionally dedicates to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, that he was going to release a document in the fall on the devotion to “illuminate the path of ecclesial renewal, but also to say something significant to a world that seems to have lost its heart.”

The encyclical includes numerous reflections from the Bible, previous magisterial texts and the writings of saints and his fellow Jesuits, to re-propose to the whole church the centuries-old devotion. Since 1899, there have been four papal encyclicals and numerous papal texts dedicated to the Sacred Heart — a symbol of Jesus’ infinite love, which moves the faithful to love one another.

“In the deepest fiber of our being, we were made to love and to be loved,” the pope wrote.

However, he wrote, “when we witness the outbreak of new wars, with the complicity, tolerance or indifference of other countries, or petty power struggles over partisan interests, we may be tempted to conclude that our world is losing its heart.”

“It is heartbreaking,” he wrote, to see elderly women, who should be enjoying their golden years, experiencing the anguish, fear and outrage of war. “To see these elderly women weep, and not feel that this is something intolerable, is a sign of a world that has grown heartless.”

“The most decisive question we can ask is, ‘Do I have a heart?'” the pope wrote.

The human being is more than an instrument, a material body and a carrier of intelligence and reason, the pope wrote.

The human person also embodies spiritual, emotional, creative and affective dimensions that are often undervalued, neglected or squelched in today’s world, he wrote. It is the heart that integrates all these dimensions that are so often fragmented or neglected.

The most precious treasures that animate and dwell in the human heart are often the simple and poignant moments in life: “How we first used a fork to seal the edges of the pies that we helped our mothers or grandmothers to make at home”; “a smile we elicited by telling a joke”; “the worms we collected in a shoebox”; and “a wish we made in plucking a daisy.”

“All these little things, ordinary in themselves yet extraordinary for us, can never be captured by algorithms” and artificial intelligence, he wrote, and, in fact, “poetry and love are necessary to save our humanity,” not just reason and technology.

At a Vatican news conference presenting the encyclical Oct. 24, Archbishop Bruno Forte of Chieti-Vasto, Italy, said the document is a “compendium” and the “key” to understanding Pope Francis’ pontificate.

Some commentators criticize the pope for focusing too narrowly on “social” issues, the archbishop said. This encyclical explicitly presents the spiritual and theological foundation underlying the pope’s message to the church and the world for the past 12 years – that everything “springs from Christ and his love for all humanity.”

Many saints and religious congregations have a special devotion to the Sacred Heart, including St. Ignatius of Loyola and the Society of Jesus, the religious order the saint co-founded and to which Pope Francis belonged.

St. Ignatius’ spiritual exercises encourage people to “enter into the heart of Christ” to “enlarge our own hearts” and train them to “sense and savor” the Gospel message and “converse about it with the Lord,” the pope wrote.

Christ’s heart is aflame with infinite love, and Christ desires to be loved and consoled in return, the pope said, especially by loving and serving one’s neighbors and those who are most marginalized.

Jesus associated with “the lowest ranks of society,” he wrote, introducing the “great novelty of recognizing the dignity of every person, especially those who were considered ‘unworthy.'”

“In union with Christ, amid the ruins we have left in this world by our sins, we are called to build a new civilization of love,” the pope wrote. “That is what it means to make reparation as the heart of Christ would have us do.”

“Amid the devastation wrought by evil, the heart of Christ desires that we cooperate with him in restoring goodness and beauty to our world,” Pope Francis wrote.

The encyclical was published as members of the Synod of Bishops were wrapping up a multiyear process focused on fostering “a synodal Church: communion, participation and mission.”

In his encyclical, the pope emphasized how only a deep and abiding love in the Lord can inspire and fuel Catholics to share the Gospel and God’s love with the world.

Mission requires missionaries who are “enthralled by Christ” and are “impatient when time is wasted discussing secondary questions or concentrating on truths and rules because their greatest concern is to share what they have experienced,” he wrote.

“They want others to perceive the goodness and beauty of the Beloved through their efforts, however inadequate they may be,” he wrote.

The heart of Christ also frees Catholics from the problem of communities and pastors who are “excessively caught up in external activities, structural reforms that have little to do with the Gospel, obsessive reorganization plans, worldly projects, secular ways of thinking and mandatory programs,” he wrote.

“The result is often a Christianity stripped of the tender consolations of faith, the joy of serving others, the fervor of personal commitment to mission, the beauty of knowing Christ and the profound gratitude born of the friendship he offers and the ultimate meaning he gives to our lives,” he added.

Pope Francis invited Catholics to rediscover or strengthen their devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the practices connected with it, particularly Eucharistic adoration and receiving the Eucharist on the first Friday of each month.

This practice once served to remind the faithful that Communion was not a reward for the perfect, he wrote, but to renew people’s confidence in the “merciful and ever-present love” of Christ in the Eucharist and his invitation “to union with him.”

Today the First Fridays devotion, he wrote, can help counter “the frenetic pace of today’s world and our obsession with free time, consumption and diversion, cell phones and social media (and) we forget to nourish our lives with the strength of the Eucharist.”

 

Editor’s Note: To read the full encyclical in English, click here. 

Editor’s Note: To read the full encyclical in Spanish, click here.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Even if some members of the Synod of Bishops end up feeling disappointed by the results of the synod, “God’s providence is at work in this assembly, bringing us to the Kingdom in ways that God alone knows,” the spiritual adviser to the synod on synodality told them.

“The triumph of the good cannot be frustrated,” and “we may be at peace whatever the result” of the synod’s monthlong second session, said Cardinal-designate Timothy Radcliffe, offering his morning reflection in the Vatican’s Paul VI Audience Hall Oct. 21 before members began reading, discussing, amending and voting on the final document to be presented to Pope Francis Oct. 26.

He also cautioned people, especially the media, against trying to look for “startling decisions, headlines” to come out of the final text, saying, at a Vatican briefing with reporters, that that would be a mistake.

The document will need to be read as something seeking to bring deep renewal of the church not “through dramatic decisions, but it evokes new ways of being a church in which we relate to each other much more profoundly in Christ and to Christ much more profoundly with each other,” he said at the afternoon briefing.

“I think many people in the synod, out of the synod, in the church, still struggle to understand the nature of the synod. They still tend to see it as a parliamentary body which will make big administrative, structural changes. I think it’s natural because that’s the model that dominates our world,” he told reporters. “But we’ve seen and it’s been repeated endlessly that is not the sort of body it is.”

The world is experiencing growing “violence and war, social disintegration. You’ve only to look at the election process in the United States to see how there is a danger of social collapse,” he said. “In this perilous difficult moment, I think the church has a very particular vocation to be a sign of Christ’s peace and Christ’s communion and that means all sorts of steps which will not make headlines.”

The Dominican theologian helped open the final week of the Oct. 2-27 assembly with a reflection in the morning on how members should embrace their freedom and responsibility.

“Christ has set us free,” he said, and “our mission is to preach and embody this freedom.”

This freedom, however, has two features: “It is the freedom to say what we believe and to listen without fear to what others say, in mutual respect,” he said, and it is the freedom of knowing that God always works for the good of those who love God.

“God’s providence is gently, silently at work even when things seem to go wrong,” Cardinal-designate Radcliffe said.

“If we have only the freedom to argue for our positions, we shall be tempted by the arrogance of those who, in the words of (Jesuit Father Henri) de Lubac, see themselves as ‘the incarnate norm of orthodoxy.’ We shall end up beating the drums of ideology, whether of the left or the right,” he said.

“If we have only the freedom of those who trust in God’s providence but dare not wade into the debate with our own convictions, we shall be irresponsible and never grow up,” he added. “God’s freedom works in the core of our own freedom, welling up inside us.”

“The more it is truly of God, the more it is truly our own,” he said, pointing to some lessons offered by two theologians who had been silenced and shunned at one point by the Catholic Church’s hierarchy — popes and Vatican officials — in Rome.

The late Dominican Father Yves Congar wrote “that the only response to this persecution was ‘to speak the truth. Prudently, without provocative and useless scandal. But to remain — and to become more and more — an authentic and pure witness to what which is true,'” he said.

This shows, he said, “we need not be afraid of disagreement, for the Holy Spirit is at work even in that.”

And the late Father de Lubac, who also “endured persecution,” wrote that “far from losing patience,” the one who is being persecuted “will try to keep the peace” and strive “to retain a mind bigger than its own ideas,” the cardinal-designate said.

A Christian must cultivate the freedom to transcend himself and avoid “‘the terrible self-sufficiency which might lead him to see himself as the incarnate norm of orthodoxy,’ for he will put ‘the indissoluble bond of Catholic peace’ above all things,” he said.

“Often we can have no idea as to how God’s providence is at work in our lives. We do what we believe to be right and the rest is in the hands of the Lord,” he said.

“This is just one synod. There will be others. We do not have to do everything, just take the next step,” he said, and those who come after will “go on beginning. How, we do not know. That is God’s business.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis called on the faithful to yearn to serve, not thirst for power, as he proclaimed 14 new saints, including Canada-born St. Marie-Léonie Paradis, founder of the Little Sisters of the Holy Family, and 11 martyrs.

“Those who dominate do not win, only those who serve out of love,” he said Oct. 20.

“When we learn to serve, our every gesture of attention and care, every expression of tenderness, every work of mercy becomes a reflection of God’s love,” he said. “And so, we continue Jesus’ work in the world.”

The pope said the new saints lived Jesus’ way of service. “The faith and the apostolate they carried out did not feed their worldly desires and hunger for power but, on the contrary, they made themselves servants of their brothers and sisters, creative in doing the good, steadfast in difficulties and generous to the end.”

On World Mission Sunday in St. Peter’s Square, during the synod on synodality, the pope created the following new saints:

— Italian missionary Giuseppe Allamano (1851-1926) founder of the Consolata Missionaries.

— Eight Franciscan friars, including Manuel Ruiz López, and three Maronite laymen who were martyred in Syria in 1860. Seven of the Franciscans were from Spain and one was from Austria while the Maronite laymen were blood brothers. They were murdered in St. Paul’s Church and convent in Damascus the night between July 9 and 10, 1860, by Druze militants.

— Canada-born Mother Marie-Léonie Paradis, founder of the Little Sisters of the Holy Family. Born in L’Acadie, Quebec, in 1840, she had various teaching assignments in Canada before being sent to teach at St. Vincent’s orphanage in New York. She died in 1912 in Sherbrooke, Canada.

— Sister Elena Guerra (1835-1914), an Italian nun who founded the Oblates of the Holy Spirit.

Tens of thousands of people attended the Mass, including the more than 300 cardinals, bishops and others taking part in the Oct. 2-27 synod on synodality. Dignitaries from Canada, Spain and Italy, including Italian President Sergio Mattarella, were present for the canonization and Mass.

In his homily, the pope pointed to the new saints as inspiring examples of “men and women who served in martyrdom and in joy” and who remained faithful servants “throughout the troubled history of humanity.”

“This is what we should yearn for: not power, but service. Service is the Christian way of life,” he said.

Jesus listened to his disciples and asked them questions that revealed what was truly in their hearts, the “hidden expectations and dreams of glory” they secretly cultivated, the pope said. “Many times in the church, these thoughts (desiring) honor, power emerge.”

But Jesus helps change their perspective by revealing he was not the Messiah of worldly power and victory, the pope said. “He is the God of love, who stoops down to reach the one who has sunk low, who makes himself weak to raise up the weak, who works for peace and not for war, who has come to serve and not to be served.”

Jesus’ teachings about service, Pope Francis said, “are often incomprehensible to us as they were to the disciples, yet by following him, by walking in his footsteps and welcoming the gift of his love that transforms our way of thinking, we too can learn God’s way of service.”

Serving others is “not about a list of things to do” that can be checked off and completed so that person can say he or she did his or her part, he said.

Service isn’t a job, it does not “just do things to bring about results, it is not occasional,” he said. It is “born from love, and love knows no bounds, it makes no calculations, it spends, and it gives.”

Before leading the recitation of the Angelus after Mass, the pope urged Catholics to support the world’s missionaries with their prayers and concrete assistance. These men and women bring the Gospel message “often with great sacrifice.”

And, he said, every Christian is called to take part in this mission by being courageous and joyful witnesses to the Gospel in every aspect of their life.

“We continue to pray for people who suffer because of war,” he said, such as “martyred Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, martyred Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar and all the others.”

The pope also appealed to political and civil authorities in the Amazon region to guarantee the protection of the Indigenous peoples in the Amazon, including their fundamental rights, “against every kind of exploitation of their dignity and their territories.”

The pope highlighted the presence at the Mass of representatives of the Yanomami people, an Indigenous ethnic group living in the forest between Brazil and Venezuela. The second miracle needed for the canonization of St. Allamano involved a member of the community, Sorino Yanomami, who had been seriously wounded in the head by a jaguar and survived.

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – The U.S. bishops are gathering in Baltimore Nov. 11-14 for their 2024 fall plenary assembly, which takes place just weeks after the conclusion of the second session of the Catholic Church’s synod on synodality in Rome.

Only two days of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ meeting, Nov. 12-13, will be public and livestreamed on the conference’s website.

As in years past, Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the papal nuncio to the U.S., and Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services, president of the USCCB, will both address the assembly.

Although the conference said its agenda for the November assembly is subject to change, the bishops plan to consider updates for a collaborative effort on “Dignitas Infinita,” a Vatican declaration concerning human dignity; an update on the interim implementation of Pope Francis’ decree “Antiquum Ministerium,” which concerns the new instituted lay ministry of catechist; the pastoral implementation of Pope Francis’ teaching in “Laudato Si’,” which concerns environmental stewardship; as well as the conference’s mission directive for the years 2025-2028.

Other items include the USCCB’s 2025 budget and “three action items pertaining to liturgical texts from the divine worship committee.”

The tentative agenda also included “an update on migration” as well as reports on the latest with the 2021-2024 Synod of Bishops on the development of a synodal church, the U.S. bishops’ Eucharistic revival initiative, and the National Eucharistic Congress.

The bishops also plan to have a consultation on the sainthood causes of Sister Annella Zervas, a professed religious of the Order of St. Benedict, and for the Servant of God Gertrude Agnes Barber.

During the assembly, the bishops will vote for the new conference treasurer, as well as chairmen-elect of five conference committees. The bishops elected as chairmen will serve one year as chairmen-elect before beginning a three-year term at the conclusion of the 2025 fall plenary assembly.

Nominees for treasurer-elect and chairman-elect for the budget committee are Archbishop Bernard A. Hebda of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and Bishop David J. Malloy of the Diocese of Rockford, Illinois.

For the Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations, the nominees are Bishop Juan Miguel Betancourt, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Hartford, Connecticut, and Bishop Ronald A. Hicks of the Diocese of Joliet, Illinois.

For the Committee on Divine Worship, the nominees are Archbishop Alexander K. Sample of the Archdiocese of Portland, Oregon, and Bishop Michael G. Woost of the Diocese of Cleveland.

Nominees for the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development are Archbishop Shelton J. Fabre of the Archdiocese of Louisville, Kentucky, and Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney of the Diocese of Paterson, New Jersey; and for the Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth are Bishop Edward J. Burns of the Diocese of Dallas and Bishop James D. Conley of the Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska.

Bishop Brendan J. Cahill of the Diocese of Victoria, Texas, and Bishop Joseph J. Tyson of the Diocese of Yakima, Washington, are the nominees for the migration committee.

NEW YORK (OSV News) – A remarkable day of faith and devotion unfolded at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Midtown Manhattan Oct. 15 as thousands of Catholics gathered for a Eucharistic procession.

The event, sponsored by the California-based Napa Institute in collaboration with the Hallow prayer app, featured a Holy Hour, Mass, Eucharistic procession and veneration of a first-class of Blessed Carlo Acutis, offering participants a day filled with prayer. Organizers estimate some 3,500 people attended the fifth annual gathering.

Sirius XM radio host Katie McGrady described the scene to OSV News, saying, “I was most touched by the diversity of the crowd gathered.” McGrady explained, “Wealthy business types alongside hourly employees, all walking behind Jesus together.”

The afternoon began with a Holy Hour and rosary led by New York Auxiliary Bishop Joseph A. Espaillat, known for his dynamic outreach to young Catholics. “We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you,” Bishop Espaillat began, praying in English and Spanish, kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament.

Leading a meditation on Psalm 69, Bishop Espaillat asked, “What are you passionate about?”

We are Christ’s passion, the bishop declared. “Jesus was, is and continues to be compassionate about his Father and his kingdom.” But, he continued, “I ask all of us today: Is Christ my passion?”

Bishop Espaillat urged his hearers to have the kind of passion for the Gospel that many fans demonstrate for their favorite teams, especially in the postseason. “People go crazy over this,” he said.

“When we spend time with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament,” said Bishop Espaillat, “that means I need to be transformed, and being transformed means then that I go out and I am an alter Christus, another Christ, in this world that so desperately needs it.”

He challenged his hearers to oppose Proposition 1, the so-called Equal Rights Amendment on the ballot in New York state this November. “It is a lie,” Bishop Espaillat said. The amendment seeks to significantly broaden protections to cover sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and abortion access, including for minors.

“No one can preach quite like Bishop Joe,” McGrady said. He can at once tell a crowd to get over themselves and also recognize their influence in the same breath, she said. “He left all of us proud to stand up for our faith in the public square.”

The Mass, celebrated by Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City, ecclesiastical adviser to the Napa Institute, was offered for peace in the Holy Land. The homilist was Msgr. James Shea, president of the University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota.

“We have an argument with God,” Msgr. Shea began. “The argument that we have with God starts with an argument that we have with ourselves within us: There is a conflict, a deep and bitter conflict between our deepest longings and our superficial fears.”

Msgr. Shea preached that our longing for the infinite is threatened by the fear that our deepest longing will not be fulfilled. “What will we do if we give him everything and it’s not true?” the priest prodded.

“We hedge the investment of our lives; we hold back,” Msgr. Shea said. “But what if we didn’t?” he asked. Citing the example of the Jesuit martyr St. Isaac Jogues, the first priest on Manhattan Island, Msgr. Shea urged the assembly to model the saint’s enthusiasm for evangelization and his love for the Eucharist.

“Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord here with us,” he said, “is the answer to all our prayers, all our hopes, sturdy, sure and true.”

Msgr. Shea concluded, “Now is the moment for us really to live the truth which we profess to hold back nothing at all, because, yes, we have an argument with God, but now is the time to put it to an end.”

Applause filled the cathedral as Msgr. Shea descended the pulpit stairs.

After Mass, the Eucharistic procession left through the front doors of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, heading to some of America’s busiest streets.

“It was amazing to see transit buses with TV ads and rush hour commuters grind to a halt as the monstrance came by, and while some kept walking, most stopped and stared, in awe, at both Jesus and the crowd,” McGrady shared.

The procession passed iconic New York sites, including Radio City Music Hall and Times Square.

Upon returning to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the procession concluded with Benediction presided over by Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, archbishop of New York, and veneration of a first-class relic of Blessed Carlo Acutis, known for his devotion to the holy Eucharist.

“Inside the cathedral, as Mass was ending, there was the beautiful chanting of hymns with a mix of silence as we prepared to start the Eucharistic procession,” Rosemary Sullivan, executive director of the National Conference of Diocesan Vocation Directors, told OSV News.

“The grand doors of St. Patrick’s opened and you could hear the harsh sounds of the city, which had no idea who was about to walk their streets,” she said.

“As Jesus stepped out onto Fifth Avenue and navigated his way through midtown, the people of New York took notice,” she continued. “Just regular people stopping, taking photos, asking questions, some seemingly frozen in place because they were moved by someone who they may not necessarily (have) understood is the king of peace and hope, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

“And yet Christ was reaching their hearts just the same. I like to imagine that is how the original disciples felt when they walk with Jesus asking people to let him into their hearts, their lives.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The number of Catholics and permanent deacons in the world rose in 2022, while the number of seminarians, priests, men and women in religious orders, and baptisms declined, according to Vatican statistics.

At the end of 2022, the number of Catholics in the world reached 1.389 billion, up 0.79% from 1.378 billion Catholics at the end of 2021, according to the Vatican’s Central Office of Church Statistics.

By contrast, the United Nations estimated the world’s population increased by 0.83% over the same period to a total of just over 8 billion people at the end of 2022, marking the first time it passed that milestone.

The Vatican agency, Fides, published a brief overview of the global numbers Oct. 17.

The Vatican’s statistical yearbook cautioned that its numbers were based on the information it received back from its surveys and that not all jurisdictions sent information. Mainland China, for example, had missing data throughout the yearbook. The number of Catholics “does not include those in countries that because of their present situation have not been included in the survey,” it said, adding that it estimated that number to be about an additional 5 million Catholics.

While Catholics remained about 17.7% of the global population, their numbers grew in Africa, the Americas, Asia and Oceania, said the summary, which was based on numbers reported Dec. 31, 2022. Only Europe saw a drop with 474,000 fewer Catholics.

Catholics make up 64% of the total population in the Americas followed by Europe and Oceania in which 39.5% and 26% of the population are baptized Catholic respectively. In Africa 19.7% of the population is Catholic and in Asia 3.3% of the population is Catholic.

While the number of Catholics is increasing, the administration of the sacrament of baptism has decreased worldwide. It fell from 17,932,891 baptisms administered in 1998 to 13,327,037 in 2022, according to Fides’ summary report. A peak was reported during the Holy Year 2000 when 18,408,076 baptisms were administered worldwide.

The Catholic Church had 5,353 bishops at the end of 2022, a slight increase of 13 bishops at the end of 2021. The majority of them are serving in the Americas and Europe.

The total number of diocesan and religious order priests decreased slightly by 142 men to a total of 407,730, the Vatican office said. The bulk of the decrease was in Europe with 2,745 fewer priests, which could not be offset even by the increases in Africa and Asia. However, while the number of diocesan priests decreased globally, the number of religious-order priests increased by 297 men.

The number of Catholics per priest increased slightly to 3,408 Catholics per priest.

The number of religious brothers decreased in 2022 from 49,774 to 49,414 with the only places of growth being in Asia and the Americas.

The total number of religious women, it said, was 599,228 at the end of 2022 — a decrease of 9,730 women or 1.59% from 608,958 at the end of 2021.

The number of permanent deacons — 50,159 — saw a 1.99% increase over the previous year, with the most growth in Europe.

The number of seminarians decreased globally by 1.28% to 108,481 from 109,895 at the end of 2021, with the only significant growth in Africa.

The number of Catholic weddings celebrated around the world in 2022 was up from more than 1.8 million in 2021 to 1.97 million in 2022; of those, only 9.6% involved a Catholic marrying a non-Catholic.

The yearbook for 1991 reported more than 3.8 million Catholic weddings with 8.9% of them involving a Catholic marrying a non-Catholic.

In 2022, the yearbook said, 8.68 million people received their first Communion, up from 8.5 million people the previous year, and 7.4 million people were confirmed, up from 7.3 million people in 2021.

SCRANTON – World Mission Sunday is a special day that unites Catholics worldwide in prayer, solidarity, and support for the Church’s mission efforts.

This year’s theme, chosen by Pope Francis, is rooted in the Gospel of Matthew: “Go and Invite Everyone to the Banquet,” reflecting the inclusive and urgent call to bring God’s love to everyone.

A Pontifical Mass in honor of World Mission Sunday will be celebrated at the Cathedral of Saint Peter, 315 Wyoming Avenue, Scranton, on Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024, at 12:15 p.m. The Most Rev. Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, will be the principal celebrant.

Father Stephen Bosomafi, a native of the Diocese of Sunyani, Ghana, and pastor of Saint Thomas More Parish in Lake Ariel, will be the homilist. All are invited to attend.

Father Bosomafi was born in February 1975 in Amisano, near Elmina and Cape Coast, in the Central Region of Ghana. He is the son of Paul Kweku Bosomafi and Beatrice Esi Baaba Bosomafi.

At the age of 15, Father Bosomafi’s path to becoming a Catholic priest began when he had the opportunity to write an entrance examination for Saint James Minor Seminary for his high school education from 1990-1993. After high school, Father Bosomafi decided to continue his priestly formation, and in 1995, entered Saint Paul’s Major Seminary, Sowutuom-Accra for a spiritual year and philosophical studies. He continued to Saint Peter’s Regional Seminary, Pedu-Cape Coast for Theological Studies from 1998-2002. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in sociology and the study of religions from the University of Ghana, Legon-Accra. He also has a post graduate diploma in education (PGDE) from the University of Cape Coast, Ghana.

Father Bosomafi was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Sunyani on Dec. 7, 2002.
In Sept. 2004, his Bishop, Most Rev. Matthew Kwasi Gyamfi, asked him to go for further studies in the United States.

While working as an assistant pastor at a parish in New York, he received a master’s degree in Business Administration from Marist College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
Father Bosomafi returned to Ghana in 2008 and served as Diocesan Financial Administrator and on numerous boards and commissions.

In Feb. 2022, Bishop Matthew requested Father Bosomafi to return to the United States, specifically in the Diocese of Scranton to help raise money for Diocesan missions. After serving as assistant pastor at Christ the King Parish, Archbald, he was appointed pastor of Saint Thomas More Parish, Lake Ariel, on July 26, 2022. He is also currently a member of the Diocesan Presbyteral Council.

Father Bosomafi enjoys reading, walking, biking, cooking and traveling.

Catholic Television of the Diocese of Scranton will provide a live broadcast of the Mass. The Mass will also be livestream on the Diocese of Scranton website, YouTube channel and across all Diocesan social media platforms.