Category: 2024 News

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis opened the second session of the Synod of Bishops defending his decision to give women and laymen votes at the assembly, saying it reflects the Second Vatican Council’s teaching that a bishop exercises his ministry with and within the people of God.

“It is certainly not a matter of replacing one with the other, rallying to the cry: ‘Now it is our turn!'” the pope said as the 368 synod members – including what the Vatican described as 96 “non-bishops” – began their work Oct. 2 in the Paul VI Audience Hall.

“We are being asked to work together symphonically, in a composition that unites all of us in the service of God’s mercy, in accordance with the different ministries and charisms that the bishop is charged to acknowledge and promote,” the pope told the members, seated at round tables with a mix of cardinals, bishops, priests, religious and lay men and women.

Pope Francis said he wanted to respond to a “storm of chattering” that had developed around his expansion of synod membership.

German Cardinal Gerhard Müller, former prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and a synod member appointed by the pope, has said, “the canonical status of this assembly is not clear” since so many of the members are not, in fact, bishops.

For decades, however, the men’s Union of Superiors General has been asked to elect 10 of their members – almost always priests, but occasionally a religious brother – to be full members of the synod. The real novelty Pope Francis introduced last year was to appoint women among the members, including by asking the women’s International Union of Superiors General to elect full members like their male counterparts had been doing. A total of 57 women were named members of the synod’s 2024 session.

Pope Francis insisted the composition of the assembly “expresses a way of exercising the episcopal ministry consistent with the living tradition of the church and with the teaching of the Second Vatican Council. Never can a bishop, or any other Christian, think of himself ‘without others.'”

“The presence in the assembly of the Synod of Bishops of members who are not bishops does not diminish the ‘episcopal’ dimension of the assembly,” he said. “Still less does it place any limitation on, or derogate from, the authority proper to individual bishops and the College of Bishops.”

Instead, the pope said, it highlights that bishops are to exercise their authority in a church that recognizes that it lives and grows from relationships between and among its members.

Quoting the ancient hymn “Veni Sancte Spiritus,” Pope Francis prayed that the assembly would be “guided by the Holy Spirit, who ‘bends the stubborn heart and will, melts the frozen, warms the chill and guides the steps that go astray'” as it strives “to help bring about a truly synodal church, a church in mission, capable of setting out, making herself present in today’s geographical and existential peripheries, and seeking to enter into a relationship with everyone in Jesus Christ, our brother and Lord.”

Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary-general of the synod, told members that if lay people were involved only at the beginning of the process it would “give the illusion of taking part in a decision-making process that however remains concentrated in the hands of a few.”

If that were true, he said, “those who claim that the synodal process, once it has passed to the stage of the discernment of the bishops, has extinguished every prophetic instance of the People of God would be right!”

(OSV News) – Since Hamas’ attack on Israel Oct. 7, 2023, and the immediate start of the Israel-Hamas war, Pope Francis has provided daily spiritual solace to Gaza Strip’s only Catholic parish.

The parish’s priests, women religious and congregation and some 500 people take refuge in Gaza City’s Holy Family Church, so named because it’s believed that Mary, Joseph and the infant Jesus Christ passed through the area as they sought safety in neighboring Egypt, escaping King Herod’s sword in the first century.

Although the church houses mainly displaced Christians, it also aids Muslims and has treated those injured in the attacks.

Father Gabriel Romanelli, the parish priest, and Father Youssef Assad, the assistant priest, minister to the people along with religious sisters from the orders of Missionaries of Charity, Institute of the Incarnate Word and the Congregation of the Rosary.

In May, Pope Francis told “CBS Evening News” that during his daily phone calls to the parish, the people there “tell me about what happens there. It is very tough,” stressing that there is “a lot of suffering” in Gaza. As throughout Gaza, the parish also faces a shortage of food, water and medicine, and during harsh winter temperatures, it also struggles with a lack of heating. “People rush quickly whenever food arrives,” the pope told CBS.

On Pope Francis’ return from his recent demanding 12-day visit to Southeast Asia, he again mentioned his personal calls every evening with the Gaza parish. “They tell me ugly things, difficult things,” he told reporters aboard the papal plane about the continuing crisis.

“Please, when you see the bodies of killed children, when you see that, under the presumption that some guerrillas are there, a school is bombed, this is ugly,” the 87-year-old pontiff said. “It is ugly.”

“I am sorry to have to say this,” the pope said. “But I do not think that they are taking steps to make peace.” Pope Francis has repeatedly urged for an immediate cease-fire to take hold in Gaza to see badly needed food, medicine and other humanitarian supplies delivered as the conflict drags on.

“Father Assad told me that the pope before departing from Rome (to Asia) called him,” Jordanian Father Rifat Bader of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem told OSV News. “The pope said he would pray for him during his visit and ‘will try to contact you as I do every day.'”

Father Bader, who directs the Catholic Center for Studies and Media in Jordan, said the pope then asked Father Assad and the community in Gaza to likewise pray for him while on his trip to Asia.

“This is very nice that the pope also not only prays for the people in Gaza, but he asks them to pray for him during his visit,” he said, adding that Father Assad “was excited that the pope doesn’t forget them, even during his longest journey abroad.”

Father Bader has personal insight into the workings of the Gaza church because one of his cousins, a Rosary sister, continued to serve at the Holy Family Parish for six months after the crisis erupted.

Father Bader said that the fact that Pope Francis picks up the phone every day to ask how the community is doing in such a dire war situation is very telling. “While the Holy See’s diplomacy has its positions and makes its declarations, we cannot forget these personal, human initiatives that the pope is keeping — daily calling the priests and the nuns there (in Gaza) in order to give daily encouragement,” he said.

The Holy Family Church has suffered a number of attacks over the past 12 months of conflict between Israel and Hamas.

The pontifical charity Aid to the Church in Need reported on Dec. 14, 2023, that shrapnel from Israeli airstrikes destroyed solar panels, water tanks and other structures on the parish complex.

Christians Nahida Khalil Anton and her daughter, Samar Kamal Anton, were killed two days later as they walked to the convent on the parish’s complex.

In April, a 19-year-old woman sheltering in the parish with her mother died from heat stroke as she tried to flee the enclave. Her father had previously died in the Holy Family compound.

In July, a raid launched by Israeli forces against Latin Patriarchate’s Holy Family School in Gaza City killed four people.

Father Bader sees Pope Francis providing personal care to Gaza’s displaced who are suffering great loss and trauma as the future ahead looms, with homes and livelihoods destroyed and lives taken.

“When a priest receives a call from the pope, it is a big thing inside the Catholic Church, you are talking with the successor of Peter. But when this thing is becoming a daily initiative of the pope, really this is a very human touch that the pope is putting inside the minds, the memories, the spirits of these people: priests and community,” Father Bader underscored.

“This is a sign of encouragement, a sign of paternal care of the pope,” he added.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Every Christian, whether a layperson or member of the clergy, has a vital role to play in advancing the mission of the church through collaboration, Pope Francis said.

“We priests are not the bosses of the laity, but their pastors,” he said in a video message for his October prayer intention: “For a shared mission.”

Christians are called to follow Jesus not with “some people above others or some to one side and the rest to another side, but by complementing each other,” the pope said in the message released by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network Sept. 30. “We are community. That is why we must walk together on the path of synodality.”

The network posts a short video of the pope offering his specific prayer intention each month, and members of the network pray for that intention each day.

In addition to coinciding with the month that includes World Mission Sunday, the pope’s message was delivered as 368 members of the Synod of Bishops began a two-day retreat ahead of the second session of the synod in Rome. The synod, focusing on synodality, gathers bishops and other experts from around the world to discuss how to create a more listening church.

Pope Francis suggested that a bus driver, a farmer or a fisher might wonder what role he or she can play in the church’s mission of evangelization. But “what all of us need to do is to give witness with our lives. Be co-responsible in mission,” he urged.

“The laity, the baptized in the church, are in their own home, and they must take care of it. So do we priests and consecrated people,” the pope said. “Everyone contributes what they know how to do best.”

“We are co-responsible in mission, we participate and we live in the communion of the church,” he said, asking for prayers so that the church may “continue to sustain a synodal lifestyle in every way, as a sign of co-responsibility, promoting the participation, communion and mission shared by priests, religious and laity.”

BRUSSELS (CNS) – Calling on the world’s bishops not to cover up any instance or form of abuse, Pope Francis said the evil of abuse must be exposed.

“There is room for everyone in the church,” he said, and everyone will face God at the final judgment.

However, there is no room for abuse and no room for cover-ups, he said on his final day in Belgium, a country that has been shaken by shocking revelations of abuse by church members, including a Belgian bishop the pope laicized this year, 14 years after the bishop resigned after admitting he abused minors, including his own nephew.

In his homily during Mass Sept. 29 in Brussels’ open-air King Baudouin Stadium, the pope strayed from his prepared text to urge bishops to hide nothing, “condemn abuses” and assist perpetrators in getting help.

Nearly 40,000 faithful from Belgium and surrounding countries attended the Mass, which marked the last day of his Sept. 26-29 trip to Luxembourg and Belgium.

“Evil must be uncovered” as has been done by many victims who have spoken out with courage, he said. “May abusers be judged,” whether they are laypeople, clergy or bishops, he said to applause.

May the cries and pleas of those who are abused reach heaven and touch people’s hearts, “make us ashamed, call us to conversion,” he said, calling the voices of victims “prophetic” that must not be silenced.

The pope’s words mirrored the day’s Gospel reading from Mark, “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.”

The bulk of his homily was dedicated to sources of scandal, including workers who have been wronged and people who suffer injustice, which cannot be ignored, he said.

Remember, too, he said, that immigrants without documents are human beings “who, like all of us, dream of a better future for themselves and their loved ones.”

The crowd erupted in cheers and applause when the pope arrived in the popemobile and every time he stopped to kiss an infant or try on a Scout neckerchief. The crowd also stood, clapped and cheered when the head of the Catholic royal family, King Philippe and Queen Mathilde of Belgium, arrived before Mass.

“Selfishness, like everything that impedes charity, is ‘scandalous,'” the pope said in his homily, “because it crushes those who are little. It humiliates people in their dignity and suppresses the cry of the afflicted.”

If self-interest and “market mentalities” were the sole foundations for communities and people, he said, “there would no longer be space for those who are in need nor mercy for those who make mistakes nor compassion for those who suffer and cannot move forward in life.”

An example are people “without documents,” who often “go unheard and end up as victims of exploitation,” he said on the day that also marked the church’s celebration of World Day of Migrants and Refugees.

“The word of God is clear,” he said. Those who suffer cannot be “erased” or stifled with “superficial attempts of social assistance,” he said. “They are the living voice of the Spirit because they remind us that we are all poor sinners called to conversion.”

“Let us not deceive ourselves: without love, nothing lasts,” Pope Francis said. The Gospel of mercy needs to be “at the foundation of our choices.”

The Mass began with the rite of beatification of Sister Ana de Jesús, a Discalced Carmelite nun, mystic and close companion of St. Teresa of Ávila. The new blessed was born in Spain in 1545 and died in Brussels in 1621.

The last time a pope celebrated a beatification in Belgium was in 1995 when St. John Paul II beatified St. Damien of Molokai, the Belgian missionary who served those with Hansen’s disease in Hawaii.

Blessed Ana “was among the protagonists of a great reform movement,” the pope said in his homily. “In a time marked by painful scandals, within and outside of the Christian community, she and her companions brought many people back to the faith through their simple lives of poverty, prayer, work and charity.”

“Let us then gratefully welcome the example she has given us of ‘feminine styles of holiness,'” he said.

Attending the Mass were also thousands of young people from Europe who had been taking part in a nearby youth festival Sept. 28-29, organized by dozens of Christian youth associations in Belgium and with the support of the country’s bishops’ conference.

The pope made a surprise stop at the festival late Sept. 28 after an already full day of separate meetings with the country’s faithful, with students, with refugees and the unhoused, and with dozens of his fellow Jesuits.

In his brief remarks, the pope encouraged the enthusiastic crowd of about 6,000 young people to “make noise” in life. Young people are meant to move forward, help others, remember the Lord, pray and to “make a ruckus,” he said to cheers.

(OSV News) – Three years after being approved by the U.S. Catholic bishops, updates to the ritual texts for distribution of holy Communion outside of Mass and for Eucharistic adoration will take effect.

The revised version of “Holy Communion and Worship of the Eucharistic Mystery outside Mass” will be implemented on the First Sunday of Advent, Dec. 1, 2024. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops had signed off on the fresh texts at their November 2021 General Assembly in Baltimore. The revisions were then reviewed by the USCCB’s Secretariat for Divine Worship, with the Vatican confirming their liturgical use in the U.S. on March 7, 2023.

USCCB president Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services issued a Jan. 25 decree of promulgation for the timeline of the text.

The ritual editions – published by Catholic Book Publishing Co., Liturgical Press, Liturgy Training Publications, Magnificat and Midwest Theological Forum – went on sale Aug. 1, with optional use of the new version permitted as of Sept. 14, the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.

Father David R. Price, associate director of the USCCB’s Secretariat of Divine Worship, told OSV News that “the main thing to keep in mind” regarding the revisions is that “this is a new translation of the ritual book that was given in Latin in the 1970s – so it’s a new translation, it’s not a new ritual book per se.”

The original text’s previous translation from Latin had been approved by the U.S. bishops in 1976.

He emphasized that “the discipline of distribution of holy Communion outside Mass that is in place now is not changing.”

At the same time, he said, “I think that’s a point where a number of people might get confused, because this text that we’re translating (is) from the 1970s, and we’ve had further instructions on the Eucharist since that time – for example, when we think about the General Instruction of the Roman Missal” – which was first issued in 2003 and has subsequently been updated — “and the norms for the distribution of Communion under both kinds (species) in the U.S.”

Father Price also pointed to the instruction “Redemptionis Sacramentum,” issued in 2004 by the Vatican’s Congregation (now Dicastery) for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, “which had several things to say about both extraordinary ministers and the distribution of Communion.

“All of those things that are said in those more recent documents still apply,” he said.

In its January newsletter, the USCCB’s Committee on Divine Worship said “the goal of the adaptations is to harmonize the book with existing customs for Eucharistic Adoration in this country.”

The committee cited the formal approval of several common practices during Eucharistic adoration in the U.S.: the wearing by the priest or deacon of a white cope, a full-length liturgical cape, usually made of silk or a similar material and fastened by a clasp; the singing of the hymns “O Salutaris Hostia” and “Tantum Ergo Sacramentum” in Latin and English; and the recitation of the Divine Praises at Benediction, which typically concludes Eucharistic adoration, and through which faithful receive the blessing of Jesus Christ in his Eucharistic presence. The new text permits those present to also sing a hymn, as well as reciting an acclamation, as the minister withdraws after Benediction.

In addition, the committee added “clarifying instructions” for praying the Liturgy of the Hours – the church’s ongoing, daily sequence of scriptural prayers also known as the Divine Office – during adoration.

Prior to the update, “there wasn’t a clear instruction in the rubric about how you combine these two things,” said Father Price. “So now, there’s a clear rubric that specifically says to say the collect to conclude the hour of the Divine Office, and then you go into Benediction – whereas the practice in many places was to omit the concluding collect. So there’s a clear place where the Divine Office concludes (now).”

“This new translation of the ritual should hopefully be a way for people to continue to grow and deepen in their faith and to have a sense of unity with the universal church, in that we are praying with words in English that are similar, that are the same in meaning, as words that people are praying these same prayers in other languages — and that the translations are consistent in their meaning between these different languages,” said Father Price. “And that shows the universality of the church.”

BRUSSELS (CNS) – The Catholic Church must plead for forgiveness for the crime of the abuse of minors by its members and everything must be done to prevent such “a disgrace” from ever happening again, Pope Francis said.

He also called for clarity about the church’s role from the 1940s to 1980s in coercing unwed mothers to give up their newborns.

“Today, in the church, there is this crime” of abuse against minors, which the pope compared to King Herod’s massacre of the innocents, during a speech to Belgian authorities and local representatives at the Castle of Laeken in Brussels Sept. 27.

“The church must be ashamed, ask for forgiveness, try to resolve this situation with Christian humility” and do everything possible so “this will not happen again,” the pope said at the first event on his first full day in Belgium. He arrived late Sept. 26 after an eight-hour visit to Luxembourg.

Belgium is still reeling from ongoing evidence of decades of abuse and cover-up by church officials after an independent inquiry report on abuse was published in 2010.

While Belgium’s parliament continues to seek clarity into how investigations into the sexual abuse of minors in the Catholic Church were handled, a Dutch-language newspaper based in Antwerp, Belgium, recently reported that between 1945 and the early 1980s at least 30,000 babies were forcibly taken from their mothers, who had been sent to special homes by their parents.

According to the Dec. 13 report by Het Laatste Nieuws, some mothers have claimed they were forced to work, forbidden to communicate with the outside world, subjected to humiliation and sexual violence, and forcibly sterilized. Some of the adopted children, who are now adults, have claimed they cannot find the records of their adoptions or trace their biological mothers.

Adoptive parents also paid the church-run organizations for the adoptions, which ranged from between 6,000 and 30,000 Belgian francs at the time, which is around $670-$3,300 in today’s purchasing power.

Pope Francis said he was “saddened” to learn about a decadeslong practice of forcing unwed mothers housed in church-run institutions to give their newborns up for adoption.

“As the successor of the Apostle Peter, I pray to the Lord that the church will always find within herself the strength to bring clarity,” he said in his speech.

“In those poignant stories, we see how the bitter fruit of wrongdoing and criminality was mixed in with what was, unfortunately, the prevailing view in all parts of society at that time,” he said, with many believing in good conscience “that they were doing something good for both the child and the mother.”

The pope also warned that the practice of forcing unwed mothers to give up their children “still occurs in other cultures in some countries.”

Belgium’s King Philippe, Queen Mathilde and Prime Minister Alexander De Croo and hundreds of local leaders and representatives were present for the meeting.

King Philippe praised the pope for fighting against “all forms of injustice,” offering “hope and light to the most distant reaches of the human family” and for condemning and taking concrete steps against the “horrific acts” and “unspeakable tragedy of sexual abuse within the church.”

However, the king said, “it has taken far too long” for the cries of the victims of forced adoptions “to be heard and acknowledged” and to “‘repair’ the irreparable. We recognize the efforts of the church in Belgium in this regard, efforts which must continue resolutely and relentlessly.”

Prime Minister De Croo, acknowledging the importance of the church in Belgium’s history, customs and culture, also said, “We cannot ignore the painful wounds that exist in the Catholic community and in the civil society.”

“There is still a long way to go,” he said. Any form of “cover-up cannot be accepted,” victims have a right to the truth, they must be heard, “justice must take place” and “the church must clarify its past.”

“Human dignity is paramount and not the interests of the institution,” the prime minister said.

Seated between the king and queen in the grand hall of the castle, the pope insisted the church is seeking to address abuse “firmly and decisively by listening to and accompanying those who have been wounded, and by implementing a prevention program throughout the world.”

Departing from his prepared text, the pope said the crime of abuse in the church is a disgrace. “We all must get to work, ask forgiveness and solve the problem.”

The pope criticized those who deflect the church’s responsibility when they point to the large number of abuse cases in the world of sports and in schools, and to statistical evidence that most abuse occurs in families.

Just one case of abuse in the church, he said, is enough to be ashamed. “This is our shame and our humiliation.”

BEACH LAKE – Animated with great joy in their hearts, the parishioners who worship at the four churches comprising Saint John the Evangelist Parish in Honesdale will celebrate the 100th anniversary of their treasured Church of Saint Bernard in Beach Lake on Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024.

The Most Rev. Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, will preside over the concelebrated Centennial Mass of Thanksgiving at 10:30 a.m.

Following the liturgical celebration, a gathering of fellowship will continue the joyful commemoration at Lukan’s Family Resort in Hawley, beginning at 1 p.m.

“All parishioners from all our churches are welcome and encouraged to join in the celebration,” Father William J.P. Langan, pastor of Saint John the Evangelist Parish, said.

He further remarked that as priest and pastor of the four churches of the Honesdale Catholic community for the past 15 years, it has been an honor to provide spiritual guardianship for Saint Bernard Church, and he is most grateful to God for its 100th anniversary.

Blessed with a rich history, the Beach Lake church lays claim to a storied past. Its roots stretch back to the early 1900s when the Catholic place of worship was conceived due to hundreds attending a Mass in the hall of the nearby Beechnut Casino in northern Wayne County.

Saint Bernard Church would also survive two structural fires, one at the hands of alleged arsonists.

According to Connie Hathaway, who prepared the history of Saint Bernard’s for the centennial celebration, Beach Lake had always been a favorite resort destination for New York and New Jersey vacationers.

“With Catholic visitors increasing tremendously, it became necessary to perform Sunday Mass around the resort,” Hathaway explained. “On Sunday, August 5, 1923, the first Mass was celebrated at the casino hall. The attendance of more than 200 people proved the need of a permanent structure.”

The organization of a Building Committee led to construction and the first Eucharistic liturgy was offered in Saint Bernard’s Chapel on Aug. 20, 1924. Bishop Michael J. Hoban, second Bishop of Scranton, dedicated the new house of worship as a mission charge of Saint Mary Magdalen Church in Honesdale.

Bishop Hoban instructed the new church to be named in honor of Saint Bernard – not only to be placed under the spiritual patronage of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, the 12th-century French abbot and mystic, but also in homage to Father Bernard Borr, who was appointed by the Scranton prelate as the church’s founding pastor.
Hathaway related that the original chapel was destroyed by fire in 1945, and Saint Bernard Church as it is known today was rebuilt by then-pastor Father James Holleran.

“In September 1956, an arson fire consumed the front of Saint Bernard’s, and the steeple had to be removed,” she said.

Eventually, according to the historian, the altar of Saint Bernard Church was reconstructed in 1979, and the church was expanded to accommodate the growing number of parishioners attending Mass.

“To the honor and glory of God, the foyer of the church was erected in the Jubilee Year 2000, under the pastoral guidance of Father Michael Marchetti,” Hathaway noted.

After serving as a mission church for Saint Mary Magdalen Parish until 1941, Saint Bernard’s was established as a mission of Saint Philomena Parish, Hawley.

The church would serve as a worship site for Saint Joseph Parish in White Mills from 1968 until 2009, when Saint Bernard Church was placed permanently under the pastoral umbrella of Saint John the Evangelist in Honesdale.

“Surely there have been many transformations in society and the Church these past one hundred years,” Father Langan commented. “Throughout, Jesus Christ is the firm foundation, ever present in our midst. In the heart of Beach Lake, Christ is truly present in the Church of Saint Bernard.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis called the escalation of the conflict in the Middle East “unacceptable,” after Israel and Hezbollah exchanged increased airstrikes, with Israeli missiles killing hundreds in Lebanon.

“I am saddened by the news from Lebanon, where in recent days the intense bombings have claimed many victims and caused destruction,” the pope said at the end of his general audience Sept. 25. “I hope that the international community will make every effort to stop this terrible escalation. It is unacceptable.”

Fighting on the Israeli-Lebanon border escalated Sept. 21 when Israeli forces launched a campaign of airstrikes against Hezbollah, an Islamist militant group based in Lebanon. As of Sept. 25, more than 550 people had been killed in the bombings including 50 children, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.

The Israeli military said Sept. 25 it had intercepted and shot down a Hezbollah missile fired at Tel Aviv from Lebanon — the group’s farthest-reaching attack in its conflict with Israel. Hezbollah had previously fired several missiles at other targets in northern Israel, but many were intercepted, and no injuries have been reported.

“I express my closeness to the Lebanese people, who have already suffered too much in the recent past,” Pope Francis said at his audience. “And let us pray for everyone, for all the peoples who suffer as a result of war: let us not forget tormented Ukraine, Myanmar, Palestine, Israel, Sudan, all the suffering peoples. Let us pray for peace.”

Egypt, Jordan and Iraq accused Israel of “pushing the region toward a comprehensive war” in a joint statement issued Sept. 24 by the nations’ foreign ministers, who were together attending the U.N. General Assembly in New York.

Caritas Lebanon said Sept. 25 that 21,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in pursuit of safety in the previous 24 hours. The organization is providing shelter, food, medical care and psychological support to the displaced.

Abdallah Bou Habib, Lebanon’s foreign minister, said some 500,000 people had been displaced since the surge in Israeli strikes.

(OSV News) – Ending poverty, ensuring nuclear disarmament and regulating artificial intelligence, or AI, were among the issues highlighted by the Holy See at the 2024 United Nations Summit of the Future, held Sept. 22-23 in New York at U.N. headquarters.

The summit – preceded by “action days” Sept. 20-21, and proposed by U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres in his 2021 report, “Our Common Agenda” – convened world leaders to “forge a new international consensus on how we deliver a better present and safeguard the future,” according to the U.N.’s dedicated webpage for the event.

That report and the summit pointed to “an atmosphere of mistrust” that undermines effective global cooperation, something Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Holy See’s secretary of state, also underscored in his Sept. 23 address at the gathering.

“The current summit is being convened against a backdrop of apparent crisis in the multilateral system,” said Cardinal Parolin. “This is largely attributable to the erosion of trust between nations, as evidenced by the growing prevalence and intensity of conflict.”

More than 120 armed conflicts are currently taking place around the world, involving over 60 states and 120 non-state armed groups, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which provides humanitarian aid to, and promotes laws protecting, victims of war. The ICRC also said in a May blog post that the majority of the conflicts are of a non-international nature, with the number of that type tripling since 2000.

Yet amid such strife, “this summit should be a source and a reason for hope,” said Cardinal Parolin.

The cardinal quoted a video message by Pope Francis to the 2017 TED Conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, in which the pope said that to be hopeful “does not mean to be optimistically naive and ignore the tragedy humanity is facing.”

The pope explained in that message, “Hope is the virtue of a heart that doesn’t lock itself into darkness, that doesn’t dwell on the past, does not simply get by in the present, but is able to see a tomorrow.”

Cardinal Parolin told summit attendees that “the future should be constructed on a foundation of principles, including the inherent, God-given dignity of every individual, the promotion of integral human development, the equality and sovereign dignity of all nations, and the establishment of trust between them.”

For that reason, he said, “there is a need to rethink actions in a number of areas.”

The eradication of poverty “must remain the overarching goal of all future action,” with the political will for sustainable development crucial to “a peaceful and prosperous future,” said Cardinal Parolin.

The “reform of international financial institutions, debt restructuring and the implementation of debt forgiveness strategies” are necessary, he said.

A “general disarmament” and “the total elimination of nuclear weapons” are also essential to attaining world peace, with “narrow geopolitical considerations” set aside and “strong economic lobbies … resisted” to ensure human dignity and integral development for individuals and communities, Cardinal Parolin said.

In addition, the cardinal said, “there is an urgent need to regulate” AI, which Pope Francis recently described as “an exciting and fearsome tool.”

“The Holy See advocates for a regulatory framework for AI ethics that encompasses the lifecycle of AI and addresses, inter alia, data protection, accountability, bias, and the impact of AI on employment,” said Cardinal Parolin.

The cardinal also clarified that the church understands the terms “sexual and reproductive health” and “reproductive rights,” used throughout U.N. documents and programs, as “applying to a holistic concept of health” that aligns with the fullness of church teaching on human sexuality.

“The Holy See does not consider abortion or access to abortion or abortifacients as a dimension of these terms,” said Cardinal Parolin.

He added, “With reference to ‘gender,’ the Holy See understands the term to be grounded in the biological sexual identity that is male or female.”

“Above all, thinking of the future should take into account the needs and interests of future generations,” he said.

“If dignity is the foundation and integral human development is the goal of our future, dialogue is the necessary means,” he added.

“Today, the sense of belonging to a single human family is fading, and the dream of working together for justice and peace seems outdated and utopian,” he warned. “This need not be the case, if there is a will to engage in genuine dialogue.”

Quoting Pope Francis’ 2015 address to the U.N. General Assembly, the cardinal said, “The present time invites us to give priority to actions which generate new processes in society, so as to bear fruit in significant and positive historical events. … The future demands of us critical and global decisions in the face of world-wide conflicts which increase the number of the excluded and those in need.”