Category: 2024 News

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis reiterated the Vatican’s willingness to aid in a comprehensive prisoner swap between Russia and Ukraine.

“I renew my appeal for a general exchange of all the prisoners between Russia and Ukraine, assuring the willingness of the Holy See to favor any effort in this regard, especially for those who are gravely injured and ill,” he said after praying the “Regina Coeli” in St. Peter’s Square May 12.

In February, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said more than 3,000 Ukrainian prisoners of war had been freed from Russian captivity, and the United Arab Emirates mediated an exchange of 100 prisoners between Russia and Ukraine that same month.

The pope also appealed for prayers for peace in Ukraine, Palestine, Israel and Myanmar in remarks to people gathered in St. Peter’s Square.

During an airborne press conference April 30, 2023 — some 14 months after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine — Pope Francis confirmed that “the Holy See has acted as an intermediary in some exchanges of prisoners” between the warring nations.

The pope had also expressed his hope for a general exchange of prisoners between Russia and Ukraine in his message “urbi et orbi” (to the city and the world) after celebrating Easter Mass this year; he called for a swap of “all for the sake of all!”

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, expressed optimism around the pope’s calls for a prisoner exchange in an interview published April 27, noting that “the pope’s appeal has been taken up and acted upon.”

After praying the “Regina Coeli” the pope also noted that May 12 was the church’s celebration of World Communications Day, for which the Vatican had chosen as its theme “Artificial Intelligence and the Wisdom of the Heart.”

“Only by restoring a wisdom of the heart can we interpret the demands of our time and rediscover the way toward a fully human communication,” he said.

And, as Italy and several other countries celebrated Mother’s Day, Pope Francis encouraged people to be grateful for all mothers and to “pray for the mothers who have gone to heaven.”

“Let us entrust mothers to the protection of Mary, our heavenly mother,” he said before asking the visitors in the square for a big round of applause for all mothers.

(OSV News) – A change in name for the Boy Scouts of America will not affect affiliated Catholic scout troops, the executive director of the Catholic Church’s official committee overseeing Scouting programs in the U.S. told OSV News.

“It doesn’t really impact us at all,” said John Anthony, who heads up the National Catholic Committee on Scouting, which sponsors Catholic Scouting, the official Catholic organization that uses all BSA programs and activities in line with Catholic teaching and aims to form youth into both good citizens and “committed disciples of Jesus Christ.”

Bishop Michael W. Fisher of Buffalo, New York, (also an Eagle Scout) serves as the episcopal liaison for the committee to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

On May 7, the BSA announced in a news release that it would rebrand itself in 2025 as Scouting America in order to reflect “the organization’s ongoing commitment to welcome every youth and family in America to experience the benefits of Scouting.”

The announcement comes on the fifth anniversary of the BSA welcoming girls into the Scouts BSA program for youth 11-17; and six years after allowing girls into the Cub Scouting program for youth ages 5-10.

These flagship youth programs, however, still maintain separation by gender: Cub Scouts can be in either single-gender units called “packs,” or part of a mixed pack with boys and girls organized into smaller subgroups by gender called “dens.”

Scouts BSA troops, however, are single-gender only. Once Cub Scouts crossover to the Scouts BSA program, girls can join all-girl troops and boys can join all-boy troops.

While boys and girls experience the same Scouting program in most countries today, philosophical differences over Scouting in the early 20th century led to the Boy Scouts of America and Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. developing separate and distinct youth programs. The two organizations have clashed over the course of their history — especially recently over the BSA’s decision to open its Scout program to girls — and a merger is considered unlikely.

The BSA has also had co-ed programs for decades prior to its decision to include girls into Cub Scouting and Scouts BSA, including the Sea Scouting, Venturing, and Exploring programs.

According to the BSA, Scouting America currently serves more than 176,000 girls and young women across all programs, including over 6,000 who have earned the rank of Eagle Scout.

BSA President and CEO Roger A. Krone said in the release about the organization’s name change to Scouting America that “though our name will be new, our mission remains unchanged.”

Anthony told OSV News that the same is true of Catholic Scouting, which counts more than 97,650 Scouts from over 5,000 Catholic units across the country, representing separate boy and girl Scouting formations.

“We support the Scouting program, but we work with the local dioceses and those committees and help people understand that if you’re going to have and call it a Catholic Scouting program, you’d better be Catholic,” said Anthony, who worked full-time for the BSA for 38 years, most recently as an executive regional director in South Florida.

Catholic Scouting partners closely with parish and school-based faith formation as well as youth ministry outreaches, offering age-appropriate religious activities and emblems. Catholic discipleship, service and spiritual development are essential goals of the organization, which is also encouraging members to participate in the National Eucharistic Revival and the National Eucharistic Congress.

“The local bishop decides how the program is going to be administered (in his diocese),” Anthony said. “He appoints the chairman and the chaplain; (and) he approves of members of the local diocesan Catholic committee.”

Anthony told OSV News that fears about the implications of the BSA name change to Scouting America may have been sparked by one media outlet’s choice of photograph to accompany its story on the news.

“You don’t see the person’s face, but the (scout’s) neckerchief slide (clasp) is the rainbow color,” he said. “That gets people going. … You couldn’t use the photo of everybody camping or having a good time or (showing) they’re in church?”

Following the BSA’s announcement, at least one Catholic group issued a blog post “listing all the alternative programs to Boy Scouts — and one they recommend is Catholic Scouting,” said Anthony, chuckling.

According to the BSA, the rebranding to Scouting America will be effective Feb. 8, 2025, when the organization marks its 115th anniversary.

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – Abortion advocates in at least 15 states are seeking to qualify ballot measures for November that would enshrine abortion protections in law or their state constitutions, and some efforts recently got a step closer.

Maryland and Florida will have efforts to enshrine abortion protections in their state constitutions on the ballot. A comparable effort in New York was tossed off the ballot — for now — when it was blocked May 7 by a judge who found that state lawmakers failed to follow procedural rules for passing constitutional amendments. Supporters plan to appeal. Abortion is legal in the Empire State through 24 weeks but with broad exceptions after that point.

Maryland’s Catholic bishops issued a statement May 8 objecting to the November 2024 ballot measure in that state. “This is an important time for us to reiterate our commitment to the protection of all human life,” they said. “We oppose the ‘Right to Reproductive Freedom Amendment’ as it contradicts the fundamental principles of respect for human dignity and the inherent right to life.”

“Our opposition to this initiative is rooted in our unwavering concern for the well-being of women and children. Abortion not only ends the life of an innocent child but also poses significant risks to the physical, emotional and spiritual health of women,” said the statement signed by Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori, Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory of Washington and Bishop William E. Koenig of Wilmington, Delaware. All have members of their flock who live in Maryland.

In encouraging Catholics and others to reject the amendment, they said abortion perpetuates a “throwaway culture” and that the amendment would divert resources from women’s well-being, risk the rights of health care workers and limit the ability of elected officials to respond to changing needs or information.

Efforts for similar amendments to qualify for the ballot are still underway in several states including Arizona and Montana, where closely watched races for the U.S. Senate also will take place.

In Missouri, supporters of such a ballot measure said May 3 they turned in more than 380,000 voter signatures — more than double the 171,000 required to qualify for the ballot. The office of Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, a Republican, must verify the signatures in order for the measure to be placed on the ballot.

Earlier this year, the Catholic bishops of Missouri urged all Catholics and people of goodwill “to not sign any petition that would put this amendment on the ballot.”

“The Catholic Church supports and defends society’s most vulnerable, especially women and children, through accompaniment, social services, and material assistance,” the bishops said.

“A misleading proposed amendment to the Missouri Constitution suggests that a ‘right to an abortion’ is needed to protect women, while the amendment could actually put women at risk and endanger preborn children,” they said. “This ballot initiative would legalize abortions in this state and remove long standing health and safety standards for women. In addition, this initiative does nothing to reduce or eliminate the underlying social causes for abortion and does not further a true culture of life in the state.”

Missouri Right to Life led a “Decline to Sign Campaign” to educate and activated “countless Missourians to fight the battle to ‘Keep Missouri Pro-Life!'”

On May 1, supporters of an abortion ballot measure In South Dakota also said they collected enough signatures to qualify.

Ballot measures on abortion have so far proven elusive for the pro-life movement in previous elections in 2022 and 2023, despite achieving their long-held goal of reversing Roe v. Wade when the U.S. Supreme Court issued its Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health decision, which overturned the 1973 Roe decision and related precedent establishing abortion as a constitutional right. After that decision returned the abortion issue to the legislature, some states moved to expand access to abortion, while others passed legislation limiting the procedure or providing new revenue streams of support for women and families facing unplanned pregnancies.

Ohio voters on Nov. 7, 2023, approved a measure to codify abortion access in that state’s constitution, legalizing abortion up to the point of fetal viability — the gestational point at which a baby may be capable of living outside the uterus — and beyond, if a physician decided an abortion was necessary for the sake of the mother’s life or health. The Ohio results were not an outlier, as they followed previous losses for the pro-life movement at the ballot box when voters in California, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana, Vermont and Kansas either rejected new limitations on abortion or expanded legal protections for it.

After victories at the ballot box, abortion advocates across the country sought similar outcomes in their own states.

In Montana, that state’s Supreme Court in April allowed an effort to add additional protections for abortion through a ballot measure to move forward. That state currently permits abortion at any point prior to fetal viability.

Montana’s Catholic Bishops Austin A. Vetter of Helena and Jeffrey M. Fleming of Great Falls-Billings wrote a May 3 message urging “all people of goodwill to decline to sign the petition to place this dangerous amendment on our ballot.”

“Trusting in God, we invite all Montanans to pray for the defeat of this Constitutional Initiative and stand in defense of women, children and all those threatened by this extreme proposal,” their message said.

The Catholic Church teaches that all human life is sacred from conception to natural death, opposing direct abortion as an act of violence that takes the life of the unborn child.

After the Dobbs decision, church officials in the U.S. have reiterated the church’s concern for both mother and child, and called to strengthen available support for those living in poverty or other causes that can push women toward having an abortion.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – “The time has come for a new Jubilee when once more the Holy Door will be flung open to invite everyone to an intense experience of the love of God that awakens in hearts the sure hope of salvation in Christ,” Pope Francis said in a document formally proclaiming the Holy Year 2025.

Christians must “abound in hope” to be credible witnesses of God’s love, he wrote, and they can give signs of that hope by having children, welcoming migrants, visiting prisoners, working for peace, opposing the death penalty, helping young people find a job, pressuring rich countries to forgive the debt of poor countries, praying for the souls in purgatory and lobbying to divert money from military spending to food aid.

The document, called a “bull of indiction,” specifies that the holy year will open at the Vatican Dec. 24 this year and close Jan. 6, 2026, the feast of Epiphany. Pope Francis also asked bishops around the world to inaugurate the Holy Year in their dioceses Dec. 29 this year and celebrate the conclusion of the Jubilee locally Dec. 28, 2025.

During a brief ceremony in front of the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica May 9, Pope Francis handed the document to the archpriests of the papal basilicas of St. Peter, St. Paul Outside the Walls and St. Mary Major, the vicar of the archpriest of the Basilica of St. John Lateran and to top officials of the dicasteries for Evangelization, the Eastern Churches and Bishops.

Msgr. Leonardo Sapienza, an apostolic protonotary and official of the papal household, read excerpts from the document, which is titled, “Spes Non Confundit,” (“Hope Does Not Disappoint”).

“Hope is born of love and based on the love springing from the pierced heart of Jesus upon the cross,” Pope Francis wrote in the document.

In a world seemingly marked by war, divisions, environmental destruction and economic challenges, hope can seem hard to come by, he said. But “Christian hope does not deceive or disappoint because it is grounded in the certainty that nothing and no one may ever separate us from God’s love.”

In addition, people need to look around and seek signs of hope, he said. “We need to recognize the immense goodness present in our world, lest we be tempted to think ourselves overwhelmed by evil and violence.”

People’s yearning for peace, their desire for a relationship with Jesus and growing concern for the environment are all signs that hope still exists, the pope wrote.

“The desire of young people to give birth to new sons and daughters as a sign of the fruitfulness of their love,” he said, is another sign of hope and one that “ensures a future for every society.”

But the “alarming decline in the birthrate” in many countries shows how governments and communities must work together to support young couples who want to give that sign of hope to the world, he said.

The theme for the holy year is “Pilgrims of Hope,” and in the document Pope Francis called on Catholics not only to strengthen their own sense of hope, but also to “be tangible signs of hope for those of our brothers and sisters who experience hardships of any kind.”

Listing prisoners as the first category of people in need of hope, the pope said he wants to open a Holy Door in a prison although he provided no further details. But he asked governments around the world to consider jubilee amnesty and pardon programs and urged greater efforts to ensure those who have completed a sentence are assisted in their return to society.

He called on all Catholics, but especially bishops, to “be one in demanding dignified conditions for those in prison, respect for their human rights and above all the abolition of the death penalty, a provision at odds with Christian faith and one that eliminates all hope of forgiveness and rehabilitation.”

Pope Francis also called on the church to take special care of young people, who are supposed to be “the embodiment of hope,” but often seem overwhelmed by “an uncertain and unpromising future.”

And migrants, who leave their homelands in search of a better life for themselves and their families, also need support to keep their hope alive, he said, adding that “their expectations must not be frustrated by prejudice and rejection.”

Pilgrims of hope also should help the souls in purgatory, the pope wrote as he introduced a discussion on a key feature of jubilee celebrations: indulgences, which the church describes as a remission of the temporal punishment a person is due for their sins.

“Every sin ‘leaves its mark'” even after a person has received forgiveness and absolution through the sacrament of reconciliation, he said. “Sin has consequences, not only outwardly in the effects of the wrong we do, but also inwardly, inasmuch as ‘every sin, even venial, entails an unhealthy attachment to creatures, which must be purified either here on earth, or after death, in the state called Purgatory,'” he wrote, quoting the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

“The evil we have done cannot remain hidden; it needs to be purified in order to enable this definitive encounter with God’s love,” the pope said. “Here we begin to see the need of our prayers for all those who have ended their earthly pilgrimage, our solidarity in an intercession that is effective by virtue of the communion of the saints, and the shared bond that makes us one in Christ, the firstborn of all creation.”

“The Jubilee indulgence, thanks to the power of prayer, is intended in a particular way for those who have gone before us, so that they may obtain full mercy,” Pope Francis wrote. He said a full set of norms for the jubilee indulgence would be published later.

ROME (OSV News) – Israel’s escalation in Rafah is only worsening the humanitarian situation for countless men, women and children caught in the crossfire, said Ireneusz Krause, deputy director for Caritas Poland.

In a statement released May 7, Krause said that Caritas Poland workers were on the ground and working to help the ‘desperately hungry people trapped in the rubble of bombed cities, dying wounded, emaciated from thirst with no access to drinkable water, with no hope for help.”

“According to international law, humanitarian aid should reach the civilian victims of any conflict and access to it should never be one of the bargaining chips in negotiations,” he said.

“Convoy crossings in a humanitarian crisis should be unquestionably open,” Krause added.

Despite cease-fire talks continuing in Cairo, a brigade of Israeli tanks seized control May 7 of the southern Gaza Strip town, which borders Egypt. In doing so, Israel not only threatened a further escalation of the conflict, but further prevented aid from entering into the strip, when the head of the United Nations World Food Program said northern Gaza is experiencing “full-blown famine.”

According to the Associated Press, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended seizing control of the Rafah crossing as a strategic step in dismantling Hamas’ government and military capability.

The United States, Israel’s closest ally, has warned against escalating the conflict on humanitarian grounds in Rafah, where over a million Palestinians have fled to escape the war in other areas of Gaza.

Caritas Poland, which is working in partnership with Caritas Jerusalem, said that it has workers on the ground and that arrangements for more humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip “are being made in Jerusalem.”

Nevertheless, the Catholic charitable organization said that an attack on Rafah would only “worsen the humanitarian situation.”

“Due to the blocking of humanitarian convoys, there is a shortage of food and residents are suffering from hunger; 75% of the Gaza Strip’s population — nearly 2 million people — have been internally displaced,” Caritas Poland said in a statement.

In a telephone interview, Dominika Chylewska and Sylwia Hazboun, two Caritas Poland employees working from Jerusalem and Bethlehem, told OSV News that food security for Palestinians caught in the crossfire is at a critical level.

“Everything is in a state of chaos,” Hazboun said. When it comes to food security, “on a scale from 1 to 5, the entire Gaza Strip is on the third level of famine. Some researchers have pointed out that at the end of the month, northern Gaza will be on the fifth level of this 1 to 5 scale.”

Soaring prices and limited access to very basic necessities, she added, have also contributed to the chaos.

Chylewska told OSV News that to flee Gaza is a rare feat, she noted, given that “it costs about $5,000 to $6,000” to flee.

Chylewska recalled the latest tragedy that struck the Catholic Gaza community amid news that, during a 100-degree heat wave at the end of April, 18-year-old Lara al-Sayegh died of heatstroke and sunstroke.

She and her mother were making an almost 20-mile trek, mostly on foot, from Gaza City — where they had been sheltering at the Holy Family Parish — to the Rafah crossing in the south after receiving permission to leave Gaza. Lara’s father had died in December due to lack of medical care. Her mother also suffered from sunstroke, as well as shock from losing her daughter, and fell into a coma.

“What is striking me the most is that the international community is not doing enough to stop this,” Hazboun told OSV News. While humanitarian aid is needed, it does not help in solving the “root of the problem.”

“Whatever we do is only a reaction to human suffering, but we are not healing the root causes; the root causes can only be healed by the international community and they are not being healed,” Hazboun said.

Chylewska added that people following the conflict in the media are not aware of soaring food prices that have made it virtually impossible for Palestinians to obtain food.

“That’s what surprised me,” she said. For example, “if you want to buy flour, you would have to pay €370 ($398). That is why most of the people have no food to eat or they eat very little. It was calculated that (they eat about) 245 calories. This is what people can get in a day; it’s less than a yogurt. So, I think this really brings some real images of how hard the situation is.”

Furthermore, she said, not enough food and humanitarian aid are entering Gaza even though international law dictates “that civilians should be taken care of no matter what happens,” Chylewska indicated.

“This is a fact — that not enough humanitarian assistance is entering the Gaza Strip,” she said. “It’s not like there isn’t enough help being offered; it’s only that not enough is being allowed to enter the Gaza Strip.”

The war has also affected Palestinians living in Bethlehem and the West Bank, who are struggling “with having money for everyday life’ due to the lack of tourism in the Holy Land,” she added.

Hazboun noted that while the current war may be the largest in scale, it is “not the first escalation in this conflict.”

“We have to remember that we should not only be hopeful for an immediate cease-fire, but (also for) negotiations to solve the conflict or to find a just solution for the conflict, which takes into consideration the equality of both peoples.”

“Only a just solution and equality will bring peace to this land,” Hazboun said.

Despite the dire circumstances, both Chylewska and Hazboun told OSV News “that there is always hope” and encouraged people to financially support Caritas “because this is the only way the organization can continue to help.”

“This help will be needed for many years because the situation is very bad,” Chylewska said.

Hazboun expressed her hope that the Catholic Church can strengthen its advocacy not just for an immediate cease-fire but also for a just solution to the conflict, as the “church is the only institution on a global level that has such a balanced approach, which is taking into consideration the well-being and equality of both peoples as well as the need to reconcile.”

The church “should not only be helping, but also advocating and educating the international community, and especially Catholics, about its position, not only with general words about peace, but from a theological point of view and from the political point of view.

“Everything comes down to the equality of both peoples and the exact same rights for both people to live in their own country,” Hazboun said.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – For more than 700 years, the Catholic Church has celebrated “jubilee” or “holy” years as special times to renew people’s faith and experience God’s forgiveness, particularly by going on pilgrimage.

The official Vatican website for the Holy Year 2025 — www.iubilaeum2025.va — says, “In 1300, Pope Boniface VIII called the first Jubilee, also known as a ‘Holy Year,’ since it is a time in which God’s holiness transforms us.”

Popes typically announce a jubilee every 25 years, although extraordinary holy years have been proclaimed for special anniversaries and occasions — for example, the Holy Year 1983 marked the 1,950th anniversary of Christ’s death and resurrection, and the 2015-2106 Jubilee of Mercy called all Catholics to reflect on God’s mercy and compassion.

While the main purpose and some of the key features of a holy year have remained unchanged over the centuries, each pope who called a jubilee has put his own spin on it, usually in response to changes he sees in the church or the world.

The preparations for the Holy Year 2025 officially began in February 2022 when Pope Francis announced the jubilee’s theme, “Pilgrims of Hope,” and said the focus would be on “restoring a climate of hope and trust” after the coronavirus pandemic and on helping people repair their relationships with God, with each other and with the Earth.

But the formal kickoff for a holy year is the publication of a papal “bull of indiction,” and the pope’s formal delivery of the document to the archpriests of the papal basilicas of St. Peter, St. Paul Outside the Walls, St. John Lateran and St. Mary Major and other church representatives.

The document is named for the round seal — a “bulla” in Latin — which used to be made of metal and is now simply an ink stamp. The bull officially announces the opening and closing dates of the holy year and outlines the aims of the celebrations.

Excerpts of the bull are read in front of the bricked-up Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica in the presence of the pope.

The removal of the bricks, the opening of the Holy Door by the pope and pilgrims passing through the doorway are central symbols of a jubilee celebration and have been since the Holy Year 1500 during the papacy of Pope Alexander VI.

The current Holy Door, with its 16 bronze panels made by Vico Consorti, were consecrated and the door first opened Dec. 24, 1949, by Pope Pius XII in proclamation of the 1950 Jubilee, a scene represented in the bottom right panel.

For centuries, the doors were opened with a silver hammer, not a key, “because the doors of justice and mercy give way only to the force of prayer and penance,” according to “Mondo Vaticano,” a mini encyclopedia published by the Vatican.

The theme of human sin and God’s mercy is illustrated in the other 15 panels on the door, with episodes from both the Old and New Testament, including the Fall of Adam and Eve, the Annunciation, and the Prodigal Son.

Between the panels on the door at St. Peter’s are little shields with the coats of arms of all the popes that have opened it for a holy year.

Another key ingredient of a holy year — one that is much less tangible and often confusing — are the indulgences that pilgrims receive during a jubilee after making a pilgrimage or doing some sort of penance, going to confession, receiving Communion, making a profession of faith and praying for the intentions of the pope.

Perhaps as an indication of the confusion, Vatican News published a 3,200-word article about indulgences May 7.

The Code of Canon Law says, “An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment for sin, the guilt of which is already forgiven.”

With an indulgence, Vatican News said, “one can obtain more than simple forgiveness and, in fact, return to the state of grace one had with baptism. It is as if the slate were wiped clean, given a complete wash.”

“An indulgence is a mercy that, like abundant rain, falls on a person and transforms him or her, orienting the person to goodness, to love, to fraternity,” healing what sin had wounded, Bishop Antonio Staglianò, president of the Pontifical Theological Academy, told Vatican News.

In the modern era, a holy year is made up of dozens of specific jubilees. No matter how young or old, no matter what their vocation or profession, almost every Catholic will find a date set aside for him or her on the Vatican’s Holy Year 2025 calendar.

Journalists, artists, soldiers, grandparents, deacons, prisoners, government officials, missionaries and the poor all will have their day. The calendar is available on the Holy Year 2025 website.

 

(OSV News) – By boats, over bridges and along byways, pilgrims on the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage’s eastern route will accompany the Eucharist to many sites associated with America’s saints as they make their way across eight states and the District of Columbia.

Beginning in New Haven, Connecticut, May 18, the day before Pentecost, the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Route is one of four National Pilgrimage Routes that will converge in Indianapolis ahead of the July 17-21 National Eucharistic Congress. The pilgrimage and the congress are part of the National Eucharistic Revival, a three-year initiative of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops that launched in 2022.

The roughly 1,000-mile route will be traveled by six perpetual pilgrims accompanied by Father Roger Landry, a priest of the Diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts, who serves as the Catholic chaplain at Columbia University in New York. While Catholics may join the pilgrims for legs of their journey, they are especially encouraged to join the route’s public events, which include Masses, all-night adoration, a boat-based procession, service projects, testimonies, socializing and meals with regional flair. The route is named for St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American-born saint, and includes stops at places she served in New York and Maryland.

The following is a list of selected highlights from the pilgrimage’s Eastern route. Find information for the full Seton Route at https://tinyurl.com/SetonRoute.

— Blessed Michael McGivney Parish, New Haven, Connecticut: The pilgrimage begins May 18 with a solemn, extended vigil Mass for Pentecost followed by all-night Eucharistic adoration at St. Mary’s Church in New Haven, where Blessed Michael McGiveny was ministering when he founded the Knights of Columbus in 1882. The parish church now houses his tomb. The pilgrims process May 19 to the nearby parish of St. Joseph for Mass before traveling by boat to Bridgeport.

— St. Frances Cabrini Shrine, New York: After journeying through the Bridgeport Diocese, the pilgrims will spend time in the Archdiocese of New York, where they’ll stop May 25 at the St. Frances Cabrini Shrine in Manhattan to venerate the saint, who left Italy with six of her religious community’s sisters in 1889 to serve Italian immigrants in the New York slums. (Her life is the subject of the recently released film “Cabrini.”) That night, New York Auxiliary Bishop Gerardo J. Colacicco and the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne — whose Massachusetts-born founder, Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, was declared venerable in March: will host adoration at St. Vincent Ferrer Church. While still in the city, the pilgrimage will process across the Brooklyn Bridge into the Diocese of Brooklyn May 26, and the following day take the Dorothy Day Ferry — named for the Catholic Worker Movement co-founder and servant of God — to the Statue of Liberty State Park for Eucharistic adoration.

— National Shrine of St. John Neumann, Philadelphia: The pilgrimage continues through New Jersey’s dioceses of Metuchen and Trenton and into Pennsylvania. On June 1, the pilgrimage in Philadelphia for morning Mass at the National Shrine of St. John Neumann, who served as bishop of Philadelphia from 1852-1860 and was a champion of the Catholic parochial school system in the U.S. That evening, the shrine will host a “Eucharistic encounter” and open mic night for young adults. The following day, the pilgrims will venerate another Philadelphia saint, St. Katharine Drexel, who is entombed at the Cathedral Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul.

— National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Emmitsburg, Maryland: From the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, the pilgrimage travels through the Diocese of Harrisburg into the Archdiocese of Baltimore, where the pilgrims will spend time at the National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton June 6. Born in 1774, their route’s namesake was a wife, mother of five, teacher, Catholic convert and eventual founder of the first women’s religious community established in the U.S. She moved from New York to Emmitsburg in 1809 after her husband died while they were in Italy, which also is where she encountered Catholicism. The following day, the pilgrims will attend Mass and participate in a Eucharistic procession around the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Baltimore’s co-cathedral and the first cathedral in the United States.

— Ohio River Sternwheeler procession: From Baltimore, the pilgrimage will continue into the Archdiocese of Washington with Mass June 8 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception followed by a procession with stops at the many Catholic sites around the shrine and The Catholic University of America campus. It then heads northwest through western Maryland; the dioceses of Altoona-Johnstown, Greensburg and Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania; Wheeling-Charleston in West Virginia; and Steubenville, Ohio, where the pilgrims will join adoration events at a Franciscan University of Steubenville Conference. On June 23, Bishop Mark E. Brennan of Wheeling-Charleston and Bishop Paul J. Bradley, apostolic administrator of Steubenville, will lead a “boater-cade” Eucharistic procession down the Ohio River aboard a sternwheeler, blessing pilgrims on shore at four sites.

— Downtown Cincinnati. The pilgrimage continues through the Diocese of Columbus, Ohio, and the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, with a July 6 Mass celebrated by Archbishop Dennis M. Schnurr at Cincinnati’s Cathedral Basilica of St. Peter in Chains. The Mass is followed by a Eucharistic procession through downtown and a Eucharistic festival at the city’s Fountain Square. The Seton Route enters the Archdiocese of Indianapolis July 8 with several events in Indianapolis ahead of the National Eucharistic Congress.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith will publish its new norms for the discernment of apparitions and other supernatural phenomena May 17, the Vatican press office said.

Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the dicastery, and Msgr. Armando Matteo, secretary of the doctrinal section of the dicastery, will present the document at a news conference, the press office announced May 7.

The last time the Vatican’s doctrinal office issued norms for evaluating alleged apparitions and reports of supernatural events was in February 1978.

At the time, the prefect, Cardinal Franjo Seper, said the norms were necessary given how news of alleged apparitions spreads rapidly thanks to the mass media. “Moreover, the ease of going from one place to another fosters frequent pilgrimages, so that Ecclesiastical Authority should discern quickly about the merits of such matters,” he wrote.

In a written interview with OSV News in February, Cardinal Fernández said that given increasing reports of spiritual, psychological and sexual abuse tied to “false mysticism,” it would “certainly be necessary to include some considerations related to the special gravity of these risks” in the document on evaluating presumed apparitions and other supernatural occurrences.

The Vatican’s 1978 rules entrust to the local bishop the initial evaluation of alleged apparitions of Mary or weeping statues or supposed messages from God, Mary or the saints.

The first things to look for, it said, are “true theological and spiritual doctrine” free of error and that the person reporting the phenomenon is psychologically balanced, honest, leads a morally upstanding life and is obedient to church authority.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Jesus calls believers not only to be servants of his kingdom, as the prophets and Mary were, but also to be his friends, Pope Francis said.

“Friendship is not the fruit of calculation, nor of compulsion, it is born spontaneously when we recognize something of ourselves in the other,” he said May 5. “Jesus, in the Bible, tells us that for him we are precisely this: friends, people beloved beyond all merit and expectation, to whom he extends his hand and offers his love, his grace, his word.”

Before leading the “Regina Coeli” prayer in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis reflected on the day’s Gospel reading from St. John in which Jesus tells the apostles, “I do not call you servants any longer, but friends.”

Jesus does not only want to entrust humanity with his mission of salvation, the pope said, “he wants more, something greater that goes beyond goods and plans themselves; it takes friendship.”

The pope asked people to think about the beauty of friendship that they experience throughout the course of their lives, from sharing toys as children and confiding secrets to one another as teenagers to exchanging joys and worries as adults and recounting memories together as seniors.

“Let us think a moment of our friends and thank the Lord for them,” he said.

In friendship, Jesus “shares what is dearest to him” with humanity, the pope said: “All that he has learned from the Father.”

Jesus is invested in his friendship with humanity “even to the point of making himself fragile for us, of placing himself in our hands, without defense or pretense, because he loves us,” he said. “The Lord loves us; as a friend he wants our good and he wants us to share in his.”

If a friendship is true, it is “so strong that is does not fail even in the face of betrayal,” he said, noting that Jesus calls Judas “friend” even after he had been betrayed.

“A true friend does not abandon you, even when you make mistakes: he corrects you, perhaps he reproaches you, but he forgives you and does not abandon you,” he said.

After reciting the “Regina Coeli” prayer, the pope asked Christians to pray for Ukraine, Palestine and Israel, “that there may be peace, that dialogue may be strengthened and bear good fruit. No to war, yes to dialogue!”