Category: 2025 News

SCRANTON – The annual Saint Patrick’s Parade Day Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. on Saturday, March 8, at the Cathedral of Saint Peter in Scranton.

All are welcome to attend.

The liturgy is traditionally held in conjunction with the city of Scranton’s annual Saint Patrick’s Day Parade. Following the Mass, the Saint Patrick’s Parade is expected to take to the streets of the Electric City beginning at 11:45 a.m.

The Most Rev. Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, will serve as principal celebrant for the Mass. Various priests from the Diocese of Scranton are expected to concelebrate.

The Mass will be broadcast live on CTV: Catholic Television of the Diocese of Scranton due to the generosity of the Society of Irish Women.

The Mass will be rebroadcast several times the following week, including Tuesday, March 11, at 8:00 p.m., and Wednesday, March 12, at 10:30 a.m. It will also be available for viewing on the Diocese of Scranton’s YouTube Channel.

Among the other local organizations that participate in the annual Saint Patrick’s Parade Day Mass are the Ancient Order of Hibernians, Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick, Irish American Men’s Association, Irish Cultural Society, Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians and the Saint Patrick’s Parade Association of Lackawanna County.

SCRANTON – Churches throughout the Diocese of Scranton were filled with the faithful on Ash Wednesday as people gathered to mark the beginning of the Lenten season.

From rural churches to the Diocesan Cathedral, people turned out to receive ashes and they began their journey of reflection and renewal.

At the 12:10 p.m. Mass, the Most Rev. Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, began his homily by asking for continued prayers for Pope Francis, who remains in the hospital.

“We pray God’s mercy, love, and healing presence in his life,” the Bishop said.

Bishop Bambera then reflected on how this Lenten season falls within the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope, saying that the challenges we face in life can provide us with a context for hope. He explained Lent provides every person the opportunity to engage the Lord in a “deeper way” and “walk more closely with Him.”

“There is always hope for the believer in Jesus Christ,” he stated.

The readings for Ash Wednesday spoke of God’s call to repentance, to return to Him with our whole hearts. The bishop explained this message in simple terms, urging people to see the hope in the ashes on their foreheads.

“Yes, they remind us of our mortality, our need for repentance and change, yet the journey we begin today ends not merely with this moment in which ashes are placed on our foreheads. No, it begins something much, much more,” Bishop Bambera explained.

Just as Bishop Bambera was reaching the end of his homily, a sudden rustling from above caused him to pause. Circling the Cathedral was a large bat – its wings beating erratically, flying in unpredictable loops, as though it, too, had come to witness the beginning of Lent.

While some parishioners shifted in their seats and others exchanged nervous chuckles, the bat had no intention of leaving.

“That will make you remember this day,” the Bishop joked. “How do I go on here?”

The sight of the bat, in all its flapping, confused glory, seemed oddly fitting, a strange interruption in an otherwise sacred moment.

“For some reason, God is calling us to this experience,” the Bishop said with a smile. “We know the power of God, and we know the Lord will indeed protect us, no matter how low that bat flies.”

The faithful laughed, the tension easing as the bat continued its erratic flight until the end of Mass, when it was caught in a collection basket and set free outside of the Cathedral.

Outside the Cathedral, some parishioners shared what they were giving up for Lent – sweets, social media, or other comforts – while others spoke of the things they hoped to do more of, like prayer, charity and acts of kindness.

“I’ll give up my anger, or at least try to quell it,” parishioner Deneal Scrivani of Lykens said. “It’s a difficult time right now so I think that we just have to look deeper into ourselves.”

“I’m actually introducing more. I’m going to increase my prayer life, in the absence of giving something up, adding something to my Catholicism,” Michael Colaneri of Scranton added.

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – Catholic immigration advocates sought ways to respond to some anti-immigration or false narratives about their work during a conference in the nation’s capital.

Participants in the event, “Understanding Migration from a Catholic Perspective” held at The Catholic University of America, examined current and historical narratives around U.S. immigration, seeking new ways to dialogue with those skeptical about the church’s work in this area, including some Trump administration officials.

“If the narrative is wrong, the actions that are based upon that narrative will be wrong,” said Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Texas, in a keynote address.

Bishop Seitz, also the chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration, said that some of the Trump administration’s actions on immigration should concern Catholics.

“I really don’t think we can over exaggerate the seriousness of these measures,” he said, expressing particular concern about a Trump administration policy rescinding long-standing restrictions on Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from making arrests at what are seen as sensitive locations, including houses of worship, schools and hospitals, as well as the suspension of a federal refugee resettlement program.

The USCCB is in ongoing litigation with the federal government over the suspension of funding for refugee resettlement assistance and payments the USCCB says it has not yet received for completed work. The Trump administration also terminated two USCCB refugee resettlement agreements with the USCCB, that group said.

Claims circulated by officials, including Vice President JD Vance, that the conference profits from that work were “shocking,” Bishop Seitz said.

“All I can really think of when I hear that kind of assertion is ‘Animal Farm,'” Bishop Seitz said in reference to the 1945 novella by George Orwell. “Because the truth is just turned upside down. You know, what is being done in a selfless way by so many dedicated people is characterized as just an effort to get money, like that’s what the church is about? Not the church I know.”

In a January interview, Vance questioned the motives of the U.S. bishops’ criticism of some of Trump’s immigration policies, suggesting their objection to the suspension of a federal refugee resettlement program had more to do with “their bottom line.” But outside audits of the bishops’ work with refugees show the USCCB does not profit from that work and, in fact, has spent the church’s funds to cover what the government would not.

The additional suspension of U.S. foreign aid, Bishop Seitz added, presents another concern for those seeking to reduce “irregular migration.”

“The drastic cuts to foreign aid, especially visible with the dismantling of USAID, has had devastating consequences,” Bishop Seitz said. “While this may not seem directly tied to migration, it is of central importance. Migration should be a choice, not a necessity. When people can build stable lives in their homeland, fewer are forced to depart their home country in search of a new home where they can better provide for their families. Investing in local economies, infrastructure and essential services is key to addressing the root causes of irregular migration.”

Julia Young, a historian of migration, Mexico and Latin America, and Catholicism at CUA, said during a panel discussion that there was a great wave of immigration to the United States that took place between about 1870 and 1910 of Irish, Italian, and Southern and Eastern European immigrants that led to significant demographic changes in the U.S. and helped increase the U.S. Catholic population.

“Immigration surged to the point that the United States became a country where over 14% of the population had been born in another country by 1910 which, interestingly, we’re again at that moment,” she said, noting that about 15% of the U.S. population was born in another country.

Young said “as that immigration wave surged, there also surged a huge wave of nativism, nativist sentiment,” she said, expressing concern that similar trends may again occur.

But panelists also stressed that underlying concerns about issues including economic stability and cost of living, or other concerns tied to immigration issues should not be dismissed as nativism when advocating for migrants.

Peter Skerry, a professor of political science at Boston College, said during a panel discussion, “I don’t think (calling it) racism is a very helpful response or answer to this kind of question.”

“I don’t deny that racism exists, but I think as an answer, it’s much too vague, too facile and basically unfair to the situation and certainly unfair to our fellow citizens,” he said of those who raise concerns about “real challenges.”

In considering challenges to the church’s work with migrants, Bishop Seitz said, “I am a person of hope because I know who wins.”

“I believe that the Lord will not leave us,” he said, adding, “And I don’t mean just wishful thinking, right? Hope is, for a Christian, not wishful thinking. I’m hopeful that this, in God’s plan, will become a moment of reawakening for our country, a recommitment to those principles that are the best of our country.”

The event was hosted by CUA, the USCCB’s Migration and Refugee Services and Jesuit Refugee Service/USA.

(OSV News) – They’re compassionate doctors. Inspiring teachers. Committed advocates for justice. Steady guides on the spiritual path.

Catholic sisters in America simply can’t be stereotyped.

And to prove it, the 12th annual Catholic Sisters Week (March 8-14) is celebrating their many ministries and achievements with campaigns and activities that aim to educate, inform and even surprise. The yearly event launched in 2014 as a part of Women’s History Month.

“The sisters don’t toot their horns,” said Susan Oxley, communications and membership manager for the Religious Formation Conference, a Chicago-based organization serving women’s and men’s religious institutes in America and abroad. “They’re too busy doing what they do. And so we’ve got to do that for them.”

Mikaela VanMoorleghem, director of Marketing and Communications for the Notre Dame Sisters in Omaha, Nebraska, had a flagship Catholic Sisters Week idea that involves 34 congregations nationwide.

“The campaign is called #LikeaCatholicSister,” said VanMoorleghem, a member of Communicators for Women Religious, which is affiliated with the Leadership Conference for Women Religious, or LCWR. “And the purpose is to get different congregations from across the country in a unified effort to challenge these outdated stereotypes of what a Catholic sister is — and shift perceptions of religious life by showcasing the diverse and dynamic and impactful ways that the sisters actually serve today.”

VanMoorleghem hopes the storytelling and reflection of the #LikeaCatholicSister social media campaign – social media hashtags help users find specific content – will demonstrate the many ways women religious have always defied expectations.

“We know that for generations — this isn’t just happening today — Catholic sisters have been breaking barriers and advocating for justice and leading in education,” she said. “We know that a lot of these different congregations and sisters have been a source of strength and hope and transformation.”

She also encouraged participating congregations to share historical references — sisters of one congregation were imprisoned in a concentration camp during World War II — as well as contemporary stories, “so people understand that this has been their lives and their life’s work.”

Dominican Sister Beth Murphy, director of communications for the Dominican Sisters of Springfield, Illinois, said her congregation’s contribution to #LikeaCatholicSister will focus on four sisters who exemplify their charism, each accompanied by an informative tag.

Three short videos will also accompany the sisters’ campaign.

Dominican Sister Sharon Zayac (“Changing the narrative”) helped found the sisters’ eco-spirituality center; Dominican Sister Mila Diaz Solano (“Elevating different voices”) is creating an all-Spanish master’s degree at Chicago’s Catholic Theological Union; Dominican Sister M. Alverna Hollis (“Trailblazing new paths”) standardized sign language in Peru and founded the first-ever high school for the deaf in that country.

Dominican Sister Josephine Meagher (“Pioneering courage”), one of the congregation’s founding sisters, sought naturalization — but it’s not clear if she ever attained it.

“An interesting story,” reflected Sister Murphy, “to be telling at this moment in history!”

The Benedictine Sisters of Benet Hill Monastery in Colorado Springs, Colorado, chose the Catholic Sisters Week theme “Doing Hope and Letting Love Flow,” encouraging friends and family to honor a Catholic sister by taking a personal “Lenten Pilgrimage of Hope with the People of the Amazon.”

A Lenten guidebook will accompany their campaign.

“Our goals,” said Ruth Roland, director of mission advancement at Benet Hill, “are to raise awareness about the environmental crisis in Peru along the Amazon for people living there; build community between our monastery’s global community and the communities working with Minga Peru, a nonprofit in Peru; raise funds for their immediate needs; and sign up folks for a real pilgrimage to the Amazon in November 2025.”

The sisters’ neighbor, Barbara Faulkenberry, originally connected the monastery with Minga Peru, and will lead the 2025 pilgrimage. Faulkenberry, a retired Air Force major general, shared that, while she’s not Catholic, she stopped in one day at Benet Hill and “found the love of Christ that just permeated the place.”

“The guide book itself is for Lent — and so there’s phrases from our sisters; from the Bible; from wonderful people — all women’s voices that are just speaking to us,” Faulkenberry told OSV News.

“And we reflect on those words over Lent, and then beyond. So our journey, our pilgrimage, does not stop at the end of Lent,” she said.

The Ursuline Sisters of Louisville, Kentucky, said Kathy Williams, director of communications and public relations, decided to combine the celebration of Catholic Sisters Week with both the 2025 Jubilee Year declared by Pope Francis, as well as the 500th anniversary of the journey of their founder, St. Angela Merici, to Rome.

The interactive map they created — “Walk with Angela” — allows users to virtually follow in St. Angela’s footsteps through several historic sites, including the Louisville motherhouse and five Italian cities. At each location, visitors can access videos narrated by sisters of the congregation who work with refugees, witness to marginalized people and serve as spiritual directors.

“One of our own Ursulines – Sister Martha Buser – was a well-known expert on St. Angela Merici,” Williams said. “She traveled the world talking about her, and wrote several books about her. So we used a lot of her writings, and the reflection questions that we use are from her writings.”

An animated representation of St. Angela Merici — looking excited and determined, as if she’s off on an adventure — is accompanied by the Vatican’s 2025 Jubilee mascot Luce and her animated friends.

“We wanted also to appeal to the kids in school, the teenagers and the middle schoolers,” Williams said. “And that’s when I had the inspiration to create the young St. Angela to attract them.”

Journeys are a consistent feature in the various Catholic Sisters Week offerings — including those for the Felician Sisters of North America, who are in the midst of celebrating their 150th anniversary.

But rather than simply commemorate, the Felicians also want to raise awareness, said Julie Kresge, their chief mission advancement officer.

Shifting their tactic, they are focusing on the life-saving mission of Águilas del Desierto — Eagles of the Desert — an organization that rescues people in distress crossing the deserts along the U.S.-Mexico border, or brings closure by locating the body of a loved one.

The International Organization for Migration documented 686 deaths and disappearances of people migrating through the US-Mexico border in 2022, making it the deadliest land route for migrants worldwide on record.

Felician Sister Maria Louise Edwards, who has dedicated her ministry to working with migrant families, “is based there, and she helps Águilas with anything that they need,” said Kresge. “That’s her passion in life.”

Interactive educational displays will be sent to Felician convents across North America, allowing residents and the community to walk in solidarity with migrants.

As they view the exhibit, participants are invited to don a backpack containing water, a map and a first-aid kit.

“And they’ll receive a reflection card,” Kresge said. “‘How did that make you feel?’ Just process that. And if they want to write a note or a reflection, we have names of folks that they can pray for at the end as well.”

Whichever journey is taken – virtual, interactive, or overseas – the mission of Catholic Sisters Week is, ultimately, to inspire others.

“The purpose of Catholic Sister Week,” Sister Murphy said, “is to present to women some role models in which they can hopefully see possibilities for their own lives.”

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – The U.S. bishops urged Catholics to answer Pope Francis’ call for prayer for the people of Ukraine in their Lenten reflection as that nation fends off Russia’s invasion.

In a Lenten reflection released by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops March 3, Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, president of the conference, wrote, “As we begin the holy Season of Lent, a time of prayer, penance, and charity, we join our Holy Father, Pope Francis, in his solidarity with the ‘martyred people of Ukraine.'”

“We pray and hope that the United States, in concert with the wider international community, works with perseverance for a just peace and an end to aggression,” said Archbishop Broglio, who heads the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services. “As our Holy Father reminded us in 2024, courageous negotiations require ‘boldness’ to ‘open the door’ for dialogue.”

Although the reflection did not mention either event, it was published shortly after Ukraine marked the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24, and days after a tense Oval Office meeting between Ukrainian President Voldymyr Zelenskyy and U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance about the future of U.S. aid to Ukraine in that conflict.

“As Catholics, we are acutely aware that every past occupation of Ukraine has resulted in various degrees of repression of the Catholic Church in the country; we must not tolerate the forcing of our brothers and sisters underground again,” Archbishop Broglio wrote. “I echo Pope Francis’ plea for respecting the religious freedom of all Ukrainians, ‘Please, let no Christian church be abolished directly or indirectly. Churches are not to be touched!'”

Archbishop Broglio added that in addition to “offering prayers and sacrifices for a truly just peace in Ukraine, an opportunity for effective solidarity presents itself in the annual USCCB collection for the Church in Central and Eastern Europe, which will be taken up in many dioceses on Ash Wednesday.”

“By contributing to this collection, Catholics in the United States can be assured that their assistance will directly help their struggling brothers and sisters in Ukraine, as well as in over twenty other countries in the region,” he said. “I invite America’s Catholics, in union with all men and women of good will, to pray for the peace of Ukraine, and to contribute generously to assisting that suffering and courageous nation.”

Lent began on Ash Wednesday, which fell this year on March 5.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis has chosen “Migrants, missionaries of hope” as the theme for the Catholic Church’s celebration of World Day of Migrants and Refugees, linking the world day to the Jubilee message of hope.

“In light of the Jubilee, the theme highlights the courage and tenacity of migrants and refugees who bear witness each day to hope for the future despite difficulties,” the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development said in a statement announcing the message March 3.

The hope of migrants “is the hope of achieving happiness even beyond borders, the hope that leads them to rely totally on God,” it said.

The chosen theme draws from the theme for the Holy Year 2025: “Pilgrims of hope.”

This year, the world day will not be observed on the last Sunday of September as usual but will instead take place Oct. 4-5 to coincide with both the Jubilee of Migrants and the Jubilee of the Missions at the Vatican.

“Migrants and refugees become ‘missionaries of hope’ in the communities where they are welcomed, often revitalizing their faith and promoting interreligious dialogue based on common values,” the dicastery said in its announcement. “They remind the church of the ultimate goal of the earthly pilgrimage, which is to reach the future homeland.”

ROME (CNS) – As he continues to receive treatment in Rome’s Gemelli hospital, Pope Francis sent written thanks for people’s prayers, but he did not go to his hospital window as some people had hoped.

Young people and members of the House of Mary, both groups associated with the Pontifical Academy of the Immaculate Conception, led the recitation of the Angelus prayer March 2 around a statue of St. John Paul II below the pope’s hospital window.

A couple dozen other people and many photographers and TV correspondents joined them.

The Vatican press office released a message from the 88-year-old Pope Francis with a brief reflection the day’s Gospel reading, but also with a reflection on being hospitalized since Feb. 14 with breathing difficulty and a diagnosis of double pneumonia.

In his message, the pope thanked his doctors and all the medical professionals assisting him.

But he also told people, “I feel in my heart the ‘blessing’ that is hidden within frailty, because it is precisely in these moments that we learn even more to trust in the Lord; at the same time, I thank God for giving me the opportunity to share in body and spirit the condition of so many sick and suffering people.”

Pope Francis expressed his gratitude “for the prayers, which rise up to the Lord from the hearts of so many faithful from many parts of the world: I feel all your affection and closeness and, at this particular time, I feel as if I am ‘carried’ and supported by all God’s people.”

The pope assured people he was praying for them, too, and said, “I pray above all for peace. From here, war appears even more absurd. Let us pray for tormented Ukraine, Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, Myanmar, Sudan and Kivu” in eastern Congo.

Giuseppe Perazzo was one of the first to arrive outside the Gemelli hospital for the midday prayer. At the time, hospital security staff were re-arranging the flowers, votive candles and cards people have been leaving for the pope at the foot of the statue.

Perazzo held a big sign encouraging Pope Francis to listen to and obey his doctors.

“He’s not just the pope,” Perazzo said, “he is also a man like us. He is one of us, so when he is released, I will feel better, too.”

A couple from India working in Rome, who identified themselves only as Alice and Tommy, said, “Today we have the day off, so we came to pray for the pope. He is a great person.”

Miguel Nascimento, an older gentleman wearing a large cross around his neck, stood tall as he recited the rosary for Pope Francis.

“I am here because I am a believer,” he said. “I used to be an altar server when I was a boy in Cape Verde.”

As people were praying at the hospital, Matteo Bruni, director of Vatican press office, confirmed that Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, and Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, the substitute for general affairs in the secretariat, had paid their second visit to the pope in the hospital.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The original statue of Our Lady of Fatima will make a rare journey from its shrine in Portugal to Rome in October 2025 for a Jubilee celebration of Marian spirituality.

The statue will be present in St. Peter’s Square Oct. 12 for the closing Mass of the Jubilee of Marian Spirituality, the Vatican announced Feb. 27.

The statue has embedded in its crown one of the bullets from the attempted assassination of St. John Paul II in 1981. A Turkish gunman shot the pope on May 13, the feast of Our Lady of Fatima, and the Polish pope credited her with saving his life. He traveled to Fatima the next year to offer his thanks in person.

The Marian jubilee will offer pilgrims the chance to cross the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica and partake in a prayer vigil at the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome — considered the oldest Marian shrine in the West.

According to Archbishop Rino Fisichella, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, the statue’s visit will allow the faithful to “experience the closeness of the Virgin Mary” in a special way. Quoting Pope Francis’ Jubilee Bull of Inditction, “Spes non confundit” (“Hope does not disappoint”), he recalled how Mary is venerated as “the most affectionate of mothers, who never abandons her children.”

The Jubilee will be only the fourth time the statue has left the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima for Rome. The first occasion was in 1984 when St. John Paul II consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. It returned during the Holy Year 2000 and again in 2013 for the Year of Faith, which marked 50 years since the opening of the Second Vatican Council.

Father Carlos Cabecinhas, rector of the Fatima shrine, emphasized the exceptional nature of the event, noting that the statue is only moved upon the request of a pope. “In this Jubilee time, the Virgin of Fatima is the woman of Paschal joy, even in the painful times the world is experiencing,” he said. “Once again, the ‘Lady dressed in white’ will be a pilgrim of hope.”

Carved in 1920 from Brazilian cedar by Portuguese sculptor José Ferreira Thedim, the 104-centimeter-tall statue was crafted based on descriptions from the three shepherd children who claimed to witness the Marian apparitions in 1917. It was solemnly crowned in 1946.

Pope Francis visited the Marian shrine at Fatima for the second time in 2023 during his trip to Lisbon, Portugal, for World Youth Day. In 2017, he celebrated Mass there to mark the 100th anniversary of the apparitions.

PARIS (OSV News) – A mere three months after Notre Dame Cathedral reopened, some Catholics in France worry the massive influx of tourists has overshadowed its religious essence.

But the auxiliary bishop of Paris told OSV News it’s the opposite — with a large flow of people, more strangers are exposed to the Catholic faith, with their hearts touched by God’s presence in renovated interiors.

With 29,000 visitors a day, up from 23,500 a day before the fire in 2019, Notre Dame’s guest rates are comparable to those of the Louvre Museum, even though the museum’s surface area is considerably larger.

Auxiliary Bishop Emmanuel Tois of Paris, whose office is just about 60 feet from the cathedral, told OSV News that the number of tourists flooding the cathedral doesn’t bother him. It’s a chance to meet the Lord, he said.

Bishop Tois said that the rector and chaplains of Notre Dame often circulate among the visitors in the aisles of the cathedral. “And they are regularly approached by people who ask for explanations, and who sometimes explicitly ask them how they can be baptized.”

Bishop Tois often celebrates Mass at Notre Dame himself, and regularly goes there on Saturday mornings to hear confessions.

“People come to me for confession even if they had not thought of it when they walked in,” he recounted. “Some tell me it is the first time they have been to confession in 40 years! Others are not baptized and know nothing about faith. But they come and sit next to me and ask me lots of questions,” he said of the conversion power of the place.

“They have come to visit a historic place, which had to be seen, given its notoriety. But in the course of the visit, they are surprised by metaphysical questions that sometimes touch explicitly on faith,” Bishop Tois said.

When asked about criticism by Alain-Marc Plasman in the French Catholic paper La Croix that the cathedral “locked in its status as a monument … loses its primary function,” Bishop Tois said that “Notre Dame has been offering visitors works that speak of God for 900 years, and that intrigues them.”

He explained that “visits do not stop during Masses and liturgical services. Visitors are interested in what is going on. They are respectful. They lower their voices and watch. They see that this heritage has been handed down and is still alive today. Many are impressed.”

“The cathedral is always full, whatever the time, and it is true that when you enter it, you can be surprised by the noise and tourist bustle there,” Bishop Tois told OSV News. “It is also true that many visitors are moved by the aesthetic beauty of the cathedral, just as one might be when visiting a fine museum.”

For Mathieu Lours, too, the “historical density” of Notre Dame, which attracts the crowds, is not in contradiction with its religious life.

“As for the crowd of visitors who pass through the doors of the cathedral, how does their presence interfere with the spiritual life of the building?” the architecture historian asked in La Croix.

“Its openness to all is rather a guarantee of its vitality,” Lours wrote. “How could a cathedral, in today’s world, be a place of conversion if it only attracts the convinced? Crowds are the hallmark of great sanctuaries. And the Church must take up the challenge of maintaining, despite everything, the dignity that is due to them.”

He also pointed out that the cathedral is a witness to the living faith with the Blessed Sacrament that “has found its place within a tabernacle placed on the high altar. Every visitor, every faithful now understands — or at least has the intuition — that the centre of the cathedral is this inaccessible space … It is the very definition of the sacred that he experiences here.”

Bishop Tois agreed. “From the outset, the Archdiocese of Paris has endeavored to welcome both pilgrims — who know they are pilgrims — and other visitors,” he told OSV News.

“That’s why we don’t charge admission to the cathedral. We must not separate pilgrims from other visitors. People enter Notre Dame with many different approaches. There are those who have a very lively faith, and those who are conscious of not having faith,” he said.

“But between the two, there is a whole margin of people who are neither on one side nor the other, and who, moreover, do not want to be lumped into one side or the other. But they are receptive when they enter the cathedral, and can open up to an unexpected encounter.”

He concluded: “Many are likely to let themselves be touched by a visit to Notre Dame, even if they first entered it simply as tourists. I am a witness to that.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis marked Ash Wednesday on his 20th day in Rome’s Gemelli hospital by taking part in the rite of the blessing of the ashes and receiving them in a short prayer service, the Vatican said.

While the 88-year-old pope’s overall clinical case remained complex, his condition was “stable” and he did not experience any episodes of “respiratory insufficiency,” the Vatican said in its evening medical bulletin March 5.

The pope received ashes and the Eucharist in the morning from a celebrant, who was not named in the bulletin. It was most likely one of the hospital chaplains, a Vatican source said.

The rite was held in the private suite of rooms on the 10th floor of the hospital where the pope has been receiving treatment for double pneumonia and other respiratory ailments, the Vatican said.

The pope was diagnosed with double pneumonia Feb. 18 after being admitted to the hospital Feb. 14 for breathing difficulties. A Vatican source said the pneumonia is following a “normal evolution” that is expected to be seen in someone receiving treatment. Each case is different and “patience is needed” because the illness “does not disappear in one day,” the source said.

The pope is “in a good mood” and cooperative, the source added.

Pope Francis spent March 5 sitting in an armchair and increased the amount of “respiratory physiotherapy” he has been getting, which often consists of breathing exercises, as well as physiotherapy, the bulletin said. A source said a physiotherapist is working with him to help prevent any of the usual consequences that arise when a person has limited opportunities for movement while hospitalized.

“As scheduled, the pope receives high-flow oxygen” through a nasal cannula during the day, the bulletin said, and, at night, he wears a mask covering his nose and mouth for “noninvasive mechanical ventilation.”

Although the pope no longer needed oxygen through a breathing mask during the day March 4 and 5, a Vatican source has said mechanical ventilation is used at night so he can sleep better.

Also March 5 he telephoned Father Gabriel Romanelli, parish priest of Holy Family Church in Gaza, which, the source said, indicates the pope is able to talk. The pope spent the afternoon alternating between working and resting, the bulletin said.

Because of the continued complexity of his case, his doctors continue to hold that his “prognosis remains guarded.”

The Vatican had said in the morning that the pope had rested well overnight and had woken up a bit after 8 a.m. It was the first time doctors had communicated the waking time of the pope, whose normal schedule had been waking as early as 4 or 5 a.m. for prayer and reflection.

Pope Francis had suffered “two episodes of acute respiratory insufficiency” March 3, which occurs when the lungs are unable to effectively take in sufficient oxygen or expel enough carbon dioxide to meet the body’s needs.

Those crises led doctors to put the pope back on “noninvasive mechanical ventilation” – a treatment that delivers air with added oxygen through a tightly fitted face mask and using positive pressure to assist breathing. He also underwent two bronchoscopies that day but “remained alert, oriented and cooperative at all times,” the Vatican said.

Cardinal Angelo De Donatis, head of the Apostolic Penitentiary, a church court, led the traditional Ash Wednesday celebration that usually is presided over by the pope. The celebration March 5 began with a penitential procession from the Benedictine monastery of St. Anselm on Rome’s Aventine Hill and to the Dominican-run Basilica of Santa Sabina, followed by Mass and the distribution of ashes.

The cardinal read the homily prepared by Pope Francis, however, he prefaced his reading by saying, “We are deeply united” with the pope, and “we thank him for offering his prayer and his sufferings for the good of the whole church and the entire world.”

The Vatican also announced that the pope would not be present for the March 8-9 Jubilee for Volunteers, and that the Mass March 9 would be presided over by Cardinal Michael Czerny, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. About 25,000 people from more than 100 countries were expected to attend.

Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Dicastery for Saints’ Causes, was scheduled to lead the nightly recitation of the rosary for Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square March 5.