Category: 2025 News

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Wrapping up a Vatican summit on the rights of children, Pope Francis announced he was going to publish a papal document dedicated to children.

He called the Feb. 3 summit venue in the frescoed halls of the Apostolic Palace, a kind of “open observatory” in which speakers explored “the reality of childhood throughout the world, a childhood that is unfortunately often hurt, exploited, denied.”

Some 50 experts and leaders from around the world, who shared their experience and compassion, he said, also “elaborated proposals for the protection of children’s rights, considering them not as numbers, but as faces.”

“Children are watching us,” he said, “to see how we are going about living” in this world.

The pope said he planned to prepare a papal document “to give continuity to this commitment and promote it throughout the church.” Those in attendance applauded the pope and his brief closing remarks and gave him a standing ovation.

The one-day world leaders’ summit titled, “Love them and protect them,” discussed several topics of concern including a child’s right to food, health care, education, a family, free time and the right to live free from violence and exploitation. It was organized by the recently created Pontifical Committee for the World Day of Children, headed by Franciscan Father Enzo Fortunato.

The invitees included Nobel Prize winners, government ministers and heads of state, leaders of international and nonprofit organizations, top Vatican officials and other experts.

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 together with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said in his talk, “The threat of ecological devastation — which encompasses the climate crisis and also the biodiversity crisis — is a terrible burden that we are placing on our children.”

He praised the pope for highlighting “the spiritual crisis we face as stemming in part from the willful blindness that prevents so many from seeing the way in which our economic system is driving us toward the exploitation of both people and the planet at the expense of our moral values and the future of children.”

“Those that hold power today must alter our ways of thinking; and our new thinking must result in deep changes that transform our current systems of economics and politics, giving way toward a more just and ecologically-minded system that puts environmental and social justice at the center of our plans and efforts,” Gore said. “We have all the solutions we need.”

Kailash Satyarthi of India, co-winner of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize and activist campaigning against child labor in India and advocating for the universal right to education, said in his talk that while he trusts everyone’s concern for children, he also feels ashamed.

“I am ashamed because we are failing our children every day. I am ashamed to listen to all these data and statistics that I have been listening” to and talking about for the past 45 years, he said.

“We know the problems, we know the solutions,” he said, but so far, everything has just been rhetoric and words.

The problem-solvers of the world “are not really honest (with) the problem-sufferers,” he said, when they lack any sense of “moral accountability and moral responsibility.”

“The solution lies in the genuine feeling and connection” to every child as if he or she were one’s own, he said. It is only when people feel genuine compassion will they feel “an honest urge to take urgent action.”

“We have to fight this menace (of child labor and poverty) and all other crises through compassion in action. We have to create a culture of problem-solving. Let us globalize compassion because they are all our children,” Satyarthi said.

(OSV News) – The long-awaited and elusive ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has silenced bombs and halted air raids on the Gaza Strip, for the time being, but the humanitarian situation there is dire, the regional director of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association reported.

CNEWA, established in 1926 by Pope Pius XI to support the Eastern churches, administers the Pontifical Mission, which was founded as the Pontifical Mission for Palestine by Pope Pius XII in 1949 to care for Palestinian refugees. The mandate of the mission, which was subsequently placed under CNEWA’s direction, has been extended by several pontiffs to care for all those affected by war and poverty in the Middle East.

CNEWA is tending to the needs of thousands of people including children left without families, pregnant women, new mothers and the chronically ill in desperate need of health care.

“Gaza’s humanitarian situation is bleak,” Joseph Hazboun told The Catholic Register, Canada’s national Catholic newspaper based in Toronto, from his office in Jerusalem. “Over 17,000 Gaza children are without their families, many of them orphaned. An estimated 150,000 pregnant women are in desperate need of vital health services. Those with chronic illnesses have no medicine or access to medical treatment. Women and girls face sexual violence.”

The war has also taken a heavy toll on the mental health of children and adults who’ve had to endure the ordeal of a war launched by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, which persisted until ceasefire took effect Jan. 19 while the parties involved resisted proposals for a peaceful settlement along the way, he said.

“One million children need mental health and psychosocial support for severe depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts,” he said, quoting numbers provided by UNICEF.

Hazboun is also deeply concerned about the dwindling numbers of Christians left in the Holy Land. One of his own staff, Sami Tarazi, lost both his parents while they were sheltering in the Orthodox Church of St. Porphyrios when it was struck by a missile, while Tarazi himself was out in the field carrying food and water to people of all faith groups.

“There are only 600 (Christians) left now,” Hazboun said.

He estimated that as the Rafah crossing fully reopens, there will be only 300 left.

On Feb. 1, the Rafah border crossing was opened for the first time so that sick and wounded Palestinian patients from Gaza could travel to Egypt for medical treatment abroad. The crossing was shut down for the last nine months.

But undaunted by the enormous challenges to addressing the human cost of war, CNEWA’s Pontifical Mission for Palestine, or PMP, is moving forward with relief programs, Hazboun continued.

Currently, PMP-Jerusalem is delivering psychosocial programs in various areas of the Gaza Strip, providing food packages as well as funding a medical care program serving thousands of children, youth and women.

“Nutrition programs for mothers and children are a priority as chronic diseases continue to spread,” he said. “Medical care is urgently needed as patients have not seen a specialist in 15 months. Schools need to be opened and functional again to allow children to resume their education.

“We provide support to all of Gaza’s communities as well as the Christian community that will continue to call Gaza home,” he emphasized, adding that the aid programs are conducted in cooperation with partners and are dependent on funding by donors around the world.

Aid to the Church in Need, or ACN, another pontifical charity that works in collaboration with the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, is also actively working to deliver critical humanitarian aid to the Christian community (and others) in Gaza, focusing on medical supplies, food and shelter assistance, since the Christian population there has been significantly impacted by the conflict and urgently needs support to rebuild their lives.

“The ceasefire agreement has been reached between Hamas and Israel … allowing the inhabitants of the Holy Land, affected by the war that broke out on Oct. 7, 2023, to breathe a sigh of relief and, above all, to finally hope for a lasting peace,” said Mario Bard, the Montreal-based head of information of ACN.

Hazboun cautioned however, that there are obstacles to both a lasting peace and challenges to the delivery of aid.

“The biggest challenge moving forward is the free movement of people and the reconstruction of Gaza, which will cost billions of dollars,” he said. “The checkpoints and road closures are worse after the ceasefire. All the side roads are blocked and we have to take a long route to get to Ramallah to avoid long hours of waiting at a busy checkpoint.”

Church leaders in the Holy Land issued a joint statement Jan. 16 saying: “The end of the war does not mean the end of the conflict. It is therefore necessary to seriously and credibly address the deep-rooted issues that have been at the root of this conflict for far too long.”

The prospects of an enduring peace look dim at this point, according to Hazboun and other observers, given the history of the ceasefire deal that has finally been brokered by the United States, Qatar and Egypt. An earlier ceasefire was only temporary and saw fewer than half of the Israeli hostages returned in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners before fighting broke out again.

“Only peace and freedom and a life with dignity for both Israelis and Palestinians can bring peace and security,” Hazboun said.

On Feb. 1, 183 Palestinian prisoners were freed from Israeli jail after Hamas released three Israeli hostages: Ofer Kalderon, 53, and Yarden Bibas, 34, handed to the Red Cross in Khan Younis, and dual U.S.-Israeli citizen Keith Siegel, 65, who was released in Gaza City.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – It is unacceptable that a child’s right to life and a dignified childhood should be sacrificed to “the idols” of power, profit, ideology and nationalistic self-interest, Pope Francis told a group of world experts and leaders.

“A childhood denied is a silent scream condemning the wrongness of the economic system, the criminal nature of wars, the lack of adequate medical care and schooling,” he said in his address opening a Feb. 3 summit at the Vatican on children’s rights.

“We are here today to say that we do not want this to become the new normal,” he said, and “we are all here together, to put children, their rights, their dreams and their demand for a future at the center of our concern.”

About 50 guests from all over the world, including former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, attended the one-day world leaders’ summit titled, “Love them and protect them.” The invitees included Nobel Prize winners, government ministers and heads of state, leaders of international and nonprofit organizations, top Vatican officials and other experts.

Talks were divided into topics of concern including a child’s right to food, health care, education, a family, free time, and the right to live free from violence and exploitation.

The pope opened the summit by urging everyone to listen to children – their hopes, dreams and fears – and “to build a better world for children, and consequently for everyone!”

“I am confident that, by pooling your experience and expertise, you can open new avenues to assist and protect the children whose rights are daily trampled upon and ignored,” he said.

“Listening to those children who today live in violence, exploitation or injustice serves to strengthen our ‘no’ to war, to the throwaway culture of waste and profit, in which everything is bought and sold without respect or care for life, especially when that life is small and defenseless,” the pope said.

“In the name of this throwaway mentality, in which the human being becomes all-powerful, unborn life is sacrificed through the murderous practice of abortion,” he said. “Abortion suppresses the life of children and cuts off the source of hope for the whole of society.”

The pope highlighted the plight of children living in “limbo” because they were not registered at birth and of “undocumented” children at the border of the United States, “those first victims of that exodus of despair and hope made by the thousands of people coming from the south toward the United States of America.”

“What we have tragically seen almost every day in recent times, namely children dying beneath bombs, sacrificed to the idols of power, ideology and nationalistic interests, is unacceptable,” he said. “In truth, nothing is worth the life of a child. To kill children is to deny the future.”

Archbishop Paul Gallagher, Vatican foreign minister, followed up on the pope’s condemnation of abortion in his talk.

“All children, even before birth, have the right to life and should be protected from discrimination on the grounds of sex or health,” he said. “The choices that societies make regarding the protection of the child in its mother’s womb have an impact on the way we see children, indicating the space and importance we are prepared to give them.”

He also said, “Every child should have the right to a family, the right to be raised by a father and a mother,” as “it is within the family that the rights and the well-being of children are best protected and promoted.”

Parents also have the right to “educate their offspring according to their own religious beliefs,” the archbishop added.

Pope Francis attended the early morning panels and was scheduled to return for the closing session. He was present for the speech of Jordan’s Queen Rania, who told the gathering that “the Convention on the Rights of the Child is the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history.”

“In theory, the consensus is clear: Every right for every child. Yet so many children around the world are excluded from this promise, particularly in war zones,” she said. “Worse yet, people have grown desensitized to their pain.”

The media blur horrific scenes of war “for our protection,” she said, adding that it is absurd that a child’s “lived reality is deemed too graphic for even adults to watch.”

Some children are even denied the promise and protections of childhood, she said, when “they are demonized, aged up, portrayed as threats or simply dismissed as human shields.”

“From Palestine to Sudan, Yemen to Myanmar and beyond, this un-childing creates chasms in our compassion. It stifles urgency in favor of complacency. It allows politicians to sidestep blame,” she said.

Today, Queen Rania said, there is “a status quo that deems some children’s suffering acceptable based on their name, faith or the land of their birth, where every child’s fate depends on where they fall on some artificial line between ‘our’ children and ‘theirs.'”

“Without equal application, global commitments ring hollow. Because if a right can be willfully denied, then it is not a right at all. It is a privilege for the lucky few,” she said. “Every child has an equal claim to our protection and care. No exceptions, no exclusions, no preconditions.”

PHILADELPHIA (OSV News) – Archbishop Nelson J. Pérez of Philadelphia is calling for prayer, saying his “heart sank” after learning of a fatal air crash in that city Jan. 31, just two days after a midair collision between a commercial jet and an Army helicopter near a Washington airport killed 67.

“This shocking tragedy comes with great loss, pain, and anxiety for the families of the crew and passengers as well as neighborhood residents and business owners whose evening was shattered with sudden violence,” said Archbishop Pérez in a statement. “We pray fervently that God will bring comfort and healing in this time of anguish.”

The archbishop issued his statement a few hours after a medical flight departed Northeast Philadelphia Airport Jan. 31 at approximately 6 p.m. Minutes after takeoff, the Learjet 55 plunged into a major intersection in the city’s northeast section.

The jet struck near a 12-lane section of Roosevelt Boulevard (a portion of U.S. Route 1), a sprawling shopping mall, and a densely populated residential area. The fiery crash, which was captured on a number of security cameras and personal devices, sparked fires at a number of structures on the ground and left a wide debris field.

So far, officials have confirmed at least seven have died as a result of the crash.

All six of those on board the medical jet operated by Jet Rescue Air Ambulance were killed. They were identified as 11-year-old Valentina Guzman Murillo and her mother Lizeth Murillo Ozuna, who were returning to Mexico after Valentina’s treatment for a life-threatening illness at Shriners Children’s Philadelphia; captain Alan Alejandro Montoya Perales; co-pilot Josue de Jesus Juarez Juarez; Dr. Raul Meza Arredondo; and paramedic Rodrigo Lopez Padilla.

Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum said in a statement that all six were Mexican nationals. Shriner’s Children’s Hospital said in a statement that it was “heartbroken” to confirm the patient had received care at their facility.

The seventh victim, killed in a car on the ground, has not yet been identified.

As of Feb. 3, at least 22 others were injured, with three still in critical condition, according to Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker.

The flight’s data recorder, or black box, has been recovered, and investigators, including those from the National Transportation Safety Board, remain on the scene.

Shortly after the crash, President Donald Trump posted on his Truth Social account that “more innocent souls” had been lost.

“Our people are totally engaged. First Responders are already being given credit for doing a great job,” he wrote, adding, “More to follow. God bless you all.”

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro pledged full support from state agencies and resources, commending responders and saying in a media briefing, “This is when you see the best of Philly.”

Parker told media that she and her administration “are unified in our approach,” part of a “One Philly philosophy with all hands on deck.”

Prior to visiting the crash site Feb. 1, OSV News spoke with Father Patrick Welsh, pastor of St. Matthew Parish in Philadelphia, located just a few blocks from the plane’s impact point.

Father Welsh said he and his fellow parish priests “stayed up most of the night waiting for the dreaded phone call” about possible casualties among parishioners. While none were killed or injured, two families from the parish school community have been directly affected, he said.

“One completely lost their home to their fire” that followed the crash, said Father Welsh.

As investigators worked on Feb. 1, Father Welsh opened the church for Eucharistic adoration to provide solace amid the tragedy.

“Prayer is a powerful thing, and we should be doing it,” he said. “There’s nothing better we can be doing right now than finding ourselves before the Lord.”

Archbishop Pérez in his statement asked people to “unite in prayer and do what we can in the days ahead to share the compassionate love of Christ with those suffering as a result of tonight’s crash.”

He prayed particularly for the emergency personnel responding to the tragic scene.

“May our Blessed Mother wrap her protective mantle around the first responders working tirelessly to assist the injured, extinguish fires, and safeguard the community,” he said. “Our emergency personnel put themselves at great risk to serve us each day and they deserve our unending thanks.”

Retired Philadelphia Police Sergeant Mark Palma, a member of St. Albert the Great Parish in nearby Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania, echoed the archbishop’s call as he surveyed the crash site Feb. 1.

“You’ve got to pray … for the first responders,” said Palma, who had been on active duty during a 2015 Amtrak train crash in Philadelphia that killed eight and injured more than 150. “They’re going to have some serious issues after all this is done.”

Palma said he has been drawing strength from the legacy of beloved Philadelphia Police Chaplain Father Steven Wetzel, an Oblate of St. Francis de Sales whose Michael the Archangel Ministry helped first responders find faith amid the demands of their work.

In the aftermath of this tragedy, Palma said prayer is more essential than ever.

“I prayed really hard when I was by myself and I started to cry over this,” said Palma. “We’re human beings. We have feelings. … I prayed to give me strength over this. I prayed for the first responders.”

(OSV News) – Those who embrace consecrated life “bring the hope of the Gospel to the world in both visible and hidden ways,” said Bishop Earl A. Boyea of Lansing, Michigan, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations.

Bishop Boyea shared his thoughts in a Jan. 29 statement released by the USCCB ahead of the World Day of Prayer for Consecrated Life on Feb. 2, the feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple. The day of prayer for women and men in consecrated life was instituted by St. John Paul II in 1997.

Along with Bishop Boyea’s statement, the USCCB also announced the release of a new report on men and women religious in the U.S. who professed their perpetual vows in 2024.

The annual survey is conducted for the bishops by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University.

With responses from 75% of the U.S.-based institutes contacted by CARA, a total of 140 religious members — 73 sisters and nuns, and 67 brothers and priests — participated in the survey. It represents a response rate of 72% out of the 194 identified men and women religious in the profession class of 2024.

The CARA data shows that a majority of responding religious orders — 81% — had no one profess perpetual vows in 2024.

According to CARA’s report, 91 women and 103 men professed perpetual vows in religious life in 2024, with an average age of 37. Their ages ranged from 25 to 69. Half of the respondents were aged 34 or younger.

Candidates who do seek consecrated religious life are ardent in faith, explained Father Jorge Torres, a priest of the Diocese of Orlando, Florida, and executive director of the USCCB’s Secretariat of Clergy, Consecrated Life And Vocations.

“There are so many young people who are saying yes. They are attracted to those communities that are challenging them to live the Gospel in its fullness, and that’s one thing that sometimes people may not see,” Father Torres told OSV News. “Do we have the numbers that we had some generations ago? We don’t, but we have great quality.”

That quality includes a range of educational and life experiences prior to entrance into religious life. CARA’s report on the 2024 profession class found that while on average respondents were 19 years old when they first considered religious life, almost three quarters — 73% — had earned an undergraduate or graduate degree before entering their religious institute.

“I have multiple art degrees and came back to the faith at one of the most secular art institutes in the country. God is everywhere,” said Sister Mary Michael Di Palma, a member of the Sister Servants of the Eternal Word, in a statement posted to the USCCB’s online profile of members from the 2024 profession class.

Trappist Sister Jennifer Illig said in her USCCB profile that she had first visited the community in 2003, but entered nine years later after earning her doctorate in theology.

At the same time, only 11% reported having their entrance to religious life delayed (generally by about three years) due to educational debt. On average, this group spent three years paying off more than $46,000 in educational debt. Family and friends were the most common form of assistance.

The CARA report also noted 82% of the respondents had prior work experience, largely in the fields of business, education and health care.

Augustinian Brother David Relstab of the Province of Our Mother of Good Counsel said in his USCCB profile that he had been a mechanic for Mercedes-Benz (a job that requires mastery of complex electronic systems), and still teaches automotive technology at a local community college.

Most (84%) respondents said they had received encouragement from someone to consider religious life, generally a religious sister or brother (59%), friend (59%) or parish priest (38%). Over half (57%) also reported being discouraged from the prospect, with women (61%) more likely than men (43%) to experience such pushback.

Well over three quarters (78%) had participated in a “come and see” vocational discernment experience.

Regarding their habits of prayer before consecrated life, CARA found going on retreat was “the most common type of formative prayer experience” for four out of five. A similar number prayed the rosary regularly before joining their religious institute. And seven out of 10 went regularly to Eucharistic adoration.

The CARA report also found:

— The majority of respondents (92%) have been Catholic since baptism shortly after birth, with 92% having at least one parent who was Catholic, while for 87% both parents were Catholic;

— Almost all (97%) respondents were raised during their formative years by their biological parents, with 90% raised by a married couple living together, with 96% also having at least one sibling;

— Over half (64%) of the respondents listed their primary race or ethnicity as Caucasian, European American, or white, with 14% identifying as Asian, Pacific Islander or Native Hawaiian; 11% as Hispanic or Latino; 6% as African, African American or Black; 5% as mixed race or other;

— Slightly less than three quarters (69%) of respondents were born in the U.S. with 12% born in Asia, 10% in Latin America and 6% in Africa.

In his statement, Bishop Boyea said that women and men in consecrated life “remind us of the deep desire of the human heart to see the face of God.”

He added, “We thank them for their dedication ‘to stay awake, to be vigilant, to persevere in waiting’ as Pope Francis has said.”

(OSV News) – They are the walking wounded — those who have in some way been hurt by the church’s members through different forms of physical and emotional trauma, and continue to live with their injuries.

For some, it has driven — and kept — them away from parish life; others are still among us, but suffer with a sense of alienation and isolation.

How to accompany these brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ was the focus of “Walk with Someone Who Has Been Hurt by the Church,” a Jan. 21 webinar presented during the third and final year of the National Eucharistic Revival and its Walk With One initiative.

Previous components of the revival included the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage May to July 2024, and a 60,000-plus attendee National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis July 17-24, 2024.

Walk With One embraces the idea that everyone can — indeed, must — evangelize, and aims to equip them for sharing the Good News of Jesus’ love and compassion. As the NEC summarizes that mission, “The Lord is asking each of us to step out of our comfort zone and evangelize one-on-one.”

That aim is especially urgent for those who have been harmed, said the webinar contributors. They included Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens of Crookston, Minnesota, board chair of the National Eucharistic Congress organization; Gina Barthel, a victim and survivor of abuse; and Sara Larson, executive director of Awake, a nonprofit community of abuse survivors, concerned Catholics and allies responding to sexual abuse in the church.

“It’s important, actually, just to admit that people have been hurt in the church,” began Bishop Cozzens. “Sometimes we’re afraid to admit that. And it’s important to admit that the pain is real that people experience, and it can make it really hard for someone to come back to the church if they’ve been hurt — especially if they’ve been seriously hurt.”

With that first admission, Bishop Cozzens explained, comes another.

“It also would be important to admit that sometimes as a church, as members of the church — whether we’re leaders in the church or members of the church in general — we haven’t always faced this issue. We haven’t always acknowledged the depth of the evil that’s happened,” he said. “We haven’t always valued people’s pain, and we haven’t always dealt with victims of abuse or hurt in the right way. And those of us who want to help, we have to be aware of these things — because we want to be able to do better in helping people return to the church.”

“Every wound we have is important to Jesus,” Bishop Cozzens said. “He cares about it, and he wants to bring his healing to it.”

For those wondering how or where to start, he had specific advice.

“If we want to accompany someone who’s been hurt — if we want to walk with them — we have to begin where they are. This is how you walk with anyone,” he explained. “You have to go to where they are, and you have to begin by seeking to understand their experience.”

“One of the most important things,” he stressed, “can just be listening and even acknowledging, ‘Wow, that must have been painful’ or ‘Wow, that must have been hurtful.’ Just to be able to sympathize — or even empathize — is really key.”

Such an approach is, said Bishop Cozzens, rooted in the Gospels.

“One of the things you see, actually — when you meditate on the Gospels — is the way Jesus deals with people who have been hurt,” he said. “And what you see is that Jesus is not afraid to enter right into the wound — and he always does it with great reverence for the person … not forcing … but he invites them to open that wound, and to hear about it, and to meet them there.”

Ultimately, said Bishop Cozzens, “It’s also important to remember that healing is possible. This is part of the great message we can bring. I think of this great Jubilee Year of Hope that we’re in — the Jubilee Year is about healing, and especially about bringing hope.”

Bishop Cozzens portrayed abuse survivors as a spiritual asset.

“Those who’ve been hurt by a member of the church, when they return to the church, they can strengthen the church — because they can help us to prevent that from happening again,” he said. “And it can help to create in the church an environment that is actually more helpful and healing after that.”

Barthel – sexually abused as a child – was later sexually abused by the very priest from whom she sought healing while she was a novice in religious life.

“My soul was in a lot of chaos,” said Barthel. “He raped my soul.”

The spiritual destruction she experienced at the hands of her clerical tormenter – whom she now refers to as “Mr. M” – was devastating.

“Everything that I knew to be good and holy and pure and true was gone. It was destroyed — and for the first time in my life, I didn’t just think that God didn’t love me,” Barthel said. “I actually thought he hated me.”

“But the worst part of it all,” she added, “was that for the first time in my life, I couldn’t go to Jesus. I felt lost and alone and I didn’t think I could trust anyone. So for six very long, painful years, I wasn’t able to step foot into a Catholic church. And whenever I saw a priest or that Roman collar — all I could think of was Mr. M, and his lies and abuse — and it filled me with both terror and rage.”

Her idealism also fled.

“The rose-colored glasses with which I viewed the Catholic Church were completely shattered,” admitted Barthel. “Because when I tried to come back to the church, I often was not received well.”

She eventually returned in 2013, after crying out to Jesus Christ and experiencing an assurance of healing she finds difficult to verbalize.

“The fact that I’m still Catholic after all this is a testimony to God’s grace and love,” Barthel said. “Jesus continues to pursue my heart with so much intensity, and that’s why I’m Catholic today.”

Barthel’s experience is not atypical, explained Awake’s Sara Larson.

But Larson’s own walk with survivors has revealed four critical approaches of which to be mindful: The humility to know what you don’t know and to offer compassion more than advice; deep reverence for each person’s story of harm; a basic understanding of trauma and its impact; and that laypeople have an essential role in offering accompaniment and support.

“The unfortunate reality,” Larson shared, “is that many people who have been hurt by church leaders are afraid to share these stories with others — especially committed Catholics. Sadly, they are often used to being ignored, blamed; their experiences disbelieved or minimized.”

Statistics, Larson shared, indicate approximately 70% of adults in the U.S. have experienced at least one traumatic event in their lifetime, while around one in four women and one in six men have experienced sexual violence of some kind.

That means people can bring trauma to the church, even if they haven’t experienced it there.

It’s critical to remember, emphasized Larson, “These are people, not projects — and the way that I treat them should reflect the reverence they deserve as children of God.”

Those who would accompany survivors of trauma have a critical role, emphasized Larson.

“We can be the bridge of trust for those who understandably do not trust church leaders,” she said. “We can walk alongside people who are hurting, listen to their stories, acknowledge their pain — and manifest the love of God through our gentle, consistent, compassionate presence.”

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – Claims that the U.S. bishops’ conference profits from its partnership with the government to assist refugee populations that qualify for federal assistance, and that the Catholic Church facilitates illegal immigration are “just wrong,” said William Canny, the U.S. bishops’ migration director.

Canny, executive director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Migration and Refugee Services, made the comments in an interview Jan. 30 with OSV News in the wake of remarks by Vice President JD Vance and President Donald Trump’s press secretary.

Vance, who is Catholic, questioned the motives of the U.S. bishops’ criticism of Trump’s new immigration policies in a Jan. 26 interview – including reducing restrictions on raids on churches and schools. He asked if the bishops are actually concerned about receiving federal resettlement funding and “their bottom line.”

The same week, in her debut press briefing as White House press secretary on Jan. 28, Karoline Leavitt, also a Catholic, suggested the Trump administration would seek to strip federal funds from nongovernmental organizations including Catholic Charities as part of its effort to enforce its immigration policies. In that exchange, Catholic Charities was accused of facilitating illegal immigration, claims the domestic charitable arm of the Catholic Church in the U.S. has long denied.

The USCCB website states that its Migration and Refugee Services “is the largest refugee resettlement agency in the world,” and that in partnership with its affiliates, it resettles approximately 18% of the refugees that arrive in the U.S. each year.

Audited financial statements by an outside firm show that the USCCB received about $122.6 million in 2022 and about $129.6 million in 2023 in funding from government agencies for refugee-related services. But the same statements show that the USCCB spent more on those services than the government gave them, meaning the conference did not profit from the grants, according to the conference’s auditors. In 2023, for example, the conference spent $134.2 million for such services.

“We have an obligation to the federal government, when we take these grants, to report back to them, to monitor the activities that these agencies carry out. We’re talking food, housing, clothes, medical attention, et cetera, so we have an obligation to monitor that,” Canny said. “The conference does not profit from this money. And in fact, we cannot, we do not run these programs without putting also in some private funds. So there’s absolutely no profiting from these federal grants.”

The refugees eligible for the program, he added, “are highly vetted” by the U.S. government.

“When these refugees come in through this particular program, they are on a path to citizenship in this country,” Canny said. He added the program assists them with basic needs like housing, medical care and job searching.

When it comes to immigration policy, Canny said, the U.S. bishops are supportive of policies that are just, yet humane.

“Let me be clear that we believe that our country has a right to control its border and a legitimate right to determine who can come in and who can’t into the country, within the bounds of justice and law,” Canny said.

He added, “The sanctity of every human life is important to the Catholic Church, the God-given dignity of each person, regardless of nationality or immigration status. So some of these executive orders that have a tendency to disregard the humanness of people” are cause for concern.

“Government authorities have the right and responsibility to promote public safety and security and to enforce just laws,” Canny said. But he pointed to denying those with “legitimate asylum claims” entry, and fewer restrictions on raids in sensitive locations like churches as particular causes for concern.

After Vance’s comments, the USCCB issued a statement defending its work with refugees.

Others weighed in more sharply, including Kim Daniels, the director of the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University, who wrote on X that arguments the U.S. bishops are “advocating for open borders” are false.

“It all comes down to an old strategy: politicians targeting Catholics for political gain,” she said.

Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, who gave prayers at both of Trump’s inaugurations, including his second with Vance just days earlier, called the new vice president’s comments “just scurrilous” on his SiriusXM Catholic Channel show.

“I was really disappointed,” Cardinal Dolan said, calling the comments “not only harmful, this was inaccurate.”

“It’s very nasty,” Cardinal Dolan added, inviting Vance to “come look at our audits.”

“You think we make money caring for the immigrants? We’re losing it hand over fist,” Cardinal Dolan said.

Cardinal Dolan praised Vance on other issues, including comments he recently delivered to the March for Life, and said he hoped the comments against the church were “uncharacteristic.”

Canny said the Catholic Church has long held its view on serving refugees, and the U.S. is a nation of immigrants. He pointed out the first American citizen to be canonized – Mother Frances Cabrini – was an immigrant.

Asked how they planned to engage with the Trump administration on immigration policy, Canny said, “Certainly as they organize and get people into place, we hope to be able to meet with them directly and discuss these matters as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has done with every administration.”

“So we hope that that will happen to avoid misunderstandings in the future,” he said.

SCRANTON (Jan. 31, 2025) – Jean-Pierre Garry Pilon, formerly a priest of the Diocese of Scranton, has been dismissed from the clerical state at the conclusion of a disciplinary process authorized by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Holy See.

Mr. Pilon’ s involuntary dismissal from the clerical state was imposed after having been found guilty under canon law of solicitation of sexual behavior of an adult during the celebration of the Sacrament of Confession. As a result of his dismissal, Mr. Pilon will never again exercise priestly ministry in any capacity. He may no longer celebrate Mass, hear confessions, or administer any of the Church’s sacraments.

In August 2021, the Diocese of Scranton became aware of an accusation made against Mr. Pilon from officials in the Diocese of Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, that then-Father Pilon had been accused of soliciting sexual behavior with another adult within the celebration of the sacrament of Confession, which is among the gravest crimes in the canon law of the Catholic Church. Following the reception of the accusation, the Diocese of Scranton revoked Mr. Pilon’ s faculties and prohibited him from the exercise of priestly ministry.

Officials from the Diocese of Scranton then investigated the accusation in cooperation with the Diocese of Peterborough and, finding the accusation credible, transmitted its findings to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Vatican, as required by canon law. In response to the investigation, the same Dicastery authorized the Diocese of Scranton to adjudicate the accusation against Mr. Pilon using trial processes found in canon law.

Throughout the proceedings, Mr. Pilon was represented by a canon lawyer of his choosing and his right to defense was upheld. At the conclusion of the adjudication, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith authorized the Diocese of Scranton to impose the penalty of Dismissal from the Clerical State on Mr. Pilon, the most severe penalty that can be imposed on a cleric.

Jean-Pierre Garry Pilon is a Canadian citizen and has neither exercised priestly ministry, nor lived in the Diocese of Scranton. He was ordained a priest on June 29, 2002, and was incardinated into the Diocese of Scranton by the late Most Reverend James C. Timlin for membership in The Priestly Society of Saint John, a religious institute that was suppressed in 2004. Since his ordination, Mr. Pilon has only exercised ministry in various apostolates in different dioceses. Most recently, Mr. Pilon exercised priestly ministry in the Diocese of Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. During his time of priestly ministry, he has used several alias’, including Brother Anthony Lawrence.

Mr. Pilon now lives privately in Ontario, Canada, and is prohibited from exercising priestly ministry or representing the Diocese of Scranton or the Diocese of Peterborough in any capacity.

(OSV News) – U.S. Catholic bishops – joined by Pope Francis – are calling for prayer after a deadly aviation crash in the nation’s capital claimed dozens of lives.

“Catholics throughout the Archdiocese of Washington today join men and women of good will here and around the world in praying for those who perished in last night’s heartbreaking accident,” Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory, the retired archbishop and current apostolic administrator of the archdiocese, said in a Jan. 30 statement.

The Jan. 29 midair collision between a regional jet operated by American Airlines and a U.S. military helicopter took place over the Potomac River at approximately 9 p.m.

All on both aircraft are presumed dead.

American Eagle Flight 5342 – which originated in Wichita, Kansas – had been preparing to land at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and carried 60 passengers and four crew members on board. The helicopter involved in the collision, a UH-60 Black Hawk assigned to Fort Belvoir, Virginia, contained three troops on a routine training flight.

The initial rescue operation was soon declared a recovery effort, with first responders and dive crews battling the Potomac’s icy waters to retrieve the bodies. The incident remains under investigation by multiple agencies led by the National Transportation Safety Board and including the Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. Army.

“We praise God for the generous assistance of our courageous first responders,” Cardinal Gregory said in his statement. “May this disaster serve as an impetus to strengthen our unity and collaboration.”

In a Jan. 30 post on the X social media platform, Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of Arlington, Virginia, asked people to be “united in prayer for all those tragically impacted by the accident.”

“May we be united in prayer for all those tragically impacted by the accident near Reagan airport,” Bishop Burbidge, whose diocese borders the Potomac, said in his post. “We ask God to embrace them in his love; to grant strength to their families; and to watch over all first responders.”

According to the Arlington Diocese, Bishop Burbidge scheduled a 12:05 p.m. liturgy – carried also via livestream – at the Cathedral of St. Thomas More in Arlington to pray for the victims.

Shortly after the crash, Bishop Carl A. Kemme of Wichita, Kansas, posted on Facebook that he was “praying for all involved” in the disaster.

“It is sobering to think that I and two other priests were on this very flight one week ago on our way to DC for the … March for life,” Bishop Kemme said in his post. “May God bring divine assistance to everyone involved.”

On Jan. 30, Bishop Kemme released a statement on the disaster, saying, “My heart, and the hearts of the faithful of the Diocese of Wichita, go out to the families and loved ones of all those lost in this devastating accident. 

“We pray for the souls of those who perished, including the brave members of our military, the passengers, and the crew,” said Bishop Kemme. “We also pray for comfort and strength for those who mourn, and for the first responders and recovery teams as they continue their difficult work. I encourage all to pray for those affected by this tragedy. May the souls of the departed rest in peace.”

In Jan. 30 comments at the White House, President Donald Trump said the country is in mourning and acknowledged the incident has left many people shaken.

“This was a dark and excruciating night in our nation’s capital and in our nation’s history, and a tragedy of terrible proportions,” he said.

“As one nation, we grieve for every precious soul that has been taken from us, so suddenly,” he said.

In a Jan. 30 telegram to Trump, Pope Francis expressed his “spiritual closeness” to victims and their families and commended the souls of the departed to God’s loving mercy.

“I likewise pray for those involved in the recovery efforts, and invoke upon all in the nation the divine blessings of consolation and strength,” he said.

During a Jan. 30 media briefing, Wichita Mayor Lily Wu thanked local faith leaders who “showed up last night and prayed over” the city’s council after the disaster. Her voice choked with emotion as Wu shared that city officials confirmed there were no survivors.

“This is a terrible tragedy that will unite those in Washington, D.C., and Wichita, Kansas, forever,” she said.

Local media, citing a statement from the city, reported the Greater Wichita Ministerial League organized a prayer service at Wichita’s City Hall on Jan. 30 at noon.

While the victims’ names have not yet been revealed, U.S. Figure Skating, the sport’s governing body, told media that several passengers on the commercial aircraft were young figure skaters returning from a training camp in Wichita. Russian state media reported that several of the skaters were Russian nationals.