Category: Diocese of Scranton News

SILVER LAKE TOWNSHIP – As the Diocese of Scranton continues to celebrate the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope, one faith community is preparing to mark a milestone that connects the past, present and future of Catholic life in northeastern Pennsylvania.

On Sunday, Sept. 14, 2025, a special Mass will be held at Saint Augustine Church in Susquehanna County to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the beginnings of the church community.

Saint Augustine Church is the oldest Catholic church in the Diocese of Scranton.
The Most Rev. Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, will be the principal celebrant for the 10:30 a.m. liturgy.

“There is so much joy. Our people are really preparing to receive the Bishop,” Father Thomas Augustine, Administrator pro tem, Saint Brigid Parish, Friendsville, explained. Saint Augustine Church is a worship site of Saint Bridgid Parish.

The celebration comes as Saint Augustine Church is also recognized as one of the eight pilgrimage sites designated by Bishop Bambera for the Jubilee Year of Hope, inviting the faith to encounter Christ in historic places of worship and renewal.

“God has powerfully worked through this community,” Father Augustine added. “Since we are celebrating 200 years … this is a big blessing!”

LEGACY ROOTED IN MISSION

The roots of Saint Augustine Church stretch back to 1825, when Father Jeremiah Francis O’Flynn responded to an urgent invitation from Robert Rose, a prominent Catholic layman in the Silver Lake area.

With the blessing of Bishop Henry Conwell of Philadelphia, Father O’Flynn invested his savings into purchasing a farm at Silver Lake, on which the first Catholic church in Susquehanna County was built.

It was not until Oct. 2, 1828, that Father O’Flynn was able to celebrate the first Mass in the vestry of the partly built church of Silver Lake – but after that time the congregation increased rapidly.

Father O’Flynn died while on a sick call in Danville, approximately 80 miles from Silver Lake, on Feb. 8, 1831. His body was brought back to Silver Lake and laid to rest in the cemetery of Saint Augustine Church.

From these humble beginnings, the Catholic presence continued to grow in the region long before the Diocese of Scranton itself was officially formed on March 3, 1868, when the Pope signed a decree to separate 10 counties from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Lackawanna County was formed 10 years later, bringing the Diocese of Scranton to its current number of 11 counties.

PILGRIMS ON A JOURNEY

In anticipation of the bicentennial celebration, pilgrims from across the Diocese of Scranton have already started visiting Saint Augustine Church as part of the Jubilee Year of Hope.

On Sunday, Aug. 10, more than 50 parishioners from Saint John the Apostle Parish in East Stroudsburg made the two-hour journey from the Poconos to pray, worship, and learn about the sacred site.

Their pastor, Father Greg Reichlen, a native son of Susquehanna County, was excited to bring his parishioners to the oldest church in the diocese.

“It has been an incredible, beautiful and amazing day to celebrate our faith, to go on a journey, on a pilgrimage, to this very holy site,” Father Reichlen said.

The visit included participation in the Sunday Mass, a tour of the church grounds, and a shared parish picnic with the community.

“Parishioners are very thrilled to learn about this little piece of history,” Father Reichlen added. “Our life is a journey, and I think it has been an incredible experience for every single one of us to be together on this journey.”

OUR FAITH IS ALIVE AND LIVING

For those who made the pilgrimage, it wasn’t simply about history – it was about witnessing how the Church remains alive in small rural communities, just as much as in large parishes.

“I think it’s really nice. I like the more simple vibe,” Tha’riann Daurilas, a young adult from Saint John’s Parish who made the trip up with family members, said. “I know it’s an older church and I like to see other pretty churches around the diocese.”

Bill Montgomery, a longtime Eucharistic Minister from Saint John the Apostle Parish, shared a similar sentiment.

“It has been a very rewarding day,” he said. “My wife and I travel to a lot of shrines and different areas. It’s really nice to come to a rural area like this and to see the beauty in the older churches. They are magnificent.”

Montgomery appreciated the pilgrimage as an opportunity to grow in faith.
“There is something about the smallness and the beauty of this place, especially where our diocese grew from where it started. There is a lot of history there,” he added.

ALL ARE STILL WELCOME

Though smaller in size, Saint Augustine Church continues to be a place of active worship, prayer, and community.

“I welcome everyone to come and visit this church and receive the blessings as the Diocese has selected it as a few pilgrimage churches,” Father Augustine added.

All are especially welcome to attend the upcoming 200th Anniversary Mass celebration on Sept. 14 with Bishop Bambera to reflect on its history, mission, and the enduring presence of God.

(OSV News) – Catholic bishops and public officials are calling for prayer following the apparent assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who died after being shot Sept. 10 during an event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.

Kirk was 31 and a married father with two young children. He was shot in the neck, reportedly by a sniper from a campus building. The suspect is still at large, and a manhunt is underway, according to law enforcement officials.

In a statement, President Donald Trump said, “The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead.”

“No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie,” Trump said. “He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!”

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, R, called the shooting a “political assassination.”

“To whoever did this, we will find you,” Gov. Spencer Cox said at a press conference.

A staunch ally of Trump, Kirk was the founder of the Republican-aligned Turning Point USA. He was being hosted by that organization’s chapter at the university for his “American Comeback Tour.”

According to multiple reports, Kirk was in the midst of discussing mass shootings in the U.S. with an individual attendee when a single shot rang out, striking Kirk and scattering the crowd.

Bishop Oscar A. Solis of Salt Lake City said in a statement shared with OSV News, “My heart goes out to the family of Charlie Kirk, who was shot and killed today at Utah Valley University.”

“I will pray for the repose of his soul,” Bishop Solis said. “I am also praying for all who were affected, especially those who were present at the event on campus, the many people who admired Mr. Kirk, and most particularly his family. Meanwhile, I continue to pray for all the victims of gun violence throughout the years and their families.”

“It is appalling that senseless acts of violence such as this continue to occur,” he said. “It seems that our society has lost the sense of the sanctity of life, and I pray that our government will undertake appropriate measures to stop these horrible crimes.”

Vice President JD Vance and Gov. Gavin Newsom, D-Calif., both Catholics, were among the first officials across the aisle who offered their reactions on social media, calling for prayer and condemning political violence, respectively.

“Dear God, protect Charlie in his darkest hour,” Vance wrote prior to confirmation of Kirk’s death by the president.

Newsom called the shooting “disgusting, vile, and reprehensible.”

“In the United States of America, we must reject political violence in EVERY form,” Newsom wrote.

Newsom and Kirk previously joined each other’s podcasts to debate their political differences.

Former President Joe Biden, also Catholic, wrote on X, “There is no place in our country for this kind of violence. It must end now.”

“Jill and I are praying for Charlie Kirk’s family and loved ones,” he said.

Former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., who survived after she was shot and gravely injured in 2011, wrote on X, “I’m horrified to hear that Charlie Kirk was shot at an event in Utah.”

“Democratic societies will always have political disagreements, but we must never allow America to become a country that confronts those disagreements with violence,” she said.

At the press conference, Cox said Kirk was known for debates on college campuses, and that debate is “foundational to the formation of our country, to our most basic constitutional rights.”

“And when someone takes the life of a person because of their ideas or their ideals, then that very constitutional foundation is threatened,” Cox said.

Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America and Students for Life Action and a Catholic, said in a statement she was speaking at her own campus tour at the University of Montana at the time of the incident and stopped it to pray in response to hearing the news.

“As I also stood on a college campus, I was horrified to learn that my friend Charlie Kirk had been shot,” Hawkins said. “Our nation is in crisis when speaking up for preborn children and for love of country leads to violence, and that’s clearly on the rise.”

Bishop Robert E. Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, was also among those who called for prayer.

Trump directed flags to be flown at half-staff as “a mark of respect for the memory of Charlie Kirk.”

The U.S. House of Representatives observed a moment of silence in response.

In a statement confirming Kirk’s death, his organization Turning Point USA said, “It is with a heavy heart that we confirm that Charles James Kirk has been murdered by a gunshot that took place during Turning Point USA’s ‘The American Comeback Tour’ campus event at Utah Valley University on September 10, 2025.”

“May he be received into the merciful arms of our loving Savior, who suffered and died for Charlie,” the statement said. “We ask that everyone keep his family and loved ones in your prayers. We ask that you please respect their privacy and dignity at this time.”

(OSV News) – The U.S. Catholic bishops have deepened their commitment to combating racism, by making permanent a subcommittee dedicated to working for racial justice and reconciliation in society.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops announced Sept. 10 that its Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism – established in 2017 under then-USCCB president, and now retired, Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo Galveston-Houston, Texas – has been made a permanent USCCB body.

The move, approved by the USCCB’s administrative committee Sept. 9, will place the committee, now named the Subcommittee for the Promotion of Racial Justice and Reconciliation, under the conference’s Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development.

That committee’s mandate “includes Catholic social teaching on issues of domestic concern such as poverty, housing, the environment, criminal justice, and other challenges that often have a disproportionate impact on communities of color,” said the USCCB in its Sept. 10 media release.

USCCB president Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, said the subcommittee “continues the important work of the temporary ad hoc committee.”

The bishops had formed the racism ad hoc committee just days after the violent Aug. 11-12, 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, at which white supremacists protested the planned removal of Confederate statues there, following two city council votes. Amid clashes between rally participants and counterprotestors, James Fields drove his vehicle through a crowd of the latter, killing paralegal Heather Heyer and injuring dozens. Fields is now serving two life sentences.

In his Sept. 10 statement, Archbishop Broglio — who referenced the USCCB’s 2018 pastoral letter against racism, “Open Wide Our Hearts” — said, “As we call for a genuine conversion of heart that will compel change at both individual and institutional levels, I invite all Catholics to join us as we carry forward this work to recognize and uphold the inherent dignity of every person made in the image and likeness of God.”

“I speak on behalf of the bishop members, staff and consultants of the Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism in expressing gratitude for the transition of our committee to a standing subcommittee so that the important work of evangelization of the faithful and the community at large may continue in the spirit of the Gospel of Jesus Christ,” said retired Auxiliary Bishop Joseph N. Perry of Chicago, who has been serving as chair of the committee.

With the new subcommittee set to begin work after the USCCB’s November plenary assembly, members will have plenty to do.

According to a Gallup poll released Aug. 20, 64% of U.S. adults believe racism against Black people is widespread, with 83% of Black adults and 61% of white adults expressing this view.

Police interactions are seen as the “most racially inequitable” among six possible scenarios, said respondents.

At the same time, Gallup found that “68% of U.S. adults think civil rights have improved in their lifetime.”

Human Rights Watch said that “racial justice remained a pressing human rights concern in the United States in 2024.”

While the U.S. “ratified the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination nearly 60 years ago,” the nation “has done far too little to implement its provisions,” said HRW, adding that “living legacies of slavery and the slaughter and dispossession of Native peoples remain largely unaddressed.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Crying out to God during moments of extreme trial does not mark a crisis of faith but can reflect an act of total surrender to and enduring trust in God, Pope Leo XIV said.

“In the journey of life, there are moments in which keeping something inside can slowly consume us,” the pope told thousands of people huddled under umbrellas or dressed in rain gear in St. Peter’s Square Sept. 10 for his weekly general audience.

“Jesus teaches us not to be afraid to cry out, as long as it is sincere, humble, addressed to the Father,” he said.

“A cry is never pointless if it is born of love, and it is never ignored if it is delivered to God,” he said. “It is a way to not give in to cynicism, to continue to believe that another world is possible.”

During the audience, the pope offered special greetings to Arabic-speaking faithful, especially those from the Holy Land.

“I invite you to transform your cry in times of trial and tribulation into a prayer of trust, because God always listens to his children and responds at the moment he deems best for us,” he said.

Pope Leo also asked the faithful to find inspiration in Sts. Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis, the two young men he canonized Sept. 7, and, like them, “learn from Christ the cry of hope and the desire to open our hearts to the will of the Father who wants our salvation.”

In his main talk, the pope continued his series of reflections on lessons of hope from the Gospel stories of Jesus’ last days, focusing specifically on the crucified Christ’s cry to God and his death on the cross.

Before he cried out on the cross, Pope Leo said, Jesus asked “one of the most heart-rending” questions that could ever be uttered: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

“The Son, who always lived in intimate communion with the Father, now experiences silence, absence, the abyss. It is not a crisis of faith, but the final stage of a love that is given up to the very end,” the pope said. “Jesus’ cry is not desperation, but sincerity, truth taken to the limit, trust that endures even when all is silent.”

“We are accustomed to thinking of crying out as something disorderly, to be repressed,” the pope said. However, “the Gospel confers an immense value to our cry, reminding us that it can be an invocation, a protest, a desire, a surrender,” even an “extreme form of prayer, when there are no words left.”

Crying out can express “a hope that is not resigned,” he said. “One cries out when one believes that someone can still hear.”

“Jesus did not cry out against the Father, but to him. Even in silence, he was convinced that the Father was there,” Pope Leo said. “And, in this way, he showed us that our hope can cry out, even when all seems lost.”

“We come into the world crying: it is also a way of staying alive,” he said. “One cries when one suffers, but also when one loves, one calls, one invokes. To cry out is saying who we are, that we do not want to fade away in silence, that we still have something to offer.”

When the hour of extreme trial comes, he said, “let us learn the cry of hope,” which is not a cry meant to hurt or to shout at someone, “but to entrust ourselves” and “to open our hearts.”

If one’s cry is genuine, it can usher in a new beginning, he said. “If it is made manifest with the trust and freedom of the children of God, the suffering voice of our humanity, united with the voice of Christ, can become a source of hope for us and for those around us.”

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – The Department of Education will issue new guidance “protecting the right to prayer” in public schools, President Donald Trump said Sept. 8 during remarks at the Museum of the Bible for the Department of Justice’s Religious Liberty Commission.

The Trump administration previously reduced the workforce at the Department of Education and stated its intent to scale the department back.

In a statement shared with OSV News, Savannah Newhouse, press secretary for the Department of Education, said, “Free exercise of religion is a founding principle and a constitutionally protected right afforded to all citizens of our great nation. The Department of Education looks forward to supporting President Trump’s vision to promote religious liberty in our schools across the country.”

Neither Trump nor the Department of Education offered details about what that guidance may include.

Trump in May signed an executive order creating a religious liberty commission, which includes Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York and Bishop Robert E. Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota. The commissioners gathered at the Museum of the Bible in Washington to examine what recommendations they should make to the president about promoting and protecting religious freedom in a report next spring. Their second hearing focused on religious freedom in public schools.

Trump also expressed condolences for the victims of the deadly Aug. 27 mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis during a liturgy marking the start of the school year.

“Two weeks ago in Minneapolis, a demonic killer shot 21 people and murdered two precious children at a Catholic school,” Trump said. “Can you believe that? Hard to believe.”

Trump said there have been “too many” school shootings, and “our hearts are shattered for the families of those beautiful children.”

“And I’ve made clear, Attorney General Pam Bondi is working really hard, we must get answers about the causes of these repeated attacks, and we’re working very, very hard on them,” he said.

Some of the Trump administration’s policy positions have been criticized by faith leaders, perhaps most notably on immigration. In January, Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services, who is president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in a statement that executive orders signed by Trump upon returning to office on issues including migration, the environment and the death penalty were “deeply troubling,” but praised other actions such as one on gender policy.

Trump touted his administration’s actions on gender at the hearing, criticizing a position he called “transgender for everybody.”

“On Day One of my administration, I signed an executive order to slash federal funding for any school that pushes transgender insanity,” Trump said.

The same day as the commission hearing, Trump wrote, “Happy Birthday Mary, Queen of Peace!” on his website Truth Social, in an apparent reference to the Nativity of Mary. The Sept. 8 feast is celebrated as Mary’s “birthday” and is a significant Marian feast in the Catholic Church, although Trump is not Catholic.

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the commission’s chairman, said during opening remarks that one of the other goals of the committee is to “make sure America knows their rights.”

In opening remarks, Cardinal Dolan said while he was in Rome for the conclave that led to the election of Pope Leo XIV, his fellow cardinals from other countries where religious freedom is under threat expressed their concern

“My brother cardinals from all over the world,” Cardinal Dolan said, “came up to me, and I presume other of the other American cardinals, to thank us for our strong defense of religious liberty.”

“I was fascinated by that, and asked them why, and they said, ‘Well, because you in the United States serve as a beacon for the rest of us,'” he said.

“Doesn’t this give us an added sense of responsibility?” he continued. “We’re not doing this in a self-serving way … (but in a) benevolent way to help others, because they look to us for the protection of religious liberty.”

Witnesses at the hearing included Lana Roman, a mom and petitioner in the Supreme Court case Mahmoud v. Taylor, where the high court ruled in favor of an interfaith group of Maryland parents who sought to opt their children out of classroom instruction pertaining to books containing LGBTQ+ themes to which they object on religious grounds.

Roman said, “As Christians, we teach our son that every person is loved by God and should be treated with dignity and respect.”

“We also teach him that sex is a gift from God and a natural, unchanging part of who we are. Many of these books introduced sexual concepts to children at an inappropriately young age putting children in the untenable position of having to question who to trust: their teachers, or their parents,” she said.

Sameerah Munshi, a member of the commission’s advisory board and a Muslim community advocate in Mahmoud case, acknowledged a diversity of views in her faith tradition, but urged the commission to make clear recommendations to protect religious minorities.

“Opt-out protections must be made clear, accessible and enforceable,” she said. “Oftentimes, these policies are in place on paper, but can be difficult to actualize.”

Munshi further argued that “laws on religious liberty must be implemented with transparency and consistency.”

“Public institutions need guidance and accountability to ensure that they’re not silencing only a particular viewpoint or voices on one particular issue,” she said.

Ryan Anderson, president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington and one of the commissioners, argued in response to witnesses’ testimony that “it seems that there’s a certain type of public school administrator who thinks that functional, practical atheism is neutrality.”

“The founders’ vision was that Jewish students could be authentically Jewish, Muslim students could be authentically Muslim, Protestant students could be authentically Protestant, Catholics to be authentically Catholic, it would be pluralistic,” he said, adding, “I think that’s a huge problem here is that we’ve allowed ourselves to think that secularism is somehow neutral and it’s not.”

The commission’s next hearing is scheduled for Sept. 29. It will examine “religious liberty issues in education from the perspectives of teachers and coaches, as well as religious liberty issues in school funding and educational choice,” the Department of Justice said.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The Catholic Church needs the theological study and model of Mary, Pope Leo XIV said, calling for a great promotion of Mariology in parishes, religious life and educational centers.

Mary, the mother of Jesus, “never ceases to open doors, build bridges, break down walls and help humanity to live in peace and in the harmony of diversity,” he said Sept. 6 during an audience with some 600 scholars attending a conference on Mariology.

The Pontifical International Marian Academy organized the 26th International Mariological Marian Congress in Rome Sept. 3-6, discussing the theme, “Jubilee and Synodality: A Church with a Marian Face and Practice.” Participants included Orthodox, Protestant and Muslim scholars.

In his address, Pope Leo underlined the pontifical academy’s importance as being “a forum for thought, spirituality and dialogue, tasked with coordinating the studies and scholars of Mariology, in the service of a genuine and fruitful” Marian piety.

“The Virgin Mary, mother of the church, teaches us to be the holy people of God,” he said.

“Mary is always ready to respond by first listening to the Word,” he said.

He highlighted St. Augustine’s warning against praying to Mary to hear what one wants by quoting the saint: “All consult you about what they want, but they do not always hear the answer they want. Your most faithful servant is the one who does not seek to hear from you what he wants, but rather to want what he hears from you.”

Mary is a “synodal” woman, he said, because she is “fully and maternally engaged in the action of the Holy Spirit, who summons those who previously believed they had reasons to remain divided due to mutual distrust and even enmity as brothers and sisters.”

“A church with a Marian heart always better preserves and understands the hierarchy of truths of faith, integrating mind and heart, body and soul, universal and local, person and community, humanity and cosmos,” Pope Leo said.

“It is a church that does not shy away from asking herself, others and God uncomfortable questions — ‘How shall this be?’ — and to walk the demanding paths of faith and love,” he said.

“A Marian piety and practice oriented toward the service of hope and consolation frees us from fatalism, superficiality and fundamentalism; it takes all human realities seriously, starting with the least and the discarded; it contributes to giving voice and dignity to those who are sacrificed on the altars of ancient and new idols,” he said.

“Since the vocation of the mother of the Lord is understood as the vocation of the church,” he said, “Marian theology has the task of cultivating in all the people of God, first of all, a willingness to ‘start afresh’ with God, his Word and the needs of our neighbor, with humility and courage.”

“It must also cultivate the desire to walk toward the unity that flows from the Trinity, in order to bear witness to the world, to the beauty of faith, the fruitfulness of love and the prophecy of hope that does not disappoint,” he added.

“Contemplating the mystery of God and history of Mary’s inner gaze protects us from the distortions of propaganda, ideology and unhealthy information, which can never speak a disarmed and disarming word, and opens us to divine gratuitousness, which alone makes it possible for people, populations and cultures to walk together in peace,” the pope said.

“This is why the church needs Mariology,” he said. “It should be considered and promoted in academic centers, shrines and parish communities, associations and movements, institutes of consecrated life, as well as in places where contemporary cultures are forged, valuing the limitless inspiration offered by art, music and literature.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The greatest risk in life is to waste it by not seeking to follow God’s plan, Pope Leo XIV said, proclaiming two new saints — two young laymen of the 20th and 21st centuries.

“Sts. Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis are an invitation to all of us, especially young people, not to squander our lives, but to direct them upward and make them masterpieces,” the pope said Sept. 7.

“The simple but winning formula of their holiness,” he said, is accessible to everyone at any time. “They encourage us with their words: ‘Not I, but God,’ as Carlo used to say. And Pier Giorgio: ‘If you have God at the center of all your actions, then you will reach the end.'”

Before canonizing the first saints of his pontificate, Pope Leo greeted the more than 80,000 faithful who had gathered early in St. Peter’s Square because he wanted to share his joy with them before the start of the solemn ceremony.

“Brothers and sisters, today is a wonderful celebration for all of Italy, for the whole church, for the whole world,” he said before the Mass.

“While the celebration is very solemn, it is also a day of great joy, and I wanted to greet especially the many young people who have come for this holy Mass,” he said, also greeting the families of the soon-to-be saints and the associations and communities to which the young men had belonged.

Pope Leo asked that everyone “feel in our hearts the same thing that Pier Giorgio and Carlo experienced: this love for Jesus Christ, especially in the Eucharist, but also in the poor, in our brothers and sisters.”

“All of you, all of us, are also called to be saints,” he said, before leaving to prepare for Mass and paying homage to a statue of Mary with baby Jesus and the reliquaries containing the relics of the two young men.

In his homily, the pope underlined Jesus’ call in the day’s Gospel reading “to abandon ourselves without hesitation to the adventure that he offers us, with the intelligence and strength that comes from his Spirit, that we can receive to the extent that we empty ourselves of the things and ideas to which we are attached, in order to listen to his word.”

That is what the two new saints did and what every disciple of Christ is called to do, he said.

Many people, especially when they are young, he said, face a kind of “crossroads” in life when they reflect on what to do with their life.

The saints of the church are often portrayed as “great figures, forgetting that for them it all began when, while still young, they said ‘yes’ to God and gave themselves to him completely, keeping nothing for themselves,” the pope said.

“Today we look to St. Pier Giorgio Frassati and St. Carlo Acutis: a young man from the early 20th century and a teenager from our own day, both in love with Jesus and ready to give everything for him,” he said.

Pope Leo then dedicated a large portion of his homily to sharing quotes from the two and details of their lives, which is something Pope Francis had shifted away from, preferring to focus more on the day’s readings.

“Pier Giorgio’s life is a beacon for lay spirituality,” Pope Leo said.

“For him, faith was not a private devotion, but it was driven by the power of the Gospel and his membership in ecclesial associations,” he said. “He was also generously committed to society, contributed to political life and devoted himself ardently to the service of the poor.”

“Carlo, for his part, encountered Jesus in his family, thanks to his parents, Andrea and Antonia — who are here today with his two siblings, Francesca and Michele,” he said, as the crowd applauded, and Antonia smiled shyly at the camera.

St. Acutis also encountered Jesus at the Jesuit-run school he attended and “above all in the sacraments celebrated in the parish community,” he said. “He grew up naturally integrating prayer, sport, study and charity into his days as a child and young man.”

The pope said the new saints “cultivated their love for God and for their brothers and sisters through simple acts, available to everyone: daily Mass, prayer and especially Eucharistic adoration.”

St. Frassati was born April 6, 1901, in Turin and died there July 4, 1925, of polio at the age of 24. St. Acutis was born to Italian parents May 3, 1991, in London and died in Monza, Italy, Oct. 12, 2006, of leukemia at the age of 15.

The pope said that “even when illness struck them and cut short their young lives, not even this stopped them nor prevented them from loving, offering themselves to God, blessing him and praying to him for themselves and for everyone.”

Several family members and people closely associated with the new saints attended the Mass, along with dignitaries, such as Italian President Sergio Mattarella.

St. Acutis’ parents, Andrea and Antonia, and his twin siblings, Michele and Francesca, who were born four years after their brother died, were present and together brought the pope the offertory gifts. Michele also did the first reading at the Mass in English.

Valeria Valverde, who read the first prayer of the faithful, is a young Costa Rican woman who suffered a severe head injury while living in Italy. It was her unexplained healing that provided the second miracle needed for St. Acutis’ canonization.

St. Frassati was active with Catholic Action, the St. Vincent de Paul Society, the Italian Catholic University Federation and the Dominican Third Order. Lorenzo Zardi, vice president of the youth group of Italy’s Catholic Action read the second reading at the Mass and Michele Tridente, the secretary general of the lay movement, also presented the pope with offertory gifts.

Before praying the Angelus, the pope once again thanked everyone for coming to celebrate the church’s two new saints.

However, he also called for people’s “incessant prayer for peace, especially in the Holy Land, and in Ukraine and in every other land bloodied by war.”

“To governing leaders, I repeat, listen to the voice of conscience,” he said.

“The apparent victories won with weapons, sowing death and destruction, are really defeats and will never bring peace and security,” he said.

“God does not want war. God wants peace!” he exclaimed to applause. God gives strength to those who work toward leaving behind the cycle of hatred and pursue the path of dialogue.

CHICAGO (OSV News) – As Pope Leo XIV nears his 70th birthday Sept. 14, those closest to the American-born pontiff say they knew, very early on, that he was in for lifelong service to the church.

There was not one specific instance when as a child Robert Francis Prevost, who was born in Chicago and raised in its south suburbs, decided to become a priest, according to his brother John.

“From the youngest age, he (just) knew that that’s what he was going to do. It wasn’t that there was ever a doubt in anyone’s mind. Even going to kindergarten he knew that he was going to be a priest,” John Prevost told OSV News.

Prevost said he remembered his youngest brother was 5 or 6 years old when he first started playing priest and offering pretend Masses. Young Robert Prevost used an ironing board covered with a white sheet as an altar, a plastic cup for a chalice, and gave out Necco candy wafer discs for pretend Communion.

“It was that early, I think … and then there was never a doubt that’s what he was going to do,” said John Prevost, 71. “It was a true vocation, I guess.”

In early July, Pope Leo told about 600 children, including 300 from Ukraine, at a summer camp in Italy that he was an altar boy from the age of about 6, serving the 6:30 a.m. Mass — on Fridays, according to John Prevost — at the family’s home parish church, St. Mary of the Assumption, in suburban Dolton, Illinois.

“So even serving at Mass was something we really loved,” the pope told the youngsters. “Because even as a child, I was taught that Jesus is always close, that our best friend is always Jesus and that the Mass was a way to find, let’s say, this friend — to be with Jesus — even before receiving first Communion.”

He recounted serving at first in Latin and then later in English (with changes instituted following the Second Vatican Council to celebrate Mass in the vernacular).
“Still, what mattered wasn’t so much the language of the celebration but really the experience of meeting other kids who also served at Mass together — that sense of friendship – and above all, being close to Jesus in the church,” he said.

Being an altar server has remained a pivotal influence for vocations to the priesthood prior to entering seminary, according to the report on the 2024 ordination class from the Washington-based Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate. The latest survey includes data from 2006 through 2024 showing an average of 73% were first altar servers in that period.

Another significant statistic in the report was that in the 2024 ordination class, 82% had both parents who were Catholic.

Prevost, who talks to the pope daily, said he thought the influence on Pope Leo’s faith life “had to be (from) both parents.” Also, he said, two aunts – his mother’s siblings – were religious sisters, and clergy were close friends of the family.

“We went on several vacations with various priests. So he was around priests, not only at church or at school, but also at home when they would, for example, come to dinner or travel when they went on vacation. It was a constant thing,” explained Prevost, a retired Catholic school principal.

The three Prevost brothers grew up in a deeply Catholic home on the edge of Chicago, where the rosary was said every night before dinner and fish was served every Friday (being a day to abstain from meat). The boys’ mother, Mildred, worked at their parish helping set up the school library and was later librarian at the Augustinian Mendel Catholic High School, where the pope’s older brothers graduated. Their father, Louis Marius Prevost, a retired Navy man and suburban public school superintendent, also worked for the Chicago Archdiocese’s schools after he retired from the suburban school system.

As for picking a religious order, John Prevost said that when Robert was in eighth grade, following several home visits from various orders’ vocation directors and also a diocesan visit, he chose the Order of St. Augustine. Prevost said he didn’t know what exactly drew his brother to the Augustinians.

Augustinian spirituality is deeply rooted in unity, truth and love. The men’s branch of the order, known as “men of heart,” has a strong emphasis on community and service to the church and to others.

The 13-year old then went off to the Augustinians’ minor seminary in Holland, Michigan, where he made some lifelong friends whom he would go to college with and be ordained with.

“Six-hundred-fifty acres of land, one mile of beach, a beautiful facility,” said Augustinian Father Bill Lego, describing the school. He was one of only five in the pope’s Holland seminary class of 60 who went on to become a priest. “So we lived away for high school. They gave us … lower tuition and the education was great.”

Father Lego is pastor at St. Turibius Parish on Chicago’s southwest side where most of the Midwest Augustinians serve. He called his high school years “a good formation” in the faith.

He said schooling at Augustinian-run Villanova University followed, where Pope Leo majored in mathematics, and it was after college, during “a very special year” in novitiate in St. Louis that religious life became solidified for them.

“We kept journals, and we had a spiritual companion that we would talk to during the year. And we’d have classes on Augustine, and we would talk about the faith,” he told OSV News, adding, “It was a very, very good year.”

Father Lego, 70, said there was a silent retreat that year for the novices to discern whether they would take the next steps of professing temporary vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. He said the future pope told him he had a profound experience and he himself also had one. Father Lego then described walking the grounds of a nearby cemetery for deceased religious sisters during their retreat.

“You read the headstones. Sister Mary Grace: God gave 70 years of vocation. I’m thinking, I can’t figure out if I want one. Here’s somebody in the ground with 70 (years) going forward. I can’t decide on one, you know. I’m like ‘Lord, you better do something,'” he exclaimed.

At that time he asked his friend “Bob” Prevost if he was taking any of those silent walks. But the future pope said he developed a blister from walking and “so he took that as the way God moved through him in his life, to have him be more settled and quiet. And I am sure that experience, as mine was, going through novitiate, is probably what has kept us Augustinians.”

The following year, the novices went to Catholic Theological Union in Chicago to finish graduate theology studies. Then, Father Lego detailed Pope Leo’s trajectory within the order as “always destined for leadership.”

The pope became a canon lawyer some years after being ordained in 1982. He was called to work in canon law in the Diocese of Chulucanas in the impoverished mountains of northern Peru, also teaching the subject and theology at the Augustinian seminary there in the late ’80s through ’90s.

Then returning home, he became superior of the Midwest Augustinians (1999-2001), was then elected prior general for the entire order (2001-2013) based in Rome, while traveling the world. Then in 2014 Pope Francis appointed him administrator, then bishop of Chiclayo, Peru. He then became cardinal in 2023 and headed the Dicastery for Bishops until he was elected pope May 8.

Retired Chulucanas Bishop Daniel Turley, a fellow Midwest Augustinian, who spent 53 years in northern Peru and was the future pope’s superior for part of his time there, said he never had occasion to speak with the pope about his vocation.

“But knowing him and knowing his journey as an Augustinian, I think he was letting himself be led by the Spirit, by the Lord,” said Bishop Turley. “And being very open, because so many providential things had happened, that he had no control over. Things were just falling in place. It’s like he was being prepared by God to become the pope.”

Pope Leo’s brother John Prevost had similar words.

“The Holy Spirit is at work here. This is just from beginning to end, in a sense, unbelievable, that this road has gone this way for him. And he’s not failed at anything. He’s done well with everything he’s been given to do,” he said.

“And whether he likes it or not, he sits down and gets it done, because there must be times where he says, ‘I can’t do this,’ but then he does it,” Prevost said. “I mean, look at him in the films now … he’s having a ball. He’s enjoying what he’s doing so far.”

(OSV News) – Those who are religiously unaffiliated are less likely to hold spiritual beliefs or engage in religious practices — but in a number of countries, many such “nones” have nuanced beliefs, and still hold there’s an unseen spiritual reality and life after death, despite their negative views of religion’s impact on society, according to a new survey.

On Sept. 4, Pew Research Center released its latest findings on “nones” — self-described atheists, agnostics and those who cite their religion as “nothing in particular” — based on nationally representative surveys of 22 nations across the globe, including the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

Drawing from surveys that encompassed 36 nations, Pew focused on the 22-nation subset in which “nones” constituted a large enough sample to analyze separately.

Across those 22 nations, Pew found that “about a fifth or more of ‘nones’ believe in life after death.”

At the same time, those segments can vary widely among nations, with 19% of Hungary’s “nones” claiming either a definite or probable possibility of life after death, and 65% of the demographic doing the same in Peru. The South American nation was among seven of the 22 nations Pew studied where more than 50% of “nones” said they believe in life after death.

Pew also found that “large shares of ‘nones’ in some countries say ‘there is something spiritual beyond the natural world, even if we cannot see it.'” It pointed to Mexico and Brazil, where respectively 61% and 65% of those who are religiously unaffiliated “express this belief.”

“Many religiously unaffiliated adults also express belief in God,” said Pew, highlighting South Africa (77%), Brazil (92%), Colombia (86%) and Chile (69%).

However, Pew noted, that trend isn’t in evidence in Europe and Australia.

In the latter, only 18% of “nones” profess a belief in God, while in Sweden the number is just 10% and even less (9%) in Hungary.

In the U.S., less than half (45%) of “nones” admit belief in God, according to a 2023 Pew survey.

Many religiously unaffiliated people tend to believe that animals “can have spirits or spiritual energies,” said Pew. It noted at least 75% of “nones” in Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Greece share this view.

Importantly, Pew underscored that “nonbelief isn’t always the main reason people have no religious affiliation.”

Pew noted its 2023 U.S. survey found that 30% of “nones” cited “bad experiences with religious people” as “an extremely or very important reason they are nonreligious.”

A roughly equal share in the same survey (32%) pointed to nonbelief in God or a higher power as why they identify as “nones.” But an even larger number (47%) shared they identify as “nones” because they “don’t like religious organizations.”

While “sizable shares of ‘nones'” in Pew’s 22-nation subset do admit to some spiritual beliefs, Pew also found “some express a more consistently secular outlook” that rejects belief in God, the afterlife and a transcendent spiritual reality.

That’s the case in Sweden, where more than half (52%) of adults have no religious affiliation, and 28% of the total adult population affirms an across-the-board secular outlook on those points.

Adults in Australia (24%), the Netherlands (24%) and South Korea (23%) share similar across-the-board views, noted Pew.

By comparison, just 8% of the U.S. public (where 29% are religiously unaffiliated) express a consistently secular opinion on God, the afterlife and spiritual reality. Similarly only 14% of Canadians (out of 41% religiously unaffiliated) and only 2% of Mexicans (out of 20% religiously unaffiliated) hold such consistently secular views.

Pew said that in “nearly all” of the 22 countries it focused on, the largest group of “nones” are those who list their religious affiliation as “nothing in particular,” rather than identifying as atheists or agnostics. In most cases, that share — especially in Latin America and Asia — outranked the combined totals of atheists and agnostics.

Two exceptions were Greece and Italy, where Pew found atheism to be “the most common affiliation among ‘nones.'”

The other exception was France, where atheists were the largest single group (21%) of “nones,” but were not a majority. The remainder of France’s 44% religiously unaffiliated population identified as either “nothing in particular” (17%) or “agnostic” (6%).

Among the countries Pew studied, it found “adults ages 18 to 39 are much more likely than older adults to identify as ‘nones.'”

Generally, “adults with more education are somewhat more likely than those with less education to be religiously unaffiliated,” said Pew.

Pew also found that “among religiously unaffiliated adults, women are generally more likely than men to hold most of the religious and spiritual beliefs asked about in the survey.”

Women who are “nones” also are typically “more likely than men to believe in reincarnation,” said Pew.

But as for belief in God, religiously unaffiliated women only outpaced their male counterparts in “four of the 15 countries with sufficient sample sizes to analyze differences by gender.”

Pew’s data also found “many ‘nones’ express negative views about religion’s influence on society.” It found religiously unaffiliated adults in 12 of the 22 countries were more likely to say religion encourages intolerance, with nearly three out of four “nones” in Australia, Sweden and Germany holding this view. A majority of “nones” in every country claimed religion “encourages superstitious thinking.”

 

“Across the countries surveyed, a median of 53% say religion mostly hurts society, while a median of 38% say it mostly helps,” said Pew.

 

In addition, Pew found that “majorities of ‘nones’ in nearly every country we analyzed do not think it is important for their national leader to have strong religious beliefs.”

 

Pew’s data also highlighted the complex and at times puzzling nature of religious self-identification.

 

In the United Kingdom, for example, 8% of atheists expressed a belief in God. Pew noted the inconsistency, explaining that “small shares of respondents in many places say they are atheists in answer to a religious identification question, yet they say they believe in God or affirm other religious or spiritual beliefs in response to other questions.”

 

Similarly, a number of self-identified Christians in several nations do not profess a belief in God. In Sweden, for example, “just 58% of self-identified Christians say they believe in God,” said Pew.

 

Pew noted that some scholars of religion think such inconsistency “actually is the norm, not the exception, when one looks deeply into the religious identities, beliefs and practices of people around the world.”

 

Pew’s data was collected in several surveys conducted in 2023 and 2024, with the overall combined number of respondents exceeding 84,000.

 

The study was part of the Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures project, which Pew said “analyzes religious change and its impact on societies around the world.”