Category: Diocese of Scranton News

BALTIMORE (OSV News) – As the U.S. marks its 250th anniversary next year, the U.S. bishops will consecrate the nation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The decision was taken during a Nov. 11 session of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ fall plenary assembly in Baltimore.

Ahead of the vote, Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, chair of the USCCB’s Committee for Religious Liberty, said the consecration would take place at the USCCB’s spring assembly in June 2026, which concludes on the solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.

“To help Catholics prepare for the consecration, we would develop prayer resources, including a novena that will lead up to the solemnity of the Sacred Heart,” said Bishop Rhoades.

Devotion to the Sacred of Heart of Jesus, which traces its roots to at least the second century, grew during the Middle Ages and was later extended to the universal church following Christ’s revelations of his Sacred Heart to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, a 17th-century French woman religious.

Bishop Rhoades said USCCB staff are assembling resources for “dioceses, parishes and other groups to engage Catholics” during the 250th anniversary of the July 4, 1776, signing of the Declaration of Independence, through which the 13 American colonies formally separated themselves from Britain.

In preparation, a diocese might for example “invite the faithful to participate in 250 hours of adoration, or 250 works of mercy,” said Bishop Rhoades.

He pointed to the tradition behind, and aim of, such a consecration.

“One hundred years ago, in 1925, in his encyclical instituting the feast of Christ the King, Pope Pius XI — drawing on the teaching of Pope Leo XIII — referred to the pious custom of consecrating oneself, families and even nations to the Sacred Heart of Jesus as a way to recognize the kingship of Christ,” said Bishop Rhoades.

Through his final encyclical, “Dilexit Nos” (“He Loved Us”), Pope Francis “brought devotion to the Sacred Heart to the forefront of Catholic life as the ultimate symbol of both human and divine love, calling it a wellspring of peace and unity,” said Bishop Rhoades.

Pope Francis “wrote of how the Sacred Heart teaches us to build up in this world God’s kingdom of love and justice,” Bishop Rhoades said.

Pope Leo XIV, writing in his first apostolic exhortation, “Dilexi Te” (“I Have Loved You”), carried forward his predecessor’s teaching, inviting the faithful “to contemplate Christ’s love, the love that moves us to mission in our suffering world today.”

“To entrust our nation to the love and care of the Sacred Heart of Jesus as we celebrate its 250th anniversary is an opportunity to promote the beautiful devotion to the Sacred Heart among our people — and also to remind everyone of our task to serve our nation by perfecting the temporal order with the spirit of the Gospel, as taught by the Second Vatican Council,” said Bishop Rhoades.

BALTIMORE (OSV News) – The U.S. bishops’ conference has elected its next president, Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City.

Archbishop Coakley was elected by a narrow margin — 54%, or 128 votes out of 237 — in a third-ballot runoff against Bishop Daniel E. Flores of Brownsville, Texas, who subsequently was elected vice president of the conference on the first ballot, a fraction of a percent over the majority.

This was Archbishop Coakley’s fourth time on a ballot for the bishops’ top leadership, with an appearance on each triennial ballot since 2016. At 70, he would have been ineligible to stand for office in three years, as bishops must be able to complete a three-year term ahead of the mandatory retirement age of 75.

Since 2007, an archbishop or a cardinal has been elected conference president, and the same for those elected vice president. With the exception of 2010, the conference has elected the incumbent vice presidents to be president — at least until 2022 when now-retired Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron of Detroit was unable to run for the presidency due to age. The same proved true this year when Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore, vice president since 2022, was ineligible for the presidency for the same reason.

In 2022, with Archbishop Vigneron unable to stand for office, the bishops turned to the next ranking office of conference secretary for the new president, Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, who concludes his term at the conclusion of this week’s plenary. For this reason, it stood to reason for many observers that Archbishop Coakley, conference secretary since 2022, was the likely frontrunner and heir apparent in today’s election.

— Respect for precedent and custom —

Archbishop Coakley’s election signals that an unspoken but regularly respected principle of seniority has yet again been a deciding factor of the bishops’ election. While some observers pondered what effect Pope Leo might have on the election, it would appear that the adherence to custom and respect for experience that Pope Leo has expressed to-date might stick out as more prevalent than anything else.

Archbishop Coakley, a bishop since 2004, possessed the combination of length of service as a bishop and higher rank as archbishop. He served as bishop of Salina for six years ahead of his appointment to the Oklahoma capital city in 2010.

Archbishop Coakley has long been a leader within the bishops’ conference, and he has been a member of many committees. Then-bishops’ conference president Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz appointed Archbishop Coakley to serve as chairman of the Catholic Relief Services board of directors in 2013, a position he held until 2016. In 2018, Archbishop Coakley was elected to a three-year term as chairman of the conference’s Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development. He is currently a member of the Committee on Divine Worship.

After Archbishop Broglio was elected president in 2022, Archbishop Coakley twice has been elected to serve as secretary, first to fulfill Archbishop Broglio’s term, then to a term in his own right, which was to conclude 2027.

As conference secretary, Archbishop Coakley serves as chairman of the Committee on Priorities and Plans, which shapes and guides the conference’s strategic goals and is responsible for implementing its long-term vision. It was during the tenures of both Archbishop Broglio and Archbishop Coakley in this position that they became heirs apparent to conference presidency, since the tradition of elevating the outgoing vice president to the top position has been stalled by the election of two back-to-back vice presidents who were ineligible to stand for office due to age restrictions.

Other candidates on the presidential ballot proved unable to gain momentum for that office or the vice presidency. Notable for his media and evangelization fame, Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, 65, has chaired two conference committees but did not have a significant showing during the elections. There are other candidates who did not advance on the ballot, but who almost surely will see their day in leadership, like Boston’s Archbishop Richard G. Henning, 61. Archbishop Henning is a rising star in the conference, who, although head of one of the largest American dioceses, also had the least amount of episcopal experience on the ballot, as he was only ordained in 2018.

— A clear, orthodox leader —

Archbishop Coakley’s tenure as archbishop in the Oklahoma Bible Belt has seen a slight increase in Catholic population, despite a slight decrease in the overall population within his archdiocese. He also is regarded as a clear expositor of Catholic doctrine and morality.

In a state eager to employ use of the death penalty, Archbishop Coakley has been vocal in supporting alternatives and advocating against its use. In defense of life, he has been unafraid to speak out against abortion, particularly when it comes to political supporters within the church.

He is also on the record supporting the bishops’ longstanding view that opposition to abortion is a “preeminent” issue for Americans to consider when forming consciences to vote in elections. In 2024, Archbishop Coakley wrote: “Choosing a candidate who is most likely to promote a policy that respects innocent life is the primary consideration.”

In 2023, Archbishop Coakley released a pastoral letter articulating the church’s teaching on human anthropology, speaking to the threats posed by the transgender movement to individuals with gender dysphoria.

Archbishop Coakley sits on advisory bodies to many institutions and organizations, including the Institute on Religious Life. He also serves as ecclesiastical adviser of the influential and conservative Napa Institute’s executive team.

After arriving in Oklahoma City, Archbishop Coakley took the reins of the cause of canonization of Stanley Rother, an Oklahoma priest martyred in Guatemala in 1981. Archbishop Coakley has dedicated himself to promoting and preserving Rother’s rich legacy of pastoral charity and missionary zeal. In the years after Rother’s 2017 beatification, which successfully drew an estimated 20,000 people to Oklahoma’s capital, Archbishop Coakley oversaw the construction of the impressive Blessed Stanley Rother shrine, dedicated in 2023, which houses the relics of the first U.S.-born martyr.

— Vigano ‘testimony’ response —

In August 2018, after a “testimony” released by the now-excommunicated former apostolic nuncio to the U.S, Archbishop Carlo Vigano, Archbishop Coakley was among a number of bishops — including then-U.S. bishops’ conference president Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo — to call for an investigation into the record and activities of the former cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick.

Archbishop Vigano, long since discredited due to his constant stream of divisive rhetoric and promotion of conspiracy theories, had an impeccable record at the time he released his initial manifesto. Archbishop Coakley’s response to Archbishop Vigano’s testimony — along with that of many bishops — called for a “purification” of the church from the sins and crimes of the clergy sexual abuse crisis.

The strong push from a wide array of U.S. bishops in the wake of the McCarrick scandal and the release of the Pennsylvania grand jury report on abuse in several of the state’s dioceses was widely anticipated to be the impetus to bringing into effect some necessary reforms. It was squelched, however, by a motion from Cardinal Blase J. Cupich of Chicago in November 2018, when he asked bishops from the floor of the plenary assembly to give Rome time to act. The resulting product was the Vatican-implemented “metropolitan model,” the procedure of which is outlined in Pope Francis’ motu proprio “Vos estis lux mundi,” which assigns bishops to opaquely investigate their own accused of any misconduct.

— A successful compromise veep —

Looking ahead, custom now positions Bishop Flores of Brownsville, a close runner-up to Archbishop Coakley, to be frontrunner for the USCCB presidency in three years.

A bishop since 2006, Bishop Flores served previously as an auxiliary in Detroit from 2006 to 2009. He ranked third in seniority on the ballot for top conference officers. That Bishop Flores has not yet been elevated to a more prominent see has been a surprise to many, especially as he was widely speculated to be a possible successor to Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo in Galveston-Houston before now-Archbishop Joe S. Vasquez was assigned there early this year. His election as vice president could signal to Rome his support among the body of bishops and position him better for an elevation in the years ahead.

Bishop Flores is widely viewed as a successful compromise candidate, a moderate backed by a consensus, with strong intellectual chops. A Thomist by training, Bishop Flores is a regular speaker at a variety of events and conferences — including as a regular homilist at USCCB events — invitations that speak to his broad appeal and wide-ranging talents.

Located on the U.S.-Mexico border, Bishop Flores is well-positioned to be able to offer a strong voice in support of the pastoral care of migrants now on the national level. Bishop Flores also has experience helping the church engage with and implement the synodal path, as he oversaw the synod process in recent years on behalf of the USCCB, as well as in the continental synodal process and in the two Synods on Synodality in Rome.

In the days ahead of this week’s election, Bishop Flores’ candidacy garnered wide support, including from the conference’s more progressive bishops, signaling that he doesn’t fall into typical ideological camps..

While the election of Archbishop Coakley and Bishop Flores to the top spots of the U.S. bishops’ conference draws attention to the needs of the church in the growing American south, it also signifies a growing inability for the bishops to select a leader by an overwhelming majority. Even though Bishop Flores was successfully elected vice president on the first ballot, it’s noteworthy that he only earned 119 votes out of 234.

The days when USCCB leadership elections yielded victories by margins more than 70% on the first ballot — such as with Cardinal Francis George, formerly of Chicago, in 2010 and Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles, in 2019 — seem increasingly rare. It might also mean that Archbishop Coakley and Bishop Flores have their work cut out for them when it comes to helping Pope Leo advance the mission of unity he has been clearly articulating since the earliest days of his pontificate.

BALTIMORE (OSV News) – Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Texas, urged the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Nov. 11 to take further steps to show solidarity with migrants in remarks at their annual fall plenary assembly in Baltimore.

Bishop Seitz, who has chaired the conference’s Committee on Migration, said that “since January, the Trump administration has remained committed to the president’s campaign promise of mass deportations.”

His remarks Nov. 11 came as a growing number of bishops have acknowledged that some of the Trump administration’s immigration policies risk presenting the church with both practical challenges in administering pastoral support and charitable endeavors, as well as religious liberty challenges.

“This has been accompanied by policy changes that are intimidating and dehumanizing the immigrants in our midst, regardless of how they came to be here,” Bishop Seitz said. “The repeated rhetoric about an approach to enforcement focused on terrorists, dangerous criminals and those with final orders of removal has largely been contradicted by several actions: This includes the detention of those attending their immigration court hearings, the targeting of international students and even the circumvention of protections for unaccompanied children, among others.”

“This unyielding commitment to mass deportation,” Bishop Seitz argued, as well as “curtailing legal immigration,” and deportations to “third countries completely unfamiliar to them,” make clear “this is just the beginning.”

“As pastors devoted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we know statements alone are not enough,” Bishop Seitz said.

The migration committee, its staff and its partners are among those working on a new effort “to actively support our immigrant brothers and sisters consistent with the conference’s identity,” he said.

The initiative, titled “You Are Not Alone,” will focus “on four thematic areas of ministry, emergency and family support, accompaniment and pastoral care, communications and church teaching, and fourthly, solidarity through prayer and public witness,” he said.

“While we hope this initiative will support new and expanded efforts throughout the country,” he said. “We know our church has been accompanying newcomers throughout the country, newcomers to this land, since before our country’s founding.”

Referring to his recent meeting with Pope Leo XIV, Bishop Seitz added, “As our Holy Father himself stated clearly last month, the church cannot be silent.”

Bishop Seitz did express optimism about resolving a backlog in visas for immigrant religious workers.

“With the attention being given to this situation by the Secretary of State (Marco) Rubio and others, we are hopeful to see positive developments in the very near future, we’re very optimistic,” he said.

In comments to OSV News after his speech, Bishop Seitz added, “Well, you know, there have been a lot of times when we were very hopeful, but I don’t think I’ve heard this level of optimism before, and their hope is that within a week, we might get a new rule that will allow them to shorten tremendously, the amount of time they have to stay outside the country.”

Catholic social teaching on immigration seeks to balance three interrelated principles: the right of persons to migrate in order to sustain themselves and their families, the right of a country to regulate its borders and immigration, and a nation’s duty to conduct that regulation with justice and mercy.

(OSV News) – In the lead-up to Pope Leo XIV’s Nov. 15 meeting with a group of Hollywood actors and directors, the Vatican offered an insight into the American-born pontiff’s cinematic taste by publishing a short list of his favorite films. Despite its brevity, the collection of four movies covers quite a lot of thematic and tonal territory.

The quartet starts off with a holiday classic from Tinseltown’s golden age that presents viewers with a ringing affirmation of the value of a life well lived. In somewhat the same vein, it also includes a mostly lighthearted, fact-based musical about the formation of a family singing group.

But weightier dramas are not neglected. In fact, the catalogue is rounded out by the tale of a family tragedy and its emotional fallout as well as a study of paternal love set against the harrowing cruelty of the Holocaust.

Below, in alphabetical order, are capsule reviews of the pictures highlighted by Pope Leo together with their OSV News classifications and, where applicable, their Motion Picture Association ratings.

“It’s a Wonderful Life” (1946)

Seasonal favorite about the joys and trials of a good man (James Stewart) who, facing financial ruin on the eve of Christmas, contemplates suicide until his guardian angel (Henry Travers) shows him how meaningful his life has been to those around him. Director Frank Capra’s unabashedly sentimental picture of mainstream American life is bolstered by a superb cast (including Lionel Barrymore as a conniving banker) and a wealth of good feelings about such commonplace virtues as hard work and helping one’s neighbor. Young children may find the story’s dark moments unsettling. The OSV News classification is A-II — adults and adolescents. Not rated by the Motion Picture Association.

“Life Is Beautiful” (1998)

Bittersweet comic fable in which an Italian Jewish bookseller (Roberto Benigni) uses his imagination to convince his little son that their grim existence in a Nazi concentration camp is just an elaborate contest and that they are sure to win the grand prize. Also co-written and directed by Benigni, the story starts off as a slapstick comedy with the young man courting his future wife, then midway becomes a touchingly human story of a parent’s irrepressible determination to protect his child from terror and misery. Theme of genocide. The OSV News classification is A-II — adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association rating is PG-13 — parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

“Ordinary People” (1980)

Donald Sutherland and Mary Tyler Moore give fine performances as confused and troubled parents trying to cope with the psychological aftershocks that result when the older of two sons dies in a boating accident and the surviving son (Timothy Hutton) attempts suicide. Directed by Robert Redford, the movie hints that the characters’ complacent and wholly materialistic environment may have contributed to the family’s instability, but these aspects remain underdeveloped. The problems are very real yet the movie is strangely cool and distanced from them. Due to the heaviness of the theme and some instances of rough language, it’s best for mature viewers. The OSV News classification is A-III — adults. The Motion Picture Association rating is R — restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

“The Sound of Music” (1965)

Particularly fine screen version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical about the formative years of the Trapp Family Singers in Austria between the two world wars. Its interesting story, solid cast (headed by Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer), lovely music and intelligent lyrics, colorful scenery and pleasant fantasy will entertain the mind and enliven the spirit. Directed by Robert Wise, the movie has held up over the years as thoroughly refreshing family entertainment. The OSV News classification is A-I — general patronage. The Motion Picture Association rating is G — general audiences. All ages admitted.

BALTIMORE (OSV News) – The U.S. bishops voted overwhelmingly Nov. 11 to support the advancement of a canonization cause for Jesuit Father Richard Thomas.

The agenda item was presented by Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Canonical Affairs and Church Governance. He was joined in the presentation by Bishop Peter Baldacchino of Las Cruces, New Mexico, the diocese in which Father Thomas died on May 8, 2006.

The bishops’ consultation is a necessary step ahead of formally opening a canonization cause.

This milestone in advancing Father Thomas’ cause comes just a month after release of Pope Leo XIV’s first apostolic letter, “Dilexi Te,” which outlines the church’s rationale for and record of service to the poor. Father Thomas’ life reflects many of the stories of saints and holy figures to whom Pope Leo’s letter draws attention. Father Thomas is being raised up as a model at the same time that U.S. bishops are drawing attention to the ongoing crisis involving immigrants in the United States.

While calls for Father Thomas’ canonization have continued since his death, formal steps began in 2011, after the mandatory five-year waiting period following an individual’s death. In 2012, formal permission was granted to publish devotional materials with a prayer seeking Father Thomas’ intercession.

Bishop Baldacchino noted that “countless” individuals in Mexico and the U.S. have devotion to Father Thomas, and that miracles attributed to his intercession are being reported and documented.

Auxiliary Bishop Peter L. Smith of Portland, Oregon, spoke highly of Father Thomas and remarked about the miracles that were a regular occurrence in his ministry. In supporting the advancement of Father Thomas’ causes, Bishop Smith noted, “He was always very joyful, and faith just radiated from him.”

“Father Rick,” as he was affectionately known, dedicated his life to service of the poor, and credited his vocation and work to a variety of spiritual experiences. He entered the Jesuit order in 1945 and was ordained a priest in San Francisco in 1958.

Father Thomas arrived in El Paso, Texas, in 1964, taking over Our Lady’s Youth Center, which at the time included employment and credit resources, youth athletic teams, English classes, and meals for neighboring children. During his tenure, the center’s work was expanded to include medical and dental clinics, schools, ministries to the sick and imprisoned, and food banks.

Early on in his tenure at the center, Father Thomas experienced discouragement from not seeing any real progress in alleviating poverty. But Father Thomas came to understand God’s presence and action in the midst of the poverty and suffering around him. “When I began to hear that God was doing things, you know, I said, ‘Well I want part of that,'” he said in an undated interview posted on YouTube. Father Thomas was known for his own simple living quarters, desiring to share in the conditions of those to whom he ministered.

Working as a horse trainer in high school, Father Thomas experienced a strong call from God to be a priest — a surprise as he “never wanted to be one,” he said. But about a decade into ordained ministry, Father Thomas viewed his own priesthood to be “rather stale,” before he experienced his own personal Pentecost experience at a charismatic prayer service. After being prayed over at the gathering, he woke up in the middle of the night “in deep prayer” that he had not experienced “in a long time.”

Father Thomas dedicated himself to social work after the model of the Good Samaritan, saying in the interview, “I think this is what will spread God’s kingdom on earth, when we’re all Good Samaritans.” He believed strongly that people experience Jesus Christ in a special way when serving the poor.

One of the fruits of the charismatic renewal begun at Our Lady’s Youth Center was a Christmas dinner in 1972 organized for hundreds of poor at a garbage dump across the U.S.-Mexico border in Juarez, Mexico. Father Thomas was dumbfounded at how much food was leftover given what little he had to begin with.

“Then we realized God worked sovereignly there … in such a visible way,” he said. From this experience, Father Thomas established, as an extension of his center, a “garbage dump ministry” that eventually bore fruit in a host of ways, from creative business endeavors to clinics and a daycare.

Father Thomas eventually expanded the work of his center to New Mexico, where, about 30 miles away from El Paso, he purchased a ranch in 1975. The ranch grew into an active farm and dairy. About a year later, he established a food bank for the underprivileged and elderly in Juarez.

Over the years, Father Thomas and his work were frequently featured in the media. French theologian Father René Laurentin, a notable advisor at the Second Vatican Council, visited Father Thomas, the fruit of which was two books about Father Thomas and his ministries. One was only published in French, and the other is now out of print. Canadian journalist Richard Dunstan also authored two books on Father Thomas, including a 2018 biography “A Poor Priest for the Poor: The Life of Father Rick Thomas S.J.”

While Father Thomas, in addition to a few occasions for arrest on account of his advocacy, received many accolades and awards throughout his life, his cause’s website states that “the only award he was interested in was to hear the Lord say, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant … come and share your Master’s joy’ (Mt 25:23).”

“We believe he heard those words,” it says.

BALTIMORE (OSV News) – In his farewell address to his brother bishops, Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services, outgoing president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, emphasized the need to “convince people to listen to each other” amid polarization.

“We have to draw on our unity to illustrate that civil discourse is not only possible, but the most authentically human way forward,” he told the bishops gathered Nov. 11 for their annual fall plenary assembly in Baltimore.

Archbishop Broglio said he had mentioned to Pope Leo in October that “some of our faithful listen more readily to sound bytes, the sirens of political discourse, or whatever confirms their conclusions and partisan leanings” instead of “hearing their pastors and us.”

“The ease of sending an e-mail has diminished common courtesy and, if I may be so bold, even common sense,” he continued. “Our task, as unworthy successors of the apostles, is to proclaim the truth in and out of season, reaffirm the dignity of the human person and find ways to make the Gospel resound at the very least in the hearts of believers, if not from shore to shore.”

During his time working in Rome at the Secretariat of State in the Apostolic Palace years ago, he said, he enjoyed visiting “an empty Sistine Chapel before the Vatican Museums were open,” saying “the vivid images of Michelangelo’s Last Judgment always captured my attention.”

Those images have remained with him, he said, as he “issued a few reminders to interlocutors to remember that Jesus already told us the ‘exam’ questions for the final judgment. There is no room for doubt and the preparation is daily.”

“Jesus identifies with the hungry, thirsty, helpless, unborn, stranger, naked, homeless and prisoner. He assures us that we meet Him in those others,” he emphasized. “It should surprise no one when we defend the unborn, meet the basic needs of the immigrant, lobby for immigration reform, reach out to those in need outside our borders through CRS and call upon others to do the same.”

Archbishop Broglio recalled “a weak, ill-advised moment” when he “responded to an irate email and suggested that my interlocutor read Matthew 25. The response came quickly: I should read the catechism.”

“How can it be that someone would actually believe that the catechism and the Gospel do not agree and give the same message,” he wondered. “Our work, brothers, is cut out for us and much remains to be done.”

“We must also convince people to listen to each other,” he emphasized. “May the lessons learned through the synod spread throughout society so that we might take the time to listen to the other, and if we must disagree, we do so with courtesy, appropriate speech and even attentiveness to the personal situation of the other.”

Archbishop Broglio also emphasized the generous assistance provided by the faithful to those impacted by Hurricane Melissa’s devastation in Jamaica, Haiti and Cuba.

He also noted that he “was shocked to learn that 42 million people are dependent on assistance from SNAP. In a country of such wealth and such possibilities, we should be able to do better so that all are able to share in the bounty of this land.”

He shared an appeal from the Franciscans of the Holy Land who asked for aid “in fostering assiduous growth in the participation in the annual collection for the Holy Land” as “the need there is extreme and the war in Gaza has only exacerbated the suffering for the dwindling Christian population in the land where Jesus walked.”

Archbishop Broglio concluded his address by thanking his brother bishops for their “unity, confidence and support, especially as I was stretched to speak for all of us in defense of the unborn, the stranger and the poor.”

Following Archbishop Broglio’s address, Cardinal Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States, gave his first address to the conference as Pope Leo XIV’s representative. He opened with the two-fold question: “Where have we been and where are we going?”

He approached the question by “placing it under a guiding light: the teaching and vision of the Second Vatican Council.” He emphasized that Vatican II “remains the key to understanding what kind of church we are called to be today, and the reference point for discerning where we are headed.”

“Pope Leo also is convinced of this,” he added. “Two days after his election, he told the cardinals: ‘I would like us to renew together today our complete commitment to the path that the universal church has now followed for decades in the wake of the Second Vatican Council.'”

“The documents of the Second Vatican Council,” he said, “gifted the church with a map for the journey ahead.”

“The council’s documents were not fully understood in their time,” he said because “they were not a description of where the church stood, but a map drawn for the territory into which she was being sent. Today, that territory is our daily experience. We now inhabit the world that the council foresaw — a world marked by profound cultural shifts, technological change and a secularized mindset that challenges faith at its roots.”

The pontificate of Pope Francis, he said, “was marked, not by innovation for its own sake, but by a call to live more fully the vision of the council. ‘Evangelii Gaudium’ and ‘Fratelli Tutti’ both reflect that vision: a missionary church, joyful and outward-looking, a community that builds fraternity in a divided world.”

Noting the “pivotal moment” of transition from Pope Francis to Leo XIV, Cardinal Pierre said, “even if some may be inclined to pursue paths that turn aside from the pastoral vision of Pope Francis, we know that the way forward is not to diverge, but to advance along the road he helped to illuminate — a road on which Pope Leo continues to lead us.”

Cardinal Pierre praised Pope Leo’s vision for Catholic education in his recent apostolic letter “Drawing New Maps of Hope” which marked the 60th anniversary of the conciliar declaration
“Gravissimum Educationis.”

“This vision renews our dedication to formation in all its dimensions,” the cardinal said, “to families as first educators; to schools that are both strong and accessible; to universities that serve culture through ‘an inclusive outlook and attention to the heart’; and to policies that protect the poor — since, as the Holy Father reminds us, ‘losing the poor’ is equivalent to losing the school itself.”

Cardinal Pierre said that “the true vitality of Catholic education” depends “on how deeply it embodies the vision of Vatican II,” and “Catholic education thus offers a window into the wider story of how the council’s teaching has been received across the church in this country.”

“The council’s call to unity challenges us to resist the divisions that fracture our witness,” he emphasized. “Polarization too often allows Catholics — even within the same parish or family — to identify more with tribes and ideologies than with the body of Christ. The synodal path invites us to a different way: a style of being church that makes communion concrete, allows dialogue to become discernment and catholicity to become shared mission.”

Cardinal Pierre asked the bishops, having received so much from the council’s vision, “the question now becomes: What does that ask of us as bishops? How are we to represent the church the council described?”

In part, he said, it means avoiding “both ideological narrowing and vague generality, proclaiming the whole Gospel with clarity and love” and in “engagement with public life, we are not chaplains to parties or distant commentators, but shepherds who bring the breadth of Catholic social teaching into the civic discourse in a way that transcends partisanships.”

He also urged those assembled to “never forget the call Pope Leo XIV places at the heart of ‘Dilexi Te’: to renew our saving relationship with the poor, whose poverty takes many forms — migrants seeking dignity, victims of human trafficking and abuse, families denied a fair chance to improve their lives.”

“The council’s documents continue to form us and guide our discernment of this moment,” he concluded. “Pope Leo XIV now carries that same vision forward, interpreting it anew for the world of today. If we walk faithfully with him, we will be the church the council envisioned: A pilgrim people, a sacrament of communion, a beacon of hope, and a servant of the poor — drawing, even now, new maps of hope for the generations to come.”

(OSV News) – A new documentary released by the Vatican on Pope Leo XIV’s early life is more than just a film about the life of the new pope, but the story of an ordinary person who answered a calling to serve the church, said Vatican News journalist Salvatore Cernuzio.

Released Nov. 10, the documentary “Leo from Chicago” chronicles the pope’s humble beginnings in Dolton, Illinois, as well as his early years as an Augustinian.

“A colleague told me, ‘It certainly seems like you have told the story of a saint,'” Cernuzio said in a phone interview with OSV News Nov. 11.

“I believe it’s not a question of sainthood; it’s about a person who was born with a meek character. His charism is truly this meekness and, above all, how he developed these particular traits of dialogue, of friendship, of community.”

The film was produced by the Dicastery for Communication, along with the Archdiocese of Chicago and the Apostolado El Sembrador Nueva Evangelización (ESNE), a Spanish-language Catholic TV apostolate.

According to the Vatican, the documentary — which was produced by Cernuzio and fellow Vatican News journalists Deborah Castellano Lubov and Felipe Herrera-Espaliat — retraces “the story, family roots, studies, and Augustinian vocation of Robert Francis Prevost in his native United States.”

Available on the Vatican News’ YouTube channel, “Leo from Chicago” serves as a follow-up to “León de Perú,” which focused on “the future pope’s missionary years in South America,” the Vatican said.

Cernuzio, who was also involved in the production of “León de Perú” which was released in June, said the first documentary “went a bit into the heart of his ministry, but it was still the story of people who experienced a man who came from outside.”

However, “Leo from Chicago” gathers testimonies from those who “experienced him at the same level: as a schoolmate, a student, a biological brother, and even a brother in the religious order who did his novitiate with him.”

“He is a pope we know more about compared to June, but we are still getting to know him, and whose characteristics and nuances of his personality we have not yet fully grasped,” Cernuzio told OSV News. “‘Leo from Chicago’ opens a window in this sense, meaning it helps to understand this man’s attitude in relationships, his goals, and his vocation.”

After chronicling the pope’s formative years in two documentaries, Cernuzio noted that what stood out most was his “fundamental consistency.”

“From when he was a child until he became a priest and then left for Peru, he has always been somewhat the same person,” he said. “He is a man who didn’t have conflicts, who cared about establishing serious bonds with people, who didn’t forget the people he visited, and who always showed a good character — a kind, docile person who was open to dialogue. So, in this sense, his personality is consistent.”

For Cernuzio, the pope was not only connected to the U.S. Catholic Church, as evidenced by his participation in the annual March for Life, but also gained a broader perspective on the church during his missionary days in Peru.

It was there, he said, that Pope Leo saw another side of the church that required “what Pope Francis called ‘getting one’s hands dirty.”

“So, the March for Life also became a march for human rights, for the poor, for defending women and children against violence, and for the rights of workers and the oppressed,” he said.

Cernuzio told OSV News that he was moved by the testimony of Father Tom McCarthy, an Augustinian priest who has known the new pope for over four decades.

Father McCarthy, he recalled, said then-Father Prevost “could have had a great position in a diocese or a seminary. Instead of canon law and all those years of study, what did he choose? He chose the poor.”

That missionary experience, Cernuzio added, “enriched” the pope’s views and perspective of the church’s mission in the world.

“He has this treasure accumulated within him from school, university, his studies, and his prestigious assignments. But at the same time, he has an enormous background: this experience of over 20 years in Peru, where he truly learned what it means to concretize the Gospel among people who need that message,” he said.

Cernuzio said he hoped that those who see the documentary will understand “the guiding threads of his personality and how he lives out his charisms and roles.”

Other details, like his love of the Chicago White Sox, his emotions at watching the Blues Brothers, and his affinity for pepperoni pizza, are “details that also show the normalcy of this person.”

“He is a normal man, called by God and chosen by the cardinals to lead the universal Church,” Cernuzio said.

BALTIMORE (OSV News) – In a message to Pope Leo XIV at the start of their fall plenary assembly in Baltimore, the U.S. bishops told the pope Nov. 11 that they “will continue to stand with migrants and defend everyone’s right to worship free from intimidation.”

“As shepherds in the United States, we face a growing worldview that is so often at odds with the Gospel mandate to love thy neighbor,” they wrote. “In cities across the United States, our migrant brothers and sisters, many of whom are fellow Catholics, face a culture of fear, hesitant to leave their homes and even to attend church for fear of being randomly harassed or detained.

“Holy Father, please know that the bishops of the United States, united in our concern, will continue to stand with migrants and defend everyone’s right to worship free from intimidation,” the bishops wrote. “We support secure and orderly borders and law enforcement actions in response to dangerous criminal activity, but we cannot remain silent in this challenging hour while the right to worship and the right to due process are undermined.”

The bishops continued: “In our nation, as well as in our world, we face so many challenges in witnessing to the Gospel: the growing narrowness and selfishness of individualism, economic and social impoverishment, growing polarization, animosity, and political violence, the inability to engage in civil discourse, the lack of generosity to work with each other, and constant threats to the life and dignity of every human person, especially the poor, the elderly, and the unborn.

“Despite these challenges, we are encouraged by the Christian virtues of hope and charity,” the bishops wrote. “Where the world sees others as a problem or a burden, we must, and we will continue to show that each person is loved by God and therefore deserves to be respected, whether in the womb, a stranger, or homeless, hungry, in prison, or dying.”

The bishops continued: “As you know well, the United States is richly blessed with vibrant parishes, dedicated clergy and religious, and many faithful lay women and men who live in hope and charity. With them, on a person-to-person level, our dioceses and our parishes continue to help those in great need. Your Holiness, we humbly ask you to bless them and the whole Church in our Country that we may be ever more faithful disciples of the Lord Jesus and credible witnesses to His kingdom.”

They concluded, “May the Holy Spirit inspire our assembly and the work that lies before it.”

The message was met with applause by the body of bishops.

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – The U.S. Supreme Court declined Nov. 10 a case that asked it to revisit its landmark ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. The 2015 ruling overturned state laws defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman, a decision the head of the U.S. Catholic bishops at the time called a “tragic error.”

The court rejected an appeal from Kim Davis, the former Kentucky county clerk who sparked a national controversy in the wake of Obergefell in 2015 when she declined to issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple on religious grounds. Davis sought to appeal a federal jury’s decision that she should pay $100,000 in damages – and $260,000 for attorneys fees – to the couple.

Her appeal marked the first major request to the justices to overturn the 2015 ruling. At the time Obergefell was decided, Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky, then-president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the court’s 5-4 decision was as wrong as the high court’s decision in 1973 to legalize abortion nationwide with Roe v. Wade. He called it “profoundly immoral and unjust for the government to declare that two people of the same sex can constitute a marriage,” emphasizing that “Jesus Christ, with great love, taught unambiguously that from the beginning marriage is the lifelong union of one man and one woman.”

Many legal scholars questioned the merits of the Kim Davis case itself, so the high court’s move to decline the case Nov. 10 was expected. However, in the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe’s longstanding abortion precedent, Justice Clarence Thomas filed a concurrence arguing the justices should “reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents,” including Obergefell, an argument Davis’ petition cited.

Robert P. George, a Catholic legal scholar and McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, told OSV News that many think that “most of the current Supreme Court justices believe” the Obergefell case “was wrongly decided,” as does he.

“One question undoubtedly in the minds of some justices is whether, despite its being wrongly decided — and a usurpation by the judiciary of democratic legislative authority — the doctrine of ‘stare decisis’ counsels leaving the decision in place,” George said.

“Stare decisis” is the legal doctrine that courts must follow precedent.

“I suspect that this will be the central question when the court decides it has been presented with the right case to use as a vehicle for reconsidering Obergefell,” George argued. “Evidently, none of the justices thought that the Kim Davis case was the right case to use for that purpose.”

William Powell, senior counsel for Georgetown Law’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection, which has represented David Ermold and David Moore, the Kentucky couple to whom Davis denied a license, told OSV News, “The Supreme Court’s denial of review confirms what we already knew: Same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry, and Kim Davis’s denial of marriage licenses in defiance of Obergefell plainly violated that right.”

“This is a win for same-sex couples everywhere who have built their families and lives around the right to marry,” he said.

The Catholic Church teaches the sacrament of matrimony can only take place between one woman and one man as “a permanent union of persons capable of knowing and loving each other and God” ordered to “the good of the spouses” and the gift of children. At the same time, the church stresses that those experiencing same-sex attraction, like Christians in every state of life, are called to live chastely through prayer and sacramental grace, drawing on “the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom” as they pursue holiness.

The USCCB had no involvement in the Davis case. However, in his June 26, 2015, USCCB response to Obergefell, Archbishop Kurtz stated the Catholic Church’s concerns about redefining marriage in civil law to include same-sex couples.

“The unique meaning of marriage as the union of one man and one woman is inscribed in our bodies as male and female. The protection of this meaning is a critical dimension of the ‘integral ecology’ that Pope Francis has called us to promote,” he said. “Mandating marriage redefinition across the country is a tragic error that harms the common good and most vulnerable among us, especially children. The law has a duty to support every child’s basic right to be raised, where possible, by his or her married mother and father in a stable home.”

Mathew Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, the firm representing Davis, argued in a statement his client “was jailed, hauled before a jury, and now faces crippling monetary damages based on nothing more than purported hurt feelings.”

“We will continue to work to overturn Obergefell,” he added. “It is not a matter of if, but when the Supreme Court will overturn Obergefell.”

Rick Garnett, a professor of law at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, told OSV News, “Although various commentators and activists have spent weeks claiming that a vehicle for overturning Obergefell was being considered by the justices, no informed court observers ever thought that the court would grant review in this case.”

“The case does not actually present, in a square and clean way, the question the coverage has suggested it does,” he said. “The attention focused on this minor, fact-bound petition tells us more about the ongoing campaign to stir up public feeling regarding the court than it does about live constitutional questions.”

If the Obergefell ruling were to be overturned in the future, it would not render void existing marriage licenses under the 2022 Respect for Marriage Act. That law requires the federal government to guarantee recognition of existing same-sex and interracial marriages regardless of any changes in law.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The hope that comes from true faith “breaks the chain of evil,” promoting forgiveness and righteousness, Pope Leo XIV said.

“It is a new kind of strength that confounds the proud and casts down the mighty from their thrones,” he said. “In this way, hope arises.”

At a Jubilee general audience in St. Peter’s Square Nov. 8, Pope Leo particularly welcomed pilgrims from the Jubilee of the World of Work. The celebration originally was scheduled to include the May 1 feast of St. Joseph the Worker but was postponed because of the death of Pope Francis.

Pope Leo told people at the audience about Blessed Isidore Bakanja, a Congolese martyr who died in 1909 as a result of the beatings he endured at the hands of his boss at the European-owned plantation where he worked. The man despised Christians and the missionaries Blessed Bakanja was close to.

But as Blessed Bakanja was dying, he told the missionaries that he had forgiven his boss and would pray for him from heaven.

The Scripture reading at the audience was from 1 Corinthians 1:26-27, “Consider your own calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong.”

Writing to the Corinthians, St. Paul wants them to understand how, with Jesus’ death and resurrection, “the earth has already begun to resemble heaven,” the pope said. “He tells them to consider their calling and to see how God has brought together people who otherwise would never have associated with one another.”

“To hope is to bear witness that the earth can truly resemble heaven” with justice and peace and dignity for all, the pope said. “And this is the message of the Jubilee.”

In his English-language remarks, Pope Leo said that Blessed Bakanja’s witness “reminds us that we have much to learn from our persecuted brothers and sisters in Africa. Let us strive to follow his example of perseverance in the faith despite any persecution or rejection we may face.”

Work should be “a source of hope and life, allowing each person to express their creativity and their capacity to do good,” the pope said, asking for a commitment by governments and businesses to creating “meaningful employment opportunities that offer stability and dignity, ensuring above all that young people can fulfill their dreams and contribute to the common good.”