Category: Diocese of Scranton News

NUR-SULTAN, Kazakhstan (CNS) – As war, violence and extremism in countries around the world threaten the lives of countless men, women and children, religions must rise above differences and be examples of peace and harmony, Pope Francis said.

“It is time to realize that fundamentalism defiles and corrupts every creed; time for open and compassionate hearts,” the pope said Sept. 14 at the plenary session of the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions.

“We need religion in order to respond to the thirst for world peace and the thirst for the infinite that dwells in the heart of each man and woman,” he said.

On the second day of his visit to Kazakhstan, the pope addressed 80 religious leaders and hundreds of delegates participating in the interreligious meeting Sept. 14-15 in the Palace of Independence, a blue-glassed trapezoid-shaped building in the heart of the Kazakh capital, Nur-Sultan.

The congress, which is held every three years, was the initiative of Kazakhstan’s first president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, as a way of promoting dialogue among religions, the congress’ website stated. It also aims to prevent “the use of religious feelings of people for the escalation of conflicts and hostilities.”

Arriving at the meeting, the pope took his place at a huge round table with the other leaders and was immediately greeted by Sheikh Ahmad el-Tayeb, grand imam of Al-Azhar in Egypt. Smiling, the pope affectionately embraced him.

The event began with a moment of silent prayer.

After the formal session, Pope Francis held private meetings with a dozen of the leaders, including the sheikh, but also with Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, head of external relations for the Russian Orthodox Church. The metropolitan took the place of Russian Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, who canceled his attendance at the congress.

Metropolitan Anthony told reporters his 15-minute meeting with the pope was “very cordial” and that the pope had asked him to pass his greetings to the patriarch, whom the pope had hoped to meet in Nur-Sultan. The patriarch’s withdrawal from the congress was seen by many observers as a protest of Pope Francis’ decision not to meet Patriarch Kirill in Jerusalem in June because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and of Patriarch Kirill’s support for the war.

“We had worked to prepare the second meeting (between a pope and patriarch — the first was in Havana in 2016), and then it was canceled by the Vatican,” Metropolitan Anthony told reporters at the Palace of Independence. “We’ll see what we can do” to arrange a new meeting time.

Asked if Patriarch Kirill was still bothered by Pope Francis’ comment in May to an Italian newspaper that “the patriarch cannot turn himself into Putin’s altar boy,” the metropolitan said, “I can say it was something very unexpected, this interview, and it is clear that expressions of this kind are not helpful for Christian unity.”

In his formal talk to the congress, Pope Francis said that “authentic religiosity” is needed to fight fundamentalism and extremism in religion and to show the world that it has no reason to distrust or have “contempt for religion as if it were a destabilizing force in modern society.”

Kazakhstan and other nations of the former Soviet Union “are all too familiar with the legacy of decades of state-imposed atheism: that oppressive and stifling mentality for which the mere mention of the word ‘religion’ was greeted with embarrassed silence,” the pope said.

Religion, he said, “is not a problem, but part of the solution for a more harmonious life in society.”

Focusing on the meeting’s theme, which reflected on the role of religious leaders “in the spiritual and social development of mankind in the post-pandemic period,” Pope Francis said the COVID-19 pandemic was among several challenges that “call all of us — and in a special way the religions — to greater unity of purpose.”

“COVID-19 put us all in the same boat,” he said. “All of us felt vulnerable, all of us in need of help, none of us completely independent, none completely self-sufficient.”

Now, he said, religions must not squander “the sense of solidarity” or act as “if nothing happened.”

Instead, the pope said, religious leaders must confront the urgent needs of the world and be “promoters of unity amid the grave challenges that risk dividing our human family even further.”

With the world “plagued by the scourge of war, by a climate of hostility and confrontation, by an inability to step back and hold out a hand to the other,” he said, it is time for religions to purify themselves from evil, particularly the “presumption of feeling self-righteous, with no need to learn anything from anyone.”

“Let us free ourselves of those reductive and destructive notions that offend the name of God by harshness, extremism and forms of fundamentalism, and profane it through hatred, fanaticism and terrorism, disfiguring the image of man as well,” he said.

“And let us learn also to be ashamed: yes, to experience that healthy shame born of compassion for those who suffer, sympathy and concern for their condition and for their fate, which we realize that we too share,” he said.

NUR-SULTAN, Kazakhstan (CNS) – Arriving in Kazakhstan, a country that borders Russia, Pope Francis said he came as a “pilgrim of peace” at a time when “our world urgently needs peace; it needs to recover harmony.”

“I am visiting you in the course of the senseless and tragic war that broke out with the invasion of Ukraine, even as other conflicts and threats of conflict continue to imperil our times,” the pope said Sept. 13 in a speech to the country’s civil authorities, representatives of civic groups and members of the diplomatic corps.

“I have come to echo the plea of all those who cry out for peace, which is the essential path to development for our globalized world,” he said.

After a nearly seven-hour flight from Rome, Pope Francis arrived in the capital city, Nur-Sultan, where he will attend the Sept. 14-15 Congress of World and Traditional Religions. As he arrived in Kazakh airspace, his plane was escorted by fighter jets.

Arriving at the presidential palace, Pope Francis, who continues to suffer from knee pain, remained seated while Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev stood next to him as an honor guard played the national anthems of Vatican City State and Kazakhstan.

Welcoming the pope, President Tokayev thanked him for his “tireless and dedicated efforts in the name of the human family around the world” at a “critical juncture in human history.”

As Islamophobia, antisemitism and Christian persecutions continue to rise, the president said, “humanity could really go one way or the other if we are not vigilant.”

“I believe it is high time for moderates from different cultures and religions to pool their wisdom and energy to unite people behind the ideas of peace, social harmony and mutual support,” he said.

Tokayev said the pope’s presence at the interreligious meeting would ensure its success “and instill a true joy and happiness in the hearts of all devout Catholics in Kazakhstan and beyond.”

Responding to the president and addressing the civil leaders, the pope reflected on the two-stringed “dombra,” a traditional Kazakh musical instrument, and noted its use for centuries, thus “linking the past to the present.”

“As a symbol of continuity in diversity, its rhythm accompanies your country’s memory,” he said. “It thus serves as a reminder of how important it is, amid today’s rapid economic and social changes, not to neglect the bonds that connect us to the lives of those who have gone before us.”

Because of its history, St. John Paul II regarded Kazakhstan as a “land of martyrs and of believers, land of deportees and of heroes, land of intellectuals and artists,” he said.

That history, the pope said, is one of “culture, humanity and suffering,” particularly during the Soviet era that brought prison camps and mass deportations.

Nevertheless, “Kazakhs did not let themselves remain prisoners of these injustices,” the pope said. “The memory of your seclusion led to a deep concern for inclusion.”

“In this land, traversed from ancient times by great displacements of peoples, may the memory of the sufferings and trials you endured be an indispensable part of your journey toward the future, inspiring you to give absolute priority to human dignity, the dignity of every man and woman, and of every ethnic, social and religious group,” he added.

Noting the hundreds of ethnic groups peacefully coexisting in Kazakhstan, the pope said he was honored to take part in the Congress of World and Traditional Religions to “emphasize the importance and the urgency of this aspect of encounter, to which religions are called especially to contribute.”

He also praised Kazakhstan’s constitution, which defines the country as a “secular state” and thus, “provides for freedom of religion and belief.”

“A healthy secularity, one that acknowledges the important and indispensable role of religion and resists the forms of extremism that disfigure it, represents an essential condition for the equal treatment of each citizen, while fostering a sense of loyalty to the country on the part of all its ethnic, linguistic, cultural and religious groups,” he said.

Freedom also recognizes basic human rights, the pope said, praising the country’s abolition of the death penalty “in the name of each human being’s right to hope.”

The pope lauded Kazakhstan’s commitment to peace and expressed his appreciation for the country’s “decisive repudiation of nuclear weapons” as well as its environmental policies that invest in clean sources of energy.

“Together with a commitment to interreligious dialogue, these are concrete seeds of hope sown in the common soil of humanity,” Pope Francis said. “It is up to us to cultivate those seeds for the sake of coming generations, for the young, whose desires must be seriously considered as we make decisions affecting the present and the future.”

WASHINGTON (CNS) – If trends of the past 30 years continue for the next 50, Christianity will lose its majority status in the United States by 2070, according to a new demographic study by the Pew Research Center.

If those trends, first identified in 1990, accelerate over the next half-century, Christianity will have fewer adherents than Americans who are not affiliated with any church, according to the study, “Modeling the Future of Religion in America,” released Sept. 13.

Even with the demographic modeling used by Pew, the numbers vary widely. Christians, put by Pew currently at 64% of the U.S. population, could slide to 54% – or plunge to 35% – by 2070.

By the same token, the religiously unaffiliated – called “nones” in some circles – currently at 29%, could rise to 34% of the population in the next half-century, or soar to 52%.

Pew used four different scenarios in making its projections. One was “no switching,” meaning that Americans would not switch from religious affiliation to disaffiliation, or vice versa. It counterpart was “steady switching,” in which 31% of Christians become unaffiliated, while 21% of the unaffiliated become Christian.

The other two models are “rising disaffiliation.” One model put limits on the share of Christians who leave the faith at 50%. The other model set no limits on disaffiliation. Under the “rising disaffiliation” scenarios, nones outpace Christians sometime between 2050 and 2060.

Only the no-switching model, which Pew called “counterfactual,” allowed Christianity to retain its U.S. majority. The steady-switching scenario gave Christians a 46%-41% plurality. Under the rising-disaffiliation models, Christianity was relegated to minority status, with with less than 40% of all Americans.

Pew did four alternative scenarios, in which every mother transmitted their faith to each of her children; if religious groups had equal birthrates; if immigration stopped after 2030; and if older Christians stopped switching from belief to unaffiliated status. Christianity would lose its majority status but retain plurality status through 2070 under all four scenarios.

“It is possible that events outside the study’s model – such as war, economic depression, climate crisis, changing immigration patterns or religious innovations – could reverse current religious switching trends, leading to a revival of Christianity in the United States,” the report said.

Pew said that the U.S. experience could model what’s happened in Europe. “In Great Britain, for example, nones surpassed Christians to become the largest group in 2009, according to the British Social Attitudes Survey,” it noted. “In the Netherlands, disaffiliation accelerated in the 1970s, and 47% of adults now say they are Christian.” The study noted that most disaffiliation ends by the age of 30.

The report focused on sociological trends that played into its projections.

“In this study, transmission rates are calculated based on the share of children who inherit their mother’s religion – or their mother’s unaffiliated identity – because mothers tend to successfully transmit their religious identities more often than fathers do. Also, roughly a quarter of children under 18 live in single-parent households, which are overwhelmingly headed by mothers,” Pew said.

“The four main scenarios presented here vary primarily in their assumptions about the future of religious switching among Americans between the ages of 15 and 29 — which are the years when most religious change happens,” it added. “Only a modest amount of switching is modeled among older adults.”

Pew suggested at reasons behind the growing move over the past generation to disaffiliate from Christian denominations.

“In the U.S., an association of Christianity with conservative politics has driven many liberals away from the faith. Still other theories involve declining trust in religious institutions, clergy scandals, rising rates of religious intermarriage, smaller families, and so on. When asked, Americans give a wide range of reasons for leaving religion behind.”

Men bear some responsibility for the shrinking numbers of Christians, according to the report.

“Americans who have moved away from Christianity are more likely to be men, while women are more likely to retain their Christian identity,” Pew said. “A slight majority of U.S. adults who were raised Christian and are now unaffiliated (54%) are male. Among people who have remained Christian, 57% are women.”

Immigration was once seen as adding more Christians to the U.S. population. “In the 1990s and early 2000s, the largest number of recent arrivals to the U.S. were from Mexico and other Christian-majority countries in Central and South America,” the report said.

“Today, new arrivals are more likely to come from Asia. In 2018, the top country of origin for new immigrants was China (which is majority unaffiliated), followed by India (which is majority Hindu).”

The study issued a conjecture that Christianity could rebound if it falls into minority status if adherents focus on retaining Christian identity, although nones currently show little tendency to join a religion. “While this bottoming out and regrowth of Christianity is theoretically possible,” Pew said, “it would require a reversal of the current trends in switching.”

WASHINGTON (CNS) – A new documentary about St. Teresa of Kolkata, produced by the Knights of Columbus, aims to show how her mission and spirit continues in the work of her order, the Missionaries of Charity.

“Mother Teresa: No Greater Love,” directed by Emmy award-winning filmmaker, David Naglieri, was shown at the Vatican Sept. 2 and had its American premiere Sept. 11 at the St. John Paul II National Shrine in Washington. On Oct. 3-4, the film will be shown in about 900 theaters as part of Fathom Events’ Saints series.

Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly told the audience that the film intends to reach a younger audience that might not be as familiar with the work of the saint who died 25 years ago.

He also said Pope Francis praised the film in a letter.

The papal letter of Aug. 25 says: “Thank you for promoting this type of initiative that helps, in a creative manner, to make accessible the zeal for evangelization, especially for the young generations promoting the desire to follow the Lord who loved us first.”

The Washington screening capped a weekend of events dedicated to the saint, including a special Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and the dedication of the Mother Teresa Institute in Washington, designed “to preserve, protect, promote, and develop the authentic legacy of St. Teresa of Kolkata to the church and to the world.” The institute will offer resources to scholars and researchers.

During the Mass, which marked the 25th anniversary of the death of Mother Teresa, Washington Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory encouraged the faithful to look to the holy woman as a role model and “continue to fill up what she left undone in serving and loving the poor.”

“While we admire her work and extraordinary example of love, mere admiration is not enough when it comes to saints who inspire our lives,” Cardinal Gregory said. “St. Teresa was a woman of uncanny abilities, and she used all the gifts that God gave her for others. Her example must spur us all on to emulate God’s Mercy in caring for those whose lives continue to be at risk.”

The cardinal noted that Mother Teresa “has not been exempted from criticism in our contemporary world that always needs some how to find fault in even the most generous and loving individuals.”

“St. Teresa herself would be the very first to acknowledge that there was so much more that she could and would have loved to have done to care for God’s poor,” Cardinal Gregory said. “Becoming a saint does not mean that a person has done everything perfectly — just that they did everything that they did do heroically and generously.”

In a panel discussion about the new documentary after its screening, Naglieri said the process of filming new interviews and finding footage for the new documentary took 11 months and was “very much the work of the Holy Spirit.”

The particular challenge was that there’s not much vintage film footage of Mother Teresa available. She was not a seeker of personal publicity and didn’t become well-known until British journalist Malcolm Muggeridge made a 1969 documentary, “Something Beautiful for God,” about Mother Teresa’s work beginning in 1948 in India serving the physical and spiritual needs of “the poorest of the poor.”

Public fascination with this practitioner of “radical poverty” developed instantly and built for the rest of her life. Mother Teresa, born in North Macedonia in 1910, went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and was elevated to sainthood by Pope Francis on Sept. 4, 2016.

“We didn’t want to do a chronological biography,” Naglieri said. Instead, the goal was to “show how her mission and her spirit continues today.”

As a result, the documentary shows the Missionaries of Charity working with children and adults in Brazil, India, Kenya and New York City. The sisters are currently in more than 130 countries.

Sister Mary Bernice, a Missionary of Charity in the Bronx, New York, retells a story in the film about Mother Teresa encountering a gang-infested neighborhood in Chicago in the 1970s that quickly moved into legend.

She ordered the sisters: “Take me now to the door where they are shooting us.”

“We could not believe it. As we were walking toward the door, all these buildings surrounding us, the rifles were pointed out and kept shooting at us. Not one bullet touched us. And when we reached the door, this big man said to Mother Teresa: ‘Mother, you can’t come in here. I have business in here.

“And Mother put her head down. And she looked up at him and she said: ‘I, too, have business in here. Let us make a deal.’ The man was so shocked that Mother would speak this way. He said: ‘You can come in here, Mother. I can’t stop my business. But I will protect your sisters.'”

On Thursday, Sept. 8, 2022, the Most Rev. Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, issued the following statement on the passing of Queen Elizabeth II:

“Today, I join with millions of people around the world to mourn Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and celebrate her remarkable life and legacy.

“During her 70-year-reign, Queen Elizabeth, as head of the Church of England, provided great witness to her strong Christian faith, served as a vocal proponent of interfaith harmony and provided an example of how to be of service to others.

“I ask you to join me in praying for the repose of the soul of Queen Elizabeth and for His Majesty King Charles III, the entire Royal Family and all those whose lives have been impacted by her loss.

“Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon her.

“May she rest in eternal peace.”

 

MANCHESTER, England (CNS) – Catholics in the U.K. paid tribute to Queen Elizabeth II following her death Sept. 8 and the end of a reign that lasted more than 70 years.

Pope Francis sent a telegram addressed “To His Majesty the King, Charles III,” her son who immediately ascended to the throne.

“I willingly join all who mourn her loss in praying for the late queen’s eternal rest  and in paying tribute to her life of unstinting service to the good of the nation and the Commonwealth, her example of devotion to duty, her steadfast witness of faith in Jesus Christ and her firm hope in his promises,” Pope Francis said.

The British sovereign died “peacefully” at Balmoral, the royal residence in Scotland, surrounded by members of her family. She was 96.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster, president of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, paid tribute using many of the queen’s own words.

“On 21 April 1947, on her 21st birthday, Princess Elizabeth said, ‘I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service,'” Cardinal Nichols said. “Now, 75 years later, we are heartbroken in our loss at her death and so full of admiration for the unfailing way in which she fulfilled that declaration.”

“Even in my sorrow, shared with so many around the world, I am filled with an immense sense of gratitude for the gift to the world that has been the life of Queen Elizabeth II,” he said. “At this time, we pray for the repose of the soul of Her Majesty. We do so with confidence, because the Christian faith marked every day of her life and activity.”

The cardinal quoted Queen Elizabeth’s Christmas message from 2000, in which she said the teachings of Christ and her own “personal accountability before God” gave her a framework of how to live, and that Christ’s words and example offered her “great comfort in difficult times.”

Cardinal Nichols said: “This faith, so often and so eloquently proclaimed in her public messages, has been an inspiration to me, and I am sure to many. The wisdom, stability and service which she consistently embodied, often in circumstances of extreme difficulty, are a shining legacy and testament to her faith.”

He also offered prayers “for His Majesty the King, as he assumes his new office, even as he mourns his mother. God save the king.”

Bishop Hugh Gilbert, president of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland, praised Queen Elizabeth for her life of “outstanding and dedicated public service.”

“Her determination to remain active to the end of her long life has been an example of Christian leadership, which demonstrated her great stoicism and commitment to duty and was undoubtedly a source of stability and continuity in times of great change,” he said. “Scotland’s Catholic bishops will remember her in our prayers and pray for all those who mourn her loss.”

Anglican Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury said: “As we grieve together, we know that, in losing our beloved queen, we have lost the person whose steadfast loyalty, service and humility has helped us make sense of who we are through decades of extraordinary change in our world, nation and society.”

Queen Elizabeth died 17 months after the death of her husband, Philip, who died in April 2021 at age 99. Her 73-year marriage to Philip was the longest of any British sovereign.

The U.K. has entered a 10-day period of mourning.

Elizabeth was born on April 26, 1926, to Prince Albert, Duke of York, and Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon.

She acceded to the throne Feb. 6, 1952, and during her coronation in Westminster Abbey June 2, 1953, Queen Elizabeth was open about her Christian faith.

“When I spoke to you last, at Christmas, I asked you all, whatever your religion, to pray for me on the day of my coronation — to pray that God would give me wisdom and strength to carry out the promises that I should then be making,” the queen said in her address. “Throughout this memorable day, I have been uplifted and sustained by the knowledge that your thoughts and prayers were with me.”

The accession of 1952 made 2022 the year when the world’s oldest monarch and the longest-serving monarch in British history celebrated the platinum jubilee of her reign — the point when Elizabeth had sat on the British throne for 70 years.

The queen was able to witness the celebrations in her honor but handed over all of her public duties to her nearest relatives. Her final act of office was to receive Prime Minister Liz Truss in Scotland Sept. 6, when she was also last photographed.

Fourteen prime ministers served during her reign, beginning with Sir Winston Churchill. Truss was the 15th to greet her in that office.

During her reign, Queen Elizabeth met with four popes — Francis, Benedict, John Paul II and John XXIII, and as princess she met Pope Pius XII.

The queen sometimes joked about her longevity, once quoting Groucho Marx, saying: “Anyone can get old. All you have to do is live long enough.”

She served as a constitutional monarch — the British head of state and Commonwealth — the supreme governor of the Church of England and head of the British armed forces.

In her private life, she was a mother four children, a grandmother of eight, and a great-grandmother of 11 children.

Following her death, King Charles said in a statement: “The death of my beloved mother, Her Majesty the Queen, is a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family.

“We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished sovereign and a much-loved mother. I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the Realms and the Commonwealth, and by countless people around the world.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Europe and the entire world are being shaken by a war of great seriousness, Pope Francis told his papal nuncios who serve around the globe.

It is “a particularly serious war, due to the violation of international law, the risks of nuclear escalation and the drastic economic and social consequences,” he said.

“It is a Third World War ‘fought piecemeal’ that you are witnessing in the places where you carry out your mission,” he added.

The pope’s remarks came during his brief greeting to his representatives before opening the floor to their “questions and suggestions” during a private meeting in the Apostolic Palace Sept. 8.

The group included 91 apostolic nuncios and six permanent observers; five papal representatives were unable to attend, according to Vatican News. The group was at the Vatican Sept. 7-10 as part of an organized gathering of all papal representatives, scheduled every three years.

Pope Francis expressed his gratitude that, after all the difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, “now it seems the worst may be behind us, and thank God we were able to meet.”

“But, unfortunately, Europe and the whole world are shaken by a particularly serious war,” he added.

He thanked them for everything they have been doing in “these situations of suffering” everywhere they work. “You have brought the closeness of the pope to the people and the church. You have been points of reference during moments of extreme loss and turbulence.”

The pope asked everyone to remember the retired papal representatives who have died over the past three years, and in particular, the two nuncios who died while still actively serving their mission: Syro-Malabar Archbishop Joseph Chennoth, 76, papal nuncio to Japan, who died of a heart attack Sept. 8, 2020; and Italian Archbishop Aldo Giordano, 67, papal nuncio to the European Union, who died Dec. 2, 2021, after contracting COVID-19 during the pope’s visit to Slovakia two months prior.