Category: Diocese of Scranton News

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The Catholic Church professes marriage and family life to be a path to holiness – a daunting concept – but one that can start with a tiny step, Pope Francis said.

“Start from where you are, and, from there, try to journey together: together as couples, together in your families, together with other families, together with the church,” the pope said June 22, opening the World Meeting of Families with an evening “Festival of Families” in the Vatican audience hall.

The in-presence portion of most of the event June 22-26 was limited to about 2,000 people – official delegates of bishops’ conferences, Catholic family associations and movements. But the entire event was being livestreamed, and parishes and dioceses around the world were holding their own events at the same time on the theme, “Family love: a vocation and a path to holiness.”

At the opening festival, with some 4,500 people in the Vatican audience hall, Pope Francis said he wanted the church to be a “good Samaritan that draws near to you and helps you to continue your journey and to take a step forward, however small.”

Cardinal Kevin J. Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life, welcomed delegates to the gathering and told Pope Francis the five families — from Rome, Ukraine and Congo — that shared their stories “are not perfect families … because, as you always say, perfect don’t exist.”

“They are normal families who, like so many others, in every country and latitude, go through the difficulties and sufferings typical of our time,” the cardinal said, but they have discovered that when the problems are experienced with faith, they can open “incredible paths of family holiness.”

Serena Zangla and Luigi Franco, who have lived together for 10 years and have three children, spoke to the pope of the difficulty they had in finding a parish that would accept and support them, for which Pope Francis apologized. Zangla said they finally have found a community and are hoping to be married soon.

The sacrament of marriage is the gift God gives to couples in love, the pope said. “It is a marvelous gift, which contains the power of God’s own love: strong, enduring, faithful, ready to start over after every failure or moment of weakness.”

“Family life is not ‘mission impossible,'” he told them. “By the grace of the sacrament, God makes it a wonderful journey, to be undertaken together with him and never alone.”

Roberto and Maria Anselma Corbella shared with the crowd the story of the illness and death of their daughter, Chiara, who eventually chose not to pursue cancer treatment so her unborn baby would live.

“To see how she experienced the trial of her illness helped you to lift up your gaze, not to remain imprisoned in grief, but to be open to something greater: the mysterious plans of God, to eternity, to heaven,” the pope said. “I thank you for this witness of faith!”

Paul and Germaine Balenza of Congo spoke of the crises in their marriage, including infidelity, and how members of the Christian Family Community helped them find the strength to forgive and begin again.

“No one wants a love that is short-term or is marked with an expiration date,” the pope said. “We suffer greatly whenever failings, negligence and human sins make a shipwreck of marriage. But even amid the tempest, God sees what is in our hearts.”

Listening to their story, the pope said he was reminded of the biblical story of the prodigal son, “only this time, the ones who went astray were the parents, not the child!”

Pope Francis congratulated the couple for celebrating a “feast of forgiveness” with their children and renewing their wedding vows at Mass, because it helped their children see “the humility needed to beg forgiveness and the God-given strength to pick yourselves up after the fall.”

Iryna Kozhushko and her daughter Sofia from Ukraine, and Pietro and Erika Chiriaco, the couple with six young children hosting them in Acilia, a suburb of Rome, also shared their stories.

The welcome offered by the Chiriaco family, Pope Francis said, shows the generosity that almost naturally comes from having a large family where people are “trained to make room for others.”

“In the end, this is what family is all about. In the family, we experience what it is to be welcomed. Husbands and wives are the first to ‘welcome’ and accept one another, as they said they would do on the day of their marriage,” he said. “Later, as they bring a child into the world, they welcome that new life.”

“Whereas in cold and anonymous situations, the weak are often rejected,” the pope said, “in families it is natural to welcome them: to accept a child with a disability, an elderly person in need of care, a family member in difficulty who has no one else — this gives hope.”

Zakia Seddiki, a Moroccan Muslim and widow of Luca Attanasio, the Italian ambassador to Congo killed in an ambush in 2021 at the age of 43, also spoke at the event.

Seddiki had told the crowd, “We based our family on authentic love, with respect, solidarity and dialogue between our cultures.”

“None of that was lost, not even after the tragedy of Luca’s death,” the pope said. “Not only do the example and the spiritual legacy of Luca continue to live on and to speak to the consciences of many people, but also the organization that Zakia founded in some way carries on his mission. Indeed, we can say that Luca’s diplomatic mission has now become ‘a mission of peace’ on the part of your entire family.”

Pope Francis praised Seddiki and Attanasio for supporting and respecting each other’s religious identities and focusing on how both Islam and Christianity called them to work “to overcome divisions, prejudices and narrow-mindedness, and to build together something grand, something beautiful, on the basis of what we have in common.”

WASHINGTON (CNS) – In a 6-3 ruling June 21, the Supreme Court said a Maine tuition aid program that excluded religious schools violated the Constitution’s free exercise clause.

The opinion, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, said: “A state need not subsidize private education but once a state decides to do so, it cannot disqualify some private schools solely because they are religious.”

He also said the court’s decision in Carson v. Makin stemmed from a principle in its two previous decisions, particularly the 2020 opinion in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue. In that case, the court said the state of Montana could not exclude religious schools from receiving tax credit-funded scholarships under its school choice program.

The Maine case went a step further by asking if the state can prevent students from using state funds to attend schools that provide religious instruction.

Roberts stressed that a neutral benefit program that gives public funds to religious organizations through the independent choices of the recipients of those benefits does not violate the Constitution’s establishment clause.

During oral arguments last December on this case, several of the justices found fault with the state’s decision process in determining just how religious a school was in order to decide if the school could participate or not in the program specifically for rural communities.

Schools deemed as ones that could potentially “infuse” religion in classes were excluded while other schools deemed by the state’s board of education to be the “rough equivalent” of public schools — or religiously neutral — could take part in the tuition program.

“That’s discrimination based on doctrine. That’s unconstitutional,” Roberts said at the time, which he essentially reiterated in his opinion.

Justice Stephen Breyer, in his dissent, stressed that the court has “never previously held” what it is saying today, “namely, that a state must (not may) use state funds to pay for religious education as part of a tuition program designed to ensure the provision of free statewide public education.”

Breyer, joined by Justice Elena Kagan and in part by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, said this decision pays more attention to the free exercise clause and not enough to the Constitution’s Establishment Clause.

Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee for Religious Liberty, and Bishop Thomas A. Daly of Spokane, Washington, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Catholic Education, said the high court “rightly ruled that the Constitution protects not just the right to be religious but also to act religious.”

“This commonsense result reflects the essence of Catholic education,” they said.

“The court has again affirmed that states cannot exclude religious schools from generally available public benefits based on their religious affiliation or exercise,” the USCCB chairmen added. “In our pluralistic society, it is vital that all people of faith be able to participate in publicly available programs and so to contribute to the common good.”

Nichole Garnett, a law professor at Notre Dame Law School, who focuses on education policy, called the decision “a victory both for religious liberty and for American schoolchildren.”

“The majority makes clear, once again, that, when the government makes a benefit available to private institutions, it must treat religious institutions — including faith-based schools — fairly and equitably,” she said in June 21 statement.

She also noted that the opinion cements the constitutional principle that “requires government neutrality — and prohibits hostility — toward religious believers and institutions.”

Garnett, signed an amicus brief in the Maine case submitted by the Religious Liberty Initiative of Notre Dame Law School on behalf of elementary and secondary schools from three faith traditions – Catholic (Partnership for Inner-City Education), Islamic (Council of Islamic Schools in North America) and Jewish (National Council of Young Israel).

Noting how this decision could impact school choice programs, she said it “clears away a major hurdle to the expansion of parental choice in the U.S. by clarifying that, when states adopt choice programs, they must permit parents to choose faith-based schools for their children.”

“Faith-based schools have a long and proven track record of providing high-quality education, especially for our most disadvantaged children and policies that exclude them from private-school choice programs are both unconstitutional and unwise,” she added.

Becket, a religious liberty law firm, similarly filed an amicus brief in this case, emphasizing that states have had a long history of excluding religious institutions from public benefits, often in part from the Blaine Amendments passed during a time of anti-Catholic sentiment in the last 19th century.

The Blaine Amendment to prohibit direct government aid to educational institutions that have a religious affiliation was first proposed in Congress in 1875 by Rep. James G. Blaine of Maine. (Blaine also served as a U.S. senator from 1876 to 1881.)

In their statement, Cardinal Dolan and Bishop Daly noted that Blaine’s “cynically anti-Catholic” proposal was narrowly defeated in Congress but Blaine Amendments “were ultimately adopted in some form by 37 states.”

“These laws have nothing to do with government neutrality toward religion,” the two prelates said. “Rather, they are expressions of hostility toward Catholics. We are grateful that the Supreme Court continues to rebuke this harmful legacy.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – One cannot share the Gospel without living it first, Pope Francis said in separate meetings with members of the general chapters of the Pauline Fathers and Comboni Missionaries.

“The first thing a communicator communicates is himself, perhaps without meaning to, but it is himself,” the pope told the Paulines, a religious order with a focus on communications and the media.

“A missionary is a disciple who is so united to his master and lord that his hands, his mind and his heart are channels of Christ’s love,” the pope told the Comboni Missionaries.

Pope Francis met members of the general chapters of the orders at the Vatican June 18.

“Great missionaries” like Blessed Daniele Comboni and St. Frances Cabrini “lived their mission feeling animated and driven by the heart of Christ, that is, by the love of Christ,” the pope told the Combonis. That drive pushed them “to go out and go beyond: not only beyond geographical limits and boundaries, but first and foremost beyond their own personal limits.”

“The push of the Holy Spirit is what makes us come out of ourselves, out of our closures, out of our self-referentiality,” he said, and it “makes us go toward others, toward the peripheries, where the thirst for the Gospel is greatest.”

To be sent on mission, he said, it to be sent to bring God’s mercy, compassion and tenderness to people, and that can be done only by being merciful, compassionate and tender.

“Mercy, tenderness is a universal language, which knows no boundaries,” the pope said. “But you carry this message not so much as individual missionaries, but as a community, and this implies you must care not only for your personal style but also the style of your communities,” cultivating honest communication and care for one another.

At his meeting with the Pauline Fathers, Pope Francis handed them the speech he had prepared and then proceeded to talk about the importance of honest, complete communication.

“You have the vocation to communicate cleanly, evangelically,” the pope told them. “If we take today’s media, there is a lack of cleanliness, a lack of honesty, a lack of completeness.”

“Disinformation is the order of the day: one thing is said, but many others are hidden,” he said. “We must ensure that in our communication of faith, this does not happen, that communication comes precisely from vocation, from the Gospel – crisp, clear, witnessed with one’s life.”

 

WILKES-BARRE – As she walked into the final Mass at the Church of Saint Dominic, wonderful memories came flooding back to Cheryl Woloski.

“Since I was a little girl, I came to Saint Dominic’s Church. We lived in Parsons and walked to church. I received First Holy Communion here, Confirmation and I actually got married here,” she said.

While she called the final Mass for the 140-year-old church a “bittersweet moment,” Woloski acknowledged decreasing Mass attendance and sacramental participation at the worship site, which precipitated its closing. At the time of its closing, the church only had one Mass each week, which averaged between 30-50 people.

“We definitely understand why it has to be done,” she said.

On June 11, 2022, more than 100 people filled the pews for the church’s final Mass, which was celebrated by Rev. John Lambert, M.S.W., pastor, Saints Peter & Paul Parish, Plains. For the last several years, the Church of Saint Dominic has served as a secondary worship site of the Plains parish. All of the faithful who attend the Church of Saint Dominic are already parishioners of Saints Peter & Paul Parish.

“We will miss it but we saw it coming,” John Magda explained.

After being married in the Church of Saint Dominic 57 years ago, John and Maureen Magda called Saint Dominic’s a beautiful, quaint building.

“I enjoyed going to this church all my life. It was like a community,” Maureen added.

While the church building is closing for liturgical worship, Saints Peter & Paul Parish will retain the building to expand its outreach to those in need in the community. The church building will become the new home of the parish’s food pantry and Treasures clothing closet ministry.

“The food pantry and Treasures are a huge help for people who benefit from it. I hope it works out,” parishioner Betty Ann Parri of Plains said.

“If it is going to make things better for people around here to supply them with food and clothing, then that is what we need to do,” parishioner Joann Brage of Plains added. “Nobody likes change but our lives change and we have to accept change and carry on.”

As he welcomed the faithful to the final Mass, held on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, Father Lambert said, “Let us pray that the grace which comes from God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, might guide us as we continue our journey of faith.”

During his homily, Deacon Don Crane reminded those in attendance that Jesus never abandons us. He told a story from his days in the Army reserves in the early 1970s when his unit celebrated Mass on the hood of an Army tank.

“It doesn’t matter where you worship God, in a fancy building or your own home, in an elaborate basilica or hospital chapel, a prison cell, a combat field or on the open sea, what matters is that you put your faith in our God, one Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Most Holy Trinity,” he said.

At the conclusion of the final Mass, parishioner Hilda Kalinowski, 83, was given the honor of locking the church door for the final time as a worship space.

“It’s going to be okay because we’re going up to a bigger church. The people are very nice up there. They will welcome us,” she said after her duty was complete.

Appropriately, the liturgical services ended with a Eucharistic Procession that led the faithful to their new home of Saints Peter & Paul Parish.

SHAVERTOWN – After raising more than $31,000 in donations by teaching people how to make hot chocolate, Father Jim Paisley is now paying that generosity forward.

On May 25, the pastor of Saint Therese Parish, Shavertown, and Saint Frances X. Cabrini Parish, Carverton, donated his parish’s half of the proceeds from its ‘Rectory, Set, Cook!’ video to several community groups committed to fighting hunger.

“I am still overwhelmed by the generosity of parishioners, family and friends. I was thinking maybe we’ll do $5,000, $6,000, $7,000 – but to reach over $31,000 by the generosity of the people is unbelievable,” Father Paisley said.

Father Paisley was one of nearly 30 pastor chefs who participated in the Diocese of Scranton’s ‘Rectory, Set, Cook!’ fundraiser earlier this year to raise money for anti-hunger programs affiliated with Catholic Social Services.

Each priest filmed a video of themselves in their kitchen. While most were serious recipes, Father Paisley’s tutorial on making hot chocolate was part comedy and part musical performance. Parishioners voted for their favorite video or recipe by making a monetary donation. Half of the money raised from each donation stayed with the pastor’s parish while the other half went to Catholic Social Services.

In keeping with his promise to donate all of the money he raised to hunger programs, Father Paisley presented his share – more than $15,000 in checks— to local non-profit groups that included Meals on Wheels of the Wyoming Valley and Hazleton, Back Mountain Food Bank, Dinner for Kids, Fork Over Love and his parishes’ own stewardship efforts.

“I think he could have poured a glass of water and had just as much success. I think it’s fantastic and is really a testament to his gigantic, open heart and the way that people respond to that,” Tracy Selingo, founder and chairperson with Fork Over Love, said after gratefully accepting a $3,000 check for her organization.

Started during the COVID-19 pandemic, Fork Over Love collaborates with struggling area restaurants to purchase take-out food and they provide the meals for free to the community. As a 100-percent volunteer and donation-based organization, Fork Over Love depends on community donations to keep its mission going.

“It really only takes one person to motivate the masses and it’s such a gift that he was able to do that and then provide to all of these organizations that are really in the fight to help people who are hungry every day,” she added.

The Dinner for Kids organization also received a $3,000 gift from Father Paisley and his parishes.

Their volunteer program packages food at Ollie’s Restaurant and hand delivers it to children in need in several local school districts.

“The scary thought is there is approximately 10,000 kids in Luzerne County that go to bed hungry. It’s a horrible situation. We feed 170 children meals, six days a week, in the Wilkes-Barre Area, Wyoming Valley Area and Dallas School Districts and we’re just scratching the surface,” Bob Borwick said.

Gary Williams from Meals on Wheels of the Wyoming Valley said its share of money would help serve dozens of elderly clients who receive food and comfort five days a week.

“One of the things that this donation does is help pay for our meals. We charge $6 a day for the meals but it costs us $9 a day to make the meals so it is through the generosity of individuals, churches, such as the situation here, businesses, that we’re able to do this and still operate,” Williams explained.

In all, the Diocese of Scranton’s ‘Rectory, Set, Cook!’ fundraiser raised more than $171,000 in donations and corporate sponsorships.

WASHINGTON (CNS) – The bishop of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Missouri, invited Catholics June 13 “to pray for survivors of clergy sexual abuse, their families and all those who accompany survivors in the path toward healing, that they experience Christ’s profound love for them and God’s healing grace.”

As chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on the Protection of Children and Young People, Bishop James V. Johnston Jr. urged the prayers in a statement on the 20th anniversary of the USCCB’s “Dallas Charter” addressing “the sin of clergy sexual abuse.”

“It was two decades ago that the U.S. bishops gathered in Dallas to draft a comprehensive set of child protection standards that became the ‘Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People,’ which each diocese and eparchy is now committed to following,” Bishop Johnston said.

“Since the implementation of the charter, the USCCB has been a resource for the creation and implementation of child protection policies and safe environment programs that are enforced at the local level,” he added.

The USCCB website has a “Prayer for Healing Victims of Abuse,” which can be found at https://www.usccb.org/prayers/prayer-healing-victims-abuse.

The charter, originally approved by the bishops during their spring assembly in Dallas in June 2002, is a comprehensive set of procedures for addressing allegations of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy.

Besides child protection and safe environment policies, the charter also addresses healing and reconciliation for abuse survivors; requirements for making a prompt and effective response to allegations and cooperating with civil authorities; disciplining offenders; and providing for accountability and the prevention of future acts.

The charter, which was revised in 2005, 2011 and 2018, also created the USCCB’s Secretariat of Child and Youth Protection.

The bishops also established the National Review Board during their June 2002 meeting. The lay advisory group oversees the bishops’ compliance with child protection policies; the board’s functions were revised slightly and reconfirmed in June 2004.

“Dioceses and eparchies have faced evolutionary shifts and changes during these past 20 years since the passage of the charter, and we are grateful to the Holy See for the multiple measures they have taken to address the issue of sexual abuse and bishop accountability for the global Catholic Church,” Bishop Johnston said.

Pope Francis “has tried to set an example by pushing for greater accountability, transparency and honesty on handling clergy sexual abuse.,” he added.

Bishop Johnston also emphasized the church’s continued commitment to vigilance in protecting children and the vulnerable.

To mark the 20th anniversary of the charter, he said, the USCCB’s Secretariat for Child and Youth Protection will release several new resources in coming weeks that will be available on online at https://www.usccb.org/committees/protection-children-young-people.

The resources include videos, podcasts and a webinar series in the secretariat’s ongoing commitment to assist the dioceses and eparchies of the United States “in safeguarding children and the vulnerable,” the bishop said.

This year, he added, the secretariat will continue its High Reliability Organization initiative, which provides diocesan/eparchial staff with proactive abuse prevention strategies, and the Child Abuse Prevention Empowerment online learning platform available to all church personnel to learn more about matters of child and youth protection.

“The USCCB’s Committee on the Protection of Children and Young People along with the National Review Board have provided vital guidance and insight for the dioceses and eparchies through educational opportunities, resource libraries and policy consultation,” Bishop Johnston said.

“I am most grateful for the engagement of survivors who have shared their painful experiences with us and have allowed us to walk with them in their journey toward healing as we strive to create a culture of protection and healing, and continuous improvement,” he added.