Pope Francis and Sheikh Ahmad el-Tayeb, grand imam of Egypt’s Al-Azhar mosque and university, sign documents during an interreligious meeting in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, in this Feb. 4, 2019, file photo. The pope, Sheikh el-Tayeb and U.S. President Biden marked the International Day of Human Fraternity Feb. 4 on the anniversary of the 2019 meeting in Abu Dhabi. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The time has come to live in a spirit of fraternity and build a culture of peace, sustainable development, tolerance, inclusion, mutual understanding and solidarity, Pope Francis said.

“Now is not a time for indifference: either we are brothers and sisters or everything falls apart,” he said in a video message marking the International Day of Human Fraternity Feb. 4.

The international celebration is a U.N.-declared observation to promote interreligious dialogue and friendship on the anniversary of the document on human fraternity signed in Abu Dhabi in 2019 by Pope Francis and Sheikh Ahmad el-Tayeb, grand imam of Al-Azhar in Egypt.

The pope, the sheikh and U.S. President Joe Biden all issued messages for the commemoration.

“Fraternity is one of the fundamental and universal values that ought to undergird relationships between peoples, so that the suffering or disadvantaged do not feel excluded and forgotten but accepted and supported as part of the one human family. We are brothers and sisters,” the pope said in Italian in his video message.

People must walk together, aware that, “while respecting our individual cultures and traditions, we are called to build fraternity as a bulwark against hatred, violence and injustice,” he said.

“All of us must work to promote a culture of peace that encourages sustainable development, tolerance, inclusion, mutual understanding and solidarity,” he said.

People of different faiths all have a role to play, he said, because “in the name of God, we who are his creatures must acknowledge that we are brothers and sisters.”

And all of humanity lives “under the same heaven,” so believers in God and all people of goodwill should journey together, he added.

“Do not leave it to tomorrow or an uncertain future,” he said. “This is a good day to extend a hand, to celebrate our unity in diversity — unity, not uniformity, unity in diversity — in order to say to the communities and societies in which we live that the time of fraternity has arrived.”

“The path of fraternity is long and challenging, it is a difficult path, yet it is the anchor of salvation for humanity,” the pope said. “Let us counter the many threatening signs, times of darkness and mindsets of conflict with the sign of fraternity that, in accepting others and respecting their identity, invites them to a shared journey.”

The pope encouraged everyone to dedicate themselves to “the cause of peace and to respond concretely to the problems and needs of the least, the poor and the defenseless. Our resolve is to walk side by side, ‘brothers and sisters all,’ in order to be effective artisans of peace and justice, in the harmony of differences and with respect for the identity of each.”

In his video message, Sheikh el-Tayeb said, “This celebration means a quest for a better world where the spirit of tolerance, fraternity, solidarity and collaboration prevails. It also indicates a hope for providing effective tools to face the crises and challenges of contemporary humanity.”

“We have embarked on this path in the hope for a new world that is free of wars and conflicts, where the fearful are reassured, the poor sustained, the vulnerable protected and justice administered,” he said.

In Biden’s written statement commemorating the day, he encouraged everyone to work together to overcome the global challenges that no one nation or group of people can solve on their own.

“For too long, the narrowed view that our shared prosperity is a zero-sum game has festered — the view that for one person to succeed, another has to fail,” he wrote. “This cramped idea has been a source of human conflict for centuries.”

Problems such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis and increased violence, “require global cooperation from people of all backgrounds, cultures, faiths and beliefs. They require us to speak with one another in open dialogue to promote tolerance, inclusion and understanding,” and to guarantee that “all people are treated with dignity and as full participants in society,” he wrote.

“On this day, we affirm — in words and in actions — the inherent humanity that unites us all,” the president wrote. “Together, we have a real opportunity to build a better world that upholds universal human rights, lifts every human being and advances peace and security for all.”

Cardinal Miguel Ayuso Guixot, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and member of the Higher Committee of Human Fraternity, said in a statement that the day “is an opportunity to advance the sense of responsibility toward the poor, vulnerable, homeless and oppressed.”

“I hope human fraternity will turn into a global movement of promoting moral values shared by all peoples from all walks of life,” the cardinal said.

The Diocesan Offices for Parish Life and Vocations will begin the winter/spring Eucharistic Adoration series on Thursday, Feb. 10, 2022, in Williamsport, at Saint Boniface Parish, 326 Washington Blvd.
All are welcome to join at 7 p.m. for prayer, a dynamic talk from Father Alex Roche, Diocesan Director of Vocations and Seminarians, praise & worship music, opportunity for the Sacrament of Reconciliation and a social.

SCRANTON – All people, including those with special abilities, have gifts to contribute to the life of the Church. The Diocese of Scranton embraces and welcomes the talents of all individuals in building up the Kingdom of God.

Most Reverend Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, will serve as principal celebrant for a Mass for Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities Awareness on Sunday, Feb. 13, 2022, at 10 a.m. at the Cathedral of Saint Peter in Scranton.

The Mass is open to everyone. It will be broadcast live on CTV: Catholic Television of the Diocese of Scranton. A livestream will also be made available on the Diocese of Scranton’s website and YouTube channel and a link provided on all Diocesan social media platforms.

Partners in the annual Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities Awareness Mass include Saint Joseph’s Center in Scranton, the Diocesan SPRED community (Special Religious Education), The Arc of Northeastern Pennsylvania, Order of the Alhambra and the Catholic Deaf Community of the Diocese of Scranton.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some people who would have traditionally attended the Mass may not be able to participate in person, but are encouraged to take part in the televised broadcasts.

 

Clara Simrell, a sixth grade student at All Saints Academy in Scranton, places a piece of duct tape on her principal, Brittany Haynos-Krupski on Feb. 3, 2022.

SCRANTON – As the 19 Catholic Schools across the Diocese of Scranton continue to celebrate Catholic Schools Week – one event at All Saints Academy was “stickier” than the rest.

On Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022, students had the opportunity to duct tape their principal, Brittany Haynos-Krupski, to a cafeteria wall. The event was a fundraiser for the school’s Parent Teacher Organization.

“We were researching and found this idea on Pinterest and she (Haynos-Krupski) was like, ‘Sure, I’ll do it,’ and the rest is history,” JoAnn Lameo, All Saints Academy PTO President, said.

For a two-dollar donation, students got a two-foot strip of duct tape to help hold their principal in place.

“It was something interesting. It was an out-of-the-box idea, not something I was expecting but the school is always about new things. I think the kids really enjoyed it,” eighth grader Jacob Roberts said.

Offering students the unique opportunity to tape their principal to the wall is just one of the many activities that students at All Saints Academy took part in this week.

“Catholic Schools Week is when we really have fun and everyone enjoys it,” eighth grader Allie Romanchick explained.

“There have been a lot of fun activities like duct taping our principal, we painted earlier today, last year we tie-died t-shirts and had movie days,” eighth grader Ariana Cabelly added.

Since 1974, Catholic Schools Week nationwide have been celebrating the importance of Catholic education. This year’s theme is, “Catholic Schools: Faith. Excellence. Service.”

Each one of the Catholic Schools in the Diocese of Scranton have a series of week-long activities planned, which include Masses, open houses in many cases and other activities for students, families, parishioners and community members. Through these events, schools focus on the value Catholic education provides to young people and its contributions to our church, our communities and our nation.

As he prepares to go to transition to a Catholic high school, Roberts said he would not trade his Catholic school experience for anything.

“It’s definitely a lot more focused. It’s a lot more hands on. It is definitely something that parents should be considering when sending their kids to school. Personally, I think Catholic Schools are one of the best experiences you could have,” he explained.

Cabelly just started at All Saints Academy last year during the COVID-19 pandemic and said she couldn’t have felt more welcome.

“All the students and teachers are nice and welcoming. For me, I went to a public school for almost all my life and when switching I was very nervous, but it was a nice and welcoming community,” she said.

Through its duct tape fundraiser, the students raised $670 for the All Saints Academy Parent Teacher Organization. The group has many other fundraisers planned to help support its annual Fun Day and Teacher Appreciation Week.

 

Allie Romanchick, an eighth grade student at All Saints Academy, helps duct tape her principal, Brittany Haynos-Krupski, to a cafeteria wall as part of a fundraiser Feb. 3, 2022.
Pope Francis speaks during his general audience in the Paul VI hall at the Vatican Feb. 2, 2022. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis said that when he was little, he thought the phrase “the communion of saints” in the Creed meant that the saints in heaven were receiving Communion.

Instead, the communion of saints expresses how “every member of the church is bound to me in a profound way and this bond is so strong that it cannot be broken even by death,” he said Feb. 2 during his weekly general audience.

Concluding his series of audience talks about St. Joseph, Pope Francis recited a prayer he said he has recited every day for more than 40 years.

But while he was reading it, a man in the back of the audience hall began shouting, including about wearing masks. Vatican police escorted him out of the building.

As soon as he finished his prayer, Pope Francis told the people in the hall that the man had a problem; “I don’t know if it is physical, psychological or spiritual, but he is our brother with a problem. I would like to finish by praying for him, our brother who is suffering, poor man. If he’s yelling it is because he is suffering, has some problem. Don’t be deaf to the needs of this man.”

The pope then led the crowd in praying a Hail Mary for him.

In his main audience talk, Pope Francis said he wanted to be clear about the difference between devotion to a saint, even to St. Joseph or Mary, and superstition or idolatry.

“Sometimes even Christianity can fall into forms of devotion that seem to reflect a mentality that is more pagan than Christian,” he said. But “the fundamental difference is that our prayer and the devotion of the faithful people is not based on trust in a human being, or in an image or an object, even when we know that they are sacred.”

“It is not the saints who work miracles, but only the grace of God that acts through them,” he said.

A man holds a mask as he yells while Pope Francis speaks during the general audience in the Paul VI hall at the Vatican Feb. 2, 2022. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

The saints, whether canonized or not, he said, are part of the community of the church, a gathering not of the perfect but of “saved sinners.”

And just as a person can have a friendship with another parishioner, he or she can have a relationship “with a brother or sister in heaven,” the pope said. “The saints are friends” and devotion “is actually a way of expressing the love that comes from this bond that unites us.”

“In Christ no one can ever truly separate us from those we love,” he said. “Only the manner of being with them changes, but nothing and no one can break this bond. The communion of saints holds together the community of believers on earth and in heaven.”

 

His Excellency, Bishop Joseph C. Bambera, announces the following appointment:

Clergy Assignment:

Rev. Seth D. Wasnock, from Pastor, St. Maria Goretti Parish, Laflin, and Administrator, St. Andre Bessette Parish, Wilkes-Barre, to Pastor, Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish and St. Rose of Lima Parish, Carbondale, effective March 8, 2022.

 

LAFLIN – As a new mother, Rosemary LaBar of Dallas feels it is important to share her belief that all human life, including that of the unborn, is sacred.

That is why she bundled-up her four-month-old daughter, Josie, putting the infant in a baby stroller to join more than 100 other people at the Diocese of Scranton’s Vigil Mass for Life on Jan. 20, 2022, at Saint Maria Goretti Parish in Laflin.

“It was important for me to come because I think that being pro-life isn’t just about changing the law, you have to show up and be there for mothers and I wanted to show up and be here,” LaBar said.

Born and raised Catholic, LaBar is hopeful the U.S. Supreme Court might reverse its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion by upholding a Mississippi law banning most abortions after 15 weeks. A decision in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization is expected this summer.

“I’m definitely hopeful. I’m part of a couple pro-life groups online. It’s not just a religious thing anymore. I see a larger number of secular people who just understand that human life begins at conception and it should be protected,” she added.

Most Reverend Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, served as principal celebrant and homilist at the Vigil Mass for Life. He was just a junior in high school when the Roe v. Wade decision was handed down.

Even though the battle to end abortion has been challenging and long – almost 50 years – Bishop Bambera agreed this past year has given people a reason to be hopeful.

“While the battle is far from won, with states like our neighbor to the east in New Jersey that recently codified into state law an individual’s right to an abortion, including late-term abortions, the United States Supreme Court has engaged the question of abortion rights more intensely than ever before,” the bishop said. “As we wait for a determination by the Court, we would do well to keep ourselves focused on the goal of our journey and the example of Jesus. Otherwise, we risk losing our way by engaging perspectives that distract from, rather than serve, the noble ends of our efforts to preserve the sanctity of human life.”

The Vigil Mass for Life was scheduled on the eve of the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. Recognizing that some people might not want to travel because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the diocese organized the Mass as a special prayer opportunity for all those who believe that every life has value, dignity and worth.

“The theme for this year’s march, ‘Equality Begins in the Womb,’ emerged in response to the national dialogue about the nature of equality that our country has continued to engage, particularly in the last few years. Citing the tragic reality of inequality that has impacted our land as a result of race, country of origin, disability status, age and economic background, organizers of the event sought to build upon the vital need for our country and people to finally put to rest divisions among us. They stated, ‘What matters is the fact that each of us is a human being. What matters is that life is precious, and that because it has inherent human dignity, it should be protected from the moment of conception,’” Bishop Bambera said.

Reflecting on all three readings from the Mass, the bishop noted that the sacred scriptures are filled with words that command us to reverence every life that comes into our world.

“What they expect from us as Christians is clear and unambiguous … Our welcome into God’s eternity will be determined by nothing short of our willingness to reverence, respect and serve the poorest and most vulnerable among us in whom Christ is present,” he explained.

During his homily, Bishop Bambera also shared the personal story of his grandmother who refused the advice of doctors to have an abortion after becoming sick during the pregnancy of her sixth child in the 1920s.

The bishop recounted the words that his grandmother said, words the bishop said have always spoken powerfully to him about life, faith, trust and God: “Any mother would give her life for her child. How can I chose who lives and who dies. I’ll leave that choice to God.”

While her baby was born healthy, the bishop’s grandmother continued to get sicker following childbirth. She died one month later.

“If we have learned nothing else during the past two years in which we have had to confront the deadly coronavirus pandemic, I hope we have come to appreciate the value of human life as never before. I hope we’ve also come to understand that so much of life is beyond our ability to control and, on our own, we are helpless to address the challenges that confront us,” the bishop added. “Only by handing ourselves over to the power of God – by trusting in his wisdom, grace and mercy – and only by working together to care for the lives that have been given to us will we ever discover a way forward filled with peace and hope for all.”

The bishop ended his homily by thanking those in attendance for their witness to the sanctity of human life – God’s greatest gift to the world.

“On this day in which we recall a tragic moment in our history that legalized the taking of innocent, unborn lives, may we resolve through our prayers and actions to set aside the divisive behavior that has plagued us as a people, a nation and a Church. In so doing, may we begin to carve a way forward together first as brothers and sisters who believe in and treat every human being with equality and reverence, from the moment of conception in the womb until God, in his providence, takes us home at the end of our journey of life,” Bishop Bambera said.

Pope Benedict XVI gives Communion to a young man during Mass at Westminster Cathedral in London in this Sept. 18, 2010, file photo. During the service the pope expressed his “deep sorrow” to the victims of clerical sexual abuse, saying these crimes have caused immense suffering and feelings of “shame and humiliation” throughout the church. (CNS photo/Reuters pool)

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – A Vatican editorial defended retired Pope Benedict XVI’s record in fighting clerical sexual abuse after the release of a report that accused him of mishandling four cases during his time as archbishop of Munich.

Andrea Tornielli, editorial director for the Dicastery for Communication, said a report on the handling of cases in the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising was an important contribution to “the search for justice in truth and to a collective examination of conscience on the errors of the past.”

However, he warned, “the reconstructions contained in the Munich report, which — it must be remembered — is not a judicial inquiry nor a final sentence, will help to combat pedophilia in the church if they are not reduced to the search for easy scapegoats and summary judgments.”

The 1,900-page report was released Jan. 20 and looked at the handling of cases in the archdiocese between 1945 and 2019. Then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger led the Archdiocese of Munich from 1977 to 1982.

The report identified 497 victims and 235 abusers over the more than 70 years covered by the investigation, but the lawyers who conducted the study said they are convinced the real numbers are much higher. In the report, the lawyers said that, on four occasions, then-Cardinal Ratzinger mishandled abuse allegations.

In his editorial, Torniell noted that during the initial phase of the investigation, Pope Benedict “did not evade the questions” and provided an 82-page response regarding his time leading the Munich Archdiocese.

“Predictably, it was (then-Cardinal) Ratzinger’s four-and-a-half years at the helm of the Bavarian diocese that monopolized the attention of commentators,” he said.

Although the retired pope is expected to issue a statement after examining the report’s findings, Tornielli said the steps taken by the Catholic Church to fight clerical sexual abuse can be retraced “starting from his pontificate.”

“Child abuse is a horrendous crime. The abuse committed against minors by clerics is possibly an even more revolting crime, and this has been tirelessly repeated by the last two popes,” Tornielli wrote.

He also noted that as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, then-Cardinal Ratzinger “promulgated very harsh norms against clerical abusers” as well as “special laws to combat pedophilia.”

During his pontificate, he continued, Pope Benedict paved the way for a change of mentality in how the church treats survivors of abuse who, instead of being welcomed and accompanied, were often “distanced and even pointed to as ‘enemies’ of the church and its good name.”

“It was Joseph Ratzinger, the first pope to meet several times with victims of abuse during his apostolic journeys. It was Benedict XVI, even against the opinion of many self-styled ‘Ratzingerians,’ who upheld, in the midst of the storm of scandals in Ireland and Germany, the face of a penitential church, which humbles itself in asking for forgiveness, which feels dismay, remorse, pain, compassion and closeness,” Tornielli said.

Recalling Pope Benedict’s assertion that “the sufferings of the church come precisely from the inside of the church, from the sin that exists within the church,” Tornielli said the former pope emphasized the need for the Catholic Church to ask forgiveness from victims and from Jesus, “who has always been on the side of the victims and never of the executioners.”

“These words were preceded and followed by concrete facts in the fight against the scourge of clerical pedophilia,” he wrote. “All this can neither be forgotten nor erased.”

Pope Francis kisses the Nazi concentration camp number tattooed on the arm of Lidia Maksymowicz, 80, who spent three years at the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp, during his general audience in the San Damaso Courtyard of the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican May 26, 2021. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The cruelty of the Holocaust must never be repeated, Pope Francis said on the eve of the international day of commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust.

The day, celebrated Jan. 27, falls on the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp complex in 1945.

At the end of his weekly general audience at the Vatican Jan. 26, Pope Francis said, “It is necessary to remember the extermination of millions of Jews and people of different nationalities and religious faiths.”

“This unspeakable cruelty must never be repeated,” he said. “I appeal to everyone, especially educators and families, to foster in the new generations an awareness of the horror of this black page of history.”

“It must not be forgotten, so that we can build a future where human dignity is no longer trampled underfoot,” the pope said.

At the end of his audience, the pope met with Belarus-born Lidia Maksymowicz, 81, who had spent 13 months at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, where she and other children were subjected to Josef Mengele’s medical experiments.

It was her second meeting with Pope Francis, who – at an outdoor general audience May 26, 2021 – had spoken with her, kissed the prisoner number – 70072, tattooed on her left arm and embraced her.

That meeting sparked an idea for her to write an autobiography, with help from the Italian journalist Paolo Rodari. The book, “La bambina che non sapeva odiare. La mia testimonianza” (“The child who did not know how to hate. My testimony”), was recently released in Italian.

At the Jan. 26 audience, she gave the pope a copy of the book, which also contains a preface Pope Francis wrote.

Maksymovicz told ANSA, the Italian wire service, Jan. 26 that she and Rodari decided it would be important to describe the experience of a child during the Holocaust, since so many books cover the experiences of adults who survived.

“One must not forget that more than 200,000 children died just at Auschwitz-Birkenau,” she said.

Even though she was only 3 years old when she and her young mother were taken to the extermination camp, she explained those memories are still vivid and correspond with facts and evidence found by researchers years later.

Her mother was sent to the camp because she was part of the partisan resistance movement in Belarus, while she, as a young child, was designated to become one of Mengele’s “guinea pigs,” she said.

Maksymovicz found her birth mother 17 years after her release from the camp in 1944, when she was adopted by a Polish family.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – On the day Pope Francis established as a day of prayer for peace in Ukraine, the pope appealed for an end to all war and prayed that dialogue, the common good and reconciliation would prevail.

“Let us ask the Lord to grant that the country may grow in the spirit of brotherhood, and that all hurts, fears and divisions will be overcome,” he said at the end of his weekly general audience in the Vatican’s Paul VI audience hall Jan. 26.

“May the prayers and supplications that today rise up to heaven touch the minds and hearts of world leaders, so that dialogue may prevail and the common good be placed ahead of partisan interests,” he said.

With rising tensions in the region and the threat of a possible Russian-Ukrainian conflict spreading, Pope Francis had set Jan. 26 as a day of prayer for peace in Ukraine.

With the day coinciding with his weekly audience, the pope asked people to pray throughout the day.

“Let us make our prayer for peace in the words of the Our Father, for it is the prayer of sons and daughters to the one Father, the prayer that makes us brothers and sisters, the prayer of children who plead for reconciliation and concord,” he said.

The pope said that as people remember the Holocaust on the eve of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, also “think about the more than 5 million people who were annihilated (in Ukraine) during the time of the last war. They are a suffering people, they suffered famine, they suffered so much cruelty and they deserve peace.”

During a prayer service in Rome’s Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere, Archbishop Paul R. Gallagher, the Vatican foreign minister, said that war and its serious consequences deprive many people of their most fundamental rights. The Jan. 26 prayer service was sponsored by the Community of Sant’Egidio.

“It is even more scandalous to see that those who suffer most from conflicts are not those who decide whether or not to start them but are above all those who are just defenseless victims,” the archbishop said.

“It is truly sad to see entire populations torn apart by so much suffering caused not by natural disasters or events beyond human control, but by the ‘hand of man,’ by actions made not in a violent outburst, but carefully calculated and carried out in a systematic way,” he said.

Russia annexed Crimea in early 2014 and, shortly afterward, Russian-backed separatists began fighting Ukrainian government forces in the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. Some 1.5 million people have fled the region to other parts of Ukraine and thousands of civilians and soldiers have died or been injured.

While in the spring of 2021 Russia was accused by many Western nations of trying to provoke more active fighting by holding military exercises near the border, a massive Russian buildup of troops just over the border created alarm in early December. The buildup has continued and, late Jan. 22, Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office released a statement saying it had evidence that Russia was developing plans to install a pro-Russian government in Ukraine.