Category: Diocese of Scranton News

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis has asked several families to write the prayers and meditations for his Stations of the Cross service at Rome’s Colosseum on Good Friday.

The request comes during the year Pope Francis asked Catholics to dedicate to families and to a rereading of “Amoris Laetitia,” his exhortation on the family, which was published in 2016.

The authors of the texts to be used for the nighttime service April 15 are “families linked to Catholic volunteer and assistance communities and associations,” said Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office.

Families also will carry the cross between the stations at the Colosseum, he said. Those chosen will reflect the focus of each prayer and meditation — for example, migrants and refugees or the elderly or those caring for a person with a disability.

In 2020 and 2021, the service was scaled down and held in St. Peter’s Square because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the pope still used the prayers and meditations of special authors. In 2020, they were written by inmates at an Italian prison and in 2021 by Scouts and other children at a Rome parish.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Andrii Yurash, Ukraine’s ambassador to the Holy See, presented his credentials to Pope Francis April 7. He also met with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state.

Vatican Media images from the meeting showed Yurash presenting the pope with several gifts, including a traditional Ukrainian decorated round loaf of bread and a sheaf of wheat wrapped in a ribbon of the colors of the national flag: blue and yellow.

Ukraine, known as the “breadbasket of Europe,” is the fifth largest exporter of wheat; Russia is the world’s largest. Together, the two countries provide 19% of the world’s barley supply, 14% of wheat and 4% of corn, making up more than one-third of global cereal exports, according to the European Commission’s spring 2022 report.

The meeting marked the official beginning of Yurash’s tenure, even though, as an exception to protocol, he had been functioning as ambassador since early March. His appointment had been announced in mid-December.

He has been providing images and details of his many meetings, interviews and diplomatic efforts in Rome on his Twitter feed @AndriiYurash.

After his meeting April 7 with the pope, he tweeted that it was an “incredible honor & privilege” to present his credentials and that he had an “inspiring & extremely motivating conversation” with the pope and Cardinal Parolin.

He said it has shown him yet again that the Vatican is a “sincere partner” of Ukraine “doing everything possible to stop the war.”

Born Jan. 17, 1969, in central Ukraine, he has a degree in journalism and taught journalism at Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, including teaching in the department of radio broadcasting and television. He earned his doctorate in political science in 1996.

He served as vice-director, then director, of the department of religious and ethnic affairs of Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture from 2014 to 2020. He then led the department of religious affairs concerning the freedom of thought, conscience and religion, at the secretariat of the cabinet of ministers from 2020 to 2022.

He is a member of the All-Ukrainian Association of Religious Scholars and is a co-founder of the International Association for the Study of Religion in Central and Eastern Europe (ISORECEA).

NEW ORLEANS (CNS) – The attack in which Marianite Sister Suellen Tennyson, 83, was abducted from her convent in Yalgo, Burkina Faso, the morning of April 5 was conducted by at least 10 armed men, the Marianites of Holy Cross said in an electronic newsletter.

The congregation said Sister Tennyson, the former international congregational leader for order and a native of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, was sleeping when the men burst into the convent, ransacked the living quarters and kidnapped her, leaving behind two other Marianite sisters and two young women who also live in the convent.

“There were about 10 men who came during the night while the sisters were sleeping,” Marianite Sister Ann Lacour, congregational leader, said in the e-bulletin April 6. “They destroyed almost everything in the house, shot holes in the new truck and tried to burn it. The house itself is OK, but its contents are ruined.”

Sister Lacour, who currently is attending a congregational meeting in Le Mans, France, said she was told by the two younger women living at the convent that Sister Tennyson was taken from her bed with “no glasses, shoes, phone, medicine, etc.”

The other two Marianites at the convent — Sister Pauline Drouin, a Canadian, and Sister Pascaline Tougma, a Burkinabé — were not abducted and did not see many of the details.

“They say the two young women who live with them saw what happened and told them (the details),” Sister Lacour said. “They think there were more men on the road. They have heard nothing from or about Suellen since she was taken.”

Sister Lacour said Sister Drouin and Sister Tougma have been relocated to Kaya, Burkina Faso, about 70 miles from Yalgo.

“We let them know that the U.S. Embassy as well as the vicar general of Le Mans (who spent time as a missionary) strongly urged them to leave Burkina Faso and go to France,” Sister Lacour said. “They were not open to leaving the country without Suellen — they want to stay and wait for her and seem confident that she will be released.”

Sister Lacour said the Marianites have contacted the U.S. Embassy in Burkina Faso and the U.S. State Department, and “they have assured us that this is a high-priority case for them.” The congregation also has contacted the apostolic nuncios to the U.S., Burkina Faso and France as well as the Vatican’s secretary of state and the Leadership Conference of Women Religious in the U.S.

“They are all doing what they can,” Sister Lacour said.

Sister Lacour told Catholic News Service that Sister Tennyson was kidnapped “because she’s American.”

Yalgo is in northern Burkina Faso, not far from the border with Mali. Reliefweb reports that in the last two years, Burkina Faso’s northern and eastern regions have seen a “sharp deterioration in the security situation … due to the presence of nonstate armed groups.”

Sister Lacour, who has visited the Marianites in the country, said Sister Tennyson was serving as a pastoral minister, “to wipe tears, give hugs, import a smile. She really did support the people that work in the clinic that the parish runs.” People walked for miles to get help from the clinic, she said.

She added that Sister Tennyson is in good medical health.

“I don’t know if any of us are prepared to be kidnapped,” she added.

In a statement released to media in Africa and Europe, Bishop Théophile Nare of Kaya said, “Until the search for her is successful, we remain in communion of prayer for the release of Sister Suellen Tennyson.”

New Orleans Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond joined in the appeal of the safe return of Sister Tennyson, who, among her local assignments, was executive director of the Office of Religious, 1996-2007.

“For many years, Sister Suellen ministered to the people of the Archdiocese of New Orleans with great joy. Today, we express our sadness and shock at her abduction and offer our prayers for her safe return. Please join me in praying for Sister Suellen, the Marianite Sisters of the Holy Cross, and all who know and love her during this difficult time,” the archbishop said.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis once again pleaded for an end to the bloodshed and violence in Ukraine after images of innocent civilians apparently executed in Bucha sparked outrage and horror around the world.

“The recent news of the war in Ukraine, instead of bringing relief and hope, attest to new atrocities, such as the massacre of Bucha,” the pope said April 6 before concluding his weekly general audience.

The world is witnessing “ever-more horrendous acts of cruelty done against civilians, unarmed women and children, whose innocent blood cries out to heaven and implores, ‘End this war. Silence the weapons. Stop sowing death and destruction,'” he said.

Videos and photographs released April 3, after Russian troops retreated from Bucha and other towns, showed dead bodies in the streets and in the yards of homes. Many appeared to have been shot in the head, execution style, and the hands of many of the corpses were bound.

Although Russia dismissed the accusations of war crimes as “fake news,” evidence of mass executions sparked outrage, prompting several countries to expel Russian diplomats from their lands and leading to renewed calls for tougher actions against Russia.

After leading pilgrims in a silent prayer for the country, Pope Francis held up a Ukrainian flag that was sent to him “from that tormented city of Bucha.”

The pope then invited to the stage several Ukrainian children who recently arrived in Italy and asked the crowd to “greet them and pray together with them.”

The children, accompanied by two women, went up to the pope. One young boy held a hand-made poster of the Ukrainian flag, with a smaller Italian flag in the center and outlines of small hands.

The pilgrims present at the audience hall applauded loudly as the pope welcomed the children, with one shouting, “Slava Ukraini” (“Glory to Ukraine”).”

Gently rolling up the Ukrainian flag, the pope reverently kissed it before handing out chocolate Easter eggs to the children, prompting one of the women, holding a baby in her arms, to wipe away tears from her eyes.

“These children were forced to flee and come to a foreign land. This is one of the fruits of war,” Pope Francis said. “Let us not forget them and let us not forget the Ukrainian people.”

ROCKVILLE CENTRE, N.Y. (CNS) – Archbishop Domenico Sorrentino of Assisi, Italy, brought a first-class relic of Blessed Carlos Acutis to a Catholic high school on Long Island April 4 as he began a five-day tour with the relic.

Blessed Acutis, an Italian teen who died of leukemia in 2006 and was beatified in 2020, is entombed in the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Assisi. The 15-year-old’s use of technology to spread devotion to the Eucharist prompted Pope Francis to hail him as a role model for young people today.

“It is a joy for me to carry this relic from Assisi, where Blessed Carlo said he felt ‘happiest of all,'” Archbishop Sorrentino said in a statement ahead of his visit to the New York metropolitan area. His first stop was the Rockville Centre Diocese.

The teen’s remains lie in the Assisi church’s Sanctuary of Renunciation, “the very place where St. Francis, 800 years earlier, stripped himself of everything to follow Jesus,” the archbishop said.

“My prayer is that the presence of Blessed Carlo’s relic stir a desire within our American brothers and sisters, especially the young, not to waste life, but rather to make of it a masterpiece, as chosen by Blessed Carlo in our own times and St. Francis before him,” he added.

Blessed Acutis centered his life on the Eucharist to grow in his relationship with Jesus: “The more we receive the Eucharist,” he would say, “the more we will become like Jesus.”

He strove to attend daily Mass and spend time in eucharistic adoration, believing that “when we get in front of Jesus in the Eucharist, we become saints.”

The relic of the teen is a fragment of the pericardium, the membrane that surrounded and protected his heart.

The archbishop’s relic tour was organized in response to a request by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and coincided with a New York exhibit, “Museum of Memory, Assisi 1943-1944,”  which recognizes lifesaving actions taken by clergy and citizens of Assisi to protect Jewish refugees during the Holocaust.

In the Rockville Centre Diocese, Archbishop Sorrentino celebrated Mass for 2,400 students at St. Anthony’s High School in South Huntington, where the relic was exposed.

In the Diocese of Brooklyn, New York, he was to lead a diocesan youth and young adult Holy Hour at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Astoria and a high school rally at Holy Family Church in Flushing, again with exposition of the relic.

Other stops included an evening Mass April 7 at St. Rita’s Church in the Bronx in the Archdiocese of New York with Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan as the celebrant.

Archbishop Sorrentino was being accompanied on the relic tour by Msgr. Anthony J. Figueiredo, a Vatican consultant, and Marina Rosati, founder and curator of the Museum of Memory.

Blessed Acutis is the patron of the first year of a three-year eucharistic revival the U.S. bishops approved during their fall general assembly in November in Baltimore. The revival will culminate in 2024 with the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis.

The name of Archbishop Sorrentino’s diocese is officially Assisi-Nocera Umbra-Gualdo Tadino, formed in 1986 when the Diocese of Assisi was combined with the Diocese of Nocera Umbra-Gualdo Tadino.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – In his brief visit to Malta, Pope Francis once again waded into the migration issue, reminding the country’s people of the “unusual kindness” they are known for while delicately questioning the Maltese government’s controversial policies toward migrants.

During his trip April 2-3, the pope sought a balance between approach and reproach.

And empathizing with Malta, he emphasized the need for a collective effort by Europe to deal with the migration crisis rather than leaving individual countries, especially those closest to Africa and the Middle East, to bear the brunt of the cost.

“Migrants must always be welcomed,” the pope told journalists flying with him back to Rome April 3. “The problem is that each government has to say how many they can receive regularly to live there. This requires an agreement among the countries of Europe, and not all of them are willing to receive migrants.”

“We forget that Europe was made by migrants, right? That’s the way things are, but at the very least let us not leave all the burden to these neighboring countries that are so generous, and Malta is one of them,” he said.

Due to its proximity to North Africa, the Mediterranean archipelago has experienced a large influx of migrants coming to its shores from Libya in recent years.

Current European Union policies have left Malta and other frontline countries such as Italy, Spain and Greece on their own to rescue, shelter, verify and try to integrate the migrants.

However, unlike other European countries, the increase in arrivals prompted Maltese authorities to pursue an agreement with Libya that would allow the Libyan coast guard to intercept and rescue migrants out at sea and return them to Libya, even if migrants are within Malta’s search and rescue area.

Upon their return to Libya, refugees, including women and children, are often shipped to detention centers where, according to Amnesty International, many have been subjected to torture, as well as sexual and physical abuse.

In his first speech in Malta, Pope Francis addressed government and civil leaders and members of the diplomatic corps April 2, applauding Malta’s efforts to assist migrants but also firmly stating that any approach that denigrates the rights and dignity of migrants are an affront to God and humanity.

“Civilized countries cannot approve for their own interest sordid agreements with criminals who enslave other human beings,” the pope said.

However, vulnerable migrants who successfully make it to Malta’s shores don’t fare any better, as one Nigerian migrant, Daniel Jude Oukeguale, told Pope Francis during his April 3 visit to the John XXIII Peace Lab in Hal Far.

Oukeguale told the pope that upon his arrival in Malta, he and other migrants “were put in detention for six months the same night we landed.”

“I almost lost my mind,” he said. “Why were men like us treating us like criminals and not like brothers?”

The pope told journalists on his return flight to Rome he was moved by the experiences he heard at the migrant center and once again questioned Malta’s controversial policy of allowing migrants approaching by sea to be forced back to Libya.

At the migrant center, he said, “the things I heard there are terrible, the suffering of these people to get here; and then the camps, there are camps, which are on the Libyan coast, when they are sent back. This seems criminal, doesn’t it?”

Further driving the point home, Pope Francis noted that while refugees fleeing from war and violence in Ukraine are rightly welcomed into Europe with open arms, migrants who come from other countries but face the same difficulties are treated much differently.

“Just as Europe is making room so generously for the Ukrainians who knock on the door, so too (it should be) for the others who come from the Mediterranean,” he said.

Speaking to Malta’s leaders on his first day in their country, the pope made sure to remind them that the Maltese language, which is derived from Arabic, bears witness to the fact that welcoming migrants is a benefit, not a detriment, to the country and its people.

The Maltese language, he said, recalls “the capacity of the Maltese people to generate beneficial forms of coexistence in a sort of conviviality of differences.”

“This is what the Middle East needs: Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and other contexts torn by problems and violence.” Pope Francis said. “May Malta, the heart of the Mediterranean, continue to foster the heartbeat of hope, care for life, acceptance of others, yearning for peace, with the help of the God whose name is peace.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis asked people to pray for his upcoming trip to Malta and to pray for an end to the “savage cruelty” of war.

After delivering his general audience talk in the Paul VI hall March 30, he warmly greeted a group of children from Ukraine who are receiving assistance in Italy, and members of the audience gave the children a long applause.

But, the pope said, “with this greeting to the children, let us also think again about this monstrosity of the war.”

“Let us renew our prayers that this savage cruelty that is war may end,” he said.

He also greeted the people of Malta — the Mediterranean island where St. Paul was shipwrecked and found “great humanity” and hospitality, and where, still today, the people are dedicated to welcoming so many people in search of refuge, he said.

The pope’s trip to Malta April 2-3 will be a chance to “go to the source of the proclamation of the Gospel, to get to know firsthand a Christian community” that has such a long history and is so active and alive, he said.

In his main audience talk, the pope continued his series of talks dedicated to the meaning and value of “old age,” and the importance of maintaining a sense of “spiritual sensitivity.”

“Today we need this more than ever: an old age gifted with lively spiritual senses capable of recognizing the signs of God, or rather, the sign of God, who is Jesus,” he said.

Instead, what risks happening, he said, is people do not realize when they have lost their “spiritual senses,” which can recognize the presence of God and evil and can distinguish the difference between two.

“When you lose the sense of touch or of taste, you realize it immediately,” he said. “However, you can ignore that of the soul for a long time.”

Spiritual sensitivity is about being able to feel “compassion and pity, shame and remorse, fidelity and devotion, tenderness and honor, responsibility for oneself and for others,” the pope said.

The “rhetoric of inclusion” that is part of any “politically correct speech” is not enough to fix what is needed for “normal coexistence,” he said. There must be a widespread “culture of social tenderness.”

For too many people, he said, the spirit of human fraternity he has been emphasizing is looked at “like a discarded garment, to be admired, but in a museum.”

If the older generation loses this spirit, “they lose the desire to live with maturity … and they live with superficiality,” not letting themselves feel and see things according to the Holy Spirit.

Being sensitive to the Spirit means accepting that one is not the protagonist, but a witness to the presence and greatness of God, he said. Those who desire to be the main attraction, the “saviors,” are not able to let God “incarnate” in their lives.

When the elderly are able to keep their “spiritual senses” sharp and alive, he said, then they are able to feel a kind of consolation that their lives have meaning and are able to share a sense of hope with younger people, he said.

“It is so important to visit older people, to listen to them, to talk to them,” to have an “exchange of civilizations” between young and old, he said.

ROME (CNS) – With his voice often trembling and tears sliding down to his beard, the head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church spoke via Zoom about the death and destruction Russia is raining down on his people and his country.

Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kyiv-Halych repeatedly apologized for the tears and acknowledged the contrast between his daily video messages of encouragement to his people and his talk during the webinar March 29 sponsored by Rome’s Pontifical Oriental Institute.

He started the videos to keep in touch with his people and “just to let people know that I am alive, the city of Kyiv lives,” he said, his voice breaking.

“Forgive me for my tears, but I think I can (cry) with you,” he said. “With my people, I feel an obligation to be a preacher of hope, a hope that does not come from military power or from the possibility of diplomacy — we don’t have those hopes yet — but a hope that comes from faith.”

“Today, I am speaking to you from Kyiv. It’s a miracle,” Archbishop Shevchuk said. “The strength of the Ukrainian people is being revealed as a miracle that is surprising the world.”

In too many cities in Ukraine, the archbishop said, the Russians have “razed everything to the ground” and the only food the people have is what they get from the churches and other aid agencies.

The city of Slavutych, near the failed Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, is surrounded, he said, and an Eastern-rite Catholic priest and his wife there welcomed their third child into the world “in the midst of a terrible assault.”

“The baby was born in a hospital without electricity and without water,” Archbishop Shevchuk said. “When the war started, knowing that the baby was about to be born, I tried to intercede to get my priest and his family brought to safety. He told me, ‘You are my bishop and I received from you the mandate to be the pastor of these people. I can’t leave.’ And he stayed. For the last three days, I haven’t heard from him.”

People will rebuild the churches and houses and bridges and factories destroyed by Russian shelling, he said, but the people killed will not be reunited with their loved ones “only on the day of the resurrection of the body.”

Archbishop Shevchuk choked up talking about the bravery of his priests and their wives, but his tears really began to flow when he spoke about reports of thousands of people, including children, being taken against their will to Russia and their passports being confiscated.

“This reminds us of the deportations of (Josef) Stalin,” he said. “We are talking about children, women, people with handicaps. What awaits them? What future will they have? Certainly, they will die.”

“I feel an obligation to be the voice of this suffering people and to be a simple witness to the reality being lived by our people in Ukraine.”

“I never would have imagined being the head of the church in a time of war,” he said. “No one is ever prepared for war except for the criminals who plan and put it into action.”

In a long list of people he wanted to thank, Archbishop Shevchuk singled out Pope Francis, especially for his decision to lead a global consecration of the world, Ukraine and Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary March 25.

The consecration was important, he said, because “before our eyes there is a battle, an apocalyptic battle, between good and evil.”

“This consecration to our Mother who crushed the head of the ancient dragon, this strong presence of the Mother of God among us, is very important for us,” said the archbishop, who led a simultaneous consecration at the Cathedral of the Mother of God in Zarvanytsia.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Holding together the obligation to protect and promote the Catholic identity of Catholic schools while reaching out to a broader community of students and teachers requires a commitment to dialogue, said a new document from the Congregation for Catholic Education.

The instruction, “The Identity of the Catholic School for a Culture of Dialogue,” was signed by Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi, congregation prefect, and was released by the Vatican March 29.

The congregation, Cardinal Versaldi said, was asked to write the document particularly “given cases of conflicts and appeals resulting from different interpretations of the traditional concept of Catholic identity by educational institutions.”

The document, however, did not include any specific description of those cases, which presumably include controversy over teachers being fired or not being fired for marrying a person of the same sex.

Those involved in hiring for Catholic schools, it said, are required “to inform prospective recruits of the Catholic identity of the school and its implications, as well as of their responsibility to promote that identity. If the person being recruited does not comply with the requirements of the Catholic school and its belonging to the church community, the school is responsible for taking the necessary steps. Dismissal may also be resorted to, taking into account all circumstances on a case-by-case basis.”

At the same time, it said, “a narrow Catholic school model” is not acceptable either. “In such schools, there is no room for those who are not ‘totally’ Catholic. This approach contradicts the vision of an ‘open’ Catholic school that intends to apply to the educational sphere the model of a ‘church which goes forth’ in dialogue with everyone.”

The document insisted that Catholic education is not strictly catechetical, nor is it a “mere philanthropic work aimed at responding to a social need,” but is an essential part of the church’s identity and mission.

Catholic schools do not limit enrollment or employment to Catholics alone since, as the Second Vatican Council said, part of their mission is to promote “the complete perfection of the human person, the good of earthly society and the building of a world that is more human.”

To reach that goal, the document said, Catholic schools must “practice the ‘grammar of dialogue,’ not as a technical expedient, but as a profound way of relating to others. Dialogue combines attention to one’s own identity with the understanding of others and respect for diversity.”

Everyone — administrators, teachers, parents and students — has “the obligation to recognize, respect and bear witness to the Catholic identity of the school,” which should be clearly stated in its mission statement and presented to prospective employees and parents of prospective students.

“In the formation of the younger generations,” it said, “teachers must be outstanding in correct doctrine and integrity of life.”

But the entire school community is responsible for embracing and promoting the school’s Catholic identity, it said, so it cannot be “attributed only to certain spheres or to certain persons, such as liturgical, spiritual or social occasions, or to the function of the school chaplain, religion teachers or the school headmaster.”

Taking into account different contexts and laws in the countries where Catholic schools operate, the document urged the schools to “formulate clear criteria for discernment regarding the professional qualities, adherence to the church’s doctrine and consistency in the Christian life” of candidates for positions in Catholic schools.

When conflicts over “disciplinary and/or doctrinal” matters do arise, it said, everyone involved must be aware how “these situations can bring discredit to the Catholic institution and scandal in the community.”

“Dismissal should be the last resort, legitimately taken after all other remedial attempts have failed,” it said.

Noting that “in many countries civil law bars ‘discrimination’ on the basis of religion, sexual orientation and other aspects of private life,” the document nevertheless noted that when “state laws impose choices that conflict with religious freedom and the very Catholic identity of a school,” the rights of Catholics and their schools should be defended “both through dialogue with state authorities and through recourse to the courts having jurisdiction in these matters.”