Category: Diocese of Scranton News

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The lives of the saints prove that holiness is not an unreachable goal accomplished by a select few but comes from acknowledging and sharing God’s love, Pope Francis said.

“Our Christian lives begin not with doctrine and good works, but with the amazement born of realizing that we are loved, prior to any response on our part,” the pope said in his homily during the canonization Mass in which he declared 10 men and women as saints of the Catholic Church.

“At times, by overemphasizing our efforts to do good works, we have created an ideal of holiness excessively based on ourselves, our personal heroics, our capacity for renunciation, our readiness for self-sacrifice in achieving a reward. In this way, we have turned holiness into an unattainable goal,” he said.

An estimated 45,000 pilgrims from around the world gathered in St. Peter’s Square at the beginning of the canonization Mass, and tens of thousands more arrived in time for the recitation of the “Regina Coeli” prayer afterward, the Vatican said.

Carmelite Father Michael Driscoll, who lives in Boca Raton, Florida, was among the pilgrims who arrived early for the canonization Mass, which he said he has “been waiting for for 18 years” since his miraculous healing from advanced, metastatic melanoma. He had prayed for St. Titus Brandsma’s intercession, and his healing was accepted as the miracle needed for the Dutch Carmelite’s canonization.

Father Driscoll told Catholic News Service May 13 he was “very anxious and thrilled” for the canonization of St. Brandsma, who died in 1942 at the Dachau concentration camp after he “used his talents as a teacher, as a publicist and as a writer” to fight Nazi ideology.

“He fought with his mouth in the pulpit, he fought with his pen and typewriter way before the internet came along. He used all that was available at that time and rallied Holland,” Father Driscoll told CNS.

In his homily, the pope reflected on the Sunday Gospel reading from St. John in which Jesus calls on his disciples to love one another “as I have loved you.”

Christ’s call, he said, should be “the core of our own faith,” a faith that recognizes that “our abilities and our merits are not the central thing, but rather the unconditional, free and unmerited love of God.”

“Being disciples of Jesus and advancing on the path of holiness means first and foremost letting ourselves be transfigured by the power of God’s love. Let us never forget the primacy of God over self, of the Spirit over the flesh, of grace over works,” the pope said.

Jesus’ call to love one another, he continued, is not solely a call to imitate his love for humanity, but a reminder that Christians “are able to love only because he has loved us, because he pours into our hearts his own Spirit, the Spirit of holiness, love that heals and transforms.”

To live one’s life according to that love, the pope said Christians must be willing to serve others, which clears one’s soul from “the poison of greed and competitiveness” and fights “the cancer of indifference and the woodworm of self-referentiality.”

Giving one’s life, he said, is “more than simply offering something of ours to others,” but rather it is a way of “surmounting our selfishness in order to make our lives a gift.”

Pope Francis said that the 10 new saints exemplified the Christian call “to serve the Gospel and our brothers and sisters, to offer our lives without expecting anything in return, or any worldly glory.”

“They discovered an incomparable joy, and they became brilliant reflections of the Lord of history,” the pope said. “May we strive to do the same, for each of us is called to holiness, to a form of holiness all our own.”

The new saints are:

– Devasahayam Pillai, an Indian layman born in 1712 and martyred in 1752.

– César de Bus, the French founder of the Fathers of Christian Doctrine, who was born in 1544 and died in 1607.

– Luigi Maria Palazzolo, Italian founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Poor, who lived 1827-1886.

– Giustino Maria Russolillo, Italian founder of the Society of Divine Vocations for men and the Vocationist Sisters, 1891-1955.

– Charles de Foucauld, French priest and hermit, born in 1858 and killed in 1916.

– Anna Maria Rubatto, Italian founder of the order now known as the Capuchin Sisters of Mother Rubatto, who lived 1844-1904.

– Maria Domenica Mantovani, co-founder and first superior general of the Little Sisters of the Holy Family, born in 1862 and died in 1934.

– Titus Brandsma, Dutch priest and journalist, who was born in 1881 and martyred in 1942.

– Carolina Santocanale, Italian founder of the Congregation of the Capuchin Sisters of the Immaculate of Lourdes, who lived 1852-1923.

– Marie Rivier, French founder of the Sisters of the Presentation of Mary. She was born in 1768 and died in 1838.

SCRANTON (May 12, 2022) – The Most Reverend Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, issued the following statement on the U.S. Senate vote taken May 11, 2022, on the Women’s Health Protection Act, which failed with a final vote of 49-51:

 

“Today, I express my deep disappointment in the U.S. Senate’s attempt to advance the cause of a proposed law that would threaten the lives of countless unborn children. Senator Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) voted against the measure and Senator Bob Casey (D-Pa.) voted for the legislation.  

“It is particularly distressing that Senator Casey chose to support the most radical, pro-abortion bill ever before Congress. I urge him in the strongest possible terms to take efforts to protect the rights of the unborn. 

“The deceptively titled ‘Women’s Health Protection Act,’ (S.4132) would impose abortion on demand nationwide at any stage of pregnancy through federal statute and eliminate pro-life laws at every level of government – including parental notification of scheduled abortions for young women under the age of 18, informed consent, and health and safety protections specific to abortion facilities. 

“If adopted, the legislation would compel all Americans to support abortions performed domestically and internationally with their tax dollars. It would also likely force health care providers and professionals to perform, assist in, and/or refer for abortion against their deeply held religious beliefs and rights of conscience. Finally, it would force employers and insurers to cover or pay for abortions and abortifacient drugs in violation of their deeply held religious beliefs and rights of conscience. 

“Today, I reaffirm the stance that all human life deserves respect, protection, and dignity from conception to natural death. In addition to defending the rights of the unborn, that means providing for the needs of the poor, the elderly, the disabled, and the most vulnerable of our brothers and sisters.

“I invite all of the faithful of the Diocese of Scranton to join Catholics around the country in fasting and praying the Rosary on Friday, May 13, the Memorial of Our Lady of Fatima.”

SCRANTON – The beauty and importance of adoption once again became the focal point of the Diocese of Scranton’s annual Mother’s Day Mass – thanks to dozens of families who attended the liturgy with their adopted children.

The Mass, celebrated May 8 at the Cathedral of Saint Peter, brought together dozens of families and their adopted children.

Many, like Karen Trently of Throop, were joyful in discussing their adoption stories following Mass.

“It will almost be nine years in July that we got the call about Addison. My husband and I tried about ten years to get pregnant and unfortunately it didn’t happen for us,” Trently explained.

That is when the couple decided to adopt.

“The day that we got the call about Addison was one of the happiest days of our lives. Every day with her is a blessing and she really completed our family,” she added.

The Trently family makes it an annual tradition to attend the Mother’s Day Adoption Mass at the Cathedral.

“She didn’t grow inside me but she grew in our hearts,” Trently said. “She knows about her adoption and we thank her mother for being so brave and putting her up for adoption.”

This was the first year Dan and Sarah Wilson attended the Mother’s Day Adoption Mass. The Milford couple has an eight-year-old son, Luke, and recently adopted their two-year-old son, Jude.

“We knew our family wasn’t complete with Luke and we knew that he needed to have a sibling so we went through the adoption process and adopted Jude. He is from Atlanta, Georgia. We have a completely open adoption with his birth family and it is the most happy and joyous relationship in our life and our family is complete,” Sarah Wilson said.

“He is an absolute miracle. Our lives are so much richer, I don’t know how we existed without him,” Dan Wilson added. “Luke is amazing as well but Jude really completes our whole family.”

When asked to describe his thoughts on having a brother, Luke responded it was “probably the happiest time of my life.”

The Most Reverend Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, was principal celebrant and homilist for the Mother’s Day Adoption Mass. During the liturgy, the bishop not only acknowledged adoptive and foster mothers, but all mothers, grandmothers and godmothers.

“For all of the commercialization and hype that can cause us at times to lose touch with the heart of its real meaning, doesn’t this day cause us to reflect upon the essence of the gospel message for the Fourth Sunday of Easter, Good Shepherd Sunday?” the bishop asked. “Selfless love, forgiveness, unconditional acceptance and hope are all qualities that a mother seeks to impact to her child whom she knows and loves so well.”
Mothers, the bishop added, remind us that we are all given the power and responsibility to become vehicles for God’s presence in the world.

“May we especially give thanks for those women who have nurtured and cared for us, their children, and have taught us that it is possible to love as Jesus, the Good Shepherd,” Bishop Bambera noted.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The study and celebration of the liturgy should lead to a sense of awe before God, a commitment to mission and a growing unity within the church, not tensions and squabbles, Pope Francis said.

“When liturgical life is a bit of a banner of division, there is the odor of the devil, the deceiver. It is not possible to worship God and at the same time make the liturgy a battlefield,” the pope said May 7 during a meeting with students and professors from the Pontifical Institute of Liturgy at St. Anselm in Rome.

The papal audience marked the conclusion of a celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Benedictine-run institute, which was founded after the Second Vatican Council and its reform of the liturgy.

Pope Francis said the institute responded to “the growing need of the people of God to live and participate more intensely in the liturgical life of the church” by understanding it and experiencing “its mystery with an ever-new sense of wonder.”

“One does not possess the liturgy,” he said. Rather, the liturgy is lived and celebrated.

However, the pope said, people must be aware of “the temptation of liturgical formalism: to focus on forms, formalities rather than reality, as we see today in those movements that try to go backwards and deny the Second Vatican Council. Then the celebration is recitation, it is something without life, without joy.”

The teaching of every church council has taken time to be accepted fully, he said, and it is no different with Vatican II, especially with its reform of the liturgy.

He told the students and professors that he remembers as a youngster how people were so upset — “they rent their garments” — by reforms that began even before the council, such as Pope XII ruling that drinking water did not violate the required fast before Mass or allowing people to fulfill their Sunday Mass obligation by attending a Saturday evening Mass or the restoration of the Easter vigil on Saturday night.

“All of these things scandalized closed-minded people,” he said, and “it still happens today. Indeed, those with closed mindsets use liturgical patterns to defend their own point of view. Using the liturgy: this is the drama we are experiencing in ecclesial groups that are distancing themselves from the church, questioning the council (and) the authority of the bishops” even as they claim “to preserve tradition.”

Celebrating the liturgy must increase communion within the church and unity with others, he said, because “the liturgical life opens us to each other, to those closest and furthest from the church, in our common belonging to Christ.”

“Giving glory to God in the liturgy finds its counterpart in love of neighbor, in the commitment to live as brothers and sisters in daily life, in the community in which I find myself, with its merits and its limitations,” Pope Francis said.

And, he said, every Mass or liturgy ends with sending members of the congregation out on mission.

“What we live and celebrate leads us to go out to meet others, to meet the world around us, to meet the joys and needs of so many people who perhaps live without knowing the gift of God,” he said. “A genuine liturgical life, especially the Eucharist, always impels us to charity, which is above all openness and attention to others.”