Category: Diocese of Scranton News

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – The U.S. Supreme Court declined Nov. 10 a case that asked it to revisit its landmark ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. The 2015 ruling overturned state laws defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman, a decision the head of the U.S. Catholic bishops at the time called a “tragic error.”

The court rejected an appeal from Kim Davis, the former Kentucky county clerk who sparked a national controversy in the wake of Obergefell in 2015 when she declined to issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple on religious grounds. Davis sought to appeal a federal jury’s decision that she should pay $100,000 in damages – and $260,000 for attorneys fees – to the couple.

Her appeal marked the first major request to the justices to overturn the 2015 ruling. At the time Obergefell was decided, Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky, then-president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the court’s 5-4 decision was as wrong as the high court’s decision in 1973 to legalize abortion nationwide with Roe v. Wade. He called it “profoundly immoral and unjust for the government to declare that two people of the same sex can constitute a marriage,” emphasizing that “Jesus Christ, with great love, taught unambiguously that from the beginning marriage is the lifelong union of one man and one woman.”

Many legal scholars questioned the merits of the Kim Davis case itself, so the high court’s move to decline the case Nov. 10 was expected. However, in the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe’s longstanding abortion precedent, Justice Clarence Thomas filed a concurrence arguing the justices should “reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents,” including Obergefell, an argument Davis’ petition cited.

Robert P. George, a Catholic legal scholar and McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, told OSV News that many think that “most of the current Supreme Court justices believe” the Obergefell case “was wrongly decided,” as does he.

“One question undoubtedly in the minds of some justices is whether, despite its being wrongly decided — and a usurpation by the judiciary of democratic legislative authority — the doctrine of ‘stare decisis’ counsels leaving the decision in place,” George said.

“Stare decisis” is the legal doctrine that courts must follow precedent.

“I suspect that this will be the central question when the court decides it has been presented with the right case to use as a vehicle for reconsidering Obergefell,” George argued. “Evidently, none of the justices thought that the Kim Davis case was the right case to use for that purpose.”

William Powell, senior counsel for Georgetown Law’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection, which has represented David Ermold and David Moore, the Kentucky couple to whom Davis denied a license, told OSV News, “The Supreme Court’s denial of review confirms what we already knew: Same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry, and Kim Davis’s denial of marriage licenses in defiance of Obergefell plainly violated that right.”

“This is a win for same-sex couples everywhere who have built their families and lives around the right to marry,” he said.

The Catholic Church teaches the sacrament of matrimony can only take place between one woman and one man as “a permanent union of persons capable of knowing and loving each other and God” ordered to “the good of the spouses” and the gift of children. At the same time, the church stresses that those experiencing same-sex attraction, like Christians in every state of life, are called to live chastely through prayer and sacramental grace, drawing on “the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom” as they pursue holiness.

The USCCB had no involvement in the Davis case. However, in his June 26, 2015, USCCB response to Obergefell, Archbishop Kurtz stated the Catholic Church’s concerns about redefining marriage in civil law to include same-sex couples.

“The unique meaning of marriage as the union of one man and one woman is inscribed in our bodies as male and female. The protection of this meaning is a critical dimension of the ‘integral ecology’ that Pope Francis has called us to promote,” he said. “Mandating marriage redefinition across the country is a tragic error that harms the common good and most vulnerable among us, especially children. The law has a duty to support every child’s basic right to be raised, where possible, by his or her married mother and father in a stable home.”

Mathew Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, the firm representing Davis, argued in a statement his client “was jailed, hauled before a jury, and now faces crippling monetary damages based on nothing more than purported hurt feelings.”

“We will continue to work to overturn Obergefell,” he added. “It is not a matter of if, but when the Supreme Court will overturn Obergefell.”

Rick Garnett, a professor of law at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, told OSV News, “Although various commentators and activists have spent weeks claiming that a vehicle for overturning Obergefell was being considered by the justices, no informed court observers ever thought that the court would grant review in this case.”

“The case does not actually present, in a square and clean way, the question the coverage has suggested it does,” he said. “The attention focused on this minor, fact-bound petition tells us more about the ongoing campaign to stir up public feeling regarding the court than it does about live constitutional questions.”

If the Obergefell ruling were to be overturned in the future, it would not render void existing marriage licenses under the 2022 Respect for Marriage Act. That law requires the federal government to guarantee recognition of existing same-sex and interracial marriages regardless of any changes in law.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The hope that comes from true faith “breaks the chain of evil,” promoting forgiveness and righteousness, Pope Leo XIV said.

“It is a new kind of strength that confounds the proud and casts down the mighty from their thrones,” he said. “In this way, hope arises.”

At a Jubilee general audience in St. Peter’s Square Nov. 8, Pope Leo particularly welcomed pilgrims from the Jubilee of the World of Work. The celebration originally was scheduled to include the May 1 feast of St. Joseph the Worker but was postponed because of the death of Pope Francis.

Pope Leo told people at the audience about Blessed Isidore Bakanja, a Congolese martyr who died in 1909 as a result of the beatings he endured at the hands of his boss at the European-owned plantation where he worked. The man despised Christians and the missionaries Blessed Bakanja was close to.

But as Blessed Bakanja was dying, he told the missionaries that he had forgiven his boss and would pray for him from heaven.

The Scripture reading at the audience was from 1 Corinthians 1:26-27, “Consider your own calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong.”

Writing to the Corinthians, St. Paul wants them to understand how, with Jesus’ death and resurrection, “the earth has already begun to resemble heaven,” the pope said. “He tells them to consider their calling and to see how God has brought together people who otherwise would never have associated with one another.”

“To hope is to bear witness that the earth can truly resemble heaven” with justice and peace and dignity for all, the pope said. “And this is the message of the Jubilee.”

In his English-language remarks, Pope Leo said that Blessed Bakanja’s witness “reminds us that we have much to learn from our persecuted brothers and sisters in Africa. Let us strive to follow his example of perseverance in the faith despite any persecution or rejection we may face.”

Work should be “a source of hope and life, allowing each person to express their creativity and their capacity to do good,” the pope said, asking for a commitment by governments and businesses to creating “meaningful employment opportunities that offer stability and dignity, ensuring above all that young people can fulfill their dreams and contribute to the common good.”

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – Everyday Catholics can love and accompany those in need, according to experts that directly serve or advocate for those struggling with poverty.

“How simple it is to put love into a practical action,” a religious sister who ministers to those on the streets with the Missionaries of Charity in San Francisco, told OSV News. “I’m always spending my days in practical ways of loving and serving Jesus.”

Ahead of the World Day of the Poor on Nov. 16, experts from four Catholic groups — the Missionaries of Charity, Catholic Charities USA, the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul USA, and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops — spoke with OSV News about practical ways to love and care for those in need. Their comments followed the release of Pope Leo XIV’s first apostolic exhortation, “Dilexi Te” (“I have loved you”), addressed “to all Christians on love for the poor.”

“Love for the Lord, then, is one with love for the poor,” Pope Leo writes, adding later, “In the poor, he continues to speak to us.”

In the United States, 35.9 million (10.6%) people lived in poverty or fell under the Official Poverty Measure in 2024, according to a report released Sept. 9, 2025, by the U.S. Census Bureau.

In “Dilexi Te”, Pope Leo recognizes many forms of poverty, and lists “the poverty of those who lack material means of subsistence, the poverty of those who are socially marginalized and lack the means to give voice to their dignity and abilities, moral and spiritual poverty, cultural poverty, the poverty of those who find themselves in a condition of personal or social weakness or fragility, the poverty of those who have no rights, no space, no freedom.”

In response, experts shared their recommendations for loving those in need and living out the message of “Dilexi Te.” Here are eight:

— 1. Notice those in need around you

Drawing from “Dilexi Te,” Jill Rauh, executive director of the USCCB’s Secretariat of Justice and Peace, said that Catholics must open their ears “to ‘hear the cry’ of the poor in our midst.”

“This requires encounter; it means going outside our comfort zones,” she told OSV News in emailed comments. “Encounter the poor face to face — at food pantries, with organizations that assist immigrants, at centers for pregnant moms.”

“Take the time to watch or read news stories that share the stories and experiences of those impacted by poverty or other challenging circumstances,” she added. “Pray with these stories and experiences and allow your heart to be moved to truly see the one who suffers as brother or sister.”

— 2. Start personal encounters with a smile

The sister with the Missionaries of Charity, a religious order dedicated to serving Christ in the poorest of the poor, called one-on-one encounters with those in need “prayer in action.” She spoke about feeding those in dire poverty, cleaning them and even arranging for a barber to cut their hair. (Editor’s note: OSV News is not identifying the sister in response to a request from her superior asking for anonymity for the sake of the order’s mission in San Francisco).

“When you cut their hair with the right intention or when you listen to them and they say, ‘I want a cup of soup,’ or ‘I want oatmeal,’ and then you give it to them — in such a way, with a smile — they understand God and his love,” the sister said.

“Love begins with a smile,” she said, referring to a saying of St. Teresa of Kolkata, founder of the Missionaries of Charity.

— 3. Don’t be afraid to befriend those in need

The Missionaries of Charity sister called gaining the friendship and trust of people in need key to getting them the practical help they need. She told the story of a 70-year-old man from Thailand who had been abused while living on the streets. She has known him since 2018. While he refused help from others, he trusted her and is now in the process of securing housing.

“We have to reach out to them first, I would say, even as God reaches out to us where we’re at,” she said at another point.

She gave tips for how to start a conversation with someone in need. If someone has a dog, she recommended starting with that.

“‘What a beautiful dog — hello, dog — what is your dog’s name?'” she said, giving an example. “An animal is always a quick way into the heart of someone.”

She also recommended asking for help from Jesus’ mother, Mary, and the Holy Spirit.

“Then just take the leap — again with a smile — and say, “Good morning, my sister,’ or, ‘Good morning, my brother,'” she said. “Like, ‘I was just going into McDonald’s to buy a coffee, would you like one?'”

— 4. Volunteer with groups that help those in need

Citing Pope Leo XIV, Scott Hurd, vice president for leadership development at Catholic Charities USA, said that Catholics can serve those in need, among other things. Last year, his own organization served more than 15 million people in need, including older adults, migrants and refugees, pregnant women and new mothers, people with disabilities and people without homes, employment or enough food.

“In serving, Leo writes, ‘we are asked to devote time to the poor, to give them loving attention, to listen to them with interest, (and) stand by them in difficult moments,'” Hurd said in emailed comments, citing “Dilexi Te” where the pope quotes from the 2007 Aparecida Document. “This might be done through serving with a parish social concerns ministry or volunteering with a Catholic Charities agency or other social service organization.”

At the USCCB, Rauh agreed that Catholics should accompany those in need by volunteering and by supporting those organizations that help people in need.

Michael Acaldo, CEO of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul USA, a Catholic lay organization that provides more than $1.7 billion in aid to 5 million people in need each year, also invited people to live out their faith and embrace those in need by volunteering with his organization.

— 5. Share your resources with those in need

Catholics can also minister to those in need by sharing their resources, which Pope Leo calls a “requirement of true worship” in “Dilexi Te,” Hurd and other experts said.

“Catholics can share by assisting parish social ministries … or supporting a local Catholic Charities agency or other relief organization with financial gifts and donations of food, clothing, and other practical items,” Hurd mentioned as examples.

— 6. Advocate for those in need

Catholics should also speak up for those in need, Hurd and other experts encouraged.

“Pope Leo challenges Catholics to fight against ‘the structural causes of poverty and inequality’ and confront the ‘destructive effects of the empire of money,'” Hurd said, citing “Dilexi Te.” “This requires ‘speaking up’ — engaging in advocacy efforts with ‘local, national, and international governing structures.'”

He listed concrete examples.

“Catholics can petition elected officials, participate in community organizing, endorse the efforts of their local Catholic conference, support organizations funded by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, and stay abreast of developments at the national level by subscribing to Washington Weekly from Catholic Charities USA,” Hurd recommended.

Citing “Dilexi Te,” Rauh also called on Catholics to “put two feet of love in action” by “helping to meet immediate needs through works of charity, and advocating for just policies that can help to address the structural causes of poverty.”

She also recommended joining organizations funded by the CCHD, the USCCB’s national anti-poverty program, and advocating with the USCCB or their state Catholic conference for policies that ensure access to food, health care and other essentials for families with low-incomes.

— 7. Pray with those in need

The Missionaries of Charity sister said her order cares for those in need “for the purpose of their soul.”

“God doesn’t need us, but he chooses to use us in order to accomplish his loving plan for our people in the here and now, with the goal of eternal life,” she said.

The sister said she offers people in need holy cards and Miraculous Medals (a devotion rooted in a Marian vision given to St. Catherine Labouré in 1830). If she senses people are open to prayer, then she reminds them that “their heart is a temple of God and that God made them so that he could live in their hearts.”

The sister said she repeats two of Mother Teresa’s short prayers with them: “Jesus, in my heart, I believe in your tender love for me. I love you,” and “Mary, mother of Jesus, be a mother to me now.”

— 8. Remember to see Christ in the poor and be Christ to the poor

St. Vincent de Paul’s Acaldo highlighted Pope Leo’s message that God continues to speak through those in need.

“We’re called to see the face of Christ in those in need,” he said. “I believe, when we do a really great job … they see the face of Christ in us.”

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul encounters those in need in many ways, from thrift stories and food pantries to emergency financial assistance and home visits.

“The most important thing we do is to bring Christ’s love to them and listen to them,” he said. “To let them know that hope through Christ exists throughout the world.”

November 7, 2025

Joseph Sudano, formerly an incardinated deacon in the Diocese of Scranton, has been dispensed from the clerical state, effective September 15, 2025, and is no longer authorized to provide ministry to Catholics.

In 2024, Mr. Sudano chose to leave the Catholic Church and exercise ministry within the Episcopal Church.

Mr. Sudano remains prohibited from representing the Catholic Church in any capacity. Catholic members of the Christian Faithful are not to approach Mr. Sudano for diaconal ministry in any capacity.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Leo XIV welcomed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to the Vatican to celebrate the 10th anniversary of a Vatican-Palestinian agreement recognizing the State of Palestine and guaranteeing the freedom of the Catholic Church in the territory.

“During the cordial talks, it was recognized that there is an urgent need to provide assistance to the civilian population in Gaza and to end the conflict by pursuing a two-State solution,” the Vatican said in a statement released after the 30-minute meeting Nov. 6.

While it was their first meeting in person, Pope Leo and Abbas had spoken by telephone in July when the fighting was still raging in Gaza and the humanitarian disaster was increasingly intense.

The Palestinian Authority claims Gaza as part of its territory and controlled the region before Hamas took over in 2007. Abbas, who has been the president of Palestine since 2005, belongs to the Fatah party, which has been in an ongoing conflict with Hamas.

Speaking to reporters Nov. 4, Pope Leo said he was thankful that the first phase of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire was continuing even though it was “very fragile.”

But he also was asked about Israelis expanding settlements in the West Bank and settlers threatening Palestinian villagers and provoking tensions by going up to the square outside the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, the third holiest site in Islam.

Al-Aqsa is located on what is known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif and to Jews as the Temple Mount, where the two biblical Jewish Temples stood.

“The theme of the West Bank and these settlers is really complicated,” Pope Leo told reporters. “Israel says one thing and then does another sometimes. We want to try to work together for justice for all people.”

Soon after arriving in Rome Nov. 5, Abbas went to the Basilica of St. Mary Major and laid a bouquet of white roses on the tomb of Pope Francis.

“I came to see Pope Francis because I cannot forget what he did for Palestine and for the Palestinian people,” he told reporters, “and I cannot forget that he recognized Palestine without anyone having to ask him to do so.”

With the signing in 2015 of the “Comprehensive Agreement between the Holy See and the State of Palestine,” the Holy See officially recognized the state of Palestine and restated its longtime support of a “two-state solution” to tensions in the Holy Land with both Israel and Palestine enjoying sovereignty, security and defined borders.

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – Amid concern about the ability of those detained by immigration enforcement authorities to receive Catholic sacraments, a key U.S. bishop said Trump administration officials have “assured” him the matter is “under careful review.”

His comments came shortly before Pope Leo XIV urged respect for “the spiritual rights” of migrants detained in the U.S. in comments to journalists Nov. 4 at Castel Gandolfo.

Bishop Robert E. Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, who was appointed by President Donald Trump to the Department of Justice’s Religious Liberty Commission, said in a Nov. 3 social media post that he and Father Alexei Woltornist, a Melkite Catholic priest and a member of the Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Advisory Council, “have been in touch with senior officials in both the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security and have brought forward the concerns of the Church regarding detainees’ access to Sacraments.”

Bishop Barron’s post included an OSV News article about a delegation of clergy, religious sisters and laity, and a Chicago auxiliary bishop who were barred for the second time in three weeks from bringing the Eucharist to those being held at an immigration detention center just west of Chicago on the feast of All Saints Nov. 1.

The facility in the suburb of Broadview, Illinois, has seen tense confrontations between protesters and federal law enforcement in the last several weeks as the Trump administration ramped up enforcement efforts in and around the Windy City. In a separate incident, reports of immigration authorities near St. Jerome Catholic Church in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood on Oct. 12 prompted warnings of caution from its pastor, although a spokesperson for ICE denied the church was targeted, local media reported.

Catholic bishops are among those who have acknowledged points of tension between the Trump administration’s immigration policy and religious liberty.

In a statement provided to OSV News in response to an inquiry about Bishop Barron’s post, Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs for the Department of Homeland Security, said the Broadview facility is “a field office, it is not a detention facility.”

“Illegal aliens are only briefly held there for processing before being transferred to a detention facility. Religious organizations are more than welcome to provide services to detainees in ICE detention facilities,” McLaughlin said. “Even before the attacks on the Broadview facility, it was not within standard operating procedure for religious services to be provided in a field office, as detainees are continuously brought in, processed, and transferred out.”

McLaughlin argued the facility faces “serious public safety and officer safety threats,” and that “ICE staff has repeatedly informed religious organizations that due to Broadview’s status as a field office and the ongoing threat to civilians, detainees, and officers” they are “not able to accommodate these requests at this time.”

In his post, Bishop Barron added, “I feel that maintaining open lines of communication and engaging in dialogue with the Administration constitute the most constructive way forward.”

Catholic social teaching on immigration balances three interrelated principles — the right of persons to migrate in order to sustain their lives and those of their families, the right of a country to regulate its borders and control immigration, and a nation’s duty to regulate its borders with justice and mercy.

In his Nov. 4 comments, Pope Leo added, “The authorities allow pastoral workers to assist with the needs of these people. Many times they have been separated from their families and no one knows what happens”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Leo XIV has asked Catholics to join him in praying for those who struggle with suicidal thoughts, and for all people “who live in darkness and despair.”

“May they always find a community that welcomes them, listens to them and accompanies them,” including by offering comfort, support and “necessary professional help,” he prayed.

The pope’s video sharing his prayer intention for November was distributed Nov. 4 by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network.

“Let us pray that those who are struggling with suicidal thoughts might find the support, care and love they need in their community, and be open to the beauty of life,” he said in the video.

“May we know how to be close with respect and tenderness, helping to heal wounds, build bonds and open horizons,” Pope Leo said. “Together, may we rediscover that life is a gift, that there is still beauty and meaning, even in the midst of pain and suffering.”

“We are well aware that those who follow you are also vulnerable to sadness without hope,” he said.

The pope prayed that the Lord would “always make us feel your love so that, through your closeness to us, we can recognize and proclaim to all the infinite love of the Father who leads us by the hand to renew our trust in the life you give us.”

Choosing suicide prevention as his prayer intention for the month of November coincided with an international conference titled, “Ministry of Hope: International Catholic Forum on Mental Well-being,” being held in Rome Nov. 5-7.

Organized by the International Association of Catholic Mental Health Ministers and under the patronage of the Pontifical Academy for Life, the conference was to discuss how the Christian community can accompany people who struggle with mental health issues, depression and extreme pain, and how to prevent the risk of suicide through listening and closeness.

The November video was filmed in the Diocese of Phoenix, Arizona, which has made mental health a pastoral priority with an office dedicated to mental health ministry. The diocese celebrates an annual Mass of remembrance for those who have died by suicide and seeks to provide safe spaces for listening, to share clear guidance on how to help someone in crisis and to lead public campaigns to reduce the stigma surrounding mental illness.

Bishop John Dolan of Phoenix told the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, “I have personally walked the difficult road of suicide loss,” having lost a brother, two sisters and a brother-in-law to death by suicide.

“There are certain wounds and mysteries that we cannot comprehend. And yet, we hope,” trusting in a loving Father “who holds our loved ones near, and we turn to one another, walking forward together as companions on the journey,” he said. “If you feel broken, if you are struggling with suicidal thoughts, know that you are deeply loved and the Church is here for you. You are not alone.”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (2280-2283) teaches that suicide contradicts love of self, others and God. However, it also recognizes that “serious psychological disturbances, anxiety, or fear of hardship, suffering, or torture can diminish personal responsibility,” the prayer network said in a press release.

The church “invites us not to despair of the eternal salvation of those who have taken their own life, but to entrust them to God’s mercy and to the community’s prayer,” it said.

“The general practice of the church today is to treat very respectfully those who have died by suicide, partly because in recent years, the church has progressively grown in its attentiveness to mental health, both through prayer and its pastoral care,” it added.

Jesuit Father Cristóbal Fones, international director of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network said, “The church is not a substitute for healthcare professionals — psychologists, doctors, therapists. It can carry out an important role by offering proximity, listening, and hope.”

Catholics can learn in their parishes and dioceses how to reach out to those who suffer, comfort those who are sad, take care of each other and share in Christ’s hope, he said in the press release.

Each month, the prayer network’s Click To Pray app, has a day dedicated to praying to support those who are going through a particularly vulnerable time, he added.

The World Health Organization estimates that more than 720,000 people die due to suicide each year. In the United States, the current suicide rate is about third higher than it was in 2000.

About 56% of those who choose to end their life are under the age of 50, with suicide being the third leading cause of death among people 15 to 29 years old.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – While praising devotion to Mary, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith firmly rejected moves to formally proclaim Mary as “co-redemptrix” or “co-mediatrix.”

In a lengthy doctrinal note titled “Mater Populi Fidelis” (“Mother of the Faithful People of God”), the dicastery said the title co-redemptrix or co-redeemer “carries the risk of eclipsing the exclusive role of Jesus Christ” in salvation.

And, regarding the title co-mediatrix or co-mediator, it said that Mary, “the first redeemed, could not have been the mediatrix of the grace that she herself received.”

However, it said, the title may be used when it does not cast doubt on “the unique mediation of Jesus Christ, true God and true man.”

Pope Leo XIV approved the text Oct. 7 and ordered its publication, said the note, which was released Nov. 4.

Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the doctrinal dicastery, presented the document during a conference at the Jesuit headquarters in Rome and said its teaching becomes part of the church’s “ordinary magisterium” and must be considered authoritative.

For more than 30 years, some Catholics, including some bishops, have asked for formal dogmatic declarations of Mary as co-redemptrix and co-mediatrix, the document’s introduction said. But Msgr. Armando Matteo, secretary of the dicastery’s doctrinal section, told the conference that the Vatican’s first study of the doctrinal implications of the titles goes all the way back to 1926.

Cardinal Fernández said that one time, when St. Peter’s Basilica was closed, he spent a long time in front of Michelangelo’s Pietà. The sorrow on Mary’s face because of the death of her son and, at the same time, her obvious strength, he said, “was so beautiful it was understandable why people would want to say everything and more about Mary.”

The new document said that titles used for Mary should speak of her motherly care for all people and her place as the first and perfect disciple of Jesus but must not create any doubt that Catholics believe Jesus is the redeemer of the world and the bestower of grace.

“Any gaze directed at her that distracts us from Christ or that places her on the same level as the Son of God would fall outside the dynamic proper to an authentically Marian faith,” it said, because Mary always points to her son.

The titles co-redemptrix and co-mediatrix have been used in reference to Mary by theologians and even popes in the past millennium, the doctrinal dicastery said, but without elaborating on the precise meaning and the extent to which those titles could describe Mary’s role in salvation history.

St. John Paul II “referred to Mary as ‘Co-redemptrix’ on at least seven occasions,” the note said, but after consultation with the then-Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and its prefect, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, in 1996, he did not issue a dogmatic declaration and stopped using the title.

Citing Scripture and tradition, the future Pope Benedict XVI said, “The precise meaning of these titles (co-redemptrix and co-mediatrix) is not clear, and the doctrine contained in them is not mature.”

“Everything comes from Him — Christ — as the Letter to the Ephesians and the Letter to the Colossians, in particular, tell us; Mary, too, is everything that she is through Him. The word ‘Co-redemptrix’ would obscure this origin,” Pope Benedict said.

Pope Francis, at a general audience in 2021, said that Jesus entrusted Mary to humanity as a mother, “not as a goddess, not as co-redemptrix,” adding that love motivated some people to call her co-redemptrix, but love often leads people to “exaggerate.”

“Given the necessity of explaining Mary’s subordinate role to Christ in the work of Redemption, it would not be appropriate to use the title ‘Co-redemptrix’ to define Mary’s cooperation,” the doctrinal note said.

The title, it said, “risks obscuring Christ’s unique salvific mediation and can therefore create confusion and an imbalance in the harmony of the truths of the Christian faith, for ‘there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.'”

“When an expression requires many repeated explanations to prevent it from straying from a correct meaning, it does not serve the faith of the People of God and becomes unhelpful,” the dicastery concluded.

The use of the title “co-mediatrix” is more complicated, the doctrinal note said, because the word “mediation” often is “understood simply as cooperation, assistance or intercession” and easily could apply to Mary without calling into question “the unique mediation of Jesus Christ, true God and true man.”

Mary’s role in salvation history is unique, the document said. She willingly accepted to become the mother of Jesus the savior, she raised him, traveled with him and stood at the foot of his cross.

While Christ, fully human and fully divine, is the one mediator between God and humanity, it said, “he enables various forms of participation in his salvific plan because, in communion with him, we can all become, in some way, cooperators with God and ‘mediators’ for one another.”

“If this holds true for every believer — whose cooperation with Christ becomes increasingly fruitful to the extent that one allows oneself to be transformed by grace — how much more must it be affirmed of Mary in a unique and supreme way,” the doctrinal note said.

The church believes that those in heaven can pray and intercede for people still on earth and, “among those chosen and glorified with Christ, first and foremost is his Mother,” the note said. “Therefore, we can affirm that Mary has a unique collaboration in the saving work that Christ carries out in his Church. With this intercession, Mary can become for us a motherly sign of the Lord’s mercy.”

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – The Trump administration has indicated that it will not appeal court orders directing it to pay SNAP benefits, but that it will only issue partial payments in November.

The Trump administration previously said funding for SNAP — the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, a major part of the nation’s social safety net — was scheduled to lapse Nov. 1 due to the federal government shutdown.

But Judge Jack McConnell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island said Oct. 31 the Agriculture Department must distribute the contingency funds “timely, or as soon as possible, for the November 1 payments to be made.”

In a Nov. 3 brief, USDA’s lawyers wrote it “will fulfill its obligation to expend the full amount of SNAP contingency funds today.”

The brief said that the Food and Nutrition Service, which administers SNAP, will spend about $450 million of the contingency funds paying for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, or WIC, with another $150 million for food programs in the U.S. territories Puerto Rico and American Samoa, and the remaining $4.65 billion will pay for SNAP benefits, representing about 50% of payments to eligible households.

“This means that no funds will remain for new SNAP applicants certified in November, disaster assistance, or as a cushion against the potential catastrophic consequences of shutting down SNAP entirely,” the brief said.

About 42 million — or 1-in-8 — Americans rely on SNAP. Data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture showed that in fiscal year 2023, 79% of SNAP recipient households included either a child, an elderly individual or a nonelderly individual with a disability.

Qualified SNAP recipients receive monthly allowances through electronic benefit transfer accounts, with SNAP EBT cards used like debit or credit cards to purchase essential foods and seeds to grow food. Sales tax, prepared food, pet foods, nonfood items, alcohol, tobacco, vitamins and medicine are excluded.

Catholic leaders and ministries were among those who raised alarm at the prospect of a lapse in federal food assistance.

Trump previously indicated his administration would not appeal the order in an Oct. 31 post on his social media website, Truth Social.

“Our Government lawyers do not think we have the legal authority to pay SNAP with certain monies we have available, and now two Courts have issued conflicting opinions on what we can and cannot do. I do NOT want Americans to go hungry just because the Radical Democrats refuse to do the right thing and REOPEN THE GOVERNMENT. Therefore, I have instructed our lawyers to ask the Court to clarify how we can legally fund SNAP as soon as possible.”

But Trump said there would be a delay, pointing at Democrats’ objections to a GOP-backed funding bill to keep the government open.

“It is already delayed enough due to the Democrats keeping the Government closed through the monthly payment date and, even if we get immediate guidance, it will unfortunately be delayed while States get the money out,” he said. “If we are given the appropriate legal direction by the Court, it will BE MY HONOR to provide the funding, just like I did with Military and Law Enforcement Pay.”

However, during a lengthy government shutdown during the first Trump administration, the Department of Agriculture authorized early processing of SNAP funds to ensure there would be no disruption in service, the Huffington Post noted.

In a post on X, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer replied that “USDA has the authority to fully fund SNAP and needs to do so immediately. Anything else is unacceptable.”

“Trump’s ‘decision’ to follow the court order and only send partial SNAP benefits to 42 million hungry Americans as Thanksgiving approaches is cruel and callous,” he said.

“Trump should focus less on his ballroom and his bathroom and more on the American people,” Schumer added in reference to recent White House renovations, which include the demolition of the East Wing.

In anticipation of a lapse in federal food assistance programs, Catholic Charities USA, the network organization dedicated to carrying out the domestic humanitarian work of the Catholic Church in the United States, announced a national fundraising effort to provide an emergency supply of food to Catholic Charities agencies around the country.

ROME (CNS) – As Christians visit cemeteries on the feast of All Souls and remember their loved ones who have died, they do so with faith that at the end of this life they will be together again with the Lord, Pope Leo XIV said.

The pope celebrated Mass Nov. 2, the feast of All Souls, at Rome’s largest cemetery, Verano, which covers more than 200 acres.

“The Lord awaits us, and when we finally meet him at the end of our earthly journey, we shall rejoice with him and with our loved ones who have gone before us,” the pope told about 2,000 people who had gathered on a road among the tombs for the Mass.

“May this promise sustain us, dry our tears and raise our gaze upward toward the hope for the future that never fades,” he said.

Arriving at the cemetery, he set a bouquet of white roses on one of the tombs, and at the end of the Mass he blessed the graves with holy water before leading the traditional prayer, “Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.”

The pope began his homily by speaking about the loved ones buried at Verano, telling the congregation that “we continue to carry them with us in our hearts, and their memory remains always alive within us amid our daily lives”

“Often,” he said, “something brings them to mind, and we recall experiences we once shared with them. Many places, even the fragrance of our homes, speak to us of those we have loved and who have gone before us, vividly maintaining their memory for us.”

For those who believe that Jesus conquered death, the pope said, “it is not so much about looking back, but instead looking forward toward the goal of our journey, toward the safe harbor that God has promised us, toward the unending feast that awaits us.”

“There, around the Risen Lord and our loved ones, we hope to savor the joy of the eternal banquet,” he said.

Belief in eternal life, the pope said, “is not an illusion for soothing the pain of our separation from loved ones, nor is it mere human optimism. Instead, it is the hope founded on the Resurrection of Jesus who has conquered death and opened for us the path to the fullness of life.”

Earlier in the day, the pope led the recitation of the Angelus prayer with thousands of visitors gathered in St. Peter’s Square.

He told them he would be going to the cemetery to celebrate Mass for all the faithful departed.

“In spirit, I will visit the graves of my loved ones” — his mother died in 1990 and his father in 1997 — “and I will also pray for those who have no one to remember them. But our heavenly Father knows and loves each of us, and he forgets no one!”

Citing Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical on hope, Pope Leo said that “eternal life” can be thought of not as “a succession of time without end, but being so immersed in an ocean of infinite love that time, before and after no longer exist.”

Such a “fullness of life and joy in Christ is what we hope for and await with all our being,” Pope Leo said.

Praying for the dead, he said, is not just about remembering a loss, but it is a sign of belief that in the death and resurrection of Jesus, no one will be lost.

Pope Leo prayed, “May the familiar voice of Jesus reach us, and reach everyone, because it is the only one that comes from the future. May he call us by name, prepare a place for us, free us from that sense of helplessness that tempts us to give up on life.”