Category: Diocese of Scranton News

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – An effective proclamation of the Gospel must speak with hope to the real-life problems of the poor, to the need to protect the earth and to the ability of people of good will to change the social and financial systems that harm the poor and the environment, Pope Francis said.

“Ten years after the publication of ‘Evangelii Gaudium’ (‘The Joy of the Gospel’), let us reaffirm that only if we listen to the often-silenced cry of the earth and of the poor can we fulfill our evangelizing mission, live the life Jesus proposes to us and contribute to solving the grave problems of humanity,” the pope wrote to a conference marking the anniversary of his first exhortation.

The Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development organized the conference Nov. 24, the anniversary of publication of the exhortation, which was widely described as outlining Pope Francis’ vision for his pontificate.

In his message to the conference, the pope said the proclamation of the Gospel today — like it was for the church of the first centuries — “requires of us a prophetic counter-cultural resistance to pagan, hedonistic individualism,” resistance “to a system that kills, excludes and destroys human dignity, resistance to a mentality that isolates, alienates and limits one’s inner life to one’s own interests, distances us from our neighbor and alienates us from God.”

Being a “missionary disciple,” he said, means working for the kingdom of God by struggling for justice, providing food to the hungry and working for a fair distribution of goods.

Putting the poor at the center of one’s concern, the pope wrote, “is not politics, is not sociology, is not ideology – it is purely and simply the requirement of the Gospel.”

The practical implications of that requirement could vary, depending on whether one is a government leader or a business owner, a judge or a labor union worker, he said, “but what no one can evade or excuse themselves from is the debt of love that every Christian — and I dare say, every human being — owes to the poor.”

Cardinal Michael Czerny, prefect of the dicastery, told participants, that the “joy of the Gospel” comes “from the encounter with the Risen Lord who, passing through the humiliation of the cross, takes upon himself the sin, weakness, miseries and poverty of the human race, so that all might share in his victory over death.”

The joy of the Gospel, the cardinal said, gives Christians and the whole church the grace, motivation and strength “to go beyond referring to its own self and move toward the margins, in order to look right at that suffering humanity often considered as mere ‘waste,’ as inevitable and acceptable ‘collateral damage,’ as ‘necessary sacrifice,’ as an ‘offering’ owed to the idols of consumption.”

Juan Grabois, founder of the Confederation of Popular Economy Workers in Buenos Aires, Argentina, told the conference about how he moved away from the church in adolescence and young adulthood believing the church to be “reactionary, hypocritical, accommodating and distant from the serious social problems of my country and the world.”

Then, about 20 years ago, he heard the archbishop of Buenos Aires, the future Pope Francis, give a homily supporting the rights of the “cartoneros,” the people who lived off collecting paper and other objects for recycling.

The pope, he said, has always advocated “for the poor, the excluded and the oppressed, be they individuals, groups or peoples.”

“This aspect of his personality remained when he was elected pope,” Grabois said. “Francis has continued to advocate for the poor just as before, but with more strength, with a strength that did not slacken, and his voice is heard all over the world.”

Living in a way that cares for the poor and for the Earth will mean sacrificing some material comforts, he said, “but Francis tells us that if we fulfill this Christian mandate, if we fulfill it well, we will be happy, that this is where we will find Jesus again, that this is the wellspring of faith, that this is where the joy of the Gospel is to be found.”

“He proposes that we exchange well-being for joy,” he said.

“Evangelii Gaudium” is a document on evangelization, but it also advances Catholic social teaching, several participants noted. It shows the inextricable bond between the church’s mission and care for the poor that goes beyond charity.

“There is nothing more anti-Christian, anti-Catholic, than the divorce between spirituality and social liberation,” Grabois said. By his words and example, Jesus taught that Christians must love their neighbor and care for the poor.

Cardinal Czerny said that if one were to print out everything the pope has said and written in the past 10 years and weighed them, “I suspect that the spiritual, theological, ecclesial content is heavier than the social,” but the media tends to focus on his pronouncements on social issues without highlighting how they are connected.

Dominican Sister Helen Alford, president of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, told the conference that St. John Paul II was the first pope to teach that Catholic social teaching was part of Catholic moral theology — highlighting how faith has implications for the way a believer must live and act in society and not only in one’s personal life.

“With St. John Paul, you get this idea (of social teaching) really coming into the center of the church’s evangelizing mission. And not everybody’s understood that yet,” she said. By calling his exhortation “Evangelii Gaudium,” she said, Pope Francis is continuing to give a central place to the connections between faith and life, especially as they impact the poor.

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – The number of abortions in the U.S. increased in 2021, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. national public health agency, and the agency’s last report of such data with Roe v. Wade still in place.

For nearly 50 years following the Jan. 22, 1973, Roe decision, abortion was legally considered a constitutional right. The Supreme Court later overturned the Roe decision in June 2022 with its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, allowing both recent and long-established state laws restricting abortion access to take effect.

Since the Dobbs decision in 2022, states across the country have alternately moved to restrict or expand access to abortion.

The CDC’s annual report on abortion studies both the profiles of those undergoing abortions and by what means. The study only accounts for legal abortions in states that report their data to the federal government. Although the CDC requests data from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, it excludes California, Maryland, New Hampshire and New Jersey because they did not provide data. New York City provided its own data.

The report documented a total of 625,978 abortions in jurisdictions that reported their data, an uptick from the previous year. The data reflects the last full calendar year with Roe still in place.

The CDC’s report about 2020, released in November 2022, found 620,327 abortions were reported during 2020, marking a 2% decline from the CDC’s 2019 report. However, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic that year may have impacted those numbers.

The new report of 2021 statistics found that the vast majority of legal abortions occur before 13 weeks gestation, and more than half of those procedures were carried out via medication, sometimes referred to as a medication or chemical abortion.

Some pro-life groups have called on GOP presidential candidates to embrace a 15-week federal ban on abortion. The 2021 report, as in previous years, found that abortions after this point in pregnancy are statistically low.

The Catholic Church teaches that all human life is sacred and must be respected from conception to natural death. As such, the church opposes direct abortion as an act of violence that takes the life of the unborn child.

After the Dobbs decision, church officials in the U.S. have reiterated the church’s concern for both mother and child, as well as about social issues that push women toward having an abortion.

INDIANAPOLIS – The National Catholic Youth Conference can have a deep impact on high school teens.

For three days – this year Nov. 16-18 in Indianapolis – their faith was enriched through speakers, uplifting music, Eucharistic Adoration, group prayer, the opportunity for the Sacrament of Penance and Daily Mass.

Their faith also is emboldened in witnessing and worshipping with thousands of their Catholic peers, leaving the youths encouraged by the fact that they are not alone in following Christ in the one true church.

“NCYC was truly incredible. I came in, not expecting it to be half of what it was,” Hannah Rocco from Saint Eulalia Parish in Roaring Brook Township, said. “Adoration with 13,000 kids was truly incredible!”

The Diocese of Scranton sent a total of 92 pilgrims – young adults and chaperones – to this year’s conference.

“It was such an awesome experience,” Hayden Schwabe from Saint Jude Parish in Mountain Top, added. “You don’t have to worry about hiding your faith or being scared about putting your hands up in the air to take in the Holy Spirit because other people are doing it.”

We will have more coverage and reaction from the local students who attended NCYC 2023 in the Dec. 14 edition of The Catholic Light.

SCRANTON – Thousands of people throughout the greater Scranton area will have a warm meal this Thanksgiving in their own homes thanks to the generosity of their neighbors.

On Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2023, volunteers with the Family-to-Family Food Basket Program handed out hundreds of food bags outside the Scranton Cultural Center beginning at 9 a.m.

“It has been a very busy day so far, but everything is going very, very well,” Linda Robeson, Director, Family to Family, explained.

Families were provided all of the grocery items needed to prepare a traditional Thanksgiving meal, include a turkey, stuffing, potatoes, yams, and even pie.

“This is a full community effort,” Robeson explained.

Hundreds of volunteers from local schools and corporations volunteer to assemble all of the food bags and distribute them via “drive thru” or “walk up.”

“If we didn’t have the kids here, we’d never get this done,” Robeson added.

The Family-to-Family Program was prepared to serve 3,500 families and still needs help to raise the $250,000 to cover the food bill.

“We realize it’s a very tough time of year for everybody, but we have 30 days to pay the bill and then we have Christmas coming up so we’re still accepting donations. Any amount will help. If you can only afford five dollars, we are eternally grateful for that,” Robeson said.

Donations of any amount help toward the $250,000 goal, and can be mailed to Family to Family, P.O. Box 13, Scranton, PA 18503, or given online at friendsofthepoorscranton.com.

The Family-to-Family Food Basket Program followed the annual Thanksgiving Dinner of Adults and Elderly which was held on Tuesday at the Scranton Cultural Center. For the fourth year in a row, warm Thanksgiving meals were distributed take-out style from in front of the Scranton Cultural Center as well.

JERUSALEM (OSV News)– The Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, expressed his happiness at the late-night hostage-exchange agreement reached between Israel and Hamas Nov. 21, and said he hoped it would lead to end to the war which broke out after an Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack on 22 southern Israeli agricultural communities along the border with Gaza.

“We are happy with the news and hope that this will lead to further positive development that will bring the conflict to a conclusion,” said Cardinal Pizzaballa in a brief statement released to journalists in Italian and English.

The Israeli government said in a statement it was obligated to return all the hostages home and had approved the outline of the first stage of the goal.

According to the agreement, which was negotiated with the help of Qatar, at least 50 Israeli hostages — women and children — will be released over four days, during which there will be a pause in the fighting. The release of every additional 10 hostages will result in one additional day in the pause, they said.

The truce is aimed to begin at 10 a.m. Nov. 23. In the exchange Israel will also allow fuel, medicine and other humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip and will release up to 300 Palestinians — also women and children — held in Israeli prison.

President Joe Biden welcomed the deal to secure the release of hostages “taken by the terrorist group Hamas during its brutal assault against Israel on October 7th,” Nov. 22 White House statement said.

“Jill and I have been keeping all those held hostage and their loved ones close to our hearts these many weeks, and I am extraordinarily gratified that some of these brave souls, who have endured weeks of captivity and an unspeakable ordeal, will be reunited with their families once this deal is fully implemented,” the president said.

“As President, I have no higher priority than ensuring the safety of Americans held hostage around the world,” Biden said. He said that the U.S. “national security team and I have worked closely with regional partners to do everything possible to secure the release of our fellow citizens.”

The president said the first sign of negotiations was releasing Judith Tai Raanan, 59, and her daughter Natalie, 17, on Oct. 20.

“Today’s deal should bring home additional American hostages, and I will not stop until they are all released,” the president said.

“Today’s deal is a testament to the tireless diplomacy and determination of many dedicated individuals across the United States Government to bring Americans home,” Biden stressed.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said Nov. 22 that the U.N. will “mobilize all its capabilities” to support the implementation of the Israel-Hamas truce.

“I welcome the agreement reached by Israel and Hamas. It‘s an important step in the right direction, but much more needs to be done,” Guterres said in a statement.

On Nov. 22, Pope Francis renewed his appeal for prayers for people suffering due to wars in Ukraine and the Holy Land, saying “this is not war; this is terrorism.”

The Holy Father recalled his meeting earlier the same morning with two delegations: 12 members of the Israeli delegation at his residence in the Casa Santa Marta and Palestinian delegation in a room in the Paul VI hall.

“They suffer so much. I heard how they both suffer,” Pope Francis said. “Wars do that,” he stressed, adding that the situation in the Holy land reminded that “here we have gone beyond wars.” “This is not war; this is terrorism,” he said.

The parents of Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, who was among those captured from a desert dance party near the Gaza border Oct. 7 and also holds American citizenship, met with the pope.

“I feel blessed and honored to have had that experience. He was very kind and empathetic,” said Rachel Goldberg, who is originally from Chicago. In a video posted on social media, she told the pope: “This is my son,” holding up her cellphone to the pope. “No arm — it’s been 47 days.”

An Israeli television channel read the possible names of hostages to be released Nov. 22, showing pictures of dozens of children — babies, toddlers and teenagers, who could be reunited with their families, but families to whom OSV News spoke say they were told that nothing is for certain until the hostages actually cross the border with Gaza. The list allegedly includes Abigail Mor Idan, the 3-year-old Israeli-American who saw her parents murdered, and was then taken hostage to Gaza.

Abigail’s father Roy Edan, 43, a photojournalist, and her mother, Smadar Edan, were murdered Oct. 7. “The one thing that we all hold on to is that hope now that Abigail comes home, she comes home by Friday,” the toddler’s aunt Liz Hirsh Naftali told CNN Nov. 21.

“Friday is her 4th birthday. We need to see Abigail come out and then we will be able to believe it.”

Hamas is believed to have taken 239 people as hostages into Gaza following their incursion. They are mainly civilians, including Israelis, dual-citizens, foreign workers from Thailand, Nepal and the Philippines and two international students from Tanzania.

Some 1,200 people, also mainly civilians, were killed in the terrorist attack — including Israeli Muslim citizens and foreign workers, which Hamas documented in gruesome videos released of that day’s atrocities from the terrorists’ bodycams.

The ensuing war which has included Israeli air, land and sea assaults has left Gaza virtually in ruins with over 14,100 Palestinians dead according to Hamas, which does not differentiate between civilians and Hamas casualties. Eighteen Christians were killed in an Israeli bombing of a Hamas target which caused a wall to collapse in the compound of the Greek Orthodox church.

In addition, according to the U.N., some 1.7 million people — nearly three quarters of Gaza’s population — have been displaced as Israel has continued its attacks for almost seven weeks with its stated purpose of rooting out Hamas and its leadership from the Gaza Strip. Some 386 Israeli soldiers also have been killed in action. Caritas confirmed Nov. 22 that one of its workers, 35-year-old Issam Abedrabbo, widower and father of three, was killed along with two of his children in Gaza. Only his 3-year-old daughter survived.

While some reports are heralding the truce as the first step toward the end of the brutal conflict, Israelhas insisted that it will continue the war until all the hostages are returned and that it will “complete the elimination of Hamas and ensure that there will be no new threat to the State of Israel from Gaza.”

(OSV News) – A community of women religious in Pennsylvania is mourning the tragic death of one of its sisters who was traveling within the state to promote vocations.

Sister Augustine Marie (Georganne) Molnar, 43, was killed Nov. 18 in a head-on automobile accident on Route 183 in Jefferson Township, according to the Berks County, Pennsylvania, coroner.

“With broken hearts, we must share the terrible news that our dear Sister Augustine Marie Molnar went unexpectedly into eternal life” on Nov. 18, wrote Sister Mary Joseph Calore, mother provincial of the American Province of the Sister Servants of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, on X (formerly Twitter).

The accident occurred at approximately 9:30 a.m., with Sister Augustine Marie pronounced dead at 11:02 a.m. by deputy coroner Terri Straka. No autopsy is planned as the cause was determined to be accidental.

The two passengers in the other vehicle sustained only minor injuries, and Sister Augustine Marie was traveling alone, Sister Mary Joseph told OSV News, adding that “how Sister went off the road is unclear.”

“We’re not certain if she fell asleep at the wheel (or) if she had a medical incident,” she said.

In an additional message posted Nov. 19 to X, Sister Mary Joseph admitted she has “been in a fog since the Pennsylvania State Troopers came to the door yesterday and said, ‘We regret to inform you that Sister Molnar is no longer with us.'”

“How can such a light go out so quickly?” asked Sister Mary Joseph. “And yet, she loved the Lord so much, that light has been caught up in a greater Light, a stronger Love.”

She told OSV News that Sister Augustine Marie had been en route to a reunion for attendees of the Diocese of Allentown’s annual “Fiat Days,” which assist young women in discerning religious vocations.

“She was going to be able to share her vocation story at that event,” said Sister Mary Joseph. “She was looking forward to it for months. … But Sister never arrived at her destination. She had another destination.”

According to the congregation’s website, Sister Augustine Marie entered the order Sept. 8, 2013, and made her first profession March 19, 2017, at St. Francis Xavier Church in Cresson, Pennsylvania. Since Aug. 1, she belonged to the local community of St. Maximilian Kolbe at the province house there, serving at All Saints Catholic School and at the sisters’ personal care home, John Paul II Manor.

Sister Mary Joseph told OSV News residents of the personal care home were grief-stricken upon learning that Sister Augustine Marie, who provided physical therapy and assisted with dispensing medications at the home, had died suddenly.

When not working at the home, Sister Augustine Marie was a devoted Catholic educator who was committed to ensuring her students received “substance” in the theology classes she taught, said Sister Mary Joseph.

She added that it seemed “God was preparing his encounter” with Sister Augustine Marie, who had “just come (from) an amazing retreat.”

“Sister Augustine Marie is loved by her religious Sisters, her family and friends who mourn her sudden and untimely passing,” said the order on its website. “May Sister Augustine Marie, and all our beloved departed, rest in peace.”

The funeral Mass will be celebrated Nov. 27.

The Sister Servants of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus were founded in Krakow, Poland, in 1894 by St. Joseph Sebastian Pelczar, a Polish bishop and theologian, and Blessed Klara Szczesna

The congregation serves in Poland, Ukraine, Italy, France, Bolivia, Argentina, Jamaica and the United States. Its U.S. province focuses on teaching and catechesis, nursing and personal care, parish ministry, kitchen and clothing outreach to the poor, evangelization of homes and families, social media outreach, prison ministry and missionary work in Jamaica. The province is present in the dioceses of Altoona-Johnstown, Pennsylvania; Buffalo, New York; Columbus, Ohio; Grand Rapids, Michigan; and Mandeville, Jamaica.

Donations are being accepted in loving memory of Sister Augustine Marie Molnar at John Paul II Manor, 856 Cambria St., Cresson PA 16630, where she worked. Visit johnpaul2manor.org to learn more.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The Catholic Church and all its members must end silence about clerical sexual abuse and ensure cases are no longer covered up, Pope Francis said, adding it is “non-negotiable.”

Meeting Nov. 18 with Italian diocesan and regional representatives of safeguarding programs and listening centers, the pope said it also is essential to “pursue the ascertainment of the truth and the restoration of justice in the ecclesial community, including in those cases where certain behaviors are not considered crimes by the law of the state, but are under canon law.”

Cardinal Matteo Zuppi of Bologna, president of the Italian bishops’ conference, presented Pope Francis with the conference’s second annual report on safeguarding, covering the year 2022.

While 81% of calls to the listening centers were to seek information, the rest were to report cases of abuse to church authorities, said the report, compiled by researchers at the Piacenza campus of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart. The reports involved 54 presumed victims and 32 alleged perpetrators — 31 men and one woman — almost evenly divided in thirds between priests, religious and lay church employees.

The number of diocesan or interdiocesan listening centers increased by 20 to 186 in 2022, the report said, and now cover 190 of the 206 dioceses or church territories.

The group’s meeting with Pope Francis took place on the Italian church’s national day of prayer, repentance and education on clerical sexual abuse.

The goal of the Catholic community, he said, must be to “protect, listen and heal.”

The whole Catholic community must be involved in the protection of minors and vulnerable people, he said, “because the action of protection is an integral part of the church’s mission in building the kingdom of God.”

“Listening to the victims is the step necessary for enabling a culture of prevention to grow,” the pope said, and that culture must include the education of the whole community, the implementation of procedures and good practices and vigilance.

“Only listening to the pain of people who have suffered these terrible crimes paves the way to solidarity and drives one to do everything possible to ensure abuse is not repeated,” he said. “This is the only way to truly share what has happened in a victim’s life so that we feel called to personal and community renewal.”

Efforts to help survivors heal are “a work of justice,” the pope told the group. “Precisely for this reason it is important to prosecute those who commit such crimes, especially in ecclesial contexts.”

The perpetrators themselves “have the moral duty of a profound personal conversion that leads to recognition of their own vocational infidelity, to the resumption of the spiritual life and the humble request for forgiveness from the victims of their actions,” he said.

Pope Francis asked the centers to do everything possible to ensure that “those who have been harmed by the scourge of abuse may feel free to turn with confidence to the listening centers, finding that welcome and that support that can soothe their wounds and renew their betrayed trust.”

Also, he said, efforts must continue to train priests and all pastoral workers in safeguarding so that “a genuine cultural change is promoted, placing at the center the smallest and most vulnerable in the church and in society. This ecclesial action of yours can foster the growth of attention in Italian society as a whole on this scourge that unfortunately involves many, too many, minors and adults.”

(OSV News) – When his 29-year-old daughter Katie died in 2016, Deacon Edward Shoener shared a heartrending truth in the obituary: she had taken her life amid a long-running struggle with depression.

“(She) fought bi-polar disorder since 2005, but she finally lost the battle,” wrote Deacon Shoener, who serves at the Cathedral of St. Peter in Scranton.

Nov. 18 marked International Survivors of Suicide Loss Day, dedicated to those who wrestle with the complex and often silent grief of having lost loved ones to suicide. Ahead of the observance, Deacon Shoener told OSV News the Catholic Church needs to be on the frontlines of addressing suicide and mental illness, and understanding their impact on individuals and loved ones.

After his daughter’s obituary received national attention, Deacon Shoener said he “heard from literally thousands, if not tens of thousands of people … predominantly Catholics, saying, ‘The church needs to step up and be more involved in mental health ministry, and support the people that have lost someone to suicide.'”

Part of that mission is spreading awareness of the profound comfort those who have lost a loved one to suicide can find in church teaching on the issue — something Father Chris Alar, a priest of the Marians of the Immaculate Conception and superior of the order’s U.S. and Argentina provinces, has been doing for several years.

Father Alar, whose grandmother took her life several years ago, co-authored the book “After Suicide: There’s Hope for Them and for You” with fellow Marian Father Jason Lewis.

While the Catechism of the Catholic Church stresses that suicide is “gravely contrary to the just love of self”, Father Alar told OSV News that “if somebody does make that wrong choice, it should not cause us to despair.”

He pointed to the Catechism’s observation, in paragraph 2282, that “grave psychological disturbances, anguish, or grave fear of hardship, suffering, or torture can diminish the responsibility of the one committing suicide.”

As a result, the three conditions for a sin to be mortal explained by the catechism — a grave matter committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent — are usually not met in cases of suicide, Father Alar said.

“Most people who take their life probably don’t have free will,” said Father Alar. “They have some kind of mental illness or some kind of depression or anxiety.”

Deacon Shoener and Bishop John P. Dolan of Phoenix – who himself has lost three siblings and a brother-in-law to suicide – are also working to bring the light of Catholic faith to bear on the issue of mental illness, and now lead the Association of Catholic Mental Health Ministers as president and chaplain respectively.

The organization, under the patronage of Our Lady of Lourdes, is a lay association of the Christian faithful whose members seek to be “a healing presence in the lives of people with mental illness,” and to “see Christ in those who live with a mental illness,” according to its website.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide is one of the leading causes of death, with almost 49,450 individuals taking their own lives in 2022, an increase of 2.6% from the year prior. Most of those who die by suicide are male, although suicide among females rose 3.8% in 2022 to 10,194 individuals.

Overall, more than one in five U.S. adults live with a mental illness, with one in 25 of them experiencing serious conditions such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or major depression, and with over one in five young people (ages 13-18) gripped by a seriously debilitating mental illness, according to the CDC.

Deacon Shoener and Bishop Dolan assisted in developing the recently launched U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ National Catholic Mental Health Campaign launched Oct. 10 to coincide with World Mental Health Day.

While the campaign is still in its early stages, one of its initial goals is simply to “encourage people to recognize this illness not as a condemnation, not as a punishment, but something that is to be touched by the Lord and embraced by the community,” Ukrainian Catholic Archbishop Borys Gudziak of Philadelphia, who chairs the USCCB’s Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, told OSV News just before he updated the bishops on the campaign Nov. 15 during their fall plenary assembly in Baltimore.

Overcoming the stigma attached to mental illness and to the grief of suicide survivors is essential, Deacon Shoener said.

“Katie’s not defined by her illness or manner of death,” he said. “She’s a beautiful child of God and loved by Christ. We need to do better and we need to drop the stigma, and stop discriminating against people that live with these illnesses.”

Father Alar said he himself wrestled with that stigma at his grandmother’s death by suicide.

“I was still in college, so I was old enough to understand the impact but young enough to still be very influenced by it,” he said. “I really was carrying baggage, because I didn’t even pray for her at the time she died. I was more concerned with the reputation of the family and the scandal that this was going to cause.”

Yet God’s mercy is still present when a loved one chooses suicide, said both Father Alar and Deacon Shoener.

Father Alar cited section 2283 of the Catechism, which states that “we should not despair of the eternal salvation of persons who have taken their own lives,” since “by ways known to him alone, God can provide the opportunity for salutary repentance,” and therefore “the Church prays for persons who have taken their own lives.”

Deacon Shoener said that when he ministers to those mourning a suicide loss, “the first thing I tell them (is that) their loved one still very much exists … albeit in a different state of existence.

“I pray for Katie all the time,” he said. “And I think anyone who’s lost someone to suicide can be assured that they’re loved by God … and we can pray for them.”

BALTIMORE (OSV News) – For two days, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops met in plenary assembly in Baltimore advancing key issues related to liturgy, living out the faith, including in the public square, and retooling the conference to better serve the church’s mission.

However, the bishops’ Nov. 13-16 meeting, which took place nearly three weeks following the conclusion of the global Synod on Synodality, also concluded without a common game plan for how bishops could get consultative feedback from their local parishes with respect to the synod’s “halftime” report before it reconvenes in 11 months.

At the assembly’s opening Mass Nov. 13, the bishops prayed for peace, with USCCB president Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services in the homily saying they asked for wisdom to help others embrace Jesus Christ, and noting the feast day of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, the first American saint, and herself an immigrant who championed care for immigrants.

The public portions of the bishops’ plenary assembly Nov. 14-15 were marked with extraordinary unanimity as the bishops’ closed-door “fraternal dialogues” gave them time for face-to-face group discussions to work out contentious issues in advance of presentations and votes.

The bishops approved a letter to Pope Francis, affirming their shared concern over global conflicts, his teaching on “ecological conversion,” and their commitment to prayerfully reflect on the Synod on Synodality synthesis report.

In their addresses, Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the apostolic nuncio to the U.S., and Archbishop Broglio offered contrasting viewpoints on synodality. Cardinal Pierre focused on Luke’s Gospel account of the risen Jesus revealing himself to his disciples on the road to Emmaus as illustrating “precisely the synodal path in its essential elements: encountering, accompanying, listening, discerning and rejoicing at what the Holy Spirit reveals.” Archbishop Broglio shared his view that existing advisory structures in the U.S. church, both at the diocesan and national level, are examples of existing synodal realities to “recognize and build on” while remaining open to “new possibilities.”

Over Nov. 14-15, the bishops voted with overwhelming majorities on every issue: U.S. adaptations to the Liturgy of the Hours and liturgical drafts related to consecrated and religious life; national revised statutes for Christian initiation; and it also approved without controversy supplements to its teaching on faithful citizenship that reference Pope Francis’ 2020 encyclical letter “Fratelli Tutti” (“Brothers All”) while naming abortion as “our pre-eminent priority” among other threats to human life and dignity.

The U.S. bishops voted to support the sainthood cause launched by the Archdiocese of New York for Father Isaac Hecker (1819-1888), founder of the Paulist Fathers. They also endorsed an effort to declare St. John Henry Newman a “doctor of the church.”

The bishops voted to reauthorize their Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism for two more years, discern its future place in the conference structure, and change rules so retired Chicago Auxiliary Bishop Joseph N. Perry, who is African American, could continue leading that committee.

The U.S. bishops elected Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City as secretary-elect of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and also elected chairmen-elect for six committees – education, communications, cultural diversity, doctrine, national collections and pro-life activities – as well as bishops for the boards of Catholic Legal Immigration Network Inc., or CLINIC, and Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. church’s overseas relief and development agency.

A surprise came when the bishops decided to punt approval of a pastoral framework for Indigenous Catholic ministry that they had commissioned four years ago in order to revise and revisit the plan at their June 2024 assembly.

Outside the hotel where the bishops’ assembly was held, the Baltimore-based Defend Life organization held a rosary rally led by Bishop Joseph E. Strickland. The event, however, was planned in advance of the bishop learning Nov. 11, just days before the assembly, that Pope Francis had removed him from pastoral governance of his Diocese of Tyler, Texas. About 125 participants, including some clergy and religious, participated.

Bishop Strickland told reporters, including OSV News, that he was told by “the nuncio” – indicating Cardinal Christophe Pierre – not to attend the fall plenary meeting. He said he “respected” the decision,” as well as his “commitment to be here for this prayer.”

Back in the bishops’ assembly, the prelates heard an update on the National Eucharistic Revival revealed attendees of the National Eucharistic Congress July 17-21 in Indianapolis now have the option of purchasing single-day and weekend passes, among other provisions to make participation more affordable and flexible, including scholarships and increasing housing options. A plenary indulgence also will be available to anyone who participates in one of the four main routes of the national pilgrimage to the Eucharistic congress.

The bishops also heard an update on the newly launched Institute on the Catechism. Some bishops advocated that instituting lay men and women to the new ministry of catechist would fill a need for authentic, well-formed witnesses to bring that “evangelizing catechesis” to others.

The bishops most sustained public dialogue took place over the mental health campaign launched in response to the “dire mental health crisis” in the U.S. with some bishops calling for more Catholics to enter the mental health field, educating seminarians and priests in properly referring people for counseling, or connecting people with mental health resources similar to the “Walking with Moms In Need” initiative.

With respect to the Oct. 4-29 Synod on Synodality, the bishops heard about positive experiences from some of their delegates, particularly the value of the synod’s “conversations in the Spirit” as a model for carrying out regular conversational interaction among the church’s members for the sake of the church’s mission.

However, by the time the plenary assembly concluded, the bishops did not seem to have any definite process or task force to help them engage the faithful in consultation on the synod’s 41-page report summarizing the body’s consensus, matters for consideration and priority actions.

During a Nov. 14 press conference, Bishop Flores told OSV News he anticipates it will be discussed in June once bishops have taken the time to “let it sink in and read it carefully.” He said what the USCCB could do immediately was request guidance from the Synod Secretariat in Rome, on how to engage their local churches in a focused and relevant way “because the first responsibility of the bishops is to go back to their own people and to say these are some issues that impact us in particular.”

He indicated a synodal culture needs to take root in the local church first – noting parish or diocesan pastoral councils are not used in some places since they are not mandatory – in order to discern what structures are needed to support it at all levels of the church.

The bishops’ showed a move toward deepening that kind of engagement by replacing the USCCB’s current strategic planning cycle with a mission planning process that would allow the conference to have defined regular responsibilities and the flexibility to focus on “mission directives that evolve after a process of discernment” that can be informed by bishops engaging in local and regional consultation.

“I think it is more synodal,” Archbishop Broglio said in an interview with OSV News, “and I think that will be something that will make a difference in how we address issues and concerns of the church in the United States in a different way, in a new way.”

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – The March for Life’s theme for its 2024 event will be “Pro-Life: With Every Woman, For Every Child,” the group’s president announced Nov. 14.

The March for Life first took place in Washington in 1974 in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion nationwide the previous year. Pro-life advocates have gathered in Washington to march each year since then to protest the ruling, with a smaller-in-scale event during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021.

After the high court reversed Roe in 2022, marchers still gathered to protest abortion. Each year, the group selects a theme that it says fits the cultural moment. Jeanne Mancini, March for Life president, said that following the court’s ruling in Dobbs, she wanted to highlight the work the pro-life movement does to support women facing difficult or unplanned pregnancies.

At an event in Washington, Mancini said the theme was selected due to what she called “the false narrative around abortion, whether it’s through mainstream media or the entertainment industry or academia, is that abortion is empowering and necessary.”

“We disagree,” she said. “Such fear-based messaging tries to convince women who are facing unexpected pregnancies that they’re alone, that they are incapable, that they are ill-equipped to handle motherhood. We who are here today know that is just not true. We aren’t saying that it’s easy. But we are saying that it is right to choose life and we hold that choosing life is empowering, and that love saves lives.”

Mancini said that she wanted to highlight “the vast pro-life safety net” from pregnancy resource centers to state resources, including the Mississippi Access to Maternal Assistance program — or MAMA program — administered by the office of the Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, R-Miss., which connects pregnant women and families with resources for parents. Fitch argued the Dobbs case before the Supreme Court.

Mississippi Deputy Attorney General Whitney Lipscomb said at the Nov. 14 event that “in the Dobbs case we asked the Supreme Court to return the issue of abortion to the states, for the people through their elected leaders to decide how to best promote the dignity of life and support mothers and children.”

“And when the Supreme Court did just that, it became incumbent on all of us to find ways to match the compassion in our hearts with the compassion and justice in our laws,” Lipscomb said, adding that the MAMA program connects public and private resources, ranging from medical care during pregnancy to food stamps to job training.

“When a woman is facing an unexpected pregnancy, what she most needs to hear (at) that moment is you can do this,” Mancini said.

The national march is scheduled for Jan. 19. The 2024 event will take place in both a presidential election year, and one that could bring additional ballot measures on abortion, possibly in states including Arizona and Florida.

Ohio voters Nov. 7 approved Issue 1, a measure that will codify abortion access in the state’s constitution through fetal viability, typically understood to be 24 weeks gestation, and beyond, if a physician decided an abortion was necessary for the sake of the mother’s life or health. The loss marked another electoral defeat for anti-abortion ballot measures in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision: In 2022, voters in California, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana, Vermont and Kansas either rejected new limitations on abortion or expanded legal protections for it.

The March for Life said some of the speakers at its 51st include singer Danny Gokey, as well as Pastor Greg and Cathe Laurie. Former NFL tight end and founder of the Watson 7 Foundation, Benjamin Watson, will be speaking at the Rose Dinner, which follows the event. The group said a full speaker list will be announced prior to the event.