Category: Diocese of Scranton News

(OSV News) – A priest who offered up his suffering from cancer for the sake of clerical abuse victims said he has experienced a miraculous healing following a June 2022 pilgrimage to the Marian shrine at Lourdes, France.

Father John Hollowell, a priest of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, told OSV News that doctors have said his brain tumor, diagnosed in 2019, has disappeared.

“I had an MRI two weeks after I got back from Lourdes (at the end of June 2022),” said Father Hollowell, who first announced the news in a Jan. 30 video message on his YouTube channel. “All that remained was scar tissue from the surgeries.”

In 2020, Father Hollowell learned that a series of fainting spells and dizziness were the result of an oligodendroglioma – a brain tumor usually occurring in white and non-Hispanic males between the ages of 35 and 44. About 1,200 individuals in the U.S. are diagnosed with the tumor each year.

But the rare form of cancer was not entirely a surprise to the priest.

“In 2018, I made a prayer that I would be willing to suffer for the victims of the Catholic clergy’s sexual abuse,” he told OSV News. “And then a month later, I had what I know now was the first seizure from the brain tumor.”

The diagnosis was not confirmed until Feb. 11, 2020, the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, by doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.

“I knew it was the answer to the prayer I had made two years earlier,” said Father Hollowell, noting he celebrated Mass that same day in the “stunningly beautiful” chapel at the clinic’s St. Mary’s Campus.

Before surgery at Mayo, the priest took to his now-closed Twitter account, letting his 20,000 followers know in a Feb. 13, 2020 post that he planned to “embrace this (illness) willingly” for clerical abuse survivors.

The offering gained national attention, prompting hundreds of tweets and emails of gratitude from around the world.

About a month later, Father Hollowell returned to Mayo for surgery, taking with him “the names of about 180 victims” who had contacted him.

“I literally prayed for them every day,” he told OSV News. “I had a wristband on my arm that said ‘For the victims.'”

The procedure revealed that “some fingers from the tumor had gone deeper into my brain than the neurosurgeon expected,” he said.

The surgery also coincided with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S., and Father Hollowell remained at Mayo, having developed infections from the surgery, which was followed by two more operations as well as radiation and nine months of chemotherapy.

The Archdiocese of Indianapolis granted Father Hollowell a medical leave of absence from his assignments, which include pastoring two Indiana parishes — Annunciation Catholic Church in Brazil and St. Paul the Apostle in Greencastle — and serving as a Catholic chaplain at DePauw University in Greencastle and at Putnamville (Indiana) Correctional Facility.

Father Hollowell said his chemotherapy, which was marked by “a lot of complicating factors,” prompted side effects that included depression and even suicidal thoughts.

He completed that treatment and returned to his parishes by July 2021, reporting for MRI scans every three months. By January 2022, scans showed the tumor was starting to regrow, joined by a second tumor on his pituitary gland.

“I was totally fine with dying,” Father Hollowell told OSV News. “It’s actually a prayer I had started to make: ‘If I am able to offer up my life in reparation for the crimes of priests, I would do that willingly.'”

At the same time, he booked a June 2022 trip to Lourdes — site of 18 Marian apparitions experienced by St. Bernadette Soubirous in 1858 — to see if he might be one of the thousands who claim to receive healing from visiting the shrine.

He also had another objective.

“I thought … if I’m healed, that might help draw some of my family members and friends who had fallen away (from the practice of faith) back to church,” Father Hollowell told OSV News.

The trip, which he undertook alone, proved to be “a nonstop adventure,” he said, one that saw him getting lost while walking from a train station to the shrine, and almost missing his spot in line to splash himself with the sanctuary’s famed spring waters.

At times, he found himself “at the point of tears,” he said.

Yet Father Hollowell said “the greater experience” was seeing “thousands of my prayers, not related to my health,” answered.

Two weeks after his return — with parishioners already telling him he “looked a lot healthier” — an MRI showed Father Hollowell’s oligodendroglioma was gone. Issues from the growth on his pituitary gland “stopped when I got back from Lourdes,” he said.

Now, doctors have told Father Hollowell to report for MRIs every seven, rather than three, months.

But he’s not planning to submit his case to Lourdes’ medical officers for consideration.

“As a parish priest, I feel like I don’t even have the time to go through all of that, (getting) a miracle approved,” he told OSV News. “I don’t really need doctors to tell me I have a miracle, even though I do.”

And if his cancer returns, he is prepared.

“If it comes back, that’s God’s will, and I’m totally at peace with whatever that is,” said Father Hollowell. “I’m not afraid, and that can only come from the Holy Spirit. Jesus says to just worry about one day at a time.”

(OSV News) – The experience of the sacrament of penance in the Roman rite will be slightly different this Lent, thanks to approved changes in the English translation set to take effect in a few weeks.

Starting Ash Wednesday — which takes place this year on Feb. 22 — the prayer of absolution will include three modifications, so that the revised version will read as follows:

“God, the Father of mercies,
through the death and resurrection of his Son
has reconciled the world to himself
and poured out [formerly “sent”] the Holy Spirit for [previously “Holy Spirit among us for”] the forgiveness of sins;
through the ministry of the Church
may God grant [instead of “give”] you pardon and peace.
And I absolve you from your sins
in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

The new text was adopted by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops during its Spring 2021 meeting, with the Vatican’s Dicastery (then-Congregation) for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments approving the text in April 2022. As of April 16, 2023, the Second Sunday of Easter known also as Divine Mercy Sunday, the revised formula for absolution is mandatory.

“The essential part of the absolution formula has not changed,” said Father Andrew Menke, executive director of the USCCB’s Secretariat for Divine Worship, during an Oct. 25, 2022, webinar co-sponsored by his office and the Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions.

During his presentation, Father Menke admitted the bishops had debated whether the minor changes were worth undertaking. However, he said the consensus favored striving for a more accurate translation from the Latin.

Father Menke noted penitents “who can be a little scrupulous” might panic if priests — many of whom “have said this prayer literally thousands of times” — inadvertently use the old form of absolution.

“They might be concerned (that absolution) doesn’t count,” he said.
Yet he stressed that “the heart of the sacrament” remains intact, and the absolution is still valid.

While not a major alteration, the update to the text nonetheless offers “a wonderful opportunity to reiterate and teach the importance of the sacrament of penance as a staple for living the Christian life,” Father Dennis Gill, director of the Office for Divine Worship at the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, told OSV News ahead of a Jan. 31 webinar he plans to give on the topic. “It’s also a wonderful opportunity to catechize about the sacrament itself.”

Father Menke noted in his October 2022 webinar that the updates are part of a broader effort by the Vatican to ensure accuracy in the translation of liturgical texts.

“It’s not due to anything against the Latin texts,” he said. “It’s based on the fact that the Holy See instructed the bishops of the world at the beginning of the 21st century that our translations needed to be more accurate.”

Liturgical texts have been revised throughout church history under papal direction: St. Pius V modified both the breviary and the missal in response to the Council of Trent, while St. Pius X, Pope Pius XII and St. John XXIII, who convened the Second Vatican Council, all significantly furthered such efforts.

Noting several difficulties in the practical application of Vatican II’s liturgical reforms, St. John Paul II stated in his 1998 apostolic letter “Vicesimus Quintus Annus” the need “to remedy certain defects or inaccuracies, to complete partial translations … (and) to ensure respect for the texts approved.”

The 2001 document “Liturgiam authenenticam,” issued by the Vatican’s then-Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, developed the scope of the project, which first resulted in the 2011 full retranslation of the Roman Missal.

Since then, “we’ve dutifully been going through the books one by one with the assistance of ICEL (the International Commission on English in the Liturgy) and preparing new editions of these books,” said Father Menke in his presentation.

So far, he said, new English translations of liturgical books have been completed for confirmation (2015), matrimony (2016), exorcism (2017), the dedication of a church (2018), the blessing of oils (2019), the baptism of children (2020) and ordination (2021).

The updates do not imply that “the (older versions) are heretical,” Father Menke told OSV News Jan. 30. “It’s just that church authorities have determined we might do better.”

The translation process is a rigorous one, with plenty of opportunities for bishops to review and reconsider the proposed updates, he added.

ICEL contracts with translators who prepare texts for consideration by the 11 bishops’ conferences that are full members of the commission: Australia, Canada, England and Wales, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Scotland, South Africa, and the U.S.

The bishops representing those conferences in ICEL then evaluate the translators’ work and, once approved, texts are then provided to the various bishops’ conferences for evaluation by all of their members.

Each bishops’ conference decides whether to implement and publish the eventual final version, Father Menke told OSV News.

As the translations are completed, he looks forward to a slightly slower work pace.

“There’s been this (ongoing) change for the last 10 years or so, with new books coming out,” said Father Menke. “I hope 10 years from now we’ll start a period of stability that will last a long time.”

PHILADELPHIA (OSV News) – A Catholic pro-life activist has been found not guilty of charges that he violated a federal law protecting access to abortion clinics, thereby avoiding a possible 11-year prison sentence.

Mark Houck, known for his sidewalk counseling outside a Philadelphia abortion facility, was tried in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on two charges under the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, or FACE Act, for allegedly assaulting an abortion clinic volunteer in October 2021.

The 1994 law prohibits intentional property damage of a facility that provides “reproductive health services,” including those related to abortion, and prohibits using “force or threat of force or … physical obstruction” to “injure, intimidate or interfere with” someone entering an abortion clinic.

Charges against Houck stemmed from two separate incidents Oct. 13, 2021, where Houck allegedly assaulted the victim — identified in the indictment as “B.L.” and named in trial proceedings as Bruce Love — who was acting as a volunteer escort at the reproductive health care clinic. Houck maintained he was instead defending his young son from harassment by Love.

Jurors in the trial, which began on Jan. 24, remained deadlocked on a verdict as of Jan. 27. By midafternoon on Jan. 30, however, they had reached a verdict resulting in Houck’s acquittal.

“We are, of course, thrilled with the outcome,” stated Peter Breen, executive vice president and head of litigation at the Chicago-based Thomas More Society, which represented Houck in the proceedings. “Mark and his family are now free of the cloud that the Biden administration threw upon them. We took on the Goliath — the full might of the United States government — and won. The jury saw through and rejected the prosecution’s discriminatory case, which was harassment from day one. The Biden Department of Justice’s intimidation against pro-life people and people of faith has been put in its place.”

Ashley Garecht, vice chair of the Pro-Life Union of Greater Philadelphia, told OSV News she and fellow pro-life advocates were “overjoyed” Houck has been acquitted.

“We are grateful that truth won out in Philadelphia,” she said. “Most of all, we just praise God for his protection and provision for Mark. We know so many people have been praying for him, and that courtroom was full of many rosaries.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis has chosen Chicago-born Archbishop Robert F. Prevost of Chiclayo, Peru, to succeed Canadian Cardinal Ouellet as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.

The Vatican announced Jan. 30 the retirement of Cardinal Ouellet and the appointment of Archbishop Prevost.

The archbishop, who is 67, holds degrees from Villanova University in Pennsylvania and the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago and a doctorate from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome. An Augustinian friar, he joined the Augustinian mission in Peru in 1985 and largely worked in the country until in 1999 when he was elected head of the Augustinians Chicago-based province. From 2001 to 2013, he served as prior general of the worldwide order. In 2014, Pope Francis named him bishop of Chiclayo, in northern Peru.

As prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, Archbishop Prevost will lead the Vatican body responsible for recommending to the pope candidates to fill the office of bishop in many of the Latin-rite dioceses of the world. Recommendations made by the dicastery are typically approved by the pope. Archbishop Prevost has been a member of the dicastery since November 2020.

He will also oversee the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, established in 1958 by Pope Pius XII to study the church in Latin America, where nearly 40% of the world’s Catholics reside.

Archbishop Prevost speaks English, Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese and can read Latin and German.

Cardinal Ouellet has been prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America since 2010. He had submitted his resignation from his curial positions as is required upon reaching the age of 75 in June 2019, but Pope Francis did not accept it.

In recent months, Cardinal Ouellet has been accused of sexual misconduct by two women when he was archbishop of Quebec from 2003 to 2010. Cardinal Ouellet has denied both allegations and sued one of the accusers for defamation in December 2022, seeking $100,000 in damages.

Archbishop Prevost will take up his new roles beginning April 12, 2023.

(OSV News) – A Catholic pro-life advocate is on trial for allegedly violating a federal law that protects access to abortion clinics, and the lead lawyer defending him said the charges against his client are being pursued “solely to intimidate people of faith and pro-life Americans.”

Mark Houck, known for his sidewalk counseling outside a Philadelphia abortion facility, is being tried in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on two charges under the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, or FACE Act, for allegedly assaulting an abortion clinic volunteer in October 2021.

The 1994 law prohibits intentional property damage of a facility that provides “reproductive health services,” including those related to abortion, and prohibits using “force or threat of force or … physical obstruction” to “injure, intimidate or interfere with” someone entering an abortion clinic.

“The Biden administration has filed two brazenly defective and discriminatory charges” against Houck, “and both should be dismissed,” said Peter Breen, executive vice president and head of litigation at the Thomas More Society, a not-for-profit, public interest law firm based in Chicago.

Houck is co-founder and president of The King’s Men, a lay apostolate for men principally based in the U.S. He is being represented by Breen before District Judge Gerald J. Pappert.

The trial began the morning of Jan. 24 with jury selection. The swearing-in of jurors took place early Jan. 25, with the trial proceedings going into the afternoon. Pappert said he expected the testimony – and possibly the closing arguments as well – to be finished by the end of the day Jan. 26.

The charges against Houck stem from two separate incidents Oct. 13, 2021, where Houck allegedly assaulted the victim, identified in the indictment as “B.L.,” because B.L. was a volunteer escort at the reproductive health care clinic.

If convicted of the offenses, Houck faces up to a maximum of 11 years in prison, three years of supervised release and fines of up to $350,000.

“Both counts allege that Mark Houck interfered with a so-called volunteer abortion patient escort, when in reality, Houck had a one-off altercation with a man who harassed Houck’s minor son, approximately 100 feet from the abortion business and across the street,” Breen said in a statement.

In a pretrial hearing Jan. 17, Breen also presented the court with evidence he said shows the FACE Act “was never intended to cover disputes between advocates on the public sidewalks outside of our nation’s abortion clinics.”

Breen entered into evidence the transcript of what he described as a “key exchange” between Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Sen. David Durenberger, R-Minn., over a bipartisan amendment they negotiated “to strip clinic escorts of the right to bring lawsuits under the FACE Act.”

In the May 1994 transcript as documented in the Congressional Record, Durenberger and Kennedy agreed that the definition of the “aggrieved person” protected by the law includes “all patients, providers and facilities that provide reproductive health services,” and excludes those who escort women seeking an abortion or other services at these clinics.

“Demonstrators, clinic defenders, escorts and other persons not involved in obtaining or providing services in the facility may not bring such a cause of action,” said Kennedy.

“This new evidence shows clearly that Congress intended to limit the FACE Act to patients and staff working in the clinic, and not to take sides between pro-life and pro-choice counselors and escorts on the sidewalk,” Breen said in a statement.

“The Biden Department of Justice’s prosecution of Mark Houck is pure harassment, meant solely to intimidate our nation’s pro-life sidewalk counselors who provide vital resources to help pregnant women at risk for abortion,” he added.

Houck’s arrest related to his sidewalk counseling Oct. 13 outside Philadelphia’s Planned Parenthood-Elizabeth Blackwell Health Center. According to a fundraising page for the Houck family, a volunteer “patient escort” began harassing Mark Houck’s son who was with Mark praying. Houck and his son then “walked down the street away from the entrance to the building.” However, the “escort followed them, and when he continued yelling at Mark’s son, Mark pushed him away.”

Philadelphia police records show officers responded to a report of assault at the Planned Parenthood facility.

The clinic volunteer, Bruce Love, was “pushed to the ground … causing a scrape to his right arm,” the police report said. News reports said later that police eventually decided there was a “lack of evidence” that an assault took place “and declined to pursue the issue any further.”

Love filed a criminal complaint against Mark Houck last year, but according to various reports, the case was dismissed because Love himself never showed up.

Early in the morning Sept. 23, 2022, Houck was arrested at his home in rural Bucks County, Pennsylvania, for the alleged assault on the abortion clinic volunteer. He was indicted later that day on two charges under the FACE Act.

The arrest made headlines after Ryan-Marie Houck, Mark Houck’s wife, told reporters that 25 to 30 armed FBI agents, who she said included SWAT members, entered the family’s home at 7:05 a.m. pointing rifles at her and her husband as the couple’s seven children began screaming. They then arrested her husband, she said.

The FBI’s Philadelphia office issued a statement shortly after the arrest saying that claims about SWAT team members being involved in the arrest were inaccurate. “FBI agents knocked on Mr. Houck’s front door, identified themselves as FBI agents and asked him to exit the residence. He did so and was taken into custody without incident pursuant to an indictment,” it read.

“This is a great man facing a trumped-up and false charge that, if convicted, could land him in prison for eleven years. That is totally unacceptable,” Tom Stevens, president and CEO of the Pro-Life Union of Greater Philadelphia, said in a Jan. 24 text message to OSV News. “The Pro-Life Union stands behind Mark and his family and we hope to see quick and reasonable justice here. We will not be bullied by these scare tactics.”

Ashley Garecht, vice chair of the Pro-Life Union, said in a phone interview that there has been an “egregious over-prosecution” of Houck.

“We know Mark; we’ve been praying at gatherings at that Planned Parenthood for 20 years,” she told OSV News. “He knows the rules inside and out. He’s somebody we point to when we’re training new (sidewalk) counselors, because he does it so well; he handles this incredibly intense space so well.”

SCRANTON – The Most Reverend Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, will celebrate Mass for the 31st World Day of the Sick on Friday, Feb. 10, 2023, at 12:10 p.m. at the Cathedral of Saint Peter in Scranton.

The commemoration of the World Day of the Sick not only provides an opportunity to devote special attention to those who are ill, but is also a celebration of God’s works of mercy, especially through those who work tirelessly in the healthcare field.

The World Day of the Sick Mass at the Cathedral of Saint Peter will feature the Liturgy of the Anointing. Any infirmed person who wishes to receive the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick will be invited to approach the bishop/priest with their hands open and palms facing up. The bishop/priest will anoint both the forehead and hands of the sick person.

CTV: Catholic Television of the Diocese of Scranton will provide a live broadcast of the Mass. It will also be livestream on the Diocese of Scranton website and YouTube channel and links for the Mass will be provided on all Diocesan social media platforms.

All faithful are invited to participate in the Mass for the World Day of the Sick.

In his message for the World Day of the Sick in 2023, Pope Francis said the Church’s mission is seen in its care for the sick.

The care of those who are ill shows “whether we are truly companions on the journey or merely individuals on the same path, looking after our own interests and leaving others to ‘make do,’” the pope said.

Pope Francis added people need the love and support of others as they age and especially when they are ill.

“The plight of the sick is a call that cuts through indifference and slows the pace of those who go on their way as if they had no sisters and brothers,” Pope Francis explained. He added those who are sick “are at the center of God’s people, and the church advances together with them as a sign of humanity in which everyone is precious and no one should be discarded or left behind.”

SCRANTON – National Catholic Schools Week will be celebrated across the country Jan. 29 -Feb. 4 this year with the theme: “Catholic Schools: Learn. Serve. Lead. Succeed.”

All 19 Catholic schools in the Diocese of Scranton will observe the annual weeklong celebration with Masses, various activities for students and families, and service projects for parishioners and community members.

Several Diocesan schools will kick-off National Catholic Schools Week by holding open houses on Sunday, Jan. 29, 2023. Others will hold open houses in March or are encouraging private tours. The full schedule of open houses is included in the table at the bottom of this page.

The goal of National Catholic Schools Week is to highlight the value Catholic education provides to young people and its contributions to Church, local communities and the nation.

“Catholic schools continue to have a tremendously positive impact on our students’ growth academically, spiritually, and socially, as well as a strong and lasting presence in our communities through service and prayer,” Kristen Donohue, Diocesan Secretary of Catholic Education/Superintendent of Catholic Schools, said.

There are currently 4,420 students enrolled in the Diocese’s four high schools or 15 elementary schools.

Catholic schools provide a well-rounded education, offering an enriching curriculum that includes the arts, foreign languages, physical education and the latest computer technology to complement the core subjects of religion, math, language arts, social studies and science. Students attending Catholic School are prepared for success in college, trade school, military life, or wherever life takes them after graduation.

Nearly 1.8 million students are currently educated in 6,352 Catholic schools in the United States. Since 1974, National Catholic Schools Week has been the annual celebration of Catholic education in the United States, sponsored by the National Catholic Educational Association and the USCCB’s Secretariat of Catholic Education.

For more information about the 19 Catholic schools in the Diocese of Scranton, please visit: dioceseofscranton.org/find-a-school

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – As war ravages Ukraine, the country cannot be divided among religious confessions but must be united behind “mother Ukraine,” Pope Francis said.

“Jewish Ukraine, Christian Ukraine, Orthodox Ukraine” are not as important as Ukraine as a whole, the pope told members of the Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religions during a meeting at the Vatican Jan. 25.

“I thank you for your unity, for me this is a great thing, like the children of a family” that are dispersed, “but when the mother is ill, they are all together,” he told them. “It is an example in the face of so much superficiality that we see in our culture today.”

The delegation, composed of leaders of Ukraine’s Jewish, Muslim and Christian communities, was in Rome Jan. 24-26. In addition to their audience with the pope, they met with officials from the Vatican Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue and the Dicastery for Communication. Representatives from the council also were scheduled to join Pope Francis at Rome’s Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls for vespers to close the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

After apologizing for being a “slave to time” and needing to get to his weekly general audience, Pope Francis put aside his prepared remarks and spoke off the cuff to the religious leaders, expressing his closeness to those working for peace in Ukraine.

“I am close to you and I regularly receive envoys from President (Volodymyr) Zelenskyy,” the pope said. “I am in dialogue with representatives of the Ukrainian people, and this leads me to hear you and pray.”

The pope also shared how at 11 years old he learned to serve the Byzantine-rite liturgy from a Ukrainian priest in Argentina. “From that moment my sympathy for Ukraine has grown,” he said.

The delegation included Ukrainian Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kyiv-Halych, head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church; Archbishop Mieczyslaw Mokrzycki of Latin-rite Archdiocese of Lviv; representatives of the country’s Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic and Lutheran churches; leaders of Ukraine’s Jewish and Muslim communities; and representatives of the Bible Society, which is interdenominational.