VATICAN CITY (CNS) – A faster change of course away from today’s throwaway culture and toward greater care for the common good is necessary to ensure the planet’s livability for future generations, Pope Francis said on World Environment Day.
The pope called on people “to move away from the throwaway culture toward ways of living marked by a culture of respect and care; care of creation and care of our neighbors, whether they be near or far from us either geographically or through time.
Pope Francis speaks to the organizers of the Green & Blue Festival during an audience at the Vatican June 5, 2023. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
Meeting at the Vatican June 5 with the organizers of a festival supporting sustainability and bringing together activists, researchers, artists and scientific experts in Rome and Milan, Pope Francis noted how science increasingly demonstrates that actions taken today will have an effect on the environment for thousands of years.
“This has also increased our sense of responsibility to God, who has entrusted us with the care of creation, to our neighbors and to future generations,” he told the group of organizers of the “Green & Blue Festival: Earth For All.”
World Environment Day was established in 1972 and is celebrated every June 5 to promote awareness about protecting the environment.
Combating climate change, Pope Francis said, requires recognizing one’s responsibility to those “who have contributed least to its occurrence” – the world’s poorest and most vulnerable – and developing a sense of “responsible cooperation” among everyone.
“Our world is now thoroughly interdependent and cannot allow itself to be divided into blocs of countries that promote their own interests in an isolated or unsustainable way,” the pope said. “The real enemy is an irresponsible behavior that has profound consequences for every aspect of the lives of the men and women of today and tomorrow.”
The pope said that changing the current model of consumption and production is “an immense and demanding challenge” that is possible to face.
He gave the example of efforts at the Vatican where the tiny city-state is trying to eliminate the sale of single-use plastic items on its territory. “These are steps, real steps that we have to continue,” the pope said.
After the meeting, Pope Francis helped the organizers hold up a banner that read “Loss and Damage. Finance Now,” a reference to a fund that was agreed upon at the COP27 U.N. climate conference in 2022 after decades of pressure from vulnerable developing countries. The fund would seek to provide financial assistance to nations most vulnerable and impacted by the effects of climate change.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The pontifical mission societies are called to inspire all Catholics to share the Gospel, a work that requires funding but can never be about money, Pope Francis said.
Pope Francis receives a gift as he greets national directors of the pontifical mission societies in the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican June 3, 2023. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
“Please do not reduce the societies to money,” the pope told the Vatican-based officers and national directors of the societies June 3 during their annual meeting.
The four societies, which operate under and cooperate with the Dicastery for Evangelization, are the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, Society of St. Peter Apostle, Holy Childhood Association and the Missionary Union of Priests and Religious.
The societies rely on donations to fund their work in places where the Gospel has yet to be proclaimed or where the church is still being established — areas traditionally called “mission territories.”
“They certainly need money, which is a means, but do not reduce them to that, for they are bigger than money,” Pope Francis told the officers and directors. “Money is what we need to move forward. Yet if spirituality is missing and they become merely a business, then immediately corruption arises.”
“Indeed, even in these days, we have seen newspaper reports of alleged corruption having occurred in the name of the church’s missionary work,” the pope said without providing more details.
Earlier in the week, the Associated Press ran a story claiming the Vatican was investigating transfers made between funds related to the Pontifical Mission Societies in the United States, although the story said the transfers “appear to be fully legal.”
The societies promote missionary awareness and offer direct aid to dioceses and religious orders and help fund the education of priests, religious and lay workers for the church in mission lands.
Pope Francis insisted the societies “are not merely an agency for the distribution of funds for those in need of help, but a reality called to support the mission of evangelization in the church, both universal and local and to foster the missionary spirit among the people of God.”
The directors and staff of the societies, he said, must be bold and creative, relying on the help of the Holy Spirit to educate all Catholics about their role in evangelization.
“I invite you to promote the missionary responsibility of the baptized, supporting the capillary network of national offices, both in newly evangelized countries and those of ancient Christian tradition, who perhaps need another first evangelization,” the pope said, adding that some traditionally Christian countries are experiencing “a serious crisis of faith and are in need of renewed evangelization and pastoral conversion.”
Reminding his audience that June is a month dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the pope asked them to remember why sharing the Gospel is so important.
“As we contemplate the heart of Christ, we discover the greatness of God’s plan for humanity,” he said. “Indeed, the Father ‘so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.'”
“In the pierced heart of the Crucified we can discover the infinite measure of the Father’s love: he loves us with eternal love; he calls us to be his sons and daughters and to share in the joy that comes from him,” the pope said.
In Jesus’ “compassion for those who are wounded, in his concern when faced with suffering, in the mercy with which he anoints sinners, in his sacrifice for the sins of the world,” Pope Francis said, Jesus “has shown us the heart of God.”
And, like him, the pope said, Christians must reach out to share the good news that God is “a father who always awaits us, sees us from afar, comes toward us with open arms; a father who turns no one away, but welcomes all; who excludes no one, but calls everyone.”
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis has named U.S. Cardinal Kevin J. Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life, to be the next president of the supreme court of Vatican City State.
Cardinal Kevin J. Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life, attends a news conference at the Vatican in this May 10, 2022, file photo. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)
Until Pope Francis modified the judiciary of the city-state in April, the president of the court always was the prefect of the Apostolic Signature, the Holy See’s highest court. The current president is Cardinal Dominque Mamberti.
The Vatican announced June 2 that Cardinal Farrell, 75, would become president of the Court of Cassation, as the Vatican’s highest civil court is known, beginning Jan. 1. The position is not a fulltime role.
As judges on the court, Pope Francis named Cardinals Matteo Zuppi of Bologna, Paolo Lojudice of Siena and Mauro Gambetti, the papal vicar for Vatican City.
All four cardinals were appointed to five-year terms.
The Court of Cassation is the highest court of appeals for Vatican City State and can interpret Vatican City law.
In addition to serving as prefect of the dicastery, Cardinal Farrell also is camerlengo or chamberlain of the Holy Roman Church. While the pope is alive, the job is basically just a title. But when a pope dies or resigns, the chamberlain is charged with sealing the papal apartments, chairing consultations about the papal funeral, making the practical preparations for the conclave to elect the next pope, and chairing a committee of cardinals that takes care of the church’s ordinary affairs until a new pope is elected.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis was scheduled to undergo surgery at Rome’s Gemelli hospital June 7 to treat a hernia that had developed at an incision of a previous operation, the Vatican said.
Pope Francis greets visitors from the popemobile as he rides around St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican before his weekly general audience June 7, 2023. The Vatican announced the pope would be going to Rome’s Gemelli hospital that afternoon for surgery for an “incisional laparocele” or hernia. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)
The pope was to be put under general anesthesia and undergo abdominal surgery involving “plastic surgery on the abdominal wall with prosthesis,” Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office, said in a brief statement released shortly after the pope’s morning general audience June 7.
He was expected to remain in the hospital for several days.
The operation, “agreed upon in recent days by the medical team assisting the Holy Father, has become necessary due to an incisional hernia” causing “recurring, painful and worsening” intestinal blockage, the statement said. An incisional hernia might occur at the site of an incision in the abdominal wall.
The pope briefly visited the Gemelli hospital’s geriatric medical center for a medical checkup and tests June 6. According to the Italian news agency ANSA, he was there for some 40 minutes before returning to the Vatican.
Pope Francis was previously hospitalized for 10 days in July 2021 to treat diverticulitis, a condition marked by the inflammation of bulges lining the intestine, and underwent a surgery that removed part of his colon. In January 2023, the pope told the Associated Press that the bulges in his intestinal wall had returned.
The pope has said that he did not respond well to the general anesthetic used during his colon operation and said that reaction was part of the reason he declined having torn ligaments in his knee operated on. For more than a year Pope Francis has been using a wheelchair in many of his public events.
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SCRANTON – Fourteen priests who are celebrating milestone anniversaries of their ordination year will be recognized during the 2023 Mass for Priest Jubilarians at 12:10 p.m. on Thursday, June 8, 2023, at the Cathedral of Saint Peter in Scranton.
The Most Reverend Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, will serve as principal celebrant and homilist. During the Mass, the bishop will recognize a total of 665 years of service to the priesthood.
Monsignor John A. Esseff, M.S., D.Min., will be recognized for 70 years of priestly service. Monsignor Esseff was ordained on May 30, 1953, by the late Bishop William J. Hafey and has served as a retreat director and confessor to Saint Mother Teresa. In addition to Msgr. Esseff, priests who are celebrating 65, 60, 50 and 25 ordination year anniversaries will be honored.
Here is the full list of Jubilarians:
70 Years – 1953
Monsignor John A. Esseff, M.S., D.Min.
65 Years – 1958
Reverend William D. Campbell, S.T.D.
60 Years – 1963
Reverend John P. Ryan
Reverend Eugene R. Carr
Monsignor Thomas V. Banick
50 Years – 1973
Reverend William M. Petruska, Capt., CHC, USN
Reverend Anthony M. Urban, M.S., M.A.
Reverend Thomas R. Hudak, M.Div.
Reverend Paul M. Mullen, M.A.
Reverend James J. Walsh, J.C.L.
25 Years – 1998
Reverend Philip S. Rayappan
Reverend Jackson Pinhero, O.S.J.
Reverend Mariusz Beczek, O.S.J.
Reverend Andrew Mensah Amankwaa
The 2023 Mass for Priest Jubilarians will be broadcast live by CTV: Catholic Television of the Diocese of Scranton and will be available for viewing on the Diocese of Scranton website, YouTube channel, and social media platforms.
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SCRANTON – Nearly 150 couples who are celebrating milestone anniversaries in 2023 will be recognized at the Cathedral of Saint Peter on Sunday, June 4, 2023.
Bishop Joseph C. Bambera will serve as principal celebrant and homilist for the Diocese of Scranton’s annual Wedding Anniversary Mass that recognizes married couples who are celebrating their 25th and 50th anniversaries this year. The Mass will begin at 2:30 p.m.
In addition to married couples celebrating their Silver and Golden anniversaries, there are expected to be one couple in attendance celebrating 66 years of marriage and two couples in attendance celebrating 60 years of marriage.
In all, a total of 6,528 years of marriage will be celebrated between the 148 couples who have pre-registered to attend the Mass.
CTV: Catholic Television of the Diocese of Scranton will broadcast the Mass live and provide a livestream on the Diocese of Scranton website and all Diocesan social media platforms.
The broadcast and livestream opportunities are a valuable opportunity for all married couples (no matter how many years they have been married) to pause and reflect upon the beauty of the vocation of marriage in our lives and in the life of our church.
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SCRANTON – Just minutes before his Ordination Mass, William A. Asinari was so overwhelmed with gratitude he started to cry.
“It’s inexplicable. I was sitting up in the chapel and I was just in tears thanking God for the blessing of service,” Deacon Asinari said.
The Most Reverend Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, lays his hands on the head of William A. Asinari during the Rite of Ordination of Deacons on May 27, 2023, at the Cathedral of Saint Peter in Scranton. (Photo/Mike Melisky)
Less than an hour later, the 24 year old became a transitional deacon through the Rite of Ordination to the Diaconate, which includes the presentation of the candidate, election by the bishop, promise of the elect, litany of supplication and laying on of hands.
“I think one of the most beautiful moments was just hearing from the Church, we have found this man to be worthy,” Deacon Asinari explained. “I think every seminarian, to some degree, goes through the struggle that God is giving me this gift and I don’t deserve this. It is immensely beautiful and it’s beyond what I could ever deserve. You fight that feeling of unworthiness and when you finally get there in that moment and hear it, it hits home!”
Asinari, a native of Honesdale, is the son of Robert and Cathleen Asinari and is a parishioner of Saint John the Evangelist Parish, Honesdale. Several friends and fellow parishioners from Wayne County made the trip to the Cathedral for the Ordination Mass.
“These are the people that have seen me since I was one or two (years old). I remember them saying, ‘Have you thought about the priesthood’ or ‘You look like you’d make a good priest,’” Deacon Asinari added. “To have them sitting there as I’m ordained a deacon was beautiful.”
The Most Reverend Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, served as ordaining prelate and principal celebrant for the Ordination Mass.
“What a blessing this day is for Bill and for his family, our Diocese and particularly for all those who have helped him to arrive at this faith-filled moment,” Bishop Bambera said during his homily.
Bishop Bambera reminded Asinari that service to the People of God must lie at the heart of his vocation.
“For as meaningful and significant as this moment may be for you personally, the ministry that you will embrace is not yours alone,” Bishop Bambera continued. “It comes from – and is rooted in the life of the Lord Jesus – who came to save us from sin and the brokenness of our world.”
Deacon Asinari will serve for the next year as a transitional deacon, the ordination serving as the last major step before ordination to the priesthood, which typically occurs a year later after additional pastoral, liturgical and educational preparation.
As a deacon, he will assist the bishop and his priests in ministries of the Word, Liturgy and Charity. This includes proclaiming the Gospel, leading intercessions, preaching, preparing the altar, celebrating baptisms, leading the faithful in prayer, distributing holy communion, witnessing marriages and conducting wake and funeral services. Deacons also identify the needs of poor and underserved, and shepherd the Church’s resources to meet those needs.
“I think I’m most looking forward to baptisms,” Deacon Asinari said. “I know over my summer assignment there are a couple scheduled. There is just something so beautiful about getting a family together and by my hands, blessing the water and baptizing a child. It is overwhelming.”
This summer, Asinari will be serving the Saint Rose of Lima and Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parishes in the city of Carbondale.
“While you have been given tremendous gifts and talents, we pray that you will always rely upon the grace of God to fill up whatever may be lacking in you to carry out fully the ministry entrusted to you this day,” Bishop Bambera stated as he finished his homily.
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WASHINGTON (OSV News) – Pope Francis has created the ecclesiastical province of Las Vegas, comprised of the Archdiocese of Las Vegas and the suffragan dioceses of Reno, Nevada, and Salt Lake City.
He also named Las Vegas Bishop George Leo Thomas to be the first metropolitan archbishop of Las Vegas. Archbishop Thomas, who turned 73 May 19, was appointed the third bishop of Las Vegas Feb. 28, 2018.
The establishment of the new province and the appointment of the metropolitan archbishop was publicized in Washington May 30 by Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States.
Then-Bishop George Leo Thomas of Las Vegas returns to his seat after receiving Communion at the Basilica of St. Mary Major during his “ad limina” visit in Rome Jan. 30, 2020. Pope Francis created the ecclesiastical province of Las Vegas May 30, 2023, which is comprised of the Archdiocese of Las Vegas and the suffragan dioceses of Reno, Nevada, and Salt Lake City. The same day he named Bishop Thomas the first metropolitan archbishop of Las Vegas. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)
A metropolitan archbishop is the head of his archdiocese, and while he has no direct power of governance over the suffragan dioceses in his province, “through canon law, he supports them in matters of faith and discipline and provides fraternal pastoral care to his brother bishops,” said a news release from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
“Las Vegas has been for me one of the most beautiful encounters, beautiful treasures I could have ever experienced,” Archbishop Thomas told reporters at a news briefing in Las Vegas about the creation of the ecclesiastical province, the elevation of the five-county diocese in southern Nevada to an archdiocese and his being named an archbishop.
He was joined at the briefing by Auxiliary Bishop Gregory W. Gordon of Las Vegas; Bishop Daniel H. Mueggenborg of Reno, Nevada; Bishop Oscar A. Solis of Salt Lake City; and retired Auxiliary Bishop Richard B. Higgins of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services.
When Archbishop Thomas was named the third bishop of Las Vegas by Pope Francis in 2018, he had been the bishop of Helena, Montana, for 14 years. Before that, the Montana native was an auxiliary bishop of Seattle for four years.
He said that when he was named to Las Vegas, Archbishop Christophe Pierre, papal nuncio to the U.S., informed him of the appointment and also told him the Las Vegas Diocese had “grown too complex” to send a new bishop to be its shepherd.
By “complex,” he meant it had “a pronounced shortage of priests and seminarians, exponential growth of laity, and needed to build new parishes and establish new schools,” Archbishop Thomas recalled, adding that he told the nuncio: “The one thing I can do is bring wise and gifted people around a common table and we can solve anything.”
The creation of the ecclesiastical province of Las Vegas and elevation of the diocese to an archdiocese illustrate that “the dynamism of this local church, the vitality of the parishes and communities” has come “to the attention of the Holy See,” Archbishop Thomas said.
“I feel very grateful to the Holy See and certainly to Pope Francis, whom I love very deeply, but the honor and the glory belongs to the priests and to the lay faithful,” the archbishop said. “It is the people laboring out in the fields and in the communities who are really responsible for the dynamism of this archdiocese.”
“We are having exponential growth to be sure, and people receiving excellent pastoral care,” he said. “The fact we have now become an archdiocese is certainly a mark of approbation and approval of the Holy Father” and “most especially is a credit” to the laity, priests and religious.
Archbishop Thomas said he planned to go to Rome June 28 with pilgrims from the archdiocese and fellow clergy and that on June 29 he will receive the pallium from the pope.
The pallium is the woolen band that the heads of archdioceses wear around their shoulders over their Mass vestments. It symbolizes an archbishop’s unity with the pope and his authority and responsibility to care for the flock the pope entrusted to him.
“I’m told I’m the only American receiving it this year,” Archbishop Thompson said, adding that Archbishop Pierre will place it over his shoulders in Las Vegas Oct. 2, the feast of the Guardian Angela, during a major celebration at the Shrine of the Most Holy Redeemer that will formally establish Las Vegas as an archdiocese.
In his remarks at the briefing, Bishop Gordon said that the pope’s creation of the new province and elevation of the diocese to archdiocese is “a reflection at this moment of the tremendous growth” of the church and Nevada itself in terms of population, hotels and sports arenas but also in terms “of the spiritual, as evidenced by the increase in the number of baptisms, parishes, schools and other apostolates.
But “this moment” also is certainly a reflection of the pope’s confidence in the spiritual leadership of Archbishop Thomas, who “is always thanking us for all the work we (do) but we know the truth, that work would not be done if it weren’t for the fact the shepherd is so active and so engaged,” Bishop Gordon said. “We thank you for all you’ve done these past five years in our new archdiocese. … We look forward to working with you in your pastoral ministry in this archdiocese for many, many years to come.”
Bishop Gordon said the first inquiries into the possibility of Las Vegas becoming an archdiocese and an ecclesiastical province being created for Nevada and Utah go back to the creation of the Las Vegas Diocese in 1995.
“(There are) decades of growth, decades of censuses showing how Nevada and Utah lead the nation as among the fastest growing states,” Bishop Gordon said, noting that Nevada’s five southern counties making up the new archdiocese alone have over 750,000 Catholics.
In 1995, St. John Paul II divided what was the Diocese of Reno-Las Vegas into the Diocese of Reno and the Diocese of Las Vegas. The Diocese of Reno was first established March 27, 1931, and then redesignated as the Diocese of Reno-Las Vegas Oct. 13, 1976.
The statewide Diocese of Salt Lake was formed in 1891 from the Vicariate of Utah and Eastern Nevada. In 1951, the Vatican renamed it the Diocese of Salt Lake City.
Before May 30, the dioceses of Reno, Las Vegas and Salt Lake City were suffragan dioceses of the metropolitan Archdiocese of San Francisco.
Bishop Mueggenborg, who has headed the Reno Diocese since 2021, said at the briefing that he met the May 30 announcement about Las Vegas “with great joy and profound gratitude.”
“I extend my heartfelt congratulations to you, Archbishop Thomas, and the archdiocese. This is a significant milestone and it marks a new chapter in the life of the church especially here in Nevada but in the entire Great Basin of the United States. It reflects not only the spiritual growth but also the dedication that has taken root here the last 28 years.”
Bishop Solis, who has been Salt Lake City’s bishop since 2017, called it “a great honor and privilege to join you in this milestone in celebration of God’s blessing to this local church here in Nevada.”
He extended his diocese’s and state’s “warmest congratulations for this wonderful moment in the history of the local church of Las Vegas.”
“Nothing happens by accident,” Bishop Solis said. “It is always the movement of the Holy Spirit that inspires priests, religious men and women, as well as the laity, to build a vibrant church in joy and gratitude.”
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GOWER, Mo. (OSV News) – Thousands flocked to a rural Missouri monastery over the Memorial Day weekend to venerate the apparently incorrupt body of a Benedictine nun with visitors telling OSV News the experience has been spiritually powerful for them.
“It’s electrifying. It’s galvanizing the hearts of the faithful and the unfaithful as well,” said Luke Nold of Easton, Missouri, a volunteer helping the crowds converging at the Abbey of Our Lady of Ephesus, located outside of Gower. “I’ve talked to people who have come from as far as Colorado, as near as Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa. … northern Minnesota, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, North Carolina. And some of the stories I’m hearing are just profound. A local mortician came out just in disbelief; this doesn’t happen.”
The remarkably intact remains of Benedictine Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster of the Most Holy Rosary have been on display for several weeks at the Abbey of Our Lady of Ephesus. On April 28, the Benedictine Sisters of Mary, Queen of the Apostles had exhumed the body of their foundress to transfer it to a new shrine altar honoring St. Joseph.
Vistors stand in a long line to view the apparently incorrupt body of Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster at the Abbey of Our Lady of Ephesus in Gower, Mo., May 27, 2023. (OSV News photo/Megan Marley)
Despite a lack of embalming, an in-ground burial in a wooden coffin and water pooling in the grave, both the remains and the habit looked essentially the same as when Sister Wilhelmina died at age 95 in May 2019.
Bodily incorruptibility has long been regarded in both Catholic and Orthodox traditions as a potential — though not conclusive — divine sign affirming an individual lived a life of sanctity. The bodies of more than 100 canonized saints have been seemingly untouched by decay.
A May 22 statement from the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Missouri, said the condition of Sister Wilhelmina’s remains “has understandably generated widespread interest and raised important questions.” It added, “Bishop (James V.) Johnston is working to establish a thorough process for understanding the nature of the condition of Sister Wilhelmina’s remains.”
As word of Sister Wilhelmina’s remains spread, pilgrims from several states have steadily descended on the abbey, praying before and touching items to the body, which the sisters cleaned and protected with a coating of wax.
The visits intensified ahead of a May 29 rosary procession, after which Sister Wilhelmina’s body was encased in glass at the altar shrine. The steady stream of pilgrims — which one law enforcement official told OSV News numbered “close to 5,000” on just Friday alone of Memorial Day weekend — flowed on either side of the body. They knelt for 60-second intervals before the body, and then passed by a table to touch Sister Wilhelmina’s veil.
Many pilgrims also stopped to spend some time in Eucharistic adoration at the abbey’s church. Outside, hay bales and folding chairs formed makeshift confessionals in the nearby fields.
Volunteers from neighboring parishes — including St. Joseph in Easton and Seven Dolors in Hurlingen — and from Knights of Columbus councils across the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph were on hand to direct traffic, hand out water and food, and shuttle visitors in golf carts.
Maegan Meyers of Lincoln, Nebraska, traveled to the abbey with her family for “love of the saints and to be able to have (her) kids experience that.”
The two-hour journey to see a possible saint in the making was “such a gift,” she said.
“We were just talking about just how prevalent and how loud the culture is, and how very clear it is, the timing of this,” said Meyers. “(We have) just so much gratitude for her witness.”
For some, Sister Wilhelmina’s apparently miraculous incorruptibility was a sign of divine approval for her founding of the religious community. After 50 years as a member of the Oblate Sisters of Providence in Baltimore – a historically African American religious community whose foundress, Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange, is on the path to sainthood – Sister Wilhelmina established the Benedictine Sisters of Mary, Queen of the Apostles in 1995. The congregation uses the older forms of the Roman Rite promulgated prior to the start of the Second Vatican Council: they have Mass according to the 1962 Roman Missal and chant the psalms according to the 1962 Monastic Office. The sisters have even had commercial success with their recordings of chants, topping Billboard’s traditional classic album charts in 2013 and 2014.
Joshua Smith from Auburn, Maine, who attends Mass according to the 1962 Roman Missal, commonly called the “traditional Latin Mass,” told OSV News his two daughters are members of the congregation and he saw Sister Wilhelmina while she was still alive. Smith said he finds the nun’s apparent incorruptibility “as some confirmation that we’re on the right path. … It kind of binds us together.”
As an African American, Roberta Crawford of Kansas City, Missouri, told OSV News it was “even more awesome to know” that Sister Wilhelmina also was Black, and that “her belief was strong.”
“This is kind of a once-in-a-lifetime thing, and it was something we needed to see,” she said. “We’re not Catholic, but we have a belief that we just needed to see it, that it actually happened.”
Through experiences like this, “we still see how God is acting in our life,” said Father Sam, a priest from the Diocese of Tulsa, Oklahoma, who did not provide his last name. He told OSV News he was visiting with fellow Hispanic Catholic parishioners.
“God is using these kinds of events to be able to show his power, to help us to understand that God is alive,” the priest said, “so we may trust in him and believe in him.”
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis called on the international community to work concretely against torture and to guarantee support to victims and their families.
“Let us put a stop to this horror of torture. It is essential to put the dignity of the person above all else,” the pope said in a video message released May 30 by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network.
The network posts a short video of the pope offering his specific prayer intention each month. For the month of June, the pope dedicated his prayer intention to the abolition of torture.
The International Day in Support of Victims of Torture is June 26 to highlight the day when the U.N. Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment came into effect in 1987. While torture is prohibited by international law and is illegal in most countries, it is still practiced worldwide.
Alice Edwards, U.N. special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, said, “The national duty to investigate torture is alarmingly, universally, under-implemented.” Every nation has a duty to criminalize and investigate allegations of torture, prosecute or extradite suspects, and sentence offenders with penalties that reflect the gravity of the offence, she told the U.N. Human Rights Council in March 2023.
In his video message, the pope asked, “How is it possible that the human capacity for cruelty is so huge?” Torture is “not something new. Let’s think of how Jesus himself was tortured and crucified.”
While there are extremely violent forms of torture, “others are more sophisticated, such as degrading someone, dulling the senses, or mass detentions in conditions so inhumane that they take away the dignity of the person,” he said.
Victims are not seen as persons, but as “things” that “can be mistreated mercilessly, causing death or permanent psychological and physical harm lasting a lifetime,” the pope said.
“Let us pray that the international community commit itself concretely to abolish torture, guaranteeing support to victims and their families,” he added.
WORLD REFUGEE DAY TO BE CELEBRATED JUNE 24 IN SCRANTON
Celebrate and honor World Refugee Day! On Saturday, June 24, everyone is invited to join local Scranton refugee communities for a time of sharing, learning, fellowship and celebration that honors global refugees from 2-4 p.m.. The event, to be held at Nay Aug Park, Scranton, will include cultural songs and music, refreshments, games and activities for kids. World Refugee Day is an annual international day, designated by the United Nations, to celebrate the strength and courage of people who have been forced to flee their home countries to escape conflict or persecution.
