Category: Diocese of Scranton News

WASHINGTON (CNS) – Ahead of the U.S. Senate’s Nov. 29 61-to-36 vote approving the Respect for Marriage Act, the chairmen of two U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ committees reiterated the bishops’ ” firm opposition” to the “misnamed” measure legalizing same-sex marriage.

In a Nov. 23 joint letter to all members of Congress, the chairmen said they were writing “to implore Congress to reverse course” on H.R. 8404, also known as RMA.

The Senate advanced the measure with a 62-37 vote Nov. 16. Its final vote passing the bill sends it back to the House for a vote. If it passes that chamber, President Joe Biden is expected to sign the bill into law.

The U.S. House first passed the bill July 19 with a large, bipartisan vote of 267-157, but now the House must take up the Senate’s amended version.

Issuing the joint letter were Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee for Religious Liberty, and Bishop Robert E. Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth.

“Tragically, Congress’s consideration of RMA now takes place in the wake of the horrific attack in Colorado Springs,” they said, referring to the mass shooting at an LGBTQ bar in Colorado that left six people dead and many more injured. “We echo the statement of our brother Bishop (James R.) Golka of Colorado Springs in condemnation of this senseless crime.”

“Our opposition to RMA by no means condones any hostility toward anyone who experiences same-sex attraction,” Cardinal Dolan and Bishop Barron said. “Catholic teaching on marriage is inseparable from Catholic teaching on the inherent dignity and worth of every human being. To attack one is to attack the other. Congress must have the courage to defend both.”

The bill codifies the Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges that found a constitutional right to same-sex marriage. It also codifies interracial marriage.

In a Nov. 17 statement after the bill advanced in the Senate, Cardinal Dolan called it “a bad deal for the many courageous Americans of faith and no faith who continue to believe and uphold the truth about marriage in the public square today.”

“It is deeply concerning that the U.S. Senate has voted to proceed toward potential passage of the Respect for Marriage Act,” he said. “(It) does not strike a balance that appropriately respects our nation’s commitment to the fundamental right of religious liberty.”

In their joint letter, Cardinal Dolan and Bishop Barron said that measure’s “rejection of timeless truths about marriage is evident on its face and in its purpose.” They repeated the cardinal’s earlier point that it “would also betray our country’s commitment to the fundamental right of religious liberty.”

The text of their letter and a lengthy detailed analysis by the USCCB on how the bill, if it becomes law, endanger religious liberty can be found at https://bit.ly/3H22Z74.

“First, the bill will be used to argue that the government has a compelling interest in forcing religious organizations and individuals to treat same-sex civil marriages as valid,” the analysis said.

An amendment to the bill says it “protects all religious liberty and conscience protections available under the Constitution or federal law, including but not limited to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and prevents this bill from being used to diminish or repeal any such protection.”

It also “confirms that nonprofit religious organizations will not be required to provide any services, facilities, or goods for the solemnization or celebration of a marriage.”

The amendment was worked out by a bipartisan group of negotiators — headed by Sens. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Susan Collins, R-Maine — who had asked the Senate for more time to consider “an amendment designed to respond to the concerns of GOP lawmakers who feared the legislation could put churches and other religious institutions at legal risk if Congress voted to codify same-sex marriage rights.”

With the amendment, 12 Republicans joined every Democrat in supporting the marriage bill.

But the USCCB analysis said that even with the amendment, under the bill “religious objectors are likelier to be denied exemptions under the First Amendment and RFRA in cases where they would have prevailed but for the passage of RMA.”

The measure “would have a ripple effect that hurts religious freedom in every context where conflicts with same-sex marriage arise, not just in the context of compliance with RMA itself,” the analysis said.

“Employment decisions, employees’ spousal benefits, eligibility for grants or contracts, accreditation, tax exemptions — it runs the full gamut, even in religious liberty conflicts arising out of state or local laws,” it added.

“Unfortunately, a number of religious groups and senators are asserting that the amended text of RMA sufficiently protects religious freedom,” Cardinal Dolan and Bishop Barron said in their letter.

They added that from the perspective of the USCCB, “whose bishops’ ministries comprise the largest nongovernmental provider of social services” in the U.S., the provisions of the bill “that relate to religious liberty are insufficient.”

“The amended act will put the ministries of the Catholic Church, people of faith and other Americans who uphold a traditional meaning of marriage at greater risk of government discrimination,” the two prelates said.

“This bill is needless and harmful and must be voted down,” they said. “At the same time, Congress, and our nation as a whole, must resolve to foster a culture where every individual, as a child of God, is treated with respect and compassion.”

Ahead of the House vote in July, the chairmen of the U.S. bishops’ pro-life and marriage and family committees wrote a joint letter to House members urging they reject the measure.

The Respect for Marriage Act repeals the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, signed into Law by President Bill Clinton. It barred the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriage, until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that law unconstitutional in 2013.

The push in Congress to codify a right to same-sex marriage in federal law followed an opinion by Justice Clarence Thomas in the Dobbs ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis has suspended the secretary-general and other top officers of Caritas Internationalis, appointing a temporary administrator to oversee improved management policies and to prepare for the election of new officers in May.

Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, whose second term as Caritas president was to end in May, also loses his position, although he is to assist the temporary administrator in preparing for the future by taking “special care of relations with the local churches and the member organizations,” said the papal decree published Nov. 22.

Caritas Internationalis is the umbrella organization for 162 official Catholic charities working in more than 200 countries; it includes the U.S. bishops’ Catholic Relief Services and Catholic Charities USA, the Canadian bishops’ Development and Peace and the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.

Pope Francis appointed Pier Francesco Pinelli, a business management consultant, to oversee the Vatican-based offices of the general secretariat.

In a statement also released Nov. 22, the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, which has some oversight responsibility for Caritas Internationalis, said the suspension of the officers “has no impact on the functioning of member organizations and the services of charity and solidarity they provide around the world; on the contrary, it will serve to strengthen such service.”

Earlier this year, the statement said, the dicastery “commissioned a review of the workplace environment of the CI General Secretariat and its alignment with Catholic values of human dignity and respect for each person.”

Pinelli and two psychologists conducted the review, which included interviewing current and past employees, the dicastery said.

“No evidence emerged of financial mismanagement or sexual impropriety, but other important themes and areas for urgent attention emerged from the panel’s work,” the statement said. “Real deficiencies were noted in management and procedures, seriously prejudicing team-spirit and staff morale.”

The announcement of the pope’s provisions came while some 100 Caritas representatives from around the world were having a two-day meeting in Rome “to reflect on how to strengthen local leadership within the confederation and enhance fraternal cooperation among member organizations.”

According to Vatican News, Cardinal Tagle read the papal decree to the assembly and, while acknowledging the news could upset or confuse some people, he said they should be reassured knowing that it came after “a careful and independent study of the working environment of the secretariat and the governance exercised by the people and bodies in charge.”

The papal decree, he said, is “a call to walk humbly with God” and be open to a process of discernment, which includes acknowledging shortcomings.

Aloysius John, the secretary-general since 2019, was not present at the meeting, Vatican News said. John, a French citizen who was born in India, had been head of the organization’s section for institutional development and capacity building before his election as secretary-general.

Cardinal Michael Czerny, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, and Pinelli, the new administrator, also were present at the meeting, Vatican News reported.

Pope Francis, in his decree, said that Caritas Internationalis assists him and the bishops “in the exercise of their ministry to the poorest and most needy, participating in the management of humanitarian emergencies and collaborating in the spread of charity and justice in the world in the light of the Gospel and the teachings of the Catholic Church.”

“To improve the fulfillment of this mission,” the pope said, “it seems necessary to revise” the current regulations governing Caritas Internationalis, a task that Pinelli will guide.

Pinelli told Vatican News that his hope was “to initiate processes of reconciliation and improvement that can bear fruit in the long run for this association.”

WASHINGTON (CNS) – Catholic leaders have condemned the Nov. 19 attack on an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, that killed at least five people and injured at least 25.

Seven of those wounded were in critical condition.

The church leaders – the archbishop of Denver, leaders of religious orders and congregations, and a Catholic outreach group to members of the LGBTQ community – also prayed for those impacted by the attack and urged for an end to hate crimes and use of language that condemns those in the LGBTQ community.

The suspected gunman, 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich, faced murder and hate crime charges Nov. 21, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press, adding that the suspect used an AR-15-style semiautomatic weapon in the attack at Club Q before he was subdued by people at the club.

On its Facebook page, the club thanked the “quick reactions of heroic customers that subdued the gunman and ended this hate attack” within minutes of the alleged gunman opening fire after entering the club shortly before midnight Nov. 19.

It also noted that a drop-in center was set up at a nearby hotel with counseling services available all week. Outside the club, a makeshift memorial was filled with flowers and stuffed animals.

Police have identified the deceased victims as Daniel Aston, Raymond Green Vance, Kelly Loving, Ashley Paugh and Derrick Rump.

Denver Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila said he was “saddened by this tragic and senseless act.”

In a Nov. 20 statement, he said that “while the motives remain unclear, what is clear is that evil incidents like this have become far too common in our society. The random acts of killing innocent human beings must be condemned by a civil society.”

Similarly, Bishop James R. Golka of Colorado Springs, issued a Nov. 21 statement calling the nightclub shooting “especially troubling” since the shooter “appeared to target members of the LGBTQ community.” He said anytime “specific members of the population are targeted for violence, we should all be concerned.”

The bishop also spoke against gun violence and mentioned the anxiety and pressure many are feeling since the pandemic and urged anyone struggling to contact a priest or minister from their church or Catholic Charities of Central Colorado.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops retweeted the bishop’s message and said they joined him and “the community of Colorado Springs in lamenting this violent act and praying for all those impacted.”

Mark Joseph Williams, a clergy abuse survivor, responded to the Colorado bishop’s tweet by pointing out that when he addressed the U.S. bishops Nov. 15 during their fall general assembly in Baltimore, he had asked them to walk with all the abused.

He said he now asks Bishop Golka “and his brother prelates to walk w/ our LGBTQ brothers and sisters. It is our faith. God loves all.”

Outreach, a new initiative of Jesuit-run America Media that provides resources for LGBTQ Catholics, similarly issued a statement on its website Nov. 20 praying for those who died, those who were wounded and for the LGBTQ community in Colorado Springs.

It said the “motive for this terrible attack on LGBTQ people remains unclear” but also pointed out that it took place “the day before Transgender Day of Remembrance, a day when we commemorate transgender people whose lives were lost in acts of violence.”

The night of the attack, Club Q was planning to host a drag show to mark the day of remembrance.

The Outreach statement stressed that while a motive remained unclear, what is clear, it said, is “the effect that stigmatizing language has on the safety and well-being of LGBTQ people.”

“Language that seeks to reject, condemn, isolate, blame or target LGBTQ people should be rejected, especially by religious leaders,” it said, adding that such language “leads only to further harassment, beatings and violence.”

“Churches and other religious institutions are called to stand on the side of all who are in any way persecuted, including LGBTQ people,” the Nov. 20 statement said.

Paulist Father René Constanza, president of the Paulist Fathers, also condemned not only the attack but harmful rhetoric toward those in the LGBTQ community.

“Violence targeting our LGBTQ sisters and brothers must stop,” he said.

In a Nov. 21 statement, he said “rhetoric that dehumanizes and disrespects the inherent dignity of those who identify as LGBTQ is unacceptable, including that espoused by members of our own Catholic Church and other faith communities.”

He also said gun violence “needs to be more seriously dealt with by our civil leaders.”

The priest said it was time for society “to address the anger, contempt, and indifference that fuel violence against all people because of their sexual orientation, skin color, race or religion.”

The general council of the Adrian Dominican Sisters based in Adrian, Michigan, similarly responded to the shooting saying their “hearts ache” for those who were killed and those injured and offered “deep condolences to family and friends who are mourning the loss of their loved ones.”

“There is no place for hate crimes in our nation nor for the angry and venomous language that often precedes such evil acts — whether committed against members of the LGBTQ+ community or people who are Black, Indigenous, Latino or Asian American, or because of a person’s religious faith,” the sisters said.

Likewise, the Redemptorists of the Denver province grieved the loss of life and injuries inflicted and said they extended their prayers “for the well-being of the LGBTQ community in Colorado Springs as it faces the trauma of this attack and the pain it incurred.”

The order’s members, based in Chicago, said in a Nov. 21 statement that they recognized that “LGBTQ people are especially vulnerable to an inordinate and unwarranted amount of violence in the world,” and pledged to work against such violence and discrimination and help those who suffer from it.

The Redemptorists said the shooting was reminiscent of when 49 people were killed and 53 more were injured at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, in 2016.

At the time, they said, bishops and Catholic leaders spoke out against the tragedy but when they did “very few mentioned the victims as members of the LGBTQ community.”

New Ways Ministry, a Maryland-based Catholic advocacy outreach group for LGBTQ people, said in a statement that it joined “millions of Catholics in the U.S. and worldwide who mournfully pray over the tragic loss of five lives in the recent shooting at Club Q.”

The group also called on “every bishop to condemn such violence in all its forms. Such a message can deter future perpetrators, and it also expresses pastoral support to LGBTQ people in their communities.”

New Ways Ministry also urged bishops and Catholic leaders “to join in the many demonstrations and vigils in support of LGBTQ people, which will emerge over the coming weeks.” It stressed that all Catholics “should redouble their efforts to end discrimination against LGBTQ people by supporting equality initiatives and laws.

This view was echoed by Johnny Zokovitch, executive director of Pax Christi USA, who called on Catholic leaders in U.S. dioceses, parishes, universities and schools “to make clear both their condemnation of violence against members of the LGBTQ community and their efforts to end discrimination against LGBTQ people.”

A historic, late-hour deal reached at the U.N. climate change summit to establish a “loss and damage” fund for countries vulnerable to the devastating impacts of a warming world represented “a real breakthrough,” said representatives of Catholic and other religious groups.

Saying the establishment of the fund was an answer to their prayers, the faith-based voices recognized the step as a sign of progress in response to global warming, despite negotiations falling short in other areas.

They cautioned, however, that the new fund will fail to aid communities already suffering from extreme heat and storms if the plan follows the path of past pledges that have not yet been delivered, including the elimination of heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions and financing climate mitigation and adaptation efforts.

“If governments stick to paving the way for a future with good intentions and aspirational declarations while widening the gap with the implementation and follow-up needed, they will indeed lock us up on pathways to disaster,” CIDSE, a network of 17 Catholic development agencies from Europe and North America, said in a statement.

In addition, only about 30 countries delivered on promises made at COP26 in 2021; they had pledged more aggressive national climate plans in line with meeting the Paris Agreement’s ambitious temperature limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.

The inability to reach a decision on ending fossil fuel usage made COP27 “a lost opportunity,” Comboni Missionary Sister Paola Moggi said during a debriefing webinar Nov. 22 hosted by the International Union of Superiors General. She attended the summit on behalf of the faith-based NGO VIVAT International.

“We can cure the symptoms but not address the causes. And this was for me the failure of this COP,” she said.

Still, the establishment of a loss and damage fund Nov. 20 — two days after the summit officially closed — resonated with religious leaders, civil society groups and climate activists. The groups for years have pushed wealthy countries to take concrete actions to reduce their emissions and provide financing for climate-related destruction, especially in the global south.

Jesuit Father Leonard Chiti of southern Africa called the deal “a huge achievement.”

He noted that before COP27 it wasn’t clear if loss and damage would be on the agenda or if developed nations, including the U.S., would reconsider their past resistance to such a fund over fears of limitless liability claims.

Days before the conference began, delegates backing loss and damage successfully added the issue to the discussions. As negotiations continued, developing nations were later joined by the European Union in pressing for the fund to be inserted into the final text summarizing the outcome.

The Sharm el-Sheikh Implementation Plan calls for the fund to assist developing countries particularly vulnerable to adverse climate impacts, although it does not define which countries can access it, which ones will contribute to it or how much. Those details are expected to be negotiated over the next year.

Adrian Dominican Sister Durstyne Farnan said the agreement revived the spirits of climate activists, who had given up on government representatives for failing to commit to fighting climate change.

“The final outcome document is hopeful. Many were doubting that COP27 would come out with statements and commitments to fund loss and damage, just transition and climate mitigation,” she said.

David Munene, programs manager of the Catholic Youth Network for Environmental Sustainability in Africa, said loss-and-damage financing is “a step toward what we have been fighting for years. This has been on the agenda for the last 27 years, yet no action has been taken. So it’s the right time.”

Father Vitalis Anaehobi, secretary general of the Regional Episcopal Conference of West Africa, said the agreement brought hope to the world that one day it would be able to eradicate the effects of climate change by preserving the environment.

“This is a great success for all people of goodwill who wanted COP27 not to end in words without concrete actions. With this decision, I can rightly say that COP27 has achieved what many others failed to do,” he said.

COP27 was the first conference at which the Vatican was a formal party to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change and to the Paris Agreement. The new status meant the Holy See delegation had a seat at the negotiating tables and a vote on the final outcomes, which under U.N. rules require unanimity.

The Vatican delegation, led by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, met with fellow Catholics to discuss priorities and strategies several times. On the conference’s final scheduled day, Nov. 18, 13 Catholic institutions attending the summit issued a statement to the delegation expressing their concerns with the global response to climate change.

“We emphasize that any implementation of climate solutions must be anchored on the following three pillars: justice, equity, and solidarity,” the statement said.

Rodne Galicha, executive director of Living Laudato Si’ Philippines, said he hopes the lessons the Catholic Church learns from the Synod of Bishops on synodality can be incorporated into how it engages in future climate conferences, especially including the voices and stories from the peripheries where climate change is often felt the fiercest.

“Being officially part of the (U.N.) process, we will be assured as a synodal and inclusive church that our ecological and social concerns are articulated and acted upon,” he said.

Even with the breakthrough on loss and damage, the summit’s final text did not include a call or a timeline for a phaseout of fossil fuels, and instead repeated language reached in 2021 in Glasgow, Scotland, for “the phasedown of unabated coal power and phaseout of inefficient fossil fuel subsidies.”

Nations did agree to a program to rapidly scale up mitigation efforts, with twice-annual meetings through 2030, and reiterated that countries that haven’t aligned their climate plans with the 1.5-degree Celsius goal should do so before the end of 2023.

“Incremental progress is defeat. We can’t negotiate w/ physics. It’s a #ClimateEMERGENCY,” tweeted Tomás Insua, executive director of Laudato Si’ Movement, which was present throughout the conference.

COP27 also did not see developed countries deliver on their pledge to mobilize $100 billion annually to the Green Climate Fund for mitigation and adaptation efforts in developing countries and has pushed that timeline back to 2025.

A Global Shield fund was launched to help countries facing climate disasters. In addition, negotiators called on multilateral development banks and international financial institutions to mobilize private financing toward “significantly increasing climate ambition” and to reform their practices and priorities to simplify access to climate finance.

By the end of the summit, 150 countries had joined the Global Methane Pledge to slash emissions of methane — a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide but with a much shorter lifespan — by 30% by 2030.

With COP27 concluded, many religious leaders and Catholic actors are now urging world leaders to implement the issues that they agreed to in Egypt to save lives and livelihoods.

“My worry is that many things have been agreed on before but have never been implemented,” Munene said.

“My prayer now,” he said, “is that they stick to what they agreed to and implement it because people have lost many things, including lives, livelihoods, shelter and properties, due to the effect of climate change.”