WELCOME HOME!

As the Diocese of Scranton prepares for the Mass attendance obligation to be reinstated on August 15, Bishop Bambera is welcoming home Catholics across all 11-counties. The celebration of the Mass is the center of our lives as Christians. It is where we are drawn close to Jesus and receive His body and blood – his very life – in the Eucharist.

As this Sunday approaches, the Diocese of Scranton continues to prioritize the health, safety and spiritual well-being of all parishioners. If you need to find a parish or Mass time near you, you can visit the Diocese of Scranton’s website at dioceseofscranton.org.

 

 

ROME (CNS) – Italian police have launched an investigation after postal workers discovered an envelope containing three bullets and addressed to “the pope.”

News reports said the stamp on the envelope indicated it came from France, and the bullets were 9mm Flobert-round bullets. Reportedly, there was a message inside making reference to the Vatican’s financial operations.

The envelope had written on it in pen and with poor handwriting: “The pope. Vatican City. St. Peter’s Square in Rome.”

The envelope was flagged by employees at a mail sorting facility near Milan in the early hours of Aug. 9 and was handed over to Italy’s military police as authorities coordinated their investigation.

According to Wikipedia, 9mm Flobert shotguns are most often used for pest control and face very little to no restriction in Europe, even in countries with strict gun laws, due to their limited power and short range.

 

WASHINGTON (CNS) – A U.S. District Court judge’s Aug. 9 ruling to block the Biden administration’s mandate that doctors and hospitals perform gender-transition procedures despite their own moral or medical objections is “a victory for common sense, conscience and sound medicine.”

That is the view of Luke Goodrich, vice president and senior counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, based in Washington. He is the lead counsel for the plaintiffs in the case.

“Today’s ruling protects patients, aligns with current medical research, and ensures doctors aren’t forced to violate their religious beliefs and medical judgment,” he said about the ruling in Franciscan Alliance v. Becerra.

Franciscan Alliance, based in Mishawaka, Indiana, is a Catholic health care system now known as Franciscan Health that operates hospitals serving Indiana and one hospital in Illinois and employs over 18,000 full- and part-time employees. The defendant is Secretary Xavier Becerra of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

On Aug. 9, Judge Reed O’Connor of the District Court for the Northern District of Texas in Wichita Falls blocked the HHS regulation — in its current form as proscribed by the Biden administration. It requires doctors to perform gender-transition procedures in children and adults or be held liable for discrimination.

The regulation, Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, was first issued in 2016 by HHS under the Obama administration.

In 2020, the Trump administration put in place a final rule that eliminated the general prohibition on discrimination based on gender identity and also adopted abortion and religious freedom exemptions for health care providers. But the courts blocked this rule change.

In 2021, shortly after he was inaugurated, President Joe Biden issued an executive order declaring his administration would apply in all areas — including the ACA — the ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court’s in Bostock in 2020 that discrimination based on sex outlawed Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 covers people who are gay or transgender.

“The Christian plaintiffs contend that violation of their statutory rights under RFRA (Religious Freedom Restoration Act) is an irreparable harm,” O’Connor said in his ruling.

“The court agrees,” he said, “and concludes that enforcement of the 2021 interpretation (of Section 1557) forces Christian plaintiffs to face civil penalties or to perform gender-transition procedures and abortions contrary to their religious beliefs — a quintessential irreparable injury.”

“The court grants plaintiffs’ request for a permanent injunction and permanently enjoins” HHS, Becerra and all HHS-related divisions, agencies and employees “from interpreting or enforcing Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act.”

“Today’s decision rightly says the mandate violates federal law,” said Goodrich in a string of tweets. He noted “this is now the second federal court to block the mandate.”

He was referring to a Jan. 19 ruling by the U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota in Fargo in a lawsuit filed on behalf of Franciscan Alliance/Franciscan Health, and the Christian Medical and Dental Associations. The states of Texas, Kansas, Kentucky, Nebraska and Wisconsin also joined in the suit.

The Biden administration filed an appeal April 20 with the U.S Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit, based in St. Louis.

Goodrich tweeted that Franciscan Alliance/Franciscan Health’s hospitals and health care professionals “gladly serve all patients regardless of their sex or gender identity, yet were threatened with multimillion dollar penalties by a controversial HHS regulation if they refused to perform gender-transition procedures.”

“These religious doctors and hospitals joyfully serve ALL patients and routinely provide top-notch care to transgender patients. There is ample evidence, however, that some gender transition procedures can harm patients,” Goodrich said.

“Several federal circuits — including the 5th and 1st — have all reached the same conclusion: ‘There is no medical consensus that sex reassignment surgery is a necessary or even effective treatment for gender dysphoria.”

 

Pope Francis greets a child during his general audience in the Vatican’s Paul VI hall Aug. 11, 2021. The pope continued his series of audience talks focused on St. Paul’s Letter to the Galatians and reflected on what role God’s law to Moses plays in helping people encounter Christ. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – What made Christian life radically new was the call for those who have faith in Jesus Christ to live in the Holy Spirit, who liberates from the law God handed down to Moses, Pope Francis said during his weekly general audience.

Mosaic law was necessary and important to follow at that time in history, but it served as a path to follow toward an eventual encounter with Christ and his commandment of love, he said Aug. 11 to those gathered in the Paul VI audience hall at the Vatican.

The pope continued with his series of talks reflecting on St. Paul’s Letter to the Galatians, focusing on the apostle answering the question, “Why, then, the law” if, after all, “there is the Holy Spirit and if there is Jesus who redeems us?”

“The law is a journey” and it acts like a teacher that takes people by the hand, leading them forward, toward an encounter with Jesus and having faith in Christ, he said.

God gave Moses the law to prepare his people on this journey during a time of rampant idolatry and to help his people guide their behavior in a way that showed and expressed their faith and covenant with God, he said.

However, he said, the law was not the covenant; the covenant came first with Abraham, hundreds of years before Moses, the pope said. The covenant was based not on the observance of the law, but on faith in the fulfilment of God’s promises, he said.

St. Paul needed to clarify the role of the law to the Galatians because there were “fundamentalist missionaries” among them who seemed almost “nostalgic” about observing Mosaic law, believing that adhering to the covenant also included observing the Mosaic law, he said.

The apostle explains that, “in reality, the covenant and the law are not linked indissolubly,” the pope said. “The first element he relies on is that the covenant established by God with Abraham was based on faith in the fulfillment of the promise and not on the observance of the law that did not yet exist.”

“Having said this, one should not think, however, that St. Paul was opposed to the Mosaic law” because he does defend its divine origin and says it has “a well-defined role in the history of salvation,” the pope said.

“The law, however, does not give life, it does not offer the fulfillment of (God’s) promise, because it is not capable of being able to fulfill it. Those who seek life need to look to the promise and to its fulfillment in Christ,” he said.

This was the problem — when people put more importance on observing the law than with encountering Christ, he said.

This passage of St. Paul to the Galatians “presents the radical newness of the Christian life: All those who have faith in Jesus Christ are called to live in the Holy Spirit, who liberates from the law and, at the same time, brings it to fulfillment according to the commandment of love,” he said.

The law is a path and “may the Lord help people walk along the path of the Ten Commandments, however, by looking at Christ’s love, the encounter with Christ, knowing that the encounter with Jesus is more important than all the commandments,” he said.

Addressing people after the main audience talk, Pope Francis told French-speaking visitors that it was “with great sorrow” that he learned of the Aug. 6 murder of the 60-year-old Montfort Father Olivier Maire.

“I extend my condolences to the religious community of the Monfortians in Saint-Laurent-sur-Sèvre in Vendée, to his family and to all Catholics in France,” he said, assuring everyone of his closeness.

At the end of the audience, right before the pope was set to greet visitors, an aide went to the pope, spoke to him for a few minutes and handed him a mobile phone. The pope spoke on the phone for a few minutes, then left the hall briefly before returning to greet visitors as usual.

Visitors were required to wear face masks, but not present a so-called “green pass” of proof of vaccination, of a negative COVID-19 test or of recovery from COVID-19.

Italy recently passed a decree as part of ongoing measures to curb the spread of the virus, by making it obligatory for anyone over the age of 12 to show a “green pass” for certain activities, including to eat indoors at restaurants, enter gyms or movie theaters, visit museums, including the Vatican Museums, and, starting in September, to attend school on-site.

The Italian bishops’ conference published a note July 26 saying the pass was not required for going to Mass or joining in processions, but health measures such as wearing masks and social distancing would be continuing. The green pass was required for people entering church-owned or church-operated movie theaters, museums, restaurants and coffee bars, sporting events, conferences, indoor swimming pools, gyms, social centers and reception venues.

 

Caring for the health, safety and spiritual well-being of all parishioners remains a priority of the Diocese of Scranton during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bishop Joseph C. Bambera issued a new letter to the faithful on August 6, strongly recommending that parishioners wear a mask while attending Mass because of the new delta variant.  He has also requested that all priests, deacons and extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion wear masks while distributing Holy Communion, regardless of their vaccination status.

Read Bishop Bambera’s letter below:

 

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Jesus commanded his followers to care for the sick and to bring physical and spiritual healing to everyone. In that spirit, the Catholic bishops of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania have issued this statement:

Caring for the health, safety and spiritual wellbeing of parishioners and their communities is a priority of all the bishops of Pennsylvania. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, dioceses have made every effort to implement best practices in public health for every aspect of parish life.  Each diocese is continuously re-evaluating coronavirus mitigation efforts, frequently consulting with state and federal healthcare experts and constantly monitoring data. Diocesan leaders are listening to input from parishioners, including those with medical expertise, as cases of the Delta and other new variants are surging.

It is now evident that this global health crisis could linger for months or years to come. Our call as shepherds is to provide the Eucharist in a safe environment. To that end, each diocesan bishop will communicate to the faithful, asking them to prioritize their own health and the health of their neighbors and faith communities.

As previously announced, the bishops are reinstating the obligation to attend Mass in person on Sundays and holy days beginning on Sunday, Aug. 15, 2021. However, by longstanding Church law, this obligation does not apply to those who are:

  • Sick
  • Have a serious health risk
  • In a household with those at risk
  • Primary caregivers to those at risk
  • Have serious anxiety or concerns about being in a large-group setting due to COVID-19
  • Unable to attend Mass in person

As an act of charity, anyone who believes they might have COVID-19 or one of its variants should stay home.

Those who are legitimately excused from Mass on Sundays and Holy Days are encouraged to spend time in prayer, meditating on the death and Resurrection of the Lord, reading the sacred Scriptures, and uniting themselves to Christ. They are also encouraged to investigate the numerous options to view broadcasts and streams of Mass, which are continuing across the state.

While masks are not currently mandated, each parishioner is strongly encouraged to make a responsible decision about the use of masks and vaccinations following in the examples of all Pennsylvania Bishops, Pope Francis and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI who have all been vaccinated for the common good.

Our coronavirus mitigation efforts will continue to evolve, based on the most up-to-date public health information. Each bishop will continue to communicate with his faithful as changes become necessary.

The Pennsylvania Catholic Conference is based in Harrisburg and is the public affairs arm of PA’s Catholic bishops.

 

 

Since its dedication, the twin towers of the Cathedral have been a Scranton landmark. Gain a new perspective of this historic building through its art and architecture. On Friday, August 6 at 7:00 p.m., Monsignor Rupert, Cathedral Pastor, will offer a tour highlighting the numerous frescoes, stained glass windows, mosaics, and other works of art which bring to life our local history.

The Valenches Music Company will be performing live music on the porch of the Cathedral starting at 6 p.m.

The tour is presented in conjunction with First Friday Scranton.

 

Father Ed Michelini, seminarian Marc Philips during French Azilum Mass on Sunday, July 25, 2021

BRADFORD COUNTY – Returning to the first roots of the Catholic faith in Bradford County, where they were originally planted, Father Ed Michelini from Ss. Peter & Paul Parish in Towanda began a new tradition four years ago. Once a year, on a Sunday in July, he offers Mass at the French Azilum Historic Site, accompanied by parishioners and visitors. The Board of Directors at the French Azilum Site welcomes this event each year on their calendar as another living link to its past history.

Many aristocrats fled the violence of the French Revolution by coming to America in the late 18th century. The group of refugees who came to this area had an additional goal — to establish a place of refuge for their Queen, Marie Antoinette, and her two children, hence the name “Azilum,” which means asylum or safety.

Investors in Philadelphia who were sympathetic to the French loyalists’ plight, initially purchased 1600 acres along the Susquehanna River. They set aside 300 acres on a fertile “horseshoe” bend in the river for a planned community, including agricultural area, and began building houses for the refugees.

The occupation began in 1793, including one or more priests, and more homes added as numbers increased. As history explains, Marie Antoinette did not escape death, and the “Grand Maison” (The Big House) which they had built for the queen was later utilized for other purposes. This community eventually dwindled; by the turn of the century, several had migrated to more established places, such as New Orleans with its large French population; many others returned home to France when the new government granted them amnesty.

A few families remained, and some of their descendants are still among the local county population. Place names, like Homet’s Ferry and LaPorte are remnants of that period.

On Sunday, July 25, 2021, Father Michelini, along with parish summer seminarian, Marc Philips, set up the altar under the pavilion for the 1:00 p.m. Mass. A number of parishioners, site guides and visitors assembled and participated in the Mass. In his homily, Father Michelini recalled not only our grandparents and the elderly, for the celebration of the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly, but also the region’s ancestors in faith, and the intrepid French settlers who made Bradford County home.

Marc Philips led the entrance and recessional hymns, with all happily joining in singing in the open air. He also sang a solo Communion hymn. A gentle breeze wafted like the Holy Spirit through the flock of the faithful who gathered once more on the grounds for the Holy Mass.

 

 

WASHINGTON (CNS) – The refusal by the U.S. House to include the Hyde Amendment and other pro-life riders in appropriations bills before lawmakers passed the measures is an “injustice” that overshadows the provisions that help “vulnerable people,” said the chairmen of two U.S. bishops’ committees.

Late July 29, the House voted 219 to 208 in favor of H.R. 4502, a package of appropriations bills that currently exclude the Hyde, Weldon and Helms amendments and other longstanding, bipartisan-supported pro-life language.

Eliminating these provisions would force taxpayers to pay for elective abortions and would have the effect of forcing health care providers and professionals “to perform and refer for abortion against their deeply-held beliefs, as well as forcing employers and insurers to cover and pay for abortion,” said the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in a news release issued after the vote.

The release included a joint statement on the House actions by Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee for Religious Liberty, and Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Pro-Life Activities.

“The House has voted in a way that is completely out of step with the will of the American people who overwhelmingly oppose taxpayer-funded abortion,” the prelates said.

“The Hyde Amendment has saved at least 2.4 million lives since its enactment. Without it, millions of poor women in desperate circumstances will make the irrevocable decision to take the government up on its offer to end the life of their child,” they said.

The now-approved package of spending bills “includes provisions that help vulnerable people, including pregnant moms,” they acknowledged, but “as we have said before, ‘being “right” in such matters can never excuse a wrong choice regarding direct attacks on innocent human life.'”

This “failure to protect and defend life in its most vulnerable stages renders suspect any claims to the ‘rightness’ of positions in other matters affecting the poorest and least powerful of the human community,” they said, again quoting a previous bishops’ statement.

H.R. 4502 covers spending for Agriculture; Energy and Water Development; Financial Services and General Government; Interior, Environment and related agencies, Labor, Health and Human Services and Education; Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and related agencies; and Transportation and Housing and Urban Development.

The Hyde Amendment, first enacted with strong bipartisan support 45 years ago, outlaws federal tax dollars from directly funding abortion except in cases of rape, incest or when the life of the woman would be endangered.

Congress must reauthorize the Hyde Amendment annually as an attachment to the appropriations bill for the Department of Health and Human Services. Hyde language also has been part of a dozen spending bills for decades. Until this year, Hyde has been reauthorized every year since 1976.

“The injustice in H.R. 4502 extends to removing conscience protections and exemptions for health care providers who believe abortion is wrong, or whose faith drives them to serve and heal lives, instead of taking them,” Cardinal Dolan and Archbishop Naumann said, referring to the Weldon Amendment, first passed in 2005.

“Funding the destruction of innocent unborn human lives, and forcing people to kill in violation of their consciences, are grave abuses of human rights,” they said.

The cardinal and archbishop called on the Senate “to redress this evil in H.R. 4502, and for Congress to ultimately pass appropriations bills that fully support and protect human dignity, and the most vulnerable among us.”

On July 28, the House voted 217-212 to pass the appropriations bill for the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development, H.R. 4373, without the Helms Amendment. Called “the Hyde Amendment for the rest of the world,” it has prohibited using U.S. taxpayer funds to directly pay for abortions in other countries since 1973.

In a July 30 joint statement, Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop Naumann and Bishop David J. Malloy of Rockford, Illinois, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on International Justice and Peace, criticized the House for eliminating Helms.

“(This) could force recipient countries that have strong legal and cultural opposition to abortion to embrace it in order to receive desperately?needed help for their people,” they said.

“Pope Francis has referred to this type of situation as ideological colonization,” they added, calling on the Senate “to?stand?against the coercive pro-abortion policies of H.R. 4373.”

“While this legislation contains many positive provisions that provide assistance to the poor and vulnerable worldwide, including protection of refugees, increases to humanitarian assistance, and protection of the environment, nothing can justify subsidizing the taking of innocent human life,” the prelates said.

In a July 29 email, U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., a co-chair of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus, told Catholic News Service that he, Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., and other House members “pushed hard in the Rules Committee and in the House debates to defend the unborn and their mothers from the violence of abortion.”

“A total of 14 pro-life amendments were ruled out of order by the Democratic majority,” Smith said in July 27 remarks on the House floor. “All is not lost, however. I remain hopeful — confident — that the Senate will reinstate all current pro-life protections, like the Hyde Amendment.”

Before the full House took up the spending bills for fiscal year 2022, the House Appropriations Committee had spent the previous weeks marking up the bills on largely party-line votes to advance them to the House floor.

In marking them up, committee members left out the Hyde, Weldon and Helms amendments.

Their actions after President Joe Biden released his proposed budget May 28 without the Hyde Amendment, a move decried by the U.S. Catholic bishops, the Catholic Health Association, several national pro-life organizations, and Smith and many other pro-life House members.

Other pro-life reaction to the House’s July 29 vote included a statement from Jeanne Mancini, president of March for Life, who criticized “pro-abortion Democrats” for eliminating provisions that “protect the American public from funding or providing abortions against their will.”

“Consistent polling shows that a majority of Americans want these protections” she said in a July 29 statement. “It is time codify these popular and common-sense riders into law by passing the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortions Act. No one should be forced to compromise their values, but especially not on this life-or-death issue.”

Mancini was referring to the proposed No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act of 2021, or H.R. 18, which would make Hyde and similar provisions permanent. Smith is the author of the bill, which has 166 co-sponsors.

Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly said the House vote “to make taxpayers pay for abortions is both an assault on the dignity of life and contrary to the wishes of most Americans.” He cited the results of Knights of Columbus/Marist polling this year showing “that 58% of Americans oppose the use of taxpayer-funding for abortions … affirming over a decade of previous polling data.”

“We urge the Senate to include the Hyde Amendment and other similar provisions as they undertake the appropriations process and for the full Congress to ultimately pass spending bills that affirm this bipartisan desire of the American public,” Kelly said.

“We call on all legislators, especially our fellow Catholics, to have the courage to make a stand for conscience and to not force every tax-paying American to pay for the destruction of innocent life in the womb,” he said.

Jennifer Popik, legislative director of National Right to Life, said the Hyde Amendment “has proven to be the greatest domestic abortion-reduction measure ever enacted by Congress. … (It) is widely recognized as having saved over two million American lives since it was first adopted in 1976.”

 

Pope Francis greets a young person during his general audience in Paul VI hall at the Vatican Aug. 4, 2021. It was his first audience since undergoing colon surgery July 4. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The true Gospel has been revealed by Jesus Christ, not by individuals or founders of movements, Pope Francis said during his weekly general audience.

“With the truth of the Gospel, one cannot negotiate. Either you receive the Gospel as it is, as it was announced,” or one embraces something else, he said Aug. 4 to those gathered in the Paul VI audience hall at the Vatican.

“One cannot compromise. Faith in Jesus is not a bargaining chip; it is salvation, it is encounter, it is redemption. It cannot be sold off cheaply,” said the pope, as he led his first general audience since his colon surgery July 4 and after the usual suspension of general audiences for the month of July.

Continuing with a new catechesis series reflecting on St. Paul’s Letter to the Galatians, Pope Francis focused on the apostle’s insistence that the faithful be loyal to the Gospel Jesus preached and not be swayed by new missionaries who “wish to pervert the Gospel of Christ.”

St. Paul understands the need to keep the young community safe from that which threatens its foundations, that is, a new “gospel,” which is “perhaps more sophisticated, more intellectual,” but which distorted “the true Gospel because it prevents (people) from attaining the freedom acquired by arriving at faith,” the pope said, emphasizing the key here was “freedom.”

The true proclamation is “that of the death and resurrection of Jesus as the source of salvation,” he said. “Whoever accepts it is reconciled to God, is welcomed as a true son or daughter and receives the inheritance of eternal life.”

Instead, some of the Galatians seemed to be veering off onto another path: listening to new missionaries who think “that by circumcision they will be even more devoted to the will of God and thus be even more pleasing to Paul,” the pope said. They seem to be “inspired by fidelity to the tradition received from the fathers and believe that genuine faith consists in observing the law.”

St. Paul, therefore, seems unorthodox with regard to tradition, but he knows “that his mission is of a divine nature — it was revealed by Christ himself, to him” as something that is radically and always new, the pope said.

In this complicated situation, he said, “it is necessary to disentangle oneself in order to grasp the supreme truth that is most consistent with the person and preaching of Jesus and his revelation of the father’s love.”

“This is important: knowing how to discern,” he said. “Many times we have seen in history, and we also see it today, some movements that preach the Gospel in their own way, sometimes with their own real charisms; but then they exaggerate and reduce the entire Gospel to the ‘movement.'”

When that happens, it becomes a gospel of the founder and not of Christ, he said.

“It may help at the beginning, but in the end, it does not bear fruit with deep roots. For this reason, Paul’s clear and decisive word was salutary for the Galatians and is salutary for us too,” he said.

The pope said the true Gospel is “Christ’s gift to us; he himself revealed it to us. It is what gives us life.”