SCRANTON – The 2020 Diocesan Annual Appeal: Bound Together in Hope has concluded with gifts and pledges of nearly $4.1 million from 20,800 donors. This is 91% of the goal of $4.5 million. Forty-six parishes surpassed their Annual Appeal parish goal. Those parishes are all listed at the bottom of this page.

“I am extremely grateful to our parishioners, clergy and friends for their support of the 2021 Annual Appeal,” Most Reverend Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, said. “I appreciate the generosity of so many of our faithful especially in this most difficult year when everyone has faced struggles of their own.”

“Donors to the Appeal offer a wonderful example of God’s love and mercy in our lives and provide significant support and encouragement for all those who benefit from the Diocesan ministries funded by the Appeal,” Bishop Bambera added.

Gifts to the Diocesan Annual Appeal support the mission of our local Church to:

  • Feed the hungry, clothe the naked and provide shelter and assistance for those most in need
  • Care for our retired priests who have faithfully served, and continue to serve, the needs of the faithful in our Diocese
  • Encourage and support our men who are in formation to become priests and deacons as we look to the future of our parishes and our Diocese
  • Support our young people in our Catholic schools and in our parish religious education programs by helping them to prepare for fulfilling and faith-centered lives
  • Renew and strengthen our parish communities by providing opportunities for all of us to more fully share their personal gifts in devoted service to God and one another
  • Joyfully proclaim the message of the Gospel by informing and inspiring the faithful of our Diocese through The Catholic Light, CTV: Catholic Television, and the Diocesan website.

More specific information on ways that gifts to the Appeal have helped Diocesan and parish ministries in the past year are included in the 2020 Diocesan Annual Appeal Mission Impact Report on the next two pages of The Catholic Light.

The Diocesan Annual Appeal team includes Diocesan staff, pastors, parish volunteers and committees and regional chairpersons throughout the 11 counties in the Diocese in northeastern and north central Pennsylvania. “Congratulations and sincere thanks to our pastors, regional chairs and Appeal parish representatives who partnered with us to promote the Diocesan Annual Appeal and encourage participation among our parishioners in our 117 parishes throughout the Diocese,” Jim Bebla, Diocesan Secretary for Development, said.  “This support is a key part of the success of the Appeal.”

This year’s Annual Appeal Regional Lay and Clergy Chairs are listed below.

Bradford, Sullivan and Susquehanna Counties – Karen Garman and Larry Hoey, Epiphany Parish, Sayre, and Father Joseph Kutch, Saint Michael Parish, Canton.

Lackawanna and Wyoming Counties – Chris and Ann DiMattio, Saint Catherine of Siena Parish, Moscow, and Father Patrick Albert, Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish, Tunkhannock, and Saint Mary of the Lake, Lake Winola.

Luzerne County – Joe and Paula Panzitta, Corpus Christi Parish, West Pittston, and Father Joseph Elston, Saint John the Evangelist Parish and Saint Joseph Marello Parish, Pittston.

Lycoming and Tioga Counties – Jim and Susan Dinsmore, Saint Lawrence Parish, Williamsport, and Father Glenn McCreary, Resurrection Parish, Muncy.

Monroe County – Atty. Joe and Linda McDonald, Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish, Brodheadsville, and Father Carmen Perry, Saint Luke Parish, Stroudsburg.

Wayne and Pike Counties – Gerald Najarian, Saint Vincent de Paul Parish, Milford, and Father Ed Casey, Saint Ann Parish, Shohola, and Saint John Neumann Parish, Lords Valley.

 

2020 Diocesan Annual Appeal
Parishes Over Goal

Ascension Parish – Forest City

Blessed Sacrament Parish – Throop

Corpus Christi Parish – West Pittston

Exaltation of the Holy Cross Parish – Hanover Township

Holy Cross Parish – Olyphant

Holy Family Parish – Luzerne

Holy Family Parish – Sugar Notch

Holy Name of Mary Parish – Montrose

Holy Rosary Parish – Hazleton

Immaculate Conception Parish – Scranton

Most Precious Blood Parish – Hazleton

Our Lady of Fatima Parish – Wilkes-Barre

Our Lady of Hope Parish – Wilkes-Barre

Our Lady of Victory Parish – Harveys Lake

Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish – Brodheadsville

Resurrection Parish – Muncy

Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish – Peckville

SS Peter & Paul Parish – Towanda

Saint Ann Parish – Shohola

Saint Barbara Parish – Exeter

Saint Brigid Parish – Friendsville

Saint Catherine of Siena Parish – Moscow

Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish – Swoyersville

Saint Elizabeth Parish – Bear Creek

Saint Faustina Kowalska Parish – Nanticoke

Saint Frances X. Cabrini Parish – Carverton

Saint Gregory Parish – Clarks Green

Saint Ignatius Loyola Parish – Kingston

Saint John Bosco Parish – Conyngham

Saint John Neumann Parish – Lords Valley

Saint Joseph Marello Parish – Pittston

Saint Joseph Parish – Matamoras

Saint Joseph the Worker Parish – Williamsport

Saint Katharine Drexel Parish – Pleasant Mount

Saint Lawrence Parish – South Williamsport

Saint Luke Parish – Stroudsburg

Saint Mary Parish – Waymart

Saint Maximilian Kolbe Parish – Pocono Pines

Saint Michael Parish – Canton

Saint Nicholas Parish – Wilkes-Barre

Saint Peter’s Cathedral – Scranton

Saint Rita Parish – Gouldsboro

Saint Robert Bellarmine Parish – Wilkes-Barre

Saint Therese Parish – Shavertown

Saint Thomas More Parish – Lake Ariel

Saint Vincent de Paul Parish – Milford

 

 

SCRANTON — The 97th annual Solemn Novena to Saint Ann at the Basilica of the National Shrine, honoring the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary in West Scranton, opens on Saturday, July 17. It will continue with nine days of Eucharistic worship, devotional prayer and preaching, culminating with the celebration of the Feast of Saint Ann on Monday, July 26.

Very Rev. Passionist Father Richard Burke, rector of the Saint Ann Passionist Monastery and director of the Saint Ann National Shrine Basilica, announces the guest preachers for this year’s Solemn Novena will be Passionist Fathers Robert Joerger and Robert Carbonneau.

The theme for the 2021 Novena devotion, “Lift High the Cross,” pays homage to the very foundation and charism the religious Congregation of the Passion was established upon 300 years ago by Saint Paul of the Cross — namely, the spreading of the Gospel message through pious devotion to, and particular emphasis on, the Passion and Death of Jesus Christ.

“The Cross of Christ is the focus on our faith,” Father Richard said. “The Cross of Christ is the wellspring of meaning for all the joys and trials in the pathway of life.”

According to the Passionist superior, the preachers for the midsummer Novena to the grandmother of Jesus will narrow the focus of this year’s general theme to provide a sub-theme for each day of the devotion. The daily schedule of those preached messages that will apply the overall theme to the lives of the faithful is as follows:

July 17, “The Cross and Our Search for Life”; July 18, “The Cross as the Foundation of My Faith”; July 19, “The Cross: Where Wounds Become Wisdom”; July 20, “Carry Our Cross as Ambassadors for Christ”; July 21, “The Cross and the Breath of the Spirit”; July 22, “Mary and the Healing Message of Christ”; July 23, “The Cross and the Healing of Resentment”; July 24, “Compassion and the Cross”; July 25, “The Cross is Our Belonging”; and July 26, “Lift High the Cross & Humbly Accept Healing.”

In regard to the blessing with the Saint Ann relic following all Novena devotions, Father Richard explained that precautions will continue due to the ongoing pandemic. As was the case during last year’s Saint Ann Novena, only a general blessing of the faithful with the saint’s relic will be imparted. No individual blessings will be offered.

A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., where he graduated from Xaverian High School, Father Bob Joerger currently serves as pastor of Saint Therese of Lisieux Parish in Montauk, N.Y., and is an Affiliated Member of the De LaSalle Christian Brothers.

Upon graduating from Assumption College in Worcester, Mass., he entered the Passionist Novitiate, professing his vows in 1973. He received  his master’s degrees in theology and divinity from Saint John’s University, Queens, N.Y., prior to his ordination as a Passionist priest in 1977.

Father Bob later earned a master’s degree in Christian spirituality and certification as a spiritual director from Creighton University in Omaha, Neb., and attended the Institute of Culinary Arts in New York City.

He is past director of Saint Gabriel’s Youth Retreat House on Shelter Island, N.Y., and served as provincial superior of the Saint Paul of the Cross Province of Passionists ministering in Canada, the Eastern United States, Jamaica, Haiti and Puerto Rico. He is also a former consultor to the Superior General of the Passionists in Rome.

Father Rob Carbonneau was assigned to the Passionist religious community at Saint Ann’s Monastery and National Shrine Basilica in 2018, serving as an adjunct professor in the History Department at The University of Scranton, where he has taught courses on the history of American Catholicism and Modern China. As official historian for the Saint Paul of the Cross Passionist Province, Father Rob oversees the Passionist Historical Archives collection at the Weinberg Memorial Library at The University of Scranton.

A native of West Hartford, Conn., and graduate of Assumption College in Worcester, Mass., Father Rob was ordained a priest for the Passionist order in 1978. He received his doctorate in American and East Asian history from Georgetown University in 1992, with his thesis providing in-depth research into the martyred deaths of three Passionist missionaries killed in Hunan China in 1929.

During 2015-18, the Passionist priest served as executive director of the U.S.-China Catholic Association in Berkeley, Calif., where he acted as an official spokesman on the present realities of the Catholic Church in China.

Father Rob is recognized as an international scholar on the Passionists in America, with an emphasis on the history of American Catholic missionaries in 20th-century China. In 2004, he published an article, entitled “Coal Mines, Saint Ann’s Novena and Passionist Spirituality in Scranton, Pennsylvania,” for American Catholic Studies.

Special spiritual offerings highlighting this year’s Novena to Saint Ann include the Divine Liturgy of the Byzantine Rite on Tuesday, July 20, at 5:30 p.m., celebrated by Bishop Kurt Burnette of the Byzantine Ruthenian Catholic Eparchy of Passaic, and Mass with Anointing of the Sick on Thursday, July 22, at 1:30 p.m., with the Sacrament of the Sick available to all elderly, infirm and the ill.

On Saturday, July 24, the Novena will offer a special blessing service for all infants and children at the 10 a.m. Mass. The following day, Sunday, July 25, all Eucharistic liturgies will honor and bless grandparents and the elderly, in observance of World Day for Grandparents and Elderly recently inaugurated by Pope Francis and in prayerful tribute to Saints Ann and Joachim, the grandparents of Jesus.

Bishop Joseph C. Bambera of Scranton will celebrate the Solemn Closing of the Novena on the Feast of Saint Ann, July 26, at 7:30 p.m. Earlier on the feast day, the Mass in Polish will be celebrated at 1:30 p.m., featuring Polish hymns. Anyone wishing to join the choir in singing the liturgical songs in Polish is welcome to do so by coming to the choir loft before Mass.

The Sacrament of Reconciliation will be available to all faithful 45 minutes before each Novena Mass/devotion, with confessions heard in the Lower Basilica. On Saint Ann’s Feast Day, the Sacrament will be available throughout the day.

Father Richard also announced that the Saint Ann’s Religious Article Shop will be open throughout the Novena, and the Shrine’s Memorial Walkway and Saint Padre Pio Plaza will be available for those wishing to remember and honor the memory of loved ones.

Much to the delight of the faithful in attendance, Saint Ann Basilica Parish will once again staff and provide for the time-honored and popular tradition of the Novena Food Pavilion, offering menu items and refreshments for all devotees during their visit.

 

 

 

Pope Francis prays in front of the Marian icon “Salus Populi Romani” at the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome July 14, 2021. The pope visited the basilica after his release from Rome’s Gemelli hospital following his recovery from colon surgery. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Ten days after undergoing intestinal surgery, Pope Francis was released from Rome’s Gemelli hospital, the Vatican confirmed.

In a statement released July 14, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said that after leaving the hospital midmorning, the pope visited the Basilica of St. Mary Major to say a prayer of gratitude before the icon of “Salus Populi Romani” (health of the Roman people).

The pope thanked Mary “for the success of his surgery and offered a prayer for all the sick, especially those he had met during his stay in hospital,” the statement said.

After praying at the basilica, the pope returned to his Vatican residence, the Domus Sanctae Marthae, Bruni said.

The pope was admitted to Gemelli hospital in the early afternoon July 4 to undergo “a scheduled surgical intervention for a symptomatic diverticular stenosis of the colon.”

He underwent a three-hour left hemicolectomy, which is the removal of the descending part of the colon, a surgery that can be recommended to treat diverticulitis, when bulging pouches in the lining of the intestine or colon become inflamed or infected.

Initially expected to remain in the hospital for seven days, the Vatican said July 12 that the pope would “remain hospitalized for a few more days in order to optimize his medical and rehabilitation therapy.”

During his stay, the pope continued working and spent time visiting patients at the hospital.

In his Sunday Angelus address July 11 from the 10th floor balcony of his suite of rooms at the hospital, Pope Francis said his time in the hospital gave him the opportunity to experience “once again how important good health care is” and that free, universal health care, especially for the most vulnerable, is a “precious benefit (that) must not be lost.”

“It needs to be kept,” the pope said. “And for this, everyone needs to be committed because it helps everyone and requires everyone’s contribution.”

The evening before his release, Pope Francis visited Gemelli’s pediatric oncology ward, which also is on the 10th floor, and greeted the young patients, their families and the staff.

While Pope Francis usually takes July as his vacation month, he is scheduled to lead the recitation of the Angelus at noon July 18 and to celebrate Mass July 25, the first World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly.

 

July 15, 2021

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

For more than a year, the COVID-19 pandemic has posed unique challenges in our lives. It has brought hardship and struggle to some – separation, anxiety and isolation to others. We pray for those who have been directly affected by the virus, those that are still impacted by its effects and those who have lost loved ones.

Since March 2020, there has been a dispensation in the Diocese of Scranton from the obligation to participate at Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation. In light of the continued decline in cases and hospitalizations locally, that dispensation will end on Sunday, August 15, 2021, the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This change will occur in each diocese in Pennsylvania on the same date.

The Sunday celebration of Mass is the center of the Church’s life. The importance – and necessity – to attend Mass on Sundays and Holy Days is rooted in our Baptism as Christians. Baptism compels us, as Christians, to unite ourselves with Christ at the altar in his saving Sacrifice of the Cross. Put simply, attending Mass is an encounter with Our Risen Lord.

This is a moment to thank God anew for the great gift of the Mass and the Real Presence of Jesus to us in His Holy Body and Blood as well as the joy of gathering together as people of faith.

As Pope Francis reminded us in his 2013 Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, “The joy of the gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus.” Long before we knew a pandemic was on the horizon, the Holy Father reminded us the Sunday encounter gives us the strength to experience the present with confidence and courage and to go forth with hope.

I invite and encourage all of the faithful in our community – including those who may have left the Church long before the pandemic – to return to the Table of the Lord – and be nourished by the Bread of Life! Our participation at Mass in-person is a gift for our own spiritual well-being, happiness and eternal salvation.  It is also our responsibility to our brothers and sisters with whom we journey in faith.

It is important to note that people who are seriously ill or have a serious health risk, as well as those who have significant fear or anxiety of being part of a large group will continue to be legitimately excused from participating in Mass on Sundays and Holy Days. Those individuals are still encouraged to spend time in prayer, meditating on the Death and Resurrection of the Lord, reading Sacred Scripture and uniting themselves to Christ in his worship of the Father of us all.

Please continue to pray for all of our clergy and religious – who work tirelessly to make sure our parish communities remain safe and vibrant!

Faithfully yours in Christ,

†Joseph C. Bambera
Most Reverend Joseph C. Bambera, D.D., J.C.L.
Bishop of Scranton

 

His Excellency, Bishop Joseph C. Bambera, announces the following appointments, effective as indicated:

Bechtel, Rev. David W., from Pastor, St. Peter Parish, Wellsboro, and St. Thomas the Apostle Parish, Elkland, to Pastor, St. Joseph the Worker Parish, Williamsport, effective August 11, 2021.

Delaney, Msgr. Michael J., from Pastor, Holy Cross Parish, Olyphant, and Blessed Sacrament Parish, Throop, to Pastor, Our Lady of the Snows Parish, Clarks Summit, effective July 20, 2021.

Hvozdovic, Rev. Andrew S., from Pastor, Epiphany Parish, Sayre, to Pastor, Gate of Heaven Parish, Dallas, and Our Lady of Victory Parish, Harvey’s Lake, effective August 11, 2021.

Miller, Rev. Kevin M., from Assistant Pastor, St. Rose of Lima Parish, Carbondale, and Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish, Carbondale, to Pastor, St. Brigid Parish, Friendsville, effective August 2, 2021.

Quinnan, Rev. Michael F., to Pastor, St. Luke Parish, Stroudsburg, effective July 20, 2021. Father Quinnan will serve as Administrator Pro Tem, Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish, Brodheadsville.

Simon, Rev. Robert J., from Pastor, St. Catherine of Siena, Moscow, to Pastor, Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish, Brodheadsville, effective August 9, 2021.

 

A patient in the pediatric oncology ward of Rome’s Gemelli hospital made a card for Pope Francis, who is recovering there from colon surgery. The child wrote, “Dear Pope Francis, we heard you are not so well and that you are in our hospital now. Even if we cannot see each other, we send you a big hug and hope you will heal quickly.” (CNS photo/Courtesy Policlinico Gemelli)

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Although still hospitalized, Pope Francis has resumed working and celebrated Mass for his caregivers in the small chapel that is part of the suite of rooms reserved for the popes at Rome’s Gemelli hospital, the Vatican press office said July 9.

“He walked in the corridor and resumed his work, alternating it with moments of reading texts,” said the statement issued on the fifth morning of his hospitalization for colon surgery.

Matteo Bruni, director of the press office, also announced that Pope Francis will lead the midday recitation of the Angelus prayer July 11 from his room on the 10th floor of Gemelli hospital.

“Following the brief episode with a slight temperature (July 7), the Holy Father is without fever,” he added.

The morning after the running a temperature, the pope’s doctors performed a CT scan of his abdomen and chest as well as routine exams to ensure that he was not suffering from an infection, a common complication of intestinal surgery.

The results of the scan and exams were negative, the Vatican press office had said July 8.

Pope Francis had sent a message of “paternal closeness” to the “young patients in the nearby pediatric oncology and children’s neurosurgery wards,” Bruni said.

Early July 9, the Gemelli hospital released photos of a card one of the young oncology patients had made for the pope. The cover features a simply drawing of Pope Francis and the inside has the message: “Dear Pope Francis, we heard you are not so well and that you are in our hospital now. Even if we cannot see each other, we send you a big hug and hope you will heal quickly.”

“The Holy Father gives thanks for the many messages of affection and closeness that he receives daily and asks that we continue to pray for him,” Bruni said.

The Vatican’s July 7 midday bulletin, issued before the pope’s temporary temperature, said the doctors had removed his intravenous drip, and that “the post-operative progress of His Holiness Pope Francis continues to be regular and satisfactory.”

“The Holy Father has continued to eat regularly, and infusion therapy has been suspended,” it added.

Announcing that the pope had arrived at the Rome hospital July 4, the Vatican had said he was to undergo “a scheduled surgical intervention for a symptomatic diverticular stenosis of the colon.”

The next morning, the Vatican said the surgery lasted three hours and included “a left hemicolectomy,” the removal of the descending part of the colon, which can be recommended to treat diverticulitis, when bulging pouches in the lining of the intestine or colon become inflamed or infected.

Three days after surgery, the Vatican said, “the final histological examination has confirmed a severe diverticular stenosis with signs of sclerosing diverticulitis,” a hardening of the tissue. The statement seemed to indicate that the biopsy showed no cancerous cells.

Pope Francis is expected to remain in the hospital at least until July 12. Since St. John Paul II was shot in 1981, the Gemelli hospital, part of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, has maintained a suite of rooms for use by the pope.

Hospitalized there on several occasions, St. John Paul would lead the Sunday Angelus from his room when able and even would go to the window to greet people gathered in the square in front of the hospital’s entrance.

 

 

Pilgrims holding the Slovak flag cheer in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican July 4, 2021, as Pope Francis announces he will visit their country Sept. 12-15 after stopping in Budapest, Hungary, to celebrate the closing Mass of the International Eucharistic Congress. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Before going to the hospital for colon surgery July 4, Pope Francis told a crowd in St. Peter’s Square that he would be visiting Hungary and Slovakia Sept. 12-15.

With pilgrims from Slovakia holding their country’s flag aloft in St. Peter’s Square, the pope told the crowd, “I am happy to announce that from Sept. 12 to 15, God willing, I will travel to Slovakia to make a pastoral visit.”

But, first, he said, the morning of Sept. 12 “I will celebrate the concluding Mass of the International Eucharistic Congress in Budapest,” Hungary.

“From the bottom of my heart, I thank those who are preparing this journey, and I am praying for them,” he said. “Let us all pray for this journey and for the people who are working to organize it.”

The Vatican press office said the Slovakia trip would include stops in the cities of Bratislava, Presov, Kosice and Sastin, but did not immediately provide details of the pope’s program.

Eduard Habsburg, the Hungarian ambassador to the Holy See, replied on Twitter to people who asked why the pope was going to Hungary only for a Mass, but then would make a full pastoral visit to Slovakia.

“Hungary, a few hours, Slovakia, a few days. Why?” he tweeted. The pope “is doing exactly what he has been invited for — in Budapest, the final Mass of the @iec2021Budapest (the eucharistic congress), in Slovakia, an extended visit to the country.”

In a statement shared by the Vatican-based secretariat of the International Eucharist Congress, Cardinal Peter Erdo of Esztergom-Budapest said, “The Catholic community is waiting for the arrival of the Holy Father with great joy and love. We are praying for his visit to be the sign of hope and a new beginning after the abatement of the pandemic.”

While the visit was scheduled to be brief, the cardinal said the pope’s visit was significant since, for the past two decades, popes had sent representatives to the congress rather than participating themselves.

“The last time a pope participated in the international congress was 21 years ago in Rome, where Pope John Paul II was present,” the statement said.

The International Eucharistic Congress generally is held every four years and includes workshops, catechesis, adoration, a solemn procession with the Blessed Sacrament and a closing Mass. The Budapest gathering originally was scheduled for 2020 but was postponed a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

Cardinal Angelo Becciu speaks with journalists during a news conference in Rome Sept. 25, 2020, after he was asked by Pope Francis to resign as prefect of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes. On July 3, 2021, the Vatican announced Cardinal Becciu and nine other individuals and entities were indicted on charges ranging from embezzlement to money laundering and abuse of office. (CNS photo/Guglielmo Mangiapane, Reuters)

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The alleged mishandling of millions of dollars of church funds will bring several high-profile individuals to a makeshift Vatican courtroom set up in a multifunction room of the Vatican Museums.

The surprise announcement July 3 that Vatican prosecutors indicted 10 individuals and entities, including Cardinal Angelo Becciu, former prefect of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes, on a slew of charges related to financial mismanagement and malfeasance was the latest twist in the seemingly unending saga of the Vatican’s controversial investment in a property in London’s Chelsea district.

The indictments, especially of former Vatican officials, also may prove to be a litmus test for Pope Francis’ efforts to reform the Vatican’s finances, which have been marred by scandals over decades.

This also is the first time in modern history that a cardinal is among those facing a Vatican criminal trial.

Most of the accused, including Cardinal Becciu, have declared their innocence and say they are peacefully awaiting their day in court.

“Finally, the moment of clarification is coming, and the court will be able to find the absolute falsity of the accusations against me and the dark plots that have evidently sustained and fed them,” Cardinal Becciu said in a statement released by his lawyers July 3.

René Brülhart, former president of the Vatican’s financial watchdog agency, said he “always carried out my functions and duties with correctness, loyalty and in the exclusive interest of the Holy See and its organs.”

“I face this matter with serenity in the conviction that the accusations against me will fully disappear,” he said shortly after the indictment was announced.

“I am serene and confident that the truth of the facts and my innocence will emerge and will be clarified soon by the Vatican judicial authorities,” said Tommaso di Ruzza, who worked with Brülhart as former director of the Vatican’s Financial Information Authority, now known as the Supervisory and Financial Information Authority.

But the indictment document detailing the Vatican’s extensive two-year investigation into how the Vatican Secretariat of State used over $200 million to finance a property development project in London paints a serious and complex picture.

For years, Cardinal Becciu defended the London property deal and insisted there was nothing wrong with the purchase. He consistently denied that funds from the Peter’s Pence collection were used; the money, he said, came from a fund within the Secretariat of State.

“I want to deny this because we did not use that money,” the cardinal said during a book presentation in February 2020. “Peter’s Pence was not affected; an investment was made on a building. It was a good and opportune occasion, which many people envy us for today.”

However, according to the 488-page indictment seen by Catholic News Service, funds worth an estimated $200.5 million held in Credit Suisse bank accounts owned by the Secretariat of State were transferred to Athena Capital Global Opportunities, a Luxembourg-based investment fund owned by Raffaele Mincione, who also was indicted.

The investment, the indictment stated, “was made with funds from Peter’s Pence.”

Mincione, a London-based Italian financier who owned the London property, is accused by the Vatican of embezzlement, fraud, abuse of office, misappropriation of funds and money laundering.

According to the Vatican’s investigation, the money was originally intended “to subsidize an operation in the petrol sector in Angola sponsored by a local entrepreneur, Antonio Mosquito, who was introduced to the Vatican environment” by then-Archbishop Becciu. The two met when the Italian prelate served as apostolic nuncio to Angola from 2001-2009.

However, when that deal fell through, the money was used to invest in Mincione’s London property with Gianluigi Torzi, an Italian broker, serving as the middleman in the development deal. Torzi faces several charges, including the extortion of $17 million from the Vatican as payment for his role in brokering the deal.

The indictment also stated that Msgr. Alberto Perlasca, the former head of the Vatican Secretariat of State’s administrative office, provided prosecutors with a reconstruction of the events that led to the London property investment.

Msgr. Perlasca initially was seen as a possible suspect after Vatican police seized documents, computers and even floppy disks from his home and office in 2020. However, the report stated that he requested to speak to investigators.

In August 2020, the report said, Msgr. Perlasca gave his testimony and provided investigators “with a precious contribution for the reconstruction of some central moments relating to the case of the London property.”

Furthermore, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, and Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, who serves as “sostituto,” the No. 3 position in the Secretariat of State, are not named as defendants in the lawsuit despite the fact that both, as well as Msgr. Perlasca, had approved several key steps in the failed deal.

According to a summary of the case by Vatican News published July 3, “neither Msgr. Perlasca, who signed the Share Purchase Agreement, nor his superiors, the substitute (Archbishop) Edgar Peña Parra, and above all Cardinal Pietro Parolin, had been effectively informed to be fully aware of the juridical effects that the different categories of actions would cause.”

Speaking with journalists in Strasbourg, France, July 4, Cardinal Parolin said that, in this case, the Secretariat of State “is the victim,” and he expressed his willingness to testify at the trial if asked.

“As an institution, we believe that we have been damaged by everything that has happened,” the cardinal told the journalists. “We have to defend our position and our morality,” but also “get back possession of the money.”

“If they say, ‘You are responsible for everything that happened,’ I will undoubtedly have things to say, answers to give,” he said, according to La Croix, the French Catholic daily newspaper.

 

 

This is a view outside Gemelli hospital in Rome where Pope Francis had a prescheduled colon surgery July 4, 2021. Pope Francis’ recovery from colon surgery continues to go well, the Vatican said. (CNS photo/Guglielmo Mangiapane, Reuters)

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Recovering from colon surgery, Pope Francis briefly ran a fever late July 7, leading his doctors to perform a CT scan of his abdomen and chest the next morning to check for signs of infection.

The results of the scan were negative, as were the results of “routine and microbiological examinations,” the Vatican press office said July 8.

“His Holiness Pope Francis spent a quiet day, eating and moving unassisted,” the press office said in its daily update on how the pope is recovering after undergoing a three-hour surgery July 4 at Rome’s Gemelli hospital.

As with any operation, but especially intestinal surgery, infection is a major post-op concern.

Before the passing fever, the press office said, Pope Francis had sent a message of “paternal closeness” to the “young patients in the nearby pediatric oncology and children’s neurosurgery wards.”

“At this particular moment, he looks toward all those who suffer, expressing his closeness to the sick, especially those most in need of care,” the press office said.

The Vatican’s July 7 midday bulletin, issued before the pope’s temporary temperature, said the doctors had removed his intravenous drip, and that “the post-operative progress of His Holiness Pope Francis continues to be regular and satisfactory.”

“The Holy Father has continued to eat regularly, and infusion therapy has been suspended,” it added.

Announcing that the pope had arrived at the Rome hospital July 4, the Vatican had said he was to undergo “a scheduled surgical intervention for a symptomatic diverticular stenosis of the colon.”

The next morning, the Vatican said the surgery lasted three hours and included “a left hemicolectomy,” the removal of the descending part of the colon, which can be recommended to treat diverticulitis, when bulging pouches in the lining of the intestine or colon become inflamed or infected.

Three days after surgery, the Vatican said, “the final histological examination has confirmed a severe diverticular stenosis with signs of sclerosing diverticulitis,” a hardening of the tissue. The statement seemed to indicate that the biopsy showed no cancerous cells.

“Pope Francis is touched by the many messages and the affection received in these days, and expresses his gratitude for the closeness and prayer,” the Vatican message said.

Pope Francis is expected to remain in the hospital at least until July 11. Since the pontificate of St. John Paul II, the Gemelli hospital, part of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, has maintained a suite of rooms on the 10th floor for use by the pope.

 

 

SCRANTON – Surrounded by family and friends inside the Cathedral of Saint Peter, Mark J. DeCelles was ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Scranton by the Most Reverend Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, on Saturday, June 26, 2021.

“I have so many emotions it is hard to name them all,” Father DeCelles, 39, said directly following the 10 a.m. Mass. “I feel cared for, I feel loved, I feel supported.”

More than 150 people attended the Dunmore native’s Ordination Mass. With classes, exams and the seminary experience now behind him, Father DeCelles feels ready to serve the Church of Scranton and its people.

“It feels natural. I’ve been in formation for four years now. I’ve been a deacon for over a year and I feel well prepared,” he explained.

During his homily, Bishop Bambera expressed gratitude to the many people who helped make the joyous day possible.

“I join with this local Church to give thanks – first to God – for the call to priestly service that he planted in Mark’s heart, an invitation built upon the universal call to holiness which all of us have received in Baptism,” Bishop Bambera began.

The bishop also thanked Mark DeCelles for saying ‘yes’ to the Lord’s call, and expressed gratitude for those who have helped him discern and respond to that invitation. The ordaining prelate also acknowledged Mark’s family and friends who have supported, loved and encouraged him along the way.

“I especially thank his immediate family – his brothers, Chris and Sal – and particularly his mother, Mildred, and father, Charles. I don’t know that any candidate for priestly ordination has ever received such powerful formation in the mysteries of our faith as Mark has received from you,” the bishop said. “From the selfless love and commitment to each other that you have all lived as a family on a daily basis, to the dignity with which you have treasured God’s gift of life, to your humble embrace of the crosses that have come your way, to the hope that you have placed in the power of Christ’s life, death and resurrection – you have taught Mark invaluable lessons that most of us take a lifetime to learn.”

For the Gospel reading of the Ordination Mass, Father DeCelles selected a reading from the last chapter of Saint John’s Gospel where the Risen Jesus showed himself to his disciples on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Three times, Jesus asked Peter, “Do you love me?” In the end, Jesus said to Peter, “Follow me.”

Bishop Bambera reflected on the meaning of that Gospel passage as it applied to DeCelles’ ordination.

“As Jesus did with Peter, he invites you, Mark, to follow him, in a deep and intimate way. He invites you to love him,” the bishop explained. “Love of God is rooted in an authentic relationship with the person of Jesus. Love of God emerges from our awareness of and gratitude for God’s abiding presence in our lives and the recognition of our unworthiness and our inability to save ourselves. The love of God is given flesh and substance in our feeble efforts to selflessly serve the people of God has entrusted to our care.”

As the newest priest for the Diocese of Scranton, Father DeCelles will serve as a teacher, shepherd and servant for the People of God.

“Always remember, when you teach in the name of Christ the Teacher – when you work for justice, truth and freedom – when you baptize – when you forgive sins in the name of Christ and the Church – when you comfort the sick and the dying – when you serve the poor – and when you celebrate the Sacraments and particularly the Sacrifice of Christ in the Eucharist – you are both a servant of the Church and a member of the People of God. As such, while you are appointed to act on behalf of the Christian faithful for those things that pertain to God, remember that you – like all of us – are in need of God’s continued presence, life and mercy,” Bishop Bambera added.

As he ended his homily, the bishop encouraged Father DeCelles to remain close to God’s people.

“They will look to you for answers to their questions. They will look to see Jesus in the fruits of your prayer, in your words of forgiveness and encouragement, in your work, in the simplicity of your life, in your love and in the Eucharist you celebrate for and with them,” Bishop Bambera noted. “In return, they will love you, they will walk with you, they will support and they will enable you to proclaim with an ever-deepening sense of certainty the words of Peter spoken to Jesus on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, ‘Yes Lord, you know that I love you.’”

The Ordination Mass featured several poignant moments.

During the Litany of Supplication, DeCelles, still a candidate for the priesthood at that point, lied prostrate on the floor of the Cathedral in a gesture of solemn petition. The choir and congregation, through the intercession of all the saints, asked God’s blessing on him.

Then came the laying on of hands, an essential part of the Sacrament of Holy Orders. In complete silence, Bishop Bambera laid his lands upon DeCelles’ head – followed by every priest present – signaling the true fraternity of the priesthood. The Prayer of Ordination followed that, the moment when DeCelles officially became a priest.

After that time, Monsignor Michael J. Delaney vested Father DeCelles for the first time and then the bishop anointed his hands with the Sacred Chrism oil. After receiving his chalice and paten, he received a fraternal kiss of peace, first from Bishop Bambera, then from every priest present.

At the end of Mass, Father DeCelles gave his first blessing as a priest to his mother, Mildred, followed by other family members.

Asked afterward what that moment meant to him, Father DeCelles responded, “My mother and my father, I owe them everything. I’m so conscious of how I have been blessed, how I have been blessed by them and my whole family and friends. If I can give that back to them, and the people of God in any way, that’s all I want to do.”

Father DeCelles received his first assignment as a priest shortly after the Mass ended. He will serve as Assistant Pastor at Saint Nicholas Parish and Our Lady of Fatima Parish, Wilkes-Barre.