Month: September 2023

HARVEYS LAKE – Exactly 100 years to the day of the first Mass celebrated at Our Lady of Victory Church on Sept. 3, 1923, parishioners filled the pews for a special centennial celebration.

The Most Reverend Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, was the principal celebrant and homilist for the church’s 100th anniversary Mass on Sept. 3, 2023.

“There is a lot to give thanks for this day, most especially thanks and gratitude to God for the blessing of faith and for the gift of one another in and through whom the Lord is present and all of whom are truly the Church of Jesus Christ,” Bishop Bambera said in welcoming the faithful to the liturgy.

Dorothy Lutinski, 97, is the oldest living parishioner of the Harveys Lake parish. She was thrilled to attend the special Mass.

“I can’t believe it that I’m here to celebrate this special occasion. Everything turned out so beautiful,” Lutinski said. “I was a member of the choir for 35 years.”

Many of those in attendance for the anniversary Mass have deep connections to the church building itself – including the descendants of those who helped to dig the foundation of the building who presented Bishop Bambera a special basket as the Mass began.

“Every gathering of God’s people has special meaning,” Bishop Bambera noted in his homily. “We give thanks today for the living presence of God here in our midst on this altar as countless other individuals have done in this church for 100 years.”

Bishop Bambera thanked all of the people in attendance for helping to build up the Luzerne County church in his/her own way.

“It was just a beautiful celebration. Bishop Bambera said this is just a real treasure here and we are just blessed to be a part of this faith and this community,” parishioner Sara McGrath said.

“What is overwhelming to me is the vitality of the parish. There are a lot of young people here, there is life here, they’re willing to be active in the ways of the faith,” Rev. Andrew S. Hvozdovic, pastor, Our Lady of Victory Parish, said.

During his homily, Bishop Bambera also gave parishioners a little history lesson. He asked if they were aware of the reason by the Most Rev. Michael Hoban, Second Bishop of Scranton, named the church Our Lady of Victory. He answered his own question – saying it was to honor soldiers from Harveys Lake (and the Diocese of Scranton) who served during World War I.

“What a wonderful way to commemorate the lives of those veterans who served and most of the recruits from this area, interestingly enough, served in Spain during the War. Hence, the reason for the architecture of your church which has a little bit of Spanish flavor to it,” Bishop Bambera noted.

While parishioners know the church is truly the People of God, many say the building itself is a critical piece of infrastructure for the lakeside community.

“One of the reasons that my husband and I bought the house that we did, is that when we sit on our porch we can see this beautiful church and everything that means to us. Our faith is here,” parishioner Merry Ann Edwards said. “Everybody here is just so loving and giving. We all enjoy working together to do what we can for the church and our community. I’m honored and blessed to be part of this parish.”

“I think everyone in the community carries on the work of Christ as we see them around the lake and on the lake and in church,” McGrath added. “Every one just has such a loving and welcoming spirit here.”

(OSV News) – A decrease in religious belief remains a “significant challenge” in cultivating vocations to the priesthood, said a vocations expert at a recent conference.

Diocesan vocations directors continue “to work against a culture of secularism in which the purpose and meaning of one’s life for so many of our young people … is defined by themselves,” Father Chuck Dornquast, director of vocations for the Diocese of St. Petersburg, Florida, told OSV News.

Father Dornquast shared his thoughts during the Aug. 28-Sept. 1 convention of the National Conference of Diocesan Vocation Directors, or NVDVD, of which the priest is vice president.

Founded in 1962, the nonprofit works closely with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to promote and support priestly vocations. Membership is open to all Catholic dioceses and eparchies in the U.S., with associate memberships available to Catholic dioceses outside of the U.S.

The convention, now in its 60th year, drew more than 218 priests, some 20 men and women religious, and lay men and women from six countries to the Immaculate Conception Retreat Center in Huntington, New York, NCDVD executive director Rose Sullivan told OSV News.

“Prayer, fraternity and conversations about the sacred ministry of vocations” were at the heart of the gathering, said Sullivan.

The solidarity experienced at the convention bolstered participants for the work of inviting young adults to consider vocations — their living out the particular call to discipleship that Jesus Christ calls them to — that are diametrically at odds with the prevailing culture, said Father Dornquast.

Youth and young adults have “become the determiner of the meaning of their lives,” he said. “Seeking their own happiness is their primary goal, and (it’s) what they’re formed to seek after.”

Vocations directors are “working against that culture of secularism,” he said.

At the same time, those labors are not in vain, he added.

“Thankfully, we’re also witnessing great fruit,” said Father Dornquast. “There is a spirit of holiness which is coming about in many young people across our country, and (we’re) finding the ways to work with them.”

With the Catholic Church in the U.S. celebrating the National Eucharistic Revival, nurturing devotion to the Eucharist is one of the ways in which vocation directors can encourage young men to discern whether Jesus has called them to the priesthood.

According to the 2023 “Survey of Ordinands to the Priesthood” by Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, regular Eucharistic adoration figured heavily in the pre-seminary prayer practices of the class of 2023, cited by 73% of the survey participants.

Following adoration was the rosary (66%), prayer group or Bible study (45%), high school retreats (37%) and “lectio divina” (35%).

Parish youth groups, as well as participating in liturgical ministries such as altar server and lector, were also significant factors in vocational development.

A majority of the survey respondents (63%) cited parish priests as those who most encouraged their priestly vocations.

(OSV News) – Legal abortions most likely increased in the United States in the first six months of 2023 compared with 2020, according to a New York Times analysis of data from the Guttmacher Institute, which opposes abortion restrictions.

The data from Guttmacher, based on what it calls a representative sample of legal abortion providers, is from the first half of 2023; it follows the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision that overturned prior rulings by the high court making abortion access a constitutional right. Following the Dobbs ruling, 22 states have moved to ban or restrict abortion, although not all of those efforts are currently in effect amid court challenges.

The analysis found that about 511,000 abortions were estimated to have occurred in states or territories where the procedure was legal within the first six months of 2023, an increase from about 465,000 abortions nationwide in a six-month period of 2020.

Most states where abortion remains legal saw increases, the analysis found, particularly in states like Illinois that border states greatly restricting the procedure.

The data does not account for what may be illegal procedures, such as abortion pills ordered from overseas; however, the increased number of abortions may also reflect other efforts to broaden access to abortion by the Biden administration, including through telemedicine.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the drug mifepristone, the first of two drugs used in a medication or chemical abortion, is currently facing a legal challenge but remains on the market.

Patrick Brown, a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, told OSV News that Guttmacher’s numbers show a steady decline in abortion from 1980 until 2017, “when they started to rise again.”

“We don’t have reliable data beyond 2020 yet,” Brown said, noting the Guttmacher data surveying clinics is essentially “a best guess, but imperfect approach.”

“They are essentially trying to extrapolate what the change has been since 2020,” he said.

Since the abortion rate had already been increasing, Brown said, an estimated increase since 2020 may not necessarily be attributed to an increase in women seeking out-of-state procedures.

“It’s too soon to tell with any certainty what the national trend is right now,” he said.

Although it “is still a big question as to why abortion rates started rising again in 2017, after decades of decreasing,” Brown said, “One real possibility is that the FDA’s changes to regulations around chemical abortions (mifepristone) may have made a difference, and they expanded access again during COVID.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Rather than engage in petty gossip which leads to scandal, Christians are called by Jesus to be direct yet loving in offering help to an errant friend, Pope Francis said.

Fraternal correction is “one of the highest expressions of love, and also one of the most demanding,” the pope said before praying the Angelus with some 20,000 people in St. Peter’s Square Sept. 10.

Unfortunately, when someone makes a mistake, one of the first things that follows is gossip, he said, through which everyone but the person concerned comes to know the details of the incident.

“This is not right, brothers and sisters,” Pope Francis said. “Gossip is a plague on the life of people and communities because it leads to division, it leads to suffering, it leads to scandal; it never helps anyone improve or grow.”

Alternatively, the pope recalled the day’s reading from St. Matthew’s Gospel in which Jesus says to tell someone of their fault “between you and him alone.”

“Speak to him about it ‘face to face,’ speak about it fairly, to help him understand where he has erred,” the pope said. “And do this for his own good, overcoming shame and finding true courage, which is not to slander, but to tell him to his face with meekness and gentleness.”

If speaking one-on-one is not enough, the pope said, Jesus suggests involving one or two others to talk with the person — “not from the group that gossips,” but “people who genuinely want to lend a hand to this misguided brother.”

And if a small-group encounter proves insufficient, then involve the community, Pope Francis said. “But here too, this does not mean to pillory a person, putting him to shame publicly, but rather to unite the efforts of everyone to help him change.”

“Pointing the finger is not good; in fact, it often makes it more difficult for the wrongdoer to recognize his mistake,” he said, underscoring the need to condemn the mistake while being “close to the person with prayer and affection, always ready to offer forgiveness, understanding, and to start over.”

Pope Francis urged Christians to ask themselves how they behave with people who wrong them. “Do I keep it inside and accumulate resentment?” he asked. “Do I talk about it behind their backs?”

The pope ended his reflection by posing a question to the crowd in St. Peter’s Square: “Do you point the finger or open your arms?”