Month: May 2025

SCRANTON – The community is invited to join together for an afternoon of unity, culture, and belonging at the ninth annual World Refugee Day Celebration, taking place on Sunday, June 22, 2025, at Nay Aug Park in Scranton. (The event will be held near the Mulberry Street entrance, across from GCMC and the Everhart Museum)

Due to the popularity of the event over the last several years – the 2025 World Refugee Day Celebration is expanding by an extra hour – and will be celebrated this year from 2-5 p.m.

The free, family-friendly event is open to all and offers a number of festivities, including a lively mix of cultural music, dance performances, international food, refreshments, games, giveaways, and engaging activities for children.

World Refugee Day is an annual commemoration established by the United Nations to honor the strength and resilience of refugees and displaced persons who have been forced to flee their homes due to conflict, persecution, and violence. It is also a moment to reaffirm our shared responsibility to support and welcome displaced individuals seeking safety and a new beginning.

The theme of the 2025 World Refugee Day Celebration in Scranton is, “A World Where Refugees Are Always Welcomed.” This theme was chosen because it is a call to action, urging us all to embrace refugees as neighbors, friends, and contributors to our shared future.

More than 20 community agencies are coordinating the 2025 World Refugee Day Celebration, including Catholic Social Services of the Diocese of Scranton; The University of Scranton; City of Scranton; Scranton Area Multifaith Ministerium; Temple Hesed; Congregation of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary; Muslim Association of Wyoming Valley; United Neighborhood Centers of Northeastern Pennsylvania; S.T.A.R.S. Program at Marywood University; Islamic Center of Scranton; Central Susquehanna Intermediate Unit; Congolese Community of Scranton, Bhutanese Cultural Foundation Scranton Association; and Pennsylvania Department of Education – Migrant Education Program.

Additional partners and sponsors include: Friends of the Poor; Ignatian Volunteer Corps; Saigon Corner Vietnamese Restaurant; Church of Saint Gregory, Clarks Green; Our Lady of the Snows Parish, Clarks Summit; Maternal & Family Health Services; Jewish Federation of Northeastern Pennsylvania; Lackawanna County Department of Arts & Culture; and NeighborWorks Northeastern Pennsylvania.

WASHINGTON – “With hearts burdened by sorrow and a renewed commitment to solidarity, we express profound grief and outrage at the shooting that occurred outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington,” said Bishop Joseph C. Bambera and Archbishop Borys Gudziak.

Bishop Bambera, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, and Archbishop Gudziak, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development offered their prayers in response to the May 21 shooting.

“We stand in prayerful mourning with our Jewish brothers and sisters and denounce this act of violence and antisemitic hatred in the strongest possible terms. As Catholics, we are called not only to reject such hatred, but to actively foster mutual understanding, respect, and solidarity with the Jewish people. With urgency and clarity, we renew the commitment made through the Second Vatican Council’s declaration Nostra Aetate to affirm our common patrimony with the Jews and stand against any and all forms of antisemitism.

“The suffering generated by this senseless and violent action against the Jewish community wounds us all and compels us toward renewed vigilance and action. In this moment, we also acknowledge the grave responsibility we all share in the language we use, especially when speaking about the conflict in the Holy Land. Complex political realities can never justify rhetoric that demonizes a people, faith, or community. Harsh or dehumanizing language, even when unintended, can sow seeds of suspicion and fear, which too easily bear the fruit of violence. In our public discourse, as in our prayers, we must choose the path of truth spoken in love (Ephesians 4:15), never allowing geopolitical tensions to justify antisemitism or any form of hatred.

“To our Jewish neighbors, partners and friends: We walk with you. We grieve with you. We stand with you. May the God of justice and peace comfort the wounded, strengthen the fearful, and bring healing to all affected by this violence. Let us together be instruments of peace, as we heed the words of the prophet Micah: ‘Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.’”

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – The U.S. House of Representatives May 22 passed a sweeping package for President Donald Trump’s agenda, sending the legislation to the Senate for consideration.

Catholic leaders have alternately praised and criticized various provisions in the House’s version of that package, which has drawn fire from some critics over its cuts to Medicaid, while drawing praise from others for promises to eliminate funds to health providers who also perform abortions.

The U.S. bishops have urged lawmakers to uphold human life and dignity, and promote the common good in considering the legislation.

Trump pushed Republican leadership to pass what he calls his “one big, beautiful bill” — and as such, later named the One Big Beautiful Bill Act — which would enact key provisions of his legislative agenda on tax and immigration policy.

The House’s passage of the multitrillion-dollar tax cut and spending measure in a 215-214 vote, ends a chaotic several weeks for House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who sought to pass the bill despite objections from various factions of his party, including those who said it added too much to the federal deficit.

The package, which exceeded 1,000 pages, will be taken up by the Senate, where Republicans have suggested they will change some of its provisions, including on cuts to Medicaid.

“This is arguably the most significant piece of Legislation that will ever be signed in the History of our Country!” Trump wrote on X, adding, “Now, it’s time for our friends in the United States Senate to get to work, and send this Bill to my desk AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!”

An analysis from the Congressional Budget Office said the tax provisions in the House version would increase the federal deficit by $3.8 trillion over a decade, while cuts on Medicaid, food stamps and other areas would result in about $1 trillion in reduced government spending.

The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services, said the conference “sent a comprehensive letter to Congress commending parts of the budget proposal that will support human life and dignity, while also strongly encouraging them to reconsider provisions that will harm the poor and disadvantaged, our immigrant brothers and sisters, and our environment.”

“To our elected lawmakers, I echo the call of my brother bishops and urge you to remain consistent in protecting human life and dignity and supporting the common good so that families can flourish,” he said in a May 21 statement.

“I also underscore the grave concerns expressed by my brother bishops,” he continued, “and implore you to address the real and substantial harms that would result from provisions in this bill before it advances further. Raising income taxes on the working poor, cutting nutrition and healthcare programs for those most in need, and eliminating investments in environmental stewardship would place a terrible burden on the least of our brothers and sisters.”

Mercy Sister Mary Haddad, president and CEO of the Catholic Health Association of the United States, said in a May 22 statement that the group opposes the House’s version of the package.

“H.R. 1 would harm critical health and social safety-net programs that millions of Americans rely on to live with health, dignity, and security,” Sister Mary said. “The Catholic Health Association strongly opposes provisions like mandatory Medicaid work reporting requirements, restrictions on state tax authority, and changes to state-directed payment policies — all of which would lead to coverage losses for more than 10 million people who depend on Medicaid for essential care. These harmful proposals threaten the health and stability of the very communities we are called to serve.”

Sister Mary expressed concern about “the bill’s failure to extend the Affordable Care Act’s enhanced premium tax credits.”

“Without action, five million Americans — including nearly two million living with chronic conditions — could lose their coverage, and millions more would face skyrocketing premiums and unaffordable care,” she said, adding that the bill’s proposed changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program would also “further jeopardize food security for families already struggling to make ends meet, compounding the health and economic burdens on low-income communities.”

“We urge the Senate to protect and strengthen the programs that uphold the dignity, health, and well-being of all, especially those most in need,” Sister Mary said.

But some pro-life groups celebrated language in the legislation that would block entities that perform abortions from receiving Medicaid funds. Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said in a May 22 statement,”Today Congress took a big step toward stopping forced taxpayer funding of the Big Abortion industry.”

Calling the House passage of the budget reconciliation bill “a crucial win,” Dannenfelser argued, “Medicaid will be stronger for those who need it most.”

“There is no excuse for forcing taxpayers to prop up a scandal-ridden industry that prioritizes abortions, gender transitions and partisan political activism instead of prenatal care, cancer screening and other legitimate health services that are in continual decline,” she said.

Senate Republicans have indicated they would like to send the bill to Trump’s desk prior to July 4.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – In his first appointment of a top-level official of the Roman Curia, Pope Leo XIV named Sister Tiziana Merletti, a canon lawyer, to be secretary of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

Sister Merletti, a member of the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor, succeeds Consolata Missionary Sister Simona Brambilla, whom Pope Francis appointed prefect of the dicastery in January. Sister Brambilla is the first woman to head a Vatican dicastery.

The women’s International Union of Superiors General (UISG, in Italian) thanked Pope Leo and congratulated Sister Merletti on her appointment, which the Vatican announced May 22.

As a member of the union’s canon law council and a member of the Commission for Safeguarding operated jointly by the men’s and women’s unions of superiors, “her contributions are a gift to our global network, promoting justice, care and integrity in consecrated life,” the superiors’ group said. “We congratulate Sr. Tiziana on this important mission and assure her of our prayers as she takes on this new responsibility in service to consecrated life around the world.”

The dicastery, according to the apostolic constitution on the Roman Curia, is called “to promote, encourage and regulate the practice of the evangelical counsels, how they are lived out in the approved forms of consecrated life and all matters concerning the life and activity of Societies of Apostolic Life throughout the Latin Church.”

According to Vatican statistics, there are close to 600,000 professed women religious in the Catholic Church. The number of religious-order priests is about 128,500 and the number of religious brothers is close to 50,000.

Sister Merletti, 65, was born in Pineto, Italy, and earned a civil law degree before making her first vows as a member of the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor in 1986. In 1992 she earned her doctorate in canon law from the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome.

From 2004 to 2013, she was superior general of the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor. At the time of her appointment, she was teaching canon law at the Pontifical Antonianum University in Rome and serving as a canon law expert with the UISG.

(OSV News) – Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of Arlington, Virginia, called for prayers after two Israeli Embassy staff members were slain late May 21 outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington.

Sarah Lynn Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky were leaving an event at the museum when they were shot at close range.

“May we unite in prayer for the souls of two Israeli embassy staff members who were fatally shot last night in Washington, DC,” Bishop Burbidge, whose diocese is across the Potomac River from the nation’s capital, said in an early May 22 post on X. “Please God, grant strength to their families and all who loved them.”

The young couple were set to become engaged in Jerusalem next week, with Lischinsky purchasing the ring only days ago, according to Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the U.S.

Suspect Elias Rodriguez, a 31-year-old Chicago resident, was filmed chanting, “Free, free Palestine,” following the attack. He was detained when he entered the museum immediately after the shooting, with event patrons initially unaware of his actions.

“With great sadness and horror, we have learned of the killing in cold blood of two members of the Jewish community, Yaron and Sarah,” in Washington, New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan said in a mid-morning post on X May 22. “We commend them to the mercy of God, and we join with their families, friends, and the wider Jewish community who mourn their senseless and tragic loss. May their memory be a blessing.”

Israeli officials confirmed that Lischinsky, an Israeli citizen who also reportedly held a German passport, was a research assistant for the embassy. Milgrim, a U.S. citizen, organized visits and missions to Israel.

According to sources interviewed by BBC News, Lischinsky was a devout Christian.

The attack has been widely condemned as an act of antisemitism.

“While we wait for the conclusion of the police investigation — and urge all our friends and allies to do the same — it strongly appears that this was an attack motivated by hate against the Jewish people and the Jewish state,” said Ted Deutch, CEO of the American Jewish Committee, in a May 22 statement.

He added, “This senseless hate and violence must stop.”

AJC board member Jojo Kalin told BBC News she had organized the event at the museum — which was a cocktail hour for Jewish professionals — to focus on building a coalition to help Gazans.

The gathering’s “bridge building” had been scarred by “such hatred,” she said, but stressed she refused to “lose my humanity over this or be deterred.”

“As has been so evident in these last months and years,” Cardinal Dolan said in his X post, “antisemitism is still pervasive in our country and our world, and the Catholic community in New York today renews our resolve to (work) to eradicate this evil. We stand with our Jewish brothers and sisters in this moment of pain, praying that all may live in the peace and security that God surely intends for us.”

In his post, Bishop Burbidge quoted Pope Leo XIV, saying, “Peace begins with each one of us, in the way we look at others, listen to others and speak about others.”

The bishop said, “May the spirit peace be renewed today, and may the God who loves us restore peace to the Holy Land and our nation.”

ACTION ALERT: Ask your members of Congress to join with legislators on both sides of the aisle in supporting this much needed source of relief for people of faith and communities nationwide.

Click Here to Encourage Congress to Support Religious Workers and the Communities They Serve!

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – The U.S. bishops on April 10 told congressional lawmakers they support bipartisan legislation that would ease some immigration restrictions on religious workers from other countries, allowing them to stay in the U.S. while they wait for permanent residency.

The legislation, titled the Religious Workforce Protection Act, was introduced in the Senate by Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, Tim Kaine, D-Va., and Jim Risch, R-Idaho, and in the House by Reps. Mike Carey, R-Ohio, and Richard Neal, D-Mass.

If signed into law, it would permit religious workers already in the U.S. on temporary R-1 status with pending EB-4 applications to stay in the U.S. while waiting for permanent residency, Collins’ office said. All five of those members are Catholic.

“When Maine parishes where I attend mass started losing their priests, I saw this issue creating a real crisis in our state,” Collins said in an April 8 statement. “Recently, three Catholic parishes in rural Maine — Saint Agatha, Bucksport, and Greenville — were left without priests for months because their R-1 visas expired while their EB-4 applications were still pending.”

The National Study of Catholic Priests — released in 2022 by The Catholic University of America’s Catholic Project — indicated 24% of priests serving in the U.S. are foreign-born. A majority of these were ordained outside the U.S., while others are foreign-born priests who came to the U.S. as seminarians, were ordained in the U.S. and are also subject to visa renewals.

“Our bill would help religious workers of all faith traditions continue to live and serve here in the United States while their applications for permanent residency are being fully processed,” Collins said. “Many Mainers and Americans cannot imagine their lives without the sense of community and services their local religious organizations provide — with this legislation, I hope they never have to.”

Kaine likewise said in a statement, “I first started hearing about churches losing trusted priests through my Parish, St. Elizabeth’s in Richmond, where we have had priests who were immigrants, and often have visiting priests, some of whom are immigrants as well.”

“But as it turns out, this problem is not unique to Virginia — it’s impacting religious congregations of many faiths, all across the country,” he said.

Bishops Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Texas, Barry C. Knestout of Richmond, Virginia, James T. Ruggieri of Portland, Maine, and Earl K. Fernandes of Columbus, Ohio, were among the religious leaders who offered statements of support for the bill in press releases from Collins and Kaine’s offices, alongside representatives of evangelical Christian, Muslim, Jewish, and Hindu organizations.

In an April 10 letter to members of Congress, Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and head of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services, as well as Bishop Seitz, who is chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Migration, urged lawmakers to pass the legislation to “to ensure communities across our nation can continue to enjoy the essential contributions of foreign-born religious workers who lawfully entered the United States on a nonimmigrant religious worker (R-1) visa.”

They said that there are many Catholic priests, women religious, and laypersons working in Catholic ministries in that category.

“Some parishes, especially those in rural or isolated areas, would go without regular access to the sacraments, if not for these religious workers,” the bishops said. “Additionally, dioceses with large immigrant populations rely on foreign-born religious workers for their linguistic and cultural expertise. We would not be able to serve our diverse flocks, which reflect the rich tapestry of our society overall, without the faithful men and women who come to serve through the Religious Worker Visa Program.”

They said, “Simply put, an increasing number of American families will be unable to practice the basic tenets of their faith if this situation is not addressed soon. Likewise, hospitals will go without chaplains, schools will go without teachers, and seminaries will go without instructors.”

The bishops urged lawmakers to cosponsor “this vital measure and to work toward its immediate passage, thereby furthering the free exercise of religion in our country for the benefit of all Americans.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – All the speeches and messages Pope Leo XIV has given since becoming pope May 8 are available on the Vatican website, which should be checked before sharing supposed quotes and videos, Vatican News said.

The Vatican News site published the warning in several languages May 21 after a 36-minute “deep fake” – AI-generated – video was posted on YouTube.

The post, which used manipulated video of Pope Leo and an AI-generated voice with an accent that is not Pope Leo’s, praises Ibrahim Traoré, the military ruler of Burkina Faso.

Vatican News said the post was “produced using footage from Pope Leo XIV’s audience with journalists on Monday, May 12. A ‘morphing’ technique was used – that is, transforming the image so that the movement of the lips matches the AI-generated words.”

The video is only the latest example of social media fakes attributed to the new pope.

A popular meme circulating on Facebook, Instagram and other social media features a photo of Pope Leo from May 8 and the fake quote: “You cannot follow both Christ and the cruelty of kings. A leader who mocks the weak, exalts himself, and preys on the innocent is not sent by God. He is sent to test you. And many are failing.”

According to snopes.com, the fact-checking website, the earliest posting of the supposed quote was May 14, but there is no evidence anywhere that the pope said it.

The Vatican website – www.vatican.va – offers papal texts, including the texts of video messages, in multiple languages, often including Italian, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Polish, Arabic, Chinese and Latin.

ROME (CNS) – Before he was Pope Leo XIV, then-Bishop Robert F. Prevost of Chiclayo, Peru, created a commission to help women escape forced prostitution, said a trafficking survivor who worked with him.

Silvia Teodolinda Vázquez, 52, told the Argentine newspaper, La Nacion, she met Pope Leo when he created a diocesan commission on human migration and trafficking in persons in 2017.

Saying she affectionately called him “padrecito,” or “Padre Rober,” Vázquez told La Nacion in an interview May 17, “The day I met him he said something very beautiful to me.”

They had wrapped up a meeting about the commission’s work, she said, and “he approached me and, with that warm tone of voice he has, said, ‘Silvia, I know this job is very hard for you because of everything you’ve been through when you were young. I am so grateful for what you are doing for these girls, and I bless you.’ It was very moving.”

The pope set up the commission, which is still active, in 2017 to bring lay people, religious men and women, and parishes together to help defend and provide assistance to vulnerable migrants, refugees and victims of trafficking. He was the driving force behind all of their work, she said.

Then-Bishop Prevost was concerned about the connection between the huge flow of Venezuelan migrants into Peru and the increasing numbers of sex workers, so he met with members of the Sisters of the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, who were active in assisting women forced into prostitution, and he asked them to join the commission he was forming, Vázquez told La Nacion.

The sisters had long been active in the fight against human trafficking and offered women ways to support themselves free from exploitation; the congregation was honored in 2005 by the U.S. State Department’s TIP Award for its work.

Vázquez, a survivor of sexual abuse, human trafficking and forced prostitution, said one of the sisters repeatedly reached out to her, helping her find shelter and a new job. “I am eternally grateful to (the sisters) because thanks to them, I was able to get ahead and become who I am today. They were my second mothers,” she said.

She then spent 15 years working with the sisters, providing health education to sex workers and promoting workshops offering alternative trades. That was how she met Bishop Prevost, she said.

The sisters spent years working with the commission until they had to close their convent in Chiclayo and return to Lima. Bishop Prevost’s commission then took over the sisters’ work in assisting victims of trafficking, which is how Vázquez started working directly with the commission, La Nacion reported.

Vázquez and others walk the streets and go to bars, where they get permission from the bar owners to talk to the women, she said.

“The first thing we ask them is how they are and what they need,” she said. She also gives out her phone number, “and many of them call me when they want to talk or need something.”

The commission also built, with the help of the Vincentians and Caritas, a St. Vincent de Paul shelter outside Chiclayo for the women, she said. More than 5,000 people have come through the shelter, most of them migrants from Venezuela.

The future Pope Leo supported all of the commission’s efforts and would organize spiritual retreats for trafficking victims and sex workers, “which were very well attended at the time,” Vázquez said. He would celebrate Mass and hear confessions at the retreats, too.

“We coordinated everything with him,” she said. The commission gave him monthly reports on its work, “which included everything from talking to the girls at brothels and bars to offer them help and job opportunities, to helping them regularize their immigration status and assisting them with treatment for illnesses and clothing for their children.”

The new pope is “gentle, very caring and has a very nice way of treating people,” she said.

When she saw who had been elected pope May 8, she “cried with joy,” she said. She had gone to a neighbor’s to watch the announcement on TV, and “my neighbor didn’t understand. I told her I knew the pope very well. I had to show her the photos for her to believe me!”

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – In a letter to mark the 10th anniversary of the late Pope Francis’ encyclical “Laudato Si’,” U.S. bishops have urged young people to “lead the way” on the climate crisis.

Published on May 24, 2015, the late Pope Francis’ landmark environmental encyclical “Laudato Si’, on Care for Our Common Home” urged steps to counteract “the throwaway culture which affects the entire planet.”

In a joint, public letter to young people May 21, Archbishop Borys Gudziak of Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia, chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, and Bishop A. Elias Zaidan of Maronite Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon, chair of the USCCB’s Committee on International Justice and Peace, thanked young people for their witness and called for “a renewed commitment to care for our common home, which sustains all life.”

“(T)he sacred gift of creation is under threat,” the bishops wrote. “Climate change and environmental degradation entrap many people in poverty, often in communities already excluded by society. Climate change, biodiversity loss, and industrial pollution threaten the livelihoods and food security of farming, fishing, and forest-dependent communities in the United States and around the world. Illegal and often unregulated mining, as well as other exploitative extractive activities, threaten Indigenous Peoples’ survival and sacred places. Toxic waste results in high asthma and cancer rates in low-income communities living near sources of contamination. Extreme weather threatens the health, education, safety, and future of children born today more than in previous generations.”

They said, “When we fail to steward the gifts of our Creator carefully, we also manifest our blindness to the ways we are all interconnected and interdependent.”

The bishops asked, “So, what can we do?”

“We must be steadfast in our hope in God and in one another,” they said. “God’s plan for our salvation and our world involves the participation of all. We need to build a culture of encounter.”

The bishops also pointed to comments made by the new Pope Leo XIV when he introduced himself to the world: “We are all in the hands of God. Therefore, without fear, united hand in hand with God and among ourselves, we move forward. We are disciples of Christ.”

“Young people can lead the way as catalysts of hope,” on protecting creation, they said. “You have the capacity to organize and create change that will endure for generations to come.”

By their witness, the bishops said, “youth and young adults serve as a vital bridge.”

“Do not doubt that you have the power to inspire and lead efforts to effect change locally and globally,” the bishops said. “We are with you, standing in the tension between God’s vision for his beloved creation and our current reality.”