Month: May 2025

(OSV News) – The four years Robert F. Prevost spent at Villanova University in Philadelphia – from the fall of 1973 until May 1977, when he graduated with a degree in mathematics and began his novitiate with the Augustinian order – included the opening salvos of the pro-life movement.

On Jan. 22, 1974, the first anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, which enshrined abortion on demand as a constitutional right, Villanova students, including Prevost, the future Pope Leo XIV, were part of a pro-life demonstration at Independence Mall in Philadelphia. The principal speaker was Cardinal John J. Krol of Philadelphia, who was then president of the U.S. bishops’ twin conferences, now called the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

That same day in Washington Nellie Gray, a Texas-born former government lawyer renowned for her bluntness, led, along with the Knights of Columbus, the first national March for Life, which drew many thousands of marchers and included the formation of a “circle of life” around the U.S. Capitol.

She became famed for never seeking compromise. Typical of Gray’s comments was one to The Catholic Commentator, the newspaper of the Diocese of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 1979: “We won’t settle for just a little bit of abortion, because babies can’t be just a little bit dead.”

The national march has evolved since then. Even after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 with the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, the March for Life’s participants have included student groups arriving in Washington by bus from around the country. It is currently focused on state abortion laws as well as one of its original goals, a constitutional amendment to ban abortion.

The bus pilgrims have included Villanova students since 1975.

Prevost was a founding member of Villanovans for Life, which had an office on campus by the spring of 1974. That September, students Margaret Mary Dowdall and Robert Dodaro formalized it as a club. According to Villanovans for Life, they are the oldest collegiate pro-life club in the United States and currently have 50 members.

Villanova classmate Laura Pyne told OSV News that she recalled meeting Prevost on the bus from Philadelphia to the march in Washington, but was uncertain whether the year was 1975, 1976 or 1977.

“He was a member of the Augustinian pre-novitiate group of young men who went to a seminary high school in Michigan and then attended Villanova,” she said. “They were all wonderful young men.”

“I do not recall what year or years our new pope attended the March for Life,” she said. “If only we had known the future, we would have taken notes and lots of pictures!”

Pyne, however, said she has a sharper memory of Prevost once attending a Halloween party costumed as Groucho Marx. The comedy legend was undergoing a sort-of renaissance in the 1970s until his death in 1977.

Not all Villanovans for Life participated in the national march, making memory recall of who went and who didn’t 50 years ago a bit hazy. A typical response was like that from Father William Lego, pastor of St. Turibius Parish in Chicago, a member of Villanovans for Life and a friend of the pope’s since grade school: “I did not attend a march in Washington, and I do not remember if the pope did.”

Father John Lydon, another founding member of the club, is the former president of the Catholic University of Trujillo in Peru and worked for 10 years with then-Bishop Prevost for 10 years when he was the bishop of Chiclayo and taught canon law at the university.

“I know I was at several Marches for Life in Washington, but I can’t recall if I went with Villanovans for Life,” Father Lydon told OSV News. “I presume so, but can’t remember.”

According to her children, the late Margaret Mary Filoromo (formerly Dowdall) — who was honored by Villanovans for Life at their 50th anniversary dinner in March 2024 — took immense pride in the other founding members of the club, including her co-founder, the now-Father Dodaro, who did not respond to an interview request.

Filoromo, who met her future husband, Mike Filoromo, in Villanovans for Life and married him in 1979, built a career in nursing and headed the Chester County Pro-Life Coalition. She never forgot her college friend, the future pope, before her death last June.

“I have heard about him all my life,” her daughter, Maura Filoromo, told OSV News from her home in suburban Philadelphia. “She talked about where he was in Peru, when he became head of the Augustinians (prior general), and so on. She was really proud of all he accomplished.”

Filoromo added, “When he became cardinal less than two years ago, she told everyone she knew. She said to me, ‘My friend could become pope. Wouldn’t that be wild?'”

Pope Leo’s college years at Villanova were bracketed by pro-life demonstrations. At his commencement on May 19, 1977, a group of students — with a coffin as a prop — objected to the honorary degree being given to Jesuit Father Robert Drinan. Father Drinan, as a U.S. congressman from Massachusetts (in office 1971-1981), supported a legal right to abortion. He received the degree anyway.

The national March for Life events held from 1975-77 — the timeframe for when then-Robert Prevost would have participated — had a freewheeling and somewhat raucous character. They usually began with a rally on the West Terrace of the Capitol and then marched down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Ellipse, near the White House, for a second rally.

The 1977 march was more boisterous than usual thanks to, not in spite of, temperatures hovering around 20 degrees Fahrenheit. It was held on a Saturday, which undoubtedly improved attendance, but since congressional offices were closed, the lobbying effort was useless.

At the Capitol rally, estimated by U..S. Capitol Police to have 35,000 attendees, all battered by the chill, participants demanded that the speeches by politicians be cut short and began to chant, “March! March! March!” Then at Lafayette Park, some marchers made their way to the fence of the White House (then occupied by President Jimmy Carter) and chanted, “Come out, Carter!”

In any event, Villanovans for Life has a founding member now with a global platform to speak on the dignity of all human life. Pope Leo’s first comments on abortion since his May 8 election to the papacy were made in May 16 remarks to the Vatican diplomatic corps.

He said, “It is the responsibility of government leaders to work to build harmonious and peaceful civil societies. This can be achieved above all by investing in the family, founded upon the stable union between a man and a woman.”

The pope added, “In addition, no one is exempted from striving to ensure respect for the dignity of every person, especially the most frail and vulnerable, from the unborn to the elderly, from the sick to the unemployed, citizens and immigrants alike.”

He said the church “can never be exempted from speaking the truth about humanity and the world, resorting whenever necessary to blunt language that may initially create misunderstanding. Yet truth can never be separated from charity, which always has at its root a concern for the life and well-being of every man and woman.”

(OSV News) – A habit worn by St. Pio of Pietrelcina and other rare relics are coming to the U.S., brought by Capuchin friars from the very monastery that was home to the beloved saint known as Padre Pio.

The National Center for Padre Pio in Barto, Pennsylvania, and the Padre Pio Foundation of America in Cromwell, Connecticut, announced the visit in a May 19 joint press release.

Capuchin Father Francesco Dileo, provincial minister of the Capuchin Friars Minor of San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy — the monastery at which the saint served — will lead the relics tour, which will take place Oct. 11-14 at the Barto center and Oct. 15-18 at St. Pius X Church in Middletown, Connecticut.

The friars will bring with them a full-size habit worn by the saint, one that has previously never left Italy, along with a second relic.

Padre Pio’s habit is “far more than a simple garment,” and is rather “a sacred symbol of his vocation, humility, and total devotion to Christ,” said Christina Calandra Rocus, whose late mother, Vera Calandra, founded the National Center for Padre Pio after a profound encounter with the saint during his earthly life.

With her husband’s encouragement, Calandra traveled to visit Padre Pio two years after the birth of their fifth child, Vera Marie, who suffered from congenital and life-threatening defects to her urinary tract. During two audiences, the priest blessed Vera and her daughter, as well as Christina and her brother Michael, who had accompanied their mother. Upon their return to the U.S., doctors discovered a bladder growing in place of the one they had removed from Vera Marie, and her health steadily improved. The family founded the center in 1971 in gratitude for Padre Pio’s intercession.

Vera Marie Calandra, now the center’s vice president, said the “unprecedented visit” of the “rare and intimate relic” marked “an occasion of deep spiritual reflection and prayer” — both of which were hallmarks of Padre Pio’s life.

Born Francesco Forgione in 1887 in Pietrelcina, Italy, the future saint entered the Capuchin order at age 15 and was ordained in 1910. Between 1915 and 1918, he served intermittently in the Italian Army’s medical corps during World War I, but was ultimately discharged due to poor health. He returned to his monastery at San Giovanni Rotondo, and in 1918 received the stigmata (the wounds of Christ), the first priest to receive such marks in the history of the Catholic Church.

Amid sustained physical and spiritual suffering — compounded by austerity and long hours of prayer — he established Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, now a renowned national research hospital located in San Giovanni Rotondo. The Capuchin also devoted himself to the healing of souls, often spending more than 15 hours a day hearing confessions. Padre Pio died in 1968 and was canonized in 2002 by Pope John Paul II, with whom he had been friends since 1947.

A detailed schedule of the relics tour is available on the websites of both of the centers, which are the only two organizations in North American officially recognized by the Capuchins of Our Lady of Grace Friary.

Julie Fitts Ritter, executive director of the Padre Pio Foundation of America, said the visit of the friars and the relics tour — which she described as a “tremendous privilege” — promise “to deepen the devotion of all who love Padre Pio and carry on his legacy of faith, healing, and compassion.”

SCRANTON – A total of 110 couples who are celebrating milestone anniversaries this year will be recognized at the Cathedral of Saint Peter on Sunday, June 1, 2025.

The Most Rev. Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, will serve as principal celebrant and homilist for the Diocese of Scranton’s annual Wedding Anniversary Mass that recognizes married couples who are celebrating their 25th and 50th anniversaries. The Mass will begin at 2:30 p.m.

In all, the couples registered to attend the Mass will signify 4,645 years of married life.

Marriage is a vocation to holiness. All marriages can grow in knowledge, faith, joy, and love. Whether a married couple is just starting or has fifty years (or more) under their belt, the church can always help strengthen and bless your marriage.

CTV: Catholic Television of the Diocese of Scranton will broadcast the Mass live and provide a livestream on the Diocese of Scranton website and all Diocesan social media platforms.

SCRANTON – Thirteen priests who are celebrating milestone anniversaries of their ordination year will be recognized during the 2025 Mass for Priest Jubilarians at 12:10 p.m. on Thursday, June 12, 2025, at the Cathedral of Saint Peter in Scranton.

The Most Rev. Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, will serve as principal celebrant and homilist. During the Mass, the Bishop will recognize a combine 625 years of service to the priesthood.

Reverend John J. Turi will be recognized for 70 years of priestly service. Father Turi was ordained a priest on June 4, 1955.

In addition to Rev. Turi, priests who are celebrating 65, 60, 50, and 25 year ordination anniversaries will be honored at the Mass.

The 2025 Mass for Priest Jubilarians will be broadcast live by CTV: Catholic Television of the Diocese of Scranton and will be available for viewing on the Diocese of Scranton website, YouTube channel, and links will be made available across all Diocesan social media platforms.

Please join us for this special celebration!

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Being religious does not automatically mean someone is compassionate, and yet for a Christian compassion is a clear sign of following Christ, Pope Leo XIV said.

“Before being a religious matter, compassion is a question of humanity! Before being believers, we are called to be human,” the pope said May 28 as he held his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square.

At the end of the audience, Pope Leo again pleaded for peace in Gaza and in Ukraine.

“From the Gaza Strip there rises to heaven ever more intensely the cry of mothers and fathers who, clutching the lifeless bodies of their children, are continually forced to move in search of some food and safer shelter from the shelling,” the pope said. “To the leaders, I renew my appeal: Cease firing; free all the hostages; fully respect humanitarian law.”

And after days of Russia increasing its attacks on Ukraine, killing civilians and destroying infrastructure, the pope assured the Ukrainian people of his “closeness and my prayers for all the victims, especially the children and families.”

“I strongly renew my appeal to stop the war and support every initiative of dialogue and peace,” he said. “I ask everyone to join in prayers for peace in Ukraine and wherever people suffer because of war.”

The pope’s main talk at the audience focused on the Gospel parable of the good Samaritan, a story the pope said offered important lessons for Christians but also was a source of hope.

“The lack of hope, at times, is due to the fact that we fixate on a certain rigid and closed way of seeing things, and the parables help us to look at them from another point of view,” Pope Leo said.

The parable of the good Samaritan is an obvious lesson in being compassionate and recognizing all men and women as neighbors, he said. But it also says something about the compassion of Jesus.

“We can also see ourselves in the man who fell into the hands of robbers, for we have all experienced the difficulties of life and the pain brought about by sin,” he said in his English summary. “In our frailty, we discover that Christ himself is the Good Samaritan who heals our wounds and restores our hope.”

“Let us turn, then, to the Sacred Heart, model of true humanity, and ask him to make our heart ever more like his,” the pope said.

The wounded man on the side of the road “represents each one of us,” he said, and remembering “all the times that Jesus stopped to take care of us will make us more capable of compassion.”

Being compassionate, he said, is not just a feeling; it means taking action.

“If you want to help someone, you cannot think of keeping your distance, you have to get involved, get dirty, perhaps be contaminated,” the pope said, noting that in the parable, the good Samaritan cleans and bandages the man’s wounds and takes him to safety.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Leo XIV has named Father Renzo Pegoraro, a bioethicist who earned a medical degree before entering the seminary, to be the new president of the Pontifical Academy for Life.

Father Pegoraro, who had served as chancellor of the academy since 2011, succeeds Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, who reached the mandatory retirement age of 80 in April.

In an interview with the Italian newspaper La Stampa May 26, Archbishop Paglia said he had offered his resignation to Pope Francis when he turned 75, in accordance with canon law, but that the pope had asked him to stay on until he turned 80.

Father Pegoraro’s appointment was announced by the Vatican May 27. A week earlier, the Vatican announced that Pope Leo had named Cardinal Baldassare Reina to succeed Archbishop Paglia as grand chancellor of the John Paul II Pontifical Theological Institute for Marriage and Family Sciences.

Pope Francis updated the statutes of the Pontifical Academy for Life in 2016. At the time, the pope said the primary focus of the academy, founded in 1994 by St. John Paul II, would continue to be “the defense and promotion of the value of human life and the dignity of the person.”

The new statutes added, however, that achieving the goal would include studying ways to promote “the care of the dignity of the human person at the different ages of existence, mutual respect between genders and generations, defense of the dignity of each human being, promotion of a quality of human life that integrates its material and spiritual value with a view to an authentic ‘human ecology’ that helps recover the original balance of creation between the human person and the entire universe.”

Father Pegoraro, who will celebrate his 66th birthday June 4, earned his medical degree from the University of Padua, Italy, in 1985 before earning a degree in moral theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1989.

He earned an advanced degree in bioethics from Italy’s Catholic University of the Sacred Heart and has taught bioethics at the Theological Faculty of Northern Italy and served as secretary-general of Padua’s Lanza Foundation, a center for studies in ethics, bioethics and environmental ethics. He taught nursing ethics at the Vatican-owned Bambino Gesù Pediatric Hospital in Rome and was president of the European Association of Centers for Medical Ethics from 2010 to 2013.

ROME (CNS) – Celebrating his first Mass in Rome’s diocesan cathedral, Pope Leo XIV said communion is built primarily “on our knees,” through prayer and a constant commitment to conversion.

He reaffirmed Pope Francis’ dedication to listening, first and foremost to the Holy Spirit, as it then leads to listening to and understanding others “as our brothers and sisters.”

The pope’s remarks came during his homily at Mass at the Basilica of St. John Lateran, where he took possession of the cathedral as the bishop of Rome May 25.

The pope arrived in the late afternoon to the cheers and applause of those who turned out to welcome the U.S.-born pontiff as he stepped out of the black Volkswagen SUV in front of the basilica. He smiled and waved to those outside before being greeted by Cardinal Baldassare Reina, papal vicar for Rome, and then he walked through the basilica’s Holy Door.

At the start of the liturgy, Cardinal Reina read a profession of obedience to the pope on behalf of the diocese and then the pope sat on the raised marble chair in the basilica’s apse, taking formal possession of the “cathedra” (chair) of the bishop of Rome. He then received representatives of his flock, including clergy and laypeople.

The pope dedicated his homily to the Mass readings, putting special emphasis on the importance of listening.

The first reading from the Acts of the Apostles (15:1-2, 22-29), described Paul and Barnabas recognizing the authority of the Jerusalem church and going there to settle the question of whether Gentiles could embrace a form of Christianity that did not include observing every aspect of Mosaic law.

“This was no easy matter; it called for much patience and mutual listening,” and Peter and the apostles in Jerusalem were prepared to listen, Pope Leo said.

That dialogue “led to the right decision,” he said, because they listened to God’s voice.

“In this way, they remind us that communion is built primarily ‘on our knees,’ through prayer and constant commitment to conversion. For only in this way can each of us hear within the voice of the Spirit crying out: ‘Abba! Father!’ and then, as a result, listen to and understand others as our brothers and sisters,” he said.

“Naturally, the more we let ourselves be convinced and transformed by the Gospel — allowing the power of the Spirit to purify our heart, to make our words straightforward, our desires honest and clear, and our actions generous — the more capable we are of proclaiming its message,” the pope said.

In fact, he said, “the Gospel assures us that we are not alone in making our decisions in life. The Spirit sustains us and shows us the way to follow, ‘teaching’ us and ‘reminding’ us of all that Jesus said.”

“Pope Francis frequently encouraged us to reflect on the maternal dimension of the church and her defining qualities of tenderness, self-sacrifice and the capacity to listen,” he said.

“We hope that those qualities will be increasingly present in the people of God everywhere, including here, in our great diocesan family: in the faithful, in pastors and, first of all, in myself,” Pope Leo said.

He encouraged the Diocese of Rome’s “process of listening” to the world and its communities to respond to current challenges and “to propose sage and prophetic initiatives of evangelization and charity.”

“I would like to express my firm desire to contribute to this great ongoing process by listening to everyone as much as possible, in order to learn, understand and decide things together, as St. Augustine would say, ‘as a Christian with you and a bishop for you,'” Pope Leo said.

He asked everyone to support him “in prayer and charity, mindful of the words of St. Leo the Great: ‘All the good we do in the exercise of our ministry is the work of Christ and not our own, for we can do nothing without him.'”

He expressed his love and affection for the faithful of Rome “and my desire to share with you, on our journey together, our joys and sorrows, our struggles and hopes. I too offer you ‘the little I have and am.'”

Following the Mass, the pope appeared at the balcony of the basilica, where he briefly addressed a large crowd of people, wishing them as he did the afternoon of his election May 8, “Peace be with you.”

The Holy Year dedicated to hope, he said, encourages the faithful to be living witnesses of Christ’s hope to the world, “a world that is suffering a lot” because of war, violence and poverty.

“Thank you for walking together,” he said, “Let us all walk together.”

The pope then got in an open popemobile and headed to the patriarchal Basilica of St. Mary Major where he venerated the “Salus Populi Romani,” (“Salvation of the Roman People”), a Marian icon in a side chapel.

After the prayers and final blessing, he stood and prayed at the tomb of his predecessor, Pope Francis, upon which lay a single white rose.

Pope Leo then spoke to the people gathered outside the basilica, thanking them “from my heart” for their presence to be with their new bishop, “united as members of the Diocese of Rome.”

Before going to St. John Lateran for the Mass, Pope Leo also met with Rome’s mayor, Roberto Gualtieri, in a brief ceremony at the bottom of the steps below city hall.

Pope Leo said he felt the “serious but enthusiastic responsibility of serving all members” of the Diocese of Rome, “having at heart, above all, the faith of the people of God and, therefore, the common good of society.”

“We are partners, each in its own institutional setting,” he said. And yet, as he was about to take possession of the city’s cathedral, “Today I can say for you and with you, I am Roman,” which was met with great applause.

Also May 25, the pope led a crowd in St. Peter’s Square in praying the “Regina Coeli” at noon.

Speaking from the window of the Apostolic Palace, the pope said, “Let us resolve to bring (the Lord’s) love everywhere, never forgetting that each of our sisters and brothers is a dwelling place of God and that his presence is manifested above all in the little ones, in the poor and the suffering, who ask us to be thoughtful and compassionate Christians.”

(OSV News) – Russia has rejected the Vatican’s offer to host talks for ending the war in Ukraine, despite international support for the idea.

Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin had offered to “eventually make the Vatican … available for a direct meeting” between Ukraine and Russia, as May 16 talks between those nations in Istanbul ended after just two hours, with little result except for a mutual prisoner exchange.

The move was endorsed by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and U.S. President Donald Trump, with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirming the Vatican could be a meeting venue for Russia-Ukraine peace talks before meeting May 17 with Cardinal Matteo Zuppi. The Archbishop of Bologna, Italy, Cardinal Zuppi has served as a papal peace envoy between Ukraine and Russia since 2023.

“I think it’s a place that both sides would be comfortable going,” Rubio told reporters at the U.S. Embassy in Rome.

Ukraine President Voldymyr Zelenskyy – who had a private meeting with Pope Leo XIV following the May 18 papal inauguration Mass at St. Peter’s Square – said in his May 19 conversations with Trump he had “reiterated that Ukraine is ready for direct negotiations with Russia in any format that brings results. Türkiye, the Vatican, Switzerland — we are considering all possible venues.”

However, Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has nixed the prospect, saying his nation has “no plans” for when or where the next meeting between the two nations will take place.

Lavrov made the remarks while speaking at a May 23 conference in Moscow on “Historical South Russian Lands: National Identity and Self-Determination of Peoples.”

He described efforts to coordinate talks at the Vatican as “unrealistic.”

“Imagine the Vatican as a venue for negotiations. It’s a bit vulgar,” said Lavrov, according to the Ukrainska Pravda media outlet, citing Russian media outlet RBC. Lavrov’s word choice has also been rendered as “a bit inelegant.”

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told media May 22 there are “no agreements” to hold talks at the Vatican.

Lavrov cited religion as one obstacle, saying a meeting between Russia and Ukraine, “two Orthodox countries,” at a “Catholic platform” would be “somewhat uncomfortable” for the Vatican.

Most Christians in Ukraine identify as Orthodox, followed by Ukrainian Greek and Roman Catholic. The nation’s religiously plural society is also home to historic Jewish, Muslim and Protestant communities.

Some 71% of Russians identify as Orthodox, with 15% claiming no religious faith and 5% identifying as Muslim. Other faiths, including Catholicism, each represent 1% or less of the remaining population.

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill has been a fervent supporter of Russia’s war on Ukraine, launched in 2022 and continuing attacks initiated in 2014. The patriarch preached in a September 2022 sermon that any Russian soldier who dies in Ukraine offers a sacrifice that “washes away all the sins that a person has committed.”

Sergei Markov, a political consultant closely aligned with the Kremlin, told Bloomberg that security concerns prevent Russian President Vladimir Putin from traveling to the Vatican, located within the NATO member state of Italy.

Putin is the subject of one of six arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court for war crimes by Russian officials in Ukraine. As a signatory to the Rome Statute, which created the ICC, Italy would in principle have a duty to arrest Putin if he entered the country.

Bloomberg, citing unidentified European officials, said discussions are nonetheless taking place to create a role for the Vatican in Ukraine-Russia talks.

(OSV News) – Two U.S. Catholic bishops expressed their “profound grief and outrage” over the May 21 killing of two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington.

“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,” said Bishop Joseph C. Bambera of Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Metropolitan Archbishop Borys A. Gudziak of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia in a May 23 joint statement.

The bishops – who respectively chair the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs and Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development – said their hearts were “burdened by sorrow” over the murders of 26-year-old Sarah Lynn Milgrim and 30-year-old Yaron Lischinsky, who were fatally shot at close range while leaving a young diplomats reception at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington.

The couple was 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 and has been charged with both federal and local murder offenses, including the murder of foreign officials and two counts of first-degree murder.

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

In their statement — which joined similar outcries from Cardinal Robert W. McElroy of Washington, Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York and Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of Arlington, Virginia — Bishop Bambera and Archbishop Gudziak said, “As Catholics, we are called not only to reject such hatred, but to actively foster mutual understanding, respect, and solidarity with the Jewish people.”

They pointed to Catholic teaching on the church’s relationship to 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,” they said, referring to the landmark conciliar document that is currently marking its 60th anniversary this year.

“Nostra Aetate” (“In Our Time”) is believed by scholars to have been inspired by a brief but pivotal 1960 encounter between renowned French Jewish historian Jules Isaac and St. John XXIII, during which Isaac presented his research demonstrating a centuries-long “teaching of contempt” toward the Jewish community by Catholic and other Christian theologians.

Regarding the murders of Milgrim and Lischinsky, Bishop Bambera and Archbishop Gudziak said, “The suffering generated by this senseless and violent action against the Jewish community wounds us all and compels us toward renewed vigilance and action.”

The bishops also acknowledged “the grave responsibility we all share in the language we use, especially when speaking about the conflict in the Holy Land,” pointing to the Israel-Hamas War, which began after the latter’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that killed at least 1,200 and saw some 250 taken hostage. According to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, at least 53,655 have been killed in Gaza as of May 21.

“Complex political realities can never justify rhetoric that demonizes a people, faith, or community,” said Bishop Bambera and Archbishop Gudziak. “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.”

In December, the USCCB and the American Jewish Committee released “Translate Hate: The Catholic Edition,” a resource to confront antisemitism by cataloging anti-Jewish slurs, while providing Catholic teaching that counters such hatred.

Bishop Bambera worked closely with Rabbi Noam Marans, the AJC’s director of interreligious affairs, on the 61-page glossary of antisemitic terms and commentary, which built on the AJC ongoing “Translate Hate” initiative, launched in 2019.

“To our Jewish neighbors, partners and friends: We walk with you. We grieve with you. We stand with you,” said Bishop Bambera and Archbishop Gudziak in their statement. “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.'”

(OSV News) – In their first week of pilgrimage, eight young adults witnessed a bishop blessing his diocese with the Blessed Sacrament via helicopter, visited key sites in the life of sainthood-tracked Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, and boated across the Mississippi River from Illinois to Iowa — all in the company of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.

The 2025 National Eucharistic Pilgrimage launched May 18 from St. John the Evangelist Church in Indianapolis — the same church where last year’s inaugural National Eucharistic Pilgrimage ended in July ahead of the National Eucharistic Congress. Following Mass celebrated by Indianapolis Archbishop Charles C. Thompson, the pilgrimage’s eight “perpetual pilgrims” immediately set out in a van for the Diocese of Joliet, Illinois.

“To journey with Christ in this tangible, holy way – adoring him in silence as the countryside replaced the skyscrapers of downtown – was deeply moving,” said Charlie McCullough, the only 2025 perpetual pilgrim who was also a perpetual pilgrim last year, in a post on OSV News’ live blog featuring the pilgrims’ daily reflections.

They spent that first afternoon and evening at St. Mary Catholic Church in Paxton, Illinois, where Joliet Bishop Ronald A. Hicks received the Blessed Sacrament in a monstrance and led adoration. A second Holy Hour was then held 25 miles away at Immaculate Conception Church in Gilman, followed by a Eucharistic procession and adoration about 50 miles north at St. John Paul II Church in Kankakee.

The next day began with Mass at St. John Paul II, followed by a Eucharistic procession at nearby Bishop McNamara Catholic School, and then a Eucharistic procession and adoration 40 west at Immaculate Conception Church in Morris, Illinois. Then, they entered the Diocese of Peoria, Illinois, where they had five more events, including Mass, May 19.

The fast pace of this year’s 36-day pilgrimage makes it possible for pilgrims to cross 10 states and 20 dioceses in a part of the United States largely missed by the 2024 four-route pilgrimage: the American Southwest. This year’s pilgrimage entered the Diocese of Davenport, Iowa, May 21, and plans to pass through Iowa and into Kansas before going through Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California, ending in Los Angeles for the feast of Corpus Christi, June 22.

The eight “perpetual pilgrims” were chosen among applicants by National Eucharistic Congress Inc., the pilgrimage’s organizer. The pilgrims, all in their 20s, bring a variety of education, work and ministry experience to their roles, accompanying the Eucharist across the country and witnesses to Jesus’ real presence in the Eucharist. Like last year, they are accompanied by chaplains from the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal.

On May 20, the pilgrims visited at least two sites of importance to the life of Archbishop Sheen: his baptismal site in St. Mary Parish in El Paso, Illinois, and his tomb in the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception in Peoria, where the future bishop of Rochester, New York, was also ordained.

That day, pilgrims also witnessed Peoria Bishop Lou Tylka travel with the Blessed Sacrament via helicopter from OSF St. Francis Medical Center in Peoria to OSF St. Mary Medical Center in Galesburg, Illinois, to bless his diocese as part of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage.

Bishop Tylka had welcomed the pilgrims to the diocese the day before with a horse-led Eucharistic procession and then Mass, where he preached about the “hunger that is out there for something more than what the world presents.”

“I think that hunger, especially among young people – they are discovering that the only way to feed that hunger, it’s a spiritual hunger, a hunger to be united with God – is to find a home in church, and they are finding that in the Catholic Church,” Bishop Tylka said, according to The Catholic Post, the newspaper of the Diocese of Peoria.

On May 21, the pilgrims crossed from Illinois into Iowa in dramatic fashion: via a boat across the Mississippi River.

“As I sat in the boat adoring our Lord as we crossed the Mississippi River with Bishop Tylka and four fellow pilgrims, I felt an overwhelming joy,” perpetual pilgrim Stephen Fuhrmann wrote in a reflection for OSV News.

“To be on the water with Jesus, just like the Apostles, was an experience that has illuminated my prayer today and will forever be something that I remember, even if I wasn’t asked to walk on water,” he said.

Once ashore in Iowa’s Diocese of Davenport, they were met by Davenport Bishop Dennis G. Walsh and around 60 people for a 4-mile Eucharistic procession that Fuhrmann described as “along the water, up and down hills (and) through the town of Burlington, Iowa.”

The pilgrims were expected to remain in the Davenport Diocese until May 23, when they were to head north to the Archdiocese of Dubuque, Iowa, for the Memorial Day weekend.

“With our hearts continuing to burn for our Lord,” Fuhrmann said, “he continues to pour out grace upon grace on each of us pilgrims and on everyone that encounters the pilgrimage.”