Author: Eric Deabill

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – A coalition of pro-life groups went to the U.S. Capitol March 27 to urge Congress and President Donald Trump’s administration to eliminate federal funding for Planned Parenthood, shortly before the Supreme Court is set to consider a case concerning that funding.

The high court is scheduled to hear oral argument in Kerr v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic on April 2, regarding South Carolina’s attempt to prevent Planned Parenthood from participating in its Medicaid health program. The case could be a major test of the nation’s largest abortion provider’s ability to use public funds in states that have restricted abortion.

Supporters of allowing Planned Parenthood to receive Medicaid funds point to that group’s involvement in cancer screening and prevention services — such as pap tests and HPV vaccinations — but critics argue the funds are fungible and could be used to facilitate abortion.

Efforts to strip Planned Parenthood of public funds are sometimes referred to as “defunding.”

At the March 27 event near the Capitol Reflecting Pool, pro-life groups urged lawmakers to eliminate Planned Parenthood’s federal funding through the budget reconciliation process.

“There’s been a lot of conversation since Dobbs — since we together did a historic act in building a movement that would overturn Roe v. Wade — a lot of discussion about whether we were unified as a movement or not,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, which works to elect pro-life candidates to public office.

“And I can tell you one thing, this movement is completely unified in its first priority, and that is to defund big abortion in this reconciliation bill,” she said.

Reconciliation is a legislative procedure that would allow the Republican majority to bypass the Senate filibuster to pass a budget resolution with a simple majority — instead of needing 60 votes first to end debate — as long as both chambers agree to, or reconcile, their versions of such legislation.

“We have a strong pro-life majority in the Senate; we have a slim, but strong pro-life majority in the House, and we’re ready to do it,” Dannenfelser said.

But a path to doing so was not yet clear. Republicans still face several hurdles on other issues as they aim to pass Trump’s multi-trillion dollar agenda, including still-conflicting versions of the budget framework passed by each chamber.

Multiple members of Congress who spoke at the event argued Trump has frozen federal funding for Planned Parenthood, appearing to reference a report by The Wall Street Journal that the Trump administration plans to freeze $27.5 million in federal family-planning grants to groups including Planned Parenthood as part of its probe into diversity, equity and inclusion programs, sometimes referred to as DEI, within federal agencies.

But those Title X funds would represent just a fraction of the taxpayer funds Planned Parenthood receives annually. The group’s most recent annual report shows it received almost $700 million in taxpayer funds — in the form of government health services reimbursements and grants — for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2023.

Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America and Students for Life Action, told OSV News that the frozen Title X grants are “a good sign.”

“I think, for me, it shows us that our messaging is resonating to the administration,” she said.

“So I think it’s a good sign,” Hawkins added. “But it’s a first step – very much still a very first step – and there’s a lot we need to do.”

At the event, Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., a Catholic lawmaker and co-chair of the House Pro-Life Caucus, said that reconciliation legislation “offers an important opportunity to stop funding abortion purveyors like Planned Parenthood.”

“This is an opportunity we cannot afford to miss,” he said.

Jennie Bradley Lichter, president of the March for Life, pointed to recent New York Times reporting about botched abortions of unborn children, and inadequately trained staff at some Planned Parenthood clinics. She argued those problems showed the group should not be receiving taxpayer funds.

“It sure seems to me like the gig is finally up,” she said.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The number of Catholics and permanent deacons in the world rose in 2023, while the number of seminarians, priests, men and women in religious orders, and baptisms all declined, according to Vatican statistics.

However, the Vatican’s Statistical Yearbook of the Church said, 9.1 million people received their first Communion in 2023, up from 8.68 million people the previous year, and almost 7.7 million people were confirmed, up from 7.4 million people in 2022.

At the end of 2023, the number of Catholics in the world reached 1.405 billion, up 1.15% from 1.389 billion Catholics at the end of 2022, according to the Vatican’s Central Office of Church Statistics, which publishes the yearbook.

This came despite a smaller growth rate in the world’s population, which, for that period was 0.88%. According to the United Nations’ Demographic Yearbook, the estimated mid-year world population for 2023 was approximately 8.045 billion.

The Vatican published its statistical yearbook offering data “on the life and activity of the church in the world in 2023” at the end of March.

The yearbook cautioned that its numbers were based on the information it received back from its surveys and that of 3,188 dioceses and other jurisdictions about 140 did not send information.

The number of Catholics “does not include those in countries that because of their present situation have not been included in the survey,” it said, adding that it estimated that number to be about an additional 5 million Catholics. Mainland China and North Korea, for example, had no data in the yearbook.

The percentage of Catholics as part of the global and continental populations remained about the same as in 2022. Catholics represented about 17.8% of the global population at the end of 2023, it said. The highest proportion is in the Americas with 64.2% of its population being baptized Catholic. Europe follows with 39.6% and Oceania with 25.9%. In Africa, 19.8% of the population is Catholic and the lowest proportion of Catholics by continent is Asia with 3.3%.

While the number of Catholics is increasing, the administration of the sacrament of baptism has continued to decrease worldwide, according to the yearbook. It fell from 17,932,891 baptisms administered in 1998 to 13,327,037 in 2022 and 13,150,780 in 2023. A peak was reported during the Holy Year 2000 when 18,408,076 baptisms were administered worldwide.

The yearbook said the “general downward trend in the relative number of baptisms” has been “following closely the trend in the birthrate in most countries.”

It said the ratio of infant baptisms to the Catholic population is of “great significance” because it notes differences between one country and another. While the world average is 7.4 infant baptisms per 1,000 Catholics, the highest ratios are in American Samoa (71.2), several islands in Oceania (37.7 to 21.8), followed by Burundi (23.6), Cambodia (22.3), Timor Leste (20.3) and Myanmar (20.1). The lowest ratios are in Armenia, Georgia, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Iran, Tunisia and Algeria (below 1) followed by Russia and Djibouti (1.1).

The total number of adult baptisms registered in 2023 was 2,696,521, which is about 20% of the total number of baptisms. The highest proportion of adult baptisms is in Africa (35.9%) and the lowest is in Europe and the Middle East.

The Catholic Church had 5,430 bishops at the end of 2023, an increase of 77 bishops from 2022. The majority of them are serving in the Americas and Europe.

The total number of diocesan and religious order priests decreased by 734 men to a total of 406,996, the Vatican office said. The only significant increase in the number of diocesan and religious order priests was in Africa and Asia, which was not enough to offset the declines in the Americas and Europe.

While the number of religious-order priests had increased by 297 men in 2022, the number went down to 128,254 in 2023, about what it had been in 2021. The number of diocesan priests continued to decrease globally with 278,742 men at the end of 2023.

The yearbook also offered a chart tracking the overall change to the number of diocesan clergy from 2013 to 2023 by calculating how many of those already serving were newly ordained, minus those who died and those who left the priesthood. It showed there was modest growth from 2013 to 2016 (0.31% to 0.05%) followed by a negative rate starting in 2017 that peaked in 2020 during the pandemic (-0.73%). The rate was recorded at -0.45% in 2021 and -0.12% in 2022.

The number of Catholics per priest increased slightly to 3,453 from 3,408 Catholics per priest in 2022.

The total number of religious brothers continued to decrease in 2023 from 49,414 to 48,748 and the total number of religious women, it said, was down to 589,423 from 599,228 at the end of 2022 — a decrease of 9,805 women or 1.64%.

The number of permanent deacons continued to increase. There were 51,433 permanent deacons at the end of 2023 — a 2.54% increase over the previous year, with the highest numbers being in the Americas.

The number of seminarians continued to decrease globally with a 1.67% average rate of decline from 2018 to 2023. There were 106,495 seminarians at the end of 2023 with the only growth — 383 men — being in Africa.

The number of Catholic weddings celebrated around the world in 2023 was down from 1.97 million in 2022 to 1.85 million; of those, about 10.3% involved a Catholic marrying a non-Catholic.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Those who work to keep children and vulnerable adults safe are serving and honoring Christ, Pope Francis said in a written message.

“Abuse prevention is not a blanket to be spread over emergencies, but one of the foundations on which to build communities faithful to the Gospel,” said the message, released by the Vatican March 25.

The message, which was dated March 20 while Pope Francis was still recovering at Rome’s Gemelli hospital, was addressed to members and guests attending the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors’ plenary assembly in Rome March 24-28.

“I warmly send you my greetings” and gratitude, he said in the message, telling members their “valuable service” is like “oxygen” for local churches and religious communities.

“Because wherever a child or vulnerable person is safe, there you serve and honor Christ,” it said.

The work the commission does in assisting local churches is not just about norms and protocols to be applied and enforced, but about promoting real safeguarding through education, preventative measures and “listening that restores dignity,” it said.

“When you establish prevention policies, even in the remotest communities, you are writing a promise: that every child, every vulnerable person, will find a safe environment in the ecclesial community,” the papal message said.

In his message, the pope asked the commission to commit to three tasks:

— To further develop and expand work with the offices of the Roman Curia.

— To offer hospitality to victims and survivors and care for their “wounds of the soul.” What survivors have to say should be listened to “with the ear of the heart” so that their testimony does not just end up being something to be documented, but encounters “depths of mercy” from which they can be reborn.

— To build alliances with groups and people outside of the Catholic Church, such as civil authorities, experts and associations, to help safeguarding “become a universal language.”

Since its establishment in 2014, the commission has “enabled a safety network to grow within the church,” the pope’s message said.

“May the Holy Spirit, teacher of living memory, preserve us from the temptation” to stick grief in a file and archive it instead of healing it, it said.

ROME (CNS) – For Pope Francis’ medical team at Rome’s Gemelli hospital, Feb. 28 was the worst day.

“For the first time I saw tears in the eyes of some of the people around him,” Dr. Sergio Alfieri, the coordinator of his medical team, told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.

“We were all aware that the situation had deteriorated further and there was a risk that he might not make it,” Alfieri said in the interview published March 25, two days after the pope was released from the hospital and returned to the Vatican.

The Vatican medical bulletin from Feb. 28 said: “The Holy Father, this afternoon, after a morning spent alternating between respiratory physiotherapy and prayer in the chapel, experienced an isolated episode of bronchospasm. This caused an episode of vomiting, which led to him inhaling some and a sudden worsening of his respiratory condition.”

The doctors aspirated his airways and put him on noninvasive mechanical ventilation, a machine that delivers air with added oxygen through a tightly fitted face mask and using positive pressure to assist breathing.

Alfieri and Vatican officials have said several times that Pope Francis was never intubated and that he always remained “alert and aware.”

The doctor told Corriere, “We had to make a choice between stopping and letting him go or pressing on and trying all the drugs and therapies we could, running the very high risk of damaging other organs. And in the end, we took that path.”

Asked who made the final decision, Alfieri said, “The Holy Father always decides.”

But he added that Pope Francis had “delegated all kinds of health care decisions to Massimiliano Strappetti, his personal health care assistant who knows perfectly well the pontiff’s wishes.”

Strappetti, a nurse who worked in intensive care at the Gemelli, joined the Vatican health service in 2002 and has become Pope Francis’ primary health care provider, working in consultation with the pope’s physicians.

Strappetti advised, “Try everything, don’t give up,” Alfieri said. “That’s what we all thought too. And nobody gave up.”

Corriere also asked Alfieri if Pope Francis was aware of the danger he was in.

“Yes,” he responded, “because he was always alert. Even when his condition worsened, he was fully conscious. That night was terrible; he knew, as we did, that he might not make it through the night. We saw the man in pain. However, from the first day he asked us to tell him the truth and wanted us to be honest about his condition.”

After 38 days in the hospital, Pope Francis returned to the Vatican, but Alfieri and the other members of his medical team have said he will need two months to recuperate.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, spoke to reporters March 24 outside a meeting near the Vatican. He said he had not visited the pope yet because he wanted to allow him to rest.

The Secretariat of State and all Vatican offices keep working as normal, he said.

“I think that for the moment only the most important issues will be submitted to the pope, issues that require a decision on his part also so as not to tire him too much,” Cardinal Parolin said. “Then as he recovers, we will return to the normal rhythm.”

Greeting people gathered outside the Gemelli hospital before leaving March 23, Pope Francis was obviously weak, and his voice was barely audible.

While his doctors have urged him to avoid meetings with large groups, Cardinal Parolin said he hoped the pope would be able to at least briefly greet Britain’s King Charles III, who was scheduled to make a state visit to the Vatican April 8.

The pope’s first days back home had a rhythm of rest, work, prayer and therapy, both respiratory and physical therapy, the Vatican press office said. A nurse was present 24 hours a day, and the pope was alternating between using high-flow oxygen, oxygen mixed with ambient air and not using the nasal cannula at all.

Pope Francis concelebrated Mass March 25, the feast of the Annunciation, in the small chapel near his room on the second floor of the residence, the press office added. It did not say who the other concelebrants were.

EL PASO, Texas (OSV News) – Mass deportations and asylum bans — part of the Trump administration’s rapid changes to U.S. immigration policy — destroy communities and human dignity, while constituting a “war on the poor,” said Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Texas.

The bishop – who chairs the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration – shared his thoughts during a March 24 prayer vigil at Sacred Heart Church in El Paso, which capped a rally and march that began in the city’s downtown San Jacinto Plaza.

“Aquí Estamos: March and Vigil to Stand with Migrants” drew hundreds of participants, including immigration advocates, Catholic and interfaith clergy, religious and lay faithful.

The gathering, spoken in English and Spanish throughout, was attended by Catholic prelates from the U.S., Canada and Mexico, including Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller of San Antonio; Archbishop John C. Wester of Santa Fe, New Mexico; Bishop Peter Baldacchino of Las Cruces, New Mexico; Bishop John Stowe of Lexington, Kentucky; and Bishop Noël Simard of Valleyfield, Quebec.

Also on hand was Cardinal Fabio Baggio of Bassano del Grappa, Italy, the undersecretary of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.

Speaking in Spanish, Cardinal Baggio invited attendees at the vigil to pray for “all the victims of the different migratory routes” in the world, from Africa and Asia to Europe and the U.S.

“Thousands and thousands of brothers and sisters who, simply looking for a better future or refuge, lost their way,” he said in lament.

According to the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration, 2024 was the deadliest year on record for migrants, with at least 8,938 perishing on migration routes.

The El Paso rally, march and vigil — organized by Bishop Seitz in partnership with Hope Border Institute, an El Paso-based immigrant advocacy nonprofit — took place on the feast of St. Óscar Romero, the martyred archbishop of San Salvador known for his fierce defense of human rights and the marginalized in El Salvador.

The rally’s timing was “no accident,” especially as such rights have become increasingly endangered amid an “attack on immigrants today,” Bishop Seitz said in his address at the vigil.

The denial of asylum and the threat of mass deportations represent “a fundamental attack on the human community” and on “Jesus’ vision of a fully reconciled humanity,” he said. “Mass deportations are another tool to keep people afraid, to keep a people divided, to extinguish the charity and love that keep a people alive.”

Catholic social teaching on immigration holds that people have the right to migrate to sustain their lives, while nations have the right to regulate their borders and control immigration, although they must do so with both justice and mercy.

But speakers at the rally pointed to recent U.S. immigration policy changes as exceeding those moral parameters, and instead eroding human rights and fostering division.

Ruben Garcia, founder and executive director of Annunciation House — an El Paso shelter that has hosted over 500,000 people fleeing more than 40 countries for nearly five decades — pointed to recent letters sent by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to organizations receiving shelter grant money. The notices require “a detailed and descriptive list of specific services,” and compel executive officers from the groups to sign sworn statements they have no knowledge or suspicions of staff violating smuggling laws.

Children are not spared in the administration’s crackdown on immigration, said attorney Melissa M. Lopez, executive director of the Diocese of El Paso’s Estrella del Paso (formerly Migrant and Refugee Services), which provides free immigration legal services.

Lopez advised the crowd her office had received notice March 21 the federal government had terminated its contract with the Acacia Center for Justice, which provides legal services to unaccompanied migrant minors through a national network of providers, including Lopez’s team.

“The federal government has decided that children should go to court by themselves, that children should be forced to understand asylum law and apply for asylum on their own, and that they don’t deserve … having somebody stand alongside them,” she said. Lopez added that she lost 18 staff at her agency — which served “almost 30,000 children last year” — due to the contract termination.

Dylan Corbett, executive director of Hope Border Institute, described the current immigration climate as “difficult” and a “dark moment.” He told rally attendees that “everything that is beautiful about this community” on the border “is under attack right now.”

But Bishop Seitz also emphasized, “We are here tonight to celebrate our community.”

Participants embraced that spirit through praise and worship music, as well as through religious dance troupes honoring Our Lady of Guadalupe, St. Jude and St. Patrick, with choreography, drumming and costumes reflecting the area’s Catholic Indigenous and Mexican-Spanish heritage.

“El Paso is a proud and beautiful border community” that “stands as a testament to how welcoming others fosters a safe, prosperous and vibrant environment for all,” said El Paso Auxiliary Bishop Anthony C. Celino.

At the rally, Bishop Celino invited those present to affirm the six principles of the Compromiso El Paso 2025 (“El Paso Commitment 2025”). Attendees could digitally sign the Compromiso El Paso through a Google Doc link accessed by cards with a QR code and Romero’s image, provided by Hope Border Institute.

The principles include human dignity; family; community safety built on collaboration and trust between residents and law enforcement; prosperity; fairness through “humane … responsible immigration policies”; and “celebration of our heritage,” said Bishop Celino.

Following the rally, participants – some holding signs stating “Jesus was an immigrant” and “Migration is a human right” – walked the half mile from the plaza to the vigil at Sacred Heart Church, led by Bishop Seitz and his fellow prelates and preceded by the drummers and dancers.

“Community is an exchange of gifts, where we gift our lives to one another for the benefit of one another,” Bishop Seitz said at the vigil. “We grow together and we bear one another’s burdens.”

Christ offered himself in sacrifice – one to which Romero, through his own martyrdom, united himself – for “that body” that is divinely created humanity, said Bishop Seitz.

“We belong to one another, brothers and sisters,” he said. “We belong to each other.”

That interrelatedness extends well beyond the borders of the U.S., said Bishop Seitz.

“Migration is connected with the fate of our country,” he said. “Our relationship to this issue as El Paso and as the United States reveals what we truly value, what we truly honor. Hopefully, we put our faith not in money and power and rivalry and dominance and empire. This would be idolatry of the worst sort.”

At the border, “we see that (in) this war on the poor, everything is disposable — land, water, environment, our health, women … marriages, the unborn, the poor, human rights,” said Bishop Seitz.

Jesus “points us in a different direction,” Bishop Seitz said. “True, authentic community is built on self-sacrifice, love, and bearing one another’s burdens. … This is what the church, the beloved community, must be in the world. And we must be a sign to them.”

Bishop Seitz assured all those “who live in fear of deportation and family separation” of “our love and commitment,” stressing that “the church stands with you in this hour of darkness.

“And to those in a position of responsibility for our country who steward the common good, I make this urgent plea,” he said before raising his voice. “Stop the asylum ban. Stop the deportations.”

ROME (CNS) – Immediately before leaving Rome’s Gemelli hospital after more than five weeks of treatment for breathing difficulties, double pneumonia and infections, Pope Francis greeted hundreds of people who gathered outside the hospital March 23.

With a very weak voice, Pope Francis thanked the crowd, waving his hands and giving a thumbs up.

He also pointed to a woman carrying a yellow-wrapped bouquet of flowers and told the crowd, “She’s good.”

An aide had pushed Pope Francis in his wheelchair onto the balcony overlooking the square outside the hospital. Some 600 people had gathered at the hospital, including Rome’s Mayor Roberto Gualtieri. Hundreds of people also gathered in front of video screens in St. Peter’s Square to see the pope for the first time since he was hospitalized Feb. 14.

The pope left the hospital almost immediately after his appearance on the balcony.

The motorcycle police leading the pope’s motorcade turned onto the street leading to the Vatican entrance closest to his residence and then turned around. Rather than go directly home, Pope Francis was driven through the center of Rome to the Basilica of St. Mary Major where he has prayed before and after every foreign trip and after his two previous hospitalizations for abdominal surgery.

Pope Francis did not go into the church but left a bouquet of flowers to be placed on the altar under the Marian icon “Salus Populi Romani” or “Health of the Roman People.”

Television footage of the pope, seated in the front seat of a white Fiat, showed he was using oxygen through a nasal tube.

Just before the 88-year-old pope had come out on the hospital balcony, the Vatican released a text he had prepared for the midday Angelus prayer.

The pope’s message focused on the day’s Gospel reading of the parable of the fig tree from Luke 13:1-9, in which a gardener asks a landowner to allow him to spare a fig tree that had not borne fruit for three years; the gardener asks to be given a year to fertilize and care for the tree in the hope that it would bear fruit in the future.

“The patient gardener is the Lord, who thoughtfully works the soil of our lives and waits confidently for our return to him,” the pope wrote.

“In this long period of hospitalization, I have experienced the Lord’s patience, which I also see reflected in the tireless solicitude of the doctors and health care workers, as well as in the in the attention and hopes of the family members of the sick,” who also are in the Gemelli, he wrote.

“This trusting patience, anchored in God’s love that does not fail, is indeed necessary in our lives, especially in facing when the most difficult and painful situations,” Pope Francis wrote.

But, like the other messages he released from the hospital on Sundays, the pope also urged prayers for peace and commented on current events.

“I was saddened by the resumption of heavy Israeli shelling on the Gaza Strip, with so many dead and wounded,” he said. Israel, citing an impasse in negotiations with Hamas militias, began launching aerial attacks on Gaza March 18, ending a ceasefire that had begun in January.

“I call for an immediate silencing of the weapons; and the courage to resume dialogue, for all hostages to be released and for a final ceasefire to be reached,” the pope wrote. The humanitarian situation in Gaza “is once again very serious and requires urgent commitment from the conflicting parties and the international community.”

Dr. Sergio Alfieri, head of the medical team treating the pope, had told reporters March 22 that in his rooms at the Domus Sanctae Marthae, the pope will continue using oxygen as needed through a nasal tube, will be taking medication to fight a lingering mycosis, a fungal infection, and will be continuing his physical therapy and respiratory therapy.

The doctors have prescribed two months of rest and recuperation and have urged the pope not to meet with large groups during that time. They also said his voice will require time to recover.

Dr. Luigi Carbone, the assistant director of the Vatican health service and a member of the medical team treating the pope at Gemelli hospital, said that other than an oxygen tank, no special equipment would be needed in the pope’s room. He added, though, that the Vatican health service has a doctor and other personnel on duty 24 hours a day.

Even after the pope’s return to the Vatican was announced, the rosary for him and for all the sick was continuing in St. Peter’s Square each evening.

The crowd gathered to pray March 22 loudly applauded when Archbishop Giordano Piccinotti, president of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See, began the recitation telling them, “The Holy Father is returning home. We give thanks to God and to the Virgin Mary for this great news.”

The Vatican press office said that March 23 the rosary would continue and would be led by Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica.

(OSV News) – Does Easter belong to Jesus Christ, or to a calendar?

For Pope Francis, the answer is clear: “Easter belongs to Christ!” the pontiff declared in September 2024, when he met with representatives of the Pasqua Together 2025 Initiative, an assemblage of various lay associations and movements of several Christian confessions.

They were gathered to discuss a coincidence and a concern that, for all involved, represents an occasion of unity the pope said “must not be allowed to pass by in vain.”

Because this year, churches both East and West will celebrate Easter, the Day of Resurrection, on the same date: Sunday, April 20, 2025.

It’s notable because Western churches — Catholics of the Latin Church and most Protestants — follow the Gregorian calendar. So do most Eastern Catholic churches. The Eastern Orthodox churches — along with some Eastern Catholic churches — use the older or revised Julian calendar.

That divergence currently results in a 13-day disparity between the Gregorian and Julian calendars — and the calculations for Easter based on those divergent calendars typically lead to the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead on different dates.

“It’s a complex problem, one that is bound up in so many different elements,” said Father Alexander Rentel, an archpriest of the Orthodox Church in America and assistant professor of Canon Law at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary in Yonkers, New York.

“I would be hard pressed to highlight one or another issue,” he added. “The lack of dialogue, mistrust, centuries of practice, but also estrangement. Further, religious and especially liturgical practice, once set, is hard to change.”

The Catholic Church’s rubrics used to determine the date of Easter were established at the First Council of Nicaea in 325 — marking a 1,700-year anniversary in 2025 — which decreed Easter as occurring on the same day throughout the Christian world. The calendar then in use was the Julian Calendar, which — as its name implies — was established by Julius Caesar, in 45 B.C.

The Great Schism in 1054 broke communion between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church — but the major calendar shift took place in 1582, when Pope Gregory XIII introduced the Gregorian Calendar. Intended to correct an error in the Julian Calendar, it’s widely in use around the world today — but not by the Eastern Orthodox Church, which remains on the Julian.

Nonetheless, given the 2025 Easter convergence, there’s been talk of unity.

“This common date has given a lot of energy to older discussions about establishing a common date for the celebration of Easter,” said Father Stefanos Alexopoulos, a Greek Orthodox priest and director of The Catholic University of America’s Institute for the Study of Eastern Christianity.

“This hope and wish have been expressed both by the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and Pope Francis,” Father Alexopoulos noted. As archbishop of Constantinople and 270th successor of St. Andrew the Apostle, the ecumenical patriarch is seen as the spiritual leader of the Eastern Orthodox Church. “The will from both leaders is without question there and is honest; the implementation is difficult.”

Father Alexopoulos said he sees three possibilities.

“The one option is that the Roman Catholic Church align its date of Easter with that of the Orthodox Church,” he suggested. “While this would solve many inter-Orthodox problems, it would mean that the Roman Catholic Church would follow a calendar for Easter that is astronomically not accurate. In addition, many secular calendars of Western countries would have to be revised, as their schedule of holidays are tied to the Western date of Easter.

“The second option is that the Orthodox Church aligns its date of Easter with that of the Roman Catholic Church,” explained Father Alexopoulos. “This is a non-starter as many Orthodox churches would refuse to do so, and would create further division among the Orthodox.

“The third option,” he remarked, “is that both the Orthodox and the Roman Catholic churches seek an alternative common way of calculating the date of Easter, independent of the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea. Such a decision would be very difficult to accept, as it would do away with a decision of an ecumenical council.”

Aristotle Papanikolaou, co-founding director of the Orthodox Christian Studies Center at Fordham University in New York City, also forecast a doubtful outlook.

“I’m very happy that the pope is speaking in that way, and taking the initiative,” he said. “And of course, the ecumenical patriarch has also made one or two comments recently regarding that. I think in ecumenical relations, public statements are made in such a way as to try to at least identify something where churches can move towards some kind of agreement.”

“But,” Papanikolaou said, “I’m going to be a little bit pessimistic, I’m sorry to say.”

His pessimism, he shared, is rooted in the complexities of historical identity.

“It’s a procedural issue, but yet it remains a self-identification issue. And there are just some Orthodox who feel that on these issues that divide us — not every single issue that divides us — the Catholics and the Protestants have to capitulate,” Papanikolaou said. “So on the institutional level in the Orthodox Church, I’m afraid that most institutional players — not necessarily all, but most — would not move forward with this because of the kind of reaction they would get from their Orthodox constituents.”

Father Rentel echoed that prediction.

“I don’t anticipate much to change past this year. I am skeptical, in other words, that anything will change,” he said. “People will talk, argue, try and agree, but little more will happen.”

But, he added, there is always room for grace — and so, the unexpected.

“Ultimately, God can inspire us and move us in ways according to the purpose of fulfilling his will,” the archpriest reflected. “In other words, even though these problems seem insurmountable, they can be overcome by God’s grace.”

Father Alexopoulos agreed.

 

“May this year’s common date,” he petitioned, “be the beginning of a common witness of Christ’s resurrection to the whole world.”

SCRANTON – On the first Sunday of Lent, the Cathedral of Saint Peter was nearly filled to capacity, as 215 catechumens and candidates gathered to celebrate the Rite of Election and the Call to Continuing Conversion.

This year’s event was especially significant, as it saw the largest group of individuals preparing to fully enter the Catholic Church locally in several years.

“Everything that I saw was gloriously beautiful,” Austin Chen from Saint Boniface Parish in Williamsport said. “The congregation of people standing together, the claps, the applause. That is why I’m so excited to be Catholic. It is something that is beautiful.”

The Rite of Election is a pivotal moment in the journey of those seeking full initiation into the Catholic faith. After months, and in some cases years, of preparation through prayer, study and reflection, the ceremony symbolizes their formal selection to become members of the church at the upcoming Easter Vigil.

“It warms your heart because there are so many people trying to do right and trying to believe in what is right and trying everyday to do something that is important,” Chen added.

The Most Rev. Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, presided over the Rite of Election and Call to Continuing Conversion.

“Your presence here today proclaims that you’ve heard God’s call and have chosen to respond,” Bishop Bambera said. “He’s saying that your life – with all its struggles and joys, with all its blessings and challenges – has a unique place and role to play within his plan.”

During the Rite of Election and Call to Continuing Conversion, catechumens – those who have never been baptized in the Christian faith – and candidates – baptized Christians who are seeking to enter full communion in the Catholic Church through the Eucharist and Confirmation – were presented by their sponsors to Bishop Bambera to affirm their desire to join the Church.

“I’m excited about it,” Mariah Cabrera of Saint John Parish in East Stroudsburg said.
Cabrera and a fellow parishioner, Gabriella Cecere, both participated in the Call to Continuing Conversion because they have both already been baptized.

“I was asked to be my niece’s godmother. At first, it was more of just a task for me to make my sacraments, but things lately have not been so great in my life, so doing these (OCIA) classes and coming to church, has actually made me feel like I’m on the right path and I’m here for more than just a task to be a godmother,” Cecere explained. “That is why I’m thrilled for the experience and to see what life is like as part of the parish.”

The catechumens were invited to the front of the Cathedral to sign their names in the Book of the Elect, and Bishop Bambera questioned them about their formation and desire to receive the sacraments.

Afterward, the candidates were invited to stand with their sponsors and Bishop Bambera asked the sponsors whether the candidates had received the proper religious instruction and desired to join in full communion with the Church.

Before taking part in the Rite of Election, individuals participated in the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA, formerly called RCIA) – which is a gradual process of conversion and initiation into the Catholic Christian community providing individuals the space to encounter God and respond to His invitation to a new way of life in the Catholic faith.

Ed Vanhaute has been a facilitator for the program at Saints Peter and Paul Parish in Towanda for several years.

“I think it is well thought out. I think it’s necessary to confirm and identify the Catholic concept of prayer and life in Christ,” he explained. It is gratifying to bring people along this journey, just as my parents brought me on this journey many years ago.”

As the catechumens and candidates move forward in their preparation for Easter, they are reminded that the journey of faith is a life-long commitment of always turning towards God and his love.

“It was such a consolation to my faith to see this Cathedral full of so many Catholics, the candidates, the catechumens, and their sponsors,” Father Mark DeCelles, Assistant Pastor of Saint Teresa of Calcutta Parish in South Scranton, said. “It is just beautiful to watch people grow in their relationship with the Lord and their relationship with one another.”

PITTSTON – In the midst of a busy and often chaotic world, a young couple from Luzerne County has discovered the profound peace that comes with spending quiet time in prayer before the Lord.

Only two months ago, Christian and Concetta Cooney stood before the altar at Saint John the Evangelist Church in Pittston to celebrate their wedding day.

The newlyweds found themselves back before the same altar on March 5, praying before our Eucharistic Lord, during the first of the Diocese of Scranton’s Lenten Holy Hours this year.

“I loved being here with my wife,” Christian Cooney said. “We’ve really blossomed as a couple in the last couple of months. Being able to stand side-by-side with her at this Holy Hour and holding her hand was priceless to me.”

Cooney’s wife has a deep love of Eucharistic Adoration, finding it to be a very personal way to have one-on-one time with Jesus.

“If people put themselves fully into this experience and really sit with the Lord, He makes Himself known. I think everyone, when they fully enter into it, has their own personal revelation,” Concetta said.

For the third year in a row, the Most Rev. Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, is holding a series of Lenten Holy Hours across all 12 deaneries of the diocese, inviting the faithful to spend time in Eucharistic Adoration and prayer.

This year, Bishop Bambera is focusing on the theme of “hope” as part of the 2025 Jubilee Year and the third year of the National Eucharistic Revival coincide.

“He really brought a message that we needed to hear, hope for the future,” Sheryl Charbonneau, a parishioner of Saint John the Evangelist Parish, said. “Jesus is our hope. That is who we need to focus on.”

The first two Holy Hours were held at Saint John the Evangelist Parish in Pittston and Annunciation Parish in Hazleton, with ten more planned in the coming weeks leading up to Holy Week.

The Holy Hours are designed to help individuals and families deepen their spiritual lives during the penitential season of Lent.

Saint John the Evangelist Parish in Pittston currently holds a monthly Holy Hour which has been attracting a growing number of parishioners over the last couple of years.

Father Joseph Elston, pastor, believes the three-year National Eucharist Revival has helped people have a deeper understanding that the Eucharist is central to our faith.

“We’re a Eucharistic people, so our relationship with the Eucharist is so important. The way we grow that relationship is by spending time, just like you’d grow any other relationship, with time, care, love, and communication,” Father Elston said.

Each Holy Hour with Bishop Bambera begins at 7 p.m. at the designated location in each deanery. All are welcome to come and experience this moment of grace and community with fellow parishioners.

During Lent, participating in a Holy Hour offers a peaceful opportunity for people to deepen their faith and draw closer to God.

For the dates of the upcoming Holy Hours, please consult the graphic below.

DUNMORE – Two Catholic schools in Lackawanna County are piloting a new program to empower parents to delay giving their children a smartphone until at least the end of eighth grade.

The “Wait Until 8th” program officially kicked off at Saint Mary of Mount Carmel School in Dunmore on March 6 and Our Lady of Peace School in Clarks Green on March 12.

As a part of each school’s kick-off, parents of students in pre-K through third grade were invited to attend a community panel discussion on the possible harm that smartphones can pose to young children.

Melissa Gregory, a parent and licensed professional counselor, said smartphone use amongst children can increase the risk for anxiety, depression, eating disorders, body image issues and addictions.

“The human brain isn’t fully developed until after 25, so the pre-frontal cortex isn’t yet developed. That is your decision-making skills,” Gregory said. “Your executive functioning comes from that. That is why it is so important to delay kids’ exposure to certain things, before they’re able to emotionally handle that information.”

Ten years old is now the average-age children get their first smartphone.

“Let your children be children. Let them go outside and play with each other. Let them go ride a bike,” Kristen Donohue, Diocesan Secretary for Catholic Education/Superintendent of Schools, said.

As a mother of three children, Donohue knows first-hand the struggles parents face when their kids ask for a smartphone because many of their friends have one.

In unveiling the “Wait Until 8th” pledge, Donohue said parents – especially parents of young children – can rally together to delay giving children a smartphone until at least the end of eighth grade. She said banding together will help decrease the “pressure” to have a phone at an early age.

“If you band together and say, ‘we’re doing this together,’ that decision does get easier,” Donohue noted. “If we can make that shift, we will do a tremendous amount of good for generations to come.”

Panelists at each kick-off meeting included members of the Lackawanna County District Attorney’s Office, Pennsylvania State Police, a pediatrician, psychologist, and pastor.

At the kickoff meeting at Saint Mary’s, Father David Cappelloni, pastor, Saints Anthony and Rocco Parish and Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish, discussed the moral implications of smartphone usage.

“Our primary relationship should be with God,” Father Cappelloni noted. However, as he held up a smartphone, he said that many young people believe, “this is God.”

Trooper Robert Urban, Public Information Officer for Pennsylvania State Police Troop R, played several videos for parents – including one that highlighted the dangers of location tracking – of which many people are unaware.

“Every single app that you use, whether it’s on your electronic device, tablet, or cell phone, has location services in them. You need to know, as a parent, to turn these off,” Trooper Urban explained.

Trooper Urban also touched on several other topics – including smartphones putting children at risk for cyber bullying and exposing them to sexual content.

After the initial kick-off meetings earlier this month, parents are being invited back for a second session in which they will be able to sign the “Wait Until 8th” pledge.

The second session at Our Lady of Peace School will be held April 9, and April 10 at Saint Mary of Mount Carmel School.

“Take this information and please share it,” Saint Mary of Mount Carmel principal Maryelizabeth Shattin said. “There was a lot of eye-opening information.”

Nationwide, nearly 100,000 parents have already taken the “Wait Until 8th” pledge, saying they recognize the distractions and dangers of smartphone usage for their children.

For more information on the pledge, visit waituntil8th.org.