Author: Eric Deabill

SHAVERTOWN – In advance of the United Nations World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, which is held annually on July 30, Saint Therese Parish in Luzerne County raised awareness about the millions of victims of human trafficking around the world.

After each Mass on the weekend of July 27-28, the parish held a ‘Red Sand Project Ceremony.’

As parishioners exited the church in silence, they were invited to pour red sand into the cracks of a “sidewalk” setup on the church plaza. By doing so, they remembered those in our society who fall between the cracks.

The project was put together by the Social Concerns Committee of the parish.

Globally, one in three victims of human trafficking is a child, and the majority of those trafficked children are girls.

The reasons for child trafficking are numerous. Some of the most prominent are: poverty, armed conflicts, dysfunctional families, lack of parental care, and unaccompanied minors fleeing their homes.

HONESDALE – The Honesdale Knights of Columbus generously donated towards new flooring for the Saint John the Evangelist Parish Catholic Family Community Center.

Many events are held in this location including the Knights of Columbus Pancake Breakfast, Honesdale Head Start, Saint Dominic’s Academy, Saint John the Evangelist’s Faith Formation Program, and the local boy scouts also will benefit from having this new flooring installed.

Members of the Honesdale Knights of Columbus Chapter recently participated in a check presentation to Father William Langan. Pictured, from left, are: David Swendsen, Louis Johannes, Joe Poltanis, Matt Smith, Don Vivacqua, Jennifer Suhosky, and Mike Jones.

SCRANTON – A new community garden, built on Catholic Social Services property in the 600-block of Wyoming Avenue, is not only adding beauty to the neighborhood, but it will also provide food to those in need.

On June 4, 2024, as part of Scranton City Pride, Catholic Social Services joined forces with United Neighborhood Centers and Scranton Tomorrow to install Pine Brook’s first community garden outside of Saint James Manor.

“United Neighborhood Centers offered assistance, including soil, tools, help with planting, and they even have the master gardeners coming out to do a skills class with us,” Shannon Caufield, Director of Residential Programs with Catholic Social Services, said.

With help from students at the Career Technology Center of L a c k a w a n n a County – in addition to some grant funding – several new garden beds were built and set up adjacent to the building’s parking lot.

“W e received some funding that permitted us to get some garden beds. We worked with the CTC, where they were able to build the garden beds for us as part of their senior project, and we just paid for the cost of the lumber and they came and installed them,” Caufield explained.

Residents, staff and even community members got their hands dirty – spreading out soil and putting the first plants in place.

Prior to the garden beds being installed, residents of Saint James Manor had been planting vegetables right in a dirt patch that existed.

Saint James Manor houses critical social service programs that support Scranton’s disenfranchised populations – including Saint Anthony’s Haven Emergency Shelter for those experiencing homelessness, a Mental Health Counseling Program which
provides transitional housing for individuals who are experiencing homelessness as a result of mental health issues, and the Citizens’ Re-Entry Program for the formerly incarcerated.

“They really did take ownership of it. They took care of it. It gave them something to do, some pride as well,” Caufield added. “When this opportunity came up to expand, we obviously said yes, immediately. The residents love it. Because many of them are experiencing homelessness, they need something to give them ownership and pride and this offers them that opportunity.”

In addition to regular garden beds, the CTC students also created several raised garden beds for anyone who might be in a wheelchair or have trouble bending down. When not growing vegetables, Catholic Social Services officials might add flowers to keep the area looking nice.

“We’re very excited … We’re looking forward to providing some fresh produce to our residents who can’t afford it as well as the local community,” Caufield said.

 

Diocese of Scranton

EAST STROUDSBURG– A Lay Carmelite community that was founded in February 1999 in the Poconos by four parishioners of Saint Matthew Parish is celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary this year.

Named ‘Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament Lay Carmelite Community,’ the group has had enthusiastic and robust participation from the start.

Now numbering fifty members, more than forty of whom are active participants, the Community includes individuals from every parish in the Stroudsburg deanery.

Community founders were Ed Lawler, Harriett Eitzenberger and her deceased husband, Herm, and Marge Cantalupo.

In addition to the Lay Carmelite community in East Stroudsburg, the Diocese of Scranton has another one in Pittston.

The East Stroudsburg Chapter meets on the third Saturday of each month from 8:30 a.m. until 11:00 a.m. at Saint Matthew Parish, 78 Ridgeway Street, East Stroudsburg. For additional information, contact Eileen at (570) 977-8796 or Gerry at (570) 424-2879.

The Pittston community, named ‘Our Lady of the Mountains Lay Carmelite Community,’ meets on the third Saturday of each month from 9:00 a.m. until 11:00 a.m. at the Oblates of Saint Joseph Seminary, 1880 Highway 315, Pittston.
For additional i n f o r m a t i o n, contact Linda at (570) 862-2940 or Chris at (570)
239-8094.

L a y C a r m e l i t e s are lay people who share in the mission of the Carmelite Order. The call to Carmel is a call to seek God’s will in the ordinary circumstances of everyday life. This roots a Lay Carmelite in a love of those with whom they live and work.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The annual celebration of the World Day of Peace during the Holy Year 2025 will be inspired by “the concepts of hope and forgiveness” — including the forgiveness of foreign debt — “which are at the heart of the Jubilee,” the Vatican said.

Pope Francis has chosen “Forgive us our trespasses: grant us your peace” as the theme for the celebration Jan. 1, 2025, said an announcement Aug. 8 from the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.

The Holy Year, which the pope will open Dec. 24, is “a time for conversion that calls us not to condemn, but instead to bring about reconciliation and peace,” the dicastery said.

“When considering the reality of conflicts and social sins afflicting humanity today in light of the hope inherent in the Jubilee tradition of the forgiveness of sins and the cancellation of debts, together with the reflections of the Fathers of the Church in this regard, concrete principles emerge that can lead to a much needed spiritual, social, economic, ecological and cultural change,” it continued.

“Only from a genuine conversion on all levels — personal, local and international -– will true peace be able to flourish,” the announcement said. Conversion is needed “not only in the cessation of conflicts but also in a new reality in which wounds are healed and each person’s dignity is recognized.”

The pope’s message for the World Day of Peace usually is released in early December and shared with heads of state around the world by Vatican ambassadors.

In “Spes non Confundit” (“Hope Does Not Disappoint”), his bull proclaiming the Holy Year 2025, Pope Francis appealed to the world’s wealthiest nations to “acknowledge the gravity of so many of their past decisions and determine to forgive the debts of countries that will never be able to repay them.”

“If we really wish to prepare a path to peace in our world, let us commit ourselves to remedying the remote causes of injustice, settling unjust and unpayable debts, and feeding the hungry,” the pope wrote.

In the Hebrew Scriptures, God commanded his people to observe a jubilee as a time to restore their relationships with God, with other people and with the land, including by forgiving the debts of the poor.

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – In the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, the number of abortions in the United States have increased, even as some states implemented near-total bans on the procedure, according to a report by #WeCount, a research project by the Society of Family Planning, a group that supports legal abortion. Pro-life activists who spoke with OSV News expressed concern about the report — and the trends it observed.

According to the latest quarterly #WeCount report, the national monthly total of abortions of unborn children exceeded 100,000 in January 2024, the first time that threshold was observed in the report. The report has collected data since April 2022, two months prior to the Dobbs decision, which saw the Supreme Court overturn its jurisprudence holding abortion to be a constitutional right since Roe v. Wade (1973).

According to #WeCount, between 94,670 and 102,350 abortions occurred monthly from January-March 2024, with a monthly average of 98,990.

The report also found that abortion via telehealth — a term referring to health care services provided over the phone or internet — continued to increase, growing to represent about 20% of all abortions nationally.

“Telehealth abortion is making a critical difference” for those seeking abortions “in this increasingly restrictive environment,” Dr. Ushma Upadhyay, #WeCount co-chair and a professor with the University of California, San Francisco’s Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health research group, said in a statement.

But Tessa Cox, senior research associate at Charlotte Lozier Institute, told OSV News, “It’s very concerning to see the rapid increase in abortion-by-mail.”

“Abortion drugs have four times the complication rate of surgical abortion, and the risks only increase when these drugs are sent through the mail with no in-person interaction with a medical provider,” Cox claimed. “The lack of oversight enables abusers and endangers women. Women deserve real information about their pregnancy and unborn baby, not a careless stamp of approval from an abortion provider in a distant state.”

Kristi Hamrick, vice president of media and policy for both Students for Life Action and Students for Life of America, told OSV News that the report should be treated with some skepticism, as there is no formal requirement for states to tally abortions in the United States.

“We can’t verify,” she said. “There is no national abortion reporting law in the U.S.”

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conduct an annual “Abortion Surveillance System” report that compiles state data on abortion. However, states participate on a voluntary basis, and not every state submits data.

“We need to protect life in law and in service — not because of a report that may be false — but because it’s true that human lives have worth,” Hamrick said, adding, “I certainly hope they are wrong.”

The Catholic Church teaches that all human life is sacred from conception to natural death, opposing direct abortion as an act of violence that takes the life of the unborn child.

After the Dobbs decision, church officials in the U.S. have reiterated the church’s concern for both mother and child, and called for strengthening available support for those living in poverty or other causes that can push women toward having an abortion.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Each Christian and the whole Catholic Church must hold fast to the promise that “nothing is impossible for God,” especially when facing difficulties, Pope Francis said.

Resuming his weekly general audiences Aug. 7 after a six-week summer break, the pope returned to his series of audience talks about the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of the church.

“Without the Holy Spirit, the church cannot keep moving, the church doesn’t grow, the church cannot preach,” he told pilgrims and visitors sheltered from the summer heat in the air-conditioned Paul VI Audience Hall.

Two women holding signs and shouting for the church to formally declare bullfighting a sin interrupted the reading of a passage from the Bible at the beginning of the audience. Security escorted them out of the audience hall.

Looking at how the Holy Spirit enlivens and assists the church, Pope Francis said people often wonder, “How is it possible to proclaim Jesus Christ and his salvation to a world that seems to seek only well-being in this world?”

The answer, he said, is given in the Acts of the Apostles: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses.”

Notice, the pope said, the words are almost the same as those the Angel Gabriel said to Mary when she asked how it would be possible that she would conceive and bear God’s son.

“What is said about the church in general also applies to us, to every baptized person,” Pope Francis told the crowd. “In life, all of us sometimes find ourselves in situations beyond our strength, and we ask ourselves: ‘How can I cope with this situation?’ It helps, in such cases, to repeat to ourselves what the angel said to the Virgin: ‘With God nothing will be impossible.'”

The pope prayed that everyone would find the strength to keep going “with this comforting certainty in our hearts: ‘With God nothing will be impossible.'”

“If we believe this, we will perform miracles,” he said. “With God nothing will be impossible.”

(OSV News) – Among American Olympians achieving a spot on the podium in Paris are Catholics who have expressed their dependence on faith over the years as they’ve pursued excellence in their athletic pursuits.

Swimmer Katie Ledecky is outspoken about how her Catholic faith guides her life.

On Aug. 3, Ledecky became the most decorated American female gold medalist in any sport as well as one of only two women from any nation, in any sport, to win nine gold medals. It was her fourth consecutive Olympic gold medal in the 800 freestyle. She has 14 medals total. Just two days earlier she won her 13th Olympic medal — in itself historic. She took silver in the 4×200-meter freestyle relay.

After the 2021 Olympic games in Tokyo, the Catholic school graduate told the Catholic Standard, the Archdiocese of Washington’s newspaper, that she prayed the Hail Mary before each race to calm her nerves, just as she had during the 2012 and 2016 Olympics.

“My faith remains very important in my life, especially the last two years,” Ledecky told the Catholic Standard in 2021. She noted that watching livestreamed Mass, celebrated by her godfather Jesuit Father Jim Shea at a parish in Charlotte, North Carolina, helped her through the pandemic.

“My faith is strong, and I realized more how important that is,” she said.

Ledecky, 27, has nine gold, four silver and one bronze Olympic medals. In Paris, she is teammates with two fellow alumnae of her all-girls high school, Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart in Bethesda, Maryland: Phoebe Bacon and Erin Gemmell. Gemmell medaled alongside Ledecky with the 4×200 meter relay.

Ledecky and Bacon also attended the elementary Little Flower School in Bethesda, where both families are members of the parish.

They are among a host of U.S. Olympians who are Catholic, were raised in the faith, or attended Catholic schools or colleges and are now competing in Paris. Several have spoken in the past about the role their faith has played in their training and shaped their self-perception.

U.S. Olympic gymnast and Paris gold medalist Simone Biles, who was raised Catholic and in years past spoke about the role of faith in her life, has said she credits God for her success.

The high-flying 27-year-old, who trains in Spring, Texas, at her World Champions Centre gym, said in the past that when she travels, she sometimes takes with her a statue of St. Sebastian, the patron saint of athletes, and she also carries a rosary her mother gave her. Her parents have told media that they often pray the rosary for Simone. Biles and her family have also been known to attend St. James Catholic Church in Spring.

Biles, who won gold in the women’s gymnastics all-around competition in Paris Aug. 1 and helped lead the U.S. women to a team gold July 30, made those comments to Us Weekly in 2016.

“I never thought I’d be who I am,” she told Vanity Fair in a story published in January, “but look at God’s blessings.”

In recent years, Biles has been more private about her faith journey. In 2021, she diverged from church teaching on abortion access, saying on Twitter (now X) that she was “very pro-choice” arguing “you should not control someone elses body/decision.”

However, Biles has also been outspoken about addressing and prioritizing mental health, an issue the U.S. bishops have sought to raise with the National Catholic Mental Health Campaign. Following the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympics, Biles (a survivor of sexual abuse perpetrated by Larry Nassar, a USA Gymnastics’ national-team doctor) publicly admitted that she struggled with her mental health and athletics. At the time, she had stepped out of the Olympic competition after experiencing the “twisties,” a sense of disorientation when in motion that could lead to serious injury.

In Paris, however, Biles has exuded confidence — publicly thanking her therapist for routine care — and her dedication to her sport has paid off, with many calling her the “greatest of all time.” She is now the most decorated U.S. Olympic gymnast in history, with nine Olympic medals.

Ryan Murphy, a Catholic swimmer who grew up in Florida, is taking home a bronze medal in the men’s 100-meter backstroke. In a 2016 interview with the National Catholic Register, he described the importance of having an active prayer life and living out his faith. He said, “I’m a firm believer in God. My faith is important to me. There are, however, times when I rely on him more than others. Overall, I am private in my spirituality.”

Murphy, 29, drew the spotlight in Paris not only for his race, but for the sign his wife, Bridget, held up as he was walking to the podium: “Ryan it’s a girl!” The couple, who married in September, are reportedly expecting their first child in January.

A former altar boy, Murphy described his family to the Register as ardent supporters of Catholic education. The story described him as having “a great devotion to St. Christopher, the patron saint of swimmers.”

He garnered attention during the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro — where he won three gold medals — after genuflecting following a swim.

“I believe God has given me a great talent, for which I’m eternally grateful,” he told the Register at the time. “My faith gives me comfort despite the outcome of a race. I ultimately believe — I know — God has a larger plan for me.”