Author: Eric Deabill

Through the intercession of “Virgen de Guadalupe,” plans for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe are proceeding with the hopes of providing as much celebration as possible amid the continuing COVID-19 pandemic.

Particularly in the areas of large Latino populations in the Diocese of Scranton, the annual observance commemorates the appearance of the Virgin Mary to a Mexican Indian peasant — now venerated as Saint Juan Diego — in December 1531 in Tepeyac, near present-day Mexico City.

The Blessed Mother’s appearance is believed to have resulted in millions of conversions to Catholicism, and her message of hope continues to inspire those of Hispanic descent.

In 1946, Pope Pius XII declared Our Lady of Guadalupe as Patroness of the Americas.

The Our Lady of Guadalupe feast on Dec. 12 will culminate a host of celebrations being planned throughout the Diocese, especially in those parishes made up of significant Hispanic/Latino communities.

 

Saint Matthew Parish
East Stroudsburg

Novena
Saturdays 7 PM in the Church

December 11
7:00 p.m.- Vigil (Blessed Sacrament Exposed)
11:00 p.m. – Mañanitas

December 12
2:00 p.m. Mass with a reception following Mass

Annunciation Parish
Hazleton

December 3 – 11
6:30 p.m. Rosary
7:00 p.m. Mass

December 12
12:00 p.m. Mass
Holy Name of Jesus Parish
Hazleton

December 12
12:00 p.m. Mass

Sacred Hearts of Jesus & Mary Parish, Jermyn

December 12
12:00 p.m. Mass with a reception following Mass

Saint Joachim Parish
Meshoppen

December 12
3:00 p.m. Mass with a reception following Mass

Saint John Neumann Parish, Scranton

December 3-11
6:30 p.m. Novena
December 12
3:00 a.m. procession from the Cathedral of Saint Peter to Saint John Neumann Parish.

4:30 a.m. – 6:30 a.m. –
Mañanitas with Mariachi

6:30 a.m. Mass with Mariachi

1:00 p.m. Mass with Bishop Joseph C. Bambera with a reception after Mass
(Chinelo Danza at Mass and at the Gym)

Saint Nicholas Parish
Wilkes-Barre

December 11
6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. Vigil
(Prayer and Danza)

December 12
5:00 a.m. Mañanitas

3:00 p.m. procession beginning at 368 Old River Road, Wilkes-Barre, PA 18702

5:00 p.m. Mass with Bishop Joseph C. Bambera with a reception after Mass

Saint Boniface Parish
Williamsport

December 12
4:30 p.m. Mass with a reception following Mass

Parroquia San Mateo
East Stroudsburg

Novena
Sábados 7 PM en la Iglesia

Diciembre 12
2:00 p.m. Misa
Recepción después de Misa

Parroquia Anunciación
Hazleton

Diciembre 3 – 11
6:30 p.m. Rosario
7:00 p.m. Misa

Diciembre 12
12:00 p.m. Misa

Parroquia Santo Nombre de Jesús, Hazleton

Diciembre 12
12:00 p.m. Misa

Parroquia Sagrado Corazón de Jesús y Maria, Jermyn

Diciembre 12
12:00 p.m. Misa
Recepción después de Misa

Parroquia San Joaquín, Meshoppen

Diciembre 12
3:00 p.m. Misa
Recepción después de Misa

Parroquia San Juan Neumann, Scranton

Diciembre 3-11
Novena 6:30 PM

Diciembre 12
3:00 a.m. Procesión desde la Catedral de San Pedro hasta la Iglesia San Juan Neumann

4:30 a.m. – 6:30 a.m. Mañanitas con Mariachi

6:30 a.m. Misa con Mariachi

1:00 a.m. Misa con el Obispo Bambera
Recepción después de Misa en el Gimnasio (Baile de Chinelos en misa y en el gimnasio)

Parroquia San Nicolás, Wilkes-Barre

Diciembre 11
6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. Vigilia (Oración y Danza)

Diciembre 12
5:00 a.m. Mañanitas (Almuerzo después de las Mañanitas)
3:00 p.m. Procesión comenzando en 368 Old River Road Wilkes Barre, PA 18702

5:00 p.m. Misa
Recepción después de Misa

Parroquia San Bonifacio, Williamsport

Diciembre 12
4:30 p.m. Misa
Recepción después de Misa

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis closed the Year of St. Joseph with a private visit to a community in Rome that helps people experiencing marginalization, crisis or substance abuse.

“Do not be afraid of reality, of the truth, of our misery,” he told volunteers and the people they assist at the Good Samaritan home Dec. 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception. “Don’t be afraid because Jesus likes reality as it is, undisguised; the Lord does not like people who cover their soul, their heart with makeup.”

The Good Samaritan fraternity or home is part of the worldwide “Comunità Cenacolo,” which was founded in 1983 by Italian Sister Elvira Petrozzi to offer “God’s tenderness to the cry of desperation of so many young people who were lost, deceived and disappointed,” and had been seeking “the true meaning of life in the false light of the world,” according to the community’s mission statement.

Dozens of guests and members of the community welcomed the pope, who listened to the experiences several of them shared and watched a segment of a film on the life St. Joseph, which was produced by young people living at two fraternities in Medjugorje.

Among those welcoming the pope were the two children of Andrea and Antonia Giorgetti, who both recovered from drug dependencies and now run the Good Samaritan fraternity, reflecting the fact that a number of young people who find help at the fraternities go on to assist others.

The pope encouraged all the residents to “have the courage to tell others, ‘there is a better way.'”

Pope Francis also visited and blessed the fraternity’s new chapel, built by residents out of discarded wooden beams, travertine marble and other materials reclaimed from dumpsters and landfills.

Building something new and wonderful out of things that have been thrown away “is a concrete example of what we do here,” Father Stefano Aragno told Vatican News Dec. 8.

The pope led the prayer dedicated to St. Joseph to conclude the special year with those present.

WASHINGTON (CNS) – Days ahead of a major Marian feast day in the Catholic Church, a marble statue of Our Lady of Fatima near the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington was vandalized, with Mary’s hands and nose cut off, her face scratched and the cross on her crown broken off.

On Dec. 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, a spokesman at the national shrine told Catholic News Service that around 10:45 p.m. Dec. 5, the perpetrator got to the statue by climbing a locked fence that surrounds a rosary walk and garden that includes the statue.

Video footage showed a masked person doing the damage, which was discovered the next morning. Police were investigating the vandalism.

“Though we are deeply pained by this incident, we pray for the perpetrator through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary under her title of Our Lady of Fatima,” Msgr. Walter Rossi, rector of the national shrine, said in a statement.

The Fatima statue and the garden around it were completed in 2017, the 100th anniversary of Mary’s appearances to three shepherd children in a field near Fatima, Portugal, with her message that eucharistic prayer, recitation of the rosary and penance would save souls and bring peace to the world.

One on side of the national shrine’s garden is the white Carrara marble sculpture of Our Lady of Fatima with the three child-visionaries at her feet, Lucia dos Santos and Jacinta and Francisco Marto. On the opposite side is the crucified Christ, sculpted from the same kind of marble.

A paved walkway, symbolic of the thread connecting a rosary’s beads, circles through and around the garden, taking visitors past groupings of colorful mosaics that illustrate the 20 mysteries of the rosary.

On Sept. 23, 2017, Bishop Frank J. Caggiano of Bridgeport, Connecticut, blessed the new garden, walking to the Fatima statue, then around the path.

The blessing followed a Mass the bishop and other clergy concelebrated in the national shrine’s Upper Church for 2,000 pilgrims from the Diocese of Bridgeport, along with pilgrims from the Philippines and China, the New York area and the Washington region.

Our Lady of Fatima’s message about prayer, conversion and peace that she imparted in 1917 “is as important now as it has ever been since,” Bishop Caggiano said in his homily.

“We come here to ask for her intercession,” he said. “She might lead every human heart to answer the question, ‘What is it that you are looking for?’ And we will answer it: ‘We are looking for your Son, and lead us to him.'”

Four years later, the attack on the national shrine’s statue of Our Lady of Fatima became one of the latest attacks in dozens of incidents of arson, vandalism and other destruction that have taken place at Catholic sites across the United States since May 2020.

In an Oct. 14, 2021, news release, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said the bishops’ Committee for Religious Liberty began tracking such incidents that May and by the time the release was issued, there had been 100 such incidents.

“These incidents of vandalism have ranged from the tragic to the obscene, from the transparent to the inexplicable,” the chairmen of the USCCB’s religious liberty and domestic policy committees said in a joint statement included in the release.

“There remains much we do not know about this phenomenon, but at a minimum, they underscore that our society is in sore need of God’s grace,” they said, calling on the nation’s elected officials “to step forward and condemn these attacks.”

“In all cases, we must reach out to the perpetrators with prayer and forgiveness,” said Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, chairman of the Committee for Religious Liberty, and Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City, chairman of the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development.

“Where the motive was retribution for some past fault of ours, we must reconcile; where misunderstanding of our teachings has caused anger toward us, we must offer clarity; but this destruction must stop. This is not the way,” they said.

“We thank our law enforcement for investigating these incidents and taking appropriate steps to prevent further harm,” Cardinal Dolan and Archbishop Coakley said. “We appeal to community members for help as well. These are not mere property crimes – this is the degradation of visible representations of our Catholic faith. These are acts of hate.”

 

 

ROME (CNS) – An hour before sunrise, Pope Francis set a basket of white roses at the base of a statue of the Immaculate Conception in the center of Rome, praying Mary would help all who suffer.

“While it was still night,” the Vatican press office said Dec. 8, the pope prayed to Mary, “asking her for the miracle of a cure for the many people who are sick, for healing for people who are suffering so much because of wars and the climate crisis, and for conversion so that she would melt the stony hearts of those who build walls to keep the pain of others away.”

The pope arrived at Piazza di Spagna, near the Spanish Steps, at about 6:15 a.m., the press office said. Because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it was the second year in a row that the pope made an unannounced, early morning visit to the statue to avoid drawing a crowd.

Pope Francis arrived, prayed and was gone even before a brigade of Rome firefighters had arrived to hang a wreath of flowers from the statue’s outstretched arms.

The feast of the Immaculate Conception is a public holiday in Rome, and the pope’s usual late afternoon visit to the Spanish Steps normally draws thousands of people.

Before returning to the Vatican, the pope also stopped at the Basilica of St. Mary Major to pray, the Vatican said.

At noon, Pope Francis led the recitation of the Angelus prayer with visitors in St. Peter’s Square and spoke about Mary’s humility and the miracles God accomplishes through people who rely totally on him.

The Gospel reading for the feast is St. Luke’s account of the Angel Gabriel appearing to Mary and telling her she would be the mother of Jesus.

“The angel calls her ‘full of grace,'” the pope noted. “If she is full of grace, it means the Madonna is void of evil: She is without sin, immaculate.”

Pope Francis noted how instead of saying Mary was surprised by the angel’s greeting, she was “greatly troubled.”

“Mary does not credit prerogatives to herself, she does not hold claim to anything, she accounts nothing to her own merit,” the pope said. “She is not self-satisfied, she does not exalt herself. For in her humility, she knows she receives everything from God.”

“Mary Immaculate does not look on herself,” he said. “This is true humility: not looking on oneself but looking toward God and others.”

Pope Francis prayed that Mary would help all Christians understand that if they are humble and focused on God and on serving others, God can accomplish great things through them.

“May she enkindle enthusiasm in us for the ideal of sanctity which has nothing to do with holy cards and pictures but is about living humbly and joyfully what happens each day, freed from ourselves, with our eyes fixed on God and the neighbor we meet,” he said.

ATHENS, Greece (CNS) – God the Almighty almost always chooses the least mighty people and the most desolate places to reveal the power of his love, Pope Francis said.

Celebrating Mass Dec. 5 in Athens’ Megaron concert hall, the pope touched on a theme he had explored in depth with Catholic leaders the day before: the blessing and spiritual advantage of being a small community without power and without pretenses.

Catholics make up less than 2% of the population of Greece; more than 90% of the country’s residents belong to the Orthodox Church.

Noting how the day’s Gospel says the word of God came to John the Baptist “in the desert,” Pope Francis said, “There is no place that God will not visit.”

“Today we rejoice to see him choose the desert, to see him reach out with love to our littleness and to refresh our arid spirits,” he said. “Dear friends, do not fear littleness, since it is not about being small and few in number, but about being open to God and to others.”

The late-afternoon Mass was the pope’s last public event in Greece. After Mass he was to host a private visit by Orthodox Archbishop Ieronymos II, head of the Orthodox Church of Greece, and the next morning he was scheduled to visit a Catholic school before returning to Rome, concluding a five-day trip that began in Cyprus.

Celebrating Mass in the Greek capital after having flown to and from the outlying island of Lesbos for a meeting with migrants, Pope Francis’ homily focused both on recognizing God at work where he is least expected and on the Advent challenge of conversion.

St. Luke’s description of the call of St. John the Baptist lists the civil and religious leaders in office at the time. “We might have expected God’s word to be spoken to one of the distinguished personages” mentioned in the reading, the pope said. “Instead, a subtle irony emerges between the lines of the Gospel: from the upper echelons of the powerful, suddenly we shift to the desert, to an unknown, solitary man.”

“God surprises us,” the pope told the 2,000 people at Mass. “His ways surprise us, for they differ from our human expectations; they do not reflect the power and grandeur that we associate with him. Indeed, the Lord likes best what is small and lowly.”

The Gospel teaches that “being powerful, well-educated or famous is no guarantee of pleasing God, for those things could actually lead to pride and to rejecting him. Instead, we need to be interiorly poor, even as the desert is poor.”

The day’s reading also called for conversion, something that sounds difficult, he said, because too many people think of it as a rallying of personal strength in a struggle for perfection.

But the Greek word for conversion – “metanoia” – means “‘to think beyond,’ to go beyond our usual ways of thinking, beyond our habitual worldview – all those ways of thinking that reduce everything to ourselves, to our belief in our own self-sufficiency,” he said.

“To be converted, then, means not listening to the things that stifle hope, to those who keep telling us that nothing ever changes in life,” the pope said. “It means refusing to believe that we are destined to sink into the mire of mediocrity.”

“Everything changes when we give first place to the Lord. That is what conversion is,” Pope Francis insisted. “As far as Christ is concerned, we need only open the door and let him enter in and work his wonders.”

 

 

WASHINGTON (CNS) – The Build Back Better Act’s plan to expand affordable child care and ensure that quality prekindergarten is available to all families “is a worthy goal,” but as written these provisions “will suppress, if not exclude” many faith-based providers from participating, according to Catholic and other religious leaders.

“We are writing to express our urgent concerns regarding the child care and universal prekindergarten provisions in the House-passed Build Back Better Act,” said a Dec. 1 letter the faith leaders sent to U.S. Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Richard Burr, R-N.C., the chairwoman and ranking member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

The signers represent religious denominations, schools and charities “that comprise and serve millions of Americans,” the letter said.

Among the signers were the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee for Religious Liberty, chaired by Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, and the USCCB’s Committee on Catholic Education, chaired by Bishop Thomas A. Daly of Spokane, Washington.

Catholic Charities USA and the National Catholic Educational Association also signed the letter, along with Jewish, Muslim and other Christian associations.

The Build Back Better Act “does not preclude parents from selecting faith-based providers,” the letter said, but its current provisions “make it virtually impossible for many faith based providers to participate in the program.”

The bill does so, it continued, by departing from current federal child care policy and attaching “new compliance obligations that would interfere with providers’ protected rights under Title VII and Title IX regarding curricula or teaching, sex-specific programs – such as separate boys or girls schools or classes – and preferences for employing individuals who share the providers’ religious beliefs.”

The Build Back Better bill changes how providers receive public monies by defining “all providers as recipients of federal financial assistance, whether the funds come via certificates, in the child care program, — or direct grants, in the prekindergarten program,” the letter explained.

“Making faith-based providers of child care and prekindergarten into recipients of federal financial assistance triggers federal compliance obligations and nondiscrimination provisions,” it said.

Currently, these child care providers are exempt from some nondiscrimination provisions.

Low-income families have traditionally received funds from the Child Care and Development Block Grant program that they may use at a variety of child care centers, including those run by churches and other religious organizations. These various programs are not considered direct recipients of federal funds.

The block grant program receives federal funding but is administered by the states to provide child care subsidies to families who qualify for them.

“The faith community has always affirmed that parents should choose the best environment for care and education of their children,” the faith leaders’ letter said.

“The current Build Back Better Act provisions would severely limit the options for parents, suffocate the mixed delivery system for child care and pre-kindergarten, and greatly restrict the number of providers available for a successful national program,” it said.

The U.S. House of Representatives narrowly passed the Build Back Better Act Nov. 19, and it is now under consideration in the Senate.

The faith leaders asked Murray and Burr to give “urgent attention to address” their concerns about the measure “to ensure that faith-based providers are able to participate” in the bill’s child care and universal prekindergarten programs.

– – –

The full text of the letter can be found online at: https://bit.ly/31kZ42Z

EAST STROUDSBURG – For more than a decade, Saint Matthew Parish has received the “Guadalupana Torch,” a burning symbol of hope, in the days leading up to the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe on Dec. 12. This year is no exception.

Dozens of people gathered in the Rite Aid Pharmacy parking lot in East Stroudsburg on Dec. 1 awaiting the torch’s local arrival.

“It is our faith, our tradition,” Carlos Albuja, parishioner of Saint Matthew Parish, explained.

“This is all about our faith. It is very important to us,” Julio Sanchez, parishioner of Saint Matthew Parish, added. “We are one family, one church, one community.”

The Guadalupana Torch comes from the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City and goes across parishes in the United States before ending in New York City on Dec. 12.

After its arrival in Monroe County, a procession was held to Saint Matthew Parish where Mass was celebrated at the church.

“It is beautiful seeing that the torch is being passed down all the way from Mexico, all the way through several states and seeing all these people coming together,” Martin Sanchez, parishioner of Saint Matthew Parish, said.

On Dec. 12, the faithful commemorate the day that the Virgin of Guadalupe, also the patron saint of Americas, appeared to a Mexican Indian peasant – now venerated as Saint Juan Diego – in 1531 on the Tepeyac hill where the Basilica of Guadalupe was built.

“She came to give love, the faith to believe everything is possible with faith in God,” Alma Lecama, parishioner of Saint Matthew Parish, explained.

“Growing up, learning to love, learning that she loves us all and cares for us, it’s a very beautiful thing and I think it means a lot to everybody,” Sanchez added.

The faithful of Saint Matthew Parish hope to continue receiving the Guadalupana Torch each year. Following its brief visit in the Poconos, it traveled to parishes in neighboring New Jersey.

“We are really happy to receive one more year Our Lady of Guadalupe and I hope Our Lady brings a lot of blessings for all of us,” Carmita Avecillas, parishioner of Saint Matthew Parish, said.

“As a young adult, this activity embraces my faith in the Catholic community,” Stephanie Albuja added.