Author: Eric Deabill

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – More than half a million pilgrims crossed the threshold of the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica in the first two weeks after Pope Francis opened it.

From Dec. 24, when the pope inaugurated the Holy Year, to Jan. 7, the Vatican said, 545,532 people from around the world have made the journey along the lengthy boulevard leading to St. Peter’s Square and crossed through the basilica’s Holy Door.

“This is a very significant beginning,” Archbishop Rino Fisichella, the chief Vatican organizer of the Jubilee Year, said in a statement. “The groups crowding Via della Conciliazione are giving an important testimony, and this is also a sign of the great perception of safety and security that pilgrims experience in the city of Rome and around the four papal basilicas.”

A tunnel diverting vehicle traffic underground at the beginning of Via Della Conciliazione — the street leading to the Vatican — was completed just before the start of the Holy Year. A pathway extending from the new pedestrian square at the start of the street to the Holy Door also was set up exclusively for pilgrims walking individually or in groups to St. Peter’s Basilica.

Archbishop Fisichella acknowledged, however, that there were some “difficulties” in managing the flow of pilgrims and tourists through St. Peter’s Basilica, a problem that would be studied.

The city of Rome has estimated that more than 30 million people will travel to the city during the Jubilee.

Based on the number of pilgrims that crossed the Holy Door in the first days of the Holy Year, “a steady increase in pilgrim turnout is expected,” the Vatican said in its statement, noting also the many children, youth, adults and elderly who participated in Jubilee celebrations at the diocesan level Dec. 29.

The Vatican said that the “great desire to participate in the Jubilee was also visible in the thousands of people who filled the four papal basilicas on the days celebrating the opening of the Holy Doors, often filling the squares in front of them.”

While Pope Francis opened the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica and another at a Rome prison complex, he did not attend the opening of the holy doors at the other three papal basilicas in Rome: St. Mary Major, St. John Lateran and St. Paul Outside the Walls.

The first major event of the Holy Year is the Jubilee of the World of Communications Jan. 24-26, which will bring to Rome “thousands of journalists, experts and communications workers from all over the world,” the Vatican said.

(OSV News) – Cardinal Robert W. McElroy of San Diego has been appointed the next archbishop of the Archdiocese of Washington, following Pope Francis’ acceptance of the resignation of Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory, the first African American cardinal, the Vatican announced Jan. 6.

The see city is home to the White House, Congress, Supreme Court and a multitude of embassies, nonprofits, think tanks and lobbying groups seeking to sway the levers of American power.

Canon law required Cardinal Gregory, 77, to submit his resignation to the pope when the cardinal turned 75, which was Dec. 7, 2022. The Vatican announced the news of Cardinal Gregory’s retirement and Cardinal McElroy’s appointment two weeks before the second inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump in Washington.

Cardinal McElroy will be installed as Washington’s eighth archbishop on March 11 at 2 p.m. at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

The 70-year-old Cardinal McElroy — a San Francisco native who pursued degrees at Harvard and Stanford before his 1980 priestly ordination — was appointed as bishop of the San Diego Diocese in 2015. Pope Francis named him a cardinal in 2022. He is also a member of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life and Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.

The cardinal has championed Pope Francis’ call to embrace synodality in the Catholic Church. During his time in San Diego, the cardinal convened three synods — the most recent began a process to implement synodal decision-making in the local church. Cardinal McElroy was also a participant in the global Synod on Synodality, which produced a final document on synodality in October that Pope Francis promulgated as magisterial.

As a prelate, Cardinal McElroy has urged the healing of deep polarization in society and in the church. Pastorally, he has called for greater inclusion of those who are marginalized, among them African American and Native Americans, people suffering poverty, migrants lacking legal status, refugees, clergy abuse victims, the incarcerated, and persons who identify as LGBTQ+.

The cardinal has emphasized that a synodal style is key to renewing the church’s missionary spirit and overcoming its internal divisions.

“A culture of synodality is the most promising pathway available today to lead us out of this polarization in our church,” wrote Cardinal McElroy in a Jan. 24, 2023, column for America Magazine. “Such a culture can help to relativize these divisions and ideological prisms by emphasizing the call of God to seek first and foremost the pathway that we are being called to in unity and grace.”

During the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ most recent annual fall meeting in November, Cardinal McElroy proposed a task force to help implement synodality within the conference. The U.S. bishops approved his proposal in a voice vote.

Cardinal McElroy has also led the San Diego Diocese through a second bankruptcy, for which it filed in June to settle approximately 450 claims. In 2007, prior to his appointment, the diocese paid $198 million to settle claims.

In a June 13 letter announcing the Chapter 11 filing, Cardinal McElroy said, “It is essential that we all keep in mind that it was the moral failure of those who directly abused children and teenagers, and the equally great moral failure of those who reassigned them or were not vigilant, that led to the psychological and spiritual wounds that still crush the hearts and souls of so many men and women in our midst.”

He added, “May God never let this shame pass from our sight, and may God’s tenderness envelop the innocent children and teenagers who were victimized.”

During the 2023 ordination of two auxiliary bishops for his diocese, Cardinal McElroy shared his thoughts on what makes a good bishop. “To be a good bishop,” he said, “you must truly journey with God’s flock as Pope Francis has urged us: walking sometimes at the front to lead; walking sometimes in the middle of the flock to experience the realities of daily life; and walking sometimes at the rear to embrace and walk with those who are struggling to keep up.”

Cardinal McElroy also succeeds a prelate in Washington who leaves an impressive legacy marked by a great many “firsts.”

Throughout his decades of service to the Catholic Church, Cardinal Gregory has been a pioneering prelate. He converted to the Catholic faith in sixth grade while attending St. Carthage Catholic School in his hometown of Chicago, and was ordained a priest of that archdiocese in 1973.

He became the youngest Catholic bishop in the U.S. at age 34 when he was ordained an auxiliary bishop of Chicago in 1983. In 1994, he was ordained bishop of Belleville, Illinois.

In 2005, he became the third African American to serve as archbishop of Atlanta, an archdiocese that during his tenure grew to some 1.2 million Catholics across 69 counties.

In 2019, he was appointed the first African American archbishop of Washington. Pope Francis elevated him to cardinal in 2020.

During his time in Washington, Cardinal Gregory navigated difficult situations, particularly where faith and politics intersected. The cardinal rejected calls to deny holy Communion to President Joe Biden, the second Catholic to hold the office, despite Biden’s endorsement of abortion, a stance at odds with church teaching. He emphasized the importance of effective dialogue and seeking common ground.

But he also spoke clearly to the president’s shortcomings. In April on CBS News’ “Face the Nation,” Cardinal Gregory said that while he believed that Biden was sincere about Catholicism, “like a number of Catholics, he picks and chooses dimensions of the faith to highlight while ignoring or even contradicting other parts.” He added, “I would say there are things, especially in terms of the life issues, there are things that he chooses to ignore.”

At the same time, Cardinal Gregory — who has consistently spoken out against capital punishment and euthanasia — commended Biden’s recent commutation of most federal death row sentences. In a Dec. 23 statement, the cardinal called the death penalty “one more link in the awful loss of public respect for human life itself.”

Cardinal Gregory was also the first African American elected as president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, serving from 2001-2004. Prior to that, he had been elected vice president of the conference (known from 1966 until 2001 as the National Conference of Catholic Bishops) in 1998.

His tenure as USCCB president coincided with the explosive clerical sex abuse scandal in the Archdiocese of Boston. The crisis — while not the first known sex abuse scandal of the Catholic Church in the U.S. — provided the impetus, along with other emerging diocesan abuse scandals at the time, for the U.S. bishops to develop and adopt their “Charter for the Protection for Children and Young People.”

The watershed document that then-Bishop Gregory helped shepherd the U.S. bishops to develop in Dallas June 13-15, 2002 — commonly called the Dallas Charter — lays out a comprehensive set of procedures for addressing allegations of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy. The charter also includes guidelines for reconciliation, healing, accountability and prevention of abuse.

As the charter neared its 20th anniversary, Cardinal Gregory told Catholic News Service in a June 2022 interview that the charter marked a “pivotal moment” in the history of the Catholic Church in the U.S. But he said the task of confronting sexual abuse in the church “is not complete.”

“We’ve gone through some rocky patches,” the cardinal admitted. “With every sordid revelation (of sexual abuse or improper response by a bishop), the task becomes more difficult, the climb becomes steeper.”

The cardinal told CNS the Dallas Charter’s impact had at times been undermined by ongoing discoveries of the scope of the decades-long crisis.

“Certainly 20 years ago when the charter was first enacted and ratified, I think the people of God breathed a sigh of relief that finally the bishops were taking action together that would address the issue,” he said. “But … with each revelation that involved a bishop not taking appropriate action, with each revelation that a bishop himself was engaged in this terrible criminal behavior, the progress that was made over months and years was weakened.”

During the Mass for his 2019 installation as archbishop of the nation’s capital, he alluded to another crucial inflection point in the abuse crisis — the lurid abuse and cover-up scandal surrounding Theodore McCarrick, former cardinal and archbishop of Washington, who had been laicized by the Vatican in February 2019 — saying, “We stand at a defining moment for this local faith community.”

Candor, blended with hope, has been characteristic of Cardinal Gregory’s approach to a range of issues within the church.

As a liturgical expert — having earned his doctorate in liturgy from the Pontifical Athenaeum of St. Anselm in Rome in 1980 — the cardinal has written extensively over the years on liturgical challenges and opportunities for growth in the worthy celebration of the liturgy.

In a 2016 journal article, then-Archbishop Gregory noted that “Catholic preaching has often lagged far behind its counterparts in other Christian denominations.” He pointed out that Catholic faithful “seek true inspiration, edification, and sound pastoral direction from the homily at the Eucharistic celebration.”

Writing as a Chicago auxiliary bishop in 1988, he also affirmed that “the cultural accommodation … between the Roman Rite and the Black American cultural heritage” is not “an impossible task” in the realization of an authentic Black Catholic liturgical tradition.

In 1999, then-Bishop Gregory, in his role as vice president of the U.S. bishops’ conference, also publicly apologized to Eastern Catholics, who had historically endured discrimination by some Roman Catholics in North America over their traditions, such as the ordination of married men to the priesthood.

With the start of the 2025 Jubilee Year, Cardinal Gregory expressed the need for both contemplation and hope.

Celebrating a Jan. 1 Mass for the Haitian Catholic community — with the liturgy celebrating the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God, while also commemorating Haiti’s Independence Day — the cardinal pointed to Mary as a model for faithful in the journey ahead, especially since she meditated profoundly upon the mysteries of Christ.

“Pondering helps us all prepare to grasp the really important events in life and see their deepest meaning,” Cardinal Gregory said. “We should all reflect more deeply, more frequently during the new year.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis has appointed Consolata Missionary Sister Simona Brambilla to be the first woman to lead a Vatican dicastery, naming her prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

The 59-year-old Italian sister had served as secretary of the dicastery since October 2023.

The announcement of her appointment Jan. 6 also said Pope Francis named as pro-prefect of the dicastery Spanish Cardinal Ángel Fernández Artime, 64, the former rector general of the Salesians.

The Vatican press office did not reply to requests to explain why the cardinal was given the title pro-prefect or how his role would be different from that of a dicastery secretary.

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

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

When a vowed member of a religious order asks to leave or is asked by the community to leave, the decision must be approved by the dicastery.

It approves the establishment of new religious orders, approves the drafting or updating of the orders’ constitutions, oversees the merger or suppression of religious orders and the formation of unions of superiors general.

Sister Brambilla succeeds 77-year-old Brazilian Cardinal João Bráz de Aviz, who has led the dicastery since 2011.

She is one of two women Pope Francis appointed in early December to be members of the Ordinary Council of the General Secretariat of the Synod, the committee that oversees the implementation of the most recent synod and prepares the next assembly.

Born in Monza, Italy, March 27, 1965, she earned a degree in nursing before entering the Consolata order in 1988. She studied psychology at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University, and in 1999, after taking her final vows, she went to Mozambique where she did youth ministry before returning to Rome in 2002, earning her doctorate in psychology from the Gregorian University in 2008.

She served two terms as superior of the Consolata Missionary Sisters, leading the congregation from 2011 to May 2023.

Cardinal Fernández Artime has been awaiting an assignment from the pope since August when his term as superior of the Salesians ended.

Born Aug. 21, 1960, in Gozón-Luanco, Spain, he entered the Salesians at the age of 18 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1987. He holds a degree in pastoral theology, a licentiate in philosophy and pedagogy, and, as a priest, he worked in Salesian schools both in teaching and administration.

After serving in Spain, he was appointed provincial superior of southern Argentina in 2009. Working in Buenos Aires, Cardinal-designate Fernández Artime got to know and work personally with then-Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, who would become Pope Francis four years later.

In 2014, he was elected rector major of the Salesians and the 10th successor of St. John Bosco; he was re-elected in 2020. Pope Francis made him a cardinal in September 2023 and allowed him to continue as the Salesian superior until a chapter meeting and election could be held.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Just as the star over Bethlehem called to and welcomed everyone to encounter the newborn Jesus, God today calls on the faithful to welcome everyone, creating safe, open spaces to find warmth and shelter, Pope Francis said.

The star is in the sky not to remain distant and inaccessible, he said, “but so that its light may be visible to all, that it may reach every home and overcome every barrier, bringing hope to the most remote and forgotten corners of the planet,” he said.

“It is in the sky so that it can tell everyone, by its generous light, that God does not refuse or forget anyone,” the pope said Jan. 6, celebrating Mass on the feast of the Epiphany in St. Peter’s Basilica.

“God does not reveal himself to exclusive groups or to a privileged few, but offers his companionship and guidance to those who seek him with a sincere heart,” he said in his homily. “God seeks everyone, always.”

“We do well to meditate on this today, in a world in which individuals and nations are equipped with ever more powerful means of communication, and yet seem to have become less willing to understand, accept and encounter others in their diversity!” he said.

This is why many Nativity scenes portray the Magi “with the features of all ages and races” to characterize the many different people on earth, Pope Francis said.

“God calls us to reject anything that discriminates, excludes or discards people, and instead to promote, in our communities and neighborhoods, a strong culture of welcome, in which the narrow places of fear and denunciation are replaced by open spaces of encounter, integration and sharing of life; safe spaces where everyone can find warmth and shelter,” he said.

God rejects and forgets no one because “he is a father whose greatest joy is to see his children returning home,” he said, “building bridges, clearing paths, searching for those who are lost and carrying on their shoulders those who struggle to walk so that no one is left behind and all may share in the joy of the father’s house.”

“The star speaks to us of God’s dream that men and women everywhere in all their rich variety will together form one family that can live harmoniously in prosperity and peace,” he said.

The star of Bethlehem is the light of God’s love, he said, and “it is the only light that will make us happy.”

“This light likewise calls us to give ourselves for one another, becoming, with his help, a mutual sign of hope, even in the darkest nights of our lives,” he said.

“Let us ask the Lord that we might be bright lights that can lead one another to an encounter with him,” he said.

Speaking about the current Holy Year and the Jubilee practice of making a pilgrimage, the pope said, “The light of the star invites us to undertake an interior journey that, as St. John Paul II wrote (for the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000), frees our hearts from all that is not charity, in order to ‘encounter Christ fully, professing our faith in him and receiving the abundance of his mercy.'”

While Pope Francis and thousands of people were at Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, thousands more lined the main boulevard leading to St. Peter’s Square for the traditional, folkloric Epiphany celebration. Marching bands and people in Renaissance costumes paraded up the street behind the Three Kings on horseback.

Before reciting the Angelus at midday in the square, the pope said, “Let us ask the Virgin Mary to help us so that, imitating the shepherds and the Magi, we are able to recognize Jesus close to us, in the Eucharist, in the poor, in the abandoned, in our brothers and sisters,” he said.

ROME (CNS) – During the Holy Year 2025, Catholics are called not only to grow in the virtue of hope, but also to share it with others, said U.S. Cardinal James M. Harvey, archpriest of Rome’s Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.

Pope Francis’ call to the whole church during the Jubilee Year is “both pressing and challenging. It is a call not to be satisfied just with having hope, but to radiate hope, to be sowers of hope,” the cardinal said at Mass Jan. 5 after opening the basilica’s Holy Door.

The golden bronze door, installed for the Holy Year 2000, was the last of the Holy Doors at the papal basilicas of Rome to be opened for pilgrims.

With the theme, “Pilgrims of Hope,” Pope Francis inaugurated the Holy Year Dec. 24 by opening the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica, and he opened a Holy Door Dec. 26 at Rome’s Rebibbia prison. The archpriest of the Basilica of St. John Lateran opened the Holy Door there Dec. 29, and the coadjutor archpriest of the Basilica of St. Mary Major opened the Holy Door at the Marian basilica Jan. 1.

In his homily at St. Paul Outside the Walls, Cardinal Harvey said hope “is certainly the most beautiful gift the church can give humanity, especially at this moment in history.”

The opening of the Holy Door, particularly during the Christmas season, he said, “marks the salvific passage opened by Christ with his incarnation, death and resurrection, calling all members of the church to reconcile with God and with their neighbor.”

Cardinal Harvey told the congregation of close to 3,000 people that the words, “Spes Unica,” meaning “our only hope,” are written at the base of the cross on top of the basilica.

During the Jubilee Year, he said, Christians in Rome and around the world are called to hold tight to the cross and set off as pilgrims, journeying together, supporting one another and sharing with all people the hope for eternal salvation accomplished in Christ.

Quoting the Letter to the Romans of the Apostle Paul, whose tomb is under the basilica’s main altar, Cardinal Harvey said his Holy Year prayer is: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

ROME (CNS) – Opening the Holy Door of the oldest Marian shrine in the Western world, Cardinal Rolando Makrickas prayed that the world would entrust itself to Mary, “the door to heaven.”

“Let us offer our prayer to the Father so that, like Mary, we may be pilgrims of hope who bring Christ into the world,” said the cardinal, coadjutor archpriest of the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome, before pushing open its bronze door Jan. 1.

As the bells rang out from the summit of Rome’s Esquiline hill, Cardinal Makrickas became the first pilgrim to cross the door’s threshold during the Holy Year 2025.

Among the pealing bells was one originally placed in the basilica’s bell tower — the highest point in the center of Rome — which was used to announce the Catholic Church’s first Jubilee in 1300 and had been housed in the Vatican Museums since 1884; it was returned to St. Mary Major last year ahead of the Jubilee.

Celebrating Mass on the feast of Mary, the Holy Mother of God, Cardinal Makrickas reflected on the mystery of Jesus’ incarnation in Mary’s womb, calling it the “fullness of time” as it united earthly time with eternity.

Today, the cardinal said, humanity often seeks to “perfect time” by saving or enriching it through technology, but “every effort results in its loss.”

“One cannot, however, ever feel lost, wasted or tired from time spent with God,” he said. “It will not be ideas or technology that give us comfort or hope, but the face of the Mother of God.”

Cardinal Makrickas also spoke about the significance of the relics of Jesus’ crib housed in the basilica, “the first, humble, poor home of Jesus,” from which humanity began to mark time itself.

Each pilgrim entering the basilica during the Jubilee and praying before the icon of the Marian icon “Salus Populi Romani” (“health of the Roman people”) — which Pope Francis visits before and after each of his international trips — and the Holy Crib “will not be able to leave here without a deep and particular feeling, a feeling and certainty that the heavenly Mother is with him,” the cardinal said.

“Each person will go from here with the assurance of being accompanied by the grace, the protection, the care and motherly tenderness of Mary,” he said.

St. Mary Major is especially significant to Pope Francis. He has said that he often visited the basilica when traveling to Rome as a cardinal and, breaking with recent tradition, has said he will be buried there rather than in the Vatican after his death. Six popes are buried in the basilica, and the last pope interred there was Pope Clement IX in 1669.

WILKES-BARRE – The new year brings a new, permanent home for an emergency shelter in the city of Wilkes-Barre.

On Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, city and county leaders participated in a formal dedication and blessing ceremony for the new location of Mother Teresa’s Haven, a shelter for men experiencing homelessness.

For the last several months, construction has been underway to create the new permanent shelter space above Saint Vincent de Paul Kitchen, located at 39 East Jackson Street in Wilkes-Barre.

“We are thrilled to finally have a permanent home after all these years, absolutely thrilled,” Harry Lyons, program director for Mother Teresa’s Haven, said.

Mother Teresa’s Haven first opened in the 1980s, but rotated locations between several area churches.

“This shelter has been in existence for decades but it was nomadic up until about four  years ago and when we think about the clients we serve, there is a certain dignity that they deserve to have,” the Most Reverend Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, said at the dedication ceremony.

With the new location finally complete, Mother Teresa’s Haven now has shower and laundry facilities available, will offer beds to men experiencing homelessness instead of cots, and will be housed in the same complex as the Saint Vincent de Paul Kitchen, food pantry, and clothing bank.

Joseph Mahoney, Chief Executive Officer of Catholic Social Services, says that will lead to a better coordination of services.

“We’ve got the kitchen, we’ve got the food pantry, we’ve got a clothing pantry, we’re bringing all these services into one building and trying to make it easier for our clients,” Mahoney explained.

Mother Teresa’s Haven is able to house 20 men each night. It is now open from 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m.

During the 2024 calendar year, Mother Teresa’s Haven provided more than 4,700 individual nights of emergency shelter to 311 men in the local community.

“Everything is designed in this complex to help the homeless and it is done the right way,” Wilkes-Barre mayor George C. Brown said.

(OSV News) – Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond of New Orleans offered prayers for victims of what he described as a “sign of utter disrespect for human life” perpetrated by a man who drove a Ford pickup truck through crowds celebrating the New Year in New Orleans’ French Quarter around 3:15 a.m. Jan. 1. At least 15 people were reportedly killed, with around 35 others injured.

The driver was killed by police after leaving the vehicle and exchanging gunfire with law enforcement, striking two officers. The FBI is investigating the attack as an act of terrorism.

“Our prayers go out to those killed and injured in this morning’s horrific attack on Bourbon Street,” said Archbishop Aymond, a New Orleans native, in a Jan. 1 statement. “This violent act is a sign of utter disrespect for human life. I join with others in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans in offering prayerful support to the victims’ families. I give thanks for the heroic duty of hundreds of law enforcement and medical personnel in the face of such evil.”

Officials identified the driver as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, and said he likely did not act alone. An ISIS flag was located on the vehicle’s trailer hitch. The FBI found explosive devices in the pickup truck and elsewhere in the French Quarter, including reportedly near the historic Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis.

In an early afternoon press conference, officials described Jabbar, 42, as “a U.S.-born citizen from Texas” and U.S. Army veteran, and that law enforcement is looking for known associates. Anyone who had interacted with Jabbar within the past 72 hours is asked to contact the FBI at the agency’s tipline, 1-800-CALL-FBI.

New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick and other city officials confirmed that the attack was deliberate and that they were focused on ensuring the safety of the city’s residents and visitors. Officials did not release information about the identities of the victims known dead. A few hours later, authorities updated the death count from 10 to 15.

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said during the press conference that there were “some people who are fighting for their lives right now in the hospital.”

“So I’d ask everyone to pray for them,” she said. “They need our support and they need our prayers.

“This was a heinous act. A heinous, cowardly act,” she added. “And we will find them and we will bring them to justice.”

At the press conference, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry announced he had issued an amended emergency declaration initially planned for tomorrow so “that we could bring all of our federal, state, and local agencies to bear in preparation for the Super Bowl and Mardi Gras.” Because of the attack, Landry said he also ordered “the mobilization of a military police company” in New Orleans.

Also speaking at the press conference, U.S. Sen. John Kennedy said, “I wish I understood better why bad things happen to good people.”

“If I make it to heaven, I’m going to ask,” he said. “For those people who don’t believe in objective evil, all you have to do is look at what happened in our city early this morning. If this doesn’t trigger the gag reflex of every American, every fair-minded American, I’ll be very surprised.”

Kirkpatrick, whose role includes chief of police, called the action “evil” and that “New Orleans Police and all law enforcement is built, we are built, for dealing with evil.”

President Joe Biden said in a statement that he was “grateful for the brave and swift response of local law enforcement in preventing even greater death and injury.”

“I have directed my team to ensure every resource is available as federal, state, and local law enforcement work assiduously to get to the bottom of what happened as quickly as possible and to ensure that there is no remaining threat of any kind,” he said.

President-elect Donald Trump posted on social media that “Our hearts are with all of the innocent victims and their loved ones, including the brave officers of the New Orleans Police Department. The Trump Administration will fully support the City of New Orleans as they investigate and recover from this act of pure evil!”

The attack came ahead of the Allstate Sugar Bowl, originally scheduled Jan. 1, and the Super Bowl LIX Feb. 9, both to be played in New Orleans’ Caesars Superdome. This year’s Sugar Bowl doubles as a much-anticipated college football playoff game between the University of Notre Dame and the University of Georgia. After first announcing that the game would go on as scheduled, officials later moved the game to Jan. 2 with heightened security.

Notre Dame posted on X that its community was praying “for those injured and lost in this senseless act of violence.”

University president Father Robert Dowd, a priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross, shared a similar message on a website for Notre Dame alumni and friends and on X, where he said the university community extends “our deepest gratitude to the brave first responders who risked their lives to protect others.”

“To be in solidarity with those who suffer is to exemplify the spirit of Notre Dame,” he wrote. “Today, we are in solidarity with all those impacted by this tragedy.”

Saying that it is “always grounded in faith, hope, and love, especially at difficult times,” the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis posted on social media the archdiocese’s “Family Prayer” requesting the intercession of Mary under the title of “Our Lady of Prompt Succor.” It noted that the church “serves the entire Archdiocese and far beyond, but the French Quarter is our home and neighborhood.”

“We stand in solidarity with those who lost loved ones this morning,” it said. “We are grateful for the first responders and other healthcare and law enforcement professionals who put themselves in harm’s way and who care for the injured.”

The attack occurred on the solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, and the World Day of Peace.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Marking the feast of Mary, Mother of God, and the start of the new year, Pope Francis renewed his appeal for a “firm commitment” to respect all human life worldwide.

“May we learn to care for every child born of a woman, above all by protecting, like Mary, the precious gift of life: life in the womb, the lives of children, the lives of the suffering, the poor, the elderly, the lonely and the dying,” he said in his homily during Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica Jan. 1.

“All of us are invited to take up the summons that flows from the maternal heart of Mary: we are called to cherish life, to care for wounded lives — so many wounded lives, so many — to restore dignity to the lives of everyone” because it is the basis for building a culture of peace, he said, highlighting that the feast also marks the World Day of Peace.

The pope’s message for the World Day of Peace was published in December and is shared with heads of state around the world by Vatican ambassadors. In it, Pope Francis called on all nations to eliminate the death penalty, to divert a fixed percentage of arms spending to a global fund to fight hunger and climate change, to cancel the international debt of developing nations and to respect human life.

After praying the Angelus in St. Peter’s Square following Mass, the pope urged the leaders of countries with Christian roots and traditions “to set a good example by canceling or reducing as much as possible the debts of the poorest countries.” The Jubilee Year focuses on the “remission of debts” and it also “asks us to translate this remission on the social level, so that no person, no family, no people will be crushed by debt.”

He also expressed his “grateful appreciation to all those in many areas of conflict who are working for dialogue and negotiations. We pray that fighting will cease on every front and there will be a decisive aim for peace and reconciliation.”

While Pope Francis presided over the morning liturgy and gave the homily, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, was the main celebrant at the altar. He was joined by Cardinal Michael Czerny, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, and Archbishop Paul Gallagher, Vatican foreign minister.

The pope took a moment before the Mass to pose for a photo with more than a dozen young people dressed as the three kings who visited Jesus. In Germany, Austria and other regions of Europe, children known as “sternsingers,” or star singers, sing carols and raise money for charity between Christmas and Epiphany each year. And, after the Mass, Pope Francis spent nearly 10 minutes greeting children and handing them chocolate Santas as his aide pushed him in his wheelchair down the central aisle of the basilica.

In his homily, the pope reiterated his proposal in his peace day message for “a firm commitment to respect the dignity of human life from conception to natural death, so that each person can cherish his or her own life and all may look with hope to the future.”

“Let us entrust this new year to Mary, Mother of God. May we learn, like her, to discover God’s greatness in the little things of life,” he said.

God chose to act “through littleness and hiddenness” by coming into the world as a tiny helpless child born of a woman in a manger to be “one of us and, for this, he is able to save us,” the pope said.

“Jesus never yielded to the temptation of performing great signs and imposing himself on others, as the devil had suggested,” he said. Instead, “by the frailty of his humanity and his concern for the weak and vulnerable, Jesus shows us the face of God,” who is always near, compassionate and merciful “to those suffering in body and spirit.”

Mary reminds the faithful “that Jesus came in the flesh, and that we encounter him above all in our daily life, in our own frail humanity and that of all those whom we encounter each day,” the pope said.

“If he, who is the Son of God, became so small as to be held in a mother’s arms, cared for and nursed, this means that today, too, he comes among us in all those who need similar care: in every sister and brother we meet, in everyone who needs our attention and tender care,” he said.

The pope asked the faithful to entrust to Mary “this new Jubilee Year. Let us entrust to her our questions, our worries, our sufferings, our joys and all the concerns that we bear in our hearts” and to “entrust to her the whole world, so that hope may be reborn and peace may finally spring up for all the peoples of the earth.”

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – The United States saw an increase of about 18% in homelessness this year, a new record high, according to a federal report.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development released Dec. 27 its 2024 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report: Part 1: Point-in-Time Estimates, an annual report of the number of individuals in settings including shelters, temporary housing, and those who are unsheltered. The report found more than 771,000 people were experiencing homelessness on a single night in 2024, marking an 18% increase over the previous year. It is the highest number observed by the annual report since it began in 2007.

The report attributed the rise to a mix of factors including lack of affordable housing, a surge in migration, inflation, stagnant wages, “persisting effects of systemic racism” and natural disasters.

Officials said the report likely does not represent current circumstances, citing changes in some policies and conditions.

“No American should face homelessness, and the Biden-Harris Administration is committed to ensuring every family has access to the affordable, safe, and quality housing they deserve,” HUD Agency Head Adrianne Todman said in a statement. Todman said that while the data from January 2024 “no longer reflects the situation we are seeing, it is critical that we focus on evidence-based efforts to prevent and end homelessness.”

Todman pointed to the 55.2% reduction in the number of homeless veterans since 2010 as a sign of success. HUD officials also cited an 8% decrease in the number of veterans experiencing homelessness in 2024 from the previous year.

HUD officials blamed migration for having a “particularly notable impact on family homelessness, which rose 39% from 2023-2024.” However, they argued the data was collected before President Joe Biden signed an executive order aimed at reducing unauthorized border crossings by asylum-seekers, and that rents have since stabilized.

The report also blamed the expiration of the extended child tax credit — enacted as part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic — as also exacerbating the homelessness crisis.

The expanded child tax credit, part of the COVID-19-era 2021 American Rescue Plan, sought to help alleviate parents’ rising consumer costs during the pandemic, granting eligible recipients $3,000 per child between 6 and 17 years old, and $3,600 per child under the age of 6. Reports from the U.S. Census Bureau, academic institutions and other nonprofit research organizations found a significant decrease in child poverty as a result of the policy.

Lawmakers allowed the expanded version of the credit to expire at the end of 2021, despite calls from some Catholic groups, including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. An attempt to reach a bipartisan compromise to renew it fell apart in 2022.

The report also pointed to an increase in temporary homelessness in Hawaii as a result of the Maui wildfire.

According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, the U.S. has a shortage of 7.3 million rental homes that are affordable and available to renters with extremely low incomes, defined as incomes “at or below either the federal poverty guideline or 30% of their area median income, whichever is greater.” The group’s data shows that only 34 affordable and available rental homes exist for every 100 extremely low-income renter households.

According to Pew Research, 55% of Catholic households make under $50,000, including 36% making under $30,000.

“Increased homelessness is the tragic, yet predictable, consequence of underinvesting in the resources and protections that help people find and maintain safe, affordable housing,” Renee Willis, incoming interim CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, said in a Dec. 27 statement about the HUD report. “As advocates, researchers, and people with lived experience have warned, the number of people experiencing homelessness continues to increase as more people struggle to afford sky-high housing costs.”

On its website, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops stated the bishops believe “decent, safe, and affordable housing is a human right.”

“Catholic teaching supports the right to private property, but recognizes that communities and the government have an obligation to ensure the housing needs of all are met, especially poor and vulnerable people and their families,” it stated. “In a time of rising homelessness and when many workers’ wages are stagnant and living expenses are rising, it is important to ensure housing security.”