Author: Eric Deabill

DUNMORE – As he weighs many important decisions in his life, Antonio Ingargiola says the idea of becoming a priest has crossed his mind on more than one occasion.

“I have definitely thought about seminary and going into the priesthood,” he said. “I still feel like I have a lot more discernment, prayer and reflection to do, but I feel very strongly towards it.”

Ingargiola, a parishioner of Saints Anthony and Rocco Parish in Dunmore, was one of 30 high school students who attended Quo Vadis Days from June 26-28 at Marywood University. Twenty-one of the students this year, including Ingargiola, were attending Quo Vadis Days for the first time.

“It’s very empowering because I feel like for other young men who might be discerning priesthood, sometimes you can almost feel alone, you can feel like you’re alone in this vast city,” he added. “But coming to things like this, you realize you’re not alone. There are other young men who are also discerning the same position as you, which is really nice to know and comforting to know.”

Each summer, the Diocesan Office of Vocations holds its Quo Vadis Days retreat to help young men explore vocational opportunities and ask the question about where God is calling them. In Latin, “Quo Vadis” means, “Where are you going?”

“It is a time of prayer, fun, community building and fellowship,” Father Alex Roche, Diocesan Director of Vocations and Seminarians, said. “It’s a great opportunity for them to realize that priests, bishops and seminarians are human beings just like them, men who have gone through all the same ups-and-downs of life and who were teenagers themselves once. It gives them the opportunity to experience the priesthood in a new way and discover, maybe, if God is calling them in that direction.”

Throughout the three days, speakers visit to talk not only about the priesthood but also about many other topics including religious life, marriage and dating. The young men grow in their faith by participating in Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, Mass and Eucharistic Adoration. They also have plenty of free time to play sports, pool, foosball, capture the flag and more.

“I loved Holy Hour. I loved it. It was so beautiful,” Joaquin Sierra, a participant from the Church of Saint John in East Stroudsburg, said.

Sierra said he made several new friends attending Quo Vadis Days this summer and loved the fact that many of the priests and seminarians took the time to get to know each person individually.

“They really want to get to know you,” he explained.

Reflecting on his time at Quo Vadis Days, Sierra added he is considering speaking about his experience when he gets back to his parish in the Poconos.

“I think I’ll definitely be more thoughtful in everything that I do at home,” Sierra stated.

That is exactly what Father Roche is hoping that participants take away from their time together.

“I hope what they take away is a new passion for their faith, a new experience of Jesus Christ and the desire to carry whatever they receive here back into their parishes so that they can continue to grow with everything they’ve experienced here throughout the whole year,” Father Roche said.

Having just been ordained a Transitional Deacon for the Diocese of Scranton, Rev. Mr. William Asinari felt many of this year’s Quo Vadis Days participants were very receptive to listening to God’s voice as they discern vocational opportunities.

“God loves them and made each of them for a purpose,” Deacon Asinari said. “No matter what it is, it is going to be amazing and God will fulfill everything in them through what He calls out of them.”

PHILADELPHIA (OSV News) – Catholic leaders throughout the country are calling for prayer and action after gun violence scarred the July 4 holiday weekend in several states.

Mass shootings took place in 13 states plus the nation’s capital from June 30 through the early morning hours of July 5, according to the Washington-based nonprofit Gun Violence Archive.

The rampages have so far left 15 dead and 94 injured. Holiday weekend shootings were reported in Washington, D.C., Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Texas, with both Maryland and Texas each recording two attacks.

“The U.S. bishops join with others throughout the country in offering prayers for the support and healing of the communities impacted by these violent shootings,” Chieko Noguchi, spokesperson for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, told OSV News in a July 5 email.

Five people were killed and several wounded in Philadelphia the evening of July 3, as suspect Kimbrady Carriker is alleged to have stormed through the city’s Kingsessing neighborhood with an AR-style semiautomatic rifle. A 15-year-old boy was among those slain; two other children sustained injuries.

Four were killed and six wounded at a July 4 outdoor party in Shreveport, Louisiana. In Texas, three were slain and eight injured late July 3 during an annual festival in Fort Worth’s Como neighborhood.

A gathering in Baltimore came under fire July 2, leaving two young adults dead and 28 injured, most of them teens.

In Tampa, a 7-year-old boy was killed July 4 amid an argument over jet skis, according to police. The child’s grandfather was wounded.

In Washington, nine were injured as a holiday event stretched into the early hours of July 5. Later that morning, the body of a young male was found on the campus of The Catholic University of America in a fatal shooting police and university officials said was unrelated to the school.

Following the Baltimore shooting, Archbishop William E. Lori issued a July 2 message imploring both prayer for the victims, survivors and their families — as well as action.

“Lord, bring us independence and deliverance from violence’s stranglehold on our culture,” Baltimore’s archbishop prayed.

At the same time, “we also consider ways that we might be called to act,” he said. “Consider how all of us can support neighborhood and community efforts that work to end violence in our streets.”

“We pray especially for those who lost their lives, and also for those who were injured and for their families and loved ones,” said Noguchi. “The Catholic Church has been a consistent voice for rational and effective forms of regulation of dangerous weapons, and the USCCB continues to advocate for an end to violence, and for the respect and dignity of all lives.”

The church’s witness to life amid the shootings is more crucial than ever, Father Eric J. Banecker, pastor of St. Francis de Sales Parish in Philadelphia, told OSV News.

The Philadelphia shooting, which took place in his parish boundaries, was “an evil act, and we need to look at it squarely in the eye for what it is,” said Father Banecker.

Without discounting the role of mental and emotional imbalances, “we shouldn’t overpsychologize” the causes of gun violence, he said. “Evil actions are evil actions. Human beings are moral agents.”

In an email message, Father Banecker told his parishioners he was “convinced we have a unique responsibility to respond spiritually to this terrible event,” which was “one more example of the disregard for the dignity of human life which finds so many examples in our culture.”

He asked parishioners to join in praying the Angelus at noon July 5, “asking the Lord, through the intercession of his Mother and ours, to be near the victims and those who mourn, to bring conversion of heart to the perpetrator and to bring about in all of us a renewed love for God and respect for human life.”

In the email, Father Banecker also requested that parishioners undertake an act of penance, such as abstaining from meat, on July 7 for the same intention.

“We cannot sit back and watch as God is pushed more and more to the margins of our society and expect any real healing from the atomization, consumerism, and loneliness of our age,” he wrote. “A Christian life well lived can bring about a renewal of our society. But it is up to us to respond to the grace of the Holy Spirit and live the abundant life which Christ desires for us.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Catholics must place the Eucharist at the center of their lives to transform their relationships with God and their neighbors, Pope Francis said.

“If you are the same at the end of Mass as you were at the beginning, something is wrong,” the pope said in a video message released July 3 for his prayer intention for the month of July: “For a Eucharistic life.”

“The Eucharist is the presence of Jesus, it is deeply transforming. Jesus comes and must transform you,” he said.

The video, different versions of which are released with the pope’s monthly prayer intention, also showed people attending Mass, helping the homeless and visiting the elderly.

By offering himself in the Eucharist, Christ “invites us so that our lives may be nourished by him and may nourish the lives of our brothers and sisters,” the pope said.

“The eucharistic celebration is an encounter with the Risen Jesus,” Pope Francis said. “At the same time, it is a way of opening ourselves to the world as he taught us.”

Each time Catholics participate in the Eucharist, “Jesus comes and gives us the strength to love like he loved,” the pope said, because the Eucharist “gives us the courage to encounter others, to go out of ourselves and to open ourselves to others with love.”

Pope Francis prayed that Catholics may place at the center of their lives the eucharistic celebration which ” which transforms human relationships and opens up an encounter with God and their brothers and sisters.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Christians are called to be modern-day prophets who guide others to see the Holy Spirit at work in everyday life and not to be superstitious people who try to predict or control the future, Pope Francis said.

“A Christian does not believe in superstitions like magic, cards, horoscopes or similar things,” he told some 15,000 visitors gathered in St. Peter’s Square July 2 to pray the Angelus. He admonished those who do so saying, “many Christians go to have their hands read.”

Prophets are not limited to the biblical figures who anticipated Jesus’ coming, since “Jesus himself talks about the need to welcome prophets,” the pope said, reflecting on the day’s Gospel reading from St. Matthew in which Jesus says, “Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward.”

“A prophet, brothers and sisters, is each one of us,” Pope Francis said. “A prophet is he who, by virtue of baptism, helps others read the present under the action of the Holy Spirit,” which helps people “understand God’s plans and align yourselves” with them.

The pope said a prophet is someone who “shows Jesus to others, who witnesses him, who helps live today and build tomorrow according to his design.”

Pope Francis encouraged Christians to reflect how they live out their baptismal calling to be prophets in their daily lives, and to ask themselves: “How is my witness going? How is my prophesy?”

He said that the day’s Gospel reading not only calls on Christians to be prophets, but to receive them as well.

“It is important to welcome each other as such, as bearers of God’s message, each according to his or her status and vocation, and to do so there where we live,” he said, “that is, in the family, in the parish, in religious communities, in other spheres of the church and society.”

Particularly in decision-making, the pope said it is important to recognize each person’s prophetic gifts and to engage in listening and dialogue before reaching a conclusion.

“Let us think about how many conflicts could be avoided and resolved in this way, listening to others with a sincere desire to understand one another,” he said. “Because each one of us has something to learn from others.”

After praying the Angelus, Pope Francis asked the crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square to “not tire of praying for peace” during the summer months, and in particular for the people of Ukraine and all of the world’s forgotten conflicts.

“Let us become interested in what is happening, let us help who suffers and pray, because prayer is the meek force that protects and sustains the world,” he said.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis appointed his longtime theological adviser and fellow countryman Archbishop Víctor Manuel Fernández of La Plata, Argentina, to lead the Vatican’s doctrinal office, urging him in a public letter to expand the office’s focus beyond its reputation as a watchdog pursuing possible doctrinal errors and to promote the understanding and transmission of the faith.

Archbishop Fernández, who turns 61 July 18, replaces Jesuit Cardinal Luis Ladaria, 79, according to the Vatican, which made the announcement July 1. It said the cardinal had completed his term as prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, which began with his appointment July 1, 2017. Archbishop Fernández will begin his new role mid-September, which also includes serving as president of the Pontifical Biblical Commission and president of the International Theological Commission.

In an open letter to the archbishop, the pope asked him to lead the dicastery toward promoting theology that is attentive to the essentials of the faith and at the service of evangelization. “Its central purpose is to guard the teaching that flows from the faith in order to ‘to give reasons for our hope, but not as an enemy who critiques and condemns.'”

“The dicastery which you will preside over in other times came to use immoral methods. Those were times when, rather than promoting theological knowledge, possible doctrinal errors were pursued,” the pope wrote. “What I expect from you is certainly something very different.”

In his letter Pope Francis recalled the restructuring of the dicastery in 2022 which split the office into two sections: one to handle doctrinal questions and another dedicated to handling disciplinary matters including those related to the abuse of minors.

Given that the specific section for disciplinary matters is staffed “with very competent professionals, I ask you as prefect to dedicate your personal commitment in the most direct way to the principal aim of the dicastery which is keeping the faith,” he wrote.

The pope wrote that task consists of “increasing the understanding and transmission” of the Catholic faith, especially before questions “posed by the progress of the sciences and the development of society.”

“These issues, incorporated in a renewed proclamation of the Gospel message, ‘become tools of evangelization'” because they allow the faith to enter into conversation with “our present situation, which is in many ways unprecedented in the history of humanity,” he wrote.

The church, Pope Francis wrote, must “grow in her interpretation of the revealed word and in her understanding of truth.”

“For differing currents of thought in philosophy, theology and pastoral practice, if open to being reconciled by the Spirit in respect and love, can enable the church to grow,” he said. “This harmonious growth will preserve Christian doctrine more effectively than any control mechanism.”

In a Facebook post July 1, Archbishop Fernández said he accepted the nomination “with much joy” even though there would be many people against him. “There are people who prefer a more rigid, structured way of thinking at war with the world,” he wrote.

The pope told him that while the dicastery was once dedicated to pursuing heretics in the past, he wanted something very different for its future since “errors are not corrected by going after them or controlling them, but by making faith and wisdom grow. This is the best way to preserve doctrine,” the archbishop wrote.

He added that Pope Francis assured him that matters related to abuse pertained to an autonomous section within the dicastery, and that as prefect he would be tasked with “encouraging the reflection of the faith, deepening theology, promoting a way of thinking that knows how to dialogue with how people live,” and “encouraging free, creative, deep Christian thought.”

As archbishop of Buenos Aires, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio nominated then-Father Fernández to become rector of the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina in 2009. The two have long enjoyed a close relationship, and Pope Francis promptly named him an archbishop after his election to the papacy in 2013.

Archbishop Fernández studied theology with a specialization in biblical studies at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University and obtained a doctorate from the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina. Since 2017 he has been the president of the doctrine commission of Argentina’s bishops’ conference. Between books and academic articles, he has more than 300 publications under his name.

At the Vatican, the archbishop was a member of the drafting committees for the final documents of the 2014 and 2015 Synods of Bishops and he has been credited for contributing to several significant texts of Pope Francis’ pontificate.

In his letter Pope Francis said that the church needs “a way of thinking which can convincingly present a God who loves, who forgives, who saves, who liberates, who promotes people and calls them to fraternal service.”

This occurs, the pope said, if “the message concentrates on the essentials, on what is most beautiful, most grand, most appealing and at the same time most necessary.”

“There is a harmonious order among the truths of our message and the greatest danger occurs when secondary issues end up overshadowing the central ones,” he wrote.

Such a richness of truth necessitates “a special care to verify that the documents of your own dicastery and of the others have an adequate theological support, are coherent with the rich soil of the perennial teaching of the church and at the same time take into account the recent magisterium,” Pope Francis told him.

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – The U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision June 29 in favor of a former postal worker who said he was denied a religious accommodation to observe Christian precepts on keeping holy the Lord’s Day by his former employer.

The case Groff v. DeJoy concerned Gerald Groff, an evangelical Christian and former U.S. Postal Service worker, who was denied an accommodation to observe his Sunday Sabbath by not taking Sunday shifts that resulted in the loss of his job.

The Supreme Court’s ruling found that federal law requires workplaces to make appropriate accommodations for their employees’ religious practices unless those practices cannot be “reasonably” accommodated without “undue hardship.”

The court threw out its prior “de minimis” standard from its 1977 decision, Trans World Airlines v. Hardison, which had found that the “undue hardship” standard is met even at a minimal cost.

In Groff v. DeJoy, the court ruled an employer denying religious accommodations must show the burden of granting an accommodation would actually result in substantial increased costs.

Justice Samuel Alito wrote in his majority opinion that “diverse religious groups tell the Court that the ‘de minimis’ standard has been used to deny even minor accommodations.”

“Faced with an accommodation request like Groff’s, an employer must do more than conclude that forcing other employees to work overtime would constitute an undue hardship. Consideration of other options would also be necessary,” Alito wrote.

First Liberty Institute, which represented Groff, said the ruling strengthens legal protections for employees seeking religious accommodations, including schedule changes to observe holy days, is far-reaching and has an impact on employment rights at every workplace with at least 15 employees across the country.

“This is a landmark victory, not only for Gerald, but for every American. No American should be forced to choose between their faith and their job,” Kelly Shackelford, president, CEO, and chief counsel for First Liberty, said in a statement. “The Court’s decision today restores religious freedom to every American in the workplace. This decision will positively help millions and millions of Americans — those who work now and their children and grandchildren.”

Groff said in his own statement, “I am grateful to have had my case heard by the U.S. Supreme Court and that they have decided to uphold religious liberty. I hope this decision allows others to be able to maintain their convictions without living in fear of losing their jobs because of what they believe.”

Aaron Streett, partner at Baker Botts LLP, who argued Groff’s case before the high court, said, “We are thrilled the Court today recognized that an America that values religious pluralism should respect the religious liberty rights of every employee.”

“Our nation has a long history of protecting its employees from being treated differently at work just because of their faith,” Streett said. “This decision is consistent with that history and is a tremendous win for all people of faith.”

Groff alleged in federal court that the U.S. Postal Service failed to provide him with reasonable accommodations for his religious practices. The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the Postal Service, arguing it would face “undue hardship” by accommodating Groff’s request to excuse him from Sunday shifts.

The Supreme Court’s ruling vacates that finding and sends Groff’s case back to the lower court for reconsideration.

However, Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, cast the high court’s ruling for the lower court to reconsider Groff’s case as a victory, stating they “live to fight another day.”

“We’re facing an aggressive movement working to weaponize religious freedom, but religious freedom must never be a license to harm others, and that remains true in the workplace,” Laser said. She argued the court simply “clarified,” but did not overturn, its standard for granting religious accommodations.

Laser said “the court’s ‘clarified’ standard correctly allows employers to continue to consider the burdens an employee’s requested accommodation could impose on co-workers.”

The Supreme Court’s decision has religious liberty implications for working Catholics. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “On Sundays and other holy days of obligation, the faithful are to refrain from engaging in work or activities that hinder the worship owed to God, the joy proper to the Lord’s Day, the performance of the works of mercy, and the appropriate relaxation of mind and body.”

The Catholic Church also teaches this “requires a common effort” and both public authorities and employers are obliged to “ensure citizens a time intended for rest and divine worship.”

SCRANTON – Less than one year after making a pastoral visit to the Diocese of Sunyani in Ghana, the Most Rev. Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, is planning to return to the African nation.

This time, the trip came about simply by coincidence.

“It was not my expectation that I would be traveling back to Ghana in 12 months from my original trip there last August,” Bishop Bambera said. “As providence would have it, the Catholic-Pentecostal Dialogue, which I’m very fortunate to co-chair, is being hosted this year by the Pentecostals. This year, the Pentecostals are inviting us to Accra, the capital of Ghana.”

The primary goal of the International Catholic-Pentecostal Dialogue is to foster mutual respect and understanding between the Catholic Church and Classical Pentecostal leaders and churches in light of the prayer of Jesus that all may be one (Jn 17:21). Last year, the Dialogue, which was celebrating its 50th anniversary, was hosted by the Catholics in Rome.

Because Bishop Bambera will already be in Ghana to participate in the International Catholic-Pentecostal Dialogue from July 13-19, 2023, the Bishop of the Diocese of Sunyani has invited him to return to their diocese one week earlier (July 5-12) for a very special reason.

“When it was made known to the priests of the Diocese of Sunyani that the Dialogue would take place in Ghana, their bishop, Bishop Matthew, asked me if I would honor them by celebrating the Ordination Rite for 14 men who are being ordained to the priesthood for their 50th anniversary year as a diocese,” Bishop Bambera explained.

Bishop Bambera said it was an honor to be asked to celebrate the Ordination Mass.

“I’m happily returning to Ghana both for ecumenical work and also to once again connect with the Diocese of Sunyani that has been so generous in providing for the needs of our people here in the United States,” Bishop Bambera said.

When Bishop Bambera last visited Ghana, Aug. 10-19, 2022, he celebrated the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary with more than 15,000 people, while also visiting a seminary, schools, parishes and health care facilities.

On that trip, Father Gerald Shantillo and Father Brian J.T. Clarke joined him, but this time, two seminarians from the Diocese of Scranton will accompany Bishop Bambera.

“On many occasions, the Bishop of Sunyani, Bishop Matthew, invited me to send seminarians over just to experience their country and the background from which many of the priests who are serving in our land come from,” he said. “I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to invite our seminarians.”

Thomas Dzwonczyk and Andrew McCarroll have agreed to accompany the Bishop to Ghana.

“I’m really thrilled to be able to have them, not only to travel with, but more importantly to experience the Diocese of Sunyani and the African people,” Bishop Bambera noted. “I will be with them half the time. I will leave Sunyani after about a week and then travel to Accra for the Dialogue and while I’m in Accra, the seminarians will be hosted by the priests of Sunyani and the Bishop as well.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Italian Cardinal Matteo Zuppi met with a Kremlin foreign policy adviser during the peace mission he is making to Moscow on Pope Francis’s behalf.

Archbishop Giovanni d’Aniello, the apostolic nuncio to Russia, told reporters June 29 that the mission Pope Francis entrusted to Cardinal Zuppi “is to identify and encourage humanitarian initiatives that will make it possible to begin a journey that, we hope, will lead to the much-desired peace.”

Such humanitarian initiatives, he said, were the topic of the cardinal’s meeting June 28 with Yuri Ushakov, a foreign policy adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin and former Russian ambassador to the United States.

Humanitarian issues, the archbishop said, also would be the subject of a meeting June 29 with Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights, who has been accused by the International Criminal Court of aiding the abduction and deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia.

Archbishop d’Aniello said Cardinal Zuppi would meet Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow in the afternoon June 29 and then would preside at Mass in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception and meet with the local Catholic community. He was scheduled to return to Italy June 30, the nuncio said.

Dmitry Peskov, Kremlin spokesperson, had told journalists June 28 that Cardinal Zuppi and Ushakov were expected to “discuss the situation around the Ukrainian conflict and, of course, the possible ways of a political and diplomatic settlement,” according to a report in TASS, the Russian state news agency.

He also noted that Russia “appreciates the Vatican’s efforts and initiatives to find a peaceful solution to the Ukrainian crisis and welcomes the pope’s desire to contribute to ending the armed conflict in Ukraine,” TASS reported.

Cardinal Zuppi, president of the Italian bishops’ conference, arrived in Moscow June 27 accompanied by an official from the Vatican Secretariat of State.

He is on the second leg of a peace mission that also saw him travel to Kyiv, where he met with Ukrainian officials including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The principal aim of the cardinal’s trip to Russia was “to encourage humanitarian gestures that may contribute to favoring a solution to the tragic current situation and finding ways of reaching a just peace,” the Vatican said in a statement announcing the trip June 27.

While the Vatican did not provide a list of the people Cardinal Zuppi would meet in Russia, the Archdiocese of Moscow had said on social media that a meeting between the cardinal and Patriarch Kirill was possible. The patriarch has been a staunch supporter of the war since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The archdiocese also said Cardinal Zuppi was scheduled to meet with Archbishop Paolo Pezzi of Moscow June 29 and participate in a Mass for the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Moscow.

At his general audience June 28, Pope Francis prayed that “the example and protection of these two apostles may sustain each one of us in following Christ.”

“We entrust the dear people of Ukraine to their intercession, that they may soon find peace,” said the pope. “There is so much suffering in Ukraine, let us not forget it.”

The Ukrainian embassy to the Holy See said on Twitter that Ukraine welcomed Cardinal Zuppi’s mission to Moscow if it helps bring about the release of Ukrainian prisoners held in Russian captivity and the return of illegally deported children to Ukraine.

But, the embassy added, “we don’t need mediation with Russia.”

After his meeting with Cardinal Zuppi June 6, Zelenskyy wrote on his Telegram channel that only diplomatic isolation and pressure on Russia could bring a “just peace” to Ukraine.

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – After more than two dozen Catholic Democratic House lawmakers signed a “statement of principles” advocating for abortion access that cited tenets of their faith as their rationale, the U.S. bishops and other Catholics pushed back, arguing their position was contrary to church teaching.

The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the chairmen of the USCCB’s pro-life and doctrine committees said in a joint statement issued late June 28 that invoking “teachings of the Catholic faith itself as justifying abortion or supporting a supposed right to abortion grievously distort the faith.”

The Second Vatican Council “called abortion an ‘unspeakable crime,” Stephen White, executive director of The Catholic Project at The Catholic University of America, told OSV News the same day. Kristen Day, executive director of Democrats for Life, said that “as Catholics, it is our duty to live and advance our faith, not excuse or walk away from the faith when faced with political pressure.”

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., who spearheaded the lawmakers’ statement, was joined by 30 other self-identified Catholics who are Democrats in the House — including former Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California — in arguing that when the Supreme Court issued its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, it “stripped women of their right to abortion and escalated an ongoing reproductive healthcare crisis in this country.”

“Today, as Catholic Democrats serving in the House of Representatives, we are proud that we are part of the faithful pro-choice Catholic majority — 68 percent of whom supported the legal protections for abortion access enshrined in Roe and 63 percent of whom think abortion should be legal in all or most cases,” the lawmakers wrote June 24. “Our faith unfailingly promotes the common good, prioritizes the dignity of every human being, and highlights the need to provide a collective safety net to our most vulnerable.”

Their statement reaffirmed a similar effort in 2021, in which many of the same lawmakers argued that “we seek the Church’s guidance and assistance but believe also in the primacy of conscience,” and that Catholic lawmakers who support legal abortion should not be denied Communion. That earlier statement came as the U.S. bishops, gathered for their spring plenary assembly, debated the drafting of a document on the centrality of the Eucharist in the life of the church, with some prelates saying it should include a call for Catholics in public office who support abortion, like President Joe Biden, to be denied Communion.

But the final document, “The Mystery of the Eucharist in the Life of the Church,” approved at the bishops’ November 2021 meeting, did not include that language and was addressed to all U.S. Catholics “to deepen our people’s awareness of this great mystery of faith.”

The lawmakers’ June 24 statement further cited the writings of St. John Paul II, arguing that in his 1988 apostolic exhortation on the role of the laity, “Christifideles Laici,” he wrote that the church “is the ‘people of God,’ called to be a moral force in the broadest sense.”

“We believe the Church as a community is called to be in the vanguard of creating a more just America and world,” the letter said. “The fundamental tenets of our Catholic faith — social justice, conscience, and religious freedom — compel us to defend a woman’s right to access abortion. We are committed to advocating for the respect and protection of those making the decision if and when to have children.”

The USCCB statement opposing the lawmakers’ statement was issued by Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services, USCCB president; Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of Arlington, Virginia, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Pro-Life Activities; and Bishop Daniel E. Flores of Brownsville, Texas, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Doctrine.

“It is wrong and incoherent to claim that the taking of innocent human life at its most vulnerable stage can ever be consistent with the values of supporting the dignity and wellbeing of those in need,” the bishops said. “‘Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception,’ including through the civil law (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2270, 2273). Abortion violates this with respect to preborn children and brings untold suffering to countless women.”

In Catholic teaching and “in the public sphere,” conscience “rightly enjoys a special regard,” they said, but “conscience is not a license to commit evil and take innocent lives. Conscience cannot and does not justify the act or support of abortion.”

They urged policymakers “to support the freedom of Catholics and of others to serve the common good in accord with their beliefs in a wide range of areas — from services and assistance to recently arrived migrants, to offering health care and social services.” The bishops also called on the lawmkers to join them in working for the common good and “uplifting support for the vulnerable and marginalized, including mothers and families in need.”

In an interview with OSV News, The Catholic Project’s White noted that Vatican II likened abortion to “‘slavery’ and ‘the selling of women and children’ and other direct attacks on life,” and it also “insisted that abortion is a ‘poison on human society,’ that it does more harm to those who practice it than those who suffer from the injury, and is a ‘supreme dishonor to the Creator.'”

“Pope Francis calls it ‘murder,'” White added.

White, who is one of the organizers of the Tertio Millennio Seminar on the Free Society, an annual three-week seminar on Catholic social teaching with an emphasis on the writings of St. John Paul and takes place in the pontiff’s native Krakow, Poland, pushed back on the argument in the lawmakers’ letter about the writings of the saint.

“As for what can be said about these politicians desperately trying to enlist Pope St. John Paul II to their cause, he gave the most succinct rebuttal to these claims himself, when he wrote, in ‘Evangelium Vitae’: ‘To claim the right to abortion, infanticide and euthanasia, and to recognize that right in law, means to attribute to human freedom a perverse and evil significance: that of an absolute power over others and against others. This is the death of true freedom: ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, every one who commits sin is a slave to sin’ (Jn 8:34),”’ White said.

Former Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Ill., also a Catholic, told OSV News that the signatories’ understanding of the terms “social justice, conscience and religious freedom is fundamentally wrong.”

“Regarding social justice, the foundation of Catholic social teaching on social justice is the proclamation that human life is sacred and every person has dignity,” Lipinski said. “The right to life is the first right because without life a person has nothing and that is why the church opposes abortion. It is science, not only Catholic teaching, that shows us that human life begins at conception and thus abortion is the taking of the life of ‘the least among us.'”

Day, of Democrats for Life, concurred, arguing that “it is disconcerting to watch Catholic legislators continue to disassociate their religious affiliation to justify their position on abortion.”

“The letter talks about the value of human life and protecting the vulnerable, yet their position on abortion harms the very people they espouse to support, poor and minority communities,” Day said.

“The money that the abortion lobby provides to the Democratic Party is not a good enough reason to walk away from one’s faith and responsibility to protect the vulnerable and provide all, regardless of their income or race, an opportunity to have and raise their families,” she said. “I would encourage the members who signed the letter to go back and review the fundamental tenets of our Catholic faith.”

Day said they would find themselves “hard-pressed to find any reference or tenet” that would “justify killing conscience provisions,” justify their support for taxpayer funding for abortion, or “any social justice provision that would encourage unjust policies that support abortion for financially insecure women.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – As Catholic schools worldwide face several challenges — including declining enrollments, funding or maintaining a distinctive religious character — the Vatican has urged religious orders, dioceses and laypeople to come together to “take risks” and be creative in finding solutions.

“It is urgent for the various institutes of consecrated life and societies of apostolic life to sing together as a choir, and for bishops, parish priests and diocesan pastoral offices to sing in tune with the rich educational charisms present in schools run by institutes of consecrated life and societies of apostolic life,” a joint document said.

“It is essential that clergy, religious men and women, and lay people all sing as one choir, and that lay people be given the chance to echo the educating voice of a diocese and even the unique timbre of a religious charism,” said the letter from the Dicastery for Culture and Education and the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

Published June 28 and addressed to “all involved in the mission of education in Catholic schools,” the letter explained a few outcomes from a meeting the dicasteries held May 22 with “a number of leading figures in the worldwide network of Catholic schools, in order to discuss in person the prospects and difficulties involved in the mission of education in our time.”

Some of the serious difficulties the meeting addressed, it said, included: the effects of the recent pandemic; the global economic crisis; decreasing birth rates; severe poverty and “unjust disparities in access to food, water, health care, education, information, culture and the Internet.”

Some countries do “not acknowledge parity in the financing of non-state schools,” it added, and some dioceses and religious orders “have experienced a significant drop in vocations.”

In some cases, it said, schools have closed or been put up for sale, resulting in a loss of a unique charism and “personality” in educational offerings.

Lastly, it said, participants at the meeting said that “new and unprecedented circumstances, opportunities and questions are at times making it more difficult to express our Catholic Christian identity in a way that is open to dialogue yet firmly committed, solidly grounded and on good terms with all.”

“Sadly, Catholic schools sometimes operate in the same geographic area not as soloists who let their unique vocal timbre enrich the larger chorus, but rather as divided, isolated and in some cases even dissonant voices that clash with others,” the joint letter said.

“We wish to emphasize certain things that ‘need to be done.’ All of us, in fact, need to be increasingly determined to ‘sing together as a choir,'” it said. “For we are convinced of the possibilities and beauty of the mission to educate, as an ‘inalienable right’ that fosters the dignity of the human person.”

The Vatican dicasteries encouraged “initiatives and even experiments that are imaginative and creative, open to sharing with one another and to concern for the future, exact in their analysis yet like a breath of fresh air in their outlook.”

“May the fear of risks not dampen the spirit of boldness,” the letter said. “A crisis is no time for hiding one’s head in the sand, but for gazing up at the stars, like Abraham.”

The dicasteries thanked everyone who devotes “their lives and energies to the important mission of education” and thanked families who choose to “raise their sons and daughters in an educational partnership with Catholic schools.”

“We likewise thank those bishops, dioceses and institutes of consecrated life and societies of apostolic life who invest significant human effort and financial resources in maintaining older schools and building new ones,” they added.

The dicasteries promised to “make use of both old and new ways to listen to your voices on our common journey, to address realities in a timely way and to help the body of the church to develop forward-looking solutions, even in the most difficult circumstances.”