Category: 2024 News

(OSV News) – Pope Francis sat down exclusively with “CBS Evening News” anchor Norah O’Donnell on April 24 for an interview ahead of the Vatican’s inaugural “World Children’s Day.” The CBS interview marks the first time a pope has given an in-depth, one-on-one interview to a U.S. broadcast network, according to the network.

In the brief portion of the interview that aired April 24, topics ranged from the conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine and the plight of children in these areas to climate change and the decline in the number of U.S. Catholics.

O’Donnell asked Pope Francis about “pictures of starving children coming out of Gaza” and what he thought of those that “call that a genocide.”

The pope replied that he calls a Catholic parish of about 600 people in Gaza every afternoon, where he hears that the situation is “very hard” as “food goes in, but they have to fight for it. It’s very hard.”

In her report, O’Donnell noted that the pope condemned the Oct. 7 attack on Israelis by the terrorist group Hamas and also called on Israel to use restraint. Earlier this month, the pope met with the families of Israelis hostages still held by Hamas. O’Donnell referenced the pope’s past calls for peace and a ceasefire in the region and asked him if he could “help negotiate peace.”

“I can pray, I do,” he replied, “I pray a lot.”

In advance of World Children’s Day, O’Donnell asked about the United Nations’ estimate that “over a million people will be facing famine in Gaza, many of them children.”

“Not only Gaza,” the pope replied, “we should think about Ukraine.”

“Those kids don’t know how to smile,” he lamented. “I tell them something, but they forgot how to smile. And this is very hard when a child forgets to smile. That’s really very serious.”

“Do you have a message for Vladimir Putin when it comes to Ukraine,” O’Donnell asked.

“Please, countries at war, all of them: Stop the war,” the pope said, “look to negotiate. Look for peace. A negotiated peace is better than a war without end.”

When asked about his practice of inviting children to join him in the popemobile and to visit the Apostolic Palace, the pope said that children “always bear a message. They bear a message, and it is a way for us to have a younger heart.”

O’Donnell also asked the pope about those who deny climate change.

“There are people who are foolish and foolish even if you show them research; they don’t believe it,” he replied. “Why? Because they don’t understand the situation or because of their interest, but climate change exists.”

O’Donnell cited a statistic that in the US, only 20% of adults identify as Catholic, down from 24% in 2007. She asked Pope Francis to “speak to those who don’t go to Mass anymore, or maybe don’t see a place for themselves in the Catholic Church.”

“I would say there is always a place, always,” he replied. “If in this parish, the priest doesn’t seem welcoming, I understand, but go and look.”

“There is always a place,” he emphasized. “Do not run away from the church. The church is very big. It’s more than a temple. It’s more. You shouldn’t run away.”

In addition to the brief interview segment that aired April 24, CBS will air more of the interview on “60 Minutes” May 19 and in a primetime special on May 20. O’Donnell revealed that she had also asked the pope about “the migrant crisis, gay rights, women’s role in the church and whether he’s thinking about retirement” in the remainder of the interview.

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – Donations to the annual Catholic Home Missions Appeal “make a real impact on real people” by supporting pastoral ministry in U.S. mission territory and strengthening the church overall, said the chairman of the U.S. bishops’ subcommittee on Catholic Home Missions.

Bishop W. Shawn McKnight of Jefferson City, Missouri, said that as subcommittee chair and as the shepherd of a mission diocese himself, he can attest that parishes and dioceses in mission territory “are places where ministry is marked by the deep commitment of parishioners and the clergy who serve them.”

“Many often travel many miles through mountains and deserts or arctic terrain to preside or participate at Mass and serve each other and their communities,” the bishop said in a column provided to OSV News. “These Catholics give sacrificially to support their parishes and essential ministries. They are deeply grateful and humbled by your prayers and generous support of the Catholic Home Missions Appeal.”

The appeal takes place during Mass the weekend of April 27-28. Some dioceses have a different date for the collection, but #iGiveCatholicTogether also accepts funds for the appeal.

This collection supports dioceses and eparchies in the United States and its territories where Catholics are too few or too materially impoverished to support local ministry without outside help. Natural disasters or economic hardships caused by unemployment can increase their need.

Gifts to the Catholic Home Missions Appeal provided more than $9.8 million in grants for 2023, according to a news release from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The grants supported mission dioceses by subsidizing vocations work, seminary education, faith formation, evangelization, youth and young adult ministry, family and pro-life ministries and a wide variety of outreach among diverse ethnic or immigrant groups.

Grant recipients included:

— A mentor-driven approach to faith formation in the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux, Louisiana, where diocesan renewal initiatives are producing growth, evidenced by a rise in Mass attendance.

— A priestly vocations outreach in the Diocese of Superior, Wisconsin, that, after two years without ordinations, in 2023 yielded the largest ordination class in decades. In the program “Called North,” priests mentor and accompany young men as they discern whether they are called to the priesthood.

— A prison ministry program in the Diocese of Amarillo, Texas, that one diocesan leader wrote is helping to “heal these men from their past failures and give them hope for the future.”

— An annual evangelization congress in the Diocese of Stockton, California, organized by Hispanic/Latino young adults who are leading their peers to Christ. Parish youth write and perform skits to show how following the Gospel transforms real life situations.

— Participation of Catholics from the Diocese of Salt Lake City at World Youth Day and local Eucharistic revival activities.

“Ultimately it is the Holy Spirit who transforms hearts, leads people to Christ, and inspires them to greater virtue,” Bishop McKnight wrote. “Yet the Spirit uses your financial gifts to the Catholic Home Missions Appeal to help bring this about. When you give to the collection in your diocese, no matter how large or small the amount, you are an instrument in the hands of God, bringing faith, hope and love to your neighbors.”

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – The Supreme Court on April 22 heard a case concerning the constitutionality of local laws that ban public camping and their impact on people who are homeless.

The case concerns an ordinance adopted by Grants Pass, Oregon, prohibiting public camping within city limits. The city claimed the ordinance prohibiting public camping – which it defined as sleeping outside and using materials including blankets – applies to everyone, but challengers argued the ordinance criminalized homelessness, violating the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.

The case, City of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Johnson, is the most significant case concerning homelessness to reach the high court in decades.

During oral arguments lasting more than two hours, justices and lawyers grappled with the balance between the civil rights of individuals experiencing homelessness and city officials seeking to regulate public spaces.

Justice Elena Kagan suggested the city’s ordinance may have veered too far from protecting public spaces into criminalizing a basic human function.

“Sleeping is a biological necessity,” Kagan said. “Sleeping in public is kind of like breathing in public.”

In a tense line of questioning, Kagan asked a lawyer for the city where homeless individuals were expected to go.

“Where do we put them if every city, every village, every town lacks compassion? And passes a law identical to this? Where are they supposed to sleep? Are they supposed to kill themselves not sleeping?” she asked.

Meanwhile, some of the court’s justices from its conservative wing expressed concern that implementing such policies was improperly falling to judges rather than state and local lawmakers. Chief Justice John Roberts at one point asked a lawyer for the federal government why “these nine people” – referring to the high court – were the right venue for the question.

The case made for some strange political bedfellows, with some liberal or progressive leaders joining conservatives in backing stricter ordinances.

In a friend-of-the-court brief urging the justices to side with Grant’s Pass, Gov. Gavin Newsom, D-Calif., acknowledged problems presented by criminalizing homelessness, but argued that state and local officials are “trapped, at risk of suit for taking action but also accountable for the consequences of inaction.”

Newsom pointed out that the problem of homeless camping is nationwide and requires officials to balance competing concerns. He stated the National Park Service, after attempting to get individuals into long-term housing, ultimately had to clear a homeless encampment in Washington’s McPherson Square near the White House – but noted that the City of San Francisco, facing a similar situation, has its hands tied by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

As some of the arguments in the case centered around how many beds in homeless shelters were available in the city, Becket, a Washington-based religious liberty law firm, filed a friend-of-the-court brief arguing that religious shelters were improperly excluded from the city’s tally of available beds in shelters for the homeless.

“Ignoring the good work of religious homeless shelters flouts basic human decency and common sense,” Daniel Chen, counsel at Becket, said in a statement. “These ministries should not be treated as suspect when they are on the front lines helping solve our nation’s homelessness problem.”

A decision in the case is expected by the end of the Supreme Court’s term, typically in June.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – When Jesus called himself the “good shepherd,” he was telling people not only that he was their guide, but that they were important to him and “that he thinks of each of us as the love of his life,” Pope Francis said.

“Consider this: for Christ, I am important, he thinks of me, I am irreplaceable, worth the infinite price of his life,” which he laid down for the salvation of all, the pope said April 21 before reciting the “Regina Coeli” prayer with visitors in St. Peter’s Square.

Jesus was not just saying something nice, the pope said. Each believer should recognize that “he truly gave his life for me; he died and rose again for me. Why? Because he loves me, and he finds in me a beauty that I often do not see myself.”

Many people think of themselves as inadequate or undeserving of love, he said. Or they believe their value comes from what they have or are able to do.

In the day’s Gospel reading, Jn 10:11-18, “Jesus tells us that we are always infinitely worthy in his eyes,” the pope said.

To understand and experience the truth of that statement, Pope Francis said, “the first thing to do is to place ourselves in his presence, allowing ourselves to be welcomed and lifted up by the loving arms of our good shepherd.”

The pope asked people in the square to consider if they find or make the time each day “to embrace this assurance that gives value to my life” and “for a moment of prayer, of adoration, of praise, to be in the presence of Christ and to let myself be caressed by him.”

That time in prayer, he said, will remind a person that “he gave his life for you, for me, for all of us. And that for him, we are all important, each and every one of us.”

After reciting the “Regina Coeli,” Pope Francis told the crowd that he continues to follow the tensions in Israel, Palestine and throughout the Middle East “with concern and also with grief.”

“I renew my appeal not to give in to the logic of vengeance and war. May the paths of dialogue and diplomacy, which can do so much, prevail,” he said. “I pray every day for peace in Palestine and Israel, and I hope that these two peoples may stop suffering soon.”

He also asked Catholics to continue to pray for peace in Ukraine and for the people who are suffering because of the war.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Peace can spread and grow from “small seeds” like including someone who is left out of an activity, showing concern for someone who is struggling, picking up some litter and praying for God’s help, Pope Francis told Italian schoolchildren.

“At a time still marked by war, I ask you to be artisans of peace,” the pope told some 6,000 Italian schoolchildren involved in the National Network of Schools of Peace, a civic education program designed to teach the children to care for themselves, their friends, their communities, the world and the environment.

During the gathering April 19 in the Vatican audience hall, Pope Francis led the children in a moment of silent prayer for their peers in Ukraine and in Gaza.

“In a society still prisoner of a throwaway culture,” he told them, “I ask you to be protagonists of inclusion; in a world torn by global crises, I ask you to be builders of the future, so that our common home may become a place of fraternity.”

The pope drew the children’s attention to the U.N. Summit of the Future, which is scheduled for Sept. 22-23 in New York to draft a “Pact for the Future,” focused on promoting international cooperation and partnerships to ensure “a world that is safer, more peaceful, more just, more equal, more inclusive, more sustainable, and more prosperous.”

While government leaders and experts in a variety of fields obviously must get involved to make that hope a reality, the pope said, the pact will remain “just words on a page” without a commitment by all people of good will to take concrete steps aimed at changing harmful behavior and building communities and societies where everyone feels they are cared for and belong.

“This is a dream that requires being awake and not asleep,” he told the young people. The world can change for the better only when people are out in the world, “not lying on the couch,” using media to create connections and not just waste time, “and then — listen carefully — this kind of dream is realized by praying, that is, together with God, not by our strength alone.”

“Peace, in fact, is not only a silence of weapons and absence of war,” Pope Francis said. “It is a climate of benevolence, trust and love that can mature in a society based on caring relationships, in which individualism, distraction and indifference give way to the ability to pay attention to others, to listen to their needs, to heal their wounds, to be instruments of compassion and healing.”

SCRANTON – The Most Rev. Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, will celebrate the Diocesan Scouts Mass on Saturday, April 20, 2024, at 5:30 p.m. at the Cathedral of Saint Peter.

All scouts and their families are invited to attend the liturgy which will recognize the value of scouting.

During the Mass, three scouts are expected to receive the Pope Pius XII medal. The emblem for this award reflects the ideal of the youth’s growing awareness of the Word of God as well as the scouts place in the world.

Seven scouts will also receive the Ad Altare Dei medal, which centers on the Sacraments and equips the scout to take their place as a maturing Catholic.

At Saint Catherine of Siena Parish in Moscow, the value of scouting was also recognized recently as members of BSA Troop 132, Troop 1132 and Pack 126 participated in their annual Scout Sunday Service. Father Thomas M. Muldowney and Deacon Frank Zeranski are pictured at the right with the scouts that attended the Mass.

SCRANTON – Some serve their parishes as altar servers and ushers, while others serve their schools and community by participating in service projects and organizing fundraisers. In all cases, however, they have contributed to the mission of our local church by reaching out and touching lives in real and meaningful ways.

This month – after being nominated by their Pastor, Parish Life Coordinator, Principal, Religious Education Director, or Youth Minister – more than 500 young adults received the Bishop’s Youth Award.

Two separate Masses were held to distribute the awards earlier this month. Students in the western and southern regions of the Diocese received their awards at the Cathedral of Saint Peter on Sunday, April 7, 2024, while students in the northern and eastern regions were recognized on Sunday, April 14, 2024.

“We’re all very, very proud of those of you who received an award,” the Most Rev. Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, said during each Mass. “We are extremely grateful for your example and for the witness of your lives and for the hope that you give us all.”

Since 1996, the Bishop’s Youth Award has recognized young people in eighth and 12th grade for their exemplary practice of faith and for their commitment to serve others. Each of the students receiving the award were called forth this year by parish to receive a special pin as a symbol of the way they have contributed to the mission of the Church.

“It is just a great feeling being around all these other people that you know are dedicated to their faith in some sort of way,” Paige Moss, a 12th grade award recipient from Saint Robert Bellarmine Parish in Wilkes-Barre, said.

Faith is something that is very important to Raegan Czyzycki, a 12th grade award recipient, from Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in Swoyersville.

“I think it’s important to stay close to my faith because it gives me a sense of support and guidance that I probably couldn’t find anywhere else,” Czyzycki said.

Brandon Makara, who serves Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish in Brodheadsville as an altar server, was excited to receive his award.

“I wasn’t expecting this honor and it makes me so glad that I was chosen for it,” the 12th grade student said.

Those same sentiments were shared by Lauren Shemansky, who attends Holy Family Academy in Hazleton and is a parishioner of Most Precious Blood Parish.

“I do youth group in my parish. We help make cookies and do things around Halloween for the little kids,” Shemansky said. “I’m also in the Students for Service club. We do gardening and a lot of collections for people who need it.”

While many of the 12th grade award recipients are preparing to head off to college, Peter Stec, who was recently accepted as the newest seminarian for the Diocese of Scranton, will be discerning a path to the priesthood. He also received a Bishop’s Youth Award this year.

“What I’m most excited about is being with all the youth of the Diocese of Scranton who are deeply involved in their faith, specifically their Catholic faith,” he said. “What has really fostered my vocation is Jesus present in the Blessed Sacrament. If we can stick to that – then we can all be united together and have a future for our Church.”

Father Bert S. Kozen, Pastor, Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish, Bastress, and Saint Luke Parish, Jersey Shore, served as homilist for the first Mass. Father James J. Paisley, Pastor, Saint Ann Basilica Parish, Scranton, served as homilist for the second celebration.

At both Masses, the homilists acknowledged how important it is for the young adults to continue to share the gifts and blessings God has given them.

“Yours are the hands and heart of Jesus,” Father Paisley said. “Whatever gifts you have, today is a reminder to take them out of storage and share them enthusiastically … Don’t even think about tucking away your gifts for another day because we need them.”

“Receiving this award is a testimony to your willingness to live your faith – not only in word but more importantly and more powerfully – but in the manner in which your life is being lived,” Father Kozen said. “Jesus is in each and every one of us and if we recognize the Risen Christ in those means, then we can’t help but proclaim Him in that Easter faith each and every day of our lives.”

As she received her award, Lillie Kochis, a senior at Holy Cross High School and parishioner of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Dunmore, put her Bishop’s Youth Award into perspective.

“As young people, we have the opportunity to be the change that we want to see,” she said. “This all comes from how you bring Jesus Christ’s light into the world.”

After taking a mission trip to the Diocese of Gaylord to participate in Habitat for Humanity activities last year, Kochis now spends an hour each week volunteering at Saint Joseph’s Center.

“It’s just my little way of giving back. I know that an hour of my time, spending time with the residents and doing activities there may not seem like a whole lot, but to the friends and the people I’ve met, it means the world to me,” she said.