Category: Diocese of Scranton News

WEST WYOMING – The scent of fresh evergreens filled the hall at Saint Monica Parish recently as parents, kids, and visitors all worked to build an Advent wreath for their family.

On Sunday, Nov. 23, 2025, the parish invited all parishioners to gather for a special family Advent wreath making event – focused on preparing both their homes, and hearts, for the coming of Christ.

As they gathered around long tables, tucking in branches and arranging candles, people engaged in friendly conversation, getting to know each other on a deeper level.

“We invited all our families, singles, anybody who wants to come and make their own individual wreath,” Father Peter Tomczak, pastor, said. “Advent is a very special time of preparation. We want to celebrate what is coming and not just jump right to Christmas as people do too often. These four weeks are very important to us.”

For Saint Monica Parish, the wreath making is more than a craft project – it is one of the parish’s intentional community building events.

“We get to know each other on a more personal level, rather than only at Mass or any kind of liturgical setting,” Father Tomczak added. “We get to be together, get to know each other, the kids get to interact with each other. This is a family time, and we are a family – individual families that make up this parish family.”

Participation in this year’s event grew significantly over last year. Several dozen families took part this year.

“We provided all the materials. We provided the metal rings that the greens will go into. We provided a little ring that the candles get put into. We provided the candles, the wires, wire cutters, and the greens too,” organizer Sara Tomsak said.

Deacon William Jenkins was thrilled to see so many families participate this year.

“We have three long tables filled with people, including the pastor who is making one for his house,” Jenkins joked. “We have a lot of artistic people trying to design and make the best green-filled wreath.”

For many participants, the afternoon was about more than decorations – it was about deepening family prayer, faith, and hope.

Parishioner Luann Heckman, who sings in the choir, said she enjoys anything that helps the parish grow closer.

“I like doing community events where we get to bond and get to know each other’s stories,” Heckman said. “Everyone is enjoying themselves.”

This year, she hoped her wreath will help her family enter Advent more prayerfully.

“I’m going to light the candles and I’m going to say a prayer, which is something that I haven’t done before,” she added. “I’m going to pray for my family, health, happiness, and love.”

For Ruth Wright, being there with her children was a way to spread hope in her own home.

“It makes you feel like you’re part of the community. We come to church and after the sermon we leave. It’s nice to do things outside of coming to Mass,” Wright explained. “I have two children and they both go to Catholic School. We really focus on them knowing the true meaning of Christmas, which is the celebration, the renewal, the hope, not just about the gifts.”

The sense of hope and community even stretched beyond parish boundaries.

Juana Salazar, who was visiting from Totowa, N.J., came with her children and relatives.

“It’s a new tradition for my family,” Salazar said. “They’re loving it. It’s very fun, especially being able to do it together as a family.”

As Father Tomczak watched everyone gathered around the tables, he felt a sign of a real hope in parish life.

“We want to be in the moment, preparing for the Advent season, to say we’re a family, and we want to work together, worship together, pray together, and play together,” he said. “To me, this is what it’s all about.”

KINGSTON – An LED bubble tube and a musical touch wall are just two of many items that students can interact with while visiting a new sensory room at Good Shepherd Academy in Kingston.

The calming space is designed to help children relax, refocus, and build coping skills so they can return to class ready to learn.

The new space – the first sensory room in the Diocese of Scranton’s Catholic School System – was made possible through a generous grant from the William G. McGowan Charitable Fund.

After celebrating an all-school Mass on Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2025, the Most Rev. Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, visited the room, prayed a special blessing, and sprinkled the space with holy water.

“Allow me to offer my words of thanks to all of you, the McGowan Foundation and all of you who had a hand in making this space possible,” Bishop Bambera said. “It’s incredible. We read more and more about opportunities like this in many schools. I’m so proud that we have one here at Good Shepherd Academy. It’s an incredible space and it is a calming space, isn’t it?”

For Good Shepherd Academy principal Jim Jones, the sensory room represents the fulfillment of a long-held hope for his school, the largest Catholic elementary school in the Diocese of Scranton.

“It has been a dream of mine,” Jones said. “After COVID, many of our children were having a heightened sense of anxiety and tension, so we needed a place where our students could decompress.”

The room officially opened on Oct. 1, and it has been busy ever since.

“We have multiple children in there every day,” Jones noted. “Our I.I. (Individualized Instruction) students are in there continuously. We’re so grateful for the McGowan Foundation for their support of Catholic education.”

The foundation funded the approximately $50,000 in structural and electrical elements of the project in full.

“If it was not for the McGowan Foundation, this would not be possible,” Jones added. “They were gracious that they got behind our project 100 percent. They were on board from the get-go. They have been a blessing to Good Shepherd Academy.”

Installed in a quiet, second-floor area of the school, the new sensory room is filled with specialized visual, auditory, and tactile equipment designed to help students self-regulate, manage anxiety, and build coping skills.

“The bubble tower is one of the highlights,” Jones said with a laugh. “Everything is controlled by a cube. When you roll the cube, whatever color comes up, the lights change in the sensory room based on that.”

In addition to the technology, the school also incorporated special seating from a local vendor in Hanover Township, giving students comfortable, flexible options while they relax and engage with the equipment.

“Having the students be able to go to a space where they can self-regulate and learn the necessary coping skills for both an academic setting and a real-life setting is going to have immeasurable effects on both their personal development as well as their academic development,” Mary Siejak, who has taught Individualized Instruction at Good Shepherd Academy for ten years, said.

Siejak, who primarily teaches mathematics to students who need an adapted curriculum, said she already sees the impact when she brings students into the new room.

“When I take them to the room, maybe in about 10 minutes, I notice a measurable difference in their ability to stay focused, not only on content, but then also to perform to their potential in the classroom,” she explained.

What makes the difference?

“It’s a nice quiet space. It is the resources that the McGowan Foundation put into the sensory room. Just having those elements,” she added, noting that the room is designed to help regulate multiple senses in the body and allow students to become truly calm.

While the sensory room is open on an as-needed basis to the entire student body, it is used most frequently by students in Good Shepherd’s Individualized Instruction program.

The new sensory room builds on Good Shepherd Academy’s strong track record of innovation, including its S.T.R.E.A.M. (Science, Technology, Religion, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics) Discovery Room and expanded arts opportunities introduced in recent years.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Thanksgiving is a “beautiful feast” that reminds everyone to be grateful for the gifts they have been given, Pope Leo XIV said.

“Say thank you to someone,” the pope suggested two days before the U.S. holiday when he met reporters outside his residence in Castel Gandolfo before returning to the Vatican after a day off.

Pope Leo, the first U.S.-born pope, was scheduled to spend his Thanksgiving Nov. 27 in Ankara and Istanbul, Turkey, the first stops on his first foreign trip as pope.

A reporter asked the pope what he was thankful for this year.

“Many things I’m thankful for,” he responded.

He described Thanksgiving as “this beautiful feast that we have in the United States, which unites all people, people of different faiths, people who perhaps do not have the gift of faith.”

The holiday is an opportunity “to say thank you to someone, to recognize that we all have received so many gifts — first and foremost, the gift of life, the gift of faith, the gift of unity, to encourage all people to try and promote peace and harmony and to give thanks to God for the many gifts we have been given.”

Pope Leo was asked about his upcoming trip, particularly about relations with Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, who will host the pope for several prayer services in addition to having a private meeting and lunch with him.

“This trip was born precisely to celebrate 1,700 years of the Creed of Nicaea, the Council of Nicaea” and what it affirmed about Jesus, the pope said.

In his apostolic letter, “In Unitate Fidei” (“In the Unity of Faith”), published Nov. 23, Pope Leo highlighted the importance of the anniversary and of the Creed that all mainline Christians still share.

“Unity in the faith,” he told the reporters, “can also be a source of peace for the whole world.”

Pope Leo also was asked if he was concerned about going to Lebanon when Israel continues to strike what it says are Hezbollah and Hamas positions in Lebanon. Israel said it killed Hezbollah’s top military leader Nov. 23 in a suburb of Beirut; Lebanon said the strike killed five other people as well and wounded 28 more.

“It’s always a concern,” the pope said. “Again, I would invite all people to look for ways to abandon the use of arms as a way of solving problems and to come together, to respect one another, to sit down together at the table, to dialogue and to work together for solutions for the problems that affect us.”

“I am very happy to be able to visit Lebanon,” the pope said. “The message will be a word of peace, a word of hope, especially this year of the Jubilee of hope.”

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – Congressional Republicans are demanding a “robust” investigation of federal safety standards and health risks connected to mifepristone, a pill commonly, but not exclusively, used for early abortion.

The letter, dated Nov. 20 and co-signed by 175 Republican lawmakers, asks Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Martin Makary to investigate the “deleterious and grossly underreported effects” of mifepristone on women, prohibit mail shipment of the drug, and immediately “reinstate the in-person dispensing requirement.”

Released Nov. 24, the letter also condemned the Biden administration’s “egregious action to remove critical safeguards that once applied to abortion drugs.” In addition to urging an end to the mailing of the drugs, the letter objected to “the FDA’s approval” in September of a new generic form of mifepristone and urged the Trump administration to provide more information about that approval.

Signers of the letter include House Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise, both of Louisiana; Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota; and Rep. Lisa C. McClain, R-Mich, Republican Conference chairwoman.

“The Biden-Harris administration’s blatant disregard for the innumerable health risks and complications caused by mifepristone — the baby poison pill — has been the status quo for far too long,” Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., co-chair of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus, said in a statement accompanying release of the letter. “The carelessness of Biden’s FDA has taken and harmed thousands of lives, the unborn and their mothers alike.”

“Recent findings raise real questions about the safety of chemical abortion pills like mifepristone, and Americans deserve straight answers about the risks involved,” Rep. Diana Harshbarger, R-Tenn., said in a statement. A licensed pharmacist, she is vice chair of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health.

“No medication with known complications should be handed out without proper medical oversight and follow-up care,” she added.

First approved by the FDA for early abortion in 2000, mifepristone — the first of two drugs used in a medication-based abortion — gained the moniker “the abortion pill.” However, the same drug combination has become used sometimes in recent years for miscarriage care, where an unborn child has already died, a situation that Catholic teaching would hold as morally licit use.

The Catholic Church opposes direct abortion. It teaches that all human life is sacred from conception to natural death, and as such, opposes direct abortion.

The lawmakers’ Nov. 20 letter follows an Oct. 29 pledge by Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Bill Cassidy, R-La., and Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America national to push the Trump administration for more information regarding the FDA approval of the new generic form of mifepristone.

In a related development regarding mifepristone, Students for Life Action hailed the introduction Nov. 24 of the Clean Water for All Life Act in the Wisconsin Legislature. Other states considering the same legislation include Arizona, Idaho, Maine, West Virginia and Wyoming.
The measure is co-sponsored by Republican Reps. Lindee Brill and Nate Gustafson and Republican Sen. Andre Jacque.

The bill would require doctors who prescribe abortion pills to make patients collect and return their expelled fetus in medical waste bags for disposal. It’s intended to keep abortion pill chemicals from entering public water supplies.

Previously, the FDA has rejected the idea, issuing a response to a Students for Life petition that the agency require prescribers to include a “medical waste bag and catch-kit” with all mifepristone prescriptions.

The petition, the agency said, “offers only conjecture that remnants of mifepristone in the nation’s water system are ‘causing unknown harm to citizens and animals alike,'” and that Students for Life “provides no evidence showing that bodily fluid from patients who have used mifepristone (a one-time, single-dose product) is causing harm to the nation’s aquatic environment.”

Water treatment processes handle many forms of medications, including birth control pills, in trace amounts.

In a Nov. 21 statement, Student for Life president Kristan Hawkins called mifepristone “the abortion industry’s dirty little secret. Hospitals and medical clinics can’t legally flush chemically tainted blood, placenta tissue, and human remains, but the Biden administration gave a de facto permit to pollute in allowing chemical abortion pill pushers to supersize their markets with … online sales and delivery by mail. It’s up to the Trump administration to finally do the environmental testing that’s been ignored and to go back to the drawing board on chemical abortion pills.”

The Students for Life effort began in 2024, when, as part of a coalition of pro-life groups, it demanded that the EPA track the “forever chemicals” in mifepristone.

In 2023, abortion drugs accounted for 63% of all abortions in the United States, up from 53% in 2020.

INDIANAPOLIS (OSV News) – Philadelphia Archbishop Nelson J. Pérez looked out from a sanctuary built on the floor of Lucas Oil Stadium on the 16,000 youths from across the country who came to Indianapolis for the National Catholic Youth Conference.

He shared with them a message of hope he wanted them to nurture in their hearts as they returned to their homes.

“When you feel lost, Jesus is your shepherd,” Archbishop Pérez said in his homily during the conference’s closing Mass on Nov. 22. “Remember that. When you feel you’re in darkness, Jesus is your light. When you feel you’re absolutely hungry and your soul is weighed down, Jesus is your bread.”

Jesus, he returned to again and again in his homily on the feast of Christ the King, is the “king of our hearts.”

In reflecting on Christ the King, Archbishop Pérez said that he is not a king in the way that the world views such rulers.

“His throne is a cross,” he said. “His crown is not made of gold and gems. It’s made of thorns. He doesn’t wear fancy, beautiful, priceless rings on his hands. He has nails.”

According to the world, Christ’s death on the cross was “the worst of all ways to execute a criminal.”

But, because of Christ’s resurrection, the church in faith proclaims that his crucifixion was actually a great victory for him and all who believe in him.

“Goodness has won,” Archbishop Pérez said. “Christ the King has already given us victory. We have to embrace that, internalize that and make a part of who we are. And that’s the journey of our Christian life.”

Three times in his homily, Archbishop Pérez cried out in a popular and historic phrase in Spanish, “Viva Cristo Rey!” (“Long live Christ the King!”). And each time, the congregation cried out the common reply, “Que viva!” (“He lives!”).

Because the centerpiece of this year’s NCYC was a nearly hourlong video interaction of the participants with Pope Leo XIV, Archbishop Pérez reflected in his homily on parts of the pontiff’s message.

He reminded them in the pope’s words that Jesus “‘knows when life feels heavy. Even you do not feel his presence, our faith tells us he is there.'”

Archbishop Pérez encouraged them in the pope’s words to take ” ‘daily moments of silence … whether through adoration, or reading Scripture, or simply talking to’ ” Jesus in order to build up a relationship with him and to ” ‘entrust their struggles’ ” to him.

“‘Little by little, we learn to hear his voice both from within and through the people he sends us. As you grow closer to Jesus, do not fear what he may ask you for. If he challenges you to make changes in your life, it’s always because he wants to give you a greater joy and freedom. God is never outdone in generosity.'”

Archbishop Pérez offered a heartfelt prayer at the end of his homily after quoting Pope Leo’s words.

“Thank you, Lord, for the visit of your vicar,” he said. “We are blessed and honored to have had him with us. And thank you, Lord, for being our king, for being the king of our hearts.”
He and the 16,000 youths in the stadium then ended the homily as they had begun it.

“Viva Cristo Rey!” “Que viva!” “Viva Cristo Rey!” “Que viva!” “Viva Cristo Rey!” “Que viva!”

The love for Christ that the youths and their chaperones showed during the homily poured forth during Communion when many knelt and raised their hands in prayer, entering into the popular praise and worship music that the conference’s house band played.

As Archbishop Pérez, more than 20 concelebrating bishops and nearly 250 concelebrating priests processed off the stadium’s floor at the end of the closing Mass, the house band struck up again the praise and worship music that filled the hearts of the 16,000 youths who joyfully celebrated their faith.

With the music continuing to play and youths still overflowing with joy in the stadium, Karyna Lopez spoke in a concourse of the stadium about her experience of her second NCYC.

“It was so good that I had to come again,” Karyna, a teenager from the Diocese of Jefferson City, Missouri, told The Criterion, Indianapolis’ archdiocesan news outlet. “The Holy Spirit is very strong here. Everyone is just so inspired for the Lord.”

Like many of the other 16,000 teens who attended NCYC, Karyna took memories of her encounter with Pope Leo as she left Lucas Oil Stadium and prepared to return home.

“We got to see the pope,” she said with joy. “It was amazing. He had so much wisdom to share. I’m just glad that I got to experience that.”

One of the most impactful experiences of the National Catholic Youth Conference held every other year in Indianapolis is the gathering of all participants in Lucas Oil Stadium for Eucharistic adoration, which took place this year on Nov. 21.

“This evening is about healing,” said Gian Gamboa, one of this year’s NCYC emcees. “You can’t give until you are healed from within.”

Sister Miriam James Heidland, of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity, spoke about healing before the Blessed Sacrament was reverently processed into the stadium in a monstrance.

She defined healing as “an ongoing encounter with God’s love and truth that brings us into wholeness and communion.”

“We have lots of secrets, don’t we?” Sister Miriam James asked. “And secrets just make us very ill. And so, what Jesus does is he comes into your life in an encounter with love and truth — the love heals the wounds, the truth heals the lies.”

This encounter occurs in “a place where God dwells within you,” she continued. “It’s a place where your dignity cannot be destroyed, and the gift of who you are cannot be hidden.

“And it’s from this place, my dear friends, that the Lord speaks to us.”

During adoration, as Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services knelt before Christ in the Blessed Sacrament in the center of the stadium, he read the Bread of Life Discourse from John 6:35-58.

“We must partake of the bread of eternal life if we hope to achieve our goal — eternal happiness in union with Almighty God,” he said. “Jesus insists twice on this necessity, even in the faith of the disbelief of his audience. He will not compromise to please the crowd. … Unlike many who will only tell us what they think we want to hear, Christ’s words are spirit and life. They challenge us to grow. They invite us into communion with him and with each other.”

Among the many speakers who addressed the NCYC crowd of 16,000 was Nolan McCracken, a senior at Cathedral High School in Indianapolis. He shared what was essentially a soulful, vulnerable and unusual thank-you Nov. 20.

He tied thanking God, his mother, his sister, his grandmother and his friends to the three laws of motion of Sir Isaac Newton, a 17th-century mathematician and physicist.

“My journey with God so far can be understood by using Newton’s three laws of motion,” Nolan told the audience: “an object at rest will remain at rest unless acted upon by an external force”; “force equals mass times acceleration”; and for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.”

In middle school and his freshman year of high school, he was “an object at rest — not physically or mentally, but spiritually,” because he was focused on grades.

He switched to Cathedral High School for his sophomore year, where his “acceleration” was to increase his success, he said, letting go of ” friends, family and a relationship with a God whose face I no longer recognized.”

But then he began to attend church with his mom and sister and also found that at every all-school Mass he “could be a part of a community, a part of a collective witness to love.”

During a junior retreat that Cathedral held at the University of Notre Dame in northern Indiana, “I became open to hearing about the external force God had in their lives, I began to see that I could rely on God.” In accepting, “God’s loving and powerful external force,” Nolan saw Newton’s third law of motion come into play in his life.

“If you feel you are an object at rest or even moving in the wrong direction, Jesus is there for you,” he told his peers. “I invite you to accept him, to close your eyes and know that you are held.”

CHICAGO (OSV News) – A stakeholder – and next owner – of the Chicago White Sox baseball team said Pope Leo XIV told him that he’d “love to” throw a season opening first pitch in the future — “schedule permitting.”

Pope Leo’s favorite sports team is the White Sox, and much has been made of his being a huge fan of the Chicago South Siders. He grew up as a diehard Sox fan in Chicago’s south suburb of Dolton.

Justin Ishbia, a Chicago billionaire, owner of a private equity firm and a co-owner of the team, told several major news outlets he met the pope outside St. Peter’s Basilica at his general audience Nov. 19 and shared with him his vision for the future of the White Sox.

“And in the conversation I extended an invitation for him to visit Chicago and throw out the first pitch on opening day should this ballpark come to fruition,” Ishbia told a Chicago Tribune sports columnist. “As part of that, I also presented to him a 2005 World Series championship team jersey, signed by the team, as a symbol of teamwork and perseverance. I said, ‘I’m hopeful you’d bless our stadium, and our stadium will be a place that creates joy and happiness and many championships for decades to come.'”

The now-famous video footage of then-Father Robert Prevost’s game 1 appearance at the 2005 World Series between the White Sox and the Houston Astros cemented Pope Leo’s place in history as the world’s most well-known Sox fan. The team put markers in the place where he sat that night, in section 140, row 19, seat 2 of Rate Field. The White Sox won the championship.

Ishbia holds stakes in other U.S. sports teams in the National Basketball Association and Major League Soccer. He described himself as the next “steward” — not “owner” — of the White Sox franchise, saying the team belongs to the city of Chicago. He also brought up again the possibility of a new stadium for their ballpark, whose lease ends in 2029, that he hoped would be located in the South Loop, the southern edge of Chicago’s downtown.

The team has been under the ownership of Jerry Reinsdorf since 1981. In June, Reinsdorf announced Ishbia would potentially be taking over fully by 2034.

Ishbia said he met Pope Leo through a friend, U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See Brian Burch of the Chicago area, who is co-founder of CatholicVote, an organization that advocates for Catholic teaching to be part of public life.

“There’s an opportunity for one of the most well-known men in the world who has billions of people who love and follow him — if we can get him behind us and part of our organization, the brand, that’s one of my roles as steward, to hopefully bring him into the family, into the fold,” Ishbia told the Chicago Sun-Times about the pope. “For many, many years, hopefully we’ll have a fan in our corner who has unique access to upstairs.”

He told The New York Times that as steward of the team, and being a baseball fan himself, he understands what fans want — “someone who cares.”

The news outlets reported the pope personally took the autographed jersey from Ishbia, rather than having it go directly to an aide.

Ishbia quoted Pope Leo: “He said, ‘No, no, no. Hold on — that stays with me.'”

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – The Trump administration has issued plans for a complete turnaround in homelessness policy, which involves a two-thirds reduction in current funding used to place homeless people in permanent dwellings.

Nationally, it could make as many as 170,000 people — all of them either disabled, suffering from drug addiction, mental health issues, or otherwise “unable to pay the rent” — vulnerable to losing housing and being back on the streets, Brian Corbin, executive vice president of member services at Catholic Charities USA, told OSV News.

The statistic came from internal Housing and Urban Development documents obtained by Politico, which first reported the development Sept. 29.

The policy shift moves billions to short-term transitional housing programs that impose work rules, help police dismantle tent encampments, and require people experiencing homelessness to accept treatment for mental illness or addiction.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development detailed the changes in a 128-page notice issued Nov. 13. It involves more than $3.9 billion in what are called Continuum of Care funds, and could affect people utilizing these services as soon as January.

“These are pretty substantial reductions,” Corbin said. “That’s where the flashpoint is.”

The “Housing First” approach taken by the federal government up to now has also drawn criticism over its effectiveness. Kevin Corinth, deputy director of the American Enterprise Institute’s Center on Opportunity and Mobility, argued for the Trump administration to strike a different course on homelessness in an Aug. 29 blog post that “unsheltered homelessness has increased every year for the past decade, reaching a record 274,224 people sleeping outside on a single night in January in 2024.”

“What we do know is that Housing First is expensive, providing indefinite housing and optional services to individuals without focusing on trying to help them overcome their underlying problems so they can move on with their lives and free up resources for others in need,” he argued. “Communities should be provided the flexibility to implement locally crafted solutions that focus on getting people off the street and into recovery.”

He added, “Bringing homeless people inside where they can get real help should be the ultimate goal.”

The major change in federal policy on homelessness and its potential impact on the people Catholic Charities agencies serve was among the issues discussed at a summit of Catholic Charities’ leaders and local politicians on Nov. 18.

Also discussed was the use of surplus church properties such as schools and hospitals to convert to emergency housing, an idea that’s been developed for more than a decade.

The 168 diocesan agencies within the Catholic Charities USA network supervise 38,000 housing units, Corbin said.

The consensus of most speakers was that homelessness would be best addressed through cooperation with local governments and CCUSA member agencies sharing ideas.

“How do we help people stretch the resources that they have?” asked Mayor Alyia Gaskins of Alexandria, Virginia.

She pointed to an evening meal service for people in need provided by Catholic Charities as one example.

According to a diocesan spokesperson, Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Arlington, which includes the city of Alexandria, “has been offering an evening meal at Christ House every single night for more than 40 years. In 2025 alone Christ House has served more than 25,000 meals, a 25% increase over 2024.”

The mayor also emphasized the need for charities to stay involved in long-term municipal land planning, since “90% of what I’m focused on right now is land-use development.”

“Make local policymakers partners in your work,” advised Steve Berg, chief policy officer for the National Alliance to End Homelessness. “(Tell them) what the shortfalls are, and what they can do to help.”

An important part of that communication, he added, “is to make clear that this is a long-term work. We’re not going to solve homelessness this year.”

There was only a single question about the fear of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

“We are making sure we connect (homeless people) with our homeless outreach agency,” said Tenesha Williams, program director of Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas. “Making sure they feel safe enough to talk with a resource adviser.”

As for repurposing church properties as homeless housing, Heather Huot, secretary for Catholic Human Services in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, called it “an interesting and complicated process. You’d think working with the diocese would be easy. It is not.”

“If you really want to use church property, it’s going to take a little time to get pastors and school administrators to see your vision,” she said. “Not every church property is going to be the best to use.”

“We are the largest provider of permanent housing in the state of Minnesota,” said Jamie Verbrugge, president and CEO of Catholic Charities Twin Cities, a part of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. “They recognize that we’re expert(s) at what we do, and we do it very well.”

Verbrugge explained that the average monthly income for those seeking housing under his agency is just $500 a month.

He said the organization is “at a crossroads” when it comes to emergency shelters for adults and housing.

“We are challenged most financially to do this on an ongoing basis,” he said.

Participants at the CCUSA summit were also encouraged to recognize that, while they face a long road ahead, their milestones are in the differences they make with the people they serve.

“We need to celebrate the victories that we have,” said Curtis Johnson Jr., vice president of housing strategies for CCUSA. “We have to remind ourselves, ‘We have helped someone today.’ This is marathon work.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – When Christians recite the Creed, it should prompt an examination of conscience about what they truly believe and what kind of example of faith in God they give to others, Pope Leo XIV wrote.

“Wars have been fought, and people have been killed, persecuted and discriminated against in the name of God,” he wrote. “Instead of proclaiming a merciful God, a vengeful God has been presented who instills terror and punishes.”

Publishing “In Unitate Fidei” (“In the Unity of Faith”) Nov. 23, Pope Leo marked the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea and its Creed. He said he wanted it released in anticipation of his visit to Turkey Nov. 27-30 to celebrate with Orthodox and Protestant leaders the anniversary of the Creed Christians share.

The bishops who had gathered in Nicaea in 325 had survived anti-Christian persecution, the pope said, but were facing the fracturing of their communities over disputes regarding “the essence of the Christian faith, namely the answer to the decisive question that Jesus had asked his disciples at Caesarea Philippi: ‘Who do you say that I am?'”

“Arius, a priest from Alexandria in Egypt, taught that Jesus was not truly the Son of God,” the pope explained. Arius taught that “though more than a mere creature,” Jesus was “an intermediate being between the inaccessible God and humanity. Moreover, there would have been a time when the Son ‘did not exist.'”

The challenge facing the bishops, he said, was to affirm their faith in one God while making it clear that, as the creed now says, Jesus is “the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages … true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father.”

The bishops, he said, knew “no mortal being can, in fact, defeat death and save us; only God can do so. He has freed us through his Son made man, so that we might be free.”

In affirming monotheism and the true humanity and divinity of Christ, the pope said, “they wanted to reaffirm that the one true God is not inaccessibly distant from us, but on the contrary has drawn near and has come to encounter us in Jesus Christ.”

“This is the heart of our Christian life,” Pope Leo wrote. “For this reason, we commit to follow Jesus as our master, companion, brother and friend.”

The version of the Creed recited by most Catholics at Mass each Sunday and shared with other mainline Christians is formally called the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, because it includes an article of faith inserted by the bishops at the First Council of Constantinople in 381 about the Holy Spirit.

Western Christians say: “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets.”

A footnote in the pope’s letter said that the phrase known as the “filioque” — and proceeds from the Father and the Son — “is not found in the text of Constantinople; it was inserted into the Latin Creed by Pope Benedict VIII in 1014 and is a subject of Orthodox-Catholic dialogue.”

Recent popes, including Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Francis and Pope Leo, have omitted the phrase at ecumenical prayer services.

In his letter, Pope Leo affirmed the Catholic Church’s commitment to the search for Christian unity and said, “The Nicene Creed can be the basis and reference point for this journey.”

And he prayed that the Holy Spirit would come to all Christians “to revive our faith, to enkindle us with hope, to inflame us with charity.”

“The Nicene Creed does not depict a distant, inaccessible and immovable God who rests in himself, but a God who is close to us and accompanies us on our journey in the world, even in the darkest places on earth,” Pope Leo wrote.

Reciting the Creed, he said, should prompt Christians to “examine our conscience.”

The questions they should ask, he wrote, include: “What does God mean to me and how do I bear witness to my faith in him? Is the one and only God truly the Lord of my life, or do I have idols that I place before God and his commandments? Is God for me the living God, close to me in every situation, the Father to whom I turn with filial trust?”

And, he continued with more questions: “Is he the Creator to whom I owe everything I am and have, whose mark I can find in every creature? Am I willing to share the goods of the earth, which belong to everyone, in a just and equitable manner? How do I treat creation, the work of his hands? Do I exploit and destroy it, or do I use it with reverence and gratitude, caring for and cultivating it as the common home of humanity?”

Believing that God became human in Jesus means “that we now encounter the Lord in our brothers and sisters in need,” the pope said. That is why Jesus said, “As you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me.”

The Creed “does not formulate a philosophical theory,” Pope Leo wrote. “It professes faith in the God who redeemed us through Jesus Christ. It is about the living God who wants us to have life and to have it in abundance.”

(OSV News) – During the Nov. 23 Angelus prayer, Pope Leo XIV appealed for the release of over 300 children and teachers abducted from a Catholic school in central Nigeria.

He said he was “deeply saddened to learn of the kidnapping,” mentioning not only Nigeria, but also Cameroon, where six Catholic priests from the Archdiocese of Bamenda were kidnapped in Ndop, Cameroon.

“I feel great pain, above all for the many young men and women who have been abducted and for their distressed families,” Pope Leo said.

“I make a heartfelt appeal for the immediate release of the hostages and urge the competent authorities to take appropriate and timely decisions to ensure their release.”

He asked for prayers that “churches and schools may always and everywhere remain places of safety and hope.”

The number of children abducted from a Nigerian Catholic school on Nov. 21 has been updated to 303 schoolchildren, the Christian Association of Nigeria said Nov. 22. Twelve teachers also have been taken by gunmen. Earlier reports indicated that 215 schoolchildren had been abducted.

The students were both male and female and ranged in age from 10 to 18, CAN said in a statement.

Rev. Bulus Dauwa Yohanna said 88 students were “captured after they tried to escape” during the attack and a final census carried out confirmed the number of kidnapped children is bigger.

The Catholic Diocese of Kontagora in Nigeria’s Niger state confirmed the kidnapping in a statement issued Nov. 21.

Signed by the diocesan secretary, Father Jatau Luka Joseph, the statement indicates that gunmen attacked St. Mary’s Catholic Primary and Secondary School in Papiri, in the Agwarra local government area, between 1 and 3 a.m. local time on Nov. 21.

As they abducted students and teachers, the gunmen badly shot security personnel.

The diocese said it “strongly condemns the attack and expresses deep concern for the safety of the kidnapped children and their families.”

“Security agencies were immediately informed and have begun coordinated efforts to ensure the safe rescue and return of the victims.” Father Jatau said in the statement, assuring that the diocese “is actively collaborating with security operatives, community leaders, and government authorities.”

The diocese urged the public to remain calm, support security efforts, and continue praying for the safe and quick return of all those abducted.

The Christian Association of Nigeria also condemned the attack and expressed “deep concern for the safety of the kidnapped children and their families.”

“CAN also reaffirms our commitment to the protection of children and promises to provide further updates as verified information becomes available,” the statement said. “May the Lord grant quick release to those abducted and continue to protect his people from all dangers.”

Italian Prime minister Giorgia Meloni condemned the “renewed violence against Christian communities in Nigeria.”

“Religious freedom is an inviolable right: we call on the Nigerian government to strengthen the protection of Christian and all religious communities and to prosecute those responsible for these brutal attacks,” she said on X.

“Italy expresses its deepest sympathy to the victims and to the communities in Nigeria who today feel threatened because of their religious beliefs,” Meloni said.

Niger state’s Police Command said it had already deployed police to Papiri to ensure that the kidnapped students and teachers are freed.

“Police tactical units, military components and other security agencies have moved to the scene, combing the forests with a view to rescue the abducted students,” said Wasiu Abiodun, public relations officer for the police.

He said the goal is “to rescue the students unhurt.”

The Niger state kidnapping comes just five days after a similar attack in neighboring Kebbi state, where 25 girls were abducted from a government school. The vice principal of the school was killed during that attack.

On Nov. 19, attackers stormed Christ Apostolic Church in Eruku, killing three worshippers and abducting several others, including the pastor.

No group has taken responsibility for the string of attacks, but advocates now say strongly that what happens to Christians in Nigeria is genocide.

“Is there anyone who can say that there is no Christian genocide in Nigeria?” asked Emeka Umeagbalasi, director of the Catholic-inspired nongovernmental organization Intersociety.

“There is a deliberate plan to wipe out Christianity from Nigeria,” he told OSV News Nov. 21.

The latest Intersociety report revealed that an average of 32 Christians are killed in Nigeria every day. The report published in August indicates that as many as 7,000 Christians were massacred across Nigeria in the first 220 days of 2025.

It said at least 185,000 people, including 125,000 Christians and 60,000 moderate Muslims had been killed in Nigeria since 2009.

The report, which covers the period from 2010 to October 2025, details the destruction of 19,100 churches and the seizure of 1,100 Christian communities by Islamic extremist forces allegedly protected by the government.

The NGO also issued an updated version, indicating that between Oct. 28 and Nov. 17, 113 Christians were killed in Nigeria and 135 others were abducted, according to Umeagbalasi.

The report also highlights a pattern of targeting spiritual leaders, with 600 clerics abducted and dozens more killed or missing.

“I just don’t know what to say anymore after this latest kidnapping attack in Niger State, Nigeria, at St. Mary’s Catholic School,” Sean Nelson, senior counsel of ADF International Christian advocacy group, said on X on Nov. 21.

“The terrorists want to destroy the futures of a generation of young girls & boys. They want to destroy Christians,” he said. “They are enemies of civilization,” he concluded.

Videos posted on social media indicated that a statue of Virgin Mary was vandalized and burned on the premises of St. Mary’s school, from where over 300 children were taken Nov. 21.

Nigeria returned to the U.S. list of countries of “particular concern” over Christian persecution with President Donald Trump announcing the designation Oct. 31 to protect Christianity, which he said was “facing an existential threat in Nigeria.”

He also threatened to halt all aid to Nigeria and launch military action if the government fails to stop the killings. He later instructed the Department of Defense, which he has nicknamed Department of War, to prepare for possible “action” — a move that brought mixed reactions from church leaders in Nigeria.