Category: Diocese of Scranton News

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Cardinal Robert F. Prevost, the Chicago-born prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops under Pope Francis, was elected the 267th pope May 8 and took the name Pope Leo XIV.

He is the first North American to be elected pope and, before the conclave, was the U.S. cardinal most mentioned as a potential successor of St. Peter.

The white smoke poured from the chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel at 6:07 p.m. Rome time and a few minutes later the bells of St. Peter’s Basilica began to ring.

About 20 minutes later the Vatican police band and two dozen members of the Pontifical Swiss Guard marched into St. Peter’s Square. They soon were joined by the marching band of the Italian Carabinieri, a branch of military police, and by units of the other branches of the Italian military.

As soon as news began to spread, people from all over Rome ran to join the tens of thousands who were already in the square for the smoke watch. Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri was among them.

French Cardinal Dominique Mamberti, protodeacon of the College of Cardinals, appeared on the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica at 7:12 p.m. He told the crowd: “I announce to you a great joy. We have a pope (‘Habemus papam’),” saying the cardinal’s name in Latin and announcing the name by which he will be called.

Cardinals over the age of 80, who were not eligible to enter the conclave, joined the crowd in the square. Among them were Cardinals Seán P. O’Malley, the retired archbishop of Boston; Donald W. Wuerl, the retired archbishop of Washington; and Marc Ouellet, retired prefect of the Congregation for Bishops.

A longtime missionary in Peru, the 69-year-old pope holds both U.S. and Peruvian citizenship.

La Repubblica, the major Italian daily, described him April 25 as “cosmopolitan and shy,” but also said he was “appreciated by conservatives and progressives. He has global visibility in a conclave in which few (cardinals) know each other.”

That visibility comes from the fact that as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops for the past two years, he was instrumental in helping Pope Francis choose bishops for many Latin-rite dioceses, he met hundreds of bishops during their “ad limina” visits to Rome and was called to assist the world’s Latin-rite bishops “in all matters concerning the correct and fruitful exercise of the pastoral office entrusted to them.”

The new pope was serving as bishop of Chiclayo, Peru, when Pope Francis called him to the Vatican in January 2023.

During a talk at St. Jude Parish in Chicago in August, the then-cardinal said Pope Francis nominated him “specifically because he did not want someone from the Roman Curia to take on this role. He wanted a missionary; he wanted someone from outside; he wanted someone who would come in with a different perspective.”

In a March 2024 interview with Catholic News Service, he said Pope Francis’ decision in 2022 to name three women as full members of the dicastery, giving them input on the selection of bishops “contributes significantly to the process of discernment in looking for who we hope are the best candidates to serve the church in episcopal ministry.”

To deter attitudes of clericalism among bishops, he said, “it’s important to find men who are truly interested in serving, in preaching the Gospel, not just with eloquent words, but rather with the example and witness they give.”

In fact, the cardinal said, Pope Francis’ “most effective and important” bulwark against clericalism was his being “a pastor who preaches by gesture.”

In an interview in 2023 with Vatican News, then-Cardinal Prevost spoke about the essential leadership quality of a bishop.

“Pope Francis has spoken of four types of closeness: closeness to God, to brother bishops, to priests and to all God’s people,” he said. “One must not give in to the temptation to live isolated, separated in a palace, satisfied with a certain social level or a certain level within the church.”

“And we must not hide behind an idea of authority that no longer makes sense today,” he said. “The authority we have is to serve, to accompany priests, to be pastors and teachers.”

As prefect of the dicastery then-Cardinal Prevost also served as president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, where nearly 40% of the world’s Catholics reside.

A Chicago native, he also served as prior general of the Augustinians and spent more than two decades serving in Peru, first as an Augustinian missionary and later as bishop of Chiclayo.

Soon after coming to Rome to head the dicastery, he told Vatican News that bishops have a special mission of promoting the unity of the church.

“The lack of unity is a wound that the church suffers, a very painful one,” he said in May 2023. “Divisions and polemics in the church do not help anything. We bishops especially must accelerate this movement toward unity, toward communion in the church.”

In September, a television program in Peru reported on the allegations of three women who said that then-Bishop Prevost failed to act against a priest who sexually abused them as minors. The diocese strongly denied the accusation, pointing out that he personally met with the victims in April 2022, removed the priest from his parish, suspended him from ministry and conducted a local investigation that was then forwarded to the Vatican. The Vatican said there was insufficient evidence to proceed, as did the local prosecutor’s office.

Pope Leo was born Sept. 14, 1955, in Chicago, Illinois. He holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the Augustinian-run Villanova University in Pennsylvania and joined the order in 1977, making his solemn vows in 1981. He holds a degree in theology from the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago and a doctorate from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome.

He joined the Augustinian mission in Peru in 1985 and largely worked in the country until 1999 when he was elected head of the Augustinians’ Chicago-based province. From 2001 to 2013, he served as prior general of the worldwide order. In 2014, Pope Francis named him bishop of Chiclayo, in northern Peru, and the pope asked him also to be apostolic administrator of Callao, Peru, from April 2020 to May 2021.

The new pope speaks English, Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese and can read Latin and German.

SCRANTON – The Diocese of Scranton will celebrate its annual Mother’s Day Adoption Mass on Sunday, May 11, at 10:00 a.m. at the Cathedral of Saint Peter in Scranton. This liturgy prayerfully recognizes all mothers, with a special emphasis on adoptive and foster mothers.

The Most Rev. Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, will serve as principal celebrant and homilist for the Mass.

The Mother’s Day Adoption Mass is open to the public and all faithful are invited to attend.

CTV: Catholic Television of the Diocese of Scranton will broadcast the Mass live. A livestream will also be provided on the Diocese of Scranton website, YouTube channel and across all Diocesan social media platforms.

Mark your calendars for May 11 and join us for the Mother’s Day Adoption Mass as we pray for mothers, near and far, including Mary, Mother of the Church.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – As expected, the 133 cardinals who entered the Sistine Chapel May 7 failed to elect the next pope on their first ballot.

After celebrating Mass for the election of a pope, processing into the Sistine Chapel and swearing a solemn oath of perpetual secrecy on the conclave proceedings, the cardinal electors cast their first ballot in the conclave.

The ballot, however, failed to reach the two-thirds supermajority, or 89 votes, that is required for a new pope to be elected. With the largest number of cardinal electors ever to vote in a conclave, and therefore the most votes to count, the black smoke arrived two hours later than the expected 7 p.m. Rome time.

Only one ballot was cast on the first day of the conclave. On following days, up to four ballots are cast each day. If, after three days of voting, they have not elected anyone, the cardinals can take a maximum on one day for prayer and informal discussion.

Pope Benedict XVI was elected on the fourth ballot of the 2005 conclave and Pope Francis was elected on the fifth ballot of the conclave in 2013.

An estimated 30,000 people gathered in St. Peter’s Square the first evening of the conclave even though they did not expect to see white smoke emerging from a chimney on top of the Sistine Chapel, signaling that a pope had been elected.

Many were carrying flags – pilgrims waved the flags of the Philippines, Brazil, the United States and Nicaragua among others.

Maggie Popp from North Dakota, who was in St. Peter’s Square with her husband and two young children, told Catholic News Service that she planned to watch the smoke each night.

“We’re here as a family because it feels like a once in a lifetime opportunity,” she said. “We live here in Rome, so we figured it would be a great opportunity to bring our little boys to experience this, even if they won’t remember, and ultimately pray for whoever it is that we’re going to receive as a new Holy Father.”

Gabrielle Estrada from San Antonio, Texas, extended her trip through Europe to be in Rome for the conclave. “I grew up Catholic, so I remember watching the smoke on the TV growing up and thought it would be so cool to be here.”

As a young adult, she said, “I’m curious to see how he is going to incorporate young adults.”

Often, she said, “this is the time that people stray away from her faith, and I would love to see him put emphasis on that age group and get us excited about the history of our faith and everything that comes with it.”

“Rome, right now, is the center of the universe,” said Father Anthony Saiki, a priest of the Archdiocese of Kansas City, while gesturing at the throngs of people gathered in St. Peter’s Square. “In this moment, the church is incredibly united.”

“If anybody doubts the relevance of the faith, if anybody doubts the relevance of the Catholic Church,” he told CNS, “all eyes are on the church right now, all eyes are looking for the next successor of Peter, so it’s a moment of hope, it’s a moment of excitement and joy.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Invoking the help of the Holy Spirit and recognizing that millions of people all over the world were praying for them, 133 cardinals entered the Sistine Chapel with a singular goal: to elect “a worthy pastor” for the universal church.

Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the top-ranking cardinal among the electors, led the cardinals in prayer at 4:30 p.m. May 7 in the Apostolic Palace’s Pauline Chapel, just a short distance from the Sistine Chapel.

“The whole church, united with us in prayer, insistently invokes the grace of the Holy Spirit so that a worthy pastor for the whole flock of Christ would be elected by us,” he told them.

“May the Lord direct our steps on the path of truth so that, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the holy apostles Peter and Paul and all the saints, we may always do what is pleasing to him,” the cardinal prayed.

Behind altar servers carrying a cross and candles, priests assisting the cardinals processed toward the Sistine Chapel. The cardinals, walking two-by-two, followed in the reverse order of their rank within the College of Cardinals. Indian Cardinal George J. Koovakad and Italian Cardinal Fabio Baggio — cardinal deacons created by Pope Francis in December — were the first cardinals to cross the chapel’s threshold.

Only cardinals under the age of 80 were eligible to enter the conclave, but it still was the largest group of cardinal electors ever assembled. In 1975, St. Paul VI set a limit of 120 cardinal electors and ruled that cardinals over the age of 80 could not enter a conclave. When he died in 1978, 111 cardinals elected Pope John Paul I; there also were 111 electors at the 1978 conclave that chose St. John Paul II. After he died in 2005, 115 electors chose Pope Benedict XVI and when he resigned in 2013, there also were 115 cardinals in the conclave that elected Pope Francis.

Entering the Sistine Chapel to elect Pope Francis’ successor, Cardinal Koovakad and the other cardinals from the Eastern Catholic churches wore their traditions’ “choral habit.” The Latin-rite cardinals were dressed in red cassocks with a white rochet over top, a mozzetta (a short cape), their pectoral crosses, a zucchetto (skull cap) and a biretta, the three-cornered red hat they received when they were made cardinals.

The cardinal electors began their walk to the Sistine Chapel chanting the Litany of Saints, which started with prayers that God would have pity on them. They then invoked the saints, archangels and ancient biblical prophets to pray for them. They pleaded for the aid of Christ, asking for his mercy and protection. They also prayed for those who have died and those threatened by hunger and war.

The cardinals asked God to give the world peace, to “comfort and enlighten” the church, help Christians reconcile with each other and to lead all people to the truth of the Gospel.

Once in the chapel, they called on the help of the Holy Spirit by singing the ancient hymn, “Veni Creator Spiritus” (“Come, Creator Spirit”).

Then the cardinals from more than 70 countries vowed that, if elected pope, they would faithfully fulfill the ministry of universal pastor of the church and would defend the rights and freedom of the Holy See.

They also solemnly swore to scrupulously follow the rules for the election of a pope and keep secret the results of the votes, unless they have express permission from the new pope to reveal details.

After reciting the oath together, each cardinal walked up to the Book of the Gospels, put his right hand on it, said his name and sealed his oath, “So help me God and these holy Gospels that I touch with my hand.”

The Book of the Gospels was open to the page with Matthew 4:12-23, which recounts Jesus calling his first disciples.

Cardinal Parolin took the oath first, followed by the cardinals in order of rank, ending with Cardinal Koovakad.

The portion broadcast by Vatican Media ended with Archbishop Diego Ravelli, master of papal liturgical ceremonies, saying, “Extra omnes,” ordering out everyone not authorized to remain. The ceremony lasted about 75 minutes.

However, 90-year-old Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa, the retired preacher of the papal household, stayed behind. Before the conclave, the cardinals had chosen him to give a meditation “on the problems facing the church” and “on the need for careful discernment in choosing the new pope.”

The average age of the 133 cardinals was just over 70, slightly younger than the average age of electors who participated in the last conclave, in 2013, when the average age was close to 72.

Ten U.S. cardinals were among those filing into the Sistine Chapel: Cardinals Raymond L. Burke, retired prefect of the Apostolic Signature; Blase J. Cupich of Chicago; Daniel N. DiNardo, retired archbishop of Galveston-Houston; Timothy M. Dolan of New York; Kevin J. Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life under Pope Francis; Wilton D. Gregory, retired archbishop of Washington; James M. Harvey, archpriest of Rome’s Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls; Robert W. McElroy of Washington; Robert F. Prevost, prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops under Pope Francis; and Joseph W. Tobin of Newark, New Jersey.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – At Mass before the conclave that will elect the next pope, the dean of the College of Cardinals urged his brothers to choose the shepherd the church and all of humanity need “at this difficult and complex and tormented” turning point in history.

“Today’s world expects much from the church regarding the safeguarding of those fundamental human and spiritual values without which human coexistence will not be better nor bring good to future generations,” Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the dean of the college, said in his homily.

He prayed that Mary would intercede, and the Holy Spirit would enlighten the cardinal electors “and help them agree on the pope that our time needs.”

The Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica May 7 was the last public event before 133 cardinals from 71 countries were to enter the Sistine Chapel to elect the 267th pope and Pope Francis’ successor. Only cardinals under the age of 80 were eligible to enter the conclave.

Cardinal Re, 91, presided over the Mass “Pro Eligendo Romano Pontifice” (“for the election of the Roman pontiff”) with some 220 other cardinals, including those who would be entering the conclave that afternoon. The prayers and readings made frequent reference to the need to choose a good pastor.

At the start of the Mass, as the choir sang verses of joy and thanks to the Lord from the Psalms, the cardinals processed up the main aisle of the basilica, wearing red vestments.

They listened as Cardinal Re, who headed the Vatican’s then-Congregation for Bishops and the Pontifical Commission for Latin America from 2000 to 2010, underlined the seriousness of the task before them and the qualities every pope – the successor of St. Peter – must embody.

“We are here to invoke the help of the Holy Spirit, to implore his light and strength,” he said, “so that the pope elected may be he whom the church and humanity need at this difficult and complex and tormented turning point in history.”

“To pray, by invoking the Holy Spirit, is the only right and proper attitude to take as the cardinal electors prepare to undertake an act of the highest human and ecclesial responsibility and to make a choice of exceptional importance,” he said.

“This is a human act for which every personal consideration must be set aside, keeping in mind and heart only the God of Jesus Christ and the good of the church and of humanity,” the cardinal warned.

Jesus gave his disciples a “new” commandment, “that you love one another as I have loved you,” he said; that kind of love is one so great and boundless that it includes laying down one’s life for one’s friends.

All of his Jesus’ disciples must always show his same “authentic love in their behavior and commit themselves to building a new civilization” of love, he said, because “love is the only force capable of changing the world.”

This kind of love can be surprising, he said, like when Jesus humbly washed the feet of the apostles, “without discrimination, and not excluding Judas, who would betray him.”

In fact, the fundamental quality of a shepherd “is love to the point of complete self-giving,” Cardinal Re said.

The pre-conclave Mass and its readings invited the world’s cardinals “to fraternal love, to mutual help and to commitment to ecclesial communion and universal human fraternity,” he said.

The shepherd of the universal church has numerous responsibilities, Cardinal Re said, including fostering communion: “communion of all Christians with Christ; communion of the bishops with the pope; communion of the bishops among themselves”; and a communion “that is entirely directed toward communion among persons, peoples and cultures.”

“This is also a strong call to maintain the unity of the church on the path traced out by Christ to the apostles,” he said. This unity “does not mean uniformity, but a firm and profound communion in diversity provided that full fidelity to the Gospel is always maintained.”

“Let us pray, then, that the Holy Spirit, who in the last hundred years has given us a series of truly holy and great pontiffs, will give us a new pope according to God’s heart for the good of the church and of humanity,” the cardinal said.

“Let us pray that God will grant the church a pope who knows how best to awaken the consciences of all and awaken the moral and spiritual energies in today’s society, characterized by great technological progress but which tends to forget God,” he said.

Cardinal Re reminded the cardinal electors that as they sit praying and voting in the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo’s “image of Jesus the judge” would be “looming” over them.

In a poem St. John Paul II expressed his hope “that during the hours of voting on this weighty decision,” that image would remind them of “the greatness of the responsibility of placing the ‘supreme keys’ in the correct hands,” he said.

Some five hours after the opening Mass, the cardinals were to process into the Sistine Chapel, swear an oath to uphold the conclave rules, listen to a final reflection and – if they chose to do so – conduct the first ballot.

The cardinals had been meeting almost daily for two weeks to discuss the practical affairs of the papal transition period, the challenges faced by the church and to consider potential candidates for the papacy.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The conclave that begins May 7 is expected to be the largest in history, with a wide geographical mix of cardinal-electors.

While 115 cardinals took part in the conclaves in 2005 and 2013, 133 prelates were expected to walk into the Sistine Chapel to elect a successor to Pope Francis.

There are 135 cardinals under the age of 80 and eligible to vote in a papal election, however, local church officials had notified the Vatican that Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera, the 79-year-old retired archbishop of Valencia, Spain, and Cardinal John Njue, the 79-year-old retired of archbishop of Nairobi, Kenya, were not coming to Rome due to health issues.

In case a cardinal-elector in Rome feels too ill to process into the Sistine Chapel, the rules governing the election of a new pope allow for three cardinals to leave the chapel to retrieve the ailing cardinal’s vote from his sickbed in the Domus Sanctae Marthae.

The cardinals represent 71 different countries if one counts the nations where they are serving and not just where they were born. Take the example of three Italians: Cardinals Pierbattista Pizzaballa is the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem; Giorgio Marengo is the apostolic prefect of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia; and Mario Zenari is the apostolic nuncio to Syria.

The participating cardinals’ average age on May 6 was 70.3. That is slightly younger than the average age of electors who participated in the last conclave in 2013, which was 71.8.

According “Universi Dominici Gregis,” the document giving rules for the election of a new pope, cardinals who celebrate their 80th birthday before the day the Apostolic See becomes vacant — that is, with a papal death or resignation — do not take part in the election.

The oldest among current voters is Cardinal Carlos Osoro Sierra, the retired archbishop of Madrid, who turns 80 May 16.

The youngest member of the conclave is 45-year-old Ukrainian-born Cardinal Mykola Bychok of the Ukrainian Eparchy of Sts. Peter and Paul of Melbourne, Australia. He is one of 17 Gen X cardinals, those born between 1965 and 1980.

Only five of the cardinals expected to enter the conclave were created cardinals by St. John Paul II and 20 were created by Pope Benedict XVI.

That means 25 of them took part in the conclave that elected Pope Francis, and five of those also participated in the 2005 conclave that elected Pope Benedict.

But that also means voting in a conclave will be a brand new experience for 108 of the electors.

While the geographical breakdown of conclave voters has become more diverse since 1978, Europeans are still the largest block. Fifty-one of the participating electors, or 38%, come from Europe.

However, Asia is more represented now than ever before with 24 electors or almost 18% of the total. There are 23 cardinal-electors representing Latin America, which is 17% of the total, followed by Africa with 17 electors. North America now trails behind Africa and Asia with 14 electors, representing 10.5%, and Oceania has four voting-age cardinals, 3% of the total.

In the country-by-country breakdown, Italy has 16 voting-age cardinals, followed by the United States with 10, representing 7.5% of the voting total.

Brazil has seven cardinals participating; France has five, and Spain, Poland, Portugal, India, Argentina and Canada have four each. England, Germany and the Philippines have three cardinal-electors each. Fifty-eight countries are represented with one or two cardinal-electors.

In terms of influence, the Vatican as an institution will be heavily represented, with 27 members of the Roman Curia voting in the conclave — 20.3% of the total.

Since a two-thirds majority of the cardinal-electors who participate is needed to elect a pope, if all the 133 electors present in Rome vote, there would need to be at least 89 votes for one candidate to emerge as the winner.

Among the voting-age cardinals, there are 33 members of religious orders, including: five Salesians, four Jesuits, four Franciscans and three Conventual Franciscans.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – On the eve of the conclave that will decide the next pontiff, the ring and lead seal of the late Pope Francis were destroyed in the presence of members of the College of Cardinals in the Vatican’s New Synod Hall.

In a video released by the Vatican May 6, an unidentified woman scratched a cross on the papal ring, known as the fisherman’s ring, as well as on a lead seal bearing the papal insignia used to mark Pope Francis’ letters.

When asked why the destruction of the ring and the seal took place at the meeting and not immediately after the pope’s death, Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office, told journalists that the rules in the apostolic constitution, “Universi Dominici Gregis,” which governs the interregnum and election of a new pope, does not specify a precise time.

According to the apostolic constitution, the cardinals “arrange for the destruction of the fisherman’s ring and of the lead seal with which Apostolic Letters are dispatched” when meeting at the general congregations.

At their final congregation meeting, Bruni said, the cardinals discussed several issues, including the continuation of reforms initiated by Pope Francis, the fight against clergy sexual abuse and the care for creation.

The cardinals also emphasized the characteristics of the next pope, highlighting the importance “of communion” which was viewed “as an essential vocation for the new pontiff,” Bruni said.

“The profile of a shepherd pope, a teacher of humanity, capable of embodying the face of a Samaritan church, close to the needs and wounds of humanity, was outlined” at the last meeting, the Vatican reported in a communique. “In times marked by wars, violence and strong polarization, a strong need is felt for a spiritual guide who offers mercy, synodality and hope.”

The cardinals also approved an official declaration calling for peace in conflicts around the world, including in Ukraine and the Middle East. They lamented that “attacks, especially against civilian populations, have intensified.”

“We issue a heartfelt appeal to all parties involved to reach a permanent cease-fire as soon as possible and to negotiate, without preconditions or further delay, the peace long desired by the affected populations and the entire world,” the statement read.

At the press briefing, Bruni said the letter was the result of a proposal made at the general congregations and approved by the cardinals.

Bruni was also asked about reports in which Kenyan Cardinal Njue, the retired archbishop of Nairobi, claimed to have not been invited to participate in the conclave.

The Vatican press office had said May 2 that Cardinal Njue and Spanish Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera, the retired archbishop of Valencia, would not participate in the conclave due to health issues.

However, in an interview published May 6 by the Kenyan newspaper, The Nation, Cardinal Njue said he was not absent due to ill health but rather that he was never sent a formal invitation.

“Those who go there for the election are usually sent official invites and that has not happened on my part. I have not received an invitation,” the Kenyan cardinal said.

Shortly after, Archbishop Philip Anyolo of Nairobi issued a statement saying that Cardinal Njue had been “officially invited through the Apostolic Nunciature in Kenya.” The archbishop’s office had duly communicated to the Vatican that, “owing to his current health condition, (Cardinal Njue) will be unable to travel to Rome and take part in the conclave,” Archbishop Anyolo wrote.

The statement, however, did not clarify if Cardinal Njue was informed of the invitation. Bruni confirmed to journalists that the Vatican was told by the Nairobi archdiocese that Cardinal Njue would not participate due to health reasons and had no comment regarding the cardinal’s allegation.

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – As the Catholic Church and its cardinals prepare for May’s conclave, a new study by the Pew Research Center shows that U.S. Catholics want a more inclusive church – but divides remain on key issues among those with differing rates of Mass attendance.

The survey found that 60% of U.S. Catholics said the church “should be more inclusive, even if that means changing some of its teachings,” while 37% said the church “should stick to its traditional teachings, even if that means the church gets smaller.”

But among those who attend Mass weekly, 53% said the church should prioritize its traditional teachings, while 42% said it should prioritize inclusivity.

White non-Hispanic Catholics (61%) were more likely to prioritize inclusivity over keeping traditional teaching than Hispanic Catholics (56%). Hispanic Catholics showed stronger support for insisting the church stick to traditional teachings (40%) than white non-Hispanic Catholics (37%).

The survey did not include enough Black or Asian Catholics to break out separate responses.

According to the study, 84% of U.S. Catholics said the church should allow Catholics to use birth control – it did not distinguish between natural and artificial methods – while another 83% said the church should allow couples to use in vitro fertilization, or IVF. Those numbers slightly decreased to 72% (for birth control) and 71% (for IVF) among weekly Massgoers.

Father Thomas Gaunt, executive director of the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, told OSV News the Pew survey aligned with his organization’s previous findings on the correlation between Mass attendance and acceptance of church teaching.

“Regular weekly church attenders tend to be far more consistent with the church’s stance and teachings than those who aren’t regular,” said Father Gaunt, whose organization, along with other Catholic experts, was consulted by Pew regarding the questionnaire.

At the same time, Father Gaunt noted some of the questions — specifically, those on IVF, married priests, and same-sex blessings — could have been further refined for greater accuracy.

In particular, he said, the question regarding IVF — which simply asked respondents if the church should permit the procedure to get pregnant — did not include language about the embryos created in the process, said Father Gaunt.

He explained that this “yes” to an abstract question is really an “incomplete” response. He noted that if participants had to also consider the fate of the discarded embryonic children, “You’ll see it’s a different reaction: ‘Hmm, I didn’t realize (that).'”

IVF is contrary to Catholic teaching, as it involves the eugenic destruction of millions of embryonic children, the unraveling of the integral bond between childbearing and marital love, the erosion of a child’s right to natural parents, and threats to health, safety and religious liberty. “Donum Vitae,” the 1987 instruction on respect for human life issued by the Vatican’s Congregation (now Dicastery) for the Doctrine of the Faith, first articulated the church’s stance on IVF, stressing human embryos’ dignity and their right to life.

The church holds that human sexuality, the differences and complementarity of male and female, is oriented toward the goods of marriage and the flourishing of family life. While married couples, amid their openness to new life, can space the birth of their children through natural family planning — a term encompassing an array of fertility awareness-based methods used to achieve or delay pregnancy — the church teaches that efforts to make procreation impossible are “intrinsically evil.”

Additionally, Pew found that 68% of U.S. Catholics overall said the church should allow women to become deacons, while another 59% said the church should ordain women as priests.

But these numbers decreased to 54% (for women deacons) and 41% (for women priests) among weekly Massgoers.

The late Pope Francis, who prioritized a greater inclusion of women in the life of the church, vigorously reiterated church teaching on the priesthood, which holds that priestly ordination is reserved to men alone due to the decision of Jesus Christ to only choose men for his apostles, the first priests and bishops of the church. However, the late pope also called for more theological reflection on the feminine dimension of the church and the role of women.

At the October 2024 Synod on Synodality, then-Vatican doctrinal chief Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, citing Pope Francis, said that the question of women in the diaconate — for which the pontiff had established a study group — was not “mature.” The cardinal explained that “other issues,” particularly the broad issue of women’s participation in the church, needed to be “deepened and resolved” first.

The Pew poll also found 63% of U.S. Catholics overall said the church should allow priests to get married, but just 49% of weekly Massgoers said they would support this.

Pew’s phrasing around married priests, however, did not allow Catholic respondents to give their views on the ordination of married men to the priesthood. In an explainer on its wording, Pew researchers said they only addressed “allowing parish priests to get married and continue in their duties” — something that is not allowed even in Eastern Catholic or Orthodox churches that have married priests.

In the Latin Church – the largest of the Catholic Church’s 24 self-governing churches and which is headed by the pope as the bishop of Rome – the ordination of celibate men only to priesthood has been the norm since the 12th century, with some exceptions to the discipline made in modern times for some former Protestant married clergy. The possibility of the Latin Church ordaining married men to the priesthood, in addition to celibate men, as a norm to align with the ancient discipline of the other 23 Eastern Catholic churches and their Orthodox counterparts, is a debatable matter.

However, all Catholic and Orthodox churches forbid priests from attempting to marry after ordination. The potentially fraught situation involves lopsided power dynamics between priests, who act in the person of Christ the head, and lay women, raising difficulties about the possibility for full and free consent needed to effect a valid sacramental marriage.

Six in 10 U.S. Catholics said priests should be permitted to give same-sex couples blessings.

But Father Gaunt said the question did not highlight that “priests could always give blessings to individuals” — something Pope Francis stressed after the Vatican’s 2023 declaration on the issue, “Fiducia Supplicans,” created a firestorm of controversy. The late pope said in a 2024 CBS News interview, “What I allowed was not to bless the union. That cannot be done because that is not the sacrament. I cannot. The Lord made it that way. But to bless each person, yes.”

Other findings from the Pew survey:

-About three-quarters of U.S. Catholics (76%) say the church should allow Catholics to receive holy Communion even if they are unmarried and living with a romantic partner, whereas the church’s Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches sexual activity must take place exclusively within marriage, otherwise it is a grave sin that “excludes one from sacramental communion.”

-Half said the church should recognize the unions of same-sex couples as marriages, whereas the Catholic Church teaches matrimony is the sacramental lifelong union of a man and a woman for the good of the spouses and open to the gift of children.

The survey also found a stark partisan divide, with self-identified Republicans and independents who lean Republican more likely to express support for the traditional teachings on those issues than Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents.

Among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, 53% said the church should prioritize maintaining its traditional teachings, while 45% said it should prioritize inclusivity. However, 75% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents said the church should prioritize inclusivity, while 21% said to prioritize maintaining traditional teaching.

About three out of 10 U.S. Catholics say they attend Mass at least once a week, according to Pew, while the remainder attend less frequently or not at all.

JERUSALEM (OSV News) – With the declining situation in Gaza always in his heart, in his final months, Pope Francis bequeathed his popemobile to Caritas Jerusalem and directed the agency to turn it into a mobile health station for the children in Gaza.

Preparation of the new health station is to be completed by mid-May, said Peter Brune, secretary general of Caritas Sweden, who together with Caritas Jerusalem’s Anton Asfar developed the idea in February. Upon Asfar’s suggestion, Brune visited Bethlehem in February to view the popemobile that had been stored in Bethlehem since it was used by Pope Francis on his pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 2014.

Pope Francis readily agreed to the idea after Swedish Cardinal Anders Arborelius of Stockholm, Sweden, approached him, Brune told OSV News in a phone interview.

“There is an urgency in the need to help children in Gaza. There has been a full blockage of aid since March 2,” Brune said. “This is not the way we should treat our children.”

When access to food, water and health care is cut off, children are often the first and hardest hit, with infection and other preventable conditions putting their lives at risk, Caritas Sweden and Caritas Jerusalem said in a press release. Brune said in the release that the mobile clinic will be a “concrete, life-saving intervention at a time when the health system in Gaza has almost completely collapsed.”

The vehicle will be staffed by a driver and medical doctors and is currently being fitted with equipment for diagnoses, examination and treatment, including rapid tests for infections, suture kits, syringes and needles, oxygen supply, vaccines and a refrigerator for medicines, and will be ready for use once the humanitarian corridor to Gaza reopens.

“This vehicle represents the love, care and closeness shown by His Holiness for the most vulnerable, which he expressed throughout the crisis,” Asfar said in the press release.

Since the outbreak of the war Pope Francis called the Catholic Holy Family Parish every night and spoke with the parish priests including parish pastor, Father Gabriel Romanelli, to express his support of the parish community sheltering at the compound. In his last “urbi et orbi” blessing on Easter, April 20, the pope called for a ceasefire and the release of the 59 hostages still held by Hamas, up to 24 of who are believed to still be alive, and aid for “a starving people who aspire to a future of peace.”

The main message of the new health mobile is to assure that the children of Gaza are not forgotten, said Brune. The unit will be called “Vehicle of Hope,” he said.

“It will be conveying a message of hope,” he told OSV. “The children will be sitting on the chair of the Holy Father and treated as the miracles that they are. If nothing more symbolically the pope was interested in bringing attention to the situation of the children of Gaza.”

In the meantime Israeli media reported that the Israeli cabinet approved plans which included “conquering of Gaza and holding the territories” as well as a plan for the distribution of humanitarian aid that Israel says would prevent Hamas from controlling its distribution.