VATICAN CITY (CNS) – People who act shocked that a priest would bless a gay couple but have no problem with him blessing a crooked businessman are hypocrites, Pope Francis said.
“The most serious sins are those that are disguised with a more ‘angelic’ appearance. No one is scandalized if I give a blessing to an entrepreneur who perhaps exploits people, which is a very serious sin. Whereas they are scandalized if I give it to a homosexual – this is hypocrisy,” he told the Italian magazine Credere.
Pope Francis gives his blessing at the end of his weekly general audience in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican Feb. 7, 2024. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)
The interview was scheduled for publication Feb. 8, but Vatican News reported on some of its content the day before when the magazine issued a press release about the interview.
Pope Francis repeatedly has been asked about “Fiducia Supplicans” (“Supplicating Trust”) on “the pastoral meaning of blessings,” which was published by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith Dec. 18 and was approved by the pope. It allows for priests and other ministers to offer informal, non-liturgical blessings to gay couples and couples in “irregular” marriage situations as long as it is clear they are not blessing the couple’s union.
“We all have to respect each other. Everyone,” the pope told Credere. “The heart of the document is welcome.”
“I don’t bless a ‘homosexual marriage,’ I bless two people who love each other, and I also ask them to pray for me,” Pope Francis told Pauline Father Vincenzo Vitale, director of Credere. “Always in the confessional, when these situations come up, homosexual people, remarried people, I always pray and always bless. The blessing should not be denied to anyone. Everyone, everyone, everyone.”
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(OSV News) – As Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine marks its second year, an annual collection for Central and Eastern Europe’s Catholic churches will help “shine the light of Christ” in a region still scarred by the historical effects of communism, said a U.S. bishop.
On Ash Wednesday, Feb. 14, faithful across the country are being asked to donate to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Collection for the Church in Central and Eastern Europe.
Some dioceses may opt to schedule the collection at a different date, and faithful also may give directly to the campaign by visiting the USCCB’s #iGiveCatholicTogether website (usccb.igivecatholictogether.org/) and selecting the “Church in Central and Eastern Europe” collection.
Basilian Sister Lucia Murashko talks with volunteers Denys Kuprikov, left, and Ivan Smyglia, far right, in Zaporizhzhia in southeast Ukraine Feb. 7, 2023, about where they will distribute humanitarian aid along the front in Russia’s war against Ukraine. The U.S. bishops’ Collection for Aid to the Church in Central and Eastern Europe is set for Ash Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2024. The appeal aids Catholics in Ukraine and 27 other countries. (OSV News photo/Konstantin Chernichkin, CNEWA)
Launched under St. John Paul II in 1991 as communist regimes collapsed throughout Europe, the appeal aids Catholics in 28 European countries in various stages of recovering from longtime totalitarian oppression: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia (Czech Republic), Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.
“When Catholics give to this collection, they are actively participating in the rebuilding of the Church in places where decades of communism have left behind devastated churches and wounded spirits,” said Auxiliary Bishop Jeffrey M. Monforton of Detroit, chairman of the USCCB’s Subcommittee on the Church in Central and Eastern Europe.
Since 2001 alone, the collection has raised more than $187.5 million, according to Mary Mencarini Campbell, executive director of the USCCB’s Office of National Collections.
In 2023, the USCCB collection distributed $8.7 million in 329 grants, helping to rebuild churches, support seminary education and minister to families and youth.
More than $2 million was allocated for urgent humanitarian and pastoral relief to victims of Russia’s war in Ukraine, which continues attacks launched in 2014. With at least 124,186 war crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine since February 2022, the invasion has been named a genocide in two joint reports from the New Lines Institute and the Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights. In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, for the unlawful deportation and transfer of 19,546 children from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.
In October 2023, Bishop Monforton visited Ukraine for the first time in two decades, and in a reflection written afterward, he recounted his experiences of visiting Catholic churches and social ministries there and praying with families of the dead.
“I entered crypts that are now well-stocked bomb shelters, with light and heat from generators supplied by the generous contributions of Catholics to the Collection for the Church in Central and Eastern Europe,” he wrote.
Bishop Monforton added that “sadly, the rubble and fresh graves in Ukraine today remind us that the most insidious error of communism was not its economic policy, but its doctrine that human beings are mere cogs in the machine of state, rather than precious children of God.”
“That cruel assumption persists under other guises in the post-communist era,” he wrote. “We see it in the blatant disregard for human life that underlies the violence that has erupted in the region, especially in Ukraine. It pervades countries throughout the former Soviet Empire, where people struggle to build marriages and families. Its most pointed expression was the destruction of churches and the imprisonment or execution of clergy and faithful laity.”
As Russia’s war in Ukraine reverberates throughout Europe and the world, funds from the collection are helping the church to offer spiritual and material relief.
In Ukraine’s Roman Catholic Diocese of Kamyanets-Podilsky, a grant from the collection enabled the training and deployment of psychotherapists, social workers and pastoral counselors to address war-related traumatic stress disorder in soldiers and civilians.
The collection also helped build a cathedral for the small but vibrant Catholic community in predominantly Muslim Kyrgyzstan — a faith community founded by prisoners who had been deported on account of their faith of their faith decades earlier by Soviet authorities to the region’s gulags.
In Romania, collection funds were applied by the Archdiocese of Fagaras and Alba Iulia to restore a landmark 18th-century seminary, while making it handicap accessible.
In Slovakia, the collection funded a pro-life counseling center serving hundreds of women in challenging pregnancies. Engaged and married couples in Lithuania received counseling and support from trained volunteer mentors, and in Albania, catechists and extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist benefited from a three-year program of study.
“The ministries that you support through this collection bring the Bread of Life to people who hunger for the Word of God. They bring food, shelter and love to the Jesus who suffers among the poor,” wrote Bishop Monforton. “They prepare young people, informed by Scripture, and inspired by the witness of priests, sisters and catechists, to tell their neighbors about Jesus.
“It is my hope that you give generously to the Collection for the Church in Central and Eastern Europe,” he wrote. “In doing so, you fight alongside St. Michael and St. John Paul II to free souls trapped by the forces of despair and lead them into the light of Christ.”
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Christians must let go of the God they think they know and convert every day to the God Jesus presents in the Gospel — the God who is the father of love and compassion, Pope Francis said.
When the faithful discover “the true face of the Father, our faith matures: we no longer remain ‘sacristy Christians’ or ‘parlor Christians,’ but rather we feel called to become bearers of God’s hope and healing,” he said Feb. 4 before reciting the Angelus prayer with about 15,000 visitors in St. Peter’s Square.
Pope Francis greets visitors gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the recitation of the Angelus prayer at the Vatican, Feb. 4, 2024. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
During his greetings after the noonday prayer, he also marked the celebration in Italy of the Day for Life.
“I join with the Italian bishops in hoping that ideological visions can be overcome so as to rediscover that every human life, even those most marked by limitations, has an immense value and is capable of giving something to others,” he said.
And he greeted the many young people from different countries who were in Rome to mark the World Day for Prayer and Reflection against Human Trafficking, which is celebrated Feb. 8.
“Many brothers and sisters are deceived with false promises and are then subjected to exploitation and abuse. Let us all join to counter the dramatic global phenomenon of human trafficking,” he said.
In his main Angelus address, the pope reflected on Jesus being continually on the move in the Gospel accounts of his ministry and how that “challenges us with some questions on our faith.”
“The Gospel lets us see that Jesus, after teaching in the synagogue, goes out, so that the word he has preached may reach, touch and heal people,” he said.
“He reveals to us that God is not a detached master who speaks to us from on high; on the contrary, he is a father filled with love who makes himself close to us, who visits our homes, who wants to save and liberate, heal from every ill of the body and spirit,” the pope said.
“God makes himself close to accompany us, tenderly, and to forgive us,” he said. “Do not forget this: closeness, compassion and tenderness.”
Jesus’ journeying reminds the faithful “that our first spiritual task is this: to abandon the God we think we know, and to convert every day to the God Jesus presents to us in the Gospel,” he said.
Christians should reflect on whether they have “discovered the face of God as the father of mercy, or do we believe in and proclaim a cold God, a distant God? Does faith instill in us the restlessness of journeying or is it an intimist consolation for us, that calms us? Do we pray just to feel at peace or does the word we listen to and preach make us go out, like Jesus, toward others, to spread God’s consolation?” he said.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith said it continues to receive reports of Catholics, including priests, finding out all the sacraments they have received are invalid because they were baptized years earlier with a formula that was not approved.
When a priest or other minister changes the words, gestures or material prescribed for the celebration of the sacraments, he can “rob” the faithful of what they deserve and make the sacrament invalid, the dicastery said in a note published Feb. 3.
Pope Francis baptizes a baby during Mass in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican Jan. 7, 2024, the feast of the Baptism of the Lord. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
The note, “Gestis Verbisque” (“Gestures and Words”), passed unanimously by members of the dicastery during their plenary assembly Jan. 25 and was approved by Pope Francis Jan. 31, said the document, which was signed by Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, dicastery prefect, and Msgr. Armando Matteo, secretary of the dicastery’s doctrinal section.
Presenting the document, Cardinal Fernández wrote that in 2022 the cardinals and bishops who are members of the dicastery already had “expressed their concern for the multiplication of situations in which they were forced to acknowledge the invalidity of sacraments celebrated.”
As an example, the cardinal cited baptism ceremonies where, instead of saying, “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” the minister will say, “I baptize you in the name of the Creator…” or “In the name of dad and mom, we baptize you.”
In 2020, the then-doctrinal congregation issued a note saying baptisms celebrated with the formula, “We baptize you …” also were invalid, setting off a large-scale effort in several dioceses, including in the United States, to trace people who were invalidly baptized.
The sacraments they subsequently received, including first Communion, confirmation and even ordination also were invalid since only a baptized Catholic can validly receive the other sacraments.
Cardinal Fernández said the situation is particularly painful for priests who not only find out their ordinations were invalid, but so were all the sacraments they subsequently celebrated for others.
A priest in the Archdiocese of Detroit, who had been baptized with the wrong formula 30 years earlier, started over when the 2020 document was issued. He was baptized, confirmed, received the Eucharist, was ordained to the diaconate and to the priesthood in the space of 10 days. The archdiocese set up a webpage for people who thought they had received the sacraments from him prior to 2020.
“Modifying the form of a sacrament or its matter is always a gravely illicit act and deserves exemplary punishment, precisely because such arbitrary acts are capable of producing serious harm to the faithful People of God,” the cardinal wrote.
While the document did not specify a punishment, it explained the importance of using the prescribed words, exact matter — such as water, wine or oil — and gestures like anointing, laying on of hands and the sign of the cross.
“While in other areas of the Church’s pastoral action there is ample room for creativity,” the cardinal wrote in the foreword, “such inventiveness in the area of the celebration of the sacraments becomes a ‘manipulative will’ and cannot be invoked.”
“Because of their rootedness in Scripture and Tradition, the matter and form never depend nor can they depend on the desire of the individual or of the particular community,” the document said.
“Instituted by Christ, the sacraments are actions that realize, by means of sensible signs, the living experience of the mystery of salvation, making possible the participation of human beings in the divine life,” the document said. “They are the ‘masterpieces of God’ in the New and Eternal Covenant, forces that come forth from the body of Christ, actions of the Spirit working in his body which is the Church.”
“This is why the Church in the Liturgy celebrates with faithful love and veneration the sacraments that Christ himself has entrusted to her so that she may preserve them as a precious inheritance and source of her life and her mission,” the document said.
A priest celebrates the sacraments not only “in persona Christi” — in the person of Christ — but also in “nomine Ecclesiae” — in the name of the church, it said, which is why he must follow exactly the church’s approved liturgical texts, which indicate when and where local adaptations or variations are permitted.
The doctrinal note said that it applies to the entire church, although it asked the Eastern Catholic churches to draft their own versions of the document, using their particular theological language “where it differs from that used in the text,” and to submit it for approval to the dicastery before publication.
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Over the past several months, a handful of senators have negotiated behind closed doors to reach an agreement on potential changes to U.S. immigration law. This is in response to calls by some members of Congress to condition the enactment of supplemental funding on the inclusion of extraneous policy provisions for which there is no precedent in the appropriations process. These proposed changes have been included in the Senate’s version of H.R. 815, the “Emergency National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2024″.
In a February 6 letter to Senate leadership, Bishop Mark Seitz, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on Migration, expressed no position on the overall measure but stated that “this effort to make sweeping changes to immigration law—particularly in the context of this supplemental funding bill—is flawed, both in terms of substance and form. Rather than sustainably reducing migration to the U.S.-Mexico border, consistent with the common good and the good-faith intentions of many lawmakers, several changes proposed in this bill would unjustly undermine due process and pave the way for avoidable and potentially life-threatening harm to be inflicted on vulnerable persons seeking humanitarian protection in the United States.”
In his letter, Bishop Seitz addressed several specific provisions that warranted concern, including those that would severely limit due process for noncitizens, make it even more difficult than it already is under current law for those with bona fide asylum claims to pursue protection in the United States, and create the opportunity for harmful, arbitrary, and counterproductive treatment of vulnerable persons.
At the same time, the USCCB has expressed support for several aspects of the bill, including supplemental funding for humanitarian relief efforts, refugee resettlement, the Shelter and Services Program, the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, and related efforts to address the root causes of conflict and migration, as well as long-term relief for Afghans relocated to the United States and improved access to protection for at-risk Afghans abroad, increased opportunities for family reunification and employment-based immigration, expanded access to work authorization for newcomers, and ensuring vulnerable children have assistance navigating their immigration proceedings.
Complete this action alert to join with the U.S. bishops in opposing harmful and counterproductive changes to immigration law as a condition for supplemental funding.
You can also learn more about the changes contained in H.R. 815 by reading this policy brief from the American Immigration Lawyers Association and viewing these recent resources from the USCCB, which address two different mechanisms that would be employed extensively under H.R. 815’s changes: Rapid Expulsions at the U.S.-Mexico Border and their Consequences Expedited Removal of Noncitizens in the United States
Front row left to right Doreen Gilbride, Ellen Perry, Nori Conner, Lynn Walsh, Eucharistic minister; Patty Gaughan, Amanda Gavin, Mary Ann Abdo, Lector; Maureen Wallace, Nancy Earyes, Kathy Connor, Karen Savage. Second row Judy Krell, Kathy McDonnell, Mary Jane Sears, Terese Pelligrino, Pat Savitts, Deacon Paul Jennings, Father Richard Fox, Sister Kathleen Smith, Sister Terese Marques, Carolynn Wahl, Nancy Yavoroski Third row Jeff Sears, Paul Hart, Conal McHugh, Mary Anne McAndrew, Gennette Rotherforth, Mary Claire Kingsley, Mary Connor, Mary Ellen Richards
On Saturday January 27th members of the Lackawanna County Mens and Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians celebrated the Feast of Saint Brigid, at the Parish Community of St Patrick Church in Scranton.
LAOH County Board Officer, Maureen Wallace was our Lector at St. Brigid’s Mass.
Symbols associated with Saint Brigid of Ireland were carried up the aisle with the Gifts by members of the LAOH and presented to Father Fox who placed them on the altar.
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HAZLETON – After serving more than 11,000 people in the greater Hazleton area in 2023, Catholic Social Services of the Diocese of Scranton is looking for the support of its community to keep its mission going locally.
Donations to the ‘Century Club 2024’ are now being accepted. This year’s theme is Caring Hearts, Stronger Communities. Since 1982, the annual membership campaign has solicited support for the programs of Catholic Social Services of Greater Hazleton.
“We are grateful for the response from the community to this campaign which is so vital to the support and continuation of the services offered through Catholic Social Services of Greater Hazleton,” Sue Farley, Advisory Board President, said.
A community agency and member of the Greater Hazleton United Way, Catholic Social Services reaches out to those in need, providing basic needs and programs supporting young adults with mental health concerns.
In 2023, Catholic Social Services in Hazleton served the community through the following programs:
Saint Joseph’s Food Pantry provided assistance to 5,369 individuals
Divine Providence Emergency Shelter helped house 229 individual clients
Relief Assistance Program helped 5,610 individuals experiencing emergencies
Maternal Health Programming had 200 appointments providing young families with material assistance for their babies but also emotional and educational support
Bridge to Independence Program assisted 10 young adults with a mental health diagnosis (age 18-26) with life skills enabling them to live independently and attain self-sufficiency
Christmas Gifts for Kids Program helped 302 families with presents for the holiday season
Catholic Social Services opened in Hazleton in 1939 during the Great Depression to help alleviate insecurity of food and basic necessities and 89 years later it continues to address these concerns. For this reason, the ‘Century Club’ is an essential part of providing the funding necessary to serve the community. Catholic Social Services serves all people in the community regardless of age, gender, race, economic situation, or religious affiliation.
“Poverty continues to grow in the Hazleton area and Catholic Social Services could not do what we do for those in need without the community support,” Danielle Matarella, Director of Catholic Social Services of Greater Hazleton, explained. “We are so grateful to be located in a strong community with so many caring hearts.”
Membership in the ‘Century Club’ may be at any level or one may choose among the following designations: Diamond – $1,000; Platinum- $750; Gold- $500; Silver – $250; Century – $100. All contributions are tax deductible and will remain in the Hazleton community to help meet the needs of those who seek services. Gifts may be designated as a memorial or in honor of a friend and loved one.
For more information regarding Catholic Social Services’ programs or ‘Century Club’ 2024, please contact us at (570) 455-1521 or visit us online at www.dioceseofscranton.org.
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Ashes are pictured in a display on the altar during Lent at Jesus the Good Shepherd Church in Dunkirk, Md., April 7, 2022. (CNS photo/Bob Roller, Reuters)
Message of the Holy Father
Through the Desert God Leads us to Freedom
Dear brothers and sisters!
When our God reveals himself, his message is always one of freedom: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (Ex 20:2). These are the first words of the Decalogue given to Moses on Mount Sinai. Those who heard them were quite familiar with the exodus of which God spoke: the experience of their bondage still weighed heavily upon them. In the desert, they received the “Ten Words” as a thoroughfare to freedom. We call them “commandments”, in order to emphasize the strength of the love by which God shapes his people. The call to freedom is a demanding one. It is not answered straightaway; it has to mature as part of a journey. Just as Israel in the desert still clung to Egypt – often longing for the past and grumbling against the Lord and Moses – today too, God’s people can cling to an oppressive bondage that it is called to leave behind. We realize how true this is at those moments when we feel hopeless, wandering through life like a desert and lacking a promised land as our destination. Lent is the season of grace in which the desert can become once more – in the words of the prophet Hosea – the place of our first love (cf. Hos 2:16-17). God shapes his people, he enables us to leave our slavery behind and experience a Passover from death to life. Like a bridegroom, the Lord draws us once more to himself, whispering words of love to our hearts.
The exodus from slavery to freedom is no abstract journey. If our celebration of Lent is to be concrete, the first step is to desire to open our eyes to reality. When the Lord calls out to Moses from the burning bush, he immediately shows that he is a God who sees and, above all, hears: “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey” (Ex 3:7-8). Today too, the cry of so many of our oppressed brothers and sisters rises to heaven. Let us ask ourselves: Do we hear that cry? Does it trouble us? Does it move us? All too many things keep us apart from each other, denying the fraternity that, from the beginning, binds us to one another.
During my visit to Lampedusa, as a way of countering the globalization of indifference, I asked two questions, which have become more and more pressing: “Where are you?” (Gen 3:9) and “Where is your brother?” (Gen 4:9). Our Lenten journey will be concrete if, by listening once more to those two questions, we realize that even today we remain under the rule of Pharaoh. A rule that makes us weary and indifferent. A model of growth that divides and robs us of a future. Earth, air and water are polluted, but so are our souls. True, Baptism has begun our process of liberation, yet there remains in us an inexplicable longing for slavery. A kind of attraction to the security of familiar things, to the detriment of our freedom.
In the Exodus account, there is a significant detail: it is God who sees, is moved and brings freedom; Israel does not ask for this. Pharaoh stifles dreams, blocks the view of heaven, makes it appear that this world, in which human dignity is trampled upon and authentic bonds are denied, can never change. He put everything in bondage to himself. Let us ask: Do I want a new world? Am I ready to leave behind my compromises with the old? The witness of many of my brother bishops and a great number of those who work for peace and justice has increasingly convinced me that we need to combat a deficit of hope that stifles dreams and the silent cry that reaches to heaven and moves the heart of God. This “deficit of hope” is not unlike the nostalgia for slavery that paralyzed Israel in the desert and prevented it from moving forward. An exodus can be interrupted: how else can we explain the fact that humanity has arrived at the threshold of universal fraternity and at levels of scientific, technical, cultural, and juridical development capable of guaranteeing dignity to all, yet gropes about in the darkness of inequality and conflict.
God has not grown weary of us. Let us welcome Lent as the great season in which he reminds us: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (Ex 20:2). Lent is a season of conversion, a time of freedom. Jesus himself, as we recall each year on the first Sunday of Lent, was driven into the desert by the Spirit in order to be tempted in freedom. For forty days, he will stand before us and with us: the incarnate Son. Unlike Pharaoh, God does not want subjects, but sons and daughters. The desert is the place where our freedom can mature in a personal decision not to fall back into slavery. In Lent, we find new criteria of justice and a community with which we can press forward on a road not yet taken.
This, however, entails a struggle, as the book of Exodus and the temptations of Jesus in the desert make clear to us. The voice of God, who says, “You are my Son, the Beloved” (Mk 1:11), and “You shall have no other gods before me” (Ex 20:3) is opposed by the enemy and his lies. Even more to be feared than Pharaoh are the idols that we set up for ourselves; we can consider them as his voice speaking within us. To be all-powerful, to be looked up to by all, to domineer over others: every human being is aware of how deeply seductive that lie can be. It is a road well-travelled. We can become attached to money, to certain projects, ideas or goals, to our position, to a tradition, even to certain individuals. Instead of making us move forward, they paralyze us. Instead of encounter, they create conflict. Yet there is also a new humanity, a people of the little ones and of the humble who have not yielded to the allure of the lie. Whereas those who serve idols become like them, mute, blind, deaf and immobile (cf. Ps 114:4), the poor of spirit are open and ready: a silent force of good that heals and sustains the world.
It is time to act, and in Lent, to act also means to pause. To pause in prayer, in order to receive the word of God, to pause like the Samaritan in the presence of a wounded brother or sister. Love of God and love of neighbour are one love. Not to have other gods is to pause in the presence of God beside the flesh of our neighbour. For this reason, prayer, almsgiving and fasting are not three unrelated acts, but a single movement of openness and self-emptying, in which we cast out the idols that weigh us down, the attachments that imprison us. Then the atrophied and isolated heart will revive. Slow down, then, and pause! The contemplative dimension of life that Lent helps us to rediscover will release new energies. In the presence of God, we become brothers and sisters, more sensitive to one another: in place of threats and enemies, we discover companions and fellow travelers. This is God’s dream, the promised land to which we journey once we have left our slavery behind.
The Church’s synodal form, which in these years we are rediscovering and cultivating, suggests that Lent is also a time of communitarian decisions, of decisions, small and large, that are countercurrent. Decisions capable of altering the daily lives of individuals and entire neighbourhoods, such as the ways we acquire goods, care for creation, and strive to include those who go unseen or are looked down upon. I invite every Christian community to do just this: to offer its members moments set aside to rethink their lifestyles, times to examine their presence in society and the contribution they make to its betterment. Woe to us if our Christian penance were to resemble the kind of penance that so dismayed Jesus. To us too, he says: “Whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting” (Mt 6:16). Instead, let others see joyful faces, catch the scent of freedom and experience the love that makes all things new, beginning with the smallest and those nearest to us. This can happen in every one of our Christian communities.
To the extent that this Lent becomes a time of conversion, an anxious humanity will notice a burst of creativity, a flash of new hope. Allow me to repeat what I told the young people whom I met in Lisbon last summer: “Keep seeking and be ready to take risks. At this moment in time, we face enormous risks; we hear the painful plea of so many people. Indeed, we are experiencing a third world war fought piecemeal. Yet let us find the courage to see our world, not as being in its death throes but in a process of giving birth, not at the end but at the beginning of a great new chapter of history. We need courage to think like this” (Address to University Students, 3 August 2023). Such is the courage of conversion, born of coming up from slavery. For faith and charity take hope, this small child, by the hand. They teach her to walk, and at the same time, she leads them forward.[1]
I bless all of you and your Lenten journey.
Rome, Saint John Lateran, 3 December 2023, First Sunday of Advent.
Online child exploitation threatens the safety and well-being of our young people and destroys families and communities. In recent years, these abuses have increased exponentially, in large part due to the Internet and mobile technology.
Catholics are sadly familiar with the grave consequences of a culture that fails to give adequate attention to the problem of child sexual abuse and exploitation, and we have a responsibility to act to ensure children and the vulnerable are safe.
Thankfully, members of both parties in Congress are putting forward various pieces of legislation that would address and help prevent the destructive effects of online child exploitation. Your voice is needed to urge Congress to use their authority to protect children and vulnerable people online.
Join USCCB in asking your member of Congress to protect children online today! To learn more, read the USCCB’s letter outlining three moral principles Congress can use to protect children online.
Messages in your own words can be more effective. Please consider customizing the message to Congress with your own story.
SCRANTON – After gathering together hundreds, if not thousands, of faithful parishioners last year during Lent for a series of Holy Hours, the Most Rev. Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, is hoping for an even bigger showing this year!
Bishop Bambera plans to once again visit each of the 12 deaneries in the Diocese of Scranton to celebrate a Holy Hour this Lent.
Lent begins with Ash Wednesday, which takes place this year on Wednesday, Feb. 14, and lasts for 40 days.
In conjunction with the National Eucharistic Revival that has been taking place in our country since Corpus Christi Sunday in 2022, each Holy Hour will feature exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, Vespers, and a homily on the Most Holy Eucharist.
The Holy Hours this Lent will begin at Holy Family Parish in the Kingston deanery on Thursday, Feb. 15, and will end at Saint Teresa of Calcutta Parish in the Scranton deanery on Wednesday, March 20, 2024.
A three-year initiative of the U.S. bishops, the National Eucharistic Revival is nearing its midpoint. The first year focused on diocesan revival, inviting bishops, priests and diocesan leaders to deepen their relationship with Jesus in the Eucharist. The Year of Parish Revival began in June 2023, with emphasis on reaching Catholics in the pews.
The coming calendar year will include the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage that begins in mid-May and the National Eucharistic Congress in July, two large-scale efforts that lead into the revival’s final year, the Year of Going Out on Mission, which ends on Pentecost 2025.
Revival leaders hope the 10th National Eucharistic Congress – the first national congress in 83 years – which will take place in Indianapolis July 17-21, 2024, can help cultivate a Eucharistic life in the tens of thousands of Catholics expected to attend. Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens of Crookston, Minn., chairman of the National Eucharistic Congress Inc. and chairman of the USCCB Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis, said Revival leaders had a private audience with Pope Francis last June.
“He spoke very powerfully of both our National Eucharistic Revival and our congress,” Bishop Cozzens said. “It was really an incredible moment for us!”
Every parishioner in the Diocese of Scranton is encouraged to make attending a Holy Hour a priority this Lent. The faithful do not have to attend the Holy Hour in their specific deanery if it does not fit into their schedule.
The full listing of 2024 Lenten Holy Hours is available in the graphic below:
Over the past several months, a handful of senators have negotiated behind closed doors to reach an agreement on potential changes to U.S. immigration law. This is in response to calls by some members of Congress to condition the enactment of supplemental funding on the inclusion of extraneous policy provisions for which there is no precedent in the appropriations process. These proposed changes have been included in the Senate’s version of H.R. 815, the “Emergency National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2024″. 
Online child exploitation threatens the safety and well-being of our young people and destroys families and communities. In recent years, these abuses have increased exponentially, in large part due to the Internet and mobile technology. 