Category: Diocese of Scranton News

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – The U.S. Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s executive order limiting birthright citizenship on June 30, finding the order violated the 14th Amendment.

A cornerstone of his efforts to restrict immigration, the ruling comes as a loss for Trump, who even attended oral arguments in the case, Trump v. Barbara, in person, marking the first time a sitting president has done so, according to records from the high court and the nonprofit Supreme Court Historical Society.

Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote, “Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights – to freely participate in our political community.”

Citing comments made by Sen. Lyman Trumbull, a proponent of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which led to the 14th Amendment, Roberts wrote, “The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended that promise to ‘every free-born person in this land.’ We keep that promise today.”

The case concerned an executive order signed by Trump within hours of returning to the Oval Office on Jan. 20, 2025, that sought to change the longstanding legal interpretation of the 14th Amendment, which states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

Trump’s order, part of his administration’s broader efforts to restrict immigration, sought to end birthright citizenship for children born in the U.S. to parents who either lack permanent legal status or are temporary visa holders. The order said that after 30 days from the executive order’s date, only children born to at least one U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident parent would automatically acquire citizenship. It was promptly challenged in court.

Previously, the Supreme Court limited the ability of federal judges to issue nationwide injunctions against the order while litigation over it proceeded, but did not directly address the merits of the order itself.

The Trump administration previously argued in defense of the order that the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” makes the president’s order lawful, despite longstanding legal interpretation that children born in the U.S. are granted citizenship with only narrow exceptions.

But Roberts wrote, “The word ‘jurisdiction’ was hardly unknown to the drafters and ratifiers of the Fourteenth Amendment. Congress chose to use an established legal term and the Clause must be interpreted in that light.”

Roberts was joined in his opinion by Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Justice Brett Kavanaugh filed an opinion that concurred in the judgment but dissented in part. Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch dissented.

In his own opinion, Kavanaugh wrote that he disagrees with the court’s finding that the order violates the 14th Amendment, instead arguing that it is unlawful because it ran afoul of a federal statute governing birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment, which specifies particular circumstances under which citizenship is granted at birth in accordance with that amendment.

“Congress could — consistent with the Fourteenth Amendment — amend §1401(a) or otherwise enact new legislation establishing exceptions to birthright citizenship for children born to foreign citizens unlawfully or temporarily in the country,” he said. “But Congress has not yet done so.”

Writing for the minority, Thomas argued the majority’s ruling “adds to the sad history of the Fourteenth Amendment, which was designed and understood to secure equal rights for the freed blacks but has instead been repurposed for political projects that the Reconstruction Congress did not support.”

Trump, in a post on his social media website Truth Social, argued, “The Supreme Court upheld Birthright Citizenship, which is too bad for our Country, but we can easily make it up in Congress through Legislation, with the support of the President, that has now been determined during this process.”

“No long and unwieldy Constitutional Amendment is necessary! Congress should start TODAY to work on ending expensive and unfair to our Country, Birthright Citizenship. They will have my Complete and Total Support!” he argued.

However, it was not immediately clear what the path forward for such legislation would be in Congress, as such a proposal would need to gain enough support to meet the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster threshold in order to reach Trump’s desk.

Ashley Feasley, the legal expert in residence at the Immigration Law and Policy Initiative at The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law, told OSV News, “Today’s opinion is a victory for immigrant children born in the United States.”

Roberts’ opinion, she said, “while focused on Constitutional analysis and history and tradition, aligns with the bishops, who noted in their amicus brief on the case, the alignment of birthright citizenship with Church teaching as it treats ‘birth within a community as a sufficient and objective basis for political belonging.'”

J. Kevin Appleby, senior fellow for policy and communications at the Center for Migration Studies of New York and the former director of migration policy for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, told OSV News, “This decision shows that, when push comes to shove, the Constitution retains its authority and still guides our 250-year-old republic. It also sends a message to the administration that to change the Constitution you must go through a constitutional amendment process, not just use a pen.”

“The executive order that was struck down would have returned us to a two-tiered society, with one group being stateless and having no rights in our democracy,” he said. “The justices rightly did not take the nation back to that era.”

Catholic social teaching on immigration involves three interrelated principles: the right of persons to migrate in order to sustain their lives and those of their families, the right of a country to regulate its borders and control immigration, and a nation’s duty to regulate its borders with justice and mercy.

Anna Gallagher, executive director of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, also known as CLINIC, said in a statement, “We are relieved and grateful that the Supreme Court has upheld this right that is so important for our identity as a nation and for safeguarding justice and human dignity.”

“In our amicus brief, we explained how the values of Catholic social teaching, the particular realities of undocumented immigration in the United States, and our nation’s legal history make upholding the tradition of birthright citizenship the most just outcome of this case,” she said. “We are glad to receive a decision that will bring relief to immigrant families and our network. This is a win for immigrants, and a win for justice.”

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and CLINIC previously submitted a friend-of-the-court brief in the case, arguing that ending the practice of birthright citizenship would weaken families and risk leaving children stateless, thereby making them targets for violence, trafficking and exploitation.

“The principle of citizenship by birth is firmly rooted in Western legal tradition, enshrined in the Fourteenth Amendment, and reaffirmed by this Court’s precedent,” it said. “It is equally grounded in Church teachings, which affirms the inherent dignity of every human person, especially the innocent child.”

Appleby told OSV News, “I think the Church’s voice made a difference here.”

“This is a victory for human dignity and for human life,” he said, adding the ruling is one that could be celebrated by “Catholics of all political views.”

(OSV News) – For Americans reflecting on the nation’s history during its 250th birthday, the word “pioneer” might conjure up images of settlers’ covered wagons trundling into the wilderness; buckskin-clad explorers mapping lands unseen by European eyes; or homesteaders eking out a lonely and challenging existence in an unforgiving terrain.

It’s rarer, however, to immediately think of the priests who were also among them as the United States expanded ever westward.

But they are there, embedded in American history – and their memory isn’t simply consigned to dusty archives; they are celebrated as local heroes, with one even in the first stages of potential sainthood.

“They really did not think Catholicism could ever take root here,” Zachary Daughtrey, archivist for the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph in Missouri, told OSV News. “But when Father Donnelly came, he came with a strength. He came with a will — and the ability to be tenacious in making sure Catholicism succeeded.”

Often referred to as “The Builder,” Father Bernard Donnelly (1810-1880) was born in Kilnacreeva, County Cavan, Ireland, trained as an engineer, and immigrated to the U.S. in the late 1830s. He first found work as a teacher, but then enrolled in the seminary. In 1845, he was ordained and assigned to a parish in Independence, Missouri.

“There was such a lack of priests in the area,” said Daughtrey. “As someone who could have come here and been so down that he was posted to the absolute end of American civilization at the time, he just takes it all on the chin — and he’s ready to go to work.”

Father Donnelly described his horseback mission trips in the diocesan newspaper — The Catholic Banner — as six-week journeys taking him away from home to cover more than 30 miles a day, reaching Catholic families living maybe 20 miles apart.

The tenaciousness Daughtrey refers to soon earned Father Donnelly the moniker “The Pioneer Priest,” and also saw him acting as a construction foreman of sorts — recruiting hundreds of Irish immigrants to literally carve Kansas City, Missouri, out of the tall limestone bluffs once surrounding it. The Irish laborers naturally brought their religion with them — and so a Catholic community was established, and grew.

“The Builder” erected churches, too.

“He was very instrumental in building the cathedral,” Daughtrey shared, referring to the golden-domed Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. “He owned a brickyard in downtown Kansas City, and the bricks that were used to build the cathedral came from Father Donnelly’s brickyard.”

“I just don’t think there would have been the successes of the Catholic Church in the area,” concluded Daughtrey, “had it not been for Father Donnelly coming here.”

In Minnesota, Father Valentine Sommereisen (1829-1897) is not only thought of as a pioneer priest — there’s an elegant historical marker that says so. Inscribed “Pioneer Missionary Priest” with an inset picture of the determined-looking pastor, it stands in front of St. Joseph Church, a small log and field-surrounded structure completed in 1861. St. Joseph’s was the first Catholic church in Brown County, and it was Father Sommereisen who celebrated its first Mass.

Indeed, Father Sommereisen was a priest of firsts: He was the first resident Catholic priest in three large areas of the American West, including southwestern Minnesota, the Dakota Territory and western Kansas. Born in Rouffach, Alsace, France, he and several other theology students followed Father Augustin Ravoux to Minnesota in 1854. Father Sommereisen was ordained in 1856, and from his first assignment in Mankato, Minnesota, he ministered to 36 communities in 14 counties.

“Father Valentine came to this area 150 years ago, in October of 1876,” Father Reggie Urban, a retired priest in the Diocese of Dodge City, Kansas, told OSV News. “And when he did so, this whole region — from the Rocky Mountains to Montana and down to Oklahoma, and then all the way to the Missouri River and the Kansas City area — was called by the Catholic Church ‘The Apostolic Vicariate of Indian Territory East of the Rockies.’ There were no dioceses; no parishes.”

Able to speak Sioux, the priest in 1862 baptized 33 of the 38 Dakota Sioux who were hanged in Mankato during the largest mass execution in U.S. history, following the Dakota War. He later accompanied the three-month Yellowstone Expedition of 1873, whose security was ensured by Gen. George Custer’s 7th Calvary as the Northern Pacific Railroad survey team traversed the Dakota and Montana territories.

Thirteen years after his ordination, Father Sommereisen had about 5,000 people under his care; some 250 of whom had been baptized within one year. Father Urban is known to joke that he has “never baptized that many people in one year, nor in my 29 years as a priest.”

Father Urban also has a personal interest in Father Valentine’s history.

In 1876 Father Sommereisen was appointed pastor at Hays, Kansas — with the care of six nearby Volga German settlements and their parishes, and various railroad towns. “Volga Germans” are ethnic Germans who migrated to Russia in the 1700s and later immigrated to Kansas in the 1870s.

“My ancestors came from Russia; part of the Volga migration. And one of these parishes,” said Father Urban, “is my ancestral parish.”

In the Diocese of Duluth, Minnesota, Catholics know precisely who is meant when anyone refers to “The Patriarch of Duluth” — it’s Msgr. Joseph Buh (1833-1922), another pioneer priest whose honorary title is inscribed on his tomb at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary.

Born in modern-day Zadobje, Slovenia, he was ordained in 1858, and left for New York as a missionary in 1864.

“He came primarily to work with Native Americans,” Father Richard Kunst, pastor of St. James Parish in Duluth, told OSV News. “And as Slovenians in particular came to Northeastern Minnesota, he worked with them as well — but he was very much a missionary priest for everybody.”

The Ojibwe (Chippewa) people called him by two names: “Masinaigans,” meaning “little book” — a reference to the breviary and diary that always accompanied him — and “meshidong,” or “long beard,” in tribute to Msgr. Buh’s impressive facial hair.

“When you hear stories about some of these missionary priests, Msgr. Buh certainly had the most extreme circumstances he had to go through just to minister to people,” Father Kunst said. “There were stories of him traipsing through blizzards at 30-40 below overnight, just to go and anoint somebody — so he had to fight that, just to bring the Gospel and the sacraments to the people.”

Msgr. Buh, pronounced “Boo,” eventually established 57 parishes, and became vicar general of the Diocese of Duluth.

“He had very large territory he was pastorally responsible for — and prior to modern transportation, he had a horse and buggy and not very good roads,” continued Father Kunst. “Once trains were introduced here, he got rid of the horse and buggy and went by train. It was much more efficient for him — but none of that was easy by today’s standards.”

“It always just amazes me,” Father Kunst reflected, “to think of a handful of priests in some remote area having to cover hundreds of miles. I don’t know if I would have been called to that sort of lifestyle back then.”

Father Kunst, who grew up hearing about Msgr. Buh’s exploits, and his bishop, Daniel J. Felton, were among the first to promote Msgr. Buh’s sainthood cause.

“We’re waiting from the Holy See to get the approval back,” said Father Kunst, diocesan postulator. “That’s when we would say that the cause is formally introduced, and he’ll automatically get the title ‘Servant of God.’ But the exploration aspect of this has been going on for about 2.5 years.”?

On June 10, the U.S. bishops voted in support of the Duluth Diocese advancing the cause of Msgr. Buh at their 2026 spring plenary assembly in Orlando, Florida.

Since the 1940s, second-class relics have circulated, said Father Kunst, noting that the Sisters of St. Scholastica Monastery had holy cards made with bits of cloth from one of his shirts. A second-class relic is a possession of a saint or would-be saint; a first-class relic is a physical body, such as bone, hair, blood or flesh.

“Even though there was no formal cause, it was just the idea of the sanctity — of what he brought to northeastern Minnesota — in his missionary journeys. He was also buried in a special casket that was intended to be exhumed at a later date. They just knew — this priest is going to have some sort of cause for canonization.”

“There’s a real consciousness in our diocese as to who Msgr. Buh was,” concluded Father Kunst. “He’s legendary.”

VATICAN CITY (OSV News) – On the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, Pope Leo XIV personally placed the pallium on the shoulders of 35 metropolitan archbishops, urging them to follow the example of the patron saints of Rome in being “builders of unity” and “servants of the truth in charity.”

“Let us pray to Saints Peter and Paul that they may sustain us on our journey of communion in the footsteps of the Savior,” the pope said in his homily in St. Peter’s Basilica June 29.

Sts. Peter and Paul, who were both martyred in Rome, are venerated as the patron saints of the Eternal City, which marks the solemnity with fireworks, flowers, and much celebration.

The Via della Conciliazione, the broad avenue leading to St. Peter’s Square, was decorated with colorful handcrafted floral carpets in honor of the feast, while inside the basilica the centuries-old bronze statue of St. Peter was adorned with vestments and a papal tiara.

But the heart of the city’s celebration was the Mass with the 267th successor of Peter at the main altar of the basilica, built over the tomb of St. Peter and filled with cardinals and bishops for the occasion.

Pope Leo presented the woolen bands to archbishops from across the globe, including newly appointed archbishops of Kraków, Calcutta, Cape Town, Cebu, Brisbane and Lahore.

Four American archbishops were among them: Archbishop Ronald A. Hicks of New York, Archbishop James F. Checchio of New Orleans, Archbishop James R. Golka of Denver and Archbishop Mark S. Rivituso of Mobile, Alabama.

The pallium — a 3-inch-wide woolen band adorned with crosses, with 14-inch strips hanging down the front and back — is a liturgical vestment symbolizing unity with the pope and service to the faithful. Metropolitan archbishops wear it when celebrating Mass within their ecclesiastical province.

“These bands of white wool adorned with crosses indeed express the commitment of every Shepherd — and also of every Christian — to take upon their shoulders the brothers and sisters entrusted to them, like so many lambs of the Lord’s flock,” the pope said.

In presenting the palliums, Pope Leo XIV revived a tradition originally established by St. John Paul II in 1983 of personally placing the vestment on each archbishop’s shoulders. Pope Francis had in 2015 returned the practice to local nuncios presiding over the imposition of the pallium in each archbishop’s home archdiocese.

In his homily, Pope Leo drew on the symbols traditionally associated with the two apostles, keys for St. Peter, and a sword and book for St. Paul, to illustrate what he called the Church’s path to authentic unity.

“A key does not break down doors; rather, it opens and closes them by finding the proper levers within,” the pope said.

“In the same way, communion within the Church is not built by clinging rigidly to one’s own position, but by seeking, in all hearts, points of encounter in the Truth,” he added.

Reflecting on St. Paul, Pope Leo said the apostle “allowed himself to be transformed by the power of God’s word, which rescued him from the way of violence and led him onto the path of love.”

The Mass was attended by some of the 178 cardinals who gathered in Rome for an extraordinary consistory June 26-27, during which they discussed the pope’s recent encyclical “Magnifica Humanitas” and the implementation process of the Synod of Bishops on synodality.

Also present was a delegation from the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, who joined Pope Leo at the conclusion of Mass in praying at the tomb of St. Peter in the crypt beneath the basilica’s main altar.

“Dear friends, it is important for us today to look to these two Saints — Peter and Paul — to understand how we, in turn, can be apostles and builders of unity, and generous servants of the truth in charity,” Pope Leo said.

“Peter’s example is an invitation to every Christian to become a builder of unity, placing God at the center of one’s life and drawing close to one’s brothers and sisters, attentive to their circumstances and needs,” he said. ” In this way, we learn to live with one another in charity, so that the message might be fully proclaimed.”

PHILADELPHIA (OSV News) – Catholic leaders are warning the Supreme Court’s decision allowing the Trump administration to deport hundreds of thousands of Haitians and thousands of Syrians currently under protected status in the U.S. will have dire consequences — including for the U.S. itself.

At least two bishops have called on Congress to extend the protections given the ongoing grave crises in both nations.

“Revoking the legal status of hundreds of thousands of people residing in our country creates a moral crisis when returning to their country of origin is not a safe or reasonable option,” said Bishop Brendan J. Cahill of Victoria, Texas, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration, in a June 26 statement.

On June 25, the nation’s top court halted federal court rulings that had kept the administration from ending the Temporary Protected Status program for nationals from Haiti and Syria, saying federal law largely prevents the court from reviewing the earlier moves to scrap the TPS designations for those countries.

“If we are truly to affirm the God-given dignity of every human person, we as a nation cannot turn a blind eye to such an injustice and the impossible choices it will create for families and communities,” said Bishop Cahill.

Created by Congress as part of the Immigration Act of 1990, TPS provides deportation protections for those from Homeland Security-designated countries experiencing ongoing crises, such as war and environmental disasters. As of March 31, 2025, the last date for which publicly available data exists, there were approximately 1.3 million people with TPS living in the United States.

More than 330,000 Haitians and some 6,100 Syrians in the U.S. had TPS protection as of 2025. Both nations have experienced long-running conflict, instability, disaster and disease.

“Even if the Administration determines TPS is no longer warranted, deferred enforced departure remains a tool available to the President, and we urge him to exercise right judgement in this way,” said Bishop Cahill. “Forcibly sending families to dire conditions is a legacy all leaders should seek to avoid. To that end, my brother bishops and I also continue to call upon Congress to act — to meet this moment with the moral fortitude that is so desperately needed.”

Haitians face the possibility of being returned to a country “on the brink,” one that for decades has “endured one calamity after another,” said Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami, whose archdiocese is home to an extensive Haitian and Haitian-American community.

Hours after the Supreme Court decision was announced, Archbishop Wenski held a June 25 press conference, livestreamed via the Archdiocese of Miami’s Radio Paz, stating that “it would be an act of abject cruelty for the United States to send families back” to the “dangerous and unsafe conditions” that prevail in Haiti.

He called on Congress to give Haitians “at least a reprieve of three more years” by extending TPS — which he admitted was “an imperfect tool” — rather than “pulling the floor out from under families without any workable alternative.”

“The mass deportation of 350,000 men and women and their children to a country in dire straits is not a workable alternative,” stressed Archbishop Wenski.

He cited “widespread gang violence and kidnapping, a cholera epidemic, spreading food insecurity” and “the lack of functioning state institutions.”

“The situation in Haiti is very, very critical,” said Haitian native Father Eugène Almonor, an Oblate of Mary Immaculate and chaplain of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s Haitian Catholic Community.

Father Almonor, now a U.S. citizen who serves at St. William Parish in Philadelphia, told OSV News June 25 that asking someone “to return to Haiti is exposing your life” to danger.

He himself has been unable to travel to visit family in Haiti for some time.

Father Almonor, whose community is grappling with the impact of the Supreme Court decision, said Haitians who have lived in the U.S. “10, 15, 20 years” would be “lost” returning to a land that has plunged even more deeply into crisis since they last knew it.

“We don’t know where we would go,” he said.

Both he and Archbishop Wenski observed that Haitians under TPS in the U.S. — many of whom are Catholic — have become part of the nation’s fabric, making significant contributions to their communities and to the nation’s economy.

“The Haitians in this country are not on the dole,” said Archbishop Wenski. “They are hard workers filling jobs that, if it were not for them, would go unfilled.”

He stressed that the “sudden expulsion of Haitian TPS holders would have potentially a devastating effect on our nation’s economy,” pointing to health care facilities in his region.

The archbishop also noted that politicians in Indiana and Ohio — places where “Haitians were falsely accused of eating people’s pets,” a reference to an unsubstantiated rumor advanced by Vice President JD Vance and several others — have also noted “losing the Haitians now would hurt the local economy.”

Above all, said Father Almonor, “it is a question of humanity.”

“In the United States, we say, ‘In God we trust,'” he said. “But our faith in God is a faith made to love others, to support others — especially the vulnerable people.”

(OSV News) – The archbishop of Caracas called for prayers and solidarity after back-to-back earthquakes struck Venezuela, killing at least 188 people and injuring hundreds more.

“We ask God that we may all face this together, finding comfort in God, and in solidarity and charity,” Archbishop Raúl Biord Castillo said in a video posted on Instagram June 25.

According to The Associated Press, the twin earthquakes, which struck in the evening June 24, measured 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude and were the strongest to hit Venezuela in more than a century.

By late afternoon June 25, news reports said that more than 1,500 people were injured and another 200 were trapped in rubble.

Social media was flooded with images of the chaos and destruction that ensued, including a video showing terrified residents outside of a church that was swaying as the earthquake rocked the area.

As a massive search and rescue effort was underway and the full scale of the disaster began to emerge, Pope Leo XIV sent an initial emergency donation of 100,000 euros (US$115,000) through the Dicastery for the Service of Charity, Vatican News reported.

The Holy See said the aid, coordinated with the apostolic nuncio to Venezuela, Archbishop Alberto Ortega Martín, and Archbishop Biord “is only a first step, with further assistance to follow in response to the needs identified by the local Church.”

Archbishop Biord toured several churches in the capital following the devastating earthquakes. Standing in the rubble of San José de Ñaraulí Church, the archbishop said several churches in the archdiocese suffered damage, including the Cathedral of Caracas.

Despite the circumstances, Archbishop Biord said that what was important was the feeling of unity among people helping victims and those who have lost their homes.

“Our hearts are with the deceased — we pray for their eternal rest — and with those injured who are being rescued, as well as all the people who have lost loved ones. (This earthquake) was a very powerful natural phenomenon,” he said.

The archbishop of Caracas prayed that the people of Venezuela would find “comfort in God, and in solidarity and charity.”

“Amidst all of this — Christian and Catholic alike — we must all form a great network of solidarity to help those brothers and sisters who are suffering material losses,” he said. “We are deeply pained by the damage to our artistic heritage, but that can be recovered over time. But human life is what is most important.”

Several messages of support to Catholics in the country were published, including from the Mexican bishops’ conference.

In a tweet posted on X June 25, the Mexican bishops said they joined in prayer for the people of Venezuela, and asked God to “grant consolation to the afflicted, strength to those who serve, and swift recovery to the affected communities.”

“As a pilgrim Church in Latin America, we make our own the pain of our Venezuelan brothers and sisters and entrust them to the maternal protection of Our Lady of Coromoto,” the bishops said, referring to the patroness of Venezuela.

Spanish Archbishop Luis Argüello of Valladolid, president of the Spanish bishops’ conference, published a letter June 25 on behalf of the country’s bishops expressing their “deepest fraternal closeness in these moments of great sorrow.”

“We join you in prayer for the eternal rest of the deceased. We implore divine comfort for their families and a swift recovery for the hundreds of injured and displaced people who have lost their homes and livelihoods,” Archbishop Argüello wrote in the letter, which was addressed to Bishop Jesús González de Zárate, president of the Venezuelan bishops’ conference.

“We also pray that the Lord will strengthen and enlighten the authorities, emergency teams, healthcare workers, and volunteers who are working tirelessly in rescue and relief efforts,” he added.

The U.S. Catholic bishops also expressed their solidarity and concern for Venezuelans amid the disaster.

“As rescue efforts are underway, I urge the international community to mobilize in support of the Venezuelan people, and to send the necessary humanitarian assistance to alleviate their suffering,” said Bishop A. Elias Zaidan, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace.

He noted that “Catholic Relief Services, the international relief agency of the Church in the United States, and its partner Caritas Venezuela, are already responding and assessing needs at this early stage.”

“We understand the U.S. government is readying an initial response and appreciate their partnership in responding to this natural disaster,” said Bishop Zaidan, who heads the St. Louis-based Maronite Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon of Los Angeles.

He added, “Let us all join in prayer that Our Lady of Coromoto, patroness of Venezuela, will comfort and protect her children and that compassionate international assistance will arrive swiftly.”

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in a post on X, said: “The United States extends our deepest condolences to the people of Venezuela following the devastating earthquakes. Our hearts are with all those who have lost loved ones, those injured, and the courageous rescue workers working tirelessly in the aftermath.”

Rubio said the State Department “is immediately deploying search and rescue teams, medical resources, and humanitarian assistance to Venezuela.”

In Florida, Deacon Gustavo Adolfo Roversi, a Miami businessman and newly ordained member of the local clergy, is among the many Venezuelans living in the United States anxiously awaiting more information on the quakes’ impact on communities in their home country.

“As a matter of fact my wife happens to be (there now) — she is fine, thank God,” Deacon Roversi told the Florida Catholic, the news outlet of the Miami Archdiocese. “I have a family member, a first cousin, who is still unaccounted for. We pray it is because the phone system is down.”

A native of Valencia, Venezuela, which is among the many cities and towns also impacted by the earthquakes, Deacon Roversi went to college at the University of Kansas in the 1980s before returning to South America to help run the family paper products manufacturing business. They later expanded the business to Florida in the late 1990s

“I know that there are fatalities, but still unsure about the numbers,” the deacon added. “So far it is in the hundreds. I understand Colombia just sent rescue crews.”

SCRANTON – The Scranton Catholic Charismatic Conference will be held on July 31 and August 1 & 2, at the University of Scranton.

National and International speakers will be sharing the Word of God.

Contemporary music ministry from Baltimore will be joining us.

Mass is celebrated daily; Adoration and a service of prayer will be held on Saturday night.

More information and full weekend registrations are available at ccrscranton.org and day registrations are available all weekend at the John Long Center on campus.

Meals are also available for purchase on campus.

Bishop Bambera will be celebrating Mass on Sunday at 1:30 pm.

Call the CCR office (570-344-2214) for additional information.

All are welcome!

SCRANTON – Imagine rooms full of people from multiple faiths enjoying respectful dialogue, food and fellowship; gatherings to consider the meaning and blessing of our country’s founding. We can create this together: a once-in-a-generation opportunity for neighbors to meet neighbors, a chance to regain unity through conversation about some of America’s most inspiring words.

What is faith250?

faith250 is a program that invites faith leaders and communities across the country to form clusters of congregations to act as sacred spaces for listening to one another, clarifying our shared civic values, and celebrating our hopes for America.

We can shore up the bonds between citizens because houses of worship are one of the few places where neighbors, friends, citizens, and newcomers can regularly meet face to face; where we study text and seek truth together; and where our varied faith traditions each remind us to see the Divine in every human being.
Our work centers on some of America’s sacred texts — The Declaration of Independence, Emma Lazarus’s The New Colossus, America the Beautiful, and Frederick Douglass’s address, What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?

What happens at a multifaith gathering?

A typical faith250 multifaith event runs between two to two-and-a-half hours and includes:

• A shared meal or light refreshments — breaking bread together before the formal discussion begins.
• A welcome from clergy that sets the tone: civic, not partisan; spiritual, not sectarian.
• A reading aloud of one of the four American texts.
• Facilitated small-group discussion, typically at tables of six to eight people, using the faith250 multifaith event handout for that text.
• A brief closing — a reflection, a prayer, or a moment of shared commitment.

How can I participate?

The first gathering is July 13, 2026, 7PM at Temple Hesed, 1 Knox Road, Scranton. All are welcome to attend!

Register for the event by clicking here.

To learn more, visit https://faith250.org/what-is-faith250

Participating Congregations & Organizations
• Bahá’ís of Scranton
• Bethel AME Church
• Christians for the Common Good
• Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints-Clarks Summit Stake
• Covenant Presbyterian Church
• Elm Park United Methodist Church
• Islamic Center of Scranton
• Jinyin Temple
• Roman Catholic Diocese of Scranton
• Scranton Area Ministerium
• Sisters of IHM-Scranton
• St. Luke’s Episcopal Church
• St. Mark Episcopal Church
• Temple Hesed
• Temple Israel
• United Baptist Church of Taylor

VATICAN CITY (Vatican News) – An English edition of a book of Pope Benedict XVI’s previously unpublished homilies has been released by the Vatican.

“The Lord Holds Us by the Hand” offers readers a collection of Pope Benedict’s homilies, allowing them to hear once again the voice of Joseph Ratzinger as preacher, theologian and pastor.

The volume, originally published in Italian by the Vatican Publishing House, is titled, “The Lord Holds Us by the Hand.” It is a compilation of homilies delivered between 2005 and 2017 during the liturgical seasons of Advent, Lent and Easter.

The book includes a preface by Archbishop Georg Gänswein, Pope Benedict’s former personal secretary, and an introduction by Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, president of the Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation.

The homilies were delivered during private Masses celebrated by Pope Benedict with the papal household and occasional guests, both while he was pope and later as pope emeritus.

Some were preached in the chapel of the Apostolic Palace, while others were given at the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican, where Benedict lived after his resignation.

Although spoken in private settings, the texts open a window onto the depth and simplicity of Pope Benedict’s preaching. They reveal his ability to read sacred Scripture in an ever-new way, drawing from it light for faith, prayer and daily Christian life.

The pages of the book also show how Joseph Ratzinger kept a personal relationship with Christ at the center of his faith.

In the homilies, Pope Benedict returns again and again to the mystery of the Lord who accompanies his people, sustains them and holds them by the hand.

The title itself expresses this central intuition: the Christian life is not a solitary path, but a journey guided by the presence and mercy of God.

The collection also highlights the continuity between Pope Benedict’s theological work and his pastoral ministry. His reflections are marked by the clarity, spiritual depth and Christ-centred focus that characterized his pontificate.

“The Lord Holds Us by the Hand” is the first volume of Pope Benedict’s unpublished homilies. A second volume, dedicated to homilies in Ordinary Time, is expected to follow. The Italian edition of the first volume was presented at the Turin International Book Fair May 17.

With the publication of the English edition, these previously unpublished texts are now available to a wider readership, offering a renewed encounter with Pope Benedict’s preaching and with his lifelong invitation to place Christ at the heart of faith and history.

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – On the fourth anniversary of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Catholic bishops’ conference and pro-life leaders pointed to abortion pills as among key challenges for the cause of protecting the right to life of unborn children.

The Supreme Court issued the Dobbs ruling June 24, 2022, in a case involving a Mississippi law banning abortion after 15 weeks, where the state directly challenged the high court’s previous abortion-related precedents in Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. The high court ultimately overturned its own prior rulings, undoing nearly a half-century of its own precedent that held abortion to be a constitutional right.

In the years since that ruling, efforts to restrict or protect access to abortion have stalled in Congress. As a candidate in 2024, President Donald Trump stated his view that abortion should be a matter for the states rather than Congress, and said he would veto abortion restrictions if they reached his desk.

Individual states have moved to either restrict abortion or expand access to it in the wake of the Dobbs ruling. However, multiple reports have found that the rate of abortions in the U.S. has increased since the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe.

According to an estimate from Guttmacher Institute, a research firm for the abortion industry, 1.12 million abortions took place in 2025, marking a 21% increase from 2020, which Guttmacher said marked “the last year of comprehensive national estimates” before Dobbs. Guttmacher found the figures were largely unchanged from 2024. It also noted that the abortion numbers overall may be an undercount due to people acquiring abortion pills in advance or obtaining them by means other than U.S. abortion clinic providers.

In a statement marking the Dobbs anniversary, Bishop Daniel E. Thomas of Toledo, Ohio, chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, said the “victory of the Dobbs decision risks being undone by the massive influx of abortion pills.”

“While the Dobbs decision gave states the freedom to pass pro-life laws and protect preborn children, these laws are now being undermined,” he said. “The Food and Drug Administration, a government agency responsible for protecting public health, has enabled a nationwide mail-order abortion industry by allowing abortion pills to be prescribed in telemed appointments and sold both at neighborhood pharmacies and online, circumventing state laws that protect life in the womb.”

Louisiana has challenged an FDA policy issued by the Biden administration, which permitted mifepristone, a pill commonly used in abortion but also in some miscarriage care protocols, to be distributed by mail. The Trump administration has thus far left that regulation in place, prompting frustration from pro-life groups, and has sought to block state challenges to mifepristone, such as Louisiana’s.

The Supreme Court in May left that policy in place while the litigation proceeds.

Proponents of mifepristone — the first of two drugs used in a chemical or medication-based abortion — or its distribution by mail argue it is statistically safe for a woman to take at the early stages of pregnancy, and that attempts to restrict it are an attempt to ban abortion outright. Opponents of the drug’s use for abortion argue there are significant risks to those who take it, particularly outside of medical settings, in addition to ending the life of an unborn child early in its development.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, told reporters on a June 23 press call that there has been “a failure to step up on the federal level and pass protections that are grounded in the 14th Amendment — whatever consensus can bear — grounded in the 14th Amendment.”

Dannenfelser is among the pro-life leaders who have argued that the 14th Amendment, which states that “All persons born or naturalized in the United States,” shall not be denied “life, liberty, or property, without due process of law” is grounds for federal abortion restrictions.

Pointing to lawsuits like Louisiana’s, Dannenfelser argued that “the abortion drug has usurped the sovereignty of those states” that have restricted abortion.

“We have insisted that the Justice Department settle with the state of Louisiana, who has sued them for justice, for undermining their state laws, for putting extra burdens of financial and health care for women who are experiencing these horrible moments,” she said.

A letter from more than 80 pro-life groups, including SBA, published June 23 to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said, “We respectfully urge you to settle Louisiana v. FDA, end DOJ’s defense of the mail-order abortion drug regime.”

In an amicus brief filed by groups including SBA, the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, and the National Catholic Bioethics Center, argued the in-person dispensing requirement should be reimplemented to prevent health risks to the mother and to prevent coercion by partners, abusers, or traffickers.

“Coerced consent is no consent at all, and there is an increased risk of coercion in the context of abortion drugs and procedures if the prescribing physician does not thoroughly screen for abuse or coercion,” the brief stated.

Jennie Bradley Lichter, president of the March for Life, told OSV News the group “joined this amicus brief because women deserve better than being prescribed dangerous abortion-inducing drugs without even a simple consultation with a physician — putting their health and safety at serious risk.”

“The current lack of safeguards also plays right into the hands of abusive men who can pose as women, obtain these drugs via the internet, and then coerce their baby’s mother into taking them or even forcibly drug her in order to evade responsibility for their child,” she said. “There is no semblance of true informed consent in the way abortion drugs are currently distributed. FDA must restore an in-person dispensation requirement.”

The Catholic Church teaches that all human life is sacred from conception to natural death, and as such, opposes direct abortion, which takes the life of the unborn child.

Marie T. Hilliard, senior ethicist for the National Catholic Bioethics Center, as well as a registered nurse with a graduate degree in maternal child health and a canon lawyer, said in written comments to OSV News that NCBC, which opposes all direct abortions, “recognizes the threats not only to the unborn child, but also to women and girls having access to unsafe chemical abortion practices.”

“Women and girls’ very lives are being threatened by the current lack of regulatory requirements, and the lives of these mothers also must be protected, and hopefully the lives of their unborn children when these mothers are provided with all the information they need for true informed consent,” she said.

In his statement, Bishop Thomas concluded, “On this Anniversary of the Dobbs decision, we praise God for the historic overturning of Roe v. Wade, and we beg the intercession of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in building a culture of life.”