A metal protective casing that held the historic tabernacle at St. Augustine Catholic Church in Brooklyn, N.Y., is seen May 31, 2022. Valued at $2 million, the solid gold and jeweled tabernacle was stolen by burglars who used power tools to cut through the metal casing May 27, 2022, and the crime was discovered by the pastor May 28, according to Brooklyn diocesan officials. (CNS photo/courtesy DeSales Media Group)

BROOKLYN, N.Y. (CNS) – A burglar cut through a metal protective casing to steal a historic tabernacle valued at $2 million at a Brooklyn Catholic church.

In the course of the crime, angel statues flanking the tabernacle were decapitated, and consecrated hosts from inside the tabernacle were thrown all over the altar, according to a Brooklyn diocesan news release.

The burglary is suspected to have taken place May 27 at St. Augustine Catholic Church in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn and the theft was discovered by the pastor May 28, the release said.

A safe in the sacristy also was cut open but nothing was inside, it added.

“This is devastating, as the tabernacle is the central focus of our church outside of worship, holding the body of Christ, the Eucharist, which is delivered to the sick and homebound,” said Father Frank Tumino, the pastor.

The tabernacle dates back to when the church was built in the 1890s. “This holy sacramental receptacle is irreplaceable due to its historical and artistic value,” the diocesan said.

The New York City Police Department was investigating this “brazen crime of disrespect and hate” and has asked the community for any tips that could lead to solving it.

“To know that a burglar entered the most sacred space of our beautiful church and took great pains to cut into a security system is a heinous act of disrespect,” Father Tumino said.

In the neighboring Archdiocese of New York, Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan planned to visit a Manhattan Catholic church May 31 that a news release said was the victim of “a hate crime” a week earlier.

Vandals beheaded and smashed statues in the Our Lady of Fatima Grotto at Our Lady of Sorrows Church.

The cardinal planned to pray an evening rosary, which “will be offered in reparation for this act of vandalism and hate.”

This is the logo for the World Meeting of Families, scheduled to be held in Rome June 22-26, 2022. 

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The COVID-19 pandemic not only caused a one-year delay in holding the World Meeting of Families, it also prompted a look at new ways to involve Catholic families from around the world and to ensure that they take the lead in ministering to each other.

Gabriella Gambino, undersecretary of the Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life, presided over a news conference at the Vatican May 31 to present the final program for the gathering June 22-26 online and in Rome.

Instead of including academic theological conferences, she said, the 2022 version of the World Meeting of Families will feature moments of “encounter, listening and discussion” among those engaged in pastoral work with couples and families.

And, she said, the lead will be taken by families from around the world who are working with priests and bishops to promote healthy marriages and strong families and to assist those in difficulty.

The congress, which will be livestreamed and translated into English, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Italian as well as Italian sign language and English sign language, will cover topics ranging from promoting collaboration between priests and married couples to accompanying couples in their first year of marriage. Difficult topics like forgiveness and healing after a betrayal or helping families dealing with addiction also will be part of the agenda, Gambino said.

Asked by a reporter if same-sex couples would be welcome at the meeting, she responded that in the church’s pastoral outreach, “the idea is to promote a process of welcome, accompaniment and discernment” that helps every Catholic move toward what the world meeting’s theme professes, “Family Love: A Vocation and a Path to Holiness.”

In total, she said, there will be some 30 panels with a total of 62 speakers — only three of whom are priests. Most are married couples; they come from 17 countries and are involved in outreach to families through their parish, diocese, bishops’ conference or movement.

About 2,000 official delegates from 120 nations will attend the Rome meeting, representing bishops’ conferences and international Catholic movements and organizations. About 75% of the delegates are laypeople, while the others are bishops or priests in charge of marriage and family offices or committees.

The event will kick off June 22 with the “Festival of Families,” an event that previously was held on the Saturday night before the world meeting ended. In addition to prayer and music, the festival will feature the testimonies of five families talking about: the call to sacramental marriage, the call to holiness, the call to forgiveness, the call to welcome and the call to fraternity.

­ “The challenge that awaits us, then, is to communicate by encountering people, where they are and as they are.”                

—Pope Francis, World Communications Day, 2021

Parishes in the Diocese of Scranton will conduct a second collection on the weekend of May 28-29 for the Catholic Communication Campaign (CCC).

Fifty percent of the funds collected remain in the Diocese to support local communications projects. Funding collected during the campaign help to support The Catholic Light newspaper and CTV: Catholic Television of the Diocese of Scranton which provides Daily livestream and broadcast Masses from the Cathedral of Saint Peter in Scranton, as well as numerous other special events and programs.

The other half support the collective communication work of the bishops of the United States as well as other national projects in the United States and around the world.

In 2020 and 2021, Dioceses across the United States used social media platforms and livestreams as a way to access the Mass and engage with their parish communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. With funding from the Catholic Communication Campaign, the Communications Department of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) worked with social media companies, dioceses, and parishes to bring livestreamed Masses into homes during the pandemic.

CCC funds made available bishop-led roundtables on important issues of racism, gun violence, and care for creation online and through Catholic TV and Catholic Faith Network broadcasts.­ The thoroughly redesigned, mobile-friendly USCCB website—launched in late 2020—was made possible with crucial funding from the campaign.

Each day, hundreds of thousands of users visit the USCCB website to find the daily Mass readings, view the daily reflection videos, and get news and resources that strengthen their lives of discipleship.

When you support the Catholic Communication Campaign, you make vital resources like the daily readings available at no charge to hundreds of thousands of people who rely on them each day. Your contribution helps build Christian community, especially in times like today, when digital communications are critical to how we remain connected.

Pope Francis speaks during his general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican May 25, 2022. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Saying his heart was broken at the news of at least 19 children and two adults being shot and killed at a Texas elementary school, Pope Francis said it was time to say “Enough!” and enact stricter laws on gun sales.

At the end of his weekly general audience May 25, with thousands of people gathered in St. Peter’s Square, the pope prayed publicly for the victims of the shooting the day before at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.

“With a heart shattered over the massacre at the elementary school in Texas, I pray for the children and adults who were killed and for their families,” the pope told the crowd.

“It is time to say, ‘Enough!’ to the indiscriminate trafficking of guns,” the pope said. “Let’s all work to ensure that such tragedies never happen again.”

Shortly before the audience, Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller of San Antonio, an archdiocese that includes Uvalde, tweeted: “Holy Father Pope Francis, say some prayers for the souls of our little ones killed today and two teachers. Uvalde is in mourning. The families are having a very dark time. Your prayer will do good to them.”

Local authorities said the children and adults were killed by an 18-year-old student from a high school nearby. He also was reported dead and at least three children remained hospitalized for injuries suffered in the attack.

Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller of San Antonio comforts people in Uvalde, Texas, outside the SSGT Willie de Leon Civic Center, where students had been transported from Robb Elementary School after a shooting May 24, 2022. (CNS photo/Marco Bello, Reuters)

WASHINGTON (CNS) – When news broke of the May 24 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, San Antonio Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller was in a meeting with about 150 archdiocesan priests.

The meeting was rescheduled and several priests left right away to be with people in the Texas town about 100 miles west of San Antonio and close to Mexico’s border.

The archbishop also went directly to Uvalde where a teenager had killed 19 students and two elementary school teachers at Robb Elementary School before he was shot and killed by police.

Archbishop García-Siller’s first stop was the hospital to meet with families of those wounded in the shooting, followed by a visit to the town’s civic center where families awaited news of their loved ones. He then celebrated Mass at Sacred Heart Church in Uvalde and spoke with family members and then reporters after Mass before heading home around midnight.

The following day, he spoke to Catholic News Service while in a car riding back to Uvalde to be at Robb Elementary School with other civic and faith leaders before going back to the civic center.

He said it was important to be with the people suffering from this tragedy to remind them they are not alone, give them the support they need and most of all just show them “love, love, love.”

He said those in the congregation during the May 24 evening Mass at Sacred Heart included some who had been directly impacted by the school shooting, including the person who called 911 about the shooter and someone who had brought wounded schoolchildren to the hospital.

The altar server was a 10-year-old girl, around the age of many of the students shot that day.

The archbishop, filling in for the pastor who was out of town, said the congregation was numb. They just couldn’t talk, he said, because they were so shocked by what had happened or still unsure of what this meant for their own families and the community at large.

He urged them to greet one another at the start of Mass as a sign of their shared humanity and to express “what is hard to articulate.”

He hoped the readings, music and Communion would provide a balm for the families there but also help them to “build strength” for what is ahead.

Two priests spoke during the Mass about their visits to the hospital that day with shooting victims and family members. One said he visited a girl whose face was still bleeding and when he asked her what was on her heart she simply said: “My friends, nothing but my friends.”

Archbishop García-Siller said he mentioned in his homily and has been telling reporters about the different levels of focus right now in the wake of the school shooting.

The first priority is those who were affected. He said they need all possible help on both a practical level and also spiritually in the prayers they have asked for. He also said the local community needs to be strong, “for the journey will be a long road ahead.”

The other key focus right now, he said, is to challenge local, state and federal leadership about gun control, noting that this shooting is “another example that we have failed. We have failed because we don’t have people as the center.” He also stressed that more people need to take responsibility for what happened, emphasizing that it was “not an isolated event.”

Catholic Charities of San Antonio began providing crisis relief at Robb Elementary School May 25 with grief counselors and legal services available as well as emergency financial assistance for family members who need to travel to Uvalde.

In the days ahead, the doors to Sacred Heart Church will be open and its Catholic school also will have counselors on hand.

The archbishop wrote to Pope Francis May 24 about the school shooting, which took place just days before the school’s summer recess, asking for his prayers. The next day he received a telegram from Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, expressing the pope’s condolences.

The message said the pope was “deeply saddened to learn of the tragic shooting that took place” and assured those “affected by this attack of his spiritual closeness.” He also commended the souls of those who died to God’s mercy and “implored the divine gifts of healing and consolation upon the injured and bereaved.”

The pope prayed that those “tempted to violence will choose instead the path of fraternal solidarity and love.”

Archbishop García-Siller said he had seen many moments of grace in the 24 hours since the attack and noted that many people were trying to do something good in response to the crisis. This outreach, he said, will not be difficult in the current moment.

The challenge, he said, will be how to overcome current divisions. “This will take a long, long time.”

But he added to that a last word of hope that he also has been sharing in Uvalde, emphasizing: “We know in whom we have placed our trust.”

Law enforcement officers guard the scene of a shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, May 24, 2022. (CNS photo/Marco Bello, Reuters)

WASHINGTON (CNS) – Several U.S. bishops spoke out against the easy accessibility to guns in the country following a May 24 rampage that left at least 19 children and two of their elementary school teachers dead in Uvalde, Texas.

“Don’t tell me that guns aren’t the problem, people are. I’m sick of hearing it,” Bishop Daniel E. Flores of Brownsville, Texas, tweeted May 25. “The darkness first takes our children who then kill our children, using the guns that are easier to obtain than aspirin. We sacralize death’s instruments and then are surprised that death uses them.”

The comments came hours after Texas authorities said an 18-year-old with two assault weapons evaded police after crashing his truck near an elementary school close to the U.S-Mexico border and entered the school building at around noon armed with what seemed to be a rifle.

“There was several law enforcement that engaged the suspect but he was able to make entry into the school where he did go into several classrooms and, unfortunately, he did fire his firearm,” Sgt. Erick Estrada, of the Texas Department of Public Safety, told CNN late May 24.

A Border Patrol unit subsequently arrived and one of its officers shot and killed the shooter in the classroom full of fourth graders.

In addition to the dead, reports say 15 children were injured as well as the two law enforcement officers who initially attempted to stop him. Authorities named Salvador Ramos as the shooter and said that prior to arriving at the school, he shot his grandmother, who remains in the hospital.

San Antonio Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller comforted families outside a local civic center in Uvalde as they waited for news. Along with priests from the Archdiocese of San Antonio, he spent much of the day tending to parishioners and others who needed comfort after the horrific day.

“When will these insane acts of violence end?” the archbishop later said in a statement. “It is too great a burden to bear. The word tragedy doesn’t begin to describe what occurred. These massacres cannot be considered ‘the new normal.'”

“The Catholic Church consistently calls for the protection of all life; and these mass shootings are a most pressing life issue on which all in society must act – elected leaders and citizens alike,” he said. “We pray that God comfort and offer compassion to the families of these little ones whose pain is unbearable.”

He confirmed to a CNN reporter that there’s an effort to connect with Ramos’ family and said he would show them gestures of “tenderness, compassion because they are suffering, too.” He said Ramos’ actions were evil but said he didn’t agree when he heard someone say “that man is evil.”

“No, they were evil actions. Everyone has dignity and the family is suffering, too,” he said. “It’s easy to make remarks that destroy people’s lives … there’s already enough destruction.”

Chieko Noguchi, director of public affairs for the U.S. Conference of Catholic bishops, said the organization joined Archbishop García-Siller in prayers for the community.

“There have been too many school shootings, too much killing of the innocent. Our Catholic faith calls us to pray for those who have died and to bind the wounds of others,” she said in a statement. “As we do so, each of us also needs to search our souls for ways that we can do more to understand this epidemic of evil and violence and implore our elected officials to help us take action.”

In a statement, the Diocese of El Paso, Texas, suggested that a course of action from the Catholic Church could come “in findings ways to more effectively identify people at risk of such behavior and to push for reasonable limits to the proliferation of firearms.”

From Rome, Pope Francis also weighed in, saying: “It’s time to say ‘Enough’ to the indiscriminate trade of weapons!” and encouraged all to be committed in the effort “so that tragedies like this cannot occur again.”

Chicago Cardinal Blase J. Cupich in a May 24 tweet said the right to life trumps the right to have weapons and that “the Second Amendment did not come down from Sinai.”

“The right to bear arms will never be more important than human life,” he said. “Our children have rights too. And our elected officials have a moral duty to protect them.”

In an address to the nation, President Joe Biden recalled his time as vice president when he could not get enough members of Congress to agree on gun control legislation in 2013, a year after 26 people, including 20 elementary school children, were fatally shot by a gunman at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

“As a nation, we have to ask: When in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby? When in God’s name will we do what we all know in our gut needs to be done?” the president said.

Cardinal Cupich, in his tweets, implored people, not just to lament, but to act.

“We must weep and soak in the grief that comes with the knowledge that these children of God were cut down by a man who was just a few years their senior. But then we must steel ourselves to act in the face of what seems like insurmountable despair,” he tweeted. “As I reflect on this latest American massacre, I keep returning to the questions: Who are we as a nation if we do not act to protect our children? What do we love more: our instruments of death or our future?”

The USCCB has consistently called for gun control.

In a presentation titled “Responses to the Plague of Gun Violence” he delivered Nov. 11, 2019, during the U.S. bishops’ fall general assembly, Bishop Frank J. Dewane of Venice, Florida, then chairman of the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, spelled out the bishops’ support for a ban on assault weapons, universal background checks, a federal gun trafficking bill, regulations on sales of handguns, improved mental health interventions, safety measures and “an honest assessment of violent images and experiences in our society.”

Like much of the American public voicing frustrations after the mass shooting in Texas, Bishop Mark E. Brennan of Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia, said the country “must now do more than offer prayers and support.”

He called on all, but particularly on lawmakers and gun owners “to work together and take action to ensure the safety of our children, our schools, our churches and our communities.”

The statue of Our Lady Queen of Peace is seen at the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome in this Dec. 10, 2019, file photo. Pope Francis will close the Marian month of May by reciting the rosary for peace May 31 in front of the statue. (CNS photo/Cindy Wooden)

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis and Ukrainian families in Rome will gather May 31 before a statue of Mary, Queen of Peace, to recite the rosary for peace in Ukraine and in other places at war.

Pope Benedict XV had the statue placed in Rome’s Basilica of St. Mary Major in 1918 as a sign and pledge of people’s prayers for an end to World War I.

“At the end of the Marian month, Pope Francis wants to offer a sign of hope to the world, which is suffering from the conflict in Ukraine and deeply wounded by the violence in the many theaters of active war” around the world, said an announcement from the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization.

For the evening recitation of the rosary, the council said, Pope Francis will be joined not only by Ukrainian families, but also by members of the Scouts, young people who have recently received their first Communion or confirmation, Italian young adults belonging to a Marian prayer group, military chaplains and representatives of the three Queen of Peace parishes in Rome.

The rosary will be livestreamed from Rome and shown in: the Cathedral of the Mother of God in Zarvanytsia, Ukraine; the Syriac Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of Deliverance in Baghdad; the Melkite Cathedral of Our Lady, Queen of Peace, in Homs, Syria; and the Cathedral of Our Lady of Arabia in Awali, Bahrain.

The world’s most famous Marian shrines, including Our Lady of Czestochowa in Poland, Our Lady Lourdes in France, Our Lady of Knock in Ireland and Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico, also are expected to join in, the council said.

A power-generating windmill turbine and the church of the village are pictured during sunset at a wind park in Ecoust-Saint-Mein, France, in this Sept. 6, 2020, file photo. Pope Francis has invited everyone to take part in Laudato Si’ Week May 22-29. “Laudato Si’, on Care for Our Common Home,” was the title of the pope’s 2015 encyclical on the environment. (CNS photo/Pascal Rossignol, Reuters)

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis encouraged Catholics to work together in taking care of creation.

After he led the recitation of the “Regina Coeli” prayer with visitors in St. Peter’s Square May 22, the pope invited everyone to take part in “Laudato Si’ Week,” which runs May 22-29.

The special week is an opportunity “to listen ever more attentively to the cry of the earth, which urges us to act together in taking care of our common home,” he said. He thanked the Vatican office promoting the initiative, the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, and other organizations taking part.

Laudato Si’ Week is a yearly event marking the anniversary of Pope Francis’ encyclical, “Laudato Si’: on Care for Our Common Home.”

Global, regional and local events include celebrating the progress made in bringing Laudato Si’ to life and promoting increased efforts through the Laudato Si’ Action Platform, promoted by the dicastery at laudatosiactionplatform.org. The platform is meant to inspire, coordinate and guide Catholic institutions, communities and families to fully implement Laudato Si’.

Events can be found on LaudatoSiWeek.org. Topics to be explored include: how Catholics can fight biodiversity collapse; the role of fossil fuels in conflicts and the climate crisis; and how people can embrace the poor in daily life.

 

May 25, 2022

His Excellency, Bishop Joseph C. Bambera, announces the following appointments, effective as indicated:

Reverend Patrick L. Albert, from Pastor, Our Lady of the Lake Parish, Lake Winola.  Father will remain Pastor, Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish, Tunkhannock, with care of St. Joachim Church, Meshoppen, effective July 26, 2022

Reverend Robert J. Antonelli, from Senior Priest, St. Boniface Parish, Williamsport and St. Lawrence Parish, South Williamsport, to Administrator pro tem, St. Boniface Parish, Williamsport and St. Lawrence Parish, South Williamsport, effective May 31, 2022.

Reverend William D. Corcoran, from Pastor, St. Boniface Parish, Williamsport and St. Lawrence Parish, South Williamsport, to retirement, effective May 31, 2022.

Rev. Gerald J. Gurka, to Pastor, All Saints Parish, Plymouth, effective July 26, 2022.  Father will remain Pastor, St. John the Baptist Parish, Larksville.

Rev. Edward L. Michelini, from Pastor, Saints Peter and Paul Parish, Towanda and Administrator pro tem, Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish, Wyalusing, to Pastor Emeritus, effective July 26, 2022.

Reverend Joseph J. Mosley, from Pastor, St. Peter Parish, Wellsboro and St. Thomas Parish, Elkland, to Senior Priest, Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish, Carbondale and St. Rose of Lima Parish, Carbondale, effective July 26, 2022.

Reverend Alex J. Roche, S.T.L., from Administrator pro tem, St. Maria Goretti Parish, Laflin, to Pastor, St. Maria Goretti Parish, Laflin, effective May 17, 2022.  Father Roche will remain Director of the Office for Vocations and Chaplain, Misericordia University, Dallas.

Reverend Arbogaste Satoun, to Pastor, Our Lady of the Lake Parish, Lake Winola, effective July 26, 2022.  Father will remain Pastor, Our Lady of the Abingtons Parish, Dalton and St. Patrick Parish, Nicholson.

Monsignor  John J. Sempa, from Administrator pro tem, St. Barbara Parish, Exeter, to Pastor, St. Barbara Parish, Exeter, effective May 17, 2022.  Monsignor will remain Pastor, Corpus Christi Parish, West Pittston.

Reverend Stephen J. Stavoy, from Pastor, St. Thomas More Parish, Lake Ariel, to retirement, effective July 26, 2022.

Rev. Rawel Toppo, from Assistant Pastor, Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish, Brodheadsville, to Assistant Pastor, Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception Parish, Freeland and Good Shepherd Parish, Drums, effective May 31, 2022.

Priest Personnel Board

Reverend Joseph P. Elston, Pastor, St. John the Evangelist Parish and St. Joseph Morello Parish, Pittston, elected to a 3 year term, effective July 1, 2022.

Reverend Michael J. Kloton, Pastor, Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception Parish, Freeland and Good Shepherd Parish, Drums, elected to a 3 year term, effective July 1, 2022.

 

 

On Tuesday evening, May 24, 2022, the Most Reverend Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, released the following statement on the School Shooting in Uvalde, Texas:

“My heart aches for all of those impacted by today’s senseless school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, especially the young, innocent victims, as well as their parents, families and the entire community. The only way to describe what manifested itself today at Robb Elementary School is unspeakable evil.

“There are far too many families in our nation who have sent their children off to school in the morning yet they never return home in the afternoon.

“I ask all people in the Diocese of Scranton to join me in prayer as we mourn the victims of this terrible tragedy. I ask that we pray also for the wisdom and courage to discover ways to end such senseless violence that has enveloped our land. May the love of Jesus comfort all those who are suffering and in pain.”