Category: Diocese of Scranton News

SCRANTON – Hundreds of people came together last month to celebrate their unity through diversity.

Catholic Social Services of the Diocese of Scranton and the Church of Saint Gregory in Clarks Green were two of the primary sponsors of World Refugee Day 2022. The event was held on Saturday, June 18, 2022, at YMS of R Grove in Scranton.

Ushu Mukelo, who has lived in Scranton for the last seven years, shared his story of fleeing the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“We had a war in our village and we had to move to Uganda. We ended up in a refugee camp where we lived for over 12 years,” Mukelo said.
It took Mukelo more than four years to be able to come to the United States.

“It was a lot of interviews and making sure there was consistency. We had to go through medical check-ups and more. We had a one week orientation,” he explained.

When Mukelo moved to Scranton, he had no family or friends to assist him, but found the community to be very welcoming.

“Besides non-profits that work with refugee families closely, we also had a lot of individuals volunteering to help our families in a lot of ways – whether it was taking children to schools to register them or it was helping us to apply for public benefits – we have not had any bad treatment,” he explained.

World Refugee Day honors the strength, resilience and courage of millions of refugees throughout the world. The event in Scranton helped individuals share the rich cultural heritage of many refugee communities that have settled in northeastern Pennsylvania.

“I think it reiterates our sense of togetherness. We are people that want to be together,” Mukelo said. “For us, it reminds us of the life we lived before the war broke out in the country and it’s the life where you know who is close to you.”

Those who attended World Refugee Day enjoyed food, cultural music, dancing as well as activities and games. The Most Reverend Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, was one of many people who attended the event, saying that refugees are simply seeking a better life for their families and children.

“We want you to feel at home here and we will do whatever we can as a Catholic community to help that happen,” Bishop Bambera said. “We are blessed by your presence. You make our community stronger, better and richer.”

Chandra Sitaula, President of the Bhutanese Cultural Foundation, also spoke to those gathered on behalf of the many people he represents.
“We are a growing community. We have thousands of people living in Scranton, in the South Side, in West Side,” Sitaula said.

Sitaula, who fled Bhutan in 1990, first settled in the Bronx and Queens before moving to Scranton.

“This country looks a lot like our country – up and down with mountains,” Sitaula said.

Since settling in Scranton, Sitaula has launched a non-profit organization, the Bhutanese Cultural Foundation Scranton Association, which is currently located on Pittston Avenue. It helps refugees find employment, learn English and get other assistance that they need.

“We’re not only helping all the Bhutanese, but we’re helping other people also,” he added.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The more Catholics and Pentecostals understand each other and bear witness to Jesus’ call for his disciples to be one, the more effective they can be in sharing the Gospel, Pope Francis said.

Marking the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Commission for Catholic-Pentecostal Dialogue July 12, the pope said that through dialogue and reflection commission members have built “bonds of friendship, solidarity and mutual understanding between Catholics and Pentecostals.”

“It is my hope that this important anniversary will strengthen these bonds and renew your zeal to proclaim, as missionary disciples, the joy of the Gospel in the ecclesial community and in society as a whole,” the pope said in his message.

“Bearing witness to the Lord’s prayer that all may be one,” he said, “you will be able to help our brothers and sisters experience in their hearts and lives the transforming power of God’s love, mercy and grace.”

Members of the dialogue commission were meeting in Rome July 8-14 to continue discussions on “lex orandi, lex credendi,” usually translated and explained as, “what the church prays is what the church believes.”

The co-chairs of the dialogue commission are the Rev. Cecil M. Robeck of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, and Bishop Joseph C. Bambera of Scranton, Pennsylvania. The dialogue is staffed by the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity and by the Christian Unity Commission of the Pentecostal and Charismatic Churches of North America.

SCRANTON – Nearly 150 couples who are celebrating milestone anniversaries in 2022 were recognized at the Cathedral of Saint Peter on Sunday, June 26, 2022.

The Most Reverend Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, served as principal celebrant and homilist for the Diocese of Scranton’s annual Wedding Anniversary Mass that honors married couples who are celebrating their 25^th and 50^th anniversaries this year. Two couples in attendance even celebrated 65 years of marriage!

“I was excited about being part of this Mass because I’m grateful for all the gifts that God has given us,” Beverely Dench said. “Faith is what is going to get you through, the good times and bad.”

Beverely and Tim Dench are celebrating 50 years of wedded bliss this year. They have known each other since they were teenagers and say they always got along, even while owning a business.

“It is unbelievable how fast 50 years went,” Jim said. “It was the blink of an eye. I was thinking about all the struggles we went through, all the hard times, the good times, I’m grateful!”

Joan and Vince Narcoonis are also celebrating their Golden anniversary this year. Both said to make a marriage last, it takes hard work and dedication.

“Patience, for one thing,” Joan said. “Kindness, caring, love, understanding. There are so many different things that you have to have to keep a marriage together. Don’t let anyone think it is not work, because it is work! You just have to enjoy each other’s company and have love beyond anything else.”

“Just being able to say, ‘yeah, okay, you’re right,’” Vince added with a smile. “It is harmony. Without harmony it will not work.”

During the special liturgy, Bishop Bambera led all of the couples in renewing their Matrimonial Commitment before the Lord.

Rufino Cano, who is celebrating 25 years with his wife, said that moment was extremely special.

“I remembered when we just got married. I went back in time and said it’s unbelievable that 25 years later we’re here renewing our vows,” he said.

As parishioners of Saint John Neumann Parish, Rufino and his wife, Liliana, often talk with young couples who are living together but choosing not to get marriage. They are hoping to change that.

“If you put your faith in God, he’ll guide you through, Liliana said she explains to those couples. “Don’t be afraid. With God, you can do it.”

As he began his homily, Bishop Bambera first noted the importance of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which was handed down just 48 hours earlier.

“We all need to be thankful to God and so many that the Justices recognized the sanctity of human life, one of the fundamental teachings of our Church,” the bishop said to applause when he initially brought up the topic.

As he focused on the Word of God, the bishop turned to reflections on love – which he says never gives up.

“What we celebrate today in your marriages, is not merely endurance and determination but the mystery of God’s love for us – and at work in our lives,” Bishop Bambera said.

Calling marriage an “incredible institution,” he added that each couple provides hope to the world.

“Your marriages endured not because the years together have been perfect but because you have come to see your marriage as part of something much bigger than yourselves – the mystery of God’s love woven into your lives, your family and your marriage. Don’t think for an instant that you – or any of us – are here but by the grace of God and that is the reason we give thanks,” he continued.

As he concluded his homily, he asked each couple to look at one another.

“Realize how blessed and sacred your relationship is,” the bishop noted. “For all that you have been through, realize how blessed you are to have each other and for as familiar as those eyes may be, see through them to discover the abiding face of God, present with you on the journey, a presence that ultimately has brought you to this day.”

July 6, 2022

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

Reverend Andrew Amankwaa, to Parochial Vicar, Our Lady of the Snows Parish, Clarks Summit, effective July 6, 2022.  He will temporarily continue in Residence, Christ the King Parish, Archbald.

Reverend Sean G. Carpenter, from Pastor, Saint Maximilian Kolbe Parish, Pocono Pines, to Pastor, Resurrection Parish, Muncy, effective August 16, 2022.

Monsignor Michael J. Delaney, from Pastor, Our Lady of the Snows Parish, Clarks Summit, to Administrative Leave of Absence, effective July 1, 2022.

Reverend John M. Lapera, to Administrator pro tem, Our Lady of the Snows Parish, Clarks Summit, effective July 1, 2022. He will continue to serve as Pastor, Saint Gregory Parish, Clarks Green.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis said he plans to name two women to the committee that helps him choose bishops for the world’s Latin-rite dioceses.

In an interview July 2 with the Reuters news agency, the pope seemed to indicate the women would be members, not consultants or staff members, of the Dicastery for Bishops, which currently has only cardinals and bishops as members and five bishops and two priests as consultants.

“Two women will be appointed for the first time in the committee to elect bishops in the Congregation for Bishops,” Pope Francis told Philip Pullella, the Reuters’ Vatican correspondent.

“This way, things are opening up a bit,” the pope said when asked about expanding the role of women in church decision making.

Reuters published the pope’s remarks about women’s positions July 6.

Preparing nominations for the office of bishops is a long, multistep process. For most Latin-rite dioceses that are not in mission territories, the process begins with bishops submitting to their local archbishop the names of priests they think would be good bishops; once a year the bishops of the province discuss the names submitted and forward recommendations to the nuncio.

The nuncio studies the lists, investigates further, solicits feedback from people who know the candidate and forwards his recommendations to the Dicastery for Bishops.

The prefect of the dicastery, currently Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet, can make recommendations directly to the pope about transferring a bishop from one diocese to another or to an archdiocese. But if the candidate is still a priest, the members of the dicastery — currently 17 cardinals and six bishops — must review the dossiers and vote on the names to recommend to the pope. Although many of the members do not live in Rome, they usually meet twice a month on Thursdays to deliberate.

The prefect presents the nominations to the pope, who makes the final decision.

Pope Francis did not give Reuters the names of the women he intends to name to the dicastery, nor did he say when they would be announced.

The pope’s new apostolic constitution on the Roman Curia said, “The dicastery deals with all matters concerning the appointment of diocesan and titular bishops, apostolic administrators and, in general, the provision of the particular churches. It does so by considering the proposals presented by the particular churches, the episcopal conferences and the papal representations, and after having consulted the executive officers of the respective episcopal conference and the metropolitan (archbishop).”

“In appropriate ways, it also engages in this process the members of the people of God of the dioceses in question,” the document added.

While the constitution opened almost all roles in the Roman Curia to lay men and women, it also reserved a special place for cardinals as the members of dicasteries.

“The members of curial institutions are appointed from among the cardinals living in Rome or outside the city, to whom are added some bishops, especially diocesan or eparchial ones, insofar as they have expertise in the particular matters involved,” it said. “Depending on the nature of the dicastery, priests, deacons, those in institutes of consecrated life and societies of apostolic life and lay faithful may also be appointed members.”

“I am open to giving (women) an opportunity” to lead Vatican offices, the pope told Reuters. “There is now a woman deputy governor” of Vatican City State, Sister Raffaella Petrini, a member of the Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist, whom he appointed in November.

“As heads of dicasteries,” the pope continued, it is possible that women could lead the Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life, the Dicastery for Culture and Education or the Vatican Library, “which is almost a dicastery.”

Coincidently, Cardinal Kevin J. Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life, told the Jesuit-run America Magazine in late June, “I believe I could be the last cleric in charge of this dicastery.”

While the current secretary of the dicastery is a priest, the two undersecretaries are women: Linda Ghisoni, who heads the section for laity; and Gabriella Gambino, who heads the section for family and life.

Other female leaders at the Vatican include: Salesian Sister Alessandra Smerilli, secretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development; Barbara Jatta, director of the Vatican Museums; Xavière Missionary Sister Nathalie Becquart, undersecretary of the Synod of Bishops; Sister Carmen Ros Nortes, a member of the Sisters of Our Lady of Consolation, who serves as an undersecretary at the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life; Natasa Govekar, director of the theological-pastoral department of the Dicastery for Communication; and Cristiane Murray, vice director of the Vatican press office.

 

On Friday, March 26, 2022, the Diocese of Scranton received an allegation of sexual assault of an adult involving Monsignor Michael J. Delaney, Pastor, Our Lady of the Snows Parish, Clarks Summit. The reporting individual alleged Monsignor Delaney assaulted him in 2002, at which time Monsignor Delaney was Pastor of Saint Gabriel Church in Hazleton. The individual was 31 years old at the time of the alleged incident.

Upon receipt of this allegation, the Diocese of Scranton followed its established procedure relative to allegations of sexual assault not involving minors. In addition to notifying the Luzerne County District Attorney’s Office, Diocesan outside counsel retained a professional investigator to conduct an assessment of the credibility of the allegation. The investigator spoke with the individual making the complaint and examined all relevant records. The individual making this allegation accepted an opportunity to meet with Bishop Joseph C. Bambera on June 6, 2022.

Based upon its initial assessment, the Diocese determined the allegation appears credible. The Diocese’s initial assessment shows an imbalance of power and vulnerability that existed between Monsignor Delaney and the reporting individual, given cognitive impairment that the individual acknowledges, displays and has been documented and shared with the Diocese of Scranton.

Information regarding the allegation was presented to the Bishop’s Advisory Board for Clergy for review and recommendation. The Bishop’s Advisory Board for Clergy consists of lay, clergy and religious professionals and advises the bishop in his assessment of allegations of sexual misconduct not involving minors and in the determination of suitability for ministry of the accused.

The Diocese also informed Monsignor Delaney of the allegation.

Under both civil and canon law, a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty. However, the presumption of innocence does not preclude the Diocese from taking immediate, prudent action to protect the Church community in response to complaints and before the outcome of an internal canonical investigation and/or any external law enforcement investigation.

Bishop Bambera subsequently placed Monsignor Delaney on administrative leave and revoked his faculties to perform public priestly ministry (including celebrating Mass and hearing confessions). The Diocese also opened an internal (canonical) investigation according to the procedures established by canon law.

Monsignor Delaney was ordained to serve as a priest of the Diocese of Scranton on August 31, 1985. Upon ordination, his first assignment was assistant pastor of Immaculate Conception Church in Scranton. Between 1985-1986, Monsignor also served as catechist for Bishop Hannan High School. During the same time period, he served as chaplain to the deaf community and Moses Taylor Community Medical Center. In 1992, Monsignor Delaney became assistant pastor of Saint Gregory Church, Clarks Green. In July 1994, he took on his first role as pastor at Saint Gabriel Church, Hazleton. From 2004-2005, he also served as administrator of Sacred Heart Church and the National Shrine of the Sacred Heart, Harleigh. In June 2005, Monsignor Delaney became pastor of Nativity of Our Lord Church, Scranton. In 2008 and early 2009, Monsignor was placed on leaves of absence. In July 2008, he had residence at Saint John the Evangelist in Pittston. In May 2009, he was appointed assistant pastor at St. Paul and St. Clare, Scranton. In July 2012, he became administrator of Holy Cross Parish, Olyphant, and Blessed Sacrament Parish, Throop. Exactly one year later, he became the pastor of the linked parishes. In August 2021, Monsignor was appointed pastor at Our Lady of the Snows Parish, Clarks Summit.

Between 2007 and 2009, the Diocese previously received reports that Monsignor Delaney had possibly engaged in inappropriate conduct with four other adults. Law enforcement was engaged but no criminal charges were filed in relation to these incidents. In 2009, following a period of rehabilitation, Monsignor Delaney was allowed to return to ministry by the prior Diocesan administration. There have been no subsequent allegations of inappropriate conduct involving Monsignor Delaney until the current report.

Anyone who might have relevant information regarding this allegation – or any allegation of sexual abuse committed by a priest, deacon, religious, lay employee or volunteer of the Diocese of Scranton – is encouraged to immediately report the matter to law enforcement.

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SCRANTON – It was a win for the ages…and the “pre-ages.”

Pro-life perseverance and patience paid off on June 24, 2022, when the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that virtually erased and rendered mute the Court’s landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion on demand in America.

Catholics throughout the Diocese of Scranton were quick to note the high court’s reversal on the abortion issue was the answer to a half-century of prayers, coming— “God-incidentally” — on the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and the birth date of the late Nellie Gray, foundress of the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., and the first to coin the term “pro-life.”

Maryann Lawhon, president of the Hazleton Area Chapter of Pennsylvanians for Human Life (PHL), witnessed firsthand the horrors of legalized abortion in 1977, when as a young nurse working in the obstetrics unit of a West Virginia hospital she stumbled upon an abandoned newborn — completely unaware the Supreme Court’s Roe decision made the atrocity lawful.

After being reprimanded for bringing the revelation to the staff’s attention, and against instruction to “do nothing,” she held the infant, baptized him and declared, “I name you John. I will tell the world what I saw here today. I will be your voice.”

“Promise kept,” Lawhon proudly noted, referring to her “Voice of John” respect life educational apostolate based in Hazleton. “My immediate reaction was of absolute joy, a victory for the child in the womb!”

Lawhon said she shed “tears of joy” during the “surreal moment,” recalling decades of pro-life marches, peaceful protests outside of abortion clinics, prayer chains and carnation sales in defense of the right to life.

“Justice for the 63 million children who have died,” she continued. “A victory for humanity!”

So, mission accomplished?

“No,” Lawhon explained. “God has a plan, so this is a time to listen to the fears and address the concerns of a society which has known a world where abortion has been both justified and normalized.”

Maria Lutz Barna chimed in, “My mother, Mary Farley Pane and Loretta McNellis are dancing in heaven,” referring to Katherine Lutz and the two original founders of the Grassroots Hazleton Chapter.

“Today, the ‘voice of John’ has been heard,” Sugarloaf resident Caroline Cummins said in reaction to the monumental Supreme Court decision.

“No more Roe. God’s will was done on June 24, 2022. Praise the Sacred Heart of Jesus!” Jean Klingerman of Drums exclaimed.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The “sense of mystery” and awe Catholics should experience at Mass is not one prompted by Latin or by “creative” elements added to the celebration, but by an awareness of sacrifice of Christ and his real presence in the Eucharist, Pope Francis said.

“Beauty, just like truth, always engenders wonder, and when these are referred to the mystery of God, they lead to adoration,” he wrote in an apostolic letter “on the liturgical formation of the people of God.”

Titled “Desiderio Desideravi” (“I have earnestly desired”), the letter was released June 29, the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. The title comes from Luke 22:15 when, before the Last Supper, Jesus tells his disciples, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.”

In the letter, Pope Francis insisted that Catholics need to better understand the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council and its goal of promoting the “full, conscious, active and fruitful celebration” of the Mass.

“With this letter I simply want to invite the whole church to rediscover, to safeguard and to live the truth and power of the Christian celebration,” the pope wrote. “I want the beauty of the Christian celebration and its necessary consequences for the life of the church not to be spoiled by a superficial and foreshortened understanding of its value or, worse yet, by its being exploited in service of some ideological vision, no matter what the hue.”

“The priestly prayer of Jesus at the Last Supper that all may be one judges every one of our divisions around the bread broken, around the sacrament of mercy, the sign of unity, the bond of charity,” he said.

While his letter offered what he called a “meditation” on the power and beauty of the Mass, Pope Francis also reiterated his conviction of the need to limit celebrations of the liturgy according to the rite in use before the Second Vatican Council.

“We cannot go back to that ritual form which the council fathers, ‘cum Petro et sub Petro,’ (with and under Peter) felt the need to reform, approving, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and following their conscience as pastors, the principles from which was born the reform.”

The liturgical books approved by “the holy pontiffs St. Paul VI and St. John Paul II,” he said, “have guaranteed the fidelity of the reform of the council.”

Although the post-Vatican II Mass is celebrated in Latin and dozens of vernacular languages, he said, it is “one and the same prayer capable of expressing her (the church’s) unity.”

“As I have already written, I intend that this unity be reestablished in the whole church of the Roman rite,” he said, which is why in 2021 he promulgated “Traditionis Custodes” (Guardians of the Tradition), limiting celebrations of the Mass according to the rite used before the Second Vatican Council.

The bulk of the pope’s new letter focused on helping Catholics learn to recognize and be astounded by the great gift of the Mass and the Eucharist and how it is not simply a weekly “staging” or “representation” of the Last Supper but truly allows people of all times and all places to encounter the crucified and risen Lord and to eat his body and drink his blood.

And, the pope wrote, it is essential to recognize that the Mass does not belong to the priest or to any individual worshipper, but to Christ and his church.

“The liturgy does not say ‘I’ but ‘we,’ and any limitation on the breadth of this ‘we’ is always demonic,” he said. “The liturgy does not leave us alone to search out an individual supposed knowledge of the mystery of God. Rather, it takes us by the hand, together, as an assembly, to lead us deep within the mystery that the word and the sacramental signs reveal to us.”

“Consistent with all action of God,” he said, the liturgy leads people into the mystery using symbolic actions and signs.

Pope Francis acknowledged that some people claim that in reforming the liturgy and allowing celebrations of the Mass in the language of the local congregation it has somehow lost what is “meant by the vague expression ‘sense of mystery.'”

But the mystery celebrated and communicated, he said, is not about “a mysterious rite. It is, on the contrary, marveling at the fact that the salvific plan of God has been revealed in the paschal deed of Jesus.”

The liturgy is uses “things that are the exact opposite of spiritual abstractions: bread, wine, oil, water, fragrances, fire, ashes, rock, fabrics, colors, body, words, sounds, silences, gestures, space, movement, action, order, time, light,” he said. Those concrete things proclaim that “the whole of creation is a manifestation of the love of God, and from when that same love was manifested in its fullness in the cross of Jesus, all of creation was drawn toward it.”

However, Pope Francis wrote, the words and gestures and symbols to be used are only those approved by the church.

“Let us be clear here: every aspect of the celebration must be carefully tended to — space, time, gestures, words, objects, vestments, song, music — and every rubric must be observed,” he wrote. Otherwise, the celebrant or ministers risk “robbing from the assembly what is owed to it; namely, the paschal mystery celebrated according to the ritual that the church sets down.”

Pope Francis said “the non-acceptance of the liturgical reform” of Vatican II, as well as “a superficial understanding of it, distracts us from the obligation of finding responses to the question that I come back to repeating: How can we grow in our capacity to live in full the liturgical action? How do we continue to let ourselves be amazed at what happens in the celebration under our very eyes?”

“We are in need of a serious and dynamic liturgical formation,” he said.