Christian worshippers pray at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City of Jerusalem on Easter Sunday, March 31, 2024. / Credit: AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images

CNA Newsroom, Oct 7, 2024 / 16:00 pm (CNA).

On the World Day of Prayer and Fasting held on the Oct. 7 feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, Pope Francis addressed a letter to Catholics in the Middle East on the one-year anniversary of Hamas’ attack on Israel.

In his letter, the Holy Father expressed his closeness with those “who dwell in the lands of which the Scriptures speak most often,” suffering as a result of the ongoing conflict spreading throughout the region.

“As Christians, we must never tire of imploring peace from God. That is why, on this day, I have urged everyone to observe a day of prayer and fasting. Prayer and fasting are the weapons of love that change history,” reads the Holy Father’s letter, released one day after he prayed a rosary for peace at the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome.

“In order to bear fruit and give life, do not let yourselves be engulfed by the darkness that surrounds you. Planted in your sacred lands, become sprouts of hope, because the light of faith leads you to testify to love amid words of hatred, to encounter amid growing confrontation, to unity amid increasing hostility,” the pope said.

Middle East synod participants echo pope’s call for prayer 

Since the start of Synod on Synodality meetings in the Vatican this month, synod delegates and participants have echoed Pope Francis’ pleas for prayers and solidarity with communities across the war-ravaged region.

Synod participant Deacon Adel Abolouh of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church in Syria, who attended the pope’s Sunday rosary for peace, said it was a beautiful experience that inspires people to become “missionaries of peace.”

“After praying for peace we start having a mission of making peace happen,” he said in an interview with ACI Mena, CNA’s Arabic-language news partner.

“The pope’s invitation for prayer makes the world’s conscience realize that there are people seeking peace.”

Recalling the fear of his two children, who were awoken by Israeli missile strikes in his city of Damascus last week, Abolouh expressed his sadness for the younger generations, whose conversations now revolve around “war and weapons.” 

“The Church needs to keep pressuring the international public opinion to stop wars,” he said.

Rita Kouroumilian, a Lebanese Armenian Catholic participating in this month’s synod discussions, expressed her gratitude for the Holy Father’s closeness to the people of Lebanon, who are suffering following the escalation of the conflict last month that killed more than 500 people in a single day.

Reiterating Pope Francis’ call for peace, Kouroumilian invited everyone to continue to pray for peace in her country and the Middle East.

“The holy rosary is our only weapon against the enemy,” she shared with ACI Mena. “None other than prayer and fasting are capable of stopping the war. It is the only way to peace.”

On Saturday, Pope Francis also met with synod delegate Patriarch Raphaël Bedros XXI Minassian of the Armenian Catholic Church in Lebanon as a sign of fraternity with Lebanese Catholic leaders.

‘Praying and fasting cannot be done without almsgiving’

Following synod meetings on Monday morning, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, prefect of the Dicastery for the Service of Charity, invited all synod participants to donate alms for a parish priest serving Christian, Muslim, and Jewish communities near the priest’s church in Gaza.

“Prayer and fasting cannot be done without almsgiving, which must make us suffer, must even hurt us, because we give up what belongs to us to give to our neighbor who is in difficulty or is even about to die,” Krajewski stated.

According to the latest United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) report, approximately 41,600 Palestinian men, women, and children have been killed, and an additional 96,600 injured, since the escalation of the conflict one year ago. OCHA reported that more than 1,500 Israeli and foreign nationals have been killed since Hamas’ 2023 attack on Israel. 

Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance arrives to speak at a Trump-Vance campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 5, 2024. / Credit: JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 7, 2024 / 15:30 pm (CNA).

Speaking to reporters after the Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance signaled that a second Trump administration will seek to defund Planned Parenthood.

Planned Parenthood, which is the largest abortion provider in the U.S., took in nearly $700 million in tax-funded government grants, contracts, and Medicaid reimbursements in 2023, accounting for 34% of its total revenue, according to Planned Parenthood’s latest report.

Vance, who was responding to a question from RealClearPolitics, signaled that Planned Parenthood’s government funding may soon come to an end.

“On the question of defunding Planned Parenthood,” Vance said, “our view is we don’t think that taxpayers should fund-late term abortions. That has been a consistent view of the Trump campaign the first time around. It will remain a consistent view.”

Pro-life leaders have been calling on former president Donald Trump to make defunding Planned Parenthood a priority if he is reelected to the White House.

In 2018, the first Trump administration attempted to remove $60 million in funding from Planned Parenthood by making changes to the federal family planning program called Title X. The change was held up in court and ultimately rolled back under the Biden administration.

At the time of publication, the Trump campaign had not responded to CNA’s request for specifics on how the administration would renew its efforts to defund Planned Parenthood.

Vance’s comment follows months of the Trump campaign largely avoiding the abortion issue. It offers some of the first insight into what actions a second Trump administration would take to protect unborn life.

Both Vance and Trump have repeatedly said that abortion is exclusively a state issue. They have also called Democrats “radical” for legalizing abortion through all nine months of pregnancy, accusing them of even allowing infanticide.

In response to Vance’s announcement, the Washington Post reported Jenny Lawson, executive director of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, claimed that defunding Planned Parenthood “would only deepen and expand the public health crisis we’re already in thanks to Donald Trump, causing more people to suffer and die for lack of basic reproductive care.”

Lawson pointed out that the Hyde Amendment already prohibits federal funds from being directly used for abortion.

Lauren Hitt, a spokesperson for the Kamala Harris campaign, told NBC News that “a second Trump term is too big a risk for American women and their families” and that “the only way to stop an unchecked Trump and his MAGA allies from ripping away freedoms from American women is to elect Vice President Harris, who will defend women’s access to health care and reproductive freedom.”

Meanwhile, Kristi Hamrick, a representative for the national pro-life group Students for Life Action, compared tax-dollar funding for Planned Parenthood a “cancer” in the federal budget. She called Vance’s announcement “good news.” 

According to Hamrick, Students for Life has been in contact with the Trump campaign and has been urging the former president to commit to defunding Planned Parenthood. 

“Students for Life Action has taken President Trump at his word, that he wants to end federal engagement with abortion,” Hamrick told CNA. “That begins with ending federal funding, because as long as you are using federal tax dollars to pay for something, the issue is federal.”

She also said Students for Life has called for the Trump campaign to urge voters to vote “no” in all 10 of the state abortion initiatives on the ballot this November.

“The GOP said in their platform that they did not support late-term abortion — and that is empowered by those extreme measures,” she said.

Planned Parenthood performed 392,715 abortions in 2023, according to its 2023 report. According to a Pew Research Center study published this year, about 1% of U.S. abortions — 9,301 — were late-term abortions, taking place at 21 weeks or after.

Fire and smoke rise at an area targeted by an Israeli airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburbs on Oct. 6, 2024. / Credit: FADEL ITANI/AFP via Getty Images

ACI MENA, Oct 7, 2024 / 15:00 pm (CNA).

Black smoke and raging fires lit up the sky as successive explosions rumbled through Beirut’s southern suburbs over the weekend, with Oct. 5 marking one of the most violent nights the Lebanese capital has experienced. As tensions escalate between Hezbollah and Israel, heavy airstrikes hit deep into areas already emptied of residents, spreading fear through neighboring cities and towns.

The deteriorating situation forces Lebanon’s government to address both political and humanitarian concerns as people flee the bombarded areas. The Church stands alongside the state, active on multiple fronts: pushing diplomatically for a cease-fire and peace, providing aid to victims, and maintaining continuous prayer vigils.

After what many have called the most violent night since fighting intensified in Lebanon, Cardinal Bechara Boutros Al-Rahi, the Maronite patriarch, spoke out reaffirming his stance on this war and its consequences. 

“Our political leaders must set aside their differences and unite with a sense of historic duty,” he stated. “They need to seriously work on electing a president who has both domestic and international support.”

Presiding over the Sunday of the Rosary Mass, Al-Rahi added from his patriarchal summer residence in Diman, northern Lebanon: “Electing a president is crucial right now. This leader will need to unite the nation, enforce Resolution 1701 and a cease-fire, handle talks about Lebanon’s regional role, get Parliament and cabinet working again, rebuild Lebanon’s standing in Arab and world communities, and help over a million displaced Lebanese.”

Lebanon has been without a president since Oct. 31, 2022. As head of state, this position is always held by a Maronite Christian.

Al-Rahi ended the Mass with a prayer: “Let us pray, brothers and sisters, for an end to the war in Lebanon, for the safe return of the displaced, and for the swift election of a president. Let us also pray for the commitment of our government, both governmental and nongovernmental institutions, and for collective and individual initiatives to provide aid to displaced families throughout Lebanon, including those from the south, Beirut, Baalbek, and other regions. May God have mercy on us, our people, and our wounded nation.”

Minassian’s call

On the international level, Armenian Catholic Patriarch Raphaël Bedros XXI Minassian brought his concerns to Pope Francis at the Vatican on Oct. 5. He painted a harrowing picture of the war’s devastation in Lebanon, asking the Holy Father to “be a voice for peace and to call upon the international community to provide humanitarian aid swiftly and support de-escalation efforts."’

This article was first published by ACI Mena, CNA's Arabic-language partner, and has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Members of St. Monica Widows Group pray during Mass at St. Aloysius Gonzaga Ojolla Parish in the Archdiocese of Kisumu in Kenya. / Credit: Agnes Aineah/ACI Africa

ACI Africa, Oct 7, 2024 / 14:30 pm (CNA).

Susan Auma has known little rest since 2001 when her husband died, leaving her with two toddlers. Widowed at just 27, Auma found herself fighting to survive in her matrimonial home where she was surrounded by hostility for refusing to be remarried.

Auma’s tribulations started before the burial of her husband when her brothers-in-law instructed her to surrender her husband’s property. The idea had been carefully crafted to leave Auma and her sons vulnerable and in need of a man to take care of them.

Then came the rituals, starting with shaving her head clean, and the ultimate cleansing, which was to involve “ritual sex” with a stranger and allow herself to enter into a polygamous union.

Auma refused to participate in all the traditions that were laid before her, accepting the wrath of her husband’s relatives instead. They called her stubborn and threw her out of her home. She was left to fight, many years later, for her husband’s parcel of land to be able to secure her son’s future.

Auma’s tribulations are not isolated in western Kenya, specifically among the Luo tribe, where “wife inheritance” is a deeply entrenched tradition requiring a widow to immediately accept another marriage proposal, preferably from her late husband’s male relatives.

Everything, including the unthinkable, is done to leave the widow vulnerable, including destroying her house. The man who offers to build the widow’s house “inherits” her by default. Orphaned children are incited against their mother, forcing her to accept to be inherited. Animosity deepens between sons and their mothers who refuse to be inherited.

This is why many members of St. Monica Widows Group, a support group in Kenya’s Archdiocese of Kisumu, are “alone in the world.” Children are pressured to want nothing to do with their mothers who chose Christianity over tradition.

St. Monica Widows Group was started in 1984 in the areas served by the Archdiocese of Kisumu. At the time of its founding, the situation was dire. According to Father Lawrence Omollo, the group’s chaplain, women who were kicked out of their homes for refusing to be inherited were being taken in by Catholic mission centers.

“Wife inheritance has been a great pastoral challenge in this region,” Omollo told ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, in an interview on Oct. 2 at St. Aloysius Gonzaga Ojolla Parish in the Kisumu Archdiocese, where members of the group had just met for Mass.

“St. Monica Widows Group was created as a support group for widows where they found solace in knowing that they were not alone in their rejection by society and in many other challenges they faced,” Omollo explained.

His words echo those of Archbishop Maurice Muhatia Makumba of the Archdiocese of Kisumu, who has admitted that “wife inheritance” has been “a serious” pastoral challenge in Nyanza, a region served by the archdiocese.

The archbishop said the St. Monica Widows Group was started to rescue widows whose only other option was to be “inherited” and become part of a polygamous union.

“Inheritance is a serious challenge. It is a cultural issue but we are overcoming it slowly by slowly because by forming this group of St. Monica Widows, more and more ladies are opting to join this particular group and refuse to be inherited,” he said.

The archbishop explained that for refusing to be inherited, widows in Nyanza “are ostracized by their communities.”

“Some are rejected. Some lose all their inheritance because of that. They have no access to the property left behind by the husbands,” he explained.

Reports have said widowhood is a source of great distress among the Luo of Kenya’s Nyanza region. Their tribulations include endless court battles for property, rejection, and being blamed for any misfortune that befalls their families.

Such was the case for Margaret Omwa, who joined St. Monica Widows Group in 1996 following the death of her husband.

“I passed through a lot,” Omwa told ACI Africa. “My husband died in an accident when we were just building our house. On his death, his relatives roofed a small section of the house and left the rest bare. It was a trap to oblige me to get a man who would complete the entire roofing. None of the people I contacted accepted to complete the roofing.”

“My husband’s relatives then started inciting my children against me, starting with my first son. He totally refused to step inside my house. He wouldn’t eat my food and refused to talk to me. He saw me as an enemy because I had refused to be inherited,” she said.

Her estranged son, who was living with HIV, was also made to believe that it was his mother’s “uncleanliness” that had made him unwell.

“I was blamed for any misfortune that befell the family,” Omwa shared. “Eventually, my late husband’s relatives convinced my son to go and rent himself a house away from me. I am grateful that on his deathbed, he had accepted that he had HIV. We were also on talking terms.”

But Omwa’s relationship with her in-laws never improved, she said, explaining: “They did very bad things to me in an attempt to get me remarried. They held clan meetings with me to decide my punishment. But I kept reminding them that I had made a vow on my husband’s burial day that I only had a place for him in my life, that I didn’t have any space left for another man.”

“When all their attempts failed, they left alongside my son, swearing never to help me again,” she recalled.

Omollo told ACI Africa that while other people believe in the vow “until death do us part,” the widows of St. Monica say “until death unites us” when their husbands die and refuse to be remarried.

“St. Monica’s Group of Widows are people who want to be true to the sacraments of baptism and matrimony; those who allow nothing to get in the way of partaking in holy Communion — not even tradition,” Omollo said.

“We also have auxiliary members who support the group’s activities and continue being members when their spouses pass on,” he said.

In the Archdiocese of Kisumu, St. Monica’s Widows Group is one of the lay apostolate groups associated with Small Christian Communities (SCCs). The group is also engaging other Catholic dioceses to get to the national level.

“Organization starts at the SCCs because it is at the grassroots that the challenges of these widows are best understood,” Omollo explained.

The activities of the group include prayer and support of the priests with the little that the widows have, Omollo said. “Every November, the widows tend to the graves of deceased priests. They clean the graves, organize holy Mass for them, and hold prayers at the graveyards of departed priests in the archdiocese.”

They also build houses for those among them who have been thrown out by the relatives of their deceased husbands. 

The widows also support orphans who, according to the group’s chairperson, Roselyne Auma, are always left under the care of their elderly grandmothers.

In an attempt to explain the high HIV prevalence in Nyanza, Roselyne Auma, who joined the group in 2002 following her husband’s death, said that widows often remarry unaware that their late husbands infected them with the virus.

Others do not believe that HIV exists and blame the virus-related illnesses on witchcraft, Auma said, adding: “The man who performs ritual sex sleeps with many women since his job is to cleanse the widows. This is one of the leading reasons for the spread of the virus.”

Apart from the care of orphans, members of St. Monica Widows Group bury their own members whom the rest of the society considers unclean even in death. The women do everything, starting with the digging of the grave.

Describing the stigma against those who refuse to get remarried, Susan Auma said: “The moment you decide to follow Christ and reject traditions, you face instant rejection. You are stigmatized and separated from your children. You are considered unclean and unworthy to mingle with anyone including your children.”

She said that even with Christianity, there are people who go to church and still engage in traditional rituals.

Susan Auma said that being together with other widows of St. Monica reduces the loneliness and the pain that one experiences. 

“With all the rejection, it is so easy for one to get depressed. But when we come together and visit each other, everything becomes easier,” she said.

“Priests are the only people we run to with our challenges. Sometimes, we overwhelm them with our issues,” she said.

Responding to the inspiration behind the name St. Monica, Father Omollo told ACI Africa: “The widows here find it easy to relate with St. Monica, who was not only a widow but also African. They put themselves in the position of St. Monica, the mother of St. Augustine.”

“When Augustine became stubborn, his mother became close to priests, asking them to pray for her son. Eventually, Augustine became a priest and a bishop. This is what our widows do in an effort to protect their children from the influence of harmful traditions,” he said.

This article was first published by ACI Africa, CNA's news partner in Africa, and has been adapted for CNA.

Delegates attend a session of the 16th General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops at the Paul VI Hall on Oct. 5, 2024, in Vatican City. / Credit: Franco Origlia/Getty Images

Vatican City, Oct 7, 2024 / 13:45 pm (CNA).

While “women deacons” are not formally up for discussion at the Synod on Synodality assembly this month, the official Vatican press conference for the synod on Monday showcased a female delegate who spoke about women experiencing “a call to priesthood.”

Synod delegate Sister Mary Theresa Barron, OLA, said that while we tend to look at the topic of women deacons from the perspective of “can women or can they not be ordained in the Church today?” — she believes that the question should also be asked in another way.

“I think we have to look at the question very much from … the Spirit. ‘Is the Spirit calling women?’ Because some women do sense a call to priesthood or diaconate,” she said on Oct. 7. 

Barron currently serves as the president of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG), a Catholic organization representing 600,000 religious sisters from 80 countries. She said that “even if at the moment we may not be looking at ordained ministry” for women, she is asking to continue the discussion.

“I think we have to look at broader than just can or can we not from a theological or a canonical point of view, but in terms of the spirit calling to ministry today and in terms … of the needs of mission today,” Barron said.

The sister spoke in response to a question from a female Catholic journalist who asked her to describe ways that women can “take on meaningful leadership and governance roles that don’t necessarily have to do with ordination.”

“I think one of the calls from this synod is to share the possibilities that are open to women for governance, leadership roles within the Church, and there are many good practices from all around the world,” she said. “But we as Catholics are very ignorant of the possibilities that are there.”

As a synod delegate, Barron will have the opportunity to meet with the synod study group that is focused on the subject of women deacons on Oct. 18 to provide her input for them to consider on this topic.

Archbishop Gintaras Grušas, another synod delegate who spoke at the press conference, pointed out that if any Catholics around the world would also like to submit their input to any of the 10 study groups established by the pope, they can send their contributions, observations, and proposals to the General Secretariat of the Synod, who has promised to collect and pass on such materials to the groups concerned.

After hearing Barron’s comments, Cardinal Oswald Gracias, the archbishop of Bombay and a member of the Council of Cardinals established to advise Pope Francis, intervened to add that the conversation on the women’s diaconate “has been taken off and given to part of a study group which is studying theological questions.”

“So it will not be discussed at the synod,” Gracias underlined at the synod press conference.

“I may mention here also that I am a member of the Council of Cardinals, and for the last three meetings which we’ve had with the Holy Father, the Council of Cardinals, there’s been one session devoted entirely to the role of women in the Church — theological concerns, pastoral concerns, canonical concerns,” Gracias said. 

“So it’s a matter of great importance, concern. And the Holy Father has personally taken an interest in this,” the cardinal added.

The possibility of allowing Catholic women to become permanent deacons has been a persistent issue in Francis’ pontificate. And while the pope has on multiple occasions indicated his willingness to study the issue, especially the historic figure of the deaconess in the early Church, he has also given a firm response that “deacons with holy orders” is not a possibility for women.

“Women are of great service as women, not as ministers, as ministers in this regard, within the holy orders,” he told CBS News anchor Norah O’Donnell during an appearance on the program “60 Minutes” in May.

Though women’s admission to ministries such as the diaconate was one of the big topics at the monthlong synod assembly last year, organizers have said the issue is now in the hands of experts after Pope Francis created a commission in the Vatican’s doctrine office to study the question at the request of 2023 synod delegates.

Instead synod delegates in the 2024 assembly have been asked to discuss less controversial proposals, including expanding the role of women in diocesan leadership.

Grušas, a Lithuanian-American who is participating in the synod as the president of the Council of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe, noted that there were comments in the synod hall on how what was said in the first part of the section on women in the Instrumentum Laboris, or working document guiding the synod discussions, “basically all applies to laymen as well.”

“There were comments also on the fact that the charisms of the vocations of lay Christians in families, in the roles that they are currently doing — it could be in hospitals, it could be in schools — has to be valued as well,” he said.

“The role of women and men, wherever they are working in the Church, must be correctly valued. And one or another part of the discourse should not skew that vocational call,” he added.

Panelists discuss how the transgender movement is impacting young women in particular at the 2024 Pray Vote Stand Summit panel “Saving America’s Daughters: Title IX and the Fight for Fairness.” From left to right: moderator Joseph Backholm, Macy Petty, Doreen Denny, and William Bock. / Credit: Madalaine Elhabbal/CNA

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 7, 2024 / 13:00 pm (CNA).

Panelists at the annual Pray Vote Stand Summit in Washington, D.C., this past weekend discussed how the transgender movement is impacting young women in particular.

In a panel discussion titled “Saving America’s Daughters: Title IX and the Fight for Fairness,” former NCAA volleyball player Macy Petty joined sports attorney William Bock and Doreen Denny, a senior adviser at Concerned Women for America, to discuss the predicament faced by female athletes who have been forced to compete against and share spaces with biological males.

Pray Vote Stand is an annual gathering of mostly evangelical, politically engaged conservatives.

“Never in a million years would I have thought we would one day actually discuss whether or not women deserve their own spaces,” Petty told those gathered at the summit while sharing her experience as a female athlete who had competed against a biological male.

As a high school volleyball player five years ago, Petty and her teammates were forced to play against a team that had a biological male. The trans-identifying athlete was “playing on a net seven inches shorter than he should have as a man,” according to Petty, who is also an activist with Concerned Women for America.

“So he embarrassed all of us, smashing the ball in our faces in front of the college scouts,” she recalled. Petty went on to point out the disappointment of female athletes who have lost out on opportunities because they were forced to compete against men. 

Bock testified to his extensive experience as a litigator in sports law — dealing with issues including doping and Title IX — noting that men have a clear biological and physical advantage over women in sports.

The Christian attorney called the issue “an effort to deny truth and the image of the Creator God” and encouraged believers to “take the burden off of the young ladies who are playing sports” by advocating for them within their communities and the wider public sphere.

Support for inclusion of biological males in women’s sports, despite the apparent risk, is only going to continue, Denny said, “because of what [the] Biden-Harris administration has done with Title IX” and because of how the NCAA has also continued to “double down” on those policies.

As CNA reported in April, the Biden-Harris administration issued a redefinition of Title IX to include protections against discrimination on the basis of gender identity — thereby granting individuals the right to participate in programs such as organized sports that are “consistent with their gender identity” rather than their biological sex.

Opponents of the proposed changes, which were scheduled to go into effect in August, succeeded in blocking in court the administration’s expanded regulations governing the 1972 law that was originally passed to protect women from discrimination in educational spaces. 

During a related summit panel titled “Attorneys General and the War to Stop the Runaway Left,” Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall also discussed how the promotion of gender ideology has affected young girls.

Yost spoke about his experience successfully defending an Ohio law passed earlier this year that bans minor sex-change surgeries and male participation in women’s sports. He referenced the participation in the process of Chloe Cole, a prominent detransitioner and activist who has testified before Congress on how her childhood was “ruined” because of the puberty blockers and double mastectomy she underwent as a minor.

While Yost acknowledged the existence of “tragic” cases where children suffer on account of gender dysphoria, he addressed those gathered at the summit: “How about a young girl who’s confused, the doctors change her body, and she grows up and gets her head on straight, and she says, I want to be a wife. I want to have babies. And she can’t because of what was done to her when she was a vulnerable kid.”

“That’s tragic, too,” he added.

The faithful stand at attention for the national anthem at the archdiocesan Red Mass at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. / Credit: Archdiocese of Washington

CNA Staff, Oct 7, 2024 / 12:15 pm (CNA).

The Archdiocese of Washington on Sunday celebrated its annual Red Mass ahead of the opening of the Supreme Court’s October 2024 term, a liturgy that the archdiocese said invokes “God’s guidance and blessing on justices, judges, diplomats, attorneys, and government officials.”

Washington Archbishop Cardinal Wilton Gregory was the principal celebrant at the Mass while Cardinal Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States, concelebrated. Deacon Darryl Kelley offered the homily. The assembly sang the “Star-Spangled Banner” prior to the opening of the Mass.

Attendees at the liturgy included Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. as well as associate Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. Elizabeth Barchas Prelogar, the U.S. solicitor general, was also in attendance.

Red Masses are offered for those who work in all legal professions. The practice dates back to the 13th century.

The Washington archdiocesan Red Mass, held at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in downtown Washington, is sponsored by the John Carroll Society, an organization of Catholic professionals. The group has been sponsoring the Mass for over 70 years. 

Kelley in his homily said the Mass was not a “mere social event at the beginning of the judicial year.”

“Today, in this nation’s ongoing work to form a more perfect union in justice, genuine liberty, and the common good, we praise God for the blessings and guidance of the spirit of truth and gifts,” Kelley said.

It is “no coincidence,” Kelley said, that the Red Mass first began centuries ago “when the foundation of our law today was being developed.” 

“And the foundation of our law is the common law,” he said, “which is rightly grounded in fundamental principles and right reason.” 

The Red Mass serves as a “recognition that there is a higher, timeless, unwritten, transcendent law of justice, such that law, per se, is something that is discovered, or received — not arbitrarily created or decreed,” the deacon noted. 

Quoting the 13th-century English jurist Henry de Bracton, Kelley noted that God “is the author of justice.”

The Mass was preceded by remarks on the history of the John Carroll Society by board of governors member Liz Young. 

In addition to the annual Red Mass, the John Carroll Society also sponsors a yearly “Rose Mass,” meant to “invoke God’s blessings on the medical, dental, nursing, and allied workers and the many health care institutions in the Archdiocese of Washington.”

U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justices Brett Kavanaugh (left) and Neil Gorsuch (right) arrive for President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on March 7, 2024. / Credit: MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 7, 2024 / 09:30 am (CNA).

Ahead of the United States Supreme Court’s newest term, Justice Brett Kavanaugh lauded recent court decisions that have protected religious liberty and halted discrimination against religious organizations. 

During an event hosted by the Center for the Constitution and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition (CIT) at The Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law, Kavanaugh said religious liberty is “one area in the six years I’ve been on the court that I think we’ve made — in my view — correct and important strides.”

Kavanaugh, who was nominated to the court by former president Donald Trump in 2018, is one of the six Catholic justices on the Supreme Court. He made the comments during an hourlong interview on Sept. 26 by CIT Director J. Joel Alicea. 

During the talk, Kavanaugh referenced four cases specifically: the 2017 Trinity Lutheran decision, the 2020 Espinoza decision, the 2022 Shurtleff decision, and the 2022 Carson decision.

All four cases dealt with government discrimination against religious institutions and answered questions about the First Amendment. 

In Trinity Lutheran, Espinoza, and Carson, the Supreme Court ruled that governments cannot deny public benefits or public money to religious organizations simply because they have a religious affiliation. This means that school voucher programs and other government funding programs that are available to secular organizations must also be available to religious ones.

The government entities that initially denied funds to the religious organizations claimed they did so because of the establishment clause of the First Amendment, which states the government cannot make laws “respecting an establishment of religion.” The government argued that if it provided those funds to religious organizations, they would be in violation of the clause.

Kavanaugh said during the talk that this interpretation is “a misreading of our history and tradition” and said policies that outright exclude religious organizations are “unlawful” under both the First Amendment and the 14th Amendment.

The Supreme Court ruled in all three cases that providing those funds does not violate the establishment clause.

In reality, the court found that offering funding programs to secular organizations — and denying them to similar religious organizations — was discrimination that violated the First Amendment protection to freely practice one’s religion and the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection under the law.

“I think one of the principles that’s been reinforced and elaborated on is that discrimination against religion, against religious people, against religious speech, [and] against religious organizations, is not required by the establishment clause — and indeed is prohibited by the free exercise clause and the equal protection clause,” Kavanaugh said.

Similarly, in the Shurtleff case, the Supreme Court ruled that the city of Boston discriminated against a Christian organization by refusing to let it fly an ecumenical Christian flag at City Hall, even though the city allowed secular groups to fly various flags.

“I think we’ve … reinforced a critical principle of religious equality and religious liberty in those cases and hopefully corrected some of the confusion from litigation-shy local attorneys,” Kavanaugh added. “... I feel very proud of that for recognizing the constitutional protection of religious equality and religious liberty.”

The Supreme Court did not take up any religious liberty cases in its last term but could choose to hear several religious liberty cases in its upcoming term that begins this week.

Kavanaugh discusses Catholic intellectual tradition

During the interview, Kavanaugh also discussed his faith and the Catholic intellectual tradition.

“The Catholic tradition … is reflected in several principles I try to think about daily,” Kavanaugh said.

Kavanaugh referenced Matthew 23:12, which states: “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” He said he thinks about this verse “to remember the importance of humility — that you don’t know it all; that you’re trying to learn from others.”

Kavanaugh also referenced Matthew 25, saying it highlights “the importance of feeding the hungry and caring for the sick and housing the homeless.”

The justice said in the past when he volunteered at Catholic Charities, “we’d always say … we serve them, we feed them, not because they’re Catholic, but because we’re Catholic.”

In reference to Catholic intellectual tradition, Kavanaugh said: “I really think of the same kinds of principles,” such as “trying to listen to all sides to try to be open-minded, to try to listen and learn, and to have inquiry and dialogue.”

“I think the Catholic intellectual tradition reflects this, which is inquiry and dialogue and listening and hearing different perspectives and having respectful back-and-forth, to always try to learn more and to understand more,” Kavanaugh said.

“So for me, the Catholic intellectual tradition builds on the Catholic experience and tradition more generally about being part of a broader community where you listen to others, help others, serve others, learn from others, and that’s how I think about it,” Kavanaugh said.

Parish-based Trinity House Community groups are now active in 25 parishes in nine states, including 12 parishes within the Diocese of Arlington. Each parish pays an annual subscription cost to gain access to the turnkey program (videos, discussion questions, handouts, core team guides). Most of the gatherings take place on Saturday evenings in the parish hall, following the anticipatory Mass, and last 90 minutes. Many of the groups (also called "Heaven in Your Home Gatherings") are 50-70 attendees, but some are as large as 125 or more. / Credit: Courtesy of Soren and Ever Johnson/Trinity House Community Group

CNA Staff, Oct 7, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Parental stress was cited as a public health challenge by U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, who noted in a Health and Human Services (HHS) advisory on the mental health and well-being of parents in late summer that parental stress is at an all-time high.  

Forty-one percent of parents say that most days they are too stressed to function, while 48% of parents say their stress is “completely overwhelming,” according to a 2023 study by the American Psychological Association 2023, which the HSS cited in its August advisory. 

In contrast, only 26% of other adults mark that they are this stressed.

“Something has to change,” Murthy wrote in the forward of the U.S. surgeon general’s advisory. Supporting parents “will require us to rethink cultural norms around parenting.”

Catholic leaders and those who minister to parents and families have also noticed this trend and are striving to address the lack of community and the stress that parents too often face. 

Catholic psychotherapist, author, and founding director of the Pastoral Solutions Institute Dr. Greg Popcak has noticed the crisis in his own work. 

“Parents in general are lonely and isolated,” he told CNA. “They’re cut off from the support that was traditionally offered by their families of origin and they’re completely overscheduled. The modern family is characterized by choosing activity over intimacy, which makes everyone — parents and kids — grumpy, lonely, and stressed and miserable.” 

Ever Johnson, who with her husband, Soren Johnson, directs Trinity House Community, a Catholic resource designed to help parents build faith and community for their families, agrees.

“Families are overwhelmed often with both parents working and the demands of kids’ schooling and extracurriculars,” she told CNA. “Social media and the atrophy of faith-filled community further contributes to a sense of FOMO [fear of missiing out], anxiety, and stress.”

Catholic middle school teacher Anne Marie Di Geronimo has observed a similar phenomenon among parents she encounters in her work.

“We’re seeing some of the ill effects that the internet has wrought,” Di Geronimo said. “All of these trains have crashed for parents, many of whom feel stressed and put a lot of pressure on themselves to prepare their kids for what they see as a more challenging future than what I faced. It’s harder to get a good-paying job. It’s harder to get into a college than it used to be.” 

Combating parental anxiety 

Di Geronimo, who teaches at St. Anne School in San Francisco, assigns a once-a-month homework activity designed to help students be more independent and parents to feel more comfortable taking a step back. 

The premise is simple: for homework, a student must try something new without the help of his or her parents (but with their permission). The result: parents can be less involved and kids can gain more independence and resilience. 

“When parents can step back, then they can allow their kids to take these small, measured risks while they’re still at home with supervision and support, then the parents can do less for the kids, while the kids can do more at home,” Di Geronimo said. “These kinds of experiences really grow their confidence.”

Di Geronimo noted that parents sometimes “feel that they have to do so much to enrich, to teach, to prepare” their kids.

“Sometimes it crosses over into enmeshment for parents, or doing too much,” she added. 

The independence homework assignment is part of a program called Let Grow, which offers free educational materials that are designed to help students become more independent and therefore less anxious. 

Lenore Skenazy, author of “Free Range Kids” and president of Let Grow, said that parents need to see their kids being independent just as much as the kids need to become independent. 

It’s a “national program to rewire parents so that they’re less anxious, even as it’s rewiring kids so that they’re less anxious,” Skenazy told CNA.

“If you want parents to feel less burdened, more hopeful, more trusting, more relaxed, happier, and more filled with faith, they have to let go,” Skenazy said.

Let Grow also has “play club” programs designed to let kids play independently before and after school, with “a lifeguard” rather than a strict chaperone. “Independence and free play have been going down for a long time,” Skenazy explained.

“Less anxious parents will mean less anxious kids, and less anxious kids will mean less anxious parents,” she said.

Skenazy sees parents grow by practicing giving their kids more independence. She compares her program to exposure therapy.

“Letting your kid go in a culture that has told you that your kid is in constant danger is an act of bravery,” she said. “You’re getting out of your comfort zone, even as the kid is getting out of theirs. And then seeing the kid come back again, it’s like you’ve been through the fire and you’ve come out hardened, you’re stronger, and that feels great.”

Building support among Catholic parents

Catholic parents need more support than they are currently given by the Church, according to Popcak, who has noticed an uptick in parental stress in his work.

“We need to give parents clear guidance for building loving, joyful, faithful family lives,” Popcak said. “We need to help them recapture their quality of life as families.”

“We need to give them real hope that it’s possible to raise faithful kids in today’s world and we need to give them the support that’s necessary to pull this off,” he added. 

Popcak recently founded a website and app designed to support Catholic parents through building community and offering resources designed to help parents keep their kids in the faith. 

The app, CatholicHOM (Households on Mission) is designed to build community, help parents raise kids who stay Catholic, and enable parishes to run monthly parent support groups. 

CatholicHOM’s main focus, Popcak said, is “building a community of support for Catholic parents and connecting them with our team of professional pastoral counselors and Catholic family life coaches so they can get daily support, encouragement, and resources they need to create joyful, loving, faithful Catholic family lives.”

“We’re giving parents a community where they share struggles and successes, get support, and grow together,” Popcak said.

Communion in the home 

Trinity House Community is another ministry designed to bolster the lives of parents and families. The organization offers family formation, fellowship, and materials to help parents pass their faith on to their children.

“We inspire Catholic parents with a vision for their domestic church or ‘Trinity House,’ a vision rooted in the Church’s teaching that the family is a communion of persons in the image of the Holy Trinity,” Soren Johnson told CNA. 

Trinity House also helps parishes create local groups that invite parents and kids to gather. 

“In addition to a vision and practical roadmap, today’s families need a community which can provide encouragement, fellowship, and accountability as they lead their children heavenwards,” Soren Johnson noted.

Each meeting follows the “Trinity House Model,” designed to build community as the group works through aspects of family life: faith life, relationships, household economy, family culture, and hospitality and service. 

“Too often, the only all-family event at the local parish is the annual picnic,” he continued. “In addition to strong women’s groups, men’s groups, young adult groups, and others, parishes need to open up the parish hall for frequent opportunities for entire families to build community.” 

In response to the stress crisis, Ever Johnson said that “we need to re-propose the Church’s beautiful vision for the family, rooted in the peace of the communion of the Holy Trinity, and lived out in practical ways such as the holy Sabbath, family meals, family prayer, and an immersive, beautiful, loving Catholic experience within the home.” 

Hospitality for families

The California bishops are also taking steps to celebrate and support marriage and families.

In their recently launched “Radiate Love” initiative, designed to celebrate and support marriage and families, the bishops are encouraging their flocks to take steps to support families on the diocesan, parish, and family levels.

Molly Sheahan, associate director for Healthy Families for the California Catholic Conference, said that Catholic communities can take many steps to better support families, beginning at Mass.

“Acknowledging them in the prayers of the faithful or with a special blessing shows families that they’re seen and valued by their parish community,” she told CNA.

Sheahan also recommended that parishes “create opportunities for connection.”

“Intentional hospitality at church as a place outside of work or school where families are welcome goes a long way,” she noted. “Inviting families to the church picnic, family adoration, time at the park after Mass, or moms’ and dads’ groups both promotes family closeness and helps build community.”

In response to the initiative, California parishes and dioceses are building marriage ministries and family retreats and connecting with young adults to address their questions about dating and marriage, Sheahan said. 

“Parishes are hosting skills-building workshops for married couples to help with things like communication, conflict resolution, active listening, and strengthening their relationship,” she added. “Others are hosting date nights with child care, or offering date night kits at home, to help couples reconnect and spend time together.” 

Catholics in California are already feeling the effect. 

“It’s renewing hope in our communities that marriage is good for people, for children, and for our Church,” Sheahan said.

From left to right: Deacon Omar F.A. Gutierrez, notary in the cause for canonization, Steve Wolf, vice postulator in the cause for canonization and a Boys Town alumnus, and Father Ryan Lewis, JCL, the archbishop’s delegate. / Credit: EWTN screenshot/Francesca Pollio Fenton/CNA

CNA Staff, Oct 7, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

A new film depicting the life and work of Father Edward J. Flanagan titled “Heart of a Servant: The Father Flanagan Story” will be released in theaters across the United States for one night only on Tuesday, Oct. 8.

The film portrays the Catholic priest’s unwavering commitment to caring for abandoned and orphaned youth starting from the Great Depression to after World War II, all while defying racist laws in order to serve the most vulnerable and give them hope for a future. The film covers a range of topics — from Flanagan’s health issues to his immigrating to the United States to his founding of Boys Town, Nebraska.

The film is narrated by popular Catholic actor Jonathan Roumie, known for his role as Jesus Christ in “The Chosen.”

The movie had its premiere on Sept. 13 in Boys Town, where CNA had the opportunity to sit down with the several of the individuals involved in Servant of God Edward Flanagan’s cause for canonization.

CNA spoke with Deacon Omar F.A. Gutierrez, notary in the cause for canonization, Father Ryan Lewis, JCL, the archbishop’s delegate, and Steve Wolf, vice postulator in the cause for canonization and a Boys Town alumnus.

Wolf explained that as with any cause for canonization, Flanagan’s began with a “groundswell of devotion among his former boys and girls, former youth.”

From there, the challenge became quantifying the growing devotion before meeting with the archbishop to present the case. This was done through demonstrating the thousands of prayer cards distributed, nationally and internationally, and presenting anecdotal information about Flanagan from people who had admired him over the years and during his lifetime.

Archbishop George Lucas of Omaha accepted the petition and formally opened Flanagan’s cause in 2012. The diocesan phase included creating a historical and theological commission to dig deeper into his life and teachings. The archdiocese closed the diocesan phase in 2015.

In 2019, Flanagan’s cause advanced with the presentation of the “positio,” which summarizes the records collected by the Archdiocese of Omaha and argues that Flanagan demonstrated heroic virtue. It was presented to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints on July 22, 2019, along with a letter of support from Lucas.  

“It’s been very exciting. Everything that we did with regard to his life — it was very invasive in the sense of its thorough looking into his life — and the more we dug and the deeper we dug the more and more convinced we became of this man’s sanctity, of his holiness,” Lewis said. “We knew he was a good man and a good priest but he really excelled in the life of virtue.” 

Lewis added that those involved in Flanagan’s cause have come to believe that one of the reasons his foundation, Boys Town, has performed so well over the years is because “it was built on the foundation of such a holy man.”

Wolf added that he believes “his example is needed now more than ever.”

“He offers a guide for people that want to help families in crisis, children in crisis,” he said. “He’s as relevant in the things he said, the way he approached youth care, the evolution of his mission here in Boys Town — it’s just so fundamentally needed now as much as ever.”

Lewis also pointed out that highlighting the life of a priest who did such important work with the youth can serve as a “morale boost to the Catholic Church here in America.”

“Here in America where we have the abuse crisis, to lift up a priest like him, an American priest who worked with youth and did so in such a holy, magnificent way, positive way, impacting so many lives,” he said, “I think it would be a wonderful example and what a morale boost to the Catholic Church here in America, to the Catholic Church in Ireland, and even beyond, to be able to lift this American priest up and say look at this positive example and emblematic of all the many priests who serve so faithfully and so well but sometimes get a bad rap.”

Gutierrez, who has been a deacon for seven years, shared that the title of the film, “Heart of a Servant,” “speaks to my diaconate.”

“I think his life of service came from his identity as a priest. He knew he was called to the priesthood, and the film tells the story about how because of health he kept failing out and failing out but he maintained,” he said. “And I think part of the fruit of his life is the fruit of him being faithful to his identity, and as a deacon that’s what we’re called to do as well — to be faithful to our identities as servants and really serve God’s people and allow the Lord to have that bear fruit.”

The three men shared that they hope this movie will help advance his cause by having more people come to know his story and feel inspired to ask for his intercession.

“I think whoever views it, whether they knew Flanagan or not, is going to get not just a look at him but a really excellent view of his life, which should inspire them to pray to him and ask for his intercession,” Lewis expressed.

“We want to lift him up and hopefully count him among the saints in heaven.”