By Bishop Joseph R. Kopacz, D.D. How great is your name, O Lord our God, through all the earth! (Psalm 8:2)
During the third weekend of October, the Propagation of the Faith, the world-wide mission arm of the Catholic Church, is at the forefront of World Mission Sunday. This year’s theme chosen by Pope Francis was “Hearts on Fire, Feet on the Move.” The Holy Father again shed light on the Emmaus story when the risen Lord walked alongside two forlorn disciples, crushed by the crucifixion. In that encounter their hearts began to burn while walking, they recognized the stranger at table in the breaking of the bread and hurried on eagle’s wings to the other disciples to announce the Good News of the risen Lord’s appearance.
Bishop Joseph R. Kopacz, D.D.
World Mission Sunday magnifies the Great Commission of the Lord, the work of the church every day and in each generation to proclaim the Gospel to all the nations with hearts inflamed at the Eucharistic table, and a joyful sense of going in peace to love and serve the Lord. There is not a nation on the planet that is beyond the reach of the proclamation of the Good News and the gradual inculturation of the Gospel. Although the channels of modern communication are used widely and can traverse the most remote areas, the church is most faithful to the Lord’s mandate where she has boots on the ground. The light of the Gospel is often repulsed by the darkness of this world, but God’s grace prevails and many women and men, at home and abroad, embrace the Cross in order to be the Lord’s faithful witnesses. The sacrifice is often heroic in countries where religious persecution is virulent. The yearly review of discrimination and oppression that at times ends in martyrdom, exposes an appalling reality for those under daily duress. Yet, the voice of the Gospel cannot be silenced.
Most of the time those who labor in the Lord’s vineyard where lack of work is never an issue, do so below the radar. All of the church’s corporal and spiritual works of mercy, her commitment to justice and peace, to education, and to health care are all linked to the core work of evangelization. We are who we are and do what we do because we belong to Jesus Christ. “The gift we have received, give as a gift.” (Matthew 10:8)
The Gospel calls forth the best in others and cultivates the grace of a generous soul. “And whoever gives only a cup of cold water to one of these little ones to drink because he is a disciple – amen, I say to you, he or she will surely not lose their reward.”
Pope Francis, like Pope Benedict and Pope St. John Paul II in our post-modern world, have been joyful missionary disciples, embodying the Gospel from the center of the church and going to the margins of our world to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ with words of hope, justice and peace. Consider Pope Francis memorable pilgrimages in recent years.
During an ecumenical trip to South Sudan and the Republic of the Congo he prayed for reconciliation and a new day of hope for these war-torn nations. During the pandemic he brought the light of Gospel hope where the church has been decimated by war and internecine strive. In Canada he asked forgiveness for the abuse inflicted upon the indigenous peoples by the church and the Canadian government. In Mongolia, he celebrated Mass with the entire Catholic population which is less than the number of persons in our larger parishes.
At this time of terror, tragedy and war in the Holy Lands, Pope Francis has pleaded that “the only side we should be taking is the side of peace.” Whether it is in our own families, in our diocesan parishes exploring the deeper meaning of One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic, or the world-wide Synod on Synodality, the beginning and the end of our efforts is the faithful undertaking of the Lord’s Great Commission.
The church of nearly 2,000 years has raised up two incredible saints who are the co-patrons of the Missions. St. Francis Xavier, S.J. whose heart burned and whose feet took him as far as India and Japan. St. Therese of Lisieux, who although her feet did not carry her too far beyond her convent had a heart that God enflamed, transporting her to the ends of the earth by means of prayer and love.
St. Francis Xavier, pray for us! St. Therese, pray for us!
Our 4th Annual Homegrown Harvest Festival is in the books, but the work of calling forth men to the priesthood from our parishes continues. One of the most encouraging parts of the evening for me at St. Paul Flowood was the mixture of longtime vocation supporters and new faces that were there. The vision that we had for this event starting in 2020 was to bring together vocation supporters to encourage one another. It is difficult to consistently ask young men to consider the priesthood. It is difficult to look toward the future when the present has so many needs of its own. But the Lord tells us to ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest, and so we must keep encouraging one another and trusting that the Lord will bring forth good men to serve us in our parishes and schools.
The most encouraging part of this event has become the presentation by our seminarians. This year I asked Deacon Tristan to share a little bit about his experience in over six years of seminary formation. I gave him little to no warning that he would be speaking in front of the whole crowd, but he did a wonderful job! He even asked Grayson Foley to add his own experience as a younger seminarian and both of them were so filled with enthusiasm that it was infectious.
This is the whole point of the Homegrown Harvest event. Yes, we need the money in order to send these guys to school, but we also need to encourage one another and see that formation works. Grayson and Deacon Tristan will both be wonderful leaders in our church for years to come, and that is what all the money and the planning and the prayers are for.
Grayson and Deacon Tristan are also inspiring other young people to consider their own calls from the Lord. There were a few discerners in the crowd at the Mass and the event, and I was so happy to see our seminarians interacting with them and encouraging them. I also enjoyed a late-night Waffle House visit with the seminarians and a few young adults who have continued to be in friendship with our seminarians and young priests. This is the type of culture that brings forth men and women to consider giving their lives to the Lord.
Thank you to everyone who made this event a success and thank you for your support of the Department of Vocations as we ask the Lord for strength and endurance to continue our work.
— Father Nick Adam
FLOWOOD – Pictures from the Jackson Seminarian Homegrown Harvest on Saturday, Oct. 21 in the Family Life Center at St. Paul parish in Flowood. Below, Deacon Tristan Stovall speaks to those in attendance on his experience as as seminarian. (Photos by Joanna Puddister King)
(L-R) Will Fogo, EJ Martin, Bishop Joseph Kopacz, deacon Tristan Stovall, Willson Locke and Franciaco Maldonado.
By Carol Glatz VATICAN CITY (CNS) – St. Charles de Foucauld, a turn-of-the-19th-century hermit, demonstrates how a life of meekness, tenderness and eucharistic adoration evangelizes, Pope Francis said.
The saint was known to remain in prayer “at Jesus’ feet, before the Tabernacle,” for hours a day, “sure that the evangelizing force resides there and feeling that it is Jesus who will bring him close to so many distant brothers and sisters,” the pope said Oct. 18 at his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square.
“And do we, I ask myself, believe in the power of the Eucharist? Does our going out to others, our service, find its beginning and its fulfillment there, in adoration?” the pope asked, encouraging everyone to rediscover the sense of adoration before the Eucharist.
Continuing a series of audience talks highlighting saints who demonstrate zeal or passion for evangelization, Pope Francis said St. Charles made Jesus and the poor “the passion of his life” after living his youth “far from God, without believing in anything other than the disordered pursuit of pleasure.”
“The first step in evangelizing,” the pope said, is to “fall head over heels” for Jesus so that love will show in one’s life. If this does not happen, “we risk talking about ourselves, our group, a morality or, even worse, a set of rules, but not about Jesus, his love, his mercy.”
Pope Francis greets visitors at the end of his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican Oct. 18, 2023. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)
The pope said he sees this tendency in some new movements that spend a lot of time talking about their organization, their new spiritual path or “vision of humanity,” and “do not know how to talk about Jesus.”
St. Charles understood the importance of the laity in the life of the church and “he reminds us that ‘there need to be lay people close to priests, to see what the priest does not see, who evangelize with a proximity of charity, with goodness for everyone, with affection always ready to be given,’” he said, citing the saint’s writings.
However, the pope said, they need to be “holy lay people” in love with Jesus, not “climbers” in search of something else.
“We priests need so much to have next to us lay people who seriously believe” in Jesus, he said, and who, with their witness, “teach us the way” and help the priest understand he is not an “official” or administrator, but is “a mediator, he is a priest.”
St. Charles is “a prophetic figure for our time,” Pope Francis said.
He demonstrated “the beauty of communicating the Gospel through the apostolate of meekness,” welcomed everyone as a brother or sister and showed “the evangelizing force of tenderness,” Pope Francis said.
“Goodness is simple and asks us to be simple people, who are not afraid to offer a smile,” he said, encouraging Catholics to imitate “God’s style” of being close, compassionate and tender with others.
In a book, The Book of Hope, which he co-authored with Jane Goodall, Douglas Abrams makes this statement: Creating the human race may be the single biggest mistake evolution ever made.
He says this tongue-in-cheek since he recognizes that the emergence of the human race was clearly intended by the evolutionary process and that rather than being a colossal mistake it is the apex of the process. Nonetheless, today, the human race is a huge threat to planet earth. Simply put, there are now over seven billion people on the planet and already in many places we have used up nature’s limited resources faster than nature can replace them. By the year 2050 there will probably be 10 billion of us. If we carry on with business as usual, the planet simply cannot sustain us, at least if we continue in our present lifestyle.
And the lifestyle referred to here is not, first of all, the lavish lifestyle of the rich who can be reckless and consume more than their share of resources. They, of course, contribute to the problem and unduly influence the rest us in our own habits of consumption; but the lifestyle referred to here is what you and I, conscientious consumers, are living, even as we conserve, recycle, compost, drive electric cars and try to live simply.
Father Ron Rolheiser, OMI
I can take myself as an example. I’m trying to be sensitive to what my own consumption is doing to mother earth. By comparison to those who have a luxurious lifestyle, I can claim to live pretty simply. I don’t buy what I don’t need, have a very small wardrobe, and am cautious about the amount of electricity and water I use. I drive a second-hand compact car and try to drive it only when necessary. I help assure that the thermostat in our house is set so as to ensure the minimal use of electrical energy, and I live in a relatively small house, recycle and try to use as little plastic as possible.
But, on the other hand, I have two computers, a desktop in my office and a laptop at home. I have a cellphone which, through the years, has had to be updated four different times in terms of buying a new model and junking the old one. I shower daily and, depending upon physical work and exercise, sometimes take a second shower. I drive a car. I get on an airplane at least once a month for conferences and meetings and I fly internationally several times a year to visit family. I don’t have a lot of clothes, but my ministry and work require a certain standard of dress (which I meet minimally).
I think I can claim a simple lifestyle, given where I live and the work I do. However, realistically, if all seven (plus) billion people in the world lived as I do, there wouldn’t be enough resources to sustain us. Bottomline, the world cannot support eight billion people if everyone lives as I do, and as most of us do in the more affluent parts of our world. What’s the answer?
We can lay a guilt trip on ourselves and on others, though this isn’t necessarily helpful. What can be helpful? There’s no easy answer. Those of us living in the more affluent parts of our world can make changes, but can we simply stop using computers and mobile phones? We can conserve water, but can we abandon our present standards of hygiene? We can conserve electricity, but can we simply stop driving our cars and darken all our city buildings at night? We can be more scrupulous on how much we travel on airplanes, but can we live without airplane travel? We can cut back on what we buy in terms of excess food, excess clothing, and excess luxuries and entertainment. We can recycle, compost and not use plastic bags – and all of this, cumulatively, will make a difference. Indeed, all of this needs to be done. However, helpful though this is, it alone will not solve the problem.
For Jane Goodall, beyond these individual things, we need to do some collective things to solve the existential threat to this planet. Goodall names three: First, we must alleviate poverty. If there are people living in crippling poverty, it is understandable that they will cut down the last tree to grow food or catch the last fish because they are desperate to feed their families. Second, we must eliminate government corruption and corporate greed. Without good government and concern for the common good in business, it is impossible to solve our enormous social and environmental problems. Moreover, those who for their own benefit refuse to face the problem will go on unchallenged. Finally, collectively too, we must realistically face up to the tension between our lifestyle and the ever-growing population on this planet. Thoughtless consumers are part of the problem – but so are the rest of us, me included, who fancy ourselves as living simply.
(Oblate Father Ron Rolheiser is a theologian, teacher and award-winning author. He can be contacted through his website www.ronrolheiser.com.)
In 1986, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the amazing basketball player said, “I try to do the right thing at the right time. They may just be little things, but usually they make the difference between winning and losing.” That’s what he worships.
We just celebrated St. Therese on Oct. 1 (her 150th birthday), the sister of sweet toughness … the manufacturer of ‘little things matter.’ We also celebrated St. Teresa of Avila, who many years earlier, carved out for women a firm line of hope. Whom did they worship?
Everyone worships something … someone. What you worship is important, especially today. What comes first in your life? May I ask? Do you worship food, gaming or TV? Or clothes, cars, dogs or cats? Who worships sex? Or only family or friends? Who worships sports? Who worships lies and ‘fake’ news? Do you worship wealth and money? Or maybe you worship God?
Sister alies therese
The synod is a practical and historical forum, a place where representatives of this world, broken and at war as it is, might speak in peace and attend to what might seem to be the little things. It also reveals what we worship. Are we no different from the rest of the world … hungry for power, greedy for wealth, selfish? No doubt all these and many more things will be revealed in the rest of this process. Pope Francis said, in the opening synod Mass, “This is the primary task of the synod: to refocus our gaze on God, the be a church that looks mercifully at humanity.”
If I worship so many other things, how can I worship God? Well, the synod is supposed to investigate that and invite us to ‘refocus our gaze.’ If you return to Kareem, Therese or Teresa you might discover their gaze. In their understanding of ‘little things’ (see also St. David of Wales) they focus on the poorest and littlest, mercifully at humanity. They look away from themselves.
Worship and prayer go hand in hand, but worship usually is with others … I may pray alone (and that can be worship too) but usually I worship with others … office, devotions/rosary/chaplet/stations … and certainly Mass. Both prayer and worship take a long gaze and a little practice.
Consider Alice and the Queen …” Alice laughed, ‘there’s no use trying, one can’t believe impossible things.’ ‘I daresay you haven’t had much practice … when I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six things before breakfast,’ said the Queen.” (L. Carroll, Through the Looking Glass). How have you worshipped or prayed before breakfast?
Sometimes prayers in unison get mixed up. For example, Dr. Clifford at a Methodist church in Texas, “We find our world a clod and cheerless place without Your love.” Or in the church bulletin prayer at the Congregational United in Missouri, “O Loving God, who reaches out to restore our soles, touch us now with Your word of truth…”
Or maybe it is actually perfection we worship … that we search for … that we value?
I like Marilyn Meberg’s insights, “my intent in life is to remind you that nothing in life is perfect … if we can accept that, we can quit looking for it, blaming ourselves or others, … and even come to a place of peace. That gives me the energy to settle down to a platter of pasta that is a trifle overdone with a touch of too little garlic – and not lose my joy!” (Bolton, Heavenly Humor for the Woman’s Soul, Barbour, 2008) How have you refocused your gaze on God? What things do you worship that you need to let go of in order to put Jesus first? How has your worship of such an awesome God brought you joy?
Consider this with Thoms A. Kempis (1380-1471): “O everlasting Light, surpassing all created luminaries, flash forth Thy lightning from above, piercing all the most inward parts of my heart. Make clean, make glad, make bright and make alive my spirit, with all the powers thereof, that I may cleave unto Thee in ecstasies of joy.”
Let’s uplift our communal worship and fill our private prayer with joy.
BLESSINGS.
(Sister alies therese is a canonically vowed hermit with days formed around prayer and writing.)
Some of that stems from that too-familiar ache known to all those who have loved and lost. The desire to run an ordinary errand, exchange a quick phone call or share a cup of coffee together just one more time is a deep longing with a permanent home in my heart – and the hearts of so many I know.
But there was something unique about shopping for clothes with my mom. She was an accomplished seamstress. When we shopped together, she had an eye for salvaging clothes that I, in my quick judgement, was so often inclined to reject.
I could look at a dress and, after a passing glance, reject it because the sleeves were too long, the buttons were the wrong color, the collar was awkward, or an otherwise tailored skirt had an inexplicable, oversized bow at the waist. I could look at a jacket and move along quickly because it had bulky shoulders, an awkward pleat or a flimsy zipper.
But, my mom did not see the forlorn inhabitants of the clearance racks the same way I did. In her mind’s eye, she could see what they would look like if she tailored the sleeves, found better new buttons, replaced a collar, turned a bow to a belt, streamlined shoulders, sewed up a pleat and switched a flimsy zipper for a classier closure. More often than I can recall, I would come home with something new to wear – and my mother would come home with a sewing project.
I miss that.
I miss the example of someone who could, in something as trivial as clothing, see not merely what was, but what could be. Someone who could see not merely what was wrong, but what could be right. Someone who could see that a quick judgement may mean missing out on something very good.
I wonder if there is something in those ordinary shopping trips to teach about life and the way in which it can be all too easy to see in others – and in ourselves – only what is and not what could be.
Yes, there is a real danger in relationships and friendships when we see others merely as works-in-progress, not accepted for who they are but only for who they might be if they could only change to our liking. But I learned on those long-ago shopping trips that it is also dangerous to see only that which is before us without also seeing potential and optimism about all that could lie ahead if we seek out the good that is so often hidden away.
Lucia A. Silecchia
Maybe I also learned something about God. I like to think that the God who loves us “as we are” is also a God who sees our best selves – not just the flaws and failures that makes those who love less perfectly turn away. I like to think that the God who made us is also a God who sees not only the way we are today, but all we can be tomorrow. I like to think, too, that with God’s help we might also be able to see ourselves and others with eyes a bit more like His. There are still days when I wear a favorite outfit and see my mother’s small stiches tucked away. When I see these relics of repairs and remodels of yesteryear, I am grateful.
Yes, I am grateful that awkward bows and tacky buttons have been replaced with something better. But I am more grateful for that subtle example of one who could say “yes” when a quick “no” may have been the easier, first reaction. This is the blessed, better vision that can brighten our ordinary times.
(Lucia A. Silecchia is a Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Faculty Research at the Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law. Email her at silecchia@cua.edu.)
By Gina Christian VATICAN CITY (CNS) – An attack on a Christian hospital in Gaza amid the Israel-Hamas war has left staff at the U.S. offices of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association reeling.
“Disbelief and horror,” Michael La Civita, director of communications for the Catholic Near East Welfare Association, told OSV News, describing his reaction just hours after an Oct. 17 strike on al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza.
The facility, a humanitarian outreach of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, is Gaza’s oldest hospital, and the only Christian one in the enclave. Opened in 1882, al-Ahli Arab – which was a Baptist Medical Mission from 1954 to 1982 – has been “one of the most important institutions in our network of partners for decades,” said La Civita. “It’s a significant player in the region.”
CNEWA, founded by Pope Pius XI in 1926, supports the hospital as part of its overall mission to support the Catholic Church in the Middle East, Northeast Africa, India and Eastern Europe.
Joseph Hazboun, regional director for CNEWA’s Jerusalem office, said the hospital was sheltering more than 5,000 people at the time of the strike.
Children sit in the back of an ambulance at Shifa Hospital following an airstrike on the CNEWA-supported al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City Oct. 17, 2023. (OSV News photo/Mohammed Al-Masri, Reuters) EDITORS: Note graphic content.
Causes and casualties have been contested by both sides. Palestinian officials claimed the al-Ahli Arab Hospital had been struck by Israel, killing some 500, while the Israel Defense Forces countered that intelligence showed the blast was due to a failed rocket launch by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group.
The war itself was sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7 ambush – coinciding with a Sabbath and Jewish holiday – on some 22 locations in Israel. Hamas members gunned down civilians and took at least 199 hostages, according to Israel, including infants, the elderly and people with disabilities.
Israel declared war on Hamas Oct. 8, placing Gaza under siege and pounding the region with airstrikes as Hamas has returned fire. To date, some 1,400 in Israel, including at least 30 U.S. citizens, and at least 3,500 in Gaza have been killed, according to Palestinian officials. The ensuing humanitarian crisis has left the Middle East “on the verge of the abyss,” said United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres.
CNEWA, which has had a presence in Gaza since at least 1949, has “a long record of support … with (the) hospital, particularly with programs that provide assistance to children and families suffering from post-traumatic stress disorders,” La Civita told OSV News.
The part of the hospital that was hit “is where most of our psychosocial programs over the last few years were organized,” said La Civita.
At an Oct. 18 press conference by the Jerusalem patriarchs and heads of churches, Jerusalem Anglican Archbishop Hosam Naoum told media that a few hours before the attack, civilians who had gathered in the courtyard (of the hospital) were “singing for peace, and the children were playing,” but “two hours later they were all struck by … the power of death.”
On Oct. 14, al-Ahli Arab Hospital’s diagnostic cancer treatment center in Gaza City was struck by Israeli rocket fire, significantly damaging the ultrasound and mammography wards and injuring four staff, according to the American Friends of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem.
Archbishop Naoum said al-Ahli Arab would “continue to be open” as he and fellow church leaders “are determined to keep our institutions open, to keep our places of worship, our churches, open … as places of sanctuary.”
La Civita told OSV News he is “very concerned about the future (and) the present” of two maternity clinics subsidized by CNEWA and operated by the Near East Council of Churches in Gaza.
He urged the faithful to pray and to “stay informed,” particularly by consulting Catholic media coverage of the situation.
“We want Catholics in particular to be paying attention to Catholic news about this, because … it’s about as close to the truth as we can possibly get,” he said. “It’s reliable and objective.”
In addition, “consider providing support to those who can handle aid responsibly and get it to the hands of those who need it most,” said La Civita.
(Gina Christian is a national reporter for OSV News. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, at @GinaJesseReina)
NATION LAS VEGAS (OSV News) – In a sign of the growing Catholic community of southern Nevada and the Western United States, the Archdiocese of Las Vegas has become the newest archdiocese in America. A solemn Mass Oct. 16 at the Shrine of the Most Holy Redeemer in Las Vegas formally celebrated the designation of the archdiocese and the appointment of Archbishop George Leo Thomas by Pope Francis May 30. The new metropolitan archdiocese and province of Las Vegas includes Reno, Nevada, and Salt Lake City as suffragan dioceses of the province. During the Mass, Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the pope’s representative as apostolic nuncio to the United States, placed the pallium – a woolen liturgical garment worn by a metropolitan archbishop – upon Archbishop Thomas’ shoulders. The pallium represents a pastor’s care of his flock and his unity with the pope. Pope Francis gave the archbishop the pallium in June at the Vatican. The growth in the presence of Catholics in Las Vegas and southern Nevada was a key factor in its elevation to an archdiocese. The 350,000 Catholics among a total regional population of more than 1 million in 1995 has ballooned to an estimated 750,000 Catholics among more than 2 million residents today, according to the archdiocese. This growth was “a result of the dynamism and the vitality of the church here,” Cardinal Pierre told Massgoers.
Members of a tour group explore the catacombs of the Basilica of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral in New York City Oct. 15, 2023. Tours of the historic basilica, its catacombs and cemetery have proven to be popular with New Yorkers and out-of-towners. (OSV News photo/Gregory A. Shemitz)
NEW YORK (OSV News) – “Catacombs by Candlelight” perhaps conjures images of a subterranean tour in Rome led by a guide wearing a headlamp. In New York, it’s the name of a revenue-generating history lesson told while exploring the cemetery and burial vaults of one of the city’s oldest Catholic churches. At the Basilica of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral, the tour’s tone is respectful and the candles are battery-operated LED models. Frank Alfieri, the basilica’s director of cemetery and columbaria, said the tours were established in 2017 to communicate and monetize the historical significance of the property, which has been an active mainstay of the lower Manhattan area for more than 200 years. When it opened in 1815, St. Patrick’s served as New York’s first cathedral until the new St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Fifth Avenue was dedicated in 1879. The Old Cathedral was named a basilica in 2010. The catacombs were developed before the church was built above them and consist of 37 hermetically sealed family and group vaults arrayed along three 120-foot corridors. Most of the vaults have marble facades and bear the now-unfamiliar names of prominent 19th-century New York Catholics of Irish, German, French and Spanish heritage. Eight 80-minute tours are offered five days a week for groups as large as 40.
VATICAN VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis will celebrate a memorial Mass Nov. 3 for Pope Benedict XVI and cardinals and bishops who have died in the past year. The Mass will take place at the main altar in St. Peter’s Basilica at 11 a.m., the Vatican announced. Pope Benedict died Dec. 31 at the age of 95. The previous day, the Nov. 2 feast of All Souls, the pope will celebrate Mass at the Rome War Cemetery, the burial place of members of the military forces of the Commonwealth who died during and immediately after World War II. The 426 men buried there died between November 1942 and February 1947. They came from the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and South Africa. Also on the pope’s liturgical calendar for November is his celebration of Mass for the World Day of the Poor. He will preside over the liturgy Nov. 19 in St. Peter’s Basilica.
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis said a trip to his native Argentina remains on his schedule and that he has been encouraged to travel through Oceania. Asked by an Argentine reporter what important trips remain pending in his pontificate, the pope said “I would like to go” to Argentina in an interview released Oct. 16. “Talking a bit farther away, Papua New Guinea is still left.” He added that someone had told him, “Since I’m going to Argentina, to have a layover in Río Gallegos (Argentina), then the South Pole, land in Melbourne and visit New Zealand and Australia.” Though the 86-year-old pope said, “It would be a bit long.” In the wide-spanning interview recorded in September with the Argentine state news agency Télam, Pope Francis said that while he receives many invitations to visit countries and there is a list of possible papal trips, ideas for trips also originate from the Vatican, such as his Aug. 31-Sept. 4 trip to Mongolia. Pope Francis also spoke about the synod on synodality, relating it to the vision of St. John XXIII at the start of the Second Vatican Council. “It is not only about changing style, it is about a change of growth in favor of people’s dignity,” he said.
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Huddled in a stairwell at the Catholic parish and school in Gaza, Rosary Sister Nabila Saleh, another sister and Father Youssef Asaad filmed themselves speaking to Pope Francis on the phone and begging for his continued prayers. Pope Francis phoned Holy Family parish – the only Catholic parish in Gaza – the evening of Oct. 15, Vatican News reported. Sister Saleh said Father Asaad passed her the phone because he doesn’t speak Italian as well as she does. After Hamas launched attacks on Israel Oct. 7 and Israel responded by bombing targets in Gaza, “the Holy Father wanted to know how many people we are hosting in the parish facilities,” Sister Saleh told Vatican News. There are about 500 people, including “the sick, families, children, the disabled, people who have lost their homes and every belonging.” Sister Saleh said, it was “a great blessing” to speak with the pope. “He gave us courage and the support of prayer.”
WORLD NAIROBI, Kenya (OSV News) – On the day the world celebrates efforts to combat hunger and food insecurity, a bishop in Ethiopia was warning that his people were still dying of hunger, a year after a ceasefire ended a deadly conflict in the northern region of Tigray. Bishop Tesfasellassie Medhin of Adigrat said he wanted the world to know the situation in the region was still critical, and deaths were occurring due to serious food shortages and malnutrition. “The situation is very bad. Many parts of the region experienced failed harvests due to drought, and food aid distribution had also stopped,” Bishop Medhin told OSV News in an interview ahead of the World Food Day. “People are dying of hunger. The hospitals are also reporting increased cases of malnutrition. It is very frustrating.” More than 20 million people need food assistance in Africa’s second most populous nation after the Horn of Africa’s worst drought in decades and a two-year conflict in the Tigray region on top of it. On Oct. 16, the globe rallied to mark the World Food Day, an annual awareness and action day against hunger and malnutrition, reminding of the importance of food security and access to nutritious food for all. It also addresses the importance of sustainable agriculture and food production.
OSLO, Norway (OSV News) – Church leaders in Norway have welcomed the award of the Nobel Prize for Literature to Jon Fosse, a Catholic convert, predicting the honor could raise Catholicism’s profile in the traditionally Protestant country. “Fosse gives voice, with elegance and beauty, to the mystery of faith. … I think our country is blessed to have a poet of his stature,” said Bishop Erik Varden of Trondheim. “A Catholic writer is someone who assimilated the grace of belonging to the church in such a way that it’s perfectly innate and natural to their self-expression. In that sense, Fosse is very much a Catholic writer.” The novelist and playwright will receive the 2023 prize in Stockholm Dec. 10. Born in 1959 at Haugesund on Norway’s west coast, Fosse has published over 30 novels, as well as poetry collections, essays, children’s books and translations. His theater works, performed worldwide, have made him Norway’s most performed playwright since Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906). Fosse was received into the Catholic Church at St. Dominic’s Monastery, Oslo, in 2012. His multivolume work, “Septology,” centering on a Catholic convert-painter, was shortlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize and National Books Critics Award. In a November 2022 interview with The New Yorker, Fosse described his style as “slow prose” and “mystical realism,” adding that he had turned to religious faith while struggling with alcoholism and other problems.
By Kurt Jensen NEW YORK (OSV News) – “Early on in the history of film, stage actors had to make the transition from the outsized gestures and expressions needed to convey emotion to a crowded theater to the restraint required by the intimacy of the camera. The same contrast is always likely to be highlighted in a movie dedicated to capturing a lavish stadium music concert.
Taylor Swift attends a premiere for “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” in Los Angeles Oct. 11, 2023. The OSV News classification is A-III — adults. The Motion Picture Association rating is PG-13 — parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13. (OSV News photo/Mario Anzuoni, Reuters)
Those attending “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” (AMC Theaters) will discover that the titular singer-songwriter – the current doyenne of breakup songs – is aware of this. Just as the smirks and eye rolls of some of her numbers become cloying, the solo balladeer emerges and equilibrium is restored.
While Swift can be credited with aesthetic insight, parents of teens clamoring to see her on screen will be concerned with other matters. In a world of ultra-raunchy rap and the obscenity-laden lyrics often found even outside that genre, Swift shows considerable moderation. A smattering of vulgar words aside, her performance is more glitzy than gritty. So, although her preteen fans may have to be kept away from this production, older teens can probably be given the green light.
They’ll find “Eras” a lively recap of all 10 of her studio albums across 17 years. Directed by Sam Wrench, the footage was compiled from concerts at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, outside Los Angeles, during Swift’s ongoing tour.
This is, then, no valedictory. Rather, it’s a powerful summation of Swift’s life and work so far. The idea is to craft an experience just as communal and immersive as the vocalist’s live events. Audience members, for instance, are encouraged to sing along. Yet in a movie theater the noise is not overwhelming, making it possible to concentrate on Swift in all her sparkly glory throughout.
Little exposition is provided. Instead, there’s continuous music, enhanced by CGI special effects and a bit of dancing. By contrast to some of the documentaries in which Swift has featured in the past, no backstage segments are included and no forum is given to her opinions.
Her lyrics do, however, address the loneliness of her level of stardom and hint, pretty consistently, at past heartbreak. At their poignant best, her songs somehow manage to combine the varied qualities of honky-tonk blues and the sophisticated work of German-born American composer Kurt Weill.
It’ll cost you a lot more than three pennies, though, to have a look.
The film contains fleeting rough and crude language. The OSV News classification is A-III – adults. The Motion Picture Association rating is PG-13 – parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
(Kurt Jensen is a guest reviewer for OSV News.)
The Exorcist: Believer
By John Mulderig NEW YORK (OSV News) – Although the horror sequel “The Exorcist: Believer” (Universal) gets off to a reasonably promising start, it degenerates quickly. In fact, it ends up being a muddle both dramatically and, more significantly, in its treatment of religion.
Director and co-writer David Gordon Green’s take on the demonic possession theme follows the ordeal of widowed father Victor Fielding (Leslie Odom Jr.). Victor’s life is initially disrupted when his daughter Angela (Lidya Jewett) disappears in the company of her schoolmate and friend, Katherine (Olivia O’Neill).
Although Victor agonizes over Angela’s absence, he gets more than he bargained for when both girls eventually return. As the audience knows, the pals had gone into the woods to practice amateur spiritualism in the hope of communicating with Angela’s late mother. To that extent, the screenplay – penned with Peter Sattler – presents a cautionary tale applicable in real life.
As Victor and Katherine’s parents, Miranda (Jennifer Nettles) and Tony (Norbert Leo Butz), try to cope with the duo’s bizarre subsequent behavior – as well as some inexplicable phenomena – they get religious guidance from nun-turned-nurse Ann (Ann Dowd). They also get less specific advice from self-described exorcism expert Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn).
Tracey Graves and Leslie Odom Jr. are pictured in a scene from the movie “The Exorcist: Believer.” The OSV News classification is O — morally offensive. The Motion Picture Association rating is R — restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian. (OSV News photo/Eli Joshua Adé, Universal Pictures)
Chris is, of course, the mother of Regan, the victim in a similar incident showcased in the 1973 film that inaugurated the franchise. Although the current movie is intended as a direct sequel to the original and, in that respect, a reboot of the series, the approach of this script to its subject matter departs markedly from the earlier tale.
As adapted from his own fact-based novel by screenwriter William Peter Blatty, and directed by William Friedkin, the Watergate-era picture may have sensationalized matters but at its center was a fairly straightforward confrontation between Regan’s tormentor and two Catholic priests.
The driving away of the devil here, by contrast, takes on the qualities of a circus.
In part, that’s probably attributable to the fact that the more-or-less church-friendly attitude of the earlier movie would jar on contemporary Hollywood sensibilities. What’s presented to the audience, as a result, is a spiritual free-for-all.
There is a well-meaning cleric, Father Maddox (E.J. Bonilla), hovering around. But his superiors won’t authorize an exorcism. So Ann decides she’ll read from the Roman Ritual herself. Miranda and Tony’s unnamed minister (Raphael Sbarge) also is on hand, loudly reciting verses from the Bible.
This interdenominational broadmindedness is further extended by the inclusion of a female shaman, Dr. Beehibe (Okwui Okpokwasili). She’s out to see what her version of African animism can contribute to the overheated shouting match.
The good doctor’s practices are shown to be just as effective as the prayers of priest or pastor. But the dialogue in some quieter scenes assures us that it’s really interpersonal solidarity that will ultimately send Satan packing.
The production thus promotes a syncretist, humanistic and even vaguely anti-Catholic outlook that could be spiritually dangerous for anyone inclined to take it seriously. On the whole, however, this half-a-century-later follow-up is best dismissed as a bit of chaotic schlock.
The film contains misguided spiritual ideas, brief gory images, mature references, including to abortion, a handful of mild oaths, a few rough terms and at least one crass expression. The OSV News classification is O – morally offensive. The Motion Picture Association rating is R – restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
(John Mulderig is media reviewer for OSV News. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @JohnMulderig1.)
