(OSV NEWS) – The Central Catholic High School community in Pittsburgh is joining in prayer for NFL player Damar Hamlin, a 2016 school graduate, who was critically injured during a Jan. 2 game between the Buffalo Bills and the Cincinnati Bengals.
Hamlin, a safety for the Bills, collapsed after tackling Bengals receiver Tee Higgins during a routine play. According to a statement by the Buffalo Bills, the 24-year-old safety suffered a cardiac arrest following the hit.
Medics worked for nearly 10 minutes to restore his heartbeat as Bills team and staff members knelt in a tight prayer circle around Hamlin. Hamlin was then transferred to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, where he remains in critical condition. Players, staff and commentators were visibly shaken by the incident, and the game – the last Monday Night Football match of the regular season – was suspended.
The NFL has posted an image of Hamlin’s team number with the words “Pray for Damar” across its social media accounts.
Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin warms up before a game against the Detroit Lions at Ford Field on Nov. 24, 2022. Hamlin, an alum of Central Catholic High School in Pittsburgh, was hospitalized in critical condition after suffering cardiac arrest following a collision in a game between the Cincinnati Bengals on Jan. 2. He remained in critical condition with signs of improvement on Jan. 4. (OSV NEWS photo/Lon Horwedel-USA TODAY Sports via Reuters)
The Hamlin family released a statement online Jan. 3 asking supporters to “please keep Damar in your prayers,” noting they were “deeply moved by the prayers, kind words and donations from fans around the country.”
In a Jan. 3 statement sent to OSV News, Central Catholic called Hamlin a “highly respected young man” who “has been an integral part of our Catholic Lasallian Community and regularly returns to Central to speak with participants of our football campus.”
A photo provided by the school to OSV News showed Hamlin in his high school football uniform holding a poster that read, “Recruited by Jesus.”
Central Catholic president Christian Brother Mike Andrejko asked in the statement that “the Lord be with (Hamlin) and hold him in the palm of his hand.”
The school’s recently retired head football coach Terry Totten described Hamlin in the statement as “a great athlete and a great Christian gentleman who is a man for others,” one who is “an essential part of the community at Central Catholic.”
Totten also pointed to Hamlin’s “unparalleled” work in the Pittsburgh community through the athlete’s charitable foundation, The Chasing M’s Foundation Community Toy Drive, which he started just before his selection in the sixth round of the 2021 NFL draft.
On its Facebook page, Central Catholic posted a message stating its community “is praying for the well-being and swift recovery” of Hamlin, adding: “May the Lord be with him and his family during this most difficult time.”
As 2022 came to an end, so too the earthly life of Pope Benedict XVI drew to its close. “Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him.”
In the days and weeks to come, much will be said about his legacy as Pope and his impact as a leading theologian of his era. I will be reflecting on that myself. As a lawyer and not a theologian, I have studied Pope Benedict’s writings on the social issues of our time to see what they may mean for pressing questions of law and public policy. I have found in them – particularly in his trio of encyclicals – a deep well from which many will continue to draw deep insights on the moral roots of modern maladies.
Personally, however, Pope Benedict’s passing has given me insights on something else – a complement to lessons learned from his predecessor almost eighteen years ago. Both St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI taught me, and the world, something profound about how to face the end of life.
Lucia A. Silecchia
St. John Paul II is the first pope I truly remember. A relatively young man when he became pope, he captivated the world with his strength, energy, peripatetic journeys to the ends of the earth, and his role on the world stage through some of the most pivotal events of the late twentieth century.
The early images of St. John Paul II showed a vigorous man on ski slopes, alighting airplanes, and with agility, kissing the ground as he entered new countries for the first time.
Yet, as he grew older, St. John Paul II showed us all, in a very public way, what it is like to suffer through illness. So often, those who are ill, frail and approaching death are hidden away. They can too often be separated from friends and family who no longer visit because it is difficult to see loved ones change. Many want to remember those in declining health “as they really were” – without realizing that when we are weak and suffering we are still, truly, who we “really” are.
I remember the very last images released of Pope St. John Paul II. They showed a man weakened by illness and bereft of the robust energy that had marked the earlier years of his papacy. Yet, in that he showed the world the great dignity of those who suffer on the way to eternal life. It is unlikely most of us will ever approach death in such a public way. However, suffering and infirmity is part of our common humanity.
From St. John Paul II, I learned a great deal about the acceptance of suffering, the importance of keeping those who suffer at the center of our lives and not at the margin, and the dignity of those who are facing their final illnesses and the physical deprivations that accompany that journey.
From Pope Benedict XVI, I learned another lesson – the importance of prayer as preparation for passage from this life. When he shocked the world with his resignation nearly a decade ago, Pope Benedict XVI turned from a very public life of action to a secluded life of prayer and contemplation. His prayer was a way to serve the church through a very powerful way vastly different from the way he had served the church through so many decades of his life.
More recently, however, public statements and reports to the press have made it clear that Pope Benedict XVI was also deep in prayer in preparation for the end of his own life when he – like all of us – would meet his God.
In that, I learned a second valuable lesson. When I look ahead, I make plans for how I will live if I am blessed with the gift of years. I think about my physical health, financial security, and what my last wishes might be for myself and my family. These things still do not cross my mind very often, but I understand the practical wisdom in attending to them with care. From Pope Benedict, I have learned that it is not merely the practical and physical planning that need attention. Rather, time spent in prayer is the often neglected and best preparation for a happy death.
It is unlikely that most of us – unless called to a contemplative vocation – will willingly make such a dramatic surrender of the active life to devote the final decade of our earthly life to prayer. Yet, if it is in prayer that we better come to know and love God, then there can be no better preparation for eternity than growing to know and love the One with whom we hope to spend that eternity. From Pope Benedict XVI I saw that lesson lived.
These two Popes – collaborators in life and in prayer – will be remembered for what they did, wrote, said and decided during their lives. But for their fellow pilgrims, the very different lessons they taught about life’s end were their final gifts and blessings.
Thank you both for the ways you surrendered your 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. “On Ordinary Times” is a biweekly column reflecting on the ways to find the sacred in the simple. Email her at silecchia@cua.edu.)
Betrayal is a horrible experience. If you have not been betrayed, you are most fortunate; many, if not most of us have been.
The children massacred in Uvalde, the people killed in El Paso for being Hispanic or Buffalo for being Black, or Dachau for being Jewish, have certainly been betrayed. We have betrayed one another through poverty (food insecurity, unfair wages, poor health care), abortion, war, mass shootings and the death penalty, and, of course, abuse and poor eldercare. And perhaps the worst betrayal of all is convenient, rigid or complacent Christianity, Catholicism.
These keep us from friendship with God; expressed as a deepening groan or a desire to serve self. Can I set betrayal aside and learn to put others first? Will I ever be friends with God again? Where has the light of Epiphany gone? The Wise Ones chose the Light by betraying King Herod.
We can experience overpowering and challenging choices when on the road to recovery and we see that in AA or Al-anon, and various sorts of other helping communities. Depending upon how one is addicted or challenged can make choices toward recovery even more difficult. In his book “The Betrayal Bond” (1997), Dr. Patrick Carnes tells this little story:
Sister alies therese
“Tribal peoples in Africa put out slotted cages filled with fresh fruit. The cages are anchored securely to the ground. Monkeys discover the cages, reach in, and grab the fruit. Of course, they cannot retrieve the fruit because as long as the hand holds the fruit, it will not fit through the bars of the cage, the monkeys are trapped. They could let go of the fruit and escape, but they refused to let go … trauma bonds are similar….” (page 210)
We know from AA that even when one has been betrayed by family or others, institutions, and certainly booze/drugs recovery is essential to living in the light. We also know that Bill W. (co-founder of AA) received advice from Dr. Carl Jung to tell stories to be set free of strangulation by fear and intimidation. These stories might reveal how betrayal has featured in life and made friendships difficult. Perhaps the stories might show how one has become a betrayer.
So, what to do now? What have we refused to let go of in order to put betrayal in the past? Are we stuck in a trauma bond? Is the light ever to be seen again?
What is the way back to friendship? In order to restore our friendship God took on a human nature to teach us how to forgive. Betrayal features in Jesus’ life more than just the Garden. Each time followers rejected what He taught; the message of God was betrayed. When we don’t stop the tongues of gossip or stand for something we believe in, we betray not only others but our inner life. Certainly, we are betrayed when we continue any big lie…that green is yellow, yellow is green, perpetuating the lie and making our ability to follow the light more difficult.
Arthur Simon, in his book “How Much Is Enough?” (2003) relates this:
“A six-year-old boy, taken to an ER following an accident was given a glass of milk. ‘How deep shall I drink?’ he asked. He came from a very poor family in which something as precious as milk had to be shared with six brothers and sisters, drinking too deeply cheated others.” (page 132) Of course, his choice is to share or to betray his siblings. What will he do? What might I do?
George Eliot sometime in 1850 said: “What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult for each other?”
“Forgiveness,” says Christina Baldwin, “is the act of admitting we are like other people.” We mess up, we are selfish, and we might betray ourselves when forgiveness is not on the table. Servant of God, Dorothy Day (and Peter Maurin) remind us of a basic Catholic Worker tenant: make it easy for people to be good. There is no betrayal in that. No, it is the light.
Jesus showed us the way and as we move into this new year, we might have pause to remember that – on the night He was betrayed, He left us Himself in the Eucharist to be always with us.
In 1785, Anne Letitia Barbauld noted: “Nobody ought to be too old to improve; I should be sorry if I was, and I flatter myself I have already improved considerably by my travels….” I should very much like to improve … You? BLESSINGS.
(Sister alies therese is a canonically vowed hermit with days formed around prayer and writing.)
Through the kindness of his Heralds of the Good News Provincial and the acceptance of Bishop Joseph R. Kopacz, Rev. Augustine Palimattam Poulose, pastor of St. Joseph and St. Patrick Parishes in Meridian has been incardinated into the Diocese of Jackson.
Upon the recommendation of the Very Rev. Michael Somers, SVD, Provincial of the Southern Province St. Augustine, Rev. Mario Rasonabe, SVD, is appointed Administrator of Holy Family Parish in Jackson effective Jan. 1, 2023.
(OSV News) – “Oh ya baby!” read Jane Hernandez’s Facebook post, adorned with a heart-eyed, smiley face emoji. The Nov. 22 message was paired with an image from a package tracker, showing an item as being just four days away.
The anticipated purchase: a new copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church – and just in time for “The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)” podcast’s 2023 debut.
Hernandez, a lifelong Catholic who lives in central Nebraska’s Sandhills, is among more than 112,000 members of an official Facebook group for “The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz).”
“I’m hoping that it shows me the way to be a better Catholic, to be a better person, better able to follow God’s word,” Hernandez, 60, said of the podcast.
Father Mike Schmitz, a priest of the Diocese of Duluth, Minn., and a popular speaker and author, is seen in this 2022 promotion for Ascension’s “The Catechism in a Year” podcast, launching Jan. 1, 2023. The priest will host the podcast, reading the entire Catechism of the Catholic Church over the course of 365 daily podcast episodes. (CNS file/OSV News photo, courtesy Ascension)
The Jan. 1 launch of “The Catechism in a Year” podcast has generated notable excitement – especially among listeners of “The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)” podcast, which jumped to the No. 1 spot on Apple podcasts overall within 48 hours of its 2021 New Year’s Day launch.
“The Catechism in a Year” followed suit, topping Apple podcasts’ all categories chart Jan. 1.
Even before its launch, “The Catechism in a Year” hit No. 1 on Apple’s “Religion and Spirituality” chart, with “The Bible in a Year” at No. 2, as of Dec. 27. Both are products of Ascension, a Catholic publisher based in West Chester, Pennsylvania.
Part of the appeal of both podcasts is the host, Father Mike Schmitz, a priest of the Diocese of Duluth, Minnesota, who had a robust social media presence prior to the podcast, and the podcast’s occasional commentary from Jeff Cavins, a Scripture scholar and former host of EWTN’s “Life on the Rock,” now living in a Minneapolis suburb.
Father Schmitz told OSV News he initially pitched the idea of a podcast exploring the Bible and the catechism simultaneously, but Ascension leaders “wisely” advised him to focus on one at a time.
“After reading through the whole Bible, I think people want to connect the dots,” he said. “They now understand the story of salvation in Scripture, they’re seeing the world through the ‘lens of Scripture.’ But how does that connect to the seven sacraments, to Catholic traditions, to the 2,000 years of history in our Catholic Church? I think people are curious and spiritually hungry and want to see how we got from the Acts of the Apostles to where the church is today.”
Cavins suspects there’s something more to the widespread interest in “The Catechism in a Year” beyond the success of “The Bible in a Year.” He credits the Holy Spirit, but he also thinks anticipation is sparked, in part, by the national and international turmoil of recent years, from U.S. politics to the pandemic, and people’s hunger for real truth.
“People are confused. They are hungry, they are scared, and we are offering them a sure foundation,” said Cavins, who developed the popular “The Great Adventure Bible Timeline,” the organizational basis for “The Bible in a Year” podcast.
– Searching for answers – Other Catholic catechetical leaders agree that cultural confusion and division are driving Catholics’ desire to better understand the faith.
“I think people have seen a lot of chaos and a lot of things that just aren’t right, and that they have this desire to know the truth, and to understand why we do what we do,” said Kelly Wahlquist, executive director of the Archbishop Flynn Catechetical Institute, which Cavins helped to found in 2008 at The St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota.
This year, the Catechetical Institute’s two-year foundational course “Pillars” is at its highest enrollment yet: 697 students between its first-year and second-year classes.
Polarization not only within broader society but also in the church has prompted people to wonder what the church actually teaches, said Donna Grimes, assistant director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat of Cultural Diversity in the Church. In recent years, Catholic thought leaders have shared conflicting information about the church’s stance on controversial issues, including same-sex attraction, the liturgy and women’s role in the church – some of the same issues that received attention on diocesan and national levels in preparation for the worldwide Synod on Synodality.
“We have a duty and an obligation to really share the faith, to accompany people as they are exploring and growing in the faith and to continue to encourage that growth. And it just can’t be done without a focus on adult faith formation,” said Grimes, a longtime catechist and author of “All God’s People: Effective Catechesis in a Diverse Church” published in 2017 by Loyola Press in Chicago.
Grimes said anticipation for “The Catechism in a Year” podcast is not the only indicator that many Catholics want to better understand their faith, including Catholics from diverse ethnic communities, who may come from parishes without resources for paid faith formation staff, she said. She pointed to the success of the Institute for Black Catholic Studies at Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans and the Sankofa Institute for African American Pastoral Leadership in San Antonio, Texas.
Other initiatives underway include the OSV project Real+True, which includes videos and other content “to unlock the beauty and wisdom of the Catechism” and help people discover Jesus.
“The Catechism is not a textbook, a collection of ideas, or a set of rules. It is the faithful echo of a God who wishes to reveal himself to us and desires us to respond,” its website states.
– Catechism’s history – Religious instruction in the Catholic Church has long included “catechisms,” or written summaries of core Catholic beliefs.
According to the USCCB’s website, a catechism is a book that “contains the fundamental Christian truths formulated in a way that facilitates their understanding,” and can be either “major” or “minor.”
“A major catechism is a resource or a point of reference for the development of minor catechisms,” it states, pointing to the Catechism of the Catholic Church as an example of a major catechism, and the U.S. bishops’ 1885 Baltimore Catechism as an example of a minor catechism.
In 1992, Pope St. John Paul II issued the Catechism of the Catholic Church for universal use, with an English edition published in the United States in 1994. The project was overseen by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who was head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and later became Pope Benedict XVI. The effort has been among his celebrated contributions in the wake of his Dec. 31 death. It was updated in 1997, and then revised in 2018 by Pope Francis.
In 2005, Pope Benedict XVI issued the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, a synthesis of the catechism in Q&A format.
– Catechism and Bible connections – The Catechism of the Catholic Church is organized in four parts based on the Apostles’ Creed, the sacraments, the Ten Commandments, and Christian prayer.
Jane Hernandez, author of the Facebook post celebrating her enroute catechism, became interested in “The Catechism in a Year” podcast after following “The Bible in a Year” in 2021. As with the Bible, she had tried several times to read the catechism – and even tried to listen to it on Audible – but it didn’t “stick,” she said.
“After ‘Bible in a Year,’ I was able to really hear God’s Word, and I want to follow him the best way that I can,” said Hernandez, who works as a project manager for a medical software development company. “I think the catechism is part of that. It’s giving you … the structure to follow him – what should you do in order to be a good Catholic? That’s what I’m looking for.”
Like Cavins and others, Hernandez thinks people are eager to sift through confusion about church teaching and how they should live. “People are just thirsty. They’re hungry for this information, so that’s what I think is driving a lot of (interest),” she said.
Cavins acknowledged that “The Catechism in a Year” may not attract as many listeners as “The Bible in a Year,” which again topped Apple podcast’s charts at the beginning of 2022 and hovered at No. 25 in the United States at the end of the year. However, “CIY” listeners familiar with Scripture – including “BIY” devotees – will be rewarded by the connections they see between the Bible and the catechism, he said.
The Bible tells the story of salvation history, and the catechism shows a person how to join that story, he said. Cavins said approaching the catechism through that lens elevates it beyond the reference-book status it currently enjoys in many Catholics’ homes.
“You can present the message of the catechism two ways: One, it’s information and data about Catholicism. … It’s not going to be successful, and no one’s going to be that interested in it. And unfortunately, that’s sort of where it’s stuck right now,” he said. “The second is, it accompanies the (salvation history) story, and you’re in the story. And this is what’s going to help you live that story in a practical way.”
– Faith must be shared – Petroc Willey and William Keimig, leaders of the Catechetical Institute at Franciscan University of Steubenville, which partners with 111 dioceses and has 1,000 new people a month connecting to their offerings, said that initiatives like “The Catechism in a Year” tap into “immense amounts of hidden strength in the church” and people’s “zeal … to be fed,” but that for faith formation to truly take root, it must be shared with others.
Even the best content can not replace the role of relationships in conveying the faith, said Keimig, the institute’s assistant director.
“However good the topics are … a desire to access it does not become consistent or sustained in an adult’s life unless it is accompanied by some structure or relationship,” he added.
Willey, the institute’s director and a professor of catechetics, suggested that the podcast’s listeners “make a decision to share one thing that struck them, either because of its truth, its beauty, its ‘hitting home,’ and share that with one other person every week.” That could be done with a friend or in a small group, he said.
In recent decades, Cavins has observed a rise in popularity for apologetics and Scripture study, and he thinks the church may be ripe for the catechism to have its own moment. Diocesan and parish faith formation leaders can leverage that, but the key, he said, is approaching the catechism as “an activated disciple who’s on mission with Christ” and who needs a guide, rooted in Scripture, to how to live as a Christian.
“I think we’re going to see an era where people are going to understand their faith better than they ever have in any other generation in American history,” Cavins said. “They’re going to understand their faith and … the proof will be in the pudding when people start sharing Christ with others.”
Children dressed as the Three Kings carry offertory gifts as Pope Francis celebrates Mass on the feast of Mary, Mother of God, in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican Jan. 1, 2023. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)
NATION WASHINGTON (OSV News) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will allow retail pharmacies to offer abortion pills in the United States for the first time, the agency announced Jan. 3, prompting criticism from Catholic and pro-life groups. The Biden administration’s rule change comes in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision last year in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that struck down its previous ruling in Roe v. Wade, prompting many states to either attempt to restrict or expand access to abortion. The regulatory change will permit the retail sale of mifepristone, the first of two drugs used in a medication or chemical abortion. The drug could previously only be dispensed only by some mail-order pharmacies, doctors, or clinics. The new FDA rules will still require a prescription, but will permit a wider range of pharmacies to sell the drugs. Dr. Marie Hilliard, co-chair of the Catholic Medical Association’s ethics committee, and Dr. Lester Ruppersberger, former CMA president, told OSV News in a statement the new rule will “put the health of women, and their true informed consent, at risk.”
WASHINGTON (OSV News) – After a report dubbed 2022 “the year of the botched execution,” Catholic activists renewed their calls for an end to the practice. Despite declining public support for the practice, and a campaign promise from President Joe Biden, a Catholic Democrat, to repeal the federal death penalty, a bill to do so gained little traction last Congress, when Democrats still controlled both chambers. The Catholic church opposes the death penalty as morally “inadmissible” in the modern era – a teaching Pope Francis changed the Catechism of the Catholic Church in 2018 and expounded on the change in the 2020 encyclical “Fratelli tutti.” The Catholic church is committed to death penalty abolition worldwide.
EL PASO, Texas (OSV News) – In this first trip to the border since he took office, Biden, who is Catholic, sought to “assess border enforcement operations” and talk to those helping to manage “the historic number of migrants fleeing political oppression and gang violence in Venezuela, Haiti, Nicaragua and Cuba,” according to the White House. Biden’s visit – which lasted a few hours – came amid criticism over how he is handling the humanitarian crisis at the southern border. During his nearly four-hour visit to El Paso, Biden did not meet with migrants or deliver public remarks. Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso shared his concerns, as did other migrant advocates, with the president and his aides. At a news briefing, Sister Norma Pimentel of the Missionaries of Jesus, who heads Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley in the Diocese of Brownsville, Texas, said the president’s presence at the border was significant. The sister stressed the need to come together as a community – including the city government, Border Patrol and faith-based communities – to safeguard people’s dignity while creating policies to face the issue of migration. After the short visit, Biden traveled to Mexico City, where he and the presidents of Mexico and Canada gathered for a Jan. 9-10 North American leaders’ summit.
VATICAN ROME (OSV News) – In what looks like a continuation of pontifical legacy, Pope Benedict XVI was buried in the crypt where his Polish predecessor, St. John Paul II, was first buried. St. John XXIII also was buried there prior to his beatification. The place of burial is unique for many that knew the fond relationship of St. John Paul and Cardinal Ratzinger. The two popes had a unique intellectual friendship throughout John Paul’s papacy. And even if their characters seemed a world away, Cardinal Ratzinger was similar to St. John Paul II in many aspects as pontiff. The Holy See Press Office predicted the crypt where Pope Benedict was laid to rest will be ready for the faithful to visit after Jan. 8.
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The disappearance 40 years ago of Emanuela Orlandi has haunted her family, fueled conspiracy theories and provided grist for a recent Netflix series. Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office, said Jan. 9 that Alessandro Diddi, Vatican City’s chief prosecutor, was opening a new file on the case, although he provided no details about the direction the investigation was expected to take. The Italian news agency ANSA said Diddi’s decision was in response to requests by Pietro Orlandi, Emanuela’s brother. Vatican investigators will begin by “analyzing the acts and documents related to prior investigations,” of which there have been many, ANSA said. Pietro Orlandi told the television RaiNews24 that he had received copies of WhatsApp messages exchanged in 2014 by “two persons very close to Pope Francis that talk about documents” related to the case that never have been published. He said he was certain someone in the Vatican knew more about what happened to his sister. Pietro and Emanuela are the children of a Vatican employee and grew up in an apartment inside the Vatican. Emanuela disappeared in Rome June 22, 1983, when she was 15.
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The way individual Catholics and their parishes care for the sick offers a precise measure of just how much they either are part of or are fighting the “throwaway culture” that ignores or discards anyone seen as flawed or weak, Pope Francis said in his message for the World Day of the Sick. The care of those who are ill shows “whether we are truly companions on the journey or merely individuals on the same path, looking after our own interests and leaving others to ‘make do,’” the pope said in the message, which was released by the Vatican Jan. 10. The Catholic Church celebrates the world day Feb. 11, the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. “Experiences of bewilderment, sickness and weakness are part of the human journey,” the 86-year-old pope wrote. But, he said, the Bible makes clear that “far from excluding us from God’s people,” those situations of vulnerability “bring us to the center of the Lord’s attention, for he is our Father and does not want to lose even one of his children along the way.” Those who profess belief in God, he said, should do likewise, placing the sick at the center of their attention.
WORLD SÃO PAULO (OSV News) – The National Conference of Brazilian Bishops is said to be “perplexed by the serious and violent occurrences” that erupted Jan. 8 in Brasilia, the nation’s capital. Thousands of protesters invaded the country’s Congress, Supreme Court building and the presidential palace, enraged about newly sworn-in president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The protesters are supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro, who was defeated by Lula, as the new president is popularly known. They demand the removal of the new president, stating that the October elections were illegitimate and are asking Brazil’s military to take over. Bishops’ conference officials called for the immediate cessation of “criminal attacks on the democratic rule of law.” “These attacks must be immediately contained and their organizers and participants held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. Citizens and democracy must be protected,” said the message in the conference’s social media accounts. Cardinal Odilo Pedro Scherer of São Paulo also condemned the events stating that what happened in Brasília “was unacceptable.”
WASHINGTON (OSV News) – Catholic immigration advocates are hailing the extension of Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, to war-torn Yemen, where more than 23 million face what the United Nations has called “the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.” The decision, announced Jan. 3 and set to begin March 4, will safeguard protections for TPS program participants through Sept. 3, 2024. With Yemen deemed by the United Nations as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, the extension “will provide real relief for many,” said Anna Gallagher, executive director of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc., or CLINIC. “This decision duly recognizes the needs of Yemenis in the U.S. who cannot return home.”
TIONKUY, Burkino Faso (OSV News) – Father Jacques Yaro Zerbo, 67, Malian-born Catholic priest, was laid to rest Jan. 5 at the Cemetery of Pastoral Agents in Tionkuy, 150 miles west of Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. The priest was killed Jan. 2 by unidentified armed men in what his bishop, Bishop Prosper Bonaventure Ky, who heads the Diocese of Dédougou, called “cold-blood murder.” Father Zerbo was on his way to Tona to accomplish a mission for his bishop when he was intercepted by unidentified armed men in the village of Soro in Gassan township found in the northwestern region of Boucle du Mouhon – one of Burkina Faso’s 13 administrative regions and a flashpoint of jihadist extremism. After killing the priest, the killers escaped with his car, leaving his lifeless body by the roadside. Bishop Ky expressed “profound sorrow” at the killing of the priest and hoped he would find peace in the Lord. The killing added to a long list of persecution of Christians and other civilians and underscored the continued spread of terrorism in Burkina Faso and across the Sahel region.
PEARL – On Saturday, Dec. 17, 2022 at St. Jude Pearl, the Carmelite Secular Community of Jackson, St. Joseph and St. Therese of Lisieux, OCDS had three members to make their definitive promise: Elena Buno, Maria Asuncion Cannon and Rizalina Caskey. Elizabeth Jones made her first promise, and three members were clothed in the large brown scapular, the habit of the order – Overton “Pierce” Crockett, Elizabeth Lee and Christina Overton. Their spiritual assistant, Father Jerome Earley, OCD (Marylake Monastery) was presider, with community member, Father Lincoln Dall, con-celebrating.
Founded by St. Teresa of Avila, the local Carmelite Secular community meets monthly on fourth Saturdays at the St. Jude Family Life Center. They are a contemplative, yet active order with a vocation of prayer. They learn to listen and commune in the silence with God, and about the many saints of Carmel. They imitate Mary in that she “kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.” (Luke 2:19) If you would like further information, please contact Dorothy Ashley at (601) 259-0885 or carmelite57@yahoo.com.
ST. LOUIS – Nearly 19,000 from across the country attended the FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students) SEEK23 conference in St. Louis, Missouri from Jan. 2-6. The event invites people into a deeper relationship with Jesus and His church. Pictured is a portion of the event where students raised their school flags. The Diocese had approximately 80 that attended this year’s event. (Photo by Father Nick Adam)
