St. James the Less Catholic Parish

Left to right, Victor Fenik, J.P. Ledermann, Jocelyn Reiter, and Anna Picasso distribute bottles of holy water to new and returning students during the involvement fair on Aug. 26, 2024, at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit. Members of Detroit Catholic Campus Ministry have been distributing holy water at the start of the academic year at local colleges and universities for the past three years. / Credit: Valaurian Waller/Detroit Catholic

Detroit, Mich., Sep 8, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

For three years, members of Detroit Catholic Campus Ministry have kicked off the academic year at local colleges and universities by offering new students a small, simple bottle of holy water and a prayer.

The gesture attracts students to its table at local college campus involvement fairs, serving as an invitation for new students not only to join in fellowship with Catholics on campus but also to take a blessing with them wherever they live during their first year at college.

Detroit Catholic Campus Ministry serves students at Wayne State University, the University of Michigan-Dearborn, and surrounding campuses, including Henry Ford College and the College for Creative Studies.

Fall outreach for clubs and groups on campus is an important time for campus ministries, chaplain Father Matthew Hood explained, and holy water has served as a unique draw. 

“People are so interested in the bottles that a lot of people come up to the table and say, ‘What are those? Can I have one?’ It is a great conversation starter to tell people what holy water is and how it is used,” Hood told Detroit Catholic. “Students are always very interested in it, and they usually go fairly quickly once we get to campus.”

Most of the students who approach “have no idea what holy water is,” Hood continued. “We communicate that it is a way to take a blessing with you, to bless the space that you are in, and bless yourself with the holy water.”

Students don’t have to be Catholic to take a bottle and are encouraged to use holy water to bless their dorms or apartments or, if they are commuters, their cars and homes.

The bottles themselves have a blessed history, Hood said. Each year, members of Detroit Catholic Campus Ministry organize drives to collect them from parishes, who receive them on Holy Thursday during the chrism Mass with Detroit Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron. The bottles originally contained holy oils blessed by the archbishop and used throughout the year in parishes across the Archdiocese of Detroit.

“Every year, there are old holy oil bottles that nobody needs anymore and that have to be properly disposed of; you aren’t supposed to just throw them out, you are supposed to make sure that the oil is burned properly and that they are purified and cleaned properly as well,” Hood said. “What happens in a lot of parishes is they end up farther and farther in the back of the shelf in the sacristy because they haven’t had a chance to do that.”

Hood said Detroit Catholic Campus Ministry has been able to collect and repurpose the bottles, some of which are very old, that would otherwise be collecting dust.

Campus ministers then invite student members to participate in the proper cleaning and purification of the bottles, which includes making sure all the holy oil is burned, outreach coordinator Anna Picasso told Detroit Catholic. 

“It’s an awesome opportunity to teach students about sacramentals as our students help us through the whole purification process,” Picasso said. “We teach them about the reality of these tangible signs.”

Picasso added the entire process presents a dual opportunity to engage students already involved in campus ministries and to invite new members.

“Holy water is actually something that students are often fascinated by, and that’s in many ways thanks to a lot of cultural horror movies,” Picasso said. “But this gives us an opportunity to actually teach them what holy water is and also a means to reach them and open up a conversation to convey the reality of the care that we desire for them as they bless their spaces, their cars, and their homes while they are on campus.”

Picasso said upperclassmen involved in Catholic campus ministries have told her and Hood that they still have their bottles from freshman year. 

“I still have my bottle to this day. That is how I was interested in [Detroit Catholic Campus Ministry’s] table, because I saw they had shirts that said ‘God loves Detroit,’ and I saw holy water on their table,” Wayne State University junior Idalia Shadhaya told Detroit Catholic. “I thought that was really neat, so I grabbed one and sparked a conversation.”

Shadhaya, 20, has been an active participant ever since, serving as a liturgical minister during student Masses. Shadhaya is currently preparing to start her own Bible study small group. 

“[The ministry] has made a huge difference in my college experience,” Shadhaya said. “It really promotes fellowship and growing alongside one another and really getting to know people on a deeper spiritual and friendship level.” 

Shadhaya said she keeps the bottle of holy water from her freshman year on the windowsill in her off-campus apartment and uses it to bless all the doorways in her home in addition to blessing herself.

“It is cool to see it every day and be reminded of my faith and of Jesus and how sacred the Catholic Church is,” Shadhaya said. “It is a daily representation of my role in Detroit Catholic Campus Ministry.”

Picasso said she is grateful such a small gesture has stuck with students like Shadhaya. 

“The holy water is a great opportunity to encounter students and invite them into a relationship with Jesus. That’s the whole purpose behind it,” Picasso added. 

This article was first published by Detroit Catholic on Aug. 30, 2024, and has been reprinted here with permission.

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

In a dating culture that consists of swiping through photos of potential dates on a smartphone, one Catholic dating app is working to create a space where individuals can create genuine connections online. Candid Dating, launched in January, is a virtual speed-dating site for single Catholics.

Taylor O’Brien, CEO and co-founder of the site, had the idea to create the platform when things started opening back up after the COVID-19 pandemic. She felt a deep desire to form Catholic friendships and began to host meetups in the Dallas-Fort Worth area for young Catholic women to foster fellowship.

A topic of conversation that kept coming up among the women was dating and the struggle to find available Catholic men. O’Brien, who was newly single at the time after ending an engagement, began to think about this topic. She continued to host these meetups and shared the information for them on her Instagram page. Soon enough, men started to find her events and began reaching out saying they wanted to meet Catholic women, too. 

“From a bird’s-eye view I was able to really look and see — the men are there, the women are there, everyone’s just missing each other,” O’Brien explained to CNA in an interview.

O’Brien decided to get all these single Catholics together for an in-person event. She posted a Google doc on her Instagram for people to register to attend. Thinking she would maybe have 50 singles sign up, in less than 48 hours 400 people signed up. With the help of a friend, she hand-matched individuals based on different demographics and interests and held an in-person event. It was then that she realized this could be something even bigger, so she spent the next two years putting together a team and creating what is now the Candid Dating platform.

“Candid is a Catholic speed-dating platform exclusively for Catholics,” O’Brien explained. “We have no profiles, no swiping, and users create an account and during their account creation, they just answer a series of onboarding questions like age, interest, location, just a little bit about them, and then once their account is approved, our algorithm does its thing.”

The algorithm works to send individuals a list of virtual events that pertain to them based on their specific interests and location. Once they sign up for an event, they meet five to seven men or women for five to seven minutes at a time. At the end of the conversation, they are sent one question: “Do you want to continue the conversation? Yes or No.” If the pair both say “yes,” they will receive a notification saying that they matched and can message each other and exchange further contact information.

In addition to the current dating culture’s habit of swiping left or right on people based on their physical appearance, O’Brien pointed out that “we’ve lost the art of conversation.”

“What I love about what Candid does is it forces you to be able to have a conversation with someone, even if you know, maybe like after minute 2, that this may not be the best match,” she said, adding: “How are you able to then spend the next five minutes? Are you able to receive the person who’s sitting across from you? Are you able to give them the gifts that God has given you? How can we really share in communion as brothers and sisters in Christ knowing that maybe you’re not my person … but I don’t have control over that outcome and I should be able to just sit and enjoy my brother or sister in Christ.”

O’Brien shared that her goal with Candid Dating is to “rewire the way we think about dating and undo some of those wires that have been crossed in the swiping culture.” 

“Swiping culture has done such a disservice especially as Catholics in the way that we look at dating. We start to objectify,” she emphasized. “The same motion that we use to shop for groceries or a pair of jeans in the swiping is the same thing that we’re doing to human beings.”

She added: “I think whenever we’re out there in the secular world and we see the way dating is going, sometimes we feel like maybe it’s just better if I sit this out for a while. So I think that a lot of people are getting discouraged in that way.”

“So my prayer and my goal with Candid would be that it would just help us rethink and be a little bit more intentional about the way that we’re approaching dating as a whole.”

For those who might be hesitant to take part in something like this dating approach or desire to meet their future spouse in person rather than online, O’Brien encouraged those people to “release a little bit of that control.”

“We always like to pretend like we know exactly the way that we’re going to meet someone until we actually meet them in a way that God surprises us and then all of that went out the window and we don’t even care because we’re just so happy that we met the person we’re supposed to be with,” she said. 

Has the platform had any success stories yet? 

O’Brien shared a message she received from a user hours before speaking to CNA. It read: “Hi, I participated in one of your events on April 11 and as a result I’ve got the best girlfriend a guy could ask for. I love her dearly and you all have my deepest appreciation. Thank you.”

This is not the first such message O’Brien has received, she said, but each one leaves her “blown away” and amazed at how “the Lord has really provided each next step for us.”

Georgetown University, located in Washington, D.C., is the nation’s oldest Catholic and Jesuit university. / Credit: Rob Crandall, Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 6, 2024 / 13:15 pm (CNA).

The Georgetown University Police Department is investigating two “potential hate crimes” after a processional crucifix was found damaged inside the university’s chapel and a statue of the Blessed Mother was found to be displaced and on the ground.

“We are currently investigating them as potential hate crimes,” Vice President for Mission and Ministry Father Mark Bosco and Associate Vice President of Public Safety Jay Gruber wrote in a jointly signed letter sent out to Georgetown staff and students.

“Anti-Catholic acts and desecration of religious symbols are deeply concerning, hurtful, and offensive,” the letter read. “Acts of vandalism, especially of sacred spaces, have no place in our campus community.”

Georgetown University, established in 1789 and located in Washington, D.C., is the oldest Catholic and Jesuit university in the United States.

According to the letter, Georgetown University police received a report on Friday, Aug. 30, that the large processional crucifix in the Dahlgren Chapel of the Sacred Heart was “inappropriately moved and sustained damage after being placed against the door.” Later that morning, staff found that “the statue of the Blessed Mother by the Heyden Observatory and Gardens was displaced and on the ground.”

The university does not know the identity or “motivation of the person or persons responsible,” according to the letter, and does not know whether anyone involved is associated with the university.

After reviewing video surveillance, the police department identified “a light-complexioned male wearing a dark-colored hoodie and dark-colored pants entering Dahlgren Chapel around 11:40 p.m.” the night before, the letter states. However, it adds that the university does not know whether “these incidents are related.” Police are investigating whether “these incidents are related to other reported irregularities at these sites in recent weeks,” the letter said.

When reached by CNA to ask whether there have been any updates to the investigation, a spokesperson for the university referred CNA back to the original letter. The Georgetown University Police Department referred CNA to the university’s communications office.

The Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“Dahlgren Chapel provides a spiritual home for our Catholic community and a welcoming place for reflection and prayer for all members of our community,” the letter read. “In this sacred space, generations of students, faculty, staff, and alumni have attended Mass, exchanged sacred vows at weddings, found reconciliation in confessions, were baptized into the faith, or simply reflected in a quiet moment to re-center their lives.”

According to the letter, all services at the Dahlgren Chapel would continue as normal and police are increasing patrols of religious spaces on campus. The letter also asks anyone who can assist in the investigation to contact the Georgetown police through the phone at 202-687-4343 or through email at police@georgetown.edu.

This is a developing story.

A pro-life supporter stands on a lamppost and holds a sign that reads "MAKE ABORTION UNTHINKABLE" in front of the Supreme Court on June 20, 2024, in Washington, D.C. / Credit: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 6, 2024 / 11:15 am (CNA).

Here’s a roundup of abortion-related developments happening across the country this week.

Florida investigating abortion amendment signatures for fraud

Brad McVay, Florida deputy secretary of state for legal affairs and elections integrity, is conducting a review of some 36,000 signatures in support of a broad abortion amendment, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

The Tampa Bay Times reported that McVay asked officials in four counties — Hillsborough, Orange, Palm Beach, and Osceola — to submit signatures gathered in their jurisdiction. McVay suspects some of the more than 1 million signatures submitted to get the abortion amendment on the ballot may have been fraudulent.

In an email written by McVay to officials in Hillsborough County, McVay said that “most” of the circulators listed on the abortion amendment petition “represent known or suspected fraudsters.”

McVay also said that “several” other petition circulators “have very concerning invalidity rates.”

Titled the Amendment to Limit Government Interference with Abortion or simply Amendment 4, the measure would invalidate both Florida’s six-week and 15-week pro-life protections for the unborn.

The amendment would also allow abortion past the point of viability through all nine months of pregnancy if determined by a health care provider to be necessary for the health of the mother.

IVF takes center stage in 2024 election

As both Democrats and Republicans rush to support access to in vitro fertilization (IVF), several pro-life activists are highlighting the destruction of human life brought about by these treatments.

Lila Rose, a Catholic and president of the national pro-life group Live Action, posted to X on Wednesday that in the IVF process “15 children on average are created per one live birth.”

“The remaining children are destroyed, experimented on, then killed, miscarried, or frozen indefinitely until they ‘need to be used,’” Rose said.

This comes after Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump pledged that “under the Trump administration your government will pay for, or your insurance company will be mandated to pay for, all costs associated with IVF treatment.”

Meanwhile, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has made supporting IVF a central part of her campaign along with her abortion advocacy.

Shortly after announcing his IVF policy, Harris hosted a press call highlighting “Donald Trump’s threat to reproductive freedom, including IVF.”

Newsweek reported that during the call, Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren said: “American women are not stupid, and we know the only guaranteed protection for IVF is a new national law, which Kamala Harris supports and Donald Trump opposes.”

Warren asserted that “anyone who cares about IVF will vote for Kamala Harris for president and Democrats for Congress.”

Texas sues Biden administration to investigate illegal abortions

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing the Biden Department of Health and Human Services over changes to federal medical privacy laws that restrict the state’s ability to investigate illegal abortion.

The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas on Wednesday.

The new rule, finalized by the Biden administration in April, modified certain provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the U.S. Standards for Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information to stop states from obtaining patient information from doctors relating to abortion.

The HHS said the changes were necessary to protect the private health information of individuals seeking “reproductive health care” amid the “shifting legal landscape” around abortion after the overturn of Roe v. Wade.

Paxton’s office, however, asserted that “the Biden administration’s motive is clear: to subvert lawful state investigations on issues that the courts have said the states may investigate.”

“This new rule actively undermines Congress’ clear statutory meaning when HIPAA was passed, and it reflects the Biden administration’s disrespect for the law,” Paxton said. “The federal government is attempting to undermine Texas’ law enforcement capabilities, and I will not allow this to happen.”

Texas law protects unborn babies beginning at conception, with the only exception being for the life of the mother.

West Virginia Delegate Pat McGeehan, a supporter of the state’s ballot measure to make assisted suicide illegal, said in an interview with “EWTN Pro-Life Weekly” on Sept. 5, 2024, that he hopes the potential ban will be a “gold standard for other states to follow.” / Credit: “EWTN Pro-Life Weekly” screenshot

CNA Staff, Sep 6, 2024 / 10:30 am (CNA).

West Virginia Delegate Pat McGeehan, a supporter of the state’s ballot measure to make assisted suicide illegal, said in an interview with “EWTN Pro-Life Weekly” this week that he hopes the potential ban will be a “gold standard for other states to follow.”

West Virginia’s House Joint Resolution 28 received majority support in both chambers earlier this year. The measure would explicitly prohibit physicians and health care providers from participating in medically assisted suicide and euthanasia. 

Assisted suicide is legal in 10 U.S. states including Oregon, Washington, and Colorado as well as Washington, D.C.

Assisted suicide is implicitly illegal in West Virginia already as it’s considered homicide, McGeehan said on “EWTN Pro-Life Weekly” on Thursday. But the ballot measure would move to enshrine this ban in the state constitution.

“The measure is not only to protect our own state in the future,” McGeehan said. “We’re trying to use it to serve as a beacon for other states who value the preservation of life, to do so and follow in our wake.”

“If we enshrine this prohibition in the state constitution, we can establish some sort of gold standard for other states to follow, especially the red states in the Midwest, so that we can ensure that the sanctity of life is upheld across the nation,” he added. 

Physician-assisted suicide — where a doctor prescribes life-ending drugs to a patient — was first allowed in the U.S. in Oregon in 1997.

“People might not fully grasp the long-term ramifications of legalizing and institutionalizing medically assisted suicide,” McGeehan said this week. “The liberal progressive order likes to reduce morality to just consent.”

But McGeehan said that it’s hard to ensure that assisted suicide is fully voluntary. 

“Doctors hold significant authority in our society, and their suggestion of assisted suicide can heavily influence vulnerable patients and makes it hard to ensure that such a decision is ever truly voluntary to begin with,” he said. 

McGeehan noted that insurance companies and Medicaid and Medicare may cover the assisted suicide, but not the cancer treatment, to save money. 

“Once states start down this path, there’s going to be pressure from government bureaucrats placed on doctors to suggest that this is a way for patients to end their lives who might be in vulnerable situations, just like Canada’s doing,” McGeehan said. 

Legalized in 2016 in Canada, assisted suicide accounted for 4.1% of all deaths in that country in 2022. A 2024 study found that the assisted suicide program was the fifth-leading cause of death in Canada, tied with cerebrovascular diseases. 

Some states like Oregon and Vermont also offer assisted suicide to out-of-state residents in what McGeehan calls “euthanasia tourism.” 

“They have an entire market in Portland now, dedicated to these out-of-state residents coming in to kill themselves,” he said. “They have so-called death hotels and death Airbnbs, where vulnerable individuals traveling to their states to end their lives essentially die by themselves.”

McGeehan recalled a West Virginian who turned to assisted suicide, travelling to Oregon for the death prescription. 

“I had a constituent who was very depressed. He got a bad diagnosis, he could have stuck with it, and the doctors told him his cancer would go into remission, potentially in a couple of years,” McGeehan recalled. 

“But he, against my advice, traveled to Oregon, waited two weeks and got a script from the doctor who signed off on it, went down to a local pharmacy, they gave him a cocktail of poisons, just like they were giving him some sort of medicine,” he continued. “He went back to a hotel, swallowed them, and it destroyed his organs.”

McGeehan calls assisted suicide “a nihilistic trend that is sweeping the country and the Western world.”

“We cannot place decisions between who should die and who should not in the hands of politicians today,” he said. “[That] places an enormous power in the hands of government officials, and it leads to arbitrary decisions that can have devastating consequences for our society.”

“I want to get the word out there because it’s a fight worth fighting,” McGeehan added.

null / Credit: RasyidArt, Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Sep 6, 2024 / 09:00 am (CNA).

A ballot measure to repeal a new school choice scholarship voucher program is set to be on the November 2024 ballot in Nebraska.

The school choice program provides scholarships to students to attend qualifying private schools, including parochial schools, with a high priority for students in foster care, students experiencing bullying or harassment, and students in need of special education as well as low-income and lower-middle-class families. 

Students may apply for and receive scholarships to private schools through Scholarship Granting Organizations (SGOs).

Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen confirmed on Friday that there were enough verified signatures to include the repeal measure on the ballot. However, the Elections Division has not yet certified the petition.

The “Private Education Scholarship partial referendum” had more than 60,000 valid signatures, meeting the 5% distribution requirement in at least 57 counties. The petition has enough valid signatures to be certified, but the state will continue to verify signatures until it reaches the 110% threshold, according to a press release from Evnen’s office. 

Gov. Jim Pillen signed LB 1402 into law earlier this year. It is set to provide $10 million annually in state funding for scholarships for students to attend private schools.

“Not every school is a perfect fit for a kid, no matter if they attend a public or private school,” Pillen said in an Aug. 30 statement. “That is why I have supported and continue to support the need to bring options to our students and their families. It has taken Nebraska a long time to get here, and we need to expand on those opportunities so it is even easier for families to make those decisions.”

LB 1402 is designed to help parents of limited means, the bill says. 

“Parents and legal guardians of limited means are less able to choose among quality educational opportunities for their children,” LB 1402 reads. 

“Enabling the greatest number of parents and legal guardians to choose among quality educational opportunities for children will improve the quality of education available to all children,” it continues. 

LB 1402 is a less expensive version of last year’s measure, LB 753, which opponents initially collected signatures to overturn. LB 753, the Opportunity Scholarships Act, offered a tax credit to those who donate to SGOs. In April, legislators repealed the Opportunity Scholarships Act, and with the passage of LB 1402 instead set aside $10 million in state funding for scholarships. 

Support Our Schools Nebraska, which organized last year’s signature collection, has since been collecting signatures for a ballot measure against the most recent school choice bill. 

Opponents of the school choice programs criticized the measure saying it doesn’t help all children and takes away funding from public schools. 

“Vouchers undermine strong public education and student opportunity. They take scarce funding from public schools — which serve 90% of students — and give it to private schools — institutions that are not accountable to taxpayers,” said Jenni Benson, a sponsor of Support Our Schools, in a statement. “Instead of sending public dollars to private schools, which are under no obligation to serve all children, state funds should be used to support the public schools that 9 out of 10 Nebraska students attend.”

Sen. Dave Murman, a proponent of school choice, said the LB 1402 program is “amongst the humblest and most meager in the nation” compared with most school choice programs.

“Others have argued LB 1402 defunds public schools. Those who make this claim either haven’t done the math or simply know they are lying,” he said in a statement. “In the 2022-2023 year, K–12 schools received about $4.7 billion in taxpayer funds. Since my time as chair of the Education Committee, we have additionally appropriated over $1.6 billion for our public schools. Compare this spending with the $10 million cost of LB 1402, and we see that it is only about 0.2%, or two one-thousandths, of our total education funding.” 

All ballot measures must be certified by Sept. 13, according to the secretary of state.

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent detains camouflaged Mexican migrants near the U.S.-Mexico border on Nov. 4, 2022, near Naco, Arizona. / Credit: John Moore/Getty Images

Houston, Texas, Sep 5, 2024 / 18:04 pm (CNA).

The Catholic bishops of Arizona have come out against a ballot initiative that would criminalize illegal immigration at the state level and strengthen state border enforcement. 

Arizona citizens will be voting on the measure, which is titled the Arizona Immigration and Border Law Enforcement Measure, or simply Proposition 314, as part of this November’s election.

Though they expressed “frustration about the current situation at the U.S.-Mexico border,” the state’s four Catholic bishops said in a statement that the proposition would have “harmful consequences.”

The bishops asserted that border enforcement is a federal not state issue and that if passed the result of the measure would be that “dangerous criminals will not be apprehended, and public safety will be threatened.”

What would the proposition do?

If passed, the proposition would make it a state crime for migrants to enter Arizona from any location other than an official port of entry. The measure would also authorize state and local police to arrest illegal migrants and allow state judges to order deportations.

Additionally, the measure would require officials to determine the immigration status of individuals before being enrolled in financial aid or public welfare programs. Individuals who violate the measure by submitting false information to evade detection of employment eligibility or to apply for public benefits would face Class 6 felony charges.

Lastly, the measure would make it a Class 2 felony for a person to knowingly sell fentanyl that results in the death of another person.

What are the bishops saying?

The Arizona bishops said that “the reality is that its passage will create real fear within Arizona communities that will have harmful consequences.”

The bishops claimed that by “having state and local law enforcement responsible for enforcing what should be the role of federal immigration authorities, many crime victims and witnesses will be afraid to go to law enforcement and report crimes.”

“Immigration by its nature is a national issue and the regulation of immigration extends beyond the purview of individual states,” the bishops said. “Rather than holding the federal government accountable, Proposition 314 will only create further disorder and confusion, placing unworkable and unrealistic expectations on state judicial officers and law enforcement personnel.”

Despite their opposition to the state measure, the Arizona bishops hold that “comprehensive immigration reform” is sorely needed from the federal government.

Bishop Edward Weisenburger of Tucson said in a video released by the bishops that “the federal government needs to do a much better job at managing our border and providing comprehensive immigration reform.”

“The lack of a federal solution to challenges faced by both vulnerable asylum seekers and American communities is sorely needed and long overdue,” Weisenburger said.

The freed prisoners included Catholic laypeople, 13 individuals associated with the Texas-based evangelical group Mountain Gateway, and human rights activists. / Credit: ADF International/Mountain Gateway Order, Inc.

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 5, 2024 / 16:26 pm (CNA).

Nicaraguan authorities released 135 political and religious prisoners following international pressure, but many critics of the government still remain behind bars amid the ongoing crackdown against political dissidents and religious organizations.

“No one should be put in jail for peacefully exercising their fundamental rights of free expression, association, and practicing their religion,” U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said in a Thursday statement. 

The U.S. Department of State (DOS), which has been working to secure the release of political prisoners in Nicaragua, announced that the freed people included Catholic laypeople, 13 individuals associated with the Texas-based evangelical group Mountain Gateway, and human rights activists.

According to the DOS, many of the former prisoners temporarily resettled “safely and voluntarily” in Guatemala. The Guatemalan government worked with the United States government to help secure the prisoners’ release. 

“These freed Nicaraguan citizens will now have the opportunity to apply for lawful pathways to resettle to the United States or elsewhere and begin the process of rebuilding their lives,” a DOS statement read.

President Daniel Ortega’s administration has jailed hundreds of political opponents over the past six years after the 2018 protests against his leadership. The socialist president has also expelled religious sisters and shut down Catholic schools and media outlets. He has imprisoned dozens of Catholic clergy, including Bishop Rolando Álvarez — who was released and sent to the Vatican along with priests and seminarians in January of this year.

Just last week, the regime shut down 169 additional nonprofit organizations, which included Catholic organizations and evangelical churches. Last week, the government also confiscated a retirement fund for Catholic priests. Last month, the dictatorship eliminated tax exemptions for Catholic and evangelical churches. 

“Daniel Ortega, [Vice President] Rosario Murillo, and their associates continue to violate human rights, stifle legitimate dissent, jail opponents, seize their property, and prevent citizens from reentering their home country,” the DOS statement read. “We urge the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in Nicaragua.”

Kristina Hjelkrem, who serves as legal counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom International (ADF) in Latin America, told CNA that “many families will be reunited” because of the most recent prisoner release in Nicaragua. ADF advocated on behalf of the individuals affiliated with Mountain Gateway.

Hjelkrem said the regime frequently fabricates charges against its opponents by prosecuting them for financial crimes, such as money laundering, or for recently created crimes such as the “propagation of false news” or the “undermining of national integrity.” Effectively, she said this is a way to arrest people for “talking against the human rights violations [of] of the government.” 

“One of their biggest strategies is to initiate criminal proceedings against churches and church-related institutions on sham charges,” Hjelkrem said. 

Hjelkrem said the regime targets anyone “who is calling out the government’s wrongdoing or even just preaching the Gospel … [because] the Gospel stands for human dignity and justice.”

According to Hjelkrem, international pressure from human rights groups and sovereign states “has proven to be effective” in securing the release of Nicaraguan political and religious prisoners. She encouraged people to continue to “speak up against the censorship that religious leaders in Nicaragua are experiencing.”

Sullivan, in his statement, called for the Nicaraguan government “to immediately cease the arbitrary arrest and detention of its citizens for merely exercising their fundamental freedoms.”

In April, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom released a report on religious persecution around the world. According to its findings, Nicaragua was one of the worst offenders of religious persecution.

Father Roger Landry. / Credit: EWTN News/Screenshot

CNA Staff, Sep 5, 2024 / 15:56 pm (CNA).

Father Roger Landry was announced Thursday as the new national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies USA (TPMS-USA), the pope’s ministry that supports Catholic missionary activity through moral support, prayer, and financial contributions. 

Landry, a priest of the Diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts, who currently serves as chaplain at Columbia University in New York, is well known as a Catholic preacher, writer, retreat leader, and pilgrimage guide. He also served a seven-year stint working with the Holy See at the United Nations and was appointed by Pope Francis in 2016 as a permanent Missionary of Mercy. 

“From the time I was a little child, I have loved the mission of the Church. I would go to bed reading about the great missionaries who gave their lives to spread the faith, so today I am overjoyed at the possibility of helping all those on the front lines through The Pontifical Mission Societies USA,” Landry said in a statement accompanying the announcement. 

“As Pope Francis has regularly reminded us, the Church doesn’t just have a mission; the Church is a mission, and each of us, as disciples of Jesus Christ, we too don’t just have a mission; we are a mission on this Earth.”

The Pontifical Mission Societies USA, which is funded in large part by a special collection at Catholic parishes each October, include the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, the Society of St. Peter the Apostle, the Missionary Childhood Association (MCA), and the Missionary Union of Priests and Religious. 

The societies support missionary activity by building churches, helping to form present and future priests and religious, sustaining fledgling missionary dioceses, and erecting schools and catechetical centers. 

Landry’s appointment as director will be effective in January 2025, TPMS-USA says. 

In a Thursday op-ed for the National Catholic Register, Landry said he was approached to serve as the new national director while helping to lead the recent National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, an unprecedented effort to process Christ in the Eucharist thousands of miles as a witness to the Catholic faith. Landry was the only priest who walked the entirety of one of the four cross-country pilgrimage routes, traversing the roughly 1,500-mile eastern Seton Route with the Eucharistic Lord and a cadre of young pilgrims. 

Landry said Thursday that Cardinal Luis Tagle, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, verbally confirmed his new appointment at the beginning of the National Eucharistic Congress, which took place in July in Indianapolis. Landry said it was fitting that Tagle preached at the final Mass of the Congress on the connection between the Eucharist and mission.

“To live a Catholic life, he emphasized, is to live a Eucharistic life, and a Eucharistic life is a missionary life. We’re called to imitate Jesus’ Eucharistic self-giving and make our life, in communion with his, a gift for others,” Landry wrote. 

“There’s a connection between the ‘Amen’ we give to Jesus when we receive him in holy Communion and the ‘Amen’ we say to God’s blessing at the end of Mass, as we are sent out to announce the Gospel of the Lord.”

Landry noted that he is taking the helm of the TPMS-USA at a time in which, 2,000 years after Christ’s ascension, only three out of 10 people in the world are Christian and just three out of 20 are Catholic.

“The whole world has become again what it was in the first days of the Church: a vast missionary territory. There’s a need for diligent laborers to take in that harvest — for everyone to take seriously and act on Jesus’ command, ‘Go, make disciples,’” Landry wrote. 

“I’m honored to have been called to do that work full time. I hope to count on you as a willing collaborator, as, following the example and with the intercession of St. Teresa of Calcutta, we seek from our encounter with Jesus’ infinite love in the holy Eucharist to become, like her and her sisters, his love in the world.”

Landry succeeds Monsignor Kieran Harrington, who resigned as national director in February amid allegations of inappropriate behavior with an adult, to which he later admitted. Father Anthony Andreassi, CO, has been serving as interim director. 

“The Board of Directors is thrilled to welcome Father Roger J. Landry as the new national director of The Pontifical Mission Societies,” said Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, president of the TPMS-USA Board of Directors.

“His commitment to the mission of the Church and his extensive experience make him the ideal leader to guide TPMS-USA in its efforts to support the global mission of evangelization, particularly where the message of the Gospel has only recently been introduced, where the Church is materially poor and cannot sustain itself, and also where our brothers in the faith are persecuted.”

St. Peter's Basilica contains an icon of the Virgin Mary titled “Mater Ecclesiae,” which means “Mother of the Church.” / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA

National Catholic Register, Sep 5, 2024 / 14:40 pm (CNA).

When you are in need of an answer to prayer but time doesn’t permit a multi-day petition, you may want to follow the example of St. Teresa of Calcutta — whose feast day is today, Sept. 5 — who turned to the Virgin Mary and prayed her “Flying Novena.”

Monsignor Leo Maasburg, her friend and spiritual adviser, explains in his book “Mother Teresa of Calcutta: A Personal Portrait” that it was “Mother Teresa’s spiritual rapid-fire weapon. It consisted of 10 Memorares — not nine, as you might expect from the word ‘novena.’ Novenas lasting nine days were quite common among the Congregation of the Missionaries of Charity. But given the host of problems that were brought to Mother Teresa’s attention, not to mention the pace at which she traveled, it was often just not possible to allow nine days for an answer from Celestial Management. And so she invented the ‘Quick Novena.’” 

Maasburg calls it by this name rather than the “Flying Novena,” which her Missionaries of Charity continue to use and pray.

Here are the words of the centuries-old Memorare:

“Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to your protection, implored your help, or sought your intercession was left unaided. Inspired with this confidence, I fly unto you, O Virgin of virgins, my Mother. To you I come, before you I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in your clemency hear and answer me. Amen.”

Maasburg writes that Mother Teresa said this novena all the time — “for petitions for the cure of a sick child, before important discussions, or when passports went missing to request heavenly aid when the fuel supply was running short on a nighttime mission and the destination was still far away in the darkness. The Quick Novena had one thing in common with nine-day and even nine-month novenas: confident pleading for heavenly assistance, as the apostles did for nine days in the upper room ‘with Mary, the mother of Jesus, and the women’ (Acts 1:14) while waiting for the promised help from the Holy Spirit.”

Maasburg goes on to explain why Mother Teresa always prayed 10 Memorares. “She took the collaboration of heaven so much for granted that she always added a 10th Memorare immediately, in thanksgiving for the favor received.”

Typical quick answer

Father Brian Kolodiejchuk of the Missionaries of Charity, who served as the postulator of the cause for Mother Teresa’s canonization, shared an example of what happened when Mother Teresa prayed this 10-day novena as the need arose or a difficulty presented itself. 

He quotes Mother herself describing one of many instances: “In Rome during the Holy Year (1984), the Holy Father was going to celebrate Mass in the open, and crowds of people were gathered. It was pouring rain, so I told the sisters, ‘Let us say a flying novena of nine Memorares to Our Lady in thanksgiving for beautiful weather.’ As we said two Memorares, it started to pour more rain. We said the third … sixth … seventh … and at the eighth one, all the umbrellas were closing, and when we finished the ninth one, we found all the umbrellas were closed.”

Novena opens Vatican locks

Maasburg also recounts in his book the time he drove Mother Teresa and one of her sisters to the Vatican for Pope John Paul II’s private morning Mass. Arriving very early while all was still locked up, Maasburg describes how together they prayed the entire rosary and novena of Memorares while waiting in the car.

“No sooner had we finished the Quick Novena than the Swiss guardsman knocked on the steamed-up windshield and said, ‘Mother Teresa, it’s time.’ Mother Teresa and the sister got out.”

Maasburg said he’d wait in the car for her, but she turned around and called, “Quick, Father, you come with us!”

Mother Teresa was already on her way to the elevator; she swept aside the timid protest of the Swiss guardsman with a charming “Father is with us!” and a grateful twinkle of her eyes.

“The rules were unequivocal: Only those who were on the list of announced guests could enter. And only the names of Mother Teresa and one other sister were on that list. … Even in the company of a saint I would not get past the elevator attendant — much less the civil police in front of the entrance to the Holy Father’s apartment,” Maasburg recalled.

“Mother assured the hesitant elevator attendant … ‘We can start now. Father is with us’ … I had already tried again and again to explain to Mother Teresa in the elevator that it is not only unusual but absolutely impossible to make your way into the pope’s quarters unannounced. But even my resistance was useless…”

Two tall policemen in civilian clothes stood at the door to the papal apartments.

“The older of the two policemen greeted the foundress of a religious order courteously: ‘Mother Teresa, good morning! Please come this way. The padre is not announced. He cannot come in.’ He stepped aside for Mother Teresa, whereas I had stopped walking,” Maasburg continued. “She gestured to me, however, that I should keep going, and explained to the policeman, ‘Father is with us.’”

“‘… Mother, your padre has no permission; therefore he cannot come with you.’”

“… She stood there calmly and asked the policeman in a patient tone of voice, ‘And who can give the priest permission?’” Maasburg recounted.

“The good man was obviously not prepared for this question. With a helpless shrug of his shoulder he said, ‘Well, maybe the pope himself. Or Monsignor [Stanisław] Dziwisz….’”

“’Good, then wait here!’ was the prompt reply. And Mother Teresa was already … heading for the papal chambers. ’I will go and ask the Holy Father!’”

“A short pause, then Italian-Vatican common sense prevailed and Mother Teresa had won. ‘Then the padre had better just go with you!’”

“Turning to me, he said, ‘Go. Go now!’” Maasburg said.

Not only did Maasburg get to the Mass, but Mother Teresa told Dziwisz, the pope’s private secretary, later the  archbishop of Krakow and a cardinal, that the priest with her would celebrate the Mass with the Holy Father. And Maasburg did. (Read all the details here.)

Impossible becomes possible

Mother Teresa “definitely inspired the same devotion in her sisters, but also in others,” Kolodiejchuk affirmed.

Father Louis Merosne, the pastor at St. Anne’s Cathedral in Anse-à-Veau, Haiti, shared his own amazing experience with the Flying Novena. 

Once he had planned to join the Missionaries of Charity priests, had been accepted, and spent two years with them in Mexico before he said God made it clear he was to serve in Haiti instead. Active with youth and young adult conferences, in 2008 he was going to World Youth Day in Sydney, Australia. On his return he was to have a one-day stop in Boston, then catch a flight to the Netherlands, where he was to speak at a conference.

“I went to the consulate in Boston to apply for their visa,” he said. “They told me I would have to leave my passport in order to put the visa on it. I couldn’t because I had to leave for Sydney.” Boston insisted the central office could not process anything until they had his passport. “I told them I’m going to the Netherlands and I had one day in between my two travels. They said, ‘Sorry.’”

Calling from Sydney about the visa, he got a surprise. “They told me, by the way, they don’t do urgent, express applications. They need at least two weeks once they get the passport.” He told them the conference would be over by then. 

Returning to Boston, he took an early train to New York City to the main consulate office. He continued: “I went to the office to explain the situation again, but they said, ‘You can leave your passport and pick it up in two weeks. We’re very sorry.’”

This was the day he was to travel to the Netherlands, and he had to get back to Boston and board his booked flight that evening, which would then fly back to New York on the first of two legs to the Netherlands.

“Maybe if I call the airline, they would allow me to get on at New York for the Netherlands flight,” he thought. The airline’s answer? “No, we don’t do that. If you don’t get on your flight in Boston, your entire flight will be cancelled. You cannot get on in New York.”

Still in the consulate, he called the airlines a second time hoping to find a sympathetic listener. But again he was told the airline could not cancel one leg of the flight.

At that point Merosne knew it was time to say a Flying Novena. He said: “‘Only you, Blessed Mother, can help me do this if it is God’s will.’ I said the novena.”

Shortly after he finished, “the representative from the consulate called me over and said, ‘Give me your passport.’ And within minutes I had my visa! And I called the airlines a third time, and this time the lady said, ‘We don’t do this, but we’ll do this once for you. Get on the plane in New York.’”

“Once I said that [Flying] Novena, it was all over for them,” Merosne said with much joy. “That which was impossible for man was quite possible for our Blessed Mother.”

“I am a believer,” he said of the Flying Novena.

About the Flying Novena

Kolodiejchuk noted that Mother Teresa taught: “Get into that habit of calling on her [Mary]. She interceded — at the wedding feast, there was no wine. … She was so sure that he will do what she asks him. … She is mediatrix of all graces. … She is always there with us.”

One of the Missionaries of Charity sisters explained that the Flying Novena wasn’t hard and fast in some ways. For instance, the nine Memorares might be for our Blessed Mother’s help in getting a house, or nine Memorares in thanksgiving for that (rather than one 10th Memorare) because the house was already attained.

The spiritual situation and the time come into account.

She said the sisters use the Flying Novena from the simplest things such as getting out of traffic when they are stuck in it to serious life-and-death things.

The Memorare is so powerful, she said. We are to pray the Memorares with confidence and in thanksgiving knowing Our Lady will grant this.

“The Memorare is a prayer that effectively expressed Mother Teresa’s trust in the power of Mary’s intercession as the mediatrix of all graces,” Kolodiejchuk explained. “It flowed from the love and confidence she had in Mary and was a simple way to present her petitions to her. The speedy response she received inspired her with ever-greater confidence to have recourse to Mary with the words of the Memorare.”

Mother Teresa wanted everybody to learn and use this prayer. “Mother said [to] teach the poor to pray the Memorare. Write it down for them and teach them,” the sister said. Praying it, Our Lady will be gloried and Jesus will be glorified.

There’s always a reason for the Flying Novena.

This article was first published Aug. 30, 2016, by the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, and has been adapted by CNA.