null / Credit: Pe3k/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, May 13, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is moving toward reclassifying marijuana as a less dangerous drug, according to recent reporting from the Associated Press. 

The proposal, if approved, would reclassify marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) away from the top “Schedule I” — reserved for dangerous drugs with no accepted medical use and a high abuse potential — into the lower “Schedule III,” where it would join controlled substances such as ketamine and anabolic steriods. 

Schedule III drugs are subject to various rules that allow for some medical uses but still provide for federal criminal prosecution of anyone who traffics in the drugs without permission, the AP reported. 

Marijuana usage remains a controversial topic among many people of faith, including Catholics. Here’s what you need to know. 

What could change?

The purported classification change hasn’t yet happened, and marijuana remains illegal at the federal level, despite being legalized for recreational use in two dozen states and the District of Columbia over the past decade. Even more widespread has been the legalization of marijuana for medical use, with 38 states, three territories, and the District of Columbia today allowing the practice. 

According a May 1 analysis by congressional researchers, moving marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III, without other legal changes, “would not bring the state-legal medical or recreational marijuana industry into compliance with federal controlled substances law.” 

Specifically, the researchers say, medical marijuana would need to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and would be subject to federal legal requirements that differ from existing state regulatory requirements for medical marijuana. 

In addition, the manufacture, distribution, and possession of recreational marijuana “would remain illegal under federal law and potentially subject to federal prosecution regardless of their status under state law,” even if marijuana were moved to Schedule III.

One potentially positive aspect of the reclassification, scientists have suggested, is an enhanced potential for research into the effects of marijuana on human beings. Schedule III drugs, because of their classification, are potentially easier to study than Schedule I drugs.

The reclassification would “open up the door for us to be able to conduct research with human subjects with cannabis,” said Susan Ferguson, director of University of Washington’s Addictions, Drug & Alcohol Institute in Seattle, in comments to the AP. 

Dr. Jared Staudt, a Catholic theologian who serves as director of content for Exodus 90, told CNA this week that more research on the effects of cannabis is indeed needed, which he called a “positive” side of the prospective reclassification. But he cautioned against a further normalization of cannabis in U.S. society. 

“The downside comes from further normalizing cannabis as the country downplays its harmful effects, especially for those with developing brains,” Staudt noted.

A Catholic moral perspective

While the Catholic Church does not teach that the use of marijuana specifically is inherently sinful, paragraph 2291 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church is clear about the use of drugs in general, describing as a “grave offense” their use apart from strictly therapeutic reasons. It also states in paragraph 2211 that the political community has a duty to protect the security and health of families, especially with respect to drugs.

Pope Francis, for his part, has spoken out against even the partial legalization of so-called “soft drugs,” stating in 2014 that “the problem of drug use is not solved with drugs.”

E. Christian Brugger, a Catholic moral theologian living in Virginia, told CNA in late 2022 that smoking marijuana with the intention of getting high means putting your use of reason at risk. Human reason is necessary to commune with God and avoid sin, he said. 

“Like intentional drunkenness, getting high is the intentional altering of one’s consciousness. And when a person without necessity, and merely for the sake of pleasure, makes themself less able to use their reason … they do something that’s contrary to virtue,” Brugger said. 

In the numerous U.S. states where marijuana legalization has been considered or has passed, Catholic bishops have urged voters to reject marijuana legalization, citing the physical and spiritual harms of drug use.

Notably, in November 2023 Archbishop Samuel Aquila of Denver released a pastoral letter on the Church’s teaching on recreational drugs, with a particular focus on marijuana. (Colorado and its capital, Denver, have long been the epicenter of marijuana culture in the United States, the state having legalized its recreational use in 2012, one of the first states to do so.)

Laying out “foundation reasons” for the Church’s teaching that the use of drugs is immoral, Aquila in his letter first proposed that because the human person is of eternal value, it is wrong to use any substance that is harmful to human life. 

“[D]rugs diminish our self-possession by harming the very faculties that make us human: Drugs inhibit our use of reason, weaken our will’s orientation toward the good, and train our emotions to expect quick relief from artificial pleasure,” he continued.

“These effects severely limit our ability to freely give ourselves to another — whether it be temporarily, as in the case of occasional drug use, or regularly, as in the case of drug addiction.”

On the contrary, “rather than reaching for chemicals when we are feeling weary and burdened, Jesus invites us to turn to him, who promises rest and abundance.”

Continuing, Aquila said Christians are called to “fully embrace Christ’s invitation to leave behind unhealthy attachments and coping mechanisms, like drugs … honoring God with our bodies.”

Addressing a possible objection, Aquila noted later in the letter that temperate use of alcohol is not the same as using drugs such as marijuana. Scripture, while describing alcohol as a gift from God, nevertheless strongly condemns drunkenness, he wrote.

Is marijuana dangerous?

Setting aside the purported medicinal or social benefits of marijuana, ample scientific evidence exists on the physical risks of using it, especially for the developing brains of young people. Reports from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) have found that marijuana impairs short-term memory and judgment and distorts perception, meaning it can impair performance in school or at work and make it dangerous to drive. 

Marijuana also affects brain systems that are still maturing through young adulthood, NIDA says, so regular use by teens may have negative and long-lasting effects on their cognitive development. 

Marijuana use is also associated with an increased risk of alcohol use disorders, nicotine dependence, marijuana use disorder, and other drug use disorders, NIDA found. Research has also shown that pregnant women who use marijuana have a 2.3 times greater risk of stillbirth.

The societal effects of legal marijuana are also not to be ignored. Colorado, which was one of the first states to legalize recreational weed in 2012, has seen demonstrably higher rates of teen marijuana usage, traffic accidents, homelessness, and drug-related violence since legalization. 

Brugger commented that the fact that marijuana is physically harmful certainly makes it “something to avoid, unless there’s a good reason.”

Debate over decriminalization and legalization

Some activists support the legalization of marijuana as part of a program of criminal justice reform, arguing that the harsh penalties imposed for marijuana possession have disproportionately affected nonviolent offenders, especially those belonging to minority groups. 

Brugger, speaking to CNA in 2022, said there is “nothing suspect or inappropriate” about criticizing how people have been treated in the criminal justice system for marijuana offenses. 

That being said, “one can certainly criticize it without the need to destigmatize marijuana use entirely.” Catholics could advocate for lesser penalties for possession, he said, but making it entirely legal will likely lead to much greater widespread use. A “culture of sin that arises from inebriation is almost certain to increase following legalization,” Brugger said. 

Brugger also urged Catholics to be cautious, for the sake of those around them, about appearing to endorse marijuana use.

Legalization sends the message — especially for young people — that marijuana is safe and socially acceptable. Brugger said legalizing a “method of inebriation” that youth will take advantage of “can hardly lead to greater self-mastery and virtue.”

Legality is in some sense irrelevant to whether a thing is morally upright, Brugger said, and Catholics should be mindful of the example they are setting for others.

“We have an obligation to be a witness to the good and to Christ and to purity of heart and virtuous actions,” Brugger noted, adding that even if someone doubts the other arguments, the danger of scandal is something every Catholic should bear in mind.

Crowds looking at the Miracle of the Sun, occurring during the Our Lady of Fatima apparitions in 1917. / Credit: Public domain

Fatima, Portugal, May 13, 2024 / 04:00 am (CNA).

Oct. 13, 1917, marked the last Marian apparition in Fátima and the day on which thousands of people bore witness to the miracle of the dancing sun — a miracle that shattered the prevalent belief at the time that God was no longer relevant.

Dr. Marco Daniel Duarte, a theologian and director of the Fátima Shrine museums, shared with CNA the impact that the miracle of the sun made during those days in Portugal.

If one were to open philosophy books during that period, he or she would likely read something akin to the concept conceived by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who boldly asserted in the late 1800s that “God is dead.”

Also, in 1917 Portugal, the majority of the world was embroiled in war. As World War I raged throughout Europe, Portugal found itself unable to maintain its initial neutrality and joined forces with the Allies. More than 220,000 Portuguese civilians died during the war, thousands due to food shortages and thousands more from the Spanish flu.

A few years before, a revolution had led to the establishment of the First Portuguese Republic in 1910 and a new liberal constitution was drafted under the influence of Freemasonry, which sought to suppress the faith from public life. Catholic churches and schools were seized by the government, and the wearing of clerics in public, the ringing of church bells, and the celebration of public religious festivals were banned. Between 1911 and 1916, nearly 2,000 priests, monks, and nuns were killed by anti-Christian groups.

This was the backdrop against which, in 1917, a lady believed to be the Virgin Mary appeared to three shepherd children — Lucia dos Santos, 10, and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto, 9 and 7 — in a field in Fátima, Portugal, bringing with her requests for the recitation of the rosary, for sacrifices on behalf of sinners, and a secret regarding the fate of the world.

To prove that the apparitions were true, the lady promised the children that during the last of her six appearances, she would provide a sign so people would believe in the apparitions and in her message. What happened on that day — Oct. 13, 1917 — has come to be known as the “Miracle of the Sun,” or “the day the sun danced.”

According to various accounts, a crowd of some 70,000 people — believers and skeptics alike —gathered to see the miracle that was promised: The rainy sky cleared up, the clouds dispersed, and the ground, which had been wet and muddy from the rain, dried up. A transparent veil came over the sun, making it easy to look at, and multicolored lights were strewn across the landscape. The sun then began to spin, twirling in the sky, and at one point appeared to veer toward the earth before jumping back to its place in the sky.

The stunning event was a direct and very convincing contradiction to the atheistic regimes at the time, which is evidenced by the fact that the first newspaper to report on the miracle on a full front page was an anti-Catholic, Masonic newspaper in Lisbon called O Seculo.

The miracle of the sun was understood by the people to be “the seal, the guarantee, that in fact those three children were telling the truth,” Duarte said.

Even today, “Fátima makes people change their perception of God,” since “one of the most important messages of the apparitions is that even if someone has separated from God, God is present in human history and doesn’t abandon humanity.”

This article was originally published on CNA on Oct. 12, 2017, and has been updated.

As parishioners and police respond to the threat of an armed intruder, clergy at St. Mary Magdalene Catholic Church in Abbeville, Louisiana take cover behind the altar on May 11, 2024. / Credit: St. Mary Magdalen Catholic Church in Abbeville, Louisiana

CNA Newsroom, May 12, 2024 / 13:10 pm (CNA).

Quick action by alert parishioners and local police are credited with averting a tragedy at St. Mary Magdalen Catholic Church in Abbeville, Louisiana, yesterday.

As 60 children were preparing for their first Communion, the parish located south of Lafayette, Louisiana, reported that an armed “suspicious person opened the back door.” 

“The individual was immediately confronted by parishioners, escorted outside, and the police were called,” the parish indicated in a statement. 

In an interview with the Acadiana Advocate, Abbeville Police Chief Mike Hardy credited parishioners for having disarmed the suspect and having him already pinned to the ground when police arrived.

A livestream video of the Mass captures the tense moments when presiding Father Nicholas DuPre was alerted to the situation.

Though the suspect was quickly neutralized, panic broke out when the suspect told police a second shooter was near the building. That is when law enforcement entered the church to make sure there was no additional danger. No other suspect was found.

The 16-year-old suspect was charged with terrorizing and two counts of possession of a firearm by a juvenile. He is being held in the Abbeville General Hospital Behavioral Unit for medical evaluation. 

Lafayette, Louisiana Bishop J. Douglas Deshotel said: “We are thankful to God that a tragedy was avoided.”

“Let us pray for an end to all threats of violence to innocent human life,” he added. 

The parish informed that “out of an abundance of caution, we will have uniformed law enforcement at all upcoming Masses.”

"We reflect with gratitude on all mothers, and let us also pray for mothers who have gone to heaven. We entrust mothers to the protection of Mary, our heavenly mother," said Pope Francis on May 12, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media

Rome Newsroom, May 12, 2024 / 10:45 am (CNA).

On Mother’s Day, Pope Francis entrusted all mothers to the Blessed Virgin Mary, asking everyone to remember to also pray for all the mothers who have gone to heaven.

Speaking from the window of the Apostolic Palace on May 12, Pope Francis asked the crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square for a round of applause to celebrate all mothers.

“Mother’s Day is celebrated in many countries today. We reflect with gratitude on all mothers, and let us also pray for mothers who have gone to heaven. We entrust mothers to the protection of Mary, our heavenly mother,” the pope said.

Pope Francis also asked for the Virgin Mary’s intercession to help in life’s journey toward heaven.

“May Mary, she who has already arrived at the destination, help us to walk together with joy toward the glory of heaven,” he said.

The pope noted that Italy and many other countries celebrate the solemnity of the Ascension on Sunday. He said that Jesus shows us the way to heaven “step by step,” like a mountaineer ascending a summit, in the Gospels and through the sacraments.

“What are these steps that must be taken?” he asked. “Today’s Gospel says: ‘preach the Gospel, baptize, cast out demons, pick up serpents, lay hands on the sick’ (cf. Mk 16:16-18).”

“In summary, perform the works of love: to give life, bring hope, steer away from any form of wickedness and meanness, respond to evil with good, be close to those who suffer.”

Pope Francis added that the more we do these “works of love,” the more “we let ourselves be transformed by his Spirit.”

“It is he who awakens us and communicates to us, with his Word and with the grace of the sacraments, the beauty of the homeland toward which we are headed,” the pope said.

After praying the Regina Caeli prayer in Latin, the pope asked people to pray for peace in Palestine, Israel, Myanmar, and Ukraine.

“Dear brothers and sisters, as we celebrate the ascension of the Lord who sets us free and wants us to be free, I renew my appeal for a general exchange of all prisoners between Russia and Ukraine,” he said.

Pope Francis added that he wanted to assure “the Holy See’s readiness to facilitate every effort in this regard, especially for those seriously wounded and ill.”

The pope extended greetings to pilgrims visiting Rome from Hungary, Malta, Portugal, Austria, and Germany. Pope Francis also gave thanks to a band from Germany who performed in St. Peter’s Square as a tribute to the late Pope Benedict XVI. 

The entirety of today’s Regina Caeli reflection by Pope Francis can be viewed below.

The Immaculata statue from Immaculate Conception Parish in Detroit was placed in a niche in the church where a confessional used to be, along with stands displaying news articles chronicling Immaculate Conception’s history, a reminder of what was lost and what has been saved. “The statue meant a lot to parishioners who came in here and adopted St. Hyacinth as their new home after Immaculate Conception was torn down,” sacristan Susan Kraus said. “It is only out of fairness and respect toward them that we restore her to her original beauty.” / Credit: Daniel Meloy | Detroit Catholic

Detroit, Mich., May 12, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Susan Kraus got goosebumps when she discovered a decorative crown adorned with 12 stars in the basement of St. Hyacinth Parish in Detroit.

The treasured piece of local Church history at the east-side Detroit parish was once considered a long-lost piece of parish lore, the headpiece for the parish’s Immaculata statue, a forgotten gem from a tumultuous time.

“It is the original headpiece from when she was at the main altar at Immaculate Conception Church [in Detroit],” Kraus, a sacristan at St. Hyacinth, told Detroit Catholic. “She’s been without it for 40 years, and it’s about time she got it back.”

The crown was restored to its proper place on top of the statue and was unveiled to parishioners following the parish’s May crowning on May 5.

The Immaculata statue was built in 1920 by Paul Landowski, who also created the famous 98-foot Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The statue adorned the main altar of Immaculate Conception until the parish was demolished in 1981 to make way for the General Motors Detroit-Hamtramck plant.

It was a tense time for the Poletown community, with protests and even a sit-in at Immaculate Conception, but the parishioners eventually gave way — though not before the parish’s famed Immaculata statue was rescued and moved to neighboring St. Hyacinth.

The statue was placed in a niche in the church where a confessional used to be, along with stands displaying news articles chronicling Immaculate Conception’s history, a reminder of what was lost and what has been saved.

“The statue meant a lot to parishioners who came in here and adopted St. Hyacinth as their new home after Immaculate Conception was torn down,” Kraus said. “It is only out of fairness and respect toward them that we restore her to her original beauty.”

But the original crown, a reference to Revelation 12, describing a woman wearing a crown with 12 stars, standing on the moon, went missing, seemingly lost to history.

Lost until Kraus did some scrounging through the St. Hyacinth basement, coming across other treasures that are now being incorporated into daily use at the parish.

“The crown was found in an area left by the wayside,” Kraus said. “I understand when the statues came, she was without a crown. I don’t know who put the crown where I found it, but for the past several months I’ve been finding things in the basement. We recently found the ambry, the box where you keep your holy oils, that was recently installed directly behind the tabernacle.”

Parishioners stayed after Mass to take pictures of the Immaculata statue, now adorned with her crown, reflecting on the history of Immaculate Conception, St. Hyacinth, and other tales and treasures that make the history of Poletown unique.

“It means a lot to people, but I question why it wasn’t done 40 years ago,” Kraus said. “I’m new to the church here — six or seven years ago I came from Shelby Township — but I know what belongs in the church and the proper etiquette for church artifacts. We’re so glad to have the crown restored, back to where it belongs.”

This article was originally published in Detroit Catholic and is reprinted here with permission.

Mosaic of Our Lady of Guadalupe inside Christ Cathedral in Orange, California. / Credit: Kate Veik/CNA

Washington D.C., May 12, 2024 / 04:00 am (CNA).

On Mother’s Day, Catholics recognize the mothers in our lives as well as Mary, Mother of God. In celebration of all that mothers do, here are 12 quotes from saints and other Catholic figures on the beauty and significance of motherhood:

St. Thérèse of Lisieux:

“The loveliest masterpiece of the heart of God is the heart of a mother.”

St. Teresa Benedicta (Edith Stein):

“To be a mother is to nourish and protect true humanity and bring it to development.”

Pope Francis:

“A society without mothers would be a dehumanized society, for mothers are always, even in the worst moments, witnesses of tenderness, dedication, and moral strength. … Dearest mothers, thank you, thank you for what you are in your family and for what you give to the Church and the world.”

St. John Paul II:

“Thank you, women who are mothers! You have sheltered human beings within yourselves in a unique experience of joy and travail. This experience makes you become God’s own smile upon the newborn child, the one who guides your child’s first steps, who helps it to grow, and who is the anchor as the child makes its way along the journey of life.”

Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen:

“Motherhood then becomes a kind of priesthood. She brings God to man by preparing the flesh in which the soul will be implanted; she brings man to God in offering the child back again to the Creator … she is nature’s constant challenge to death, the bearer of cosmic plentitude, the herald of eternal realities, God’s great cooperator.”

St. Teresa of Calcutta:

“That special power of loving that belongs to a woman is seen most clearly when she becomes a mother. Motherhood is the gift of God to women. How grateful we must be to God for this wonderful gift that brings such joy to the whole world, women and men alike!”

St. Zélie Guérin Martin, mother of St. Thérèse of Lisieux:

“Above all, during the months immediately preceding the birth of her child, the mother should keep close to God, of whom the infant she bears within her is the image, the handiwork, the gift and the child. She should be for her offspring, as it were, a temple, a sanctuary, an altar, a tabernacle. In short, her life should be, so to speak, the life of a living sacrament, a sacrament in act, burying herself in the bosom of that God who has so truly instituted it and hallowed it, so that there she may draw that energy, that enlightening, that natural and supernatural beauty which he wills, and wills precisely by her means, to impart to the child she bears and to be born of her.”

St. Gianna Beretta Molla:

“Look at the mothers who truly love their children: how many sacrifices they make for them. They are ready for everything, even to give their own blood so that their babies grow up good, healthy, and strong.”

St. Augustine, son of St. Monica:

“And now thou didst ‘stretch forth thy hand from above’ and didst draw up my soul out of that profound darkness [of Manicheism] because my mother, thy faithful one, wept to thee on my behalf more than mothers are accustomed to weep for the bodily deaths of their children … And thou didst hear her, O Lord.”

Cardinal József Mindszenty:

“The most important person on earth is a mother. She cannot claim the honor of having built Notre Dame Cathedral. She need not. She has built something more magnificent than any cathedral — a dwelling for an immortal soul, the tiny perfection of her baby’s body. … The angels have not been blessed with such a grace. They cannot share in God’s creative miracle to bring new saints to heaven. Only a human mother can. Mothers are closer to God the Creator than any other creature; God joins forces with mothers in performing this act of creation … What on God’s good earth is more glorious than this; to be a mother?”

Alice von Hildebrand:

A “woman by her very nature is maternal — for every woman, whether married or unmarried, is called upon to be a biological, psychological, or spiritual mother — she knows intuitively that to give, to nurture, to care for others, to suffer with and for them — for maternity implies suffering — is infinitely more valuable in God’s sight than to conquer nations and fly to the moon.” 

Our Lady of Guadalupe, to St. Juan Diego:

“Do not be troubled or weighed down with grief. Do not fear any illness or vexation, anxiety, or pain. Am I not here who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not your fountain of life? Are you not in the folds of my mantle? In the crossing of my arms? Is there anything else you need?”

This was originally published on May 9, 2021, and has been updated.

"The Chosen" actor Jonathan Roumie gives the commencement speech at the Catholic University of America on Saturday, May 11, 2024. / Credit: Denny Henry/The Catholic University of America

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 11, 2024 / 15:18 pm (CNA).

Actor Jonathan Roumie, who plays Jesus Christ in the popular television series “The Chosen,” encouraged graduates at the Catholic University of America (CUA) to emulate Christ and strengthen their prayer lives during the university’s commencement ceremony Saturday morning.

“Last time I spoke [to] a crowd this big, there were loaves and fish and baskets of them,” Roumie joked, referencing the Sermon on the Mount. “So many leftovers.”

Roumie headlined the commencement ceremony for CUA graduates held on the lawn of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., which sits adjacent to the university.

The actor was also awarded an honorary doctorate in fine arts for his work evangelizing through his acting career.

The speech focused on three main points: emulating Christ, praying more, and surrendering oneself to God. These subjects, he said, are “concepts I wish I had heard upon graduating college myself.”

“You don’t need to play Jesus for the world in order to be Jesus to the world,” Roumie told the crowd of graduates. 

“I’ve realized that just because I play Jesus on a TV show doesn’t mean I can or I should stop being Christ to everyone I know when the cameras turn off, and neither should you,” he said.

“Just because you’re not an actor playing Jesus or a priest or a nun doesn’t mean you’re not meant to represent him at all times, wherever you go.”

Roumie said this does not mean “God is expecting perfection from you,” but that “you must endeavor to preach the Gospel by the life you live, by your actions and [by] the choices you make.” 

He said, as Catholics, this includes “the political positions you take and the advocacy for the causes you champion,” such as “defending life at all stages.”

His second message to outgoing students was to “pray more.” He referenced the First Epistle to the Thessalonians, in which St. Paul instructs the faithful to “pray without ceasing.” 

The actor said that “the era we’re living in demands a revolution of deep prayer.”

Roumie, who also partners with the Catholic prayer app Hallow to guide people through prayers and meditation, noted that regular access to the sacrament of reconciliation, followed by Mass and receiving the Eucharist, has been essential to him in preparing for his role in “The Chosen” and is important for everyone in following Christ. 

“By this, I’m granted peace,” Roumie explained. “I’m given wisdom in areas of my life experiencing conflict beyond my human understanding, and I’m strengthened to go forward and handle situations I’m otherwise overwhelmed by.”

Roumie emphasized “the power of prayer” and the intercessory role of the Blessed Virgin Mary and all of the angels and saints. 

In his speech, the actor also discussed the importance of “surrender” and recognizing that “you’re not in charge; God is.” 

Roumie noted that before his role in “The Chosen,” he had been struggling to find success as an actor and faced serious financial hardships. He said he surrendered all of his hardships to God: “I dropped to my knees and I poured myself out to the Lord and surrendered everything to him, saying, ‘I can’t do this without you.’”

“I would not be standing with you here today if God had not brought me to my knees in utter desperation to surrender my entire life and more specifically my career over to him — something I hadn’t even considered before,” the actor said. 

“It’s the hardest thing that I’ve ever done, but the greatest thing that has ever happened to me,” Roumie said. “And it will be the most life-changing thing that will ever happen to you if you allow it, especially at this point in your young lives.”

About 1,300 students graduated from the university on Saturday.

Four other attendees also received honorary doctorates: Father Piotr Nawrot, a priest of the Divine World Ministries who rediscovered and reconstructed 13,000 pages of music of the Moxo and Chiquito tribes; John Finnis, a Catholic legal and political thinker; Teresa Pitt Green, the co-founder of the Healing Voices magazine; and Rabbi Jack Bemporad, who has authored several books on Christian and Jewish relations and is the founding director of the Center for Interreligious Understanding.

Govenor Gavin Newsom of California. / Credit: Karl_Sonnenberg/Shutterstock

Rome Newsroom, May 11, 2024 / 12:38 pm (CNA).

The Vatican’s latest bid to tackle climate change will bring together politicians and researchers from around the world for a three-day conference next week featuring a series of roundtable discussions and culminating in the signing of a new international protocol that will be submitted to the United Nations.

The joint summit, “From Climate Crisis to Climate Resilience,” will be held at the Vatican from May 15–17 at the Casina Pio IV, the seat of the Pontifical Academies of Sciences and Social Sciences, which sits in the Vatican Gardens.

The conference — organized by the two pontifical academies — brings together policymakers, civic leaders, researchers, and lawmakers from the United States and other countries, including Italy, Kenya, and Sweden.

This year’s U.S. invitees include Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul as well as Boston Mayor Michelle Wu.

“Massachusetts deeply values our close relationship with Italy and the Vatican City State, and we see this trip as an excellent opportunity to strengthen ties and strategize on future opportunities for collaboration,” Healey said in an official press release from the Massachusetts governor’s office.

Healey will deliver a keynote address titled “Governing in the Age of Climate Change” on the first day of the summit, while Newsom and Hochul will both deliver addresses on the second day. 

“This year holds unprecedented significance for democracy and the climate, two intertwined issues which will define our future,” Newsom said last month. 

“With half the world’s population poised to elect their leaders amidst a backdrop of escalating political extremism, and global temperatures hurtling towards alarming new heights, the stakes could not be higher,” the California governor said. 

“There is no greater authority than moral authority — and the pope’s leadership on the climate crisis inspires us all to push further and faster.”

Pope Francis has made environmental protection and social stewardship one of the defining themes of his pontificate, dedicating two encyclicals to the moral imperative of combatting anthropogenic climate change.

The conference will also include mayors from some of Europe’s largest cities, including the mayors of Rome, Paris, and London, as well lawmakers from Asia and Africa, researchers and academics from the world’s leading universities, and representatives from international organizations such as the United Nations and the World Health Organization. 

The summit participants will be received in an audience with Pope Francis on Thursday, May 16. 

Each day of the summit is centered on a different conceptual framework and is organized by a series of different panels and roundtable discussions. 

The summit’s program explains that participants will discuss and deliberate policy recommendations geared toward “climate resilience” by utilizing a three-pronged strategy, which includes “mitigation efforts,” “adaptation strategies,” and “societal transformation.” 

“Climate resilience requires cross-disciplinary partnerships among researchers, engineers, and entrepreneurs and trans-disciplinary partnerships between science and community leaders, including faith leaders, NGOs [nongovernmental organizations], and the public. Mayors and governors form the core of such transdisciplinary partnerships,” the official program of the summit states. 

The program notes that one of the main outcomes of the summit will be the drafting of a “Planetary Climate Resilience” protocol in which all participants will be “cosignatories.” 

The protocol will be “fashioned along the lines of the Montreal Protocol” and will “provide the guidelines for making everyone climate resilient,” the program states. 

Afterward the document will be “submitted to the UNFCCC [United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change] to take it forward to all nations.”

Archbishop J. Michael Miller celebrates Mass at Sacred Heart Church in Delta before the March for Life in Victoria, British Columbia, on May 9, 2024. He prayed that they “may be worthy and effective messengers of hope.” / Credit: Paul Schratz

Victoria, Canada, May 11, 2024 / 09:00 am (CNA).

At a pro-life Mass before the March for Life in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, Vancouver Archbishop J. Michael Miller prayed that those heading to the British Columbia Legislature “may be worthy and effective messengers of hope to a world where self-centeredness, greed, violence, and cynicism so often seem to choke the fragile growth of grace in people’s hearts.”

The acceptance of abortion in particular in the law and the popular mind is “a telling sign of an extremely dangerous crisis of the moral sense, which is becoming more and more incapable of distinguishing between good and evil,” the archbishop said.

He told the pro-life worshippers that they are “praying in a special way that reverence for life will grow and increasingly be realized in concrete ways in our province of British Columbia and in our nation of Canada.”

Speakers at the legislature told the crowd of about 1,000 people that they need to remember the causes behind society’s choices of accepting death through abortion and euthanasia. 

Victoria Bishop Gary Gordon told the crowd that fear lies behind those who choose abortion and euthanasia. “Everybody loves life,” Gordon said, but fear of an unplanned pregnancy or being abandoned leads them toward what they see as the solution to their fear. 

“If we listen to people who choose things we don’t agree with, listen deeply — you will hear the fear. And we have the ability to dispel the fear, with love.” 

Amanda Achtman, whose mission to end euthanasia in Canada led to her online project Dying to Meet You, reminded the crowd that people who choose euthanasia typically fear “the loss of ability to participate in meaningful life activities.” Doctors who perform euthanasia “think that they are doing something good, she said. 

“The dying person deserves not to be abandoned as they’re suffering and dying. When someone requests euthanasia, it betrays that insecurity.”

Alex Schadenberg of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition said: “We have a feeling of hopelessness among many people … We have a serious problem with loneliness and feelings of lack of hope and meaning so what we really have is a cultural abandonment going on. This is not about freedom and choice and autonomy, it’s about killing people who are in despair. And those people need you as people of hope.”

null / Credit: terazitu/Shutterstock

St. Paul, Minn., May 11, 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA).

Jerry Laughlin, 46, who took over a fifth-generation farm near Imogene, Iowa, in 1999 and hopes to move more into farming crops for food rather than industrial use, is grateful for his Catholic faith amid the challenges of farm life.

Seeing farming as a sacred profession is exactly what an “epic apostolate” founded 100 years ago aims to foster. Laughlin is considering, with his pastor, Father Lazarus Kirigia, starting a chapter of Catholic Rural Life at his parish.

Built on Archbishop Edwin O’Hara’s vision and philosophy of Catholic rural life, it continues his legacy of helping the rural Church promote U.S. farming and how it can foster virtuous living, while it also grapples with problems the archbishop identified a century ago, New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan said at a May 8 anniversary event titled “Rejoicing in the Harvest: Celebrating 100 Years of Catholic Rural Life” at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. 

As founder of what is now Catholic Rural Life (CRL), a national Catholic nonprofit of more than 600 members dedicated to the vitality of American rural life, “Archbishop O’Hara seemed only trying to remind people that there’s something sacramental about country life and that thus it deserves to be treated with dignity and care,” said Dolan, author of a 1992 biography of O’Hara, “Some Seed Fell on Good Ground.”

During his keynote to many CRL members among the roughly 310 bishops, priests, deacons, religious, and laypeople in attendance, Dolan noted that the organization continues to face challenges that concerned its founder, including flight of youth from the country, agriculture as a business rather than a way of life, and a lack of Church resources in rural areas. 

“I just so admire you and the passion that you have for the country that was so loved by Jesus and so much a part of our sacred Scripture, of our Church tradition,” he said. “So don’t give up. We need you more than ever. May the second 100 years be as glorious as the first.”

Also celebrating CRL’s legacy while offering insights about farming history, Catholic social teaching, ecology, technology, and current rural issues at the one-day conference were sociology professor James Nolan of Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts; Christopher Thompson, academic dean and professor of moral theology at St. Paul Seminary; and Monsignor James Shea, president of the University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota, who grew up on a dairy farm.

Based in St. Paul, Catholic Rural Life offers programs to develop lay Catholic leaders in rural communities and for clergy formation and spiritual renewal in rural areas. It has 29 chapters in 28 dioceses that organize faith and social programs, and it has offered a five-day retreat attended by 395 priests.

Originally named the National Catholic Rural Life Conference, the organization was founded in November 1923 during a gathering of bishops, priests, and laity in St. Louis. Then director of the Rural Life Bureau of the National Catholic Welfare Conference (now the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops), O’Hara founded the organization to improve Catholic education and bring more Church resources to rural communities. In 2013, the organization changed its name to Catholic Rural Life. 

The virtues and truth that have characterized the rural way of life in the U.S. are now threatened by the overall deterioration of faith, and the Christian vision needs to be rearticulated, Shea said in his talk.

“I’m convicted, and I know that many of you share this conviction, that we live in a time which is a change of the ages,” he said. “We live in a new apostolic age. The urgency of evangelization is very present to us, but, also, we have to change our strategies because we’re living in the first post-Christian age in all of history.”

Concerns of rural life

A blind spot about rural life seems to have crept into the Catholic imagination that CRL can address, Thompson noted in his talk, “Another Way of Seeing,” where he presented a theological perspective on humanity’s relationship with the created world and challenged chapter leaders to emphasize care of creation and understanding of Church teaching. Many major universities no longer offer agriculture programs, and some seminarians Thompson co-teaches in a rural ministry practicum for St. Paul Seminary show little enthusiasm for rural issues. 

“You can feel like you’re alone in a Catholic rural setting,” he said. “I want to express empathy to the challenge. CRL is there to provide the revelation, though, to lift up hearts and to renew our relationships there.”

Isolation and mental health issues are real problems in rural communities, and Kansas State University students, led by their campus chaplain, started the first student CRL chapter in 2021 on their agriculture-based Manhattan, Kansas, campus with one goal: to reach out to students from rural backgrounds.

“It’s been a big passion of mine, I guess, to kind of bring awareness to this and advocate for it, because I come from a line of very strong-willed farmers, and I see how hard it is for them to ask for help,” Jenna Reinert, a 21-year-old junior, told CNA.

Helping students connect and speak to the beauty of rural life were goals in starting the chapter, said Father Gale Hammerschmidt, pastor and chaplain at St. Isidore Catholic Student Center at Kansas State. 

Mental health is an issue throughout rural America, he said, “and so we want to get started early with students on the collegiate level, recognizing that it’s not shameful to need help in regards to mental issues.”

The resources and connections Bishop Brendan Cahill finds with other bishops and farmers in rural dioceses across the country have helped him become informed about mental health and other issues affecting his mostly rural southern Texas Diocese of Victoria, which is 30% Catholic. In his nine years of involvement with CRL, he told CNA he’s seen the work of the organization as “an affirmation of our faith in rural America.”

“We talk about what we’re doing in dioceses, how we’re working with our churches, what we’re doing with our vocations, what we’re doing with our priests, issues, mental health, things like that that we’re dealing with.”

The opportunity to educate farmers in the two parishes he pastors in Iowa is why Kirigia is considering starting CRL chapters there. The two parishes, St. Patrick in Imogene and St. Mary in Red Oak, each have about 150 households and are 24 miles apart. Kirigia, who is originally from Kenya, attended a CRL retreat for priests and said he was struck to learn that century-old predictions for American farming are true now, including the industrialization of farming. He also noted that less farm production now is actually grown for people’s food, unlike in his native Kenya, where he estimated 95% of food is grown for human consumption. 

There isn’t enough food in the world, he said, “but here we have an abundance, which is not really for food, right? While the rest of the world is starving because of lack of food.”

Caring for creation

Nolan of Williams College stated that foreign statesmen visiting rural America in the 19th and early-20th century saw a pervasive business approach to farming here, but the growth of the organic, slow-food movement and community-supported agriculture, whereby consumers buy local, seasonal food directly from a farmer, are making inroads.

Citing Pope Francis’ call for a more affectionate posture toward creation in his encyclical Laudato Si’, he said: “Thus, on this 100th anniversary of Catholic Rural Life, we have a wonderful opportunity, in a time when the land and farms and rural communities that have been harmed by practices and ways of thinking [related to industrial and technological mindsets of exploitation and extraction] that have persisted in American society for many years, [to] renew our commitment to thinking and acting differently.”

Iowa farmer Laughlin said he found hope in changing the industrial mindset of agriculture.

“You need a sense of purpose and creation and spirituality, I think, to actually comprehend maybe a better way,” he said. “At least all the information, most of the information I know of, coming to farmers is based off of a capitalist mindset so it’s hard to break away from that and come out with a kind of a spiritual sense, in my opinion.”

In working the land and being close to creation, farmers develop trust, patience, resilience, and faith in forces of the invisible to believe in mystery and miracles, Dolan said in his homily during the conference Mass. 

“The people of the soil are dreamers,” he said. “They carry the mystery. They never give up. They have the values of trust and prominence and resilience in the heartache and the sense of the invisible. They are the ones who know that there’s mysteries and poetry going on in the cosmos, and they are the ones most in awe.”