St. Jude The Apostle Catholic Church

The Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III exits the Aedicule of the Holy Sepulcher on May 4, 2024, in Jerusalem, showing the faithful the two candles just lit from the oil lamp that is believed to have been miraculously ignited inside Jesus' tomb. / Credit: Studio Sami Jerusalem

Jerusalem, May 5, 2024 / 09:00 am (CNA).

Pilgrims gathered in Jerusalem on Saturday for the annual “Holy Fire” ceremony at the revered site of Jesus’ burial and resurrection, an ancient custom considered by many believers to be a miraculous event that takes place the day before the Orthodox Christian celebration of Easter.

For safety reasons, attendance at the May 4 event was capped at 4,200 people inside the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher, though the crowds were more manageable and somewhat subdued this year because of a lack of pilgrims from the Palestinian territories and abroad due to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

Access to the Old City where the basilica is located was restricted beginning on Friday night amid a heavy police presence. Numerous medical personnel and firefighters were present inside the basilica.

Though its authenticity is disputed by some, the “Holy Fire” or “Holy Light” refers to a fire of purported divine origin that ignites inside Jesus’ tomb while only the Greek Orthodox patriarch is present. Pilgrims then light their candles by extending them through a small opening in the tomb, producing a dramatic scene of flickering flames and joyous celebration.

The Orthodox Christian ceremony, which is attended by Catholics and other Christians as well, has been held continuously since at least 1106, though accounts dating to the fourth century relate that the apostle Peter saw the holy light himself inside the tomb.

The doors of the Holy Sepulcher were opened at 9 a.m. by Greek Orthodox representatives and again at 9:30 a.m. by representatives of the Armenian Apostolic Church — the two Orthodox communities that serve with Catholic Franciscans as the custodians of the site. Only then did the faithful begin to enter the basilica.

Around 11 a.m., those present began to sing traditional hymns in the loudest voice possible. These chants date back to the Turkish occupation of Jerusalem in the 13th century when Christians were not allowed to chant anywhere but in the churches.

The heart of the ceremony was between 1 and 2 p.m. After the solemn entrances of the other Orthodox patriarchs of Jerusalem, the Greek Orthodox patriarch, Theophilos III, entered the basilica.

Previously, the doors of the edicule (the small shrine that houses the tomb of Jesus Christ) had been sealed with a large wax seal — signifying that the tomb had been inspected and that nothing was present that could be used to start a fire. Shortly before the arrival of the Greek patriarch, the seal was removed, and a large oil lamp was carried into the tomb.

After completing three rounds around the edicule, leading a procession of monks and priests, Patriarch Theophilos III entered the edicule, followed by a delegate of the Armenian patriarch (who could not attend due to an internal dispute) and several bishops from various denominations.

Only the Greek Orthodox patriarch is allowed to enter the chamber that houses the tomb of Jesus, while all the others remain in the Chapel of the Angel, a sort of antechamber that commemorates the appearance of a heavenly messenger to the women at the tomb announcing Jesus’ resurrection.

Before entering the tomb, the Greek patriarch was inspected by Israeli authorities to prove that he didn’t carry any technical means to light the fire.

All the lights and lamps in the basilica were extinguished, especially those inside the edicule, which was left in darkness.

What believers attest to be a miracle takes place after a brief time of prayer: A holy fire is said to descend from heaven and ignite an oil lamp inside the tomb.

On Saturday, after the lamp was lit the Greek Orthodox patriarch emerged from the tomb and lit bundles of 33 candles (a number representing the age of Christ at the time of his crucifixion and resurrection). Meanwhile, pilgrims lit their candles also from the small round windows on the sides of the edicule, creating a dramatic scene outside the tomb. It is said that the fire does not burn anything (or anyone) for the first 33 minutes after being lit.

For Orthodox believers, the lighting of the fire is a genuine miraculous event, although voices within the Orthodox world itself have repeatedly questioned the authenticity of the miracle, attributing the spontaneous lighting of the lamp to tricks or chemical methods.

In solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza and the victims of the war, the Orthodox Christians have chosen a more subdued celebration this year. To that end, the Holy Fire was not passed hand to hand through the streets of the Old City of Jerusalem, as is the custom, but was brought directly into the homes of the faithful.

Special lanterns transport flames from the tomb to the main Orthodox churches in the Holy Land and around the world (via specially arranged flights). The arrival of the flames from Jerusalem will mark the beginning of the Easter celebrations.

Archbishop Filomeno do Nascimento Vieira Dias of Angola’s Archdiocese of Luanda. / Credit: Radio Ecclesia

ACI Africa, May 5, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Archbishop Filomeno do Nascimento Vieira Dias of Angola’s Archdiocese of Luanda has asked the people of God under his pastoral care to dedicate the last Sunday of the month to adoration of the Blessed Sacrament as part of the preparations for the Church’s 2025 Jubilee Year. 

Pope Francis on Jan. 21 announced the start of a Year of Prayer in preparation for the Church’s 2025 Jubilee Year, the second in his pontificate after the extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy in 2015.

“Following the Holy Father’s call, as an archdiocese, we will be holding adoration of the Blessed Sacrament on the last Sunday of each month in all parishes and, in alternate months, a meditation on the importance of prayer in the life of the Church,” the archbishop said in his April 18 message.

Eucharistic adoration, he said, facilitates “a true encounter with Christ.”

The archbishop highlighted the link between prayer and holiness as important, saying: “Just as there is no true encounter with Christ that does not give rise to holiness, so there is no holiness without a deep life of prayer.”

Prayer provides “the space in which holiness takes shape,” Dias further said. “Holiness is the journey of discovering God’s beauty and truth in every man and woman of all times.”

“Holiness is fulfilled in the silent openness of one’s life to the totality of God’s love,” he added. 

Referring to Pope Francis’ February 2022 letter to the pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, Archbishop Salvatore Rino Fisichella, Dias highlighted aspects of prayer that he considers essential as monthly Eucharistic adoration in all parishes is set to begin.

He encouraged “prayer, above all else, to renew our desire to be in the presence of the Lord, to listen to him and to adore him. Prayer, moreover, to thank God for the many gifts of his love for us and to praise his work in creation, which summons everyone to respect it and to take concrete and responsible steps to protect it.”

Referring more to the Holy Father’s letter, Dias encouraged “prayer as the expression of a single heart and soul, which then translates into solidarity and the sharing of our daily bread.”

He also called for “prayer that makes it possible for every man and woman in this world to turn to the one God and to reveal to him what lies hidden in the depths of their heart.”

He went on to describe prayer as “the royal road to holiness, which enables us to be contemplative even in the midst of activity.”

“In a word, may it be an intense year of prayer in which hearts are opened to receive the outpouring of God’s grace and to make the ‘Our Father,’ the prayer Jesus taught us, the life program of each of his disciples,” he said.

“Let us, therefore, entrust ourselves to the intercession of Mama Muxima [‘Mother Heart’], the beloved mother, who taught us through her life that prayer, as the silent gaze of the soul toward God, is the first fruit of faith and the place in which Christians learn to keep the precious things of God in the sacred place of the heart, to meditate on them daily,” he said.

This article was originally published by ACI Africa, CNA’s African news partner, and has been adapted for CNA.

A patient at the new Misky María Palliative Care Hospital located on the outskirts of Lima, Perú. / Credit: Asociación de las Bienaventuranzas (Association of the Beatitudes)

ACI Prensa Staff, May 4, 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA).

In the context of the recent news of the death of Ana Estrada, the first person to request and receive euthanasia in Peru, there is a contrasting story to tell on care for the dying in that country: that of a new Catholic hospital on the outskirts of Lima that provides palliative care, which extends the love of Christ to those in extreme poverty who are in the final stages of their lives.

The beginning of the ‘Misky María’ Hospital

In 2021, Father Omar Sánchez Portillo, a priest known for his extensive charitable work in the district of Lurín (south of Lima) and founder of the Association of the Beatitudes, had the dream of building a center to serve, with the “sweetness of Mary,” people in situations of abandonment and extreme poverty who have terminal illnesses. After much prayer, he shared the idea with a German Catholic friend and philanthropist.

“We thought about it, we meditated on it, and we always present our great projects as they begin, as a dream of the heart that we offer to God. They are our guides. So, we dreamed of this and presented the initial project, a small project, to serve 10 people,” Sánchez said in an interview with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner.

In a virtual meeting with Bishop Carlos García of the Diocese of Lurín, Peru, Sánchez and the bishop told the philanthropist about this dream.

A painting of the Virgin Mary, dressed in a typical Peruvian, Cusco dress, adorned the meeting room. At one point, the German Catholic asked the bishop about the depiction of the Virgin. García responded that it was “Misky María,” which in the Indigenous Quechua means “Sweet Mary.”

Later, the German benefactor said: “That is going to be the perfect name for the palliative care hospital that I am going to give you, as a gift for the silver anniversary [25 years] of the Diocese of Lurín.” The bishop and priest, surprised, praised God and thanked the gentleman.

So it was that the hospital, with the capacity for 60 terminally ill patients, began to become a reality. It has an intensive care unit, palliative care, nursing, physical therapy, a kitchen, a chapel, and a funeral parlor. Care is provided free of charge and is provided by a multidisciplinary team of doctors, nurses, volunteers, and priests.

Construction began on Sept. 6, 2021, and the complex was inaugurated on Nov. 20, 2022. So far in their facilities, they have treated more than 100 patients who have already passed on. The hospital is currently treating 60 people with different types of terminal illnesses, such as cancer, AIDS, and other degenerative diseases.

“The spirit of this work is to transmit the sweetness of Mary. I always tell the staff who work with me: ‘Imagine how Mary cared for Joseph in his last days, for her husband, St. Joseph, in his last days.’ That is why St. Joseph is the patron saint of a good death, because he was accompanied by Mary and Jesus. So, imagine that and that is the first attention we have to give them,” Sánchez explained to ACI Prensa.

According to the priest, “a truly dignified death is one that occurs in peace and, if possible, in communion with God.”

“As St. Francis said, we must receive sister death with open arms and without fear. This is what God asks of us: to perceive death as a companion that assists us on the journey toward life, preparing us for the last step toward meeting our full happiness, our eternal happiness,” he added.

“We cannot miss the opportunity to save souls,” Sánchez further emphasized.

The importance of a spiritual approach

Sánchez explained that when a patient arrives at the hospital, the staff first provides basic hygienic and medical care.

“Our first task is to serve [the patient],” he said. “We don’t talk to them about God or the future at that time. First, we assist them and notice how they open their hearts.”

“Those who can smile begin to do so, and for those who cannot communicate, we interpret their gestures, their gaze, and their smile as signs that they are feeling the love we give them,” he explained.

After the patient is stabilized, the volunteers sit to listen or talk, depending on the person’s ability. With those who can speak, a gradual conversation about faith is established. Some accept this process immediately, especially those who have had previous Catholic formation.

“Then comes the third part. They are asked if they are baptized. Many don’t know or don’t remember it. For those who do not have the ability to speak, we perform what the Church allows, known as conditional baptism. This guarantees the sacrament in case they are not sure if they have been baptized,” Sánchez continued.

Other sacraments are also administered. “No one is ever forced to receive them. For those who cannot make decisions for themselves, such as those who are unconscious, the sacraments are also given. It is considered that if the soul is open to receiving them, it constitutes an opportunity for salvation and eternal life,” the priest said.

Stories that touch the heart

Sánchez also shared some of the most difficult, moving stories of abandonment of the people who have passed through the Misky María Hospital.

He told the story of one young man who was imprisoned for having stolen a cellphone and who was released three years later from the Lurigancho prison, one of the most violent prisons in Latin America, “with all the diseases you can imagine.”

“He essentially left to die with his family. However, this family, which was very poor, told him: ‘You can’t stay here, because we have no possibility of taking care of you.’ He left and ended up living in the garbage dump of a market in the south section of Lima. A group of friends looked for him and found him. They brought him to Misky María.

“He lived four days with us, days full of love and attention,” Sánchez continued.

Sánchez shared that of his own volition the young man was baptized and received Communion, confirmation, and extreme unction. “He received all the sacraments and died in my arms four days later,” the priest said. “That was a truly dignified death, a dignified death in every respect.”

Sánchez also shared the story of a heroic young Catholic priest, Father Juan, who died in the hospital at the age of 39 as a result of a severe infection of COVID-19, which he contracted during his apostolic service.

“He worked hard for the Church, but the time came when he was no longer able to do so. He went to the hospital and had 90% of his lungs affected. There was nothing to do. He remained in a vegetative state and only moved his eyes. For a time his diocese was able to help him, but then we received him and he died with us,” Sánchez said.

The priest also remembers a young homosexual man who studied fashion and lived a life of debauchery for many years. He contracted AIDS and his family expelled him from their home.

“He was a young man who could work as a model, who loved to dress well, but he ended up abandoned and taken care of by us. He received love until the last of his days,” Sánchez said.

A story that moved Sánchez to tears is that of Jeffrey, a child with a slight mental disability whom he described as a “saint.” The little boy died in Misky María due to pulmonary fibrosis.

According to the priest, in the last weeks of his life, the little boy told him: “Father, give my toys to the other children because I am leaving. I’m going to Jesus. There I am not going to need these toys.”

“This case moved me deeply. He was a child convinced of his holiness, wasn’t he?” Sánchez said.

‘A caress from God for the poor’

Misky María Hospital is one of the works of the Association of the Beatitudes, an organization founded by Sánchez. The organization also currently serves 170 boys, girls, adolescents, young people, adults, and elderly who have been declared abandoned and who have various illnesses and needs.

When referring to the palliative care hospital, Sánchez recalled that “one way the Church has always had to help improve humanity is by filling in gaps and caring for the poorest, abandoned, and vulnerable.”

He also clarified that the charity does not charge money or establish conditions of any kind to receive people in the last stage of their lives. “Otherwise it would change the absolute meaning of the project that God placed in our hearts and that we are administering in his name,” he said.

However, he called on people to continue collaborating with the association’s multiple initiatives each year.

“Now you can understand why we sell panettone [sweet bread], why we have collection points to collect donations, why we look for godfathers and godmothers, why we constantly ask you for help for food, diapers, etc. Because only in this way can we continue to be a caress of God for the poor. Join us, help us, collaborate so we can continue making this world, our society, and our country better. God bless you,” Sánchez said.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Professor Mouna Maroun is the first Arab to be elected as the rector of an Israeli university, the University of Haifa. Maroun belongs to the Arab minority in Israel, the Christian minority among Arabs, and the Maronite minority among Christians. She says she is proud of her religious affiliation and wears a golden crucifix around her neck. "My election is an important message that everything is possible in the Israeli academia," she told CNA. / Credit: Marinella Bandini

Haifa, Israel, May 4, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

For the first time, an Arab Christian woman has been elected as the rector of an Israeli university — the University of Haifa. The announcement of Professor Mouna Maroun’s appointment was made on April 11 amid tensions with Iran and while anti-Israel protests were mounting at universities around the world.

Maroun belongs to the Arab minority in Israel, the Christian minority among Arabs, and the Maronite minority among Christians. No other Arab, Christian, or woman has held the position of rector before at the University of Haifa. (In the Israeli system, the rector is the head of the university.)

For this reason, Maroun said in an interview with CNA, “my election is an important message that everything is possible in the Israeli academia. It is a message for the Christian minority that we are rooted here, that we can succeed here; and it is also a message for the young Arab generations: If you have a dream you can really realize it within the Israel society and especially in universities.”

The University of Haifa is located on Mount Carmel, about six miles from the small village of Isfiya, where Maroun was born. Her grandparents arrived here from Lebanon in the early 20th century. Her parents are semi-literate because there were no schools for them at that time, but, she recounted, “they believed that only through higher education could their four daughters [succeed] to be integrated in Israeli society. That’s why they encouraged us to continue our studies.”

Maroun has embraced that belief as well. “My childhood was around being very active in the church and studying, knowing that only through studying I could have succeeded in Israel.” 

Regarding this prestigious position in academia, she said: “I have always believed that the emancipation of the Arab minority in Israel is through higher education. I don’t believe in politics; I do believe in higher education.”

When Maroun arrived at the university, she didn’t know a word of Hebrew — Arabs and Jews have a separate education system — and she barely spoke English. At 54 years old, she is now a renowned neuroscientist and expert in post-traumatic stress disorder. She has been a faculty member of the university for more than 20 years and has served as chairwoman of the Department of Neurobiology and as a member of the academic senate, among other positions. She will officially assume her four-year role as rector beginning this October.

When asked about the key to her success, Maroun said: “I think the lack of expectations from me to succeed was the secret of my success.” 

“No one expected me to succeed — being an Arab in Israel, a Christian, and on top of all of this, being a woman,” she added. “I could do what I believed in, I had a dream and I followed this dream without pressure — only my family encouraged me to continue in this pathway.”

Excellence will be a theme of her tenure as rector, Maroun said. 

One of the first challenges she will face is integrating the faculties of medicine and engineering into the university — historically mainly composed of arts and humanities. The second aim is to rank as one of the top research universities, both in Israel and also internationally.

The University of Haifa is one of the most diverse and inclusive universities in Israel: 45% of the 17,000 students come from the Arab society and 50% of all the students are first-generation students receiving a higher education. 

The student body is composed of Jews, Muslims, Druze, and Christians (totaling 15-20 different religious denominations). Maroun herself is proud of her religious affiliation and wears a golden crucifix around her neck.

“We have what is called a natural laboratory, having all the religions coexisting and living without tensions,” she said. 

Additionally, the Laboratory for Religious Studies is part of the University of Haifa, with a focus on interfaith dialogue.

Becoming the Arab rector of an Israeli university after Oct. 7, 2023, is a challenging task, she said.

“I work on post-traumatic stress disorder,” she explained. “I usually ask my audience if they remember where they were on 9/11, but unfortunately I’m [now] going to ask where they were on Oct. 7. It was a trauma for everyone, and everyone will remember where she or he [was] at that moment. We are terrified as Israelis, as human beings, regarding what happened on Oct. 7 and at the same time we are also terrified about what’s going on in Gaza, where thousands of innocent children have been killed.”

Maroun shared her opinion of the anti-Israel protests currently happening at some American universities.

“The administration of the universities in the States should have a moral and ethical statement saying that they cannot deny what happened on Oct. 7 as well as what’s going on in Gaza, and they should take actions in order to promote [the] peace process without having a side, because academia cannot take a side in this conflict,” she said. “Academia worldwide should be a bridge for peace, for negotiation, and for interaction and not to be biased because this is very different from what science is.”

She went on to say that “academia means the freedom of speech, the freedom of action, the freedom of collaboration, the freedom to grow and to research, and the freedom of knowledge. I think you cannot really put ‘academia’ and ‘boycotting’ in the same sentence.”

Maroun explained that her expertise in trauma and the brain as well as her Christian background have led her to develop a particular sensitivity toward others and to seek paths of dialogue and reconciliation. This will be especially important in the days and months to come in Israel, she said.

“In order to overcome this trauma we need time, we need rehabilitation, and we need reconciliation between the two sides,” she said. “I do believe that with time, we can reconcile and start to establish bridges of empathy, of understanding, and of containing the emotions of each other. After all we are neighbors, we are living side by side, and I believe and I pray that it’s about time that kids from both sides will grow up to have dreams and maybe fulfill these dreams through higher education.”

Mother Marla Marie stands on the front porch of the sisters’ Mother of the Light convent in Dartmouth, Massachusetts. / Credit: Joe Bukuras/CNA

Boston, Mass., May 4, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

It was 1983, in the last years of the Cold War, when 21-year-old Marla Lucas’ eyes filled with tears at the sight of a political cartoon prepared to be printed in the Washington Post criticizing then-Pope John Paul II during his activism against communism in Poland.

Lucas, who is now known as Mother Marla, was fresh out of college at the time and had recently experienced a reversion to her Catholic faith and was “on fire” for Christ, she told CNA on April 22.

What hurt Mother Marla the most about the drawing was her own perceived involvement in its creation. She was a research assistant for the cartoonist who drew it, three-time Pulitzer Prize winner and “unrepentant liberal,” the late Herbert Block, commonly known as “Herblock.”

“I felt like an accomplice,” she said.

It wasn’t only Block’s criticism of Pope John Paul II that bothered Mother Marla, it was also his cartoons in support of abortion. 

“I wanted to be a journalist to spread the truth. Mr. Block was a kind person and personable, but I just felt like this was against my faith,” she said.

Before the cartoon of the pope, Mother Marla had been discerning religious life and spent a day visiting the Daughters of St. Paul at their convent in Alexandria, Virginia.

After that day, her decision was made. She was going to apply.

But a short time following the application process, Mother Marla received news that she was not admitted by the Daughters of St. Paul because she is deaf in one ear. 

“The provincial’s reasoning was that she didn’t want to jeopardize my good ear with the work that I would be doing,” Mother Marla said.

A friend then suggested Mother Marla look into the Parish Visitors of Mary Immaculate where, months later, she would say goodbye to her position at the Post and enter religious life in December 1983.

Recounting her last days at the newspaper in the fall of that year, Mother Marla said she went to her boss, Block, and his assistant and said she had some news to share. 

Mother Marla recounted their response: “‘You’re getting married?’” 

“Well...” Mother Marla said back to them. “Sort of. I’m marrying Jesus.”

She said both of their jaws “dropped open” and they looked at her with “almost horror and disbelief.”

“And that last month at the Post was agony because all of a sudden, whatever they had against the Catholic Church, I was absorbing it. They didn’t throw me a going away party,” she said with a chuckle.

She made her first vows in 1986 and her final vows in 1993. 

Mother Marla “loved the life” in her religious community and had several assignments on the East Coast including in New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Washington, D.C. The Parish Visitors are a New York-based congregation that has the charism of being contemplative-missionaries to the home.

But it was during her time in Pennsylvania she began deepening her awareness and affection for her Lebanese heritage as a Maronite Catholic.

Mother Marla was always aware of her Maronite roots. Her mother was from Lebanon and her father’s parents were from Lebanon. There wasn’t a Maronite church near her childhood home in Poughkeepsie, New York, so her family attended a Latin-rite parish. But a Maronite priest would make his way up to the Lebanese community there a few times a year to minister to them. 

During her assignment in Pennsylvania, Mother Marla attended a series of Lenten talks in Scranton at a Maronite church. The speaker for the week was Maronite priest Father Gregory Mansour.

“I was very impressed with his spiritual teachings and I said, ‘This is a man of prayer. This man really practices his priesthood.’ And we struck up a friendship that God used,” she said.

The two would occasionally cross paths and keep in touch over the years. Mother Marla sent Mansour a note of congratulations in 2004 when Pope John Paul II appointed him as bishop for the Eparchy of Saint Maron of Brooklyn.

Mother Marla and Mansour wouldn’t reconnect again until a few years later, in Washington, D.C., where Mother Marla spent a year taking classes at the Dominican House of Studies. 

Twenty-four years a nun at this point, Mother Marla was not on an assignment at a particular parish, so she chose to attend Mass at the Maronite church in the city, Our Lady of Lebanon Parish.

The priest at the parish approached Mother Marla and asked her if she would head the parish’s religious education program. In her previous assignment, she served as a director of religious education for several years.

“And I said, ‘Oh Father, I’m here for other reasons.’”

But the priest insisted, so Mother Marla took it to prayer, and with the permission of her superior, discerned that God was asking her to head the program. 

She then asked the rector of the Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Seminary, adjacent to the parish, if she could take some classes to learn more about Maronite spirituality and liturgy to help her with catechesis.

He agreed.

Just a few weeks after she accepted the position, Mother Marla again crossed paths with Bishop Mansour while the prelate was visiting the parish. 

Mansour was happy to hear that Mother Marla was heading the program. But the next thing he said to her would change the course of her life forever.

“He said to me, ‘Sister Marla Marie, would you help me found a Maronite congregation of sisters for our Church?”

“And it was just like that. He just said, ‘Hello, it’s nice to see you. How are you?’ And then the next thing was, ‘Would you found a religious community?’”

Mother Marla was “startled.” But at the same time, she felt “a deep abiding peace.”  

“It was the same peace I had 25 years prior, when I realized my call to be a religious,” she said.

Mother Marla told Mansour she would take his request to prayer and discernment. In time, she agreed and requested leave from her congregation to pursue this vocation.

On June 1, 2008, Sister Marla became Mother Marla Marie, foundress of the Maronite Servants of Christ the Light.

The sisters were founded to “radiate Christ’s love and light to our people,” Mother Marla said. “Our life is rooted in Eucharistic prayer and devotion to the Mother of God."

Fast approaching the community’s 16-year anniversary — or “sweet 16” as Mother Marla calls it — the sisters are involved in a variety of ministries including facilitating conferences and parish missions, teaching catechism classes, leading youth and young adult ministry, bringing solace and prayer to those with grief, and accompanying those passing to the next life.

Sister Therese Touma, 40, joined the congregation in 2010 and Sister Emily Lattouf, 29, joined in 2019.

The sisters encounter and serve more than 1,000 people each year, including hundreds of children and young adults in their several ministries, Mother Marla said. Last year the sisters visited 10 parishes for missions across the Maronite Eparchy of Saint Maron of Brooklyn, which spans from Maine to Florida. 

Sister Emily, who took her first vows in 2023, said that “Mother Marla Marie is an amazing and courageous woman.”

“I admire her courage to leave the world she knew in her previous community to begin this new foundation. I am blessed to have her as a mother-servant, friend, and formator,” she said.

The Maronite Servants are now located in suburban Dartmouth, Massachusetts, located in close proximity to several Maronite parishes and dozens of Roman Catholic parishes where they serve in ministry.

“I keep looking at my life and thinking, ‘Wow, that happened to me?’ Isn’t it amazing how God works? And he does that in your life too, and in everybody’s life. If people stop to look and be attentive, we can see that the Holy Spirit is always acting. We just have to give him room,” Mother Marla said.

Father Roger Landry, Catholic chaplain at Columbia University, discusses the protests at Columbia University in New York City on EWTN’s “The World Over with Raymond Arroyo” on May 2, 2024. / Credit: EWTN News The World Over / Screenshot

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 3, 2024 / 17:05 pm (CNA).

Father Roger Landry, a Catholic chaplain at Columbia University, said on Thursday that the protests making national headlines at the New York City school are being organized in part by “explicitly communist” outside forces. 

“There is an instrumentalization of what’s going on in Gaza to advance an agenda,” he said. “And that is to deconstruct our present world order at which the United States is considered the top of that order.”

Speaking on EWTN’s “The World Over with Raymond Arroyo,” Landry said that he had been walking through the encampment nearly daily, conversing with student protesters and other “outside agitators.” 

While he said he believes that many of the protesters were genuinely concerned for Gazan civilians, there was a sizable percentage of whom were “explicitly in favor of Hamas” and “definitely antisemitic by their language and their actions.” 

What is going on at Columbia?

The Columbia demonstration began on April 17 when a large group of students set up dozens of tents to occupy the university’s main quad. Protesters at the encampment said they were standing against Israel’s “genocide” against Palestinians in Gaza. 

Many videos circulated online of protesters shouting antisemitic chants and calling for the destruction of Israel, and some Jewish students have reported being threatened by protesters. 

Clad in riot gear, officers from the New York City Police Department cleared the encampment in a Wednesday raid that resulted in several hundred arrests. 

Similar protests and encampments on campuses across the country, many of which are still ongoing, have taken place since the demonstration at Columbia began. 

Marxist ideology at heart of protest

According to Landry, nearly half of the approximately 300 protesters arrested were non-student activists. 

He said these outside forces are “explicitly communist groups” who have been distributing Marxist materials attacking the state of Israel since the Hamas Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack. 

Landry said that these materials attempt to justify the Hamas attack “out of this neo-Marxist, ‘oppressor versus oppressed’ ideology that says whatever somebody in the category of ‘oppressed’ wants to do against a so-called ‘oppressor’ is justified, even killing way more than a thousand innocent people at a party.” 

“This divide and conquer class warfare that comes from Marx and Lenin is the exact antithesis of what Jesus Christ himself taught,” he continued. “So, I try to get the Catholic students aware of that problem so at least they’re inoculated to that intellectual virus.” 

Catholic students act as peacemakers 

Landry said he was proud of the many Catholic students who have “stepped up” to be peacemakers amid all the hatred on campus.   

He said that student Mass attendance has increased on campus. A Catholic student group sent symbolic olive plants to both Jewish and Muslim leaders at Columbia to show the “solidarity and peace of Christ,” he said. 

“Transcending the moment but also incarnating ourselves in the moment, [we] are trying to bring the peace we have received from Christ that our world and our campus very much need,” he said.

Watch the full interview with Landry on “The World Over” below.

President Joe Biden presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Jesuit Father Greg Boyle on May 3, 2024. / Screenshot/public domain

CNA Staff, May 3, 2024 / 15:30 pm (CNA).

The White House on Friday announced that Jesuit Father Greg Boyle, the founder of a prominent ministry dedicated to rehabilitating gang-affiliated youth, will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom alongside 18 other recipients this afternoon. 

Boyle, ordained a priest in 1984, founded Homeboy Industries in 1992 while pastor of Dolores Mission, a Catholic church and school in an area that at one time had one of the highest concentrations of gang activity in Los Angeles. 

Today, Homeboy Industries claims to be the largest gang-intervention program in the United States.

The successful ministry, which now operates nationwide, offers training and job skills to those formerly involved in gangs or in jail, as well as case management, tattoo removal, mental health and legal services, and GED completion.

While the group has said it is “not affiliated with any particular religion,” it also notes that many of its works are “in line with the Jesuit practice of social justice,” and Boyle has said that the organization does not seek to “downplay” its Catholic identity.

Boyle described the ministry several years ago to CNA as “soaked with the Gospel.”

The Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, is presented to individuals who have made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant societal, public, or private endeavors, the White House says.

In announcing this year’s recipients, the White House noted that the honorees “built teams, coalitions, movements, organizations, and businesses that shaped America for the better.”

“They are the pinnacle of leadership in their fields. They consistently demonstrated over their careers the power of community, hard work, and service,” the announcement says. 

Biden, who is Catholic, announced that among the honorees is former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and former Secretary of State John Kerry, both fellow Catholics known for their pro-abortion advocacy.

Other honorees this year include former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former Vice President Al Gore, Olympian Katie Ledecky, and actress Michelle Yeoh.

In 2020, Boyle was one of several hundred religious leaders who signed an endorsement of Biden’s campaign. The priest has called for the Church to “include with more compassion our LGBTQ sisters and brothers.”

In 2021, meanwhile, Homeboy Industries received $20 million in grants from prominent progressive backers Mackenzie Scott and Dan Jewett.

Martyred by the Nazis, Dutch St. Titus Brandsma was a journalist who gave his life so that the truths of the faith would not be silenced. / Credit: Wikimedia Commons

CNA Newsroom, May 3, 2024 / 13:45 pm (CNA).

World Press Freedom Day is celebrated every May 3, drawing attention to the importance of free and independent news media. 

Among modern-day saints, there is a journalist-priest who suffered martyrdom by the Nazis for his work in Catholic media: St. Titus Brandsma.

St. Titus (1881–1942), canonized by Pope Francis in 2022, was a Carmelite priest and native of the Netherlands. During the Nazi occupation of that country, the Nazi public relations bureau informed Dutch newspapers that they had to accept advertisements and press releases emanating from official sources.

The cardinal-archbishop of Ultrecht, Johannes de Jong, commissioned Brandsma, in his capacity as a journalist and spiritual director of the country’s Catholic journalists, to convey the hierarchy’s response to the Nazis’ mandate to all the Catholic editors in the country.

Brandsma concluded each visit to the editors with remarks along these lines: “We have reached our limit. We cannot serve them. It will be our duty to refuse Nazi propaganda definitely if we wish to remain Catholic newspapers. Even if they threaten us with severe penalties, suspension, or discontinuance of our newspapers, we cannot conform with their orders.”

Brandsma visited 14 editors before the Gestapo arrested him. He was arrested and taken to the Amersfoort penal camp, where he was made to work in inhumane conditions. Later, he ended up in the terrifying Dachau concentration camp in Germany, where the regime carried out experiments on prisoners. He was ultimately killed with a lethal injection of carbolic acid.

Before dying, he gave his rosary to the nurse who injected him with the deadly substance. She told him that she did not know how to pray, and he replied that she should only say: “Pray for us sinners.” Some time later the young woman converted and was a witness in the canonization process of Brandsma.

His body was never found and it is believed that he was cremated in the ovens of the Nazi extermination center. St. John Paul II approved the decree recognizing his martyrdom, and he was beatified in 1985. Pope Francis canonized him on May 22, 2022.

According to the Dutch newspaper Nederlands Dagblad, dozens of international journalists and the 520-member German Association of Catholic Journalists signed a letter to Pope Francis asking him to name St. Titus Brandsma as patron of journalism.

For their part, the Carmelites indicate that the saint wrote a special prayer between Feb. 12–13, 1942, when he was in prison titled “Before an Image of Christ”:

O Jesus, when I gaze on you

Once more alive, that I love you

And that your heart loves me too

Moreover as your special friend.

Although that calls me to suffer more

Oh, for me all suffering is good,

For in this way I resemble you

And this is the way to your kingdom.

I am blissful in my suffering

For I know it no more as sorrow

But the most ultimate elected lot

That unites me with you, O God.

O, just leave me here silently alone,

The chill and cold around me

And let no people be with me

Here alone I grow not weary.

For thou, O Jesus, art with me

I have never been so close to you.

Stay with me, with me, Jesus sweet,

Your presence makes all things good for me.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

null / Gutzemberg / Shutterstock

CNA Staff, May 3, 2024 / 13:00 pm (CNA).

A priest in Chicago last month blessed a same-sex couple, saying that the Vatican’s recent document Fiducia Supplicans authorized such blessings. 

Father Joseph Williams, the pastor of St. Vincent de Paul Parish near downtown Chicago, is seen in an April 22 video shared on Instagram by Kelli Knight, a Methodist minister and self-identified “queer” community organizer. 

In the video, Williams is seen in the parish with Kelli and Myah Knight. “Myah always wanted to get married at the chapel of her alma mater, so I surprised her with a blessing of our marriage!” Kelli wrote in the post. The parish is affiliated with the Catholic DePaul University in Chicago. 

In the video, Williams can be seen asking the couple: “Kelli and Myah, do you freely recommit yourselves to love each other as holy spouses and to live in peace and harmony together forever?” The two women respond, “I do.”

“Loving God, increase and consecrate the love which Kelly and Myah have for one another,” the pastor then says. “The rings that they have exchanged are the sign of their fidelity and commitment.” 

“May they continue to prosper in your grace and blessing,” he added. 

“May God’s blessing be yours, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen,” the priest finished. 

Neither the priest nor the Archdiocese of Chicago immediately responded to requests for comment from CNA on Friday morning. The pastor told OSV News that his understanding of Fiducia Supplicans is that “same-sex couples can be blessed as long as it does not reflect a marriage situation … as long as it’s clear that it’s not a marriage.”

He reportedly told Knight when she first inquired about the blessing: “Please understand that this is not in any way a marriage, a wedding, anything like that. This is just simply a blessing of persons.”

Fiducia Supplicans has generated global controversy since it was first promulgated last December. The Vatican at the time directed that Catholic priests can bless same-sex couples as an expression of pastoral closeness without condoning their sexual relations. 

Bishops around the world in the subsequent months have been deeply divided over the declaration. Some prelates have responded warmly to the directive, while others have said they will not implement the practice.

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa gives the homily at a Mass in which he took possession of his titular church, St. Onuphrius, in Rome on May 1, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media

Rome Newsroom, May 3, 2024 / 12:21 pm (CNA).

The Latin patriarch of Jerusalem delivered an impassioned lecture on Thursday at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome detailing the process of peace in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, noting that it is an integral part of the Church’s universal mission and one that must not be conflated with overtly temporal or political aims. 

“Peace needs the testimony of clear and strong gestures on the part of all believers, but it also needs to be announced and defended by equally clear words. We cannot remain silent in the face of injustices or invite people to live peacefully and disengage,” Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa remarked during his “lectio magistralis” on Thursday at the pontifical university.

“The preferential option for the poor and the weak, however, does not make us a political party,” he added.

The hourlong lecture, titled “Characteristics and Criteria for a Pastoral Care of Peace,” was the latest installment in the university’s ongoing series of studies in peace sciences and international cooperation launched by the school’s Pontifical Pastoral Institute Redemptor Hominis.

The cardinal stressed that the Israel-Hamas conflict is not just an issue for the local Church but also an issue for the universal Church. 

“What I tend to say is that conflict is not a temporary and secondary issue in the life of our Church,” the cardinal continued; rather, he said, it “is now an integral and constitutive part of our identity as a Church.”

Pizzaballa underlined that “talking about peace, therefore, is not talking about an abstract topic but of a deep wound in the life of the Christian that causes suffering and tiredness, a lot of tiredness, and deeply touches the human and spiritual life of all of us.”

Stressing the universality of the conflict, he added it “involves the life of everyone in our diocese and is therefore an integral part of the life of the Church, of its pastoral care.”

The day before the lecture, Pizzaballa took possession of his titular church in Rome, St. Onuphrius, where he spoke on the historic, symbolic, and theological links between the Church in the Holy Land and Rome, again expressing the importance of the Holy Land for the universal Church.

“The Church of Jerusalem is the mother Church of the Church, where the roots of the entire universal Church lie, and it is a place that still retains a local and universal character today,” he said during his May 1 homily.

In his lecture on Thursday, Pizzaballa made overtures to the historical roots of the conflict in order to stress the “plurirelgious” and “pluricultural” nature of the Holy Land and to open a reflection on the importance of narrative in the process of peace. 

“These problems of memory cannot be solved by reading one’s own history,” he said. “Intercultural conflicts will not be overcome if we do not reread different readings of the strong religious and cultural histories.”

While arguing that “peace is not the exclusive responsibility of the pastor,” he noted that religious leaders must work to “create contexts in which communities can express themselves.”

“Today, especially in the Holy Land, everyone has their own little story to tell,” he added. 

Pizzaballa stressed the importance of dialogue as a critical underpinning of the peace process, noting that through the promotion of “continuous dialogue” and “mutual listening” that “a serious pastoral care in peace is born and developed.” 

The cardinal also noted religious leaders must work to promote both “a new culture of legality” as well as to “become a living and prophetic voice of justice, human rights, and peace.” 

While acknowledging that there has always been “a close relationship” between ecclesial and civic leaders, playing a delicate role in the “function[ing] in the life of national communities,” Pizzaballa warned that the Church’s call for peace must exist “without entering into logics of competition and division” in order to offer “credible witnesses.”