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CNA Newsroom, Nov 29, 2024 / 12:50 pm (CNA).

While millions of Americans were traveling or cooking or getting ready to watch a football game, several thousand volunteers with the Society of St. Vincent de Paul were serving Thanksgiving meals to those who needed them. 

“Many communities have a sizable level of poverty, people who just need that helping hand up,” said Michael Acaldo, chief executive officer of the national council of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, a Catholic charitable organization headquartered in St. Louis. 

In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Acaldo said, more than 300 volunteers were scheduled to serve more than 3,000 people at four sites. 

It started in the late morning at Baton Rouge River Center, which included sit-down meals but also a drive-through component since it’s near a highway. St. Gerard Catholic Church was scheduled to kick off its meal in the late morning as well, followed by meals in the society’s dining room in Baton Rouge and at McKinley Alumni Community Center. 

The Baton Rouge society has been serving Thanksgiving Day meals since about 1982, Acaldo told CNA. 

In Phoenix, more than 500 volunteers were expected to serve about 7,000 meals at seven locations, under the direction of executive chef Chris Hoffman, who has worked at the Ritz Carlton and other resorts, said Ryan Corry, chief philanthropy officer of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul there. 

“And his style is that he wants to put dignity and humanity on a plate, every single day,” Corry said. 

Breakfast at the Phoenix dining room was at 7 a.m.; the last meal of the day ended at about 6:15 p.m., he said. In between, there are brunches, lunches, and dinners. 

The major Thanksgiving meal in Phoenix included turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, and green beans. 

And, Corry added: “We have the most number of pumpkin pies I’ve ever seen in my life.” 

‘The center of their day’

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul was founded in 1833 in France by Blessed Frédéric Ozanam and Emmanuel Bailly to help the poor in Paris. The American version was founded in 1845 at what is now the old cathedral in St. Louis. 

Members of local conferences, who are known as Vincentians, serve more than 5 million people a year in the United States, according to the organization’s national council. 

On Thanksgiving, organizers of the meals say they appreciate the time volunteers take on what is one of the quintessential family-gathering days in the United States. 

“Thanksgiving Day is a wonderful day to be with family and friends, and those who are taking their time or talent, it’s the most valuable thing we’ve got — they understand the need in the community, and they’re sacrificing time with their family to help those who don’t have family,” Acaldo said. 

Many who come to serve have been doing so for years. 

“For volunteers who come here, they plan their day around volunteering. This is the center of their day,” Corry said. 

The Phoenix version includes a program called “Hearts and Hands,” aimed at accommodating multigenerational families of volunteers with age-appropriate tasks, from as young as 3 to people in their 90s, Corry said. 

Charity in the Society of St. Vincent de Paul isn’t a one-way street, he said. 

“It’s special because not only do we serve people, but we give people an opportunity of service,” Corry said. 

While many of the volunteers didn’t watch football games on television, at the dining room on West Jackson Street in Phoenix, less than a mile away from the Arizona Capitol, some had a chance to see former Kansas City Chiefs kicker Nick Lowery and about 20 other National Football League retirees. Not a lot of fuss will be made over them, though, Corry said. 

“They [weren’t] there for celebrity status. They’re working,” Corry said. 

This year has been tougher for poor people in Maricopa County (which includes Phoenix) than 2023, he said. 

“We’ve seen a 30% increase in requests for food, year over year,” Corry said. 

Corry noted that while Thanksgiving Day brings a lot of attention, the society plans to feed about the same number of people in Phoenix on the day after Thanksgiving and every day after that. 

“In some ways it’s a really special day,” Corry said, referring to Thanksgiving. “In other ways, it’s another day for us to care for God’s people.” 

Gratitude  

In Pittsburg, California, about 25 miles northeast of Oakland, several dozen volunteers were scheduled to serve about 200 meals overseen by a trained chef, said Claudia Ramirez, executive director of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul District Council of Contra Costa County. 

The regional council of the society has been serving meals on Thanksgiving Day for the past 15 years. 

“Everybody comes to help support the community and do the good we can, and share the blessings we have,” Ramirez said. To the usual menu this year was added butternut squash soup, she said. 

The gathering began at 10 a.m. with the distribution of coats, scarves, toiletry items, and notes from kids in Catholic religious education programs to the people coming for meals — “So they all know they are loved and appreciated this Thanksgiving Day,” Ramirez said. 

At 10:30 a.m., volunteers and those being served gathered for a “Gratitude Circle” in which those who want can take the microphone and say what they are grateful for. It usually takes about a half hour to 45 minutes. 

“They do it very much from the heart,” Ramirez said. 

The event isn’t just a meal, she said, but a meeting of hearts. 

“This is what makes us Vincentians: We see Christ in those we serve,” Ramirez said. “And if we’re doing our work well, they see Christ in us.” 

London, England, Nov 29, 2024 / 12:20 pm (CNA).

The Catholic bishops of England and Wales have expressed dismay after a historic vote today, Nov. 29, during which members of Parliament (MPs) voted in favor of assisted suicide.

Following a five-hour, Second Reading debate in the House of Commons, 330 MPs voted in favor of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, while 275 voted against it. 

While this does not mean that assisted suicide is now law in England and Wales, it does mean the bill will now progress to the next legislative stage. 

The last time MPs voted on the issue in 2015, the bill was voted down at Second Reading and progressed no further.

Following the vote today, Bishop John Sherrington, lead bishop for life issues, said he hopes and prays the bill might be rejected at a later stage in the legislative process.

In a statement released this afternoon, Sherrington said: “We are disappointed that MPs have voted in favor of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill progressing through Parliament. We believe that this bill is flawed in principle and also contains particular clauses that are of concern. We ask the Catholic community to pray that members of Parliament will have the wisdom to reject this bill at a later stage in its progress.”

Sherrington said bishops were particularly concerned about a lack of protection for conscientious objection. 

“In addition to being opposed to the principle of assisted suicide, we are particularly concerned with clauses in the bill that prevent doctors from properly exercising conscientious objection, provide inadequate protection to hospices and care homes that do not wish to participate in assisted suicide, and allow doctors to initiate conversations about assisted suicide,” he said. “We ask that these voices be heard in the next stages of the bill to strengthen the deep concerns about this proposed legislation.”

The bill would allow assisted suicide for people aged 18 and over who are terminally ill and have a prognosis of six months or less.

Sherrington went on to say that real compassion involves supporting people at the end of their lives. 

“We have expressed the view, during this debate, that genuine compassion involves walking with those who need care, especially during sickness, disability, and old age,” he said. “The vocation to care is at the heart of the lives of so many people who look after their loved ones and is the sign of a truly compassionate society. It is essential that we nurture and renew the innate call that many people have to compassionately care for others.”

Sherrington continued: “It remains the case that improving the quality and availability of palliative care offers the best pathway to reducing suffering at the end of life. We will continue to advocate for this and support those who work tirelessly to care for the dying in our hospices, hospitals, and care homes.”

Meanwhile, pro-life campaigners have vowed not to give up. 

Spokesperson for Right to Life UK Catherine Robinson said: “This is just the first stage of a long journey through the Commons and then the Lords for this dangerous assisted suicide bill. We are now going to redouble our efforts to ensure we fight this bill at every stage and ensure that it is defeated to protect the most vulnerable.”

“A very large number of MPs spoke out against this extreme proposal in Parliament today. They made it clear that this dangerous and extreme change to our laws would put the vulnerable at risk and see the ending of many lives through assisted suicide,” Robinson said.

Rome Newsroom, Nov 29, 2024 / 10:00 am (CNA).

The Vatican’s chief prosecutor confirmed at a public event on Wednesday that despite prior denials, the Vatican does possess a confidential file on the disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi — the so-called “Vatican girl” who went missing over 40 years ago.

The Vatican “found” the file, it does “exist,” the Vatican’s promoter of justice, Alessandro Diddi, said at a book presentation in Rome on Nov. 27, according to Italian media.

Orlandi’s brother, Pietro Orlandi, has maintained for years that the Vatican had information on his missing sister that it was withholding from the Italian authorities.

Diddi said Wednesday the content of the dossier is confidential, but the Vatican continues to collaborate with Italy in its new investigation into how the 15-year-old Emanuela disappeared in 1983.

Orlandi was the daughter of an envoy of the prefecture of the pontifical house and a citizen of Vatican City State. Her disappearance at age 15 in June 1983 has been one of Italy’s biggest unsolved mysteries and, since it occurred, the subject of international intrigue, including speculation about the Vatican’s role.

Public interest in the case was also rekindled in 2022 after the release of the true-crime documentary “Vatican Girl: The Disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi” on Netflix.

At the request of Orlandi’s family, the Vatican conducted a new investigation into the case at the beginning of 2023, sharing its findings with Rome prosecutors that summer.

In November 2023, the Italian Senate voted to begin a new parliamentary inquiry into Orlandi and another girl who went missing in Rome around the same time.

The four-year parliamentary commission has “full investigative powers” and a budget of 50,000 euros (about $52,500) per year to shed light on the 1983 disappearance of the two girls. 

London, England, Nov 29, 2024 / 09:18 am (CNA).

The Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles, have opened a new location at St. Mary’s Abbey in Colwich, Staffordshire, England. 

The Benedictines became well known after the body of their founder, Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster, who died in 2019, was discovered well preserved in 2023.  

The order was welcomed by Archbishop Bernard Longley of the Archdiocese of Birmingham, England, who invited the sisters to consider the property. The abbey had been up for sale since 2020 because of a decline in vocations.

“We informed the local ordinary, Archbishop Longley, about the sisters soon-to-be in exile in his diocese and we certainly were not expecting an invitation to stay, but that is exactly what happened!” Mother Abbess Cecilia Snell, the Benedictines of Mary’s first abbess, wrote in a spring 2024 newsletter. “His Excellency has welcomed us most graciously to remain in the [arch]diocese of Birmingham.”

The Benedictines of Mary have now completed the deal, with financial help received from Stanbrook Abbey, which loaned them 2.5 million pounds (over $3.1 million) to complete the purchase. In August, four sisters moved to Colwich to begin their apostolate in England. 

Colwich Abbey, among others, was founded by three great-great-granddaughters of St. Thomas More, who came together in 1623 at Cambrai, Flanders, after the dissolution of the English monasteries in the 1500s. 

The link to St. Thomas More is significant for the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles, as the Mother Abbess described More as “a saint of joy and grace under fire, grace that holds up under the challenges of an age.”

The Mother Abbess added her hopes that the new community in Staffordshire will be “a place of expansion, especially for future foreign vocations to our community.” 

St. Mary’s Abbey, which has been occupied by Benedictine nuns since the 1830s, has a rich Catholic heritage, having its origins in a convent in 17th-century Cambrai in the Spanish Netherlands, which established a daughter house in Paris in 1652. 

The nuns who were suppressed in the French Revolution moved to England and eventually settled in Dorset, where St. Benedict’s Priory was formed. Now the Benedictines want to play their part in reviving monastic life in England. 

“It is our great hope and desire that our community can revive monastic life in this beautiful and historic sanctuary,” the Mother Abbess told The Catholic Directory. “The sisters have already brought the Benedictine ‘ora et labora’ to the Midlands, and we await God’s timing for the next step in this exciting endeavor.”

Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster founded the traditionalist Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles, order in Gower, Missouri, and died on May 29, 2019. However, when her body was exhumed on April 28, 2023, to be moved for interment in the abbey church, the sisters discovered a well-preserved body. In August 2024, Bishop James Johnston of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph in Missouri confirmed, following a medical examination of the body, that no signs of decomposition were found.

The Mother Abbess explained on the community’s website the process of how they bought the English property.

“The sisters discovered that 15 miles away, St. Mary’s Abbey in Colwich was for sale. A week after their arrival, the sisters visited the Abbey grounds and were quite taken by the buildings, the historical value of the place, and its rural setting,” she said.

“With a formal invitation from the archbishop, it became clear the Lord wanted the Benedictines of Mary to stay in Staffordshire, and to do all in their power to restore Colwich Abbey to its former glory,” she continued.

England is traditionally known as the “Dowry of Mary,” an ancient title given to Our Lady in 1381 by King Richard II in Westminster Abbey, who sought the protection of Our Lady amid political troubles. England took the title “Mary’s Dowry” — meaning the country was ‘set aside’ as a gift, or dowry, for Our Lady, who would give the country her protection. A rededication was made in 2020. 

Speaking of the title, and the community’s own commitment to Our Lady, the Mother Abbess told the Catholic Herald:  “England belongs to Our Lady, as does this community, the members being entirely consecrated to her, collectively and individually. We are very grateful to be stepping into such a beautiful heritage, and by her prayers and intercession, being her instruments in assisting with the revitalization of monastic life within her land.”

Dublin, Ireland, Nov 29, 2024 / 08:10 am (CNA).

As Ireland heads to the polls on Friday, respect for the dignity of human life is among the key issues highlighted for voters in a statement issued by the Irish Catholic bishops titled “To Be a People of Hope.” 

Increasing homelessness and the impact of immigration are also raised as matters of grave concern.

Ireland’s general election takes place on Nov. 29 with no clear frontrunner among the three main parties — Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, and Sinn Féin. It is potentially one of the most significant elections in the state’s history, with Sinn Féin targeting a role in government.

The Catholic hierarchy’s statement to the electorate underscored the social and moral concerns that should shape voters’ choices.

Archbishop Dermot Farrell, archbishop of Dublin and primate of Ireland, said, “Voting matters because it is how we hold our leaders to account and mandate what we believe to be important.”

Housing, migration, and assisted suicide

The incoming government will face pressing social issues, including spiraling homelessness, immigration, and an influx of refugees to Ireland, which has stirred right-wing nationalism. Also looming is the prospect of legislation on legalizing assisted suicide.

Addressing this issue, Bishop William Crean of Cloyne stated, “How we care for the weakest and most vulnerable goes to the core of our moral fiber and integrity as a society,” as he paid tribute to the culture of palliative care across Ireland, describing it as an “extraordinary witness to compassionate care for all approaching life’s end.”

Amid rising concerns that so-called assisted dying could place undue pressure on the elderly and most vulnerable, the Irish bishops’ message was unequivocal: “The value of people’s lives seems to be calculated as if it were simply part of a cost-benefit analysis. Where is the hope in this?”

A profound housing crisis is another pressing issue, with 15,000 people, including over 4,500 children, currently homeless in Ireland. The Irish bishops described this situation as a scandal that undermines social cohesion. They called for immediate action, emphasizing the dignity and well-being of every person.

The bishops also advocated for a compassionate response to immigration, urging politicians to welcome those seeking a better life in Ireland. Their statement called for fair and timely processing of asylum applications and a strong stance against racism.

In the international arena, the bishops expressed grave concern over ongoing conflicts, particularly the war in Gaza, urging an immediate ceasefire and highlighting the importance of Ireland’s role in promoting peace.

Aidan Gallagher, director of EWTN Ireland, told CNA, “The Irish bishops’ guidance serves as a very clear moral compass for voters and politicians alike, encouraging a commitment to hope, dignity, and respect for all as Ireland prepares for its pivotal election.”

Puebla, Mexico, Nov 29, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Mexico’s bishops have issued a statement clarifying that there is no such thing as an approved “Mayan rite” of the Mass and that the Vatican has only authorized specific liturgical adaptations for indigenous communities in Chiapas state in southern Mexico.

In a statement issued Nov. 24, the Mexican Bishops’ Conference (CEM, by its Spanish acronym) provided several details about the recent adaptations to the Ordinary of the Mass approved by the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

On Nov. 8, the Vatican granted the recognitio, endorsing the “adaptations to the Ordinary of the Mass in Spanish” for the Tseltal, Tsotsil, Ch’ol, Tojolabal, and Zoque ethnic groups of the Diocese of San Cristóbal de las Casas, located in the Mexican state of Chiapas.

According to the CEM statement, “no ‘Mayan rite’, “Mayan altar”, “prayers to cardinal points” or “transfer of the liturgical presidency to lay persons” have been approved.

The bishops further clarified that “ritual dances during the celebration” were not approved by the dicastery but rather “rhythmic swaying of the body” performed by indigenous communities as a legitimate cultural expression.

The CEM stressed that these adaptations “do not constitute a new rite or a substantial modification of the structure of the Mass of the Roman Missal” and are applicable exclusively to the indigenous peoples indicated and not to other communities of the faithful.

What did the Vatican approve?

Among the authorizations granted by the Vatican is the ministry of the “principal,” a person recognized in his or her community who acts as a monitor at specific moments of prayer.

According to the CEM, the principal “invites the assembly to pray aloud at certain moments of the celebration,” always at the invitation of the priest presiding at the Mass and without assuming “at any time the liturgical presidency.”

Another approved modification is the “prayer of the assembly moderated by the principal,” which is performed at three points: “at the beginning of the Mass, after the greeting,” “during the prayer of the faithful,” and “in thanksgiving after Communion.”

In the latter, the prayer can be performed with body movements accompanied by music, which, according to the statement, “is not a ritual dance, but rhythmic swaying of the body.”

The “ministry of incense” was also authorized, which allows lay people designated by the diocesan bishop to incorporate “the traditional use of incense proper to the communities.”

Context of the adaptations

According to the statement, these adaptations are the result of “a careful process of diocesan discernment,” which was studied and approved by the Mexican Episcopal Conference (CEM), guaranteeing “respect for both the nature of the liturgy and legitimate cultural expressions.”

The implementation of these adaptations, the bishops stated, will be optional and “will be carried out gradually” and with “pastoral monitoring of its application.” To this end, “the necessary training will be provided to priests and pastoral workers.”

The bishops concluded their statement by reiterating their “commitment to the authentic inculturation of the liturgy, always in communion with the universal Church and under the guidance of the Magisterium.”

Cardinal Felipe Arizmendi Esquivel, who led the Mexican bishops' efforts to promote these adaptations, said in a message shared with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, that "this is very significant," since it is the second time in history after the Second Vatican Council in which liturgical adaptations were approved; the other was for the Diocese of Zaire in Africa.

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