St. Mary's of the Lake Roman Catholic Church

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- In a church and a world divided and fractured, priests are called to be witnesses of God's love and forgiveness, which reconciles people and makes them one community, Pope Leo XIV told new priests.

Leading Christian communities not as "lords" but as stewards, "we will rebuild the credibility of a wounded church sent to a wounded humanity within a wounded creation," he told the 11 men he was about to ordain to the priesthood May 31.

"It is not important to be perfect, but it is necessary to be credible," the pope said in his homily at the Mass in St. Peter's Basilica. 

The 11 men had been scheduled to be ordained May 10 by Pope Francis, but the ordination was pushed back when the pope died April 21.

Seven of the new priests studied at the Rome diocesan seminary while four of them attended the Rome Redemptoris Mater Seminary, which is run by the diocese and the Neocatechumenal Way.

Pope Leo told the men, who ranged in age from their late 20s to early 40s, "You bear witness to the fact that God has not grown weary of gathering his children, however diverse, and of constituting them into a dynamic unity."

The ministry of a priest, like that of the pope and the bishops, is to gather all people in the church, the pope told them. "Make room for the faithful and for every creature to whom the Risen One is close and in whom he loves to visit us and amaze us."

"The people of God are more numerous than we see," he said. "Let us not define its boundaries."

God will place many people in their paths, Pope Leo told the new priests. "To them consecrate yourselves, without separating yourselves from them, without isolating yourselves, without making the gift you have received some kind of privilege." 

An ordination obviously is a joyful occasion for the church, he said. But "the depth, breadth and even duration of the divine joy we now share is directly proportional to the bonds that exist and will grow between you ordinands and the people from whom you come, of which you remain a part and to which you are sent."

While the identity of the ordained priest "depends on union with Christ the high and eternal priest," the pope said, the church's ordained ministers must recognize and encourage the exercise of the common priesthood of all believers that flows from baptism.

"We are the people of God," he said. "The Second Vatican Council made this awareness more vivid, almost as if anticipating a time when a sense of belonging would become weaker and the sense of God more rarefied."

Being part of the people of God and called to lead them, he said, means the priests always must try to be role models of Christian living with the transparency of their lives, "lives known, readable lives, credible lives!"

"We stand within God's people, so that we can stand before them with a credible witness," Pope Leo said.

Like the still-visible wounds of the risen Jesus, the flaws of individuals and the fractures within humanity are also signs that God's love transforms everything and everyone, he said. "Everything that to our eyes seemed broken and lost now appears to us in the sign of reconciliation."

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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Promoting peace requires training people's hearts and minds to be concerned about others and perceive the common good, Pope Leo XIV said.

"Our children and young people need to be able to experience the culture of life, dialogue and mutual respect. Above all, they need the witness of men and women who embody a different and nonviolent way of living," he said during an audience at the Vatican May 30.

The pope was meeting with people involved in the "Arena of Peace" initiative that began last year with popular movements and Catholic organizations committed to working for peace and justice. 

The initiative was launched May 18, 2024, during Pope Francis' visit to the Italian city of Verona where he met with some 12,500 people involved in grassroots groups and Catholic organizations to pray for peace in the Verona Arena, a Roman amphitheater built in the year 30.

Pope Leo recalled that, on that occasion, Pope Francis said "building peace starts by standing alongside victims and seeing things from their point of view."

"This approach is essential for disarming hearts, approaches and mentalities, and for denouncing the injustices of a system that kills and is based on the throwaway culture," Pope Leo said.

He also recalled "the courageous embrace between Maoz Inon, an Israeli whose parents were killed by Hamas, and Aziz Sarah, a Palestinian whose brother was killed by the Israeli army," during the event in Verona. The two friends work with one another and their "gesture remains as a testimony and sign of hope. We thank them for being here today." 

"Too much violence exists in the world and our societies," the pope said.

With so many wars, terrorism, human trafficking and widespread aggression, he said, children and young people need role models of people who choose nonviolence.

"Whenever those who have suffered injustice and violence resist the temptation to seek revenge, they become the most credible agents of nonviolent peacebuilding processes," he said. "Nonviolence, as a method and a style, must distinguish our decisions, our relationships and our actions."

"The path to peace demands hearts and minds trained in concern for others and capable of perceiving the common good in today's world," he said.

However, he said, "we need to recover the patience required for this process to occur."

"Authentic peace takes shape from the ground up, beginning with places, communities and local institutions, and by listening to what they have to tell us," the pope said. "In this way, we come to realize that peace is possible when disagreements and the conflicts they entail are not set aside but acknowledged, understood and surmounted."

This is why the work of "popular movements and associations is especially valuable" and why they generate hope, he said. "You are pursuing projects and activities at the concrete service of individuals and the common good" in dialogue with everyone. 

When it comes to nonviolence as a method and a style, the Gospel and the church's social teaching are a source of support for Christians, and they "can also act as a compass for everyone," he said. 

If there is to be peace, people cannot simply rely on political institutions, he said.

All institutions -- educational, economic and social -- should be "institutions of peace," in which the ideals in Pope Francis' encyclical "Fratelli Tutti, on Fraternity and Social Friendship," find expression and people "pass from 'I' to 'we,' in a spirit of solidarity."

Pope Leo encouraged the groups to be "a leaven of unity, communion and fraternity."

"Fraternity needs to be recovered, loved, experienced, proclaimed and witnessed in the confident hope that it is indeed possible, thanks to the love of God 'poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit,'" he said.

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WASHINGTON – Pope Leo XIV has appointed Reverend Pedro Bismarck Chau as auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Newark. Bishop-elect Chau is a priest of the Archdiocese of Newark and currently serves as the rector of the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark, New Jersey. At the same time, the Holy Father accepted the resignation of the Most Reverend Gregory J. Studerus, 77, from the Office of Auxiliary Bishop of Newark. The appointment and resignation were publicized in Washington, D.C. on May 30, 2025, by Cardinal Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

The following biographical information for Bishop-elect Chau was drawn from preliminary materials provided to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops:

Father Chau was born on July 18, 1964, in Managua, Nicaragua. He received a bachelor’s degree in psychology (2004) and a master’s degree in professional counseling (2021) from Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey. He studied at Immaculate Conception Seminary in South Orange, New Jersey. He was ordained to the priesthood on May 24, 2008.

Father Chau’s assignments after ordination include: parochial vicar at Our Lady of Mount Virgin in Garfield (2008-2012); associate director of CYO and Youth and Young Adult Ministry for the Archdiocese of Newark (2012-2015); assistant director of vocations for the Archdiocese of Newark (2013-2016); campus minister at New Jersey Institute of Technology and at the Newman Center at Rutgers University in Newark (2015-2020); and pastor of St. John’s Church and St. Patrick Pro-Cathedral in Newark, concurrent with his assignments as campus minister (2015-2020). 

From 2017 through 2020, Bishop-elect Chau served on the Priest Personnel Board for the Archdiocese of Newark. The bishop-elect began his current role as rector of the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in 2020. Other responsibilities that have been part of Bishop-elect Chau’s ministry include service on the archdiocesan Counsel of Priests, chaplain for the pastoral ministry with the Deaf, representative for V Encuentro, adjunct professor at Immaculate Conception Seminary, and chaplain for the Order of Malta in the New Jersey area. Bishop-elect Chau speaks English and Spanish.

The Archdiocese of Newark is comprised of 513 square miles in the State of New Jersey and has a total population of 3,119,659, of which 1,040,504, are Catholic. 

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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Leo XIV spent several hours May 29 visiting the Borgo Laudato Si' ecology project set up at the papal villa and farm in Castel Gandolfo, as well as the former papal summer residence there.

Pope Francis established the project in early 2023, saying he wanted "to make a tangible contribution to the development of ecological education by opening a new space for training and raising awareness," according to the Vatican City governor's office.

The project offers tours of the formal gardens to tourists and school groups but also is set up to train gardeners and maintenance workers. 

Pope Francis also turned the papal palace on the town's main square into a museum, which opened in 2016. Many of the townspeople hope the new pope will once again spend at least part of the summer in the villa but there has been no word about that. 

As news spread that the pope was in the hilltop town, visitors to the property May 29 began gathering in the square outside the papal palace, hoping to get a glimpse of the new pope. One Italian woman even tried to get others to join her in shouting encouragement for the pope to come to the window. But they left disappointed.

The Vatican press office confirmed the pope's visit but provided no details or photographs. 

The papal property at Castel Gandolfo extends over 135 acres -- surpassing the 108.7 acres of Vatican City. It includes 74 acres of gardens -- 17 of which are formal gardens -- 62 acres of farmland, three residences and a farm with chickens, hens, rabbits, assorted fowl, cows and a small dairy operation. There are also fruit and olive orchards, vineyards, hayfields, vegetable patches, aromatic herbs, flowerbeds and plants that often are used to decorate the papal apartments and meeting rooms at the Vatican. 

Meeting in September with people involved in the center, Pope Francis noted that they were developing a new vineyard for wine production. "It is intended to act as a synthesis of tradition and innovation, as a 'trademark' of the Borgo," he said.

In November, Pope Francis appointed Father Manuel Dorantes, a priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago to be administrative management director of the Laudato Si' Center for Higher Education, which is part of the project.

Father Dorantes did not respond to requests for comment about Pope Leo's visit.

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The Vatican and most dioceses celebrate the World Day of Communications every year on the Sunday before Pentecost, which falls on June 1 this year.

A message for the celebration was written and shared by Pope Francis before his death April 21. And Pope Leo has shown he shares many of the late pope's hopes, concerns and expectations for the field of communications.

Pope Leo XIV's meeting with representatives of the world's media

Speaking to thousands of reporters, radio and television correspondents, photographers and camera operators, Pope Leo asked them to be peacemakers by shunning prejudice and anger in their reporting. 

He also called for the release of journalists imprisoned for their work and reaffirmed the importance of freedom of the press.

Pope Francis' World Communications Day Message 

But the world's journalists and communicators also got an extra moment to celebrate and reflect during the Jubilee of the World of Communications at the Vatican, which included an audience with Pope Francis Jan. 25, 2025, the day after the feast of St. Francis de Sales, patron saint of journalists.

Jubilee of the World of Communications

However, he did speak briefly off-the-cuff telling communicators, "Your work is a work that builds: it builds society, it builds the Church, it makes everyone go forward, provided it is true." 

One must be true, the pope said, not just with one's words, but also in one's heart and life.
 

Catholic News Service in Rome

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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Being religious does not automatically mean someone is compassionate, and yet for a Christian compassion is a clear sign of following Christ, Pope Leo XIV said.

"Before being a religious matter, compassion is a question of humanity! Before being believers, we are called to be human," the pope said May 28 as he held his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square.

At the end of the audience, Pope Leo again pleaded for peace in Gaza and in Ukraine.

"From the Gaza Strip there rises to heaven ever more intensely the cry of mothers and fathers who, clutching the lifeless bodies of their children, are continually forced to move in search of some food and safer shelter from the shelling," the pope said. "To the leaders, I renew my appeal: Cease firing; free all the hostages; fully respect humanitarian law."

And after days of Russia increasing its attacks on Ukraine, killing civilians and destroying infrastructure, the pope assured the Ukrainian people of his "closeness and my prayers for all the victims, especially the children and families."

"I strongly renew my appeal to stop the war and support every initiative of dialogue and peace," he said. "I ask everyone to join in prayers for peace in Ukraine and wherever people suffer because of war." 

The pope's main talk at the audience focused on the Gospel parable of the good Samaritan, a story the pope said offered important lessons for Christians but also was a source of hope.

"The lack of hope, at times, is due to the fact that we fixate on a certain rigid and closed way of seeing things, and the parables help us to look at them from another point of view," Pope Leo said.

The parable of the good Samaritan is an obvious lesson in being compassionate and recognizing all men and women as neighbors, he said. But it also says something about the compassion of Jesus. 

"We can also see ourselves in the man who fell into the hands of robbers, for we have all experienced the difficulties of life and the pain brought about by sin," he said in his English summary. "In our frailty, we discover that Christ himself is the Good Samaritan who heals our wounds and restores our hope."

"Let us turn, then, to the Sacred Heart, model of true humanity, and ask him to make our heart ever more like his," the pope said.

The wounded man on the side of the road "represents each one of us," he said, and remembering "all the times that Jesus stopped to take care of us will make us more capable of compassion."

Being compassionate, he said, is not just a feeling; it means taking action.

"If you want to help someone, you cannot think of keeping your distance, you have to get involved, get dirty, perhaps be contaminated," the pope said, noting that in the parable, the good Samaritan cleans and bandages the man's wounds and takes him to safety.

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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Leo XIV has advanced the sainthood causes of two missionaries whose murders in the Amazon jungle in Ecuador led to the protection of remote Indigenous peoples from encroaching extractive industries.

Among a series of decrees published by the Vatican May 22, Pope Leo recognized the sacrifice of Spanish Bishop Alejandro Labaka Ugarte of the Apostolic Vicariate of Aguarico, Ecuador, and Colombian Sister Inés Arango Velásquez, a member of the Capuchin Tertiary Sisters of the Holy Family, as an "offering of life," a category distinct from martyrdom that Pope Francis established in 2017.

The category and its requirements for sainthood are explained in the apostolic letter, "Maiorem hac Dilectionem," which established a category of heroically offering one's life out of loving service to others. The recognition brings the two missionaries closer to beatification, pending verification of a miracle attributed to each one's intercession.

Bishop Labaka was born in a remote village in Spain April 19, 1920, and joined the Capuchins in 1937 after he was conscripted to fight the Spanish Civil War. He was ordained in 1945 at the age of 25.

He possessed a strong missionary spirit and went to China with three other companions in 1947. However, the communist regime expelled all religious orders, including the Capuchins, in 1953. 

He then went to Ecuador where he ministered for 33 years, particularly to Indigenous peoples in the Amazon forest.

After he was named prefect of Aguarico in 1965, he was invited to participate in the final session of the Second Vatican Council where he was particularly moved by its decree, "Ad gentes," which emphasized the church's missionary activity and the expression of the "seeds of the Word," referring to the truth of the Gospel and grace being present throughout human cultures.

He resigned as prefect in 1970 in order to dedicate himself completely to working with Indigenous communities, particularly the Huaorani, "to discover with them the seeds of the Word, hidden in their culture and in their life; and by which God has shown his infinite love to the Huaorani people, giving them a chance of salvation in Christ," he wrote in his diary.

He still maintained close ties to remote communities even after St. John Paul II named him to be the first bishop of the apostolic vicariate of Aguarico in 1984. He found himself increasingly trying to be a mediator between the government and petroleum companies, and the Indigenous peoples living where vast oil reserves were being discovered, in an effort to prevent violence and protect their rights, lives and cultures.

Oil workers sometimes faced violent attacks as they encroached on remote territories inhabited by the Tagaeri in 1987, which in turn provoked armed attacks by mercenaries protecting the interests of the oil companies. 

Fearing the Tagaeri were going to be exterminated, Bishop Labaka and Sister Arango took an oil-company-owned helicopter and dropped down by rope to try to see if the people could relocate and avoid being slaughtered. They knew the risk, but felt "if we don't go there, they (mercenaries) will kill them," the bishop had said.

The next day, workers found their two bodies pierced by spears and arrows. After their deaths July 21, the government ordered all extractive activity to stop in areas inhabited by the Huaorani and Tagaeri peoples.

Eventually, the government defined and established a protected "Tagaeri Taromenane Intangible Zone" in 1999 to protect remote communities from extractive activities. 

Sister Arango was born April 6, 1937, in Medellín, Colombia, and spent 20 years teaching before she became a missionary and joined the Capuchin mission in Aguarico in 1977. She worked in a hospital and evangelized different Indigenous communities under the guidance of then-Father Lubaka. She was assigned to share the Gospel with the Huaorani people in 1987.

During Pope Leo's meeting May 22 with Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, the pope also signed a decree advancing the sainthood cause of Bishop Matthew Makil, the first native apostolic vicar of Kottayam of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church in India. Born March 27, 1851, he promoted the catechism, education in Catholic schools and the establishment of religious congregations and pious associations. He died Jan. 26, 1914.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Meeting his former colleagues and co-workers and acknowledging how many of them spent many more years working at the Vatican than he did, Pope Leo XIV underlined the important role Vatican employees play in his ministry.

"Popes pass away, but the Curia remains," he said May 24.

When the laughter and applause died down, Pope Leo explained that he was serious. In a diocese or at the Vatican, the chancery or Curia "is the institution that preserves and transmits the historic memory of a church, of the ministry of its bishops."

"This is very important," he told officials and employees of the Roman Curia, Vatican City State and the Vicariate of Rome. "Memory is an essential element in a living organism. It is not only turned toward the past, but it nourishes the present and guides the future. Without memory, the journey is lost, it loses its sense of direction." 

Pope Leo XIV was welcomed to the Vatican audience hall with an ovation that went so long that he jokingly warned the employees and their family members that if the applause lasted longer than the remarks he had prepared, he would have to add to his speech.

In the end, he spent as much time shaking hands, blessing babies and rosaries and chatting with children who offered him drawings as he did reading his text.

The Italian news agency ANSA reported May 23 that Pope Leo also approved the traditional employee bonus for the beginning of a new pontificate. The agency said each employee received 500 euros (about $570).

In the days since his election May 8, the pope has been meeting with the prefects and other heads of Vatican offices. The day after his election he temporarily reappointed all the top Vatican officials; the Vatican press office said that he "wishes to set aside some time for reflection, prayer and dialogue before any final appointment or confirmation is made."

"As you know," Pope Leo told the gathering May 24, "I arrived only two years ago, when our beloved Pope Francis appointed me prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops. So, I left the Diocese of Chiclayo, Peru, and came to work here. What a change!" 

"And now -- what can I say? Only what Simon Peter said to Jesus on Lake Tiberias: 'Lord, you know everything, you know that I love you,'" he said.

Pope Leo also strongly reaffirmed Pope Francis' reorganization of the Roman Curia with an emphasis on the offices being missionary and supporting the missionary activity of every bishop, diocese and Catholic in the world.

"As I think you know, the mission experience is part of my life, and not only as a baptized person, as for all of us Christians, but because as an Augustinian religious I was a missionary in Peru," he said, "and in the midst of the Peruvian people my pastoral vocation matured. I cannot thank the Lord enough for this gift." 

"Then, the call to serve the church here in the Roman Curia has been a new mission, which I have shared with you these past two years," he said. "I am still continuing and will continue it, as long as God wills, in this service that has been entrusted to me."

"Together, we must look for ways to be a missionary church, a church that builds bridges and encourages dialogue, a church ever-open to welcoming ... with open arms, all those who are in need of our charity, our presence, our readiness to dialogue and our love," he said, quoting his first speech to the public the evening of his election.

Vatican employees, he said, are called to support him and the entire church in the mission of "being at the service of communion and unity in charity and truth."
 

ROME (CNS) -- Celebrating his first Mass in Rome's diocesan cathedral, Pope Leo XIV said communion is built primarily "on our knees," through prayer and a constant commitment to conversion.

He reaffirmed Pope Francis' dedication to listening, first and foremost to the Holy Spirit, as it then leads to listening to and understanding others "as our brothers and sisters."

The pope's remarks came during his homily at Mass at the Basilica of St. John Lateran, where he took possession of the cathedral as the bishop of Rome May 25. 

The pope arrived in the late afternoon to the cheers and applause of those who turned out to welcome the U.S.-born pontiff as he stepped out of the black Volkswagen SUV in front of the basilica. He smiled and waved to those outside before being greeted by Cardinal Baldassare Reina, papal vicar for Rome, and then he walked through the basilica's Holy Door.

At the start of the liturgy, Cardinal Reina read a profession of obedience to the pope on behalf of the diocese and then the pope sat on the raised marble chair in the basilica's apse, taking formal possession of the "cathedra" (chair) of the bishop of Rome. He then received representatives of his flock, including clergy and laypeople.

The pope dedicated his homily to the Mass readings, putting special emphasis on the importance of listening.

The first reading from the Acts of the Apostles (15:1-2, 22-29), described Paul and Barnabas recognizing the authority of the Jerusalem church and going there to settle the question of whether Gentiles could embrace a form of Christianity that did not include observing every aspect of Mosaic law.

"This was no easy matter; it called for much patience and mutual listening," and Peter and the apostles in Jerusalem were prepared to listen, Pope Leo said. 

That dialogue "led to the right decision," he said, because they listened to God's voice.

"In this way, they remind us that communion is built primarily 'on our knees,' through prayer and constant commitment to conversion. For only in this way can each of us hear within the voice of the Spirit crying out: 'Abba! Father!' and then, as a result, listen to and understand others as our brothers and sisters," he said.

"Naturally, the more we let ourselves be convinced and transformed by the Gospel -- allowing the power of the Spirit to purify our heart, to make our words straightforward, our desires honest and clear, and our actions generous -- the more capable we are of proclaiming its message," the pope said.

In fact, he said, "the Gospel assures us that we are not alone in making our decisions in life. The Spirit sustains us and shows us the way to follow, 'teaching' us and 'reminding' us of all that Jesus said."

"Pope Francis frequently encouraged us to reflect on the maternal dimension of the church and her defining qualities of tenderness, self-sacrifice and the capacity to listen," he said.

"We hope that those qualities will be increasingly present in the people of God everywhere, including here, in our great diocesan family: in the faithful, in pastors and, first of all, in myself," Pope Leo said.

He encouraged the Diocese of Rome's "process of listening" to the world and its communities to respond to current challenges and "to propose sage and prophetic initiatives of evangelization and charity."

"I would like to express my firm desire to contribute to this great ongoing process by listening to everyone as much as possible, in order to learn, understand and decide things together, as St. Augustine would say, 'as a Christian with you and a bishop for you,'" Pope Leo said.

He asked everyone to support him "in prayer and charity, mindful of the words of St. Leo the Great: 'All the good we do in the exercise of our ministry is the work of Christ and not our own, for we can do nothing without him.'"

He expressed his love and affection for the faithful of Rome "and my desire to share with you, on our journey together, our joys and sorrows, our struggles and hopes. I too offer you 'the little I have and am.'" 

Following the Mass, the pope appeared at the balcony of the basilica, where he briefly addressed a large crowd of people, wishing them as he did the afternoon of his election May 8, "Peace be with you."

The Holy Year dedicated to hope, he said, encourages the faithful to be living witnesses of Christ's hope to the world, "a world that is suffering a lot" because of war, violence and poverty.

"Thank you for walking together," he said, "Let us all walk together." 

The pope then got in an open popemobile and headed to the patriarchal Basilica of St. Mary Major where he venerated the "Salus Populi Romani," ("Salvation of the Roman People"), a Marian icon in a side chapel.

After the prayers and final blessing, he stood and prayed at the tomb of his predecessor, Pope Francis, upon which lay a single white rose.

Pope Leo then spoke to the people gathered outside the basilica, thanking them "from my heart" for their presence to be with their new bishop, "united as members of the Diocese of Rome."

Before going to St. John Lateran for the Mass, Pope Leo also met with Rome's mayor, Roberto Gualtieri, in a brief ceremony at the bottom of the steps below city hall. 

Pope Leo said he felt the "serious but enthusiastic responsibility of serving all members" of the Diocese of Rome, "having at heart, above all, the faith of the people of God and, therefore, the common good of society."

"We are partners, each in its own institutional setting," he said. And yet, as he was about to take possession of the city's cathedral, "Today I can say for you and with you, I am Roman," which was met with great applause.

Also May 25, the pope led a crowd in St. Peter's Square in praying the "Regina Coeli" at noon. 

Speaking from the window of the Apostolic Palace, the pope said, "Let us resolve to bring (the Lord's) love everywhere, never forgetting that each of our sisters and brothers is a dwelling place of God and that his presence is manifested above all in the little ones, in the poor and the suffering, who ask us to be thoughtful and compassionate Christians."

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WASHINGTON – “With hearts burdened by sorrow and a renewed commitment to solidarity, we express profound grief and outrage at the shooting that occurred outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington,” said Bishop Joseph C. Bambera and Archbishop Borys Gudziak. 

Bishop Bambera, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, and Archbishop Gudziak, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development offered their prayers in response to the May 21 shooting.

“We stand in prayerful mourning with our Jewish brothers and sisters and denounce this act of violence and antisemitic hatred in the strongest possible terms. As Catholics, we are called not only to reject such hatred, but to actively foster mutual understanding, respect, and solidarity with the Jewish people. With urgency and clarity, we renew the commitment made through the Second Vatican Council’s declaration Nostra Aetate to affirm our common patrimony with the Jews and stand against any and all forms of antisemitism.

“The suffering generated by this senseless and violent action against the Jewish community wounds us all and compels us toward renewed vigilance and action. In this moment, we also acknowledge the grave responsibility we all share in the language we use, especially when speaking about the conflict in the Holy Land. Complex political realities can never justify rhetoric that demonizes a people, faith, or community. Harsh or dehumanizing language, even when unintended, can sow seeds of suspicion and fear, which too easily bear the fruit of violence. In our public discourse, as in our prayers, we must choose the path of truth spoken in love (Ephesians 4:15), never allowing geopolitical tensions to justify antisemitism or any form of hatred.

“To our Jewish neighbors, partners and friends: We walk with you. We grieve with you. We stand with you. May the God of justice and peace comfort the wounded, strengthen the fearful, and bring healing to all affected by this violence. Let us together be instruments of peace, as we heed the words of the prophet Micah: ‘Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.’”

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