SYDNEY (OSV News) – The joy of Eastertide has turned to shock and bewilderment across Sydney’s Catholic community in the wake of a deadly knife attack at Bondi Junction Westfield shopping centre on April 13, in which seven people were killed and a dozen injured, including a nine-month-old baby.

Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney joined fellow Australians in mourning the victims, in remarks made at Mass at St Mary’s Cathedral on April 14, the day after the attack, which was by coincidence the Day of the Unborn Child, one of Sydney’s biggest pro-life commemorations.

“At a time of universal grief and horror at the multiple murders and injuries at Bondi Junction yesterday, including the stabbing of a baby – as well as celebration of the courage of the baby’s mother, the policewoman, and other bystanders – we reflect upon our community’s profound commitment to the value of every human life,” Archbishop Fisher said, as reported by The Catholic Weekly.

“In this Mass, we recommit ourselves and our community to that principle, even as we pray for eternal life for yesterday’s victims,” he said.

“We acknowledge that all human life is made in the image of God, made for a full life on earth and eternal life in heaven, and so demands our reverence and protection, especially when most vulnerable.”

Masses and prayers were offered across Sydney for the victims, with the Bondi Parish of St Patrick’s and St Anne’s offering three Masses for its grieving community.

At least two parishioners knew 38-year-old osteopath Ashlee Good – the mother of the nine-month-old baby currently recovering from the attack at Sydney Children’s Hospital.

Despite the best attempts of bystanders and doctors to save her life, Good died from her wounds at St Vincent’s Hospital, after pushing her baby into the arms of strangers.

Several members of the congregation at St Patrick’s Church in Bondi wept as visiting priest Father Ninian Doohan offered words of comfort in his homily at the morning Mass on April 14.

Around 60 – many of them from Bondi parish’s thriving community of young adults – remained to pray the rosary and comfort each other immediately afterwards.

Father Doohan was likewise among those on the scene shortly after the attack, emerging from Bondi Junction train station minutes after the chaos had taken place.

A delay in catching public transport to go shopping meant he missed the events by less than 15 minutes, arriving to see a large crowd and emergency response presence.

The priest blessed the ambulances and emergency crews as they were departing, adding in his homily that he “did under-estimate the danger even with the police presence there”.

While he felt “totally inadequate to the task” of pastoral support in the face of such horror, Father Doohan urged the congregation to reach out for support and offered to be available to anyone who wished a pastoral visit.

“The only thing that sounds clear in my mind is that God put me in the close proximity of horror and tragedy so that therefore I can be . . . one with you, and with them, and not an outsider to it,” he said.

“I ask that we would all be prepared to ask God for forgiveness and also be prepared to give forgiveness and to participate in his mercy,” he added.

“That challenge to live in and with and through his compassion, even when it is beyond our comprehension and even when injustices have been committed against us.”

The priest from Edinburgh, Scotland, had only been in the parish a week as a replacement for parish priest Father Anthony Robbie, who was on holiday.

Pope Francis sent a telegram to Archbishop Fisher soon after the knife attack, expressing his “spiritual closeness” with Sydney.

“Pope Francis was deeply saddened to learn of the violent attack in Sydney, and he sends the assurance of his spiritual closeness to all affected by this senseless tragedy, especially those who are now mourning the loss of a loved one,” Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, said in a telegram on April 13.

“He likewise offers his prayers for the dead, the injured, as well as the first responders, and invokes upon the nation the divine blessings of consolation and strength.”

Police identified the attacker, who was shot and killed by New South Wales Police Inspector Amy Scott, as 40-year-old Queensland man Joel Cauchi.

The police officer entered the Bondi Junction shopping centre alone after being guided to the scene by bystanders.

According to reports in The Weekend Australian, Cauchi was known to police for mental health issues, and had previously advertised his services as a male escort.

The dean of St Mary’s Cathedral, Father Don Richardson, also posted a call for prayers on social media for all affected by the tragedy.

“Many people who come to St Mary’s Cathedral for Mass or other prayers live in that area and the mall at Bondi Junction is a place they know well,” he wrote.

“Holy Cross Catholic Church is just down the street from the Bondi Junction Westfield. May its tall spire and cross be a beacon of hope to all the people affected by this tragedy,” he said.

“Let us all remember in our prayers the souls of those who have died,” Father Richardson added, “and pray too for those who have been wounded, their families and friends, the police, emergency paramedics, the staff and all who witnessed those traumatic scenes on what should have been a beautiful Saturday afternoon.”

Marilyn Rodrigues is a senior journalist at The Catholic Weekly.

Photo: Parishioners pray and grieve at St. Patrick’s Church, in Sydney’s Bondi neighborhood, in the wake of the horrific knife attack at Bondi Junction on April 13, 2024. Father Ninian Doohan, visiting from Edinburgh, Scotland, was present at Bondi Junction in the aftermath of the attack. (OSV News photo/Patrick Lee, The Catholic Weekly).kly

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The pope had cancelled his appointments on February 24 and February 26 because of what the Vatican press office described as “mild flu-symptoms”, but Pope Francis led the recitation of the Angelus prayer on February 25 without obvious difficulty.

At his general audience on February 28, his voice was hoarser and softer. Besides briefly telling the crowd he would not be reading his prepared text, he took the microphone only to pray at the beginning and end of the gathering, and to read his appeals for peace and for an end to the use of landmines.

The Italian news agency ANSA reported that Pope Francis went from the audience to Rome’s Gemelli Isola Hospital for a checkup before returning to the Vatican. In late November when he was suffering similar symptoms, he had gone to that hospital for a CT scan of his lungs.

Pope Francis’ main audience talk focused on envy and vainglory, or exaggerated pride, as part of his continuing series of audience talks about vices and virtues.

Envy and vainglory “go hand in hand,” the Pope wrote. “Together these two vices are characteristic of a person who aspires to be the centre of the world, free to exploit everything and everyone, the object of all praise and love.”

Reading the Book of Genesis, envy appears to be “one of the oldest vices: Cain’s hatred of Abel is unleashed when he realises that his brother’s sacrifices are pleasing to God,” he wrote.

“The face of the envious man is always sad: he’s always looking down, he seems to be continually investigating the ground; but in reality, he sees nothing, because his mind is wrapped up in thoughts full of wickedness,” he said. “Envy, if unchecked, leads to hatred of the other. Abel would be killed at the hands of Cain, who could not bear his brother’s happiness.”

The root of the vice and sin of envy, he said, “is a false idea of God: we do not accept that God has His own ‘math.'”

As an example, Pope Francis cited the parable from Matthew 20:1-16 about workers hired at different times of the day to work in a vineyard, but the owner pays them all the same.

When those who worked longest protest, the owner says, “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?”

“We would like to impose our own selfish logic on God; instead, the logic of God is love,” the pope’s text said. “The good things he gives us are meant to be shared. This is why St. Paul exhorts Christians, ‘Love one another with brotherly affection; outdo one another in showing honor’ (Rom. 12:10). Here is the remedy for envy!”

Pope Francis described vainglory as “an inflated and baseless self-esteem,” which leads to having no empathy and to seeing others only as objects to be used.

The vainglorious person “is a perpetual beggar for attention,” the pope wrote, and when recognition is not given, “he becomes fiercely angry.”

Usually, he said, the remedy for such pride comes automatically when people offer criticism rather than praise.

Proverbs 16:18 says, “Pride goes before disaster, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”

A wise person recognises, as St. Paul did, that freedom comes from recognizing one’s weaknesses and failures, relying only on God for strength, Pope Francis’ text said.

Photo: As Pope Francis exits the Paul VI Audience Hall after his weekly general audience at the Vatican Feb. 28, 2024, a group of people greet him. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

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The move has proceed “in dialogue with Rome”, the president of the German bishops’ conference, Bishop Georg Bätzing of Limburg, said in Augsburg on February 19. He called the coordination of fundamental Church reforms with the Vatican “a matter of course”.

That is why, he said, “out of respect for those responsible in Rome”, he had removed the controversial voting from the agenda of the bishops’ meeting in Augsburg, at which the establishment of a Synodal Committee for Germany was to be decided. “We do not want to and cannot ignore the Roman objection. Now we have to talk,” said Bishop Bätzing.

The German bishops were “eagerly” awaiting concrete talks with Vatican officials, he said. Three further meetings have currently been “announced” although the bishop stressed it may take up to six months for the Vatican to set the concrete date.

Bishop Bätzing emphasised that, in his view, the Synodal Path in Germany and the worldwide Synod on Synodality were heading in the same direction.

In the letter from the Vatican that surfaced over the weekend, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, and Cardinal Robert Prevost, prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, called on the German bishops to suspend a planned vote on the creation of a mixed decision-making body for the Catholic Church in Germany because it would violate canon law. The cardinals said that their letter was “brought to the attention of Pope Francis and approved by him”.

Bishop Bätzing emphasised that he was willing and able to refute the Vatican’s concerns expressed in the letter, and said that a joint body of bishops and laity would not weaken the authority of the bishops, but rather strengthen it.

Lay German Catholics involved in the Synodal Path called on the bishops to defy Rome and stick to the reform course.

The planned Synodal Committee, whose statutes were to be voted on, was to prepare a Synodal Council in which bishops and laity would not only consult together, but also make decisions.

The Central Committee of German Catholics, the highest representative body of the laity, which had participated in the Synodal Path at the request of the bishops, along with its president Irme Stetter-Karp, called on the bishops to continue the reform project despite the signals from Rome to halt it: “The Catholic Church in Germany will not have a second chance if it stops the Synodal Path now.”

The lay committee’s deputy president, Thomas Söding, called it a contradiction when Rome promotes synodal processes at the Synod on Synodality, but then “puts a stop sign on the German reform path”.

In an interview with KNA, he added that the letter from Rome was “not a ban, but a step on the brakes” .At the same time, he warned against playing for time, because “frustration will grow if the reforms are put on the back burner again”.

The “We are Church” initiative also called on the bishops “not to be fooled” by “misleading messages” from Rome. The bishops, the initiative said, should also insist that lay people should also be involved in the further talks in Rome.

Söding told the KNA that the bishops “should hold talks with Rome as quickly as possible”. He added however that he’s “not sure whether Rome has the courage to open up”.

Cardinal Schönborn has however made an unusually clear statement on the debate about the Church’s path to reform in Germany. He called on the German bishops not to let the dialogue with Rome break off.

In an interview with the theological website Communio on February 19, he agreed with the Roman criticism of the planned progress of the German reform process. The envisioned involvement of laypeople in fundamental decisions contradicts the constitution of the Church, the Austrian cardinal said.

In Cardinal Schönborn’s view, the German bishops should not make any decisions that could lead to a schism. They should “seriously ask themselves whether they really want to leave the communion with and under the Pope or rather accept it loyally. Refusing to give in would be ‘obstinatio’ (obstinacy) – a clear sign of a schism that nobody can want.” In his view, ignoring the warnings from Rome would be negligent.

Cardinal Schönborn recalled that the Vatican had already stated several times that the Church in Germany was not authorised to establish a joint governing body of lay and clerical people.

“I am impressed by the patience with which the Pope and the Roman dicasteries are trying to remain in dialogue with the German bishops and maintain unity and communion,” the cardinal emphasised.

The current conflict between the German bishops and Rome is not about “questions of power” or disciplinary issues, Cardinal Schönborn added. “Rather, Pope Francis is fulfilling his core task of maintaining unity in the faith” because it is about the “basic understanding of the Church”.

A bishop cannot delegate personal responsibility for important decisions and the transmission of faith to committees, the cardinal said. “Therefore, the idea of bishops voluntarily binding themselves to the decisions of synodal councils is not compatible with the core of the episcopal mission.”

The February 19-22 meeting of German bishops in Augsburg is nevertheless expected to be dominated, at least in the talks behind the scenes, with the topic of the Synodal Committee and Synodal Council.

Photo: Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna in 2019. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

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“It is with sincere sadness and an extremely heavy and broken heart that we let our community know that KKFI DJ Lisa Lopez, host of Taste of Tejano lost her life today in the shooting at the KC Chiefs’ rally,” the radio station announced on Facebook that Wednesday evening. “This senseless act has taken a beautiful person from her family and this KC Community.”

Lopez-Galvan was an active parishioner at Sacred Heart-Guadalupe Parish in Kansas City, Missouri, where she was fondly remembered by her fellow parishioners.

Ramona Arroyo, director of religious education at the parish, told OSV News that Lopez-Galvan’s whole family is “devoted to the Church”. Her brother, Beto Lopez Jr., is the chief executive officer of Guadalupe Centers, one of the nation’s first social service agencies for the Latino community.

Arroyo said the loss was “devastating” to the community. “She was a beautiful person,” Arroyo said. She expressed her sympathy for Lopez-Galvan’s husband, Michael, saying, “It’s a horrible thing that happened to a good family”.

Monica Palacio, another parishioner who knew Lopez-Galvan, said the shooting was a “tragedy for our whole community because everybody knows the family” and they “grew up within blocks of each other”.
She also noted Lopez-Galvan’s role as host of Tejano Tuesdays at KKFI and as a well-known DJ presence at local weddings and quinceañeras.

“She was an amazing person,” Palacio said. “She was full of joy all the time, no matter where she was.” Palacio remembered Lopez-Galvan as the “life of the party” who “came with red lipstick and a big smile.”

The Kansas City Star reported that Lopez-Galvan, who was in her mid-40s with two adult children, died in the hospital during surgery after a gunshot wound to her abdomen.

Arroyo and Palacio said Lopez-Galvan, a known Chiefs fan, was at the parade with her family, including her son and nieces and nephews, and they had heard that other family members had been injured as well.

Father Luis Suárez, parochial administrator of Sacred Heart-Guadalupe Parish, remembered Lopez-Galvan in his homily at the Ash Wednesday evening Mass and encouraged the community to unite in prayer amid the tragedy.

Photo: Lisa Lopez-Galvan, second from right, stands with her family in a photo posted to her Facebook account in 2022 (OSV News screenshot/Facebook)

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WASHINGTON (OSV News) – Catholic couples and liturgical experts are advising how to observe Ash Wednesday – the beginning of the Latin Church’s penitential season of Lent leading up to Easter – which falls on Valentine’s Day, February 14, this year.

The former is a day of prayer, penance and fasting; the latter, a day associated with chocolates and elegant, romantic dinners. But both, experts say, actually centre on love.

“The season of Lent is really a reminder to us all about the greatest act of love ever imaginable, which is Christ’s suffering and death on the cross,” said Julia Dezelski, associate director for marriage and family life at the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat of Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth.

“Love – the ultimate expression of love – is the cross,” she told OSV News. “I think it’s a great poignant reminder, especially to married couples – even to those who are dating or engaged – that the cross is present in any true form of love and love requires sacrifice, because it is the giving of self to another.”

Experts shared creative ways for couples to approach February 14, while, at the same time, agreeing that Ash Wednesday takes precedence over traditional Valentine’s Day celebrations.

“Nothing ever pushes Ash Wednesday out of the way,” Father Dustin Dought, executive director of the USCCB’s Secretariat of Divine Worship, said of the day placed 46 days before Easter. “Everything gives way to Ash Wednesday when it comes to the liturgical calendar.”

The last time the two days merged took place in 2018. The next occurrence – and the final one for the 21st century-will be in 2029.

Valentine’s Day, which always falls on February 14, takes its name from an early Roman martyr, St Valentine, who is associated with legends of secretly marrying Christian couples.

But in 1969, St Valentine’s feast day was removed from the Roman liturgical calendar, so Catholics in the Latin Church now liturgically celebrate Sts Cyril and Methodius, ninth-century missionaries to Eastern Europe, on February 14 – the day of St Cyril’s death in 869. (Eastern Catholics in the Ukrainian or Ruthenian churches celebrate Sts Cyril and Methodius liturgically on May 11 – however, Valentine’s Day this year also falls within Great Lent, where daily fasting and abstinence from meat already started February 12, or Clean Monday.)

“St Valentine’s Day is still observed by the Roman Catholic Church on February the 14th, it’s just that St Valentine is not celebrated liturgically,” Father Dought explained. The Latin Church’s Roman calendar makes Sts Cyril and Methodius an “obligatory” feast day, meaning there is no option to celebrate liturgically other saints who share that day.

In any event, Ash Wednesday, he said, sheds additional light on Valentine’s Day.

“The convergence of the two celebrations on the same day can help us understand each celebration more deeply,” he said.

The coinciding days remind Catholics that penance is something that the community of the Church -including couples – does together rather than alone as individuals, he highlighted.

“With Valentine’s Day falling on that day, I think it shows that penance is something that a couple could do – something that those who love each other could do,” he said.

Together, he added, the two days emphasise that prayer, fasting and almsgiving is never an end in and of itself, but rather are done for the glory of God and out of love for neighbour.

“I can engage in my fasting and my prayer and my almsgiving on Ash Wednesday with the intention for my beloved – that I am engaging in these practices of the Church so that my beloved might receive every grace and heavenly blessing,” he said.

For her part, Dezelski recommended that couples consider small acts of love that require a giving of self.

“If there’s anything which demonstrates love beyond the words that we might use to express it, it’s an action,” she said.

Dezelski drew from the 2024 theme of National Marriage Week USA, “Love Beyond Words.”

Every year, the USCCB celebrates National Marriage Week USA, held February 7-14, in support of marriage and family life. As a part of the week, Dezelski encouraged couples to consider taking part in an at-home retreat for couples available at the bishops’ website, which she called a “nice prelude” to celebrating Valentine’s Day on Ash Wednesday.

Couples can explore other USCCB resources for their marriages at ForYourMarriage.org, PorTuMatrimonio.org and LoveMeansMore.org.

Dezelski also recommended making a charitable donation in honour of a loved one. Other ideas included couples receiving ashes together on Ash Wednesday and asking forgiveness of one another. She also recommended people reflect on how they demonstrate their love to each other, day after day.

For her part, Dezelski revealed that she would be happy with a bouquet of red roses from her husband.

“The roses for me, in particular, remind me of not only God’s beauty at work – and just the beauty of a budding rose – but also, it also is reminiscent of the cross just because of the blood red,” she said.

The two were married in the Byzantine rite, which Dezelski has written about in the past for the Spoken Bride lifestyle blog, which emphasises the sacrificial nature of love. The crowns that the bride and groom receive during the wedding ceremony symbolizse the martyr’s crown.

“They’re entering a covenant of love that is going to require sacrifice and a giving of one’s life for the other,” she described.

Mary-Rose Verret, who founded the Witness to Love marriage ministry along with her husband, Ryan, shared that they will celebrate Valentine’s Day by attending or hosting marriage-building community events on the surrounding days, praying a special novena, and inviting couples to focus on the beauty and gift of marriage rather than participating in the commercialization of the day.

Verret revealed that the number one thing they hear about from couples in their ministry is a desire for their parishes to offer opportunities for couples to come together in community.

Their own parish, the Cathedral of St John the Evangelist in Lafayette, Louisiana, offers an opportunity to do this either the week of Valentine’s Day or the week before, by organising a dinner for couples. They rely on local restaurants to donate food for the free event that hosts speakers working in various ministries (including the Verrets).

“What we’re doing this year is, we’re going to that date night at our parish the week before (Valentine’s Day),” she said. “On actual Valentine’s Day, we’ll probably have really nice soup for dinner as a family.”

The day after Valentine’s Day, Witness to Love holds an event called “Rock ‘n’ Marriage” at a Lafayette bowling alley for couples served by their ministry, as well as for those couples’ mentors and parish priests.

Every year leading up to Valentine’s Day, the Verrets also pray a couple’s novena, available on their ministry’s website, witnesstolove.org, and ask for the intercession of married saints.

“There’s different seasons in life,” Verret said, “and sometimes the way the calendar falls, you just have to . . . do things differently that year and it ends up being special either way.”

Photo: A woman is pictured in a file photo receiving ashes during Ash Wednesday Mass. Ash Wednesday falls on Valentine’s Day in 2024. (OSV News photo/Marcin Mazur, Catholic Church England Wales)

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Archbishop Laurent Ulrich gave some details in his February 2 letter on what the reopening will look like, emphasising it will not be a one-day celebration, but several months of joy.

The archbishop announced that “this celebration of the reopening of Notre Dame deserves an octave: from December 8 to 15, every day, we will have a solemn celebration with a particular theme.” But the festive “reopening” time will last until June 8, when Pentecost falls in 2025.

That way, the archbishop said, “many will be able to say: ‘I was at the reopening!'”

“It must in fact be taken into account that the number of seats in the cathedral is not very large: Notre Dame is certainly not the largest church in Paris!” Archbishop Ulrich said.

At the end of November, a procession will take place in the streets of the French capital to return the statue of the Virgin Mary to the cathedral. It is currently housed in the church of Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois, directly across the street from the Louvre Palace. The sculpture, called the Virgin of the Pillar, or the Virgin of Paris, dates back to the mid-14th century. It was next to her, inside Notre Dame Cathedral, that the famous French poet and diplomat Paul Claudel suddenly converted to Christianity on Christmas Day in 1886.

The celebration of the reopening will start on December 7, with representatives of the French state, which owns the cathedral, officially handing Notre Dame over to the archbishop of Paris – “the assignee which is the Catholic Church” – the letter said. The event will include the “awakening of the organ”, restored since the fire, followed with “liturgical celebration with blessing, a Magnificat or a ‘Te Deum’, then vespers.”

The first Mass will be celebrated in Notre Dame on December 8, the day when the new altar will be consecrated, highlighting the celebrative week. The sober bronze altar, with a flared shape reminiscent of a cup, was designed by Guillaume Bardet. Based south of Lyon, Bardet was chosen from among 70 candidates vying for the project. He also is in charge of the other pieces of furniture, baptistery, ambo, pulpit and tabernacle.

The feast of the Immaculate Conception will be celebrated in the reopened cathedral on December 9., a day later than the actual feast. “We will have the joy of celebrating the Immaculate Conception, which the liturgy celebrates this year on December 9, due to the Second Sunday of Advent”, the archbishop wrote.

The archbishop of Paris paid a special tribute in his letter to the generosity of all those who donated money for the reconstruction of the cathedral, whether they be “major donors, exceptional patrons or modest donors”. The donors will be present at ceremonies, as well as firefighters, entrepreneurs and craftsmen, public figures, French and foreign bishops and other representatives of the French dioceses, the letter said.

“This festive season will be one for all Christian people, of all ages and conditions,” Archbishop Ulrich said. “The most precarious, the isolated, the forgotten will be at Notre Dame.”

“Believers or not, Christians or not, it is a landmark for all. This cathedral is there for everyone,” he added, mentioning all those he said are in his heart prior to the opening – especially youth from troubled outskirts of Paris and people suffering from traumas.

Archbishop Ulrich confirmed in his letter that the work is progressing according to schedule on the cathedral restoration worksite, and the craftsmen are working “with happiness, enthusiasm and understanding”. Inside the cathedral, the ground is still open due to archaeological excavations and for the creation of conduits for electricity, heating, protection and fire alarm circuits. At the end of the summer, diocesan teams will start setting up equipment and facilities for liturgical functions, for which they will need two or three months.

The Paris archbishop announced in his letter that the archdiocese will take advantage of the reopening period to propose a renewal of “catechesis for all on the sacraments” to “rediscover in depth” their meaning, often forgotten in today’s society.

In a touching letter to his flock 10 months prior to reopening, the archbishop said Notre Dame is the “mother church of the diocese” and “a source place for our faith”.

“You love it, I love it, we love it,” Archbishop Ulrich stressed.

“Then, amidst the jubilation that we can expect, and also the pride that naturally attaches to the work accomplished in this period of just over five years, the magnificent commitment of companies and their employees who have found exceptional professional accomplishment there, I would like us to simply know how to express our gratitude for a truly common work, to congratulate ourselves on this sense of the common good achieved together which produces so much more joy than when everyone only thinks about his own good,” the Paris archbishop wrote.

“Above all,” he concluded, “I would like us to give glory to God: ‘Non nobis Domine, non nobis, sed nomini tuo da gloriam’ — ‘Not to us, Lord, but to Your name give glory!'”

Photo: Britain’s King Charles III and French President Emmanuel Macron visit the Notre-Dame Cathedral rebuilding site in Paris on September 21, 2023 (OSV News photo/Christophe Petit Tesson, pool via Reuters)

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When a priest or other minister changes the words, gestures or material prescribed for the celebration of the sacraments, he can “rob” the faithful of what they deserve and make the sacrament invalid, the dicastery said in a note published on February 3.

The note, “Gestis Verbisque” (“Gestures and Words”), passed unanimously by members of the dicastery during their plenary assembly January 25 and was approved by Pope Francis on January 31, said that the document, which was signed by Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, dicastery prefect, and Msgr. Armando Matteo, secretary of the dicastery’s doctrinal section.

Presenting the document, Cardinal Fernández wrote that in 2022 the cardinals and bishops who are members of the dicastery already had “expressed their concern for the multiplication of situations in which they were forced to acknowledge the invalidity of sacraments celebrated”.

As an example, the cardinal cited baptism ceremonies where, instead of saying, “I baptise you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”, the minister will say, “I baptize you in the name of the Creator…” or “In the name of dad and mom, we baptise you”.

In 2020, the then-doctrinal congregation issued a note saying baptisms celebrated with the formula, “We baptise you . . . “ also were invalid, setting off a large-scale effort in several dioceses, including in the United States, to trace people who were invalidly baptised.

The sacraments they subsequently received, including first Communion, confirmation and even ordination also were invalid since only a baptised Catholic can validly receive the other sacraments.

Cardinal Fernández said the situation is particularly painful for priests who not only find out their ordinations were invalid, but so were all the sacraments they subsequently celebrated for others.

“Modifying the form of a sacrament or its matter is always a gravely illicit act and deserves exemplary punishment, precisely because such arbitrary acts are capable of producing serious harm to the faithful People of God,” the cardinal wrote.

While the document did not specify a punishment, it explained the importance of using the prescribed words, exact matter – such as water, wine or oil – and gestures like anointing, laying on of hands and the sign of the cross.

“While in other areas of the Church’s pastoral action there is ample room for creativity,” the cardinal wrote in the foreword, “such inventiveness in the area of the celebration of the sacraments becomes a ‘manipulative will’ and cannot be invoked.”

“Because of their rootedness in Scripture and Tradition, the matter and form never depend nor can they depend on the desire of the individual or of the particular community,” the document said.

“Instituted by Christ, the sacraments are actions that realise, by means of sensible signs, the living experience of the mystery of salvation, making possible the participation of human beings in the divine life,” the document said. “They are the ‘masterpieces of God’ in the New and Eternal Covenant, forces that come forth from the body of Christ, actions of the Spirit working in his body which is the Church.”

“This is why the Church in the Liturgy celebrates with faithful love and veneration the sacraments that Christ himself has entrusted to her so that she may preserve them as a precious inheritance and source of her life and her mission,” the document said.

A priest celebrates the sacraments not only “in persona Christi” – in the person of Christ – but also in “nomine Ecclesiae” – in the name of the Church, it said, which is why he must follow exactly the Church’s approved liturgical texts, which indicate when and where local adaptations or variations are permitted.

The doctrinal note said that it applies to the entire Church, although it asked the Eastern Catholic Churches to draft their own versions of the document, using their particular theological language “where it differs from that used in the text”, and to submit it for approval to the dicastery before publication.

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Justin Tkatchenko, the foreign minister, said on January 25 a local planning committee had been set up and would be working with the apostolic nuncio to Papua New Guinea to plan the trip, which would include the capital, Port Moresby, and perhaps another city.

In an Italian television interview on January 14, Pope Francis said, “In August I have to make a trip to Polynesia.” It was widely assumed he was referring to a trip originally planned for 2020 to Timor Leste, Papua New Guinea and perhaps other countries, but plans were scrapped because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office, told reporters on January 25 that an August trip is “under study”, but it was too early to say if the trip would go ahead and which countries would be included.

St John Paul II made two brief visits to Papua New Guinea in 1984 and 1995.

Photo: This is a general view of Port Moresby Harbour, Papua New Guinea seen November 19, 2018 (CNS photo/David Gray, Reuters)

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“People are really losing their life because of no treatment, no medical care,” Sami El-Yousef, CEO, told OSV News on January 20. He repeatedly described the situation as “catastrophic” throughout the interview.

The supplies that are being allowed in are being transported from Egypt into southern Gaza Strip.

“There have been no supplies allowed into the northern part of Gaza”, including Gaza City, where most Christians are sheltering in the Catholic and Orthodox parishes, El-Yousef said.

He said that during January, a black market has sprung up, and things such as medicine and blankets were being sold for 10 times the amount they sold for before Israel declared war on Hamas in retaliation for an October 7 land and air attack launched by the militant Islamic group.

At the beginning of the war, a Gaza medical clinic run by the Catholic charitable agency Caritas transferred most of its medicine stock to Holy Family Catholic Parish, but all of those supplies are now depleted, El-Yousef said.

Of the approximately 800 Christians sheltering at the two parishes, seven have died “from medical neglect”. One 35-year-old died when his appendix ruptured, and he could not get to a hospital; the rest were elderly. At least five women over 80 have fallen and have injuries that prevent them from walking, he said. Five or six remain injured from a December sniper attack; their injuries do “not appear life-threatening . . . but they need treatment.”

He spoke of one woman hit by shrapnel who was fortunate enough to have it removed – under anesthesia – at the Anglican hospital, but she had no pain medication for when the anesthesia wore off. The Washington Post reported on January 20 about one surgeon who had amputated his niece’s leg on a kitchen table – without anesthetics. The story said many doctors are performing surgeries without anesthesia or pain relief.

“I would consider our people to be lucky, compared to what the general population” of the Gaza Strip is enduring, El-Yousef said of the small Christian community.

Israel began a blockade of the Gaza Strip in 2007, after Hamas militarily took over the Gaza Strip.

El-Yousef said before the current Israel-Hamas war, Israel was allowing about 600 truckloads of aid into the territory. Now, he said, about 200 truckloads are allowed in each day, and Israeli soldiers search each truck multiple times so that nothing can be smuggled in to help Hamas. He said the list of prohibited items is growing; for instance, incubators and oxygen machines are forbidden.

The World Health Organisation said in mid-January that of the 36 hospitals operating in Gaza before the war, only 17 remain functioning.

The Associated Press reported that, under a deal mediated by France and Qatar, a shipment of medicine for dozens of Israeli hostages held by Hamas arrived in Gaza on January 17. As part of that deal, for each box for the hostages, 1000 boxes of medicine would be sent for Palestinians.

El-Yousef said the local Christian community wanted to conduct clothing and blanket drives for the Gaza Christian community – when people fled to the church compounds in October, the weather was still warm – but Israel is not allowing goods into Gaza.

The patriarchate is able to send money to the Christian community. El-Yousef acknowledged that money now sent for food and medicine would be used to purchase supplies from the black market.

“It’s very painful, but what are the choices? People either starve to death or you pay for what you can get,” he said.

“Money is not an issue and will never be an issue to sustain the lives of these people in Gaza,” he added.

Photo: A Palestinian holds a child Jan. 22, 2024, at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip who was wounded in an Israeli airstrike, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas. (OSV News photo/Ahmed Zakot, Reuters)

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Since the Supreme Court’s June 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision that reversed the court’s previous abortion precedent, voters in Ohio, California, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana, Vermont and Kansas either rejected new limitations on abortion or expanded legal protections for it.

Advocates of expanding abortion access are seeking to hold comparable contests in other states in 2024 in states, including Arizona and Florida. Those contests would coincide with a presidential election, as well as races for the House and Senate that could tip the balance of power in Washington.

“We’re not finished, and there’s going to be a lot of obstacles in our way,” Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America and Students for Life Action, told OSV News. “And a little bit of snow is the least of the obstacles that are going to be in our way,” she added, referring to the several inches of snow that accumulated in Washington before and during the March for Life.

Hawkins said her group aims to “activate pro-lifers to vote because we’ve still got a lot to do”.

“We have to be on the offensive and talking about the extremism of the Democratic National Committee’s plan,” Hawkins said.

Former President Donald Trump won the Iowa caucuses earlier in January, a key contest in the presidential nomination process, and unless the upcoming New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries change the race dynamics, he appears poised to secure his party’s nomination for president.

Trump has a sometimes uneasy alliance with pro-life advocates: Many credit him with reversing Roe through his appointments to the Supreme Court; but Trump also has vocally blamed the issue of abortion and pro-life voters themselves as factors in the Republican Party’s underperformance in the 2022 midterm election cycle, prompting criticism from even some of his supporters.

Asked if she is confident in Trump’s commitment to the pro-life movement, Hawkins said, “I look at it this way: Donald Trump is a man who prides himself on making deals and keeping his deals, and he made a deal with the pro-life movement in 2016. I expect him to keep his deal in 2024.”

Hawkins argued the particular personnel in an administration also matter greatly in enacting policy. While she wanted him to “speak up more loudly and more boldly on this issue,” Hawkins overall felt “we will have a pro-life president in President Trump.”

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, which works to elect pro-life candidates to public office, told OSV News, “I was just thrilled that it snowed today, because it’s just to me a metaphor of the perseverance, the endurance, the fortitude, the love of the pro-life movement.”

Asked how the group plans to shift its strategy in 2024 on state ballot measures, Dannenfelser said it was “vital” that governors and lawmakers who enacted pro-life legislation “need to be the ones first up to be defending messaging, communicating the truth of the law.”

“What we lack in money we have to make up for in leadership,” Dannenfelser said.

The 2024 elections may determine whether the Women’s Health Protection Act — federal legislation that would make it a legal right for a woman to undergo an abortion procedure, and override many state laws restricting those procedures, such as mandatory waiting periods or ultrasounds, bans on abortions via telemedicine, or requirements for providers to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals — could be signed into law, Dannenfelser said.

House Democrats have twice passed the Women’s Health Protection Act, but the bill went on to fail on procedural votes both times in the Senate due to the 60-vote filibuster threshold.

That was a point echoed by Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., a Catholic and longtime lawmaker, who co-chairs the House Pro-Life Caucus. He told OSV News that the bill is “barbaric” and its status is “in flux” depending on the balance of power in Washington. Eliminating the Senate filibuster, he said, as some progressive activists have sought, also would likely result in that bill becoming law with a simple majority.

“So I’m hoping people walk away today and say, ‘Yeah, we’ve had a few setbacks. So what, that happens.’ Just keep moving forward — pray, fast and work hard — and we will, we will win this someday,” Smith said.

The national march also follows in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court taking up its first major abortion case post-Dobbs concerning a challenge to mifepristone, an abortion-inducing drug. A decision is expected next summer in the midst of the presidential election.

Dr. Christina Francis, a board-certified OB-GYN and CEO of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, a group that was part of the suit seeking to revoke the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the drug, told OSV News that “as a physician being here — and certainly thinking about the theme of this year’s march — I think it’s actually really perfect. Because as a physician, I’m here on behalf of both of my patients, both mom and her baby.”

Francis said she is “glad that the Supreme Court is going to be hearing our challenge to the really reckless lifting of safety regulations for women and girls from the abortion pill.”

“And so my hope over the next couple of months as we await oral arguments is that we can continue to help women understand that not only do they not need induced abortion in order to be successful in their lives, but also to really truly understand the dangers of the abortion pill, especially in the way that it’s being dispensed,” Francis said.

She said it was “reckless” for the abortion pill to be “dispensed without screening for gestational age, without screening for ectopic pregnancy, which is life threatening and not uncommon.”

Photo: Pro-life demonstrators carry a banner past the US Supreme Court building while participating in the 51st annual March for Life in Washington, DC on January 19 (OSV News photo/Leslie E. Kossoff)

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