NCR Vatican correspondent Christopher White hosted a discussion about the 10th anniversary of Pope Francis’ pontificate with Kate McElwee, executive director of the Women’s Ordination Conference and Bishop John Stowe of Lexington, Kentucky, focusing on the role of women in the Catholic Church, the upcoming synod on synodality, the clergy sexual abuse scandal and more.
John Grosso has joined the National Catholic Reporter as the new digital editor for NCR, Global Sisters Report and EarthBeat. He will be responsible for expanding social and multimedia coverage for all three publications when he begins his new position March 20.
« Over the past few years, we have expanded our social media outreach, including launching a TikTok account in 2021 and hosting regular live video events, » said Heidi Schlumpf, executive editor and vice president of NCR. « John’s experience and expertise in social and multimedia will be invaluable in helping us do even more to reach audiences who consume their news through social and multimedia. »
Gail DeGeorge, editor of Global Sisters Report, said, « We look forward to having John build on the international readership that Global Sisters Report has developed and bolster our reach through social media in multiple countries. His multimedia background will also help us expand our abilities to tell the stories of Catholic sisters in video and alternative forms of storytelling. »
Throughout his career, Grosso has been a leader in social media communication in Catholic organizations, having previously worked for the Bridgeport Diocese and Foundations and Donors Interested in Catholic Activities (FADICA). He also has served as a digital media consultant since 2015.
In addition, he was one of 16 communicators worldwide selected to develop digital media strategies for Vatican offices, major basilicas of Rome and the synod on synodality. He also has participated in trainings for the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and contributed a chapter in the new book, « Building Your Digital Sanctuary: An Introductory Guide to Effective Digital Ministry. »
« I am so excited to join this incredible team at NCR, » said Grosso. « I’m looking forward to using my experience in digital media to broaden the reach of NCR’s world class reporting and magnify the work of our reporters and editors. »
John, his wife, Nicole Perone, and daughter live in Connecticut. They are members of St. Aloysius Parish in New Canaan, Connecticut. You can follow him on Twitter @JohnTGrosso.
(Third Sunday of Lent-Year A; This homily was given on March 12, 2023 at Santo Spirito in Sassia in Rome, Italy; See John 4:5-42)
Cardinal Michael Czerny returned to Gonzaga University Thursday, March 9, bringing a few tales back to campus from his time in the late 1960s as a young Jesuit student at the Spokane, Washington, school. Like any seasoned scholar, he offered a reading list — his was made up entirely of recent papal letters by Pope Francis.
But more than anything, Czerny came with a challenge for current college students and their higher education institutions: Rekindle the fires of inquiry and action capable of changing the world when, facing climate change, polarizing division and ecological destruction, the world needs them more than ever.
« Let’s agree that the current planetary emergency is all too serious to leave to the kids alone, » said the head of the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, referring to the climate strikes that have broken out globally in recent years and have been sparked and largely led by teens and younger students.
« Universities need once again to become hotbeds of critical thinking and incubators of radical action, » he said.
Czerny, a 1968 Gonzaga graduate with degrees in the classics and philosophy, spoke in his hourlong lecture on the subject of caring for our common home to a sold-out audience of more than 700 people inside the Jesuit university’s Myrtle Woldson Performing Arts Center. Attendees received a copy of « Our Common Home: A Guide to Caring for Our Living Planet, » a result of a recent faith-and-science collaboration between the Vatican and the Stockholm Environment Institute.
‘Let’s agree that the current planetary emergency is all too serious to leave to the kids alone.’
The Vatican official also promoted the Laudato Si’ Action Platform as a way for Gonzaga, as well as all Catholic universities, to respond to the crises sparked by climate change and ecological disasters in significant and concrete ways, where those battling against climate breakdown are able to say, « Our church is with us in our struggle. Our university is with us. »
Czerny noted that Gonzaga was among more than 1,000 educational institutions to already sign onto the Laudato Si’ Action Platform, which went live in November 2021. He invited Gonzaga’s leaders and students to examine what participation looks like in terms of incorporating ecological sustainability into its curricula, operations, purpose and community engagement.
And he suggested they not stop at their university, but also participate in the initiative through their families, parishes and other organizations.
The action platform « wants to generate a people’s movement. An alliance across churches, faith communities, educational institutions, nongovernmental organizations and governments to care for our common home and to care for one another, » the Vatican cardinal said.
The March 9 event was hosted by Gonzaga Center for Climate, Society and the Environment, and co-sponsored by the Gonzaga Office of Mission Integration and the Gonzaga Jesuit community. President Thayne McCulloh introduced the cardinal as « a distinguished Gonzaga alumnus and a true servant leader of the church and for the world community. »
Beginning his lecture, Czerny recalled how as an undergraduate he and fellow classmates protested against the Vietnam War « and other social evils. » While environmental issues were less in the forefront then, with the first Earth Day a few years away, he retrospectively described the U.S. military’s use of napalm — with millions of fireballs dropped each year on Vietnam — as « all about making their habitat uninhabitable. »
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« Without our knowing it, napalm was an early if terrible lesson in the interconnectedness between human and environmental destruction, » he said.
Czerny referred to the period as « a turning point in both the First and Second Worlds, » similar to one the whole world is facing now from climate-related disasters, like record-breaking heat and wildfires that have struck the Pacific Northwest in recent years, along with hurricanes, floods and droughts around the globe.
With a majority of people aware of the calamitous threats posed by climate change, the cardinal said the real problem now is not convincing people that it’s happening, but rather « indifference and despair » in the face of that reality.
To address both, Czerny turned to Francis’ two encyclicals « Laudato Si’, on Care for Our Common Home » and « Fratelli Tutti, on Fraternity and Social Friendship. » Together, both the pope’s « letters to the world » outline what needs doing and who needs to do it, Czerny said.
« Francis’ two great encyclicals are not meant for library shelves. We need to convert them into action, » the Vatican cardinal said.
In highlighting key aspects of the twin papal documents, Czerny called Chapter 3 of Laudato Si’, on « The Human Roots of the Ecological Crisis, » the most difficult. He broke down Francis’ concept of the dominant technocratic paradigm — a worldview that has placed humanity in conflict with the rest of nature — that has become pervasive throughout society, including educational systems and curricula.
‘Unless we get beyond tribalism, we won’t be able to offer our poor, beaten-up, half-dead world the first aid it needs more and more each day.’
« We are part and parcel of the problem, » the Vatican cardinal said. « Our most prestigious centers of higher education continue to breed engineers and entrepreneurs, lawyers and managers, who measure success narrowly in terms of economic output and profit margins alone, at the cost of human and planetary well-being, even if this means depleting life-sustaining resources and destroying our common ecosystems. »
He later added, « We need to hear more about eco-justice in our universities. »
For Fratelli Tutti, it was Chapter 2 that he said was « the most touching, » where Francis reflects on the meaning of Jesus’ parable of the good Samaritan in today’s world.
Answering the question of « Who is my neighbor today? », he listed Indigenous peoples driven from their Amazon homelands as tropical forests are felled for mining and agriculture; Pacific Island communities displaced by rising seas; migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, facing drought-stricken hunger, taking « perilous journeys » across the Mediterranean Sea and English Channel to Europe; and families attempting to cross the Mexico-U.S. border to flee « floods, hurricanes and lawlessness. »
« My neighbors are from other tribes, » he said. « Jesus wants us to notice that being like me, in origin, race, language, religion, orientation, political affiliation, are all irrelevant when answering the question ‘Who is my neighbor?’ ‘Who is my sibling?’ «
Czerny continued, « Unless we get beyond tribalism, we won’t be able to offer our poor, beaten-up, half-dead world the first aid it needs more and more each day. »
And for both encyclicals, it was Chapter 5 that Czerny said was the most important in guiding humanity in pursuit of solutions to the ecological threats facing all of creation: in Laudato Si’, on dialogue, and in Fratelli Tutti, on a better kind of politics.
« These two patient approaches to the common good are the only, only, only way out, » he said.
In the face of despair from the « environmental horrors » humanity has wrought since the Industrial Revolution, Czerny suggested that rather than ask, « Where is God in all this? », the better question is « Where am I and where are we in all this? », including universities.
« In many situations, the best antidote for despair and anxiety is thoughtful and high-minded action, » he said.
Today’s Liturgy of the Word starts us out with the Israelites and Moses in the desert. After accepting God’s invitation to abandon slavery for freedom, the people quickly started complaining: They missed the food the Egyptians let them have, they feared they would die of thirst … and on and on.
Acting as if God had made no plans and was incapable of providing for them, they groused so much that Moses expected a mutiny. (See Numbers 11 where Moses accuses God of being a negligent mother and complains that his task is more than he can handle.) In response, and to show how shortsighted they were, the creator of snow and rain brought water from stone, demonstrating that for God, nothing is impossible. (See Job 38.)
The desert wanderers really did have legitimate cause for worry. Like so many people today, they had no idea where their next meal would come from and clean water had become a luxury they could only remember. When we consider how little time they had spent in freedom, we can appreciate that they were like dependent children, frightened because the situation was entirely out of their control.
Israel’s thirst sets up John’s account of the woman at the well. Although we rarely note it, a key aspect of this story is that Jesus was the one who was thirsty. This gives us a pretty iconoclastic image of God! We, who usually turn to God for help, are faced with Jesus, the Christ, sitting thirsty by a well without a bucket. Then, along comes a feisty Samaritan woman. The Savior of the world makes a request: « Give me a drink. »
Water is a precious commodity in the desert. Sharing water symbolizes hospitality, openness to the stranger and respect for life. In an inside out image of the God who draws water from stone, the vulnerable Jesus must ask for life-giving water and acceptance, and he does it at the well that symbolizes her heritage of faith in the God of Abraham. Once they have begun their conversation, the tables turn again and Jesus reveals that the divine thirst is not for water, but for a life-giving relationship with humanity.
What happened in the interchange between Jesus and Photina (the name the Orthodox give the Samaritan) should have been more threatening to the guardians of Jewish and Samaritan religion than anything else Jesus preached. When Photina tried to pit the Jewish and Samaritan approaches to God against one another, Jesus led her beyond every expression of denominationalism and dependence on ritual. All that mattered to Jesus was that Photina (and by extension all people) would know God as he did; he thirsted for her to be moved by God’s own Spirit and to abide in the truth-generating relationships that flow from that.
This is exactly what happened. As Photina began to comprehend what Jesus was saying, her feistiness turned to curiosity and then to faith. As the representative of a people who had sought God through a series of shallow affiliations (five husbands), she found a truth and love worthy of her and was impelled to share it.
Too often, we focus on Photina’s « five husbands, » as if this story were about the conversion of a loose woman. That overlooks the astounding theology and universality of this Gospel message. Theologically, this Gospel story reminds us that our creator invites humanity into relationship, but never imposes. This paints a picture of God as both vulnerable and thirsty, ever waiting near some well to offer life to those who can listen, wonder and respond. The universality of today’s message comes through Jesus’ proclamation that real worship and relationship with God does not depend on place or ritual, but on how the people become vulnerable to the Spirit’s action in their lives.
Paul preaches this very same message in the Letter to the Romans when he assures us that our « justification » is based on faith. If we were to put Paul’s idea in the context of the interaction between Jesus and the Samaritan woman, we would say that salvation springs from relationship with God; it is never bound by any particular deed, creed or ritual. Salvation happens when we attend to God’s thirst and respond with personal hospitality. Once we have been affected by a relationship with God, it automatically begins to flow into all our other relationships, making us not just believers, but almost irresistible evangelizers.
Today, Photina may appear to us in many guises. We will recognize her not by her name, geography or appearance, but rather by her enthusiastic love and the way she invites us to respond to God’s thirst and enjoy living water forever. Like her, all we need do is respond. As a result, the world’s thirst will begin to be quenched.
A meeting between Germany’s Catholic bishops and lay representatives agreed Friday to call for the church to approve blessings of same-sex unions.
The three-day gathering, which is part of the « Synodal Path » launched in 2019 in response to the sexual abuse crisis that has rocked the church in Germany and many other countries, brings together more than 200 representatives of Catholic life in Germany.
A majority of 176 participants voted in favor of same-sex blessings starting from March 2026. Fourteen participants voted against them, while 12 abstained. Crucially, the necessary two-thirds backing of the 67 German bishops was also reached, the news agency dpa reported.
Many congregations already perform such ceremonies, but these aren’t formally approved by the Catholic Church, a position the Vatican restated in 2021.
In an effort to assuage concerns from Rome, German church leaders have insisted the process won’t trigger a schism.
However, Pope Francis himself said in a January interview with The Associated Press that the process might become harmfully « ideological. »
For the global Catholic Church, the pontiff has called a two-part synod, or assembly, that will bring bishops and laity to Rome in October 2023 and October 2024 discuss the future direction of the church and ways in which it can rejuvenate its mission.
At the same time, German bishops face pressure from frustrated grassroots Catholics in a country where Christians are roughly equally divided between Protestants and Catholics.
A new report by The Washington Post unearths key information about a Catholic news website’s controversial use of mobile app tracking data two years ago to out a high-ranking official at the U.S. Catholic bishops’ conference, which led to the priest’s resignation.
The March 9 story indicates that a group of conservative Colorado Catholics — who formed a nonprofit called Catholic Laity and Clergy for Renewal — spent millions of dollars to buy data that identified priests who used hookup and gay dating apps. The group then reportedly shared that data with bishops around the United States.
Currently no U.S. data privacy laws block the sale of mobile app tracking data. The aim of the group, according to tax records cited by The Post, is to « empower the church to carry out its mission » by giving bishops « evidence-based resources » with which to assess and identify weaknesses in priestly formation practices.
In July 2021, hours after Msgr. Jeffrey Burrill resigned as general secretary of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Catholic news outlet The Pillar ran a lengthy article alleging the priest had participated in « serial sexual misconduct » by regularly using the gay dating app Grinder and visiting a gay bar and gay bathhouse and spa between 2018 and 2020.
Both in the original Pillar story and the outlet’s subsequent response to questions about the ethics of their approach, the editors did not say where the data came from.
The Pillars’ founding editors, both canon lawyers, compared their story and data use to The New York Times journalism; The Times had used such data to identify a person near the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection. But The Times story quoted the man it found and he agreed to his name being used.
The Pillar went on to publish two additional articles alleging the use of hookup apps within clerical residences in the Vatican and in the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey. After that, the stories drawing from the app tracking data stopped, reports The Post.
The trustees of Catholic Laity and Clergy for Renewal, according The Post, are: philanthropists Mark Bauman, a former entertainment company executive and current president of the board of Christ in the City, a nonprofit that trains missionaries; John Martin, co-founder of a large natural gas producer and a finical backer of Amazing Parish, a consulting firm that helps improve parishes; and Tim Reichert, who unsuccessfully ran for Congress last year in Colorado’s 7th District as a Republican and who is founder of a consulting firm that employs economists.
The Post says it’s not clear what repercussions the project is having on clergy who the data suggests have actively used a hookup or dating app. Other than Burrill, The Post said it knew of no other resignations or terminations tied to the data. It suggested priests may be asked to retire early or kept from promotions but not know the reasons why.
Fr. Bryan Massingale is a gay priest and a professor of theological and social ethics at Fordham University in New York. He called the actions of Catholic Laity and Clergy for Renewal « disturbing and reprehensible. »
« They are scapegoating gay priests, and homosexuality in general, as the principal threats to the Catholic faith, » he said, adding that it is a theme in some traditionalist circles.
« But the reality is that there are many gay men who serve the church with dedication and fidelity, » said Massingale. « This group seeks to weaponize human weakness for the sake of an ideology. That is not the way of Jesus. »
The anonymous tracking of a gay priest via his phone data ran in stories around the globe in 2021, while LGBTQ advocates, as well as Catholics and journalists, condemned the report as homophobic and morally questionable.
