St. Mary's Church

Steven and Joelle Schlotter, from Louisville, Kentucky, created special homemade T-shirts for their children in honor of the National Eucharistic Congress. / Credit: Jonah McKeown/CNA

Indianapolis, Ind., Jul 22, 2024 / 17:52 pm (CNA).

The 10th National Eucharistic Congress concluded Sunday in Indianapolis with a clarion call for participants to share with others the love and joy of the Catholic faith that they just experienced. 

For the many parents who brought their young children to the historic July 17–21 gathering in Indianapolis, the congress was an inspiring confirmation that the Catholic Church is alive and well and that other families across the country are working hard to raise their kids in the faith. 

The McKenzie family — Brendan and Laura and their eight children — made the trip to the congress from Evansville, Indiana, a few hours south of Indianapolis on the Kentucky border. 

Brendan said for his older kids, he hopes that seeing the large numbers of priests and religious present at the congress will be something of a “normalizing” experience, helping to expose his children to those kinds of vocations as a possibility for their lives. 

For the younger of his children, Brendan said he appreciated the efforts made by organizers to engage with the children and make it a fun and memorable experience. 

“The musicians and the emcees did a great job interacting with the kids, getting them up and dancing and singing, which was good for the little kids,” Brendan said.  

“I think the speakers help infuse the faith and make it more real and personal for the kids. I think the environment has been very conducive, too — allowing kids to participate and not feel like they’re an annoyance. Even the speakers have been very good about welcoming the noise of the children, to put parents at ease.”

The congress featured numerous opportunities for Eucharistic adoration and Mass as well as workshops and educational sessions. 

Numerous families attended a family-focused session on Saturday presented by Damon and Melanie Owens, Catholic speakers from Philadelphia and parents of eight children. The Owenses said it was difficult early on in their marriage to find other families who shared their values. 

Damon and Melanie spoke about the “communal dimension of marriage” and the importance of Catholic couples with children seeking out other like-minded families to “do life with.” They encouraged the families in attendance to make building a community around themselves a priority.

“Marriage is not private — our family life is not meant to be private. It’s personal, but it’s not private,” Damon Owens said. “I want to encourage and exhort you to honor that, to reverence that, and also to lean into it, to do the hard work of drawing even closer to one another.”

Paolo and Jessica Laorden from Mishawaka, Indiana, near South Bend, attended the talk with their five children. The Laordens said the Owenses’ talk about the importance of finding like-minded families resonated with them, especially since their family dynamic is different from many of their peers — Jessica is a family physician, while Paolo is a stay-at-home dad to their five children.

The talk, as well as the experience of seeing so many other families at the Congress, reminded Jessica that “there isn’t a perfect Catholic family and that we’re meant to share what we have, to support each other and find support, to depend on other people instead of turning in,” she said. 

Treating the congress as their “family vacation” for the summer, Paolo said a highlight has been the opportunity to take their kids to say “good morning” and “good night” to Jesus each day of the conference at the adoration chapel.

“They have gone above and beyond to make the conference work for families … we were really nervous about how we were going to make this work,” Jessica added. 

Paolo said he and Jessica want to be intentional about continuing the practice of bringing their children to Eucharistic adoration when they return home. Many churches in their hometown offer adoration, and “we want to do it again, on a more regular basis … even if it’s just for a couple of minutes, or an hour.”

“We want to make sure that when we go home, we bring it all home with us and be the life for the area,” he said.

Frannie and Alec Moen made the four-hour drive from Wildwood, Missouri, to attend the Congress with their seven children. Frannie said that although everyone they met was helpful and friendly, the experience was challenging — it was a workout getting the kids and stroller from one place to another, and anxiety-inducing keeping the kids from getting lost in the crowds. 

“But we trusted that God had us there for a reason, and that he’d help us keep track of them. It felt a lot like a pilgrimage,” Frannie said. 

Seeing the diversity of the Church as well as the large numbers of priests and religious “made a huge impression” on her kids, especially during Saturday’s Eucharistic procession. Frannie also mentioned a special moment when one of her daughters, who has a “unique Catholic name, and sometimes feels self-conscious about it,” met a religious sister with the same name who gave her a special handmade rosary.   

“I’d say every five minutes, someone stopped to thank us for what we are doing and for bringing our family,” Frannie said. 

“We do feel a deeper intimacy with Jesus in the Eucharist after going. We go to him every day, and we feel like he saw our loneliness and discouragement in this world and drew us to a place where we could be restored and sent back on mission to raise these children in the faith. It is hard, but we were reminded that it is worth it … The Church is young!”

Peter and Naomi Atkinson, who came from Chicago with their two young children, said the organizers of the congress did a good job of making the event family-friendly. Although they weren’t able to make it to any of the evening sessions because of their children’s bedtime, Naomi said that overall the accommodations to help families — and especially mothers with small children — feel comfortable at the congress were “amazing.” She said the space provided for nursing mothers was especially appreciated. 

“Seeing the other families who brought their kids here is really encouraging — the fact that there are so many families who are in the same boat we are, and trying to make the same sacrifices to bring their kids up with a deep love of the faith,” Peter said. 

“As Catholics, we don’t believe individually. We believe as a community. I think it’s really important for our families to see the strength and diversity and the unity of the faith,” he continued. 

“I think it’s really important for parents to receive that with other parents, and it’s important for children to see their parents receiving that, and to see other children being formed in those communities as well.”

“There is a reason that countries across the world — from Sweden to Norway, France, and the United Kingdom — have taken steps to pause these procedures and policies,” said New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu. / Credit: Gage Skidmore from Surprise, Arizona, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 22, 2024 / 17:22 pm (CNA).

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu signed into law a bill that restricts sex-change surgeries on minors, along with a bill that restricts access to female athletic competitions in certain grades to only biological girls. 

“As the debate over [these bills] has played out in Concord and throughout the state, charged political statements have muddled the conversation and distracted from the two primary factors that any parent must consider: safety and fairness for their children,” Sununu said in a statement. 

“These two factors have been my primary consideration in reviewing these bills,” the governor added.

Sununu vetoed a third bill related to transgender policies. 

The vetoed legislation would have ended the state’s anti-discrimination protections for people who identify as transgender. This would have permitted public and private entities to restrict bathroom and locker room access based on biological sex rather than self-asserted gender identity.

Banning transgender surgery on minors

House Bill 619, which goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2025, prohibits doctors from performing “genital gender reassignment surgery” on anyone under the age of 18.

This includes a ban on internal and external gender transition surgeries. For boys, this ban includes removal of genitals and surgical interventions to make the genitals appear similar to a female. For girls, this ban includes the removal of ovaries or other surgeries that alter the genitals and make the genitals appear similar to a male.

“This bill focuses on protecting the health and safety of New Hampshire’s children and has earned bipartisan support,” Sununu said. “There is a reason that countries across the world — from Sweden to Norway, France, and the United Kingdom — have taken steps to pause these procedures and policies.”

However, New Hampshire’s restrictions do not go as far as many other Republican states. The law still allows other transgender surgeries, such as the removal of healthy breasts in girls and the addition of prosthetic breasts in boys to facilitate a sex change. The state will also continue to allow doctors to prescribe puberty-blocking drugs and hormone therapy to facilitate a sex change in minors.

The ban on genital surgery is enforced through licensing agencies. Minors or parents will also be permitted to sue doctors who perform banned surgery on minors. 

Protecting girls’ sports

House Bill 1205 ensures that only biological girls will be allowed to participate in female sports competitions in grades 5 through 12. The legislation does not affect lower grades or college sports.

The legislation requires that sports competitions for those grades be classified as either “male,” “female,” or “coed.” Only biological males can participate in “male” competitions, only biological females can participate in “female” competitions, and both can participate in “coed” competitions.

Per the legislation, a biological male who identifies as transgender could not participate in a sports competition reserved for girls.

“[This legislation] ensures fairness and safety in women’s sports by maintaining integrity and competitive balance in athletic competitions,” Sununu said. “With this widely supported step, New Hampshire joins nearly half of all U.S. states in taking this measure.”

Any student who is deprived of an athletic opportunity based on a violation of the law or who faces retaliation for reporting a violation will be allowed to sue the school for damages.

This bill goes into effect 30 days following the governor’s signature.

null / Credit: orgarashu/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 22, 2024 / 15:15 pm (CNA).

A coalition of 18 state attorneys general is throwing its support behind a lawsuit from a former Indiana high school teacher who lost his job because he would not use pronouns for students that were inconsistent with their sex. 

The Republican coalition, co-led by Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, filed an amicus brief with the United States Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit on Wednesday that asks the judges to rule that the teacher’s religious liberty was violated. 

An amicus brief, also known as a “friend of the court” brief, is a document filed by parties that have an interest in the outcome of the litigation but are not parties in the lawsuit.

Former music teacher John Kluge, who taught orchestra at the Brownsburg Community School Corporation just northwest of Indianapolis, was given the option of resigning or being fired from his job over the pronoun dispute, according to his lawsuit.

In 2017, the school district adopted a policy that forces teachers to use pronouns and names that reflect a student’s self-asserted gender identity, even if they are inconsistent with the student’s sex.

Kluge requested a religious accommodation that would allow him to avoid using any pronouns in reference to students, simply calling them by their last names, so he could avoid using pronouns that are inconsistent with a student’s biological sex.

The school district initially granted Kluge — a Christian — his requested accommodation and he taught for another year, according to the lawsuit. After receiving complaints from a few students and teachers, the school district revoked his accommodation, according to the lawsuit, and then “forced Mr. Kluge to resign or be fired.”

In the amicus brief, the attorneys general wrote that the school district “squandered an opportunity to showcase to students respect for people with different religious beliefs and practices” by forcing Kluge’s resignation. 

“Discriminating against teachers with religious convictions raises serious concerns as to the values taught to students and whether students are truly free to discover, learn, and grow in their own thought processes and beliefs,” the attorneys general added. “Schools should strive to teach respect for all religions instead of uniformity of thought.”

In a statement, Rokita said that Kluge’s compromise to avoid pronoun use altogether would allow him “to treat everyone equally and respectfully while also staying faithful to his own religious convictions.” 

“Kicking this teacher to the curb sends students the wrong messages about America’s heritage of respecting religion,” Rokita added. “And, at a time when teachers are in short supply, this kind of intolerance of faith among faculty members is sure to push additional good teachers out of the classroom.”

Rory Gray, who serves as senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom — the legal group representing Kluge — told CNA that “public schools can’t force teachers to abandon their religious beliefs.” 

“Mr. Kluge went out of his way to treat all his students with respect and care,” Gray said. “Yet the Brownsburg school district violated Title VII by censoring and punishing him for his religious beliefs. The 7th Circuit should … protect the religious convictions of employees, especially for teachers in our public schools.”

A spokesperson for the school district did not respond to a request for comment from CNA.

The school district has argued that the requested accommodation provides the district with an “undue burden” that jeopardizes the enforcement of its policies. 

The district has also argued that refusing to use a student’s preferred pronoun and name could violate Title IX’s prohibition on sex discrimination — a question that is currently before several courts.

In 2021, a Virginia teacher was fired after he criticized a proposed Loudoun County Public School Board policy that would require teachers to use a student’s preferred pronoun and name. The school board ultimately adopted the policy but reached a settlement with physical education teacher Byron “Tanner” Cross that gave him his job back.

The Church of the Rock in Castle Rock, Colorado, is a nondenominational Christian church that was founded in the 1980s. After a legal battle with the town over a short-term homeless shelter, the church was vindicated on July 19, 2024, and permitted to continue its ministry on church property. / Credit: Photo courtesy of First Liberty Institute

CNA Staff, Jul 22, 2024 / 14:45 pm (CNA).

A federal judge sided with a Colorado church Friday in its dispute with a Denver-area town, granting the church the right to offer temporary housing for the homeless on its property.

Beginning in 2019, The Rock Church, a nondenominational church in Castle Rock, a town south of Denver, provided a recreational vehicle (RV) and a camper on the edge of its parking lot to temporarily shelter people experiencing homelessness. The church also provides temporary shelter during emergencies through a partnership with the Red Cross. 

On several occasions, town officials blocked the ministry, saying that housing people on church grounds violated zoning laws.

The Town of Castle Rock first notified the church of a zoning violation in 2021 and charged the church in 2023. 

In the lawsuit, which was filed in May, the church alleged that Castle Rock was “apparently operating on the cynical thesis that they do not want the homeless in their area.”

The lawsuit cited Scripture highlighting that helping the poor is essential to Christianity, arguing that the restriction infringes on the church’s religious freedom. The lawsuit also noted that there had been no safety complaints and that the shelters are barely visible from local residential housing, which is about 300 feet away from the parking lot.

The court ruled against the Town of Castle Rock on July 19, preventing the town from enforcing its land-use laws against the church to block the shelter. Additionally, the judge denied the church’s second and third claims that alleged interference by the town in the church’s Red Cross partnership. 

“We are pleased with the decision of the court that allows the church to carry out its religious freedom on its property,” Jeremy Dys, senior counsel with First Liberty Institute, a Christian legal nonprofit that argued the case, said in a statement shared with CNA.

“The court reopened the door of a caring church whose mission has always been to offer a warm environment for the homeless living on the cold, hard streets,” he added. 

U.S District Judge Daniel Domenico ruled that under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, a 2000 law designed to protect religious organizations from discrimination in zoning laws, the church could practice its homeless shelter ministry on its nonresidential property. 

“The church contends that it carries out these ministries because of its faith and its religious mission to provide for the needy, emphasizing the fact that ‘the Holy Bible specifically and repeatedly directs faithful Christians like the church’s members to care for the poor and needy out of compassion and mercy for those who are experiencing significant misfortune and hardship,’” the judge wrote in the 18-page order.  

When launching the ministry, The Rock Church planned to provide short-term housing for families and individuals in need as well as food, clothing, and other material necessities. The church has since housed several individuals and families, including a single mother and her 3-year-old son, as well as two people recovering from addiction. 

In its suit against the town, the church said the restrictions violated First Amendment rights and religious freedom as well as the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. 

The Rock Church argued that it “has suffered and will continue to suffer irreparable harm, including the loss of its constitutional rights,” and noted in its initial May 13 complaint that the town has no other temporary-shelter alternatives. 

The judge noted that “the church takes a number of precautions to ensure that its temporary shelter is safe,” including background checks by a third party and rules for conduct for RV tenants. 

Domenico found that the town’s restriction was irreparably harmful for the church’s practice of its sincerely-held religious beliefs. 

“The fact that the church has already had to turn away homeless families in need, in violation of its sincerely held beliefs that it must serve and house them on its property, makes this harm all too clear,” he noted. 

Throughout the week, the perpetual adoration chapel at the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis has been full to overflowing. / Credit: Jeffrey Bruno

Indianapolis, Ind., Jul 22, 2024 / 09:00 am (CNA).

It was standing room only at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in downtown Indianapolis for much of the week as a steady stream of Catholics attending the 10th National Eucharistic Congress popped in and out of the church to pray before Jesus in the Eucharist.

The church suspended its regular Masses for the week to serve as the perpetual adoration chapel for the nearly 60,000 Catholics attending the Eucharistic congress July 17–21. Located across the street from the Indiana Convention Center where much of the event’s liturgies, workshops, panels, and exhibits were taking place, the historic church became home base for many attendees. 

Throughout the week, religious sisters stood under a tent outside the church handing out rosaries and slips of paper to attendees, inviting them to write down their prayer intentions for them to take to the Blessed Sacrament.

Sister Dominica, a Dominican Sister of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, an order based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, told CNA on Saturday that the sisters had received at least 2,000 prayer requests.

“We keep having to make runs to Jesus!” she said.

Sister Dominica and several members of her community were taking a shift under the tent in an effort organized by the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious and carried out by several orders of religious sisters. The Eucharistic prayer initiative has a special meaning for their order, she said.

“It’s a real outreach of our own — our own charism of Eucharistic adoration and promoting that devotion in the church. And we’re huge supporters of this Eucharistic revival,” Sister Dominica said. 

On the last full day of the conference, CNA spoke with some of those outside the church about their experience in adoration before the Eucharist and at the National Eucharistic Congress, an event planned by the U.S. bishops to help foster a deeper encounter with Jesus in the Eucharist. 

Andrew Niewald, a theology teacher from Beloit, Kansas, told CNA that he has been inspired by seeing so many other people in adoration share a faith and love for Jesus in the Eucharist.

“I believe that just seeing so many people here that believe in the Eucharist, you go into an adoration like that, where there seems to be hundreds of people just in almost complete silence, praying deeply. That moves your soul. It speaks to your soul a little bit,” Niewald said.

“You know, all of us probably get lost in our own churches where sometimes we feel like we’re battling an uphill battle, maybe because the real world meets our beliefs. And you just think that you’re the only one that stays with the Lord as they did in John 6. It’s very beautiful to be here with the masses that believe,” he said.

After spending time in the adoration chapel, Abigale LaFave, 17, of Ann Arbor, Michigan, told CNA that what she saw in the church also moved her.

“It is striking how there are so many people, and yet it is silent, and everybody’s attention is right on the Lord. I think that is what touched my heart the most, just the magnitude of people, and yet the reverence and the silence before him,” she said.

“It is a gorgeous church. Architecture should glorify the Lord, and this one definitely does it,” LaFave said of St. John’s, which was built in 1867.

“It’s a great community. Everybody is so on fire and so in love with the Lord, and just being in special adoration with those people, it is really moving,” said LaFave, who attended the congress with her family.

Victoria Smith, 20, of Maitland, Florida, upon leaving the church, told CNA that she has felt closer to Jesus after spending time in adoration while at the conference.

“I’ve never been much for adoration before, but you got to let go of all the thoughts like ‘I’m not praying right.’ Because the truth is, when you’re with someone you love, you’re not always talking to them, and not all your conversations are about something so deep. And not all of your conversations are going to change your life, but they’re all beautiful,” she said.

“Like your conversations with your mother, or if you’re just sitting with her at the breakfast table. What’s important is the love there, not always the words that [are] said.”

Nancy Betkoski of Beacon Falls, Connecticut, told CNA that sharing the experience of prayer with so many other Catholics has been “a touch of heaven.”

She said she had been writing in her journal during Eucharistic adoration and was reminded of her childhood desire to be a missionary.

Attending the conference with a friend, Betkoski said: ”We want to be here to be used for good. So we’re open to his mission.”

“I really hope that people will just be renewed knowing that they can have a friendship with Jesus. That’s what I really want, is people to have a friendship with Jesus. I’d say he’s my best friend,” she said.

Dominique Barksdale, 28, of Flossmoor, Illinois, told CNA that she has found her experience a challenging one.

“I was not expecting to go this way. I was expecting just to have fun and fellowship. And now I’m just like, I’m exhausted. I’ve been crying multiple times — it’s just the Spirit is moving,” she said.

Barksdale said that she hopes to develop a deeper awareness of Jesus after this experience.

“I carve out three hours with God every day. But am I being conscious of Jesus Christ? So I’m hoping after this, I’ll have Jesus as a priority, too. I feel like I’ve almost put him on a back burner. So it’s a hard thing to confront,” she said.

“I’m just trying to let the Holy Spirit lead me. And I saw that wonderful artwork that was in the conference room, the exhibit hall, that has Jesus in the monstrance. So that really helped me last night when the procession was happening — to imagine him walking in, not just the monstrance, but Jesus coming in,” she said.

Salvador Cerda of Joliet, Illinois, and his wife, Jenny, told CNA that in the 50 years they have been married, this is the first time they have taken a trip alone. Salvador said he felt called to attend the congress.

“The Lord made it possible. Any other time, I wouldn’t have been able to afford to come. But he made it possible this year. I don’t know why. It just all fell in place,” Salvador Cerda said.

“When I heard about the congress, something hit me. I got to go. I got to be there. I’ve been walking this journey with Our Lord, and more and more, I started attending daily Mass, and I see the Lord. I see him there, and I see him calling me for whatever, to inspire people, to move people, to to work with people. I just wanted to be here to share that love with others,” he said.

“But I’m surprised how many people are here. I just can’t believe it. That’s a feeling that I had before in the liturgies when we have the full choir and meditations,” he said with tears in his eyes.

“I miss that. We don’t have that now. It’s a historic church, but it’s very small. We don’t have that congregation that joins in with the choir and just sings their hearts. I just had to be here. I said, I got to share this with somebody. I got to be with somebody, with others that believe and love Christ. I just had to be here,” Cerda said.

Parishioners attend a July 2024 Mass at St. Peter Church in Quincy, Illinois. This parish is one of many participating in the “Family School Agreement” meant to increase regular Mass attendance and activity among parishioners. / Credit: Randy Dickerman

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 22, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

In an effort to encourage families to “return to the Eucharist and be an active part of the Catholic community,” the Quincy Deanery of the Diocese of Springfield, Illinois, has implemented a “Family School Agreement” initiative effective July 1.

The initiative builds upon a 2015 agreement asking families with children who attend Quincy’s Catholic elementary schools to “commit themselves to the Catholic faith and involve themselves in the practice of that faith” by attending Mass each Sunday and on holy days of obligation.

Now, families who wish to maintain the current Active Catholic Families school tuition subsidy of $3,400 are expected to continue doing so with an added commitment of attending Mass at a minimum of 51% of the time.

“The process is simple: Families receive cards, about the size of a business card, on which they write their family name, their children’s school, and the date of the Mass they attended,” explained Christopher Gill, the chief administrative leader for Quincy Catholic Elementary Schools. “These cards are then dropped in the collection basket during Mass, and we collect the cards and record the information in a spreadsheet. [Families] can attend any of the churches in Quincy for it to be officially counted.”

Active Catholic families who meet these requirements will pay a tuition of $3,400 for one child, $4,975 for two children, and $5,500 for three or more children enrolled in these schools. Meanwhile, those who do not participate in this initiative will pay $4,850 for one child, $8,150 for two children, and $9,250 for three or more.

Parishioners from all of the churches in Quincy and several of its neighboring towns are able to participate in this initiative, which will affect how this active subsidy is allocated for the 2025-2026 school year.

“The reason for this change is to encourage people to return to the Eucharist. We have noticed a steady decline in Mass attendance over the past decade and want to reverse this trend,” Gill stated. “Last year, churches in Springfield, Illinois, implemented this new agreement with the 51% stipulation and reported a 22% increase in Mass attendance. After reviewing their data, we decided to adopt a similar approach in Quincy.”

Echoing this reasoning and support for the initiative was Father Steve Arisman, the current pastor of St. Francis Solanus Church in Quincy. Arisman shared with CNA that this initiative has “nothing to do with any kind of financial aspect in terms of giving.”

“We wanted to form disciples, and that starts with Mass,” Arisman said. “Catholic education starts with Sunday Mass, and that really is the crux of what we are doing and the element of who we are as Catholics.”

Statistics in weekly Mass attendance by Catholics across the United States have shown a decline in the last several decades, most notably dropping from 45% in 2000–2003 to 33% in 2021–2023.

In response to these declining numbers, various dioceses and parishes throughout the country have taken numerous approaches in order to promote regular Mass attendance in the post-COVID years.

For example, the Immaculate Heart of Mary School in Towson, Maryland, applies an active Catholic tuition grant of $1,745 to those who “attend Mass regularly.” While parishioners aren’t asked to keep track of their attendance with a card, they are instead expected to be registered with the parish, complete a verification form, and have their children baptized in the Catholic Church prior to Feb. 1.

Our Lady of Joy in Carefree, Arizona, encourages weekly Mass participation as well as a Catholic tuition discount to those who document their contributions by giving at least two times each month to the parish with family envelopes.

The Christ Our King-Stella Maris School in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, has taken an approach similar to that of the Quincy Deanery, offering reduced tuition to families who meet its requirements for active “parishioner status” in four different parishes in the area. One requirement consists of parishioners attending a weekend Mass 75% of the time throughout the year.

Acknowledging that some “difficult conversations” may arise regarding this initiative from those who are “not living the faith,” Arisman shared his belief that “these will be really great conversations to have.”

“[This initiative] will show how we can truly reach out to these families,” he said. “It asks questions on what we can do to connect them better with Christ, the church community, and the Mass. When we challenge these families and call them to see something more in telling them how important the Mass really is, then they respond to that.”

He continued: “We need to challenge people with love and charity, and the expectation of calling them to something more without making them feel bad. We need to help them see the priority that Mass should be, while also being welcoming and hospitable ourselves.”

Aaron Weiman, whose family of nine consists of four elementary-aged children and are active within St. Francis Solanus, has seen the “fruitful” effects of this initiative so far.

“There is a lot of excitement around getting families back to church who need a little bit more of a push to get there, and then once they’re there to focus on keeping them engaged in their faith formation,” he told CNA. “It’s been exciting to look around and to see so many new faces and families in Sunday Mass this past month.”

Though the initiative still remains in early stages, Weiman expressed his hope for its continued effects throughout the Quincy area.

“[The Family School Agreement] seems to be focused on the spiritual renewal of our families that are involved in the Catholic schools and that we want in the parishes,” he continued. “The hope is that we instill our faith and make our area stronger as Catholics.”

National Eucharistic Congress participants heard the story of St. Manuel González García (1877–1940), a little-known saint who passionately urged people to recognize the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist and to never leave him abandoned in the tabernacle. / Credit: CarlosVdeHabsburgo, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Indianapolis, Ind., Jul 21, 2024 / 18:20 pm (CNA).

National Eucharistic Congress participants heard the story of St. Manuel González García (1877–1940), a little-known saint who passionately urged people to recognize the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist and to never leave him abandoned in the tabernacle.

Bishop Gerardo Colacicco, an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of New York, shared the story of the passionate Spanish saint who has been called “the bishop of the abandoned tabernacle” during a homily at Mass during the congress.

“The Eucharistic Revival began a few years ago because sadly, some of our Catholic brothers and sisters do not know or believe that our Lord is present, body, blood, soul, and divinity in the most Blessed Sacrament,” Colacicco said.

“Many have been wandering in the desert of despair, preoccupied by self and grumbling because they are hungry and nothing seems to satisfy. … Why? Because we failed to change. We failed to tell them the truth. Worse than that, we failed to fall on our knees in adoration. And many have been lost.”

Colacicco said that the example of St. Manuel, one of the patron saints of the U.S. bishops’ National Eucharistic Revival, can show us “how we move forward to make known the truth of the Real Presence in our midst.”

Born in Seville, Spain, in 1877, González was ordained a priest in 1901. He arrived at his first assignment to find that the tabernacle was ignored and the parish church neglected.

St. Manuel wrote in his journal: “My faith was looking at Jesus through the door of that tabernacle, so silent, so patient, so good, gazing right back at me. … His gaze was telling me much and asking for more. It was a gaze in which all the sadness of the Gospels was reflected.”

“For me, this turned out to be the starting point — to see, understand, and feel what would consume the whole of my priestly ministry. On that afternoon, I saw that my priesthood would consist of a work of which I had never before dreamt. All my illusions about the kind of priest I would be vanished. I found myself to be a priest of a town that didn’t love Jesus, and I would have to love him in the name of everybody in that town,” González said.

González devoted himself untiringly to loving the Eucharistic Lord with such intensity and devotion that others were drawn to that once-abandoned tabernacle, Colacicco explained. He founded schools, an order of sisters, preached missions, and was ordained a bishop.

After his episcopal ordination in Seville, he said: “I desire that in my life as a bishop, as before in my life as a priest, my soul should not grieve except for one sorrow which is the greatest of all, the abandonment of the tabernacle, and that it should rejoice for one joy, the tabernacle, which does not lack company.”

On his tomb in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel of Palencia Cathedral, it is written: “I ask to be buried next to a tabernacle, so that my bones after my death, like my tongue and my pen in life, may always be repeating to those who pass by: ‘Jesus is here! Jesus is here! Do not leave him abandoned!’”

First-class relics of González’s bone, blood, and hair were brought to Indianapolis from Spain by several sisters who are members of the Eucharistic Missionaries of Nazareth, the community he founded.

“Bishop Manuel teaches us that the very first thing we do is fall on our knees in front of the tabernacle and simply love Jesus who dwells within,” Colacicco said.

“It is our fervent prayer that our love for Jesus present in the Blessed Sacrament will be increased and be strengthened,” he said. “And when we leave this place and return to our homes, please God, may our love ignite a fire in the hearts of others that they may come to know, love, and serve our Eucharistic Lord.”

President Joe Biden waves on stage during the Vote To Live Properity Summit at the College of Southern Nevada in Las Vegas, Nevada, on July 16, 2024. / Credit: KENT NISHIMURA/AFP via Getty Images

CNA Staff, Jul 21, 2024 / 14:15 pm (CNA).

President Joe Biden on Sunday said he would not seek reelection, conceding to growing calls in his party to bow out of the race after a highly criticized debate against GOP nominee Donald Trump in June.

“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your president,” Biden, the second Catholic president of the United States, said in a July 21 statement posted on X. “And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term.”

Biden added that he would speak to the nation later in the week about the details of his decision.

In an X post sent about a half hour after his first announcement, Biden endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, for president in the 2024 election.

“My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my vice president,” he said. “And it’s been the best decision I’ve made. Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year.”

The Democratic president has since last month been facing growing calls from his party and from supporters to bow out of the 2024 race amid concerns that he will be unable to serve another four years as president.

Democratic officials and major party boosters began sounding the alarm after the first 2024 presidential debate last month when Biden repeatedly lost his train of thought and struggled to articulate his vision for the country.

Multiple Democratic U.S. senators have called for Biden to pull out of the race, as have Democratic members of the U.S. House including California Rep. Adam Schiff. Flurries of media reports have indicated that former Speaker of the House California Rep. Nancy Pelosi and former President Barack Obama have also been pushing Biden to bow out.

High-ranking donors and boosters have also been backing away from the Democratic Party amid fears that Biden remaining in the race could have devastating down-ballot effects for lower candidates. Actor George Clooney, a longtime Democratic fundraiser, said in the New York Times earlier this month that Democrats are “not going to win in November with this president.”

Clooney urged the top Democrats to “ask this president to voluntarily step aside” so the party can mount a last-minute nomination effort for another candidate.

Big donors also pulled their money from Democratic campaigns in the hopes of forcing Biden out. Filmmaker Abigail Disney this month said she would halt all Democratic donations “unless and until they replace Biden at the top of the ticket.”

The New York Times, meanwhile, reported this month that big-ticket donors were holding upwards of $90 million from a Biden super PAC until the president resigned from the race.

This story was updated July 21, 2024, at 2:22 p.m. ET.

Nearly 60,000 people attended the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis July 17-21, 2024. / Credit: Jeffrey Bruno

Indianapolis, Ind., Jul 21, 2024 / 14:00 pm (CNA).

The National Eucharistic Congress concluded Sunday with a Mass with tens of thousands of people in an NFL football stadium, where the crowd prayed for “a new Pentecost” in the U.S. Church.

Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle presided over the closing Mass in Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Stadium on July 21 as Pope Francis’ special envoy for the event. He shared that the pope told him that he desires the congress to lead to “conversion to the Eucharist.” 

“The presence of Jesus in the Eucharist is a gift and the fulfillment of his mission,” said the cardinal pro-prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Evangelization.

“Those who choose to stay with Jesus will be sent by Jesus,” Tagle added. “Let us go to proclaim Jesus zealously and joyfully for the life of the world.”

The nearly 60,000 Eucharistic congress attendees were sent out with “a great commissioning” on Sunday morning in which keynote speakers urged participants to proclaim the Gospel in every corner of the country. 

“What the Church needs is a new Pentecost,” Mother Adela Galindo, the foundress of the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary, told the crowd in her keynote speech before the Mass.

“The Church must be faithful to the Gospel … not watering down the message of the Gospel,” she said. “We were born for these times. It is a time to go out in haste to a world that urgently needs to hear God’s word and God’s truth.” 

“Here is what we need to proclaim,” the Nicaraguan sister said. “That no darkness is greater than the light of the Eucharist. That no sin is greater than the merciful heart of the Eucharist.”

“Basically, brothers and sisters, that love is greater than death!” exclaimed the nun, who received an enthusiastic standing ovation from the crowd.

More than 1,600 priests, seminarians, bishops, and cardinals processed into Mass in the Indianapolis Colts’ stadium in a dramatic opening procession lasting 25 minutes. An additional 1,236 religious sisters and brothers were praying in the stands, according to the event organizers. 

The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra played the classical hymns “Panis Angelicus” and “Ave Verum Corpus” as Communion was brought to tens of thousands of people in the stadium.

Many people commented on the incredible energy, positivity, and hope among the congress participants who traveled from all 50 states to take part in the five-day event July 17–21.

“I don’t want to sound dramatic, but the National Eucharistic Congress has been something of a triumph — a crowded, crazy, and occasionally chaotic triumph. Peace and joy reign,” Stephen White, the executive director of the Catholic Project, commented on X.

“His presence is palpable and pervasive. The Lord is here,” White added.

Father Aquinas Guilbeau, OP, predicted that the legacy of the National Eucharistic Congress will be like that of the 1993 World Youth Day held in Denver for the Church in the U.S.

“Its grace will shape the Church for the next 50 years,” Guilbeau said.

Nearly 60,000 tickets were sold for the National Eucharistic Congress, according to organizers, including the day passes that were sold after the start of the event. 

Tagle began his homily by greeting the crowd in more than five languages, including Chinese, Vietnamese, Spanish, French, and Italian.

“The Holy Father prays, as we all do, that the congress may bear fruit, much fruit, for the renewal of the Church and of society in the United States of America,” Tagle said.

In his homily, the cardinal noted that “where there is a lack or a weakening of missionary zeal, maybe it is partly due to a weakening in the appreciation of gifts and giftedness.”

“If our horizon is only that of achievement, success, and profit, there is no room to see and receive gratuitous gifts. There is no place for gratitude and self-giving,” he added. “There will only be a relentless search for self-affirmation that eventually becomes oppressive and tiring, leading to more self-absorption or individualism.

Tagle underlined that the Eucharist is “a privileged moment to experience Jesus’ mission as a gift of himself.”

At the end of Mass, Bishop Andrew Cozzens announced to roaring applause that the U.S. bishops are planning to hold another National Eucharistic Congress in 2033, the Year of Redemption marking 2,000 years since Jesus’ crucifixion. 

The bishop of Crookston, Minnesota, who spearheaded the Eucharistic revival, also announced that another Eucharistic pilgrimage from Indianapolis to Los Angeles will take place in 2025.

“What do you say as you come to the end of the 10th National Eucharistic Congress?” Cozzens said. “It has been my experience and I hope yours that we’ve lived an experience of heaven. Of course, the Eucharist is a foretaste of heaven.”

Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, arrives to the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s “God and Country Breakfast” at the Pfister Hotel on July 18, 2024 in Milwaukee. / Credit: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

National Catholic Register, Jul 21, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance is one of the most overtly religious major politicians in America.

Vance has written extensively about his life in faith, both in a mega-selling memoir and in a long essay that describes how a drug-using teenager with anger problems, family problems, school problems, and doubts about God became an accomplished, successful family man excited about being a Catholic.

But nowadays, he’s also the most questioned of religious politicians, as pro-lifers ask if he’s still one of them.

Where did he come from in faith? And how did he get where he is now?

Vance, who comes from a long line of culturally Protestant Scots-Irish Americans from Appalachia, was baptized Catholic in August 2019.

Below are 13 items about his meandering journey to Rome and the aftermath, drawn largely from his 3-million-copy-selling 2016 memoir “Hillbilly Elegy” and a 6,777-word essay he wrote about his conversion for the Easter 2020 issue of The Lamp, a Catholic magazine. 

Vance also talked about his conversion in an August 2019 interview with Rod Dreher published in The American Conservative.

1. J.D. Vance rarely went to church as a child.

Vance was largely raised by his grandmother, whom he called “Mamaw,” who believed in Jesus and liked Billy Graham but didn’t like what she called “organized religion.”

Vance wasn’t baptized as a child. The family members he spent the most time around generally didn’t go to church unless they were visiting their Appalachian ancestral home in Jackson, Kentucky.

Even so, he says in his memoir, his grandmother had “a deeply personal (albeit quirky) faith.”

2. Vance had a crisis of faith as a child.

When he was about 10, Vance had a moment of doubt.

“Mamaw, does God love us?” he asked his grandmother after a major disappointment, mindful of the fractured family life he and his half-sister were growing up in.

The question caused his grandmother to cry.

Vance doesn’t say how his grandmother answered the question. But he describes another instance when Mamaw accidentally went the wrong way on a three-lane interstate before making a U-turn, causing him to scream in terror.

“Don’t you know Jesus rides in the car with me?” his grandmother replied.

3. As a teenager, Vance was a Pentecostal.

As an adolescent, Vance reconnected with his biological father, whom he hadn’t seen much of after his parents split up. For a while, he stayed with his dad every other weekend.

“With little religious training, I was desperate for some exposure to a real church,” Vance wrote in “Hillbilly Elegy.”

His father had given up drinking and became a serious Pentecostal, and he would take Vance to a large Pentecostal church in southeastern Ohio with his new wife and their children.

Vance drank it in. Among other things, he rejected evolution and embraced millennialism, including a belief that the world would end in 2007.

“I’m not sure if I liked the structure or if I just wanted to share in something that was important to him — both, I suppose — but I became a devoted convert,” Vance writes in his memoir.

4. Vance didn’t like the Catholic Church when he was a kid.

Even before he started going to a Pentecostal church, Vance thought he knew certain things about Catholicism — which he didn’t like.

“I knew that Catholics worshipped Mary. I knew they rejected the legitimacy of Scripture. And I knew that the Antichrist — or at least, the Antichrist’s spiritual adviser — would be a Catholic,” Vance wrote in his April 2020 article in The Lamp of his once-misguided impressions.

5. Vance’s image of Jesus when he was growing up differed from his image of the Catholic Church’s image of Jesus.

One of Vance’s aunts married a Catholic, whom Vance liked and respected.

“I admired my uncle Dan above all other men …,” Vance wrote in “Hillbilly Elegy.”

His grandmother liked Dan, too.

But Catholicism seemed too formal and impersonal to her.

“The Catholic Jesus was a majestic deity, and we had little interest in majestic deities because we weren’t a majestic people,” Vance wrote in his conversion essay.

6. “Hillbilly Elegy” isn’t a conversion story.

Vance mentions the word “Catholic” or “Catholics” only five times in the 264-page book, and he never engages with Catholic teachings in it. He wrote it between 2013 and 2015, several years before he became a Catholic, and gives no hint that he had ever considered Catholicism.

He also doesn’t dwell in his book on his atheism as a young man, a period he describes at length in his conversion essay in The Lamp.

7. An Anglican philosopher provided the first crack in Vance’s atheism.

While he was still a nonbeliever, Vance encountered the work of English philosopher Basil Mitchell (1917–2011) in an undergraduate philosophy course at Ohio State.

As Vance describes it, Mitchell, who was a member of the Church of England, presented difficult experiences in life as a trial of faith that requires trust in God without fully understanding what God has in mind.

Vance was surprised by Mitchell’s presentation because as a young Christian he had always thought that “[d]oubt was unacceptable” and “that the proper response to a trial of faith was to suppress it and pretend it never happened.”

“But here was Mitchell,” Vance wrote in his conversion essay, “conceding that the brokenness of the world and our individual tribulations did, in fact, count against the existence of God. But not definitively.”

8. A homosexual billionaire influenced Vance’s outlook on life.

While a student at Yale Law School, Vance went to a talk by venture capitalist Peter Thiel, who was Facebook’s first outside investor and co-founded PayPal.

According to Vance, Thiel argued that elite professionals got themselves trapped into climbing rungs on the socioeconomic ladder at the expense of happiness.

Vance realized that he was “obsessed with achievement” for itself — “not as an end to something meaningful, but to win a social competition.” He also concluded that he “had prioritized striving over character.”

Thiel introduced Vance to the thought of René Girard (1923-2015), a French historian and philosopher whose writings, among other things, attracted Vance through the way he described Christianity as transcending the scapegoat myth of various cultures because Christ “has not wronged the civilization; the civilization has wronged him.”

Thiel, now 56, who identifies as a Christian and a conservative, is civilly married to a man. Vance worked for Thiel in venture capital, and Thiel was Vance’s major contributor in Vance’s successful run for U.S. Senate in Ohio in 2022.

9. Vance’s family ties kept him from becoming a Catholic for a long time.

Vance connected with Catholic doctrine several years after his grandmother died in 2005. It made sense to him.

“Yet I couldn’t shake the feeling that if I converted I would no longer be my grandmother’s grandson,” Vance wrote in The Lamp.

That left him in a sort of limbo.

“So for many years I occupied the uncomfortable territory between curiosity about Catholicism and mistrust,” he wrote.

10. Vance credits his Hindu wife with helping him convert to Catholicism.

Vance acknowledges having problems with anger stemming from his chaotic childhood and the destructive behavior of people in his family, especially his mother, who abused prescription drugs and went through a string of boyfriends and husbands.

That anger affected his relationship with Usha, his girlfriend in law school, but she helped him work through it to try to become the kind of husband and father he wanted to be. They married in 2014.

“The sad fact is that I couldn’t do it without Usha. Even at my best, I’m a delayed explosion — I can be defused, but only with skill and precision,” Vance wrote in “Hillbilly Elegy.”

Usha is the daughter of immigrants from India and a Hindu. Vance felt hesitant about joining the Catholic Church because he wasn’t a Catholic when they got married.

“But from the beginning, she supported my decision, so I can’t blame the delay on her,” Vance wrote in his conversion essay.

Vance has said the Church’s clergy sex-abuse scandal delayed his conversion by a few months.

11. Dominican priests helped draw Vance to Catholicism.

What Vance calls “a few informal conversations with a couple of Dominican friars” led to a period of serious study of Catholicism.

The process was gradual, with no a-ha moments.

But it included what he calls “some weird coincidences.”

During a late-night conversation at a hotel bar with an unnamed conservative Catholic writer, Vance says, he challenged the man for criticizing Pope Francis.

“While he admitted that some Catholics went too far, he defended his more measured approach,” Vance wrote in his conversion essay, “when suddenly a wine glass seemed to leap from a stable place behind the bar and crashed on the floor in front of us.”

That ended the conversation.

Another: While on a train from New York to Washington, D.C., Vance listened to a recording of an Orthodox choir singing a Psalm during Pope Francis’ visit to the country of Georgia in 2016.

When he got to Washington, he asked a Dominican friar to coffee.

“He invited me to visit his community, where I heard the friars chanting, apparently, the same psalm,” Vance wrote.

Vance was baptized in August 2019 by a Dominican priest, Father Henry Stephan, at St. Gertrude Priory, which is attached to a Dominican parish in Cincinnati, where Vance now lives.

Despite his Dominican connections, his confirmation saint is Augustine.

“I was pretty moved by the ‘Confessions,’” he told Rod Dreher. “I’ve probably read it in bits and pieces twice over the past 15 or so years. There’s a chapter from ‘The City of God’ that’s incredibly relevant now that I’m thinking about policy. There’s just a way that Augustine is an incredibly powerful advocate for the things that the Church believes. And one of the subtexts about my return to Christianity is that I had come from a world that wasn’t super-intellectual about the Christian faith. I spend a lot of my time these days among a lot of intellectual people who aren’t Christian. Augustine gave me a way to understand Christian faith in a strongly intellectual way. I also went through an angry atheist phase. As someone who spent a lot of his life buying into the lie that you had to be stupid to be a Christian, Augustine really demonstrated in a moving way that that’s not true.”

12. Vance credits practicing Catholicism with making him a better person.

Vance says practicing his Catholic faith has helped him increase his patience, curb his temper, forgive more easily, and choose his family over his career.

After he became a Catholic, Vance wrote in his conversion essay: “I realized that there was a part of me — the best part — that took its cues from Catholicism.”

13. Vance hasn’t yet explained how his current position on abortion squares with his Catholic faith.

Vance began public life as thoroughly pro-life.

In September 2021, several months after he began running for U.S. Senate in Ohio, Vance said he supported Texas’ law banning abortion.

“I think in Texas they’re trying to make it easier for unborn babies to be born,” Vance said during an interview with Spectrum News 1.

Asked about abortion in the cases of rape and incest, Vance said the question is “whether a child should be allowed to live.”

“Look, I think two wrongs don’t make a right. At the end of the day, we’re talking about an unborn baby,” Vance said (at 11:11 of the interview). “What kind of society do we want to have? A society that looks at unborn babies as inconveniences to be discarded?”

His tone shifted during a debate in October 2022 when he said he supported “reasonable exceptions,” including allowing a pregnant 10-year-old girl to have an abortion.

During a second debate that month, he said he supported a proposal in Congress at the time that would have banned abortion nationwide after 15 weeks.

More recently, Vance has aligned his public positions on abortion with those of his running mate, former president Donald Trump, who has said he wouldn’t sign a federal limitation on abortion and that he wouldn’t ban abortion pills.

On abortion pills, Vance told an interviewer on NBC on July 7 that he supports a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that, according to him, said that “the American people should have access to that medication.” Pressed about mifepristone, one of the two abortion chemicals, he said he supports access to it.

Vance has not at this writing publicly explained how he integrates his Catholic faith with his current position on abortion.

But he seemed to contemplate this sort of situation in an interview with Dreher in August 2019, shortly after his conversion and three years before he was elected to public office.

He noted that politics “is in part a popularity contest,” and he pointed out a tension between getting votes and living a life of faith.

“When you’re trying to do things that make you liked by as many people as possible, you’re not likely to do things that are consistent with the teachings of the Catholic Church,” Vance said then. “I’m a Christian, and a conservative, and a Republican, so I have definite views about what that means. But you have to be humble and realize that politics are essentially a temporal game.”

This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, and has been adapted by CNA.