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Billboard for AI priest Father Justin on social media. / Credit: Catholic Answers / Screenshot

National Catholic Register, Apr 29, 2024 / 13:30 pm (CNA).

Father Justin, we hardly knew ye.

Just days after debuting an artificial intelligence (AI) priest character to overwhelmingly negative reviews, Catholic Answers has given “Father Justin” the virtual heave-ho.

The lay-run apologetics and evangelization apostolate, based in El Cajon, California, said it will replace him on its app with a lay character named “Justin.” 

“We won’t say he’s been laicized, because he never was a real priest!” Catholic Answers said in a written statement.

“We chose the character to convey a quality of knowledge and authority, and also as a sign of the respect that all of us at Catholic Answers hold for our clergy,” the statement, from Catholic Answers’ president, Christopher Check, explained.

“Many people, however, have voiced concerns about this choice. We hear these concerns; and we do not want the character to distract from the important purpose of the application, which is to provide sound answers to questions about the Catholic faith in an innovative way that makes good use of the benefits of ‘artificial intelligence.’” 

Catholic Answers said it would continue to tweak the way it works with AI.

Depicted wearing a black cassock sitting among chirping birds, the bearded AI “priest” appeared oblivious to the cascade of criticism that erupted on social media after Catholic Answers debuted the character last week.

Some found him creepy. Some didn’t like his voice. Some worried about replacing actual human beings. Some didn’t like his character being a priest. 

“I say this with nothing but respect for you guys and your work, but ... this should’ve just been a plain search engine,” said Father Mike Palmer, a member of the Congregation of Holy Cross, on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter). “Dressing it up as a soulless AI avatar of a priest does absolutely nothing except cause confusion and invite mockery of your otherwise excellent work.”

Even so, “every knock a boost,” as the old saying about negative publicity goes.

As of last Wednesday afternoon, about 1,000 people an hour were using the “Father Justin” app. Traffic at the Catholic Answers website (Catholic.com) was up 77% in April 2024 versus April 2023, said Donna Barrack, director of marketing at Catholic Answers.

Demand was so high that it was taking minutes to receive an access code by email on Wednesday, something that normally takes a few seconds.

Last Wednesday, the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, ran into technical problems when it attempted to interact with “Father Justin.” Questions had to be shouted into a laptop microphone, and the app took time to translate them into printed words on the screen. “Eucharist” came out “caressed” and, later, “you, you, you.” “Communion” came across as “commute” and later “commune.”

When he understood a question, though, “Father Justin” provided a short, substantive answer.

Asked why you should go to church on Sunday, Father Justin answered with brief quotations from Scripture (Psalm 122:1; 1 Corinthians 12:27; John 6:54) and also explained: “When we gather together for Mass, we are united with Christ and each other in a profound way. We hear God’s Word in the Scriptures, and we receive Jesus himself in the Eucharist. … Going to church isn’t just an obligation, it’s a privilege and a joy.”

“Father Justin” was aimed at providing answers to questions faster than was possible with human apologists on staff. Several years ago, the organization took down a question-and-answer feature on its website because its staff apologists were inundated with thousands of queries.

“With our mission to explain and defend the Catholic faith, we do think artificial intelligence has a usefulness, at least as a starting point. I would caution against it being an ending point in your journey or in your search for answers,” said Chris Costello, director of information technology for Catholic Answers, in a Zoom interview, just prior to the decision to end Father Justin was announced.

Barrack said the “Father Justin” app was an attempt at “gamifying the question-and-answer process” to appeal to young people.

Costello said the intent was never to replace human apologists.

“Obviously, there’s something different in the human delivery,” Costello said. “People … don’t just want the answer. They want to understand the answer. And they want to talk about it and have a back-and-forth, which you can actually do with the application. But I think that there’s always going to be something missing if you don’t have an actual person.”

This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, and is reprinted here on CNA with permission.

null / Credit: Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Apr 29, 2024 / 12:40 pm (CNA).

A Pennsylvania priest was arrested this week after police say he misused tens of thousands of dollars in parish funds to purchase video games. 

Father Lawrence Kozak has been on administrative leave in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia since November 2022. The archdiocese told CNA his leave “followed a review of St. Thomas More Parish’s financial activity by the Archdiocesan Office for Parish Services and Support.” Kozak had previously been pastor at the Pottstown, Pennsylvania, parish. 

The archdiocesan review “resulted in certain expenses and expenditure levels utilizing parish funds being questioned,” the archdiocese said. After placing the priest on leave, the archdiocese “referred the matter to law enforcement.”

Pennsylvania law enforcement arrested Kozak last week in connection with the allegations. A criminal complaint filed by Pennsylvania State Police alleges that Kozak “used credit cards for the purpose of obtaining property or services using parish funds valued at” more than $41,000. 

The complaint revealed that an archdiocesan official observed incorrect coding in the parish’s financial records. The subsequent review revealed “an astronomical amount of Apple transactions” in the parish books. 

According to the parish records, nearly 2,200 transactions were related to a category of spending identified as “gaming.” The total amount spent in that category was just under $41,000. 

Among the games purchased using parish funds were Candy Crush, Pokemon GO, and several “slots” games. 

In an interview with law enforcement as part of the investigation, Kozak said he “didn’t realize when he went past the balance on his Apple Card [that] the charges were kicked over to the parish card,” the complaint said.

The priest “expressed that he’s disappointed that he let it get like this and that there’s no excuse except that he wasn’t paying attention and should have been.”

Law enforcement in 2023 met with the new pastor of the Pottstown parish who said that Kozak had paid the parish roughly $41,000 in “reimbursement” after he was put on leave. 

“I am so sorry that I made this mistake which has been any source of stress for you,” the priest wrote to the pastor at the time.

The investigation concluded that there was “probable cause that [Kozak] misused funds” from the parish.

In a statement to CNA on Monday, Archdiocese of Philadelphia spokesman Ken Gavin said Kozak is facing “felony theft charges” over the controversy.

“The archdiocese and the parish will continue to cooperate with law enforcement as the criminal matter enters its next phase,” Gavin said. 

“Pending the outcome of the criminal prosecution, Father Kozak remains on administrative leave,” he added.

The Verona Arena is illuminated at night on Aug. 3, 2018, in Verona, Italy. The Holy See Press Office on Monday, April 29, 2024, released the pope’s schedule for a one-day trip to the city scheduled for May 18, 2024, on the vigil of Pentecost.  / Credit: Athanasios Gioumpasis/Getty Images

Rome Newsroom, Apr 29, 2024 / 11:30 am (CNA).

After completing a one-day trip to Venice, Pope Francis is set to return to northern Italy in late May for a visit to the city of Verona, where he will attend events focused on peace and justice while also meeting with clergy, laity, and inmates. 

The Holy See Press Office on Monday released the pope’s schedule for the one-day trip scheduled for May 18 on the vigil of Pentecost. 

Located in the Veneto region, approximately 75 miles from Venice, the city is renowned for its trove of Roman antiquities, medieval architecture, and as the setting of Shakespeare’s tragedy “Romeo and Juliet.”

Pope Francis will leave the Vatican by helicopter at 6:30 a.m., arriving at Verona by approximately 8 a.m., where he will be greeted by Verona Bishop Domenico Pompili, Veneto President Luca Zaia, and Verona Mayor Damiano Tommasi.

From there the Holy Father will make his way by car to the Basilica of San Zeno, which bears the name of the fourth-century Afro-Italian saint who is the city’s patron. There he will deliver a speech to priests and consecrated religious. The pope will then make his way into the adjacent square, where he will address children and young people. 

The pope will subsequently visit the Verona Arena, a first-century Roman amphitheater — the third-largest in Italy, and one of the symbols of the city — where the pontiff will preside over an encounter titled ​​”Arena of Peace: Justice and Peace They Shall Kiss,” one of the main events of the day. 

The Arena of Peace assembly was first held in 1986 as a way to bring together individuals and organizations to discuss and confront difficult social issues. This year’s meeting will be focused on several themes including peace and disarmament, integral ecology, migration, work, democracy and rights, and lifestyles.

Later the pope will arrive by car to the Casa Circondariale di Montorio, a prison housing both men and women as well as isolated inmates and a number of foreigners, located on the city’s outskirts. The pope will deliver a speech addressed to prisoners, staff, and volunteers of the prison, which will be followed by lunch with the inmates. 

According to the Antigone Association, a project that issues an annual report on the conditions of Italy’s penitentiaries, at Montorio there are just under 600 inmates representing more than 40 nationalities. With a stated capacity of 335, Montorio is one of the most overcrowded prisons in Italy, a topic to which the pope drew attention in his speech to the female inmates at Venice’s Women’s Prison on the island of Giudecca on Sunday. 

The pontiff’s trip will end with an open-air Mass celebrated at Verona’s Marcantonio Bentegodi Stadium at 3 p.m. The Holy Father is scheduled to leave Verona at 4:45 p.m. and will arrive back at the Vatican by 6:15 p.m.

Archbishop Christopher J. Coyne. / Credit: Diocese of Burlington, Vermont

CNA Staff, Apr 29, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

A New England prelate is urging Catholics to both minister to transgender-identifying individuals in the Catholic Church while still continuously affirming “the goodness of human creation” as male and female.

Coadjutor Archbishop Christopher Coyne of Hartford, Connecticut, told CNA last week that he would make it a point not to challenge a transgender-identifying man or woman when they present as the opposite sex.

Coyne appeared on Connecticut Public Radio earlier this month arguing against the basic claim of gender ideology, which argues that men and women who “identify” as the opposite sex should be treated as such.

“Biology is biology. You’re either XX or XY. That’s a scientific fact. You can’t un-prove that fact,” the bishop told public radio. 

But, he argued, the LGBT debate has “pulled me more into a place of understanding and care,” including regarding transgender-identifying individuals. 

The prelate told CNA he would accept the identity of those men and women as they present themselves to him.

“It doesn’t cost me anything to accept them as they’re presenting themselves, as a brother or a sister, or whatever gender they’re asking me to refer to them as,” the archbishop said. “If they’d like to be referred to by this name or this pronoun, it doesn’t cost me anything to say, ‘Okay,’ and then begin a communication with this person.”

“If I start off just by beginning to define what the conversation will be, I could cut off an opportunity to bring that person more deeply into the Church,” the prelate said. 

“That doesn’t mean I accept what they’re bringing forward,” he pointed out. “It just means I accept what they’re presenting to me as brother or sister.”

Coyne was appointed to the Hartford Archdiocese last year and will succeed as archbishop once current Archbishop Leonard Blair retires. He has in the past offered candid opinions on Church matters, such as arguing that the Holy See should be moved out of Rome and expressing hope that the Church might in the future “ordain or name some deaconesses.”

He stressed to CNA this week that, when ministering to transgender-identified individuals, “the line obviously has to be clearly drawn” on matters such as ordination.

“The line has to be drawn clearly by way of biology,” he said. 

“We’re not intending to hurt this person or shut them off from the community,” he pointed out. “It would have to be clearly defined in terms of what we do. There are certain things that just can’t happen. Now, if that hurts the person and they decide they have to walk away, that’s unfortunate. But we haven’t changed any teachings on this matter.”

“Conversation is very important,” he said further. “When you’re dealing with these issues, especially [with] children — but at this point I’m talking about adults — we need conversation and clear understanding on what Church teaching in this matter is.”

Coyne stressed that, when dealing with children who suffer from gender dysphoria, “we have to be very careful.”

“When the child presents themselves with this issue, we have to first say, ‘We love you, we understand you’re going through these things, we have to be patient and walk with you.’” 

“We have to involve the parent, or parents,” he said. “We walk with the child, we love the child, and we work with the family.”

The Catholic Church in recent years has moved to address gender ideology. The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith this month released the declaration Dignitas Infinita, which stressed “the promotion of the dignity of every human person.”

The document states that “all attempts to obscure reference to the ineliminable sexual difference between man and woman are to be rejected” and that “only by acknowledging and accepting this difference in reciprocity can each person fully discover themselves, their dignity, and their identity.”

Asked how the Church might minister to transgender-identifying individuals while still affirming the truth about human bodies, Coyne said: “I think we continually talk about how we were made in the image of God, that God created us male and female biologically, and that that’s a good thing, and that’s something we should accept.” 

“How we live it out in terms of gender expression is another question,” he argued. 

But “we can continually affirm the goodness of human creation, and our bodies as male and female, and that it’s not something that needs to be in conflict with our gender, or seen as a mistake.” 

“It’s a given. It’s a beautiful thing,” he added. “It’s God’s graces already operating in that person by virtue of creation. Start with the theology.” 

The hidden chapel where St. Catherine of Siena died in Rome is located in the Palazzo Santa Chiara on Via di S. Chiara, 14. / Credit: Courtney Mares/CNA

Rome, Italy, Apr 29, 2024 / 04:00 am (CNA).

While most people associate St. Catherine with the Italian hill town of Siena, the Dominican doctor of Church is one of the patron saints of Rome and spent her last years in the Eternal City, where one can visit her tomb and the room where she died.

Located around the corner from the Pantheon, the tomb of St. Catherine of Siena sits within the high altar of the Basilica of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva under the striking blue and gold vaulted ceiling of Rome’s only church with a Gothic interior.

Visitors can reach out and touch the marble tomb as they pray on kneelers behind the altar, and many leave small pieces of paper scribbled with prayer intentions atop her sarcophagus. 

Even lesser known than her tomb is the exact location where St. Catherine died. It can be found by walking two minutes from the basilica along the Via di Santa Chiara. The building where St. Catherine lived in Rome with some of her followers has been replaced with a theater, the Opera Lirica di Roma.

Hidden inside the theater building is a little gilded chapel dedicated to St. Catherine that marks the spot where she died in Rome. People who want to visit can simply stop by and tell the theater staff that they wish to pray in the chapel. 

Sister Catherine Joseph Droste, a Dominican Sister of St. Cecilia in Nashville, Tennessee, is a theology professor at the Angelicum in Rome. In an interview at St. Catherine’s tomb, Droste told CNA about St. Catherine’s importance to the city of Rome.

“Catherine is co-patroness of Rome with Peter and Paul because of her role in helping the papacy to return to Rome,” Droste said.

When Catherine was born in 1347, the pope was living in Avignon, France. Catherine was adamant that the pope needed to return to Rome, so much so that she went to Avignon and spoke with Pope Gregory XI encouraging him to fulfill a secret promise he had made that if he became pope, he would return the papacy to Rome.

Gregory eventually heeded her request and returned to Rome in 1370, but during the reign of his successor, Pope Urban VI, French cardinals unhappy with Urban’s reform efforts elected an antipope in Avignon.

“Urban asks Catherine to come to Rome, so she came to Rome at the end of 1378 to help Urban with the reform,” Droste explained.

“And Catherine, in the last months of her life, even though she was very sickly, would walk daily from here [her residence in Rome] to the Vatican. … She would go there daily and pray for the pope,” she said.

“You can see today right as you walk into the Vatican before you go into the main church in the narthex — if you turn around, above the entrance there is a mosaic of Christ and the boat with the apostles in it — that was from the original basilica. It was in a different spot, but it is reported that that is where Catherine prayed daily for [the successor of] Peter.”

After Catherine died in the spring of 1380, the walls of the room where she died were moved to a small chapel inside the Basilica of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva. (This chapel can also be visited by passing through the basilica’s sacristy, which is a historic location in itself for hosting two papal conclaves in the 15th century.)

Pope Pius IX named St. Catherine a co-patroness of Rome in April 1866. Pope Pius XII named Catherine a co-patron saint of Italy in 1939, along with St. Francis of Assisi.

“Catherine has influenced me a great deal in my love of the Church, in my love of the papacy,” reflected Droste, who received the name Catherine when she made her vows as a religious sister.

“One of the most important messages of Catherine she learned from Christ,” she added. 

“Christ asked her one day, ‘Do you know who you are and who I am?’ And he said to her, ‘You are she who is not. I am he who is.’ Now that is a challenging phrase because many people would think that means ‘I am nothing.’ Well, I am nothing before God because he created me and gave me everything. But in his eyes, I am everything because I am a human being that he loves.”

“And so, Catherine would say, Christ is crazy in love with you. He’s madly in love with you. He’s drunk in love with you. So Catherine’s first message is understanding what it means to be a human being, to be loved by God. And that’s important for every one of us.” 

Watch more of the interview with Droste below.

Pope Francis prays in front of the tomb of St. Mark the Evangelist inside St. Mark's Basilica in Venice on April 28, 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA

Rome Newsroom, Apr 28, 2024 / 09:35 am (CNA).

Pope Francis had a full slate of events Sunday during his day trip to Venice, a trip that tied together a message of unity and fraternity with the artistic patrimony of a city that has been a privileged place of encounter across the centuries. 

“Faith in Jesus, the bond with him, does not imprison our freedom. On the contrary, it opens us to receive the sap of God’s love, which multiplies our joy, takes care of us like a skilled vintner, and brings forth shoots even when the soil of our life becomes arid,” the pope said to over 10,000 pilgrims gathered in St. Mark’s Square. 

Framing his homily during the Mass on the theme of unity, one of the central points articulated throughout several audiences spread across the morning, Pope Francis reminded Christians: “Remaining united to Christ, we can bring the fruits of the Gospel into the reality we inhabit.”  

“Fruits of justice and peace, fruits of solidarity and mutual care, carefully-made choices to preserve our environmental and human heritage,” the pope continued, seated center stage in a red velvet chair and vested in a white cope.

Pope Francis arrived in Venice early Sunday morning for a day trip to the prestigious Biennale art exhibition — which is celebrating its 60th anniversary — where the Holy See’s pavilion, titled “With My Eyes,” dovetails with this year’s broader theme: “Foreigners Everywhere.”

The pope’s visit also holds a deep meaning as Francis is the first pontiff to visit the Biennale — where the Vatican has held a pavilion since 2013. 

In his homily, Pope Francis pointed out that our relationship with Christ is not “static” but an invitation to “grow in relationship with him, to converse with him, to embrace his word, to follow him on the path of the kingdom of God.” 

Francis built upon this point to encourage “Christian communities, neighborhoods, and cities to become welcoming, inclusive, and hospitable places,” a point he linked to the image of the city of Venice as a “a place of encounter and cultural exchange.” 

Pope Francis observed that Venice “is called to be a sign of beauty available to all, starting with the last, a sign of fraternity and care for our common home,” the pope continued, highlighting the tenuous situation of Venice, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which faces a myriad of problems ranging from excessive tourism to environmental challenges such as rising sea levels and erosion.

After the recitation of the Regina Caeli, the pope entered St. Mark’s Basilica to venerate the relics of the evangelist before leaving by helicopter to return to the Vatican as pilgrims and tourists bid farewell from land and sea.

Earlier in the morning the Holy Father met with female inmates, staff, and volunteers at Venice’s Women’s Prison on the Island of Giudecca, where he spoke on the topic of human dignity, suggesting that prison can “mark the beginning of something new, through the rediscovery of the unsuspected beauty in us and in others.“

The deeply symbolic visit was followed by a brief encounter with the artists responsible for the Holy See’s pavilion at the Biennale, where the pope encouraged artists to use their craft “to rid the world of the senseless and by now empty oppositions that seek to gain ground in racism, in xenophobia, in inequality, in ecological imbalance and aporophobia, that terrible neologism that means ‘fear of the poor.’”

The Holy Father traveled by a private vaporetto, or waterbus, bearing the two-tone flag of Vatican City, to the 16th-century baroque Basilica of Santa Maria della Salute, which sits on the Punta della Dogana, where he met with a large group of young people. 

Reflecting on the visit as a “beautiful moment of encounter,” the pope encouraged the youth to “rise from sadness to lift our gaze upward.” 

“Rise to stand in front of life, not to sit on the couch. Arise to say, ‘Here I am!’ to the Lord, who believes in us.” Building on this message of hope, which the pope emphasized is built upon perseverance, telling them “don’t isolate yourself” but “seek others, experience God together, find a group to walk with so you don’t grow tired.” 

The pope made his way to St. Mark’s Square in a white open-top golf cart bearing the papal seal, where he closed his visit with Mass. At the end of the Mass Archbishop Francesco Moraglia, the patriarch of Venice, thanked the pope for his visit. 

“Venice is a stupendous, fragile, unique city and has always been a bridge between East and West, a crossroads of peoples, cultures, and different faiths,” Moraglia noted. 

“For this reason, in Venice, the great themes of your encyclicals — Fratelli Tutti and Laudato Si’ — are promptly reflected in respect and care for creation and the person, starting with the good summit of life that must always be respected and loved, especially when it is fragile and asks to be welcomed.”

Pope Francis waves while traveling by boat in Venice, Italy, for a meeting with young people at the Basilica della Madonna della Salute on April 28, 2024. Earlier in the day he met with inmates at a women's prison. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA

Rome Newsroom, Apr 28, 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA).

Pope Francis opened his one-day visit to Venice on Sunday morning with a meeting with female inmates where he reaffirmed the importance of fraternity and human dignity, noting that prison can be a place of new beginnings. 

“A stay in prison can mark the beginning of something new, through the rediscovery of the unsuspected beauty in us and in others, as symbolized by the artistic event you are hosting and the project to which you actively contribute,” the pope said to the female inmates gathered in the intimate courtyard of the Women’s Prison on the Island of Giudecca. 

Pope Francis left the Vatican by helicopter at approximately 6:30 in the morning, arriving in the Floating City by 8 a.m. The pope’s visit, albeit short, holds a deep meaning as Francis is the first pontiff to visit the prestigious Venice Biennale art exhibition, which is marking its 60th iteration. As part of the exhibition the Holy See has erected a pavilion at the women’s prison titled “With My Eyes.” The pope also spoke with artists while he visited the pavilion.

Taking a center seat in the intimate courtyard of the 16th-century former convent, the pope opened his address by saying that he wanted it to be thought not as an “official visit” but an “encounter” centered on “prayer, closeness, and fraternal affection.” 

“No one should take away people’s dignity,” Pope Francis said to the inmates, volunteers, and staff, joined by the patriarch of Venice, Archbishop Francesco Moraglia. 

Drawing attention to the “harsh reality” of prison, the pope highlighted some of the problems inmates are confronted with, “such as overcrowding, the lack of facilities and resources, and episodes of violence, [which] give rise to a great deal of suffering there.” 

But Francis, anchoring his message on hope and mercy, implored the women to “always look at the horizon, always look to the future, with hope.” 

The pope continued by noting that prison can also be a place of “moral and material rebirth where the dignity of women and men is not ‘placed in isolation’ but promoted through mutual respect and the nurturing of talents and abilities, perhaps dormant or imprisoned by the vicissitudes of life, but which can reemerge for the good of all and which deserve attention and trust.” 

Pope Francis stressed that it is “fundamental” that prisons offer inmates “the tools and room for human, spiritual, cultural and professional growth, creating the conditions for their healthy reintegration. Not to ‘isolate dignity’ but to give new possibilities.” 

“Let us not forget that we all have mistakes to be forgiven and wounds to heal and that we can all become the healed who bring healing, the forgiven who bring forgiveness, the reborn who bring rebirth,” the pope added. 

At the end of the encounter there was a lighthearted exchange when the pope, after asking the inmates — who responded, in unison, “Of course!” — to pray for him, quipped: “But in my favor, not against.”

At the end of the address, the pope presented an icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary as a gift to the inmates, saying: “Mary has tenderness with all of us, with all of us, she is the mother of tenderness.” In return the female inmates presented the pope with a basket of all-natural toiletries they make through a worker-training program. 

Following the encounter with the inmates, the pope made his way to the prison’s chapel, where he spoke to the artists, imploring them to use their craft to envision a world based on fraternity where “no human being is considered a stranger.” 

“Art has the status of a ‘city of refuge,’” the pope said to the artists, “a city that disobeys the regime of violence and discrimination in order to create forms of human belonging capable of recognizing, including protecting and embracing everyone.” 

Prayer house at San Simeone, Italy, September 2012. / Credit: Courtesy of Ricostruttori nella preghiera

Rome, Italy, Apr 28, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Across Italy there are houses of prayer run by the Ricostruttori (Reconstructors) community, a Catholic movement dedicated to people who are far from the Church but attracted to spirituality, particularly Eastern meditation and Buddhist practices. 

The Reconstructors was founded in 1978 by Jesuit Father Gian Vittorio Cappelletto.

“During the postconciliar period, the Church was faced with the need for new forms of evangelization and apostolate, to reach out to people who were drifting away,” Don Roberto Rondanina, priest and superior of the Ricostruttori, explained to CNA. “It was a time when Eastern meditation, Hinduism, Buddhism, the New Age ... were beginning to spread in Europe.” 

“Father Cappelletto, who lived in Turin, sought to understand the meaning of this ‘flight to the East’ and felt the need to find new forms of spirituality that were more experiential, closer to mysticism, open to mystery, allowing to touch one’s own interiority,” Rondanina said. 

To achieve this, Cappelletto drew some inspiration from Indian masters, recovering from their teachings forms of profound prayer with a Christian matrix, such as the famous “Jesus prayer” (“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner”).

“His encounter with the East was an opportunity to rediscover this vein, which had previously been confined to monasticism, particularly in the Orthodox Church, but which was not widely practiced here at the time,” Rondanina said.

The East that leads to Christ

Cappelletto then designed a meditation course for the public with some characteristics similar to Eastern forms of meditation.

“It wasn’t a lectio divina type of meditation; there was posture, breathing, silence, and it had a big impact in the ’80s and ’90s because it was something new,” the superior said. 

According to Rondanina, who is the first successor to the founder, who died in 2009, Cappelletto’s “strong intuition” was to adopt technical disciplines from the East containing certain aspects of physical and psycho-physical attention and orient them “towards Christ and the Church.”

“Furthermore,” he told CNA, “Father Cappelletto has deepened an anthropological vision that is lacking in the East: the human person seen as a unique person who must be valued. Eastern schools tend to move towards an experience of the impersonal divine, where the divine in myself and in others is more essential than anything that defines the person. In the Western Christian matrix, on the other hand, each person makes his or her own choices, builds his or her own life and retains his or her uniqueness, expressed also in the dogma of the Resurrection.”

The Reconstructors today

The movement launched by Cappelletto spread by word of mouth throughout Italy, from Piedmont to Sicily. Today, it is recognized as a public association of the faithful, encompassing people from various backgrounds and vocations. 

The community is made up of about 30 priests, a few laymen, and about 40 laywomen. In all, there are just under 70 consecrated people. The priests are incardinated in their dioceses, while the laypeople work outside — as bank officials, doctors, religious teachers, or employees of charitable organizations.

More than 200 associates have also joined the movement. They are not consecrated but participate in the charism of the community in some way. “But it is much bigger than that,” Rondanina said. “Many people frequent our houses; it’s difficult to quantify.”

The landscape has changed a lot since the early days. 

“Before, there were hardly any non-baptized people. People knew the Church. Today, we find people who are far away but who haven’t moved away, simply because they’ve never been close.”

As in the past, the Reconstructors centers offer a methodical evangelization program, beginning with meditation, raising awareness of the sacred dimension, and then providing Catholic teaching.  

The reconstruction of man

The name of the community — “Ricostruttori” — has a few different meanings. 

“Our community is linked to the manual labor of reconstruction, as many of our out-of-town centers for retreats have been reconstructions,” Rondanina explained. “We began by restructuring an old building (cascinali) that had been used as housing for women working in the rice fields in the 1950s.”

This work of reconstruction also symbolizes the inner rebuilding of the person. For Rondanina, who teaches philosophy, personal reconstruction is an ongoing journey. Likewise, “to keep a youthful movement, and not close ourselves off in dogmatic forms, we must always be searching.”

Spiritual growth, the priest added, “happens when you move from the phase where you think you’ve found the magic wand to solve all your problems, the initial phase of youth where everything seems rosy, to a phase of crisis, where you take a step forward. The kingdom of God advances like this, with the ability to see our limits, to rebuild ourselves time after time, to understand where we went wrong, to remove the dross to get to the essential things.”

Every Tuesday evening at 10 p.m., between 800 and 900 students converge on the historic St. Joseph’s Chapel at Lille Catholic University for a candlelight Mass. / Credit: Courtesy of Prudence Cuypers

National Catholic Register, Apr 27, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

“The good makes no noise,” St. Francis de Sales would say of Lille’s candlelight Mass. 

Indeed, while France regularly shows itself to be at the forefront of the de-Christianization of the West and recently made headlines for its constitutionalization of abortion, the embers of Christian renewal are already igniting — quietly yet powerfully — on the country’s northern horizon.

Every Tuesday evening at 10 p.m., between 800 and 900 students converge on the historic St. Joseph’s Chapel at Lille Catholic University for a candlelight Mass. This number has been growing month after month since the initiative was launched in 2016 and has significantly increased the number of new catechumens there journeying toward baptism.

For its initiators, this unexpectedly successful formula is a universal model to be exported to touch the souls of the vast number of young people who thirst for interiority in a world profoundly atomized by the expansion of the virtual world into all spheres of daily life.

‘Simplicity of beauty’

Launched on the initiative of a group of six students in a small chapel under the chaplaincy of the prestigious Lille university (France’s largest private not-for-profit university, also known as “La Catho”), the candlelight Mass quickly surpassed the 300-participant mark, forcing the organizers to relocate in order to continue to welcome the growing flow of students, whether believers or simply curious. 

To this end, in 2019, the large St. Joseph’s Chapel adjoining the school, which celebrated its 100th anniversary this year and was long used as a room for students to take exams, was restored. The following year, the building’s capacity of some 600 seats was met at the Mass, forcing students to arrive early to avoid standing or sitting on the floor. 

During Lent this year, the security service had to turn away hundreds of faithful, as current regulations forbid the reception of more than 900 people in the building.

How to explain the craze for a Mass in the middle of the week when Europe’s churches are tending to empty out at a worrying rate? 

While traditionalist and charismatic movements within the Church have had a rare ability to galvanize crowds in France in recent years, as demonstrated by the incredible success of pilgrimages to Chartres and Paray-le-Monial, this Mass in Lille makes no claim to any particular identity or sensibility, other than an attachment to the beauty of the liturgy and the quality of its preachers. The chants are usually sung by a polyphonic choir, whose depth and musicality the participants praise.

“Over and above the various movements developing within the Church today, I think that what is most likely to attract young people is the simplicity of beauty,” said Joséphine Auberger, a student at La Catho and head of communications at the chaplaincy.

She added: “I have a friend who usually only attends the Traditional Latin Mass, precisely because of his quest for beauty, and who finds himself completely in this celebration, and I think he’s far from alone.”

For Louis Tranié, a physiotherapy student and vice president of the chaplaincy office, the “WYD Lisbon” effect (referring to the World Youth Day that attracted hundreds of thousands of pilgrims to the Portuguese capital in August 2023) has also added to the fervor surrounding this weekly gathering.

“People attract people; word of mouth has played a big part in this unexpected triumph, not to mention the fact that immersion in the dark also attracts many young people estranged from the Church, who are thus no longer afraid of being judged by their neighbors,” Tranié noted.

“The time — 10 p.m. — also represents free time for these students, who have finished their day and generally have nothing planned for that time,” evoking an ideal moment to “give something to God and receive something in return,” added Father Charles-Marie Rigail, chaplain at the Catholic university.

Anchor in a changing world

Placed mainly in the choir and central aisle, so that only Christ on the crucifix is illuminated, the candles are there to help the young participants raise their gaze to heaven in an authentic heart-to-heart with God, stripped of all worldly artifice. 

“Everything is focused on the Word of God, of his Church, which goes so much further than what men are capable of creating, and which is part of a long history and tradition that goes back a long way, offering a solid anchor for all those who are thinking about their future and feel they are living in a very changeable world, very liquid and filled with uncertainties,” Rigail said.

He added with a smile that the world’s Instagram and other social networks, on which young people spend a lot of their time, will never be able to quench this thirst to belong to something beyond fashions and ephemeral electronic devices.

“This is how to touch people’s hearts, break down current prejudices about the Church, and raise awareness of its usefulness and relevance, trying to offer something that is good and as right as possible.”

The young chaplain also pointed out that, alongside the community dimension instilled by the crowd, this darkness penetrated by candlelight alone makes for a very personal experience, a necessary condition for the interiority that this Mass aims to foster.

Creating torchbearers 

Apart from the triumph of the initiative, revealed by figures directly at odds with the general trend in the country, other fruits are already visible, made manifest by the doubling of new catechumens every year for the past four years. 

“I make it a point to stay and chat with people after Mass, and I meet all kinds of people, from classic practicing Catholics to avowed atheists, some of whom, moved by what they saw, end up wanting to know more, while some nonpracticing believers decide to go further in their faith,” Rigail said. 

This evangelizing mission is reinforced throughout the rest of the week by the various activities promoted by the eight young members of the chaplaincy office and the many volunteers who assist them.

The ultimate mission of this initiative, as Rigail recalled, is in fact not to turn those who approach it into “consumers of beautiful liturgy” but rather into Catholics capable of being actors of their own faith and exporting this model once they’ve left university.

“We’d be missing the point if, on arriving in their local parishes, these young people were discouraged by far less engaging celebrations and decided to travel 50 kilometers to find a liturgy that suited them,” he concluded. “On the contrary, our aim is to increase their appreciation of the liturgy to the point of encouraging them to roll up their sleeves and get more involved in their parishes to enhance the beauty of the celebrations and thus reproduce locally the ‘little miracle of Lille.’”

This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, and is reprinted here on CNA with permission.

Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne attends a German Synodal Way assembly on March 9, 2023. / Credit: Synodaler Weg/Maximilian von Lachner

CNA Newsroom, Apr 26, 2024 / 13:57 pm (CNA).

Four German bishops on Wednesday distanced themselves from the controversial Synodal Way’s plans for a permanent body to oversee the Church in Germany, instead appealing for unity with the universal Church. 

The four bishops are the same who have previously blocked funding for this body: Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne and three prelates from Bavaria: Gregor Maria Hanke, OSB, of Eichstätt; Stefan Oster, SDB, of Passau; and Rudolf Voderholzer of Regensburg.

In a joint statement, the prelates confirmed on April 24 that they would not be parties to a committee charged with setting up a German “Synodal Council, as this would conflict with the sacramental constitution of the Church.”

The four bishops also rejected the view that the German Bishops’ Conference could legally establish a “synodal committee” if four of its members did not support the committee. 

Given the Vatican’s repeated interventions against the German process, the bishops said on Wednesday they would instead look to the Synod of Bishops in Rome to point the way for “a more synodal Church [in Germany] in unity with the universal Church.

Warning of a threat of a new schism from Germany, the Vatican intervened as early as July 2022 against plans for a German synodal council. 

In January 2023, Rome asserted “that neither the Synodal Way, nor any body established by it, nor any bishops’ conference has the competence to establish the ‘synodal council’ at the national, diocesan, or parish level.” German Bishops’ Conference president Bishop Georg Bätzing immediately dismissed the warning. 

In the meantime, Synodal Way organizers have continued with plans to establish a synodal committee: On Monday, April 22, German diocesan bishops approved the statutes for a synodal committee.

The move is a significant development: The German prelates were initially expected to vote on the statutes for a preparatory committee during their February plenary assembly. 

However, that vote was suspended following another Vatican intervention. 

Following a March meeting where “differences and points of agreement were identified,” the Vatican and Synodal Way supporters announced they would work together to resolve the issues.

Given that the bishops have now adopted the statutes for a synodal committee and the lay organization ZdK already approved these on Nov. 25, 2023 — despite earlier warnings from Rome of the risk of a new German schism — it is unclear how, or if, the Vatican will respond. 

According to an earlier report on the official portal of the Church in Germany, katholisch.de, the synodal committee will still meet again in June to discuss plans. 

The Synodal Way — “Synodaler Weg,” sometimes translated as Synodal Path — is not a synod but a highly controversial event designed to create “pressure” on the Church, as one founder has admitted. 

The German process, which cost several million dollars, not only aims to establish a permanent synodal council: Delegates also passed several resolutions to change Church practices based on transgender ideology and have called for the priestly ordination of women, same-sex blessings, as well as changes to Church teaching on sexual acts.