Click here for Mark Pattison’s article on the Alliance to End Human Trafficking and the critical work they do. It’s an article that is as timely as it is telling—with the Super Bowl held this month in Las Vegas, Nevada, trafficking numbers will surely spike. But it’s a year-round problem in this country with far reach. “Trafficking happens in every zip code,” says Katie Boller Gosewisch, the Alliance’s executive director. That means it’s happening in our own communities. You can learn more about them at AlliancetoEndHumanTrafficking.org. 

I’d also like to welcome one of our newest authors, Dr. Ansel Augustine, who wrote the article “The Gift of Diversity.” Dr. Augustine’s work with the vulnerable of New Orleans is both awe-inspiring and deeply moving. We hope you enjoy this issue. 

St. Teresa of Calcutta once said: “Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.” This magazine is our humble attempt to bring love and light into an often dark world. We’re glad you’re with us on the journey. 

Millions of people worldwide are trafficked. Members of the Alliance to End Human Trafficking, an organization founded by Catholic sisters, discuss their ongoing work and advocacy for survivors. 

“Trafficking happens in every zip code,” says Katie Boller Gosewisch, executive director of the Alliance to End Human Trafficking, which was founded and is supported by Catholic sisters. Inevitably, she adds, someone will declare: “‘Oh, my town is a major hub of trafficking.’ And I try to explain that every place is a hub of trafficking, because it happens everywhere.” 

Some cities will see big upticks if they’re hosting the Super Bowl, which is right around the corner, or the political parties’ national conventions. “Any big event that attracts people is going to attract traffickers,” Boller Gosewisch says. 

The United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime’s “Palermo Protocol” is 20 years old, having taken effect in September 2003. Its purpose is threefold: prevent, suppress, and punish trafficking in persons, especially women and children; stop the smuggling of migrants; and cease the illicit manufacturing of and trade in firearms. 

But since then, desperate poverty, drugs, gangs, wars, and other domestic upheavals have caused even more people to flee their homelands, exposing them to greater vulnerability than they faced originally. 

A 2023 State Department report states that of the 14,000 who are either self-reported as having been trafficked or who are reported by law enforcement, 72 percent of them are in the US immigration system in some way, according to Boller Gosewisch. 

Organizing a United Front

Formerly known as US Catholic Sisters against Human Trafficking, the Alliance to End Human Trafficking unveiled its new name at a late-September conference in Chicago. Alliance leadership recognized there was a need to draw non-sisters into the effort. As of last summer, there were 115 institutes of women religious and 100 institutional members—all women. 

The organization got its start in 2013. A group of sisters had been invited to the White House, according to Boller Gosewisch. The sisters participated in “many different ministries and housing for survivors of human trafficking, but there was no overarching Catholic voice to work to end human trafficking,” she says. 

“Fifteen orders came together and said, ‘We need to be able to connect people with each other’—best practices, resources, placement in some instances,” Boller Gosewisch says. 

Once organized, US Catholic Sisters against Human Trafficking became the US representative in the Vatican’s Talitha Kum network. Talitha Kum gets its name from the Gospel account of Jesus raising the centurion’s daughter from the dead by saying in Aramaic, “Talitha kum,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.” 

Talitha Kum is “a network of networks,” Boller Gosewisch explains, as national groups share reports about human trafficking in their own countries, as well as legal and pastoral approaches on how to combat trafficking and help trafficking survivors. Sister Abby Avelino, a Philippines-born Maryknoll sister, is Talitha Kum’s international coordinator in Rome. Until her new posting in September 2022, most of her ministry had been in Japan tending to Filipino migrants—although she had noticed a recent rise in the number of Vietnamese migrants. 

During the Alliance conference she explained that there are 50 million men, women, and children worldwide who are trafficked. But by the same token, “Talitha Kum has grown significantly,” she adds. Asia has four networks, not including the Middle East; Morocco and Fiji have emerging networks. Thirteen percent of men’s orders worldwide have Talitha Kum membership. Networks of laity and young people have made themselves known. And there are more than a half-million people involved in training, research, advocacy, or care for survivors—up 40 percent from 2021. 

Sister Abby told the story of two children trafficked from Sudan to Libya who are now in Chad. “They are victims, but they are nowhere to be found until contact with the sisters,” she says. “They were only going to find their mama. 

“I do believe everyone must join this campaign to end human trafficking and exploitation,” Sister Abby adds. “So many people are forced to flee their country of origin.” 

The Many Faces of Trafficking

Most people equate human trafficking with prostitution. Lisa Haba, an attorney in Orlando, Florida, told the story of an 11-year-old girl who had been groomed for two years by her pimp before she succumbed to his come-ons—he said he was only 13 himself and that he cared for her more than her parents did. She was lured into prostitution when he beseeched her, “If you love me, you’ll do this,” which mushroomed into a daily, multiple-times-per-day nightmare. 

“What are traffickers really good at? Finding a vulnerability and exploiting it,” Haba says. “She was labeled by police as a crack whore. She was disregarded as ‘just a prostitute. She’s underage.’ No one was looking for her. Nobody cared about her, except for her family. She met a police officer who understood human trafficking, and she was rescued.” 

“It’s a vastly underreported crime. It’s hard to report. And with the pandemic it was driven even further underground,” Boller Gosewisch says. “Kids are getting approached in direct messages on social media. Kids are getting approached through gaming. They need to be taught what is and what is not OK.” 

A criminal activity it may be, “but more often than not, the trafficked person is going to be arrested, because they’re the ones engaging people,” she adds. “There’s more people and more likelihood [of arrest]. 

“We do support expungement laws. [Trafficked individuals] become addicted, so they might be arrested for drug laws. But that’s one way trafficking works. It’s just another way to control or prostitute a person.” 

Maryknoll lay missioner Heidi Cerneka spent 18 years in Brazil. “One of the projects had to do with foreign women who were arrested for drug trafficking,” she says. “At some point, I would hear their stories and say to myself, ‘Wow, she doesn’t have a choice, she was forced into this, she was trapped into this.’ 

“This person was trafficked into what happened to her. She’s a victim, and you have to look at her differently,” Cerneka adds. “You have to first consider this woman a victim of human trafficking and then decide how you respond.” 

Labor trafficking is on the rise and, by some accounts, now ensnares even more people than sex trafficking. Terry Coonan, executive director of the Florida State University Center for the Advancement of Human Rights and a practicing attorney, cited numerous examples in his remarks at the Alliance conference. The center tracked Florida’s roofing industry for unaccompanied migrant minors after a hurricane. One was a 15-year-old boy from El Salvador who was abandoned by his work crew in a ditch. It was brutal work—he fell off roofs many times—but at least he’d get a beer every night. “All he wanted to do was work,” Coonan says. 

In another example, Bladimir Moreno, who owned a Florida farm labor contracting firm, fraudulently recruited farmworkers from Mexico. Upon their arrival in the United States, he confiscated their passports. “Moreno claimed that if workers wanted their visas and passports back, they’d have to pay him,” Coonan says. 

“He stood out in the field with a machete to enforce the rules he set. They worked 12- to 16-hour days,” he adds. Moreno submitted false documents of workers’ pay and hours to the US government. In actuality, “he was paying them only a dollar or two an hour. 

“Moreno also threatened workers with deportation and harm to their Mexican families,” Coonan notes. 

Two workers escaped in the back of a car and contacted a human rights organization, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, based in Florida. After a two-year investigation by the FBI and the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division, Moreno was tried and convicted in federal court, where 17 victims testified. He got a 118-month sentence for forced labor and racketeering, and victims were awarded $175,000 in restitution. 

Money Drives Trafficking

Fewer people can plead ignorance to human trafficking. The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, which has several Catholic investment funds in its overall portfolio, has managed to get publicly traded businesses to cast a more watchful eye. 

Martina Vandenberg, founder of the Human Trafficking Legal Center and a former investigator for Human Rights Watch, told the story of a religious sister who was pushing a business leader to do the right thing when it came to human trafficking. That woman religious was Sister Ann Scholz, a School Sister of Notre Dame, who was recognized during the Alliance conference as the cofounder of US Catholic Sisters against Human Trafficking. 

The corporate type “underestimated her,” Vandenberg said at the conference. Sister Ann “said to this man, ‘I have $1 billion of investment under supervision, and I demand that you get forced labor out of the supply chain.’” Money talked; the company did as she demanded. 

“What drives human trafficking? Money,” Haba said at the conference. “The thing that made the difference is when the money got hit.” 

Vandenberg reported on the case of an American diplomat who was “found liable for sexually enslaving a housekeeper” on two different occasions. The first judgment against him was for $3.33 million. The jury verdict in the second case was an even $3 million. 

After notorious child-sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein took his own life in his jail cell, JP Morgan Chase paid out a $290 million settlement to Epstein’s accusers. Deutsche Bank paid out a $75 million settlement, plus a $150 million US fine for not enforcing its own statutes. Restitution is a big deal for trafficking survivors, who much prefer going to civil court rather than revisiting their trauma in a criminal trial. “In sex trafficking, it’s whatever the trafficker earned . . . and the number of days,” Vandenberg says. She cited one case in which a sex trafficker told the woman he had prostituted, “You have to bring me $500 a day.” She got the money. 

Acting in Solidarity

Because of the heinous nature of trafficking, sisters and others have developed a pastoral response. 

“You cannot talk about migration without talking about human trafficking,” said Sister Michelle Loisel, a Daughter of Charity who was trained as a nurse, spent 25 years in Lebanon seeing Sri Lankans get trafficked, and helped run Dawn’s Place, a shelter for trafficking survivors in Philadelphia, for eight years. 

“I know too much about human trafficking. I was really concerned about seeing some of these victims,” Sister Michelle says. “I guess it’s something you keep in your mind, and when the opportunity arrives, and you ask yourself, ‘What can I do now? What can I focus on?’ To work, to help and alleviate some suffering that these people can endure indefinitely.” 

It was working with immigrant families that led Sister Deirdre Griffin, a Sister of St. Joseph of Springfield, Massachusetts, to go to law school. Although currently in Boston, her ministry is working in El Paso with Maryknoll lay missioners; together they started a transnational ministry with Ciudad Juarez on the Mexican side of the border. 

Given the “political instability, gang violence, and climate change, people feel they have no choice but to migrate if they want to survive,” Sister Deirdre says. “Quite often, the challenge becomes connecting them with appropriate resources. Most are eager to move along. In many ways that’s a good thing. It takes a number of years to file a valid asylum claim,” she notes, and more years for the claim to be upheld. She characterizes her ministry as “so much of what Catholic sisters have always done. Wherever you find a sister, you’re going to find 10 other laypeople.” 

Sister Ann Scholz co-led a workshop, “Faithful Advocacy: Building the Beloved Community,” during the Alliance conference. “We’re called first to risk encounter,” she said, “to have our hearts broken by an authentic encounter with God in the guise of God’s creation.” 

She added it was important to “see—really see—our suffering earth-home and all those who know injustice. And we’re compelled to ask why, why, why, why? Why is it so? Why is there poverty and inequity? Why is there the destruction of God’s creation?”  

And, after witnessing such injustice, the next step is to “act in solidarity with those who are marginalized and most excluded.”  

Black Catholics have long struggled with the evil of racism both within and outside the Church in the United States. A prominent African American Catholic author and activist reflects on how diversity brings about both healing and a richer faith.  

Anyone who knows me understands that my favorite time of year in my hometown of New Orleans is Mardi Gras. This is because it is a sacred time for my cultural family—the Black Masking Indians, more commonly known as the Mardi Gras Indians. 

During the era of segregation, people of color could not go to certain parades. Therefore, the parades in Black neighborhoods were held by the various Black Masking culture bearers such as the Indians, Baby Dolls, and Skeletons. These traditions—specifically the Mardi Gras Indians—can be traced back to the 1600s during the gatherings that occurred in Congo Square in the Tremé area of New Orleans. At these gatherings centuries ago, our enslaved ancestors formed alliances with the Indigenous people who would attend as well. The Indigenous people of the area, another group oppressed during colonization, helped slaves escape to freedom and even offered protection for some of them by making them part of their tribes. 

Tremé, which I call home, is the oldest Black neighborhood in the country. It is also the location of St. Augustine Church, the oldest Black Catholic parish in the United States. Even prior to the development of contemporary Catholic social teaching, the diverse groups in Tremé were living out some of its themes, such as recognizing the life and dignity of the human person and solidarity, to name a few. 

Much as our ancestors did, Black Catholics are still trying to find our rightful place in the Church and struggling with the effects of marginalization and racism in the United States. There is much work that is needed to be done—especially within the Church itself—to address these pain points. 

Lessons from Sister Thea

In 1989, Servant of God Sister Thea Bowman, FSPA, did exactly that when she spoke to the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) at their annual June meeting. She explained what it meant to be Black (specifically, African American) and Catholic. She said: “That means I come to my Church fully functioning. That doesn’t frighten you, does it? I bring myself, my Black self. All that I am. All that I have. All that I hope to become. I bring my whole experience, my history, my culture. I bring my African American song and dance, gesture and movement, teaching and preaching and healing and responsibility as a gift to the Church.” She ended her moving presentation with the bishops standing hand in hand, singing the spiritual “We Shall Overcome.” 

Almost 40 years later, we, as African American Catholics—a distinct group from Africans, Hispanics, or other groups who identify as Black (many times all lumped together in the same category)—are still asking for the Church to see us as a gift and not a burden.

Looking at our history as African American Catholics, we have always had to fend for ourselves in various ways. Our history, which is as old as the Church itself, especially with the founding of the Church in the United States, is frequently overlooked and often not shared. Our ministries are under-resourced or ignored, and our spirituality is constantly having to be defended as being “authentically Catholic” by those who administer the litmus test. 

In 2017, I sat on a general session panel at the Convocation of Catholic Leaders, organized by the USCCB. During my prayer time that morning, and in preparation for the session, I watched the YouTube clip of Sister Thea Bowman addressing the USCCB in 1989. The Holy Spirit had me ask the crowd to repeat the phrase “Black is beautiful” three times. I had the crowd perform that exercise as a way to renew the charge by Sister Thea to see Black Catholicism, along with all diversity, as a gift to the Church. This is a struggle that has been addressed in various ways, but it has yet to be solved. Many cultural groups are pushed to the margins of our Catholic faith. This is something that needs to be dealt with. 

We are a people of great faith and achievements, but being a minister in the African American Catholic community is difficult. We constantly have to fight to fit in with a Church that sometimes treats us as if we do not belong. There are two factors that I would like to focus on that create this dynamic of marginalization: racism and proximity. 

America’s Original Sin

Racism is commonly referred to as “America’s original sin.” Out of that came the dynamic of slavery, the effects of which are still felt today. It is this sin that makes it difficult to perform youth ministry within the African American community. The USCCB just released a pastoral letter titled Open Wide Our Hearts to address this sin and what the Church should do about it as a follow-up to previous pastoral letters on the same topic. Father Bryan Massingale’s book Racial Justice and the Catholic Church powerfully illustrates the issues that divide us as a Church today. Bishop Edward Braxton of Belleville, Illinois, wrote two strong pastoral letters about racism that many of his brother bishops have shared widely as well. 

It is through these documents that we are reminded, for those of us who do not have to deal with this issue on a regular basis, that racism does not only occur outside of the Church, but within the Church itself. When we look at the history of the Church in the United States, a Eurocentric model (worship styles, images used, languages spoken) is upheld as what should be the norm. As our society becomes more racially and ethnically diverse, there has been a backlash to anything that is not part of this norm. 

Look at the leadership of chanceries around the country. Are the decision-makers representative of the people they are called to serve? When people are called to the table to confront racist actions, are all called, or does leadership only welcome those folks of color who go along with the status quo and are seen as safe? Most of the times the answer is no.

_{The “Gumbo Pot Theory” illustrates embracing true diversity by looking at a bowl of gumbo. Each of the ingredients in a bowl of gumbo retains its original form, yet they all bring their unique flavor characteristics and combine to create this wonderful, beloved food.}

And, to add insult to injury, many times faces of color are used as tokens to show diversity on brochures or marketing and not in the actual programming or decision-making processes. It is because of these often institutionalized, racist occurrences that the African American youth and young adult community do not feel included, and we are called to do our own thing with little to no support from the wider Church. 

I wrote Leveling the Praying Field: Can the Church We Love, Love Us Back? as a response to the 2020 murder of George Floyd and the need for additional Catholic resources to discuss the sin of racism with young people. In the book, there is a section that discusses the “Gumbo Pot Theory.” This theory illustrates embracing true diversity by looking at a bowl of gumbo. Each of the ingredients in a bowl of gumbo retains its original form, yet they all bring their unique flavor characteristics and combine to create this wonderful, beloved food. 

So, too, must we, as a Church, encourage and allow people from unique ethnic, socioeconomic, and generational backgrounds to remain their authentic selves when they come into our ministries. We must see diversity as a gift and not as a threat. When we allow various cultures to come to the table as their authentic selves, we will truly receive the grace that comes with being one body in Christ. It is not about assimilation, but about the true integration of all of God’s creation. Unfortunately, the sin of racism prevents this from being achieved. 

So Close, Yet So Far Away

In April 2018, at their spring meeting, the USCCB invited Bryan Stevenson to address the body about racism as they were writing their pastoral letter. Stevenson is a famous criminal justice lawyer who gained recognition for establishing the National Memorial for Peace and Justice—more commonly referred to as the Lynching Memorial—in Montgomery, Alabama. During his address, Stevenson talked about several factors that cause racism to exist. One factor was proximity. He said the issues of racism persist in this country because people are not within proximity of each other. 

We still live in a segregated society. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said it best when he said the most segregated time in the United States is Sunday morning. This is very true of Catholic parishes around the country.

Despite the rise of many so-called multicultural parishes around the country, and despite the existence of many parishes from distinct cultures, we are still divided as a Church when it comes to realizing that no one expression of our faith is “more Catholic” than another. 

Stevenson said one way to combat racism is for those in Church leadership to be in the authentic presence of others. I remember when we were trying to rebuild our archdiocese following Hurricane Katrina, we had many Catholic groups visit my home parish, St. Peter Claver. These groups, most of whom were White and from a wide range of ages, were in awe at our gospel choir and the sacred art that reflected the people in the pews. 

They were struck with preaching that touched on the social justice issues that our communities face. Many were very appreciative of being able to sit with and interact with youth from the African American Catholic experience. When they learned about the specific “right to life” issues that affect our communities—mass incarceration, poverty, racism, poor education, and a lack of other resources—they understood that basic survival was something that many of our families struggle with. 

Just as Stevenson suggested to the USCCB, it is when we are in proximity with one another that we can truly see the dignity of another human despite our differences. It is in this “sharing of space” that we share our souls and live as one body of Christ. 

Building on the Sacrifices of Our Ancestors

When Sister Thea began her talk with the bishops in 1989, she sang the spiritual “Sometimes I Feel like a Motherless Child.” In her presentation, she continued to share the gifts we, as African American Catholics, bring to the Church, but she also noted how the Church sometimes treats us as second-class Catholics. We, as African American Catholics, are asking the Church we love to show us that it loves us back—not only when it is comfortable and affirms Eurocentric norms, but also when the Church is challenged to truly be a welcoming place for all. 

Many of those working to build stronger bonds between different groups in the Church suffer from burnout and often feel like giving up, but the hope is in the fact that our ancestors sacrificed much more so that we could simply be. Much like my Mardi Gras Indian culture’s relationship with the city of New Orleans, it is a struggle at times to keep enduring the misrepresentation or dismissal of the sacredness of our culture by the Church we love. 

The Church—both here in the United States and beyond—has benefited from our gifts and continues to do so, but more work needs to be done so that our realities, needs, and worship experiences are seen as just as valid, and Catholic, as anyone else’s. There are still many pains that need to be resolved and bridges that need to be rebuilt throughout this country when it comes to the experiences and realities of communities of color. 

To truly be one body of Christ does not mean for everyone to be the same, but rather to be welcoming of all experiences and expressions of the Catholic faith. It is when we go to the margins that we encounter the Christ who is already there waiting for us. So let us go and encounter the gifts in the numerous diverse communities in our country. 

What are the Catholic roots behind this global day of excess? Friar Jim explains.

Fat Tuesday, for many Catholics, is an exercise in excess. It’s a day where many eat probably more than they should before a season of sacrifice begins. But what are the Catholic roots behind it?

Mardi Gras, literally “Fat Tuesday,” has grown in popularity in recent years as a raucous, sometimes hedonistic event. But its roots lie in the Christian calendar, as the “last hurrah” before the season of sacrifice begins on Ash Wednesday. That’s why the enormous party in New Orleans, for example, ends abruptly at midnight on Tuesday, with battalions of street sweepers pushing the crowds out of the French Quarter towards home.

What is less known about Mardi Gras is its relation to the Christmas season, through the ordinary-time interlude known in many Catholic cultures as Carnival. Ordinary time, in the Christian calendar, refers to the normal “ordering” of time outside of the holy seasons.

Carnival comes from the Latin words carne vale, meaning “farewell to the flesh.” Like many Catholic holidays and seasonal celebrations, it likely has its roots in pre-Christian traditions based on the seasons. Some believe the festival represented the few days added to the lunar calendar to make it coincide with the solar calendar; since these days were outside the calendar, rules and customs were not obeyed. Others see it as a late-winter celebration designed to welcome the coming spring. As early as the middle of the second century, the Romans observed a Fast of 40 Days, which was preceded by a brief season of feasting, costumes and merrymaking.

The Carnival season kicks off with the Epiphany, also known as Twelfth Night, Three Kings’ Day and, in the Eastern churches, Theophany. Epiphany, which falls on January 6, 12 days after Christmas, celebrates the visit of the Wise Men bearing gifts for the infant Jesus. In cultures that celebrate Carnival, Epiphany kicks off a series of parties leading up to Mardi Gras. Epiphany is also traditionally when celebrants serve King’s Cake, a custom that began in France in the 12th century. Legend has it that the cakes were made in a circle to represent the circular routes that the Wise Men took to find Jesus, in order to confuse King Herod and foil his plans of killing the Christ Child.

In the early days, a coin or bean was hidden inside the cake, and whoever found the item was said to have good luck in the coming year. In Louisiana, bakers now put a small baby, representing the Christ Child, in the cake; the recipient is then expected to host the next King Cake party.

There are well-known, season-long Carnival celebrations in Europe and Latin America, including Nice, France; Cologne, Germany; and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The best-known celebration in the U.S. is in New Orleans and the French-Catholic communities of the Gulf Coast. Mardi Gras came to the New World in 1699, when a French explorer arrived at the Mississippi River, about 60 miles south of present day New Orleans. He named the spot Point du Mardi Gras because he knew the holiday was being celebrated in his native country that day.

Eventually the French in New Orleans celebrated Mardi Gras with masked balls and parties, until the Spanish government took over in the mid-1700s and banned the celebrations. The ban continued even after the U.S. government acquired the land but the celebrations resumed in 1827. The official colors of Mardi Gras, with their roots in Catholicism, were chosen 10 years later: purple, a symbol of justice; green, representing faith; and gold, to signify power. 

Mardi Gras literally means “Fat Tuesday” in French. The name comes from the tradition of slaughtering and feasting upon a fattened calf on the last day of Carnival. The custom of making pancakes comes from the need to use up fat, eggs and dairy before the fasting and abstinence begins.

To think of this season only as a time of penance is to do it an injustice. While the traditional practice of “doing something” is praiseworthy, there is much more to this wonderful season than just additional practices of piety or acts of penance and mortification. During this time, the Church calls us to metanoia.

As a former Greek teacher, I take delight in pointing out that the word metanoia connotes a change of mind and heart, altering one’s mind-set toward whole new ways of thinking and acting. This involves taking a look at where we are and trying to see where we ought to be. It involves testing our values and discerning how they stack up against the values that Jesus offers his followers.

Fortunately, metanoia is not something we have to do all by ourselves. God’s word gives us a lot of help in the process, as does the example of our brothers and sisters in the Lord who are engaged, during these weeks, in the same exercise. This holy season is also the season of final preparation for those who will be baptized at the Easter Vigil. The Church invites its members to pray for these catechumens, but also to renew their own commitment to the life that began in them when they were baptized and so became members of God’s people.

Finally, these weeks prepare us for Holy Week, for those most sacred days in the Church’s year when we celebrate the suffering and death of Jesus, the Lord’s gift of himself in obedience to the mission he received from his heavenly Father. Of course, the suffering and death of Jesus—and his resurrection—present questions and challenges to each of us in the context of our own mission as followers of Christ and so in our process of metanoia.

During the weekdays of this season, therefore, the Scripture readings for the Eucharist are concerned with three main themes. The selections for the first three weeks have to do almost exclusively with change of heart: what it means and what it involves. They present the classic motifs: prayer, care for our neighbor, repentance for our sinfulness.

The fourth and fifth weeks offer us a series of selections from the Gospel according to John. These deal at first with the basics of Jesus’ mission and thus further outline the change of heart that is required of us while, at the same time, teaching us about what the catechumens—and we—are to seek from him in Baptism.

As the season progresses, the readings lead us into the Passion of Jesus, showing us the tensions and controversies that finally led the leaders of his people to do away with him. Sometimes the Church plays us only one of these themes. Sometimes two or even three of them are presented together in a sort of harmony so that we become aware that a change of heart and beginning a new life and participating in the sufferings of Jesus are all part of what it means to be his disciples.

Pope Francis constantly reminded everyone who would listen that the synod is not a parliament where the majority rules, but rather an “an ecclesial moment whose protagonist is the Holy Spirit.” Speaking to reporters returning with him from Mongolia in September 2023, the pope recounted his conversation with an abbess of a cloistered community. The sisters feared everything was going  to change; he firmly denied that. The previous month, Tradition, Family, and Property published a scathing book, titled The Synod Is Pandora’s Box. 

In late 2022, Pope Francis announced he was adding a second assembly for October 2024. Consultations proceeded consecutively on the diocesan, national, and continental levels. 

Five Synod ‘Firsts’

1) The synod working document published on May 29, 2023, available at Synod.va, is unique among similar documents because it summarizes the work already done and then poses 221 questions on this theme, serving as conversation starters for small group discussions. 

2) The ecumenical community of Taize, France, organized a prayer service in St. Peter’s Square on September 30, followed by a three-day retreat led by Father Timothy Radcliffe, OP, former leader of the Order of Preachers. 

3) Although previous synods included laypeople as official “listeners,” this one included 70 as participants with full voting rights, including 54 women (mothers, single women, and religious sisters). 

4) This increase in membership required a move from the synod hall’s tiered seating to round tables in the Vatican’s Paul VI Audience Hall. Keeping common language groups, participants shifted tables four times between October 4 and 28. 

5) Women and men from countries such as Mongolia, who were not at earlier synods, shared their faith here. For the first time, bishops from the People’s Republic of China participated directly in the synod. 

Synod discussions were not debates on hot-button issues, but instead opened a collective examination of conscience for the entire Church: What is God calling its members to do or to avoid here and now? In a sense, the synod’s ordained members joined all other synod participants in reflecting on their common Baptism and its lifelong implications. No topic was off-limits, but everyone was reminded to speak boldly and charitably. 

Learning from the Council of Jerusalem

Perhaps the Church has never faced a more contentious issue than what the Council of Jerusalem addressed: How much of the Law of Moses should gentile Christians be expected to observe? “It has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us,” wrote members of that council to Syrian Antioch’s Christians, “to impose on you no further burden than these essentials: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood and from what is strangled, and from fornication” (Acts 15:28–29a). 

Church councils are all about evangelization, that is, how the Church is effectively sharing the good news of Jesus Christ and where it is shooting itself in the foot. 

The same basic question faced during the Council of Jerusalem remains: Are we listening to what “the Spirit is saying to the Churches” (Rv 3:22)? The answer must come through honest prayer, respectful listening, and courageous action. 

A 2023 report shows that around 200,000 people are catfished every year—just in the United States alone. The COVID-19 lockdowns and the isolation that followed, we’re learning, only worsened the problem. Catfishing, for those who don’t know, is the act of coaxing somebody into a platonic or romantic relationship with a fake online persona. It’s a relatively new phenomena, but cases are on the rise worldwide.

London-based radio personality Kirat Assi knows firsthand the emotional trauma from being catfished. And her story is brought to vivid life by Tortoise Media in this surreal, confounding, wholly absorbing deep dive into an eight-year odyssey of love and deception.

The relationship between Kirat and Bobby started in 2009 innocuously enough: friendly banter via Skype, Messenger, and WhatsApp. Over time, the acquaintances became friends and then eventually romantic. Even though the two were in constant contact via social media and texting, the two never physically met in person. And over the course of their eight-year relationship, Bobby wove a tapestry of lies that, on the surface, seem outlandish to the point of absurd: myriad health crises, endless hospital stays, and being in the witness protection program after being shot in Kenya.

These lies kept Kirat both entwined with Bobby and yet safely at arm’s length. When his identity is finally revealed, Kirat goes from wounded victim to a crusader for justice.

Sweet Bobby, narrated by investigative journalist Alexi Mostrous, empathetically deconstructs Kirat’s case, guiding listeners through Bobby’s long con and the damage it did to Kirat’s mental health and emotional stability. And while the podcast only skims the surface as to why people catfish—and that is its only glaring flaw—it succeeds in exploring how loneliness and the need for connection can be exploited in the digital realm.

In this month when we celebrate Valentine’s Day, Sweet Bobby is a chilling reminder that, while love is patient and kind, it can also play terrible tricks on the mind.

In Case You Missed It

I Am Enough: Mastering Self Love Podcast
Available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify

If love doesn’t begin with oneself, can it lead to anywhere good? The host of I Am Enough, Charity B., asks this question and many others in this engaging podcast that blends wisdom and humor. The purpose of the show is to tackle realistic topics relating to self-love that promote a positive self-image and healthy habits. But listeners can expect much more.

It’s no secret that the past few years have done a number on our peace of mind. In fact, according to the National Institutes of Health, in 2022, over 50 percent of us experienced anxiety or depressive episodes. And these mental health issues have also done real damage to our relationships. But Charity B. takes a step back and asks: If we don’t start loving ourselves first—in good times and in bad—how can we expect to bring love into a world that needs it? Fresh, fun, and filled with earthy wisdom, I Am Enough is important listening for bruised and battered hearts.