Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church

Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Camden, New Jersey. / Credit: Farragutful via Wikimedia

CNA Staff, May 7, 2025 / 12:25 pm (CNA).

The Diocese of Camden, New Jersey, said it will drop its fight against the state’s efforts to empanel a grand jury to investigate clergy abuse allegations.

Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Camden, New Jersey. / Credit: Farragutful via Wikimedia

CNA Staff, May 7, 2025 / 12:25 pm (CNA).

The Diocese of Camden, New Jersey, said this week that it will drop its fight against the state’s efforts to empanel a grand jury to investigate clergy abuse allegations.

Camden Bishop Joseph Williams earlier this month said he intended to “do the right thing” for abuse victims in the diocese, which has been embroiled in a yearslong fight with the state of New Jersey over whether the government can empanel a grand jury to investigate allegations of abuse by priests and other Church officials. 

The New Jersey Supreme Court heard arguments from both the diocese and the state last month on the matter. But in a Monday letter to the high court, Trenton-based law firm Cooper Levenson said that, per Williams, the diocese “will not object to the empanelment of a grand jury” any further. 

The bishop made the decision “in consultation with the diocese’s board of trustees, college of consultors, and finance council,” the letter said. 

In a letter to the diocese this week, Williams — who became bishop of the diocese on March 17 — told the faithful that diocesan leaders told the state attorney general’s office that they wished to be “partners with them in this public service.” 

“[T]he most important goal of this legal change of direction was to show our sensitivity to the survivors of abuse” and help restore their faith, Williams wrote. 

“I will remain committed to that goal in the months and years ahead,” he said. He further praised the work done previously by the diocese and Bishop Dennis Sullivan to implement “the best nationally recognized safe environment recommendations” in the Camden Diocese. 

“Implementing these protocols can be hard — sometimes exhausting — work, but our children are worth it, the pain the survivors have experienced demands it, and the credibility of the Church we love and Christ died for urges us on,” the bishop wrote. 

The diocese further expressed “concern that the due process rights of any accused members of the clergy be protected” over the course of the grand jury inquiry. 

The Diocese of Camden had previously argued that New Jersey “cannot convene a grand jury to return a presentment unless it addresses public affairs or conditions, censures public officials, or calls attention to imminent conditions.” 

Instances of “clergy sexual abuse that is alleged to have taken place decades ago” do not fall under that purview, the diocese argued before dropping its opposition. 

The New Jersey government moved to convene the grand jury there after the bombshell 2018 Pennsylvania grand jury report found allegations of decades of clergy sexual abuse in the latter state.

Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Camden, New Jersey. / Credit: Farragutful via Wikimedia

CNA Staff, May 7, 2025 / 12:25 pm (CNA).

The Diocese of Camden, New Jersey, said it will drop its fight against the state’s efforts to empanel a grand jury to investigate clergy abuse allegations.

Cardinals process into the Sistine Chapel as the conclave to elect the 266th successor to St. Peter, the 267th pope, begins on May 7, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, May 7, 2025 / 11:55 am (CNA).

Inside the Sistine Chapel, each cardinal elector stood before his assigned seat, facing the Book of the Gospels, placed on a lectern in the center of the room.

Cardinals process into the Sistine Chapel as the conclave to elect the 266th successor to St. Peter, the 267th pope, begins on May 7, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, May 7, 2025 / 11:55 am (CNA).

Inside the Sistine Chapel, each cardinal elector stood before his assigned seat, facing the Book of the Gospels, placed on a lectern in the center of the room.

Cardinals process into the Sistine Chapel as the conclave to elect the 266th successor to St. Peter, the 267th pope, begins on May 7, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, May 7, 2025 / 11:55 am (CNA).

With the proclamation of “extra omnes” (“outside everyone”) on the afternoon of May 7, the thick wooden doors of the Sistine Chapel were closed and guarded at every entrance by Swiss Guards while the 133 cardinal electors began the process of choosing the new pope and leader of the universal Catholic Church.

Seated at rows of tables beneath the gaze of Michelangelo’s powerful image of the Last Judgment, before any further discussions or the expected first casting of votes (called the “scrutio”), the cardinal electors will listen to a meditation from 90-year-old Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa, OFM Cap, the former preacher of the papal household for 44 years.

According to the rubrics for conclaves, Cantalamessa — selected last week by the College of Cardinals — should preach to the electors on the very serious nature of their task and the necessity that they act with right intention, doing their best to carry out the will of God, and willing the good of the whole Church, to elect the next Roman pontiff.

Then, Cantalamessa and Archbishop Diego Ravelli, the master of papal ceremonies, will be the last two people to leave the Sistine Chapel before voting begins. The first view of smoke from the Sistine Chapel chimney is expected sometime this evening Rome time.

The session will close with an invocation to the Virgin Mary, the chanting of the “Sub tuum praesidium,” the Church’s oldest Marian hymn.

The rite of procession into the conclave and the swearing of the cardinals began from the Pauline Chapel in the Apostolic Palace at 4:30 p.m. Rome time. The cardinals, in order of rank, processed a short distance into the Sistine Chapel to the chanting of the Litany of Saints, followed by invocations, including a prayer that the Lord “grant to your Church a pontiff who pleases you with the holiness of his life” and “that you pour out upon this conclave the power of your Spirit.”

Inside the Sistine Chapel, each cardinal elector stood before his assigned seat, facing the Book of the Gospels, placed on a lectern in the center of the room.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, secretary of state during Francis’ pontificate, intoned the “Veni, Creator Spiritus” and then, as celebrant of the rite, prayed: “O Father, who guides and guards your Church, give to your servants the Spirit of intelligence, of truth, of peace, so that they may strive to know your will, and serve you with total dedication. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.”

A moment of silence preceded Parolin’s reading of the oath each cardinal is required to take: “We promise, obligate, and swear that we will faithfully and scrupulously observe all the prescriptions contained in the apostolic constitution of the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II, Universi Dominus Gregis… Likewise, we promise, obligate, and swear that whichever of us, by divine disposition, is elected Roman pontiff, will undertake to faithfully carry out the “munus Petrinum” of pastor of the universal Church and will not fail to strenuously affirm and defend the spiritual and temporal rights and freedom of the Holy See. Above all, we promise and swear to observe with the utmost fidelity and with all, both clerics and laity, secrecy about everything that in any way pertains to the election of the Roman pontiff and about what takes place in the place of the election, concerning directly or indirectly the ballot; not to violate in any way this secrecy either during or after the election of the new pontiff, unless explicit authorization has been granted by the pontiff himself; never to lend support or favor to any interference, opposition, or other any form of intervention by which secular authorities of whatever order and degree, or any group of persons or individuals who wish to interfere in the election of the Roman pontiff.”

Then, each of the 133 cardinals took their turn at the lectern and, placing his hand on the Book of the Gospels, said: “So help me God and these holy Gospels which I touch with my hand.”

Ravelli then declared “extra omnes,” all assistants and ministers left the room, and the livestream turned off.

A significant legacy of Pope Francis will be how he kept Palestinians close to his heart. The pontiff consistently and repeatedly called for a Gaza ceasefire and a release of the Israeli hostages, and he brought particular attention to the suffering and dignity of Palestinians, including of Gaza’s small Christian community, which he phoned regularly. […]

The post Pope Francis was a tireless advocate for peace in Palestine appeared first on U.S. Catholic.

Pilgrims gather in St. Peter’s Square for a Mass and canonization of 14 new saints on Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

Vatican City, May 7, 2025 / 11:19 am (CNA).

Aid to the Church in Need’s jubilee event, which focuses on the hope they seek to provide the suffering Church, falls on first day of the papal conclave.

Pilgrims gather in St. Peter’s Square for a Mass and canonization of 14 new saints on Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

Vatican City, May 7, 2025 / 11:19 am (CNA).

Aid to the Church in Need’s jubilee event, which focuses on the hope they seek to provide the suffering Church, falls on first day of the papal conclave.

Pilgrims gather in St. Peter’s Square for a Mass and canonization of 14 new saints on Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

Vatican City, May 7, 2025 / 11:19 am (CNA).

Some of the people who are most desperate for hope — including suffering Christians in Ukraine, the Holy Land, and Africa — will be represented in Rome this week in a pilgrimage for the 2025 Jubilee Year. 

Over 1,000 people will take part in the pilgrimage, organized by the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). ACN supports Christians around the world who face major difficulties in practicing their faith, very often because of religious persecution. The pilgrimage, which takes place May 7–10, will have the participation of people from 23 countries. 

Coincidentally, the event begins on the day when cardinals will gather to elect a successor to Pope Francis, who died on Easter Monday, April 21. The late pope designated 2025 a jubilee year and a time for Catholics to renew themselves as “pilgrims of hope.”

The theme of hope, said ACN president Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, “resonates especially with our pontifical foundation, since it is the underlying reason for the work we do: to take hope to those places where God weeps.”

Pilgrims will hear from some of the most dramatic examples of Christian persecution in the 21st century, including Ukrainian Greek-Catholic priest Redemptorist Father Bohdan Heleta, who was held prisoner during the Russia-Ukraine war, as well as representatives from Syria and Lebanon, who will share their experience in the region and the spiritual resilience of the Christians of the Middle East.  

In addition, Father Olivier Niampa of Burkina Faso, which ranks high on the list of countries plagued by terrorism, will share how Christians survive and keep the faith in a region under constant threat.

The speakers will share their testimony at a May 8 event in the Basilica of St. John Lateran.

Piacenza said the ACN pilgrimage is a concrete way of experiencing the jubilee in communion with the suffering Church in honor of those Christians who continue to give up their lives out of love for Jesus Christ. 

“The most convincing testimony to this hope is provided by the martyrs, who renounced life itself here below rather than betray their Lord,” the cardinal said, quoting from Pope Francis’ bull inaugurating the jubilee.

Regina Lynch, executive president of ACN International, explained that “the 2025 Jubilee is centered on hope, and hope was also a crucial issue for Pope Francis, and for us at ACN. With over 5,000 projects every year, in 130 countries, our mission is to console and give material aid but especially to provide hope to persecuted and discriminated Christians, and to Christian communities in grave need.” 

In an act of communion with the universal Church, benefactors and members from the foundation’s 23 national offices, in union with ACN International, will jointly take part in this pilgrimage to strengthen their faith and their commitment to the suffering Church. Although a private audience with the Holy Father had been originally scheduled, this and other events have been canceled due to the pope’s passing and current conclave.

Citing Pope Francis’ support for the mission of ACN, which was designated a pontifical foundation under Pope Benedict XVI, Lynch said that praying at Francis’ tomb in the Basilica of St. Mary Major “will strengthen us to renew our mission. As a pontifical foundation, we will also be praying to be at the disposal of the future pope, as we have been since the first days of our work.”  

The aim of the ACN-organized pilgrimage is not only to commemorate and accompany but also to help participants undergo their own spiritual renewal. They will pass through the Holy Door in the Basilica of St. Mary Major, a tradition during a holy year that brings spiritual benefits.

“Passing through the Holy Door is not an act of magic but a gesture which implies meditation, prayer, and conversion,” Piacenza pointed out. “The true pilgrim recognizes that he has been seduced by false idols — selfishness, pride, money — and wishes to be cured by God’s mercy. Therefore, crossing the threshold of the Holy Door becomes an act of love and humility.”

Though the cardinal participated in the conclave that elected Pope Francis in 2013, he is now over 80 and will not be able to take part in the one that begins today to elect Francis’ successor.