Angelus News | June 3, 2022 | Vol. 7 No. 11

NATION
Oblate Sisters of Providence attend Mass in the chapel
of the motherhouse near Baltimore in February. | CNS/
CHAZ MUTH
■ Project gets big gift to help care for aging sisters
A newly announced $5 million grant aims to help religious orders provide the
best care possible for aging sisters.
The gift from the Catholic Sisters Initiative at the Hilton Foundation will help
launch the “Catholic Sisters Cognitive Impairment-Alzheimer’s Global Initiative,”
a project of the International Union of Superiors General and the U.S.
Leadership Conference of Women Religious. One of the biggest challenges for
orders, the initiative’s leaders said, is caring for sisters with Alzheimer’s disease,
dementia, and other forms of cognitive impairment.
At a conference in early May announcing the initiative, Sister Peter Lillian Di
Maria of the Avila Institute of Gerontology in Germantown, New York, who has
more than 35 years’ experience in the continuum care ministry as a Carmelite
Sister for the Aged and Infirm, explained that such care must include “continually
assessing the person for what they can continue to do and what modifications
we might make to help them remain independent or as independent as
possible,” she said.
■ Archbishop bars
Pelosi from Communion
after talks fail
San Francisco’s archbishop said he
had no choice but to publicly forbid
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from
receiving holy Communion after attempts
at dialogue over her persistent
support for abortion rights had failed.
“After numerous attempts to speak
with her to help her understand the
grave evil she is perpetrating, the
scandal she is causing, and the danger
to her own soul she is risking, I have
determined that the point has come in
which I must make a public declaration
that she is not to be admitted to
holy Communion unless and until
she publicly repudiate her support
for abortion ‘rights’ and confess and
receive absolution for her cooperation
in this evil in the sacrament of
penance,” wrote Archbishop Salvatore
Cordileone in a letter to lay Catholics
in San Francisco, which Pelosi calls
home.
“Please know that I find no pleasure
whatsoever in fulfilling my pastoral
duty here,” Archbishop Cordileone
said. “Speaker Pelosi remains our
sister in Christ. Her advocacy for the
care of the poor and vulnerable elicits
my admiration. I assure you that my
action here is purely pastoral, not
political.”
■ Bishops call for dialogue on racism,
assault weapons after Buffalo massacre
Julie Harwell, who was in
the Buffalo, New York,
TOPS supermarket when
a gunman opened fire
May 14, is consoled by
the Rev. Charles Walker
during a prayer vigil
May 15. | CNS/SETH
HARRISON, USA TODAY
NETWORK VIA REUTERS
The country’s Catholic bishops are calling for an honest dialogue “addressing
the persistent evil of racism in our country” following a racially motivated shooting
on May 14 that killed 10 people at a supermarket in Buffalo.
“The Catholic Church has been a consistent voice for rational yet effective
forms of regulation of dangerous weapons,” said a spokesperson for the U.S.
Conference of Catholic Bishops in a statement offering prayers for those affected
by the attack.
Bishop Michael Fisher of Buffalo called the attack an act of cowardice, writing
that “this country has struggled for years with the practice of racism and white
supremacy that has victimized communities of color and has weakened us all.”
“The tragedy in Buffalo is hardly the first such violence against African Americans.
... Racism has claimed an inordinate number of Black lives simply because
they were Black. When and how will it stop?” wrote Bishop Mark Brennan of
Wheeling, West Virginia, shortly after the attack.
Eighteen-year-old Payton Gendron was arrested by Buffalo police after livestreaming
the attack. He allegedly outlined his plans for the attack in a 180-page
document shared online.
June 3, 2022 • ANGELUS • 5