USCCB names upstate New York Church a national shrine: Our Lady of Martyrs Shrine

 Upstate NY site honoring St. Kateri, Jesuit martyrs named a national shrine

written by OSV News 

Deborah Amell touches a statue of St. Kateri Tekakwitha in 2012 at Our Lady of the Martyrs Shrine in Auriesville, New York, the site of a 17th century Mohawk village where three Jesuit missionaries were killed for their faith in and St. Kateri was born. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops designated the site a national shrine Jan. 27, 2025. (OSV News photo/Jason Greene, Reuters)

(OSV News) — The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has designated Our Lady of Martyrs Shrine in Auriesville, New York, as a national shrine for pilgrims, the sanctuary announced Jan. 30.

A spokesperson for the U.S. bishop conference did not immediately respond to a request for confirmation.

The site, once known as the National Shrine of the North American Martyrs, encompasses the former Ossernenon village where Jesuit priests Sts. Isaac Jogues, René Goupil and Jean de Lalande were martyred in the 1640s. It is also where convert St. Kateri Tekakwitha was born in 1656.

It opened in 1885 and was administered for most of its history by a succession of Jesuit U.S. provinces, it said in the announcement. In 2017, the nonprofit Shrine of Our Lady of Martyrs Inc. transferred ownership of the shrine to Friends of Our Lady of Martyrs, a nonprofit corporation chaired by Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger of Albany, New York.

“We are delighted that the bishops have confirmed what the faithful have long instinctually known: The National Shrine of Our Lady of Martyrs is our home for the cultivation of holiness here in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico,” Bishop Scharfenberger said in a statement.

“The inspiration of the martyrs in my upstate New York backyard was foundational to my own early calling to the priesthood,” he added. “To this day, I go to the Shrine as a pilgrim to refuel in prayer for God’s outpouring of graces in my daily decisions and the lives of the faithful people the Church has entrusted to me.”

A place to pray for persecuted Christians

Julie Baaki, executive director of Our Lady of Martyrs Shrine, said, “Pope Francis has said that there are more Christian martyrs in the world today than in the early Church.

“Our National Shrine is a haven where pilgrims come to pray for our persecuted brothers and sisters throughout the world as well as for growth in courage for any trials we face as we try to live lives of virtue, grow in faith and try to pass it along,” Baaki said.

“As a wife and mother,” she added, “I see the fruits of my prayers to the Martyrs in everyday family life, and a superabundance of graces in the testimonies of faithful who visit. Even before this new designation, our Shrine has drawn multitudes from across the country to upstate New York to learn from the faith of the martyrs and Saint Kateri.”

Msgr. Roger Landry, national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies USA and a board member of Friends of Our Lady of the Martyrs, underscored the shrine’s emphasis on mission and encouraged people to visit the shine to “experience its enormous spiritual riches.”

The shrine is, he said, “because of its association with four great saints and heroes of our faith, probably is, after the tabernacles that adorn our Churches and the souls of newly baptized babies, the holiest place for Catholics in the country.”

The National Shrine of Our Lady of Martyrs will begin its 2025 season May 3 and remain open until the feast day of the North American martyrs Oct. 19, the announcement said. 2025 is the centenary of the North American martyrs’ beatification.

State of New York will fund abortions no matter what happens with Roe v Wade

 

NY to send $35M to abortion providers amid worry over Roe

By MARINA VILLENEUVE

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York will give abortion providers $35 million to expand services and boost security in anticipation of the U.S. Supreme Court possibly overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Tuesday.

The Democrat said the state must get ready for a potential influx of out-of-state patients seeking abortions from the roughly half of U.S. states that are expected to ban or greatly restrict abortion if Roe is overturned.

“To truly ensure that anyone seeking an abortion in New York has access to them, we have to ensure that the providers have the resources and the capacity to accommodate all patients who walk through their doors,” Hochul said.

Abortion providers in New York and elsewhere have long faced safety fears: In Hochul’s hometown of Amherst, New York, an anti-abortion activist fatally shot Dr. Barnett Slepian through a window in his home on Oct. 23, 1998.

Hochul’s office said she’ll use an emergency Department of Health fund to provide $25 million in grants and reimbursements to abortion providers, including increasing access to services, while the remaining $10 million for security upgrades at abortion providers and reproductive health centers will come from from the state’s Division of Criminal Justice Services, which is part of the state’s executive branch.

“I consider this an emergency and I’m going to make sure that that money is available the second the decision comes down,” she said.

New York Attorney General Letitia James announced Monday that she backed a similar proposal to provide $50 million in funding for abortion providers.

A leaked Supreme Court draft opinion that would throw out the landmark 1973 abortion rights ruling has spurred Democratic leaders in several states to consider steps to increase access to abortion services. A final ruling is not expected until the end of the court’s term in late June or early July.

In February, Oregon launched a $15 million fund to provide grants to Oregon nonprofits to expand access to abortions. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, proposed a budget that includes $68 million for reproductive health care services including abortion providers.

Hochul is also backing a proposed state constitutional amendment to guarantee abortion rights and prohibit discrimination based on factors from race to “pregnancy and pregnancy outcomes.” That amendment would need to be approved by the state legislature in two legislative session years and then be approved by voters.

In Vermont, voters this fall will consider an abortion rights amendment to the state constitution. Connecticut, Michigan and Colorado are facing calls for similar amendments, while states like Iowa, Kansas and Kentucky are considering amendments restricting abortion rights.

Other states, including Connecticut and Washington, have also taken steps to shield providers from possible lawsuits as people seek abortions across state lines.

New York and its Democratic-led Legislature have expanded abortion rights in recent years by allowing more abortions after 24 weeks, removing abortion from the state’s penal code and allowing access to medication abortion services through telemedicine visits.

This year, lawmakers used the state budget to pass a law enshrining existing regulations that require every insurance plan to cover all types of abortion, regardless of reason. That law has been the subject of an ongoing legal challenge by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany.

Hochul on Tuesday also called for an end to a U.S. law prohibiting the use of federal funds for abortions except in scenarios including rape, incest or to save the life of the mother. New York is one of 16 states where Medicaid pays for all or most abortions in cases where they’re deemed medically necessary, according to abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute.

Donna Lieberman, the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said that even New York’s protections could be vulnerable in a court battle.

“We should not harbor any illusions that the agenda of the radical right is to ban abortion completely, to do it on the federal level, to do it state-by-state,” she said.

State GOP chair Nick Langworthy said the expected Supreme Court’s opinion won’t jettison abortion rights in New York and claimed Democrats are overblowing any potential impact.

Cardinal Dolan releases names of credibly accused clergy

A Message from Timothy Cardinal Dolan

Dear Member of the Family of the Archdiocese,

As we continue the Easter season, and affirm once again the central reality of our faith—that the Lord through His Cross has brought us to the new life in the Resurrection—we live as people of hope in the face of all the evil and sin we find in our world, and sad to say, even in our Church.

I write today as someone who himself realizes the shame that has come upon our Church due to the sexual abuse of minors. I write to ask forgiveness again for the failings of those clergy and bishops who should have provided for the safety of our young people but instead betrayed the trust placed in them by God and by the faithful.

More specifically, I write today because after hearing from many victim-survivors, many of you, and many priests, I have decided to publish a comprehensive list of all archdiocesan clergy credibly accused of sexual abuse of minors or who were the subject of a claim made to the archdiocese’s Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program that was determined to be eligible for compensation.  That list is now public at https://archny.org/list.  Along with those clergy’s names, the list also includes their dates of ordination and current status.  Please be assured there is not a single priest or deacon of the Archdiocese of New York against whom there has been a credible and substantiated claim of abuse against a minor currently in ministry. 

The archdiocese has taken numerous steps to strengthen and enhance its procedures to ensure that our children are protected and to comply with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ adoption of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People in 2002.  For those who are not familiar with those procedures, here are the key points. Whenever the archdiocese is notified of an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor, the archdiocese reports that allegation to the appropriate district attorney.  Even where law enforcement cannot act upon an allegation, the archdiocese removes the accused priest from ministry while the allegation is investigated by outside professionals, all of whom are former federal agents, and refers the allegation to our Review Board to determine whether or not it has been substantiated.  If it finds an allegation to be substantiated, the priest is permanently removed from ministry.  The names of clergy have also been published in our archdiocesan newspaper, Catholic New York, and among the parishes where the accused was assigned.  We have initiated the Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program, as a way to bring healing and justice to those who were abused by archdiocesan clergy.

These measures have been effective, both to respond to victim-survivors with compassion and to prevent, as much as possible, incidents of abuse from occurring in the future.  Still, we must continue to be vigilant to make certain that the failings of the past are not repeated.  I pledge again today that I will do all in my power to ensure the safety of our young people, and to react with sympathy, understanding, and respect towards those who come forward with an allegation of abuse.

Please join me in praying that this outreach helps bring peace and consolation to victim-survivors and their families who have experienced the horror of abuse. Finally, I once again urge anyone who has an allegation of abuse of a minor to go immediately to the district attorney to report it.  If the allegation concerns a priest or deacon of the archdiocese, I urge you to contact the archdiocese’s Victims Assistance Coordinator as well, so that we might offer you pastoral support and invite you to participate in the Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program.  Our Victims Assistance Coordinator, Sister Eileen Clifford, can be reached at 646-794-2949 or via e-mail at victimsassistance@archny.org, or you can report on our website at https://www.archny.org/report-a-complaint.

Jesus, risen from the dead, shatters the darkness of evil and death and brings us to new life. It is my heartfelt prayer that together we as a family of faith may be healed and so bring the light of the Resurrection to the darkness of our world.

Faithfully in Christ,

Timothy Michael Cardinal Dolan
Archbishop of New York

A different Bishop from NY(not Dolan) weighs in on why not to excommunicate this so called Catholic NY governor

Let Us Not Judge, Let Us Pray For Governor Cuomo

January 30, 2019
By Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio

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Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio speaks at Immaculate Conception Center, Douglaston. (Photo Jorge Dominguez)

Recently, some in the Catholic community have called for the excommunication of Governor Andrew Cuomo and those Catholic members of the legislature who supported the change in the law to allow for the termination of a pregnancy up until the moment of birth.

Such calls are very understandable.  The gravity of evil merits such a call. Excommunication is meant to have a medicinal effect. It is intended to be so severe a penalty that the subject of the excommunication repents of evil, reforms his/her life and turns back to the Lord.  In this case, the governor is, in fact, taunting the Catholic community and would wear the excommunication as a badge of honor.

The culture we live in is poisonous to faith. New York State Senator Joseph Addabbo, who is a Democrat and Catholic, is now being targeted by pro-choice groups for his opposition to this legislation. Indeed, perhaps justified, the excommunication of the governor would be presented to the broader culture as the Church victimizing the governor. In the end, it would be a distraction from the horror of the crime and evil that cries out to Almighty God for vengeance.

We should not be naïve enough to think that the passage of the expansion of the abortion franchise was not strategically coordinated with the passage of the Child Victims Act. The news was meant to tie these two issues together. Both bills were passed without a public hearing, attesting to the state of our democracy in the State of New York.

The governor seems to have a remarkable capacity for dissembling words, which is disingenuous, changing his position on at least two occasions when he spoke to the Bishops of the State. On those occasions, Governor Cuomo indicated his opposition to the law based on its merits. As a lawyer, he waxed eloquently on the necessity of a statute of limitations in the law.

The truth is, the Bishops of New York State had expressed reservations in past versions of the Child Victims Act because it would have shielded public institutions from liability. Rather our position was that a full disclosure of all abuse – not just some abuse – was essential if we were to curb the scourge of child abuse. Once the legislature strengthened the bill this week to include all survivors, we dropped our opposition to the legislation.

I know that so many in the Catholic community are outraged by decisions that were made by some in Church leadership long ago.  We Catholics will pay the price for those decisions for generations to come. In fact, before there was any change in the law, we in the Catholic community sought to take dramatic steps to protect children in our care. Indeed, since the Dallas Charter was implemented in 2002 we have significantly reduced allegations of abuse. In our diocese in Brooklyn and Queens, in the last 17 years there were two allegations of misconduct. Moreover, at great expense, the Diocese of Brooklyn sought to discover those that were harmed in our institutions and invited them to come forward and to have the explicit acknowledgment of the wrongdoing as well as compensation for the offense that caused such terrible pain.

Governor Cuomo and the legislature have done the right thing passing the Child Victims Act, but not the Reproductive Health Act.

Therefore, I propose that we do not excommunicate the governor, but rather that we pray for him every single day; perhaps it would be good to include him by name in the Prayer of the Faithful.  Specifically, that his eyes be opened to the sacredness of all human life. While excommunication may not have a favorable effect, as a person of faith, I am convinced that by prayer we will move mountains and even turn the stone-cold heart to flesh.

Yet, it is not my place to judge the governor. We should pray for him.  Andrew Cuomo was educated in Diocese of Brooklyn schools, at St. Gerard Majella and Archbishop Molloy High School, both in Queens. He says he is Catholic, but there are incongruities in that statement. Still it is not for us to judge, but only God to do so, as He is a merciful God.