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For first time in U.S., Catholics will be able to venerate the habit of Padre Pio
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For first time in U.S., Catholics will be able to venerate the habit of Padre Pio

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St. Pio of Pietrelcina, better known as Padre Pio. / Credit: After Elia Stelluto, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

CNA Staff, Oct 5, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

For the first time in the United States, Catholics will have the opportunity to venerate the full-size habit worn by St. Pio of Pietrelcina, also known as Padre Pio.

The rare opportunity will take place from Oct. 11–14 at the National Centre for Padre Pio in Barto, Pennsylvania, in the Diocese of Allentown.

A group of Italian Capuchin friars from Padre Pio’s friary — the Our Lady of Grace Capuchin Friary in San Giovanni Rotondo in southern Italy — will bring the habit to be displayed at the national center, which has been designated a jubilee site within the Allentown Diocese. 

“This unprecedented visit from the friars of San Giovanni Rotondo is an amazing opportunity for us to be able to share a rare and intimate relic of Padre Pio with his devotees,” Vera Marie Calandra, the vice president of the center, said on the group’s website. 

“We expect to have pilgrims visiting from throughout the United States, and we will be ready to make their visit a special time of veneration, prayer, and reflection.”

The weekend of festivities will open on Saturday, Oct. 11, with Mass celebrated by the Capuchin friars from San Giovanni Rotondo. Following the Mass, there will be a procession honoring Padre Pio. 

Mass will also be celebrated on Sunday, Oct. 12, with a procession following. On Oct. 13, Harrisburg Bishop Emeritus Ronald Gainer will celebrate Mass in English followed by a Mass celebrated in Italian by the friars. 

Allentown Bishop Alfred Schlert will celebrate Mass on Oct. 14 followed by a Mass celebrated in Italian by the friars. 

“We could not be more excited about having the opportunity to have Padre [Francesco] Dileo and other friars from Padre Pio’s Our Lady of Grace friary in San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy, visit us with these rare and precious relics,” said Nick Gibboni, the executive director of the National Centre for Padre Pio.

“We continue to be enormously blessed to have a close relationship with Padre Pio’s brother friars, and we are excited about our continued relationship.” 

In addition to the habit’s visit at the national center, the friars will also be taking the habit to the Padre Pio Foundation of America in Cromwell, Connecticut. The habit will be available for veneration at St. Pius X Church in Middletown, Connecticut, from Oct. 15–18. 

Padre Pio was a Capuchin Franciscan friar, priest, and mystic of the 20th century. He is known for his deep wisdom about prayer and peace, having the stigmata, miraculous reports of his bilocation, being physically attacked by the devil, and mastering the spiritual life. 

His tomb can be found in the Sanctuary of St. Mary Our Lady of Grace in San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy.

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Archdiocese of New Orleans offers 0 million to settle abuse claims
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Archdiocese of New Orleans offers $230 million to settle abuse claims

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St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans. / Credit: travelview/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Sep 9, 2025 / 14:53 pm (CNA).

After the Archdiocese of New Orleans increased its settlement offer to clergy sexual abuse claimants from $180 million to $230 million on Sept. 8, attorneys of the victims urged their clients to accept the deal.

The archdiocese was able to increase its initial offer, announced in May, after securing a buyer for the $50 million sale of Christopher Homes, a property that has provided affordable housing and assisted living to low-income and senior citizens in the Gulf Coast area for the last 50 years.

“We knew we could do better, and we have,” said attorneys Richard Trahant, Soren Gisleson, John Denenea, and several other attorneys who represent about 200 of the 660 claimants.

The attorneys, who said the initial settlement was “dead on arrival,” urged their clients to hold out for a better offer, saying that they deserved closer to $300 million, a figure similar to the $323 million paid out to about 600 claimants by the Diocese of Rockville Centre in New York in 2024. 

In the Diocese of Rockville Centre bankruptcy settlement, attorneys reportedly collected about 30% of the $323 million, or approximately $96.9 million. Similarly, the Los Angeles Archdiocese’s $660 million settlement in 2007 saw attorneys receiving an estimated $165-$217.8 million, or 25%-33% of the payout.

Payout amounts to individual claimants in the New Orleans case will be determined by a point system negotiated by a committee of victims. 

Administered by a trustee and an independent claims administrator appointed by the court, the point system is based on the type and nature of the alleged abuse. Additional points can be awarded for factors like participation in criminal prosecutions, pre-bankruptcy lawsuits, or leadership in victim efforts, while points may be reduced if the claimant was over 18 and consented to the contact. The impact of the alleged abuse on the victim’s behavior, academic achievement, mental health, faith, and family relationships can also adjust the score.

The settlement offer follows five years of negotiations in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, where the nation’s second-oldest Catholic archdiocese filed for bankruptcy in May 2020.

New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymond said in a statement Monday that he is “very hopeful and committed to bringing this bankruptcy to a conclusion that benefits the survivors of abuse,” he said. 

“I know there remains much work to be done, and I continue to hold this work in prayer. Please know that I pray for the survivors of abuse every day and look forward to the opportunity to meet with them to hear their stories firsthand.”

Two-thirds of the victims in the lawsuit will have to accept the offer by Oct. 29. If they do not, the case could be thrown out of bankruptcy, giving alleged victims a chance to pursue lawsuits individually.

A New Orleans man who filed a lawsuit in 2021 against a Catholic religious order unrelated to the New Orleans bankruptcy case recently won a $2.4 million jury verdict. 

In 2021, the Louisiana Legislature eliminated the statute of limitations for civil actions related to the sexual abuse of minors. The new law allows victims to pursue civil damages indefinitely for abuse occurring on or after June 14, 1992, or where the victim was a minor as of June 14, 2021, with a three-year filing window (which ended June 14, 2024) for older cases. 

The Diocese of Lafayette, along with the Archdiocese of New Orleans, the Diocese of Baton Rouge, the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux, Catholic Charities, the Diocese of Lake Charles, and several other entities challenged the law’s constitutionality, arguing it violated due process, but the Louisiana Supreme Court upheld it in June 2024 in a 4-3 decision.

Critics argued the retroactive nature of the law risks unfairness to defendants unable to defend against decades-old abuse claims due to lost evidence and highlighted the potentially devastating financial impact.

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Bankruptcy court accepts Diocese of Syracuse’s 6 million abuse settlement
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Bankruptcy court accepts Diocese of Syracuse’s $176 million abuse settlement

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The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Syracuse, New York, where a federal court accepted the diocese’s $176 million settlement plan. / Credit: debra millet/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Aug 28, 2025 / 12:00 pm (CNA).

A federal bankruptcy court has accepted the Diocese of Syracuse, New York’s massive $176 million abuse settlement plan, Bishop Douglas Lucia said this week.

The decision comes after a yearslong negotiation process between the diocese and victims of clergy abuse as well as between the diocese and insurers that will pay into the settlement fund.

Lucia said in an Aug. 27 letter that the diocese will contribute $100 million to the fund, as diocesan leaders first announced in 2023.

Fifty million dollars will come from the diocese itself, with $45 million from parishes and $5 million from “other Catholic entities” associated with the Syracuse Diocese.

The remaining $76 million will be contributed by diocesan insurance companies, the bishop said.

Further “nonmonetary items” in the agreement include provisions such as strengthening diocesan safe environment policies.

The diocese initiated the bankruptcy process in 2020. In his letter, Lucia thanked his fellow Catholics “who throughout these five years have prayed for this resolution and for those whose hearts were broken by the betrayal that came at the hands of Church members.”

“Together I now pray we will grow ever more as the body of Christ in this part of the world community,” he said.

The Syracuse decision comes amid a wave of high-value abuse settlement payouts from U.S. dioceses, including throughout New York.

Abuse victims in New York last month agreed to a massive settlement from the Diocese of Rochester, which is set to pay $246 million to survivors of clergy abuse there.

The Diocese of Buffalo, New York, earlier this year agreed to pay out a $150 million sum as part of its own abuse settlement.

The largest diocesan-level bankruptcy settlement in U.S. history thus far has been from the Diocese of Rockville Centre — also in New York — which last year agreed to pay $323 million to abuse victims.

The largest Church abuse payout total in U.S. history thus far has been at the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, which last year agreed to a near-$1 billion payment to abuse victims.

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