From Catholic News Service:

Pope accepts resignations of both bishops from Diocese of Scranton

Scranton, Pa., Aug 31, 2009 / 10:32 am (CNA).- An announcement from the Vatican this morning revealed that not only will the diocese’s bishop, Most Rev. Joseph Martino be stepping down due to health reasons, but Scranton’s auxiliary bishop will be retiring as well.

Last week, CNA reported that Bishop Martino, 63, would be resigning from his post in Scranton. The Vatican announced today that Pope Benedict has accepted the resignation of Martino in accordance with canon 401 § 2 of the Code of Canon Law which says: a diocesan Bishop who, because of illness or some other grave reason, has become unsuited for the fulfillment of his office, is earnestly requested to offer his resignation from office.”

Born in Philadelphia in 1946, Martino was ordained a priest in 1970 and was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Philadelphia in 1996 before becoming Bishop of Scranton in 2003.

The Diocese of Scranton will not only lose Martino, but also one of its auxiliary bishops, Most Rev. John M. Dougherty, whose resignation was also accepted by the Vatican today. Dougherty, 77, submitted his resignation when he reached the age of 75.

Dougherty was born in Scranton in 1932. The Scranton auxiliary studied at the University of Notre Dame and was ordained a priest in 1957. He was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Scranton in 1995.

Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia will oversee the Diocese of Scranton as its apostolic administrator until a replacement is named by the Holy Father.

These Masses are also called the Thirty Masses of St. Gregory, because the pious custom seems to trace its origin back to this great Pope. A Religious, named Justus, had received and kept for himself three gold pieces. This was a grievous fault against his vow of poverty. He was discovered and excommunicated. This penalty made him enter into himself, and some time afterwards he died in true sentiments of repentance. Nevertheless, St. Gregory, in order to inspire the brethren with a lively horror of the sin of avarice in a Religious, did not withdraw the sentence of excommunication. Justus was buried apart from the other monks, and the three pieces of money were thrown into the grave while the Religious repeated together the words of St. Peter to Simon the Magician, “Keep thy money to perish with thee.”

Some time afterwards, St. Gregory, judging that the scandal was sufficiently repaired, and moved with compassion for the soul of Justus, called the Procurator and said to him sorrowfully, “Ever since the moment of his death, our brother has been tortured in the flames of Purgatory. Through charity make an effort to deliver him. Go then and take care that from this time forward the Holy Sacrifice be offered for thirty days. Let not one morning pass without the Victim of Salvation being offered up for his release.”

The Procurator obeyed punctually. The thirty Masses were celebrated in the course of thirty days. When the thirtieth day arrived and the thirtieth Mass was ended, the deceased appeared to a brother saying, “Bless God, my dear brother, today I am delivered and admitted into the society of the saints.”

Since that time the pious custom of celebrating thirty Masses for the dead has been established.

There is perhaps no better way to let our loved ones - living and deceased - know that we are thinking of them than to celebrate the Eucharist in their name. The sacrifice of the Mass consists in the offering of the Body and Blood of Christ to God the Father. During the Consecration the Body and Blood of Christ become present on the Altar and available for us to offer them to God.

There are three different ways in which you can ensure that a loved one is remembered: Mass Offering, Spiritual Association Perpetual Membership and Gregorian Masses.

The Gregorian Mass is a series of thirty Masses offered up on thirty consecutive days for the repose of a particular person in purgatory. It is based on a tradition started by Pope St. Gregory the Great who saw the soul of one of his friends released from Purgatory after the 30th mass.

The Sacred Congregation of Indulgences has declared that "the offering of thirty Gregorian Masses has a special efficacy for obtaining from the Divine Goodness and Mercy the deliverance of a suffering soul, and is a pious and reasonable belief of the Faithful" (Rescript, 1884).

"And I promise you that whoever gives a cup of cold water to one of these lowly ones...will not want for his reward." (Mat 10:42)

Just one place that offers them is here; I am sure there are others, but this one came to the forefront with a quick Google search.

Death. Judgement. Heaven. Hell. The four last things. We never hear of them, it seems, very often, in homilies, or from the majority of our clerics. Wouldn't it be nice, though, to know that there was a group of priests dedicated to offering a Mass each day for the living and deceased around the world?

There is such a group.

The Prugatorial Archconfraternity exists to afford to all the means of securing the benefit of daily Mass for themselves or their friends, living and deceased, and especially to relieve the poor souls in Purgatory and to keep up among the faithful a lively faith in the following three truths of our holy religion:

1. That after this life there is a middle state of suffering, to which the souls of those are doomed for a time who, though in a state of grace and friendship with God, yet have not fully satisfied the Divine Justice for the debt of temporal punishment due for their smaller sins, or for their more grievous sins, whose guilt has been remitted by the sacrament of Penance, or who die under the guilt of smaller sins or imperfections.

2. That the living, by the offering of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, by prayers, by almsdeeds, indulgences, and other good works offered up to God for the departed, can shorten the sufferings of the souls in Purgatory, ameliorate their condition, and deliver them from their place of torment.

3. That to assist these suffering souls is an act of charity most holy, most salutary, and most pleasing to Almighty God.

The promotion of practical faith in these truths is the particular object of the Archconfraternity. The Purgatorian Archconfraternity is the best legacy, ensuring that the Holy Souls are neither forgotten in time nor in eternity! A simple statement of its history, and special spiritual advantages and privileges, will not fail, it is confidently hoped, to induce the faithful to become active members of it.


History

The Archconfraternity was established in the year 1840 by the Redemptorists in Rome, in their Church of S. Maria Monterone, as a pious society, for the object just mentioned. The Holy Father Gregory XVI not only approved the design, but extended to it his special patronage, and in a Papal Brief dated 8 August, 1841, raised the society to the rank of an Archconfraternity, with all the rights and privileges belonging thereto. Moreover, in order to show how highly they valued and esteemed this Archconfraternity, the Sovereign Pontiffs Gregory XVI and Pius IX have most generously and most munificently enriched it with the treasures of the Church, granting it no less than 35 plenary and over 200 partial Indulgences to be gained in the course of the year on different occasions provided that its members after confession and communion, would visit a church and pray for the exaltation of our Holy Mother the Church for unity and peace among Christian princes, and for the extirpation of heresies.

In 1841 and 1861 sanity governed the life of Catholics through holy popes who made decisions so wise, so focused on eternal things, that they could be written in stone as monuments that would never need to be changed or argued. It was then that the Redemptorist Purgatorian Confraternity was designed, blessed and given the personal patronage of the Pope himself, who raised it to an Archconfraternity.

More information can be found here
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Found this image online.

To me, it would be just a beautiful thing to witness. God bless out Holy Father Benedict!

Say it isn't so. Please.

From the Scranton Times:

"Bishop Joseph F. Martino is expected to resign as head of the Diocese of Scranton next week, sources within the diocese confirmed to The Times-Tribune today.

Speculation about the bishop's future began earlier this week when The Times-Tribune reported that his belongings were being moved from the rectory adjacent to the diocese's mother church, St. Peter's Cathedral, to a retreat in Dalton."

More from local WNEP 16:

"When the bishop does step aside, Newswatch 16 has learned, that Cardinal Justin Rigali, Archbishop of Philadelphia, will be in charge of the Scranton diocese on an interim basis until a new bishop is named."

The Times Leader has more background. The communications office at the Scranton diocese doesn't appear to be doing its job very well. Bishop Martino is only 63 years old, so typically he would have 12 more years of episcopal service before being allowed to retire.