Commitment to the Future

An aging infrastructure and personnel and an eye toward the future demand that the Diocese take certain financial measures into account, and so it has announced that it will undergo a major capital campaign.

Words of the Mass

In his words of advice to new priests, it was good to hear Pope Francis suggest that they take their time with the Eucharistic Prayer at Mass. The Holy Father ties his point about preaching well-prepared homilies with the idea of reverently, carefully offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

Cardinal George’s Brilliance

Cardinal Francis George, O.M.I., the archbishop-emeritus of Chicago passed away April 17, and the Roman Catholic Church in America lost one of her best and brightest lights. Francis George, the first local to be named Archbishop of Chicago, was actually turned down as a young man from the archdiocesan high school seminary, Quigley Prep, due to his polio.

‘Genocide’ Continues

Pope Francis has shown brave witness at the Mass he celebrated in the Armenian Rite when he called the systematic slaughter of Armenian Christians “the first genocide of the twentieth century” and connected the Armenian genocide to the persecutions and murders of Christians today throughout the Middle East.

Power of Religious Life

This past week, the Vatican sponsored a workshop for formators and vocation directors of religious orders of women and men from around the world. It culminated in an audience with Pope Francis, who himself is a member of a religious order, the Jesuits.

Recognizing Evil

This coming Sunday, April 12, on the feast of the Divine Mercy, Pope Francis, is scheduled to preside at an Armenian Catholic rite Divine Liturgy at St. Peter’s. The main reason why he is choosing to celebrate this Armenian liturgy on this day is to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the massacre of Armenians by the Turkish Ottoman Empire, a Sunni Islamic state, in 1915.

New Life

2015, to date, has been a difficult and violent year for the world, to say the least. Perhaps more than ever, we need the realization, in the midst of all the tragedy that surrounds us, that the battle is already won — Christ is the victor over sin and death. A simple little Easter story can remind us of this.

Sacrament of Mercy

We’re still waiting on the concrete plans for the Holy Year of Mercy, which will be a Jubilee Year, announced by Pope Francis. We know that a papal bull will be proclaimed by the pope on Divine Mercy Sunday, April 12, and that the year will officially begin with the opening of the Holy Door […]

A Year of Mercy

Pope Francis caught the world by surprise by announcing a new Holy Year, a Year of Mercy. More than just a special year dedicated to a theme, this would be a Jubilee Year. The details of the year have not yet been fully released, but under the guidance of the Pontifical Council for the New […]

A Short Papacy?

Last week, we celebrated two years in the Petrine office for Pope Francis and as is his way, he gave an interview to a television network, Televisa. In the course of the interview, the Holy Father stated: “I have the feeling that my pontificate will be brief… four or five years. I don’t know, even […]