Alleluia!  Our Lord is risen and offers us new life!  We certainly need to hear this message this year as we finally emerge from the coronavirus pandemic but now find ourselves watching in horror the carnage and destruction resulting from the war in Ukraine.  The Paschal mystery proclaims that Jesus, truly man – the son of Mary – really died on the cross and then overcame the power of death as he rose on Easter. The resurrection of the body, the central mystery of Easter, is an essential Christian doctrine.  As […]

“Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!  (Lk 19:38).  On Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion, we are called to join with our Lord, Jesus Christ, as he makes a triumphant entry into Jerusalem, and then suffers derision and mockery, scourging and finally crucifixion because he comes to offer a new way of life and claims to be who he truly is – the Son of God.  This week is, indeed, what we Christians call it: Holy […]

Rejoice, Jerusalem, and all who love her.

Be joyful, all who were in mourning;

Exult and be satisfied at her consoling breast. (Is 66:10:11)

Today, the Fourth Sunday of Lent, is also known as Laetare Sunday.  It gets this name from the first word of the Entrance Antiphon used at Mass when there is no music; you will see it quoted above.  In Latin, the antiphon begins with the word “Laetare,” which, as you see above, translates into “Rejoice.”  As we quickly approach the end of Lent – next week is the Fifth […]

On June 26, 2020, Fr. Ricardo Antonio Cortez Martínez, rector of the St. Óscar Arnulfo Romero seminary in Usulutan, El Salvador, sent a request to the Subcommittee on the Church in Latin America for financial aid for 42 seminarians in the philosophy stage of their formation. Less than two months later, on August 7, Fr. Ricardo was found assassinated. Tragically, three priests were slain from 2019 through August 2020 in El Salvador as drug cartels control the country and drug lords feel threatened by the Church’s call to peace and […]

It has been almost a year since I wrote to you about Next Generation Parish, an initiative that the Catholic Leadership Institute is introducing to 15 select parishes in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.  You may recall that CLI is a 25-year old national apostolate that provides training and formation for the purpose of creating more vibrant communities rooted in Jesus Christ.  It was founded and is still headquartered here in our archdiocese but has worked with (arch)dioceses throughout the country.  We accepted CLI’s invitation to engage in this four-year process […]

“You are Christ’s body, and individually parts of it” (1 Cor 12:27).  Each of us is a unique, unrepeatable reflection of God’s presence in the world and, as we hear so powerfully declared in today’s second reading, each of us is Christ’s body.  And, God calls each of us to live according to his plan, not our own.  This past Saturday, we commemorated that dark day, forty-nine years ago, when the United States Supreme Court handed down the infamous Roe v. Wade decision, legalizing abortion for any reason.  Since that […]