From Our Pastor

The predominant Christian Church in central and Eastern Europe is the Orthodox Church.  You may recall that the Orthodox Church resulted from the schism between the East and West in 1054.  The Catholic Church continues to serve the faithful in these countries too, however, often with great difficulty.  The annual collection for the Church in Central and Eastern Europe, which we will take up next weekend, provides much-needed funding for the Catholics living in 28 countries from Albania to Uzbekistan.  In Ukraine, one of these countries that has been so [...]

From northernmost Mexico to Tierra del Fuego at the southern tip of Argentina, as well as throughout the islands of the Caribbean, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishop’s annual Collection for the Church in Latin America supports fellow Catholics as they grow in their faith and share God’s love.  Last year, this collection supported 252 projects funded by the $6.2 million that Catholics in the United States gave to the annual fund.  For more than 50 years, this annual collection has been a powerful way for us to unite [...]

You will recall that our Holy Father, Pope Francis, inaugurated the Ordinary Jubilee Year 2025 last Christmas Eve with the call for all of us to be pilgrims of hope.  Jubilee Years are special years that focus on remission of sins and the call for universal renewal.  Each year, the Church, in her wisdom, offers us the liturgical Season of Lent, a season for reconciliation and renewal in preparation for the hope that Easter offers us all as we celebrate the new life Jesus offers through his death and Resurrection. [...]

 What does it take to make 7.5 million meals?  That’s how many meals were served to hungry people in the Greater Philadelphia area by the various agencies funded through the Catholic Charities Appeal last year.  You may not notice them, but these hungry people are in every county, town, parish and neighborhood.  The Catholic Charities Appeal is the largest fundraising initiative in the archdiocese and, as you can well imagine, this assistance is particularly important at this time as we all face the effects of ongoing inflation.  The needy are [...]

 In March 2023, Archbishop Peréz sent to all the priests of the archdiocese a book entitled From Christendom to Apostolic Mission and asked us to read and reflect on it in preparation for a series of meetings to discuss the future of our archdiocese.  Since then, the archbishop has met with us priests as well as the permanent deacons and the leadership of a variety of Catholic institutions in the archdiocese.  On 5 January, he sent a letter to all of the faithful of the archdiocese.  His letter begins very [...]

In the Book of Exodus, we read about the Lord striking down “every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh sitting on his throne to the firstborn of the prisoner in the dungeon, as well as all the firstborn of the animals” (Ex. 12:29). Pharaoh then called Moses and told him to “leave my people at once, you and the Israelites!  Go and serve the Lord as you said” (Ex. 12:31).  As they left Egypt, God commanded Moses: “Consecrate to me every firstborn; whatever opens the [...]