One of the seven saints canonized on October 19, 2025, by Pope Leo XIV was Saint Vincenza Maria Poloni, ISM. Today I will tell you a bit about her life and her accomplishments.

I am continuing this series of columns on saints canonized by Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican almost two months ago. Today we are looking at Saint María del Carmen Rendiles Martínez who was born in Caracas, Venezuela in 1903.

After the canonization of the seven new Saints in Saint Peters Square in Rome on Sunday October 19. 2025, Pope Leo XIV addressed the pilgrims who traveled from all over the world for the event. He described the celebration in which saints were canonized as one that reminded us that the communion of the church embraced all the faithful, across space and time, in every language and culture, uniting us as the people of God, the body of Christ, and the living temple of the Holy Spirit.

Today we are looking at Saint Maria Troncatti, FMA (1883-1969). She was born in Brescia, Italy. Early in her life she expressed a desire to become a religious sister. In 1908 she made her profession as a member of the Daughters of Mary, Help of Christians (Salesian Sisters). After she took a course in health care, she served as a nurse during World War I. This training would serve her well in her future assignments.

Saint Ignatius Maloyan (1869-1915), the Armenian Catholic Bishop in Mardin Turkey, was among 1.5 million Armenians who died in the great genocide of 1915.

On Saturday November 1, 2025, Pope Leo XIV proclaimed St. John Henry Newman the thirty-eighth Doctor of the Church. Newman spent the first forty years of his life as a distinguished minister in the Church of England. In time, he became a noteworthy leader of the High Church Oxford Movement in the Anglican Church. His research on the development of doctrine led him to become a member of the Catholic Church. After studies in Rome, he was ordained a Catholic priest and returned to England to establish the oratory of Saint Philip Neri in working class Birmingham (England). His writings were enormously influential in combating anti Catholic prejudice in England.

Among the seven saints canonized on October 19, 2025, Bartolo Longo (1841-1926) stands out for having undergone a dramatic conversion story. He grew up in a Catholic household and studied law at the University of Naples. He went from being a practicing Catholic to taking part in anti-papal demonstrations to becoming an atheist, then a Satanist, even to being “ordained” to the Satanist priesthood

Pope Leo XIV canonized seven new Saints in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday, October 19. Among the seven was Saint Peter To Rot (1912-1945) who was the son of a village chief and his wife who were among the first baptized Catholics on New Britain Island, which is part of Papua New Guinea. As a boy Peter became a faithful altar server at both Sunday and daily Mass. When the Pastor of the Mission Church noticed Peter’s great interest in religion, he suggested to Peter’s father that perhaps Peter had a vocation to the priesthood. His father disagreed but gave consent for Peter to become a catechist. Peter went for studies at St. Paul’s College. In 1934 he received his catechist’s cross from the bishop and returned to his village to assist his pastor.

As the Church celebrates World Mission Sunday 2025 today, the late Pope Francis gave us a powerful theme that resonates deeply in this Jubilee Year: “Missionaries of Hope Among All Peoples.” In his message, the Pope Francis reminded us that hope is at the heart of the Christian mission, calling every baptized person to be “messengers and builders of hope” in a world that often finds itself overshadowed by uncertainty and despair.

On September 7, 2025, Pope Leo XIV canonized Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati.  Today I want to write about Pier Giorgio. 

In addition to being Respect Life Month, October is also National Domestic Violence Awareness Month.  Several years ago, the U.S. Department of Justice estimated that 1.3 million women and 835,000 men were victims of physical violence by a partner every year.

Today the Archdiocese of Washington is joining the universal church and celebrating the 111th World Day of Migrants and Refugees.  There will be a procession with reflection beginning at 2:30 p.m.  at the Shrine of the Sacred Heart (located at 3211 Sacred Heart Way, NW, Washington DC). Those participating in the procession will walk in prayer from the Shrine of the Sacred Heart to the Cathedral of Saint Matthew the Apostle (1725 Rhode Island Avenue, NW) where there will be Mass at 5:30 p.m.

September the 21st is normally the feast of Saint Matthew the Apostle. In honor of his feast day, I want to talk about the history of our Cathedral Parish of Saint Matthew the Apostle which is the mother Church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington. I have taken much of the material here from the cathedral website.

A parishioner asked me after Mass recently what was a Doctor of the Church. He had heard on the news that Saint John Henry Newman would soon be named a Doctor of the Church and wanted to know what that meant.

Last week I devoted my column to St. Alypius, a close friend and associate of St. Augustine. This week I am devoting this column to another one of Augustine’s close friends, St. Possidius, the first biographer of Augustine’s. Possidius became a member of Augustine’s first monastic community in Hippo (modern day Annaba, Algeria). Both Saints Alypius and Possidius are remembered on May 16 on the Augustinian liturgical calendar.

Today I want to write about St. Alypius, who was a close friend of St. Augustine. In addition to being Augustine’s friend, Alypius was a member of Augustine’s monastic community in Hippo (the ancient name of Annaba, a coastal city in Algeria). Augustine once called Alypius “the brother of my heart.” Both shared the same errors as young men, and both shared the same conversion to Christ.

The years from 1936-1939 were very difficult ones for the Catholic Church in Spain. During these years of the Spanish Civil War more than 7,000 priests, friars, and religious sisters were martyred. In addition, over 3,500 lay persons were put to death for the cause of Christ. Besides Blessed Anselm Polanco, O.S.A., who was martyred in 1939, six groups of Augustinian friars totaling 98 persons, gave their lives for the cause of Christ.

Before I was ordained to the priesthood I was on the editorial board for Ancient Christian Writers, a book series of English translations of early Christian writers. The managing editor was Fr. Dennis Mc Manus, a priest of the Archdiocese of Mobile. Fr. McManus also worked as a liturgist for a number of years at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Camillo Barone, a staff reporter for the National Catholic Reporter (NCR) tells the story in a recent column in NCR about Fr. McManus and the late James Cardinal Hickey, former Archbishop of Washington. (Cardinal Hickey ordained me to the diaconate and priesthood in 1998.)

Today we continue the series of reflections on various beatified and canonized members of the Augustinian order.  Our saints today are Saints Liberatus, Boniface, and Companions.  Their feast day is celebrated on August 26. They were seven monks from North Africa who were martyred during the Christian persecutions of the late fifth century. They chose to live monastic life under the inspiration of Saint Augustine’s early communities and to meet death together rather than deny their faith.  Saints Liberatus, Boniface, and Companions are known today as the Augustinian Martyrs of Gafsa (Africa). 

I am continuing this series of canonized and beatified members of the Augustinian order. This week we are looking at Blessed Ann Catherine Emmerich (1774-1824), who was an Augustinian Canoness noted for her visions of Christ and other mystical gifts. You might be wondering what an Augustinian Canoness is. A canoness is a member of a religious community of women, historically a stable community, dedicated to the celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours in a particular church. Blessed Ann Catherine Emmerich is called an Augustinian Canoness because her community followed the rule of Saint Augustine. Once again, I have relied on a website maintained by the Midwest Augustinians for much of the information in this column.