Happy Easter! I wanted to present Pope Francis’s message for Easter 2025. Since it has not been released, I am presenting his message from Easter 2024……..Fr. John

Pope Francis encouraged us to journey together in hope during this Lenten season. Even though Lent will soon be over, I want to present his message for Lent so that we can ponder it during this Holy Week. Here is his Message for Lent 2025:

I want to continue listing some advice on parish etiquette, which I think is a good thing to do periodically. These reflections were first presented by Barbara Budde in a pamphlet (which is no longer in print) for the National Pastoral Life Center. Today I want to make some suggestions about our children at Mass.

I want to continue listing some good advice on parish etiquette as we continue through Lent and approach Easter. These reflections were first presented by Barbara Budde in a pamphlet (which is no longer in print) for the National Pastoral Life Center. Let me mention some things that we could do to prepare well for the Sunday liturgy.

I was looking at a report giving the headcount for the weekend Masses from the first week of January until the middle of March. Most weekends the headcount for all the Masses is over 1,000. The last time we had headcounts like that since before March 2020. It is wonderful to see more and more people coming to Mass here at the weekend. As more people are returning to church now, I thought that I would devote the next several columns to the topic of parish etiquette at Mass. Barbara Budde, Director of Social Concerns for the Diocese of Austin, Texas, wrote a pamphlet on this topic for the National Pastoral Life Center several years ago. When the National Pastoral Life Center closed in 2009, I contacted Ms Budde to ask if I could use material that she had written in that pamphlet on occasions such as this. With her blessing I am sharing some of her thoughts on the topic of parish etiquette. Today I shall spend the rest of this column talking about some general remarks about cultivating good parish etiquette.

Last week I mentioned five things to know about the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington’s Safe Environment Policy. This week I want to mention five more things to know about the Safe Environment Policy of the Archdiocese.

Today I want to write about the Roman Catholic Archdiocese’s Safe Environment Policy. The Archdiocese of Washington (ADW) has had a written child protection policy in place since 1986. Cardinal Gregory recently commissioned a thorough review and update of our policy, which was published on December 10, 2024 and can be found on the ADW website. This updated version replaces the 2019 version.

I want to thank Fr. G. for filling in for me while I was in the hospital and convalescing in the rectory after my hospital stay. He judiciously chose passages from various Fathers of the Church to go into the space in the bulletin where my column would appear. Today I want to write about a saint who was canonized by Pope Francis last October. Her name is Saint Léonie Paradis.

On Sunday, October 20, 2024, Pope Francis canonized several individuals. Included among them was Saint Giuseppe Allamano (1851-1926). I want to focus on him today. He was the fourth of five children to Giuseppe and Marianna Cafasso Allamano. His mother was a younger sister of Saint Giuseppe Cafasso (1811-1860). He entered the seminary when he was fifteen and ordained to the priesthood in 1873. He dreamed of becoming a missionary but poor health prevented that from happening. Shortly after his ordination he was appointed the spiritual director at the major seminary of the diocese of Turin. After he received his doctorate in theology in 1876, he was appointed the rector of the largest Marian shrine in Turin. He remained in that position until his death. Even though he could not be a missionary himself, the missions were on his mind. In 1901, he founded the Consolata Missionary Institute, a missionary society for priests and laymen. A few years later he founded the Consolata Missionary Sisters for women who also desired to be missionaries.

Sunday, October 20, 2024, was World Mission Sunday. In recent years the Holy Father has canonized saints as part of the commemoration of World Mission Sunday. This year Pope Francis canonized fourteen new saints, including three founders of religious orders and eleven martyrs who were killed in Damascus in 1860. They all lived in the nineteenth century, although two of the religious founders died in the early decades of the twentieth century. Today I will write about the eleven who were killed in Damascus in 1860. They are known collectively as the Martyrs of Damascus. They were beatified by Pope Pius XI in 1926.

October is both Respect Life Month and Domestic Violence Awareness Month. There is certainly an important connection between the two events. In observance of both events, I am finishing the overview of Domestic Violence that is based on an important statement entitled When I Call for Help. This statement was issued several years ago by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. I am going to devote both the column for this week and the column for next week to presenting an overview of Domestic Violence that is based on an important statement entitled When I Call for Help. This statement was published several years ago now from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The First Sunday of October is designated as Respect Life Sunday. The Chairman of the USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities, has issued a statement to mark this occasion. I want to provide some excerpts from it for today’s column.

Many parishes in the Archdiocese of Washington, including our parish, are blessed to have parishioners whose country of origin is Haiti. Knowing well some of our parishioners who originally came from Haiti, I found it very painful to read of Haitians being stigmatized as people who eat pets in the press and on social media. This kind of behavior reminded me of stories told about Chinese immigrants in the 1800’s as people who ate dogs, bats, or rats or other malicious lies that were continually repeated about immigrants from Europe, Asia, or Africa during much of the twentieth century.

This week I want to continue the discussion about various claims of criminal activity in Catholic organizations that assist newcomers. The USCCB posted a document on their website that I want to use to address false claims of Catholic Church agencies regarding financial enrichment, self-interest, and political motives.

Over the last three weeks, I have covered the three basic principles of Catholic Social Teaching as it applies to Immigration. This week I want to talk about false claims about Catholic organizations that serve newcomers.

During the past two weeks we have been discussing the three basic principles of Catholic Social Teaching on Immigration. These are taken from a presentation on the USCCB website entitled “Catholic Social Teaching on Immigration and the Movement of Peoples.” This resource was written by Father Thomas Betz, O.F.M. Cap. when he was serving as the Director of Immigration and Refugee Services for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

Last week I began a three-part series covering three basic principles of Catholic Social Teaching on Immigration. These are published on the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. The resource was written by Father Thomas Betz, O.F.M. Cap., who at one point served as the Director of Immigration and Refugee Services for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. This week I want to talk about the second basic principle of Catholic Social Teaching on immigration.

Capuchin Father Thomas Betz wrote a paper “Catholic Social Teaching on Immigrants and the Movement of Peoples” several years ago when he served as the Director of Immigration and Refugee Services for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. That paper has been posted on the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Father Betz discusses three basic principles of Catholic Social Teaching on Immigration. I want to review them in my column this week and in the following weeks.

On our parish website I recommend people take a few moments to watch a brief video message explaining the Holy Father’s Prayer Intention for the month. In the month of August Pope Francis has called on political leaders to be at the service of the poor, the unemployed and the common good. The Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network released its most recent message on July 30, 2024. In that message Pope Francis stated that today politics does not have a good reputation: corruption, scandals, distant from people’s day-to-day lives. He asks if we can move ahead toward universal fraternity without good politics. His answer is that we cannot do so.