News - October 2020 RSS Feed

The Faithful Citizenship section of the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) contains lots of interesting and useful information. As the next election will be in just a couple of days, I think that I would present here twenty questions for faithful citizens. I invite you to take the quiz today, which I got from the USCCB website.

If he were alive right now, Blessed Carlo Acutis would be twenty-nine years old. But Carlo died when he was just fifteen years old. Carlo was the oldest son of Andrea Acutis and Antonia Salzano, who were not particularly religious. Although born in London, his family moved to Milan when he was about four months old. He was a normal boy who was a natural jokester who enjoyed making his classmates and teachers laugh. At the same time he defended disabled peers at school when bullies mocked them. Outside of school he did voluntary work with the homeless and destitute.

The month of October is domestic violence month, a time when we can share more openly about an epidemic of violence in our own families. Indeed, domestic violence affects every parish and every community in our country.

Today I want to conclude a presentation of the Message of Pope Francis for the 106th World Day for Migrants and Refugees. Last week I mentioned that he wanted to reflect on six pairs of verbs in the 2020 Message. Here are the six pairs of verbs: To know in order to understand To be close in order to serve To listen in order to be reconciled To share in order to grow To be involved in order to promote To cooperate in order to build

Sunday, September 27, 2020, marks the 106th World Day of Migrants and Refugees. Pope Francis delivered a message for this occasion which was dated May 13, 2020. I want to present some points from his message for our consideration today and next week.