News - April 2024 RSS Feed

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations (CCLV) released The Class of 2024: Survey of Ordinands to the Priesthood in anticipation of the World Day of Prayer for Vocations. The survey mentions that Pope Francis thanked “mothers and fathers who do not think of themselves or follow fleeting fads of the moment, but shape their lives through relationships marked by love and graciousness, openness to the gift of life and commitment to their children and their growth in maturity.

Cardinal Gregory was in Rome recently for a Papal Foundation Board Meeting and to receive the Rector’s Award at the annual Rector’s Dinner at the Pontifical North American College where a number of Washington seminarians study for the priesthood. While in Rome, Cardinal Gregory gave an interview to Vatican News where he spoke about human dignity, particularly Dignitas infinita, the recently released Vatican Declaration on human dignity. I want to highlight some points he made on that occasion.

In 1224—eight hundred years ago—St. Francis of Assisi received the stigmata after he had withdrawn to the hills of La Verna (located in the Apennine mountains in central Tuscany) to pray and do penance. Earlier this month Pope Francis joined a group of Italian Franciscan Friars from La Verna and Tuscany to celebrate the 800th anniversary of the “gift of the stigmata” (as Pope Francis put it). On this occasion, Pope Francis made a number of statements on which we should reflect. Let me include several of these statements here:

Our Easter Season is only beginning, with 50 days between Easter Sunday and Pentecost, the day commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and Mary. There are many beautiful chapters in our Catholic faith between the beginning and the end of the Easter season—and this Sunday, April 7, Divine Mercy Sunday, marks one of them.