By Bishop Joseph R. Kopacz, D.D. The season of Lent is underway in this Jubilee Year of Hope and what a fitting time it is to renew our life in Jesus Christ as pilgrims of hope. The Ash Wednesday call to conversion resounded through our churches with the words that accompany the ashes: “Remember that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return.” Stop and pause a minute. If that’s where the invitation began and ended, a person could naturally respond, not Amen, but if that’s all there is then eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow I may be dead. This is true enough. But the accompanying Ash Wednesday exhortation takes us beyond this world. “Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel.” The two must be taken together because the Gospel imperative takes us to the threshold of eternity through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. In the end, we succumb to death, but the light of the Gospel impels us to be faithful to a different standard, one of faith, hope and love.
Bishop Joseph R. Kopacz, D.D.
In the Jubilee Bull of Indiction, Pope Francis offers a splendid reflection on our Baptism, the divine life that we seek to renew throughout Lent in preparation for Easter. “The Jubilee, [and the season of Lent] offers us the opportunity to appreciate anew, and with immense gratitude, the gift of new life that we have received in Baptism, a life capable of transfiguring death’s drama … The tradition of building baptismal fonts in the shape of an octagon, as seen in many ancient baptistries, like that of St. John Lateran in Rome, was intended to symbolize that Baptism is the dawn of the ‘eighth day,’ the day of the resurrection, a day that transcends the normal, weekly passage of time, opening us to life everlasting.” (20) “For we are buried together with him by baptism into death, that as Christ is risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we may also walk with him in newness of life.” (Romans 6:4)
Newness of life encompasses the call to repentance through prayer and fasting, and the call to live as pilgrims of hope through almsgiving in its many forms. The second reading on Ash Wednesday eloquently expresses this sublime call and mystery. We are all new creations, ministers of reconciliation and ambassadors of Jesus Christ. (2Cor 5:17)
In our world that has fallen prey to radical polity and civil discord, fidelity to the Gospel offers another path where reconciliation, justice and fraternity lead the way. Whatever our political persuasion may be, for the person of faith in the Catholic Church, we are called to value the things that really matter. “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice … Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good, acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:1-2)
Flowing from the waters of Baptism is the grace of the Sacrament of Reconciliation where God can lavishly pour out his merciful grace and transform hardened hearts. For the Jubilee year Pope Francis again instructs us from the Chair of Peter. “The sacrament of Reconciliation is not only a magnificent spiritual gift, but also a decisive, essential and fundamental step on our journey of faith. There, we allow our Lord to erase our sins, to heal our hearts, to raise us up, to embrace us and to reveal to us his tender and compassionate countenance. There is no better way to know God than to allow God to reconcile us to himself. Let us not neglect Confession.” (23)
In the spirit of Jubilee, this sacrament restores hope, renews our baptism, and reminds us “to love mercy, do justice and walk humbly with our God.” (Micah 6:8) May the 40 days of Lent be a season of refreshment in God! (Acts 3:20)
Our second wave of discernment groups has kicked off, and it has been ‘supercharged’ by our Called by Name weekend back in the fall. You may remember that weekend in November that we asked all priests to share their vocation story during Mass, and then we asked you to share the names of any young men in your parish who you think should consider the priesthood and who might benefit from being invited to vocation events. One of the benefits of having all those submissions is that our discernment groups can now have a much bigger pool of possible participants. Here’s an example to help me explain:
My discernment group last semester had about eight high school age boys from the Jackson Metro in it. The group, as scheduled, lasted six weeks and we had a great time, and the guys got a lot out of it. When I started planning my group for this semester, I reached out first to the guys who were in the last group. But I also had about 15 more young men to invite because they were submitted through Called by Name. Because my group is for high schoolers, I called the parents of each of the boys submitted and shared about the group and invited them to share the information with their son. We just had our first meeting, and we had five returning participants, and four new participants come. We actually increased participation between our first group and our second group.
This may seem like ‘no big whoop,’ but this is a substantial ‘widening of the net.’ There is so much going on during the school year that there will be some guys who can’t attend a group for a semester here or there just because of sports and other extracurricular conflicts, so the fact that we retained five guys and we added four more is a huge deal. It keeps the group going and it keeps our meetings dynamic and fun. It is so important that we are consistent in our approach and in offering opportunities to young men so that priesthood stays on their radar. It has also been a great gift to be able to speak to parents in this process because it gives us an opportunity to get to know one another, and I think it gives them confidence that their sons are going to have a positive experience in the group whether they end up being interested in priesthood or not. Stay tuned for more updates on opportunities that we are developing for young men and women to discern their vocation. Next week I’ll let you know about a great opportunity coming up this summer for high school youth.
By Deacon Tony Schmidt As part of the ongoing effort to highlight the permanent diaconate as a viable vocation pathway for men in the Diocese of Jackson, it is my hope that this article can pull back the curtain to reveal a glimpse of the life as a permanent deacon. Because of varied settings in which a deacon can serve, a typical day is as unique as the men who serve.
It is imperative to remember that the heart of the diaconate is service. Perhaps it is easy to place limitations on the diaconate by focusing on what faculties that Bishop Joseph Kopacz grants to each deacon upon his ordination as a deacon. However, the time spent by deacons performing faculty related tasks such as weddings, baptisms, funerals, proclaiming the Gospel at Mass, etc. pale in comparison to living among those we serve.
From a personal perspective, being a deacon requires me to remain fully engaged as a husband, father and grandfather while simultaneously being available for those whom I serve. The time spent serving on the altar with my mentor and parish priest, Father Gerry Hurley, comprises a small portion of my time, but remains the task that is the most visible. However, behind the scenes, my service can range from bringing the Eucharist to the souls confined to their home, nursing home, or hospital, spending time with the youth of our parish, accompanying the youth on mission trips to Catholic Heart Work Camp each summer, assisting with Confirmation retreats, leading OCIA, providing a confidential listening ear for those who are in need and sitting on various parish committees.
However, the single most important service as a deacon is placing myself on the sideline to effectively allow the whisper of the Holy Spirit to be heard and then to take action! Over the course of my life, but especially during diaconate formation and the time since ordination, the realization that I am called to serve is very real and constant theme. My ego wants to do grand things affecting a large segment of the world, but I’m called to serve who is in need in my own community. The diaconate is humbling in many ways; my service is really not about me … it truly is being the hands and feet of Jesus. The diaconate has assisted me to be a better husband, father, friend and child of God.
One aspect of the life of a deacon that is present in any service arena is the absolute need to connect on a human level with whom we are serving. From the very beginning of creation, humans were created to be in communion with one another. To be able to empathize, to listen so that we understand and to nonjudgmentally meet an individual where they are on their spiritual journey establishes trust and open lines of communication. It is through trust and communication, that the deacon can be of greatest value which is to allow the light of Christ to shine and thus illuminate the world. I love Jesus; therefore, I must love his children. Although he was not speaking about the diaconate, Thomas Aquinas encapsulates the mindset needed to have a fulfilling diaconal ministry by stating “To love is to will the good of the other.”
I encourage all men who are interested in the diaconate to check out the Permanent Diaconate section of the diocesan website at https://bit.ly/JacksonDiaconate for more information. Also, join one of the diaconate informational sessions that will be held throughout the diocese to learn about the heart of the diaconate.
(Deacon Tony Schmidt is a member of the permanent diaconate for the Diocese of Jackson. He serves St. Paul parish in Flowood.)
IN EXILE By Father Ron Rolheiser, OMI During the last years of his life, Thomas Merton lived in a hermitage outside a monastery, hoping to find more solitude in his life. But solitude is an illusive thing, and he found it was forever escaping him. Then one morning he sensed that for a moment he had found it. However, what he experienced was a surprise to him. Solitude, it turns out, is not some altered state of consciousness or some heightened sense of God and the transcendent in our lives. Solitude, as he experienced it, was simply being peacefully inside your own skin, gratefully aware of and peacefully breathing in the immense richness inside your own life. Solitude consists in sleeping in intimacy with your own experience, at peace there, aware of its riches and wonder.
Padre Ron Rolheiser, OMI
But that’s not easy. It’s rare. Rarely do we find ourselves at peace with the present moment inside us. Why? Because that’s the way we are built. We are overcharged for this world. When God put us into this world, as the author of the Book of Ecclesiastes tells us, God put “timelessness” into our hearts and because of that we don’t make easy peace with our lives.
We read this, for example, in the famous passage about the rhythm of the seasons in the Book of Ecclesiastes. There is a time and a season for everything, we are told: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to gather in what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal … and so the text goes on. Then, after listing this natural rhythm of time and the seasons, the author ends with these words: God has made everything suitable for its own time but has put timelessness into the human heart so that human beings are out of sync with the rhythms of the seasons from beginning to end.
The Hebrew word used here to express “timelessness” is Olam, a word suggesting “eternity” and “transcendence.” Some English translations put it this way: God has put a sense of past and future into our hearts. Perhaps that captures it best in terms of how we generally experience this in our lives. We know from experience how difficult it is to be at peace inside the present moment because the past and the future won’t leave us alone. They are forever coloring the present.
The past haunts us with half-forgotten lullabies and melodies that trigger memories about love found and lost, about wounds that have never healed, and with inchoate feelings of nostalgia, regret and wanting to cling to something that once was. The past is forever sowing restlessness into the present moment.
And the future? It impales itself into the present as well, looming as promise and threat, forever demanding our attention, forever sowing anxiety into our lives and forever stripping us of the capacity to simply rest inside the present.
The present is forever colored by obsessions, heartaches, headaches and anxieties that have little to do with people we are actually sitting with at table.
Philosophers and poets have given various names to this. Plato called it “a madness that comes from the gods”; Hindu poets have called it “a nostalgia for the infinite”; Shakespeare speaks of “immortal longings,” and Augustine, in perhaps the most famous naming of them all, called it an incurable restlessness that God has put into the human heart to keep it from finding a home in something less than the infinite and eternal – “You have made us for yourself, Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”
And so, it’s rare to be peacefully present to our own lives, restful inside of our own skins. But this “torment,” as T.S. Eliot, once named it, has a God-given intentionality, a divine purpose.
Henri Nouwen, in a remarkable passage both names the struggle and its purpose: “Our life is a short time in expectation, a time in which sadness and joy kiss each other at every moment. There is a quality of sadness that pervades all the moments of our life. It seems that there is no such thing as a clear-cut pure joy, but that even in the most happy moments of our existence we sense a tinge of sadness. In every satisfaction, there is an awareness of limitations. In every success, there is the fear of jealousy. Behind every smile, there is a tear. In every embrace, there is loneliness. In every friendship, distance. And in all forms of light, there is the knowledge of surrounding darkness. But this intimate experience in which every bit of life is touched by a bit of death can point us beyond the limits of our existence. It can do so by making us look forward in expectation to that day when our hearts will be filled with perfect joy, a joy that no one shall take away from us.”
Our restless hearts keep us from falling asleep to the divine fire inside us.
(Oblate Father Ron Rolheiser is a theologian, teacher and award-winning author. He can be contacted through his website www.ronrolheiser.com.)
By Cindy Wooden VATICAN CITY (CNS) – In a sign affirming that Pope Francis has been able to conduct work while in the hospital, the Vatican said the pope had met with the top officials of the Vatican Secretariat of State and had signed several decrees in sainthood causes.
The Vatican press office said Feb. 25 that the pope had signed the decrees the previous day during a meeting at Rome’s Gemelli hospital with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, and with Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, substitute secretary of state.
The announcement followed a typically brief morning update on the health of the 88-year-old pope, which said, “The pope rested well, all night.”
Pope Francis, diagnosed with double pneumonia, has been in the hospital since Feb. 14.
A medical bulletin published by the Vatican late Feb. 24, said Pope Francis’ condition had shown a slight improvement during the day, but his condition remained critical. He had not had another “asthmatic respiratory crisis,” so doctors were able to reduce the oxygen he is receiving by nasal cannula.
Hours after visiting Pope Francis in the hospital, Cardinal Parolin led the recitation of the rosary in St. Peter’s Square, praying for the pope and his health. Some two dozen cardinals joined the nighttime prayer, along with officials of the Roman Curia and hundreds of Catholics from Rome and around the world.
The 9 p.m. rosary will be a fixed appointment, the Vatican said. Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, was scheduled to lead the prayer Feb. 25.
From the Hermitage By sister alies therese Not long until we purple-up and turn our attention more intentionally to the Passion of Jesus. In our tradition, we fast, pray, and give alms and are convinced that we shall make progress, and our improvement will bring holiness. Really? An earlier tradition taught this: Baal Shem Tov (Poland, d. 1760) (a Hasid or ‘pious one’) taught, “A person of piety complained to the Master, saying, ‘I have labored hard and long in the service of the Lord, and yet I have received no improvement. I am still an ordinary and ignorant person.’ And the Master answered, ‘Ah, yes, but you have gained the realization that you are ordinary and ignorant and that in itself is a worthy accomplishment, is it not?’”
Will I ever be ‘meeked?’ A horse is not meeked to take away its power … no, it is to harness it, moving the animal’s heart from independence to loyalty. In 2019 Maleah (internet) wrote, “Meekness is a superpower developing a focused deliberate center.” This center is our place of prayer and an attitude of meekness reminds us of who our center is.
“To pray is to pay attention to something or someone other than oneself. Whenever one so concentrates attention … and completely forgets the ego, they are praying.” (W.H. Auden, Prayer the Nature of, A Certain World, 1970)
‘Meeking a horse’ comes from Old English and Old Norse. Injukr means gentle … and way back to the Greek praus meaning strength under control. Focused and deliberate. Strong under control.
Behavioral aspects give us a few clues as to how we are doing and though we may remain ignorant and ordinary we can check our tempers, hold back a bad word, or show an engaging smile rather than a wrinkly frown. Aristotle remarked a “praus person has the virtue of the mean between two extremes. The person submits or constrains power for greater effect on self and others.”
Prayer is essential, for to lower oneself before the magnificence of God is to allow ourselves to be meeked into wholesome submission, being transformed moment by moment into the gentleness of God. Another way we express this deliberate and controlled behavior is to let others speak … you listen, and as Carnegie remarked, “do what’s needed.” Sometimes we do not pay attention to what is needed, thinking we can be holy our way. A Sufi story teaches, “There are those in winter who, calling themselves religious say, ‘I shall not wear warm clothes. I shall trust in God’s kindness to protect me from the cold.’ But these people do not realize that the God who created cold has also given human beings the means to protect themselves from it.’”
What do the Scriptures say about being ‘meek?’ Consider both Psalm 37 and Matthew 5:5ff. In Psalm 37 we understand that the meek are the anawim, those overwhelmed by want thus their complete dependence upon God. “Quiet down before God and be prayerful before Him. Don’t bother with those who climb the ladder, who elbow their way to the top. Bridle your anger, trash your wrath, cool your pipes — it only makes things worse.” (Peterson, Psalm 37, The Message)
When Matthew picks these notions up and includes them in the beatitudes, we hear the call of ‘slow to anger,’ ‘gentle with others’ and not striving but accepting. “You are blessed when you are content with just who you are – no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.” (Peterson, MT 5:5, The Message). We are patiently learning to trust and to build up nourishing connections. As with that horse, we develop a partnership.
“Pray simply. Do not expect to find in your heart any remarkable gift of prayer. Consider yourself unworthy of it. Then you will find peace. Use the empty, dry coldness of your prayer as food for your humility.” (St. Makari of Optino) We have the opportunity each day to grow in meekness as we deepen, pray and do what is needed. That is our journey, and we need to make good friends with our horses.
“Grow up gentle and good and never learn bad ways; do your work with goodwill, lift your feet up when you trot, and never bite or kick even in play.” (Anna Sewell, Black Beauty). BLESSINGS.
(Sister alies therese is a canonically vowed hermit with days formed around prayer and writing.)
It IS GOOD By Elizabeth Scalia Early on, my friend Ruby absorbed the message that a “strong, independent” woman never seeks out help; she does everything all by herself, for herself.
Thus, Ruby is fast to offer help to anyone else who might need it – she’ll watch the kids and the dog; she’ll drive you to the emergency room and hold your hand while you wait; she’ll take some of the work off your desk if you’re having a bad week and complete it for you. But she’ll never ask anyone to do the same for her.
As a single mother Ruby did it all, saw to it all and carried it all on her own wee shoulders, raising a sweet-natured boy into manhood in the process. Her buzzwords were “strength” and “self-sufficiency,” even when it meant wearing shoes long in need of replacement. Challenges were risen to; personal needs brushed aside. She could look back on each day knowing she’d done her best by her world, and that any debts she’d incurred – those financial, social or personal obligations that can make a resolutely self-contained sort feel uncomfortably vulnerable – had been kept to a minimum.
And that all worked for her. Until suddenly, it didn’t.
As for so many of us, a cancer diagnosis proved to be the line – the one obstacle her strong will could not bend, nor her stiff spine break through.
Elizabeth Scalia is a Benedictine Oblate and Culture Editor at OSV News. Her column, “It is Good” appears biweekly. (OSV News photo)
Ruby put a good face on things through biopsies and MRI’s, and as cancer in one breast became cancer in both and discussions of surgical options and treatments took her diabetes into consideration. She presented a strong face to her family – the determined, extreme calm at the crux of her own private maelstrom. Then a pre-surgical stress test flagged a new concern: “It might be broken-heart syndrome,” the cardiologist mused.
And that was when she cracked.
My friend has faced the challenges of aging with grace and humor, but the whole “cancer-diabetes-wait-my-heart-is-broken-now?” trifecta did her in. For the first time since childhood, Ruby felt utterly unmoored from her own strengths. “You need to let yourself lean on your family and friends, a little,” I advised her. “It’s okay to say, ‘I need a hug, I need someone to fuss on me a little bit.’ Let people help!”
Uncomfortable with need and dubious about the whole endeavor, Ruby eventually hinted to her family that she was scared. “So much for your good advice,” she reported back, fuming. “They just said stuff like, ‘you have to take it a day at a time!’ I’m over here, terrified, and they’re no help at all!”
Sadly, people mostly don’t know what to say in such circumstances, particularly if they’ve never been asked for support. Ruby’s sudden need for the intimacy of consolation threw them off, a bit. Unsure about saying, “We’re scared too,” they fell back on “one day at a time,” which my friend – once she’d calmed down – recognized was sound advice. Cancer is scary. Sometimes you can only deal with it an hour (or even five minutes) at a time.
“You should forgive them for having no idea how to comfort you,” I told her, “because you’ve never needed them to before. This is new territory for everyone. Even if they’re not getting the words right, believe that they want the best for you and are praying for you.”
“And I hate myself for crying uncontrollably,” she wailed. “I really do.”
How often have we heard “strong” women say this – as if tears were a detestable fault or a sin against the perceived self? How many of us are walking around with broken hearts because we won’t permit ourselves the medicine of weeping and fully feeling the things we’ve determinedly repressed because we want that illusion of strength?
“That’s stupid,” I said, “You wouldn’t hate me, or one of your siblings, for crying; why should you hate yourself? Just stop that and let yourself feel all the things you have a right to feel. You’re allowed. I give you permission!”
At the feast of the Presentation of the Lord, we read, “But who will endure the day of his coming? And who can stand when he appears? For he is like the refiner’s fire … He will sit refining and purifying silver…” (Mal 3:2-3).
Set before all of us are weird, muddy amalgams of blessing and anxious terrors. God lives with us in the refining fires of our challenges, tempering and purifying us for something yet greater than all we know. It is good to let ourselves acknowledge the fires, the better to endure them in trust until we are free.
(Elizabeth Scalia is editor at large for OSV. Follow her on X @theanchoress.)
WASHINGTON (OSV News) – The 11th National Eucharistic Congress will be held in 2029, building “on the grace” received in Indianapolis at the 10th congress, said Jason Shanks, CEO of the National Eucharistic Congress Inc.
The 10th National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis July 17-21 drew more than 60,000 attendees and included a Eucharistic procession of tens of thousands of Catholics through the city’s downtown streets. The congress was a high point of the National Eucharistic Revival, a three-year initiative by the U.S. Catholic bishops.
“The National Eucharistic Congress Inc. is thrilled to share that we have begun the initial steps in preparing” for a 2029 congress, Shanks told OSV News in an email late Feb. 7.
“We look forward to reuniting as an American church to celebrate our shared Eucharistic faith,” he said. “We are eager to build on the grace we received during our gathering in Indianapolis this past summer.”
“We recognize that the success of the previous congress can be attributed to the countless individuals who prayed and interceded for the event,” Shanks continued. “So, we invite the church to join us in praying not only for the planning of this future Congress, but that we might continue to Walk with One through this year of missionary sending. We will provide more details about the 11th National Eucharistic Congress in the future.”
Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens of Crookston, Minn., chairman of the board of the National Eucharistic Congress Inc., blesses pilgrims July 17, 2024, during adoration at the opening revival night of the 10th National Eucharistic Congress at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. (OSV News photo/Bob Roller)
Shanks told The Pillar Feb. 7 that a decision to hold the next national gathering in 2029 was made “in consultation with the bishops” and that a formal presentation on plans for the congress will be presented to the body of the bishops during their fall plenary assembly in November.
The revival is now focusing on its Year of Mission, in which Catholics are encouraged to become “Eucharistic missionaries” who share the reality and impact of Jesus’ real presence in the Eucharist with others. This is especially realized through the revival’s “Walk with One” campaign, which asks Catholics to identify one person whom they can accompany on their faith journey and deepen their relationship with Jesus Christ.
The National Eucharistic Congress Inc. nonprofit was formed in 2022 to support the bishops’ vision for the revival. It oversaw not only the congress but also the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, two major components of the National Eucharistic Revival.
The pilgrimage involved 30 young adult “perpetual pilgrims” crossing the country over eight weeks with the Eucharist via four routes, which ended in Indianapolis ahead of the congress.
Pilgrimage-related events, such as Mass, Eucharistic adoration and public processions, drew in some cases thousands of people, with the largest perhaps being the 5-mile procession in St. Paul, Minnesota, with crowd estimates exceeding 7,000 adorers.
At the conclusion of the congress, Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens of Crookston, Minnesota, board chairman of the National Eucharistic Congress Inc., announced there would be another National Eucharistic Pilgrimage in 2025 from Indianapolis to Los Angeles and possibly an earlier National Eucharistic Congress than 2033.
2033 is when the church will mark the 2,000th anniversary of Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection, which Pope Francis called “another fundamental celebration for all Christians.”
While the bishops’ initiative is slated to end with the feast of Corpus Christi, which is June 19, the organization expects to build on the revival’s momentum beyond 2025 and continue to support Eucharist-centered efforts, including future national Eucharistic pilgrimages and congresses.
By Maria Wiering (OSV News) – The 2025 National Eucharistic Pilgrimage will begin in Indianapolis May 18 and travel through 10 states before reaching Los Angeles June 22.
The 3,300-mile St. Katharine Drexel Route has stops planned in 20 dioceses and four Eastern Catholic eparchies across Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.
Eight “perpetual pilgrims” and several chaplains have been selected to travel with the Eucharist throughout the 36-day route, which begins on Pentecost and ends on the feast of Corpus Christi. “We are thrilled to be gearing up for the 2025 National Eucharistic Pilgrimage. We trust that God has profound blessings and graces in store for us as we journey with Jesus through cities and towns nationwide again this summer,” said Jason Shanks, president of the Denver-based National Eucharistic Congress Inc., in a Feb. 18 media release announcing details of the route.
San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone elevates the monstrance as he blesses the city and pilgrims after crossing the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco May 19, 2024. (OSV News photo/Bob Roller)
The pilgrimage builds on the success of the first National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, which took place in 2024 ahead of the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis July 17-21. The 2024 pilgrimage launched from four points near four U.S. borders May 18-19 with a combined 30 perpetual pilgrims, all in their 20s. Over two months, they traveled, often on foot, toward Indianapolis with the Eucharist. Their route included simple and solemn Eucharistic processions, and stops for Mass, Eucharistic adoration, prayer, charitable service and social events along the way, often in local parishes.
The 2024 procession drew more than 250,000 participants, according to organizers – with an estimated 7,000 people joining a single 5-mile Eucharistic procession in St. Paul, Minnesota, likely the effort’s largest crowd before arriving in Indianapolis. Across the U.S., people offered their homes and other accommodations for the pilgrims to stay.
On the final day of the 2024 National Eucharistic Congress, Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens of Crookston, Minnesota, board chairman of National Eucharistic Congress Inc., announced that another national Eucharistic pilgrimage was planned for 2025, culminating in a closing Mass with Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles.
The 2025 route will include the tomb of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen in Peoria, Illinois; the Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine in Oklahoma City; and missions in Southern California. In Iowa, a Eucharistic procession will begin at the baseball field featured in the 1989 movie “Field of Dreams.”
“This year’s pilgrimage will again focus on Eucharistic encounters with marginalized communities, bringing the Blessed Sacrament to assisted living facilities, food banks, a juvenile detention center, a hospital, and a federal prison along the route,” the Feb. 18 media release stated.
Pilgrimage stops will also celebrate the 2025 Jubilee Year and mark recent U.S. tragedies, including the Jan. 29 Washington crash of American Airlines Flight 5342, which originated in Wichita, Kansas, and the January wildfires that ravaged parts of Los Angeles, killing at least 29 people.
“In honor of the Jubilee Year of Hope, there will be an additional focus on Eucharistic healing. Events are planned in Wichita to honor the victims of the plane crash and their families, at the border of Mexico with a special Benediction and prayers for all migrants and refugees, and in Los Angeles, where organizers hope to bring our Eucharistic Lord to the communities impacted by the wildfires,” the media release stated.
A full event listing and registration to participate will be posted later this spring, organizers said.
WASHINGTON (OSV News) — When Washington Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory became the first African American cardinal in the history of the Catholic Church Nov. 28, 2020, some of his thoughts were far from Rome while he received his red hat during the consistory at St. Peter’s Basilica.
He reflected on that moment In a recent interview with the Catholic Standard and Spanish-language El Pregonero archdiocesan newspapers.
“When the Holy Father placed the cardinal’s biretta on my head, the thoughts that filled my heart were thoughts of my own family, my mom and dad struggling to provide a good education for me and my two sisters,” he said Jan. 15. “My wonderful grandmother, Etta Mae Duncan, who was so pivotal in my upbringing. I’ve said this before, she was a domestic. She worked as a housekeeper to provide the opportunity for her grandchildren to get a good education.
“I thought about the sacrifices that people have made in my own life,” he continued, “but also the sacrifices that African American Catholics, Catholics of color, have offered in their fidelity to our church, their love for our church, their faithfulness to the Catholic community that they love and have loved all of their lives.”
Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory of Washington shares a laugh with Pope Francis Oct. 4, 2023, before the first working session of the assembly of the Synod of Bishops in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
He also thought about history. “How did I get here? How did this moment happen to me?”
And he thought about “how grateful I am to have reaped the harvest of faith that was made possible by people in my own life, but (also by) people that I have never known, but were faithful Catholics who have fallen in love with the Catholic Church and that I just so happened to be the one to reap the benefit of their love and their devotion.”
On Oct. 25, 2020, the morning that Pope Francis named then-Archbishop Gregory as one of 13 new cardinals to be elevated at that Nov. 28 consistory, he said in a statement, “With a very grateful and humble heart, I thank Pope Francis for this appointment which will allow me to work more closely with him in caring for Christ’s Church.”
That morning, Cardinal-designate Gregory celebrated a 250th anniversary Mass for Holy Angels Parish in Avenue, which is located near St. Clement’s Island in Southern Maryland, where the first Catholic Mass in the English-speaking colonies was celebrated in 1634.
After that Mass, he was asked what his elevation to the College of Cardinals meant to him personally, to be the first African American cardinal in the United States, and what that would mean to the nation’s Black Catholics.
Cardinal-designate Gregory’s voice broke slightly as he said, “I’m deeply humbled. I know that I am reaping a harvest that millions of African American Catholics and people of color have planted. I am deeply grateful for the faith that they have lived so generously, so zealously and with such great devotion.”
He said he saw his appointment as “another opportunity to serve and to care for the church and to have the church (of Washington) in closer union with Pope Francis.”
He added, “I hope it is a sign of the continued investment of the church in the work of justice, peace and harmony among people.”
Cardinal Gregory was installed as Washington’s archbishop in May 2019. On Jan. 6, 2025, Pope Francis accepted his resignation; at 77 he is two years past the age at which canon law requires bishops to submit their resignation to the pope. Pope Francis named Cardinal Robert W. McElroy of San Diego as his successor. He will be installed March 11.
Cardinal Gregory became Catholic and was inspired to become a priest after being enrolled in St. Carthage School in his native Chicago in 1958. Young Wilton was baptized and received his first Communion in 1959 and was confirmed later that year.
After graduating from St. Carthage in 1961, he entered the seminary and was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Chicago in 1973. He earned a doctorate in sacred liturgy from the Pontifical Liturgical Institute in Rome in 1980.Three years later he was ordained an auxiliary bishop of Chicago; at age 34, he became the youngest U.S. Catholic bishop.
From 1994-2005, Bishop Gregory headed the Diocese of Belleville, Illinois. In 2001, he was elected president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops after three years as vice president. In 2002, during his term, revelations of clergy sexual abuse and its cover-up erupted, affecting the whole U.S. church. Under his leadership, the bishops implemented the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.”
St. John Paul II appointed Bishop Gregory as archbishop of Atlanta, where he was installed in 2005, and Pope Francis named him as the seventh archbishop of Washington in 2019. Then-Archbishop Gregory became the first African American archbishop of Washington.
In one of his first parish visits as Washington’s new archbishop, he celebrated a Mass at St. Augustine Church, founded in 1858 by free men and women of color, including some who were emancipated from slavery. It is known as the mother church for African American Catholics in the nation’s capital.
When then-Archbishop Gregory appeared in the doorway of St. Augustine Church that morning for the Mass, people there shouted for joy and gave him a spontaneous standing ovation.
In his homily that day, then-Archbishop Gregory acknowledged St. Augustine’s history and “how it is identified with the sacred heritage of African American Catholics.”
“I stand on holy ground, as do all of you when you gather each Sunday for the Eucharist,” he said, adding, “Today a son of the African diaspora stands in your midst as the shepherd of the entire family of faith that is the Archdiocese of Washington.”
After Cardinal Gregory’s elevation to the College of Cardinals was announced in 2020, local Catholics interviewed for a “Black Catholics Voices” multimedia series for the Catholic Standard reacted with joy to his appointment as the first African American cardinal.
Father Robert Boxie III, the Catholic chaplain at Howard University in Washington, said the appointment was a recognition of Cardinal Gregory’s pastoral leadership and contributions to the church in the United States.
It was also a recognition that “the faith, the contributions, the witness, the experience of Black Catholics truly do matter, and that’s an important voice and an important gift to the church universal,” the priest said. “The voice of Black Catholics will be now that much closer to the Holy Father. It will now be in the heart of the Church in Rome, in the Vatican.”
Sister Patricia Chappell, a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur and the former president of the National Black Sisters’ Conference, called Cardinal Gregory’s elevation “a very historic moment,” and praised the new cardinal as “a man who really listens to the people, a man who is steeped in his faith, and a man who will journey with the people.”
As the archbishop of Washington, Cardinal Gregory worked to be a pastor to all the people of the archdiocese, centering his ministry on celebrating Masses at parishes and Catholic schools.
He worked to bring healing in the wake of the clergy abuse crisis and led the archdiocese through the COVID-19 pandemic. Demonstrating Catholic teaching for the dignity of human life in all its stages, Cardinal Gregory celebrated a Youth Mass for Life before the annual March for Life, and he also spoke out against the death penalty.
The cardinal also celebrated an annual Mass honoring the life and legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and under his leadership, the archdiocese launched a 2020 pastoral initiative, “Made in God’s Image: Pray and Work to End this Sin of Racism,” and a 2021 action plan based on Pope Francis’ “Laudato Si'” environmental encyclical.
“He demonstrated to the church in the United States that Black Catholics have a lot to offer to the church from the gifts God has given us, and he’s an excellent example of that,” said Washington Auxiliary Bishop Roy E. Campbell Jr. who also serves as the president of the National Black Catholic Congress.
In a 2021 interview one year after he was elevated to the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Gregory was asked if being the first African American cardinal posed any challenges.
“I always feel that if I stay close to the Lord in my prayer life, at least (staying) on the right path … being the first is an opportunity to draw the church closer together across cultures and races,” he said.
In his recent interview with the Catholic Standard and El Pregonero, he reflected on the number of opportunities he has had “to be the first,” saying he wants “to make sure that I realize that whatever legacy I leave will be available for the second, for the third, for the fifth, who will, in God’s own time and with God’s own grace, will inherit the responsibilities that I’ve been fortunate enough to have.”
“I hope that my presence in the Archdiocese of Washington, as I was present in Atlanta and in Belleville and in Chicago, I hope that I provided an opportunity for people not just in a sense of pride, but in a sense of opportunity, that the young people can see a world that they can fill with their own dreams and with their own possibilities,” he said.
“I hope that my ministry has lifted the horizons for a lot of our young people, to see as possibilities that generations of young people in the past never even envisioned.”
(Mark Zimmermann is editor of the Catholic Standard, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Washington.)
