Updates

Lean into Lent: Monica Walton’s fresh take on Lenten devotionals

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By Staff Reports
JACKSON – Monica Walton didn’t take a lengthy vacation after writing her successful first book, Advent Reflections For This Day, which was published in late 2023 and reached readers in cities as far away as Chicago as well as throughout the southeastern region of the country.

She went right to work on a Lenten devotional, which has arrived in time for the 2025 season. Like her first book, Lean Into Lent (A New Approach to Old Traditions), will delight readers who, despite the best of intentions, tend to fall behind during a weeks-long daily study.

“Lean Into Lent is a unique, weekly devotional that fits into the busyness of life and delivers a more authentic, life-changing season, guiding you closer to Jesus each week,” Walton said. “The focus on the weekly Sunday gospels and accompanying modern day parables enables readers to relate the ancient text of scripture to our lives in this millennium.”

A parishioner for over three decades at St. Paul Church in Brandon, Walton is an accomplished freelance writer whose work has been published in The Word Among Us, Mississippi Catholic and The Clarion Ledger. Her work can also be enjoyed on her blog, SacredandSensible.com.

She is again working with Joe Lee, Editor-in-Chief of Dogwood Press and an active parishioner at St. Francis of Assisi in Madison. Both of her books are published by Sunrise Press, the faith-based division of Lee’s publishing house.

“Monica is a good friend, an especially hard worker, and a devout Catholic,” Lee said. “It was an easy call to make when it came to publishing the book. There’s just as much spiritual nourishment in her weekly approach to the Lenten season as you will find in any daily study, and the modern-day parables are especially well done.”

There was an additional hook that Lee, as publisher, couldn’t pass up.

“Readings for Liturgical Years A, B and C are included,” he said. “Meaning Lean Into Lent will be relevant every year. It’s a beautiful little book and will be a tremendous study guide to get the most out of the Lenten season. It’s ideal for small church groups, too.”

“This book is an invitation to lean into the Lord Jesus for 40 days so that under His loving gaze, we can be more like His disciples,” said Bishop Joseph Kopacz. “Individuals, families, and parish prayer and study groups can benefit from its weekly treasurers … and a renewed commitment to prayer, fasting and almsgiving.”

(Signed copies of Lean Into Lent are available at Lemuria Books of Jackson and through the publisher’s website, dogwoodpress.com.)

Bishop Kopacz to lead fall 2025 Jubilee pilgrimage

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By Mary Woodward
JACKSON – Bishop Joseph Kopacz will be leading a Jubilee of Hope pilgrimage to Rome and environs from Oct. 25 through Nov. 3. The pilgrimage will visit the holy sites of Rome then venture off to the Abbey at Montecasino, down to Padre Pio’s home, then up to Assisi. See the ad with QR code to find more information on the trip. It will be an amazing time.

The year 2025 was proclaimed the Jubilee of Hope by Pope Francis maintaining the tradition of having a Jubilee Year in the church every 25 years. Pilgrims can travel to Rome and visit the Holy Doors of the four major basilicas of our church – St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major, St. Paul Outside the Walls and St. Peter.
Pilgrimages have been going on for millennia. They are designed to allow the traveler a chance to deepen her/his faith by walking in the footsteps of the Lord and his apostles. A jubilee is based on Leviticus 25 when a sabbatical year for farming was taken every seven years to let the soil regenerate then after the seventh sabbatical (50 years) a jubilee of forgiving all debts, freeing all captives and proclaiming sight to the blind would occur. The church eventually proclaimed jubilee years every 25 years so that more pilgrims could go on spiritual journeys.

Msgr. Paul McInerny, retired Canon of St. Mary Major, points out the details on the Holy Door at St. Mary Major during a pilgrimage led by Bishop Joseph Latino in 2006. (Photo courtesy of Mary Woodward)

Back in 2000, the last Jubilee year which crossed from one millennium to the next, Bishop William Houck led a pilgrimage to Rome and Assisi. In between jubilees various holy years have been held such as the 500th anniversary of the Vatican Museum in 2006 and the Year of Mercy in 2016. Bishop Joseph Latino led a pilgrimage for the 2006 holy year.

Since not everyone is able to make a pilgrimage to Rome for the Jubilee, Bishop Kopacz has designated several Jubilee Churches in our diocese that were recommended to him by the deaneries. Those churches are the Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle in Jackson, the Basilica of St. Mary in Natchez, St. Patrick in Meridian, Immaculate Heart of Mary in Greenwood, St. Joseph in Greenville, St. Elizabeth in Clarksdale, St. Joseph in Holly Springs, Immaculate Heart of Mary in Houston, St. Francis of Assisi in New Albany, and St. Mary in Iuka.

Visiting Rome or one of these churches offers the opportunity to gain a jubilee plenary indulgence. To obtain the indulgence one must visit one of the churches and participate in Mass or adoration while there, pray for the intentions of the Holy Father, and go to confession within eight days of the visit.

Throughout this year look for moments to be a beacon of hope for others. Hope is the theme for the year and our world needs us as Christians to reflect and embody a spirit of hope to counter all the anxiety and fear all around us. It is my hope that you will have a blessed jubilee filled with faith, hope, and love, and that you will journey deeper into the heart of God – source of all hope.

(Mary Woodward is Chancellor and Archivist for the Diocese of Jackson.)

Youth

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Annunciation School happenings

COLUMBUS – Annunciation seventh grader Celine Vu assists PreK student Sydney Graham to create a Mardi Gras mask for our the school’s “A Night of Bids and Beads” fundraiser.
Nolan Langston experiments with static energy. (Photos by Jacque Hince)
Jack Everett Milstead pretends to be a postman delivering valentines to friends on Feb. 14.
Avynn Clapper observes a live frog in STREAM class.

SOUTHAVEN

SOUTHAVEN – Each year during Catholic Schools Week, Sacred Heart School students raise money for a special need in the community. The funds raised this year will go to the Dehon Village Summer Camp. Each link in the chain pictured represents 25 cents. The students raised over $900 which is close to 4,000 links total. On Feb. 5, the “Hope Chain” was taken from the walls of each classroom and brought to Mass, as a symbol of the students care for those in need. (Photo by Sister Margaret Sue Broker)

MACON

MACON – Youth engaged in various activities to strengthen their faith throughout the Confirmation Retreat weekend Jan. 25-26 at Lake Forest Ranch. Pictured are youth from St. James Tupelo, among others fully engaged in their faith. (Photo by Michelle Harkins)

Flanagan Center reimagined: Expanded space, greater impact

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By Laura Grisham
WALLS – The renovations at the Father John Flanagan Catholic Center in Walls, commonly known as the Flanagan Center, are finally complete – and the facility is now open for business.

On Jan. 15, the final client files were transferred, and new office furniture was moved in, marking the completion of a much-needed overhaul. Plans for the remodel began in 2021, with more than 20 layout changes carefully finalized over two years before construction commenced in May 2023.

Over the years, the Flanagan Center has served many purposes, including operating as a thrift store, locker rooms for Sacred Heart High School, office spaces, and a food pantry. Today, it houses Sacred Heart Southern Mission’s main food pantry operations, the Volunteer Program staff, Walls Social Services, and the HIV/AIDS program.

WALLS – Renovations at the Father John Flanagan Catholic Center in Walls, Mississippi has been recently completed. Remodeling and renovations took approximately two years to complete and reimagined the existing footprint of the Center and transformed to better serve clients in need through a variety of programs. (Photo courtesy of Laura Grisham)

The ever-growing demand for food assistance made increased cold storage a necessity. Since 2016, SHSM’s annual food distribution has surged from 280,068 pounds to nearly 1.4 million pounds by 2022. Initially, the plan was to add a second walk-in freezer, but further discussions led to an even better solution.

By reimagining the building’s footprint, SHSM developed a new, more efficient layout. While the original walk-in freezer remains, the rest of the space has been completely transformed – to the delight of employees and clients alike. The former disjointed maze of offices and storage spaces has been replaced with a welcoming reception and waiting area, complete with a public restroom. A series of private offices for social workers and volunteer staff now occupy the front of the building, while a spacious breakroom/conference room serves as a hub between the office space and the state-of-the-art food pantry in the back.

The renovations also expanded the building by more than 1,150 square feet – allowing for the installation of a massive new refrigerator/freezer unit. The new cold storage space measures 48 feet by 24 feet, with 36 feet designated for freezer storage and the remaining 12 feet for refrigeration. Double-wide, 54-inch doors enable full pallets of food to be easily moved in and out using pallet jacks. Additionally, approximately 3,000 square feet of dry goods storage has been incorporated, along with a backup generator to maintain refrigeration during power outages.

These upgrades have nearly quadrupled our food storage capacity, ensuring we can meet the growing needs of our communities for years to come. The newly designed Flanagan Center provides a spacious, welcoming environment for clients and staff alike, further strengthening our mission to serve those in need.

Since 1942, Sacred Heart Southern Missions – through the generosity of volunteers and donors – has provided essential services to individuals and families living in poverty. Our outreach includes six parishes, two Catholic elementary schools (the only ones in northwest Mississippi), six social service offices, an HIV/AIDS ministry, a volunteer program, housing assistance, a thrift store, a soup kitchen and six food pantries that serve thousands each year. With the newly renovated Flanagan Center, we are better equipped than ever to continue our mission of sharing God’s love and mercy with those in need.

(Laura Grisham is the PR and Communications manager for Sacred Heart Southern Missions in Walls, Mississippi.)

Bishops sue Trump administration, say halting refugee resettlement funds will cause harm

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By Maria-Pia Chin
(OSV News) – The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops sued the Trump administration Feb. 18 over the suspension of funding of refugee resettlement assistance.

In the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the bishops called this suspension “unlawful and harmful to newly arrived refugees,” The Associated Press first reported. A USCCB spokesperson told OSV News that the lawsuit urges the government “to uphold its legal and moral obligations” to refugees and to restore the funding needed to ensure that faith-based and community organizations can continue their work with refugees.

The USCCB’s Migration and Refugee Services is one of 10 national resettlement agencies that work with the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, which was established by Congress in 1980, formalizing the process by which refugees are legally resettled in the United States.

A protester holds up a sign during an Oct. 15, 2019, demonstration outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington against the first Trump administration’s cuts in the number of refugees to be admitted under the U.S. resettlement program. The U.S. bishops Feb. 18, 2025, sued the second Trump administration for its abrupt halt to funds for resettling refugees. (OSV News photo/Bob Roller, CNS file)

USRAP was suspended through executive order signed by President Donald Trump Jan. 20 and is being evaluated to see whether refugee resettlement “is in the national interest.” The State Department issued suspension notices to domestic resettlement agencies, including the USCCB, on Jan. 24, which has impacted resettlement agencies’ ability to carry out services for refugees, including those under the Reception and Placement Program, according to an alert to support refugee resettlement seen in USCCB’s Action Alert Center.

The R&P program is a domestic effort that provides assistance to newly arrived refugees to meet initial needs such as housing and job placement during the first 90 days that they are in the country.

According to AP’s reporting on the lawsuit, the USCCB’s president, Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services, said that “the conference suddenly finds itself unable to sustain its work to care for the thousands of refugees who were welcomed into our country and assigned to the care of the USCCB by the government after being granted legal status.”

Chieko Noguchi, USCCB spokesperson, told OSV News Feb. 18 that the lawsuit filed by the USCCB “challenges the suspension of the funding for refugee assistance we have run for decades.”

“Refugees are individuals who have undergone special screening and vetting procedures by the U.S. government and are fleeing hardship and persecution in their home countries to resettle in the United States,” she said in an email. “Throughout this long-time partnership with the U.S. government, the USCCB has helped nearly a million individuals find safety and build their lives in the United States.”

Under the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act, refugees are persons who have left their countries of origin and are unwilling or unable to return due to actual or well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, social group or political opinion.

As previously reported, the USCCB website states that its Migration and Refugee Services “is the largest refugee resettlement agency in the world,” and that in partnership with its affiliates, it resettles approximately 18% of the refugees that arrive in the U.S. each year.

“We are urging the government to uphold its legal and moral obligations to refugees and to restore the necessary funding to ensure that faith-based and community organizations can continue this vital work that reflects our nation’s values of compassion, justice, and hospitality,” Noguchi said.

This is a developing story.

(Maria-Pia Chin is the Spanish editor for OSV News.)

Lent in the Jubilee year: A pilgrimage of hope and renewal

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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)

Called by Name

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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.

https://jacksondiocese.flocknote.com/VocationsSupport

Father Nick Adam, vocation director

Heart of a Deacon: A life of service and communion

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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.)

Diaconate Inquiry Sessions

Our restless selves

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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.)

Despite ‘critical’ condition, pope is working from hospital room

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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.