Essays and Messages

During our preparations for the Synod of Bishops 2023-2024, the Catholic Church and its leaders have focused upon the idea of a “journey” through life. Holy Week is part of that journey and is, in fact, a journey of its own, following the Lord Jesus Christ.

Here we are at the midpoint of our Lenten journey.  How has it been going? Living our Catholic faith takes practice all the time. But when we trip or fall, true believers pick themselves up, dust themselves off and carry on where they left off. 

Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., has issued the following message on the occasion the Holy Father’s 10th anniversary as Pope.

In observance of St. Patrick’s Day 2023, Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., announced the following dispensation from the Friday obligation to abstain from eating meat and to fulfill the spirit of the obligation through other works, actions:

As with so many traditions in the Church, Lent has evolved over the years. People began to emphasize more “giving” rather than “giving up.” The sober and serious tone of the forty days of Lent, beginning with Ash Wednesday, became lighter and less intense.

In his 2023 message for the annual “World Day of the Sick,” our Holy Father Pope Francis reminds us that “iIllness is part of our human condition. Yet, if illness is experienced in isolation and abandonment, unaccompanied by care and compassion, it can become inhumane.” 

Before the liturgical changes introduced by the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), women and men entering a sacramental marriage in the Catholic Church heard an “exhortation” read by the priest about the Sacrament of Matrimony. 

People will occasionally ask me what the letters “CM” mean after my name. As a member of a religious community in the Church, I am identified as belonging to that religious community by its initials. “CM” designates membership in the Congregation of the Mission, more popularly known as “the Vincentians.” 

One of the greatest contributions of the Catholic Church in our country remains the establishment of Catholic schools. Millions of young Catholics (and numerous non-Catholics) have been educated in Catholic schools since the very foundation of the United States. In the face of unrelenting obstacles and widespread social opposition, colonial Franciscan missionaries, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and her sisters, St. John Neumann and his co-workers, laid the foundation for the most extensive Catholic school system in the world. It is their legacy that we commemorate during Catholic Schools Week.

The Church’s annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity takes place Jan. 18-25. This year, the theme is “Do good, seek justice,” which is from Isaiah 1:17. The week itself draws its ecumenical impetus from the prayer of Jesus at the Last Supper, “that they may be one” (John 17: 21). As the week unfolds, I would like to share a few thoughts that are the fruit of my reading and spiritual reflection.