Updates

Vatican releases first photo of Pope Francis since his hospitalization

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By Cindy Wooden
ROME (CNS) – For the first time since Pope Francis was hospitalized in mid-February, the Vatican press office released a photograph of him March 16; the image shows him concelebrating Mass that morning in the chapel of his suite of rooms at Rome’s Gemelli hospital.

The Mass also was the first the Vatican described as concelebrated by the 88-year-old Pope Francis in the hospital. He has been receiving the Eucharist daily and on the previous Sundays was described as having “participated” in the liturgy.

The Vatican press office did release a 27-second audio message from Pope Francis March 6 thanking people for their prayers. The pope had obvious difficulty breathing and speaking.

But for the fifth Sunday in a row, Pope Francis did not come to his window for the recitation of the Angelus prayer, but he may have seen some yellow or white balloons fly past his hospital room.

More than a hundred children gathered March 16 in the square in front of Rome’s Gemelli hospital to pray the Angelus; many were hoping the pope would come to his window to wave while a few of the little ones were more concerned about keeping ahold of their balloons.

Although the pope did not come to the window, he thanked the children in the message the Vatican press office published at noon.

Pope Francis is seen in the chapel of his suite of rooms at Rome’s Gemelli hospital March 16, 2025. The Vatican press office said the 88-year-old pope concelebrated Mass that morning. (CNS photo/Vatican Press Office)

“I know that many children are praying for me; some of them came here today to Gemelli as a sign of closeness,” he wrote. “Thank you, dearest children! The pope loves you and is always waiting to meet you.”

Pope Francis has been hospitalized since Feb. 14 and continues to be treated for double pneumonia and multiple infections. His doctors have said his condition continues to improve gradually, so they do not expect to publish another medical bulletin until March 18 or 19.

In the square under the pope’s window, Elena, 8, came with a group from Sacred Heart School in Rome’s Monte Mario neighborhood “because the pope is in the hospital. We wanted to show our affection to make him feel better.”

Giulio, 10, knows Pope Francis personally. “I met him when I was little and again when he baptized my little sister” three years ago. Giulio’s dad works at the Vatican, and was one of the employees whose newborns were baptized by the pope in the Sistine Chapel in 2022.

Leonardo was part of a group of 22 Beaver Scouts, ages 5-7, who “came to see the pope” from Jesus the Divine Teacher Parish not far from the hospital. He wanted people to know, though, that he is 7 and a half.
The children’s trek was coordinated by the Pontifical Committee for the World Day of Children and the Sant’Egidio Community’s School of Peace program.

Marco Impagliazzo, president of Sant’Egidio, told reporters the children wanted to wish the pope a speedy recovery and “thank him for his words of peace, which he gives every day.”

In fact, the pope’s Angelus message included a request that people “continue to pray for peace, especially in the countries wounded by war: tormented Ukraine, Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, Myanmar, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.”

Pope Francis also used the message to affirm his decision, announced the previous day, to launch a three-year program to ensure implementation of the recommendations of the Synod of Bishops on synodality to promote a culture of listening to one another, valuing the gifts of each member of the church and encouraging all Catholics to take responsibility for the church’s mission.

Commenting on the day’s Gospel reading, which recounted the Transfiguration, Pope Francis said that when Jesus took his disciples up the mountain and was transfigured, he showed them “what is hidden behind the gestures he performs in their midst: the light of his infinite love.”

Saying that he was writing while “facing a period of trial,” the pope said that he joins “with so many brothers and sisters who are sick: fragile, at this time, like me.”

“Our bodies are weak,” he wrote, “but even like this, nothing can prevent us from loving, praying, giving ourselves, being for each other, in faith, shining signs of hope.”

And, the pope said, the light of God’s love shines in the hospital through the care of doctors, nurses, orderlies and the entire staff. “That is why I would like to invite you, today, to join me in praising the Lord, who never abandons us and who, in times of sorrow, places people beside us who reflect a ray of his love.”

In the afternoon, Argentine dancer Daiana Guspero brought a dozen couples to square under the pope’s window to dance the tango, his favorite dance, as a form of prayer for him.

Pope approves next phase of synod, setting path to 2028 assembly

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By Justin McLellan
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis has approved the next phase of the Synod of Bishops on synodality, launching a three-year implementation process that will culminate in an ecclesial assembly at the Vatican in October 2028.

In a letter published March 15, Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary-general of the synod, announced that the synod’s new phase will focus on applying its conclusions at all levels of the church, with dioceses, bishops’ conferences and religious communities working to integrate synodality into daily church life before the meeting at the Vatican in 2028.

“For now, therefore, a new synod will not be convened; instead, the focus will be on consolidating the path taken so far,” he wrote in the letter addressed to all bishops, eparchs and the presidents of national and regional bishops’ conferences.

Pope Francis and members of the Synod of Bishops on synodality attend the synod’s final working session Oct. 26, 2024, in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

Cardinal Grech told bishops that Pope Francis approved the three-year plan March 11 at Rome’s Gemelli hospital where he has been being treated since Feb. 14.

The final document of the synod on synodality, approved by Pope Francis in October 2024, emphasized synodality as essential to the church’s mission and called for greater lay participation, mandatory pastoral councils and continued study on women in ministry and seminary formation.

Over the next three years, dioceses, bishops’ conferences and religious communities will work to integrate synodal principles into church life with the guidance of a Vatican-issued document scheduled to be published in May.

Evaluation assemblies at diocesan, national and continental levels from 2027 to early 2028 will assess progress before a final ecclesial assembly at the Vatican in October 2028, where church leaders will reflect on the synodal journey and discern future steps, the cardinal said.

According to the apostolic constitution “Universi Dominici Gregis,” which governs procedures when the papacy is vacant, a council or Synod of Bishops is immediately suspended when a pope dies or resigns. All meetings, decisions and promulgations must cease until a new pope explicitly orders their continuation, or they are considered null.

In the letter, Cardinal Grech noted that implementation phase of the synod “provides the framework” for implementing the results of the 10 Vatican-appointed study groups which, since March 2024, have been examining key issues raised during the first session of the synodal assembly in 2023, such as the role of women in the church, seminary formation and church governance.

The study groups were scheduled to present their findings to the pope before June 2025; however, they can also offer an “interim report” then as they continue their work, Cardinal Grech said.

The cardinal added that a key component of the implementation process will be the strengthening of synodal teams, composed of clergy, religious and laypeople, who will work alongside bishops to accompany “the ordinary synodal life of local churches.”

In an interview with Vatican News accompanying the letter’s publication March 15, Cardinal Grech said that this phase of the synodal process is not about adding bureaucratic tasks but about “helping the churches to walk in a synodal style.” He explained that the church must continue “a path of accompaniment and evaluation” rather than treating the synod as a one-time event.

The cardinal encouraged local churches to engage in ongoing reflection on the insights of the synod rather than simply replicating past listening sessions, warning that the synod’s implementation “must not take place in isolation.”

The 2028 ecclesial assembly, Cardinal Grech said, will be an opportunity to “gather the fruits of the journey” and offer the pope “a real ecclesial experience to inform his discernment as the successor of Peter, with perspectives to propose to the entire church.”

Youth

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Reading Across America and Around Diocese

FLOWOOD – Pre-K 4 students at St. Paul in Flowood have carpet time to learn about the Cat in the Hat. (Photo by Susan Irby)
SOUTHAVEN – Sacred Heart School student Sophia reading a Dr. Seuss book to Pre-K 3 students Brooklyn and Anna as part of Read Across America. (Photo by Mary Evelyn Stonestreet)
MADISON – ST. Francis of Assis Attorney General Lynn Fitch reading to the Pre-K 2s and Pre-K-4s for Read Across America.
MADISON – ST. Francis of Assisi Ryleigh Isacc and Father Albeen – Ash Wednesday. (Photos by Latoya Kelly and Chiquita Brown
PEARL – St. Jude Youth group enjoying Bingo night on March 5, Mr. Jose Varela and Father Cesar Sanchez checking the rules of the game. (Photo by Lauren Robers)

VICKSBURG – (left) 1st and 2nd graders performed their music program, Sing a Song of Folklore. (Photo by Hannah Hinson.
(above) Our 100+ member cast performed 6 sold-out showings of Disney’s The Little Mermaid as our spring musical. (Photo by Anna Griffing)

JACKSON – St. Richard Early Learning Center students pose for a photo. (Photo by Monjenae Jackson)

Biblical tales old and new

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By Kurt Jensen
(OSV News) – Vintage biblical epics sprout like daffodils during Lent, which began with Ash Wednesday on March 5.

But one of the most visible of those re-blooming buds over the years, Cecil B. DeMille’s 1956 “The Ten Commandments,” is taking Easter weekend off this year. It’s still available on streaming platforms after being an ABC-TV staple of Holy Week and Passover for more than half a century, beginning in 1973.

The acting is over the top, but that’s the fun. Who wants to see nuance from Yul Brynner as Ramses II, Charlton Heston as Moses, Anne Baxter as Nefertari, and Edward G. Robinson as Dathan snarling, “Where’s your Messiah now?”

Classic! Quotable! And when Heston spreads his arms wide to part the thundering Red Sea – what more could you want?

Like “The Ten Commandments,” Scripture-based epics with big-name actors are mostly a thing of the past – think Gregory Peck and Susan Hayward in in 1951’s “David and Bathsheba” and Victor Mature and Hedy Lamarr in 1949’s “Samson and Delilah” as well as Jeffrey Hunter as Jesus in 1961’s “King of Kings.”
One of the last big-screen attempts, Richard Gere in “King David” in 1985, was a notorious bomb. Mel Gibson’s 2004 “The Passion of the Christ” inspired many but also stirred controversy.

Jamie Ward portrays Christ in a scene from the movie “The Last Supper,” in theaters beginning March 14, 2025. The OSV News classification is A-III – adults. The Motion Picture Association rating is PG-13 – parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13. (OSV News photo/Pinnacle Peak)

Yet the TV series “The Chosen,” with Jonathan Roumie as Jesus, has been a long-running success since its 2017 pilot and first season two years later. The newest episodes, dealing with the Last Supper, will have a three-part theatrical release beginning March 28.

Two other new productions downplay epic elements to focus on intimate narratives. They also take on the challenge of inserting non-Biblical elements to flesh out the scriptural accounts.

The directors of both “House of David,” a miniseries on Amazon Prime that will become available on Feb. 27, and “The Last Supper” (Pinnacle Peak), in theaters beginning March 14, put great effort into making their settings realistic and developing three-dimensional characterizations.

Mauro Borrelli, an Italian Catholic and former altar server, began to paint at age 7, instructed by a monk, and studied classical painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice. His art design for movies has included “Batman Forever” (1995) and Tim Burton’s “Planet of the Apes” in 2001.

His recreation of events surrounding the Last Supper, a gathering of such significance that it’s described in all four Gospels, has Jamie Ward as Jesus, Robert Knepper as Judas and James Oliver Wheatley as St. Peter.

Of the script, co-written with John Collins, Borrelli told OSV News, “I don’t know that you can really improve Scripture, but you could add something.”

He enjoyed filling in spare details: “What did these people eat? Who served? I wanted to be accurate. I didn’t want it to be an interpretation.”

The film is told from the standpoint of Peter who, in a moment of weakness, denied ever knowing Jesus. “As a human being, we can’t always think that we’re strong,” Borrelli commented.

As for the portrayal of Jesus, “I wanted to keep him on a pedestal. I didn’t want to humanize him too much,” he said. Having Jesus manifest “a spiritual aura all the time,” Borrelli thought, kept the story faithful to the Gospel narratives.

Judas “is much weaker” than Peter, he observed, “and sensitive, intelligent. But he was being targeted by Satan.” Peter “overcomes his struggle, but Judas does not.”

Reflecting on the institution of the Eucharist, Borrelli commented, “’This is my body, this is my blood.’ You hear it (at Mass) all the time. But so familiar, It loses its meaning, you know?”

So he felt he had to make a direct connection in the script. By doing so, he gained a new insight into the meaning of Jesus’ words.

“Jesus’ blood now is replacing that lamb’s blood (of Passover). Here Jesus came to pay all the debts (for human sin) with his sacrifice. I never really realized that before. A payment for the full debt. It was a revelation for me.”

The story of David, the shepherd boy and future king of Israel who slew the Philistine giant Goliath, takes up only one chapter of the First Book of Samuel. Its staying power is built on David’s strong faith while Goliath is not only taunting David but also flouting God’s authority.

David, a country lad and unheralded warrior, needed only one stone in his sling to kill the giant. The story is so familiar that it’s often regarded as material most easily appreciated by children – almost all of whom can likely relate to the tale of an underdog standing up to a mocking bully.

There have been three film versions, notably one from 1960 in which Orson Welles played King Saul, David’s father-in-law who united the Hebrew tribes into a single nation, as sort of a hammy King Lear.
It’s one of the Bible stories that makes an easy transition to film, with a substantial cast, prophecies, kings, hard-charging desert battle scenes with javelins and shields, and the “six cubits and a span,” i.e., nine-foot, nine-inch, Goliath of Gath – terrifying to Saul and his army, but not to David.

Michael Iskander, of late a cast member of the Broadway musical “Kimberly Akimbo,” is the brooding David anointed by the prophet Samuel (Stephen Lang). Israeli actor Ali Suliman is Saul and six-foot, eight-inch bodybuilder-turned-actor Martyn Ford, through special effects, towers even higher as Goliath.
The series avoids anything that can be described as a reference to contemporary Middle East politics and stays focused on one boy’s challenge.

Showrunner Jon Irwin, who co-directed with Jon Gunn, told OSV News he regards the biblical David as similar to the fictional Luke Skywalker, Frodo Baggins and Harry Potter – all of them underestimated before they were heroes. Early on, David is told, “You have the heart of a lion.”

Quite a bit of attention went into Goliath’s appearance, Irwin said. “What would a giant have to look like to have an army frozen in fear for 40 days?” he asked. Fortunately, he said, Ford’s appearance “really is unbeatable.”

Close consideration also was paid to the sling and the stone, in order to make it believable that such a weapon was all it took to kill Goliath. A specialist in ancient warfare was called in to make sure the stone was flung with enough realistic force so that it “embedded itself in his brow, and he fell on his face to the ground.” (1 Sm: 17:49)
Irwin, an Alabama Protestant who has co-directed other faith-based fare, including 2020’s “I Still Believe” and “Jesus Revolution” (2023), said he had “wanted to tell this story since I was 16 years old” when, during a family trip to the Holy Land, he visited King David’s tomb in Jerusalem.

The production, financed by Amazon MGM Studios, has the resources “to really do it justice.” He calls it “a testament” to earlier biblical epics, but not one that owes anything to other film versions of the David and Goliath story: After all, “There’s not really a definitive (screen) version of that event.”

Like most scriptural tales, the passage in First Samuel is a spare account, requiring some elaboration and a lot of non-biblical dialogue. Irwin said the goal was to “do the story that justified the events that are on the page. It’s a love letter to the source material.”

He points out that the psalms of the mature David “are the most relatable words you’ve ever seen. A man wrestling with himself and his feelings, frustrations and regret.”

(Kurt Jensen is a guest reviewer for OSV News.)

Casting out demons through silence

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IN EXILE
By Father Ron Rolheiser, OMI
There is an incident in the Gospels where the disciples of Jesus were unable to cast out a particular demon. When they asked Jesus why, he replied that some demons can only be cast out by prayer. The particular demon he was referring in this instance had rendered a man deaf and mute.

I want to name another demon which seemingly cannot be cast out except by prayer, namely, the demon that forever fractures our personal relationships, families, communities and churches through misunderstanding and division, making it forever difficult to be in life-giving community with each other.
What particular prayer is needed to cast out this demon? The prayer of a shared silence, akin to a Quaker Silence.

What is a Quaker Silence?

A tiny bit of history first: Quakers are a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations whose members refer to each other as Friends but are generally called Quakers because of a famous statement once made by their founder, George Fox (1624-1691). Legend has it that in the face of some authority figures who were trying to intimidate him, Fox held up his Bible and said: This is the word of God, quake before it!

For the Quakers, particularly early on, their common prayer consisted mainly in sitting together in community in silence, waiting for God to speak to them. They would sit together in silence, waiting on God’s power to come and give them something that they could not give themselves, namely, real community with each other beyond the divisions that separated them. Though they sat individually, their prayer was radically communal. They were sitting as one body, waiting together for God to give them a unity they could not give themselves.

Might this be a practice that we, Christians of every denomination, could practice today in the light of the helplessness we feel in the face of division everywhere (in our families, in our churches, and in our countries)? Given that, as Christians, we are at root one community inside the Body of Christ, a single organic body where physical distance does not really separate us, might we begin as a regular prayer practice to sit with each other in a Quaker Silence, one community, sitting in silence, waiting together, waiting for God to come and give us community that we are powerless to give ourselves?

Practically, how might this be done? Here’s a suggestion: each day set aside a time to sit in silence, alone or ideally with others, for a set period of time (fifteen to twenty minutes) where the intent, unlike in private meditation, is not first of all to nurture your personal intimacy with God, but rather to sit together in community with everyone inside the Body of Christ (and with all sincere persons everywhere) asking God to come and give us communion beyond division.

This could also be a powerful ritual in marriage and in family life. Perhaps one of the most healing therapies inside of a marriage might be for a couple to sit together regularly in a silence, asking God to give them something that they cannot give themselves, namely, an understanding of each other beyond the tensions of everyday life. I remember as a child, praying the rosary together as a family each evening and that ritual having the effect of a Quaker Silence. It calmed the tensions that had built up during the day and left us feeling more peaceful as a family.

I use the term Quaker Silence, but there are various forms of meditation and contemplation which have the same intentionality. For example, the founder of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (the religious order I belong to), St. Eugene de Mazenod, left us a prayer practice he called Oraison. This is its intention: as Oblates we are meant to live together in community, but we are a worldwide congregation scattered over sixty countries around the world. How can we be in community with each other across distance?

Through the practice of Oraison. St. Eugene asked us to set aside a half hour each day to sit in a silence that is intended to be a time when we are not just in communion with God but are also intentionally in communion with all Oblates around the world. Akin to a Quaker Silence, it is a prayer wherein each person sits alone, in silence, but in community, asking God to form one community across all distances and differences.

When Jesus says some demons are only cast out by prayer, he means it. And perhaps the demon to which this most particularly refers is the demon of misunderstanding and division. We all know how powerless we are to cast it out. Sitting in a communal silence, asking God to do something for us beyond our powerlessness, can exorcise the demon of misunderstanding and division.

(Oblate Father Ron Rolheiser is a theologian, teacher and award-winning author. He can be contacted through his website www.ronrolheiser.com.)

Embracing the Love of Christ: The Sacred Heart and the Jubilee Year of Hope in Pope Francis’ Dilexit Nos

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By Bishop Joseph R. Kopacz, D.D.
At the heart of the Ordinary Jubilee of Hope, although somewhat in the background, is the Papal Encyclical, Dilexit Nos that Pope Francis released in October of last year. Literally, the title declares, He Loved Us and throughout the document the Holy Father unfolds the truth and beauty of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This is the third of the pope’s Encyclicals since his Papal Inauguration on March 19, 2013, the Solemnity of Saint Joseph. In June 2015 he presented to the Church and to the world his ground-breaking achievement, Laudato Si, in praise of God’s creation and, in turn, our responsibility as good stewards for the earth, our common home. In the throes of the pandemic in 2020 he published his second social encyclical, Fratelli Tutti which was a clarion call to the world and to the church for a deeper commitment to peace, justice and unity among nations and peoples, and within the Body of Christ. Nearly five years later in anticipation of the Jubilee Year of Hope, Dilexit Nos returns us to the foot of the Cross, the wellspring of all that is holy and good in our world, and the ground of our hope.

Bishop Joseph R. Kopacz, D.D.

In the early stages of the Pope’s Bull of Indiction for the Jubilee Year, Spes non Confundit, Hope does not Disappoint, Pope Francis makes clear the unbreakable bond between the theological virtue of Hope and the Sacred Heart of Jesus. “Hope is born of love and based on the love springing from the pierced heart of Jesus upon the Cross.” (#3)

Therefore, because of this undying love, with Saint Paul we stand upon the conviction that “nothing or no one can separate us from the love of Christ.” (Romans 8,35) In Dilexit Nos with ample room to unfold the wisdom of the ages the pope presents the great love of the well-known saints and countless others in each generation for the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In the same vein he clarifies that this love for the Sacred Heart is not primarily a devotion because the sacred heart represents our saving Lord in whom we believe, hope, and love because he loved us first.

The following are the testimonies of some of the remarkable saints over the centuries. In the 12th century Bernard of Clairvaux takes up the symbolism of the pierced side of the Lord and understands it explicitly as a revelation and outpouring of all the love of Jesus’ heart. “A lance passes through his soul even to the region of his heart. No longer is he unable to take pity on my weakness. The wounds inflicted on his body have disclosed to us the secrets of his heart; they enable us to contemplate the great mystery of his compassion.” Saint Therese of the Child Jesus , the Little Flower at 15 spoke of Jesus as the one “whose heart beats in unison with my own…You know that I myself do not see the Sacred Heart as everyone else. I think that the heart of my spouse is mine alone, just as mine is his alone, and I speak to him in the solitude of this heart to heart, while waiting to contemplate him face to face.”

Saint John Henry Newman, the great intellectual of the 19th century took as his motto the phrase Cor ad cor loquitur, since, beyond all our thoughts and ideas, the Lord saves us by speaking to our hearts with his Sacred Heart. It was in the Eucharist that Newman encountered the living heart of Jesus, capable of setting us free. “O most Sacred, most loving Heart of Jesus, Thou are concealed in the Holy Eucharist, and Thou beatest for us still.”

Finally, more than anyone, the Blessed Mother teaches us how to live with the heart of her Son. “He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them, and his mother kept all these things in her heart. (Luke 2, 51) Beyond devotion, with Mary the love of her Son inspires us to live, to serve, and to care with his mind and heart.

At the end of Dilexit Nos Pope Francis expresses the unbreakable bond among his three Apostolic Encyclicals. “The present document can help us see that the teaching of the social Encyclicals Laudato Si’ and Fratelli Tutti is not unrelated to our encounter with the love of Jesus Christ. For it is by drinking of that same love that we become capable of forging bonds of fraternity, of recognizing the dignity of each human being, and of working together to care for our common home. In a world where everything is bought and sold, people’s sense of their worth appears increasingly to depend on what they can accumulate with the power of money. Christ’s love can give a heart to our world and revive love wherever we think that the ability to love has been definitively lost.”

This is the hope of the Holy Father and our hope.

Happy Ordination Anniversary

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April 6
Father Joseph Golamari
St. Francis Madison

April 10
Father Pradeep Kumar Thirumalareddy
St. Mary Batesville

April 12
Father Raju Macherla
St. Elizabeth Clarksdale

Father Sleeva Reddy Mekala
St. James Leland & Immaculate Conception Indianola

April 14
Father Suresh Reddy Thirumalareddy
St. Alphonsus McComb

April 18
Father Vijaya Manohar Reddy Thanugundla
St. Francis Brookhaven

April 19
Father Sebastian Myladiyil, SVD
Sacred Heart Greenville

Father Joseph Ashok Thumma
St. Peter Grenada

April 26
Father Jesuraj Xavier
St. Francis New Albany

Thank you for answering the call!

Called by Name

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We are blazing through another spring season and the seminarians are very busy. The Spring Semester always feels a little more ‘fast and loose’ because there is so much going on, liturgically, socially and academically. We have some exciting things on the horizon for our seminarians. They are getting ready for their summer assignments. Several of them will be assigned to parishes throughout the diocese and some will have specialized assignments to help them focus on specific parts of their formation. Joe Pearson will be headed to Omaha, Nebraska for the Institute for Priestly Formation. EJ Martin and Grayson Foley are headed south to Cuernavaca, Mexico to spend two months immersing themselves in the Mexican culture and learning lots of Spanish. The other three men (Will Foggo, Grayson Foley and Francisco Maldonado) will be in parishes for June and July, and Joe will be in a parish when he returns from IPF since that program only goes to July 5th. I’ll make those parish assignments public a little later in the spring. The summer assignment is an important stretch in the seminary year. It helps our guys focus on the specific tasks that they’ll eventually be fully responsible for as parish priests. I try to send them to a variety of parishes so they can meet the people of the diocese, and the specialized assignments help them prepare as well, even though they are outside of the diocese.

Father Nick Adam

The trip to Mexico is in part to learn Spanish, but it’s also to experience the beauty that comes when we meet people where they are. This is a challenge for many young priests (it was for me) when they are in a parish with a large Spanish-speaking population, or any other population with unique needs. In a bilingual community, you have two choices — do everything in English and lose whoever you are going to lose because nothing is in Spanish, or, do your best to encounter your people where they are and take the risk and make the sacrifice of speaking as much Spanish as possible.

I spent a summer in Cuernavaca, and have been in a bilingual parish for nearly three years, and I’m still not totally fluent in Spanish, my grammar is bad and I still need help translating, but my time in Mexico gave me an attitude of resourcefulness and opened my heart more fully to ‘just trying.’ It can be easy to say — ‘let someone else handle that,’ but as priests of the Jackson Diocese, we have to be ‘malleable’ and able to handle many different realities within one parish or one assignment. I think that the summer in Mexico really helps our guys understand that mentality and practice it. I tell our guys that they are not going to Mexico so that they become fluent, or because Hispanic ministry is the only important ministry in our parishes, but they are going there so they understand what it takes to do the work of encountering whoever comes through the door, whatever language they are speaking, and whatever background they come from.

We also have some exciting news with regard to new seminarians for the new year, but I’ll save that good news for next time! Please pray for our seminarians and for those men discerning entrance into the seminary for August 2025!

Father Nick Adam, vocation director

Pope Francis congratulates CRS on Rice Bowl’s 50th anniversary

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(OSV News) – Pope Francis congratulated Catholic Relief Services on the 50th anniversary of CRS Rice Bowl, the Catholic relief agency’s annual Lenten program dedicated to global hunger and poverty alleviation efforts.

CRS, the official international relief and development agency of the Catholic Church in the U.S., is marking the 50th anniversary of its Rice Bowl program this Lent, which has raised more than $350 million to support domestic and overseas poverty relief efforts. The organization has described that effort – with its iconic cardboard donation box – as more important than ever in light of a freeze on much U.S. foreign aid.

“I was pleased to learn that the Rice Bowl program of Catholic Relief Services is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary,” Pope Francis wrote in a letter the group shared with media March 14. “On this auspicious occasion, I express my good wishes to all involved in this noble initiative as well as my gratitude for the faithful in the United States of America, who, through this service, assist the poorest and most vulnerable at home and abroad.”

Pope Francis said that for five decades, during “the holy season of Lent, when the Church invites us to pray, fast, and give alms in preparation for the Easter celebrations,” the Rice Bowl program “has offered a concrete way for Catholics to give alms as they seek to put their faith into action.”

“When caring for our neighbor, we must always remember that charity is to be given without qualifications or limits, as Jesus teaches us in the parable of the Good Samaritan,” he said, referring to the story in Luke’s Gospel. “In doing so, we reflect the closeness, compassion, and tender love of God who cares for all of his children in the one human family.”

CRS’ Rice Bowl initiative combines the traditional Lenten practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving to provide humanitarian aid, spiritual renewal and increased solidarity with those in need.
The funds – 25% of which help local diocesan outreaches, with 75% benefiting CRS programs abroad – support a mission that is “critical to millions,” said Archbishop Nelson J. Pérez of Philadelphia, CRS board chair, in a March 5 statement from the organization.

The iconic CRS Rice Bowl cardboard box is pictured in this file photo. Pope Francis congratulated Catholic Relief Services on the 50th anniversary of the Lenten initiative to support its overseas charitable work in the name of the Catholic Church in the U.S. (OSV News photo/Karen Kasmauski, CRS)

The campaign, launched in 1975 by Msgr. Robert Coll as a local effort in the Diocese of Allentown, Pennsylvania, became a national initiative through its introduction at the Philadelphia-based 41st International Eucharistic Congress in 1976, and its subsequent adoption by the U.S. bishops through CRS.

In 2023, some 733 million people worldwide faced hunger, according to the United Nations’ 2024 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report. Hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition have devastating physical and psychosocial consequences, including insufficient height and weight in children.
“It is my hope therefore that the Rice Bowl program and other initiatives offered by Catholic Relief Services will continue to serve as examples of how to fulfill the Gospel’s command to love and serve our neighbor in a communal way,” Pope Francis said. “With these sentiments, I renew my best wishes as you celebrate this anniversary, and upon all who support the Rice Bowl program, I invoke Almighty God’s blessings of wisdom, hope and strength.”

(NOTES: More information about the program can be found at crsricebowl.org/give.)

The love between Jesus and Mary

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LIGHT ONE CANDLE
By Father Ed Dougherty

On March 25, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord, when the Angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she had been chosen by God to be the mother of Christ. It is a day that pierces the Lenten season with joyful anticipation of the birth of Christ. It also reminds us of the deep bond between Mother and Son as we move towards Holy Week, with all the pain and loss it held for them, but also harkening to the joy of Easter, when God’s promise of salvation was fulfilled in Christ’s Resurrection.
There is a scene in the film “The Passion of the Christ” when Mary sees Jesus fall down during His grueling walk to Calvary. This prompts a memory, captured in a flashback, of her running to Jesus when He falls as a child. And seeing Him fall under the weight of the cross, she runs to Him again, falling to her knees beside Him and declaring, “I am here.”

Father Ed Dougherty

It’s such a beautiful and heartbreaking moment because it recalls a time when these words spoken from Mother to Son would have been enough to assuage the pain of a simple childhood accident. But those words cannot mitigate the pain of the Passion and all that has been heaped upon our Savior’s shoulders. And here, Jesus raises His bloodied face to Mary and says, “See, Mother, I make all things new.”

It’s a line spoken by Christ in Revelation, when He declares, “Behold, I make all things new.” But it is brilliantly transported here to this moment because it so perfectly captures the crux of all that is being accomplished in the Passion. And that childhood scene highlights the nature of the sacrifice because it is the most perfect earthly love between Mary and Jesus and the most perfect life ever lived that is being sacrificed on our behalf.

The Solemnity of the Annunciation reminds us of the beautiful love-filled life of Christ that was so cruelly taken from Him in the Crucifixion. But those words, “Behold, I make all things new,” remind us of all that is accomplished in the pain that beset Mother and Son in the Passion because Mary’s “Yes” to the Annunciation had the intention of mission about it. And the love Jesus and Mary shared from the moment of His conception and throughout His life had the intention of mission about it because they both knew God was calling them to a purpose that required sacrifice.

This perfect love between Mother and Son sheds light on how we should look upon those placed in our lives by God. We know there will always be a struggle when we set out to accomplish great things together, but that struggle should not mitigate the joy of the love we share when we keep our eyes set on the hope of the Resurrection.

So let us greet the Solemnity of the Annunciation with the proper pause it requires during this Lenten season and appreciate all that Mary took upon herself in her “Yes” to God and all that Christ gave up in His “Yes” to suffering for our salvation. It’s a pause that can draw us into the most beautiful contemplation of the nature of the love that existed between Mary and Jesus and point us towards a new and deeper way of loving all those God entrusts to our care.

(For a free copy of The Christophers’ Lift Up Your Hearts, e-mail: mail@christophers.org)