BRICK BY BRICK!
Money byte: Pope Leo XIV called bishops “to cultivate the human virtues,” notably those highlighted by the Second Vatican Council, including fairness, sincerity, self-control, patience, the ability to listen and engage in dialogue, and a willingness to serve.
I know nothing about the Diocese of Triveneto but they are doing something right if they have this many seminarians. I will have to do some studying of this diocese.
Audience with Seminarians of the diocese of Triveneto, 25.06.2025
This morning, before the General Audience, the Holy Father Leo XIV met with the seminarians of the diocese of Triveneto, to whom he delivered the following address:
Address of the Holy Father
Good morning, good morning!
In the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Peace be with you!
Dear brothers in the Episcopate,
dear formators and seminarians of the diocese of Triveneto,
I am pleased to be able to meet you on the occasion of the Jubilee pilgrimage. I think that everyone was present yesterday too, so this is the second opportunity. Your land has deep Christian roots, which lead us back to the ancient Church of Aquileia. In this spiritual memory of faith, the witness of many martyrs and pastor saints shines. Let us remember the bishop Chromatius; let us remember Jerome and Rufinus, exemplary in study and in ascetic life; as well as the blesseds Tullio Maruzzo and Giovanni Schiavo, missionaries who spread the Gospel in many peoples, languages and cultures.
Today it is up to us to continue this exciting work. In particular, you seminarians are called to be part of this rich history of grace, to conserve it and renew it in following the Lord. Do not be discouraged if at times the journey ahead of you becomes hard. As Blessed John Paul I said to the clergy of Rome, train yourselves in the discipline of a “continued, long, and difficult effort. Even the angels that Jacob saw in a dream were not flying, but climbing one step at a time; you can just imagine us, poor men without wings” (Address to the Roman clergy, 7 September 1978). Thus spoke a Pastor in whom the best virtues of your people shone: in him you have a true model of priestly life.
I would also like to recall a passage from the conversion of Saint Augustine, as he himself relates it to us in his Confessions. On the one hand he was eager to decide for Christ; on the other, he was held back by scruples and temptations. Profoundly troubled, one day he retreated to reflect in the garden at home; and the personification of the virtue of Continence appeared to him, saying: “Why do you stand in your own strength, and so standest not? Cast yourself upon Him; fear not, He will not withdraw that you should fall; cast yourself upon Him without fear, He will receive you, and heal you” (Confessions, VIII, 27).
As a father, I repeat these same words to you, which were so good for Augustine’s restless heart: they do not apply only with regard to celibacy, which is a charism to be acknowledged, conserved and educated, but can guide your entire journey of discernment and formation in ordained ministry. In particular, these words invite you to have boundless trust in the Lord, the Lord who called you, renouncing the pretence of being sufficient for yourselves or of being able to do it alone. And this applies not only to the seminary years, but to your whole life: at all times, all the more so in those of desolation or even sin, repeat to yourselves the words of the psalmist: “I trust in God’s mercy forever and ever” (Ps 52:10). The Word of God and the Sacraments are perennial sources from which you will always be able to draw new lymph for the spiritual life, and also for pastoral commitment.
Therefore, do not think of yourselves as alone, nor by yourselves. Without doubt – as the Ratio fundamentalisstates – each one of you “is the protagonist of his own formation and is called to a journey of constant growth in the human, spiritual, intellectual and pastoral spheres” (Congregation for the Clergy, The gift of priestly formation, 130); but protagonists does not mean soloists! Therefore, I invite you always to cultivate communion, first of all with your seminary companions. Have complete trust in your formators, without reserve or duplicity. And you, formators, be good companions to the seminarians entrusted to you: offer them the humble witness of your life and your faith; accompany them with sincere affection. Know that you are all supported by the Church, first and foremost in the person of the Bishop.
Finally, the most important thing: keep your eyes fixed on Jesus (cf. Heb 12:2), cultivating the relationship of friendship with Him. In this regard, as the English priest Robert Hugh Benson (1871-1914) wrote after his conversion to Catholicism: “If there is anything clear in the Gospels it is this – that Jesus Christ first and foremost desires our friendship. … Now the consciousness of this friendship of Jesus Christ is the very secret of the Saints” (The Friendship of Christ, Milan 2024, 17). He asks you, as Pope Francis wrote in the Encyclical Dilexit nos, “never to be ashamed to tell others, with all due discretion and respect, about your friendship with him. He asks that you dare to tell others how good and beautiful it is that you found him” (no. 211). Indeed, encountering Jesus saves our life and gives us the strength and the joy to communicate the Gospel to everyone.
Dear friends, thank you for this visit. I wish you a good journey! May Our Lady always accompany you, and also my blessing. Thank you!
Over the last 12 years, Pope Francis listened to a close group of questionable cronies who advised him, and usually the last person who approached him is the one who got Pope Francis’ ear. He bypassed the College of Cardinals, he bypassed the Roman Curia and evidently he bypassed nuncios who collect information about potential episcopal appointments and recommendation that they make to the pope.
Of course this created divisive situations for the Church and a tone of suspicion about the pope and his advisors, a tone that has made a 360 degrees change under our wonderful new pope, Pope Leo XIV!
As I recall, there seem to be some skullduggery as it concerned to appointment of the new Archbishop of Washington, DC. Evidently the US nuncio had recommended someone else than Cardinal McElroy to be the new Washington Archbishop and Cardinal Prevost and even Cardinal Gregory were on board with that candidate and Cardinal Prevost proposed that candidate to Pope Francis. But, as in the past, Cardinal Cupich and Cardinal Tobin got to the pope last and Pope Francis heard them and acted on their request that spirit of Vatican II heterodoxy, Cardinal McElroy of San Diego, the US’s LEFT coast, be named Washington’s new Archbishop and it came to be.
I wonder if that was an “ouch” for then Cardinal Prevost and now Pope Leo XIV? I suspect he did not like the skullduggery. But who knows, that’s just my clairvoyant intuition.
Press the title below for the full Pillar article:
During Francis' pontificate, episcopal appointments became increasingly complicated in many parts of the world.
One reason was the growing number of priests who declined episcopal appointments, contributing to delays and resulting in many bishops — especially metropolitans — serving well past retirement age.
However, there were other factors at play as well.
In some countries, individual bishops and informal advisors close to the pope seemed to wield more influence in eiscopal appointments than the local nuncio or even, on occasion, the Dicastery of Bishops, most recently led by Cardinal Robert Prevost. This dynamic became increasingly pronounced in the last few years of the Francis pontificate.
Spain became a prime example of this phenomenon, ultimately leading to the creation of an informal “episcopal commission” composed by a group of Spanish cardinals and bishops with an effective veto power over the episcopal shortlists prepared by the nuncio.
But Pope Leo XIV seems poised to change this dynamic.
First Things has a very good commentary on various signs that point to the type of pope Pope Leo will be. As I have said, from the beginning, Pope Leo will be his own pope! He will take what is good from every papacy, to include Pope Francis’ papacy, and make it his own and what is lacking in some of the good things of various papacies, to include Pope Francis’ papacy, he will refine, not cancel.
What that means for Sumorum Pontificum and Traditionis Custodes remains to be seen. I don’t think Pope Leo will enact any reforms on either of these by being pressured or through knee-jerk reactions.
The First Things commentary got me thinking about my baby boomer Catholicism which has to be some what similar to Pope Leo’s baby boomer Catholicism in the USA. Pope Leo is less than two years younger than I am and thus we must have had similar experiences of the pre-Vatican II Church which we still remember and what happened immediately following Vatican II beginning around 1965/66 through the present time.
Since I am not quite two years older than Robert Prevost of Chicago, I might remember things slightly better than he. But I suspect we are similar in terms of an “idiot savant” memory of the 1960’s pre and post Vatican II period.
In the pre-Vatican II Mass, I was completely fascinated by what I was seeing but also confused by some of it. I wanted to know what the heck the priest was doing at the altar and even asked my father why he doesn’t face us. My father found that amusing as he wanted to see what the priest was doing too and suggested putting a mirror above the altar angled toward the congregation so we could see!
My experience of the immediate post-Vatican II period in the 1960’s was in a small but very diverse and internationally cosmopolitan parish in Augusta, GA. Robert Prevost’s was in Chicago with a huge Catholic population and a somewhat progressive approach to implement Vatican II and the revised Mass.
I loved the initial changes that gradually unfolded between 1965 to 1970. It was drip by drip until the 1970 Missal was implemented on the First Sunday of Advent 1969. I liked the Mass facing the congregation and it was better than the mirror idea of my father’s. I liked the vernacular although Latin was still in force for the Roman Canon that we could hear in Latin as it was spoken in a low voice but using a microphone.
By 1966 I was 13 thus a teenager. By 1970, I was 17. It was in the late 60’s to the early 70’s that I became concerned and uncomfortable with the changes in the Mass. The revised Mass was celebrated casually and reverence was dissipating. That was horrible in my eyes. What contributed to this malaise was standing to receive Holy Communion, lay people in sloppy lay clothing distributing Holy Communion and people receiving in the hand and casually so. The tabernacle was demoted and the altar was stripped too, to two rinky dink candles on the altar compared to the six tall ones.
The majesty of the Mass prior to the changes was stripped down and reverence, wonder and awe removed and intentionally so. Casualness was promoted as the new and improved “reverence”! I kid you not!
The new music was horrible especially with the placement of folk groups next to the altar and all the distractions that they along with their varied instruments created in the sanctuary during the Mass. The new music was secular sounding and simply horrible and often irreverent, but called the new reverence which was in fact no reverence!
Vatican II was preached more than Jesus Christ. Controversies in the Church were discussed more than Jesus Christ. And who did what in the Church and during Mass was discussed more than Jesus Christ.
Catholicism lost her identity and so did Catholics. Everyone was confused and didn’t know what would change next. There were those promoting changing dogmas to bring about Christian unity and changing the name of the Catholic Church to the Christian Church to achieve that unity.
Sex, sexuality and what women should be allowed to do, even to become bishops, priests and deacons were hot, hot, hot topics but in order to change the Church, not experience pleasure.
Everything was in flux. The Church which had been a rock of faith and certainty became of marshmallow of sticky confusion and ambiguity and uncertainty.
I loved the papacy of Pope John Paul II because he restored a sense of Catholic identity and discipline to the Church and what could not be changed and things that should be recovered.
I loved more Pope Benedict’s papacy especially the proper interpretation of Vatican II in continuity with what preceded not in breach of it. I like reform in continuity as the means to go forward.
I did not like the papacy of Pope Francis. I really felt he brought the Church backwards in many ways to recover the Church of the 1970’s prior to the election of Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI.
Read the First Things commentary about Pope Leo, baby boomer. I wonder if he was saddened by some of the losses in Catholic identity and practice that the foolish way to implement Vatican II created? What impact will that have as his papacy unfolds and he continues to show us his “cards”?
By Christopher Wells
Seminarians who have come to Rome for the Jubilee are not only pilgrims, but witnesses of hope, who “fuel the flame of hope in the life of the Church”, Pope Leo said on Tuesday morning.
In a meditation delivered in St Peter’s Basilica, Pope Leo told seminarians they are called to bear witness “to Christ’s gratitude and gratuitousness, to the exultation and joy, the tenderness and mercy of His Heart, to practice a style of welcome and closeness, of generous and selfless service, allowing the Holy Spirit to ‘anoint’ their humanity even before ordination.”
The Holy Father emphasized, too, the importance of formation “centred on the heart”, of learning “to love as Jesus loved”.
This must be done through the development of the interior life, the first work of discernment, and involves returning to the heart, where we find “traces of God” and where God speaks to us.
Pope Leo said that formation of the interior life involves recognizing the deepest sentiments of the heart, “which help you discover the direction of your life.” He noted that the “privileged path” that leads to interiority is prayer, because without an encounter with God, “we cannot truly know ourselves”.
And he invited them to invoke the Holy Spirit frequently, “so that He may shape in you a docile heart, capable of perceiving God’s presence” in nature, art, literature, music, and science.
“Above all”, Pope Leo said, “learn how to listen, as Jesus did, to the often silent cry of the little ones, of the poor and the oppressed, and of the very many people, especially young people, who are searching for meaning in their lives.”
The Holy Father called on seminarians to learn to preserve and meditate on the events of their lives, as Mary did, in order to learn “the art of discernment”.
Finally, Pope Leo invited seminarians to be meek and humble of heart, as Jesus was; and like Paul, to adopt the sentiments of Christ in order to grow in human maturity, and to reject all pretence and hypocrisy.
The task of seminarians, the Pope said in conclusion, is to “never settle for less, never be satisfied, not be passive recipients, but to be passionate about the priestly life, living in the present and looking to the future with a prophetic heart”.
Before leading them in the proclamation of the Nicene Creed, Pope Leo expressed his hope that seminarians might deepen their relationship with Christ, asking Him to make their hearts like His Sacred Heart, “which beats with love for each of you and for all humanity.”
The Jardine organ could not be sent from New York due to the blockade of the south by the north. It arrived in 1866 after the war and funding for it came from the Priest-poet of the Confederacy who was stationed at Most Holy Trinity at that time, Father Abram Ryan.
Here are a few photos from the External Feast of Corpus Christi on Sunday, June 22. We also had a Corpus Christi Procession following the Mass outside, returning for Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament in the Church. (As I post this, I do not have any outdoor pics of the procession, although there are a few of the Benediction part at the end of the procession):
I normally celebrate Monday and Thursday’s 8 AM Mass at Hilton Head Island’s Holy Family Church. Daily Mass has a large attendance there with many tourists taking advantage of daily Mass here. Holy Family caters to swarms of tourists each Sunday, especially during the tourist season which is in full throttle now.
Many tourists also avail themselves to Confession which follows the 8 AM Mass Monday through Friday.
We had two visiting priests this morning, one from the Archdiocese of Cincinnati and the other from the Diocese of Joliet, Illinois.
In the last couple of years, I have come truly to appreciate a modest lectern stand to hold the Roman Missal at the celebrant’s chair.
HOLY MASS, PROCESSION AND EUCHARISTIC BLESSING
HOMILY OF THE HOLY FATHER LEO XIV
Saint John Lateran Square
Sunday, 22 June 2025
________________________________________
Dear brothers and sisters, it is wonderful to be in the presence of Jesus. The Gospel passage we just heard attests to this; it recounts how the crowds spent long hours listening to him speak about the Kingdom of God and seeing him heal the sick (cf. Lk 9:11). Jesus’ compassion for the suffering shows us the loving closeness of God, who comes into our world to save us. Where God reigns, we are set free from all evil. Yet even for those who accept the good news brought by Jesus, the hour of trial comes. In that deserted place, where the crowds were listening to the Master, evening fell and there was nothing to eat (cf. v. 12). The hunger of the people and the setting of the sun speak to us of a limit that looms over the world and every creature: the day ends, as does the life of every human being. At that hour of need and of gathering shadows, Jesus remains present in our midst.
Precisely when the day is ending and hunger sets in, as the Apostles themselves ask him to dismiss the crowds, Christ surprises us with his mercy. He feels compassion for those who are hungry and he invites his disciples to provide for them. Hunger is not foreign to the preaching of the Kingdom and the message of salvation. On the contrary, it speaks to us of our relationship with God. At the same time, five loaves and two fish seem completely inadequate to feed the people. The disciples’ calculations, apparently so reasonable, reveal their lack of faith. For where the Lord is present, we find all that we need to give strength and meaning to our lives.
Jesus responds to the appeal of hunger with the sign of sharing: he raises his eyes, recites the blessing, breaks the bread, and feeds all present (cf. v. 16). The Lord’s actions are not some complicated magical rite; they simply show his gratitude to the Father, his filial prayer and the fraternal communion sustained by the Holy Spirit. Jesus multiplies the loaves and the fish by sharing what is available. As a result, there is enough for everyone. In fact, more than enough. After all had eaten their fill, twelve baskets-full were gathered up (cf. v. 17).
That is how Jesus satisfies the hunger of the crowd: he does what God does, and he teaches us to do the same. Today, in place of the crowds mentioned in the Gospel, entire peoples are suffering more as a result of the greed of others than from their own hunger. In stark contrast to the dire poverty of many, the amassing of wealth by a few is the sign of an arrogant indifference that produces pain and injustice. Rather than sharing, it squanders the fruits of the earth and human labour. Especially in this Jubilee Year, the Lord’s example is a yardstick that should guide our actions and our service: we are called to share our bread, to multiply hope and to proclaim the coming of God’s Kingdom.
In saving the crowds from hunger, Jesus proclaims that he will save everyone from death. That is the mystery of faith, which we celebrate in the sacrament of the Eucharist. For just as hunger is a sign of our radical needs in this life, so breaking bread is a sign of God’s gift of salvation.
Dear friends, Christ is God’s answer to our human hunger, because his Body is the bread of eternal life: Take this and eat of it, all of you! Jesus’ invitation reflects our daily experience: in order to remain alive, we need to nourish ourselves with life, drawing it from plants and animals. Yet eating something dead reminds us that we too, no matter how much we eat, will one day die. On the other hand, when we partake of Jesus, the living and true Bread, we live for him. By offering himself completely, the crucified and risen Lord delivers himself into our hands, and we realize that we were made to partake of God. Our hungry nature bears the mark of a need that is satisfied by the grace of the Eucharist. As Saint Augustine writes, Christ is truly “panis qui reficit, et non deficit; panis qui sumi potest, consumi non potest” (Serm. 130, 2): he is bread that restores and does not run short; bread that can be eaten but not exhausted. The Eucharist, in fact, is the true, real, and substantial presence of the Saviour (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1413), who transforms bread into himself in order to transform us into himself. Living and life-giving, the Corpus Domini makes us, the Church herself, the Body of the Lord.
For this reason, echoing the Apostle Paul (cf. 1 Cor 10:17), the Second Vatican Council teaches that “in the sacrament of the Eucharistic bread, the unity of believers, who form one body in Christ, is both expressed and achieved. All are called to this union with Christ, who is the light of the world, from whom we come, through whom we live, and towards whom we direct our lives” (Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium, 3). The procession that we are about to undertake is a sign of that journey. Together, as shepherds and flock, we will feed on the Blessed Sacrament, adore him and carry him through the streets. In doing so, we will present him before the eyes, the consciences and the hearts of the people. To the hearts of those who believe, so that they may believe more firmly; to the hearts of those who do not believe, so that they may reflect on the hunger present within them and the bread that alone can satisfy it.
Strengthened by the food that God gives us, let us bring Jesus to the hearts of all, because Jesus involves everyone in his work of salvation by calling each of us to sit at his table. Blessed are those who are called, for they become witnesses of this love!
Bishop Marino hosted a spectacular youth rally in his Diocese of Tortono, Italy. Amazing pics and black shorts!
