On 23 March 1775, Patrick Henry delivered a passionate speech before the members of the Virginia legislature at St. John’s Church in Richmond, convincing them to send troops into the revolutionary war. His highly successful and memorable line stirred the listeners to join him in calling out: “Give me liberty, or give me death.”

Unfortunately, St. John’s Church was destroyed by the Confederates during the Civil War. It seems that now, however, in the twenty-first century, we are about to destroy the very concept of liberty itself – or least for some citizens of our country. Catholics are most definitely included in this effort, and, in fact, almost appear to be the targeted group.

In case you haven’t heard, Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, of Health and Human Services, last week issued a statement in support of the new healthcare initiative that religious non-profits will have to cover sterilization and contraceptive services, including some abortion-inducing drugs in their employee healthcare plans; none will be allowed to charge co-pays or deductibles. The policy goes into effect in August 2013 for these entities; all others will be required to provide these services in August 2012. Sebelius explained how her directive applies to non-church religious entities such as Catholic hospitals and universities: “Employers wishing to take advantage of the additional year must certify that they ‘qualify’ for the delayed implementation. This additional year will allow these organizations more time and flexibility to adapt to this new rule.” She also said, “I believe this proposal strikes the appropriate balance between religious freedom and increasing access to important preventive services.”

According to Secretary Sebelius, it may be thought that the government is graciously giving us more time so that we can figure out how we are going to commit mortal sin, abandon traditional Catholic teaching in these matters, violate our own consciences and teach others to follow our errors!

The ultimate sadness is that our religious liberties are being trampled, our trusted and valued matters of faith are simply being ignored, and it seems that we are supposed to say: “Thank you.”

This is the latest, and perhaps one of the more audacious, of the outrages of the radical secular agenda. I will be joining with my brother bishops in sending a letter to be read in all of the churches of our diocese this weekend. Please stay informed about this issue, and about others that intend to seriously challenge and limit our ability to live in freedom and according to the mission of Jesus Christ.

I recall an old adage that also passed as a curse: “May you live in interesting times.” Perhaps someone had foresight to these days.

…I’ll see you at Sunday Mass.

Very exciting thing, the passage of time. We find ourselves with all sorts of plans to make, things to do, new ideas, and, yes, those pesky resolutions. We sometimes make it through January with most of them intact – February is another matter. I find that the best way not to break them is not to make them. Watch what you eat, don’t smoke, don’t swear, and watch the speedometer seem to be some of the “best practices” to avoid “resolutionary recrimination.”

I often think many of us believe that the magical stroke of midnight on December 31^st is going to transform us – ennoble us with amazing power to do things we know we shouldhave done before, but simply didn’t. Thus, is the great conundrum of humanity. St. Paul himself offered some insight in the seventh chapter of Romans when he wrote: “For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.” (Rom. 7:15)

It is puzzling that we are such creatures of habit and seekers of comfortable predictability. So many of us would fancy ourselves quite willing to take risks and be bold. That’s another thing that is fairly puzzling – how little we really know about ourselves.

Perhaps one of the greatest gifts we can give to each other is truly the gift of humility – namely of learning about ourselves with our strengths and weaknesses, joys and sorrows. Could we, by becoming less mindful of whatever anybody else thinks of us, become more aware of what really matters about us? A great way we have of learning about ourselves is in prayer – really. By honestly entering into a relationship with God we genuinely can start to think about what God wants and less about what we feel we want or worst yet what wefeel we need.

Deep prayer promotes positive thoughts ­– opens up the brain to some very creative ideas and can restore some positive action to daily life. We may not need trendy resolutions that we easily admit will fail if we have a tried-and-true method of proven value called virtuous living set in motion. Happy New Year.

. . . I’ll see you at Sunday Mass (part of a healthy New Year regimen).

In Rome, there is a beautiful section called the Piazza di Spagna. It is the sight of the Spanish Embassy, the Spanish Steps, the Fountain of the Old Boat, and the magnificent monument dedicated to the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Every year, on the 8th of December, the monument is festooned with flowers and the piazza is jammed with people trying to catch a glimpse of the pope as he makes his annual pilgrimage to the monument to place his flowers and to pray to the Mother of God with the citizens of Rome and the world.

Last year the Holy Father reminded the gathered people that the most beautiful gift we can offer the Mother of God is our prayer, “the prayers we carry in our hearts and entrust to her intercession. They are invocations of thanksgiving and petition: thanksgiving for the gift of faith and for all the good we receive from God; and petition for the various needs, for the family, for health and for work, for every difficulty that life makes us encounter.”

Mary was immaculately conceived. That means that from the time of her conception in the womb of her mother St. Anne, Mary was preserved from sin; even original sin did not touch her soul. This fact was commonly held in one way or another, from the earliest days of both the Western and Eastern Churches. It was, however, hotly debated and contested in the Middle Ages.

The champions on each side were the Franciscans who held it was true, and the Dominicans who held it was not. The leader of the Dominicans was none other than St. Thomas Aquinas, himself, who held that the idea could not be maintained because Jesus Christ came to free all creatures from sin. Mary was a creature; therefore she had to have sin and was in need of the Redeemer.

The leader on the Franciscan side, was the quiet and unassuming, John duns Scotus, an intellectual of profound piety and devotion. He taught that Mary was indeed a creature, but that she was held by the particular and unique favor of the Father to be the Mother of the Redeemer. She, therefore, was the first to experience the fruits of the Redemption, by God’s favor and the work of the Son of God who suffered and died for the salvation of all people.

His Holiness, Pope Pius IX, thus defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception as a matter of faith for Catholics on Dec. 8, 1854 with these words:

“We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful,” (“Ineffabilis Deus” #27).

Pope Benedict XVI in his remarks last year at the Roman monument further reminded the people in attendance and those throughout the world to “listen to what Mary says as she speaks to us of the Word of God who was made flesh in her womb.” “Mary,” the pope teaches, “reminds us that we are called to open ourselves to the action of the Holy Spirit in order, in our ultimate destiny, to attain an immaculate state, fully and definitively free from evil.”

“Mary’s gaze is God’s gaze upon each one of us,” says the Vicar of Christ. “She looks at us with the Father’s love itself and blesses us. She acts as our ‘advocate’ and we invoke her thus in the Salve, Regina: Advocata nostra. Even if everyone were to speak badly of us, she, the Mother, would speak well of us because her Immaculate Heart is in tune with God’s mercy. So it is that she sees the City [Rome and the world]: not as an anonymous agglomeration but as a constellation in which God knows each one personally by name, one by one, and calls us to shine with his light. And those who in the world’s eyes are the first, to God are the lowliest; those who are little to God are great.”

Today is the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. It is under this title that we Americans invoke Our Lady as Patroness of our beloved country. The national shrine in Washington, D.C., is a monument to decades of love for the Mother of God and her special protection for the United States. She speaks to us in Pope Benedict’s words: “be holy like our Father, be immaculate like our Brother Jesus Christ, be loved children, all adopted in order to form a great family with no boundaries of color or language, because God, Father of every human being, is one.”

O, Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

…and I’ll see you at Sunday Mass!

Advent, the spiritual writers and teachers remind us, is a great season of preparation for the coming of Christ. St. Bernard of Clairvaux writes about the three comings of Christ. This is, of course, one of the mainstays of Advent spiritual reading, so it does offer us a bit of promise in these days. The mysterious and mystical ways of God are always unknown to us and surprising when they come to our consciousness. God’s ways are not our ways and it is, therefore, necessary to ponder – as the Blessed Mother did – to ponder them in our hearts.

The first coming, of course, involves the Blessed Mother intimately. She bears in her body the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. Mother Mary provides His human body through the great mystery of the Incarnation. In a few days we will celebrate her Immaculate Conception (Dec. 8), the divine privilege of being conceived in the womb of her mother, St. Anne, without original sin; the first human being to participate in the fullness of life that would come from her Divine Son’s Paschal Mystery.

That first coming is the essence of our Christmas celebration. The Word made Flesh is visible for all the world, all the ages, and all human history to see, study, evaluate, and emulate.

The third coming will likewise be a visible encounter. Jesus will come again at the end of time as the judge of all creation. It is He who has redeemed it and it is He who will separate the good from the evil, presenting the good and all redeemed creation to His Father, and pronouncing in turn, the sentence of damnation for those who have chosen it.

These two comings of Christ are clear and visible. There will be no mistaking His presence.The second coming of the three is a bit more mystical and faith-filled. The second coming is the presence of Christ who “with us,” the One who is with us “until the end of time.” (Matthew 28:20)

The spiritual presence of the Risen Christ in our midst, especially in the Most Blessed Sacrament, is certainly a mystery and a reality that requires our daily attention. This “second coming” reveals Jesus as the Companion along the journey between two points: the first, His coming as the Savior in our flesh at Christmas, the second, His coming again in glory at the end of time.

The three comings of Christ focus our attention on the life of grace and the sublime attentiveness of God for His creation. St. Paul reminds us that we walk by faith and not by sight. (2 Corinthians 5:7) The gift of grace illuminates our hearts and souls. The sound teaching of Jesus, especially concerning our care and service for our brothers and sisters, (Matthew 25: 31ff.) guides our way along the journey of life. We do not walk alone, but Jesus, Who is with us in and through His Church, provides the sacramental and spiritual structure that gives meaning to the daily aspects of human life.

During the season of Advent, all channels of human knowledge and understanding, human emotion and sentiment, about God come to a glorious nexus that allows for the mind and heart to contemplate all three comings of Christ in one single liturgical season. The omnipresence of God can be savored and explored so as to build up our genuine awareness of God’s creation and continued sanctification of the human race.

We say, with Scripture, “Come, Lord, Jesus!” We say this with certainty of faith, knowing that He has come in history. We say this with certainty of faith, knowing that He is with us, in and through His Church, inspiring true faith, hope and love. We say this with certainty of faith, knowing that Christ will come again in glory at the end of time.

“The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’ And let everyone who hears say, ‘Come.’ The one who testifies to these things says, ‘Surely I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus”!(Revelation 22: 17, 20)

In the meantime, I’ll see you at Sunday Mass

Two years ago, our holy father, Pope Bendict XVI, said “the thanksgiving to God expressed in the Mozart Mass in C Minor is not a superficial gratitude given lightly.” The piece was played for his brother, Msgr. Georg Ratzinger’s 85th birthday in January of 2009.  The Pope continued: “the piece is wholehearted and reflects Mozart’s interior struggle, his search for forgiveness, the mercy of God and, then, from these depths, his joy in God shines more brightly than ever.”

Gratitude, my dear brothers and sisters, is an astonishing thing; a rare pearl in the jewel box of human sentiment, a treasure that multiplies as it is spent.  For Mozart, gratitude was expressed in such a rare mixture of sound that one might think the angels delivered it note for note.  In a wonderful abandonment of time and space, the listener is captivated, and the soul takes flight.  Gratitude fills the mind and heart of humanity on so many different levels and in so many ways.  Music is one of the most common ways to express gratitude, but there are so many others.

Our Eucharist – the true presence of Jesus Christ: body, blood, soul, and divinity – constitutes for us the most eloquent and complete expressions of gratitude we can ever know in this life!  Our hearts and minds cannot contain the mystery; and the soul, the eternal part of our being, experiences a joy that we may not fully know until we experience it completely in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Thanksgiving is a great holiday, a national “free-day” for most folks.

At least until now, it remains unsullied by consumerism that is ever so gradually clutching and grabbing at its short span of just a few hours of family gathering and tradition.  As family life weakens in our nation, Thanksgiving is becoming a chore and a duty, an obligation of some forgotten simpler way of life that could be so much more “hip” if we could just “move it along.”

Like a Mozart symphony or motet, gratitude needs to be lavish and savored.  Take your time saying: “Thanks!”

Express yourself with joy and with an open heart.  May this national holiday, the patrimony of presidents, and the tradition of our great and beloved country, truly remind us to lift up our minds and hearts to God.  However rich or poor, however grand or simple, the words: “thank you” are an offering of the heart; they bring us great contentment, knowing that we recognize the goodness of others.

“Thank you” makes us realize further that we are not alone and that we are subject to others.

“Thank you” inspires us with true humility and helps us know that we are loved.

Thank you, my dear brothers and sisters.  May you share the bounty of God’s good earth with one another as He intends. God be with you.

…and I’ll see you at Sunday Mass.

I probably don’t need to tell you that, years ago, being a Catholic in our beloved country was a major problem! Yes, it is true. You think trying to get a job today is tough; in those days being a Catholic (largely determined by your ethnic background) meant: “Catholics not welcome.” Well, the old adage: “The more things change, the more they stay the same,” is certainly getting some revision in our day.

As the nation looks over and considers the results of this week’s election, the bishops of the USA are looking at a situation that stirs the hearts of many Catholics and touches us deeply as people of faith and as patriots.

I often speak about the challenge of living our faith courageously when I teach the young people at confirmation celebrations. I don’t think that I can impress the point clearly enough or often enough that when the bishop used to tap us on the cheek, he urged us to be mindful that we were preparing to do battle with the world, the flesh, and the devil. The “peace of Christ” is the greeting used by the bishop, then, and now, to instill the sense of valor that can only be used by an authentic “soldier of Christ.” Times and rituals have changed and, somehow, the mettle of Catholic courage to be about the work of Christ in the world seems weakened to a thin veneer of humanistic courtesy at best.

Last month, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, led by Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, announced a new Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty, with Bishop William Lori of Bridgeport, Conn., as the chairman. Through this Committee, we bishops will be able to take action on major issues that affect us as Catholics and as Americans.

Catholic teaching is being challenged in such essential areas as mandated coverage of contraception (including abortifacients) and sterilization in all private health insurance plans; Catholic Relief Services (CRS) is concerned that the  United States Agency for International Development (USAID), under the direction of the Department of State, is increasingly requiring condom distribution, along with “reproductive health activities” including artificial contraception within a wide range of international relief and development programs; the Department of Justice has ratcheted up its attack on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) as an act of bigotry claiming that supporters of the law could only have been motivated by bias and prejudice. If the label of “bigot” sticks to us because of our teaching on marriage, court battles could go on for years!

So many areas affect our lives as Catholics and Americans. It is important to stay informed as a citizen and stay active as a Catholic in your faith. The bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee will work closely with national organizations, charities, ecumenical and interreligious partners, and scholars to form a united and forceful front in defense of religious freedom in our nation. The Framers of the Constitution themselves understood this “First Freedom” to be based on the norms inherent in natural law – namely, “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, and that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

Being a Catholic and being an American is all part of the great gifts of freedom in our society. What a Faith! What a Country! God bless it!

…and I’ll see you at Sunday Mass!

Depending how you reckon the time of his birth, folks note that we are celebrating the 830^thbirthday of Saint Francis of Assisi. Francis is a very popular saint ­for many reasons. As a Franciscan, I would hasten to say that his popularity is certainly not centered only on ecological ideals – not by a long shot!

While that may make him universally “acceptable,” what made him a saint was his incredible understanding of the love of God. His understanding was so different from anyone else – he really “got” the Incarnation. This made all the difference in the world. He understood God on God’s terms – God loves us! God became one of us, in Jesus, to show us how much He loves us! Jesus shows us the perfectibility of man as He redeems us and brings us back to unity with our Father. This is what Francis understood; and in his hometown of Assisi, the air is filled with the peace that this understanding imparts to everyone who ever has had the awesome gift of God’s providence to go there.

Twenty-five years ago, in 1986, Blessed John Paul II joined the religious leaders of the world at the tomb of Saint Francis for an amazing gathering of prayer for peace. Last week, our beloved Pope Benedict XVI gathered with 176 religious leaders and people of good will to breathe the air of Assisi and be transformed again by God’s gift of peace that centers on the mystery of Jesus Christ and His humble servant, Francis, who sought to be an instrument of that true peace!

Marking the event that was titled: “Pilgrims of Truth, Pilgrims of Peace,” His Holiness pointed out that in these past 25 years much has changed in the world. John Paul’s gathering took place just before the fall of the Berlin Wall. The pope noted that the forms of violence that have replaced it are different and far more insidious.

“Let us try to identify the new faces of violence and discord more closely,” the Holy Father suggested. “It seems to me that, in broad strokes, we may distinguish two types of the new forms of violence, which are the very antithesis of each other in terms of their motivation and manifest a number of differences in detail.”

The pope spoke of terrorism, a phenomenon in which religion “does not serve peace,” but is “used as justification for violence.” A type of discord in which “everything that had been commonly recognized and sanctioned in international law as the limit of violence is overruled.”

Benedict XVI then turned his attention to another basic type of violence, precisely the opposite of the first. It occurs “as a result of God’s absence, his denial and the loss of humanity which goes hand in hand with it.”

“The denial of God has led to much cruelty and to a degree of violence that knows no bounds, which only becomes possible when man no longer recognizes any criterion or any judge above himself, having only himself to take as a criterion,” the pope observed.

Though mentioning the concentration camps in this regard, he clarified that he would not speak about state-imposed atheism, but rather “about the decline of man, which is accompanied by a change in the spiritual climate that occurs imperceptibly and hence is all the more dangerous.”

These profound reflections made in the city of Assisi continue to give witness to the reality of Francis’ spirit there. It is the true presence of perhaps one of the greatest witnesses to the Incarnation.

Francis, after his conversion, used to walk the streets of Assisi and weep out loud, crying that “Love, was not loved.” This was his simple way of noting the very thing that Pope Benedict and Blessed John Paul have called to our attention in our own day: God loves you … he’d like you to return the favor!

… and I’ll see you at Sunday Mass!

I’ve had the pleasure of driving through the diocese these past few weeks from Ellsworth to Edgar, with stops in Stratford, Marshfield and points back toward La Crosse. It is just beautiful out there! I joined some of my Franciscan brothers last week in Savannah, Ga. Another member of the Conventual Franciscans was ordained and consecrated as the bishop of Savannah. It was wonderful to see so many of the guys I’ve known for years. Many of those men are from New England states. People PAY money to drive through some of those areas this time of year. The guys were saying there wasn’t much of a color show this year. I told ‘em to come to Wisconsin. They wouldn’t have to pay and the colors were magnificent! I sure hope that we all take some opportunity to give thanks to God for this great season!

Now it’s Halloween. I’ve never really liked this holiday – even when I was a kid. It has only gotten worse over the years. Some people claim that Halloween is fast outpacing Christmas in popularity and decorations. Go figure. Makes me wonder why? I think Halloween has taken a real trend toward the dark side. Christmas is about light and the Light of the world. As society tries to turn that Light off, I guess it’s easier to dress up, act out, and accept fantasy in place of reality.

We bishops of Wisconsin have just completed our Fall Meeting of the Wisconsin Catholic Conference. Archbishop Listecki, the archbishop of Milwaukee, is the president of the gathering of bishops who include Bishop David Ricken (Green Bay), Bishop Robert Morlino (Madison), Bishop Peter Christiansen (Superior), and me from La Crosse. There is, of course, much to discuss in our state and how some of those issues generally affect each of us. You will be hearing about some of the actions we discussed in the near future as they are rolled out in The Catholic Times.

November will soon be upon us and two of the most significant celebrations for us as human beings with faith start the whole month off with a bang! November begins with All Saints Day. What a terrific celebration to keep in mind everybody in heaven! People like us, who have made it. They help us and they intercede for us. Remember your baptismal and confirmation patron saint that day. Keep in mind, All Saints Day is a holy day of obligation. Like Sunday, Catholics are obliged to attend the Mass on that day.

All Souls Day follows on Nov 2. That day we remember our own mortality. Every one of us will die someday. How we live helps us to plan for how we will spend eternity. We pray for our beloved dead since they are now outside of time. While we are not obliged to attend the Mass on that day, it is the best prayer we can offer for anyone dead or alive.

…and I’ll see you at Sunday Mass.

Yesterday, 19 October was the feast of the North American Martyrs Sts. Isaac Jogues, John de Brebeuf, and their Jesuit Companion Martyrs. The Martyrs’ Shrine in Midland, Ontario is a magnificent place to visit and even more so since it was largely built and developed with public funds. The Province of Ontario, along with the Canadian national government largely funded the monument and its surrounding park land and the re-creation of Huronia, the Huron Indian village at the base of the imposing shrine church that can be seen for miles. Jesuits play an important part in the history of our own diocese especially in Prairie du Chien and the southern reaches of our local Church. Jesuit influence was especially noticeable in the exploration of the Mississippi River region, Upper Peninsula Michigan, and Northern Wisconsin, by the likes of Pere Jacques Marquette.

Another exciting and historical event took place yesterday as well. His Holiness, our beloved Pope Benedict XVI, announced his new “ambassador”—or NUNCIO—to the United States of America, that being, His Excellency, Archbishop Carlo Vigano. Archbishop Vigano will succeed the much-loved former nuncio, Archbishop Pietro Sambi, who died suddenly in July. We certainly hope to meet the new nuncio at the November meeting of the U.S. bishops in Baltimore. There is great excitement about his arrival. The nuncio serves as the papal representative in our country. His job, while largely dealing with issues of protocol and diplomacy, expresses a visible link between the U.S. bishops and the entire Church in the U.S.A. with our Holy Father, the pope.

This week, we also learned that the Bishops of Region VII—Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana—would be heading to Rome in February for our “face-time” with the pope. The pope meets every five years with all the bishops of the world. As you can imagine, this is an ongoing work for the pope given the worldwide nature of the Church and the number of bishops from around the world. This visit is called the “Ad Limina” visit. It literally means “to the threshold of the Apostles Peter and Paul.” It is both a traditional, fraternal, and respectful meeting of bishops from around the world with the Successor of Peter, the Vicar of Christ on earth, the pope. Fr. Michael Gorman, as moderator of the curia, will travel to Rome with me in February. At the present time, Fr. Gorman is overseeing the gathering of data and pertinent information from our curial offices for our report to the Holy Father.

Speaking of our dear Holy Father, Benedict XVI, please keep him prayer. It seems as though a former actress, Susan Sarandon, has managed to pull off a major insult to the pope and she will never be held accountable for it. She played the part of Sister Helen Prejean in the film adaptation of sister’s book about condemned “death-row” prisoners: “Dead Man Walking.” Sarandon made a media comment that she had sent a copy of the book to the pope saying: “The last one, not the Nazi one we have now.”  Sarandon’s comment, like so many other disrespectful and willful slurs against the Church and, in this case, the pope himself, will certainly not elicit an apology or even public media outrage. The challenge to the Church in these times is to keep the faith and keep our eyes fixed clearly on the truth of Jesus Christ. Maintaining faith and keeping clear about the truths of our faith will help us to weather such invective. Thankfully, the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights along with the Jewish Anti-Defamation League both publically challenged Saradon’s hateful remarks.

…and I’ll see you at Sunday Mass.

As I mentioned last time, October is the month of the Holy Rosary. The rosary is not only a favorite prayer of many Catholics, it is a powerful weapon in an arsenal for peace in our especially troubled times. On 7 October 1571, the decisive Battle of Lepanto was won. In it the Catholic forces of Spain and Italy fought against the invading Turkish fleet in what was considered the battle for Europe. It was the last battle at sea that involved galley slaves at the oars of the great ships going into battle. Christian slaves in the galleys powered the Moslem ships. The Catholic ships were powered by the rosary. As the Turks howled and yelled their battle cries, the men on the Catholic ships continued the recitation of the rosary. The Christian forces were at a terrible disadvantage and Pope St. Pius V knew it; he, therefore, called upon all of Europe to pray the rosary to prevent the Islamic invasion of Europe. At the time of the victory, the Pope, who was miles away in Vatican City, rose from a meeting and with tears in his eyes, went to the window to announce the news that the fleet was victorious and encouraged thanksgiving to God. The feast that developed was first called Our Lady of Victory, and has subsequently been changed to the Feast of the Most Holy Rosary. It is a focus of this month.

Also of interest, however, is today’s anniversary of the last apparition of Our Lady at Fatima. You will remember that Our Lady appeared to the three children at Fatima in Portugal on the 13^th day of six consecutive months (May thru October) in 1917. Blessed Pope John Paul II was shot on 13 May 1981. After his recovery he went on pilgrimage to Fatima to give thanks to Our Lady and had the bullet that could have killed him placed in her crown. Yesterday, during his Wednesday audience, Pope Benedict XVI entrusted the youth of the world to Our Lady of Fatima in honor of this anniversary so that they might respond to God’s call in their lives.

It is interesting to note further that the city of Fatima was named after the Prophet Mohammed’s daughter since Islamic forces once occupied Portugal. The Prophet once remarked, when speaking of his daughter: “She has the highest place in heaven after the Virgin Mary.”

Mother Mary is held in high esteem in the Islamic world. It is not by accident that She holds such sway—God has ways that are mysterious to us. Another time we will consider one of those great Marian mysteries that is a little bit closer to home: Our Lady of Guadalupe—yet another Islamic appellation for Our dear Mother.

Our beloved Blessed Pope John Paul II and our current Pope Benedict XVI are once again calling us to arm ourselves with our Mother’s weapon of peace: the holy rosary. She will prevail upon her Divine Son for peace and justice in our troubled and fretful world. She has done so in the past, she will do so again. Pray the rosary for peace!

… and I’ll see you at Sunday Mass.