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Our late and beloved Fr. Ralph Kuehner told me a number of times over dinner how Victory Housing got started. During his time as Pastor of Our Lady of Victory Parish in Washington, DC, an elderly parishioner lived in a nearby apartment building and would walk to church on Sundays and other times during the week. The owners of the apartment building realized that they could make a lot more money from the properties by turning the apartments into condominiums. The elderly widow like so many in the building were being forced out of their apartments without a place to live that was affordable. The stress of the situation caused the women to have a heart attack. She died in the hospital. When he would relate this story and discuss what had happened to this woman, he would shake his head and say, “We can do better than that.”

I am continuing today the reflection that I began last week on Patris Corde (“With a Father’s Heart”), the Apostolic Letter that Pope Francis released last month to announce the beginning of a Year Dedicated to Saint Joseph.

On December 8, 1870 Blessed Pius IX declared Saint Joseph to be the Patron of the Universal Church. To mark that anniversary Pope Francis has announced that the Catholic Church would observe a Year in Honor of Saint Joseph, which actually began on December 8, 2020 and will end on December 8, 2021. Pope Francis has explained all this in his new Apostolic Letter entitled Patris Corde (“With a Father’ Heart”). There Pope Francis describes Saint Joseph as a beloved Father, a tender and loving Father, an obedient Father, and father who is creatively courageous, a working father, and a father in the shadows.

On December 1, 2019, Pope Francis issued an Apostolic Letter entitled Admirabile Signum (“Enchanting Image”) on the meaning and importance of the Nativity Scene. As you read this it is now two days after Christmas. Happily we are still within the Christmas season which will last until January 10 when we celebrate the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. One of the scenes that Pope Francis recalls in his Apostolic Letter is the origin of the Christmas crèche and the role that St. Francis of Assisi had in its origins. Let’s listen to the Holy Father tell this story:

We have experienced many disappointments during this time of pandemic. One of them was that Saint Nicholas had to cancel his customary visit to our parish on the Sunday, December 6, the Second Sunday of Advent and his actual feast day. Perhaps because Saint Nicholas (known by some by the nickname Santa Claus) had to cancel his travel plans this year, some of the children of the parish might be asking the question that Virginia O’Hanlon asked the editor of a New York newspaper many years ago. In anticipation of Christmas, which we will celebrate on this coming Friday, I want to print what is probably the most reprinted editorial in any newspaper in the English language. In 1897, the New York Sun received a letter to the Editor from Virginia O’Hanlon, who was eight years old and a resident of New York City. Her letter was only a four sentences long:

For many centuries this particular Sunday in Advent has had a special name “Gaudete Sunday.” This comes from today’s opening antiphon which begins with the word Gaudete, which means “rejoice.” Originally Advent was a forty-day period of penance that used to begin on November 12. Because this is one day after the Memorial of Saint Martin of Tours, Advent used to be called “St. Martin’s Lent.” Now Advent begins on the Sunday closest to the feast of St. Andrew (sometime between November 27-December 3). While Advent is primarily penitential in spirit, it also reflects the joy of anticipation. The expectation not only refers to Christ’s first appearance on earth but also reflects his Second Coming. For the people of God who are waiting in between there is a third coming of Christ whereby he is in the hearts of all the faithful by his grace.

We are now in the second week of a new liturgical year. Often people make resolutions at the beginning of the year in the hope that they can make small improvements in their lives that will help us grow in virtue. One of the things that we could look at is how we spend our time, and notably how we spend our Sundays. What might we do now in the midst of the COVID-19 restrictions on our time and activities? What might we do when we return to a more “normal” schedule? Here are some thoughts.

The McCarrick report remains in the news and probably will remain in the news for some time as we absorb some of things that have been related in it. Greg Erlandson, director and editor-in-chief of Catholic News Service, commented that that were heroes in this sad story. One such hero was the late Cardinal John J. O’Connor who tried unsuccessfully to stop our former archbishop Theodore McCarrick’s appointment to the Archdiocese of Washington where often the Archbishop receives the red hat. Even more courageous were the victim survivors who tried to speak up, the mother who sought to protect her children, the counselors who warned of the allegations that they were hearing. Sadly, the impression that we receive is that those who wanted to raise concerns were not given an attentive listening and rumors were dismissed rather than investigated thoroughly.

Even though we have waited for nearly two years for the McCarrick Report and knew that the news in it wouldn’t be good, at least I am still dealing with the shock of some of the details in it. One detail from the Vatican’s report on our former archbishop that saddens me is the following. Repeatedly senior officials were warned that something was unsuitable and inappropriate with promoting McCarrick and that charges from serious people needed to be considered. On each occasion a Vatican official disregarded the testimony of lay people, priests, and religious and based decisions exclusively on the advice of other bishops.

This week we will go over the answers to the last ten questions in the Faithful Citizenship Quiz.

As you read this, Election Day has come and gone. The call to be informed and faithful citizens remains. To that end let’s go over the answers to the first ten questions in the Faithful Citizenship Quiz that I put in last week’s bulletin. We’ll go over the answers to the remaining questions in next week’s column.

The Faithful Citizenship section of the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) contains lots of interesting and useful information. As the next election will be in just a couple of days, I think that I would present here twenty questions for faithful citizens. I invite you to take the quiz today, which I got from the USCCB website.

If he were alive right now, Blessed Carlo Acutis would be twenty-nine years old. But Carlo died when he was just fifteen years old. Carlo was the oldest son of Andrea Acutis and Antonia Salzano, who were not particularly religious. Although born in London, his family moved to Milan when he was about four months old. He was a normal boy who was a natural jokester who enjoyed making his classmates and teachers laugh. At the same time he defended disabled peers at school when bullies mocked them. Outside of school he did voluntary work with the homeless and destitute.

The month of October is domestic violence month, a time when we can share more openly about an epidemic of violence in our own families. Indeed, domestic violence affects every parish and every community in our country.

Today I want to conclude a presentation of the Message of Pope Francis for the 106th World Day for Migrants and Refugees. Last week I mentioned that he wanted to reflect on six pairs of verbs in the 2020 Message. Here are the six pairs of verbs: To know in order to understand To be close in order to serve To listen in order to be reconciled To share in order to grow To be involved in order to promote To cooperate in order to build

Sunday, September 27, 2020, marks the 106th World Day of Migrants and Refugees. Pope Francis delivered a message for this occasion which was dated May 13, 2020. I want to present some points from his message for our consideration today and next week.

On Sunday, September 20 we celebrated Catechetical Sunday. On the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), the Most Reverend Robert E. Barron, Chairperson, Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis invited everyone who is involved in the work of catechesis to consider earnestly the importance of catechist formation. He mentioned that they had produced a variety of articles, videos, and podcasts exploring our baptismal call to be active participants in the evangelizing mission of the Church, as well as the unique role of catechesis in the whole process of evangelization.

When I first heard reports about the corona virus affecting so many people in China, I wasn’t sure what to think about this news. Then I heard about cases breaking out in various parts of our country. I think that the seriousness of our situation really hit home on Sunday, March 8, when a parishioner who was a physician warned me about the seriousness of the pandemic that would soon be upon us. Before that week was out we were instructed to close down. In the first few days and weeks I was concerned about how we would function as a parish. By Easter time we decided to have live-streamed Mass. We had no idea how well that it would be received. Soon it became clear that we should do it every week until we would be able to open again. In the meantime I have learned to use an internet tool about which I had never heard: Zoom. Over the next six months I have become somewhat adept at hosting Zoom conferences. While meetings in person would be much better, most of us have learned to live with Zoom. Because of it, life can carry on.

August 26, 2020 marked the one hundredth anniversary of the passage of the nineteenth amendment to the United States Constitution. This amendment was the result of decades of steadfast advocacy by women from all walks of life throughout our nation. One woman who was jubilant at the passing of this amendment that gave women the right to vote was my paternal grandmother: Anna Dougherty Dillon. My father would tell me that Grandma often would say women should have been granted the right to vote long before 1920, but that she was grateful to have that right. And exercise it she did! My grandmother wasted no time in registering to vote and never missed an opportunity to vote right up to her death in 1964. Another thing my father told me was that she would never tell my grandfather or her children for whom she voted. When asked she was just smile and say that she wasn’t going to say. This annoyed my grandfather who wanted to know how she voted, but he or her children never found out.

Pope Francis established September 1 as an annual World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation in 2015. It is also the first day of the Season of Creation or Creation Time. The Season of Creation or Creation Time, is marked throughout the Christian world from September 1 to October 4 (Feast of St. Francis of Assisi) and celebrates the joy of creation as well as encouraging awareness-raising initiatives to protect the natural environment. Let’s look at the message of Pope Francis from the World Day of Payer for the Care of Creation from last year. The message for 2020 had not been released by the time this issue of the bulletin had to go to press. Let’s recall some of the remarks that the Holy Father made on this occasion last year: