Catholic Church

Msgr. Charles Pope - The first reading for Mass on Monday (Monday of the third week of Lent) was striking in its relation to the current time of turmoil. It reminds us of our vulnerability. Despite all our strength, we are individually and collectively in need of tremendous grace and mercy from God. For all our concern about the physical threat of this virus, we should be even more concerned about our spiritual vulnerability.

By Mary Farrow, CNA - Demand for confessions at St. Mary’s in downtown Lincoln, Nebraska, has always been high: it’s a centrally-located church with convenient, daily confession times and often multiple confessors… During the parish’s normal 11:30-noon weekday confession times, penitents on their lunch breaks line up, often 20 people or more deep, for absolution and sacramental grace, before returning to work, or before attending the 12:10 p.m. Mass… “It's a big ministry,” Fr. Douglas Dietrich, the pastor of St. Mary’s, told CNA. “And then we have a lot of people who come by the door and call up and just want to go to confession; that's great.”A

By Sean Fitzpatrick, Crisis Magazine - Irish immigrants to the United States held the first Saint Patrick’s Day parade in New York in 1762. Over 250 years later, Saint Patrick’s Day parades are a big deal in New York City, with each borough boasting their own. One of these boroughs came under heavy fire this year regarding its Paddy parade. The Staten Island Saint Patrick’s Day parade was the only NYC parade that did not allow LGBTQ groups to march under banners acclaiming their orientations and proclivities.

By Donna-Marie Cooper O’Boyle, Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception of the B.V.M. - The Catholic Dictionary defines heroic virtue as: “The performance of extraordinary virtuous actions with readiness and over a period of time. The moral virtues are exercised with ease, while faith, hope, and charity are practiced to an eminent degree. The presence of such virtues is required by the Church as the first step toward canonization. The person who has practiced heroic virtue is declared to be Venerable, and is called a ‘Servant of God.’”