Blessed Sacrament Church

Click here for a short video greeting from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Offices at the Pastoral Center are closed December 24-25 for the Christmas holiday.

Recently, our Holy Father announced he was coming for his first visit to the United States to attend the eighth World Meeting of Families in September 2015. “I wish to confirm according to the wishes of The Lord, that in September of 2015, I will go to Philadelphia for the World Meeting of Families,” said Pope Francis. “Thank you for your prayers with which you accompany my service to the Church. Bless you from my heart.” Read more >>

Some of the deanery events marking the 125th anniversary of the Diocese of Duluth, which began in October, are coming into focus. Here is an update for each of the deaneries:

Brainerd: A holy hour, blessing of volunteers, meal and more will be held at St. Francis Church in Brainerd Sunday, Aug. 16, in the afternoon.

Cloquet: To be announced.

Duluth: Events will be held Sept. 12 at the DECC. Additional details to be announced.

Hibbing: A holy hour and history presentation will take place at St. Joseph Church in Grand Rapids March 8, beginning at 5 p.m.

Virginia: Mass and a history presentation will take place March 1 at St. Martin in Tower, beginning at 3 p.m.

Men's and women's conferences

Also keep the upcoming men's conference and women's conference on your calendars.

The Duluth Catholic Men’s Conference is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 21, at the Marshall School Auditorium in Duluth. The featured speaker is Deacon Ralph Poyo, from North Carolina, a sought-after speaker for Franciscan University Steubenville Youth Conferences and a founder of New Evangelization Ministries. Register online at www.duluthcatholicmen.org.

The third annual Catholic Women’s Conference is scheduled for March 7 at Marshall School Auditorium in Duluth. The two features speakers are Hallie Lord, author, editor and founder of the Edel Gathering, speaking on the beauty of the church’s teaching on the vocations of marriage and authentic womanhood, and Kelly Wahlquist, assistant director of the Catechetical Institute for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Register here.

By Kyle Eller / The Northern Cross — Bishop Paul Sirba, diocesan clergy and a group of the faithful gathered for Mass Oct. 5 at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary to mark the 125th anniversary of the Diocese of Duluth, kicking off a year of commemoration.

Bishop Sirba had transferred the diocesan patronal feast, Our Lady of the Rosary, from its normal date on Oct. 7 for the occasion. In his homily, the bishop gave a brief view of the earliest history of what became the Diocese of Duluth, with Mass probably first being offered around 1741 in Grand Portage by a Jesuit professor of mathematics. After a few successors, there was no Mass for about a century, he said, until the arrival of Ven. Frederick Baraga.

Kyle Eller / The Northern Cross Bishop Paul Sirba preaches at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary at a Mass launching the 125th anniversary of the Duluth Diocese Oct. 5.

After that came great figures like Msgr. Joseph Buh and Mother Scholastica Kerst. The first bishop of Duluth, James McGolrick, was ordained Jan. 12, 1890, at Sacred Heart Cathedral.

Now, the bishop noted, the faithful were gathered at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary to join their line.

“My brothers and sisters, you and I are called to add our names to the rolls of those who have gone before us to tell the story of salvation in Jesus Christ,” he said.

He used the Blessed Virgin Mary as our example and help and also cited the witness of Pope Francis.

“As we know, Mary, our mother, first encountered Jesus through eyes of faith,” he said. “She readily believed the words of the angel Gabriel, and she conceived the Word. Later, at his birth, she was able to embrace the Word in her arms.”

“She experienced joy, the fruit of the Holy Spirit, the inner delight of knowing that she was loved by God. And because she knew that, she was able to love God with her whole heart, her whole mind, her whole soul and her whole strength, and her neighbor as herself. She teaches us in this beautiful dialogue.”

He said Pope Francis’ emphasis on the joy of encounter and embracing those who are poor, outcast and vulnerable is a call for the church.

“It’s not something new, but I think in our age it’s become a little tarnished or forgotten,” Bishop Sirba said. “We would rather deal with smartphones or electronics sometimes than people. People get messy.”

As a result, he said we have a society that disposes of people, taking innocent life and pushing people to the margins of society when they become inconvenient.

He said Catholics in 2014 have a “gift to share” of hope and encouragement and an embrace.

“I encourage all of us to redouble our efforts to pray the rosary daily, to share it, to teach it, to pray it in our families and to introduce others to the mysteries of the rosary,” he said.

With it, the faithful can pray for peace, for the conversion of sinners and in reparation of both our sins and those of the whole world.

“We beg the Lord to teach us to be modern-day missionaries, because our world is so in need of hearing the proclamation of the good news,” he said.

Father James Bissonette, diocesan vicar general, led the faithful in the rosary prior to Mass, and the Mass was followed by a reception and historical presentation.

Additional events commemorating the diocese’s 125th anniversary will be held in each deanery, and next fall there will be a larger diocesan celebration. Watch The Northern Cross and the diocesan website — www.dioceseduluth.org — for details as they become available.

By Francis X. Rocca / Catholic News Service — Ankara and Istanbul were gray and cold, at least compared to Rome, during Pope Francis’ Nov. 28-30 visit to Turkey. And the general reception, outside of the pope’s official meetings, was hardly warmer. There were none of the enthusiastic crowds that usually greet him on his trips, no masses waving signs of welcome along his motorcade route or behind police barriers at the stops.

Pope Francis, who seems to thrive on contact with the public, especially with the young, the aged and the infirm, seemed dispirited by the lack of it this time. Despite his relatively light schedule — six speeches over three days, compared to 14 during his three-day visit to the Holy Land in May — he looked attentive but increasingly weary at his public appearances.

CNS photo/Stoyan Nenov, Reuters Pope Francis releases doves prior to celebrating Mass at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit in Istanbul Nov. 29.

There was an obvious reason, unrelated to the pope himself, for the general indifference to his presence. An observer did not need to know that Turkey is 99.8 percent Muslim to see that both cities he visited are dotted with the domes and minarets of countless mosques, miniature versions of the great monuments, Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque, that he toured in Istanbul.

Even a brief experience of Christianity’s marginality in that part of world makes it easier to understand why Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, whom Pope Francis traveled to Turkey principally to see, is the papacy’s best friend in the Orthodox Church and an eager participant in ecumenical dialogue.

Although Patriarch Bartholomew is traditionally considered first among equals by Orthodox bishops, his Greek Orthodox flock in Turkey is estimated at no more than 4,000 people, fewer than in many American Catholic parishes. Turkish authorities have kept his church’s only seminary closed for more than 40 years. Just across the border, in Syria and Iraq, Christian minorities are being slaughtered or driven from their homes by militants of the Islamic State.

Under such circumstances, it is no wonder that Patriarch Bartholomew would tell Pope Francis Nov. 30: “We no longer have the luxury of isolated action. The modern persecutors of Christians do not ask which church their victims belong to. The unity that concerns us is regrettably already occurring in certain regions of the world through the blood of martyrdom.”

In other words, necessity is the mother not only of invention but ecumenism, which also makes it easier to understand why Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, who leads tens of millions of Russian Orthodox and is closely allied with his nation’s government, can maintain his predecessors’ stance of refusing even to meet with the bishop of Rome.

Rome obviously is a far less lonely place than Istanbul to be a Christian. But Pope Francis follows St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI in recognizing that the West is, increasingly, Christian only in name. His Nov. 25 visit to the European institutions in Strasbourg, France, where he arrived to find the streets practically empty, was a recent reminder of that reality in the church’s traditional heartland.

The impressions of Christian culture that the Muslim world encounters through globalization are not the work of missionaries. Leaving Turkey’s Presidency of Religious Affairs in Ankara after the pope’s visit there Nov. 28, reporters passed a luxury shopping mall decorated with lighted Christmas trees (reminding an American present that it was Black Friday in the U.S.).

In response to the secularism of Europe and other wealthy societies, Pope Francis has taken a different tack than his two immediate predecessors. The current pope denounces a “throwaway” culture of abortion, euthanasia, unemployment, economic inequality and environmental pollution. But he rarely speaks of secularism, and his teaching focuses less on the failings of contemporary society and more on the church’s own shortcomings as impediments to evangelization.

Whatever the advantages of this pastoral strategy, Pope Francis clearly does not expect short-term results in Europe, which he described to the politicians in Strasbourg as a “grandmother, no longer fertile and vibrant” but “elderly and haggard.”

To see the church’s future now, the pope must look elsewhere, such as the Philippines, where in 1995 St. John Paul celebrated a single Mass in Manila with a congregation of more than 5 million.

Pope Francis travels there in January.

By Catholic News Service — Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Bishop Michael P. Driscoll of Boise, Idaho, and appointed Bishop Peter F. Christensen of Superior, Wisconsin, to succeed him.

Bishop Driscoll, who has headed the statewide diocese since 1999, is 75, the age at which bishops are required by canon law to turn in their resignation to the pope.

CNS photo/Mike Brown, Idaho Catholic Register Bishop Peter F. Christensen, left, the newly named bishop of Boise, Idaho, sits next to the retiring Boise Bishop Michael P. Driscoll during a Nov. 4 news conference in Boise. Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Bishop Driscoll, who is 75 years old, and as his successor appointed Bishop Christensen, 61, who has headed the Diocese of Superior, Wis., since 2007.

Bishop Christensen, 61, has headed the Diocese of Superior since 2007.

The changes were announced Nov. 4 in Washington by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

Bishop Christensen will be installed in Boise at a Mass Dec. 17 in St. John Cathedral. Until then, Bishop Driscoll will continue to oversee the daily governance of the diocese.

“This is a wonderful and diverse state with beautiful mountains and prairies, deserts, rivers and green valleys,” the Wisconsin bishop said at a news conference at the Diocesan Pastoral Center in Boise.

“Yet nothing reveals the love of God for this community more than the good works and faithfulness of his people,” he continued. “I look forward to seeing the beauty of creation through the holiness and love of Idaho Catholics, and hope that you see God’s love reflected in me in the same way.”

Bishop Driscoll applauded the pope’s choice for Idaho’s new bishop, saying he was “thrilled with the selection of Bishop Christensen.”

“He is a man of energy and prayer and love for the church, and will find in Idaho a community of committed and faithful Catholics willing to serve and follow him in the years ahead. I am also very grateful to Pope Francis for granting my request for retirement,” Bishop Driscoll said. “I have thoroughly enjoyed my time serving the people and the Catholic Church of Idaho.”

Bishop Christensen was born Dec. 24, 1952, in Pasadena, California. He studied at the College of the Redwoods in Eureka, California, at the University of Montana in Missoula, at St. John Vianney Seminary at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, and at St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul.

He was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis May 25, 1985.

His first assignment was as associate pastor of St. Olaf Parish in Minneapolis. After four years there, he became spiritual director and counselor at St. John Vianney Seminary, serving in that capacity from 1989 to 1992, followed by a seven-year tenure as rector of the seminary. He was pastor of the Nativity of Our Lord Parish in St. Paul from 1999 to 2007.

In June 2007, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him bishop of Superior. His episcopal ordination and installation was in September of that year.

Bishop Driscoll was born Aug. 8, 1939, in Long Beach, California. He was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles May 1, 1965, and ordained an auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Orange, California, March 6, 1990.

St. John Paul II appointed him bishop of Boise City Jan. 19, 1999.

The Boise Diocese has a Catholic population of close to 176,000, which is 11 percent of the total population of the state of about 1.6 million people.

The Superior Diocese covers close to 16,000 square miles; out of a total population of 437,000, about 73,000 people, or roughly 17 percent, are Catholic.

By Mark Pattison/Catholic News Service — October’s extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the family was just one event, but “a tale of two synods” emerged from it, according to the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Speaking to reporters Nov. 10 after the morning session of the USCCB’s annual fall general assembly in Baltimore, Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky, acknowledged the differences in the synod experienced by the bishops participating in it and news accounts disseminated outside the synod.

CNS photo/Bob Roller Bishops stand and applaud Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago Nov. 10 during the annual fall general assembly of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Baltimore. Archbishop Blase J. Cupich of Spokane, Wash., will in mid-November succeed Cardinal George, who is struggling with cancer.

Those differences were highlighted by Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York in remarks delivered during the assembly’s morning session.

“There must have been two synods,” he said, and the participating U.S. bishops “happened to be at the wrong one.”

From what he said he had heard and read about the synod, one synod was “confrontational and divisive,” “hijacked by left-wing dissenters intent on eluding doctrine,” with proceedings “smothered by new Ottavianis, dug in to resist the fresh breeze” of change, Cardinal Dolan said, referring to Italian Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani known for his opposition to the changes being brought about in the church during the Second Vatican Council.

“Too bad we missed that one,” Cardinal Dolan added. “The one we were at was hardly as spicy (and) juicy.”

The synod Cardinal Dolan said he attended “was a synod of consensus. This synod was led by a pope with a radical charism for attentive listening,” he said of Pope Francis, adding the only time the pope spoke was in “reciting the Angelus — twice.”

At this synod, “we listened to married couples who found God’s love in one another and their kids,” Cardinal Dolan said. “At this synod, we listened to bishops form Africa who said the (church’s) teaching on marriage, so widely dismissed in the First World, was enhancing their culture. ... We saw brother bishops asking how we can expedite and simplify marriage (annulment) cases.”

It was at this synod, Cardinal Dolan said, that “life-giving marriage” was the focus of “meeting the most urgent vocation crisis of the times.”

Archbishop Kurtz, in addressing his fellow bishops, noted that each one of the 62 paragraphs that constituted the final “relatio,” or report, of the synod met with majority approval — and all but three of the paragraphs with approval by at least two-thirds of those voting.

Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington, at a news conference following the morning session, said Pope Francis had asked that the “votation” be published along with the text to indicate the degree of accord shared at the synod.

Archbishop Kurtz said there were 12 documents in all to be considered at the synod before the final “relatio” was discussed: the first two “relatios” — one offered at the synod’s beginning and a second draft issued mid-synod — plus separate documents produced by each of 10 small working groups.

“The work of the second ‘relatio’ was the work of the small groups,” Archbishop Kurtz told reporters.

Cardinal Wuerl added that press covering the synod and those bishops participating in it “have different perspectives.”

“So many people tend to reflect now in terms of sound bites,” he said. “In the church, we’re learning to speak a little more crisply, but our teaching is not reducible to sound bites.”

He noted it took some time for the final “relatio” to be translated into English from the official Italian. But he urged the bishops to wait for the translation, noting that the final “relatio” serves as the “lineamenta,” or outline, for next year’s world Synod of Bishops.

Archbishop Kurtz said the Vatican was holding a meeting later in November to construct a system of reflection for bishops’ conferences to use in seeking input from dioceses to be used in preparation for next year’s synod.

By Mark Pattison / Catholic News Service — Liturgical matters will take center stage on the agenda of action items at the fall general meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, to be held Nov. 10-13 in Baltimore.

There will be five liturgical items up for consideration. All are subject to amendments from bishops. All but one require approval of two-thirds of the bishops, followed by final approval from the Vatican.

Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky, who is president of the USCCB, will deliver his first presidential address. He was elected to a three-year term last November. As is customary, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, apostolic nuncio to the United States, also will address the assembly.

During the meeting, the bishops will choose a new secretary-elect for the USCCB and vote for the chairmen-elect of five committees.

A number of presentations will be made, including one on underserved communities and Catholic schools and another on a recent pilgrimage of prayer for peace in the Holy Land.

The bishops also will conduct the canonical consultation on the sainthood cause of Father Paul Wattson. Father Wattson was an Episcopal priest who co-founded the Society of the Atonement, also known as the Franciscan Friars and Sisters of the Atonement, to further Christian unity. He was received into the Catholic Church, as were all men and women in the society at the time, and devised the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, still observed each January.

On the first day of the meeting, the bishops will concelebrate Mass at the Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore in honor of the 225th anniversary of the establishment of the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Baltimore was the first diocese founded in the United States. The bishops had similarly marked the bicentennial of the U.S. hierarchy in 1989 with a Mass at the basilica.

The liturgical items up for consideration:

— A revised translation of the ritual book “Dedication of a Church and Altar,” used whenever a new church is built or when a new altar is made. The revised English translation incorporates the modifications from the Code of Canon Law as well as bringing the translation into conformity with the Roman Missal, Third Edition.

— A first-ever official English translation of the ritual book “Exorcisms and Related Supplications,” revised after the Second Vatican Council, and promulgated in Latin in 1999 with an amended version in 2004. The main part of this book is the rite of major exorcism and includes an introduction outlining criteria for its use, which is always the decision of the bishop alone. While this text affirms the reality of evil in the world, it even more so affirms the sovereignty of Jesus to overcome any and all evil.

— A supplement to the Liturgy of the Hours of an English translation of the prayers used for the feast days of saints who have been added to the general calendar since 1984.

— Modifications to the Revised Grail Psalms, originally approved in 2010 by the Vatican. The USCCB Committee on Divine Worship recommended improving the translation and its “sprung rhythm” to make proclamation and singing easier.

The fifth liturgy-related item would authorize rewriting for later approval guidelines from its 1995 document “Guidelines for the Celebration of the Sacraments with Persons with Disabilities” in light of medical developments and increased awareness of challenges faced by Catholics today, such as gluten intolerance, also known as celiac disease.

Other action items to be addressed by the bishops include the 2015 USCCB budget, the 2016 diocesan assessment and a proposal to proceed on a revision to the “Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services.”

In USCCB elections, Archbishops Gregory M. Aymond of New Orleans and Timothy P. Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services have been nominated as secretary-elect. The five committees seeking chairmen-elect, and their bishop-nominees, are:

— Committee on Communications: Bishop William F. Murphy of Rockville Centre, New York, and Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas.

— Committee on Cultural Diversity in the Church: Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller of San Antonio and Bishop Joseph J. Tyson of Yakima, Washington.

— Committee on Doctrine: Bishop Robert J. McManus of Worcester, Massachusetts, and Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron of Detroit.

— Committee on National Collections: Archbishop Thomas J. Rodi of Mobile, Alabama, and Bishop Jaime Soto of Sacramento, California.

— Committee on Pro-Life Activities: Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York and Archbishop Jose H. Gomez of Los Angeles.

The secretary-elect and the chairmen-elect will serve one year in that capacity and then begin a three-year term.

The bishops also will vote on members for the board of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network and Catholic Relief Services, the USCCB’s international aid and development agency, as well as hear a presentation by Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City, chairman of the CRS board, and CRS president Carolyn Woo on CRS’ work on capacity building.

Other presentations scheduled for the USCCB meeting:

— Underserved communities and Catholic schools, presented by Archbishop George J. Lucas of Omaha, Nebraska, chairman of the Committee on Catholic Education, and Bishop Daniel E. Flores of Brownsville, Texas, chairman of the Committee on Cultural Diversity in the Church.

— The pilgrimage of prayer for peace in the Holy Land, presented by Bishop Richard E. Pates of Des Moines, Iowa, chairman of the Committee on International Justice and Peace.

— USCCB engagement with the church in Africa, presented by Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, retired archbishop of Washington.

— The observance of the Year of Consecrated Life and the “Guidelines for the Reception of Ministers in the United States, Third Edition” and plans for their implementation, presented by Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of Raleigh, North Carolina, chairman of the Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations.

— A status report on the 2013-16 USCCB strategic plan, “The New Evangelization: Faith, Worship, Witness,” presented by Archbishop J. Peter Sartain of Seattle, USCCB secretary,

— Separate reports by Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco, chairman of the Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage; Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore, chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty; and the USCCB working group on the life and dignity of the human person.

By Catholic News Service — Nina Pham, a Dallas nurse who was the first person known to have contracted the Ebola virus in the United States, thanked God, her family and her medical team for her recovery Oct. 24.

Pham held a news conference in Bethesda after she was declared virus-free and released from the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center.

CNS photo/Larry Downing, Reuters U.S. President Barack Obama talks with Dallas nurse Nina Pham at the Oval Office in Washington Oct. 24. Pham contracted Ebola while treating a man who later died of the disease. She was admitted to a clinic at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesd a, Md., and visited the White House after she was discharged from NIH.

“I feel fortunate and blessed to be standing here today. I would first and foremost like to thank God, my family and friends,” she said. “Throughout this ordeal I have put my trust in God and my medical team.

“I am on my way back to recovery even as I reflect on how many others have not been so fortunate,” added Pham, 26, who grew up in Our Lady of Fatima Parish in Fort Worth, Texas, and where she and her family have been longtime members.

She was “thankful for everyone involved in my care,” she said, “from the moment I became ill and was admitted to Texas Health Presbyterian Health Dallas up to today,” when she was being discharged from NIH.

After she was released from the hospital, she paid a visit to President Barack Obama in the Oval Office at the White House.

Pham was involved in the care of Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan prior to his death Oct. 8. Duncan contracted Ebola in his home country of Liberia and had traveled to the Dallas hospital where he was being treated.

The Centers for Disease Control initially said Pham’s contact of the virus was likely a protocol breach, but the nurse is said to have worn the required protective gear and is believed to have followed the hospital’s procedures.

She was kept in isolation at Texas Health Presbyterian. Pham received a blood transfusion Oct. 12 from Ebola survivor Dr. Kent Brantly, who had been working with Ebola patients in Liberia when he contracted the virus in the summer. He recovered in an Atlanta hospital.

On Oct. 16, she was transported to NIH.

Pham is a 2006 graduate of Nolan Catholic High School in Fort Worth. When the school community found out she contracted Ebola, it organized a rosary service at the school’s chapel.

The pastor of Our Lady of Fatima, Father Jim Khoi, also asked for prayers for her. “She knows that everybody knew to pray for her, especially in this difficult time,” he told The Dallas Morning News daily paper shortly after Pham was found to have the virus.

“Her mom is very calm and trusts everything to God’s hands,” he noted.

Pham’s apartment was thoroughly cleaned after tests confirmed she contracted the disease. Her dog, Bentley, was put into isolation to be cared for and tested for Ebola. The dog has since been found to be virus-free. Pham said she looked forward to returning to Texas and being reunited with her family and her dog.

A second nurse who contracted Ebola, Amber Vinson, also has been declared virus-free, but news reports said she would remain in treatment in Atlanta until further notice. On Oct. 23, a U.S. doctor who just returned from treating Ebola patients was found to have Ebola and he is now in isolation at a New York City hospital.

In Arizona, the Crosier Fathers and Brothers announced Oct. 24 the community would offer a novena of intercession for protection from Ebola in conjunction with St. Theresa Catholic Church in Phoenix.

The novena was to begin Oct. 28 and continue for nine consecutive Tuesdays. Each evening service, lasting 30 to 40 minutes, was to have “a different theme of deliverance,” a news release said.

It said the novena is built on a prayer service featuring the solemn chanting of the “Haec Est Praeclarum Vas,” which was sung by the Crosiers in the Middle Ages to ward off the threat of the bubonic plague. That chant continued daily for centuries thereafter in Crosier communities.

“Given the widespread concern and fear of this deadly virus, we invite people to come together and pray for protection. We are drawing on an age-old Crosier tradition of reflection and intercession to Our Lady of Protection,” said Father Robert Rossi, a member of the Crosier Community of Phoenix and chair of the community’s Apostolic Presence Commission.

“The Crosier mission is to accompany people in their suffering, to stand with them and assure them that God has not abandoned them but is bringing about new life in some mysterious way,” he said. “We touch suffering with hope.”

Father Chuck Kieffer, pastor of St. Theresa, added: “While this type of prayer service is rooted in our ancient traditions, it is very relevant to what’s happening today.”

By Adelaide Mena/Catholic News Agency/EWTN News — Hundreds of pilgrims and faithful from all states of life flocked to the St. John Paul II Shrine in Washington, D.C., Wednesday to celebrate the late pope and recently canonized saint’s first universal feast day.

“To be able to celebrate in the presence of a saint on their first feast day, I think is just a point of great grace for the local church and all the pilgrims that come here,” said Father Jonathan Kalisch, O.P, chaplain of the Saint John Paul II National Shrine, to CNA Oct. 22.

This presence, he said, was apparent in the large and diverse crowd who came to participate in a feast day Mass at the shrine.

At the Mass, there were “over 550 young people, the elderly, there were Polish pilgrims, the consecrated, the sisters, there were male religious,” Father Kalisch explained. “ When I was celebrating the Mass, I thought, ‘he’s brought them here.’”

Father Kalisch gave the homily at the first celebration of the Feast of Saint Pope John Paul II at the saint’s shrine in Washington, D.C. A relic of St. John Paul II’s blood, as well as a bloodstained piece of his cassock from the 1981 attempt on his life, are present for veneration at the shrine.

St. John Paul II served as pope for more than 26 years, from 1978 until his death in 2005. He was canonized earlier this year, on April 27; the Oct. 22 observance of his feast is the anniversary of his papal inauguration.

The Mass was preceded by a recitation of the rosary and followed by a screening of a documentary on the saint’s visits to North America and the recitation of the Divine Mercy Chaplet.

Veronica McGraw, a high school student from Alexandria, Va., is learning about the newly canonized saint in her high school classes and said she has come to better understand his teachings and example.

“I really love his love for the human person and the dignity he has for everybody: how every person is made in the image of God and has immeasurable worth,” she said.

Joey Ledonio, another high school student, said he was impressed by the international effect of St. John Paul II’s papacy through his travels and meetings with world leaders. Also striking, Ledonio said, were the sheer number of “all of the people he canonized” during his papacy.

Brendan Peifer, also a teen from Virginia, said that what stood out to him about the late pope’s service and teaching is “his focus on love.”

As a young person, though, Peifer said he was also grateful for the saint’s focus on reaching out to youth: “He was really concerned with the future of the church and the future of the world.”

Father Kalisch highlighted the pope’s witness to “the vocation to sacrificial love” in his homily, pointing to the tragedies John Paul II suffered in his early life with the loss of his family, as well as his ministry to young people and families and work as bishop and later pope in standing for truth and freedom.

The chaplain also spoke later of the pope’s love, and its demonstration in those who were present to celebrate his first feast day at the shrine.

“To see this outpouring of devotion: I was just personally moved to see everybody there and to celebrate today,” he said. “No doubt he wanted them there.”

Above all, though, recognizing the late pope for his holiness is what was at the core of the feast day celebrations, Father Kalisch said.

“It’s just a great joy to be able to call him a saint.”