Pope Francis greets 100-year-old Lucilla Macelli before celebrating Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, marking World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly July 23, 2023. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
mgresham
I was in an allegorizing mood last week when I visited the church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane in the heart of Rome. Designed by the 17th century architect Francesco Borromini, San Carlo is a jewel of astonishing beauty on the corner of a busy intersection.
The monstrance holding the Eucharist gleamed in the midday sun July 16 as pilgrims on the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage’s northern Marian Route turned a downtown corner and came into view of St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, the pilgrimage’s final destination.
It is a very moving experience to be in a stadium with 50,000 other Catholics, many from the Diocese of Dallas, including at least four priests (Fathers Edwin Leonard, Michael Likoudis, Kevin Wilwert, and Russ Mower) and to hear the familiar voices and instruments of David and Lauren Moore for the opening event on Wednesday night.
People came from all over on July 13 to help Father Fred Caldwell celebrate his birthday at St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Parish. At 90, Father Caldwell is the oldest living diocesan priest for the Diocese of Dallas.
Political discourse in the United States has devolved into people shouting at and not listening to each other, showing a need to promote respectful dialogue despite political differences, said the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Catholic aid organizations in the Galveston-Houston Archdiocese confirmed they cannot get to work just yet because of the power outage that left about 2.5 million people in the dark following Hurricane Beryl’s landfall July 8 that cut a damaging path through eastern Texas and left at least eight people dead.
On May 14, Catholic Charities Dallas’ Angels of Charity Women’s Auxiliary honored Jean Fuchs as this year’s Angel of the Year during its 23rd annual Angels of Charity Mass & Luncheon. The event included a Mass at the National Shrine Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe celebrated by Bishop Edward J. Burns and a luncheon at the Meyerson Symphony Center.
Marina Frattaroli describes herself as the National Eucharistic Revival’s “first convert,” after a related social media post led her to a website describing the church’s teaching on Jesus’ true presence in the Eucharist. Now she’s spending most of her waking hours with the Eucharist as one of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage’s 30 perpetual pilgrims, who set out from points in California, Connecticut, Texas and Minnesota to meet at the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis July 17-21.
The Catholic Church can only teach the faithful if it is an institution that listens, but that does not mean it should take to heart every opinion uttered, according to the head of the church’s synod.