St. Kateri Tekakwitha

Feast date: Jul 14

Kateri was born in Auriesville, New York, in 1656 to a Christian Algonquin woman and a pagan Mohawk chief. When she was a child, a smallpox epidemic attacked her tribe and both her parents died. She was left with permanent scars on her face and impaired eyesight. Her uncle, who had now become chief of the tribe, adopted her and her aunts began planning her marriage while she was still very young.

When three Jesuit fathers were visiting the tribe in 1667 and staying in the tent of her uncle, they spoke to her of Christ, and though she did not ask to be baptized, she believed in Jesus with an incredible intensity. She also realized that she was called into an intimate union with God as a consecrated virgin.

Kateri had to struggle to maintain her faith amidst the opposition of her tribe who ridiculed her for it and ostracized her for refusing the marriage that had been planned for her. When she was 18, Fr. Jacques de Lamberville returned to the Mohawk village, and she asked to be baptized.

The life of the Mohawk village had become violent and debauchery was commonplace. Realizing that this was proving too dangerous to her life and her call to perpetual virginity, Kateri escaped to the town of Caughnawaga in Quebec, near Montreal, where she grew in holiness and devotion to the Blessed Sacrament.

Kateri lived out the last years of her short life here, practicing austere penance and constant prayer. She was said to have reached the highest levels of mystical union with God, and many miracles were attributed to her while she was still alive.

She died on April 17, 1680 at the age of 24. Witnesses reported that within minutes of her death, the scars from smallpox completely vanished and her face shone with radiant beauty.

Devotion to Kateri began immediately after her death and her body, enshrined in Caughnawaga, is visited by many pilgrims each year. She was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1980, and canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on October 21, 2012.

“I’m dumbfounded as to why this man with allegations swirling around him in 1985 and 1986 was allowed to be employed by the church,” said one man who alleges that Pierce abused him.

“And they promoted him to bishop,” the man continued. “He was a predator, and we were the prey, and the church did nothing about it.”

(The Catholic Church, which recognizes the validity of the orders conferred in the separated Eastern churches, teaches that Anglican orders are invalid.)

The prelates described online gambling as “a new plague or virus that destroys individuals, families, and society.” Online gambling, they said, is “no longer a problem for individuals. It is a public health crisis in our society, just like drugs, alcohol, and other types of addiction.”

In their statement, the bishops cited the teaching of the Catechism of the Catholic Church on gambling (n. 2413).

“The parable speaks to us first about God’s way of seeing us, so that we in turn can learn how to see situations and people with his eyes, so full of love and compassion,” Pope Leo preached. “The Good Samaritan is really a figure of Jesus, the eternal Son whom the Father sent into our history precisely because he regarded humanity with compassion and did not walk by.”

The Pope concluded:

Looking without walking by, halting the frantic pace of our lives, allowing the lives of others, whoever they may be, with their needs and troubles, to touch our heart. That is what makes us neighbors to one another, what generates true fraternity and breaks down walls and barriers. In the end, love prevails, and proves more powerful than evil and death.

Dear friends, let us look to Christ, the Good Samaritan. Let us listen again today to his voice. For he says to each of us, “Go and do likewise.”

The treaty, the European Convention on Human Rights, states that “freedom to manifest one’s religion or beliefs shall be subject only to such limitations as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of public safety, for the protection of public order, health or morals, or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others” (Article 9).

“Brothers and sisters, let us look to Jesus,” the Pope told pilgrims who had gathered in Castel Gandolfo for his Sunday Angelus address. “He shows us the meaning of authentic love for God and for others. It is a love that is generous, not possessive; a love that forgives without question; a love that reaches out and never abandons others.”

“Each of us can and should become a neighbor to all whom we meet,” the Pope continued. “Imitating the example of Jesus, the Saviour of the world, we too are called to bring consolation and hope, above all to those who are experiencing discouragement and disappointment.”

Fathers Gabriele Gionti, SJ, and Matteo Galaverni discussed their findings in an article in The European Physical Journal C.

At the conclusion of their summer meeting, the bishops of Colombia issued a Spanish-language statement, “Your future is full of hope” (Jeremiah 31:17).

This plan, Pope Leo explained, is “the plan of salvation with which God wants to bring all of humanity back to himself, as one big family.”

“This is the spirit in which your Institutes were born, and this is the perspective in which to place every effort, so that it may contribute, through small lights, to spreading over the whole earth the light of Christ, which never dims,” the Pope added.

“For too long, families have been forced to choose between paying to stay in touch with an incarcerated loved one or meeting other basic needs such as rent, food, or medication,” Bishop William Byrne of Springfield, Massachusetts, wrote in a letter to the chairman of the FCC.

“The current rates are exploitative, extracting profit from the most vulnerable and from those who are simply trying to hold their families together through incredibly difficult circumstances,” Bishop Byrne added. “Stopping implementation of this law, when many of the rules have been in place since January, only prolongs that injustice.”