A Fidelity That Generates the Future 12: A Seminarian’s Heart

Posted on 20 January 2026 by catholicsensibility

12. Consequently, “the seminary is meant to be a training ground to help a seminarian attend to his own heart… we need to learn how to love and how to do so as Jesus did.”

It is a myth that celibates need not attend to love, and loving other people. Likewise that the essence of self must be disregarded and erased.

I therefore ask seminarians to make an interior commitment regarding their motivations. This involves every aspect of life, for “nothing of your personal uniqueness should be put aside; rather, everything should be taken up and transformed, like the grain of wheat in the Gospel. The goal is to become a joyful man and a joyful priest, a ‘bridge,’ not an obstacle for those who come to you in order to come to Christ.”[Meditation on the occasion of the Jubilee of Seminarians (24 June 2025).]

What does need to be set aside is immaturity:

Only priests and consecrated persons who are humanly mature and spiritually solid – in other words, those in whom the human and spiritual dimensions are well integrated and who are therefore capable of authentic relationships with everyone – can take on the commitment of celibacy and credibly proclaim the Gospel of the Risen One.

The full text of this apostolic letter is available online.

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Dilexi Te 69: Saints Joseph Calasanz and John Baptist de La Salle

Posted on 20 January 2026 by catholicsensibility

We take schools for granted. There are certainly neanderthals today who want to roll back education for everybody. That would be out of sync from the Church, at least our last four centuries of service. Let’s begin with the Piarists:

69. In the sixteenth century, Saint Joseph Calasanz, struck by the lack of education and training among the poor young people of Rome, established Europe’s first free public school in some rooms adjacent to the church of Santa Dorotea in Trastevere. This was the seed from which the Poor Clerics Regular of the Mother of God of the Pious Schools, known as the Piarists, would later emerge and develop, though not without difficulty.

I wonder if Pope Leo is aware of this:

The pedagogical ideal of Calasanz of educating every child, his schools for the poor, his support of the heliocentric sciences of Galileo Galilei, the scandals and persecutions of some of his detractors, and his life of sanctity in the service of children and youth, carried with them the opposition of many among the governing classes in society and in the ecclesiastical hierarchy. In 1642, as a result of an internal crisis in the Order and outside intrigues and pressures, Calasanz was briefly held and interrogated by the Inquisition. According to Karen Liebreich, problems were exacerbated by Father Stefano Cherubini, originally headmaster of the Piarist school in Naples who sexually abused the pupils in his care. Father Stefano made no secret about at least some of his transgressions, and Calasanz came to know of them. Unfortunately for Calasanz as administrator of the order, Cherubini was the son and the brother of powerful papal lawyers; no one wanted to offend the Cherubini family. Cherubini pointed out that if allegations of his abuse of his boys became public, actions would be taken to destroy the Piarists.

Naturally the 1% within and outside the Church would be bothered by the education of the poor, especially

Their goal was that of transmitting to young people “not only secular knowledge but also the wisdom of the Gospel, teaching them to recognize, in their personal lives and in history, the loving action of God the Creator and Redeemer.” [John Paul II, Address to the Participants in the General Chapter of the Poor Clerics Regular of the Mother of God of the Pious Schools (Piarists) (5 July 1997)] In fact, we can consider this courageous priest as the “true founder of the modern Catholic school, aimed at the integral formation of people and open to all.” [Ibid.]

Another saint:

Inspired by the same sensitivity, Saint John Baptist de La Salle, realizing the injustice caused by the exclusion of the children of workers and ordinary people from the educational system of France at that time, founded the Brothers of the Christian Schools in the seventeenth century, with the ideal of offering them free education, solid formation, and a fraternal environment. De La Salle saw the classroom as a place for human development, but also for conversion. In his colleges, prayer, method, discipline and sharing were combined. Each child was considered a unique gift from God, and the act of teaching was a service to the Kingdom of God.

While there have been scandals within and outside of schools along the way, the overall vector is greatly positive. Despite free education being a thing of the past, mostly, many religious orders and lay people are laboring fruitfully and well in education.

This document is available in multiple languages, as usual, on the Vatican site here. It is also Copyright © Dicastery for Communication – Libreria Editrice Vaticana. The image is from Giotto, early 14th century, Saint Francis giving his mantle to a poor man.

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A Fidelity That Generates the Future 11: Looking Carefully

Posted on 19 January 2026 by catholicsensibility

11. The issue of formation is also central to addressing the phenomenon of those who, after a few years or even decades, leave the priestly ministry. This painful reality should not be interpreted solely in legal terms, but requires us to look carefully and compassionately at the history of these brothers and the many reasons that may have led them to such a decision. The appropriate response is, first and foremost, a renewed commitment to formation, whose objective is “a journey of growth in intimacy with the Lord. It engages the entire person, heart, mind and freedom, in order to shape him in the image of the Good Shepherd.” [Address to the Participants in the International Meeting of Priests Promoted by the Dicastery for the Clergy on the occasion of the Jubilee of Priests and Seminarians (26 June 2025).]

This is a slightly surprising tack from Pope Leo, and it certainly deserves some care and compassion.

Sometimes a structure fails from a lack of foundation. If a person is not rooted in Baptism, and the call of being a Christian, perhaps ministry grows difficult when questions about faith arise. I’ve known one or two priests who have struggled with the basics of faith.

I’ve certainly known men who have fallen in love. (Interesting use of “fallen,” right?) A good friend taught me long ago that love is a choice, not a feeling. A person can be in love, yet choose a path other than the resolution of a Hallmark Christmas movie. Being in love does not mean an inevitable pairing with another person. That said, changing lanes does not mean God has abandoned a person for stepping away from ordained ministry.

Sometimes a priest has carefully concealed an immaturity. An immature person might crack under the pressure of a very demanding life. I’ve known a few guys who, for the lack of a better term, cracked under pressure.

And loneliness. I don’t think priests think they’ve signed up for a lonely life.

I don’t blame Hallmark or bishops as such. That said, Pope Leo suggests that bishops are “required” to look carefully.

The full text of this apostolic letter is available online.

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This Weekend’s Bishop Barron Vector

Posted on 18 January 2026 by catholicsensibility

I debated making any public comment on a bishop in my state. Over the last half hour, I noted this lament on WPI which included a screenshot of a Friday tweet which I’ve in turn screenshotted.

 

 

 

 

Religious liberty, except for ICE detainees.

And just after that, another capture on another social media platform from today.

 

I have to admit a bit of surprise. I think the phrase “at least for the time being” is a bit mealy-mouthed. And no mention of the murder of a US citizen in her car.

My social media friends are tilted to the people who haven’t unfriended me, so it’s not a surprise at all they don’t see this social media activity as helpful.

Is it good for clergy, especially bishops, to be active on the internet. I have to question often enough if it is good for me.

 

 

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Dilexi Te 68: The Education of the Poor

Posted on 18 January 2026 by catholicsensibility

Teaching people. Education is so often seen as one of the most essential ladders to lift a person into success, fruitfulness, a meaningful life. Knowledge is opportunity. It can be, at least.

Pope Leo is going to take us on a historical tour of great saints and their orders who were dedicated to passing knowledge to children, especially the poor. Paragraphs 69 through 71 will remind us of select educators, and 72 will wrap it up, reinforcing education as a duty, not just a good thing to do in our academic buildings.

The Church and the education of the poor

68. Addressing educators, Pope Francis recalled that education has always been one of the highest expressions of Christian charity: “Yours is a mission full of obstacles as well as joys… A mission of love, because you cannot teach without loving.” [Francis, Address following the visit to the tomb of Don Lorenzo Milani, (Barbiana, 20 June 2017)] In this sense, since ancient times, Christians have understood that knowledge liberates, gives dignity, and brings us closer to the truth. For the Church, teaching the poor was an act of justice and faith. Inspired by the example of the Master who taught people divine and human truths, she took on the mission of forming children and young people, especially the poorest, in truth and love. This mission took shape with the founding of congregations dedicated to education.

You may have memories of those religious orders. The Sisters of Saint Joseph were part of my history in my parish and in high school.

This document is available in multiple languages, as usual, on the Vatican site here. It is also Copyright © Dicastery for Communication – Libreria Editrice Vaticana. The image is from Giotto, early 14th century, Saint Francis giving his mantle to a poor man.

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Point It Out, John

Posted on 18 January 2026 by catholicsensibility

St. John the Baptist (c. 1513–1516), Leonardo da VinciThe Forerunner gets attention for identifying Jesus as Lamb of God. I heard it touched on in two different homilies this weekend, my pastor and my bishop.

In the past, I may have missed this profession of faith in John 1:34:

Now I have seen and testified that he is the Son of God.

I certainly didn’t miss Martha’s, including her “Even now” moment as Liam pointed out all those years ago:

Pay attention to two usually overlooked words in Martha’s great confession of faith: “even now”, as in:

“But even now I know that whatever you ask of God…”

Most people point to John pointing. The Lamb of God comment. Lots of lambs in iconography and in paintings. And there is Leonardo’s John just pointing and smiling at us.

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A Fidelity That Generates the Future 9-10: Sequela Christi

Posted on 17 January 2026 by catholicsensibility

Translation: the following of Christ, how we adhere to the Lord, imitate him, embrace discipleship. Pope Leo suggests this begins even before a person might even be aware of a calling. That makes sense for the timeless perspective of God. This is not that God gives us no freedom to decide, delay, or decline. Pastors, and indeed any minister, must always see themselves as disciples first. We sit at the feet of the Master and we dedicate ourselves not only to learning, but to being formed as a person more closely imitating Jesus.

9. From the moment of one’s call and during initial formation, the beauty and stability of the journey are safeguarded by the sequela Christi. Indeed, even before dedicating himself to guiding the flock, every priest must constantly remember that he himself is a disciple of the Master, just like his brothers and sisters, because “one is always a ‘disciple’ throughout the whole of life, constantly aspiring to configure oneself to Christ.” [Congregation for the Clergy, The Gift of the Priestly Vocation. Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis Sacerdotalis (8 December 2016), 57] Only this relationship of obedient following and faithful discipleship can keep the mind and heart on the right path, through the upheavals that life may bring.

A mention of a certain crisis that perhaps can reroot clergy in a deeper and more respectful humility:

10. In recent decades, the crisis of trust in the Church caused by abuses committed by members of the clergy has filled us with shame and called us to humility. It has made us even more aware of the urgent need for a comprehensive formation that ensures the personal growth and maturity of candidates for the priesthood, together with a rich and solid spiritual life.

Indeed. Doctrine, canon law, and business management have proven to be woefully insufficient, even to many bishops.

The full text of this apostolic letter is available online.

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Dilexi Te 67: A Living Response to Exclusion and Indifference

Posted on 17 January 2026 by catholicsensibility

The modern West, and likely much more of the world under the thumb of oligarchy, is no less in need of a response to its excesses.

67. The mendicant orders were therefore a living response to exclusion and indifference. They did not expressly propose social reforms, but an individual and communal conversion to the logic of the Kingdom.

How many embittered people would see individual conversion as a likely way today?

For them, poverty was not a consequence of a scarcity of goods, but a free choice: to make themselves small in order to welcome the small. As Thomas of Celano said of Francis: “He showed that he loved the poor intensely… He often stripped himself naked to clothe the poor, whom he sought to resemble.” [Thomas of Celano, Vita Seconda, pars prima, cap. IV, 8: Anal Franc, 10, Florence 1941, 135]

Here’s something that had not occurred to me before: the beggar/mendicant as pilgrim, a traveler, but without the internet for booking lodging and meals:

Beggars became the symbol of a pilgrim, humble and fraternal Church, living among the poor not to proselytize but as an expression of their true identity. They teach us that the Church is a light when she strips herself of everything, and that holiness passes through a humble heart devoted to the least among us.

Quite often the Church is criticized for holding on to museum riches. Perhaps there is something to that. Many museums exist for the preservation of goods. no doubt the Church possesses expertise to curate art, history, and such. But so do other people.

This document is available in multiple languages, as usual, on the Vatican site here. It is also Copyright © Dicastery for Communication – Libreria Editrice Vaticana. The image is from Giotto, early 14th century, Saint Francis giving his mantle to a poor man.

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A Fidelity That Generates the Future 8: Nurturing One’s Formation

Posted on 16 January 2026 by catholicsensibility

8. All priests, therefore, are called continually to nurture their own formation in order to keep alive the gift of God received through the sacrament of Holy Orders (cf. 2 Timothy 1:6). Fidelity to one’s calling, then, is not static or closed, but a journey of daily conversion that affirms and matures the vocation received. In this perspective, it is appropriate to promote initiatives such as the Conference for the Ongoing Formation of Priests, which was held in the Vatican from 6 to 10 February 2024, which gathered more than 800 people responsible for ongoing formation from 80 countries. Before being an intellectual effort or pastoral training, ongoing formation is a living memory and constant renewal of one’s vocation on a shared journey.

Rome is one location for such an initiative. Local bishops, also. It is one thing to plan and carry out such events. Over the years, many priests I’ve known, and even one or two good ones, absent themselves from diocesan initiatives. It seems like these gatherings need to retool for seminarians, and set the expectations from the start.

The full text of this apostolic letter is available online.

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Dilexi Te 66: Saint Dominic

Posted on 15 January 2026 by catholicsensibility

Another towering saints of the 13th century, often linked with Francis of Assisi. Like Franciscans, the Order of Preachers offered its members a radical life. Like Benedictines, they cultivated the intellect, but unlike monastics, they went where people were, especially students.

66. Saint Dominic de Guzmán, a contemporary of Francis, founded the Order of Preachers, with a different charism but the same radicalism of life. He wanted to proclaim the Gospel with the authority that comes from a life of poverty, convinced that the Truth needs witnesses of integrity. The example of poverty in their lives accompanied the Word they preached. Free from the weight of earthly goods, the Dominican Friars were better able to dedicate themselves to their principal work of preaching. They went to the cities, especially the universities, in order to teach the truth about God. [Cf. S.C. Tugwell, (ed.), Early Dominicans. Selected Writings, Mahwah 1982, 16-19]

This is an important point Pope Leo draws out for the Dominicans, their charism was to open the door to faith, and invite people to move through it:

In their dependence on others, they showed that faith is not imposed but offered. And by living among the poor, they learned the truth of the Gospel “from below,” as disciples of the humiliated Christ.

This document is available in multiple languages, as usual, on the Vatican site here. It is also Copyright © Dicastery for Communication – Libreria Editrice Vaticana. The image is from Giotto, early 14th century, Saint Francis giving his mantle to a poor man.

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A Fidelity That Generates the Future 7: Ongoing Conversion

Posted on 15 January 2026 by catholicsensibility

In the post-conciliar Church, some Catholics have grappled with the notion of continuing conversion. This, against the backdrop of some Christians emphasizing being “saved.” What does ongoing conversion mean to a person who sees herself or himself as saved?

7. Every vocation is a gift from the Father, which needs to be faithfully preserved in a dynamic of ongoing conversion. Obedience to one’s calling is cultivated each day through listening to the word of God; celebrating the sacraments, especially the Eucharistic Sacrifice; evangelization; closeness to the least among us; and priestly fraternity, all drawing on prayer as the preeminent place for encountering the Lord. It is as if the priest returns every day to the Sea of Galilee, where Jesus asked Peter, “Do you love me?” (John 21:15), in order to reaffirm his “yes.” [“He asked Peter whether he loved him, not from any need to learn the affection of the disciple, but from a desire to show the exceeding depth of his own love” (Saint John Chrysostom, De Sacerdotio II: 1: SCh 272, Paris 1980, 104, 48-51)] In this sense, we can understand the hope expressed in Optatam Totius that priestly formation should not stop at the end of seminary (cf. n. 22), but instead open the way to continuous, permanent formation, which will create a dynamic of constant human, spiritual, intellectual and pastoral renewal.

Pope Leo’s brief description here is very wise. First, we have the daily exercise of obedience to the Word, cultivated at Mass, in the celebration of the sacraments, and not mentioned here, the Liturgy of the Hours. Second, the attitude of fruitful and faithful priests would be to consider themselves as constant students: always curious and always ready for new insights from God.

The full text of this apostolic letter is available online.

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Covering the Hours

Posted on 14 January 2026 by catholicsensibility

Tanner waiting for papa to pray. And journal. And provide second supper, no doubt.

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Old Testament Canticles: Jeremiah 31:10-14

Posted on 14 January 2026 by catholicsensibility

Many of the Old Testament canticles that landed in the Liturgy of the Hours come from passages of prophetic consolation. The long post-Exile section of Isaiah is well-known, and occasionally pilloried as being consulted too often.

The book of Jeremiah also has such a section–only two chapters, 30-31. Thursday of week one in the Divine Office has this offering to pray:

Hear the word of the LORD, O nations,
proclaim it on distant coasts, and say:
The One who scattered Israel, now gathers them together;
guarding them as a shepherd his flock.

The LORD shall ransom Jacob,
and shall redeem him from the hand of his conquerer.

Shouting, they shall mount the heights of Zion,
they shall come streaming to the LORD’s blessings:
the grain, the wine, and the oil,
the sheep and oxen;
they themselves shall be like watered gardens,
never again shall they languish.

Then the virgins shall make merry and dance,
and young men and old as well.
I will turn their mourning into joy,
I will console and gladden after their sorrows.
I will lavish choice portions upon the priests,
and my people shall be filled with my blessings, says the LORD.

Commentary:

You can tell an oracle (word from God) that it begins with the declaration “Hear the Word …” and finishes with ” … says the Lord.” It is an echo, or perhaps an emphasis from 31:1’s “oracle of the Lord. Scripture scholars identify that Jeremiah received this message in a dream. Not unlike his forebear Joseph.

There’s a promise in verse 10: the diaspora will be reversed. Israelite in every nation will hear of it. This reflects the prior verses in which nobody, it seems, will be left behind. Not just the rich and able-bodied will be gathered into a return to the Promised Land. The prophet’s dream included the blind and the lame and (even!) pregnant women.

I was struck by the image of the watered garden, which the prophet Isaiah (Cf. 58:7-11) foresaw as a consequence of the people doing right by the needy and poor.

All ages will experience the blessings of the return, and many prophets mention no regard for age, even those too young to remember the times before the Exile. Those last lines are reminiscent of another Isaiah passage: the gathering on the mountain of no-more-tears in Isaiah 25:6-9.

It isn’t the most lyrical of passages, at least in how it has been translated into English. But the theme of consolation can touch our hearts when we take the time to reflect upon it. Who among us hasn’t experienced great sorrow and the need for comfort and blessing?

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Dilexi Te 65: Saint Clare of Assisi

Posted on 14 January 2026 by catholicsensibility

Another saint of Assisi:

65. Saint Clare of Assisi, who was inspired by Francis, founded the Order of Poor Ladies, later called the Poor Clares. Her spiritual struggle consisted in faithfully maintaining the ideal of radical poverty. She refused the papal privileges that could have guaranteed material security for her monastery and, with firmness, obtained from Pope Gregory IX the so-called Privilegium Paupertatis, which guaranteed the right to live without any material goods. [Cf. Gregory IX, Bull Sicut manifestum est (17 September 1228), 7: SC 325, Paris 1985, 200: “Sicut igitur supplicastis, altissimae paupertatis propositum vestrum favore apostolico roboramus, auctoritate vobis praesentium indulgentes, ut recipere possessiones a nullo compelli possitis.”]

Saint Clare and her sisters, of course, got quite a bit of resistance from the Catholic men of their day. They did have to pull back from their full desire for the Poor Ladies. Clare had more trust in God than most any man.

This choice expressed her total trust in God and her awareness that voluntary poverty was a form of freedom and prophecy. Clare taught her sisters that Christ was their only inheritance and that nothing should obscure their communion with him. Her prayerful and hidden life was a cry against worldliness and a silent defense of the poor and forgotten.

This document is available in multiple languages, as usual, on the Vatican site here. It is also Copyright © Dicastery for Communication – Libreria Editrice Vaticana. The image is from Giotto, early 14th century, Saint Francis giving his mantle to a poor man.

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A Fidelity That Generates the Future 6: Gift for Gift

Posted on 14 January 2026 by catholicsensibility

Pope Leo reminds us that the calling to be a priest is a gift from God. Perhaps some people see priests and other ministers as offering the gift of themselves to God and to the Church. That is part of the experience of human choice and cooperation with God. But in the economy of divine gift, perhaps we do well to think of it first as the way the Holy Father presents it:

6. The call to ordained ministry is a free and gratuitous gift from God. Indeed, a vocation is not imposed by the Lord but is instead a loving proposal to follow a plan of salvation and freedom for our lives, which we receive when we accept, with God’s grace, the Lord Jesus as the center of our lives.

God offers a gift, and we embrace it. Or, in some cases, we bring it to the service counter as a return.

A response to the gift for ministry is not an exchange of goods, the rendering of payment in return for something. Pope Leo invites us to see it as gift for gift. Not an obligatory thing of value for value, but a free exchange between people who love each other.

Thus, the vocation to ordained ministry grows as a gift of oneself to God and, therefore, to his holy People. The whole Church prays and rejoices for this gift with a heart full of hope and gratitude. This was expressed by Pope Benedict XVI at the conclusion of the Year for Priests: “We wanted to reawaken our joy at how close God is to us, and our gratitude for the fact that he entrusts himself to our infirmities; that he guides and sustains us daily. In this way we also wanted to demonstrate once again to young people that this vocation, this fellowship of service for God and with God, does exist – and that God is indeed waiting for us to say ‘yes’.”[Benedict XVI, Homily at Mass for the Conclusion for the Year for Priests (11 June 2010).]

Sometimes that wait is long indeed. We too wait for God’s response to our wishes, hopes, and desires. If we feel left out by God, perhaps that is very much God’s experience with us as we dither, delay, or opt for the return counter in the divine economy.

The full text of this apostolic letter is available online.

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