Twenty-five years ago a number of you assembled here for the Golden Jubilee of the establishment of the Eparchy under the spiritual guidance of the great and holy Bishop Basil Takach. At that event, when the clergy gathered around Archbishop Stephen J. Kocisko of happy memory, I remember a question posed by one of the...Read More

It is a privilege to accept the invitation of Supreme Knight Virgil Dechant to reflect with you, my brother Knights, your ladies, whose presence is another sign for your support of our Order, and other family members and friends, on the word of God proclaimed in this Holy Hour. Your theme, “Open Wide the Doors...Read More

When he visited Cuba last year Pope John Paul II issued a plea that Cuba should be more open to the world, and the world to Cuba. His own visit helped people everywhere to perceive another dimension to the Cuban situation, a dimension I had seen several weeks before when, with Catholic Relief Services representatives,...Read More

Isaiah, God’s prophet, tells us how God touched his life, and how God touches us. God called him as a baby before birth, scarcely stirring in the womb, beneath his mother’s heart. “The Lord called me before I was born, from my mother’s womb he pronounced my name.” God’s call to Isaiah was not a...Read More

To my great surprise, Thanksgiving Day saw me in the air en route to Turkey – and, to anticipate a question, there was no turkey on the menu during the flight that evening! The day before, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Holy See’s Secretary of State, was on the telephone from Rome. He had seen the...Read More

It is a personal joy for me to represent His Holiness Pope John Paul II here today in presenting, in the name of Pope John Paul, the great honor of Knight Commander of St. Gregory the Great to Rabbi Mordecai Waxman in recognition of his extraordinary leadership over the past several decades in fostering improved...Read More

In the first reading Isaiah lifts up a prophetic vision of how God will save his people. He describes a God who opens the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf, gives new strength to legs and speech to muted tongues. This saving God, Isaiah tells us, can also turn arid desert...Read More

Just days ago Baltimore rejoiced at the extraordinary visit of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. Some remarkable aspects of his visit deserve reporting now. The media accounts accurately describe the sense of prayer, excitement and the love of unity in the making during the historic prayer service at the Basilica of the Assumption. To the Patriarch I...Read More