Archbishop Chaput

The Faith of the Church: Universal, Local and Personal

Jesus commands that the universal faith of the Church is to be preached locally and lived out personally. The celebration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of St. John Neumann gives us the opportunity to reflect on this command. The Church is truly “Catholic”We have recently celebrated the liturgical Solemnity of Pentecost, which recalls […]

2011 Lenten Pastoral Letter

February 28, 2011 Dear Brothers and Sisters, The grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all! In the life of the Church, Lent is all about facing the reality of sin in the light of the victory of Christ’s Death and Resurrection. Each one of us knows that we are called […]

Prayer

By Cardinal Justin RigaliArchbishop of Philadelphia As we begin to prepare ourselves for the observance of Lent, we reflect this week on one of its principal themes: prayer.Simple yet profound In one sense, it seems unnecessary to devote a feature as long as this article to the concept of prayer, because prayer can be seen […]

The Youth Catechism of the Catholic Church

In conjunction with the upcoming World Youth Day to take place in Madrid a special Catechism for young people is being published, with a Preface written by Pope Benedict XVI. We take this as our topic this week. What is a catechism?At times, we may tend to think that a catechism is a compendium of […]

Love: The unique distinction of the human person

By Cardinal Justin RigaliArchbishop of Philadelphia At this time of year, we see many images of human love placed before us. Let us take this great and unique characteristic of human beings as our topic this week. In the spanine image He created themIn the period of human history, in which God has willed us […]

The name of Jesus

By Cardinal Justin RigaliArchbishop of PhiladelphiaWe have just concluded the month of January, during which the Church recalls in a special way the Holy Name of Jesus. Let us take that, along with the subject of names in general, as our topic this week.The importance of a nameMany of us have experienced the power of […]

Observing 200 years: Anniversary of the birth of St. John Neumann

By Cardinal Justin RigaliArchbishop of Philadelphia As we prepare to celebrate the 200th anniversary of St. John Neumann’s birth on March 28, we take this upcoming event as our topic this week. Consolation and challengeWhen I was appointed Archbishop of Philadelphia in 2003, one of my first thoughts was that I would have a canonized […]

Being spanerted to myths

By Cardinal Justin Rigali Archbishop of Philadelphia As we once again approach the anniversary of the tragic Roe v. Wade decision of the United States Supreme Court legalizing abortion, we take this as our topic this week. Foreseen, but nonetheless tragic In St. Paul’s second Letter to Timothy, he writes: “For the time will come […]

National Vocation Awareness Week

By Cardinal Justin RigaliArchbishop of Philadelphia Since we are in the midst of the Vocation Awareness Week and since one of the super-priorities of our archdiocesan initiative “Call to Conversion and Holiness” is prayer for more priests for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, we make vocations our topic this week. One body, many membersAs I look […]

The effects of the earthquake in Haiti one year later

By Cardinal Justin RigaliArchbishop of Philadelphia January 12 marks the one year anniversary of the devastating earthquake in Haiti. We take the ongoing effects of that disaster as our topic this week. Not all anniversaries are joyful occasionsIn his recent Christmas Message Urbi et Orbi, “to the City and to the World,” Pope Benedict XVI […]