Homily for Commemoration of St. Katherine Drexel

St. Katherine Drexel
Tuesday, Week 2 of Lent

March 3, 2026
Is 1: 10, 16-20
Collect
Matt 23: 1-12

Isaiah addresses the leaders of the kingdom of Judah by comparing their wickedness with that of Sodom and Gomorrah (Is 1:10).  Even as he does so, he offers hope that they might “put away” their evil deeds (1:16), which he identifies as failures to care for the most vulnerable members of society, widows and orphans (1:17); and hope that such a change of heart and of action might obtain for them a radical cleansing from God (1:18).  Compliance will lead to prosperity:  “you shall eat the good things of the land” (1:19); but failure will bring disaster:  “the sword shall consume you” (1:20).

Today we commemorate a holy woman who didn’t need a radical conversion.  Her blessed parents had left her and her sisters not only a humongous fortune—about $15 million, which today would equal more than $400 million—but also left them an unusual sensitivity to the poor.  That sensitivity induced Katherine Drexel to beseech Pope Leo XIII to do something for “justice among the poor and oppressed” native peoples of North America, and when challenged by Leo to undertake that apostolate herself, to embrace the challenge wholeheartedly—and not only for Indians but also for that other oppressed American population, blacks (Collect).  She took to heart Christ’s declaration, “You are all brothers” (Matt 23:8).

Katherine and her religious sisters also took to heart Christ’s assertion that we have “but one master” (23:10), drawing their inspiration and spiritual power from the Holy Eucharist.

We’re in the final year of a period of Eucharistic revival in this country.  Our bishops realized that we need that.  Perhaps it’s not coincidental that in this same period they’re also becoming more insistent on “redressing the wrongs” in our society (Is 1:16), reminding the princes in our society, and all of us, that “the instruction of our God” (Is 1:10), “the message of the Gospel” (Collect), includes “work for justice among the poor and oppressed,” and that our “undivided love” (Collect) includes both our Lord Jesus and all our brothers and sisters.  Without justice, there will be no prosperity.

“Undivided love” begins right here among ourselves—Christian brothers and our staff—and is powered by our Eucharistic Master.

 

March Message of the Rector Major

THE MESSAGE OF THE RECTOR MAJOR

Fr. Fabio Attard, SDB

Educating to Mercy

The Pharisee & the Publican
(James Tissot)

For us as educators and evangelizers, the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector (Luke 18:9-14) isn’t simply a moral tale about pride and humility, but a profound revelation about how God encounters us and how we’re called to pass on this transformative experience.

Faith as a call to a relationship of mercy.

When the Pharisee goes up to the temple, he brings with him an image of God constructed to his own measure: a God who records merits and demerits, who rewards the righteous and condemns sinners. His prayer is a comparison with others: “I thank you that I am not like other people.” An authentic relationship is missing. There’s only smugness, self-complacency.

The tax collector, on the contrary, enters the temple aware of his own unworthiness. His “O God, have mercy on me, a sinner” isn’t despair, but the courageous opening to a possible relationship precisely because it’s founded on mercy. He senses what the Pharisee missed: God isn’t a judge but a Father who awaits the return of his prodigal children. For us educators, this distinction is foundational. How many times, unconsciously, do we transmit an image of God closer to that of the Pharisee – a God who inspects, sits in judgment, and rewards or punishes based on our spiritual “performance”?

Education to the Faith fosters an encounter with Mercy, an experience where we discover that we’re loved; indeed, we’re beloved children even in our fragility. To evangelize means to introduce people into this merciful relationship. God doesn’t wait for us to be perfect in order to love us; rather, the richness of his love is made manifest precisely through our poverty. This is the good news that we must announce: a relationship that transforms from within.

A relationship that begins with humility of heart.

The tax collector’s humility is the condition that makes an encounter with God possible. Standing “at a distance” and “not even daring to lift his eyes to Heaven” shows that he recognizes the infinite disproportion between God’s holiness and his own wretchedness, and also trusts that this Holy God bends down toward those who recognize their neediness. In contrast, the Pharisee’s prayer is full of “I”: “I fast,” “I tithe.” He has built his religious identity on self-affirmation, on comparison with others, on demonstrating his own works. He feels he’s already full, has already “made it,” and is already righteous.

In the field of education and evangelization, humility of heart is the ability to recognize that one is constantly in need of salvation, never taking one’s relationship with God for granted, and remaining open to the gift of his grace. It’s the attitude of those who know that the Christian life isn’t a possession acquired once and for all but a daily journey in which we allow ourselves to be molded by Divine Mercy. As educators, we’re called to be the first to bear witness to this humility, recognizing our limitations, our weaknesses, and our continuous need for conversion. Only in this way do we become credible and create spaces in which others can also take off their own masks and present themselves to God as they are.

To be sinners, loved and forgiven.

The conclusion of the parable is perturbing: “This man, unlike the other, went home justified.” The tax collector, who had nothing to offer but his own misery, receives everything. The Pharisee, who had so much to show off, remains in his sterile illusion. God doesn’t justify those who consider themselves righteous, but those who acknowledge themselves to be sinners. He doesn’t fill those who are full, but those who are empty. He doesn’t have an encounter with those who don’t feel they need it, but with those who implore healing. This is the paradox of the Gospel: even though we’re sinners, we’re saved because God’s Mercy is greater.

In religious education today, this parable shows us that when we acknowledge sin, we open ourselves to his transforming grace. Sin doesn’t crush us.

Being sinners who are loved and forgiven doesn’t equate to a status of inferiority, but to the proper condition of the Christian. It’s this identity which allows us to live in freedom, without pretending to be perfect, without hiding our failures, without building façades of respectability. It’s the awareness that the foundation of our life lies not in what we’ve done, but in what God has done and continues to do for us.

Witnesses to God’s Mercy, experienced personally.

The tax collector who returns home justified inevitably becomes a witness. He can’t remain silent about the experience of having been welcomed, forgiven, and uplifted. His life will speak of the Mercy that transformed him. This is where true evangelization takes place. We don’t pronounce abstract theories about God’s mercy, but we bear witness to a personal experience. We speak of a forgiveness we’ve received, of a Love that sought for and found us, of a relationship that gave meaning to our existence.

For those who work in the field of education and evangelization, this means, first and foremost, the need to cultivate one’s spiritual life as a living experience of this Mercy. Before being “masters” – teachers – we must be disciples; before teaching, we must learn; before giving, we must receive. The credibility of our message is measured by the truth of our experience. Furthermore, it means creating educational contexts in which people can have this same experience – not environments of judgment, but of welcome; not places where one must demonstrate merit, but spaces where one can acknowledge one’s fragility; not structures where religious skills are acquired, but communities where one experiences the tenderness of God.

The parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector reminds us that education to the Faith is essentially an introduction to a relationship: with a God who loves us with merciful love, who always awaits us, who always forgives us, who makes our poverty the place of his encounter with us.

Salesian Works: True Reference Points for Ukraine's People

Salesian Works: True Reference Points for Ukraine’s People

(ANS – Kyiv, Ukraine – February 25, 2026) – Since Russia invaded on February 24 four years ago, Ukraine has known no respite, continuing to suffer serious damage to its energy infrastructure due to bombing. Power stations, substations, and transmission networks are regularly hit, causing prolonged blackouts that can last many hours or even days. With winter, power cuts become a real humanitarian emergency: without electricity, heating, hot water and light disappear. The most vulnerable – children, the elderly, and the chronically ill – pay the highest price.

In this context, Salesian works have become constant points of reference for the entire population. The Daughters of Mary Help of Christians and the Salesians of Don Bosco in the country have transformed houses and youth centers into places of welcome where displaced families are housed, hot meals are distributed, schools are kept open, and psychological support and prayer are offered. In many cities, Salesian facilities have become the only place where a minimum of stability and support can be found.

The only source of energy available is often a single generator, which can operate only if there’s fuel. Relying on a generator is clearly essential for activities such as cooking and distributing meals, charging phones and medical devices, providing evening lighting, and storing medicines at a controlled temperature. When the tank is empty, everything stops: lights, kitchens, water pumps, even oxygen concentrators.

Thru an online campaign by the Salesian Missionary Center in Warsaw, Salesian works are raising funds to purchase diesel and petrol, cover transport costs to the most affected areas, and build up emergency reserves.

The distribution of aid will be flexible and adapted to the current situation in different regions of the country, based on the intensity of power outages.

Contributing to the purchase of fuel means guaranteeing that every contribution is transformed into real energy: energy that heats, illuminates, and saves lives.

• hours of light and heat in the middle of winter,
• continuity of educational and welfare activities,
• minimum conditions of hygiene and safety,
• hope and concrete support for those who live in daily uncertainty.

“We continue to support the SDB and FMA communities in Ukraine,” writes the Missionary Center, “so that they can provide electricity, heat, and safety where they are most needed today.”

More information about the project and how to help is available on the website misjesalezjanie.pl, accessible via this link.

Homily for 2d Sunday of Lent

Homily for the
2d Sunday of Lent

March 1, 2026
Matt 17: 1-9
Our Lady of the Assumption, Bronx
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx

The Transfiguration
(Carl Bloch)

“He was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light” (Matt 17: 2).

Last Sunday’s gospel recounted how Jesus was tempted by the devil.  We met Jesus in his humanity, dealing with the loneliness of the desert, fasting from food, tempted by pleasure, pride, and power.  Jesus was and is very like us—except that he completely rejected sin.

Today’s gospel shows us the other half of Jesus, so to speak.  He’s not only human; he’s also divine.  We get a glimpse of his glory, but it’s not a private glory.  He’s not alone; Moses and Elijah, the great saints of Israel, are his companions, basking in his glory.

Glorious Jesus hasn’t left his humanity behind.  “Don’t tell the vision to anyone until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead” (17:9).  It’s not God who will die on Calvary, but a flesh and blood man like us.

If Jesus as man turned away Satan’s temptations and showed us flesh and blood folks that it’s possible for us to say “no” to the Evil One, Jesus transfigured so gloriously before the eyes of his 3 close friends shows us our future destiny.  We’re not gods, but if we do as the voice from the cloud—his Father’s voice—commands, if we “listen to him” (17:5), then Jesus’ glory is promised also to us.  Moses and Elijah—and by implication all who are faithful to the Law and the prophets—already share in Jesus’ glory.

And we will, too, not held back by our human nature, the same human nature that Jesus has, the same human nature of Moses and Elijah.  Glory like the sun is our destiny, the purpose for which God created us.  The old catechism that Catholics my age learned taught us that God made us to know him, to love him, and to serve him in this world and to be happy with him forever in the next world.  St. Thomas Aquinas tells us “that Jesus, at the Transfiguration, began to shine with the radiance of heaven so as to entrance us with the prospect of our own beautiful transfiguration.”[1]

St. Paul expresses a similar thought:  “Christ Jesus destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light thru the Gospel” (2 Tim 1:10).  We portray the saints with halos around their heads; they’re filled with Christ’s divine light.  Their faces, like his, shine like the sun.  If we listen to Jesus, that glory will be ours, too.

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[1] Robert Barron, “The Strange Light,” in The Word on Fire Bible: The Gospels (Park Ridge, Ill., 2020), p. 107.

Statistics of Salesian Congregation as of 12/31/25

Statistics of the Salesian Congregation as of December 31, 2025

Updated picture of the SDB presence in the world

(ANS – Rome – February 26, 2026) – The general secretariat of the Salesian Congregation, led by Fr. Guido Garino, has compiled statistical data on the the Congregation at the end of 2025. The information, based on data contained in the “Flash reports” provided by the 93 secretaries of the Salesian provinces and vice provinces around the world, collected through the portal portal.sdb.org, offers a detailed picture of the Salesian presence in the 138 countries where the Salesian Family operates.

The Congregation’s personnel

As of December 31, 2025, there were a total of 13,444 professed Salesians, to which 114 bishops were added, for a total of 13,558 sons of Don Bosco. They include 9,116 priests (67.81%), followed by clerics or seminarians (2,654; 19.74%), coadjutor brothers (1,276; 9.49%), novices (384; 2.86%), and permanent deacons (14; 0.10%).

The number of members fell slightly from 2024 (-96); deaths and departures (233 and 264, respectively) surpassed admissions (398 novices and 3 re-admissions).

Young vocations: a figure to reflect on

The data relating to the new generations deserves particular attention. The 384 novices at the end of 2025 represent the future of the Congregation. Of those who started during the year, only 18 left, while 4 novices from 2024 obtained an extension of their novitiate. The personnel in formation also includes 423 prenovices, 939 postnovices, 492 practical trainees, 757 theology students, and 373 university students.

During the year, 364 first professions, 209 perpetual vows, and 151 priestly ordinations were celebrated: tangible signs of a formation journey that continues to bear fruit, despite demographic challenges.

Salesian houses around the world

The total number of Salesian houses amounts to 1,850, of which 1,598 are canonically erected with a resident Salesian community and 119 are not canonically erected but have a Salesian presence. The rules on the composition of houses require at least 4 confreres with perpetual vows for canonically open houses and no fewer than 3 for those that are not canonically open.

The geography of the Salesian presence

The geographical distribution sees India in first place with 2,742 professed members, followed by Italy (1,704), Poland (755), Spain (725), and Brazil (566). These 5 countries together represent over 45% of the entire Congregation.

Methodological details and interpretation of numbers

The 2025 data also include some corrections to the 2024 Flash, due to the regularization of pending situations and the integration of documents received during the year. The complete data have been processed and collected divided by province, country, and Salesian region.

“These statistics are not just impersonal numbers and figures: they are indicators of the life and dynamism that the Congregation continues to experience 166 years after its foundation,” commented Fr. Garino. “These data represent and express, in the way that numbers can, all the various dimensions in which the Salesian presence has taken root in the world, becoming a traveling companion to countless people and tracing a path of light that, thanks to God, shows no sign of stopping.”

Homily for Friday, 1st Week of Lent

Homily for Friday
1st Week of Lent

Feb. 27, 2026
Ezek 18: 21-28
Salesian H.S., New Rochelle, N.Y.

The 7 capital sins and the 4 last things
(Hieronymus Bosch)

“Thus says the Lord God:  If the wicked man turns away from all the sins he committed, if he … does what is right and just, he shall surely live” (Ezek 18: 21).

It’s a welcome message from God that we hear on this early day of Lent.  God wants to forgive our sins and give us a fresh start.  He’s eager to forget our past and give us a future.  He finds joy in our efforts to be good, to be “right and just”:  “Do I not rather rejoice when he turns from his evil way that he may live?” (18:23).

There’s not one of us without some evil to turn away from.  Don Bosco knew he was a sinner.  At least once, he told his boys, “I would tell you even my sins—only I’m afraid I’d send you scurrying away before the roof fell in.”[1]  He had a regular confessor—he always went to the same priest—and he went to confession every week.  The Pope goes to confession regularly, and so do the priests and brothers you know.

So the Lord God in Lent, this season of repentance, invites us to admit our sins, big or little—disrespect for parents, picking on siblings, cheating, lies, theft, impure thoughts or actions, missing Sunday Mass, laziness, abusive language (we heard an example in the gospel).

Whatever our sins, God says if we’re sorry and do our best to turn away from them and practice virtue, then we “shall surely live.”  “With the Lord is kindness and plenteous redemption; he will redeem Israel”—and us—“from all their iniquities” (Ps 130:7-8).

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[1] Introducing the dream of the 2 columns, BM 7:107.

Homily for Thursday, 1st Week of Lent

Homily for Thursday
1st Week of Lent

Feb. 25, 2026
Est C: 12, 14-16, 23-25
Ps 138: 1-3, 7-8
Matt 7: 7-12                                      
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R. 

Esther pleads before the king
(Church of the Holy Cross, Champaign, Ill.)

The Scriptures today obviously concern prayer.  Esther prays desperately that the Lord deliver her people from an unscrupulous, deadly enemy.  Jesus assures us of our Father’s desire to provide “good things to those who ask him” (Matt 7:11).

In another place, Jesus speaks of the Holy Spirit as the great gift the Father wants to bestow (Luke 11:13).  The Spirit forges our union with both Jesus and the Father, that is to say, effects grace in our lives, works our redemption.  Whoever asks for this gift will receive it (7:8), for God’s eager to give (7:11).

In Ps 138 we’re confident that “the Lord will complete what he has done for [us]” (v. 8).  He will build up in us the strength (v. 3) to resist our enemy, the enemy more fierce and dangerous than Haman, Esther’s nemesis, so that we may stay close to Jesus and “be enabled to live according to [God’s] will” (Collect) and come in God’s good time to “worship at [his] holy temple and give thanks to [his] name” for eternity (138:2).

"St. Francis, Witness to the Flourishing of Those Who Trust in Christ"

“St. Francis, witness to the flourishing of those who trust in Christ”
Cardinal Fernandez Artime Preaches in Assisi

Photo ©: "San Francesco d’Assisi" Facebook Page

(ANS – Assisi – February 24, 2026) – For the first time in history, on the occasion of the 8th centennial of the death of St. Francis, the mortal remains of the Poor Man of Assisi are being displayed for the veneration of the faithful. Already 400,000 pilgrims have booked to pay homage to him, taking advantage of this special occasion, scheduled for only one month, from February 22  to March 22.

On Sunday, therefore, the inaugural act of this special event took place, with a solemn Eucharistic celebration presided over by Salesian Cardinal Angel Fernandez Artime, rector major emeritus and currently pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

“Do we want to live according to the logic of self-sufficiency and power, or according to the logic of trusting obedience to God?” is the question that the cardinal invited us to ask ourselves during Lent, drawing inspiration from the liturgical readings, which presented the two figures of Adam and Christ: the former representing man who gives in “to the temptation to become God without God,” the latter “the Son who entrusts himself totally to the Father.”

In this light, St. Francis, not coincidentally remembered in history as alter Christus for his radical following of Jesus, becomes a beacon capable of illuminating the path: as the son of a wealthy merchant, he could have lived according to worldly dynamics, and in fact he had begun to do so; but then, in the silence of imprisonment and defeat, “he heard another voice.” It was a voice that affirmed that true freedom lies in entrusting oneself and in service, rather than in possession and domination.

Returning to the gospel passage of the day, that of Jesus’ temptations in the desert, Cardinal Fernandez Artime examined one by one the pitfalls that any man or woman may encounter on their spiritual journey: turning stones into bread, or “using God to solve our needs”; throwing oneself from the temple, that is, “seeking success, the sensational”; receiving all the kingdoms of the world, that is, “choosing power, but worshipping the evil one.”

St. Francis, the cardinal observed, was not immune to these temptations, but he knew how to choose differently, preferring smallness to pride, poverty to accumulation, obedience to self-sufficiency. In short, he chose “to worship God alone,” and in this way, overcoming temptations with God’s grace, he also obtained the strength “to open himself to others.”

With his human parable, the Salesian cardinal observed, St. Francis bears witness not to extraordinary heroism, but to the “flowering of those who trust in Christ,” because he did not redeem himself through a display of strength, but “allowed himself to be saved by God.” For this reason, 800 years after his death, his figure is still able to speak – not of himself, but rather of Christ and the “superabundance of grace.”

Finally, the prelate dwelt on the value of this exposition – more than a simple exercise in memory with a “nostalgic gaze” on what has been, but rather “a strong and concrete invitation” to respond to the questions of the present: “What is my desert? What temptation dwells within me? Where does the Lord ask me to take a step of faith?”

Francis of Assisi died on the night between October 3 and 4, 1226, at the Porziuncola, at the age of 44. He wanted to be laid to rest on the bare earth, in absolute poverty. His holiness was so evident that he was recognized and proclaimed as such by Pope Gregory IX less than two years later, on July 15, 1228. After his death, St. Francis’s body was carefully preserved and the basilica dedicated to him was built to protect his remains. So carefully protected that, over the centuries, almost all trace of it was lost. It was Pius VII who, in 1818, ordered the excavations that brought to light the stone coffin, which normally resides in the crypt of the basilica, after 52 nights of work.

The display of St. Francis’s remains, a unique event in 800 years of history, is one of the most significant gestures designed to pay homage to this saint, who has been admired over the centuries by believers of other religions and non-believers alike. Today, his message of universal love for God, Lady Poverty, and all creatures is universally appreciated and recognized as key not only to spiritual development and individual growth, but also as seeds of development for cultivating authentic humanity and brotherhood among peoples.

To view the remains of St. Francis, reservations are required and can be made here: https://sanfrancescovive.org/prenotazione/  

Homily for Tuesday, Week 1 of Lent

Homily for Tuesday
1st Week of Lent

Feb. 24, 2026
Is 55: 10-11
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.

Creation of the sun, moon, stars, and planets
(Sistine Chapel)

“Thus says the Lord:  My word … shall achieve the end for which I sent it” (Is 55: 10-11).

The Lord has spoken a word of redemption to Israel in ch. 40-55 of Isaiah, the prophecies of so-called 2d Isaiah.  Israel shall be set free from exile in Babylon and return home to Judah.  You can be sure of it because what God speaks unfailingly happens.  “In the beginning God said, ‘Let there be light, and there was light” (Gen 1:1,3), and so he continued thruout the history of our salvation.

The 2 verses that precede today’s reading contrast God’s thoughts with our human thoughts, God’s ways with our ways.  You know the passage:  “My thoughts aren’t your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways.  As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (55:8-9).  Our ways aren’t always ways of salvation, but too often of resentment or malice, nor our words words of healing.  Human words often aren’t true, human promises often aren’t kept—not only by politicians but often enuf by us, too. 

But God means what he says.

And right before those 2 contrasting verses, the Lord urged the wicked and the scoundrel to forsake their ways and their thoughts, that he might have mercy on them, for God’s abundant in mercy.  That’s God’s word for Lent, God’s effective word, his word that achieves his purpose.

He shall achieve the end for which he sent forth his Word, the Word that became flesh and dwelt among us, that he might save us from our sins and give us eternal life (cf. John 3:16).  So we’re filled with hope.  This is God’s will, and what he wills, he does.

Pope Leo Visits Salesian Parish in Rome

 

The Pope meets with the Salesian community (@Vatican Media)

(Our friend Fr. Gabriel is in the back row, a little left of center.)

Pope to Salesians: Continue your service in areas of poverty and war

After celebrating Mass at the basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Castro Pretorio neighborhood in Rome, Pope Leo XIV met with members of the community founded by Saint John Bosco, to whom the parish is entrusted, expressing appreciation for their service towards young people, especially foreigners.

By Edoardo Giribaldi, Vatican News

“As a young man, before entering the Augustinians, I also visited the Salesian community. You came in second place — I’m sorry!”

Pope Leo’s “confession” to the members of the community founded by St. John Bosco was welcomed with laughter, as he addressed them during his visit to the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Castro Pretorio neighborhood in Rome on Sunday, February 22.

He expressed his appreciation for their service in many parts of the world, “where there is war, where there is conflict, where there is poverty, where Jesus wants to be present.”

A closeness “of Christ and of the Church” that also takes concrete shape on the streets of Rome, in its “heart,” through the charity activities promoted by the parish’s parish council.

His meeting with the religious community and the parish council were the two concluding moments of the Pope’s pastoral visit to the parish located just a few steps from the Termini Train Station. Cardinal Baldo Reina, vicar general of Rome, was also present.

The Pope greets some of the faithful (Vatican Media)

The “unwritten signs” of charity

It was thanks to the commitment of the St. John Bosco, inspired by the wishes of two Popes, Pius IX and Leo XIII, that the basilica was able to be built. After a greeting by Fr. Fabio Attard, Rector Major of the congregation, the Pope spoke. He drew inspiration from the lectern opened at the ambo, where a verse from Chapter 20 of the Gospel of John was displayed, mentioning the “many other signs” performed by Jesus “that are not written in this book.”

“You are part of, you are the expression of, one of these signs not written in the book, but written in the heart of Jesus: even today you continue this very important service in many parts of the world, even where there is war, where there is conflict, where there is poverty, where Jesus wants to be present,” the Pope highlighted.

Support for “the least in the Kingdom”

The Pope also underlined the richness of closeness and charisms that the Salesian family has: “this service to young people, this love for educational ministry, so many expressions that you live out in many countries around the world.”

The Holy Father went on to describe as “great” the opportunity to celebrate their common faith together, feeling close to “the least in the Kingdom.” In Castro Pretorio these are for example the young people — not only Italians — who can access services such as Italian language classes.

“Earlier I told the teacher that I would also join his Italian classes, which can always help!” he joked.

The Pope meets with the parish council (@Vatican Media)

The “heart” of Jesus and of the city

The Pope then met with the parish council of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. After asking for applause for the pastor, Fr. Javier Ortiz Rodriguez, the Pope highlighted how the church represents a “home” for the “river of pilgrims who pass every day through Termini.” The “heart” of the city and the “Heart of Jesus” merge, he said.

He echoed the same words used by the priest at the end of the Mass. “It is truly beautiful to live this spirit not only of the heart of a city, but of the Heart of Jesus, which is always full of love and mercy,” he emphasized.

“A mercy that is expressed in so many services, so many forms of charity, of welcome, accompaniment, of the closeness of Christ, the closeness of the Church to all these people.”

“Walking together”

Expressing hope for further opportunities to meet in the future, Pope Leo noted that the parish council and the educational and pastoral community in the Salesian spirit, has a “synodal” nature in its etymological meaning of “walking together.”

“And so you, who represent many sectors, many communities, many realities of this parish, gathered here together, working together, also represent this beautiful dimension of ecclesial life, of the life of the Church,” he said. “Thank you for all that you do.”

More details from Vatican News about the Pope's visit here.

Coverage from ANS here and here.

  

Homily for 1st Sunday of Lent

Homily for the
1st Sunday of Lent

Feb. 22, 2026
Matt 4: 1-11
Villa Maria, Bronx
Our Lady of the Assumption, Bronx
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx

The 3 Temptations of Christ
(Botticelli)

“At that time Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil” (Matt 4: 1).

“That time” is immediately after Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan River.  The Spirit that leads him into the desert is the same Spirit that descended on him at the Jordan (Matt 3:16).

Why would the Spirit lead him “into the desert to be tempted by the devil”?  It’s been suggested that being alone in the wilderness focused Jesus’ attention on his Father thru prayer and silence.  We might look at the temptations as assuring us of Jesus’ humanity.  Even tho the Spirit leads him, he’s still one of us.

St. Augustine comments on this:  “If in Christ we were tempted, in him we overcome the devil.  Do you think only of Christ’s temptations and fail to think of his victory?  See yourself as tempted in him, and see yourself as victorious in him.  He could have kept the devil from himself; but if he were not tempted he could not teach you how to triumph over temptation.”[1]

I know something about temptation, and you do too.  We might wish we didn’t have to deal with temptations.  But then we wouldn’t be any different than the geese that infest our ballfield—unthinking, instinct-driven, and hardly what we think of as images of God.  The Scripture assures us that we are images of God—with intelligence and free will.

The devil tells Jesus to turn stones into bread.  He should use his power to satisfy his own needs.  Often at meditation or during Mass, my thought turns to breakfast—not what I ought to be thinking about just then.  It’s a temptation to turn me away from my spiritual life, away from the Word of God or the Eucharist to shredded wheat.  It’s a poor exchange!

The devil urges Jesus to test God’s power to save him if he should act recklessly.  We Salesians are trained to say a prayer as we begin a car trip, and many of us pray the Rosary as we motor along.  But prayer doesn’t dispense us from paying attention to the road, nor allow us to put all the burden on our Blessed Mother, St. Christopher, or our guardian angels.  Nor should our confidence in God’s assistance induce us to put ourselves in any kind of moral or physical danger.

The devil offers Jesus all the power and glory of the world if he will worship him.  Just the other day, a friend of mine told me about a time when he was at a casino playing the slots, and a guy next to him was losing quarters hand over fist, then exclaimed, “I’d worship the devil if I could hit a jackpot here!”  My friend got away from there fast.

There are people who go that route—engaging in Satanism, witchcraft, and various dark arts.  God help them!  Most of us wouldn’t do that.  But how often do we sell ourselves out, not directly to the Evil One but to something less than God:  to leisure, to pleasure, to the pursuit of wealth, to some political leader or entertainment idol, to some ideology (like racism, nationalism, or sexism), or to our own ego—in the form of gossip, criticism, passing judgment, or arrogance?

Oh, we know about temptation!  So does Jesus.  And he shows us that we can turn temptation away and serve God alone. 

St. Paul teaches that “death came to reign” over all human beings, including Jesus, because of Adam’s sin.  But Jesus, after suffering the effect of sin, namely death, by his obedience to the Father has won for all of us sinners “acquittal and life” (Rom 5:18).  He has obtained forgiveness and grace for us after we’ve fallen for Satan’s lies.  “The many will be made righteous” (5:19), made holy and pleasing to God by the Spirit bestowed on us in Baptism, confession, and the Holy Eucharist.  And those made righteous by this gift of Jesus will “come to reign in life” (5:17), eternal life, with Jesus.

[1] Commentary on the Psalms, on Ps. 60, 3, in LOH 2:88.

St. John Paul II Visits Sacro Cuore

Pope St. John Paul II Visits Sacro Cuore
The Living Memory of Don Bosco

(ANS – Rome – February 19, 2026) – On Sunday, November 29, 1987, the First Sunday of Advent, Pope John Paul II made a pastoral visit to the basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (Sacro Cuore) in the Castro Pretorio neighborhood of Rome. Nearly 40 years later, that visit remains a moment of strong theological and ecclesial significance: a papal rereading of Don Bosco’s Roman foundation in the light of Advent, communion, and mission. On that day, John Paul II placed Sacro Cuore within the broader history of salvation, the vitality of the Salesian charism, and the Church’s urban mission at the heart of Rome.

Advent and the “God of Continual Coming”

Preaching within the Advent liturgy, the Pope reflected on humanity’s longing for God, echoing the Psalmist’s plea: “Visit this vine.” Drawing from Isaiah, he presented God as both Creator, who shapes humanity like clay, and as the One who “goes out to meet” those who practice justice. In a striking phrase, he described the Lord as the “God of continual coming.” Humanity lives in the tension between the already and the not yet: in Christ, God has already entered history, yet the fullness of his coming is still awaited. The Church therefore stands vigilant in history.

This vigilance is not passive. Taking up the Gospel command “Stay awake” (Mark 13:33), John Paul II warned against the “hardness of heart” that leads people to live as if God did not exist. The essential question he posed to the parish was clear: Are we allowing ourselves to be reached by the God who comes?

Sacro Cuore: Don Bosco’s Final Work

From the liturgy, the Pope moved to historical memory. Sacro Cuore, desired by Leo XIII and built through the dedication of Don Bosco in the final years of his life, is more than a parish church. It is now the mother church of the Salesian Society (Salesian world headquarters) and Don Bosco’s last great work.

John Paul II offered a symbolic reading of its architecture. After the unification of Italy, the Church was lengthened—an image of fraternity extended horizontally across space and time. Later, in 1929, former pupils raised the top of the building with the statue of the Redeemer—an image of vertical transcendence and of the Fatherhood of God.

Through the mystery of the Heart of Christ, Sacro Cuore is called to be a “house of brothers” because it is first a “house of the Father.” Its theological center defines its pastoral mission.

Mission at a Crossroads

Situated across the street from Rome’s Termini station, the parish stands at a crossroads of cultures, hopes, and social challenges. Even in 1987, the surrounding area was marked by constant movement, migration, and complexity.

The Pope described the mission as both “sublime and difficult.” The parish was called to serve the Heart of Christ by seeking out the concrete hearts present in its territory. Liturgy, catechesis, youth ministry, and works of charity were not separate initiatives but expressions of a single missionary communion, in harmony with the diocesan vision of a “communion and missionary community.”

He encouraged parish groups not to be passive but courageous and creative in rebuilding the social fabric with deeply human and Christian motivations.

Fidelity to Don Bosco’s Charism

Particular attention was given to the proximity of Termini station, described as a “magnet” for social difficulties but also for opportunities for good. No parish could respond alone, the Pope acknowledged, and he praised the collaboration with diocesan and civil institutions.

Among the initiatives highlighted were the Don Bosco reception center for young foreigners, assistance for marginalized persons, neighborhood committees, pastoral care for migrant communities, and the constant and steady ministry of confession.

In these concrete works, John Paul II recognized the living continuity of Don Bosco’s charism. Openness to migrants, youths in transit, and the poor was not an adaptation to circumstances but fidelity to Salesian identity. Sacro Cuore thus embodied the vision of a parish as a “communion of communities.”

Marian Horizon and Ecclesial Responsibility

The visit took place during the Marian Year (1987–1988), proclaimed in preparation for the Great Jubilee of 2000. The Pope entrusted the parish to Mary, invoked as Alma Redemptoris Mater, encouraging the faithful to follow her path of faith in order to remain close to Christ, who continually comes to meet humanity.

Nearly 4 decades later, the 1987 visit stands not as a nostalgic memory but as a pastoral program. John Paul II reread Don Bosco’s Roman foundation as a theological sign: the Heart of Christ beating at the center of a restless city.

The Advent call still resounds: “Stay awake.” Do not let the heart grow hard. Allow yourselves to be reached by the God who continually comes. Sacro Cuore remains a living sign—lengthened in fraternity, raised toward transcendence, and rooted in the Heart that seeks every human heart.

Homily for Saturday after Ash Wednesday

Homily for Saturday after Ash Wednesday

Feb. 21, 2026
Collect
Provincial House, New Rochelle, N.Y.

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At the end of his little book The Living Reminder (pp. 77-78), Henri Nouwen retells an old rabbinic tale about the rabbi who

was weary of threatening sinners with the wrath of Yahweh … and of comforting the meek with his goodness.  And so, deserting his synagogue, he set off on his wanderings in disguise.  He came to an old woman who lay dying in her drafty hovel.  “Why was I born,” asked the old woman, “when as long as I can remember, nothing but misfortune has been my lot?”  “That you should bear it,” was the disguised rabbi’s reply, and it set the dying woman’s mind at rest.  As he drew the sheet over her face, he decided that from then on, he would be mute.  On the third day of his wanderings, he encountered a young beggar girl, carrying her dead child on her back.  The rabbi helped to dig the grave; shrouding the tiny corpse in linen, they laid it in the pit, covered it up, broke bread, and to the beggar girl’s every word the rabbi answered with gestures.  “The poor thing got nothing, never pleasure nor pain.  Do you think it was worth his being born?”  At first the rabbi in disguise made no move, but when the girl insisted, he nodded.  Thereupon he decided to be deaf as well as dumb.  He hid away from the world in a cave.  There he met no one, only a ferret.  Its foot was hurt, so the rabbi bound it with herbs; whereupon the ferret brought him tasty seeds.  The hermit prayed, the tiny beast wiggled its nose, and the two grew fond of one another.  One afternoon a condor plummeted from a great height, and as the ferret was basking in the sun at the mouth of the cave, carried it off before the rabbi’s eyes.  At that, the rabbi thought to himself that it would be better if he closed his eyes too.  But since—blind, dumb, and deaf—he could do nothing but wait for death, which, he felt, it was not seemly to hasten, he girded his loins and returned to his congregation.  Once again, he preached to them on the subject of good and evil, according to Yahweh’s law.  He did what he had done before and waxed strong in his shame.

The Scriptures are full of stories like that, stories wherein the weak become strong, the outcasts become accepted, the younger sons become the heirs.  Cain cries to God for help after being sentenced to a fugitive’s life and is given a protective mark.  Abraham humbles himself to beg for the lives in Sodom and receives the lives of Lot’s family.  Jacob the younger supplants Esau the elder and outwits Laban the crafty.  Moses overcomes the might of Egypt and liberates his people.  Little David clobbers Goliath.  Prophets constantly defend the poor of the Lord and chasten the nobility.  Against all odds, the Maccabees hold at bay the Seleucid empire.  Jesus calls a bunch of farmers and fishermen from the villages and beaches of Galilee to preach his kingdom while the proper Pharisees and scribes shake their fingers and mutter under their collective breath.  Saul hears the Word of God only when knocked onto his gluteus maximus.  The Gentiles are called to salvation without having to become Jews first.  It’s all kind of like that strange day when Lord Cornwallis had to admit Washington had checkmated him at Yorktown, and as his legate surrendered, the imperial band could contrive only one tune: “The World Turned Upside Down.”

The Surrender at Yorktown
(Jonathan Trumbull)

Lent invites us to turn our world upside down—or, rather, to let the power of God do it for us.  For what runs more contrary to our inclinations than the theme of today’s liturgy?  to admit our weakness and our need for God to stretch forth to us the right hand of his compassion.

The meaning of Lent is metanoeite, change your mind, change your heart; turn around, repent.  Take a look at who you really are, quit pretending to be self-sufficient, a just observer of some moral code.  Admit your frailty before God and your brothers.  Admit your need to be saved by God’s loving power.

Our readings this morning present alternate religious outlooks.  Isaiah, Third Isaiah if you’re keeping count, tells his post-exilic community that if they’ll stop being laws unto themselves—pointing fingers, doing their own pleasure on the sabbath—then he’ll make them a watered garden, a strong city, a shining light.  He’ll make them strong if they’ll admit they need his strength.

Jesus eats with tax collectors and sinners
(Alexandre Bida)

Luke gives us “healthy” Pharisees and “sick” tax collectors.  We know who feasts with Jesus in a foretaste of the eschatological banquet (5:27-32).

We come to Lent now with the chance to turn ourselves upside down.  That requires a reflective disposition for self-knowledge, something offered to us by our daily reflections on the Scriptures, the book Mike has provided for us, and the Stations of the Cross.  It requires of us the inner and even the outer humility to admit our weakness and ask for grace. 

Something I read yesterday[1] offered a good explanation of humility:  “Humility, as a disposition, makes us focus on our limitations and shortcomings, in a healthy way.  Humility, rightly experienced, disposes us to recognize that we need help, be it horizontally through cooperation and mutual endeavor, or vertically, by acknowledging that we are not, in fact God.  That is the disposition that brings us together, fires our instincts to unite, and reach for something more than and outside of ourselves.”

So, brothers, we pray for one another to our Physician-Savior that he bestow his healing power on us so that, like St. Paul, persecutor and apostle, and Henri Nouwen’s rabbi we too can wax strong in our shame.

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[1] Ed Condon, The Pillar, 2/20/26.