For the past few years, Bishop Medley has made it his mission to travel to the home countries of international priests serving in the Diocese of Owensboro to express his gratitude to their families, their communities, and their bishops and superiors.
We have been discussing the plans and process for the Synod on Synodality for so long that some might assume it has come and gone. In fact, though, a new phase of the synod is continuing this month.
Pornography is not a topic most adults are comfortable speaking about. This is especially the case when it comes to parents addressing it with their children. Unfortunately, it’s the topic that’s becoming more and more necessary to address in our digital age.
The Diocese of Owensboro was established on Dec. 9, 1937, when the 32 westernmost counties of the Commonwealth of Kentucky were separated from the Diocese of Louisville.
As we look ahead to just the next few weeks in the liturgical calendar of the Catholic Church, we might be struck by prominence of the veneration of Mary reflected on these days. Over a period of about six weeks there are at least six feasts associated with Mary – some major, some lesser known.
After the Nashville school shooting of a few weeks ago that saw six people, including three nine-year-olds, die, I began to consider writing my next article for The Western Kentucky Catholic on the subject of gun violence. I had done some research and begun to organize the article in my mind. As I sat at my desk to write on Easter Monday morning, my phone alerted me to the first reports of a mass shooting at a workplace in downtown Louisville.
As April begins we are within sight of the last days and hours of Lent. Palm Sunday is April 2, so Holy Week is here and Easter but days away. The heart of our observance of Holy Week is the Sacred Triduum, when the Church “solemnly celebrates the greatest mysteries of our redemption, keeping by means of special celebrations the memorial of her Lord, crucified, buried, and risen.” (From the Roman Missal)
When it comes to the Church’s liturgy and practice, most of us associate the month of March with Lent. Ash Wednesday has usually fallen in February, so by March we are well-practiced in our pledges of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. And, after all, apart from our religious life, March usually begins to show us some sustaining glimpses of winter’s end and spring’s beginning.
February 2nd is the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord.
We often speak of some very good things as “well-kept secrets,” meaning some things very positively notable are not well known or observed at all. Perhaps we might even say the Gospel of Jesus Christ in its fullness is too often a well-kept secret.