“Seeing you gathered here, my brothers and sisters, heirs to France’s long and beautiful history of faith, I say to you: drink from the source that is the pierced heart of Jesus. Yes, you thirst for God, for life, for truth, for unity, for peace, for communion and for happiness,” the pope said in his homily.

People waved flags and joyfully sang hymns as Pope Leo arrived in the popemobile in the Place de la Concorde, the largest public square in the city of Paris.

Parisians told OSV News that they waited hours, at times under drizzling rain, for their chance to attend Mass with the pope.

Sixteen-year-old Lea Mortier from Lille, France, traveled to Paris with her mother and some friends and waited more than five hours in the Place de la Concorde for what she described as a once in a lifetime chance to attend Mass with the pope.

“It’s so wonderful. It just can happen only once in your life–so it’s amazing for us,” she said, adding that since she was a little girl, she “grew up with Christ.”

Six of the altar servers with Down syndrome assisted at the papal Mass, a poignant witness to life in the capital of a country where 68% of prenatal diagnoses of Down syndrome end in abortion, according to a 2020 study published in the European Journal of Human Genetics.

Liliane, a mother of three girls–Ella, 8, Brielle, 5, and 13-year-old Francesca, a child with multiple disabilities.

“We came to pray, especially for my daughter, who is ill,” she said, grateful the hospital provided invitations for the papal Mass. “We’re happy to be here, there’s quite a crowd. It’s my first time attending Mass with the Pope alongside my daughters,” she told OSV News.

From the square, Pope Leo urged the people gathered to look within their hearts and ask, “What is my deepest thirst? What am I really seeking in life?” adding, “we all long for happiness, love and fulfillment, but from what source do we seek to quench our thirst?”

“It is Jesus Christ, through his Incarnation, who comes to meet every person in the midst of his or her own story, and reveals himself as the true source of living water capable of quenching our thirst,” Pope Leo said.

“This thirst that dwells in every human heart is not so much a thirst for material things, but a thirst for meaning, for truth and fulfillment.”

The Place de la Concorde is steeped in history from the 3,300-year-old pink granite Egyptian obelisk at its center to two splendid palaces commissioned by King Louis XV. In one of them, Benjamin Franklin signed the treaty by which France ratified the independence of the new United States of America with King Louis XVI in 1778.

The square was also the site of much bloodshed during the French Revolution with more than 1,000 people beheaded by guillotine, including Queen Marie Antoinette, King Louis XVI, and later Maximilien Robespierre.

In this place of past suffering, Pope Leo said, “Brothers and sisters, we must acknowledge that nothing in this world can ever fully satisfy us.”

“When we think that our work is finished at last and our efforts have been rewarded, that inner emptiness often returns, deeper than before. And so, in an attempt to fill it, we may seek new pleasures, want to possess more and more things, or do everything we can to distract ourselves in order to numb that inner restlessness.”

Pope Leo underlined that it is Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, who “leads us, as a shepherd leads his sheep, to the source of happiness and peace.”

“He knows each one of us by name. Nothing about us is hidden from him–neither our secrets, nor our intentions nor our weaknesses. He searches the depths of our hearts.”

Nuns attend an open-air Mass led by Pope Leo XIV during his four-day apostolic journey to France, at the Place de la Concorde in Paris, Sept. 26. OSV News photo/Remo Casilli, Reuters

The Mass in Paris was the culminating event of Pope Leo’s two-day visit to the French capital.

Among those in the crowd was French artist Nicolas de Palmaert who was sketching the scene in the square live.

“There is a lot of energy, and that’s why it’s really important for me to describe this energy with my drawings. It’s not realistic. It’s a sensation, a personal sensation” that he wanted to share with others, he told OSV News.

Earlier in the day, the pope visited a Catholic charitable center dedicated to the assistance of refugees in the city’s Montmartre neighborhood and met with some of France’s newly baptized adult converts and catechumens.

“I think also of you, dear catechumens and newly baptized, who have begun the journey of faith, conversion and Christian initiation,” Pope Leo said, recalling the visit in his homily. “May you bear witness to those around you to the journey you are making, and inspire them to ask themselves questions as well.”

The theme of Pope Leo’s Sept. 25 to 28 apostolic journey to France is “That the world may have life” (Jn 6:51).

“From this beautiful city of Paris, I pray fervently that the living water of the Holy Spirit may flow throughout France,” Pope Leo said.

“Do not keep this faith in Jesus Christ to yourselves. Let it overflow, so that those you meet may be refreshed and their thirst satisfied,” he urged Parisians.

Following the Mass, the pope was taken directly to Paris’ Orly Airport to board a flight to Lourdes, the beloved Marian pilgrimage site in the southwest of France, where he will spend Sunday praying with the sick, celebrating Mass, meeting clerical abuse survivors, speaking to French bishops, and leading a candlelight rosary procession.

Pope Leo’s visit to France will conclude on Sept. 28 in the northeastern city of Metz with a meeting with European leaders in the birthplace of Robert Schuman, a statesman declared venerable by Pope Francis and known for his Franco-German reconciliation efforts after World War II, who is considered one of the founding fathers of European integration.

Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, a pro-prefect for the Holy See’s Dicastery for Evangelization and papal delegate, pronounced the Church’s declaration on Archbishop Sheen’s holiness of life and witness to Jesus Christ at a Sept. 24 Mass celebrated in The Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis.

To the applause of pilgrims, Cardinal Tagle described Archbishop Sheen as a “son of Illinois, son of the United States of America” and “indeed, son of the world.”

Hundreds of clergy, including dozens of bishops and cardinals, had processed into the arena for the Mass as choirs, accompanied by an orchestra, performed a succession of hymns. The priests’ vestments were embroidered with “JMJ,” Archbishop Sheen’s signature dedication to Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

The location had been selected by Archbishop Sheen’s home Diocese of Peoria, Illinois, to accommodate the number of pilgrims who arrived for the beatification and its surrounding events. Around 50,000 people were in attendance, according to organizers.

During a press conference a few hours prior to the Mass, Bishop Louis Tylka of Peoria said that almost every U.S. state and several additional nations were represented by pilgrims. A number of the faithful hailed from Italy, Poland and Brazil, he said.

Close to 90 bishops, some 1,000 priests, an estimated 1,600 men and women religious, and almost 250 deacons were present, added Bishop Tylka, who wore Archbishop Sheen’s pectoral cross. Among the concelebrating prelates was Archbishop Gabriele G. Caccia, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

The beatification–a papal act affirming an individual’s presence in heaven is worthy of belief–officially occurred between the liturgy’s Penitential Rite and the Gloria. Bishop Tylka made a formal request for Archbishop Sheen’s beatification to Cardinal Tagle.

A short biography of Archbishop Sheen, who was born in El Paso, Illinois, in 1895 and died in New York in 1979, was read by Archbishop Sheen’s great-nephew, Paul Cunningham, after which Cardinal Tagle proclaimed the apostolic letter from Pope Leo XIV declaring the beatification in Latin. Bishop Tylka then read the letter in English, as applause followed both.

With the papal decree’s public proclamation, Archbishop Sheen became formally counted among the Church’s “beati,” from the Latin word for “blessed.”

The Engstrom family talks after presenting the relic of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen during the beatification Mass for Archbishop Sheen Sept. 24, 2026, at The Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis. Blessed Sheen is remembered as one of the most influential and innovative evangelists in American history. OSV News photo/Bob Roller

James Fulton Engstrom–whose revival from stillbirth in 2010, attributed to Archbishop Sheen’s intercession, was formally declared the miracle that moved Archbishop Sheen to beatification–processed with his parents and siblings to present a major relic of Archbishop Sheen during the liturgy.

Enclosed in a special case called a reliquary, the relic is Archbishop Sheen’s mandible, or jawbone, chosen because it represents the archbishop’s tremendous gifts as an orator, teacher and evangelist.

As part of the beatification, a portrait of a haloed Blessed Fulton Sheen was also unveiled. In the image, he is notably holding a piece of chalk, which he famously used–along with a blackboard–during his Emmy-winning television show, “Life Is Worth Living.”

The image was also simultaneously unveiled in the Diocese of Peoria at the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception.

The first reading from the beatification Mass, Isaiah 52:7-10, was delivered in Spanish, with the second reading, 2 Corinthians 4:1-2, 5-7, proclaimed in Portuguese, while the Gospel taken from Mark 16:15-20 was proclaimed in English. The prayers of the faithful were offered in a variety of other languages, illustrating both the universal character of the Church and also the missionary mindset of Blessed Fulton J. Sheen, who served as the U.S. director for the Society for the Propagation of the Faith.

In his homily, Cardinal Tagle praised Archbishop Sheen as a “storyteller of Jesus” and “a “missionary who digs deep into the heart of the poor to meet Jesus there.”

The cardinal noted then-Bishop Sheen’s passionate advocacy for the poor during the Second Vatican Council. During the 1964 discussions on the document “Ad Gentes,” on the missionary activity of the Church, then-Bishop Sheen asked his brother bishops to “affirm” the notion of poverty and the bishops who came from poor and suffering parts of the Church.

“As only a wounded Christ could convert a doubting Thomas, so only a Church wounded by poverty can convert a doubting world,” he said.

Cardinal Tagle commended Archbishop Sheen for making genuine connections with the people he met and to whom he preached and ministered.

“The missionary evangelizer is blessed by the communion with persons and peoples, especially the poor and vulnerable, and this is communion in the name of Jesus Christ,” he said.

Cardinal Tagle shared how Archbishop Sheen told a friend, who asked why he became a priest, that he was called to share the Gospel and tell the story of Jesus.

“I never tire of telling it; I never tire of improving my telling of it. I love my calling,” Archbishop Sheen said, as Cardinal Tagle recounted.

In remarks after Communion, Bishop Tylka urged all attendees to pray for Archbishop Sheen’s canonization, leading them together in a prayer for that intention.

“It is God who has given the Church the extraordinary witness of the man we may now call Blessed Fulton J. Sheen,” he said.

Thanking the many prelates involved in the Mass, including Archbishop Mitchell T. Rozanski, whose archdiocese hosted the beatification, and representatives from the Archdiocese of New York, Diocese of Rochester and the Pontifical Mission Societies, Bishop Tylka noted, “Your presence today is a beautiful reminder that while Peoria is incredibly proud to call Fulton Sheen one of our own, he is a gift to the whole Church.”

Bishop Tylka also expressed his gratitude to Archbishop Sheen’s family, individuals and benefactors involved in preparations and liturgy, and the faithful who made the pilgrimage to attend the beatification.

“Fulton Sheen has left us a great legacy,” he said. “He fearlessly proclaimed the Gospel in challenging cultural times. He supported the Church’s missions throughout the world. He won tens of thousands of converts and preached to millions. His time of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament was the source of his insight into the Son of God. He used every gift God gave him for one purpose: to bring people to Christ. And his legacy is now ours.”

Following the Mass, attendees were invited to remain in prayer to venerate Archbishop Sheen’s relics.

“I entrust you to the intercession of Mary and of St. Pier Giorgio Frassati, a young sportsman like you who, in love with Jesus, together with many friends, knew how to translate the values of sport into a good and generous life, into a holy life,” the pope said.

At the Vatican Sept. 19, Pope Leo received the Italian athletes from the Special Olympics who took part in the 2025 Special Olympics World Winter Games in Turin.

The Special Olympics is an international organization that promotes sports for people with intellectual disabilities. It was founded in 1968 by Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the sister of U.S. President John F. Kennedy.

It operates in more than 190 countries and involves around 5 million athletes worldwide. Its official motto is: “Let me win. But if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt.”

The Holy Father began by expressing his joy at meeting with the delegation.

“As you know,” Pope Leo said, “I too am very fond of sport, and I am convinced of its great educational value, because it teaches people noble and authentic values.”

To take part in sports, the Holy Father recognized, means committing oneself seriously and working hard, and then sharing the fruits of one’s perseverance with loyalty, trust, openness, team spirit and courage.

“Our world,” he said, “is greatly in need of people who, like you, remind everyone of the true values of life; of men and women who, through their example, show that the path of sharing and love is the only path that truly leads to happiness and peace.”

The Holy Father recalled that sport is one of those “universal languages” that transcends cultural, social, religious and physical differences and succeeds in bringing people together.

With this sentiment, the pope thanked them for their presence, for the genuine joy they bring, and for the positive message they embody, while encouraging the athletes, coaches, officials, assistants and collaborators to continue their work with enthusiasm.

Pope Leo concluded by encouraging them to live holy lives and by imparting his apostolic blessing.

Archbishop Gregory J. Hartmayer, OFM Conv., celebrated the Mass, which brought together members of the Deo Gratias Society and Founders Society.

The Deo Gratias Society recognizes Catholics who have created a new fund at the Catholic Foundation, made a planned gift to a Catholic parish, school, organization, ministry or the archdiocese or contributed $5,000 or more over time to an endowment fund.

The Founders Society recognizes Catholics who support the long-term mission of the foundation through gifts to its endowment fund. Donors who contribute at least $5,000 over time to the Founder Endowment Fund are welcomed as new members.

Jackie Oddo, one of the newest members of the Deo Gratias Society, shakes hands with Archbishop Gregory J. Hartmayer, OFM Conv., during the reception at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church for members of the Deo Gratias Society of the Catholic Foundation. Photo by Julianna Leopold

The foundation works with Catholics who want to make a difference in their community through faith-inspired giving and legacy planning. It also manages endowment and donor-advised funds and distributes grants to parishes, schools and nonprofits.

During the 2024-25 fiscal year, the foundation shared in an annual report that it distributed more than $6.3 million in grants, bringing its total grants distributed throughout its history to $41 million. Yet, for the donors recognized at the Deo Gratias celebration, giving is about more than numbers. Their gifts reflect the people and ministries that have shaped their hopes for the Church’s future.

Bolstering vocations

For Patricia and Gus Trahan, the decision to establish an endowment supporting priestly vocations began as they were thinking about their own legacy.

The couple are parishioners of St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Smyrna, and they learned about the Catholic Foundation through an information session at Holy Trinity Church in Peachtree City. At the time, they were updating their estate plan and thinking about a lasting impact.

After deciding an endowment would be the best means of contributing, the two considered several areas of the Church that they could support. They landed on vocations.

“As we considered those areas, it became clear that the priesthood and the formation of priests was the heart of the matter,” Gus Trahan said. “The Eucharist is the center of the Catholic faith and belief. And to have the Eucharist, we must have good holy men called to the priesthood.”

Their concern for vocations also comes from watching the priests at their own parish serve.

The priests at St. Thomas, members of the religious order the Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette, are leaving in September due to a decline in discernment. As the archdiocese prepares to appoint new leadership, Trahan shared that this transition contributed to their decision.

“The priests of St. Thomas are wonderful examples of true servants of the Lord, and as we have watched our priests tirelessly serve our parish, you can see the joy they have in their vocation,” he said. “Our hope is that our gift will, in some small way, assist in this ongoing building of a stronger faith community under the guidance of our clergy.”

The pair hopes the fund will help make discernment and formation possible for future priests.

“We love the idea that someone, who perhaps could not otherwise go through the process, finds it possible to go through discernment to the religious life because of this endowment,” Gus Trahan said. “It would be an answered prayer.”

Putting faith into action

For Pat and Tom Dailey, their planned gift to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul stemmed from years of seeing faith put into practice.

Since moving to the Lake Oconee area 17 years ago, the couple have been parishioners of Christ Our King and Savior Church.

Ten years ago, Tom Dailey was approaching retirement and contemplating ways to give back to the community through ministries. He noticed that the Society of St. Vincent de Paul’s message at the time was about “putting your faith into action.”

“It really resonated with me,” Tom Dailey said, who at the time had experience in roles helping others, including serving as a case worker. “I was and am inspired every day by the dedication and sacrifice of my fellow Vincentians as they work with and care for our neighbors in need.”

Brent Herrin, left, and Matt Harris, former chairs of the Catholic Foundation’s Board of Directors, bless themselves with holy water as they leave the organization’s Deo Gratias Mass at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church. Photo by Julianna Leopold

The couple pointed to the society’s work in homelessness prevention, financial aid for utilities, food programs, free pharmacy and healthcare as critical parts to the safety net of care in local communities across Georgia, sharing that they believe “no other state or private agencies can do the work that the society does.”

The COKAS parishioners hope their planned gift to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul will ensure the ministry’s mission will grow and continue.

“We hope the thousands of Vincentians in Georgia will be able to continue to grow their spirituality through the work with our neighbors, and that our neighbors receive the help they need to move towards stability,” they said.

A lasting memorial and contribution

Jake Hegerty, new member of the Founders Society, is a parishioner of St. Brigid Church in Johns Creek. He teaches men in formation for the permanent diaconate in the Archdiocese of Atlanta.

Becoming a founder comes from both a long relationship with the Catholic Foundation and a desire to remember his late wife, Linda Hegerty.

Jake Hegerty first learned about the foundation years ago through an article published by The Georgia Bulletin. His wife suggested they make a gift through a charitable gift annuity, which they did.

The foundation stayed in touch with the couple, Jake Hegerty said, and the “personal interest in us and the broad work they do resonates deeply in my heart,” he said.

After his wife passed last year, Jake Hegerty wanted to create a lasting memorial to her through the foundation.

“I wanted to remember her perpetually via the foundation and the ongoing evangelizing they do,” he said. “I think Linda would be and is happy that we’ve created this endowment fund.”

Investing in the Church’s future

Matthew Gries came to the Catholic Foundation first as a lawyer, then as a board member. Now, he is supporting the foundation’s mission as a founder.

Gries is a parishioner at St. Benedict Church in Johns Creek. His involvement in the Church has included serving in religious education, the Knights of Columbus, parish finance committees, capital campaigns and liturgical ministries. He is currently in his fourth year of the archdiocese’s five-year permanent diaconate formation program.

In 2008, Gries was specializing in nonprofit law when the Catholic Foundation became one of his legal clients. After representation with the foundation ended in 2017, he joined the organization as a member of the Board of Directors.

“Because I have been involved with the foundation for so long, I have an insider’s view into the workings of the foundation,” he said. “It is a wonderfully run organization that does amazing work.”

Its work, Gries said, is about ensuring the stability of the archdiocese’s Catholic institutions for generations to come. That long-term perspective is personal for Gries, who grew up in Ohio and watched Catholic churches close because they could not afford to remain open.

That experience led him to think about what the Church might look like for his grandchildren and future generations.

Gries and his wife, Lori Gries, chose to support the Catholic Center at the University of Georgia along with the Catholic Foundation through their contribution. The two organizations have impacted their family greatly, Matthew Gries said.

“First, we chose to support the ongoing operations of the Catholic Foundation, for which I have great admiration because of my over 18 years of involvement,” Matthew Gries said. “We decided to support the Catholic Center at UGA because of the incredible impact it had on the faith journeys of our daughter and son-in-law while they were in college.”

At the Catholic Center, Matthew Gries said their daughter and son-in-law grew in their faith there, met one another and formed lifelong friendships.

“We wanted to support that mission for future generations of UGA students,” he said.

For Matthew Gries, becoming a founder is ultimately about helping build a Church that will remain strong for those generations.

“While it was an honor to be recognized at the Mass, being able to support the mission of the Catholic Foundation is really its own reward,” he said.

A family tradition of giving

Charitable giving is a family tradition for Del and Jamie Ross.

The Rosses are parishioners of Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Brookhaven. The parish is located across the street from their home, and it has been an integral part of their lives for six years.

Del Ross said that the couple’s approach to giving, however, began long before they joined the OLA community.

“Charitable giving was taught as a family value by my parents, who have led by example throughout our lives,” Del said. “We have done our best to instill the same values in our children.”

At the Deo Gratias Mass, Del and Jamie Ross were recognized for their donor advised fund. For years, the Ross family has funded this way to organize its charitable giving.

“Part of our annual Christmas tradition is for our family to select nonprofits we’d like to support for the upcoming year,” Del Ross said. “We have supported our children’s schools, St. Jude, Holy Redeemer and Marist, along with our parish, Catholic Charities of Atlanta, and many other organizations.”

This tradition was inspired by Del Ross’ parents. Years ago, rather than give their six children, their spouses and 13 grandchildren physical Christmas gifts, his parents asked each family member to nominate a charity or nonprofit to support and explain to the family why it was chosen.

His parents then donated to each of the nominated charities from their own donor advised fund.

“This was a profound example of giving that was both rewarding and inspiring,” Del Ross said. “We have followed this example and have found it to be a wonderful way to bring the family closer while helping others through our love and support.”

The Rosses hope their fund encourages others to give.

“If everyone commits fully to the fundamental safety, security and wellness of others, we can resolve most of the world’s challenges,” Del Ross said. “This starts with individuals and their families but ultimately requires everyone to do their part.”

The gifts celebrated at the Deo Gratias Mass and reception will take different forms and support different causes, but each reflects the donors’ desire to look beyond the recognition.

For these families, giving is a way to live their faith while helping build a stronger Catholic community for the generations that follow.

From the COVID pandemic to funding cuts, from admissions scandals and upheaval in athletics to anxiety about AI, the American college campus hasn’t seemed so fraught with crisis and controversy since the student uprising of the 1960s. 

Now more than ever the public is questioning the value of a college education. Rightfully, people want to know that they will earn a return on a substantial financial investment that results in more than crushing debt. This is a crisis that goes far beyond past arguments about co-ed dorms, student free speech, evaluations of teaching and grade inflation. In this current argument about value, people want visible results. If they don’t get them, they’re going to leave. Enrollments at four-year colleges are down across the country, especially at smaller private institutions, and more students are being drawn to the affordability and practicality of trade schools and pre-professional programs. 

I’ve been in academia for 35 years, and I’ve heard just about every buzz word and catch phrase that herald the advent of a new academic year, but I’ve never heard with such earnest pleading the insistence upon “career-readiness” as I have this fall semester. 

Whenever I’m worried about the state of human affairs in society, I do what any English professor does: I hide in my room for a bit and read, seeking answers in the literary truths I’ve professed for all my life. Lately, as I often do, I’ve been reading Chaucer. 

Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales” is a profoundly Catholic work even as it serves as a primer for life. It has two primary themes. One, people are defined not by what they do, but by who they are. And secondly, we should live wholeheartedly in the physical world while always remaining spiritually detached from it. 

I’ve written about “The Canterbury Tales” before in this space, once in a column from March 23, 2018, and again in a column on Sept. 21, 2020. Both essays are available at The Georgia Bulletin website, but I’ll give a brief sketch of the work here as well. 

Chaucer was a clerk in the English Court during the time of the French occupation and a time of great change in the English language. Chaucer’s decision to write “The Canterbury Tales” in vernacular English rather than French did much for the preservation of his native tongue. The Tales were composed near the end of the 14th century, probably between 1387-1400, but their appeal is timeless. 

The fundamental lessons 

The structure of The Canterbury Tales is simple, and entirely medieval in its organization and larger purpose. Twenty-nine pilgrims, in addition to Chaucer himself and the host Harry Bailey, have gathered at the Tabard Inn in Southwark to embark on a spiritual pilgrimage to the shrine of the martyred St. Thomas Becket at Canterbury. To pass the time, each pilgrim proposes to tell four stories—two on the way, and two on the return—that would have resulted in the composition of nearly 120 tales. The final work as we have it today contains only 24 tales, in addition to the brilliant General Prologue, but the sheer range of literary genres and characters that the tales contain represents one of the greatest achievements in English literature. 

The Library of Congress is home to this detail of the mural by Ezra Winter illustrating the characters in “The Canterbury Tales” by Chaucer. Photo by Carol M. Highsmith, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons

It may be overly idealistic, but I like to imagine that the college experience should be exactly like The Canterbury Tales. Consider first the pilgrims. They represent all the primary classes of medieval English life—the Church and its clergy and religious, the Crown and its chivalric code of manners, the growing merchant class, the trade guilds, representatives of the University and the medical and legal professions and the working class. Together, they constitute a cross section of the entire public, and the fact they have gathered in the pursuit of a common goal represents a realistic, insightful and comical portrait of the necessity for human community and communion. 

Consider also the pilgrims’ purpose. They are on a pilgrimage, a quest to find spiritual solace and meaning. Yet as sincere and reverent as they may be, few of them collapse into false piety. Instead, “The Canterbury Tales” is a celebration of human life; though the tales clearly reveal humanity’s faults and foibles, they also reveal the depth and potential all people possess. 

It’s not a stretch at all to imagine the 29 pilgrims, along with Chaucer and the Host, as being like a college classroom. In such a classroom, as in the tales, there are some fundamental lessons that should be learned. 

The first is that the experience should be a joy. The Oxford Student is described by Chaucer in the General Prologue as a model of eager charity: “Gladly would he learn and gladly teach.” The Canterbury Tales are full of laughter. Some of the comedy is bawdy, as in “The Miller’s Tale.”  Some is wise, like “The Wife of Bath’s Tale.” Some is also pragmatic and cautionary, as in “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale,” when we are admonished “May God greet with mischief the man who babbles when to hold his tongue were needful.” Almost every tale imparts a lesson, yet almost every tale also inspires laughter, reflection and contemplation. 

I still believe that college should be a life-changing transformative experience, not just a hapless trudge to earn a credential to get a job. College doesn’t so much teach us how to do something; it shows us why what we do matters. 

In the great Catholic intellectual, aesthetic and philosophical tradition all our creativity and all our inquiries point to a sense of vocation, and the Catholic understanding of vocation is very different than in the secular world. 

A vocation is not just a “job,” nor is it the elevated term “career.” A vocation implies a purposeful pursuit, like a pilgrimage, of work that unties body, mind, and spirit in service to the common good. An occupation is not necessarily a vocation, but it can be if it is viewed with imagination and a sense of spiritual purpose. 

Implicit within the idea that a college student should arrive at such an understanding is the crucial role of the teacher, whether a full professor or an adjunct instructor. Like Chaucer and the Host, and indeed like the tellers of the tales, the teacher has an obligation to engage, motivate and even learn from the listeners, or students. The First-Year Experience movement that swept campuses in the 1990s implored professors not to be “sages on stages,” but rather “guides at students’ sides.” It may sound sappy, but the slogan contains truth: students may respect knowledge, but they respond to passion. More than anyone else on campus, the faculty member in the classroom is the one who has the most influence regarding a student’s success. 

 The meaning of the experience 

“We had the experience,” T.S. Eliot writes in The Four Quartets, “but missed the meaning.”  Whether you are a college student yourself, or you know someone who is, I hope that in your college experience you have the time to think and discern not just a possible career, but also a more defined set of values and ideals. I hope you come to love learning for the sake of learning. I hope that even as you prepare for a successful future, you don’t lose sight of the priceless value of your education, for it is one of the only things that no one can take from you.  

The journey that the Canterbury pilgrims take doesn’t turn out like they expected, but then what in life ever does? Yet the pilgrimage changes them.  

Chaucer’s own journey came to an end in 1400, on Oct. 25 if one adheres to tradition, and he left “The Canterbury Tales” unfinished at his death. Likely aware that the work would be his last, Chaucer wrote a retraction to be placed at the end. Much of the retraction is like a deathbed confession, a contrite and perhaps overwrought apology for his life and art. It begins, “Here the maker of the book takes his leave: Now I pray to them all that listen to this little treatise or read it, that if there be anything in it that pleases them, that thereof they thank our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom proceeds all wit and all goodness. And if there be anything that displeases them, I pray them also that they blame it on the fault of my lack of skill.” 

Read one way, the retraction is like a goodbye; read another, it’s like the start of yet another journey. It’s much like college. You end with a beginning, a commencement. 

Set in Alabama, pilgrims spent Sept. 4-5 visiting EWTN Studios, St. Bernard Abbey and Ave Maria Grotto and the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament.

The pilgrimage began with a visit to EWTN Studios in Irondale, where Mother Angelica founded the Eternal Word Television Network in 1981. Pilgrims attended a televised Mass and a guided tour of the studios.

“For many participants, walking through the studios was much more than a tour,” Umaña said. “It was a powerful reminder of what God can accomplish through faith, obedience and complete trust in Divine Providence.”

Umaña, host of EWTN’s “Gifts of Hope” series, offered reflections encouraging pilgrims to trust in God and persevere through life’s trials. She is a former professional tennis player from Costa Rica, speaker and author. After a neurological illness left her paralyzed, Umaña began sharing her testimony of faith and hope with Catholic audiences.

Pilgrims stand together during their visit to EWTN Studios in Irondale, Ala. The group traveled for a two-day pilgrimage to visit sacred sites and celebrate the Festival del Divino Niño. Photo courtesy of Paula Umaña

The group also visited St. Bernard Abbey in Cullman. The stop at the Benedictine monastery included a quiet setting for prayer and a spiritual reflection from Father Linus Klucsarits, OSB, prior of St. Bernard Abbey.

While at the monastery, the group visited Ave Maria Grotto, a four-acre hillside garden featuring miniature reproductions of famous churches, shrines and sacred places from around the world.

The Ave Maria Grotto invited pilgrims to appreciate the rich heritage of the Church while surrounded by trees, flowers and winding pathways.

On Sept. 5, the pilgrimage continued at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville, founded by Mother Angelica and dedicated to Eucharistic adoration.

The pilgrims then participated in the annual Festival del Divino Niño, a joyful celebration that brought together roughly 1,500 Catholics from Georgia, Alabama, Florida, North Carolina, Chicago and other communities.

The festival included Mass, prayer, music, a procession, children’s blessings, confession, adoration, spiritual talks and a healing service. Families gathered in an expression of faith and devotion to the child Jesus.

Umaña, one of the festival’s featured speakers, delivered a message encouraging families to approach Jesus with the humility, confidence and trust of a child.

“It was amazing to see people from Chicago, Florida, North Carolina and many other places together in our faith,” Juanita Cortinas, faith formation director at St. Joseph Church, said. “The Holy Spirit was definitely there.”

Umaña shared that what began as a short trip from Georgia became a profound experience of Catholic community and renewed faith.

“The pilgrimage demonstrated that families and parish groups do not have to travel across the world to encounter beautiful Catholic sacred places,” Umaña said.

To organize this pilgrimage with your family, parish or group, contact Umaña at PaulaSpeaker.com or paulaUmañaspeaker@gmail.com.

An explosion of clapping broke out, as he began listing my shortcomings. “She brags about how frugal she is,” he cackled. “But recently she succumbed to temptation and purchased 50 dollars’ worth of fancy make-up.”  

My face burned with shame, and my hands itched for the doorknob, but just like in that old song, “Hotel California,” there was no checking out of this room. Applause rippled through the crowd, and I wondered why they were cheering my wrongdoings. I took a look around and had my answer.  

There were bat-like creatures with speckled horns, winged beasts with jagged teeth, a plethora of dragons and a surplus of snakes. These satanic beings looked quite attentive, and some creatures were taking notes.  

A dragon now took the podium and smoke poured from his nostrils, as he thundered: “She worries about big things like nuclear war, but also trivial things like her car breaking down.” He nodded approvingly in my direction. “Worrying is wonderful because it shows a lack of faith.”   

I felt I should say something in my defense, so I raised my hand to explain that at least I was aware of the problem.  

“Sit down and shut up!” raged the dragon. “You’ll get your turn!”  

A snake wound itself around the microphone and pronounced gleefully: “She tends to be judgmental and criticizes people instead of looking at herself in the mirror.”  

Had I died and gone to hell? As I was wondering what my punishment would be, I noticed a scaly, lizard-like creature starting a PowerPoint presentation titled “The Fabulous Ripple Effect of Sins.”  

Evidently my grumpiness with the cashier had prompted her to berate the teenager bagging groceries. He in turn yelled at his little sister when he got home and she went to bed in tears.  

And was that really me taking string beans from my neighbors’ garden because “there were so many and no one would miss them?” Little did I know they were saving them for supper that night. Was that me falling asleep without praying because I’d been up late binge-watching detective shows?  

Suddenly, the computer crashed, the room erupted in curses—and I woke up in bed. It had just been a nightmare, thank God! At breakfast I hurriedly made my to-do list for the day with “go to confession” as the first item.  

Too often, I had postponed confession, but envisioning Satan’s minions reveling in my failures was a big motivator. After dressing in haste, I hurried to church, and somewhere in the distance I thought I heard growling and groaning, and cursing and cackling.  

In a universe far away, in a dark and dreary place, the demons had been foiled again. After all, they hate it when God in his infinite mercy gives us a second chance. 

This funding includes SAT and ACT preparation, tutoring, assistance with private high school fees and support for pre-college summer programs for students.

The grant also supports academic enrichment for Reach for Excellence middle school students. In addition to funding the program coordinator position, which improves communication with students and families, the three-year grant provides a permanent substitute teacher for the five-week summer sessions and funds a third-party evaluation.

The awarding of the $330,000 grant coincides with the 25th anniversary of Reach for Excellence. To enhance the middle school curriculum, the grant funds updates to the Reach Math, Data and Study Skills materials. It also provides SSAT preparation classes that low-income middle school students typically cannot access, which puts them at a disadvantage in private high school admissions.

Reach for Excellence is a 26-month, tuition-free educational enrichment program for Atlanta area low-income middle school students. Reach focuses on preparing students for college-preparatory high school programs that will keep them on the path to college and beyond.

This devotion invites Catholics to spend nighttime hours in prayer and eucharistic adoration. It is practiced nationally and globally, and many parishes in the archdiocese participate within their own groups.  

On Aug. 29, an archdiocesan council of the National Nocturnal Adoration Society was installed during a Mass at the Cathedral of Christ the King to represent adorers in the archdiocese.  

Bishop Bernard E. Shlesinger III celebrated the Mass. Members of the society filled the Atlanta church, participating with joy as they sang and prayed together. Several carried the group’s flags during the celebration. 

An altar server carrying a gold and silver crucifix leads the eucharistic procession on the streets of Buckhead as a sea of NNAS Society flags and members followed behind. The procession followed an Aug. 29 Mass. Photo by Julianna Leopold

The Mass was followed by an outdoor procession around the cathedral. Bishop Shlesinger carried the Blessed Sacrament as members followed, singing as they walked. 

The day included talks by Father John Thomas Lane, SSS, a national adviser to the Society of Nocturnal Adoration, and Carmen Rosado, president of the archdiocesan council.  

For Rosado, the installation represents a new chapter for the ministry of nocturnal adoration. 

“We have been here in the Archdiocese of Atlanta for many years,” she said. “This installation is very important to us because there will now be a solid group that will be supporting the archdiocese.”  

The new council is one of several apostolic groups present in the archdiocese. Groups that are installed establish a core team to coordinate their activities across participating parishes. The archdiocesan council will include Rosado as president, Rolando Ortiz as vice president and Father Juan Carlos Villota Viteri, pastor of St. Paul the Apostle Church in Cleveland, as spiritual director.  

Rosado said that the team will help affiliated groups work together and support parish leaders. Since several parishes practice nocturnal adoration, Rosado hopes the council will encourage unity, she said.  

“We can belong to different parishes and have different customs or ways of working,” she said. “But there is something much greater that unites us, which is our faith in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist and our love for eucharistic adoration.”  

Nocturnal adoration draws from Jesus’ invitation to his disciples to keep watch with him in the Garden of Gethsemane before his crucifixion.  

Members of the National Nocturnal Adoration Society kneel in prayer at the August installation Mass for the group’s council. Photo by Julianna Leopold

Rosado said that members divide the night into shifts so that the Blessed Sacrament is always accompanied. Their prayer includes adoration, thanksgiving, petitions and reparations for offenses against God. Members use a prayer book associated with nocturnal adoration that includes prayers and elements of the Liturgy of the Hours. 

“We dedicate the night to prayer and contemplation in silence with Jesus in the Eucharist,” she said. “It is a time to adore, listen to the Lord and present our intentions and pray for the needs of the Church and the world.” 

Nocturnal adorers, said Rosado, pray for the Church, priests, vocations, families, young people and those who are suffering or have become distant from God.  

These intentions are what make nocturnal adoration so important for parish life, Rosado said.  

“A parish needs people of prayer,” she said. “It needs people who are willing to get on their knees before Jesus and pray not only for their own needs, but for the community.” 

For information about the National Nocturnal Adoration Society in the Archdiocese of Atlanta, contact NASConsejoarquidiocesanoatlga@gmail.com, or Carmen Rosado at 305-979-3294.  

Alessandra Alcoreza along with others served as a friendly face to visitors and fans downtown for the global sporting event. They greeted visitors, evangelized and distributed religious items, like rosary beads and prayer cards with St. Luigi Scrosoppi, patron saint of soccer.

Alcoreza said people were curious why a Catholic radio station had set up a booth in the middle of the World Cup festivities. “Countless visitors stopped, not because we had prizes or fans, but because they were grateful to see the Catholic Church present in the middle of everyday life,” she wrote in a reflection about the experience.

One of the most meaningful parts of the booth for her was the prayer box. Visitors wrote intentions for loved ones, health
concerns, prayers of thanksgiving and hopes known only to God, some with tears in their eyes, said Alcoreza.

After the World Cup ended, those intentions were remembered at Mass in the chapel at The Quest (AM 1160) studio in Roswell, she said.

She said the booth wasn’t about giveaways, rosaries or soccer. “It was about creating a place where people felt free to pause, pray, and remember that God is present in the midst of an ordinary day,” said Alcoreza.

The family referred to traveling out to the property as going to “the country.” For a teenage Bill Schroder, his grandmother’s home on the rural road was a place to explore, with deep woods, the Chattahoochee River nearby and a family swimming hole.  

In 1957, Suzanne Spalding Schroder gave her home and eight acres to the Jesuits of the New Orleans Province for the creation of a retreat house. On Dec. 18, 1960, one year after her death, the newly constructed retreat center was dedicated as the Suzanne Spalding Schroder Memorial that was to be known officially as the Ignatius Retreat House. 

Hidden among tall trees, drivers can easily miss the retreat center while passing along Riverside Drive north of Atlanta’s Interstate 285.  

The family’s gift continues to welcome thousands of retreatants to the parcel where those Sunday dinners were shared. Bill Schroder, now 85, called his grandmother a “very loving woman” who would “absolutely love” how her gift continues to invite people seeking God. 

“She was a very giving woman, and I think that what would appeal to her most is how outgoing the retreat center is now with its base of retreats, but also inviting in people of all faiths and other organizations to participate,” he said. 

A growing ministry 

The Ignatius House Jesuit Retreat Center is marking its 65th anniversary, while celebrating the latest campus addition, after a capital campaign that raised some $10.5 million.  

It has moved from a weekend facility into a year-round hub for spirituality. When Maria Cressler started in 2009 as the retreat center’s leader, Mondays through Thursdays were fairly quiet. Today, the center hosts some 78 retreats a year, close to double the number when she started, with events with nonprofits and other faith traditions filling out the calendar.  

“All Ignatius House does is facilitate an encounter with God. We do everything we can so that the conditions are ripe for you to connect with God,” she said.  

Retreatants can walk along the banks of the Chattahoochee River on the trails of the Ignatius House Jesuit Retreat Center in Sandy Springs to spend time in prayer and reflection. The center marks 65 years of offering retreats this year. Photo Courtesy of Ignatius House

Ignatius House has expanded its programming beyond the Catholic community to serve people of other faiths as well as those who consider themselves spiritual but not religious. 

“Silence is where we connect. The legacy moving forward is more needed, more necessary. That’s what we’re seeing as our numbers are growing, and we have more and more waiting lists for retreats,” she said. 

Weekend retreats in silence are its base. Among its offerings are retreats for men and women who are in recovery from addictions and military service members “to find comfort among fellow veterans.” Its Kitchen Curia vocational program teaches people living in homeless shelters all aspects of food service.  

“We put all this technology into the world to make our lives more free,” Cressler said. “We’ve made it such that we can’t get away from our work because people can get us at every minute, every moment of our life.” 

Maria Cressler, executive director of Ignatius House, holds a candle during the May blessing of The Upper Room, a new building for prayer and gathering offering views of the forest. Photo Courtesy of Ignatius House

New campus areas for prayer 

Today, a cluster of buildings is at the heart of the parcel, surrounded by a walking path that meanders through the property and along the riverbank, gardens and an overlook of a waterfall. 

A donation by the New Orleans Jesuit Province of $450,000 as well as from others paid for the original 1950s era brick residential building. A chapel and administrative building have been built since 2000.  

The Upper Room building is the campus’ newest addition, with its warm-colored stonework. The $5.2 million building is a new prayer and gathering space, with oversized windows filled with views of the forest canopy. 

Century-old trees were cleared for construction. An Atlanta artist transformed the reclaimed wood into permanent features, such as the fireplace mantel and several tables. The wood shows exposed lines and knots in the grain to reveal age and growth.  

As part of the project, the former administrative offices were refurbished for $165,000 for spiritual direction meeting rooms and to design the new Slow Faith Reading Room. 

For Cressler, the retreat center offers visitors the “luxury of boredom” with space to spread out, take in the solitude and rest.  

“Imagine just being there for a bit and letting God start to talk to you because lots of things happen when we allow that spirit to work in us,” she said.

This year, 45 fully stocked backpacks were donated to St. Vincent de Paul for distribution in July.

Thanks to the generosity of parishioners, supporters and Knights, each backpack was filled with essential school supplies, including notebooks, binders, paper, pencils, markers, crayons, glue sticks and calculators.

The backpacks will benefit 20 boys and 25 girls, helping students who are entering pre-kindergarten through the 12th grade.

Ministry volunteers held the Saturday event in a park offering fun activities for children including interacting with therapy dogs, playground time and arts and crafts. Health agencies, educational programs, food pantries, housing programs and other ministry partners participated to display their resources in a trade show-type setting.

Campus Catholics and other college students from Georgia College & State University lent helping hands to ministry leaders to staff the event.

“In helping our moms look at their future and the potential for themselves, many get back on track,” said co-organizer Mary Short.

Then-pastor Father Bryan Kuhr greeted all the families and offered a prayer of blessing.

Moms received tote bags for their swag from visiting agency representatives at the tables, and volunteers held a gift basket drawing.

The Milledgeville ministry, with the support of current pastor Father Paul Nacey, presented gift cards to moms of school age children to assist with the purchase of school supplies this fall. Families with children in pre-K through grade 5 served by WWMIN received a $30 gift card for each student.

Walking with Moms in Need is a nationwide, parish-based initiative to increase support for pregnant and parenting mothers in need. It works to ensure that any woman who finds herself unexpectedly pregnant, or parenting in difficult circumstances, can turn to her local Catholic Church and be connected with resources she needs. The campaign is promoted by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

Although the Atlanta high school on Courtland Street was demolished long ago, Barrett and fellow members of its Class of 1966 have fond memories of friendship, love and lessons learned.  

The reunion planning committee of the class realized their 60th reunion this summer might be the last big gathering, and member Bill Todd shared his vision to leave a permanent memorial to document the existence of SJCHS for all to see. 

The school, open from 1960 to 1976, at 320 Courtland St., had 13 graduating classes.  

By 1960, St. Pius X High School had grown to the point that a school annex was opened downtown in the former Sacred Heart High School space on Courtland. Initially named the St. Pius X Annex, it was renamed Saint Joseph High School in 1961. 

In 1972, the property that included Saint Joseph High School—and was formerly home to Marist College and Sacred Heart Parochial School—was sold to developers. The board of education searched for a new location for the school, but alternatives proved cost prohibitive. The diocese was able to lease the existing property long enough to allow the class of 1976 to graduate. Then the school closed forever. 

The plaque for Saint Joseph High School is surrounded by rose petals in the garden of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Atlanta. The reunion planning committee of the class realized their 60th reunion this summer might be the last big gathering, and member Bill Todd had a vision to leave a permanent memorial to document the existence of SJCHS. Photo by Julianna Leopold

The Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, diocesan priests and laypeople were the teachers and faculty at the schools. 

“Saint Joseph High School was in the center of town, but the kids were from all over,” said Barrett.  

Classmates Bill Todd and Bill Adams “generously” funded the creation of a memorial plaque sharing the school’s existence and a bit of its history. The six-month project culminated with placement of the plaque in the rose garden of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which was within walking distance of their former school. The location reflects the strong connection between the then-Sacred Heart Church and the school community. 

Barrett said creating this memorial was an “emotional, nostalgic and personally fulfilling experience.”  

Father Tri Nguyen, pastor of the Basilica, blessed the plaque during a ceremony after Mass on Aug. 9. Rose petals from the previous evening’s school reunion dinner in Decatur were scattered around the plaque. 

Barrett was among the speakers at the ceremony and thanked Kelly Schreckenberger, pastoral administrator at the basilica, for her support in the process. He admitted that seeing the finished product nearly brought him to tears. 

For the group, the most difficult aspect of the project was coming up with the wording on the marker.  

“It reminded me of an assignment given to us in Mrs. McCoy’s English class to write our own epitaph which was a very though-provoking exercise for such young minds,” said Barrett in his ceremony speech. 

The monument’s plaque begins acknowledging the “beloved” school’s existence and history, and even its mascots, The Hawks. 

Its parting words read, “Our high school years together were a time of great excitement and endless possibilities. Now all these years later, high school is but a dream of simpler times and of gratitude that we were instructed in the way we should go.”

At both national and local levels, these professional organizations petition the Church to celebrate Mass for their members. In some locations, the diocese annually sponsors the Mass with the bishop as celebrant. 

In an act of solidarity, Catholic and non-Catholic members of a professional group frequently attend Mass together. Their presence indicates a desire to connect the realities of their work with the Gospel message. These Masses are occasions when not only practicing Catholics but also nonpracticing and even non-Catholics can be recognized for their achievements: to defend, to protect, to heal and to improve mankind. It is also a time for the Church to demonstrate the grandeur of the Mass and the wisdom of Catholic teaching as it applies to the specific professional group. 

Red Mass 

The Red Mass recognizes the important role of legal professionals (including law professors and students) and politicians. This is the oldest and most widespread of the Masses for professional groups and can be traced to the 13th century, the period of time when a Sacred Roma Rota was being developed. It became an official office in 1331. Masses were offered during which the judges of the Rota were blessed and the gifts of the Holy Spirit invoked on them; those celebrating the Mass wore red vestments in concert with the Holy Spirit’s flames. The first Red Mass in the United States was in 1928 at Old St. Andrews Church, New York City. 

The New Catholic Encyclopedia describes the role of the Red Mass: “the solemn votive Mass in honor of the Holy Spirit, celebrated annually at the opening of the judicial year … is offered to invoke divine guidance and strength during the coming term of the court. It is celebrated in honor of the Holy Spirit as the source of wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, gifts of which must shine forth preeminently the dispensing of justice on the courtroom as well as individual lawyers’ offices.” 

Each year in Washington, a Red Mass is celebrated before the Supreme Court convenes in October. The celebration is normally at the Cathedral of St. Matthew with members of the Supreme Court and the Congress attending. There are numerous Red Masses within the United States. Sponsors are typically associations of legal professionals including the John Carroll Society and the St. Thomas More Society. The patron saints for this group are St. Ives and St. Thomas More. 

White Mass 

One of the professional groups we all will most assuredly come in contact with during our lifetime is the healthcare profession: nurses, doctors, administrators, specialists, dentists and numerous support personnel across the world. The Mass that acknowledges this group is called the White Mass, because that is the color of the clothing worn by many in this profession. 

These individuals represent healing and survival; into their hands we are placed in times of illness, pain and suffering. They comfort us when we are the most vulnerable and sometimes when we are not at our best. For most of us, they will be among the first and last persons we will see during our earthly journey. The White Mass is the occasion for the Church to offer words of appreciation and encouragement. 

The first White Mass was held in the United States in the 1930s and is typically sponsored by the Catholic Medical Association, which watches out for its members, and patients’ rights. In whatever circumstances, these healthcare workers are called (and desire) to do what is morally right. Knowing that the Church has their backs when they comply with the laws of God is important. 

White Masses frequently take place near the feast day of St. Luke (Oct. 18), the patron of physicians. 

Blue Mass 

The Blue Mass acknowledges first responders: law enforcement, firefighters, EMS personnel, 911 operators and correctional officers, including those who have given their lives to save someone else. The color blue is adopted from the uniform worn by police. Blue Masses began in the United States in 1934, and the first was held to remember police who had sacrificed themselves in the line of duty. This first Mass turned into an annual tradition, and today Blue Masses are held throughout the nation. 

Initially, only police were acknowledged in the Mass, but now Blue Masses include all first responders. These are the folks who enter into harm’s way for others; their first inclination when confronted with danger is to go toward the tragedy, not away. The Church applauds these courageous individuals, including the 911 operator who calmly deals with and answers calls concerning life and death situations, and the correctional officer who works at rehabilitation, bringing the incarcerated person to Christ. 

During the Blue Mass, the Church can praise and bless this group of professionals, whom we all count on, and assure them of continued support. Many Blue Masses include a procession with the role of every first responder represented. Local first-responder associations coordinate with the church or diocese to organize a Mass which, in many places, has become an annual event. St. Michael the Archangel is the patron of this group. 

Gold Mass 

The Gold Mass for Scientists began in 2016 and is sponsored by the Society of Catholic Scientists; the group includes science students and teachers. The website for this group, Catholicscientists.org, says they are “an international organization … to foster fellowship among Catholic scientists and to witness to the harmony of faith and reason.” 

Working in concert with the Church, following the teachings of the divine Teacher, surfaces as goals of SCS. The name Gold Mass comes from the hoods worn by graduating Ph.D. scientists as well as from St. Albert the Great, patron of scientists, who worked at turning lead into gold (and found that it can’t be done). 

At a Gold Mass, the Church can encourage the work of scientists and emphasize the long-held position that science is not at odds with Catholic teaching. The Fathers of the Second Vatican Council wrote in “Gaudium et Spes”: “Therefore if methodical investigations within every branch of learning is carried out in a genuinely scientific manner and in accord with moral norms, it never truly conflicts with faith, for earthly matters and concerns of faith derive from the same God.” 

Many great scientists have been and continue to be Catholic. Some 35 moon craters are named after Catholic priests who were scientists; one of the world’s prestigious observatories is at the Vatican. The Church for more than 1,000 years has promoted, encouraged and funded scientific research. Religion and science are both on the quest for truth, and both have the same Creator. 

“God, please help me and my children get out of this hotel,” she recalled her desperate prayer. “I just felt so broken.”  

In mid-August, the family moved out of the Clayton County motel in time for her daughter’s birthday. Walking into their new apartment opened a door to the stability they craved. Recently, she got a text of a photo of her daughter relaxing beside the apartment complex pool.  

“I feel accomplished. I feel like I didn’t let my kids down again,” she said. 

The Woolf family found stability after a year living in a motel with the help of St. Vincent de Paul Georgia’s Motel to Home initiative.  

The statewide agency on Aug. 11 celebrated the 1,000th family that moved into long-term housing. The most recent number of families served is 1,030.  

Barriers to apartment living 

The program, which began in 2020, targets the financial trap faced by motel residents to both save upfront costs for a future apartment while paying the high cost for their current room. The program bridges the financial gap by paying up to $2,000 in fees, security deposits, and first month’s rent to the future landlord. 

Thousands of people in Georgia rely on these extended-stay motels for housing. The Georgia State University Center on Health and Homelessness in January reported 4,600 people living in “high-cost, low-quality housing” in DeKalb County alone.  

Researchers went door-to-door to conduct surveys at 42 hotels. The results showed nearly half of the residents reported they couldn’t afford a deposit to get out of the motels and into stable housing. 

What started as a 13-family pilot program at St. Vincent de Paul Georgia has now served families in 40 counties. According to the nonprofit, the program’s long-term results show 88% of participating families remaining housed after 12 months. 

Heidi Eveleigh, the Motel to Home program manager, said from small beginnings the program has had a tremendous impact on family life. 

“We are always trying to meet the needs of the family,” she said.  

The need is not slowing down. In August alone, some 650 applications were received for financial support, she said. However, the program’s limit is about 250 families a month, she said. “We just want the families comfortable, and in a house, so it feels like a home.” 

Before entering the program, families in the program pay an average of $2,189 per month for an extended-stay motel, compared with an average monthly rent of $1,302 once housed, according to St. Vincent de Paul Georgia.  

Closing the gap for the Woolf family 

The Woolf family faced unexpected hardship to end up at the motel. Financial scams and the high upfront costs of traditional housing kept them there.  

The family spent a year living in a cramped motel room in Clayton County with two queen beds and a small kitchen. The cost of the extra kitchen space raised the monthly bill to $1,660 to keep a roof over their heads, on top of transportation bills, food and other expenses for raising children. 

Saving the more than $2,500 to cover upfront apartment move-in fees was too much of a reach, said Woolf. She works two jobs, found a larger three-bedroom apartment for her family where she could afford the $1,300 monthly rent, but the financial gap for those move-in fees was too wide.  

A last-resort Google search took her to St. Vincent de Paul Georgia. After working with the case manager, she heard the welcome news that the fees would be covered.  

“I just needed that little helping hand. I needed that helping hand, and they were a helping hand, and I am most grateful,” she said. “I was ecstatic, of course. All I could do was just be happy and cry and thank God.”

“The perfection of the human person and the development of society must be regarded as closely interdependent: to set them against one another or separate them would be to render them meaningless,” the pope said during his Sept. 16 weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square.

As artificial intelligence opens up new possibilities, it also comes with risks as relationships become more virtual and less personal, Pope Leo said, continuing his series of reflections on the Second Vatican Council’s pastoral constitution “Gaudium et Spes.”

The constitution highlights human interdependence and the need for mutual respect, he said, and invites people to draw strength from God’s plan that all people “constitute one family and treat one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”

That is why, he said, “love for God and neighbor is the first and greatest commandment.”

Pope Leo warned that as artificial intelligence becomes increasingly integrated into society, there is a risk of people becoming accustomed to “delegating to algorithms decisions that are the sole preserve of the human conscience.”

To build a more humane and just world, he said, people must move beyond an “individualistic mindset” and invest in human relationships with substance and depth. Diversity among people and peoples “must not be considered as a danger or a threat, but rather as a resource for enrichment and growth,” he said.

“The vision of humanity as a community of persons enables us to work together to seek the common good,” the pope said in his remarks to English-speaking pilgrims.

Pope Leo also highlighted the constitution’s emphasis on respect for the human person, citing its condemnation of “whatever is opposed to life itself,” including murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia and willful self-destruction, as well as slavery, prostitution, human trafficking and “disgraceful working conditions” in which people are treated as tools for profit.

“This requires taking into account respect for every person, promoting life and avoiding any form that threatens it; respecting even enemies or those who think differently than us; and respecting the dignity that each person possesses, without discriminating against anyone, which is embodied in social justice,” the pope said in his remarks to Spanish-speaking pilgrims.

The Second Vatican Council document also emphasizes the “fundamental equality of all human beings,” he said, and calls for every form of discrimination to be overcome.

“For the future of humanity depends on each person’s commitment to collaborate with God and with their brothers and sisters in building a more humane world,” Pope Leo said.

Georgia’s Board of Pardons and Paroles denied clemency for death row inmate Stacey Humphreys on Sept. 15. Humphreys’ attorneys then filed a motion for a hearing on applying the new Georgia Survivors Justice Act to the case to reduce his sentence to life without parole. This state law is designed to consider abuse suffered by an individual who has committed a crime as a mitigating factor. According to his lawyers, Humphreys was routinely abused throughout his childhood and medical evidence supporting the abuse was introduced in his trial for the murders. Cobb County Superior Court Judge Tyler Browning issued a stay of execution the same day to allow for a hearing under the act. A lawyer for the Attorney General’s office filed an appeal with the Supreme Court of Georgia. On Wednesday, Sept. 16, the state Supreme Court said that they would consider the case in the ordinary course of business and that it raises “important and novel questions. “We leave undisturbed the stay order issued by the Cobb County Superior Court,” wrote the justices. A hearing is scheduled for Dec. 8.

The Bishop’s Sept. 14 statement appealing for mercy

ATLANTA—In a Sept. 14 statement, Georgia’s Catholic bishops—Archbishop Gregory J. Hartmayer, OFM Conv., of Atlanta; Bishop Stephen D. Parkes of Savannah and Atlanta’s auxiliary bishops—ask the state’s board of pardon and paroles to commute the sentence of death row inmate Stacey Humphreys.

Cobb County’s Superior Court has ordered the execution of Humphreys. The Georgia Department of Corrections is set to carry out the execution the evening of Wednesday, Sept. 16, at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson. Humphreys was convicted in Cobb County for the 2003 murders of Lori Brown and Cyndi Williams. If executed, he will be the 55th inmate put to death by lethal injection.

The bishops’ statement follows:

“In spite of growing public opposition to the death penalty in our country, the state of Georgia has chosen to perpetuate a culture of death and scheduled the execution of Stacey Humphreys for September 16.

Mr. Humphreys does not deny having committed the crimes for which he was convicted, and we are not arguing for his innocence. Instead, we ask for mercy and forgiveness, especially in light of the deep remorse and desire to take accountability that Mr. Humphreys expressed even prior to his trial.

This mercy is not granted at the expense of the memory and dignity of his victims, Cyndi Williams and Lori Brown. Rather, it is a clear sign of the firm rejection of the very violence that took their lives. As a state, as a society, we must commit to pursuing justice in a manner that does not devolve into vengeance and further violence.

We, the Catholic bishops of Georgia, urge the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles to choose mercy, to embrace a culture of life and honor the will of the 11 jurors who voted for life by commuting Mr. Humphreys’ sentence to life without parole.

Our prayers are for the healing of the families and loved ones of Cyndi Williams and Lori Brown; they are for our elected officials, that they can come to see their role as one that should preserve life rather than take it; and they are for Stacey Humphreys, that he is granted mercy and his life is spared.”

To Our Jewish Brothers and Sisters in the Atlanta Metropolitan Area,

As you gather with family and friends to welcome Rosh Hashanah, I extend to you, on behalf of the Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta, my warmest wishes for a sweet and blessed New Year.

This sacred season of self-examination and renewal speaks to something all people of faith recognize: the need to pause, take stock of the year that has passed, and turn again toward God and toward one another with humility and hope. The sound of the shofar, calling your community to reflection and repentance, resounds beyond the walls of any one tradition–it is a summons we would all do well to hear.

Since his election, Pope Leo XIV has spoken of his intention to continue and strengthen the Church’s dialogue and cooperation with the Jewish people in the spirit of the Second Vatican Council’s declaration Nostra Aetate–a commitment I share wholeheartedly as your neighbor here in Atlanta. The Catholic community of this Archdiocese of Atlanta is grateful for the long friendship we share with our Jewish neighbors–in works of charity, in interfaith dialogue, and in the quiet, ordinary bonds of civic life we build together.

May the Book of Life hold your names and the names of those you love. May this New Year bring health, peace and the sweetness of the honey and apple to your homes and to the city we share.

L‘shanah tovah tikatevu – may you be inscribed for a good year.

With fraternal esteem and prayerful good wishes,

+ Most Reverend Gregory J. Hartmayer, OFM Conv., Archbishop of Atlanta

Twenty‑five years is long enough that someone born on Sept. 11, 2001, has since grown up, entered a career and perhaps started a family of their own. It is long enough that many students—filling our Catholic school classrooms this fall—have no personal memory of that day at all. And yet 25 years is not nearly long enough to dull the ache still carried by those who lost a spouse, a parent, a child, a friend, or a fellow firefighter, police officer or first responder on that fatal Tuesday morning. 

I remember where I was on Sept. 11, 2001. Most of us who lived through it do. We remember the stillness of the grounded planes, the improvised memorials of flowers and photographs, the long lines to donate blood and the churches that filled—not just on the following Sunday, but on ordinary weekdays—with people who suddenly needed to pray. Fear drove some of that. But something else drove it too: a recognition, however brief, that we belong to one another, and that love is stronger than the hatred that had just been unleashed against us. 

September 11 taught us, in the cruelest way possible, how fragile life truly is. An ordinary Tuesday morning—coffee poured, children dropped at school, briefcases carried onto planes and into office towers—became, without warning, the last morning nearly 3,000 people would ever know. We are not owed tomorrow. That is a hard truth, but it is also, strangely, a gift, because it teaches us not to waste the days we are given, and not to let love go unspoken to the people beside us. 

That day also revealed, with unforgettable clarity, the cost that others pay so that the rest of us can live in safety. Three hundred forty‑three firefighters. Sixty law enforcement officers. Emergency medical technicians and Port Authority officers who ran up the stairwells while others were running down. We honor them each September, and rightly so—but I wonder how often, in the ordinary months between anniversaries, we take for granted the men and women who still answer that same call today: the police officer on patrol in the early hours of the morning, the firefighter trying to get some sleep at the station waiting for the alarm, the soldier deployed far from home. Their willingness to place their lives between danger and the rest of us did not end in 2001. It is a daily sacrifice, and it deserves much more than an annual moment of gratitude. 

Scripture gives us the language for a day like this one. St. Paul assures the Romans that nothing in all of creation is able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. I have returned to that assurance many times over the years, not because it makes the grief disappear, but because it refuses to let grief have the final word. The evil done on September 11 was real. The suffering it caused—the nearly 3,000 who died that day, and the first responders and survivors who died in the years since from illnesses tied to their exposure at Ground Zero—is real. But so is the promise that love does not end at the grave. 

St. John Paul II, addressing pilgrims just days after the attacks, called on the faithful to resist the temptation toward hatred and instead to become, in his words, artisans of peace. That charge has aged well. A quarter century on, we have watched what happens when nations answer violence with more violence, and we have watched, too, what happens when ordinary people—first responders running toward danger, neighbors sheltering strangers, communities of every faith standing shoulder to shoulder at candlelight vigils—answer violence with courage and with love. Both responses are still available to us today. The anniversary asks us, again, to choose. 

A silver jubilee of grief and grace 

I have not forgotten how, for a brief season after the attacks, our divisions seemed to fall away. Strangers helped strangers out of the wreckage and off the island of Manhattan by boat. Flags appeared on porches in every kind of neighborhood. Congregations of every faith—and no faith at all—gathered to pray, sometimes for the first time in years, simply because grief had made us need one another again. A nation that so often quarrels over much lesser things stood, for a while, genuinely united in mourning. That unity was forged in sorrow, and I do not wish sorrow on anyone. But I do wish we could recover what it taught us without having to relearn it through tragedy. Forgetting is the real danger now—not forgetting the names or the dates, which are carved in granite and steel, but forgetting the debt we owe to those who died and forgetting how quickly we can lose the solidarity that suffering, for a moment, gave us. 

Here in the Archdiocese of Atlanta, so many of our parishes carry their own quiet threads back to that day: firefighters and police officers in our pews who serve because of what they witnessed as young recruits; families who moved south afterward, carrying New York or Washington or Shanksville in their hearts; children, now grown, who were baptized in the weeks after 9/11 as their parents clung to hope for the future in the middle of grief.  

We do not forget our dead. We commend them to God, and we ask their intercession for a world still very much in need of peace. 

I think often of the words inscribed at the National September 11 Memorial, drawn from Virgil’s “The Aeneid,” promising that no day will erase the fallen from the memory of time. That is a pagan poet’s promise, and a true one, but our faith makes an even bolder claim. It is not only that we will remember. It is that God remembers—that every name lost that day is known and held by the One who numbers even the hairs of our heads, and that the mercy of Christ reaches even into the ashes of Ground Zero, the wreckage of the Pentagon and the Pennsylvania field where 40 passengers and crew chose, in their final minutes, to fight rather than surrender their fellow citizens to greater harm. 

Twenty‑five years is a jubilee number in our tradition—a time appointed for remembrance, for reckoning and for renewed hope. As we mark this silver jubilee of grief and grace, let us pray: for the dead, that they may rest in the peace they were denied that morning; for those who still mourn them, that their grief may soften into hope; for the first responders who continue to suffer the day’s long aftermath, in body and in memory; and for ourselves, that we may have the grace to be, in our own generation, the artisans of peace the Holy Father asked us to become. 

May God console the grieving, honor the fallen, and make of our remembering not a wound reopened, but a seed of the peace the world still awaits.