Saint Joseph Catholic Church

A new Gallup poll finds that only 49% of Americans say that religion is important in their lives—showing a dramatic decline of 17% in the past decade.

Underlining the remarkable depth of the decline, the Gallup organization—which has asked the same question of respondents in 160 countries since 2007—reports that fewer than 10% of those countries have seen a 15% decline in any decade.

In a 216-5 vote at their fall meeting in Baltimore, the US bishops approved a rare special pastoral message on immigration.

The bishops stated, “To our immigrant brothers and sisters, we stand with you in your suffering, since, when one member suffers, all suffer (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:26). You are not alone!”

“We oppose the indiscriminate mass deportation of people,” the bishops added. “We pray for an end to dehumanizing rhetoric and violence, whether directed at immigrants or at law enforcement. We pray that the Lord may guide the leaders of our nation, and we are grateful for past and present opportunities to dialogue with public and elected officials.”

Today the dioceses in the United States celebrate the Memorial of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini (1850-1917), virgin, born in Lombardy, Italy, one of thirteen children. She came to America as a missionary, founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart to care for poor children in schools and hospitals. She is the first American citizen to be canonized. December 22 is her feast in the Roman Martyrology.

The Church celebrates the Memorial of St. Josaphat (1580-1643), a Catholic of the Ruthenian rite. He was an apostle of the return of the Orthodox schismatics to the Church of Rome. Born in the then Polish region of Lithuania of Orthodox parents, he became a Catholic and a Ukrainian Basilian monk. Chosen bishop, he worked faithfully for the unity of the Church until he suffered martyrdom at the hands of an angry mob in Russia in 1623 at the age of forty-three. He is one of the patrons of Poland.

The Church celebrates the Memorial of St. Martin of Tours (ca. 316-398). St. Martin is the first bishop and confessor honored by the Church in the West. He was a principal apostle of Gaul, where his feast was celebrated as a holyday of obligation with an octave and popular celebrations.

The Church celebrates the Memorial of St. Leo the Great (400-461), during whose pontificate the Council of Chalcedon (451) defined that Christ is one divine person with two natures, divine and human. It was a confirmation of his Epistola Dogmatica (Tomus) to the Patriarch Flavian of Constantinople. He vigorously defended the unity of the Church. He detained the onrush of the barbarians under Attila.

Today the Church celebrates the Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome, the oldest and highest ranking of the four major basilicas in Rome. The Basilica's official title is "Basilica of the Most Holy Savior and of Saints John the Baptist and John the Evangelist in the Lateran" but most often called the Basilica of St. John Lateran. It is the cathedral of the diocese of Rome, the official ecclesiastical seat of the Holy Father, the Bishop of Rome, not the Basilica of St. Peter as so many mistakenly believe. The Basilica is also called the Church of Holy Savior or the Church of St. John Baptist. In ancient Rome this was the church where everyone was baptized. It the oldest church in the West, built in the time of Constantine and was consecrated by Pope Sylvester in 324. This feast became a universal celebration in honor of the archbasilica, the ecclesiastical mother church, called "the mother and mistress of all churches of Rome and the world" (omnium urbis et orbis ecclesiarum mater et caput), as a sign of love for and union with the See of Peter.

The Roman Martyrology includes these commemorations:

The month of November is dedicated to the Souls in Purgatory. We as the living so often soon forget the dead. We forget when we live, we are forgotten when we die. "Lay my body anywhere," pleaded the dying St. Monica with her son, St. Augustine, "only this I beg of you: remember me at the altar of God."

The Roman Martyrology commemorates St. Leonard of Limoges (d. 559). He was a hermit-abbot who was a convert of St. Remigius. He was a French courtier offered a bishopric, but became a recluse at Micy, France. He then lived at Limoges, France, and he was given land by the royal court on which he founded Noblac Abbey, later called Saint-Leonard.