Saint Joseph Catholic Church

Pope Leo XIV has sent a message of encouragement to participants in a conference being held in Rome this week, under the auspices of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, about providing safeguards against abuse in religious orders.

The Pope’s message stressed the need for community life that protects the dignity of everyone, especially the most vulnerable.

The Church celebrates the Memorial of St. Elizabeth of Hungary (1207-1231), religious. She was the daughter of Andrew II, King of Hungary, and wife of Duke Louis IV of Thuringia. She is famous for her great kindness and inexhaustible charity towards the poor and the sick.

Gospel Excerpt, Year C, Lk 21:5-19: "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be powerful earthquakes, famines, and plagues from place to place; and awesome sights and mighty signs will come from the sky.

Today the Church celebrates the Optional Memorial of St. Albert the Great (c. 1200-1280), son of a German nobleman. While studying at Padua when the Master General of the Dominicans, Jordan of Saxony, succeeded in attracting him to that Order. He was to become one of its greatest glories. After taking his degrees at the University of Paris he taught philosophy and theology at Paris and then in Cologne. St. Thomas Aquinas was among his pupils. His knowledge was encyclopedic. In 1260 he was named Bishop of Ratisbon and devoted himself zealously to the duties of his office. But soon resigned in order to continue his teaching and research. St. Albert died in Cologne on November 15, 1280.

The Roman Martyrology commemorates St. Laurence O'Toole (1128-1180) today, but in Ireland it is an Optional Memorial (although a feast in Dublin). Laurence (also referred to as "Lawrence") was the Archbishop of Dublin during the takeover of Ireland by the Normans and King Henry II. His efforts in the peace process and his frustration with King Henry probably caused his early death. St. Laurence is highly honored at Eu in Normandy, France, where he died.

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.