The Episcopal Ordination of Bishops-elect Keith Chylinski, Christopher Cooke, and Efren Esmilla is this Thursday, 7 March. There are three levels of Holy Orders, the Diaconate, the Presbyterate, and the Episcopacy, which is the fullness of Holy Orders. The three Bishops-elect will serve our Archdiocese as Auxiliary Bishops. We wish them the best as we pray.
We pray for the Church and for Bishops-elect Chylinski, Cooke, and Esmilla, who soon will be ordained to serve as auxiliary bishops to Archbishop Perez, that they will be steadfast in preaching the Gospel and building up the Body of Christ among us, in union with all their brother Bishops. We pray to the Lord.
Today, 3 March is the Memorial of St. Katharine Drexel. St. Katharine Drexel was born into wealth as the daughter of a Philadelphia banker. St. Katharine, upon her father’s death, decided to use her inheritance to educate Black and Native Americans. St. Katharine went to the Vatican to petition Pope Leo XIII to send a religious community of Sisters to staff these proposed schools. Pope Leo, grateful that St. Katharine was using her wealth to accomplish good, challenged her to commit her life to her mission as well. So, St. Katharine joined a religious community and eventually formed her own community – The Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament. More information about the Sisters can be found at katharinedrexel.org.
The Sisters opened missionary schools for the Native Americans beginning in Santa Fe and then throughout the Great Plains, and the southwestern United States. They also opened schools in urban settings for Black American students. St. Katharine learned many lessons about business, finance, and diplomacy from her father. When a Black University was closed in New Orleans, St. Katharine secretly bought the property and reopened the school as Xavier University of New Orleans. More information about Xavier University, and St. Katharine’s role in the school can be found at xula.edu.
St. Katherine’s life spanned from the horrors of antebellum slavery to the battles against Native Americans in the west, to the nativist distrust of American Catholicism in the early twentieth century, to the dawn of the Civil Rights movement. St. Katharine was beatified in 1988 and canonized in 2000 by Pope St. John Paul II. Both miracles attributed to St. Katharine Drexel, required for beatification and canonization involved the sense of hearing. St. Katharine is the Patron Saint of Racial Justice, and Philanthropy. The Shrine of St. Katharine Drexel is located at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Philadelphia.
Ever loving God, you called St. Katharine Drexel to teach the message of the Gospel and to bring the life of the Eucharist to the Black and Native American peoples. By her prayers and example, enable us to work for justice among the poor and oppressed. Draw us all into the Eucharistic community of your Church, that we may be one in you. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Also today, our Confirmation class will participate in their retreat to prepare for their completion of initiation into the Catholic Church. Confirmation, according to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, “deepens our baptismal life that calls us to be missionary witnesses of Jesus Christ in our families, neighborhoods, society, and the world. We receive the message of faith in a more intense manner with great emphasis given to the person of Jesus Christ, who asked the Father to give the Holy Spirit to the Church for building up the community in loving service.”
Confirmation will be celebrated at Our Lady of Peace Church on Tuesday, 19 March at four in the afternoon. Bishop Michael Fitzgerald will be the presider. Please keep our Confirmandi, their families, their sponsors, their catechists, and their teachers close in your prayers as they conclude this preparation for the Sacrament of Confirmation. Blessings!