Here are eight things about St. Catherine of Siena:
1. Who is St. Catherine of Siena?
In 2010, Pope Benedict gave an audience in which he discussed the basic facts of her life:
Born in Siena [Italy] in 1347, into a very large family, she died in Rome in 1380.
When Catherine was 16 years old, motivated by a vision of St. Dominic, she entered the Third Order of the Dominicans, the female branch known as the Mantellate.
We live in times of uncertainty.We are no longer confident in when we can return to our normal lives, how long this quarantine will last and how much of this we can really take. Even pillars in our society, like our health care system, seem to cower in the face of our present pandemic. Times like these are destined to shape our future, as we will one day look back and recall the effects that social isolation had on our appreciation of the relationships we have built. We look forward to being around groups of friends again and living with no fear.
The Holy Father established the Vatican John Paul I Foundation on 17 February. This was done in response to the proposal made to create a body destined to deepen the person, thoughts and teachings of John Paul I (26 August 1978 - 28 September 1978) .
Pope John Paul I was, and remains, a point of reference in the history of the universal Church. His importance, as Saint John Paul II had pointed out, is inversely proportional to the length of his very short pontificate: "magis ostentus quam datus".
As the universal Church continues to celebrate the Lord’s Resurrection through the Easter Season, Christians are edified and encouraged by the different accounts of the Lord’s rising from the dead.
Following is the full text of Pope Francis' Letter on the Month of May, addressed to all the faithful throughout the world:
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The month of May is approaching, a time when the People of God express with particular intensity their love and devotion for the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is traditional in this month to pray the Rosary at home within the family. The restrictions of the pandemic have made us come to appreciate all the more this “family” aspect, also from a spiritual point of view.
Laudable is the generosity, genuine charity of so many priests — hospital chaplains — who are spending themselves body and soul to attend to the many sick in hospitals and other institutions.
In particular, they are dispensing the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick, with the greatest possible health precautions and care, to give thanks to God.
Sickness, An Encounter with God
We celebrate the Feast of Easter this year at a time when the world needs "a resurrection". This year, we contemplate the faces of the people who pray in their homes imploring the Almighty God to lift the “lockdown” imposed on humanity and to have the dawn of a new life rise. We meditate on the events relevant to "the Resurrection", namely Easter, and we realize that a large stone had closed the door of the grave. The assumption was that this stone would never move and that death would be perpetual.
When this crisis started, I thought of these Jesus’ words. What a tragedy. Hundreds of thousands are dying, millions are suffering and there is a global fear of uncertainty. This crisis is the biggest one since the Second World War.
Pope Francis has said that the pandemic restrictions have made him feel caged. So he is heading out for Divine Mercy Sunday, but just a short walk from St. Peter’s Square, to the Church of Santo Spirito in Sassia, the Roman headquarters for the Divine Mercy devotion.
As a young boy I enjoyed playing Little League baseball. On a couple of occasions, while playing a lesser opponent, our team would be so far ahead that the “mercy rule” took effect, meaning the game would end before all nine innings were played. This was meant to spare the other team embarrassment and to ensure the game ended in a timely manner.
