If he were alive right now, Blessed Carlo Acutis would be twenty-nine years old. But Carlo died when he was just fifteen years old. Carlo was the oldest son of Andrea Acutis and Antonia Salzano, who were not particularly religious. Although born in London, his family moved to Milan when he was about four months old. He was a normal boy who was a natural jokester who enjoyed making his classmates and teachers laugh. At the same time he defended disabled peers at school when bullies mocked them. Outside of school he did voluntary work with the homeless and destitute.

The month of October is domestic violence month, a time when we can share more openly about an epidemic of violence in our own families. Indeed, domestic violence affects every parish and every community in our country.

Today I want to conclude a presentation of the Message of Pope Francis for the 106th World Day for Migrants and Refugees. Last week I mentioned that he wanted to reflect on six pairs of verbs in the 2020 Message. Here are the six pairs of verbs: To know in order to understand To be close in order to serve To listen in order to be reconciled To share in order to grow To be involved in order to promote To cooperate in order to build

Sunday, September 27, 2020, marks the 106th World Day of Migrants and Refugees. Pope Francis delivered a message for this occasion which was dated May 13, 2020. I want to present some points from his message for our consideration today and next week.

On Sunday, September 20 we celebrated Catechetical Sunday. On the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), the Most Reverend Robert E. Barron, Chairperson, Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis invited everyone who is involved in the work of catechesis to consider earnestly the importance of catechist formation. He mentioned that they had produced a variety of articles, videos, and podcasts exploring our baptismal call to be active participants in the evangelizing mission of the Church, as well as the unique role of catechesis in the whole process of evangelization.

When I first heard reports about the corona virus affecting so many people in China, I wasn’t sure what to think about this news. Then I heard about cases breaking out in various parts of our country. I think that the seriousness of our situation really hit home on Sunday, March 8, when a parishioner who was a physician warned me about the seriousness of the pandemic that would soon be upon us. Before that week was out we were instructed to close down. In the first few days and weeks I was concerned about how we would function as a parish. By Easter time we decided to have live-streamed Mass. We had no idea how well that it would be received. Soon it became clear that we should do it every week until we would be able to open again. In the meantime I have learned to use an internet tool about which I had never heard: Zoom. Over the next six months I have become somewhat adept at hosting Zoom conferences. While meetings in person would be much better, most of us have learned to live with Zoom. Because of it, life can carry on.

August 26, 2020 marked the one hundredth anniversary of the passage of the nineteenth amendment to the United States Constitution. This amendment was the result of decades of steadfast advocacy by women from all walks of life throughout our nation. One woman who was jubilant at the passing of this amendment that gave women the right to vote was my paternal grandmother: Anna Dougherty Dillon. My father would tell me that Grandma often would say women should have been granted the right to vote long before 1920, but that she was grateful to have that right. And exercise it she did! My grandmother wasted no time in registering to vote and never missed an opportunity to vote right up to her death in 1964. Another thing my father told me was that she would never tell my grandfather or her children for whom she voted. When asked she was just smile and say that she wasn’t going to say. This annoyed my grandfather who wanted to know how she voted, but he or her children never found out.

Pope Francis established September 1 as an annual World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation in 2015. It is also the first day of the Season of Creation or Creation Time. The Season of Creation or Creation Time, is marked throughout the Christian world from September 1 to October 4 (Feast of St. Francis of Assisi) and celebrates the joy of creation as well as encouraging awareness-raising initiatives to protect the natural environment. Let’s look at the message of Pope Francis from the World Day of Payer for the Care of Creation from last year. The message for 2020 had not been released by the time this issue of the bulletin had to go to press. Let’s recall some of the remarks that the Holy Father made on this occasion last year:

As he was finishing his address to a joint meeting of Congress on September 24, 2015, Pope Francis mentioned that he would finish his visit to the United States by taking part in the World Meeting of Families that was to be held in Philadelphia. Pope Francis has expressed great concern of the state of the family. He wanted it to be a recurrent theme of his 2015 visit to the United States and it remains a great concern of his in our day as well. Let’s listen in again to what he said to the Congress about the family:

Our Saturday morning book group has begun reading and discussing The Seven Storey Mountain, the autobiography of Thomas Merton, an American Trappist monk who was a noted author in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. The title refers to the mountain of Purgatory mentioned in Dante’s Divine Comedy. Pope Francis referred to Thomas Merton in his speech to the United States House of Representatives and Senate on September 24, 2015. Let’s look now about what he said about Thomas Merton on that occasion:

I continue the presentation of excerpts from the historic address of Pope Francis to the United States Congress on September 24, 2015. In today’s excerpt the Holy Father will discuss Dorothy Day. In his April 13, 2016 column in Crux, John L Allen, Jr. mentioned that one thing that fundamentally links Dorothy Day and Pope Francis is an expansive view of what counts as a “pro-life” cause, reaching out to include not only the unborn but also migrants and refugees, exploited workers, death row inmates, even the planet itself. Life itself must be protected at all stages, and against whatever threatens it.

I have been recounting the historic address of Pope Francis to Congress on September 24, 2015. Last week I mentioned the words Pope Francis spoke about Dr. Martin Luther King on that momentous day. Yesterday we had a talk by Fr. Robert Boxie that will hopefully be an opening to an important conversation for all in the parish. It might be good today to recall reflections by three of the predecessors of Pope Francis on the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King.