To Dr. Michael Guerra, President of the NCEA, go my thanks for the invitation to be with you this afternoon. I am delighted at the presence of Bishop Martin Lohmuller, my first pastor after ordination. Bishop Lohmuller helped me to learn how important Catholic education is, and often I have recalled how driving the school...Read More

The presence of so many African bishops this morning evokes the memory of the days eleven years ago when the first Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for Africa was held in Rome. We began on a sad note, even as the Gospel today begins on a sad note, the word that Lazarus, the...Read More

On behalf of all the pilgrims I wish to thank Cardinal McCarrick for his gracious and encouraging words of welcome and for his continued and vigorous support for the Culture of Life. It is a true blessing for pilgrims from across our land to be able to gather once again with their bishops in this...Read More

It is both an honor and a personal pleasure to be here with my colleagues in the Interreligious Initiative for Peace in the Middle East. We believe in the same one God and know that God calls us to find the common path to a just peace in the land we all call “Holy.” In...Read More

Welcome to the most historic place of worship in the United States, where tonight together we participate in a service of those daughters and sons of Abraham who gather in the name of justice and the fruit of justice which is peace. We come to pray together for God’s gift of peace to a troubled...Read More

In the United States, the freedom to choose one’s religion has long been taken for granted. In my home state of Maryland, the earliest American colonists sought refuge from the religious persecution they suffered in neighboring colonies. We have enjoyed the fundamental right to believe as they wish, with no interference from the government and...Read More

(Jeremiah 1:4-9) Very often, ordination classes choose as a first reading the words of the Prophet Jeremiah Bishop Rozanski selected for the reading today. More frequently, however, the complaint of Jeremiah, “I am too young,” rings hollow. We have to put it into a context. For Jeremiah and for Bishop Rozanski the context is not...Read More

Our Lady must be very pleased with this historic Church and all of you who join us on this special day. Our minds are lifted up to heaven, and our hearts should follow there, as we remember that this feast is one of the earliest celebrated in all of Christendom, after Easter and Christmas. This...Read More