Villa Walsh senior chosen one of MCRTL pro-life essay contest winners #Catholic –

Morris County Right to Life of Morriston, N.J., recently announced the winners of the John E. Mulholland Memorial Pro-Life Essay Contest. The contest was open to all Morris County high school seniors. First place awarded to Anthony Ricardo of Morris Knolls High School, and second place was tied between Amelia Kelinle of Villa Walsh Academy and Brendan Critchley of Morristown High School. First-place winner received $750 and the second-place winners each received $500. John and Mary Ellen Muholland were avid pro-life warriors, and the scholarship has been awarded in their memory. 

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– Morris County Right to Life of Morriston, N.J., recently announced the winners of the John E. Mulholland Memorial Pro-Life Essay Contest. The contest was open to all Morris County high school seniors. First place awarded to Anthony Ricardo of Morris Knolls High School, and second place was tied between Amelia Kelinle of Villa Walsh Academy and Brendan Critchley of Morristown High School. First-place winner received $750 and the second-place winners each received $500. John and Mary Ellen Muholland were avid pro-life warriors, and the scholarship has been awarded in their memory.  Click here to subscribe to our weekly newsletter.  

Pope will find a living, growing Church in Madrid, Spanish cardinal says #Catholic –

(OSV News) — Pope Leo XIV will encounter a living and growing Church when he arrives in Madrid, a revitalization highlighted by his planned blessing of the cornerstones for 12 new parishes, said Cardinal José Cobo of Madrid.

In a May 20 interview with OSV News, Cardinal Cobo described the new parishes as a sign of continuous growth and “an interesting moment of revitalization.” Looking ahead to the fruits of the papal visit in his archdiocese, the Spanish cardinal emphasized the importance of its long-term impact.

“We don’t want it to stay there because the events are events that fade away like fireworks,” he said. But “the pope is (not only) going to leave us with experiences, but also messages,” the cardinal stressed.

“So, afterward it will lead us to ensure that in every area — in parishes, in culture, in education — we will continue working on what we have started and continue creating processes so that this doesn’t just remain in the pages of a speech,” the cardinal added.

Pope Leo XIV’s June 6-12 apostolic visit to Spain will begin in Madrid with a packed schedule of events, including meetings with King Felipe VI and his wife, Queen Letizia, government authorities and the faithful.

‘Evangelical gesture’

Among his first pastoral stops is a visit to CEDIA 24 horas, a social center run by Caritas Madrid that serves as a shelter and offers social services, psychological care and workshops for the city’s homeless.

For Cardinal Cobo, the fact that the pope’s first pastoral stop will be a homeless shelter is “an obviously evangelical gesture” where he will visit a place “where the Church is with the most vulnerable.”

“The Archdiocese of Madrid and the Church are present in the realities of the last ones. Thank God I can say — and I am very grateful for this — that there is no social reality where the Church is not present in some way,” the cardinal told OSV News.

Pope Leo’s visit to CEDIA 24 horas, he added, indicates “from where he wants to look at the Church and from where he wants the Church to be from the beginning, which is first placing the most vulnerable at the forefront.”

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Among the most anticipated events during the pope’s stop in Madrid will be a Mass on the feast of Corpus Christi at Madrid’s Plaza de Cibeles, followed by a Eucharistic procession reflecting the city’s local traditions.

Cardinal Cobo told OSV News that the feast of Corpus Christi is “a very important day” in Spain and that Eucharistic adoration “is very alive and belongs not only to the ecclesial tradition in general but to popular piety.”

When asked what he hopes people will see or understand about Catholic tradition and faith in Spain, the cardinal said he hopes people will see that the Eucharistic procession celebrates the presence of Jesus “not only in the Church but in the streets.”

“That is the moment of this day. It is like centralizing a bit of what we are and our source. And to live it with our neighbors in the middle of the street, I think it almost brings us more joy. To be in the center of Madrid, being able to live the Eucharist and say, ‘Let us extend our hands to all who are unwell, to all who want to search.’ So for us it is a reason for joy. And I think it will also be a very special moment to revitalize faith and open doors to those who want to search,” he said.

Meeting with survivors proposed

However, among the events not included in the schedule released by the Vatican May 6 was a meeting with survivors of sexual abuse, an issue on the minds of many in Spain.

In October 2023, a government-led independent commission revealed in a 700-page report that over 200,000 minors had been abused by clergy since 1940. It also stated that when accounting for abuses committed by lay members of the Church, the number of victims rose to 400,000.

Recently, in January, the Catholic Church and the Spanish government signed an agreement that would seek to provide reparations to victims of clerical sexual abuse.

Cardinal Cobo told OSV News that although the pope’s schedule is full, a meeting with survivors has been proposed and will be announced only after it happens to “not create false expectations.”

Nevertheless, he noted, a meeting between the pope and survivors is “very necessary,” and Pope Leo is aware of the Archdiocese of Madrid’s efforts, such as “Proyecto Repara,” the archdiocesan office for the prevention of abuse.

The pope “knows ‘Proyecto Repara’ very well and everything we have been doing for many years, attending not only to victims of child abuse, but victims of all kinds of abuse, and how we are entering into an integral accompaniment” with them.

According to its website, “Proyecto Repara” was established in 2020 as an independent office where survivors of abuse, both within and outside of the Church, could receive support, including legal and canonical assistance, therapy and spiritual accompaniment.

The office also works with civil authorities in denouncing cases of abuse involving minors and informs victims of their rights to report alleged abuse to police.

A timely encyclical

The Vatican announced that Pope Leo’s first encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas” (“Magnificent Humanity”), on the protection of the human person in the age of artificial intelligence, will be published May 25, less than two weeks before he lands in Madrid.

At a May 6 press conference, Archbishop Luis Argüello of Valladolid, president of the Spanish bishops’ conference, noted that the soon-to-be-released encyclical will likely “highlight the centrality of the human person” and focus on “human dignity, the common good, dialogue and encounter.”

Noting the timeliness of the encyclical’s release, Cardinal Cobo told OSV News that it will likely “be the framework for all the messages that the pope is going to give,” especially when he delivers his anticipated address to the country’s parliament.

In Spain, where politics “is very, very polarized” and “very segmented,” Pope Leo comes not “to impose anything on anyone,” but “simply to offer a higher perspective,” the cardinal said.

That perspective, he continued, is “to speak of the importance of the common good above differences, the importance of human dignity as the axis or the filter to face problems.”

“I think the pope can offer that, which is what the Church always offers: higher perspectives,” Cardinal Cobo said. “Let us not forget the grand horizons. Then we can be more or less in agreement on the small judgments, on the specifics. But let us not forget that, above the polarizations, there are broad outlines, and that the Christian tradition has something to say to society if it wants to listen to us.”

Junno Arocho Esteves is an international correspondent for OSV News. Follow him on X @jae_journalist.

– (OSV News) — Pope Leo XIV will encounter a living and growing Church when he arrives in Madrid, a revitalization highlighted by his planned blessing of the cornerstones for 12 new parishes, said Cardinal José Cobo of Madrid. In a May 20 interview with OSV News, Cardinal Cobo described the new parishes as a sign of continuous growth and “an interesting moment of revitalization.” Looking ahead to the fruits of the papal visit in his archdiocese, the Spanish cardinal emphasized the importance of its long-term impact. “We don’t want it to stay there because the events are events that fade

Pope Leo tells graduating Villanovans to uphold Augustinian values, recall US guiding principles #Catholic –

(OSV News) — Pope Leo XIV exhorted graduating students at his alma mater to take with them three key values that define the Augustinian tradition, while reflecting on the foundational principles of the U.S. as it marks its 250th anniversary.

The pope’s words were shared with the class of 2026 at Villanova University during its May 19 commencement exercises.

“Graduates, it is fitting that I share with you today a message from a very special member of our Villanova community — an alumnus who once sat where you are sitting now, as a proud graduate of the Class of 1977,” said Villanova president and Augustinian Father Peter M. Donohue at the ceremony.

As then-Robert F. Prevost, the first U.S.-born pope earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics at the school in a Philadelphia suburb, graduating in 1977 — the same year he entered the Augustinian order that founded and oversees Villanova.

“Pope Leo XIV has asked me to share these words with you as you begin your journey beyond Villanova,” Father Donohue told graduating students.

Quoting the pope, he said: “The world beyond Villanova is waiting for you, sometimes with open arms, and sometimes with truly dangerous intent.”

The pope said in his message that the graduates would “have the challenge and the opportunity to make a big difference, if you carry with you those Augustinian values of Veritas, Unitas, Caritas.”

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The three values, whose Latin names respectively mean “truth,” “unity” and “charity,” have been named by the Augustinian order as central to the thought of its patron, St. Augustine.

According to the order’s Augustinian Values Institute — part of the order’s educational ministry — St. Augustine did not, amid his prolific writings, specifically offer a “systematic and clear presentation of a scheme for Christian education.”

However, the institute noted on its webpage (hosted on that of the order’s Midwestern province), the three values have been discerned from “reflection on the life and teachings of Augustine and the experience of those who have been touched by their experience with him and with them.”

The institute explained that veritas is rooted in an awareness that “God is the source of all truth,” encountered through faith and reason. St. Augustine “insists that we are to ‘teach the truth in love,’” said the institute.

Unitas speaks to “the Christian understanding of being one with one another” that “is based on our common origin in creation by God and re-creation in Christ,” the institute explained.

Caritas witnesses to “the great commandment of Christ … to love God and neighbor,” said the institute.

As part of that “active friendship” with God and others, caritas is “that impulse of the Spirit of Jesus that is expressed in hundreds of kind and gracious ways,” the institute said.

Along with the core Augustinian values, Pope Leo — noting the nation will soon mark its 250th anniversary — told graduates, “I would invite you to recall in a special way the guiding principles of the foundations of our nation.”

The pope cited a well-known introductory line from the Declaration of Independence, the July 4, 1776, document by which the American colonies formally dissolved “all political connection” with Great Britain and established themselves as sovereign:

“‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all (people) are created equal; that they are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights, and among those are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness,’” the pope quoted.

As part of the 250th celebrations, Pope Leo will be awarded the National Constitution Center’s Liberty Medal on July 3. Announced in March, the honor acknowledges the pope’s efforts to promote religious liberty as well as freedom of expression and conscience.

Pope Leo is set to deliver live acceptance remarks from the Vatican, which will be livestreamed to in-person attendees in Philadelphia — once the nation’s capital, and home to several sites of historical significance in the nation’s founding — as well as online at the center’s website.

Concluding his message to the Villanova class of 2026, Pope Leo said, “May the graduates of 2026 always be faithful to the guiding light that has been so important for these 250 years. Congratulations, and please know that I send all of you my apostolic blessing.”

Gina Christian is a multimedia reporter for OSV News. Follow her on X @GinaJesseReina.

– (OSV News) — Pope Leo XIV exhorted graduating students at his alma mater to take with them three key values that define the Augustinian tradition, while reflecting on the foundational principles of the U.S. as it marks its 250th anniversary. The pope’s words were shared with the class of 2026 at Villanova University during its May 19 commencement exercises. “Graduates, it is fitting that I share with you today a message from a very special member of our Villanova community — an alumnus who once sat where you are sitting now, as a proud graduate of the Class of 1977,”

National Eucharistic Pilgrimage’s Florida kickoff roots US history in the Mass #Catholic –

(OSV News) — Before the Declaration of Independence was boldly signed in 1776, before pilgrims feasted at what became popularly regarded as the “First Thanksgiving” in 1621, there was St. Augustine, Florida.

The coastal Florida city was founded in 1565 by Spanish Catholic explorer Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, is celebrated as the longest continually inhabited European-founded city in the U.S., and is home to the United States’ oldest continuously operating parish, the Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine.

It is also the May 24 starting point for the 2026 National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, themed “One Nation Under God” in honor of America’s 250th year.

The pilgrimage begins on the historic grounds of America’s oldest Marian shrine: the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche at Mission Nombre de Dios, which Bishop Erik T. Pohlmeier of St. Augustine has described as “the oldest site of continuous Catholic presence in the United States.”

With its founding, St. Augustine became the site of an early Mass in what is now the United States, celebrated in 1565 to commemorate the landing of a Spanish explorer, his crew and Catholic clergy.

“As we focus this year on the Declaration of Independence and the 250th anniversary of that, St. Augustine helps us begin not with politics, but with worship,” said Jason Shanks, National Eucharistic Congress president. “And I think that’s critically important.”

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Both the shrine and the mission, its caretakers say, “stand as living witnesses” not just to the founding of St. Augustine, but also to the practice of the Mass in the United States. The site roots its history in the landing of Spanish Admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés. In 1565, his crew sighted land on Aug. 28, the feast of St. Augustine, and Menéndez came ashore Sept. 8. The admiral claimed the land for Spain, “establishing the settlement that would become the first permanent European settlement in what is now the continental United States,” according to the shrine’s website.

Soon after landfall, the expedition’s chaplain, Father Francisco López de Mendoza Grajales, celebrated a Mass of thanksgiving.

The shrine and mission grounds, known as “The Sacred Acre,” still yield discoveries, said the shrine’s rector, Father Timothy Lindenfelser.

“We’re constantly doing archaeological excavations. Most recently, we found the foundations of the Franciscan church that was on the property. That was found with burials of Indigenous people around it, and then the kitchen that was connected to it,” he said. “Every time we do a renovation or do archaeological digs, we’re always finding new things.”

The mission and shrine’s website describes Father Francisco’s Mass as the “first Catholic Mass of Thanksgiving in what is now the United States, establishing the first parish and planting the roots of the Catholic faith in the New World.”

However, “we do not claim to be the first Catholic Mass in what is today the United States,” said Father Lindenfelser. “The first that’s documented would have been in Pensacola in 1559. The Spanish established a settlement there, so we know there were priests and Mass was celebrated. But the settlement didn’t last.”

Kathleen Bagg, the Diocese of St. Augustine’s communications director, elaborated, telling OSV News, “What makes St. Augustine historically significant is that the Sept. 8, 1565, Mass of Thanksgiving was connected to the founding of the first permanent European settlement in what is now the continental United States, and to a Catholic community whose presence has continued into the present day.”

“The phrase ‘first Catholic Mass of Thanksgiving in what is now the United States’ is intended as a historical distinction connected to the founding of St. Augustine, rather than a claim that no earlier Masses had ever been celebrated elsewhere in territories that later became part of the United States,” she said.

If the wording seems intentionally careful, it is because there is some historical wrestling over the location of the first Mass celebrated in what would become the United States of America.

“There are a whole series of Spanish expeditions into Florida and elsewhere in the Southeast, long before Pensacola was established in 1559,” said J. Michael Francis, a history professor and chair of Florida studies at the University of South Florida.

He noted expeditions led by Juan Ponce de León — the first of which made landfall in 1513, probably south of Cape Canaveral — as well as subsequent expeditions, and the settlement of San Miguel de Guadalupe.

“It hasn’t been located archaeologically,” Francis told OSV News, “but it was likely somewhere in present-day South Carolina in 1526. That settlement lasted for less than one year — but assuredly there were many Masses said at San Miguel. Then you have the 1539 Hernando de Soto expedition, and there were likely dozens — if not hundreds — of Masses said between 1539 and 1543 during the course of that expedition.

“So,” he emphasized, “this is where it gets really tricky.”

The 1565 Mass at St. Augustine, held on the feast of the Nativity of Mary, “is often attributed to an account written by the priest” — Father Francisco López de Mendoza Grajales — “who allegedly said that Mass. But he never says that in his account. What he says is that on Sept. 8, 1565 — when Menéndez, the founder of St. Augustine, comes ashore — they greet him singing the ‘Te Deum laudamus,’” a hymn of rejoicing.

Father López, Francis continued, “said Menéndez — and all of the others with him — approached him on their knees, and they kissed the cross. … But he never specifically says, ‘I said Mass.’ He says there were ‘other ceremonies.’ There’s another account — that has been attributed to Pedro Menéndez de Avilés’ brother-in-law — in which he says that on that day, Menéndez ordered that a solemn Mass be said.

“So what often happens with these kind of stories is that different sources get conflated,” Francis stressed.

Bagg pointed out what she described as another “important historical nuance.”

“While St. Augustine remained continuously inhabited as a city, Catholic parish life was interrupted during the British period (1763–1784), when Spanish clergy departed and public Catholic worship ceased until the arrival of the Minorcans and Father Pedro Camps in 1777,” she told OSV News. “Even with that interruption in sacramental life, the broader Catholic presence associated with the founding of St. Augustine and Mission Nombre de Dios remains foundational in American Catholic history.”

Ultimately, the St. Augustine site remains a place of witness. When the tourist trolleys stop at the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche at Mission Nombre de Dios, Father Lindenfelser says visitors often find themselves deeply affected.

“Many people have come back to the faith,” he said. “Some people have for the very first time heard the message of the Gospel, just because they were sitting there — and one of the chaplains or one of the staff, we come up and talk to them,” Father Lindenfelser said.

“So, it’s still today a great place of evangelization,” he added, “by just being present to those who come.”

Kimberley Heatherington is a correspondent for OSV News. She writes from Virginia.

– (OSV News) — Before the Declaration of Independence was boldly signed in 1776, before pilgrims feasted at what became popularly regarded as the “First Thanksgiving” in 1621, there was St. Augustine, Florida. The coastal Florida city was founded in 1565 by Spanish Catholic explorer Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, is celebrated as the longest continually inhabited European-founded city in the U.S., and is home to the United States’ oldest continuously operating parish, the Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine. It is also the May 24 starting point for the 2026 National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, themed “One Nation Under God” in honor of America’s

Saint Elizabeth’s graduation ceremony shines for Class of 2026 seniors #Catholic –

Radiating joy and pride, 277 graduates of Saint Elizabeth’s University (SEU) in the Convent Station neighborhood of Morris Township celebrated a milestone as they received their diplomas during the university’s 124th Commencement Ceremony on the bright morning of May 15.

The ceremony for the Class of 2026 took place on the picturesque front lawn of the motherhouse of the Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth, who founded and continues to administer the university. Under clear skies, 118 graduate students and 159 undergraduates were honored, with 52 students earning special distinctions amidst applause.

Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney concluded the ceremony with a final prayer and blessing for the Class of 2026. Father Joseph Farias, a retired priest of the Paterson Diocese, N.J. who serves as university chaplain and advisor to the president for mission integration, offered an opening prayer.

The celebration also featured the participation of Gary B. Crosby, Ph.D., the president of Saint Elizabeth’s, and Ras J. Baraka, mayor of Newark, N.J., who delivered a spirited commencement address.

[See image gallery at beaconnj.org]
 

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– Radiating joy and pride, 277 graduates of Saint Elizabeth’s University (SEU) in the Convent Station neighborhood of Morris Township celebrated a milestone as they received their diplomas during the university’s 124th Commencement Ceremony on the bright morning of May 15. The ceremony for the Class of 2026 took place on the picturesque front lawn of the motherhouse of the Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth, who founded and continues to administer the university. Under clear skies, 118 graduate students and 159 undergraduates were honored, with 52 students earning special distinctions amidst applause. Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney concluded the ceremony with

Thousands rejoice as Bishop celebrates Fatima feast at shrine #Catholic –

Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney of the Paterson Diocese, N.J., visited the National Blue Army Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Asbury, N.J., in the Trenton Diocese on May 13 to celebrate Mass for the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima. Several priests concelebrated the Mass.

The visit started with a rosary procession, with the Our Lady of Fatima pilgrim statue carried around the shrine’s grounds. Thousands of pilgrims from the Paterson Diocese, N.J., and around New Jersey attended the Mass. The World Apostolate of Fatima operates the shrine.

The day’s schedule included a talk by David M. Carollo, the shrine’s executive director; an exposition of the Blessed Sacrament; a Eucharistic procession and Benediction, and a blessing of religious articles. The event ended with a “Fatima farewell,” during which pilgrims sang a song and waved white handkerchiefs as the statue departed.

The focus on Our Lady of Fatima during the day had special meaning. The Feast of Our Lady of Fatima on May 13 commemorates the first of six apparitions of the Virgin Mary in 1917 to three shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal. It is a recognized Optional Memorial in the Catholic Church, emphasizing messages of prayer, peace, penance, and the daily rosary, according to Franciscan Media.

Pilgrims may visit the shrine and receive a plenary indulgence during the Extraordinary Marian Jubilee Year.

For more information, visit BlueArmyShrine.com.

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– Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney of the Paterson Diocese, N.J., visited the National Blue Army Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Asbury, N.J., in the Trenton Diocese on May 13 to celebrate Mass for the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima. Several priests concelebrated the Mass. The visit started with a rosary procession, with the Our Lady of Fatima pilgrim statue carried around the shrine’s grounds. Thousands of pilgrims from the Paterson Diocese, N.J., and around New Jersey attended the Mass. The World Apostolate of Fatima operates the shrine. The day’s schedule included a talk by David M. Carollo, the