BIG C CATHOLICS

Fr. Charles Irvin Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for Sunday’s readings ) “A body in motion tends to stay in motion, while a body at rest tends to stay at rest.” I’m sure many of you have heard that phrase used in an often-repeated TV commercial that has been airing recently. The phrase has caught my attention especially when I have been a couch potato watching more TV than I should. It’s the “staying at rest” that I am talking about because I am so often afflicted with laziness and lethargy. I resist getting in motion. Well, you may ask, what do those words and that thought have to do with the readings from today’s scripture passages that we just heard? Today is Laetare Sunday. Joy is its theme, joy because we are halfway through Lent and thus very close to the joy of Easter when our Elect will be baptized, confirmed and receive Holy Communion and our Candidates will be received into our Communion of Faith and likewise receive Holy Communion. There is joy, too, because

Pope Francis alluded to the forthcoming canonization of Pope Paul VI during a meeting with Rome’s parish priests at the Lateran Basilica this month, stating: "Paul VI will be a saint this year." On February 6th, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints approved the second miracle needed for Blessed Paul VI to be named a saint. It is believed that said canonization could take place in October. Pope Paul VI was born Giovanni Battista Montini in the village of Concesio, Italy, on September 26, 1897. He is remembered for seeing the Second Vatican Council to its conclusion and working to enact its provisions. In 1968 he authored the encyclical Humanae Vitae , which affirmed the Church’s teaching that artificial birth control is gravely immoral and contrary to marriage as conceived by God. Marriage properly understood, is the conjugal union of a man and woman for life, of exclusive and mutual fidelity, for the procreation and education of children. The dual purpose of sexua

(In 2017, this feast is superseded by the Sunday liturgy.) Karol Jozef Wojtyla was born in 1920 in Wadowice, Poland. After his ordination to the priesthood and theological studies in Rome, he returned to his homeland and resumed various pastoral and academic tasks. He became first auxiliary bishop and, in 1964, Archbishop of Krakow and took part in the Second Vatican Council. On October 16, 1978 he was elected pope and took the name John Paul II. His exceptional apostolic zeal, particularly for families, young people and the sick, led him to undertake numerous pastoral visits throughout the world as Pontiff. Among the many fruits which he has left as a heritage to the Church are above all his rich Magisterium and the promulgation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church as well as the Code of Canon Law for the Latin Church and for the Eastern Churches. In Rome on April 2, 2005, the eve of the Second Sunday of Easter (Divine Mercy), he died peacefully in the Lord who opened the

Optional Memorial - October 11th One of the least likely popes, not only of the twentieth century, but perhaps in the history of the papacy itself, was Pope Saint John XXIII. Born of peasant stock in 1881, this humble and unassuming priest would, in the last months of his life, be the architect of one of the most sweeping ecumenical councils of the modern world, whose reverberations are still being felt throughout the Church to this day. It was his humility and “ordinariness” that endeared Angelo Roncalli (the pope’s name before he ascended to the papacy) not only to Catholics, but to the world at large. The oldest son of a farming family from northern Italy, the future pope was ordained to the priesthood in 1904. His duties at the time included working as secretary to the bishop, teaching Church history in seminary, and publishing the diocesan paper. These experiences were integral preparation for the papacy. Drafted into the military in 1914, he served as both stretcher be