2025.05.18 5th Sunday of Easter

Dear Parishioners,

People around the world, especially Catholics, watched with rapt attention as our new Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, appeared on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, after the College of Cardinals elected him as our Chief Shepherd. A number of people from near and far have asked me about whether Pope Leo XIV is going to be conservative or liberal Pope or what his style of papacy is going to be. And, there are a lot of speculations going around these days about the personality, character and style of our new Pope. It is very much part of our human nature to want to know these things.

However, as Catholics we believe that the Holy Spirit, promised and sent by our Risen Lord is very much alive and active in our personal lives and in the life of the Church. The Holy Spirit knows who is best to guide the Church at this present time—with the many challenges of our world—and beyond many speculations, has gives us Pope Leo XIV. It is our duty as Catholics to pray for our Holy Father, so that he will be guided by the Spirit of Christ to direct us and work to bring unity and peace in the Church and in the world.

In one of his first addresses to the College of Cardinals, the Pope explained why he chose the name Leo XIV. Speaking about following the path the universal Church has followed for decades in the wake of the Second Vatican Council, the Pope said, “Sensing myself called to continue in this same path, I chose to take the name Leo XIV. There are different reasons for this, but mainly because Pope Leo XIII in his historic Encyclical Rerum Novarum addressed the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution. In our own day, the Church offers to everyone the treasury of her social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defence of human dignity, justice and labour.”

As we give thanks to God for Pope Leo XIV, let us continue to pray for him:  Lord, source of eternal life and truth, give to your shepherd a spirit of courage and right judgment, a spirit of knowledge and love. By governing with fidelity those entrusted to his care, may he, as successor to the Apostle Peter and Vicar of Christ, build your Church into a sacrament of unity, love and peace for all the world. Amen.

Fr. Vijai, C.S.C. ~ Pastor