Announcements

As we celebrate our Archdiocese’s 175th birthday, my heart is filled with gratitude for the many gifts our Lord has bestowed upon this local Church since our founding. In recent years, these blessings include the fruits that we received from Synod 2022.

Summer continues flying by: it’s hard to believe that we’re already at the end of July. My peers tell me that the sands of time seem to speed up the older we get. I ran into a number of our seminarians yesterday at the mass for the annual Steubenville Conference, however, and noted that they were already talking about the return to school and wondered where the summer had gone.

Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), and Bishop Daniel E. Thomas, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Pro-Life Activities are inviting Catholics to join a focused effort of daily prayer to stop taxpayer funding of the abortion industry.

While summer is known for vacations, warmer temperatures and – in Minnesota – road construction, it also can be an opportunity to encounter Christ in new ways. This is especially true for the youth of our archdiocese, many of whom join in Vacation Bible School or other parish-based activities during this time. I am so grateful to the many parish staff that forsake their “dog days of summer” to serve local families and youth through these offerings.

This Saturday, July 19, marks 175 years since the founding of the Catholic Church in Minnesota. On that date in 1850, Blessed Pope Pius IX named Joseph Crétin the first bishop of the Diocese of Saint Paul, which at that time covered what is now Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.

After nearly nine years hosting Practicing Catholic, the weekly radio show and podcast for the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, Patrick Conley has announced his departure. 

I apologize that this Monday’s Weekly Word is arriving a little late. I spent the day in Pittsburgh at the installation of Bishop Mark Eckman as the 13th bishop of my home diocese. It was a spectacular celebration for anyone in the Cathedral…but it was particularly special for me. 

Archbishop Bernard Hebda has announced the following appointments in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis.

“Pursue a lasting love … Marriage. Create hope for the future! Natural Family Planning, Supporting God’s gifts of love and life in marriage” is the theme of this year’s national Natural Family Planning Awareness Week.  

Reacting to the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act by the U.S. Congress, Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, lamented the great harm the bill will cause to many of the most vulnerable in society, making steeper cuts to Medicaid and clean energy tax credits, and adding more to the deficit.

At the annual Catholic Media Association awards on Friday night at the Catholic Media Conference in Phoenix, the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis was honored with the following 23 awards.

Going way back to my days as an elementary school student, I would always get a little melancholic on the last day of June. I would wait the whole school year for summer to come, and the last day of June would signal to me that one of our three Pittsburgh summer months was already over. I would have been happy to vote for a 31st day of June, even if it meant knocking February down to 27 days.

The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis and Editions de Signe have produced a book and graphic novel to spotlight the people, parishes, Catholic schools and other Catholic entities that have contributed to the strength of this local Church from 1850 to today to celebrate the 175th anniversary of the Archdiocese.

Today, I am off to St. Mary’s University in Winona for the Archdiocesan Presbyteral Assembly. Every other year, the priests in the Archdiocese gather for four days of prayer, learning and discussion, all with the intention of strengthening our fraternity as brothers in Christ. We are blessed this year to have Bishop Donald Hying, the bishop of Madison, leading us in our reflections. I always look forward to this time with our priests but am especially excited to hear from Bishop Hying.

I write today from sunny San Diego, where the bishops of the U.S. are gathering for a triennial retreat. Almost without exception, every bishop that I have encountered has spoken about his prayers for our State in the aftermath of this weekend’s tragic shootings.

The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis has been named one of the Top Workplaces in Minnesota by the Minnesota Star Tribune and a national standard Top Workplace. A complete list was published in the Star Tribune Top Workplaces special section June 15.  

Archbishop Hebda: I ask all people of goodwill to join me in prayer for the repose of the souls of Minnesota House Speaker-Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband, along with prayers of recovery for Senator John Hoffman and his wife.  

Congress is finalizing the Budget Reconciliation package—and time is running out. Now is the critical moment to speak up and ensure the Educational Choice for Children Act (ECCA) is included.

To support parents as the primary educators of their children, the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis has published, “Reclaiming Sundays: Recover Sunday as a Day for the Lord and Family.”

Come, Holy Spirit! That has been our fervent prayer each time that Bishop Izen, Bishop Kenney and I have celebrated the sacrament of Confirmation this Easter season. That was also certainly the prayer at the center of our moving Pentecost celebrations throughout the Archdiocese this past weekend, and that remains our prayer today as we celebrate the Feast of Mary, Mother of the Church, a commemoration introduced to the universal calendar just a few years ago by Pope Francis to be always celebrated the Monday after Pentecost.