Pastoral Letter to the Families of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis
The Church recently celebrated the 10th anniversary of the canonization of Marie Azélie (Zélie) and Louis Martin, the parents of the Little Flower, Saint Therese of Lisieux. Canonized in Rome on October 18, 2015, the saintly couple were held up to the Church universal as role models for holiness in married life. They were the first married couple to be canonized together.
Throughout the process that led to their beatification and canonization, it was the ordinariness of their life that was celebrated. Pope Leo XIV recently spoke of these 19th century parents, a watchmaker and a lacemaker, as part of what Pope Francis had called an immense crowd of “saints next door”— saints who are relatable because they live their holiness amid the ups and downs of everyday life.1 Their lives were never free of sickness and hardship. Zélie gave birth nine times, but the Martins lost four of those children, a great suffering for the couple. They poured out their love for the five surviving children and desired to present to them a witness of holiness. Zélie died at a young age, leaving Louis to raise their daughters. Louis himself would confront ill health and spent years in a state hospital suffering from a type of dementia. Amazingly, all five of the daughters entered religious life.
Pope Leo has rightly noted that the seemingly “ordinary” life of Zélie and Louis “was inhabited by a presence of God that was, to say the least, ‘extraordinary’ and was its absolute center.”2 He noted that they bore witness “to the ineffable happiness and profound joy that God grants both here on earth and for eternity, to those who commit themselves to [the] path of fidelity and fruitfulness.”3
I will always have fond memories of the 2023 procession from our State Capitol to the Cathedral of Saint Paul with the relics of Saints Louis and Zélie and their daughter Saint Therese, and I have been constant in my prayers that they would intercede for the families of this Archdiocese. I share Pope Leo’s prayer that families, “so dear to God’s heart, but also sometimes so fragile and tested, may find in them, in all circumstances, the support and graces necessary to continue on their journey.”4
I have been blessed throughout my life, and particularly throughout my 36 years of ministry, with wonderful examples of marital holiness in everyday life. While it is unlikely that my parents will ever be canonized, my siblings and I often speak of our indebtedness to our parents for their witness to the faith and their willingness to sacrifice for their family. We will always be grateful for the way they introduced us to God’s love and made sure that we found a home in our Church.
I have witnessed that same sense of sacrifice here in the Archdiocese. During the prayer and listening sessions that led up to our 2022 Synod, I heard time and again of the love and concern that reside in the hearts of so many parents in this local Church, who want nothing more than to lead their families to Jesus. They instinctively understand and model what Jesus taught Martha in the midst of her anxiety: “only one thing is necessary,” being with Jesus (Lk 10:42).
For that reason, I was not surprised at the 2022 Synod when the proposition regarding “parents as the first teachers of their children in the ways of the faith”5 received so much support. I was happy to both include that proposition as one of our first three priorities for implementation and to appoint a Blue Ribbon Commission to help the Archdiocese develop a plan for responding to parents who desire the Church’s assistance in assuming their weighty responsibilities.
I remain grateful for the work of our Blue Ribbon Commission, and I am happy to issue at their recommendation this pastoral letter as an expression of encouragement to parents and to all those who support them pastorally.
Commended to the help of Our Lady, Seat of Wisdom, and the mighty intercession of our patron Saint Paul in the 175th year of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis.
Lead Kindly Light.6
